Billy McConnell

A very young police officer, with extreme willpower. He starts as a rookie beat cop and ends the first season as the youngest detective on the force.

Billy is the investigators' man inside the Arkham police, and he is the one who finally arrests Bernard Corbitt.

Season 1: Mister Corbitt

103: Usual Suspects

Billy joins the story as a new character (and new player). He is one of the officers helping secure the scene at Corbitt's house.

104: Attic Window

The next morning he approaches the investigators and admits that, although his partner Detective Kovach accepted Corbitt's explanations, Corbitt seemed nervous when he was questioned. He joins them at Dr. Simeon's house, watches Corbitt's house from a window with Dom, and takes Dom to the police station, where the license plate is traced to Randolph Tomaszewski.

105: Radical Medicine

Billy and Dom visit Central Hospital and question Miss Witherspoon and the superintendent, Dr. Doyle, about Tomaszewski.

106: The Miskatonic Mangler

He goes with Dom and Major Bakersfield to Tomaszewski's apartment on Crenshaw and begins questioning him once he is captured. Afterward he turns Tomaszewski over to the police.

107: Fates and Retribution

Billy brings news from the police investigation: the captured Miskatonic Mangler is incoherent in custody, ranting about "the Master", and had a switchblade, a purple vial like Simeon's and a severed finger with a ring engraved "T & L Forever". His captain promises him a promotion for the arrest. The police cannot get a warrant to search Corbitt's house, so Billy tells the group they must handle it themselves, and he says he can "look the other way" about going into the house but not about blowing up Corbitt's business. The plan is for him to drive to Corbitt's business at the docks and ask questions as a police officer to lure Corbitt away from home.

108: Head of the Beast

While the others search the house, Billy goes to the Corbitt Imports warehouse. He learns little except from the manager that Corbitt has missed work recently, and he tries to pry open a locked filing cabinet with his knife until the manager comes back.

109: For Whom the Dice Rolls

Billy confronts Corbitt at his workplace with Tomaszewski's name and the vial, catches him when he pronounces the name too correctly, and chases him through the warehouse, smashing through doors, firing a warning shot and diving into Corbitt's moving car to drag him out. He punches him, handcuffs and gags him, and brings him back to the house with Simeon. In the basement he faints at the sight of the creature. Afterwards he is taken with the police captain to see the basement and is told to keep what he saw secret. In the epilogue he gets a commendation and a promotion to detective, the youngest on the force.

Notable quotes

"You shot him in the FACE?! Is he dead??? You do remember I'm a cop, right? You shot him in the face?"

In 203: A Night With No Moon he sees the dead light for the first time, pushing around the door of Dr. Webb's bedroom, and escapes through the window with Tallahassee. He runs for the front of the house and pulls Dom Druncard out of the basement window as the light grabs Dom's ankle.

In 204: Night of the Living Dead Light he casts an incantation for the first time, pushing the roll and spending eight Luck to get it off, but the dead light cannot comprehend his command to be still. He still gains POW from pressing against its will. He drives the group back to the cafe and later finds Winifred Brewer unconscious outside the powder room and carries her inside. He then needles Jake about the crumbs in his beard.

In 205: Lights Out he hears Mary and Amelia in the gas station office and tries to pin Mary's gun to the floor, prying it from her hand after Dom tackles her. He hesitates over feeding her to the light until Tallahassee flicks blood in his face. He scrambles into the office, drags Amelia away from the dead light as it melts through the back wall, and slams the door behind them.

In 301: No Rest for the Wicked he admits that he is struggling with what the group has done as a sworn officer, but says the supernatural stakes mean they must see it through. Driving to New Salem, he spots a wrecked campsite off the road, finds a camera satchel holding a Kodak Brownie No. 2, and looks up to find blood and claw marks high in the trees where the attacker leapt away with its victim.

In 302: The Huggening he introduces himself to Mayor Jedediah Marsh as a detective from Arkham and asks about the truck at the abandoned campsite. At Denny's Tavern he mentions Grant Jameson, questions Ezra Denny about Mordecai Shep, Bernard Corbitt and local legends, and presses retired constable Robert Morgan about Dr. Warthrop and Will Henry. He books rooms for the group and insists that they stick together before visiting Mordecai's shack.

In 303: The Grand Slam he asks Ezra Denny about Ike Watson and the town's dangers and learns to beware of Constable Zeke Dawkins and the Mayor. At Mordecai Shep's shack he finds a loose board under the wood-burning stove, checks the hidden box for traps with a roll of 99, and lifts out a cache of cash, a revolver and letters from "BC." Reading the letters, he concludes that Corbitt's laboratory lies beneath a mausoleum in the cemetery.

In 304: Pet, Cemetery he questions Percival Warthrop about his family's place on the hill. When he opens the truck's door the next morning, a freshly hanged cat swings out at his face. On the drive to the cemetery, he confesses that he wishes he had listened to his captain, that the killing of the girl still haunts him, and that he will need some sessions with Simeon once this is over.

In 305: The Shining... Skin he checks the area one last time before entering J.G. Faust's tomb and props its self-closing door open with a rock. He discovers a severed, desiccated hand still gripping the handle inside. He is the only investigator to keep his composure at the sight of the burned laboratory below, and while searching its cage he finds the key still in the door.

In 306: Cellar Door he stays in the truck at the Russell farm with Dr. Simeon and Percival Warthrop to work through the papers recovered from the laboratory.

In 307: Smooth Criminal he searches the Russell farm with successful Spot Hidden and Listen rolls. He finds livestock remains that look about two weeks old and hears what might be a distant car. Going back to the burned notes, he pieces together fourteen years of research by Corbitt and Mordecai Shep. The notes describe how the creature reproduces, explain the binding runes and reveal that the two men exercised it at an abandoned sanatorium. He then drives the group there.

In 308: Infestation he drives the group to the Motley Hill Sanatorium and blocks the drive, though he refuses to slash the other vehicles' tires because he is still an officer of the law. His Psychology read on Goodman Gray suggests that Gray is evasive but sincere about cooperating, and may know the mayor better than he lets on. When the screaming starts, he readies the truck and gets it rolling as the others dive into the back.

In 309: Boom Goes the Dynamite he drives the group away from Motley Hill and back to New Jerusalem. He warns the mayor and Constable Zeke Dawkins that the creatures are nesting at the sanatorium and have wiped out the outlying farms, and rallies the townsfolk to gather weapons. He then presses the mayor about his dealings with Goodman Gray.

In 310: Salem's Lot he and Ezra Denny ferry the town's women and children to the cemetery tomb. When he realizes Delilah and her son are missing, he searches her ransacked house and finds the newspaperman Jacob Alister shot in the street. Jacob says that Ike Watson took Delilah and the boy, then dies. Billy arms Ezra and drives east after Ike.

In 311: Beefing the Defenses he and Ezra Denny reach a shack on the east side of town and ready their guns as screams rise from the west.

In 312: Edge of Sharkness he and Ezra Denny storm Ike Watson's shack and find Delilah Bevins and her son bound inside. Ike resists both of his command spells ("Drop it" and "Freeze"), but Billy fights off Levi, then captures and hog-ties Ike and heads back to Denny's.

In 313: The Arrival he races the truck back to Denny's and rams the wounded adult creature that Dom Druncard brought down, crushing it against the building, before hurrying Delilah Bevins, Zachary and the captive Ike Watson inside.

In 314: The Siege he drags the captive Ike Watson toward the stairs of the burning tavern as a sacrifice for the dead light and wounds one of the creatures crawling in through the north windows.

In 315: Legends Never Die he is overcome by panic at the sight of the alpha, drops Ike Watson and flees upstairs until Dr. Simeon's Command spell restores his senses.

In 316: The Last Stand he swears himself to Dr. Simeon, draws the ritual symbol on Ike Watson and performs the chant that feeds Ike to the dead light after it destroys the alpha.

In 401: Static Prevails, now a detective, he calls the group to the Riverview Apartments at about 3 a.m. to see a dead man in a locked apartment full of radios. He reads the pawn receipt made out to "John Johnson" and later learns from Officer Michael Speekman that the man was seen alive at about nine the night before, though his body looks days dead. He asks for a rush from the mortician.

In 402: Criminal Energy he refuses to take part in the break-in at the Pawn and Prawns so he will not be an accomplice, and waits at the diner, Pizza Dragons, drinking coffee. He tells the others what he learned from the neighbor and the building: John Johnson was seen going into his apartment at about nine the night before, yet his body looks days dead, which Billy says is creeping into the supernatural. He plans to interview the pawn shop's owner and then the medical examiner, Dr. Jared Sylvester.

In 403: I Will Steal You Back he goes into the Pawn and Prawns alone and questions its owner, Hiram Hopkins, as a detective. A Psychology roll shows that Hiram is lying about the watch, and a Persuade roll fails after Billy hints that the patrolman might get lost on the way. He takes the unconscious Tallahassee to the medical examiner, Dr. Jared Sylvester, and learns that John Johnson died of exposure with four stab wounds that match the Major's wife's. He shrugs off a cold chill with a successful POW roll, then casts Command himself with extra force to try to wake Tallahassee.

In 404: Episode IV his Command makes the unconscious Tallahassee's eyes flutter, but Tallahassee sinks back, so Billy smacks him a few times and urges him to wake up. Once Tallahassee is awake, Billy asks where he went and whether spiders attacked him there. He then reads aloud from John Johnson's autopsy report, which describes multiple stab wounds on the torso from something like an ice pick or a stake and a body exposed to severe weather for days, and says that Johnson may have been in the same place. He suggests that the group find out who the dead man is and then meet up with Dom and the Major.

In 405: Be Sensible he takes the fingerprint card into the Arkham police station, where Captain Renz takes the Radio Man case away from him and gives it to Detective Crane, says that chaos follows the group around and that he does not want them around any more. Billy argues that they are consultants and helped him catch the Miskatonic Mangler, offers up the Reynolds case and grows suspicious about how fast he is being pulled off, having been kept off the investigation into the Major's wife's murder and looked into it on his own time. He tells Simeon and Tallahassee what happened, loudly says that they are not friends any more so that the captain sees, and then lets them in through a side entrance to search the records room with him while the clerk, Sarah Beatrice, looks the other way.

In 406: Pain he finds the fingerprint match with Simeon and Tallahassee in the police records room, refuses to take the card, and writes down the information instead, saying that he has to pass some of it to Detective Crane. He flips off Captain Renz's closed door before leaving, and the captain calls him a loose cannon. At Pizza Dragons he tells the others that the captain gave him flak over their shenanigans and pulled him off the Radio Man case for no reason, and that they need to be more covert, and notes that the chief is appointed by the mayor and could lean on the captain. At the hospital he greets Nurse Witherspoon as "nurse with a spoon," makes a tactless joke about jumping off a building after she does not remember him, and then apologizes. He asks about Dr. Doyle's decline and who he was spending time with, asks whether the mayor was one of his patients, and, when told he needs a warrant to see Dr. Doyle's office, says "I am the law."

In 407: Coffee & Cigarettes he and Dr. Simeon search Dr. Doyle's office at Arkham Hospital. He recalls that he and Dom interviewed Dr. Doyle there during the Mister Corbitt case, when the office was tidy, and says that the disarray and a book on hauntings are out of character for the doctor. When the radio in his pocket switches on, he pulls it out and a voice in the static says his name twice. He backs against the wall, terrified, makes a POW check (26 against 91), and, as a cold feeling takes hold of his head and the voice asks if he remembers it, he forces it out and says "Get out of my head." He tells Simeon that something tried to get into his head, says that it seems to show up whenever the radios switch on, and asks Nurse Witherspoon about Dr. Doyle's state, his radio, the book on hauntings and any talk of ghosts. He takes the termination paperwork with her permission, and suggests heading back to meet the others at Dr. Simeon's house.

In 408: In the Same Room he and Dr. Simeon are walking through the hospital's reception area when he spots Detective Crane, whom he recognizes from the police station, with the elder Mr. Goddard. With Simeon helping, he searches the nurses' counter and finds Raymond Goddard's room number, which he writes on his hand, then ducks behind the stairs to watch the door. When the radio in his pocket flares up with a voice that sounds like it says Raymond, he runs to Raymond's room and tells Crane that the radio started squawking out of the blue and that he followed it down the hallway because it was saying a name. A Psychology roll shows him that Simeon is looking at something, and he swats at the air near Raymond's head and feels nothing. As Raymond is stabbed by invisible wounds, he grabs him by the shoulders and casts Command, saying "return," and his roll succeeds, but it has no effect. After he and Simeon slip out in the commotion, both fail their sanity rolls and sit in the reception chairs in shock after a long night without sleep.

In 410: Just Watch the Fireworks he is found sitting on the edge of a chair in Simeon's study with a thousand-yard stare, and comes to his senses when the others shove him out of his seat. He and Simeon recall the last thing they saw at the hospital: Raymond Goddard stabbed to death by an invisible attacker, followed by hazy memories of the rain and the drive home. He tells the others that the radio asked "Remember me, Billy?" and praises Dom's detective work. He says that when they mentioned Goodman Gray's name to Devin Black "his eyes got real wide." He suggests that Simeon try Command of the Wizard on his wife, and when that fails he puts Simeon in a sleeper hold and then casts Command of the Wizard on him with the word "sleep," so that Simeon can reach Soyland through his dream.