What happened to Adeline Watkins, Ed Gein's 'girlfriend'?

It's fair to say that Monster: The Ed Gein Story viewers had a lot of questions after watching the hit Netflix series – one of which was what happened to Adeline Watkins?

The Idol star Suzanna Son plays the intriguing figure, who is depicted in Ryan Murphy's series as having a romantic relationship with Gein despite becoming aware of his horrific actions.

Like many aspects of the true crime anthology – such as Gein's supposed involvement in helping the FBI catch Ted Bundy and whether or not he really did kill his brother Henry – it's prompted people to wonder how accurate the show's presentation of Watkins really is.

So, who was the real-life Adeline Watkins, and did she date Ed Gein whilst knowing about his crimes? Read on for everything there is to know about the figure from Monster season 3.

Who was Ed Gein’s alleged girlfriend, Adeline Watkins?

The real-life Adeline Watkins lived in Plainfield, Wisconsin, in an apartment alongside her widowed mother.

Shortly after Gein’s arrest in 1957, Watkins told the Minneapolis Tribune that she had been in a relationship with Gein for over 20 years, and described him as “good and kind and sweet”.

Watkins’s mother also backed up her claims.

Watkins also told reporters that she and Gein shared a love of literature, and that the two often discussed crime in the news.

“I guess we discussed every murder we ever heard about,” she said. “Eddie told [me] how the murderer did wrong, what mistakes he had made. I thought it was interesting.”

Watkins went on to add that their last meeting was on 6th February 1955, more than two years before his arrest, when Gein proposed to her: “I turned him down, but not because there was anything wrong with him.”

She went on to say she didn’t feel she deserved 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,” she said.

Watkins’s claims about a 20-year relationship with Gein became a media sensation, with many other publications running the story.

However, two weeks after the report was published, Watkins retracted her claims, telling the Stevens Point Journal that the story “was blown up out of proportion to its importance and containing untrue statements”.

She clarified to the publication that they had dated for less than a year.

Did Adeline Watkins know about Ed Gein's crimes?

Gein, who passed away in 1984, never publicly acknowledged Watkins and there is no evidence to support the TV show's depiction of her as complicit in his crimes.

How old was Adeline Watkins?

The real-life Watkins was 50 years old when she claimed she had been in a relationship with Gein for over two decades back in 1957.

This means she was significantly older at that time than the depiction of the character we see in the series, who is played by 29-year-old Suzanna Son.

Is Adeline Watkins still alive today?

Information is scarce surrounding what happened to Watkins after Gein’s case.

However, given Watkins was born in 1907, it’s likely that she is no longer alive today.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is now streaming on Netflix – sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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