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Trashcan Man is a major antagonist of the Stephen King 1978 novel The Stand and its 1994 and 2020 TV miniseries adaptations of the same name.
Donald Mervin Elbert, aka "Trashcan Man", suffers from schizophrenia and pyromania. He acquired his nickname as a child when he began starting fires in trashcans. He was briefly institutionalized in an Indiana psychiatric hospital, where he underwent electroshock treatments, until he went to prison for arson.
When the superflu kills all the inmates and guards, Trashcan Man is able to escape prison and goes to his hometown, Powtanville, Indiana. He then lays waste to cities and oil tanks with fire. At one point, he jumps over a railing and breaks his right wrist, so that his hand points away from his body at a 90 degree angle. He also suffers severe burns on his left arm.
He joins forces with Randall Flagg after the Man in Black appears to him in his dreams and says that he has great work for him in the desert. Trashcan Man then travels to Las Vegas, which Flagg and his followers have taken over as their kingdom, and encounters The Kid, a mentally unstable alcoholic, who agrees to follow Flagg, but only to eventually usurp his power. Flagg knows the Kid's true designs, however, and sends wolves to devour The Kid right in front of a horrified Trashcan Man.
Trashcan Man, like all of Flagg's followers, is given a black gem and becomes one of Flagg's top men. Trashcan Man also has a gift for discovering weapons and very dangerous devices and searches for them in the desert. He then arms the fighter jets at Indian Springs Air Force Base. He proves to be useful until he gets harassed by a few of the workers, which causes him to relive traumatic memories from his past. Frightened, he flees Flagg's compound.
He blows up all Flagg's trucks and fighters, kills Flagg's pilots, and then disappears in the desert. He discovers a nuclear warhead, and plans to destroy Flagg and his forces with it, but develops radiation poisoning. He reappears close to the end of the book, when he brings Flagg and the rest of the followers the nuclear warhead, now attached to Trashcan Man's ATV. Furious, Flagg orders Lloyd Henreid, his right-hand man and second in command of Las Vegas, to take Trashcan Man away. Henreid takes pity on Trashcan Man, however, and tells him that he needs to get the nuclear warhead away from there because it is dangerous. Flagg then orders Henreid to shoot and kill him. Before Henreid and Flagg make a move to do anything with Trashcan Man, The Hand Of God appears from the sky and activates the warhead, killing all of Flagg's followers, including Trashcan Man.
