After police found his very personal collection of human skin and skulls, Gein was declared insane. In 1958, he was sent to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Waupun. Think of it as a very exclusive, very creepy bed-and-breakfast.
He was a model patient. He was quiet. He helped weave baskets. Total golden retriever energy. No one expected him to be a nurse-killer.
But then, a story started buzzing. A nurse named something (history is annoyingly vague on her name) supposedly disappeared. The rumor? Gein got her alone in a closet or a supply room. He strangled her.
The “Evidence” That Isn’t Evidence
The rumor grew legs because Gein was, you know, Ed Gein. People assumed he couldn’t stop. The mental hospital even had a “Gein wing” rumor where he had secret tunnels. Pure silliness.
Here’s the punchline: No body was ever found. No official record of a missing nurse exists from that time. The hospital’s records are boringly clean. It’s a ghost story with zero ghost.
The best part? Gein himself allegedly loved the rumor. He’d wink at visitors. He’d say, “I might have, you know… I don’t remember.” What an absolute troll.
Did Ed Gein kill a nurse in the hospital, as seen in Netflix's Monster
