Raglan James is the antagonist in The Tale of the Body Thief. He was a gifted psychic whose abilities enabled him to switch bodies with people. He was once a member of the Talamasca, but was kicked out for constant theft. He is a kleptomaniac who enjoys stealing for the thrill of it. It is revealed that every single thing he owns, from his house to his body, was stolen or schemed for. However, he also has major psychological problems, and his life is a series of cycles - he gets rich by theft, then often ends up in prison. Dying of cancer several years before, James tricked the inmate of a mental institution into switching bodies with him, allowing him a kind of immortality.