Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story has become one of the most chilling and discussed true-crime series of the year. Following the success of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, this latest installment delves into the gruesome life of Ed Gein — infamously known as the “Butcher of Plainfield.” The series revisits the horrifying crimes that shook small-town Wisconsin in the 1950s and examines the man whose twisted actions went on to inspire several classic horror films, including Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. But as viewers watched the disturbing story unfold, one question lingered in everyone’s mind — how many people did Ed Gein actually kill?
Ed Gein was arrested in 1957 following the disappearance of Bernice Worden, a local hardware store owner in Plainfield. When police entered his farmhouse, they uncovered a nightmarish scene — human remains, skulls fashioned into bowls, furniture upholstered with human skin, and other grotesque artifacts crafted from body parts. The discovery horrified investigators and the public alike. Upon questioning, Gein confessed to murdering only two women: 54-year-old tavern owner Mary Hogan, who vanished in 1954, and 58-year-old Bernice Worden. Both women reportedly bore a resemblance to his late mother, Augusta Gein, to whom Ed had a deeply disturbing and obsessive attachment.
In addition to the murders, Gein admitted to exhuming bodies from local graveyards to collect body parts for his macabre creations. Despite speculation that he might have been responsible for more deaths — including the mysterious death of his brother Henry — authorities found no solid evidence linking him to other murders. His crimes blurred the lines between homicide and grave desecration, creating a horror so unprecedented that one Wisconsin law enforcement officer described it as something “we had never seen before or since.”
Although Gein confessed to two murders, he was never sentenced to prison. In 1958, his attorney entered a plea of “not guilty by reason of insanity,” and subsequent psychiatric evaluations diagnosed him with schizophrenia, rendering him unfit for trial. He spent nearly a decade in a mental health facility before standing trial in 1968, where he was found guilty of Bernice Worden’s murder but again ruled legally insane. Ed Gein remained in state institutions, including the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, until his death from lung cancer in 1984.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, reimagines his story through a psychological and emotional lens rather than glorifying the violence. Starring Charlie Hunnam, Laurie Metcalf, Tom Hollander, and Olivia Williams, the series explores Gein’s descent into madness, his loneliness, and the distorted sense of love that fueled his monstrous acts. By examining the darkness within his mind instead of just the crimes themselves, the show leaves viewers disturbed yet deeply reflective about how such evil could take root in the human psyche.