Jeane Dixon (Pinckert)

Dixon was born as Lydia Emma Pinckert to German immigrants, Gerhart and Emma Pinckert, in Medford, Wisconsin, but raised in Missouri and California. Dixon's birthdate is often reported as 1918 and Dixon would offer this date to reporters, at one point even producing a passport to this effect, but she once testified in a deposition that she was born in 1910. An investigation by a reporter for the National Observer, who interviewed family members and examined official records, indicates that Dixon was born in 1904.

In Southern California, her father owned a car dealership with Hal Roach, an American film and television producer and director. Dixon claimed that while growing up in California, a "gypsy" gave her a crystal ball and read her palm, predicting she would become a famous "seer" and advise powerful people. She was married to James Dixon from 1939 until his death, but they had no children. James Dixon was a car dealer in California, who later ran a successful real estate company in Washington DC. Dixon worked with her husband in the business for many years and served as the company's president.

Career as a psychic Dixon is best known for allegedly predicting the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the May 13, 1956, issue of Parade Magazine she wrote that the 1960 presidential election would be "dominated by labor and won by a Democrat" who would then go on to "[B]e assassinated or die in office though not necessarily in his first term." She later admitted, “During the 1960 election, I saw Richard Nixon as the winner.”

Dixon was the author of seven books, including her autobiography, a horoscope book for dogs and an astrological cookbook. She gained public awareness through the biographical volume, A Gift of Prophecy: the Phenomenal Jeane Dixon, written by syndicated columnist Ruth Montgomery. Published in 1965, the book sold more than 3 million copies. A devout Roman Catholic, she attributed her prophetic ability to God. Another million seller, My Life and Prophecies, was credited "as told to Rene Noorbergen", but Dixon was sued by Adele Fletcher, who claimed that her rejected manuscripte was rewritten and published as that book. Fletcher was awarded five percent of the royalties by a jury.

President Richard Nixon referred to Dixon as "the soothsayer" and ordered preparations for a terrorist attack she had predicted. She was also one of several astrologers who gave advice to Nancy Reagan during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

The Jeane Dixon effect John Allen Paulos, a mathematician at Temple University, coined the term "the Jeane Dixon effect", which refers to a tendency to promote a few correct predictions while ignoring a larger number of incorrect predictions.[4] Many of Dixon's predictions proved false, such as her claims that a dispute over the offshore Chinese islands of Quemoy and Matsu would trigger the start of World War III in 1958, that Walter Reuther, an American labor union leader, would run for President of the United States in the 1964 presidential election and that the Russians would be the first to put men on the moon.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 4 2018, 12:21:24 UTC