After Raspail leaves him, he kills Raspail's new lover, Klaus, and flays him. Later, Gumb has a relationship with Benjamin Raspail. He is institutionalized in Tulare Vocational Rehabilitation, a psychiatric hospital, where he learns to be a tailor. The novel goes on to tell of Gumb living in foster homes until the age of 10, when he is adopted by his grandparents, who become his first victims when he impulsively kills them at age 12.
It is stated that 'The 'Jame' on his birth certificate apparently was a clerical error that no one bothered to correct.' Gumb's mother, an aspiring actress, went into an alcoholic decline after her career failed to materialize, and Los Angeles County placed Gumb in a foster home when he was two. Gumb was born in California in 1948 or 1949.
