Barry Benson/Barry's Story

Background
Barry Benson (born February 2, 1991) is a 32-year-old man who came to Los Santos in a boat wearing a white, wrinkled, and untucked button-down shirt under a black suit jacket with black pants. His original get-rich-quick scheme was to commit insurance fraud by intentionally getting run over by cars so people had to pay him money. At the time he was otherwise known as 'Clean Barry' on account of his clean record with the police.

Barry used to say he was a millionaire Australian accountant until the company went under and he lost everything - in one version of his story. Another tale he has told several times, that seems just as likely to be true, was that he was an exotic dancer and stripper. He used to mention having an ex-wife, Sarah, and two children he'd left behind when he moved to Los Santos. His children's names - Katie and Jonathan - were often used for his racing dongles and heist persona. But later he admitted that he never had any children prior to being in the city and this was another lie about his past. Barry is extremely secretive about his past and an unreliable narrator.

Barry was raised by a single mother named Mary Benson. She met his father, rock star Hubcap Jones, at a Love Fist concert where she was a groupie and they had drunken one night stand. Hubcap regrets not knowing he had a son until he met him as an adult. Barry does not seem to have been particularly close with his mother, and once remarked she did drugs while pregnant with him. Before moving to Los Santos, Barry was married and had an acrimonious divorce. Barry's dog, Rusty, died because his ex-wife took half of it when she left him. In his anger, Barry killed her and buried her on the beach before fleeing Australia. However, Barry keeps the murder of his ex-wife hidden, and has only shared this story with a few people - namely, his sister Andi, best mate Collin and former PM Dundee, as well as an early friend in the city, Ursula.

Early Days
On Barry’s first day in the city, he met Jose Pincha - another newcomer. They hit it off immediately and decided that they would work together to make a name for themselves in the city. Soon, they saved up enough money to buy a van together. After searching for ages, the two met William McKenzie (Willy) who would show them how to rob houses, hunt and deal oxy.

Barry, Willy McKenzie and Jose Pincha tried to take over the lockpick industry in Los Santos but were having troubles sourcing lockpicks at low enough prices for locals to buy them. Barry then reached out to his friend Pez Speedwagon, a mechanic at Hayes Auto Body Repairs, to figure out where they could buy picks at lower prices. Pez said that an unknown contact would call Barry with information on where Barry can buy lockpicks in bulk at lower prices. He successfully scammed Collin McKinley by making him buy a lockpick for an exorbitant price, solidifying their friendship.

One day, when stealing a van to rob houses, petty criminal Irwin Dundee was attempting to steal the same van as well. The two hit it off like they had known each other for years. After an incident that involved both he and Dundee stuck on a mountain for hours awaiting EMS, and pretending to be husbands to save themselves from being kidnapped, the two formed a bond that seemingly could not be broken.

Bondi Boys Motor Club
Dundee saw potential in Barry Benson, and wanted to share the idea of making a club with him. He gave him a tour of The Billabong, which unbeknownst to Barry would become home. Dundee invited Barry to be a Founder, alongside himself and Riley Carter, as the Road Captain of the Bondi Boys Motor Club.

Barry assisted the club's beginnings by giving Dundee $20,000 towards his first club car. This car was the Tulip. The three painted it midnight blue with an ultra blue pearlescent. This officiated the beginning of the club, and Barry was then given his Bondi Boy kutte.

In the beginning, Barry primarily managed the recruitment of people into the club. These recruits helped out by cleaning and earning money for the BBMC, and by doing so, they were assessed on their loyalty, initiative and competence. Those are qualities to this day that Barry looks out for in hangarounds and prospects of the club.

As Road Captain, Barry was well known for being a "soft boy", due to his kinder nature. He took a long time to grow into his skills as a leader and develop himself in his position. Barry's leadership was tested most when Dundee went missing. He worked tirelessly in order to find him, and in order to gain answers. He often clashed with then-Vice Prime Minister Riley Carter and her cautious nature. In the end, he was determined to "send it" as Dundee would and take action.

In time after Dundee's return, the club split. Riley and Malakai were severed from the BBMC, and it was left to never be the same. During the break, Barry was the one who stood as a strong pillar for what remained. Over months, the club healed and grew larger than they had ever thought they could. They grew closer and more skilled. It felt like both a club and a family. He was offered the position of Vice Prime Minister multiple times, but did not feel ready to take it.

The two led the club to bigger and better things, alongside Collin McKinley and Pez Speedwagon, and Barry grew as well. His leadership truly came to light during the organisation of heists and coordination during shootouts. Most noteably, on the 29th of September, 2021, Barry led the shootout that wiped the PD after they invaded the Billabong. This shootout gave Barry the confidence to accept the position as Vice Prime Minister of the Bondi Boys Motor Club.

After being shot by the Mandem, Barry was admitted to ICU suffering a gunshot to the chest that punctured his lung. The injury caused major blood and memory loss. When he woke up, he still believed that Wolfe was a part of the club, had lost his ability to do thermite, and still believed that he was the Road Captain of the BBMC. This change in title also reverted his personality into the softer person he used to be; lacking confidence and that hard exterior. The club is continuing to assist him the best they can in returning his memory to what it used to be.

After a successful meth run without Dundee, Barry felt confident in his abilities and in the abilities of his boys. He felt as though he performed well enough to finally take the role of Vice Prime Minister. On January 3, 2022, he asked for a promotion to Vice Prime Minister, but Dundee turned down his offer because he felt like Barry was not yet ready. He wanted to make sure that Barry still had the qualities of per-amnesia Barry.

On January 25, 2022, Dundee and Barry had a chat on the beach about recent events, including the rest of the club shooting TJ Walker, Barry's son. Barry spoke about what it means to be "Bondi til I die" and that he will always put the club over everything. Dundee told Barry that he would make a great Vice Prime Minister and Barry accepted the role.

On August 18, 2022, Dundee kidnapped Barry at gunpoint and threatened his life, saying that he had to kill Barry to satisfy a deal he made with Norman Bones a year prior. Dundee was to kill people so he could save himself from being thrown back into purgatory. During this kidnapping, Dundee said to Barry that he could sacrifice someone else, Barry said that he will not allow another club member to be sacrificed in his place, to which Dundee replied "“I don’t need your permission. And I don’t have a choice.” Barry is eventually able to talk Dundee out of killing him, and refused the other option to kill Dundee himself, but Barry's father, Hubcap, was to be killed. Barry agreed to this knowing that Hubcap was still in his house recovering from recent surgery and he had time to save him still.

On August 20, 2022, Barry and Collin decided that Dundee was no longer trustworthy in his current state, especially after threatening Barry's and potentially other club member's lives. Barry and Collin shot Dundee after telling the story of Barry's kidnapping and Dundee's allegiance to Norman Bones to the club members that were awake. After he was shot, BBMC put Dundee on an island near Paleto in hopes that Norman Bones would collect him and free him of the deal that he was plagued with.

On September 17, 2022, Barry stepped up to officially fill the Prime Minister role. In the months since he took leadership, the club has grown by three members and half-a-dozen hangarounds. Barry pushed for multiple promotions within the club, including newly patched member Stevie McQueen becoming the first woman to join High Command. Barry has stated that he will only step down as the leader of the BBMC if the club votes him out.

In the months following Dundees death, Barry began to wake up in strange places during moments of high stress about Dundees return, and it was later revealed he was suffering from dissociative amnesia as a result of the trauma of his kidnapping and the subsequent murder of his former PM. Barry suffered from extreme trust issues as a result of Dundees death, fearing that he would never fully trust another person again, confiding only in his sister Andi the extent of his trauma.

On November 27th, 2022, Barry was dealing with the aftermath of a messy Thanksgiving dinner gone wrong where he had ingested a lot of drugs and invited the clowns to Nancys dinner party, which resulted in them being kicked out and being extremely upset. Whilst dealing with the mess, he learned that one of the clowns in question, Kirk Jerkems, had assaulted a local Vespucci Business Owner, Garry Roche and taken a tracker off him that belonged to Barry. This theft and lack of respect for Vespucci, amongst some other factors, spurred Barry on to kidnap him with the rest of the club. Unbeknownst to them, Barry also had revenge for a much bigger slight on his mind, the blooding out of Wolfe, a former member and one of his best friends. Nearly a year previously Wolfe had been removed from the club in part because of telling Kirk stuff he shouldn't, and subsequently refusing to torture or hurt Kirk when asked to by the club. Barry, never one to forget a grudge, saw this is a perfect moment to take the revenge he had secretly always longed for. Barry and the club took Kirk to the mines and, after a lengthy speech about Wolfe where Barry declared that Kirk had taken something from him he could never get back, Collin carved Wolfe into Kirks skin before Barry set him on fire with a molotov, leaving him to burn.

Barry had told Kirk before this that he owed Barry a 100k for the lack of respect and theft of the tracker or he would hurt everyone close to him. Word made it back to Chatterbox the next day and he arranged a meeting with Barry at the docks to discuss this. Chatter was deeply upset that Barry would threaten the lives of him and his family over a mistake Kirk made and demanded answers. Barry remained firm in his resolve despite his affection for Chatterbox and the conversation had a frosty end. Shortly after this, Barry received a phonecall from Chatter asking him to to come to funhouse so he could give Barry the 100k. When Barry arrived Chatter handed over the money and he and Barry had a very sorrowful conversation in which it was made clear their friendship was incredibly damaged and was likely over for the time being. Chatter expressed that he was worried for how Barry was becoming and said he hoped one day he could call him up and it would all be ok, he then walked into the house, leaving Barry to drive silently back to Vespucci. In a conversation later that day with his sister Andi, Barry mourned the death of his longest friendship outside the club and worried that maybe he wasn't happy with who he had become.

On the 17th of December, 2022, Dundee finally returned from Purgatory and Barry was forced to deal with the shockwaves that caused. After a week of tense and often frosty interactions with Barry and the club, Dundee finally made his return to the club in a HC position due to a deal Barry made with Norman that forced him to return Dundee to a position of power. In the following month Barry and Dundee butted heads many times over various things, mainly Dundees continued resentment towards Barry and Collin for shooting him and now outranking him in the club as PM and VP respectively. During this time, from Barry's point of view, Barry had given Dundee many chances to improve his standing in the club and be accepted, including paying off his massive debt with the sale of his R35 to Mayumi Himura. Dundee unfortunately made several critical mistakes that cost him not only the club's trust - but Barry's trust too. The final straw for Barry came in the form of the confession from Dundee that he had kidnapped Collin's bleeding unconscious body after a shootout out with the clowns and considered ocean dumping him. Despite not going through with it, the fact it has even been on the table deeply troubled Barry and made him lose all hope. Barry confessed to his son TJ the next day that after that he was done helping Dundee and he now believed he hadn't changed at all, opting to let him burn himself with time.

On the of 6th of February, 2022, Barry received a phone call from CG member Eugene Zuckerberg asking if he could have a meeting with Barry, and requested that Dundee not be present. At the meeting Eugene and Mr K revealed to Barry and the club that Dundee had shot and considered ocean dumping Eugene a few days beforehand in an attempt to save Demi Black, a cop who Eugene had been asked to kidnap by Dundee himself. Dundee had a change of heart halfway through and decided to shoot Demi and 'rescue' her in an attempt to look better to her in the hopes she'd drop a witness tampering charge she was considering pushing on him. Eugene managed to talk Dundee out of ocean dumping him but he and the rest of CG were obviously very unhappy at what played out. He also revealed to the club that Dundee had expressed negative sentiments about Barry and Collin, as well as asking Eugene if there could ever be a future for him in CG. The club were very taken aback when they heard this all information and were at a loss for words. Dundee turned up shortly afterwards and eventually confessed everything, backing up the story they had just heard, When prompted by Barry to confess anything else he might have on his chest to the group, Dundee also admitted to nearly ocean dumping their VP, Collin McKinley. This confession rocked the club and made things incredibly confrontational. After this mess of a meeting, the club decided to meet at the pond to discuss what to do next. This meeting ended up with only one logical conclusion, it was time to vote whether Dundee was to remain in the club.

After a lengthy discussion, Barry gave Dundee one final chance to come talk and plead his case after he begged Barry for another chance. The conversation at the pond between Dundee and the club did not go well and Dundee ended up leaving on a sour note, telling Barry he was his shadow and no one knew who he was. After Dundee the left the club voted and only one member raised their hand to save him, Junior Meats. Considering this the result was official: Dundee was out of the club. Barry rang Dundee to get him to come back and hear the vote but he refused and said he already knew what the answer would be and he was walking away. Barry and Dundee's final conversation was extremely hostile on both ends, ending with Dundee threatening the club and telling Barry to 'OD on coke and die,' along with harsh words from Barry himself as well. Barry ended the call warning the club that Dundee would likely be looking for revenge and that they needed to be wary.

With that Barry went to sleep, more resolved than ever to make the club the best and strongest it had ever been.