Harold MacDougal

"I write books... I'm from Connecticut!"

- Harold MacDougal

 is a minor character featured in Red Dead Redemption. Addicted to intravenous cocaine, he is an incompetent Yale Professor of Anthropology, discredited by his peers.

Red Dead Redemption
When John Marston and Archer Fordham retrieve Nastas from Dutch's trap at the Wreck of the Serendipity, they drop him off at Professor Harold MacDougal's house to recover. Edgar Ross then instructs Marston to pay him a visit later.

When John Marston visits MacDougal again, he finds him comparing blood samples of, in his opinion, the 'savage' Native Americans and the 'civilized' white man. After observing them, he is absolutely shocked to see that they are exactly the same. Nastas then enters, and MacDougal tries to communicate with sign language and metaphors, but Nastas responds to him by speaking in a perfectly normal manner. Nastas claims to know the location of Dutch Van Der Linde, and both Marston and MacDougal follow Nastas into Tall Trees, where MacDougal rides back to Blackwater, obviously frightened. After Marston gets knocked out, Nastas runs up the mountain and carries him back to MacDougal, where he revives him with smelling salts. MacDougal claims that he and Nastas carried Marston back, but after an angry glare, he reveals that he was not involved.

When John Marston encounters MacDougal again, Nastas arranges a meeting with Dutch's men at Bear Claw Camp. On the way, they encounter a Grizzly Bear, and MacDougal, horrified, shoots and makes the bear angry. When it attacks, Marston kills the bear before it could do any damage. Nastas then says that the Bear meant no harm and would not have attacked if Macdougal had not shot first. The meeting with Dutch does not go very well- [Nastas]] is shot after being called a traitor. The professor cowers in fear as Marston fights Dutch's men, and the two of then escape back to Blackwater.

Marston next found him packing in a hurried state, repeatedly calling the natives "fucking savages!", and aiming to take the next train back to Yale. Dutch Van Der Linde approaches his house from the street, telling John to send MacDougal outside they could show him their own method of 'Anthropology'. Marston and MacDougal escape via the rooftops, but Dutch has snipers all over the city. After a battle, Marston and MacDougal get on their horses and run full speed to the train station at Manzanita Post. Marston along the way kills any of Dutch's men trying to pursue them.

When they reached the station, MacDougal thanked Marston for his help. He shakes his hand but gives up and gives him a big hug before boarding the train.

Epilogue
MacDougal succeeded in returning to Yale University. In 1914, MacDougal is caught beating a scholar on the head with a croquet racket while in a drunken state, and is fired. The newspaper article detailing this event emphasizes the "savagery" of the attack; an ironic choice of words, since MacDougal accuses natives of being savages.

Mission Appearances

 * Bear One Another's Burdens
 * At Home With Dutch (Boss)
 * For Purely Scientific Purposes (Boss)
 * The Prodigal Son Returns (To Yale) (Boss)

Trivia

 * MacDougal is exceedingly incompetent, demonstrating a terribly inaccurate understanding of the Theory of Evolution after having wantonly provoked a Bear. MacDougal defends his actions stating that it will strengthen the species. Over the next half-century, the Grizzly Bear would be driven to near extinction in much of the United States, to a population of 1-2% original size.


 * Later, MacDougal comments on the nobility of hunting Buffalo. Nastas remarks that they are being over-hunted. MacDougal dismisses the comment, declaring Nastas ignorant. In real life, the Buffalo was hunted to near total extinction on the North American continent.


 * MacDougal is a fairly realistic depiction of early pseudoscientific "arm chair" anthropology, as practiced by individuals such as Poalo Mantegazza. During the time period, the discipline saw an overhaul of the anthropological method by academics such as Franz Boas,E.B. Tylor and Bronislaw Malinowski.
 * MacDougal is a chronic cocaine addict.
 * Often times when Marston encounters MacDougal he is very jittery, a sign that he is under the influence of cocaine.
 * MacDougal is a very racist man, stereotyping all natives as "savages".
 * MacDougal seems to be unaware of his own Scottish heritage, when remarking negatively to Marston's comment about his father being a Scot.