Monster: The Ed Gein Story made it evident that Ed Gein’s victims extended beyond the ones he killed; they also included the grieving families, and even the law enforcement officers or any other officials who, unfortunately, became involved in the case. We saw that Ed’s farm burned down under mysterious circumstances, and it felt like the series wanted to hint that the local sheriff, Arthur Schley, had a role to play in it. But in order to understand why anybody would want to burn down his farm, we need to go back a little, and shed some light on how Bernice Worden was killed. I believe Bernice’s murder was the beginning of the end of Ed’s quest. I would like to state here that though the series derives its inspiration from real-life events, there were some places where the makers have taken creative liberties. Obviously, the essence of the narrative has been kept intact, but a few minute details have been layered in order to dramatize the story. So let’s find out how Sheriff Arthur Schley came to know about Ed Gein, and if he was the one who burned his farmland.
Spoiler Alert
Did Sheriff Arthur Schley burn Ed’s farmland?
Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story showed us that Frank Worden was the one who was in charge of the auction, and he was the one who was adamant to go ahead with it even when Sheriff Schley didn’t want him to. Sheriff Schley, as the show revealed, was a deeply devout Christian, and he didn’t want anyone to hold onto anything corrupted by the shadow of Ed Gein. To him, the man, his house, and every single object associated with him were evil, and he wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible. He voiced these concerns with conviction, but Frank, devastated after his mother’s death, was in no state to understand what he was saying. Frank had started drinking on a regular basis, and with raw honesty, he told the Sheriff that anyone who had seen their mother in such a horrifying condition would struggle to remain sane. He said that drowning himself in alcohol was the only way he could cope with his reality and survive the trauma.
Frank was on the move, and he was informing the townsfolk about the auction when he got to know that Ed Gein’s farmland had been set on fire. He reached the scene, only to find out that the farmland had been completely destroyed. He was a bit taken aback seeing Sheriff Schley there, and he asked him if he had anything to do with the fire. Though the sheriff denied it, it felt as if the series wanted to hint that he could have had a role to play in it. But the reality was a bit different from what was shown in the show.
In real life, a man named Harvey Polzin was put in charge of the entire auction process by the local court. Farm Sales Services of Reedsburg, Wisconsin, was chosen to handle the auction, and it was decided that it would take place on 30th March 1958. But approximately 10 days before that, on 20th March, Sheriff Schley got to know about the fire. By the time he got there, everything was destroyed. It could be possible that the sheriff had a role to play in the proceedings, and he could have known about the arson beforehand. But what the series didn’t tell us was that there were a lot of people who were opposed to the auction, and they didn’t want Plainfield to have an exhibition for the morbid. They wanted to forget about whatever had happened, and anyway, it was very hard for them to just move ahead with their lives and pretend that those crimes hadn’t taken place. Also, according to certain reports, Frank Worden was also one of the probable suspects who could have been behind the incident. It is to be noted that he was the fire marshal, and so it’s possible he didn’t reach Ed’s farm on time, as he wanted the entire place to be reduced to ashes. In the end, it could be concluded that there was no concrete evidence linking Sheriff Schley to the fire, for it might have been started by anyone among the many who wished to disassociate themselves, and their town, from the horrors that had unfolded.
What happened to Bernice Worden?
As shown in the series, Ed went to Bernice’s shop during the deer hunting season. Frank Worden, Bernice’s son, had seen him coming to the store quite frequently over the past few days. He had bought antifreeze a couple of days back, though nobody had any clue what he was going to use it for. So Ed entered the store, and he felt like buying a new rifle. It’s uncertain what exactly set him off at that moment, but he slipped into one of those frenzied episodes, consumed and overpowered by bloodlust. Poor Bernice, all of a sudden, became an evil figure to him, and he wanted to teach her a lesson. Bernice was looking the other way when Ed shot at her. He then took her dead body back to his farm. When Frank Worden arrived at his mother’s shop, he realized that something bad had happened there. He saw the blood on the floor, and he knew that his mother was in danger. Now, it is to be noted here that Frank Worden was both the deputy sheriff and the fire marshal at that point in time. He gave a call to Sheriff Arthur Schley and told him that he suspected that Ed Gein had something to do with his mother’s disappearance.
Though it’s shown in the series that it was Frank who went with the Sheriff to Ed’s house, in reality it was Captain Lloyd Schoephoerster who went with him. The sheriff and his deputy had no clue the kind of horrors they would witness at Ed’s place. Firstly, they found the decapitated and disemboweled body of Bernice Worden, which was hung upside down from a wooden crossbar. Apart from that, they found human masks, peeled from the skulls of nine female victims. They also discovered skulls, lampshades, and chairs made out of human skin, along with various body parts of his victims that he couldn’t find any use for. What truly shocked them was the realization that peeling off skin to craft face masks, stitching together a body suit, making lampshades, or even carving a bowl out of a human skull demanded some level of skill. The police officers present at the scene were horrified, unable to fathom how Ed Gein could have possibly learned such grotesque skills, let alone mastered them over time. The sheer precision of his work left them both appalled and horrified. They knew that it was evidence, but they became numb witnessing the art of a deranged craftsman, and it took all of them some time to come back to their senses.
