Van der Linde Gang

"They told us there was a prize when you got to fifty"

- John Marston when confronted with his criminal past. Dutch's Old Gang consisted of, at least, Bill Williamson, Javier Escuella, John Marston and Abigail Marston, as well as Dutch himself. There very likely have been other unnamed members. The gang was notorious and feared across West Elizabeth and the western states, committing murders and robbing banks, although they gave much of the money they stole to the poor. Over the years they robbed over forty banks - at one point Marston jovially comments, "they told us there was a prize when we got to fifty."

Dutch van der Linde seems to have been almost a father-figure to the gang; certainly he is credited with taking in and raising Marston and Abigail after the two youngsters ran from their orphanage. Dutch's "Transcendentalist philosophy" and paternal approach imbued the gang with a strong sense of loyalty and cohesion, almost a family quality.

For years the gang terrorized the West until the fateful day of the botched robbery in 1906. Details are missing, but it is known that the gang tried robbing a boat and/or bank. Dutch shot a woman named Heidi McCourt, which led to government agents and lawmen attacking the gang. There was a shootout, and John Marston was wounded. The gang made it out of the boat/bank, but Marston was left for dead. He recovered shortly afterwards and "retired" from the gang along with Abigail, and their children.

Not long after this, the gang split up, driven apart partly by Dutch van der Linde's increasing slide into insanity. Bill Williamson left to start his own gang, and Javier Escuella escaped from the government into Mexico, where he later became a hitman for Allende. Dutch simply vanished, before making himself known again in 1911.

(From the Red Dead Redemption Wiki)

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