Psycho
Robert Bloch wrote most of his 1959 novel before learning about Ed Gein. But the real-life case of a loner with a mother fixation and murderous tendencies—plus a farmhouse full of artistically manipulated, grave-robbed body parts—informed the public’s perception of the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film, which was released three years after Gein’s sensational arrest. The idea that someone like Norman Bates actually existed in our world made Psycho all the scarier.
