Van der Linde gang

"A gang of criminals, dissidents and free-thinkers who have chosen to reject a corrupt system of power and live instead by their own code. As the price on their heads continues to grow, so does the struggle to remain free."

- Rockstar Games.

The Van der Linde gang (also referred to as Dutch's Boys)undefined is an outlaw gang featured in Red Dead Redemption 2 as the main protagonist faction. It is also mentioned in Red Dead Redemption, alongside the appearances of several of its former members.

Background
"We shoot fellers as need shooting, save fellers as need saving, and feed 'em as need feeding."

- The mantra of the gang

The gang's roots lie in a fateful meeting between two robbers, Dutch van der Linde and Hosea Matthews in the mid 1870s. Van der Linde and Matthews met each other at a campfire on the road to Chicago. Hosea attempted to con Dutch, but realized that Dutch had stolen from him in the meantime. They both saw the skill that the other had and laughed, deciding to team up and face the future together. The Van der Linde gang was then founded. Around this same time, Hosea met a woman named Bessie, who would eventually become his wife.

Dutch convinced Hosea, who described himself as a "degenerate", that they could find redemption by robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Dutch had a vision of a world without government or corporate interference, a "savage utopia" free from the pressures and intolerance of civilization. He saw himself as a revolutionary and thought that the gang could be an example to others who would follow their lead. They began pulling tricks and ripping off people they believed deserved it the most. The same year they met, the pair stumbled across a fourteen year old orphan named Arthur Morgan. He was an unruly child, and they decided to take him under their wing, teaching him to read and other useful skills. Around this same time, Dutch became romantically involved with a woman named Susan Grimshaw, who also became a member of the gang. The gang acted as a family, spending long nights playing poker and other games. Bessie taught Arthur how to play dominoes. During these early years, Hosea and his wife tried to go straight and took a trip through states like New Hanover and Lemoyne. Hosea slowly drifted back to the gang, unable to fight against his own criminal nature. Bessie understood his struggle and stuck by him. Dutch ended his relationship with Susan, and at some point later became involved with a woman named Annabelle.

In 1885, Dutch came across a group of Illinois homesteaders preparing to hang a young boy for stealing from them. He saved the child, named John Marston, and brought him into the gang, teaching him to read and shoot just as he had done with Morgan. Arthur and John became like brothers, and Dutch often read to them from books by Evelyn Miller and Waldo Emersonundefined, even though most of the concepts went over the young boys' heads. Dutch educated the boys on his anarchistic worldview, instilling them with a distrust and hatred for the government. He told them that America was designed to produce apathy in people. He would preach that revenge was a fool's game and that they should never kill in cold blood. Over the years, many members of the gang came to believe that John was Dutch's favorite and "golden boy", much to the envy of others.

In 1887, the gang committed its first bank robbery. At 2 o'clock, Hosea, Dutch and Arthur burst in to the banking house of Lee and Hoyt. Arthur held a firearm up to the teller and demanded he throw up his hands. Dutch then proclaimed, "My fine patriotic friends and I are going to relieve you of some of that gold and introduce a few folks to the benefits of civilization". The gang made off with five thousand dollars in gold. After the robbery, they lingered in town, going to hovels, shanties and orphanages handing out money. It was around this time (and possibly because of this bank robbery) that Dutch became a wanted man with a price on his head.undefined Between 1887 and 1899, the gang robbed roughly 37 banks.undefined

At one point in the past, Dutch and Colm O'Driscoll, the leader of the O'Driscoll Boys, had an uneasy understanding/truce between them. Dutch disliked how Colm treated his men as disposable and Colm mocked Dutch for his philosophies about trying to make a "better world". Though the reason is unknown, Dutch broke the truce when he killed Colm's brother. In retaliation, Colm killed Dutch's lover, Annabelle - an event which greatly angered and devastated him. These events led to a blood feud between the two gangs which lasted for years.

During the early years of the gang, they truly helped people and tried to make a difference.undefined As the years went on, Dutch became disillusioned with the world as civilization continued to encroach on his idea of freedom. The gang stopped giving money to the poor and helping others and began to care only for themselves and their own survival. Dutch even allowed the gang to become involved in loansharking through Leopold Strauss, which often targeted the type of lower class people the gang used to fight for. Instead of just thieving, the gang also began killing, much to Hosea's dismay. Despite his objections, Hosea stuck around out of loyalty to Dutch, though his faith in their "mission" had been slowly erased over the years.

As they traveled throughout the frontier, the gang picked up many new members, all kinds of people who wished to escape and live outside conventional society. It's unclear at what point many of these gang members joined. Mac and Davey Callander were brothers who were described as vicious and served as gunslingers for the gang. Karen Jones was a con artist and triggerwoman. Mary-Beth Gaskill, a young conwoman, met the gang as she was running away from someone she had just pick-pocketed. Tilly Jackson killed a member of her previous gang and lived on the streets until she met Dutch, who taught her to read just as he had done for Morgan and Marston.

Simon Pearson was a former Navy man who was rescued by Dutch from loansharks; he would become the camp cook. Orville Swanson, a reverend with an opium addiction, once saved Dutch's life, earning himself a permanent place in the gang. Uncle was a petty thief and drunk who would keep spirits up in camp by singing and partying. Sean MacGuire was a young Irish gunslinger who attempted to rob and kill Dutch in North Elizabethundefined, but was later adopted into the gang. Molly O'Shea was a woman who abandoned her rich family in search of adventure and romance; it's unclear how she joined the gang, but she later became Dutch's lover. Josiah Trelawny was a con artist who formed an association with the gang, becoming one of the only members allowed to come and go as he pleased. At one point, the gang had an unnamed traitor who was killed in camp.undefined In 1894, a drunk Bill Williamson attempted to rob Dutch, but Dutch simply laughed at him. This infuriated Williamson at first, but Dutch cheered him up and took him into the gang, giving him a purpose and reason to live. Bill lacked conventional intelligence, but he made up for it with his unfailing loyalty to Dutch and the gang. Around this same time, Uncle introduced the gang to a prostitute named Abigail Roberts, who joined the gang and had sexual relations with several gang members.

Abigail eventually started a relationship with John, and soon became pregnant. John refused to accept responsibility for the child, insisting that it was not his. The baby, whose name was Jack, was subsequently raised by the gang, with the various gang members becoming his aunts and uncles. When Jack was about a year old, John abandoned his son and the gang, only returning a year later. Dutch welcomed him back with open arms, which upset Arthur, who felt betrayed by John's actions. A rift between the two "brothers" steadily grew over the next few years.

In 1895, while stealing chickens, Dutch came across a young Mexican exile named Javier Escuella, who was also stealing chickens just to survive. Javier was starving and alone, so Dutch took him into the gang, feeding and clothing him. Javier, a former revolutionary, had a strong affinity with the gangs philosophy, and began to idolize Dutch. Javier would become one of the gangs most loyal gunmen.

By 1898, the gang found itself in Montana. Hosea caught several large salmon, planning a feast for the whole camp, until Copper found and ate the fish. Sometime after this, Copper passed away. After a fire and some trouble up in the north, the gang spent several months in the wilderness, traveling down from the Northern Grizzlies.undefined They had also recruited members Lenny Summersundefined and Charles Smithundefined by this point. The gang picked up two new members around this time as well: Jenny Kirk, who was found abandoned on the roadside, and Micah Bell, who Dutch met in a bar.

By 1899, the gang arrived in the state of West Elizabeth and decided to camp outside the town of Blackwater, a town undergoing the process of industrialization. While there, Dutch looked at a piece of land for the gang to purchase, but backed out for unknown reasons. Eventually, Micah convinced Dutch to rob a river boat carrying money from the bank. Arthur and Hosea protested, believing that they had a better lead. Despite this, Dutch thought the heist would be worth the risk, and went ahead with it. The gang had a safe house picked out in the state of New Austin to fall back to after the robbery.

The heist does not go as planned and quickly takes a turn for the worst after Dutch kills a girl, Heidi McCourt. John, Davey, Mac and Jenny are all shot in the ensuing chaos, while Sean and Mac end up separated from the rest of the group. Sean is captured by bounty hunters at some point afterwards, and Mac is found on the verge of death by Andrew Milton, who is implied to have tortured him to death after capturing him.

Colter chapter
After the disastrous Blackwater heist, the gang fled to the northern state of Ambarino to evade law enforcement. The game opens with the gang being high up in the mountains of north Ambarino. Despite it being May, they become caught in a massive blizzard, which inadvertently helps stall the Pinkertons trailing them. Not wanting anymore surprises, Dutch sends John and Micah to scout ahead. Along the way, Jenny and Davey succumb to their wounds and die. Arthur discovers an abandoned mining camp, Colter, for the gang to take shelter in. After enduring the storm and the deaths of their comrades, the morale of the gang is at an all time low. Dutch gives a speech, asking the gang to keep their faith in him and to make camp for a few days until the storm passes. He assures them that they will survive and be able to outrun the law enforcement tracking them.

He then takes off to go look for John and Micah with Arthur. Arthur questions Dutch on what exactly happened on the boat in Blackwater, but Dutch is not forthcoming with answers. While out searching, they come across Micah, who has found a homestead. The trio travel to the homestead to ask for supplies, but are surprised to discover it being occupied by the O'Driscoll Boys. A gunfight breaks out, which results in the deaths of the occupying O'Driscolls. After looting the ranch, Arthur gets attacked by an O'Driscoll who he easily overpowers. He then interrogates him about where his gang is and what they are doing up in the mountains. He learns that they are planning a train heist using dynamite.

Micah discovers Sadie Adler in the cellar, hiding from the O'Driscolls who murdered her husband and took over her homestead. Mistaking her for an O'Driscoll, a struggle ensues between her and Micah, which causes him to flip a table over with a lantern on it, causing the house to catch on fire. Dutch manages to defuse the situation, and quickly escorts Sadie to safety. He offers to bring her with them back to camp, an offer which she accepts.

The next day, Abigail and several others become concerned that John hasn't returned yet, and urge Arthur and Javier to go out looking for him. Javier is optimistic that they will find him, but Arthur believes that Marston has abandoned the gang again. After scaling the mountain, they come across John badly injured from a wolf attack. Narrowly escaping a second wolf attack, they bring John back to Colter.

Dutch and Hosea begin arguing about their current situation. Hosea is doubtful of Dutch's plan, while Dutch insists that they just need to wait out the storm, go back to Blackwater and collect the money, make even more money, and then head back out west. Hosea points out that they have been heading east, the exact opposite direction, to which Dutch replies with "For now... for now". Dutch also insists that they send someone back to the Adler Ranch to bury Jake Adler, Sadie's late husband.

Arthur and Charles provide the camp with food after a hunting trip, much to the delight of Pearson. A fight breaks out between Micah and Bill, which is interrupted by Dutch, who rallies the gang together to assault an O'Driscoll camp. Arthur objects, reminding Dutch that revenge is a fool's game, but Dutch states that he wants to steal their score, not get revenge, and plans to find out what he can about a train heist the O'Driscolls have planned. They arrive at the camp just as Colm is leaving. After killing everyone in the camp, they find the heist plans and some dynamite.

A few days later, Dutch gathers the able-bodied members of the gang to pull off the train heist, to which Hosea objects, warning that the target of the heist, Leviticus Cornwall, is a dangerous and rich man. Dutch scoffs at this, urging the gang to ride on. Bill is sent ahead to set up the dynamite on the track, and Dutch asks Arthur to assist him. After setting up the detonator, the gang prepares for the train. As it passes over the tracks, the detonator fails, forcing Arthur, Javier, and Lenny to jump on the train. Javier falls off the train, leaving Arthur and Lenny to overpower the guards and stop the train. The rest of the gang catches up, dealing with the remainder of the guards, and forcing them to open up Cornwall's personal train car. Inside, they discover a thousand dollars in bonds. Dutch leaves Arthur to clean up the scene, stating they'll leave when he gets back.

As the snow from the blizzard begins to thaw, the gang travels by caravan to the state of New Hanover, to a location called Horseshoe Overlook. Whilst on they trail, they are watched from afar by members of the Wapiti Indian tribe. When they arrive at the campsite, Dutch gives a speech, imploring everyone to go out and earn money. They devise a cover story, that they are itinerant workers from the north who were laid off from their factory and are now searching for work down south. Miss Grimshaw and her girls begin setting up the camp.

Horseshoe Overlook chapter
TBA

Clemens Point chapter
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Saint Denis chapter
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Guarma chapter
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Beaver Hollow chapter
TBA

Epilogue
After the events of Beaver Hollow, the gang is disbanded, with several of surviving gang members going off on their separate ways:
 * Micah goes off to form his own gang, taking Cleet and Joe with him. In 1907, he is eventually tracked down by Marston, Sadie, Charles and with the help of Dutch is murdered in retaliation for his betrayal years prior.
 * By 1907 Sadie becomes a bounty hunter and shotgun messenger. After getting vengeance on Micah, she expresses a desire to leave the country. After attending John and Abigail's wedding she presumably leaves western America.
 * Charles assists the Wapiti tribe in moving to Canada, then goes on to become a street fighter in Saint Denis. After helping John and Sadie murder Micah. He mentions wanting to move to Canada to start a family. After attending John and Abigail's wedding, he presumably leaves the western states to go start a family.
 * John and his family move to the Yukon in search of gold. They return to New Hanover in 1907, and eventually settle down as ranchers in the Great Plains region, after John purchases Beecher's Hope on loan and him, Charles and Uncle build a new homestead.
 * Mary-Beth becomes a well known romance author.
 * Tilly marries a lawyer in Saint Denis and has a child with him.
 * Karen's whereabouts are unknown, but Tilly speculates that Karen drank herself to death.
 * Trelawny and his family live happily in Saint Denis.
 * Javier travels back to Mexico and is reported to be living in the mountain region there circa 1907. He eventually becomes a mercenary and by 1911, he is working as a hitman for the governor of Nuevo Paraiso Colonel Agustin Allende.
 * Bill Williamson forms his own gang, becoming the de facto outlaw gang of the Rio Bravo region of New Austin by 1911.
 * Reverend Swanson leads a large congregation in New York.
 * Pearson moves to Rhodes and takes over the general store, getting married in the process.
 * Dutch's activities and whereabouts become shrouded in mystery and rumors. Some sources claim that he died, but several sightings of him alive and well throughout the years dispute this. One story claimed that Dutch died in a fire following a bungled robbery in 1906, but he was then spotted a year later in Tall Trees. Dutch would resurface briefly in 1907 to kill Micah Bell only to vanish once more.

Events of Red Dead Redemption
In 1911, John was forced by Bureau of Investigation agents, Edgar Ross and Archer Fordham, into hunting down the last known survivors of the Van der Linde gang at the time. Acting on a tip from a Bureau informant in the area, John confronted Bill Williamson directly at Fort Mercer in New Austin, but was once again shot and left for dead by one of his lieutenants. Rescued by local rancher Bonnie MacFarlane, John later assembled a ragtag group of lawmen and other characters to penetrate the fort, but Williamson managed to escape in the climactic shootout and fled across the border to Nuevo Paraíso.

Following the trail, Marston found himself embroiled in the chaotic Mexican Revolution of 1911, assisting with numerous military operations for the provincial military government in order to coerce Colonel Allende into helping find Williamson and Escuella, the latter of whom was revealed to be in the area shortly after John arrived. After his betrayal and near-execution by Allende's enforcer Vincente de Santa, John discovers that both outlaws had been given shelter by Allende before he arrived, and so began working with rebel leader Abraham Reyes to bring Williamson and Escuella out of hiding by toppling the local government. Marston joins up with Reyes' rebel army in a raid on El Presidio where Escuella is taken down and delivered to the Bureau. In a subsequent assault on the colonel's palace in Escalera, Williamson and Allende are both cornered and killed.

Upon delivering Javier Escuella to Bureau agents Ross and Fordham, John learns that Dutch van der Linde had survived his original gang's dissolution and resurfaced in West Elizabeth with an army of disgruntled young natives. After lengthy preparation and numerous close encounters with Dutch himself, Marston leads an assault on Dutch's hideout of Cochinay in Tall Trees with the help of the Bureau and US Army. In the climactic final confrontation, a mortally wounded Dutch throws himself from the mountain cliffs, putting an end to his decades-long crime spree.

Some time after Dutch's death, John Marston and Uncle are killed by a joint Bureau-Army attack on the Marston ranch.

As of 1914, Jack Marston, Tilly Jackson, Mary-Beth Gaskill, Charles Smith, Sadie Adler, Simon Pearson, and Orville Swanson are the last known surviving members of the gang.

Members
The following are members who served among the gang's ranks since its formation in the late 1870s until its demise a few years after the events of 1899.

Associates

 * Jack Marston - child of John and Abigail, raised by the gang
 * Seamus - fence met by Arthur and Hosea
 * Alden Carruthers - crooked ticketmaster at Rhodes Post Office, who gives Arthur tips on stagecoaches worth robbing.
 * Leigh Gray and Archibald MacGregor - lawmen of Rhodes (unwittingly; c. 1899)
 * Tavish Gray - patriarch of the Gray Family of Rhodes (c. 1899)
 * Catherine Braithwaite - matriarch of the Braithwaite Family of Rhodes (c. 1899)
 * Angelo Bronte - crime lord of Saint Denis (c. 1899)
 * Thomas - boatman in Lagras (c. 1899)
 * Hercule Fontaine and Leon Fuentes - rebel leaders in Guarma (c. 1899)
 * Eagle Flies - son of Wapiti Chief Rains Fall (c. 1899)

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