Netflix’s latest Monster installment is about the notorious serial killer Ed Gein, and many are wondering whether he was engaged in real life after watching the show.
The Ed Gein Story follows the life of the 1950s murderer who inspired some of the world’s biggest horror characters. It sees him propose to his girlfriend, Adeline Watkins.
So, did Ed Gein get engaged in real life? Or was that part made up for the Netflix drama? Here’s a look into the serial killer’s relationships.
Credit: Netflix
So, was Ed Gein really engaged in real life?
No, Ed Gein was never engaged to Adeline Watkins in real life. He did propose to her, but she actually turned him down.
In a 1957 interview with the Minneapolis Tribune which was republished in the Wisconsin State Journal, Adeline admitted to dating the killer for over 20 years and said he proposed to her on their final date, in 1955.
“That night he proposed to me. Not in so many words, but I knew what he meant,” she said. “I turned him down, but not because there was anything wrong with him. It was something wrong with me. I guess I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to live up to what he expected of me.”
Two weeks after the Wisconsin State Journal article was published, Watkins retracted her claims, saying the story about their relationship was “exaggerated,” “blown up out of proportion to its importance” and contained “untrue statements” in an article in the Stevens Point Journal.
She then claimed that while they had known each other for 20 years, they were actually only in a relationship for seven months on and off.
Did Ed Gein date Bernice Worden before he killed her?
The Netflix series goes on to show Gein entering a sexual relationship with the second woman he killed, 58-year-old hardware store owner Bernice Worden. However, this didn’t actually happen in real life either.
Gein went into the hardware store the day before murdering Worden and said he would return the next morning for a gallon of antifreeze. She was then found dead by her son later that day, and there was no evidence to suggest she knew the killer.
Credit: Netflix
Ed Gein never had a sexual relationship with a real person
Psychiatric evaluations conducted after his arrest actually revealed that Gein never actually had a sexual experience with another person throughout his entire life. He had a very religious mother who told him that sex was bad, as seen in the Netflix show, and carried this view with him.
He was gynephilic, obsessively attracted to the female body, and used the corpses he dug up for sexual gratification. However, Gein denied ever having sex with the corpses for a very disturbing reason – they smelt too bad.
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Featured image by: Netflix
