The Shocking True Story Behind Monster: The Ed Gein Story

The Shocking True Story Behind Monster: The Ed Gein Story

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re discussing the life and crimes of the notorious Ed Gein that inspired Netflix’s third installment of “Monster.”

Spoilers ahead for all eight episodes.

Ed Gein & Modern Horror

In 1957, a small Wisconsin town was blindsided by the horrific discoveries in the home of Ed Gein, later dubbed the Butcher of Plainfield. Netflix’s latest season of “Monster” explores how he inspired numerous villains and slashers in a variety of media.

In the series, we start to follow Alfred Hitchcock as he works with Robert Bloch to adapt his 1959 novel “Psycho.” The author has repeatedly stated he didn’t base the character of Norman Bates on Ed Gein, but the show makes it seem like he thoroughly researched the man. Like others that’d follow, Hitchcock only used some elements of Gein’s story, notably the disturbing, unhealthy mother-son relationship.

When he was young, Tobe Hooper heard about a graverobber in Wisconsin who crafted furnishings using human remains. Along with other influences and ideas, this shocking true story partially inspired 1974’s horror classic “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” The influential film depicts a group of road-tripping friends who’re subjected to a deranged cannibal clan and chainsaw-wielding killer, Leatherface.

Although “Monster” doesn’t show as much behind-the-scenes as the previous films, serial killer Buffalo Bill from “The Silence of the Lambs” also shares similarities with Gein, like an obsession with human skin and wearing women’s clothes.

A Tragic Upbringing

Born in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, on August 27, 1906, Edward Theodore Gein was the youngest of George and Augusta Gein’s two sons. Augusta raised Ed and his brother Henry under her extreme religious beliefs and negative views on women, purposely keeping them isolated on their Plainfield property. George struggled with substance use and often physically harmed his sons. After he died of heart failure in April 1940, the boys worked all over town doing odd jobs as handymen.

Unlike Ed, Henry didn’t develop an obsession with their mother and didn’t want to live on the farm forever. In the first episode of “Monster,” Henry tells Ed that he’s getting married and encourages him to break free of the domineering Augusta, too. Ed hits him with a log, killing him instantly. To cover it up, he starts burning away marsh vegetation, moves Henry’s body, and claims he’s missing. When he’s found, the coroner concludes that he died of asphyxiation.

Despite long-held speculation, it was never proven that Ed intentionally killed Henry. In the 1989 biography, “Deviant: The Shocking True Story of the Original Psycho”, author Harold Schechter alleged that Henry’s head had bruises. However, no autopsy was performed, and Ed later denied any involvement.

Soon after Henry’s death on May 16, 1944, Augusta suffered a debilitating stroke. Ed cared for her by himself until she had another stroke, then passed away on December 29, 1945.

Becoming the “Butcher of Plainfield”

Over the span of five years, Ed Gein lost his whole immediate family. However, the devastating death of his mother likely hit him the hardest. He lived all alone on the secluded farm, in a house without plumbing or electricity, letting his surroundings become more dilapidated and unkempt.

Living in isolation, consuming pulp magazines and comic books about convicted war criminal Ilse Koch, aka “The Bitch of Buchenwald.” It’s believed he was inspired by Koch’s alleged affinity for using the skin of Jewish prisoners to make lampshades. Ed began going to cemeteries at night, where he’d dig up the bodies of the recently deceased, specifically middle-aged women who reminded him of his mother, using their remains to make a “woman suit.”

On December 8, 1954, Ed Gein committed his first murder, shooting local tavern owner Mary Hogan and bringing her body home. He went on to rob more graves, creating more face masks and bizarre furnishings to fill the house. On the morning of November 16, 1957, Gein shot hardware store owner Bernice Worden. Later in the day, her son, Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden stopped by the store where he found blood and the last receipt she wrote, which was for Gein.

In Episode 4 of “Monster,” Ed Gein and Bernice Worden go on a date and hook up at her house, and later, talk about him moving in. He likes that she indulges in his secret “hobby” of wearing ladies’ underwear. But after returning to his empty home, he’s scolded by a hallucination of his mother, who convinces him to abandon the sudden plans. There is no evidence suggesting Gein and Worden had a torrid love affair before he killed her.

Episode 6 centers Deputy Worden and Sheriff Schley discovering the horrific state of Gein’s home and his disturbing collection of human remains. The body of Bernice Worden is found by her son. When Gein pulls up to the house, the deputy assaults him in a fit of rage. In reality, he was apprehended at a store in West Plainfield, and it was Sheriff Schley who assaulted Gein.

When Gein was first arraigned on November 21, he entered a not guilty plea “by reason of insanity.” He was deemed unfit for trial, sent to the maximum-security Central State Hospital in Waupun, and diagnosed with schizophrenia. It would be a decade before his second trial for Worden’s murder. On November 14, 1968, Judge Robert H. Gollmar found him not guilty by reason of insanity, and re-committed him to Central State. Gein would later move to Mendota State Hospital, where he spent his remaining days, dying at 77-years-old on July 26, 1984.

Myths & Misconceptions

Contrary to popular belief, Ed Gein was not a serial killer. Although he’s suspected of more, he only confessed to two murders, not meeting the definition’s minimum of three victims. He also wasn’t a cannibal, and, although the series shows him engaging in post-mortem activities, Gein always maintained that he never had sex with his victims, or the several bodies he exhumed.

After his arrest, Gein was questioned about a missing girl named Evelyn Grace Hartley, who was abducted from her babysitting job in La Crosse County on October 24, 1953. But Hartley didn’t fit his MO and there was no proof they crossed paths. The series, however, sees Gein’s disastrous first time babysitting, subsequently blaming Hartley for taking his job and motivating him to stalk and kidnap her, adding her remains to his house of horrors.

The sheriff also mentions the 1947 disappearance of Georgia Jean Weckler and two hunters, Victor Harold Travis and Raymond Burgess, who went missing near the Gein farm in 1952. It’s true that he was briefly a suspect in all three cases and eventually cleared. And no, he did not chase them, or anyone, with a chainsaw.

One of “Monster”’s major departures from reality is Gein’s alleged romance with Adeline Watkins, an aspiring crime scene photographer and his only friend, besides his mom. The two share morbid interests, and it’s implied that she introduced him to comic books and photos of Nazi atrocities. They go on dates and eventually, he pops the question in a night-time picnic in the local cemetery.

However, the real Adeline Watkins told a different story. In an interview with the Minneapolis Tribune just days after his arrest, she claimed to have had a 20-year relationship with Ed Gein, though turned down a marriage proposal in February 1955. But she tried to set the record straight just a couple weeks later, telling the Stevens Point Journal they only saw each other between 1954 and 1955. Showrunner/director Max Winkler explained that her prominent presence in the series was to give Ed someone to talk to, since he led such an insular life.

In the Media

Ed Gein may be the most influential killer in pop culture, but his real story hasn’t been as discussed or depicted as others like Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer.

In 1974’s “Deranged,” the Gein-inspired Ezra Cobb becomes a serial killer after his fanatical mother’s demise. The cult classic features much more graphic acts of violence than Gein committed, along with digging up his mother’s remains. 2000’s “In the Light of the Moon” is a mostly accurate biopic starring Steve Railsback as Gein. However, the film shows him gifting his neighbors meat that he claims is venison, something the real Gein reportedly did not do.

Actor and stuntman Kane Hodder stepped into the role of Gein for the 2007 direct-to-video release “Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield.” While the film is fairly accurate, it depicts Gein as an aggressive spree killer, not the timid loner he was often described as. Aside from the 2010 comedy, “Ed Gein, the Musical,” he also influenced a few grunge and metal rock bands, including Slayer, Tad, Blind Melon, and Mudvayne.

Netflix’s “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” hit the platform on October 3, 2025, and, much like most Ryan Murphy-produced projects, it promptly stirred up controversy. Casting actor Charlie Hunnam as the Wisconsin murderer had fans skeptical of his portrayal. With so little known about Gein compared to others, showrunner Ian Brennan had to embellish a lot, adding fantasy sequences, a love interest, and more than a few lurid actions that Gein is not known to have committed.

Did you watch the 8-episode series? Let us know in the comments below.