Abram Greerson

Abram Greerson was a criminal lawyer, murderer, and the final partner of Maxie Parlow before they were sent to the Neath. He most notably worked with the Morgan Company.

Background Information
Abram Greerson was born the second son of Brooks and Mollie Greerson. His parents both came from old money families and Abram was raised with vast wealth. Despite taking a greater interest in his father's work as a lawyer, his father's estate and business was set to be inherited by his elder brother who he has a rather rocky relationship with. Despite this, he did receive a decent inheritance upon his father's death and retained his job.

At 25, Abram met Opal Coghill, an up and coming opera singer and he was immediately taken with her. The two courted each other for a short time before becoming engaged. This caused a minor scandal due to her family having a far lower status, but Abram refused to call of the engagement and they were wed within the year.

Despite his success as a lawyer, Abram was consistently investing poorly and spending his on lavish parties and gifts. He eventually found himself living above his means until he found most his inheritance spent and what money he earned from his various court cases was spent by his wife, who remained entirely unaware of their dwindling wealth. His attempts to gain wealth from his relatives was repeatedly denied due to his marriage to Opal being viewed as a slight on their family name. He attempted to take on more cases, but Opal soon announced she was pregnant, and asked for Abram to remain home more in order to help prepare for their future child, since he'd slowly dismissed nearly all the staff in their home for petty reasons. Growing desperate, Abram forged the will of Russell Sapping, a childless friend of his father's, before poisoning him at a party. The money he gained from the will allowed him to continue his lifestyle without strain for some time, but he finds himself wishing for even more again.

Involvement with Criminals
Abram continued his cycle of forging the wills of various socialites and rich folks before murdering them in order to continue amassing wealth. He hid his crimes by only killing while Opal was on tour, along with paying a cut to various servants for keeping quiet or even serving the poisoned food or drink, however due to the long periods he needed to wait between murders and his continually rising need for more money, he needed to turn to other avenues. Along with the servants on his payroll, he began hiring sex workers for his parties, paying more for some to go home with patrons and poison them for him, promising a cut of their will.

He also approached various criminals he'd defended for jobs that might gain him more money, before being approached by Ira Morgan and asked to defend a smuggler who worked for him. He remained in Ira's employ after and managed to keep the men he defended out of prison. He often invited Ira, and other members of the Morgan Company to his parties, though he had a distaste for Ira himself. He often asked the sex workers under his employ to try and get information about the inner workings of the Morgan Company, in case he ever needed an upper hand against Ira.

Relationship with Ezra Spice
Abram had several notable affairs, his last being with Ezra Spice, who he initially met at one of his parties. At the time Ezra was seeing Herman Howe, an old money socialite and an acquaintance of Abram. Ezra quickly showed interest in Abram, and he reciprocated.

Physical Appearance
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Personality and Traits
Abram is generally viewed as a caring husband and upstanding citizen, well liked by his employees, family, and colleagues, though those closest to him tend to see a different side of him.

Opal Greerson
Opal and Abram's relationship, on the surface, is one of mutual attraction, love, and respect - and in the beginning it seemingly was. Despite her lower status and repeated insistence from his family that he break off the relationship and wed the daughter of his mother's friend instead, he remains in the relationships and they're wed without having known each other more than a year. Their infatuation continues after the wedding, but Abram begins to grow disdainful of Opal as she spends what money he earns on frivolous items she'd always wanted but could never afford before, along with sending money off to her parents. Despite this, he continues to lie to her about their financial state and attempts to keep up the façade of being happily wed by spending money he doesn't have on her regularly. Abram internally blames their financial troubles on her, and tells himself he commits the murders he does so he can continue to provide for her.

Despite his repeated claims that he loves her, he often has affairs with those he employs, concealing them at first but slowly dropping the façade culminating in moving Ezra Spice into his mansion and having them remain even when Opal is home from tours. Despite his affairs growing more publicly visible, few discuss it and those who do blame it on loneliness caused by the long periods of time Opal is away touring. Opal never confronts her husband about his infidelity, though it becomes increasingly clear she's aware of it. She remains unaware of her husbands crimes up to her death at his hands. He never admits to her murder, claiming it was illness and publicly mourning her.

Maxie Parlow
Abram is introduced to Maxie, going by the alias 'Ezra Spice' at the time, by an acquaintance and future target, Herman Howe. Ezra seems to take an immediate interest in Abram, and he quickly deduces they're only with Herman for his status rather than any actual attraction. Abram is happy to indulge their advances, and after a few months of stringing Herman along Abram convinces them to leave him, promising them a large sum of money. Abram gives Ezra a 'farewell gift' for them to give to Herman. Herman is found deceased in his home the following day, and the cause of death is declared as food poisoning.

Abram continues to gift Ezra expensive gifts and clothing until Ezra questions what will happen when his wife returns home. Abram states that he could have Ezra added to the staff to keep them close, but Ezra refuses, upset by the idea that their gifts would need to be a secret and that the money given to them would be substantially less. Abram assumes that Ezra will simply leave once Opal returns home, but instead they confront him, stating they're aware he killed Herman and that they'd gotten a few servants to admit to them that he'd committed more murders than just that. They say they'll go the authorities unless he pays them off, and while Abram admits to having killed in the past, they state it had been Ezra who'd given Herman the poison that ultimately killed him, and that the constables had suspected them from the beginning but had never pursued it thanks to him convincing them otherwise. Under the threat of withdrawing their defense of them to the constables, Abram convinces Ezra to remain with them rather than going to prison, culminating in getting them to agree to get a tattoo of his family sigil, a lock, in order to permanently connect them. Following this, Abram has the staff members who might have told Ezra what they knew silenced in various ways.

Abram slowly folds Ezra into their business, training them to seduce and poison whatever targets he chooses, along with continuing their affair. Despite the change in their relationship, Abram continues to give Ezra expensive gifts and act as though they're there of their own free will. His public acts of kindness and generosity paired with Ezra's general disinterest leads to them being viewed as ungrateful, cold, and vapid, further isolating them and encouraging them to act as though their relationship is consensual, Abram rewarding them when they do. Abram often relies on putting Ezra in uncomfortable or outright dangerous situations in order to punish them without doing so directly, though he always claims ignorance after. His teachings also often lean into what Ezra suspects is punishment, particularly burning them with cigarettes with the excuse of desensitizing them to pain.

As their relationship continues, Abram finds himself more and more possessive of Ezra, eventually leading him to poison his wife when he learns Ezra's been attempting to convince her to take them on her next tour. This eventually kills her, causing him to both grow more possessive of Ezra and resentful of them, blaming them for her death. He makes their next target an even harder one, which ultimately leads to his own demise, Ezra stashing away the poison and lacing his cigarettes with it only four months later.