Franklin Winthrop

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Franklin Winthrop
Franklin Winthrop

Franklin Winthrop is a fictional character in the HBO series Oz, played by Andy Powers.

[edit] Character overview

A well-off, educated, suburban white male, Winthrop is imprisoned because he assisted his best friend Adam Guenzel in beating and raping a woman while intoxicated. Inside, he is immediately targeted as weak and becomes the sex slave of Vernon Schillinger and the Aryan Brotherhood. Later, he offers Schillinger a deal to join the brotherhood, and gets in. He dies at the hands of Chris Keller shortly afterwards.

[edit] Season 5

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Winthrop arrives in Oz with Adam Guenzel for raping a woman. He is sentenced to 28 years, up for parole in 7, and sent to Unit B. Guenzel is sent to Em City with family friend Tobias Beecher. Winthrop and Guenzel are both unfit for prison and thereby ideal sex slaves for both black and white inmates. Inside Unit B, Winthrop is approached by an overweight black inmate named Clarence Seroy, who attempts to rape him. Winthrop is "saved" by Aryan Brotherhood members Vernon Schillinger and James Robson; As Winthrop is new to prison, he does not realize that the Aryans in Oz are sexual predators themselves who pull this routine often to turn naive white inmates into their sex toys. He is told that he will be protected, but the protection will cost him sexual servitude to the Aryans. Still in shock, Winthrop realizes he has no choice and allows the Aryans to rape him. In the cafeteria, Robson parades him with a tied up shirt, pigtails, and makeup. He is whistled at by various inmates as Guenzel looks on in disgust.

When Guenzel, who is virulently homophobic, is transferred to Unit B, he insults Winthrop. Schillinger rapes him shortly afterwards, and eventually kills him. Beecher, who agreed to sell Guenzel out to the Aryans, is so guilt-ridden that he testifies against Schillinger, who is sent to the isolation ward. Winthrop remains as the Aryan's main girlfriend.

[edit] Season 6

Winthrop eventually tires of being the Aryans' toy, and asks to be a full-fledged member of the gang. Schillinger initially refuses, but Winthrop offers to kill Beecher's father, who is helping inmate Chris Keller appeal a death sentence. Schillinger accepts Winthrop's deal. Winthrop pays off a guard to lock Beecher's father in a hall, and Winthrop stabs him to death. Winthrop is then let into the Aryan Brotherhood as a soldier.

Once Keller's death sentence is overturned on appeal, he avenges Beecher's father by luring Winthrop into a closet and murdering him.