Nigel West Dickens

"I apologize if science is not your forté."

- Nigel West Dickens

 is a supporting character in Red Dead Redemption. West Dickens poses as a traveling salesman, when he is really a con man, and is purported to have unique miracle cures for many medical and psychological problems. He is an impeccable dresser and travels in an opulent emblazoned stagecoach.

Nigel West Dickens is involved in several essential gameplay missions. After working as Nigel's "bodyguard" on several sales (or scams), West Dickens helps the player out taking over Fort Mercer, providing an armored stagecoach.

Red Dead Redemption
John Marston, after having worked with Marshal Leigh Johnson to clear Pike's Basin, is tipped off by deputy Eli that West Dickens has gone missing. He states that West Dickens is missed by his repeat customers in Armadillo. Marshal Johnson equates West Dickens with a drug dealer.

Marston finds West Dickens injured and exposed to the elements not far from his stagecoach south of Coot's Chapel, and returns him to the doctor in Armadillo.

Despite Marston's personal dislike of him, West Dickens becomes the central networker and orchestrator of Marston's plan to assault Fort Mercer. West Dickens puts Marston in contact with Seth Briars and Irish, as well as supplying his newly armored stagecoach as a Trojan horse to deceive the outlaws.

After the assault on Fort Mercer, West Dickens suggests that he intends to travel abroad, having exhausted customers in the New Austin region.

He is later seen in Blackwater, being arrested for possession of "illegal narcotics", his miracle cures having gotten him in trouble again. John recognizes him and tells the officers to release him, stating he helped him catch Bill Williamson.

The newspaper that can be bought in 1911 has an article about Dickens' "miracle tonic", stating it had extraordinary healing powers, saying a woman with one leg grew back her lost limb, and a man on his deathbed got up and went to the nearest brothel with the vigor of a 14 year old boy. It can be assumed that Dicken's greatly exaggerated, if not outright fabricated, these feats.

Mission Appearances

 * Old Swindler Blues (Boss)
 * You Shall Not Give False Testimony, Except for Profit (Boss)
 * Liars, Cheats and Other Proud Americans (Boss)
 * Can a Swindler Change His Spots? (Boss)
 * The Sport of Kings and Liars (Boss)
 * The Assault on Fort Mercer
 * We Shall Be Together in Paradise
 * Bear One Another's Burdens

Trivia

 * West Dickens is likely partially inspired by the eccentric snake oil salesman in the 1976 Western film The Outlaw Josey Wales.
 * Despite his outward opulence, West Dickens seems to know many shady characters, such as Seth and Irish. This may just go with being a con artist.
 * West Dickens shares similarities to the main character in the in-game video (show at an in-game cinema) 'Dangers of Doctors.'
 * A bottle of "N.W. Dicken's Elixir" can be seen on the shelf in the cabin at Tanner's Reach. It is most easily read when the player uses a sniper scope, or binoculars. The bottle could have played a role in the death of the person buried in the ummarked grave next to the cabin. Seeing as how one of the effects (mentioned in a copy of the newspaper) is mentioned as "prompt and violent evacuation of the bowels", it is possible that the person died of chronic diarrhea (similar to the death of one of Bonnie's late brothers).

Quotes
"I know a cure for all ailments, Mr. Marston."

- Nigel West Dickens