Mayor Sam Bartlett

"Are you saying I'm a bad father? Who the hell are you to say that?! I did the best I could for him... You don't know anything about my son!"

- Mayor Sam Bartlett snapping at Alex Shepherd.

Mayor Sam Bartlett is the local mayor of the town of Shepherd's Glen and a minor villain in Silent Hill: Homecoming, though he is not hostile towards the player - his villainous actions took place prior to the player returning to Silent Hill but nevertheless count as immoral, if not tragic.

His great-great-grandfather was a founding member of the town. It's said that, when running for mayor, Sam did so unopposed. This was probably because it was his birth right and his responsibility as a descendant of the Bartlett family, one of Shepherd's Glen's 4 founding families that were once members of the powerful, local religious cult known as The Order who are based in the neighboring town of Silent HIll. Mayor Bartlett sacrificed his own son, Joey Bartlett to the Order's God and turned to drinking to try and drown out his guilt, however the sinister power of Silent Hill crept into his mind and utilized his guilt to resurrect his dead son as the monstrous Sepulcher, who exacted his revenge on Mayor Bartlett via killing him with a single blow.

Biography
Sam was once a respected figure in the community. He was the father of Joey Bartlett, a friend of Alex Shepherd's brother, Joshua. He loved his son dearly, and gave Joey everything he wanted in order to ensure his happiness. During the Shepherd's Glen 150th Anniversary Celebration, Bartlett was the dunkee of the dunk tank.

Throughout the course of the game, it is revealed that Sam buried his son alive as part of a pact. This decree, placed upon the founding families of Shepherd's Glen by the Order's demonic God, was meant to protect Shepherd's Glen from the corrupting influence that holds sway over the neighboring town of Silent Hill. The Bartlett family was ordered to offer their sacrifice to the earth, hence their children are buried alive.

The mayor is first seen digging up old graves in Rose Heights Cemetery, although his identity is unknown to Alex until a later conversation with Curtis Ackers. It is thought that Sam's act of gravedigging was a way to cope with the guilt of burying his son alive. It isn't until Alex's journeys into the town of Silent Hill that he is actually interacted with.Within the Otherworld's version of the Grand Hotel's atrium, Alex confronts Sam and asks him the location of his brother, Joshua. The answers Alex receives vary on what the player asks, but the end of the conversation, and ultimately the end of the story, remains the same.

Not receiving a straight answer to his liking, Alex presents Sam with the broken watch he found in the Bartlett mausoleum and asks him about his son, Joey. According to Alex, Joey and Joshua were friends, and the two may be together. Sam takes the watch and tosses it to the ground in drunken disdain, where it is absorbed by the soil. The entire atrium begins to shake and Sepulcher, a demonic manifestation of Joey Bartlett, appears. Sam begs for mercy, but is crushed to death.==Gallery==

Trivia

 * The Bartlett family owns a winery, the Bartlett Vineyards, established in 1897.
 * In Elle Holloway's diary, Elle mentions that she went out jogging one morning and eventually came upon Sam. He was laying passed out, drunk, on the front lawn of his mansion. He was alive, yet unresponsive as she poked him with a stick.
 * During his time in the Grand Hotel, Alex can find a series of notes that contain information on an affair involving a woman named Carol Doyle (the woman for whom Alex retrieves the "lost memories") and a man named "Sam". According to these letters, Sam loved to work in the atrium garden and Carol and her sickly husband, Clayton, would visit the garden often; it is also noted that he had an affair with Carol. Among the collection is a note written by Paul Ashley, stating that he witnessed Sam dragging one of his bags of fertilizer inside the unlocked atrium, "Only it didn't look like any kind of fertilizer bag I've ever used. It was real heavy and he seemed to be kinda struggling with it." Ashley contemplated telling the sheriff, but it appears nothing came of it. Sam's struggling with the bag suggests it very well could have been a corpse.
 * A manhole cover reads "Bartlett Bros. Sewer Shepherd's Glen." It is unknown whether Sam is directly involved with the sewers.
 * A glitch exists where it is possible to kill Sam before speaking to him. This does not prevent the discussion from taking place, though he will be invisible during segments of the scene, and any items that he would normally hold during this will appear to be floating of their own accord.