The new Netflix series about Ed Gein really doesn’t hold back. Straight up, we’re shown killer Ed Gein murdering, skinning and grave digging. It’s a lot. And one question it has left a lot of us with, which is a question we should never be thinking, is if Ed Gein really did dig up the dead body of his dead mother.
The relationship Ed Gein had with his mother Augusta is widely thought to have been the catalyst to his crimes. Ed Gein had a strange almost obsession with his mother, and was always trying to please her. Even his voice was put on to try and make his mother happier. His mother seemed to try to instil a hatred for women in Gein.
After her death, the Netflix show portrayed Gein as hearing his mother’s voice and seeing her at home still. When he visited the graveyard his mother was buried in, he attempted to dig his mother up. He couldn’t do that, and the voice of his mother told him to dig up the “harlot” next to her instead. Ed Gein did this, and took the body home. But, did this really happen?
via Netflix
Did Ed Gein really dig up his dead mother?
In real life, Ed Gein was a grave robber. He dug up female corpses, and really did make furniture and masks out of their skin – as was shown in the Netflix series. When he was finally arrested for murder, Gein also admitted to robbing graves in local cemeteries. Many of the bodies he stole had only been buried days earlier, probably so they were less decomposed.
Ed Gein unearthed nine or 10 women from their graves, but there’s no evidence to prove he attempted to dig up his own mother. This was more probably Netflix trying to illustrate the schizophrenia Ed Gein was diagnosed with, and how this may have caused him to hear the voice of his mother – who he was so highly influenced by.
Gein reportedly told investigators that his deep, conflicted connection to his mother made him want to become a woman, or more like one. This is why he would dig up their bodies, and dress in their clothes and skin. After repeatedly visiting his mother’s grave in a cemetery, Gein then decided to dig up corpses to help him become more like a woman.
Gein visited his mother regularly, but no, there’s no evidence hers was one of the bodies he dug up. Or even attempted to.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.
