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| “ | I got a foot on both sides of the fence. They were put there early, and they stayed put. I can't move. I can't jump. All I can do is wait until I split, right down the middle. | „ |
| ~ Lou Ford |
Lou Ford is the villainous main protagonist of the late Jim Thompson's 1952 crime novel The Killer Inside Me. He is the 29-year-old deputy sheriff of Central City, Texas, as well as a sadistic sociopath who commits several rapes and murders.
In the 1976 film adaptation of the novel, he was portrayed by Stacey Keach, who also portrayed Wallenquist in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Cameron Alexander in American History X, Howard K. Duff VIII in The Simpsons, Ken Titus in Titus, Phantasm in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, and Robert Vance in Batman Beyond. In the 2010 film adaptation, he was portrayed by Casey Affleck.
Biography[]
Early life[]
As a child, Lou was physically and sexually abused by his babysitter Helene, who hurt him to get back at his father for ending their affair.
When he was a teenager, Lou raped a five-year-old girl, but his adopted brother Mike took the blame and volunteered to serve prison time to protect Lou. Mike died years later while working at Chester Conway's construction company; Lou believes that Chester engineered the accident to punish him for the rape. As an adult, he became the deputy sheriff of his hometown of Central City, Texas, and controlled his sadistic urges by venting them in small, harmless ways, such as intentionally boring people with bad jokes and dull stories.
First murders[]
Lou meets a young prostitute named Joyce Lakeland, who had an affair with Conway's son, Elmer. Lou beats her and discovers she enjoyed the pain, so they begin an affair, even though Lou is engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Amy. Together, they devise a plan to blackmail Conway.
During one of their trysts, however, Lou beats her into a coma. When Elmer arrives, Lou shoots and kills him, thus framing him for assaulting Joyce, and making Conway believe that she killed Elmer.
Amy begins to suspect that Lou is cheating on her, while district attorney Howard Hendricks suspects that Lou committed the murders. The sheriff informs Lou that Joyce has died from injuries, and that Johnnie Pappas, a juvenile delinquent Lou had befriended, is the main suspect. Lou visits Johnnie in jail, matter-of-factly confesses to the murders, and then kills him, making it look like Johnnie had hanged himself out of remorse. Lou then proposes to Amy, who allows him to spank her.
Downfall[]
An alcoholic drifter who has been following Lou blackmails him, saying that he knows Lou committed the murders and threatening to expose him unless Lou gives him $5,000. The stress of being blackmailed sends Lou into a violent rage that he takes out on Amy, beating her to death on their wedding day. He frames the drifter, who is shot dead by Jeff Plummer, another deputy.
The next morning, Hendricks accuses Lou of committing the murders and has him institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital. Plummer hires a lawyer for Lou who manages to secure his release from the hospital, but by now Lou has lost his grip on reality, tormented by visions of Helene and his father. He returns to his home, which he douses with alcohol and gasoline, and waits for the police to arrive, intent on killing them and himself by setting the house on fire.
Much to his surprise, however, he is visited by Joyce, bruised and battered but alive. She says that the police are right behind her, but that she refused to tell them anything. Lou tells her that he loves her, and then stabs her in the stomach. Moments later, Plummer bursts into the house and opens fire, hitting Lou and Joyce and igniting the gasoline. The house then explodes, killing Joyce, Plummer, and Lou.