William Anthony Harvelle

Name	William "Bill" Anthony Harvelle
Actor
Dates	???? - May 16, 1995
Location	Nebraska (Harvelle's Roadhouse)
Occupation	Hunter
Episode(s)	2.06 No Exit (mentioned) 2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign (mentioned)

History

William Anthony "Bill" Harvelle (W.A.H.) is deceased. He was the father of Jo and husband of Ellen and co-owner of Harvelle's Roadhouse. He usually hunted on his own, but was killed on a hunt with John Winchester.

• According to Jo's Blog, Bill was killed May 16, 1995 but according to John's Journal, Bill was killed April 15, 1986. As Jo says in that "she was in pigtails" when he died, the 1995 date is more likely, given Jo was born in 1985.

Episodes

2.06 No Exit

While hunting with Sam and Dean, Jo reminisces about her father with Dean:

I was still in pigtails when my dad died, but I remember him coming home from a hunt. He'd burst through that door like, like Steve McQueen or something. And he'd sweep me up in his arms, and I'd breathe in that old leather jacket of his. And my mom, who was sour and pissed from the minute he left, she started smiling again. And we were... we were a family. You wanna know why I want to do the job? For him. It's my way of being close to him. Now tell me what's wrong with that. – Jo, 2.06 No Exit

After Jo is rescued after being abducted by the spirit of serial murderer Dr. H.H. Holmes, Ellen reveals to her that Bill was killed while on a hunt with John Winchester. According to Ellen, W.A.H.'s death was John's fault, and this is the reason John never visited the Roadhouse after W.A.H.'s death.

2.10 Hunted

While Sam thinks that he and Dean are the last people Ellen wants to see, she says that she forgave John for what happened to Bill a long time ago, but John never forgave himself for what happened. When Sam asks what happened, Ellen softly changes the subject to Sam's search for the other Special Children.

2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign

While possessed by the Meg!Demon, Sam takes Jo hostage. The demon taunts her about her father's death. She relates the version she knows:

Our dads were in California: Devil's Gate Reservoir. They were setting a trap for some kind of Hellspawn. John was hiding, waiting, and my dad was bait... The thing showed up. John got too eager, jumped out too soon, got my dad exposed out in the open. The thing turned around and killed him. – Jo, 2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign

Evil!Sam gives his own, more horrible version:

You see, Bill was all clawed up. Holding his insides in his hands. He was gurgling and praying to see you and Ellen one more time. So my dad killed him. Put him out of his misery like a sick dog. (singing) My daddy shot your daddy in the head. – Evil!Sam, 2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign

The veracity of this story must be doubted as the Meg!Demon has interested in hurting Jo and also painting John in a bad light.

John's Journal

According to the published version of John Winchester's Journal W.A.H. was killed in April of 1986 at Devil's Gate Reservoir. John Winchester and W.A.H. went there to turn the Devil's Gate into a devil's trap. John made a mistake and W.A.H. died. John's mistake was scuffing the salt he had just laid on the ground with his foot by accident, so when something came out of the opening of the tunnel nothing stopped it. John describes W.A.H.'s death in his journal:

It looked like smoke and sounded like a million flies. Bill looked down from the stars just in time for it to flow right into him. He started jerking like a condemned man in the electric chair, and two voices were coming out of his mouth. One was the thing, the hellspawn. I don't know what language it was speaking, but its voice was horrible. It was the sound cancer would make if it could talk. And Bill, he kept saying over and over again, "John, shoot me, shoot me, John." So I did. It was the worst mistake I ever made. It was careless and stupid and it got a good man killed. A husband and father, and a damned good hunter, and I don't know how I'm going to explain this to Ellen. And Jo, poor Jo. She's four years old. How am I going to tell her? I can't just let Ellen do it. I'm responsible. It was over in less than a minute, Bill Harvelle dead and me standing there with a gun in my hand listening to the echo of the gunshots in the hills and the echo of the awful hellspawn voice in my head. – John Winchester, John's Journal

W.A.H.'s death in the journal concurs with the story Evil!Sam tells Jo Harvelle when Meg!Demon is possessing him. However, Meg!Demon's version paints John as a merciless killer instead of the remorseful and tortured man he truly was at the moment of W.A.H.'s death.

Notes

• Jo carries a small hunting knife belonging to Bill engraved with W.A.H.

Bill Harvelle in Fandom

• And Sometimes This Too by onelittlesleep
• Bat Country by ishafel
• Bill/Ellen
• The Spindle, The Shuttle and The Needle by angstslashhope
• The Whole Truth by mummyluvr

Here are links to fanfiction featuring W.A.H. Feel free to add your own, or any you come across, to this list. Please heed the author notes, warnings and ratings on these stories, as some of them may contain explicit content.