Mr. Ewell has got to be one of the craziest people in a book that I have ever read about. The guy abuses his daughter while he is drunk and even though Tom Robinson was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, he goes on to stalk and even try to kill anyone that was a part of the courtroom. I think it is because he wanted to get revenge on Atticus by making him look like a fool in the courtroom. But whether Atticus did or not you do not try to get revenge on someone by trying to kill his children.