True Crime Campfire - Introducing: Killer Psyche

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

Killer Psyche is a new weekly true crime podcast from Wondery that explores the minds behind infamous killers and criminals. They cover high-profile cases that have shocked the world, and host Candice Delong uses her five decades of experience as a clinical psychiatric nurse and FBI Criminal Profiler to dissect the motivations and behaviors of the most terrifying felons in history. In a recent episode, Candace examines the mind of Ed Gein, the notorious murderer who inspired the movies "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." Candace dives deep into Gein’s mind — and how his mental illnesses led to his obsession with grave-robbing and murder. This is just a preview of Killer Psyche, but you can listen to the full episode at http://wondery.fm/KP_TCCampfireBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

What makes a murderer's mind tick? Killer Psyche is a new weekly true crime podcast from Wondery that explores these types of questions about the crimes that killers and criminals commit. Killer Psyche covers high-profile cases that have shocked the world, and host Candace DeLong uses her five decades of experience as a clinical psychiatric nurse and FBI criminal profiler to dissect the motivations and behaviors of the most terrifying felons in history. And you'll definitely want to listen to their recent episode where Candice examines the mind of Ed Gein, the notorious murderer who inspired the movies the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. You won't believe what gruesome details from those movies were inspired by Gein's real-life atrocities. Candice dives deep into Gein's mind, how his mental illnesses led to his obsession with grave robbing and murder. Listening to killer psyche will give you a whole new insight into the twisted mind of Gein,

Hollywood's favorite killer. You're about to hear a preview of killer psyche. While you're listening, follow Killer Psyche on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I was 14 years old, my brother Keith took me to see the movie Psycho at the Marina Theater on Chesna Street in San Francisco. It was the first time. I'd seen a horror movie in a theater, and what a movie to start with. I was so terrified, I didn't take a shower for weeks. This was really the first time I'd ever seen a movie in which the bad guy was not overtly evil-looking, where they were not constantly telegraphing the fact that the character was a murderer or a killer. Norman Bates, and I'm assuming all true

crime fans have seen this movie, and if not, you need to. Norman was slightly odd, but he looked like a shy normal guy. I really did not expect the reveal that happens at the end. I told myself, oh, come on, this is make-believes, just a movie right out of Hollywood. No one would ever be that disturbed to keep the dead with them in their house. But Psycho was based on a real story, on a real man. His name was Ed Gein. And the town he lived in in Wisconsin considered him a nice guy, if not slightly odd. He had lived there most of his life and worked odd jobs as a handyman. Most of the families felt sorry for him and invited him over to eat dinner.

Some of them even let him babysat their children. What they would later learn about Ed Gein is what the audience learns about Norman. Bates that looks can be deceiving, and that their nice, quiet neighbor committed crimes far more shocking than any movie. From Wondery and Treefort, I'm Candace DeLong, and this is Killer Psyche. I've spent five decades studying people's minds through my work as an FBI profiler and psychiatric nurse. I've interviewed many murderers, serial killers included, and the question I get asked time and time again is why they did what they did. It's difficult to get a satisfying answer without diving deep into the killer's mindsets.

So in this series, I will do just that and give you my best analysis of what made them do what they did. This episode is about Ed Gein, Hollywood's favorite killer. A good friend of mine, Gail, was a counselor at a summer camp in Hayward, Wisconsin in the late 70s. The psychiatric hospital where Gine was committed was right across the lake. Around the campfire at night, the counselors would tell the kids that the swamp man who skinned people alive was right across the lake and that he frequently escaped. They would claim that you could hear him scratching on the screen windows at night. And then the counselors would go around scratching the windows and terrifying the campers.

The Swampman was supposed to be Ed Gein. Now, of course, this was full of hyperbole and misinformation, but most ghost stories are. Over the last several decades, the story of Ed Gein has become twisted by the terrible parts of our imagination. But I have to tell you, it's really not necessary since the truth was horrible enough. After his crimes came to light, the press dubbed him a ghoul and a boogeyman. His murders and his penchant for using human body parts for decoration and furniture horrified the public. In 1957, the idea that someone would do these things seemed unfathomable and, frankly, more like movie imagination. And even now, he continues to be the inspiration for many of Hollywood's,

scariest killers, including Norman Bates, Buffalo Bill, and Leatherface. November is the beginning of hunting season in Plainfield, Wisconsin. In the late 1950s, the town would clear out because most of the men were heading into the woods to hunt, which is why no one heard the shotgun blast that took the life of one of its most beloved residents. On November 16, 1957, Ed Gein, a local handyman, entered Warden's Hardware store on the corner of North and Main Streets. The night before, he had been there, and he mentioned that he needed to get antifreeze and that he'd be back the next day. Ed had been hanging around the store a lot in the previous weeks. Some of the locals thought he paid a lot

of attention to Mrs. Warden, Bernice, and some said he seemed even a little obsessed with her. But this was all written off as typical Ed behavior. He was considered by most in town to be odd, but a nice guy. So that day, he came in for half a gallon of antifreeze, and after Bernice poured it for him, he took it out to his truck. He returned just as she was writing the receipt and asked to see a rifle that was in the window. When she went to retrieve it, Ed came up behind her and shot her in the back of the head, and then he slid her throat.

He then loaded her in the back of his truck and drove off. It was not until hours later that someone reported Bernice was not in her store. Her son, Frank, was also the local deputy sheriff. He went there to check on her. When he entered, he found the store. door empty, the cash register open, and a pool of blood on the floor. Frank immediately suspected Ed Gein because of his recent preoccupation with his mother. When investigators arrived, they discovered the last receipt written for the day was for Ed's

Anifreeze, and that confirmed Frank's suspicions.