Hollis Crane

Nicknames: None. He insists on being addressed by his proper name and title.
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Occupation: Deputy Sheriff, Doña Ana County, New Mexico Territory
Age: 38
Relationship Status: Widowed

Hollis Crane is a wiry man with dark eyes that often squint, making him look like he's either angry or calculating. His dark hair is generally kept long. He tends to be well dressed - his coat well pressed, boots well polished, and his hat kept free of dust.

Face claim: Aaron Poole

Polite – Hollis never raises his voice. He'll tell you exactly how he's going to destroy your life in the same calm tone he'd use to discuss the weather.
Controlling – Everything has its proper place in Hollis's world. He genuinely believes he's bringing civilization to this godforsaken territory, one legal document at a time.
Calculating – Why shoot a man when you can bury him in paperwork? He'd rather bankrupt you than put a bullet in you.
Ambitious – He's always got his eye on the next rung up the ladder: Sheriff, territorial judge, or something bigger back east.
Aloof – Hollis maintains a cold, professional distance from almost everyone.
Fondness for Strays - He's got a peculiar weakness for mangy dogs. He slip scraps to mutts behind the jail when he thinks nobody's looking.

• Respect. He'll settle for fear. Just like his father commanded in Boston.
• The power to impose order and control to bring civilization to the frontier

• He's in the pocket of the Sierra Madre Mining & Exploration Company
• He writes detailed letters to his wife weekly describing his progress in taming the frontier

• Public humiliation.
• Chaos. Situations where he has no control.

1836 - Hollis Elias Crane is born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of a successful merchant. He is raised with the belief that a well-ordered society and personal prosperity are inseparable.

Late 1850s - He completes his education, becoming a young and ambitious lawyer in Boston, focused on corporate and financial law.

1861-1865 - During the Civil War, Hollis avoids military service. Instead, he uses his legal skills to work for the Union war effort, managing contracts and supply logistics. This experience confirms his belief that bureaucracy and manipulation of the law are the true sources of power.

1866 - After the war, he joins the Pinkerton Detective Agency, seeing it as a way to enforce order and use his skills in a new capacity.

1867 - He meets and marries Eleanor, a kind and intelligent woman who sees past his cold ambition.

1869 - While investigating a volatile labor dispute, Hollis fails to prevent a violent riot. His wife, Eleanor, is killed in the chaos. This event completely hardens him, as he blames his own "softness" for her death.

1870 - Desperate for revenge and justice, Hollis falsifies evidence to secure a conviction against the riot's ringleader. The public scandal that follows leads to his quiet but humiliating dismissal from the Pinkerton Agency.

1871 - Hollis leaves Boston and heads west, seeking a remote place where his past is unknown. He views the frontier as a chaotic landscape ripe for a man who knows how to control it.

1872 - He arrives in the New Mexico Territory and is deputized by an overstretched and corrupt Doña Ana County Sheriff.

1874 - He begins to align himself with the newly arrived Sierra Madre Mining & Exploration Company, seeing them as the future of the region and the path to his own lasting power and wealth. Though alliances may just shift with the arrival of the Cimarron Railroad Company to the area.