The Loved Dead

When initially published, "The Loved Dead" was banned by the state of Indiana. You're invited to see why for yourself. In it, Lovecraft and Eddy crafted one of the most disturbing characters in fiction. We see him grow from a youth ostracized from society because of his differences, to going on and becoming a necrophilia, one who has sexual intercourse with or attraction to corpses, and later a serial killer. The character's even more disturbing in that he's a reminder that while he's only fiction, people like him really exist: Theodore "Ted" Bundy and Ed Gein being only a few of far too many.

Theodore Robert Bundy (born Theodore Robert Cowell, November 24, 1946 - January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer, kidnapper, rapist, and necrophile who assaulted and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. Shortly before his execution, after more than a decade of denials, he confessed to 30 homicides committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. The true victim count remains unknown and could be much higher.

Edward Theodore "Ed" Gein (August 27, 1906 - July 26, 1984) was an American killer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. Gein confessed to killing two women: tavern owner Mary Hogan on December 8, 1954, and a Plainfield hardware store owner, Bernice Worden, on November 16, 1957. Initially found unfit for trial, after confinement in a mental health facility, in 1968, Gein was found guilty but legally insane for the murder of Worden and was confined in psychiatric institutions where he died.