Nearly seven decades after Ed Gein’s twisted crimes shocked America, one haunting question still lingers:
Who was the woman who said she loved him? Her name was Adeline Watkins — a quiet woman from Plainfield, Wisconsin, who once claimed she was engaged to the man the world would later call The Butcher of Plainfield.
Now, as Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story peels back the layers of one of America’s darkest minds, Adeline’s story is being revisited — a strange tale of affection, denial, and the blurred lines between love and horror.
A “Sweet” Man — Or Something Else Entirely?
In 1957, just days after Ed Gein’s arrest for the brutal murder of Bernice Worden, 50-year-old Adeline Watkins made headlines when she told reporters she had been dating him for nearly 20 years.
“He was good, sweet, and kind,” she told the Minneapolis Tribune.
Her widowed mother agreed, saying Gein was “polite” and always brought her daughter home by ten.
According to Watkins, their dates were simple — movie nights, an occasional visit to a tavern (though Gein wasn’t much of a drinker).
“I’d almost have to drag Eddie into a bar,” she said with a nervous laugh. “He’d rather go for a milkshake.”
They bonded over books — Gein loved reading about lions, tigers, and faraway lands like India and Africa. Sometimes, they even discussed murder cases in the papers. “Eddie always said how the killer made mistakes,” she recalled. “He found it fascinating.”
“He Proposed — But I Said No”
Adeline claimed that on February 6, 1955, Ed Gein asked her to marry him.
“I turned him down,” she told reporters. “Not because something was wrong with him — but because something was wrong with me.”
In her words, Gein was “so nice about everything I wanted to do, I felt like I was taking advantage of him.”
Even after rejecting his proposal, she admitted softly, “I loved him… and I still do.”
A Sudden Change of Story
But then — everything changed.
After her story hit the front pages nationwide, Watkins quickly tried to walk it all back.
Days later, she reached out to her local newspaper, the Plainfield Sun, saying she had been misquoted.
“There was no 20-year romance,” she insisted. “We were just friends.”
She described their connection as friendly but casual — occasional movie nights, light conversation, nothing more.
And though she denied ever calling him “sweet” or “kind,” she still defended him as “quiet and polite.”
Yet even as she distanced herself from Gein, she confessed to feeling sorry for him.
Fact or Fantasy?
The truth about Adeline Watkins’ relationship with Ed Gein remains as murky as his crimes were horrifying.
Was she really the woman who almost married him — or just another voice caught in the hysteria that surrounded his arrest?
In Netflix’s new season of Monster, actress Suzanna Son brings Adeline’s mystery back to life, describing the role as “a dream come true.”
“I can’t explain what draws me to a character,” Son said in an interview. “But Adeline’s story—her fear, her fascination—felt impossible to ignore.”
A Woman in the Shadow of a Monster
Whether Adeline Watkins truly loved Ed Gein or simply got caught in his eerie orbit, one thing is certain — her name is forever tied to one of the darkest love stories in American crime history.
