Billy Candle

William "Billy" Candle (1867-?), later known as Billy McCall, was the secondary protagonist of Call of Juarez. He was the son of Marisa and Juan Mendoza, stepson of Thomas McCall and great-grandfather of Ben McCall. He was voiced by David Taylor.

Early Life
When Billy was still in her womb, Marisa fell in love with Thomas McCall and they escaped to a new life away from his biological father, Juan "Juarez" Mendoza. They settled down on a small farm outside of Hope, Texas before Billy was born. When he was young, Marisa gave him a medallion with a candle engraved on it, which unbeknownst to him was the key to finding the Gold of Juarez. Thomas beat Billy regularly to 'make a man out of him', his brother Ray McCall, Sheriff Tim Powell and the owner of the local saloon Clyde Forrester always assumed Billy to be up to no good and treated him with disdain.

In 1882, Billy was eating dinner with his mother and stepfather. Thomas told Billy he needed to go into town to get some feed for the horses, and told Billy not to be "wasting time with that slut" (referring to Billy's childhood friend Suzy). In anger, Billy stormed out of the house, with Thomas in pursuit. Fearing for his life, Billy grabbed a whip while Thomas reached for a pitchfork. Billy snapped the whip at Thomas' wrist, mounted a horse, and rode off exclaiming "I'll be a better man than you'll ever be! I'm going to find the Gold of Juarez!" Marisa then came to comfort Thomas and asked why he treated Billy so. Bitterly Thomas replied, "He's bad to the bone, just like his father."

During his travels Billy briefly worked at the Ferguson Ranch as a ranch-hand, becoming rivals with Chet over in Molly Ferguson. After he found out Billy was attracted to his daughter, Mister Ferguson kicked him out of the ranch swearing to kill him if he ever returned.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
While Billy is not physically seen, the final portrait at the end of the game focuses on Marisa's growing belly.

Call of Juarez
Apparently having been oblivious to his medallion's true purpose, Billy returned unsuccessful in his endeavor in 1884 to his 'home', arriving to find his mother and Thomas murdered, with 'Call of Juarez' spelled in their blood on their barn door above their corpses.

Ray McCall arrived having been informed by a townswoman that shots had been fired at Thomas's farm, and assumed Billy the murderer. The aging preacher began pursuing him, starting a chase that would see Billy engaging in battle with the Plague outlaw gang, eventually arriving back at the Ferguson Ranch, where he was reunited with his love interest Molly Ferguson after a fist fight with Chat, whom had discovered him despite Billy's covert tactics. Ray unwittingly assisted Thomas and Marisa's true killers including Tom Manson Ty Stewart and the McClyde brothers, whom were working for Juan Mendoza to attack the Ranch; forcing Billy to flee once again, Reverend Ray in hot pursuit. As he later discovered they were after him under Juarez's orders, in order for the Mexican war-lord to acquire the Medallion, which in turn would lead him to the Gold of Juarez.

Billy finally made a stand on a cliff overlooking a great river, trying to convince Ray he didn't kill Thomas and Marisa. Ray shot him and Billy was lost to the waters below. He awakened at the camp of Calm Water, an Apache whom had rescued him from certain death. Unfortunately Billy discovered the Medallion and all his possessions save his whip and clothes had been swept away by the river.

Calm Water told him that running away was not the answer, and in order to teach him he requested that Billy kill three rabbits with a bow and arrow, and then to climb a nearby mountain to acquire eagle feathers. Upon returning to the camp, Juarez's minions killed Calm Water and captured him, he later had his first, not so warm encounter with his biological father, who demanded to know where the medallion was. Unable to convince Juarez that he had lost it in the river Juan threatened Billy to find it, else he would give Molly, whom his men had also captured to his underlings for 'their enjoyment'. During his search Billy assisted a young boy in burying his father for which he recieved a reward of knowledge, that a poor man would always give him more than a rich man. Using his memory of the Medallion, William succeeded in locating the entrance to the caverns, which after a short time of trekking lead him at long last, to the Gold of Juarez. Unbeknowst to him he had been pursued by Juarez, whom after finding the gold ordered his men to kill Billy for supposedly lying to him. He fled but was met with certain doom after reaching a dead end, until Ray appeared from above and rescued him.

The preacher told Billy to flee for his own protection while he cut through all of Juarez's troops that had persued Billy throughout the caverns, and then injured Juarez in a firefight. Ray stated he would rescue Molly and went alone armed with a gatling into the heart of Mendoza's fort to rescue Molly, Billy decided that he wouldn't run this time, and went back to the bandit stronghold, meeting the young boy he had assisted earlier, who gave him a bow and many arrows, saying that he wanted them dead as well. Billy found Ray and Molly about to be burned alive and put the fire out with a basin of water from above. Being told that the exit had been barred from the other side, Billy went inside the Alcazar and was confronted by his father.

Juarez said it wasn't too late to fix things, Billy replied coldly that Juan had his mother murdered. A duel was instigated, each party wielding one of Juan's dual Volcano Guns, each supposedly containing only three rounds. Billy shot down his father believing him dead, and then went deeper into the base until he found and removed a bar from the door which had been keeping Ray and Molly from escaping, and as they prepared to leave Juarez burst through the doorway and shot Ray point blank range. He revealed he was wearing a metal plate over his chest, and then attempted to kill Billy. Unfortunately for Juarez, his gun was out of ammo. Billy and Juarez engaged in unarmed combat, which again Billy won, and as he and Molly embraced, their eyes away from Juan, he rose up with a knife and attempted to stab Billy, but a bullet from Ray's gun finally ended his life before he could do so. Billy and Molly buried Ray in the same cemetary as the boy's father. Billy lamented on how he had been running his entire life and accepted the scorn of others, and decided from then on he was done with all of it. Later he changed his name to Billy McCall, in honor of Ray McCall.



Appearance
As a young man, Billy had dark hair which had been grown fairly long. He wore a yellow shirt and blue overalls accompanied by two hand made necklaces, along with the Medallion. He also had feathers tied into his hair. He also had a bandage wrapped around his left arm which is left unexplained he also had very old looking boots, almost looked like they were about to break. Billy was a well built, athletic young man with distinctive facial features.

Personality
Billy was an angry young man with a difficult life due to abuse by his step-father Thomas, and racism from the people of Hope. He was always afraid of fighting back at his enemies and chose to flee instead, prompting him to utilize the same tactic after the murder of Thomas and Marisa McCall. After nearly losing his life to injuries sustained from the preacher and his subsequent plummet into a great river, Billy met Calm Water who sucessfully convinced him that running away would never solve anything, and sent him on various tasks to reinforce his words. He was rather intelligent, using his wits to avoid enemies and using the terrain to his advantage. Billy is shown to be clever and cunning which he used to survive against enemies who hunt him. After Ray McCall's sacrifice, his newfound courage became even stronger.

Trivia

 * Billy Candle had an affinity for Native American culture and at some point spent time with them, which is why he wore feathers in his hair, in a similar manner to many Native American tribes.
 * At the age of 17, Billy is currently the youngest playable character in the Call of Juarez series.
 * Billy is one of three playable characters of Hispanic heritage. The other two are his great-grandson Ben McCall and Eddie Guerra in Call of Juarez: The Cartel.


 * At the start of Call of Juarez, Billy does not carry a whip with him, nor a horse. This strongly implies Billy ran into some trouble while on his two year expedition. This might explain the cuts on his face, and the bandage on his arm.


 * Billy's 'heavily injured' sound effects are recycled in Bound in Blood for one of the sound effects for Thomas when he is also heavily injured.
 * William is a Germanic name meaning "Vehement protector". This seems fitting especially for William McCall, whom Billy was named after.
 * Due to the feathers in his hair, and his facial features, Billy has often been mistaken as being Native American, while in actuality his parents were both full blooded Mexicans.