Landon Ricketts

Origins

Landon Ricketts is an American gunslinger. He was born around 1861: the official Game of the Year Edition guide of Red Dead Redemption describes him as 50 years old. Red Dead Redemption gives no birthplace and names no parents. Stories about him circulated widely in the late 19th century: when John Marston meets him in 1911, he says Ricketts was famous when he was a boy and that he heard many stories about him. Ricketts himself says he spent twenty-five years killing men. He was married. His wife died before 1911; the game gives neither her name nor the cause of her death, and Ricketts mentions her only in a joke at the poker table.

Two articles of the Blackwater Ledger in Red Dead Redemption give the main dates of his career. The first, "Landon Ricketts Rumored Alive", appears in issue No. 55, which can be read during the first act. It says that Ricketts shot and killed both Butcher Brothers in 1896 and survived the Blackwater Massacre of 1899. The paper credits him with many other killings as well, some of them rumored and some verified. It adds that he was long thought dead after a gunfight late at night in eastern California in 1902, and that reports from Mexico now suggest he is alive south of the border. The article calls him possibly the last of the great gunmen and wonders whether he will join a Wild West show. Neither article says which side he was on at Blackwater, and Red Dead Redemption 2, which begins after the gang's failed ferry robbery and tells it only through the characters' dialogue, never mentions him in connection with it.

By 1911 Ricketts lives in Chuparosa, a town in the Perdido region of Nuevo Paraíso, in Mexico. He holds no office there. The townspeople call on him when bandits strike, and Ramon, a man of Chuparosa whose bank wagon comes under attack, calls him the savior of the town. The region is governed from Escalera by Colonel Agustin Allende, whom the rebels of Abraham Reyes are fighting.

Red Dead Redemption (1911)

In 1911, agents of the Bureau of Investigation hold John Marston's wife and son to force him to hunt down his former companions of the Van der Linde gang. John is looking for Bill Williamson and Javier Escuella when he crosses into Mexico at the end of the first act, ferried across the river by Irish. Ricketts gives John four missions in Nuevo Paraíso, from "The Gunslinger's Tragedy" to "The Mexican Wagon Train", and appears in no mission of the first or third act.

Act II: Nuevo Paraíso

"The Gunslinger's Tragedy" opens as John walks into Chuparosa. Local bandits demand a toll, call it a little taxation, take his hat and order him to remove his boots. John kneels, then shoots them all and takes his hat back. An older American who has watched the scene congratulates him with sarcasm on his way of improving border relations and tells him that a man who kills peasants becomes a peasant. When John says he never aimed higher, the stranger calls him a socialist. He then tells John that he handles his gun sloppily and would not stand a chance against another real gunman, and offers to show him a few tricks. Asked his name, he says it no longer matters. John, asked in return, says he never had a name and was raised in an orphanage.

Outside the town, the stranger has John shoot glass bottles. After the first round he gives his name, Landon Ricketts, and tells John he is the only gunman of his time still alive. John explains that he is looking for Williamson and Escuella. Ricketts answers that the region is full of Americans on the run, mercenaries and revolutionaries. He adds that another local man is promising the peasants their freedom, like the two or three before him, and that Colonel Allende runs the region like a feudal king. Before the second round he tells John to keep his back straight so the gun does not jump, and hands him a Schofield Revolver, which he calls a real gun. He then fires a shot to scare a flock of vultures off the rooftops so that John can bring several down at once, which he presents as a service to the people of Chuparosa.

Walking back, Ricketts says he is surprised that anyone still remembers him. John says men still argue over who is the toughest, who is the fastest and who shot people in the back, and Ricketts bets he is still the fastest. Ramon then runs up: the bank's wagon is being attacked outside town. On the way, Ricketts asks why John hunts the two men. When John says they were friends once, Ricketts compares a man who hunts his old friends to a buzzard and supposes there is a high bounty on them. John answers with a question: what would he do if someone held the people he loved and threatened to kill them. Three bandits are robbing the wagon, one of them holding the driver hostage; John frees him with a shot to the bandit's head. Three more bandits block the road on the way back. Ricketts and John bring the wagon into Chuparosa, where the driver thanks them, and Ricketts asks only for a whiskey later.

In "Landon Ricketts Rides Again", John finds Ricketts at the hotel in Chuparosa with Emilio Fortuna and another man, who have been talking about a Mr. Escuella. Ricketts translates John's questions, but Emilio cannot say whether the man is Javier or whether he travels with a big American. Ricketts then explains that the army holds Emilio's sister, Luisa Fortuna, a teacher. When John says the man's troubles are not his own, Ricketts tells him that those who sit on the fence also make a choice. John retorts that Ricketts is a man living in the past who ran away from home; Ricketts answers that he is a fighter. He has also heard that John's recent encounters with Bill Williamson went badly, and concludes that John needs his help more than he thought.

Ricketts takes the train, and John can ride with him or go ahead on horseback. They get off at Casa Madrugada and ride to El Matadero, where they are to find a man named Carlos. On the way, Ricketts explains that Luisa is a rebel close to Reyes and that her looks are usually enough to interest Allende. They find Carlos carving a pig at the butchery. He confirms that Luisa is still held in the caves above the village and distracts the two guards at the entrance. Ricketts and John then fight their way inside, killing about two dozen soldiers. At the cell, John holds off the guards while Ricketts sets dynamite on the door and blows it open. Luisa is barely alive. Ricketts carries her out while John covers him, and they flee on horses that Carlos has left at the cave mouth.

More soldiers chase them out of the canyon. Near Diez Coronas, Carlos meets them and takes Luisa away for treatment. Before she leaves, Ricketts asks her whether a man named Javier Escuella was among those holding her. She does not think so, but remembers hearing the name in prison, from bad people. Ricketts takes it as proof that Javier is still in Mexico.

In "Lucky in Love", John finds Ricketts winning at poker in the Chuparosa cantina, against Andreas Müller, a German silver prospector, Manolo Santander and a man the mission calls the Stranger. Ricketts orders champagne for everyone and invites John to sit down. John wins two hands, and Müller accuses him of cheating, then accuses Ricketts of having planted him; Ricketts answers that he had already beaten Müller. Müller draws, everyone in the cantina draws in turn, and Ricketts names the standoff. Müller says he will not fight Ricketts, only the American, and challenges John to a duel outside. He names a man called Sanchez as his second; Sanchez is the Stranger. Walking to the street, Ricketts explains that a duel is about timing: draw too early and the shot is less accurate, then pick the targets carefully. John kills Müller.

Ricketts laughs that Müller always played his cards too early, and the two men drink with the dead man's money. The Stranger then comes back holding a young woman and threatens to cut her throat, and challenges John. John kills him in a second duel without harming her. Four accomplices open fire; Manolo Santander is among the dead, killed by John or by Ricketts. When the shooting is over, Ricketts says the poker game is certainly over, and remarks that Müller will not be missed. The two men tip their hats and part.

"The Mexican Wagon Train" is the last mission of the strand. Ricketts has no news of Javier. Over drinks at the hotel, John tells him he left the gang after it left him for dead, that he settled down with a woman on a farm, and that he has now been sent to track down and kill the men he used to ride with. Ricketts answers that someone else would do it if John did not, and calls the two of them relics. Luisa interrupts them. Allende is sending prisoners to their deaths without trial, among them a writer named Castillo and a local official who refused to evict smallholders behind on their taxes. Ricketts first jokes that some writers and officials deserve to die, then says he was joking and asks where they are. Luisa answers: near Escalera.

On the trail, Ricketts tells John he has heard rumors that he is making all kinds of new friends. He warns him that if he keeps jumping from one side of the fence to the other, he could end up impaled on it. The exchange turns sharp: Ricketts calls John a rat, says that his own name means something, and points out that the only real outlaw John has faced dropped him like a bad habit. They ride on in silence. Ricketts then asks whether John misses his family, and says John reminds him of himself as he used to be, stubborn and angry. When the prison wagons cross the road, each man takes control of one by killing its guards and driver, and they drive the prisoners toward the United States. Mexican soldiers wait at the bridge with fire bottles and a Gatling gun. Once on the American side, Ricketts says the army knows better than to follow them.

The prisoners are freed and given the wagon. Ricketts tells John he will handle the rest, since John has other business. He says John took him back to another time, and advises him to talk to Luisa, who is well connected on the Mexican side. The two men shake hands. Ricketts hopes John finds what he is looking for. John answers that Ricketts knows what he is looking for, and Ricketts replies: if you say so. Ricketts never meets John again in the story. Among the freed men are Harris Carruthers, Eudoro de la Barra, Fermin Ichinaga and Porfirio Gutierrez.

Death (1914)

Act III: West Elizabeth

His death is reported in issue No. 213 of the Blackwater Ledger, the 1914 issue that becomes available after John's last mission, "The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed", with Jack Marston as the playable character. The article, "Landon Ricketts Dead", says he died quietly in his sleep last week and that another piece of the Old West died with him. It recalls the Butcher Brothers in 1896 and his involvement in the Blackwater Massacre of 1899. It states that he came back to the United States three years earlier, after many years in Mexico, which places his return in 1911; the article does not say where he settled. According to the paper, he was said to be writing an autobiography, which was never published. It ranks him among the fastest draws of the West, but adds that rumors followed him about one of his best-known victories: he was said to have killed Johnny West by shooting him in the back.

Undead Nightmare (non-canon)

Undead Nightmare, an expansion released in 2010, is not part of the series' canon. In it, Ricketts is alive in Casa Madrugada, a town of Nuevo Paraíso that he defends alone against the undead. It is the only safe zone of the expansion with no army to guard it, and undead still wander through its streets when John first rides in. Ricketts gives the side mission "Biographies and Lies". He welcomes John to Mexico by listing its sunshine, its sand and a plague that makes people eat one another. John had hoped Mexico would be quieter. Asked about the plague, Ricketts tells John that the walking dead are worse than anything he has seen or done himself.

Ricketts proposes to lure the undead with something they are drawn to, so as to kill them in numbers. John mentions that Nigel West Dickens' elixir attracts them, and Ricketts asks him for at least two bottles of Undead Bait and two sticks of dynamite. When John comes back with them, Ricketts opens a bottle, pushes a stick of dynamite into it and throws it; an undead walks up to it, and Ricketts fires at the ground to set it off. He gives John the resulting Boom Bait, two charges that John keeps at the end of the mission. He also tells John that a man in Chicago is writing his biography and that a man in Pittsburgh has painted his portrait.

Rockstar's character descriptions of September 2018 cover the gang of Red Dead Redemption 2 and do not include Ricketts. The Game of the Year Edition guide of Red Dead Redemption describes him as follows: "Landon is a 50-year-old former star gunslinger, but now he is past his prime. Holed up in Mexico and awaiting death, he is tough and powerful. But he is also vain and somewhat pretentious."

In Chuparosa he answers the townspeople's calls for help against bandits. He mocks John's shooting at their first meeting and keeps teasing him on the missions that follow. He drinks with John at the hotel and plays poker at the cantina. He speaks Spanish with the locals, notably with Emilio Fortuna, and translates for John. His jokes can be dark, and he takes offense when John talks back to him (see Biography).

In his own words

Asked in "The Gunslinger's Tragedy" what he is doing in Mexico, he says: "Living quietly, waiting." John asks: "For what?" He answers: "I don't know, and you?" When John remarks that the bank wagon fight does not fit a quiet life, he replies: "I didn't say I'd become a coward. I'm not going to stand by and watch good people suffer. They've been beaten down for too long. I give them some hope." John says the townspeople do not know how lucky they are, and Ricketts closes: "Damn right they don't, my sarcastic little apprentice." On the same ride, when John says he is hunting old friends, he comments: "Only a buzzard feeds on his friends."

On the road to the convoy in "The Mexican Wagon Train", he tells John: "You know, you remind me a lot of myself. How I used to be. Stubborn and angry." A little later: "I always thought I'd lived a charmed life. I've known wealth, respect, love, even fame." Of his late wife he says only one thing, winning at the poker table in "Lucky in Love": "Thank God my wife died. Unlucky in love, lucky in cards."

Names

He does not give his name at first and tells John that it no longer matters; John calls him old man, before and after learning his name. After the bottle practice he introduces himself: "Landon Ricketts. Not a name that means much anymore." On the way back to town he calls himself "an old goat like me" whom he expected to be forgotten. In "The Mexican Wagon Train" he tells John: "My name means something." Ramon calls him Señor Ricketts, and Luisa and John say Mr. Ricketts. John uses his first name only once, during the bank wagon fight. His undead version is called Zombie Ricketts.

Appearance

He is an old man with a lined face, gray hair falling to his shoulders and a thick gray mustache, with a tuft of beard under the lower lip. In Red Dead Redemption he wears a worn jacket over an open-collared shirt and a hat. His clothes also include a red sash.

What he teaches John

All four missions of his strand start in Chuparosa (see Missions). In the first, "The Gunslinger's Tragedy", the Schofield Revolver he hands John comes with the words "See if this Schofield makes a difference. Now that's a real gun." In the game, this sequence teaches the third level of Dead Eye, in which the player marks several targets before firing: three bottles first, then at least two of the vultures Ricketts scares off the rooftops.

"Lucky in Love" introduces poker and dueling to the player. On the way to John's duel with Andreas Müller, Ricketts explains: "A duel is all about timing. If you pull your gun too soon, you'll be less accurate. After you draw, pick your shots carefully, like I showed you." In "Landon Ricketts Rides Again" (see Biography), he is nearly invincible. Every mission of his strand fails if the player attacks or kills him; three of them also fail if the player abandons him or kills his horse.

Weapons

His weapons are the Cattleman Revolver, the Schofield Revolver, the Volcanic Pistol, the Semi-automatic Pistol and the High Power Pistol. The Cattleman Revolver is the gun he carries in most scenes; the Schofield is the one he recommends to John. He sometimes uses a Semi-automatic Pistol in "The Gunslinger's Tragedy", and in the dynamite cutscene of "Landon Ricketts Rides Again" his Cattleman is sometimes replaced by a High Power Pistol or a Volcanic Pistol.

Ricketts has a strand of four story missions in the second act of Red Dead Redemption, all starting in Chuparosa. The first becomes available after "We Shall Be Together in Paradise", the last mission of the first act. "Landon Ricketts Rides Again" opens the strand of Luisa Fortuna. "Lucky in Love" introduces poker and duels, and unlocks the stranger mission "Eva in Peril". "The Mexican Wagon Train", which introduces the hijacking of vehicles, closes the strand and leads to the Abraham Reyes mission "The Gates of El Presidio". In Undead Nightmare, he gives one side mission.

Appearances

Missions in which he is mentioned

The lines below are given in the original English.

Red Dead Redemption, Act II

• You kill peasants, you become a peasant.

  The Gunslinger's Tragedy (RDR1, Act II), to John, who has just killed the bandits of Chuparosa

• Yeah, killing men's a strange kind of fame. I was the fastest in my time. I must have been. I'm the only one left.

  The Gunslinger's Tragedy (RDR1, Act II), to John, who remembers him as famous

• Those who sit on the fence make a choice... in their own way. Don't you think, Mr. Marston?

  Landon Ricketts Rides Again (RDR1, Act II), to John, who says Emilio's troubles are not his own

• I'll tell you what choice I made. I'm a fighter, sir, and I'll fight to the end.

  Landon Ricketts Rides Again (RDR1, Act II), to John, who calls him a man living in the past

• She's a good woman, a teacher. If they lay a finger on her, I swear I'll feed those bastards their balls.

  Landon Ricketts Rides Again (RDR1, Act II), about Luisa Fortuna, on the ride to El Matadero

• An impasse, sir. An impasse. We could all die, here and now.

  Lucky in Love (RDR1, Act II), to Andreas Müller, as every gun in the cantina is drawn

• God, can't a man drink in peace? Come on, smoke these bastards up!

  Lucky in Love (RDR1, Act II), as the Stranger's accomplices open fire

• I spent twenty-five years killing men. Look at me now. Sitting around here like some low rent would-be messiah. We're relics.

  The Mexican Wagon Train (RDR1, Act II), to John, who has told him he was sent to track down his old companions

• Let's hang up our self-pity and go shoot ourselves some bad guys.

  The Mexican Wagon Train (RDR1, Act II), after Luisa's plea

• Just be careful, John. Keep jumping from one side of the fence to the other, you might just get impaled on it.

  The Mexican Wagon Train (RDR1, Act II), to John, on the ride to Escalera

• If you say so, Marston. If you say so.

  The Mexican Wagon Train (RDR1, Act II), his last words to John, who says he knows what he is looking for

Red Dead Redemption, free roam and combat

• It's as good a place as any to call home. Warm sun, cheap liquor, and beautiful women.

  Red Dead Redemption, about Mexico

• It's a terrible thing, getting older... Your looks have gone, your back hurts, and your pecker isn't working like it's supposed to.

  Red Dead Redemption

• Chuparosa is my town!

  Red Dead Redemption, during a shootout

• It doesn't feel good getting executed, does it?

  Red Dead Redemption, fighting the Mexican Army

• Manolo is sure getting lucky in the ass today.

  Red Dead Redemption, at the poker table when Manolo Santander wins chips

• I am not gonna give you a second chance to put that down, partner.

  Red Dead Redemption, if the player aims a weapon at him

Undead Nightmare (non-canon)

• Well, we got sunshine, sand and a plague that makes people want to eat each other. Come to think of it, it must feel just like America to you.

  Biographies and Lies (Undead Nightmare), welcoming John to Mexico

• I've killed all that can be killed.

  Undead Nightmare

• Truth is long dead.

  Undead Nightmare

Red Dead Redemption multiplayer

• You have no idea who you're up against, do you?

  Red Dead Redemption multiplayer

• I've been through the mill, but you're somethin' else.

  Red Dead Redemption multiplayer

• You're as crazy as a sheep herder.

  Red Dead Redemption multiplayer

• Do I have to show you where the trigger is?

  Red Dead Redemption multiplayer

Casting

Landon Ricketts appears in Red Dead Redemption and its expansion Undead Nightmare, both released in 2010. He is played by Ross Hagen. Hagen, born Leland Lando Lilly on 21 May 1938 in Williams, Arizona, was an American actor, director, screenwriter and producer. His credits include the series Daktari, in which he played the photographer Bart Jason from 1968 to 1969, and the films The Hellcats (1967) and The Sidehackers (1969).

After Ross Hagen's death

Ross Hagen died of cancer at his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on 7 May 2011, at the age of 72. An undead version of Ricketts had been playable in the multiplayer mode since the Undead Nightmare pack of 2010; the living Ricketts became a playable multiplayer character with the Myths and Mavericks pack, released later in 2011. Rockstar gave him lines taken from the single-player game, out of respect for Hagen, rather than cast another actor. Two places in Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) were named in his honor: Mount Hagen and Hagen Orchards. Hagen Orchards is a plantation in the Bayou Nwa region of Lemoyne.

Character rankings

In a list of the ten best characters of the Red Dead Redemption franchise, published by Sportskeeda on 13 August 2023, Aniket Mukherjee ranked Ricketts fourth. He comes after John Marston, Dutch van der Linde and Bonnie MacFarlane, and ahead of Bill Williamson (fifth). The author wrote that he "earns the fourth place for his pivotal role as a mentor" to John. On 1 June 2019, Stacey Henley of WhatCulture placed him tenth in a list of Western characters to recreate in Red Dead Redemption 2, noting that the outfit can be based on his cigarette card in that game.

Talk of a Red Dead Redemption 3

Rockstar has not announced a Red Dead Redemption 3. Ricketts has been named in press articles about what players expect from one. On 9 December 2021, Alisa Eiber, writing for the German edition of EarlyGame, considered him the most likely protagonist among three candidates, as a famous gunslinger whose story would take the series back to an earlier period of the Old West. On 26 July 2026, the Brazilian site Ei Nerd! (Vinicius Miranda) reported that fans favored him as a protagonist for a game set in his prime, while stressing that there was no official confirmation.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), set in 1899, never shows Ricketts but refers to him several times, besides the two mission lines listed above. A cigarette card of the Famous Gunslingers set shows him as a younger man; it lies on a barrel behind the house facing the undertaker in Armadillo. The newspaper article "Cigarette Cards Give Fame to Murderers", printed in the Blackwater Ledger, the New Hanover Gazette and the Saint Denis Times, describes the Falcon Claw tobacco set and says the Butcher Brothers featured in it ran afoul of the legendary gunslinger Landon Ricketts. John can also mention him during a poker game in camp.

Ricketts also appears in the dime novel Wild West Heroes, No. 132, titled "Mexican Ballad of Blood", found on a nightstand in the main bedroom of Downes Ranch. In its chapter VII, the gunslinger Jim "Boy" Calloway, wearing a deputy's badge, creeps through a Mexican camp to reach a besieged fort. His knife is shot out of his hand, he is knocked down, and Ricketts holds a Schofield Revolver on him. He tells Calloway that the general he nearly killed hates the outlaw holed up in the fort as much as he does. He also says the line about jumping from one side of the fence to the other that he tells John in "The Mexican Wagon Train". The book is one Arthur can give to Jack.

Red Dead Online

Ricketts is neither seen nor named in Red Dead Online. One of its passive ability cards, Landon's Patience, unlocked at rank 18, refers to him: its damage bonus grows with the time left between two shots, up to 15 seconds.

Red Dead Redemption multiplayer

Two versions of Ricketts are playable in the multiplayer mode of Red Dead Redemption. The Undead Nightmare pack of 2010 added Zombie Ricketts, an undead version of the character, in the Zombies section of the Outfitter. The Myths and Mavericks Bonus Pack then added the living Ricketts in the Revolution section. A Rockstar Newswire post of July 27, 2011, which set a September release window, already named him as a playable character. The pack was released free on September 13, 2011 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with eight new character models, among them Javier Escuella, Uncle, Nastas and Vincente de Santa.

The characters of the Myths and Mavericks pack, Ricketts among them, have only seven taunts, against more for almost every other multiplayer character. His multiplayer lines come from the story mode (see Development and performance). The versions of Red Dead Redemption released on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on August 17, 2023, then on PC on October 29, 2024, contain the story and Undead Nightmare but not the multiplayer mode, so neither Ricketts model is available in them.

Marketing

Rockstar released official artwork of Ricketts for Red Dead Redemption, and a promotional screenshot showing him with John. For Undead Nightmare, an official artwork shows him as one of the undead. The expansion's official trailer includes a shortened line from the start of "Biographies and Lies": "I have never seen anything quite like this." Promotional images of Myths and Mavericks show Ricketts in a shootout at Nekoti Rock in which he kills Javier Escuella, in a Gang Shootout at Gaptooth Breach with Uncle and Nastas, and in a Stronghold match at Beecher's Hope with Uncle, Eli and Jonah. Ricketts was also shown on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PlayStation Store to promote the Legends and Killers pack of August 10, 2010, although he is not in it: that pack's eight characters come from Red Dead Revolver.

Red Dead Redemption

• When the camera widens as John sits down at the poker table in "Lucky in Love", a few playing cards can be seen on Ricketts's right thigh, under the table.
• In "Landon Ricketts Rides Again", if John sets off on horseback and then jumps onto the train on the way, Ricketts comments on it, for example: "So much for my relaxing train ride. Did you really miss me that much?"
• In "The Mexican Wagon Train", Ricketts reproaches John for working for both sides of the war even if the player has done none of the missions of Vincente de Santa, Luisa Fortuna or Abraham Reyes.
• In "Lucky in Love", Ricketts sometimes says that he knows the young woman the Stranger holds hostage, a warning to the player not to hit her.
• In "Wolves, Dogs and Sons" (Red Dead Redemption 2), John tells Jack that his tense back is making the rifle jump. Ricketts gives John the same advice in "The Gunslinger's Tragedy".

Undead Nightmare (non-canon)

• Undead that reach Casa Madrugada, for example during a Missing Persons mission, ignore Ricketts, and he ignores them in return.
• After "Biographies and Lies", Ricketts sits on a chair in Casa Madrugada. He turns on John if a bullet hits his hat or a bottle beside him. Killing him at that point changes nothing: the story goes on, and the town remains a safe zone. Like Amos in the main game, he can survive a Cattleman Revolver shot to the face.
• Some undead in the expansion use a zombified lookalike of Ricketts, without his hat, and can appear among the hordes anywhere in the world, even before he is met alive in "Biographies and Lies". Bolters and Retchers use this model, the Retchers with differences in design.