QAnon leader Michael Protzman, also known as Negative 48 among his followers, tragically lost his life on June 30 due to severe injuries sustained in a dirt bike accident at Meadow Valley Motocross track in Millville, Minnesota. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester confirmed his passing to VICE News.
However, despite clear evidence of his death, QAnon members have refused to accept this reality and insist that the entire incident is a hoax. An administrator of the group’s Telegram channel, whom Protzman had convinced that Mr. Trump is actually JFK Jr. in disguise, declared that any mention of Protzman’s death would be removed until “absolute verification” was obtained.
Vice reported that a member of the Truth Social group was expelled for merely inquiring about Protzman’s condition, further exemplifying the denial within the QAnon community. Shelly Mullinax, a former associate of Protzman who had a falling out prior to his demise, proposed her own theory, suggesting that only a part of him had perished in the dirt bike accident. According to her, the virtuous part of Protzman, whom she believed was also JFK in disguise, survived the crash while the malevolent aspect of him was eradicated.
Mullinax expressed her conviction to Vice, stating, “If that was the plan that God had for him, I know that everything is going to be revealed soon.”
Although QAnon has propagated numerous peculiar and groundless conspiracy theories over the years, the notion that Protzman’s death is a sham is relatively less eccentric. Protzman gained notoriety in November 2021 by persuading QAnon adherents that JFK and JFK Jr would resurrect. Consequently, countless believers congregated at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the site of JFK’s assassination in 1963, awaiting their return. Unsurprisingly, neither JFK nor JFK Jr made an appearance.
Protzman subsequently altered his narrative, asserting that Mr. Trump was, in fact, JFK Jr in disguise and that they would reinstate him as commander-in-chief to combat a global cabal of pedophilic, blood-drinking liberal elites—whom QAnon devotees believe control the world. He further claimed that Mr. Trump communicated with him using a secret code during a rally, a code comprehensible only to him and his followers.
