Lionel Starkweather

**Spoiler Warning:** *Plot details, ending details, or both are in the text which follows.*

CHARACTER

## Biographical information

### Home

Starkweather's Estate, Wapona Hills, Carcer City

### Main affiliation

Valiant Video Enterprises
Mr. Nasty
Cerberus
The Wardogs
Piggsy (Formerly) Ramirez

### Businesses

Starkweather Quality Productions
Vinewood film director (Formerly)

## Game information

### Motion Capture

Alan Mozes

“*Where were your family when you were facing your final moments in the chamber anyway? You've left your old life, your old self, behind. I'm all the family you need now.*”
―Lionel Starkweather

**Lionel Starkweather**, also known as **The Director**, is a character in the *Manhunt* series who appears as the main antagonist of *Manhunt*. He is voiced by actor Brian Cox.

## History

### Background

Starkweather was a very successful Vinewood film director. Through the years, his movies began to decline in both quality and popularity. With his career completely finished, he decided to move to Carcer City, where he developed an unhealthy obsession with violence. Eventually, at some point before 2003, he began making snuff and pornography films that he would distribute using his own company, "Starkweather Quality" Productions.  This would help him gain a large sum of money which he used to further produce movies, as well as hire a team of bodyguard mercenaries called the Cerberus and a man named Ramirez. During this time, Starkweather also began working with other various criminals around Carcer City, such as Mr. Nasty, who owns Valiant Video Enterprises. Eventually, Starkweather was able to get his revenge on the people who ruined his career by filming their brutal murders in what is known as the "Director's Cut". By 2003, he had put the Carcer City Police Department and its chief, Gary Schaffer, under his payroll, giving him total control of Carcer city's criminal underworld from his mansion, where he would observe his operations with the use of CCTV from cameras he had placed all over the city.

### Events of *Manhunt*

In 2003, a Carcer City News journalist had discovered Starkweather's snuff ring and began attempting to gather evidence against him. Around this time, Starkweather heard about James Earl Cash, a death row felon who was set to be executed after three years of imprisonment. Starkweather decided he wanted to make a movie starring Cash, so he bribed the prison officials to setting Cash free in the city. After he is released, Starkweather introduces himself through an earpiece Cash is wearing and begins to instruct him on what he is to do. Starkweather explains that Cash can be free if he participates in Starkweather's snuff film. Starkweather has Cash make his way through various run-down neighborhoods in Carcer City, killing various members of a gang called The Hoods, before having Cash transported by the Cerberus in their truck to another location where Cash is instructed to kill various members of a racist, white supremacist gang called the Skinz. After doing so, Starkweather has Cash taken to the abandoned Carcer City Zoo where he must save his kidnapped family from Ramirez' gang known as the Wardogs. If Cash is detected, a gang member will kill a member of his family; if he is not detected, they will remain alive but not for much longer, as it is later revealed that he had them killed anyway. After the zoo level, Cash is taken back into the Carcer City Mall, where he must battle members of a satanic, perverted gang known as the Innocentz. It is here that Cash learns of his family's demise. Now having been betrayed, Starkweather forces Cash to escort a homeless man through the streets of East Los Albos, a run-down neighborhood of Carcer City. After fighting the Innocentz, Starkweather has cash fight against a group of mentally ill patients called the Smileys. After finishing his battle with them, Starkweather tells Cash to follow the White Rabbit, which he does, but unknown to him, Starkweather has planned to have Cash killed as the ending to his film; Starkweather fails at this, however, and Cash kills the ambushing forces and escapes.

Following his escape, Cash finds himself teamed up with the journalist after she collects him in her car. Starkweather, realizing that he has escaped, orders the Carcer City Police Department to capture Cash and bring him to him. Cash manages to escort the journalist to her apartment, where she collects her evidence against Starkweather and flees the city. Unfortunately, Starkweather's men recapture Cash and bring him to Starkweather's estate in Wapona Hills, Carcer City. The Cerberus plan to kill him, but a chainsaw wielding psychopath named Piggsy, who wears a one-eyed pig's head as a mask and who has been chained in the attic, has broken free and begins slaughtering the Cerberus guards. Chaos erupts at the estate as Cash engages the Cerberus in battle, eventually managing to get inside and killing the Cerberus Leader to gain access to Starkweather's room. Along the way, Cash fights and kills Piggsy. Starkweather, with his army defeated, sends his remaining Cerberus guards to kill Cash, but he kills them. Cash enters Starkweather's room and eventually kills him with a chainsaw. Soon after his death, Starkweather's snuff ring is exposed, as well as its connection to the chief of police, who pleads not guilty in court, and was most likely found guilty due to the ever-growing pile of evidence against them.

## Scene Appearances

*Manhunt*
* Born Again (Voice)
* Doorway Into Hell (Voice)
* Road to Ruin (Voice)
* White Trash (Voice)
* Fuelled By Hate (Voice)
* Grounds for Assault (Voice)
* Strapped for Cash (Voice)
* View of Innocence (Voice)
* Drunk Driving (Voice)
* Graveyard Shift (Voice)
* Mouth of Madness (Voice)
* Doing Time (Voice)
* Kill the Rabbit (Voice)
* Press Coverage (Voice)
* Deliverance (Killed)

## Gallery

A portrait of **Lionel Starkweather** in a movie studio, presumably prior to his "exile".
## Trivia

* His name may have been inspired by real life serial killers, Jeffrey **Lionel** Dahmer and Charles **Starkweather**.
* Starkweather is the only character to speak during his execution.
* Starkweather's face texture is reused in *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas* by a unused countryside police deputy ped `"cdeput"`, except the pedestrian's head model is completely different.
* Lionel Starkweather, along with Vinewood actors Arnold Steelone and Biff Rock were referred to as being "Hollywood" celebrities, as the district didn't have a fictional name until the release of *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas*.
	+ Their background were eventually retconned with the use of San Andreas location names in *Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories* and *Manhunt 2*.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Valiant Video Winter / Spring catalogue (back cover)
2. ↑ The name "Hollywood" is used in concept artwork instead of the in-universe Vinewood, first seen in *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas*, unreleased at the time; Starkweather's background is retconned after the use of San Andreas location names in *Manhunt 2*.