ok, so this might sound nutty, but here goes: I was trying to remember what life was like in 1979, so I looked up what movies came out that year. "Alien", "Apocalypse Now", "The Warriors", "Mad Max", "Escape from Alcatraz", plus more calmer movies ("Life of Brian", Kramer vs Kramer", etc). I was just trying to get into the mindset of teenage boys at the time.
What caught my attention was that "The Warriors" is about gangs & fighting, sounds pretty brutal, and happens to have 2 main characters whose name starts with an "S". "Swan" and "Snow". Now I never saw that movie so I don't know - but were these two characters tough guys that picked on people??
Like I said, nutty, but I'm just trying to think what delusional thinking would make anybody do anything like what happened to Bill.
Not a "nutty" thought at all! In fact, I remember exactly what it was like in 1979, as I was a bit (cough, cough) older than "a kid", and even at that age, the Warriors had a huge impact on our entire group. In fact, the most impacting spot in the movie was when Sean Penn (just a "kid actor" then) was a street gang leader and their gang was in the process of "calling out" and rumbling with the opposing gang, the Warriors.
Oops, my mistake. Wasn't Sean Penn. It was David Patrick Kelly.
Three empty bottles were used in the pinnacle scene. Sean Penn put his thumb in one bottle, and a finger in the other 2 bottles, then proceeded to "clank" them together, repetitiously, calling out "Hey Warriors... come out and playyy-yay" over and over. As a calling out to the Warriors for battle.
Most kids in that era, especially deviant kids, would be seen repeating that line... everywhere they went. Shows the huge impact it had!
You possibly may have something there, with that "S". Long shot, but hey,, it's also quite possible.
Plus, there was a beer bottle recovered from the murder scene, tho it was a stubby fat "keg bottle" (clank-able, but more awkward) and not like the skinny long neck bottles in the movie. Hmmm?
Zoomom added (post 487): added: my point is could there have been trouble-makers at Bill's school that were really, really into that movie and fancied themselves wanna be gang members or "tough guys"?
I can almost guarantee that any JD or trouble-maker would be strongly impacted by the movie "The Warriors".
Heck, me & my friends were the "good guys" (well, within reason)
and every time you turned around one of us was saying (with slightly raised voice)... Hey Warriors... come out and playyy-yay".
So yes,, it would have a huge impact on any kid in high school age. The deviant kids would use this movie, and the famous "call out" as their main creed.