Arrest Warrant Still Out for Rainbow Man

The man whose “Jesus Saves” T-shirt and rainbow-colored wig made him easily identifiable during televised sporting events still remains an elusive figure, 10 months after police issued a warrant for his arrest.

Rollen Fredrick Stewart, 47, a self-styled “televangelist” known as Rainbow Man, is wanted by police in connection with a rash of stink-bomb attacks in Orange County in 1991, said Santa Ana police investigator Ferrell Buckles.

“We’ve had a number of sightings from all over the United States and Canada, but none of them proved to be him,” Buckles said in a recent interview. “As far as we know, he may be any place, even out of the country. Ironically, he did a pretty good job of hiding out for a guy who was always so visible.”

Stewart, who dubbed himself, “Rock ‘n Rollen’ Stewart,” is charged in the warrant with four felony counts for placing explosive devices at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, a Christian bookstore in that city, the Trinity Broadcasting Network in Tustin, and in the lobby of the Orange County Register in Santa Ana.

In May, when the warrant was issued, police believed Stewart was living out of his car. He had a previous address in Little Rock, Ark., but in 1988 he moved to California, where he lived with his wife, Margaret Elsie Stewart, in Bellflower, Norwalk, and, most recently, Downey.

Buckles said that Stewart’s wife, who filed for divorce on July 19, 1990, has been unable to serve her estranged husband with divorce papers.

Stewart had a knack for shouldering his way onto sports programs as part of his self-ordained ministry.

In his trademark multicolored wig, Stewart made a career of attending such events as the 1984 Winter Olympics in Yugoslavia, Super Bowls, the World Series, NBA playoff games, the 1984 Republican National Convention and most major golf tournaments.

At the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Ga., last April, Stewart was detained for questioning by Richmond County sheriff’s deputies after an air horn, a loud buzzer and several smoke bombs went off, disturbing professional golfer Jack Nicklaus and others.

At the golf course, deputies found a black, Afro-type wig and copies of a newspaper article detailing stink-bomb incidents in Orange County. Stewart was released after tournament officials declined to prosecute.

From the Masters tournament, Stewart may have gone to the Kentucky Derby and then headed to the East Coast for the George Foreman-Evander Holyfield fight in Atlantic City, N.J., according to a telephone conversation between Stewart and his wife where he told her of his travel, Buckles said.

“Some type of device went off at the Foreman-Holyfield fight,” Buckles said. “But investigators there kicked it down a sewer storm drain and we don’t have the evidence.”

Another device, which was hooked to a timer and wired to a package of fireworks, was also detonated at Atlantic City, Buckles said.

“We got some information that he is currently supported by an underground network and may have a new ministry,” Buckles said, adding that police do not know the location of the new ministry.

Stewart was part of a team of three that included Douglas Hill from Marysville, Ohio, and Bill King, who has a post office box in Atlanta. All three would attend televised sporting events wearing “Jesus Saves” T-shirts or carrying signs announcing biblical passages, such as John 3:16.

Both Hill and King have been interviewed by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies about Stewart’s whereabouts, Buckles said. However, neither man is under investigation for any crime.

Apparently, the three made a territorial pact, where Hill covered Illinois, Ohio and other northern states, King covered the Southeast and Stewart had pretty much what remained, Buckles said.

Stewart’s intentions may have been innocent, Buckles said, but when Stewart became a fugitive, he also began claiming he was the “anti-Christ,” and essentially, “has gone the other way.”

“He represents one of the most unusual investigations I’ve ever been on because we don’t generally end up investigating people who are so well known as this guy,” Buckles said. “Although many people didn’t know his name, they knew who he was simply by the fact that he was on television.”

But the investigator is confident that Stewart will be caught.

“I’m sure eventually somebody will get him and we’ll go bring him in to Santa Ana,” he said.