[.ca] Deviant (ISBN 0671025465)

From Amazon.com:
Harold Schechter is a historian: he takes old files and yellowed newspaper clippings, and brings their stories to life. Deviant is about everyone's favorite ghoul, Ed Gein--whose crimes inspired the writers of Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. Schechter deftly evokes the small-town 1950s Wisconsin setting--not pretty farms and cheese factories, but infertile soil and a bleak, hardscrabble existence. The details of Gein's "death house" are perhaps well known by now, but the murderer's quietly crazy, almost gentle personality comes forth in this book as never before. As Gary Kadet wrote, in The Boston Book Review, "Schechter is a dogged researcher \owho backs up\c every bizarre detail and curious twist in this and his other books ... More importantly, he nimbly avoids miring his writing and our reading with minutiae or researched overstatement, which means that although he can occasionally be dry, he is never boring." Also recommended: Schechter's books about Albert Fish (Deranged) and Herman Mudgett a.k.a. Dr. H. H. Holmes (Depraved).

Gein -- Alcoholic Father Beat Him:
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.

A great, intelligent, and empathetic book:
I see Ed Gein as one of the most different serial killers. First of all, he's barely a serial killer himself, since he "only" killed 2 persons. It was bodies that he was interested in. Schechter book does an amazing job of exposing who Ed Gein was. That's what I enjoy a lot with this author, he's very honest and never tries to turn the serial killer into some mythical being. By the end of the book I found myself pitying Ed Gein more than I think I ever would. Personally I don't hold Ed Gein for being mean, again he killed two old women, but that is a case of split personality and he was not even conscious at that moment, supposedly. Nevertheless, these two murders are not those of a sadist, there was no torture or anything like that. Bullet in the neck if I remember well, at any rate, tese deaths were rather painless compared to what other killers have done. Ed was a simple minded person, like a sort of kid playing with toys of his own in the most terrifying loneliness. It's a greatly interesting story, but if you expect some bloodthirsty monster, you may be surprised. Ed Gein is a kind of dark Forest Gump. I recommend that book, for its excellent writing and above all for its brilliant honesty and unbiased approach (very different from that movie texas chainsaw massacre who supposedly base itself on Ed Gein, with that book you'll see that it's a heap of lies). As usual, Schechter draws the reader's attention to the context, the 50es and plenty other things that gives a typically Schechterian richness to the book, as is the case to all the books I have read from him so far. Definitely a GREAT book.

Well researched book:
Curiosity led me to this book of serial killer Ed Gein. Popular culture influences had led me to beleive otherwise untrue information regarding this long misrepresented stalker. The detailed book revealed an unbiased account of the killings and eventual capture of the small town man who led the nations fear factor for some time. Going into just enough detail as not to lose the reader in innumerable facts, the book gives accurate acocounts of his life and killings,with pop culture reference to spice things up. This is not a book for gorehounds but caters solely to true crime fans. The psychological aspects alone will keep you entranced for days. A solid read that doesnt pander to the blood and guts crowd.

Great read, highly recommended:
I found this book to be extremely well-written and informative. The details of Gein's family history and of his crimes are fairly well covered in the true-crime books that make reference to him, but the aftermath is usually not examined very closely - and this book fills in the blanks, describing not only what led up to Gein's arrest, but also the whole media madness that ensued afterwards. The way Eddie was catapulted to "stardom" literally overnight was astonishing - an estimated 4,000 cars filed past Gein's farm on a single weekend after the news of his deeds had spread throughout the nation, and his story was on the front pages of "Life" and "Time" magazines, as well as just about every major newspaper. The details of Eddie's confessions and the quotes from psychiatric reports are very interesting as well. While it may be impossible to fully understand mental illness, this book makes an attempt to explore the workings of a demented mind. (Note: this book has none of the usual gory photos; for these, see judge Gollmar's book.)

Gein still shocks after all these years:
In the autumn of 1957, the nation learned of a nightmare unfolding in the little rural town of Plainfield, Wisconsin. A local recluse and simpleton by the name of Edward Gein murdered Bernice Worden, the owner of the local hardware store. A murder, even in 1950's America, wouldn't grab the attention of most folks, but this crime did. Local police searching Gein's farmhouse uncovered a soul shattering house of horrors. Not only did they find murder victim Worden in the most degrading condition, the police also discovered pieces of human bodies inside the house. Gein had fashioned soup bowls out of human skulls, masks out of human faces, and furniture out of human flesh. Every hour spent in the farmhouse turned up even more horrors, enough to make even the most hardened cop sick to his stomach. As the official inquiry deepened, America learned that a human monster lived in the most unlikely of settings, a man who embodied virtually every ghastly psychopathology known to modern science. The name Eddie Gein became synonymous with evil and he quickly became part of the dark side of American pop culture. Author Harold Schechter, a professor of American culture at Queens College, decided to write a factual account of the horrendous crimes of Edward Gein in an effort to finally set the record straight about one of America's premier boogeymen. "Deviant" is the result. The author adroitly sums up Gein's family tree in a few pages. Despite what must have been a scarcity of information, Schecter reveals Ed's father as an orphan who went on to a successful career as an alcoholic and pest. The only thing Gein's father accomplished in life was his marriage to Augusta, Eddie's mother and an all around terror. According to "Deviant," the complex relationship between this overweening woman and her sons led directly to the seething mass of insanity that was Edward Gein. Augusta preached an ultra conservative Christian theology that saw all women in the world as inferior beings. She constantly railed about the sinfulness of the world to her two sons, making it clear that no woman would ever be good enough for her two boys. When not on a religious tirade, Augusta belittled her husband with a vigor rarely seen in the worst of marriages. After closing down a family run store in La Crosse, Augusta moved the clan to a farm near Plainfield. Ed's father died soon after, a shattered wreck barely missed by the rest of the family. His brother Henry died under mysterious circumstances while fighting a brushfire on the Gein property, a death many attributed to Ed because Henry had the temerity to question Augusta's iron rule. With the death of his mother shortly thereafter, Ed was left alone in the world for the first time. Plainfield residents always liked Ed Gein. Sure, the guy was a little strange, always walking around with a dopey grin on his face while making the most outrageous statements about shrunken heads and other oddball stuff, but people generally thought him harmless. Many of his neighbors appreciated Ed showing up and helping out when work needed doing, or volunteering to watch the kids when the parents headed into town (!). Not until the police exposed Gein's repulsive activities did anyone have an inkling of what this guy was really about. Once they knew, the questions and outrageous stories started. Ed became a lightening rod for every mysterious disappearance in Wisconsin and neighboring states during the previous fifteen years. Even though police later cleared Gein in all but two murders--Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan--investigators and citizens continued to suspect Ed in a series of crimes. Moreover, townspeople came forward with supposedly "true" tales about close calls with the now exposed killer. The media, writes Schechter, carries most of the blame for printing the most ridiculous stories in an effort to sell papers. These media accounts went a long way towards installing Gein as an enduring pop cultural icon, an icon who continues to exert an influence even today. I had a few problems with "Deviant" even though I consider the book well written and nicely researched. The biggest difficulty concerns the lack of footnotes. I imagine Schechter had to make a tradeoff with the publishing company since a book marketed to a general audience will not sell well if potential buyers see pages of citations. But a book from a scholar that purports to tell the facts behind the Gein case needs to contain citations so interested readers can reproduce his findings. I hate to harp about footnotes/endnotes since I like to avoid them whenever possible as much as the next guy, but a book that references this many public officials, newspapers, and public documents should have the notes. "Deviant" does do a good job in several areas. Schechter presents compelling evidence that Gein was not a cannibal, a revelation that may come as a shock to many who consider themselves knowledgeable about the case. Not that it really matters, of course, because Ed indulged in so many appalling excesses that removing one stigma does nothing to lessen the overall horror of his activities. Still, it is nice to see someone finally look closely at all of the case documents in order to write the most truthful account possible. "Deviant" is grim stuff, some of the worst accounts of human atrocities captured on paper, but true crime buffs will appreciate Schechter's attention to detail concerning the man who many consider to be one of the worst criminals in American history. I also recommend "Deviant" for first time readers with an itch to learn about the guy who inspired Norman Bates, Leatherface, and nearly every horror film psycho since the 1960s.