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This Pure Evil was Headlined on August 2025. | ||
| NOTE: This page is only for William Wharton's characterization in the film, considering the original novel counterpart was voted Villainous Benchmark. Therefore, only the film version's info and crimes should be listed here. |
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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 the other sister] You make any noise, I'm gonna kill her. You understand? [turns back to the first sister] You understand? Shh... | „ |
| ~ Wharton before raping and murdering Katie and Cora Detterick. |
William "Wild Bill" Wharton is the main antagonist of the 1999 crime drama film The Green Mile, an adaptation of Stephen King's 1996 novel of the same name.
He was a psychotic serial killer who murdered people just to get a thrill and to cause as much mayhem and suffering as he could. 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 Pure Evil?[]
- He raped and murdered two nine-year-old sisters, keeping them quiet by threatening to kill one if the other made any noise.
- John Coffey was sentenced to prison and eventually executed for this crime despite being innocent. Although John pleaded for his death, it should be noted that Will running from the crime made it impossible for John to be proven Innocent in the first place.
- Although he is mentally insane and has very poor control over his behavior, he still has a moral agency and commits his crimes without remorse.
- He killed three people during an armed robbery, one of whom was a pregnant woman, and likely killed many other people before being caught, as it’s mentioned he had been “causing trouble all across the country.”
- Upon being taken to the titular Green Mile, he faked being doped so that he could attack the guards once they came in, nearly succeeding in strangling Dean to death with his handcuffs while injuring the other guards in the process, such as knocking Harry across the table and giving him a bloody nose and kneeing Paul in his groin.
- Him keening Paul is made worse by Paul having a urinary tract infection.
- He was very racist towards Coffey, calling him the N-word.
- He tried to cause the most trouble possible while incarcerated, like spitting in Paul and Brutal's faces, the latter with a moon pie, and urinating on Harry while joking about defecating on Paul and Brutal.
- He sexually assaulted Percy by grabbing his crotch while threatening to rape him, not to help Del or give Percy some karma, but purely for fun and kicks.
- He showed sadistic delight while hearing Del's botched execution and even made a song about it afterwards.
- Seemingly aware of Coffey's abilities, he grabbed his arm through the bars as Coffey was being led from the prison and taunted him with the memories of him raping and killing the two girls, presumably just out of sadism over the fact that Coffey was taking the fall for the murders.
- He's not given any sympathy by the narrative and is hated by every other character in the story, including Percy, who, despite being a sadist himself, appears to be absolutely disgusted by Wharton's crimes before he shot him dead.
- He managed to did worse than Percy in every aspects, and resources also help since he's only a prisoner with very limited resources whilst Percy is not just a prison warden, but also the nephew of a governor.
- Although he has many comedic moments, they do not detract from his overall depravity, with most of it being at the expense of others and them happening before the reveal that he was responsible for the crime Coffey was accused of, with him being taken seriously after said reveal.
Trivia[]
- Only the film incarnation of William Wharton can be considered Pure Evil, while his original novel incarnation doesn't because he fails the insanely high Heinous Standards of the Stephen King multiverse greatly, a problem that is avoided in the film due to it being set in its own continuity.
- Interestingly, the novel version also used to qualified too, but he was disqualified after it was pointed out that he failed the heinous standard to too many villains.
- Wharton is compared by Paul Edgecomb to Tommy Udo from Kiss of Death, another Pure Evil.
- Sam Rockwell actually felt somewhat uncomfortable while delivering Wild Bill's 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.
- William Wharton is the current icon of the Articles Under Construction template on this wiki.
- He's morally opposite of John Coffey, as he's Pure Evil and Hate Sink, while Coffey is Pure Good and Love Exalted.
External Links[]
- William Wharton on the Villains Wiki
- William Wharton on the Stephen King Wiki
- William Wharton on the Hate Sink Wiki
- William Wharton on the The Ultimate Evil Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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Live-Action Films See Also | ||
 Pure Evils
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Animated Features Live-Action Features Animated Television Live-Action Television Literature Video Games Other Fanon Scripts See Also | ||
 Pure Evils
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Animated Features Live-Action Features Animated Television Live-Action Television Short Features Literature Scripts Video Games Fanon See Also | ||
 Pure Evils
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Novels Adaptations Kurt Barlow (2024) | Richard Straker (1979) | Overlook Hotel | Greg Stillson | Frank Dodd | Judge Axel | Damon Killian | It (remake) | George Stark | Samuel Norton | Bogs Diamond | William Wharton | Mr. Gray | Randall Flagg | Boogeyman | Kurt Barlow The Resurrection of Rose | ||