Here's some more info on him that I found in a search---
Ed Gein
Everybody loves a serial killer. Especially one as twisted and famous as Ed Gein. He did it all...necrophilia (though he was quoted in an interview as saying he only tried it once), murder, dressing up in human skin and dancing about in the pale moonlight...
Ed's been the inspiration for 4 movies-Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, Deranged, and The Texas Chain saw Massacre.
Ed was born in 1906 in Plainfield, Wisconsin to an uptight, domineering mother, who would often kneel and pray for the death of her husband in front of young Ed and his brother, Henry. She tried to instill in her sons the teachings of the scriptures, and a deep suspicion of women as schemers and whores. Did I mention she was a man hater, as well? Equal opportunity...
Mr. Gein eventually made his wife happy by dying, but then, so did she. Life's a bitch like that sometimes. So did Henry, sooner or later.* Which leaves us Ed, just the Ed, nothing but the Ed. Isn't that convenient? I mean, is this a ripe scene, or what? Do I hear Hollywood calling? Ed does what any good lunatic would do, and seals up most of the house, especially his mothers room, which he kept locked up and just like she left it, like a shrine. Despit many rumors however, her body is buried in Plainfield cemetary, always has been, and the grave was never touched.
Gein began reading books, particularly medical books detailing human anatomy as well as books dealing with Nazi concentration camp medical experiments. Then he summoned forth Gus, who was kind of like his own personal Igor, and they would head off to the graveyard to collect bodies. Ed later claimed he wanted to know how the human body worked, which in my mind makes Ed something of a hacker. No pun intended. But, anyway...
Eventually already dead people weren't good enough for Ed. Presumably Gus had nothing to do with any of the following events.
In December 1954, he shot and killed fifty four year old Mary Hogan in her tavern, which was called, ironically enough, Hogans Tavern. Incidentally, Mary was said to have born more than a passing resemblance to the later Mrs. Gein. On November 16, 1957, Ed took his last victim, Bernie Worden, who was also in her fifties, as she worked in the store owned by her son. Ed's truck had been seen outside the store, so Plainfield police headed out to his homestead. This is what they found. Bernice's headless body, hanging from a block and tackle in an outdoor lean-to, gutted like a deer. Human bodies hanging from hooks set in the basement walls. Four noses in a cup in the kitchen. A pair of lips hanging from a string. A human heart (Wordens) in a pan on the stove. A literal "armchair" - A chair covered in human skin. (the same thing? I'm not quite sure.) A lampshade covered in human skin. #he stole this one from the Nazis! A skull topping each of the four posts of his bed. A belt made of nipples. The crown of a skull used as a bowl. A refrigerator full of human organs and body parts. Some decorative masks hanging on the wall, women's skinned faces. A hanging human head. Bracelets made of human skin. #our Ed was a crafty guy! A table with shinbone legs. A shoe box containing nine salted vulvas. Ed also made himself a "woman suit," complete with a mask and breasts.
In addition to the two older women, there are other mysterious disappearances that might be attributed to Ed. Two girls, in particular. One, an eight year old, turned up missing in 1947. A fifteen year old disappeared on her way home from baby-sitting in 1953. Her bloodstained clothing were found, but no body.
As a gruesome side note, neighbors remembered Ed as always being a strange man, but one who sometimes brought them packages of fresh venison when he came to baby-sit for them. Ed later stated that he had never shot a deer in his life.
Ed was tried and found guilty but insane of the murders of Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden. He was a model prisoner and died in the psychiatric ward at Mendota.
*Henry died after Mr. Gein. I've read that he was killed in a barn fire, with no details, and in one book it was stated that he died "mysteriously" and suggested that this was all to Ed's benefit, leaving only him and his beloved mother in a secluded farmhouse.