Charles "Charlie" Emmerson is a very pivotal character of Spiral: From the Book of Saw.
Biography[]
Charlie Emmerson was the Italian single-father of William Emmerson. One year, the police were given a new set of policies called Article 8, which granted police officers the power and authority to do any means to get rid of crime. This allowed for corruption, which Charlie witnessed. He saw a corrupt officer murder someone by pushing them off a roof. He was willing to testify against the officer, which put him in the cross-hairs of the other Metropolitan Police Department officers.
Death[]
Dunleavy shooting Charlie in the chest
When William was twelve years old, his father was visited by officers Peter Dunleavy and Ezekiel Banks from the Metropolitan Police. While Ezekiel waited outside of the building floor, Peter handed Charlie some pictures of the police officer that committed the murder and questioned him on what he witnessed of the murder and if he can ID the cop that did it. Charlie told Dunleavy that he will testify against the cop as he believes that those kind of people cannot be in the police department. However, Dunleavy went against orders and rapidly took his gun and used it to shoot Charlie in the chest, which killed him instantly. William was hidden in a cabinet but witnessed the entire incident and was horrified by the act.
After that, Peter took another gun and placed it near the hand of Charlie's corpse. After hearing the shots, Ezekiel ran back to the apartment and asked Peter what happened. Peter tried to lie, telling Zeke that Charlie took out a gun and tried to shoot at him, reason why he had to shoot and kill him in self-defense. Ezekiel was confused by the history and after seeing William hiding in the cabinet through the door, he raised one finger to his lips and shushed at him. Banks came to the conclusion that Peter's story was a lie and was unable to stand by while Dunleavy was guilty of murder, and took action by filing a complaint against him. The complaint opened up an IA investigation that found Dunleavy guilty. He was stripped of his badge and forced to become a civilian. He was bitter and angry at Banks for turning him in, and the ramifications of Banks's actions made him an outcast amongst his fellow officers.
Meanwhile, William became riddled with vengeance, as he wanted to make the officers and politicians responsible for Article 8 take responsibility for the corruption. As an adult, he assumed the alias of William Schenk and picked up the mantle of the Jigsaw Killer in order to murder cops and avenge his father.