Language Paper 2 Full Practise
THE GHOULISH AND UNFORGETTABLE CRIMES OF
MURDERERAND GRAVE-ROBBER, ED GEIN
In small town Plainfield, Wisconsin, a hard-working farming and hunting community in the 1950s, by
all accounts local bachelor Ed Theodore Gein was a trusted neighbor. He did odd jobs as a
handyman, and babysat local children — while seen as maybe a little odd, he was nonetheless
invited into their homes and offered a seat at their dinner table. He later became known as the
Plainfield Butcher.
1 On the opening day of hunting season in the fall of 1957, almost all the menfolk of Plainfield were off
2 looking for deer. All except Gein, who was ironically known for being squeamish at the sight of blood and
3 uncomfortable with the idea of hunting.
4 He stopped in to see Bernice Worden at Worden’s Hardware and Implement Store, where he picked up
5 some anti-freeze. He’d brought a .22-caliber bullet with him in his pocket, which he put into one of the
6 hunting rifles for sale in the shop, and took down Worden. When her disappearance from the store was
7 noted, along with a pool of blood reminiscent of the Mary Hogan scene, Gein’s name was noticed in the
8 receipts from his anti-freeze purchase.
9 The police rushed to the Gein farmhouse, but found it deserted, as Gein was having supper with some
10 neighbours. While a couple of cops went to look for Gein for questioning, and ended up arresting him,
11 others began to poke around his property, looking for anything suspicious. The horrors they found ensured
12 Gein’s place in the history of depraved killers and ghouls, despite his only being known to have slain two
13 people, and only ever tried for one murder.
14 Police found the body of Bernice Worden, headless, suspended upside-down, gutted and “dressed” as one
15 would a deer. Gein’s gloomy and decay- and stench-filled home offered even more nightmares. Just a few
16 other findings, among many, were human skulls on his bedposts and used for soup bowls, a pair of lips
17 hanging on a window shade, a belt made from human skin, a skin lamp shade, an oatmeal box full of brain
18 matter, and, hanging on a wall, nine human faces, fashioned into masks. One of these had belonged to Mary
19 Hogan. Bernice Worden’s heart was found on Gein’s stove. When it became clear that the remains of Hogan
20 and Worden were the only two of the many found that could be linked to any disappearances, Gein
21 explained that he had collected all the other human remains from robbing local graves.
22 Under investigation for murder in 1957, he was interrogated by District Attorney Earl Kileen. Gein admitted:
23 “I started to visit graveyards in the area regularly about 18 months after my mother died. Most nights, I
24 would just stand and have private conversations … with my ma…. Other times, I couldn’t make myself go
25 home without raisin’ one of ’em up first. Maybe on about nine occasions, I took somebody, or part of
26 somebody, home with me. It was kind of an evil spirit I couldn’t control.” Gein explained that he was able to
27 get away with this for a period of about five years, as he always left the graves in “apple-pie order” when he
28 was finished robbing them. He went on to state that he would watch the obituaries for when women,
29 particularly those with a similar body type to his mother, were laid to rest and visit the next night to steal
30 their corpses, as he had begun to have “an uncontrollable desire to see a woman’s body.” Some accounts
31 claim that he did also dig up his mother’s corpse and bring her home.
32 One of the grisliest artefacts found was basically a woman suit — a pair of skin leggings and a vest made
33 from a torso…
THE GHOULISH AND UNFORGETTABLE CRIMES OF
MURDERERAND GRAVE-ROBBER, ED GEIN
In small town Plainfield, Wisconsin, a hard-working farming and hunting community in the 1950s, by
all accounts local bachelor Ed Theodore Gein was a trusted neighbor. He did odd jobs as a
handyman, and babysat local children — while seen as maybe a little odd, he was nonetheless
invited into their homes and offered a seat at their dinner table. He later became known as the
Plainfield Butcher.
1 On the opening day of hunting season in the fall of 1957, almost all the menfolk of Plainfield were off
2 looking for deer. All except Gein, who was ironically known for being squeamish at the sight of blood and
3 uncomfortable with the idea of hunting.
4 He stopped in to see Bernice Worden at Worden’s Hardware and Implement Store, where he picked up
5 some anti-freeze. He’d brought a .22-caliber bullet with him in his pocket, which he put into one of the
6 hunting rifles for sale in the shop, and took down Worden. When her disappearance from the store was
7 noted, along with a pool of blood reminiscent of the Mary Hogan scene, Gein’s name was noticed in the
8 receipts from his anti-freeze purchase.
9 The police rushed to the Gein farmhouse, but found it deserted, as Gein was having supper with some
10 neighbours. While a couple of cops went to look for Gein for questioning, and ended up arresting him,
11 others began to poke around his property, looking for anything suspicious. The horrors they found ensured
12 Gein’s place in the history of depraved killers and ghouls, despite his only being known to have slain two
13 people, and only ever tried for one murder.
14 Police found the body of Bernice Worden, headless, suspended upside-down, gutted and “dressed” as one
15 would a deer. Gein’s gloomy and decay- and stench-filled home offered even more nightmares. Just a few
16 other findings, among many, were human skulls on his bedposts and used for soup bowls, a pair of lips
17 hanging on a window shade, a belt made from human skin, a skin lamp shade, an oatmeal box full of brain
18 matter, and, hanging on a wall, nine human faces, fashioned into masks. One of these had belonged to Mary
19 Hogan. Bernice Worden’s heart was found on Gein’s stove. When it became clear that the remains of Hogan
20 and Worden were the only two of the many found that could be linked to any disappearances, Gein
21 explained that he had collected all the other human remains from robbing local graves.
22 Under investigation for murder in 1957, he was interrogated by District Attorney Earl Kileen. Gein admitted:
23 “I started to visit graveyards in the area regularly about 18 months after my mother died. Most nights, I
24 would just stand and have private conversations … with my ma…. Other times, I couldn’t make myself go
25 home without raisin’ one of ’em up first. Maybe on about nine occasions, I took somebody, or part of
26 somebody, home with me. It was kind of an evil spirit I couldn’t control.” Gein explained that he was able to
27 get away with this for a period of about five years, as he always left the graves in “apple-pie order” when he
28 was finished robbing them. He went on to state that he would watch the obituaries for when women,
29 particularly those with a similar body type to his mother, were laid to rest and visit the next night to steal
30 their corpses, as he had begun to have “an uncontrollable desire to see a woman’s body.” Some accounts
31 claim that he did also dig up his mother’s corpse and bring her home.
32 One of the grisliest artefacts found was basically a woman suit — a pair of skin leggings and a vest made
33 from a torso…
