William R. Horton (born August 12, 1951 in Chesterfield, South Carolina) is a convicted felon who was the subject of a Massachusetts weekend furlough program that released him while serving a life sentence for murder, without the possibility of parole, providing him the opportunity to commit a rape and armed robbery against a woman. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Willie Horton. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Horton
In fact, although Gore did ask Dukakis about the Massachusetts system of furloughs for convicted criminals, Gore never mentioned Horton, his race or his crime. mediamatters.org/items/200502160008
The lesson that Democrats take away from that campaign is that Dukakis did not defend himself early and vigorously enough from the Bush attacks on Willie Horton and other issues. www.rogersimon.com/archive/2004_03.html