Ed Gein's Nephew

We forget that most of our country consists of isolated farm land. The red barns off the road, in the distance. Road lights are few and far between. The plotted rows, the rolling hills of cultivation, the farmer's toil that feeds the masses. It must be an immense amount of work to run a farm. The competition is fierce and the work is endless and solitary.

Ed Gein grew up on a farm outside of Plainfield, Wisconsin.

I'll never forget the summer evening back in '84 when I met Ed Gein's nephew at an outdoor beer party in Appleton. It was a house party in the Pierce Park neighborhood, near Jefferson Elementary School. The 4th of July Pierce Park carnival was in full swing across the railroad tracks. Ed Gein's nephew was introduced by a friend of my older sister, a guy named Jim.

"Hey Early, I want you to meet someone," he said. "Check this out," he pointed to the person in question who looked to be about 18 years old and bespectacled.

"This is Ed Gein's nephew!" We shook hands. The sun was already down and the beer was flowing from the taps. I noticed the tiki torches reflecting in his glasses. He smiled politely.

Jim said, "You know who Ed Gein is, don't you?" And I answered, "Yeah, yeah," it was coming to me, I had heard of Ed Gein. But I was distracted by Jim's gregarious introduction. He usually didn't say too much at all. "Cool, plenty of beer to be had," I said and welcomed and encouraged Ed Gein's nephew to drink up and enjoy himself.

The party careened on into the night. I drank my share of beer and then some, felt good and high in the warm, summer night. The party was peaking toward midnight and talk was of shifting the revellers over to the carnival, so I went inside the house to take a piss.

The house was wide open and empty. I could hear the voices of the folks outside and it gave me the haunting feeling, almost as if I were eavesdropping on the unrealized dreams of its occupants. I exited the bathroom and heard a contorted, quick breath in the dark. I looked into the den toward the sound and saw Ed Gein's nephew hunched over the coffee table. I had inadvertently disrupted his ritual cocaine snorting. He turned his predatory visage to me. His eyes were intensely wired through his glasses. In an instant I said, "Oh, hey," like it was no big deal, and kept moving. But it was an image I will never forget: the evil eye of Ed Gein's nephew.

I found Jim outside, more intoxicated and sedated that I would have imagined. Most folks had already headed across the tracks to the carnival. I told Jim of my experience inside the house with Ed Gein's nephew. Jim smiled sympathetically and shook his head. "Poor sonuvabitch," he said. "His uncle ain't been doing so good," he said. Jim was waiting for Ed Gein's nephew to go with him over to the carnival.

"He's gonna be fucked up for a while," Jim said.

Ed Gein died a few weeks later of respiratory and heart failure at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison on July 26, 1984.

Source: http://mgspandg.blogspot.com/2007/02/ed-geins-nephew.html