Name: Joseph Edward Charles
Date of Birth: 27th July, 1914
Date of Death: 8th September 1939, Age 25
Gender: Male
Occupation: Detective
Specialist Skills: Deductive and analytics, Interview, Crime Scene Investigation.
General Skills: athletics, basic biology and anatomy, Firearms training, Boxing, gambling.
Misc: Standing 6’ on the button, Joseph can command attention when it suits his needs, or fade into obscurity when it doesn’t. His frame is thin, yet hides muscles. His blondish brown hair is neatly trimmed, and a small trimmed mustache sits gently in-between his nose and mouth.
Background:
Joseph was fated to live a life marked by war. The single child of Rose Adrian Charles (22) and Edward Henry Charles (25), Joseph was born on July 27th, 1914. His father was a young Cartwright in North Lincoln, and his mother worked for a local florist. On July 28th, Edward Henry Charles was conscripted into the British army, kissing his new born son and wife good bye for the last time. Edward would never again see his family; in 1916 he died during the Battle of Somme.
Mary was grief stricken over the death of her husband Edward, in the ensuing months she took her own life, hanging herself outside their country home. Days later the neighbors where attracted to the house by the sounds of a screaming child, only to find the rotten corpse of his mother outside and a starving child within.
In the months that followed, Joseph was sent to live with his Uncle in New York. An aged detective for the NYPD, his uncle was ten years older than Edward had been. Joseph George Charles, whom Joseph had been named after had moved to New York in his late teens, seeking a better life in the promise of the new world, was now a hardened and bitter man. At first he resented his nephew, for he dearly loved his little brother and the boy only proved a reminder of what more he had lost. You see, George didn’t have much, his fiancé passed away from a fever when he was only 20, and life in the United States had been hard on him, living in a small flat close to the rails. Still in time, his heart softened to the boy, and he inherited much of what Edward and Mary left behind.
As Joseph grew, George raised him as best he could, by the time Joseph was 12 he had a keen mind and sharp eye. Often he would come home from school and stay up into the early morning helping his Uncle untangle cases. He proved so helpful that George received several commendations and a promotion to a healthy desk job, overseeing several detectives and their cases.
It was George’s influence that led Joseph to a detective’s career, and by the age of 17 he was already working for the NYPD. At the age of 18, George retired from the force and move back to Lincoln, while there he found an old family gold pocket watch that had been given to Edward by their father. He passed this watch onto Joseph, whom was more a son then nephew now.
Several eventful years passed for Joseph, he and his partner John Edwards made a name for themselves in and outside the force. His passion for his work was only matched by his disgust for Germans, and as tensions in Europe grew, so did his hate.
Driven by his obsession, against the consul of his Uncle and friends, Joseph began hunting for Nazis in New York, it started with a simple botched burglary by a known Nazi sympathizer. Soon he was seeing conspiracies and spies everywhere.
On September the 8th, 1939 Joseph thought he broke the case, having pinpointed an area and time where suspected Nazi sympathizers where meeting. It was pouring rain, as it often can on the coast. He grabbed a trench coat as he opened his door, he was to meet John in half an hour at the docks. As he locked the door, trench coat still draped over his arm a shot rang out. There was a brief moment of pain in his chest as the bullet tore through his heart, his trench coat fell to the floor and then he slumped over as the world went dark.
Joseph died at the age of 25, never completing his work, never married, a man obsessed with his work and vengeance.
Notable Personality Traits (quirks): Hates Germans (blames them for his parents death), smoker, compulsive gambler, straight and narrow, loyal.
Inventory (what he was wearing as he left the house): White Shirt, olive and brown tweed vest, olive brown and red tweed suit Jacket, suspenders, brown slacks, holster with Colt M1911 & 2 spare magazines, packet of lucky strike cigarettes, tin of tobacco and rolling papers, Dorfman Pacific Co. tweed hat, heirloom gold pocket watch (left breast pocket), notepad and pen (suit jacket inside pocket), brown leather gloves (wearing), white socks, brown leather shoes.