A Boy’s Best Friend is his Mother: The Horrors of Ed Gein

A Boy’s Best Friend is his Mother: The Horrors of Ed Gein

Dark Histories · 2025-09-02

Behind the doors of an isolated farmhouse on the outskirts of Plainfield, Wisconsin, a trove of macabre secrets were stashed out of sight of the locals that blurred the line between reality and nightmare. Unearthed in 1957, the world of quiet, shy farmer, Edward Theodore Gein, revealed a bizarre story of grave robbing, body parts fashioned into household items, and a fascination with death that was almost unparalleled in its depravity. A psychiatrist's examination stated plainly that, “The overall picture was not that of a well person,” which was, perhaps, one of the greatest understatements in medical and criminal history.SOURCES

Schechter, Harold (1998) Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, Original Psycho. Pocket Books, USA.

Borowski, John (2016) The Ed Gein FIle: A Psycho’s Confession & Case Documents. Waterfront Productions, Chicago, USA.

Chicago Tribune (1957) Tell Gein’s Crime Motive. Chicago Tribune, 21 Nov 1957, p1. Chicago, USA.

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Dark Histories

Fortnightly narratives on the unsolved and the unexplained, mysteries, historical true crime, touches of the paranormal and cultural peculiarities.

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