John Winston

John Winston

Status:	Deceased
Died:	January 27, 2009
Affiliation:	Doc's Diner
Voice actor:	Christian Erickson

“	Two faces of the same serpent. One in our world, the other in the other world. Woe to he who sees both sides of the snake.	”
– John to Lucas in a hallucination

John Winston is the man who was murdered by Lucas Kane in the Doc's Diner restroom at the very beginning of the story in Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy. His death spurs the investigation lead by the two detectives, Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles to catch the murderer, and which also slowly convinces Carla there may be more to this case than meets the eye.

After his death, Winston frequently appears to Lucas as pale and bloody, which causes a great amount of grief and causes Lucas to question his sanity. John Winston appears as wearing a blue business suit and eyeglasses, and is also balding.

Doc's Diner Murder

Moments before his death

On January 27th, 2009, John Winston was attacked and killed in the East End restaurant by Lucas Kane. Lucas was eating calmly at his table minutes before, but the waitress noted he had a strange stare and ignored her when taking his orders. Shortly after this, Lucas took the knife from his table and hid in the restroom stalls, carving a two-headed snake on each forearm that left a pool of blood on the floor. When John Winston entered the restroom and finished his business and was distracted as he washed his hands, Lucas emerged from the stall to sneak up behind him and proceed to stab him three times to the chest. Lucas would quickly flee the scene. Not long after the crime was committed, Martin McCarthy, an off duty police officer, would enter the restroom to discover the murdered body of John Winston and declare it a crime scene.

An hour later, Detectives Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles would arrive and take over the case to catch the killer. During the course of the investigation, Carla would find many striking similarities of the case to many previous ones, including the Kirsten case and one current one at a Laundromat.

News would report on the Doc's Diner murder, including one newspaper called the New Yorker Post, titled "Carnage in East End Restaurant." The article reads: An especially horrible murder was committed last night in the restroom of a local restaurant. The killer is a man in his thirties of average height with brown hair. Police are already searching for the man and will be releasing a composite sketch in the next few days.

Character Information

John Winston is a middle-aged man who frequented Doc's Diner and left a large tip. He is described as kind and generous and although he is friendly, he has never appeared with friends or family at the diner.

While sitting at his table and enjoying a meal and book, Lucas Kane was approached by a hooded stranger, the Oracle, who proceeded to sit across from him. After some small chat, the Oracle touched Lucas' hand and chanted a spell to bring Lucas under his control and possessed him to murder John Winston inside the restaurant's restroom. Due to the mysterious nature of the Oracle, Lucas was unable to even recall having met him or the moments while they interacted until Lucas contacted a psychic, Agatha. Throughout the first half of the story, Lucas is plagued with visions of the pale and bloody John Winston, to whom it causes great stress and grief and makes Lucas question his sanity. His death also makes Lucas into a wanted criminal and later fugitive, driving Lucas to prove his innocence and find out the truth.

Later in the story, it's revealed by a Mayan expert that the series of murders were identical to an ancient sacrificial ritual, in which it were performed by a Oracle who would choose an executor and victim at random to receive visions of a Child, the Indigo Child who was foretold two thousand years ago as the person who would grant an individual unlimited power if they find her and hear out her secret.

Trivia

• John Winston is the first character to die in Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy.
• His death is exactly the same as the other victims of the Oracle, another victim killed ingame is Anita Martinez.
• Kate Morrison states John was a nice, normal man who often visited, ordered the same thing and left a nice tip.
• John Winston appears in the bonus content featured in the game.
• The Oracle and John Winston are both voiced by Christian Erikson.
  • Erikson also voiced in Omikron: The Nomad Soul, another Quantic Dream game directed by David Cage.
  • He also voiced in Heavy Rain as a number of different characters.

Gallery

Early Game Development

Alpha version of John Winston

Just before the stab.

Last stab.