GTA 5GTA 6RDR2RDR1
Account
EN
EnglishENPortuguรชsPTEspaรฑolESTรผrkรงeTRPolskiPLะ ัƒััะบะธะนRUDeutschDEFranรงaisFRItalianoITุงู„ุนุฑุจูŠุฉAR
outlawdb

Red Dead Redemption 2

StoryMissionsStrangersCharactersGangs
The worldMapHorsesWeaponsAnimalsHuntingBusinessesCollectibles
ReferenceChallengesGuidesCheatsTrophies
All gangs
Skinner Brothers, Led by Otis Skinner
Active

Skinner Brothers

Led by Otis Skinner

Active (c. 1907)1 member

Skinner Brothers operates around Grizzlies East, with 1 named member.

Leaders
Otis Skinner
Status
Active (c. 1907)
Territory
Grizzlies East, Ambarino (c. 1898), Tall Trees, West Elizabeth (1905-1907)
Affiliations
Strange Man (possibly)

Player notes

The Skinner Brothers are nomadic killers and scavengers who prey on animals and people, taking over crude camps or making their own as they move. They show little interest in money and live apart from settled society, wearing ragged clothing and often heavy, unkempt beards. Their attacks are marked by torture and mutilation, including scalping, flaying and dismemberment. In 1898, they can be encountered in Ambarino during Red Dead Online. By 1905, they have reached Tall Trees in West Elizabeth.

Charles Smith says the Skinners have been terrorizing Tall Trees for about two years when John Marston begins building Beecher's Hope. In "The Tool Box", they ambush John, Charles and the hired workers outside Manzanita Post. The men drive them away, then find their guard Willard Wayne dead with a knife in his eye. Charles buries Willard before he, John and Uncle return to Beecher's Hope to begin work on the ranch.

The Skinners strike again after the house is completed in "Uncle's Bad Day", taking Uncle and burning his back over a fire. John and Charles track the gang to its camp, kill the captors and bring Uncle home. Charles believes the losses will keep them away from the ranch. John can later pursue Otis Skinner and Elias Green as bounties, killing them or delivering them alive to Blackwater, where captives are hanged. The gang remains active around 1907.

Trivia

  • โ—†The Skinner Brothers perform sadistic acts on their victims similar to that of the Murfree Brood gang which are located in Roanoke Ridge, as well as the Night Folk, found across Bayou Nwa and Bluewater Marsh in Lemoyne. All three gangs horrifically mutilate, torture and murder their victims and often attack and kill people seemingly just for the enjoyment of it.
  • โ—†Many members of the Skinner Brothers wear similar clothing to Dutch's Gang in Red Dead Redemption; some are also of native origin, which further adds to the similarities. Additionally, the Skinners are endemic to Tall Trees, which is where Dutch is mentioned to have been sighted and later operates his gang in.
  • โ—†Unlike other outlaw gangs, the Skinner Brothers don't have a main hideout that players can attack.
  • โ—†The Skinner Brothers are unique in they are the only characters besides Charles Smith, Eagle Flies, the Night Folk and the player character to use bows - many of their victims are seen with multiple arrows embedded into them and they often fight the player using bows rather than guns. Aside from this, their camps can be recognized by gruesome decorations, such as hanging corpses, mutilated bodies, scattered human parts, and blood trails.
  • โ—†In addition to the rogue hunters, the Skinner brothers have a large number of Indians (probably exiled from their tribes) who see many of them and use their bows.
  • โ—†If the player kills a lot of the Skinner Brothers in Red Dead Redemption 2, they will actually fear the player, who can overhear them sharing their worries in their enemy camps, saying things such as "He can slit us in our sleep for all we know".
  • โ—†The Skinner Brothers are most likely based on the Harpe brothers, a pair of serial killers and gang members from the early American frontier, who also mutilated their victims.
  • โ—†Borodin's Gang, encountered in the Yukon Nik Borodin legendary bounty mission in Red Dead Online share the same PED models and dialogue as members of the Skinner Brothers.
  • โ—†Despite Charles Smith's comment in "Uncle's Bad Day" stating that the gang arrived in Tall Trees two years prior to 1907, they can be encountered as enemies in the region as well as the Great Plains in Red Dead Online.
  • โ—†In the telegram mission "Strange Tales of The Wilderness," they have a very large fort in Tall Trees. It does not appear outside of the mission, despite it's large size.
  • โ—†If one can overhear the Skinners' conversations without being noticed, as well as through special mods (thanks to a player who is investigating the game's mysteries), it becomes clear that their actions, although brutal, are also being directed by someone, even though they are consciously committing their crimes. For example, they talk about a "man in a hat" who is not always pleased with their "harvest," and they try to please him. If this is likely to be the Strange Man, it suggests that he has influenced or enchanted them to hunt humans. (It is possible that they were early trappers, but now they have changed their "target" for hunting, just like the former residents of Bayou Nwa, who became members of the "Night Gang" and did not touch the hut of a Strange Man.)

Named members

1
All characters

The members with pages of their own are linked. The rest are named by the wiki but have no article to point at.

Elias Greenย 

Last verified September 14, 2026