After Ed Gein's arrest in 1957, Adeline Watkins, a neighbor in Plainfield, Wisconsin, initially claimed in a newspaper interview that she had a 20-year romantic relationship with Gein. She described him as "good and kind and sweet" and even said he proposed to her in 1955, which she declined. However, only weeks later, Watkins retracted her statements, clarifying that they had a brief, casual relationship lasting less than a year. She said there was no 20-year romance but rather a platonic friendship with occasional visits and outings. She maintained that Gein was quiet and polite. After this, Watkins withdrew from the public eye and lived a quiet life in Wisconsin until she passed away at age 81 in 2003. There is no evidence she was involved in Gein's crimes or that anything dramatic happened to her after his capture.

In summary, despite sensational initial claims, Adeline Watkins's relationship with Ed Gein was brief and non-romantic in the long term. She lived peacefully after the events, with no public controversy or notable incidents connected to Gein's crimes following her retraction of those early statements.