By: Sarah-Layne

Nossack

Edward Theodore Gein

American Psycho

Ed Gein: The End Result.

Ed Gein was considered by many at the hospital he

died in, to be a model patient, mild mannered, and

always helpful.
He died in Mendota Mental Institute In Madison after
battling cancer and his respiratory system failed.
The hospital he was first sentenced to was Central
State hospital after he was found not guilty by
reason
of insanity.
Central State Hospital;
Mendota Mental Institute;
Wisconsin.

Madison.

The Trials. Ed Gein: Sexual Psychopath

Once Eds house was searched and everything he had done was

discovered Ed was caught and admitted to murdering Mary Hogen

and Bernice Worden; two proven cases upon many possible other
victims.
November 22nd 1957, Eddie was taken before a judge technically
being charged with robbery. The murder charge was held back until
sanity was determined.
The psychologist & psychiatrist who interviewed Ed deemed he was
Schizophrenic and a sexual psychopath. Dr .E.F. Schubert
discovered Eds abnormally magnified attachment to his mother.
December 17th 1957, the judge received a statement indicating Ed
Gein was insane and should be permanently committed to the Central
State hospital.

The Gein
farmhouse; near
Plainfield.

The
Trials:
Continued...

January 6th 1958, Eds sanity hearing declared him LEGALLY insane and he
was recommitted to Central State Hospital indefinitely.
January 22nd 1968, (Ten years after the sanity hearing.) Ed was
determined able to stand trial and the trial finally began on November 7 th
1968. It took nine months to get everything in order including all of the
evidence. The trial lasted a week.
Ed was found guilty of first degree murder for the shooting of Bernice
Worden but on the same day the court found him not sane. Therefore, the
final verdict was NOT GUILY BY REASON OF INSANITY. Ed was returned to
the Central State hospital and died in Mendota Mental institute after
being moved there in 1978.

Edward Gein November 7th.

The day the trial started. Age
61-62. (Right hand side.)

The House.
In Edward Geins farmhouse; where he lived from

childhood until arrested and put into an institution, almost

all of the evidence supporting his arrest was found.
On the residency there were: several heads acting as
bedposts, human skin used to make lampshades and
upholstery for chairs and seats, a human heart on a tray, a
face mask, a necklace of human lips, a mammary vest ( a
vest made out of female genitalia and breasts.), a belt
made from nipples, a box of vulvas (including his
mothers.), bowls made out of skulls, and many other
disturbing artifacts.
There was also a shrine for his mother in one of the rooms.
The evidence that got him arrested was Bernice Wordens
headless corpse was found hanging upside down with her
ankles strapped to a wooden cross. The decapitated body
was split open from vagina to sternum.

The House: Pictures...

His
kitchen.
(Many
female
parts
found
there.)

Gloves
made
out of
human
skin.

Ed Geins face
mask he wore
to perform
rituals.

Bernice Wordens
corpse.

Skull
soup
bowl
found
at
scene.

The Murders.
Mary Hogen: Eddie Gein was transfixed by this woman because she looked so

much like his mother. Mary was a tavern owner and disappeared from her
establishment. There was blood, an empty bullet shell and assumed foul play. Ed
later admitted to drinking with her and shooting her in the forehead afterwards.
Bernice Worden: Bernice was the owner of a local harvest products shop and
mother of Deputy Worden, (who later searched the Gein farm.) She disappeared
from her store and the crime scene was very similar to Mary Hogens. The link to
Ed Gein was the receipt made out for antifreeze, last sale of the day to him, left
lying in the store.
There are several other supposed murders but they were never proven to be

committed by Ed Gein. Things like missing persons, the death of Eds brother
Henry ect. Ed Gein stated that he did not remember how many people he killed.
It was also hard to establish from all the bodys and limbs he had stolen from
graves.

Mary Hogens tavern.

Bernice Wordens
shop.

Before Getting Caught...

Right after the death of his mother in 1945 Ed boarded up his mothers

bedroom and sitting room to be preserved. He also kept a shrine of her.

He got really into books on grave robbing, human anatomy, experiments at
the Nazi concentration camps, and head shrinking.
He began to dig up graves and take the bodies home for experiments. The
first he dug up was of his mother in 1947 and he shrunk her head.
He claimed to dig up bodies similar to mothers.
This became a more of a routine and he started scanning to obituaries for the
freshest bodies.
Ed Gein started to question his sexuality and on several occasions considered
getting a transgender surgery. When he decided he was too scared and it was
to costly he thought about amputating his own genitals.
To be a woman he wore a skin suit called a mammary made out of female
genitalia and breasts and pretended to be his mother. It was said that when
he danced around his home wearing his skin suits he felt intense gratification.
He would often dance underneath the moon wearing a scalp and his skin vest
as a ritual.
18 months after his mother passed, Ed driven by loneliness and mourning,
stress, anxiety and depression began to have strange visions. ( A symptom of
his growing schizophrenic disorder.)

The Childhood & Beginning of The

Real American Psycho.
Ed

Gein was born in 1906 in La Cross, Wisconsin, they later moved to Plainfield when he
was eight because his mother didnt want her two sons being wrongly influenced. Eds
mother ; Augusta was a religious strict woman, married to George Gein. Although they
were conflicted with each other, they would not get a divorce because it was against their
religion. George was an abusive alcoholic.
Eds mother often read her children passages of the bible, which were only ever the
passages regarding death, gore and divine retribution.
Augusta taught her boys that all other females except herself were whores and prostitutes.
At age Seven Ed witnessed his parents slaughter a hog in their shed. Ed experienced
ejaculation upon viewing this.
Eds mother owned a grocery store.
Augusta did not allow him to make friends and he was bullied for his shyness, speech
impediment and growth on his eyelid. When he came home crying from school he would
be beaten by his drunken father. Eds mother forced him to drop out of school to avoid
being tainted by the other students. Him and his brother promised to her that they would
always remain virgins. Eds father; George died of pneumonic fluid on his lungs in 1940.
Henry started to openly criticize their mother, Ed was shocked and appalled because he
thought of her as a saint. Henry died a sudden death mysteriously and shortly after. Cause
of death was said to be asphyxiation but it was strange that Ed could lead the police
straight to the body after the runaway fire that had apparently killed him and other injuries
were not consistent with the apparent cause.
Augusta died in 1945.

The Childhood & Beginning of The

Real American Psycho. Pictures...

Factors that Influenced his Behaviours and

Lifestyle. (BIO-PSYCHO-SOCIAL MODEL)
In the aspect of psychological reasons for

Geins actions we can look at his diagnosed

schizophrenia, he usually woke up in
graveyards without remembering anything
and having very strange visions. Some
people believe he saw visions of his mother
telling him to kill the women he did ect.
Other people also believe he had a bipolar
disorder, his obsession with his mother and
his compulsions of skinning women who
resembled his mother. Possibly trying to
recreate a depiction of her. He was also very
paranoid about his practices. He also showed
signs of anti-social disorder because he
didnt show any remorse for the murders he
committed, along with robbery and no
sadness for his own brothers death (possibly
a death he caused.) and acted like he did
nothing wrong when questioned.

Behaviours and Lifestyles.

(BIO-PSYCHO-SOCIAL MODEL.)
Regarding the biological perspective of this case I

would refer to the schizophrenia he seemed to have

had at a very young age that could have just
developed more and more as he grew older. Genetics
can influence his lifestyle quite a bit as well. Since his
mother seemed to have some psychological issues of
her own, and his fathers drinking problem and
inability to hold down a job that might have attributed
to his own early onset psychological problems. What
his parents genetics would not have attributed to was
his 106 average IQ score, although he dropped out of
school early he still was fairly smart. Especially in
reading.

Behaviors and Lifestyles.(BIOPSYCHO-SOCIAL.)

The social aspect in Geins life was very limited. The

only place he was allowed to go was school for a

short time and the population of that was only 12
students. Augusta forebode him to make any
friends. At the school he was shunned and bullied
which only solidified what his mother taught him
about other people. It was a very tight knit
community where everyone knew everyone and
Gein was considered Weird old Ed.

Was he born that way? Or

shaped to be that way?

Nurture Over Nature.

The

biggest factor to consider in Ed Geins life was his childhood abuse and
what he was taught by his mother beginning at a very early age. How he
was nurtured and raised. Already being made aware of his disturbed
sexual gratification at age seven with the hog being slaughtered in his
shed. Ed was being taught since he was born that women were horrible and
slutty and not Gods work. He was being taught to never have sex, never
have friends, never disobey their God or he would be damned to hell. These
things affected him very mentally and he was later found to have
schizophrenia. After his mother died he began to feel very alone, in order to
feel like he was with someone he would put on his woman skin suit and
pretend to be his mother. He had a very unhealthy obsession with Augusta
which is why he was so keen on finding bodies that reflected her. It was
interesting to find that both of his victims, Mary and Bernice were both
independent owners of their own store/tavern which was similar to his
Mother owning her own grocery store. It was also interesting to find that
Mary was so trashy mouthed and exactly what Augusta was against. Many
of Eds actions reflected an internal hatred towards his mother or an
external obsession. Being ordered around by his over religious mother and
beaten by his drunken father would have caused so many early
development issues and problems for a young child growing up.

Possible Theory & Therapy.

Possible Theory: A Psychodynamic approach would probably work best for

Ed Gein. A theory of this would be Freuds theory of personality and

stages of psychosexual development. With Ed obsessed with his mother
and resenting his father the Oedipus complex would resemble his
situation. Since Ed is so stuck in a sexual gratification/obsessive stage he
would be considered to be stuck in the Phallic stage according to Freud.
To react to his obsession he would create skin suits to try and reincarnate
her for his own gratification. He also claimed that he would have sex
with the decaying bodies but they smelled too bad.
Possible Treatment: Cognitive therapy would probably be best the best
approach when dealing with Eds mental wellness, to try and reverse the
thoughts, beliefs and mental state Augusta instilled in him since he was
born. Psychoanalysis would also bring up unconscious thoughts about his
feelings towards his mother and what brought him to do the things that
he did. Once he discovered the root of the obsession he could then be
able to change the behaviours and control his obsessions while also
treating his schizophrenia.

VS.

Interesting Facts About

There are several movies loosely based on Ed Gein.
Weird Old Common
Ed. known films such as; Norman Bates in
Psycho. Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. Bloody
Face in American Horror Story. The most widely known
character for their portrayal of Ed Gein was Leatherface
From Left to Right.
in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
(Bloody Face,

Ed Geins IQ was 106.

Leatherface, Buffalo
Bill.)
He might have taken part in cannibalistic actions but it
was not proven. Although he never did have sex with the
corpses, he was still considered a necropheliac

Sometimes he wore woman's panties with female

genitals in them when he was performing his rituals.
Ed could not remember any of the murders he comitted.
.