Plainfield, Wis. Circuit Judge Robert H. Gollmar, who tried the Gein case, summed it up this way:

"A bachelor, he lived a somewhat hermit-like existence on a lonely and isolated farm. A mild, meek appearing little man; no one suspected him of murder until a number of people disappeared. A search of his farm uncovered bodies and parts of bodies. Among his other abilities, Gein was a taxidermist. Probably this led to his interesting hobby -- he made chairs and lamps shades out of human skin which he carefully tanned for that purpose. After Gein was transferred to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane his farm was sold. There was a rumor that his home was to become a tourist attraction. Shortly after this was reported, the home caught fire one night and burned to the ground."

Between 1947 and his arrest in 1957, Gein is believed to have robbed graves in three local cemeteries and killed at least two people in order to obtain raw materials. Initially declared insane, he was found fit to stand trial in 1968 and convicted by Judge Gollmar; he spent the remainder of his life at the Mendota Mental Health Institute near Madison. Gein is thought to have inspired the fictional killers depicted in the films Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Gollmar, Robert H. Tales of a Country Judge (Delavan, Wis.: 1979): 37; Wikipedia.

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