Jean-Baptiste Cutting

"One day Mama took me aside and said, "Boy, you're never going to go very far, but you're gonna make a whole lot of people come up short.""

- Jean-Baptiste Cutting

Jean-Baptiste Cutting is the second-in-command of the Mojave Wasteland branch of the Van Graffs crime syndicate, living at the Silver Rush in Freeside in 2281.

Background
Half-brother to Frieda Van Graff and one of the escaped Tibbets prisoners, Jean-Baptiste was to play a fairly major role in the first act of Van Buren, but was only ever mentioned in Frieda's biography.

In New Vegas, Cutting has taken on the role of an enforcer, forming the backbone of the might of the Van Graff family. He works in the Silver Rush alongside another of his half-sister, Gloria, and does his part in the politics of their operation in the only way he knows how; with the barrel of his laser rifle. He has Cutting surname, opposed to Van Graff because his mother only gave him the surname to remind her dead husband.

Quests

 * Birds of a Feather, Heartache by the Number: Jean-Baptiste wants to have a little chat with a woman called "Cassidy". You'll need to find her, and bring her back to the Silver Rush. Note that you have to pick a side, you cannot complete both of these quests together.
 * Tend to Your Business: If Hardin is made Elder of the local Brotherhood of Steel chapter, then he'll task you with annihilating the Van Graffs so the Brotherhood can recover their stockpile of energy weapons.

Appearances
Jean-Baptiste Cutting only appears in Fallout: New Vegas. He was also going to appear in Van Buren, the canceled Fallout 3 by Black Isle Studios.

Bugs

 * If Jean-Baptiste is killed, his body sometimes cannot be looted. On PC, you can access his inventory by entering, then.
 * Jean-Baptiste, after the delivery in Birds of A Feather, tends to get stuck on the stairs and not move, unless provoke by an attack in Silver Rush, the quest will be failed if he's killed.
 * Jean-Baptiste, after the Cass related part of the quest tends to disappear and not come back.
 * When he says, "Gloria's the one you want to talk about working for us.", the subtitles misspell "Gloria's", for "Glory's".
 * After Baptiste tells you to go retrieve the Cassidy girl in the "Birds of A Feather" Quest, when you return to the Silver Rush with the girl, Baptise is nowhere to be found, even though the map says otherwise.

Behind the scenes

 * Jean-Baptiste Cutting is likely a reference to Jean-Baptiste Carrier, a French Revolutionary infamous for his cruelty.