Season 3 of 'Monster' Shows Ed Gein Wielding a Chainsaw — Did He Really Use One?

Although Ed Gein was arrested and charged with two counts of murder in November 1957, he wasn't fit to stand trial until 1968. It was then that he was asked by attorney Robert Sutton about guns.

Gein first learned how to shoot a single-shot gun when he was only 8 years old, according to a book written by Judge Robert H. Gollmar, who presided over the trial.

Gein had over four decades of experience with that particular weapon at the time of the trial.

Because Gein lived on the farm where he grew up, it stands to reason he had access to all kinds of weapons. While trying to establish Gein's movement in the weeks leading up to one of the murders, Sutton asked the killer about what he did on specific days.

Gein revealed that at some point, he helped a neighbor saw wood. A saw could certainly be used as a weapon. The killer did not say anything about a chainsaw, and yet we have reason to believe he used one. Did he?

Before we get into what potential weapons Gein had at his disposal, we have to explain why a chainsaw is part of the conversation.

In October 2025, Season 3 of Ryan Murphy's hit show Monster will drop, featuring Gein as the titular monster. In early images of the series, actor Charlie Hunnam, who plays Gein, is pictured wielding a chainsaw. There is a good reason for that.

While it's unlikely that Gein used a chainsaw for his crimes, we do know that a chainsaw shows up in movies inspired by the killer's actions.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released in 1974, a decade before Gein died in prison from respiratory failure due to lung cancer, and it is loosely based on the so-called Butcher of Plainfield.

In the movie, a poor family has turned to cannibalism after the shuttering of a local slaughterhouse leaves them high and dry. One family member, known as Leatherface, is portrayed as an intellectually disabled man who does what his family wants out of fear. He uses a chainsaw on his victims. Leatherface is not based on Gein, but the killer's actual home inspired the macabre house his family lives in.

When Gein first took the stand, his lawyer, Dominic Frinzi, asked his client about the weapons found on the killer's farm. He rattled off a bunch of guns, including a twelve-gauge shotgun, a .22 Marlin repeating bolt action rifle, a single-shot Stevens rifle, a .22 single-shot rolling block, a .22 revolver, a Mauser .32 automatic pistol, and an old gun Gein couldn't identify.

Both of Gein's victims were fatally shot. When police searched his home the day of his arrest, they found the body of Bernice Worden hanging by her heels in his kitchen.

She had been eviscerated and field-dressed like a deer. They would later discover the face of his other victim, Mary Horgan, in a paper bag.

It had been made into a mask. Worden's head was in a plastic bag in his stove, while Horgan's skull was in a box. Animals are typically dressed down using knives or sometimes a saw.