It’s pretty much a given that when anyone talks about Ed Gein I get shivers up my spine. I have a strong aversion to murderers and serial killers.
But I have this sickness where I need to read about them. I need to know what makes these people tick…how to spot them…I think my subconscious is trying to make me into a criminal profiler.
I watch Bones too often and I have a thing for Dr. Sweets.
Where was I going with this?
Anyway.
Ed Gein, serial killer who made lampshades and belts out of body parts. Lived in filth (with bones and parts everywhere all over the floor) and was considered a simpleton by people in his town.
This is why I trust no one.
Thankfully this book was short, but there was something other than the obvious real life story that happened here that creeped me the hell out. It’s a picture that is in the books that really got to me. I can’t get it out of my head. It makes me pained and angry just to think about it.
It’s a picture of Bernice Worden. Just talking about it makes me want to cry.
Gein had strung her up upside down like a pig in his shed and cut her from vagina right down to her chest. It is understandably the most gruesome thing I’ve ever seen and I can’t believe that her living relatives (if there are any, even if they didn’t know her personally) would allow this to be put into a book.
I was just reading along and turned the page and was immediately traumatized by this image.
I’ll never get it out of my head and I so wish that I could. (I folded the paper over with a warning so if my siblings were to read this book they wouldn’t be shocked and would have time to prepare.)
I can’t tell you if you should read this book. It was well written, but the subject is grossly disturbing.
The Deranged Librarian 