A huge number of horror movies have all been inspired by one of the world’s most evil serial killers – Ed Gein.
While he may not have the same immediate name recognition as the likes of Ted Bundy or Jeffery Dahmer, he was just as wicked.
Gein, who was also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher in the 1950s.
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Horrifyingly, he used the remains of his victims and the body parts of corpses from grave robberies to make furniture and clothing such as lampshades, chair upholstery and gloves.
His grotesque actions inspired several horror movie franchises including Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs.
In the Real Crime podcast looking at the world’s most evil killers, one episode focuses on Ed Gein and explains how the police uncovered a 'gothic house of horrors' when they searched his home in 1957.
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There they found the remains of two missing local women and an array of human bones, skulls and skin that had disturbingly been turned into furniture and clothing.
It sent the small town of Plainfield into complete shock.
Gein didn’t have a good upbringing. His father and brother both died, leaving him with his overbearingly religious mother. She wouldn’t let him socialise with other people in the town, leaving him completely isolated. Yet he absolutely adored her.
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But when his mother died too, alone and isolated he spiralled out of control.
He became obsessed with recreating the world he shared with his mother, which eventually led him to murder Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden and exhuming corpses – and then using these body parts to create his horrific items.
It was these notorious crimes that inspired the horror films we all know today.
Speaking on the podcast, Dr Stuart Hamilton, a forensic pathologist, said: “The two things that are really fascinating about Ed Gein is that he only murdered two people, as far as we know, which is a lot less than many infamous killers. But he’s had such a huge legacy in films, books and music. He seems to have become a sort of pop culture murderer.”
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Harold Schechter, author of Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, added: “If you look at horror movies before then, they’re all these Eastern European monsters, Frankenstein and Dracula and the Wolf Man, or else they were aliens from outer space.
“Gein has a very direct influence on American horror cinema.”
Commenting on the episode, one person said: “Ed Gein was surely the most disturbed, creepy and bizarre serial killer there’s ever been. Can you just imagine being inside that dark and isolated house of horrors, the worst nightmare a person could ever experience!”
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Another wrote: “Psycho/ Bates Motel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence of the Lambs. All three franchises were inspired by this guy and makes the characters from the films even more terrifying.”
Another added: “WOW! Ed Gein is the real Leatherface killer. I could have never believed that the franchise of Texas Chainsaw Massacre could actually be a true horror story.”
Topics: Crime, True crime, Film and TV
Anna Verdon