Horror tale resurrected by graveyard theft

Last Updated: June 23, 2000 at 4:44:03 a.m.

PLAINFIELD, Wis. (AP) - A murder story that inspired the Alfred Hitchcock motion picture "Psycho" has emerged from a graveyard to haunt villagers who had hoped years ago to be rid of the unpleasantness.

Ed Gein's murder of a hardware store owner and the discovery of body parts at his rural farm in 1957 had faded from memory for many people until authorities reported last weekend the theft of the headstone from his grave.

"Most of the people who live here are not familiar with the situation," Plainfield village president Max Harrington said. "There only a few that were around at the time and most of those had a personal connection somehow."

"There are a lot of nice things going on in Plainfield and we'd rather just forget about him," a village board member told the Stevens Point Journal.

"Now that the headstone is gone, we wish it would just go away," a woman said. "It's a situation where we'd rather not talk about it."

Gein died in a mental hospital in 1984 at the age of 77. He had been arrested during a search for store owner Bernice Worden, whose headless body was found at Gein's farmhouse.

Investigators said the corpse had been dressed out like a deer carcass. They concluded Gein robbed graves and may have murdered other people.

A fictionalized account of Gein in a horror book led to the Norman Bates character in Hitchcock's 1960 film classic "Psycho."

Waushara County Sheriff Patrick Fox said he had no idea who took the 150-pound headstone or where it might be.

There was speculation that someone might plan to sell it to an antique collector or on the Internet.

The eBay site had 35 hits for Gein items, including pieces of his farmhouse, Fox said.

The Web site currently offers 39 Gein-related items for sale, including T-shirts, key chains and videos.

Some residents of the community of 839 still have difficulty dealing with the Gein affair.

"I was in shock when I heard the story," said Harrington, whose wife was a neighbor of Gein. "I don't think we'll ever put this behind us."