2
8
88c
369
934

was  hit  by  a  stroke  and  became
bedridden.   Ed nursed, attended and
washed  her, but before the year was
over  she  died.   Ed  was  suddenly
alone in the world.

He  locked  up his mother's room and
gave   up   running   the  farm.   A
garden-spot    supplied   him   with
vegetables   and   fruit,   and   in
addition  he  often took a small-job
somewhere  in Plainsfield.  He lived
in  his  own  world, caring about no
one and no one caring about him.

In  his teenages Ed wanted to become
a  doctor,  but he had to reject it.
Now  he  developed  an  interest for
stuffing.   He ordered the necessary
equipment  and  read  everything  he
could  find  about  the  anatomy  of
animals and humans.  But he couldn't
stand  slaughter  and  blood,  so he
never   did  any  stuffing  for  the
district's hunters and fishers.


ÊÌSLAUGHTERHOUSEÈË

The  discoveries  in Ed Gein's house
showed  that  he had used his skills
well.     After   the   state-police
arrived  at  Gein's  farm, the first
reporters  came.   One of the first,
Lloyd  Beining,  told  later É"When I
arrived, the place was crawling with
state-policemen       and      local
police-officers.   They  looked like
they  all  were  in  shock, and this
were   boys   that   were   used  to
hunting-accidents                and
highway-tragedies.     They    stood
silent  in  little groups and waited
for  the  medical-experts.   I asked
for  permission  to enter the house,
and  one of them said "Take a look".
I  went  in,  rushed  out  again and
throwed   up.    The  policemen  had
discovered human-bones in the cellar
and  about 30 strawberry-jars filled
with  blood.  Some of them were from
humans,  but  most of them were from
animals.   On  the first floor there
were   jars  with  kidneys,  levers,
bellies, guts and stuff.  Everything
were  from  humans  and  restored in
formalin.   I've got pictures of the
whole  thing...  Next to the body of
Bernice  Worden,  the  things at the
kitchen   were   the   worst.    The
death-masks  were  bad, but in a cup
on  the  cooker they found something
they identified as a human heart..."
ËÈ
Under  the  interrogations Gein said
that  he  "knew  something".  He was
uncertain  whether  or  not  he  had
killed   Bernice   Worden,   but  he
admitted that he had hung her up and
"unskinned" her.  On the question if
he  had  killed  the other people he
answered:  É"If you say so"È.
ÊÌCLOSER TO YOU, MY MOTHERÈË

On the bureau in Gein's bedroom laid
a  bracelet  made of human-skin, and
several  skin-strips were hanging on
the   wall.   Some  lamp-shades  and
seats  were  nicely  cut  and  sewed
together   -   by  human-skin.   Two
skulls  were sawn off just above the
eye-holes,    probably    used    as
soup-plates.   In  the closet hung a
skin-vest  belonging to a jacket and
a  pair  of  trousers.   The clothes
looked   like   they  were  made  by
deer-skin,  but  they  were  in fact
made  by  human-skin.   The vest was
made  by  the skin of a female-chest
with  the  breast intact.  When Gein
wore   this   macabre   costume,  he
imagined  himself  that  he  was his
mother.    Wearing   this   and  his
mother's  clothes  he  talked to his
mother  every  night.  É "We had long
chats.   I  miss  her so."È, he told,
É"In  moments  like that I sat inside
in her rocking-chair."È


ÊÌGRAVE-DIGGINGÈË

At  the  end, Gein confessed killing
Mary  Hogan and Bernice Worden.  The
other  bodies  he  had dug up at the
cemetery  in the period from 1946 to
1952.    He  started  this  activity
right  after his mother's death.  He
had visited her grave day and night,
and he had raved about waking her up
again.    He  started  to  read  the
obituaries.   In  the little town of
Plainsfield he knew everybody.  When
he  read  the  name  of  a woman who
reminded  him  of  his mother in age
and  body,  he  went to the cemetery
the  night after the funeral and dug
the body up.

After  ending  the  gravedigging two
years  later, Gein visited a cafe in
Pine  River  to take a beer.  At the
cafe  he met the keeper, Mary Hogan,
which  reminded him very much of his
mother.   Later  that  night he went
back and shot her.  He took the body
with    him    to    use    it   for
"experiments".  Gein claimed that he
kept  some body-parts and burned the
rest,   but   the   police  and  the
psychiatrists  didn't  believe  him.
They meant that at this stage he was
both necro-sexual and cannibalistic.
When  Gein  was asked if he used the
bodies  for  sex,  he shook his head
and   shouted:    É"No,  no  !   They
smelled to bad !".È

It  would  go  three years before he
again  killed a woman.  This time he
forgot  to clear his tracks, and the
half-written   receipt   became  his
destiny.   11  years  after starting

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