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The Skinner Brothers are an antagonistic faction featured in Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online.

Overview[]

The Skinner Brothers are a gang of ruthless killers and thieves who move from place to place to hunt and kill animals and people alike. The Skinners are notorious for their cruel and sadistic acts and horrific tortures.[1] They're known to, among many things, scalp, dismember, disembowel, roast and flay people alive, being less like an outlaw gang and more like a cult of deranged serial killers.

Unlike other gangs, they have very little interest in money, appearing to survive off scavenging and hunting. They seem to be nomadic, and completely cut off from civilization, as such, the gang has no formal dress code, though many of them do possess large, unkempt beards and scruffy clothing, as a result of their lifestyle.

Also, unlike most gangs, they have no base of operations, on account of their nomadic lifestyles, instead living in primitive camps, either their own, or ones seized from their victims.

History[]

Events of Red Dead Online[]

Members of the gang can be encountered as hostile enemies several gang hideouts during Stranger missions and random encounters.

Events of Red Dead Redemption 2[]

According to Charles Smith, the Skinner Brothers arrived in the Tall Trees, West Elizabeth around two years before 1907 and have been terrorizing people in the area ever since.[2]

They impede John Marston in his attempts at building a ranch at Beecher's Hope, ambushing him, Charles and their hired guns outside of Manzanita Post. After fighting them off, John and Charles find the body of Willard Wayne, one of their bodyguards, with a dagger lodged into an eye socket. After Charles buries him, he, John and Uncle begin constructing the ranch. Later, when the trio finished building the house, they celebrate and get drunk. While hungover, the Skinners capture Uncle and roast his back over an open fire. John and Charles manage to rescue him, killing many Skinners in the process. Charles says afterward that the Skinners are unlikely to disturb them after this, presumably due to the losses they sustained from this skirmish. 

As well as this, the player can hunt down Otis Skinner and Elias Green as bounties. Both are wanted dead or alive and, as such, they can either be killed or captured by John Marston. If the latter option is chosen, they will be publicly hanged in Blackwater.   

What happened to the Skinner Brothers afterward is not known, though they've likely moved far from West Elizabeth by 1911, been destroyed, or have simply disbanded before then.

Known Members[]

  • Otis Skinner - One of the leaders until 1907; Captured or killed by John Marston.
  • Elias Green - Captured or killed by John Marston.

Locations[]

Missions appearances[]

Red Dead Redemption 2

Trivia[]

  • The Skinner Brothers perform sadistic acts on their victims similar to that of the Murfree Brood gang which are located in Roanoke Ridge, as well as the Night Folk, found across Bayou Nwa and Bluewater Marsh in Lemoyne. All three gangs horrifically mutilate, torture and murder their victims and often attack and kill people seemingly just for the enjoyment of it.
  • Many members of the Skinner Brothers wear similar clothing to Dutch's Gang in Red Dead Redemption; some are also of native origin, which further adds to the similarities. Additionally, the Skinners are endemic to Tall Trees, which is where Dutch is mentioned to have been sighted and later operates his gang in.
  • Unlike other outlaw gangs, the Skinner Brothers don't have a main hideout that players can attack.
  • The Skinner Brothers are unique in they are the only characters besides Charles Smith, Eagle Flies, the Night Folk and the player character to use bows - many of their victims are seen with multiple arrows embedded into them and they often fight the player using bows rather than guns. Aside from this, their camps can be recognized by gruesome decorations, such as hanging corpses, mutilated bodies, scattered human parts, and blood trails.
  • Despite Charles Smith's comment in "Uncle's Bad Day" stating that the gang arrived in Tall Trees two years prior to 1907, they can be encountered as enemies in the region as well as the Great Plains in Red Dead Online.
  • If the player kills a lot of the Skinner Brothers in Red Dead Redemption 2, they will actually fear the player, who can overhear them sharing their worries in their enemy camps, saying things such as "He can slit us in our sleep for all we know".
  • Borodin's Gang, encountered in the Yukon Nik Borodin legendary bounty mission in Red Dead Online share the same PED models and dialogue as members of the Skinner Brothers.
  • The Skinner Brothers are most likely based on the Harpe brothers, a pair of serial killers and gang members from the early American frontier, who also mutilated their victims.

Gallery[]

Reference[]

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