Rod Ross

A clean-bald scalp and the faintest trace of facial hair sit atop a towering, heavily muscled frame. Ross often goes bare-chested, though at times he pulls on a dress shirt and suit jacket. The game Successors to L portrays him differently, giving him dark skin, a black button-up, and a beige suit.

The supplementary guide brands him the head of an American crime ring, a heavyweight the authorities simply cannot bring down. His tastes run to tequila, and he has no love for soccer. Tsugumi Ohba went so far as to name Ross the single most evil figure in the series, reasoning that running the Mafia earns him the title.

Ross commands the Mafia with a single appetite driving him: power. He welcomes Mello into the fold because both want Kira destroyed, and the boy quickly earns his keep by tracking down a rival outfit that had eluded even Kira. From then on Ross leans on Mello's counsel. His grab for a Death Note ultimately undoes him, as Light Yagami strikes the whole syndicate dead so the Japanese task force can recover Sidoh's notebook. Beyond the main story, the novel L: Change the WorLd names him as the head of an arms-dealing ring, one of the final cases L cracks.