Episode Transcript
[00:00:21] Speaker A: If you dig the twisted, admire the outlandish, and are enamored by the unusual, you're in the right place. True crime, the supernatural, the unexplained. Now you're speaking our language. If you agree, join us as we dive into the darker side. You know, because it's more fun over here. Welcome to Total Conundrum.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Warning.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: Some listeners may find the following content disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: You ever drive through one of those small towns where everything looks just a little too quiet? The kind of place where nothing big ever happens, but if it did, the whole town would talk about it for generations.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that one single gas station, a diner where everyone knows your order. And that one creepy house at the edge of town.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Exactly. Well, back in the early 1900s, that town was Plainfield, Wisconsin. Population maybe 700 people. A sleepy little farming community where everybody knew everybody. And the biggest news was whose cow got loose.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Yeah, Plainfield was about as rural as it gets. Dirt roads, endless fields, and the kind of isolation that makes secrets easy to keep. No one locked their doors. People left their keys in the car. The worst crime was probably a stolen pie off of a windowsill, which was probably me. Love me some pie.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Yeah, not as much as you love brownies.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Yeah, it's true.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: But all that changed when they discovered what was happening on a certain 160 acre farm just outside of town. A farm that belonged to a very quiet but strange man named Ed Gein.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: And once the truth came out, Plainfield wasn't just another dot on the Wisconsin map anymore. It became the real life inspiration for some of the most terrifying characters in horror history.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's go back to the very beginning, to the birth of Ed Gein and the childhood that shaped him into the monster he became.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Before we dive into the real horror of Ed Gein, remember to hit that like and subscribe button. Leave us a review on Apple and Spotify. And don't forget to ring that notification bell on YouTube. So you're always in the loop with our latest episodes. Your support keeps us going. If you have any story ideas or recommendations, contact us@totalconundrum.com or you can find us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: And because we love keeping you both horrified and entertained, stick around till the end. We've got some trailers from our podcast pals at Twisted Karma podcast, Weird mythic podcast. Make sure to show them some love and give them a listen.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: We'll be back after these messages.
[00:03:21] Speaker C: Are you ready for a little good karma with A twisted edge. This is Twisted Karma where best friends Tara and Mara, a pair of caffeine fueled moms, dive headfirst into the darkest corners of true crime, the paranormal and urban legends. I'm Tara and I do the deep dives, bringing you the facts, the research and the haunting details. While my Ride or Die Mara brings the razzle dazzle with sharp wit, unfiltered commentary, and just the right amount of sass to keep things twisted. We honor the victims, roast the criminals, and shine a light on stories that need to be told. From spine chilling hauntings to jaw dropping true crime cases. No stone goes unturned, no ghost gets left behind, and no criminal escapes. A well deserved verbal smackdown.
So grab your sage, your snacks and your sense of justice. Because Karma, she's a little twisted. Twisted Karma with Tara and Mara honoring the victims, calling out the darkness, and finding the humor even when the story hits its darkest point. New episodes every week, wherever you listen.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: To podcasts and back to the show.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: But now let's uncover the chilling tale of Ed Gein, the man who transformed a sleepy Wisconsin town into the backdrop of one of the most horrifying true crime stories in history. Edward Theodore Gein was born on August 27, 1906, the second son of Augusta and George Gein.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: George, George, George of the Jungle.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Now, if you're imagining a sweet little family raising their boys on a picturesque farm, erase that image from your mind immediately. It's so much worse.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Yeah, because Augusta Gein was not your typical loving mother. She was a religious fanatic. Fire and brimstone. Hell is real, women are the devil kind of fanatic. She believed all women, except for herself, were sinful and disgusting temptations sent straight from hell.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: And as for George, let's just say week doesn't even begin to cover it. He was a raging alcoholic, barely held a job, and was constantly berated by Augusta for being useless. Which, to be fair, he kind of was.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Ouch. But also, yeah, accurate. He tried his hand at being a tanner, a carpenter, even a grocer at one point, but nothing stuck. Eventually, Augusta had enough of the big city life of lacrosse Wisconsin and packed up the family to move somewhere more pure.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: And by pure, she meant completely isolated. She bought a 160 acre farm outside a plainfield, far from the corruption of the world. No neighbors, no town gossip, no outside influences. Just Augusta, George and their two sons, Henry and Ed.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: And let's be real, this was not a warm and loving household. Augusta was the authority. She ruled with an iron grip, drilling scripture into her sons daily sin, punishment, damnation. It was all they ever heard.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: And forget about friends. Augusta forbade Ed and Henry from socializing. No playing with other kids, no outside relationships. The only people in their world were each other. And they're ever so loving.
Mother.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Yeah, and Augusta had a special soft spot for Ed. Birds of a feather go psycho together.
She saw him as weak, delicate, and in need of protection. But protection really meant complete control. And let's be honest, he worshiped her, hung on to every word, believed everything she said.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: Meanwhile, his older brother, Henry, not so much. Henry started questioning Augusta's teachings as he got older and saw through her manipulations. And as you might have guessed, that didn't go over well.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Not even a little. But we'll get into that later. Because for now, we have Ed Gein isolated, socially awkward, and growing up under the thumb of a woman who convinced him that the outside world was evil and that she was the only person he could trust.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: And that kind of upbringing, it changes a person. It plants the seeds of something dark. And for Ed, those seeds started growing in ways no one could have ever imagined.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Yeah, because when a boy is raised to fear everything told, that women are vile and has no human connection beyond his controlling mother, let's just say it never ends well.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Shocker. Does it ever? With my stories.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Let me check my Magic 8 ball. It says absolutely not.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: So we've established that Ed Gein grew up in complete isolation under the iron rule of Augusta. But what happens when a kid is raised to believe that everyone outside his house is evil, sinful, or out to corrupt him?
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Oh, I'm guessing nothing. Good. Because instead of forming friendships, developing social skills, or, you know, growing up normal, Ed went in a very different direction.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Yeah, to put it mildly. Since Augusta forbade him and Henry from socializing, Ed became obsessed with books. And not just any books. Medical encyclopedias, anatomy textbooks and. And crime magazines. While other kids were playing baseball, Ed was reading about corpses and being creepy.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: Just your average childhood. Right? And if that wasn't bad enough, Augusta had a very specific brand of bedtime stories. Instead of fairy tales or fables, she read passages from the Old Testament. You know, the fun ones about divine punishment, eternal damnation, and how women were the root of all evil.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: And this really messed Ed up. He grew up absolutely terrified of women, completely convinced that they were wicked temptresses designed to lead men astray. The only woman he saw as pure.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Wait, let me guess. It was Augusta. Mommy dearest.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: You got it. The signs were there early. Ed eventually attended a small schoolhouse but he was a total outcast, Socially awkward, laughed at by the other kids, and completely unable to hold normal conversations.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Yeah, and let's just say kids aren't exactly known for being gentle to the weird overweight kid in class.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: Not at all. He was bullied constantly for his strange mannerisms, his odd way of speaking, and his tendency to laugh at the wrong moments. You know, like when someone got hurt or a teacher told a tragic story.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: Nothing screams red flag like laughing at somebody else's misery, right?
[00:10:15] Speaker B: But despite all of this, Augusta would not let Ed form any real friendships. If he ever came home talking about another kid, she scolded him, telling him that friends would only lead him into sin. So he withdrew even further into his own little world.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Guess what, folks? This is the part where things get darker.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: Bingo. Because as Ed got older, his obsession started shifting. He wasn't just reading about anatomy, he was fantasizing about it. He developed a deep fascination with the human body, specifically what was inside it.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: And with a house that isolated, a mother that strict, and a mind that warped, this wasn't just some passing curiosity. This was the beginning of something much worse.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: And it wouldn't take long for that darkness to manifest in real life. Because as much as Augusta tried to control Ed, there was one person who saw through it. His older brother, Henry.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: As we'll soon find out, seeing through Augusta's influence, that was a dangerous thing to do.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: So by the 1940s, George's drinking had destroyed his health. He was coughing constantly, barely able to work. And In April of 1940, at the age of 66, he died of heart failure caused by alcoholism. And Ed and Henry were grown men, but their lives still completely wrapped up in Augusta's world. But unlike Ed, Henry had started to, well, let's just say, see through the Augusta effect.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: About time. Wasn't this guy like, 40ish? Now, while it still thought their mother was basically the second coming of a saint, Henry was starting to push back. He didn't buy into her whole all women are evil except me stick.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: And that put him at odds with Ed big time. Because to Ed, Augusta wasn't just his mother. She was the mother. The only woman untouched by sin.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: And Henry questioning that, oh, absolute heresy in Ed's eyes.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Worse than that, Henry was actively trying to pull Ed away from Augusta's influence. He'd tell him things like, hey, not all women are evil. Or maybe Mom's not totally right about.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Everything, or maybe she's just a psychopath.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Pretty much. Then, May 1944. Things take a very, very suspicious turn.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Yep. So the brothers were out in the field doing a controlled burn, just burning brush to clear the land. But suddenly, according to Ed, the fire gets out of control and they get separated.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Now, Ed, in a totally normal and not suspicious move, calmly goes to the authorities and tells them that Henry's missing. Right.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: So search parties form, and lo and behold, they find Henry's body lying face up on the ground. No burns, just dead.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: And not just dead. He has bruises on his head. Like, I don't know, he'd been hit.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Cause that's exactly what happens when you die from smoke inhalation, right?
[00:13:23] Speaker B: Oh, for sure. But here's the real kicker. No autopsy, no questions. The official cause of death. Asphyxiation.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: So let me get this straight. Henry, the only person challenging Augusta's control over Ed, dies in a fire accident where his body isn't burned, but does have head injuries, and nobody thinks that's even remotely weird?
[00:13:46] Speaker B: Nope. Everyone just shrugs and says, well, accidents happen, and moves on.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: Unbelievable. So if Ed did kill his brother, which, let's be real, he did, in my opinion, that's a massive red flag. What does that mean for Augusta? Because she's still around, right?
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, but not for long. Which we'll get into next. But let's just say Ed's already fragile grip on reality. It's about to snap like Rice Krispies.
So after Henry's very suspicious death, Ed was left with the only person he ever truly cared about. Augusta. And if you thought his obsession was bad before. Oh, just wait.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Yeah, because if Augusta was controlling before, imagine her now alone with Ed. No. Henry to Challenger, her favorite son, completely devoted to every word. But then something happened that changed every. Everything.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Yep, late in 1945, Augusta suffered a series of strokes. She was still alive, but physically, she was weak. Her iron grip on Ed's life was loosening, and he was not ready for that.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Oh, no, because if Ed has one thing in this world, it's mother issues. So what does he do?
[00:15:05] Speaker B: He becomes her sole caretaker. Ed doted on her, making sure she had everything she needed. And honestly, he probably thought this was his big moment, his chance to be the perfect son and prove just how devoted he was.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: Yep. Except Augusta was still Augusta. Even dying, she was as harsh and judgmental as ever. She could barely move, barely speak, but still managed to criticize Ed, rant about sin, and remind him that all women were evil.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: And you know what's wild? Even that wasn't enough to shake his devotion. He worshiped her Hung on every word. But the real breaking point, that came after a little trip to town.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Wait, what happened?
[00:15:50] Speaker B: Okay, so Augusta was getting sicker and sicker, but one day, Ed drove her into town to buy supplies. And while they were out, they saw something that absolutely shattered her.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Let me guess. Something sinful.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Bingo. They witnessed a local man beating a dog to death outside a shop. And next to him, his wife, standing there, doing nothing, just watching.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Oh, I already know where this is going.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Yep, Augusta lost it. She was horrified, but not because of the poor dog. Nope. She was disgusted by the woman. In her eyes, the wife was just as sinful, just as evil, because she wasn't stopping her husband.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Wow. So a man beats a dog to death, but somehow it's the wife's fault.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: Exactly. Classic Augusta logic. And after that incident, her health spiraled. She got worse fast.
[00:16:49] Speaker A: And Ed, I'm guessing, was panicking.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: More than panicking. He was desperate. This was the only person who ever mattered to him, the only person he had. And by the end of 1945, she was gone.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Oof. So Augusta finally dies, and Ed.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Ed. Completely unhinged.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: Yeah, because if Ed was barely holding it together before now, no Henry, no Augusta. Just him. Alone. And we know what happens when a guy like Ed Gein is left to his own devices.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, and we're just getting started. Because after Augusta's death, that's when Ed's world turned dark. And I mean real dark. Next, we're diving into how Augusta's grip on Ed tightened and how after her death, everything started to unravel.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Should we get into it?
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Let's do it. So Augusta Gein is dead. The one person who controlled every second of Ed's life. The one voice that shaped everything he believed gone. And that kind of loss, it does something to a person. Especially someone like Ed.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Ed wasn't just grieving his mother. He was completely unmoored. His entire life revolved around Augusta. She told him how to think, what to believe, who to fear, and. And now, for the first time in his life, he had no one telling him what to do.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: And instead of reaching out, trying to connect to other people, Ed withdrew even further. He shut himself away in that 160 acre farm, barely speaking to anyone, spending his days in complete isolation.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: He let the house fall into total disrepair. Filth piled up, dishes left unwashed. Rooms became cluttered with. With junk and newspapers. But there was one place he kept pristine.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Let me guess. Augusta's room.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: Exactly. While the rest of the farmhouse rotted around him, Augusta's room was left untouched. It was like a shrine. Her bed was still made. The curtains stayed drawn, just how she liked them. He preserved it exactly the way it was when she was still alive.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: And that tells us a lot about Ed's mindset. He wasn't letting go. If anything, he was holding on tighter than ever. And when simply preserving her room wasn't enough, he started looking for ways to bring her back.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: And this. This is where things take a seriously dark turn. Because Ed wasn't just mourning his mother. He was trying to recreate her.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: That's when he started visiting the cemetery late at night, alone. But he wasn't there to pay respects.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: He was digging up graves. Specifically, graves of freshly buried women. Women who looked like Augusta.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Ed wasn't just taking bodies. He was taking pieces of them. Skulls, bones, skin. Anything he could use.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: And he wasn't just collecting them. He was making things out of them. He was crafting Augusta in his own twisted way.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: He started tanning human skin the way you would tan leather. He stitched together body parts. He kept skulls as bowls, turned bones into decorations, and created masks from actual human faces.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: And here's the thing. He wasn't just hoarding these things. He was using them. He decorated his home with flesh covered furniture. He kept human remains on display like trophies.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: And he did this for years without anyone noticing that that's how isolated he was. No one ever stopped by. No one ever questioned the fact that Ed Gein, this quiet, lonely man, was living in a house filled with actual human remains.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: But even that wasn't enough. Because grave robbing, it could only satisfy him for so long. Eventually, Ed realized he needed something more.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Something that wasn't already dead.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: And that's when he took the next step. That's when he turned to murder.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: For years, Ed Gein had kept his darkest urges satisfied with grave robbing. But by 1954, that wasn't enough anymore. The cemetery visits weren't bringing Augusta back. The obsession was growing. And that's when Ed took his first known life.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Enter Mary Hogan, the owner of a small tavern in Plainfield. And unlike Augusta, Mary was nothing like Ed's mother.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: Not even close. Mary Hogan was loud, brash, independent. She cursed, she drank. She joked around with the customers. She was the total opposite of everything Augusta stood for.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: And that made her exactly the kind of woman Augusta would have despised. Which, in Ed's mind, probably meant she had to go.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: It was December 8, 1954. A bitterly cold evening in Plainfield. The tavern was nearly empty. Just Mary Hogan behind the bar, cleaning up for the night.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: And then Ed walks in.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: We don't know exactly what was said, but at some point, ed pulled out a.32 caliber pistol and shot Mary Hogan in the head.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: Just like that. No struggle, no argument. One bullet to the head, and Mary was gone.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: And then Ed dragged her body out the back door, loaded it into his truck, and drove her straight back to his farmhouse.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: And here's the creepy part. No one even noticed she was gone. Not at first, right?
[00:22:28] Speaker B: The next morning, a few customers came by the bar and found blood on the floor. But no Mary. Just gone.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: And what did the town think?
[00:22:37] Speaker B: At first, they thought she had just left. Mary was originally from Chicago, didn't have any family in Plainfield, and had talked before about wanting to go back to the city. People figured she had just packed up and disappeared.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: You mean despite the fact that there was a literal pool of blood on the floor?
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Apparently, yes. The locals shrugged it off. No one really looked into it. And just like that, Mary Hogan was officially missing. We'll be back after these messages.
[00:23:07] Speaker C: Hello, my friends. My name's Naomi and I am the host of Weird Mythic Podcast. It is a podcast all about that strange and unusual things that are not easily explained in this world. Talk a lot about Cryptids, everything from the Bunyip all the way to Bigfoot, Pukwigees, Thunderbirds. You name it, I'll cover it. Go ahead and listen to Weird Mythic Podcast anywhere you get your podcast fix. I hope you tune in soon.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: And back to the show.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: And here's where things get really unsettling. Ed joked about it. He sat around listening to people talk about her disappearance and casually says things like, mary's not missing. She's at my place right now.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: And that wasn't creepy at all. People just laughed. They thought it was just Ed being Ed. Odd, awkward, always making weird comments. No one took him seriously. The people of Plainfield went on with their lives, completely unaware that a murderer was living right next door.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: And now that Ed had crossed that line, killing wasn't just an idea anymore. It was real. And grave robbing, it wasn't enough anymore. Now he needed more.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: For years, Ed Gein had managed to keep his crimes hidden. No one in Plainfield suspected that the quiet handyman, the guy who did odd jobs around town, had already murdered one woman and spent his nights digging up corpses. But In November of 1957, that all changed.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: And the moment everything unraveled, it all started with a simple purchase. A gallon of antifreeze.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: Let's set the scene. It's November 16, 1957. A cold Saturday morning in Plainfield, Wisconsin. Bernice Worden, a widow in her late 50s, was working at the Warden hardware store like she had for years. It was deer hunting season, which meant business was steady. But that day, the store was quiet.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: And then Ed walks in.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: He tells Bernice he's there to buy antifreeze. She rings him up, writes out the receipt, and then at some point, ed pulls out a.22 caliber rifle and shoots her.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: And just like that, no argument, no struggle. One gunshot, and Bernice Worden is gone.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: And then he drags her body out the back door, loads her into his truck and drives her back to his farm.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: And again, somehow, nobody sees anything.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: Nope. The town is quiet, the store is empty, and Ed just leaves. But here's where he makes his first big mistake.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: Right? The receipt.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Exactly. Later that day, Bernice's son, Frank Warden, who just happens to be a deputy sheriff, stops by the store, finds the place completely abandoned.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: Okay, so this dude's a sheriff. He's not gonna just assume his mom skipped town, Right?
[00:26:08] Speaker B: He sees the cash registers open, and there's a blood trail leading out the back door. And then he. He checks the last receipt in the register. It's for a gallon of antifreeze. Sold to Ed Gein, world's dumbest criminal.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: Yo, Busted.
[00:26:24] Speaker B: Haha. Busted is right. Immediately, police head out to Ed's farm. It's dark, the place is silent. The yard is covered in overgrown grass. They knock, but there's no answer. So they let themselves in.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: And that's when they walk into a waking nightmare.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: The first thing they see. Bernice Worden's body hanging upside down in the shed. She had been decapitated, gutted like a deer. Her body split open from the chest down.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: That is beyond horrifying. Walking into that shed, expecting to find a missing woman, and instead seeing her hanging upside down, butchered like an animal. That wasn't just a murder scene. It was something straight out of a nightmare.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: It was beyond anything that these officers had ever seen before.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: And keep in mind, this is a small town police force. These guys are used to the occasional bar fight or stolen tractor. Not this.
[00:27:22] Speaker B: And Bernice Warden, that was just the beginning.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: Because when officers stepped into Ed gein's farmhouse on November 16, 1957, they thought they were investigating a single murder.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: But what they walked into, it was something out of a nightmare. One that no one could have ever imagined.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: Yeah, this wasn't just another crime scene. This was something beyond anything law enforcement had ever encountered. The first thing that hit them, the smell.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: It was suffocating. A mix of rotting flesh, filth and decay. The kind of stench that clings to you. The kind you can't wash off.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: And that's when they found Mary Hogan's face. Peeled off and preserved like a mask. And then they saw it. At first, it just looked like a hoarder's house. Piles of newspapers, garbage stacked in corners, unwashed dishes. But then they started to notice the details.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: Small things at first. A bowl sitting on the counter. But when they looked closer, they realized it was made from a human skull.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: And in that moment, they knew they weren't just dealing with a murderer. They were dealing with something much worse. And then they started finding more.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: They found chairs upholstered with human skin.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: Lampshades stitched together from human flesh.
[00:28:50] Speaker B: A belt made entirely out of human nipples.
[00:28:54] Speaker A: And masks made from real human faces.
[00:28:58] Speaker B: Ed had peeled the skin off the victims faces, tanned them and stitched them into wearable masks.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: Not just as souvenirs. He wore them.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: And if that wasn't horrifying enough, in the corner of the room, they found a box filled with preserved books, vulvas.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: In his kitchen, they found a bowl filled with human organs.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: And Bernice Worden's head. It was in a burlap sack with nails driven into the ears.
[00:29:27] Speaker A: But then, tucked away among his collection, they found something even more disturbing.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: That's when they discovered the suit. The full body skin suit that Ed Gein had meticulously crafted from human remains.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Gein had stitched together real human skin taken from the bodies of women he dug up in the cemetery and formed an entire outfit. He had leggings, a torso, and even stitched together a chest resembling a woman's body.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: And it wasn't just for display. He wore it. At night, alone, in his farmhouse. He would put on the suit, drape himself in human flesh, and walk around pretending to be his mother.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: It puts the lotion on the skin.
He didn't just want to recreate Augusta. He wanted to become her.
[00:30:25] Speaker B: The officers could barely process what they were looking at. This wasn't just murder. This was a complete psychological break from reality.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: You think? And the way he made it, it was calculated, precise. He carefully removed the skin, preserved it, stitched it together and. And tanned it like leather. He tailored it to fit himself.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: It was clear Ed Gein wasn't just killing, he was crafting. He was trying to piece together a version of his mother using real human flesh.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: And that's why the police knew they weren't just dealing with a murderer. They were dealing with something far worse.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: The discovery was so grotesque, so inhuman, that no one had a reference point for it. One of the officers ran outside and vomited on the spot. Another said it was worse than anything he had ever seen. Even worse than war.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: And Ed, he wasn't hiding, wasn't running. He was sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: Gross. When they arrested him, he didn't fight, he didn't protest. He just calmly admitted to everything.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: And this is where we step into the mind of Ed Gein. What made him do this? What was his reasoning? And more importantly, was he truly insane?
[00:31:48] Speaker B: Next, we'll break down his confessions, his trial, and the fate of the man who turned Plainfield into a real life horror story.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: Ed Gein was finally in custody after years of hiding in plain sight. After grave robbing, crafting human remains into furniture, and murdering at least two women. He was sitting in an interrogation room calmly answering every question the police asked. And when we say calmly, we mean completely unfazed. No panic, no remorse. He wasn't trying to deny anything. He just told them everything.
[00:32:24] Speaker B: He admitted to digging up graves, to skinning the corpses, to making his quote unquote creations. And when they asked him about Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden, he admitted to those too, but said he didn't remember killing them.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: Which, let's be real, it's insanely convenient. Like, oh, yeah, I definitely kept their faces in my house. But the murder part? No, I don't think so.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I totally believe him.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: He claimed that one day he just came to and realized they were dead. And instead of questioning it, he got to work.
[00:33:05] Speaker A: And by work, we mean butchering them like animals and repurposing their bodies. This was when investigators started to realize they weren't dealing with just a murderer. They were dealing with somebody whose mind was completely detached from reality.
[00:33:19] Speaker B: They called in psychologists, forensic experts, and criminal profilers trying to figure out just what was going on inside Ed Gein's head.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: So here's what they found. Ed wasn't your typical killer. He wasn't in it for the thrill power or even revenge. He wasn't hunting people down. He was trying to recreate his mother.
[00:33:41] Speaker B: Yeah, this wasn't about control like most killers. The this was about grief, obsession, and an absolutely broken mind.
[00:33:50] Speaker A: He had what's known as necrophilic tendencies, but there was no evidence that he actually had sex with the bodies, which.
[00:33:58] Speaker B: Honestly, not much of a silver lining when you Consider everything else he was doing.
[00:34:04] Speaker A: Exactly. But the key thing here is that he wasn't just obsessing with death. He was obsessing with transformation. He believed that wearing the skin of women, by using their remains, he could literally bring Augusta back to life.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: Ed wasn't just killing for pleasure. He was killing because in his mind, he was building something.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: And experts, they were divided on what to do with him. Some thought he was insane and unfit for trial. Others thought he was fully aware of what he was doing.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: But legally, the courts had to make a decision.
[00:34:40] Speaker A: In 1957, Ed Gein was officially charged with the murder of Bernice Worden, which.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: By the way, they didn't even bother charging him for Mary Hogan's murder, even though he literally confessed to it.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: Yeah, their logic was basically one murder charge is enough. Which.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: Okay, but here's where things take a turn. Ed was declared insane and unfit to stand trial. Instead of being sent to prison, he was sent to Central State Hospital for the criminally insane.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: And this was not some high security supermax. It was a mental institution, where Ed, believe it or not, became a model patient.
[00:35:21] Speaker B: He was described as polite, cooperative, even friendly. The staff said he was quiet and well behaved, which, considering why he was there, that's chilling.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like, oh, Ed's great. He's super nice. If he ignored the part where he turned people into furniture.
[00:35:41] Speaker B: But in 1968, over a decade after his arrest, doctors decided he was finally sane enough to stand trial.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: Now, by this time, the case had become legendary. The world knew Ed Gein's name. Hollywood was already drawing inspiration from him. But legally, he was still only being charged for one murder. Bernice Wardens.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Yeah, which is wild considering what they found in his house. But technically, without more evidence, they couldn't pin anything else on him.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: In November of 1968, he was found guilty of murder. But because he was still legally insane, he was sent back to the psychiatric institution instead of prison.
[00:36:25] Speaker B: And there he stayed for the rest of his life.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: Ed Gein spent the next two decades in Menota Mental Health Institute, where, believe it or not, he lived a pretty peaceful life.
[00:36:36] Speaker B: He gardened, read books, did small chores. And in 1984, at the age of 77, he died of cancer, which, honestly.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: Feels like too easy of an ending for somebody who did all that.
[00:36:50] Speaker B: You're not wrong, but his legacy didn't end there.
[00:36:54] Speaker A: After his death, people still weren't done with Ed Gein. His grave in Plainfield Cemetery became a hot spot for souvenir hunters. People would chip away pieces of his gravestone, steal chunks of it, until finally.
[00:37:08] Speaker B: In 2000, someone stole the entire gravestone. They just took it.
[00:37:14] Speaker A: And this is where things get really weird. Because even though Ed Gein only technically killed two people, his his crimes inspired some of the most famous horror villains of all time.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: Norman Bates in Psycho, Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: And suddenly this quiet little man from Plainfield, he became one of the most infamous killers in history.
[00:37:41] Speaker B: So was Ed Gein truly insane? Or was he a man who knew exactly what he was doing?
[00:37:48] Speaker A: And even more terrifying, how many more people did he kill that we'll never know about?
[00:37:53] Speaker B: One thing's for sure, his story is proof that sometimes the quietest people, they're the ones that you should fear the most.
[00:38:01] Speaker A: And with that Conundrum crew, we'll see you next time. If you can still sleep at night.
[00:38:06] Speaker B: Keep on creeping on. We love you.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Bye.
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