The Sickening Crimes of Ed Gein & Timeline of his Crimes
Ed Gein. His name alone has become synonymous with horror. While most killers fade into history, Gein’s story still haunts our cultural imagination decades later. He didn’t kill dozens or stalk victims across state lines. What made him infamous wasn’t the number of his crimes — but the nature of them. The world wasn’t ready for what would be discovered inside his lonely farmhouse in Plainfield, Wisconsin. 🩸
His disturbing life inspired some of Hollywood’s darkest creations — Norman Bates from Psycho, Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs. But reality, as it often does, turned out to be far worse than fiction.
This is the story of Ed Gein — his life, his psychological unraveling, and the chilling timeline of his crimes.
Early Life: Born Into Control and Isolation 😶🌫️
Edward Theodore Gein was born on August 27, 1906, in La Crosse County, Wisconsin. He grew up in a loveless, abusive home dominated by an extreme, religiously fanatic mother and a weak, alcoholic father.
His mother, Augusta Gein, controlled the family with fear and religious shame. She believed women were sinful and corrupt and warned her sons that the world was filled with evil and temptation. Ed and his older brother Henry weren’t allowed to have friends. They were isolated from the town and raised to believe that pleasure was a sin and women were evil.
His father, George, was emotionally absent and violently drunk. Augusta resented him and made sure her sons viewed her as their only moral guide. Growing up under such emotional dominance, young Ed never developed normal social relationships. Instead, he developed an unhealthy emotional dependence on his mother that would shape everything that followed.
The Deaths That Changed Everything ☠️
1940: Ed’s father died from heart failure.
1944: Ed’s brother Henry died under suspicious circumstances during a fire on the property. Though Ed led authorities to the body, questions lingered — Henry had unexplained injuries on his head. Many now suspect Ed may have killed him.
1945: Augusta died after suffering two strokes.
Her death shattered Ed. He had lost the only human he truly connected with. He sealed off her room and turned it into a shrine. The rest of the farmhouse fell into decay — filth piled up, dishes rotted in the sink, and newspapers and junk covered every surface. Ed stopped maintaining himself or his home. His mental state began to unravel. 💀
Life Alone: The Beginning of Madness 🪓
Ed became increasingly withdrawn. He supported himself by doing handyman work around Plainfield. Neighbors described him as odd but harmless. Quiet. Polite. Strange, but not threatening.
But inside his home and inside his mind, a darker world was forming.
He began reading about cannibals, headhunters, anatomy, and body snatching. He developed a fascination with death — not in a violent way at first, but in a strange, childlike obsession with human anatomy and the female body. He admitted later that he wanted to “become a woman” — not out of sexuality, but to feel closer to his mother.
This emotional collapse — paired with isolation and psychosis — pushed Ed to cross lines no one could imagine.
The Secret Grave Robber ⛏️
In his 1957 confession, Gein revealed something that stunned investigators: he had been robbing graves for years. He claimed he would enter a “trance-like state,” dig up recently buried women who resembled his mother, and bring their bodies home.
But why?
Psychologists believe Gein suffered from severe pathological grief — he couldn’t accept his mother’s death. His grave robbing was his way of “bringing her back” into his life. His crimes were not just physical — they were emotional and ritualistic.
The First Known Victim: Mary Hogan (1954) ❗
On December 8, 1954, Mary Hogan vanished from her tavern in Plainfield. Only a pool of blood was left behind. No clues. No suspect. The town was baffled.
Locals joked about Ed’s strange comments. At one point, he said:
“Mary Hogan isn’t missing. She’s at my house right now.”
People laughed. It was just Ed being Ed — creepy but harmless.
They were wrong.
The Murder of Bernice Worden (1957) — The Day the Horror Was Found 🔎
On November 16, 1957, Bernice Worden disappeared from the Plainfield hardware store. The last receipt written that morning was for antifreeze — sold to Ed Gein.
Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden, Bernice’s son, immediately suspected Ed. Police drove to his farm — a lonely, rotting house surrounded by abandoned machinery and silence.
What they discovered would haunt them forever.
Inside the House of Horrors 😱
Police entered a dark shed behind the house — and found Bernice Worden’s body, hanging upside down. She had been shot and mutilated after death.
Then they went inside the farmhouse.
What they found was beyond comprehension:
Human skulls used as bowls 💀
A chair upholstered with human skin
A box full of noses
Masks made from human faces
Lips nailed to a string — used as a window pull
A belt made of human nipples
A skin suit and female torso, crafted from human remains
Mary Hogan’s head in a paper bag
Bernice Worden’s heart near the stove
This wasn’t just murder — it was ritual. It was obsession. It was psychosis in its darkest form.
The Woman Suit 🧥
Among the gruesome artifacts in his home, one item raised the most questions: a human skin suit.
Gein admitted to wearing it. He said he would put it on and pretend to be his mother — walking around the farmyard at night dressed in human skin. He spoke of it calmly, like a man describing a coat he made.
Psychologists later described this behavior as a delusion born from identity confusion and psychological regression. He wasn’t killing for pleasure. He was trying to resurrect his mother by becoming her.
Timeline of Ed Gein’s Crimes 📅
1906
Ed Gein born in La Crosse, Wisconsin
1940
Father dies
1944
Brother Henry dies under suspicious circumstances
1945
Mother dies, Ed becomes isolated
1954
Mary Hogan disappears
1957
Bernice Worden murdered
1957
Police raid farmhouse
1958
Gein ruled mentally unfit, sent to Central State Hospital
1968
Gein declared fit for trial
1968
Found guilty but insane
1984
Ed Gein dies in mental institution
Psychological Breakdown 🧠
Ed Gein was diagnosed with schizophrenia and severe psychosis. Expert analysis suggests he may have had:
Oedipal fixation – deep emotional attachment to his mother
Gender identity disturbance – desire to transform into his mother figure
Disassociation – entering “trance states” to commit crimes
Necrophilic tendencies – emotional attachment to the dead
Yet despite all of this, he was described by nurses as friendly and polite during his years in custody. They said he was quiet, compliant — even gentle.
That may be the most terrifying part.
Monsters don’t always look like monsters.
Trial, Sentence, and Death ⚖️
Gein was found guilty of murder in 1968 but declared legally insane. He spent the rest of his life in mental institutions. Visitors described him as childlike, almost happy to have structure and meals. He painted, read adventure books, and cracked jokes.
He died from respiratory failure on July 26, 1984, at age 77.
He never expressed remorse.
Cultural Impact 🎬
Ed Gein didn’t kill dozens. He wasn’t a serial killer in the typical sense. But his story terrified the world because it forced us to confront a truth:
Evil doesn’t always look dangerous.
Sometimes it lives alone. Quiet. Friendly. Ordinary.
His story inspired:
Norman Bates (Psycho, 1960)
Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 1974)
Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991)
Ezra Cobb (Deranged, 1974)
His crimes changed how America understood insanity, crime scenes, grave robbing laws, and psychological profiling.
Ed Gein’s Horrors 🕯️
Ed Gein is proof that horror doesn’t always come from the shadows. Sometimes it comes from grief, isolation, and emotional decay — a lonely man, trapped in a warped devotion to his mother, descending into madness one night at a time.
His case forces us to ask:
What happens when society ignores broken people?
How many warnings were missed in Plainfield?
Could Ed Gein have been stopped earlier?
We may never know.
But one thing is certain:
The quiet town of Plainfield will never be forgotten — because of the man who turned a farmhouse into a nightmare.
