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Discovered: The Secret of Beale's Treasure
Joe Nickell, 1982. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90(3): 310-324.
A historical and linguistic investigation: no record of Thomas J. Beale in the places and years the pamphlet gives; Robert Morriss did not keep the Washington Hotel until 1823, not 1820; words such as "stampeding" and "improvised" are anachronistic for the 1820s letters; and the letters and narrative share an author, most likely Ward.
What it's used for here
The documentary and linguistic case that the pamphlet is fiction.
Our copy
Research copy, for editors and curators. The work is the publisher's, so readers are sent to it. We keep this copy so the citation can be checked if the page changes or goes.
jstor.org · fetched 29 Oct 2026
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Cited by on this site 16 records
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The Beale ciphers
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Cite it
Nickell, J. (1982). Discovered: The Secret of Beale's Treasure. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90(3): 310-324. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4248566
@article{nickell1982discovered,
author = {Nickell, Joe},
title = {Discovered: The Secret of Beale's Treasure},
journal = {Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90(3): 310-324},
year = {1982},
url = {https://www.jstor.org/stable/4248566}
}TY - JOUR TI - Discovered: The Secret of Beale's Treasure AU - Nickell, Joe PY - 1982 JO - Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90(3): 310-324 UR - https://www.jstor.org/stable/4248566 ER -
Nickell, Joe. “Discovered: The Secret of Beale's Treasure.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90(3): 310-324 (1982).