Edward Theodore Gein, born on August 27, 1906, in La Crosse, Wisconsin, was an American serial killer* and grave robber, who was active between 1944 and 1957.
Ed Gein’s truly horrific crimes stunned the nation and later influenced numerous iconic fictional serial killers in books and films.
Dubbed the ‘Butcher of Plainfield,’ Gein’s gruesome activities—such as exhuming corpses and crafting objects from human remains—were uncovered in 1957, exposing a profoundly disturbed man shaped by a traumatic childhood and an eerie fixation on his dead mother.
*Ed Gein has only 2 confirmed murder victims, not enough to qualify as a serial killer, but he is suspected of many more, and widely regarded as one.
NAME: Edward Theodore Gein
ALIAS: Butcher of Plainfield, Plainfield Ghoul
DOB: August 27, 1906
DIED: July 26, 1984
COUNTRY: La Crosse, Wisconsin, the United States
VICTIMS: 2 (confirmed)
ARREST: November 16, 1957
SENTENCE: Psychiatric confinement for life
IMPRISONED AT: The Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin – He was moved to Mendota Mental Health Institute, Madison, Wisconsin when his health declined.
WHat happened to Ed Gein?
SENTENCE: Psychiatric confinement for life
Edward Gein died on July 26, 1984, at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, due to respiratory failure, at the age of 77. [1]
He spent over 25 years incarcerated before his death, spending most of that time housed in Psychiatric care at the Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin. Whilst in psychiatric care, Ed Gein helped out as a groundskeeper, and spent his time listening to the radio and reading travel literature. [2] As his health declined, he was transferred to Mendota Mental Health Institute, Madison, Wisconsin.
A lasting legacy: Ed Geins crimes were permanently etched into popular culture, inspiring some of fiction’s most chilling horror icons. From Norman Bates’ madness in Psycho, to Buffalo Bill’s skin-collecting obsession in The Silence of the Lambs, and Leatherface’s grotesque masks in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
- Jul 26, 1984 Ed Gein died of respiratory failure, aged 77
1958 House of horrors burns down
The Gein farmhouse (house of horrors) which had become a macabre tourist attraction, burned to the ground. Investigators suspecting arsonists.
1974 Release denied
Ed Gein made his one and only bid for freedom in 1974, his release petition was denied. The judge who ruled against it, said “Gein would become an object of ridicule and curiosity” if released. [3]
Jul 26, 1984 Edward Gein died
Edward Gein died on July 26, 1984, at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, due to respiratory failure, at the age of 77. [1]
Crimes Committed
Ed Gein confessed to only two murders: Mary Hogan & Bernice Worden
Ed Gein confessed to only two murders, Mary Hogan (54) a tavern operator, in 1954 and Bernice Worden (58) a local hardware store operator, in 1957,[1] however investigators discovered the remains of at least fifteen women in Gein’s home.
Bernice Worden, a Plainfield hardware store owner, vanished on November 16, 1957, after being seen with Gein the night before. A blood trail at the scene led investigators to suspect Gein, who was swiftly arrested—thanks in part to the suspicions of Worden’s son, a deputy sheriff.
When police searched Gein’s farm, they uncovered a nightmare. Worden’s body had been shot, decapitated, and hung upside down by the heels. During their search, authorities also identified the severed head of Mary Hogan, a tavern owner who had disappeared in 1954.
Gein told authorities that he murdered Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden, because they resembled his dead mother. [1]
Ed Gein grave robbed corpses for his house of horrors
Gein’s crimes were rooted in his twisted obsession with his domineering mother, Augusta, who died in 1945. After her death, he began exhuming female corpses from local cemeteries, collecting body parts to create items such as masks, lampshades, and furniture. He admitted to making as many as 40 nocturnal visits to cemeteries to exhume recently buried bodies.
Discovered inside his ‘house of horrors’ was a grotesque collection of Ed Geins insane creations. Furniture and household items crafted from human remains. Skulls adorned bedposts, bowls were made from craniums, and lampshades were fashioned from faces. Gein later admitted he had been trying to create a “woman suit” from skin so he could “become” his deceased mother.
Capture & Investigation of ed gein
The investigation began when Bernice Worden vanished from her Plainfield hardware store on November 16, 1957. Her son, Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden, discovered bloodstains and an empty cash register, with a sales receipt showing Gein had been the last customer. Officers then made the truly disturbing discoveries at Gein’s property, uncovering his house of horrors.
Investigators said they found ‘death masks’ made from the skin of a dozen human heads, some preserved so well that they could still be recognized. Each of them bared some resemblance to Gein’s mother, who had died in 1945. [2]
Allen Wilimovsky, a 33-year investigator with the state crime laboratory in Madison, commented “It was quite shocking, I never experienced an investigation before or since that was so unusual.” [2]
Investigators also found chairs and lampshades covered with tanned human skin and preserved parts of female bodies strewn around. A human heart was found in a coffee can in the kitchen. Human skulls and bones were found in Gein’s back yard. [2]
Gein was arrested on November 16, 1957, and taken to Wautoma County Jail where he initially denied all involvement in Bernice Worden’s murder before finally confessing to shooting her with a rifle. He claimed most of the human remains found in his home—later estimated to belong to 15 different individuals—had been exhumed from local cemeteries. Though skeptical at first, investigators were forced to believe his shocking story when exhumations revealed the graves had indeed been violated exactly as Gein described.
Authorities desperately tried to connect Gein to four other unsolved disappearances in Wisconsin, including cases involving a child, a teenager, and two men. However, none of the remains found on his property matched these missing persons. The only murder victim positively identified besides Worden was Mary Hogan, whose body Gein admitted to keeping—selecting her specifically because her 200-pound frame, he calculated, would provide enough skin for his grotesque “woman suit.”
Trial & Conviction of Ed Gein
Initially declared unfit for trial in 1958 due to schizophrenia, Gein was confined to Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin. A decade later, in 1968, after being deemed competent to stand trial, he faced trial for Bernice Worden’s murder. The court found him guilty but also determined he was legally insane at the time of the crime—a verdict that sent him back to psychiatric confinement for life.
Gein had confessed to killing both Worden and Mary Hogan. However, prosecutors only pursued charges for Worden’s murder, reportedly due to financial constraints preventing a fuller investigation into all his crimes, including grave robberies involving up to 15 victims. Judge Robert Gollmar, who presided over the trial, suspected Gein was involved in other unsolved disappearances. [2]
Gein made one unsuccessful bid for freedom in 1974 – his release petition was denied.
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REFERENCES / CITATIONS:
- UPI Archives: ‘Psycho’ inspiration Ed Gein dies – July 27, 1984
- UPI Archives: The tale of ‘Psycho’ killer Ed Gein – Nov. 16, 1982
- UPI Archives: ‘Psycho’ dies in mental institution – July 26, 1984
BOOKs about Ed Gein
Deviant
From the author of “top-drawer true crime” (Booklist) books comes the definitive account of Ed Gein—the man whose shocking crimes inspired Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs.…
Unhinged: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, The Butcher of Plainfield
To the people of Plainfield, Wisconsin, Ed Gein was a lonely old bachelor, mild-mannered by nature, perhaps a little dim, but altogether harmless, a man they could rely on to do odd jobs and to look after their kids…
The Ed Gein File: A Psycho’s Confession and Case Documents
In November of 1957, serial killer Ed Gein was arrested for the murder of Bernice Worden. Her body was found decapitated and hanging like a gutted deer in Gein’s barn. When investigators searched the rest of Gein’s house they found furniture made from human skin…
Ed Gein — Psycho!
America may have had its fill of psychos for the last forty years, but no serial killer has inspired so many books and films (Pyscho, The Silence of the Lambs, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) as Wisconsin’s cannibalistic handyman murderer, Ed Gein…
TV Shows & Docs feat Ed Gein
World’s Most Evil Killers – S1.E7 – Ed Gein
A profile of Ed Gein, the killer and body-snatcher who came to be known as the ‘Butcher of Plainfield’, and whose story is thought to have inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho
TV Series / Documentary | 2017
Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein – 4 Episodes
Follows grave robber and serial killer Ed Gein, better known as “The Ghoul of Plainfield” and “The Mad Butcher,” from whose crimes such iconic films as “Psycho,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” and “The Silence of the Lambs” have emerged.
TV Mini Series / Documentary | 2023 | 4 Episodes
YOUTUBE
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MORE ARTICLES ABOUT Ed Gein
A selection of interesting articles about Ed Gein, sourced and curated from around the web:
Ed Gein’s Childhood: ‘The Butcher of Plainfield’ Fixated on His Domineering Mother
A&E | Author: Francisco Alvarado | March 12, 2025
All About Ed Gein, the Serial Killer Who Decorated His Home with Human Skin and Bones
Oxygen | Author: Gina Salamone | May 8, 2023
Farmer hints he killed woman; police find 10 skulls
UPI Archives | Author: United Press | Nov 18, 1957
