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The Ghoul of Plainfield | Plainfield Cemetery, Wisconsin · The Grim: Haunted Cemeteries & Graveyard Tales

0:13
Kristin: Grim morning and welcome to the Grim.
0:16
Kristin: I'm your host, Kristen.
0:18
Kristin: On today's episode, we'll be opening the gate and entering Plainville Cemetery, located in Plainville, Wisconsin.
0:24
Kristin: The aroma of coffee mingles in the air.
0:27
Kristin: The gates stand open.
0:29
Kristin: Step carefully.
0:30
Kristin: It's time to descend into the hauntings of history.
0:33
Kristin: I think it's safe to say the term hauntings of history can be quite subjective.
0:38
Kristin: Depending on one's definition of a haunting, spirits, lingering thoughts, and painful memories can mean different things to different people.
0:46
Kristin: However, horrific murders, the desecration of human remains, and other heinous acts can justifiably be considered hauntings to many.
0:55
Kristin: Plainfield Wisconsin Cemetery is one such haunting of history.
0:59
Kristin: For true crime listeners, it's a story you've heard time and time again.
1:03
Kristin: For cemetery lovers, you might be asking why we're diving into true crime at all.
1:08
Kristin: The answer is simple.
1:09
Kristin: What a Plainfield Cemetery's resonance was not only a killer, but a body snatcher who robbed the very cemetery he's now buried in.
1:17
Kristin: The irony of that sentence isn't lost on me.
1:20
Kristin: If anything, it only adds to the intrigue.
1:22
Kristin: How could a sleepy farming town in rural Wisconsin become infamous because of its cemetery?
1:28
Kristin: The answer is buried among the graves.
1:31
Kristin: For true crime enthusiasts, there's a debate over whether Ed Geane qualifies as a serial killer.
1:37
Kristin: By the standard definition, it's someone who murders three or more people over a period of months.
1:42
Kristin: Geane's record is hard to confirm.
1:44
Kristin: Some say he doesn't meet the criteria.
1:47
Kristin: Others argue the evidence points to a darker truth.
1:50
Kristin: He may well have.
1:51
Kristin: Recently, due to Netflix's series about Ed Gean featuring Charlie Hunan as Gean, Plainfield Cemetery has once again seen a surge in intention.
2:00
Kristin: The show has renewed curiosity about the man, bringing increased foot traffic to the cemetery, visitors to town, and countless people searching for the truth behind the legend.
2:10
Kristin: As much as this fascination is understandable, it also raises questions about the ethics of curiosity.
2:16
Kristin: How do you honor the resting place of the dead while being drawn to the darkest corners of human history?
2:22
Kristin: And if you've ever been to the middle of nowhere in the Midwest, especially rural Wisconsin, you know there's not much going on.
2:29
Kristin: In the 1950s, around the height of Gaines Crimes, Plainto was hardly a bustling town.
2:35
Kristin: It was a quiet farming community, surrounded by endless stretches of rural land, and an even sparser population.
2:42
Kristin: Midwestern graveyards themselves are often simple places.
2:46
Kristin: Modest headstones, quiet fields, nothing overly grand.
2:50
Kristin: But the lure of a killer buried near the scene of his crimes is hard for many people to resist.
2:55
Kristin: Geen himself lies in an unmarked grave to buried between his mother and brother, which makes locating his final resting place surprisingly easy.
3:04
Kristin: Yet even this seemingly simple fact has sparked endless debates online.
3:09
Kristin: Some claim the grave is fake.
3:11
Kristin: Others insist he was buried on the hospital grounds where he died.
3:14
Kristin: Still others believe he rests somewhere within the cemetery, but not in the family plot.
3:19
Kristin: The truth is difficult to nail down completely, but official records state he is buried within the Feen family plot.
3:26
Kristin: Beyond this infamous grave, the cemetery itself holds many of the earliest pioneers who settled the area.
3:33
Kristin: The first burial is believed to have occurred in 1837, and the cemetery grew steadily from there as the small farming community expanded.
3:41
Kristin: Not surprisingly, many locals aren't particularly fond of the noriety tied to the infamous killer.
3:46
Kristin: The cemetery's unwanted fame and the constant stream of visitors searching for Gane's grave or former home hasn't been warmly received.
3:54
Kristin: And honestly, I can't blame them.
3:56
Kristin: When noriety takes hold, the graves of nearby loved ones often suffer the consequences.
4:02
Kristin: Vandalism occurs, headstones are damaged, sometimes graves are even desecrated.
4:08
Kristin: It creates a strange dilemma for taftophiles, those who love cemeteries and the stories they hold.
4:14
Kristin: On one hand, you want to share these places and preserve their history.
4:18
Kristin: On the other, you find yourself saying, yes, go see it, but please don't.
4:22
Kristin: Smaller cemeteries like Plainfield simply don't have the resources larger historic cemeteries do to protect themselves from the consequences of fame.
4:31
Kristin: And when attention arrives without respect, it can easily lead to the destruction of the very history people came to see.
4:39
Kristin: But where did it all begin?
4:41
Kristin: How did everything go so terribly wrong in a place like Plainfield?
4:45
Kristin: The first thing that must be said is that Ed Geane didn't only rob graves in Plainfield Cemetery.
4:50
Kristin: In fact, several nearby cemeteries also became victims of his crimes and desecrations.
4:56
Kristin: However, we're focusing on Plainfield Cemetery because the Gean family plot rests within his grounds.
5:02
Kristin: And this tale, while horrific, is also deeply sad.
5:06
Kristin: Netflix's dramatized portrayal of Gean's story with its heavy Hollywood influence has reignited conversations about something far more serious.
5:15
Kristin: Mental health in the 1950s.
5:17
Kristin: Gean's family dynamic, combined with a lack of proper care or intervention, created what many believe was the perfect storm, one that ultimately allowed the unimaginable crimes to occur.
5:27
Kristin: His father, George, was an alcoholic, often absent, while his mother, Augusta, was domineering and deeply religious.
5:34
Kristin: She rolled the household with an iron grip, preaching about sin, warning of women's supposed immorality, and discouraging her sons from forming friendships, had idolized her despite her cruelty, while his older brother, Henry, occasionally confronted Augusta, creating tensions in the already fractured household.
5:52
Kristin: Born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and was the youngest of two sons.
5:56
Kristin: In 1915, the family moved to a secluded farmhouse seven miles outside Plainfield.
6:01
Kristin: The isolation of the farmhouse, combined with Augusta's oppressive influence, kept Ed largely confined to the property during his youth, shaping his worldview and social development.
6:12
Kristin: Sadly tragedy struck repeatedly in the Gane home in Plainfield.
6:16
Kristin: George died of heart failure in 1940, leaving Augusta and her sons alone.
6:21
Kristin: Four years later, Henry died mysteriously during a brush fire near the farm.
6:26
Kristin: Ed reported his brother missing, but when authorities arrived, he led them directly to the body.
6:31
Kristin: Though bruises were found on Henry's head, the death was ruled accidental.
6:35
Kristin: Yet some now speculate it may have been Ed's first murder.
6:38
Kristin: Just one year later, Augusta died in 1945.
6:42
Kristin: Her passing marked a turning point in Ed's life, pushing him further into isolation and obsession.
6:48
Kristin: He cornered off the rooms his mother had used most, preserving them almost exactly as she had left them, creating something akin to a shrine.
6:56
Kristin: With his family gone, Ed lived in the decaying farmhouse.
6:59
Kristin: He worked small jobs as a handyman and occasionally babysat for local families, an unsettling detail that many in Plainfield would only reflect on years later, once the truth about him came to light.
7:11
Kristin: At this point, the question of nature versus nurture becomes impossible to ignore.
7:15
Kristin: Was Ed Gane a product of his upbringing, the oppressive mother, the fractured family, the rural isolation, and the complete absence of mental health support?
7:25
Kristin: Or was there something in his nature, a predisposition toward darkness that couldn't have been prevented?
7:31
Kristin: Profiles of serial colors suggest both elements often played a role: traumatic childhood experiences, abuse, neglect, and profound social isolation combined with psychological vulnerabilities.
7:43
Kristin: In Ed's case, the lack of mental health intervention in the 1950s in Wisconsin left him with no support, no diagnosis, and no path to help, only a deepening spiral into obsession and violence.
7:56
Kristin: Some argue he was molded entirely by his environment.
8:00
Kristin: Others contend his actions were inescapable, written into his very nature.
8:04
Kristin: Much like the age-old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, Geensley forces us to confront a chilling truth.
8:11
Kristin: When the environment ends and nature begins, the consequences can be devastatingly real.
8:17
Kristin: Despite his oddities, neighbors often described Ed as a quiet, shy, and somewhat likable man.
8:23
Kristin: That is until 1957, a year that would forever change the town of Plainfield.
8:28
Kristin: On the morning of November 16th, in 1957, 58-year-old Bernice Warden was reported missing from her hardware store in Plainfield.
8:36
Kristin: The cash register was gone, and a trail of blood led out the back door.
8:41
Kristin: Her son Frank, a deputy sheriff, quickly began piecing together the events of the day.
8:46
Kristin: Witnesses reported seeing Ed Geane in the store shortly before her disappearance, making him the immediate suspect.
8:53
Kristin: Officers soon arrived at Geane's secluded farm just outside of Plainfield, unaware they were about to uncover a scene more disturbing than anything the town or the nation had ever seen.
9:04
Kristin: Before we go any further, I want to give a brief warning to listeners.
9:08
Kristin: The details of what the investigators discovered at Ed Geane's property are disturbing and involve graphic descriptions of violence and the desecration of human remains.
9:18
Kristin: If this isn't for you or something you want to hear, now may be a good moment to step away.
9:24
Kristin: Inside a small shed on the property, officers made a gruesome discovery.
9:29
Kristin: Hanging upside down on the rafters was the body of her niece Warden.
9:32
Kristin: She had been shot, her body inviscerated and decapitated.
9:36
Kristin: Her head was later discovered within the home.
9:39
Kristin: But the horrors of the Geen farm had only begun to reveal themselves.
9:43
Kristin: As investigators searched the farmhouse, the scene grew increasingly disturbing.
9:48
Kristin: At first glance, the colored interior appeared strange, but as officers examined the objects more closely, the truth became far more horrifying.
9:56
Kristin: Edgeen had been rotting graves.
9:59
Kristin: Authorities soon realized he had systematically exhumed bodies from nearby cemeteries, collecting the remains of women and using their skin and bones to construct household items and clothing.
10:09
Kristin: Among the macabre discoveries were chairs upholstered in human skin, masks fashioned from preserved faces, and boxes preserved with various body parts.
10:18
Kristin: Most disturbing of all was investigators described as a woman's suit, a grotesque garment Ed had created from human skin, which he repeatedly wore.
10:27
Kristin: The search also uncovered evidence leaking King to another disappearance years earlier.
10:32
Kristin: The head of Mary Hogan, a local tavern owner who had vanished in 1954, was found among the items inside the home.
10:39
Kristin: Geane later admitted to killing both women, stating they reminded him of his mother.
10:44
Kristin: What began that morning as a missing person investigation had quickly unraveled into one of the most horrifying crime scenes in American history.
10:53
Kristin: In March of 1958, the Stevens Point Journal reported that Geane's farmhouse had burned to the ground amid rumors that the property might eventually be turned into a museum.
11:03
Kristin: Early speculation suggests that the fire had been set intentionally, though no official cause was ever determined.
11:10
Kristin: After his arrest, Gean's attorney, William Butler, under a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
11:16
Kristin: In January of 1958, Gean was declared unfit to stand trial after being diagnosed with schizophrenia and was committed to the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Wapon, Wisconsin.
11:28
Kristin: During his time here, Gean lived a quiet and largely uneventful institutional life.
11:33
Kristin: He worked various small jobs within the facility, serving at times as a mason, a carpenter's assistant, and even helping as an aide in the medical center.
11:42
Kristin: A decade later, in early 1968, doctors determined that Gean was finally competent to stand trial.
11:49
Kristin: That November, he was found guilty of the murder of Bernice Warden.
11:53
Kristin: However, the court ruled they had also been legally insane at the time of the crime.
11:57
Kristin: As a result, Gean was recommitted to a mental institution.
12:01
Kristin: Later in life, as his health declined, he was transferred to the Mendona Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, where he remained until his death in 1984.
12:11
Kristin: Aside from a failed attempt to petition for release in 1974, which was ultimately denied, the mild-mannered man who had once shocked the nation faded quietly from public view.
12:22
Kristin: In addition to murder, Edgein confessed to robbing nine graves of recently buried women in local cemeteries between roughly 1947 and 1952.
12:32
Kristin: Investigators later exumed three of the graves he had specifically identified, and all three were found to have been disturbed or emptied just as he described.
12:41
Kristin: He also told police he had made as many as 40 nighttime visits to local cemeteries, although many of those trips he left empty-handed, coming out from what he described as a daze-like state.
12:53
Kristin: So while the confirmed number of graves he disturbed was nine, he may have entered more gravesites on dozens of occasions.
13:00
Kristin: Plainfield Cemetery in particular held a special significance.
13:04
Kristin: It was the site of his earliest nocturnal excursions, containing the graves of his mother and brother, the very family members who had shaped much of his dark path.
13:13
Kristin: Despite his death in 1984, the shadow of Ed Geane still lingers over Plainfield.
13:18
Kristin: Gane's grave is now unmarked, hidden between the resting places of his family, but originally did have a headstone.
13:25
Kristin: Visitors, however, decided to take pieces as mementos.
13:28
Kristin: Till ultimately the headstone itself went missing.
13:32
Kristin: Eventually found in Seattle years later, it now rests in a museum.
13:36
Kristin: Generiety still draws visitors from around the world.
13:39
Kristin: Some come out of morbid curiosity, some to pay a twisted homage, and others simply to feel the weight of history in a place that was the stage for such unimaginable acts.
13:49
Kristin: Even today, the choir rows of headstones in Platefield Cemetery carry a dual legacy.
13:55
Kristin: They honor the early pioneers who built the town, the lives that passed peacefully, and yet they also hold the story of a man whose crimes shock the nation, a man who desecrated the dead and terrorized the living, and now rest among them.
14:09
Kristin: Standing here, it's impossible not to feel a shiver run through you.
14:13
Kristin: The same soil that Gain once violated now cradles him in death.
14:17
Kristin: The irony is stark, the history undeniable.
14:20
Kristin: Plainville Cemetery is both a resting place and a reminder, a haunting of history in its almost literal sense, for visitors, for true crime aficiados, for taphophiles, and for those who simply drawn to darker corners of human history.
14:36
Kristin: The cemetery remains a place where the past refuses to stay buried, and where Edgeen's legacy endures, silent yet inescapable.
14:45
Kristin: For now the stories of Plainfield slid back into stone, and the dead return to their uneasy rest, yet they're never silent for long.
14:53
Kristin: Thank you for walking with us through the veil into Plainfield Cemetery, descending once more into the hauntings of Istry.
15:00
Kristin: The gate is sealed, the veil drawn, yet death keeps no calendar, and so we shall return, as we always do, on the grim.