The Mtstery Chronicles
Page 1
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Copyright © 2004 by The University Press of Kentucky
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nickell, Joe.
The mystery chronicles : more real-life X-files / Joe Nickell.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8131-2318-6 (alk. paper)
1. Parapsychology—Case studies. 2. Curiosities and wonders.
3. Impostors and imposture. I. Title.
BF1031.N517 2004
001.94—dc22 00302056
This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.
IN MEMORY OF
STEVE ALLEN
(1921-2000)
Entertainer, television pioneer, actor, writer, skeptic,
and friend
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
Mystery of the Nazca Lines
The Fiery Specter
The Exorcist: The Case Behind the Movie
The “Goatsucker” Attack
Undercover Among the Spirits: Investigating Camp Chesterfield
Alien Hybrid?
Image of Guadalupe: Myth-perception
Human Blowtorch
Remotely Viewed? The Charlie Jordan Case
Amityville: The Horror of It All
Sideshow! Investigating Carnival Oddities and Illusions
“Mothman”’ Solved! Investigating on Site
Relics of the Headless Saint
Circular Reasoning: Crop Circlts and Their “Orbs’” of Light
Zanzibar Demon
Winchester Mystery House
Voodoo in New Orleans
Secrets of the Voodoo Tomb
A Case of “SHC” Demystified
Tracking the Swamp Monsters
John Edward: Talking to the Dead?
Scandals and Follies of the “Holy Shroud”
“Pyramid Power” in Russia
Diagnosing the “Medical Intuitives”
Alien Abductions as Sleep-Related Phenomena
“Visitations”: After-Death Contacts
The Sacred Cloth of Oviedo
A Typical Aries?
The Case of the Psychic Shamus: Do Psychics Really Help Solve Crimes?
The Pagan Stone
Benny Hinn: Healer or Hypnotist?
Australia’s Convict Ghosts
Psychic Pets and Pet Psychics
Cryptids “Down Under”
Joseph Smith: A Matter Visions
In Search of Fisher’s Ghost
Ghostly Portents in Moscow
Mystique of the Octagon Houses
Weeping Icons
Spiritualists Grave
Incredible Stories: Charles For and His Followers
INDEX
Acknowledgments
I am supremely grateful to John and Mary Frantz for their generous establishment of an investigative fund that helps make much of my research possible.
I am once again indebted to my colleagues at the Center for Inquiry (CFI) in Amherst, New York, where—since 1995—I have been Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). These colleagues include Paul Kurtz, chairman; Barry Karr, executive director; Kevin Christopher, director of public relations; Kendrick Frazier, editor of CSICOP’s official magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, and Benjamin Radford, managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer. All of these helped in numerous ways.
Research assistance was generously provided by Timothy Binga, director of the Center for Inquiry Libraries. Ranjit Sandhu also provided valuable research, and his considerable word-processing skills repeatedly transformed scribbles into finished articles and articles into this book. Colleague Tom Flynn, editor of Free Inquiry, often provided expert photographic assistance. So did non-colleague (but good friend) Rob McElroy.
Specific production assistance came from Lisa A. Hutter, art director, and Paul Loynes, production. Taking care of many financial problems were Pat Beauchamp and Paul Paulin.
I continue to be deeply indebted to Robert A. Baker, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Kentucky, and John F. Fischer, forensic analyst (retired) at the Orange County, Florida, Sheriffs Department crime laboratory, who have been invaluable over the years as fellow investigators, coauthors, and friends.
I also continue my indebtedness to fellow CSICOP Executive Council members James E. Alcock, Barry Beyerstein, Thomas Casten, Kendrick Frazier, Martin Gardner, Ray Hyman, Lawrence Jones, Philip J. Klass, Lee Nisbet, Amardeo Sarma, Bela Scheiber, and, again, Paul Kurtz.
In addition to the many individuals mentioned in the text, I am also grateful to the following: George E. Abaunza, Brant Abrahamson, Christian L. Ambrose, Dan Barber, Ed and Diane Buckner, James F. Cherry, Eva Clarke, Christopher Densmore, Christopher Hoolihan, Shozo Kagoshima, Joyce Lajudice, William Loos, Vaughn Rees, Etienne Rios, Michael Sandras, Mark Scerbo, Marge Sharp, William Sierichs Jr., Glenn Taylor, Jim Underdown, Cynthia Van Ness, Vance Vigrass, and Dana Walpole.
Outside of the United States, I am also very appreciative to the following: From England, Jane Topping (BBC); in Australia, Ian Bryce, Georgina Keep, and Barry Williams; and in Moscow, Kirill Boliakiu.
This is only the short list. To the many other associates at the Center for Inquiry, my friends and fellow skeptics around the world, and the many others who helped in some way, I express my sincere appreciation.
Foreword
I’ve known Dr. Joe Nickell since he was a young man. That was when he was a budding conjuror, eagerly soaking up every secret and angle of the deception-for-entertainment trade. I could hardly have guessed that after entering the conjuring business he would then change direction to become a professional sleuth, and turn out a stream of fascinating books dealing with so many aspects of human frailty and the vultures who await those who have weakened and become potential fare. The Mystery Chronicles is his latest assault against nonsense.
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 in 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.
In The Mystery Chronicles, author Nickell has spanned a remarkable spectrum. It’s hard to think of a scoundrel he hasn’t skewered, to discover a stone he hasn’t tu
rned over, or find a tome he hasn’t sifted through to develop his subjects, in this book. In scholarly fashion, he lays out his case, provides the references and the evidence, makes his argument, gives his conclusions, and slams the door on the pretensions and flummery he has exposed to the withering light of day.
We’d be poorer for his absence, and we are served well by his efforts. The Mystery Chronicles is an exciting page-turner, just another salvo in the ongoing battle, but it’s a loud one, and it’s right on target. The contents could bring us to a degree of frustration and anger—did we not know that Joe Nickell still has a few more books in his head, ready to join the battle against deception, misinformation, fakery, and the swindlers who continue to assail us with these weapons. They arise every minute to confront us.
Truth, as Joe knows, is their greatest enemy. . .
JAMES RANDI
President of the James Randi Educational Foundation
Introduction
For more than three decades, I have been investigating paranormal claims—that is, those supposedly beyond the range of science and normal human experience. My first important case transpired in 1972 when I investigated Canada’s most famous “haunted” place: Mackenzie House in downtown Toronto. As it turned out, I easily found plausible explanations for the various reported phenomena. For example, the sounds of heavy footsteps on the stairs came from an iron staircase in the building next door—just 40 inches away.
At that time I was working as a professional stage magician and “mentalist.” I soon went on to become a private investigator, working— mostly undercover—to solve grand theft and other crimes. I sought out that “role” in part to gain skills I knew I could use in my avocation as that other kind of PI: paranormal investigator.
Many years (and many other roles and investigations) later, I returned to the University of Kentucky to earn a master’s degree (1982) and doctorate (1987) in English literature, including folklore. I taught there until mid-1995, when I moved to Buffalo to become Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), publisher of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. I thus began to investigate strange mysteries full time and to report my findings in a column, “Investigative Files.”
Over the years I have learned that, with regard to paranormal claims, people tend to divide into opposing camps, typically styling themselves either as “believers” or as “debunkers.” These polarized groups often have more in common than they would admit: primary among these commonalities is the tendency to start with an answer and work backward to the evidence, picking and choosing the “facts” that support their convictions.
I disparage both too-credulous and too-dismissive attitudes, holding that mysteries should actually be investigated in an attempt to solve them. That is the approach of this casebook, which reports some of my most intriguing investigations.
I have examined countless claims and sites, not only across the United States, but around the world. Examples include a case of stigmata in Canada; supernatural relics of a headless saint in Spain; crop circles in England; a weeping icon and “pyramid power” in Russia; a famous ghost tale and the legendary “yowie” (a Bigfoot-type creature) in Australia; and an “alien hybrid” in Germany—among many others.
Over the years I have spent nights in allegedly haunted places, interviewed “alien abductees,” exposed phony psychics, gone undercover (and in disguise) to reveal spiritualist mediums’ tricks, recreated one of the giant Nazca ground drawings of Peru, and engaged in many similar hands-on investigative activities.
With this collection, I invite readers to come along with me in pursuit of some of these real-life mysteries. I am mindful of Sherlock Holmes’s admission (in A Study in Scarlet): “A conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all.” But come along anyway and we shall see the truth of another of Holmes’s remarks (in The Red-headed League): “For strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination.”
1
Mystery of the Nazca Lines
Etched across 30 miles of gravel-covered desert near Peru’s southern coast are the famous Nazca lines and giant ground drawings.
This huge sketchpad was brought to public prominence by Erich von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods?—a book that consistently underestimates the abilities of ancient “primitive” peoples and assigns many of their works to visiting extraterrestrials. Von Daniken (1970) argues that the Nazca lines and figures could have been “built according to instructions from an aircraft.” He adds: “Classical archaeology does not admit that the pre-lnca peoples could have had a perfect surveying technique. And the theory that aircraft could have existed in antiquity is sheer humbug to them.”
Von Daniken does not consider it humbug, and he obviously envisions flying saucers hovering above and beaming down instructions for the markings to awed primitives (presumably in their native tongue).
He views the large drawings as “signals” (von Daniken 1970) and the longer and wider of the lines as “landing strips” (von Daniken 1972). But would extraterrestrials create signals for themselves in the shape of spiders and monkeys? And would such “signals” be less than 80 feet long (like some of the smaller Nazca figures)?
As to the landing-strip notion, Maria Reiche, the German-born mathematician who for years has mapped and attempted to preserve the markings, had a ready rejoinder. Noting that the imagined runways are clear of stones and that the underlying ground is quite soft, she said, Tm afraid the spacemen would have gotten stuck” (Mclntyre 1975).
It is difficult to take von Daniken seriously, especially since his “theory” is not his own and was originated in jest. Paul Kosok (1947), the first to study the markings, wrote: “When first viewed from the air, [the lines] were nicknamed prehistoric landing fields and jokingly compared with the so-called canals on Mars.” Moreover, one cropped photo exhibited by von Daniken (1970), showing an odd configuration “very reminiscent of the aircraft parking areas in a modern airport,” is actually of the knee joint of one of the bird figures (Woodman 1977). (See FIGURE 1-1.) Any spacecraft that parked there would have had to be tiny indeed. FIGURE 1-1. Etched upon the Nazca plains in Peru are giant drawings like these. Their large size has fueled misguided speculation that they were drawn with the aid of “ancient astronauts” or by sophisticated surveying techniques, the secrets of which are lost.
Closer to earth, but still merely a flight of fancy, in my opinion, is the notion of Jim Woodman (1977) and some of his colleagues from the International Explorers Society that the ancient Nazcas constructed hot-air balloons for “ceremonial flights,” from which they could “appreciate the great ground drawings on the pampas.” Even if one believes that this theory is also inflated with hot air, one must at least give Woodman credit for the strength of his convictions. Using cloth, rope, and reeds, Woodman and his associates actually made a balloon and gondola similar to those the Nazcas might have made had they actually done so. Woodman and British balloonist Julian Nott then risked their lives in a 300-foot-high flyover of the Nazca plain. When their balloon began descending rapidly, they threw off more and more sacks of ballast, but finally had to jump clear of their craft some 10 feet above the pampas. Free of the balloonists’ weight, the balloon shot skyward and soared almost out of sight, only to finally crash and drag briefly across the ground.
FIGURE l-1. Etched upon the Nazca plains in Peru are giant drawings like these.
Their large size has fueled misguided speculation that they were drawn with the aid of “ancient astronauts” or by sophisticated surveying techniques, the secrets of which are lost.
The Nazca markings are indeed a mystery, although we do know who produced them—von Daniken notwithstanding. Conceding that Nazca pottery is found in association with the lines, von D
aniken (1970) writes: “But it is surely oversimplifying things to attribute the geometrically arranged lines to the Nazca culture for that reason alone.”
No knowledgeable person does. The striking similarity of the stylized line figures to those of known Nazca art has been clearly demonstrated (Isbell 1978, 1980). In addition to this iconographic evidence must be added that from carbon-14 analysis: Wooden stakes mark the termination of some of the long lines and one of these was dated to c.e. 525 (±80). This is consistent with the presence of the Nazca Indians who flourished in the area from 200 b.c.e. to about c.e. 600. Their graves and the ruins of their settlements lie near the drawings.
The questions of who and when aside, the mystery of why the markings were made remains, although several hypotheses have been proffered. One is that they represent some form of offerings to the Indian gods (Mclntyre 1975). Another is that they form a giant astronomical calendar or “star chart.” Writing in Scientific American, William H. Isbell (1978) suggested that an important function of the markings was economic, “related to the drafting of community labor for public works,” although at best that is only a partial explanation.
Still another suggestion (first mentioned by Kosok) came from art historian Alan Sawyer (Mclntyre 1975): “Most figures are composed of a single line that never crosses itself, perhaps the path of a ritual maze. If so, when the Nazcas walked the line, they could have felt they were absorbing the essence of whatever the drawing symbolized.” Sawyer is correct in observing that most of the figures are drawn with a continuous, uninterrupted line. But there are exceptions, and it is possible that the continuous-line technique is related to the method of producing the figures, as we shall discuss presently.
In 1991 anthropologist and professor of astronomy Anthony F. Aveni and anthropologist Helaine Silverman reported the results of extensive studies of the Nazca lines. Sightings along some 700 radiating lines showed an unfortunately near randomness with regard to astronomical significance. Rather, the lines correlated with geographic features, suggesting to the researchers that the Nazca line makers were driven by “an inescapable concern about water,” and that the Nazcas may have walked or danced along the lines as part of “irrigation ceremonies.”