According to a PR firm he hired, former scam artist turned celebrity psychic Thomas John is acting shady again. The ‘Manhattan Medium’ hired a Californian public relations firm to help give his image a whole new makeover, but they claim he never paid for their services. The shady self-proclaimed psychic hired PR firm ZTPR to fix his image last year after the Daily News reported his history of scamming people on Craigslist.
According to court documents, the company did its part, but John never paid the $3,046.12 bill. The court papers read, “ZTPR completed all the services of helping him build and exaggerate in the press his public profile as a believable psychic medium.” John Thomas Flanagan used to be well-known in Chicago as a drag queen named Lady Vera Parker. In 2009 he was caught making and posting fake Craigslist ads.
He pretended to have apartments for rent to steal the security deposits from hopeful renters. The scamming psychic told The News that he and ZTPR have worked out a settlement, but according to the company, they have yet to finalize anything and are still working out a deal. “The matter has already been settled out of court,” said the fraudster in a statement. “I’ve worked with a number of publicists with great success and respect the profession tremendously.”
Zack Teperman, president of ZTPR, states that the company’s lawyers are still reviewing the matter. “Our legal team is currently finalizing an out-of-court settlement with Mr. Flanagan,” he said in a statement. “We will have no further comment.” John claimed to have foreseen Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ divorce and Whitney Houston’s death.
John’s Scam Affected A Lot Of People
Several websites show John’s number and have statements from numerous victims conned by his nationwide security deposit scam. After he pleaded guilty to theft and computer fraud, John dropped his last name and got a new start as a psychic medium. Last year he was interviewed with The News, in which he said, “It was basically something I did out of necessity. I’ve turned my life around since then.”
Now, 32-year-old John claims to be able to communicate with spirits and works as a traveling medium. Earlier this year, he appeared on “Extra,” where he made 2016 celebrity predictions. He was doing this while still working with and under contract with ZTPR. Last month he did an interview where he claimed to have communicated with deceased Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith. He states she told him she blames Howard K. Stern for her death. Stern was Smith’s agent and former lover.
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I’ve had he privilege of meeting some of the top psychics in the world & Thomas is the real deal! I don’t know many people who didn’t do something stupid when they were younger & I’m not sure why bring a drag queen was added to the story. Was the implication that drag queens are wrong or bad? Shame on whoever thinks that! In any case, he is amazingly accurate every time with info he could never get online or anywhere & he is a good soul, too, so I’m disturbed to see this negative information on him.
Good souls don’t scam people out of money. I worked for this loser. He’s a fraud.
My husband and I were scammed out of our hard earned money by this very dishonest and conniving man. He has not changed, he just has a new scam calling himself a psychic. The irony here is that 3 months prior to this crook ripping me off, I had a psychic reading from Caribbean Psychics. I was given his description and the exact month that the ripoff would happen and I didn’t believe it. Unfortunate for me and my husband. I know better now. Beware of Thomas John.
I’m so sorry to hear this Diane. Lesson learned though right? Unfortunately, Thomas John has been scamming people for years. 🙁
After having had a reading with this “medium” I am sure he is a fraud! I have had many readings from reputable mediums and notice his methods to be suspicious stating a lot of names but not personalized emotional type statements. I had heard after my reading that people had stated he uses obituary and Facebook to retrieve info so I googled my sister’s name who bought the tickets and my father’s obituary appeared. Thomas John basically read it verbatim fining up just the names in it and worked the room so he would start to talk to you then come back to you. I think he’s probably got a microphone feeding him some of the information he never walked around the room! I say this sadly because I believe in mediums just not this scam artist!
Wow Stella. The lengths some fake Psychics will go to just to appear real and steal your money. Thank you for sharing this!
Saw him last night at a platform event….was not impressed. He shared the event with Suzane Northrop who is definitely the REAL DEAL. But I digress. My friend and I are convinced his first few readings were plants in the audience… practically answering his questions before he even asked them. He come on after Suzane and a woman who was not there for Suzane came in and sat down and he went right to her. As far as stage presence, he has none. Flat affect and closes his eyes and keeps them closed to communicate with spirit. Now I just read up on him and it validates my opinion.
I work with a group of psychics who are also very good & read for a living. They all adore Thomas & many get mentored by him as much as possible. He is a psychics psychic. It sounds like we are speaking of two different people. Thomas John is VERY good & he is NOT scamming anyone.
Thomas John Flanagan (aka drag queen Lady Vera Parker) is the most unprofessional person I’ve ever dealt with. You’re better off seeking someone with a better reputation. My daughter & I have paid for readings months in advance, & even after waiting so long, the bum cancelled 2 days before. We then both waited another several months and he did the same thing again!! So ridiculous! It’s obvious the guy only wants your $$$. & now I see he’s stooped to the new low of having his boyfriend write a phony review on his behalf (Raymond from San Diego). Their pix are on FB & Instagram. What a joke! If you do some research, you can easily see that he has a blatant pattern of rescheduling almost EVERYBODY, ALL THE TIME, LIKE 5-7 TIMES each on average!!! What is he doing that he cannot honor an appointment, like, ever?! I also have friends who consulted him and while they were owed refunds, they WAITED MONTHS TO FINALLY GET THEM. He’s all about the Benjamins, baby!
I was rescheduled for a phone session that
was advertised at a special price. I had been in a spirit circle of his previously and was contacted by his office with this offer. I never
got the phone session and my messages were
unanswered. This is fraud!
He offered a psychic calendar for the year 2018 with a firm deli dry date of January 1 2018. Today is January 29th and I still don’t have it. All I have are four email excuses! I’ll be visiting my credit card company and asking them to get my money back for services not provided.