Willie Horton

Last updated

William Horton
Born
William R. Horton

(1951-08-12) August 12, 1951 (age 74)
Chesterfield, South Carolina, U.S.
Criminal status Incarcerated
Convictions First degree murder, armed robbery, rape, assault
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole
Imprisoned at Jessup Correctional Institution
Jessup, Maryland, U.S.

William R. Horton (born August 12, 1951), commonly referred to as "Willie Horton", is an American convicted felon who was featured prominently in negative campaigning by the George H. W. Bush 1988 presidential campaign. [1] Horton, an incarcerated person in Massachusetts, participated in a furlough program and failed to return on his tenth furlough. [2] It was later determined he had committed assault, armed robbery, and rape in Maryland. Furloughs, or home leaves, were used by more than half of prisons in America in 1975. [3] Designed to help incarcerated people reassimilate after release, a 1991 study of furloughs noted they reduced recidivism, or tendency to reoffend. [4]

Contents

During the 1988 U.S. presidential election, Vice President and Republican nominee George H. W. Bush brought Horton up frequently during his campaign against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis who was the governor of Massachusetts. Strategist for the Bush Campaign, Lee Atwater stated, "If I can make Willie Horton a household name we'll win the election." [5] He was commonly referred to as "Willie" Horton, despite never having gone by the nickname. The renaming of Horton, a Black man, has been speculated to be the product of racist stereotyping and the employment of implicit racial messages. [6] The prominent PAC ad for Bush that includes Horton has been widely characterized as a textbook example of dog-whistle politics. [7]

Criminal activity and incarceration

Massachusetts Prison Population 1978-2015 Massachusetts Prison Population.svg
Massachusetts Prison Population 1978-2015

On October 26, 1974, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Joseph Fournier, a 17-year-old gas station attendant was last seen handling money between the hours of 9:25 - 9:40 pm. [8] No witnesses testified to seeing the three defendants accused of his murder being seen at the gas station from 9-10 pm and Fournier's body was discovered in the office of the Marston Street Mobile Service Station with multiple stab wounds. [9] A witness testified that Alvin L. Wideman had confessed to the killing a man after returning to his place of residency on the night of the crime, between 10:30 pm and midnight. Wideman was said to have admitted to demanding money from the man, who relinquished the money and plead for his life. The witness stated that Wideman said he then became angry and stabbed the man multiple times. [10]

Alvin L. Wideman, Roosevelt Pickett, and William R. Horton admitted to participating in the robbery but their stories differed in details of the event. They all agree they were together on October 26, 1974 in Pickett's 1963 Chevrolet returning from a party in Lowell, Massachusetts when they decided to stop at the gas station and commit a robbery. Horton, who spoke first with police stated that he had been driving that night and remained in the car. When it was Wideman's turn to give his account of events, he insisted that Pickett should speak first. Pickett stated that he had remained in the car while Wideman and Horton had gone into the service station with knives, according to Pickett the men then returned to the car with approximately $275 which they split between themselves. [11]

Horton, Wideman, and Pickett were convicted of armed robbery and murder in the first degree because they admitted to being present at the time of the crime and there was testimony from a witness who lived near the station that he saw a 1963 Chevrolet matching the description of Pickett's automobile fleeing the scene before he discovered the body of Joseph Fournier. [12] The convicted were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. [13]

In 1972, Republican Governor Frank Sargent began the Massachusetts furlough program that provided 18-48 hours of home leave for incarcerated. [14] The program was designed to promote good behavior among incarcerated populations and aid assimilation into the community after serving their sentences. [15] During Michael Dukakis second term as governor, these programs and others reduced crime by 13.4% between 1982 and 1986. [16]

On June 6, 1986, Horton was released as part of a weekend furlough program but did not return. On April 3, 1987, in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Horton twice raped a woman after pistol-whipping, stabbing, binding, and gagging her fiancé. He then stole the car belonging to the man he had assaulted. [17] . [18] He was later captured and sentenced to two life terms plus 85 years. [18] The sentencing judge, Vincent J. Femia, refused to return Horton to Massachusetts, saying, "I'm not prepared to take the chance that Mr. Horton might again be furloughed or otherwise released...This man should never draw a breath of free air again." [19] [20]

Legislative and political background

Michael Dukakis DNC 1988 Michael Dukakis 1988 DNC.jpg
Michael Dukakis DNC 1988

The state inmate furlough program, originally signed into law by Republican governor Francis Sargent in 1972, excluded convicted first-degree murderers. [21] The following year, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the ability to furlough would be extended to individual "first degree lifer" incarcerated "only on recommendation of the appropriate superintendent and on approval of the commissioner, whose approval we take to be nondelegable." [22] In 1976, Michael Dukakis refused to sign a bill that would have prevented those serving a life sentence from becoming eligible for furlough. [23] He stated it would "cut the heart out of efforts at inmate rehabilitation." 23 other states permitted those convicted of first-degree murder to be eligible for furlough. [24] In 1987, the furlough program in Massachusetts recorded 77% of the 1,161 incarcerated who received a furlough were from pre-release or minimum security facilities and that 56% of those furloughed had no prior adult convictions. [25] The Massachusetts Department of Correction recorded 5 escapes in 1987, equating to less than one escape for every 100 furloughs, a rate of 0.1%. [26]

The furlough program remained through the intervening term of Governor Edward J. King, and was abolished for those sentenced to life during Dukakis's final term of office after freezing the program following the incident in Maryland concerning William R. Horton. [27] This abolition occurred after immense public pressure and the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune which had run 175 stories about the furlough program, winning a Pulitzer Prize but later, it was revealed by the Washington Journalism Review that these articles were filled with "outrageous errors" presented with a bias against the furlough program without providing readers facts or statistics on the program. [28] The program was one of many, but one of the few run by a Democratic Presidential candidate. Ronald Reagan himself had run a furlough program in California. [29]

Horton in the 1988 presidential campaign

Horton's mug shot from "Weekend Passes" ad HortonWillie.jpg
Horton's mug shot from "Weekend Passes" ad

It was April 1988 when Democratic Senator Al Gore of Tennessee was the first to mention the Massachusetts furlough program at a Democratic Primary, he cited the robbery-assault in Maryland without mentioning William Horton by name before posing this question to Michael Dukakis, "If you were elected President, would you advocate a similar program for federal penitentiaries?" [30]

George H.W. Bush and Lee Atwater with Guitars George h w bush lee atwater jam.JPG
George H.W. Bush and Lee Atwater with Guitars

The campaign manager for George Bush, Lee Atwater had already been researching on William Horton with his team prior to Gore asking Dukakis about it at the debate: Republicans then eagerly picked up the issue after Dukakis won the Democratic nomination. [31] Atwater said, "By the time we're finished, they're going to wonder whether Willie Horton is Dukakis's running mate." [32] William Horton, in an article from Playboy magazine in 1989 stated a woman claiming to be affiliated with an organization working with the Bush campaign, called and wrote to him asking him to endorse Dukakis. [33] In June 1988, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush seized on the Horton case, bringing it up repeatedly in campaign speeches.

Andrew Card, Bush aide Andrew Card 1988 (cropped).jpg
Andrew Card, Bush aide

Campaign staffer James Pinkerton returned with reams of material that Atwater told him to reduce to a 3-by-5-inch (8 cm × 13 cm) index card, telling him, "I'm giving you one thing: You can use both sides of the 3×5 card." Pinkerton discovered the furlough issue by watching the Felt Forum debate. On May 25, 1988, Republican consultants met in Paramus, New Jersey, holding a focus group of "Reagan Democrats" who had voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984. [34] These focus groups convinced Atwater and the other Republican consultants that they should 'go negative' against Dukakis. Further information regarding the furlough came from aide Andrew Card, a Massachusetts native whom President George W. Bush later named as his Chief of Staff. [35]

Over the Fourth of July weekend in 1988, Atwater attended a motorcyclists' convention in Luray, Virginia where the Horton story featured in the July issue of Reader's Digest was mentioned by diners in Brown's Chinese-American Restaurant, Atwater joined the conversation without mentioning who he was. [35] Later that night, a focus group in Alabama had turned completely against Dukakis when presented with the information about Horton's furlough. Atwater used this occurrence to argue the necessity of pounding Dukakis about the furlough issue, "...we could really blow up Dukakis, and we had to do it." [35]

Fall campaign

Lee Atwater in The White House, 1982 Lyn Nofziger Talking with Lee Atwater in Nofzigers Office in The White House (cropped).jpg
Lee Atwater in The White House, 1982

Beginning on September 21, 1988, the Americans for Bush arm of the National Security Political Action Committee (NSPAC), under the auspices of Floyd Brown, began running a campaign ad entitled "Weekend Passes," using the Horton case to attack Dukakis. The ad was produced by media consultant Larry McCarthy, who had previously worked for Roger Ailes. After clearing the ad with television stations, McCarthy added a mug shot of Horton. [36] The ad was run as an independent expenditure, separate from the Bush campaign, which claimed not to have had any role in its production. [37] The ad referred to Horton as "Willie", although he later said he had always gone by William: [38]

The fact is, my name is not 'Willie.' It's part of the myth of the case. The name irks me. It was created to play on racial stereotypes: big, ugly, dumb, violent, black — 'Willie.' I resent that. They created a fictional character — who seemed believable but did not exist. They stripped me of my identity, distorted the facts, and robbed me of my constitutional rights. [39]

1988 Presidential Election Results Maryland Maryland Presidential Election Results 1988.svg
1988 Presidential Election Results Maryland

On October 5, 1988, a day after the "Weekend Passes" ad was taken off the airwaves and the day of the Bentsen–Quayle debate, the Bush campaign ran its ad, "Revolving Door," which also attacked Dukakis over the weekend furlough program. While the advertisement did not mention Horton or feature his photograph, it depicted a variety of men walking in and out of prison through a revolving door. [40]

The controversy escalated when vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen and former Democratic presidential candidate and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson called the "Revolving Door" ad racist, [41] a charge which was denied by Bush and campaign staff. [42] [43] Despite the denial that race was a factor in the ad, studies show that racial prejudice was increased after witnessing the ad and the ad influenced viewers to support harsher criminal laws. [44]

Jesse Jackson Jesse Jackson For President.jpg
Jesse Jackson

Throughout most of the campaign, the Horton ad was seen as focusing on criminal justice issues, with neither the candidates nor journalists mentioning a racial component. [45] Near the end of the presidential campaign—on October 21, 1988—Democratic primary runner-up Jesse Jackson accused the ad's creators of playing upon presumed fears of some voters, in particular those harboring stereotyped fears of blacks as criminals. From that point on, race was a substantial part of the media coverage of the ad itself and the campaign. Some candidates continued to deny it, and most commentators at the time felt it was not. [45] Academics have noted that the alleged racial overtone of the ad was a key aspect of the way the ad was remembered and later studied. [45]

Journalist Robert MacNeil the co-founder of NewsHour said voter response to the Horton ad was, "I'm going to vote for George Bush because I can't vote for a man who lets murderers out of jail." [46]

On October 22, in an attempt to counter-attack, Dukakis's campaign ran an ad about a convicted heroin dealer named Angel Medrano who raped and killed a pregnant mother of two after escaping from a federal correctional halfway house. [42] [47]

1988 Presidential Election Results Nationwide 1988 United States presidential election by state.svg
1988 Presidential Election Results Nationwide

In 1990, the Ohio Democratic Party and a group called "Black Elected Democrats of Ohio" filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that NSPAC had coordinated or cooperated with the Bush campaign in airing the ad, which would make it an illegal in-kind campaign contribution. The investigation by the FEC, including deposition of officials from both organizations, revealed indirect connections between McCarthy and the Bush campaign (such as his having previously worked for Ailes) but found no direct evidence of wrongdoing. The investigation reached an impasse and was eventually closed with no finding of any violation of campaign finance laws. [37]

Robin Toner of The New York Times wrote in 1990 that Republicans and Democrats, while disagreeing on the merits of the ad itself, agreed it was "devastating to Dukakis." [48] Dukakis said in 2012 that while he initially tried to ignore the ad during the 1988 campaign, two months later he "realized that I was getting killed with this stuff." [49]

Anne Coulter at Turning Point USA Student Action Summit 2019 Ann Coulter (49279861353).jpg
Anne Coulter at Turning Point USA Student Action Summit 2019

In December 2018, after Bush's death, the ad was again highlighted by political commentators. Ann Coulter described his Willie Horton ad as "the greatest campaign commercial in political history," claiming that it "clearly and forcefully highlighted the two presidential candidates' diametrically opposed views" on crime. [50]

Many other commentators have remarked that the Bush presidency, back to the campaign's Horton advertisement, stoked racial animosity, and suggested the ad itself was race-baiting, as Horton's race is still a key part of public awareness of the ad. [51] [52] [53] [54]

Later, Horton apologized to Dukakis for “the role I played in him losing the election.” [55]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Willie Horton Revisited". The Marshall Project. May 13, 2015.
  2. ↑ Soba, Jose (May 17, 2011). "Willie Horton and the 1988 Presidential Campaign: A Tale of Two Narratives". Fordham Research Commons.
  3. ↑ Skolnick, Jerome (December 19, 2001). "Passions of Crime". The American Prospect.
  4. ↑ Skolnick, Jerome (December 19, 2001). "Passions of Crime". The American Prospect.
  5. ↑ Baker, Peter (December 3, 2018). "Bush Made Willie Horton an Issue in 1988, and the Racial Scars Are Still Fresh". The New York Times: 12 – via NY Times.
  6. ↑ Mendelberg, Tali (2001). The Race Card. Princeton: Princeton University Press (published April 1, 2001). p. 5. ISBN   0-691-07071-7.
  7. ↑ Haney-Lopez, Ian (2013). Dog whistle politics: how coded racial appeals have reinvented racism and wrecked the middle class. Oxford University Press. p. 106. ISBN   978-0-19-022925-2. OCLC   908967433.
  8. ↑ "Commonwealth vs. William R. Horton & others". Justia US Law. May 1 – September 19, 1978. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  9. ↑ "Commonwealth vs. William R. Horton & others". Justia US Law. September 19, 1978. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  10. ↑ "Commonwealth vs. William R. Horton & others". September 19, 1978. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  11. ↑ "Commonwealth vs. William R. Horton & others". Justia US Law. September 19, 1978. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  12. ↑ "Commonwealth v. Horton - Case Analysis". Callidus. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  13. ↑ "Willie Horton Case". Office of Justice Programs. September 26, 1988. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  14. ↑ "Willie Horton Case". Office of Justice Programs. September 26, 1988. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  15. ↑ Schwartzapfel, Beth (May 13, 2015). "Willie Horton Revisited". The Marshall Project.
  16. ↑ Toner, Robin (July 5, 1988). "Prison Furloughs in Massachusetts Threaten Dukakis Record on Crime" . Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  17. ↑ "True Tales of Murder and Mayhem". Boston Magazine. July 22, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  18. 1 2 Callen, Kate (October 7, 1988). "A couple who was attacked by a convicted murderer". UPI. Retrieved November 17, 2025.
  19. ↑ Bidinotto, Robert (July 1988). "Getting away with murder". Reader's Digest .
  20. ↑ Moses, Jonathan M. (August 7, 1988). "P.G. JUDGE'S PRISON FURLOUGH REMARKS BCEOME POLITICAL ISSUE" . Retrieved November 25, 2025.
  21. ↑ Lautner, David (July 2, 1988). "Prison Furloughs: Campaigns Obscuring a Complex Issue". LA Times. Retrieved November 24, 2025.
  22. ↑ "Devlin v Commissioner of Correction". Justia US Law. December 20, 1973. Retrieved November 24, 2025.
  23. ↑ Toner, Robin (July 5, 1988). "Prison Furloughs in Massachusetts Threaten Dukakis Record on Crime". The New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
  24. ↑ Toner, Robin (July 5, 1988). "Prison Furloughs in Massachusetts Threaten Dukakis Record on Crime". The New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
  25. ↑ Lorant, Lisa (December 1988). "1987 Annual Statistical Report of the Furlough Program". Mass.gov. Retrieved November 24, 2025.
  26. ↑ Lorant, Lisa (December 1988). "1987 Annual Statistical Report of the Furlough Program". Mass.gov. Retrieved November 24, 2025.
  27. ↑ NY Times Contributers (March 24, 1988). "Dukakis Now Supports Ban on Furloughs for Murderers". The New York Times. Retrieved November 24, 2025.
  28. ↑ Porter, Bruce (March–April 1995). "So What?". Columbia Journalism Review Archives. Retrieved November 24, 2025.
  29. ↑ Greenberg, David (December 1, 2018). "Is History Being Too Kind to George H.W. Bush?". Politico. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
  30. ↑ Schwartzapfel, Beth (May 13, 2015). "Willie Horton Revisited". The Marshall Project. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
  31. ↑ Simon, Roger (May 19, 2015). "The GOP and Willie Horton: Together Again". Politico. Retrieved November 24, 2025.
  32. ↑ Simon, Roger (November 11, 1990). "How a murderer and rapist became the Bush campaign's most valuable player". The Baltimore Sun .
  33. ↑ "Did Gore Hatch Horton?". Slate. November 1, 1999. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
  34. ↑ Simon, Roger (May 19, 2015). "The GOP and Willie Horton: Together again". Politico .
  35. 1 2 3 Germond, Jack W.; Jules Witcover (1989). Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars: The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency, 1988 . Warner Books. pp. 159–161, 163–164. ISBN   978-0446514248.
  36. ↑ "George Bush and Willie Horton". The New York Times. 4 November 1988. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  37. 1 2 "Independent Ads: The National Security Political Action Committee "Willie Horton"" . Retrieved 9 September 2008.
  38. ↑ Rodricks, Dan (12 August 1993). "Trying to find the real Willie Horton". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  39. ↑ Newton, Adam Zachary (1995). Narrative Ethics . Harvard University Press. p.  324. ISBN   9780674600874.
  40. ↑ "Candidate ads: 1988 – George Bush" . Retrieved September 8, 2008.
  41. ↑ Rosenthal, Andrew (October 24, 1988). "Foes accuse Bush campaign of inflaming racial tension". New York Times . Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  42. 1 2 Dowd, Maureen (25 October 1988). "Bush Says Dukakis's Desperation Prompted Accusations of Racism". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
  43. ↑ Blodgett, Todd (December 7, 2018). "I had an insider view to the Willie Horton story. The real issue wasn't race". Des Moines Register. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
  44. ↑ Mendelberg, Tali (1997). "Executing Hortons" (PDF). Public Opinion Quarterly. 61: 149–152 – via Princeton University.
  45. 1 2 3 Mendelberg, Tali. "The Race Card" (PDF).
  46. ↑ Mendelberg, Tali (1997). "Executing Hortons" (PDF). Public Opinion Quarterly. 61: 137 – via Princeton University.
  47. ↑ Love, Keith (October 22, 1988). "Media Politics: Both Campaigns Launch Ads on Prison Furlough Issue". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
  48. ↑ Toner, Robin (December 10, 1990). "Politicial Memo – Issue of Job Quotas Sure to Affect Debate on Civil Rights in the '90s". The New York Times . Retrieved June 27, 2019.
  49. ↑ Dukakis, Michael (June 15, 2012). "Dukakis's Regret". New York (Interview). Interviewed by Eric Benson. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
  50. ↑ "Bush's Finest 30 Seconds: The Willie Horton Ad". Ann Coulter. December 5, 2018. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  51. ↑ Greenberg, David (December 1, 2018). "Is History Being Too Kind to George H.W. Bush? The 41st president put self-interest over principle time and time again". Politico .
  52. ↑ Heer, Jeet (December 3, 2018). "The Whitewashing of George H. W. Bush". New Republic .
  53. ↑ Baker, Peter (December 3, 2018). "Bush Made Willie Horton an Issue in 1988, and the Racial Scars Are Still Fresh". The New York Times .
  54. ↑ Berlatsky, Noah (December 4, 2018). "George H.W. Bush wasn't Trump — but from Willie Horton to the AIDS crisis, we shouldn't whitewash his legacy". NBC News.
  55. ↑ Schwartzapfel, Beth; Keller, Bill (May 13, 2015). "Willie Horton Revisited". The Marshall Project .
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