By Vanessa West
Joseph Conrad wrote, "Belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness." He could have been describing Ed Gein.
Gein, a sometime farmer, was arrested in 1957 in his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin. While investigating the disappearance of a local shopkeeper,Bernice Worden, police found a treasure trove of the grotesque in Gein's home. Along with the decapitated, eviscerated body of Worden, authorities discovered several 'death masks' - the faces of women with scalps intact; a box containing female genitalia; severed heads; household items made from human remains; and perhaps most horrifically, the tanned torso of a woman, which Gein would later confess to wearing. The little man, often described as odd, quiet and "good with children," was arrested, judged mentally incompetent, and sent to Central State Hospital in Waupan, Wisconsin.
Gein would spend most of the following decade in Central State, until the facility was converted into a prison. He was then sent to Mendota State Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. Despite a diagnosis of schizophrenia, Gein was found competent to stand trial in 1968. A two hundred page confession was thrown out by Judge Robert Gollmar, who citied the defendant's precarious mental state. Gein was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Gein's demeanor at Mendota was alternatively described as quiet, unobtrusive and blatantly lewd. While his lawyer, Dominic Frinzi, described him as "soft spoken", hospital nurses remembered him as freely describing sexual acts. In 1974, Gein petitioned the court for re-examination and release. An evaluation by Dr. Thomas J. Malueg reads, "Mr. Gein has little insight concerning the possibility that society will remember him and his notoriety, and may continue to respond to him in ways that could be anxiety provoking. He feels that everyone has forgotten him and that he will be able to simply walk away from harassment should it occur.
He has some unrealistic plans about going to Australia ... although he is not certain about how to arrange his travel plans."
The petition for release proved futile, and Gein spent the remaining ten years of his life in Mendota's Goodland Hall. On July 26, 1984 he died of respiratory and heart failure brought on by cancer. Gein was buried in Plainfield's cemetery next to his mother. Souvenir seekers chipped away pieces of his gravestone until it was eventually stolen completely. The recovered stone is now housed in a Wautoma, Wisconsin museum.
Ed Gein's story lives on to this day, more than fifty years after his house of horrors was discovered. He has been made infamous in film, providing the basis for the character of Norman Bates in iPsycho/i and Buffalo Bill in iThe Silence of the Lambs/i. Many muscians have written songs about Gein, used his name in their stage persona, or simply named their band after him. He is inescapable in the lore of the macabre.
Despite media attention in the form of countless songs, books, films, and television programs, we are still no closer to understanding what caused Ed Gein to commit his horrific crimes. Perhaps he said it best, when he stated simply, chillingly, "I had a compulsion to do it."