Ronald Jackson

"I'm a realist, Nick."

- Red to Nick Ramos

Ronald "Red" Jackson is a psychopath and the hidden tertiary antagonist in Dead Rising 3.

He is a survivor in Los Perdidos and Annie's ex-boyfriend. Red leads and protects a band of infected survivors through the city. Like other Illegals, he too is infected but refuses to get the microchip required by the government.

Nick works alongside Annie and Red for much of the main story.

Dead Rising 3
Red is first introduced in Chapter 3. Once Nick gains access to the Los Perdidos Communication Tower while searching for Annie, he will climb the tower in search of her. Instead, he finds Red, who immediately shoots at him. Annie shows up and diffuses the situation, although Red and Annie remains suspicious of Nick after finding out that he came to find Annie for Gary. Nick immediately regrets coming to find Annie and decides to try and help Red and Annie instead. Red explains that the government is killing survivors instead of saving them. He asks Nick to do some work around the city by destroying government equipment to earn the group's trust.

After destroying all of the government property, Red will ask Nick to search the Los Perdidos Police Department for some video evidence off of the security cameras in town. He and Annie will meet Nick at The Burgess-Dawson Hotel once the footage has been recovered.

When Annie and the other Illegals are kidnapped by the Special Forces during Chapter 4, he helps Nick devise a plan to sneak into the military compound to rescue the group. While Nick sneaks into the compound to free the captives, Red arranges for a van to come and pick them up. He offers cover from the rooftops while everybody gets to safety. After Annie and the others have safely driven off and the Special Forces have been defeated, he tells Nick where the fuel for the plane can be found. He also shows Nick the wanted poster that has been put out him and Diego before telling him that they will meet at the karaoke bar in Sunset Hills when the plane is fueled and ready to go.

Red later turns on the group in Chapter 7 and serves as the boss for that chapter. He lures Nick, Annie and Isabela out into the shipping yard and traps Isabela and Annie in a shipping container. He claims that Nick is the closest he will ever get to five million dollars, and proceeds to attack Nick with a crane. After Nick blows up the crane, he rescues Annie and Isabela from the container. He then fights Red in combat. After defeating Red, Annie drops a storage container on to him, crushing him.

Trivia

 * Red's death is similar to the death of the Wicked Witch of the East from The Wizard of Oz, they are both crushed by large, heavy objects leaving only their feet sticking out with bright red shoes on.
 * His death is also similar to Stacey's in Off The Record, as they were both killed by their own machines.
 * During their combat battle, Nick and Red may occasionally argue over Annie, with Nick saying things like "Annie is way too good for you, you bastard!" and Red responding with things like "I knew you were eyeing my girl!"
 * Ironically, he wouldn't have been able to redeem the bounty on Nick's head because of his status as an Illegal.
 * He is very similar to Raymond Sullivan from Dead Rising 2, as they both betray the protagonist for money, they are leaders of a group of survivors, and both fight on elevated platforms during their fight.
 * His voice actor Arif S. Kinchen is well known for voicing Pierce Washington from the Saints Row series, he even resembles him, especially with the hat.
 * The only ending where Red survives is ending D, if the player chooses to go directly to the plane instead of the karaoke bar. This is not considered canon, however.
 * A running theme with many of the game's psychopaths is that they're styled after the Seven Deadly Sins. Being a more prominent character than that, Red instead seems to represent one of the original sins and what some religions consider to be the eighth sin: Despair. As a self proclaimed "realist", Red has twice given up on the illegals. The first time he nearly gave up after his saw Angels corpse however he was reasured by Annie to keep fighting for the illegals but the second time he betrayed everyone he fought with including Annie for money and before his death he makes a speech claiming that his life hasn't be fair despite fighting against the goverment so he betrayed them as he wanted to make things go right for him and what he believes is a reward for his work for the illegals.