The Debrief With MyronGainesX - Fed Explains The Plainfield Ghoul Ed Gein

00:00:00.880 And we are live. What's up, guys? Welcome to FEDA. Today, we're going to be covering Ed Gein. I'm here with Angie.

00:00:05.820 You should do stuff to the people.

00:00:07.420 Hi. My name is Angelica, but I prefer Angie because he's here for everybody.

00:00:13.140 And yes, I'm co-hosting again, and we're doing Ed Gein.

00:00:17.960 You mean Ed Gein, as you would say?

00:00:19.980 Ed Gein.

00:00:21.740 You guys have been requesting this one for a while, man, so we're going to get right into it.

00:00:24.480 I'm not going to play the intro on this one. I'm doing a little experiment with YouTube.

00:00:27.020 Because for some odd reason, I always get a yellow mark any time I do that intro.

00:00:30.520 I think it has to do with the Boston Marathon bombing stuff going off in the intro.

00:00:33.840 And they're like, oh, my God, that's, you know, not good.

00:00:37.460 I guess, like, what's the term for it?

00:00:39.380 You need to change it.

00:00:39.920 Violent content or whatever, but it is what it is, even if it's historical.

00:00:43.020 So, anyway, here he is, guys, Ed Gein right here.

00:00:44.840 Edward Theodore Gein, born August 27, 1906, died July 26, 1984.

00:00:50.000 Also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher.

00:00:54.900 So, Gein's crimes committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety in 1957

00:00:59.500 after authorities discovered that he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin.

00:01:06.720 Gein also confessed to killing two women, tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and hardware stow owner Bernice Worden in 1957.

00:01:13.920 Gein was initially found unfit to stand trial and confined to a mental health facility.

00:01:17.800 By 1968, he was judged competent to stand trial.

00:01:20.280 He was found guilty of the murder of Worden, but he was found legally insane and was remanded to a psychiatric institution.

00:01:28.320 He died at Mendota Mental Health Institute from respiratory failure resulting from lung cancer on July 26, 1984, at age 77.

00:01:35.540 He was buried next to his family in the Plainfield Cemetery in a now unmarked grave.

00:01:39.760 And I'm sure you guys, if it was marked, people would be going crazy.

00:01:42.780 So, this him doesn't look like the saneness of individuals, so I'm not surprised.

00:01:46.700 Actually, somebody stole the stone.

00:01:48.300 Oh, did they?

00:01:49.600 Yeah.

00:01:49.880 I'm not surprised.

00:01:51.320 So, we're going to react to this documentary right here, guys.

00:01:53.280 Serial Killer, Ed Gein, a full documentary.

00:01:54.940 This comes from Serial Killer Documentary.

00:01:56.480 Shout out to them.

00:01:57.140 Give them a like.

00:01:58.180 Subscribe.

00:01:58.800 Check them out as well.

00:01:59.860 Don't forget to like and subscribe to this channel.

00:02:01.460 I'm going to pause this throughout, give you guys some commentary.

00:02:04.300 But the other documentaries that we had, we don't want to get hit with a copyright.

00:02:08.960 So, we want to make sure that we can do something that won't cause issues.

00:02:11.180 Cause you guys might not know this, but I've done a bunch of podcasts where I couldn't

00:02:15.780 upload it because it got hit with like a copyright or whatever it is. 0.95

00:02:18.200 So, it sucks, man.

00:02:19.540 Also, I'm going to do the, you guys can see here, the Golden State Killer. 0.98

00:02:22.700 That will probably be next.

00:02:24.380 Cause you guys have been asking for him for a while.

00:02:26.220 What about John Benet Ramsey?

00:02:27.580 That too.

00:02:28.260 That too.

00:02:28.580 Those, those, one of those two is going to be next for y'all.

00:02:30.840 So, all right.

00:02:32.080 Let's get right into it without further ado.

00:02:33.360 On November 17th, 1957, police in Plainfield, Wisconsin, arrived at the dilapidated farmhouse

00:02:50.440 of Eddie Gein.

00:02:52.160 He was a suspect in the robbery of a local hardware store and disappearance of the owner,

00:02:57.160 Bernice Worden.

00:02:59.060 Gein had been the last customer at the hardware store and had been seen loitering

00:03:03.220 around the premises.

00:03:04.820 And this is a police investigator carrying this chair.

00:03:08.080 Guys, human skin is used right here in this area that he had put in this chair.

00:03:12.080 Wild.

00:03:13.080 Yeah, that's part of his house.

00:03:14.280 Gein's desolate farmhouse was a study in chaos.

00:03:17.780 Inside, junk and rotten garbage covered the floors and counters.

00:03:22.500 It was almost impossible to walk through the rooms.

00:03:25.660 The smell of filth and decomposition was overwhelming.

00:03:28.700 While the local sheriff, Arthur Schley, inspected the shed with his flashlight, he felt something

00:03:34.880 brush against his jacket.

00:03:36.720 When he looked up to see what it was he ran into, he faced a large, dangling carcass hanging

00:03:42.460 upside down from the beams.

00:03:44.680 The carcass had been decapitated, slid open, and gutted.

00:03:48.940 To be sure, an ugly sight is a familiar one in that deer-hunting part of the country, especially

00:03:59.440 during deer season.

00:04:01.340 It took a few moments to sink in, but soon Schley realized that it wasn't a deer at all.

00:04:07.620 It was the headless, butchered body of a woman. 1.00

00:04:11.060 Bernice Worden, the 50-year-old mother of his deputy, Frank Worden, had been found.

00:04:15.700 While the shock deputies searched through the rubble of Eddie Gein's existence, they realized

00:04:21.700 that the horrible discoveries didn't end at Mrs. Worden's body.

00:04:25.960 They had stumbled into a death farm.

00:04:28.600 The funny-looking bowl was the top of a human skull.

00:04:32.260 The lampshades and wastebasket were made from human skin. 0.99

00:04:36.740 A ghoulish inventory began to take shape.

00:04:39.540 An armchair made of human skin, female genitalia kept preserved in a shoebox,

00:04:44.380 a belt made of nipples, a human head, four noses, and a heart.

00:04:49.980 The more they looked around the house, the more ghastly trophies they found.

00:04:56.180 Finally, a suit made entirely of human skin.

00:05:00.760 Their heads spun as they tried to tally the number of women that may have died at Eddie's

00:05:05.880 hands.

00:05:06.300 All of them.

00:05:07.800 And just so you guys know, this is what one of the artifacts look like.

00:05:12.720 This is one of the skulls that he used, that he used to eat food from and drink water from.

00:05:18.080 He used to. 0.70

00:05:18.960 Crazy, bro.

00:05:19.820 Yeah.

00:05:20.520 There's some more photos here, but I'm not going to show them because we're definitely

00:05:23.080 going to get age-restricted if I do that.

00:05:24.840 But, yeah, pretty gruesome stuff.

00:05:26.520 I'll put the link here for you guys in the description so you guys can look at the unedited

00:05:30.020 crime scene photos.

00:05:30.740 This bizarre handicraft made Eddie into a celebrity.

00:05:34.920 Author Robert Bloch was inspired to write a story about Norman Bates, a character based

00:05:39.840 on Eddie, which became Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller, Psycho.

00:05:44.840 In 1974, the classic thriller by Tobey Hooper, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, had many Geinian 1.00

00:05:51.240 touches.

00:05:52.480 However, no character is an exact Eddie Gein model.

00:05:56.400 My favorite Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie was the one from 2005, I think Jessica Biel.

00:06:00.740 Was in it.

00:06:02.180 Here, I'll pull it up for y'all.

00:06:03.500 Because there's been so many remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

00:06:06.280 I think that one was the best, in my opinion.

00:06:08.340 My best movie would be Buffalo Biel.

00:06:11.060 Buffalo Biel? 0.96

00:06:11.780 Yeah, from...

00:06:13.040 What did you call it?

00:06:13.620 Buffalo Biel? 0.96

00:06:14.480 That's his name.

00:06:16.840 From the movie...

00:06:18.780 I don't know what's the name in English.

00:06:21.180 Do you know the name?

00:06:23.600 No.

00:06:24.940 No.

00:06:25.480 Oh, yeah.

00:06:25.840 Here we go.

00:06:26.340 This is it.

00:06:26.960 So, I thought it was all five.

00:06:28.240 It's actually this one, guys.

00:06:29.120 The one from 2003.

00:06:30.740 Okay?

00:06:31.400 This one was my favorite by far.

00:06:34.380 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2003.

00:06:37.520 Jessica Biel, Erica Larson, Eric Balfour.

00:06:40.880 I remember him when he got killed.

00:06:41.900 That was gruesome.

00:06:42.880 But, yeah.

00:06:43.340 Good movie.

00:06:44.340 But it was inspired by this guy, Ed Gein.

00:06:46.980 That's when they say, oh, based on a true story?

00:06:49.280 It's based on...

00:06:50.560 They should really say, based loosely on a true story.

00:06:52.540 Well, my favorite is The Silence of the Lambs.

00:06:55.000 Oh, okay, okay.

00:06:55.760 That's the one I was referring to.

00:06:56.520 Yes, that was another movie that was based on Ed Gein.

00:06:59.960 Helped put ghastly Gein back in the spotlight in the mid-1970s.

00:07:05.580 Years later, Eddie provided inspiration for another serial killer, Buffalo Bill, in The Silence of the Lambs.

00:07:12.440 Like Eddie, Buffalo Bill treasured women's skin and wore it like clothing in some insane transvestite ritual. 0.97

00:07:20.160 How does a child evolve into an Eddie Gein?

00:07:23.380 A close look at his childhood and home life provides many clues.

00:07:27.320 Now, you guys are going to notice here that he had a pretty decent upbringing with his mom.

00:07:32.460 And he snaps when his mom passed away.

00:07:35.560 And you guys are going to see here in a little bit.

00:07:38.080 Edward Theodore was born on August 27th, 1906, to Augusta and George Gein in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

00:07:46.420 Eddie was the second of two boys born to the couple.

00:07:49.540 The firstborn was Henry, who was seven years older than Eddie.

00:07:52.620 Augusta, a fanatically religious woman, was determined to raise the boys according to her strict moral code.

00:08:00.760 Sinners inhabited Augusta's world, and she instilled in her boys the teachings of the Bible daily. 0.90

00:08:06.520 She repeatedly warned her sons of the immorality and looseness of women, 1.00

00:08:10.920 hoping to discourage any sexual desires the boys might have had. 0.89

00:08:14.740 See, he didn't want them to be around them types of chicks. 0.98

00:08:18.300 Fear of them being cast down into hell.

00:08:20.500 Augusta was a domineering and hard woman who believed her views of the world were absolute and true. 0.99

00:08:27.860 She had no difficulty forcefully imposing her beliefs on her sons and husband.

00:08:32.500 Creepy picture. 0.88

00:08:33.320 George, a weak man and an alcoholic, had no say in raising the boys. 0.98

00:08:38.720 In fact, Augusta despised him and saw him as a worthless creature, 0.98

00:08:43.260 not fit to hold down a job, let alone care for their children.

00:08:46.680 She took it upon herself to raise the children according to her beliefs and financially support the family.

00:08:53.540 She began a grocery business in La Crosse the year Eddie was born.

00:08:57.960 It brought in a fair amount of money to support the family comfortably.

00:09:02.060 She worked hard and saved money so that the family could move to a more rural area,

00:09:06.460 away from the immorality of the city and the sinners that inhabited it.

00:09:10.060 In 1914, they moved to Plainfield, Wisconsin, to a 195-acre farm,

00:09:16.680 isolated from any evil influences that could disrupt their family.

00:09:20.660 The closest neighbors were almost a quarter of a mile away.

00:09:23.740 Just to give you guys a perspective of what was going on in 1906 at the time,

00:09:28.640 because this was a long-ass time ago.

00:09:31.600 July 11th, murder of Grace Brown, a factory worker whose killing causes a nationwide sensation.

00:09:36.600 July 14th, Gary, Indiana, is founded by the United States Steel Corporation.

00:09:39.900 August 23rd, unable to control a rebellion in the newly formed Cuban Republic.

00:09:43.700 President Thomas Estrada Palma requests U.S. intervention.

00:09:46.100 September 5th, Bradbury Robinson of the St. Louis University throws the first legal forward pass

00:09:52.800 in an American football game.

00:09:54.480 September 22nd, Atlanta race riot.

00:09:56.240 Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia results in 27 people killed

00:09:58.680 and the black-owned business district severely damaged.

00:10:01.440 September 24th, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devil's Tower, Wyoming,

00:10:05.620 as the nation's first national monument.

00:10:07.880 September 26th, the first concert of the Teleharmonium.

00:10:12.020 The first music synthesizer is presented at Tell Harmonic Hole, Broadway, at 39th Street, New York City.

00:10:18.740 And then the first Gordon Bennett Cup in the Ballooning is held, starting in Paris.

00:10:25.140 The winning team piloting the balloon, United States, lands in Flying Dales, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom.

00:10:33.120 So this is what was going on in 1906 back in the day.

00:10:36.180 And this was the year that your boy, Ed Gein, was born.

00:10:39.980 So, long time ago, man, there was like no technology back then.

00:10:44.280 Although Augusta tried diligently to keep her sons away from the outside world,

00:10:48.420 she was not entirely successful because they needed to attend school.

00:10:52.940 Eddie's performance in school was average, although he excelled in reading.

00:10:57.360 The reading of adventure books and magazines stimulated Eddie's imagination

00:11:01.040 and allowed him to momentarily escape into his own world.

00:11:05.680 His schoolmates shunned Eddie because he was effeminate and shy.

00:11:09.040 He had no friends, and when he attempted to make them, his mother scolded him.

00:11:14.720 Although his mother's opposition to making friends saddened Eddie,

00:11:17.780 he saw her as the epitome of goodness.

00:11:20.500 He followed her strict orders the best he could.

00:11:24.280 However, Augusta was rarely pleased with her boys.

00:11:35.060 She often verbally abused them, believing that they were destined to become failures like their father.

00:11:41.340 During their teens and throughout their early adulthood,

00:11:43.980 the boys remained detached from people outside of their farmstead.

00:11:47.740 They had only the company of each other.

00:11:50.680 Eddie looked up to his brother Henry and saw him as a hard worker and a man of strong character.

00:11:55.780 After their father died in 1940, they took on a series of odd jobs to help financially support the farm and their mother.

00:12:04.420 Eddie tried to emulate his brother's work habits,

00:12:07.080 and they both were considered by townspeople to be reliable and trustworthy.

00:12:11.560 They worked as handymen mostly, yet Eddie frequently babysat for neighbors.

00:12:15.920 It was babysitting that Eddie really enjoyed,

00:12:19.400 because the children were more comfortable for him to relate to than his peers.

00:12:23.820 He was, in many ways, socially and emotionally retarded. 1.00

00:12:28.200 Henry was worried about Eddie's unhealthy attachment

00:12:31.040 to their mother.

00:12:36.100 On several occasions, Henry openly criticized their mother, something that shocked Eddie.

00:12:42.260 Eddie saw his mother as pure goodness and was mortified that his brother did not see her in the same way.

00:12:48.360 It was possibly these incidents that led to the untimely and mysterious death of Henry in 1944.

00:12:55.320 On May 16th, Eddie and Henry were fighting a bushfire burning dangerously close to their farm.

00:13:01.000 According to police, the two separated in different directions, attempting to put out the blaze.

00:13:07.480 During their struggle, the night quickly approached, and soon, Eddie lost sight of Henry.

00:13:12.720 After the fire was extinguished, Eddie supposedly became worried about his missing brother and contacted the police.

00:13:19.740 The police then organized a search party and were surprised upon reaching the farm

00:13:23.640 to have Eddie lead them directly to the missing Henry.

00:13:28.100 The latter was lying dead on the ground.

00:13:31.000 The police were concerned about some of the things surrounding Henry's death.

00:13:35.160 For example, Henry was lying on a piece of earth untouched by fire,

00:13:39.140 and he had bruises on his head.

00:13:41.440 Although Henry was found under strange circumstances,

00:13:44.380 police were quick to dismiss foul play.

00:13:47.180 No one could believe shy Eddie was capable of killing anyone,

00:13:50.900 especially his brother.

00:13:53.080 Later,

00:13:53.400 Probably murked that boy for talking smack about his mom. 0.99

00:13:56.220 Hit him with the quick...

00:13:57.400 The county coroner would list asphyxiation as a cause of death.

00:14:02.940 The only living person Eddie had left was his mother, and that was the only person he needed.

00:14:09.260 However, he would have his mother all to himself for a very brief period.

00:14:13.560 On December 29th, 1945, Augusta died after a series of strokes.

00:14:20.640 Eddie's foundations were shaken upon her death.

00:14:24.200 Harold Schechter, in his book, Deviant, explained that Eddie had lost his only friend and one true love.

00:14:31.520 He was absolutely alone in the world.

00:14:35.100 After his mother's death, he remained at the farm and lived off the meager earnings from odd jobs that he performed.

00:14:40.540 Eddie boarded off the rooms his mother used the most, mainly the upstairs floor, the downstairs parlor, and the living room.

00:14:48.980 He preserved them as a shrine to her and left them untouched for the years to follow.

00:14:54.540 He resided in the lower level of the house, making use of the kitchen area and a small room located just off the kitchen, which he used as a bedroom.

00:15:02.480 It was in these areas that Eddie would spend his spare time reading death cult magazines and adventure stories.

00:15:09.640 At other times...

00:15:10.920 Look at how disheveled the house is, man.

00:15:12.500 Like, you could see that this guy just had zero order, zero type of discipline, and really couldn't get anything done without his mom there.

00:15:20.400 And this is the importance of having a strong father figure that teaches you how to live without the confinements of your...

00:15:27.080 Within, you know, the parameters of your parents just babying you everywhere.

00:15:29.920 This is a man that quite literally had zero ability to be on his own.

00:15:35.240 Eddie would immerse himself in his bizarre hobbies that included nightly visits to the graveyard.

00:15:40.920 After the death of his mother, Eddie became increasingly lonely.

00:15:45.320 He spent much of his spare time reading pulp magazines and anatomy books.

00:15:49.820 The rooms he inhabited were full of periodicals about Nazis, South Sea headhunters, and shipwrecks.

00:15:56.260 Eddie learned about the process of shrinking heads, exhuming corpses from graves, and the anatomy of the human body from his readings.

00:16:04.300 He became obsessed with these weird stories, and he would often recount some of them to the children he babysat.

00:16:10.920 Eddie also enjoyed reading the local newspapers.

00:16:14.480 His favorite section was the obituaries.

00:16:17.800 It was from the obituaries...

00:16:20.200 What?

00:16:23.080 ...that Eddie would learn of the recent deaths of local women.

00:16:27.020 Having never enjoyed the opposite sexes company, he would quench his lust by visiting graves at night. 1.00

00:16:32.640 Although he later swore to police that he never had sexual intercourse with any of the dead women he exhumed. 0.96

00:16:39.480 They smelled too bad. 0.96

00:16:41.980 He did take particular pleasure in peeling their skin from their bodies and wearing it. 1.00

00:16:47.640 He was curious to...

00:16:49.980 What? 1.00

00:16:51.120 What the fuck? 1.00

00:16:51.980 Yeah. 1.00

00:16:52.760 What the fuck? 1.00

00:16:53.520 This guy's a weirdo, man. 1.00

00:16:54.700 And just so you guys know, this is where, um... 0.73

00:16:57.480 In the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, when he peels the skin off the people, etc.,

00:17:01.360 that was inspired by this dude right here.

00:17:03.900 So, um...

00:17:05.680 Wearing the skin.

00:17:06.360 Because in the movie, he wears the skin of a lot of his victims. 0.65

00:17:09.780 And I remember this one scene in a 2003 movie.

00:17:12.440 He wears the face of one of the guys when he attacks the girlfriend, and she thought it was crazy.

00:17:17.080 So, um...

00:17:17.840 You guys should definitely go check that one out, the 2003 version. 0.99

00:17:20.300 Know what it was like to have breasts and a vagina, and he often dreamed of being a woman. 0.99

00:17:26.260 He was fascinated with women because of the power and hold they had over men. 0.99

00:17:32.320 He acquired quite a collection of body parts, some of which included preserved heads.

00:17:37.120 On one occasion, a small boy that he sometimes looked after visited Eddie's farm.

00:17:43.520 He later said that Eddie had shown him human skulls that he kept in his bedroom.

00:17:48.360 Eddie claimed the shriveled heads were from the South Seas, relics from headhunters.

00:17:53.380 When the young boy told people of his experience, his story was quickly dismissed as a figment of the young boy's imagination.

00:18:00.960 Then, somewhat later, the boy was vindicated when two other young men visited Eddie Gein's farm.

00:18:07.120 They, too, had seen the preserved heads of women, but thought them to be just strange Halloween costumes.

00:18:13.640 Rumors began to circulate, and soon most of the townspeople were gossiping about the strange objects Eddie supposedly possessed.

00:18:21.560 However, no one took the story seriously until Bernice Warden disappeared years later.

00:18:26.480 In fact, people would often joke with Eddie about having shrunken heads, and Eddie would just smile or make reference to having them in his room.

00:18:35.440 No one thought he was telling the truth, or maybe they just didn't want to believe it was true.

00:18:41.020 During the late 1940s and 1950s, Wisconsin police began to notice an increase in missing persons cases.

00:18:47.580 Four cases particularly baffled police.

00:18:51.100 The first was that of an eight-year-old girl named Georgia Weckler, who had disappeared coming home from school on May 1, 1947.

00:18:59.940 Hundreds of residents and police searched an area of ten square miles of Jefferson, Wisconsin, hoping to find the young girl.

00:19:07.680 Unfortunately, Georgia would never be seen or heard of again.

00:19:11.200 There were no right suspects, and the only evidence police had to go on were tire marks found near the place where Georgia was last seen.

00:19:20.440 The tire marks were that of a Ford.

00:19:23.240 The case remained unsolved and wouldn't be opened until years later, when Eddie Gein was convicted of murder.

00:19:30.240 Another girl disappeared six years later in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

00:19:34.300 Fifteen-year-old Evelyn Hartley had been babysitting at the time she had vanished.

00:19:38.300 Evelyn's father repeatedly tried to phone the girl at the house where she was babysitting, and there was no answer.

00:19:45.640 Worried, the girl's father immediately drove to where she was babysitting.

00:19:49.660 Nobody answered the door.

00:19:51.820 When he peered through a window, he could see one of his daughter's shoes and a pair of her eyeglasses on the floor.

00:19:57.840 He tried to enter the house, but all the doors and windows were locked, except for the back basement window.

00:20:04.040 It was at that window where he discovered bloodstains.

00:20:06.900 Petrified, he entered the house and found signs of a struggle.

00:20:12.100 Immediately, he contacted police.

00:20:14.680 When police arrived at the house, they found more evidence of a struggle, including bloodstains on the grass leading away from the home,

00:20:21.520 a bloody handprint on a neighboring house, footprints, and the girl's other shoe on the basement floor.

00:20:27.660 A regional search was conducted, but Evelyn was nowhere to be found.

00:20:31.840 A few days later, police discovered some bloodied clothing articles that belonged to Evelyn near a highway outside of La Crosse.

00:20:40.260 The worst was suspected.

00:20:42.540 In November of 1952, two men stopped for a drink at a bar in Plainfield, Wisconsin, before heading out to hunt deer.

00:20:49.620 Victor Travis and Ray Burgess spent several hours at the bar before leaving.

00:20:55.380 The two men in their car were never to be seen again.

00:20:59.440 A massive search was conducted, but there was no trace of them.

00:21:03.660 They had simply vanished.

00:21:05.560 And you guys got to understand, back then in the early 19, you know, in the 1900s, right?

00:21:11.940 You know, from 1900 all the way to really 1990s, there was no forensic evidence.

00:21:19.900 There was no DNA.

00:21:21.020 All this stuff is relatively new.

00:21:23.140 So if someone went missing, if there were serial killers out there, people committing murders, etc.,

00:21:27.520 it was very difficult for the police to actually solve these cases, especially back then.

00:21:31.800 So if you went missing back then, bro, there was a very good chance that that case was going to go cold and they would never find you.

00:21:37.640 Hell, nowadays, with all the technology they have, they still have a low close rate on these cases.

00:21:41.720 So you can only imagine back then how slim the chances were of actually finding someone and or solving a case.

00:21:48.860 Yeah, that's why so many mortars and sketchy cases, that was why he was so dismissed from all those cases, you know?

00:21:59.760 Yeah, because they couldn't link him, you know?

00:22:02.240 Even if it was so obvious that he killed his brother.

00:22:04.940 Yep, exactly.

00:22:06.320 And the other thing, too, you guys got to know is that this is why serial killers, like, you know, from the 60s all the way up until really the 90s, right?

00:22:12.420 From the Zodiac Killer all the way up until, like, people like Jeffrey Dahmer, etc.

00:22:15.500 They went crazy in the 70s and 80s because, again, this is before DNA was able to positively identify people, right?

00:22:22.460 You got someone like BTK who was committing murders for 30 plus years, right?

00:22:26.060 Go watch the BTK breakdown and feel like I want.

00:22:28.500 And they weren't able to identify them until 2005 because they were able to use DNA that was found back in 1974 to identify them and link them to that crime scene.

00:22:36.440 So, very common that a lot of these cases would go unsolved.

00:22:42.120 In the winter of 1954, a Plainfield tavern keeper named Mary Hogan mysteriously disappeared from her business place.

00:22:50.640 Police suspected foul play when they discovered blood on the tavern floor that trailed into the parking lot.

00:22:57.500 Police also discovered an empty bullet cartridge on the floor.

00:23:00.420 Police could only speculate about what might have happened to Mary because they had no bodies and little useful evidence like the other four missing people.

00:23:09.540 The only other standard tie among these cases was that all of the disappearances happened around or in Plainfield, Wisconsin.

00:23:19.120 On November 17, 1957, after discovering Bernice Worden's headless corpse in the shed and her head and other gruesome artifacts in Eddie's house,

00:23:28.440 police began an exhaustive search of the remaining parts of the farm and surrounding land.

00:23:34.520 They believed Eddie may have been involved in more murders.

00:23:37.980 The bodies might be buried on his land, possibly those of Georgia Weckler, Victor Travis and Ray Burgess, Evelyn Hartley, and Mary Hogan.

00:23:47.340 While excavations began at the farmstead, Eddie was being interviewed at Watoma County Jailhouse by investigators.

00:23:53.780 Gein, at first, did not admit to any of the killings.

00:23:59.120 However, after more than a day of silence, he began to tell the horrible story of how he killed Mrs. Worden and acquired the body parts found in his house.

00:24:08.940 Gein had difficulty remembering every detail because he claimed he had been in a dazed state at the time leading up to and during the murder.

00:24:16.600 Yet, he recalled dragging Worden's body to his Ford truck, taking the store's cash register, and taking them back to his house.

00:24:24.980 He did not remember shooting her in the head with a .22 caliber gun, which autopsy reports later listed as the cause of death.

00:24:32.780 When asked where the other body parts came from discovered in his house, he said that he had stolen them from local graves.

00:24:40.000 Eddie insisted that he had not killed any of the people whose remains were found in his house, except for Mrs. Worden.

00:24:46.600 However, after days of intense interrogation, he finally admitted to the killing of Mary Hogan.

00:24:57.620 Again, he claimed he was in a dazed state at the murder time, and he could not remember exact details of what actually happened.

00:25:05.800 The only memory he had was that he had accidentally shot her.

00:25:10.660 Eddie showed no signs of remorse or emotion during the many hours of interrogation.

00:25:15.340 When he talked about the murders and of his grave-robbing escapades, he spoke very matter-of-factly, even cheerfully at times.

00:25:23.780 He had no concept of the enormity of his crimes.

00:25:27.760 Gein's sanity was in question.

00:25:30.520 It was suggested that during the trial, he plead not guilty because of insanity.

00:25:35.820 Gein underwent a battery of psychological tests, which later concluded that he was indeed emotionally impaired.

00:25:41.840 Psychologists and psychiatrists who interviewed him asserted that he was schizophrenic and a sexual psychopath.

00:25:49.460 His condition was attributed to the unhealthy relationship he had with his mother and his upbringing.

00:25:55.480 Gein apparently suffered from conflicting feelings about women, his natural sexual attraction, and the unnatural attitudes that his mother had instilled in him.

00:26:03.600 This love-hate feeling towards women became exaggerated and eventually developed into full-blown psychosis.

00:26:11.020 While Eddie was undergoing further interrogation and psychological tests, investigators continued to search the land around his farm.

00:26:18.060 See, guys, and I don't mean to bring this back to intersexual dynamics, but this is the importance of understanding women and knowing how they think.

00:26:24.680 Because when you understand women, right, and you know how they think, well, then you can attract them. 1.00

00:26:29.420 And then if you can attract them, you don't need to do crazy stuff like this to go ahead and get your sexual gratification. 1.00

00:26:33.640 People talk shit all the time. 1.00

00:26:34.900 Oh, the RP makes you angry and misogynistic, blah, blah, blah. 0.99

00:26:37.640 No, if you use it correctly, it helps you understand women so that you don't hate them for what they'll never be to you, an idealistic lover.

00:26:45.020 Because a lot of you guys, you know, not you guys, but a lot of people that, you know, get in a relationship with women, et cetera, they tend to look at women from an idealistic standpoint.

00:26:52.780 Disney fairytale, oh, she's going to love me unconditionally.

00:26:54.980 No, that's not how things work. 1.00

00:26:56.180 Stupid. 1.00

00:26:56.760 You have to go ahead and become the man so they want to go ahead and be with that man, if that makes sense. 1.00

00:27:02.120 So this is the importance of understanding women so you're not doing weird shit like this grave robbing bodies. 1.00

00:27:07.640 You know what I'm saying? 1.00

00:27:08.620 He was also a psychopath. 1.00

00:27:09.800 Yeah, of course, he's a psychopath as well. 0.98

00:27:11.420 But like, this is the importance of being able to be attractive and know what the hell you're doing. 0.85

00:27:16.180 Police discovered within Eddie's farmhouse the remains of 10 women.

00:27:21.040 Although Eddie swore that the remaining body parts of eight women were taken from local graveyards, police were skeptical.

00:27:28.120 They believed that the remains could have come from women Eddie may have murdered.

00:27:31.920 The only way police could ascertain whether the remains came from women's corpses was to examine the graves Eddie claimed he had robbed.

00:27:40.740 After much controversy about the morality of exhuming the bodies, police were finally permitted to dig up the graves of the women Eddie claimed to have desecrated.

00:27:49.420 All of the coffins showed clear signs of tampering.

00:27:53.160 In most cases, the bodies, or parts of the bodies, were missing.

00:27:57.600 There would be another discovery on Eddie's land that would again raise the issue of whether Eddie did, in fact, murder a third person.

00:28:05.960 On November 29th, police unearthed human skeletal remains on the Gein farm.

00:28:10.440 It was suspected that the body was that of Victor Travis, who had disappeared years earlier.

00:28:16.760 The remains were immediately taken to a crime lab and examined.

00:28:20.460 Tests showed that the body was not that of a male, but of a large, middle-aged woman, another graveyard souvenir.

00:28:27.480 Try as the police did, they could not implicate Eddie in the disappearance of Victor Travis or the three other people who had vanished years earlier in the Plainfield area.

00:28:36.440 The only murders Eddie could be held responsible for were Bernice Warden and Mary Hogan.

00:28:43.500 When investigators revealed the facts about what was found on Eddie Gein's farm, the news quickly spread.

00:29:01.980 Reporters from all over the world flocked to the small town of Plainfield, Wisconsin.

00:29:06.440 The town became known worldwide, and Eddie Gein reached celebrity-like status.

00:29:12.620 People were repulsed, yet at the same time drawn to the atrocities that took place on Eddie Gein's farm.

00:29:19.800 Psychologists from all over the world attempted to find out what made Eddie tick.

00:29:24.780 During the 1950s, he gained notoriety as being one of the most famous of documented cases involving a combination of necrophilia, transvestism, and fetishism.

00:29:34.920 Even children who knew of the exploits of Eddie began to...

00:29:39.060 He was one of the first before, you know, the Ted Bundys and the Jeffrey Dahmers. 0.77

00:29:43.100 Sing songs about him.

00:29:44.840 Go ahead.

00:29:45.220 These things, these stressors and emotional disorders are very, very often now.

00:29:52.120 Like, you have no idea how often they are.

00:29:53.840 Like, now this is, like, normal.

00:29:56.140 Like, there are so many people with fetishisms like this, and there are people doing necrophilia, and it's not...

00:30:01.760 They're not as charged as they...

00:30:03.800 Well, it's not as...

00:30:05.360 It's more common than it used to be before.

00:30:08.500 So, like, back then, that was, like, a huge taboo.

00:30:10.960 But right now, there are many people doing this stuff.

00:30:13.280 Ah, okay.

00:30:14.000 So you're saying that there's more people that are necrophiliacs that are more open with admitting it?

00:30:17.320 Yeah.

00:30:17.880 Versus, like...

00:30:18.540 Yeah, there are plenty of faces.

00:30:19.400 Because, I mean, back then, of course, they'd be like, what the hell?

00:30:21.420 You need Jesus, boy!

00:30:22.540 Yeah. 0.98

00:30:22.720 And they'd, like, execute them.

00:30:23.620 But, like, back, you know, back then.

00:30:25.200 But nowadays, you're saying it's more open, and there's a lot more people that identify them.

00:30:28.040 Yeah.

00:30:28.660 Interesting.

00:30:29.180 Interesting.

00:30:29.940 Okay.

00:30:32.000 Crazy.

00:30:33.020 Yeah, she studies psychology in Venezuela, guys.

00:30:35.320 Jokes to, as Harold Schechter suggests in his book, Deviant, exercise the nightmare with laughter.

00:30:42.580 These distasteful jokes became known as giggers and were quick to become popular worldwide.

00:30:47.740 Back in Plainfield, residents endured the onslaught of reporters who disrupted their daily life by bombarding them with questions about Eddie.

00:30:57.640 However, many of them eventually became involved in Eddie's mania and contributed what information they had.

00:31:05.280 Plainfield was now known to the world as the home of the infamous Eddie Gein.

00:31:09.680 Most residents who knew Eddie had only good things to say about him.

00:31:13.940 Other than that, he was a little peculiar, had a quirky grin, and a strange sense of humor.

00:31:19.640 They never suspected him of being capable of committing such ghastly crimes.

00:31:24.420 But the truth was hard to escape.

00:31:27.280 The little, shy, quiet man the town thought they knew was, in fact, a murderer who had violated the graves of friends and relatives.

00:31:35.280 After Gein spent 30 days in a mental institution and was evaluated as mentally incompetent, he could no longer be tried for first-degree murder.

00:31:45.320 Plainfield's people immediately voiced their anger that Eddie would not be tried for the death of Bernice Worden.

00:31:51.680 Yet there was little the community could do to influence the court's decision.

00:31:56.300 Eddie was committed to the Central State Hospital in Wapun, Wisconsin.

00:31:59.680 Soon after Eddie was sentenced to the mental institution, his farm went up for auction and some of his other belongings.

00:32:07.480 Thousands of curiosity seekers converged on the small town to see Eddie's possessions auctioned.

00:32:13.820 Some of the things to be auctioned off were his car, furniture, and musical instruments.

00:32:19.140 The company that handled the business of selling Eddie's goods planned to charge a fee of 50 cents to look at Eddie's property.

00:32:26.380 The citizens of Plainfield were outraged.

00:32:29.020 They believed Eddie's home was quickly becoming a museum for the morbid, and the town demanded something be done to put it to an end.

00:32:37.980 Although the company was later forbidden to charge an entrance fee to the auction, residents were still not satisfied.

00:32:44.660 In the early morning...

00:32:45.920 There's this crazy thirst in the United States for serial killers and getting their memorabilia, man.

00:32:51.120 It's such a profitable industry.

00:32:52.740 So much so that there's so many lawsuits that are put out there to not allow serial killers to monetize off of their memorabilia or anything they create while they're still alive.

00:33:03.140 Or even the families of the serial killer, because it just garners so much interest and finances.

00:33:09.540 Of March 28, 1958, the Plainfield Volunteer Fire Department was called to Eddie's farm.

00:33:15.480 The place quickly burned to the ground as onlookers watched in silent relief.

00:33:23.580 Police believed that an arsonist was responsible for the blaze because there was no electrical wiring problems with the house.

00:33:30.840 Although police carried out a thorough investigation, no suspect was ever found.

00:33:35.320 When Eddie learned of the destruction of his house, he simply said,

00:33:40.060 Just as well.

00:33:41.780 Although the fire destroyed most of Eddie's belongings, there were still many things that were salvaged.

00:33:47.440 What was left of Eddie's possessions would still be auctioned off, including farm equipment and his car.

00:33:53.900 Eddie's 1949 Ford sedan, which was used to haul dead bodies, caused a bidding war and was eventually sold for $760.

00:34:01.400 The man who purchased the car later put it on his...

00:34:04.900 How much was that for?

00:34:06.340 $760.

00:34:07.340 Oh, back in 19...

00:34:09.220 I'm going to check the inflation check.

00:34:10.380 Early 1900s.

00:34:10.940 Yeah, I'm going to check the calculator here.

00:34:13.220 ...splay at a county fair where thousands paid a quarter to get a peek at the Gein-Guhl car.

00:34:19.800 It seemed to the people of Plainfield that the public's fascination with Eddie would never end.

00:34:25.360 After spending 10 years in the mental institution where he was recovering,

00:34:28.620 the courts finally decided he was competent to stand trial.

00:34:32.740 The proceedings began on January 22, 1968, to determine whether Eddie was guilty or not

00:34:39.340 by reason of insanity for the murder of Bernice Worden.

00:34:42.800 The actual trial began on November 7, 1968.

00:34:47.680 Eddie looked on as seven witnesses took to the stand.

00:34:51.020 Several of those who testified were lab technicians...

00:34:53.620 $760 back in roughly right around 1957 is the equivalent to about $8,136 today, guys,

00:35:01.360 as far as buying power goes.

00:35:02.620 ...missions who performed the autopsy on Mrs. Worden, a former deputy sheriff and a sheriff.

00:35:08.560 Evidence was heavily stacked against Eddie, and after only one week, the judge reached his verdict.

00:35:14.360 Eddie was found guilty of first-degree murder.

00:35:16.680 However, because Eddie was found to have been insane at the time of the killing,

00:35:21.700 he was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and acquitted.

00:35:25.980 Soon after the trial, he was escorted back to the Central State Hospital for the criminally insane.

00:35:31.680 The families of Bernice Worden, Mary Hogan, and the families of those whose graves were robbed

00:35:36.840 would never feel justice was served.

00:35:39.640 They believed Eddie escaped the punishment due to him,

00:35:42.180 but there was nothing more they could do to reverse the court's decision.

00:35:46.700 Eddie would remain at the mental institution for the rest of his life,

00:35:49.880 where he happily and comfortably spent his days.

00:35:53.280 Schechter describes him as the model patient.

00:35:56.460 Eddie was happy at the hospital, more optimistic, perhaps, than he'd ever been in his life.

00:36:01.960 He got along well enough with the other patients, though he kept to himself for the most part.

00:36:06.840 He was eating three square meals a day.

00:36:08.900 The newsmen were struck by how much heavier Eddie looked since his arrest five years before.

00:36:14.020 He continued to be an avid reader.

00:36:17.200 He liked his regular chats with the staff psychologists.

00:36:20.460 He enjoyed the handicraft work he was assigned, stone polishing, rug making, and other occupational therapy forms.

00:36:28.040 He had even developed an interest in ham radios,

00:36:30.880 and had been permitted to use the money he had earned to order an inexpensive receiver.

00:36:35.300 All in all, he was a perfectly amiable, even docile patient.

00:36:40.300 One of the few in the hospital who never required tranquilizing medications to keep his craziness under control.

00:36:46.400 You know, it's wild with these killers how, you know, on surface level, they're so cool, calm, collected, you know, personable.

00:36:53.180 You look at people like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, etc.

00:36:56.560 When they were meeting their victims, a lot of times they were able to convey a certain level of politeness, niceness, trustworthiness.

00:37:04.360 That's how they're able to lure the people back.

00:37:06.160 And the next thing you know, they show that evil side.

00:37:07.860 They do that little flip, you know.

00:37:09.740 Next thing you know, they got their hand around your throat trying to suffocate you.

00:37:12.880 It's wild.

00:37:13.460 Again, those are characteristics, main characteristics of psychopaths.

00:37:17.220 Exactly.

00:37:17.700 Being charmed and all that stuff.

00:37:19.400 Yeah.

00:37:20.260 And Ted Bundy was one of the most famous ones by far.

00:37:23.220 But John Wayne Gacy was the same way.

00:37:24.820 You know, luring guys back to his house.

00:37:27.060 Oh, I'll get you a job working for me. 0.94

00:37:28.700 And next thing you know, he's trying to kill him. 0.73

00:37:29.780 Indeed, apart from certain peculiarities, the disconcerting way he would stare fixedly at nurses or any other female staff members who wandered into his line of vision, it was hard to tell that he was particularly crazy at all.

00:37:44.380 Superintendent Schubert told reporters that Gein was a model patient.

00:37:48.920 If all our patients were like him, we'd have no trouble at all.

00:37:53.460 On July 26, 1984, he died after a long bout with cancer.

00:37:58.540 He was buried in Plainfield Cemetery next to his mother, not far from the graves he had robbed years earlier.

00:38:07.220 Yeah, he was as cute as a woman. 0.61

00:38:09.160 And ironically, you said that someone stole his gravestone?

00:38:11.920 Yeah.

00:38:12.340 And it was found, like, in Phoenix, I think.

00:38:15.320 Oh, really?

00:38:15.980 Years later, I think.

00:38:16.820 Yeah.

00:38:16.960 Wow.

00:38:17.480 He probably sold it and made a bunch of money and some guy bought it.

00:38:21.180 Yeah.

00:38:21.380 So, yeah.

00:38:22.920 Cool, guys.

00:38:23.900 So, that is the Ed Gein Show.

00:38:26.160 This one was a little bit shorter.

00:38:28.000 Let me know how you guys like it as far as this one is more that you can, like, listen to versus visually watching it.

00:38:32.840 So, this one's more than one of those podcasts where you'll be able to, you know, put it on.

00:38:35.560 You don't really got to watch.

00:38:36.360 You can just listen and tune in.

00:38:39.020 Because a lot of other podcasts that we do, you kind of have to watch it to see what's going on.

00:38:42.020 But this one's a little bit more audio-friendly.

00:38:44.040 I just want to state that I found this documentary very interesting because they mention a lot of stuff that they don't mention in other documentaries.

00:38:50.400 And I watched plenty on YouTube about Ed Gein.

00:38:54.740 Yeah.

00:38:55.080 She watched a bunch of them.

00:38:56.000 And the other ones, guys, they would have probably hit us with a copyright.

00:38:58.380 So, we had to be really careful with which one that we did.

00:39:01.420 Man, man.

00:39:02.360 Any last words for the people, Angie?

00:39:04.380 Not really.

00:39:05.040 Like, this actually, like, this just triggers me how easy it was to commit a murder back in, like, early 1900s.

00:39:12.300 Yeah.

00:39:12.680 Facts.

00:39:13.580 It's crazy.

00:39:14.300 And have people go missing and nothing happens.

00:39:16.140 Yeah.

00:39:16.300 But, guys, don't forget to like the video.

00:39:17.640 Subscribe to the channel.

00:39:18.300 This one was a short one.

00:39:19.000 Hope you guys enjoyed it.

00:39:20.020 We did your boy, Ed Gein.

00:39:21.140 Next coming up, probably, is going to be JonBenet Ramsey or the Golden State Killer.

00:39:25.020 I'm actually really excited for those two.

00:39:26.480 Yeah.

00:39:26.800 So, yeah.

00:39:27.960 Go check out Angie Guy's So Angelico with two A's.

00:39:29.960 No. 0.99

00:39:31.100 Send that dick pic. 1.00

00:39:34.560 We'll catch you guys on the next one. 0.99

00:39:36.400 All right.

00:39:36.760 Peace.

The Debrief With MyronGainesX - April 19, 2023

Fed Explains The Plainfield Ghoul Ed Gein

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