01 · EARLY LIFE & CAREER
From the Merchant Navy to senior audit work.
Don Leichel was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. After the Second World War, his family returned to the Netherlands. Don studied at the Nautical College in Amsterdam and began his career as a navigation officer in the Dutch Merchant Navy, with astronomy among the subjects included in his training.
In the 1960s, he emigrated to Australia with his wife, where he qualified as an accountant and subsequently worked as an internal auditor in the oil industry. In the early 1970s, the family returned to the Netherlands, where Don continued his career in the banking sector. In 1984, Don and his wife moved to New Zealand. There, he worked for the government as a senior auditor.
02 · AN ANALYTICAL ROUTE INTO HISTORY
Ancient narratives examined through numbers and chronology.
Alongside his professional career, his interest in archaeology, philosophy, ancient history and the world of the Bible continued to grow. Following in his father’s footsteps, he developed a particular interest in Egypt, Moses and the Exodus. His background in navigation, astronomy, numbers and auditing led him to approach historical and Biblical chronologies not only as narratives, but also analytically.
03 · THE BOOKS & THE SHROUD
The investigation becomes increasingly focused.
That search ultimately led to The Man Clothed in Linen and later to Sworn To Secrecy. In these works, Don brings together historical sources, Biblical texts and research into the Shroud of Turin. His central question became increasingly focused: what can truly be established about the age, origin, image formation and possible identity of the man in the Shroud?
04 · RESEARCH BEYOND THE BOOKS
The questions moved from publication to scientific inquiry.
The research did not end with the writing of books. In January 2025, a formal request was submitted to the Vatican through DRL Services BV, seeking permission for two non-invasive methods of scientific examination to be carried out on the Shroud.
The subsequent documentary Sworn To Secrecy builds on the same research questions, but presents them within a legal framework in which evidence, counterarguments, hypotheses and the limits of proof are weighed separately.
The viewer is therefore not asked simply to take the author at his word. The project separates historical, scientific and theological claims so that each can be considered on the strength of the evidence available to support it.
05 · FAMILY HERITAGE
A separate connection with ecclesiastical and musical history.
The Leichel family also has a remarkable history of organ builders who constructed church organs in the Netherlands during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For Don and his brother René, this history is not a scientific argument for the authenticity of the Shroud, but it does represent a distinctive family connection with the ecclesiastical and musical tradition in which their present work has once again found a place.
Part of this family history was described by Jacqueline Vreeken in Dichterbij dan verwacht. This background will be explained separately on this website, so that the family history remains clearly distinguished from the research into the Shroud itself.
06 · THE PROJECT TODAY
From book to international documentary project.
Sworn To Secrecy has since developed from a book into an international documentary project in which Don, as author and conceptual initiator, works closely with his brother René, the documentary’s producer and director.