James Earl Cash

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James Earl Cash
[[Image::File:Characters_cash.jpg‎| ]]
Appearances [[Appearance::Manhunt,
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Picture)]]
Full Name James Earl Cash
Aliases James "Cut-Throat" Cash
Gender Gender::Male
Home Las Venturas (? - 1992)
Carcer City
Family Unnamed Mother
Unnamed Father
Unnamed Brother
Unnamed Sister
Main Affiliations Lionel Starkweather
The Journalist
The Tramp
Businesses J.E.C. & Sons Construction (? - 2007 - ?)</td></tr>
Voiced by

Stephen Wilfong</td></tr> </table>

James Earl Cash is the playable character in the Rockstar North game Manhunt. Convicted and sentenced to death, James Earl Cash had spent three years on death row awaiting sentencing. His execution was all a ruse orchestrated by a mastermind known as The Director. The rest of the world believes he died of Lethal Injection, but in reality it was only a sedative. Upon waking up, Cash is cast into a hideous plot in which The Director has him brutally murder members of different gangs in cordoned off sections of Carcer City while he records it for the purpose of making snuff films.

Events of Manhunt

The story opens with a female news anchor reporting on the convict James Earl Cash, a criminal on death row who has supposedly been executed by lethal injection. Cash awakes to the voice of a person coming from an earpiece, revealing that Cash was only sedated. Cash puts on the earpiece and the person, who refers to himself as The Director, promises Cash his freedom before the night is over, but only if Cash follows the Director's instructions. Released in a dilapidated neighborhood, Cash is directed to slaughter his way through the streets, populated by a street gang calling themselves "The Hoods" while the Director, watching through security cameras scattered throughout the city, repeatedly mentions the need to please the audiences, revealing his occupation as a snuff film director. However, despite the Director's promise of freedom, Cash is beaten and thrown into the back of a van by a group of mercenaries known as The Cerberus. The Director's personal bodyguards made up of ex-CIA members among other mercenaries.

File:Manuhunt still 7.jpg
Cash executing a member of The Skins.

After Cash's battle against the Hoods, he is also hunted by other violent gangs in various locations across the city. The gangs are organized by Ramirez, the leader of a gang of former soldiers and war veterans called the Wardogs. First, Cash is pitted against a gang of white supremacists and Neo-Nazis known as "The Skinz" in a scrap yard. After that, he is put up against Ramirez's Wardogs in an abandoned zoo where Cash has to save kidnapped members of his own family. Following the zoo encounter, Cash has to fight a gang of Latino Luciferian Occultists and overweight doll mask-wearing pedophiles called "The Innocentz" in a shopping center where he finds out that all of his family members have been killed. Cash is now out for The Director's blood after witnessing the snuff film of his family's horrible deaths.

Then he has to lead a homeless man, known as The Tramp, through the city to a churchyard while defending him from the Innocentz. After one final face-off against the Innocentz in a factory, Cash then faces a gang of schizophrenics and sociopaths, known as the "Smileys", who have taken over an insane asylum. Here, Cash survives the ending to the snuff film as planned by the Director. Consequently, the remaining Wardogs and Ramirez are hired to kill Cash. However, Ramirez and his gang are killed by Cash as he betrays The Director.

While Cash runs from the site, the journalist from the beginning of the game comes in her car and Cash gets in. While in the car, she tells him that she is a reporter and that she was at his execution, then revealing that the Director's name is Starkweather. She also tells him that she needs to get her evidence of Starkweather from her apartment and then get out of the city. So Cash tells her to drive to her apartment. Meanwhile, Starkweather tells the chief of the Carcer City Police Department, Gary Schaffer, to bring both Cash and the journalist to him. Protecting her from the police, Cash manages to take the journalist safely to her apartment, and from there goes on to deal with Starkweather personally.

He leaves the journalist's apartment through the window and proceeds through to the subway. He finds that a S.W.A.T. team has been dispatched there. Evading them, he moves through the train yard, but is cornered by the police, who are about to arrest him when the Cerberus kill them and recapture Cash.

Back at Starkweather's mansion, a Cerberus is ordered to kill him. However, Piggsy - a mentally retarded, chainsaw-wielding psychopath, who wears a pig's head as a mask and was kept chained up in Starkweather's attic - has broken free and slaughters the investigating Cerberus. This allows Cash to work his way through the garden and mansion, killing the Cerberus leader along the way. Cash finally reaches the upper levels of the mansion, where he and Piggsy stalk one another. Cash triumphs after luring Piggsy onto a grate that collapses under his weight, and as Piggsy tries to grab onto the ledge, Cash chainsaws Piggsy's arms off, sending him falling to his death. After hacking his way through the last of the Cerberus, Cash finally confronts Starkweather and despite his pleas, brutally disembowels him with the chainsaw. Before he bleeds to death, Cash saws open his skull and jams the chainsaw into his back.

Soon, the press turns up at the mansion with the journalist exposing Starkweather's snuff ring and the police's involvement in Starkweather's operations.

Cash is nowhere to be found.

Personality and traits

Wanted poster featuring James Earl Cash.

Cash remains rather emotionless throughout most of the storyline, killing his enemies with savage intensity and no remorse. However he does display some sympathy for his kidnapped family members during one scene, and is visibly angered when he sees them killed. He also appears slightly scared the first two times he runs into the Cerberus, and when he is attacked by Piggsy in the elevator he panics and climbs through the vent, forgetting about his gun.

He helps the female journalist by escorting her safely to her apartment, before telling her to get out of the city while she can, showing that he's good enough to allow an innocent person who has witnessed him commit multiple murders escape unharmed.

Little is known about Cash's life before the events of Manhunt, even the reason he was incarcerated in the first place is unknown. Sometime during 1992, James Earl Cash was wanted by the San Andreas Police Department as evidenced by wanted posters of him in the Las Venturas Police Department. Cash was on the run up until the year 2000 when he was caught. Cash was then sentenced to death, the execution being three years later.

Notable murders committed

  • White Rabbit (Killed to gain hold of the key to escape Darkwoods Penitentiary)
  • Ramirez (Killed for attempting to kill Cash)
  • Cerberus Leader (Killed to gain hold of the elevator key to reach Starkweather)
  • Piggsy (Killed for attempting to kill Cash)
  • Lionel Starkweather AKA "The Director"(Killed for forcing Cash to kill gang members, killing Cash's family, and later trying to kill him)


File:Sa manhunt.jpg
Toy of James Earl Cash
  • Rockstar named James Earl Cash after the real life killer, James Earl Ray.
  • Cash action figures can be found in Zero's RC Shop in San Fierro in GTA San Andreas.
  • In Manhunt 2 a billboard can be read that says "JEC and Sons Construction", a possible nod to James Earl Cash.
  • At the police station in Las Venturas and San Fierro, there are wanted posters for Cash and a few Hoods gang members.
  • The protagonist for Bully, Jimmy Hopkins, looks very much like Cash and has the same haircut (buzz cut), they even have the same forename. Since both games take place in the same fictional universe this has led some fans to speculate that the characters may be related, however this is fairly unlikely.
  • Cash's appearance was likely based off of Mickey Knox from the movie Natural Born Killers.