An American list???? 6,5,4,3,2,& 1 are all written both by and about British detectives!
How can that possibly make this an American list?

A list I can relate to.
I don't agree with all of your choices, but did, indeed, do your research and chose what you felt to be the best the better 10 choices. I would have a different 10, and having worked with the Mystery Writers of America of 5 years, and having met many of top mystery mystery writers from around the world at Cons. (and even Dashiell Hammett's daughter and grand-daughter in small meeting), as well as a lot of the top writers who reside on the west coast, Joseph Wambaugh, Linda Fairstein, Sue Grafton, etc, etc, etc, etc...I share your enthusiasm for the medium.
I am not about to tell you that your choices are wrong, they are not. They are simply different than mine have been...but who can argue with Lord Peter Wimsey or Sherlock Holmes?
Anyway, good job! Well done!
~Applause~

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Yeah, ally, I've been reading LV since it began and I'm fairly sure it *was* on a list somewhere long, long ago. There have been several lists like that, Jamie being the fan of oddities he is is, but I sure don't have the time to run back through all of the lists to find out if/and/or when it really did run.

Not surprised, but if it can be checked, can be proven, where?
Don't just make an allegation and fail to supply proof.

"People will put themselves (and their loved ones) first"...that is a foregone conclusion.

They are scary guys, but in a world where terrorists might be the people next door, we need scary guys.

Jamie, I got to thinking about the first Pope I could remember making an impact on my life and I can clearly remember Pope Pius XII. He looked, to me as a young child, what a Pope was supposed to look like...ancient, small, somehow holy in appearance. When Pope John XXIII took over he looked all wrong. It took a long time for me to accept the differences in appearance...he looked more like a beardless Santa than a Pope.
Then he really mucked up with Council and that didn't help his case any with me, either...poor guy.

I totally agree that this, or stories like it, would make a wonderful basis for a list of famous hoaxes. The only problem being there are so many wonderful hoaxes!

I remember the deaths of Pope Paul and Pope John Paul I vividly.
My husband at the time came into our bedroom and told me that Pope Paul had just died. I was stunned and saddened.
We watched the coverage of the council of Cardinals as they voted on a new Pope, and found the choice a good one.
When he again came into our bedroom to announce the death of the Pope 33 days later, I thought he was making a gruesome joke...until he turned on the TV and the news coverage bore him out.

I do have an addition to the list! The disappearance of David Lang.
On September 23, 1880, David Lang was walking across his field in Gallatin, Tennessee in full view of his wife, his 2 children, his brother-in-law and a local judge, August Peck.
When Lang was out in the middle of the field he just vanished.
Everyone present rushed to the spot where Lang had been when he disappeared, but there was no hole into which might fallen, no quicksand or quagmire. He was simply there one moment, and gone from the face of the earth the next.
Geologists came and surveyed the land, finding no fissures or breaks in the substrata into which Mr. Lang might have fallen.
Over the next year, the grasses in the place where he had disappeared grew higher more lush than any of the surrounding grass, but none of the animals would graze there.
On the one year anniversary of David Lang's disappearance, his daughter went to spot, calling to her father. After 4 attempts, she heard a faint cry for help.
She got her mother, who called to her husband. He answered faintly.
They were able to hear him for a week, less audibly with each day.
Finally, there was no more from the other side.