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American Ghoul: Ed Gein
Genre: Historical Fiction
At the midpoint of the twentieth century, a small town in central Wisconsin didn’t know what was coming. When a feud between two wealthy land developers leads to a double murder, rumors abound that one of the victims has put a curse on the town. On the night of November 16, 1957 this possibility becomes a terrifying reality. The county Sheriff investigates the disappearance of local businesswoman Bernice R. Worden. He doesn't know that he is about to uncover the secret life of grave robber and killer Ed Gein, the American Ghoul.
A horror epic based on real events!
Book Excerpt:
Plainfield resident Eleanor Adams passed away on a Wednesday in 1955 after a long illness. She was 51 years old, too young to die. But as fate chooses who it will take away and how, so it also chooses when and without explanation. Her casket was lowered into the ground at 12:30pm the following Monday as her husband and two teenaged children joined a gathering of relatives and close friends to bid her adieu.
A clergyman said in closing: “Sand to sand, dust to dust, from mere flesh to a free and joyous spirit unto the Lord. For as the body dies, so does the spirit live on. Farewell to you, Eleanor Mabel Adams. Farewell.”
A light drizzle turned to heavy rain and the mourners dispersed. Mrs. Adams was buried, but she would not stay buried for long.
___________
Eddie liked it when it rained. He always did, even as a child. As his pale white pick-up rolled into the Plainfield cemetery that night he couldn’t help but to smile, at least on the inside. It was just too perfect. The rain kept potential witnesses indoors and bought him the time he needed. True, it took a lot longer to dig into wet dirt, and he would likely be aching all over his body tomorrow. But the anticipation was too much to resist. As he drew nearer, taking a hard left around the old mausoleum, he was shaking in his knees and his elbows. His mouth went dry and he felt a sudden, dizzying elation. He was intensely sexually aroused and it showed (he’d forgotten that Augusta was close by too).
Eddie could hardly see through the windshield as the gusting wind and rain rendered his wipers next to useless. The engine roared as he charged up a steep hill, lost his way and nearly crashed into the marble statue of Saint Francis of Assisi that he was looking for. In fact, his bumper had hit the statue but he didn’t notice. He tumbled out of the cabin and scurried to the back, mud squishing under his work boots. As he reached for the shovel, a bolt of lightning electrified the sky and the rain became torrential. He had to move fast. The howling wind blew the rain sideways so that it was slapping hard against his face and fogging his eyesight. He felt a little scared for the first time. The elements were responding wrathfully to his arrival. He wondered if he should heed their warning and hurry home- without his prize.
Eddie stayed. It took him another ten minutes to find the plot. At one point he panicked because it wasn’t where he thought it was. Finally, he found Mrs. Adams nine rows behind his family plot where George, Augusta and Henry were interred. Eleanor was sleeping, only sleeping and he truly felt chivalrous to be rescuing her at last.
He felt eyes all around him, armies of the forgotten dead watching but powerless to strike him down. Even the angels that guarded their grave sites were weeping, for this was the hour of the ghouls.
Eddie began to dig.
__________
At the midpoint of the twentieth century, a small town in central Wisconsin didn’t know what was coming. When a feud between two wealthy land developers leads to a double murder, rumors abound that one of the victims has put a curse on the town. On the night of November 16, 1957 this possibility becomes a terrifying reality. The county Sheriff investigates the disappearance of local businesswoman Bernice R. Worden. He doesn't know that he is about to uncover the secret life of grave robber and killer Ed Gein, the American Ghoul.
A horror epic based on real events!
Book Excerpt:
Plainfield resident Eleanor Adams passed away on a Wednesday in 1955 after a long illness. She was 51 years old, too young to die. But as fate chooses who it will take away and how, so it also chooses when and without explanation. Her casket was lowered into the ground at 12:30pm the following Monday as her husband and two teenaged children joined a gathering of relatives and close friends to bid her adieu.
A clergyman said in closing: “Sand to sand, dust to dust, from mere flesh to a free and joyous spirit unto the Lord. For as the body dies, so does the spirit live on. Farewell to you, Eleanor Mabel Adams. Farewell.”
A light drizzle turned to heavy rain and the mourners dispersed. Mrs. Adams was buried, but she would not stay buried for long.
___________
Eddie liked it when it rained. He always did, even as a child. As his pale white pick-up rolled into the Plainfield cemetery that night he couldn’t help but to smile, at least on the inside. It was just too perfect. The rain kept potential witnesses indoors and bought him the time he needed. True, it took a lot longer to dig into wet dirt, and he would likely be aching all over his body tomorrow. But the anticipation was too much to resist. As he drew nearer, taking a hard left around the old mausoleum, he was shaking in his knees and his elbows. His mouth went dry and he felt a sudden, dizzying elation. He was intensely sexually aroused and it showed (he’d forgotten that Augusta was close by too).
Eddie could hardly see through the windshield as the gusting wind and rain rendered his wipers next to useless. The engine roared as he charged up a steep hill, lost his way and nearly crashed into the marble statue of Saint Francis of Assisi that he was looking for. In fact, his bumper had hit the statue but he didn’t notice. He tumbled out of the cabin and scurried to the back, mud squishing under his work boots. As he reached for the shovel, a bolt of lightning electrified the sky and the rain became torrential. He had to move fast. The howling wind blew the rain sideways so that it was slapping hard against his face and fogging his eyesight. He felt a little scared for the first time. The elements were responding wrathfully to his arrival. He wondered if he should heed their warning and hurry home- without his prize.
Eddie stayed. It took him another ten minutes to find the plot. At one point he panicked because it wasn’t where he thought it was. Finally, he found Mrs. Adams nine rows behind his family plot where George, Augusta and Henry were interred. Eleanor was sleeping, only sleeping and he truly felt chivalrous to be rescuing her at last.
He felt eyes all around him, armies of the forgotten dead watching but powerless to strike him down. Even the angels that guarded their grave sites were weeping, for this was the hour of the ghouls.
Eddie began to dig.
__________
- GenresTrue CrimeNonfiction
128 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 16, 2015
13 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 30, 2018
Good story. Needs editing but overall good
May 5, 2016
An American Ghoul by K. Leigh Murphy
American people seem to love slasher films such as Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But before all of them there was a real person whose macabre tale was the inspiration for them all.
Norman Bates, the sick motel keeper in Psycho keeps the mummified corpse of his death mother around and often argues with her. He even dresses like her to commit murder. Buffalo Bill, the slasher in Silence of the Lambs has made a woman suit out of dead women. In Texas Chainsaw Massacre, leather face wears the facial skin of a dead person as a mask.
Ed Gein did all of this and more. This is the story of Ed Gein, on surface a rather quiet unassuming man who did chores around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin. He sometimes drove the school bus. He was trusted to babysit. He usually had his supper with one or the other of the families in the area. He was a fixture at a local bar, only having a few beers, never rowdy or out of hand.
The children of the town whispered about him. They said that a strange creature danced in the moonlight in Ed’s yard. They said an old woman stared at them and waved from a room on the second floor. They said Ed had a collection of shrunken heads. The grown-up thought the children were just talking. After all, at that moment Ed might be in the yard playing catch with their son.
The bartender, Mary Hogan, a buxom blonde with a potty mouth vanished one night. People said that she had run off with a traveling salesman. They said she had gone to another state to live. Ed quietly mentioned that she had gone home with him and was there now. This got a laugh from the others.
Then storekeeper Bernice Worden disappeared and there were traces of blood behind the counter. There was a recent receipt in the drawer maked with Ed Gein’s name. The police rushed to Gein’s home—and into a horror like nothing ever seen before…
K. Leigh Murphy tells the story of the Plainfield Ghoul, Ed Gein, against a backdrop of local history. Murphy talks about people who founded the town, the presence of the Ku Klux Klan in the area, and the history of the police force before and after that black day in 1957 when terror was unleased. Murphy tells the history of Ed Gein, his domineering, hellfire and brimstone mother Augusta, who told them all they would burn in hell; his father, George, who was deceased (and burning in hell according to Ed’s mom;) and his brother Henry, also dead. Ed was suspected of killing him. This insight into the mind of the ghoulish serial killer will chill the mind.
The book gets five stars…
Quoth the Raven…
American people seem to love slasher films such as Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But before all of them there was a real person whose macabre tale was the inspiration for them all.
Norman Bates, the sick motel keeper in Psycho keeps the mummified corpse of his death mother around and often argues with her. He even dresses like her to commit murder. Buffalo Bill, the slasher in Silence of the Lambs has made a woman suit out of dead women. In Texas Chainsaw Massacre, leather face wears the facial skin of a dead person as a mask.
Ed Gein did all of this and more. This is the story of Ed Gein, on surface a rather quiet unassuming man who did chores around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin. He sometimes drove the school bus. He was trusted to babysit. He usually had his supper with one or the other of the families in the area. He was a fixture at a local bar, only having a few beers, never rowdy or out of hand.
The children of the town whispered about him. They said that a strange creature danced in the moonlight in Ed’s yard. They said an old woman stared at them and waved from a room on the second floor. They said Ed had a collection of shrunken heads. The grown-up thought the children were just talking. After all, at that moment Ed might be in the yard playing catch with their son.
The bartender, Mary Hogan, a buxom blonde with a potty mouth vanished one night. People said that she had run off with a traveling salesman. They said she had gone to another state to live. Ed quietly mentioned that she had gone home with him and was there now. This got a laugh from the others.
Then storekeeper Bernice Worden disappeared and there were traces of blood behind the counter. There was a recent receipt in the drawer maked with Ed Gein’s name. The police rushed to Gein’s home—and into a horror like nothing ever seen before…
K. Leigh Murphy tells the story of the Plainfield Ghoul, Ed Gein, against a backdrop of local history. Murphy talks about people who founded the town, the presence of the Ku Klux Klan in the area, and the history of the police force before and after that black day in 1957 when terror was unleased. Murphy tells the history of Ed Gein, his domineering, hellfire and brimstone mother Augusta, who told them all they would burn in hell; his father, George, who was deceased (and burning in hell according to Ed’s mom;) and his brother Henry, also dead. Ed was suspected of killing him. This insight into the mind of the ghoulish serial killer will chill the mind.
The book gets five stars…
Quoth the Raven…
September 23, 2025
Excellent book. Scary and very involving. I couldn’t put it down. Recommended!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews