EXTREMIST

Ed Gein

1906 - 1984

Photo of Ed Gein

Icon of person Ed Gein

Edward Theodore Gein ( GEEN; August 27, 1906 – July 26, 1984), also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer, suspected serial killer and body snatcher. Gein's crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety in 1957 after authorities discovered that he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned keepsakes from their bones and skin. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Ed Gein has received more than 22,803,258 page views. His biography is available in 40 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 38 in 2019). Ed Gein is the 21st most popular extremist (down from 17th in 2019), the 422nd most popular biography from United States (down from 365th in 2019) and the 9th most popular American Extremist.

Ed Gein is most famous for his crimes. He was a serial killer and necrophile. He would often dig up the bodies of recently buried women and use their skin to make masks, belts, and other objects.

Memorability Metrics

  • 23M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 67.78

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 40

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.89

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.95

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among EXTREMISTS

Among extremists, Ed Gein ranks 21 out of 283Before him are John Wayne Gacy, Ramón Mercader, Andrei Chikatilo, Ted Kaczynski, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Ulrike Meinhof. After him are Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Albert Fish, Charles Ponzi, Carlos the Jackal, Patrizia Reggiani, and George Habash.

Most Popular Extremists in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1906, Ed Gein ranks 29Before him are Roberto Rossellini, Ernst Ruska, Emmanuel Levinas, Ilse Koch, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Soichiro Honda. After him are Hermann Fegelein, Alexey Stakhanov, Giuseppe Farina, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Léon Degrelle, and Hans Asperger. Among people deceased in 1984, Ed Gein ranks 14Before him are Johnny Weissmuller, Mohamed Naguib, Julio Cortázar, Martin Niemöller, Alfred Kastler, and Tigran Petrosian. After him are Ray Kroc, Stanislaw Ulam, Martin Ryle, Carl Ferdinand Cori, Karl Wolff, and Irwin Shaw.

Others Born in 1906

Go to all Rankings

Others Deceased in 1984

Go to all Rankings

In United States

Among people born in United States, Ed Gein ranks 422 out of 20,380Before him are Herman Hollerith (1860), Melvin Calvin (1911), Jesse James (1847), William McKinley (1843), Kim Basinger (1953), and Natalie Wood (1938). After him are Jessica Lange (1949), Peter Fonda (1940), John R. Bolton (1948), George Clooney (1961), Ed Harris (1950), and Shirley MacLaine (1934).

Among EXTREMISTS In United States

Among extremists born in United States, Ed Gein ranks 9Before him are John Wilkes Booth (1838), Charles Manson (1934), Ted Bundy (1946), Jeffrey Dahmer (1960), John Wayne Gacy (1942), and Ted Kaczynski (1942). After him are Albert Fish (1870), H. H. Holmes (1861), Jim Jones (1931), William Kemmler (1860), Timothy McVeigh (1968), and George Jung (1942).