5 Facts About Ed Gein

Known as “The Butcher of Plainfield,” murderer and grave robber Edward Theodore Gein inspired horror films such as The Silence of the Lambs, Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Gein’s gruesome crimes were discovered in 1957 when police, investigating a local woman’s disappearance, uncovered a grisly scene at his rural Wisconsin farm. He confessed to murdering two women and exhuming corpses from graves to use human body parts to make furniture, clothing and other grotesque items. His disturbed psyche, shaped by an isolated and abusive upbringing and an obsessive relationship with his mother, left a chilling legacy.