| However, eventually, Ed�s only friend was taken from him and enclosed in an asylum, thus leaving Ed all alone again and this inspired him to search for fresher bodies, and this meant resorting to murder. The first victim of Ed�s grim tastes was Mary Hogan aged 51, a divorcee who ran and operated Hogan�s Tavern at Pine Grove. On the cold afternoon of December 8th 1954, Ed shot her in the head with a 32-caliber revolver. He then proceeded to load her body into the truck and take her body back to his shed where she was to be strung up like a deer. Later, a customer was to drop into the tavern to find it deserted and blood across the floor with an empty 32 cartridge beside the stain. This gruesome scene led the customer out the back where the blood smeared a trail up to the point of pickup tyre tracks. The scene was clear; Mary Hogan had been shot and taken away. But it was not sure whether she was dead or not. But a few weeks later, the sawmill owner, Elmo Ueeck spoke of the disappearance to Ed whom replied, �She isn�t missing. She�s at the farm right now.� Ueeck thought nothing of this but a joke and did not enquire further into this comment by Ed. There is a possibility of other victims in the following 3 years, but nothing is know for sure, except what happened on the 16 November, 1957. On this Saturday morning, Ed shot and killed Bernice Worden in her hardware store on Main Street, Plainfield. Using a bullet for a .22 rifle, Ed also used a gun from the rack in the store, and after the murder, proceeded to lock the store and take the body. But Ed also removed the cash register from the store as well as taking the store truck for the removal of the body. The register contained $41. But Ed insisted at a later date that he only did so because he wanted to figure out how they worked with an intention of returning it at a later date. On this Saturday morning, Bernice�s son, Frank had gone hunting, but he would have usually been helping her at the store. He returned later that afternoon to find the store locked, but with the lights on and his mother missing. Frank asked the local garage attendant who explained that he saw the store truck drive away at 9:30 that morning. As Deputy Sheriff, Frank alerted the Sheriff, reporting the situation. He then checked the records of what transactions had been made that morning, only one, that of a half gallon of anti-freeze. He remembered that the day before, Ed had said that he was coming in the following morning to buy some anti-freeze and the fact that Ed had also asked Frank if he was definitely hunting the following morning. Finally, on top of this, Frank had noted that Ed had been coming into the store frequently over the week, and this allowed Ed to figure out when the store was quiet. Art Schley, the Sheriff and Captain Lloyd Schoephoester set off for Ed�s farm under the suspicion of robbery on Ed�s part. Gein was absent from his home and the house was dark, so acting on a hunch, they drove to a West Plainfield store where Ed usually bought his groceries. Ed had been there having a meal with the man who ran the store and his wife, and was just about to leave. When asked to get in the police car for questioning, Ed explained how he believed someone to have tried to frame him for Bernice Worden�s death. As a result, Ed was taken into custody, as Art had not mentioned her death. |