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 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


The gang's roots lie in a fateful meeting between two robbers, Dutch van der Linde and Hosea Matthews. Van der Linde and Mattews attempted to rob each other circa 1878, but eventually decided to team up. The Van der Linde gang was then founded as Dutch and Hosea began adopting waifs and strays into their outlaw lives.

By 1899, the Van der Linde gang grew to include over two dozen members including Dutch himself, who had Matthews as his right-hand man while grooming Arthur Morgan as his protege, alongside other notable members such as John Marston, Bill Williamson and Javier Escuella. Around this time, the gang became wanted by the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, with Dutch as the prime target.

Events of Red Dead Redemption 2
Following a botched robbery on a ferry in Blackwater, which resulted in most of the gang's belongings being lost, and the capture of Sean MacGuire, Dutch and the rest of the gang hid up north in the Grizzlies. It was here that Davey Callendar and Jenny Kirk succumbed to their wounds.

While the first few heists pulled following their exit from the mountains were very successful, including one where Sean was rescued, the last few caused the deaths of multiple gang members. The first of these was Sean MacGuire, who was killed in an ambush after the Gray Family saw how they attempted to play them and the Braithwaites against each other. Next was Kieran, who was was abducted, tortured and killed by some O'Driscolls shortly after the gang's relocation to Shady Belle. His head was chopped off and put in his corpse's hands, while his body was sent on a horse back into camp. Molly O'Shea was shot and killed by Susan Grimshaw, after she confessed that she had been giving information of the gang's whereabouts to the Pinkerton detective agency. Although it turns out this isn't true, as confirmed by Agent Milton. Hosea Matthews and Lenny Summers died in a failed bank heist not long after. Then, Susan Grimshaw was murdered by Micah Bell while she and the other gang members were distracted. The deaths of the gang's most loyal and trustworthy members proved to be the final nail in the once great gang's coffin. Years later in 1907, Dutch, after being found with Micah Bell by John Marston, Sadie Adler and Charles, disappears once again after Marston shoots Micah dead.

Events of Red Dead Redemption
Shortly after the disintegration of the original gang, Williamson relocated to New Austin where he founded his own gang and established himself as the territory's most notorious outlaw. Escuella, meanwhile, left back to Mexico and became a hired gun for the Mexican commander Agustin Allende.

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 Esceulla, 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, the last known surviving members of his original gang, are themselves 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, Orville Swanson and Josiah Trelawny 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
 * Leigh Gray and Archibald MacGregor - lawmen of Rhodes (unwittingly; c. 1899)
 * Tavish Gray (c. 1899)
 * Catherine Braithwaite (c. 1899)
 * Angelo Bronte - crime lord of Saint Denis (c. 1899)
 * Rains Fall - chief of the Wapiti Indians (c. 1899)
 * Eagle Flies - son of Rain Falls (c. 1899)

Related Content
Banda di Van der Linde