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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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we Met, Jack Kerr, and Craig Cohen. Thank you all
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so much, and thank you all for listening. We'll see
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you right here next time on terrifying and true on
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weekly Spooky