There are two important points when considering your
question: what Wilson observes before the event and what Wilson is told after the
event.
First let's explore what Wilson observes. Quite
simply, Wilson observes Tom requesting gas for the car he is driving. Unfortunately for
Gatsby, Tom is driving Gatsby's car. I find it ironic that it isn't Tom that actually
wants to stop for gas, ... it's
Jordan!
"We've got enough to get us to town," said
Tom.
"But there's a garage right there," objected Jordan.
"I don't want to get stalled in this baking
heat."
Tom does, however,
make the mistake of telling Wilson that the yellow car is Tom's by saying, "How do you
like this one? ... I bought it last week." I think these things cement that there is no
premeditated plan to kill Gatsby on Tom's part (in addition to the fact that, of course,
he doesn't want Myrtle killed). At least there's no plan at this
point.
When Myrtle is killed and someone sees it's a yellow
car that killed her, Tom gets a bit nervous (and puts himself above his grief for a
while to appease his selfishness). He grabs Wilson and tells him that the yellow car
wasn't Tom's. Later, Nick reports that Wilson "announced that he had a way of finding
out who the yellow car belonged to." Tom said Wilson "was crazy enough to kill me if I
hadn't told him who owned the car."
I wouldn't say that Tom
"convinced" Wilson. We aren't told that and can't prove that. ... However, we can
safely assume that Tom let Wilson's grief-stricken mind do the work for him. And you
know what? Tom was happy to do so!
In
short, I think it is safe to say that Wilson thinks that Gatsby killed Myrtle because it
was Gatsby that owned the yellow "death car," and it was Tom who was glad to share the
information.
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