Ed Gein — The Plainfield Butcher — Killer Files

Alleged / reported perpetrator

Edward Theodore Gein

Status: deceased

Case overview

Edward Theodore Gein (1906–1984) was a Wisconsin farmer and handyman who murdered two women — Mary Hogan in December 1954 and Bernice Worden in November 1957 — and is believed to have robbed an estimated forty graves from local cemeteries over approximately a decade. When investigators searched his Plainfield farmhouse

Reported paranormal context

The site of the Gein farmhouse — burned to the ground in March 1958, apparently by arson — is now an open field outside Plainfield. The Plainfield Cemetery, where Gein and his mother are buried in adjacent plots, remains an active site of morbid tourism. Gein's original gravestone was chipped apart by souvenir hunters and was stolen outright in 2000; its whereabouts remain unknown. Paranormal interest in Plainfield centres on the cemetery and the former farm site. Accounts of unease and atmospheric disturbance around the grave area are reported by visitors. Worden's Hardware Store, where Bernice Worden was murdered, no longer stands in its original form. No formal paranormal investigation of the sites is documented in PRN's records.

Timeline

1954-12-08 · attack
Murder of Mary Hogan
Mary Hogan, 51, proprietor of the Pine Grove Tavern in Pine Grove, Wisconsin, disappeared. A pool of blood and a spent .22 cartridge casing were found. Her preserved head was found at the Gein farm in November 1957.
1957-11-16 · arrest event
Murder of Bernice Worden and discovery of the farm
Bernice Worden, 58, was shot at her hardware store on Main Street, Plainfield. That evening, Waushara County Sheriff Art Schley and officers found Worden's headless body hanging in Gein's summer kitchen. The farmhouse contained extensive human remains fashioned into objects.
1958-01-01 · trial
Gein declared incompetent to stand trial
Gein was committed to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Waupun, Wisconsin in January 1958.
1958-03-20 · event
Gein farmhouse destroyed by fire
The Gein farmhouse burned to the ground on 20 March 1958 under suspicious circumstances. Local authorities suspected the fire was deliberately set. The charred lot was later cleared.
1968-11-01 · trial
Trial — not guilty by reason of insanity
Gein was tried for the first-degree murder of Bernice Worden. Found guilty but simultaneously found not guilty by reason of insanity. Remanded to Mendota Mental Health Institute.

Attack / sighting map

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Media archive

image · historical
Ed Gein headstone
Grave marker of Ed Gein in Plainfield, Wisconsin.
Open
image · portrait
Ed Gein portrait, c.1958
Black-and-white portrait photograph of Ed Gein.
Open

Reported paranormal activity

atmospheric · unverified
Visitors to Plainfield Cemetery — where Gein and his mother are buried in adjacent plots — report atmospheric unease and a sense of oppression at the gravesite. The former farm site, now an open field, draws true crime and paranormal visitors who report no specific phenomena beyond an unsettling quality to the landscape. Gein's gravestone was stolen in 2000; its absence is itself noted by visitors as adding to the site's disturbing character. No formal scientific paranormal investigation of the specific sites has been published.
Area: Plainfield Cemetery and former Gein farm site, Plainfield, Wisconsin
visual · unverified
A 2021 paranormal investigation reportedly attempted to contact Gein's spirit and claimed to capture a voice; described in ghost-tour media as anecdotal.
Area: Former Gein farm site, Plainfield, Wisconsin
atmospheric · unverified
Local lore holds that Spiritland Cemetery, where Gein robbed at least one grave and disturbed others, has been the site of reported paranormal experiences ever since, with visitors describing unease and the belief that the disturbed graves left 'the dead restless.' These are folk accounts, not documented phenomena.
Area: Spiritland Cemetery, near Plainfield, Wisconsin
atmospheric · unverified
The former hardware store where Bernice Worden was murdered on 16 November 1957 has carried a haunted reputation in Plainfield local lore. American Ghost Walks documents that ghost-tour guides note employees have been repeatedly reminded of the crime by the building's atmosphere, and that visitors on dark-history tours describe a pervasive sense of dread inside. The original author (Mike Huberty) also recounts meeting on ghost tours individuals whose family members were babysat by Gein, illustrating the deep way crime-site memory persists in community form. All cited as anecdotal tour and community lore.
Area: Worden's Hardware Store (now True Value Hardware), Plainfield, Wisconsin
atmospheric · unverified
Gein's grave marker became the focus of repeated theft and dark pilgrimage, which local ghost-lore has framed as evidence of the site's malign energy. The headstone was stolen in 2000 and recovered in Seattle in 2001; it now resides in evidence storage at the Waushara County Sheriff's Department. Ghost-tour accounts, as compiled by American Ghost Walks, treat the stone's theft as part of a broader pattern of 'cursed' activity attached to the burial site, with visitors reportedly experiencing unease near the grave. Reported as tour and anecdotal lore, not verified phenomena.
Area: Ed Gein's headstone location, Plainfield Cemetery, Plainfield, Wisconsin
atmospheric · unverified
During the same 2021 Discovery+ investigation, psychic Cindy Kaza reportedly held and 'read' a knife believed to have been used by Gein, and claimed to sense that Augusta Gein's malevolent spirit may have influenced Ed's crimes from beyond the grave, framing Augusta as a posthumous psychic presence in the crimes. The claim is a psychic-medium assertion reported within an entertainment documentary and is presented here as a reported claim only.
Area: Psychic medium reading of a found knife artefact, Plainfield, Wisconsin — during 2021 Shock Docs filming
auditory · unverified
In the Discovery+ Shock Docs special 'Ed Gein: The Real Psycho' (2021), paranormal investigator Steve Shippy and psychic medium Cindy Kaza were granted access to the former Gein property — reportedly the first time cameras were allowed on the land. Investigators claimed to capture an anomalous voice through ghost-detection equipment that appeared to say 'put on the suit,' interpreted as a reference to Gein's practice of wearing human skin. Kaza stated that tapping into the energy of Gein, both living and dead, would haunt her for the rest of her life. These claims are made within an entertainment documentary context and are presented here as reported investigator experiences, not verified evidence.
Area: Ed Gein farmhouse property, Plainfield, Wisconsin — during 2021 Discovery+ Shock Docs investigation

Sources

Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Original Psycho — Harold Schechter, 1989Tier 3
Ed Gein coverage (November–December 1957) — 1957Tier 4
Ed Gein's Story and the Darkness That Lingers in Wisconsin — Mike Huberty, 2026Tier 3
Ed Gein — John P. Jenkins, 2025Tier 2
Ed Gein's Farmhouse Was Set to Be a Tourist Attraction. Then It Mysteriously Burned to Ashes. — 2025Tier 2
Ed Gein and the Dark Heart of Wisconsin: Why the Plainfield Ghoul Still Haunts Us — Mike Huberty, 2025Tier 3
Ed Gein: The Real Psycho (Shock Docs) — Steve Shippy; Cindy Kaza, 2021Tier 3