Rippers (gang)

The Rippers were a gang of the Los Angeles Boneyard, warring with the Blades for control of its southern reaches. The Rippers were utterly ruthless, dealing with outsiders purely through violence. When Followers attempted to convert a few of them, the Rippers returned their severed heads in response. They were nothing, if not consistent in their affinity for violence, torturing and killing people to sate their own desires. Even passing near their fortress meant risking life and limb, as they surrounded their lair with a dense network of land mines.

It could be argued that the Rippers simply didn't know any better than killing everything that's not them and capturing those who survived to torture and kill them later, on account of the inbreeding. The Rippers only mated with blood relatives, resulting in an ultra-violent gang devoid of any meaningful genetic variety.

Several years before the fall of the Master, the Rippers were wiped out by deathclaws, who moved into their now-vacant fortress, turning it into a nest and separating the Gun Runners from the rest of the Boneyard.

Appearances
The Rippers were one of two gangs (the other being the Blades) vying for control of the Boneyard in early versions of Fallout. Controlling what is now known as the deathclaw warehouse, they were impossible to reason with and the player was supposed to wipe them out and acquire Tangler's cybernetic hand as a trophy. In these early drafts, the Gun Runners also made a fortune selling weapons to both Blades and Rippers alike. Morpheus was also stated to be a former Ripper, converted by the Master to lead the Children. Scant few references persist, including a statement by Chris Avellone, erroneously placing them west of the library. Tangler's cybernetic hand also remains as an unused asset in the Fallout and Fallout 2 data files.