William Wharton

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## Guile Villain

### Alias

Wild Bill
Billy the Kid
Wharton
Will Bonney

### Powers/Skills

Trickery
Strength
Guile

### Goals

Cause as much trouble as possible before his execution (mostly succeeded).

### "Evil is Cool" Zone

Providing a ton of black comedy before he reveals his true nature.
Feigning a state of being doped to attack and assault the guards who bring him to the prison.

### MEH or Most Evil Actions

Raping and killing two little girls after threatening them into going along with the rape.

### Kill Count

5 (confirmed; directly)
2 (indirectly)
Several more (presumably)

### Crimes

Serial murder (including child murder)
Infanticide (indirectly)
Rape (including pedophilia)
Animal cruelty (book only)
Theft
Trespassing
Arson
Assault
Burglary
Incrimination (indirectly)
Physical and psychological abuse
Torture
Kidnapping

### Type of Villain

Barbaric Thrill-Seeker

**William "Wild Bill" Wharton** is the main antagonist in the novel *The Green Mile* by Stephen King and its 1999 film adaptation.

He is a wild-acting, dangerous multiple-murderer who is determined to make as much trouble as he can before he is executed. He is also responsible for killing a family, raping two kids, and framing John Coffey for it. He was also the arch-nemesis of Paul Edgecomb and John Coffey.

He was portrayed by Sam Rockwell.

## His Cool and Evil Rankings

### What Makes Him a Guile Villain?

* His dimwitted behaviour is most likely a facade, as he is very skilled at orchestrating plans and schemes to cause trouble.
* He is fairly cunning as demonstrated by the multitude of creative tricks he employs against the prison guards.
* Upon being taken to the Green Mile, he fakes being doped so that he can attack the guards once they come in. Consequently, he nearly succeeds in strangling Dean to death with his handcuffs, while injuring the other guards in the process such as knocking Harry across the table (giving him a bloody nose) and kneeing Paul in his groin (which is made worse by Paul having a urinary tract infection).
* He seems to be aware of Coffey's abilities, he grabs his arm through the bars as Coffey is being lead from the prison and taunts him with the memories of him killing the two girls, presumably just out of sadism over the fact that Coffey is taking the fall for the murders.
* Despite ultimately being a Hate Sink for his actions, he serves as a pseudo-comic relief character for the majority of the story.

### What Makes Him Evil?

* In the book, he is confirmed to have been causing trouble even as a child, ranging from petty theft to trespassing and small-scale arson.
* It was also revealed he was once caught molesting a 9-year-old girl.
* He raped and murdered two white girls (who are sisters) and even threatened to kill one sister if the other screamed for help, showing that he kept them quiet before murdering them.
* He murdered three innocent people, including a pregnant woman (technically making him guilty of infanticide), in an armed robbery.
* He is extremely racist to John Coffey, even insulting him with the N-word.
* He sexually assaulted and threatened to rape Percy (foreshadowing his true nature) not to help Del but purely for kicks.
* When everyone, even Percy, was horrified at Del's botched execution, Wharton took absolute sadistic glee in it, even turning into a song.

## Trivia

* During his portrayal of Wild Bill for the film, Sam Rockwell actually felt somewhat uncomfortable while delivering his lines in the flashback sequence that showed how he kidnapped the Detterick girls because he got along really well with the actresses who played them off-set. He also didn't like calling John the N-word, but he justified it by claiming that Wharton was more "people-ist" than racist.

## External Links

* William Wharton on the Villains Wiki
* William Wharton on the Pure Evil Wiki
* William Wharton on the Hate Sink Wiki