The Van der Linde Gang's catastrophic robbery attempt in Blackwater in story details in Red Dead Redemption 2's clothing. However, many of these secrets are far from touching or wholesome, and many are actually unsettling. One such discovery is the case of the Blackwater Athletic Club, the of which appear to have fallen victim to RDR2's infamous serial killer, Edmund Lowry Jr.
Throughout the course of Red Dead Redemption 2's single-player, Dutch's gang seems to be consistently stuck in a bad place. The outlaws are on the run from lawmen before the game even begins, and they need to employ a number of different strategies, many of them unsavory, in order to maintain safety, shelter, and resources. One such scheme prior to the story's opening takes them to the city of Blackwater, in which they attempt to rob a bank. This plot quickly goes off the rails, however, and multiple gang are shot, one is captured, and two are killed. This event is referred to as "The Blackwater Massacre" by the press and lawmen of RDR2, but the town is actually hiding a much more grisly tragedy.
This showdown between the gang and the Pinkertons is certainly tragic and violent, but RDR2 is full of scary Easter eggs and side quests that put this story beat to shame. Astute players may have picked up on hints of something amiss in the game's cities and towns, and these incongruities have an explanation that's even creepier than some might imagine. Indeed, these details point to something that is significantly more disturbing than the Van der Linde Gang's robbery.
Blackwater's Athletics Team Was Killed By RDR2's Serial Killer
If Red Dead Redemption 2 players open up a copy of the Blackwater Ledger newspaper in-game, they may find an article covering the missing of the Blackwater Athletics Club. The article is sparse on details, but does note that friends and family of the missing men suspect foul play. If players then explore the Great Plains region outside of Blackwater, they can find these men's corpses piled up in a ditch in the woods. Finding Lowry's other victims will lead to players uncovering the killer's basement, which is full of the most disgusting RDR2 details one can imagine. This basement, and the cutscene that takes place within it, confirm that Lowry is the one who killed the Blackwater Athletic Club, along with a number of other innocent victims who players have to find in order to uncover his true location.
Compared to this gruesome, harrowing crime, the Van der Linde gang's botched robbery doesn't seem so bad. As far as the citizens of Blackwater are concerned, a sadistic serial killer at large should be much more unnerving than a band of outlaws more concerned with money than violence. If any Red Dead Redemption 2 event is deserving of the title "The Blackwater Massacre", it is certainly Lowry's killings.