There is one crucial figure in the story of grave-robbing killer Edward “Ed” Gein: Adeline Watkins. She claimed to have been Gein’s girlfriend and is played by actress Suzanna Son in Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story. The series prompted viewers’ curiosity in the real-life Wisconsin woman and her alleged connection to the “Butcher of Plainfield.” So, was Watkins really Gein’s girlfriend, and what happened to her?
Hollywood Life has all the details we know so far about Watkins below.
Who Is Ed Gein?
Also called the “Butcher of Plainfield,” Gein was a serial killer and grave robber that committed his crimes in Plainfield, Wisconsin, during the 1950s. Police discovered that he had exhumed buried corpses from their graves and kept their remains in the form of keepsakes in his home. He composed masks, bowls, a lampshade and more at-home appliances from human skin, bones and body parts. Gein also admitted to the murders of tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954 and hardware store owner Bernice Worden in 1957.
Gein’s gruesome crimes gripped the nation throughout the ’50s and ’60s. He was arrested in 1957 and was kept in a mental health facility until he was fit to stand trial. In 1968, he was deemed legally insane and spent the rest of his life at the Mendota Mental Health Institute until he died in 1984 from respiratory failure. He was 77.
Who Is Adeline Watkins to Ed Gein?
Watkins, a Plainfield, Wisconsin, resident, claimed to have been Gein’s girlfriend for 20 years. Gein never confirmed or denied it.
Shortly after Gein’s 1957 arrest, Watkins spoke with the Minneapolis Tribune and described her and Gein’s alleged years-long relationship.
“Eddie and I discussed books,” she claimed at the time. “We never read the same ones, but we liked to talk about them anyway. … I guess we discussed every murder we ever heard about. Eddie told [me] how the murderer did wrong, what mistakes he had made. I thought it was interesting.”
Watkins claimed that Gein proposed to her on their final date in 1955, but she rejected him.
“I turned him down, but not because there was anything wrong with him,” she said. “It was something wrong with me. I guess I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to live up to what he expected of me. … I loved him and I still do.”
Calling Gein “Eddie,” Watkins described him as “so nice.” However, she later changed her statements about Gein and told the Plainfield Sun that she was never Gein’s “sweetheart,” just a friend.
“There was no 20-year romance,” she said.
Where Is Adeline Watkins Now?
Watkins disappeared from the spotlight after she walked back on her statements about an alleged romance with Gein. It’s unclear what happened to her.