Phil Cassidy

Phil Cassidy(1949-) is a bitter war veteran featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, and Grand Theft Auto III, chronologically.

In all appearances, Phil is featured as a heavy artillery arms dealer, selling the protagonist military-style weaponry which can devastate easily, such as Grenades, Rocket Launchers, Miniguns, etc. He claims to have served in the military.

Phil has been featured as a heavy drinker. He distills his own alcohol, a dangerous and highly explosive drink known as "Boomshine" which Phil started distilling and selling in Vice City around 1984. Phil says during a phone conversation with Tommy Vercetti that due to his heavy Boomshine drinking, he is blind in his left eye.

One of Phil's most notable features is his one arm. In his appearance during GTA VCS and GTA VC, he still has both arms, but in his last appearance, in VC, he blows off his arm with a boomshine bomb while drunk. In GTA Liberty City Stories and GTA III, Phil has only one arm.

GTA Vice City Stories (1984)
In Phil's first chronological appearance, he is introduced to Victor Vance through Sergeant Jerry Martinez. Phil is Jerry's gun dealer. Jerry sends Vic to help Phil get rid of some Cholos giving him trouble. Through Phil, Vic meets Phil's sister Louise Cassidy-Williams and Phil's brother-in-law Marty Jay Williams.

After completing some jobs for Marty and eventually killing him because he tried to pimp Louise, Vic returns with Phil and saves him from Jerry's goons who want to finish him for betraying Jerry. After being saved by Vic, Phil promises to stay sober from now on; however, he begins to drink again when Armando Mendez kills Louise. Phil, wanting revenge with the Mendez Brothers, gets drunk and blows up the entrance of Fort Baxter Air Base so Vic can steal a Hunter helicopter to attack the Mendez compound.

In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Phil is sporting a handlebar mustache. Between 1984 and 1986, it has been removed.

Gary Busey voices Phil.

GTA Vice City (1986)
In his next appearance, Tommy Vercetti hires Phil to pull off a bank robbery in the mission The Shootist. Phil is the one who suggests Tommy should employ Hillary King as a getaway driver in the mission The Driver. After the robbery (The Job), Phil invites Tommy to work for him in order to get fixed with firepower. After Tommy kills Phil's rival gun dealer Pedro Garcia, a drunken Phil invites Tommy over to check out a Boomshine bomb he had set up, wired to a remote detonator. The remote doesn't work the first time, so Phil changes its batteries for fresh ones sitting beside the bomb. Now standing one meter away from the powerful explosive, in inebriated carelessness, he accidently squeezes the remote's trigger, detonating the bomb and blowing off his own arm. Tommy drives Phil to an ex-army surgeon to be patched up.

Gary Busey once again voices Phil.

GTA Liberty City Stories (1998)
Phil makes a short appearance during the mission "More Deadly Than the Male" as Toshiko Kasen's gun dealer. Heavy artillery can be bought from his gun-store, Phil Cassidy's Fully Cocked Gun Shop.

GTA III (2001)
In the mission Arms Shortage, corrupt LCPD cop Ray Machowski commissions Claude to go and meet Phil at his shop, since some members of the Colombian Cartel tried to extort weapons out of Phil. Phil and Claude attack the Cartel men as they arrive and kill them, preventing them from stealing Phil's weapons. During this mission, Phil claims to have lost his arm in Nicaragua, but it is been revealed later in GTA VC that his arm was blown off in a boomshine bomb explosion. However, it is likely that Phil believed he was in Nicaragua when his arm was blown off because he was drunk at the time.

Hunter Platin voiced Phil in this game. In the credits for the game, he is listed as Phil the One-Armed Bandit.

VCPD Crime Tree Record

 * Redneck arms dealer.


 * Believed to be involved in weapons trade.


 * Gun enthusiast. Member of various second amendment organizations and various Vice City gun clubs.


 * Sources suggest he also distills "boomshine" in own stills.


 * Fighting war with Mexican gun-running gangs.


 * Linked with "Cam" Jones. Jones and Cassidy believed to have worked together numerous times although Cassidy has avoided convictions.


 * Degenerate.


 * Patriot.


 * Also believed Cassidy claims to have served in various divisions although Army records show he was repeatedly rejected for service because of drunkenness and an unsuitable temperament for combat.

Trivia

 * Phil is the character to appear in the most games throughout the series, appearing in four altogether.
 * Oddly, though his first appearence is in GTA III, this is chronologically his last appearence.
 * In GTA Vice City, Phil states in a phone call following "Gun Runner" that he can only see with one eye because of prolonged intake of Boomshine.
 * In Boomshine Saigon, it clearly shows Phil blowing off his right arm, not his left arm. This is likely simply a mistake in the creation of the cut scene, where they had Phil standing with the bomb to his right, rather than standing on the other side of the bench, with the bomb to his left. Successfully delivering Phil to his friend's place shows Phil correctly, missing his left arm and still having his right.
 * In Vice City, Phil's mobile home can be entered. Gun Racks displaying several handguns, submachine guns and rifles are on the wall. When his bedroom is entered, his bed consists of a camouflaged mattress and an American Flag styled pillow. A Kaufman Cabs calendar can be seen in his mobile home also.
 * There seems to be a pattern in Phil's appearences, as he is a major character in both GTA VC and GTA VCS, and a minor character in GTA LCS and GTA III.

Mission appearances

 * GTA III
 * Arms Shortage


 * GTA Vice City
 * The Shootist
 * The Driver
 * The Job
 * Gun Runner (Boss)
 * Boomshine Saigon (Boss)


 * GTA Liberty City Stories
 * More Deadly Than the Male


 * GTA Vice City Stories
 * Cleaning House
 * Conduct Unbecoming
 * Cholo Victory (Boss)
 * Boomshine Blowout (Boss)
 * Truck Stop (Boss)
 * Marked Men (Boss)
 * Blitzkrieg Strikes Again
 * Over The Top

Businesses

 * Phil's Army Surplus (GTA III)
 * Phil's Place (GTA Vice City)
 * Phil Cassidy's Fully Cocked Gun Shop (GTA Liberty City Stories)
 * Phil's Depot (GTA Vice City Stories)

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