William

William, Robert Mallory’s father, is described chiefly through Abigail Mallory’s account of the family’s history. His concerns about Robert, his assumptions about the unexplained death of Robert’s mother, and his decisions about where Robert should live help explain the path that eventually brings Robert to Los Angeles. The account also shows how William’s suspicions became part of the story told about his son, without establishing that those suspicions were true.

Family circumstances and Carol’s death

After William and Carol Mallory divorced, Robert lived with Carol. Abigail recounts that William questioned the circumstances of Carol’s death in April, including where she would have needed to be near the second-floor banister. The death was nevertheless treated as an accident, and the case was closed. Abigail emphasizes that the divorce had been contentious and that William hated Carol by that point; her account presents his questions as part of a disputed family history, not as proof of what happened.

After Carol died, Robert moved in with William, his stepmother Diane, and Ashley, Diane’s twelve-year-old daughter from an earlier marriage. William had wanted Robert sent to boarding school, but, because Carol had died in April, plans were made to enroll him somewhere in September. Robert was still finishing his sophomore year at Roycemore School during this transition.

William’s concerns about Robert

Abigail describes Robert as having anger issues and acting out, with declining focus and drug use that included marijuana and other substances. She says he threatened classmates but was not dangerous, except perhaps to himself, and recalls that Carol had once found him in a catatonic state in his bedroom before he was prescribed benzodiazepines. These details complicate the stronger claims later made about him: Abigail distinguishes troubling behavior and risk from a settled conclusion that he was violent.

William also believed that something inappropriate was happening between Robert and Ashley. Abigail reports this as William’s concern, rather than as an established fact. After roughly a month in William’s household, Robert came to Los Angeles to stay with Abigail during the summer of 1980. The move followed a strained period at home and preceded the later decisions about treatment and evaluation.

Treatment and move to Los Angeles

Abigail says Robert overdosed after returning to Chicago. She did not think it was a serious suicide attempt, though she considered that it might have been intended to make William feel guilty for believing Ashley. William then wanted Robert placed in a facility, saying that the purpose was both to help him stop using drugs and to provide a full psychiatric evaluation. Robert was placed in Jacksonville about a week after returning to Chicago; by the time he was released, the family had decided that he should move to Los Angeles to live with Abigail.

At school, Robert’s time in treatment was reduced to a vague reference to a “developmental center.” Bret Ellis challenged that description by equating it with an asylum, illustrating how Robert’s history could be recast as a stigmatizing label rather than discussed with precision. The passage does not give William’s perspective directly: his intentions and judgments reach the reader through Abigail’s recollection and other characters’ interpretations.

Narrative significance

William’s role is consequential but mediated. Abigail says that neighborhood pets had disappeared or been found dead and that Carol worried people suspected Robert; she also says nothing was ever pinned on him, while William made assumptions that worsened Robert’s paranoia. William’s suspicions therefore form part of the pressure surrounding Robert without proving that Robert was responsible for the pets’ deaths or other harm.

That uncertainty matters later, when Bret’s account of Robert becomes influential. Abigail publicly disputes Bret’s version of what happened between Robert and Bret on November 7, while Bret’s forceful account becomes the basis for a broader narrative portraying Robert as dangerous and suicidal. William’s earlier doubts belong to the same contested history: they help explain the family’s decisions, but do not resolve what Robert did or what others believe he did.