Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Bettmann
Topics: Crime, Ed Gein, History, Netflix, True Crime
Anish Vij
Topics: Crime, Ed Gein, History, Netflix, True Crime
The owner of a museum that claims to have authentic artifacts from the Ed Gein case has issued a warning to viewers of the new Netflix show.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story dramatises the life and crimes of the American serial killer, played by Charlie Hunnam. He was known for murdering at least two women in 1954 and 1957, as well as exhuming numerous corpses from local graveyards.
Gein was said to have used the human remains to craft grotesque household items, such as skull bowls, lampshades made of skin, and clothing stitched from body parts.
Since the Netflix series came out on 3 October, Chloë Manon, the co-owner of The Great Face Museum in Chicago and Savannah, has urged viewers to be careful when researching the real case online.
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In a video shared on the museum's TikTok page (@graveface_museum), she claimed that most of what appears on Google about Gein’s crimes is false or exaggerated, shaped by decades of misinformation and Hollywood fiction.
The museum owner said most of the physical artifacts from the case were obtained illegally and were destroyed soon after, leaving very little that survives today.
"So they obtained this illegal evidence, and they weren't able to use it in the courtroom," she said.
"It was inadmissible. So he was charged for the murder of Bernice, found not guilty by reason of insanity, and went back to the psychiatric ward.
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"And you might be wondering now, or maybe you're not, what happened to all of the inadmissible evidence? It was destroyed. So it was burned, it was incinerated, or it was buried."
Chloë believes that countless online images of supposed 'Gein artifacts' - like lampshades made of skin, nipple belts, and human-hand gloves - are modern hoaxes created by artists.
Either that, or they are inspired by films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which took creative liberties from the Gein case.
The crime expert stressed that none of these items are real, even though they’re often presented as authentic evidence.
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Speaking about the media frenzy in Plainfield at the time, she said: “Back in 1957, as the case was breaking, people were just making s**t up.
“There were also more reporters and journalists than people who actually lived in Plainfield when all of this was happening.
“And so a lot of the interviews that were being conducted, it was like journalists talking to other journalists.
“Not to mention that these initial news reports were happening as the case was still ongoing.
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“Typically, you don't report on an ongoing investigation and state things as facts until they're found to be factual. That didn't happen here.”
Towards the end of the clip, Chloë tells true crime fans: “Take what you read and hear online with a grain of salt.”