Whether you call him Ed Gein, the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, he notoriously remains one of the most disturbing cases in the annals of crime. His story has inspired some of Hollywood’s most infamous killers, from Norman Bates in Psycho to Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But who was the real Ed Gein, and how much of what we see in Monster: The Ed Gein Story actually happened?
This true crime series is rather loosely based on the real events and takes many creative liberties to introduce symbolic and dramatized details, some of which are further from the truth than others. Discover below a recap of the real case and how Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan chose to portray it in their show.
The real Ed Gein case
Ed Gein’s crimes shocked the quiet farming town of Plainfield, Wisconsin, in 1957. When Bernice Worden disappeared from her hardware store one November afternoon, suspicion quickly turned to Gein, a secluded man known around town as odd but harmless.
That illusion shattered when police searched his remote farmhouse. Inside, they found Worden’s body hanging in a shed, mutilated like a deer. What they discovered inside the house was even worse: chairs upholstered with human skin, bowls made from skulls, face masks (for which he used a technique similar to scalping), and even a belt made of nipples.
Born in 1906, Gein was raised under the iron grip of his mother, Augusta - a devout, domineering woman who preached that women were sinful and sex outside of marriage was evil. Despite this, Ed worshipped his mother.
The descent into darkness started when, within five years, Ed Gein was left completely alone. His alcoholic father died in 1940. Four years later, Henry, his older brother, died in a field after the fires at the farm. His death was ruled an accident, caused by heart failure and smoke asphyxiation. But to this day, there's a lingering question of whether Ed might have killed Henry.
Augusta had a stroke soon after, and she died in 1945 when she had a second stroke. Her loss devastated Ed. Obsessed with resurrecting her, apparently having this strange and morbid idea that he could "raise the dead", he began robbing graves and collecting body parts from women who reminded him of her.
When he confessed, Gein admitted to two murders—Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan, a tavern owner who vanished three years earlier. While claiming he didn't remember the actual killings, "he did allow how both women reminded him of his mother". Investigators suspected he was responsible for more, including the disappearance of the babysitter, Evelyn Hartley. No evidence could tie him to the case, though.
He also admitted to robbing three cemeteries—Plainfield, Spiritland and Hancock. Psychiatrists later diagnosed him with schizophrenia and declared him legally insane. He spent the rest of his life in a mental institution, where he died in 1984 from cancer.
How Monster: The Ed Gein Story depicts events
Caution: SPOILERS ahead
Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story reimagines Gein’s life with the same disturbing atmosphere that surrounded the real case, but the facts are so dramatized and mixed with fiction that they are at times hardly recognizable.
The series begins by painting Gein as a repressed, socially awkward man ruled by his mother’s religious fanaticism. Augusta’s character is portrayed with an intensity I actually enjoyed. Laurie Metcalf captured her essence, such as forcing her son to stand naked while reciting Bible verses and condemning any hint of desire. Those scenes capture her cruelty, though the show often exaggerates moments for shock value.
From there, Monster blurs the line between reality and hallucination. It weaves in references to Nazi war crimes and figures like Ilse Koch, implying that Gein’s fascination with human skin came from stories of concentration camps.
Even the murders of Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden are altered, turning real events into stylized horror set pieces that bear little resemblance to the facts. The same can be said for the (imaginary) murder scene of Evelyn Hartley.
One of the most jarring things about this series is the quick cuts from Gein and his crimes to the movies they inspired. It feels almost as a reversal of the role, as if Ed is acting out some of the movie scenes in Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs. Personally, I felt like this added nothing to the show but distracted from the real and truly horrifying actions of Gein.
Still, some portrayals ring true. The depiction of Gein’s relationship with his mother, his isolation after her death, and his descent into delusion are close to documented accounts.
What’s real and what's fiction in Monster: The Ed Gein Story
While Monster draws from real-life events, it mixes them freely with creative invention. The true Ed Gein was neither a cunning serial killer nor a misunderstood victim of circumstance—he was a deeply disturbed man whose crimes defied comprehension.
Did Ed really kill his brother? Their relationship, the fact that Henry was trying to look out for Ed and the girlfriend he was planning to move in with are real. Presumably, that did make Ed mad, the way Henry was speaking about Mother. But no one knows the truth of what happened in that field besides Ed, who never confessed to it.
Was Bernice Worden anything like the way she's portrayed here? I was horrified to see the way Bernice acts (and kind of sad as a fan of Lesley Manville's work). It couldn't be further from the truth. To begin with, they never even went on a date together. The bit of truth behind it is that, the day before the murder, Ed went into the hardwood store and asked Bernice if she roller-skated, and essentially if she'd go with him, as per Frank Worden's account.
Some would say that these scenes are not meant to show 'reality' but what is going on inside Ed's head. It's his wishful thinking brought to life. I'd say it's writing that edges on the sensational to keep the audience horrified, not only at Ed Gein but other characters as well.
Some things are based on the truth, even if they are slightly embellished. One of the most notable is the fact that Ed Gein really wanted to become Augusta, and admitted to wearing the torso suit he created out at night. He also "stated that he had heard his mother talking to him several times about a year after she died."
The show’s flashes of Nazi imagery, the intermix with the films that Ed Gein's story inspired and the sexualized scenes are symbolic rather than factual, designed to explore themes of control, repression, and horror rather than document history.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story tries to capture the eerie legacy he left behind, but not the full, horrifying truth. Because the real story of Ed Gein doesn’t need enhancement, it’s already stranger—and far more terrifying—than fiction.
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