Aug. 19, 2024

Terrifying & True | The Unassuming Butcher of Plainfield: Ed Gein

Terrifying & True | The Unassuming Butcher of Plainfield: Ed Gein
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Explore the chilling legacy of Ed Gein, the "Butcher of Plainfield," whose grisly crimes stunned the world and forever marked the quiet town with a dark mystique.

We are telling that story tonight, on Terrifying & True

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🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
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WEBVTT

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Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence of the Lambs. These are

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fictional stories based on one man, one man who actually

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lived and breathed, and we are looking at his ghastly

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and true crimes here tonight.

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What you were about to pet you is burd to you,

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based on witness accounts, testimonies, and public record. This is

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terrifying and truth truth.

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If you've never heard of ed Gean before, I guarantee

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you've seen a piece of media that was inspired by him,

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whether it be Norman Bates from Psycho, or Leatherface from

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the Texas Chainshaw Massacre and the many many films it inspired,

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or even Hannibal Lecter himself. If it hadn't been for

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the ghastly and highly publicized crimes of ed Gean, Wisconsin's

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original Cannibal, they may have never existed at all. But

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because of Edgeen's legacy, many people the world over have

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had many, many nightmares. So tonight we're going to take

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a look at the true story of the Butcher of Plainfield.

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Right after these quick words, for what felt like an eternity,

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a shadow loomed over the quaint town of Plainfield, Wisconsin,

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A shadow cast not by any looming structure, but by

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the grim acts of a single man, ed Gean lived

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ensconced within the decaying walls of his ancestral home, where

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he embarked on a horrifying project. He used to rob

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graves and take the skin and body parts of those

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poor cadavers to make really disturbing items, such as a

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chair and even clothing. It might sound like a scary

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story somebody made up, but it's true. Ed Gean was

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a real person who did these things, and he became

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known as the Butcher of Plainfield. This terrifying truth didn't

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just stay in that town. It actually inspired the bad

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guys in some of the most famous horror films of

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all time, such as Psycho from nineteen sixty, The Texas

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Chainsaw Massacre from nineteen seventy four, and The Silence of

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the Lambs from nineteen ninety one. Norman Bates, Leatherface, and

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Buffalo Bill are the names of these scary movie villains,

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and they were created with a little bit of help

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from the macabre story of ed Gean. It's really hard

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to understand why ed Gean did these things. He seemed

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just like anyone else living in a small town, but inside,

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he was very different. We of course want to figure

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out what set ed Gean down this morbid path. To help,

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we'll need to look at his life, especially his childhood

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with a very controlling mother, and how he was all

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by himself after she died. This loneliness might have been

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the catalyst for everything. This story of ed Geen is

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as important as it is terrifying. It makes us think

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about the human mind and how someone can seem so

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normal but hide dark secrets. It shows us that scary

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things don't just happen in movies. Sometimes they happen in

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real life, in places we might not expect, done by

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people we might never suspect. As we share the story

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of ed Geen, we get into the details of his

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disturbing actions and how he became the so called Butcher

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of Plainfield. This journey through his life helps us see

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how a person can change from being a to becoming

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a monster. This is a true lesson in how the

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scariest things in life aren't always the monsters of make believe.

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They can be real people living among us. Ed's early

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life was far from the idyllic childhood one might have

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hoped for. Born into a family plagued with its share

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of problems. Ed faced challenges from the get go. His father,

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lost in the depths of alcoholism, failed to provide a

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stable or positive role model. This left Ed and his

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brother under the intense and exclusive influence of their mother, Augusta.

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Augusta Geen was a figure of sharp contrasts. Deeply religious,

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she preached a version of virtue that was as rigid

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as it was extreme. Ed and his brother were taught

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that the world was filled with immorality, a concept that

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Augusta seemed particularly eager to apply to women, with herself

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as the sole exception. Ed ingested these teachings whole, developing

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a relationship with his mother that went beyond the typical

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bonds of family. To Ed, Augusta was not just a mother.

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She was the embodiment of purity and virtue, an ideal

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that he placed on a pedestal, shaping his understanding of

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women and morality. The fabric of Ed's world began to

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unravel with the mysterious death of his brother. While unconfirmed

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suspicions lingered that Ed might have been involved, This tragedy

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was compounded by an even more significant loss, the death

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of Augusta in nineteen forty five. Deprived of his sole

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moral compass and the central figure of his life, Ed

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found himself adrift in a sea of solitude within the

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walls of the sprawling, now empty farmhouse. It was during

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this period of isolation that Ed's interests took a notably

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dark turn. Without his mother's guidance, he began devouring content

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that most would find disturbing. Death cult magazines and stories

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of Nazi cannibals filled his time and twisted his thoughts.

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But merely reading about these twisted tales wasn't enough for Ed.

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A sinister curiosity was brewing within him, a desire to

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explore these dark themes, not just in theory or imagination,

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but in practice. Ed's unsettling pursuit of his interests led

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him beyond the boundaries of what society considers acceptable. What

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began as grave robbing, a heinous act in itself, quickly escalated.

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Ed targeted local cemeteries, exhuming the bodies of recently deceased

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women who bore a resemblance to his mother, seeking in

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death the companionship he lost in life. However, Ed's macab

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activities didn't stop at grave robbery. His fantasies demanded embodiment

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in his everyday existence, a yearning that led him to

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commit acts of unspeakable horror. The case of Bernice Warden,

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a local hardware store owner who went missing in nineteen

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fifty seven, brought Ed's nightmarish fantasies into the harsh light

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of reality. When authorities traced the disappearance back to ed

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they uncovered a scene at his farmhouse that was beyond

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the realm of most people's worst nightmares. What they found

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was a chilling testament to a mind untethered from morality

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and human decency, marking ed Geen not just as a

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disturbed individual, but as a figure whose actions would leave

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an indelible mark on the collective psyche of the nation

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and inspire some of the most iconic villains in horror

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literature and cinema. When law enforcement officials crossed the threshold

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into ed Geen's domain, they were unprepared for the appalling

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sight that awaited them. And what was once a mundane

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kitchen they encountered the remnants of Bernice Warden, her life

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cruelly snatched away, her body treated with unimaginable indignity, was

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suspended from the ceiling, an evident sign of the gruesome

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acts that transpired within those walls. The horror didn't stop

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with Bernice Warden. The farmhouse harbored an extensive collection of

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human remains, presenting a bone chilling tab blow of ed

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Geen's endeavors. Investigators were met with sights that would haunt

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them for a lifetime. Bones, both intact and shattered, littered

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the premises. Skulls, once the seat of human thought and expression,

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were repurposed into grotesque bedpost decorations and transformed into everyday

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household items like bulls and utensils, stripping them of their

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humanity and reducing them to mere mundane objects. However, even

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more disturbing was Ed's use of human skin. The authorities

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discovered chairs, as if plucked from a nightmarish fantasy, upholstered

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with human flesh, a testament to Ed's ghastly craftsmanship. A

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wastebasket and leggings crafted from the same material stood testament

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to his ingenuity, but it was perhaps the masks fashioned

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from the faces of the dead that most vividly showcased

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Ed's horrifying descent into madness. His collection included a belt

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made of human nipples, and a pair of lips used

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as a grotesque ornament for a window shade, further underscoring

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the depths of his depravity. More chilling still were a

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corset and a lamp shade, both made from the skin

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of a human torso and face, respectively, showcasing a disturbing

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blend of domestic life and macabre fantasy. The gruesome inventory

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continued with an array of dismembered body parts, fingernails, noses,

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and the genitals of nine women, a stark testament to

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ed Gean's horrific compulsions. Among the remains were identified those

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of Marry Hogan, a tavern keeper whose disappearance had remained

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a mystery since nineteen fifty four. The findings in ed

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Gen's farmhouse unveiled a reality more terrifying than any fiction.

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What was once perceived as a lonely man's retreat was

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revealed to be a den of nightmarish fantasies brought to life.

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The case of Edgeen broke the facade of normalcy, revealing

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a chilling reminder of the darkness that can reside within

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the human mind forever. In printing the Tale of the House,

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of horrors into the annals of criminal history. Ed Gane's

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confessions shed light on the extent of his psychological torment

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and the driving force behind his heinous acts. Following the

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death of his mother, Augusta, who was the epicenter of

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his world, Ed found himself lost in a profound haze

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of grief and obsession. He confessed to embarking on nocturnal

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visits to three local graveyards, an eerie mission that commenced

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roughly two years after he was left alone in the

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vast silence of his family home. These were not random expeditions.

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Ed was on a haunting quest guided by a chilling criterion.

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He meticulously sought out graves of women whose physical appearances

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reminded him of Augusta, his mother. Ed's forays in to

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graveyards were marked by a disconcerting detachment from reality. He

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described these ventures as occurring in a daze, a state

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where the boundaries of consciousness seemed blurred. This altered state

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of mind suggests a deep psychological conflict, a battle between

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his remaining grasp on reality and the overpowering compulsion to

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reunite with his mother in any form possible. This days

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as ed described it acted as both a shield and

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a catalyst, numbing his senses to the morbidity of his

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actions while driving him further down the path of desecration.

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The most harrowing aspect of ed Dean's confession was his objective,

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the creation of a woman suit. This grotesque endeavor was

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not born out of a simple fascination with human anatomy

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or even simply morbidity. Ed envisioned this suit as a

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means to an unimaginable end to inhabit the essence of

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his mother. He sought not just to remember or honor her,

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but to become her, to merge his identity with hers

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in a physical and symbolic act. By crawling into her skin,

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he aimed to close the chasm of loss and isolation

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her death had left behind. The trial that followed in

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nineteen fifty seven revealed how deeply troubled Geen was, finding

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him not guilty by reason of insanity. This meant Ed

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was moving to a hospital for the criminally insane, identified

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with schizophrenia, suggesting he couldn't fully separate right from wrong

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or reality from his nightmares, As if to erase the

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terrible traces of Geen's deeds. His house mysteriously burned down.

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This fire didn't just swallow a building, it consumed potential

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clues about the extent of Geen's gruesome activities. Ten years

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after being locked away, officials decided Ed was now clear

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headed enough to face trial for his crimes. He was

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indeed found responsible for the death of Bernice Warden, yet

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despite suspicions of his involvement in another murder, that of

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Mary Hogan, the state decided against prosecuting him. After all,

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Ed was already locked up in a hospital, unlikely ever

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to leave. This decision, though practical, left many stones unturned.

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Though Deen confessed to killing Warden and Hogan, a horrifying

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discovery of possibly forty bodies at his home suggested more victims,

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yet Ed insisted these were bodies he dug up from graves,

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not people he had murdered. Without his clarity, the exact

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number of his crimes is shrouded in mystery. When Ed

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Dean passed away in nineteen eighty four, the curtain fell

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on his life, but not on the eerie intrigue he

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left behind. The full scope of his dark deeds remains unknown,

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placing Geen among the most unsettling characters in true crime history.

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Though officially linked to two murders, the question of whether

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more victims suffered at his hands lingers, leaving us to

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contemplate the true depths of human darkness. Terrifying and True

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is narrated by Enrique Kuta. Its executive produced by Rob Fields,

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Mark Shields and Bobletopia dot com. It's produced by Dan

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Wilder with original music by Ray Mattis. If you have

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a story you'd like us to cover, send us an

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email at Weekly Spooky at gmail dot com. And if

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you right here next time on terrifying and true on

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weekly Spooky