Page 66 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper March/April 2018 Edition

66 The Travis Walton Abduction Case

The Travis Walton

Abduction Case: Fact,

Fiction Or Psychosis?

You be the Judge & Jury

Continued from Page 65

“Our conclusion, which was absolute, is that
this young man is not lying, that there is no
collusion involved. The full test results show
that he really believes these things, that he is not
lying. He really believes that he was abducted
by a UFO.”
Rosenbaum then went on to offer his
own interpretation of the episode:
“But my evaluation of the boy’s story is
that, although he believes this is what happened,
it was all in his own mind. I feel that he suffered
from a combination of imagination and amnesia
and transitory psychosis - that he did not go on
a UFO, but simply was wandering around
during the period of his disappearance. But I’m
unable to account for five witnesses having the Walton has answered all questions in a manner Later the “investigator” acknowledged that he
same basic story and passing lie-detector tests that he himself is firmly convinced to be truth had based his statements on newspaper
about it” regarding the incident commencing 11-5-75.” accounts. The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON)
Nor would Rosenbaum’s hypothesis Pfiefer also conducted a polygraph also treated the case cautiously, citing both sides
explain how Travis could have maintained examination on Mary Kellett. Those who of the dispute, without taking sides. APRO’s
relative good health, or even stayed alive, over thought that Travis’s disappearance had been treatment, the most comprehensive was the only
five nights of well-below-freezing temperatures staged suspected that his mother would almost wholly positive one, though it made much of the
- especially considering that the clothes he was certainly know of the hoax; some speculated Pfiefer tests, it neglected to mention the failed
wearing were manifestly not suited to such that he had hidden in her Bear Springs cabin. So examination with McCarthy.
bitter cold. Moreover, formal psychological Pfiefer asked her if she had been participating in So did the National Enquirer in its
testing of Travis by APRO-affiliated a hoax, if she had concealed Travis, and if she December 16, 1975, issue even though its
psychologists Harold Cahn and R. Leo Sprinkle knew where Travis was between November 5 reporters had privately voiced their
would uncover no evidence of emotional and 10. She answered no to these questions. disenchantment with the case to the Lorenzens a
abnormality. Pfiefer also wanted to know if she believed day after the McCarthy examination. One of
In any event, it was apparent to just Travis was telling the truth. She said yes. Pfiefer them, Jeff Wells, prepared a 16-page memo
about everybody except McCarthy that the wrote: urging that the story be killed. Unlike
polygraph test had been a bad idea. Then the “After a careful analysis of the McCarthy, the reporters did not believe Travis
Waltons, National Enquirer, McCarthy, and polygrams produced and comparing the had perpetrated a hoax; they were persuaded by
APRO signed onto another bad idea: they polygram tracings with Known Lie pattern, it is Dr. Rosenbaum that he had had a psychological
agreed to keep the test and its results the opinion of this examiner that Mrs. Mary experience. As Wells recalled in 1981, “He had
confidential. Hardly anyone else would hear of Kellett has answered all the questions truthfully seen something out there in the woods, some
the incident until eight months later, when the according to the best of her knowledge and kind of an eerie light that had triggered a
Walton case’s most intense and persistent critic beliefs.” powerful hallucination that might recur at
exposed it to the world. In 1992 Pfiefer reaffirmed his anytime.”
On February 7, 1976, Duane took a confidence in these conclusions. A far more formidable and serious attack
polygraph test administered by George J. on the case was launched by Philip J. Klass in
Pfiefer, Jr., of Tom Ezell and Associates. Travis THE CONTROVERSY June 1976. Klass, by profession an editor of the
hoped to be there as well, but APRO had not Even in the absence of clear evidence of Washington weekly Aviation Week and Space
made an appointment for him because he was a hoax - as well as ignorance of the suppressed Technology, issued 17 pages’ worth of
having car trouble and it was by no means McCarthy test - Spaulding continued his assault accusations against virtually everyone -
certain that he would be able to negotiate the on the case, telling journalists and ufologists investigator, polygraph examiner, and alleged
160 miles between Snowflake and Phoenix. But that the Waltons were lying. Persons witness - who in one way or another supported
as it happened, Travis made it. He asked if he knowledgeable about the case sometimes found the case. A ferocious UFO debunker who
could take the test after Duane was through. his logic hard to follow. He wrote, for example, seldom hesitated to hurl hoax charges against
Drs. Harold Cahn and T. Leo Sprinkle and “Walton never boarded the UFO. This fact is witnesses ordinarily deemed reliable (including
APRO director Jim Lorenzen drew up a list of supported by the six witnesses and the [Gilson] police officers and members of the clergy),
questions, and later Travis added some others. polygraph test results.” Spaulding did not Klass approached the Walton episode less as an
Travis wanted the test to cover other accusations elaborate on this curious contention. investigator then as a prosecutor.
that had been leveled at him. Still, other UFO groups were willing to His most damaging revelation
Pfiefer concluded as follows: take Spaulding at his word. The National concerned the McCarthy examination and
“It is the opinion of this examiner that Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena APRO’s role in covering it up. Jim Lorenzen
Duane Walton has answered all questions (NICAP) inaccurately characterized the would subsequently defend his organization’s
truthfully according to what he believes to be incident as a “contactee case”, complained action, saying that the results were meaningless
the truth regarding this incident, and he has not about the “undue excitement and interest” it had - probably true, but hardly the point. Klass got
attempted to be deceptive in any area... generated, and remarked that “either a hoax had the story from McCarthy, who had decided to
After a careful analysis of the polygrams been committed or...a psychological phenomena speak out because of the continuing attention
produced, there are no areas left unresolved, and is involved.” It cited as authority its Walton’s claims were receiving.
it is the opinion of this examiner that Travis “investigator” an Arizona university professor. (Continued on Page 67)