Editor’s Note: This content contains spoilers about the Netflix show Monster: The Ed Gein Story.
Netflix’s hit series, Monster: The Ed Gein Story, tells the tale of one of America’s most notorious killers. Ed Gein, also known as the Butcher of Plainfield, was a gruesome killer and grave robber who terrorized women in and around Plainfield, Wisconsin, in the 1950s.
Monster portrays Gein, played by actor Charlie Hunnam, as an unassuming man who transforms into the Butcher of Plainfield as a result of his isolated upbringing and undiagnosed psychosis, zeroing in on his relationship with his overbearing mother, Augusta.
The show also examines the killer’s impact on pop culture, as his crimes inspired a number of fictional serial killers in films such as Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
But just how accurate is Monster’s interpretation of Gein’s real-life crimes? Here’s what’s fact and fiction in the Netflix series.
Did Ed Gein Kill His Brother?
In the first episode of Netflix’s Monster, Ed Gein is shown killing his older brother, Henry, both of whom lived on a remote farm with their mother. After Henry admits he wants to get away from their mother, Gein hits him over the head with a block of wood and stages a brush fire in the woods to cover up the murder.
In real life, Gein’s brother did die in a brush fire, but authorities ruled it an accident, citing his cause of death as asphyxiation from smoke inhalation. Gein never confessed to killing Henry.
Did Ed Gein Dig Up His Mother’s Body?
A prolific grave robber, Gein frequently dug up bodies from the cemetery, but he never recovered the body of his beloved mother, Augusta, as the show implies. However, her death was what triggered him to start robbing graves in the first place.
After Gein was unsuccessful in his attempt to exhume Augusta’s body, he turned his obsession elsewhere, finding other graves to desecrate.
Did Ed Gein Really Make a Skin Suit?
In Netflix’s Monster, Gein uses the remains he steals to make an assortment of grotesque items, including a “woman suit” made of human skin from female corpses. This is true: Police discovered these objects in his “house of horrors” while investigating the disappearance of one of his victims in 1957. Gein later confessed to wearing the so-called skin suit to feel closer to his late mother.
Did Ed Gein Use a Chainsaw as a Murder Weapon?
Elsewhere in the series, Gein is depicted brutally killing two hunters—Victor Travis and Raymond Burgess—with a chainsaw after they interrupt him while he’s in the middle of torturing one of his victims.
The real Gein didn’t use a chainsaw as his weapon of choice, preferring to use a .22 caliber rifle instead. There is also no evidence tying him to the still-unsolved disappearances of Travis and Burgess.
Was Ed Gein in a Relationship With His Victim, Bernice Worden?
Monster takes a big swing in suggesting Gein was in a romantic and sexual relationship with his second confirmed victim, hardware store owner Bernice Worden. Their relationship ultimately comes to an end when he shoots Worden in her store. But in actuality, Gein admitted he had never had a sexual experience due to his strict, religious upbringing, making it highly unlikely he knew Worden intimately before he killed her.
How Many People Did Gein Kill?
Though the series shows Gein killing multiple people, including his brother, two hunters, a nurse, and a babysitter, he only ever confessed to two murders. After he was arrested for killing Worden in 1957, he admitted to murdering tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954.
Gein was eventually convicted of Worden’s murder in 1968 but was found not guilty by reason of insanity after being diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was subsequently committed to Central State Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin.
Was Ed Gein a Necrophiliac?
Despite multiple scenes showing Gein engaging in sexual acts with corpses, the killer explicitly denied being a necrophiliac. In fact, he said the remains “smelled too bad” to have sex with them.
Did Gein Help Catch Ted Bundy?
In Monster’s eighth and final episode, Gein is seen helping the FBI with an active investigation into serial killer Ted Bundy, giving insight into the slayings and later sharing a letter from Bundy given to him by another killer: Richard Speck.
None of this actually happened. There’s no evidence Gein was ever interviewed by the FBI and there’s certainly no proof he directly contributed to Bundy’s capture. Still, his crimes and obsessive relationship with his mother have indirectly influenced the study of serial killers.
Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
