A.K.A. The Plainfield Ghoul

EDDY GEIN

CHILDHOOD• Lived in a very rural section of Plainfield, Wisconsin on a two hundred acre farm.

• Mother was biblical to the extreme: Women were “loose” and sinful, world is full of sins, etc. Her goal was to keep her boys from any “desires” they may have. She feared that they would end up in hell.

• Was not allowed to make friends.

• As a result, when he was a teenager, he could better relate to small children than to his peers or brother.

• Created an unnatural attachment to his mother.

• He did well in school, especially in English, he read a lot of books and comics, like adventures and anatomy based stories.

ADULT LIFE• Henry noticed the odd relationship between mother and son and confronted it in front of

Eddy. Later, Eddy called the police because Henry was “nowhere to be found” after they had fought a brush fire. Eddy was able to lead them straight to the body.

• Father died of a heart attack not that anyone cared. The mother made him seem like a good for nothing drunkard and was going to be sent to Hell.

• His mother died after a few strokes, so he was left completely alone on the farm.

• He boarded up her room and parlor exactly as she had left it, sort of

like a shrine to her.

• He never married, or had any children nor did he try to form any

relationships.

MOTIVE

• He had a love-hate relationship with his mother so that is what led him to killing older women. She, in “protecting” him from the sins of the world, created a monster.

METHODS• Shot the women with a .22 caliber rifle.

• Decapitate them, hang them in his shed and gut them like deer.

• Skin them and store their organs.

• He claims he was in a “clouded” state when he robbed the graves and killed.

VICTIMS

• Women in their fifty’s and owned local businesses .

• Gein was only convicted for two killings because of lack of evidence, Mary Hogan and Bernice C. Worden.

• He also robbed women’s graves from local cemeteries.

• Some victims police believe he murdered include:

• Henry Gein (Brother)

• Georgia Weckler (8 yr. old girl in 1947)

• Ray Burgess and Victor Travis & their 3 dogs in 1952

• Evelyn Hartley (15 yr. old girl in 1953)

CAPTURE• Arrested on November 17, 1957.

• The police found:

• Noses and bones

• Masks, suits, lampshade and chairs of human skin

• Bowels made of skulls

• Female heads with the tops cut off and in bags and as bed posts

• Organs in the fridge

• Lips for a window shade drawstring

• Mary Hogan’s & Bernice Worden’s heads were in bags.

• Parts from at least fifteen different bodies.

SENTENCING

• He was sentenced to life in prison.

• He was sent to Waupun State Hospital after his trial because he was found to be insane in 1968.

• He died at the age of seventy-eight of cancer in that mental hospital.

WHY SERIAL KILLERS ARE SO HARD TO SPOT…• They act like normal, sane people, they know how to blend in.

• They can be anywhere and everywhere.

• Ex. The Zodiac Killer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, etc.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR TYPES OF SERIAL KILLER CRIMES SCENES• Organized :

• Plans killing, hides/moves body, submissive victim, lack of weapon/evidence, restraints, violent, criminal has “control” of crime scene.

• Disorganized:

• Body was not moved from crime scene, killing was not planned, victim is dehumanized, body left in the open, crime scene was messy, murder was quick.

• Mixed:

• Has characteristics of both Organized and Disorganized scenes, may have two criminals, crime scene may be staged, criminal may have been interrupted.

• Atypical:

• Remains have decomposed, scene can’t be “classified”, need to use databases to find other scenes that are similar.

SURPRISING INFO.• Some of the things I found, I would have never even considered of occurring.

• Necrophilia is an attraction to corpses.

• That his story influenced so many movies (Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, Deranged, In the Light of the Moon), books, and music (Slayer “Nothing to Gein”).

REFERENCES• http://serialkillr.tripod.com/SerialKillersExposed/crimescenes.html

• http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/tick/1b.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_To_Gein

• http://murderpedia.org/male.G/g/gein-edward.htm

• www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/

• www.crimelibrary.com