The Green Mile (King)
Short summary
Cold Mountain Penitentiary, Louisiana, 1932. Paul Edgecombe supervised death row executions on E Block, known as the Green Mile for its lime-colored floor leading to the electric chair.
A massive black man named John Coffey arrived, convicted of murdering two young girls. Despite his size, Coffey proved gentle and childlike, terrified of darkness.
The block also housed sadistic guard Percy Wetmore and violent inmate Wild Bill Wharton. When Paul suffered a severe urinary infection, Coffey miraculously healed him by touch, revealing supernatural abilities. Paul discovered Coffey also healed a mouse, Mr. Jingles, that befriended prisoner Eduard Delacroix.
Percy deliberately botched Delacroix's execution, causing him to burn alive. Paul learned Warden Moores's wife Melinda was dying from a brain tumor. Believing in Coffey's innocence, Paul and his guards secretly transported Coffey to the warden's home, where Coffey healed Melinda. Coffey then transferred the extracted sickness into Percy, who became catatonic and shot Wild Bill Wharton dead.
Paul discovered Wharton was the true killer of the Detterick girls. Coffey had tried to heal them but failed. Despite knowing his innocence, Paul could not save Coffey from execution due to racial prejudice and lack of evidence. On execution night, Coffey expressed his weariness with the world's cruelty and made a final plea:
Please, boss, don't put that thing over my face. Please don't put me in the dark, don't make me go into the dark, I's afraid of the dark.
Paul granted his request and executed him without the hood. Decades later, Paul lived in a nursing home at 104, still haunted by Coffey's death. Coffey's healing touch had granted Paul and Mr. Jingles unnaturally long lives, which Paul viewed as punishment for executing an innocent miracle worker.
Detailed summary by parts
Subtitles for Introduction and Author's Afterword are editorial.
Introduction. Paul Edgecombes memories of Cold Mountain Penitentiary
An elderly man living in a nursing home began writing his memoirs about extraordinary events that occurred in 1932.
Foreword: A letter
Paul explained that he worked as head guard on E Block, the death row section of Cold Mountain Penitentiary. The condemned walked down a lime-green corridor to the electric chair, which the guards called the Green Mile. He recalled that most prisoners accepted their fate calmly until the moment their ankles were clamped into the chair.
Part 1. The two dead girls
In the sweltering October heat of 1932, Paul oversaw E Block with his trusted colleagues. The guards maintained order among the condemned men, conducting rehearsals for executions and managing daily routines. One particularly troublesome presence was a young guard who exploited his family connections.
Percy's presence created constant tension, but Paul had to tolerate him due to his political connections. The situation became more complex with the arrival of a new prisoner, an enormous man convicted of murdering two young girls.
Despite his intimidating size, Coffey displayed a gentle, childlike demeanor. He wept frequently and expressed fear of the dark. Paul researched Coffey's case in the prison library, discovering the horrific details of the Detterick twins' murders. The girls, Cora and Kathe, had been abducted from their porch one June night. Their father and brother tracked the perpetrator with a posse, finding Coffey by the Trapingus River, holding the dead girls and weeping. He kept repeating that he tried to take it back but was too late. Paul struggled to reconcile the gentle giant before him with the brutal crime.
Paul suffered from a severe urinary infection that caused him constant pain, but he refused medical treatment. Meanwhile, he met with the warden to discuss prison matters.
The warden revealed that his wife was gravely ill with a brain tumor. To secure Percy's transfer to another facility, Paul reluctantly agreed to let him oversee an upcoming execution. During this period, an intelligent mouse appeared on E Block, entertaining the guards and prisoners with its tricks. The mouse particularly bonded with a small Cajun prisoner.
Part 2. The mouse on the mile
The mouse, which Delacroix named Mr. Jingles, became a source of joy on the block. It performed tricks with a colored spool and ate peppermint candies with remarkable dexterity. Percy attempted to kill the mouse with his baton, but it escaped. The mouse seemed to know Percy's schedule, appearing only when he was off duty. The guards conducted execution rehearsals, preparing for the electrocution of an elderly Cherokee prisoner.
The execution of Arlen Bitterbuck proceeded smoothly and with dignity. However, Percy's disrespectful behavior afterward angered the other guards. A violent new inmate arrived, creating immediate chaos.
Wharton pretended to be sedated during transport but violently attacked a guard upon arrival, nearly strangling him with his chains. Percy froze in fear during the assault. Paul's trusted colleague intervened decisively.
Brutal knocked Wharton unconscious with a powerful blow. Percy's cowardice during the incident further diminished his standing among the guards. Despite the violence, Delacroix found happiness with Mr. Jingles, training the mouse to perform increasingly elaborate tricks. Percy negotiated to oversee Delacroix's execution in exchange for helping obtain a cigar box for the mouse.
Part 3. Coffeys hands
After Wharton's violent arrival, Paul's urinary infection worsened dramatically. One night, Coffey urgently called Paul to his cell. Despite the risks, Paul entered, and Coffey placed his hand on Paul's groin. A miraculous healing occurred—Paul felt the infection drain away as Coffey absorbed it. Coffey then expelled dark insects from his mouth, and Paul's pain vanished completely. Stunned by this inexplicable cure, Paul began to question everything he knew about Coffey.
Paul traveled to Tefton to interview the reporter who covered Coffey's trial. The journalist recounted the crime details and shared a disturbing story about his own dog attacking his son, drawing parallels to Coffey's supposed capacity for violence. However, Paul's doubts about Coffey's guilt continued to grow, especially after witnessing his healing powers.
Wharton continued his reign of terror, urinating on guards and assaulting them with food. The guards subdued him repeatedly with a firehose and straitjacket. Meanwhile, the warden's wife deteriorated rapidly from her brain tumor. Paul visited their home with his wife.
Seeing the warden's wife suffering triggered a realization in Paul about Coffey's abilities. The execution rehearsals for Delacroix proceeded smoothly, but Percy's overconfidence led him too close to Wharton's cell. Wharton grabbed Percy, terrifying him and causing him to wet himself. The humiliated Percy retreated, threatening the other guards into silence.
Part 4. The bad death of Eduard Delacroix
On the eve of his execution, Delacroix worried more about Mr. Jingles than his own fate. Brutal invented a fictional mouse sanctuary called Mouseville to comfort him. However, Percy seized an opportunity and deliberately stomped on Mr. Jingles, crushing the mouse and devastating Delacroix. In an astonishing display of his powers, Coffey picked up the dying mouse, absorbed its injuries, and restored it to life. The mouse scampered away, fully healed, while Coffey expelled more dark particles.
Paul and Brutal confronted Percy, forcing him into the electric chair and extracting a promise that he would transfer to another facility after Delacroix's execution. On the stormy night of the execution, Delacroix said emotional farewells to Mr. Jingles and prayed in Cajun French. The execution began, but Percy had deliberately sabotaged it by using a dry sponge instead of a wet one.
We had once again succeeded in destroying what we could not create... most sat with their heads down, looking at the floor, as if stunned. Or ashamed.
Delacroix burned alive in the chair for two agonizing minutes while witnesses watched in horror. The guards confronted Percy afterward, threatening him with Wharton if he didn't keep his promise to transfer. The prison administrator arrived furious, but the guards deflected blame onto Percy. Exhausted, Paul returned to the block where Coffey wept for Delacroix. Paul broke down at home, and his wife comforted him. He realized that both Coffey and the warden's wife shared the same haunted, dying eyes.
Part 5. Night journey
Paul gathered Brutal and two other trusted guards to reveal Coffey's miraculous healing abilities. He proposed an audacious plan to take Coffey to the warden's home to heal his dying wife. Paul also revealed his growing conviction of Coffey's innocence, explaining that Coffey couldn't tie a simple knot, contradicting the official account of how the Detterick girls were bound. The tracking dogs had pointed northwest, away from where Coffey was found. Paul believed Coffey had tried to heal the girls, not kill them.
I'm positive he's innocent... This man can't even tie a simple granny knot... how'd he tie the newspaper back up again with that butcher's twine?
Despite the enormous risks, the guards agreed to the plan. That night, they sedated Wharton and forcibly restrained Percy in a straitjacket, locking him in the restraint room. As they escorted Coffey out, Wharton briefly woke and taunted Coffey with a racial slur. They smuggled Coffey through a tunnel and out of the prison in a hidden truck. Coffey gazed at the night sky with wonder, his tears finally stopping.
At the warden's house, the armed and distraught warden confronted them. His wife's condition had deteriorated to the point where she shouted profane obscenities. Coffey took control of the situation, disarming the warden and entering the bedroom. He performed his miraculous healing, absorbing the tumor from the warden's wife. The house shook violently as dark particles flew from Coffey's mouth. The woman was completely restored to health and youth, while Coffey became gravely ill. She gave him a St. Christopher medallion in gratitude. The guards rushed to return Coffey to prison before their absence was discovered.
Part 6. Coffey on the mile
Back at the prison, the guards confronted Percy, threatening him into silence about his mistreatment. Suddenly, Coffey grabbed Percy and transferred something into him, leaving Percy completely catatonic. Percy then mechanically retrieved his gun, walked to Wharton's cell, and shot him dead. The guards scrambled to create a cover story. Due to Percy's family connections to the governor, a cover-up ensued. Percy was quietly committed to a mental institution, where he remained catatonic for the rest of his life.
Paul received Coffey's execution order and began a secret investigation. He uncovered evidence suggesting Coffey's innocence—Wharton had been in the area of the Detterick farm and possessed a bag similar to one used in the crime. Paul realized that Wharton was the true killer of the twins. Coffey had found the girls after Wharton's attack and tried to heal them, but was too late. Paul's wife urged him to act, but the guards explained the insurmountable obstacles: racial prejudice, institutional inertia, and lack of concrete proof. Coffey himself had no desire to be saved.
Paul visited Coffey in his cell, where Coffey revealed his profound weariness with the world's pain and suffering.
I'm tired of bein on the road, lonely as a robin in the rain... I'm tired of people bein ugly to each other. It feels like pieces of glass in my head. I'm tired of bein in the dark.
Coffey touched Paul, imparting a powerful vision that revealed the truth about the Detterick murders and Coffey's gift. Brutal expressed his anguish about executing what he believed was a gift from God.
I mean we're fixing to kill a gift of God. One that never did ary harm to us, or to anyone else. What am I going to say if I end up standing in front of God the Father Almighty?
On the night of the execution, the warden was too distraught to attend. Coffey walked calmly down the Green Mile. He shared a dream about the murdered girls being happy and offered a simple prayer. Before a small, hostile crowd including the Dettericks, Coffey expressed his fear of the dark. Paul granted his final request not to wear the hood. The execution proceeded swiftly. Coffey died, and Paul returned home devastated, comforted by his wife's reminder that Coffey had wanted to go.
Decades later, the elderly Paul finished his manuscript and revealed his extreme age to his friend at the nursing home. She discovered Mr. Jingles, still alive after sixty-four years. A cruel orderly interrupted them, and Mr. Jingles died during the confrontation. Paul and his friend buried the mouse, reflecting on the fading miracle of Coffey's touch. Paul recounted a devastating 1956 bus accident that killed his wife while he survived mostly unharmed. He realized that Coffey's healing had cursed him with an unnaturally long life.
We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.
Authors afterword. Reflections on writing The Green Mile
The author reflected on the unique experience of writing this novel in serial installments, a format rarely used in modern publishing. He discussed the challenges and rewards of this approach, noting how it affected his writing process and relationship with readers. The serialization created a sense of urgency and commitment that differed from his usual novel-writing experience.