Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the Emmy-winning series created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, premieres its third season on Friday. This new installment turns its focus to Ed Gein (played by Charlie Hunnam). The infamous serial killer sent shockwaves through 1950s America when his gruesome crimes were discovered. And for those unfamiliar with Gein or the atrocities he committed, buckle up -- this one's a doozy.
Gein was a murderer and body snatcher with an unhealthy obsession with his mother and the female anatomy. You may not know his name, but you've almost certainly felt his cultural impact -- his crimes inspired horror classics like Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs.
Gein gained media attention in 1957 after a hardware store employee named Bernice Worden went missing. Gein had been seen in the shop buying antifreeze before she disappeared. A trail of blood led out the back door, and the cash register was missing. Suspicion quickly turned to him, and his arrest led police to search Gein's home -- where they uncovered a jaw-dropping array of grotesqueries.
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Ed Gein (right) stands with his attorney, William Belter, at the Wabsara County Court in Wisconsin. Bettmann Archive/Getty Image
A house of horrors
In Gein's shed, they found Worden's headless body, disemboweled like a deer and hanging upside down from the ceiling. The rest of his home was populated with all sorts of gruesome stuff: human skulls he had used as soup bowls, preserved noses and lips, jars filled with organs, furniture upholstered with the skin of his victims, a belt made from human nipples, a "woman suit" made of skin and so on.
When Gein was interrogated, he admitted to Worden's murder as well as the 1954 killing of Mary Hogan, the owner of a tavern that Gein frequented. Gein used a gun to kill both women and targeted them because they resembled his mother, who had passed away the previous decade.
He was also a grave robber, digging up more than 40 corpses between 1947 and his arrest. He mutilated the bodies, committed necrophilic acts and fashioned clothing from their skin -- including masks made from human faces, earning him the nicknames "The Butcher of Plainfield" and "The Plainfield Ghoul."
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