Is this a picture of Henry Gein?
You know, First-born* of George and Augusta Gein. Whose younger brother was the infamous Ed?
I found it looking for pictures of Henry. Although it was labelled Ed, it isn’t.
Here’s a photo of Ed;
And another;
Whoever he is, although he is labelled Ed, and found on a web page about Ed, he looks nothing like him.
So. . .is it?
If so, I bet it’s the only one in existence of him, (at least on the Internet) and I’m delighted and excited to have found it. This man, who never harmed a living soul, who did his best to live a normal life, became just an appendage to the man whose claim to fame was double murder and grave robbing, and who has inspired many tales and films, the hero of songs and even with a band named after him.** Henry is only remembered because he was the elder brother of Ed, mentioned in passing, and possibly Ed’s first victim. (although, to be fair, this wasn’t speculated upon until after Bernice Worden’s body was discovered, Ed was arrested and the Gein farmhouse opened up and the truth about the shy, eccentric, yet pleasant and likeable, little oddball uncovered).
If it is him, I’m glad this picture of him exists. Makes him more real, somehow.
*What else can I say? I’m obsessed with first-borns. Live with it.
**He was neither a cannibal nor a necrophile, despite what some of the accounts insist. Why not? Sex was out because ‘they smelled too bad’. As for cannibalism, his Mother’s strict Lutheran Christianity influencing him saw him unable to partake in eating the flesh and the blood, after all, it was a bit too Catholic. The film Ed Gein (In The Light Of The Moon) was also mistaken in it’s speculation that he was aroused by both Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden, and due to his Mother’s brainwashing him into believing sexual thoughts were sinful, couldn’t enjoy normal relationships with the living, so hallucinated his Mother’s telling him that Mary was a dirty talker and Bernice (Colette Marshall in the film) was a flirtatious temptress, both deserving the death penalty. His reasons, he explained, were because he wanted the bodies to skin and wear in attempt to change his own sex. For years, after his Mother’s death, he was content to dig bodies up (all resembling his Mother in some way). As he got older, it became hard work, so it became easier to shoot them and carry them home. After all, the only one he cared for was a woman, a saint, a goddess, and he wanted to become her.
