The Big Picture

• Psycho, a classic Hitchcock thriller, was loosely inspired by real-life murders, with Ed Gein's case influencing the novel.
• Janet Leigh's body double, Myra David, was tragically murdered 18 years after being a stand-in for the iconic shower scene.
• Author Robert Graysmith, who is known for his investigation of the Zodiac killer, became obsessed with the "Psycho killer."

Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho remains one of the most iconic horror movies ever, having essentially established the slasher genre along with Michael Powell's Peeping Tom. The film features a seemingly timid man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) running his elderly mother's motel. When his mother begins killing guests in their rooms, a victim's loved ones begin investigating, and find that Mrs. Bates has been dead for a while. Norman has been dressing as his mother, hearing her voice in his head, and killing in her name. This extreme story may sound exclusive to fiction, but in fact, multiple real-life murders are linked to Hitchcock's masterpiece.

Despite initially poor reviews, Psycho has gone on to receive major acclaim. It earned four Academy Award nominations, and even marked the first time a flushing toilet was shown in an American movie! What some fans might not know, however, is that Psycho has links to real-world murders that both predate and follow the release of the film. Hitchcock's movie, and the novel of the same name, were not only inspired by real-life killings that took place in the 1950s. Psycho also became involved in headlines for more real-world murders that followed. Some say the film even inspired the latter crimes, but as for cold hard facts, here's what we know for certain.

The Ed Gein Murders Loosely Inspired The 'Psycho' Novel

Published in 1959, the Psycho novel was written by author Robert Bloch, while Bloch was living in Weyauwega, Wisconsin. Two years prior, Ed Gein, who lived a mere 35 miles away, in Plainfield, was arrested for the murders of two women. Gein became known as "the Butcher of Plainfield" or "the Plainfield Ghoul" when he confessed to both the 1954 murder of Mary Hogan and the 1957 murder of Bernice Worden. It was revealed that Gein also made a habit of exhuming corpses from local cemeteries and crafting souvenirs from their bones. Deemed initially unfit to stand trial, Gein was admitted to a mental health facility, and in 1968, was found guilty of Worden's murder. He died at Mendota Mental Health Institute in 1984 and was buried in Plainfield Cemetery, where he used to disentomb bodies for fun.

So, Ed Gein inspired Bloch when he wrote Psycho, right? Well, not quite. Although it's likely that Gein's story was in the zeitgeist, influencing Bloch's writing on a subconscious level, Bloch claimed to know very little of Gein at the time of writing. Having mostly finished his novel by the time he heard of Gein's crimes, Bloch opted to add a line in reference to the real-life killer. The novel became based on the circumstances of the case, rather than the murders themselves, focusing on "the notion that the man next door may be a monster unsuspected even in the gossip-ridden microcosm of small-town life." Bloch was later surprised to discover that Gein, like Norman, was living in isolation with a religiously fanatical mother, stating his surprise upon discovering "how closely the imaginary character [he'd] created resembled the real Ed Gein both in overt act and apparent motivation."

A 'Psycho' Cast Member Was Killed 18 Years After The Movie Released

Hitchcock's adaptation of Psycho stars Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, a woman on the run with $40,000 of stolen money. She stops off at the Bates Motel only to be stabbed to death in her motel room shower. During the filming of this now-iconic murder scene, Hitchcock required numerous set changes in order to film each intricate camera angle. As a result of this time-consuming process, Leigh's body-double, Marli Renfro, was utilized for some shots, while the uncredited Myra Davis acted as Leigh's stand-in, between takes. The film, and this scene in particular, went on to receive critical acclaim as a pinnacle of the medium. Then, 18 years later, Myra Davis herself was murdered.

In 1988, Myra Davis was found raped and killed in her Los Angeles home, aged 71. It took an entire decade before her killer would be caught, and in 2001, 34-year-old handyman Kenneth Dean Hunt was found guilty of first-degree murder, having strangled both Davis and later, Jean Orloff in 1998. Although "art imitating life" admittedly makes for a skin-crawling story, there's a limit to how connected Davis' death is to the 1960 film she worked on. Multiple sources even falsely reported that Davis was not only the stand-in for Janet Leigh, but that she was also supposedly the voice of Norman's mother in the film. This has since been disproved, with Mrs. Bates actually having been portrayed by both Virginia Gregg and Jeanette Nolan.

The Author Of 'Zodiac' Became Obsessed With The 'Psycho' Killer Too

Author Robert Graysmith is perhaps best known for his involvement with the San Francisco Chronicle during the Zodiac killings, and was portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal in David Fincher's adaptation of Graysmith's book, Zodiac. In 2002, Don Lasseter’s book Body Double, about Myra Davis' murder, mistakenly named Janet Leigh's credited body double, Marli Renfro, as the victim, instead of Davis. During this confusion, Graysmith became obsessed with "the death of Marli Renfro" setting out to investigate Renfro's reported murder and its links to Psycho in his book The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower. Early in his investigation, Graysmith wrote, "I discovered Marli was still alive. It turns out she's been so busy fishing in Utah, hiking in Alaska, swimming with dolphins in Florida and generally living life to the full that she had no idea she was meant to be dead."

His book poses that Hunt may have been a Psycho obsessive who set out to recreate the famous scene, not with Janet Leigh, but with the woman whose body was actually used. Graysmith suggests that Hunt intended to target Renfro, but killed Davis instead. "Everyone confused them," he writes. "Even a murderer." Ultimately, there's no proof to back this theory, but Graysmith's writing is still responsible for clearing up much of the confusion surrounding the identity of the Psycho crew members involved in the real-life murder case. Much like with Robert Bloch's approach to the Ed Gein murders, Davis' links to Psycho admittedly make for an unsettling coincidence, and not much more.

Psycho is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

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