HEARING SOUGHT IMMEDIATELY ON GEIN CHARGES: EVENING STAR, NOVEMBER 22, 1957

Six days after Bernice Worden's body was found in a shed on his farm, the fight was no longer over what Ed Gein had done but over whether he could be tried for it. The Evening Star in Washington ran the Associated Press report from Wautoma, Wisconsin, on November 22, 1957, the day after Gein was bound over for trial. District Attorney Earl Kileen wanted the question settled at once and had ordered him before Circuit Judge Herbert A. Bunde that same day. Gein's lawyer, William Belter, was trying to get there first, with a psychiatrist of his own from Milwaukee.

Belter's reasoning was cold and practical, and the paper lets him lay it out. If the court found Gein incompetent now and committed him, he might one day recover; then he could be brought to trial and would have to prove to a jury that he had been insane at the time of the crime. "The defense, in order to have any evidence of value in the future, must obtain it now," Belter said. Gein himself, a fifty-one-year-old bachelor the wire writer called a "mild-appearing little killer," had wept and prayed with a local minister after his court appearance the day before.

The last paragraphs set down what was known of the two women. Bernice Worden, 58, ran the hardware store in Plainfield, and he was charged with her murder and mutilation. Mary Hogan kept a tavern in Bancroft and had vanished in December 1954; Gein had admitted killing her too. The report closes on his own explanation, that both were shot on impulse because they reminded him of his mother, whom he had nursed until her death on the farm. The hearing came quickly. The next day he was sent to the state hospital at Waupun for observation, and in January 1958 Judge Bunde found him unfit for trial.

This is a wire report filed while the case was a week old, and its labels, "slayer-ghoul" and "killer," are the newspaper's, set down before any court had ruled. Gein admitted both killings, but only one was ever tried: in November 1968, after ten years in the hospital, a judge sitting without a jury found him guilty of murdering Bernice Worden and then found him insane at the time. Mary Hogan's death never came to trial. The grave robbing the paper mentions rests on his own statements; only two graves were opened, and no charge was brought. The "12 years" since his mother died is a round figure; Augusta Gein died in December 1945.

The Evening Star of November 22, 1957, was published less than ninety-five years ago. The Library of Congress, whose Chronicling America copy is the scan shown here, believes newspapers of that age are also in the public domain, while warning that they may contain some copyrighted third-party material. As far as anything on the page shows, this item is neither syndicated nor separately copyrighted. The full citation and the Library's rights statement are given under the scan.

Every word of the Gein report was legible, and the transcription follows the scan exactly. It keeps "admittetd" for admitted and the missing period at the end of the first paragraph. One mark after "sanity" could be a comma or a period in this typeface; it is read as a comma because the next word is lowercase. The crop runs on down the column through an unrelated Bakersfield murder story, a Manila item and a patent-medicine advertisement, none of which is transcribed.

Transcription

Transcribed word for word from the page scan. Original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and typographical errors have been kept exactly as printed. Unreadable words are marked [illegible]. Nothing has been modernised or corrected.

Hearing Sought Immediately on Gein Charges

WAUTOMA, Wis., Nov. 22 (AP).—The State moved for an immediate hearing of the murder charges against slayer-ghoul Edward Gein by ordering his appearance before Circuit Judge Herbert A. Bunde today

District Attorney Earl Kileen announced the plan shortly after counsel for the 51-year-old bachelor recluse who has admitted killing and butchering two women and looting other graves moved to get an independent medical opinion on Gein's sanity.

Attorney William Belter had said earlier today he would seek to have Gein examined by a Milwaukee psychiatrist before the mild-appearing little killer makes another court appearance.

Plans Now Indefinite

Just what effect the order for an immediate hearing would have on Mr. Belter's plans was conjectural.

Mr. Belter explained his move by saying, "The defense, in order to have any evidence of value in the future, must obtain it now."

Mr. Belter said he planned to obtain the private opinion on Gein's sanity, because in the event the court commits the prisoner now, on the grounds that he is presently incompetent to stand trial, he might later re-establish his sanity. Under those circumstances, he could be ordered to trial and then would have to prove to a jury's satisfaction that he was insane at the time of the crime.

"The important question is whether Ed Gein is insane now—not three, five or 10 years from now," Mr. Belter said.

Minister Visits

Gein, who was bound over for trial yesterday, wept and prayed with a local minister after his court appearance.

Gein is charged specifically with murder and mutilation last Saturday of Mrs. Bernice Worden, 58, hardware store operator in Plainfield.

He also has admittetd slaying and butchering Mrs. Mary Hogan in December, 1954. Mrs. Hogan operated a tavern in Bancroft.

Gein said Mrs. Worden and Mrs. Hogan were shot to death on impulse when it occurred to him they reminded him of his paralyzed mother, whom he had nursed until she died at their secluded farm home 12 years ago.

Transcriber's notes

- Readability: Excellent. This is a clean, high-contrast scan of a large-bodied type face; every word of the article was legible and no [illegible] markers were needed. The only mild difficulty is that in this face a comma and a full point are near-identical at the baseline, which affects one judgement noted below.

- Printers' errors kept as printed: "He also has **admittetd** slaying and butchering Mrs. Mary Hogan" — the paper sets "admittetd" for "admitted". Also the opening paragraph ends without any point: "before Circuit Judge Herbert A. Bunde today" is printed with no full stop before the new paragraph begins, and that missing stop has been preserved.

- Punctuation judgement: in "obtain the private opinion on Gein's sanity, because in the event the court commits…" the mark after "sanity" is a low baseline dot that could be read as either a comma or a full point. It has been transcribed as a comma, since the following word "because" is set in lower case and the sentence continues.

- The Associated Press credit is printed with the AP logotype inside the parentheses rather than plain letters; it has been transcribed as "(AP)".

- Extent of the article: the piece ends at "…secluded farm home 12 years ago." part-way down the fifth tile (c1_002960.png), where a column rule closes it off. The four tiles that follow (c1_003700.png through c1_005920.png) contain wholly unrelated matter from further down the same column — an Associated Press story headlined "Escapee Held For 2 Slayings" (Frank Edward Wetzel, Bakersfield, Calif.), then "Dollar Reserve Level Critical in Philippines" (Manila), then a BELL-ANS patent-medicine advertisement. None of that is part of the Gein story and none of it has been transcribed. The Gein article does not carry a jump line and does not continue on another page.

- Factual note, offered neutrally and with no change made to the transcription: the paper's particulars agree with the accepted record — Gein was 51 in November 1957, Bernice Worden was 58 and kept the Plainfield hardware store, and Mary Hogan, the Bancroft tavern keeper, vanished in December 1954. The paper's "12 years ago" for the mother's death is a round approximation; Augusta Gein died in December 1945, not quite twelve years before this report.