xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx x- Americans I MOST admire x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x--x-x-x-x-x-x- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [ Edward Theodore Gein 1906-1984 ] On November 17 1957, Policemen were invesitgating the robbery of a hardware store, and the kidnapping of the owner, Bernice Worden. The suspect was Eddie Gein, a man who had been the last customer of the hardware store and had been seen loitering the perimeter. Inside the house, the found the following horrific things: -Bernice Worden, murdered, decapitated, and gutted, hanging from the cieling. -A human skull -A lampshade and waste basket made from tanned human skin -An armchair made of human skin -Female genitals in a shoe box -A belt made of nipples -A human head -Four noses -A heart -A suit made of human skin A truly troubled and sick individual. But it was asked. Who is Eddie Gein? Why does he keep these horrible things? And how come we hadn't heard of him before? Allow me to answer one question at a time. Born on August 27 1906, To Augusta and George Gein in La Crosse Wisconsin, he lived with his brother Henry and parents. His mother was a fanatically religious woman. She hated everything she deemed, "sinful", and was determined to raise her boys up to her strict moral code. She would tell her sons of the immorality and looseness of women, so they would not be hurled into hell. While his mother was a loud, outspoken woman, his father was a weak alcoholic, who Augusta thought of as a despicable creature not fit to hold down a job, let alone raise her children, so, she took it upon herself. She openned a grocery the year Edward was born, and saved her money so she could get away from the sinfulness that the city was infested with. After 8 years, they moved to the farm where gein's handiwork would be discovered many years later. Eddie wasnt a smart boy, but he loved reading. Reading adventure books and magazines allowed him to escape from his world. Eddie was effeminate and shy, and his schoolmates teased him. He had no friends because his mother would not allow it. Her opposition to making friends did make him sad and lonely, but, he loved his mother, and thought she did know best, so he tried his best to stick to her rigid rules. Even so, she was never happy with her children, and often verbally abused them, saying that they would end up like garbage, like their father. When their father died in 1940, they took small odd jobs to help supplement the income. Henry took up handyman jobs, and Eddie babysat. He found he could relate to the children better then his peers, he was socially and emotionally retarded, thanks to his mother. Henry was worried about Eddie's unhealthy attatchment to their mother. He sometimes openly critisized their mother, and Eddie was shocked. The fact that not everyone saw his mother as a pure and good being was amazing to him. This is probably what led to Henry's mysterious death in 1944. His brother went missing while they were fighting a bush fire that went a little out of control. After forming a searching party, Gein led them right to Henry. Noone could believe that little Eddie could have possibly killed his older brother, so the suspicious nature of his death was ignored. He was found in an area not touched by fire, and he had bruises on his head. Gein was now alone with his mother, the only person he really needed. But, she died in December of 1945, and Gein was alone again. Eddie remained on the farm until his arrest in 1957. He boarded off his mother's room and left it exactly as she had when she died. Eddie lived in the lower floor of his house, and spent his time reading death cult magazines and adventure stories. Also, this would be where he did his other hobbies... Gein was quickly spinning out of control. The domineering eye of his now dead mother had caused a fear of women into him, but, his natural sexuality made him very curious about it. This caused a cataclysmic psychosis in his brain. He would often go into the cemetary at night, and examine the bodies of women, although he said he never actually had intercourse with the corpses, he did skin their bodies, and wear their flesh, dressing up like a transvetite, trying to discover what gives women their special power over men. Gein kept shrunken heads in his house that he said he got from south america. He had in fact got heads from the graveyard and shrunk them personnally. He would show these heads to children, and would often joke about them, but no serious thought was put on it. It wasnt even known if they were real heads or not. There was a general apathy about the strange man, until that fateful day in 1957. At first, Gein was reluctant to talk, but soon, he was telling the police everything. The details about Mrs. Worden, and another he had killed, Mary Hogan, but he was adamant that he did not kill anyone else, and that the other body parts were from the graveyard. Police were skeptical, they saw the only way to confirm this was for Gein to show him what bodies in the graveyard he had defiled. There was much public outcry about this, but soon, he did show them, and it turns out he was right, all the bodies in the graveyard were very defiled. Reporters flocked around the world to Wisconsin, and there was chaos. Gein quickly became the most documented case of necrophilia, transvestism and fetishism. The whole world knew of gein's acts, even children, who sang songs about him, and people told sick jokes about tanning skin and other Gein hobbies, these 'Geiners" too, became popular world wide. To his neighbors, Gein seemed like a really nice guy, a little peculiar with a strange sense of humor. It truly shocked them that Eddie could do this kind of thing. But, it was hard to escape the facts. The strange little man from Wisconsin had infact killed and skinned people, and wore their flesh. Gein was found mentally incompetant after 30 days in a mental institution, and there was alot of public outcry that he wouldnt fry for the death of Bernice Worden. He was sentenced to Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin, and soon after, his house and belongings were put up for auction. The auctioneers attempted to turn Gein's house into a museum of the morbid, charging 50 cents to see Geins belongings. They were then ordered to stop by the government, but the population was not satisfied. Geins house was set on fire in the early hours of March 20, 1958, and it was just allowed to burn. When Gein heard of his house, he said non-chalantly "Just as well." 10 years later, in 1968, Gein was deemed competant, and went to trial. He was found guilty of First Degree murder, but, because he was insane at the time of the incident, he was aquitted and found not guilty be reason of insanity. He returned to Central State Hospital where he lived out his days. He was happier in the hospital then ever, and was actually healthy, eating 3 squares a day. He still loved to read, and got along well with the other patients. In 1984, Gein died from a long bout with cancer, he was buried next to his mother, not far from the graves he had desecrated. Gein, to this day, is still a media craze. He was the main inspiration for 'Buffalo Bill' from the 'Silence of the Lambs', and 'Alfred Hitchcock's' 'Psycho'. Even more recently, the Nu-Metal group 'Mudvayne' has written a song all about Eddie Gein, called 'Nothing to Gein'. Also, "Deviant" by 'Harold Schechter' is about Eddie Gein. I just wanted to introduce you to an American I MOST admire.