Mary: You really wanna know what Norman's like?
Warren Toomey: Yeah.
Mary: Better than you'll ever be, fat boy.
Norman Bates: Just, don't let them take me back to the institution.
Norman Bates: I don't kill people anymore.
Psycho II (1983)
3 quotes
Directed by: Richard Franklin
Starring: Robert Loggia, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly
Continuity mistake: After Norman argues with Mr Toomey, before he goes up to the house, you can plainly see the light on in the living room where Mary is sitting. When Norman goes in the house, Mary is sitting in the dark and Norman then turns on the light.
Trivia: The reflection of young Norman Bates in the doorknob when he flashes back to his mother's poisoning is Anthony Perkins' son, Oz.
Question: Spoiler alert: this question gives away much of the first "Psycho" movie. In the original Alfred Hitchcock "Psycho" we witness Norman Bates murdering Janet Leigh/Marion Crane and Martin Balsam/Milton Arbogast, and very narrowly missing killing Vera Miles/Lila Crane. At the end of the movie we discover that Norman Bates had murdered his mother and her lover ten years previously. We are also told that he had killed two female guests at Bates Motel. Norman Bates is therefore guilty of six murders and one attempted murder. In Psycho II we find out that, after his crimes were discovered, Norman Bates was placed in a secure psychiatric institution for the criminally insane. This does seem plausible. But with such a criminal record, would he ever be released from incarceration?
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Answer: Norman was found "not guilty" by reason of insanity. Therefore, once he is deemed to be no longer a danger to himself, or to others, and is released from the mental institution, there is no crime he can be sent to jail for (i.e. he has no criminal record for the murders). I haven't done enough research to tell you if a serial killer in recent times has ever been found not guilty by reason of insanity and subsequently been released, but there are numerous accounts of people being released from mental institutions after committing murder that are then considered free.
Bishop73