Aristedes

Aristedes (nicknamed Baldy) is a middleweight talented sorcerer and Fagin-like leader of a small gang. He first appeared in Ghost Story.

Description
Aristedes is a small but competent sorcerer that dabbles in mind control and kinetomancy to control a small gang of displaced youths including Fitz and Zero. Aristedes operated with a cult-leader mindset who used anyone who didn't slavishly follow him as a lieutenant until he could dispose of him.

Aristedes is described as thin (practically skeletal) with pasty white skin. Harry Dresden nicknames him "Baldy" for his baldness by before he learns his real name. His bald head is completely encircled with tattoos. He might be older because although he is bald, his beard is comprised of patches of gray hair.

The tattoos on his head serve as protection and concealment spells from multiple traditions of magical practices.

The hideout Aristedes, Fitz and the gang is inside an abandoned manufacturing facility in an industrial park on the South Side of Chicago. It is a huge two-story building taking up an entire city block. It was filled with neglected equipment, a motorized assembly, cobwebs, empty racks and shelves.

The group has ragged sleeping bags and their meager personal belongings are in plastic trash bags, all scattered on the floor. They use half-barrels filled with flammable scraps as a heat source.

Biography
Around the time of the Red Court's demise, Things on the streets got really, really bad—things, shadows, started to take people. Anyone not protected by someone disappeared. That is how Aristedes collected homeless youth to do his bidding—by offering them protection from the rising number of supernatural threats. He destroyed one such creature in front of Fitz who joined him for protection.

Ghost Story
In Ghost Story, his gang unsuccessfully targets Karrin Murphy's home in a drive-by shooting. This leads Harry Dresden to his hideout. Later, Fitz, Waldo Butters, Daniel Carpenter and Harry Dresden's ghost go to rescue Father Forthill from his hide-out. A fight between Aristedes and Butters, Daniel, and Fitz ends up freeing the mind controlled gang members. Forthill lives and is taken away by EMTs.