October 8, 2025 • 40 mins
Episode three examines Ed Gein's trial, confinement, and cultural impact. In January 1958, psychiatrists diagnosed Ed with schizophrenia and declared him incompetent to stand trial. After ten years in Central State Hospital, Ed finally stood trial in 1968, where Judge Gollmar found him not guilty by reason of insanity. Ed spent his remaining years as a model patient in psychiatric institutions until his death from cancer in 1984. He was buried beside his mother Augusta in Plainfield Cemetery. The episode explores how Ed Gein's crimes inspired Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs, reshaping American horror while examining questions of mental illness, responsibility, and remembering his victims.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Judge Robert Gomar looked across the court room at ed Gen,
the man who had confessed to murder, to grave robbery,
to creating a suit from human skin. The question before
the court wasn't whether Ed had committed these acts. He'd
admitted everything. The question was simpler and more complex. Was
ed Gen legally insane? Could a man who had lived
(00:23):
surrounded by the dead, who had worn their skin and
eaten from their skulls, be considered responsible for his actions?
The answer would determine whether Ed faced prison or spent
his life in a psychiatric institution. Welcome to the final
episode of ed Gen. I'm Raven Thorn. In our previous episodes,
(00:43):
we traced ed Deane's transformation from an abused child into
a man capable of unthinkable acts, and we explored the
house of horrors that deputies discovered in November nineteen fifty seven.
We documented the grotesque inventory of human remains fashioned into
household objects, Ed's confessions to murder and grave robbery, and
(01:04):
the shock that rippled through Plainfield and across the nation.
Now we need to examine what happened to Ed Dean
after his arrest, how the legal system grappled with his crimes, and,
perhaps most significantly, how one man's psychological disintegration would reshape
American horror culture for generations to come. In the days
(01:24):
following Ed's arrest, as the full scope of his crimes
became clear, the question of his mental state dominated discussion.
Anyone who looked at the evidence, who understood what d
had been doing in that farmhouse, recognized that something was
profoundly wrong with his mind. Formal people don't rob graves,
don't fashion household items from human remains, don't wear suits
(01:47):
made from dead women's skin. But the legal question wasn't
whether Ed was disturbed. The question was whether he met
the legal definition of insanity, whether he understood the difference
between right and wrong, whether he could be held criminally
responsible for his actions. In January of nineteen fifty eight,
just two months after his arrest, Ed was evaluated by
(02:08):
court appointed psychiatrists. The evaluation took place at Central State
Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Warpuron, Wisconsin. Multiple psychiatrists
examined Ed over several weeks, conducting interviews, administering psychological tests,
observing his behavior, attempting to understand the inner workings of
a mind that could conceive of and execute such transgressive acts.
(02:34):
The psychiatrist's findings were consistent, and Danning ed Deen was
diagnosed with schizophrenia, a severe mental illness characterized by breaks
with reality, hallucinations, delusions, and profound distubbances in thinking and behavior.
The doctors noted Ed's dissociative episodes, his claims of experiencing
(02:57):
feud states during his grave robberies, his belief that he
could resurrect his mother by wearing skin of dead women.
They documented his complete lack of normal emotional response to
his crimes, his matter of fact descriptions of murder and desecration,
his inability to understand why others found his actions horrifying.
The psychiatric reports painted a picture of a man whose
(03:19):
grow up on reality had been tenuous at best, and
had shattered completely following his mother's death. Its worldview, shaped
by years of Augustus's psychological abuse and twisted theology, had
never aligned with consensus reality, But after Augusta died, ed
had constructed an alternate reality where boundaries between living and dead,
(03:40):
self and mother, male and female had dissolved entirely. In
this reality, Robin Graves made perfect sense as a way
to obtain materials. Murdering women who resembled his mother was logical,
Wearing their skin was a reasonable method of transformation and resurrection.
Based on these evaluations, the psychiatrist concluded that Ed was
(04:03):
not competent to stand trial. He lacked the mental capacity
to understand the charges against him, to assist in his
own defense, to participate meaningfully in legal proceedings. On January tenth,
nineteen fifty eight, Judge Herbert Bundey ruled that Ed Gene
was legally insane and incompetent to stand trial. Ed was
(04:25):
committed to Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where
he would remain until such time as doctors determined he
had recovered sufficiently to face trial. For the families of
Mary Hogan and Benice Werden, this ruling was frustrating, but
not entirely surprising, they wanted justice, wanted Ed to face
(04:45):
trial and potential execution for what he'd done, But even
they could see that something was profoundly wrong with Ed's mind.
The question became whether Ed would ever be competent enough
to stand trial, whether he would spend the rest of
his life in the in without ever facing formal judgment
for his crimes, Ed settled into life at Central State
(05:06):
Hospital with surprising ease. The structure and routine of institutional
life seemed to suit him better than the isolation and
chaos of his farmhouse existence. He was assigned to award
with other criminally insane patients. He was given tasks laundry duty,
kitchen work, eventually ground's maintenance. He followed rules, caused no trouble,
(05:29):
cooperated with treatment. Staff members found him to be a
model patient, quiet, compliant, even helpful to other patients who
were more severely disturbed. This good behavior puzzled some observers.
How could someone who had committed such extreme acts be
so placid, so normal in daily functioning. The answer lay
(05:52):
in the structure that institution provided. Ed had never been
independently functional. He'd lived under Augusta's absolute control until her death,
then had existed in psychological chaos for twelve years until
his arrest. The institution provided external structure similar to what
Augusta had imposed, rules and routines that it could follow
(06:13):
without having to generate his own organization. Within this framework,
Ed could function reasonably well, but functioning well in an
institution didn't mean Ed's underlying psychology had changed. In therapy sessions,
Ed remained fixated on his mother. He spoke of Augusta
constantly describing her teachings, defending her actions, insisting she had
(06:36):
been protecting him from a corrupt world. He showed no
real insight into how her abuse had damaged him. He
couldn't or wouldn't acknowledge that his crimes were connected to
the psychological destruction Augusta had inflicted. His mother remained sacred
in his mind, untouchable beyond criticism. Psychiatrists worked with Ed
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for years, attempting to help him develop some under standing
of reality, some recognition that his actions had been wrong,
not just legally but morally. They had limited success. Ed
could intellectually acknowledge that murder is wrong, that society disapproved
of grave robbery, that fashioning items from human remains violated
(07:18):
cultural norms, but this acknowledgment seemed abstract, disconnected from any
emotional understanding or genuine remorse. Ed understood the rules he'd broken,
but didn't seem to grasp why those rules existed or
why his violations mattered. The years passed, nineteen fifty eight
became nineteen sixty then nineteen sixty five, Ed remained in
(07:41):
Central State Hospital, working his assigned jobs, participating in therapy,
causing no problems. Outside the institution, the world moved on.
The Green Farmhouse had burned down in March nineteen fifty eight,
Plainfield gradually recovered from the media attention and trauma, though
the town would forever be associated with Ed's crimes. The
(08:02):
families of Mary Hogan and Bernice Werden struggled with their
grief and the grotesque details of how their loved ones
had died. Then, in nineteen sixty eight, nearly ten years
after his initial commitment, psychiatrists determined that Ed had improved
sufficiently to stand trial. He was no longer actively psychotic,
He could understand the charges against him, He could assist
(08:25):
in his own defense, He could participate in legal proceedings.
The question of his guilt or innocence, or more accurately,
his legal responsibility for his admitted crimes, could finally be adjudicated.
The trial was scheduled for November of nineteen sixty eight
in water Mar, Wisconsin. Judge Robert Golmar would preside. There
(08:46):
would be no jury. Ed's defense team had requested a
bench trial, believing that Judge Golmar would be better able
to evaluate the complex psychiatric evidence than a jury of
lay people who might be swayed are the horrific details
of the crimes. The trial well begaan on November seventh,
nineteen sixty eight, exactly eleven years and nine days after
(09:06):
Ed's arrest. The proceedings were remarkably brief by the standards
of modern criminal trials. Ed was not contesting the facts.
He admitted to killing Mary Hogan and Benice Worden. He
admitted to robbing approximately forty graves. He admitted to fashioning
household items from human remains. The only question before the
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court was whether Ed was legally responsible for these acts,
or whether he had been insane at the time they
were committed. The prosecution presented evidence of the crimes. They
introduced photographs from the farmhouse documenting the grotesque inventory of
human remains. They presented Ed's confessions, his calm descriptions of
murder and desecration. Called witnesses who testified about Ed's behavior
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in the days and weeks before his arrest, noting that
he had seemed capable of planning and executing his crimes
with calculation that suggested awareness and intent. Defense presented psychiatric testimony.
Multiple doctors testified about Ed's schizophrenia, his dissociative episodes, his
complete break with consensus reality. They described his delusional belief
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that he could resurrect his mother by wearing dead women's skin,
his inability to distinguish between his internal reality and the
external world. They traced the development of his mental illness
back to Augusta's abuse, documenting the systematic psychological destruction that
had created the conditions for Ed's crimes. A prosecution counted
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with their own psychiatric expert, who argued that while Ed
was clearly mentally ill, he had still known that murder
and grave robbery were wrong. He had hidden his activities,
had tried to establish an alibi for Bernice Werden's murder,
had removed the sales receipt from the hardware store. These
actions suggested consciousness of guilt, awareness that his behavior violated
(10:56):
social and legal norms. Mental illness didn't automatically equal legal insanity.
Judge Golmar listened to testimony for seven days. He heard
from psychiatrists, law enforcement offices, people who had known Ed,
experts on criminal psychology. He reviewed the extensive physical evidence,
(11:18):
the photographs and police reports, and psychiatric evaluations. Then, on
November fourteenth, nineteen sixty eight, Judge Golmar delivered his verdict.
Ed Gene was not guilty by reason of insanity. Judge
Golmar ruled that at the time Ad committed his crimes,
he had been suffering from severe mental illness that prevented
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him from distinguishing right from wrong or conforming his behavior
to legal requirements. ED schizophrenia, his dissociative episodes, his complete
break with reality meant he could not be held criminally
responsible for his actions in the same way monthly healthy
person would be. The verdict was controversial, but not surprising
(12:03):
given the psychiatric evidence. Ed was remanded back to Central
State Hospital, where he would remain indefinitely theoretically until such
time as he was cured of his mental illness and
no longer posed a danger to society. In practical terms,
this meant Ed would spend the rest of his life
in psychiatric institutions. He would never be free. For the
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families of his victims, the verdict was difficult to accept.
They understood intellectually that Ed was mentally ill, but Emotionally,
they wanted him to be held accountable, to be punished
for what he'd done. The insanity verdict felt like Ed
was getting away with murder, even though in practical terms,
his confinement would likely be longer than any prison sentence.
(12:45):
The families had to find some way to live with
this outcome, to accept that legal justice and emotional satisfaction
did not always align. Ed returned to Central State Hospital
and resumed his routine. He continued working assigned jobs, continued
participating in therapy, continued being a model patient. In nineteen
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seventy eight, he was transferred to the Mendota Mental Health
Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, a less restrictive facility where he
would spend his final years. At Mendota, Ed continued his
pattern of institutional adjustment. He was assigned to work in
the kitchen, washing dishes and helping prepare meals. He was
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well liked by staff, who found him helpful and cooperative.
Fellow patients reported that Ed was gentle and kind, willing
to help others, showing none of the violence or danger
that his crimes might have suggested. This disconnect between Ed's
heinous acts and his daily behavior continued to puzzle observers.
The man who had murdered and desecrated could be unfailingly
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polite and helpful in structured settings. The years passed quietly
for Ed. He aged in the institution, his health gradually declining.
In the early nineteen eighties, he was diagnosed with cancer.
The disease progressed despite treatment. Ed's physical condition deteriorated, though
his mental state remained relatively stable within the framework of
(14:15):
his chronic schizophrenia. On July twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four,
ed Gen died at Mendota Mental Health Institute. He was
seventy seven years old. The cause of death was respiratory
failure due to cancer and heart disease. Ed died quietly,
surrounded by institutional staff. Nearly twenty seven years after his arrest.
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His body was released to his family for burial. Ed
was buried in Plainfield Cemetery in the Green family plot,
next to his mother, Augusta. The irony was profound. Ed,
who had spent his life trying to resurrect his mother,
who had robbed graves and murdered women in a twisted
attempt to bring her back or become her, was finally
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reunited with her in death, lying beside her for eternity.
Headstone marking Ed's grave was simple, bearing only his name
and dates. But even in death, ed Geen couldn't escape
his notoriety. His grave became a target for vandals and
souvenir hunters. The headstone was repeatedly damaged, defaced, stolen. In
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two thousand and one, seventeen years after Ed's death, the
headstone was stolen entirely and never recovered. The grave itself
remains unmarked, now in a cemetery that also holds some
of the women whose graves Ed violated decades earlier. Understanding
ed Gane's crimes requires grappling with complex questions about psychology, responsibility,
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and the origins of extreme violence. Ed wasn't a serial
killer in the way that term would later be defined
by FBI Behavioral Science Unit. Serial killers tipsily exhibit certain patterns.
They kill for psychological gratification, usually sexual. They hunt and
select victims carefully. They often keep trophies to relieve their crimes.
(16:11):
They continue killing until court or killed, driven by compulsions
they can't control but understand they must hide. Ed doesn't
fit this pattern cleanly. He killed only two people by
his own admission, hardly qualifying as a serial killer by
the standard definition of three or more victims. His motivations
weren't primarily sexual in conventional senses. He wasn't collecting trophies
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to relieve murders. He was attempting something far stranger, trying
to resurrect his mother to become female, to resolve catastrophic
psychological damage through the most extreme means imaginable. Yet Ed
shares certain characteristics with serial killers. He experienced severe childhood
abuse and trauma that warped his psychological development. He was
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profoundly isolated, lacking normal social connections that might have provided
corrective influences. He objectified his victims, viewing them not as
full human beings but his raw materials for his projects.
He transgressed fundamental boundaries of acceptable behavior, moving from lesser
violations to greater ones in an escalating pattern. The debate
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about whether Ed was a serial killer or something else
matters less than understanding the specific psychology that drove his crimes.
It suffered from severe mental illness, almost certainly schizophrenia, compounded
by profound personality disorders stemming from Augusta's abuse, but mental
illness alone doesn't create killers. Many people with schizophrenia never
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harm anyone. What made a dangerous was the specific combination
of factors, the mental illness, the childhood abuse that warped
his psychosexual development, the isolation that allowed his delusions to
flourish unchecked, the loss of his mother that triggered his
complete psychological collapse, and the specific content of his delusions
involving resurrection and trans information. Ed's crimes also raise questions
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about community responsibility and the warning signs that were missed
or ignored. Ed had been owed his entire life. His
behavior after Augusta's death became increasingly strange. He lived in
squalor in a decaying house. He made inappropriate comments about
women's bodies. He showed too much interest in death and anatomy.
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Yet no one intervened, No one reported concerns to authorities.
No one checked on the isolated man living alone on
his mother's farm. This failure wasn't malicious. Plainfield was a
small town where people minded their own business, where eccentricity
was tolerated, where you didn't interfere in others' lives without
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clear cause. Ed seemed harmless, just odd Ed seemed harmless.
But this tolerance, this live and net live attitude, allowed
Ed's madness to flourish in isolation for twelve years. If
someone had intervened, if social services or mental health professionals
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had evaluated Ed after Augusta's death, if the community had
been more willing to interfere when someone seemed disturbed, Mary
Hogan and Benice Werden might still be alive. For Plainfield itself,
the trauma of Ed's crimes persisted for generations. The town
became synonymous with horror, its name forever linked to the
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butcher who had lived undetected among them. Tourism increased, but
it was ghoulish tourism, people coming to see where such
darkness had existed. Local businesses struggled with the association. Property
values near the former Dean farm declined. Families who had
known Ed, who had hired him or trusted him with
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their children, struggled with guilt and horror at how completely
they'd misjudged Ing. The town's response was to try to
move on, to stop talking about Ed, Gene, to refuse
to engage with the notoriety. Plainfield residence became tight lipped
when asked about Ad by journalists or researchers. They didn't
want to be defined by one resident's crimes. They wanted
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to be known for their community, their values, their ordinary lives,
not for the monster who had hidden among them. If
Plainfield wanted to forget Ed Geen, the wider culture had
very different ideas. Almost immediately after Ed's arrest and the
revelation of his crimes, his story began influencing American horror
fiction and film in ways that would prove profound and lasting.
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In nineteen fifty nine, just two years after Ed's arrest,
author Robert Bloch published a novel called Psycho. Block was
a Wisconsin writer who had followed the Gaen case closely.
He was fascinated by the disconnect between Ed's ordinary appearance
in the horrors He'd committed by the idea that a
murderer could be living next door, indistinguishable from any one
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else until his crimes were of what created Norman Bates,
a character directly inspired by Ed Deen. Norman Bates ran
a motel with his mother, or so guests believed. In reality,
Norman had killed his mother years earlier, but couldn't accept
her death. He preserved her corpse, kept it in the house,
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spoke to it, even dressed up as her and spoke
in her voice. When Norman felt attracted to a woman,
the mother personality would take over and kill the object
of desire. The parallels to ed Deen were unmistakable. The
dominating mother, the inability to accept her death, the preserved
maternal presence, the transformation into the mother, the murders of women.
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In nineteen sixty, Alfred Hitchcock adapted Block's novel into the
film's Psycho, one of the most influential horror films ever made.
The shower scene, where Norman dressed as his mother murders
maryan Crane became iconic. The revelation that Norman had been
keeping his mother's corpse shocked audiences. The psychological portrait of
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a man destroyed by maternal domination resonated powerfully. Psycho brought
ed Gaines's story, however, fictionalized and transformed, to millions of
viewers who might never have heard of the real case.
The influence didn't stop there. Nineteen seventy four, director Tobe
Hooper released The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a film that drew
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heavily on ed Gene's crimes. For its imagery and atmosphere.
The character leather Face wore masks made from human skin,
directly echoing Ed's Face masks. The family in the film
lived in a house decorated with bones and body tarts
fashioned into furniture, just as Ed had. The isolated rural setting,
the sense of discovering unimaginable horror in an ordinary seeming location,
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the transgressive use of human remains all came directly from
a green case. In nineteen eighty eight, author Thomas Harris
published The Silence of the Lambs, featuring the character Buffalo Bill,
a serial killer who kidnapped, in murdered women to harvest
their skin. Fillo Bill was creating a woman's suit from
his victim's skin, attempting to transform himself into female form.
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The parallels to Ed Dean were explicit. Harris had researched
the Green Case thoroughly and had incorporated specific details the
skin suit, the transformation desire, the basement workshop where the
killer processed his victims. The nineteen ninety one film adaptation
of the Science of the Lambs brought Buffalo Bill to
vivid life, creating one of cinema's most disturbing villains. The
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scene where FBI agent Clary Starling discovers Buffalo Bill's basement
filled with evidence of his skin harvesting activities directly echoed
the discovery of Ed's farmhouse. The film won five Academy
Awards and introduced ed Dean's influence to a new generation.
Beyond these major works, ed Gan influenced countless other horror films, novels,
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and television shows. The isolated farmhouse hiding terrible secrets became
a horror staple. The seemingly normal person revealed to be
a monster became a fundamental trope. The idea of furniture
and household items made from human remains appeared repeatedly. Ed's
crimes provided a template, a set of images and ideas
that horror creators returned to again and again. But why
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why did Edgen's story resonance so powerfully in American culture?
Why did his crimes inspire so many works of fiction
while other equally horrific cases faded from memory. Part of
the answer lies in the specific nature of Ed's transgressions.
He violated fundamental taboos that exist across cultures. Respect for
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the dead, the sanctity of burial, the boundary between living
and dead. His crimes combined elements that triggered deep psychological discomfit, death, sexuality,
maternal relationships, body, horror, transformation, identity. The image of Ed
wearing a suit made from dead women's skin is so disturbing,
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so transgressive, that it lodges in consciousness and won't leave.
Another part of the answer lies in the American Gothic tradition,
the sense that darkness lurks beneath ordinary American surfaces. Ed
Geane embodied this perfectly. He lived in a small Wisconsin town,
worked ordinary jobs, seemed unremarkable, but beneath this ordinary facade
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existed nightmare reality. This disconnect between appearance and reality, between
the normal and the monstrous, resonates in American culture, with
its myths of small town innocence and wholesomeness. Ed revealed
that darkness could exist anywhere, that the monster next door
might be real. The mother's son relationship at the center
of Ed's psychology also resonated culturally. American culture has complex
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attitudes toward motherhood, simultaneously idealizing and fearing maternal power. Stories
like Psycho that portrayed the devastating effects of maternal domination
tapped into anxieties about mother's son relationships, about masculine development,
about the power mothers held over their son's psychological formation.
Ed's crimes seemed to valigate fears about what could happen
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when that relationship went wrong. The timing mattered too. Its
crimes were discovered in nineteen fifty seven, just as American
culture was beginning to grapple with the darkness beneath its prosperous,
confident post war surface. The nineteen fifties presented a carefully
constructed image of normalcy, prosperity, and moral clarity, but beneath
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this surface lurked anxiety about nuclear war, communist infiltration, social change,
the stability of traditional structures. Ed Gean emerged at exactly
the moment when American culture was ready to acknowledge that
darkness could exist behind the facade, that monsters could wear
ordinary faces, that the American dream might have nightmares at
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its foundation. Ed's case also benefited from the emerging field
of criminal profiling and forensic psychology. The FBI's Behavioral Science
Unit would later study Ed's case extensively, using it to
develop profiles of other offenders. Psychiatrists, and psychologists wrote extensively
about Ed's psychology, attempting to understand the specific combination of
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factors that had created such extreme pathology. This professional attention
kept Ed's case and circulation made it a touchstone for
discussions about the origins of violence, the effects of childhood abuse,
the relationship between mental illness and crime. The visual power
of the discoveries in Ed's farmhouse ensured the case remained memorable.
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The image of Bernice Werden's body hanging in the summer kitchen,
the skulls fashioned into balls, the lampshades made from skin,
the woman's suit all provided unforgettable imagery that horror creators
could draw upon. These images were specific enough to be vivid,
but also metaphorically rich enough to support multiple interpretations and uses.
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Ed Geen became a cultural symbol, a reference point for
discussions about evil, madness, the darkest possibilities of human behavior.
His name became shorthand for a particular kind of horror.
The ordinary scening person revealed to be a monster, the
isolated location hiding terrible secrets, the transgressive use of human remains.
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This symbolic status ensured Ed's continued relevance long after his
actual crimes had faded from immediate public memory. In focusing
on Ed's cultural influence and the horror he inspired, we
risk losing sight of the actual human cost of his crimes.
Mary Hogan and Beneath Worden were real people, with families
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who loved them, who were murdered by Ed for reasons
that made sense only within his fractured psychology. Their deaths
were tragic, their final moments terrifying, their treatment after death
grotesque and degrading. They deserved to be remembered as more
than just Edging's victims. Mary Hogan was fifty one years old.
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Mary Hogan was fifty one years old when Ed killed
her in December nineteen fifty four. She ran a tavern,
worked hard. She had family and friends who mourned her disappearance,
and spent three years wondering what had happened to her.
When they finally learned the truth, the knowledge brought no peace,
only horror at how she had died and what had
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been done to her remains. Berney's Worden was fifty eight
years old when Ed killed her in November nineteen fifty seven.
She ran a hardware store, had raised a son who
became a law enforcement officer, was known as capable and
hard working. She was murdered doing her job serving a customer.
She had no reason to fear. Her son, Frank, had
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to live with the knowledge of how his mother died,
had to see the crime scene photographs, had to endure
the media attention and public curiosity about his mother's murder.
The women whose graves aired violated also deserve remembrance and respect.
They were buried by families who loved them, who mourned
their deaths, who trusted that burial would grant them final
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peace and dignity. Ed violated that trust, exhumed their bodies,
desecrated their remains, transformed them into objects for their families.
Learning years later what had been done to their loved
one's graves reopened old wounds and created new trauma. The
question of what we learn from Edgen's case, what lessons
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we can extract from such extreme pathology, is difficult. On
one level. Ed's case is so extreme that it seems
to offer little practical guidance for preventing other cases. The
specific combination of factors that created ed Gen Augustus's particular
brand of abuse, Ed's specific psychological vulnerabilities, the isolation that
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allowed his madness to flourish, the content of his delusions
all came together in ways unlikely to be exactly replicated.
But on another level, Ed's case illustrates general principles that
remain relevant. Childhood abuse, particularly severe psychological abuse, can create
profound damage that manifests in violence decades later. Isolation allows
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disturbed thinking to flourish unchecked, without corrective input from reality
or normal social connections. Mental illness untreated, especially severe mental
illness like schizophrenia, can lead to dangerous behaviors when combined
with other risk factors. The loss of stabilizing influences, like
Augusta's death, for Ed, can trigger psychological crises that result
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in violence. Ed's case also illustrates the importance of community
awareness and intervention. Ed showed warning signs for years after
Augusta's death. He lived in visible, squalor made inappropriate comments
seemed increasingly disconnected from reality. If Plainfield had had better
social services, if neighbors had been willing to intervene, if
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mental health resources had been available and utilized, Ed might
have received treatment before he escalated to murder. The case
raises questions about responsibility and culpability when severe mental illness
is involved. Ed was clearly mentally ill, likely suffering from
schizophrenia and severe personality disorders. His group on reality was
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tenuous at best, and shattered completely after Augusta's death. But
he also made choices, however, distorted by mental illness. He
chose to rob Graves rather than seeking help. He chose
to kill Mary Hogan and Benice Werden rather than finding
other outlets for his psychological pain. The line between mental
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illness and evil, between being a victim of psychology and
being responsible for choices, remains blurry and contested. Ed's case
also forces confrontation with uncomfortable truths about human nature and
the capacity for transgression. Most people, even when mentally ill,
don't rob graves or murder or fashion household items from
(33:15):
human remains. There was something in ed some combination of
specific psychological damage and individual pathology that allowed him to
transgress boundaries most people couldn't imagine crossing. Understanding this doesn't
excuse it, but it does require acknowledging that human psychology
is capable of producing monsters under certain conditions. As we
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conclude this examination of ed Gan's life in crimes, certain
themes emerge. Ed was a victim of severe abuse who
became a perpetrator of extreme violence. He was mentally ill,
but also made choices within the framework of that illness.
He was a product of specific circumstances, but also an
individual with agency. Was human but produced results so monstrous
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that they challenge our understanding of humanity's limits. Edgen's legacy
is complex and disturbing. He inspired some of the most
influential horror fiction and film of the past sixty years,
shaping how we imagine and depict evil. He became a
cultural symbol, a reference point for discussions about madness, violence,
(34:23):
and the darkness beneath ordinary surfaces. He forced confrontation with
uncomfortable truths about childhood abuse, mental illness, isolation, and the
capacity for transgression. But beyond the cultural impact, beyond the
horror and fascination, ed Gane's case is ultimately about real
people who suffered and died. Mary Hogan and Benice Werden
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were murdered, their bodies desecrated, their deaths transformed into cultural commodities.
The women whose graves ed violated had their final rest disturbed,
their remains treated with grotesque This respect ed himself, whatever
his crimes. Was a human being whose mind was destroyed
by abuse and isolation, who spent his final decades locked
(35:10):
in institutions, who died unmourned, except perhaps by the staff
who had supervised his confinement. The story of Edgeen offers
no comfortable conclusions, no easy lessons, no simple moral It
reveals the capacity for horror that exists within human psychology,
the damage that can be inflicted when children are abused
(35:30):
and isolated, the importance of mental health treatment and community intervention,
the difficulty of balancing punishment and treatment when severe mental
illness is involved. It shows us darkness we prefer not
to see, forces us to acknowledge monsters can be made
from ordinary materials, reminds us that evil isn't always recognizable
(35:52):
until it's too late. Ed Geen died in nineteen eighty four,
but his influence persists free time someone watches Psycho or
the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or the Silence of the Lambs.
They're experiencing Edgan's legacy every time horror creators craft stories
(36:13):
about isolated locations hiding terrible secrets, or seemingly normal people
revealed to be monsters. Their drawing on templates. Ed established.
Every time forensic psychologists study the relationship between childhood abuse
and adult violence, Ed's case appears in their research. But
we should also remember what Edgen's story cost. Two women murdered,
(36:36):
dozens of graves, violated, a community, traumatized, families destroyed by
grief and horror. The cultural legacy shouldn't overshadow the human tragedy.
Mary Hogan and Bernice Werden deserve to be remembered as
more than Edgen's victims. They were people with lives and
families and futures that ed stole from them for reasons
that made sense only within his fractured reality. As we
(36:59):
close this examination of Edgen, were left with questions about justice,
about responsibility, about the origins of evil, about how we
prevent such horrors from occurring again. Were left with discomfort
about our own fascination with such darkness, about our consumption
of horror entertainment inspired by real suffering. We're left with
the knowledge that monsters aren't born but made, that the
(37:23):
seeds of horror are planted in childhood, that isolation and
untreated mental illness can produce catastrophic results. Hedgen's name will
endure in cultural memory, but we should ensure that the
names of his victims endure as well. Mary Hogan and
Benice Worden deserve remembrance and respect. The lessons of Edgreen's
(37:44):
case about abuse and isolation and mental illness and violence
deserve serious consideration, and the question of how we prevent
future ed Green's how we identify and help damaged individuals
before they become dangerous, how we balance punishment and treatment
where mental illness is involved, deserves ongoing attention. The shadows
(38:07):
that ed Gen inhabited, that he created in his farmhouse
workshop have been processed and documented. The cultural legacy has
been traced, the psychological mechanisms have been analyzed, But the
ultimate mystery, the question of how a human being becomes
capable of such acts, remains partially opaque. We can identify
(38:28):
factors and patterns, but the specific alchemy that transforms abuse
and mental illness into the horrors ed created resists complete explanation.
Perhaps that opacity is appropriate. Perhaps complete understanding would itself
be disturbing, suggesting we're closer to such capacity than we'd
like to believe, Perhaps maintaining some distance, some recognition that
(38:52):
ed Gen represented an extreme outlier protects us psychologically, but
we can't afford too much distance. The lessons of Edgene's case,
the warning signs missed, the interventions not attempted, the isolation
allowed to persist. These remain relevant. Other damaged individuals exist,
(39:13):
Other potential tragedies await if we don't learn from history.
Edgen's story is ultimately a tragedy with multiple victims, the
women he murdered and violated, the community he traumatized, and
in some sense ed himself, a boy whose psychology was
destroyed by abuse before he was old enough to defend himself.
(39:36):
Understanding doesn't excuse, knowledge doesn't absolve, but examining even the
darkest cases with clear eyes, processing the shadows with analytical precision,
might help us prevent future horrors. That possibility, however, slim
justifies the uncomfortable work of studying monsters and attempting to
(39:58):
understand how they're made. Thank you for listening to this
three part examination of edgeen. Please subscribe for more content.
This podcast was brought to you by Quiet Please Podcast Networks.
For more content like this, please go to Quiet Please
dot ai, Quiet, please dot Ai hear what matters
Judge Robert Gomar looked across the court room at ed Gen,
the man who had confessed to murder, to grave robbery,
to creating a suit from human skin. The question before
the court wasn't whether Ed had committed these acts. He'd
admitted everything. The question was simpler and more complex. Was
ed Gen legally insane? Could a man who had lived
(00:23):
surrounded by the dead, who had worn their skin and
eaten from their skulls, be considered responsible for his actions?
The answer would determine whether Ed faced prison or spent
his life in a psychiatric institution. Welcome to the final
episode of ed Gen. I'm Raven Thorn. In our previous episodes,
(00:43):
we traced ed Deane's transformation from an abused child into
a man capable of unthinkable acts, and we explored the
house of horrors that deputies discovered in November nineteen fifty seven.
We documented the grotesque inventory of human remains fashioned into
household objects, Ed's confessions to murder and grave robbery, and
(01:04):
the shock that rippled through Plainfield and across the nation.
Now we need to examine what happened to Ed Dean
after his arrest, how the legal system grappled with his crimes, and,
perhaps most significantly, how one man's psychological disintegration would reshape
American horror culture for generations to come. In the days
(01:24):
following Ed's arrest, as the full scope of his crimes
became clear, the question of his mental state dominated discussion.
Anyone who looked at the evidence, who understood what d
had been doing in that farmhouse, recognized that something was
profoundly wrong with his mind. Formal people don't rob graves,
don't fashion household items from human remains, don't wear suits
(01:47):
made from dead women's skin. But the legal question wasn't
whether Ed was disturbed. The question was whether he met
the legal definition of insanity, whether he understood the difference
between right and wrong, whether he could be held criminally
responsible for his actions. In January of nineteen fifty eight,
just two months after his arrest, Ed was evaluated by
(02:08):
court appointed psychiatrists. The evaluation took place at Central State
Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Warpuron, Wisconsin. Multiple psychiatrists
examined Ed over several weeks, conducting interviews, administering psychological tests,
observing his behavior, attempting to understand the inner workings of
a mind that could conceive of and execute such transgressive acts.
(02:34):
The psychiatrist's findings were consistent, and Danning ed Deen was
diagnosed with schizophrenia, a severe mental illness characterized by breaks
with reality, hallucinations, delusions, and profound distubbances in thinking and behavior.
The doctors noted Ed's dissociative episodes, his claims of experiencing
(02:57):
feud states during his grave robberies, his belief that he
could resurrect his mother by wearing skin of dead women.
They documented his complete lack of normal emotional response to
his crimes, his matter of fact descriptions of murder and desecration,
his inability to understand why others found his actions horrifying.
The psychiatric reports painted a picture of a man whose
(03:19):
grow up on reality had been tenuous at best, and
had shattered completely following his mother's death. Its worldview, shaped
by years of Augustus's psychological abuse and twisted theology, had
never aligned with consensus reality, But after Augusta died, ed
had constructed an alternate reality where boundaries between living and dead,
(03:40):
self and mother, male and female had dissolved entirely. In
this reality, Robin Graves made perfect sense as a way
to obtain materials. Murdering women who resembled his mother was logical,
Wearing their skin was a reasonable method of transformation and resurrection.
Based on these evaluations, the psychiatrist concluded that Ed was
(04:03):
not competent to stand trial. He lacked the mental capacity
to understand the charges against him, to assist in his
own defense, to participate meaningfully in legal proceedings. On January tenth,
nineteen fifty eight, Judge Herbert Bundey ruled that Ed Gene
was legally insane and incompetent to stand trial. Ed was
(04:25):
committed to Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where
he would remain until such time as doctors determined he
had recovered sufficiently to face trial. For the families of
Mary Hogan and Benice Werden, this ruling was frustrating, but
not entirely surprising, they wanted justice, wanted Ed to face
(04:45):
trial and potential execution for what he'd done, But even
they could see that something was profoundly wrong with Ed's mind.
The question became whether Ed would ever be competent enough
to stand trial, whether he would spend the rest of
his life in the in without ever facing formal judgment
for his crimes, Ed settled into life at Central State
(05:06):
Hospital with surprising ease. The structure and routine of institutional
life seemed to suit him better than the isolation and
chaos of his farmhouse existence. He was assigned to award
with other criminally insane patients. He was given tasks laundry duty,
kitchen work, eventually ground's maintenance. He followed rules, caused no trouble,
(05:29):
cooperated with treatment. Staff members found him to be a
model patient, quiet, compliant, even helpful to other patients who
were more severely disturbed. This good behavior puzzled some observers.
How could someone who had committed such extreme acts be
so placid, so normal in daily functioning. The answer lay
(05:52):
in the structure that institution provided. Ed had never been
independently functional. He'd lived under Augusta's absolute control until her death,
then had existed in psychological chaos for twelve years until
his arrest. The institution provided external structure similar to what
Augusta had imposed, rules and routines that it could follow
(06:13):
without having to generate his own organization. Within this framework,
Ed could function reasonably well, but functioning well in an
institution didn't mean Ed's underlying psychology had changed. In therapy sessions,
Ed remained fixated on his mother. He spoke of Augusta
constantly describing her teachings, defending her actions, insisting she had
(06:36):
been protecting him from a corrupt world. He showed no
real insight into how her abuse had damaged him. He
couldn't or wouldn't acknowledge that his crimes were connected to
the psychological destruction Augusta had inflicted. His mother remained sacred
in his mind, untouchable beyond criticism. Psychiatrists worked with Ed
(06:57):
for years, attempting to help him develop some under standing
of reality, some recognition that his actions had been wrong,
not just legally but morally. They had limited success. Ed
could intellectually acknowledge that murder is wrong, that society disapproved
of grave robbery, that fashioning items from human remains violated
(07:18):
cultural norms, but this acknowledgment seemed abstract, disconnected from any
emotional understanding or genuine remorse. Ed understood the rules he'd broken,
but didn't seem to grasp why those rules existed or
why his violations mattered. The years passed, nineteen fifty eight
became nineteen sixty then nineteen sixty five, Ed remained in
(07:41):
Central State Hospital, working his assigned jobs, participating in therapy,
causing no problems. Outside the institution, the world moved on.
The Green Farmhouse had burned down in March nineteen fifty eight,
Plainfield gradually recovered from the media attention and trauma, though
the town would forever be associated with Ed's crimes. The
(08:02):
families of Mary Hogan and Bernice Werden struggled with their
grief and the grotesque details of how their loved ones
had died. Then, in nineteen sixty eight, nearly ten years
after his initial commitment, psychiatrists determined that Ed had improved
sufficiently to stand trial. He was no longer actively psychotic,
He could understand the charges against him, He could assist
(08:25):
in his own defense, He could participate in legal proceedings.
The question of his guilt or innocence, or more accurately,
his legal responsibility for his admitted crimes, could finally be adjudicated.
The trial was scheduled for November of nineteen sixty eight
in water Mar, Wisconsin. Judge Robert Golmar would preside. There
(08:46):
would be no jury. Ed's defense team had requested a
bench trial, believing that Judge Golmar would be better able
to evaluate the complex psychiatric evidence than a jury of
lay people who might be swayed are the horrific details
of the crimes. The trial well begaan on November seventh,
nineteen sixty eight, exactly eleven years and nine days after
(09:06):
Ed's arrest. The proceedings were remarkably brief by the standards
of modern criminal trials. Ed was not contesting the facts.
He admitted to killing Mary Hogan and Benice Worden. He
admitted to robbing approximately forty graves. He admitted to fashioning
household items from human remains. The only question before the
(09:27):
court was whether Ed was legally responsible for these acts,
or whether he had been insane at the time they
were committed. The prosecution presented evidence of the crimes. They
introduced photographs from the farmhouse documenting the grotesque inventory of
human remains. They presented Ed's confessions, his calm descriptions of
murder and desecration. Called witnesses who testified about Ed's behavior
(09:51):
in the days and weeks before his arrest, noting that
he had seemed capable of planning and executing his crimes
with calculation that suggested awareness and intent. Defense presented psychiatric testimony.
Multiple doctors testified about Ed's schizophrenia, his dissociative episodes, his
complete break with consensus reality. They described his delusional belief
(10:14):
that he could resurrect his mother by wearing dead women's skin,
his inability to distinguish between his internal reality and the
external world. They traced the development of his mental illness
back to Augusta's abuse, documenting the systematic psychological destruction that
had created the conditions for Ed's crimes. A prosecution counted
(10:35):
with their own psychiatric expert, who argued that while Ed
was clearly mentally ill, he had still known that murder
and grave robbery were wrong. He had hidden his activities,
had tried to establish an alibi for Bernice Werden's murder,
had removed the sales receipt from the hardware store. These
actions suggested consciousness of guilt, awareness that his behavior violated
(10:56):
social and legal norms. Mental illness didn't automatically equal legal insanity.
Judge Golmar listened to testimony for seven days. He heard
from psychiatrists, law enforcement offices, people who had known Ed,
experts on criminal psychology. He reviewed the extensive physical evidence,
(11:18):
the photographs and police reports, and psychiatric evaluations. Then, on
November fourteenth, nineteen sixty eight, Judge Golmar delivered his verdict.
Ed Gene was not guilty by reason of insanity. Judge
Golmar ruled that at the time Ad committed his crimes,
he had been suffering from severe mental illness that prevented
(11:41):
him from distinguishing right from wrong or conforming his behavior
to legal requirements. ED schizophrenia, his dissociative episodes, his complete
break with reality meant he could not be held criminally
responsible for his actions in the same way monthly healthy
person would be. The verdict was controversial, but not surprising
(12:03):
given the psychiatric evidence. Ed was remanded back to Central
State Hospital, where he would remain indefinitely theoretically until such
time as he was cured of his mental illness and
no longer posed a danger to society. In practical terms,
this meant Ed would spend the rest of his life
in psychiatric institutions. He would never be free. For the
(12:23):
families of his victims, the verdict was difficult to accept.
They understood intellectually that Ed was mentally ill, but Emotionally,
they wanted him to be held accountable, to be punished
for what he'd done. The insanity verdict felt like Ed
was getting away with murder, even though in practical terms,
his confinement would likely be longer than any prison sentence.
(12:45):
The families had to find some way to live with
this outcome, to accept that legal justice and emotional satisfaction
did not always align. Ed returned to Central State Hospital
and resumed his routine. He continued working assigned jobs, continued
participating in therapy, continued being a model patient. In nineteen
(13:08):
seventy eight, he was transferred to the Mendota Mental Health
Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, a less restrictive facility where he
would spend his final years. At Mendota, Ed continued his
pattern of institutional adjustment. He was assigned to work in
the kitchen, washing dishes and helping prepare meals. He was
(13:29):
well liked by staff, who found him helpful and cooperative.
Fellow patients reported that Ed was gentle and kind, willing
to help others, showing none of the violence or danger
that his crimes might have suggested. This disconnect between Ed's
heinous acts and his daily behavior continued to puzzle observers.
The man who had murdered and desecrated could be unfailingly
(13:51):
polite and helpful in structured settings. The years passed quietly
for Ed. He aged in the institution, his health gradually declining.
In the early nineteen eighties, he was diagnosed with cancer.
The disease progressed despite treatment. Ed's physical condition deteriorated, though
his mental state remained relatively stable within the framework of
(14:15):
his chronic schizophrenia. On July twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four,
ed Gen died at Mendota Mental Health Institute. He was
seventy seven years old. The cause of death was respiratory
failure due to cancer and heart disease. Ed died quietly,
surrounded by institutional staff. Nearly twenty seven years after his arrest.
(14:41):
His body was released to his family for burial. Ed
was buried in Plainfield Cemetery in the Green family plot,
next to his mother, Augusta. The irony was profound. Ed,
who had spent his life trying to resurrect his mother,
who had robbed graves and murdered women in a twisted
attempt to bring her back or become her, was finally
(15:04):
reunited with her in death, lying beside her for eternity.
Headstone marking Ed's grave was simple, bearing only his name
and dates. But even in death, ed Geen couldn't escape
his notoriety. His grave became a target for vandals and
souvenir hunters. The headstone was repeatedly damaged, defaced, stolen. In
(15:28):
two thousand and one, seventeen years after Ed's death, the
headstone was stolen entirely and never recovered. The grave itself
remains unmarked, now in a cemetery that also holds some
of the women whose graves Ed violated decades earlier. Understanding
ed Gane's crimes requires grappling with complex questions about psychology, responsibility,
(15:50):
and the origins of extreme violence. Ed wasn't a serial
killer in the way that term would later be defined
by FBI Behavioral Science Unit. Serial killers tipsily exhibit certain patterns.
They kill for psychological gratification, usually sexual. They hunt and
select victims carefully. They often keep trophies to relieve their crimes.
(16:11):
They continue killing until court or killed, driven by compulsions
they can't control but understand they must hide. Ed doesn't
fit this pattern cleanly. He killed only two people by
his own admission, hardly qualifying as a serial killer by
the standard definition of three or more victims. His motivations
weren't primarily sexual in conventional senses. He wasn't collecting trophies
(16:34):
to relieve murders. He was attempting something far stranger, trying
to resurrect his mother to become female, to resolve catastrophic
psychological damage through the most extreme means imaginable. Yet Ed
shares certain characteristics with serial killers. He experienced severe childhood
abuse and trauma that warped his psychological development. He was
(16:56):
profoundly isolated, lacking normal social connections that might have provided
corrective influences. He objectified his victims, viewing them not as
full human beings but his raw materials for his projects.
He transgressed fundamental boundaries of acceptable behavior, moving from lesser
violations to greater ones in an escalating pattern. The debate
(17:17):
about whether Ed was a serial killer or something else
matters less than understanding the specific psychology that drove his crimes.
It suffered from severe mental illness, almost certainly schizophrenia, compounded
by profound personality disorders stemming from Augusta's abuse, but mental
illness alone doesn't create killers. Many people with schizophrenia never
(17:39):
harm anyone. What made a dangerous was the specific combination
of factors, the mental illness, the childhood abuse that warped
his psychosexual development, the isolation that allowed his delusions to
flourish unchecked, the loss of his mother that triggered his
complete psychological collapse, and the specific content of his delusions
involving resurrection and trans information. Ed's crimes also raise questions
(18:03):
about community responsibility and the warning signs that were missed
or ignored. Ed had been owed his entire life. His
behavior after Augusta's death became increasingly strange. He lived in
squalor in a decaying house. He made inappropriate comments about
women's bodies. He showed too much interest in death and anatomy.
(18:24):
Yet no one intervened, No one reported concerns to authorities.
No one checked on the isolated man living alone on
his mother's farm. This failure wasn't malicious. Plainfield was a
small town where people minded their own business, where eccentricity
was tolerated, where you didn't interfere in others' lives without
(18:46):
clear cause. Ed seemed harmless, just odd Ed seemed harmless.
But this tolerance, this live and net live attitude, allowed
Ed's madness to flourish in isolation for twelve years. If
someone had intervened, if social services or mental health professionals
(19:07):
had evaluated Ed after Augusta's death, if the community had
been more willing to interfere when someone seemed disturbed, Mary
Hogan and Benice Werden might still be alive. For Plainfield itself,
the trauma of Ed's crimes persisted for generations. The town
became synonymous with horror, its name forever linked to the
(19:28):
butcher who had lived undetected among them. Tourism increased, but
it was ghoulish tourism, people coming to see where such
darkness had existed. Local businesses struggled with the association. Property
values near the former Dean farm declined. Families who had
known Ed, who had hired him or trusted him with
(19:49):
their children, struggled with guilt and horror at how completely
they'd misjudged Ing. The town's response was to try to
move on, to stop talking about Ed, Gene, to refuse
to engage with the notoriety. Plainfield residence became tight lipped
when asked about Ad by journalists or researchers. They didn't
want to be defined by one resident's crimes. They wanted
(20:12):
to be known for their community, their values, their ordinary lives,
not for the monster who had hidden among them. If
Plainfield wanted to forget Ed Geen, the wider culture had
very different ideas. Almost immediately after Ed's arrest and the
revelation of his crimes, his story began influencing American horror
fiction and film in ways that would prove profound and lasting.
(20:37):
In nineteen fifty nine, just two years after Ed's arrest,
author Robert Bloch published a novel called Psycho. Block was
a Wisconsin writer who had followed the Gaen case closely.
He was fascinated by the disconnect between Ed's ordinary appearance
in the horrors He'd committed by the idea that a
murderer could be living next door, indistinguishable from any one
(20:58):
else until his crimes were of what created Norman Bates,
a character directly inspired by Ed Deen. Norman Bates ran
a motel with his mother, or so guests believed. In reality,
Norman had killed his mother years earlier, but couldn't accept
her death. He preserved her corpse, kept it in the house,
(21:20):
spoke to it, even dressed up as her and spoke
in her voice. When Norman felt attracted to a woman,
the mother personality would take over and kill the object
of desire. The parallels to ed Deen were unmistakable. The
dominating mother, the inability to accept her death, the preserved
maternal presence, the transformation into the mother, the murders of women.
(21:44):
In nineteen sixty, Alfred Hitchcock adapted Block's novel into the
film's Psycho, one of the most influential horror films ever made.
The shower scene, where Norman dressed as his mother murders
maryan Crane became iconic. The revelation that Norman had been
keeping his mother's corpse shocked audiences. The psychological portrait of
(22:06):
a man destroyed by maternal domination resonated powerfully. Psycho brought
ed Gaines's story, however, fictionalized and transformed, to millions of
viewers who might never have heard of the real case.
The influence didn't stop there. Nineteen seventy four, director Tobe
Hooper released The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a film that drew
(22:27):
heavily on ed Gene's crimes. For its imagery and atmosphere.
The character leather Face wore masks made from human skin,
directly echoing Ed's Face masks. The family in the film
lived in a house decorated with bones and body tarts
fashioned into furniture, just as Ed had. The isolated rural setting,
the sense of discovering unimaginable horror in an ordinary seeming location,
(22:50):
the transgressive use of human remains all came directly from
a green case. In nineteen eighty eight, author Thomas Harris
published The Silence of the Lambs, featuring the character Buffalo Bill,
a serial killer who kidnapped, in murdered women to harvest
their skin. Fillo Bill was creating a woman's suit from
his victim's skin, attempting to transform himself into female form.
(23:13):
The parallels to Ed Dean were explicit. Harris had researched
the Green Case thoroughly and had incorporated specific details the
skin suit, the transformation desire, the basement workshop where the
killer processed his victims. The nineteen ninety one film adaptation
of the Science of the Lambs brought Buffalo Bill to
vivid life, creating one of cinema's most disturbing villains. The
(23:37):
scene where FBI agent Clary Starling discovers Buffalo Bill's basement
filled with evidence of his skin harvesting activities directly echoed
the discovery of Ed's farmhouse. The film won five Academy
Awards and introduced ed Dean's influence to a new generation.
Beyond these major works, ed Gan influenced countless other horror films, novels,
(23:58):
and television shows. The isolated farmhouse hiding terrible secrets became
a horror staple. The seemingly normal person revealed to be
a monster became a fundamental trope. The idea of furniture
and household items made from human remains appeared repeatedly. Ed's
crimes provided a template, a set of images and ideas
that horror creators returned to again and again. But why
(24:22):
why did Edgen's story resonance so powerfully in American culture?
Why did his crimes inspire so many works of fiction
while other equally horrific cases faded from memory. Part of
the answer lies in the specific nature of Ed's transgressions.
He violated fundamental taboos that exist across cultures. Respect for
(24:43):
the dead, the sanctity of burial, the boundary between living
and dead. His crimes combined elements that triggered deep psychological discomfit, death, sexuality,
maternal relationships, body, horror, transformation, identity. The image of Ed
wearing a suit made from dead women's skin is so disturbing,
(25:06):
so transgressive, that it lodges in consciousness and won't leave.
Another part of the answer lies in the American Gothic tradition,
the sense that darkness lurks beneath ordinary American surfaces. Ed
Geane embodied this perfectly. He lived in a small Wisconsin town,
worked ordinary jobs, seemed unremarkable, but beneath this ordinary facade
(25:28):
existed nightmare reality. This disconnect between appearance and reality, between
the normal and the monstrous, resonates in American culture, with
its myths of small town innocence and wholesomeness. Ed revealed
that darkness could exist anywhere, that the monster next door
might be real. The mother's son relationship at the center
of Ed's psychology also resonated culturally. American culture has complex
(25:53):
attitudes toward motherhood, simultaneously idealizing and fearing maternal power. Stories
like Psycho that portrayed the devastating effects of maternal domination
tapped into anxieties about mother's son relationships, about masculine development,
about the power mothers held over their son's psychological formation.
Ed's crimes seemed to valigate fears about what could happen
(26:16):
when that relationship went wrong. The timing mattered too. Its
crimes were discovered in nineteen fifty seven, just as American
culture was beginning to grapple with the darkness beneath its prosperous,
confident post war surface. The nineteen fifties presented a carefully
constructed image of normalcy, prosperity, and moral clarity, but beneath
(26:37):
this surface lurked anxiety about nuclear war, communist infiltration, social change,
the stability of traditional structures. Ed Gean emerged at exactly
the moment when American culture was ready to acknowledge that
darkness could exist behind the facade, that monsters could wear
ordinary faces, that the American dream might have nightmares at
(26:59):
its foundation. Ed's case also benefited from the emerging field
of criminal profiling and forensic psychology. The FBI's Behavioral Science
Unit would later study Ed's case extensively, using it to
develop profiles of other offenders. Psychiatrists, and psychologists wrote extensively
about Ed's psychology, attempting to understand the specific combination of
(27:20):
factors that had created such extreme pathology. This professional attention
kept Ed's case and circulation made it a touchstone for
discussions about the origins of violence, the effects of childhood abuse,
the relationship between mental illness and crime. The visual power
of the discoveries in Ed's farmhouse ensured the case remained memorable.
(27:42):
The image of Bernice Werden's body hanging in the summer kitchen,
the skulls fashioned into balls, the lampshades made from skin,
the woman's suit all provided unforgettable imagery that horror creators
could draw upon. These images were specific enough to be vivid,
but also metaphorically rich enough to support multiple interpretations and uses.
(28:05):
Ed Geen became a cultural symbol, a reference point for
discussions about evil, madness, the darkest possibilities of human behavior.
His name became shorthand for a particular kind of horror.
The ordinary scening person revealed to be a monster, the
isolated location hiding terrible secrets, the transgressive use of human remains.
(28:29):
This symbolic status ensured Ed's continued relevance long after his
actual crimes had faded from immediate public memory. In focusing
on Ed's cultural influence and the horror he inspired, we
risk losing sight of the actual human cost of his crimes.
Mary Hogan and Beneath Worden were real people, with families
(28:49):
who loved them, who were murdered by Ed for reasons
that made sense only within his fractured psychology. Their deaths
were tragic, their final moments terrifying, their treatment after death
grotesque and degrading. They deserved to be remembered as more
than just Edging's victims. Mary Hogan was fifty one years old.
(29:10):
Mary Hogan was fifty one years old when Ed killed
her in December nineteen fifty four. She ran a tavern,
worked hard. She had family and friends who mourned her disappearance,
and spent three years wondering what had happened to her.
When they finally learned the truth, the knowledge brought no peace,
only horror at how she had died and what had
(29:31):
been done to her remains. Berney's Worden was fifty eight
years old when Ed killed her in November nineteen fifty seven.
She ran a hardware store, had raised a son who
became a law enforcement officer, was known as capable and
hard working. She was murdered doing her job serving a customer.
She had no reason to fear. Her son, Frank, had
(29:51):
to live with the knowledge of how his mother died,
had to see the crime scene photographs, had to endure
the media attention and public curiosity about his mother's murder.
The women whose graves aired violated also deserve remembrance and respect.
They were buried by families who loved them, who mourned
their deaths, who trusted that burial would grant them final
(30:13):
peace and dignity. Ed violated that trust, exhumed their bodies,
desecrated their remains, transformed them into objects for their families.
Learning years later what had been done to their loved
one's graves reopened old wounds and created new trauma. The
question of what we learn from Edgen's case, what lessons
(30:35):
we can extract from such extreme pathology, is difficult. On
one level. Ed's case is so extreme that it seems
to offer little practical guidance for preventing other cases. The
specific combination of factors that created ed Gen Augustus's particular
brand of abuse, Ed's specific psychological vulnerabilities, the isolation that
(30:57):
allowed his madness to flourish, the content of his delusions
all came together in ways unlikely to be exactly replicated.
But on another level, Ed's case illustrates general principles that
remain relevant. Childhood abuse, particularly severe psychological abuse, can create
profound damage that manifests in violence decades later. Isolation allows
(31:21):
disturbed thinking to flourish unchecked, without corrective input from reality
or normal social connections. Mental illness untreated, especially severe mental
illness like schizophrenia, can lead to dangerous behaviors when combined
with other risk factors. The loss of stabilizing influences, like
Augusta's death, for Ed, can trigger psychological crises that result
(31:44):
in violence. Ed's case also illustrates the importance of community
awareness and intervention. Ed showed warning signs for years after
Augusta's death. He lived in visible, squalor made inappropriate comments
seemed increasingly disconnected from reality. If Plainfield had had better
social services, if neighbors had been willing to intervene, if
(32:07):
mental health resources had been available and utilized, Ed might
have received treatment before he escalated to murder. The case
raises questions about responsibility and culpability when severe mental illness
is involved. Ed was clearly mentally ill, likely suffering from
schizophrenia and severe personality disorders. His group on reality was
(32:29):
tenuous at best, and shattered completely after Augusta's death. But
he also made choices, however, distorted by mental illness. He
chose to rob Graves rather than seeking help. He chose
to kill Mary Hogan and Benice Werden rather than finding
other outlets for his psychological pain. The line between mental
(32:51):
illness and evil, between being a victim of psychology and
being responsible for choices, remains blurry and contested. Ed's case
also forces confrontation with uncomfortable truths about human nature and
the capacity for transgression. Most people, even when mentally ill,
don't rob graves or murder or fashion household items from
(33:15):
human remains. There was something in ed some combination of
specific psychological damage and individual pathology that allowed him to
transgress boundaries most people couldn't imagine crossing. Understanding this doesn't
excuse it, but it does require acknowledging that human psychology
is capable of producing monsters under certain conditions. As we
(33:37):
conclude this examination of ed Gan's life in crimes, certain
themes emerge. Ed was a victim of severe abuse who
became a perpetrator of extreme violence. He was mentally ill,
but also made choices within the framework of that illness.
He was a product of specific circumstances, but also an
individual with agency. Was human but produced results so monstrous
(34:02):
that they challenge our understanding of humanity's limits. Edgen's legacy
is complex and disturbing. He inspired some of the most
influential horror fiction and film of the past sixty years,
shaping how we imagine and depict evil. He became a
cultural symbol, a reference point for discussions about madness, violence,
(34:23):
and the darkness beneath ordinary surfaces. He forced confrontation with
uncomfortable truths about childhood abuse, mental illness, isolation, and the
capacity for transgression. But beyond the cultural impact, beyond the
horror and fascination, ed Gane's case is ultimately about real
people who suffered and died. Mary Hogan and Benice Werden
(34:47):
were murdered, their bodies desecrated, their deaths transformed into cultural commodities.
The women whose graves ed violated had their final rest disturbed,
their remains treated with grotesque This respect ed himself, whatever
his crimes. Was a human being whose mind was destroyed
by abuse and isolation, who spent his final decades locked
(35:10):
in institutions, who died unmourned, except perhaps by the staff
who had supervised his confinement. The story of Edgeen offers
no comfortable conclusions, no easy lessons, no simple moral It
reveals the capacity for horror that exists within human psychology,
the damage that can be inflicted when children are abused
(35:30):
and isolated, the importance of mental health treatment and community intervention,
the difficulty of balancing punishment and treatment when severe mental
illness is involved. It shows us darkness we prefer not
to see, forces us to acknowledge monsters can be made
from ordinary materials, reminds us that evil isn't always recognizable
(35:52):
until it's too late. Ed Geen died in nineteen eighty four,
but his influence persists free time someone watches Psycho or
the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or the Silence of the Lambs.
They're experiencing Edgan's legacy every time horror creators craft stories
(36:13):
about isolated locations hiding terrible secrets, or seemingly normal people
revealed to be monsters. Their drawing on templates. Ed established.
Every time forensic psychologists study the relationship between childhood abuse
and adult violence, Ed's case appears in their research. But
we should also remember what Edgen's story cost. Two women murdered,
(36:36):
dozens of graves, violated, a community, traumatized, families destroyed by
grief and horror. The cultural legacy shouldn't overshadow the human tragedy.
Mary Hogan and Bernice Werden deserve to be remembered as
more than Edgen's victims. They were people with lives and
families and futures that ed stole from them for reasons
that made sense only within his fractured reality. As we
(36:59):
close this examination of Edgen, were left with questions about justice,
about responsibility, about the origins of evil, about how we
prevent such horrors from occurring again. Were left with discomfort
about our own fascination with such darkness, about our consumption
of horror entertainment inspired by real suffering. We're left with
the knowledge that monsters aren't born but made, that the
(37:23):
seeds of horror are planted in childhood, that isolation and
untreated mental illness can produce catastrophic results. Hedgen's name will
endure in cultural memory, but we should ensure that the
names of his victims endure as well. Mary Hogan and
Benice Worden deserve remembrance and respect. The lessons of Edgreen's
(37:44):
case about abuse and isolation and mental illness and violence
deserve serious consideration, and the question of how we prevent
future ed Green's how we identify and help damaged individuals
before they become dangerous, how we balance punishment and treatment
where mental illness is involved, deserves ongoing attention. The shadows
(38:07):
that ed Gen inhabited, that he created in his farmhouse
workshop have been processed and documented. The cultural legacy has
been traced, the psychological mechanisms have been analyzed, But the
ultimate mystery, the question of how a human being becomes
capable of such acts, remains partially opaque. We can identify
(38:28):
factors and patterns, but the specific alchemy that transforms abuse
and mental illness into the horrors ed created resists complete explanation.
Perhaps that opacity is appropriate. Perhaps complete understanding would itself
be disturbing, suggesting we're closer to such capacity than we'd
like to believe, Perhaps maintaining some distance, some recognition that
(38:52):
ed Gen represented an extreme outlier protects us psychologically, but
we can't afford too much distance. The lessons of Edgene's case,
the warning signs missed, the interventions not attempted, the isolation
allowed to persist. These remain relevant. Other damaged individuals exist,
(39:13):
Other potential tragedies await if we don't learn from history.
Edgen's story is ultimately a tragedy with multiple victims, the
women he murdered and violated, the community he traumatized, and
in some sense ed himself, a boy whose psychology was
destroyed by abuse before he was old enough to defend himself.
(39:36):
Understanding doesn't excuse, knowledge doesn't absolve, but examining even the
darkest cases with clear eyes, processing the shadows with analytical precision,
might help us prevent future horrors. That possibility, however, slim
justifies the uncomfortable work of studying monsters and attempting to
(39:58):
understand how they're made. Thank you for listening to this
three part examination of edgeen. Please subscribe for more content.
This podcast was brought to you by Quiet Please Podcast Networks.
For more content like this, please go to Quiet Please
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