As published in Blog do Amaury Jr./Splash UOL

When it comes to true crime, many consider the crimes of Ed Gein to be a kind of cultural ground zero. Not because he was the first serial killer — other names had already shocked the United States decades earlier, like H. H. Holmes or Albert Fish — but because the way his crimes were uncovered and reported in the 1950s turned him into the original mold of the pop-cultural killer archetype. Gein became the point where real terror and fiction fused inescapably.

Unsurprisingly, his life directly inspired Norman Bates in Psycho (Robert Bloch’s novel later adapted by Alfred Hitchcock), Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris — and, indirectly, even Hannibal Lecter, who is born within the same literary universe.

The man behind the legend

Born in 1906 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Gein grew up under the domination of his mother, Augusta, a religious fanatic who taught him that all women — except herself — were instruments of the devil. Her death in 1945 left Gein alone on the family farm, sinking into solitude and delusion.

In 1957, while investigating the disappearance of shopkeeper Bernice Worden, police uncovered a nightmare inside his property: Worden’s mutilated body and a series of macabre artifacts made from human remains — masks of skin, skull bowls, and furniture upholstered with human flesh. A true house of horrors that not only shocked the nation but redefined the imagination of crime and horror.

Initially deemed mentally incompetent, Gein was committed to a psychiatric hospital, found guilty of murder in 1968, and remained in mental institutions until he died in 1984.

The monster that became a reference

Gein’s impact on popular culture was immediate. Robert Bloch wrote Psycho shortly after the killer’s arrest, exploring the mind of a lonely man disturbed by an unhealthy relationship with his mother. From there, modern horror gained psychological depth — and Gein became the blueprint for the contemporary monster.

This macabre yet fascinating story will be the focus of the next phase of Netflix’s Monster franchise — the same one that retold the terrifying trajectory of Jeffrey Dahmer and, more recently, the Menendez Brothers. Ryan Murphy is now rewriting the story of Ed Gein with a stellar cast.

Netflix’s own synopsis captures Gein’s impact: “Serial killer. Grave robber. Psycho.” And it continues: “Ed Gein didn’t just influence a genre — he became the blueprint for modern horror.” For the creators, Gein’s story proves that “monsters aren’t born, they’re made… by us.”

Charlie Hunnam plays Ed Gein, with Laurie Metcalf as Augusta Gein and Vicky Krieps as Ilse Koch. Tom Hollander and Olivia Williams will portray Alfred and Alma Hitchcock — an irresistible link for Murphy, connecting true crime and cinema. Considering that Psycho, Hitchcock’s instant classic, was released only a few years after Gein’s arrest, adds a chilling new perspective to the film.

The series promises to reveal how one seemingly ordinary man from Plainfield became the most singular ghoul in American criminal history — and how his crimes redefined both horror and the way we perceive monsters.

A dark legacy

Ed Gein’s crimes not only terrified the United States but also shaped the future of pop culture. He may not have been the first killer, but he was the one who crystallized society’s obsession with the deviant criminal. With him, true crime became a cultural phenomenon, and modern horror found its “ground zero.”

Now, nearly seventy years later, his story echoes once more — this time for a new generation, who will discover why Ed Gein remains the man who gave fear a face.