What constitutes historical truth is often subject to change. Joe Nickell demonstrates the techniques used in solving some of the world's most perplexing mysteries, such as the authenticity of Abraham Lincoln's celebrated Bixby letter, the 1913 disappearance of writer and journalist Ambrose Bierce, and the apparent real-life model for a mysterious character in a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nickell also uses newly uncovered evidence to further investigate the identity of the Nazi war criminal known as ""Ivan the Terrible.""
| Acknowledgments |
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ix | |
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1 Introduction: History and the Investigative Approach |
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1 | (5) |
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2 Ancient Riddles: The Mystery of the Nazca Lines |
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6 | (12) |
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3 Biographical Enigmas: Ambrose Bierce Is Missing |
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18 | (16) |
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4 Hidden Identity: Unmasking a Nazi Monster |
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34 | (17) |
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5 Fakelore: Swift's Lost Silver Mine |
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51 | (18) |
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6 Questioned Artifacts: D. Boone Riddles |
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69 | (21) |
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7 Suspect Documents: Lincoln's Bixby Letter |
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90 | (16) |
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8 Lost Texts: Cooke's "Missing" Edition |
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106 | (12) |
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9 Obscured Sources: Hawthorne's "Veiled Lady" |
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118 | (14) |
| 10 Scientific Challenges: Pseudoscience and the Shroud |
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132 | (13) |
| 11 Afterword: Some Lessons Learned |
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145 | (4) |
| Notes |
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149 | (21) |
| Index |
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170 | |
Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), is the author of more than twenty investigative books, including Secrets of the Sideshows and Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal.
