Buck Merril
Buck Merril is a rodeo partner and associate of Dallas Winston, a bootlegger and race-fixer who provides the gun, money, and hideout instructions that enable Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade to flee after Bob Sheldon's murder. A tall, lanky cowboy with blond hair and a mouth that once had buckteeth before the front two were knocked out in a fight, Merril lives on the fringes of the law, making most of his money on fixed races and a little bootlegging. He is the one who got Dally the job as a jockey for the Slash J ranch. Ponyboy is under strict orders from both Darry and Sodapop not to get caught within ten miles of Merril's place, a directive Ponyboy finds easy to follow because he does not like Merril, describing him as "out of it" for digging Hank Williams.
Role in the Escape
On the night of Bob Sheldon's murder, Ponyboy and Johnny, desperate and panicked, go to Buck Merril's place to find Dally. Merril answers the door with a can of beer in one hand, and a roar of cheap music—Hank Williams, clinking glasses, loud laughter, and female giggles—comes with him. When Merril initially snaps that Dally is busy, Ponyboy commands him to tell Dally it is Pony and Johnny, knowing that the only way to get anything from Merril is to bully him. Merril, who is "pretty well crocked," stumbles off to fetch Dally. Dally appears in a few minutes, clad only in a pair of low-cut blue jeans, and after hearing the story, he extracts from Merril a gun and a roll of fifty dollars, which is all Merril has on him because he is blowing his loot from that last race. Dally also gives Ponyboy a shirt of Merril's that is about sixty million sizes too big, and his own worn brown leather jacket with the yellow sheep's-wool lining.
Character and Significance
Buck Merril is a minor but functional figure in the greaser world, a rodeo cowboy and small-time criminal whose resources—a gun, cash, a car, and knowledge of a remote hideout—become crucial to the plot. He is the kind of associate Dally keeps: useful, easily bullied, and willing to provide the tools for a crime without asking too many questions. Merril's T-bird is later used by Dally to drive Ponyboy and Johnny to the Dairy Queen in Windrixville, and after the church fire, Dally takes the same car to race to the hospital. Merril himself remains a background presence, a rodeo partner who provides the logistical means for the boys' flight and, indirectly, for the final acts of the story.
