Ed Gein was born at the turn of the century in a small farming community in Wisconsin. Even when he was a young man, the townspeople found him strange: "Weird old Eddie", as the local community know him, had begun to develop a deeply unhealthy interest in the intimate anatomy of the female body "- (Anon. 2004 1). Many criminal historians consider him one of the most famous of American killers, although his name is now well known. He is said to be the inspiration for the movie, Psycho. He spent time opening graves in Wisconsin cemeteries, and then began his murder spree in the Nineteen Fifties, mostly choosing and killing middle aged or elderly women at first in and around his home town. However, his brother disappeared, and so did another local man and his male companion. No bodies were ever found, but at the trial the suspicion that Gein murdered them helped convict him. Like some other serial killers, there was some doubt about his masculinity, and he seemed to use that as a weapon for a murder spree.
He was finally hunted down by local sheriffs when blood was found on the floor of Gein's latest victim, and the bloody trail led outside to where a truck had been parked. Deputies traced the truck to Gein's home, and "found the gutted body of his last victim hanging from the rafters in his shed" Anon 2004 1), and other dismembered female body parts. Gein was found innocent by reason of insanity, and died in a mental institution in 1984.
WORKS REFERENCED:
No author listed: "Ed Gein the Real American Psycho"
No author listed (2004): "Ed Gein"
www.carpenoctem.tv/killers/gein.html -
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