Ed Gein's Twisted Obsession Inspired Hollywood's Most Chilling Killers

In the years since his death in 1984, the notorious crimes of Ed Gein have continued to haunt the public imagination. Gein's deep fixation on his late mother, who raised him in isolation with a strict Christian upbringing, would ultimately shape his disturbed and violent life.

This obsession with his mother would go on to directly influence the creation of some of Hollywood's most iconic and terrifying serial killer characters. In the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs, the character of Buffalo Bill murders and skins women, echoing Gein's own gruesome methods. Similarly, Norman Bates in the 1960 film Psycho develops a split personality of his mother and commits murder while dressed as her.

Gein's house of horrors came to light in 1957 when police discovered the decapitated and mutilated body of a local hardware store owner hanging in his barn. Inside his home, authorities found a trove of human remains, including skulls and a "woman suit" stitched from the skin of corpses Gein had robbed from local graveyards.

Though Gein was only charged with two murders, he was deemed mentally insane and never convicted for his crimes. He remained institutionalized until his death at the age of 77 in 1984. Gein's disturbing legacy, however, lives on through the chilling characters he has inspired in Hollywood.