爱德华·西奥多·盖恩于1906年8月27日出生于威斯康星州拉克罗斯，至今仍是美国犯罪史上最黑暗的人物之一。他主要在20世纪50年代威斯康星州普兰菲尔德的乡村犯下的罪行骇人听闻，并启发了一些最具标志性的恐怖电影，例如《惊魂记》、《德州电锯杀人狂》和《沉默的羔羊》。Netflix最近推出的剧集《怪物：艾德·盖恩的故事》由瑞恩·墨菲制作，将这个令人毛骨悚然的故事戏剧化，同时也展现了盖恩生活和行为背后的残酷现实。
1914年，盖恩举家迁至一座占地195英亩的偏远农场，在那里长大。他的父亲乔治酗酒成性，母亲奥古斯塔严厉专横，他向埃德和哥哥亨利灌输了不沾染女人的誓言。1940年父亲去世，1944年哥哥去世，1945年奥古斯塔也相继去世，埃德与母亲的心理融合是他形成黑暗病态的关键因素。奥古斯塔的悲剧色彩启发了罗伯特·布洛赫1959年小说《惊魂记》中诺曼·贝茨这一角色的创作，这部小说后来被阿尔弗雷德·希区柯克改编成电影。
Ed Gein was first arrested in 1957 when Bernice Worden, a local hardware store owner, went missing. Authorities found blood and .22-caliber shell casings in her store and traced the evidence to Gein’s farmhouse. There, they discovered Worden’s mutilated body hanging from hooks in a shed, with her head severed and her heart missing. Inside the farmhouse, investigators uncovered a horror scene filled with human remains fashioned into household items: skulls, a lampshade made of human skin, masks from female faces, and a corset crafted from a female torso’s skin. They also found body parts belonging to 玛丽 Hogan, a tavern owner who had been missing for three years. Gein admitted to killing both women and exhuming remains from at least nine graves to collect body parts.
据报道，盖恩对女性解剖学和死亡的痴迷与他与母亲的深厚感情以及想要通过披上母亲的皮肤变得更像女人的愿望有关。尽管他承认了这些罪行，但在接受采访时，盖恩举止隐晦，经常拐弯抹角——并否认了一些指控，包括挖掘母亲的坟墓。
Though “Monster” dramatizes Gein’s possible involvement in the disappearance of 14-year-old Evelyn Hartley in 1953, he was 决不要 definitively connected to her case and passed two polygraph tests. Additionally, claims of a long-term romantic relationship surfaced from a woman named Adeline Watkins, who described their intermittent dating over seven months, though she never visited his home.
从法律上讲，盖恩以精神错乱为由拒不不认罪。他最初被宣布不适合受审，最终于1968年被判谋杀罪，但随后的判决承认了他的精神错乱，导致他被送往精神病院治疗。他从未因玛丽·霍根之死或盗墓罪受审。1984年，77岁的盖恩因肺癌导致的呼吸衰竭去世，当时他仍在威斯康星州门多塔精神卫生研究所接受治疗。他的墓碑至今仍未有标记，因为之前的墓碑已被寻宝者破坏。
The horrifying case of Ed Gein has transcended true crime into cultural legend, influencing horror cinema and psychological understanding of extreme pathology. The Netflix series “Monster: The Ed Gein 故事” serves as the latest dramatic retelling of this chilling legacy, adding to the broader “Monster” anthology that also includes stories of Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers.
