Ed Gein Biography

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Psychological Profile and Biography of Ed Gein

On August 27, 1906, Edward Theodore Gein was the second son born to his alcoholic father George Gein, and his religiously fanatic mother Augusta Gein in La Crosse, Wisconsin. His older brother, Henry Gein, was 7 years older than him (BBC, 2008). Despite the children and Augustans contempt towards George, who was drunk and unemployed most of the time, they stayed together as divorce was not an option because of the family’s religious beliefs. Augusta did however run a small grocery store and when Ed was around the age of 8 they bought and moved to a farm in Plainfield where the nearest neighbors were over a mile away. This was because Augusta wanted to get the kids away from the evils of society …show more content…

George, however, died in 1940 of pneumonic fluid in his lungs. At which point Henry and Ed had started working as handymen around town to support the house (Radford University, 2012). However, not too long after Henry started to openly challenge and go against his mother even in front of Ed, who still respected and idolized her. Four years later in 1944 Henry mysteriously died due to a marsh fire. He and Ed were running away from the fire and Ed told authorities he had lost sight of Henry, even though he later led them straight to his body. The coroner examiner put down the cause of death as asphyxiation due to the smoke. The notion of foul play was dismissed as no one believed Ed was capable of killing (BBC, …show more content…

At this point he was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. He was also labeled as a sexual psychopath that had engaged in necrophilia and even experimented with human taxidermy. (Radford University, 2012). After his sanity hearing, where only the initial charge of theft was brought forth, Gein was declared “mentally unfit for trial and was committed to the Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin.” (BBC, 2008). Ten years later, 1968, Gein was determined as competent to stand trial. Nine months later and after a one-week trial, the court found him guilty of both first degree murder but ruled as not guilty for reason of insanity. Gein returned to Mendota State Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. Here, he spent the rest of his life until he died of respiratory and heart failure due to cancer on July 26, 1984. He was 78 years of

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