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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | You love your sister? You make any noise, you know what happens? I'm gonna kill her instead of you. (turns to other sister) You make any noise, I'm gonna kill her. You understand? (turns back to first sister) You understand? Shh... | „ |
| ~ Wharton before raping and murdering Katie and Cora Detterick. |
William “Wild Bill” Wharton is one of the two main antagonists of the Stephen King novel The Green Mile as well as its movie adaptation (alongside Percy Wetmore). He was a psychotic serial killer who murdered people just to get a thrill and to cause as much mayhem, and suffering. Eventually he was captured and sentenced to death. While on death row, he made it his goal to create as much discord as he could before his sentence was carried out.
He was portrayed by Sam Rockwell.
What Makes Him a Hate Sink?[]
- While it's undeniable that he's insane, this doesn't impact his moral agency, especially since he is capable of showing sadism.
- In the book, is confirmed to have been causing trouble even as a child, ranging from petty theft to trespassing and small-scale arson. It's also revealed he was once caught molesting a 9-year-old-girl, making him an outright pedophile.
- Murdered three innocent people, including a pregnant woman, in an armed robbery. This means that Wharton is guilty of infanticide and feticide.
- Assaulted the guards and tried to strangle Dean Stanton, a husband and a father, to death just for fun.
- Tormented the guards such as urinating on Harry and spitting on Paul Edgecomb and Brutus Howell (the latter with a Moon Pie).
- Racially abused John Coffey.
- Sexually assaulted and threatened to rape Percy Wetmore (foreshadowing his true nature) not to help Del but purely for kicks.
- When everyone, even Percy, was horrified at Eduard Delacroix's botched execution, Wharton took absolute sadistic glee in it, even turning into a song.
- Taunted John Coffey with the memories of his many murders, seemingly aware of his powers, just to torment him.
- Although he initially comes off as a laughable character, this is heavily subverted in the end the moment he grabs hold of John Coffey's wrist when he is heading to cure the wardens wife when it turns out he raped and murdered the two girls that John Coffey is on death row for (in the book, he even kills their family dog to get to them after manipulating it with meat), telling the two girls that if they screamed, he would kill her sister instead of her. This causes Wharton to lose all of his comedic traits and make Percy look like a good guy in comparison.
- By the end, he's not given any sympathy by the narrative and there's no one that doesn't hate him. Even Percy, despite being a sadist himself, is appalled by Wharton's crimes to the point that he ended up shooting him dead.
- Is responsible for John Coffey, a Pure Good character, being wrongfully executed.
- As a human, Wharton is more realistic than many other villains in the Stephen King multiverse, who are either paranormal or cosmic beings, as people like Wharton exist in the real world.
Trivia[]
- Sam Rockwell, despite enjoying playing the character, hated filming the scene where it was revealed Wharton killed and raped the two girls, because he genuinely got along with them off-set. He also didn't like having to call John Coffey a "N" word but justified it by saying Wharton was more "people-ist" than racist.
- Wharton is an interesting example of a Hate Sink; while he does have comedic moments, they arguably just show how obnoxious and odious he is. Even if they don't, they are all down the drain when the reveal happens. When the reveal of the rape and murder of the two girls comes, he loses all humorous traits and makes Percy look like a saint compared to him. In short, Wharton easily earns his spot among Stephen King's most detestable villains of all time.
- While both versions of Wharton are Hate Sinks, only the film version is Pure Evil as his novel counterpart doesn't qualify due to other villains outdoing him in depravity and the insanely high Heinous Standards of the Stephen King Multiverse.
- He's morally opposite of John Coffey, as he's Hate Sink and Pure Evil, while Coffey is Love Exalted and Pure Good.
External Links[]
- William Wharton on the Villains Wiki
- William Wharton on the Stephen King Wiki
- His novel counterpart on the Villainous Benchmark Wiki
- His film counterpart on the Pure Evil Wiki
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 Hate Sinks
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