re: #187 Targetpractice

Yeah, Gein’s one of those guys whose legend outstrips the reality, mostly because of the macabre manner in which he operated.

I remember the Gein case. It was the subject of lurid fascination for third graders of the time, me included. Our parents and teachers disapproved of this interest, of course, and forbade us to talk about it, which made it all the more interesting. We obviously didn’t understand the horrific sexual aspects, but that didn’t keep us from trying to find out, or from adding our own embellishments in breathless revelations to the rest of the gang. My friend Timmy, who was one of 13 children and whose parents were religious kooks, was a particularly rich source of new and ever more horrific Gein stories. There was a fad for jokes about Gein, known as “Geiners.” None of these will be repeated here, but they are easy enough to find on the net.