March 13, 2026

Best of Season 1: "MOTHER'S BOY: The Making of Ed Gein and His Dark Legacy" (Part 2 of 2)

Best of Season 1: "MOTHER'S BOY: The Making of Ed Gein and His Dark Legacy" (Part 2 of 2)
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Reid Carter concludes the Ed Gheen special with the psychology behind the Butcher of Plainfield. Augusta Gein raised Ed in fanatical religious isolation, teaching him women were sinful and disgusting. After her death in 1945, Ed tried to resurrect her through grave robbing, murder, and wearing a "woman suit" made from real skin. Found incompetent in 1957, eventually ruled not guilty by insanity in 1968, Ed became a model patient and died peacefully in 1984. His crimes inspired Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence of the Lambs. Reid examines how we turned Ed Gheen into entertainment and forgot his victims in the process.

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WEBVTT

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Celebrity Trials is kicking off season two with a new

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host and new name. Hey, I'm Garrett Fisher, and starting

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March sixteenth, I'll be the new host on Daily Crime

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and Justice. It's the same great show, now with extra

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crime and extra justice. In the meantime, please enjoy this

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encore performance of one of Celebrity Trials classic episodes. See

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you on March sixteenth. We'll miss you, Read Carter and

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wish you the best.

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Callarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Read Carter. Sunday, October twelfth,

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twenty twenty five. Yesterday we showed you what Ed Gean did.

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The murders, the grave robbing, the house full of human

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remains fashioned into furniture. Two women dead, forty graves violated,

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fifteen different bodies turned into household items. Today we tell

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you about Augusta Gean, Ed's mother. The woman who raised

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him in isolation on a Wisconsin farm. The woman who

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taught him that all women except her were sinful, disgusting

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vessels of satan. The woman who forbade him from having friends, relationships,

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or any life outside her control. The woman who died

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in nineteen forty five and left Ed so broken that

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he spent the next twelve years trying to bring her back,

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by robbing graves of women who looked like her, by

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murdering women who reminded him of her, by wearing a

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suit made from women's skin so he could become her.

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Today we also tell you how ed Geen became entertainment.

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How his crimes inspired Norman Bates keeping his mother's corpse

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in Psycho, How he inspired leatherface wearing human skin masks

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in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. How he inspired Buffalo Bill making

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a woman suit in Silence of the Lambs. How the

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quiet farmer from Plainfield, Wisconsin became the template for every

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skin wearing, mother obsessed serial killer in American cinema. And

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today we ask the uncomfortable question, what does it mean

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that we turned ed Geen into entertainment, that we built

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horror franchises on his crimes, that Netflix just released a

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series dramatizing the man who murdered Bernice Warden and Mary

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Hogan and turned them into furniture. I'm read Carter. This

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is part two of Celebrity Trials. Mother's Boy, the psychology,

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the trial, the legacy, and why ed Geen shouldn't be fascinating,

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but he is. And that's the problem. To understand ed Geen,

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you have to understand Augusta Geen. And to understand Augusta

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you have to understand that she was one of the

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most controlling, fanatically religious, psychologically abusive mothers in American criminal history.

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Augusta Villemina Leerka was born in eighteen seventy eight in

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Wisconsin to German immigrant parents. She was raised in a

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strict Lutheran household where women were subservient, children were obedient,

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and Godd's judgment hung over every action. She absorbed these

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lessons completely, then she weaponized them. In nineteen hundred, Augusta

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married George Gain she was twenty two. George was a

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tanner then later a carpenter. By all accounts, George was weak, passive,

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an alcoholic. Augusta despised him, called him worthless, told her

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sons their father was a failure and a sinner. Made

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it clear that George's only purpose was providing money, and

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that otherwise he was beneath contempt. Augusta had two sons,

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Henry born in nineteen oh one Edward born in nineteen

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oh six. From the moment they were born. Augusta controlled

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every aspect of their lives, not with love, with religion,

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with fear, with the absolute certainty that she alone knew

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God's will and everyone else was damned. Augusta believed that

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the world outside her farm was evil. Cities were cesspools

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of sin. Other people were corrupt women, all women except her,

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institutes and temptresses sent by Satan to lure good men

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into damnation. The only safe place was the green farm.

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The only righteous person was Augusta. Everyone else was going

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to hell. She made sure Ed understood this from childhood.

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Other children were sinful, Playing with them would corrupt him.

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School was necessary for education, but dangerous for socialization. Ed

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was to go to school, learn his lessons, and come

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home immediately. No friends, no talking to other children, no

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participation in anything social. Other families might have gone to

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church for community, Augusta went to church to judge. She

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attended a small Lutheran church in Plainfield, where she sat

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in the front row and glared at other parishioners, whom

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she considered insufficiently pious. She read from the Bible every

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day at home, focusing particularly on the Old Testament passages

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about death, murder, divine retribution, and female sin. Augusta was

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obsessed with female sexuality as sin. She read ed passages

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from the Bible about Harlot's and Jezebel and women leading

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men astray. She told him that women's bodies were disgusting,

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that sex was a sin unless it was for procreation

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within marriage, that any woman who enjoyed sex, or dressed

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immodestly or laughed too loudly was a whore destined for hell.

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All women except Augusta. She was different. She was pure,

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She was righteous. She was the only woman in the

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world who wasn't corrupted by sin ed absorbed all of this.

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He had no choice. Augusta controlled what he read, what

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he heard, who he talked to, where he went, what

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he thought. From ages five to forty, ed Geen lived

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under total psychological domination by his mother. The Green Farm

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was one hundred and sixty acres outside Plainfield, isolated no

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close neighbors, the perfect place for Augusta to create her

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closed world. She ran the farm with Germanic efficiency, made

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the boys work constantly. Physical labor was godly, idleness was

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sin ed, and Henry did farm work from dawn to

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dusk then came inside for Bible reading and more lectures

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about sin and salvation. George Geen was barely present. He drank,

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he disappeared for days. He had no authority in his

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own home. Augusta made all decisions, controlled all money, ran everything.

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George was just an occasional figure stumbling drunk through the

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background of Ed's childhood. Henry, the older brother, started questioning

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Augusta as he got older, started pushing back, started suggesting

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that maybe their mother was wrong about some things, maybe

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other people weren't all evil, maybe the world outside the

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farm wasn't hell on earth. Augusta punished Henry for this insolence,

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berated him, called him sinful, told him he was becoming

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like his worthless father. The conflict between Henry and Augusta

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grew more intense as Henry entered his twenties and thirties.

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He wanted to escape, wanted a life outside the farm,

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but Augusta wouldn't allow it. Ed meanwhile, never questioned Augusta,

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never pushed back, never developed the psychological independence that Henry showed.

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Ed believed everything Augusta said, Believed women were sinful, believed

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the outside world was evil, believed his mother was the

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only pure person on earth. Believed his purpose was serving her.

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When other boys in school talked about girls, Ed was

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horrified when other teenagers started dating. Ed stayed home. When

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other young men got married and started families, Ed remained

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at the farm with his mother. He didn't go to dances,

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didn't have girlfriends, didn't have any relationship with any woman

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except Augusta. People in Plainfield noticed Ed was odd, socially awkward,

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would laugh at inappropriate time, seemed nervous around women, but

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he was harmless. Helped with farm work, did odd jobs,

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babysat children and was good at it. Gentle and patient, strange, yes,

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dangerous no. April first, nineteen forty George gen dies heart failure,

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likely alcohol related. He's sixty six years old. Augusta shows

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no grief. George was a sinner and a failure. His

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death changes nothing for her except removing an annoyance. She

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still has her sons, she still has her farm. She

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still has complete control. May sixteenth, nineteen forty four, Henry

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and Ed are fighting a brush fire on the farm.

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The fire gets out of control. Henry disappears in the smoke.

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Ed runs to get help, returns with firefighters. They find

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Henry's body lying in an area of the farm that

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the fire hadn't reached. He's dead. The official cause of

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death is listed as asphyxiation from smoke, but Henry has

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bruce on his head. The fire didn't reach where his

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body was found. Ed reported Henry missing, then led searchers

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directly to the body, even though visibility was poor. The

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circumstances are suspicious. Some investigators suspect Ed killed Henry, that

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the brothers fought, that Henry said something about Augusta that

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Ed couldn't tolerate, that Ed struck Henry and left him

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to die. There's no evidence, no witnesses, no proof, but

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the suspicion lingers did Ed kill his brother to protect

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his mother's honor. We'll never know for certain. What we

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do know is that after Henry's death, it was just

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Ed and Augusta. Ed was thirty eight years old, never

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had a job off the farm, never had a girlfriend,

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never had any life separate from his mother. He was

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perfectly content with that arrangement. Augusta was his entire world.

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December twenty ninth, nineteen forty five, Augusta suffers a stroke.

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She's paralyzed on her left side. Ed cares for her,

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devotedly feeds her, bathes her, dresses her, talks to her constantly,

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even though she can barely respond. He's terrified of losing her.

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She's the only person who matters, the only person who

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ever mattered. Augusta recovers somewhat. She's weaker, but she's still Augusta,

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still dominating, still controlling, still the center of Ed's universe.

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December twenty ninth, nineteen forty five, exactly one year after

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her first stroke, Augusta has a second stroke. This one

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is fatal. She dies at home with Ed beside her.

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She's sixty seven years old. Ed is thirty nine, and

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for the first time in his life, he's alone, completely,

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utterly alone. The woman who controlled every moment of his

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existence is gone. The woman he believed was the only

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pure person on earth is dead. The woman who gave

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his life structure and meaning and purpose no longer exists.

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Ed's response is psychological collapse. He boards up Augusta's bedroom,

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boards up the parlor where she spent time, boards up

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the upstairs, seals off entire sections of the house so

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they remain exactly as Augusta left them, creates a shrine

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to his dead mother in the rooms where she lived.

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The rest of the house deteriorates into squalor, trash, piling

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up newspapers, accumulating clutter and filth everywhere. Ed lives in

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one small room and the kitchen lets. Everything else decay

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except Augusta's rooms. Those stay pristine, untouched, waiting for her

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to return. But Augusta doesn't return, and Ed can't accept

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that she's gone forever. So two years after her death,

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around nineteen forty seven, Ed starts reading obituaries, looking for

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middle aged women, women who resemble Augusta, women who might

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in some way bring her back. That's when the grave

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robbing begins. Ed is trying to resurrect his mother, trying

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to surround himself with women who look like her, trying

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to study female anatomy so he can understand the woman

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who controlled his entire life, trying to become her by

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wearing skin fashioned from women who reminded him of her.

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The psychiatric experts who later evaluate Ed call this a

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mother fixation and gender confusion and necrophilic tendencies, clinical terms

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for what happened when Augusta Gean spent forty years psychologically

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destroying her son and then died, leaving him broken in

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ways that expressed themselves through grave robbing and murder. Did

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Augusta Gean create Ed Gean the killer? Yes and no.

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Plenty of people have controlling, religious, psychologically abusive mothers and

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don't become serial killers. Plenty of people have isolated childhoods

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and don't rob graves. Plenty of people lose their mothers

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and grieve normally instead of making furniture from corpses. But

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Augusta created the specific conditions that, combined with whatever was

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already wrong with Ed, psychologically produced the Butcher of Plainfield.

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She isolated him from normal social development. She taught him

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that women were disgusting and sinful. She made herself the

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only acceptable female in his universe. Then she died and

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left him with no ability to process loss, no social skills,

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no relationships, and no identity separate from being her son.

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Ed tried to fill that void with corpses, with grave robbing,

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with murder, with a woman suit that let him become Augusta.

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None of it worked, none of it brought her back,

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but Ed kept trying for twelve years until Sheriff Art

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Schlay opened the door to his farmhouse and found Bernice

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Warden hanging from the ceiling back with more in a moment.

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After ed Geen's arrest, psychiatrists spend months evaluating him, trying

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to understand what combination of factors created the butcher of Plainfield,

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trying to determine if he's competent to stand trial, trying

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to answer whether he understood right from wrong when he

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killed Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan. The psychiatric reports paint

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a picture of profound psychological dysfunction Ed has what they

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call a mother fixation. His entire psychological development was arrested

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by Augusta's dominance. He never developed a separate identity, never individuated,

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never became a complete person independent of his mother. Ed

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also shows evidence of gender confusion, not transgender identity in

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the modern understanding, but a deep conflict about his own

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masculinity and a desire to literally become female. The woman's

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suit wasn't just a costume. It was Ed's attempt to

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physically transform into a woman, specifically into his mother. When

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psychiatrists ask ed why he robbed graves and murdered women,

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he struggles to articulate it. Says he wanted to study

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female anatomy. Says he wanted to understand women. Says he

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wanted to have women around. Says his mother told him

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women were disgusting, but he needed to see for himself.

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He doesn't express remorse, not because he's without conscience, but

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because he genuinely doesn't seem to understand why what he

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did was wrong. In Ed's mind, the women he robbed

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from graves were already dead. They weren't using their bodies anymore.

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Why shouldn't he use them? Why shouldn't he study them?

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Why shouldn't he fashion them into useful items. The murders

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are harder for Ed to explain. He claims not to

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fully remember killing Mary Hogan or Bernice Warden. Says he

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was in a daze. Says it felt like watching someone

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else do it. Says the memories are fragmentary and dream like.

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Psychiatrists debate whether this dissociation is real or convenient. Some

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think Ed genuinely entered a dissociative state during the murders,

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that the act of killing triggered such psychological conflict that

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his mind protected him by creating distance from the memory.

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Others think Ed remembers perfectly well, but claims amnesia because

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it's easier than confronting what he did. What's clear is

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that Ed doesn't have psychopathy in the classic sense. He's

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not charming or manipulative. He doesn't enjoy causing suffering. He

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doesn't torture victims or prolong their deaths. His murders are quick,

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single gunshots, efficient, mechanical. The violence comes after death, during

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the butchering process, and even that is methodical rather than frenzied.

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Ed isn't killing for pleasure. He's killing to obtain bodies,

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fresh bodies that he can work with, preserve, fashion into

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his creations. The women themselves are secondary to what they provide,

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their raw materials, components tools for Ed's project of resurrecting

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or becoming his mother. That psychological disconnect treating human beings

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as raw materials is what makes Ed so disturbing. He's

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not sadistic. He's practical, the same way a carpenter selects

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goodwood for a project Ed selected women who fit his criteria,

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the same way a craftsman works carefully with his materials.

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Ed carefully butchered and preserved his victims. There's also the necrophilia.

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Ed admits to having sexual contact with some of the

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bodies from graves, not all of them, some were too decomposed,

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but the fresher ones.

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Yes.

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He doesn't volunteer this information, has to be asked directly,

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then confirms it without shame or embarrassment. Psychiatrists note that

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Ed shows no understanding of social norms around death, bodies

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or human dignity. He was raised in complete isolation, with

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only Augusta's bizarre worldview as reference. He has no framework

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for understanding why robbing graves is wrong or why making

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lampshades from human skin is horrifying. To Ed, these are

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just things he did. Projects he worked on solutions to

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00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:15.400
his loneliness. The question for the legal system becomes, is

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Ed insane? Does he meet the legal definition of not

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00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:24.000
knowing right from wrong? He clearly knows society disapproves. He

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hid his activities, lied when people asked about his nighttime trips,

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kept the house locked, and discouraged visitors. He understood that

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00:18:32.680 --> 00:18:35.240
other people would object to what he was doing, But

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00:18:35.279 --> 00:18:38.599
did he understand that it was morally wrong or did

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00:18:38.599 --> 00:18:42.200
he just understand that it was socially unacceptable? There's a difference.

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Lots of people do things they know others disapprove of

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without believing those things are actually wrong. Ed seems to

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00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:52.319
fall into that category. He knew people would be upset

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00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:54.400
if they found out about his grave robbing and his

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00:18:54.519 --> 00:18:57.440
human skin furniture, but he didn't believe what he was

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doing was actually wrong. The women were dead, He wasn't

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00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:05.240
hurting anyone who was alive. Why should anyone care? This

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is the psychological impact of Augusta's isolation. Ed never developed

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00:19:10.599 --> 00:19:14.519
normal moral reasoning because he never had normal social experiences

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to build that reasoning on. His only moral framework was

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Augusta's framework. Everything is sin except what Augusta permits, and

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Augusta was gone, so Ed created his own permissions. The

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psychiatric evaluation concludes that ed Geen suffers from schizophrenia, not

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00:19:33.640 --> 00:19:37.200
the type with dramatic hallucinations and delusions, but a subtle

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form characterized by emotional flatness, social withdrawal, bizarre thinking, and

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inability to distinguish reality from his internal fantasy world. In

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Ed's mind, his mother is still alive in some form.

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The women he robs and kills aren't really gone, they're transformed.

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The distinction between living and dead is blurred. Is thislegal insanity?

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The courts will spend years trying to answer that question.

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November nineteen fifty seven, ed Gean is arrested, confesses to

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two murders and forty grave robberies. The case seems straightforward.

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Put him on trial, convict him, execute him, or imprison

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00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:26.960
him for life. Justice served. Except it's not straightforward because

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ed Geen might be legally insane. And if he's insane,

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he can't stand trial. And if he can't stand trial,

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00:20:34.200 --> 00:20:36.960
he can't be convicted. And if he can't be convicted,

302
00:20:37.279 --> 00:20:41.359
what happens to him? January nineteen fifty eight, Judge Herbert

303
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Bundy orders ed to undergo psychiatric evaluation to determine if

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he's competent to stand trial. Competency is different from insanity.

305
00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:54.279
Competency means does the defendant understand the charges against him?

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Can he assist in his own defense? Can he participate

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00:20:57.599 --> 00:21:01.799
meaningfully in legal proceedings. Ed is evaluated by psychiatrists at

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00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:06.359
Central State Hospital in Walpin, Wisconsin. They spend months observing him,

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testing him, interviewing him, trying to determine if he's capable

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00:21:10.440 --> 00:21:14.880
of standing trial. The psychiatrists conclude, No, Ed Green is

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00:21:14.920 --> 00:21:18.799
not competent. He suffers from chronic schizophrenia. He cannot understand

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00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:21.920
the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him, he

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cannot assist his attorney in preparing a defense. He's mentally

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ill to the point where a trial would be meaningless.

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Judge Bundy accepts this finding. January sixth, nineteen fifty eight.

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Ed Geen is committed to Central State Hospital indefinitely, not

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00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:42.920
as punishment, as treatment, with the possibility that he might

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00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:47.759
eventually become competent and face trial. This outcome horrifies Bernice

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00:21:47.799 --> 00:21:52.960
Warden's family, horrifies Mary Hogan's family, horrifies the people of

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Plainfield who wanted to see Ed stand trial and be

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00:21:56.400 --> 00:22:00.920
punished for his crimes. Instead, he's in a mass mental hospital,

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00:22:01.240 --> 00:22:05.400
receiving treatment, protected from trial because he's too mentally ill

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to understand it. But this is the law. You can't

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try someone who doesn't understand what's happening. It violates due process.

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Even if everyone knows Ed is guilty, even if he confessed,

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even if the evidence is overwhelming. The Sixth Amendment guarantees

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the right to a fair trial, and you can't have

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a fair trial with a defendant who doesn't comprehend the proceedings.

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So Ed sits in Central State Hospital for years, receiving

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antipsychotic medication, attending therapy sessions, participating in hospital activities, being

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evaluated periodically to see if his competency has been restored.

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March nineteen sixty eight, ten years after being committed, Ed

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00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:53.799
is evaluated again. The psychiatrists determine that his condition has improved.

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He's no longer actively psychotic, he understands the charges against him,

335
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he can assist in his defense. He's competent to stand trial.

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November nineteen sixty eight, Ed Geen finally faces trial, eleven

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00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:11.240
years after Bernice Warden's murder. He's sixty two years old.

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The trial is for Bernice's murder only. Prosecutors decide to

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try the clearest case rather than introducing the complications of

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Mary Hogan's older murder. The trial lasts one week. The

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00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:26.400
evidence is overwhelming. Ed's confession, the receipt with his name,

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00:23:26.839 --> 00:23:30.799
Bernice's body found in his house. Ed's lawyers don't contest

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the facts. Their defense is insanity. Ed was legally insane

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at the time of the murder, unable to understand that

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killing Bernice Warden was wrong. The jury hears from psychiatric experts.

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Here's Ed's confession. Here's about the grave robbing and the

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human skin furniture and the woman suit. Here's about Augusta

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Geen and the isolated childhood and the mother fixation. November fourteenth,

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nineteen sixty eight, after one day of deliberation, the jury

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returns its verdict not guilty by reason of insanity. Ed

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Geen is not convicted of murder. He's found legally insane

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at the time of the crime, which means he's not

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criminally responsible, which means no punishment, no prison sentence, no execution,

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just continued commitment to a mental hospital. Judge Robert Golmar

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00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:26.000
accepts the verdict and orders Ed committed to Central State

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Hospital for the rest of his life, this time not

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for treatment to restore competency, but as punishment and protection

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for society. Ed will never be released, will spend the

359
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rest of his life in psychiatric custody. The families of

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Bernice Warden and Mary Hogan get no satisfaction from this verdict.

361
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No conviction, no punishment, just a determination that Ed was

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too crazy to be held responsible for butchering their loved

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ones and turning them into furniture. But this is the

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insanity defense working as designed. If someone genuinely cannot understand

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right from wrong due to mental illness, punishing them is meaningless.

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00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:06.720
They're not deterred. They can't learn from punishment. They need

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treatment and permanent confinement, not vengeance. The question is whether

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ed truly couldn't understand that murder was wrong, or whether

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he just had such bizarre psychology that he didn't care.

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The jury decided the former Ed was insane, genuinely legally insane,

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too disconnected from reality to be held criminally responsible. So

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ed Gean never serves a day in prison, never receives

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00:25:30.519 --> 00:25:33.400
punishment for his crimes, spends the rest of his life

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in a mental hospital, where he becomes, by all accounts,

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00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:42.079
a model patient. He's cooperative, helpful, polite to staff, participates

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00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:47.799
in therapy, takes his medication without complaint, follows all rules,

377
00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:52.039
causes no problems. He's so well behaved that he's given

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00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:57.759
increased privileges access to books, magazines, television. He's allowed to

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00:25:57.799 --> 00:26:01.799
work in the hospital kitchen, becomes friends with some staff members.

380
00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:06.559
The horrifying truth is that ed Geen, the butcher of Plainfield,

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00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:09.680
who murdered women and robbed graves and made furniture from

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00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:13.119
human skin, is apparently a pretty decent guy. Once he's

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00:26:13.160 --> 00:26:18.240
medicated and supervised. He's not violent, not aggressive, not dangerous

384
00:26:18.279 --> 00:26:21.759
to other patients or staff, just a quiet, odd older

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00:26:21.799 --> 00:26:25.880
man living out his days in institutional care. In nineteen

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seventy four, ed is transferred to Mendota Mental Health Institute

387
00:26:30.119 --> 00:26:34.440
in Madison, Wisconsin. It's a less restrictive facility than Central State,

388
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.880
more freedoms, better conditions. Ed continues being a model patient,

389
00:26:40.359 --> 00:26:45.839
continues cooperating with treatment, continues living peacefully in psychiatric custody.

390
00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:52.480
July twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four, ed Geen dies cancer,

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00:26:53.079 --> 00:26:57.880
specifically respiratory failure secondary to lung cancer. He's seventy seven

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00:26:57.960 --> 00:27:01.279
years old. He's been in psyche theatric custody for twenty

393
00:27:01.319 --> 00:27:05.599
six years. Never faced execution, never served a prison sentence,

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00:27:06.039 --> 00:27:09.319
just lived quietly in mental hospitals until cancer killed him.

395
00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:15.160
He's buried in Plainfield Cemetery. Plainfield, the town where he

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00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:18.799
committed his crimes, where Bernice Warden lived and died, Where

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00:27:18.839 --> 00:27:22.599
Mary Hogan disappeared. His grave is unmarked at first, but

398
00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:25.680
someone eventually places a small stone with just his name

399
00:27:25.720 --> 00:27:30.920
and dates. Grave robbers repeatedly steal Ed's headstone, not because

400
00:27:30.920 --> 00:27:35.319
they're fans, but because it's worth money. Collectors want pieces

401
00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:39.519
of ed Gean's grave marker. The macabre fascination that will

402
00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:43.440
define his legacy is already beginning. In two thousand, Ed's

403
00:27:43.480 --> 00:27:47.880
headstone is stolen again and never recovered. His grave remains unmarked,

404
00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:51.440
now just a spot in Plainfield Cemetery where the Butcher

405
00:27:51.480 --> 00:27:54.799
of Plainfield rests among the people whose graves he once robbed.

406
00:27:55.400 --> 00:27:58.960
Bernice Warden is buried in Plainfield Cemetery too, about two

407
00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:01.920
hundred feet from edgear the woman he murdered, and the

408
00:28:01.960 --> 00:28:05.519
man who murdered her resting in the same cemetery. That's

409
00:28:05.559 --> 00:28:09.640
how small Plainfield is. That's how intertwined these stories remain.

410
00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:18.359
Ed Geen died in nineteen eighty four, but culturally he

411
00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:23.240
never died. He became immortal, not as ed Geen, but

412
00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:27.440
as every skin wearing, mother obsessed serial killer who came after.

413
00:28:28.440 --> 00:28:31.519
Let's start with the first and most famous Norman Bates.

414
00:28:32.279 --> 00:28:35.680
Writer Robert Bloch is living in Wisconsin, about thirty five

415
00:28:35.720 --> 00:28:39.559
miles from Plainfield. The ed Geen story is still fresh.

416
00:28:39.880 --> 00:28:42.759
It's only been two years since the murders. Block is

417
00:28:42.759 --> 00:28:46.079
a horror writer, and the ed Geen case fascinates him.

418
00:28:46.119 --> 00:28:49.480
Not the grave robbing or the furniture. The mother fixation,

419
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:52.400
the idea of a man so dominated by his mother

420
00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:55.160
that even after her death, he can't escape her control.

421
00:28:55.880 --> 00:28:59.079
Block writes a novel called Psycho. It's about Norman Bates,

422
00:28:59.119 --> 00:29:00.880
a man who runs a mote tell with his mother.

423
00:29:01.240 --> 00:29:04.319
Except his mother is dead. Norman killed her years ago,

424
00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:07.880
then couldn't accept her death, so he preserved her corpse

425
00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:10.720
and keeps it in the house. He talks to her,

426
00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:15.880
argues with her. When the mother personality takes control, Norman

427
00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:19.240
dresses in her clothes and commits murders, then forgets about them.

428
00:29:19.880 --> 00:29:23.880
Sound familiar. Dead mother, preserved corpse son who can't let

429
00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:28.480
go psychological split causing murders. The son doesn't remember. That's

430
00:29:28.720 --> 00:29:33.680
ed Geen. Not literally, Block change details, but the core

431
00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:38.440
psychology is ed the mother fixation, the inability to accept

432
00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:43.400
her death, the crimes committed while mentally dissociated. Alfred Hitchcock

433
00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:47.200
makes Psycho into a movie. Anthony Perkins plays Norman Bates.

434
00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:51.359
The movie is shocking for its time, the shower scene,

435
00:29:51.680 --> 00:29:54.920
the twist ending revealing Norman's mother has been dead all along,

436
00:29:55.480 --> 00:29:59.279
the portrait of a seemingly normal man who's actually profoundly disturbed.

437
00:30:00.039 --> 00:30:03.240
Zicho becomes one of the most influential horror films ever made.

438
00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:07.240
Creates the template for the American serial killer movie, and

439
00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:10.599
at its core is ed Geen's relationship with his mother,

440
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:15.319
Ed's inability to escape her control even after death, Ed's

441
00:30:15.319 --> 00:30:18.960
psychological fracture that made him capable of murder while believing

442
00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:25.319
himself innocent. Norman Bates is ed Geen sanitized, made cinematic,

443
00:30:26.119 --> 00:30:29.720
given a different story but the same psychology, and millions

444
00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:33.400
of people watch Psycho without knowing their watching a dramatization

445
00:30:33.640 --> 00:30:37.200
of the Butcher of Plainfield. Tobe Hooper makes the Texas

446
00:30:37.279 --> 00:30:42.160
Chainsaw Massacre. It's loosely inspired by true events. The opening

447
00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:47.559
text claims those true events are ed Geen's crimes. Leatherface.

448
00:30:47.880 --> 00:30:51.920
The killer wears masks made from human skin, lives in

449
00:30:51.960 --> 00:30:55.119
an isolated farmhouse full of bones and body parts used

450
00:30:55.119 --> 00:30:59.799
as furniture, kills with brutal efficiency. His family uses human

451
00:30:59.799 --> 00:31:04.160
resins to decorate their home. Lampshades, chairs, walls covered in

452
00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:08.319
bones and skin. That's ed Gean's house. That's what police

453
00:31:08.359 --> 00:31:12.880
found when they searched Ed's farmhouse. The skin masks, the bones,

454
00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:17.559
the furniture made from human remains, leather faces ed Geen

455
00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:20.640
with the grave robbing removed and the violence amplified for

456
00:31:20.720 --> 00:31:25.480
horror purposes. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre becomes a horror classic,

457
00:31:25.839 --> 00:31:30.079
spawns sequels, becomes a franchise, and most people who watch

458
00:31:30.119 --> 00:31:32.400
it don't know they're looking at a recreation of ed

459
00:31:32.440 --> 00:31:36.640
Gen's farmhouse, don't know that the horrifying decorations in Leatherface's

460
00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:40.559
house were real items found in Ed's home. Thomas Harris

461
00:31:40.559 --> 00:31:45.000
publishes the Silence of the Lambs. It's about FBI trainee

462
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:48.640
Clarice Starling hunting a serial killer called Buffalo Bill who's

463
00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:52.160
kidnapping women and skinning them. Why is he skinning them?

464
00:31:53.039 --> 00:31:56.480
Because Buffalo Bill wants to become a woman. He's making

465
00:31:56.480 --> 00:31:59.759
a woman suit from real women's skin he's planning to

466
00:31:59.799 --> 00:32:03.960
wear to transform himself, to literally become female by wearing

467
00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:08.319
skin taken from female victims. That's ed Geen that's the

468
00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:12.759
woman's suit police found in Ed's house. That's Ed's stated motivation.

469
00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:16.759
He wanted to become a woman, specifically, wanted to become

470
00:32:16.839 --> 00:32:19.480
his mother, so he made a suit from the skins

471
00:32:19.480 --> 00:32:23.000
of women who resembled her. The Silence of the Lambs

472
00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:27.920
becomes a movie. Buffalo Bill, played by Ted Levine, dances

473
00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:31.920
in his basement wearing his woman suit. Would you fuck me?

474
00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:36.759
I'd fuck me, he says into the camera, admiring himself

475
00:32:36.839 --> 00:32:40.880
wearing someone else's skin. The movie wins five Academy Awards,

476
00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:45.160
including Best Picture. It's acclaimed as a masterpiece of psychological horror,

477
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:48.759
and at its core is ed Gen's woman Suit, Ed's

478
00:32:48.759 --> 00:32:52.839
desire to transform into a woman. Ed's crimes made cinematic

479
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:56.680
and given to a fictional killer. Three Landmark horror films,

480
00:32:57.039 --> 00:33:03.400
Three iconic villains, Norman Bates, Leatherface, Buffalo Bill, all derived

481
00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:06.640
from ed Geen, all taking pieces of his crimes in

482
00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:10.759
psychology and making them into entertainment. And it doesn't stop there.

483
00:33:11.160 --> 00:33:16.519
Ed Geen influences countless other films, books, TV shows. Anytime

484
00:33:16.559 --> 00:33:19.880
you see a serial killer with a mother fixation, that's Ed.

485
00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:24.880
Anytime you see someone wearing human skin that's Ed. Anytime

486
00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:29.000
you see furniture made from human remains, that's Ed. He

487
00:33:29.079 --> 00:33:33.039
becomes the template, the archetype, the original that everyone copies

488
00:33:33.079 --> 00:33:36.599
and reinterprets and builds on. The Butcher of Plainfield becomes

489
00:33:36.599 --> 00:33:41.319
Hollywood's favorite serial killer, inspiring literally dozens of fictional characters,

490
00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:45.799
Which brings us to twenty twenty five and Netflix's Monster,

491
00:33:46.119 --> 00:33:48.960
the ed Geen Story. This is the latest in the

492
00:33:48.960 --> 00:33:52.559
Monster anthology series that previously covered Jeffrey Dahmer and the

493
00:33:52.599 --> 00:33:57.200
Menendez brothers. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan producing Charlie Hunham

494
00:33:57.240 --> 00:34:00.559
playing ed Geen. A prestige series with major stars and

495
00:34:00.599 --> 00:34:04.720
big budget recreating Ed's crimes for streaming audiences. The show

496
00:34:04.839 --> 00:34:09.400
is getting attention, getting reviews, getting viewers. People are watching

497
00:34:09.559 --> 00:34:13.039
ed Geen murder, Bernice Warden and Mary Hogan watching him,

498
00:34:13.119 --> 00:34:18.119
Rob Graves, watching him make furniture from human skin, all dramatized,

499
00:34:18.320 --> 00:34:22.239
all given cinematic treatment, all turned into entertainment. And I

500
00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:26.960
have complicated feelings about this. On one hand, telling Edgeen's

501
00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:31.599
story has value. Understanding how a person becomes capable of

502
00:34:31.679 --> 00:34:36.519
these crimes matters examining the psychology of killers, can help

503
00:34:36.559 --> 00:34:42.280
prevent future killings. True crime has educational value when done responsibly.

504
00:34:42.679 --> 00:34:46.199
On the other hand, ed Geen murdered two women and

505
00:34:46.360 --> 00:34:50.920
violated forty graves. Bernice Warden and Mary Hogan are real

506
00:34:50.960 --> 00:34:55.480
people who died horribly. Their families are real people who suffered.

507
00:34:55.960 --> 00:35:00.480
Turning that into entertainment feels exploitative, feels like pro from

508
00:35:00.519 --> 00:35:04.079
their tragedy, feels like we've forgotten they were real victims,

509
00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:07.440
not characters in a horror story. The problem with ed

510
00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:11.119
Gen's cultural legacy is that the more famous he becomes,

511
00:35:11.519 --> 00:35:15.280
the more forgotten his victims become. Everyone knows ed Geen.

512
00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:18.719
Everyone knows about the skin masks and the woman's suit

513
00:35:18.920 --> 00:35:22.159
and the furniture made from human remains. But how many

514
00:35:22.239 --> 00:35:25.920
people know Bernice Warden's name? How many people know Mary

515
00:35:25.960 --> 00:35:29.360
Hogan ran a tavern? How many people remember they were

516
00:35:29.519 --> 00:35:33.159
real women, with real lives, who died because ed Geen

517
00:35:33.320 --> 00:35:38.400
decided they fit his criteria. The cultural fascination with ed

518
00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:41.960
Geen has turned him into a character, a monster, a

519
00:35:42.039 --> 00:35:45.719
horror movie villain, and in the process we've dehumanized him,

520
00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:49.239
which paradoxically makes us forget that his crimes were real,

521
00:35:49.800 --> 00:35:53.599
that his victims were real. That this isn't fiction. Norman

522
00:35:53.599 --> 00:35:57.519
Bates is fiction, leather Faces fiction, Buffalo Bill is fiction.

523
00:35:58.079 --> 00:36:01.199
But Ed Geen was real. And because we've turned him

524
00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:04.440
into the inspiration for fictional killers, we start thinking of

525
00:36:04.480 --> 00:36:08.519
him as fictional too, as a character, as entertainment. That's

526
00:36:08.599 --> 00:36:12.400
the dark side of Ed Gaines's legacy. We took real horror,

527
00:36:12.599 --> 00:36:15.679
two women murdered, forty graves, robbed, a house full of

528
00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:18.920
human remains, and we made it into movies and TV

529
00:36:19.079 --> 00:36:22.559
shows and books. We made it consumable, made it safe,

530
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:24.960
made it something you can watch with popcorn on a

531
00:36:24.960 --> 00:36:27.960
Friday night. And in doing that, we've forgotten that Bernice

532
00:36:27.960 --> 00:36:32.039
Warden's son found his mother's headless body, that Mary Hogan's

533
00:36:32.039 --> 00:36:34.920
family waited three years to learn she was dead, That

534
00:36:35.079 --> 00:36:38.159
dozens of families discovered their loved one's graves had been

535
00:36:38.280 --> 00:36:42.840
robbed and their remains turned into furniture. So yes, watch

536
00:36:42.920 --> 00:36:47.039
Monster the Ed Green Story on Netflix. Watch Charlie Hunham

537
00:36:47.039 --> 00:36:50.320
play Ed Watch the recreation of the farmhouse, and the

538
00:36:50.360 --> 00:36:54.159
crimes and the psychology. But remember, while you're watching, this

539
00:36:54.400 --> 00:36:58.119
isn't just a horror story. This happened. These were real people,

540
00:36:58.440 --> 00:37:02.320
real crimes, re ill victims who deserved better than being

541
00:37:02.360 --> 00:37:06.239
forgotten in our fascination with the monster who killed them

542
00:37:06.280 --> 00:37:16.559
back with more in a moment. Ed Geen spent twenty

543
00:37:16.559 --> 00:37:19.880
six years in psychiatric custody from nineteen fifty eight to

544
00:37:19.960 --> 00:37:23.239
nineteen eighty four, from age fifty two to age seventy seven,

545
00:37:23.639 --> 00:37:26.719
more than a quarter century in mental hospitals, and by

546
00:37:26.719 --> 00:37:29.360
all accounts, he was a model patient. He took his

547
00:37:29.440 --> 00:37:35.679
medication without complaint, attended therapy sessions, followed all rules, never

548
00:37:35.719 --> 00:37:40.159
caused problems, never showed violence toward other patients or staff.

549
00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:44.039
The same man who murdered two women and robbed forty

550
00:37:44.079 --> 00:37:50.880
graves became in psychiatric custody harmless, cooperative, almost pleasant. Staff

551
00:37:50.920 --> 00:37:53.199
Members who worked with Ed over the years report that

552
00:37:53.239 --> 00:37:57.320
he was polite, helpful, would assist with tasks around the ward,

553
00:37:57.679 --> 00:38:03.320
would help other patients, would engage in conversations about normal topics, weather, sports,

554
00:38:03.440 --> 00:38:06.519
current events. He seemed like a harmless older man with

555
00:38:06.599 --> 00:38:11.000
an unfortunate past. Ed was allowed certain privileges. He could

556
00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:15.679
read books and magazines, watch television, work in the hospital kitchen,

557
00:38:15.920 --> 00:38:18.880
which he enjoyed because it reminded him of farm work.

558
00:38:19.239 --> 00:38:22.920
He was good at following routines, good at repetitive tasks,

559
00:38:23.239 --> 00:38:26.760
good at keeping busy. He rarely talked about his crimes.

560
00:38:27.199 --> 00:38:30.280
When he did, it was matter of fact, no emotion,

561
00:38:30.920 --> 00:38:34.719
no remorse that staff could detect, just acknowledgment that, yes,

562
00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:38.159
he'd done those things, the way someone might acknowledge they'd

563
00:38:38.199 --> 00:38:40.559
once worked as a carpenter or lived in a different town,

564
00:38:41.119 --> 00:38:43.920
events that happened but didn't seem to affect him emotionally.

565
00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:49.239
Some psychiatric staff believed Ed's medication controlled his symptoms, that

566
00:38:49.320 --> 00:38:53.800
without antipsychotics, he might decompensate back into the psychological state

567
00:38:54.039 --> 00:38:58.320
that enabled his crimes. Others thought Ed was only dangerous

568
00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:04.360
in the specific circumstances that existed before his arrest. Living alone, isolated,

569
00:39:04.599 --> 00:39:09.280
without supervision or social contact, in a structured environment with support,

570
00:39:09.519 --> 00:39:13.840
he was fine either way. Ed lived out his years peacefully,

571
00:39:14.239 --> 00:39:17.519
no incidents, no relapses, no signs of the man who'd

572
00:39:17.519 --> 00:39:21.800
committed such horrifying crimes, just an aging psychiatric patient who

573
00:39:21.840 --> 00:39:26.440
followed rules and caused no trouble. In nineteen seventy four,

574
00:39:26.719 --> 00:39:29.800
when he was transferred to Mendoda Mental Health Institute, a

575
00:39:29.880 --> 00:39:33.800
reporter asked ed if he had any regrets. Ed thought

576
00:39:33.800 --> 00:39:36.320
about it, then said he regretted that his house had

577
00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:39.599
been so messy when police arrived. Said his mother would

578
00:39:39.639 --> 00:39:42.280
have been ashamed of how disorganized he'd let things get.

579
00:39:43.079 --> 00:39:47.960
That's ed Gean, still thinking about his mother, still worried

580
00:39:47.960 --> 00:39:51.679
about her disapproval. Not regretting the murders or the grave

581
00:39:51.760 --> 00:39:55.760
robbing or the furniture made from human skin, regretting that

582
00:39:55.840 --> 00:40:00.719
his house wasn't tidy enough. July nineteen eighty five, Ed

583
00:40:00.840 --> 00:40:03.719
is diagnosed with lung cancer. By this point, he's seventy

584
00:40:03.760 --> 00:40:06.199
seven years old, spent most of his adult life in

585
00:40:06.199 --> 00:40:10.639
psychiatric custody. The cancer is advanced, inoperable. He has months

586
00:40:10.679 --> 00:40:14.760
to live at most. July twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four,

587
00:40:15.239 --> 00:40:19.000
Ed dies respiratory failure caused by the cancer. He dies

588
00:40:19.039 --> 00:40:22.559
peacefully in the hospital, with medical staff present. No suffering,

589
00:40:22.639 --> 00:40:25.480
no drama, just an old man dying of cancer after

590
00:40:25.519 --> 00:40:28.280
living longer than either of his victims. He's buried in

591
00:40:28.320 --> 00:40:32.559
Plainfield Cemetery. His grave is initially marked with a simple stone,

592
00:40:33.039 --> 00:40:37.719
just his name and dates, No epitaph, no explanation. Just

593
00:40:38.559 --> 00:40:43.639
Edward Theodore gen. August twenty seventh, nineteen o six July

594
00:40:43.800 --> 00:40:48.800
twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four. The headstone is stolen repeatedly.

595
00:40:49.320 --> 00:40:53.199
Collectors want pieces of ed Geen memorabilia. His grave marker

596
00:40:53.239 --> 00:40:57.239
becomes a souvenir. Eventually, after the headstone is stolen for

597
00:40:57.280 --> 00:41:00.719
the last time in two thousand and never recoverd, the

598
00:41:00.800 --> 00:41:04.960
grave is left unmarked today. If you visit Plainfield Cemetery,

599
00:41:05.280 --> 00:41:07.159
you can find where ed is buried if you know

600
00:41:07.199 --> 00:41:10.559
where to look. But there's no marker, just a spot

601
00:41:10.599 --> 00:41:14.000
of ground. The Butcher of Plainfield rests in an unmarked

602
00:41:14.079 --> 00:41:17.320
grave in the town where he committed his crimes. Bernice

603
00:41:17.320 --> 00:41:21.159
Warden is in the same cemetery, about two hundred feet away.

604
00:41:21.920 --> 00:41:25.639
She has a proper headstone. Mary Hogan is buried in

605
00:41:25.679 --> 00:41:29.159
a different cemetery, but also has a marked grave. The

606
00:41:29.239 --> 00:41:33.880
victims are memorialized properly. The killer is unmarked. Maybe that's appropriate.

607
00:41:34.440 --> 00:41:37.519
Ed Gean got enough attention in life, got famous, got

608
00:41:37.559 --> 00:41:40.719
turned into movies and books and TV shows. His victims

609
00:41:40.760 --> 00:41:43.840
deserve the memorials. He deserves to be forgotten. But he

610
00:41:43.920 --> 00:41:47.679
won't be forgotten because every time someone watches Psycho or

611
00:41:47.719 --> 00:41:51.119
The Texas Chainsaw massacre or the silence of the lambs.

612
00:41:51.320 --> 00:41:55.559
They're watching ed Gean's legacy. Every time someone watches Monster

613
00:41:55.840 --> 00:41:59.000
the Ed Green Story on Netflix, they're engaging with his crimes.

614
00:41:59.280 --> 00:42:02.639
Ed Green will be remembered forever for the worst possible reasons,

615
00:42:02.880 --> 00:42:06.480
for the most horrifying crimes. And that's his legacy. Not

616
00:42:06.599 --> 00:42:09.320
the quiet old man who died peacefully in a hospital bed,

617
00:42:09.679 --> 00:42:13.199
the monster, the butcher of Plainfield, the man who murdered

618
00:42:13.199 --> 00:42:16.480
women and robbed graves and made furniture from human skin.

619
00:42:17.119 --> 00:42:20.440
That's how history remembers ed Geen. That's how it should

620
00:42:20.440 --> 00:42:27.440
remember him. That's the ed Geen Story, two parts, two days,

621
00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:31.880
the crimes and the psychology, the murders and the mother,

622
00:42:32.480 --> 00:42:36.719
the horror, and the legacy. Ed Geen murdered Bernice Warden

623
00:42:36.800 --> 00:42:40.920
and Mary Hogan, robbed at least forty graves, turned human

624
00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:44.800
remains into furniture, made a woman suit from real women's

625
00:42:44.840 --> 00:42:47.840
skin so he could become his mother. Was found not

626
00:42:47.960 --> 00:42:51.679
guilty by reason of insanity, spent twenty six years as

627
00:42:51.719 --> 00:42:55.920
a model patient in psychiatric hospitals. Died peacefully of cancer

628
00:42:55.920 --> 00:42:59.239
in nineteen eighty four, and somewhere along the way, ed

629
00:42:59.280 --> 00:43:03.559
Geen became entertainment, became the inspiration for Norman Bates and

630
00:43:03.639 --> 00:43:08.000
Leatherface and Buffalo Bill became the template for every skin wearing,

631
00:43:08.159 --> 00:43:12.360
mother obsessed serial killer in American horror. Became famous not

632
00:43:12.480 --> 00:43:14.559
for what he did to his victims, but for the

633
00:43:14.599 --> 00:43:19.519
creative ways he violated their bodies. That's the uncomfortable truth

634
00:43:19.559 --> 00:43:24.480
about ed Geen's cultural legacy. We turned real horror into entertainment,

635
00:43:24.840 --> 00:43:28.960
turned real victims into plot devices, turned real crimes into

636
00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:32.119
horror movies and TV shows and books that we consume

637
00:43:32.239 --> 00:43:36.079
for fun. Monster The ed Geen Story is streaming on

638
00:43:36.159 --> 00:43:40.800
Netflix now. It's well made, well acted, thoughtfully produced, and

639
00:43:40.840 --> 00:43:44.000
it's built on the murders of Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan,

640
00:43:44.400 --> 00:43:47.199
built on the violation of forty graves, built on crimes

641
00:43:47.239 --> 00:43:51.280
that devastated families and traumatized a community. Should we watch it?

642
00:43:51.800 --> 00:43:55.400
Should we consume entertainment based on real murders? I don't

643
00:43:55.400 --> 00:44:01.519
have a simple answer. True crime serves a purpose education, understanding, prevention.

644
00:44:02.239 --> 00:44:07.199
But there's a line between education and exploitation, between understanding

645
00:44:07.280 --> 00:44:12.639
and glorification, between remembering victims and celebrating killers. I think

646
00:44:12.679 --> 00:44:15.639
the line is this, when we tell these stories, we

647
00:44:15.760 --> 00:44:18.599
have to remember the victims, have to say their names,

648
00:44:19.119 --> 00:44:21.599
have to honor their lives, have to treat them as

649
00:44:21.679 --> 00:44:24.960
real people who mattered, not as props. In the Killer's story,

650
00:44:25.400 --> 00:44:29.519
Bernice Warden was fifty eight years old, hardware store owner

651
00:44:29.920 --> 00:44:35.360
Frank Warden's mother, respected member of Plainfield community. She opened

652
00:44:35.360 --> 00:44:38.920
her store on the morning of November sixteenth, nineteen fifty seven,

653
00:44:39.360 --> 00:44:41.920
and ed Geen shot her with a point three to

654
00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:45.920
two caliber rifle. She should have lived another twenty years,

655
00:44:46.440 --> 00:44:52.440
had grandchildren, enjoyed retirement, died peacefully of old age. Instead,

656
00:44:52.480 --> 00:44:56.119
she's remembered as ed Geen's victim, as the body hanging

657
00:44:56.119 --> 00:44:59.239
in his summer kitchen, as the murder that finally got

658
00:44:59.400 --> 00:45:03.199
ed caught. That's not fair to Bernice. She was more

659
00:45:03.239 --> 00:45:09.039
than how she died. Mary Hogan was fifty one years old. Tavernowner, divorced,

660
00:45:09.519 --> 00:45:14.280
worked hard running her business alone. She disappeared December eighth,

661
00:45:14.360 --> 00:45:18.400
nineteen fifty four, and wasn't found for three years. Her

662
00:45:18.440 --> 00:45:22.039
family spent three years wondering where she was, hoping she

663
00:45:22.119 --> 00:45:26.480
was alive, then learning she'd been murdered, dismembered, and turned

664
00:45:26.480 --> 00:45:30.400
into a mask. Mary deserves better than being a footnote

665
00:45:30.400 --> 00:45:33.480
in ed Geen's story. She deserves to be remembered as

666
00:45:33.519 --> 00:45:36.480
a person, as someone who lived and worked and mattered

667
00:45:36.480 --> 00:45:39.719
to her family and community. That's what we owe victims

668
00:45:39.760 --> 00:45:43.199
when we tell these stories. Remember them as people, say

669
00:45:43.239 --> 00:45:47.159
their names, Honor their lives, don't let them be forgotten

670
00:45:47.159 --> 00:45:50.239
in our fascination with the monsters who killed them. Ed

671
00:45:50.360 --> 00:45:53.960
Geen was a monster, but he was also a human being,

672
00:45:54.039 --> 00:45:59.679
created by specific circumstances, an abusive mother, severe mental illness,

673
00:46:00.039 --> 00:46:05.559
complete isolation, and a psychological break after Augusta's death. Understanding

674
00:46:05.639 --> 00:46:09.719
how he happened matters not to excuse him, not to sympathize,

675
00:46:10.199 --> 00:46:13.639
but to understand so we can recognize warning signs, so

676
00:46:13.719 --> 00:46:17.719
we can prevent future ed Geenes. But understanding ed Geen

677
00:46:17.800 --> 00:46:21.519
shouldn't mean forgetting Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan. Shouldn't mean

678
00:46:21.599 --> 00:46:25.239
turning their deaths into entertainment. Shouldn't mean profiting from their

679
00:46:25.280 --> 00:46:29.199
tragedy without honoring their memory. So watch Monster the ed

680
00:46:29.239 --> 00:46:34.079
Green Story if you want, watch Psycho, Watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre,

681
00:46:34.639 --> 00:46:38.079
Watch Silence of the Lambs. Consume the cultural legacy of

682
00:46:38.079 --> 00:46:41.880
the Butcher of Plainfield. But while you're watching. Remember this

683
00:46:42.119 --> 00:46:48.079
wasn't fiction. This happened in Plainfield, Wisconsin in nineteen fifty seven.

684
00:46:48.719 --> 00:46:52.960
Two women were murdered, forty graves were robbed, a house

685
00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:57.559
full of human remains was discovered, families were devastated, a

686
00:46:57.599 --> 00:47:02.480
community was traumatized, and Hollywood turned it into entertainment. I'm reed.

687
00:47:02.559 --> 00:47:05.519
Carter ed Geen died in nineteen eighty four, but his

688
00:47:05.639 --> 00:47:08.599
legacy lives forever, not because of what he did to

689
00:47:08.639 --> 00:47:11.599
his victims, because we won't stop making movies about him.

690
00:47:11.800 --> 00:47:16.119
Remember Bernice Warden, Remember Mary Hogan, Remember the dozens of

691
00:47:16.159 --> 00:47:19.440
women whose graves were robbed and whose remains were violated.

692
00:47:19.719 --> 00:47:23.280
They're the real story there, who deserved justice? There who

693
00:47:23.320 --> 00:47:27.039
we should remember. This has been Celebrity Trials, The ed

694
00:47:27.119 --> 00:47:32.119
Geen Story, two parts covering the crimes, the psychology, the trial,

695
00:47:32.679 --> 00:47:36.519
and the legacy of the Butcher of Plainfield. Tomorrow we're

696
00:47:36.559 --> 00:47:41.000
back to regular programming. Whatever fresh horrors America produces, whatever

697
00:47:41.039 --> 00:47:45.280
celebrities do stupid things, whatever trials grip the nation. But

698
00:47:45.400 --> 00:47:49.679
for this weekend, we remembered ed Geen, not because he's fascinating,

699
00:47:49.880 --> 00:47:52.920
but because Bernice Warden and Mary Hogan deserve to have

700
00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:56.639
their stories told completely deserve to be remembered as more

701
00:47:56.639 --> 00:47:59.280
than ed Geen's victims. See you Monday

702
00:48:00.920 --> 00:48:03.639
Way in parad