Danny Ray Johnson (October 18, 1960December 13, 2017) was an American religious leader and politician whose many extravagant lifetime claims were refuted in an exposé released two days before his suicide. Married twice with five children, Johnson was originally from Louisiana, but had settled in Kentucky's Louisville metropolitan area by the 1980s. Throughout his life, Johnson claimed to have been involved with many prominent Americans and in many important US events; however, evidence would later come to light disputing most of these claims.
After becoming involved with Christianity in his youth, Johnson traveled with missionaries in Tennessee and South America before founding a controversial Louisville-area church in the late 1970s—Heart of Fire Church. With Johnson as its bishop, Heart of Fire eschewed the trappings of traditional Christian churches, and instead at times featured toplessness, cigarette-smoking, underage drinking, anti-Islamism, and a tattoo parlor. Following arson in 2000, the church was rebuilt after Johnson was sued by his insurance provider.
In the 2010s, Johnson became politically active, and despite a controversial campaign that included his own party leadership asking for his withdrawal, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives from the 49th District. After 11 months and nine days in office, an exposé by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting was publicly released; it included many refutations of Johnson's self-described biography, as well as details about a 2013 child sexual abuse allegation. After denying the accusations of his alleged victim, Johnson fatally shot himself on December 13, 2017.
According to Johnson's Kentucky House of Representatives profile, he was a Republican and a Kentucky Colonel.
Personal life
On October 18, 1960, Danny Ray Johnson was born to Jerry J. and Charlene Blocker Johnson in Bastrop, Louisiana; he was the middle child between sisters Teresa (older) and Rita (younger). Johnson graduated from Bastrop High School in 1979, and left home when 17 years old. By his early 20s, Johnson had fathered a child, divorced his first wife—Tylia Harris, and filed for bankruptcy in Louisiana. Per his 1985 Jefferson County Police Department arrest record, Johnson was tall and weighed . Johnson married his second wife, Rebecca Wilson (born ), in Jefferson County, Kentucky on February 14, 1987. By 2017, Johnson resided in Mount Washington, Kentucky, and had five children. Johnson was known for his hate speech, Facebook posts, "and general derision for African-Americans and Muslims".
Refuted claims
On October 18, 1985, police in Louisville, Kentucky found two people about to set fire to Johnson's car. The suspects told police that Johnson had paid them over to burn the car. Johnson initially signed a police report saying the vehicle was stolen, but later admitted to the insurance fraud scheme. Felony and misdemeanor charges were dismissed after Johnson completed a six-month diversion program. In later years, Johnson said: "When the car came up missing, I didn't know what happened to the car. It was vandalized."
To Johnson's claim of having been the "White House Chaplain" to Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, an expert in the field confirmed that no such position exists; all three presidential libraries also confirmed "find[ing] no connection between Johnson and the White House". The Rev. Dr. Cecil Murray of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles refuted Johnson's claim of setting up safe zones in that city during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, not only by virtue of not having seen the "golden-haired preacher from Kentucky" among the rioting people of color, but also because there were no "safe zones" during the six-day incident.
Johnson regularly told of how he rushed to Ground Zero after the September 11 attacks, created an impromptu morgue, and administered last rites to victims for two weeks. Storm Swain, a professor of theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia who authored a book on chaplains at Ground Zero, invalidated every aspect of Johnson's September 11 claims. In 2017, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York knew nobody who remembered Johnson. Johnson's 2016 and 2017 financial disclosures listed New York workers' compensation as his only source of income.