Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Who was Ed Gein and how many people did he kill? Details explored

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is the new addition to Ryan Murphy’s true crime anthology series on Netflix, dropping on October 3. The series delves into the dark and twisted life of Ed Gein, a Wisconsin murderer whose crimes shocked the world in the 1950s and inspired some of the most legendary horror films ever made.

Over the course of eight episodes, viewers are drawn into the isolated community of Plainfield, Wisconsin, where Gein’s horrific crimes unfolded. The series intertwines historical fact with the haunting dramatization that Murphy’s work is known for.

The series stands out not only for its meticulous attention to historical detail, but also for the psychological unravelling of Gein’s life, his early life, and the factors that may have led to the formation of one of the earliest known serial killers in United States history.

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Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Who was Ed Gein?

Ed Gein (1906-1984), also known as the Plainfield Ghoul, was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, the younger of two sons. His family moved to an isolated farm in Plainfield when he was young, where his early years were defined by religious fundamentalism and severe isolation.

His mother, Augusta Gein, was fervently religious, teaching that women were inherently sinful and the devil’s temptresses, while his father, George, was largely absent and abusive. Gein idolised his mother and lived in her shadow until she died in 1945, and an intense and unhealthy relationship that profoundly impacted his future actions.

After his mother’s death, Gein lived alone on the family farm, and his obsession with death, the impermanence of life, and the female form found expression in sinister ways. He kept the farmhouse for himself, almost as a shrine to his mother, as he lived in squalor in the rest of the house, making little if any effort to clean. This secluded and manic setting was the beginning of the atrocities that would gain infamy.

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Monster: The Ed Gein Story – How many people did Ed Gein kill, and what happened to him?

Ed Gein admitted to killing two women: Mary Hogan, a tavern owner who went missing in 1954, and Bernice Worden, a hardware store owner last seen in 1957. Both women looked like Gein’s mother, which defines a horrific psychological motive. He was also a person of interest in other area disappearances, but no further deaths were attributed to him.

Gein confessed to digging up bodies from local cemeteries and to harvesting their skin and body parts to make masks, lamp shades, belts, and even a “woman suit” to allow him to become a woman. It is said that he claimed he had never eaten human flesh; nothing to the contrary was found.

Gein was first arrested in 1957, when Worden’s body was discovered in his shed, mutilated and hanging from hooks. He was at first found not competent to stand trial on account of insanity. However, he was later tried and convicted for Worden’s murder in 1968, while found legally insane and institutionalised for life.

Gein was institutionalised for the rest of his life and died in 1984 at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, of respiratory failure caused by lung cancer. With its focus squarely placed on the unsettling yet fascinating storyline, Monster: The Ed Gein Story is as gripping a piece of historical storytelling as it is a sobering indication of the shadows that hide behind the facades of everyday individuals.

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What is Monster: The Ed Gein Story about?

Monster: The Ed Gein Story analyses the psychopathology of Ed Gein, ranging from his life and crimes to the influences of his psychological development, social situation, and family relations. It doesn’t hold back on the gruesome, giving us a lurid painting of a man whose interest in death and fixation with his mother led to the worst sorts of brutality.

The show is the third part of Ryan Murphy’s true crime anthology series after the hit, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Ryan Murphy emphasised the approach taken in bringing Gein’s story to the screen in Monster: The Ed Gein Story, particularly through casting and detailed character study.

Charlie Hunnam, who portrays Gein, described the challenge of playing the killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story, revealing:

“The more I got into learning about Ed, the more it became clear how big the distance was between who I am in my regular life and who Ed was. It was what Ed thought that his mother wanted him to be. It wasn’t an authentic voice that lived in him. It was this persona."

The show intertwines Gein’s formative years, the killings of Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden, his acts of grave robbing, and the community and family influences that shaped his psyche. It's as much a psychological study as it is a crime story, granting viewers a look into what led to one of the country's most infamous killers.

Across its eight episodes, Monster: The Ed Gein Story accurately maintains historical veracity while inserting narrative tension, making it one of the more utilised out of the true crime genre while conveying Ed Gein’s story in all its haunting intricacy.