Micah Bell

In 1899, Micah has shoulder-length blond hair, along with a thick horseshoe mustache and side-whiskers. Micah is 5'10, has a beer belly, fat to his chest, though is relatively average in weight, and is slightly portly and often wears an undone black leather coat, a red or black shirt accompanied by a red vest, a blue neckerchief, beige trousers, and a white hat. He's also seen sporting a short-tailed, buttoned-up leather coat during chapter 2 and promotional artwork. In cold temperatures, he is instead seen with a long brown leather coat, while in warmer climates he's seen without a jacket and just his red shirt. Micah is armed with a pair of custom Double-action Revolvers with "Vengeance is hereby mine" engraved into the barrel, sporting dark grey frames and grips that are painted red and black in a skull-like design, which he uses with immense skill.

Micah is considered to be perverse, wild and unpredictable, even by the Van der Linde gang's standards. He is said to enjoy the action in his life, going as far as shooting what Arthur claims to be half the town of Strawberry in order to reclaim his prized revolvers. In spite of his brash nature, Micah is an experienced criminal and hitman, earning him the favor of Dutch himself. Micah has a poor relationship with most of the gang members, as he frequently antagonizes and bullies them, sometimes going as far as making colorful threats to those he dislikes (with Dutch being virtually the only person he does not antagonize). Besides Dutch, Micah also tries to get Arthur's trust and approval initially, despite Arthur openly disliking him, viewing him as selfish, untrustworthy, and opportunistic. Arthur's fears are proven true later in the game, when Micah starts working as a mole for the Pinkertons after escaping from Guarma. When confronted with his disloyalty, Micah simply labels himself a survivor, showing no loyalty to anyone but himself and highlighting his self-serving, every-man-for-himself attitude to life. Observing his interactions in camp reveals his outlook to be a profoundly nihilistic one; he openly states his disbelief in the concept of right and wrong, seeing no true meaning to life, seemingly a justification for how he approaches things. Like Arthur, Micah seems to be aware that he is an immoral person, stating that if damnation was real, he'd "feel right at home there". Nevertheless, in contrast to Arthur, he has no remorse for the things he has done and makes no effort to redeem himself.

Bell is purposely vague and mysterious about his past, though he does mention that his father taught him that "sympathy is for the weak" and that the United States is a survival of the fittest, Darwinist, dog-eat-dog world.

Micah Bell, officially Micah Bell III, was born circa 1860 to Micah Bell Jr., a ruthless and petty outlaw. The life of crime was common in his family, with Micah's paternal grandfather also being a outlaw. When Micah was 17, in 1877, he and his father were on the run for the brutal double homicide of Roscoe and Jean Briggs, who were hung from the rafters with their throats slit.[1] It can be assumed that he was his father's partner-in-crime throughout his upbringing, although evidence suggests that he also ran with his brother, Amos, for a time. Micah would later have a falling out with Amos, who, by 1899, is repentant of his actions and lives in California with his wife and daughters, whilst making it clear to Micah that he wants no contact with him, threatening to kill him if he's anywhere near himself and his family.[2]

Micah became acquainted with two outlaws named Cleet and Joe at some point during his criminal career, and also mentions being involved in a failed bank robbery down south with a man named Norman.

Around December of 1898,[3] Micah met Dutch van der Linde at a bar in a town in the Grizzlies named Crenshaw Hills. Dutch had tried to sell gold that his gang had recently stolen, but the deal went sour, leading to an altercation in which Micah stepped in and saved Dutch's life.[4] As a result, Micah was accepted into the Van der Linde gang. Despite being an experienced outlaw who was respected for his skill in combat, Micah was generally disliked within the gang; in particular, Arthur, John and Hosea saw him as argumentative, reckless and hotheaded, with Dutch alone taking a liking to him.[5]

After five months, Micah set his sights on a ferry in Blackwater as a potential robbery. Although Arthur and Hosea had their own lead, Dutch instead chose Micah's option, which promised a bigger reward but was also riskier. The heist turned out to be a complete disaster, however, and a huge gun battle with the Pinkertons ensued. Due to this, the gang was forced to flee and eventually managed to lose the law by entering a blizzard on the snowy mountains of Ambarino. Unfortunately, both Jenny Kirk and Davey Callander were fatally injured and Mac Callander was captured and killed by Pinkertons.