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Copyright by Frances Jane Guilfoyle 2003 The Dissertation Committee for Frances Jane Guilfoyle Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: “A Boy’s Best Friend is his Mother”: Cinematic Re-tellings of the Ed Gein Story Committee: Janet Staiger, Supervisor Thomas Schatz Mary Kearney Ann Cvetkovich Lisa Moore “A Boy’s Best Friend is his Mother”: Cinematic Re-tellings of the Ed Gein Story by Frances Jane Guilfoyle, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2003 For my daughter Sophie. My biggest supporter and my best friend. Acknowledgements This dissertation would not exist without the help, support, encouragement love, and extreme patience of numerous people. My deepest gratitude to my advisor Janet Staiger, whose guidance and perseverance made this project possible. Her experience, expertise and enthusiasm kept me going in the face of numerous obstacles, both intellectual and personal. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee. My heartfelt thanks to Tom Schatz, who planted the seeds of this dissertation in his Hitchcock class, and whose support has always been available, generous and much appreciated. To Ann Cvetkovich, who provided invaluable last minute feedback with incredibly good grace, and to Mary Kearney and Lisa Moore, whose company, opinions, and advice I have thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks also to the many fellow graduate students who made my time at UT the most stimulating, rewarding and fun years of my life. To Bryan Fruth, who was my constant companion during our first years here, and to Sharon Ross and Susan McLealand, who have always been there for me when I’ve needed them and whose friendship is one of the most valuable things I’ve gained during my time in Austin. Also to Christina Lane, Sue Murray and Alison Macor who were my role models for the exemplary graduate student during my first years here (and a lot of fun). Special thanks to my closest friends who provided financial, emotional and every other kind of support throughout the dissertation process. Beth Orr, v whose generosity and love allowed me to finish this, and who always expressed delight and commiseration at the right times. Laurie Schulze without whom this whole endeavor would never have begun, let alone ended, and who has always been there for me, no matter what the circumstances. To Kim and Aime for providing an ever-available source of social fun and great conversation, and never complaining when I flaked on our plans because I had to “work on my disseration.” And to Johnny for always being happy to see me. Last, but by no means least, thanks to Sandy Sharp who has carried me (almost literally) through this last year, providing encouragement in all the right places, and lots of love, sometimes tough but always unconditional. Thank you Sophie for your unending patience with our state of impoverishment and for making my life always interesting. You are the best child a mother could ever wish for. And thank you Mum. There is nothing I can say to express my appreciation for your endless support. vi “A Boy’s Best Friend is his Mother”: Cinematic Re-tellings of the Ed Gein Story Publication No._____________ Frances Jane Guilfoyle, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2003 Supervisor: Janet Staiger This dissertation analyzes narrative re-tellings of the Ed Gein case, which occurred in Plainfield, Wisconsin in 1957. The author looks at true crime accounts of the event, the Psycho and Texas Chain Saw Massacre series, and The Silence of the Lambs. She examines the fantasies and anxieties that underlie these narratives and the shifts that take place in their articulation across the films, revealing patterns of repetition and variation that point to a central set of issues and concerns. This dissertation uses psychoanalytic theory and psychoanalytical narrative theory to carry out close, symptomatic readings of the texts. These readings demonstrate that the texts build their fantasies around the desire for a return to a pre-oedipal state, and that four anxieties repeatedly accompany this fantasy: the random and unexpected eruption of violence, the instability of vii identity, the family as the site of potential corruption and violence, and the past’s influence on the present. The narrativization of the Gein event functions to negotiate the relationship between the pleasurable expression of taboo wishes and the censorship of those wishes. This analysis contributes to an understanding of the function of narrative repetition, particularly in relation to the horror genre, and the relationship between a real event and fictional re-tellings of that event. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................1 SETTING THE SCENE: ED GEIN, PSYCHO AND THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE ................................................................................................54 THE PERVERSE MIDDLE: PSYCHO AND THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW II AND III.................................................................................................................99 LAUGHING IN THE FACE OF DEATH: PSYCHO AND THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW IV .................................................................................................140 ACADEMY AWARDS AND EXPERIMENTAL ART: THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS AND GUS VAN SANT’S PSYCHO..........................................166 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................190 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................200 VITA...................................................................................................................210 ix Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Aside, perhaps, from Vlad the Impaler, no other person has inspired as many horror movies as Edward R. Gein.1 According to Andrew Collins, “The slasher movie was born on the night of November 17, 1957, in Plainfield, Wisconsin, when Sheriff Arthur Schley entered the farmhouse of Ed Gein, a quiet local man with a funny eye who never got over the death of his mother.”2 The disappearance of Plainfield resident Bernice Worden, led local police to Gein's farmhouse where they found her decapitated and butchered body hanging by its heels in the shed. Gein was taken into custody and police entered his farmhouse having little idea what they would find. Inside were the remains of approximately fifteen female bodies. Detectives found ten heads, four noses that did not come from those heads, skin-upholstered furniture, a drum made from human skin, and a box of vulvas some of which had been painted silver. They also found various body parts that had been fashioned into items of clothing, including several pairs of “leggings” and the upper front torso of a female body with strings attached to the sides so that it could be worn. News reports expressed horror at what was believed to be the site of multiple murders, a “human abattoir,” and were no less horrified when Gein began to insist 1 Tom Dewe Mathews, “Murderer, necrophiliac, cannibal—role model,” The Guardian, 31 July 1998, sec. Features: 6. 2 Andrew Collins, “Slash and Grab,” The Observer, 14 March 1999, sec. Screen: 2. 1 that the majority of the body parts had come from graveyards. Gein only confessed to two murders, and although police suspected that he was responsible for several disappearances in the surrounding area, they could never prove this. Gein was not brought to trial by reason of insanity and spent the rest of his life in institutions. The discovery of the bodies and subsequent investigation received a great deal of attention from the media. Rachael Bell and Marilyn Bardsley write, “when investigators revealed the facts about what was found on Eddie Gein’s farm . reporters from all over the world flocked to the small town of Plainfield, Wisconsin.” 3 Psychologists were fascinated by the case and, they say, “children who knew the exploits of Eddie began to sing songs about him and make jokes.”4 When the contents of Ed Gein’s farm were auctioned, curious visitors descended on the town to bid and watch. His car was purchased by a carnival sideshow operator and apparently, over a two-day period at a county fair, 2000 people paid 25 cents each to view the inside of the “ghoul car.” The sign outside the tent that housed the car read: “See the car that hauled the dead from their graves! Ed Gein’s crime car! $1000 reward if it’s not true!”5 The story of Gein’s “house of horror” did not end with media reports and curiosity seekers. Robert Bloch says the murders inspired him to write his novel 3 Rachael Bell and Marilyn Bardsley, “Eddie Gein,” The Crime Library, 2001, www.crimelibrary.com/gein/geinmeida.htm (21 Sept. 2002), Media Frenzy. 4 Bell and Bardsley. 5 Troy Taylor, “Wisconsin’s ‘Psycho’: Ed Gein,” Weird Wisconsin, 29 June 2000, <www.weird- wi.com/ghouls/wispsycho.htm> (21 Sept. 2002). 2 Psycho, which, when adapted by Alfred Hitchcock for the screen, sparked renewed interest in the original event. Similarly, the media resurrected the details of the Gein case in the wake of Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs. True crime books are still being written about “the original psycho” and Gein's story can be found all over the web. From original