a good friend of mine was told the other day, in his ethics class, that ed gein was "one of the most notorious serial killers of our time; a true monster and a being deserving of what came to him."

Ed Gein basically was a killer and a gravedigger who made clothing and furniture out of human flesh and other parts of the anatomy. He was found guilty for his crimes and served life in an insane asylum. However, there is an ulterior side to his motives. You'll find the complete information here, at wikipedia. Its reliable enough, I promise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gein

So tell me what you think of Mr. Gein.

This man is absolutely horrible. What would possibly possess him to do these things? I read about his early life, and sure, it was horrible, but that gives him no right to do the things that he did!

I'm happy he got what he did. He was a terrible person and deserved to be punished.

that's so sick.

i am currently reading about charles manson now.  

you can easily say that he had no justification, but you have yet to provide an argument in your favor. you asked what posessed him to do these things. well, you said yourself what posessed him. his early life. so, first of all, you answered your own question.

second of all, what gives anyone the right to do anything?  in our world, we base our lives on the accepted ideals of good and evil. how can one judge someone simply because their views are different than the norm? 

he may have been a terrible person, but one can not judge a person's character if one has not met said person. you dont know Ed Gein, and neither do i. good people can do terrible things if they have enough motivation.

Exactly.
Most (if not all) serial murderers had a horrible, abusive homelife.  But at a certain point, each individual is responsible for their own decisions in life.  Regardless of how horrible your life may have been, if you are capable of distinguishing right from wrong then you are responsible for your own behavior and how you treat others.

In cases like Gein's, the parent(s) are as much to blame as their child is.  It's proof that some people should not be allowed to be parents, because how a person is raised is a huge determining factor in what kind of person they will be later in life.  That's why I have no respect for people who have children and then neglect or abuse them or just otherwise disregard what's best for their child.

You people act like what he did was wrong. Like what he did was unjustified. Like he was crazy or something. You have to deal with the fact that for every action you make against someone, there WILL be a reaction. Everytime you pick on the kid in the corner, it burns him. It will burn him until he is a burnt, spent husk of a man, awaiting the destruction of those who have caused him so much pain. Didn't you all learn anything from Columbine? You act like Gein was a bad person. The pain that he was caused, the suffering that was brought upon him, justified his actions. And you act like the victim was innocent. A prostitute, destined to have crack-babies and make other people as miserable as they are. He took dead bodies and turned them into beautiful art.

So did he really hurt anyone? Or did he do us all a favor by showing us an art that we cannot comprehend? You all treat everything out of the norm, out of your comfort zone as a backwards, crazy scheme to upset the status quo. Well, maybe you need a wakeup call. People like this, like him... Like ME are all too common. You burn people on a daily basis because they're different, and you will reap the rewards all too soon.

May whatever God you worship have mercy on your soul. Because I can assure you that we will not.

I agree that the way in which children are raised is a huge determining factor.  There are many many cases in which children in awful circumstances grow up to be upstanding citizens and people with nearly perfect childhoods turn into completely disgusting and worthless human beings, so it can't be said that the way you were raised completely determines who you become.  Still, though, I almost feel sorry for this guy b/c obviously his childhood led him to have some pretty serious mental disorders.

 Still, he chose to act in those ways and he deserved the punishment.

theres one everywhere you go. there is always the person picked on, the person tortured just because they are an easy target. Ed Gein is the result of that. no one deserves to be miserable, and people go out of their way to ruin the lives of others. its sickening what we do to each other, is it not? when i say evil, you see Ed Gein. when you say evil, i see you. i see your neighbor. i see the woman with the coach purse walking down the street. i see the man with the iphone and bluetooth headseat in the coffee shop.

Well, when the person is legitimately mentally ill and has no sense of right from wrong that is one thing.  When a person has a sense of right and wrong and chooses to do wrong, then they deserve to be punished (particularly when they're capable of knowing what the consequences of their actions could be).  If someone is going to willfully hurt others, then they do not deserve to be out in society preying on innocent people.

As far as basing our lives on accepted ideals of good and evil; those ideals were established for a reason.  There has to be an accepted norm for how to behave around other people in any given culture.  Granted, what is accepted varies from place to place (there are after all some things that are the norm in other cultures that are considered a huge violation of human rights in most other places).  Having a view that is different from the norm is fine.  However, there is an expectation about how to treat other human beings.  If someone is not going to abide by those laws and expectations, then they should not expect to be allowed to live peacefully in that society and not be punished for their actions.

And I don't know that I'd agree with you that you can't judge a person's character if you haven't met that person.  Just because someone has a horrible childhood does not give them a license to be a murderer, rapist, etc.  As long as they are capable of knowing right from wrong then it is up to no one but them how they choose to live.  After all, there are millions of children who are horrificly abused and the majority of them do not grow up to be murderers.

It's not an oxymoron.   I was saying that at a certain point everyone is responsible for their own actions and decisions.  However, parents should be held accountable for the way they raise their children and what they do to their children.  What happens in a person's childhood has a huge impact on their adult life.

And I wouldn't agree that if the parents are to be blamed then the 'same would have to be said for the horrible parents whose children turned into model members of society.'

wow, to think I was taking you seriously for a minute.  Now I know not to listen to you.

To Original poster, and Im sure im not alone, anyone that actually justifies horrid crimes against humanity/Dead or alive, to me is just as sick minded...

Yes he was meantly ill-IE sick minded... he was locked up for obvious reasons.I don't care for excuses.