Life and Psychology of Ed Gein, the Plainfield Butcher (1/2)

Ed gein was one of the Most infamous killers in America's criminal history, also known as "the butcher of Plainfield" (Wisconsin), in honor of the town where he committed the events. His case inspired many of the most well-known and iconic characters in horror and suspense literary and film works of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, such as Norman Bates (“Psycho”, by Alfred Hitchcock, 1960), Leatherface (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, by Tobe Hooper, 1974) or Buffallo Bill (“The silence of the lambs”, by Jonathan Demme, 1990).

The context of the life and murders of Ed Gein

To better understand the history of Gein, we must move to the deep America of the 50s, a society very marked by prejudices and sexist ideals already outdated in our days. A clear example would be the censorship that was done on radios and televisions regarding married life (many were shown in television programs or advertisements sleeping in separate beds in the same room), in addition to an evident desire to eliminate all those symbols and images that could incite to commit ‘sins carnal '.

Ed Gein was born and raised on a farm outside of a town called Plainfield (La Crosse County, Wisconsin), the fruit of the union of George, an abusive alcoholic who was characterized by his lack of devotion to his family, and Augusta. She, who was a religious fanatic with strong convictions who despised men, considered women the object of sin from which he had to keep his two sons away, Henry (1902) and Ed (1906).

This marriage was characterized by a poor parenting style that was the first relevant factor that contributed to creating the ed's antisocial personality: Many sociopaths they are so not only because of inherent characteristics that shape them that way, but much more importantly, because they have received an education from their parents that have alienated them from all prosocial activity and have led them towards deviant socialization, rendering them incapable of assuming responsibilities and / or adapting to the rules and expectations of the society in which they live.

For this reason, the childhood of Ed and his brother was very hard: his mother imposed strict discipline on them and she constantly punished and beat them, unable to ever show any affection or love for her children; while the father spent all his money in the village tavern. Contrary to what might seem years later, Ed Gein had a great dislike for blood and the slaughters or sacrifices of animals, activities on the other hand typical in towns dedicated to the cattle raising. In fact, he was very scarred when, as a teenager, he sneakily witnessed through the glass of the slaughterhouse door of his parents' shop as he held a pig by the hands. legs while the other, armed with a long and sharp knife, opened the belly in a carcass and pulled out the guts with great skill from the animal, which was dying amid strident shrieking.

Ed Gein's personality: a stormy adolescence

Despite this, it is also true that Ed took a liking to reading comics, magazines, and books about murder, death, or violence ("Tales from the Crypt", among others) and even on the torture that took place in the Nazi concentration. These subjects caused a great fascination in him, getting to absorb and isolate him until he lost the notion of reality. Although he attended school, his mother forbade him from forging any friendships with his classmates (let alone companions) claiming, Bible in hand and at the stroke of verses, that these were sinners and should move away from they.

Although the first parental responsibility consists of providing the basic needs of the children (feeding, sheltering and protect), the second most important function is the socialization of the same, and can be carried out by the two parents, the father or Mother. In this case, the mother. So, due to Augusta's incompetence in educating Ed, she gives him the necessary resources to be able to live in society and allow him to socialize with her peers, this increased his tendency to withdrawal, marginalization and loneliness, taking refuge in the fantasies of death and depravity of the comics and books that he read locked in his room. This hermit and obsessive predisposition would make up the second factor that shaped his personality and defined him for the rest of his life.

The death of the father, George Gein

After years of drunkenness, beatings of his wife and his children, humiliation and constant contempt, George Gein died in 1940 at age 66. From that point on, the family business started to go bad, and Ed and Henry had to look for work and bring money home. This caused their relationship to become closer, however it became strained when Henry observed the dependency relationship and the evident Oedipus complex developed by his little brother.

The Oedipus complex is an expression that Sigmund Freud used to refer to the alleged conflict that children experience when they feel an incestuous desire for their mother, while towards his father and anyone who threatens that relationship the feelings are of hostility and go to. So Henry chose to walk away and try to stay out of this toxic relationship, opposing the orders of his mother.

He died in strange circumstances in a fire caused by stubble that he and his brother burned behind the garden of his farm, and although his The corpse had obvious blows to the head made with a blunt object, in the death report the death was cataloged by suffocation. He was in 1944. Shortly after, Augusta Gein suffered a heart attack and her Ed devotedly cared for her until her death twelve months later.. After what happened, he locked her mother's room, keeping it intact just as she had left it, and began doing small jobs for her neighbors.

The loss of his mother was the third factor that shaped the personality of Ed Gein and was the trigger for the murders and acts he committed, who had two clear motives: the first, the will to keep alive the idea or illusion that his mother was still alive and at home. The second, the obsession with the female gender product of years of repression, reprimands and punishments that Augusta had exercised on him.

His first murders

On December 8, 1954, a village farmer named Seymour Lester entered the Hogans' tavern and found it deserted despite the door being open and the lights on. When he saw that no one came to attend to him, he inquired about the room and he found a 32 caliber cartridge next to a trail of dried blood that started just behind the bar and led past the back door.

The trail led to the parking lot behind the premises, where the man observed that the car of the owner, Mary Hogan, was still parked in his usual spot and that the river of blood was lost next to some fresh tire marks on the road. snow.

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Read the 2nd part of Ed Gein's story: Life and psychological portrait of Ed Gein, the Plainfield butcher (2/2)