Inside a serial killer’s house: A story in pictures

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Life Magazine has published online their photographic essay on Ed Gein, arguably America’s most famous serial killer who you have never heard of. The stark black-and-white photos were taken just after Gein’s arrest in 1957. None of the photographs makes explicit the horrors found in Gein’s house following his arrest, but they do offer a fascinating glimpse into a deranged mind by showing us where he lived.

If you are not familiar with Ed Gein, he was convicted of murdering two women whose bodies were found on his property. But his dilapidated Wisconsin farmhouse concealed a chamber of horrors: a collection of body parts that Gein claimed he had acquired from robbing graves decorating every room. Gein made masks from human skin and bowls from skulls. He was the inspiration for such fictional madmen as Norman Bates in Psycho, Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs and Leatherface of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Inside a Serial Killer’s House (Life Magazine)

Ed Gein: The Inspiration for Buffalo Bill and Psycho (TruTV Crime Library)