"Psychic detective" Jackie Barrett

I finally found the New York Times Super Bowl predictions:

Jackie Barrett, psychic/medium
PREDICTION
Giants: 21 Patriots: 14

New York, NY

Psychics don't need to read the sports pages to know who will win, Barrett told the Post.

"The Giants are going to win, but it is not going to be easy," she said. "It will not look good at the half, but they will come through big in the final quarters. I keep seeing the number 2, but I'm not sure what it means."

Barrett did offer one caveat: "The Giants will win as long as New England doesn't cheat again."
Click to expand...

The Giants won with 17, not 21. Also, can anyone verify the half, quarter finals... stuff. I know nothing about football so I have no idea how to follow the game.
 
Additional: In the article they asked four sources who would win the Superbowl, including a magic 8 ball and a camel. 4 out of 5 predicted that the Giants would win. This includes the magic 8 ball and the camel.
 
When you transcribe an interview you can take out the ums and ahs and the natural repetitions that people make. Read some interviews and you'll see that this is usually done, unless the writer is trying to make the interviewee look dull or stupid (which is how those speech mannerisms come across on paper).

Regarding interviewing technique: I wouldn't ask her about anything that could annoy her during the actual interview, and I wouldn't accuse her of getting her facts wrong regarding, for example, when Pio died. If you really want to ask those things, ask them at the end when you have the interview in the bag.

At the end of the interview, ask her if you can email her with follow-up questions "to clarify anything I forgot to ask you, when I'm writing up my notes." This is pretty standard for journalists. In that email, ask for the specific references that you can't seem to find. If she doesn't give satisfactory answers (or gets pissed off and doesn't reply at all), you can write in your article that you could not find evidence of her involvement with America's Most Wanted or her recognition by Yale, etc. and that she did not provide the evidence when asked for it.
 
Wikipedia has an article on SuperBowl XLII between the New York Giants and New England Patriots. On the right side of the article it shows the score by quarter. Consistent with the prediction, the Giants were down 7-3 at halftime.
 
Here's some sources:

According to the BBC in 2006:

Seriously. They were being interviewed by Blender magazine, and decided that the New York club Mr Black was probably haunted, and then got Jackie Barrett - who appears to have 'psychic voodoo queen' written on her business card - to try and talk to all the ghosts.
Click to expand...

The title from the New York Post in 2007 says it all:

TITLE: TELLING 'REAL' PSYCHICS FROM FAKES IS 'CHALLENGE'
PUBLICATION: New York Post
DATE: Nov 23, 2007
...
That being said, "America's Psychic Challenge" is still more fun than half the junk that passes for entertainment on TV these days, and it's especially tremendous fun tonight, which is of course, everybody's favorite night to kick back, lay on the couch and eat leftovers.

Tonight there are four semi-finalists: Jeff Baker, the psychic gay cabellero from Texas; Michelle Whitedove, the psychic with big hair and a lovely way about her; Lynn Miller, also a very talented psychic who could pass for the bright, perky woman at every cocktail party you've ever gone to; and Jackie Barrett, the dark soul who you've probably never seen at any cocktail party. Ever. A coven, maybe, but a party? The fact that Jackie plays for the other team - the one that plays with black magic - doesn't mean she's not talented. She is. Unpleasant, nasty and seemingly ready to implode and explode at the same time, sure, but also talented.

Tonight the semi-finalists are given several challenges, each more interesting than the next. Look, this show could have turned into dopey parlor tricks and card guessing games, but it didn't. And that gives it legitimacy both as entertainment and as a look into the brains of people who are able to use more than the standard 7.5 percent brainpower we're usually allotted.

First, they must nail where a crew member of the Queen Mary is standing via "remote viewing."

The second challenge, which they all fail, should be the simplest of all: Guessing which guy of four on a ranch is a cowboy. Even Texas Jeff can't shoe that horse.

Finally, they are brought to a bar where a horrific murder occurred. You will be amazed at which psychics blow it and which one is, er, so dead-on that it's a killer.
Click to expand...

Source

Somewhere I have "America's Psychic Challenge" on tape and all of them, including Jackie, are really bad. Even at the simplest psychic test, they fail.


I'd like Barrett to provide some documentation on her claim here:

Jackie Barrett is the only psychic medium who's work & assistance has been recognized by Federal Agents, Jackie Barrett is the official psychic consultant to the Federal Government.
Click to expand...

http://www.jackiebarrett.com/5.html
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the links.

I was able to watch America's Psychic Challenge on the net. The show was just pathetic. It saddens me to think that people don't recognize this as an entertainment show and it doesn't prove any of the contestants have any actual psychic powers.

Jackie was particularly annoying in this one. She was so smug. Also, in one of the podcasts that she did she alludes to the winner, Melissa Whitedove (if that's not a woo name then I don't know what is), having help from some of the staff. Nothing like a sore loser.

Anyway, I'm going to conduct an interview with her (hopefully) soon. Not sure how that's going to go down. It can either go two ways; she lets me record the interview and we see what happens or she refuses to let me record, I don't conduct the interview, then she loses her chance to defend herself.

Not that she's going to be able to explain the whole FBI's official psychic nonsense or any of the other ridiculous things that she claims.
 
sg1985 said:
Thanks for the links.

I was able to watch America's Psychic Challenge on the net. The show was just pathetic. It saddens me to think that people don't recognize this as an entertainment show and it doesn't prove any of the contestants have any actual psychic powers.

Jackie was particularly annoying in this one. She was so smug. Also, in one of the podcasts that she did she alludes to the winner, Melissa Whitedove (if that's not a woo name then I don't know what is), having help from some of the staff. Nothing like a sore loser.

Anyway, I'm going to conduct an interview with her (hopefully) soon. Not sure how that's going to go down. It can either go two ways; she lets me record the interview and we see what happens or she refuses to let me record, I don't conduct the interview, then she loses her chance to defend herself.

Not that she's going to be able to explain the whole FBI's official psychic nonsense or any of the other ridiculous things that she claims.
Click to expand...

Her claim to have worked for America's Most Wanted is garbage too. They do not use psychics for a variety of reasons.

Moreover, the FBI and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children maintain that to their knowledge, psychic detectives have never helped solve a single missing-person case.
Click to expand...

http://skepdic.com/psychdet.html

I'd ask her, specifically, what are the names of those missing persons she claimed to have found? What episode of America's Most Wanted does she claim to appear on?
 
I'm certainly going to be asking about specifics lol. All of her claims are that vague. But if they were specific then people could check on it and that would put an end to that very quickly.

I've sent e-mails to every organization that I had enough info about to ask them questions. For some reason I didn't get a lot of responses. I sent a message to the Red Cross, since Jackie has helped raise 1 million dollars for them and received a special award for her tireless efforts, they basically said "We don't know and we're not going to waste our time looking it up." Can't blame them though.

One thing I looked up was her IMDB page. She doesn't have one. How can someone who claims to have been a consultant on every single Voodoo movie ever made not have an IMDB page?

Seriously, when it comes down to it all you need to ask is why haven't you taken the million dollar challenge. Especially with Jackie. She keeps bragging about how much money she's raised to help Hurricane Katrina victims and the like, why not add another million?
 
I hadn't been bothering with this article until recently, because quite frankly, I was sick of reading about this woman. But now I have done better than write one article, I have written an entire entry on the SkepticsWiki!

SkepticsWiki: Jackie Barrett

It's still a work in progress so please let me know if you see typos or anything of that nature. And yeah, it sounds like an opinion piece. I'm working on that but at this point it's pretty hard to be objective.

It feels so good to finally have written all of this down. :D Especially since I did some much research and one article would simply not contain it.
 
Last edited:
Let's get these bastards!

I'm with you on this one sg1985! Looking forward to seeing the finished and complete report.

I'm part of a research group out here in Colorado, Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society, and we are doing something similar with a local "character" by the name of Chris Moon.

This person claims to work on cold cases with local law enforcement, and he does this via his "Telephone to the Dead". A device (broken am/fm radio) to speak with "spirit technicians" and other departed souls. You can view some of his nonsense here:

http://www.thetelephonetothedead.com/

He also does "readings" with this "telephone". Here's what he charges when he's offering a "deal".

Telephone to the Dead (Frank’s Box) private sessions discounted for a limited time!
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

For those who haven't seen the Telephone to the Dead (Frank's Box) in action and how I use it please check out this episode of Paranormal State that I had a guest spot on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp00GgB0F-w



I am doing a limited number of private sessions over the phone this week for those who are interested. The prices are as follows:

* 15 minute reading: $90

* 30 minute reading: $180

* 45 minute reading: $260

* 1 hour reading: $300

***optional recording: $50
Click to expand...

That's directly from his MySpace blog.

Yeah, I get pretty worked up over these charlatans claiming to work with the police, or any other law enforcement agency when it comes to cold cases. We touch on that a little at this side project site of ours called "Parastupid" http://www.parastupid.com
 
Last edited:
Related but didn't want to start a new thread (someone else can if they want to): "The Closer" episode last night had a psychic detective and they did a great job of debunking the group.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom