If a serial killer is defined as someone who murders at least three victims over an extended period of time, then - strictly speaking - Edward Gein was not a serial killer, since he appears to have murdered no more than two women. And yet his crimes were so grotesque and appalling that they have haunted America for almost forty years. Gein was raised by a fanatical, domineering mother who ranted incessantly about the sinful nature of her own sex. When she died in 1945, her son was a 39-year-old bachelor, still emotionally enslaved to the woman who had tyrannized his life. Boarding up her room, he preserved it as though it were a shrine. The rest of the house, however, soon degenerated into a madman's shambles. When Gein wasn't earning his meager living doing odd jobs for neighbors, he passed his lonely hours poring over lurid magazine pieces about sex-change operations, South Sea headhunters, and Nazi atrocities. Driven by his desperate loneliness - and burgeoning psychosis - he started making nocturnal raids on local graveyards,
( ... )
Comments 6
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment