- "Do you wanna know what they did to me? What I will do to all the sons and daughters of man"
- ―Errol Childress to Rustin Cohle
Errol Childress is a serial killer and a follower of the twisted and brutal Tuttle cult, operating in Lousiana. Childress is the primary antagonist of the first season of True Detective.
History[]
General[]
Errol William Childress was born to William "Billy" Lee Childress, the son of Sam Tuttle from an extramarital affair. Growing up, Errol was visciously abused by his grandfather Sam, causing distinctive heavy scarring on the right side of his face. Errol had no birth certificate, leaving no records of him having ever actually existed. Likely self-educated, Errol had a significant knowledge of literature – specifically Robert Chambers’ The King in Yellow but likely Ambrose Bierce as well, a fiction writer and documenter of the Civil War (who also happened to coin the name “Carcosa”). Furthermore, his dialogue makes it clear that his education extends beyond merely fiction. Errol doesn’t just imitate the dialogue he hears in a film, but adopts the entire dialect of British culture, down to its colloquialisms. In multiple cases, Errol appears to know more than he lets on, fluctuating so as to adapt to the situation and professing his own intentions in impressively nuanced language. He lived in a dilapidated, overgrown house in the backroads of Louisiana, where he had a sexual relationship with his mentally handicapped half-sister Betty.
Billy inducted Errol into the Tuttle cult, a group of wealthy Louisiana elite and other associates who worshipped a mysterious entity known as the Yellow King, committing ritualistic murders of young women as sacrifices to him. Raised into the cult's traditions from birth, Errol became a deranged and fanatic devotee to the Yellow King, kidnapping and murdering victims by the dozens (or possible hundreds) in the belief that he would 'ascend' and join their figurehead. He operated from a large, ruined stone fortress deep in the Louisiana wilderness, which several cultists and himself referred to as 'Carcosa'. Over the years, Errol decorated Carcosa with his victim's mummified corpses, belongings such as clothing and shoes, and countless wooden devil's nests and other crafts, including a large effigy dedicated to the Yellow King. During his time with the cult, Errol also became friends with members Reggie Ledoux and his cousin Dewall, sometimes working with the two to commit murders together.
By the mid-90s, Errol, Reggie and Dewall became the last active members of the cult still killing, as the rest of the Tuttle family and their associates had either died out or abandoned the cult in order to blend into society.
Errol molested and took explicit photos of sleeping children at the Shepard's Flock elementary school, with it also being suggested that he had a hand in the disappearance of Marie Fontenot. At some point prior to 1994, he was hired under his company Childress & Sons to paint a family's home a shade of green, some of which dripped onto his ears. He then encountered an unnamed girl and gave chase, but was unable to capture her. The girl later identified Errol to police as the 'Green-Eared Spaghetti Monster', creating the first rumours of the scarred murderer that was him.
Jimmy Ledoux once encountered Errol on a camping trip with his father, Reggie, and Dewall. Jimmy noted that during the entire trip, every time he looked in Errol's direction he was staring at him; he never saw Errol again as he and the Ledouxs were too hungover to continue their trip, so Jimmy left with his father.
The Yellow King Case[]
In winter 1994, Errol met Dora Lange through Joel Theriot's travelling revival church group. He kidnapped her and began drugging, torturing, and sexually abusing her for some time, before eventually murdering her by the turn of the new year. On 3rd January 1995, Errol, Reggie, and Dewall posed Dora's body in a cane field near Erath, Louisiana, decorating her death site with cult symbols, devil's nests, and a 'crown' of wooden antlers on her head.
Not long after Lange's death spawned an investigation, Errol was maintaining the Light of the Way Christian academy grounds, where he was approached by state police detective Rustin Cohle for information. Rust questioned him, to which Errol lied and revealed he worked for the local parish as a groundskeeper, but knew nothing about the school itself. Rust was called away before he could question Errol further, who simply went back to his lawnmowing work. Reggie and Dewall were soon killed in a confrontation with Cohle, and the Dora Lange case was officially closed based on the belief that Reggie was the killer, still unaware of Errol's involvement.
Unchecked Killings[]
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina swept through Louisiana and caused state-wide chaos and flooding. Errol took advantage of the breakdown of order and went on a massive killing spree up and down the coast, avoiding detection due to the huge missing persons numbers during the crisis.
However, in 2012, Errol murdered Stephanie Kordish at Lake Charles and strung her body over a bridge, decorating it with the same antlers headpiece as Lange. The connection between the murders was finally spotted, but Errol once again managed to evade suspicion, as Louisiana State Police instead suspected Rust Cohle was the killer.
While lawnmowing a cemetery's grounds, Errol encountered state police detectives Maynard Gilbough and Thomas Papania passing through, who requested directions to a burnt-down church. He obliged and also gave them directions to the nearest highway, but the two sped away before he could finish his sentence about his family, remarking to himself that "[his] family's been here a long, long time". He returned to lawnmowing, revealing the cult's spiral symbol cut into the grass.
Not long before the showdown at Carcosa, Errol murdered Billy and kept his decaying corpse in a shed next to his house, talking with the body as if he were still alive for several days.
One morning, Errol speaks with Billy's corpse, telling him to behave. He then entered his dilapidated home, suddenly switching his voice into a perfect British accent after watching a film, and talked with his sister Betty. He revealed that the Lake Charles murder was intentionally obvious, as he believed people had forgotten and needed to be remind of his 'mark'. Errol told Betty that his 'ascension' was coming soon and he would soon enter the 'infernal plane', but he still had work to do. He then travelled to another school to perform a paint job on its walls, where he quietly watched the nearby children playing. A young boy took notice and looked at him, though Errol stared back at him with a sinister gaze.
Final Confrontation at Carcosa[]
Rust and Marty Hart, having finally found the connection and Errol's involvement, arrived later that day at the Childress home to question him, but only found Betty inside. While Marty breached the house, Rust was drawn away and found Errol standing in the middle of a field, bolting when Rust attempted to arrest him. Errol fled deeper into the woods, baiting Rust into the stone ruins of Carcosa and taunting him while his voiced echoed across the hallways.
Rust entered a central chamber within the ruins and was distracted by a (possible) hallucination, allowing Errol to ambush him from behind and stab Rust in the stomach. Using his titanic strength, Errol lifted Rust up and pushed the knife deeper, but Rust managed to escape his clutches by repeatedly headbutting Errol in the face, smashing his nose into a bloody mess. Marty rushed in to help Rust, shooting Errol in the chest twice, but he was unfazed and hurled a tomahawk into Marty's chest, also knocking his revolver away. He pulled the tomahawk out and raised it for the killing blow, but was suddenly killed by Rust with a shot through the back of the head, finally ending his murderous spree and by extension the cult itself.
Errol was formally identified and reported on by state news networks, though the Tuttle family were all able to escape suspicion thanks to their political power, leaving him to be the scapegoat of the decades of killings across Louisiana.
Personality[]
Errol Childress was a deranged, sadistic, and psychopathic fanatic of the Yellow King, melded by years of mental and sexual abuse and indoctrination at an early age. He was part of a generation of children raised by the cult to be ruthless killers
In spite of his murderous behaviour, Errol was by no means insane; being somewhat unhinged in his actions but, intellectually, Errol was frighteningly intelligent and self-educated.
Relationships[]
Notes and Trivia[]
Appearances[]
- "The Locked Room" (First appearance)
- "After You've Gone"
- "Form and Void"