Eric Borlinghathen

"My game is simple: I crush the weakest, I call it Survival of the Fittest, one step closer to my dreams."

- Eric

Ericsson "Eric" Borlinghathen is a character who appears as number one of the three main antagonists in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's Serbian (BC), along with his relatives, William Borlinghathen and Vance Borlinghathen. Eric is an American mobster who is also a part of the Borlinghathen Family. From his younger years on, he choose to serve Mikhail Faustin, and was a major and former partner to many people, including Mikhail, his brother-in-law William Borlinghathen, Niko Bellic, his godfather Vance Borlinghathen and Paul Fortunato. Eric is known for betraying his friends and partners, showing disloyalty to almost everyone.

Info
Eric was born in Birmingham, Alabama, US on October 27, 1969 and served in the American Army during the Cold War, but at some point in time, he befriended Mikhail Faustin, an immigrant from the rival country; Soviet Union (today Russia). They have matching tattoos on the palms of their hands, which means that they are brothers for life. They began their criminal activities in New York, where they were both "selling hash and weed brownies to tourists in town square" and Eric was convicted of murder more than once. However, due to his father being an extremely wealthy man, Eric was never arrested and all charges made against him were quietly dropped due to his father's bribery.

In the mid-1990s, he moved back to Vice City, NY after spending some time in Texas, as did Mikhail. Mikhail moved with his wife and young daughter there. Eric was convicted in 1998 and 2000 for extortion and hijacking, respectively, but was never arrested thanks to Lucas Borlinghathen. In following years, Mikhail's addictions to alcohol and cocaine caused his anger and paranoia to spiral out of control. Eric abused painkillers, but remained calm. While Mikhail had taken to an extreme level of violence, even by organised crime standards, Borlinghathen favoured reasoning with people to maximise profits (although he could still intimidate people if necessary), telling Mikhail time and time again that they had to "play by the rules" and calmly.

GTA
Eric first met Niko Bellic when he and his cousin Roman were kidnapped and interrogated by Andrej for killing Mikhail Faustin's employee Vladimir Papkov. Eric wanted to have Niko and Roman killed, however Mikhail thought it better to have Niko begin working for them, Borlinghathen agreed. After Mikhail had shot Roman in the stomach, Damon shows a kind gesture in having Roman's wounds stitched. However, when Niko complains that the task he and Mikhail set for Niko (pulling over every van in South Broker and stealing the one selling televisions) is impossible he smugly tells Niko that the situation is "a problem for you and your cousin, not me." which means he and Mikhail really don't give a sith about Bellic. Later on, Mikhail orders Niko to kill Vinko Petrović, the son of the country's most powerful Russian mobster Sebo Petrović, because Mikhail had a vague, unfounded suspicion that Vinko was a snitch. Eric tries to reason with Mikhail, saying Petrović is dating his cousin and that law enforcement doesn't need a snitch to keep tabs on them due to Mikhail's methods, but to no avail.

Betrayal
Later, Ericsson meets with Niko privately, claiming that Sebo Petrović would spare them both if Niko were to kill Mikhail. It's possible that Eric lied, but Niko seems to have never gotten any trouble from Petrović as promised. When Niko was supposed to collect his payment, Eric revealed that he was allied with his brother-in-law of course, William Borlinghathen, who employed Niko as a human trafficker across the Adriatic Sea until he blamed him for a sinking ship. Niko escaped the setup with the aid of his friend Jacob Hughes, but failed to kill the Borlinghathens - both would continue to pursue Niko from then on. The same day, his cousin Roman's apartment building and taxi depot were burned down.

Soon after betraying Niko, Eric became a major figure in the NY underworld and started his own cocaine and other drugs importation operation. He soon discovered that Roman still frequented a casino in North Broker. Eric was owed an unspecified amount of money from the Lost MC associate Ashley Budler and used this to his advantage, sending two Slavic henchmen to her place and convinced Lost MC Vice President Johnny Klebitz to kidnap Roman to try to lure Niko to his death, but Niko successfully rescued his cousin and Johnny was left in the dark as to why he had to execute the kidnapping.

In the next month or so, Eric allied himself with American mob boss Paul Fortunato, becoming his cocaine supplier and to profit from his family's rackets. The Deadshot's Gang learn of this affiliation and decide to steal a shipment of cocaine. His first action was to extort deputy mayor Bruce Dawkins to help them control several construction unions, blackmailing him with knowledge of his gay affair with Bernie Crane. Coincidentally, Niko was an old friend of Bernie's and stopped the blackmailers. He also tried to ambush Bernie and Niko by boat while they were having lunch. Niko then destroyed their shipment of cocaine.

Death
Near the end of GTA: Vice City's Serbian, Eric is allied with his godfather Vance Borlinghathen to receive a heroin deal, and Jimmy asks Niko if he could join in on it, the reward being $250,000. While Roman encourages Niko to put his vengeance aside and go through with the deal, Niko's girlfriend Kate tells Niko that he shouldn't sacrifice his principles for money. Niko choose the former whatsoever.

Eric and Vance are to deliver the heroin to a third party while Niko and Phil Bell go to the buyer's compound to retrieve the money from them. Eric betrays Niko again by killing the buyer's representatives and taking the heroin for himself. Niko and Phil fight their way through the compound, but retrieve the money regardless. After this, Niko cuts his ties with Deadshots and Kate refuses to attend Roman's wedding. Later at the said wedding, Borlinghathens sends a hitman to kill Niko, but Roman is shot and killed during the struggle. Enraged, Niko and his friend "Little" Jacob Hughes follow Borlinghathens' men to an abandoned ship, where the godson and godfather are hiding. Inside, Niko witnesses Eric killing his own godfather, saying he "didn't work this hard to share the spoils of a victory with a relative who barely cared for him after all these years". He then flees to Liberty Island in a chopper, with Niko and Jacob pursuing him in another. There, Niko mortally wounds Eric, and watches as he slowly dies in front of the Statue of Liberty, being shocked of his traitorous and heartless nature.

Trivia

 * As Eric's cousin was a girlfriend of Vinko Petrović before his death, Eric was able to make a deal with Sebo Petrović not to kill him and Niko after Faustin's hit.
 * Eric's brother-in-law, William Borlinghathen, was one of the few people Eric didn't betray.
 * Eric wears an unique helmet when riding alongside another person on a motorbike. His helmet is green, with two brown stripes along the temples.

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