Monster: The Ed Gein Story
Season 3 – Episode 7
Episode Title: Ham Radio
Original release date: October 3, 2025
Plot: Deputy Frank turns the Gein farmhouse into a sordid spectacle. Ed devises a unique method to communicate with his heroes in the outside world.
* * *
Monster: The Ed Gein Story – S03E07 – Ham Radio | Full transcript
[“Endless Sleep” playing]
♪ Traced her footsteps down to the shore ♪
♪ Pray she’s gone forevermore ♪
♪ I looked at the sea
And it seemed the same ♪
♪ I took it back from you away ♪
♪ I heard a voice crying in the deep ♪
♪ Come join me baby in my endless sleep ♪
[Frank sighs]
[music stops]
[phones ringing]
[knocks on door]
You wanted to see me, Sheriff?
[Art] How are you, Frank?
I’ve been better, Sheriff.
Have a seat.
[sighs] I hear you’re suing the Gein estate, such as it is.
Yeah, Eleanor Adams’ husband is, too.
You intend on auctioning off Ed Gein’s property?
No other way of collecting damages.
Doctor’s saying he’s… he’s too crazy to go to prison.
Too crazy to even have a trial.
So, he’s just sitting in a cozy nuthouse somewhere.
He’s going to get away with it, so… yeah, I am.
For… for what he did to her, to me, to so many good people.
Frank, I won’t have it. Bad idea.
I… I don’t recall asking your opinion.
Much less your permission.
No one’s going to buy Ed’s stuff, Frank.
The very idea is obscene, ghoulish, and unchristian-like.
There is a line of decency good folk will not cross, this is one of them.
You just laid your dear mother to rest.
Why do you want to go digging all this up again?
Poor choice of words there, Art.
Frank, you’re drinking too much.
You’re drinking right now, I know it.
[scoffs]
Hey, can I… ask you something?
And be honest. Have you, uh…
Have you ever found your mother in a barn, gutted and strung up like a hog?
Head ripped off, guts wrapped in a pile of clothes on the floor?
No?
Right, ’cause… ’cause I think if you had, you’d say I’m doing exactly the right amount of drinking.
I’m doing that auction, Sheriff.
There’s no two ways about it.
[sighs]
[melancholy music playing]
[voices murmuring]
[Frank] Step right up to the Chamber of Horrors!
Get your own piece of the Ghoul of Plainfield.
Fifty cent admission.
See what you can bid on.
Auction Sunday!
[man shouts]
[gasps] Richie, don’t!
You scared me.
Come here. Found his bedroom.
[music turns eerie]
Look, there’s hair on the needle.
That’s a bloodstain.
There, too.
And there.
[Frank] I know the line is long, folks, but I promise you it’s worth it.
It’s only 50 cents to get in.
On your way into the house, you will see the car of the Ghoul himself.
That is what he was driving, folks.
Make sure you get a good look at that.
We can get more people.
We can get more folks in that house.
Come on, now.
Come on. Step right up now. Come on!
You got Augusta Gein’s wheelchair.
That’s her real wheelchair right there.
Make sure you come back Sunday.
Don’t be shy.
Frank, what in Sam Hill are you doing?
Charging admission?
Think of what your mother would say.
She’s the reason I’m doing it.
I’m setting up a charity in her name.
All proceeds are going to the Wisconsin chapter of the DAR.
You’re spending it on booze and women.
You’re stinking right now.
You need to wake up, Art.
This ain’t your America anymore.
This…
This is what our country is now, like it or not.
It’s full of sickness.
Ever since the war, people got a real bloodlust in them.
It’s good for people like me and you, though, Art.
Law enforcement, that’s what they call a growth industry.
I’ll shut this whole carnival down, Frank.
No, you won’t.
No, you won’t, because I got 200 people in there that’d tear you limb from limb if you tried.
Come on now, folks, don’t be shy.
The Ghoul of Plainfield was, and look how he ended up.
[boy] Fifty cents only!
[Frank on megaphone] Auction Sunday!
Auction Sunday!
Geiners, Geiners, place your… place your bids on the ghoul car.
It’s the stuff of nightmares, but she rides like a dream.
[siren blaring] [bell dinging]
[water spraying]
[emotional music playing]
How did this happen, Sheriff?
Don’t ask me. I just got here.
[sighs]
[Adeline] I know many of you came here to bid on items from Ed Gein’s home.
Unfortunately, a fire destroyed it along with all of his belongings.
However, his car was spared, and we will be auctioning it off momentarily.
There’s no telling the gruesome acts he committed with it, or even inside it, going to and from the graveyard or any of his numerous crimes.
How many bodies did he transport in it?
How many Sunday drives with his dear, dead mother?
And as a victim myself, I feel an obligation to help others receive compensation.
The Chevrolet of America’s greatest ghoul, and bidding begins at ten dollars.
Thank you.
[auctioneer] Ten dollars!
Do I have 20? 20 dollars.
25, this gentleman.
Do I have 50? 50 right here.
How about 75? 75 dollars.
Right in the back. Is that 100?
100 dollars. 150. 200 dollars.
Here.
[voices distort]
[“A Wonderful Time Up There” playing]
♪ Everybody’s gonna be
Asingin’ that story ♪
♪ Everybody’s gonna have
A wonderful time up there ♪
♪ Oh, glory hallelujah ♪
♪ Brother, there’s a reckonin’
Acomin’ in the mornin’ ♪
♪ Better get ready
‘Cause I’m givin’ you the warnin’ ♪
[hammer knocking]
The first step in any homemade rug is the tufting frame.
It isn’t just plain old wood.
You’ll see, there’s carpeting strips.
Who can tell me what this is?
It’s a tufting gun.
I’ll show you how it works.
[rapid mechanical punching]
♪ Everybody’s gonna have
Religion and glory ♪
♪ Everybody’s gonna be
Asingin’ that story ♪
Nice and straight.
♪ …time up there
Oh, glory hallelujah ♪
♪ …reckoning coming in the morning ♪
Any questions?
♪ Better get ready
‘Cause I’m givin’ you the warnin’… ♪
One pack of BeechNut chewing gum, Linda.
There you go, Ed.
You have a good day now.
♪ …back of the book ♪
♪ The book of Revelations
Is the place ya look ♪
♪ If you understand it… ♪
Good morning, Daisy.
♪ The Lord is acomin’
From his throne on high ♪
♪ Areadin’ in the Bible
‘Bout the things he said ♪
Salty.
Ed.
Hi Toni.
Good morning.
♪ …be among the chosen few? ♪
Hey, Miss Alice.
Can I eat some of that hair?
Sure looks tasty.
[screams] No!
Just joshing. I’ll see you later.
[Alice barking indistinctly]
♪ Oh, glory hallelujah ♪
♪ There’s a reckonin’
Acomin’ in the morning ♪
[song stops]
[Ed] Lord, thank you for the warm showers and the delicious food and all the hobbies.
Of course, if you could find a way to let me do my old hobby here in the asylum, I think you know the one I mean, I’d be ever so thankful.
Say hello to Mother for me.
Amen.
[knock on door]
I got something for you.
[steps approaching]
Open it.
They sold all your shit.
Folks whose moms you killed got some, but there’s still some left.
[Ed gasps]
This is 300 dollars.
Yep.
You’re famous now, you know?
[Ed] I suppose I am.
Rich and famous. [chuckles] You seen I made LIFE magazine?
[commentator] He’s at the five! Touchdown!
Folks sure love a murderer.
[Ed] They do, don’t they?
Signs and wonders.
Now, Ed, look, of course you don’t have to, but, uh…
How about cutting in your old pal Salty?
Twenty bucks, eh?
Fifty?
And I’ll fetch you whatever you want with the rest.
Sure.
Yeah, okay, Salty.
[Salty laughs] I was looking at Sears and Roebucks just this morning.
Look at this.
Look at them. Ham radios.
I’d like three of them.
Why three? You just need one.
Well, never you mind.
If I want three ham radios with my money, by gosh, that’s what I’m gonna get.
I mean, you’re not my mother, are you?
No, I’m not. [scofffs] Well, there you go.
And, Salty…
You think you might be able to pick me up a satiny bra and panties while you’re at it?
Sure, fine by me.
Sure are a fucking lunatic, Ed Gein.
Ha!
Yeah, okay.
Hey, I’m gonna take off early, but Jackie don’t start till nine.
Would you mind locking up the kitchen and the woodshop?
Sure, I don’t mind at all.
You have a good night, Salty.
[steps moving away]
[door closes]
[man] Christmas present.
[in German]
[Ed in English] “Dear Ilse, I’ve been wanting to write this for a while now.”
“I’m a huge fan of your work and would love to talk.”
“Edward Gein.”
[radio static buzzing]
Hello?
[static buzzing] Hello?
Hello?
[Ed in English] Yes, hello?
Is that Ilse?
[Ilse] Huh?
[in German]
[in English] I’m Ed Gein.
And that there’s a ham radio.
Boy, do I like hearing the sound of your voice.
[button clicks]
But how are we communicating?
A ham radio transmits and receives radio waves on a specific frequency using the radio spectrum.
I dialed you in.
[in German]
[in English] But…
Why do you want to talk to me?
[Ed] I’m a big admirer of yours.
I’m just a smalltown fellow myself, simple like, but…
[Ilse] No, Mr. Gein.
I read about you. I know who you are.
Well, in that case, maybe you know that, well, you and I kinda share the same hobby.
I seen it in the comic books.
[scoffs]
All lies. Nothing is true.
I wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Jews, that is different.
That was necessary.
They betray my people.
They destroy my country.
They destroyed my Führer.
They made a monster out of my Führer, the way they made me a monster.
My Führer, he used to take branches from the pine trees, and he would make wonderful, beautiful wreaths, like the crown of the head.
He gave me one once.
So I ask you, would a monster do something like that?
Well, probably, yes.
And I never ride on the donkey in my underwear with the Möpse hanging out, flapping in the wind like Marlene Dietrich.
I would never do that, Mr. Gein.
Yes, I threw a few parties.
I was helping my husband.
But the skin lamps with the tattoos and the shrunken heads, I would never do that.
[scoffs] They make me the monster, the Bitch of the Buchenwald.
Don’t believe that.
They make monsters, the people, because they need someone to blame for the acts of the human condition.
So they take the monster, and they catch it, and they put it on the village square, and they hang it for everyone to see, to spit on it, and to bond over.
So everything can go back in order.
And the weak ones go back in the line.
And this is how you control the society.
But me, I’m not a monster.
Who would do the things they accuse me of?
Hm?
A nipple belt…
I ask you, Mr. Gein.
I actually did do that, Ilse.
[button clicks]
Well… you are a very sick animal, Mr. Gein.
[patients yelling in the background]
[Ilse’s voice] Sick, sick, sick.
So, are you starting a club for monsters?
I would like to be part of that club.
Well, you can consider yourself a member.
I’m wearing a brassiere right now.
You are naughty, naughty.
I know who you are.
So, Mr. Gein.
[Ilse’s voice] What do you think made you do these things?
It’s like you say.
They call me this bloodthirsty ghoul, but… if I’m so bloodthirsty, how come the sight of blood makes me faint?
Liar.
No, honest Injun!
When I was a boy, Mother ran a grocery store, and one day I walked in on her gutting a pig.
[knife slashing] [cow moos]
[pigs squealing]
[eerie music playing]
What are you after?
I vomited right there and then.
I could get sick just bringing up the memory of it.
So how could I have?
And they say I killed this babysitter.
How could I have done that?
[Ilse] You know…
You are very different than what I imagined you to be, Mr. Gein.
You are so… sensitive and so… kind.
Like the edelweiss.
What’s the edelweiss?
[chuckles]
The edelweiss is… the most delicate of the flowers.
It only blooms in the snow.
Well, that is me, I think, sensitive.
I’m real sensitive to smells, too.
Hey, do you know what I would do if I could get out of here?
I’d move to Australia and invent a toilet that doesn’t smell.
[laughs]
I don’t have the design worked out yet, but I do think it’s one of them million-dollar ideas.
You are very funny, Mr. Gein.
I like hearing your stories.
[Ilse’s voice]
Tell me about the murders, Mr. Gein.
What did it feel like to kill?
Well, that’s just it, I really couldn’t tell you.
I honestly can’t remember.
As sure as the day is long.
See? Lies.
All liars.
We are not the deviants they should lock up in the cell.
We are the Ãœbermenschen.
We are the next step of the human evolution.
We are geniuses that refuse to be shackled by the bourgeois sensibilities.
We are the leaders of the new era of humankind.
We are the new species of human, and they steal our humanity.
You know what?
They took away my baby.
They ripped it out of my arms.
[baby crying] [Ilse sobbing] How is that not worse than everything they accused me of, and I did none of this?
I didn’t do anything.
Your place sure does sound rotten.
The place they got me actually suits me just fine.
I’m like a rat trapped in a cage, and I make friends with the mice.
[singing in German]
But I’m aching everywhere from the… arthritis I have from standing in this box.
And my muscles ache from the damp.
Yeah, it’s funny you should say that.
I’ve been getting aches, too.
And I have these episodes.
Please just tell me what’s wrong with me. [sobs] You’re a mass murderer, Mr. Gein.
[sniffles] That’s not who I am.
[doctor] You’re a deviant, Mr. Gein. Full stop.
Your mind, your person, they’re defective.
The sooner you accept this, the better.
Please, I really need you… [sobs]
[high-pitched ringing]
[noise distorts]
[loud thud]
Nurse.
You’ll be all right, Mr. Gein.
You’re just having a seizure.
Ilse.
Are you sad about what you did?
[music turns melancholic] [Ilse] What did I do?
I didn’t do anything. Nothing of it.
I was following orders.
No one ordered you to do what you did, Eddie.
No.
So whose orders were you following?
Mother’s.
Are you sad about what you did?
This is not a difficult question.
Somehow it is, though.
[guard] Time for lights out.
Well, I have to go, but… don’t let anyone call you a monster.
You are a human being.
Goodbye, Ilse.
[melancholic music continues]
[music fades]
[loud clacking]
Couldn’t help but overhear, Ms. Koch.
About just following orders.
You weren’t a soldier, Ms. Koch.
You were just a psychopath who likes to skin Jews.
Make us into lamps.
Lies.
[guard] Lies, sure. [chuckles]
Do you know what a golem is?
What?
[whispers] Golem.
[plane rumbling overhead]
It’s a monster that protects the Jews.
[opera music playing]
It’s coming for you, Ilse.
It’s gonna find you.
Leave me alone.
[cell door slams]
Little mouse.
Come.
Come to me, bitte.
Come out.
Come.
Come on.
[continues scratching]
Come. Come out.
[sobs]
[opera music continues]
[deep growling]
[music intensifies]
[beast roars]
[beast roars loudly]
[opera music playing intensely]
[Ilse in German]
[bones crack]
[music fades]
[Christine on stereo] But you know, many years ago, a beautiful show opened on Broadway.
It was called Flower Drum Song.
In it, Pat Suzuki sang this wonderful tune, which became my theme song.
See if you remember.
[“I Enjoy Being a Girl” playing]
[Christine singing]
♪ I’m a girl and by me that’s only great ♪
[Ed sings along]
♪ I am proud that my silhouette is curvy ♪
♪ That I walk
With a sweet and girlish gait ♪
♪ With my hips kind
Of swivelly and swervey ♪
♪ I adore being dressed
In something frilly ♪
♪ When my date comes
To get me at my place ♪
♪ Out I go with my Joe or John or Billy ♪
♪ Like a filly who is ready for the race ♪
♪ When I have a brand new hairdo ♪
♪ With my eyelashes all in curls ♪
♪ I float as the clouds on air do ♪
♪ I enjoy being a girl ♪
♪ When men say I’m cute and funny ♪
[knock on door]
[door opens]
[song continues softly]
Turn that off. Time for bed.
And take off that bra while you’re at it.
[Ed] Sorry, Salty.
Don’t apologize. I don’t judge.
♪ I drool on presents made of leaves ♪
[Ed] Hm.
♪ I talk on the telephone for hours ♪
♪ With a pound and a half
Of cream up on my bed ♪
♪ I’m strictly a female ♪
What an honor it is to have you here at the Château.
[Christine sighs] If it was such an honor you might have given me room 54 without having to ask for it three times.
And speak to the manager.
My apologies.
With the Academy Awards tomorrow night–
Never mind. It’s quite alright.
♪ …like me ♪
[uplifting piano instrumental continues]
[music fades]
[button clicks]
He… hello?
[Ed] Hello, Christine.
Who is this?
It’s Ed Gein.
I don’t know an Ed Gein.
Well, you might.
I’m the Butcher of Plainfield, I think they call me.
Or Ghoul, it might be.
What do you want from me?
[Ed] Well, first, I’m just the biggest fan of yours.
Right now I’m…
Well, I’m in a mental hospital, but I’ve been following you ever since you became a lady.
I just think you’re the bee’s knees Alright, Ed, well, thank you.
Why don’t I send you an LP of my music then?
Lots of love.
No, no wait.
My doctor says I should talk to you.
Why?
Well I might be a… transsexual.
And then he mentioned your name, Christine Jorgensen.
And I said, “Oh wow, well, I’ve been following her for a while now.”
So I was hoping that I could ask your thing or two.
What makes you think you and I have even the slightest thing in common?
Well, ’cause…
‘Cause of my trouser snake.
I, uh, I feel like…
I don’t know, like…
Kind of disconnected from it.
And when did that feeling begin?
[Ed] When I was a kid.
[soft piano music playing]
Mother caught me playing with it.
[gasps] Naughty bits!
Filthy, shameful member!
A Gein man should never touch it!
Never!
She grabbed ahold of it like a vice.
I thought she was trying to pull it off.
So I might have started feeling like I needed to be rid of it.
And you got rid of yours, didn’t you?
Yes, but that was of my own volition, Mr. Gein.
Did this feeling persist?
This feeling of wanting it gone?
My whim-wham?
I wouldn’t say that.
I like what you can do with it with a little practice, the skeetin’ and all that.
I ain’t really heard of anybody who don’t like that.
[Christine’s voice] What makes you think you’re transsexual, Mr. Gein?
Well, I came across some lady parts.
I know that sounds strange.
I don’t understand.
Vulvas.
How I got them’s another story.
[piano music continues]
I put them close to me.
You know, like, close.
And then just… kind of dance about a bit.
[“Goodbye Horses” playing]
‘Cause I made a suit.
I’m not following. What kind of a suit?
[Ed] A lady suit.
That I could wear and feel more like a lady.
[song slowly intensifies]
♪ He told me ♪
♪ “I’ve seen it rise ♪
♪ But it always falls ♪
♪ I’ve seen them come ♪
♪ I seen ’em go” ♪
♪ He said ♪
♪ “All things pass ♪
♪ into the night” ♪
♪ And I said, “Oh no, sir ♪
♪ I must say you’re wrong ♪
I’d fuck me.
♪ I must disagree ♪
I’d fuck me so hard.
♪ I must say you’re wrong ♪
♪ Won’t you listen to me?”
♪ He told me ♪
♪ “I’ve seen it all before ♪
♪ I’ve been there ♪
♪ I’ve seen my hopes and dreams
Lying on the ground ♪
♪ I’ve seen the sky ♪
♪ Just begin to fall” ♪
♪ He said ♪
♪ “All things pass ♪
♪ Into the night” ♪
♪ And I said, “Oh no, sir ♪
♪ I must say you’re wrong ♪
♪ I must disagree ♪
♪ Oh no, sir ♪
♪ I must say you’re wrong ♪
♪ Won’t you listen to me?” ♪
[man] Cut.
Tail slate.
[bell rings] Silence of the Lambs.
Scene 62, take nine, tail slate.
[man] Got that. Moving on.
I need to take a piss.
Can you take me?
[woman] Yeah, right here.
[static buzzing]
[button clicks]
Are you there?
[gasps] Uh…
Mr. Gein, I’m not a physician, and I believe things like these should only be determined after years and years of careful analysis.
But, Ed, I don’t think you and I are alike at all.
No, not at all.
Okay.
Why did they put you in a mental hospital, Ed?
What did you do?
They say I killed some people.
And also dug some people up out of their graves.
Actually, Christine, I did do that part, but I really don’t think I did the killing part.
Right. [sighs] Well, um…
The transsexual is rarely the perpetrator of violence, Mr. Gein.
We are far more likely to be… the victims of violence.
[soft piano music playing]
I don’t think deep down that you’re a woman, Ed.
I don’t even think you want to be a woman.
You’re what they call a gynephiliac.
You so eroticize the female body that you wish to put it on, to be inside of it.
That’s not an identity, but a sexualization.
[Christine’s voice]
It’s violent, Mr. Gein.
It’s the ultimate way to penetrate a woman, when doing so in the traditional fashion was forbidden by your overbearing mother.
No Gein man should lay with a woman.
Ed, that’s simply all I have to say to you.
I’m going to say goodnight now.
I do wish you well.
Are you there?
Yeah, I’m here.
I just feel like I’m a puzzle, and none of the pieces fit.
I have a feeling they ain’t ever going to fit.
Goodbye, Ed.
Goodbye, Christine.
[door opens]
Hey!
Get off of that.
Who are you?
[ominous music playing] I’m the new head nurse.
Salty got demoted.
She was running this place like it was the Waldorf.
You’re the crossdresser, ain’t you?
Well, no more of that on my watch.
You, sir, are the most notorious killer since Jack the Ripper, so I intend to treat you as such.
You’ll be escorted by staff wherever you go.
When you wish to empty your bladder or move your bowels, a guard will accompany you and watch that you do it.
You’ll get one hour of sunshine in the yard, then back to your room, and your room will remain locked at all times.
That sounds like a prison.
And the judge said that I didn’t belong in prison on account of being too crazy.
Oh, yeah, but see, here’s the kicker.
Nurse Roz Mahoney doesn’t think you’re crazy.
I think you’re just about as clever as they come.
[intense music playing]
There.
I see that. There it is.
You wanted to kill me just then.
What?
No.
No, I wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Liar.
[unsettling string music playing]
[voice whispering] Kill them all.
Kill them all.
[voice gets louder] Kill them all.
What?
Kill them all.
Kill them all.
[woman whispering] Eddie!
Who is that?
It’s Salty, Ed.
Oh, I can’t believe they’re doing this to you.
Everybody knows you wouldn’t hurt a fly.
You’re just… unwell.
[eerie music playing] Here.
You keep those hidden.
At least you can stretch your legs at night if you’re quiet.
You wait till the guards are asleep.
[slaps]
[steps moving away]
[door opens]
[door closes]
Hello, Nurse Mahoney.
What are you doing here so late?
Mountains of paperwork, that’s what.
Salty McGuire’s a fucking incompetent.
It’ll take me forever to right this ship.
[eerie orchestral music playing]
[scraping]
[door creaking]
[intense music playing]
[music fades]
[urinating]
[Ed] Oh, that’s better.
I like to tinkle sittin’ down.
Who is that?
Is that[Ed] Yup.
Just friendly old Ed Gein.
How’d you get in here?
[Ed] Well, it’s like you said.
I’m real clever.
I’ve been talking to the man in my ceiling about how you said I was just a killer and that I wasn’t a nice person.
That maybe I wasn’t even crazy.
And then I started to think, well, maybe it’s not one… or the other.
Maybe I’m crazy and a killer.
[disturbing music playing]
[Ed clicks tongue]
I’m closer to the door than you.
You’ll never make it.
Well, I could scream.
[Ed] You could try.
[chainsaw whirring]
[chainsaw roaring]
[Roz screams]
[whimpering]
[sobbing]
[groaning]
[whimpering]
[chainsaw idling]
[screams]
[Roz screams]
[groaning]
[continues groaning]
[Roz] Oh! No!
[Roz] No, no, no.
[whirring]
No, no, no!
[chainsaw roars]
[Roz gurgles]
[blood splattering]
[chainsaw idles]
[haunting music playing]
[shower running]
[door opens]
[haunting music continues]
[melancholy music playing]
Good morning.
[music turns eerie]
No.
No, I killed you.
Morning, Ed.
This isn’t right.
[distorted chainsaw roaring]
Kill.
[Roz gurgling]
[chainsaw roars]
[sounds stop] [Ed panting] What’s wrong, Ed?
Nurse Roz.
I killed her last night.
Is that her ghost?
[gasps]
Hey, Ed.
Why don’t you come with me to my office?
[Ed sobbing]
[whimpering]
[doctor] When you get all worked up, sometimes the best thing is just a glass of water.
Better?
A bit.
Ed, it seems like you’ve been having more and more hallucinations.
Seeing things, hearing things.
[breathes shakily]
There’s a… [sobs] [doctor] There’s a what?
[sobs softly]
There’s a face in the ceiling of my room.
I didn’t know he was there before.
And he talks to me.
[inhales softly] I don’t like his voice.
[doctor] And who do you think it is?
I think it’s the devil.
[sniffs] He wants me to do bad things.
So he can take my soul.
Ed, one of our nurses…
She saw you talking to somebody on that ham radio you asked for.
Who was it?
Christine Jorgensen.
We talked about her.
I sent her one of them ham radios.
[doctor] And she told you what?
Well… a lot of things.
But the big one was that I’m a…
[sniffles]
…gynephiliac.
I never heard that word before.
Christine Jorgensen told you that?
[Ed] Yeah.
[sighs] Ed, I’m sorry.
I’m the one who told you what that word meant.
Ed, they never sent out those ham radios you bought.
They’re sitting in the storeroom.
We wouldn’t know where to send them, and if we could, and we can’t.
We can’t let patients use a device like that.
We let you have yours because there’s no place for you to plug it in.
What are you talking about?
Ed, your ham radio doesn’t work.
It’s not plugged in.
Then who was I talking to?
[soft piano music playing]
[doctor] The nurse said it was a woman you were talking to.
[Ed imitating Christine]
Mr. Gein, I am not a physician, and I believe that things like these should only be determined after years and years of careful analysis.
But, Ed, I do not think that you and I are alike at all.
No, not at all.
Okay?
And why did they put you in a mental hospital, Ed?
What did you do?
[Ed as himself]
They say I killed some people.
[doctor] Ed, you were doing both voices.
It was yourself you were talking to.
[sobs] I don’t understand.
I know.
[Ed sobbing] I don’t know who I am, or why I do the things that I do.
Or Why I hear voices.
Ilse said that I was a human being, but I don’t know if I am.
I don’t know if I belong to that brotherhood. [sniffles] I might just be some kind of creature.
Or like a… a monster.
[gasps] And all I ever wanted to be was a good son.
[sniffs] And I tried and I tried and I tried.
[sobbing]
I feel like the more I tried, I just… the further I got away from being what I wanted to be.
[doctor] And what was that?
[sobs]
Just something she could be proud of.
[sobs]
[doctor] Eddie?
Ed?
I’ve examined you quite extensively now.
And I’ve discussed your case with several colleagues, and we’re in agreement.
There’s a reason that you hear voices.
There’s a reason that you see things that aren’t there.
Why you can’t remember things you did, and you worry that you did things you didn’t do.
And the belief in an ability to resurrect your mother somehow.
To become a woman by putting on her skin.
These all point to a diagnosis, Ed.
What is it?
[doctor] You have a schizoid disorder.
You’re schizophrenic.
All right.
[doctor] It’s a brain illness.
We don’t know exactly how it works, but, uh… in the simplest sense, it’s when interior and exterior worlds start to blend.
The two hemispheres of your brain can’t share a thought as they do in a normal person.
Whereas I might drop something on the floor and think to myself, “Jeez, what a klutz, I really am worthless.” [chuckles] You would hear that thought shouted at you by a stranger staring at you from across the street.
Or think that it was a message beamed down from a spaceship, when really it’s just a thought.
[exhales shakily]
So like…
Like, my mind’s split in two?
I’d say it got shattered, Ed.
It’s like your mind is a mirror that somebody dropped on the floor.
So everything you’ve ever seen or heard or read or imagined, there are all these shards reflecting back at you, and you can’t tell what’s real and what’s a fantasy.
And what do you call it? A skedaddle?
Schizophrenia, Ed.
You’re schizophrenic.
[sobs] And is that why I do the things that I do?
Like why I dug up all those ladies?
And killed Bernice? [sobbing] And my friend Mary Hogan?
Yes.
[gasps]
And I’m sorry that you’ve suffered for as long as you have.
But there’s hope, Ed.
[soft orchestral music playing]
There’s a pill I can give you.
And what will it do?
[doctor] It’ll stop the voices.
Stop you seeing things.
Here you go, Ed.
[doctor] Stop you thinking you can do things a person can’t do.
It’ll make you feel whole, Ed.
[sobs] Thank you.
[music continues]
[music fades]
