A great deal of garbage has been written regarding 1950s American murderer and ‘body snatcher’/graverobber Ed Gein. Gein (born in 1906) grew up in Plainfield in Wisconsin under the thumb of an – allegedly – religious zealot of a mother; she was his entire world and when she passed away, he retreated to the seclusion of the family farmhouse and gave full rein to his burgeoning schizophrenia. Since then, he has turned into something of a cultural touchstone, but people aren’t too particular when it comes to the facts…

… the YouTube videos, for instance – there are dozens – are interesting, but often riddled with inaccuracies; casting any aspirations at accuracy aside, sometimes it’s amusing simply to watch the affected distaste of the presenter, curdling beside their plainly morbid fascination. Perhaps they think Ed so gruesome – he did turn corpses into household fixtures and fittings, after all – that he doesn’t warrant a thorough, factual reflection. For example, said YouTubers/bloggers still maintain that Ed also exhumed his dead mother and propped her up in a chair in his remote farmhouse, because that’s – roughly – what happened in Psycho, the Hitchcock classic roughly based around the crimes. But Ed never dug up his mother; nor did he chase scantily clad girls with a chainsaw, despite what they’d have you believe about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, another movie inspired by the Gein case. And when it comes to The Silence of the Lambs and ‘Buffalo Bill’ therein, well, Ed shares the ‘homage’ with Ted Bundy and Gary Heidnik respectively (Ed inspired the skinsuit/raison d’être).

Still, there’s no doubt that Ed’s life is gruesome fare and maybe that’s also why so many of the books concerning the case don’t even bother providing a proper bibliography/references. Following the recent Netflix series, there has been a glut of these titles appearing on Amazon, most – judging by appearances – penned by AI. But even vintage true crime authors – Brian Masters, for instance – peddle mistruths about Ed: ‘…universally popular and a most reliable baby-sitter, killed a number of women, and ate parts of their corpses.’ Just about the only part of that sentence which is actually true is the bit about the babysitting.

Meanwhile, some authors speculate that Ed inspired the whole slasher movie genre; now, there may be a kernel of truth to that one. My new book devotes some several chapters to exploring this cultural legacy, undertaken with the rigorous input of several leading experts on serial killer depictions on TV and in film. On that score – and with the area of true crime research rapidly burgeoning – I feel there is a place for a thorough, scholastic book regarding Ed Gein. This is how my book differs from some of the previously mentioned fare; besides being thoroughly researched, I have also corresponded with various scriptwriters and actors, as well as experts on schizophrenia and trans identity, both of which heavily influence the Gein case.

Oh, and it’s ‘Gein’ as in ‘seen’, not ‘Gine’ as in ‘sign’.