What people are saying about Joe Nickell
."The modern Sherlock Holmes" (Paul Kurtz, founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, quoted in Buffalo News, April 25, 1988).
."It was a great pleasure and honor to share the stage with Joe on one or two of those Dragon*Con 2009 Skeptrack panels. His decades of practical, hands-on experience are unmatched anywhere in skepticism — and that experience is a peerless asset in any discussion of the paranormal." (Daniel Loxton on Investigative Briefs blog, Thursday September 17, 2009).
."The Columbo of skepticism" (Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic, jacket blurb for Nickell's The Mystery Chronicles, 2004).
."Long before those history detectives hit PBS & Co., there was Joe Nickell.." (The Courier-Gazette, Rockland, Maine, August 25, 2005).
."One of the country's great citizen scientists" (online announcement of him as Keynote Speaker at the fourth annual National Citizen Science Conference, August 24-27, 2006).
."Considered the world's foremost paranormal investigator" (conference booklet, Second World's Skeptic's Congress, Heidelberg, Germany, July 23-26, 1998).
."The professional skeptic they [producers of Dateline] used as my foil" ("Psychic" John Edward, Crossing Over, 2001, 243).
."An internationally known 'paranormal investigator'" (Keay Davidson, San Francisco Chronicle, July 12, 2003).
."Nickell's contribution to the debate [on the paranormal] is serious and his work conscientious" (Library Journal, qtd. on jacket of his Secrets of the Supernatural, 1988).
."Joe Nickell is an anomaly in the autograph world: Neither dealer nor collector, but simply an extraordinarily knowledgeable and talented autograph detective. His objective is admirable, for he has no financial stake or agenda of any sort-he simply wants to get to the truth behind an autograph, and this he does articulately and expertly in books such as Pen, Ink, & Evidence" (Bill Butts, quoted in Autograph Collector, April/May 2007).
."Stupid #!??@!!" (a disgruntled flying-saucer believer in a voice-mail message to Joe Nickell).
."He has been known to shave his mustache, walk with a cane, or do any number of things to fool his suspects, who known his usual persona all too well.. Nickell is the country's most accomplished investigator of the paranormal .-a sharp-tongued and amiably pompous old gumshoe, with thinning gray hair and shopworn tweeds" (Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker, December 23 & 30, 2002, 87).
."He is a man with a hundred faces, all designed to expose mystics, mediums, and frauds . [by] applying scientific investigation techniques to the most unscientific phenomena" (The Licking Valley Courier, West Liberty, Ky., June 30, 2005).
."Joe Nickell has done his usually brilliant work here [in Adventures in Paranormal Investigation] in the fields of scientific and skeptical investigation, that, really, no one else does better" (Michael Shermer, jacket blurb for Adventures, 2007).
."One of America's best & most skilled handwriting detectives" (the late Charles Hamilton, penned personalized inscription to Nickell in copy of Hamilton's Great Forgers and Famous Fakes, 1996).
.[Among] "UFO debunkers," [Nickell has been] "particularly persistent in his negative attack" [on the Flatwoods monster case of 1952] (Stanton T. Friedman, UFOlogist and conspiracy theorist, foreword to Frank C. Feschino Jr.'s The Braxton County Monster: The Cover-Up of the Flatwoods Monster Revealed [2004]).
."Joe Nickell is the embodiment of the MythBusters, Sherlock Holmes, and Richard Feynman: one part lab tinkerer, one part field sleuth, and one part theoretical genius" (Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic, jacket blurb for Nickell's Relics of the Christ, 2007).
."Well equipped by both experience and academic background, this author has literally roamed the globe sniffing for-and finding!-his quarry. From the Shroud of Turin to document forgeries, whether in Canada or Peru, no fakery is immune to his probing. He'll track a furry monster or poke at a holy icon, with the same strong interest and determination. Unlike so many other 'experts,' he doesn't sit back thumbing through the writings of others to glean enough information for a book; Joe actually gets out there in the field and runs down the data; he's physically there, pencil and lens poised and ready. His energy is surpassed only by his enthusiasm and dedication to his trade" (James Randi, famed magician and psychic investigator, foreword to Nickell's The Mystery Chronicles, 2004).
.[Regarding Nickell's report on the authenticity of a questioned slave-written novel], ". nothing in my experience as a graduate student of English literature or a professor of literature for the past twenty-five years had prepared me for the depth of detail of the results of Nickell's examination, nor for the sheer beauty of the rigors of his procedures and the subtleties of his conclusions" (Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Afro-American scholar and editor of The Bondwoman's Narrative, 2007).
."[A] philosopher, poet, scientist, private investigator, stunt man, magician, writer, historian, skeptic, colleague and friend! In other words a true multiple personality!" (the late Robert A. Baker, psychologist, penned personalized inscription to Nickell in copy of Baker's Hidden Memories: Voices and Visions from Within, 1992).
."I adored [Nickell's talk]. I loved his sense of humor" (Phyllis Layne, lecture attendee, Hanover, New Jersey, Morris County Library, October 12, 2003).
."[Regarding] the occult, the otherworldly and the just plain weird, . don't expect to impress Joe Nickell. He makes his living finding plausible explanations for the inexplicable and exposing the ordinariness of the extraordinary" (Minauti Dave, Hanover, New Jersey, Daily Record, October 12, 2003).
.". Nickell's role in setting myths and hoaxes straight is essential to clearly define the boundaries of the authentic natural world" (Guidebook, the Kentucky Book Fair, 2007).
."One of the world's leading experts on the Shroud of Turin" (Skeptic magazine 7:3, 1999).
."The always compelling and entertaining Joe Nickell . regaled the group with stories from recent excursions ." (Becky Greben, review of a talk, Rocky Mountain Skeptic, July/August 1995).
."On Halloween, when legend says disembodied spirits return in search of living bodies to possess, Joe Nickell goes on the prowl, too-for ghosts, ghouls and other things that creep in the night" (Chaka Ferguson, Associated Press, online at AOL News, October 31, 2003).
.". Nickell . has the job of logging the miles, talking to the locals, and pulling the rug out from under many of the activities that have passed as 'paranormal' for years" (Chris Collins, Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington, Ky., October 14, 2007).
.". depois da morte de McCrone, em 2000, tornouse o mais famoso oppositor dos sindonologistas" ("After the death of [microscopist Walter C.] McCrone, in 2000, the most famous opponent of the sindonologists [i.e., Shroud of Turin proponents]," Pablo Nogueira, Gallileu, April 2003).
."His job is to use scientific techniques to debunk miracles. He keeps busy" (Joe Sharkey, New York Times, August 24, 1997).
."Joe Nickell pops up all the time and calls me crazy. I don't let it bother me" (Crop-circle crank Nancy Talbott, quoted by John Yemma, Boston Globe, Sept. 7, 1997).
."Joe Nickell is to religious miracles as Houdini was to spiritualism. The master investigator of the miraculous has compiled his years of experience into this marvelous volume [Looking for a Miracle, 1993], producing a reference work that should be the starting point for every probe of supernatural events" (Mike Epstein, Skeptical Eye 8:2, 1994).
."A top American paranormal investigator" (Scot Magnish, Toronto Sun, September 1996).
."CSICOP private eye" (Ian Simmons, Fortean Times, September 1996).
."A world-renowned paranormal investigator" and "sleuth of the supernatural" (Steve Cox, State University of New York at Buffalo Reporter, April 25, 1996).
."Paranormal detective [Joe Nickell]: Just call him the ghost-buster" (AP wire, Detroit, April 23, 1996).
."A fascinating guy" who "gave a riveting speech for the South Shore Skeptics a few years ago" (Page Stephens, The South Shore Skeptic, July/August 1995).
."Nickell . has sleuthed haunted houses, probed the paranormal and solved world-famous mysteries" (L. Elisabeth Beattie, Kentucky Living, October 1991).
."Nickell, former magician and private eye, is a missionary evangelizing on behalf of the quasi-religion that worships at the altar of hard-boiled science and legalistic truth. In his crusade to debunk and dismiss any and all human experiences that fall outside the realm of rulers and gauges, Nickell still seems to be a practicing necromancer, though now in a literary venue" (Reviewer "G.G.," Rapport Pub. Co. -The West Coast Review of Books, Art & Entertainment, Los Angeles, August 1995).
."The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry's intrepid and indefatigable Senior Research Fellow": "Whether going undercover to ferret out the truth behind a charlatan or using forensic scientific analyses on alien body parts, Nickell's cases are always well-informed by meticulous scholarship" (Benjamin Radford, Skeptical Inquirer, Jan./Feb. 2008).
."(On a visit to the Center for Inquiry headquarters): "Well, faster than you can say 'spontaneous combustion,' a mini-magic show erupted from the jacket of Joe Nickell. This was much to the delight of my two daughters, Danielle, 9, and Brianne, 12. Miraculously, a deck of cards turned blank and then returned to its normal printed condition. Then we were entertained by some rope tricks including the magical moving knot ." (Bob Glickman, Phactum, newsletter of Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking, October 1995).
."Folks here know Joe best as the author of 'Historical Sketches,' the very popular column on local history" (Earl Kinner, Jr., editor, The Licking Valley Courier, West Liberty, Ky., November 9, 1995).