The Devil in Willie Bosket

By: Brian M. Kern

10151214

CJUS 3600 Criminology

Professor Lisa R. Muftić

University of North Texas

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 Since the dawn of criminality and the first theft, mankind has been asking the ultimate

question behind criminal behavior: What causes man to become criminal? Concepts ranging

from the Zodiac and planetary alignments, to demonology, theology, and biology, philosophers,

clergy, psychiatrists, and sociologists have all presented theories to explain the why behind the

existence of crime. Despite advances in science, medicine, technology, and even philosophic

thought, mankind still struggles to define the causations of the criminal facet. And no greater

example of the criminal element can be found, than by the examination of Willie James Bosket

Jr., a thief and a murderer.

Willie Bosket, in the medieval ages, would have been declared possessed by the devil and

executed almost immediately. No deep level of exploration into his psyche and motivation

would be required, merely the swift, certain, and severe application of a headsman’s axe would

have been all that was needed. A priest would have assured his flock that the devil was certainly

present in Willie Bosket, and that the devil was ever present, ready to tempt everyone into sin.

But psychology and sociology, and thus criminology, have come a long way in five centuries.

New theories as to the motivation and causes of crime, which can be applied to Willie Bosket,

have revolutionized the field of crime causation.

Explaining Willie Bosket’s propensity for criminal activity is as difficult a prospect on the

micro level as it is for general theorists on a macro one, and to the criminologist’s delight, a

variety of theories seem to apply. Willie was born to Laura Roane, on December 9, 1962.

(Butterfield, 135) Even from the moment of his birth, Willie’s life was different from those of

most children. His father, Butch Bosket, was in jail, the result of a double homicide, and Willie

Bosket was to grow up without his father, but idolizing him all the same. As a young child,

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Willie was already pushing the boundaries of decent moral behavior, and perhaps the first

inclinations for the criminal life that lay before him was when he stole old men’s canes for

amusement. No one corrected him, and many neighbors thought he was humorous to watch.

(Butterfield, 136)

But one reason Willie Bosket may have turned to a life of crime, is due to the

impoverished nature of his existence. His mother was poor, whose meager salary barely

provided enough to feed and clothe them, much less establish a comfortable living in which other

more socially acceptable pursuits could be focused on. As the strain of hunger gnawed at him,

Willie would go down to the local grocery store, fill up a shopping cart with food, let the cashier

put the food in bags, and then Willie would grab and run, fleeing from the store. He was very

fast. (Butterfield, 137)

Robert Merton, a sociologist who developed an early theory in criminological causes,

proposed a hypothesis known as Strain Theory. Taking Emile Durkheim’s concepts of “anomie”

or “without norms” (Muftić, Lecture), Merton established a model in which crime is caused by

the application of strain upon the person. Depending on other social factors, some individuals

choose to commit crime to attain their goals. For Willie, not being hungry was a laudable goal.

There is no doubt that Willie’s behavior was probably not approved of at home, and the

author of “All God’s Children, The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence”, Fox

Butterfield, did not delve too deeply, but the question remains as to whether Willie’s mother

overlooked the sudden supply of staples, accepting their appearance with whatever flimsy

excuses the young Willie could concoct. Had they not been so desperately needed, perhaps she

would have glared at Willie, ordering him to return his stolen goods. If there had been a ready

supply of food at home, would Willie have taken to stealing?

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 But as Willie grew up, he would feel strain more and more. From the first moments of

“running the street” Willie Bosket was taught to be meaner, coarser, and more violent in order to

make himself a power to be reckoned with. Once his mother explained to him the code; “If a

man threatens you or hits you, this is something you can do to keep your respect.” (Butterfield,

137) Respect was an important thing for Willie Bosket. For a juvenile with little money, no

apparent athletic ability, and an intense dislike for school, the gaining of respect on the street

became a primary motivation.

According Merton, individuals encountering strain have five paths to choose from when

encountering strain. Some conform, struggling against the odds to meet the norms of society in

order to achieve their goals. Some turn toward ritualism, scaling down the societal structure.

These individuals reject the goals of society, and create their own attainable goals using means

the greater society would not object to. Some people, encountering the same strains Willie

Bosket did, retreat from society, unable to accept either the goals of society, much less the means

to achieve them. Willie Bosket however, with his intelligence, audacity, and ambition became an

innovator, who saw that the “American Dream” of being financially independent and powerful

were laudable, and used whatever means he could to work towards achieving that goal. (Muftić,

Lecture)

Throughout his life, Willie used criminal behavior to get money, eliminate competitors or

threats, intimidate others to establish his dominance, or merely to gain his freedom. As the

sanctions imposed by the state of New York never truly stopped him, he became disdainful of

society’s attempt to reform him. Proud of his criminal heritage, he merely became more unruly.

However, Merton’s strain theory only goes so far to explain Willie Bosket. Neighbors

recounted stories of a young mischievous boy whose pranks took forms that most parents would

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frown upon. He would steal the die or money from dice games being played around the corner.

Once he leapt upon a man and threatened to “…choke this fucker to death!” wrapping his hands

around the startled man’s throat. Willie laughed and said “I’m only kidding.” But the man left,

shaken. And there were other incidents, such as putting penny nails into the bare feet of an

intoxicated wino, or how his anger would rise like a demon and he would smash anything in site.

(Butterfield, 140) Willie demonstrated a viciousness and callous disregard for other people.

Blaming the neighborhood, Laura Bosket would shake her head in dismay at her son’s

behavior. “There was people out there doing things, and Willie though he could do the same

thing he saw them doing.” Laura said. (Butterfield, 139) And like his father before him,

Willie’s environment was no picnic. Rife with drugs, violence, alcohol, and a thousand other

vices, Willie was something of an expert early. The “code of the streets” was the most important

lesson: that to survive one must be willing to use violence, quickly, mercilessly, and without

hesitation.

With crime so rampant in his environment, was it any surprise that Willie Bosket

modeled his behavior on those around him? There is no indication that he was “taken under the

wing” of more criminally active individuals, but it is possible to learn behavior through

observation. In 1970, Akers proposed the Social Learning Theory, based upon operant

conditioning. Founded on Dr. Ivan Pavlov’s research on psychological behaviors, Akers

recognized that there are positive and negative reinforcements of conduct. Laura Bosket felt she

was a good mother: responsible, and caring. She provided food, shelter, and clothes. But

working as she did, she was never around to model appropriate behavior that met with society’s

norms. The absence of Willie’s father made things no easier. (Butterfield, 138)

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 Aker’s theory of Social Learning is a concept that recognizes the differential associations

an individual has that defines their behavior. Willie watched as the drug lords who ruled the

street used violence and intimidation to achieve their goals. And with that observation he began

to conform to the street’s norms. When he was rewarded for his outrageous behavior, either with

the indulgent attitudes from his family or with the respect or property his delinquent behavior

had attained, his value for that behavior was reinforced.

Imitation is also a major factor in the concepts of Social Learning. Children, and even

adults, will model their behavior on those they believe they respect. For Willie, his father’s

prison term for homicide was a compliment, a declaration of power and self-determination. For

Willie, there would be no greater compliment than “Boy, you bad, just like your father. You sure

got the devil in you. You’re going to grow up to be no good.” (Butterfield, 141)

For Akers, Willie Bosket is a poster child of the environment’s influence on the young

and impressionable. When one associates with those who “commit, model, and support violating

social and legal norms,” it teaches that very behavior. (Muftić, Lecture) Like Pavlov’s dog that

salivated at the sound of the bell, Willie Bosket had become conditioned to violence and force as

way to achieve his desires. When Willie wanted something, he took it.

But there may be another theory, a general theory of crime causation that may better

explain Willie’s behavior than Aker’s Social Learning and Merton’s Strain. In 1990, Travis

Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson modified Social Bond Theory, the concept that crime is the

direct result of weak or social bonds, and developed a macro theory to explain crime causation

(Muftić, Lecture) Proposing the “General Theory of Crime”, Hirschi and Gottfredson stated that

“crime and other related behaviors can be explained by one trait: the lack of internal and external

controls.” Namely, this trait is called low-self control.

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 Harkening back to the concepts of the great social thinkers, like Jean-Jaques Rousseau,

John Locke, and Thomas Hobbes, the question of mankind’s inherent propensity for evil comes

to the fore. Thomas Hobbes, who wrote “Leviathan”, believed that mankind possessed the basic

motivation for immorality innately, and that asking why someone committed an offense was

unnecessary. Hobbes believed that the question was “why do people not commit crime?”

And it is this assumption of human nature that Hirschi and Gottfredson base their

“General Theory of Crime”. As Willie Bosket’s behavior clearly demonstrates, “crime is an act

of force or fraud done in the pursuit of self-interest.” (Muftić, Lecture) Hirschi’s descriptions of

those with low-self control seem to be taken straight from Willie Bosket’s biography: reckless,

thoughtless, a risk-taker, material, tactless, and frequently non-verbal. Hirschi describes how

those with low self-control are stuck in a continuum that changes little through the course of their

lives. (Muftić, Lecture) Willie Bosket’s reputation as the most dangerous prisoner in the State of

New York is proof enough that his levels of self-control haven’t changed much. (Butterfield,

320)

Hirschi and Gottfredson even went so far as to explain how the internal and external

controls when not formed in young persons, results in low self-control. They described

environments of parental criminality, large family size, or single parent families. For Willie, two

out of three was enough. Lacking effective parenting, Willie Bosket was deprived of the external

controls that most children have placed on their lives. His dislike for school and propensity for

truancy ensured that whatever beneficial controls education placed upon him were tenuous at

best. At a time when children translate the external controls into the internal ones that later hold

in check the Hobbesian “propensity towards evil”, Willie Bosket was unable to erect even the

tiniest structure resembling societal norms. (Muftić, Lecture)

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 Today, Willie Bosket remains in the care of the State of New York, in a “specially

constructed isolation cell”, in which he has little human contact. The guards are restricted from

speaking to him, and in a “Hannibal Lecter” style incarceration, sitting alone, behind bars and

plexi-glass, with only his death as an escape, Willie Bosket will remain. (Ramsland, 8)

The cause of Willie Bosket’s criminality has been a question for sociologists,

psychologists, criminologists, the police, his parents, the news media, and even the fresh young

faces of criminal justice students, studying the roots of evil. He is a poster child for the failure of

social services, who had several opportunities to perhaps save Willie Bosket. He is an example

of social learning, a product of his world, where the hardships of meeting his own needs forced

him to reject society’s morays and morals for a darker, more violent world. Willie Bosket is case

in point for the strain of poverty, of living in desperate times. For years to come, we will be

studying the case of Willie Bosket, asking ourselves the most important question, once reserved

for philosophers: Why? For Willie Bosket, it’s too late. But perhaps, for others, we will one day

be able to stop most crimes from even occurring. But for right now, we must all acknowledge

the devil in Willie Bosket.

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Sources:
1. Butterfield, F. (1995) All God’s Children: The Bosket Family and the American
Tradition of Violence. Perennial
2. Lisa Muftić, PhD, CJUS 3600 Criminology Spring 2007 Lecture Notes;
University of North Texas Criminal Justice Department, Denton, Texas
3. Ramsland, Katherine, PhD, Young Killers, Court TV Crime Library
4. Thomas Harris, (1988) Silence of the Lambs; St. Martin’s Press, NewYork