What Really Happened to Mr. Bates?

 

What happened to Mr. [John] Bates (Norman's dad)? The novel states he abandoned the family - so that is book cannon. But my focus is on cannon for the film series.

The film cannon says he's dead. In Psycho 3 it's stated that Emma Spool (Norman's aunt) killed Mr Bates. In Psycho 4 Norman himself said his father was stun to death by bees.

I'm wondering how to reconcile this continuity failure in my mind.

It could be said: Mrs. Spool did kills Mr. Bates over the love triangle and that in Norman's mind it was bees that killed his father because his mind is already messed up thanks to his mother Mrs. Bates.

Or maybe Norman's mom was remarried and that man is who Norman knew as a father and he was stung to death by bees!! There is no mention of Norma (Ms Bates) remarrying but that could be another way to explain the discrepancy.

Another idea: Tracy Venable (newspaper woman) got the wrong news or flat lied to Norman about Emma Spool to snap Norman out of his "mother" mental state.

 

I came up with 3 possibilities that could explain this major continuity flaw in the film series.