'Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein' features jailhouse recordings with Wisconsin serial killer
On the night Ed Gein was arrested, suspected of murdering and mutilating a local shopkeeper, the local authorities in Plainfield, Wisconsin, took him to the Waushara County jail.
Rattled by the bizarre sights at Gein's property — the victim's body, gutted like a deer, along with body parts, things made from human skin, a collection of skulls — law enforcement asked a local judge, Boyd Clark, to help interrogate the 51-year-old loner. Clark recorded the conversation, all 90 minutes of it.
Then the judge put the tapes away, first in his office, then in a safety deposit box.
"And they’ve been there ever since," said James Buddy Day, director and executive producer of "Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein." "His family knew about the tapes, but they just didn’t know what to do with them."
Four years ago, Clark's family — the judge died in 1978 — decided something should be done with the tapes. They connected with producer Josh Kunau of Roots Productions and his partner, Jill Latiano Howerton; the pair connected with Day, and they went to work.
"The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein," a four-part documentary series featuring excerpts from what are being called the only recorded conversations of the notorious killer, begins streaming on MGM+ Sept. 17.
In November 1957, Gein confessed to killing two local women and to digging up bodies from graveyards and using body parts and skin to make everything from trophies to lamp shades and seat covers. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a series of psychiatric prison facilities in Wisconsin. He died in 1984 at age 77.
Day, a prolific true-crime filmmaker whose subjects have ranged from Charles Manson to Brittany Murphy, had been reading about serial killers since he was in high school. And he knew all about the Gein story — but not about the tapes, since until this point, their existence had not been disclosed.
“When they told me about the tapes, I was so excited," Day said. "It was so amazing. To actually hear Ed Gein’s voice.”
"The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein" uses excerpts from those recordings to tell the whole Ed Gein story: Gein's oppressive childhood; his obsession with reconnecting with his overbearing mother; the media circus surrounding his arrest; his hometown's pushback against the notoriety; his trials and stays in state psychiatric hospitals; and his legacy in popular culture, from "Psycho" to "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and "The Silence of the Lambs."
In addition to the recordings, Day and the filmmakers interviewed a range of experts from criminology, psychology and even pop culture. Among the latter is Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece, associate professor and director of film studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who talks about "Psycho" and other movies in the main auditorium at the Oriental Theatre.
"The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein" leans into Gein's status in America's hall of monsters, framing his story as if it was part of the genre it helped inspire.
“We purposely went out and told this story from a horror perspective because that’s how America has kind of processed Ed Gein’s story — through many, many horror movies,” Day said.
But the documentary series also sets out to reframe Gein as an individual.
“When people like Ed Gein become part of the American mythos, they almost become like caricatures of themselves. ... They become like supervillains and their humanity is lost in the storytelling," Day said. "So I think anytime you can get a tape or a piece of evidence like this where it personifies the person, I think you get way more insight and you understand the story on a much deeper level.”
And that might be the most horrifying part of the story.
“That’s much scarier that there’s a human being behind this,” Day added.
More: 'My Son Jeffrey: The Dahmer Family Tapes,' with new recordings, will stream on Fox Nation
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein' features jailhouse recordings
