A “Bible scholar”-cum-conspiracy theorist, father of 11 and onetime rock-n-roll frontman claims his entire world has been turned upside-down by a deviant villain from wildly popular comic book, TV and video game series The Walking Dead.
In a newly filed federal lawsuit, born-again messianic blogger Thomas Richards, who claims to have twice seen Jesus in waking visions, seeks to force a public clarification by Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman that the fictional character of “Thomas Richards” is not meant to be him.
The 55-year-old U.S. Navy veteran argues in his complaint that the “extreme popularity of the franchise, combined with its graphic depiction of dismemberment, torture, cannibalism and sexual violence, has exponentially amplified the harm to Mr. Richards’ reputation by associating his exact name with a psychopathic character in one of the most widely consumed media franchises of the 21st century.”
When people search online for the real-life “Thomas Richards,” they are “involuntarily exposed to mentions and potentially graphic descriptions of a… serial killer who brutally murders multiple people – including minors – and exhibits sadistic and depraved behavior,” the complaint states.
As a result, many never get to view posts such as, “Nazi Germany – A Creation of the Vatican and Jesuits,” “A shocking Compilation of Video clips showing negative side effects of Antidepressants,” and “Ukrainians are cannibals,” according to Richards’s complaint, which contends the search giant’s results have been gamed to his detriment.
Worse yet, according to Richards’s complaint, massively popular line extensions have “actively expanded the harmful portrayal” of his namesake character.
Richards, a Virginia resident, said that a constant stream of erroneous Google alerts have also had a deleterious effect on his personal well-being.
“I noticed I wasn’t getting Google alerts for my work, ever, but I was getting Google alerts for this horrible fictional Thomas Richards all the time,” Richards told The Independent. “Here I’m thinking, maybe, finally, it’ll be my work or something. But no, it’s just an awful character this man created.”
Richards conceded that he knows his work can be “controversial.”
The case follows two others Richards has filed recently: one against Elon Musk’s X, accusing the social network of “shadowbanning” Richards’s posts, and one against Google, for supposedly suppressing Richards in search results and on YouTube. This, he alleges in court papers, “effectively silenc[ed] his biblical voice while amplifying competing Catholic perspectives.”
An analysis on Techdirt of the X filing said the scenario presented in the suit was “actually interesting,” given Musk’s short but disastrous foray into government, but that the legal theory behind it was inadequate, that the core claim was “weak on its face” and that the complaint itself was “a mess… bloated with irrelevant details and conspiracy theories masquerading as supposed “religious expression.”
In the latest suit against Kirkman, his companies and a slew of ancillary players, Richards asserts that the fictitious Richards “creates an unconscious association between [his own] name and violent, disturbing imagery through repeated exposure,” claiming, “Even individuals who rationally understand the fictional nature of the character experience this involuntary association when they see or hear Mr. Richards’ name.” And although it is possible to sue for “unintentional defamation,” Richards’s complaint accuses Kirkman of deliberately naming his character after him.
Attorney Lisa Weingarten Richards, who happens to be Richards’s wife, told The Independent that Kirkman was served with her husband’s suit on Thursday, via a family member.
Through a representative, Kirkman declined to comment.
Richards describes himself as a “religious commentator, Bible scholar, artist and content creator” who “experienced a powerful, unexpected, spiritual transformation” at his then-home in Long Island, New York.
His interest in religion took hold at the age of three, when Richards says he had a vision of Jesus while his mother was out at a nightclub on Fire Island. Richards claims to have another vision of “Jesus the Messiah” some 17 years later, while he was in boot camp, after which he lost his way for several years during a stint with a local hard rock band. He later returned to religion and at the turn of the 21st century, Richards launched his internet ministry across several web domains, according to his complaint.
Richards’s writings are primarily focused on “critiquing the Vatican, particularly its [alleged] sexual abuse of children, false doctrine and also its involvement in other atrocities with links to government and other entities,” according to the complaint. It says Richards has “exclusively used his real name” since the beginning and that the connection between his name and his religious ministry is “inseparable.”
Richards says in his complaint that his website spirituallysmart.com achieved “significant visibility” between 2003 and 2005, which was “precisely when Kirkman would have been developing characters” for The Walking Dead series on AMC. (The show premiered in 2010.) According to the complaint, Kirkman was active in online communities during that period, and it claims that it is “quite likely” Kirkman encountered Richards’s work.
Further, the complaint states, Kirkman, a self-described atheist, has told interviewers that he likes to name his characters after real people, such as the “a**holes” he calls Phillip, after a classmate from grammar school who used to torment him.
“Upon information and belief, Kirkman harbored animus toward Mr. Richards – due to Mr. Richards’ biblical content, strong stance on scriptural truth, and his bible-based testimony including that Mr. Richards states he saw Jesus twice – which motivated Kirkman to target Mr. Richards through the Thomas Richards character,” according to the complaint.
The complaint attempts to bolster its argument by highlighting what it says were “deliberate efforts” by AMC in its TV adaptation of the Walking Dead comic books to avoid using the name “Thomas Richards.” It speculates that the network was aware of the “problematic nature” of the name, and theorizes that this is why AMC dropped the character’s last name and rechristened him, simply, “Tomas.”
Beyond the name, Richards says there are aspects of his eponymous Walking Dead character that suggest it’s in fact meant to be him. The Walking Dead’s Thomas Richards was incarcerated for a violent crime, but falsely claimed he had been imprisoned for tax fraud, in order to gloss over his actual past. According to Richards’s complaint, this detail “maliciously dredges up” his past support for a disgraced preacher he once followed named Tony Alamo, née Bernie Lazar Hoffman, who did six years in the 1990s for tax fraud and in 2009 was sentenced to 175 years after being found guilty of sexually abusing young girls. (Alamo died in prison in 2017, at the age of 82.)
Richards insisted to The Independent that he immediately reversed course on Alamo once he learned of the new charges and claims he hasn’t been to church since. Still, his complaint says the portrayal “creates the identifying characteristics that allow readers to reasonably connect the fictional character to Plaintiff.”
“I don’t know what was in [Kirkman’s] head, but it seems like an awfully strange coincidence,” said Weingarten Richards. “… So there’s a strange parallel there. And it just seemed to me like, it doesn’t seem like a coincidence.”
If Kirkman were to come out and say he modeled the character after another Thomas Richards, which is admittedly not the world’s most unusual name, Weingarten Richards conceded that “would definitely weaken the case.”
At the same time, she said, “I mean, I can only go on what I know, right? Even if he says it was a different Thomas Richards, OK, good. Then clear his name and say, ‘You know what, we never meant this Thomas Richards. We meant that Thomas Richards.”
In the meantime, Richards’s complaint maintains he has suffered mental anguish from being “systematically associated” with his unsavory, yet fictitious, counterpart.
The lawsuit offers Kirkman and the related entities putting out Walking Dead material two options to make things right, according to Richards.
The first, under the heading “CHARACTER REDEMPTION,” would have Kirkman and his partners issue a public apology to Richards, then “publish storylines within three months showing the Thomas Richards character’s complete moral transformation, redemption and evolution into a heroic figure who actively works to protect others and demonstrates genuine remorse for past actions, thereby actively counteracting the negative associations created with Plaintiff’s name.”
The second, under the heading “CHARACTER RENAMING,” would immediately change the “villainous” character’s name “in all future publications, digital editions, reprints and derivative works, AND issue a public apology within 30 days of this Court’s order.”
For either option, the complaint says the public apology “shall acknowledge the harm caused to Plaintiff’s reputation and ministry, [and] express regret for any negative associations created with his name.”
It also seeks the “[i]mplementation of technical measures to disassociate the evil fictional character from search engine results for ‘Thomas Richards,’” to include revised metadata, disclaimer pages and the de-indexing of all URLs in question, plus “quarterly reports for two years documenting compliance with these measures.”
Thomas is demanding, among other things, compensatory damages of not less than $25 million, punitive and exemplary damages between $350,000 and $10 million, and special damages to be determined by a jury, plus court costs and legal fees.
