what happened to adeline watkins

Adeline Watkins was a real person known as a neighbor and occasional acquaintance of the infamous Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein. Initially, after Gein's arrest in 1957, Watkins claimed in a newspaper interview that she and Gein had been romantically involved for about 20 years, even suggesting that Gein had proposed to her. She described him as "good, kind, and sweet" and said they frequented movies and taverns together, and often discussed books and murder cases. However, Watkins later publicly refuted the idea of a long- term romance, calling the initial story "an exaggeration" and "blown out of proportion." She clarified that although they had known each other for two decades, their actual romantic involvement was brief—just about seven months, and only intermittently. She also denied that she was ever inside Gein's home, where his gruesome crimes were uncovered, and noted they were not very close. After Gein's crimes were exposed, Watkins maintained her distance from him. In popular culture, particularly in the 2025 Netflix series "Monster: The Ed Gein Story," Adeline Watkins is portrayed with a significant role as Gein's girlfriend, but this depiction is considered largely dramatized for storytelling purposes. The real extent and nature of their relationship remain unclear and subject to conflicting accounts from Watkins herself.