Blood Meridian Characters

A member of Glanton’s gang, from Missouri. Along with Henderson Smith, he is the first to exit the Nacori cantina after a rocket explodes in the street outside.

A member of Glanton’s gang, from Missouri. Along with John Dorsey, he is the first to exit the Nacori cantina after a rocket explodes in the street outside. He is later killed by the Yumas who raid the gang’s ferry on the Colorado River.

A member of Glanton’s gang, Grimley is stabbed by a drunk in the Nacori cantina.

A member of Glanton’s gang, Gunn helps Glanton in coordinating the gang’s escape from the town of Jesús María. He is later killed by the Yumas who raid the gang’s ferry on the Colorado River.

Along with Frank Carroll, leaves the town of Jesús María to join Glanton’s gang, only to desert by the time the gang reaches Ures.

After falling ill and being left behind in Ures by his gold-seeking companions, Sloat joins Glanton’s gang. He dies soon thereafter, as a consequence of one of the gang’s skirmishes with General Elias’s army.

A member of Glanton’s gang, Harlan is assigned by lottery to kill one of the four men wounded by General Elias’s army, but a Delaware does Harlan’s killing in his place.

A member of Glanton’s gang, he shoots one of the two hermits the gang encounters in the church at San José de Tumacacori.

A member of Glanton’s gang. Miller’s horse is gored by a wild bull living on a ruined estate at San Bernardino. Disgusted, Miller shoots both animals.

A member of Glanton’s gang. During the gang’s flight from General Elias’s army, Gilchrist is sent out as a scout, never to return. He is found along with the other scouts days later dead and hideously mutilated, hanging from a tree.

A member of Glanton’s gang, Carr accompanies Toadvine and the kid across the Colorado River to cut willow poles.

A member of Glanton’s gang and David Brown’s brother.

A member of Glanton’s gang,he is killed by the Yumas who raid the gang’s ferry on the Colorado River.

A Missourian and member of Captain White’s army, Earl goes out into Bexar with the kid and a second corporal for a night of drinking. That night Earl gets into drunken quarrels, and the next morning he is found dead in a courtyard.

A member of Captain White’s army, Hayward prays for rain in the desert. He probably dies when the Comanches massacre White’s army.

The translator in Captain White’s army, probably Mexican. Candelario probably dies when the Comanches massacre White’s army.

A Mexican general and Conservative leader in the War of Reform, General Zuloaga receives Glanton, the Judge, and the brothers David and Charlie Brown at his hacienda outside of the town of Corralitos, where they all dine together and pass the night without incident.

A Mexican general, probably dispatched by the Governor of Sonora, Elias leads an army consisting of some five hundred units of Sonoran cavalry against Glanton’s gang. Elias succeeds in driving the gang out of Mexico for good.

The leader of the Apaches who are plaguing Chihuahua. Though Governor Trias offers Glanton’s gang one thousand dollars for Gómez’s head, the scalp hunters fail to kill him.

An Apache tribal chief. After Glanton’s horse bites the ear of an Apache’s horse outside of Tucson, Mangas demands that the gang provide restitution in the form of a barrel of whiskey. The gang does so, albeit rather cheatingly.

The one-eyed leader of the Yumas. He conspires with Glanton’s gang to seize Lincoln’s ferry, but is betrayed by the gang. In retribution, he orchestrates a raid on the ferry, resulting in the gang’s destruction; Caballo en Pelo slaughters Glanton personally.

One of the three Yuma leaders who conspire with Glanton’s gang to seize Lincoln’s ferry

The leader of a band of Apaches being hunted by the Sonoran Colonel Garcia; also one of the three Yuma leaders who conspire with Glanton’s gang to seize Lincoln’s ferry.

The commander of the garrison in Tucson. After Owens is murdered in his eating-house, Couts attempts to arrest the wrongdoer, whom he knows to be a member of Glanton’s gang. However, the Judge successfully defends the gang from all charges of wrongdoing.

Leads a company of U.S. soldiers from Kentucky. After refusing to barter with Glanton for ferried passage over the Colorado River, Patterson has a ferry constructed downriver, later appropriated by the Yumas.

A man staying in the hotel in Nacogdoches, Texas, and an enemy of Louis Toadvine for reasons not explained. Toadvine and the kid team up to smoke Sidney out of his room and pulverize him, burning down the hotel in the process.

A Jewish arms dealer from Prussia, Speyer sells Glanton some four-dozen Colt revolvers on the outskirts of Chihuahua City.

A man whom Glanton’s gang encounters in Tucson, Cloyce keeps his developmentally disabled brother, generally called "the idiot," in a filthy cage and exhibits him for money.

A farrier in Tucson, Pacheco uses for his anvil an “enormous iron meteorite” on which the Judge tests his strength. The judge successfully throws it.

A woman who, at Lincoln’s ferry crossing, shames Cloyce Bell for keeping his brother, "the idiot," in a cage. She bathes the "idiot" in the Colorado River and orders that his cage be burnt.

Operates the ferry appropriated by the Yumas after General Patterson builds and abandons it. Murdered and decapitated, probably by Glanton’s gang.

A soldier in San Diego who brings the jailed David Brown supper. Brown bribes Petit to free him, and with some hesitation Petit does so. As the two men ride out of San Diego, Brown shoots Petit in the back of the head.

The anonymous and mysterious man in the epilogue who uses a steel instrument to make holes in the ground and strike fire in them. Is he a hero rising up with fire against the Judge’s dream of eternal night rife with war?