Ed Gein was an American murderer and body snatcher, born on August 27, 1906, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He became infamous in the 1950s for his gruesome crimes, which included exhuming corpses from local graveyards and using their skin and body parts to create various items. Gein's actions shocked the nation and led to his arrest in 1957. Gein's life and crimes inspired several fictional characters in popular culture, including Norman Bates from Psycho and Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He was found guilty of murder but was deemed insane and spent the rest of his life in a mental institution until his death in 1984.