Did Ed Gein Date Bernice Worden Before Killing Her?

When investigators discovered the mutilated body of Bernice Worden in a Plainfield, Wisc., shed on November 16, 1957, they uncovered not only a brutal murder, but also the horrors of Ed Gein’s hidden world. Worden, a 58-year-old hardware store owner and the mother of the town’s deputy sheriff, was Gein’s final known victim.

The series Monster: The Ed Gein Story painted a romantic picture between Gein and Worden prior to her murder, but there’s no evidence that the two ever dated. In fact, Gein reportedly never had a sexual experience because his mother, who was deeply religious and preached often about the innate immorality of women, condemned them.

The morning of the murder, Gein purchased a gallon of antifreeze from Worden’s hardware store. The resulting receipt, written in Worden’s handwriting, was later found at the scene and played a major role in capturing Gein.

When Worden’s son, Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden, entered the shop later that day, he found the cash register open, and blood stains were streaked across the floor. When investigators searched Gein’s property, they found Bernice’s body in a shed, decapitated and strung upside down. Perhaps more hauntingly, investigators discovered Gein’s house filled with human remains repurposed as furniture, masks, and trophies.

Although Gein only ever confessed to killing two women, Bernice and another named Mary Hogan in 1954, he had also been robbing the graves of women who reminded him of his mother. He appeared to be building a “woman suit” composed of their body parts.

Despite the brutality of how Gein killed Bernice, there is no evidence that the two were romantically involved. None of the police reports, trial documents or media accounts support the idea that they dated.

Despite his traumatic upbringing in a staunchly religious, conservative household, Gein was rumored for a time to have dated a separate woman, Adeline Watkins. Shortly after Gein was arrested for the murder of Worden, Watkins told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that her and Gein had been in a romantic relationship for two decades, singing his praises as a “sweet” man. However, soon after, Watkins interviewed with a different Wisconsin paper, claiming that her and Gein had no romantic relationship and were only ever friends. The Star Tribune piece, Watkins argued, was “blown up out of proportion.”

Watkins’ shifting narrative and the initial publicity it received makes clear the public’s inclination to attach a romantic narrative to Gein and his crimes. Watkins’ initial comments spread rapidly through national headlines, feeding public fascination, but her later corrections received far less attention. 

The claim that Gein killed Bernice in a “crime of passion” makes for a gripping story, but the true evidence suggests a much more nuanced picture. Psychiatrists and police involved in investigations of Gein’s crimes determined that his actions were rooted more firmly in his obsession with death, power and his mother, despite—or perhaps because of—the siloed, isolated upbringing she gave him.

After years of grave robbing, Gein’s compulsions escalated to murder, and Bernice was chosen not because of any particular relationship, but because of other intense fixations.

During his 1968 trial, doctors stated that Gein was legally insane, and he was committed to a psychiatric institution for life rather than sentenced to prison. Gein was diagnosed with schizophrenia and lived out his days in those institutions until his death in 1984.