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Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield

Edward Gein (1906-1984), known as the Butcher of Plainfield, was an American murderer and body snatcher from Wisconsin. He was raised by his domineering, abusive mother in isolation on their farm. After the deaths of his father and brother, he was left alone with his mother until her death in 1945. In 1954 and 1957, Gein murdered two women. When police searched his farmhouse in 1957, they found he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and decorations from human body parts, including masks, bowls made from skulls, and a belt made from human nipples. Gein died in a mental institution in 1984. Famous film characters

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86 views

Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield

Edward Gein (1906-1984), known as the Butcher of Plainfield, was an American murderer and body snatcher from Wisconsin. He was raised by his domineering, abusive mother in isolation on their farm. After the deaths of his father and brother, he was left alone with his mother until her death in 1945. In 1954 and 1957, Gein murdered two women. When police searched his farmhouse in 1957, they found he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and decorations from human body parts, including masks, bowls made from skulls, and a belt made from human nipples. Gein died in a mental institution in 1984. Famous film characters

Uploaded by

nanoninano
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ED GEIN

The butcher of Plainfield


WHO IS HE?
• Edward Gein (1906–1984) was born on August 27, 1906, in La
Crosse County, Wisconsin, also known as the Butcher of
Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer
and body snatcher. He was the second child of George and
Augusta Gein.
CHILDHOOD
• Gein’s mother Augusta was the main
breadwinner and absolute matriarch of the Gein
household. A fervent Lutheran, she was
thoroughly disgusted with sex and tried to
convince her children that all women were
prostitutes and instruments of the devil.
However, she was “not as strong” in her
opposition to masturbation.
• Edward was shy, and classmates and teachers remembered him as
having strange mannerisms, such as seemingly random laughter, as if
he were laughing at his own personal jokes. To make matters worse,
his mother punished him whenever he tried to make friends. Despite
his poor social development, he did fairly well in school, particularly
in reading.
GRADUAL DEATH OF GEIN’S FAMILY MEMBERS
During a short period of 6 years, from 1940 till 1945, Ed gradually lost
all his three family members, which left him completely alone.
 The first to die was Ed’s father
George, who died of a heart attack in  On December 29, 1945, she died, at
April 1940. which time Gein “lost his only friend
 Ed’s elder brother Henry died under and one true love. And he was
suspicious circumstances during a absolutely alone in the world.”
brush fire on May 16, 1944.
CRIMES
MURDERS
December 8, 1954, Mary November 16, 1957, Bernice
Hogan. Worden.
OTHER CRIMES
• He haunted three local cemeteries between 1947 and 1954 and
opened an estimated 40 graves. The object was to steal dead
bodies or sometimes simply some bits and pieces from the
corpses.
SEARCHING THE HOUSE, AUTHORITIES FOUND
• Whole human bones and fragments.
• A wastebasket made of human skin.
• Human skin covering several chair seats.
• Skulls on his bedposts.
• Female skulls, some with the tops sawn off.
• Bowls made from human skulls.
• A corset made from a female torso skinned from shoulders to
waist.
• Leggings made from human leg skin.
• Masks made from the skin of female heads.
• Mary Hogan's face mask in a paper bag.
• Mary Hogan's skull in a box.
• Bernice Worden's entire head in a burlap sack.
• Bernice Worden's heart “in a plastic bag in front of Gein's potbellied
stove”.
• Nine vulvas in a shoe box.
• A young girl's dress and "the vulvas of two females judged to have
been about fifteen years old“.
• A belt made from female human nipples.
• Four noses.
• A pair of lips on a window shade drawstring.
• A lampshade made from the skin of a human face.
• Fingernails from female fingers.
These artifacts were photographed at the state crime laboratory
and then destroyed
DEATH
Gein died at the Mendota Mental
Health Institute due to respiratory
failure secondary to lung cancer on
July 26, 1984, at the age of 77.
FILM CHARACTERS BASED ON ED GEIN
Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), Leatherface in The Texas Chain
Saw Massacre (1974), and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs
(1991) were all based on Ed Gein.

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