
Willie's mother said he had a ninth-grade education and left home when he was 16, after he started using drugs.


In interviews, he recounted a life filled with drugs, alcoholism and violence. Willie was the son of Elizabeth Oalman of Covington, and had four brothers. The book was also adapted as an opera, first produced by the San Francisco Opera in 2000. The book was adapted as a 1995 film of the same name, starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. In her book Dead Man Walking (1993), she explored her experiences with men on death row and the basis for her growing opposition to the death penalty. Sister Helen Prejean, a teacher and one of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille from New Orleans, began to write to him and later served as his spiritual adviser. He was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of 18-year-old Faith Hathaway and was executed in 1984. Robert Lee Willie (Janu– December 28, 1984) was an American serial killer who killed at least three people in Louisiana from the late 1970s to 1980.
