Edward Theodore “Ed” Gein (August 27, 1906 – July 26, 1984) was an American criminal whose grave-robbing and murders in rural Plainfield, Wisconsin, gained worldwide notoriety and influenced modern horror fiction. He was raised on a remote family farm by a domineering, religious mother and an abusive, alcoholic father; after his parents’ deaths Gein lived largely in isolation and displayed increasingly eccentric behavior[1]. Gein was arrested on November 16, 1957, after the disappearance of local hardware store owner Bernice Worden; investigators found Worden’s body on his property along with numerous exhumed corpses, skulls, and items made from human skin and bone[1][3]. During interrogation Gein admitted to killing Worden and to the earlier killing of tavern owner Mary Hogan, and he confessed to exhuming multiple bodies from local cemeteries[1][2]. Legally, Gein was initially found unfit to stand trial and was confined to psychiatric hospitals; in 1968 he was judged competent and was tried, convicted of the murder of Bernice Worden, but found not guilty by reason of insanity and returned to mental institutions for the remainder of his life[2][4]. He died in 1984 of respiratory failure while confined at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin[2]. Gein’s crimes had no recognized “notable roles” or achievements in the usual sense; their significance lies in their cultural and criminological impact. The macabre details of his case inspired characters and themes in influential works of fiction and film—most notably Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs—and have been discussed in documentaries and books exploring criminal pathology and media portrayals of violence[4][6]. He remains a subject of public and scholarly interest for studies of criminal insanity, the history of American serial killers, and the interplay between real crimes and popular culture[3][4]. Recent media attention includes periodic documentaries and dramatizations revisiting the case and its influence on horror, but there are no ongoing legal or personal developments since his death[4].