Thomas Richards (Comic Series)

"Come back here you slut! It's time to get your medicine, you fucking whore!"

- Thomas Richards chasing Andrea.

Thomas Richards is a character first encountered in Issue 13 of The Walking Dead is a convict who survived the initial stages of the undead apocalypse trapped inside The Prison cafeteria, along with Axel, Dexter, and Andrew.

Atlanta
Thomas was caught red-handed for the murder of his wife, as he was found and apprehended by the police in the process of cutting her body to pieces to cover up the murder. After being sentenced, he was driven to West Central Prison by a local police officer. On the drive down, Thomas kicked and twisted in his seat "like a fuzzy baby", and repeatedly insisted upon his innocence, crying and yelling, "Mama, it's all a big mistake! It wasn't me!" This is narrated by the police officer to Lee Everett, as he recalled that Thomas was "one of the worst" he had ever transported. The officer said that Thomas had fooled himself into thinking that he didn't actually kill anyone.

The Prison
He, along with Axel, Dexter, and Andrew were found by Rick Grimes and Tyreese in the cafeteria of The Prison, which was barricaded by a police baton and a few of the prison guards. The four convicts explained their isolated survival attributed to the wealth of food and supplies that was meant to feed the entire prison population for weeks. When each of the four introduced themselves, Thomas claimed he was put into jail for tax evasion. Along with his three fellow inmates, Thomas was less vocal and didn't share much else in his initial introduction. Compared to the revelation of Dexter's murderous past or Axel's armed robbery charges, Thomas seemed less of a threat than the other convicts.

Not much was seen of Thomas in the short time the convicts had total freedom alongside the survivors. However, he was actively featured interacting with the other survivors more than the distrustful Dexter and awkward Andrew. He helped Lori Grimes and the women move their belongings into the cells and other general tasks. He also spoke to Patricia with an abnormal level of etiquette. These positive exchanges gave Thomas a favorable impression initially. However, it soon became apparent he was actually a homicidal lunatic.

The grotesque decapitation of Susie and Rachel Greene caught the survivors off-guard. Lori and the others quickly accused Dexter of being the killer because of his murder conviction. While the survivors focused on the wrong person, Thomas continued his spree with his sights set on Andrea, who was alone in the laundry room. He attempted to cut her head off but instead only managed to slice Andrea's face and earlobe. Andrea managed to escape to the grounds of the penitentiary, and Thomas in his insane rage followed her outside with his knife proclaiming his desire to kill her.

Rick witnessed Andrea flee. In a fit of absolute fury, Rick disarmed Thomas and proceeded to brutally beat him with his fists. Although Lori tried to stop him, it was only after Tyreese physically intervened that Rick stopped. Thomas was beaten nearly to the point of death, with his body and face being severely broken and mangled.

Killed By

 * Maggie Greene

While Rick confronted the shocked community on hanging Thomas and why it needed to be done, Thomas was isolated in a cell. Patricia, who had only a positive perception of the man as merely troubled, attempted to break him out. Unfortunately, she misjudged his insanity, and even in his severely weakened state, Thomas tried to kill her immediately. Hearing the commotion, the vengeful Maggie Greene saved Patricia's life when she unloaded her entire side-arm's magazine into Thomas.

At the request of Hershel, Thomas' corpse was thrown to the zombie hordes outside of the prison. It was stripped bare by the masses. In Issue 20 a zombie gets his intestine caught on Thomas' corpse and falls.

Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Thomas has killed:
 * Rachel Greene
 * Susie Greene
 * Unnamed wife
 * Possibly a few counts of Zombies.

Characteristics and Role
Albeit he died quite soon after his introduction, Thomas' role was partly significant. As a minor antagonist to the survivors, he exposed the biggest threat to stability in a zombie apocalypse: fellow survivors. The survivors had not encountered many violent or extremely dangerous humans before their arrival at The Prison, and as such, were unprepared for the deceit the insane but crafty Thomas impressed upon the group. Although his personality was hidden due to his quiet nature, he was soon exposed as extremely insane and bloodthirsty, as shown from his horrific obsession with decapitating people, evident by his murders of the Greene twins and attempted murder of Andrea and Patricia. Before they realized he was a psychopath, he seemed to be a quiet person, who was described as "nerdy" as well as nice, as he helped the women with their laundry and such.

Dexter
Although Thomas and Dexter were locked in a cafeteria together along with Andrew and Axel they were not friends but were civil to one another. After Thomas murdered Susie and Rachel, Dexter was accused of the murder and locked in his cell at gun point. When Thomas was caught Dexter said that he never had trusted Thomas.

Patricia
Although the two of them only knew each other for a short time, Patricia grew close to Thomas after just one conversation. Patricia was incredibly devastated after Rick's mauling of Thomas. Patricia attempted to free Thomas from his prison cell and escape with him. This was halted when Thomas lashed out and attempted to strangle Patricia to death. Thomas was shot and killed by Maggie shortly after.

Appearances
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Volume 20: All Out War

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Trivia

 * Thomas was the only Prison survivor whose last name was mentioned.
 * He is mentioned in Video Game by the officer in Episode 1: A New Day. It is also revealed that he was arrested for murdering his wife and was caught in flagrante delicto by the police in the process of cutting up her body, presumably in order to dispose of it.
 * He is the only character of the Comic Series to be mentioned in the Video Game.
 * He is the first Prison survivor to die.
 * Although the names are spelled and pronounced differently, he is the Comic Series counterpart of Tomas.
 * Like Dr. Stevens, he shares no similarities with his TV Series Counterpart. Thomas Richards is of Caucasian ethnicity, disturbed, wears glasses, is balding, and hides his true personality in order to get closer to his victims. Tomas, on the other hand, is of Hispanic ethnicity, younger, leads his group, shows obviousness of hostility, has hair, and shows traits to that of a gang member.
 * Robert Kirkman revealed Thomas was originally planned to stab the pregnant Lori Grimes in the stomach, killing the baby.
 * Thomas is the only Prison survivor to never be seen killing walkers.