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.