Serial Killer Ed Gein, the real Hannibal Lecter

Movie characters like Norman Bates (Psycho), Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and Jame Gumb (The Silence of the Lambs) are probably characters we don't want to meet in real-life. Ironically, these characters are based on the American murderer Ed Gein who lived in Plainfield, Wisconsin.


Afther Ed's father died of a heart attack in 1940, he and his brother began working odd jobs to help pay the bills. On May 16, 1944 his brother Henry decided to burn off a marsh on the property. The burn off escaped control, and the local fire department was called to extinguish the fire and protect the family farm from flames. At day's end, with the fire under control, the men returned to their homes when they learned that Henry had not come in with the others. Several hours after te search began, they found the dead body of Henry. It appeared that his death was the result of a heart attack. After the death of his brother, Gein lived alone with his mother, who died on December 29, 1945. Ed Gein remained on the farm, supporting himself with earnings from odd jobs. He boarded up rooms used by his mother, including the upstairs, downstairs parlor, and living room, leaving them untouched. Gein himself lived in a small room next to the kitchen.

On November 16, 1957, Plainfield hardware store owner Bernice Worden disappeared and police had reason to suspect Gein. Worden's son had told the investigators that Gein had been in the store the evening before the disappearance, saying he would return the following morning for a gallon of anti-freeze. Investigators discovered Worden's decapitated body in a shed on Gein's property. Searching the house, authorities found also:

1. Four noses
2. Whole human bones and fragments
3. Nine masks of human skin
4. Bowls made from human skulls
5. Ten female heads with the tops sawn off
6. Human skin covering several chair seats
7. Bernice Worden's head in a burlap sack
8. Skulls on his bedpost
9. A pair of lips on a draw string for a window-shade
10. A lampshade made from the skin from a human face

Gein was found guilty of first-degree murder, but because he was found to be legally insane, he spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital. On July 26, 1984, Gein died of respiratory and heart failure at the age of 77 in Stovall Hall at the Mendota Mental Health Institution.