Welcome to Obsessed, where anything can happen. Hi, my name's Julie and I'm addicted to true crime. There, I said it guys, I said it. I am addicted to true crime and this is not, this is not the casual kind of true crime. Not the kind of like, I'm going to watch a date line before bed kind of addiction. I wake up at 2am and I'm googling Ed Gein. I'm googling monsters. I'm googling serial killers kind of obsession. And don't judge me. I know I'm not alone. I really know I'm not alone because I'm going to give you the stats. It's something that I like to say lies deep into my lawyer brain. This is a kind of obsession where I know more about forensic entomology than I think my warmer high school biology teacher knew about at the time where my husband walks through and my husband is like, oh my gosh Julie, what are you doing? And he hears the words blasting from the TV. He removed her skin and made a lampshade and he quietly backs out and just gags pretty much. Because he knows mom's decompressing, he shuts the door and just walks away silently and pretends that he never saw anything and probably just tells the kids to stay away from the bedroom. Yep, this could be called Ed Gein Effect, which is currently on Netflix. It is a gruesome account of a serial killer who inspired the movie Psycho, Silence of the Lambs and the Texas Chains massacre. A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some father beans and a nice chianti. While I was very appalled, it was a horrifying account of Ed Gein and what he did in Plainfield, Wisconsin in the 1950s. It gripped me. I don't know if there's something wrong with me and I hope somebody that's listening does understand this mindset. There is something about the true crime genre that pulls you in and you cannot look away. It is a train wreck. Ed Gein, he lived in Plainfield, Wisconsin, which by the way looks like the kind of place that you go for a peaceful fishing trip. It's not far from here. I live in Chicago area until you realize that this local handyman with the crooked hat, the crooked plaid hat to the side, who by the way, the actor, happens to be unusually handsome and you realize that this is semi-handsome and he wasn't handsome in real life by the way guys, but the actor who's playing him is relatively handsome. That this local handyman ended up having a side hobby which was sewing human flesh together and making wardrobes out of human skin. Horrifying. I couldn't stop watching. This was the first time I ever heard of Ed Gein. Horrifying. I couldn't stop watching, reading, watching, dissecting. Why? Because I really wanted to understand the mind of someone who could do this. And there was a layer of sympathy for this human being who was raised by a mother so controlling, so under the dogma of a religion that he had no way to think for himself. I had to understand his brain, but he was a horrifying, evil monster. How does someone like Ed Gein go from milk and bread and a sweet demeanor to creating do-it-yourself bone decor around his home? That's where I'm trying to figure that out. How do you get from A to B in such a lovely little pristine area in Wisconsin? And that my friends is where this addiction begins. Pretty scary. If you're wondering about who Ed Gein is, I recommend you. If you do have a strong stomach, check out the Monsters series on Netflix. It's new to Netflix and it has been number one. So I can't be the only one watching this with this true crime addiction. Fall season, I suggest listening to the number one ranked podcast in true crime, which is called Crime Junkie, hosted by Ashley Flowers. Again, I can't be the only one listening to true crime if it is the number one rated podcast. Ashley Flowers brings true crime to the next level and brings her listeners in on each case. She goes deep into these files and asks her crime junkies to help her solve these cases. And here's the wild part, guys. Tistically, over 70% of true crime podcast listeners are women. And if you're listening right now, chances are you're one of them. We're not just rubber-necking horror. We're studying survival crime junkies like Ashley Flowers crime junkies. Love to study how to survive. True crime, for me, is like studying a masterclass in survival and knowing what not to do. So when I'm taking a walk in the morning, I do power walks or jogs every morning at 5 a.m. I know what to look for. I know what to stay away from or who to stay away from. I know the body language to give off. I know where to stay away from because I understand, because I am a crime junkie. I am addicted to true crime. I am a crime fighter. That is perhaps one reason I am a crime junkie and addicted to true crime. We learn these red flags listening to true crime. We learn these red flags by listening to podcasts like crime junkies. We trust our gut and learn how to never accept help from a guy in a cast with a broken arm driving a Volkswagen Beetle, okay? Just saying. Psychologists have said that we consume true crime as a form of rehearsal for danger as well. So we rehearse this danger in our head by listening to true crime or watching true crime shows because our brains crave a sense of control. When we want to feel fear, but we know we're safe from fear, when we're wrapped in our little blanket in our beds, our buds are safely crooked into our ears and we're holding our Stanley cups or our mugs full of tea and we know we're safe and we're listening to this. We know we're safe. We can feel the fear, but we know we're not an imminent danger. There is that psychology of feeling fear, but we know we're safe. That is the true crime effect. Feeling fear, but knowing we're safe. That very well could be the true crime effect. What exactly would be a crime junkie effect or the true crime effect? Shows like crime junkie and my favorite murder, which is a really big popular podcast as well, created a sisterhood, which is slightly dark. It's slightly funny. It's slightly deranged, but it's deeply bonded in sisterhood. This has created intimate space for their listeners to really not only laugh about murder, I mean, not laugh because it's funny because it's too real. But talking about these murder shows while folding laundry or, you know, hopefully you have your earbuds in, but if you're driving your kids to practice, it's a diversion from the mundane or walking alone at night. These stories also remind us that knowledge is power. I felt a lot of power listening to these. It's so weird how much I know about different cases and when I see these or someone's talking about it. My brain has become a Rolodex of certain files of certain cases of cold cases of serial killers. Sometimes I worry about myself actually about how much I know about certain cases and I know I'm obsessed, but I am seriously prepared for worst case scenario. And being being very aware of my neighbor when a new neighbor comes in and everyone is saying he's so nice. But I can see behind the facade of people and I'm just kidding. I'm kind of kidding. I can see behind the facade of an actor because you're not fooling me, Mr. Mr. Okay. You're not fooling me. There's something very intimate about true crime as it taps into our primitive fears. These primitive fears of being hunted, the fear of not being believed, the fear of losing control. We love to be on that precipice of fear. We love to believe that we're not believed. The fear of being hunted, the scary part in my mind is that most true crime or all true crime is true. But in the same sense of the word, while this crime is true, it satisfies our craving for justice. When the bad guy finally gets caught, when the victim's story is told, we can exhale. We feel vindicated for that victim. And even if the victim, when the crime has not been solved, we feel a part of the story. We feel that we can help. We feel that we can find justice for this victim. We want to get the bad guy. We feel that we are a part of bringing justice for the families of the victims, even if we're just listening. And maybe, maybe if we're really honest with ourselves, guys, when we're listening to true crime deep down, we believe we'll never end up in a Netflix documentary. So yes, I'm a proud member of a true crime community. If loving true crime stories is wrong, I don't want to be right. We don't wear matching outfits, but we do have the best alivies. Maybe, just maybe. We're not addicted to murder, but we are addicted to survival. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go rewatch an episode of Mindhunter. Three search purposes. Thanks guys. Don't forget, get obsessed. And rate, review, and subscribe. Please share this episode with someone that you know may be addicted to true crime just like me. And trust no one except us, Unobsessed. Great review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.
