Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein Director Talks Unearthing the “Plainfield Ghoul”

A number of American murderers have established themselves with infamous legacies over the years, with figures like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy all committing heinous acts that stick in the public’s consciousness for various reasons. Despite their notoriety, it could be argued that Ed Gein is the most frightening of all these figures, not only because of the atrocious acts he carried out in the farmlands of Wisconsin, but also because of the ways in which those crimes would go on to inspire fictional tales of terror like Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Silence of the Lambs. In the new documentary series Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein, director and producer James Buddy Day chronicles Gein’s crimes, while also debuting all-new recordings of the killer. Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein premieres on MGM+ on Sunday, September 17th.

For years, filmmakers, journalists, and scholars have tried to unravel the mind of this notorious killer, and with new reveals and never-before-heard recordings, viewers will be transported to late-1950s Middle America and submerged in Gein’s perverse mind. The series explores Gein’s upbringing and twisted relationship with his mother (which famously inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho), his early grave robbing, the murders leading up to his arrest, and the police’s discovery of his terrifying house of horrors — all accompanied by the brand-new revelations revealed in the recordings.

ComicBook.com caught up with Day to talk the new series, uncovering the killer’s crimes, and unexpected revelations.

ComicBook.com: When it comes to Ed Gein, whether it was hearing about the man or hearing about the myths or hearing about the connection to Texas Chain Saw Massacre or Psycho, can you recall the first time that you heard of Ed Gein and, also, what do you feel it is that sets him apart from Dahmer, Gacy, or Bundy that just really intrigued you?

James Buddy Day: I don’t remember the first time I heard about Ed Gein. I’ve known about him for years and years. I’ve been fascinated with serial killers since high school. I am sure I’ve read Harold Schechter’s book decades ago or whenever it came out, I think it came out in the ’90s or something. But what sets him apart for me is, more than Dahmer and Gacy, the idea that he existed before our modern true-crime era. He was the first — and I know he wasn’t the first American serial killer. There’s H.H. Holmes and Albert Fish, and you can point to a bunch of people, and even going back to Jack the Ripper in London. But Ed Gein is the first “monster in plain sight” story. It’s the first haunted house horror story, really. It’s the first time a serial killer was adapted into a movie. 

I think it’s no coincidence that In Cold Blood, the Truman Capote book, came out the year before Psycho. So this was obviously  … There’s something in the water at that time. All of a sudden, America’s starting to become fascinated with serial killers. They didn’t call them serial killers, but with that kind of person. I think Ed Gein stands alone in that his influence really shaped, not only true crime, but horror, and it’s an influence that you can still see to this very day, like, movies coming out today. I think there’s horror filmmakers making horror movies not realizing they’re adapting Ed Gein. It’s that much part of the culture at this point. 

How did this idea of the documentary actually come about? Was it you were pursuing it and then these tapes were unearthed or was it that the tapes were discovered and then the production team reached out to you to get you involved?

It was the latter. The tapes were recorded by Judge Boyd Clark, recorded in 1957. They were in a safety deposit box for years, only known to his family. His family, in their later years, this is well after his death, decided, “Hey, we want to do something with these.” It’s like 2019 through 2020. They reached out to a production company, which I know, Roots Productions, and it’s founded by Josh Canoe and Jill Howerton. Jill Howerton is Glenn Howerton’s wife, from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. They reached out to me through a mutual friend, and then the rest is history. 

I had known about Ed Gein, I was fascinated about Ed Gein. As soon as someone called me and said, “Hey, would you be interested in hearing an unheard tape of Ed Gein?” I’m like, “Yes, of course. Of course I would be interested in that.” And then we just got together and we’re like, “We’re going to do something really cool with this.” 

Because he has this public persona, The Plainfield Ghoul, what surprised you the most when you were researching Gein, and then also what do you think, along those lines, is the most misunderstood element of his public persona?

Well, I think the most misunderstood element — I’ll answer your questions in reverse. The most misunderstood element of his persona is that the idea of the serial killer has become a myth, right? Most people, when you say “serial killer,” they think of Hannibal Lecter or Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. Or, in real life, they think of Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer. Those real-life people are serial killers, but they’ve become like characters, they’ve become supervillains, they’re not real people. We don’t have a lot of insight into who these people really were. 

Ed Gein defies all those stereotypes. He defies all those expectations. He’s this meek, mild, humble guy. He’s a babysitter. He goes across the street and has pie with his neighbor. He walks into town and goes to the grocery store, the hardware store, and nobody blinks an eye. And then he goes home and commits atrocities in his kitchen and is eating beans out of human skulls. And that, to me, is scary on another level. 

Whenever we do these things, I’ll go back and I’ll watch all the documentaries that have been made about him and read all the books. What I found in the pieces that have been made about Ed Gein up until now, is that they’re really good at saying, “This is what happened. Isn’t that crazy? This is what happened. Isn’t that crazy?” But no one really says, “Well, wait, why? Why was he making a skin suit? Why was he making skin masks?” It’s always, in the past, it’s just dismissed as “evil,” he’s evil. But that doesn’t really explain anything. So in our series, I wanted to really dive a lot deeper and explore what is he really doing and why is he doing this? Where is this coming from?

There was a lot that we found that was surprising to me, like finding direct references in the magazines he was reading to the things he was making and how the Nazi atrocities were being reported in the contemporary media at the time he was doing this and there’s all sorts of correlations there. I found that really fascinating. 

You say the name “Ed Gein” and it conjures all sorts of imagery, and he’s clearly had a direct influence on the world of horror. Your series, it walks that line between being a horror TV show and a true-crime TV show. There’s a little bit more personality about how you’re telling the story. How do you find that balance of not fully romanticizing or embellishing, how do you avoid into the leaning full-blown salacious stuff while also keeping it grounded while there are real victims who suffered because of him?

Well, I love subversive storytelling, and I’m just always drawn to projects where you think you’re getting something and then you get something you didn’t expect. For me, the greatest example is the documentary Capturing the Friedmans. I remember watching that movie, and for those who are unfamiliar, it’s an Academy Award-winning documentary. It’s brilliant. It’s about a family who is seemingly defending their father against sexual allegations that he’s innocent of, that’s the premise of the movie. But then as you come to watch that movie, it turns into something completely different. I love that rollercoaster ride for the audience. So every time we’re trying to do something, I’m always like, “Well, how can we take them on that ride?” 

In Ed Gein’s case, specifically, America has processed Ed Gein’s crimes for decades with horror, that’s how they’ve done this. I did a whole five-part documentary series on how horror is cathartic on MGM+. So that’s how America has chosen to deal with Ed Gein’s crimes, is they’ve chosen to process them through horror. We felt like, in terms of a documentary, horror is the best way to tell this story, because that’s how people are familiar with it. That’s how it’s processed. So we’re paying homage to that, but it also opens the door for us to use horror as a metaphor, because horror viewers and people watching horror know that you need to look beyond the disturbing parts and see the metaphors underneath. 

Looking to the future, is there another figure, whether it’s true crime or not true crime, are there any other subjects that you’d really like to dive deep into with the documentary series?

There’s a lot. I have a lot on my mind. I’m fascinated with serial killers. I’m fascinated with psychopaths. There’s a few serial killers I’ve been exploring for a number of years, and those projects haven’t come to fruition for a number of reasons. I’m fascinated by the darkest side of humanity, and so anytime an opportunity comes to really explore a serial killer, whether that be Charles Manson or Ed Gein or Bruce McArthur, or the number of projects I’ve done, I’m always up for that. I think there’s always stuff to learn, and it’s just so fascinating. 

Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein premieres on MGM+ on Sunday, September 17th.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter.