Ryan Murphy’s controversial Monster anthology is back for a third season — this time taking on the story of infamous serial killer Ed Gein.
The forthcoming installment, titled Monsters: The Ed Gein Story, stars Sons of Anarchy actor Charlie Hunnam as Gein, alongside Suzanna Son, Tom Hollander, Laurie Metcalf, Olivia Williams, and Lesley Manville.
It follows the debut season of Monsters, which centered on infamous cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, and the second season, which focused on brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted of killing their parents in 1989.
According to an official logline, the new season “tells the story of how one simple man in Plainfield, Wisconsin, became history’s most singular ghoul.”
Gein was nicknamed “the Plainfield Ghoul,” and his shocking crimes left a lasting mark on popular culture. They directly inspired Norman Bates in Robert Bloch’s 1959 classic Psycho (adapted to film by Alfred Hitchcock the following year) and influenced horror staples like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Who was Ed Gein?
Born in 1906 in Wisconsin, Edward Theodore Gein was the youngest of two sons. He had a difficult childhood, raised by an alcoholic father and a verbally abusive mother. His mother, a devout Christian, often warned him against the promiscuity of women and sex and discouraged him from making friends. Yet, despite his mother’s abuse, Gein idolized her. Their relationship apparently concerned his older brother, Henry, who would occasionally confront her in front of Gein.
According to forensic psychiatrist Carole Lieberman, speaking to A&E True Crime, growing up in isolation likely contributed to Gein developing an Oedipus complex, a Freudian theory describing a child’s unconscious desire for the opposite-sex parent and hostility toward the same-sex parent.
In 1940, Gein’s father, George, died of heart failure. Four years later, Henry perished under suspicious circumstances during a fire near the family’s secluded farm. Though Gein initially reported Henry missing, he led authorities straight to the body. Despite noticeable bruising on Henry’s head, the death was ruled accidental — but many remain convinced Gein was responsible.
The next year, Gein’s beloved mother, Augusta, passed away from health problems. After her death in 1945, Gein remained on the farm alone, becoming a recluse. While living on the farm, he closed off sections of the home his mother most frequented, building a sort of shrine to her.
What crimes did he commit?
Two years after his mother’s death, Gein started digging up graves in search of middle-aged women who reminded him of her. He would use their remains to craft various household items, clothing, and other bizarre trinkets.
It wasn’t until 1957 that he drew police attention, after the disappearance of Bernice Worden, a store clerk, led investigators to his farm. There, they discovered Worden’s decapitated and disemboweled body hanging in a shed, with her head found in a box.
Upon further examination of his farm, police uncovered his collection of human remains from at least 10 other bodies, alongside a grisly scene of a chair upholstered in human flesh and a body suit made from human skin. He is reported to have inhabited the suit as a way to bring back a version of his dead mother.
Investigators also discovered the head of a missing saloonkeeper, Mary Hogan, his first known victim, killed in 1954 and kept as a trophy.
Was he convicted of his crimes?
Gein claimed to have committed more than 40 grave robberies beginning in 1947. He admitted using the remains for sexual gratification but denied having sex with the corpses or engaging in cannibalism.
During his interrogation for the murder of Worden, he confessed to killing both her and Hogan. However, he was ultimately declared mentally unfit to stand trial in 1957. He ended up being diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to numerous mental institutions.
In 1968, he was deemed mentally sane enough to stand trial for the murder of Worden. Although he was initially convicted of first-degree murder, during the penalty phase of the trial, he was declared not guilty by reason of insanity. He was sent back to a mental hospital.
Gein was later transferred to a minimum-security facility, where he remained until his death in 1984 from lung cancer at the age of 77.
Monsters: The Ed Gein Story will premiere October 3 on Netflix.
