Murder Incident Article

The article found outside in a garbage chute.

The Murder Incident Article is found outside Wood Side Apartments in a garbage chute in Silent Hill 2. The article discusses the arrest of a man named Walter Sullivan, who was responsible for the deaths of twins Billy and Miriam Locane. He was arrested and imprisoned for their deaths; soon after his imprisonment, however, he committed suicide by using a soup spoon to stab himself in the neck, severing his carotid artery.

Transcript

"The police announced today that
Walter Sullivan, who was arrested
on the 18th of this month for the
brutal murder of Billy Locane and
his sister Miriam, committed
suicide in his jail cell early on the
morning of the 22nd.
According to the police
statement, Sullivan used a soup
spoon to stab himself in the neck,
severing his carotid artery.
By the time the guard discovered
him, Sullivan was dead from blood
loss, the spoon buried two inches
in his neck.

An old schoolmate of Walter
Sullivan's from his hometown of
Pleasant River said "He didn't
look like the type of guy who
would kill kids.

But I do remember that just
before they arrested him he
was blurting out all sorts of
strange stuff like 'He's trying
to kill me. He's trying to
punish me. The monster...
the red devil. Forgive me. I did it,
but it wasn't me!'.

The schoolmate then added
'I guess now that I think of it,
he was kinda crazy'."

Plot significance

Crimson and White Banquet for the Gods, depicting two executioners of the cult's Valtiel Sect.

The article mentions a "Red Devil" coming to punish the serial killer Walter Sullivan, who was jailed for murdering two children, foreshadowing the later manifestation of Pyramid Head and the reveal that James Sunderland murdered his wife. This led to some speculation that the Red Devil is Pyramid Head himself. This was debunked by creature designer Masahiro Ito and Lost Memories: Silent Hill Chronicle, which clarify that before the introduction of the Bogeyman in Silent Hill: Homecoming, Pyramid Head was intended to be an element of James' subconscious. Lost Memories adds that "no one besides Sullivan himself can really know what he saw". It is also insinuated that Walter was not fully in control of his actions, with him protesting, "Forgive me. I did it, but it wasn't me!"

It is revealed in Silent Hill 4: The Room that the Red Devil is Jimmy Stone and that he and Walter were members of the town's cult. Stone is one of the cult's executioners, who wore red hoods and an executioner's outfit modeled after their angel of rebirth Valtiel. The game's victim files elaborate that another cultist, George Rosten, trained Walter from an early age to carry out the 21 Sacraments ritual to summon God. Rosten secretly implanted Valtiel into his mind, so that the angel would guide his actions in fulfilling the ritual, but this plan ultimately backfired. Rosten could no longer control Walter, and under Valtiel's influence, he performed the 21 Sacraments in a way that Rosten did not intend. Stone, Rosten, and the Locane twins were all sacrificed to fulfill the ritual, with Stone as his first victim. The murder victims later came back as ghosts, with Walter killing himself as the eleventh sacrifice.

James and his wife Mary visited the town of Silent Hill on vacation three years before the events of Silent Hill 2. James observed various paintings of the town's executioners while visiting the Silent Hill Historical Society, the memory of which resulted in Pyramid Head taking a similar appearance. Takayoshi Sato has referred to Pyramid Head as a "distorted memory of the executioners", the group in which Jimmy Stone and George Rosten belong.

Notes

• There is a slight mistranslation error. Pleasant River is not Walter's "hometown", but simply where he was currently living.
• Finding this article gives one of the answers to a later (but optional) puzzle in the game, where it is asked who murdered the aforementioned twins.
• The article was adapted in Bloober Team's rendition of Silent Hill 2.