For the former professional baseball player, see Willie Horton (baseball). For other persons named William Horton, see William Horton (disambiguation).
William Horton
Born
William R. Horton
(1951-08-12) August 12, 1951 (age 72)
Chesterfield, South Carolina, U.S.
Criminal status
Incarcerated
Conviction(s)
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 murderer who was the subject of a major issue in the 1988 presidential election. Horton had committed violent crimes while on furlough from prison, where he was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for murder.[1] Released for a weekend as the beneficiary of a Massachusetts furlough program, he failed to return, and was later recaptured and convicted of committing assault, armed robbery, and rape in Maryland, where he remains incarcerated.
During the 1988 presidential election, US Vice President and Republican nominee George H. W. Bush brought Horton up frequently during his campaign against Massachusetts governor and Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. He was commonly referred to as "Willie" Horton, despite never having gone by the nickname. The renaming of the African-American Horton has been speculated to be the product of racist stereotyping.[2] A prominent PAC ad for Bush about Horton has been widely characterized as a textbook example of dog-whistle politics.[3][4][5][6][7]
^"Prison furloughs survive campaign flap over Willie Horton". Milwaukee Journal. Associated Press. November 6, 1989.[permanent dead link]
^Newton, Adam Zachary (1995). Narrative Ethics. Harvard University Press. p. 324. ISBN 9780674600874.
^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.
^Withers, Rachel (December 1, 2018). "George H.W. Bush's "Willie Horton" ad will always be the reference point for dog-whistle racism". Vox. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
^Criss, Doug (November 1, 2018). "This is the 30-year-old Willie Horton ad everybody is talking about today". CNN. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
^Baker, Peter (December 3, 2018). "Bush Made Willie Horton an Issue in 1988, and the Racial Scars Are Still Fresh". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
^Scott, Eugene (December 3, 2018). "How the Willie Horton ad factors into George H.W. Bush's legacy". The Washington Post.
William R. Horton (born August 12, 1951), commonly referred to as "WillieHorton", is an American convicted murderer who was the subject of a major issue...
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self-professed "AIDS poster boy" in the earliest years of the epidemic. WillieHorton became a poster boy for a prison furlough program in the US and the...
racially charged, "Revolving Door" and "Weekend Passes" (also known as "WillieHorton"), that portrayed him as soft on crime. Dukakis was a strong supporter...
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widespread and bipartisan condemnation and was compared to the infamous WillieHorton ad during the 1988 presidential campaign. Republican Senator Jeff Flake...
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talking about. It was compared, including by a rankled Chiles, to the WillieHorton ad run on behalf of Bush's father in 1988. Bush further caused himself...
clearly approved of the use of the WillieHorton issue, the Bush campaign never ran any commercial with Horton's picture, running a similar but generic...
of the premier harmonica players in the history of blues. Willie Dixon once called Horton 'the best harmonica player I ever heard'. Robert Palmer named...
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Walls" with the band the Reverend Horton Heat, and "Bloody Mary Morning" with the Supersuckers, for Twisted Willie, a tribute album featuring rock versions...
presidential election. The two most famous were the "WillieHorton" and "Tank Ride" ads. The "WillieHorton" ad began with a statement of Vice President Bush's...
home runs in his age-23 season, joining Travis Fryman, Hank Greenberg, WillieHorton, Matt Nokes, Jason Thompson and Rudy York. He is the first Tiger to...
while coaching for the Tigers, he wore #22 after #23 was retired for WillieHorton. Gibson wore #23 as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. On July 1,...
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