Oct. 19, 2025

"BEHIND THE CLOWN PAINT: GACY'S TRIAL, EXECUTION & LEGACY - PART 2"

"BEHIND THE CLOWN PAINT: GACY'S TRIAL, EXECUTION & LEGACY - PART 2"
Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon
Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon

Reid Carter concludes the two-part John Wayne Gacy special timed with Peacock's "Devil in Disguise." After confessing to 33 murders, Gacy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming multiple personalities made him kill. The jury didn't buy it - guilty on all counts. February 1980: sentenced to death. Fourteen years on death row painting clowns, giving interviews, showing zero remorse. May 10, 1994: executed by lethal injection. Final words: "Kiss my ass." Gacy's legacy: He created the "killer clown" trope that defines American horror. Stephen King's Pennywise exists because of Pogo.

Join our new FB groups page here. Take the poll!

Join the Celebrity Trials community on social media! We're building a passionate group of true crime enthusiasts who love diving deep into the most shocking cases in America.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching "Celebrity Trials Podcast" on either platform.

You'll get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, breaking news updates on cases we're covering, and early alerts when new episodes drop. Our social media is where Reid Carter's hottest takes live, including reactions that don't make it into the show.

But more importantly, it's where YOU come in. Share your theories, debate the verdicts, and connect with fellow listeners who are just as obsessed with justice as you are. Did the jury get it right? What questions do you still have? Your comments and insights often shape future episodes.

We cover the trials that matter, but our community makes the conversation unforgettable. Come for Reid's signature cynical commentary, stay for the incredible discussions with thousands of true crime fans who get it.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:12.880
Caalarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter, Sunday, October twelfth,

2
00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:16.920
twenty twenty five. Yesterday we showed you what ed Geen did.

3
00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:20.839
The murders, the grave, robbing, the house full of human

4
00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:25.879
remains fashioned into furniture, two women dead, forty graves violated,

5
00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:29.879
fifteen different bodies turned into household items. Today we tell

6
00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:33.479
you about Augusta Gean, Ed's mother, The woman who raised

7
00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:36.479
him in isolation on a Wisconsin farm. The woman who

8
00:00:36.520 --> 00:00:40.119
taught him that all women except her were sinful, disgusting

9
00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:45.359
vessels of satan. The woman who forbade him from having friends, relationships,

10
00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:48.920
or any life outside her control. The woman who died

11
00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:52.280
in nineteen forty five and left Ed so broken that

12
00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:54.719
he spent the next twelve years trying to bring her

13
00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:58.079
back by robbing graves of women who looked like her,

14
00:00:58.679 --> 00:01:01.719
by murdering women who reminded him of her, by wearing

15
00:01:01.799 --> 00:01:04.439
a suit made from women's skin so he could become her.

16
00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:09.040
Today we also tell you how ed Geen became entertainment.

17
00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:13.159
How his crimes inspired Norman Bates keeping his mother's corpse

18
00:01:13.239 --> 00:01:17.640
in Psycho, How he inspired leatherface wearing human skin masks

19
00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:22.120
in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. How he inspired Buffalo Bill making

20
00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:25.200
a woman's suit in Silence of the Lambs. How the

21
00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:29.200
quiet farmer from Plainfield, Wisconsin became the template for every

22
00:01:29.319 --> 00:01:33.560
skin wearing, mother obsessed serial killer in American cinema. And

23
00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:37.079
today we ask the uncomfortable question, what does it mean

24
00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:40.519
that we turned ed Gean into entertainment, that we built

25
00:01:40.519 --> 00:01:44.519
horror franchises on his crimes? That Netflix just released a

26
00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.000
series dramatizing the man who murdered Bernice Warden and Mary

27
00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:52.560
Hogan and turned them into furniture. I'm read Carter, this

28
00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:56.959
is part two of Celebrity Trials, Mother's Boy, the psychology,

29
00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:00.959
the trial, the legacy, and why ed Gean should be fascinating.

30
00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:09.439
But he is. And that's the problem. To understand ed Geen,

31
00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:14.000
you have to understand Augusta Geen. And to understand Augusta

32
00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:16.960
you have to understand that she was one of the

33
00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:23.240
most controlling, fanatically religious, psychologically abusive mothers in American criminal history.

34
00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:27.400
Augusta Villelmina Leerka was born in eighteen seventy eight in

35
00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:31.039
Wisconsin to German immigrant parents. She was raised in a

36
00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:35.360
strict Lutheran household, where women were subservient, children were obedient,

37
00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:39.120
and God's judgment hung over every action. She absorbed these

38
00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:43.919
lessons completely, then she weaponized them. In nineteen hundred, Augusta

39
00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:47.479
married George Geen. She was twenty two. George was a tanner,

40
00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:51.680
then later a carpenter. By all accounts, George was weak, passive,

41
00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:56.560
an alcoholic. Augusta despised him, called him worthless, told her

42
00:02:56.639 --> 00:02:59.639
sons their father was a failure and a sinner. Made

43
00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:02.879
it clear that George's only purpose was providing money, and

44
00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:06.919
that otherwise he was beneath contempt. Augusta had two sons,

45
00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:11.560
Henry born in nineteen oh one, Edward born in nineteen

46
00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:15.319
oh six. From the moment they were born, Augusta controlled

47
00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:19.199
every aspect of their lives, not with love, with religion,

48
00:03:19.639 --> 00:03:23.039
with fear, with the absolute certainty that she alone knew

49
00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:26.560
God's will and everyone else was damned. Augusta believed that

50
00:03:26.599 --> 00:03:30.159
the world outside her farm was evil. Cities were cesspools

51
00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:34.840
of sin. Other people were corrupt women. All women except

52
00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:38.599
her were prostitutes and temptresses sent by Satan to lure

53
00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:42.039
good men into damnation. The only safe place was the

54
00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:47.120
green farm. The only righteous person was Augusta. Everyone else

55
00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:50.319
was going to hell. She made sure Ed understood this

56
00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:54.159
from childhood. Other children were sinful. Playing with them would

57
00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:59.000
corrupt him. School was necessary for education, but dangerous for socialization.

58
00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:03.039
To go to school, learn his lessons, and come home immediately,

59
00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:06.759
no friends, no talking to other children, no participation in

60
00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:10.719
anything social. Other families might have gone to church for community,

61
00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:14.800
Augusta went to church to judge. She attended a small

62
00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:17.800
Lutheran church in Plainfield, where she sat in the front

63
00:04:17.879 --> 00:04:22.160
row and glared at other parishioners, whom she considered insufficiently pious.

64
00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:25.800
She read from the Bible every day at home, focusing

65
00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:31.160
particularly on the Old Testament passages about death, murder, divine retribution,

66
00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:36.959
and female sin. Augusta was obsessed with female sexuality as sin.

67
00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:40.439
She read ed passages from the Bible about Harlot's and

68
00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:43.959
Jezebel and women leading men astray. She told him that

69
00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:47.879
women's bodies were disgusting, that sex was a sin unless

70
00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:51.240
it was for procreation within marriage, that any woman who

71
00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:54.879
enjoyed sex, or dressed immodestly or laughed too loudly was

72
00:04:54.920 --> 00:04:58.879
a whore destined for hell all women except Augusta. She

73
00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:03.120
was different. She was pure, she was righteous. She was

74
00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:05.959
the only woman in the world who wasn't corrupted by sin.

75
00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:11.560
Ed absorbed all of this. He had no choice. Augusta

76
00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:15.160
controlled what he read, what he heard, who he talked to,

77
00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:19.959
where he went, what he thought. From ages five to forty,

78
00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:24.439
Ed Geen lived under total psychological domination by his mother.

79
00:05:25.079 --> 00:05:29.680
The Green Farm was one hundred sixty acres outside Plainfield, isolated,

80
00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.480
no close neighbors, the perfect place for Augusta to create

81
00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:37.360
her closed world. She ran the farm with Germanic efficiency,

82
00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:42.720
made the boy's work constantly physical. Labor was godly, Idleness

83
00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:45.720
was sin ed and Henry did farm work from dawn

84
00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:49.120
to dusk, then came inside for Bible reading and more

85
00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:53.600
lectures about sin and salvation. George Geen was barely present.

86
00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:58.680
He drank, he disappeared for days. He had no authority

87
00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:03.920
in his own home. Augusta made all decisions, controlled all money,

88
00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:09.199
ran everything. George was just an occasional figure stumbling drunk

89
00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:12.839
through the background of Ed's childhood. Henry, the older brother,

90
00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:16.600
started questioning Augusta as he got older, started pushing back,

91
00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:20.360
started suggesting that maybe their mother was wrong about some things.

92
00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:24.480
Maybe other people weren't all evil, Maybe the world outside

93
00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:28.600
the farm wasn't hell on earth. Augusta punished Henry for

94
00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:33.199
this insolence, berated him, called him sinful, told him he

95
00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:37.360
was becoming like his worthless father. The conflict between Henry

96
00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:40.480
and Augusta grew more intense as Henry entered his twenties

97
00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:44.040
and thirties. He wanted to escape, wanted a life outside

98
00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:50.079
the farm, but Augusta wouldn't allow it. Ed, meanwhile, never questioned. Augusta,

99
00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:55.199
never pushed back, never developed the psychological independence that Henry showed.

100
00:06:56.120 --> 00:07:01.279
Ed believed everything Augusta said. Believed women were sinful, believed

101
00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:04.560
the outside world was evil. Believed his mother was the

102
00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:09.120
only pure person on earth. Believed his purpose was serving her.

103
00:07:09.959 --> 00:07:13.839
When other boys in school talked about girls, Ed was horrified.

104
00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:18.600
When other teenagers started dating. Ed stayed home. When other

105
00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:22.120
young men got married and started families, Ed remained at

106
00:07:22.120 --> 00:07:24.680
the farm with his mother. He didn't go to dances,

107
00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:28.360
didn't have girlfriends, didn't have any relationship with any woman

108
00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:33.839
except Augusta. People in Plainfield noticed Ed was odd, socially awkward,

109
00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:38.759
would laugh at inappropriate times. Seemed nervous around women, but

110
00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:42.319
he was harmless. Helped with farm work, did odd jobs,

111
00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:48.199
babysat children and was good at it. Gentle and patient. Strange, yes,

112
00:07:48.839 --> 00:07:54.800
dangerous no. April first, nineteen forty George gen dies heart failure,

113
00:07:55.160 --> 00:07:59.240
likely alcohol related. He's sixty six years old. Augusta shows

114
00:07:59.319 --> 00:08:02.480
no grief. George was a sinner and a failure. His

115
00:08:02.600 --> 00:08:06.160
death changes nothing for her except removing an annoyance. She

116
00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:09.279
still has her sons, She still has her farm. She

117
00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:15.480
still has complete control. May sixteenth, nineteen forty four, Henry

118
00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:17.600
and Ed are fighting a brush fire on the farm.

119
00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:21.480
The fire gets out of control. Henry disappears in the smoke.

120
00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:25.480
Ed runs to get help, returns with fire fighters. They

121
00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:28.000
find Henry's body lying in an area of the farm

122
00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:31.959
that the fire hadn't reached. He's dead. The official cause

123
00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:35.639
of death is listed as asphyxiation from smoke, but Henry

124
00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:38.519
has bruises on his head. The fire didn't reach where

125
00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:42.639
his body was found. Ed reported Henry missing, then led

126
00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:46.120
searchers directly to the body, even though visibility was poor.

127
00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:51.559
The circumstances are suspicious. Some investigators suspect Ed killed Henry

128
00:08:51.879 --> 00:08:55.279
that the brothers fought, that Henry said something about Augusta

129
00:08:55.320 --> 00:08:58.879
that Ed couldn't tolerate, that Ed struck Henry and left

130
00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:03.320
him to die. There's no evidence, no witnesses, no proof,

131
00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:07.600
but the suspicion lingers did Ed kill his brother to

132
00:09:07.639 --> 00:09:11.480
protect his mother's honor. Will never know for certain. What

133
00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:14.000
we do know is that after Henry's death, it was

134
00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:18.279
just Ed and Augusta. Ed was thirty eight years old,

135
00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:22.799
never had a job off the farm, never had a girlfriend,

136
00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:27.360
never had any life separate from his mother. He was

137
00:09:27.399 --> 00:09:32.000
perfectly content with that arrangement. Augusta was his entire world.

138
00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:37.639
December twenty ninth, nineteen forty five. Augusta suffers a stroke.

139
00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:41.200
She's paralyzed on her left side. Ed cares for her,

140
00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:46.120
devotedly feeds her, bathes her, dresses her, talks to her constantly,

141
00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:50.240
even though she can barely respond. He's terrified of losing her.

142
00:09:50.519 --> 00:09:53.720
She's the only person who matters, the only person who

143
00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:59.519
ever mattered. Augusta recovers somewhat. She's weaker, but she's still Augusta,

144
00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:05.159
still dominating, still controlling, still the center of Ed's universe.

145
00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:10.519
December twenty ninth, nineteen forty five, exactly one year after

146
00:10:10.519 --> 00:10:14.120
her first stroke, Augusta has a second stroke. This one

147
00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:17.080
is fatal. She dies at home with Ed beside her.

148
00:10:17.559 --> 00:10:21.120
She's sixty seven years old. Ed is thirty nine, and

149
00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:24.960
for the first time in his life, he's alone, completely,

150
00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:29.440
utterly alone. The woman who controlled every moment of his

151
00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:33.080
existence is gone. The woman he believed was the only

152
00:10:33.159 --> 00:10:36.279
pure person on earth is dead. The woman who gave

153
00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:39.799
his life structure and meaning and purpose no longer exists.

154
00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:45.200
Ed's response is psychological collapse. He boards up Augusta's bedroom,

155
00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:48.559
boards up the parlor where she spent time, boards up

156
00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:52.480
the upstairs, seals off entire sections of the house so

157
00:10:52.519 --> 00:10:56.720
they remain exactly as Augusta left them, creates a shrine

158
00:10:56.759 --> 00:11:00.000
to his dead mother in the rooms where she lived.

159
00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:03.679
The rest of the house deteriorates into squalor, trash, piling

160
00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:09.679
up newspapers, accumulating clutter and filth everywhere. Ed lives in

161
00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:13.440
one small room and the kitchen lets. Everything else decay

162
00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:19.399
except Augusta's rooms. Those stay pristine, untouched, waiting for her

163
00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:23.559
to return. But Augusta doesn't return, and Ed can't accept

164
00:11:23.559 --> 00:11:27.480
that she's gone. Forever. So two years after her death,

165
00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:32.360
around nineteen forty seven, Ed starts reading obituaries, looking for

166
00:11:32.440 --> 00:11:36.879
middle aged women, women who resemble Augusta, women who might

167
00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:40.399
in some way bring her back. That's when the grave

168
00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:44.559
robbing begins. Ed is trying to resurrect his mother, trying

169
00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:47.720
to surround himself with women who look like her, trying

170
00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:50.960
to study female anatomy so he can understand the woman

171
00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:54.519
who controlled his entire life, trying to become her by

172
00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:58.080
wearing skin fashioned from women who reminded him of her.

173
00:11:58.919 --> 00:12:02.399
The psychiatric experts who later evaluate Ed call this a

174
00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:09.720
mother fixation and gender confusion and necrophilic tendencies, clinical terms

175
00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:13.600
for what happened when Augusta Gean spent forty years psychologically

176
00:12:13.639 --> 00:12:17.120
destroying her son and then died, leaving him broken in

177
00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:21.519
ways that expressed themselves through grave robbing and murder. Did

178
00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:25.320
Augusta Gean create Ed Geen the killer? Yes and no.

179
00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:30.600
Plenty of people have controlling, religious, psychologically abusive mothers and

180
00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:35.240
don't become serial killers. Plenty of people have isolated childhoods

181
00:12:35.399 --> 00:12:38.600
and don't rob graves. Plenty of people lose their mothers

182
00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:42.399
and grieve normally instead. Of making furniture from corpses. But

183
00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:46.240
Augusta created the specific conditions that, combined with whatever was

184
00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:50.600
already wrong with Ed, psychologically produced the Butcher of Plainfield.

185
00:12:51.399 --> 00:12:55.200
She isolated him from normal social development. She taught him

186
00:12:55.200 --> 00:12:58.399
that women were disgusting and sinful. She made herself the

187
00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:02.519
only acceptable female in his universe. Then she died and

188
00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:06.279
left him with no ability to process loss, no social skills,

189
00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:10.159
no relationships, and no identity separate from being her son.

190
00:13:10.759 --> 00:13:14.919
Ed tried to fill that void with corpses, with grave robbing,

191
00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:18.799
with murder, with a woman suit that let him become Augusta.

192
00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:22.000
None of it worked, none of it brought her back.

193
00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:27.799
But Ed kept trying for twelve years until Sheriff Art

194
00:13:27.879 --> 00:13:31.320
Schley opened the door to his farmhouse and found Bernice

195
00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:35.440
Warden hanging from the ceiling back with more in a moment.

196
00:13:44.840 --> 00:13:50.120
After ed Geene's arrest, psychiatrists spend months evaluating him, trying

197
00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:54.159
to understand what combination of factors created the Butcher of Plainfield,

198
00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:58.399
trying to determine if he's competent to stand trial, trying

199
00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:00.840
to answer whether he understood right from wrong when he

200
00:14:00.919 --> 00:14:04.799
killed Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan. The psychiatric reports paint

201
00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:08.919
a picture of profound psychological dysfunction. Ed has what they

202
00:14:08.919 --> 00:14:14.080
call a mother fixation. His entire psychological development was arrested

203
00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:19.320
by Augusta's dominance. He never developed a separate identity, never individuated,

204
00:14:19.720 --> 00:14:23.320
never became a complete person independent of his mother. Ed

205
00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:27.559
also shows evidence of gender confusion, not transgender identity in

206
00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:30.679
the modern understanding, but a deep conflict about his own

207
00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:35.080
masculinity and a desire to literally become female. The woman's

208
00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:38.159
suit wasn't just a costume. It was Ed's attempt to

209
00:14:38.159 --> 00:14:43.080
physically transform into a woman, specifically into his mother. When

210
00:14:43.159 --> 00:14:46.840
psychiatrists ask ed why he robbed graves and murdered women,

211
00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:50.360
he struggles to articulate it. Says he wanted to study

212
00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:54.440
female anatomy, Says he wanted to understand women. Says he

213
00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:57.159
wanted to have women around. Says his mother told him

214
00:14:57.159 --> 00:14:59.600
women were disgusting, but he needed to see for himself.

215
00:15:00.159 --> 00:15:03.639
He doesn't express remorse, not because he's without conscience, but

216
00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:07.080
because he genuinely doesn't seem to understand why what he

217
00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:10.440
did was wrong. In Ed's mind, the women he robbed

218
00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:15.039
from graves were already dead. They weren't using their bodies anymore.

219
00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:18.600
Why shouldn't he use them? Why shouldn't he study them?

220
00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:22.720
Why shouldn't he fashion them into useful items. The murders

221
00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:25.480
are harder for Ed to explain. He claims not to

222
00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:28.960
fully remember killing Mary Hogan or Bernice Warden, says he

223
00:15:29.080 --> 00:15:32.600
was in a daze. Says it felt like watching someone

224
00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:35.799
else do it, says the memories are fragmentary and dream like.

225
00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:42.399
Psychiatrists debate whether this dissociation is real or convenient. Some

226
00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:46.240
think Ed genuinely entered a dissociative state during the murders,

227
00:15:46.840 --> 00:15:50.440
that the act of killing triggered such psychological conflict that

228
00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:53.440
his mind protected him by creating distance from the memory.

229
00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:58.240
Others think Ed remembers perfectly well, but claims amnesia because

230
00:15:58.240 --> 00:16:01.480
it's easier than confronting what he did did. What's clear

231
00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:04.279
is that Ed doesn't have psychopathy in the classic sense.

232
00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:08.960
He's not charming or manipulative. He doesn't enjoy causing suffering.

233
00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:13.240
He doesn't torture victims or prolong their deaths. His murders

234
00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:19.360
are quick, single gunshots, efficient mechanical. The violence comes after

235
00:16:19.480 --> 00:16:23.440
death during the butchering process, and even that is methodical

236
00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:27.360
rather than frenzied. Ed isn't killing for pleasure. He's killing

237
00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:31.080
to obtain bodies, fresh bodies that he can work with, preserve,

238
00:16:31.559 --> 00:16:35.320
fashion into his creations. The women themselves are secondary to

239
00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:40.200
what they provide. They're raw materials, components tools for Ed's

240
00:16:40.279 --> 00:16:44.919
project of resurrecting or becoming his mother. That psychological disconnect

241
00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:48.679
treating human beings as raw materials is what makes Ed

242
00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:53.600
so disturbing. He's not sadistic. He's practical, the same way

243
00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:57.200
a carpenter selects goodwood for a project Ed selected women

244
00:16:57.240 --> 00:17:00.360
who fit his criteria, the same way a craftsman works

245
00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:04.960
carefully with his materials. Ed carefully butchered and preserved his victims.

246
00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:09.599
There's also the necrophilia. Ed admits to having sexual contact

247
00:17:09.640 --> 00:17:12.119
with some of the bodies from graves, not all of them,

248
00:17:12.440 --> 00:17:16.279
some were too decomposed, but the fresher ones. Yes. He

249
00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:19.960
doesn't volunteer this information, has to be asked directly, then

250
00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:24.440
confirms it without shame or embarrassment. Psychiatrists note that Ed

251
00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:28.759
shows no understanding of social norms around death, bodies or

252
00:17:28.839 --> 00:17:32.400
human dignity. He was raised in complete isolation, with only

253
00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:36.359
Augusta's bizarre worldview as reference. He has no framework for

254
00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:40.200
understanding why robbing graves is wrong or why making lampshades

255
00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:43.599
from human skin is horrifying. To Ed, these are just

256
00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:48.200
things he did. Projects he worked on solutions to his loneliness.

257
00:17:48.680 --> 00:17:52.440
The question for the legal system becomes is Ed insane?

258
00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:55.759
Does he meet the legal definition of not knowing right

259
00:17:55.759 --> 00:18:01.240
from wrong? He clearly knows society disapproves. He hid his activities,

260
00:18:01.839 --> 00:18:05.279
lied when people asked about his nighttime trips, kept the

261
00:18:05.319 --> 00:18:09.240
house locked, and discouraged visitors. He understood that other people

262
00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:11.640
would object to what he was doing. But did he

263
00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:14.960
understand that it was morally wrong or did he just

264
00:18:15.079 --> 00:18:19.000
understand that it was socially unacceptable. There's a difference. Lots

265
00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:21.559
of people do things they know others disapprove of without

266
00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:25.359
believing those things are actually wrong. Ed seems to fall

267
00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:28.519
into that category. He knew people would be upset if

268
00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:30.839
they found out about his grave robbing and his human

269
00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:33.839
skin furniture, but he didn't believe what he was doing

270
00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:37.640
was actually wrong. The women were dead, He wasn't hurting

271
00:18:37.720 --> 00:18:41.559
anyone who was alive. Why should anyone care? This is

272
00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:47.000
the psychological impact of Augusta's isolation. Ed never developed normal

273
00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:50.680
moral reasoning because he never had normal social experiences to

274
00:18:50.759 --> 00:18:55.880
build that reasoning on. His only moral framework was Augusta's framework.

275
00:18:56.519 --> 00:19:00.920
Everything is sin except what Augusta permits, and Gusta was gone,

276
00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:06.519
so Ed created his own permissions. The psychiatric evaluation concludes

277
00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:10.240
that ed Gen suffers from schizophrenia, not the type with

278
00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:14.759
dramatic hallucinations and delusions, but a subtle form characterized by

279
00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:20.640
emotional flatness, social withdrawal, bizarre thinking, and inability to distinguish

280
00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:24.920
reality from his internal fantasy world. In Ed's mind, his

281
00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:27.799
mother is still alive in some form. The women he

282
00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:32.720
robs and kills aren't really gone, they're transformed. The distinction

283
00:19:32.839 --> 00:19:36.960
between living and dead is blurred. Is this legal insanity?

284
00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:40.079
The courts will spend years trying to answer that question.

285
00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:49.440
November nineteen fifty seven, ed Geen is arrested, confesses to

286
00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:53.720
two murders and forty grave robberies. The case seems straightforward.

287
00:19:54.200 --> 00:19:58.440
Put him on trial, convict him, execute him, or imprison

288
00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:01.599
him for life. Just this is served, Except it's not

289
00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:05.799
straightforward because ed Geen might be legally insane, and if

290
00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:09.240
he's insane, he can't stand trial. And if he can't

291
00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:12.319
stand trial, he can't be convicted. And if he can't

292
00:20:12.319 --> 00:20:16.440
be convicted, what happens to him? January nineteen fifty eight,

293
00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:20.960
Judge Herbert Bundy orders ed to undergo psychiatric evaluation to

294
00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:25.079
determine if he's competent to stand trial. Competency is different

295
00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:29.720
from insanity. Competency means does the defendant understand the charges

296
00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:32.759
against him? Can he assist in his own defense? Can

297
00:20:32.799 --> 00:20:36.880
he participate meaningfully in legal proceedings. Ed is evaluated by

298
00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:41.359
psychiatrists at Central State Hospital in Walpin, Wisconsin. They spend

299
00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:45.720
months observing him, testing him, interviewing him, trying to determine

300
00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:49.839
if he's capable of standing trial. The psychiatrists conclude, No,

301
00:20:50.440 --> 00:20:53.759
ed Green is not competent. He suffers from chronic schizophrenia.

302
00:20:53.960 --> 00:20:57.079
He cannot understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings

303
00:20:57.079 --> 00:20:59.799
against him. He cannot assist his attorney in preparing a

304
00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:02.839
de He's mentally ill to the point where a trial

305
00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:08.480
would be meaningless. Judge Bundy accepts this finding. January sixth,

306
00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:12.039
nineteen fifty eight. Ed Geen is committed to Central State

307
00:21:12.119 --> 00:21:18.519
Hospital indefinitely. Not as punishment as treatment, with the possibility

308
00:21:18.519 --> 00:21:22.160
that he might eventually become competent and face trial. This

309
00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:28.440
outcome horrifies Bernice Worden's family, horrifies Mary Hogan's family, horrifies

310
00:21:28.519 --> 00:21:31.400
the people of Plainfield, who wanted to see Ed stand

311
00:21:31.400 --> 00:21:35.759
trial and be punished for his crimes. Instead, he's in

312
00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:40.440
a mental hospital, receiving treatment, protected from trial because he's

313
00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:44.119
too mentally ill to understand it. But this is the law.

314
00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:47.839
You can't try someone who doesn't understand what's happening. It

315
00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:51.680
violates due process, even if everyone knows Ed is guilty,

316
00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:55.319
even if he confessed, even if the evidence is overwhelming.

317
00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:58.640
The sixth Amendment guarantees the right to a fair trial,

318
00:21:58.920 --> 00:22:01.000
and you can't have a fair trial with a defendant

319
00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:04.839
who doesn't comprehend the proceedings. So Ed sits in Central

320
00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:11.519
State Hospital for years, receiving antipsychotic medication, attending therapy sessions,

321
00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:17.240
participating in hospital activities, being evaluated periodically to see if

322
00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:22.799
his competency has been restored. March nineteen sixty eight, ten

323
00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:27.920
years after being committed, Ed is evaluated again. The psychiatrists

324
00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:32.160
determine that his condition has improved. He's no longer actively psychotic,

325
00:22:32.440 --> 00:22:35.480
he understands the charges against him, he can assist in

326
00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:40.279
his defense. He's competent to stand trial. November nineteen sixty eight,

327
00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:45.400
ed Gean finally faces trial, eleven years after Bernice Warden's murder.

328
00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:48.720
He's sixty two years old. The trial is for Bernice's

329
00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:52.440
murder only. Prosecutors decide to try the clearest case rather

330
00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:55.960
than introducing the complications of Mary Hogan's older murder. The

331
00:22:56.039 --> 00:23:00.720
trial lasts one week. The evidence is overwhelming. Edie confession,

332
00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:04.839
the receipt with his name, Bernice's body found in his house.

333
00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:09.599
Ed's lawyers don't contest the facts. Their defense is insanity.

334
00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:12.920
Ed was legally insane at the time of the murder,

335
00:23:13.240 --> 00:23:17.279
unable to understand that killing Bernice Warden was wrong. The

336
00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:21.839
jury hears from psychiatric experts. Here's Ed's confession. Here's about

337
00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:24.240
the grave robbing and the human skin furniture and the

338
00:23:24.279 --> 00:23:28.119
woman suit. Here's about Augusta Geen and the isolated childhood

339
00:23:28.119 --> 00:23:34.119
and the mother fixation. November fourteenth, nineteen sixty eight, after

340
00:23:34.200 --> 00:23:38.279
one day of deliberation, the jury returns its verdict not

341
00:23:38.440 --> 00:23:42.880
guilty by reason of insanity. Ed Geen is not convicted

342
00:23:42.920 --> 00:23:46.079
of murder. He's found legally insane at the time of

343
00:23:46.119 --> 00:23:50.279
the crime, which means he's not criminally responsible, which means

344
00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:56.440
no punishment, no prison sentence, no execution, just continued commitment

345
00:23:56.519 --> 00:24:00.319
to a mental hospital. Judge Robert Golmar accepts the verdict

346
00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:02.759
and orders Ed committed to Central State Hospital for the

347
00:24:02.759 --> 00:24:05.480
rest of his life, this time not for treatment to

348
00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:09.839
restore competency, but as punishment and protection for society. Ed

349
00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:12.319
will never be released. We'll spend the rest of his

350
00:24:12.359 --> 00:24:16.319
life in psychiatric custody. The families of Bernice Warden and

351
00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:20.680
Mary Hogan get no satisfaction from this verdict. No conviction,

352
00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:25.240
no punishment, just a determination that Ed was too crazy

353
00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:28.079
to be held responsible for butchering their loved ones and

354
00:24:28.119 --> 00:24:31.599
turning them into furniture. But this is the insanity defense

355
00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:35.759
working as designed. If someone genuinely cannot understand right from

356
00:24:35.799 --> 00:24:39.599
wrong due to mental illness, punishing them is meaningless. They're

357
00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:43.319
not deterred, they can't learn from punishment. They need treatment

358
00:24:43.480 --> 00:24:47.640
and permanent confinement, not vengeance. The question is whether Ed

359
00:24:47.720 --> 00:24:51.000
truly couldn't understand that murder was wrong, or whether he

360
00:24:51.160 --> 00:24:54.240
just had such bizarre psychology that he didn't care. The

361
00:24:54.319 --> 00:24:59.480
jury decided the former ed was insane, genuinely legally insane,

362
00:24:59.799 --> 00:25:03.519
to disconnected from reality to be held criminally responsible. So

363
00:25:03.720 --> 00:25:06.559
ed Geen never serves a day in prison, never receives

364
00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:09.480
punishment for his crimes, spends the rest of his life

365
00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:12.039
in a mental hospital, where he becomes, by all accounts,

366
00:25:12.079 --> 00:25:18.160
a model patient. He's cooperative, helpful, polite to staff, participates

367
00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:23.880
in therapy, takes his medication without complaint, follows all rules,

368
00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:28.119
causes no problems. He's so well behaved that he's given

369
00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:33.839
increased privileges access to books, magazines, television. He's allowed to

370
00:25:33.880 --> 00:25:37.880
work in the hospital kitchen, becomes friends with some staff members.

371
00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:42.640
The horrifying truth is that ed Geen, the butcher of Plainfield,

372
00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:45.759
who murdered women and robbed graves and made furniture from

373
00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:49.200
human skin, is apparently a pretty decent guy. Once he's

374
00:25:49.240 --> 00:25:54.319
medicated and supervised. He's not violent, not aggressive, not dangerous

375
00:25:54.319 --> 00:25:57.839
to other patients or staff, just a quiet, odd older

376
00:25:57.880 --> 00:26:01.960
man living out his days in institutional care. In nineteen

377
00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:06.160
seventy four, ed Is transferred to Mendota Mental Health Institute

378
00:26:06.200 --> 00:26:10.519
in Madison, Wisconsin. It's a less restrictive facility than Central State,

379
00:26:11.079 --> 00:26:15.960
more freedoms, better conditions. Ed continues being a model patient,

380
00:26:16.440 --> 00:26:21.920
continues cooperating with treatment, continues living peacefully in psychiatric custody.

381
00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:28.559
July twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four, ed Gen dies cancer,

382
00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:33.960
specifically respiratory failure secondary to lung cancer. He's seventy seven

383
00:26:34.039 --> 00:26:38.599
years old. He's been in psychiatric custody for twenty six years.

384
00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:42.519
Never faced execution, never served a prison sentence, just lived

385
00:26:42.599 --> 00:26:46.559
quietly in mental hospitals until cancer killed him. He's buried

386
00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:52.279
in Plainfield Cemetery, Plainfield, the town where he committed his crimes,

387
00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:56.240
where Bernice Worden lived and died, where Mary Hogan disappeared.

388
00:26:56.599 --> 00:27:00.160
His grave is unmarked at first, but someone eventually places

389
00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:03.400
a small stone with just his name and dates. Grave

390
00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:08.240
robbers repeatedly steal Ed's headstone, not because they're fans, but

391
00:27:08.359 --> 00:27:12.319
because it's worth money. Collectors want pieces of ed Gean's

392
00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:16.720
grave marker. The macabre fascination that will define his legacy

393
00:27:16.880 --> 00:27:20.640
is already beginning. In two thousand, Ed's headstone is stolen

394
00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:24.839
again and never recovered. His grave remains unmarked, now just

395
00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:28.279
a spot in Plainfield Cemetery, where the Butcher of Plainfield

396
00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:31.920
rests among the people whose graves he once robbed. Bernice

397
00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:35.400
Warden is buried in Plainfield Cemetery too, about two hundred

398
00:27:35.440 --> 00:27:38.000
feet from ed Geen, the woman he murdered, and the

399
00:27:38.039 --> 00:27:41.559
man who murdered her resting in the same cemetery. That's

400
00:27:41.640 --> 00:27:45.720
how small Plainfield is, That's how intertwined these stories remain.

401
00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:54.400
Ed Geen died in nineteen eighty four, but culturally he

402
00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:59.319
never died. He became immortal, not as ed Geen, but

403
00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:03.519
as every skin wearing, mother obsessed serial killer who came after.

404
00:28:04.519 --> 00:28:07.559
Let's start with the first and most famous, Norman Bates.

405
00:28:08.359 --> 00:28:11.759
Writer Robert Bloch is living in Wisconsin, about thirty five

406
00:28:11.799 --> 00:28:15.640
miles from Plainfield. The ed Gen story is still fresh.

407
00:28:15.960 --> 00:28:18.839
It's only been two years since the murders. Block is

408
00:28:18.839 --> 00:28:21.880
a horror writer, and the ed Geen case fascinates him,

409
00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:25.559
not the grave robbing or the furniture. The mother fixation,

410
00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:28.440
the idea of a man so dominated by his mother

411
00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:31.200
that even after her death, he can't escape her control.

412
00:28:31.960 --> 00:28:35.160
Block writes a novel called Psycho. It's about Norman Bates,

413
00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:37.599
a man who runs a motel with his mother, except

414
00:28:37.640 --> 00:28:40.920
his mother is dead. Norman killed her years ago, then

415
00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:44.240
couldn't accept her death, so he preserved her corpse and

416
00:28:44.359 --> 00:28:47.519
keeps it in the house. He talks to her, argues

417
00:28:47.559 --> 00:28:52.440
with her. When the mother personality takes control, Norman dresses

418
00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:55.359
in her clothes and commits murders, then forgets about them.

419
00:28:55.960 --> 00:28:59.799
Sound familiar dead mother, preserved corpse, son who can't let

420
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:03.680
go Oh, psychological split causing murders. The son doesn't remember.

421
00:29:04.279 --> 00:29:09.440
That's ed Geen. Not literally block change details, but the

422
00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:14.079
core psychology is ed the mother fixation, the inability to

423
00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:19.000
accept her death, the crimes committed while mentally dissociated. Alfred

424
00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:23.279
Hitchcock makes Psycho into a movie. Anthony Perkins plays Norman Bates.

425
00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:27.440
The movie is shocking for its time, the shower scene,

426
00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:31.000
the twist ending revealing Norman's mother has been dead all along,

427
00:29:31.559 --> 00:29:35.359
the portrait of a seemingly normal man who's actually profoundly disturbed.

428
00:29:35.880 --> 00:29:39.319
Psycho becomes one of the most influential horror films ever made,

429
00:29:39.839 --> 00:29:43.319
creates the template for the American serial killer movie, and

430
00:29:43.480 --> 00:29:46.680
at its core is ed Geen's relationship with his mother,

431
00:29:47.359 --> 00:29:51.359
Ed's inability to escape her control. Even after death. Ed's

432
00:29:51.400 --> 00:29:55.039
psychological fracture that made him capable of murder while believing

433
00:29:55.119 --> 00:30:01.400
himself innocent. Norman Bates is ed Geen sanitized, made cinematic,

434
00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:05.759
given a different story but the same psychology, and millions

435
00:30:05.799 --> 00:30:09.480
of people watch Psycho without knowing they're watching a dramatization

436
00:30:09.720 --> 00:30:13.279
of the Butcher of Plainfield. Tobe Hooper makes the Texas

437
00:30:13.359 --> 00:30:18.240
Chainsaw Massacre. It's loosely inspired by true events. The opening

438
00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:23.640
text claims those true events are ed Geen's crimes. Leatherface,

439
00:30:23.960 --> 00:30:28.000
the killer wears masks made from human skin, lives in

440
00:30:28.039 --> 00:30:31.200
an isolated farmhouse full of bones and body parts used

441
00:30:31.200 --> 00:30:36.039
as furniture, kills with brutal efficiency. His family uses human

442
00:30:36.079 --> 00:30:40.240
remains to decorate their home. Lampshades, chairs, walls covered in

443
00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:44.400
bones and skin. That's ed Geen's house. That's what police

444
00:30:44.440 --> 00:30:48.960
found when they searched Ed's farmhouse. The skin, masks, the bones,

445
00:30:49.519 --> 00:30:53.640
the furniture made from human remains, leather faces ed green,

446
00:30:53.759 --> 00:30:56.720
with the grave robbing removed and the violence amplified for

447
00:30:56.799 --> 00:31:01.559
horror purposes. The Texas Chainsaw mass becomes a horror classic,

448
00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:06.160
spawns sequels, becomes a franchise, and Most people who watch

449
00:31:06.200 --> 00:31:08.480
it don't know they're looking at a recreation of ed

450
00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:12.720
Gen's farmhouse. Don't know that the horrifying decorations in Leatherface's

451
00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:16.599
house were real items found in Ed's home. Thomas Harris

452
00:31:16.640 --> 00:31:21.079
publishes the Silence of the Lambs. It's about FBI trainee

453
00:31:21.079 --> 00:31:24.720
Clarice Starling hunting a serial killer called Buffalo Bill who's

454
00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:28.240
kidnapping women and skinning them. Why is he skinning them?

455
00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:32.559
Because Buffalo Bill wants to become a woman. He's making

456
00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:35.880
a woman's suit from real women's skin. He's planning to

457
00:31:35.920 --> 00:31:39.680
wear it to transform himself, to literally become female by

458
00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:44.279
wearing skin taken from female victims. That's ed Geen. That's

459
00:31:44.319 --> 00:31:47.799
the woman's suit police found in Ed's house. That's Ed's

460
00:31:47.880 --> 00:31:52.480
stated motivation. He wanted to become a woman, specifically, wanted

461
00:31:52.480 --> 00:31:55.039
to become his mother, so he made a suit from

462
00:31:55.039 --> 00:31:58.480
the skins of women who resembled her. The Silence of

463
00:31:58.519 --> 00:32:03.160
the Lambs becomes a movie. Buffalo Bill, played by Ted Levine,

464
00:32:03.519 --> 00:32:07.519
dances in his basement wearing his woman suit. Would you

465
00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:11.359
fuck me? I'd fuck me, he says into the camera,

466
00:32:11.759 --> 00:32:15.960
admiring himself wearing someone Else's skin. The movie wins five

467
00:32:16.039 --> 00:32:19.960
Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It's acclaimed as a masterpiece

468
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:23.400
of psychological horror, and at its core is ed Gean's

469
00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:27.599
woman suit, Ed's desire to transform into a woman. Ed's

470
00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:31.119
crimes made cinematic and given to a fictional killer. Three

471
00:32:31.319 --> 00:32:38.240
landmark horror films, Three iconic villains Norman Bates, Leatherface, Buffalo Bill,

472
00:32:38.680 --> 00:32:42.039
all derived from ed Geen, all taking pieces of his

473
00:32:42.160 --> 00:32:45.880
crimes in psychology and making them into entertainment. And it

474
00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:50.359
doesn't stop there. Ed Gean influences countless other films, books,

475
00:32:50.680 --> 00:32:54.039
TV shows. Anytime you see a serial killer with a

476
00:32:54.039 --> 00:32:58.880
mother fixation, that's Ed. Anytime you see someone wearing human skin,

477
00:32:59.359 --> 00:33:03.160
that's ED. Anytime you see furniture made from human remains,

478
00:33:03.799 --> 00:33:08.039
that's Ed. He becomes the template, the archetype, the original

479
00:33:08.079 --> 00:33:11.559
that everyone copies and reinterprets and builds on. The Butcher

480
00:33:11.559 --> 00:33:16.359
of Plainfield becomes Hollywood's favorite serial killer, inspiring literally dozens

481
00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:20.480
of fictional characters. Which brings us to twenty twenty five

482
00:33:20.559 --> 00:33:24.400
and Netflix's Monster, the ed Geen Story. This is the

483
00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:27.960
latest in the Monster anthology series that previously covered Jeffrey

484
00:33:28.039 --> 00:33:32.160
Dahmer and the Menendez brothers, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan producing,

485
00:33:32.559 --> 00:33:36.119
Charlie Hunham playing ed Geen. A prestige series with major

486
00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:39.559
stars and big budget recreating Ed's crimes for streaming audiences.

487
00:33:40.319 --> 00:33:44.920
The show is getting attention, getting reviews, getting viewers. People

488
00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:48.240
are watching ed Geen murder Bernice Werden and Mary Hogan,

489
00:33:48.640 --> 00:33:52.599
watching him rob graves, watching him make furniture from human skin,

490
00:33:53.119 --> 00:33:57.640
all dramatized, all given cinematic treatment, all turned into entertainment.

491
00:33:57.960 --> 00:34:01.680
And I have complicated feelings about this. On one hand,

492
00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:07.000
telling Edgen's story has value. Understanding how a person becomes

493
00:34:07.079 --> 00:34:12.159
capable of these crimes matters. Examining the psychology of killers

494
00:34:12.199 --> 00:34:17.159
can help prevent future killings. True crime has educational value

495
00:34:17.159 --> 00:34:21.239
when done responsibly. On the other hand, ed Geen murdered

496
00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:25.960
two women and violated forty graves. Bernice Warden and Mary

497
00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:30.039
Hogan are real people who died horribly. Their families are

498
00:34:30.119 --> 00:34:34.880
real people who suffered. Turning that into entertainment feels exploitative,

499
00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:38.960
feels like profiting from their tragedy feels like we've forgotten

500
00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:42.000
they were real victims, not characters in a horror story.

501
00:34:42.599 --> 00:34:45.760
The problem with ed Gen's cultural legacy is that the

502
00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:49.559
more famous he becomes, the more forgotten his victims become.

503
00:34:50.039 --> 00:34:53.880
Everyone knows ed Geen. Everyone knows about the skin masks

504
00:34:53.920 --> 00:34:57.239
and the woman's suit and the furniture made from human remains.

505
00:34:57.679 --> 00:35:01.079
But how many people know Bernice Warden's name? How many

506
00:35:01.119 --> 00:35:04.559
people know Mary Hogan ran a tavern? How many people

507
00:35:04.599 --> 00:35:08.280
remember they were real women, with real lives who died

508
00:35:08.360 --> 00:35:13.320
because ed Geen decided they fit his criteria. The cultural

509
00:35:13.360 --> 00:35:16.599
fascination with ed Geen has turned him into a character,

510
00:35:16.880 --> 00:35:20.440
a monster, a horror movie villain, and in the process

511
00:35:20.480 --> 00:35:24.320
we've dehumanized him, which paradoxically makes us forget that his

512
00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:27.880
crimes were real, that his victims were real, that this

513
00:35:28.039 --> 00:35:32.760
isn't fiction. Norman Bates is fiction, leather Faces fiction, Buffalo

514
00:35:32.840 --> 00:35:36.599
Bill is fiction. But ed Geen was real. And because

515
00:35:36.639 --> 00:35:39.800
we've turned him into the inspiration for fictional killers, we

516
00:35:39.880 --> 00:35:42.559
start thinking of him as fictional too, as a character,

517
00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:46.599
as entertainment. That's the dark side of ed Gain's legacy.

518
00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:50.920
We took real horror, two women murdered, forty graves, robbed,

519
00:35:50.960 --> 00:35:53.719
a house full of human remains, and we made it

520
00:35:53.760 --> 00:35:57.719
into movies and TV shows and books. We made it consumable,

521
00:35:57.920 --> 00:36:00.280
made it safe, made it something you can watch with

522
00:36:00.320 --> 00:36:02.920
popcorn on a Friday night. And in doing that, we've

523
00:36:02.960 --> 00:36:06.800
forgotten that Bernice Warden's son found his mother's headless body,

524
00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:09.960
that Mary Hogan's family waited three years to learn she

525
00:36:10.119 --> 00:36:13.480
was dead, That dozens of families discovered their loved one's

526
00:36:13.519 --> 00:36:16.960
graves had been robbed and their remains turned into furniture.

527
00:36:17.639 --> 00:36:21.559
So yes, watch Monster the ed Geen Story on Netflix.

528
00:36:22.039 --> 00:36:26.119
Watch Charlie Hunham play ed. Watch the recreation of the farmhouse,

529
00:36:26.159 --> 00:36:29.760
and the crimes and the psychology. But remember, while you're watching,

530
00:36:30.159 --> 00:36:33.519
this isn't just a horror story. This happened. These were

531
00:36:33.519 --> 00:36:38.119
real people, real crimes, real victims who deserved better than

532
00:36:38.159 --> 00:36:42.320
being forgotten in our fascination with the monster who killed them.

533
00:36:42.360 --> 00:36:52.639
Back with more in a moment. Ed Geen spent twenty

534
00:36:52.639 --> 00:36:55.960
six years in psychiatric custody from nineteen fifty eight to

535
00:36:56.039 --> 00:36:59.320
nineteen eighty four, from age fifty two to age seventy seven,

536
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:03.440
in a quarter century in mental hospitals, and by all accounts,

537
00:37:03.440 --> 00:37:07.000
he was a model patient. He took his medication without complaint,

538
00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:13.599
attended therapy sessions, followed all rules, never caused problems, never

539
00:37:13.639 --> 00:37:17.760
showed violence toward other patients or staff. The same man

540
00:37:17.800 --> 00:37:21.360
who murdered two women and robbed forty graves became in

541
00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:27.719
psychiatric custody, harmless, cooperative, almost pleasant. Staff members who worked

542
00:37:27.719 --> 00:37:30.880
with Ed over the years report that he was polite, helpful,

543
00:37:31.320 --> 00:37:34.960
would assist with tasks around the ward, would help other patients,

544
00:37:35.320 --> 00:37:40.280
would engage in conversations about normal topics, weather, sports, current events.

545
00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:43.840
He seemed like a harmless, older man with an unfortunate past.

546
00:37:44.679 --> 00:37:48.559
Ed was allowed certain privileges. He could read books and magazines,

547
00:37:49.039 --> 00:37:52.880
watch television, work in the hospital kitchen, which he enjoyed

548
00:37:53.119 --> 00:37:55.840
because it reminded him of farm work. He was good

549
00:37:55.840 --> 00:38:00.920
at following routines, good at repetitive tasks, good at keeping busy.

550
00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:04.360
He rarely talked about his crimes. When he did, it

551
00:38:04.440 --> 00:38:08.159
was matter of fact, no emotion, no remorse that staff

552
00:38:08.199 --> 00:38:11.960
could detect, just acknowledgment that, yes, he'd done those things,

553
00:38:12.559 --> 00:38:14.920
the way someone might acknowledge they'd once worked as a

554
00:38:14.960 --> 00:38:18.119
carpenter or lived in a different town. Events that happened

555
00:38:18.159 --> 00:38:21.960
but didn't seem to affect him emotionally. Some psychiatric staff

556
00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:27.039
believed Ed's medication controlled his symptoms, that without antipsychotics, he

557
00:38:27.119 --> 00:38:31.400
might decompensate back into the psychological state that enabled his crimes.

558
00:38:32.400 --> 00:38:36.039
Others thought Ed was only dangerous in the specific circumstances

559
00:38:36.079 --> 00:38:41.599
that existed before his arrest. Living alone, isolated without supervision

560
00:38:41.679 --> 00:38:45.679
or social contact, in a structured environment with support, he

561
00:38:45.840 --> 00:38:49.920
was fine either way. Ed lived out his years peacefully,

562
00:38:50.320 --> 00:38:53.599
no incidents, no relapses, no signs of the man who'd

563
00:38:53.599 --> 00:38:57.880
committed such horrifying crimes, just an aging psychiatric patient who

564
00:38:57.920 --> 00:39:02.519
followed rules and caused no trouble. In nineteen seventy four,

565
00:39:02.800 --> 00:39:05.880
when he was transferred to Mendoda Mental Health Institute, a

566
00:39:05.960 --> 00:39:09.880
reporter asked ed if he had any regrets. Ed thought

567
00:39:09.880 --> 00:39:12.360
about it, then said he regretted that his house had

568
00:39:12.400 --> 00:39:15.679
been so messy when police arrived. Said his mother would

569
00:39:15.719 --> 00:39:18.360
have been ashamed of how disorganized he'd let things get.

570
00:39:19.159 --> 00:39:24.039
That's ed Gean, still thinking about his mother, still worried

571
00:39:24.039 --> 00:39:28.159
about her disapproval. Not regretting the murders or the grave robbing,

572
00:39:28.239 --> 00:39:32.039
or the furniture made from human skin, regretting that his

573
00:39:32.079 --> 00:39:36.960
house wasn't tidy enough. July nineteen eighty four, Ed is

574
00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:40.039
diagnosed with lung cancer. By this point, he's seventy seven

575
00:39:40.119 --> 00:39:43.440
years old, spent most of his adult life in psychiatric custody.

576
00:39:43.719 --> 00:39:47.000
The cancer is advanced inoperable. He has months to live

577
00:39:47.039 --> 00:39:51.800
at most. July twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four, Ed dies

578
00:39:52.280 --> 00:39:55.719
respiratory failure caused by the cancer. He dies peacefully in

579
00:39:55.760 --> 00:39:59.320
the hospital with medical staff present. No suffering, no drama,

580
00:39:59.599 --> 00:40:01.880
just an old old man dying of cancer after living

581
00:40:01.920 --> 00:40:05.599
longer than either of his victims. He's buried in Plainfield Cemetery.

582
00:40:06.159 --> 00:40:09.199
His grave is initially marked with a simple stone, just

583
00:40:09.280 --> 00:40:14.960
his name and dates, no epitaph, no explanation, just Edward

584
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:20.639
Theodore gen August twenty seventh, nineteen o six July twenty sixth,

585
00:40:20.840 --> 00:40:26.159
nineteen eighty four. The headstone is stolen repeatedly collectors want

586
00:40:26.199 --> 00:40:31.599
pieces of ed Geen memorabilia. His grave marker becomes a souvenir. Eventually,

587
00:40:31.880 --> 00:40:34.119
after the headstone is stolen for the last time in

588
00:40:34.159 --> 00:40:39.280
two thousand and never recovered, the grave is left unmarked today.

589
00:40:39.320 --> 00:40:42.360
If you visit Plainfield Cemetery you can find where ed

590
00:40:42.480 --> 00:40:44.800
is buried if you know where to look, but there's

591
00:40:44.840 --> 00:40:48.199
no marker, just a spot of ground. The Butcher of

592
00:40:48.239 --> 00:40:51.159
Plainfield rests in an unmarked grave in the town where

593
00:40:51.159 --> 00:40:55.320
he committed his crimes. Bernice Warden is in the same cemetery,

594
00:40:55.760 --> 00:41:00.239
about two hundred feet away. She has a proper headstone.

595
00:41:00.360 --> 00:41:03.239
Mary Hogan is buried in a different cemetery, but also

596
00:41:03.320 --> 00:41:07.480
has a marked grave. The victims are memorialized properly. The

597
00:41:07.559 --> 00:41:11.360
killer is unmarked. Maybe that's appropriate. Ed Gean got enough

598
00:41:11.360 --> 00:41:14.599
attention in life, got famous, got turned into movies and

599
00:41:14.639 --> 00:41:18.159
books and TV shows. His victims deserve the memorials. He

600
00:41:18.199 --> 00:41:21.519
deserves to be forgotten. But he won't be forgotten because

601
00:41:21.559 --> 00:41:25.519
every time someone watches Psycho or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

602
00:41:25.840 --> 00:41:29.360
or The Silence of the Lambs, they're watching ed Gean's legacy.

603
00:41:29.920 --> 00:41:33.559
Every time someone watches Monster the ed Geen Story on Netflix,

604
00:41:33.599 --> 00:41:36.519
they're engaging with his crimes. Ed Geen will be remembered

605
00:41:36.559 --> 00:41:40.719
forever for the worst possible reasons, for the most horrifying crimes.

606
00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:43.679
And that's his legacy, not the quiet old man who

607
00:41:43.760 --> 00:41:47.199
died peacefully in a hospital bed, the Monster, the Butcher

608
00:41:47.239 --> 00:41:50.599
of Plainfield, the man who murdered women and robbed graves,

609
00:41:50.800 --> 00:41:54.599
and made furniture from human skin. That's how history remembers

610
00:41:54.760 --> 00:42:00.440
ed Geen. That's how it should remember him. The ed

611
00:42:00.480 --> 00:42:06.039
Geen Story two parts, two days, The crimes and the psychology,

612
00:42:06.559 --> 00:42:09.960
the murders and the mother, the horror, and the legacy.

613
00:42:10.920 --> 00:42:14.679
Ed Geen murdered Bernice Warden and Mary Hogan, robbed at

614
00:42:14.800 --> 00:42:19.199
least forty graves, turned human remains into furniture, made a

615
00:42:19.199 --> 00:42:22.079
woman suit from real women's skin so he could become

616
00:42:22.119 --> 00:42:25.800
his mother. Was found not guilty by reason of insanity,

617
00:42:26.360 --> 00:42:30.199
spent twenty six years as a model patient in psychiatric hospitals.

618
00:42:30.639 --> 00:42:34.320
Died peacefully of cancer in nineteen eighty four. And somewhere

619
00:42:34.360 --> 00:42:38.400
along the way, ed Geen became entertainment. Became the inspiration

620
00:42:38.559 --> 00:42:42.239
for Norman Bates and Leatherface and Buffalo Bill, became the

621
00:42:42.280 --> 00:42:45.960
template for every skin wearing, mother obsessed serial killer in

622
00:42:46.039 --> 00:42:49.320
American horror. Became famous not for what he did to

623
00:42:49.360 --> 00:42:53.159
his victims, but for the creative ways he violated their bodies.

624
00:42:54.199 --> 00:42:58.079
That's the uncomfortable truth about ed Gan's cultural legacy. We

625
00:42:58.159 --> 00:43:03.280
turned real horror into entertainment, turned real victims into plot devices,

626
00:43:03.559 --> 00:43:07.000
turned real crimes into horror movies and TV shows and

627
00:43:07.079 --> 00:43:10.920
books that we consume for fun. Monster The ed Geen

628
00:43:11.079 --> 00:43:15.280
Story is streaming on Netflix now. It's well made, well acted,

629
00:43:15.519 --> 00:43:18.679
thoughtfully produced, and it's built on the murders of Bernice

630
00:43:18.679 --> 00:43:22.440
Worden and Mary Hogan, built on the violation of forty graves,

631
00:43:22.440 --> 00:43:26.199
built on crimes that devastated families and traumatized a community.

632
00:43:26.519 --> 00:43:29.719
Should we watch it? Should we consume entertainment based on

633
00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:33.519
real murders? I don't have a simple answer. True crime

634
00:43:33.719 --> 00:43:39.199
serves a purpose education, understanding, prevention, But there's a line

635
00:43:39.239 --> 00:43:45.800
between education and exploitation, between understanding and glorification, between remembering

636
00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:49.480
victims and celebrating killers. I think the line is this,

637
00:43:50.119 --> 00:43:53.159
when we tell these stories, we have to remember the victims,

638
00:43:53.679 --> 00:43:56.400
have to say their names, have to honor their lives,

639
00:43:56.760 --> 00:43:59.360
have to treat them as real people who mattered, not

640
00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:02.840
as props. In the Killer's story, Bernice Warden was fifty

641
00:44:02.880 --> 00:44:08.320
eight years old hardware store owner Frank Warden's mother, respected

642
00:44:08.360 --> 00:44:12.159
member of Plainfield community. She opened her store on the

643
00:44:12.159 --> 00:44:16.400
morning of November sixteenth, nineteen fifty seven, and ed Geen

644
00:44:16.599 --> 00:44:19.280
shot her with a point three to two caliber rifle.

645
00:44:19.960 --> 00:44:25.199
She should have lived another twenty years, had grandchildren, enjoyed retirement,

646
00:44:25.800 --> 00:44:29.719
died peacefully of old age. Instead, she's remembered as ed

647
00:44:29.800 --> 00:44:33.199
Geen's victim, as the body hanging in his summer kitchen,

648
00:44:33.719 --> 00:44:37.239
as the murder that finally got ed caught. That's not

649
00:44:37.360 --> 00:44:40.159
fair to Bernice. She was more than how she died.

650
00:44:40.880 --> 00:44:45.119
Mary Hogan was fifty one years old, tavern owner, divorced,

651
00:44:45.599 --> 00:44:50.239
worked hard running her business alone. She disappeared December eighth,

652
00:44:50.440 --> 00:44:54.480
nineteen fifty four, and wasn't found for three years. Her

653
00:44:54.480 --> 00:44:58.119
family spent three years wondering where she was, hoping she

654
00:44:58.199 --> 00:45:02.519
was alive, then learn she'd been murdered, dismembered, and turned

655
00:45:02.559 --> 00:45:06.480
into a mask. Mary deserves better than being a footnote

656
00:45:06.480 --> 00:45:09.559
in ed Geen's story. She deserves to be remembered as

657
00:45:09.599 --> 00:45:12.559
a person, as someone who lived and worked and mattered

658
00:45:12.559 --> 00:45:15.800
to her family and community. That's what we owe victims

659
00:45:15.840 --> 00:45:19.280
when we tell these stories. Remember them as people say

660
00:45:19.320 --> 00:45:23.239
their names, Honor their lives. Don't let them be forgotten

661
00:45:23.239 --> 00:45:26.360
in our fascination with the monsters who killed them. Ed

662
00:45:26.440 --> 00:45:30.039
Geen was a monster, but he was also a human being,

663
00:45:30.119 --> 00:45:35.800
created by specific circumstances, an abusive mother, severe mental illness,

664
00:45:36.039 --> 00:45:41.639
complete isolation, and a psychological break after Augusta's death. Understanding

665
00:45:41.719 --> 00:45:45.719
how he happened matters not to excuse him, not to sympathize,

666
00:45:46.280 --> 00:45:49.719
but to understand so we can recognize warning signs, so

667
00:45:49.800 --> 00:45:53.800
we can prevent future ed Geenes. But understanding ed Geen

668
00:45:53.880 --> 00:45:57.639
shouldn't mean forgetting Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan shouldn't mean

669
00:45:57.679 --> 00:46:01.320
turning their deaths into entertainment. Wouldn't mean profiting from their

670
00:46:01.360 --> 00:46:05.239
tragedy without honoring their memory. So watch Monster, the ed

671
00:46:05.320 --> 00:46:10.159
Green Story. If you want, watch Psycho, Watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre,

672
00:46:10.719 --> 00:46:14.119
Watch Silence of the Lambs, consume the cultural legacy of

673
00:46:14.159 --> 00:46:17.960
the Butcher of Plainfield. But while you're watching, remember this

674
00:46:18.199 --> 00:46:24.119
wasn't fiction. This happened in Plainfield, Wisconsin in nineteen fifty seven.

675
00:46:24.800 --> 00:46:29.039
Two women were murdered, forty graves were robbed, a house

676
00:46:29.079 --> 00:46:33.639
full of human remains was discovered, families were devastated, a

677
00:46:33.679 --> 00:46:38.559
community was traumatized, and Hollywood turned it into entertainment. I'm reed.

678
00:46:38.639 --> 00:46:41.599
Carter ed Geen died in nineteen eighty four, but his

679
00:46:41.719 --> 00:46:44.679
legacy lives forever, not because of what he did to

680
00:46:44.719 --> 00:46:47.679
his victims, because we won't stop making movies about him.

681
00:46:47.880 --> 00:46:52.199
Remember Bernice Worden, Remember Mary Hogan. Remember the dozens of

682
00:46:52.239 --> 00:46:55.519
women whose graves were robbed and whose remains were violated.

683
00:46:55.800 --> 00:46:59.360
There the real story there, Who deserved justice? There? Who

684
00:46:59.360 --> 00:47:03.119
we should remember? This has been celebrity Trials, the ed

685
00:47:03.199 --> 00:47:08.199
Geen Story, two parts, covering the crimes, the psychology, the trial,

686
00:47:08.760 --> 00:47:12.599
and the legacy of the Butcher of Plainfield. Tomorrow we're

687
00:47:12.639 --> 00:47:17.079
back to regular programming, whatever fresh horrors America produces, whatever

688
00:47:17.119 --> 00:47:21.360
celebrities do stupid things, whatever trials grip the nation. But

689
00:47:21.480 --> 00:47:25.760
for this weekend, we remembered ed Geen, not because he's fascinating,

690
00:47:25.960 --> 00:47:28.960
but because Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan deserve to have

691
00:47:29.079 --> 00:47:32.719
their stories told completely, deserve to be remembered as more

692
00:47:32.719 --> 00:47:45.920
than ed Geen's victims. See you Monday,