Who was Ed Gein, the serial killer in Netflix’s ‘Monster’ Season 3?

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While Ed Gein might not be as well-known as serial killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer in the public eye, his disturbing crimes inspired many iconic horror films that have left a lasting impact on American culture. He may be overshadowed by others, but his story fueled some truly classic and memorable movies.

The third season of “Monster,” a crime anthology series created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, tells the story of Gein, a farmer from the Midwest who, after experiencing personal hardship, descended into serious criminal behavior. The show’s first season revolved around Dahmer (portrayed by Evan Peters), while the second season explored the lives of the Menendez brothers (played by Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch).

Charlie Hunnam stars in the third part of the series, “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” which begins streaming on Netflix this Friday. He plays the infamous “Butcher of Plainfield” in the show.

Television

Ryan Murphy creates entertainment that is dramatically elaborate and often unsettling, featuring both people and fantastical creatures, as evidenced by shows like ‘Grotesquerie’ and his newest season of ‘Monsters.’

The show’s description calls Eddie Gein a serial killer, grave robber, and psycho. In 1950s rural Wisconsin, this seemingly normal and quiet man lived on a rundown farm, secretly harboring terrifying secrets that would forever change how Americans think about horror.”

Fueled by loneliness, a break from reality, and an intense preoccupation with his mother, Gein’s disturbing crimes created a new type of villain that would continue to inspire fear in Hollywood films for many years.

Ed Gein’s close and disturbing relationship with his mother served as the inspiration for Norman Bates, the awkward motel owner and killer in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960). The gruesome practice of making clothing and furnishings from human skin, seen in the character of Norman Bates, is also a trait shared by other fictional killers like Buffalo Bill in “The Silence of the Lambs” and Leatherface in “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.”

But who was the actual Ed Gein, and what prompted him to carry out the crimes that have captivated horror filmmakers for many years?

Movies

Early trauma

Born in 1906, Gein grew up on a secluded farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin. He was raised by his father, who struggled with alcohol, and his deeply religious mother, whom he greatly loved and protected until she passed away in 1945.

I recently watched “Ed Gein,” the 2001 film that really digs into the life of the infamous killer, and it was pretty disturbing. One of the most impactful parts was how his mother shaped his worldview. She basically taught her sons that all women, except for her, were immoral and up to no good. She also kept them isolated from everyone else. While the film shows his father being openly abusive, it’s his mother’s subtle, insidious manipulation that really stuck with me – and I’d argue it was even more damaging to young Ed than the physical abuse.

According to Kevin Thomas, a film critic for the Times, Ed Gein was never given a fair start in life,” he wrote in 2001.

In his 1989 book on true crime, titled “Deviant”, Harold Schechter describes the young Ed Gein as someone who didn’t fit in with others, and felt bitterness towards nearly everyone except his mother.

According to Schechter, Eddie was growing increasingly isolated. Removed from friends and community life, and facing severe poverty in a lonely, barren place, he struggled with the added burden of difficult, hostile parents. Because Eddie wasn’t naturally resilient emotionally, he was withdrawing further and further into his own imagination.”

An Oedipus complex

In 1940, Ed Gein’s father, George, passed away due to heart failure. Four years later, his older brother, Henry, died – officially from the same cause, but some people suspect Henry was actually Gein’s first victim. Then, in 1945, the death of Gein’s mother, Augusta, is believed to have caused the future killer to begin a downward spiral into psychosis.

The 2023 docuseries “Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein” includes medical records dating back to 1957, the year Ed Gein, who was 51 at the time, was arrested. These records reveal that Gein started digging up graves after his mother passed away. Sometimes he would bring the remains back to his shed, and on other occasions, he disfigured the bodies right at the gravesite.

According to the records, when asked why he did this, he said he wanted something to remember his mother by. Ed Gein also admitted that, for a while after his mother died, he believed he could bring people back to life with his mind. He stated he tried to revive his mother using willpower, but was upset when it didn’t work. The records detail this confession.

Television

The co-creator and co-showrunner discussed the public reaction to the show with the Times. They talked about how it portrays the Menendez brothers and handles the sensitive topic of sexual abuse. We’ll also clarify what parts of the story are based on real events and what is fictionalized.

The bodies he exhumed weren’t enough to satisfy Gein, and he eventually began murdering middle-aged women who resembled his mother. His first known victim was Mary Hogan, a 51-year-old tavern owner, who vanished in 1954. He then killed Bernice Worden, a 58-year-old hardware store owner, in 1957.

According to the documentary “Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein,” Frank Worden, the son of Ed Gein’s victim, contacted the police when he discovered spent bullet casings and blood at the family’s hardware store. He also found a purchase receipt for antifreeze, which Gein had asked about the day before Worden disappeared.

When authorities entered Gein’s farm shed, they discovered Worden’s naked body hanging and severely mutilated, described by Deviant author Schechter in the documentary as “like some game animal that’s been dressed out after the kill.” The shed also contained disturbing items such as human skulls used as soup bowls, lampshades and costumes crafted from human skin, and dismembered female body parts – all contributing to a scene of unimaginable horror.

In a recording made the night of Gein’s arrest-and discovered in 2023-the same one Hunnam used to shape his portrayal of Gein in “Monster,” the killer explained his horrific actions, saying they came from “reading about news magazines and them things. Taking the flesh off, like a head hunter.”

According to forensic psychiatrist N.G. Berrill, interviewed in the Gein documentary, Gein’s references likely stemmed from popular mid-20th century pulp magazines. These magazines detailed the horrific acts committed by the Nazis during World War II. As an example of Nazi atrocities, Ilse Koch, the wife of a Nazi commander, famously had lampshades crafted from the skin of prisoners who were murdered.

World & Nation

Having fought across Europe and deep into Germany, the American infantrymen believed they had seen the worst of war-but nothing could have prepared them for what they discovered at Dachau.

According to Berrill, witnessing a large number of deaths and viewing people as expendable leads one to consider the possibility of experimentation. He explained that even those hesitant to accept this idea might find it difficult to ignore, especially when confronted with such a grim reality. He stated, “The fact is, when you see all the bodies piled up and you see people as disposable, you understand that people were experimented with, if you’re inclined emotionally or psychologically to that type of thinking, even if you don’t want to admit it, it grabs your attention in sort of the wrong way,”

Gein admitted to killing Hogan and Worden and stealing from over 40 graves, but he denied the accusations of cannibalism and necrophilia. He was first found guilty of first-degree murder in Worden’s death, but was later found not guilty due to insanity – he was diagnosed with schizophrenia – and spent the rest of his life in a mental institution until he died from cancer complications in 1984.

The small-town horror story heard around the world

Gein’s crimes shocked his community and the country.

“He’s a kind of meek, unremarkable man who could have been your neighbor. And there’s something eerie about that, that is disruptive to our collective ideas of, ‘What is a monster?’” said Jooyoung Lee, a serial homicide researcher at the University of Toronto, in “Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein.”

According to Hamish McAlpine, the producer of the 2000 movie “Ed Gein,” some people became so interested in Gein that it almost turned into admiration.

According to McAlpine, who spoke to The Times in 2001, there’s a surprisingly large online presence dedicated to Ed Gein – reportedly 182 websites. He noted that there’s even an Ed Gein fan club, and fans can purchase Ed Gein memorabilia, including items like a bust of him, Ed Gein ashtrays, and Ed Gein calendars.

Travel & Experiences

The launch of Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas shows that society is now completely accepting the more frightening elements found in classic stories. It’s a clear sign that we’ve moved past simply enjoying lighthearted tales and are now fascinated by their darker aspects. This represents a cultural shift towards embracing the spooky and unsettling.

Echoes of Gein in Hollywood

Ed Gein’s growing mental instability, combined with the shocking nature of his actions, established him as the perfect figure for a horror villain.

Ed Gein served as the basis for Robert Bloch’s novel, “Psycho,” which Alfred Hitchcock then turned into the famous 1960 film. In Hitchcock’s Psycho movie, Bates, similar to Gein, has a deeply unhealthy attachment to his mother. Bates commits murders because of a dissociative identity disorder – he’s compelled to act according to his mother’s wishes. This drives his actions.

“A boy’s best friend is his mother,” Bates famously says in the film.

Ed Gein is one of the serial killers who influenced the character of Buffalo Bill in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 film, The Silence of the Lambs. Like Gein, Buffalo Bill skinned his victims.

Obituaries

Given Thomas Harris’ popular novel, “The Silence of the Lambs,” many Hollywood directors would likely have focused on the shocking aspects of its serial killers, Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter and “Buffalo Bill.”

That disturbing detail also appeared in “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” where the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface wears a mask crafted from human skin. The director of the independent horror film, Tobe Hooper, explained that he first learned about Gein’s story as a child, hearing it from his relatives who resided in Wisconsin.

In a 2015 interview with director Barend de Voogd, Hooper recounted a story they’d heard about a man living in a nearby town-roughly 27 miles away-who was exhuming graves. Apparently, this man was collecting the bones and skin from the graves and bringing them back to his house,” Hooper said.

“That’s everything I was told,” Hooper explained. “They never said who he was. But he seemed like a terrifying monster to me, and I couldn’t forget him.”

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2025-10-03 13:34