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I was reading the post ClevelandMetal started about Slayer, and saw the comments about Ed Gein. I have a little story about Crazy Ed I thought I'd share with you, especially with this being Halloween and all...
I learned about Ed Gein in Psychology in high school. I was absolutely captivated hearing of this twisted f*cks antics. I could not comprehend how such an evil, disturbed individual could exist. I found a couple of books written about Ed, and read them so I could learn more about this intriguing character.
Ed had issues. I mean, this guy was the poster child for "Sick Mother F**ker". He did it all. Grave robbing, cannibalism, murder, and he liked his trophies. In addition to the four noses that police found in a cup on his table, he also had made a "woman suit" out of the skin of his female victims that he would wear in his yard in the moonlight. He also like to do "things" to his female victims. And when they started to smell, he'd just cut out certain parts of their anatomy and save them for whenever the urge hit him.
Part of why I found this so fascinating is because he lived in Wisconsin, and I lived in Minnesota. I mean, I would expect this sort of behaviour from someone in California, but the Midwest?
I had a friend who found the whole story of Ed equally fascinating, and we decided that a pilgrimage to Geinland was in order. We had friends in Milwaukee whom we visited a few times a year, so on one of our trips back from Milwaukee in the summer of 1988, we decided to swing by Ed's home town of Plainfield Wisconsin to see what we could find.
Plainfield, Wisconsin is not hard to find. We had managed that. In fact, here's a picture of us by the road sign. Note that we are covering our noses so that Ed's ghost would not be tempted to snatch them for his collection. That's me on the right:
Another friend of ours was with us, and he took some of the pictures. He was a bit upset by our antics, and found the whole pilgramage a bit morbid. He hadn't planned on this side trip when we left Milwaukee, but he was riding with us, so he didn't have much of a choice.
Well, like I said, finding Plainfield wasn't hard. What was a challenge was finding Ed's property. After Ed was arrested, the townsfolk burned his house down. They didn't want their town to become a tourist stop. This meant it would be difficult for us to find someone to help us locate his land. We decided a teenager would be the best source of information for us. So, we pulled into a gas station and luckily, a teenaged girl was working behind the counter. We grabbed some sodas, and when we got up to the counter, we asked her if she could tell us how to get to Ed Gein's property. She whispered "wait until the store's empty, then I'll tell you". After everyone left, she drew a crude map for us and explained how to get to the property. Then, she said "Do you want to know how to get to his grave?". Holy shit! "He's actually buried here?! Heck yeah, we want to see his grave!" I said. She drew another quick map or us, and off we went.
We headed off to the local graveyard, and sure as hell, right where she said it was, there was his grave. The wierd part of it is that someone had actually left flowers for him. Here it is:
We were pretty psyched. All of the stories we had heard, the books that I had read, they all became real at that moment. And we still had his property to go visit.
We jumped in the car and followed the map to where his house used to stand. We pulled off to the side of the road, and approached the driveway. A chain fence was blocking the entrance to the property, preventing anyone from driving onto the land.
We stepped over the fence and onto the property. It was overgrown with weeds, and there was no indication of the horror that had gone on there. Ther was no foundation of the house that once stood, no barn, no shed, nothing. Still, it was interesting that it was undeveloped. I guess none of the locals want anything to to with that plot. We snapped a few more pictures, and I grabbed a small stone for a friend of mine who wanted to make a necklace for herself from a real piece of Gein property. Here's a picture of my buddy and me on the property. Again, I'm on the right:
We jumped back in our car, and headed towards home. My buddy and I were pretty stoked with the success we had had on our little adventure.
Our little pilgrimage remains one of the wierder things that I have ever done. Just thought I'd share.
- E.
I learned about Ed Gein in Psychology in high school. I was absolutely captivated hearing of this twisted f*cks antics. I could not comprehend how such an evil, disturbed individual could exist. I found a couple of books written about Ed, and read them so I could learn more about this intriguing character.
Ed had issues. I mean, this guy was the poster child for "Sick Mother F**ker". He did it all. Grave robbing, cannibalism, murder, and he liked his trophies. In addition to the four noses that police found in a cup on his table, he also had made a "woman suit" out of the skin of his female victims that he would wear in his yard in the moonlight. He also like to do "things" to his female victims. And when they started to smell, he'd just cut out certain parts of their anatomy and save them for whenever the urge hit him.
Part of why I found this so fascinating is because he lived in Wisconsin, and I lived in Minnesota. I mean, I would expect this sort of behaviour from someone in California, but the Midwest?
I had a friend who found the whole story of Ed equally fascinating, and we decided that a pilgrimage to Geinland was in order. We had friends in Milwaukee whom we visited a few times a year, so on one of our trips back from Milwaukee in the summer of 1988, we decided to swing by Ed's home town of Plainfield Wisconsin to see what we could find.
Plainfield, Wisconsin is not hard to find. We had managed that. In fact, here's a picture of us by the road sign. Note that we are covering our noses so that Ed's ghost would not be tempted to snatch them for his collection. That's me on the right:
Another friend of ours was with us, and he took some of the pictures. He was a bit upset by our antics, and found the whole pilgramage a bit morbid. He hadn't planned on this side trip when we left Milwaukee, but he was riding with us, so he didn't have much of a choice.
Well, like I said, finding Plainfield wasn't hard. What was a challenge was finding Ed's property. After Ed was arrested, the townsfolk burned his house down. They didn't want their town to become a tourist stop. This meant it would be difficult for us to find someone to help us locate his land. We decided a teenager would be the best source of information for us. So, we pulled into a gas station and luckily, a teenaged girl was working behind the counter. We grabbed some sodas, and when we got up to the counter, we asked her if she could tell us how to get to Ed Gein's property. She whispered "wait until the store's empty, then I'll tell you". After everyone left, she drew a crude map for us and explained how to get to the property. Then, she said "Do you want to know how to get to his grave?". Holy shit! "He's actually buried here?! Heck yeah, we want to see his grave!" I said. She drew another quick map or us, and off we went.
We headed off to the local graveyard, and sure as hell, right where she said it was, there was his grave. The wierd part of it is that someone had actually left flowers for him. Here it is:
We were pretty psyched. All of the stories we had heard, the books that I had read, they all became real at that moment. And we still had his property to go visit.
We jumped in the car and followed the map to where his house used to stand. We pulled off to the side of the road, and approached the driveway. A chain fence was blocking the entrance to the property, preventing anyone from driving onto the land.
We stepped over the fence and onto the property. It was overgrown with weeds, and there was no indication of the horror that had gone on there. Ther was no foundation of the house that once stood, no barn, no shed, nothing. Still, it was interesting that it was undeveloped. I guess none of the locals want anything to to with that plot. We snapped a few more pictures, and I grabbed a small stone for a friend of mine who wanted to make a necklace for herself from a real piece of Gein property. Here's a picture of my buddy and me on the property. Again, I'm on the right:
We jumped back in our car, and headed towards home. My buddy and I were pretty stoked with the success we had had on our little adventure.
Our little pilgrimage remains one of the wierder things that I have ever done. Just thought I'd share.
- E.
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