h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well done, a grisley topic which has been well written

Bravo Fizzy one

Why thank you very much Reefgirl ... it must be the 50th anniversary coming up because I've seen a load of programmes in the last 4 weeks about this creep.

Still, glad you enjoyed .... it really is interesting the effect he's had on modern culture.

I've read his story, an edited version anyway. The world is facinated by the grisely and if it's truth the world is even more facinated

I've always been fascinated by the things people can get away with just by keeping their head below the parapet, and I'm always amazed..... still, in those days crimes like Eds were unheard of ... I suspect they must have went on, but the perpetrators probably got away with it.

I sometimes wonder at how easily a person can become unhinged.

My mum has this theory, a lot of serial killers and those that go on a killing spree seem to have been dominated by women, mothers, grandmothers, older sisters, wives and so on, Ed Gein was one, Jeremy Bamber, to a point was another, Peter Sutcliff, and Charles Manson, to a point as well. dominering women have all fetured in these men's lives

Yes that's true, but John Lennon, Billy Connelly and others were also dominated by strong women and it didn't turn them into serial killers.

I think there's more in play than just the women, it could be chemical, it could be that thing in a man's brain that tells him to solve problems rather than just talk about them - the sort of thing that makes men want to go storming into your office just because you've been giving off about the boss ... you know what I mean.

I think they have *issues* with the strong women and instead of speaking them out loud they act on their impulses.

that was wunderbar, Fizzy


(remember the killer in The Silence Of The Lambs - well, the film version anyway - was making a human skin bodysuit)

Yes Sho .... a direct copy of Ed .... our inspiration, the movie industry owe him a lot.

Dominating women just seem to be a strong factor in a lot of these weird men

Yes they do, but what is it that turns one man into a serial killer and another into arguably the greatest songwriter of all time.

Pass, next queation please

Well, that's that solved then.

Cheers Fizz

If they could figure that out Fizzymouse there would be a lot less violent psychopaths roaming around than there probably are. Look at Dahmer, and Gacy. No body suspected either one of them for the longest time. Once in a home movie (shown in a show on tv about Dahmer) Dahmer tells his father that he's been eating out at McDonalds a lot. Of course he wasn't, but his family never suspected a thing.
One irony of life is that (as I understand it) Mr. Gein is himself now interred in the very same graveyard that he is believed to have robbed once long ago. We humans are an odd lot. We are both attracted to and repelled by the real life monsters in our midst.

Yes Ed is now planted beside his blessed mother. His headstone is held in a museum though because it was continually vandalised. Having said that his grave always has fresh flowers from well-wishers.

I find the true psychopath very interesting ... Bundy, Dahmer of course Ed, all very passable in their own way, but what is different about their brain to ours that lets them believe what they are doing is okay. Is it really possible to know someone well and not know that they are capable of such crimes.

I've often wondered that about the wives and families of such men, were the men really that good at covering up their crimes or were their loved ones really that blind, it's something I've often thought about

I think about the same thing and can't fathom it myself.

I've known a few strange people in my time, but none of them have turned out to be serial killers..... thank goodness. But how would I know if they were - until the big *reveal*.

I guess it's must be odd to wake up one morning and find the press banging on your door and telling you that five bodies have been found in your neighbour's garden and did you suspect he's a weirdo

Yeah, and everyone is so wise with hindsight ... just look at Harold Shipman, the locals called him Dr Death talk about a signpost.

My dad worked at a food processing plant in illinois once. The female workers on the line were nervous around one guy with weird eyes. He turned out to be infamous. His name? Richard Speck. Sometimes there are clues, but they are interpreted wrong.

I had a friend who was looking for work once, just after he found it a man called to ask if he needed work. His mother said no, that he'd found a job. The name of the caller? John Wayne Gacy. Talk about a close shave with death.