Plainfield Cemetery Investigation

This blog post was written by Whitney Dankemeyer.

It is one thing to know when a spirit is present; it is another to aid them in crossing over. As witches and sensitives, Two Halves and Nicole will come across investigations where spirits are trapped and need help moving on. Having been recently brought to our attention, it is rumored there are wandering spirits at Plainfield, Wisconsin’s Plainfield Cemetery. We were informed the spirits haunting these grounds are the unrested victims of the troubled Ed Gein.

Why are these spirits trapped? Once laid to rest, Gein had done the unspeakable and exhumed the graves of females at Plainfield Cemetery. Once the burial sites were disturbed, so were the souls of the innocent victims. Prior to Gein’s trial in the late 1950’s, he had been digging up graves at three different cemeteries for twelve years. That means for almost 80 years, the victims have been roaming their burial site, short of answers as to why they’re there. This did not sit well with our group, so we made it a personal commitment to visit Plainfield cemetery and give the victims the thing they need most: peace.

Edward (Ed) Theodore Gein was born in Lacrosse, Wisconsin on August 27, 1906. He and his older brother Henry George Gein were born into an unfortunate life, with an alcoholic father and an emotionally manipulative mother. They lived on an isolated farm with their parents until their father, George Philip Gein, died in April of 1940. That is when things began to take a turn for the worst. 

On May 16, 1944, there was a fire on the marsh. This was on the Gein’s property, and mysteriously on the same day, Henry passed away. While it was easiest to assume the fire was the cause of death, Henry had unexplainable head wounds when he died. Officials said Henry died of a heart attack, but others suspected Ed was the one who killed him. Our paranormal group agrees with this, assuming his mother was aware of his illness and covered up the occurrence to protect him. If this is true, it was an incredibly selfish act that cost two lives and disturbed many families in the years to come.

In December of 1945, only a year after Henry passed away, his mother, Augusta Wilhelmine Gein, passed away from health complications. Ed continued to live on the farm alone at 39-years-old. He had completely isolated himself from others, only coming to town during the day when he needed mechanical services. There were times he would even come to town with packages of venison, despite not being a hunter himself. Though the community found him a strange individual, no one believed he was capable of such deranged hobbies. 

At this time, Two Halves and Nicole would like to warn any individuals with a weakened stomach to skip the next three paragraphs as we describe the crime scenes.

On November 16, 1957, Ed made a trip into town for antifreeze. He stopped at Worden’s Hardware Store, operated by Bernice Worden after her husband passed away in 1931. Gein took a .22-caliber rifle out of a display case and directed it at Bernice. Once he shot her to death, he slit her throat and drug her body out the back door. He put her in his truck and took off. Bernice was only 58-years-old when he was murdered.

On that same day in November of 1957, Bernice’s son Frank stopped by the store to find his mother missing. All the doors were left unlocked, which concerned her son because it was unusual for her to do so. Upon further investigation, he discovered a trail of blood leading from the store window to the back door. Just outside the back door, Frank found a receipt with Edward Gein printed on it. He immediately called the police, reported his mother’s disappearance, and name-dropped Gein.

When the police arrived at Gein's farmhouse, they first found a bare, headless body hanging upside down on a pulley in the backyard. They called for reinforcements, and then they continued to search the house. Once they were inside of Gein’s home, they found numerous pots, furniture, and clothing made out of human parts and skin. The lamp shades were skin, there was a belt made of female nipples, a shoebox under the bed of female genitals, and a box of severed noses in the corner of a room. The fridge was full of human organs, and there were at least 15+ women faces on the wall. This investigation continued into the night, and at 4:30 am the next morning, they found the hanging body’s missing head in a bag. The head belonged to the one and only Bernice Worden of Worden’s Hardware Store. 

Ed Gein was immediately arrested and brought in for questioning. He took accountability for the things in the house, digging up graves at three surrounding cemeteries (Plainfield, Spiritland, and Hancock), and killing two people. On December 8, 1954, Gein shot and killed the Portage County tavern keeper named Mary Hogan. Not only did he admit to killing a second person, but they found her face mounted on the wall with the others. After he confessed to killing the two women, he took accountability for grave robbing the last twelve years after his mother died. He chose the recently buried females who reminded him of his mother, and robbed their graves during the night.

Meanwhile, Gein’s home became what people called the “House of Horrors.” The community did not want his home to become a monument for Plainfield, so when it was put up for auction, they all protested. When there was nothing else that could be done about the house being on the market, the home mysteriously burned down the night of March 20, 1958. Everything was destroyed, and no one was charged.

Those who skipped the last three paragraphs may come back now.

In January of 1958, Gein had trial, however, he was declared mentally unfit and sent to the Wisconsin Central State Hospital. He stayed there for ten years until November of 1968 when he was convicted of first-degree murder of Bernice Worden. Trial did not go in favor of the Plainfield Community, as he was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a separate hearing. He was then transferred to Waupan, and from there he was moved to the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin. Staff of the mental health facility said he had a case of schizophrenia and his Oedipus complex attachment to his mother was unnatural. He lived the rest of his life in the mental institute until he died of cancer on July 26, 1984. He was 77-years-old.

When Gein passed away, he was buried with the victims in Plainfield Cemetery. He is laid to rest next to his family, though his headstone never stayed in one place. The first time Gein’s headstone was stolen was in 2000, and it was found a year later in the state of Washington. It was transported back to Wisconsin where it is said to now sit in the Waupaca Museum. People still visit Gein’s family today.

The girls and I arrived at Plainfield Cemetery the afternoon of Saturday, July 29, 2023. Swan and I have already visited this cemetery before, so we drove straight for the Gein family plots. We wanted to verify if the Gein family was at all present in case they were a potential threat for moving on the victims. When we got to the plots, from left to right, the order was Henry, Ed, Augusta, and George. We set up a cat ball in front of the first three, and this was because George wasn’t alive when the marsh fire occurred. If they were here, we wanted answers about what happened that day.

After asking a few questions over the span of five minutes, we did not receive a single response from the Gein family. This gave us the okay to meander to the center of the cemetery and station ourselves for an Estes session. We spread the cat balls out across the lawn, set up the camera, and began an EVP session with the victims. Before the Estes Method had started, Swan already heard, “Almost ready” through the headphones. We waited for a few minutes until the first cat ball lit up to start asking questions.

My first question to the spirits was if the person communicating could tell me their name. Swan said she heard a raspy, older woman’s voice but was unable to make out what was being said. The spirit responded again and asked, “Have any other girls?” It took us until after the investigation to realize that she could’ve been asking if Ed’s killed any more women. At the time, we just said it was only us. I thanked the spirit for setting off the cat ball, but the spirit responded, “Her.” It appears others were also present and using the cat ball at the same time.

I asked the spirit again if they would tell us their name, and they responded, “I’m B.” Nicole said hi to B, and I asked if they were Bernice. We didn’t get an immediate response, so I turned to Nicole to explain who Bernice was. As I was telling her I was unsure if Bernice was buried there, the cat ball went off as confirmation. We even googled it at the end of the session to ensure she was buried in Plainfield cemetery.

I took a moment to explain to Bernice (and whoever else was with us at the time) that they could use our energy to manipulate the devices if they needed help to speak. Shortly thereafter, I proceeded with questions. I asked, “Are there still victims trapped here?” and “Do you know why you’re here?” We received a few responses that seemed like they were confused. Then we received, “Very slight,” as in they very slightly knew why they were trapped at this cemetery. I turned to Nicole to explain to her I wasn't sure if the spirits are aware they were disturbed. I told her if they weren’t aware, I needed to figure out a way to bring it to their attention. While I said I wasn’t sure if they were aware, Swan said “Nah.”

I directed my focus back to Bernice and asked, “B, do you know why you’re here?” and she answered, “I’m working.” This gave us the confirmation we needed to know that we really did have Bernice because she was working at her Hardware Store the day she was murdered. We spent a few moments talking with her about setting off the cat ball (which she did), and then we asked her if anyone else was with her. She said, “They couldn’t travel.” I asked if they were unable to move on, and Bernice said it was “the energy.” I asked if they were all stuck here, and she responded, “YEAAAAAH.”

Because we received all the validation we needed that there were victims still present, we finished asking them questions and moved onto telling them that we could set them free. I said if they needed help moving on we could aid them with doing so, and that was when Swan said she heard either “Hell” or “Help.” We reassured them that we were offering to help them cross over, and someone responded, “Coffee.” I said, “We don’t have any coffee, but we brought the light.” They seemed to be okay with this. The answer we received was “Awesome.”

We asked the victims present if they were excited to be free. One of the spirits answered, “Just a wonder,” but we told them they didn’t have to wonder anymore. Nicole and I told the spirits they get to finally go, move on, and be free. We had a couple jabs thereafter that were directed at Gein’s mother, but aside from that, the spirits were showing us pure excitement about moving on.

At this point, we closed the session and positioned ourselves for a meditation to walk the victims towards the light. We envisioned a bright, white light and allowed the spirits to come forward one at a time. We waited until we saw the last victim become absorbed in light, and then we watched as the light started to diminish. We waited until the light was completely gone to conduct another session, but we received no further communication while we were there. The victims were finally free from the doings of Edward Gein.

While spiritually draining, this investigation felt incredibly rewarding. Not every spirit haunting a location is there by choice, and not all of those spirits know how to cross over to the other side. It has been a pleasure to be a part of this experience and know in the back of our minds we helped these victims find peace.

Thanks for reading.

Supporting Links:

• Infamous serial killer Ed Gein dies | July 26, 1984 | HISTORY

• The story of Ed Gein, one of the worst maniacs in history | by Crime, Gangs & Passion | Medium

• A Look Back at the ‘Plainfield Butcher,’ Grave Robber Ed Gein | The Hanneman Archive

• Plainfield Cemetery in Plainfield, Wisconsin - Find a Grave Cemetery

• Grave of Ed Gein – Plainfield, Wisconsin - Atlas Obscura

• Wisconsin's 10 most haunted places: Summerwind, Bloody Bride Bridge (jsonline.com)