Ed Gein Did Babysit Kids... Before He Became a Serial Killer

If you tuned in for Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story (which dropped on Oct. 3, 2025), you’re probably questioning if the serial killer who used human body parts to make household items actually babysat children, because if he did, that would be wild, right?

According to the show, Ed Gein not only babysat kids but also killed Evelyn Hartley because she took over a babysitting job he supposedly held.

Surely that can’t be true, right? Well, not all parts of that story are entirely fabricated. Let’s separate fact from fiction when it comes to Ed Gein’s alleged babysitting past.

Ed Gein, the serial murderer whose crimes inspired The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho, did babysit kids at one point in his life. Hard to believe, but it happened, according to a timeline of his life provided by Radford University.

Around the 1940s, at the age of 34, Gein babysat children to earn money and support his family. He reportedly enjoyed being in the company of kids, as they were easier to relate to than adults.

If you’re wondering how people allowed it, unlike how Gein is depicted in Monster: The Ed Gein Story, he was actually considered a reliable person and had gained the townspeople’s trust.

So, yeah, Gein held a few babysitting gigs in his time, which really shows you never know who a person is.

At the time of his babysitting jobs, Gein and his brother Henry also took on other odd jobs, including working as handymen, since their father George had died at the age of 66 from pneumonia, Radford University points out on its timeline.

While Gein was very much caught in the crosshairs of his mother’s irrational thinking — she insisted her sons remain virgins their entire lives and even referred to his genitals as the “curse of man” — he wasn’t yet believed to be a true threat to society.

But it was likely building up, between the downputting of his mother and the beatings his father gave. He also endured mistreatment from kids at school, who made fun of him, so he was getting it from all angles.

By 1944, his brother, Henry, had died abruptly in a fire before their mother’s passing, and some speculate that Gein may have been involved since Henry had begun defying their mother’s rules and even questioned Gein’s relationship with her.

However, Gein never confessed, and investigators concluded that no foul play was involved in Henry’s death.

By the mid-1940s, Gein’s mother began experiencing health issues, and he reportedly started showing an interest in strange things like grave robbing. By 1945, his mother died from a second stroke, and shortly after, that’s when things really began to spiral.

Ed Gein didn’t kill Evelyn Hartley, at least, not that we know, and the two likely didn’t have any dispute over her taking on a babysitting job, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel clarified.

That part of the show may be fabricated. However, some believe Gein may have had a role in her abduction.

Hartley was 15 years old at the time and a high school sophomore when she disappeared from a home in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where she was babysitting a toddler on October 23, 1953, according to A&E.

The toddler was found unharmed in bed, but Hartley vanished, leaving behind only her glasses and shoes. Her jacket was later recovered miles away from the home.