 |
 |
 |
| WISCONSIN STATE SKULL T-SHIRT |
March 9th, 2011
The original Wisconsin state skull t-shirts from Wisconsin Sickness have returned, now available exclusively through the official online shop. Wear your Wisconsin psychosis with pride.
Get yours here: Wisconsin Skull T-shirt |
|
| ED GEIN NOW ON WISCONSINSICKNESS.COM |
October 6th, 2009
Ed Gein now has a new home on WisconsinSickness.com right here:
- Wisconsin Death Trip: Ed Gein Pictures Photos Biography and Videos |
|
| NEW ED GEIN SITE LAUNCHES |
November 16th, 2007
It has been half a century since the lonely and disturbing life of Ed Gein was uncovered in his secluded farmhouse outside of Plainfield, WI. Fifty years, yet the tragdic life of a broken man gone mad still moves so many of us. His story still inspires books, film, and music today.
Maybe somewhere in the cold, desolated moments of our lives we catch a fleeting glimpse of just what it's like to feel the mind twitch, begin to slip from society's paved roads into the obscure underbelly of primal consciousness.
You will find here a guided tour into that place, tunneling deeper and deeper into the chasms of repressed humanity.
Fifty years ago today, November 16th, 1957, people were forced to acknowledge that this place existed, disgusted at the realization that it was in every one of us. We have all encountered it from time to time.
Ed Gein just gave it a face. |
 |
| GEIN PROPERTY FOR SALE |
Plainfield property where killer Ed Gein lived is up for auction on eBay
From April 6, 2006
Plainfield - Forty acres of woods dotted with long rows of red pine trees are for sale near this Waushara County community. Asking price - $250,000.
That's a bit steep for wooded land in central Wisconsin far from water, even at a time when parcels are getting snapped up for hunting and recreational use. But it's not so much the land or the nice size deer that traverse the acreage that has boosted the value.
It's what happened on the property almost a half century ago.
This is the land where Ed Gein lived. Wisconsin's most famous murderer, until Jeffrey Dahmer, was arrested on this land in November 1957. Inside the ramshackle farmhouse - which burned down shortly before the property was auctioned the following March - were the remains of his last victim as well as other horrifying items such as body parts and clothing made from human skin.
Now the grandson of the man who bought the property at the 1958 auction is selling the 40 acres where Gein's farmhouse and other buildings once stood. The property was listed this week on eBay by Mike Fisher, who inherited the property from his grandfather, Emden Schey.
Under the heading "Ed Gein's Farm . . . The REAL deal!" in the real estate section of eBay is a photo of the entrance to the property and a description: "40 acres of wooded land and pine plantation, includes site of Ed's home, outbuildings, well, private dump & other artifacts of Gein's life & horrific crimes. This is the first time this property has been offered for sale since the original purchase. . . . Property has electric, newer sand-point well, hunting shack & acres of pine and hardwood. This is not a joke. Serious purchase inquiries only."
Fisher said he grew up hunting and hiking on the land with his grandfather, who planted 6,000 pine trees on the property, but wants to sell it now because he's "reallocating funds."
Fisher said he wants to be respectful to the families of Gein's victims but also wants to sell the land for a price higher than comparable acreage that might not have the notoriety of this particular parcel.
"The families of the victims still live here. In all of the time we've owned it, we have never tried to capitalize on it," Fisher said in response to an e-mail inquiry.
Fisher, a real estate appraiser, said a similar piece of property would be valued at $80,000 to $120,000.
"As you can see from the ad I'm asking $250,000 because I'm guessing there's some kook out there willing to spend the money for his 15 minutes of fame," he said.
Shortly after the eBay ad was posted, the sale of Gein's old farm was being discussed in forums on skcentral.com (Serial Killer Central) and Murderauction.com, said Andy Kahan, who is leading a national campaign against sales of serial killer memorabilia. Fisher didn't know about that until a reporter told him.
Kahan said Gein memorabilia is very valuable in the small world of collectors of gruesome gimcracks.
"Ed Gein is like a Da Vinci," said Kahan, victim rights director in the Houston mayor's office. "If you own something of Gein, it's one of the top five of that industry."
Whether Fisher gets his asking price is anybody's guess. This week, the only response to the ad was from a Journal Sentinel reporter.
Kahan, whose efforts to shut down sales of murder memorabilia prompted eBay to stop listing things such as artwork by John Wayne Gacy and letters from Ted Bundy, said Fisher is capitalizing on Gein's infamy.
"You're not selling the property for the property sake itself. You're using the ill-gotten notoriety of one of the country's most famous serial killers to jack up the price," Kahan said.
But Fisher said he tried not to capitalize too much on the name of the man who inspired the Norman Bates character in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho."
"The wording (on eBay), I tried to keep it kind of minimal. I didn't want to add any fuel to the fire that mentioning his name brings in that area," Fisher said.
Mentioning Gein in Plainfield, though, continues to dredge up bad memories. On Wednesday, several people didn't want to talk about Gein, didn't want their names used or angrily asked why another story was being written about the bachelor accused of robbing local graves.
"It's tough that that's the only thing you're known for," said Delores Zdroik, as she scraped weeds next to her sidewalk.
Zdroik was living in Milwaukee when Gein was arrested but moved to Plainfield a decade ago. One time she was wearing a sweat shirt emblazoned with the name of her community while visiting family in Milwaukee and noticed a man following her. "He stopped me and said 'Oh, that's Ed Gein's hometown.' "
If the land is sold for $250,000, the sale will help Plainfield's tax base, said Verne, who did not want his last name used. "I'm sure nobody around town will buy it."
The property is much like any other in this part of Wisconsin. It's surrounded by cornfields waiting to be planted. Numerous "No Trespassing" signs are nailed to trees. Pine boughs litter the ground next to stumps in an area recently logged.
On Wednesday afternoon, it was quiet. Almost 50 years ago, in the days after Gein was arrested in the slaying of hardware store owner Bernice Worden, hundreds of cars clogged the rural roads as tourists drove by to glimpse the farmhouse. Then thousands more showed up in March 1958 for an open house held before the auction. By then the house had burned down. Eight sheriff's deputies controlled traffic at nearby intersections.
At the auction on March 30, 1958, Schey bid $3,883 for Gein's farm plus another $775 for the homestead site, outbuildings and 40 acres. At the same auction, Gein's 1949 Maroon Ford was bought for the then-princely sum of $760 by a man who later drove it around the state, charging people a quarter to see it.
Schey later sold off some of the land to relatives and friends, and the 40-acre homestead site was passed down to Fisher and his brother. Now, it too, is on the auction block.
Fisher prefers prospective buyers to contact him only through the eBay site.
"I really don't want to turn this into a circus," he said.
-----
Update: eBay ultimately removed the listing for the property.
The man trying to sell the land where Ed Gein - the grave robber and murderer whose story inspired the movie "Psycho" - was arrested said Monday he received one offer before eBay yanked his ad off its online auction site.
Mike Fisher said the offer was far lower than his $250,000 asking price. Fisher said eBay pulled his real estate advertisement on Saturday, five days after it was first listed, calling it a violation of the site's murder memorabilia policy.
"It was bound to be controversial," Fisher said.
The 40-acre property near Plainfield about 70 miles south of Wausau once contained Gein's ramshackle home and part of his farm, where Gein was arrested and body parts and clothing made from human skin were found in 1957.
Fisher, who inherited the land from his grandfather, listed the property on eBay on April 4 under the heading, "Ed Gein's Farm ... The REAL deal!"
Fisher's sales pitch drew the attention of a man leading a national campaign against sales of serial killer memorabilia. Andy Kahan of Houston said Fisher was wrong for trying to use a horrible crime and the notoriety of it to "hook a higher price" for his land.
Kahan said Monday he purposely didn't contact eBay about the ad to see whether the company was enforcing its policy.
"It finally got pointed out to them," he said. "Obviously, they passed with flying colors. We applaud eBay for being a consistent watchdog and not allowing the sale of murderabilia."
In a telephone interview from his home in southern Wisconsin, Fisher said his eBay ad received more than 10,000 hits before it was pulled. He refused to disclose details about the lone offer, which he did not immediately accept.
The property remains for sale, he said. "I have a number of interested parties. We have yet to exchange information. They want to take a look at the place, that type of thing."
Fisher said he doesn't plan to list the property with a real estate company.
"The word is out. If someone is truly interested, they can track me down," he said. "Public records will show where I am at. As with any real estate deal, price is always negotiable."
Kahan said he was not surprised Fisher's ad attracted 10,000 hits.
"It's human curiosity. People are always fascinated with the morbid and the macabre," he said.
Gein was arrested for murder when the headless body of a hardware store owner was found hanging at his farm home. The woman's body was dressed out like a deer carcass. Investigators also found parts of other bodies. They concluded Gein had robbed graves and may have murdered other people.
Gein, eventually ruled guilty but criminally insane, died in a mental hospital in 1984 at the age of 77.
Fisher's grandfather, Emden Schey, bid $3,883 for Gein's farm plus another $775 for the homestead site, outbuildings and 40 acres in 1958. The farmhouse on the property burned down before the auction.
Schey later sold off some of the land, and the 40-acre homestead site was passed down to Fisher and his brother. Fisher, 40, said he bought out his brother's interest.
The 40 acres is covered with trees, planted by his grandfather to try in some way to redeem it from its ugly past, the grandson said. Fisher and friends have hunted deer on it for more than two decades. |
|
| ED GEIN'S GRAVESTONE |
Gein's Gravestone
Killer Gein's gravestone stolen
Sheriff thinks stone may appeal to followers on Internet auction site
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on June 20, 2000
Plainfield - The grave marker for the man whose crimes inspired the Alfred Hitchcock film "Psycho" has been stolen - possibly by someone hoping to market it via the Internet.
Waushara County Sheriff Patrick Fox said he wouldn't be surprised to see Ed Gein's grave marker turn up for sale on an Internet auction site.
Fox also suggested someone with an interest in the occult or satanism could be involved.
"There are people who would pay big bucks for that," the sheriff said.
Gein, described often as a mild-mannered, soft-spoken farmhand, murdered at least one woman and likely more, and he also robbed graves in the Plainfield area in the late 1940s and 1950s.
He was arrested for murder in 1957 when investigators looking into the disappearance of 58-year-old hardware store owner Bernice Worden went to Gein's farmhouse. They found the victim's headless body gutted like a deer and hanging in the home's old summer kitchen.
They also found other ghoulish souvenirs, such as lamp shades and other items sewn from human skin. The story of the reclusive Gein, who kept the room of his late mother just as it was when she died a decade earlier, soon was making international headlines.
Horror writer Robert Bloch's fictionalized character based on Gein later became Norman Bates of Hitchcock's 1960 film classic "Psycho."
After Gein died from cancer in a mental institution nearly 16 years ago, he was buried in one of the cemeteries he once had plundered, not far from Worden's final resting place.
A small stone marker, 15 inches high, 12 inches deep, and 24 inches wide, bearing Gein's name, was placed at his grave some months later.
Betty Petrusky, caretaker of the Plainfield Cemetery from 1969-'96, noticed Gein's stone missing Saturday when she visited her husband's grave.
Petrusky was one of a handful of people who attended Gein's burial. In fact, she and her late husband dug the grave.
-----
Gein's stolen gravestone could fetch high price
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online June 21, 2000
How much would a collector pay for the gravestone of infamous Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein?
Tough to say, because the stolen item is still missing and hasn't yet shown up on the Internet, as some officials expect it will.
But among dealers of serial killer memorabilia, Gein is king.
"Owning Gein, for some, is to own a Rembrandt for other collectors," said Andy Kahan, crime victims' director for the Houston mayor's office and leader of a national campaign against sales of serial killer memorabilia.
A search of the eBay Internet auction site Tuesday turned up 31 Ed Gein items for sale, including small vials said to be filled with wood from the bachelor's farmhouse, which burned down 42 years ago, and a copy of an FBI sheet of Gein's fingerprints.
Waushara County Sheriff Patrick Fox has no leads on the missing 150-pound gravestone, which disappeared from the Plainfield Cemetery last week, but he said it's possible someone stole it to sell to memorabilia collectors.
"It's either some kids that went out and took it or somebody who really wanted it," Fox said Tuesday. "I suppose you could find somebody out there who would pay something for it."
Betty Petrusky, cemetery caretaker from 1969 to 1996, noticed the marker was missing Saturday when she stopped by her husband's grave. Petrusky is familiar with Gein's grave - she helped dig it - and was one of 10 people who attended the graveside service in July 1984, one day after Gein died of cancer at Mendota Mental Health Institute.
"Everybody says he was buried at midnight," Petrusky said Tuesday. "That wasn't true because I buried him. It was 4 in the afternoon."
Over the years, vandals have scarred the rough-hewn gray stone of Gein's final resting place, between his mother and brother, Petrusky said. Profanity and satanic symbols were written in marker, and pieces of the stone were chipped off.
"A lot of people knew he was buried there. When I was out there as caretaker, I had people from every state" stop to ask about his grave, Petrusky said. "I had motorcycle gangs who were stopping and asking about Eddie, they were pretty rough-looking characters. I answered them as best as I could but I said 'No pictures' because we didn't want a lot of publicity."
While investigating the 1957 disappearance of Bernice Worden, owner of the local hardware store, stunned officers discovered body parts and Worden's headless remains at Gein's farmhouse. Authorities say he probably murdered others and also robbed graves.
The man who inspired the Alfred Hitchcock film "Psycho" is buried in the same cemetery that he once plundered, not far from Worden. The sheriff said any mention of Gein in the news is painful for the families of his victims.
"We have a lot of family up there like the Wordens who are still sensitive about it. They just hope he goes away," Fox said.
Kahan, the Houston city official, said it's just as horrific for other victims' families to see items glorifying Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy or Jeffrey Dahmer. Surf Internet auction sites, and you can buy what is purported to be some of Bundy's hair or dirt from the crawl space where Gacy buried 27 young men and boys.
"From a victim's perspective, it's probably the most nauseating, disgusting display of free enterprise," Kahan said.
Many of the Gein items on eBay are manufactured products such as T-shirts, shorts, snow globes, books, videos and light switches that feature his likeness and the words "Kill the lights." Among original memorabilia that Kahan has seen up for auction are copies of Gein's parole petition, letters written by Gein, photos of Gein and a painting of Gein byGacy.
Serial killer memorabilia can be sold on eBay as long as it is legally owned by the seller, said Kevin Pursglove, senior director of communications for eBay.
But, eBay draws the line at gravestones and human remains. If Gein's grave marker were put up for sale on the popular Internet auction site, it would be removed, Pursglove said.
"The other side of the issue is that most items on eBay that are associated with killers are pieces of property or merchandise that are owned by private citizens, and they are well within their right to sell it," Pursglove said.
Terry Svejda, who was selling a sliver of wood from Gein's farmhouse on eBay on Tuesday afternoon, said Gein memorabilia is highly sought after. The wood was collected a few years ago by another dealer who plucked it from the remains of the farmhouse's foundation, according to Svejda, whose eBay name is plan9space.
Does he consider the feelings of the families of Gein's victims when selling knickknacks?
"I feel sorry for the families," Svejda said. But "it's America and everybody has to make a buck."
Svejda, a Plano, Ill., memorabilia dealer, doubted the gravestone would end up on the Internet, but he said there's a thriving underground market of collectors of serial killer trinkets who deal among themselves.
Gein's gravestone is worth whatever anyone is willing to pay for it, said Svejda, who figured it could go for $2,000 to $3,000.
"For a little vial of wood I just got $53 so, yeah, I would say Gein is popular," said Svejda. "People have a fascination with serial killers, and Ed was definitely one of the weirdest."
-----
Ed Gein's Gravestone Rescued, But Will It Ever Be Seen Again?
From August 4th, 2001
The stolen tombstone of Ed Gein, perhaps America's most "beloved" grave robber, murderer, and cannibal, has been brought home to Plainfield, WI. Last June it mysteriously disappeared from Gein's grave in Plainfield Cemetery.
The police aren't sure what to do with it.
"We could put it back in the cemetery, but it would only get stolen again," said Waushara County Sheriff Patrick Fox in an interview with the Stevens Point Journal.
The Waushara County Historical Society wants to display it in the old jail museum in downtown Wautoma, a town not far from Plainfield. Gein was held in the jail briefly after his grisly crimes came to light. The police haven't yet decided the stone's fate, but if past experience with politically incorrect memorabilia is any guide, it may take up permanent residence in an unmarked closet or basement.
Gein, described often as a mild-tempered farmhand, murdered women and robbed the graves of others in the Plainfield area more than 50 years ago. His ghoulish souvenirs -- carefully preserved human body parts, some meant to be worn as clothing -- were found strewn about his farmhouse near Plainfield.
He served as the model for the Norman Bates character in "Psycho," and Leatherface in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
Police expected to find Gein's tombstone for sale on eBay. Instead, they discovered it in Seattle, WA, in the hands of the promoter of the band Angry White Males, who was selling rubbings of the stone for $50 each on his web site.
The promoter claimed that his tombstone was a reproduction, but it was covered with the same Satanic symbols and obscenities as the missing stone, and it had the same chips taken out of it by years of irrepressible Gein fans. Interest in Gein has never waned, frustrating Plainfield's residents, who want the town to be associated with more pleasent subjects. The town has even formed a committee, Positive Plainfield, to do just that. |
|
|
|
