Vincent Hayes Gaddis (December 28, 1913 – February 26, 1997) was an American author who invented the phrase "

Bermuda Triangle The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an urban legend focused on a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterio ...

", which he used first in the cover article for the 1964 February issue of the magazine ''Argosy''. He popularized many stories about anomalous and

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

phenomena in a style similar to that of

Charles Fort Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American writer and researcher who specialized in anomalous phenomena. The terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are sometimes used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold w ...

Career

Gaddis was born in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

to Tilden H. and Alice M. (Smith) Gaddis. He married Margaret Paine Rea on July 14, 1947. Gaddis worked as a newspaper reporter and writer-editor for a

Warsaw, Indiana Warsaw is a city in and the county seat of Kosciusko County, Indiana, United States. Warsaw has a population of 13,559 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. Warsaw also borders a smaller town, Winona Lake. Etymology Warsaw, named after the capital of P ...

, radio station from 1947 to 1952. He was a feature writer for the ''Elkhart Truth'', a daily newspaper in

Elkhart, Indiana Elkhart ( ) is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, Indiana, east of Chicago, Illinois, and north of Indianapolis, Indiana. Elkhart has the larger population of the two principal cities of th ...

, from 1952 to 1959. He then worked as a public relations writer for

Studebaker-Packard Corporation The Studebaker-Packard Corporation was the entity created in 1954 by the purchase of the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana, by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan. While Studebaker was the larger of the two companies, P ...

and Mercedes Benz Sales in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...

. In 1962 he became a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

writer. He died in

Eureka, California Eureka (Wiyot: ''Jaroujiji'', Hupa: ''do'-wi-lotl-ding'', Karuk: ''uuth'') is the principal city and county seat of Humboldt County in the Redwood Empire region of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt ...

Reception

Gaddis' statements on the

and

spontaneous human combustion Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the pseudoscientific concept of the combustion of a living (or recently deceased) human body without an apparent external source of ignition. In addition to reported cases, descriptions of the alleged phen ...

have been criticized by skeptics for being inaccurate and misleading. Gaddis has also drawn strong criticism for ignoring possible natural explanations and inventing mysteries where none exist. Historian William K. Powers from

Livingston College From 1969 to 2007 Livingston College was one of the residential colleges that comprised Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey's undergraduate liberal arts programs. It was located on Livingston Campus (originally Kilmer) in Piscataway, N ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

has described Gaddis' ''American Indian Myths and Mysteries'' as an "outrageous and intolerable book" filled with

crackpot Crackpot may refer to: * Crackpot, North Yorkshire, a village in the United Kingdom and home of Crackpot Cave * Crackpot Hall, a landmark ruin near Keld, North Yorkshire * a DC comics character, see Blasters (comics) * Crackpot (band), an Austral ...

claims and " Danikenesque delusions".Powers, William K. (1979). ''American Indian Myths and Mysteries by Vincent H. Gaddis''. ''

Journal of American Folklore The ''Journal of American Folklore'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Folklore Society. Since 2003, this has been done on its behalf by the University of Illinois Press. The journal has been published since the society' ...

'' 92 (366): 501-503.

Published works

* ''Winona Lake: A Memory and A Vision,'' 1949 * ''Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea,'' 1965 * ''Mysterious Fires and Lights,'' 1967 * ''Wide World of Magic,'' 1967 * ''Strange World of Animals and Pets,'' 1970 * ''The Curious World of Twins,'' 1972 * ''Courage in Crisis: Dramatic Tales of Heroism in the Face of Danger,'' 1973 * ''American Indian Myths and Mysteries,'' 1977, * ''Gold Rush Ghosts,'' 1990,

References

External links

"Electrical Ghosts,"
article by Gaddis in ''Borderland Sciences Journal,'' 1988

article by Gaddis in ''Strange Magazine''

list of stories by Gaddis {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaddis, Vincent 1913 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers American fortean writers Ancient astronauts proponents Bermuda Triangle Parapsychologists People from Eureka, California Pseudohistorians

Career

Reception

Published works

See also

References

External links