About the Author

Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and a Research Fellow with the non-profit educational organization the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He has written thousands of articles on a wide variety of topics, including urban legends, the paranormal, critical thinking, and media literacy. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelors degree in psychology from the University of New Mexico and has a masters degree in education from the University of Buffalo. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the American Folklore Society, the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research, among other organizations. Radford is one of the world's few science-based paranormal investigators, and has done first-hand research into mysterious phenomena in sixteen countries on four continents including psychics, ghosts and haunted houses; exorcisms, miracles, Bigfoot, stigmata, lake monsters, UFO sightings, reincarnation, and crop circles, and many other topics. He is perhaps best known for solving the mysteries of the Santa Fe Courthouse Ghost in 2007, the Hispanic vampire el chupacabra in 2010, and his book Bad Clowns, the first to fully examine the evil clown phenomenon. Radford has appeared on Good Morning America, the Travel Channel (including Destination Unknown) the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, the National Geographic Channel, the Learning Channel, CBC, BBC, CNN, and other networks with three letters. He also served as a consultant for the MTV series The Big Urban Myth Show and an episode of the CBS crime drama CSI. Radford has appeared in hundreds of publications including the Wall Street Journal, Wired, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Time, Outside, Rolling Stone, and Ladies' Home Journal. Learn more about Radford at www.RhombusBooks.com