ed gein biography

Ed Gein Biography

Full Name: Edward Theodore Gein
Born: August 27, 1906, La Crosse County, Wisconsin, USA
Died: July 26, 1984, Mendota Mental Health Institute, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Nationality: American
Occupation: Farmer, Handyman
Known For: Murder and grave robbing

Early Life

Ed Gein was born in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, to George and Augusta Gein. His childhood was extremely isolated. His mother, a strict and religious woman, raised him and his brother Henry in a secluded farmhouse near Plainfield, Wisconsin. Augusta preached that women were evil and sinful, which deeply affected Ed’s view of the world.

He attended school irregularly and was described as a shy, quiet boy who struggled to make friends. His attachment to his mother was intense, and he obeyed her teachings without question.

Life After His Mother’s Death

After his father died in 1940 and his brother in 1944 under mysterious circumstances, Ed was left alone with his mother. When Augusta died in 1945, Ed was devastated. He boarded up the parts of the house she used, leaving them untouched, and began living in a small, filthy section of the farmhouse.

Crimes

Between 1947 and 1957, Gein lived a reclusive life, occasionally working as a handyman. In November 1957, local hardware store owner Bernice Worden disappeared, and police found evidence linking Gein to her disappearance. When authorities searched his farmhouse, they uncovered horrifying discoveries — human body parts, furniture, and clothing made from human skin and bones.

Gein admitted to robbing graves to collect body parts and confessed to killing Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan, a tavern owner who had gone missing years earlier.

Arrest and Trial

Ed Gein was arrested in 1957 and declared mentally unfit for trial. He was sent to a state mental institution, where he remained for over a decade. In 1968, he was deemed competent and stood trial, but he was found guilty by reason of insanity and returned to a psychiatric hospital for life.

Death

Ed Gein died of respiratory and heart failure due to cancer on July 26, 1984, at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin.

Legacy

Gein’s gruesome crimes shocked the world and inspired several famous horror films and characters, including:

• Norman Bates in Psycho (1960)
• Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
• Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Despite committing only two confirmed murders, Ed Gein became one of the most infamous figures in American crime history, symbolizing the horrors hidden behind rural isolation and psychological trauma.