The Bone-Chilling True Story Behind Netflix’s ‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’

The next installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster anthology has arrived on Netflix. After covering Milwaukee cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer and the infamous Menendez brothers, the series now turns to one of the most infamous killers in American history: Ed Gein.

Gein, whose gruesome killings inspired the horror films like Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, stalked the frozen fields of rural Wisconsin, killing and mutilating women and stealing body parts from graves to use in the most disturbing ways.

Charlie Hunnam lost 30 pounds to portray the killer, and the Sons of Anarchy alum told People that part of preparing for the role was finding the truth behind Gein.

“We were much more interested in why Ed did what he did, rather than exploring what he did. Everybody sort of knows what he did, and it’s been chronicled in many films that he inspired and then direct adaptation to his life,” he explained.

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Hunnam also shared that he dug deeper into the killer’s relationship with his mother, who “told him every day of his life that she hated him because he wasn’t born the girl, the daughter that she always wanted.”

He continued, “Imagining what the consequence of that would be when she was the only person he had a relationship with… That really informed the voice work that we did and how he would interact with his mother and the world, which was really trying to really be the daughter that she wanted.”

As you watch all eight episodes of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, keep reading to learn who Ed Gein was, the horrendous crimes he committed and what happened to him after he was caught — including his trial and the end of his life.

Who Was Ed Gein?

Serial killer Ed Gein (born Edward Theodore Gein), dubbed the “Butcher of Plainfield,” was born on August 27, 1906, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He was the second son of George and Augusta Gein and the younger brother of Henry Gein.

In 1914, the Gein family relocated to a 195-acre farm in rural Plainfield. Gein’s childhood home lacked both electricity and plumbing. His controlling mother deliberately instilled in him a hatred of women. A devout Christian, she often read her sons the story of Noah’s Ark, warning that another flood would come to wash away women’s sins, according to TIME.

As a result, Ed and Henry avoided dating or socializing with other children outside of school, instead spending their time completing chores around the farm. Ed was also bullied in school for having a lazy eye.

Carole Lieberman, a forensic psychiatrist, told A&E Crime + Investigation that the isolation likely caused Gein to develop an Oedipus complex, “a diagnosis of a strong emotional attachment to the parent of the opposite sex,” which would later influence his decisions as an adult to rob graves and murder two women.

Lieberman added that Gein had both a sexual and romantic attraction to his mother. “The fact that she hated her husband made her more reliant on her sons for companionship,” she said. “So, there was a part of her that was nurturing this dependency on her sons.”

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Tragedy struck the family when Ed’s father, George, died of heart failure in 1940. Four years later, his brother Henry mysteriously died in a fire near the farm. (The first episode of Monster: The Ed Gein Story shows Gein killing his brother Henry, but Gein never confessed to the crime.) Henry’s official cause of death was listed as asphyxiation leading to heart failure, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Then, in 1945, Ed’s mother suffered two strokes. He cared for her after the first, but the second proved fatal, leaving him devastated. After her death, he continued living alone on the family farm, where he began reading books about human anatomy, taxidermy, shrunken heads, cannibalism and Nazi atrocities, A&E reported.

What Did Ed Gein Do?

On Nov. 16, 1957, Frank Worden returned to his family’s hardware store after the opening day of deer hunting season to find his mother, Bernice Worden, missing. He also noticed a pool of blood on the floor and a trail leading to the store’s back door. He immediately notified the Waushara County Sheriff.

According to the Wausau Daily Herald, police suspected Ed Gein because he had a romantic interest in Bernice and asked her out to go roller-skating. Also, police discovered that the last receipt Bernice gave out was addressed to Gein for antifreeze.

Gein was arrested at a friend’s house. Meanwhile, officials went to his home to try to find Bernice. When they entered the property, they saw the headless body of Bernice hanging upside down in the attached shed. Her torso had also been cut open like a deer in the barn.

Bernice’s mutilated body wasn’t the only disturbing discovery in the house of horrors. Investigators also found a collection of human body parts, including skulls that Gein used as soup bowls, furniture made from human skin and a “woman suit” stitched together from the corpses he exhumed from graveyards, per A&E.

It was also during their search of the home that they found Mary Hogan’s facial skin, which had been turned into a mask. Hogan was a 51-year-old tavern owner in the Portage County town of Pine Grove who went missing in the early 1950s.

Did Ed Gein Confess To The Murders?

Police arrested Gein on Nov. 16, 1957, and interrogated him without the presence of an attorney, according to court documents obtained by the Wausau Daily Herald. He was also questioned by a lie detector expert from the state crime laboratory in Madison.

Gein ultimately confessed in a statement spanning more than 200 pages. He admitted to killing Worden and Hogan, as well as stealing bodies from graves. Following his arrest, he was sent to a state hospital for a mental evaluation.

What Happened At Ed Gein’s Trial?

Gein was later found unfit to stand trial due to mental illness, according to court documents, and was sent to Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Waupun.

However, ten years after his arrest, it was determined that Gein was mentally competent to stand trial, allowing court proceedings to resume. Gein waived his right to a jury trial, opting instead to have a judge decide his fate.

During the trial, Gein testified that Worden’s murder was an accident. He claimed he had gone to the hardware store to buy antifreeze but decided to look at a rifle. According to his account, the gun accidentally discharged, killing Worden, the Wausau Daily Herald reported.

Although the judge found Gein guilty of murder, he was later ruled not guilty by reason of insanity and was returned to a mental institution. Gein was never charged with the death of Hogan or with grave robbing.

What Happened To Ed Gein?

After being found not guilty by reason of insanity, Gein was sent to Central State Hospital before he was transferred to Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wis, according to A&E. He died in 1984 at age 77 from complications of lung cancer.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is streaming on Netflix. Watch the official trailer below.