Red Dead Redemption 2 is packed full of weird and wonderful characters. While many of the members of the Van der Linde gang were modeled on their actors, they aren’t the only ones based on real people.
Red Dead Redemption 2 has plenty of characters who are directly based on real-life historical figures. Some of the references are humorous, others extremely grim, and all a reminder of just how detailed Rockstar’s Western world really is.
Albert Mason – Ansel Adams
Albert Mason is Red Dead 2’s very own intrepid photographer and the star of the Arcadia for Amateurs stranger mission. He’s based on Ansel Easton Adams. Although Adams was born in 1902, three years after Arthur first meets Albert Mason, he was famous for his black and white photographs of wild animals, and like Albert Mason was a conservationist, reflected in Mason’s dislike of game hunting.
Angelo Bronte – Charles Matranga
Saint Denis’ Angelo Bronte is based on Charles Matranga, an early boss of the New Orleans mob. In real life, Matranga was one of the targets of the infamous 1891 New Orleans lynchings, when 11 Italian Americans were killed after the murder of the city’s police chief. References to similar events can be found in Saint Denis’ newspapers.
Bertram – Schlitzie
Bertram is one of the performers in Miss Marjorie’s act, the focus of the stranger mission The Smell of the Grease Paint. His appearance is directly based on Schlitzie, a sideshow performer who was a mainstay in the Barnum and Bailey circus and had a role in the pre-Code horror film Freaks.
Black Belle – Belle Star
Black Belle is one of the gunslingers biographer Theodore Levin has the player look for in the stranger mission The Noblest of Men, and a Woman. The Red Dead character’s all-black outfit was inspired by Black Belle’s, as was her larger-than-life legend.
Charles Chatenay – Paul Gauguin
Charles Chatenay is the French artist in the stranger mission The Artist’s Way. Paul Gaugin was a French post-impressionist who, like Chatenay, faced criticism in his lifetime before going on to be massively influential after his death. Not only do the pair look similar, but in the end Charles leaves for the South Pacific, reflecting Chatenay’s residencies in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands.
Chester Damsen – Florence Foster Jenkins
Chester Damsen is an opera singer that Arthur Morgan and Josiah Trelawney rob. Her terrible singing voice – and her ironic success – is based on Florence Foster Jenkins. Jenkins became a famous figure in New York at the turn of the century, known for her unwavering belief in her talent despite mockery.
Dorothea Wicklow – Sophia Duleep Singh
Dorothea Wicklow is a women’s suffrage activist who can be found protesting by herself in the streets of Saint Denis, with a sign reading “Votes for women. Abolish discrimination against half of every home.” She is likely based on Sophia Duleep Singh, a British Indian suffragette known for her lone protests.
Edmund Lowry Jr – Stephen Dee Richards
It often isn’t long into Chapter 2 that Red Dead 2 players discover one of the victims of Edmund Lowry Jr while travelling between the Van der Linde gang’s camp and Valentine. His name is a nod to Eddie Low, the serial killer from GTA. His story, however, is based on Stephen Dee Richards, known as the Nebraska Fiend, a 19th century serial killer. Richards operated in Nebraska and Iowa, part of the basis for the Heartlands region where players find Lowry.
L. Hobbs – Beatrice Potter
L. Hobbs is a taxidermist players kind find in Strawberry. She recruits the player to bring her the bodies of different creatures, which she then stages in human clothing. Although Beatrice Potter’s interests were far less grim, Hobbs is likely inspired by the author, known for her anthropomorphized animals in stories like Peter Rabbit. He initialized name may also be a reference to A.A. Milne, author of Winnie-the-Pooh.
Evelyn Miller – Henry David Thoreau
Evelyn Miller is a well-known author in the Red Dead universe, and his desire to get away from civilization and live in a cabin after working at a prestigious university is closely based on the life of author Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau’s book Walden was all about getting back to nature. As with Evelyn Miller, Henry David Thoreau died young while finishing some of his works. Miller’s design is also based on Thoreau’s, and Thoreau’s famous essay Civil Disobedience might explain some of Dutch van der Linde’s admiration for Miller.
Leviticus Cornwall – E.H. Harriman
While many of Red Dead 2’s smaller stranger mission characters are based on real people, some of its major players are as well. Leviticus Cornwall is based on E.H. Harriman, the American financier made famous in pop culture in the movie Butch Cassidy in the Sundance Kid, where he sends the Pinkertons after Butch’s gang. It’s very similar to Cornwall sending the Pinkertons after Dutch’s gang following the train robbery at the start of the game.
Professor Marko Dragic - Nikola Tesla
Marko Dragic, the focus of the stranger mission A Bright Bouncing Boy, is based on Serbian inventor Nicola Tesla. Dragic will even mention being betrayed by a “silder-tongued American,” likely a reference to Nicola Tesla’s rivalry with Thomas Edison over the use of alternating and direct current. Tesla never made a robot son, but he was certainly an eccentric - he even claimed to have invented a death ray.
The Aberdeen Siblings – The Bender Family
The Abderdeen Siblings are one of the most disturbing encounters players might have while exploring Red Dead 2’s world. Bray and Tammy Aberdeen have an incestuous relationship and will get the player drunk before robbing them and dumping them in a hole full of corpses. Unfortunately, this is based on a real-life family known as the Bloody Benders, who killed people in Kansis in the 1870s. Bray and Tammy are likely based on John and Kate Bender, who neighbors claimed were actually married despite apparently being brother and sister.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.