Harold Schechter is a historian: he takes old files and yellowed newspaper clippings, and brings their stories to life. Deviant is about everyone's favorite ghoul, Ed Gein--whose crimes inspired the writers of Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. Schechter deftly evokes the small-town 1950s Wisconsin setting--not pretty farms and cheese factories, but infertile soil and a bleak, hardscrabble existence. The details of Gein's "death house" are perhaps well known by now, but the murderer's quietly crazy, almost gentle personality comes forth in this book as never before. As Gary Kadet wrote, in The Boston Book Review, "Schechter is a dogged researcher [who backs up] every bizarre detail and curious twist in this and his other books ... More importantly, he nimbly avoids miring his writing and our reading with minutiae or researched overstatement, which means that although he can occasionally be dry, he is never boring."

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Interesting story of the serial killer which the movie Psycho was about. Has some cool original photos, too

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This book is so much better than Paul Wood's book "Psycho". Harold Schechter does such a good job of research on this man. Harold lets you get to know what Gein was like as a person at least what others thought he was. Then he tells the story of what this man did to the bodies of these poor unfortunate people. This truly is a great read for true crime lovers and it should not be missed.

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Ed Gein is The psycho.

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About as good as Schechter's books get.

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