Revisised 7/10/10

“Can you tell us if this is a picture of you?”

With this question, Mayor Norris passes a Civil War era tintype, labeled, “Mr. W.T. Compton and family” to Bill after his speech to the Descendants of the Glorious Dead.

“Stanley, my boy, is it you?” Olivia asks when she opens the door to Bill after he escapes from Cooter’s Crew.

These questions indicate that Bill’s very identity is at issue, as does the season 3 poster, which depicts Bill with his Civil War regiment. The only problem is that this is not what it shows because Bill’s head has been superimposed onto the body of a Civil War lieutenant. Could the purpose of the horribly Photoshopped poster be to imply that the man who claimed to be Civil War veteran William T. Compton, was actually an impostor?

Arlene indicates that might be the case when she says to Sookie, “I brought him around my kids. I slept in the bed with him, and all that time, it was nothing but lies. His name, his accent. God, you think you know someone. How could I not know?” Of course she is speaking of René, but we know the in addition to being Bill’s patsy for Gran’s murder, he is one of Bill’s major alter egos, and we’ve discussed how Bill changed his accent and his persona after meeting Sookie to fulfill her fantasy of an ideal Southern gentleman. Since Bill and René are alter egos, we could expect more similarities between them beyond their fake accents. Could the name ‘Bill Compton’ be just as phony as the name ‘René Lenier?’

I propose that True Blood is presenting another Martin Guerre. He was a 16th century French peasant who left his family. A few years later, an impostor with detailed knowledge of Marin’s life showed up and assumed his life, suing one of Martin’s uncles for the inheritance from his father’s estate and having two children with his wife.

Many of the stories that are alluded to in True Blood have multiple versions. For example, the movie Psycho was based on the story of a real serial killer and then turned into a book before it was made into a movie. With each new work, the story changes and when considered as a whole, one story with multiple iterations, becomes richer. Martin Guerre’s story fits this pattern because it is part of the historical record that was fictionalized in a novel, turned into the movie The Return of Martin Guerre, and then Americanized in Sommersby with Richard Gere and Jody Foster. The French movie gave Martin a political reason for leaving his family, war, and Sommersby turned it into the Civil War.

So, if the real William T. Compton encountered someone who looked very much like him while he was fighting in the Civil War and told this doppelganger about his life back home, who is the man who assumed his identity and was on his way to claim Compton’s wife and plantation when he encountered Lorena and was made vampire?

I think the obvious answer, based on this post and this one, is that he was a serial killer, probably trying to lose himself in the confusion of war to escape from those who were searching for him. If the man we know as Bill Compton is a serial killer, could he be Johann Schmidt, the Stockyard Bluebeard who immigrated to Chicago from the Mainz-Bingen district in Germany, had a wife named Caroline, and assumed the identities of those he killed? The similarities between his modus operandi and Bill and Lorena’s actions with the Chicago couple are striking if you assume that they impersonated the dead couple and stole their money. Schmidt’s origin near Mainz may be part of the Old Saxon convergence that was discussed on another thread, and also tie in with the researched phenomenon of areas with capital punishment producing a higher than average number of serial killers.*

After Bill left Lorena could he have turned up in history as the Axeman of New Orleans who had a particular fondness for jazz music and claimed to be a supernatural demon from hell?

Alan Ball, like Amy and all good writers, likes symmetry.* An impostor Bill Compton who involved himself in the Civil War and deliberately chose to join the ‘wrong’ side for his own personal reasons smacks of Eric impersonating an SS officer because of his personal vendetta.

Eddie explained to Jason that vampires are what they were when they were turned. Eddie’s doughy body and Franklin Mott’s crooked fangs illustrate that point graphically. With the character of Bill Compton, could True Blood be exploring what would happen if a charming, well mannered sociopathic serial killer were not bound by human limitations.

*The most horrific werewolf trial that ended when the condemned was executed using a Catherine wheel was in Saxony, not far from Mainz, the home of Johann Schmidt. Mainz was also one of the places caught up in the hysteris of the witch trials. One of the factors associated with a higher rate of serial killers is the use of capital punishment by the state.

**Alan Ball often uses symmetrical names to link characters or to make allusions. Consider the Axeman of New Orleans and Eric Bloodaxe, the historical figure Eric Northman is based on, Sookie and Psyche [Sukee and Sykee], Psyche Sookie and Psycho Bill, werewitch and werebitch, Maryann and Sophie Anne, William, Guillaume, and Liam (the French and Welsh versions of William), Eric, Ulfric, and Godric (‘ric’ means ruler). Added: Butt Boy and Bat Boy

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