The last two episodes of Netflix’s The Ed Gein Story don’t shy away from exploiting the loopholes provided by a schizophrenic mind to present a narrative that never actually happened. It is true that during his stay at the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane at Waupun, Ed had developed an interest in ham radios, and the hospital had allowed him to use the money he had earned to order an inexpensive receiver. But as revealed in the show itself, he never made contact with anyone in the outside world. The psychiatrist told Ed that all this while he was talking to himself, mimicking voices in an effort to feel less lonely. This is the same thing that he did in the case of Theodore Robert Bundy, famously known by the name Ted Bundy. Ed made himself believe that he had something to do with Bundy’s arrest, but in reality, he had no role to play in it.
In Netflix’s show, we found out that Ed Gein was paid a visit by FBI agents John Douglas and Robert Ressler, along with their psychologist, Dr. Ann Burgess. By the way, all three of them are real-life figures. John Douglas is a former Special Agent who has written a book titled “Mindhunter,” which has been adapted into Netflix’s partly fictional show of the same name. Netflix’s The Ed Gein Story mentions that the FBI sought Ed Gein’s help to understand the psyche of the Pacific Northwest killer, aka Ted Bundy. However, as per John Douglas’ book, he never interviewed Edward Gein. John lived some 140 miles away from Plainfield, and when he got back to Milwaukee, he gained access to Ed Gein’s files, through which he discovered the true extent of his gruesome crimes. In the sealed boxes, he found photographs of his victims and their body parts, the sight of which he’d never forget. But that was it. John didn’t make any contact with the Butcher of Plainfield after that. So, much of what we saw in Netflix’s show is either fiction or mere figments of Ed’s imagination.
You might have noticed that when the authorities raided Ed’s farm, they found a mountain of newspaper clippings inside the house. The real-life Ed Gein used to read the news on a daily basis, not only to find out about new deaths in town so he could dig up their graves, but also to catch up with the sensational crimes happening around him. In the show, he even claimed himself to be a “crime buff,” and it was from these newspapers that Ed made his discovery about Ted Bundy, who had created a furor in the American media with his heinous murders during the 1970s. There was even a television in the main room of the mental institution, which could also be seen as a source of imagination fodder for Ed.
In Netflix’s show, Ed sent a letter to the violent crimes unit, shortly after which Will Stanton, a deputy from Leon County’s Sheriff Office, paid him a visit to discuss the matter further. One of Ed’s acquaintances, Birdman, also known as Richard Speck, wrote him a letter telling him about an acquaintance who had been claiming to have killed those innocent people in Florida. Now the scene played out in a manner that it tricked us into believing that Ed knew Ted Bundy’s name and the car he drove even before the police did, but the reality is, he picked up all these details from the television news report and used them to create a fictional scenario in his head, thereby convincing himself (as well as the audience) that he was the mastermind behind Ted Bundy’s arrest. As per Ed’s biography, written by Harold Schechter, Ed never came in contact with anyone named Will Stanton, and it can be assumed that he either read this name in one of his “detective books” or heard it on television. It is quite amusing that all these events took place in a short span of time. Ed wrote a letter, a deputy showed up, and in the very next scene, Ted was caught. So you all know that none of it was real, and Ed was imagining most of it because he wanted to become a hero, or at least feel like one in his mind. He wanted to give something back to the world that had only accused him of “taking away.”
In real life, Ted Bundy was first arrested by an officer named Bob Hayward when he tried to flee from a patrol car by turning off his headlights and speeding through stop signs in Granger, Salt Lake City. The authorities thoroughly searched his Volkswagen Beetle and collected some really disturbing and questionable items, like handcuffs, a crowbar, an ice pick, etc. This evidence implied that the person of interest might be involved in some shady activities, and therefore they arrested him on suspicion of burglary. Upon further investigation, Ted became a suspect in the kidnapping of Carol DaRonch and was put on trial. He was found guilty of the kidnapping charges and sent to prison for 15 years. The authorities believed he was even involved in the tri-state murder spree, but they didn’t have enough evidence in hand to bring him to trial. Somehow, Ted managed to escape from prison and started killing again. But he was recaptured soon after, and in the end, he was given the capital punishment he truly deserved. However, as mentioned earlier, Ed Gein had little to do with Ted Bundy’s case. In reality, it was one of his victims, Carol DaRonch, who had given the police the description of his car that helped them catch this monster.
