Remains of women dug up and skinned by men and worn as clothes

Police found chairs and lampshades made of human skin in his house

For years, he was holed up in his isolated and dilapidated farmhouse in a scene that is almost unimaginable to most of us. When the police finally entered the house, they walked into a real-life horror house where they found lampshades made of human faces and chairs upholstered with human skin.

They also found human skulls and limbs and the body of a woman, who had been decapitated, hanging by her ankles. She was merely the victim of a killer who had been committing atrocities for years and fulfilling depraved fantasies inside the house that would shock the world and continue to haunt to this day. It was the disappearance of a local shop owner that finally revealed how the man – known as the ‘Butcher of Plainfield’ – was spending his days and nights.

Bernice Worden was 58 years old when she disappeared from her blood-stained shop in November 1957. His last customer was local man Ed Gein. As a result, police went to his home to talk to him and walked straight into a nightmare that reportedly inspired films like Psycho, Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as a major new Netflix series, Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

Worden’s Hardware Store in Plainfield, Wisconsin, where Bernice Worden disappeared on November 16, 1957 – her body was later found in Ed Gein’s farmhouse (Image: The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Gein had spent several years robbing graves, keeping various body parts and skin.

They made masks, bodysuits and lampshades from skin, as well as furniture from bones. Ms Worden’s body was found there, and the remains of another woman, Mary Hogan, a local bar owner who had disappeared three years earlier. Ms Hogan’s face was made into a mask.

A police officer investigates the junk-filled kitchen in Ed Gein’s farmhouse – Gein had allegedly gutted the rooms that his late mother had used, keeping them pristine, while the rest of the house was filled with junk and the horrifying consequences of his crimes.

Authorities found dozens of other body parts, including leggings, a corset and a face mask made of human skin, chairs covered in skin, skulls placed on bedposts, and bowls made of skulls. Body parts of several women and girls were also found in boxes, bags and sacks around the house.

How Ed Gein’s house was depicted in the Netflix series Monster: The Ed Gein Story (Image: Netflix)

Gean admitted to making dozens of trips to various cemeteries in the area to retrieve recently buried bodies. He reportedly said that he was specifically looking for bodies that resembled his mother and wanted to create a “female suit”. Gein was said to be obsessed with his mother, with whom he lived until her death in 1945.

What happened to Ed Gein?

Ed Gein was buried between his parents and brother in Plainfield Cemetery – this is how his grave marker looked before it was stolen by thieves in 1999. (Image: Public Domain)

Despite the number of body parts found in his home and the fact that they included two women who had also disappeared, Gein was only charged with one murder, that of Bernice Worden. He was suspected in several other disappearances but took a lie detector test and passed. He was never charged with Ms Hogan’s murder, but he confessed to hers and Ms Worden’s murders.

Adeline Watkins, who was in a relationship with Ed Gein – said she rejected his marriage proposal before his crimes came to light ‘not because there was something wrong with him; it was something wrong with me’

Ed Gein appeared in court in 1957 at the age of 51, the day the number of skulls found in his home increased from 10 to 15

It is possible that Gean’s first victim was actually his own brother, Henry. The couple were working to clear some vegetation from a fire on their land in 1944, but Henry never returned to the farmhouse, and his body was found shortly afterward. At the time, it was believed to be an accident related to the fire.

Ed Gein is being taken to the state crime lab to face a lie detector test

Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein and Suzanna Son as Adeline Watkins in a scene from the Netflix series Monster: The Ed Gein Story

In 1958 he was declared legally insane and admitted to hospital. After a decade of psychiatric evaluation, he was deemed fit to stand trial. He was found guilty but deemed legally insane and convicted again. He died in a mental health institution in 1984 at the age of 77.

What happened to Ed Gein’s farmhouse?

In March 1958, shortly after Gein was captured, his farmhouse was to be put up for auction. But just a few days before the auction, the house was completely destroyed by a fire. The cause of the fire was never confirmed.

Ed Gein’s home in Plainfield, Wisconsin in 1957 – it burned down shortly after

The smouldering ruins of Ed Gein’s so-called ‘House of Horrors’ were destroyed after a fire of unknown cause on March 20, 1958.

When Gein was told about this, he reportedly replied, “All right.” However, his Ford car was not destroyed and was purchased for $760 by a carnival owner, who took it on tour as the “Ed Gein Ghoul Car” – presumably the car that was used to transport body parts from graves to his home.