over the years, a number of well-known conspiracy theories have flourished. who pulled the trigger? were the russians behind it? but there's one theory you may want know about. the belief that the president and his son who died in plane crash in 1999 are alive and in hiding. 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, some have abandoned their spouse, parents, grandchildren. for the past year, cnn has been investigating what's behind this conspiracy. over the next we're, we go across the country to meet the believers, confront their leader and spend time with the confused, frustrated, helpless families who just want their loved ones to come home. >> word on the street is that junior, jfk junior, will show up and introduce his parents. >> you're expecting jfk junior? >> any minute now, the big reveal. >> then after that -- >> probably be the vice president for trump. >> i believe today is goining t be biblilical. >> you don't believe jfk is dead? >> no. >> this woman calls herself -- when i met her in dallas, she toldld me she left her family i louisianana 16 mononths ago bec of her b belief inin this. > so whwhat was youour ququeu pointeted d over therere? > it's a jfk asassassinatedew yayards from h here. >> so didid jesus chririst. >> what ababout jfk jr.? > i believeve he's alivive. >> s so he didn'n't die e in a crash?h? > no, he didn't. >> you t think it wawas s stage? >> yes, it was. it's a warar against good and el and they've been trying to kill the bloodline of jesus christ forever. >> a bloodline? >> yes. >> thehese women a also belilie kennedy's resurrection. >> lincoln w was a direct connection witith jesus christs. then donald trump, jfk jr. and, am i forgetting anybodody? >> michahael flynn.. >> g general flylynn. >> elvisis. >> c correct. >> thehey all comeme from the blbloodline. >> jfk was a democrat.t. so i i think peoeople are confu whwhy all ththese trtrump suppo love jfk so much. >> well, bececause the systetem rigged. dis >> a common belief was that kennedy knew what the deepep ste wawas up to. this is hahard foror some to b e bebecause kennnnedy is a democr but he was an extremely popular political figure. >> jocelyne cook is a reporter working on a book about the dedevastation n conspiracycy th have c caused for families acro america. she says the obsession is infringed within qanon circles. >> jfk jr. wanted to carry on the fight so he partnered with donald trump all these years ago and started plotting but in '99, he felt fear for his own life so he faked his own death in his plane crash and laid low for almost two decades and the hope is thahat jfk jrjr. will eveven reemerge in person a and take o the white house wiwith donald d trump. >> and so o jfjfk wawas a democ. so are you all demococrats? >> no. >> no. >> not a republican either. i'm a god fearing patriot. >> i think for people who have really rallied around the belief, qanon is less an ideology than identity. these bebelieves arere part of theyey a are. it's's more impoportant to b beo the group. >> jfk is the secocond coming ge jesus christ. >> how long have you believed that? >> around april of 2021. >> spell out 120. ♪ happy birththday mr. presiden♪ can n you tell m me e about the time you h heard michaelel? > i don't k know how to expl the e words. put it intnto words. itit was just t like this s fee. >> i canan't explainin it. itit's just sootothing. itit's -- liststening to him f hours, youou know. anand fall asleep to it.t. it wasas calmiming. and it, it's not a a voicece ju telling stories. you know, it's true. it is just -- >> jfk's your president. trump's also your president. junior's your vice president. jfk is the second coming of jesus christ. you're about to see him. >> that's the voice of this man. how much of this gathering here today are you responsible for? >> 98% of it. >> to his followers, he's known as negative 48. >> negative 48. >> that's fine. >> and what does that mean? >> 48 is evil. e-v-i-l. negative evil. negative 48. >> those numbers are a dematria, ancient practice that assigns a numerical number to each letter in the alphabet. >> trump's a a 316. john 3-1-6-6. >> whahat isis it about michcha? >> he's s just a teaeacher. god's ususing g him to teaeach perfect language. a is one. b is two. c is three. >> michael convinced his followers that it can be used to expose kai balls and government secrets. he's used it to build up tens of thousands of followers on social media. in 2021 when he called his followers to dallas, many believeved they'd d see the ret of his son o or jfk jr. >> h he said whoho's coming to dallllas? i sasaid i am. i'i'm going toto dallas.s. i wewent homome that nigight an mymy husbandnd.. he w was watchching tv. he wasas actually watchihing cn. i told himim, i sasaid, i'i'm go dallllas. he goes whwhat? he goes for whatat? i don't know. item i'm going to dallas. i said i'm going to meet jesus christ. he said you're nuts. >> what does it mean to o be a partrt of this group? >> everyrything. i i would leavave my familily f months f for it. it's everything. i have two grandchildren that i adore and love. they're very young. i've missed a couple of birthdays. >> 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 dallasas for a fewew days.s. leaving g behind heartrtbroken families. >> it's true torture. no one should know this pain. nobody. if you don't personally have someone close to you who has been sucked into this, you just don't know the pain it's causing. we as a country have looked at qanon as this big joke, but there's a lot of pain behind the insanity that's been happening in the darkness. >> thehe pain n when a loved on getsts lost dodown the rabbit t. >> one time, we e went to playa tennnnis and he gogot a phonone. jasoson bebelieved it was junio calllling g him. jfk jr. calling him and this was maybybe a weekek before he went dallas.. >> so you're playing t tennis wh your brorother. > yes. > and he gets a a c call. > correrect. > and he e thinks it't's jfk. >> he does. >> at that point, are you like there's s something g seriously wrong g here? > yes, but t what do yoyou d? some had to go home and some didn't believe, but we're all in. > i had never heaeard the wo qanon or t the phrasase until l weekeks before h he went to dal. i had never heard of this group. >> erica's brother, jason, is one of those who went to dallas and went months without coming home. >> this is scandalous. >> jason and erica didn't know each other existed until 2010 when erica, who was adopted as a baby, tracked down her birth family. so at age 39, you found your long lost brother. >> i did.. >> a and he bebecame one of f y best friends.. >> yeah. he did. >> jasonon, an air fororce vete moved to p pittsburgh h to be er to his newfound sisister. there,e, he opened his ownwn construcuction busininess. >> i it was likeke i had known my whohole life.e. we ate dinnener r together a at six x nights a w week k an we d everythihing togetether. >> whahat kind of f guy was heh? >> thehe best person i e ever m. hilaririous. greaeat friend. amazing ununcle. the e best of everytything. > so whwhat happepened? >> a as s the e story goes, mym younungest daughghter said, sosomething alalong the lilines yeah, onone of my biggest fearas i'i'm going toto get snatched o the street and trafficked. he was like, what t are you talkining about? and d i think ththat set him o path of finding out like what wawas s going onon. >> isn't clear if f jason had d already y been searching conspiracy theories before this, but erica said her brother was sucked into the qanon universe and that celebrities are usually involved in child trafficking. >> child trafficking is a very real problem in this country. but qanon has latched on to o ththose fears s and exploioited anand dra mamat sizezed them fo own n gain. >> soooon, she says,s, her brot was fully dodown thehe rabbit h. >> h he stararted to g get i inn polititics after t the 2020 election, it just flared. it just started getting weirder. it was non-stop. it w was all sererious and doom gloooom. the thouought thatat the nation guguard was gogoing to takake o. and you u have to prepare.e. you have to have f food. for weeks on endnd.. and he just was consumed by these dreadful scenarios with the government. >> in october 2021, jason told his sister he was going -- >> i didn't know how involved he had become with many of these people in his online life. >> w what ststarted veryry smald of aftfter the election,n, a af trump'p's electionon was stolel. you knknow, as they sasay. becaususe she rereferred to him ththe creaeator. >> this woman totold us s how h mom, a schoooolteacher, , got sd in. it starts for r you mom afteter0 election.. she e believes i it was stolole. anand d then it goes allll the her bebelieving that j jfk, jfk is going to o show bacack up in dallllas. >> yes, it came kind of quicklk. itit got kinind of jumumbled bu started d off like oh, jfkfk i goining to comome back and we'r memeeting him m at the plalaza he's goingng to run fofor presi in 2 2024. nevever died. itit was a body double and now donald trump is jfk jr. in a mask. it just got crazier and crazier. >> her mom began traveling to o spenend time witith h the e gro. your parenents l live a few hou from dallas. your m mom statarts cocoming ba fortrth from here. tell me what happened. >> yeah, she started going back and forth and it only really lasted a couple of weeks but she started taking time off of work. my dad was like whatever you got to do, go do it. she made friends i guess then by i think the third visit she took, she didn't come back. we didn'n't hear frorom her. itit was about a weeeek we didn hehear from m her. before he e started calllling t popolice. > after m multiple calls s t popolice, her r family eventntu went to court.t. >> we got emergency guardidiansp of h her and they went a and to her to a psychiatrtric hospitat. >> more ththan a yeaear later -w is s she now? >> shehe's fine now. she wants s nothing toto do wit. she's s really embarrassssed it happened and s she letet h herst sucked into it. she's got she got help and she's doing much better. >> her mother is home. erica's brother, jason, still attends trump rallies with fofollowers bubut the e man sta next to jason, h his familily it so lucky. >> which one is that, , mom? >> u u.s. marine veteran claus richter r went to dallas, , too. > do you reremember thehe lae you saw clclaus s before he lefr dallas?? >> yeah. wewe sat out there in the livin room. we sat for most of the night talking. i don't know why i was getting aa little leery about it. maybe shouldn't go at all, youo know? >> he looked after his mom here in saflorida, b but when he d d come h home from dalallas, his family b began to worry. >> as time progressed and he was gone, we all started to get more concerned. as to what was going on. >> claus stayed in dallas and began traveling the country with michael's group. going to a series of trump rallies. photos and videos suggest he was having a good time like here, dancing in front of him. but his sister says at one point, h he began toto express concernsns. >> he e goes somomething's n not here. i i go well, w what are you goio do? get extra kated? let's get you out. he goes just give me a day or two. >> but he never did leave the group. on april 14th, 2 2022, his s si cacarmen got a a call from mich. > there's an accident and cls is in the hospital. and i'm like, what? >> i've got one injury. >> claus was a passenger in the vehicle. the driver was this man. another member of the group. >> what happened? >> mr. richter, what's your middle name, sir? okay. thank you, sir. >> the family rushed from their homes here to this hospital in mobile, alabama. but when they eventually got here, they were not able to see clclaus. >> one of the individuals from the group claimed to be his daughter. >> that woman began making decisions on claus' behalf according to medical records provided b by his famimily. > when we explalained to o t hospital that he did notot have daughter, they said, yes, it's his daughter. you know, mom explained to them, he doesn't have e any children. evenentually, we got up there. it was very disturbing. >> and you're a nurse. >> yes. correct. i knew automatically that it was a very grave situation. he was preretty mumuch the whol left sidide of hisis body was crushed. >> days later, claus 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. >> a grand jury in alabama voted in 2 2023 to clolose the investigation into the crash, bubut the fafamily is still loo for r answers ababout the cicircumstanceces susurrounding dedeath and hihis s treatment t hospital includingng how someoe falselely y claiming t to be hi daugughter couldld make medical decisions on his behalf. >> when you lose somebody unexpectically, you want answers. >> i hope they pay for what they did. >> 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. ♪ but how do p people geget inint world? michael, how are you? are yoyou a cocon man? >> no. get that out of my face. shut the door. c'mon, we're right there. c'mon baby. it's the only we need. go, go, go, go! ah! touchdown baby! -touchdown! are your neighbors watching the same game? yeah, my 5g home internet delays the game a bit. but you get used to it. try these. they're noise cancelling earmuffs. i stole them from an airport. it's always something with you, man. great! solid! -greek salad? exactly! don't delay the game with verizon or t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. i hahave 1700 notes in here and this is s where e i do alll calculatioions. mymy born nameme come toto 182. > okay.y. so what t does that mean t then? >> well, every alphahabet lettt is c coded. >> e every cult has s these sas that from the outside seem crazy. they have secret codes. these easy ideas to complex questions are very appealing when you are emotionally vulnerable. >> diane runs an organization that helps people get out of cults. diane knows a lot about cults because she says she was in one. >> i went from being a lost teenager to a disciple of the second coming of christ. >> she was in the -- church. they believed he was jesus christ. >> from the mansons. >> it's my world. i got rights my fathers died for, my uncles died for. my kin and my kind died for all down the road. >> to jonestown to heaven's game. >> if you follow me, i can give you the good news of the kingdom of heaven. >> there's been no shortage of cults in america true to decades. they've all had leaders that present themselves as messiahs, offering their followers warped biblical promises. cults can be appealing during times of tumult where people are looking for answers. exp ex expertrts say covid-19 was -- >> the perfect storm. there's a pandemic and we're told to stay inside and we don't know what's going on. >> 1999, plane crash date. really. seven could be six and one. 61 is red tie. that trump wears.. 122 2 equals jfkfk they are ali. >> can you check what my name is? >> of course. let's do it. >> my name is d-o-n-i-e. >> 47. yeah, but donie is 47. john is 47.. okay. see? >> s so the sisignificancece of numbers s adding up toto j john. itit's -- > it just s shows how powowe the langnguage i is. it showsws our connenection wiw god. oror w with jesus christ or wite blbloodline ofof the good side.. >> negegative e 40 tauaught t u which isis god's lananguage. >> is itit mentitioned in the b? >> that's a good questioion. i'm not t susure. >> i'm notot positive. i don't knknow thahat. >> how d do wewe know it's god' languauage? >> it's justst -- it, it's's mathematicalally imposossible e haveve all thosese coincididenc. > humanan beings haveve psycholological painin of didif kinds.s. when they y feel lost in theiri world,d, it's leaveded by thesey answers toto life's s hard questions. by these groups that clalaim they'r're going toto build a wh new world. >> whenever he talked to me, he had to g go far awaway frorom t he could actuaually talk.. >> so you'rere sayining clauaus be calling youou -- >> and he had to make e sure he could get away from m him m bef he could t talk. >> a away from w who? >> t the whole groupup. >> oftentimes,s, familily membe are consnsidered the enenemy. because ththey're the bibiggest threreat. and it's disloyal to b be talki toto the enemy. >> i got cut off foror eight weeks, s so, in the very bebeginning, h he wouldn't't ca. he wouldldn't text m me. and i'm sure it wawas calculata. how w else d do you gagain cont someone's s life unless yoyou k them from their life. >> truth wins the day. 215. >> the audience on his channel, on the app, telegram. at one point, he had more than 80,000 followers there and was a prolific user of the app's audio stream feature where he preached for hours at a time. >> i just go sit. and his uncle is jfk. and that means jfk jr. and trump are cousins. >> i think a lot of titimes, peoplele just lolooking g on wi, i don't see what people see in this guy. he just looks like an idiot. you know, people say that about cult leaders all thehe time. but t there'e's, i'm sure, somot ofof chaharisma that h he has w he's's talking with his followe that just makes him seem like lofty. >> trump's first 15 words that night came to 1087. and so interestingng andnd he k so much. ♪ >> his group has spepent a l lo timeme here atat thehe hyayatt hotel in dallas. when is kennedy shshowing g up? >> h he's here.. >> he's s here. z >> they call it the arc. another biblical reference. >> trust the plan. 174. >> they travel the country going to trump rallies.. ♪ >> are you guys a negative 48? ♪ >> and they posted videos ofof stays in luxururious lococation. >> h how is he p paying fofor a this? >> i know he can't possibly be paying his way at the hotel for months and months onon e end. i've been totold people are payg for him. they might pay for everyone. >> and right now, people are donating money because we're all out of town. we don't have suits, dresses and stuff. >> until now, little was known about michael's background. public records show he lived in washington state. prior to coming to dallas in 2021, his wife had filed for divorce. his business shut down. his house was foreclosed and a police report reveals an altercation with his wife where she says he was believining conspiracycy theories s about t government. michael calllled his followewer back to dallas in october 2022, a year after the first gathering at the grassy knoll. some of his followers again believed the kenennedys s were comingng b back. he dididn't answerer our q ques whwhen we reachehed out to h hi we did c catch up p with him a hyhyatt regencncy y hohotel, hi so-calalled arc.c. rolling?g? yeah. michael? how are you? my name's dodonie e o'sullivan. how w are you? > i'm e excellent but i've go go. >> trying to find kennededy? >> youou'll find o out. >> w when? >> w when the e time i is right. timingng is everytything. > got a bigig followiwing h . >> yeaeah. > yeah. what i is it that you dodo? why dodo you thinknk people lilu soso much? >> first of f all, if you u undersrstood that a is onene, z 26. > dematatria. > trump ranan law andnd orde. the anoiointed 115.. world wawar ii had a a thing c the purplele code. pupurple code,e, 115. trump jfk, 11515.. >> w what does t this meanan? >> his b book, a art of the e d 11115. > right. > thehe resolute desk thahat john hid under.. the e same desk trtrump p used e he's telliling you he's s hidin john john. >> w who's j john johnhn?? >> j jfk jr. >> he e died in a planane crash. >> you'll l find o out.. >> a are you sayining he didn't in a p plane c crash? > you'll l find o out. resol resolutete 115. >> rightht.. likeke the resololute desksk. >> assassinanation datate, add up. 115. we a are at t war,r, 115. > so what i is s the sisigni of 1 115. >> youou'll find out, 174. >> what's mymy number? >> t trust the plalan, 174.. >> w what's mymy number? >> my numbmber is s 172 but it' alsoso 218. >> why is it that peoplele like you so m much? are you u a a con man? >> no. >> are y you t taking these wow for a ride, liliterally? >> n no, t they're takining me ride. > you were e bankrupt, ririg? >> i i'm not banankrupt and the know it. >> how you making all -- >> i d don't talalk to pressss out of my faface. >> so whwhat do yoyou makeke of? >> well,l, i saw a few thihings there. onone was whatat i call ththoug termrminating clcliches. hehe just keptpt sayaying you'u out. you'll finind out. you'll finind out. that's's the kind of thing that therere's no real ananswer to.o. there's nono explalanation need. you u can just repeaeat these ts and there's no way to kind o of prove oror disprove. you'll find out. anand so thosese are the kind o ththings that are e really kinia trtrademark ofof cultsts. >> you're a frfraud. you're f fake news. watch out. geget thatat out of my face.e. >> and o of f this type of deceptioion. this t type e of contrololling tactics. > what's yourur expxpertise r esestimation i is michael l lea cult? >> yes. in a word. yes. >> but who really is he? does youour son run a cult?? >> i i don't k know. i i don't knowow. >> aftfter months s of trying tt answers, his mother agreed to sit down and talk to us. >> but i know that that's not mimichael. ththat's this personon now. that has drank the kool-aid. i know michael was depressed. i think he felt like he had lost everything. he'd lost his family. he'd lost his s business.. >> s so o he wants to undederst bibit about who he w was befefo became negative 48 and involved in all this jfk stuff. we came here to wawashington ste wherere he grerew up.. wherere he lived. most of mimichael's familyly di want to speaeak k on camamera e for hihis mother, , who agreede talk t to o us if we didn't shor face. >> he was just your average, good kid. his friends would make fun of him because as he got older, you knknow, he wasas the one that dt drink, d didn't smoke. didn't do any of that stuff. he was just a good kid. >> she told us how michael was a loving dad. had two kids and now has grand kids. he ran a demololition business d he wasas anyththing but a die h republblican. vovoted for obamama. twice?e? >> uh-huh. >> it's hard to comprehend. >> that's why i'm saying is that he is not, he's not michael protsman. >> michael's mom says around 2015, her son was stressed and was worried about his family's financial future. >> this kind of all started because he wanted to figure a way to invest for the future. and he started investigating buying silver. you know. going on the computer. >> the world of online silver and gold goes hand in hand with the world of conspiracy theories. >> thehe real econonomy is imploding.g. people neeeed to get into o sil and gold. >> that our money isn't going to be any good fairly soon. >> eventually, it became all michael would talk about. >> as time went on, family and friends didn't want to hear that anymore. so i think he became more isolated. and the more isolated he became, the more he needed his family to agree with him. to b believe eveverything ththa believed. and we didn't. it had been evolved into alex jones and info wars and sandy hook and the conspiracy of 9/11. >> for a time, michael was sleeping in his car. he had lost his family, his business, but then he found telegram. >> i remember him telling his friends, i'm on telegram and all of a sudden, i have these followers. he has been trying to convince us that he was right for years and these peop sd you're right. ♪ happy birthday dear michael ♪ like they say, if your family isn't with you, make your own family. >> i am jesus christ 174. >> people are looking at him as this bad person. possibly this intentional cult leader. >> j jjj. >> micichael 's jusust a lost p that felelt like he hahad losts everything. >> we listened to a recording one of of his streams where he outlined one of his theories. >> family tree goes like this. john john and general flynn and trump are cousins. >> of course, this is nonsense. and there is no evidence michael flynn or donald trump are attached to his group or believe in its theories. and trump's uncle is j jfk. seninior. and d joe kekennedy, whoho's al dedead. > so when you hear that kindf thing -- >> i know. yeah. >> it's not the michael you know. >> oh, god, no. i mean, yeah. because it's not logical. it doesn't makake sense. my heart breaks for the people. that have been with him. i want them to know that he's a victim just like they were because three years ago, he didn't have a group. he didn't have a following. he didn't start out to have a cult. he's complicit now what is happening. >> what he and his fathers believe is objectively whacky, but t it's also dangerouous. cabal?l? >> you c can call him whatevere ththey w want, there is a group people t that run us all. >> and thehey go back all the e to the v very beginnnning of t biblble. and d they s sacrificed chilild. >> yes.. >> w when you saidid the people on m mall. are you tatalking about the jew? >> there's's a differencnce. there's trtraditional jews and there's zizionist t jejews. because they're in mafia. >> what's being said here about this so-called mafia is not true, but it's a hugely popular antisemitic theory that emerged on qanon forums. it's an example of how americans who go down the rabbit hole can become emerged in a world of hate. >> it's rooted deeply in antisemitism that dates back to medieval blood liable, the false accusation that jewish people were kidnapping christian children and drinking their blood or using their blood for passover. >> show me i can't talk about and i'll show you who my enemy is. >> they y didn't kilill 6 milli. there e was no c chimney in n auschwhwitz when i it all start. >> thihis was whenen i went to jasoson and i wanted to meet al of his frienends. >> in an attempt to get her brother to get home, eririca ininvites s him to a trump rall with him and other followers. >> when he introduced me to everybody, he said to them, he goes this little girl is the reason i'm going home in june. i thought he was coming baback. and hehe didn't. i'm sorry. >> michael's mom wanted her son home, totoo. >> maybe he thinks he doesn't have anything to come home to. which is wrongng. >> michahael has a family to co home to. >> oh, definitely. always has, always will. >> but a few months after he spoke to his mom -- >> there's a guy, he's breathing, but is struggling. he's out cold. >> tragedy. >> i want y'all to know this is real. michael is in a hospital, in an icu. he has been critically injured.