Todd Wilson

Todd Wilson was one of the two bombers/shooters of the Jedi Temple massacre. His best friend was Jan Rost.

Biography
Todd Wilson was born Coruscant. His parents attended a Christian church with their children, converted by Cole Kroger, a Jedi student banished from his home galaxy, and Todd and his older brother attended confirmation classes in accordance with Christian tradition.

The Wilson family had resided on Coruscant since 55 BY. Todd met and befriended Cole Kroger around 26 BBY, but he would not meet Rost until all three entries into the Jedi Order.

Jedi Temple
Rost and Wilson were Jedi Padawans at the Jedi Temple. Rost and Wilson were unpopular students and frequent targets of bullying at the Temple. They eventually began to bully the students that bullied them; Rost and Wilson had written journal entries about how they themselves had bullied those that bullied them in retaliation.

Massacre
During the attack, Wilson mortally wounded Chris Domain with his shotgun.

After Rost committed suicide at the end of the attack, Todd could only weep in remorse over his actions. Chris Domain approached him. Although critically wounded, Chris tried to talk Todd out of killing himself, saying that life will get better. But after a few minutes of talking, Todd, overcome with remorse, shot himself in the heart. Chris bled to death before either of them could be taken to the hospital.



Motivations
Rost and Wilson wrote much about how they would carry out the massacre but far less about why. A journal found in Rost's bedroom contained almost every detail that the boys planned to follow after 5:00 a.m. on March 4, 24 BBY. In journal entries, the pair often wrote about events such as the Great Sith War, Battle of Naboo (32 BBY), and other similar events, including blurbs and notes on how they wished to "outdo" these events. They mentioned how they would like to leave a lasting impression on the galaxy with this kind of violence. That the shooters initially planned to blow up the Jedi Temple, and not just shoot students, is an indication of how they instead wished to overshadow the events that had occurred.

Some people, such as Padmé Amidala, who knew the perpetrators, initially stated that the pair was not obsessed with Imperialism or Darksidism nor did they worship or admire the Sith in any way, although the attack occurred on Sith Empire's birthday, as was speculated early on by the media. Amidala stated that in retrospect, there were many things the pair did not tell friends.

Cole Kroger and his wife pointed out to the public that Wilson was different than Rost. While Rost was angry and homicidal, Wilson was depressed and suicidal. Rost lied about his age to woo a university girl, while Wilson waited for the right girl. Wilson was full of emotion while Rost was just a psychopath. Their meeting made a fatal friendship.

Bullying
Early stories following the shootings charged that Temple Masters and teachers at the Temple had long condoned a climate of bullying by the so-called jocks or athletes or arrogant Jedi students, allowing an atmosphere of outright intimidation and resentment to fester which, they claimed, could have helped trigger the perpetrators' extreme violence. Reportedly, homophobic remarks were directed at Wilson and Rost.

Redemption
Some Jedi, including Cole Kroger, thought that because Todd Wilson showed remorse for the killings, he was redeemed and died a Jedi. However, other Jedi including the Jedi Council, denounced this, saying that if he was redeemed, Wilson wouldn't have committed suicide. However, they eventually decided he had partial if not complete redemption.

Psychology
"Todd, I saw as primarily suicidal, hooking up with Jan Rost. So you have anger and homicidality on one side, (Rost) and depression and suicidality (Wilson), an emotion, coming together and led to a fatal friendship."

- A psychologist on the two killers.

In his journal, Todd complained that no one listened to him. It also showed that he was in love with a female Padawan, who didn't return his affections, which made him more depressed. He was hotheaded, but depressive and suicidal. He blamed himself for his problems in several fits of self-disgust and guilt.

"Am I to blame, when the guilt and the shame hang over me like a dark cloud that chases you down in the pouring rain?"

- Poem about guilt found in Todd's journal.

Todd suffered from extreme guilt. Some of his friends reported that he always felt angry at himself for doing things he considered wrong. The remorse was killing him. He could've been taught compassion and understanding, but Jan Rost replaced his guilt with hate.

While Jan was outgoing and supremely confident, Todd was a jittery ball of nerves, painfully shy and self-loathing.

In his journal, Todd described not fitting in, being depressed and generally hating his life and existence. In another entry later that year he wrote, "I swear -- like I'm an outcast, & everyone is conspiring against me...".

During one period Todd's tone briefly changed and he described his 'first love' though from the writings, it was an unrequited love. At one point he listed several girls he claimed to love but never mentioned telling them about his feelings. In fact, whenever he brought up the subject of talking to one particular girl he had a strong crush on, the romantic prose often dissolved into a letter of self-hate and guilt. One letter he wrote to the girl (but never delivered as it was found in his notebook) he claimed to love dearly started out as a "You don't know me.." sort of secret admirer letter but by the second page had turned into a write-up of all the reasons he could think of why some girl like her wouldn't want to be around him. He later wrote a letter to the same girl, presumably, that described in veiled terms how he was planning to do something horrible soon and would understand if she didn't want to be involved-before that letter, too, turned into another exercise in self-loathing.

In 26 BBY, he penned out a fantasy about getting a gun and going on a killing spree. Most of his entries had less to do with wanting to hurt people, apart from himself, and more to do with not understanding why the world-and his peers-refused to give him the attention and affection he so badly craved. He seemed to hold himself largely at fault for it at times then at other times seemed to blame society for not being on his level of intelligence in order to find common ground with him.