Ed Gein Made Furniture From His Victim's Skin, but Did He Really Try to Dig up His Dead Mother?

The story of the serial killer who was the inspiration for the horror flicks Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs, Ed Gein, is the subject of the Netflix series, MONSTER: The Ed Gein Story, and viewers are curious about one of the more disturbing scenes in the TV show. Gein was a murderer living in Plainfield, Wisconsin, and he was known for the grotesque practice of using his victims' skin to make lampshades and furniture in the 1950s. He also stole dead bodies from their graves.

According to the Milwaukee Sentinel, the killer confessed to murdering two women, but the skins of at least nine women were later found in his home after he was caught in 1957. The mutilated body of missing hardware store owner Bernice Worden was found hanging from hooks in his shed after a receipt connected Gein to her disappearance. She'd been decapitated. The scene is depicted in the Netflix series, and another scene shows Gein digging up his dead mother — but did it happen?

Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam plays Gein in the Netflix series, and he is shown trying to dig up his dead mother in the show. According to People, Gein's mother, Augusta Gein, died from a stroke in 1945. A distraught Gein is seen trying to dig her up in the series, and he was notorious for digging up other graves in real life. However, according to Biography.com, that never happened, although her death may have triggered his grave robbing. Some sources claim that his mother's grave was sealed with cement.

Gein cared for his mother following her stroke, and after her death, the home they lived in was cluttered with trash, but his mother's room was kept immaculate, according to the crime scene photos. Human skulls were also found in Gein's home, and forensic psychologist Carole Lieberman said that he had a "sexual, romantic attraction to his mother," per People.

Gein regularly went to cemeteries late at night to dig up the bodies of women whom had died recently. He told the police that they reminded him of his mother. The killer would make suits from his victim's skin and wear them. He reportedly said that he wanted to become his mother, and he wore the suits made from the dead women's skin to accomplish his goal. Gein also said that the two women he admitted to killing — tavern owner Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden — reminded him of his mother.

In 1957, Gein was declared unfit to stand trial after being diagnosed with schizophrenia. He spent several years in different mental institutions until 1968, when the authorities determined he was fit to stand trial. However, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

After the killer was found not guilty, he spent the remainder of his life at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin. He died of a respiratory ailment in 1984 at the age of 77.