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The police dismissed the possibility of foul play and the county coroner later officially listed asphyxiation as the cause of death. It was later reported, by biographer Harold Schechter, that Henry had bruises on his head. 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. With lanterns and flashlights, a search party searched for Henry, whose dead body was found lying face down. By the end of the day-the fire having been extinguished and the firefighters gone-Ed reported his brother missing. On May 16, 1944, Henry and Ed were burning away marsh vegetation on the property the fire got out of control, drawing the attention of the local fire department. 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. He enjoyed babysitting, seeming to relate more easily to children than adults. While both worked as handymen, Ed also frequently babysat for neighbors. The brothers were generally considered reliable and honest by residents of the community. Henry and Ed began doing odd jobs around town to help cover living expenses. On April 1, 1940, Ed Gein's father George died of heart failure caused by his alcoholism, at age 66. Despite his poor social development, Gein did fairly well in school, particularly in reading. To make matters worse, Augusta punished him whenever he tried to make friends. 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. Outside of school, Gein spent most of his time doing chores on the farm.ġ930 US Census with Ed Gein (13th name from the top) in Plainfield, Wisconsin Gein left the farm only to attend school. Augusta took advantage of the farm's isolation by turning away outsiders who could have influenced her sons.

George owned a local grocery shop for a few years but sold the business, and the family left the city to live in isolation on a 155-acre (63-hectare) farm in the town of Plainfield, Wisconsin, which became the Gein family's permanent residence. She 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. She reserved time every afternoon to read to them from the Bible, usually selecting verses from the Old Testament and Book of Revelation concerning death, murder and divine retribution. She preached to her sons about the innate immorality of the world, the evil of drinking, and her belief that all women (apart from herself) were naturally promiscuous and instruments of the devil. Īugusta was fervently religious, and nominally Lutheran. Gein had an elder brother, Henry George Gein (1901–1944). Gein was born in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, on August 27, 1906, the second of two boys of George Philip Gein (1873–1940 ) and Augusta Wilhelmine ( née Lehrke) Gein (1878–1945). He is buried next to his family in the Plainfield Cemetery, in a now-unmarked grave. He died at Mendota Mental Health Institute of respiratory failure, on July 26, 1984, aged 77.

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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 was initially found unfit to stand trial and confined to a mental health facility. Gein also confessed to killing two women: tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957.

Gein's crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety in 1957 after authorities discovered he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. Edward Theodore Gein ( / ɡ iː n/ Aug – July 26, 1984), also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher.