- "You know the problem with you people is? You still think you can win, that you got something to win. But it ain't never gonna come to pass."
- — Walter Beaumont
Sheriff Walter "Slim" Beaumont is the main antagonist of the Mafia III DLC Faster, Baby!.
History[]
Background[]
Walter "Slim" Beaumont is the Sheriff of Sinclair Parish, a small rural farming community outside of New Bordeaux. As a Southern white supremacist, Slim runs his Sheriff's Department as though Jim Crow is still the law of the land. He and his Deputies operate with absolute impunity and use their power to keep the population of his Parish white through intimidation, harassment, and even murder. He has influential friends in state government and the Southern Union, who fully support his efforts, financing his upcoming bid for re-election.
Civil Rights Case[]
Beaumont murdering Ezekiel Dandridge
In 1967 Charles Laveau and his activist movement began building a civil rights case against Beaumont. Working with an attorney out of Washington D.C., they spent the next year gathering evidence and witness testimony to present before a federal court. Helping Laveau with the case was Ezekiel Dandridge, who was meeting with witnesses and gathering evidence.
While leaving Sinclair Parish late one evening sometime in 1968, Ezekiel stopped to phone Laveau. As they spoke, he was approached by Sheriff Beaumont, who asked what he was doing in his Parish so late. After a brief conversation, Beaumont shot and killed him. Upon inspecting Ezekiel's vehicle, Beaumont discovered The Folder containing all the evidence the movement had gathered over the last year. He takes the evidence back to his office for safekeeping.
While looking through the folder, Beaumont learns what Laveau's movement has been up to. After making some notes and highlighting some names, he places the Sheriff's Department on high alert, locking down the Parish while he begins tracking down the witnesses, having his Deputies cut them off as he prepares to move in and deal with them.
Fighting Back[]
The following evening Roxy Laveau and Lincoln Clay infiltrate the Sinclair Sheriff's Office and retrieve their evidence from Beaumont's desk. When they discover the Sheriff's plan, they quickly devise their own to save the remaining witnesses. Using Roxy's Lassiter Nightcrawler, Clay and Laveau head around Sinclair Parish stirring up trouble in order to distract the Sheriff's Department long enough for Mitch "M.J." Decosta to get the last three witnesses safely out of Sinclair Parish.
The plan is a success and they regroup at the De Costa Family Farm, where Roxy and M.J. urgently rush off with the witnesses. M.J. says he secured the folder in his farmhouse and asks Lincoln to deliver it to Laveau. Lincoln agrees to this but when he opens the front door to the farmhouse he is greeted by Beaumont; who stuns Lincoln with a shotgun blast of rock salt. With Lincoln now in chains, Slim tells him his friends got away, but he has the folder, and without that, it's just going to be their word against that of a God-fearing white man. When it's all said and done, Beaumont says he'll probably be elected governor.
Downfall[]
Underestimating the group's determination, Beaumont is surprised when a shot rings out and kills one of the Southern Union members beating up Lincoln. When a second shot frees Lincoln from his chains, Slim panics and runs off. Now free, Lincoln kills his remaining captor and goes after Beaumont, killing anyone who gets in his way. After rejoining with Roxy, the two chase Slim across the Parish while his Deputies attempt to intervene. When Beaumont is forced to stop at the railroad tracks in the face of an oncoming freight train; Roxy and Lincoln corner Slim when he tries to escape on foot only to stumble in a nearby graveyard.
Cornered and defeated, Walter Beaumont laments how he always thought he'd die on his front porch in his rocking chair. His mood quickly changes when he's told they have no plans to kill him, as his death would solve nothing. The only way to bring about lasting change is to make him answer for his crimes. In a last effort to one-up his captors, he declares how he knows powerful people, a thought left incomplete as he's knocked unconscious and taken away to Laveau's compound. At a later point in time the FBI got custody of Beaumont.
Fate[]
The arrest and subsequent conviction of Sheriff Walter Beaumont exploded from a story of small-town corruption, into national news. In stark contrast to his defiance before his arrest, Beaumont turned on his fellow white supremacists and named names, implicating over a dozen co-conspirators in the Sinclair Parish Sheriff's Department. He identified members of the Southern Union, some of whom belonged to the Louisiana political machine. Beaumont accepted a sentence of 15 years as part of a plea deal with the FBI, going on to serve 12, most of it in solitary confinement for his own safety.
21 years after his fall from power and 8 years after his release from prison, Beaumont was shot and killed in 1989 in the driveway of his home. No suspects were ever identified, and no one was ever charged.
Notable Murders[]
Appearances[]
Faster, Baby![]
- Another Brother Falls
- Kickin' Up Dust
- Ain't Nowhere Safer (Captured and incarcerated)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Beaumont is the only villain of the three DLCs not to die by the mission's conclusion. Instead, Slim is killed in 1989, 21 years after the events of the DLC, under mysterious circumstances.
- Beaumont's ties to state-level authorities could have allowed him to call for help from the Louisiana State Police when things began to unravel, but Beaumont likely preferred to rule Sinclair Parish himself (state troopers would be a higher authority than a sheriff and his deputies), leading him to wait too long to contact any potential source of assistance before his downfall.
- Beaumont's ignoring the end of Jim Crow law is authentic for a Deep South sheriff in 1968; the Massive Resistance effort of the 1950s-1960s led by Senator Harry Byrd in Virginia had centered on simply ignoring the federal government and U.S. Supreme Court.
- Beaumont appears to have some form of interest/skill as a hunter and/or outdoorsman, namely from the bear displayed prominently in his office.