Jeane Dixon

Lore & Background

Jeane Dixon was born Lydia Emma Pinckert, one of ten siblings, to German-born Roman Catholic parents. Her birth date was often reported as 1918, and she would proffer this date to reporters, even producing a passport to that 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, concluded she was born in 1904. She married James Dixon, a divorcé, in 1939 and worked with him in his real estate company in Washington, D.C., serving as its president. The couple had no children. She was the sister of football player Erny Pinckert.

Dixon reportedly predicted 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 "be assassinated or die in office though not necessarily in his first term." In 1960, she changed her mind and incorrectly predicted Richard Nixon would win. She appeared in the film The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, discussing her prediction of Kennedy's assassination. She wrote seven books, including her autobiography, a horoscope book for dogs, and an astrological cookbook. Her public awareness came through the biography A Gift of Prophecy: The Phenomenal Jeane Dixon, written by Ruth Montgomery and published in 1965, which sold more than 3 million copies. She was a devout Roman Catholic and attributed her prophetic ability to God.

In 1967, Dixon was called by a family in Decatur, Alabama, searching for their missing 34-year-old daughter; Dixon told them she was okay, but the daughter was found dead months later. On June 5, 1968, while at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles to give a speech, she passed through the kitchen and purportedly blurted out, "This is the place where Robert Kennedy will be shot. I can see him being carried out with blood on his face." Later that day, her prediction was right. In 1969, she failed to find a missing six-year-old boy in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Richard Nixon followed her writing through his secretary and met with her in the Oval Office in 1971. Her prediction of terrorist attacks in the United States after the Munich massacre spurred Nixon to create a cabinet committee on counterterrorism. She was one of several astrologers who gave advice to Nancy Reagan.

Reader's Guide

Jeane Dixon's significance lies in her role as a highly visible American psychic and astrologer whose few correct predictions, especially that of John F. Kennedy's assassination, were widely promoted while her many incorrect predictions were often overlooked. Mathematician John Allen Paulos named this tendency "the Jeane Dixon effect." Her erroneous predictions included claims that a dispute over Quemoy and Matsu would trigger World War III in 1958, that American labor leader Walter Reuther would run for president in 1964, that the second child of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau would be a girl (it was a boy), and that the Soviets would be the first to put men on the Moon. James Randi also noted a series of incorrect predictions, including that Richard Nixon would survive Watergate, that Russia would put the first man on the moon, that China would start World War III in 1958, and that the Vietnam War would end in 1966. Her legacy is thus a cautionary example of selective memory in evaluating prophecy. She died of cardiac arrest in Washington, D.C., on January 25, 1997, reportedly uttering "I knew this would happen." Her possessions were later housed in the Jeane Dixon Museum and Library in Strasburg, Virginia, which was scheduled to auction 500 boxes in 2009.

Did You Know?

• Dixon's birth date was disputed; she often claimed 1918, testified as 1910, but official records indicated 1904.
• She wrote a horoscope book for dogs and an astrological cookbook.
• She was the sister of football player Erny Pinckert.
• Her prediction of terrorist attacks after the Munich massacre led President Nixon to create a cabinet committee on counterterrorism.