Some Monsters Are Indeed Real...!

We all have, on occasion, had nightmares. Dreams of monsters and ghost and bogeymen are not uncommon.

However, in our waking hours there are enough living, breathing monsters to go 'round! This is a story of just one of them taken from the folks at History.com! Not only was he real, but he inspired some of the most terrifying stories of our time!

Jul 26, 1984:

Real-life Psycho Ed Gein dies

On July 26, 1984, Ed Gein, a serial killer infamous for skinning human corpses, dies of complications from cancer in a Wisconsin prison at age 77. Gein served as the inspiration for writer Robert Bloch’s character Norman Bates in the 1959 novel Psycho, which in 1960 was turned into a film starring Anthony Perkins and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Edward Theodore Gein was born in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, on July 27, 1906, to an alcoholic father and domineering mother, who taught her son that women and sex were evil. Gein was raised, along with an older brother, on an isolated farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin. After Gein’s father died in 1940, the future killer’s brother died under mysterious circumstances during a fire in 1944 and his beloved mother passed away from health problems in 1945. Gein remained on the farm by himself.

In November 1957, police found the headless, gutted body of a missing store clerk, Bernice Worden, at Gein’s farmhouse. Upon further investigation, authorities discovered a collection of human skulls along with furniture and clothing, including a suit, made from human body parts and skin. Gein told police he had dug up the graves of recently buried women who reminded him of his mother. Investigators found the remains of 10 women in Gein’s home, but he was ultimately linked to just two murders: Bernice Worden and another local woman, Mary Hogan.

Gein was declared mentally unfit to stand trial and was sent to a state hospital in Wisconsin. His farm attracted crowds of curiosity seekers before it burned down in 1958, most likely in a blaze set by an arsonist. In 1968, Gein was deemed sane enough to stand trial, but a judge ultimately found him guilty by reason of insanity and he spent the rest of his days in a state facility.

In addition to Psycho, films including Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs were said to be loosely based on Gein’s crimes.

Now if that wasn't enough to scare you and you need even more proof that real monsters exist, then all you need to do is pick up any newspaper, watch any news story on television, or just listen to the radio! They do indeed exist!

We don't need to fear the "Zombies" or the "Werewolves" or the "Vampires" made up from folklore and imagination! We have so many more real life monsters all around us, spreading death and destruction and creating chaos all around! Some are our leaders, some are our friends or family, and some might even be our neighbors! How's THAT for scary?

Now that we all have our juices flowing this morning, how about some fresh coffee on the patio?