How was he caught?
After Gein murdered his first victim Mary Hogan, the police were unable to solve her sudden disappearance. It wasn't until after his arrest that they linked her disappearance with Ed.
Gein was a suspect at the beginning of the investigation of Bernice Wordens' whereabouts. The night before her murder, Ed Gein had been in and out of the store the previous week and also at closing time the night before. Bernice's son had remembered Geins visit and the inquires he had made about antifreeze. A review of the stores reciepts showed the last sale being a half gallon of antifreeze. When the police decided to pay him a visit they could've never imagined the
horrors they would uncover. In his shed Bernice Wordens body was found hanging upside down, disemboweled with the throat and head missing. Next was the search of his house, where the shocking discovery of four noses, whole human bones and fragments, nine masks of human skin, bowls made from human skulls, ten female heads with the tops sawed off, human skin covering several chair seats, Mary Hogans head in a paper bag, Bernice Wordens head in a burlap sack, nine vulvas in a shoe box, skulls on his bed post, organs in the refrigerator, a pair of lips on a draw string for a window shade, a belt made from human female nipples, and a lampshade made from the skin from a human face. He was immediately taken into custody where he was intensely interrogated.
Gein was a suspect at the beginning of the investigation of Bernice Wordens' whereabouts. The night before her murder, Ed Gein had been in and out of the store the previous week and also at closing time the night before. Bernice's son had remembered Geins visit and the inquires he had made about antifreeze. A review of the stores reciepts showed the last sale being a half gallon of antifreeze. When the police decided to pay him a visit they could've never imagined the
horrors they would uncover. In his shed Bernice Wordens body was found hanging upside down, disemboweled with the throat and head missing. Next was the search of his house, where the shocking discovery of four noses, whole human bones and fragments, nine masks of human skin, bowls made from human skulls, ten female heads with the tops sawed off, human skin covering several chair seats, Mary Hogans head in a paper bag, Bernice Wordens head in a burlap sack, nine vulvas in a shoe box, skulls on his bed post, organs in the refrigerator, a pair of lips on a draw string for a window shade, a belt made from human female nipples, and a lampshade made from the skin from a human face. He was immediately taken into custody where he was intensely interrogated.
At first he denied everything but eventually admitted to the 2 murders and multiple grave robberies. The police were skeptical of this claim at first, but when they exhumed the bodies in question, they were in fact mutilated as Gein had said. In the interrogation, the sheriff of the time repeatedly banged Geins head against the wall, which rendered his confession inadmissible.