Joe Herman Nickell (December 1, 1944 – March 4, 2025) was an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal.
Nickell was a senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and wrote regularly for their journal, Skeptical Inquirer. He was also an associate dean of the Center for Inquiry Institute. He was the author or editor of over 30 books.
Among his career highlights, Nickell helped expose the James Maybrick "Jack the Ripper Diary" as a hoax. In 2002, Nickell was one of a number of experts asked by scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. to evaluate the authenticity of the manuscript of Hannah Crafts' The Bondwoman's Narrative (1853–1860), possibly the first novel by an African-American woman. At the request of document dealer and historian Seth Keller, Nickell analyzed documentation in the dispute over the authorship of "The Night Before Christmas", ultimately supporting the Clement Clarke Moore claim.
Early life and education Joe Nickell was the son of J. Wendell and Ella (Turner) Nickell and was born in Lexington, Kentucky on December 1, 1944. He was raised in West Liberty, Kentucky. His parents indulged his interest in magic and investigation, allowing him to use a room in their house as a crime lab.
He earned a B.A. degree in 1967 from the University of Kentucky.
To avoid the wide draft for the Vietnam War, the following year in 1968, at the age of 24, he moved to Canada. There he began his careers as a magician, card dealer, and private investigator. After President Jimmy Carter granted unconditional pardons to draft dodgers in 1977, Nickell returned to the United States.
He returned to the University of Kentucky for graduate work, earning an M.A. (1982) and PhD (1987). His PhD is in English, focusing on literary investigation and folklore.
Career
Nickell worked professionally as a stage magician, carnival pitchman, private detective, blackjack dealer, riverboat manager, university instructor, author, and paranormal investigator, and he lists more than 1,000 personae on his website. Since the early 1980s, he has researched, written, co-authored, and edited books in many genres.
He was profiled by The New Yorker writer Burkhard Bilger, who met Nickell during the summer of 2002 at Lily Dale, New York. The investigator had disguised himself to investigate Spiritualist psychics.
Nickell was a recurring guest on the Point of Inquiry podcast and conducted the annual Houdini Seance at the Center for Inquiry every Halloween.
He was frequently consulted by news and television producers for his skeptical perspective.
Nickell explained his philosophy to Blake Smith of the Skeptic podcast MonsterTalk:
He served as a character consultant to Hilary Swank in her starring role in the horror film The Reaping (2007), in which she plays a paranormal investigator.
Books Nickell's books can be divided into four main categories—religious, forensic, paranormal, and mysteries. He also wrote two books for young readers and two stand-alone books (one on UFOs, one on a regional alcoholic drink), and several additional small press and "contributed to" books.
Miracles and religious artifacts Nickell investigated religious artifacts and claimed phenomena. Beginning in 1982 with his book Inquest on the Shroud of Turin: Latest Scientific Findings, Nickell demonstrated his research model of collecting evidence and following that evidence to a sustainable conclusion. He updated the book in 1998 with more recent historical, iconographic, forensic, physical and chemical evidence, with special explanations of the radiocarbon dating process.
In his 1993 book Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions and Healing Cures, updated in 1998, Nickell analyzes miracles claimed by various religions. For each incident, Nickell reviews the contemporaneous written accounts, explores various natural explanations, explains the cultural environment surrounding the events, and speculates on the motivations of the affected religious community. He concludes that the claimed miracles were either hoaxes or misinterpretations of natural phenomena.
For instance, after studying the weeping St. Irene icon in Queens, New York, Nickell said,
Relics of the Christ (2007, British edition published as The Jesus Relics: From the Holy Grail to the Turin Shroud), focuses on the Christian tradition of relics. Speaking with D.J. Grothe on the Point of Inquiry podcast, Nickell proposed that veneration of relics had become a new idolatry; that is, worship of an actual deity within the relics in form of an entity that moves its eyes, weeps, bleeds, and walks. He said that although no icon in history has ever been proven authentic in the sense of displaying such attributes, he approaches each case with a suspension of disbelief: "I'm interested in the evidence because I want us to know what the truth is... I urge skeptics... not to be as closed-minded as the other side is ridiculously open-minded."
In 2008, Prometheus Books published John Calvin's Treatise on Relics with an introduction by Nickell. He wrote a brief biography of Calvin and uses references from his own 2007 Relics book.
In his The Science of Miracles: Investigating the Incredible (2013), Nickell applied his investigative technique to 57 reported miracles. From the Virgin Mary's face appearing on a grilled cheese sandwich, to the Cross's regeneration after pieces were removed, to the structural deficiencies of the Loretto Chapel staircase, Nickell's described fact and myth are presented with clarity and respect. The book was criticized in the New York Journal of Books for research limited to non-Biblical sources.
Forensic investigations
Nickell's first book in the authentication genre was Pen, Ink, and Evidence: A Study of Writing and Writing Materials for the Penman, Collector, and Document Detective, described as a definitive work for researchers and practitioners. Mary Hood of the Georgia Review praised Nickell's scholarship:
In Camera Clues: A Handbook for Photographic Investigation, Nickell begins with the history of photography. He presents methods of dating photographs, from the physical characteristics of the work to the subject and contents of the photo. He explains how old photographs can be faked and how those fakes can be detected. He also describes identification of persons and places in old photos and the use of photography by law enforcement. He explains various trick photography techniques, including ghost and spirit photography. These have become even more elaborate with the use of computer images or digital camera technology.
Detecting Forgery: Forensic Investigation of Documents (1996) presents an overview of a document expert's work. He says that forged documents are often revealed by the forgers' ignorance of or inability to re-create historic typefaces, inks, papers, pens, watermarks, signatures, and historic styles. Nickell explains forgeries of Daniel Boone's musket, Mark Hofmann's Mormon papers, and the Vinland Map.
According to Publishers Weekly, Crime Science: Methods of Forensic Detection (1998) provided extensive basic information, with brief case studies.
In Real or Fake: Studies in Authentication (2009), Nickell drew on his early work related to technical aspects of paper, ink, typefaces, pens, and other keys to determining authenticity of paper documents. New material details the step-by-step investigations of specific cases: the purported diary of Jack the Ripper (fake), The Bondwoman's Narrative (date authenticated, author unknown), Lincoln's Lost Gettysburg Address (fake), and An Outlaw's Scribblings (fake).
Paranormal investigations Secrets of the Supernatural: Investigating the World's Occult Mysteries was Nickell's first book of his paranormal investigation genre. He and his collaborator, John F. Fisher, looked for the answers to the Crystal Skulls, spontaneous human combustion, the Mackenzie House, and lesser known mysteries. On a Point of Inquiry podcast years later, Nickell explained that the same mysteries are reported over and over again because, "For each new generation, they have to re-learn that there is controversy ... Each new generation hears these for the first time ... It's an endless process in which you have to be willing to speak to the next crop of people."
Missing Pieces: How to Investigate Ghosts, UFOs, Psychics, and Other Mysteries, written by Nickell and Robert A. Baker, is a handbook that combines the practical techniques of investigating the paranormal with a description of the psychology of believers. Nickell often quoted Baker, "... there are no haunted places, only haunted people."
Mysterious Realms: Probing Paranormal, Historical, and Forensic Enigmas, written by Nickell and Fisher, analyzes 10 frequently reported mysteries, including the Kennedy assassination, Kentucky's Gray Lady ghost, and UFO cover-up conspiracy theories.
Nickell asked several researchers to investigate claims of psychic detectives. He collected their reports in Psychic Sleuths: ESP and Sensational Cases. None of the reports credits the psychics with factually supported insights. Nickell concludes that these individuals were either self-deluded or frauds. They used other psychological techniques to gain information, such as cold reading in discussions with police detectives, or retrofitting.
In Entities: Angels, Spirits, Demons, and Other Alien Beings, Nickell shows the development of ghost stories since the 17th century, and how they have been influenced by changing technology and communication methods. The faked Cottingley Fairies photographs, for example, became possible only when cameras became available to the general public.
The Outer Edge: Classic Investigations of the Paranormal is a collection of articles edited by Nickell, Barry Karr and Tom Genoni. It features Nickell and John F. Fischer's 1987 article, "Incredible Cremations: Investigating Spontaneous Combustion Deaths," along with essays by Martin Gardner, Ray Hyman, Susan Blackmore, and James Randi.
Adventures in Paranormal Investigation is a more detailed work than many of Nickell's. He ranges from dowsing to Frankenstein to healing spas. He includes an essay about learning that he had an adult daughter and accepting that she attributed her search for him to "intuition".
The first half of CSI Paranormal is a handbook on how to investigate paranormal claims. Nickell discusses his investigative strategy to: Investigate on site Check details of an account Research precedents Carefully examine physical evidence Analyze development of a phenomenon Assess a claim with a controlled test or experiment Consider an innovative analysis Attempt to recreate the "impossible" Go undercover to investigate In the second half of the book, Nickell shows how this strategy has been used to evaluate the claims of the Giant Ell, the Roswell UFO, the grilled cheese Madonna, and John Edward.
In The Science of Ghosts (2012), Nickell relates several archetype ghost stories—the girl in the snow, Elvis, phantom soldiers, and haunted lighthouses, castles, ships, and theaters. By tracking the development of these stories over the years, he demonstrates that the stories are not evidence of spirits, but evidence of the effects an appropriate setting can have on susceptible witnesses. He includes an analysis of 21st-century paranormal investigators, particularly Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson of the Syfy Channel's Ghost Hunters. He compares their investigations of the Myrtles Plantation, the Winchester Mystery House and the St. Augustine Lighthouse with his own.
Mysteries