Joe Nickell

Section A · Scientific researchers (historical) · 1944–2024

Joe Nickell

PhD in literature/folklore, Univ. of Kentucky · Senior Research Fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI)

CSICon 2018 / Wikimedia Commons · CC-BY-SA

Biography

The most prolific skeptical investigator of his generation: for more than four decades he examined hundreds of paranormal claims on-site —from the Shroud of Turin to Marian apparitions and UFO cases— under a method he called 'investigation, not debunking'. As Senior Research Fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and author of the 'Investigative Files' column in Skeptical Inquirer magazine, he argued that nearly every mystery yields to a prosaic explanation once the original episode is carefully reconstructed. For the Kelly-Hopkinsville siege (1955) he proposed that the 'creatures' were great horned owls defending their nest, a hypothesis now standard among skeptics.

Why they're here · 3 pieces

  1. 1983

    Inquest on the Shroud of Turin

    Forensic investigation concluding the image is a medieval artwork, not a miraculous imprint

  2. 1995

    Entities: Angels, Spirits, Demons, and Other Alien Beings

    Perceptual-psychological framework for 'entity' encounters (sleep paralysis, hypnagogia, expectation)

  3. 2006

    Siege of the 'Little Green Men' (Skeptical Inquirer)

    Re-examination of Kelly-Hopkinsville: the 'creatures' as territorial great horned owls

Sources

  • Joe Nickell, 'Siege of the "Little Green Men": The 1955 Kelly, Kentucky, Incident', Skeptical Inquirer (2006) — Source of the great-horned-owl hypothesis for the case.
  • Committee for Skeptical Inquiry — perfil de Senior Research Fellow — Institutional affiliation and editorial role at Skeptical Inquirer.

Associated cases (1)

United States.

Kelly-Hopkinsville· 1955

On the night of 21 August 1955, the Sutton and Taylor families —eleven people— said they were besieged for hours at a farmhouse near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, by several small creatures with large heads and bright eyes that approached the house. They fired at them with no apparent effect and fled to the police station in terror. Police and state troopers investigated: they found no traces or landing marks, but did find bullet holes and shell casings. It is the most cited multi-witness encounter of its era and the origin of the phrase 'little green men'.

B20%

Synthesized bio from the UAP disclosure ecosystem — categorized by epistemological section (A-F).