Kriti Mehrotra
While there’s no denying that Netflix’s ‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ is a dramatic portrayal of the life and crimes of the titular serial killer and body snatcher, certain aspects of it appear to have been fictionalized. The 8-part production doesn’t shy away from any of Ed Gein’s brutal actions or his mental health issues, but it does boldly play out some assumptions as facts. Amongst them are actually the circumstances surrounding the murder of Bernice Conover Worden, whose disappearance and murder led to the killer’s ultimate arrest in 1957.
Bernice Worden Went Missing After Ed Gein Showed Up At Her Store
It was on May 9, 1899, when Bernice Conover Worden was born to Agnes Putnam and Frank Conover as their second child out of five. She was reportedly raised in Canton, Illinois, before the family eventually settled in Wisconsin, where she fell in love with a local man named Leon Francis Worden. The couple seemed to lead a good life, which they made even better by welcoming two children into their world, Frank and Miriam. However, everything turned upside down in 1931 as Leon sadly passed away, leaving Bernice to work tirelessly to provide for the kids. In fact, she took over her late husband’s hardware store, Worden Hardware in Plainfield, and earned the reputation of a strong businesswoman.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly for Bernice in the years to pass, especially as her children grew up to have families of their own while still maintaining a close relationship with her. Yet, things turned upside down on November 16, 1957, as the 58-year-old opened up the hardware store as usual but went missing shortly after, which was unlike her. However, no one suspected anything until her son, Frank, then a Deputy Sheriff, came into the store at around 5 pm, only to find it empty and with blood stains on the floor. Even the cash register was open and had specks of blood.
Frank immediately went into work mode and checked Bernice’s receipts, discovering that Ed Gein had visited the store the evening prior and returned on the fateful morning for a gallon of antifreeze. The receipt of his sale was the last one, and area residents also confirmed that while the store was open on time, they had seen a truck driving out from the rear of the building at around 9:30 am. With all this, a search was executed on Ed’s farm that same evening, where they found hard evidence suggesting Ed had indeed killed Bernice Worden. He confessed too, stating he shot her to death.
Related
The Details of Any Interaction Between Bernice Worden and Ed Gein Are Pure Speculations
According to Time Magazine, when the Waushara County Sheriff’s Department searched Ed’s farm, they “found a chamber of horrors. Bernice Worden’s body was strung up by the heels in a summer kitchen. It had been eviscerated and dressed out like a deer. Her severed head was in a cardboard box, her heart in a plastic bag on the stove.” Moreover, per the report, they also found bone fragments, entire skulls, assorted pieces of human skin, nine vulvas in a shoebox, and much more. In the end, they were able to ascertain that Ed had shot Bernice to death with his .22-caliber rifle, and it was after she had passed away that he mutilated her remains in arguably the worst way imaginable.
They also found remains of another local woman, a tavern owner named Mary Hogan, who had gone missing in 1953. Ed confessed to her murder, too. Ed Gein only ever confessed to these two murders, telling officials that while he didn’t remember how he killed Mary or the events that transpired, he killed Bernice because she reminded him of his mother. The other remains found at his farm, he said, were from bodies he had exhumed from nearby cemeteries. Ed reportedly shared a deeply dependent and obsessive relationship with his mother, Augusta Gein, who passed away in 1945.
Many later interpreted this bond as a factor contributing to his disturbed behavior, though there is no verified evidence of any sexual element to it. Furthermore, Ed never detailed anything, so all anyone has are speculations and dramatizations, such as the one in episode 3 of Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story.’ Allegations about necrophilic tendencies were made based on the condition in which victims’ remains were found, but Ed never confessed to such acts, and no concrete evidence confirmed them. Any such suggestions remain purely speculative. All we know for certain is that Ed went down a dark path to fulfill his depraved desires, and Bernice unfortunately became his last victim.
