Stephen King Wiki

Hello Stephen King fan! We at the Stephen King Wiki are incredibly happy you've decided to visit, please feel free to check out our Discusions and/or start editing articles.
If you're visiting anonymously you'll need to make an account.
Before you start editing or posting, you'll want to read our simple ruleset, just so you don't accidentally break any rules. If you see anyone breaking any of these rules, please report it to the message wall of an Administrator.

READ MORE

Stephen King Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Oscar "Butch" Bowers (1900s - 1958 (novel)) (1930s - August 1989 (movies)) is a minor antagonist of the Stephen King multiverse.

Serving as a supporting antagonist of the novel IT, and its 2017 film adaptation, a mentioned character in it's 1990 miniseries, and a posthumous antagonist of IT: Chapter Two.

He is the abusive father of Henry Bowers.

Character Biography[]

He is described as being "crazy". He "rewards" his son by giving him his first beer upon learning Henry had killed Mike Hanlon's dog. In 1956, Butch's wife eventually left him after he nearly beat her to death. A few years later began dating Rena Davenport.

Butch carried on an unending feud with Will Hanlon, who's farm down the road was more successful than Bowers'. Bowers poisoned Hanlon's chickens and painted a Swastika on the side of their chicken coop. Butch was taken into custody by Sheriff Sullivan. Will didn't want to press charges but only wanted $200 in compensation for the dead chickens. Butch said "no jury in Maine would convict me." Sheriff Sullivan agreed but pointed out they would put him away for painting a Swastika on the door after he killed them. Butch realized he was right, and had his brother sell his prized Mercury to pay Will Hanlon.[1] Butch's feud with Will stopped after Will pointed a rifle to his throat and threatened to kill him.

Butch was a Marine during WWII and fought in Tarawa. People said he was never right after he came back from the Pacific. Henry's friends try to avoid Butch because of his erratic behavior. He had once taken a length of stovewood to Victor Criss when he dropped a basket of tomatoes he was lugging out to the roadside stand. According to Henry's friends, the beating was bad enough but made worse because Butch, screaming hysterically, was enduring an episode of post-traumatic stress that made him think he was killing Japanese soldiers.

Butch would sit on the back porch with a Japanese sword across his lap that he claimed to have taken off the body of a dying Japanese soldier on the island of Tarawa. He had actually traded six bottles of Budweiser and three "joysticks" for it in Honolulu.

Butch was killed by his son, who stabbed him in the throat with a switchblade knife while he was sleeping.

Henry confessed to Butch's murder as well as the rest of the recent murders.

Butch's dream had always been to own a 1958 Plymouth Fury, the same make and model from the 1983 Stephen King novel Christine.

1990 Miniseries[]

He's briefly mentioned twice in the miniseries but is not in it.

When Henry gets detention for insulting Ben Hanscom in class, he says "my old man will tan my hide." When Mike Hanlon is cornered by Henry and his gang Henry says Mike "lives down the street from me and my daddy" and has been "giving me and my daddy grief for a long, long time."

2017/2019 Film[]

In the 2017 film adaptation Butch is an alcoholic cop. He bullies Henry into submission and humiliates him in front of his friends, and unlike the book he does not appear to approve of his son’s behavior.

He is first shown when Henry is antagonizing Bill Denbrough, Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier and Stan Uris outside of the school. Henry stops when he sees Butch watching him. In a deleted scene he beats up Henry for losing his knife. As he is smoking and drinking beers, he asks Henry where he's going. When Henry replies "out with the guys" he tells Henry to buy him another beer before coming back home.

Butch stops Henry from shooting a cat when he catches him in the yard with his gun. He takes the gun away and shoots at Henry's feet making him jump and flinch. He then mocks Henry and calls him a "paper man."

Later that day, Butch is sleeping in front of the TV. The children and hostess on the TV, manipulated by Pennywise, urge Henry to kill Butch. Henry complies and unsheathes the blade directly into the sleeping Butch’s neck, waking him up. Butch resists as Henry pushes the knife deeper into his neck, but quickly bleeds to death.

In IT: Chapter Two, Butch's body is seen being wheeled out of the house on a stretcher. Butch's police partner violently arrests Henry for murdering his father.

Quotes[]

IT: Chapter One[]

"Why don't you go get me another beer."
―Butch to Henry (deleted scene)
"What the hell is going on here?"
―Butch to Henry when using his gun
"You're cleaning my gun, huh?"
―Butch to Henry when using his gun

Trivia[]

  • The Haven character Kirk Bowers is intended to be somehow related to him.
  • His unnamed brother who helps him make the money to pay back Will Hanlon dies when he freezes to death while hunting drunk some years later.
  • May have more that one brother, as the the quote specifies: “the one that froze to death couple of years after while out hunting drunk,” implying there were a few.

References[]

  1. Page 1030, The Second Interlude
Advertisement