Walter Sullivan

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For the bishop, see Walter Francis Sullivan.

Walter Sullivan
Silent Hill character

Gender	Male
Age	21 (adult), 8 (child)
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Green
Occupation	None
Appearance/s in Silent Hill Series	Silent Hill 2,Silent Hill 4: The Room
Voice by/ Portrayer	Dennis Falt

Walter Sullivan is a fictional character and antagonist of the video game Silent Hill 4: The Room. Although he is the main antagonist of the game, and the player character is a young man named Henry Townshend, many state that he is in a way the main character of the game as the story revolves almost entirely around him.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Biography

Walter Sullivan was born in 1970 in the town of Ashfield in Room 302 of the South Ashfield Heights apartment building. Just after his birth, his biological parents fled the apartment and left the newborn child behind, believing his birth to be unnatural. The infant was later discovered by the building superintendent, Frank Sunderland, who turned the child over to the nearby St. Jerome's Hospital. After a stay in the hospital, he became a ward of the state and was turned over to the Wish House orphanage in Silent Hill. It was there that he began his tutelage in the ways of The Order, the cult that operated the orphanage.

Walter Sullivan as a child

In time, after learning of his tragic birth, the young Sullivan gradually started to believe that Room 302 itself was his mother, and the child started making weekly trips to Ashfield to visit "her," much to the dismay of the apartment's current residents. During his late adolescent years, he learned of the "21 Sacraments," an obscure ceremony in the Order's teachings that Walter could use to "awaken" his "mother." It was only a short while later during this time that he briefly encountered a young Eileen Galvin, who gave him one of her precious dolls in an act of pity, which he kept close to him ever since.

When Sullivan was about 21-22, he began his killing spree, murdering 10 people in as many days, removing their hearts and carving the numbers 01121-10121 into their bodies. He made no effort to cover his tracks, even going as far as to carve his own name into the flesh of his victims. He was captured and tried, but committed suicide by stabbing himself in the neck with a metal soup spoon and severing his own carotid artery while in prison. He was found in his cell with the soup spoon about two inches into his neck. He was buried in an unmarked grave near the Wish House, but three days later, a man fitting his description was seen exiting Room 302 of the South Ashfield Heights apartment building.

Three years later, another body was found, killed in a very similar manner to Sullivan's previous victims and the police suspected a copycat, though the heart was not removed, nor was a name carved into the body. Police investigated Walter's grave and discovered there was no body found inside and that numbers, 11121, were carved into the coffin. Two more bodies surfaced over the next few years carved with the numbers 12121-14121. What the police failed to realize was that the numbers, 01121-14121, actually meant 01/21-14/21, meaning that Sullivan intended to kill 21 victims in all.

Through the Order's teachings, Sullivan believed that the deaths of these 21 victims would help free his "mother," Room 302, and wake her up again so that he could live within her "womb" once more, safe from the world that terrorized him. In the game, most of his victims appear as ghosts.

The first reference to this character appears in Silent Hill 2, in a newspaper article found by that game's protagonist (James Sunderland) in a trash bin at the Blue Creek Apartments building. The article stated that Walter Sullivan was a killer from nearby Pleasant River who murdered two local children (Miriam and Billy Locane) with an axe. Four days after his arrest Sullivan committed suicide as described above. There are no references to the other murders he committed up to that point in time in the article. In addition the article contains a quote from a former schoolmate from Pleasant River. In it Sullivan claimed that a "Red Devil" (presumably Jimmy Stone, but considered by some to mean a "Pyramid Head") forced him to commit the murders. This information was later included within a "test" with which the protagonist was presented. Also, it is possible to see his tombstone in the same game inside the cemetery.

"The Assumption Ceremony" requires the scripture, white chrism, obsidian goblet, and ten hearts. This is the same ritual in the "rebirth" ending of Silent Hill 2; the items being the Book of Lost Memories, The White Chrism, the Obsidian Chalice, and the Book of Crimson Ceremony.

[edit] Victims

01/21 - Jimmy Stone: First of the Ten Hearts - Jimmy Stone was a priest in the Valtiel Sect, a division of The Order. He was nicknamed "The Red Devil" by members of the Order in reference to the triangular red hood he wore during ritualistic executions, much like Pyramid Head of Silent Hill 2 fame. Sullivan shot him in the back of the head inside the Wish House orphanage and removed his heart. Jimmy Stone is known as Victim 1 in the game.

02/21 - Bobby Randolph: Second of the Ten Hearts - Randolph was a college student who attended the same school as Sullivan. He and two of his friends, Sein Martin and Jasper Gein, were fascinated by the mythology of The Order and tried to learn all about it. Sullivan strangled him to death, removed his heart and dumped his body on the college campus in Pleasant River alongside the third victim. Bobby Randolph is known as Victim 2 in the game.

03/21 - Sein Martin: Third of the Ten Hearts - Like his friend Randolph, Martin was also interested in the legends surrounding the Order and his curiosity likely led to his death. Sullivan strangled him to death, removed his heart and dumped his body on the college campus in Pleasant River alongside Bobby Randolph. Sein Martin is known as Victim 3 in the game.

04/21 - Steve Garland: Fourth of the Ten Hearts - Steve Garland operated a pet store in Ashfield. His murder was particularly gruesome; after Sullivan riddled his body with bullets from a submachine gun (leaving his chest undamaged so the heart could be removed), he proceeded to brutally kill all the animals in the store. Given his name, Garland could be related to Lisa Garland from Silent Hill 1, but this is neither confirmed nor denied. Steve Garland is known as Victim 4 in the game.

05/21 - Rick Albert: Fifth of the Ten Hearts - Rick Albert was the manager of a sporting good store in Ashfield. Sullivan bludgeoned him to death with a golf club and removed his heart. He was murdered on the same day as Steve Garland. Rick Albert is known as Victim 5 in the game.

06/21 - George Rosten: Sixth of the Ten Hearts - George Rosten was a priest in the Valtiel Sect and the right-hand man of Jimmy Stone. He personally instructed Sullivan on the 21 Sacraments, then ironically fell victim to his own teaching when Sullivan beat him to death with an iron pipe and removed his heart. George Rosten is known as Victim 6 in the game. Probably one of the more important characters to the fourth game's connection to Silent Hill as the Book of Lost Memories indicates. Stating that he let Valtiel into the young Walter as to permitt the "21 Sacraments"

07/21 - Billy Locane: Seventh of the Ten Hearts - Billy Locane was a child living in Silent Hill. Sullivan killed him with a single blow from an axe and removed his heart.

08/21 - Miriam Locane: Eighth of the Ten Hearts - Miriam was Billy's twin sister and killed just after her brother. Unlike Billy, who was killed with a single blow from an axe, Sullivan brutally dismembered Miriam's body before removing her heart, most likely due to his violent misogyny. Unlike Sullivan's other victims, Billy and Miriam do not appear as ghosts but rather fused together as a monster which is known as Victim 07+08.

09/21 - William Gregory: Ninth of the Ten Hearts - William Gregory owned the Watch & Clock store in Ashfield. Sullivan stabbed him with a screwdriver and removed his heart. William Gregory is known as Victim 9 in the game.

10/21 - Eric Walsh: Last of the Ten Hearts - The final victim of Sullivan's initial rampage. Walsh worked as a bartender at Bar Ashfield. On his birthday, a middle-aged customer told him that the pet store owner was murdered and the murderer was still at large, causing the bar's owner to close the bar early. Walsh then went home, only to find Sullivan waiting for him. Sullivan shot him in the face and removed his heart. Eric Walsh is known as Victim 10 in the game.

11/21 - Walter Sullivan: Assumption - After his capture, Sullivan committed suicide in his jail cell by stabbing himself in the neck with a spoon which severed his carotid artery. His body was buried in an unmarked grave near the Wish House, but after the first copycat murder, his grave was exhumed and was discovered to be empty. His body was most likely taken from its grave by his own ghost and taken to the hidden room in Room 302 to await the last of the 21 Sacraments. Walter Sullivan appears in the game multiple times, though he doesn't seem to pay any attention to Henry for the most part. Not necessarily a ghost, Sullivan can and will cause physical harm to Henry at times, and is also the final boss.

12/21 - Peter Walls: Void - The first of Sullivan's postmortem victims. Walls was a notorious drug addict known for his crazed ranting. His body was found in a room in the South Ashfield Hotel. He has apparently been beaten to death after he claimed he could see God. Peter Walls is known as Victim 12 in the game.

13/21 - Sharon Blake: Darkness - Sharon Blake had been a target of the Order for some time. Her family had all been taken in by the Order, but she refused their requests (and later demands) to join. When she went looking for her family in the woods near Silent Hill, she discovered her family's gravestones, at which point then Sullivan caught her and drowned her in the lake. Sharon Blake is known as Victim 13 in the game.

14/21 - Toby Archbolt: Gloom - Toby Archbolt was a priest of the Holy Mother Sect of the Order, which operated the Wish House. After the deaths of Jimmy Stone and George Rostin and the subsequent weakening of the Valtiel Sect, Archbolt tried to increase the influence of his own sect within the Order. During a trip to Mexico, Sullivan pushed Toby off of a cliff, making him the only victim in the series to be killed outside of the United States. Toby Archbolt is known as Victim 14 in the game.

15/21 - Joseph Schreiber: Despair (Giver of Wisdom) - Joseph Schreiber was an investigative reporter who lived in Room 302 before Henry Townshend (see below). He was investigating the Order, which led to an exposé on the Wish House. While investigating ties between the Order and the Walter Sullivan murders, he suddenly found himself sealed inside his apartment with the only means of escape being a mysterious hole in his bathroom wall. He was Sullivan's 15th victim, but his body was never found. Joseph Schreiber is known as Victim 15 in the game. Schreiber is the only victim that is not completely hostile to the protagonist.

16/21 - Cynthia Velasquez: Temptation - Cynthia Velasquez was a woman living in Ashfield. Henry Townshend met her in the South Ashfield Station where she believed herself to be dreaming, and Townshend just a figment of her imagination (though that does not prevent her from making advances). While Henry tried to find a way out of the station, Sullivan killed her by multiple stab wounds, along with carving 16121 into her chest. Cynthia Velasquez is known as Victim 16 in the game.

17/21 - Jasper Gein: Source - Jasper Gein was a somewhat mentally unbalanced youth who, along with his friends Bobby Randolph and Sein Martin, was fascinated by the mythology of the Order. While exploring the ruins of the Wish House, Sullivan immolated Gein, who seemed almost appreciative of the act. Henry Townshend meets Gein while walking on a path through a forest outside of Wish House. After giving him Chocolate Milk, Gein gives Townshend a shovel. He finds the key to Wish House with the help of the shovel and Gein enters and disappears into one of the rooms. Not too long after, Townshend hears a blood-curdling scream and investigates the room that Gein entered. Upon opening the door, Jasper Gein is seen writhing in agony and being burned alive by Sullivan. After Henry witnesses this act, Gein calls out that he had seen the red devil he had been searching for. Whilst screaming through the flames, Jasper carves the number "17121" into his own chest with an altar candle. His character is named for American killer and film inspiration Ed Gein.

18/21 - Andrew DeSalvo: Watchfulness - Andrew DeSalvo was a guard at the Water Prison where children at the Wish House were sent for punishment. Somehow, he became locked in one of his own cells and, after being released by Townshend, was captured by Sullivan and drowned. Before this incident occurred, he sees Little Walter, a child like apparition of Walter's that split with his "spirit" after his assumption. Townshend also sees Little Walter multiple times throughout the game, the first time being just outside of Wish House. The number "18121" is carved onto DeSalvo's body. His character is named for American serial killer Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler".

19/21 - Richard Braintree: Chaos - Richard Braintree lived in Room 207 of South Ashfield Heights. He was an eccentric, somewhat violent (and possibly sadistic) man. Remembering what happened to Joseph Schreiber, he becomes concerned when he notices the same thing happening again in Room 302. He tries to find a way to help Townshend, but Sullivan captured Braintree, carved the number "19121" into his forehead and electrocuted him in his own apartment, despite Henry's attempts to stop him. Later on in the game, it is revealed that many of Ashfield Heights' tenants were wary of Braintree due to an incident in which he assaulted another resident and stripped him of his clothes--"skinning" him.

20/21 - Eileen Galvin: Mother (Reborn) - Eileen Galvin, Henry's next-door neighbor, was nearly beaten to death by Sullivan. However, Little Walter and Townshend's interference stopped her from being killed. Though the 20th Sacrament was not complete, Sullivan was able to summon her to him to try and finish the deed.

21/21 - Henry Townshend: Wisdom (Receiver of Wisdom) - Sullivan felt that his final intended victim, the current resident of Room 302, had to die in order to purify his "mother" so she could finally be reborn and he could be reunited with her. Depending on the actions of the player, Townshend either defeats Sullivan or dies at his hands.