Long before his gruesome crimes shocked the nation, Ed Gein, the man who inspired Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, was just a quiet handyman living with his mother on a lonely Wisconsin farm. But one mystery from his early life still sends chills through true crime fans: did Ed Gein actually kill his own brother?
Let’s rewind to May 16, 1944. A brush fire broke out near the Gein property. Ed and his older brother, Henry, went out to battle the flames. When the fire was finally under control, Ed reported Henry missing, and led police directly to his body.
Henry was found face down, with bruises on his head. Local reports at the time hinted at possible foul play, but the coroner quickly ruled the death an accident, citing asphyxiation from smoke. Case closed… or was it?
Here’s where it gets eerie. Henry had been critical of their domineering mother, Augusta, something Ed couldn’t tolerate. Some historians suggest Ed may have “helped” his brother meet an early end after an argument that night. Others believe it was pure coincidence, a tragic accident twisted by hindsight once Ed’s later crimes came to light.
Still, when authorities uncovered Gein’s horrifying collection of body parts years later in 1957, that earlier death suddenly looked a lot more suspicious. The police never reopened the investigation, but the shadow of Henry’s mysterious end lingers in every retelling of Ed’s macabre story.
So, did Ed Gein kill his brother? We may never know for sure. But in the chilling folklore of America’s heartland, that question hangs in the air like smoke from that long-ago fire, unsettling, unanswered, and unforgettable.
