Jedidiah "Jed" Sawyer [1] also known as Leatherface, and as Jackson while living in a sanitarium, [2] is the inbred and intellectually disabled member of the Sawyer family who regularly murders and eats any perceived intruders in their rural home of Newt, Texas. [3]
Biography
Early Life
Jedidiah Sawyer was born into the cannibalistic Sawyer family in Newt, Texas, in 1938. [2] As Jed grew older, he would become very close to his incredibly inbred family, as well as being very loyal to their commands. [3]
Throughout much of his early life, Jed was pushed to kill by his family as part of the savage Sawyer rituals. He would receive a chainsaw for his eighth birthday from his family, but could still not muster the strength to slaughter a kidnapped man. [2]
Jedidiah celebrating his eighth birthday with his family
Shortly after his eighth birthday, Jed would participate in a family scheme revolving around luring a girl named Beth Hartman into his family's tender mercies. After Nubbins kills Betty, Texas Ranger Hal Hartman discovered the Sawyer's murder of his daughter. Enraged, Hal was unable to legally arrest the entire family, but was able to arrange for Jed to be transferred to a children's sanitarium, the Gorman House Youth Reformatory. [2]
Gorman House
After being sent to the asylum, Jed was forced to take the assumed name 'Jackson', . While in the sanitarium, Jackson would grow to be more sociable and openly talkative. [2]
While at the reformatory, Jackson would come to know many other dangerous youths, such as Bud, Clarice, and Ike. [2]
Escape
While in the Gorman House, Sawyer family matriarch (who had since wed to wealthy man Benjamin Carson), Verna Sawyer, and her lawyer, Farnsworth, made repeated efforts to have Jed released, to no avail. During one of these visits, Verna would break into the patient section of the Gorman House, hoping to see Jed, but was eventually stopped by the house staff. Despite this, her break-in instigated a mass breakout across the facility. [2]
During the chaos of the breakout, Jed would save nurse Elizabeth 'Lizzy' White from an attacking inmate, and the two would run off, before being captured by psychotic couple Clarice and Ike. Ike and Clarice take Jed and Lizzie, as well as picking up Bud, before escaping into the countryside, planning to escape to Mexico. [2]
'Jackson' and Lizzy
The group would ditch their Gorman House uniform and stop in a local diner for rest. However, Ike and Clarice begin attacking and killing several diner patients, forcing them to go on the run once more. The group would later abandon their stolen car and stayed in an abandoned trailer. [2]
During one of these nights, Lizzy would try to escape from Ike's clutches, and was able to slip past Bud, who was on watch duty. Ike eventually caught her, however, and would extremely chastise Bud, causing Bud to later beat Ike to death. [2]
Law enforcement officers, lead by Hal Hartman, caught up to Clarice while she was separated from the group and kills her. After walking for some time, Lizzy flags down a police officer who kills Bud, provoking Jackson to decapitate him with a car door. The duo steals the cop car as Jackson berates her from attracting the cops, shortly before being caught up to by Hal Hartman. They try to escape Hartman in their car, but Hartman shoots at them several times, scarring Jackson's face, and causing their car to crash. [2]
Return to the Family
Hartman would kidnap both Jackson and Lizzy, revealing Jackson's true identity as Jedidiah to Lizzy. While Hartman prepares to kill Jedidiah, the family would arrive at the barn to save him, beating Hartman to the ground and kidnapping him and Lizzy. Back at the house, Jed's face is stitched up by his family, before slaughtering Hartman with his chainsaw. Lizzy would escape from their home before being caught in a bear trap and being decapitated by Jed. Jedidiah would then take Lizzy's face and use it as a leather mask, truly earning the nickname 'Leatherface'. [2]
Over the following eight years, Jedidiah would gradually fall deeper into the pits of insanity, talking only in violent grunts, and being used as a mindless tool for killing by his family, still using his signature chainsaw to slaughter. [3]
The Massacre
Leatherface killing Kirk
On August 18th, 1973, Jedidiah would encounter discover Kirk, a member of a party of travelling friends who had encountered Nubbins Sawyer prior that day. Jed would waste no time, and would beat Kirk to death with a sledgehammer. Shortly afterword, Kirk's friend, Pam, would also intrude into the Sawyer home. Not responding kindly to this, Leatherface would wrangle a struggling Pam back into the home before hanging her up on a meat hook as he cut up Kirk's corpse. [3]
Another member of the group, Jerry, would also come into the Sawyer home to investigate, and would discover a dying Pam in a freezer, and would then be promptly beaten to death with a sledgehammer as well. The two remaining members of the group, siblings Franklin and Sally Hardesty would encounter Leatherface while searching in the woods, prompting Jed to slaughter the invalid Franklin with his chainsaw right there. [3]
Sally would flee from Jedidiah through the Sawyer home, but would eventually escape to a gas station. In reality, the proprietor of the gas station was Sawyer family member Drayton Sawyer, who would abduct Sally and take her back to the family home. Nubbins would tie up Sally at the head of the dinner table, and Jedidiah, Drayton, Nubbins, and the supercentenarian Grandpa Sawyer would enjoy a supper of human meat with Sally viewing helplessly. [3]
Leatherface swinging his chainsaw in destruction after losing Sally
Leatherface would then try to help the frail Grandpa kill Sally with a hammer, but Sally would try to flee from the Sawyer home down the road, and would be closely pursued by Nubbins and Jedidiah. A semi-truck driver would crush Nubbins, and would stop to help Sally. The truck driver would hit Jed over the head with a monkey wrench, causing him to fall and cut his own leg with his chainsaw. Sally would eventually escape from the Sawyer family via hitching a ride on the back of a truck, as Leatherface would wave his chainsaw in frustration in the air. [3]
Aftermath
Shortly after Sally's escape, she was able to inform the town authorities of the massacre [1], with the crime quickly becoming infamous across America. [3]
Later that day, authorities lead by Sheriff Hooper arrived outside the Sawyer home, where the remainder of the extended family, Loretta, Bear and Boss, would arrive to help defend the home, alongside Jed, Drayton, Nubbins, and Grandpa. After demands from the police to surrender Jed, the family would eventually begrudgingly prepare to hand over Leatherface to the police. [1]
The Sawyer home burning
Before this exchange could take place, however, a mob of local residents lead by Burt Hartman (son of Hal Hartman), arrived outside of the Sawyer residence, where they would burn down their home and would kill all members of the family. The only Sawyers who would escape would be Leatherface, and Loretta's daughter, who would be adopted by two of the vigilantes and raised under the name Heather Miller. [1]
After escaping the destruction of his home and family, Leatherface would begin living with Verna Sawyer-Carson in her large mansion. During this time, Leatherface would hunt down and kill many of the vigilantes responsible for the annihilation of his family. [1]
Family Reunion
After the death of Verna Sawyer-Carson in 2012, Heather Miller would be summoned to Texas so that she could collect her inheritance from the wealthy Verna. Upon Heather arriving at her Texan mansion with her boyfriend, Ryan, her friends Nikki and Kenny, and a hitchhiker they found, Darryl. After Darryl was left alone in the home, Jed would murder him. [1]
Leatherface would slaughter Ryan, Nikki, and Kenny, leading Heather to escape after a long pursuit and contact the police, as well as now-mayor Burt Hartman. Police officer Marvin would search the Carson home, discovering the corpses of Leatherface's victims before killing Marvin with a hatchet. [1]
While Jed was killing Marvin, Heather would discover her true Sawyer family lineage, before being kidnapped by deputy Carl Hartman and taking her to a slaughterhouse where she can be dealt with. [1]
Mental State
Personality
Physical Appearance
Known Kills
- 1965: Unnamed mental patient [2]
- 1965: Unnamed police deputy [2]
- 1965: Hal Hartman [2]
- 8/18/1973: Kirk [3]
- 8/18/1973: Pam [3]
- 8/18/1973: Jerry [3]
- 8/18/1973: Franklin Hardesty [3]
- 2012: Darryl [1]
- 2012: Kenny [1]
- 2012: Marvin [1]
- 2012: Ollie Brown [1]
- 2012: Burt Hartman [1]