by Robin Furth
Not only was Beelie the location of the stockade, but it was also a hanging ground. Beelie’s hangings were like carnivals, complete with jugglers and booths and dogfights. Many of those who came to witness the executions brought picnic lunches and made a day of it. Five years after the close of the stockade and the departure of the militia, Beelie died a final death. Since the town was no longer protected by fighting men, harriers tore through it. Some say that the harriers worked for JOHN FARSON. By the time ROLAND DESCHAIN and JAMIE DeCURRY began their search for any tattooed SALTIES who spent time in BEELIE STOCKADE, the stockade had been closed for ten years.
CANNIBAL WHO ATE HIS WIFE: This hungry fellow was hanged for his crime. W:103
CARD CHEADS: W:102
CIRCUIT JUDGE: Once upon a bye, the circuit judge sent thieves, murderers, and card cheats to BEELIE STOCKADE. According to PICKENS, he sent witches and warlocks here too. W:102
HARRIERS WHO TORE THROUGH IT: After the MILITIA left BEELIE STOCKADE, these harriers tore through the town. Some people say that the harriers were JOHN FARSON’s MEN. W:102
MILITIA: Once upon a bye, there was a militia outpost in BEELIE, and the BEELIE STOCKADE was their place of business. W:102, W:103
MURDERERS: W:102
THIEVES: W:102
WITCHES AND WARLOCKS: According to the CIRCUIT JUDGE, practicing magic was a crime. Hence, he sent witches and warlocks to the BEELIE STOCKADE. W:102
BEEMAN
See CAN-TOI
BEEMER, CHARLIE
See MAINE CHARACTERS
BEEMER, RHODA
See MAINE CHARACTERS
BEEMER, RUTH
See MAINE CHARACTERS
BEESFORD-ON-ARTEN, CHARACTERS
See FARSON: FARSON SUPPORTERS; see also DESCHAIN, GABRIELLE
BENDS O’ THE RAINBOW
See MAERLYN’S RAINBOW
BENZYCK, OFFICER (BENZYCK O’ THE WATCH)
Benzyck is a rather chubby officer of the law. Each day he gives a ticket to REVEREND EARL HARRIGAN (CHURCH OF THE HOLY GOD-BOMB) for parking illegally on the corner of SECOND AVENUE.
VI:258–59, VI:260 (Benzyck o’ the Watch), VI:313, VI:316, VI:319, VI:320
BERNARDO
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: OTHER CHARACTERS
BERNIE’S BARBER SHOP
See BALAZAR, ENRICO: BALAZAR’S MEN
BERNSTEIN, MRS.
See DEAN, EDDIE: EDDIE’S PAST ASSOCIATES
BERTOLLO, DORA
See DEAN, EDDIE: EDDIE’S PAST ASSOCIATES
BESSA
See GODS OF MID-WORLD
BESSIE
See DANDELO
BIBLICAL FIGURES (OUR WORLD)
See APPENDIX VI
BIG COFFIN HUNTERS
The Big Coffin Hunters (also known as REGULATORS) were the nasty harriers that Roland and his childhood friends CUTHBERT ALLGOOD and ALAIN JOHNS were forced to fight in HAMBRY. Their name came from the blue coffin-shaped tattoos located on the webbing between right thumb and forefinger. Although they initially hid their true allegiance from Roland and his friends, Roland’s ka-tet eventually found out that the Big Coffin Hunters worked for FARSON. Despite appearances, the Big Coffin Hunters held much of the power in MEJIS (much more than the mayor, HART THORIN) and were working to bring down the AFFILIATION.
In Wolves of the Calla, we find out that many of PERE CALLAHAN’s LOW MEN bear similar coffin-shaped tattoos. Evidently, this sinister insignia is a sigul of the CRIMSON KING. EDDIE DEAN believes that BALAZAR and his associates are our world’s version of the Big Coffin Hunters.
IV:65, IV:115–16, IV:142 (as harriers and outlaws), IV:144, IV:154–55 (hired by Rimer), IV:155 (coffin tattoo), IV:177, IV:214, IV:225, IV:228, IV:234, IV:260, IV:265–66 (tied to Vi Castas Mining Co.), IV:266 (regulator tattoos), IV:285, IV:290, IV:292, IV:301, IV:305, IV:327, IV:342, IV:344 (indirect reference), IV:347, IV:360, IV:374, IV:376, IV:424, IV:453, IV:468, IV:470, IV:472, IV:473, IV:487, IV:488, IV:498, IV:506, IV:508, IV:509, IV:546, IV:645, V:100, V:104, V:291, V:469, V:516
INDIVIDUAL BIG COFFIN HUNTERS:
DEPAPE, ROY: Roy Depape was a twenty-five-year-old redhead who wore gold-rimmed glasses. His laughter sounded like the braying of a loud donkey. Roy was obsessed with a fifteen-year-old whore named DEBORAH who wouldn’t give up working. This often put Roy in a foul humor. In fact, the standoff at The TRAVELLERS’ REST was the direct result of Depape’s black mood and his desire to vent his rage on innocent SHEEMIE. As punishment for the events at the Rest, ELDRED JONAS, leader of the Coffin Hunters, sent Depape to the town of RITZY. While there, Depape learned Roland’s true identity.
Although not particularly clever, Depape had plenty of spite in him. On Jonas’s orders, he killed HART THORIN and then framed Roland, CUTHBERT, and ALAIN for the murder. To incriminate the boys, he left both Cuthbert’s LOOKOUT and a drawing of FARSON’s sigul next to Thorin’s corpse. IV:65, IV:116, IV:119 (age), IV:141, IV:142 (indirect reference), IV:154–55, IV:172, IV:173, IV:175–76, IV:214–22 (Travellers’ Rest standoff. 214 blue coffins. 215 described), IV:224–32 (Travellers’ Rest standoff continued. 230 red hair, 231 glasses), IV:265–71 (goes to Ritzy and learns Roland’s identity), IV:271, IV:285, IV:286, IV:292 (red hair), IV:301, IV:305, IV:318, IV:347–49, IV:350, IV:352, IV:363, IV:371, IV:377, IV:378, IV:382, IV:385, IV:386, IV:403–5, IV:420–25, IV:451, IV:462–63, IV:472–73 (kills Thorin. Leaves Cuthbert’s Lookout and Farson’s sigul), IV:478, IV:480, IV:483–85, IV:487–93, IV:498–99, IV:503, IV:522, IV:528, IV:539, IV:542–46 (present for action), IV:553–57 (557 killed by Roland), VI:187, VI:242, VII:220
DEBORAH (GERT MOGGINS): Deborah (whose real name was Gert Moggins) was Depape’s fifteen-year-old whore. Deborah was also known as “Her Nibs,” “Her Majesty,” and “Roy’s Coronation Cunt.” Gert preferred to call herself a “cotton-gilly.” IV:173 (described), IV:214–15, IV:266, IV:447, IV:605
DEPAPE, AMOS: Brother of ROY DEPAPE. Roland thought he was stung to death by a snake. Actually, he was fucked to death by SUSANNAH DEAN’s demon possessor, MIA, who (while still a wraith) functioned as a kind of sexual VAMPIRE. VI:242
JONAS, ELDRED: Eldred Jonas was the leader of the Big Coffin Hunters. He was a failed gunslinger who was lamed in one leg by CORT’s father, FARDO, in GILEAD. Like other failed gunslingers, limping Jonas was sent west, and in bitterness he forsook the WHITE and took up the cause of JOHN FARSON and the OUTER DARK.
Jonas had tufted eyebrows, long silky white hair, and a white mustache. Often described as a white-haired wolf, he seemed to have held some palaver with the MANNI since he knew about travel between worlds. Jonas’s back was covered with scars which he said were inflicted in GARLAN. We don’t know why. Jonas became CORAL THORIN’s lover. Roland killed him after taking MAERLYN’S GRAPEFRUIT from him. I:86, IV:65, IV:115–17 (described), IV:119, IV:121, IV:130 (indirect reference), IV:141, IV:142, IV:154 (described), IV:155, IV:172–78 (failed gunslinger. 175 travels through “special doors” to other worlds!), IV:191–210 (Thorin’s party. 195–97 described; 206–8; 209), IV:211, IV:213 (called “Il Spectro”), IV:214, IV:220, IV:221–22 (joins standoff at Travellers’ Rest), IV:224–32 (227 with Sheriff Avery; 230–32 Big Coffin Hunters’ palaver), IV:235, IV:245, IV:249, IV:266, IV:269, IV:270, IV:271, IV:285, IV:286, IV:292, IV:301, IV:318, IV:327, IV:328–29 (with Cordelia), IV:330, IV:331, IV:336, IV:342, IV:347–53 (349 tufted eyebrows), IV:356, IV:358, IV:362–64, IV:367–68, IV:371–74 (Cordelia tells him about Roland and Susan), IV:375–80 (as white-haired wolf; 380 finds rook’s skull!), IV:384–87, IV:388, IV:390–92 (defaces Bar K), IV:393–94 (defacement continued), IV:399–400, IV:401, IV:403–8 (sent west by Fardo), IV:411, IV:420–25, IV:434, IV:443, IV:448, IV:453, IV:456, IV:460, IV:466, IV:472, IV:473, IV:474, IV:478–80 (479 Roland reveals that Jonas is a failed gunslinger), IV:483–85, IV:487–93, IV:496, IV:500, IV:501, IV:502, IV:515, IV:519–23, IV:525 (mentioned), IV:527–29, IV:530, IV:532–35, IV:536, IV:537–46, IV:548, IV:553–60 (attacked by Roland’s ka-tet;
559 killed by Roland), IV:561–62, IV:570, IV:579, IV:586, IV:592, IV:628, IV:645, IV:646, IV:649, IV:664, E:195, V:187, VI:242, VII:175, VII:297, VII:336
REYNOLDS, CLAY: Although not as sly as JONAS, Clay Reynolds—the final member of the Coffin Hunter ka-tet—was smarter than ROY DEPAPE. Although he walked with his left foot turned in, Reynolds was a vain womanizer who liked to swirl his fancy silk-lined cloak. He was either a redhead (see IV:173 and IV:537) or black-haired (IV:226).
Along with CORAL THORIN, Reynolds was one of the few of Roland’s enemies to escape HAMBRY alive. Clay and Coral became lovers and formed a gang of professional bank robbers. Their gang was eventually trapped by a sheriff in the town of OAKLEY. Reynolds ended up dancing the hanged man’s jig. IV:65, IV:116, IV:119, IV:141, IV:142 (indirect reference), IV:154–55, IV:173–78 (173 red hair), IV:214–22 (Travellers’ Rest standoff), IV:224–32 (standoff continued. 226 black hair), IV:245, IV:265, IV:269, IV:270, IV:272, IV:292, IV:298 (tracks and left foot), IV:301, IV:347–49 (more intelligent than Depape), IV:352, IV:363–64, IV:367–68, IV:371, IV:377, IV:378, IV:383, IV:385–86, IV:404, IV:420–25, IV:451–52, IV:470–71 (stabs Rimer), IV:480, IV:483–85, IV:487–93, IV:521–23, IV:527–29, IV:532–35, IV:537–46, IV:548–49, IV:558, IV:565–70 (Sheemie follows Reynolds and Susan), IV:585–87, IV:603–8 (puts rope around Susan’s neck. Present as she burns), IV:623 (Bank robber and Coral Thorin’s lover. Both killed), V:187
LITTLE COFFIN HUNTERS: This is the term HAMBRY folk used for Roland’s ka-tet. Needless to say, Roland didn’t like it much. IV:260, IV:287
BIG SKY DADDY
See GODS OF MID-WORLD
BILLY-BUMBLERS/THROCKEN (GENERAL INFORMATION)
A billy-bumbler looks like a cross between a raccoon, a woodchuck, and a dachshund. Bumblers have black-and-gray-striped fur and lovely gold-ringed eyes. Although they sometimes wag their tails like dogs, they are much more intelligent than canines. Before the world moved on, every barony castle in MID-WORLD kept a dozen or so. They were excellent ratters and sheep herders.
In the days they lived with men, bumblers could parrot the words they heard; some could even count and add. By the time Roland draws his American ka-tet into Mid-World, most bumblers wander the land in wild but harmless packs. Few remember their old skills, though Jake’s pet OY does.
According to BIX, the ferryman whom we meet in The Wind Through the Keyhole, a bumbler’s bright (or talent) is his ability to predict the coming of the terrible storm known as a STARKBLAST. In olden days, bumblers’ strange pre-storm behavior was often the only warning farmers had about this impending disaster. Several days before a starkblast was due to roll along the PATH OF THE BEAM, a bumbler would sit down and turn to face the direction of the coming storm. He would lift his nose to the wind, prick his ears, and curl his tail around himself. When the storm was about to blow, the throcken would begin turning in circles. This advance warning was urgently needed by farmers in places frequently hit by starkblasts, such as those living in the GREAT WOODS north of NEW CANAAN.
Because of their special talent, Bumblers play a large role in The Wind Through the Keyhole. In the folktale which young Roland recounts to the young BILL STREETER in DEBARIA’s JAIL, the youthful hero TIM ROSS met a throcket of bumblers in the forest beyond the FAGONARD. While traveling along the PATH OF THE BEAM toward the NORTH FOREST KINNOCK DOGAN, Tim spotted a half dozen of these pretty creatures sitting on a fallen ironwood tree, their snouts raised to the crescent moon, their eyes gleaming like jewels. Thanks to the warning given to him by the WIDOW SMACK, Tim understood that the bumblers’ behavior indicated that a deadly starkblast was on its way. Roland’s vivid description of these bumblers is drawn from a hand-colored woodcut which he remembers from his childhood days. It was one of a dozen well-loved illustrations from Magic Tales of the Eld, a book that his mother, GABRIELLE DESCHAIN, read to him when he was a boy.
III:18, III:159, III:164, III:220–22, III:253, III:327, W:3, W:4, W:5, W:7 (throcken), W:8, W:9, W:13, W:14 (throcken never wrong about starkblast), W:15, W:16, W:17, W:18, W:23 (Oy and starkblast), W:26, W:28, W:68 (and starkblast), W:151 (many bumblers is a throcket) W:166 (dancing throcken), W:218 (runs from light), W:220–21 (dancing throcken), W:224, W:225, W:226, W:227, W:232, W:305
See also OY
OLD GROOM FROM ROLAND’S YOUTH WHO PRAISED BUMBLERS: III:221, III:253–54
BILL STREETER
See STREETER, YOUNG BILL; for Young Bill’s father, see SKIN-MAN: SKIN-MAN’S VICTIMS: JEFFERSON RANCH; see also DEBARIA CHARACTERS
BILLY THE KID
See GUNSLINGERS (OUR WORLD)
BIONDI, GEORGE
See BALAZAR, ENRICO: BALAZAR’S MEN
BIRD GUARDIAN
See GUARDIANS OF THE BEAM
BIRDMEN
See TAHEEN
BISHOP DUGAN
See CALLAHAN, FATHER DONALD FRANK: CALLAHAN’S OTHER PAST ASSOCIATES
BISSETTE, LEN
See PIPER SCHOOL CHARACTERS
BIX
ROLAND, EDDIE, SUSANNAH, JAKE, and OY come across Bix’s bright green boathouse and red-and-yellow striped ferry near the beginning of The Wind Through the Keyhole. (At this particular point in the tale, our tet has just left the GREEN PALACE and is traveling southeast along the PATH OF THE BEAM toward CALLA BRYN STURGIS.) When Bix sees the big guns that Roland and Eddie wear, he drops to one knee, puts an arthritis-swollen fist to his forehead And cries, “Hile gunslinger. I salute thee.” Obviously, Bix is loyal to both the WHITE and to GILEAD-that-was.
In the conversation that follows, Bix states that he has been running his ferry across the RIVER WHYE for ninety years. Once upon a bye, there had been farms and trading posts on both sides of the river, but by the time our tet arrives and asks for passage, his services have not been needed for years. Although he has lost count of his birthdays, Bix knows that he is over a hundred-and-twenty years old. Considering his age, Bix is doing extremely well. Although he has trouble carrying heavy picnic baskets, he still manages to work his ferry. Bix wears a vast straw hat, baggy green pants, and longboots. On the top half of his body he wears a thin white slinkum.
After feeding our tet some well-stuffed fish popkins (the river is full of shannies), Bix takes them across the river. In order to do this Bix attaches a ringbolt to the top of the post which sits like a mast in the center of the ferry, then he hooks the ringbolt to the cable which runs across the river. To move the ferry, he cranks a large metal crank shaped like a block Z. Not surprisingly, the crank is stamped with the NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS logo. According to Bix, both the steel cable and the crank were at the ferry when he took his job more than ninety years previously. He thinks that they came from an underground BUNKER or DOGAN, located near the GREEN PALACE. Bix says that this underground area goes on for miles, and that it is full of things that belonged to the OLD PEOPLE. Strange, tooth-rattling music still plays from overhead speakers. If you stay there too long, you break out in sores, puke, and start to lose your teeth.
During the hour it takes to cross the river, Bix asks our tet about the fate of LUD. (Long ago, Bix had a woman in that city and so he remembers both BLAINE the Insane Mono, and Blaine’s suicidal twin, PATRICIA.) As our tet disembarks, he warns them about the ASIMOV ROBOT, ANDY, whom our friends are destined to meet in Calla Bryn Sturgis. (“If you see that cussed Andy, tell him I don’t want no songs, and I don’t want my gods-damned horrascope read!”) It is Bix who reminds Roland about the coming of the STARKBLAST, and who tells our tet about the GOOK meetinghouse where they can rest and be safe from the storm. Unfortunately, the storm comes much more quickly than anyone expects. We can only hope that Bix made it back to his boathouse in time to take cover.
W:6 (indirect), W:7 (indirect), W:8–16, W:21, W:29
BLACK AMMIES
See SERENITY, SISTERS OF
BLACKIE
See WALTER: WALTER’S ALIASES: COVENANT MAN
BLACK MAN IN GRAY FATIGUES
See HARRIGAN, REVEREND EARL: C
ROWD
BLACK MAN IN JAIL CELL
See GAN
BLACK MAN WITH WALKMAN
EDDIE DEAN and JAKE CHAMBERS first see this man singing along with his Walkman when they travel via TODASH to 1977 NEW YORK. While preparing himself to travel back to 1977 through the magical UNFOUND DOOR, Eddie fixes the date in his mind by imagining this man walking in front of CHEW CHEW MAMA’S.
V:48, V:231, V:514
BLACK THIRTEEN
See MAERLYN’S RAINBOW
BLACKBIRD, LADY
See DEAN, SUSANNAH
BLACKBIRD MOMMY
See DEAN, SUSANNAH
BLAINE
See NORTH CENTRAL POSITRONICS
BLAKE, KEVIN
See BALAZAR, ENRICO: BALAZAR’S MEN
BLEEDING LION
Even though the CRIMSON KING’s followers in END-WORLD are systematically and purposefully eroding the final two BEAMS so that the DARK TOWER will collapse and the macroverse will blink out of existence, they have their own set of superstitions concerning the fearful end of the world and about how their master’s plans may yet be thwarted. Though we don’t know the details of these superstitions, we do know that at least one concerns a Bleeding Lion stalking to the north. Another is about a gunslinger-man coming out of the west to save the Tower. There is a good chance that the Bleeding Lion is none other than the LION GUARDIAN, ASLAN.
VII:238, VII:239
BLUE
See SUSANNAH DEAN: ODETTA HOLMES’S ASSOCIATES
BLUE DEER
See MUTANTS: ANIMALS, BIRDS, REPTILES
BLUE-FACED BARBARIANS
See FARSON, JOHN: FARSON’S MEN
BLUE LADY
See DEAN, SUSANNAH: ODETTA HOLMES’S ASSOCIATES: SISTER BLUE
BOOM-FLURRY
Boom-flurry is a Calla term for the fantastically misshapen organ-pipe cacti that live in the desert dividing CALLA BRYN STURGIS from THUNDERCLAP. Their thick barrel arms are covered with long, nasty needles and they smell of gin and juniper. Unlike the cacti of our world, boom-flurry are sentient, vicious, and carnivorous. Hence, they make remarkably good sentries. JAKE and OY encounter some boom-flurry on their way to the CALLA DOGAN. Luckily, the salivating plant-monsters don’t manage to pierce them with any of their spikes, but they are plenty fashed by the time ANDY the Messenger Robot and the treacherous BEN SLIGHTMAN come upon them.
