James Beau Seigneur - Christ Clone 1 - In His Image

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-> In His Image

Birth of an Age

Acts of God

In His Image

For Gerilynne, Faith, and Abigail who sacrificed so much to allow this trilogy to become a

reality;

But most of all for Shiloh, -who sacrificed far more. May it serve you well.

This novel is a work of historic fiction. Many of the events described in Chapters One and Two of

the novel actually occurred and have been reported in numerous nonfiction works and publications.

The author has endeavored to portray those events accurately and has used the names of the actual

participants, those being, in order of appearance: John Jackson, Eric Jumper, Tom D 'Muhala,

Father Peter Rinaldi, Don Devan, Ray Rogers, John Heller, Rudy Dichtl, Monsignor Cottino, Roger

Gilbert, Marty Gilbert, Sam Pellicori, and Allan Adler.

Other well-known and widely-reported historic events and public personalities are also referenced,

but only those events which have been widely-reported by reliable nonfiction sources should be

assumed to, be true; all others should be assumed to be the product of the author's imagination.

Additionally, the names of several "public persons," institutions and organizations such as the

Catholic Church, the United Nations and numerous world governments are incorporated into this

work. References to events involving any such persons, institutions, organizations, or governments

following the publication date of the first printing of this book are entirely the product of the

author's imagination.

With the exceptions noted above, all other names, characters, and incidents are either the product

of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events,

organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of

either the author or the publisher.

D D D

James BeauSeigneur has been writing professionally for eighteen years. His published works include

technical manuals on strategic defense and military avionics, newspaper and magazine articles,

speeches for U.S. Congressional and Senatorial candidates, and lyrics for several published songs.

Formerly involved full-time in politics, Mr. BeauSeigneur has managed several U.S. Congressional

and Senatorial campaigns and in 1980 ran for U.S. Congress against Al Gore. He has four years of

experience in military intelligence, including two and a half years with the National Security

Agency. Mr. BeauSeigneur and his wife, Gerilynne, have two daughters, Faith and Abigail.

"Are these the shadows of things that will be, or are they the shadows of things that may be?"

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Chapter 1

The Right Place at the Right Time

September 27,1978 — Knoxville, Tennessee

Decker Hawthorne

He typed out the

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letters of his name and his hands paused on the keys. Quickly his eyes scanned the editorial for

one last reassurance that he hadn't misspelled something, or that he couldn't say something just a

little more convincingly, or perhaps improve the sentence structure. Finally he decided it would

have to do. The deadline had passed, the newspaper was waiting to be put to bed, and Decker had a

plane to catch.

As he left the offices of the Knoxville Enterprise, he stopped to straighten the hand-lettered

placard that hung outside the door. It was a weekly paper, small by most standards, but it was

growing. Decker had started the paper with a short supply of money and an abundance of naivete,

and it was still a struggle to survive financially. The upside was that with Decker's aggressive

style, the Enterprise frequently scooped the two local dailys, including once with a story of

national significance. Decker had always been an overachiever who wasn't afraid to take chances,

and while he lost more often than he won, he

2 In His Image

liked to believe he had a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Right now he was

supposed to be at the airport, but he wasn't.

"You're going to miss your plane," called Elizabeth, Decker's wife.

"I'm coming," he called back. "Start the car."

"It's already running. I know you too well."

They made it to the gate with three minutes to spare but Decker didn't want to waste one second

sitting on the plane when he could spend it with Elizabeth. After only three months of marriage,

he wasn't looking forward to being away from his bride for two weeks, but finally he had to board

the plane or be left behind.

As the plane left the runway, Decker looked out over the city of Alcoa on the southern outskirts

of Knoxville. Below, he could pick out his small house on the edge of one of Alcoa's parks. The

steadily receding sight recalled disquieting emotions. Decker had spent most of his life

traveling. As a boy it was with his family, moving from one army post to another. After that he

had spent a year and a half hitch-hiking across the United States and Canada; then four years in

the army, two in Vietnam. Partly he felt cheated: he had never really had a home. But partly he

felt blessed. Decker hated leaving, but he loved going.

Decker's flight arrived late into New York and he had to run to make his connecting flight to

Milan, Italy. Nearing the gate he looked for a familiar face but saw none. In fact, at first

glance, there was no one at the gate at all. Decker looked out the window. There was the plane,

but at that instant he heard the jet engines begin to whine. Thundering down the red carpeted

incline of the jetway, he almost collided with a ticket agent.

"I've got to get on that plane!" he told the woman, as he put on the sweetest 'help me' look he

could muster.

"You have your passport?" she asked.

"Right here," Decker answered, handing it to her along with his ticket.

"What about your luggage?"

"This is it," he answered, holding up an overstaffed and somewhat oversized carry-on bag.

The plane had not actually moved yet, so after notifying the pilot, it was an easy task to move

the jetway back into place. After a quick

The Right Place at the Right Time 3

but heartfelt 'thank you,' Decker boarded the plane and headed to his seat. Now he saw a sea of

friendly and familiar faces. On his right was John Jackson, the team's leader. A few seats back

was Eric Jumper. Both were from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Jackson had his Ph.D.

in physics and had worked extensively on lasers and particle beams. Jumper, also a Ph.D., was an

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engineer specializing in thermodynamics, aerodynamics, and heat exchange. In fact, almost everyone

in this sea effaces had a Ph.D. of one sort or another. Altogether there were over forty

scientists, technicians and support people. Though he knew most only by sight, many paused long

enough from their conversations to offer a smile of welcome or to say they were glad he had not

missed the flight.

Decker found his seat and sat down. There to greet him was Professor Harry Goodman, a sloppily

dressed, short man with gray hair, reading glasses half-way down his nose, and thick bushy

eyebrows that blazed helter-skelter across his brow and up onto his forehead like a brush fire. "I

was beginning to think you'd stood me up," Professor Goodman said.

"I wouldn't have missed this for the world," Decker answered. "I just wanted to make a big

entrance."

Professor Goodman was Decker's link to the rest of the team. Goodman had taught biochemistry at

the University of Tennessee when Decker was in pre-med. During his sophomore year Decker had

worked as Goodman's research assistant. They had many conversations, and though Goodman was not

the type to get very close to anyone, Decker felt they were friends. Later that same year, though,

Goodman had grown very depressed about something which he refused to discuss. Through the rumor

mill Decker discovered that Goodman was going to be refused tenure. Primarily this could be traced

to his policy of 'do now, ask permission later,' which had gotten him into hot water with the dean

on more than one occasion. The next semester Goodman took a position at U.C.L.A. and Decker had

not seen him since.

Decker, for unrelated reasons, had changed his major from pre-med to journalism. He was still an

avid reader of some of the better science journals, however. So it was that in July of 1978 Decker

read

4 In His Image

an article in Science magazine1 about a team of American scientists going to examine the Shroud of

Turin, a religious relic believed by many to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ. He had heard of

the Shroud but had always dismissed it as just another example of religious fraud designed to pick

the pockets of gullible worshipers. But here was an article in one of the most widely read science

journals reporting that credible American scientists were actually taking their time to examine

this thing.

At first the article had aroused only amused disbelief, but among the list of the scientists

involved, Decker found the name Dr. Harold Goodman. This made no sense at all. Goodman, as Decker

knew from his frequent pronouncements, was an atheist. Well, not exactly an atheist. Goodman liked

to talk about the uncertainty of everything. In his office at the university were two posters. The

first was crudely hand-printed and stated: "Goodman's First Law of Achievement: The shortest

distance between any two points is around the rules" (a philosophy which obviously had not set

well with the dean). The second poster was done in a late 1960s-style psychedelic print and said:

"I think, therefore, lam. I think." Mixing the uncertainty of his own existence with his disbelief

in God, Goodman had settled on referring to himself as "an atheist by inclination but an agnostic

by practice." So why was a man like Goodman going off on some ridiculous expedition to study the

Shroud of Turin?

Decker filed the information away in his memory and probably would have left it there had it not

been for a phone call from an old friend, Tom Donafin. Tom was a reporter for the Courier in

Waltham, Massachusetts, and had called about a story he was working on about corruption in

banking—something which Knoxville had plenty of in 1978. After discussing the banking story Tom

asked Decker if he had seen the article in Science.

"Yeah, I saw it," Decker answered. "Why?"

"I just thought you'd be interested in what old 'bushy brows' was up to," Tom laughed.

"Are you sure it's him? I didn't see him in any of the pictures."

"At first I didn't think it was possible, but I did a little checking, and it's him."

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1B. J. Culliton, "Mystery of the Shroud of Turin Challenges 20th Century Science." Science, July

21, 1978. 201:235-239.

The Right Place at the Right Time 5

"You know," Decker said, thinking out loud, "There might be a story here. Religion sells."

"If you mean covering the expedition, I think you're right, but security is really tight. I tried

to dig into the particulars a little but hit a brick wall. They're limiting coverage of the

expedition to one reporter: a guy from the National Geographic"2

"That sounds like a challenge to me," Decker said.

"Oh, I'm not saying it can't be done, but it won't be easy."

Decker began to muse how he might, if he wanted to, go about getting the story. He could take the

direct approach of trying to reason with whoever was making the rules. After all, why should they

have only one journalist? On the other hand, what possible reason could he give to convince them

to take someone from a tiny unknown weekly in Knoxville, Tennessee? Clearly, his best bet was to

work through Goodman.

Over the next three weeks Decker made several attempts to reach his old professor, but without

success. Goodman was doing research somewhere in Japan and even his wife, Martha, wasn't sure

exactly where he was. With little to depend on beyond luck and determination, Decker arranged to

fly to Norwich, Connecticut, and booked a room in the hotel where the Shroud team was scheduled to

meet over the Labor Day weekend. He arrived the day before to look things over.

The next morning Decker found that a private dining room in the hotel had been prepared for about

fifty people. Checking with one of the waiters, he quickly confirmed that this was where the

Shroud team was meeting. A few minutes later the first of the team members walked into the room.

The eyebrows were unmistakable. "Professor Goodman," Decker said, as he approached Goodman and

extended his right hand. Goodman looked puzzled. "It's Hawthorne," Decker offered. It was obvious

that Goodman was struggling to place the face. "From the University of Tennessee," he added.

A gleam of recognition began to show in the pale green eyes beneath the massive clumps of hair.

"Oh, yes, Hawthorne! Well, how the hell are you? What are you doing here in Connecticut?"

Before Decker could answer, another person entered the room and called out, "Harry Goodman!" and

came over to where they were

2 For the resulting article see K. F. Weaver, "Mystery of the Shroud." National Geographic, June

1980, 157:729-753.

6 In His Image

standing. "So, where were you last night? I called your room, hoping to have dinner with you."

Goodman did not respond but proceeded instead to formal introductions. "Professor Don Stanley,

allow me to introduce Decker Hawthorne, a former student and research assistant of mine from the

University of Tennessee, Knoxville."

Professor Stanley shook Decker's hand, gave him a quick onceover, and then looked back at Goodman.

"So Hawthorne here must be the research assistant that I heard you'd suckered into helping out.

What a shame," Stanley added, pausing and looking back at Decker, "I'd have thought you looked too

intelligent for that."

"He is," responded Goodman, "and, unfortunately, so is the young man you're referring to."

"Oh, so he jumped ship on you, did he?" responded Stanley with a chuckle.

"Well, after all," Goodman shrugged, "it is quite a lot to expect a young man to pay the cost of

an airline ticket to Turin, Italy, just to go on a wild goose chase."

Decker let none of this escape his attention. The possibility of replacing the missing research

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assistant provided a much better chance of getting onto the team than did the direct approach of

getting the team to accept a second reporter. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the right

opening.

"If you're so sure it's a 'goose chase,' why do you insist on going along?" Stanley asked.

"Somebody's got to keep the rest of you honest," Goodman said, with a grin.

By now several other members of the team had filed into the dining room and were gathering in

small groups for conversation. One of the men caught Professor Stanley's attention and Stanley

walked over to greet the new arrival. Decker seized the opportunity to question Professor Goodman

further about the missing assistant.

"What is it exactly that your research assistant was going to do on this trip?" Decker asked.

"Oh, everything from collection of data to general 'gofer' work. We've got hundreds of different

experiments planned and we may have as little as twelve hours to do them all. It's the kind of

environment where an extra pair of trained hands can be very helpful."

The Right Place at the Right Time 1

"I don't suppose you'd be interested in a substitute?" Decker asked. He was counting on the fact

that Goodman didn't know that he had switched his major from pre-med to journalism after Goodman

left the University of Tennessee. Decker felt a twinge of guilt, but this certainly wasn't the

biggest omission of fact he had ever used to get a story. Besides, he was pretty sure he

remembered enough to get by. And he could certainly qualify as a gofer.

"What!" Goodman responded. "After I justtold Professor Stanley you were too smart for such a

thing?"

"Really, I'd like to go," Decker insisted. "Actually, that's why I came here. I may be a little

rusty, but I read the article in Science and I've got experience with most of the equipment you'll

be using."

"What you read was just the beginning." Goodman paused long enough to frown and then continued,

"Well, I'm not going to refuse help, but you know that you have to pay your own way: air fare,

hotel, food, transportation?"

"Yeah, I know," Decker answered.

"But why?" asked Goodman. "You haven't gone and gotten religion, have you?"

"No, nothing like that. It just sounds like an interesting project." Decker realized it wasn't a

very convincing answer, so he turned the question around. "Why are you going?" he asked. "You

don't believe in any of this stuff."

"Hell, no! I just want a chance to debunk this whole thing."

Decker refocused the conversation. "So, can I come along or not?"

"Yeah, well, I guess so; if you're sure about it. I'll just need to talk to Eric," he said,

referring to one of the team's de facto leaders, Eric Jumper. "We'll have to get your name added

to the list of team members. The security on this thing is really tight."

So, just that quickly, Decker was in. "The right place at the right time," he whispered to

himself. It would take 38 years for him to realize it had been far more than that.

After breakfast the team moved to a conference room. Decker stayed close to Goodman so that as

they passed through the security check, Goodman could make sure Decker's name was added to the

list of those allowed in.

8 In His Image

Inside, team leader John Jackson called the meeting to order. "In order to get approval to work on

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the Shroud," Jackson began, "we've had to promise the authorities in Turin that we would maintain

the strictest security. Obviously, our biggest problem is going to be the press." Decker struggled

not to smile. "The best approach is simply not to even talk about the Shroud to anyone who's not

on the team. As far as anyone outside of this room is concerned, we're still waiting for

permission to do the testing."3

Eric Jumper took the floor when Jackson finished. "Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming.

It's really a thrill to have a chance to be associated with such a distinguished group of

scientists. Now, we've gotten most of the protocols for the proposed experiments, but those we

haven't received need to be in by the end of this coming weekend." Jumper turned on a slide

projector in the middle of the room. The first slide was of a full-scale mock-up of the Shroud

that had been manufactured by Tom D'Muhala, one of the scientists. Superimposed over this 'pseudo'

Shroud was a grid. "Each of you will be given a copy of this," Jumper said. "The purpose of the

grid is to help organize the experiments we'll be doing. Because of the time limitations, we'll

want to do as much work simultaneously as possible. What we have attempted to do is to lay out the

work to take the best advantage of the Shroud within the environmental, time, and space parameters

required for each experiment."4

The slides that followed detailed the experiments that would be conducted. Most were designed to

determine whether the Shroud was a forgery or possibly the result of some natural phenomenon.

Every type of nondestructive test that Decker could imagine was included. One experiment that had

been rejected was carbon 14 dating, because the then-current method would have required that a

large piece of the Shroud be destroyed to yield an accurate measurement.

When Jumper was finished, he introduced Father Peter Rinaldi who had just returned from Turin.

Rinaldi, Jumper said, had come to explain the 'polities' involved in Shroud research. Decker

wasn't sure

3 John Jackson's comments paraphrased. For actual words as recorded by Dr. John H. Heller, see

Report on the Shroud of Turin, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983), p. 76.

4 Eric Jumper's comments paraphrased. For actual words as recorded by Dr. John H. Heller, see

ibid., p. 77.

The Right Place at the Right Time 9

what this meant, but it soon became clear that many fingers were wrapped very tightly around the

ancient cloth.

Rinaldi was part of something called the Holy Shroud Guild, which had been formed in 1959 for the

purpose of propagating knowledge about the Shroud and supporting learned investigation. He began

with a brief history. The first verifiable ownership of the Shroud, Rinaldi said, was to a French

knight named Geoffrey de Charney some time prior to 13 5 6. For reasons which have never been

explained, the de Charney family gave the Shroud to the House of Savoy, in whose possession it

remained for the next four hundred years. In the late sixteenth century the House of Savoy became

the ruling family of Italy and in 1578 the Shroud was moved to Turin, where it has remained ever

since in the Cathedral of San Giovcmni Battista.

Additionally, Rinaldi explained, there is a group called the Centra di Sindonologia, or the Center

for Shroud Studies, which is itself part of another organization, the four-hundred-year-old

Confraternity of the Holy Shroud. Neither of these groups has ever had any official standing in

regard to the ownership of the Shroud, and neither of the groups really does anything. But after

so many years, and with the names of so many bishops and priests attached to their rosters, no one

dares question their right to exist. The point of Father Rinaldi's talk was that many

personalities, most of whom were quite impressed with their own importance, would have to be taken

into account and many egos would have to be stroked in order to gain access to the Shroud. When

Rinaldi finished, Tom D'Muhala, the creator of the pseudo Shroud, went over the logistical

details. Immediately following the gathering, a trial run of the planned experiments was to begin

in a warehouse at D'Muhala's plant in the nearby town of Amston. The next two days would be spent

choreographing the entire sequence of experiments. All of the team's equipment would be taken out,

tested, and replaced in crates, ready for shipment to Italy. It would be a full-scale attempt to

de-bug the scientific procedures prior to going to Turin.

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As the team left the conference room they were swarmed by a dozen reporters. Ignoring shouted

questions, the team members moved quickly to a bus waiting to take them to D'Muhala's plant. One

reporter, a bearded man about 25 years old with a misshapen, protruding forehead moved along the

side of the bus, trying to get a

10 In His Image

closer look at one of the passengers. Decker looked out at his fellow members of the press. As far

as he knew, it was just dumb luck that he had gotten on the Shroud team. Still, he found it hard

not to be a little smug. His eyes were drawn to the stare of the bearded man outside the bus, and

as their eyes met, Decker recognized his friend, Tom Donafin from the Waltham Courier. Tom's lower

jaw dropped in a brief gaping stare which changed quickly to a friendly and congratulatory smile.

He shook his head in what was only slightly exaggerated disbelief. Decker smiled back like the

proverbial cat that had just swallowed the canary.

Entering the warehouse at D'Muhala's plant where the team would work, Decker was impressed and a

bit surprised at just how much time, planning, labor, and expense had gone into this effort.

Around the room sat scores of wooden crates carefully packed with several million dollars' worth

of cutting-edge scientific equipment on loan from research institutes from around the country. In

the center of the room, the pseudo Shroud was spread out on a steel examination table which had

been specially designed and constructed by D'Muhala's engineers to hold the Shroud firmly in place

without damaging it. The surface of the table was constructed of more than a dozen removable

panels to allow inspection of both sides of the Shroud at the same time. Each of the panels was

covered with one-millimeter thick gold Mylar to prevent even the tiniest of particles from being

transferred from the table to the Shroud.

For a moment no one spoke. All eyes scanned the equipment and the pseudo Shroud. Finally, Don

Devan, a computer and image-enhancement scientist from Oceanographic Services, Inc., broke the

silence, "Not bad!" he said. "This looks like real science!"5

The individual members of the team spread out to the crates and sought out equipment that each

would be using in their experiments. Decker found ample opportunities to make himself useful. A

few hours into their work, as he was helping to place a large microscope back into its crate, two

scientists, Ray Rogers and John Heller, were

5 Don Devan's comments paraphrased. For actual words as recorded by Dr. John H. Heller, see ibid.,

p. 82.

The Right Place at the Right Time 11

standing by an adjacent crate, discussing their experiment. Their work would involve the only true

sampling from the Shroud, which would be done by placing strips of tape onto the ancient cloth.

When the tape was pulled up, small fibers would be removed with it. Decker listened as Ray Rogers

explained the plan to Heller.

"To obtain samples for the chemical investigation, including your blood work, we'll be using a

special Mylar tape with a chemically inert adhesive developed by the 3M Corporation. We'll apply

the tape to the Shroud using a known amount of force . . ."6

"How will you do that?" Heller asked.

"Well," Rogers said, as he reached into one of the packing crates, "our friends at Los Alamos have

designed an ingenious little device that measures applied pressure." Rogers unpacked the device

and demonstrated it to Heller.

"Nice, but how will you know how much pressure to apply?" Heller asked.

"Well," said Rogers, "that's why we're here."

Decker followed the two men as they squeezed in around the crowded table. After making the

necessary preparations Rogers made some 'guesstimates.' "We know the Shroud is at least six

hundred years old," he said, "so it's probably quite a bit more fragile than this. I'd guess to be

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safe we should probably use, oh, about ten percent of the pressure we're using here." The

decision, Decker realized, was a SWAG (a scientific wild ass guess) but he wasn't about to utter a

discouraging word at this point. "Next, I'll remove the tape from the Shroud," Rogers continued,

"and mount each piece on a slide. Each slide will be numbered and photographed, and then it will

be sealed in a plastic case to ensure it remains uncontaminated."

For the next two days the team continued to work, rehearsing their procedures. Decker tried to

prove himself a useful member of the team, and at times he forgot all about being a reporter. He

even began to wonder if choosing journalism over medicine hadn't been a mistake after all.

6 Conversation between John Heller and Ray Rogers is paraphrased. For actual words as recorded by

Dr. John H. Heller, see ibid., pp. 86-87.

12 In His Image

Chapter 2

The Shroud

September 28,1978 — Northern Italy

Barely more than misplaced starlight, the lights of Milan peeked dimly through the window as the

jet flew over northern Italy. Decker studied the outline of this landlocked constellation as he

considered the consequences of the job ahead. Like Professor Goodman, Decker was certain the

team's research would prove that the Shroud was nothing more than a cheap medieval forgery. The

problem was, he knew there were a lot of people who would not appreciate having their bubble of

faith burst by the truth, including Elizabeth's mother, a devout Catholic. So far his relationship

with her had been pretty good. How would she take all of this? I guess we 'II be spending

Christmas with my mom for the next few years, he mused.

Father Rinaldi, who had gone directly from the meeting in Connecticut to Turin, had chartered a

bus to take the team the 125 kilometers from Milan to Turin. By the time the bus pulled into their

hotel it was midnight and though it was only 7:00 p.m. in New York and 4:00 p.m. on America's west

coast, everyone decided to go to their rooms to try to get some sleep.

The next morning Decker, who was never very good at adjusting to different time zones, got up

before the sun. Because of the time

14 In His Image

difference going east, he should have wanted to sleep in. But it made no difference — he was ready

to get up and logic was not involved. As the morning sky grew light, he looked out from his hotel

window down Turin's long, straight streets which intersected at nearly perfect ninety degree

angles. On either side of the streets were homes and small stores occupying one and two story

buildings, none of which appeared to be less than two centuries old. Beyond the city, to the

north, east, and west, the Alps pierced the atmosphere and clouds on their way to the sky.

Elizabeth would love this, he thought.

Decker left the hotel for some early morning sightseeing. Despite the city's proximity to the

mountains he encountered very few hills on his walk. About a quarter of a mile from the hotel he

came to the Porta Palatina, an immense gateway through which in 218 B.C. Hannibal, after a siege

of only three days, drove his soldiers and elephants into the Roman town of Augusta Taurinorum, or

ancient Turin. As he walked, the wonderful smells of morning began to drift from the open windows

of houses along his path. The sounds of children playing followed, and then suddenly the timeless

atmosphere of the city was crowded into the present by the sound of a television in someone's

kitchen. It was time to head back to the hotel.

As he entered the hotel lobby, Decker heard the voices of team members. The breakfast meeting had

already begun and the conversation centered around a problem with the equipment that the team had

brought from the United States. Without interrupting, Decker tried to piece together what was

going on. Apparently the equipment had been put in the name of Father Rinaldi with the intention

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of avoiding exactly the sort of problems with customs that the team was now experiencing.

Unfortunately, though Rinaldi was an Italian citizen, he had been in the U.S. too long and back in

Turin too short a time to be eligible to bring the equipment into the country without a sixty-day

impoundment. Rinaldi and Tom D'Muhala had already been sent to the customs office in Milan for

some face-to-face diplomacy and arm twisting.

After breakfast, several members of the team decided to walk the half mile from the hotel to the

royal palace of the House of Savoy, which for centuries had been the residence of the kings of

Italy. It was in a suite of rooms in the palace that the team would be conducting its

The Shroud 15

investigation of the Shroud. When they reached the palace they were stunned to find tens of

thousands of people standing several abreast in lines that stretched for over a mile to the east

and west. The lines converged at the Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista, which is adjacent to the

palace. In the cathedral, in a sterling silver case sealed within a larger case of bullet proof

glass filled with inert gasses, the Shroud is kept. Two or three times a century the Shroud is

taken out and put on public display, drawing pilgrims from all over the world. The crowd that day

represented only a small fraction of the three million people who over the past several weeks had

traveled from all over the world to see what they believed to be the burial cloth of Christ.

The team was escorted through a courtyard into a restricted part of the palace. At every corner

were guards armed with small European-made machine guns. The team paused as they entered,

awestruck with the size and splendor of their surroundings. There was gold everywhere: on

chandeliers, on picture frames, on vases, inlaid into carvings in the doors and other woodwork.

Even the wallpaper was gold-gilt. And everywhere were paintings and marble statuary. At the end of

a long, opulently decorated hall was the entrance to the princes' suite, where the team would

conduct their experiments. Beyond the ten-foot doors was a fifty by fifty foot ballroom, the first

of seven rooms which made up the suite. The second room, which is where the Shroud would be

placed for examination, was as magnificent as the first. Crystal chandeliers hung from

ceilings painted in classical frescos of angels and swans and biblical scenes. Somewhere in the

life of ancient buildings which remain in use comes a point at which time and progress can no

longer be ignored. Whether it is the carriage house that becomes a garage or a closet that is

converted to a phone room, some aesthetics ultimately yield to the demands of modern convenience.

In the princes' suite the evidence of compromise was a bathroom and electricity. The bathroom was

a strange arrangement with two toilets and five sinks. This would double as the team's

photographic darkroom. The only electricity was provided by a wire just slightly thicker than a

standard extension cord, which led to a single outlet about an inch away from the baseboard. The

team's equipment would require far more power than that.

"We'll need to run electric cables up here from the basement," said RudyDichtl, the team member

with the most 'hands-on' electrical experience. "I'm going to see if I can find a hardware store."

16 In His Image

Decker told Dichtl that he had noticed a hardware store while walking that morning. He wasn't

entirely sure of the location, but thought he could find it again. "Great," said Dichtl. "If they

have what we need, I could use an extra pair of hands lugging it back."

For the next two days there was little to do but sightsee. Despite Father Rinaldi's best efforts,

customs in Milan simply refused to release the team's equipment. Decker took advantage of the time

to get to know some of the other team members. His intent was both to be friendly and to gather

background information for the series of articles he planned to write. Everyone spoke freely of

their thoughts about the Shroud and how each had become involved in the expedition. Decker was

confident that he'd be able to sell the story to the wire services. An exclusive like this could

really boost his career.

All of this, of course, assumed that the team got their equipment. Finally, Decker decided they'd

waited long enough. If Milan didn't release the equipment soon, this expedition really was going

to end up as a wild goose chase. Wednesday morning, when Father Rinaldi came into the hotel lobby

to report on his progress, Decker was waiting for him. "Any luck, Father?" Decker asked.

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"None," responded the priest.

"Well," Decker said, "I think I know how we can break this

logjam."

"Please, go on," Rinaldi encouraged.

"Now, this might not be the way you like to do things, but right now Turin is crawling with

reporters covering the Shroud exhibit. If you held a press conference and announced that we can't

do our research because a bunch of petty bureaucrats won't let us have our equipment, you could

cause quite a bit of embarrassment for our friends in customs."

By now Eric Jumper and John Jackson had come into the hotel lobby where Decker and Father Rinaldi

were talking. "Anyway," Decker said, "if you embarrass these guys a little I bet they'll come

through with the equipment."

After talking it over, Rinaldi, Jackson, and Jumper saw the merit in Decker's idea but modified it

to be somewhat less confrontational. Rinaldi called the Minister of Commerce in Rome and pointedly

The Shroud 17

explained that if the problem was not resolved and the equipment delivered immediately, the

American scientists would not be able to begin their work. If that happened, Rinaldi continued, he

felt it likely that the international press would be quite interested and would probably hold the

Minister of Commerce personally responsible for preventing the scientific testing of the Shroud of

Turin. Rinaldi was put on hold for about five minutes; obviously the threat had some effect. When

he returned to the phone the minister agreed to have the equipment shipped to Turin.

When the truck carrying the equipment finally arrived at the palace it was Friday afternoon — five

days behind schedule. There were no forklifts available to unload the truck so the team's own

brute strength was required to bring the eighty crates packed with some eight tons of equipment up

the two long flights of stairs to the princes' suite. As soon as everyone caught their breath,

they went to work opening crates and unpacking equipment. Soon the public viewing of the Shroud

would end and it would be brought to the test room for examination late Sunday evening. There were

seven days of preparation to be done in just over two. For the next 56 hours the team worked

nonstop.

Some of the tests required bright light while others required total darkness. The first part would

be easy but the latter required sealing off the eight by ten foot windows with thick sheets of

black plastic. Maze-like light baffles made of more black plastic also had to be built for the

doorways. The testing table was set up in the Shroud room and the adjoining rooms were established

as staging areas for testing and calibrating equipment. The bathroom, the only source of water,

was converted into a darkroom for developing X-rays and other photography. Equipment that

malfunctioned had to be repaired on-site with replacement parts the team had brought from the U.S.

or by adapting locally available equipment. Quite a few square pegs would be forced into round

holes over the next several days.

Finally, on Sunday night at about midnight, someone in the hall said, "Here it comes."

Monsignor Cottino, the representative of Turin's Archbishop-Cardinal, entered the Shroud testing

room, followed by twelve men

18 In His Image

carrying a sheet of three-quarter inch plywood, four feet wide and sixteen feet long. Draped over

the plywood was a piece of expensive red silk which covered and protected the Shroud. The men were

accompanied by seven Poor Claire nuns, the senior of which began to slowly pull back the silk as

the men lowered the plywood sheet to waist level. The testing table, which could be rotated ninety

degrees to the right or left, sat parallel to the ground, awaiting the transfer of

the Shroud.

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