2. A serial killer is someone who kills multiple people, usually at random for psychological reasons Serial killers usually have a period of time between their killings, and have sexual parts to their murders Many serial killers do it because they have social problems

3. Ed Gein was born August 27 th, 1906 in Vernon County, Wisconsin Father, George Gein, and mother Augusta Gein Gein grew up in a a family with an alcoholic dad, and verbally abusive mother Gein’s mother was rarely pleased, no matter what he or his brother Henry did She looked down upon Ed trying to make friends, which forced him to be anti- social His mother made a point to display her strong beliefs against women, and dealing with them at a young age She told her boys that sex was only for birth giving, and that women were basically the devil This upbringing explains a lot about how Gein later went about his killing business His father died when Ed was young, and brother also died later on due to a fire incident, that Ed was suspected of being involved in Gein was left lonely in his house in 1945 when his mother died, as her hard preaching against social skills made him friendless

4. Ed Gein worked handy worker jobs, but also had a strange liking to the job of babysitting He lived alone on his farm after his mom died when he was 39 He was not known growing up as a bad kid, people did think he was a little odd though He abandoned his farm house and worked multiple random jobs in his town He kept his mom’s room untouched, just the way it was when she died As time went on, he developed a fetish for human anatomy, particularly the female one He also showed an interest in how it would feel to be a woman His sheltered upbringing by his mom probably contributed to this fetish

5. Gein’s obsession with the anatomy turned into a reality, as he went so far as to dig up corpses from the ground and examine them Grave robbing became a big part of his life, and he visited it quite often to get bodies to examine He would dissect the bodies and save some of the parts, mainly the female genitals He also saved the skin of these bodies and used it for different things around his house like lampshades, belts, curtains One thing he became very famous for was taking the skin off of these bodies and putting the face on his own It was not until his house was searched by investigators as he was suspected for a missing person that all of this became known

6. Nov. 16, 1957 – Gein’s house was searched by detectives after he was suspected in a missing person case There the investigators found what they were looking for, as they discovered the corpse of Bernice Worden, who worked at a hardware store The corpse was hung upside down, gutted, and decapitated Gein killed Worden by gunshot, and then proceeded to dissect her after death It was after this discovery that the detectives kept searching and found all of the skin that Ed Gein had saved and put to use in his house He was eventually arrested and put to trial In interrogation, Gein admitted to another murder of a woman named Mary Hogan who went missing 3 years prior Her death was also caused by shooting It is estimated that Gein killed at least 2 women, but could have killed as many as 7, largely due to the amount of skin found in his house, and number of missing women in his area from 1947-1957 Both women he admitted to killing were shot in the head on his farm

7. Some of the things that were found at Gein’s house were: – A belt made of nipples – A full body suit made of women’s skin, that Gein admitted to wearing – A numerous amount of women’s faces that he had taken off – Half skulls that he used as bowls for soup – An estimation of about 15 bodies worth of skin in his house used for different things – Skulls on his four bed posts

8. Ed Gein did admit that he wanted a sex change, which explains his suit that he liked to wear He admitted to killing both Hogan and Worden, with no reason why, other than they were middle-aged women like the people he dug from graves He admitted to robbing multiple graves and taking the skin from the corpses He denied having involvement with other missing women that the investigators asked about He was first thought to be unfit to go on trial when arrested, as doctors thought him insane He went to a mental institution until later on he was declared fit to go on trial After a week, Ed Gein was found guilty of his first degree murder charge in 1968 Obviously what was found at his house and his admitting to the killings were the evidence used to prove him guilty Gein was diagnosed as being legally insane, so instead of going to prison, he went a mental institute where he died in 1984 of cancer

9. Gein’s nasty killings inspired many famous movies in popular culture today The characters of Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs were both thought to be inspired by Ed Gein Obviously he inspired these characters as both wore the skin of other people Ed Gein’s killings and dissecting of numerous people left a lasting mark on the country, one that will never be forgotten

10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gein http://www.houseofhorrors.com/gein.htm http://www.globalpolitician.com/21194-crime http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_killer Google image search for Leatherface, Ed Gein, and Silence of the Lambs