Sam and Colby: The House

18

"Babe, slow!" I whined, leaning toward the car's fold down mirror in front of the passenger seat.

"Nessa, love, I am driving around a lake with sharp curves with a speed limit of 65 miles an hour. Do you have to do your liquid eyeliner right now?" Colby asked, turning down the radio we'd been listening to for about an hour.

"Well no," I said. I decided to work on my contour, bronzer, and highlight while Colby finished driving around the curves. I finished my makeup soon after and packed my bag back up. It was time for some research.

I pulled out my phone and started reading. I also took out a pen and a journal. I decided I would keep some notes this time so that I could have hard, solid evidence to reference any details or specifics I might want to remember.

"We'll be there in about ten minutes," Colby said.

"Alright," I replied, looking back down at the notes I'd been taking for about two hours. I flipped back to the first page and reread the notes for review and clarity.

Plainfield, WI:

-population: 862 circa 2010

-est. Oct, 1848

Ed Gein:

-born Edward Theodore Gein in La Crosse County, WI, August 1906

-died Ed Gein in Mendota Mental Health Institute, WI, July 1984 (aged 77)

-cause of death: heart failure due to liver cancer

-resting place: Plainfield cemetery

-other names: butcher of Plainfield, Plainfield Ghoul

-Convictions: murder

-criminal penalty: institutionalized permanently

-victims: Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan (there were several more bodies found, too mutilated to be identified)

-date apprehended: 1957

-possible inspirations: evidence of him reading Nazi and cannibalism propaganda

-created a 'woman suit' of female human skin sewn together so he could put it on and become his mother after she had died

-denied any act of necrophilia solely due to it 'smelling bad'

The Case of Bernice Worden:

-went missing Nov. 16th, 1957 from her job as a hardware store owner

-Worden's son Dep. Sheriff Frank Worden caught Gein later that day after finding blood stains and an open cash register left behind

-she was found decapitated, hanging upside down by her legs with a crossbar at her ankles and ropes at her wrists

-torso was completely cut open and gutted, shot once with a .22-caliber rifle

-mutilations were made after her death

I set the papers down after a moment. Jesus, this stuff was heavy. I'd written pages and pages more, but that was all I felt like I could read for the time being. I slapped my notebook shut and felt chills run down my spine.