'Monster' Season 3: Netflix Takes On The Appalling True Story Of Ed Gein

After focusing on the chilling Jeffrey Dahmer and the complex case of the Menendez brothers' parricide, Ryan Murphy, the creator of the anthology series, returns to the appalling story of Ed Gein in season 3 of “Monster” on Netflix. And if you have already watched a horror movie, it is very likely that this story reminds you of something... Be careful, some details may be shocking.

From Son To Mom...

Ed Gein was born in 1906, into a very pious family that lived on a farm in Wisconsin, in the North of the United States. He grew up in Plainfield, a village of 580 people in 1920. But her childhood didn't have much in common with “Little House on the Prairie.”

Her abusive father also became an alcoholic, and her mother was overly controlling. According to some sources, such as the local magazine “Isthmus”, she was a “religious fanatic, [who] taught her son that all women — except herself — were instruments of the devil. As teenagers, Ed and his brother were withdrawn from school and started odd jobs to contribute to the family finances. Ambience.

In 1940, George, the patriarch of the Gein family, died. The already intense relationship between Ed and his mother, Augusta, is getting stronger, much to the despair of his big brother Henry. In 1944, the latter died in a fire under strange circumstances, after having provoked the anger of his younger brother, who reproached him for his relationship with a divorcee. The following year, Augusta passed away, leaving Ed completely alone.

“A desire for a substitute for his mother in the form of a body that could be preserved indefinitely.”

It was then that he would have let himself go on necrophilic impulses. These would have been born, according to his psychiatrists, from a “desire for a substitute for his mother in the form of a replica or a body that could be preserved indefinitely” (remarks collected by “Isthmus”). His mother's body would have been one of the first ones he would have dug up. But not the last one.

In 1947, he began exhuming bodies in the local cemetery. He says he is carried by a dark “growing force [in him].” If he denies having had sexual relationships with the dead bodies, psychiatrists identify a form of sexual desire when he answers their questions.

... To "Plainfield Butcher"

His first known victim was Mary Hogan. The owner of a local tavern, she disappeared in 1954. The police did not immediately make the connection with Ed Gein, a very discreet figure in the Plainfield community. But in 1957, the disappearance of Bernice Worden, then alone in the family store, under similar circumstances, relaunched the investigation.

Bernice's son, while on the hunt, recalls a strange discussion with Ed Gein. He allegedly asked him if he would be present during the day, and explained that he needed to buy antifreeze. The last receipt Bernice left: antifreeze.

“Why do we keep the heat on at Ed Gein's house? So that the furniture does not get goosebumps”

The police first go to Ed Gein's house, and leave after a quick first visit, while the latter is absent and the house is plunged into darkness. When they come back for further research, they get the shock of a lifetime. They find Bernice Worden's body, hanged by her ankles, emptied like game.

The rest of the research will be no less frightening: police discover furniture made from human bodies, ranging from bowls made from skulls to chairs, lamps, and baskets lined with human skin. In the village, after the shock, it became a joke. According to “Isthmus”, we repeat: “Why do we keep the heat on at Ed Gein's house? So that the furniture wouldn't get goosebumps.”

The man also made clothes from this very particular leather, but especially masks from the faces of at least nine women. Other body parts are found in boxes, on furniture, in his closet... Too much to determine the exact number of bodies. Ed Gein would later claim that the majority came from freshly buried bodies.

But he will not be able to get rid of the murder of Mary Hogan, whose head is found hidden in the back of his closet. Two rooms remain intact: the bedroom and the living room of Augusta Gein, the matriarch, only covered by a thick layer of dust.

He is convicted of the murders of Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden, even though law enforcement suspects him of being behind at least seven other disappearances. Declared psychologically unfit, Ed Gein ended his days in a psychiatric institution.

It Inspired At Least Three Horror Classics

Does this story mean anything to you? It is normal. The murders of Ed Gein continue to influence cinema (horror, of course). This relationship, bordering on incest, which would have pushed him to the edge of the abyss, inspired “Psychosis”, first a novel and then a cult movie by Albert Hitchcock. In fact, Ed Gein has nothing to envy Norman Bates, except that the latter managed to keep his mother's body

It is found in several other great classics of the genre. His human skin mask, for example, is said to have inspired the character Leatherface in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” His human skin clothing is reminiscent of those of Buffalo Bill, the rival killer of Hannibal Lecter in “Silence of the Lambs.”

Ryan Murphy, the creator of the anthology series “Monsters,” is no stranger to the character. It is reminiscent of one of the killers in the second season of “American Horror Story”, who also lined his furniture with human skins. It promises...