[Johnny1A.2]

HENRY SHERIDAN McCORD
a.ka. ‘The Collector’, ‘Iron Henry’.

CHARACTER SHEET CIRCA ~1926
NICKNAME: ‘The Collector’

BORN: October 12 1870
HAIR: Gray
EYES: Brown
HEIGHT: 5’11”

IQ: 13
DX: 10
ST: 12
HT: 9

APPEARANCE: Average
WEALTH: Filthy Rich
REPUTATION: successful businessman (to most), greedy capitalist exploiter (to some), obsessive collector of esoteric items (to a few)

ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES
Alertness 1
Charisma 1
Common Sense
Strong Will 1
Ally (‘James Davis’, almost all the time, very capable)
Ally Group (Personal ‘operatives, 10 men, almost all the time, capable)
Favors/Contacts (multiple, from many people) (about 50 points worth)
Bad Back (lesser)
Bad Sight (nearsighted, correctable with glasses)
Code of Honor: (personal hybrid, businessman/pirate)*
Greed
Intolerance (1/2) (unionists, socialists, most academics, pacifists, social democrats, free marketers)
Agoraphobic (minor)
Stubborn
Enemies (many, some secret, some very capable) (about 75 points worth)
Secrets (illegal actions during career, affairs, some ‘esoteric’ secrets) (about 50 points worth)

QUIRKS
1. Night owl, prefers to sleep by day.
2. Always carries a hidden knife.
3. Refuses to travel by plane (or other means of flight).
4. Keeps emergency reserves of cash hidden in various places.
5. Sleeps in hidden bedroom (concealed door) in mansion.

SKILLS:
Animal Handling 12
Riding (Horse) 10
Teamster 12
Swimming 10
Writing 13
Brawling 12
Gun (TL6) 10
Knife 10
Accounting 14
Administration 14
Fast-talk 13
Merchant 14
Savoir-faire 12
Detect Lies 13
Streetwise 13

AREA KNOWLEDGES
New York City 14
New York State 10
Brent, KS 12

HIDDEN LORES
Atlantis and the Antediluvian Age and Antediluvian Artifacts: 8
Organized Crime (NYC area): 11
Bootleg Alcohol Business: 11
Social and Business Secrets (NYC community) 12

Henry Sheridan McCord was born on October 12th, 1870, on a farm outside the small town of Brent, Kansas. His parents named him after his maternal grandfather and also general Phil Sheridan, under whom his father had served during the American Civil War. He grew up on a cattle farm, learned to ride a horse at the age of six, learned to use a gun by the age of nine, and developed a reputation as something of a local
‘hellion’ by the time he was fourteen.

At the age of sixteen, he left Brent after the death of an acquaintance of his own age, supposedly as a result of a misfired accident with his own gun. Suspicion fell on McCord, though there was no proof of anything untoward, in part because of the locally well-known fact that both young men were courting the same girl at the time. McCord stoutly denied any involvement, but left his home town shortly afterward.

(In actual fact, McCord had been involved, though the death was accidental. The two young men, as well as some of the other local teens, had been out riding, and an argument had broken out while McCord and his rival were out of sight. A scuffle ensued, and in the struggle the gun of the other young man discharged, killing him. McCord was horrified, but the circumstances and his quick mind enabled him to make the matter look like an ‘ordinary’ accident with no involvement on his part.)

McCord joined the U.S. Army (at the age of 16), and spent the next seven years in the military, much of it assigned to the western frontier. He took some limited part in the last stages of the Indian Wars, and he also discovered that with cleverness and care it was quite possible to ‘supplement’ his pay by various means, some of them even entirely above board, many of them shadier. When he left the Army in 1893, he traveled (on a whim) to New York City, and there, over the course of ten years, he went from near-penury to success in three different business ventures.

By the time McCord was forty years old, in 1910, he was a millionaire several times over.

To Be Continued...