Royce Lazare (Gabriel Hillington) – The Angel of Death in All the Sinners Bleed

Overview

Royce Lazare, born Gabriel Hillington, is the primary antagonist of S.A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed. Publicly a dependable school‑bus driver and trucker, he secretly murders Black children to satisfy a religious mania rooted in his own childhood abuse at the Holy Rock Church. The novel reveals him as a methodical and theatrical killer who calls his bunker “Tartarus” and stages his victims with angel iconography. His dual identity—everyday community member versus the “Last Wolf” or “Angel of Death”—drives the central investigation and forces Sheriff Titus Crown to confront the evil lurking in plain sight.

Plot Role

Royce Lazare is revealed as the serial killer behind a string of child abductions and murders spanning multiple states. Early in the investigation, his name surfaces when Titus discovers that a temporary delivery driver—Royce Lazare—signed off on the logs for a truck whose route matches victim locations. Titus realizes the initials RGL can be rearranged to spell “Azrael,” the Angel of Death. The final confrontation takes place at Royce’s farmhouse, where he ambushes Titus and Deputy Tom Sadler, killing Tom and wounding Titus. Royce drags Lavon Macdonald into a hidden bunker filled with angel paintings and an embalming table. There he rants about God’s abandonment of Black children before Lavon stabs him, enabling Titus to kill him with a blade hidden in his belt buckle.

Motivations and Traits

Royce’s motives are revealed during his rambling confession in the bunker. He was abused as a child by the Hillington family at Holy Rock Church and believes that God is a “sociopath” who allows Black people to suffer without intervention. He tells Titus: “I did those kids a favor… In a land built on murder and death in the name of ‘Sky Daddy.’” This twisted logic leads him to commit escalating atrocities, targeting Black children as a way to kill the part of himself he hates. He also joins the Sons of the Confederacy and adopts a white‑collar persona—trucker hats, country music—to distance himself from his own identity. His physical appearance is deliberately altered: he shaves his head and wears a wig because, he admits, his natural hair “kinks up” and he despises that part of himself.

Key traits:

• Charismatic and deceptive: He easily blends into the community as a friendly bus driver.
• Theatrical: His bunker is lined with angel art; he refers to it as “Tartarus” and uses an antique embalming table.
• Compulsive confessor: In his final moments, he cannot resist explaining his worldview, revealing far more than necessary.
• Physically imposing and violent: He kills Tom with a shotgun, stabs Titus, and fights with savage strength.

Chronological Arc

Royce’s story unfolds in fragments across the novel:

• Pre‑story: Childhood abuse by the Hillington family at Holy Rock Church. He later changes his name from Gabriel Hillington to Royce Lazare and relocates to Charon County.
• Years of hunting: He kidnaps and murders at least seven Black children (Baltimore, Columbia, Hillsborough, Wilmington, Philadelphia, plus two others) over a span of years, often using his CDL and delivery routes to travel.
• Present timeline: The narrative begins with his final spree. He abducts Lavon Macdonald and kills Elias Hillington, leaving his body impaled in a cornfield with the message “THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM THIS SAVAGE PLACE.”
• Discovery: Titus traces the delivery logs and identifies RGL as Royce Lazare, then issues a BOLO.
• Confrontation: Royce ambushes Titus and Tom at the farmhouse, kills Tom, and retreats to his bunker.
• Death: In the bunker he is fatally stabbed by Titus after Lavon stabs Royce’s arm, giving Titus an opening.

Relationships

• Elias and Henry Hillington: The abusers at Holy Rock Church. Royce murders Elias in a ritualistic, sexually violent fashion, suggesting a revenge motive for the trauma they inflicted.
• Titus Crown: Royce’s primary adversary. Titus’s own history of trauma and his role as sheriff make him the only person capable of understanding and stopping Royce. Titus tries to appeal to Royce’s humanity by referencing his own childhood prayers, but the appeal fails.
• Lavon Macdonald: The final intended victim. Lavon’s quick thinking (stabbing Royce with a paring knife) saves himself and allows Titus to win.
• Cole Marshall: An acquaintance who helped build the bunker, unaware of its true purpose. Royce mentions that Cole “helped him put in this building.”
• Community: Royce is known as a reliable bus driver and temporary trucker. No one suspects him until the evidence clicks into place.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Theme and Symbol Connections

• Human Evil and Renewal – Royce embodies the novel’s opening epigraph from Joseph Conrad: evil is a human product, not supernatural. His atrocities are the result of trauma and choice, not demonic possession. Yet his death, and Titus’s survival, hints at the possibility of renewal.
• Racial Tension and Systemic Racism – Royce targets Black children because he believes America is a “land built on murder and death” that will always oppress them. His own self‑hatred as a Black man reflects internalized racism.
• Cyclical Violence and Historical Trauma – Royce’s childhood abuse at Holy Rock Church creates a cycle of violence that he perpetuates onto the next generation. The novel’s prologue about Charon County’s bloody history shows that the past is never truly buried.
• Family Bonds and Duty – Titus’s determination to save Lavon echoes his love for his brother Marquis. Royce, by contrast, has no family ties; his only “family” is the memory of his abusers.
• Secrecy and Hidden Evil – Royce hides behind a bus driver’s persona, a wig, and a fake smile. The bunker under a plastic azalea bush symbolizes the evil that exists just beneath the surface of everyday life.

Questions and Answers

1. Why does Royce choose the name “Azrael” as his alter ego? He signs his delivery logs with the initials RGL, which Titus rearranges to spell “Azrael,” the Angel of Death in Abrahamic tradition. Royce’s bunker is filled with angel imagery, and he appears to Titus “like an angel who had fallen far from grace.” The name reflects his self‑image as an instrument of divine punishment for a God who he believes has abandoned Black children.

2. What trauma drives Royce to kill Black children? Royce was abused as a child by the Hillington family at Holy Rock Church. He tells Titus that he prayed to God for rescue but received none. This leads him to conclude that God is a “sociopath” who allows Black people to suffer. To kill the part of himself that he hates (his Blackness and his history), he murders Black children, whom he sees as doomed to suffer in a racist society.

3. How does the novel reveal Royce’s identity as the killer? Titus cross‑references victim missing dates with delivery logs from Charon’s Fertilizer Farm. He finds that a temporary driver, Royce Lazare, signed for a truck during the periods children disappeared. The report from the medical examiner confirms victims from Columbia, Hillsborough, Wilmington, and Philadelphia all align with Royce’s shifts.

4. Why does Royce kill Elias Hillington in such a brutal, sexual manner? The murder is retribution for the abuse Elias and his family inflicted on Royce when he was a boy. Royce impales Elias on a stake, flays his penis, and carves a message into his chest. This act mirrors the violation Royce suffered and asserts his control over a man who once dominated him.

5. What is the significance of the bunker Royce calls “Tartarus”? Tartarus is the deep abyss in Greek mythology where the Titans were imprisoned. Royce’s bunker, hidden under a fake azalea bush, contains a torture‑embalming table and angel art. It represents his personal hell—a place where he acts out his religious mania and relives his trauma. The name also underscores the novel’s theme that evil is not external but created by human beings.