E36: Ed Gein

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
I am Angela.
And I'm Paige.
Join us as we dive into our obsession withtrue crime history and mysterious stories.
We'll explore the intricate details of thecorrupt, the cruel, and the calculating.
We assume no responsibility orliability for any errors or omissions

(00:28):
in the content of this episode.
The Corrupt Podcast is based on thefacts and our opinions of the case.
Listener discretion is advised.
Welcome to the Corrupt Podcast.
Known as the Mad Butcher of Plainfieldor the Plainfield Ghoul, Ed Gein left

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a lasting mark on American society.
While the exact number ofvictims remains unconfirmed, his
crimes influenced pop culture.
Ed was the inspiration for severalfictional characters, including
Norman Bates and Psycho Leatherfaceinthe Texas Chainsaw Massacre and
Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs.

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Before we get started today,we have another Patreon
shout out this time to Chris.
Thank you for joining the Corrupt Crew.
Thank you, Chris.
You're awesome.
Ed's case does involve animal abuse.
He also created a skin suit inan attempt to be his mother.
Based on that sentence, I think we canall get an understanding of the graphic

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content that this episode contains.
I'm actually interestedto see Charlie Hunnam.
He's playing Ed in the newseason of Monster on Netflix.
I think it's the third season.
Sons of Anarchy, man.
Were you a fan?
You were a fan, weren't you?
We were fans.
Rock on.
I'm kind of struggling with it though,'cause I can't really see Charlie.

(01:54):
Portraying Ed.
Yeah.
But in 2018, if you had said the samething to me about Zac Efron and Ted Bundy,
I would've also said there's no way.
So fingers are crossed.
It's gonna be a tough role for
him.
He looks nothing like the real Ed,but I do have confidence he'll pull
it off because he's an amazing actor.

(02:14):
But Ed was so small, he was.
And Weasily looking.
There's ways to do that.
Girl production.
We're not that far away.
Guess we'll see.
The case of Ed Gein beginswith his mother, Augusta.
She was an extremely religious womanthat believed women were instruments
of the devil, and sex was evil.

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She was one of eight children that werebrought up in a very strict household.
On December 4th, 1899, 21-year-oldAugusta married George Gein
Their marriage was described as aparticularly Lacerating nightmare.
George was the oppositeof Augusta in many ways.
He was a blacksmithapprentice for a while.

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Then he sold insurance beforemoving on to carpentry, and for a
while he worked on the railroad.
George dabbled around with multiplejobs, but wasn't consistent with anything
other than heading to the bar after workand drinking away most of his paycheck.
Augusta on the other hand, believedin hard work and frequently belittled
George about his lack of work ethic.

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The more Augusta lectured George, theless he spoke until he became almost
completely silent in their home.
After every night at the bar,George had to face Augusta's wrath.
When he got home, she shouted at him andhe in turn was physically abusive to her.
Augusta would lay on the floor shouting athim, and then loudly pray for his death.

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Less than three years into their marriage,and it would appear that George and
Augusta completely hated each other.
Talk about a toxic marriage right
there.
I mean, when they describe itas a particularly Lacerating
nightmare, that's a horribledescription for a brand new marriage.
Yeah.
George and Augusta had their firstson, Henry on January 17th, 1902.

(04:03):
Augusta was incredibly disappointedin having a son instead of a daughter
and distanced herself from Henry.
He knew no love or affection from Augusta.
Yeah.
In this clear view of her, Ifeel like she's contradicting.
Women aren't instrumentsof the devil, but, oh no.
I wanted a daughter yet.

(04:23):
She was extremely religious.
It's just all over the place.
It is very confusing.
It's like all women were evilunless they were related to her.
Their second child, Edward TheodoreGein was born on August 27th, 1906.
Augusta had prayed every nightfor a daughter and was even more

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disappointed in a second son.
Unlike Henry, though, she vowedthat this son would be different.
Ed wouldn't grow up to be lustfuland filthy like the other men.
She would make sure that he was different.
Known
as Ed or Eddie by his family.
Ed received more attentionfrom Augusta than Henry.
Henry was ignored, but Ed was drownedin overprotection manipulation

(05:06):
and both physical mental abuse.
In 1909, the family movedto La Crosse, Wisconsin and
bought a small grocery store.
According to Augusta, if Georgecouldn't keep a job, the only other
option was to work for himself.
Unfortunately, George wasn't the typeof guy to run a grocery store, so
Augusta took charge of the business.
In addition to running theirhome and taking care of the two

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small children from an early
age, ed was taught to worship the ground.
Augusta walked on.
His mother was perfectand never made mistakes.
She would tell Ed that onlya mother could love him.
And even as an adult, he wascompletely reliant upon her to Ed.
She was flawless.
Even when she was bitterly mean to him.

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After five years of hard work, theywere able to sell the store and purchase
a farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin.
The farm was over a hundred miles fromLa Crosse, which delighted Augusta.
She considered La Crosse fullof sin and couldn't get away
from the city soon enough.
The small village of Plainfield had apopulation of just over 900 people in

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2020, but in Ed's time, the populationwas half the amount of 450 people.
Augusta continued breaking the mold bypurchasing the property in her name.
George did not own the property,which was very unique for 1914.
The farm located at the cornerof Archer and Second Avenue was
195 acres and almost completelyisolated from the outside world.

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The tiny town of Plainfield was still sixmiles from the Gein farm, and the closest
neighbor was a quarter of a mile away.
The family lived in a two storyfarmhouse with an attached summer
kitchen on the side of the house.
This summer kitchen was usedfor canning and putting up food
without heating up the rest of thehouse during the summer months.

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There was a door connecting thesummer kitchen to the regular kitchen.
The house did not
have electricity or plumbing.
Augusta was proud of her spotlesshome, and for a while, the
property was well taken care
of.
George's alcoholism continued, andin addition to Augusta's lectures
about purity and the evils of theworld, the boys also had to deal

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with George Drunkenly beating them.
When
Ed
was
eight, he began attendinga one-room school.
He would attend schooluntil he was 16 years old.
In eighth grade, ed had averageintelligence, but loved to read.
Reading was a way for Ed toescape from reality and isolation.
He never fit in with his peers.

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On the couple of times that Ed startedto make a friend, Augusta screamed
at him about what a fool he wasand how she wouldn't have her son
associated with a family like that.
She would tell Ed that the otherchild's father had a questionable past
where the mother had loose morals,always eager to impress Augusta.
Ed would immediately stop attempting toform friendships with those children.

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According to Augusta, the familywas not to socialize with the
people outside of their home.
Everyone around them was the worstkind of, this was a horrid way
to grow up, and you can clearlysee how it warps him later.
It truly affects him forthe rest of his life.
yeah.
After leaving school, Ed's timewas spent almost solely on the

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farm with Henry Augusta and George.
Life was not easy on the farm.
The soil was bad, the crops failed,and the family was impoverished.
It took all four Geins tokeep the farm operational.
The alcoholism took a toll onGeorge's health and he became
completely bedridden for three years.
At 66 years old, George Gaindied from heart failure.

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On April 1st, 1940, Henry was 38years old, and Ed was 33 years old.
George was buried atthe Plainfield cemetery.
Henry and Ed had been drowningin the work around the farm and
taking care of George full time.
They weren't particularly sad abouthis death, but more relieved to
have one less thing to take care of.

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Neighbors were starting to noticethat the farm was looking run down.
The interior of the house was stillspotlessly clean, but the exterior
was showing signs of deteriorationwith a patched roof and flaking paint.
After
George's death, Henry and Ed took someside jobs to bring in extra money.
Ed would work as an occasionalhandyman and a babysitter.

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The kids loved Ed and as anadult, he was more comfortable
with kids than other adults.
Ed was considered backwards, mostlikely from his upbringing, but
overall quiet and well-mannered.
He was viewed as not quite allthere, but a nice enough bachelor
living on the outside of town.
He was only five foot tall andwalked with a stooped over back.

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He also stared at the women intown making more than one of them.
Very uncomfortable.
During World War II, ed wasrequired to travel to Milwaukee
for the draft physical examination.
The 132 mile trek to Milwaukeewould be the furthest Ed would ever
be from home in his whole life.
He failed the physical examinationdue to a growth on his left

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eyelid that impaired his vision.
Henry and Ed continued working on thefarm and taking odd jobs together.
Well into his thirties, Eddoted on Augusta's every need
and treated her like a Saint.
Henry.
Didn't agree with Ed, but neverspoke negatively about Augusta
until the spring of 1944.
Ed was shocked when Henry startedto openly criticize Augusta.

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He couldn't believe thatHenry didn't see Augusta as a
flawless person to obsess over.
Not long after Henry's admission,he would be dead and under
fairly suspicious circumstances.
On Tuesday, May 16th, 1944, Ed andHenry were burning off some marshland
when the fire got out of control.
According to Ed, he had gotten separatedfrom Henry and by the time he managed

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to get the fire under control, it wasdark outside and he couldn't find Henry.
Ed wrangled up a search party, butwhen they got back to the marshland,
ed led them straight to Henry's body.
When it was brought up to Ed abouthow odd it was that he couldn't
find Henry, but then led the searchparty right back to Henry's body.
Ed just simply said, funny how that works.

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At 43 years old, Henry's causeof death was determined to be
asphyxiation without foul play.
His body was soot covered but not burned.
He also had bruises on hishead that were out of place.
At the time, Henry's cause of deathwas speculated as an accident.
Maybe he had passed out fromthe smoke or had a heart attack

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and hit his head on a rock.
Several years later, investigatorswould look at Henry's death
through a different lens.
One that implied Henry's deathwas more than likely a homicide.
Augusta had a stroke in late 1944 aftershe was discharged from the hospital.
She was completely dependenton Ed for the first time.
Ed felt he had an opportunity toprove his self-worth to Augusta, but

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she never acknowledged his hard work.
She told him what needed to bedone, and he did it without thanks.
By mid 1945, Augusta had regainedsome strength and was walking again.
Her health would decline again by thewinter time, and this time, ed would blame
a scandalous situation with the neighbor.
At that time, Ed and Augustavisited a neighbor to buy straw.

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When they arrived at the neighbor's house,he was beating a puppy with a stick.
A woman who lived with the manran out the door and tried to
stop him, but he beat the puppy todeath in front of all four of them.
It wasn't the animal abuse,but the fact that the woman was
living with their neighbor outof wedlock that upset Augusta.
According to Ed, this caused hersecond stroke and ultimately her death.

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On December 29th, 1945,Augusta was 67 years old.
In the span of just a couple years,39-year-old Ed had lost his father, his
brother, and the single most importantperson to him ever, his mother.
That is about the most stupidestreason to have a stroke over and die.

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Just, I mean, the guy was beaten a puppy.
To death.
And then she was upset all aboutthe unmarried woman living with him.
Yeah.
That lady came rushing out the doorto stop him from abusing this puppy,
and it's that woman's fault, notthe guy beating the puppy to death.

(13:25):
The rationale is just so backwards.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Ed became even more reclusive.
He continued working occasionallyas a handyman and pitched in
with farmers during harvest.
He no longer took care of his ownfarm, choosing instead to lease
some of the land to the otherfarmers and sell off his animals.

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The farm fell into disrepairon the outside and inside.
Always a reader.
Ed was now living in a dark,filthy, empty house without
Augusta directing his every action.
His reading material definitelyleft something to be desired.
He was fascinated with the Nazis andtheir concentration camp tortures.

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Ed was particularly fascinated withIlse Koch, a Nazi woman who was accused
of collecting heads and using skinfor lampshades and book bindings.
He also enjoyed reading aboutcannibals, exhuming bodies, and
shrinking of skin to preserve it.
Yeah, not weird at all, Ed.
Those are perfect, perfect books.

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He was obsessive about the Nazis.
So again, in six years he losesall of his family members.
He has nobody to direct him.
He's sitting in a house that has noplumbing, no electricity, and he's reading
obsessive books about the horrendousthings the Nazis were doing to people.

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It is a recipe for disaster.
You know, I wonder if his mom, with theabuse that he got just messed things
up in the head with him like that.
He is mentally challenged andthat's why he was the way he was.
I mean, his iq, we'll talk about thatlater, but like his IQ is, was, normal.

(15:15):
Normal.
Well, it's a littlelow, but it's not like.
Super low.
Low.
Okay.
His upbringing definitelyhas something to do with it.
'cause he does not know how to functionand the babysitting, you know, I
think it's because he almost, at somepoint mentally he stopped growing.
Like he's still a child and so hecould relate with those children

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and they thought he was fantastic.
And as a parent later, when you findout what your neighbor Ed has been
doing and that he was babysittingyour children, holy macaroni,
I wouldn't.
No thank you.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Just never know.
Never can trust anyone.
Yeah.
You guys don't know, but it'sabout to get real, real, real

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shitty, complete shit show here.
Yeah.
It's pretty much a dumpsterfire from this point on.
Just warning you.
'cause we love you guys as if the verystrict upbringing, mental, physical
abuse and animal abuse was not enough.
Now it's really gonna amplify.
Yeah,
a
hundred percent.

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Ed rarely left the house, but when hedid, one of the only places that he went
to was a tavern owned by Mary Hogan.
The tavern was located seven milesaway from Plainfield and Pine Grove.
It seems like a strange place for Ed to gobecause Ed wasn't interested in drinking.
He was interested in MaryHogan, obsessed with her.

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Actually, Mary was a Germanimmigrant with an unclear and
possibly rough past in Chicago.
She had been married multipletimes and there were rumors of
mafia involvement during her timein Chicago other than being a
middle-aged woman and a business owner.
Mary was the opposite of Augusta inall ways, and Ed could not understand

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how Mary could be so similar, but alsoso incredibly different from Augusta.
On December
8th, 1954, a customerwalked into Mary's Tavern.
He found the place deserted anda pool of blood on the floor.
A 32 caliber cartridge lay on thefloor next to the pool of dried
blood based on a blood trail.
It appeared to the sheriff that Maryhad been dragged across the floor,

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out the door and into the parking lot.
There were no witnesses, and due toMary's unclear background, it was
considered possible that someonefrom her past had attacked her.
Her case went cold for several years.
Later.
Some strange comments that Ed made aboutMary's disappearance would surface.
One of the farmers who hired Edas a handyman, joked to Ed that

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if he had tried harder to dateMary, maybe she would be cooking ed
dinner by now instead of missing.
Ed replied, she's not missing, she's
down at the house now.
Ed even told other people thathe picked Mary up in his pickup
truck and she was at the farm.
Ed was always saying strange thingsthat didn't make sense and laughing

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inappropriately during conversations, solittle Eddie's comments were written off
makes you wonder what otherweird things he was saying that
didn't make sense at the time.
And I know that, I know I've broughtthis up before in a previous episode.
And I forget which one, but he reminds me.

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Ed reminds me so much ofArthur from the Joker.
How he laughed like uncontrollably.
I know you haven't seen it,but his mother did things to
him that was in forms of abuse.
but she was still trying to be caring andloving, but honestly she just was not,
and that messed with his head quite a bit.

(18:50):
Just like it, and ultimatelyit just made him the joker.
Yeah, this is like real life joker here.
He's the inspirationbehind so many things.
It's childhood
trauma.
That's what it is.
It's trauma.
Some from some sort ofhigher, you know, person.
I don't just, anybody really?

(19:12):
Uncle, parent.
It's a parent.
Yeah.
Three years later on Saturday, November16th, 1957, Ed would attack again.
That Saturday was the first dayof deer hunting season, which was
taken very seriously in Plainfield,so most of the men were gone.
Ed had planned it that way,hoping for fewer witnesses
in the already small village.

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Ed had
confirmed that 58-year-old BerniceWorden would be alone in the hardware
store that she owned by asking herson Frank, if he would be hunting.
Frank and Ed spoke about antifreezeand Frank confirmed that he would
be hunting the following morning.
Frank had noticed Ed in thestore more and more frequently.
Ed had asked Bernice to themovies, rollerskating and dancing,

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but Bernice was not interestedand declined the invitations.
Ed stopped for kerosene at 8:00AM on November 16th, then headed
towards the warden's hardware store.
Bernice was in the storealone just as Ed had hoped.
Arriving at the store, he purchasedsome antifreeze and left moments later.
Ed was back this timeasking to look at a rifle.

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Bernice left Ed to look at the rifleand went to look out the window.
Ed pulled a 22 shell from hispocket and shot Bernice from behind.
Ed was convinced that Bernice wasevil and she must be punished.
A gas station owner from across thestreet noticed a man driving the
Worden's hardware truck away from thebusiness between 8 45 and 9:30 AM.

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Other witnesses noticed the hardwarestore was locked up, but assumed
it was a quiet day due to the startof hunting season, and Bernice had
just decided to close up early.
Ed had a young friend named Bob Hillstop at the farm later that afternoon.
Bob's car was having problems and heasked Ed to drive into town for a new car.
Battery Ed agreed, but askedBob to wait outside while he

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washed the blood off his hands.
Bob assumed that Ed had a successfulkickoff to hunting season and
was dressing down a deer inside.
Bob didn't know that Ed never hunteddeer and claimed to be squeamish.
After running into town for the batteryEd stayed for dinner at Bob's house.
This is where the police would find him.
Just hours later,

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at 5:00 PM Frank Wordenarrived back in Plainfield.
He found the store lockedup, worried about his mother.
He went home, grabbed his storekey, and arrived back at the store.
Once inside, Frank saw the cashregister was missing and there was
a blood trail to the back door.
From the back door.
He discovered the truckwas missing as well.
Frank was the deputy sheriff, sohe didn't panic, but immediately

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called over to the sheriff Arch Leand Chief Sheriff Arnie Fritz while
waiting for Arnie and Art.
Frank discovered a handwritten receipt forthe antifreeze sold to Ed that morning.
Officers were dispatched to checkEd's house first, but no one was home.
They didn't have a hard time trackinghim down at the hills home because
he was known to visit for dinner.

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Ed was put in the back of the squad carand asked about his events of the day.
When asked to repeat his timeline,the officer pointed out that Ed's
story was different the second time.
Ed immediately said, somebodyframed me when asked who
framed him and for what crime.
Ed replied, well, she's dead, ain't she?
He tried to sound calm, butthe officers knew that he had

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done something to Bernice.
They drove him straightto the police station.
That bit caught me by
surprise that Frank was the sheriff.
In town.
I was like, oh shit.
Ed chose the wrong mom.
He chose the wrong mom to
mess with.
He really did.

(22:53):
So Frank is the deputy sheriff, and Ithink he was recently hired in as well.
But why would you pick anyoneon the sheriff department's mom?
I don't know.
Just
some sick thoughts he had maybe.
Who knows?
Yep.
She looked the closest to Augusta.

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Two officers headed to Ed's homehoping to find Bernice warden alive.
They tried one door after another,but all were locked except for
the door into the summer kitchen.
And I knew from the damn beginning thatsummer kitchen was gonna be a problem.
I knew it from the start.
I was like, that summer kitchen,it's gonna be something.

(23:36):
When I broke it down for you on whatspecifically a summer kitchen was and
how you got into the house through there.
Yes.
Summer kitchens are greatlydebated because we don't really
have them in our houses anymore.
We don't put up that much foodto be worrying about heating the
entire house with the canners.
But back in the fifties, this would'vebeen a very useful addition on the house

(23:58):
for them, and we will see how Ed Gein used
it here.
Spoilers here, it's not for canning.
Moving around the darkcluttered area with flashlights.
It was art that bumped intohis something with his coat.
He turned around and showed hisflashlight on the gutted upside
down hanging body of Bernice Warden.

(24:18):
Bernice had been decapitated and dresseddown similarly to how one would a deer.
The site was so disturbing that themen ran out of the house and vomited.
Then they radioed in what theyhad found and had no choice
but to go back into the house.
A crossbar had been run through oneankle, and the other foot was wrapped
with cable and attached to the bar.

(24:40):
The bar was hung from therafters, and Ed had used a pulley
system to get her body hung up.
She had been disempoweredand her head was missing.
It was so disgusting.
I struggled with this whole part.
This whole thing, because it'sjust so, it's so, so disturbing
those poor officers thatwalked into that house.
Yeah.

(25:00):
And poor Bernice.
I'm sad to say this, but at least.
He shot her, you know, and shewasn't alive when he was doing
that or so we think, right?
No, she died at the hardware store.
I think it was very fast.
At least it's still not right.
Obviously murder.
But you're right.
At least she wasn'tbeing hung upside down.

(25:21):
And disempowered while she was alive.
Yeah.
Other officers arrived anda search of the house began.
The house was filthy with trash stackedup in high piles and an incredibly
poor condition inside and out.
He kept items like old chewinggum and a coffee can without
electricity or indoor plumbing.

(25:43):
The dark rural house was a nightmare.
It was the house of a mentally ill man whohad been left alone for too many years.
The filth was nothing compared to whatthose officers found in ed Gain's house.
In the kitchen, investigatorsfound a salt off skull that
Ed had been using as a bowl.
There were two skullsstuck to Ed's bed posts.

(26:05):
A shoebox with nine vulvas was found.
Some had been painted silverwrapped in ribbon or had
been salted for preservation.
Four chairs had the woven seat replacedwith human skin bracelets and lamb
shades were also found made from skin.
There was a shade pool decorated withlips and a belt made from nipples.

(26:26):
A jar was found containing noses.
12 skulls in total werefound inside the home.
No wonder why those officers vomited.
My God.
yeah.
Can you imagine?
And it's dark in there like they'rethere in the middle of the night.
They're just finding thingswith their flashlights.
Terrifying.
Can you imagine the smell?
I'm sure it's horrible.

(26:47):
The sight, the smell, the everything.
Ugh.
Then there were the skin suits and masks.
Ed had skinned, a woman, preservedit, tied a cord around, and wore
the woman's upper torso like a vest.
He had skinned a hand and madea glove of sorts from the skin.
Nine face masks were foundas well, missing the eyes.

(27:11):
Ed had skinned the woman'sfaces, but left their hair.
He wore their face, skinaround like face masks.
Some of the masks had lipstick appliedthe upper torso, like a vest like
that gets me the, the skinning getsme anything with the skinning part.
And that was edgy in full.

(27:32):
Like that's all he did, Ifeel like is just skin.
These.
Women's faces and it was disgusting.
Yep.
Yeah, he's just impersonating them.
Creepiest of all was thebody suit that he had made.
The suit was made from theupper torso and legs of a woman.
He had also put one of the Volvos tocover his dick and worn women's panties.

(27:54):
Edward put on the skin suit andwalk around his house in the
winter and his yard in the summer,pretending to be his mother.
When not in use.
He stuffed the masks with newspaperand hung them on his bedroom wall.
There's just so many questions,so many questions about that part.
he was literally using the panties to holdthe vulva in place and tucking his dick.

(28:16):
it's, there's just somuch to unpack there.
That's not right.
No.
So that he could impersonate his mom andhe's just strutting around his yard in
the summertime, pretending to be Augusta.
There are so many things wrong
with that.
Why would you even wannapretend to be your mom?
And then why would you want to doall of those things with bodily limbs

(28:39):
and extremities and personal parts,
rotting flesh?
You can clearly see why he's theinspiration for Norman Bates.
'cause I really get.
I saw Bates Motel.
Yes.
Like we watched Bates Motelbeginning to end and it's
definitely Norman Bates, right?
Yeah.
I didn't finish that.

(29:01):
It's worth it.
I did like the show, so Iprobably didn't get to this part.
It's a trip.
You should finish it.
It's good.
I need to, yeah, I got a list.
Lemme tell you.
I got a list I need to watch.
Okay, so back to this kitchen.
Behind the door, an officer lifted a robeto find a brown paper bag underneath.

(29:27):
He reached in and actuallyfound the head of Mary Hogan.
This solved thedisappearance of Mary Hogan.
It's no surprise when officers reacheda boarded up section of the house
that they were scared to open it up.
What they found was AugustaGein's bedroom and parlor.
It was clear that Ed had sealedoff the rooms as a shrine.

(29:49):
Her clothes remained in the drawers andher bed was made except for the dust.
It was like she was still aliveand might come back at any time.
By the early morning hours ofNovember 17th, the remainder of
Bernice's body would be located.
Her heart was in a plasticbag in front of the stove.
Her head was found in a bag in theshed, and her end trails were wrapped

(30:11):
in newspaper and placed in a men's suit.
What, what is end trails?
Can you please explain those to me?
That would be her internal organs, sothat could be like her gallbladder,
her intestines, her liver.
Ooh,
okay.
Her head was clearly meant to be a trophy.
Ed had run nails through herears, which he connected with

(30:32):
Twine as a way to hang it.
At 2:30 AM the distraught sheriffarrived at the jail jailhouse.
He grabbed Ed by the shoulder andstarted slamming him into the wall.
Other deputies pulled him off.
Ed pretty quickly.
But instead of getting Ed to talk, heshut down and wouldn't talk at all.
I can only imagine how thissheriff felt back in the fifties.

(30:52):
A crime like this wasliterally unheard of.
But with Ed's history of abuse shuttingdown would've been his natural response.
This is
unheard of now, don't you think likeall of this, I mean, I'm thinking
the worst case I can think of isOff the top of my head, Dahmer.
That was some shady shit,

(31:13):
but that's the point.
It was.
But you can think ofanother serial killer,
I guess.
Yeah,
back then.
They had no idea, you know, necrophilia,like they had no idea what that was.
Or it was like, here's one casethat happened during World War II
of necrophilia, but then you getEd Gein in this super rural area.

(31:35):
Nobody knows what to do with this.
Like there's the population's so small.
This is small town cops.
This doesn't happen in Wisconsin.
Yeah, this is a big town problem.
You know, like this.
This could be.
Like an LA thing.
Mm-hmm.
Not a 1950s, middle ofnowhere, Wisconsin case.
Everybody was just blown out of the water.

(31:57):
And that's, I think why it's affectedAmerican culture so much is because we
were so surprised that this happened.
In the Midwest?
Yeah, I guess I mean just how he paintedthe vulvas, with silver paint, I've just
certain things that he did are differentfrom people like Dahmer and whatnot.
Sure.
But it is heard of.

(32:18):
Nowadays.
Yeah.
'cause even 20 years later, you've gotTed Bundy that comes through and he
was going back to the graveyard or likeGreen River Killer, where he's also going
back to where he's leaving those bodies.
Yeah.
They.
I think maybe understood that a little bitmore than the 1950s when this happened.
Yeah.
Like it was more expected.

(32:40):
Maybe by the time Ted Bundy and GreenRiver Killer came through, it blew
them away for sure when this happened.
And now with social media andtelevision and all of that, you
know, it's just a lot more exposed.
Yep.
Every, everybody's exposed to crazythings that happen in the world.

(33:01):
You'll hear about what happened onthe total opposite end of the world.
And also, I'm not sure that thisarea would be as rural today as
it was then, but you've still gotGoogle Maps that drives by, or it
goes overhead like Google Earth.
Can you imagine the stuffthat they see sometimes?
Yeah.
Like you could almost havecaught him doing something

(33:24):
strange if it had happened today.
He was out there walkingaround in his skin suit.
Yeah, those neighbors musthave been far away, pretty
far away from him and his farm.
For him to just be walking around,
there's one a quarter of a mileaway, but that's one family
that's a quarter of a mile away.
Everybody else is miles away.

(33:45):
You know, the town is miles away.
Yeah.
So
the media caught onto the storybefore the weekend was over.
Unsure what was found in the house.
A district attorney implied theremust be cannibalism involved.
Suddenly, the newspapers were reportingthat Ed was planning on curing bernice's
legs in the summer kitchen and wasstoring courts of blood in the cellar.

(34:09):
Dozens of national andinternational reporters and
photographers arrived in Plainfield.
After asking for a slice of pie withcheddar cheese on top, Ed finally
broke a 30 hour silence and admittedto the murder of Bernice warden.
He took a bite of the pie, statedthe cheese was too dry, but proceeded
to confess to the horrible crimes.
Who eats apple pie with cheddar cheese?

(34:32):
Any cheese
on apple pie?
This is Wisconsin baby.
It's all about the cheese.
I thought that was the most Wisconsinthing that man could have done.
They stick that cheese on everything.
I have been to Wisconsin and yes, itwas lots of cheese curds and beer.
They really like their beer in Wisconsin.
I mean, it's a good, youknow, they go hand in hand

(34:55):
with some pretzels.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Also, it's gorgeous in Wisconsin.
Absolutely
beautiful.
Ed had taken a glass jug intothe hardware store and purchased
a half gallon of antifreeze.
He handed Bernice a dollar bill andshe gave him back a penny change.
Ed also remembers Bernice speakingabout the opening of hunting season,

(35:17):
but after that, the next thing Edremembered was dragging Bernice's
body across the store floor.
He loaded her into the Worden's truckand drove the truck into a wooded area.
Before walking back to the town andgetting his own car, he drove to the woods
and moved Bernice's body into his car.
According to Ed, he was in adaze or trance and simply didn't

(35:39):
remember the murder or anythingother than hanging Bernice.
It was pretty clear to law enforcement bythat time what had happened to Bernice.
During Ed's dazed time, they were alsoconcerned about the other human remains,
like the 12 skulls that were found.
Ed said to his knowledge, hehadn't murdered anyone else.
The other remains were fromnighttime, grave robbing.

(36:01):
For over five years, he hadbeen visiting three different
cemeteries at least 40 times.
To grave rob.
He usually left without openingany caskets, but on at least
nine occasions, he did steal theremains of recently deceased women.
Ed read the obituaries and when hefound a middle aged or older woman
who resembled Augusta, he would headout to the cemetery in the middle of

(36:24):
the night to dig up their remains.
He promised officials though that thegraves were left in apple pie order.
What the hell is hisobsession with apple pies?
Is it a Wisconsin
thing?
All American snack.
Don't worry about the grave robbing.
It's an apple pie order.
Officer Ed was escorted backto his farm where he gave law

(36:46):
enforcement a tour of the farmhouseout boating and some of the land.
After the tour, ed was taken to thecourthouse where he was charged with
armed robbery for the theft of $41from the warden's cash register.
Investigators were pending chargesfor murder, but filed theft
charges to hold Ed while theycontinued searching for evidence.
There are four other disappearances thatoccurred in Wisconsin about the same time,

(37:10):
and with the remains of so many peoplein Ed's house, law enforcement decided to
look into those disappearances as well.
Eight
year old Georgia Weckler was droppedoff at the top of her driveway
after school on May 1st, 1947.
She never made it to herJefferson, Wisconsin home, and
she was never seen from again.
A black Ford sedan was seenspeeding off from the area.

(37:32):
At the same time, Georgia disappeared.
It's 110 miles one way fromPlainfield to Jefferson, Wisconsin.
And according to Ed, he hadn'tleft Plainfield, but once for
the draft physical examination.
15-year-old Evelyn Hartley disappearedsix years later in 1953, Evelyn
was babysitting a 20 month oldbaby in lacrosse on October 24th.

(37:55):
She called her parents to checkin every time she babysat.
But when she didn't call or answer thephone, her dad drove over to the house.
Evelyn's father found a footprintand blood by the basement steps.
Police suspect that someone broke inthrough the basement and drug Evelyn
out through the basement window.
Her bloody underwear were foundtwo miles from the house, but

(38:17):
Evelyn's body has never been found.
A denim jacket and a pair of tennisshoes were found that appeared to
have been abandoned by the attacker.
The shoes were a size 11 anda half, and Ed Warren eight.
Every skull found inEd's house was reviewed.
To confirm it was not Georgia or Evelyn.
No clothes or othersmall bones were found.

(38:39):
Georgia and Evelyn's disappearances havenot been solved, and at this time there
is no evidence that Ed was involved.
Two hunters, Victor Travis, and RayBurgess disappeared in November, 1952.
They had permission to hunton a neighbor's property.
Witnesses reported the two stopped forbeers at Mac's Bar in Plainfield before

(39:00):
getting in Ray's car and driving away.
The two men and carhave never been located.
It's possible that the two men wanderedonto Ed's property and were murdered.
By all accounts.
Only women's remains have beenlocated but will never know for sure.
In 1960, an investigator foundthat Ray Burgess was a fake name
associated with the Chicago mob.

(39:21):
The car owned by Ray was alsopurchased under a fake name.
Victor had been friends withthe mob boss's son, Dominic.
Victor had been drinking withDominic just two months earlier when
Dominic flipped his truck and died.
Since then, there have been twoprior attempts on Victor's life.
This seems like the more likelycause of Victor's disappearance.

(39:41):
Back to Ed Gein here.
He also denied having anything todo with Mary Hogan's disappearance.
That was until one of the deputiesfound her skin face in a paper bag.
The search continued through Ed'shouse and the number of remains
kept climbing to a suspected 15.
The evidence was removed from Ed'shouse and sent to the crime lab.

(40:03):
There was so much evidence ittook two officers, 30 trips and
a half hour to unload the truck.
As the evidence piled up, ed would finallyadmit to killing both Mary and Bernice.
He never admitted to killing Bernice.
Intentionally though hesays it was accidental.
Ed also took a lie detector test forEvelyn in Georgia and it confirmed he was

(40:26):
not involved in either disappearances.
The house was boarded up andno trespassing signs were
posted around the clock.
Supervision of the house wasalso provided by the Sheriff's
Department to stop college parties.
Ed's story was big news.
In that fall of 1957, the worldwatched as he was charged with first
degree murder and armed robbery.

(40:46):
Ed had provided officials witheight or nine names of his graves.
He had robbed.
The community refused to believethat Ed's actions went beyond murder.
He simply couldn't have been graverobbing for years without their knowledge.
It also seemed impossible for Ed to havedug down six feet in the dead of night.
As we're about to discuss,graves are not six feet below

(41:09):
the surface like we would assume.
The box or concrete surrounding thecoffin is about two feet below the surface
and the coffin is closer to six feet.
Investigators had no choicebut to dig up the graves to
determine if Ed's story was true.
They started at thegrave of Eleanor Adams.
Eleanor died in August, 1951.

(41:30):
Ed told his attorney he had removed herremains before the grave had been fully
filled in two grave diggers set to work.
Digging up Eleanor's coffin, ittook them an hour to reach the box
cover, which had been split in two.
They removed the box to access the coffinand what they found horrified them.
The coffin was empty except for a 12inch crowbar that had been left inside.

(41:52):
So I wonder if that
box was
we will see how Ed Gein used
it here.
Spoilers here, it's not for canning.
Moving around the darkcluttered area with flashlights.
It was art that bumped intohis something with his coat.
He turned around and showed hisflashlight on the gutted upside
down hanging body of Bernice Warden.

(42:13):
Bernice had been decapitated and dresseddown similarly to how one would a deer.
The site was so disturbing that themen ran out of the house and vomited.
Then they radioed in what theyhad found and had no choice
but to go back into the house.
A crossbar had been run through oneankle, and the other foot was wrapped
with cable and attached to the bar.

(42:35):
The bar was hung from therafters, and Ed had used a pulley
system to get her body hung up.
She had been disempoweredand her head was missing.
Ugh.
It was so disgusting.
Ugh.
I struggled with this whole part.
This whole thing, because it'sjust so, it's so, so disturbing

(42:56):
those poor officers thatwalked into that house.
Yeah.
And poor Bernice.
I'm sad to say this, but at least.
He shot her, you know, and shewasn't alive when he was doing
that or so we think, right?
No, she died at the hardware store.
I think it was very fast.
At least it's still not right.
Obviously murder.

(43:17):
But you're right.
At least she wasn'tbeing hung upside down.
Mm-hmm.
And disempowered while she was alive.
Yeah.
Other officers arrived anda search of the house began.
The house was filthy with trash stackedup in high piles and an incredibly
poor condition inside and out.
He kept items like old chewinggum and a coffee can without

(43:41):
electricity or indoor plumbing.
The dark rural house was a nightmare.
It was the house of a mentally ill man whohad been left alone for too many years.
The filth was nothing compared to whatthose officers found in ed Gain's house.
In the kitchen, investigatorsfound a salt off skull that
Ed had been using as a bowl.

(44:01):
There were two skullsstuck to Ed's bed posts.
A shoebox with nine vulvas was found.
Some had been painted silverwrapped in ribbon or had
been salted for preservation.
Four chairs had the woven seat replacedwith human skin bracelets and lamb
shades were also found made from skin.
There was a shade pool decorated withlips and a belt made from nipples.

(44:26):
A jar was found containing noses.
12 skulls in total werefound inside the home.
No wonder why those officers vomited.
My God.
Ooh, yeah.
Can you imagine?
And it's dark in there like they'rethere in the middle of the night.
They're just finding thingswith their flashlights.
Terrifying.
Can you imagine the smell?

(44:46):
Oh, oh, I'm sure it's horrible.
The sight, the smell, the everything.
Ugh.
Then there were the skin suits and masks.
Ed had skinned, a woman, preservedit, tied a cord around, and wore
the woman's upper torso like a vest.
He had skinned a hand and madea glove of sorts from the skin.

(45:07):
Nine face masks were foundas well, missing the eyes.
Ed had skinned the woman'sfaces, but left their hair.
He wore their face, skinaround like face masks.
Some of the masks had lipstick appliedthe upper torso, like a vest like
that gets me the, the skinning getsme anything with the skinning part.

(45:31):
And that was edgy in full.
Like that's all he did, Ifeel like is just like skin.
These.
Women's faces and it was disgusting.
Yep.
Yeah, he's just impersonating them.
Creepiest of all was thebody suit that he had made.
The suit was made from theupper torso and legs of a woman.
He had also put one of the Volvos tocover his dick and worn women's panties.

(45:55):
Edward put on the skin suit andwalk around his house in the
winter and his yard in the summer,pretending to be his mother.
When not in use.
He stuffed the masks with newspaperand hung them on his bedroom wall.
There's just so many questions,so many questions about that part.
Like he was literally usingthe panties to hold the vulva

(46:15):
in place and tucking his dick.
Like it's, there's justso much to unpack there.
That's not right.
No.
So that he could impersonate hismom and like he's just strutting
around his yard in the summertime,pretending to be Augusta.
There are so many things wrong
with that.
Why would you even wannapretend to be your mom?
And then why would you want to doall of those things with bodily limbs

(46:41):
and extremities and personal parts,
rotting flesh?
Ooh.
You can clearly see why he's theinspiration for Norman Bates.
'cause I really get.
I saw Bates Motel.
Yes.
Like we watched Bates Motelbeginning to end and it's
definitely Norman Bates, right?

(47:01):
Yeah.
I didn't finish that.
It's worth it.
I did like the show, so Iprobably didn't get to this part.
It's a trip.
You should finish it.
It's good.
I need to, yeah, I got a list.
Lemme tell you.
I got a list I need to watch.
Okay, so back to this kitchen.

(47:22):
Behind the door, an officer lifted a robeto find a brown paper bag underneath.
He reached in and actuallyfound the head of Mary Hogan.
This solved thedisappearance of Mary Hogan.
It's no surprise when officers reacheda boarded up section of the house
that they were scared to open it up.

(47:43):
What they found was AugustaGein's bedroom and parlor.
It was clear that Ed had sealedoff the rooms as a shrine.
Her clothes remained in the drawers andher bed was made except for the dust.
It was like she was still aliveand might come back at any time.
By the early morning hours ofNovember 17th, the remainder of
Bernice's body would be located.

(48:06):
Her heart was in a plasticbag in front of the stove.
Her head was found in a bag in theshed, and her end trails were wrapped
in newspaper and placed in a men's suit.
What, what is end trails?
Can you please explain those to me?
That would be her internal organs, sothat could be like her gallbladder,
her intestines, her liver.

(48:27):
Ooh,
okay.
Her head was clearly meant to be a trophy.
Ed had run nails through herears, which he connected with
Twine as a way to hang it.
At 2:30 AM the distraught sheriffarrived at the jail jailhouse.
He grabbed Ed by the shoulder andstarted slamming him into the wall.
Other deputies pulled him off.
Ed pretty quickly.

(48:47):
But instead of getting Ed to talk, heshut down and wouldn't talk at all.
I can only imagine how thissheriff felt back in the fifties.
A crime like this wasliterally unheard of.
But with Ed's history of abuse shuttingdown would've been his natural response.
This is
unheard of now, don't you think likeall of this, I mean, I'm thinking like

(49:09):
the worst case I can think of is like.
Off the top of my head, Dahmer.
That was some shady shit,
but that's the point.
It was.
But you can think ofanother serial killer,
I guess.
Yeah,
back then.
They had no idea, you know, necrophilia,like they had no idea what that was.

(49:30):
Or it was like, here's one casethat happened during World War II
of necrophilia, but then you getEd Gein in this super rural area.
Nobody knows what to do with this.
Like there's the population's so small.
This is small town cops.
This doesn't happen in Wisconsin.
Yeah, this is a big town problem.
You know, like this.
This could be.

(49:51):
Like an LA thing.
Mm-hmm.
Not a 1950s, middle ofnowhere, Wisconsin case.
Everybody was just blown out of the water.
And that's, I think why it's affectedAmerican culture so much is because we
were so surprised that this happened.
In the Midwest?
Yeah, I guess I mean like just how hepainted the vulvas, like with silver

(50:13):
paint, like I've like just certainthings that he did are different from
like people like Dahmer and whatnot.
Sure.
But it is heard of.
Nowadays.
Yeah.
'cause like even 20 years later, you'vegot Ted Bundy that comes through and he
was going back to the graveyard or likeGreen River Killer, where he's also going

(50:33):
back to where he's leaving those bodies.
Yeah.
They.
I think maybe understood that a little bitmore than the 1950s when this happened.
Yeah.
Like it was more expected.
Maybe by the time Ted Bundy and GreenRiver Killer came through, it blew
them away for sure when this happened.
And now with social media andtelevision and all of that, you

(50:58):
know, it's just a lot more exposed.
Yep.
Every, everybody's exposed to likecrazy things that happen in the world.
You'll hear about what happened onthe total opposite end of the world.
And also, I'm not sure that thisarea would be as rural today as it
was then, but you've still got likeGoogle Maps that drives by, or it

(51:21):
goes overhead like Google Earth.
Can you imagine the stuffthat they see sometimes?
Yeah.
Like you could almost havecaught him doing something
strange if it had happened today.
Mm-hmm.
He was out there walkingaround in his skin suit.
Yeah, those neighbors musthave been like far away, pretty
far away from him and his farm.

(51:42):
For him to just be walking around,
there's one a quarter of a mileaway, but that's like one family
that's a quarter of a mile away.
Everybody else is miles away.
You know, the town is miles away.
Yeah.
So
the media caught onto the storybefore the weekend was over.
Unsure what was found in the house.

(52:03):
A district attorney implied theremust be cannibalism involved.
Suddenly, the newspapers were reportingthat Ed was planning on curing bernice's
legs in the summer kitchen and wasstoring courts of blood in the cellar.
Dozens of national andinternational reporters and
photographers arrived in Plainfield.

(52:23):
After asking for a slice of pie withcheddar cheese on top, ed finally
broke a 30 hour silence and admittedto the murder of Bernice warden.
He took a bite of the pie, statedthe cheese was too dry, but proceeded
to confess to the horrible crimes.
Who eats apple pie with cheddar cheese?
Any cheese
on apple pie?
This is Wisconsin baby.

(52:45):
It's all about the cheese.
I thought that was the most Wisconsinthing that man could have done.
They stick that cheese on everything.
I have been to Wisconsin and yes, itwas lots of cheese curds and beer.
They really like their beer in Wisconsin.
I mean, it's a good, youknow, they go hand in hand
with some pretzels.

(53:05):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Also, it's gorgeous in Wisconsin.
Absolutely
beautiful.
Ed had taken a glass jug intothe hardware store and purchased
a half gallon of antifreeze.
He handed Bernice a dollar bill andshe gave him back a penny change.
Ed also remembers Bernice speakingabout the opening of hunting season,
but after that, the next thing Edremembered was dragging Bernice's

(53:29):
body across the store floor.
He loaded her into the Worden's truckand drove the truck into a wooded area.
Before walking back to the town andgetting his own car, he drove to the woods
and moved Bernice's body into his car.
According to Ed, he was in adaze or trance and simply didn't
remember the murder or anythingother than hanging Bernice.

(53:52):
It was pretty clear to law enforcement bythat time what had happened to Bernice.
During Ed's dazed time, they were alsoconcerned about the other human remains,
like the 12 skulls that were found.
Ed said to his knowledge, hehadn't murdered anyone else.
The other remains were fromnighttime, grave robbing.
For over five years, he hadbeen visiting three different

(54:12):
cemeteries at least 40 times.
To grave Rob.
He usually left without openingany caskets, but on at least
nine occasions, he did steal theremains of recently deceased women.
Ed read the obituaries and when hefound a middle aged or older woman
who resembled Augusta, he would headout to the cemetery in the middle of

(54:33):
the night to dig up their remains.
He promised officials though that thegraves were left in apple pie order.
What the hell is hisobsession with apple pies?
Is it a Wisconsin
thing?
All American snack.
Don't worry about the grave robbing.
It's an apple pie order.
Officer Ed was escorted backto his farm where he gave law

(54:54):
enforcement a tour of the farmhouseout boating and some of the land.
After the tour, ed was taken to thecourthouse where he was charged with
armed robbery for the theft of $41from the warden's cash register.
Investigators were pending chargesfor murder, but filed theft
charges to hold Ed while theycontinued searching for evidence.
There are four other disappearances thatoccurred in Wisconsin about the same time,

(55:18):
and with the remains of so many peoplein Ed's house, law enforcement decided to
look into those disappearances as well.
They started at thegrave of Eleanor Adams.
Eleanor died in August, 1951.
Ed told his attorney he had removed herremains before the grave had been fully
filled in two grave diggers set to work.

(55:38):
Digging up Eleanor's coffin, ittook them an hour to reach the box
cover, which had been split in two.
They removed the box to access the coffinand what they found horrified them.
The coffin was empty except for a 12inch crowbar that had been left inside.
So I wonder if that
box was like concrete.
Was it just like a box, regularbox covering the coffin?

(56:01):
Or was it like concretebox covering the coffin?
Because how would Ed split that in two?
Yeah, in Eleanor's case,this one is I believe wood.
Okay.
And also guess he didn'tleave it in apple pie order.
He literally left his tools behind.
They filled
Eleanor's grave back in and proceededto the second grave of the day.

(56:23):
This grave was of69-year-old Mabel Everson.
Mabel had died a few months beforeEleanor, in April, 1951, they started
to dig but didn't make it to the coffin.
Approximately 15 inches belowthe surface were human bones,
a wedding ring, and clothing.
The bones were relocatedand the dig continued.

(56:45):
Once inside the coffin, itwas also empty, along with his
confession to the grave robbing.
Ed had confessed to having aguilty conscience occasionally and
returning the remains to their graves
during the investigation.
Only those two graves were opened.
We'll never know for surehow many Graves Ed robbed.
Augustus's grave was not included inthe investigation, and it does not

(57:08):
appear that it had been disturbed.
When
asked about necrophilia, ed saidthat he was disgusted because
the corpses smelled too bad.
Investigators had mixedfeelings about the necrophilia.
Ed has multiple characteristicsof other like an obsession with
their hair and the inability tomake advances on a living woman.

(57:30):
Augusta had ranted and taught soseverely that sex was evil, but
that masturbation was acceptable.
We don't know for a fact what he did,but Ed never admits to necrophilia.
Ed also thought that he had the powerto raise the dead, an evil spirit spoke
to Ed and forced him to the cemetery.
When it was time to raise the deadafter that evil spirit left him, he

(57:52):
would occasionally return those remains.
Ed was sent to the Central State Hospitalfor the criminally insane for 30 day
examination, beginning on November 25th.
The Central State Hospital was anall male maximum security hospital.
The physical exam found that he had aswollen lymph gland and the growth on

(58:13):
his eyelid, but was in good health.
He was five feet talland weighed 141 pounds.
Ed complained of thesmell of the hospital.
When asked to expand on the smell,ed said that it smells like flesh.
Gnarly.
Yuck.
I mean, he had to have lied here, right?
I mean, his whole housewas filled with flesh.

(58:37):
You telling me that a hospitalis smelling like flesh ed?
It just doesn't what?
Whatever.
Yeah.
You would think it wouldsmell like antiseptic.
Yeah.
Like clean cleaners.
Yeah.
The opposite of whathe's used to, for sure.
He complains about it consistentlyfor the rest of his life.

(58:58):
Ed's intelligence was testedduring his examination period.
His IQ was 99, a low average, butaccording to the psychologist that
was providing the examination,he felt Ed's IQ was higher and
closer to the bright normal level.
Ed had a good vocabulary and wasable to reason, but there was a
large gap between his verbal IQand his performance level iq.

(59:20):
This indicated he had astrong emotional disturbance.
The evaluation summarized by sayingEd had a strict religious code
that he expected others to follow.
He had an impressionable personality,but beneath had an aggressiveness that
presented an inappropriate actions.
Ed was diagnosed with schizophrenia andwhile he knew the difference between

(59:43):
right and wrong, he was not alwayscapable of making the right choice.
The 30 day examination was completed onDecember 22nd, and it was recommended the
ED remain at the Central State Hospital.
In general, Ed's neighbors felt thatEd was smarter and more manipulative
than the hospital gave him credit for.
They had known Ed almost his whole lifeand agreed that he was a strange man.

(01:00:07):
But if he had murdered thosewomen, it wasn't from insanity.
They felt that Ed wasgetting away with murder.
On November 29th, law enforcementwas back at Ed's farm to investigate
a garbage trench about a quarterof a mile from the house.
Ed's closest neighbor had reportedthat he would go to the trench
with shovels at all hours, butthey assumed he was taking trash.

(01:00:31):
The trench was almost 40 feet long,but it didn't take more than an
hour for the almost full skeletalremains of a woman to be found.
She was estimated to be between 30to 50 years old with a gold tooth and
possibly had been removed from her grave.
On January 6th, 1958, ed was backin court for his sanity hearing.
The courtroom was packed withjournalists, photographers, family

(01:00:53):
of the victims and ed's neighbors.
The court would be dependentupon the central state evaluation
to determine ED'S sentencing.
The psychiatrist felt that EDshould not be held criminally
responsible for his actions.
Dr. Milton Miller was quoted on stand.
I think he would know the right side ofa plate on which to put a knife and fork.

(01:01:15):
I think he would know to standup when the judge comes in.
I think he would know to berespectful to an older person.
He continued by saying, ed would probablyagree it is wrong to kill people.
It is wrong
to uncover Graves dueto Ed's schizophrenia.
He did not put the same weight on thelarger decisions that someone else might.

(01:01:36):
He knew it was wrong to grave Rob,but in his mind, the neighbor who
beat the puppy and was living with awoman unmarried was a larger problem.
All three experts from Central Statereported that Ed was chronically, mentally
ill and possibly borderline insane.
Ed was sentenced to an indeterminateterm at Central State Hospital.

(01:01:56):
If he recovered, he could still bebrought to a full criminal trial.
Ed was driven in the sheriff's personal1957 Plymouth back to Central State.
The journalists and photographers followedbehind while waiting outside the hospital.
The photographers gathered aroundto get one last picture of Ed.
For the first time, edwouldn't let them take photos.
He was forceful and adamant,simply saying, oh, not anymore.

(01:02:19):
Then he walked down theadmissions hallway and was gone.
In some ways, Ed's life improved.
At Central State, he had three mealsa day and improved living conditions.
He was assigned a job like mopping orlaundry with wages up to 50 cents a week.
The money could be spent at the hospitalcanteen on snacks of his choice.

(01:02:41):
He also had a TV libraryand radio available.
Ed was sued by Eleanor Adams, widowerfor mental anguish for $5,000 with Ed
in the hospital earning up to 50 cents aweek, and law enforcement unable to keep
24 hour surveillance on the property.
The farm and personal property werescheduled for auction on March 30th, 1958.

(01:03:03):
The auction never occurredbecause at 2:30 AM on March 20th.
Ed's nine bedroom farmhousewould be burned to the ground.
The farm buildings were saved, butthe house itself was a total loss
with no electricity in the house.
The fire was clearly arson.
No one was overly sad to see thehouse go, and an investigation

(01:03:24):
did not turn up any suspects.
The auction did go ahead for thefarmland equipment and Ed's car.
195 acre farm was sold for $3,883to a real estate developer.
The new owner hired a team to removethe remaining boats and 60,000
trees were planted on the land.

(01:03:44):
A local junk dealerpurchased the farm equipment,
the 1949 Maroon Ford that had ownedused for grave robbing and transporting.
Bernice's body was sold for$760 to a pair of brothers.
This $760 would be the equivalentof $8,500 today, and was a strangely

(01:04:06):
high amount to pay for a used vehicle.
It made more sense when just four monthslater, the car showed up as the Ed Gein
Gould car at a Wisconsin County fair.
The buyer had put a pair of wax dummies inthe car, one for Ed and one for Bernice.
20,000 people paid a quarter to seethe car in just a couple of days.

(01:04:26):
Earning the brothers $6,000in profit before the buyer
was driven out of the state.
Wisconsin was not a good place forthem to start this type of business.
Apparently we need to be buyingserial killers cars or something of
that nature to make a profit from it.

(01:04:47):
That was $6,000 in 1958.
I don't know what thatequivalent is today.
It had to be a lot.
I should have looked that up.
Yeah.
But they weigh more than madetheir money in that couple of days.
Yeah.
The auction itself broughtin $5,375, which was given
to the families who had sued.
Ed.

(01:05:08):
$300 was set aside for theburial expenses for Ed in 1960.
Alfred Hitchcock released thefilm Psycho based on the Robert
Bloch 1959 book of the same title.
It skyrocketed Ed's name back intothe spotlight because he was the
true name behind Norman Bates.
The movie and book created adifferent view of schizophrenia as

(01:05:31):
split or multiple personalities.
Norman couldn't allowhis mother Norma to die.
In Ed's case he had been living in afog, unable to think or feel clearly.
The same year workers at the oldfarm planting trees found more
bones where the barn would've been.
The ribs, legs, arm, and pelvic boneswere sent to the crime lab for storage.

(01:05:53):
The remains of all of Ed'sunknown victims will be buried
together in a cemetery plot.
In December, 1962,
10 years after his first trial,ed was finally considered
competent to stand trial.
The first day was Monday,January 22nd, 1968.
Again, the court was at max capacitywith the victim's families and the media.

(01:06:16):
Ed was shy and nervous at trial.
He entered pleas of not guilty for BerniceWorden's murder and not guilty by reason
of insanity for charges to determine ifhe was sane at the time of her death.
The trial officially began on November7th, 1968, almost 11 years after
Bernice's, November 16th, 1957.

(01:06:38):
Murder seven witnesses took the standfor the prosecution, including law
enforcement statements from November 16th.
Ed took the stand in his own defenseconfessing that he had killed
Bernice, but it was an accident.
Ed stated that he put a 22 shortbullet into the magazine to
confirm it would fit in the gunhe was considering for purchase.
The gun then accidentallywent off striking Bernice.

(01:07:00):
He did not remember dragging Berniceto the truck, walking back to town,
picking up his own car, or theevents that occurred at his home.
Just
seven days after the trialbegan, ed would be found guilty
of murdering Bernice Worden.
Judge Gomer declared Ed's actionsimmediately after the shooting made
it hard to believe her death hadoccurred from an accidental shooting.

(01:07:24):
The second trial to determine Ed'ssanity began right away within a couple
of hours and two witness statements.
Ed Edward be found notguilty by reason of insanity.
This was a unique sentence sinceEd was guilty of murder, but
also acquitted due to insanity.
What it really meant was anotherindeterminate sentence At Central
State Hospital, if Ed was everdeemed sane and no longer a danger

(01:07:48):
to society, he could be released.
Ed was never tried forthe murder of Mary Hogan.
The state decided it wasn't in thebudget for another trial when Ed
had confessed to shooting Mary,loading her body onto a sled and
dragging her body back to his house.
The news coverage of Mary Hogan'sdeath did bring about some resolution.

(01:08:10):
Mary's daughter.
Christine had been searchingfor her mother for years.
She had traced her to Chicago, but thendidn't know what had happened to her.
Christine saw a photo of Mary in the paperand learned of her mother's tragic death
before returning to the hospital.
Ed did give a short interview.
He stated he was relieved to begoing back to the hospital because

(01:08:31):
they treated you pretty good there.
In 1974, at 67 years old, edpetitioned the courts for release.
Ed stated that he was fullyrecovered and didn't need to
remain at the hospital any longer.
Ed said that he had spent 17 years atthe hospital and was feeling trapped.
He had $300 saved up, and as a handyman,he could find a job doing most trades.

(01:08:56):
A hearing was held on June 27th.
Ed and multiple doctors madestatements in front of Judge Gilmer.
One psychiatrist had spent years with Ed.
He reported that Ed never causedissues at the hospital and was
usually mild mannered, but Ed's mentaldisorder was right below the surface.
The psychiatrist
asked Ed to explain some well-knownproverbs when presented with

(01:09:18):
Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk.
Ed said it meant don't dig up the past.
What's done is done.
When asked to explain a bird in the handis worth two in the bush, ed laughed and
said, if you have a bird in your hand, youmight squeeze him too much and kill him.
In the end, Ed's petition wasrejected, even if Ed truly was

(01:09:40):
no longer a danger to society.
The daily tasks like buying foodor renting an apartment would be
outside of his capabilities afterso many years in the hospital.
Four years later, ed would kind ofget his wish to leave Central State.
The hospital was converted into acorrectional facility and Ed was
transferred to Mendota Mental HealthInstitute in Madison, Wisconsin.

(01:10:04):
Ed was 77 years old when hedied of respiratory failure.
On July 26th, 1984, he was buried atPlainfield Cemetery in the plot beside
his mother, father, and brother.
Ed's grave marker had been stolen multipletimes and the grave is now only marked
with a small cross and some flowers.
In addition to psycho ed, was theinspiration for leather face in

(01:10:26):
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and BuffaloBill and Silence of the Lambs.
If you wanna know more about Ed, I wouldrecommend the book Deviant the Shocking
True Story of Ed Gein by Harold Schechter.
I read the book for this research and itcovers more in depth what life was like
at the time and how Ed viewed the world.
So the question remains, wasEd Keenen truly evil or was he

(01:10:49):
a severely mentally ill man?
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(01:11:11):
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(01:11:33):
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E36: Ed Gein

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