Zodiac and Psycho I

Note: Is it possible that the Zodiac used a surrogate to do his dirty work?


          Norman Bates watched Marion Crane undress through a peep hole in his parlor into cabin #1 and then went up to the old mansion and waited. While taking a shower, a woman in a long black dress came into cabin #1 and stabbed Marion to death. In a few minutes Norman came running down the stone steps to the motel and discovered Marion's body draped across the bathtub.

          Norman immediately got a mop and pail and cleaned up the bloody tub and tile wall in the bathroom. He then took the shower curtain and wrapped Marion's body in it. Janet Leigh was not wrapped. A woman named Marlee Renthro was used. She was a Playboy Playmate with the same  measurements as Janet Leigh. She was put in the trunk of the '57 Ford sedan and driven to the swamp of the motel. The swamp was called Falls Lake by Universal and had a hydraulic lift in the water similar to what gas stations use. This let the car go down halfway and stop for anxiety effect. Then the lift let the car submerge all the way. (Lic. NFB-418). The car was up for sale much later with a $150.00 bill attached for motor cleaning. Alfred Hitchcock did this. The transmisasion, (automatic), and rear end, also had to be cleaned of water. There were no second takes on this operation.

          The scene now shifts to Sam Loomis' Hardware store in Fairvale, Ca. It's a week later and Lila, Marions sister, has come in to talk to Sam about Marion and the $40,000. P I Arbogast, Martin Balsam also enters the store and they all talk. Martin says he's going out on the old highway to check motels about Marion's disappearance.

          Martin Balsam stops at the Bates Motel and talks to Norman. He sees Marie Samuels on the register and at once becomes suspicious. Eventually Norman asks him to leave and he stops at a phone booth and phones Lila. He says he's going back to the motel to see if he can talk to Norman's mother up in the window of the second floor of the old Bates house. Mother is always in the window of her bedroom. He tells Lila he'll be back in an hour or less.

          This is where the plot thickens.Arbogast drives a late model Mercury sedan, '59 or so.
At the motel Norman walks down past the rooms and disappears halfway. Arbogast pulls up to the motel.  ........con't.