The Man Behind The Slaughter: William Afton

Although William Afton (left) and Henry Emily (right) would go on to become two of the most infamous business partners in history, their beginnings were far more unassuming. While very little is known about Henry Emily’s early life, more details have emerged about Afton’s origins. No birth certificate has ever been found, but it is widely believed that Afton was born in the 1930s. Raised as an orphan during the Great Depression, Afton found fleeting comfort in a traveling sideshow known as Fredbear’s Singin’ Show (below). This was a crude performance featuring a real bear. It is believed this early obsession would later cause the sinister path William would take.

By the 1970s, Afton had become fixated on creating his own bear-themed family establishment; hoping to recreate the joy that the singing bear had once brought him. By his 40s, Afton had saved enough to open his own restaurant: Fredbear’s Family Diner. After painstakingly hand-stitching two golden mascot suits, a bear and a bunny, Afton launched the characters that would later become infamous. Although the bear, Fredbear, served as the primary mascot, it was the bunny suit that Afton favored. He often performed in the Bonnie suit himself, embodying the character with enthusiasm. Shortly thereafter he met and wed his wife, Clara Afton, and they quickly began to have children.

Despite his apparent passion, Afton struggled financially. Especially after the sudden success of a rival establishment: Chica’s Party World. Created by Henry Emily, the venue featured a fully animatronic band, including a chick, a frog, a hippo, an elephant, a pig, and a bear named Nedd. This innovation deeply angered Afton; Not only was Emily’s band more advanced, it also drew attention away from Fredbear’s. But Afton knew he couldn’t survive on his own. And so, in 1979, the unthinkable happened: the rivals joined forces.

In 1979, Fredbear’s Family Diner received a significant upgrade. While Fredbear and Bonnie, the original golden duo, stayed at the forefront of the brand, a new collection of characters were added to the cast. Many themed rooms were added throughout the pizzeria, each starring smaller animatronic bands. Most notably including popular performers from Henry Emily’s Chica’s Party World. This fusion of live performers and robotic counterparts became a signature element of the elevated experience.

William Afton began working on his own innovation for the project, inspired after studying Henry’s mechanical designs. These were the “springlock suits”, dual-functioning costumes capable of both being wearable mascot suits and autonomous animatronics. These suits used a internal spring system that could be manually pinned back to allow human entry, and then released to transition into animatronic mode. Afton retained the sole copyright to these designs. However, in doing so, he had unwittingly laid the foundation for his downfall.

Business began to flourish as the duo expanded in their brand. Merchandising, advertising, and marketing became core focuses, helping the franchise grow into a national phenomenon. This iteration of the diner eventually led to the production of a local television program: Fredbear & Friends (above). The show quickly gained traction, bringing in viewers from across the region and drawing large crowds to the restaurant.

By 1983, just four years after the merge, Afton and Emily announced the opening of a new location: Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. This venue aimed to capitalize on the franchise's rising popularity by introducing a fresh cast of characters. However, not all characters made the transition. The original golden mascots were quietly retired to the original location to allow for greater diversity in the new lineup, which notably included Emily’s own golden creation: Chica the Chick. This decision is said to left quite a bitter impression on Afton.

As the franchise entered this new era of Freddy’s, many of the original diner characters faded into obscurity, deemed simply mediocre. Their decline was heightened by the tragic accident that would occur that same year, marking the beginning of a much darker chapter in the company’s history.

Very soon after the opening of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, tragedy struck at the original location, Fredbear’s Family Diner. Evan Afton (right), the youngest son of co-founder William Afton, was often seeing by patrons crying in the back of the pizzeria. The young Afton was terrified of the animatronics, and sometimes seen being comforted by his father. However, his older brother, Michael Afton (left), was far from sympathetic. Michael and his friends, known as pranksters, often hung around the diner getting into trouble. For Evan, that meant relentless torment.

According to Michael’s own writings, William frequently lashed out at him for these cruel games, but the warnings were never enough to stop the rebellious teenager. William even installed many nanny cameras around his house, in hopes of being able to prevent his son from mischief. Eventually, one of Michael’s pranks would escalate beyond return.

In 1983, during Evan’s birthday celebration, he and his friends forced Evan toward the restaurant’s star attraction: the springlock animatronic known as Fredbear. In what was meant to be a terrifying joke, they placed the young boy into the robot’s gaping mouth. What happened next was catastrophic. The singing bear’s animatronic mechanism shut with unexpected deadly force, causing Evan’s skull to be crushed. He was quickly rushed to the hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries shortly after the incident.

This incident was thought to be the breaking point for William Afton. The now grieving father allowed himself to spiral into anger and obsession. His relationship with Michael was destroyed, and the boy would later write of being plagued by the horrific nightmares and hallucinations of the animatronics from the restaurant that had taken his brother’s life. Michael blamed himself for Evan’s death, a guilt that would follow him for the rest of his life.

Losing himself to madness, William Afton became consumed by his failures. After the fatal accident at Fredbear’s, new security measures were hastily introduced. Among them was a strange new addition: a security puppet, designed to scan wristbands worn by children to ensure no one left the restaurant unattended. Suspended on wires from the ceiling, the puppet would emerge from its box and patrol the floor.

This design came from Henry Emily, and that fact cut deeper than anyone could have imagined. The very mechanisms built by Henry had failed William’s son. In his grief and bitterness, Afton turned to alcohol. He drank so heavily that even Junior’s, the local bar, eventually banned him. One stormy night, intoxicated and enraged, William drove to the diner, intent on confronting Henry. Instead, he encountered someone else. Henry’s only child, Charlotte “Charlie” Emily (below), had been forced outside, allegedly bullied by other children. Alone, in the rain, she sat at the restaurant’s entrance.

Something happened when William saw Charlie alone outside. His festering despair twisted into something much darker. Not only did he blame Henry for the death of his business, he blamed him for the death of his son. In that moment in a drunken rage, William acted on his vengeful impulses. He led Charlie into the alley beside the diner and murdered her. He left her body there and quickly fled the scene.

Although Henry suspected the truth, there was no evidence tying Afton to the crime. Authorities ruled the incident as a random act of violence. But two deaths in the same year (1983) were more than the town could accept. Fredbear’s Family Diner shut its doors permanently, and the golden springlock suits with the security puppet were quietly locked away in storage at the new location.

The new location featured a different cast of characters: Freddy the brown bear, Bonnie the blue bunny, Henry’s Chica the chicken, and Foxy the red pirate fox. But behind the cheerful growing establishment, William Afton’s resentment festered and grew. He had lost his son, his business, and soon, even his wife. Clara Afton soon left him and their remaining children, consumed by her own grief. William, isolated and broken, withdrew further into himself and his work.

But this was only the beginning of the terrifying nightmare.