Joe Nickell
Joe Nickell, Ph.D., is Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and "Investigative Files" Columnist for Skeptical Inquirer. A former stage magician, private investigator, and teacher, he is author of numerous books, including Inquest on the Shroud of Turin (1998), Pen, Ink and Evidence (2003), Unsolved History (2005) and Adventures in Paranormal Investigation (2007). He has appeared in many television documentaries and has been profiled in The New Yorker and on NBC's Today Show. His personal website is at joenickell.com.
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Ghost-Busted! Phony Tales of Dixie Spirits
Skeptical Inquirer Volume 36.2, March/April 2012
Forum
The Blob Ness Monster
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
May 21, 2012
Has Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster, best known from a 1934 photo that has since been revealed as an April Fool’s prank, once again been recorded—this time on sonar?
“The Raven” (A Nickell-odeon Review)
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
May 16, 2012
Baltimore, 1849. First, there is the brutal murder of a woman and her daughter in a fourth-floor apartment that is locked from the inside. Then the body of a man named Griswold is found in a torture chamber, sliced in half by a great curved blade at the end of a pendulum.
On a Wing and a Prayer: The Search for Guardian Angels
Skeptical Briefs Volume 21.3, Fall 2011
Investigative Files
Are these experiences really supernatural? Or are they only natural, the result of misperceptions and even misreporting? A look into the phenomenon of claimed guardian-angel encounters is illuminating.
Pop-Culture Zombies
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
May 8, 2012
On ABC’s popular show Castle, in an episode titled “Undead Again” (aired April 30, 2012), Detective Beckett summons the show’s writer/consultant namesake to a murder scene where the victim’s body bears severe human bite marks. The only witness also has bite marks that match those on the dead man, and the witness insists their assailant was a zombie!
“Bully” (A Nickell-odeon Review)
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
May 3, 2012
At school-bus stops, in busses carrying students to and from schools, and in schoolyards and schools themselves, as well as online, bullying takes place at an alarming rate—an estimated over 13 million American kids suffering this "most common form of violence young people in this country experience" (online at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt168218/plotsummary).
The Doctor’s Ghostly Visitor: Tracking ‘The Girl in the Snow’
Skeptical Briefs Volume 21.2, Summer 2011
Investigative Files
Although skeptics insist ghosts are unreal, there are many ghostly encounters that seem to present startling evidence to the contrary. One such incident is presented in the book The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales by Ruth Ann Musick.
Home Town Destroyed
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
April 23, 2012
I'm overdue to write this. On March 2, 2012, occurred the worst thing ever to happen to me: My hometown of West Liberty, in eastern Kentucky's Appalachian foothills, was largely destroyed by a tornado. If I feel so devastated while not even living there, how much worse must it be for those who lost their very homes and livelihood.
Scanning Loch Ness
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
April 10, 2012
The Holy Mandylion: A Déjà-view
Skeptical Inquirer Volume 36.1, January/February 2012
Investigative Files
It was like déjà-vu. In 2008, in a traveling exhibition called “Vatican Splendors,” I had seen the Holy Mandylion, also known as the Image of Edessa, which was once held to be the miraculous self-portrait of Christ. Now, in Genoa the following year, I was seeing another such image...
The Atlanta Child Murders: Evidence vs. Psychics
Skeptical Briefs Volume 21.1, Spring 2011
Investigative Files
While television often offers pseudoscience and fantasy instead of lessons in critical thinking (consider shows like The Ghost Whisperer), there are noteworthy exceptions. One is Soledad O’Brien’s CNN special Atlanta Child Murders (2010).
Limbaugh Caught at For-Pay Sex Talk!
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
March 19, 2012
Rush Limbaugh often refers to feminists as "feminazis," but he simply appears to be projecting his own misogynist tendencies. Now Limbaugh is caught in another contradiction—and in an exposé of his sexual proclivities.
Did Shakespeare Write ‘Shakespeare’? Much Ado About Nothing
Skeptical Inquirer Volume 35.6, November/December 2011
Article
Anti-Stratfordians start with the answer they want and work backward to the evidence—the opposite of good science and scholarship. They reverse the standards of objective inquiry, replacing them with pseudoscience and pseudohistory.
Lady Sword Swallower
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
March 12, 2012
On February 25, 2012, more than twenty of the world's dwindling number of sword swallowers "dropped swords" at Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditoriums worldwide to celebrate the Sixth Annual World Sword Swallower's Day. My wife Diana and I were at the Niagara Falls, Ontario, Ripley's with Vanessa, Canada's celebrated female sword swallower, to watch her have a snack of cold steel.
Psychic Connections: Investigating in Hungary
Skeptical Inquirer Volume 35.6, November/December 2011
Investigative Files
While in Hungary from September 16–22, 2010—initially to participate in the fourteenth European Skeptics Congress (held in Budapest September 17–19)—I found time for some interesting investigations.
An Antique “Temperance Drink”
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
February 24, 2012
On February 21, 2012, CFI Libraries intern Christian Exoo (a graduate student in Library Science at the University of Buffalo) gave me the two items pictured here, an antique medicine bottle and accompanying advertising booklet, for my medical quackery collection (part of which may be viewed on www.skeptiseum.com.) Christian discovered the artifacts in the wall of a late-nineteenth-century house in Canton, New York, during a renovation. Both items were new to me, and, additionally, complemented each other with helpful information.
In the Media: 2011 Activities of Joe Nickell
February 17, 2012
CSI Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell had yet another very busy year, utilizing his varied background as stage magician and mentalist, private detective for a world-famous detective agency, forensic science writer, historical document consultant, and university scholar in literature.
“Red Tails” (A Nickell-odeon Review)
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
February 17, 2012
This movie about the Tuskegee Airmen—the black American aviators of World War II—has an appropriately Forties feel to it. A mix of dogfights, on-the-ground conflicts (personal, military, and racial), and a love story that ends in tragedy, Red Tails should have been made decades ago.
The Skepcook: Reviewing “Herbal Recipes”
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
February 10, 2012
As an herb gardener (see that persona on my website, www.joenickell.com), or at least as my wife Diana's understudy, I appreciate the satisfaction of growing, harvesting, and processing herbs—dried sage and oregano, for savory cooking; fresh basil, to snip onto sliced tomatoes (accompanying scrambled eggs for breakfast); and spearmint, for my Kentucky mint juleps! We also cultivate rosemary, chives, parsley, thyme, and more.
Four to Watch (Nickell-odeon Mini-Reviews)
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
January 31, 2012
To catch up on our movie watching, my wife Diana dared us to go on a movie marathon. So (after a morning trip to a psychic fair) we embarked on a whirlwind tour, getting home just before the witching hour. With her handling logistics (directions, times, and eating on the run) and me driving the getaway car, we crisscrossed town and watched four new feature films. All were in the good-to-excellent range, and I recommend them to fellow skeptics and humanists. (As I say, a humanist is an atheist with a heart.) Here are capsule reviews (presented in ascending order of excellence).
WWJD?
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
January 18, 2012
Among evangelicals it is common to ask, in a situation, What Would Jesus Do? (sometimes shortened to WWJD?). However, evangelicals being a politically conservative lot, it is well to ask, just how much in agreement would Jesus be, regarding their stance on some of today's controversial issues? In other words, we know they are right (even far right), but are they right with Jesus? Here are some answers.
Asteroid’s Namesake
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
January 6, 2012
Thanks to my friend, colleague, and fellow UFO researcher James McGaha, I now have the distinct honor of having an asteroid named for me! This fact was revealed at the 2011 CSIcon in New Orleans, held on Halloween weekend.
“Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” (A Nickell-odeon Review)
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
January 3, 2012
"Ah, Watson, do come in. I see you have just been to that latest, ah, ‘movie,' supposedly based on what you so faithfully romanticize as my ‘adventures.' And I perceive you were extremely dissatisfied with it.
Investigating Life as a Poet
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
December 29, 2011
Given that my main persona is investigator—of historical and literary mysteries (see my "Did Shakespeare Write ‘Shakespeare'?" in the Nov./Dec. 2011 Skeptical Inquirer), as well as homicides, and, most extensively, of paranormal enigmas—relatively few know of me as a poet—in which role I investigate life and attempt to shape the results into art.
Turin “Shroud” Called “Supernatural”
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
December 22, 2011
As reported in the UK Independent of December 21, 2011, scientists working for the Italian government have claimed to find evidence that the image of Jesus crucified appearing on the notorious Shroud of Turin was not produced by a medieval artist but instead was likely caused by a supernatural event.
The Skepcook: Regarding “No Substitutions”
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
December 19, 2011
The "no-substitution" policy of some restaurants is not a customer-friendly way to help one address his or her dietary concerns. Of course, sometimes substitutions cannot reasonably be made, but where they can be, restaurateurs should be encouraged to adopt a more flexible policy.
In Search of the Emerald Grail
Skeptical Inquirer Volume 35.5, September/October 2011
Investigative Files
Il Sacro Catino, “The Holy Basin,” is one of the most famous embodiments of the legendary “Holy Grail,” and I was able to study both it and its legend there in the fall of 2009, attempting to resolve some of the mysteries and controversies concerning it.
“J. Edgar” (A Nickell-odeon Review)
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
December 5, 2011
Let me confess at the outset that my response to Clint Eastwood's new biopic about Federal Bureau of Investigation founder J. Edgar Hoover is necessarily colored by my own personal encounters with the man. Actually, there were two J. Edgars.
“Chupacabra” Attack
Free Thinking (centerforinquiry.net)
November 29, 2011
The Chupacabra is a fabled vampiric creature that has supposedly preyed on farm animals in many countries since it first appeared in Puerto Rico in 1995. Is it on the loose now in the American midwest? In November I was able to examine the carcass of one such reputed creature on a Missouri farm.
