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Topics: Ed Gein, Netflix, TV And Film, True Crime, US News
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Ed Gein, Netflix, TV And Film, True Crime, US News
The twisted, stomach-churning crimes of Ed Gein seem to be all anyone can talk about right now, after Ryan Murphy's latest instalment of the Monster series dropped on Netflix last week (3 October).
Titled Monster: The Story of Ed Gein, the eight-parter follows 'The Butcher of Plainfield', who was convicted of murdering two women in 1950s Wisconsin, and later became the inspiration for a number of Hollywood horror cult classics due to his grave-robbing offences that saw him make household items like bowls and chairs out of freshly-deceased human remains.
Technically, he can't be classed as a serial killer given the fact he was only convicted of killing two people - Mary Hogan in 1954, and Bernice Worden in 1957 - and, to be a serial killer, you need to commit three or more murders in separate events, with a period of time, known as a 'cooling-off period', between each murder.
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However, he was suspected in other deaths, including that of his brother, but no further crimes were proven.
Check out the official Netflix trailer here:
Although Gein - who had a very fraught relationship with his domineering mother - confessed to killing two women, authorities discovered remains connected to at least 10 women on his property, but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Instead, he was confined to the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, where he remained until he died at the age of 77 in 1984, and was buried in Plainfield Cemetery.
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Now, Murphy's Monster series raises several questions, including whether Gein was also a cannibal, with many reports about him also being a necrophiliac.
And the real-life Gein had a seriously chilling four-word response when asked about his alleged disturbing acts with corpses.
According to A&E, the killer's interest in human anatomy never turned to hunger or sexual desire, as Gein reportedly found bodies unappealing in a cannibalistic and sexual way because, as he told investigators after his arrest, 'they smelled too bad'.
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"Apparently Gein practised neither cannibalism nor necrophilia, but preserved the remains just to look at," TIME also reported in 1957, answering the questions that were often raised soon after his arrest that year.
TIME reported that Gein kept tabs on local obituaries to keep an eye out for fresh bodies being buried at his local cemeteries. He would then go dig up the grave sites he read about in the paper, and steal body parts to preserve.
The outlet also stated that, according to the psychiatrists, cutting up body parts and preserving them 'satisfied two contradictory urges' for Gein: "To bring [his mother] back to life and have her with him always, and to destroy her as the cause of his frustration."
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Monster: The Ed Gein Story is currently available to stream on Netflix.