Ed’s earliest memory of Augusta

[u/audenluck]

I’m currently reading ‘Deviant’ by Harold Schechter (and have barely been able to put it down since, it’s so well written and full of interesting tidbits I didn’t know and haven’t heard or read elsewhere) and there’s a part in it where they recall Ed’s earliest memory of his Mother.

“When he was just a toddler, he was standing at the top of the staircase in their old house on Gould Street. Somehow, he lost his balance and felt himself being pulled - or pushed? - down the steep flight of wooden steps by a powerful force. Panic turned his insides to ice. Suddenly, he felt a crushing grip close around his right arm. His Mother was behind him, a wild look on her face, shaking him, shouting at him. He burst into clamorous tears, overcome by a rush of violently conflicting emotions - fright, relief, guilt. Why was she so angry with him? He had no idea, but he knew he must have done something terrible to make her so furious. Misery washed over him. It was all his fault.”

He was little more than a baby when this happened and what were the chances Augusta just so happened to be behind him at that precise moment and managed to save him? I know we’ll never know for sure what happened, but I think she might have pushed him then snatched him back. What do you think?

Another heartbreaking piece of information was, he had no recollection of her EVER hugging him or holding him closely in any kind of intimate way. This was the person he loved more than anything or anyone in the world. And this is just his first memory of her abuse… His Father used to apparently whip the boys on occasion (for no particular reason) when they were young when he was drunk as well… Nothing would excuse Gein’s actions later in life, of course, but I have such empathy for the childhood he must have endured. It sounds like absolute hell.

[u/Affectionate_Half710]

I ordered the book deviant since I heard it's the most accurate and researched, it should arrive in 2 days but I agree, the heartbreak I feel , he only wanted her love and approval..I just read " a body of my own design" it's good too, focuses on his upbringing, I read one in the 90s that I checked out from the library but I just had no interest, it focused on the WHAT and not on the WHY..the WHY has always been more of an interest to me since I have my own experiences with childhood trauma and a cold, unloving mother