Boyd Crowder

History
Boyd's history can be found here, with supplemental information here.

Boomtown History
Boyd arrived at New Dodge in March, 2013. He worked as part of the mining crew until June, when he was elected Mayor of New Dodge and the mining company shut down operations.

Personality
Boyd Crowder has been many things in his life—coal miner, combat veteran, prison inmate, neo-nazi, pyrotechnic maniac, born-again vigilante and drug lord—top the list. For the most part, he's a career criminal, but more basically, he's a rebel and an opportunist who's always got an eye on the next golden ring, whether that translates to material gain or the chance to be Someone. He's a man who lives in extremes; born into a world where violence is the norm and crime is a tradition handed down from one generation to the next. It's a life spent living on the edge and Boyd craves the highs that danger brings—which in his case, might partly be a substitute for intellectual stimulation; the opportunities for profound and thought-provoking interaction with his fellow humans being pretty limited in the backwater Kentucky county of Harlan. For while there are times when he may play the hillbilly when it suits him, Boyd is not your stereotypical redneck. Intelligent, self-educated and well-read; he's familiar with all the literary classics; most notably the Bible (even if he does freely interpret it for his own ends).

Always something of a troublemaker, through the years he's had little interest in other people's rules; preferring to be his own authority. He took it to extremes in early days with the neo-Nazism; declaring himself a sovereign citizen and not subject to any state or federal laws. His religious vigilantism, while it had purer motivations and deferred quite a bit to God Almighty, still saw him taking matters into his own hands and acting above the law by way of blowing up meth labs and inadvertently killing people in the process. Through this, Boyd came into direct conflict with his father (and his father's drug business) and it becomes evident that he's got a few daddy issues. The obsessiveness of his religious endeavors might also have been a subconscious desire to escape from his father's shadow and influence; masked behind his 'spiritual rebirth.'

After the destruction of his 'church,' he briefly makes the attempt to walk the straight and narrow, but he's too much of a fatalist; falling back into criminal activities without too much of a struggle and eventually accepting his 'destiny' of stepping into his daddy's shoes (somewhat reluctantly) as he quietly goes about taking over Harlan's drug trafficking business—albeit in a carefully ambiguous way; outgrowing the more blatantly defiant and over-the-top attention-getting 'causes' and putting more effort into keeping people guessing about his motives; helping the law when it suits him (ostensibly because it's beneficial to himself, but sometimes just because he still considers a certain federal Marshal as a friend).

For the most part, he comes across as cautious and observant; meticulously choosing his words (of which there are generally an abundance—he'll seldom use two when he can use twenty), his speech quiet, thoughtful and deliberate; growing even quieter and more measured when he's trying to be menacing. But he's also capable of being a showman; larger than life and both endearing and compelling, with an irresistible manner that draws people in and they can't help but like him, even if they know he's talking complete bullshit.

And while he might deny that it's bullshit, it does become gradually apparent that he doesn't necessarily buy into all the ideologies he espouses (more so at least, with the neo-Nazism. His religious conversion seems to have been more sincere while it lasted, but if his flock being murdered had been a test of faith, Boyd pretty much failed it). His not-friend and adversary Raylan Givens sums it up: 'Boyd, I don't think you believe everything that you're saying. I think you just like to blow stuff up.' But blowing stuff up is a lot more fun with a bunch of people to help and cheer him on (or take the fall as the case may be) and it's a whole lot easier to attract flunkies if he's recruiting an army of zealots who look up to him as the champion of a cause. And Boyd liked causes—even if he didn't always believe in them himself, they did keep him entertained.

He's come to be the face of evil in Harlan, but he's more of a lesser evil; the devil one knows and he's not as ruthless as some. Somewhere between a villain protagonist and an anti-anti-hero, Boyd has a sense of honor despite his being on the wrong side of the law (more often than not) and he's very loyal to his community. He's also charming, charismatic, has a dry sense of humor and is something of a philosopher; taking most things in stride with carefully controlled calmness. One of Boyd's credos is to 'know your ABCs' (Always Be Cool); seldom raising his voice in anger and all the while being entirely reasonable (even when he's threatening someone rather horrifically with an electric drill poised half-inside their mouth). Boyd is nothing if not polite. The rare times when he does lose his cool though, he loses it big-time, with all the explosiveness of a keg of dynamite; although it's generally sparked by a personal, rather than a professional upheaval. Psychologically, his literal love of explosions may be something of an emotional outlet.

While he's done some totally reprehensible things and by all rights should be spending the rest of his life locked away in prison, he's achieved a certain amount of redemption that comes from caring deeply about another person. In his relationship with Ava, we see that he also has a gentleness and a true sincerity that make one suspect that the good man inside him isn't lurking too far beneath the surface.

Appearance
Hair: Dark brown, short

Eyes: Hazel

Height: 6'0"

Build: Wiry

Boyd has several tattoos:


 * The word 'SKIN' written on the knuckles of his right hand and barbed wire on both forearms. Seen here.


 * 'JC' (Jesus Christ) on his chest in the left shoulder area. Seen here.


 * A large swastika on his left shoulder. Seen here.


 * Air CAV insignia  on his arm. (Book-canon, no pic available.)

He has two notable bullet hole scars: one in the center of his chest and one on the front of his left shoulder.

Links

 * Additional Information
 * Visualosities