John Todd

John Wayne Todd (May 19, 1949 – November 10, 2007), also known as "John Todd Collins", "Lance Collins", "Kris Sarayn Kollyns", and "Christopher Kollyns", was an American speaker and conspiracy theorist. He claimed to be a former occultist who was born into a 'witchcraft family' before converting to Christianity. He was a primary source for many Chick Publications works against Dungeons & Dragons, Catholicism, Neopaganism, and Christian rock.

In his public appearances, Todd made a variety of claims about witches, Satanists, and the Illuminati, who he alleged were conspiring against Christians. These purported conspiracies often included government officials and leaders of Christian organizations. Investigative reports in magazines and books said there were many inconsistencies in his statements about anti-Christian conspiracies and his own past.

In 1988 Todd was convicted in South Carolina on charges of rape and sentenced to 30 years in a prison. In 2004 he was released from prison and placed in a psychiatric facility, where he died in 2007.

Biography

Speaking career Todd's earliest known public speaking engagements began in 1968, when he was preaching and married to a woman named Linda. He claimed he had been a witch while in the United States Navy, but converted to Christianity while visiting a southern Californian Pentecostal church. After disappearing from public sight for a few months, Todd returned without his wife, saying that God had told them to seek other mates. In 1969, Todd joined the United States Army and was stationed in Germany for a few months before being discharged for psychiatric reasons and drug abuse. Oral Roberts, and Pat Robertson. He claimed to have given, as a member of the Illuminati, $8 million to Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel to launch the Christian rock industry, which Todd said was a Satanic invention to entrap Christian young people in rock music and its "demonic beat". He claimed that Falwell had been bribed by the Illuminati with a $50 million donation. He urged Christians to stockpile weapons and food in preparation for a Satanic takeover in 1980. Todd significantly curtailed his public speaking after 1979, reportedly moving to rural Montana after issuing warnings that the Satanic takeover had begun. He was later reported to have delivered a speech in Cedar Falls, Iowa in 1983 at the invitation of Randy Weaver.

Later life Todd was arrested in May 1987 for the rape of a University of South Carolina graduate student. After his arrest, he was additionally charged with sexually molesting two children who attended a karate school where he worked. He was convicted of the rape in January 1988 and sentenced to 30 years in state prison. In June 1988, Todd, through his defense attorney, requested the return of a pair of pink women's panties, 64 photographs, two survival knives, a knife sharpener, a handgun, 99 cassette tapes and three copies of Todd's book How to Build an Ark: A Practical Guide to Survival.

In 2004, Todd was released, but he was put in the care of the Behavioral Disorder Treatment Unit run by the South Carolina Department of Mental Health.

Claims and reactions Todd claimed to have served as a Green Beret in the Vietnam War, but his discharge papers list him as a general clerk/typist for about 18 months and having no combat experience or deployment to Vietnam. Army medical reports referred to possible brain damage from childhood abuse, along with "emotional instability with pseudologia phantastica" (compulsive lying), difficulty in telling reality from fantasy, homicidal threats he had made on another, false suicide reports, and a severe personality disturbance. Todd also claimed in his testimony to have murdered an officer in Germany and to have escaped prison with the help of the Illuminati, but his records show no such things occurred.

Todd's speaking engagements during 1978 and 1979 generated controversy and sometimes hysteria at the churches in which he spoke. Frequently, there were claims by Todd of gunshots in the parking lot or attacks on his life after the services, but there were no witnesses to confirm his claims. In one meeting between Todd and Warnke, the two had a backstage confrontation and Todd accused Warnke of stealing his testimony regarding the Illuminati. In another Chick comic book, Spellbound?, a character called "Lance Collins" describes himself as a former druid and member of the Illuminati. The character claims that Satanists control the rock music industry and are infiltrating churches, and urges Christians to burn their rock music records, Ouija boards and Dungeons & Dragons game sets. Both comics offer "deepest appreciation to John Todd, ex-grand Druid priest".

Todd's stories about the Illuminati were published as the comic book The Illuminati and Witchcraft in 1980 by Jacob Sailor. His claims partially became the basis for a different book, Witchcraft and the Illuminati, published in 1981 by The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord, a Christian Identity group, and reprinted in 1999 by the Christian Patriot Association. This book repeated many of Todd's claims, including the alleged power structure of the Illuminati and the idea that Atlas Shrugged was the Illuminati's secret blueprint, but added Identity beliefs derogatory toward Jews and African Americans.

After Todd's veracity was questioned and investigated, Chick continued to defend him and publish tracts based on Todd's life. Author Cynthia Burack wrote that Chick often made "excuses for behaviours that were inconsistent with Todd's status as a high-profile Christian convert," and that his "propensities to indulge in conspiracy theory and to lash out at putative allies who question his conclusions" in his defense of Todd and other controversial figures (namely Alberto Rivera and Rebecca Brown) resulted in a split between himself and the conservative Christian movement.