Characters / Red Dead Redemption 2 - Minor Characters

This is a partial character sheet for Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption II. Visit here for the main character index.

Characters outside of the Van der Linde Gang who first appeared in Red Dead Redemption II, set in 1899-1907.

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Bounties

Criminals with bounties on their heads. Most of them can only be collected after picking up their bounty posters or starting specific missions but a few must be found via clues or encounters in the open world. The majority of quest givers do request these bounties are brought to them alive, although the ones who aren't particularly picky will accept their corpses instead if slain during a hunt.

Main game bounties

Benedict Allbright

"Sir, this isn't necessary. I'm a medical man, a healer. It's all just a big mistake. I don't feel very well."

Voiced by: Anthony Reimer

A snake-oil salesman. After his bogus cure kills several people, the authorities in Valentine put a price on his head.

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• Accidental Murder: It's clear that he's unaware that his product has been killing people and is justifiably scared of the consequences.
• The Aloner: He mostly sticks to himself by the gorge, and never reveals his identity to anyone unless they're potential customers in need.
• Anti-Villain: He's a Snake Oil Salesman, but he has no idea his product is lethal, so he can't be called a real menace to anyone other than himself.
• Bald of Evil: After he loses his hat, we see that he's severely balding.
• Beard of Evil: And a very shaggy one at that.
• Blatant Lies: "Finest medicine in the state". Right...
• Butt-Monkey: Other than having a prize on his head for accidentally killing people with his "cure medicine", he almost drowns in the Dakota river and is then hogtied and placed in the back of Arthur's horse before being jailed, screaming all the while.
• Con Man: Not the most charming or competent example, but he still makes a living out of this.
• Didn't Think This Through: He jumps into the Dakota river to escape from Arthur. he soon realizes how reckless this plan of action was, especially when he starts reaching the rapids.
  Allbright I shouldn't have done that! Help me!
• Dirty Coward: After being saved from falling off the cliff by Arthur, he decides it's better than the alternative and jumps off anyway.
• Et Tu, Brute?: He feels this way when he learns that Arthur didn't save him from the cliff out of the kindness of his heart, but because he's wanted alive.
• Expy: To Nigel West Dickens from the first game. Unfortunately, for Allbright, the protagonist is not on his side this time around.
• Evil Old Folks: He seems to be in the late stages of life, and he's a Snake Oil Salesman.
• Faux Affably Evil: As a Con Man, he puts on a charming façade to sell his product to desperate folks, but once he's caught and he's exhausted all his options, he resorts to angrily insulting Arthur.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears glasses and is a Con Man.
• Hated by All: Other than the price on his head on Valentine, Arthur finds him to be one of the most annoying bounties he's ever had to catch.
  Arthur: I really do not like you.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: He doesn't fight you, but instead jumps into a nearby river, prompting Arthur to chase him down and fish him out.
• Greed: His motivation and Fatal Flaw. When Arthur throws the promise of paying in gold, he quickly drops his guard and offers him all sorts of cures, exposing himself.
• Grey-and-Grey Morality: He claims this with Arthur after being caught. The latter doesn't deny it.
  Allbright: Who made you God, friend? Who made you judge?
  Arthur: I'm only in it for the money.
  Allbright: That's even worse!
• Hypocrite: He claims the moral high ground over Arthur because the latter is Only in It for the Money, despite the fact that he attempted to exploit a (falsely) desperate man with a sick mother for profit himself.
• Implausible Deniability: Even after exposing himself to Arthur, he still claims to be a real healer and that the charges against him are all a mistake.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He's so pathetic that you might even feel bad for him as you're taking him to be hung.
• Irony: Looting the guy whose bogus miracle cures have killed several people nets Arthur... a genuine Miracle Cure.
• Lack of Empathy: When he hears Arthur's (fabricated) story about his mother being sick, he only sees it as an opportunity to sell his bogus cure.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The infamous Con Man gets conned himself by Arthur before being arrested.
• Lethally Stupid: Without even knowing it, he's "killed more than Landon Ricketts without even pulling a trigger".
• The Load: Other than obviously having to carry him on the back of his horse, Arthur also has to save his skin from the river, being completely unable to swim to the shore or grab unto anything despite Arthur's constant warnings.
• Motor Mouth: Even if Arthur hits him, he's one of the most talkative bounties in the game, despite the short trip from the gorge to the sheriff's office.
  Allbright: Sir, I think I must be suffering from exposure. I seem to keep blacking out. Sir, I must warn you, my temperature is subnormal. I have medicine in my pocket, would you pass it on to me, please?
• Obliviously Evil: He's a con man, not a murderer, but his product is lethal. He apparently had no idea of this.
• Oblivious to Hatred: He dismisses the vitriolic response to his elixir as folks getting angry for no good reason. Arthur has none of it.
• Oh, Crap!: When Arthur points the gun at him and Allbright realizes he isn't there for his cure, but his bounty.
• Opportunistic Bastard: A sick old woman desperate for medicine just means potential profit for him.
• Playing the Victim Card: Once Arthur ties him to his horse, Allbright starts whining that he's suffering from exposure and that he keeps blacking out.
  Arthur: Suffer a little longer.
• Price on Their Head: $50 to be exact.
• Properly Paranoid: The moment he sees Arthur, he grows increasingly uncomfortable around him, claiming Implausible Deniability and trying to get away from him believing him to be an agent of the law. He drops his guard at the promise of money, but it soon turns out that Arthur really was there for the prize in his head.
• Save the Villain: As he's wanted alive, Arthur is forced to fish him out of the Dakota river to save him from drowning due to his own stupidity. Before that, he almost falls off a cliff and Arthur has to pull him up.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He claims to be a scientist who talks to spirits and has magical medicine. In reality, his product is crap, and everyone in Valentine hates his guts.
• Snake Oil Salesman: His profession: He claims to be a healer and "medical man" but his elixir isn't just bogus, it's harmful.
• Too Dumb to Live: He flings himself from a cliff into a river to escape Arthur, and immediately starts screaming for Arthur to help him when he gets swept away.
• Uncertain Doom: Sheriff Malloy isn't subtle about his intentions to hang him, but after you take him in as Arthur, he can still be seen in the jail by 1907, eight-years later.
• "Wanted!" Poster: He has one in Valentine. It's the first one you obtain.

Ellie Anne Swan

"What kind of man are you? Puny, backstabbing little... All you men are useless."

Voiced by: Alicia Dell'Aria

A woman wanted by the Valentine authorities for murder.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: She begs Arthur to "save [her]" from the sheriff and herself as he's bringing her to jail.
• Apologetic Attacker: Not her obviously, but if her latest love interest attacks you, he will say that he's sorry and that [she put [him] up for this].
• Ax-Crazy: She's perfectly aware that she has "a fever of the brain", but only brings it up as an Insanity Defense when being brought to the sheriff.
• A Man Is Always Eager: According to sheriff Malloy, men in Valentine are so desperate for a mate that she could still find herself a husband after being caught red-handed.
• Bad Liar: One has to wonder how could many men fall for her given her performance with her latest romantic conquest. If you don't intervene, the guy will not fall for her act and will attempt to bring her in before being killed. Needless to say, Arthur/John won't be impressed with her performance, especially as she uses three different excuses at the same time, before proceeding to throw a hissy fit when it doesn't work.
  Anne Swan: Oh dear. What came over me? Did I just do those things?
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's a Black Widow, so this is a given. She plays up the charming and seductive part to get men to do things for her, before disposing of them and robbing them.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: While in prison, she subtly attempts to blackmail sheriff Malloy with exposing his affair to the married Moira Calthorpe. Though he shuts her off quite soon, she briefly chuckles knowing that she has something on him.
• Black Widow: She's identified as this by name in the bounty poster. Arthur even reaches her just in time to see her seduce and then try to kill her latest romantic conquest.
• Break the Haughty: After some time in prison, she's lost her charming façade and now resorts to throwing insults at every man that comes near her jail cell.
• Changing Yourself for Love: Tries to pull this on Arthur/John when he has her tied up, begging him to help her change into a better person. It's all a ruse, though, and she will try and kill you again if you actually do untie her.
• The Corrupter: Her latest beau can actually attack you if you hogtie her before she kills him, as she cheers him on.
  Beau: What you got me into, Ellie Anne? You made me an outlaw too, woman!
• Dark Action Girl: Though she often uses her menfolk to do her dirty work for her, she's not afraid to take action herself, as Arthur/John finds out when he tries to apprehend her.
• Deadpan Snarker: She becomes this after she's jailed.
  Anne Swan: No need to check on me, mister. I'm still here.
  Arthur: You might be a bloodthirsty monster, Mrs. Swan. But I kind of got a soft spot for you.
  Anne Swan: If that soft spot don't extend to breaking me out of this joint, well, you know what you can do with it?
  Arthur: [snickers] Fair enough.
• Does Not Like Men: Men just happen to die a lot around her. Though she's not above pretending otherwise for her own gain, she makes her prejudice clear when attacking Arthur/John or her latest lover.
• Evil Is Petty: She murders her latest beau for not defending her from the law, and Arthur can at one point comment on what her motivation to kill all her other menfolk would've been.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: A beautiful young Southern Belle and textbook black widow.
• Faux Affably Evil: While she can certainly turn on the charm, she is a violent serial killer. She even attempts to charm Arthur/John and the sheriff after being brought in, claiming insanity. If you visit her a few days after jailing her, she's lost all will to be like this.
  Arthur: She might be a little shaken up. She "lost" another feller out by the falls.
  Anne Swan: Poor dear.
  Sheriff Malloy: Men just have a habit of dying around you, don't they, Mrs. Swan?
• Gone Horribly Wrong: She killed one of her husbands in the hopes of inhering a fortune. Instead, she got some debts and a bounty on her head.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Invoked by herself when she shows some awareness of her own mental condition, and states that jail time will obviously only worsen her mental state. Of course, she's only using this as a last ditch attempt to escape justice, which fails miserably.
  • She's also at least somewhat aware of Sheriff Malloy's history with Moira Calthorpe, implying a close history.
• Inheritance Murder: Attempted this with one of her husbands. It fails miserably as described above.
• Insanity Defense: She attempts this on Arthur/John in an attempt to be released before moving on to flirting with him.
  Anne Swan: I've done bad things but... a jail?! A jail ain't where I belong. A sanatorium, maybe.
• Implausible Deniability: Seconds after murdering one of her beau and spouting sexist rants at Arthur/John, she attempts to use the Insanity Defense and use all sorts of excuses. Arthur obviously has none of it. Even before that, when her latest beau tells her that he red about her profession on the papers, she claims all of them were abusers who had it coming, before asking him to come to her and "romance [her]".
• Manipulative Bitch: Comes with her job as a Black Widow, but she's quite adapt at guilt-tripping, charming, and blackmailing folks to get what she wants. She also attempts to appeal to Arthur/John's masculinity when he's taking her to prison, claiming that a strong man like him can change her for the better. Arthur even has the option to state that she actually did get to him to some degree.
• Matricide: Her wanted poster states she killed her mother. Whether this is true or the poster was meant to say "mariticide" (meaning the act of killing your spouse) is unknown.
• Never My Fault: If her latest beau survives, she blames her imprisonment on his inability to protect her.
  Arthur: I met her new sweetheart up by the falls. Feller was lucky not to end up like her husband.
  Anne Swan: If he was any kind of man, I wouldn't be here.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her beau will turn her in unless Arthur provides a threat to her. Mind you, he's dead anyway as she'll knife him when he tries. The only way for him to survive is for him or her to be disabled before she can take him down.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: She comes on to Arthur pretty heavily on the ride back to Valentine. She'll say the reason that she's had to kill all the men in her life was that they weren't as strong or as handsome as him. He can either ignore her or hit her and tell her he's not falling for it. She attempts this with the sheriff as well, but he tells her that "[he's] immune to her charms".
  Anne Swan: That man has a heart of stone.
• Price on Their Head: $25 to be exact.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: She's a serial killer of men, and when her charms backfire, she resorts to childish whining and screaming when she doesn't get her way.
• Psycho Knife Nut: After her attempt to charm a man into defending her fails, she pulls out a knife and stabs him in the throat before rushing her bounty hunter.
• Smug Snake: She snickers smugly when she thinks she has the sheriff against the wall regarding his affair with Moira Calthorpe. However, the fact that she's still in prison the following days (and with a much more glum attitude) that implies her attempts at blackmail failed.
• The Sociopath: She doesn't seem to have much empathy for anyone, especially men, and she's not above putting on a Southern Belle façade to manipulate them into lowering their guard before killing them. Her dialogue when tied to the back of Arthur/John's horse shows that she's aware that she has a mental illness but only uses it as a defense when it's convenient for her.
  Beau: Oh, you're a conundrum, missy. A real conundrum.
• Southern Belle: She plays up a textbook example of this to romance Valentine folks. Her following conversations with Arthur/John show a much different side of her.
• Til Murder Do Us Part: Willy, Frank, Henry, and Howie all got this treatment from her. If the player is quick, Arthur/John can save another beau from ending up at the end of her knife.
  Sheriff Malloy: They can say what they like about you, but at least you respected the sanctity of marriage.
  Anne Swan: 'Till death do us part.
• Uncertain Doom: Unlike with other Valentine bounties like Benedict Allbright or the killer prostitute, sheriff Malloy never expresses any desire to hang her, despite her crimes being more horrific than either of them. However, Malloy's insistence that Arthur bring her alive would suggest she is to be hung. Regardless, she will disappear from prison after you bring in the killer prostitute.
• Villainous Breakdown: After Arthur/John dismisses all her poor excuses while carrying her back to Valentine, she'll start shouting that she hates him and wants to cut him open.
• "Wanted!" Poster: She has one in Valentine. After she's caught, Sheriff Malloy decides it'll be the last one in a while, and you don't get any more bounties in Valentine after her.
• We Used to Be Friends: Implied to be the case with Sheriff Malloy, whose office she apparently roamed frequently. She even knows some of his secrets.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Pulls this on her latest romantic conquest after Arthur/John shows up to take her in. The player's reaction time will decide whether she's successful or not.

Joshua Brown

"You shot me! And you didn't even have the decency to do it right!"

Voiced by: Andre Ware

A duelist wanted for murder by the Strawberry authorities.

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• Anti-Villain: If Sheriff Farley's brief is any indication, he was an upstanding citizen who brought the law some bounties before stepping over the line and killing unlawfully, earning himself a "Wanted!" Poster. When you see him, he seems to have a code of honor that he abides by, and is only angry at the player for not following it.
• Affably Evil: Sheriff Farley tells Arthur/John that he's always been decent, which is why he wants him alive.
  Sheriff Farley: He brought us some bounties in the past and he's always been decent. If you don't wanna bring him in breathing, you leave this alone.
• The Aloner: He lives by himself in an old mine in the Big Valley Mountains.
• Badass Boast: When he's encountered.
  Joshua: You got nowhere to go, bounty hunter.
  Arthur: I ain't here to kill you.
  Joshua: Wouldn't matter if you were. There's only one way outta here. And that's through me.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: He used to be a bounty hunter, then he killed some innocent people and he got a price on his head himself.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Most of his insults are about how a real man would have gunned him down.
• The Cynic: Other than seeking for a dignified death, his dialogue as he's brought in implies his optimism was left behind in his younger days.
  Joshua: Lock me up. Forget about me.
• Death Seeker: He’s highly offended that you are taking him in alive to what’s likely an execution.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He feels he's being disrespected as The Gunslinger by being brought in alive.
• The Dreaded: Sheriff Farley outright tells Arthur/John to leave his "Wanted!" Poster on the wall because he's not expected to come back alive. When you capture him, other bounty hunter try to steal him from you when he's tied up to your horse.
• Duel to the Death: Subverted with Arthur/John, much to his chagrin.
  Joshua: You duel a man and you ought to put him down, not knock him out and tie him up! You got no decency, bounty hunter.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He considers Greed to be dishonorable, so he quickly takes a disliking to Arthur/John when they bring him in alive because of his bounty.
• Evil Virtues: Honor and Decency (Respect). He claims to be a better man than Arthur/John because he played by the rules in their Duel to the Death, while the latter brought him alive for his bounty.
• Face Death with Dignity: His modus operandi. Unfortunately for him, he's wanted alive.
• Fair-Play Villain: When he has Arthur/John dead to rights, he gives them a chance to duel him instead of gunning him down on the spot. He's also offended when he doesn't shoot him dead and instead shoot the gun off his hand.
• Foil: To John, ironically his potential captor. Both are outlaws who did bounty work on occasion, before the law catches up with them. However, Joshua is a Death Seeker who actively seeks to be challenged, while John wants to live a peaceful life with his family. Ironically, John ends up dying the way Joshua wanted to, performing an iconic Last Stand against his captors, while Joshua is jailed and possibly hanged like a common crook.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He can be found smoking a cigarette before he duels you. It's implied he was prepared for it to be his One Last Smoke.
• Go Through Me: Says this word for word to Arthur/John when they encounter him.
• Grey-and-Grey Morality: He tells Arthur/John that he's no better man than he is if he kills the bounty hunters following him. This implies that the killing that got him a "Wanted!" Poster was either in self-defense or wasn't completely innocent.
• The Gunslinger: He's an expert duelist.
• Irony: He’s a gunslinger who is one of the few Arthur must take alive.
• Noble Demon: We don't know the context of the killing that made him get wanted, though he seems to be no less honorable than Arthur/John himself, in his eyes even more so because he's Only in It for the Money.
• Price on Their Head: $40 to be exact.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He's wanted for "unlawful killing" not murder, which means he's probably not a bad guy.
• Scary Black Man: He's of dark skin and quite imposing.
• Smug Snake: He's the king of smug when you first encounter him. Then you shoot his gun off, and he resorts to running away while he spouts insults at you.
• Undignified Death: He believes he will get one of these via hanging, instead of the more dignified Duel to the Death. Whether or not this was his actual fate after being brought in remains a mystery.
• Villain Has a Point: He tells Arthur/John that they won't stay sharp for very long, and will soon fall victim to old age like him. Regardless of which character you capture him with, he turns out to be right in both cases: Arthur would get sick with tuberculosis in 1899, and John would get gunned down by the law on 1911.
• "Wanted!" Poster: He has one in Strawberry.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He will disappear from prison if you capture/kill Bart Cavanaugh. Unlike other bounties, there's never any indication that he's brought in for hanging.
• What the Hell, Hero?: During the trip to Strawberry, he chews Arthur/John out for not playing fair during their duel, and later again if he kills the other bounty hunters trying to steal him away.
• The Worf Effect: Since he's an old man, he's past his prime, which he believes is the reason he lost to Arthur/John.
  Joshua: You wouldn't have got me in my younger days. I woulda put one in the middle of ya eyes before you even blinked. You ain't nothing special, and you ain't gonna stay sharp for very long. None of us do.

Lindsey Wofford

''"Who's that warrant from, huh? The US government? But it ain't valid, 'cause I'm no longer a citizen of the so-called "United States"'.

Voiced by: Andrew Rothenberg

The leader of the Lemoyne Raiders. The authorities in Saint Denis have placed a bounty on his head due to the activities of his violent militia.

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• The Alcoholic: Though this seems to be the norm for the Lemoyne Raiders, by the time Arthur/John finds him, he's drunk out of his mind.
• All for Nothing: Like Dutch's gang, his raiders barely made a dent on the state of Lemoyne, even if you don't catch him. By 1907, most of his men have fled south.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: After clearing his camp in the ruins of Fort Bennard, Arthur has the option to tell Wofford while in prison that the camp has been overtaken by the Van Der Linde gang.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: His wanted poster claims he's wanted for un-American activities (treason), murder... and adultery.
• Asshole Victim: After he's hanged, Chief Lambert declares that he "died not a moment too soon". Arthur/John is more concerned about him becoming a martyr than his death itself, and there's notably little fanfare at the gallows unlike with other bounties. The only one that will bother to save him from his fate would be Arthur/John himself if he so wishes.
• A Father to His Men: More of a "brother", but still applies. In fact, he's one of the few gang leaders to be one.
• Bring It: After Arthur/John goes up to his hideout with the warrant.
  Wofford: A federal warrant? No, no, no, that don't mean much in a sovereign territory, mister.
• Decapitated Army: The whole point behind the bounty on his head, according to Chief Lambert. He succeeds, and by 1907, the majority of raiders have left Lemoyne alone.
• Defiant to the End: When you hogtie him, he will yell out that he hasn't surrendered. Furthermore, if he's hanged, he takes the opportunity to rant about his beliefs to the crowd around him, and will even make a Dying Curse towards Arthur/John if he sees him attending his execution.
  Wofford: The Lemoyne raiders ain't done yet. We are bloody, but unbowed. We will never surrender.
• Delusions of Eloquence: He's living in a ruined fort and speaks a large number of political points while you're carrying him off to be hanged. Assuming you don't just kill him.
• Distinction Without a Difference: He does this a lot during his preaching.
  Wofford: Lies, and perversions of the truth. This is a goddamned travesty. A foundation built on lies!
• Divided States of America: Grandiosely claims to be a sovereign citizen of the "Free State of Lemoyne", fighting against the tyranny of the federal government... except that the majority of the Raiders' crimes are against Lemoyne and its people specifically, with few of their targets being federal in nature. It also never seems to occur to him that Arthur is working on behalf of the police department of Saint Denis — a municipal authority, even lower than his beloved Free State.
• Don't Create a Martyr: Arthur indicates that hanging Lindsey in the middle of the public square after letting him speak is probably a bad idea. However, he can also point out before the execution that he barely drew a crowd in a place where people love hangings, so he'd be forgotten soon.
• Dying Curse: If he sees Arthur/John attending his execution, he will go out insulting him.
  Wofford: Look here, they even got carpetbaggers taking bounty jobs.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He seems to care about his "brothers", and gets very upset were you to kill them before taking him in.
• Evil Old Folks: Wofford is an old man, and the leader of the Lemoyne Raiders.
• Evil Virtues: Loyalty and Camaraderie. However, this is a major problem when you've outgrown your views of those virtues by 40 years.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Arthur can antagonize him during the hanging by saying that he'd be forgotten before he's even stiff, pointing out that nobody came to his aid. He will have a minor Villainous Breakdown after this.
• Freudian Excuse: After his hanging, Arthur tells a law enforcer that if the law were more sympathetic, neither he or his raiders would have a cause to fight for.
  Wofford: We've been beaten down and driven out enough. Let's make a stand, boys!
• Hidden Depths: He seems to be aware of the existence and customs of the Night Folk, implying he or one of his men survived an encounter with them.
• Hypocritical Humor: He complains that the US has been clouded by greed, only to, in the very next sentence, complain that there isn't room to make money anymore.
• Jerkass: All the Lemoyne Raiders are, but Lindsey in particular.
• Karmic Death: Unless the player does anything to intervene. he will be publicly hanged for his crimes in the very state that he wished to overtake, with the people there cheering for his demise.
  Arthur: Guess the "great fight" is over, huh?
• Knight Templar: He wholeheartedly believes in his cause, as well as being made a martyr after his death. All of his lines have him reinforce his values in some way.
  Wofford: I am a citizen of the free state of Lemoyne and I am a subject to state law alone. Understand that, you dumb bastard?
• Last Disrespects: If he's brought in dead, chief Lambert will tell Arthur/John to dump his corpse on a cart behind the police station.
• The Leader: Of the Lemoyne Raiders.
• Motor Mouth: He will spend the entire trip to Saint Denis preaching hint Denis preaching his confederate views and insulting Arthur/John for being a "collaborator". He can't even keep quiet during his own hanging, whereupon he talks almost just as much as the chief.
• Old Soldier: Formerly a Confederate Bushwhacker. Currently an outlaw and gang leader.
• Pet the Dog: Despite the long tirade of insults he throws at your feet when you take him in, if you save him from the gallows, he will thank you and declare you his friend.
  Wofford: I didn't know you were a friend.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: What else would you expect from a neo-confederate hick stuck 40 years in the past?
• Price on Their Head: $100 dead or alive to be exact.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: He founded a militia of former Confederates, the Lemoyne Raiders, and proudly declares the state to be separate from the US government. He also calls the northerners "carpetbaggers".
• Save the Villain: You can choose to save him from hanging, which he will appreciate.
• Undying Loyalty: To the "Free State of Lemoyne". Unfortunately for him, that state happens to be home to one of the most civilized settlements in the game.
• Villain Has a Point: While most of what he preaches is horseshit, he's right on the money when he complains about "Bounty Hunters killing each other for the pleasure of taking a man's freedom", as Arthur/John will be ambushed by fellow scavenger bounty hunters during more than one bounty mission. His reservations about the state of the country, when not based on racism, are also similar to those Dutch Van Der Linde often preaches, so he's not without a base to stand on.
• "Wanted!" Poster: He has one in Saint Denis.

Mark Johnson

"I ain't gonna fight you in front of my family, okay?"

Voiced by: Jason Salmon

A man wanted in Rhodes for robbing stagecoaches and trains several years before Arthur Morgan arrived in the area.

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• Abusive Parents: Has hints of this early on when he's instructing little Billy on how to horse ride, as he constantly chides him for not being "any kind of man until he gets on a horse". Even as he's saying his final farewells to him, he puts special emphasis on him being "the man of the house now", putting a lot of pressure on the poor boy.
• Action Dad: He left the life of crime to care for his son, but he can still pack a punch, just not in front of him.
• Affably Evil: According to the Rhodes station clerk, he seemed nice enough when interacting with other members of the community. Though he tries to backstab Arthur/John when he tries to take him in, he still behaves cordially with him even if his plan fails or never has a chance to put it into motion.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Easily the only bounty hunting target that will make you doubt Arthur/John's morality the most. His parallels to John in the first game only make his capture and execution all the more tragic, and unlike other hanging victims, he can't even be saved from his fate, as he will get gunned down by the law in Saint Denis if you rescue him. If you kill his wife and refuse to let him say his farewells to his son, he becomes an outright innocent victim of the player's cruelty.
• Anti-Villain: By the time you find him, he's a family man out in the Bayou who really seemed to have left his past life behind him. He's still willing to use underhanded methods to free himself, but he's still no less honorable than some of the nicer Van Der Linde members, and it only shows how much his former gang values him.
• Bald of Evil: After he loses his hat, we see that he's balding.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: His silence initially seems like a sign that he really has made his peace, but it's soon revealed that he was actually planning his escape attempt.
  Arthur: Dammit. I knew you was being quiet.
• Beyond Redemption: During his hanging, this is what Sheriff Thomas' final speech to him amounts to.
  Sheriff Thomas: Mark Johnson, a murderer, a brutal and fearsome criminal his entire life, a man who thought he could just leave his outlaw past behind and become a rancher and family man. Well, the law don't work that way, Mr. Johnson. A changed man does not change the crimes he committed. We are what we've done. You can't outrun your blood.
• Big "NO!": If Arthur shoots his partners and/or his wife.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When Arthur catches him, Johnson seems to politely accept this and doesn't cause any trouble at first. However, Arthur soon discovers that this was just a ploy and Johnson had sent for some armed friends to rescue him. After said friends are dead, Johnson mostly drops his graceful front in favor of a more jaded attitude.
  Johnson: He ain't much of a bounty hunter. Get him!
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: His dynamic with his wife when you first see them. He even calls her his "sweet girl".
  Johnson's wife: Let him in, he's been trying for hours.
  Johnson: He ain't no kind of man 'till he can get on a horse.
• Cutting the Knot: If you want to avoid his plan to save his life, just steal his horse so his son can't ride to get help.
• Defiant to the End: Granted, this comes after a rather underhanded attempt to escape his fate, but once he's exhausted all his options, he remains defiant and stoic during his hanging.
  Johnson: Come on already. We gotta give 'em the show.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Being a Family-Values Villain, this is a given, although he's not perfect in that category either.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He refuses to fight Arthur/John in front of his wife and kid, even if you refuse to grant him his "final goodbyes".
  • He seems to be against killing women, especially mothers, as he expresses if Arthur shoots his wife.
    Johnson: Sir, I was a bad man. I robbed stagecoaches and I killed a feller. But nothing... Nothing I did compared to the evil you caused, serving warrants for the state of Lemoyne, you woman-killing sack of shit.
• The Everyman: He comes across as this the most out of all bounty targets, being the only one willing to come quietly. Of course, being a former outlaw, he's not a saint either, and will take on the opportunity to ambush the player and free himself.
• Evil Parents Want Good Kids: He raises his son to be a proper man, and he reinforces this goal almost every time we see them together, telling him to take care of his mother as he's the man now.
• Family-Values Villain: He's an outlaw turned family man, and he's willing to sink to some lows to continue being with them.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When he tries to escape Arthur, he chides him for almost getting his neck broken "prematurely", hinting at his fate.
  • His entire story as a former outlaw turned family man whose past catches up to him is one to John's in the first game, which is even more highlighted if you play as him when you bring Mark in.
    John: I didn't take it someone else would've.
    Johnson: You tell yourself that, bounty hunter. You ain't whiter than white. I hope past catches up to you!
• Gone Horribly Wrong: His attempt to get his companions to rescue him ends up with the entire gang being shot dead by Arthur, meaning that he wasted his final goodbyes for his family and got his friends killed.
  Arthur: And now look at what happened. Dead because of you.
• Grey-and-Grey Morality: He outright tells Arthur/John that "[he] ain't whiter than white", and that despite having the law on his side, he still widowed a wife and orphaned a boy. The fact that both Arthur and John are outlaws as well muddies the waters.
• Happily Married: His wife is inconsolable once you take him in, as he will be if you kill her.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: Even taking all possible scenarios into account, it's unclear to see whether Mark Johnson really became a good man after his retirement, which isn't helped by his tendency to lie. He's very harsh to his son, and isn't above using him to save his own skin (wasting his potential final goodbyes to do so). However, he seems to genuinely love him, constantly reassuring him as he's being taken in, and mentioning him and his wife on several occasions during the trip to Rhodes. His connections with his former gang and his plan to have them ambush Arthur/John and save him from hanging only muddies the waters even more. During his hanging, he never denies being deserving of death, but calls out his captors for believing themselves to be morally superior to him.
• Hidden Depths: He's the only NPC who somehow manages to untie himself from Arthur's horse. Being a former outlaw, he's become quite adapt at taking advantage of any opportunities to save his life.
• It's Personal: If you kill his wife, he will understandably lose his affable side.
  Johnson: Good boy! You got 'em just like daddy told ya. He's a killer! Get him already! Billy don't got a momma because of that son of a bitch!
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a liar and an opportunist (as well as a former stagecoach robber), but was allegedly a law-abiding citizen during his retirement, and although he's not a perfect father or husband, he thinks the world of his family, and his former gang thinks highly enough of him to attempt to rescue him. He also tries to get Arthur/John killed, but only because he was taking him away from his family, and will forgive him were he to rescue him.
• Kick the Morality Pet: His cavalier way of teaching his son how to mount a horse, spending hours trying to force him unto the animal. He really does love him, as shown afterwards, but he's not a perfect father.
• Meaningful Name: His name, Mark Johnson, is meant to echo John Marston.
• Mirror Character: To John in the last game.
  • Both are retired outlaws with an honor code who are now living on a farm with their wife and son, with a difficult relationship to the later, and who also get their former gangs killed in an attempt to save themselves. However, John was a Boxed Crook who is forced by the law to hunt his former allies down, while Mark was True Companions with his gang and accidentally got them killed while they planned to rescue him from the law.
  • They also both accept their fates but not before exhausting every option they had first (Mark unties himself from the player's horse and sends his friends to rescue him, while John goes out pulling a Last Stand on his enemies before being shot to death).
  • Mrs. Johnson and Billy are also ones to Abigail and Jack, both in the former's disagreements with her husband on how to raise their sons, and in the latter's grief in attempting losing their fathers. The fact that you can shoot the wife but not the son mirrors how Abigail dies late in the first game while Jack is the only one to survive.
  • The fact that if you rescue him from hanging he will be gunned down by the law in Saint Denis also foreshadows John's Multiple Gunshot Death at the hands of the law in the first game.
• Moral Myopia: He claims to have lost all respect for Arthur/John when he shot his friends, despite it being him who had them sent to kill him.
  Johnson: I was out in the Bayou. Wasn't hurting no one.
  Arthur: Maybe you weren't, but those partners of yours were a rough bunch.
  Johnson: Go to hell.
• Noble Demon: He's not completely retired from the life of crime, but it seems like he wouldn't have hurt anybody who wasn't coming for him. He only targets Arthur/John because he was coming for his bounty.
• Not Afraid to Die: Zig-Zagged. Regardless of whether or not he manages to alert his friends, he will tell Arthur/John that he's made his peace and is content with his fate. However, after untying himself from his horse, he will scream "I don't wanna hang!" as he runs. Despite this, he still faces death with all the dignity he can muster during his imprisonment and later hanging.
  Johnson: I'm ready. Hope they make it quick.
• Not So Stoic: He generally comes off as aloof or uninterested when interacting with you... unless you shoot his wife, in which case, he will lose it against you.
• Opportunistic Bastard: When his life is on the line, he's not above taking advantage of opportunities, such as Arthur/John tying his wrists too loosely, or allowing him a final goodbye to his family, to save his own life.
• Parents as People: His teachings to his son on how to horse-ride can border on child abuse, and his wife is clearly uncomfortable with it. However, he genuinely loves him, refuses to fight Arthur/John in front of him, and encourages him to endure Mark's arrest. However, he's also not above using him to call up his friends to kill Arthur/John in a last ditch attempt to avoid the noose.
• Price on Their Head: $25 to be exact. Despite this, he's hanged if brought in, which is usually reserved for the more valuable bounties.
• Retired Outlaw: While he's still on good terms with his former gang, he seems to have settled in the civilized community as a rancher and family man.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: If Arthur/John kills his wife, he will forsake his rule to not fight anyone in front of his son and attempt to beat him to death.
• Save the Villain: You can opt to stop his hanging by shooting the rope, for which he will forgive you for bringing him in (and potentially killing his friends and wife).
• The Quiet One: He talks the least out of all the bounties that Arthur/John stows on his horse, only talking when talked to, which turns out to be because he was planning his escape.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Gives a brutal one to Arthur/John if they antagonize him during his hanging. What makes it better, he turns out to be right about both men, especially John, who will also get his Heel–Face Door-Slam at the hands of the authorities years later.
    Johnson: You killed those boys, and you killed me, all for a few measly bucks. I believed in second chances, and changing my fate. Now I don't. Whatever caught up with me it's getting you tenfold, mister.
  • If you kill his wife, he calls you out for it all the way back to Rhodes.
    Johnson: You're a killer, a no-good killer. I might'a done things, but I changed. You're evil, mister.
• Tired of Running: The reason why he risked settling down. That said, if you decide to spare him, he won't hesitate to run again for his own life.
  Arthur: I've been thinking. If you knew bounty hunters was coming, why didn't you run?
  Johnson: I'd done my running... I just thought... after all that time maybe I'd be forgiven.
  Arthur: It don't feel like much of a country for forgiveness.
• Token Good Teammate: The only bounty (other than Mr. Black and Mr. White, who can be helped instead of taken in anyway) who seems to have set roots and become a stand-up citizen. While he's not perfect, and calling him "good" might also be a stretch, he's the most sympathetic bounty victim.
• Tragic Villain: It seems like he's genuinely set down his roots and gave a shot at a normal community life, only for his past to catch up to him when he's got the most to lose. Though he can slip back into his old habits when facing execution, it's implied that he would've been a good man had he been given a few years to lay low. His death only serves to show the inevitable fate of that who lives the life of an outlaw.
  Johnson's Wife: Daddy did a bad thing. And there is no such things as forgiveness. Not in this world.
• True Companions: Unlike John Marston, his former gang is willing to fight for him.
• Ungrateful Bastard: If you let him say his final goodbyes to his family, he will take advantage of them to alert his former gang to try to kill you and rescue him. With that said, he will be grateful if you decide not to take him in whatsoever, or if you save him from hanging.
• Villainous Breakdown: If you shoot his wife, he will become enraged at you and attempt to beat you to death.
  Johnson: Sweet girl! She didn't do nothing to you! Let me out of these, you'll answer for that! You'll answer!
• Villainous Friendship: With his former gang of stagecoach robbers.
• Villain Has a Point: He's often right about the morality of the situation surrounding Arthur/John and him, especially since no matter who you capture him with, he will have done worse things than Mark has. In I, John will also be refused a chance at forgiveness by the law, although he will try to earn his by hunting down his former gang.
• "Wanted!" Poster: He has one in Rhodes, featuring a sketch of him.
• What the Hell, Player?:
  • If Arthur shoots his wife dead before capturing him, Johnson will repeatedly berate Arthur and futilely report him to the Sheriff.
    Johnson: He's a murderer, Sheriff. My boy will tell you, he killed my wife.
    Sheriff Thomas: You can only run for so long, son. There's your cell. You're lucky it's not a grave.
    Arthur: Bounties is a rough business, sheriff. Things happen, you know how it is.
    Johnson: He murdered my woman, he's the one you should arrest!
  • He will also be the one to call you out the most if you antagonize him.
    Arthur: Surely it's about noose time for you?
    Johnson: You made a wife a widow and a boy fatherless, you son of a bitch. And you coming here to gloat about it?! Let me have some peace in my last hours on Earth.
    Arthur: A bounty is a bounty, mister. Don't take it so personal.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: While he's clearly biased since she was his wife, he will call Arthur/John a "woman-killing sack of shit" if he kills her.
• You Can't Fight Fate: If you save him from hanging, Mark will head down to Saint Denis and get gunned down by the law there.

Robbie Laidlaw

Voiced by: Mac Brydon

"You call this a hogtieing, you miserable bastard? I've tied laundry tighter."

A one-eyed Scottish man who is wanted for assaulting a police officer.

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• Are We There Yet?: He says this word for word on the way back to Rhodes.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: If you take your sweet time during the trip to Rhodes, he will insult the player's horse for its pace, saying that they're good for nothing but glue.
• Big Stupid Doo Doo Head: He could learn a thing or two from Arthur when it comes to antagonizing properly.
  Laidlaw: You wee little bawbag. You dribble of piss. You monkey's arse.
• Blatant Lies: When you bring him in, he'll insist that he came peacefully, when he had tried to burn you alive.
• Boisterous Weakling: For all his talk about how incompetent of a bounty hunter Arthur/John is, he's one of the easiest bounties to obtain.
  Laidlaw: You're lucky I haven't slipped outta these ropes and slit your damn throat.
• Captain Obvious: He complains that the player's horse "stinks of arse", while being tied to its back, his head facing its arse.
• Comically Small Bribe: He tries to get Arthur/John to release him by offering him pornography. He's really insistent about it too.
  Laidlaw: So tell me, do you like pornography, lad? You know, exotic stuff. Eh! Eh! Eh! Eh! Laddie? I said... I said... Do you like lewd images? Breasts and arse and all the business, only arty like?
• Dirty Coward: When Arthur/John barges into his cabin, Robbie flees into a field and leaves his aide to get beaten/killed.
• Dirty Old Man: Seems to be in the late stages of life, and apparently has a large collection of porn.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He has a picture of his missing family hidden in his cabin.
• Eyepatch of Power: Subverted. He has an eyepatch, and is the wimpiest bounty in the game.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: His attempt to inflame his pursuer by throwing a Molotov at him only sets fire to the field he was hiding on, which gave his location away. To add insult to injury, he likely got arson added to his charges.
• Cop Hater: He's wanted for assaulting a police officer, and harbors a special resentment for bounty hunters.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: He throws a live Molotov at the player and misses by a mile, setting the field he was hiding on ablaze.
• Jerkass: He's an irritating coward who spends most of his way to Rhodes complaining about his captor's lack of proficiency.
• Kill It with Fire: Throws a live Molotov to Arthur/John when he's hiding out in the field, with the intent to either kill him or distract him.
• Motor Mouth: As shown during the trip back. None of his talk is nice, either.
  Laidlaw: Some kind of bounty hunter you are. I met tougher lassies in a school yard. Got caught with a bounty man with half a heid, so I did. What a piss poor bounty hunter you are. Just the bloody worst. Absolutely terrible, mind. It's embarrassing getting caught by you.
• Pædo Hunt: It's never confirmed, but his description of his stash of porn implies it's child pornography.
  Laidlaw: I can get you some... photographs... of wee tiny folks of all sorts. How's about it? It'll blow your mind. They're real fairies. Laddie, they're a thing to behold. Send your mind into a fair old spin.
• Price on Their Head: $25 to be exact.
  Sheriff Thomas: Bounty's the same whether you was nearly inflamed or not, I'm afraid.
• Manchild: Once you catch up to him after he flees, he resorts to throwing playground insults at you before offering you porn as a bribe.
• Sole Survivor: Seems to be one for the Laidlaw family, who all disappeared during an incident apparently related to gunslinger Emmet Granger.
• Stupid Evil: Not the smartest bounty in the game.
• Villainous Friendship: He has an accomplice who tackles Arthur/John to the ground while he flees, and who is loyal enough to take a harsh beating to ensure Robbie's escape.
  Station Clerk: He's a piece of work, but he's still got friends.
• "Wanted!" Poster: He has one in Rhodes.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: While his assault charge likely wouldn't warrant an execution, his added arson charge might. Regardless, he will remain in the prison until you bring in a new bounty.

Sampson Black and Wendell White

"Mr. Black: We ain't bad guys at all. I mean he's okay, even for a darkie\\ Mr. White: Shut up you pasty faced streak of piss."

Voiced by: Bob Dibuono (Sampson Black), Shawn Andrew (Wendell White)

Two men who escaped from a chain gang, and both wanted in Rhodes for murder... or are they? Arthur can either turn them in or help them by taking down and destroying their wanted posters; if he chooses the latter option, he can later bring them supplies while they wait for the heat to die down.

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• Ambiguously Evil: Whether they really are to blame for their crimes (and whether they were justified) is a hot topic among Rhodes. A man named Jethro Minglethorpe completely believes they're guilty but is dismissed as a gossiper by a woman who believes them to be innocent. Alden the station clerk takes a middle-ground, claiming to have heard both sides of the story. As for Mr. Black and Mr. White themselves, they will go from claiming innocent to claiming self-defense if you choose to bring them to the sheriff, making the matter a lot more confusing.
  Station Clerk: Oh hello, I heard both sides of that story. They're either horrible murderers, or they were just defending themselves... take your pick which.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Even if they were guilty, there is no satisfaction from bringing them in, not even from Arthur.
  Arthur: You know, they were fine fellers, so this'll weigh heavy on me... but the coins'll help.
• Ambiguously Gay: The fact that they keep finding excuses to stick together after loudly announcing how much they hate each other and need to go their separate ways and end up living in a very small tree house in the middle of nowhere suggests that their relationship is probably more than platonic.
• Anti-Villain: It seems both of their crimes were exaggerated and they aren't nearly as bad as their wanted posters would indicate. If you complete their quest line, they end up living peacefully in the woods, with no mention of anymore run-ins with the law.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: They don't like each other and stated that they only stick together until the heat dies down. However, on Arthur's second and third encounters, Mr. Black and Mr. White remain together and are willingly to taking care each other while bickering Like an Old Married Couple.
• Blatant Lies: They justify sticking together as a matter of convenience and safety while being pursued by the law, and that they actually hate the other guy's guts. Even a brief interaction with them will reveal that the opposite is true.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: They both claim to be the Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder but in reality neither is completely there in the head.
  Mr. Black: We're gonna be alright, buddy.
  Mr. White: Are we?
  Arthur: Well, physically.
• Defiant to the End: If you capture him, Mr. White says that he'll spit on the sheriff when he gets the chance, and later tells him while jailed to skip the chain gang and go straight for the gallows.
• Dirty Coward: If you bring them in during their first encounter, they will attempt to pin the blame for the escape on each other.
• Distressed Dude: Though they free themselves from the chain gang, they need the player to save their hides twice. First when they ask you to get rid of all their bounty posters in Rhodes (and save them from a fellow bounty hunter who collected the last one), and then when they get food poisoning from eating some mushrooms and need you to give them medicine. By the time of their third encounters, they seem to be fending off for themselves a lot better.
• Exiled to the Couch: Briefly happens to Mr. Black after insulting Mr. White yet again, whereupon he's locked out of the treehouse until he apologizes and promises to make dinner.
• Frame-Up: Implied to be what happened to Mr. Black, according to a woman in Rhodes.
  Woman: And Sampson Black was set up. Everyone knows judge Amory took a bribe.
• Hidden Depths: Useless and chaotic as they seemed, they managed to build their own treehouse in the woods by themselves and avoided any more run-ins with the law.
• Hot Blooded Sideburns: Mr. Black sports sideburns and has an abrasive personality. Symbolically, he loses both during the last encounter with them after settling down with Mr. White.
• Hypocritical Humor: During their third encounter, Mr. Black throws a jab about Mr. White finally learning his manners, before the conversation turns into a barrage of insults that ends with Mr. Black being temporarily locked out of the house.
  Mr. Black: Well somebody learnt his manners. [points at Mr. White] Finally.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Both can be quite irritating and petty during the player's first encounter with them (especially Mr. Black), but if you choose to help them out, they will reveal a softer side to them.
• Killing in Self-Defense: Mr. Black claims this, but the judge that took his case was apparently bribed and he was thrown in with a chain gang.
• Like an Old Married Couple: They argue and make up constantly, but are pretty much inseparable. They even end up as more or less domestic partners, cooking and caring for one another just north of Big Valley.
• Manchild: Both banter and complain like a pair of kids, and forgive each other just as easily too.
• Never My Fault: If brought in, Mr. White will immediately pin the escape plan on Mr. Black, despite previous conversations between the two implying it was a team effort.
• Non-Indicative Name: Mr. Black is a white man and Mr. White is... well you guessed it.
• Not Helping Your Case: Mr. Black is not very good at defending his partner's innocence.
  Mr. White: We've been straight with you... we ain't angels but...
  Mr. Black: We're good folks, or I am.
  Mr. White: Not now, Black.
  Mr. Black: Okay, we're both good folks.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: If Mr. White really was guilty of murder, it's implied that the death of his victim Jimmy Holdacre didn't upset anybody. The only one who demands he be recaptured is only upset that a black man killed a white man.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Mr. Black is not above calling his partner a "darkie" while insulting him, but he really cares about him.
• Price on Their Head: $40 each to be exact. The player can choose to take it or help them instead.
• Straight Gay: They're quite violent and confrontational, but are also implied to be in a relationship with each other. This might be just a front: At one point, Mr. Black will tell his partner to "act normal" when they see the player approaching them.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Should you help them, they are some of the few characters to get a Happy Ending, living together in a modest but stable treehouse.
• Together in Death: Discussed if the player chooses to catch them instead of helping them.
  Mr. White: Now he's got both of us.
  Mr. Black: We got out together, we'll go back together.
  Mr. White: Maybe they'll hang us together too?
• Token Good Teammate: While not perfect, they're implied to be innocent victims of other people's crimes. Because of this, they're only bounties you can choose to help out instead of catch.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In their first encounter, they're not above blaming each other for their predicament, even to the sheriff if you catch them. However, by the time of their second encounter, they're now willing to give up a health potion for each other's sake.
• Tsundere: If one interprets their relationship is romantic, then this would explain their constant bickering and making up.
  Mr. Black: I'll make dinner... again. Alright? I'm sorry.
  Mr. White: Say you're sorry again.
  Mr. Black: I'm real sorry.
• Uncertain Doom:
  • If you bring them in, it's unclear whether they were hanged or simply returned to the chain gang. If you refuse to get involved altogether, it's likely they got caught by the law due to the sorry state they were in.
  • Similarly, if you don't give them medicine during their second encounter, it's heavily implied that they succumbed to the toxic mushrooms they ate.
• "Wanted!" Poster: Rhodes is chalked full of them, and the first favor they ask of you is to retrieve and burn them all 5 of them. One of them is retrieved by a Bounty Hunter whom Arthur has to stop before he catches them.
• What the Hell, Player?: If you choose to capture them for their bounty, they will make sure you know how betrayed they feel.
  Mr. Black: Only thing I'm guilty of is trusting a greedy no-good traitor.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: 90% of their dialogue are arguments and insults against each other, but the remaining 10% shows they are incredibly protective of each other.
• You Bastard!: From both of them, but especially Mr. Black, should you bring them in.

Wilson J. McDaniels

"Somebody shoot me, please..."

A criminal wanted in Saint Denis for a variety of crimes.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: As he's being fried, he begs for a Mercy Kill.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite his crimes, it's very hard not to feel a bit bad when he's being fried alive in the electric chair, especially when the cork comes off and he starts begging for a Mercy Kill. A large chunk of the crowd that assisted his execution are downright horrified, and Arthur writes in his journal that if he ever gets caught, he prays for a hanging instead of the gruesome fate that bestowed him.
• Anti-Villain: Cult leader or not, he's far less of an active threat to society than most other bounties, and mostly seems to be keeping to himself in his small hideout with his companions.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: His brief reads "murder, bigamy, and immoral animal husbandry".
• Asshole Victim: Downplayed. He's a murderer and depraved cult leader, so clearly the devs didn't want you to feel too put off at his grisly fate. Despite this, pretty much nobody was satisfied with the way he went.
• Bald of Evil: By the time you encounter him, he's bald. This surely did not help with the pain of the electric chair.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: His crimes include 'immoral animal husbandry,' which is presumably this trope.
• Bound and Gagged: A variation. While he's being executed, he's locked to the chair and put a cork in his mouth, mostly to bite through the pain, but has the same effect. He spits it out to scream for a Mercy Kill seconds before his death.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Professor Bell's attempt at creating a humane execution device backfires, and McDaniels is brutally tortured to death in his prototype electric chair, much to the horror of most of the attendants.
• Cult: He has founded a cult based on marrying and sexual relations with animals.
• Dirty Coward: When you find his camp, he tries to flee and sics his cohorts on you.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He seems to care about his fellow cultists... and his animal partners.
• Face Death with Despair: Granted, it's hard to blame him considering what Arthur's description of the electric chair was, but he screams and sobs all the way back to Saint Denis, and he hasn't shown to compose himself when hooked on the device. After that, he reacts like any normal human would when fried alive.
• Flawed Prototype: To say that Professor Bell's attempt at giving him a humane death went wrong is an understatement.
• High-Voltage Death: He's "humanely" disposed of in the electric chair prototype. Arthur describes it as similar to cattle getting hit by lightning and being burnt to a crisp.
• Kidnapped for Experimentation: A legal case but still an example. He's captured because Professor Bell needed a prototype for his invention.
• Knight Templar: He wholeheartedly believes that making wives out of animals should be a right practiced in America, and is willing to kill all those who stand in his way.
• Little "No": When Arthur tells him that he's not going to be hanged, but instead used as a prototype for the electric chair.
• Mercy Kill: Asks for one at the end of his life. If you do, Arthur will become wanted, and if you don't, he'll die immediately afterwards anyway. Ironically, Professor Bell sees his fate at the hands of the electric chair as this, when he couldn't be more wrong.
• Never My Fault: Blames his capture on America's flawed justice system, nevermind the fact that he's a cult leader and a murderer.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Who would have ever guessed this guy would have his own small army?
• Price on Their Head: $95 to be exact. Since he's delivered directly to Professor Bell, Arthur/John never collects it.
• Unwitting Test Subject: Granted, it's not easy to find a willing volunteer to test out a prototype of the electric chair first hand, but he clearly wasn't thrilled at all to mark that part of history.
• Villainous Breakdown: Has one after Arthur tells him about the fate that awaits him.
• "Wanted!" Poster: Has one in Saint Denis.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He spends most of his trip to Saint Denis crying or silent, so little is known about him other than his gruesome High-Voltage Death.
• You Bastard!: If you kill his companions, he'll lash out at you.
  McDaniels: You killed them all, you animal. Cat's paw bastard.

Epilogue bounties (mandatory)

Nathan Kirk

Voiced by: Anthony Crane

An accountant wanted in New York for embezzlement, and who is hiding out in Strawberry.

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• Ambiguously Related: He shares a surname with Jenny Kirk, a member of the Dutch Van Der Linde gang who died in Blackwater before the events of the game. However, whether they're related or not is unknown.
• Bad Liar: The moment John knocks on his door pretending to be a friend, he immediately incriminates himself by claiming that "[he] didn't do it".
• Bald of Evil: He's bald and a wanted man.
• Beard of Evil: And a shaggy one at that.
• Chase-Scene Obstacle Course: He causes a herd of sheep to scatter during his escape in order to distract John.
• Embezzlement: His crime, as described by Sadie.
  John: What did he do?
  Sadie: Rob a bank.
  John: With a gun?
  Sadie: No, with a pen.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's implied through dialogue that he did what he did to provide for his wife. However, whether or not he was trying to throw her under the bus in this conversation is unclear, since John shuts him up before he's able to finish his sentence.
• Excellent Judge of Character: He doesn't buy John's friendly disposition for a second, and hightails it after a brief exchange.
• Implausible Deniability: Constantly repeats that he's an innocent man, even after making excuses for his actions and trying to flee from John and Sadie.
• Irony: Looting him will reward you with a hair pomade, even though he's bald.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: He doesn't even try to fight John and Sadie. He just runs for it.
• Nervous Wreck: He does not take the life of a wanted man well, and by the time you find him, he's a ball of anxiety.
• Non-Action Guy: Aside from pushing Sadie before fleeing, he's never fought. Justified, as he's a banker.
• Not Helping Your Case: While John was there to apprehend him, Kirk did himself no favors by swearing innocent before John even mentioned the matter of his bounty.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. He shares his surname with deceased Dutch Van Der Linde gang member Jenny Kirk.
• Price on Their Head: The reason Sadie took his case.
• Properly Paranoid: He seems to be wary of everyone when hiding out in the welcome center of Strawberry, not sending any mail or talking to any of the townsfolk. His paranoia turns out to be justified as John and Sadie come knocking soon after.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When John comes in knocking, he's quick to jump out the window and onto his horse before things get ugly.
• Warmup Boss: The first bounty you hunt as John.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: We only know about the price in his head from what Sadie tells John, and it's her who goes through the trouble of taking him to the authorities, meaning that his screentime is much shorter than most other bounties.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unclear whether his crime of embezzlement got him hanged or not.
• You Monster!: Calls his pursuers "monsters" as he flees from them.

Shane Finley

Voiced by: Jim E. Chandler

A man wanted for multiple violent crimes.

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• Asshole Victim: He can get killed during your retrieval of him, and while the police chief will express his disappointment over not seeing him hang, nobody has any reservations over it, and Sadie will not hold it against John if he puts a bullet in him.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: He asks John whether he's working with Sadie, after seeing her give him orders.
• Beard of Evil: Guy looks like he's gone his whole life without shaving.
• Disguised in Drag: Sadie initially found him disguised as a lady in "a house for fallen women". Considering his shaggy beard, and the fact that she found him a week before the mission in which you recapturing him, it was likely an Incredibly Conspicuous Drag.
• Enemy Mine: Understandably, he would rather be taken by the Langton gang than Sadie, so he calls for them when he's tied on John's horse.
• Escape Artist: Despite being wanted in five states, he had managed to avoid capture multiple times until he's caught by Sadie.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: From cattle rustler to murderer, thief, and child killer.
• Faux Affably Evil: At first, he's relatively cordial with his captors and demands a good treatment from them in exchange, but when he realizes he's not going to get any sympathy points from them, he loses this side of him.
  Sadie: Hit him, John, please?
  Finley: Hey, you don't need to do that just cause she told you to. I don't need to be hit. I just want to be treated civil.
  Sadie: Shut it.
• Hostage MacGuffin: The fight is not with him, but with James Langton and the rival bounty hunting group who stole him from Sadie.
• Hypocrite: Demands a civil treatment from his captors, then proceeds to call them "a bitch and a bastard" when they bring him in.
• Implausible Deniability: When he's in jail, he futilely claims innocence, which the police chief is quick to call bullshit on.
• Informed Ability: Since he spends his entire screentime being tied up, his status as The Most Wanted and the Escape Artist comes across as this.
• The Most Wanted: He's wanted in five states, has the largest price out of any obtainable bounty in the game, and has many bounty hunters looking for him, including Sadie and James Langton.
• The Pig-Pen: He's the most unkept bounty in the game.
• Potty Emergency: Unashamedly admits that he has to go during the trip to Blackwater.
  Finley: I need to relieve myself.
  Sadie: There'll be a bucket in your cell.
  Finley: I'm serious.
  Sadie: Yeah, and so am I.
• Price on Their Head: $400 dead or alive to be exact. It's what John needs put in the renovations Uncle suggested.
• Smug Snake: Despite being tied up and on the back of John's horse, he taunts Sadie about losing him once.
  Finley: It didn't work out for you before, woman. You should let me alone.
• Uncertain Doom: Despite Chief Dunbar saying that Finley will be hanged, the player cannot witness his execution, which given his track record of evading capture, still leaves an open window for him to flee.
• Would Hurt a Child: His crimes including murdering children.

Ramón Cortez

Voiced by: James Martinez

A notorious member of the Del Lobos gang.

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• Anti-Villain: He never does anything outright malicious outside of belonging to an infamous outlaw gang, which on paper makes him no worse than John and Sadie themselves.
  John: So everyone with a price on their head deserves it, you think?
  Sadie: Sure.. no... I don't know... usually. If I got into who deserved what, second-guessed every poster, I'd tear out all my hair before I put a rope on anyone. If the price is high enough, you gotta trust there's a reason they set it
  John: I hope that rationale works out, for all of us.
• Bullying a Dragon: He tackles John when he shows up to capture him and tries to kill him, getting himself beaten up by him and then pistol-whipped by Sadie.
• Combat Pragmatist: When John first encounters him, he hides in his barn before tackling him and trying to kill him.
• Crazy-Prepared: When beating up John fails, he attempts to bribe Sadie. When that fails, he tries it with John. When that fails, he tries it with the sheriff. When that fails too, it's revealed that he had a team of outlaw companions seeking to rescue him anyway. Once he's out of opportunities, he resorts to empty threats, but his smug expression indicates he still has some tricks up his sleeve.
• Defiant to the End: Though he loses his joker demeanor once he's out of cards, he never pleads and maintains a hopeful attitude.
  Ramón: You are a dead woman. And you're a dead man. The Del Lobos will not forgive this! Wherever you hide, we will find you. And we will kill you. You, and anyone who's close to you.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He doesn't understand why John wouldn't accept his bribe instead of the bounty, ignoring the fact that John is trying to get out of the outlaw business, and has a genuine comradery with Sadie, and that Sadie prides herself on her honest work. He also tries the bargaining with the sheriff.
  Ramón: I'll give you a hundred dollars to kill that bitch. Two hundred. Three hundred dollars for her head.
• Evil Laugh: Lets out one as he's being taken to Saint Denis to hang, believing wholeheartedly that he'll escape again.
• Faux Affably Evil: Though he could be very well manipulating them, he's very nice to John and the sheriff when they capture him. Once he's recaptured, however, he starts spitting empty threats to them, before trying to offer them money again.
  Sadie: I preferred it when you was offering money.
  Ramón: You want money? Hey, take my money. I got gold, lady.
  Sadie: But you was just saying you was going to kill me.
  Ramón: Oh, you let me go, I'll forget about all this.
  Sadie: You see, Ramón, what we got here is a trust issue.
• Great Escape: Thanks to his fellow Del Lobos' intervention, he actually escapes from prison the first time John and Sadie catch him, forcing them to track him down and nab him a second time.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Pulls this anytime he's captured, eventually resorting to bribing or threatening his captors, or encouraging his men to bust him out.
• Mirror Character: The Del Lobos' method of breaking Cortez out of the Rhodes jail is identical to the one used by Dutch to free Arthur if he manages to get incarcerated there, and his Villainous Friendship with them also mirrors theirs before things soured between them.
• Nerves of Steel: After his attempts at bribing his captors fails, he gets himself comfortable in his prison and awaits rescue. When John and Sadie come back for him, he maintains some of his composure but still gives up.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In his first attempt at bribing them, he tells them to take him to Dewberry Creek to retrieve their reward. When this fails and he has to get saved by his companions, this comes back to bite him in the ass as John and Sadie now know where he's hiding out.
• Not Afraid to Die: Subverted. Says this to John when he's rowing away, but when he's presented with the chance of escaping, he gives up to
• Not Helping Your Case: He doesn't bribe John and Sadie outright, but instead asks them to take them to Dewberry Creek where all his men are awaiting him, which does not look well for him.
• Opportunistic Bastard: He isn't always holding all the cards, but when he's given one, he makes the most of it.
  Ramón: I'm good for it.
  Sadie: You're tied up on a horse, about to be taken to Saint Denis to hang. You ain't good for anything.
  Ramón: I swear.
  Sadie: Of course. 'Cause all you can do is swear. But you're just saying anything you think might get you out of this. Ramón, I couldn't trust you to pay me, I couldn't trust you not to kill me. Hell, I couldn't even trust you to kill me, if that's what we agreed.
  Ramón: What the hell are you talking about? I got gold, woman, mister. Gold. Five thousand dollars!
• Price on Their Head: $50 at first. After some bargaining, sheriff Thomas raises it to 75$ after he escapes.
• Saying Too Much: In an attempt to bribe his captors, he accidentally reveals his gang's hideout, which Sadie and John later use to track him down again.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He believes that he can bribe his way out of any sticky situation he finds himself in, and gets really angry when this tactic fails him. However, his tactic clearly leaves John pondering, even if he wasn't tempted by it.
  Ramón: You want money, gold? My men are meeting me at Dewberry Creek. Take me there. I'll pay you good. Better than any bounty.
• Smug Snake: When John encounters him again as he's trying to row away, Cortez dares him to kill him, saying that he's dead either way, but when John threatens him enough, he folds and gives up.
• True Companions: Like the Van Der Lindes before things went south, his gang is willing and able to set him free whenever he's captured.
• Uncertain Doom: Sheriff Thomas rides him directly to Saint Denis right away to hang, in order to ensure that he doesn't escape again. However, Ramon still smugly believes that he will somehow break out again, defiantly bidding farewell to his captors. Since his hanging is never seen, the outcome of this trip is unknown.
• Villainous Friendship: His fellow Del Lobos don't waste a single day in busting him from prison, and even refer to him as their friend at one point.
• Villain Has a Point: Though it's possible he was trying to deceive them, he's right that John and Sadie are foolish not to accept his bribes, instead working their backs off to capture him when he has most of the cards. John even points this out.
  John: It's an odd thing, isn't it? We'll take two hundred dollars from a sheriff, who might be crooked himself, to go get a bounty, but we won't take two thousand from an outlaw just to let them go.
• I Warned You: When his men appear to rescue him, he smugly tells John and Sadie that they should've accepted his deal.
  Ramón: You made a big mistake, the both of you. You shoulda took the money. You should've taken it... now we're gonna come for you. I promise you that. We're gonna come for you.

Marshall Thurwell

Voiced by: Andrew Sellon

A petty criminal hiding in the woods.

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• Affably Evil: He's a fraud and a coward, but he still warns John and Sadie about the bear.
• Dirty Coward: Downplayed. Sadie and John accuse him of planning to get the two of them eaten by the rampaging bear, which he frantically denies. All things considered, he did warn them that there was a monster but there wasn't much he could've done to help once it showed up.
• Enemy Mine: He's scared of bounty hunters, but he's even more scared of the Grizzly bear stalking him, and he warns them of the creature when they catch him.
• Flunky Boss: Thurwell doesn't actually fight John or Sadie. It's a nearby giant bear, as well as some rival bounty hunters, who actually attack them.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Downplayed. He wears glasses and is a corrupt accountant.
• Graceful Loser: Once he's caught, he raises his hands and never tries to run away, unlike most other bounties.
• Non-Action Guy: He's an accountant, so he doesn't put up a fight against his captors. Sadie outright calls him soft.
• Price on Their Head: A big one despite how meek he is, which is the only reason Abigail allows John to join Sadie in hunting him.
  Abigail: How much does it pay?
  Sadie: It pays good, the soft ones usually do.
• Too Dumb to Live: As Sadie points out, hiding out in Bearclaw Camp is an easy way to get yourself killed either by the wildlife or by the notorious Skinner gang.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Has the shortest screentime of any obtainable bounty in the game.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After he's turned over to the law in Blackwater, it's unclear whether his crimes of theft, fraud, and avoiding arrest warranted a hanging.

Epilogue bounties (optional)

Anthony Foreman

Voiced by: David St. Louis

The leader of the Foreman Brothers, a gang that has a history with Tilly Jackson.

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• Ascended Extra: He becomes a contractor in Online.
• The Bus Came Back: If Arthur spares him, Anthony will reappear as the target of a bounty hunting mission in the epilogue pursued by John.
• Et Tu, Brute?: He apparently took Tilly's "betrayal" very personally, saying they were like family. Tilly does not agree with this assessment at all.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He wants revenge on Tilly for the death of his cousin, whom she killed, but according to Tilly, his cousin had it coming.
• The Family That Slays Together: Some members of the Foreman Brothers are his cousins.
• Gutted Like a Fish: How Arthur will kill him if he decides Anthony's too big a risk to let live.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: If Arthur spares him like Tilly asks, Anthony will do as she says and never come after her again, saying the past is done.
• Leave Him to Me!: Tilly tells Arthur to bring him back alive because she wants to deal with him herself. He's lucky in this case, 'cause Tilly plans on sparing him, though Arthur can always decide to go against her wishes and kill him instead.
• We Used to Be Friends: He and Tilly used to ride together in the same gang. Anthony claims they were family, but Tilly shoots back that her gang was never any family she wanted.
• You Killed My Father: Cousin, rather, but he still wants vengeance for the death of a loved one.

Elias Green

Voiced by: Justin L. Wilson

A psychotic member of the Skinner brothers.

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• Ax-Crazy: Wanted on multiple counts of both murder and mutilation. At his burial, the pastor notes that Green took 'souvenirs' from the flesh of the people he killed.
• Due to the Dead: Regardless of what happens to him (he’s either brought in dead or brought in alive and eventually hanged), if you arrive at the Blackwater cemetery for an event afterward, you'll find that he is laid to rest alongside Otis Skinner, with the pastor stating that even Elias "deserves some kindness" in a eulogy.
• For the Evulz: He doesn't gain anything by torturing the random victims he comes across. He just has fun doing it.
• Serial Killer: Is wanted in connection to the brutal murders and mutilations of six innocent settlers.

Esteban Cortez

Voiced by: Gerardo Rodriguez

A high-ranking member of the Del Lobos gang.

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• Bad Boss: When some of his underlings begin shooting guns off for fun, a more senior underling tells them that he (Esteban) will decapitate anyone who doesn't stop doing that.
• Bandito: Just like many other members of Del Lobos.

Joaquin Arroyo

Voiced by: Pailo Heitz

A member of the Del Lobos gang.

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• Bad Boss: Two of his minions can be heard trying to figure out if Arroyo will kill them for killing a young new Del Lobo... or if he will kill them for not killing the new member.
• Surrounded by Idiots: He is part of a group of Del Lobos, and John doesn't know which one he is or even if he's there... until another gang member 'helpfully' yells at him to run because he's the guy John is searching for.

Otis Skinner

Voiced by: Thomas Poarch

A senior member of the Skinner brothers.

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• Ax-Crazy: He demonstrates palpable glee at the thought of brutally torturing and killing his enemies.
• Blowing a Raspberry: While he is jailed, he talks to the Sheriff about how the latter sucks, saying that the only difference is that Otis gets the trophies (complete with a "ta-daaaaa!"), while the Sheriff only gets the medals (complete with a raspberry sound).
• Due to the Dead: Regardless of what happens to him (he’s either brought in dead or brought in alive and eventually hanged), if you arrive at the Blackwater cemetery for an event afterward, you'll find that he’s laid to rest alongside Elias Green.
• You Cannot Kill an Idea: As he's being taken to jail, he says that even if he's executed his ideals will endure and destroy civilization.

Optional bounties added through patches/PC release

Bart Cavanaugh

A man wanted in Strawberry for multiple counts of intimidation, assault and destruction of property, whose latest incident of "getting fresh with the wrong girl" — the daughter of a wealthy cattle man — was judged a step too far to ignore.

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• Bad People Abuse Animals: The only thing he remembers about last night's debauchery is that he and the boys "caught a rat in a boot" and took turns pissing on it to drown it. He then realizes that he got so drunk, he's now wearing the boot.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Between his name, his alcoholism, and the allegations of sexual improprieties, he seems to be intended as a stand-in for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh (who was accused of sexual assault during his committee hearings, and who admitted to liking beer in his youth).

Camille de Millemont

A Lemoyne Raider wanted in Rhodes for, among other things, murdering a postman.

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• Expy: Of the Russian border patrol agent, Josef, from Grand Theft Auto V. He's a recent immigrant heavily involved in Right Wing American militia politics.
• Hypocrite: He talks a big game about America but not only is the Confederacy a traitorous secession state that lasted only five years but he's French.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: His status as a neo-Confederate foreigner fighting to preserve a lost America he considers more gallant and noble is in many ways a parody of Heros von Borcke, a former Prussian cavalry captain who moved to the American South in 1862 and became a highly decorated lieutenant-colonel in the Confederate Army, returning home after the war ended. ^note While the idea of a Frenchman getting involved in a Lost Cause militia also sounds ludicrous, there were pockets of Confederate support in officially neutral France at the time of the Civil War; Napoleon contemplated recognizing the Confederacy's independence, though he was dissuaded by his ministers, and a group of French industrialists and financiers brokered a deal with a CSA diplomat in Paris to unofficially send $15 million to fund the Confederate Army.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: He's a member of the Lemoyne Raiders, that is one of these.
• Still Fighting the Civil War: He fights to reestablish the Confederacy, and even goes on an unhinged rant about how the Confederacy is the 'real' America.

Herman Zizendorf

A German thief who is wanted in Blackwater.

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• "Get Back Here!" Boss: You have to chase him down as he flees from you.

Open World Bounty

Valentine prostitute

A prostitute in Valentine who approaches Arthur with an unusual proposition: disposing of a corpse.

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• Asshole Victim: She claims that her latest victim is an asshole who abused her, but that turns out to be a lie and a bit of a played with example of not knowing much of the victim.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She knows how to play nice, but if Arthur/[spoiler:John] refuses her quest, she will pull a knife on him. If you bring her in to sheriff Malloy you also learn that she's killed a lot more men than just the john who supposedly abused her.
• Does Not Like Men: Downplayed compared to the other woman serial killer, since she asks for Arthur/[spoiler:John]'s help in disposing of a corpse and doesn't try to kill them later, though she will try to kill him if they refuse to help.
• Even Evil Has Standards: She's a serial killer prostitute, but she will not kill any men who help her. Granted, she's not above potentially deceiving them to accomplish so.
• Killing in Self-Defense: Subverted, She claims to have killed her latest victim in self-defense, she turns out to be lying about it and that she killed more people than said victim.
• Nervous Wreck: She's extremely rash and hyperactive. Granted, her only scenes involve her needing help with disposing of a body, and potentially being arrested and hanged.
• Pet the Dog: Despite her morality being dubious at best, she will reward you handsomely if you help her dispose of the body in her bed.
• Save the Villain: Even if you choose to have her arrested, you can choose to save her from hanging by shooting the rope.
• Serial Killer: If Arthur refuses her offer and turns her in to the authorities, the sheriff mentions that she's killed many more men than the one Arthur found.

Edmund Lowry Jr.

Voiced by: Don Stephenson

A Serial Killer who is responsible for a series of grisly murders in Valentine.

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• Attention Whore: He writes a letter to the press demanding recognition, as his crimes had gone unreported.
• Ax-Crazy: In terms of depravity, he shares company with the likes of Randall Forrester, Murfree Brood, and Skinner Brothers. He's a completely demented Serial Killer who leaves mutilated and dismembered corpses posed for others to find. A letter from his mother mentions how she's noticed the change in his behavior and she asks if she's still taking the laudanum his doctor prescribed.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Although Edmund has committed upward to 40 murders in the region, literally no one knows he exists. Part of this may be due to the fact he commits his crimes in the middle of the woods where the bodies may never actually be found or animals will tear them to shreds. As such, he's not even wanted, let alone a terror of the community. This is reflected when you finally catch him, the Sheriff gives you...$20. Which isn't even for catching him, but for saving the Sheriff's life when Edwin pounces on him: if you don't intervene, the Sheriff will eventually fight him off on his own, and give you nothing.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Subverted. While his decision to forgo marriage in order to spend more time with his mother may seem like a textbook example of this, his mother notes in her letter that his anti-social behavior has recently been getting worse to the point where he's agitated by her presence even during their dinners together, implying that he's now only spending time with her out of routine.
• Expy: Edmund appears to be one to of Eddie Low, who’s also a demented serial killer. They even have very similar names.
• Hate Sink: He carries out a horrific brutality and possesses zero redeeming qualities.
• I Surrender, Suckers: He pretends to surrender to the Sheriff of Valentine, only to try to kill him when his guard's down.
• Losing Your Head: Part of his murder theme. Ironically, Arthur throws a head at Edmund to distract him long enough to subdue him.
• Mythology Gag: His name is very similar to Eddie Low, a serial killer from Grand Theft Auto IV. As the two series have many connections between each other, he may be intended as an ancestor.
• Sadist: When Arthur's at his mercy, Edmund tells him what happens next won't be fun for Arthur, but it will be fun for Edmund. If you don't escape in time, Edmund begins cutting him up while laughing.
• Small Name, Big Ego: In the Wild West of RD2, so many people are murdered and go missing that his crimes are completely unknown. When you finally bring him in, it's clear the sheriff has no idea who he is or what Arthur is talking about. Edmund, by contrast, thinks of himself as a god and terrifying figure.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He’s very similar to Randall Forrester, since he’s also an Ax-Crazy Serial Killer.
• Theme Serial Killer: He always leaves his victims decapitated and their bodies hanging on a tree, rock, or underpass, and their eyeless head not too far away with a note shoved in its mouth.

Collectors

Various individuals who want the protagonist to find or collect some things for them.

Algernon Wasp

Voiced by: Andrew T. Scully

The owner of a boutique store in Saint Denis. He needs the protagonist to collect feathers, flowers, and other materials he can incorporate into his products.

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• Bling-Bling-BANG!: He has a unique pearl-studded, gold-inlaid, snub-nosed Double-Action Revolver, which involuntarily ends up being his final reward for the player when Arthur/John wrestles it away from him.
• Driven to Suicide: When the Contessa Di Bellagio marries a postman and breaks his heart, he takes out his revolver and asks Arthur/John to do the deed; after Arthur/John understandably refuses, Wasp tries to kill himself instead, but Arthur/John keeps the gun, for the man's own safety. After a moment or two of anguish, he calms down and re-dedicates himself to his art.
• Eccentric Fashion Designer: A rare Camp Straight example.
• Stealth Pun: His quests involve you collecting a great deal of orchids.
• Terrible Artist: Zig-zagged. His opulent, outré creations are perfect for his usual clientele of fops and society ladies, but his attempts to design a hat as a gift for his rough-hewn and down-to-earth friend Mr. Kilgore/Mr. Milton end up looking ridiculous, as he acknowledges ("I went forte, and I should've gone molto adagio"). Arthur/John politely declines the first, a white tophat with floral embroidery and a peacock feather; Algernon guilt-trips him into taking the second, slightly less silly one, as he's already upset by the Contessa and can't take any further rejection.
• Upper-Class Twit: He's an open snob who despises 'common' people, is frivolous with money, and is so melodramatic that, when the aristocrat he loves married another man before he could make his grand romantic gesture, he tries to have Arthur kill him.
• Weight Woe: He's extremely gaunt and is directly shown to have an eating disorder, excusing himself at Bronte's party to purge and saying he intends to "stay thin until I pass away". When the stress of the job gets to him, he moans that he's been eating for days — not OVER-eating, just eating — and gestures to a single petit-four by his tea set.

Deborah MacGuiness

Voiced by: Kristine Zbornik

An amateur palaeontologist who wants the locations of dinosaur fossils.

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• Equipment Spoiler: The first collectible newspaper of the game has an article about her struggle to achieve recognition for her Totalisaurus theories.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: She claims she hasn't been accepted in scientific circles due to institutional sexism and reactionary prejudice to her bold new theories, but it also becomes clear at the end that she really was a crackpot all along. Her Totalisaurus is a complete hodgepodge of every fossil collected built into one towering, jumbled megafauna, with a child's understanding of anatomy (three sets of legs so it could run faster and spines forming wings). Even John, who took the word of a lunatic that Sasquatches eat children, immediately knows that it's a fraud when he sees it, and requests that he and Arthur go uncredited for the find.^note This dialogue was originally given to Arthur and could be accessed by glitching into New Austin, explaining why John comes off as so dry and sensible here.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: The "totalisaurus west elizabethus" she assembles is a deranged mishmash of different prehistoric fossils, resulting in a huge, centaur-like skeleton with four legs, four arms, bony "fins" and "wings", antlers, and tusks.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: The Totalisaurus west elizabethus is a parody of early trends of fossil reconstruction, such as Richard Owen's Megalosaurus (which extrapolated an entire quadruped from just a few available bones) and Gideon Mantell's Iguanadon (inaccurately realized, but also alleged by William Buckland to be made of multiple species, a claim that was later disproven). Deborah herself seems to be one to the deeply unscrupulous paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel C. Marsh, who would secretly use unskilled workers, destroy each others' fossils, and publish their half-baked findings as hastily as they could in a crazed attempt to top each other.
• They Called Me Mad!: She complains a lot about how none of the universities or other scientists will hire her or even consider her ideas, and claims that proving her critics wrong is the best part about science. By the time you get all 30 sites mailed to her and she puts her "totalisaurus" together, it's clear that she is mad, at least by modern standards of paleontology. If you visit her home on Firwood Rise before finding all the fossils you can hear her hard at work in the barn, muttering to herself and cackling.

Francis Sinclair

Voiced by: Nathaniel Janis

A mysterious man with orange hair and a birthmark near his right eye. He asks Morgan to find a series of rock carvings, for reasons he cannot explain. Implied to be a time traveler from the future.

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• American Accents: Mostly "finishing school" Transatlantic (which wouldn't find widespread use in American private education until the 20's) with a dash of Boston Prep. It immediately identifies him as a man out of place.
• Distinguishing Mark: Francis' facial birthmark implies that he’s an ancestor of Kraff.
• No New Fashions in the Future: His preppy collegiate clothing, which seems to come out of the 1920s or 30s, doesn't look that much different from anything the other well-to-do characters of the time are wearing; the only key difference is that he's the only one in the game to wear trousers with belt loops. ^note Levi's introduced the concept of belt loops as a practical measure and fashion accessory for pants in 1922; before then, they had only been used on athletic wear for baseball, football, etc.
• Future Slang: He use a lot of slang that’s not so common in 1899 such as "what's eating you?" and "I'm on the level."
• Motor Mouth: Speaks incredibly frantically.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: Francis is long gone by the time Morgan reach his cabin after finding all 10 rock carvings, where Morgan also meets Francis' mother and his infant self.

Jeremy Gill

Voiced by: Brandon Williams

A fisherman who wants legendary fish so he can stuff and sell them.

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• Comically Small Bribe: The first gift he gives Arthur, a guy who he needs to keep quiet and placated if his scam is going to work? A single disposable River Lure that's nearly useless for any other giant catches.^note The Special Lures at the Lagras bait shop are the only things that consistently attract legendary fish, and chances are that the player has already bought all of them in anticipation. He eventually sends $45 and some Succulent Fish Meat after the tenth fish is mailed, but the implication is that he's already sold enough wall mounts to comfortably pay off his secret supplier.
• Death by Irony: Not only is he dragged under and drowned (and possibly eaten) by the very fish he sought to best, but he's a phony passing himself off as a world-class fisherman who gets killed by a catfish.
• Faking the Dead: One theory about his final mission: Gill, feeling pressure from those who would expose him as a fraud and the fishermen he hired seeking payment he cannot give, fabricated the 200-pound fish so he could escape his debts and look brave, if not entirely competent. It would explain why he brings the player along with a camera (to witness and record his "death," legitimizing it) and why the Legendary Channel Catfish cannot actually be caught.
• Jerkass: Arthur disdains his company so much in the brief time they spend together that he goes out of his way to separately call Gill an "awful fella" and "dreadful" in his journal entry.
• Karmic Death: He gets Arthur/John to send him legendary fish, then steals the credit in order to bolster his reputation as a great fisherman. He's ultimately killed by a fish that he's not great enough to successfully catch.
• Meaningful Name: A fisherman named Gill.
• Pungeon Master: Keeps insistently calling Arthur and, later, John "chum" as if it's the most clever thing in the world. Fittingly, nobody takes his bait.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He’s enormously conceited and is actually surprised when he finds Arthur/John doesn't know who he is.
• Stealing the Credit: Takes credit for the legendary fish Arthur/John catches and sends him.

L. Hobbs

Voiced by: Allison McKay

A taxidermist and wildlife enthusiast who puts up posters requesting carcasses of various animals.

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• Glurge/Glurge Addict: invokedHer stock-in-trade is revealed to be woodland creatures, wearing custom-made human clothes, posed in cutesy tableaus like having tea parties, playing cards and tennis, and boxing. She has to remind herself multiple times that they're all dead, and suggests to John that Heaven is being stuffed after you die so you can become an adorable work of art. The cowboy is left quietly horrified by the encounter, even shuddering once he leaves.
• Mad Artist: Hobbs is showing signs of letting her isolation, whether by circumstance or choice, get to her. She claims freely that she makes up little voices and names for each of her animals and play-acts as them; she also mentions that she tried to stuff and mount human corpses once in the aftermath of a cholera outbreak, but gives no further details other than "animals are better", with the implication being that she would've kept going if she'd liked the results. She whispers to John as he leaves that, "in a way", they are both like God for this act of creation.
• Terrible Artist: Most of her art is at least fairly well-made, if eccentric and an acquired taste. The reward for finishing her quests, though, is a bizarre stuffed squirrel dressed like John, which definitely qualifies. It's so awful that Abigail repeatedly tries to get rid of it by dumping it in various places.

Phineas T. Ramsbottom

Voiced by: Craig Geraghty

A man who collects cigarette cards and claims to smoke up to 200 cigarettes in a day.

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• Motor Mouth: He talks extremely quickly.
• Must Have Nicotine: Subverted. He smokes like crazy, but not out of an addiction to smoking itself, but a desire to collect cigarette cards.

William

A man who collects plants. He appears in the PC and recently patched versions of the game.

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• New-Age Retro Hippie: An unusual example, in that the game is set before hippies were a thing, but William qualifies thanks to his focus on living in harmony with the earth and his outfit.

Debtors

Individuals who borrowed money from the Van Der Linde gang but have not paid it back. Arthur can track them down on behalf of Leopold Strauss, the gang's moneylender, and compel them to repay the money with whatever they have.

Algie Davison

Voiced by: Kent C. Jackman

A drunkard and negligent father.

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• Abusive Parents: Algie drinks and gambles away the money his son Nate makes and slaps him when he talks back to him.
• The Alcoholic: Perpetually drunk. Even coming back after sparing him will only reveal that his drinking habits never stopped.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: While they have a strained relationship, Algie will defend Nate if he sees Arthur and Nate will mourn his father if he is killed. They will both be driven to drink if the other is killed and will attempt to take revenge if they see Arthur again.
• Drowning My Sorrows: If his son is killed, Algie will be driven to drink over his death and vice versa.
• Generation Xerox: If you kill him and come back to the house during the Epilogue, you will witness how his son turned out exactly like his father.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Arthur can choose to kill Nate but spare Algie.
• Papa Wolf: If they spot Arthur, Algie will order Nate to flee to his room and shoot at Arthur with a pistol.
• Parental Neglect: Davison is a useless father. In the end, it isn't even him who pays off his own debt—it's his son, who squirreled away the money just in case the Van Der Linde gang demanded it back.
• Survivor's Guilt: Algie will lament that he should have died if you visit him after killing Nate.
• You Killed My Father: If Nate spots Arthur after he kills his father, he will attempt to stab him to death.

Arthur Londonderry

A miner.

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• One-Steve Limit: He shares the same first name as Morgan, which Strauss playfully notes. His name and death seem to foreshadow Morgan's fate.
• Posthumous Character: When Morgan tracks him down, he learns that Londonderry is already dead.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Arthur learning that Londonderry worked himself to death in his desperation to pay off Strauss leads to him kicking Strauss out of the camp and potentially forgiving the remaining debtors' loans.

Chick Matthews

A farmhand who tries to run away when Arthur approaches him.

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• Bullying a Dragon: As he flees on horseback, he taunts Arthur. Noticeably, he is one of the few initial debtors who can be killed before the debt is collected from him and the chase takes them somewhere rather desolate, so Arthur can forgo catching up to him and just shoot him dead.
• Treasure Map: He has no money on him, but can provide Arthur with a map to a hidden box of his valuable worldly possessions.

Gwyn Hughes

An assistant undertaker.

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• Grave Robbing: What he resorts to in order to repay his debt.

J. John Weathers

Voiced by: Brian Smolin

A deserting soldier.

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• Going Native: Since leaving the army he's married a Native American woman and has taken the name Snow Goose.
• Not What I Signed on For: It's implied that he deserted the military because he didn't want to take part in oppressing the local Native American populace.

Lilly Millet

Voiced by: Comfort Clinton

A ranch maid who tried to give a loan of her own, with unfortunate results.

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• All for Nothing: She lent money to Cooper to impress him but he just took it from her and got beaten up for it in the process.
• Did Not Think This Through: Goes into debt to pay off someone else's debt.
• Golddigger: Not Lilly herself but the fact that a letter states that she is normally quite frugal with money but Cooper has been leaching off of her.
• Never Lend to a Friend: She lent money to another rancher, Cooper, but he didn't pay her back. This causes her problems when Arthur comes to collect on the money Strauss lent her.
• With Friends Like These...: The man has the money to pay Arthur back but would rather fight him over it.

Thomas, Edith, and Archie Downes

Voiced by: Peter Lettre (Thomas Downes), Jayme Lake (Edith Downes), Paul Thode (Archie Downes)

A family who lives in a small ranch in the Heartlands.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Whether Thomas accidentally or deliberately coughed onto Arthur's face and spread his tuberculosis to him is unknown, though his upright character casts doubt on the latter, and he was already coughing by the time of the barfight.
• Cowardly Lion: Intervenes in the Valentine brawl just before Arthur beats Tommy to death and attempts to fend off (if only out of panic) Arthur after he trespasses in his garden and threatens him for not being able to pay his debt to Strauss, despite being a sickly and apparently very meek man.
• Death of a Child: Implied. It's not important to the story, but the Downes ranch has 3 beds; one wide bed that clearly belongs to Thomas and Edith, and two smaller beds, one of which has a noticeable blood splatter on it. In 1899 only 3 people live there, one of whom has tuberculosis which manifests as a bloody cough among other things.
• Did Not Think This Through: In a moment of panic, Thomas swings his rake at Arthur, making an already irate gunman previously shown to be strong enough to take down the biggest brute in town angry enough to give him a beating that costs him his life.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: If Arthur helps out the Downes family, Edith and Archie become successful golf course owners in the epilogue.
• Fatal Flaw: Edith's pride. She absolutely refuses Arthur's help, even if it means she has to keep selling herself despite the obvious effects it's having on her body. This is in contrast with Archie, whose hatred of Arthur is equally justified but who forgives him and accepts his help, knowing it's for the best.
• Good Samaritan: Thomas intervenes in the fight between Arthur and Valentine's local brute Tommy, despite being a meek, sickly man. He can also be seen collecting donations for the poor in Valentine.
• Honor Before Reason: Edith refuses to accept any money from Arthur, even when she and her son Archie desperately need it to survive. Arthur comments on how too many people die for their pride.
• Inciting Incident: Had Arthur not attempted to collect Thomas' debt to Strauss, he wouldn't have contracted Tuberculosis, and wouldn't die in the end.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Thomas has a pretty nasty cough when you meet him. This cough is passed down to Arthur later in the game.
• Irony: Since Thomas would have died to tuberculosis anyways, Arthur accidentally killing him and catching his disease was arguably better than what would have happened if the disease had just run its course. Thomas would still be dead, but Arthur wouldn't have gotten sick and likely wouldn't have helped the family later on (though only in High Honor).
• Misplaced Retribution: While she has a legitimate reason to be angry at Arthur, Edith's hatred of him is not entirely warranted, as Thomas' disease would have eventually killed him anyways. Arthur just hastened the progress.
• Nice Guy: During Arthur's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in Valentine, Thomas tries to stop him from beating his opponent to death for no actual benefit to himself. Admittedly, he doesn't do the same when Arthur is attacked, but he may not have noticed so.
• Rejected Apology: Edith makes it clear that she doesn't forgive Arthur for their situation, regardless of his efforts to make amends.
• Revenge Before Reason: Averted. Archie visibly dislikes Arthur but buries the hatchet quickly when he realizes Arthur is actually sorry about Thomas' death - he even trusts his mother's well-being on Arthur's hands.
• Single Mom Stripper: Edith's unfortunate fate after losing her husband and her home.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Thomas only appears in two missions but is responsible for starting Arthur's slow death by tuberculosis.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Arthur shakes down Thomas in order to get the money his family owes the gang, regardless of how sickly and defenseless the poor guy is. Thomas accidentally ends up passing his tuberculosis to Arthur, which ends up killing him.
• Work Off the Debt: The reason why the Downeses are barely able to afford their modest property.

Winton Holmes

Voiced by: Carl Howell

A man who has no cash to repay his debt and so decides to hunt a rare wildcat in the hopes of slaying it and selling its pelt.

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• All for Nothing: When you sell the white cougar pelt to the butcher, he says that they're actually very common now.
• But Thou Must!: The cougar won't spawn in until after he and Arthur split up and Arthur is well out of sight. So try as the player might, Arthur can't save him.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Is torn apart by the wildcat he tried to hunt.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Points out that Strauss lending to an unemployed former tar pit worker is not the smartest move anyway.
• Too Dumb to Live: Splits up with Arthur in the middle of a cougar's lair. Anyone could guess what happens next.
• Worlds Expert On Getting Killed: Winton says that him and his father used to go hunting cougars a lot when he was younger. However, it doesn't occur to him that hunting a cougar, who are known for sneaking up on and ambushing their prey, alone in a dark cave isn't a good idea.

Wróbel

Voiced by: Casey Siemaszko

A Polish man who borrowed money but has none to pay his debt back with.

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• Butt-Monkey: He's first shown being pushed around and beaten by Arthur. When he finally comes back in the Epilogue, a Del Lobos gangster named Ramon Cortez ties him up and takes over his property until he's rescued.
• Language Barrier: He barely speaks English, which makes it harder for Arthur to threaten him. By the Epilogue, he has developed a better understanding of the language when he speaks to Sadie and John.

Gangs

Notorious gangs roaming the wild west.

Del Lobo Gang

A notorious group of banditos and mercenaries who have formed an outlaw gang.

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• Bandito: Seems to form a majority of the gang, but it's made clear that there's plenty of whites in the gang, too.
• Early-Bird Cameo: They are normally encountered in New Austin, but a group of them can be seen protecting Flaco Hernandez as early as Chapter 2.
• The Cartel: The prototype of one. They are a criminal organization whose members are mostly Mexican.
• The Generic Guy: Your typical run of the mill Mexican banditos. Not much else to say.
• Pet the Dog: One of their leaders saved a little girl from a kidnapper and adopted her as his sister. That girl later became a notorious outlaw in her own right and swears revenge on the Online protagonist for killing her adoptive brothers.

Foreman Brothers

A gang of bandits who have some unfinished business with Tilly Jackson, a member of Dutch's group.

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• Attempted Rape: Although it's never directly confirmed, Tilly makes it clear that her murder of Anthony's cousin was strictly in self defence, meaning that this trope was possibly in application during his mistreatment of her.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: The Foreman Brothers only want Tilly because she killed a member of their group, although their treatment of her is vile.
• Decapitated Army: Taking down Anthony results in the gang disbanding. He actually abandons the group if you spare his life.
• Dramatic Irony: If Arthur lets Anthony Foreman go, he ends up being taken in by John Marston later.
• The Family That Slays Together: Some members of the Foreman Brothers are his cousins.
• Generic Ethnic Crime Gang: The gang is mostly, if not entirely, comprised of black people.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: They are disbanded by 1907. They also only play a small role in two missions.

Ku Klux Klan

A gang of racists who dress in white robes, and often kill themselves by acccident.

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• Artistic License – History:
  • In real life, the KKK weren't active during 1899, as the government shut them down (even implementing the Klan Act of 1871 specifically to jail them without habeas corpus), and the original movement was much smaller compared to its 1910s revival — though it's not a stretch to say there were backwoods remnants. The KKK wizard even mentions this.
  • Every Klan member wears the standardized uniforms, complete with ranks organized by color, that modern players would associate with the group; this outfit was based on the iconography of Thomas Dixon's 1905 novel-turned-play The Clansman and its film adaptation Birth of a Nation, which introduced a semi-Masonic "avenging ghost" costume of a white robe and pointed hood. The costume's popularity would later get it adopted as the new Invisible Empire Klan's garb, and knockoffs reproduced for sale in mail-order catalogues.^note The actual Reconstruction-era Klan had no dress code at all beyond "hide your face", and tended towards pantomime and carnival imagery — disguising themselves with brightly painted sacks, clown and devil costumes, false beards, and even blackface — which made it easier to excuse their terrorism as raucous partying or pranks that got out of hand.
• Butt-Monkey: Every encounter with them ends in them accidentally killing themselves (unless the player decides to shoot them first), and their dialogue and letters on their bodies also show them to be pathetic losers. One encounter even has some of them quit because not enough people bothered to show up for the cross ceremony:
  Klansman 1: Aw, th' hell with you!
  Klansman 2: Calm down on this right quick, now?
  Klansman 1: You said there'd be twenty-five people here!
  Klansman 2: Patience.
  Klansman 1: There's nobody here, dang it! This is a lost cause!
• Everyone Has Standards: Even the user interface hates these guys, as it rewards you with honor for killing them in cold-blood.
• Expy: Hilariously incompetent, historically anachronistic Klansmen in an American Spaghetti Western tribute? Are we talking about Django Unchained?
• Harmless Villain: They're portrayed as being complete idiots, even though in real life, they're one of the deadliest terrorist groups in America.
• Incendiary Exponent: Their robes are much more inflammable than their crosses.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Taunt or steal from them and they will still shoot at you, and can easily kill you through sheer numbers if you haven’t prepared before engaging them.
• The Klan: Pretty obviously who they are.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: A letter you can find on one of them has the writer who calls himself a 'man of science' and cites various racial pseudosciences. This is also the guy who accidentally burns himself to death in his initiation ceremony.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: They're never actually called the KKK.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: You don't get more politically incorrect than a hate group.
• Self-Immolation: Tend to accidentally kill themselves by lighting their robes on fire.
• Too Dumb to Live: All possible encounters with them feature them practicing very lax cross-burning safety. Arthur can see a new initiate either accidentally set his robe on fire after doing the honors, observe two light themself ablaze carelessly throwing down their torches, or watch two get crushed underneath a heavy cross because their leader ordered them to do it by hand rather than use ropes.

Laramie Gang

A band of mercenaries who are often hired by corrupt landowners to seize property with force.

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• A Lighter Shade of Black: Compared to the other gangs, who rape, pillage, burn and do all sorts of heinous things, the Laramies are basically just guys with guns that want money. Downplayed however, by the fact that they were prepared to burn Pronghorn Ranch to the ground before John intervened. Like other gangs, they also practice banditry and will often ambush herdsmen and travellers passing through their territory. Failing to intervene will usually result in their victims getting shot.
• Cannon Fodder: They only really exist for John to have people to shoot. Their leader doesn't even have a name in-game.
• Foil:
  • To the Pinkertons. They're the paid muscle for rich, corrupt businessmen, specifically ranchers looking to gobble up smaller plots. The Pinkertons arguably do exactly the same sort of thing, they just work for far wealthier clients, are much more organized, and have achieved the legitimacy of government sponsorship.
  • To Bronte. Much like how Bronte's familia represents the changing face of criminal associations (organized crime taking hold in the cities while outlaws die out along with the frontier), the Laramies, one of the last few gangs encountered in the game, are an example of how smaller mobs will evolve with the times — working as contracted goons and leg-breakers in protection rackets and shakedowns, rather than robbing and looting at will.
• The Generic Guy: They don't really have any interesting members, and only appear for a few missions.
• Hired Guns: They don't seem to be independent criminals; as in, working for themselves, like the other gangs. Whatever crimes they commit, it's always in the service of the one that hired them.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: A very blatant expy of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (originally the Laramie County Stock Assoc.) at the height of its influence, and the muscle-for-hire they employed. In its desire to amass land and power, the WSGA — one of the few authorities in the newly-founded state — branded unaffiliated settlers in Johnson County as "rustlers", then drove them off their settlements with armed goons, leading to an armed conflict known as the War on Powder River. The gang is even referred to as the "Laramie Corporation" in newspapers, paralleling the trust's overtures of being a legitimate organization at the time.^note The WSGA still exists today, albeit as a non-profit group for ranchers' advocacy and beef production efficiency / quality control.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For the O'Driscoll gang, since they take their place as the standard American outlaws, and even adopt some of their gang hideouts.

Lemoyne Raiders

A group of Confederate veterans and sympathizers who have formed an anti-government, neo-Confederate militia in Scarlett Meadows.

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• The Alcoholic: They try and kill Arthur and Hosea for depriving them of their moonshine. They also buy enough of it that they're almost single-handedly keeping the Braithwaites in business.
• Arms Dealer: A source of their income comes from selling weapons to nations like Cuba. Arthur and Lenny steal one of their shipments for the Van der Linde gang's uses.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us:
  • When seeking the bounty on their leader, Arthur finds them camped out in the ruins of Fort Brennard, and leads a one-man assault to bring in Wofford.
  • Their base of Shady Belle is turned into a camp for Dutch's gang.
• Butt-Monkey: At best a bunch of aging, racist, semi-competent losers, waging a war that they lost decades ago. Sure, they do have some success, but the gang aren't intimidated in the slightest, and the law enforcement of Saint Denis consider them a disgraceful and embarrassing remnant of a past best forgotten.
• Decapitated Army: Arthur brings in their leader fairly early on in the story (he's not even a main part of the story, just an early bounty). By 1907, with their empire slowly dying and nearly destroyed by the Van der Linde Gang, the majority of the Raiders have headed southwest to the wilds of Texas where they have more room to hide and a more welcoming audience for their anti-tax, anti-government views; only a few remain in Lemoyne.
• Evil Is Petty: Murdering postmen and other low-level federal employees as part of their activities.
• Evil Old Folks: Given that the Civil War ended over thirty-five years before the game takes place, many Raiders are elderly (or at least late-middle-aged) vets, with most of those members still wearing their frayed and tattered uniforms.
• From Camouflage to Criminal: Several decades after the War, they've taken up their old colors to rob and terrorize the post-Reconstruction South, and recruited like-minded young men to join them.
• Hired Guns: They seem to be the muscle for the Braithwaite family, partnering with them to sell moonshine and acting as security for them. Probably as a counter to the Grey's "legitimate" muscle in the form of the sheriff's office.
• Kick the Dog: They attack post men, poll tax collectors, and police for fun.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Their closest real-life analogues are the Knights of the White Camelia and the White League, two short-lived but exceedingly violent Reconstruction-era militias in Louisiana that were formed to terrorize freemen and suppress the state's black votes; however, their existence and influence continuing until the turn of the century, and recruiting younger men angry that they had not fought in the War, takes inspiration from the Red Shirts. They also bear a slight resemblance to Quantrill's Raiders, Confederate guerrillas who were active during the Civil War.
• Pet the Dog: In one encounter, they will spare a traveller trying to provide for his family and even say they are his "brothers".
• Politically Incorrect Villain: They're all ardent and unapologetic racists, who even after thirty-something years haven't got over the fact the South lost the American Civil War.
• The Remnant: Their members are made up of former Confederate soldiers and sympathizers.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: They are often described as a militia, and express an anti-government, anti-taxation, and far-right ideology.
• Serious Business: They're less interested in the members of their gang Arthur and Dutch murdered than their lost moonshine.
• Small Name, Big Ego: The gang almost single handedly wipes them out while not even actively being against them.
• Still Fighting the Civil War: This is their claim but they're actually just petty bandits and murderers.
• Terrorist Without A Cause: The scope of the Raiders' terrorism is absolute, and their definitions of what's "federal" or a "carpetbagger" seemingly based on spite alone. Some of their crimes include murdering postmen and state poll tax collectors (which the latter notes isn't even part of the federal government), firebombing Saint Denis buildings as a tax protest, and even — completely contrary to their message — robbing white native-born residents of Lemoyne for the money's sake.
• Too Dumb to Live: Listen in to their conversations and even their hostages think they're idiots.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Stated to have a decent amount of support around the region despite the fact that they're scum, due to a generation's worth of resentment over the War.

Micah's Gang

Micah's small gang of brutal outlaws. The player must face them in the epilogue.

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• Ax-Crazy: They are just as deranged as Micah.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Much like the Skinners, they willingly commit torture and mutilation.
• Hate Sink: There is literally nothing sympathetic about these guys... not that there is much sympathy you can gain from a bunch of disgusting psychopaths who gleefully commits child murder, mutilation and home invasion.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: This is practically what they do regularly. Not even children are forgiven of the absolute brutality they do.
• Would Hurt a Child: Much like the Skinners, they are more than willing to kill children.

Murfree Brood

A family native to Roanoke Ridge who have turned to torturing and cannibalizing the people of the region.

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• Ax-Crazy: They are a Cannibal Clan of homicidal lunatics, after all.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Yes, one big, screwed up, deformed inbred cannibal rapist family. How nice...
• Body Horror: What they do to their victims...
  • Applies to the Murfrees themselves; because of the inbreeding, many of them suffer from deformities and a fair amount of them seem to have some nasty looking rashes. Even the horses they ride are usually "mangy".
• Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: In addition to holding anti-government views, the Murfree Brood are implied to be terrorizing Roanoke Ridge out of revenge for the industrialization of the region.
• Contemporary Caveman: Their main hideout is a huge cave.
• Cannibal Clan: A hefty number of the people they prey on are held captive in their caves and eventually eaten.
• Cult: The family appears to worship some kind of Lovecraftian deity, and have numerous idols around their cave built out of human bodies.
• The Dreaded: Everyone fears them, and for a very good reason. The O'Driscolls are treated as the Van der Linde gang's nemesis and the Lemoyne Raiders are barely a footnote to them but the Murfree Brood are treated with fear by even Arthur and Charles. It's worth noting that even with their hideout taken over, the gang still tries to keep away from them.
• Entitled Bastard: They terrorize Roanoke Ridge solely because the Murfrees were one of the first families to settle there, and they view it as their land just by being there the longest.
• Expy: Given their acts of cannibalism, twisted beliefs and anti-government views, they are practically the Altruist Cult from The Wild West.
  • The corrupted Scots-Irish surname "Murfree" and their inscrutable family religion evoke one of the most extreme instances of the Cannibal Clan in fiction, the Old Dutch Martense family.
  • Also given Rockstar's strong connection to Scotland the Brood evoke the legendary inbred cannibal family of Sawney Bean.
• Faux Affably Evil: Despite their threats, they tend to be quite polite and cordial towards Arthur whenever they see him camping in their territory. They even leave Arthur alone if you stay on good terms with them. However, they are quite brutal in nature.
• Fat and Skinny: The Murfrees seem to have some kind of policy where their members either appear skeletal and rail-thin, or horrifically obese, with no in-between.
• Freudian Excuse: It’s implied that the Murfrees were once a stable family, but inbreeding, combined with the industrialization of the area reduced them to extreme poverty and brutality, eventually becoming savages looking for food and people to satisfy their sadistic desires.
• For the Evulz: Despite their Freudian Excuse, no reason is given for their horrific cruelty, other than them just being like that. They are seen robbing coaches from time to time, but in general they only seem interested in killing and mutilating people.
• Glory Days: From eavesdropping on Murfree conversations, it appears that they long for the time when they were one of the only families in Roanoke Ridge, and are partly lashing out because of the rapid expansion of the region.
• Gonk: Most members of the Murfree Brood are incredibly ugly, and range from being morbidly obese to emaciated and corpselike, without a single pretty face in the whole family.
• Hate Sink: Depraved to the core, these guys are meant to earn the hatred of the players.
• Hellish Horse: Their horses are incredibly mutilated and zombie-like in appearance, resembling the Dark Horse and the Undead Horses in the first game. This is possibly because the Murfrees live like savages, so they don't have the resources to even take care of their horses, or, more disturbingly, they probably do at least some of the damage themselves.
• Hillbilly Horrors: They're tied with the Skinner Brothers in the "FUBAR redneck depravity" stakes, although the Murfree Brood do tick a few more stereotypes, including rape, inbreeding, indiscriminate murder and thick southern accents.
• Machete Mayhem: They can be found carrying machetes to chop up their victims or an unlucky Arthur.
• Made of Iron: The Brood are uncommonly resilient compared to other bandits, able to survive headshots from small arms and point-blank shotgun blasts to the torso on higher difficulties and still keep coming, even if their health drops considerably.
• Mugging the Monster: If Arthur sets up camp in their territory, there's a chance that two Brood members will come by and threaten him at gunpoint to stay off their land. Of course, there's nothing stopping Arthur from gunning the bastards down the moment their backs are turned.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: The Murfrees being a massive, feral, inbred family that hides away from outsiders' scrutiny underground and comes out to cannibalize travelers is a reference to the heavily fictionalized legends of Sawney Bean and his clan, the Trope Codifier for almost every Cannibal Clan to follow. Like the Skinners, they also draw a bit of inspiration from the Harpe brothers (see below), who did hide out in a cave for a period of time with the Mason Gang, but proved so senselessly cruel and depraved that the militia leader Samuel Mason demanded they leave.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: It’s implied that they rape their female captives.
• Riches to Rags: It's implied that the Murfrees were once quite wealthy, but that the rapid industrialization of their land, combined with inbreeding degenerated them into the savages they are.
• Smarter Than You Look: Though they may be ugly and brutal, the Murfrees aren't nearly so stupid as they might seem; one, Walt, is literate enough to write basic ransom letters in broken English. Their cunning, combined with their knowledge of the backwoods, also leads to some of the most creative ambushes on Arthur in the game, such as moaning in pain inside a tent and sticking a gun in his face when he goes to investigate, rolling a burning wagon down the hill and attacking from behind when the road's blocked off, or just approaching him when he's built a campsite — normally a safe zone for the player — and telling him to get the hell out of there (see above).
• Villainous Incest: In spite of enslaving numerous female captives, they seem to keep it "in the family", which has given them severe facial asymmetry, blotchy diseased-looking skin, and unstable personalities. They also engage in brother-on-brother incest, which some are more open about than others.
  Murfree 1: I want food, not trinkets. Y' can't eat trinkets.
  Murfree 2: Well, food don't gon' make y' pretty.
  Murfree 1: You ain't never gon' be pretty.
  Murfree 2: [Coyly] That ain't how you was actin' last night.
  Murfree 1: [Defensive] Shut up 'bout that!

Night Folk

A tribe of deranged, almost zombie-like killers, roaming the swamps of Lemoyne brutally robbing, trapping and killing innocents in the dead of night.

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• Ambiguously Human: In-game they are rumored to be something supernatural, and given their bizarre appearances, nocturnal nature and seeming lack of any human social behaviors, it's not hard to see why.
• Ax-Crazy: Basically a smaller scale version of the Murfrees or the Skinners. They brutally rob, mutilate and kill the poor souls crossing their path, often stringing them up to trees post-mortem like a gruesome trophy.
• Covered in Mud: They all appear to be covered in pale, dried mud, as a form of camouflage. The effect is rather unsettling.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: One of their victims leaves a note that can be picked up. The details are... less than pleasant.
• Hate Sink: There is literally nothing sympathetic about these guys... not that there is much sympathy you can gain from a bunch of mute, mud-covered psychopaths.
• Hillbilly Horrors: They're an animalistic gang that sets crude traps to ensnare travelers and then dismembers them with machetes.
• Hollywood Voodoo
• Serial Killer: Yet another group of them. They seem pretty indiscriminate in targets, and like stringing their victims' gutted mutilated corpses up alongside roads as a bizarre trophy.
• Stealth Expert: While other gangs announce their presence as they attack with whoops and gunshots, the Night Folk will often wordlessly run at the player in the darkness, bearing knives and machetes, and it takes a second into their ambush for the Compass to register them. Letting them get a chance to stab you even once will kill Arthur instantly.
• Swamps Are Evil: Exclusively based out of Bayou Nwa.
• Wild Man: A whole gang of them. They seem to somehow have lost the ability to communicate like normal humans, mostly staying quiet, or howling and grunting like deranged animals.

O'Driscoll Boys

A major outlaw gang led by Colm O'Driscoll, known for their rivalry with the Van der Linde gang.

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• Dark Is Evil: They wear black longcoats and are murderous bastards.
• Eviler than Thou: They are far more willing to cross moral boundaries that their rival gangs wouldn't.
• Foil: To the Van Der Linde gang. They operate in similar ways, but while Dutch's boys do what they do to live the way they want to live, the O'Driscolls do what they do, and worse just because they can.
  • Also shown in their hierarchy. Unlike Dutch, Colm is an uncaring and not very charismatic leader, and while Dutch's gang is small, but filled with some of the most prolific criminals of the time, the O'Driscoll gang is just a huge army of poorly trained nobodies, who only really have their numbers as an advantage.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first we see of them (in the first mission no less), they’ve broken into a house and robbed and pillaged it, killing one of its residents (and probably raped the other one). Those are the O'Driscolls alright. Despicable, unpleasant, and cruel assholes who Rape, Pillage, and Burn For the Evulz.
• For the Evulz: Unlike Dutch's gang, the O'Driscolls basically just terrorize, rob and kill whomever, simply because they're bad people.
• Hate Sink: Things like rape, pillaging and home invasion are practically hobbies for them. There is nothing remotely pleasant about them.
• The Irish Mob: While not explicitly a "mob", the O'Driscoll Boys appear to consist solely of Irish-American outlaws, and many of their members speak with thick Oireland accents.
• Join or Die: According to Kieran, this is how he joined the gang.
• Killed Offscreen: It's implied that after Colm's execution, Arthur and Sadie kill what's left of the gang at their final hideout. Either way, they don't show up again in the story.
• Oireland: Seemingly made up exclusively of Irish immigrants, many of whom have thick accents.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: It's heavily implied that the O'Driscolls that took over the Adlers' cabin raped Sadie before Arthur and Micah found them.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: This is practically what they often do, making them come off as far worse than the Van der Linde gang.
• The Rival: They are this to the Van der Linde gang.
• We Have Reserves: Colm O'Driscoll cares more about quantity over quality, as the lives of his men don't matter at all. Arthur Morgan will encounter and kill well over a hundred of their number during the story, as Colm can easily find replacements for the men he's lost.

Skinner Brothers

A diverse group of homicidal lunatics who terrorize the regions of Tall Trees and the Great Plains. Their specialty is torture and mutilation, being less like an outlaw gang and more like a cult of deranged, misanthropic serial killers.

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• Ax-Crazy: Let's put it this way: in a game where most bandits are violent criminals, they really stands out in terms of depravity and deranged department. Robbing people as a means of income doesn't seem to be their primary motivation; they just enjoy spreading death and pain in the worst way possible. They're so unhinged they even charge armed men with machetes and hatchets without any thought of their own survival.
• An Arm and a Leg: Basically all of their camps, and places where their victims can be found are littered with dismembered body parts.
• Beard of Evil: Befitting their status as insane survivalist freaks, a lot of Skinners, including named members Otis Skinner and Elias Green have gigantic, dirty, completely untended for beards.
• Crazy Survivalist: They're all deranged mountain men, living entirely off what they hunt and steal from their poor victims, mixed with an intense hatred/paranoia of everything civilized.
• Card-Carrying Villain: The Skinners know what they're doing is wrong, that it terrifies the local towns and cities, and that no sane person would be able to comprehend doing it. That is exactly why they're doing it.
• Cloudcuckoolander: It's impossible to overstate just how insane most of them really are. If you go up to them and hear them speak, you'll notice that the vast majority of them speak incoherent and meaningless things.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Their modus operandi. Every encounter with them sees the Skinners torturing or murdering people in the most psychotic and cruel ways possible. When riding to rescue Uncle from them, Charles warns that they might need to consider the possibility of a Mercy Kill, depending on the condition they find him in.
  Charles: If it's really bad, this might not be about saving him. If it's really bad, it might be better to just stop the pain.
  John: Jesus, you mean to-!?
  Charles: I mean, you can live a week without a scalp, but it ain't a good week. A gut wound, you can live a month, but it's horrible. What they've done to him might've killed him already, with only hurt to come.
• Confusion Fu: The Skinner Brothers use a wide range of weapons, including bows and knives, and fight with unorthodox tactics like using trees as vantage points.
• Cooked to Death: What they attempt to do to Uncle, lashing him to a wooden frame over an open fire. Fortunately the player rescues him, but the poor man is left with grisly burns all over his back and arms.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: The closest thing they have to a redeemable trait is that they don't seem to be bigoted. The Skinner Brothers are a diverse group, consisting of men of various nationalities and ethnicities who enjoy savagery.
• Evil Counterpart: They are the eviler counterpart to the Van der Linde Gang. Both gangs are multi-ethnic and led by men who oppose civilization, but while the Van der Lindes are just outlaws looking for money and resources, the Skinners are just homicidal monsters looking for chaos and brutatily.
• Eye Scream: A lot of their victims suffer this.
• For the Evulz: It's actually stated in-game that the Skinners do what they do for fun, and don't even bother with the financial aspects of crime, or even basic self-preservation for that matter.
• From Camouflage to Criminal: Some of them wear military jackets, so it is implied that some members of the gang are ex-soldiers. Judging by the fact that they are very organized, this is probably true.
• Hate Sink: Much like the Murfree Brood and Edmund Lowry Jr., they carry out horrific brutality and possess very few redeeming qualities.
• Hillbilly Horrors: A very nightmarish example. They are a gang of lunatics who roam the forest in search of kidnapping, torturing and mutilating their victims.
• Misanthrope Supreme: Possibly. Given their extremely brutal acts with humans, there is more than just a simple killing spree...
• Mouth Stitched Shut: A lot of their victims are victims of this. One dreads to think of wether they were alive when this happened...
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Much like the Murfree Brood, they have a reputation for being extremely brutal and nightmarish.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Otis and Elias are loosely based off Micajah and Wiley Harpe, two Colonial-era bandits widely judged to be among America's first serial killers; originally military men in the loosest sense^note being part of a "rape gang", an unaffiliated but quietly tolerated form of terrorist militia that robbed, torched, assaulted and murdered Loyalists and Loyalist settlements, the Harpes soon escalated after the war to full-on piracy and wanton psychopathic torture, killing anyone they could get away with, mutilating and urinating on the bodies, and filling their chest cavities with stones so they would sink faster into the water. At the time of Micajah's beheading, the duo had racked up almost 40 confirmed kills (and, given the time period, probably many more in total).
• Off with His Head!: A favorite of theirs. Every encounter with them seems to have at least one decapitated body.
• Politically Correct Villain: One of the few gangs in the game that never underestimate others because of their ethnic origin, which is quite impressive considering the brutal psychopaths they are.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Judging from what little we have, they seem to be a bunch of random dudes from all ethnicities, and all different walks of life... who have banded together to torture and mutilate innocents for fun.
• The Savage Indian: While they are not natives at all and are actually just a band of multi-ethnic criminals, they do embody a lot of tropes associated with the archetype such as living in the wilderness, using bows and arrows in combat, ambushing hapless settlers on the road and killing them in horrific ways like scalping and burning alive.
• Serial Killer: A whole clan of them, roaming the forests and horrifically torturing and mutilating innocents just because they can. They even take trophies, like conventional examples.
• Shadow Archetype: In many ways, the Skinners mirror Dutch's modus operandi and philosophy before his descent into madness. With all the savagery, chaos, and misanthropy that they embody and none of the Van der Lindes' standards and anti-heroism, the Skinners are living proof of how incredibly frightening a nomadic organization of killers would be if they took Dutch's philosophy up to eleven. Charles and Marston even take note of the similarities, with Marston grimly quipping that maybe they should take up torture as well.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In many aspects, they're the Murfree Brood, but adapted for Tall Trees, being violent freaks who despise civilization, and mostly just horrifically kill and mutilate people they view as "intruding" on their land. Though they differ slightly in that the Murfrees are a family, not a gang, and that Murfrees cannibalize their victims, while Skinners are far more into the mutilation part, and seem to eat normal food.
• The Sociopath: It seems that the requirement to belong to this gang is to be one. Unlike the Night Folks, they are completely capable of reasoning, they know that what they do is horrible and they are incredibly violent.
• Would Hurt a Child: According to Charles, some of their victims were children.

Law enforcement

The sheriffs and others who serve as the law.

Chief Benjamin Lambert

Voiced by: Robb Pruitt

The chief of police of Saint Denis.

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• Corrupt Cop: It's heavily implied that he's in the pocket of Angelo Bronte and then Guido Martelli.

Sheriff Curtis Malloy

Voiced by: Arthur Gerunda

The sheriff of Valentine.

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• Til Murder Do Us Part: He is seeing a married woman named Moira, but when she tries to break off the relationship, he strangles her.
• What the Hell, Player?: If the player doesn't kill Edmund Lowry Jr. when Lowry attacks him Sheriff Malloy will shoot Lowry himself after a brief struggle, then gives the player one of these. He'll also refuse to hand over the reward money for turning Lowry in.

Sheriff Hanley

Voiced by: Robert Prescott

The first sheriff of Strawberry, and the one on duty when Micah is arrested.

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• Ascended Extra: Appears alive and well as a bounty-giver for the protagonist in Online.
• Asshole Victim: He's a complete jerk to Arthur, sneering that his office doesn't associate with bounty hunters and telling Arthur—who has said he represents a sheriff in another jurisdiction and who made up a sensible reason for why the law in that jurisdiction needs to get a description of Micah—that he can only see the prisoners during their hanging. He also refers to the O’Driscoll they captured as a “dumb mick”. Shortly thereafter, he's killed when Arthur rescues Micah.
• Properly Paranoid: Asshat or not, he does correctly surmise the probability that Arthur was an affiliate to either Micah or the O'Driscoll, and that he was asking under the guise of law enforcement in order to hide his real motive for the inquiry.

Sheriff Harmon Thomas

Voiced by: Charlie Kevin

The second sheriff of Rhodes. He is elected to the position after Leigh Gray is killed.

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• Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike Gray, he's not corrupt. He's also fair enough to increase bounties if the bounty hunters are required to do extra work; for instance, after Ramon Cortez escapes from his custody, he offers the bounty hunters an additional fee if they can catch Cortez a second time.

Sheriff Jones

Voiced by: Lucien Jones

The sheriff of Annesburg.

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• Ascended Extra: He appears as a bounty-giver for the protagonist in Online.
• Spear Carrier: Unlike all the other sheriffs in the game (who either give bounties, are involved in main story missions, or have unique encounters), the player has no missions or encounters which involve him, so he barely has any presence in the game.

Sheriff Oswald Dunbar

Voiced by: Ralph Byers

The sheriff of Blackwater.

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• Old Soldier: Despite being visibly old, he's still able to serve as police chief, keep the peace, and maintain law and order in a western town far from the heart of civilization.
• Surrounded by Idiots: In the Online mission 'If The Hat Fits...' he is encountered severely berating a young deputy for letting a notorious conman almost literally walk out of jail.

Sheriff Palmer

Voiced by: Matt Cody

The sheriff of Armadillo.

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• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the protagonist helps him fight off some Del Lobos gangsters, Palmer immediately resigns his office and flees.

Sheriff Sam Freeman

Voiced by: Danny Johnson

The sheriff of Tumbleweed.

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• Hero Killer: He can always kill the protagonist in a single gunshot. Fortunately, he's not hostile unless the protagonist gets on his bad side.
• Knight Templar: Violently obsessed with the law, and rules, frequently ranting in the town square about obedience to the law.
• Sanity Slippage: Seems to be perfectly normal during the event of Online, which takes place before the main game. He is perfectly fine with the player turning in live bounties for trial too, a far cry from the Judge, Jury, and Executioner in story mode. One can only imagine that something happens during the intervening year that makes him the way he is currently.
• Scary Black Man: He's black, and his speech about gunning down anyone who dares to disobey him—and his cold-blooded murder of a prisoner—are quite frightening.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: His methods of law enforcement are very autocratic, but as the sheriff in charge of keeping the peace in an obscure little town in the furthest reaches of a relatively lawless state teeming with Del Lobo marauders, where reinforcement could take several days to aid them if ambushed, he may arguably be justified.

Sheriff Vernon Farley

Voiced by: Patrick Murney

The second sheriff of Strawberry. He takes over after Hanley dies.

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• The Generic Guy: Unlike many of the other sheriffs, he has few distinguishing traits.

Legendary Duelists

Several gunslingers that were infamous in the past. Arthur/John must track several of them down in order to find information about one of their number, Jim "Boy" Calloway, in order to see if he really was as accomplished as people claimed he was.

"Billy Midnight" (Wilhelm Schnell)

"I didn't shoot him in his sleep, and if I did, it was the only way!"

Voiced by: Tommy Buck

Another infamous gunslinger in the Wild West who became an overnight sensation after killing fellow gunslinger Rabbit Matthews. Unfortunately, his status as a national celebrity has gained him death threats and made him a target of assassins, contributing to his instability.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Midnight is a trigger-happy coward, but clearly wracked with guilt over killing Rabbit Matthews and mentioned to harangued by assassination attempts and death threats, so much that he has a breakdown when Arthur/John even mentions Calloway. If Arthur/John disarms him in the duel, Midnight laughs hysterically before shooting himself.
• The Alcoholic: The train clerk tells Arthur/John that he often roams the train's bar carriage.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: He really posed no threat to Arthur/John and didn't seem up for antagonizing anybody. If he hadn't been driven irrational by drink and paranoia, he might have had an amiable conversation with Arthur and escaped unscathed.
• Atrocious Alias: He likely got the name "Midnight" from his famous kill, which he's not exactly proud of.
• Badass on Paper: He's neither honorable nor a proper gunslinger, and by the time Arthur/John finds him, he's a drunken mess who literally poses a bigger danger to himself than his pursuer.
• Bad Liar: "I didn't shoot him in his sleep, and if I did, it was the only way!" Arthur/John hadn't even mentioned Matthews at this point.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He likely searched for glory in his dishonorable murder of Rabbit Matthews, but while he did become a known gunslinger, his newfound fame led him to encounter numerous death threats and assassination attempts, turning him into a Nervous Wreck.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: Carries a golden Mauser pistol. Arthur/John can claim it for himself after killing him in a duel.
• Boom, Headshot!: If not by you, then by himself.
• Combat Pragmatist: Other than the kill that made him infamous, during his duel with Arthur/John he kneels down on one knee as he draws his pistol, to make himself a smaller target.
• Death Seeker: After falling into infamy, he seems obsessed with dying with dignity in a proper duel. If you don't fulfil his wish, he'll do it himself.
• Dirty Coward: According to Levin's research, Midnight knew Rabbit Matthews at the time, and might've been working as his rifle cleaner and stable boy — meaning that Rabbit was killed in his sleep by a trusted low-level underling, possibly in the middle of the night (which his nickname, "Billy Midnight", would be a derogatory reference to), just so Billy could gain a little fame of his own. It's not surprising why he's so hated by others and haunted by his own past. When you find him as Arthur/John, he's mostly a "Get Back Here!" Boss until he's cornered at the traintop.
• Disc-One Nuke: You can claim his gold-plated Mauser pistol as early as the beginning of Chapter 2 by finding and killing him, even though the Mauser is the most expensive pistol in the game and normally not available for purchase until much later in the game (the only drawback being enemies don't drop semi-auto pistol ammo for a while).
• Driven to Suicide: If Arthur/John disarms him, then Billy will draw an extra gun and shoot himself. He's the only one who accepts a disarm loss properly, whereas the other duelists will still attempt to continue fighting if disarmed.
• Drowning My Sorrows: He is plagued by a lot of regret over his past, and just deals with it by hanging out in the bar carriages on trains.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: "Don't miss!"
• From Nobody to Nightmare: From rifle cleaner and stable boy to renowned gunslinger. Downplayed, since he's still mostly a nobody when you find him.
• Graceful Loser: The only gunslinger who will not try to kill you if you disarm him, instead killing himself.
• Hated by All: Other than seemingly Theodore Levin, Billy is more infamous than famous among American folk.
• Hidden Weapons: Turns out he had a second gun stashed somewhere in him. He never uses it against you, though.
• In the Back: He's mostly remembered as a coward who shot many folk in the back.
• In Vino Veritas: Rather easily admits to his deepest secrets when called out by name. His penchant for drinking has eroded his filter.
• Karmic Death: The player can shoot him In the Back while he flees and skip the actual duel, much like he did with Rabbit Matthews during his sleep.
• Laughing Mad: As he points the gun at his own chin, he'll laugh before shouting "don't miss!" and pulling the trigger.
• My Greatest Failure: Killing his mentor and famous gunslinger Rabbit Matthews during his sleep.
• Nervous Wreck: After so many assassination attempts, he's become skittish and paranoid of any stranger who dares mention his past.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Of Robert Ford, the man who killed the notorious Jesse James. Ford, like Midnight, was a former underling of James, and killed him under rather ignominious circumstances; like Midnight, Ford also became fairly well-off on the back of this fame, but the focus of public hatred, multiple death threats and assassination attempts as well, finally resulting in his murder in 1892.
• Noodle Incident: He killed a man in his sleep which forced him on the run.
• Poor Communication Kills: Had he just stopped to listen to Arthur/John, the situation might not have ended so tragically. On the other hand, Arthur/John also could've mentioned Calloway as soon as he saw him on the bar, instead he just mentions he wants to talk about his days as a gunslinger, which sends Midnight into a paranoia fueled frenzy.
• Sanity Slippage: By the time Arthur/John meets him, he's gone way over the deep end, racked with guilt over killing a guy in his sleep.
• Tragic Villain: He clearly wasn't fit to live the life of a gunslinger, and so many years of having his life threatened have turned him into an irrational alcoholic mess of a man.
• Traintop Battle: When you find him in the bar carriage, he escapes to the roof of the train, whereupon the duel with him will take place.

"Black Belle" (Maybelle Elizabeth Colter)

"Been running for twenty years... suppose I'll be running till I drop. Just the way it is."

Voiced by: Rebecca Watson

The sole surviving member of the infamous Colter Tobin Gang. She was married six times to six different men and never divorced any of them. She's currently on the run from bounty hunters.

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• Affably Evil: She's unapologetically crazy, but as long you aren't a bounty hunter, she'll be nice to you.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: She married six men in her life, all gamblers, outlaws, and robbers. All of them died due to the lives they lived, but she managed to survive. She also shows some interest in Arthur after he helps her kill the bounty hunters.
• Ascended Extra: Is a quest giver in Online.
• Ax-Crazy: Though still more benevolent than most examples, let's just say there's a reason she's wanted.
  Black Belle: [gleefully shooting] I think I got some of your friend on my face!
• Badass Boast: When the bounty hunters arrive and Arthur/John offers to hide her:
  Black Belle: Oh, no, no. I ain't hiding from them scalp hunters. Not running from 'em neither. And fighting? Well, if it's just me against them, that'd be a waste of time and nitro-glycerine.
• Blood Knight: Though she's somewhat retired, she clearly enjoys the more violent part of her life as an outlaw.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: She doesn't care about her fame and telling stories to newspaper or dime novel writers, and is more focused on surviving.
• Crazy-Prepared: She's rigged her hideout with explosives in the event that bounty hunters would come after her, and has packed her belongings ready to flee in a hurry.
• Cool Old Lady: She's pretty reasonable and extremely badass. She was also the only one of the gunslingers who cooperated with Arthur; she even posed for the photo!
• Cop Hater: She calls the bounty hunters "scalp hunters", and takes visible glee in killing them.
• Dark Action Girl: She dresses all in black, and is a badass outlaw.
• Deadpan Snarker: She almost out-snarks Arthur during their encounter.
  Arthur: So, you gonna tell me about your Wild West days? Running with Jim 'Boy' Calloway?
  Black Belle: 'Little Boy' Calloway?! The only running he did was away from a fight. And that's about the end of it.
• Due to the Dead: It's stated that she always wears her widows weeds, in honor of each of her fallen husbands.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She greets Arthur/John with a rifle pointed at his face, but warms up to him soon thereafter when he helps her be rid of the bounty hunters, gives him the info he wants with little fanfare, and even poses for his photo.
• Mad Bomber: She decorates her garden with rigged explosives.
• Never Mess with Granny: She and Arthur/John take down an entire gang of bounty hunters coming for her.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: The Duelist most explicitly based on a real person, Belle's name, outfit and reputation are all clearly inspired by Texan "bandit queen" Belle Starr, who was herself retired by the time she was hunted down in an ambush — though Black Belle is much more prepared, and, unlike Starr, survives; the publicity from Starr's death only served to increase her fame beyond the borders of Texas and across America. Fittingly, a likely apocryphal version of her murder was told by Frank Eaton, the real-life inspiration for Jim "Boy" Calloway (see below).
• Only Sane by Comparison: She might be the Token Good Teammate of the gunslingers, but she's still not all there in the head.
• Only Sane Woman: Compared to her peers: she is far smarter, has a cooler head, seems to lack their tendencies for pointless antisocial behavior, and doesn't mind helping those who help her. She's the only one to survive meeting Arthur/John, and for good reason. She is also the only one that doesn't try and challenge Arthur.
• Properly Paranoid: Originally greets Arthur/John at gunpoint, thinking he may be a bounty hunter. Her fear of them is swiftly justified.
• Retired Outlaw: Zig-Zagged. Although she's technically retired, she claims that she doesn't feel her life is any different now, since she still has to shoot folk every now and then.
• Ship Tease: If you do her mission as Arthur, she will tell him that she would be interested in him if she wasn't "all married out".
• Silver Vixen: Arthur even comments in his journal that if Black Belle were a few years younger and he was in the market, he would be interested in her.
• Slasher Smile: As she's fighting alongside you, she's consistently upbeat and sporting one of these.
• Sole Survivor: She was the only one smart enough to cooperate with Arthur/John and thus lived to see another day.
• Survivalist Stash: Leaves behind a considerable amount of food and supplies that Arthur can have at.
• Taking You with Me: Almost. Her introductory cutscene in Online has her light up a stick of dynamite while sitting near several crates of the explosive. She quickly douses it when the player assures her they aren't bounty hunters.
• There's No Kill like Overkill: She specifically tells Arthur to blow the bounty hunter spokesman to smitheries with her rigged trap when they could've just shot him.
• Token Good Teammate: Well, she's still a notorious outlaw, but out of all the Legendary Gunslingers, she's the only one who shows Arthur/John any respect or friendliness, and as a result, she's also the only one to walk away from their encounter alive. Including Calloway.

Emmet Granger

"Hey, you be careful. A killer like me, it don't take much to end up on the end of my knife. One time..."

Voiced by: Matte Osian

A gunslinger involved in the Beaver Brook massacre, the Laidlaw family disappearance, and the Chaparral killings. Despite being an unapologetic monster, he's retired from the outlaw life after making a deal with the authorities.

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• Asshole Victim: He brags about all the people he's killed and threatens to do the same to Arthur/John if he doesn't leave. The player responds by killing him.
  Arthur's Journal: I cannot think of a single man I have enjoyed seeing dead more than this bastard.
• Ax-Crazy: He could pass as one of the Skinner Brothers for all we know. He even claims how he relishes the screams of his scalping victims.
• Bald of Evil: He's balding by the time you encounter him and he's also one of the most unlikeable characters in the game.
• Big "NO!": When he realizes where Arthur/John stuck the dynamite stick.
• Blood Knight: True stories or not, Granger absolutely revels in describing all the gruesome ways he's killed people, including some stuff that'd make the Skinner Brothers proud, like scalping and burying somebody alive.
• Bullying a Dragon: It really wasn't a good idea to force Arthur/John to clean his pigsty and then stubbornly refuse to give them the info he promised them, especially when they had visible access to dynamite.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He could give Micah a run for his money with how much of an unapologetic piece of shit he is.
  Arthur: Hey, I get it, alright? You're mean. But what about Calloway?
• Dirty Coward: When Arthur/John threatens him after he refuses to tell him stories about Calloway, he folds like a coward and claims to have diplomatic immunity as a government witness. The fact that he chose to sell out and make a deal with the federals could also count.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He's angry that Calloway is getting a biography written about him but he isn't.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He seems to take good care about his pigs somewhat. He initially refuses to kill the player because he has them to lose, has their manure shoveled regularly, and seems to have them quite well-fed, even threatening to have Arthur/John fed to them at one point.
• Exact Words: When Arthur/John comes looking for info on Calloway, Granger promises him stories if he helps clean his pig sty. After the work is done, Granger reveals he never specified that the stories had to be about Calloway.
• Expy: Given that Unforgiven is a big influence on the Gunslinger side missions, it's hard not to see Emmet as an even more cynical take on Will Munny (with English Bob's braggadocio), only able to retire to a quiet life of hog farming by turning to the law and becoming a rat.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He consistently laughs at his own jokes on his atrocities. And then it's his lame poop joke about his pigs' manure as the player is shoveling them.
  Granger: I dunno what's got into these hogs, but I know what's coming out of 'em.
• Evil Is Petty: He forces the player to clean up his pig farm in exchange for information on Calloway, and then refuses to give it to them anyway, only boasting about his Wild West days.
  Granger: I ain't talking and shovelling.
• Foil: Of Micah. Both Granger and Micah were bloodthirsty outlaws who became government informants. However, while Granger retired to farming, Micah continued to be an outlaw after his service was done.
• Hate Sink: If him boasting about his many atrocities didn't rile you up, then forcing the player to shovel his shit and then refusing to tell them the info about Calloway certainly will. He's easily the player you'd most want to see fed to alligators.
• Hidden Depths: Though quite lazy, he seems to be a decent pig farmer.
• It's All About Me: He only tells Arthur/John stories about himself, thinking he's a superior gunslinger than Calloway.
• It's Personal: After Arthur/John wrecks his farm, he tells him that he's going to enjoy killing him.
• Jerkass: He's not just a murderous and sadistic outlaw, he's also the biggest asshole out there. He makes Arthur/John shovel pig manure for him in exchange for information on Calloway, only to go back on his word as he never specified telling anything about Calloway but only about himself.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After pushing Arthur's/John's buttons, he promptly gets drenched in his own pig's manure that he made him shovel for him.
• Meaningful Name: A granger is an old term for a farmer, which is what he's become since retiring. Heck, he even lampshades it.
• Narcissist: He feels entitled to an autobiography like Calloway, and only wants to boast about himself, considering Calloway's involvement to not be even worth a mention.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Despite having a revolver in him, he opts to throw knives at the player during his duel. Predictably, he's one of the easiest to dispatch.
• No Ontological Inertia: If he's killed before the knife that he throws at Arthur/John connects, even if the knife has already been thrown and about to hit, the knife will visibly warp back into his hand as he falls to the ground.
• Paper Tiger: For all his ornery bluster and talk about all the killing he supposedly did, Granger flusters when Arthur/John threatens him with violence after having enough of his crap. In fact Granger is only provoked to attack Arthur/John when the latter takes things to the next level and dumps a pile of pig manure on him as punishment for wasting his time.
• Reformed Criminal: Currently a pig farmer after making a deal with the authorities as a government witness. That doesn't mean that he's any nicer.
• Retired Monster: Eagerly admits to some pretty atrocious crimes, but is now just a humble pig farmer in the New Heartlands.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He has the brain of a particularly cruel 10-year-old, and a list of crimes that would make Micah Bell feel jealous.
• Psycho Knife Nut: He's a sadistic asshole, and skilled enough with a knife that he manages to untie himself if the player were to hogtie him.
• Sadist: He smiles fondly as he reminisces about his past as a mass torture and murderer of men, women, and children.
• Slasher Smile: When he commits to killing Arthur/John, he sports one.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Likes to flaunt his past at Arthur/John about how he killed everything from children to rocks and that he should be the one they write books about. He doesn't quite walk the walk.
• The Sociopath: A low-functioning example. He fails miserably at pulling a Mask of Sanity, shows clear and unapologetic fondness for his times as a murderous outlaw, and feels entitled to an autobiography on his atrocities, which include shooting, stabbing, skinning, scalping, bashing, butchering, burning, and burying people alive.
• Sore Loser: If you disarm him during the duel, he will pull out a knife and rush you.
• Token Evil Teammate: All the outlaws are technically "evil", but Granger is the only one who takes visible joy in killing people.
• Villainous Breakdown: After Arthur/John blows up his manure store and leaves him covered in pig shit, he loses it and forgoes his deal with the federals by trying to kill him.
• Would Hit a Girl: As shown by his long list of crimes and his own irreverent boasting, he had no scruples whatsoever about who he harmed, and loudly boasts of killing women.
• Would Hurt a Child: Loudly boasts to Arthur/John, in an attempt to establish his own reputation as a notorious gunslinger, that he has killed children.

Flaco Hernandez

"Here's your message."

Voiced by: Teddy Cañez

An infamous outlaw who launched raids against Valentine, Strawberry and Annesburg. He's known as "The Terror of the Grizzlies" and is a member of the Del Lobos.

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• Affably Evil: In Online, despite the Kick the Dog moment below, he will be much more amicable with the player than he was with Arthur/John, and will pay you fairly if you complete his quest.
• Ascended Extra: He becomes a mission giver in Online.
• Asshole Victim: He tried to kill Arthur/John for no reason, so it's hard to feel too bad when killing him. Even his men cut their loses and ditch his corpse after he's killed.
• Avenging the Villain: Averted. If you don't kill his men first, they accept you killing him in a duel and just leave.
• Berserk Button: Apparently just mentioning Boy Calloway is enough for him to try to kill you.
• The Big Guy: The biggest of the gunslingers. You can't even hogtie him for this reason.
• Bullet Time: His sideways dive in the duel is very similar to the one you can use in Max Payne 3.
• Combat Pragmatist: Flaco will dive sideways during the duel Gun Fu-style in an attempt to be harder to hit, and if he survives the duel (either due to being disarmed or not receiving enough damage) he'll pull out a sawed-off shotgun and try to kill you with that.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Implied. Even if you don’t attack his men, he will still pull a gun on you just for politely asking about Boy Calloway.
• The Dreaded: Nicknamed "the Terror of the Grizzlies". Seems to be this for his own men too. When you kill him they will just run away, either cause they're free of Flaco, or they're too afraid to fight the man that managed to best him in a duel.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: If you kill his Del Lobo gang before fighting him, he will call out to them from his hideout with anger in his voice.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He laughs at the player's reaction in Online after shooting at his feet.
• Flunky Boss: Can end up fighting alongside his men if they are not all dispatched first. Otherwise, he hides behind them.
• Interface Spoiler: He provides likely the first encounter the player will have with the Del Lobos gang, and their entry in the compendium reveals that New Austin is unlockable in the game.
• Ironic Name: "Flaco" means "thin" in Spanish, and he's anything but.
• Kick the Dog: In Online, he shoots at the player's feet to scare them just for his own amusement.
• Made of Iron: He's the only duellist in the game who doesn't go down with one shot to the torso from any sidearm. If you don't land a headshot, score multiple hits, or use a Hand Cannon, he may very well survive the duel, pull out a sawed-off shotgun, and fight you in normal combat.
• Noodle Incident: While Boy Calloway isn't well-loved in general, Flaco absolutely despises him, for some unknown reason.
• Refuge in Audacity: The only way to avoid fighting his men is by actively threatening them with death. Yes, multiple armed bandits. They seem to respect the sheer audacity of Arthur/John and let him through to Flaco.
• Shoot the Messenger: He tries to do this with Arthur/John when he hears he comes at the behest of Jim 'Boy' Calloway. As it turns out, the "messenger" fires back.
• Sore Loser: If you disarm him during the duel, he'll pull out a shotgun and start blasting at you.
• The Stoic: He emotes the least out of all the gunslingers. He looks almost bored to fight you.
• Perpetual Frowner: Granted, we hardly see him, but he's always shown with a frown in his face.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Out of all the gunslingers you meet, he receives the least amount of characterization other than he tries to shoot you immediately upon meeting you. He receives a little more characterization in Online, where he comes across as a pretty typical evil bandit.

Jim "Boy" Calloway

"I slayed my dragons years ago."

Voiced by: Frank Ridley

Once considered one of the fastest left-handed draws in the Wild West, in the present, Calloway is a drunk who has trouble remembering his past exploits. This causes his biographer, Theodore Levin, no end of grief, to the point where he's looking for outside help to interview previous associates of Calloway.

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• The Ace: Believe it or not, he actually has the fastest drawing speed of all the NPC duelists.
• The Alcoholic: Is constantly and consistently seen drunk.
• Asshole Victim: When he's killed, Theodore Levin is overjoyed to finally be rid of him.
• Ax-Crazy: When he's not hopelessly drunk, he's extremely irrational and trigger-happy, which isn't helped by his superb skill in combat.
• Blinded by the Light: Downplayed, but he will use his belt buckle to reflect the sunlight to blur the player's view as he leans back to save drawing time.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He really is one of the best gunslingers of all time, but he's hopelessly and perpetually drunk. Arthur/John quips how easy it would be for someone to shoot him while he's passed out from drinking.
• Broken Ace: Beneath his legendary reputation is a coward and a liar. However, what still makes him qualify for this trope is the fact that although his stories may be exaggerated, his actual skill in combat is not. In fact, he is only slightly below Arthur and John in terms of marksmanship, which makes him better than all of the legendary gunslingers the player encounter. Many players find this out the hard way when he one-shots them almost as soon as his duel begins. Jim could have easily become a legend on par with Landon Ricketts or Red Harlow if he grew a pair and stopped running from gunfights he could easily win.
• Bullying a Dragon: Challenging Arthur/John to a Duel to the Death. Downplayed, since he actually was quite the fast draw.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's an addle-brained old drunk whose exploits were greatly exaggerated. He's also legitimately an insanely fast gunslinger.
• Death by Irony: The alleged best gunslinger of all time is killed in combat by the actual best gunslinger of all time.
• Duel to the Death: Calloway wanted to settle his score with his enemy Slim Grant twenty years ago in a proper duel. However, Grant is not at all interested because he wanted to bury their past behind them. This only deeply infuriated Calloway to shooting Grant in the back. He then angrily blames Arthur/John and Levin for ruining his duel, and demanding Arthur/John to duel him. Arthur/John grants his wish. Of note, he's actually the only one of the legendary duelists who cannot be disarmed; whereas the others would continue fighting (or commit suicide in Midnight's case), trying to disarm Calloway in his duel will still result in him dying.
• Dirty Coward: So much of a coward that he runs away from challenges that he is more than capable of handling.
• Embarrassing Nickname: According to Black Belle, his real full nickname is Little Boy Calloway.
• Evil Is Petty: He threatens to kill both Theodore Levin and Arthur/John on two different occasions for interrupting him while he speaks or trying to reassure him.
• Evil Old Folks: He's way past his prime, and quite the psycho.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: Calloway is famous alright but, according to Black Belle (who has no reason to lie about this), is actually a coward who ran from more fights than he took part in. After Grant killed his cousin Ged, he instantly left town instead of trying to avenge his cousin. Now he's just an angry old drunk who threatens a dime novel writer into writing a bunch of exaggerated and falsified stories about him.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: As the player finds out, no other legendary gunslinger has anything good to say about him.
• Hate Sink: He's the second most unlikeable duelist after Emmet Granger, and without a doubt the biggest pain in the ass for Arthur/John.
  Arthur: Yeah, he was pretty wild. And I know some wild people.
  Levin: He was certainly complicated.
• Hidden Depths: Many players will find themselves surprised at how good of a duelist he actually is, even when inebriated.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: In his book about Jim "Boy" Calloway, Theodore Levin fabricates the events that led to his demise by writing that Grant shot Calloway in the back after being mortally wounded by him in a duel. In reality, He shot Grant In the Back and then lost a duel with Arthur/John. Levin rewrites Calloway's history even further by saying that he was the one who defeated Emmet Granger, Flaco Hernández and Billy Midnight in duels, when in reality it was Arthur/John.
• Honor Before Reason: In an attempt to regain his lost honor after dishonorably killing Slim Grant, he challenges Arthur/John (who had previously killed/defeated all other gunslingers) to a Duel to the Death despite the latter's warnings. He doesn't make it out alive.
• In the Back: He shoots Slim Grant in the back, which embarrasses and infuriates him enough to duel Arthur/John... he loses.
• Gratuitous Latin: The barrel of his revolver reads "Canis Canem Edit" ^note Dog Eat Dog. Doubles as a Shout-Out to another Rockstar Game.
• Jerkass: Theodore Levin quips that he'd rather be killed by him than be forced to interact with him again.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Calloway is a drunk twenty years past his prime, and he apparently wasn't much of a fighter even in his prime. Nevertheless, he's the fastest duelist Arthur/John faces in the game.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He breaks down after shooting his arch-rival Slim Grant In the Back.
• Narcissist: And a particularly unbearable one to boot. He demeans everyone around him constantly, calls himself a legend on more than one occasion, and feels entitled to taking Slim Grant's life.
• Never My Fault: He lashes out at Theodore Levin and Arthur/John after killing Slim Grant, calling the former "scum" and the latter "a sickness", even though that was nobody's fault but his.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Seems to be loosely inspired by Frank "Pistol Pete" B. Eaton, who died in 1958 at the age of 97 and was known as one of the last surviving gunfighters of the Old West. Eaton wrote his own memoirs deep into retirement, and, like Calloway, was also known for exaggerating, fabricating and spicing up the details of his already impressive life story, such as claiming he was a U.S. Deputy Marshal under the infamous Judge Parker (no records exist of his service).
• Psychopathic Manchild: He throws sporadic tantrums all the time and will shoot anybody for petty reasons even if it's In the Back.
• Revenge Before Reason: He dishonorably shoots an elderly Slim Grant in the back as revenge for killing his cousin, though he regrets this immediately thereafter.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Literally, since his nickname is "Little Boy" Calloway. Every other gunslinger he has met throughout his life hates his guts and see him as a Dirty Coward, but he sees himself as a legend.
• Stupid Evil: Hearing him speak for a few seconds will prove that what he has in ego he lacks in brains.
• Villainous Breakdown: He gets riled up when Grant refuses to fight him, and executes him in a fit of rage. After that, he becomes irrationally outraged at Levin and Arthur/John for no reason and challenges the latter to a duel in an attempt to regain his lost honor.
  Calloway: Come on! Draw!
  Arthur: Why?
  Calloway: I said draw, godddamit!
  Arthur: No.
  Calloway: Yes!!
• Villain with Good Publicity: He's a Psychopathic Manchild who is well-regarded as a famous gunslinger, and Theodore Levin deifies him in his autobiography, as the man who killed all other legendary gunslingers fair and square.
• We Used to Be Friends: Levin tells Arthur that Slim Grant used to be his friend, but Calloway himself denies it.
• You Killed My Father: His old friend Slim Grant shot his cousin Jed in '82, so he wants revenge.

Slim Grant

"But I don't care now. It's nigh on twenty years ago. We're old men. We're lucky!"

Voiced by: Jack O'Connell

A former gunslinger who later became a marshal.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Boy Calloway cries after killing him, if only because he shot him In the Back. He's also the only downed gunslinger who isn't killed in self-defense, making his death much more tragic.
• Bad Boss: His deputies don't like him very much, and one even notes that he hopes Grant is killed so that he (the deputy) can be promoted into his place. He gets his wish.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: It takes some time for him to remember who Ged Calloway even was. Once he meets Jim Boy, it dawns on him, but he still doesn't seem very invested in remembering.
• Cool Old Guy: He encourages Calloway to let go of his grudge because they're both old men now, and they're lucky to be alive.
• Deadpan Snarker: As Arthur/John opens fire on the outlaws who kidnapped him:
  Grant: They seen you.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: After his death, Theodore Levin rewrites his fate to makes him look like the antagonist of his book about Calloway, who dishonorably shot the former after being mortally wounded.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: As he's tied to Arthur/John's horse, he repeatedly reminds him that he's state marshal and deserves to be treated with respect.
• Face Death with Dignity: After Calloway shoots him In the Back, he sighs and closes his eyes before crumbling to the floor in a dignified manner
• The Friend Nobody Likes: One of his deputies tells Arthur/John that he went missing several days before his arrival and nobody went looking for him. When Arthur/John decides to go in himself, the deputy tells him to report his corpse so that he can maybe become marshal himself.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: He seemed to have set roots and become a genuinely honorable lawman who does his own dirty work catching outlaws, but that doesn't stop Arthur/John and Boy Calloway from forcing him to partake in one last duel. He refuses, and dies because of it.
• Heel–Face Turn: A more straightforward example than Granger, as he became a competent law enforcer in his state.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: He's a state marshal who is quite infamous among his own men, and Theodore Levin makes sure he goes down in history as a dishonorable Dirty Coward.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: In his book about Jim "Boy" Calloway, Theodore Levin fabricates the events that led to his demise by writing that Grant shot Calloway in the back after being mortally wounded by him in a duel. In reality, Jim Boy shot him In the Back and then lost a duel with Arthur/John.
• Insistent Terminology: He wants to be called State Marshal Grant, not Marshal Grant or Mr. Grant.
• In the Back: How Calloway does him in.
• I Will Fight No More Forever: He refuses to duel Calloway because they're both past their prime. Calloway has none of it.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: He survived his gunslinger years, unlike many others, and is killed 20 years after by Calloway. Even Grant himself comments on how lucky he is to have seen himself become an old man.
  Arthur: [after Calloway kills him] Calm down... who cares? You should have shot him twenty years ago. He's dead now.
• Karmic Death: He's slain by Boy Calloway, whose cousin he killed 20 years before.
• Noodle Incident: Shot Calloway's cousin Ged Calloway in the past in unknown circumstance's and, according to himself, would've shot Calloway too, but Calloway didn't show up.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: In being a duelist-turned-lawman who wants to leave his notorious past behind, Slim is a combination of Frank Eaton — who claimed, possibly falsely, that he'd joined the U.S. Marshals and whose reputation as "The Last Gunslinger" was mostly used for Jim "Boy" Calloway, above — as well as Wyatt Earp, who detested the "legend" of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corrall and felt it interfered from his desired role as a humble public servant.^note Earp was much more respected by his fellow officers than Grant, though at the time of his death, the public despised him for a bad call while refereeing the 1896 Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey heavyweight championship boxing match, which led many to suspect he'd been in on what had later been revealed as a fixed fight.
• Reformed Criminal: He went from an outlaw to a marshal who actively stops any outlaw activity.
• Retired Outlaw: He left his gunslinger days behind and became a state marshal, until Arthur/John forcefully dragged him back into the lifestyle.
• Save the Villain: He's captured by some outlaws he went to find and has to be rescued by Arthur/John in preparation for his duel with Calloway.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When he sees that Calloway is still stubbornly holding a grudge, he turns his back on him and leaves without any fuss. He's killed for this.
• Token Good Teammate: The only former gunslinger to actually find himself a place in modern society. He's also the only one who actively refuses to duel someone again.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: According to himself, he never shot anyone who didn't deserve it, and that includes Ged Calloway.
• Undignified Death: The only gunslinger who doesn't get a chance at a proper duel, and is shot anticlimatically In the Back by his former nemesis. To make matters worse, Theodore Levin rewrites history in his book to make Grant look like the betrayer, and painting Calloway himself as the victim.
• Villainous Valor: He's angry at Calloway for jumping town instead of showing up to their duel, though at this point he doesn't care much.

Legendary Bounties

A group of wanted bounties in Red Dead Online who are more challenging to contend with than regular bounties, but much more lucrative in turn.

Phillip Carlier

Once a mild-mannered Saint Denis businessman who snapped one day, killing another man and running away into the swamps of Lemoyne, where he has lived in isolation and on the lam ever since.

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• Go Mad from the Isolation: His only company has been the Night Folk, which has done a number on his mental faculties.

The Wolf Man

An isolationist hermit and serial murderer wanted for a string of grisly deaths around Lake Isabella.

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• The Beastmaster: He has tamed wolves around Lake Isabella, whom he uses as his personal attack dogs.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: And unlike Phillip Carlier, he doesn't even have other crazy people to keep him company, just beasts.

Cecil C. Tucker

A serial arsonist and murderer who kills people, including women and children, in their sleep and puts their homes to flames. He is hiding out in Fort Brennard with other outlaws.

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• Dirty Coward: He kills women and children in their sleep, puts their homes to flames, and flees into the night.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: One way to dispatch him is with explosives strewn about the fort, putting him to flames.

Yukon Nik

Real name: Nikoli Borodin. A Russia-born trapper responsible for several deaths. He is hiding out at Fort Riggs, with a US Marshal as his captive.

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• The Beastmaster: He keeps bears around his camp.
• Vodka Drunkenski: He proposes having a drink with his hostage before feeding him to his bears.

Barbarella Alcazar

The infamous "Bandit Queen" of Gaptooth Ridge. She is the widow of the murderer Ricardo Alcazar, and a dangerous thief and killer in her own right.

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• Dark Action Girl: Natch.

Etta Doyle

The leader of a gang of women who commit train and coach robberies, operating around the city of Saint Denis.

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• Dark Action Girl: Yup.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: She is distinguished by a scar on her right cheek, which she got from a knife fight.

The Owlhoot Family

A clan of craven murderers and animal mutilators. The heinous nature of their crimes have made them wanted men and women, with a high price offered for the senior members of the family, who are hiding out in Rio Bravo.

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• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Such that the authorities have put bounties on multiple members' heads!

Sergio Vincenza

A former US military sharpshooter, who abandoned his post and duty to his nation to become an anarchist and terrorist, now wanted for the attempted assassination of a governor. He is hiding in Roanoke Ridge.

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• Cold Sniper: One who now bears his sharpshooting prowess against you.

Tobin Winfield

A former mayor who betrayed the trust of his people when he embezzled public funds. He is hiding out in Thieves Landing, where he hopes to sell off some stolen bonds.

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• Corrupt Politician: Once held the office of mayor, and took advantage of his position for personal gain.

Red Ben Clempson

A notorious train robber with a flair for the dramatic. Him and his gang have hijacked a train in New Austin.

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• Locomotive Level: The player has to find Clempson on a train he is robbing, fighting off his gang until reaching him in the front car.

Gene "Beau" Finley

The vain leader of a gang of bank robbers, whom he uses to pursue a life of infamy. He and his gang are hiding out in Shady Belle.

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• Attention Whore: His gang do the heavy lifting in the bank robberies, while he smiles and looks pretty for the camera.
• Dirty Coward: He'll bark orders at his lackeys when you arrive at his camp. If you wipe out his gang, he'll turn tail and run like a yellow-bellied coward.

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