Analysis of Ed Gein

Before authorities apprehended him for his sickening crimes, Ed Gein was a son and a brother. One can begin to understand the reason for Gein’s gruesome misdemeanors with a brief read on his family life as this outwardly quite yet eventful life came to be, in reality, the major factor that contributed to his insanity.

Early Life

 In La Crosse, Wisconsin on August 26, 1907, Augusta Gein gave birth to Edward Theodore Gein. Along with his parents, Gein also had his older brother, Henry Gein. Augusta’s idea of being a mother was highly influenced by her religion and perception of men being vile and unmannered creatures. By enforcing strict values on the two brothers, especially Gein, she hoped that they would grow to be better men than their father. ­Gein’s father, George Gein, suffered from severe alcoholism and lacked the skills and resolve to be a father to his two sons. His dysfunctionality as a leading figure in the household angered Augusta and caused her to take his place; however, she avoided divorce due to her puritanical beliefs. Despite their difficult parents, Henry grew up to be a sensible yet isolated boy who often argued with their mother about her superfluous teachings. On the contrary, Gein honored and idealized Augusta, allowing her to shape him into the “perfect” son through puritanical influence of values and ideals. (Jenkins, 2018). In 1914, after Augusta saved up some money, they moved and settled on a 195-acre farm at Plainfield, Wisconsin, a remote lot in which Augusta’s religious teachings flourished and fully enveloped the young mind of Ed Gein. Afraid of the harmful influence others will potentially bring on her sons, allowing them out of their property, besides going to school, wasn’t an option. Because of this, Gein became the target of bullying and made no friends.

The Deceased

 In 1940, Gein’s father unsurprisingly died of heart attack, but the two brothers, now grown, remained in the farm with their mother and worked odd jobs or as handymen around the town. Though they were independent adults, Augusta did not spare them from her conservatism, in fact, their growth only served as a catalyst for her overtly religious lessons. She taught them that sex and women were the root of all evil and took pleasure in making sure that they followed her teachings and orders. Four years after their father’s death, Henry mysteriously died from a fire outbreak in the farmland. While police were investigating, they saw two marks on the back of Henry’s head. However, they brushed it off and listed his death as being asphyxiated by the flames. Many conspire that Gein had a role in his brother’s death, but to this day, it remains a mystery. (Summers, 2004). After the two devastating deaths in the family, only Gein and his mother were left. As the days went by, Augusta’s health worsened and finally, after a series of strokes, she died on December 29th, 1945.

All Alone

After her death, Gein preserved his mother’s room while the rest of the house became an unorganized and hazardous mess. With this, Gein’s unstable mental state, due to long-term isolation, worsened and caused him to become deranged. All his life, he relied and depended on his mother. Saying that Gein was a “momma’s boy” would be an understatement. She was as strict as can be, but in his eyes, she never did anything wrong. Gein saw his mother as a strong goddess that worked extremely hard for the family, the breadwinner that worked tireless hours in their grocery store before their farm life. Because of this intense love and devotion to his mother, Gein did not try to find his own identity because he fully believed that without her, he would never be complete. Now alone, he immersed himself in reading obscure and disturbing magazines along with literature about adventures. However, Gein’s bizarre interests was merely the beginning of something much more unsettling (Schechter, 1999).

Known Victims

After the death of his father, brother, and deeply beloved mother, Gein was left to his own devices. Here he spiraled down to insanity and began to wreak havoc and instill disturbance around the small town of Plainfield.

On November 17th, 1957, authorities received reports that hardware store owner, Bernice Worden, was nowhere to be seen. After investigating the scene and interrogating witnesses, they discovered that the last person with Bernice was no other than Ed Gein. The police headed to Gein’s home and although he wasn’t there, the chief managed to acquire a search warrant. What they found inside was deeply disturbing and nauseating; trash littered all over the house and Worden’s headless corpse hanging grimly from the ceiling of Gein’s shed. Along with her body, they found Mary Hogan’s head, the only remaining piece of a woman that went missing three years before the incident. With the discovery of Hogan and Worden’s remains, the police uncovered other unsettling objects in Gein’s house. Though shocked and deeply disturbed, authorities found and arrested Gein. Interrogating him didn’t go as difficult as they had assumed because even though he denied claims of murder, he eventually cracked and fully confessed the murder of Worden and Hogan (Biography, 2017). Gein confessed that Hogan was his first murder victim, shooting her with a .32 Mauser pistol while they were alone in the tavern, dragging her body back to his home with a sled. As for Bernice Worden, Gein stated that he murdered her with a Marlin .22 rifle. Along with this, he confessed that he planned her death a week before, hanging around the hardware store and finding out when was the ideal time to commit the murder. The day of the incident, he recalled that he shot Worden using a rifle for sale and a bullet in his pocket. After that, he dragged and drove her body back to his home in which he mutilated her like a deer. Along with Gein’s confession and the evidence they uncovered, authorities noticed an uncanny resemblance between Gein’s mother and his victims, Hogan and Worden (Mayo, 2008).

Missing People

Before the murders, there were four other people that went missing in Plainfield. The youngest being Georgia Weckler, an eight-year old girl that went missing on her way to school. Additionally, 15-year old Evelyn Hartley was reported to be abducted while babysitting. The last two disappearances were two deer hunters, Victor Travis and Ray Burgess. After Gein’s arrest, many assumed that he abducted and murdered these individuals, but lack of evidence failed to prove this claim.

Skin Lamps to Nipple Belts

 The detectives that investigated Gein’s house were, more or less, traumatized by what they witnessed. After discovering Worden’s decapitated corpse in the shed, they found more stomach-churning objects. Some of the notable and vile discoveries they uncovered were; bowls made out of skulls, face masks made out of real human flesh, a human vest with breasts attached, chair seats made with leg bones and dried fat, and a shoebox containing nine vulvas (Philbin & Philbin, 2007). During the interrogation, Gein confessed that he exhumed graves in the local cemeteries and mutilated the corpses for the body parts. His meticulous work left the graves looking untouched. Along with this, he confessed that he often placed female genitalia over his crotch as if he were a woman and wore a shirt made out of human skin around the house.

The End of Ed Gein

 In Waushara County Court on the 21st of November, 1957, Gein was charged on a count of first-degree murder of Bernice Worden. Found mentally unstable to stand for trial, authorities sent him to Wisconsin’s Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. However, later in his life, he was moved to other institutions in Wisconsin such as a highly-secured mental facility in Waupun and then transferred to a state hospital in Madison. After leaving Plainfield, Gein’s home burned to the ground and authorities suspected the crime of arson. Fast forward, two months after his 60th birthday, Gein was determined mentally sane enough to stand for trial. This trial lasted for one week and found him guilty of the murder of Worden. However, the judges acknowledged his mental health and stated for Gein to spend the rest of his life back in a mental hospital. Eventually, Gein died of heart failure due to cancer and was buried in a Plainfield cemetery. As the years passed, many people, ironically enough, vandalized his grave while one even stole the bulk of it. It was found eventually in 2001 and now resides in Waushara County’s museum as a reminder of the county’s dark past.

Gein in Popular Culture

 Though Gein passed away in 1984, his gruesome and spine-chilling story fascinated reporters and psychologists. Reporters and news outlets all over the nationwide jumped at the real and disturbing story by pursuing the small town of Plainfield, Wisconsin. Along with that, psychologists were interested in Gein’s case of transvestism, fetishism, and necrophilia that arose from his bittersweet relationship with his puritanical and powerful mother. Robert Bloch was also deeply fascinated by Gein, prompting him to write the thriller novel, Psycho, in the 1960s. The novel shares the story of Norman Bates who builds a troubling and strange relationship with his mother along with operating a rundown motel. Shortly after, Alfred Hitchcock, a movie producer with an inclination for serial murderers, adapted Bloch’s novel into a movie and turned it into a blockbuster hit. Along with this cultural hit, several elements of Gein’s story can be analyzed in other movies. Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre is about college kids who stumbled upon a strange and unsettling house full of furniture made out of flesh and body parts. Finally, in Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs, the character Buffalo Bill closely resembles Gein as he murders women to use their flesh in hopes of transforming himself into a woman.

Theory Applications

Sociologists like Edwin Sutherland and Walter Miller have created theories that stem from noteworthy research, even inspiring new ones to appear in the world today. Experts apply these theories to criminals, in this case, infamous criminals like serial killers, striving to explain the enigma surrounding their criminal behaviors. Theories such as life course theory, nurture theory, psychodynamic theory, routine activities theory, and social learning theory apply to Gein’s infamous crimes.

Life Course Theory

 Acclaimed sociologists, Robert J. Sampson and John H. Laub, argue that criminal behavior maintains stability over lengthy periods of one’s lifetime. Throughout an individual’s life, they experience events, which may be good or bad, that ultimately shape or influence the rest of their behavioral development. The propensity to criminality is intensified through problematic transitions in life, usually ranging from events such as precocious sexuality, abusive households, and joining gang organizations. By directly or indirectly engaging in events like these, especially at a young age, individuals are more likely to adopt law-violating behavior and are less likely to divert from the path of criminality (Siegel, 2017). The dysfunctional and abusive state of Gein’s family during his childhood, such as his abusive mother and neglectful father, played a significant role in increasing his propensity to his criminal tendencies later in life. Because of his mother’s restriction, Gein didn’t have an indirect outlet that he could utilize to prevent the cumulation of his subconscious frustration against his circumstances at home. So, after his family died, he became isolated and didn’t have limits to as what he could or couldn’t do with his day-to-day life, leading him to commit brutal acts of murder and mutilation upon unexpecting victims (Fischer & Ozturk, 2017). However, it should be noted that after his trial, Gein never pursued any sort of violent, much less so, criminal, behavior. One can directly link this to his mother’s influence, as harsh and degrading as it was. Her strong influence rekindled as a burning flame in Gein’s mind, urging him to revert, and stay, as his mild-mannered self.

Nurture Theory

 Explaining that behavior is directly correlated to environmental stimulation from one’s peers, family, education, etc., nurture theory claims that proponents of learning through experiences and one’s environment affects the IQ levels of children. Growing up in an abusive environment and other factors, such as poor school performance and peer pressure, can engender the path to criminality. Criminologists and sociologists like Travis Hirschi and John Bowlby have supported this theory with their own, such as Bowlby’s theory of attachment (McLeod, 2017). Gein’s childhood trauma, rooted from his mother’s perception of women, other than her, as vessels of sin. Since he took his mother’s teachings at face value, he never realized the extent of her control and depraved influence over him, eventually leading to his outburst of violent behavior. His mother’s superfluous teachings and the abusive environment he grew up in throughout his childhood directly nurtured his brutal and violent behavior as an adult, robbing graves and murdering women that resembled his mother’s appearance.

Routine Activities Theory

 Theorized by sociologists such as Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson, routine activities theory claims that victimization is promoted or influenced by the availability of targets, absence of authorities, and presence of motivated offenders. This theory also explains that it can be applied anywhere, even in suburban communities where safety and crime is less likely to occur (Andresen, 2006). In the case of Gein, his targets were readily available because most of his victims were robbed and mutilated from the graveyard, with some of his victims, like Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan, being suitable as they were alone at the time of the murder. Furthermore, the absence of authorities played a significant role in Gein not being apprehended by the time of his first couple victims. His vast and isolated farm estate provided the lack of supervision from neighbors and gave him the ability to do anything he wanted without being caught or disturbed by others. Additionally, everyone in town perceived him as mild-mannered and soft-spoken, causing the community and authorities to eliminate the possibilities of him committing any sort of crime in the first place.  However, his antisocial personality and unstable mental condition were also important aspects to consider when analyzing the reasons behinds his crimes; Gein was essentially a motivated offender.

Cognitive Theory

 Cognitive theory, pioneered by Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener, and William James, is a psychological perspective that emphasizes how individuals perceive, represent, and react to their issues and surrounding environment. Using this theory, experts can explain the root of antisocial behavior in criminals and how these individuals perceive crime. An individual that suffers from a deficit in cognitive function may perceive information incorrectly or slowly which results in poor decisions. Because of this, they’re unable to realize their circumstances and the negative consequences of crime leading to them concluding that it’s ultimately, and solely, beneficial and gratifying. This faulty reasoning may stem from mental scripts, which essentially are experiences, mostly from childhood, that one has based their beliefs and life lessons around (Moore, 2011). Since Gein barely knew anyone outside of his home, even in institutions like school, his greatest influence came from his family and the everyday lessons he indirectly and directly learned from them. His inability to realize the consequences of his criminal behavior may be rooted in his household which wasn’t positively nurturing and often reinforced punishment. Additionally, his mother’s teachings, which fully emphasized that women are sinful and, overall, shouldn’t be associated with, caused him to be desensitized to committing horrible crimes against women.

Arousal Theory

 Arousal theory, primarily originating from the work of Donald B. Lindsley, suggests that individuals seek a preferred level of arousal in their lifetime and because of that, their need for a high amount of stimulation may be the cause of violent and aggressive attitudes. Not enough simulation causes one to be bored and fatigued, while high levels of stimulation can lead to anxiety and stress. One’s need for stimulation can vary from person-to-person; an individual can be content with little or no stimulation in their lifestyle while others constantly seek and satisfy their need for high levels of gratification, causing them to usually commit criminal behavior to do so. As he grew up with very little excitement and fun in his life, Gein may have developed a higher preference to arousal after the death of his mother. Her death freed him from the shackles of her strict, overtly religious teachings, causing him to seek some sort of enjoyment that lacked in his life beforehand. He found comfort and enjoyment when mutilating corpses, usually of women. Along with that, Gein enjoyed making gory paraphernalia, which can be seen in his creation of flesh lamps and skull bowls. Essentially, the increase in desired levels of arousal after his mother’s passing was a conducive factor to his outburst of violent behavior, committing the act of grave robbing and making obscene creations from corpses.

References

Biography. (2017, October 11). Ed Gein. Retrieved September 1, 2018, from https://www.biography.com/people/ed-gein-11291338

McLeod, S. A. (2017, May 03). Nature vs nurture in psychology. Retrieved October 28th, 2018, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html

Jenkins, J. P. (2016, December 15). Ed Gein. Retrieved September 1, 2018, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ed-Gein

Summers, C. (2004, February 04). BBC Crime Case Closed: Ed Gein. Retrieved September 1, 2018, from http://archive.li/vj4YM

Mayo, M. (2008). Ed Gein. In American murder: Criminals, crimes, and the media, (pp. 124-126). Visible Ink Press.

Philbin, T., & Philbin, M. (2007). The Real Psycho. In The Killer book of true crime: Incredible stories, facts and trivia from the world of murder and mayhem, (pp. 83-86). Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks.

Philbin, T., & Philbin, M. (2009). Ed Gein. In The Killer book of serial killers: Incredible stories, facts, and trivia from the world of serial killers, (pp. 175- 181). Sourcebooks.

Schechter, H. (1999). Deviant: The shocking true story of Ed Gein, the original psycho. New York: Pocket Books.

Siegel, L. J. (2017). Criminology: The core, 7th Edition. Boston, MA: Cengage.

Fischer, B., & Ozturk, B. (2017). Facsimiles of Flesh. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 34(4), 489–497. https://doi-org.db02.linccweb.org/10.1111/japp.12223

Moore, M. (2011). Psychological Theories of Crime and Delinquency. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 21(3), 226–239. https://doi-org.db02.linccweb.org/10.1080/10911359.2011.564552

Andresen, M. A. (2006). A spatial analysis of crime in Vancouver, British Columbia: a synthesis of social disorganization and routine activity theory. Canadian Geographer, 50(4), 487–502. https://doi-org.db02.linccweb.org/10.1111/j.1541-0064.2006.00159.x