"Cut off from all social contacts, completely separated from the life of the community, condemned to a crushing poverty in a remote and desolate region with two tormented and inimical parents, Eddie - never emotionally strong to begin with - was retreating farther and farther into a private world of fantasy. The Gein farm may not have been productive, but it was proving to be a fertile breeding ground for madness." Chapter Four, Page 22

"Like the parents who refuse to face the most disturbing signs of maladjustment in a favorite child, small-town dwellers will often manage to dismiss, explain away, or turn a blind eye to the extreme peculiarities of their neighbors." Chapter 6, Page 35

"All of this perhaps helps to explain how a middle-aged bachelor could live in a tightly knit community of over six hundred people, all of whom knew him by name, and, for more than...