Ed Gein twist pen embedded with barn woodBlack Ed Gein twist pen. Edward Theodore Gein (August 27, 1906 July 26, 1984), also known as the Butcher of Plainfield and the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin gathered widespread notoriety in 1957 after authorities discovered that he stole corpses from local graveyards and fashioned keepsakes from their bones and skin. He also confessed to killing two