Pastor of Deception

This is a personal story about forgiving identity theft. John Weliczko, born in Manhattan, New York, was an ordained minister by the United Church of Christ in 1971. He lived a double life as a white-collar criminal. He was well educated, a graduate of Gordon College, Harvard, UCC's Hartford Seminary, and the University of Chicago. His real troubles began in Chicago (and Glen Ellyn, Illinois) in the late 1970s, where he used his private psychology practice to commit blackmail and bank fraud. Eventually, six years later, he would be wanted by the State of Vermont for a variety of other criminal charges. Upon his arrest and imprisonment after pleading guilty to a breaking and entering charge, the authorities discovered he had been hiding from the law (including the FBI and US Marshals) using his own son's identity for six years. This book is a testimony by his son who had to learn to forgive his father and heal from the ordeal after being forced to legally change his name.