Jaycee Woods

The Butcher as a character has an origin in my conception of him that explains why I try to make him an unlikeable character that readers may hopefully grow to at least understand if not sympathize with. In my mind, there are four major inspirations for aspects of the character.

Forty years ago, I had a character for a never completed story; he was named Law, but was evil in his methods. He was a tyrant attempting to achieve order and peace while beset by an encroaching rebellion against his evil acts. The story centered on him with the intent of having the readers sympathize with him and his desired ends as heroes overthrew him. It was like a mirror on the reader’s capacity to cheer for evil empowered instead of recognizing their own error. While I did not know it at that time, the goal had a flavor of Eugene Ionesco’s play “Rhinoceros.”

Another inspiration was John Roe O’Neill from Frank Herbert’s novel The White Plague. O’Neill’s wife and children were killed in an IRA car bomb. In response, he developed and unleashed a biological weapon that kills women. For Gideon Sheridan (aka The Butcher), his is a different although similar answer to the same question, “How might a man respond to such a personal tragedy?” Concrete elements of his backstory, the death of his wife & child in a rebel terrorist car bomb, are like O’Neill’s, but Sheridan’s response is substantially different while not approaching the level of death O’Neill exacted.

The third inspiration is historical: Tamerlane (aka Timur), a 14th century Turco-Mongol conqueror. His reputation for brutality was such that cities would surrender at the sight of his army. In my Boudica and The Butcher, the former professor turned military commander Gideon Sheridan intentionally builds through his brutality a reputation like Tamerlane’s in his effort to end the civil war. In part, The Butcher is a critique of military historian John Keegan’s concept of the ritualization of war.

Finally, I used Philip Sheridan as inspiration which is why I chose that last name for the character (note that Philip Sheridan had children but no further descendants). While others might go for Grant or Sherman, I opted for the Civil War general who put the Valley to the torch, to destroy the Confederate breadbasket, and led the US Army during the violent pacification of the Indians in the West. Like the historical Sheridan, Gideon although in his 30s rises quickly through brevet promotions during a bloody civil war.