According to Radford University, Ed Gein removed his mother’s head from the rest of her corpse and preserved it as outlined in a book he read about “shrunken heads.” He then removed her skin, which he used to begin making a human skin suit.
Isthmus reports Dr. Schubert, who interviewed Gein, said the accused killer had formed an “abnormally magnified attachment to his mother.” Dr. Warmington, who also interviewed Gein, said Gein’s obsession with his mother was paired with an underlying anger and a degree of sexual repression.
Following his mother’s death, Warmington believes Gein developed a strong “desire for a substitute for his mother in the form of a replica or body that could be kept indefinitely.” It has been noted that most of Gein’s victims, including the corpses he stole, had some resemblance to his mother.
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As reported by TruTV, Gein had considered gender reassignment surgery at one point, as he wanted to become more like his mother. However, he ultimately decided to use her actual body to satisfy his obsession. Gein used his mother’s skin to make an outfit, which he wore at home, and at times while he was robbing other graves.
According to some reports, the original suit Gein made of his mother’s skin began degrading, prompting him to make a new suit using more recently buried corpses. Gein would often scan obituaries and steal corpses on the same evening they were buried.
