Thomas John Flanagan
Thomas John Flanagan, known professionally as Thomas John, is a purported psychic medium and former Chicago drag queen. He has been called the "Manhattan Medium" and starred in the 2018 reality TV show, Seatbelt Psychic, and the CBS All Access series The Thomas John Experience beginning in June 2020. In January 2020, John began a live show at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.
In 2019, the New York Times reported that a sting operation run by Susan Gerbic found John was using information acquired from audience Facebook accounts during group readings. Following a separate investigation, Gerbic revealed that riders in Seatbelt Psychic were hired actors. A decade earlier, John pleaded guilty to felony fraud for posting fake apartment ads on Craigslist and stealing the security deposits from renters.
Early life
John is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, where he was raised in an Italian-Catholic household. According to John, he had his first psychic experience when he was 4 years old and saw his deceased grandfather.Drag queen career
John has performed in drag around Chicago under the name Lady Vera Parker. John was an official promoter of the Miss Gay New York America pageant, which uses the slogan "Where Boys Are Boys and Female Impersonation is an Art". The 2019 pageant was held on March 19, 2019. The 2020 pageant was held on March 10, 2020.Mediumship career
John first started working professionally as a medium in his mid-20s, and has worked in New York City and Los Angeles. John gives private readings to clients, and claims to be often scheduled a year in advance. He has appeared on TV shows including Dr. Phil, Entertainment Tonight, Dish Nation, The Real Housewives of New York, and Million Dollar Listing.''The Thomas John Experience''
John stars in the reality TV show The Thomas John Experience, which premiered on June 4, 2020, on CBS All Access. The show was recorded in cities around the United States including New Orleans, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles.In advance of the premier of the TV show, Skeptical Inquirer published an article examining the show based upon the available trailer as well as research conducted by Susan Gerbic. The article compared the show to "Seatbelt Psychic" and included screenshots of Facebook posts made by John in advance of the new show's recording which solicited his fans to find "volunteers to be filmed for a TV show" in Los Angeles and Boston. This was contrasted with CBS's claim that the show, recorded in those cities, would showcase John's ability to connect "unsuspecting everyday people" with the departed. Gerbic described the problem with this as follows:
Gerbic also criticized the New York Post for publishing an unskeptical article "Celebrity medium Thomas John dishes on new CBS show and naysayers," saying,
Caesars Palace 2020
A Las Vegas Magazine review praised John's live show at Cleopatra’s Barge inside Caesars Palace, which premiered on January 16, 2020, saying "Weaving in and out of the audience, John announces correct names, places and exact details, much to the astonishment and excitement of the audience..." However, John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote an article about the show before it opened, saying "Even before he opens at Caesars Palace, it’s clear not everyone buys Thomas John’s claims of summoning the deceased in his live performances." He goes on to briefly describe [|Operation Pizza Roll] in which John was caught doing a hot reading.In an article written for Skeptical Inquirer Susan Gerbic pointed out some of the techniques and methods that John could employ before and during his Vegas show:
- The first technique involves the collection of information prior to the show. Gerbic points out that "Everyday TJ posts on Facebook a message asking who is coming to his show. And each time he posts these messages he receives friendly questions and comments from people who say they will be at the show or maybe they mention a future show they will be attending. Each time they do this they are leaving a Facebook page for him or his staff to scroll though looking for some grief." She presented screenshots of some of these messages as proof.
- John and his staff can then troll through these pages and extract information about the people that can be used by him during his show. This information can be linked to other information such as "who proceeded them in death, who is still living and grieving over them, maiden names, and often hobbies, military service, organizations they belonged to…"
- The second techniques involves pitching your claim to the correct portion of the audience. According to Gerbic one of the ticketing company that is used to book tickets for TJ's performances "can give away your information to someone who is providing the event." That means that John and his staff would have information on where people were seated in the auditorium. Coupled with the first technique, this would allow John to tailor his presentation to specific sections of the audience based on where they were seated.
On opening day of John's show, Skeptical Inquirer published an article analyzing John's appearance two years earlier on the TV show, Windy City Live on ABC7 in Chicago. Susan Gerbic reported that this appearance "was suggested by one of TJ’s biggest YouTube fans. In the article, Gerbic dissected the recording and demonstrated with screenshots that the information John portrayed as coming from spirits was easily available on social media, making the performance at least in part, a hot reading. Gerbic also reported on John's predictions for 2018 played by ABC7, which she characterized as the station giving John "a 6-minute free commercial plug." This video included predictions that 2018 would be the "down-fall" of Kim Jong-Un, President Trump would NOT be impeached, O.J. Simpson would get remarried, and that Oprah will run for President in 2020. Gerbic concluded her analysis saying:
''Dead Serious'' Musical
A musical based on John's life and experiences titled Dead Serious premiered off-Broadway in July 2019. Co-written by and Michelle Wendt and John, the musical pulled from John's personal stories, exploring his journey as a medium. Dead Serious played from July through September 2019 at the Theatre Center in New York City. The cast included Leo Berman, Cater Ellis, Stephen Gordon, Solomon Kee, Andrew Morissey, and Eddie Rodriguez.''Seatbelt Psychic''
produced a reality TV show starring John called Seatbelt Psychic. This show began its run on July 11, 2018, and stars John as a ride-share driver who surprises “unsuspecting” passengers when he delivers messages from their deceased relatives. It is produced by Zeb Newman, Ryan Simpkins, Sarah Happel, Emma Conway, Brie Miranda Bryant, and Ben Winston.John's alleged psychic abilities in the context of the show have been challenged by Susan Gerbic, a skeptical activist and fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, who discovered that John's passengers are actually actors, several of which are documented in IMDb. Gerbic concluded that the riders were likely hired to ride with John, but were probably not acting when talking with him. She concluded that the details about their lives mentioned by John were easily found on social media sources, and likely fed to John, making the readings actually hot readings. One rider, Wendy Westmoreland, played a character on Stalked by a Doctor, a TV show also produced by Lifetime.
Mediumship criticism
Despite the scientific skeptic consensus that mediumship is a con, several media organizations have promoted John, claiming he has paranormal powers, including Vogue magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, SF Weekly, WJBK, and WPIX. In a 2019 television segment on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver criticized the media for promoting TV psychics such as John, because this exposure convinces viewers that psychic powers are real, and so enable neighborhood psychics to prey on grieving families. Oliver said "...when psychic abilities are presented as authentic, it emboldens a vast underworld of unscrupulous vultures, more than happy to make money by offering an open line to the afterlife, as well as many other bullshit services."In a June 2019 Skeptical Inquirer article titled I'm Speechless! Thomas John Reads KJBK Fox2 Derek Kevrea, Susan Gerbic reported on an appearance by John on a daytime TV show where he gave a reading to staff meteorologist, Derek Kevrea, and claimed to deliver messages from his dead relative. Kevrea's feedback was that what John told him was accurate. In a Facebook video, Kevrea later said "I'm speechless … Thomas John communicated with my grandpa … He said he is proud of you … it's a miracle I held it together." In her article, Gerbic reported that with a little research she discovered the information provided was available from social media and other sources available to John. Regarding Kevrea's proclamation, Gerbic says:
John has steadfastly denied performing online research of those who attend his shows. John’s co-producer Alan Glist says that psychics are an inviting and common target of skeptics, adding, “Unfortunately, there is always that group of people that are trying to bring psychics and mediums down, and non-believers. I can tell you firsthand I have seen Thomas in action and have brought people and he had no idea were going to be there and he has given them perfect readings.” Glist staged three presentations in Las Vegas prior to John being offered his residency at Caesar's Palace. Glist says, “In each presentation, we invited people and brought in total strangers and never gave him a list or gave him any indication as to who was going to be there. And I’ve watched him on three different occasions literally work the room reading total strangers and nailing the names of their family members who are deceased and talked about them in great detail.”
Operation Pizza Roll
In March 2017, John was caught doing a hot reading in a sting operation named "Operation Pizza Roll" which was planned and implemented by Susan Gerbic and mentalist Mark Edward. The unmarried couple Gerbic and Edward attended John's show using aliases, and John "read" them as a married couple, Susanna and Mark Wilson. During the entire reading, John failed to determine the actual identities of Gerbic and Edward, or that they were being deceptive during his reading. All personal information he gave them matched what was on their falsified Facebook accounts, rather than being about their actual lives, and John pretended he was getting this information from Gerbic and Edward's supposedly dead—but actually nonexistent—relatives.As Jack Hitt reported in The New York Times:
These details were from the falsified Facebook accounts for the pair which were prepared by a group of skeptics in advance of the reading, and Gerbic and Edward were not aware of the specific information in these accounts. This blinding was done in order to avoid John later being able to claim he obtained the false information by reading Gerbic and Edward's minds.
In her report, Gerbic also revealed that during an after-show private event, John disclosed in a group setting that at least one of the people in the audience which he did a reading about was actually his own student.
When Hitt reached out to John for comment, John insisted that he did not use Facebook, saying "I do remember her coming to an event... I recognized her because she was there with that other guy who wrote that book." He also told Hitt that "I have my eyes closed for an hour and a half when I'm doing readings. If she spoke up during that period of time, I don't remember that." John also argued that the entire experiment wasn’t really scientific enough, saying "For Susan to come to a reading and get a two-minute reading and say, well, 'I made a fake post about my dog, Buddy, and my father who died,' it’s really not any sort of scientific testing of psychic powers." He added, "First off, someone will have to be a scientist to do a scientific experiment, not someone who used to be a photographer at Sears."
When asked whether psychics would change their behavior now that they knew her methods, Gerbic said "I hope they see Gerbics in their audience every time they look out and wonder if we might be there."
Operation Pizza Roll was summarized by Claus Larsen on SkepticReport.com in an article titled Is Thomas John a real psychic? Not a ghost of a chance!, which also included an interview of Gerbic about the sting and its aftermath.
In a June 2019 Skeptical Inquirer article titled Thomas John Revisited, Gerbic reported on the aftermath of the sting. This including a report of a "Facebook Live" stream, where John attempted to prove his paranormal powers to fans following the sting revelation by doing what was claimed to be a "scientifically controlled reading" of a supposed stranger. Gerbic dissected the performance, giving details as to why it was the opposite of scientifically controlled, and described how once again Facebook information could easily have been accessed, despite assurances otherwise. "One of my team members gave me a list of all the hits that Thomas John got during the reading... and then my team member gave me screenshots of Facebook page where she posts things that are the same as what Thomas John told her." Also, despite John's claims that "NO I do not Google people. NO I do not research people. NO I do not go onto people’s obituaries. I do not go onto Ancestry.com." Gerbic's article includes screenshots of John's monitor captured during the live steam. These pictures contain saved reading lists from past Google searches, including searches for specific individuals as well as for intelius.com, a website which states that it is "a confidential way to find people so you can reconnect or just get more info on a person. People Search reports can include phone numbers, address history, age & date of birth, relatives, and more. Find a person you’re curious about — search today!"
In an August 2019, Gerbic followed-up Thomas John Revisited with another article, Three Parents Reveal The Truth About Psychic Thomas John, which covered the aftermath of her sting operation. The article investigates a video uploaded by John on March 24, shortly after The New York Times sting article was published, in which John reads "three grieving women", and claims the results validate his paranormal powers. In her article, Gerbic does a point-by-point analysis of these readings, and offers evidence that the items claimed to have been "impossible" for John to know without supernatural help, were easily available online. Gerbic's conclusion included:
A concise recounting of Operation Pizza Roll is given by John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review-Journal as part of his criticism of John's shows at Caesars Palace in 2020.
Felony fraud conviction and other legal problems
In 2009, John was arrested and pleaded guilty to felony fraud for posting fake apartment ads on Craigslist and stealing the security deposits from renters. On June 30, 2009 John was arrested and charged with two offences, of theft and theft by deception. It was alleged that he advertised and collected rent on properties that he did not own. He was found guilty on both counts, and sentenced to probation on July 2, 2009.The Daily News article reported that John was being sued by a California-based public relations firm, ZTPR, because he hadn't paid their bill. John had hired ZTPR to repair his public relations image after the Daily News uncovered and reported on his fraud conviction. According to court papers, ZTPR "completed all the services of helping him build and exaggerate in the press his public profile as a believable psychic medium". Slattery reported that John "told The News he's worked out a settlement with ZTPR, but... ZTPR president Zack Teperman said the matter was still being reviewed by the company's lawyers."