In The Novel and Film
Powell is an itinerant preacher, con artist, and serial killer. He has the words "LOVE" tattooed on the knuckles of one hand and "HATE" tattooed on the other, so that he can use them in a sermon about the eternal struggle between good and evil. He spreads the gospel up and down the Ohio River in the late 1920s and early 1930s, gaining the trust of wealthy widows, marrying them and then killing them for their money. Driven by a fanatical hatred of women and sex, he believes that he is doing God's work, as " book is full of killin's." He roams the West Virginia and Ohio countryside along the river, leaving a trail of murdered women in his wake, until he is arrested for grand theft auto in Parkersburg and sent to the state prison in Moundsville.
There he meets Ben Harper, who is sentenced to hang for killing two men while robbing a bank of $10,000. However, despite Powell's wheedling questions as to the money's location, Harper takes the secret to the grave. After Harper's execution, Powell leaves prison and heads downriver to Harper's home in Cresap Landing to find the money. He meets Harper's widow, Willa, and her children, John and Pearl, and ingratiates himself into the family by pretending to have been the prison chaplain and a good friend of Ben's; Willa and Pearl are smitten, but John doesn't trust him. Powell learns that the children know where the money is, and marries Willa to have access to them.
After Willa learns the truth about her marriage, Powell kills her and drops her body in the Ohio River. After he threatens to kill John, Pearl reveals the secret: the money is hidden in her doll. The children escape, doll in tow, and ride down the river on their father's old skiff. John and Pearl drift for days until they find a farmhouse near Williamstown run by Rachel Cooper, who takes care of homeless, orphaned, and abandoned children.
However, Powell has followed their trail and comes to the house one day claiming to be the children's father. Rachel is not fooled and pulls a gun on him; he leaves, but vows to return later. After nightfall, the desperate preacher charges into the farmhouse only to be shot by Rachel. Yelping in pain, Powell runs into the barn and is arrested the next morning after Rachel calls the state police in Parkersburg. Harry Powell is tried and convicted for multiple murders, including Willa's, and sentenced to death.
Read more about this topic: Reverend Harry Powell
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