Angelo Bronte

Origins

The game gives no place or date of birth for Angelo Bronte. He is Italian, and the only clue to his age is a newspaper article from 1899 that describes him as 55 years old. By then he lives in a mansion on Flavian Street, in Saint Denis, in the state of Lemoyne. The house backs onto the water, with a pier behind it, and men of his organization guard it. Officially, Bronte is a businessman. The Red Dead Wiki calls the organization he leads the Saint Denis Mob and credits it with bribery, smuggling and racketeering, with the city police looking the other way.

That article, "Lawman Found Dead", runs in Blackwater Ledger No. 65, Saint Denis Times No. 46 and New Hanover Gazette No. 30; the Red Dead Wiki places it in the gang's chapter at Horseshoe Overlook. It reports that Officer Henry Jenkins, a veteran of the force, was found dead the previous Tuesday, shot in the head in what is described as an ambush, in the outhouse near the home he shared with his wife of 20 years. Jenkins had led an investigation into Bronte. The paper adds that Bronte has long supported the local constables and often appears at social events held for Saint Denis politicians. Some accuse him of belonging to a smuggling and racketeering syndicate. Several officials defend him, saying his Italian origins are held against him, and cite his donations to local schools and to causes for the sick and the elderly. The subheadings announce that Bronte sends his condolences and that foul play is suspected.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (1899)

Chapter 3: Clemens Point

In the story missions, Bronte's name first comes up at the end of the gang's stay at Clemens Point. Jack Marston, the four-year-old son of John and Abigail Marston, disappears from camp; the kidnapping itself is never shown. The gang concludes that the Braithwaite family took him in revenge for the theft of their horses. In "Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern", Dutch van der Linde leads the assault on Braithwaite Manor. The gang kills the family's men, searches the house without finding the boy and sets it on fire. Dragged outside, Catherine Braithwaite admits that her sons handed Jack over to Bronte. Pressed further, she says the boy is either in Saint Denis or on the boat to Italy. The gang leaves her alive, and she runs back into the burning house.

A letter from Catherine to Bronte can be picked up on a nightstand in the manor during the same mission. Addressed to "Signor Bronte", it answers a message he sent the week before. Catherine reminds him that their two families have worked together for five years, that the Braithwaites have always delivered a quality product and paid their debts, and that he has been their most valued customer. She mentions a cash flow problem and a disruption in supply, and asks him not to break off the relationship. She admits that the debts have grown, promises to cover them shortly and to pay the interest within the quarter, and writes that her spendthrift middle son has mended his ways. The letter breaks off mid-sentence.

Chapter 4: Saint Denis

The gang moves to Shady Belle, an abandoned plantation house in the bayou, close to Saint Denis. In "The Joys of Civilization", Dutch has asked about Bronte at the Bastille Saloon without learning anything, and sends Arthur Morgan in to try. The bartender refuses to talk, but a customer points Arthur to the street children in the back alley. A boy named Cleet steals Arthur's satchel during the tour they offer him. Depending on the chase, Cleet himself, or the leader of a group of armed children, gives Arthur the satchel back along with Bronte's address. Arthur reports to Dutch, and they arrange to meet John across from the house.

In "Angelo Bronte, A Man of Honor", Arthur meets Dutch and John in the park facing the mansion. Walking over, Arthur warns that a fight would cost Jack his life, and Dutch tells him to keep calm. Dutch seizes one of the gate guards and sends him for Bronte. According to the Red Dead Wiki, the guards let the three men in but keep them at gunpoint. Bronte receives them coldly. He reproaches them for coming into his house unwashed and lecturing him on how to behave. Dutch presents the three of them as plain people from the country and plays down the kidnapping. Bronte's tone changes: he tells Dutch he loves him, shakes his hand and orders drinks for the three men.

Bronte sets a condition for returning the boy: a group of grave robbers must be cleared out of the Saint Denis cemetery. The Red Dead Wiki says these robbers had failed to give Bronte his cut. Arthur and John take the job while Dutch stays at the mansion with Bronte. On the way, Arthur compliments John on keeping calm; John says he does not trust Bronte and comes back to his failings as a father. Arthur guesses that the Braithwaites meant to hold Jack for ransom and sent him to Bronte to keep him out of the gang's reach; with no Braithwaites left to pay, he says, the boy is of little use to Bronte. At the cemetery, the two men kill the robbers, take their stash and slip out past the police who arrive. Back at the mansion, Dutch is waiting outside with Jack.

On the ride back to Shady Belle, Jack speaks fondly of his stay. He had his own room and a big box of toys, was bathed every night, ate spaghetti and learned the Italian words for "horse" and "slipper". John is relieved that the boy was treated well. Dutch tells Arthur that Bronte has invited them to a garden party at the house of Henri Lemieux, the mayor of Saint Denis. At camp, Abigail is overjoyed to see her son, and the gang throws a party for his return.

In "The Gilded Cage", Dutch insists that the gang buy proper clothes for the occasion. That evening, Dutch, Arthur, Hosea Matthews and Bill Williamson ride to the mayor's mansion in tuxedos, in a coach driven by Lenny Summers, laughing that the guest of honor is a crime lord. They hand in their weapons at the entrance, and Luca Napoli, a servant of Bronte, takes them inside. Hosea and Bill join the party while Dutch and Arthur go up to meet Bronte on a balcony. According to the Red Dead Wiki, his underboss Guido Martelli stands beside him. Bronte welcomes them and runs through the guests below, with a jibe for most of them. The wiki adds that he also makes remarks in Italian during the evening; its quote list translates one of them as "I look forward to watching you die!"

He points out the mayor, whom he presents as a man ready to do anything for money. He names Alberto Fussar, who comes to the city, he says, to indulge himself, and Hobart and Brenda Crawley. He mocks Rains Fall and Eagle Flies, of the Wapiti tribe, as they hand a letter to the mayor. He also shows them the newspaperman Hector Fellowes, "that wretched newspaperman" in his words according to the Red Dead Wiki, and suggests that Dutch might kill him for him one day, an idea Dutch does not take up. When Dutch says the gang needs money, Bronte tells him that a trolley station in the city should hold more than enough cash. Dutch thanks him, and Luca escorts the two men back down. Later in the evening, the mayor's butler reports a telephone call from Leviticus Cornwall, and Arthur steals from the mayor's desk the papers Lemieux was due to sign.

A letter from Lemieux to Bronte, dated May 1899, can be taken from the same desk. It opens with "Mon Cher Angelo" and thanks Bronte for a gift the mayor calls magnificent. Lemieux writes that the city is once again in Bronte's debt, and that the gift will be a cornerstone of the funding for a university in Saint Denis. He adds that the city is well on its way to raising the money for a Divinity School and a Humanities College, and signs as Bronte's friend.

In "Horsemen, Apocalypses", Dutch calls Arthur over to plan the trolley station robbery Bronte suggested. They need a third man, and Arthur proposes Lenny. In "Urban Pleasures", Dutch, Arthur and Lenny meet in an alley across from the station, put on their bandanas and announce the robbery. On Dutch's order, Arthur robs three customers and forces the clerk to open the safe. It holds only a few dollars, and Lenny sees the street filling with armed police. Dutch realizes that Bronte has set them up. The three jump onto a passing trolley and shoot their way through the streets until the brakes fail and the car overturns into a fence. They fight on foot, then escape the city in a wagon driven by Lenny; on the way, two of Bronte's men fire at them as they pass his mansion.

Arthur splits the take: fifteen dollars and a quarter for each of them. Dutch is furious that Bronte betrayed him when he had done nothing to him. Arthur answers that Bronte simply does not want men like them in his city. Dutch concludes that the Saint Denis bank is now their only way out. A telegram found later in Bronte's mansion shows how the trap was set. Signed by Bronte and addressed to Police Chief Lambert, it reads: "NEED LOT OF MEN ON THE TROLLEY STATION. NO MEN IN COMMERCIAL DISTRICT UNTIL I SAY OTHERWISE."

In "Country Pursuits", Arthur finds Dutch and Hosea arguing at Shady Belle. Dutch wants to kill Bronte before the bank job, because Bronte controls the whole city. Hosea calls the plan foolhardy and a matter of revenge, which Dutch denies. Dutch asks Arthur to settle it, and Arthur sides with him; Hosea warns Dutch that he will doom them all. On the ride to Lagras, Arthur asks whether this is about the bank or about the trolley station, and Dutch says that does not matter. In Lagras, Dutch and Arthur meet Thomas, a fisherman already lined up to take the gang by boat to the back of Bronte's mansion, and save his young helper Jules from the Legendary Bullgator.

In "Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten", Thomas lands Dutch, Arthur, John, Bill and Lenny at the pier behind the mansion. They climb the wall into the grounds and move in quietly until the first two guards are taken down. Bronte's men then open fire from the courtyard, and the gang fights its way through them and their reinforcements. Arthur blasts the lock off the front door, and the gang clears the ground floor before searching upstairs. The Red Dead Wiki says that Bronte has been hiding, in his bathtub according to its page on his organization, and that his pistol jams when he tries to fire at the two men. Bronte throws his Mauser pistol at John and starts bargaining, and John knocks him out with a punch.

A list of accounts headed "June" lies on a desk in the mansion. It gives sums of 15 to 50 dollars next to the names of fourteen Saint Denis businesses, among them Café Lamarque, Hamill Pharmacy, the Corinthian Club and Hotel Chevalier; they add up to 385 dollars. The list does not say what the sums are for. Police officers arrive in numbers. Arthur carries the unconscious Bronte down and out to the skiff while the gang holds off the officers.

On the water, Bronte comes to and argues with Dutch. He insults Dutch and the life he leads, and offers thousands of dollars to any of the men in the boat who will kill Dutch; nobody moves. He warns that the law will find them and that the dogs are already on their way. Enraged, Dutch holds Bronte's head under the water several times until he is dead, then pushes the body over the side; an alligator takes it. Dutch tells John that it was either the gang or Bronte, and that he would rather it be Bronte. Arthur and John are visibly shaken.

After Bronte's death, according to the Red Dead Wiki, what remains of his organization turns hostile whenever its men come across Arthur. The gang goes ahead with the Lemoyne National Bank robbery in "Banking, The Old American Art", which turns into a Pinkerton trap: Hosea and Lenny are killed and John is arrested.

Red Dead Redemption 2: the epilogue (1907)

Epilogue I: Pronghorn Ranch

Eight years later, John and Jack work at Pronghorn Ranch in West Elizabeth. In "Simple Pleasures", John introduces his son to the ranch hand Abe, and the three of them clean out the horse stables. While they shovel, John tells Jack that he is a long way from Angelo Bronte's mansion now. Jack does not remember the place.

Epilogue II: Beecher's Hope

By 1907, Guido Martelli, once Bronte's underboss, runs things in Saint Denis. In "Bare Knuckle Friendships", Charles Smith tells John that he agreed with Martelli to throw a fight in the city, then won it. Charles adds that Martelli has the police chief in his pocket, and four of Martelli's men come after the two of them at the docks. According to the Red Dead Wiki, the Flavian Street mansion has become Martelli's.

Rockstar's character descriptions of September 2018 cover the Van der Linde gang and do not include Bronte. On the way to the mayor's party in "The Gilded Cage", Dutch tells Arthur, Bill and Hosea that "the guest of honor is the worst crook in town". According to the Red Dead Wiki, Arthur describes him in his journal as "a lizard in a suit". The wiki also says that Bronte calls Arthur "the angry cowboy". The newspaper article and the mayor's letter quoted in the Biography describe his public image.

In his own words

At the first meeting he scolds Dutch: "So, you walk into my city...stinking of shit and looking like this...and you come into my house, before you have a bath...and you tell me how to act?" He adds: "You ask me to show compassion? Have I not shown you almost infinite compassion already...by simply allowing you to breathe in my presence?" Then his tone turns: "You twist words. You lie shamelessly. You think you are better than everyone else... I love you! Give these men drinks!" At the party, watching Rains Fall and Eagle Flies approach the mayor, he says: "Yes, hand a letter to the mayor. Oh yeah, that will save you."

In the skiff, after his abduction, he tells Dutch: "You are nothing. You do nothing. You mean nothing. You stand for nothing. Me? I run a city... and when the law catch up to you... you will die like nothing. I am this country. You... you... you are what people are running from." His last words are: "The law will find you! Already the dogs are on the way."

Names

Catherine Braithwaite opens her letter with "Dear Signor Bronte", and the mayor writes to him as "Mon Cher Angelo" (see Biography). The Red Dead Wiki also lists Mister Big and a longer, insulting version of it, and ties both, with a question mark, to a customer of the Bastille Saloon. It also says that Jack calls him Papa Bronte, a name it marks as unconfirmed. Bronte is also the name of a small town in Sicily, the wiki notes.

Appearance

For the gang's visits to his mansion he wears a floral smoking cap and a gold-trimmed crimson smoking jacket over a white shirt and black trousers. For the mayor's party he changes into a white-tie evening suit, worn with a black bow tie. He has black hair and a tanned complexion.

The documents found at the party and in his house show his ties to the mayor, to the Saint Denis police chief Benjamin Lambert and to a list of city businesses (see Biography).

The mansion and its guards

His mansion stands on Flavian Street, in Saint Denis, and members of his organization guard it. According to the Red Dead Wiki, they turn hostile if the player walks onto the property in free roam. If the player is wanted while on the grounds, they join the lawmen in the pursuit. The doors of the house stay locked outside the cutscenes and the raid, the wiki adds. According to the Red Dead Wiki, his men's outfits are made for them, including a cross draw harness and a black gun belt, though they look like ordinary suits.

Bronte appears in person in three missions of Red Dead Redemption 2, all in chapter 4. Other missions bring up his name, his tip, his mansion or his former organization, from the raid on Braithwaite Manor to the 1907 epilogue; they are listed in the second table. The events themselves are told in the Biography.

Appearances

Other missions linked to Bronte

The lines below are given in the original English. Bronte's own exchanges with Dutch, and his remark on Rains Fall and Eagle Flies, are quoted under Personality.

At the mayor's party

• See that wretch? He's the mayor! He'll do anything for a dollar, and I mean anything.

  Bronte to Dutch and Arthur, describing Henri Lemieux, The Gilded Cage (RDR2, chapter 4)

About Bronte

• You'll damn us all...

  Hosea to Dutch, after Arthur backs the plan to kill Bronte, Country Pursuits (RDR2, chapter 4)

• It ain't nice, I know it... but it is us, or him. I figure it might as well be him.

  Dutch, after drowning Bronte, Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten (RDR2, chapter 4)

• You're a long way from Angelo Bronte's mansion now.

  John to Jack, in the stables, Simple Pleasures (RDR2, epilogue, 1907)

Casting

Angelo Bronte appears only in Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018). He is played by Jim Pirri, an American actor and fight choreographer credited in the role by the Red Dead Wiki and by Wikipedia's list of the game's characters. According to Wikipedia, Pirri is the son of a linguist, grew up in Italy and speaks Italian. He has often played Italian characters. His other credits include David Vega in the series Victorious, Rais in Dying Light, Boozer in Days Gone and Kraven the Hunter in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

Benjamin Byron Davis, who plays Dutch, talked about the role in an interview with Shacknews published on 1 February 2019. Asked for his favorite scene, he named "the final scene in the skiff with Bronte". He said that "it took a long time I think to find Jim Pirri, who is the actor who so wonderfully played Bronte". Davis added that he had the scene for nearly a year before it was shot. He called the result "about as iconic and thrilling and every bit of drama as I got to do".

Davis came back to Bronte in other appearances, as summarized by Wikipedia. In an interview with Twinfinite (19 February 2019), he said that Dutch starts turning into a villain when he faces powerful figures such as Catherine Braithwaite and Angelo Bronte. On a cast panel at Fan Expo Canada in Toronto (24 August 2019), he described Bronte as the man Dutch wanted to be, which led to what happens between the two.

Cut content

The Red Dead Wiki's page on cut content lists a few unused files around Bronte. One is an outfit with a towel and shaving cream. Another outfit is partly unused and appears only in a photograph in the game. An unused character model named "bronteasc" stands in for the referee in an animation of "Bare Knuckle Friendships", which the wiki reads as a planned associate of Bronte. The same page lists an unused vest for Bronte's butler and a short cutscene, removed from the game, in which Arthur and John leave the cemetery. The page on his organization adds that a line in the PC files has the mansion guards fleeing once the law arrives, whereas in the game they help the lawmen.

A turning point for Arthur

In GamesRadar+ on 4 March 2019, Tom Power read Arthur's story as a Shakespearean tragedy and structured his article on the five stages of grief. He placed the Bronte episode in the part titled "Clemens Point and Saint Denis (Bargaining)". He wrote that "Bronte's violent death at Dutch's hands repulses him even if Arthur fails to admit it". In his view, it leads Arthur to ask whether a man with such brutal methods is worth following.

Villain rankings

WhatCulture's Matt Thompson ranked Bronte ninth of the fifteen villains of the series in a list published on 7 February 2022. He comes after Javier Escuella (eighth) and ahead of the Skinner Brothers (tenth), Bill Williamson (11th) and Leviticus Cornwall (12th). He singled out the scene of his death as "one of the most brutal cut scene deaths".

Red Dead Online

Bronte does not appear in Red Dead Online, but the French edition of the Red Dead Wiki lists him among the characters mentioned there. The Blood Money update, released on 13 July 2021, centers on Guido Martelli, Bronte's underboss (Red Dead Online is set in 1898, while Bronte is alive), who sends the player after Capitale. Rockstar's Newswire, as quoted by the Red Dead Wiki, describes Capitale as a system of exchange designed for the Bronte family's more sensitive business, whose value depends on its scarcity. The Red Dead Wiki adds that getting back into his Flavian Street mansion, which normally takes a glitch, is easier in Online. Members of the Saint Denis mob can also attack the player during deliveries of goods to Saint Denis for Cripps's trading company, in the Frontier Pursuits update.

• On the ride back from the mansion, Jack gets both of his Italian words slightly wrong, according to the mission page: he says "pantafòla" for "pantòfola" (slipper), and pronounces "cavallo" (horse) the Spanish way.
• Firing a weapon in the cemetery while looking for the grave robbers fails "Angelo Bronte, A Man of Honor". John then shouts: "Goddamn it, Arthur! How are we gonna get Jack back now?"
• Bronte carries cash that Arthur can loot once he is knocked out: 150 dollars according to the mission page, 155 according to the character page. The money can pay off the bounty earned during the raid.
• The Mauser pistol Bronte throws at John can be picked up before Arthur carries him off, although the weapon is not otherwise available until "That's Murfree Country", in chapter 5.
• The alligator that takes Bronte's body can already be seen when the gang reaches the back of the mansion, at the start of "Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten".
• Dutch calls Bronte a "repulsive little maggot" as he drowns him. Pearson uses the same insult against Uncle in a camp scene, after Uncle criticizes his cooking.
• In Red Dead Redemption, John himself uses nearly the same words as Dutch when he confronts Javier Escuella in 1911: "It's you or me, the way I see it, it might as well be you."
• Hosea's warning in "Country Pursuits" comes back to Arthur during his last ride to camp in the mission "Red Dead Redemption", if his honor is low.
• Among the gold medal objectives of "Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten" are searching every room of the mansion and carrying Bronte to the skiff within 1 minute and 30 seconds.
• Susan's conversation with Arthur on the ride in "No, No and Thrice, No" depends on whether Jack has been brought back from Bronte's: before, she lists the gang's recent kidnappings; after, she remarks that Kieran has not been seen for a while.
• Several companion activities at Shady Belle, among them "Go Rustling" with Uncle and a coach robbery with Lenny, only become available once "Angelo Bronte, A Man of Honor" is complete.
• Bronte is one of only four characters in Red Dead Redemption 2 with a recurring musical theme of his own, with John Marston, Sadie Adler and Colm O'Driscoll.