Alright, I know this candidate was already approved, and I have no doubts that he will indeed qualify, but since he was auto-approved I think he deserves a formality post for consistency’s sake, and also just to secure his spot as a PE (even though I think we all know he’s a keeper). Who am I talking about? Well, I’ve been raving on about him for a couple of months and he’s been one of my favourite film villains. Everyone, meet William “Wild Bill” Wharton from The Green Mile.
What is the Work?[]
The Green Mile is a 1996 novel written by Stephen King, with a 1999 film adaptation. It follows our protagonist named Paul Edgecomb, a 104-year old man. He reflects on and documents his life as a death row prison guard at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary. In this story we see that some of the death row inmates, despite their crimes, are actually rather pleasant chaps. There is, however, one notable exception.
Who is the Candidate?[]
William Wharton, nicknamed Wild Bill by the guards, is one of the death-row inmates that is brought to the Cold Mountain Penitentiary. Before landing in prison, he raped and killed two girls named Kathe and Cora Detterick, a crime that John Coffey got wrongfully convicted for when he tried to revive them using his healing powers. He then presumably murders many other people, and is finally arrested during an armed robbery, where he was confirmed to have killed three more victims, including a pregnant woman.
He is first taken to the Brier Ridge Mental Hospital before being transferred to the Cold Mountain Penitentiary. During this transfer, he feigns being drugged so that he could surprise and assault the guards. This sham works and Wharton subsequently proceeds to garrote Dean Stanton using his handcuffs. Paul and another guard named Harry Terwilliger attempt to stop Wharton, but become incapacitated; Paul after being kneed in the crotch (which was exacerbated due to a urinary tract infection), and Harry after being knocked over a table twice. Another guard, Percy Wetmore, is too craven to even attempt to stop Wharton and save Stanton. Wharton is only halted when Brutus “Brutal” Howell comes along and whacks Wharton with Percy’s nightstick, and knocks him out by hitting him a second time. The guards then throw an unconscious Wharton to his cell.
Wharton soon proves himself to be quite the annoyance. When Coffey (who is in the same prison as him) refuses to share his cornbread with Wharton, Wharton uses racial slurs against him, and then spits in Paul’s face after Paul confronts him. Afterwards, he pees on Harry, and jokes about defecating on him. This causes Harry to grab a hose and spray Wharton with it to get revenge on him, and the guards then bind Wharton and transfer him to the padded room (AKA solitary confinement). When the guards return to the padded room to direct Wharton back to his cell, Wharton lies that he will behave from then on; however, not long after he is freed from solitary confinement, he spits moon pie (which he got by bargaining with the janitor Toot) in Brutal’s face, earning him a second timeout in the padded room.
We next see Wharton when Percy picks on another inmate named Eduard “Del” Delacroix. Percy purposely caused him to trip and fall, and tells him he was just playing around. However, shortly after Percy karmically gets molested by Wharton when he grabs Percy through the bars of his cell (foreshadowing his true nature). This causes Percy to cry and wet himself, during which Wharton and Del get a good laugh out of.
After the guards are made aware of Coffey’s healing powers, they decide to sneak him out to heal the warden’s wife, who has succumbed to cancer. Before Coffey fully makes it out however, Wharton grips his arm, allowing Coffey to see Wharton’s truly monstrous nature. Coffey specifically finds out that Wharton was the one who raped and murdered the twin girls, the very crime he got pinched for. When Coffey returns, he gets ahold of Percy through his cell bars and disgorges the cancer he healed from the warden’s wife to Percy. This enables Coffey to essentially control Percy, and he gets Percy to walk up to Wharton’s cell and shoot him to death, finally avenging the deaths of Wharton’s victims and Coffey to a certain extent.
Afterwards, Paul questions why Coffey did that to Percy and Wharton, to which Coffey psychically shows him what Wharton did. Both Paul and Coffey melt down when Coffey shows Wharton confronting the two girls, and telling them that if one makes a noise, he’ll kill the other. After seeing this flashback, Coffey whispers to Paul that he punished both Percy and Wharton for their horridness.
What Pure Evil Criteria Does He Meet?[]
Heinous Standard[]
Though Stephen King’s works are all intertwined through the same multiverse, there is no other strong indication of The Green Mile universe being linked to King’s other works. Even so, Wharton still stands out primarily due to his disgusting crimes and deficit of resources. Admittedly, his armed robbery is kind of glossed over, and his other homicides are merely implied and not confirmed. However, his rape and murder of the Detterick twins is what makes him really stand out as vile. Wharton’s evil deed occurred before the main events of the film, but we get to see it and the effects it had via flashback, both at the beginning of the film and when Coffey psychically shows Paul what Wharton had done. Besides, Wharton’s rape and murder had palpable onscreen effects, as they caused Coffey to be both wrongfully convicted and executed (though the latter was on Coffey’s volition after Paul had discovered Coffey was innocent). There are not many villains in The Green Mile, but Wharton still manages to stand out from them. Percy Wetmore, while responsible for the harrowing and torturous death of Del, fails to even come close to Wharton’s level of heinousness, and the other two notable criminals’ (Del and Bitterbuck) crimes were off-screen, and they showed clear remorse over them. Apart from that, Wharton also attempts to strangle a guard when he is first brought in, gropes another one, and shows pleasure in hearing the terrible death of Del. Suffice to say, Wharton passes the heinous standard requirement.
No Redeeming Qualities[]
Passes this easy-peasy. Wharton is shown to exhibit no form of redeeming qualities. For the amount of time he is locked up, he is shown to be a boisterous, reprehensible, and ultimately atrocious criminal who enjoys seeing others suffer. For example, not only was he the only one who was not utterly horrified by Del’s death, but he also took sadistic joy in his botched execution. Also, unlike the other two inmates, he doesn’t show any remorse for his actions. In short, there is nothing redeemable about Wharton; he is a monster.
Taken Seriously[]
To be completely frank, Wharton does serve as sort of a pseudo-comic relief for the majority of the film. Despite being disliked by the guards, even Edgecomb admits that his moon pie prank was quite original, and personally speaking Wharton’s antics made me laugh too. However, this is more of a case of Laughably Evil, as he’s still taken seriously in-universe, his pranks are to the detriment of others, and much of his hammy nature is seen in otherwise very dire situations (cases in point, him garroting Dean and Del’s death). Besides, this humorousness is subverted drastically when we see Coffey’s flashback of him. He is taken very seriously during the flashback; there is nothing funny about a man who rapes and murders two young girls for the fun of it.
Moral Agency[]
Despite being extremely psychotic, Wharton has full awareness of the atrocities he is committing. He is sound enough to know that he is really evil, and takes pride in his wickedness. Wharton has a Moral Agency, no question.
Freudian Excuse[]
Nah. He is not given any valid reason for murdering and raping the two girls, for committing his other homicides, and for being the way he is. To that, he is not presented sympathetically or tragically either; he doesn’t need or deserve to be painted in that light.
Final Verdict[]
Solid yes to him. He raped two girls which got a tragic, innocent, and purely wholesome character wrongfully imprisoned, he killed three more people and possibly many more, and lacks any redeeming qualities. He stands out as the most odious baddie in his respective work (given his lower resources), is presented seriously despite being initially humorous, has a Moral Agency, and has no excuse for being the scum of the earth he is. He qualifies.