Last night, I stayed up late reading pieces from the absolutely outstanding Library of America edition True Crime: An American Anthology. The last one I read before turning off the lights was Psycho author Robert Bloch's "Shambles of Ed Gein" (1960). Amazingly, the details of Gein's atrocities, which inspired the creation of Norman Bates, Jame Gumb, and Leatherface, didn't give me nightmares, that I recall anyway. But coincidentally this morning I was browsing LIFE's front page and found a gallery of vintage photos of Gein's house, his arrest, and the investigation into his grisly murders. Don't worry, no crime scene photos. And a courtroom image shows someone holding a drawing of one of Gein's "skin masks" he made from his victim's face, rather than a photo of said souvenir. From LIFE:
(Image above left): A look inside Gein's filthy, cluttered kitchen. Police found a number of human organs in Gein's refrigerator, along with several bowls that had been fashioned out of human skulls.
(Image above right): A portrait of Gein in court.
"Inside a Serial Killer's House" (LIFE)
True Crime: An American Anthology (Amazon)
