A young blond woman undresses and gets into the shower only to be attacked by a killer who shoots her point blank. The motive is that he requires her skin to make a dress for himself. Sounds bizarre? That’s Ed Gein, the killer from Wisconsin, who used human skin and organs to make furniture, dresses and ornaments. He had a fetish to dress like a woman and it is not known whether he was a transvestite.
Born in Wisconsin in August 1906, his father was an alcoholic farmer. His mother Augusta, ran a small grocery store to keep the home fires burning. His elder brother Henry and he, had a very strictly upbringing. Augusta was a major influence on the boys and she never allowed them to interact with neighbors or friends in school. She bought a farm in a remote place and brought up her boys in strict religious discipline. She believed that sex was sin and should be used only for procreating and not for pleasure. She once hit Ed for masturbating in his bath tub.
By 1940 his father died due to excess drinking and Augusta was relieved. Henry opposed his mother’s views and was bad mouthing her, which apparently angered Ed. Henry died in a fire at the farm. Ed took the police and firemen exactly to the place where his brother lay dead, though he had earlier told them that his brother was missing. It was only Ed and his mother for a while and he seemed to be happy working on the farm with her.
In 1945, Augusta died of stroke, leaving Ed completely shattered. While she was sick, Ed tended to her but she always scolded him and called him names. At other times she asked him to get into bed with her and she use to comfort him. This confused Ed and he felt that he could never face the world without her.
Ed used to visit a local tavern and talk about Nazi atrocities and World War II. His jokes were in poor taste. When the tavern owner disappeared, Ed joked that he had her in his bedroom. Nobody took notice of it. Later, some village kids who had peeped into his house, said that they had seen a shrunken head and many other human parts, but nobody took it seriously.On November 16th 1957, Bernice Worden disappeared from her shop leaving the door ajar. Her son Frank saw a trail of blood near the back door and a receipt in the name of Ed Gein near the blood.
He alerted the Police and they reached Ed’s house. What they saw shocked and made the officers sick. Bernice was hanging by her heels and butchered like a lamb at the slaughter house.
The cops called enforcement agents who searched the house and to their horror found human remains carved like soup bowls, lips strung together like a necklace , female clothing and lamp shades made out of human flesh.
The local Sheriff said that in all, body parts of fifteen females were found in his house. He exhumed the bodies from the grave and took out the parts. His farm house came to be known as the “house of horrors”. Harold Schechter died at the age of 43 due to heart attack, just a few weeks before Ed Gein’s trial. This leading expert on serial killers wrote a book on Ed Gein and was believed to be traumatized by the story .
Three films were made about his life, the latest being “Silence of the lambs.” He died in prison on July 26th 1984, due to respiratory illness. This horror man who shook America with his fetish for human flesh is a real American psycho whose presence can never be forgotten by the natives of Wisconsin.
By Carlos Cabezas López
Original Source Article : http://www.casoabierto.com/Cronica-Negra/Cronica-Negra-Internacional/Edgeinenglishversion.html
