Frederick Sinclair

Frederick Sinclair was a pre-War businessman and both the chief architect and financier of the Sierra Madre.

Background
Sinclair was a wealthy businessman who suffered many crippling financial losses in the 2070s, yet despite that, he managed to hold on to the remainder of his fortune and expand it. He then remained obsessed with security for years to come. Sinclair was friends with Dean Domino, who introduced Vera Keyes to him. From that moment, he fell in love with the starlet.

The Sierra Madre Casino was to be his ultimate gift to her, a shelter from the inevitable nuclear war with China that he predicted was to come, its vault serving as a bunker. But events didn't pan out that way he had hoped. Dean Domino introduced Sinclair to Vera Keyes, with whom Domino once had a torrid affair, if the tabloid press was to be believed. Sinclair was suspicious, and rightly so.

Sinclair discovered evidence of a plot by Domino and Vera that involved breaking into the casino vault and taking the treasures that lay within. Sinclair set about preparing a trap, and had the builders design the casino so that the vault, once accessed, would be impossible to escape. Racked with guilt, Vera eventually confessed her betrayal to him, and Sinclair decided enough was enough and it was time that the casino be returned to its original purpose. Although he no longer loved her and he was left hollow by her betrayal, he could not bear to kill her, so he returned to the vault and removed the entry intended for her, replacing it with an apology. Subsequently, he attempted to jury rig the electronics of the shelter to remove the trap by directly accessing them from the pipes, but due to a leak in the system, he succumbed to the cloud and perished between two pipes underneath the vault.

Appearances
Frederick Sinclair appears as a skeleton in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on, Dead Money and is mentioned in Old World Blues.

Behind the scenes

 * The quote "Know that on the night of the Gala Event I shall raise my glass and whisper, 'Fortunato'" is a direct reference to Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Cask of Amontillado.
 * Sinclair and the Madre are a nod to Upton Sinclair.