Deviant: The Shocking True Story of the Original "Psycho"

About this book

The truth behind the twisted crimes that inspired the films Psycho The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs... From "Americas principal chronicler of its greatest psychopathic killers" (The Boston Book Review) comes the definitive account of Ed Gein a mild-mannered Wisconsin farmhand who stunned an unsuspecting nation -- and redefined the meaning of the word "psycho." The year was 1957. The place was an ordinary farmhouse in Americas heartland filled with extraordinary evidence of unthinkable depravity. The man behind the massacre was a slight unassuming Midwesterner with a strange smile -- and even stranger attachment to his domineering mother. After her death and a failed attempt to dig up his mothers body from the local cemetery Gein turned to other grave robberies and ultimately multiple murders. Driven to commit gruesome and bizarre acts beyond all imagining Ed Gein remains one of the most deranged minds in the annals of American homicide. This is his story -- recounted in fascinating and chilling detail by Harold Schechter one of the most acclaimed true-crime storytellers of our time.