The Butcher of Plainfield

Edward Theodore Gein- Also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American convicted murderer and body snatcher. Gein's crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety in 1957 after authorities discovered he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. Gein also confessed to killing two women: tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957. Gein was initially found unfit to stand trial and confined to a mental health facility. By 1968, he was judged competent to stand trial; he was found guilty of the murder of Worden, but he was found legally insane and was remanded to a psychiatric institution. He died at Mendota Mental Health Institute of respiratory failure, on July 26, 1984, aged 77. He is buried next to his family in the Plainfield Cemetery, in a now-unmarked grave. When questioned, Gein told investigators that between 1947 and 1952, he made as many as 40 nocturnal visits to three local graveyards to exhume recently buried bodies while he was in a "daze-like" state. On about 30 of those visits, he said he came out of the daze while in the cemetery, left the grave in good order, and returned home empty-handed. On the other occasions, he dug up the graves of recently buried middle-aged women he thought resembled his mother and took the bodies home, where he tanned their skins to make his paraphernalia. Soon after his mother's death, Gein began to create a "woman suit" so that "he could become his mother—to literally crawl into her skin". Gein denied having sex with the bodies he exhumed, explaining: "They smelled too bad." During state crime laboratory interrogation, Gein also admitted to the shooting death of Mary Hogan, a tavern owner missing since 1954 whose head was found in his house, but he later denied memory of details of her death. On November 21, 1957, Gein was arraigned on one count of first degree murder in Waushara County Court, where he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Gein was diagnosed with schizophrenia and found mentally incompetent, thus unfit for trial. He was sent to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Gein's 1949 Ford sedan, which he used to haul the bodies of his victims, was sold at public auction for $760 (equivalent to $6,700 in 2019) to carnival sideshow operator Bunny Gibbons. Gibbons charged carnival-goers 25¢ admission to see it. 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.

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  Ed Gein

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  The farmhouse at Plainfield, Wisconsin, where sheriff's officers found Ed Gein's macabre collection of human flesh trophies.

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  The filthy, cluttered bedroom of Ed Gein. Gein boarded up rooms used by his mother, leaving them untouched and pristine as the rest of the house became increasingly squalid.

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  Gein crafted a human skull bowl.

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  Ed Gein is led away by Sheriff Arthur Schley at Plainfield, after the discovery of his depraved obsession inside the farmhouse.

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  Human skin work gloves made by Gein.

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  Serial killer Ed Gein (right) and his mother Augusta Wilhelmine Gein, who died 12 years before his macabre acts were uncovered.

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  Gein's ghastly objects included human face masks and cutlery made from arm bones.

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  Gein upholstered his chair in human skin.

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  Hardware store owner Bernice Worden's body was found decapitated and strung up like a deer in Gein's shed.

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  Unidentified police officer examines the junk-littered kitchen.

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  Trooper Dave Sharkey looks over some of the musical instruments found in the home of Ed Gein.

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  Police investigators digging for evidence in Gein’s garage

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  Ed Gein’s neighbor, Bob Hill, looks on in horror while standing in the interior doorway of Gein’s house.

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  Curiosity seekers peering into kitchen window at Ed Gein’s house.

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  Ed Gein’s filthy and cluttered kitchen where investigators discovered body parts of his victims.

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  Ed Gein’s beloved mother’s room remained neat, uncluttered and unused after her death in stark contrast to filthy, cluttered rooms in rest of the house, where parts of his victim’s bodies were found.

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  Crime lab specialist Jim Halligan carries a chair through a doorway as he searches for evidence in the disorganized home of Ed Gein.

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  Police investigators move a car as they search for evidence in Gein’s garage.

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  Bernice Worden's body