Broker On The Lam Robs Bank Of $840, Then Ends His Life -- Still A Mystery: Where Millions Went Since He Vanished In '94

SAN DIEGO - In the last few minutes of his life, Thomas Collins hurried from the bank he had just robbed, down a seedy block of tattoo parlors, surf shops, bikini boutiques and cheap bars.

He stood beside a restaurant in the salt air a block from the beach, counting his take of just $840. Then, as a helicopter hovered overhead, a police officer approached him.

He faced the ocean, pulled a semi-automatic from his pocket, put it in his mouth, then turned and killed himself.

In the hours after Collins pulled the trigger, police figured he was just another bank robber. The Armani socks didn't ring any bells. Then, when they came across two drivers' licenses in his wallet, the FBI realized that the robber in the squalid alley had been a high-flying Chicago commodities broker who had disappeared two years ago after bilking investors of millions in a Ponzi scheme.

When he fled town with a waitress and more than $1 million in cash, he left behind a wife, a teenage son, a $480,000 home, two condominiums and three sports cars.

Nothing had been heard of him until Monday, when he killed himself in a alleyway parking lot as he clutched an ugly-face Halloween mask under his arm.

Life in Chicago was rich, showy

Collins' life in the years before he disappeared June 2, 1994, was as visibly flamboyant as his life on the lam was mysterious.

He was chauffeured about Chicago and its northwestern suburbs in a white stretch limousine. He frequented the racetrack, dropped $100 tips on cocktail waitresses and entertained and vacationed lavishly.

In Rolling Meadows, a suburb northwest of Chicago's Loop, his offices at Lake States Commodities were elegant: a lounge and bar to entertain clients, a commodities ticker in the lobby, a private workout room for him.

Early investors told their friends of fantastic returns, as high as 50 percent. Eager investors lined up as word spread.

Collins had operated about eight years before his disappearance. For about half that time he was under scrutiny by federal authorities, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which filed administrative charges against him for violating trading laws.

He disappeared after telling his family he was going to St. Louis on a business trip. He left behind his wife, Barbara, and their son. He took with him a cocktail waitress named Kathy Chambers. Authorities do not know where she is. She has not been charged with any crime.

He left legal, financial disaster

Collins also left behind a tangled legal mess, including two involuntary bankruptcy cases. Authorities said that over the years he took about $110 million from investors and spent about $75 million repaying some of them to keep the scam alive.

The FBI led the manhunt once Collins disappeared; last August he was charged in a sealed complaint with mail fraud, said Bob Long, a FBI spokesman in Chicago.

FBI agents distributed wanted posters with Collins' picture, to no avail.

"We had information that he had been in various places, but we had never been able to confirm any one of them," Long said.

Then Monday, he turned up in San Diego's Pacific Beach.

Collins walked in The Great Western Bank about 9:40. After brandishing his gun and getting $840 from a teller, he ran out the door and casually strolled three blocks away.

Joke from unsuspecting witness

At the Pacific Beach Seafood Restaurant, two employees said they noticed him stand under a corner overhang counting his money. One said he heard the operator of a nearby taco stand shout out jokingly, "Hey, buddy, why don't you share it?" The employee, who speaks broken English, said he did not understand all of Collins' reply, but remembers hearing the word "stolen."

The employees said they watched Collins start to walk away when a police car pulled to the side of the four-lane highway and demanded Collins stop and show his hands.

The witnesses said Collins turned his back on the officer, pulled a gun and put it in his mouth. Then he spun on his heels so he faced the officer and pulled the trigger.

Twenty-five banks on a list found in Collins' wallet have all been robbed in the past year. But police say the robberies all have been solved or involve suspects who do not resemble Collins. They suspect Collins may have been trying to avoid banks where security would have been tightened.