So far in my research I have found many interesting things about Gein that are going to be helpful to my paper and others that won’t really help me out in my paper. At this point in my research I have found some things that are going to help me answer my question of why he kept certain things as souvenirs. The first thing I did in my research was looked for a source with enough background information for me to get a feel for Gein’s life and the crimes he committed, I read many sources until I found one that I felt was good enough to use. I then found an article about a women who claimed to have dated Gein for twenty years, which I new was false because his mother forbidden him to dating. I then found a source that gave me information on his parents childhood as well as his. Through that source I have discovered that Gein’s mother wanted a baby girl badly and when she had Ed she vowed he would not grow up to be like other men. Gein was raised with the mentality that his mother was  a saint and she could do no harm. The unhealthy relationship that Gein had with his mother plays a huge role in his mental health. Gein was practically in love with his mother and after he died he lost her, but he found ways to get “parts” of her back. Gein would do anything to be close with his mother after she was dead. Gein dug up the graves of women who reminded him of his mother and kept parts of them as a constant reminder of the female body and of his mother. Gein’s ultimate trophy was the body suit he made of different females, in which he would wear at night and dance in the moonlight. The ultimate reminder of his mother would be to have a sex change, because then he could be just like his mother, but if Gein couldn’t have the sex change he wanted that suit did just enough for him.

Again I have gone in a different direction than planned for this source but I think this source has so far been very beneficial for me. For my third source I read a secondary source, the first few chapters of the book Deviant by Harold Schechter. This book covers everything on Ed Gein, from his parents childhood, to his murders, to his trail and his death. So far I have only read chapters 2-6 but have gotten answers for some questions I have had. Before reading these chapters I was curious on his parents childhood and if that had an effect on the upbringing of their children. This book was copywrited in 1989 which was after the death of Gein but is a great source on his life. [Edit] This source has formed rhetorical distance with its readers by using an impersonal approach and a third person narrative. By doing so the rhetor has created an informational tone to Gein’s life rather than telling it like a story.

Chapter two starts out talking about the Gein family seemed to be singled out for tragedy. George Gein’s childhood (Ed’s father) is the first thing talked about. George was orphaned at the age of three when his parents and older sister went to town and were caught in a flash flood and drowned. George moved in with his grandparents and never seemed important to anyone. After finishing elementary school George floated around from job to job and eventually ended up becoming quite the drinker. Augusta came from a large family that was nowhere near perfect. Stern, disciplined, domineering and inflexibility were things Augusta grew up with due to her fathers behavior issues, and the children were often beat for misbehaving. Augusta’s family was very religious which carried into her adult years. George and Augusta met at a young age and as different as they were they seemed to hit it off. Although they hit it off at first their marriage would become a nightmare. Augusta clearly learned to take after her father and her husband could never seem to be good enough, he would always be a worthless good for nothing man. George’s alcoholism became worse due to the unhealthy marriage with Augusta which led to him coming home highly intoxicated and he would lash out and hit Augusta. Augusta felt that a child would comfort her because the marriage was not good. As religious as she was the thought of sex with this man revolted her but she wanted a child.

Henry was born in 1902 and would live a hard life of isolation until his death forty years later. Although Augusta loved Henry something still did not seem right in her life, she decided she wanted another child in hope that she would have a daughter, after all having a girl would allow her to bond better. So Augusta allowed her husband to commit that foul deed upon her one more time and she prayed every night for a baby girl. On August 27, 1906 Augusta brought another baby boy into this world, she was devastated.  But she was stronger than that, she would not give into this despair, instead she vowed that this boy would not turn out to be a sweating, foul-mouthed creature like the rest of the men in this world, Eddie would be different. She was right Eddie would be different than the rest of the kids in his school, his mother forbidden him to make any kind of friends because there was always something wrong with the other kids family. In school Eddie was often the target of being teased because of a skin growth he had beneath his eye, being picked on made Eddie cry, which led to more teasing because he cried like a girl. Augusta would see to it that her children would never have anything to do with women, for they were foul creatures that were evil and would only do harm to her boys. She gave them a daily bible lesson and enforced a strong set of rules. In Eddie’s eyes his mother was nothing but pure goodness, his father on the other hand according to Augusta was a worthless, good for nothing alcoholic who couldn’t keep a job. These chapters tell of two memories Ed has of his mother when he was younger that stuck in his mind for the remainder of his life. One of those two was seeing his mother slaughter a pig hanging by its hind legs in the windowless wooden building behind the store that was forbidden to enter.  From that moment on he knew he would never forget the sight of the split open pig with a pile of guts and blood hanging below.

I think this source helped me a lot in my research project, although I have not finished the book I feel I have already learned things that have helped answer some of my questions. From these chapters I am taking away some useful information, I find it interesting that even as a child Ed showed girlish characteristics which I blame his mother for. Augusta wanted a daughter so bad that I think he knew she would be happier if he acted like a girl. Because he was emotional as a child I think it effected his phycology and that’s why he was so fascinated with the female body. I have also learned that because Ed was so infatuated with his mother he did things to try to be like her. In some way I believe that finding Bernice Worden’s decapitated body hanging from his barn cut open and gutted relates back to his memory of seeing his mother slaughtering that pig. I do plan on reading more in this book in hopes of finding out more about him psychologically as well as more about his arrest and trial. I think that this source will be really helpful in understanding why he decided to keep certain body parts of the female body.

Work Cited

Schechter, Harold. Deviant: the shocking true story of Ed Gein, the original ‘psycho’. New York: Pocket Books, 1989. p. 9-31. Print.

The second source I will be using is from the Stevens Point Daily Journal on November 20, 1957, three days after Gein’s arrest. This source is kairotic because it was printed right after Ed Gein was caught for murdering Bernice Warden. I’m choosing to use this article titled, “Woman Tells Tales of Dating Gein”  because I find it inaccurate and contradicts my other sources. This source was written for the people in the town of Stevens Point but also people interested in the Ed Gein case and was to inform them of what this woman was saying about her relationship with Gein.

According to this article Adeline Watkins claimed to have dated Ed Gein for twenty years. She stated that Ed was “so nice about doing things I wanted to do, that sometimes I felt I was taking advantage of him.” In this article she also claims that Gein had proposed to her but she turned him down because she didn’t believe she could live up to his expectations. Watkins mother also claimed that he was a sweet young man who always had her daughter home on time. In  my opinion I think this woman made this up. I have read many biographies on Gein and not one mentioned him dating, in fact most stated that he never dated a woman. Watkins claims their last date was in February of 1955, which if that was true would mean they started their relationship in 1935, ten years before Geins mother passed away. Gein did everything in his power to live up to his mothers expectations and wouldn’t do anything to go against her. Gein’s mother had forbidden her sons to have any sort of relationship with women for they were impure and were all prostitutes. Gein was so in love with his mother that it would have nearly been impossible for him to have such feelings for another woman. When Ed’s brother Henry was alive he talked about moving out because he had feelings for a woman, which infuriated Ed because it went against what their mother had taught them. Gein killed two women that resembled his mother which shows how infatuated he was with his mother, again making this article hard to believe.

This source doesn’t really help answer my question but I found it interesting that a woman would claim to have dated such a disturbed man. I think this source also goes to show that even back in the fifties people wanted attention and would say just about anything to get a share of the lime light. By refuting this article it will back up my previous statements that Gein had an unhealthy obsession with his mother. From here I do not find it important to continue my research about this relationship with Adeline Watkins, instead I am going to peruse the idea of what could have led him to commit these crimes.

Work Cited:

“Woman Tells of Dates She Had with Gein.” Stevens Point Daily Journal 20 Nov. 1957: 1. Print.

The first source I am going to be using is from the Crime Library, this source covers basically anything you would want to know about Ed Gein. I think this is a good source to start with because it helps build background information on Gein for my readers. The Crime Library is written for anyone curious on the Ed Gein’s history and the crimes that he committed. The Crime Library is a place you can go to look up different offenders, whether it’s serial killers, sexual offenders, unsolved cases and many other things to learn more about a specific topic. This website is split up into chapters, sort of like a book would be to make it easier to find the information you are looking for.

Chapter 2: The Beginning starts out from the beginning of his life; Edward Theodore Gein was born on August 27, 1906 to Augusta and George Gein in La Crosse, WI. Ed was the youngest child in the family, having an older brother named Henry who was seven years older than him. The children’s mother was a very religious woman who raised her boys according to her strict moral code. The boys received teachings from the bible every day and she repeatedly warned her sons of the evilness of women. According to her beliefs all women except her were prostitutes and if either of her boys had sexual desires for them they would be cast into hell. George on the other hand was a sever alcoholic who had no say in the raising of his boys. The boys were always told how worthless their father was because he couldn’t keep a job. Augusta provided for the entire family financially by opening a grocery store when Ed was born, once she had saved enough money they moved to Plainfield, WI where she could raise her boys away from the city and the way she wanted to. Of course the boys had to attend school, which they did and Ed succeeded very well in reading which allowed him to escape into his own world away from his mother’s strict rules. The boys were not allowed to have any friends, which saddened Ed, but he tried his hardest to please his mother.

Chapter 3: Henry, looks at Ed’s relationship with his brother Henry. Ed looked up to his older brother Henry just as any normal little brother did.  After their father died of a heart attack in 1940 the boys started taking on small jobs to help support the family farm and mother financially. Both boys were considered to be trustworthy and reliable by many townspeople, but Ed’s favorite job was babysitting for the neighbors. Henry often worried about Ed’s unhealthy attachment to their mother and often criticized her which shocked Ed, in his eyes their mother was pure goodness. On May 16^th 1944 Henry and Ed fought a bush fire that was dangerously close to their farm. According to police, the two boys separated to fight the fire from different directions and as night approached Ed lost sight of Henry and contacted the police about his missing brother. A search party was formed and surprisingly Ed led them right to Henry, who was lying dead on the ground. Henry’s death remains a mystery because he was found on land untouched by the fire and had bruising on his head. Nobody ever suspected sweet, innocent Ed of being capable of killing anyone, especially his brother.

Chapter 4: Seriously Weird covers the beginning of his killings.The only person Ed had left after Henry’s death was his mother, but only for a brief time. Augusta died on December 29, 1945 after having several strokes, Ed was all alone know, he lost the person he loved the most.Ed remained living in the house, but boarded off the rooms that his mother used the most so they would remain as she had left them. Two rooms were all Ed had left, the kitchen and a small room next to the kitchen that he used as his bedroom. After his mother’s death Ed became real lonely and spent much of his time reading adventure books, pulp magazines and anatomy books. Ed became fascinated by the procedures done by the Nazis, South Sea headhunters and shipwrecks, after reading all these weird stories he became obsessed with them. Ed also enjoyed reading the obituaries, where he would learn of recent deaths of local women. He made many trips to grave yards to dig up the remains of recently buried women. After digging up women he would peel their skin off and wear it like a jumpsuit because he was curious what it was like to have breasts and a vagina. Ed began collecting different parts of the female body and preserving their heads to hang in his room.

A few years after starting his collection he decided he wanted fresher skin and in the winter of 1954 Ed killed his first victim, tavern keeper Mary Hogan, police excepted foul play when they found the pool of blood on the tavern floor (Chapter 4). Chapter 6: Skeletons in the Closet, covers the findings in Geins murders. On November 17, 19577 Ed killed his second victim Bernice Worden, the only thing that connected him to this crime was a receipt for antifreeze, which Ed had stated he would be back for the day prior to her disappearance in front of bernice Worden’s son. Worden’s son told police he knew it had to be Ed Gein, so police drove out to the Gein farm and what they found next would be etched in their memory for the rest of their lives. Not only did they find the headless body of Mary Hogan hanging in the shed but they found the remains of at least 10 other bodies. Police found Ed and took him into custody. At first Ed did not admit to the murders, but after 24 hours of silence he finally confessed his story of how he killed Mrs. Worden and where the body parts were located. He told stories of how he robbed the graves women and dissected their bodies. Although he confessed to the murders of Hogan and Warden he did not completely remember everything that had happened, he did not recall shooting either with a .22 caliber gun. Chapter 7: A Sexual Psychopath, talks about the findings of his sanity. Psychologists and psychiatrists found Ed was schizophrenic and a “sexual psychopath,” by those means alone Gein pled not guilty by reason of insanity. Many psychologists and psychiatrists believe his condition was due to the unhealthy relationship with his mother and upbringing. Ed spent 30 days in a mental institution and was evaluated as mentally incompetent and could no longer be tried for first degree murder; the people of Plainfield were irate. After 10 years spent in the mental institution courts decided he was indeed recovering and could be tried. Ed was found guilty of first degree murder, but was found insane at the time of killing and was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and acquitted. Although Ed escaped punishment because of insanity he spent the remainder of his life in the mental institution until he died on July 26, 1984 after a long fight with cancer.

I have found this source to be highly accurate from other sources that I have read; the information from this source matches all the others I have read. I chose to use this source instead of others because it included all of the information on Gein’s life instead of only parts like most of the other sources I have read. The crimes that Gein committed are mind blowing in my opinion, and what I find even more mind blowing is that psychologists link his problems to his unhealthy relationship to his mother. I’m really curious as to what his mother would think about his killings, some sources say he could hear her voice telling him how to execute the killing and I’d like to know if that is true. This source didn’t help much to answer my question of why he chose to keep certain things as souvenirs, so I think the next place I will go is to look into other cases that are similar to his that have been evaluated by psychologists already.  This source did however give me incite on his relationship with his mother and how that played a key factor in his mental health issues.

Work cited:

Bell Rachael, Marilyn Bradsley. “Eddie Gein.” Crime Library: Criminal Minds and Methods. TruTv, 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. <http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/gein/bill_1.html>.

http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f237/ed-gein-crime-scene-pictures-new-109928/

http://mispeliculasdeterror.com/especiales/la-masacre-de-texas-historia-real

The topic for my research project is Ed Gein, a serial killer from Plainfield, WI. While looking over information on Gein I am really curious as to how and why he chose to keep certain things from women as souvenirs. When Gein was arrested they found many household items that were made from skulls or other pieces from women. I think this is something worth exploring, because Gein was not like other serial killers, he actually only killed two women, but dug up and robbed the graves of many other women. Gein was a rare case in Wisconsin because he had stretched the skin of his victims to cover furniture and to make a life like human jumpsuit to wear. I think it would be interesting to find out why he chose to keep certain pieces of the body and not others because these body parts were a huge factor in the Gein case. I currently do not understand why he kept these pieces because I haven’t found many articles that interview him or ask him about why he kept these. I think finding a source on his psychology would help answer this question.