Serial Killer Ed Gein (Butcher of Plainfield) Documentary

Ed Gein, in full Edward Theodore Gein, also called the Butcher of Plainfield, (born August 27, 1906, Plainfield, Wisconsin, U.S.—died July 26, 1984, Madison, Wisconsin), American serial killer whose gruesome crimes gained worldwide notoriety and inspired numerous books and horror films.

Gein endured a difficult childhood. His father was an alcoholic, and his mother was verbally abusive toward him. Gein nevertheless idolized her, a fact that apparently concerned his elder brother Henry, who occasionally confronted her in Gein’s presence. In 1944 Henry died in mysterious circumstances during a fire near the family’s farm in Plainfield. Although Gein reported his brother missing to the police, he was able to lead them directly to the burned body when they arrived. Despite bruises discovered on the victim’s head, the death was ruled an accident. The death of Gein’s mother in 1945 left him a virtual hermit. In subsequent years, Gein cordoned off the areas of the house that his mother had used most frequently, preserving them as something of a shrine.

Gein attracted the attention of the police in 1957, when a hardware store owner named Bernice Worden went missing. Gein had been seen with her shortly before her disappearance, and, when law enforcement officials visited his farm, they found her body. She had been fatally shot and decapitated. Subsequent examinations of his home showed that he had systematically robbed graves and collected body parts, which he used to make household items, clothing, and masks. Also discovered on the property was the head of Mary Hogan, a tavern operator who had disappeared in 1954. In 1958 Gein’s “house of horrors” was destroyed by fire, the origins of which remain unclear.