Boggs Diamond is a minor antagonist of the Stephen King multiverse.
Serving as a minor antagonist of the novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, and a major antagonist of it's film adaptation The Shawshank Redemption.
He was the leader (member) of The Sisters, a gang of sadistic male rapists in Shawshank State Prison.
Biography[]
Nothing is known about Bogs Diamonds early life or how he ended up at Shawshank Prison. It can be assumed that like Andy, Bogs has been sentenced to life imprisonment. At some point, he either joined or formed a gang of prison rapists known as the Sisters. For many years, they brutalized and terrorized their fellow inmates.
In 1947, a new inmate, Andy Dufresne caught Bogs eye. During Andy's first shower time, Bogs stood next to him. The predatory inmate, eyed Andy up and even made flirtatious comments at him. Andy chose not to respond and simply walked away, but Bogs' was not deterred. As Red later explained, Bogs and his cronies did not do for love, but their own twisted pleasure. For this reason, he warned Andy to grow eyes in the back of his head.
Red's words were soon born out, as Andy quickly became the Sisters new punching bag and plaything. Over the next two years, the group assaulted him numerous times. Andy came out of each ordeal battered and bruised, though Red noted that he was sometimes able to fight the Sisters off. Despite the brutality and unfairness of his situation, Andy never ratted the Sister's out, even though everybody knew who had done it.
Unfortunately for Bogs, his decision to target Andy eventually proved to be his undoing. One night, he and a couple of cronies ambushed Andy, with the intention of assaulting him. After Andy fought back, the group managed to subdue Andy, whereupon Bogs pulled out a knife. The serial rapist then threatened to stab Andy in the skull unless he performed oral sex upon him and another of his men, whom Andy had punched in his attempt to fight them off.
Even under threat of death, Andy refused to submit. Instead, he implied that the attempt at oral rape would result in permanent injury to Bogs' sexual organs, taking advantage of Bogs' ignorance. Unfortunately, Andy made the mistake of insulting Bogs' intelligence, which the latter did not appreciate. Infuriated, Bogs and his group decided not to sexually assault him, but rather brutally beat him.
The attack was so severe that Andy barely survived. He spent a month recuperating in the infirmary as a result. Bogs meanwhile was either caught in the act or found out shortly afterwards. As a result, he spent the week following the attack in a dark, isolated cell area that the prisoners called The Hole. Like anybody else in this area of the prison he had no contact with anybody, except for the guards who brought him food and water.
Eventually, a pair of guards told Bogs his time in solitary confinement had ended. Happy to see the end of this stretch, Bogs returned to his original cell. When he turned on the light however, he found Captain Byron Hadley, the leader of the Shawshank officers, and another guard waiting for him. What Bogs didn't know was that Andy had previously helped Hadley with some financial matters, and had similarly helped all of the guards with financial planning. Andy had become very useful to the prison staff, hence Hadley now had an interest in protecting Andy.
As such, Hadley returned the favor by doing what Bogs had done to Andy only much, much worse. Using his fist and batons, the Captain of the guards, brutally attacked the prison rapist. Bogs tried to escape, but the two officers simply grabbed him by his ankles and dragged the screaming felon back into the cell, where they continued their assault.
It is not known how long the corrupt officers carried out their attack, but the beating had lasting consequences for Bogs Diamond. The last time Red or any of the other prisoners saw him, Bogs was being wheeled onto the back of a prison ambulance by Hadley and several other officers. The formerly terrifying inmate was battered, bruised, had one arm in a sling and according to Red, he never walked again afterwards. Bogs was sent to a minimal security hospital presumably on the orders of Hadley's superior Warden Samuel Norton. No one knows what happened to him, but Red comments that he heard Bogs spent the rest of his life at the hospital unable to eat solid food. Following his departure, Bogs' gang left Andy alone for good, never bothering him again for the rest of his sentence.
Personality[]
According to Red, the deuteragonist of the story, neither Bogs nor the other Sisters were homosexual, meaning they subjected Andy to years of torture merely out of pure sadism and that he didn't want to risk harassing someone who could fight back, proving by the way that he is a coward. He can put up a polite façade when talking to someone but his creepiness is still palpable and he only does that for his next prey to rape. Bogs doesn't care about anybody, even his fellows, as long he succeeded to rape somebody. He is also arrogant, as he thinks nobody will bother him as long as the Sisters are with him to back him.
Trivia[]
- In the original novella, Bogs wasn't a major factor and simply was just a member of the Sisters, not their leader like he is in the film.
- Also in the book, instead of being crippled by Hadley and taken to a security hospital, Bogs was simply transferred to another prison and never heard from again. Even so, the Sisters stopped harassing Andy after Bogs' departure.