There is no RationalWiki without you. We are a small non-profit with no staff—we are hundreds of volunteers who document pseudoscience and crankery around the world every day. We will never allow ads because we must remain independent. We cannot rely on big donors with corresponding big agendas. We are not the largest website around, but we believe we play an important role in defending truth and objectivity. |
Fighting pseudoscience isn't free. We are 100% user-supported! Help and donate $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can today with ![]() ![]() |
Joe Nickell
This might be Skepticism |
![]() |
But we're not sure |
Who's asking? |
“”Joe Nickell is ‘terrible’ at sighting ghosts and has a ‘pitiful record’ of catching extra-terrestrials. It’s as if they’re not real, he says.
|
—Jordan Gass-Poore, Daily Mail[1] |
“”Forgers and frauds tend to use similar tricks, whether counterfeiting Hitler, U.F.O.s, or Jesus Christ.
|
—Joe Nickell[2] |
Joe Nickell (1 December 1944–4 March 2025), known for many years as “the world’s only full-time professional paranormal investigator,” was a senior research fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and investigative columnist for Skeptical Inquirer magazine.[3]
Nickell published his first article in Skeptical Inquirer magazine in 1983. He was elected a CSI fellow in 1988 and joined its Executive Council in 1993. He was named CSI senior research fellow and began writing his regular Investigative Files column for Skeptical Inquirer in 1995 .[3]
He investigated numerous paranormal, pseudoscience, snake-oil, and bullshit claims, from UFOs to Bigfoot to the Shroud of Turin.[4][5][6]
I don't believe we've met...[edit]
“”I dreamed of becoming a magician. I dreamed of becoming an investigator. I dreamed of becoming lots of things, and eventually I became most of them.
|
—Joe Nickell[2] |
“”God help us if Nickell ever has an identity crisis. There’ll be twenty of him running around not speaking to each other.
|
—An old friend of Nickell[2] |
Born and raised in the Appalachian town of West Liberty, Kentucky, his parents were postmaster J. Wendell Nickell, an amateur magician and science enthusiast, and Ella Nickell (née Turner), a devout member of the Disciples of Christ.[7] A few tricks, taught to him at a young age by his father, sparked Nickell's dreams of becoming a professional magician.[2] And for his eighth birthday his parents gave him a professional fingerprinting kit, resulting in a congratulatory letter from J. Edgar Hoover, the transformation of a room in their house into an amateur crime lab, and further dreams of becoming an professional detective.[2]
Nickell enrolled in 1962 at the University of Kentucky,[8] where he met and first dated his future second wife Diana Margaret Gawen,[7], underwent mandatory training with the Reserve Officers Training Corps,[9] and became an anti-Vietnam War activist.[10] Graduating with a B.A. in 1967, he went to the Deep South with Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA),
marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and was tear gassed at the conclusion of the 1967 March on the Pentagon,
none of which earned him a second congratulatory letter from Hoover. When his deferments ran out, he fled, with his first wife Ruth Holmes Everett,[11][12] to Canada to dodge the draft.[13][14]
Getting the hell out of Dodge[edit]
Arriving in Toronto in 1968, he, quite literally, fell back on his old tricks, demonstrating, developing and selling magic kits as a pitchman[15][16] at the Canadian National Exhibition, the Houdini Magical Hall of Fame in Niagara Falls, and Simpson's department store; he also performed on the school circuit as a professional stage magician,[17] mentalist[18] and escapologist[19] under the names Janus the Magician, Mister Twister the Magic Clown[20] and Mendell the Mentalist.[2]
It was during this time, following in the footsteps of his hero Harry Houdini, that Nickell began to view himself as a skeptic of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.[21] He attended his first séance in Toronto in 1969 for the CBC documentary Houdini in Canada, where, despite the medium's bold pronouncements, Houdini was a no-show.[1] This experience further solidified Nickell's identification as a skeptic and he continued to consider Houdini and other magicians who used their skills to expose trickery heroes throughout his life.[2] His first paranormal investigation was into the Mackenzie House haunting in 1972.
Recruited as a private investigator,[22] thanks in large part to his background and skills as a magician,[2] Nickell performed his last professional magic show in 1973 and spent the next two years honing invaluable skills for Pinkerton conducting background investigations, fixed and moving surveillances,[23][24] and bodyguarding duties[25]. In this capacity, he spent lengthy times as an undercover operative[26] working as a forklift driver, lens polisher, shipping/mail clerk, steelworker,[27] and tavern waiter/bouncer.[28][29] "The irony," Nickell points out being that as a draft dodger he was, "a federal fugitive the whole time."[2]
Following this Nickell spent some time in the Klondike Gold Rush town of Dawson City in the Yukon Territory,[2] working variously as a blackjack dealer,[30] croupier,[31] and part-time can-can show emcee[32] at Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall;
a riverboat manager[33] and trainee riverboat captain[34] for Dick Stevenson's Yukon River Tours; and a gold prospector.[35]
US President Jimmy Carter's signing of Proclamation 4483, granting unconditional pardons to draft dodgers, on his first full day in office in 1977, cleared the way for Nickell to return home.
No shit, Sherlock[edit]
Nickell first headed to Hollywood, where he appeared as an extra in a couple of productions,[36] completed the course in firearms at the United States School of Law Enforcement in Los Angeles,[37] worked as an armed guard for a security firm,[38] and attended Paul Stader's Hollywood Stunt School.[39]
Re-enrolling at the University of Kentucky in 1979, he completed his master's in 1982, and his PhD in 1987, with a dissertation titled, Literary Investigation: Texts, Sources, and "Factual" Substructs of Literature and Interpretation.[40] His literary detective work for this disertation, among other achievements, discovered the 18th-century "missing" edition of John Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor,
provided a solution to Ambrose Bierce's disappearance, and identified the real-life model for Nathaniel Hawthorne's
"Veiled Lady" in The Blithedale Romance.
It was published as the book Ambrose Bierce is Missing and Other Historical Mysteries (reissued as Unsolved History).[41]
Nickell's work attracted the attention of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), now known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, publisher of Skeptical Inquirer magazine.[42] His first article, detailing the recreation of the giant Nazca condor drawing in Peru, was published in the Spring 1983 issue. Elected a Fellow in 1988, joined the Executive Council in 1993, and was named Senior Research Fellow in 1995. Relocating to CSICOP’s international headquarters in Buffalo, his Investigative Files column for Skeptical Inquirer and CSICOP newsletter Skeptical Briefs were launched that year. Nickell received CSICOP’s Distinguished Skeptic Award in 2000 and the American Humanist Association's Isaac Asimov Science Award in 2004.
Investigations[edit]
Mackenzie House haunting[edit]
Nickell's first paranormal investigation was into a reported haunting at Mackenzie House in Toronto in 1972.[43] The caretaker described hearing footsteps, mysterious piano music, and an apparition seen by his wife, while a photograph of a piano showed an unexplained white blur. Through interviews and analysis, Nickell discovered that the sounds came from an adjacent building where a late-night cleaning crew and a pianist were active. A professional photographer identified the blur as a reflection of a camera flash on sheet music. The apparition was attributed to a common phenomenon known as a waking dream or hypnagogic trance. Nickell ultimately concluded that the house was not haunted.
Portrayal and pregnancy in popular media[edit]
The Reaping[edit]
The skeptical investigator character played by Hilary Swank in the 2007 horror film The Reaping is loosely based on Nickell, at least in the first half of the movie. In the second half, supernatural forces have their way with Swank and she ends up pregnant and bearing the spawn of Satan.[44]
Bibliography[edit]
- Inquest on the Shroud of Turin (1983, 1998)
- Secrets of the Supernatural (with John F. Fischer, 1988, 1991)
- The Magic Detectives (1989)
- Pen, Ink, and Evidence (1990, 2000, 2003)
- Wonder-Workers! (1991)
- Ambrose Bierce Is Missing (1992)
- Missing Pieces (with Robert A. Baker, 1992)
- Mysterious Realms (1992)
- Looking for a Miracle (1993, 1998)
- Psychic Sleuths (1994)
- Camera Clues (1994)
- Entities (1995)
- Detecting Forgery (1996)
- The Outer Edge (1996)
- The UFO Invasion (1997)
- Crime Science (1999)
- Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal (2001)
- The Kentucky Mint Julep (2003)
- The Mystery Chronicles (2004)
- Secrets of the Sideshows (2005)
- Lake Monster Mysteries (with Benjamin Radford, 2006)
- Relics of the Christ (2007)
- Adventures in Paranormal Investigation (2007)
- Real or Fake (2009)
- Tracking the Man-Beasts (2011)
- CSI Paranormal (2012)
- The Science of Ghosts (2012)
- The Science of Miracles (2013)
- American Hauntings (with Robert E. Bartholomew, 2015)
External links[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 Jordan Gass-Poore, 'The Loch Ness monster? It's an otter. Bigfoot? Just a bear': Meet the 72-year-old magician-turned-paranormal investigator who travels the world probing ghost stories and eerie sightings (well, the truth IS out there), Daily Mail, 4 August 2017
- ↑ Jump up to: 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Burkhard Bilger, Waiting for Ghosts, The New Yorker, 15 December 2002
- ↑ Jump up to: 3.0 3.1 Remembering Joe Nickell, Iconic Skeptic and Investigator, Center for Inquiry, 5 March 2025
- ↑ JoeNickell.com
- ↑ One of the Most Interesting Skeptics in the World Skepchick
- ↑ Hunting Monsters, Chasing Ghosts Artvoice
- ↑ Jump up to: 7.0 7.1 Joe Nickell, Family Man joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Student joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, ROTC Cadet joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Anti-War Activist joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Bridegroom joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Divorcé joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, War Resister joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Immigrant joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Magic Pitchman joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Magic Kit Creator joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Stage Magician joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Mentalist joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Escape Artist joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Magic Clown joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Skeptic joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Private Investigator joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Surveillant joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Secret Agent joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Bodyguard joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Undercover Operative joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Steelworker joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Tavern Waiter joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Bouncer joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Blackjack Dealer joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Crown and Anchor Croupier joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Master of Ceremonies joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Riverboat Manager joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Riverboat Captain Traineee joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Gold Prospector joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Movie Extra joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Marksman joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Armed Guard joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Stuntman Trainee joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Doctor of Philosophy joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Literary Detective joenickell.com
- ↑ Joe Nickell, Paranormal Investigator joenickell.com
- ↑ Ed Grabianowski How Ghost Busters Work, HowStuffWorks
- ↑ "The Reaping", CSICOP