Netflix's anthology series, "Monster," continues its exploration of infamous figures with its third season, "Monster: The Ed Gein Story," which premiered on October 3. This eight-part miniseries delves into the life and depravities of Ed Gein, the notorious serial killer whose actions in the 1950s shocked America and significantly influenced the horror genre. The series features Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein and Vicky Krieps in a pivotal role as Ilse Koch, a real-life Nazi war criminal portrayed as a comic book character within Gein's disturbing fantasies.

Ed Gein, born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1906, grew up in a disturbingly strict household under the influence of his alcoholic father, George, and religious zealot mother, Augusta. Raised alongside his brother Henry on an isolated farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin, Gein was taught to fear the outside world as a sinful place. Following his father's death in 1940 and his brother Henry's mysterious death in a brush fire in 1944, Gein's co-dependent relationship with his mother intensified until her passing in 1945. After Augusta's death, Gein boarded up her rooms, maintaining them pristine while he descended into squalor, developing a morbid fascination with pulp magazines and violent stories about Nazis and cannibals, particularly Ilse Koch, infamous for creating objects from human skin.

Gein's reclusive life came to a halt in 1957 when he was arrested for the kidnapping of Bernice Worden, a local hardware store owner. The subsequent search of his property unearthed a horrific scene: Worden's skinned and decapitated body, human remains fashioned into masks and furniture, and evidence of other victims. Gein confessed not only to Worden's murder but also to that of Mary Hogan, a tavern owner who disappeared in 1954, and to exhuming bodies from nearby cemeteries. His motive, he claimed, was to create a full-body suit from women's skins, aiming to embody and resurrect his deceased mother.

The legal proceedings surrounding Gein were equally sensational. An assault by an officer during interrogation rendered his initial confessions inadmissible. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Gein was initially deemed unfit for trial, spending eleven years in state hospitals before finally being tried in 1968. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent the remainder of his life in a mental institution, dying of respiratory failure in 1984. His farmhouse was destroyed in a fire before his trial, further cementing his legend.

Gein's case profoundly impacted popular culture, becoming a touchstone for American horror. He served as the primary inspiration for iconic characters such as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's