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Title: Deviant: The Shocking True Story of Ed Gein, the Original Psycho by Harold Schechter ISBN: 0-671-02546-5 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.59 (34 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A scholarly examinations of a true psychopath
Comment: Given the passage of time and the depth of the author's research, this book reads more like a work of historical scholarship than your typical true crime story, and it is the better for it. Not only does Harold Schechter skillfully tell the story of Ed Gein's infamous crimes, but he also successfully puts the tale in the proper historical and sociological context. In order to understand the deviant Gein became, you have to understand the bleak society and loveless home he came from. His crimes are certainly shocking and unforgiveable, but it's hard not to see Gein as a pathetic figure. The oppressively lonely and essentially passive man Schechter portrays is hardly consistent with the horror story villains based on his story. I appreciated Schechter's research into and explanation of the studies that were done of Gein during his lifetime incarceration in forensic psychological wards. The author does a particularly good job of explaining the subtleties of legal insanity and how Gein could be considered sane enough to be tried but still be found criminally insane.
Rating: 5
Summary: OUT OF AMERICA'S HEARTLAND....
Comment: This is a well-researched book about Ed Gein, the mild mannered, Midwestern psychopath from Plainfield, Wisconsin who, in the nineteen fifties, would shock the nation with his gruesome crimes. Ed Gein would become the basis for the best selling book by Robert Bloch, "Psycho", as well as for the Hitchcock film of the same name. Accounts of Ed Gein's heinous crimes would also enter the consciousness of a young Tobe Hooper who, as an adult, would write and direct the classic cult film, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".
The author writes a cogent, factual account of the life of Ed Gein and the grisly crimes that shocked the nation at the time of their discovery. It details the hold that Ed's domineering mother had on him, a hold that would manifest itself in unimaginable ways. It is almost hard to believe that this small, inoffensive man could be such a madman, but who but a madman would do what he did? Ed Gein, it was discovered, had turned his small farmhouse into a gruesome charnel house, replete with furnishings adorned with human flesh and bones.
Aficionados of true crime will find this book fascinating, as it is a well-written account of one of the most horrifying and bizarre series of crimes ever to be committed. Eight pages of photographs are included in the book and serve to provide the reader with a brief, visual glimpse into the life of Ed Gein, a man with a secret hobby so depraved that it would shock the entire nation when it came to light. Lovers of true crime accounts will be fascinated by this well researched foray into the life of a seemingly innocuous man from America's heartland who ended up being so deviant from the norm.
Rating: 3
Summary: Gein -- Alcoholic Father Beat Him
Comment: The author, Harold Schechter, draws incomplete conclusions when seeking the rationale for Ed Gein's disturbing behavior. Yes, Gein's disturbed, fundamentalist mother, Augusta, impacted Gein's psychological development and his resulting pathology. But there are other men who have had domineering mothers with strange attitudes about sex, who didn't go on to become serial killers. Let's not forget that Gein, despite his reported gentleness, killed two people, probably three (his brother as well.)
The one link you will find when researching the lives of violent criminals, is that they come from homes with violent, abusive fathers or father figures. And they often grow up watching their fathers abuse their mothers, as was the case in the Gein family. Augusta is depicted by Schechter as the controlling one, but her husband hit her often, according to the book. Someone who is getting beaten regularly is not an unambiguous model of power. Gein grew up in a household where violence was acceptable, especially violence toward women.
Gein was also beaten by his father, and that is the key to the formation of Ed's rage as well as his lack of compassion. Violence begets violence, and plays a role in psychopathology. Sigmund Freud overlooked early exposure to violence in human personality formation and instead focused mainly on a subject's mother's personality. Schetcher makes the same mistake.
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Title: Deranged: The Shocking True Story of America's Most Fiendish Killer! by Harold Schechter ISBN: 0671025457 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Fiend : The Shocking True Story Of Americas Youngest Serial Killer by Harold Schechter ISBN: 067101448X Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 03 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Depraved: The Shocking True Story of America's First Serial Killer by Harold Schechter ISBN: 0671025449 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Ed Gein--Psycho! by Paul Anthony Woods ISBN: 0312130570 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 October, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Fatal : The Poisonous Life of a Female Serial Killer by Harold Schechter ISBN: 0671014501 Publisher: Pocket Star Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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