eBay stops Psycho auction
Published April 11th, 2006
Land that was once home to an American murderer whose story inspired the movie Psycho has been pulled from an online auction, the owner says.
The bidding was stopped by eBay on Saturday, five days after it was first listed, said Mike Fisher.
In an email to Fisher, eBay said the listing violated its policy against murder memorabilia.
“It was bound to be controversial,” Fisher said. He inherited the land in Wisconsin from his grandfather, who bought it at an auction.
Fisher said he received one offer that was far lower than his $US250,000 ($A343,000) asking price for the 16-hectare property, which once contained Ed Gein’s home and part of his farm.
The property in central Wisconsin where Gein was arrested - and where body parts and clothing made from human skin were found in 1957 - remains for sale, he said.
Gein was arrested when the headless body of a hardware store owner was found at his farm home. Investigators also found parts of other bodies. They concluded Gein had robbed graves and may have killed other people.
A fictionalised account of Gein by writer Robert Bloch inspired the Norman Bates character in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic Psycho.
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