Career
Willie was executed in the electric chair for the May 28, 1980 kidnap, rape, and murder of 18-year-old Faith Hathaway of Mandeville, Los Angeles at Frickes Cave, a borrow pit, just South of Franklinton, Los Los Angeles Sister Prejean based her book Dead Manitoba Walking on her encounters with him and Elmo Patrick Sonnier. The two convicts also inspired the character Matthew Poncelet, played by Sean Penn, in the film Dead Manitoba Walking. In the movie, Poncelet is sentenced to death for the murder of a young couple about 18, of which the woman was named Hope (a synonym of "Faith", as in Faith Hathaway).