Ammon Lofts, known under the name of "Crookshank", is the second most powerful man in the Lower City of Corus until mid-May of 246 HE. He owns about forty houses in the Lower City, twenty of which are situated in the Cesspool. Thousands of families live in the houses he owns and have him as a landlord. Crookshank got rich with the misery of the poor and by illegal doings. He dies on May 11 of 246 HE, when a rioting mob set fire to his house and Crookshank was trapped in it.