Norman Bates - in Bloch's Novels

In Bloch's Novels

In Bloch's Psycho and Hitchcock's film adaptation, Mary Crane (called Marion in the film), a young woman on the run after stealing from her employer, checks into the motel one night. Bates is smitten with her, and shyly asks her to have dinner with him in the house, provoking "Mother"'s jealousy; she flies into a rage and threatens to kill Mary if Bates lets her in the house. Bates defies her and eats dinner with Mary anyway, but lashes out at her when she suggests that he institutionalize his mother. When Mary goes to her room to shower, Bates spies on her through a peephole he drilled in the wall, and drinks until he passes out. While he is unconscious, "Mother" takes control and beheads Mary. When Bates awakes to discover what he believes his mother has done, he sinks Mary's car — with her corpse in the trunk — into a nearby swamp. As "Mother", he also murders Milton Arbogast, a private detective hired by Mary's employer, days later.

Bates is finally caught when Mary's sister Lila and boyfriend, Sam Loomis, arrive at the hotel looking for her. When Bates figures out what they want, he knocks Sam out and goes running after Lila, who has reached the house and found Mrs. Bates' corpse. He attacks her as "Mother", but Sam overpowers him, and he is finally arrested. Bates is declared insane and sent to an institution, where "Mother" takes complete, and permanent, control of Bates' mind; he becomes his mother.

In Bloch's 1982 sequel to his novel, Bates escapes from the psychiatric hospital by killing a nun and donning her habit. Picked up as a hitchhiker, Bates is overcome by the driver of the car as he tries to attack him with a tire iron. This in turn causes a fiery accident where the driver escapes, but Bates dies. Bates's psychiatrist, Dr. Adam Claiborne, discovers Bates' body and assumes his personality. In the next book, Psycho House, Norman appears only as a novelty animatronic on display in the Bates Hotel, which has been converted into a tourist attraction.