Will Hayden
| William Hayden | |
|---|---|
| Born |
William Michale Hayden June 24, 1965 Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Criminal charge | Aggravated rape, forceable rape |
| Criminal penalty | Life in Prison plus 40 years |
William Michale Hayden (born June 24, 1965) is a former American gunsmith, television personality, U.S. Marine and gun shop owner. He is best known as the star of the 2011–2014 Discovery Channel reality series Sons of Guns. He was convicted of sex crimes in April and July 2017 and received three life sentences.
Hayden was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is partly of Choctaw descent. From an early age, he was a firearms enthusiast, and often read about weapons and warfare.
Hayden also survived a large house fire as a "three or four year old" child. He stated in a 2011 interview that he remembers, "waking up to fire 'eating me up'... burning the bed... the sheets... the room". Hayden also stated that he was abused by his father in a piece titled Sons of Guns: Straight-Shootin’ Stories from the Star of the Hit Discovery Series. He says in the article, "Hell, he put me through a wall with a punch when I was five... From that moment on I realized I had to pick my battles carefully. Very carefully. Any battle I could get up and walk away from was a victory. It didn’t matter if me or my psyche looked or felt like it’d been run through a meat grinder. Victory is victory."
By age 12, he began building firearms. When he turned 18, he enlisted in the Marines, serving for six years and achieving the rank of Sergeant.
After returning home from the service, Hayden started his own construction and refrigeration business, while working on guns on the side.
His side business began to take off, and in 1999, he sold his main business and officially opened Red Jacket Firearms. The name of the company is the translation of his mother's name, Osguma, which means "red jacket" in Choctaw. The firm's first commercial order was from a large distributor called Manotick Firearms for twenty rifles.
From 2011 until 2014, Hayden received nationwide fame when Sons of Guns - a reality TV program focusing on the specialized firearm builds at Red Jacket - aired on Discovery Channel. On August 26, 2014, it was announced that Red Jacket Firearms had received a legal separation as an entity from Hayden.
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