If you've ever watched The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, then you've probably noticed it states its based on true events, you may have laughed thinking that was just a way to frighten you a bit more, but what if I told you it was based on a real person.
The events didn't take place in Texas, nor did he use a chainsaw, but he was every bit as twisted as Leatherface.
Crimes
Ed Gein was a body snatcher, and murderer, who lived in Plainfield, Wisconsin. He would dig up corpses and make keepsakes from the skin and bone, some of the trinkets were baskets made from human skin, masks made from his victims face, lampshade made of skin, a belt made from female nipples, he also made a body suit crafted from the bodies he exhumed. Gein confessed to two murders, Mary Hogan, and Bernice Worden, Gein said that between 1947 and 1952 he made several trips to graveyards during the night. He stated that he would go into a daze, and sometimes would come out of the daze and leave the grave untouched, Gein admitted to robbing nine graves.
Childhood
After moving to Plainfield, Gein was shut off from the outside world, only leaving home for school. He was very shy, this may have been due to his mother punishing him for making friends. His mother felt that all women were evil and prostitutes, so this may have contributed to his hatred of women, doctors felt it was his hatred for his mother that drove him to kill older women, but others state that he loved his mother. He was also a suspect in the death of his brother, but there was no investigation, or autopsy.
Trial and death
Gein was found guilty for the murder of Worden, but that later changed to not guilty by reason of insanity. He spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital, on July 26th, 1984 he died of respiratory failure due to lung cancer. His grave was vandalized several times, and now the tombstone is in storage at Waushara County Sheriff's Department.
Leatherface is not the only iconic horror figure based on Ed, Norman Bates, and Buffalo Bill, from silence of the lambs is based on Gein also. Its hard to say what twists a mind this badly, but sometimes truth is as scary, or scarier than fiction.
