The truth about Adeline Watkins and whether she really was Ed Gein’s girlfriend for 20 years

Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story introduced viewers to Adeline Watkins, a woman portrayed as the serial killer’s long-term girlfriend. In the show, she has a close and complicated relationship with Gein, but is it all true?

Adeline Watkins was a real woman who lived in Plainfield, Wisconsin, around the same time as Ed Gein. Reports at the time described her as a neighbour and companion, and she became connected to Gein’s story after his arrest in 1957.

Gein’s crimes are often remembered for the grisly discoveries inside his Plainfield farmhouse, but his personal life is just as unsettling. Among the most puzzling stories is his supposed romance with neighbour Adeline Watkins.

‘I went with Ed for over 20 years’

via Netflix

In November 1957, just after Gein was caught, the Minneapolis Tribune ran an interview with Adeline where she claimed to have been involved with Gein for decades.

“I went with Ed for over 20 years,” she told the paper. She described him as “good and kind and sweet,” and added, “Sometimes I felt I was taking advantage of him, but he always wanted to do the things I liked.”

Adeline painted a picture of Gein as an attentive, almost gentle companion. She said they often went to the cinema and local taverns, though she admitted she preferred beer while Gein “always drank a milkshake.”

She also revealed how they bonded over books, even if they didn’t share the same tastes. “Eddie liked books about lions and tigers and Africa and India,” she explained.

Most Read

Here’s exactly how to do the AI homeless man prank that’s going around TikTok right now

Hideous videos literally show Bonnie Blue in the act on uni campus during gross Bang Bus tour

Bonnie Blue reveals exact number of Freshers she slept with on Bang Bus tour and I’m shook

More chillingly, Adeline admitted they sometimes discussed murders in the news. “Eddie told how the murderer did wrong, what mistakes he had made,” she recalled. “I thought it was interesting.”

When asked about their final meeting in 1955, Adeline made a startling claim. “That night he proposed to me,” she said. Then she clarified: “Not in so many words, but I knew what he meant.”

She turned him down, but not, she insisted, because of anything wrong with him. “It was something wrong with me. I guess I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to live up to what he expected of me.”

And even after Gein’s horrific crimes came to light, she told the paper, “I loved him and I still do.”

Adeline’s mother, Enid Watkins, also spoke to reporters. She described Gein as polite and dependable, saying he always made sure her daughter was home by 10 p.m.

Adeline Watkins revealed that the earlier reports of her relationship with Ed Gein were ‘exaggerated’

via Netflix

But in December 1957, Adeline gave another interview to the Stevens Point Journal, where she dismissed the earlier reports as “exaggerated… blown up out of proportion to its importance and containing untrue statements.”

The report clarified that, while Adeline had known Gein for about 20 years, their romantic involvement was short-lived. The report stated, “Actually, Miss Watkins declared, Gein had called on her for only seven months, and then only intermittently.” Apparently, they went to the Plainfield Theatre “a few times,” but it was far from the decades-long relationship described in the first article. In the later report, Adeline also denied the claim that she and her mother had ever called Gein “sweet.”

So, were they really together?

via Netflix

Ed Gein never publicly acknowledged Adeline at all. He never confirmed their relationship, nor did he comment on the interviews she gave.

The evidence suggests Adeline and Ed were acquaintances who went out for a short period, but there’s no proof of a lasting, two-decade love story. The “girlfriend” angle, which Netflix leans on in Monster, appears to come mainly from that original 1957 interview, the one Adeline herself later walked back.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.