Welcome to the whole story. Im anderson cooper. November will mark the 60th Anniversary of the assassination of president john kennedy. Over the years a number of wellknown Conspiracy Theories have flourished. Who really pulled the trigger . Were the russians behind it . Was the cia involved . But theres one Conspiracy Theory you may not know about. The belief that president kennedy and his son, john f. Kennedy jr. , who died in a plane crash in 1999, are actually alive and in hiding. It may sound preposterous to you, but there are those who absolutely believe this. They formed a group which some are calling a cult and are led by a qanon believer. This group holds so much influence over their members, some have even abandoned their spouses, their parents, their grandchildren. For the past year cnns Donie Osullivan has been investigating whats behind this conspiracy. Over the next hour he takes us across the country to meet the believers, confront their leader, and spend time with their confused, frustrated, helpless families who just want their loved ones to come home. Whoo God Bless AmericaWord On The Street is that junior, jfk jr. , will show up and introduce his parents. You are expecting jfk jr. . Absolutely. The same time of day jfk sr. Was shot here in this spot. Any minute now the big reveal. And then after that . Hell probably be the Vice President with trump. I believe today is going to be biblical. You dont believe jfk is dead . No. Reporter this woman, pamela esquin, calls her nanny coat. When i met her in dallas she told me she left her family in louisiana 16 months ago because of her belief in this. So what was your question . You pointed over there. Reporter so jfk got assassinated just a few yards from here. So did jesus christ. Reporter what about jfk jr. . I believe hes alive. Reporter so that he didnt die in a plane crash . No, he didnt. Reporter you think that was staged somehow . Yes, it was. Its a war. Its a war against good and evil and theyve been trying to kill the bloodline of jesus christ forever. Reporter a blood line. A blood line, yes. Reporter these women also believe in president kennedys resurrection. Abraham lincoln was a direct descendant of jesus christs blood line. Right. And then you would have your connection with donald trump, jfk jr. , and am i forgetting anybody . Well, Michael Flynn. General flynn. Elvis presley. Correct. They all come from the blood line. Jfk was a democrat. So i think people are confused why all these Trump Supporters love jfk so much. Well, because the system is rigged. Theres democrat, republican. It doesnt matter. Its all about values. A common belief is that president john f. Kennedy knew what the deep state was up to and so for that he was assassinated. This is hard for some people to believe because kennedy was a democrat and qanon is a far right group but kennedy was an extremely popular political figure. A whole people is lifted up. Reporter Jessalyn Cook is working on a book about the devastation Conspiracy Theories have caused for families across america. She says the Jfk Obsession is fringe even within Qanon Circles but still, it led to all these people showing up in dallas waiting for a kennedy. Jfk jr. Wanted to carry on the fight against the deep state and so he partnered with donald trump all these years ago and started plotting. But in 99 slow news day. He felt fear for his own life. He faked his own death in this plane crash and laid low for almost two decades. And the hope has been that jfk jr. Will eventually reemerge in person and take on the white house with donald trump. Reporter and so jfk was a democrat. So are you all democrats . Nope. Nope. No, im not. Not a republican either. Im a godfearing patriot. I think for people who really rallied around the jfk jr. Belief, qanon is less an ideology than an identity. These beliefs are part of who they are and facts cant change that. Its more important to belong to the group than to believe in the truth. Jfk is the Second Coming of jesus christ. Reporter how long have you believed that for . Since i first started listening to michael around april of 2021. When you spell out 120 it becomes 141, mr. President 141. Happy birthday mr. President reporter can you tell me about the first time you heard Michael Protzman . I dont even know how to explain the words, like how put it into words. It was just like this feeling. I cant explain it. Its just soothing. Its listening to him for hours, you know, and fall asleep to it. It was calming. And its not a voice just telling stories. You know its true. Jfk is your president. Trump is also your president. Junior is your Vice President. Jfk is the Second Coming of jesus christ. You are about to see him. Reporter thats the voice of this man. How much of this gathering here today are you responsible for . 98 of it. Reporter Michael Protzman. To his followers he is known as negative 48. Negative 48. Do i refer to you as negative 48 too . Thats fine. What does that mean . 48 is evil. Evil. E is five v is 22, i is 48. Negative evil. Negative 48. Reporter those numbers are gematriya, an ancient practice that assigns a numerical value to each letter in the alphabet. Nothing can stop what is coming. Trump is 316, john 3 16. Reporter what is it about Michael Protzman . He is just a teacher. God is using him to teach his perfect language. A is one. B is two. C is three. Reporter Michael Protzman convinced his followers that gematriya can be used to expose cabals and government secrets. Hes used it to build up Tens Of Thousands of followers on social media. In 2021 when he called his followers to dallas many believed theyd see the return of jfk or his son jfk jr. He said whos coming to dallas . And i just looked at my daughter and said i am. I said i am. Im going to dallas. I went home that night and told my husband. He was watching tv. He was actually watching cnn. And i told him. I said im going to dallas. He goes what . I said im going to dallas. He goes for what . I said i dont know. Im going to dallas. Actually i did say i said im going to dallas. Im going to meet jesus christ is what i told him. And he said youre nuts. Reporter what does it mean to be part of this group . It means everything. I would leave my family for 16 months for it. Its everything. I have two grandchildren that i adore and love. They are very young. And ive missed a couple of birthdays. Reporter after neither jfk nor his son materialized in dallas in 2021, most people went home and went on with their lives. But some stayed. He was only supposed to be in dallas for a few days . Yeah. Reporter leaving behind heartbroken families. Its true torture. No one should know this pain. Nobody. If you dont personally have someone close to you who has been sucked into this, you just dont know the pain its causing. We as a country i think have looked at qanon as this big joke. It is insane. But theres a lot of pain behind the insanity that has been happening in the darkness. Reporter the pain when a loved one gets lost Down The Rabbit Hole. One time we went to play tennis and he got a phone call. Jason believed it was junior calling him. Jfk jr. Calling him. And this was maybe a week before he went to dallas. Reporter so youre playing tennis with your brother. Yes. Reporter and he gets a call. Correct. Reporter and he thinks its jfk jr. He does. Reporter at that point are you like theres something seriously wrong here . Yes. But what do you do . And great savings. crowd cheers here, take mine. Farmers Mnemonic looks like its grime time huh . Dr. Garcia . Crest reality checkup. That grimy film on your teeth . 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This is scandalous. My name is jason. Reporter jason and erica didnt know each other existed until 2010 when erica who was adopted as a baby tracked down her birth family. And so at age 39 you found your long lost brother. I did. Reporter and he became one of your best friends. Yeah, he he did. Reporter jason, an air force veteran, moved to pittsburgh to be closer to his newfound sister. There he opened his own construction business. It was like id known him my whole life. We ate dinner together. I would say at least six nights a week. And we did everything together. Reporter what kind of guy was he . The best person i ever met. Hilarious. A great friend. Amazing uncle. He was the best of everything. So what happened . As the story goes, my youngest daughter said something along the lines of, yeah, one of my biggest fears is im going to get snatched off the street and trafficked. And he was like, what are you talking about . And i think that set him on a path of finding out, like, what was going on. Reporter it isnt clear if jason had already been searching Conspiracy Theories online before this, but erica says her brother was soon sucked into a Qanon Universe that includes the popular belief that celebrities and politicians, usually democrats, are involved in child trafficking. The claims are made with zero evidence. Child trafficking is a very, very real problem in this country, but qanon has latched on to those fears and exploited them and dramaticized them for its own gain. Reporter soon, erica says, her brother was fully Down The Rabbit Hole. Like he started to get invested in politics. After the 2020 election it just flared. It just started getting weirder. It was nonstop. It was all serious and doom and gloom. The thought that the National Guard was going to take over and you have to prepare. You have to have food for weeks on end. He just was consumed by these dreadful scenarios with the government. Reporter in october 2021 jason told his sister he was going to dallas. I didnt realize how involved he had become with many of these people in his online life. Kennedy it started very small. Kind of after the election, after trumps election was stolen, you know, as they say. She referred to him as the creator. Reporter this woman who asked me not to use her name told us how her mom, a school teacher, got sucked in. Reporter your mom, it starts for your mom after the 2020 election. She believes it was stolen. Then it goes all the way to her believing that jfk, jfk jr. Is going to show back up in dallas. Yes. That one came honestly kind of quickly. It kind of got jumbled but it started off with oh, jfk is going to come back and were meeting him at dealey plaza and he is going to run for president in 2024. Never died. It was a body double. And now donald trump is jfk jr. In a mask and it was just it just got crazier and crazier. Reporter her mom began traveling to spend time with protzmans group. Your parents live a few hours from dallas. Your mom starts coming back and forth from here. Tell me what happens. Yeah. She started going back and forth. It only really lasted a couple of weeks. But she started taking time off at work. My dad was not super concerned at first. He was like whatever you got to do go do it. She made friends, i guess. Then by i think the third visit that she took she didnt come back. And we didnt hear from her. Yeah. It was probably about a week that we didnt hear from her before we started calling the police. Reporter after multiple calls to police, her family eventually went to court. We got Emergency Guardianship of her and they went and took her to a psychiatric hospital. Reporter more than a year later how is she now . Shes fine now. She wants nothing to do with it. Shes just really embarrassed that it all happened and she let herself get sucked into it. Shes glad she got some help and shes doing much better. Reporter her mother is home. Ericas brother, jason, still attends trump rallies with protzmans followers. But the man standing next to jason, his family is not so lucky. Which one is that, mom . Thats claus. Reporter u. S. Marine veteran Claus Richter went to dallas, too. You remember last time you saw klaus before he left for dallas . Yeah. We sat up there in the living room. We sat for most of the Night Talking. I dont know why i was getting a little leery about it, maybe you just shouldnt go at all, you know . Reporter klaus looked after his mom here in sarasota, florida. But when he didnt come home from dallas, his family began to worry. I think with all of us, as time progressed and the longer he was gone, we all kind of started to get a little more concerned as to what was going on. Reporter klaus stayed in dallas and began traveling the country with Michael Protzmans group, going to a series of trump rallies. Photos and videos suggest he was having a good time, like here dancing in front of protzman. But his sister carmen says at one point he began to express concerns. He goes, somethings not right here. I go, what are you going to do . You want to get like extricated . Lets get you out. He was like he goes, just give me a day or two. Reporter but Klaus Richter never did leave the group. On april 14th, 2022 his sister carmen got a call from Michael Protzman. There was an accident and klaus is in the hospital. Im like, what . There is going to be a power line down. Ive got one confirmed injury. Reporter klaus was a passenger in this vehicle. The driver was this man, another member of protzmans group. What happened . Fell asleep. Mr. Richter, whats your middle name, sir . Traugott. Traugott. Okay. Thank you, sir. The Richter Family rushed from their homes here to this hospital in mobile, alabama. When they eventually got here they were not able to see klaus. One of the individuals from the group claimed to be his daughter. Reporter that woman began making decisions on klauss behalf according to medical records provided to cnn by his family. And when we explained to the hospital that he did not have a daughter they said, yes, its his daughter, you know, and mom basically explained to them, he doesnt have any children. Eventually we got up there. It was very disturbing. Reporter and youre a nurse. Yes, correct. I knew automatically that it was a very grave situation. He was intubated, had a tube pretty much the whole left side of his body was crushed. Reporter days later klaus was dead. His obituary notes how he loved god and america and was a caretaker for his mother, always helping as needed. I love you, my son. I love you. Reporter a grand jury in alabama voted in april 2023 to close the investigation into the crash, but the Richter Family is still looking for answers about the circumstances surrounding clauss death and his treatment at the hospital including how someone falsely claiming to be his daughter could make medical decisions on his behalf. When you lose somebody, especially somebody unexpectedly, you want answers. I hope they pay for what they did. Reporter we asked the university of South Alabama health which runs this hospital for answers. They say they investigated this incident and found the hospital had acted appropriately. We are the world, we are the children reporter but how do people get sucked into this world . Michael, how are you . Question. So youre done. Why do people like you so much . Are you a con man . No. I dont talk to prostitutes. The whores for globalist pimps. Get that out of my face. Shut the door. So researchers can help life underwater flourish. 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