Page 61 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper March/April 2018 Edition

The Travis Walton Abduction Case 61

The Travis Walton

Abduction Case: Fact,

Fiction Or Psychosis?

You be the Judge & Jury

Continued from Page 60

At noon Lorenzen heard from the National
Enquirer. In exchange for APRO’s cooperation
and access to the Walton’s, the tabloid offered to
pay all expenses. To start with, it would pay for
a hotel room in which the brothers could be
sequestered; it would also dispatch a team of
reporters to the scene. Since APRO could not
match the Enquirers’ financial resources,
Lorenzen agreed.
Travis’s examination went well. Saults
and Kendell found that he was in good health.
There were only two out-of-the-ordinary
physiological symptoms. As Kendall, who
wrote the medical report, would note:
There were no bruises or evidence of
trauma, except for two-mm red spot in the
press inquiries but to Sheriff Gillespie, who had proceeded to tell all that happened, or
crease of his right elbow, which was suggestive
of a needle puncture, however, it was not learned of Travis’s return only through media supposedly happened, aboard the UFO.
overlying any significant blood vessel. He accounts. On Tuesday, however, he found out Heretofore he had been reluctant to discuss it
denied being aware of its presence and did not that Travis was staying with Duane near and had given it out piecemeal even to his
know what it might be due to... Phoenix. He drove to Glendale and confronted brother. Unlike many other abductees, however,
Urinalysis - volume 560 cc; normal, Duane and Travis near midnight. Walton’s conscious recall and unconscious
with good concentration [SpG 1.023]; however, This was well and good - the first step “memory” were the same, and he could account
toward a real investigation - but between for only a maximum of two hours, and perhaps
there was no acetone present, which is unusual,
Lorenzen’s call and the physicians’ examination even less of his missing five days. Curiously,
considering that any person who is without
another party would enter, and hugely during a particular deep part of the hypnosis,
adequate nutrition for twenty-four to forty-eight
hours will break down his own body-fat stores, complicate, the story. Walton encountered an impenetrable mental
which would result in Ketones [acetones] being Gillespie listened as an exhausted Travis block and expressed the view that he would
excreted into the urine. The absence of ketones related what little he remembered of what “die” if the regression continued. “Dr. Harder
in his urine, considering a ten-pound weight happened after he woke-up in a hospital-like could not precisely determine whether the block
loss, is difficult to explain. setting inside what he assumed was an alien is an actual warning...or only a false threat
Duane had given the doctors a bottle of spacecraft. After hearing him out, the sheriff designed to discourage efforts at uncovering
wondered aloud if Travis had not been hit with a blocked memories,” Walton would write years
urine - the product of Travis’s first post-return
club or baseball bat, then drugged and taken to later. (The onboard experience will be discussed
micturition; early on Spaulding had urged
an earthly hospital. Travis disagreed pointing later.)
Duane to make sure such a sample was
preserved. Of course there was no way to prove out the physical tests he had just undergone had Sheriff Gillespie had arranged for
this was Travis’s specimen. The physicians had detected no trace of drugs or bumps on his head. polygraph examinations for Travis and Duane,
to take the brothers’ word for it. The incident had occurred just as he said it had, to be administered by Cy Gilson, the same man
Travis would speculate that the red spot and he would take a lie-detector test to prove it. who had tested the logging team earlier in the
was probably something he had picked up in the Duane added that Travis would take any kind of week. All concerned agreed that it must be done
course of his work, perhaps from a thorny bush. test, not just polygraph but truth serum, voice in secrecy, to eliminate the media circus that had
stress analysis, or hypnosis, to prove that he was afflicted the previous polygraph episode.
On the other hand, as we shall soon see, some
telling the truth. Gillespie said a polygraph test Unfortunately, someone leaked news of the
critics would charge that the mark was evidence
would do. intended examination. On Friday morning,
that Travis had injected drugs, probably LSD,
into his right elbow. The later theory is hardly By the next day, Wednesday, November November 14, 1975, as the sheriff left his office,
plausible. Possibly more difficult to explain is 12, 1975, Spaulding was being quoted in the he saw clear signs that reporters were following
the absence of bruises, which one might expect press as saying that he and his group had found him. Around that time a reporter phoned
in the wake of Travis’s alleged beam-driven unspecified “holes in this story.” Spaulding, Duane’s house and wanted to know when Duane
collision with the ground. (Walton, once an who had directed the Waltons to “Dr.” Steward, and Travis planned to go to Holbrook for the
amateur boxer, would offer this explanation: also stressed that the investigation required more test. We Duane heard about the call, he
than anything “competent scientific personnel exploded. He canceled the test and accused the
“I’ve taken numerous hard blows in sparring
conducting scientific tests.” Later that day he sheriff - who was in fact was innocent as the
matches which never left a bruise. All the guys
told reporters, “We’re going to blow this story Walton themselves - of bad faith.
on the crew have had limbs and small trees fall
on them in the course of a workday, leaving no out today.” As this stage everybody’s nerves were on
bruises. It can take a lot to bruise a healthy, fit On Thursday, November 13, 1975, edge. The Waltons also were angry and upset at
young man. It’s unlikely that landing after being Travis and Duane slipped away to nearby the many rumors and accusations in
thrown ten feet would be sufficient to cause a Scottsdale, where the National Enquirer had a circulation.Some of these saw print. The next
mark which would last five days, especially room at the Sheraton Hotel waiting for them. day, Saturday, November 15, 1975, the Phoenix
through a work shirt and denim jacket.” There they met APRO scientific consultant Gazette ran an uncritical piece on “Dr. Lester H.
James A. Harder, a professor of engineering at Steward, director of the Modern Hypnosis
In the meantime, Duane was
the University of California at Berkeley. Harder, Instruction Center.”
maintaining the pretense that his brother was
who had particular interest in hypnotizing UFO
hospitalized in Tucson. He told this untruth - or,
as he thought of it, cover story - not only to witnesses, soon regressed Travis, who (Continued on Page 65)