Ed Gein Ep 11

Happy Mother's Day!! What better theme than the Momma's boy of the Macabre. The "Butcher of Plainfield" is one of the most notorious psychopaths. Hop up on mamma's lap and let me tell you a gruesome tale of murder, bodysnatching, and a little arts and crafts from the disturbed mind of Mr. Edward Gein. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Well, hello, fine people, and welcome back to another episode of the name's Lina, and welcome to the podcast. I don't have anything super interesting to talk about at the beginning this time, only that a human skull was found in a forest preserve that is not too far away from my house. Just the other day, like three days ago or something, super close to my house. My niece actually takes her dogs walking there all the time. It's called Raceway Woods Forest Preserve. And a hiker found a skull, and it was confirmed to be human, and it said that quote, had been exposed to the elements for some time. So what happened to the rest of the body? Why is it just a skull? How long has it been there? Who is this person? I'm dying to know, but it they're saying it's gonna take some time for them to figure out like whose skull this is. I want to know like where's the rest of the bones? Did animals take it away, or was this like a beheading and someone just buried it there in the park or something? Like I think it was used for like it's called raceway because I believe it was like a racetrack at some point, like for cars. So uh was it an was it an accident? Like I I gotta know. So I will try to keep you updated. I don't have any more information for now, but yeah, that's pretty interesting. So yeah, two episodes in a row, we've got something that we talk about at the beginning that is kind of goes along with the theme of the episode. I mean, it's a human skull. We're gonna talk about Ed Gean. Yay! It being so close to Mother's Day, which is going to be in a couple of days, what better topic to talk about than Ed Gean? Oh Eddie Gean, the mama's boy of the macabre. Imagine you're driving down a country road in rural Wisconsin. You come up to a farmhouse and on the lawn you see a naked old lady dancing in the moonlight, wild grey hair and deep sunken eyes. As you get a better look, you see that it's not exactly as it seems. The flesh is leathery and stitched, and the face a grotesque mask of what was once a living woman. Welcome to Plainfield, Wisconsin, and its real life house of horrors. Edgein did such horrific things, he has become an icon of the sadistic. His behavior is so disturbing that he's inspired some of the most terrifying characters in pop culture history. So many things fascinate me about Edgean's story, the people who helped create this real life monster, the fact that it happened in a small town where everybody knew him and no one even suspected the extent of his deviance. They just thought he was weird. And I'm not exactly convinced he was as insane as he's made out to be, at least not legally. Don't get me wrong, his behavior is batshit, no doubt. But legally, now this happened primarily in the 1940s and 50s. I think if this exact same thing happened today, the outcome would be very different. I'm also fascinated by the fact that he had a brother, and up until his death, as far as we know, he was completely normal, even though he suffered the same abuse by both parents growing up, and I think that just proves that it's a combination of nurture and nature that builds the beast. There had to be something in his brain that was bad, and throw in someone like his mother, and it's a recipe for a psychopath. But let's go back before little Eddie is even born and let's talk about his dad and that mother. Augusta Geen was born Augusta Willemine Lerke, I think that's how you pronounce it. It's spelled L-E-H-R-K-E on July 21, 1878 to German immigrants in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She had many siblings, seven, I think, and was raised very strict Lutheran. The rules of the house were strictly enforced with beatings by her father, but this didn't discourage Augusta, it hardened her. She developed the same characteristics as her father. Radically religious, judgmental, cold, humorless, dominating, and downright nasty. She was raised to believe that every word of the Bible was true and literal, that life should be hard, and old world values are key. Modernization leads to the devil. There was no wavering in her beliefs either, and she had no problem letting you know that if you didn't believe the same, that you were wrong and you were going to hell. Needless to say, she wasn't well liked. She saw men as weak and easily tempted, but women, besides herself, every woman is a whore or a slut or a harlot. Not very many men were interested in Augusta due to her harshness to put it lightly. Besides that, Augusta also had an extreme aversion to sex. She found it a disgusting act, and women should only have to endure it for child conception. But then, when she's 19, she meets 24-year-old George Gean. George had a bit of a rough start. His family was killed in a flood when he was three years old and he was raised by another family. He had very low self-esteem and used alcohol to cope with his issues. He was a drunk. He bounced around from job to job before finally ending up in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and meeting his future wife. He hid his drinking from Augusta until after they were married. She thought he was physically strong, he did what he was told, but above all else, he was Lutheran. He thought she was a strong, independent woman. He also liked that she was from a large family. After growing up an orphan, he thought this would provide some stability. Pretty quickly after the nuptials, it becomes clear to Augusta that her husband is an alcoholic. You can only imagine how vicious this woman must have been after that, which caused him to drink more and eventually start slapping her around. After he would beat her, she would get down on her knees and pray out loud in front of him for God to take his life. But Augusta wants children. Although she's revolted and repulsed by sex and her husband, she conceives a child and Henry Gean is born on january seventeenth, nineteen oh one, and then little Eddie Gean on august twenty seventh, nineteen oh six. Augusta was extremely disappointed that Ed was a boy. She prayed hard for a girl and God denied her, and she vows that Edward will not be like other men. After George fails to keep a job and with two children to support, Augusta decides that George needs to work for himself, so they buy a small grocery store for George to run, but he can't because he's a drunk, so of course Augusta takes over and runs it, every aspect of it. And George is reduced to no more than a useless clerk. She owns the grocery store from 1906 to 1914, saving enough money to buy a hundred and ninety-five acre farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin, because La Crosse, Wisconsin was too full of sinners. Augusta is a tyrant to literally everyone, but she has a special interest in her children, particularly Ed. As a toddler, he recalls standing at the top of a staircase when he loses his balance. He feels a powerful force either pulling him or pushing him down the stairs. As Ed panicked, he felt a strong grip on his arm and he turns to see his mother, wild eyed and screaming at him and shaking him. Ed burst into tears. He was confused about the feelings he had. Relief that he didn't fall, but his mom was furious with him and he didn't know why. He felt ashamed and guilty for upsetting her so badly. He also realizes that she is his only salvation. He counted on her and her alone to protect him from literally everything. Another significant core memory is while the geans owned the grocery store, behind it there was a shack that he was forbidden to go into. He had seen animals going in but not coming out, so this fascinated him. One day little Eddie sneaks a peek inside. He sees a pig strung up for butchering. Both parents are there, but it's his mother that he sees slicing the pig open and removing its insides into a tub at her feet. His mother hears him and turns towards him and he says he never forgot that image of her standing there covered in blood and guts. One day before they move to the farm in Plainfield, Augusta sends Ed to the bakery when he was around seven years old. On the way he lost the money that she gave him. He was terrified of her reaction. But she doesn't scream at him this time or ridicule him like she would his father. Instead she just looks at him with huge disappointment on her face and says only a mother could love you. Sending the message that he's so worthless that no one will ever love him but her, and only because she has to. After the Gines move to the farm in Plainfield, they are way more isolated than in La Crosse. The population was only like six hundred and eighty people, and Augusta hates all of them. They are six miles from town with no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and no phone. The only time Henry and Ed are allowed to leave the farm is to go to school, which Ed only attended until he was sixteen. There was also no Lutheran church, so Augusta became preacher as well and took it upon herself to teach her children right from wrong. Henry and Ed were not allowed to have friends or date. If Ed would make a friend, he would be punished by Augusta. And making friends was hard enough for Ed. He was small, shy, and kids made fun of him for his droopy eye. He had a growth on his eyelid that although benign, it caused his eye to have a sagging look. Ed also had feminine attributes. He was delicate and cried easily and often. He admits to often wondering what it would be like to be a little girl instead of a little boy. During his adolescence and school years, Ed felt uncomfortable around his peers. He fumbled words, he couldn't make eye contact, his hands would flutter. He would grin and laugh at inappropriate times, even when talking about a deer hunting accident or someone having a heart attack. Or he would grin and laugh to himself as if hearing something that nobody else could. But if the conversation ever turned to sex, he would immediately back away and flee, and if they made fun of him, he would cry and sob like a quote little girl. This reinforced to Ed that his mother was right. They are all wicked, and the only safe place is at home with mother. The yean farm also didn't do so great. They struggled to yield any significant crops, they had soil issues, and George was useless and couldn't contribute. His existence consisted of doing nothing, drinking and beating his children, until they got too big, and then he just yelled at them. As the boys get older, they're able to take over some of George's chores, like getting supplies, working the farm, etc. Divorce is a sin, so that's out of the question. So Henry and Edward are stuck on the farm with two tyrannical parents, and Augusta's rants about the wickedness of women just gets worse. She would gather her boys around her rocking chair and read from the Bible. She particularly liked the book of Revelations and the Babylon woman on the scarlet beast, the mother of harlots full of abominations. She also had her favorite proverbs she committed to memory, warning of the evils of women. Then she would take their hands and make them swear they would stay uncontaminated by women. Henry does try to socialize with a couple of girls, but Augusta's like hell nah and puts an immediate stop to it. Augusta is the only woman allowed in her son's lives. So Henry resigns to being a bachelor, at least for now. And so the Geans remain until April 1, 1940, when years of hard drinking and emotional abuse finally takes its toll on George Geane, and he passes away at age 66. Ed was 34. This doesn't upset the family much, if anything, it relieved a burden on an already hard life. At age 36, World War II is in full swing and Ed was eligible for the draft, so he had to go to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for his physical. This trip is the furthest away from home Ed ever was and ever will be. Ed was rejected by the Army due to the growth on his eye, and he returns to life in Plainfield. Both of the boys had to take jobs off the farm in order to bring in some money for the family. Ed would do odd jobs like handyman, woodcutter, and babysitter. Yes, Ed was a babysitter. He was comfortable around kids, probably because even though he was a grown adult, emotionally and socially he was their age. And the kids enjoyed having Ed around too. The people who hired Ed for whatever job considered him a dependable hard worker, and unlike his mother, he was soft-spoken and polite. Odd and a little weird, but given his upbringing, people cut him some slack. Henry found more and more work away from home and he started to see a divorced woman who had already had a child. This of course is completely unacceptable to Augusta. Henry also starts to talk to Ed about his relationship with their mother. Henry thinks that Ed and his mother are too close. That Augusta's views about the world and women might not be a hundred percent accurate. Ed was completely under the impression that Henry viewed their mother the same way he did. A saint on earth, infallible, flawless. Ed was shocked and confused, and it bothered him. Then, on May 16, 1944, when Henry and Ed were burning some brush around a marsh that was on the property, the wind picked up and the fire got out of control. Ed claims while battling the fire he lost sight of his brother. When he finally got the fire under control, he could not find Henry. Ed goes to get the sheriff and a search party but is able to lead them right to the dead body. There were several things off about his death. His body is found stretched out on a patch of burnt earth, but Henry himself had no burns. Neither did his clothes. He was dirty, but even the exposed parts of his body had no fire damage. The sheriff also sees some bumps and bruises to Henry's head. When the sheriff pointed out to Ed that he was able to lead them right to the body, even though he told them that he couldn't find Henry, Ed simply shrugged and said, Funny how that works. The district attorney, coroner, and a doctor were called to the scene, and it's determined that Henry died of asphyxiation from the smoke, and must have hit his head when he passed out. No foul play was suspected because no one could believe that little Eddie Gean could kill anybody, let alone his own brother. Later, after Ed's behavior is revealed, it's widely believed that he did kill his brother. Some people speculate as to whether Augusta actually ordered Ed to do it due to Henry's disobedience and defiance. Or if Ed just took it upon himself and raged over the disrespect of the most important person in the world to him. Regardless, now he has mother all to himself. But shortly after Henry's death, Augusta starts to not feel so well. Ed takes her to the hospital in Wild Rose, Wisconsin, and when they get there, she's so weak she has to be taken in by a wheelchair. Ed is distraught. Here is the woman he thought indestructible, too powerful to ever be brought down. It's concluded that Augusta suffered a stroke. Ed stayed right by her side every moment the hospital would let him be there. When she was well enough to go home, although he was small, only five seven, he was strong and carried her inside and placed her in bed. Again, he has conflicting feelings. He's never seen his mother so weak and frail and needy. She was the one who took care of everything. But he was also kind of excited to take care of her and he hopes that she will finally see his worth. While she recovered, he took care of the farm and the house per her instructions from bed. At night he would sit with her and read to her from the Bible, sometimes laying in bed with her and stroking her hair. Eventually she's able to walk again, but when Ed tries to help her, she shoves him away and says things like, Move away, boy, I can manage myself. So much for appreciation. But what's important to Ed was that his mom was better. Unfortunately for Ed, not for long. In the winter of 1945, Augusta and Ed needed straw for the few remaining animals that they had on the farm. Arrangements were made to purchase this from a neighbor named Smith. When they get there, the man is beating a puppy to death with a stick. The woman he lives with out of wedlock, Sinners, comes out in her nightgown and is hysterically screaming at him to stop. She's flailing her arms and crying and calling Smith all kinds of foul words. Good, you fucking asshole. Well Augusta is appalled by this scene. She was shook, but not because of the puppy. It was the woman who outraged her. How dare that lowly, sinful woman come out in her nightclothes, living in sin with a man saying such foul things and cause such a scene? Less than a week after this incident, Augusta suffered a final stroke, and on december twenty ninth, nineteen forty five, at age sixty seven, Augusta Gean died. Ed blames the encounter with Smith's Harlotan woman for bringing on the stroke that took his mother away. No one except a few of her siblings and Eddie attended her funeral. Ed was inconsolable. He couldn't control his grief and is described as his face being covered in tears and snot at her funeral. He has lost his only friend and companion. His everything. The woman who was the whole world to him is gone. Now he is utterly alone. Whatever flaw is in his brain finally breaks and darkness descends. Ed believes, truly believes he can bring his mom back through his will alone. He wanted her back so badly that he believed this willpower will raise her from the dead. He goes to the cemetery every night and tries and tries, pleading with her please come back. He also claims to then start hearing her voice a couple of times in the house. Outwardly he seems relatively unaffected, except when speaking of his mother, he would weep and sob. He continued his odd job. Never refusing to help his fellow townsfolk, one person refers to him as the most dependable man he knows. Inwardly, he's unraveling. He stops bathing regularly, he always has facial stubble and unkept hair, he stops taking care of the farm and the house, and closes off all but a few rooms in the house. There's mixed reviews of Ed by the people of Plainfield after Augusta's death. They were small town people in the 1950s. They assumed they knew, at least for the most part, what their neighbors were up to. No one suspected little Eddie Gean, shy, meek, soft-spoken Ed, of the atrocities that he did. The town barber didn't like him and referred to him as a filthy thing. Most considered him a harmless, hardworking, dependable guy. He never swore, he was always polite and well mannered. When he would be hired to help on a farm, the farmer's wife would be responsible for feeding the crew. After the meal, Ed would hang out in the kitchen with the women watching them clean up. He always brought his own dishes to the sink, which is something that the other men just didn't do. So some of them felt sorry for him. He was so lonely. A couple of the wives would bring Ed Christmas cookies to his house, not knowing the gruesomeness inside. Of course, the men felt differently. He was dependable, but he was also considered sort of a doofus, the village idiot, a simpleton. So they enjoyed picking on him. If he was to have a beer with them after work, they would fill it half with brandy and get him drunk. Once someone planted a smoke bomb under the hood of his truck, and even the men who liked Ed couldn't help but laugh at him sometimes. Ed was also sort of feminine. Some called it quote weak acting. Ed claimed to be squeamish around blood. Others found this weird because he would like hunt rabbits and stuff with them with the other guys in town, and he also grew up on a farm where animal slaughtering is a regular thing. He claimed he could never shoot a deer because he couldn't stand to dress it, to butcher it. Although the people of Plainfield thought he was, Ed was by no means stupid. He had an average IQ and was an avid reader. Some of the things he reads about though are questionable to say the least, but who am I to judge? I read all kinds of weird shit. I'm probably on some kind of government watch list for the shit I Google, and to be honest, I'd be disappointed if I wasn't. Wink. Ed's library consists of true crime, horror comics, pulp fiction type magazines, and adventure magazines, particularly South Seas adventure stories about cannibalism, headhunters, drums made out of human skin, and shrunken heads. He liked stories about body snatchers, people who robbed graves and dig up corpses to sell them. One story that had a lasting impression was about wealthy people in Britain in the 19th century who would dig up beautiful women and do unspeakable things to them. Ed is also extremely fascinated with Nazi war crimes. He reads about Ilse Koch, aka the Bitch of Buchenwald. During the Nazi rule of Germany, Ilse's husband was commander at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Supposedly, she selected certain prisoners to be executed in order to use their tattooed skin to make lampshades and other items. Although the US Army found little proof of this other than witnesses, she has become an infamous Nazi war criminal. She committed suicide in prison in 1967. Ed would also read about Irma Greese, another female Nazi war criminal. This woman was a concentration camp guard who tortured prisoners. She would also have sexual relations against their will with female prisoners. She would keep her quote favorites as slaves, and when she got bored, she sent them to the gas chamber. In a memoir from a doctor at one of the camps said Greece experienced an orgasm from watching her perform surgery on a female prisoner's breast with only a knife and no anesthesia. She was 22 years old when she was hanged for her crimes. Ed was also fascinated with newspaper reports on Christine Jorgensen. Christine Jorgensen was a U.S. Army clerical worker during World War II. She was also the first person widely known for having sexual reassignment surgery. She underwent a series of operations in 1951 to transform her from a man to a woman. Since childhood, Ed has fascinated about having female body parts, but his view of the female body was so skewed because he's never actually seen a living one, maybe his mother's before she died. What Ed also starts to read are the obituaries in the local papers. Ed also liked to tell people about what he read. Murder was Ed's favorite topic of conversation. But when speaking about women, Ed sounded more like a schoolboy than a forty something year old man. He's just incredibly awkward. As time went on, he retreated more and more into isolation and madness. One of the only places that Ed would visit on occasion was Mary Hogan's Tavern, not necessarily to drink, but to watch Mary. To Ed, she resembled his mother physically, but behaviorally she was very much the opposite. His mother was saintly, the purest person in the world. Mary was a foul mouth bar owner with a questionable past. Twice divorced, rumored ties to the Chicago mob, and possibly a big city madam. Ed had an issue with the fact that his mother was dead and this sinner was allowed to live. On December 8, 1954, a farmer named Seymour Lester walked into Hogan's tavern to find it empty. No Mary. Things don't look right and he sees a pool of blood on the floor. He calls the police and they find a 32 caliber bullet cartridge and evidence that the body was dragged out the door and taken away. No body was found and the case goes cold until they find her face in Edgeen's farmhouse. Until then, she remained a missing person. A man named Elmo Ewick, I think that's how you say his name, it's UE C K. One of the guys who would like to tease Ed about women said to Ed, If you spent more time courting Mary, she'd be cooking for you instead of missing. To which Ed replied, She's not missing, she's down at the house right now. And Elmo just took it as a joke. Haha, silly Ed always being weird. There was also a rumor going around Plainfield started by some local kids, particularly Bob Hill, that Ed had a couple of shrunken heads in his house. Bob Hill was the son of one of Ed's neighbors and probably the closest thing Ed had to a friend. He was also one of the only people to have been inside Ed's house. Bob claims Ed showed him the heads. He said they were grotesque with leathery skin and matted hair. When Bob asked where he got them, Ed said that they were genuine South Sea shrunken heads given to him by his cousin. Once when Bob's little brother was allowed to come with, he claims he saw three full size heads on the back of the door. When he asked his brother what they could be, he said they were probably just Halloween decorations. This air quotes rumor becomes sort of a joke around town because a couple of shrunken heads is just the kind of thing that people expected weird little Eddie to own. There were some other mysterious disappearances that happened around the Plainfield area around the same time that Ed would later be suspected of. Eight-year-old Georgia Weckler was last seen dropped off by her neighbor down the road from her home after school. She never makes it to the house and by 8 p.m. police are called and search all night. She's never found. The only clue that the police have is a description of a car pulling out of the lane that Georgia was dropped off at, a dark-colored Ford sedan. Ed Geen owned a maroon Ford sedan. Teenager Evelyn Hartley was babysitting one night when she fails to check in with her father. Concerned, he goes to check on her, and when no one answers the door, he could see her shoe and her glasses on the floor through a window. While looking for a way to get in the house, he sees an open basement window with some bloodstains leading away from the house. He calls the police. Clues lead police to believe she was forced into a car parked away from the house. After a massive search covering 50 miles, the only thing that's found is a pair of bloodstained girls' panties and a bra. A little further away there was a pair of men's bloodstained pants. Her body is never found. Ed was also later suspected in the disappearance of two hunters that went missing in 1952. They left a bar near Plainfield around 7 30 PM and vanished. Their names were Victor Travis and Ray Burgess. Neither man or the car are ever found. This doesn't really fit Ed's MO since these were men, but after the gruesomeness of his crimes were discovered, he's pretty much suspected in like every disappearance. But before that, he's just a lonely old bachelor, a weird hermit. He's not hurting anyone. He seems harmless, so what if he's got some shrunken heads and the kids in town consider his house haunted? No big deal, right? No big deal. Until november sixteenth, nineteen fifty seven. It's opening day of hunting season. Hunting season in Wisconsin is a nine day event that pretty much shuts down entire towns as all the men are out in the woods trying to bag a deer. That morning, Edgeen wasn't hunting deer. He was hunting a different prey. Around 8 a.m. he pulls up to Warden's hardware store and enters with an empty glass bottle for antifreeze. The owner of the store was Bernice Warden. She inherited the store after her husband passed away. She was a great businesswoman who expanded the business and was quite successful. She was a mother and a grandmother and enjoyed fishing in her off time. She was alone in the store that morning. Her son Frank, who normally worked with her as well as being a deputy sheriff and the town fire marshal, was out hunting, of course. And Ed knew this. Bernice was expecting Ed to show up. He had inquired about the price of Annafrize the day before. He's been hanging around at the store more frequently lately, going as far as to ask her to go roller skating, which he later claimed was a joke. Bernice politely refused. She doesn't care much for Ed, but he's still a customer. She rings up his antifries along with the sales receipt, and Ed leaves. He then comes back in and tells her that he's thinking about trading in his rifle for a new one. He asks to see the one that can fire three different kinds of 22 caliber bullets. She agrees and lets Ed check out the rifle while she looks out the front window, commenting on a car outside. Warden's hardware didn't sell bullets, just the guns. And Ed knows this too, and he's prepared. He pulls out a 22 caliber bullet that he brought from home and loads it in the rifle. He shoots Bernice in the back of the head. She never saw it coming. Ed drags her body out the back and puts her into the store's pickup truck. He also takes the cash register to make it look like a robbery. Not very simple minded now, is he? Ed drives the truck with the body of Bernice Warden to a secluded area and dumps the truck. He goes back for his car and puts Warden's body in his Ford and takes it home. The owner of the gas station across the street from the hardware store sees the truck drive off but can't tell who's driving it, just that it was a man. That evening, around 5 p.m., Frank Warden returned from hunting and he's told that his mom's store has been closed all day and that people figure that she was out hunting with him. Frank's like, mm no, she told me she was gonna keep the store open all day. When he gets to the store, the front door is locked but the lights are on. He goes to get his keys and inside he finds the register missing as well as his mother. There's a pull of blood on the floor and obvious drag marks. Frank was a deputy sheriff, so he tries to stay as calm as possible and looks for clues. He then calls Sheriff Art Schlei to report what he's found. Schlei calls his deputy sheriff Arnie Fritz and within minutes they are on the way to Plainfield. When they get to the store, Frank Warden says, quote, he's done something to her. When Schle asks who, Frank replies, quote, Eddie Geen. Frank Warden explains that Ed has been hanging around the store a lot and asking his mom on dates, as well as Ed asking him the day before if he was planning on going hunting. They also find the sales receipt for Ed's antifreeze from just that morning. A ton of law enforcement pour into Plainfield and the search begins for Bernice Warden. While Frank Warden was discovering his mom is missing, Ed is at his neighbor's The Hills. He was invited to stay for dinner after having helped them get a battery for their car. Always helpful, Mr. Gean. As he's finishing his coffee, Irene Hill's son-in-law rushes in to tell them the excitement surrounding the Warden's hardware store. And that Bernice is missing. Ed chimes in with quote, it must have been someone pretty cold-blooded. Bob Hill, Ed's buddy, asks Ed if he could drive him into town so he can check out what's going on. Ed says, sure, let's go. The Hills owned a grocery store that was close by and Irene goes to relieve her husband so he can come home and eat dinner. As soon as he leaves, two police enter the store and ask her if she knows where Ed Gean is. She says yes, he's probably still in my driveway. And he was. They put Ed in their car and they ask him for an account of his time for that day. He tells them whatever he tells them, and then they ask him to go over it again so they have the story straight. Typical police tactic. Ed goes over his day again, not able to keep his lies straight, the second account varies. Officer Chase says to him, Eddie, you didn't tell the same story the second time. Ed blinked once and said, quote, somebody framed me. The cop's like um framed you for what? Ed's like, well, misses Warden. What about misses Warden? Chase asks. Well, she's dead, ain't she? And the cop's like, how do you know she's dead? To which Ed blames it on overhearing other people talk about it. At this point the cop's like, yep, he's the guy. They inform him that he's a suspect, and they radio in that the suspect is in custody. With Ed being the only suspect and now they have him in custody, Ed's house is first on a list of places to search. Sheriff Schley and Captain Shua Foster arrive at the Gean farm. They have to kick in a door to what's called the quote summer kitchen, which is just like a woodshed connected to the main house by an inside door. There's no electricity, so they only have their flashlights. It's filthy and filled with clutter and they have to maneuver around stuff to get to the door to the main house. As Schlei is scanning his flashlight around, he feels something bump him from behind. He turns, and in his flashlight beam is a human body, strung upside down by the ankles like a gutted deer. The head has been removed and it's cut open from sternum to pelvis. Its organs removed like a butchered animal. It was the body of Bernice Warden. Schlei says, My God, there she is, before rushing out to be sick in the snow. Shoa Forster followed behind and radioed in that Bernice Warden's corpse has been located at the Geen farmhouse. They then had to go back in there and figure out what the fuck. Other officers arrive, seasoned officers who are used to seeing horrific things like car accidents and stuff that are shocked at the sight of the headless, gutted corpse hanging from the rafters. But this is just the beginning of what's to come out of the farmhouse of terror. Still having to search by flashlights, they move into the main house. There was garbage everywhere. Augusta had been dead for twelve years, and shit's been piling up ever since. Old boxes, newspapers, empty tin cans of pork and beans, Ed's usual dinner, rags, old clothes, piles of magazines, food scraps, empty containers, garbage, and rodents, piles of shit and piss from mice and other vermin. The windows had so much grime on them that you could barely see out. And he only used a couple of rooms on the first floor, so imagine twelve years of a deranged mind just crammed into a few rooms. And then there's the other stuff. Ed had a coffee can full of chewed bubblegum, a box full of cereal box and cracker jack toys, two pairs of yellow dentures on display, soup bowls made out of the tops of human skulls. There was full heads adorning his bedposts along with a yellow mattress, four kitchen chairs upholstered with human skin, lampshades, bracelets, a wastebasket, a drum, a knife sheath, all made out of human skin. A shade pool made out of human lips, and a belt complete with brass buckle made out of human female nipples. At this point, the flashlights aren't cutting it anymore. They bring in floodlights powered by generators. When the reporters start to gather outside, the only statement Sheriff Schle would give them is quote, the situation is just too horrible. Horrible beyond belief. Some other things they found was a box of female genitals, vaginas, one painted silver with a red ribbon attached, a box of noses, a Quaker Oats container with scraps of human head, several pairs of leggings made out of actual human legs, the top part of a human torso skin fashioned into a sort of vest, complete with breasts. A mask collection, nine skinned faces and hair with the eyes cut out to be worn as masks. Some were dried out, some were treated with oil to keep the skin smooth. Some still had lipstick on. Four of them were hung on the walls like decorations or trophies, probably the shrunken heads that everyone joked about. What's also found is the hair and face of tavern owner Mary Hogan. Digging through what was referred to as an archaeological dig in hell, they also find shin bones, scalps, scraps of skin, withered breasts, vaginas, lips, noses, heads, and more. The police also remove the nails from the boarded off parts of the house. Augusta's room boarded Off has not been entered in years. Kept as a sort of shrine, other than a thick layer of dust, it's immaculate. As far as Bernice Warden, her heart is found in a plastic bag by the stove, her entrails wrapped in newspaper and old clothes. Her head is found in a burlap sack between some old mattresses. Her head had two hooks through the ears connected with twine so Eddie could hang it on the wall. After being photographed, her head and body are removed and taken to the coroner's office. Something interesting to me that was found during her autopsy is that her feet were dirty, with like ground in dirt, as though she had walked on a dirt floor. She obviously had shoes on when she was killed. She was at work. So what did he do with her? Walk around with her? Dance? I don't know. Eddie, what did you do? Fifty-one-year-old Edward Geane is being held at the jail in Watoma, Wisconsin, where Sheriff Schley and his family live. Coming back after digging through Ed's house, the sheriff kind of loses it a little bit on Ed for not admitting to what he's done. He grabs him by the shirt and slams him into the wall and commands him to come clean. But this doesn't work, and Ed just becomes more unwilling to cooperate. On and off for 12 hours, Ed's interrogated with no lawyer present and confesses to nothing. The reporters continue to come in from all over the country, but the extent of Eddie's bad behavior is still not known. Not even the people of Plainfield know what's going on. They just know that a horrific murder took place and that little Eddie Geen is the suspect. But it's a small town, and the whispers start. That Sunday, District Attorney Ed Colleen gives the first details to the press, the body, the heads, the skulls, the furniture, and the other things made of skin. By Monday morning, they're still going through Ed's house and property, and after 30 hours of silence, Ed writes a statement to DA Colleen. He acknowledges shooting Bernice, but he can't give details because it happened while he was in a sort of quote haze. He doesn't remember shooting her, but he remembers dragging her out and putting her in the truck, transferring her to his car and taking her to the farmhouse. And some details after, but he gives answers like it must have been and probably and he must have thought it was a deer. It's in this statement to Colleen that Ed claims that all the other body parts came from digging up corpses from three local cemeteries. Starting in 1947, for over five years he made at least 40 trips to the cemetery, and at least nine of those times he exhumed the body, took what he wanted, many times the whole body, but if not he would put back what he didn't use and rebury it. He says they were all newly dead whose obituary he had read in the paper. A few he knew in real life. All middle-aged or older and all done while Ed was in a quote haze. After he gives this statement, County Judge Boyd Clark and Sheriff Schley take Ed to his farm to point out some more areas to search, and it's as he's led to the car that the press snaps its first photos of Ed Gean in his now infamous plaid deer hunters hat. When they return, he's taken before Judge Clark and charged with the theft of the warden's cash register as a way for them to hold him until they're done sorting through Ed's house and can charge him with first degree murder. When they do finally finish and remove as much of the human remains as possible, the press is led inside the house for a view of the repulsiveness of Ed's life. William Belter, who will be Ed's attorney, is also given a tour. Ed is taken to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab in Madison, Wisconsin, where he's further questioned and given a couple of polygraph tests. Ed showed no remorse and didn't quite seem to understand the enormity of his crimes. He would joyfully admit to the most perverse things, although he's much more careful when he's speaking of the murders. He knew that grave robbing and desecration of a corpse, although completely disgusting, is a much less of a crime than first degree murder. I remind you, he's not that stupid. He's questioned about some of the other unsolved missing people like Georgia Weckler, Evelyn Hartley, and the two missing hunters, but he denies knowing anything and the polygraph shows that no deception was detected. Usually I'm very pro polygraph test. Even though you can't use it in court, I still think it's a valuable tool, but in Ed's case, he's so unique, he's so emotionally messed up that I don't know if I would trust the results. No matter what he said. He does finally confess to Mary Hogan's murder, the evidence really left him no choice. He recognizes he shot Bernice Warden but maintains throughout his life that it was accidental. During questioning, Ed answers very matter-of-factly as if describing a daily task. He explains how he would test the soil of a grave, what tools to use to get in, how he got the bodies out, how he only needed some of the bodies, so sometimes he would just leave the rest, how he removed the head, I'll spare you the details. But Ed said he quote, never took a saw to the cemetery. So use your imagination. He gives his technique for removing and preserving human faces and their uses. He admits to wearing them on his own face as a mask and securing them with cords. He admits to wearing the skin suit, the leggings and vest, referred to as the mammary vest, and covering his penis with a preserved vagina, putting the whole thing on, face and everything, and strolling around his house, and when the weather was nice, he would go out in the moonlight. Ed Gean is charged with the first degree murder of Bernice Warden, and Ed's attorney, William Belter, plans to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. A request is made to the court for Ed to be taken for a psychological exam to determine if he was sane at the time of the crime and if he's fit to stand trial. Judge Herbert Bundy agrees and sends Ed to Central State Hospital for the criminally insane for a 30-day examination period. In the meantime, Edward Geane has become a celebrity. Reporters from everywhere pour into Plainfield. Sheriff Schley has denied any interviews with Ed himself. This story was on every newspaper, not only in Wisconsin, but all over the country. A story is printed in the Minneapolis Tribune about an interview with a 50-year-old woman from Plainfield named Adeline Watkins. She claimed to be Ed's girlfriend for 20 years. The article says they saw each other twice a week, they both loved to read, they would discuss famous murder cases, and that he was good and sweet and kind. She also claims their relationship ended in 1955, two years before his arrest, because he proposed and she said no. She said she could never live up to his expectations. Other newspapers across the country pick up this story and print their own versions along with her picture. A couple of days later, for whatever reason, she retracts her story in an interview with the Plainfield son to get the quote record straight. She denied being his girlfriend and said that they were just friends. He would come by and visit sometimes, and a few times they went to go see a movie. That was the extent of their relationship. So who knows? Would you want to be known as Ed Gean's girlfriend? The people of Plainfield didn't believe they had a 20-year relationship. They were like, no, Ed would never be with a woman, but bros, look what he did right under your nose for years. Only Ed knows. And if it was really 20 years, Augusta would have been alive when it started, so I have mixed views on this, Adeline Watkins. Moving on, while Ed is being evaluated, the decision has to be made if graves are going to be open to confirm Ed's claims that the body parts found and used for various things indeed came from the bodies of the locally deceased. Most people from the area just couldn't wrap their heads around it. They didn't think a little guy like Eddie, 5'7 and like 145 pounds, could dig up an entire grave himself in one night with a shovel by lantern light, let alone have time to do whatever else he did, and then fill it back in, leaving no trace. Because of the sandy soil of the area, some of the caskets like Augusta Geen's are encased in concrete, which is why he couldn't get to her. Although she's never been exhumed, so it's not confirmed that he didn't dig her up. But most of the caskets are in wooden boxes and not even sealed on the inside. District Attorney Colleen didn't want to exhume any graves to protect the families. But soon, under pressure, he changes his mind and orders two graves to be exhumed in the Plainfield Cemetery. Ed had given eight or nine names during his confession. They decide on two. They arrive at the cemetery around 10 a.m. Tents had to be put up over the grave sites to keep photographers in small planes from taking pictures from overhead. Eleanor Adams Headstone, besides the birth and death dates, read just one word. After only about an hour, two men were able to reach the coffin, proving that, yes, Ed could accomplish this and more in one night. As soon as they reach the coffin, they can see something's wrong. The outer wood box was split in two. They removed the wood cover to reveal the actual casket and open it. Empty. Except for a twelve inch crowbar. Couldn't you just picture Ed later like oh I knew I left that somewhere. Damn it. Photos were taken as well as the crowbar for evidence. Thirty yards away was the grave of Mabel Everson. This time only like 18 inches down they come across human bones. A jaw, part of the skull, parts of a leg and upper and lower dental plates. There's also some scraps of clothing and a gold wedding band. And that's all they found of 69-year-old Mrs. Everson, confirming Ed's claims of returning the parts that he didn't need to the grave. This was enough to convince DA Colleen, and he doesn't order any more graves to be opened. Oh Eddie, you're so twisted. Now's my favorite part. The psychiatric evaluation. Ed was examined by a team of doctors led by Dr. Edward F. Schubert. In Ed's interview with Dr. Sherbert, he blames his neighbors, he says he can't remember details of the warden murder, still saying things like it quote must have been an accident, and he quote must have been the one who put her in the truck. And then he talks shit about her. He talks about his mother, his only description being, quote, she was good in every way. He cries when discussing her stroke. His feelings for his father are completely negative. He says his lapses in memory started after Augusta's death, and since then he's felt things are quote unreal. He tells of hearing her voice and trying to raise her from the dead by his willpower. He tells of feeling watched in the forest and looking up and seeing a flock of buzzards, and that he would see faces in the leaves on the ground. He admits to olfactory hallucinations he would smell bad odors, particularly flesh, even while at the hospital. And he stated he only admitted to the murders because that's what the investigators wanted him to do. When asked about the grave robbing, he said he guessed he wanted a remembrance of his mother. He was also asked if he had sex with the bodies. Every time he's been asked this he answers the same. No, they smelled too bad. The doctors who examined Ed noted he often complained of headaches and nausea, which they think are psychosomatic. During the exams he would whine and say he couldn't go on and that he needed a wheelchair to get back to his room. It's found his IQ was at 99, which is in the low average category, but his doctors said that his knowledge and his good vocabulary and his ability to reason abstractly pointed towards a greater potential, more of the bright normal level, but his functioning is impaired by strong emotional disturbances, probably psychotic in nature. The Rorschach test or inkblot test confirmed this as well. He's found to have issues with insufficient ego and maturity, and identification conflict with strong female identification, bizarre religious beliefs, the tendency to blame evil on others, and extreme immaturity when it comes to sex accompanied by extreme guilt. He's a very suggestible person who appears emotionally dull. Beneath that lies aggression that may be expressed in inappropriate reactions followed by remorse. He has strict moral concepts that he expects others to follow. His fantasy life is immature, and he possibly pictures himself as bigger than he actually is. Sexually he's conflicted, guilt feelings are great, and repression is used often. In general, schizophrenic personality with several neurotic manifestations. It goes on to say presently he is confused and has difficulty looking at his situation realistically. Ed is diagnosed with schizophrenic reaction of the chronic indifferentiated type. Therefore, he does not know the difference between right and wrong. He is legally insane and not competent to stand trial at this time. The results are sent to the judge, and after his insanity trial that following January, Ed is committed to the Central State Hospital until if at some point is found competent to stand trial. The people of Plainfield disagree with the outcome. When Ed was asked about it, he said, quote, I'm glad it came out this way. I think it's better for me. Ed Geane's lawyer, William Belter, hired a company to auction off Ed's farm and personal items. Ed was being sued by a few people, the family of Eleanor Adams and Frank Warden among them. The auction was advertised all over the state, and it included a list of available items. All perfectly normal things that you would expect to see at an auction, except they were owned by a real life ghoul. A week before the auction, a viewing of the items was going to be held and the people of Plainfield were pissed. They did not want the farm or their town to be turned into a tourist attraction. A few days before the viewing, the Johnson family noticed flames coming from the direction of the Geen Farm. By the time the fire marshal gets there it was too late. The house and all its contents were burnt to the ground. Arson was suspected and investigated, but no evidence is found. P. The fire marshal is Frank Warden, Bernice Warden's son. When told about his house burning down, Ed's response was quote just as well. What didn't burn though was Ed's maroon Ford sedan, involved in the Warden murder. The auction still goes on and an estimated 20,000 people showed up for the viewing on March 23rd. Only about 2,000 showed up for the actual auction. The farm, the whole 195 acres and the standing buildings, sold for $3,883 to a real estate developer who leveled the buildings and within months planted over 60,000 trees. Way to go, bro. The 1949 Ford sedan is the hot ticket item. It sold for $760 to a guy named Bunny Gibbons, a sideshow exhibitor. He puts it on display and charges 25 cents to see the car with wax dummies inside to replicate Gean and a victim. He called it Ed Gean's Ghoul car. Many people complained, and eventually he has to leave the Wisconsin Fair Circle. In 1963, the human remains collected from the Gean house and property were buried in a mass grave. The bones, the heads, the lamps, the noses, the nipple belt, skin suits, and probably Mary Hogan's face are buried in the Plainfield Cemetery. Ten years after his insanity verdict, the hospital decides that Ed is now competent to stand trial. Preliminary hearings began on January 27, 1968. Again it becomes a media sensation, but the Edgeen the press sees now is very different. He's clean, haircut, fresh shave, nice suit and shoes. Nine months later the trial started and lasted only a week. Judge Robert Gomar ordered a bifurcated trial, which means he will be tried for the murder of Bernice Warden, and if he's found guilty, he will immediately be tried on whether he's sane or not. No jury, just the judge. Which at first I was like, eh, I don't like that. But a jury is supposed to be twelve of your peers. Then I thought, who the fuck would be Ed Gean's peers, right? Okay, pass on the jury. Witnesses are called, evidence is shown, and Ed testifies that he doesn't remember the crime, blaming his aversion to blood is why he blanked out. And when shown the crime scene photos, he held them for five minutes, relishing each one. He's found guilty of the first degree murder of Bernice Warden. The second part of the trial started right after and took just about two hours. He's found not guilty by reason of insanity and recommitted to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. He gives a 10-minute interview with the press and says he's looking forward to getting back to the hospital and blames his location for his crimes this time. He says this wouldn't have happened if he would have stayed in the cross. He also says, quote, but at least I have my health. Ed adjusted well to institutionalized life. He never caused a moment's trouble and is referred to as a model patient. He stays at Central State until 1978 when he's moved to the Mendota Mental Health Institute because Central State was being turned into a correctional facility. Ed Gean died of cancer on july twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four at the age of 77. He's buried next to his mother in the Plainfield Cemetery. Ugh Mr Geane. Fucking brutal. Like I said, way back at the beginning, Ed Gean did inspire some of the most psychologically terrifying characters in cinema and book history. At the time of the discovery of Ed Geane's crimes, and he was all over the Wisconsin papers, a 40 year old pulp fiction writer named Robert Block was in a Wisconsin town east of Plainfield. He was with his wife and her family while she recovered from being ill. He read all about Ed Geane's horrors and he writes the book Psycho. The main character, Norman Bates, is directly modeled after Edward Geane. The book was published in 1959 and is then turned into a highly successful Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name in 1960. The movie Psycho pretty much launched the slasher psychological killer genre and is one of the most famous movies in cinema history. Ed Geane also inspired Toby Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974 and the character Leatherface who wears masks made out of human skin. He also influenced the character Buffalo Bill in Thomas Harris's Silence of the Lambs, who's a serial killer making a suit out of human women's skin. He's inspired many more macabre creations of all kinds, including one of my favorite slayer songs, Dead Skin Mask, off the album Seasons in the Abyss, where at the end you can hear a girl yelling for Mr. Gean to please let her out. So how do I wrap up this episode on the enigma of Edward Geane? There was something wrong with him, probably from birth. He had an awful upbringing, his mother was terrible, but was his literal everything. She was godlike to him. He worshipped her. He was almost 40 years old when she died. He had no emotional maturity, no social skills, and an extremely obscure view of people and the world in general. Then he's left completely alone, isolated and unchecked. Left with the few things available to occupy his time and his mind, fantasy filled the void of loneliness and the need for mom and the desire to be her or to be a woman for a while, but then he gives in and he acts on the fantasy. Whether Ed's skin suit was to roleplay as his mother or as a way to become a woman in general, at least for a little bit, only Ed knows the answer to that. I have mixed feelings for Ed. I can sympathize with the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer. I think his story is very sad sometimes, but I have a hard time with Ed. I think he was more calculating and complicated than people thought. He has super unique behaviors and psychoses that puts him in a category all of his own. As far as the people of Plainfield, Wisconsin, their town is still famous for the home of Wisconsin's most notoriously deranged minds. In fact, they had to remove Ed's tombstone because it kept getting stolen. But they cope sometimes with humor, jokes and limericks or poems poking fun of the absolute horror of the situation. These jokes and such were called geaners. And I'll leave you with one from Wisconsin circa nineteen fifty eight. There once was a man named Ed, who wouldn't take a woman to bed. When he wanted to diddle, he cut out the middle and hung the rest up in the shed. So to all you mothers out there who are not Augustagean, I wish you a very happy mother's day. But remember monsters could live right next door, so watch yourselves and stay safe out there. Would it be inappropriate to dance after this? Hell no, what else is there to do? Come on.