Brother Edward was a name and personality given to Charles Dexter after his court-ordered mindwipe. He was a member of the Trappist Order and one of Brother Theo's monks.
History[]
As Charles Dexter[]
The Black Rose Killer
Charles Dexter was a notorious serial killer who murdered nine women on Earth colony Orion III. He earned the epitaph the "Black Rose Killer" due to a black rose he left with each of his victims. In 2251 he was caught, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to the death of personality via mindwipe, becoming Edward. After the mindwipe had occurred, however, there was a fire at the facility where he was sent to work. He was presumed dead, but had actually survived with a basic set of memories and a personality programmed to serve.
As Brother Edward[]
Now Edward, he ended up at New Melleray Abbey on Earth, applying for a position with a Catholic religious order run by Brother Theo. He was accepted, and spent the next eight years serving the order with exemplary service, developing a deep personal faith in Christianity. During his time in the order, he developed a close friendship with Brother Theo.
Brother Theo had given Edward a satchel as a gift. When Theo decided to take the order to Babylon 5 to continue their work, Edward went with him. He befriended Cpt. John Sheridan and Cmdr. Susan Ivanova. Brother Edward also showed an interest Minbari beliefs and an interest in learning more, especially about Valen. To this end, he visited Delenn and Lennier and they discussed their respective belief systems. Apart from participating in religious duties, Brother Edward functioned as a contact person between his religious order and those companies who wanted to contract the order's services for things like data processing. He was also a minor sculptor and enjoyed making gifts for friends. Edward said that his joy in sculpting came from the making of and then the giving of the gifts.
Unfortunately, his former life caught up with Edward. The family members of the victims tracked him down, and using various means (including a Centauri telepath) they forced him to remember parts of his former life. Despite Theo's urging to leave the matter buried, Edward investigated and learned the truth. Theo offered to help Edward and stand by him. Edward sadly told his dear friend that he had to face what was coming alone. Theo then went to the command staff for help in learning more about what was going on. The command staff investigated and indeed found that Edward had been harassed and manipulated by various means that prompted him to investigate further.
In order to find out all of the details of the plot, the Centauri telepath whom the victims' families had paid to coax Edward's mind to start remembering his past was kidnapped and Lyta Alexander took the information from his mind by force. The leader of the survivors tortures Edward, leaving him mortally injured and strung up on a cruciform in Downbelow. This punishment paralleled the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Station security and Theo searched for him. It was Theo who found him and called for help. In his last moments, Edward said he was afraid of what would happen to him and wondered if there was enough forgiveness for what he had done; but, he could accept what had happened, and said he could forgive the ones who did it to him because they did what they needed to do. Theo administered the Last Rites and Edward died. His killer's mind was wiped and the man become Brother Malcolm as part of Theo's order. Upon meeting "Brother Malcolm", Captain Sheridan backs away in disgust. However, Theo reminds him subtly that forgiveness is difficult but everyone is entitled to it.[1]