Mr. Marston (Father) ✝

Unnamed Mother ✝

Abigail Marston (Wife)

Jack Marston (Son)

Unnamed Daughter ✝

Rufus (Dog)

Uncle

John Marston was born in 1873 in the northern United States, into a world that would never offer him much kindness. His father was an illiterate Scottish immigrant who had been born aboard a ship bound for New York, a man who carried Scotland in his heart but could never quite find his place in America. His mother, a prostitute, died during childbirth, leaving John to grow up without ever knowing her face.

For a time, John lived with his father, a deeply sentimental man who often spoke of his homeland with longing. But life had other plans. His father was blinded during a bar fight south of Chicago and later died when John was only eight years old. The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear, John was only told that it had been a result of the fight, but the details were always vague, as if even the truth had been lost to the past.

With no family left to care for him, John was sent to an orphanage, where he spent the next several years. It was a cold, unlovely place and John never felt that he belonged. He left at last, trying to survive on his own in the streets, a boy with only his wits and a growing anger at the world.

At the age of eleven, John committed his first murder. He shot a man, though he always insisted it was not his fault. Whether it was self defence or an accident, the weight of that act would stay with him for the rest of his life.

In 1885, twelve year old John was caught stealing by homesteaders in Illinois. They intended to hang him, a harsh but common punishment for a boy who had no one to speak for him.

But fate intervened.

Dutch van der Linde showed up, saved John’s life and gave him what he never really had, a family. John was taken in by the Van der Linde Gang, becoming a member alongside Dutch, Hosea Matthews, Arthur Morgan, and Susan Grimshaw. To John they were more than outlaws, they were a surrogate family.

Dutch was mentor, teacher, father. He taught John to read, to shoot, to hunt and gather and to love the natural world. There had never been anyone in John’s life who believed in him. Never a place where he truly fit in.

As John grew older, he became a skilled and experienced outlaw. Alongside Dutch, Hosea, Arthur, Bill Williamson, Javier Escuella, and others, he took part in robberies, raids, kidnappings, and murders across the American frontier.

Together with Arthur Morgan, John was considered one of Dutch's greatest protégés. Many members of the gang believed John was Dutch's favourite, the "golden boy" of the Van der Linde Gang. But that status came with its own weight, and John often felt the pressure of Dutch's expectations.

In 1894, Abigail Roberts joined the Van der Linde Gang. Though she had relationships with several members of the gang, she eventually fell in love with John. Their relationship was complicated, John was not always present, and he struggled to commit, but together, they had a son in 1895, whom they named Jack.

Jack quickly became beloved throughout the camp. Most gang members treated him as family, and the boy grew up surrounded by outlaws who would have given their lives to protect him.

But for John, fatherhood was not easy. At first, he had trouble relating to his son, not knowing how to be the father he never had. It would take years of reflection, pain, and growth for John to truly embrace his role as a parent.

As the years passed, the gang continued to grow. New members such as Micah Bell, Lenny Summers, and Charles Smith joined their ranks as they traveled through the Grizzlies around 1898.

Eventually, they arrived in the rapidly expanding town of Blackwater and decided to remain there for a time. The town represented everything they were running from and everything they hoped to take, a final score that would set them all up for life.

But Micah Bell, ever the provocateur, encouraged Dutch to organise a ferry robbery. The plan seemed simple, but it quickly spiralled out of control and became one of the most infamous events in the gang's history.

John Marston's life was one of tragedy and redemption. His story is a testament to the strength of loyalty, love and the search for a better life, from an orphaned boy on the streets to one of the most feared outlaws in the West. But no matter how hard he tried to escape his past, the ghosts of his actions would not leave him alone, and in the end they caught up with him.

He was a man that wanted to change, but the world would not let him. And that is maybe the cruelest part of his story.