Who Was Ed Gein, the Killer Subject of ‘Monster’ Season 3?

Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam has another killer part: He’s playing murderer Ed Gein in the upcoming third season of Monster.

The Netflix anthology previously covered two true-crime tales of the 1980s, those of Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers. Now it’s rewinding the clock three decades to show the depraved 1950s crime spree that inspired Psycho.

Who was Ed Gein?

Ed Gein was a convicted murderer, suspected serial killer, and body snatcher who became known as the Butcher of Plainfield and the Plainfield Ghoul after his crimes in the Wisconsin community were uncovered.

Gein, born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1906, grew up in a tumultuous household with an alcoholic father and a verbally abusive mother, according to Britannica. He idolized his mother, however, and when she died in 1945, he even partitioned off the areas of their home that she frequented.

To the locals of Plainfield, where his family had a farm, Gein was considered a harmless man with a quiet demeanor, according to The New York Times. He worked as a handyman and babysat for neighbors. But that reputation changed in 1957, following the disappearance of a hardware store owner named Bernice Worden.

Gein was seen with Worden before she vanished, and when cops arrived at Gein’s farm to investigate, they found her decapitated body. They also found the severed head of another woman, a tavern operator named Mary Hogan who’d gone missing in 1954.

And those were just two grisly discoveries in Gein’s dilapidated farmhouse, which became known as a “house of horrors.” Police also found bowls made from human skulls, chair seats made from human skin, and a lampshade made from a human face, according to Time. Gein told the cops he had looted the graves of about a dozen women, per the Times.

Gein admitted to the murders of Worden and Gein, telling authorities he killed them because they looked like his mother, the Times reported. He took an insanity plea and, after being diagnosed with schizophrenia, Gein was deemed unfit for trial and institutionalized in various psychiatric facilities. In 1968, though, Gein was declared able to participate in his own defense and convicted of Worden’s murder. He died in a mental hospital in 1984 at age 77.

Has Ed Gein been portrayed on screen before?

Gein’s story has come to screen in a few low-budget movies: Steve Railsback portrayed the murderer in 2000’s Ed Gein, Kane Hodder played him in 2007’s Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield, and Dan Davies took on the role in 2010’s Ed Gein: The Musical. In the 2012 biopic Hitchcock, on the other hand, Michael Wincott had a supporting role as Gein.

Interestingly, Monster’s first season actually showed a brief glimpse of Gein, played by Shane Kerwin, as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters) hears about the case.

But Gein was also the inspiration for some of cinema’s most infamous fictional killers, as Monsterco-creator Ryan Murphy told Collider in October 2024. “The amazing thing that the show talks about is how many villains and how much pop culture is based on Ed Gein — Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, American Psycho, and on and on and on and on,” Murphy explained.

Why is Monster focusing on Ed Gein for Season 3?

Murphy told Collider he and Monster co-creator Ian Brennan discussed “our cultural interest in serial killers” after completing Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and tracked that interest back to Gein.

“Based on our research, the very first one who became a celebrity at that level was Ed, who was an instant crazy celebrity from the moment he was arrested,” Murphy said. “Nobody had ever heard of anything like that. Then we found out — he was motivated, obviously — but he was schizophrenic. How he became what he became was a very interesting story.”

In addition to Hunnam, Monster’s third season will also star Laurie Metcalf, who will play Gein’s mother, and Tom Hollander and Olivia Williams, who will play Alfred and Alma Hitchcock.

Monster Season 3, TBD, Netflix

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