“Psycho”
“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”
“Silence Of The Lambs”

These three horror films have one thing in common: Ed Gein.
Was he buried in Michigan as some sites have claimed?

Author Robert Bloch wrote his novel Psycho based on the crimes of Ed Gein, a serial killer who murdered neighbor women, skinned them, used the flesh for upholstery, saved body parts in coffee cups, and more.....not Greg Brady by a long shot.

Bloch’s character of Norman Bates was concocted with Gein in mind:
1) Both were raised by domineering mothers after their fathers were gone.
2) The mothers of both taught them that women were sinful and evil beings.
3) Both lived in isolation: Ed in a country farmhouse, Norman in an off-highway motel.
4) Both ended up serial killers.

According to History.com, Ed, born in LaCrosse, Wisconsin on August 27, 1906, lived in a farmhouse out in the Wisconsin countryside with the rest of his family: mother Augusta, father George, and older brother Henry. They all lived together until 1940, when George passed away at the age of 67. In 1944, a fire broke out, and brother Henry died under “mysterious circumstances”. Did he die from the fire or was the fire a cover-up for murder? A year later, Ed’s mother died.

Now 39 years old and alone, Ed had no one to talk to, confide in, or tell him what to do. He was so lonely and despondent, he proceeded to go to the cemetery and dig up the bodies of women who had reminded him of his mother. As related in Silence of the Lambs, Ed was making a female body suit out of various body parts and flesh of the corpses he dug up.

Get our free mobile app

In 1957, the jig was up.
Cops descended on the farmhouse.
After his deeds were discovered, police found a collection of human skulls, a chair re-upholstered with flesh, a cup full of noses sitting on a windowsill, the remains of ten women, other gruesome discoveries, and the body of Bernice Worden, strung upside-down and gutted.

All this evidence, and he was only connected to two murders. After examinations, Ed was declared mentally & criminally insane and sent to a mental institution.

Thanks to the news coverage in 1957, curiosity-seekers from all over the county – and state – invaded the Gein farm, attempting to get a look inside this “house of horrors”. Once a crime house gets enough notoriety, inevitably it will reach the ears of an arsonist…which is believed to be the cause of a blaze that burned down the whole Gein farmhouse in 1958.

In 1968, Gein was found guilty by reason of insanity and lived the rest of his life in a state hospital/institution. Ed passed away from cancer on July 26, 1984.

Now, as for a rumored Michigan connection that said Ed was buried in the Kent County town of Plainfield…..it’s true, Ed was buried in Plainfield. However, it was Plainfield Wisconsin, not Michigan. So next time you read a bio on Ed that says he was laid to rest in Michigan, set ‘em straight.

See the photo gallery below.

Ed Gein

MORE STUFF TO PERUSE:

Vintage Halloween Costumes

Halloween Pet Costumes

Haunted Huron River Inn

The Haunting of McMorran Place

Lake Lansing's Spiritualist Camp, 1882-1890s

 

More From WKFR