What to know about Ed Gein, the killer in Netflix's 'Monster' Season 3

• The unsettling story of Wisconsin killer Ed Gein is the focus of Netflix's third season of "Monster."
• Ed Gein confessed to a couple of murders but also to digging bodies up from a cemetery to harvest skin and bones.
• Charlie Hunnam plays infamous murderer Ed Gein in the Netflix show, premiering Friday, Oct. 3.

Before Dahmer, before Bundy, before Gacy, there was Ed Gein.

From the moment in 1957 when he admitted to killing a widowed Plainfield, Wisconsin, shopkeeper − whose butchered body was found in a shed on his farm − to his death in a psychiatric hospital in 1984, Gein was the template for the disturbed American murderer.

Gein, who was 51 when his deeds first came to light, was arrested the night that authorities found in his home the mutilated body of Bernice Worden hanging by her heels from the rafters. Also found on Gein's property: body parts, human skulls, a lampshade and other things made from human skin, and other grisly artifacts.

His story is being retold in "Monster: The Ed Gein Story" (streaming Oct. 3 on Netflix), the third installment in Ryan Murphy's anthology series that follows a different true crime case each season. Charlie Hunnam stars as the infamous murderer who loosely inspired "Psycho" and "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre."

Who was Ed Gein? Where did he come from? Here's what you need to know about the "Butcher of Plainfield."

Where was Ed Gein born?

Gein was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1906, the youngest of two sons of George and Augusta Gein. When Ed was young, he and his family moved to an isolated farm in Plainfield, in Waushara County in central Wisconsin.

Who was Ed Gein's mother?

Augusta Gein, Ed's mother, was fervently religious, convinced that the devil was at work all around and that most people were full of sin. Ed's father, George, held a variety of jobs, but by most accounts wasn't successful at any of them. At home, Augusta was in charge.

What was Ed Gein's childhood like?

The Gein household was strict. Augusta Gein, intent on protecting her two sons from temptation, made sure the family kept to themselves. She only allowed Ed to leave home to go to school, and she reportedly punished him whenever he tried to make friends with his classmates. Still, Ed idolized her. He did not feel the same about his father; he told jailhouse interviewers that his father was a disappointment, and that he abused him and his older brother.

What happened to Ed Gein's parents?

George Gein died of heart failure in 1940 at age 66. Ed's older brother, Henry, died four years later at age 43, also apparently of heart failure. The latter happened when the two brothers were battling a wildfire that had grown from efforts to burn away vegetation on some marshland at the farm; some in Plainfield questioned whether Ed had something to do with it.

A year after Henry died, Ed's mother, Augusta, had a stroke; Ed spent much of his time taking care of her. Later that year, 1945 − the story goes, after Augusta went into a rage over seeing a neighbor who had a woman who wasn't his wife in his house − she had a second stroke that killed her, leaving Ed on his own.

Who was Ed Gein's first victim?

Although Gein was arrested because of the disappearance of Bernice Worden and the discovery of her body on his property, she was not his first victim.

During his interrogation over Worden's killing and all of the grisly discoveries in his home, Gein admitted that, in 1954, he had shot and killed Mary Hogan, a 51-year-old tavern owner who had been missing for three years. Hogan's skull and the skin from her face were found in Gein's house.

What were the details of the killing that got Ed Gein arrested?

Bernice Worden was last seen alive in her hardware store in Plainfield the morning of Nov. 16, 1957. The night before, Gein had been at the store and, according to Worden's son, he was expected to return the next morning to buy some antifreeze. (The receipt for the antifreeze was the last one Worden wrote that day.) Worden's son came to the store later in the day and found a pool of blood. He notified police and told them about Gein being at the store. Gein had even asked Bernice out a few times.

When was Ed Gein arrested?

Gein was taken into custody the night of Nov. 16, 1957, and then sheriff's deputies went to Gein's farm to search for evidence. In a shed, they found Worden's body, dressed out like a deer carcass and hanging from hooks in the rafters. Her head, which had been severed, was found in the house. Also found in the house were human skulls; a lampshade made from human skin; more than a half-dozen masks made from the flesh of female faces; a wearable corset made from the skin of a female torso; and more.

After keeping silent for about 30 hours, Gein admitted to officers that he had killed and butchered Worden, that he "knew something" about the body parts and other grim findings at his house, and that he "might have" killed others. (He confessed to killing Hogan four days later.)

Gein eventually told investigators that he had dug up "nine or 10" graves to harvest some of the other body parts in his collection.

What did Ed Gein do with those human body parts?

Gein told investigators that he took the bodies he'd retrieved from the cemetery to his home to cut them up. He kept the women's faces as masks, either for decoration or wearing around the house. Other skin he stripped from the bodies was used to make belts, a drum and a vest. Skulls were turned into bowls and other items. And he kept smaller body parts in boxes.

Was Ed Gein a cannibal?

Gein denied he had eaten human flesh, and there was no evidence that he had.

What was Ed Gein's motive?

Gein reportedly told investigators that his deep, conflicted connection to his mother made him want to become a woman, or more like one. After repeatedly visiting his mother's grave in the cemetery, Gein decided to dig up some corpses to help him become more like a woman − by wearing their skin. Supposedly, he killed his two victims because the Wisconsin winter made it too hard to dig into the ground. During his interrogation for Worden's death, he told at least one investigator that she reminded him of his mother.

What happened at Ed Gein's first trial?

Gein was arraigned on a single count of first-degree murder for Worden's death. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and was determined unfit to stand trial. He was sent to Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane (part of what is now the Dodge Correctional Institution) in Waupun and later transferred to the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, both in Wisconsin.

A second trial was held in 1968, after the staff at Central State Hospital concluded that Gein was fit to stand trial. Gein was found guilty of murder, but in a follow-up proceeding was ruled to be not guilty − again by reason of insanity.

He was never tried for Mary Hogan's death, even though he admitted it. Similarly, no charges were filed over his grave-robbing or corpse-mutilating.

What happened to Ed Gein?

Gein spent the rest of his life in the Mendota Mental Health Institute and died there in 1984 at the age of 77. The cause of death was respiratory failure, related to lung cancer.

Sources: Journal Sentinel archives; "American Serial Killers: The Epidemic Years, 1950-2000" by Peter Vronsky; "Edward Gein: America's Most Bizarre Murderer" by Robert H. Gollmar (Gollmar was the judge who presided over Gein's 1968 trial); "Did You Hear What Ed Gein Done?" by Eric Powell and Harold Schechter (graphic novel)

Contributing: Brendan Morrow and Kim Willis, USA TODAY