Joe Nickell (born December 1, 1944) is an American prominent skeptic and investigator of the paranormal. He has helped expose such famous forgeries as the purported diary of Jack the Ripper. In 2002 he 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.
Although Nickell rejects the term "debunker" to describe his work, his evidenced-based investigations of paranormal events has not yet uncovered any miracles, ghosts or monsters. His insistence on documented facts led to a heated exchange with Ed and Lorraine Warren on the Sally show in 1992. Nickell and the Warrens appeared on Sally Jesse Raphael's talk show with the Snedeker family, whose reports of ghosts and demons led to the 1992 book, In A Dark Place, The Story Of A True Haunting by novelist Ray Garton and the 2009 movie, The Haunting in Connecticut. After an on-air threat of violence from Ed Warren, Nickell stated: I've investigated haunted houses for some twenty years. I've not met a house that I thought was haunted; I think the Warrens have not met a house they didn't think was haunted. ...The houses that sincere people report they think are haunted usually follow a certain pattern. This is a hodgepodge of the sort of ghost tale, poltergeist, part demon, part this, part that. We saw a similar pattern with the Amityville Horror, a case that the Warrens thought was genuine. It turned out to be a blatant hoax, concocted over several bottles of wine. Nickell continues to cite the Warrens as an example of exploitative and harmful charlatans. He told Blake Smith, host of the MonsterTalk podcast, The next thing you know, the Warrens have convinced everybody that there were demons involved. Lorraine would go into one of her light trances, which would mean she would just close her eyes and haul off and say something. She would sense some demonic presence. The two of them would talk a good talk about this. You see these poor unsuspecting people who first of all don't know anything about the paranormal and not aware that there are no haunted places, only haunted people, as Robert Baker used to say. When you have someone who's an expert explaining to them that there are these different kinds of spirits and this and that and the other, they don't know any better. They think maybe these people know what they're talking about. It's interesting that in every case of this, these were Catholic families. Ed and Lorraine would show up and convince them that it was really demonic and that they really needed to use their Catholic powers of exorcism and holy water and so forth. They were converted into a demonic book and then they would get a ghost writer. All of the shenanigans would be restyled and exaggerated and spooky elements thrown in.
who or what are the Warrens
Ed and Lorraine Warren on the Sally show in 1992. has not yet uncovered any miracles, ghosts or monsters. His insistence on documented facts led to a heated exchange with Ed and Lorraine Warren on the Sally show in 1992. His insistence on documented facts led to a heated exchange with Ed and Lorraine Warren on the Sally show in 1992. Ed and Lorraine Warren Ed and Lorraine Warren on the Sally show in 1992.
Ed and Lorraine Warren on the Sally show in 1992.