Ripper/Characters

This is a list and short description of all characters appearing in Ripper. Unlike other adventure/mystery games, Ripper does not contain many on-screen texts or subtitles; all clues concerning the characters and their backgrounds are revealed in dialogues, most of them are easy to miss (especially by players whose English is not their natural language), considering that some of them are voiced in some echo or other filter,.


 * Jake Quinlan (Scott Cohen): The protagonist of the game, investigative reporter for the Virtual Herald, who is investigating and writing about the Ripper. The Ripper regularly sends messages to Quinlan. He has a remonatic relationship with his colleague, Catherine Powell, and when she is attacked by the Ripper, he starts chasing him. Quinlan seems not to be experienced in cyberspace but learns about it throughout the game, as much as the player.


 * Detective Vince Magnotta (Christopher Walken): A violent and corrupt police officer. Magnotta likes to smoke CIGARS, is a SCORPIO, and his nickname is SLAYER. The code to his apartment is 226481. Since 17 years ago he has a romantic interest in Dr. Clare Burton, and is mentioned to have showed up uninvited to her wedding with Falconetti. About the same time he had hired Hamilton Wofford to design a virtual training ground for cadets, therefore when he was murdered, he personally took the investigation. Magnotta had arrested Falconetti for the murder of Catherine's mother and is also eager to frame him as the Ripper in order to collect the reward for solving the case. Magnotta also has the bad habit of keeping crime scene evidence as "souvenirs". In the beginning of the game he destroys Renee Stein's cup (with the word "Salisbury"). After Powell's assault he sent her to Meta-Cog center and set up a security ICE in her cyber WELL and encrypted her journal (the password is one of the words above, depending on the difficulty level). He also keeps Catherine Powell's WAC. He has also In Act II he leaves his security card near Brannon and is seen in the interrogation room interrogating an Addict and a Prostitute. As Brannon says to Quinlan, he inexclicably replaced 2 experienced officers with new ones for the Ripper case. Later in the Act, he collects the body of Jordan and notes that the recent Ripper victims are close to Quinlan.
 * At the beginning of Act III he interrogates and threatens Jake for Farley's death. Later he is seen with an shoulder ache . When Jake asks for Catherine's WAC from Magnotta in Act III, Magnotta tells him that Virtual Herald should complain to him, and the hearing would take quite long. Later, the bug installed by Jake reveal that he has two tense visits by Falconetti and then Burton, who delivers to him a disk with Jake's interface with Powell and refuses to cooperate any more.


 * Dr. Clare Burton (Clare Burton): A cyber-surgeon at the Meta-Cognition Center of the Tribeca Center Hospital who specializes in the human brain. During her university years, she and Falconetti were the founding members of the Web Runners. Prof. Beck considered her a genious and encouraged her to leave school as it would disrupt her development. 17 years ago she married Falconetti but very soon realized he was not for her. After their divorce, both Falconetti and Magnotta made her life chaotic. Burton had developed a cyber-weapon which was subsequently stolen and used by the Ripper.
 * In the start of the game she is responsible for Catherine's case, but she seems to stall her treatment without any explanations. In Act II she argues with Falconetti about what to do with Powell, before she agrees to connect with her brain, she is then to be found in the gym where Jake can question her. Most importantly, he can record her voice and gain access to her secret lab.
 * In Act III she is found in her office. The bug planted by Jake earlier reveal that she was visited and harassed by Falconetti when Magnotta shows up, and then they accuse each other for being the Ripper.


 * Joey Falconetti (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0446314/ David Patrick Kelly): A cyber hacker and technician. He was among the Aro 33 (?) and rumors said he masterminded the "PRW (?) thing" that stole all the credit records of the East Coast. During his university years, he and Burton were the founding members of the Web Runners. He has a feud against Magnotta after he disrupted his wedding with Burton 17 years ago. They divorced when Falconetti was arrested, but still has feelings for her. He seems to have a fascination with knives, skeletons and other violent images. He lives in a safehouse with Twig.
 * Quinlan first meets Falconetti in his cyberwell, after the challenge to beat his own high score. After this, he allows Quinlan to meet him in person, and offers his help with healing Catherine. In Act II he is at the meta-cog center persuading Burton to perform an interface with her brain, allowing Quinlan to connect with her and restore her memory.
 * At the beginning of Act III he is practicing with knives and Jake notices that his shoulders are injured. Falconetti also gives Jake a portrait from Catherine's memory, which is the face of Magnotta. Sometime later he visits Magnotta in his office and they exchange threats.
 * His cyberwell password is CIRCUS MAXIMUS


 * Catherine Powell (Tahnee Welch): A reporter for Virtual Herald and Jake's lover. She had told Dodds that she is from the Inquirer in Philadelphia, but to Jake she had told that she is from LA. Without Jake's knowledge, she starts investigating the Ripper case by herself hoping to steal the story from Jake and boost her career. Soap Beatty is one of her primary sources. She knew that her mother was killed in the last Ripper Web Runners game. Catherine believed that the Ripper was either Falconetti, Magnotta or Burton and Beatty had supplied her with two bugs to spy on them. Vic Farley told her that Burton was involved in a secret project but she couldn't access the voice-locked restricted area and considered seeking Beatty's help.
 * At the beginning of the game she sends a message to Jake's WAC mentioning something she discovered. She connects to a virtual library when she is transferred to a Virtual Whitechapel and the Ripper attacks her. Then the Ripper notifies Jake that she had to attack Catherine as she came close discovering his identity. She is found by Jake in her apartment and says "Ripper" before falling in coma. For most of the game she is tended at the Meta-Cognition Center of the Tribeca Hospital by Dr. Claire Burton. She manages to retrieve a distorted image of her attacker, but requires restoration of her memories, a process which is stalled by Burton as "too dangerous". In Act II Falconetti helps Jake interfacing directly with her brain to transmit beneficial information; such clues include the information that Burton and Falcon were married, that Magnotta disrupted their wedding, and that all three were Web Runners. Furthermore, 1/3 of her memory is restored when Jake tells her about Burton's secret lab.
 * In Act III Cable and Jake find out that her brain activity spikes each day that the Ripper kills. When Jake connects with her, she tells him about George Rhodes. Curiously, she also mentions Farley's death although she isn't supposed to know about it.
 * Catherine seems to be interested in zodiac and crystals. Her cyberwell password is HOROSCOPE. She kept a journal in her Well, but Magnotta put a security ICE there, and also encrypted it with a password.

Other characters

 * Hamilton Wofford (Burgess Meredith): A cyber-architect living with his twin brother Covington in a cottage on the outskirts of NY. He built virtual worlds based on historic locations. 15 years ago he was hired by Magnotta to create a police virtual training center. He was also hired by the Ripper to build a replica of Whitechapel. However he was suspicious of the Ripper and hid a cyber weapon which can destroy his angel, and he hid it in cyberspace. One of his creations included a cyberspace AI with his knowledge and character. Described by his brother as a da Vinci, he had created some contraptions in his house, in which he hid three vacuum tubes. When he was killed, Magnotta personally took the case.
 * In Act III Covington gives Jake a disk with his AI and Jake meets him. He tells him about the weapon and give shim 3 passwords: PEGASUS, ORESTES and ODYSSEUS, and to find the software integrator that will activate it.
 * His cyberwell password is VULCAN.


 * Covington Wofford (Burgess Meredith): Hamilton's twin brother. He seems to be a senile recluse, socked by his brother's death and distrustful of criminals, policemen and journalists. In ACT I he is seen mainly holding a broom threatingly. In the beginning of Act III Jake decides to visit him only to find him assaulted by a cloaked figure, which he shoots on the shoulder. Covington begins to start Jake and gives him a disk containing the AI with the memory of his brother.


 * Ben Dodds (Ossie Davis): The editor of the Virtual Herald. At one point in the past his daughter wrote a falsified article about the mayor, which resulted to his suicide.
 * He is in his office throughout Acts I and II although he is not always helpful to Jake. In Act III he is alerted about Jake's arrest. He reveals to him that Catherine gave inconsistent information about her past. Haman reveals the story of his daughter to Jake; when Jake mentions it to Dodds, after some thought he decides to allow Jake to write this story, despite Haman's threats.


 * Soap Beatty (Jimie Walker): A disabled computer hacker who was helping Catherine with her investigation on the Ripper. Jake finds him looking in Catherine's Rolodek. He also informs Jake about cyberspace. In Act II Jake asks him about the Web Runners and Beatty redirects him once more to Nelson in Cafe Duchamp (although the location doesn't open in the map). Jake also can ask him about voice-locks, and Beatty tells him how they work. In Act III he is afraid of Jake for being the Ripper but later they discuss Farley's death and he redirects Jake to Visual Eden where he can find Maximum Cain.


 * Gambit Nelson (MacIntyre Dixon): A cyberspace enterpreneur found in Cafe Duchamp. In Act I he tells Jake where to find Falconetti. At the beginning of Act III he has investigated more about Falconetti and tells Jake about his journal found in his secret LEATHER APRON Well. When Jake meets him, he tells about the Jack the Ripper role-playing game by Warp Space company where Falconetti used to play.


 * Sgt. Lou Brannon (Steven Randazzo): An honest polic officer, desk sergeant at the police station. He is father of 2 college kids and has 5 years to retirement. He seems to know Jake from before, and discuss Magnotta's activities, such as his private collection of evidence or the replacement of experienced officers with new ones. At the beginning of Act III he runs a check on fingerprints on the knife found at Wofford's and reveals they belong to "Jelly Roll Wilson" (?) who works for Vigo Haman.


 * Vivien Santiago (Kira Arne): The flirtatious and somewhat provocative secretary at Tribeca Hospital. She makes advances to Jake hoping to date with him. Later in Act II she tells Jake that Magnotta was looking for him.


 * Vic Farley (Peter Boyden): The pathologist who performs autopsies at the morgue of the Tribeca Center Hospital. He seems to have been friends with Jake. Before the beginning to the game, he has revealed Catherine that Dr. Burton was involved in a secret project.
 * In Act I he is in the morgue performing an autopsy and then describes to Jake how the Ripper's victims had died. He notices that all the Ripper's victims were decked-in; in ripple tissue he finds inorganic impulse code which was fed into their essence matrices causing their torsoes to explore. Having figured how the Ripper performs the murders he notifies Burton but gets no response; instead he is fired because he litters the sterile environment with ashes.
 * In Act 2 Jake learns that he was fired because he "talks too much", and is replaced by Bob Eppels. Burton claims no knowledge of the incident, although her notes reveal that she plans to examine Stein's body after he leaves. At the end of the Act, Farley contacts Jake and invites him to Duchamp, and relates to him his discoveries. It was then when Farley's intestines open. Jake is subsequently accused for the murder.


 * Bob Eppels (William Seymour): The nervous pathologist who replaces Farley in Act II after he is fired. He is very negative talking to Jake as he is too afraid to lose his job. Later in the Act, after Jordan's death, he asks Jake to fix the microchips of the computer. After Jake succeeds, he absentmindedly reveals the location of Jordan's body to Jake.


 * Twig (David Thornton): Falconetti's bodyguard. During her investigation, Catherine had intoxicated him and fished out from him Falconetti's secret WELL password (LEATHER APRON). He is seen in Falconetti's safehoue testing a new cyberspace motion-tracking technology. When threatened, he tells Jake how to contact Falconetti in cyberspace, giving him his WELL password (CIRCUS MAXIMUS). In Act II he is still there although he is not interacted.


 * Dr. Bud Cable (Paul Giamatti): A doctor tending to Catherine Powell under Clare Burton. A lot friendlier than Burton, he is puzzled why she stalls treating Powell and keeps Jake up to date about Catherine's condition. In Act II he is found to Powell's side and reminds Jake to tell things that might recover her memory and conscience.


 * Prof. Lillian Bech (Phyllis Bash): A university professor who knew Burton as a student and considered her a genious. Jake finds her name among notes in Burton's office in Act II. She tells Jake that Burton, Falconelli and Magnotta belonged to the "Web Runners" club. She also gives the hint that the Web Runners communicated by leaving coded posts on the corridor bulletin. After her meeting with Jake, she tells about him to Stephanie Jordan.


 * Kashi Yamamoto (Lianna Pai): A young gamer found in the Web Runner Loft. She informs Jake about the past of the Web Runners and the existence of a Web Runner archive along with its password (ANACHRONY STATION). She later witnesses Stephanie Jordan's sudden death; covered in blood, she narrates the scene to Jake, insisting that she is innocent.


 * Josey Dorsett (Natalie Baker): A former member of the Web Runners who died mysteriously leaving behind a teenage daughter.


 * Stephanie Jordan (Deborah Lee Johnson): A member of the Web Runners. She was contacted by Prof. Bech that Quinlan was investigating. About the time when Jake visits the Runners' Well, Jordan sends him a WAC message telling him to come to the Runners' Loft fast as she is in danger. However she dies in front of Kashi before Jake arrives. Magnotta then removes her body from the scene, which is transferred to Burton's secret lab, with a lock that opens only with Burton's voice.


 * Vigo Haman (John Rhys-Davies): A leading figure in the soho mob specializing in the trade of smart drugs and pirated c-space code, said to be affiliated with the Adeline (?) family or the Freelancer (?). A sausage operation he owned was destroyed because of one of Jake's stories.
 * Jake learns about him from Brannon and can meet him at Cafe Duchamp. They briefly discuss Jake's article on "Schultz" (?) which put him out of business; Haman warns him that he knows that Dodds' daughter was responsible for the death of the ex-mayor and warns Jake if he considers writing anything about him again. Based on fingerprnts found on a knife which assaulted Wofford, Jake accuses him for being affiliated with the Ripper. He mentions that he was assigned a job by a woman he met on cyberspace but he ended it.


 * George Rhodes (Richard Spore): He works at the Pan Financial Bank. His data is found in Catherine's Rolodek. Jake learns about him when connecting with Catherine's mind in Act III. When Jake meets him he is afraid of him and mentions Catherine's slot number, but doesn't reveal the combination.


 * Addict (Brian Tarantina): An addict of "Lucid B" who was arrested for selling drugs to senior citizens resulting to their deaths. In Act II Magnotta is seen interrogating him violently.