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Edward Theodore Gein (; August 27, 1906 – July 26, 1984), also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer, suspected serial killer and body snatcher. Gein's crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety in 1957 after authorities discovered that he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned keepsakes from their bones and skin. He also confessed to killing two women: tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954, and hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957. Gein was initially found unfit to stand trial and confined to a mental health facility. By 1968, he was judged competent to stand trial; he was found guilty of the murder of Worden, but he was found legally insane and was remanded to a psychiatric institution. Gein died at Mendota Mental Health Institute from respiratory failure resulting from lung cancer, on July 26, 1984, aged 77. He is buried next to his family in the Plainfield Cemetery, in a now-unmarked grave. Early life Childhood Edward Theodore Gein was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on August 27, 1906, the second of two boys of George Philip Gein (1873–1940) and Augusta Wilhelmine Gein (née Lehrke; 1878–1945). Gein had an elder brother named Henry. Augusta, who was fervently religious and nominally Lutheran, frequently preached to her sons about the innate immorality of the world, the evil of drinking and her belief that all women were naturally promiscuous and instruments of the devil. She reserved time every afternoon to read to them from the Bible, usually selecting verses from the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation concerning death, murder and divine retribution. Gein idolized and became obsessed with her. Augusta hated her husband, an alcoholic who was unable to keep a job; he had worked at various times as a carpenter, tanner, and insurance salesman. During his time in La Crosse, Gein's father owned a local grocery shop, but he soon sold the business and left the city with his family to live in isolation on a 155-acre (63-hectare) farm in the town of Plainfield, Wisconsin, which became their permanent residence. Augusta took advantage of the farm's isolation by turning away outsiders who could have influenced her sons. Gein left the farm only to attend school. Outside of school, he spent most of his time doing chores on the farm. Gein was shy, and classmates and teachers remembered him as having strange mannerisms, such as seemingly random laughter, as if he were laughing at his own personal jokes. To make matters worse, Augusta punished him whenever he tried to make friends. Despite his poor social development, Gein did fairly well in school, particularly in reading. Deaths in immediate family On April 1, 1940, Gein's father died of heart failure at age 66. Ed and his brother Henry began doing odd jobs around town to help cover living expenses. The brothers were generally considered reliable and honest by the rest of the community. While both worked as handymen, Ed also frequently babysat for neighbors. He enjoyed babysitting, seeming to relate more easily to children than adults. Henry began dating a divorced mother of two and planned to move in with her; he worried about his brother's attachment to their mother and often spoke ill of her around Ed, who responded with shock and hurt. On May 16, 1944, Ed was burning away marsh vegetation on the property; the fire got out of control, drawing the attention of the local fire department. By the end of the day—the fire having been extinguished and the firefighters gone—Ed reported his brother missing. With lanterns and flashlights, a search party searched for 43-year-old Henry, whose dead body was found lying face down. Apparently, he had been dead for some time, and it appeared that the cause of death was heart failure since he had not been burned or injured otherwise. It was later reported, by biographer Harold Schechter, that Henry had bruises on his head. Police dismissed the possibility of foul play and the county coroner later officially listed asphyxiation as the cause of death. The authorities accepted the accident theory, but no official investigation was conducted and an autopsy was not performed. Questioning Gein about the death of Bernice Worden in 1957, state investigator Joe Wilimovsky brought up questions about Henry's death. George Arndt, who studied the case, wrote that, in retrospect, it was "possible and likely" that Henry's death was "the 'Cain and Abel' aspect of this case". With Henry deceased, Ed and Augusta were now alone. Augusta had a paralyzing stroke shortly after Henry's death, and Ed devoted himself to taking care of her. Sometime in 1945, he later recounted, he and his mother visited a man named Smith, who lived nearby, to purchase straw. According to Ed, Augusta witnessed Smith beating a dog. A woman inside the Smith residence came outside and yelled for him to stop, but Smith beat the dog to death. Augusta was extremely upset by this scene; however, what bothered her did not appear to be the brutality toward the dog but, rather, the presence of the woman. Augusta told Ed that the woman was not married to Smith and so had no business being there, and angrily called her "Smith's harlot". She had a second stroke soon after, and her health deteriorated rapidly. Augusta died on December 29, 1945, at the age of 67. Ed was devastated by her death; in the words of Schechter, he had "lost his only friend and one true love. And he was absolutely alone in the world." Work Gein held on to the farm and earned money from odd jobs. He boarded up rooms used by his mother, including the upstairs, downstairs parlor and living room, leaving them untouched. While the rest of the house became increasingly squalid, these rooms remained pristine. Gein lived thereafter in a small room next to the kitchen. Around this time, he became interested in reading pulp magazines and adventure stories, particularly those involving cannibals or Nazi atrocities, specifically concerning Ilse Koch, who selected tattooed prisoners for death in order to fashion lampshades and other items from their skins. Gein received a farm subsidy from the federal government starting in 1951. He occasionally worked for the local municipal road crew and crop-threshing crews in the Plainfield area. Sometime between 1946 and 1956, he also sold an 80-acre (32 ha) parcel of land that Henry had owned. Crimes Confirmed On the morning of November 16, 1957, 58-year-old Plainfield hardware store owner Bernice Worden disappeared. The hardware store's truck was seen driving out from the rear of the building at around 9:30 a.m. The hardware store saw few customers the entire day; some area residents believed that this was because of deer hunting season. Worden's son, Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden, entered the store around 5:00 p.m. to find the cash register open and blood stains on the floor. Frank Worden told investigators that on.... Discover the Mary Hallberg popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Mary Hallberg books.