Monster: The Ed Gein Story – How did Ed Gein’s mother die? Details explored 

Ryan Murphy's Monster anthology, which follows a new notorious serial killer every season, is back with Monster: The Ed Gein Story. All eight episodes of the biographical crime drama series, which focus on convicted serial killer Ed Gein (Charlie Hunnam), are available to stream on Netflix.

Ed Gein is one of the most notorious serial killers and body snatchers in America, whose killing and horror spree began in 1957 in Plainfield. The first episode is titled 'Mother!', which explores Ed Gein's childhood on his family farm in Plainfield and his troubling relationship with his mother, Augusta Gein. Since Ed Gein's father was an alcoholic, the parenting duties of her two sons fell on his devoted Christian wife, Augusta.

As depicted in Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Augusta Gein was a religious and church-going woman who taught her sons about the evils of society, including the innate promiscuous nature of all women. After his father and brother died in 1940 and 1944, respectively, Ed Gein grew suspiciously close to his mother and his weird fixation with her eventually developed into a serial killer mentality.

Ed Gein's mother died from a second paralyzing stroke on December 29, 1945, at the age of 67.

More on Monster: The Ed Gein Story in our story.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story- What happened to Ed Gein's mother?

After his brother's suspicious death in May 1944, Ed Gein and his mother remained on their farm alone. Considering Ed Gein and Augusta Gein were the only two members living on the 155-acre (63-hectare) farm in Plainfield, they were quite close and Ed's fixation and obsession with his mother grew tenfold.

As depicted in Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Augusta Gein suffered a paralyzing stroke shortly after her son Henry's death and Ed took sole responsibility for her care. His weird fixation on his mother developed into a full-fledged Oedipal complex and the two became inseparable.

The Monster: The Ed Gein Story killer lost his mother on 29 December 1945, when Augusta suffered a second stroke, which eventually took her life. She was aged 67 and her passing had a profound impact on her child, even making him into a serial killer, as Ed Gein's biographer, Harold Schechter, believes:

"He lost his only friend and one true love. And he was absolutely alone in the world."

Monster: The Ed Gein Story- Exploring the aftermath of Ed Gein's mother's death

The Gein family of four, who moved onto the farm in Plainfield to start a new life, was reduced to just one survivor, Ed Gein. While his father's and brother's deaths did not affect him as much, Augusta's death broke him, and it is believed that he lost his sanity after her passing. After the passing of his family, Ed Gein's house became a 'disaster', but he continued to maintain his mother's room. Various crime scene photos suggest that while Ed Gein lived in a small room adjacent to the kitchen, he regularly cleaned Augusta's room.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story Episode 1 explores his fixation on his mother and the aftermath of her death. In an interview with A&E Crime + Investigation, Louis Schlesinger, a psychology professor, explained Ed Gein's relationship to his mother as:

"Did he have a very abnormal relationship with his mother? It doesn't take Sigmund Freud to conclude that the answer is obviously 'yes.'"

After his mother's passing in 1945, Ed Gein confessed that a "force built up in me". Having her room and memories were not enough and he wanted to recreate her physically, justifying his influence on Norman Bates' Psycho character. Just like the titular character in the novel and the movie, Ed Gein wanted to recreate his mother, which is why he dug women's graves to sew up a 'woman suit' for her.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story suggests that Ed Gein's complicated relationship with his mother and his complete dependency on her, even after her death, led to his insanity, which eventually drove him to become a serial killer.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is streaming on Netflix.

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