Page 65 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper March/April 2018 Edition

The Travis Walton Abduction Case 65

The Travis Walton

Abduction Case: Fact,

Fiction Or Psychosis?

You be the Judge & Jury

Continued from Page 61

After spending “two hours with Walton and his
brother Duane,” the article reported, Steward
stated, “He [Travis] was out hallucinating on
some drug, possibly LSD.” He further claimed
that the Waltons had come on like a couple of
freeloaders who wanted a physical examination
without having to pay for it; yet when he
arranged for such an exam, the two young men
fled his office. The article went on to recite other
false and dubious allegations:
* Steward said Duane Walton called him
Tuesday, (November 11, 1975) about regressive
hypnosis [not true]...The hypnosis never came
off [it was never asked for], Steward said, and he
believes the reason is that Waltons fear Rosenbaum, spoke with particular authority steal the cheques, and forge them, right?”
exposure. here; he was a court-accepted expert on A few minutes later McCarthy
* Steward challenged the alleged polygraph use. announced, “Travis, your responses are
infallibility of the lie-detector tests...Five But the Enquirer persisted. A positive deceptive,” and declared that he had failed the
reportedly passed, but Steward said he would be polygraph result would bolster the impact of its polygraph test. Flabbergasted, Travis protested,
unconvinced that they were telling the truth story; besides, reporter Paul Jenkins argued, the “There must be some mistake.” He asked for
unless they went through regressive hypnosis results would not be released without Travis’s another test. McCarthy refused. “There’s no
[as, in fact, Travis Walton already had]. permission. Travis finally consented, and APRO need to go any further,” he said. “I’ve got my
“The polygraph is only a machine, and I director Jim Lorenzen (Carol’s husband) answers.”
think they got together and beat it,” he said. “But contacted John J. McCarthy, director of the But perhaps he did not. At that point
they can’t beat hypnosis. If they did go into Phoenix-based Arizona Polygraph Laboratory. McCarthy made a strange remark to Walton:
hypnosis, they can lie, but I can show they are McCarthy said he would be willing to “Could it be that you have just, uh, made
lying, and they can’t control it. [Nothing in the administer the test. When Harder expressed yourself believe that this happened to you?” A
professional literature on hypnosis substantiates concern about Travis’s emotional state, polygraph examination can determine only if the
these claims. Lies told under hypnosis are McCarthy assured him that he would take it into subject believes he is telling the truth, and
indistinguishable from truths.] account. McCarthy had just declared that where Walton
“They’re afraid of the tests,” he added Unfortunately, when they met in the was concerned, it showed otherwise. Reflecting
[without evidence]. Walton’s room at the Sheraton, McCarthy did on this contradiction years later, Walton was led
Steward said that Travis appeared upset nothing to reassure Travis. Instead, in the pre- to observe:
at first, but was completely calm when the two test interview McCarthy got Travis to admit to “There’s simply no way to rationalize the
brothers left, and Steward described that two episodes about which he was deeply implication of his question away. He certainly
reaction as symptomatic of drug use. ashamed: His past drug use and a 1971 scrape wasn’t trying to be nice to me; he was
These were extraordinarily irresponsible with the law. In the latter instance he and unceasingly hostile throughout our encounter.
charges. To start with, no evidence whatever Charles Rogers (Mike Roger’s younger brother) Evidently something in those charts, which
existed to support the allegation that Travis was had pled guilty to the theft of blank payroll we’ll never see, told McCarthy something he
under the influence of drugs at any time. cheques which they cashed using a forged could not reconcile with whatever conviction he
According to all available testimony, not just signature. Apprehended almost immediately, had when he’s entered the testing room.”
Travis’s but other people, Travis was so opposed they were given two years’ probation and Even so, McCarthy concluded his
drug use that he did not consume alcohol or even ordered to repay the stolen money. official report thus:
coffee. True, he had taken drugs in the past, in That was the beginning and end of Travis’s “His reactions on the control test were
common with other young people of the period, criminal history. Not even Sank Flake, who did normal. He appeared to be lucid, and prior to
but he had stopped doing so two years not like Travis and openly, accused him of testing he stated that he understood each of the
previously. Whatever one makes of the UFO hoaxing the UFO story, deemed this anything questions to be asked and that he would answer
claim, the drug accusation was and remains a other than a youthful mistake, but it was deeply each with a “Yes” or “No.” It was obvious
canard, though would-be debunkers would keep embarrassing to have to admit to it, and Travis during the examination that he was deliberately
it alive for many years to come. talked about it only on the understanding that the attempting to distort his respiration pattern.
The National Enquirer wanted matter would be kept confidential. Based on his reactions on all charts, it is
Travis to take a polygraph examination as soon Yet McCarthy, whose occasionally the opinion of this examiner that Walton, in
as possible, while it still had him available and sarcastic and sometimes abrasive remarks concert with others, is attempting to perpetrate a
before another publication was able to scoop it. betrayed his skepticism, went out of his way to UFO hoax, and that he has not been on any
Harder thought Travis was still too nervous and remind Travis of the incident a few minutes spacecraft.”
distraught to take a test which, strictly speaking, later, after McCarthy had used the word Duane expressed his enormous
measured stress, not lies. Travis might or might “collusion” and Travis admitted that he did not displeasure with the results to McCarthy. The
not have been lying (though Harder was know the word, McCarthy snapped, “That psychiatrists reiterated their conviction that
convinced of his truthfulness), but there could means acting in concert with somebody else, under the circumstances the results meant
be no question that he was exhibiting plenty of one or more people to perpetrate a hoax, acting nothing. Dr. Rosenbaum spoke for his
stress. Three psychiatrists who had been brought in collusion with somebody else, you know, to colleagues in a formal statement:
into the case concurred, insisting that any results set this thing up. Just like you acted in collusion
would have no meaning. One psychiatrist, Jean with this friend of yours to burglarize the office, (Continued on Page 66)