The Collector is an evil genius who has dedicated his life to stealing and collecting the world’s most valuable items. Before he became known as The Collector, he was an unemployed former convict who had spent half of his life in correctional institutions for a variety of offences.

There is much about The Collector's early life that is in dispute because of the varying stories he has offered to interviewers, many of which were untrue. According to local police archives, The Collector began his life of crime by burglarizing a liquor store. He then committed a string of burglaries of other stores, including one from which he stole a bicycle, but was eventually caught in the act and sent to an Indianapolis juvenile centre. He escaped after one day, but was recaptured and placed into a maximum security facility.