Manhattan psychic who ran Craigslist scam sued for owing money to PR firm hired to fix his image

New York Daily News/March

By Denis Slattery

A celebrity psychic with a shady history of fraud is reliving his past life as a scam artist.

Thomas John, the self-proclaimed Manhattan Medium, is being sued by a California-based public relations firm that says he hasn’t paid his bill — for an image makeover.

The crooked clairvoyant turned to upstart PR firm ZTPR to clean up his image after the Daily News uncovered his sordid past as a Craigslist scammer last year.

John failed to pay up for ZTPR’s services and owes the company $3,046.12, according to court documents.

ZTPR “completed all the services of helping him build and exaggerate in the press his public profile as a believable psychic medium,” according to court papers.

John, whose full name is Thomas John Flanagan, was once a well-known Chicago drag queen and was busted in 2009 for posting bogus apartment ads on Craigslist and stealing security deposits from unsuspecting renters.

The charlatan told The News he’s worked out a settlement with ZTPR, but the company said a deal was still being hammered out.

“The matter has already been settled out of court,” John said in a statement. “I’ve worked with a number of publicists with great success and respect the profession tremendously.”

ZTPR president Zack Teperman said the matter was still being reviewed by the company’s lawyers.

“Our legal team is currently finalizing an out-of-court settlement with Mr. Flanagan,” Teperman said in a statement. “We will have no further comment.”

The Massachusetts-born mystic, who claims to have predicted the divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and the death of Whitney Houston, also spent years performing in drag around Chicago under the name Lady Vera Parker.

John’s cellphone number appears on various websites where dozens of furious posters contend he pulled his security-deposit scam in several states.

The mountebank dropped his last name and re-branded himself as a medium after pleading guilty to theft and computer fraud.

“It was basically something I did out of necessity,” John told The News last year. “I’ve turned my life around since then.”

The 32-year-old now works as a traveling spiritualist who claims to receive messages from the dead.

While under contract with ZTPR, John appeared on “Extra” to make psychic predictions about celebrities in 2016.

In an interview last month, John claimed he spoke to dead Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith, who told him she blames her former lover and agent, attorney Howard K. Stern, for her death.

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