Page 83 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper March/April 2018 Edition

The Travis Walton Abduction Case 83

doing so.
The Travis Walton Against this anthill of small but

Abduction Case: Fact, disturbing details, of course, stands a mountain
of circumstantial (as well as polygraphic)
Fiction Or Psychosis? evidence which so far even the most committed
debunkers have been able to untopple. In its
You be the Judge & Jury many decades ufology has seen its share of

hoaxes, and Travis Walton, to every appearance,
a modest and “decent” man, acts like none of
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them. If his story is indeed a fabrication, it is
amongst the most skillfully and intricately
The second asked him if he was executed in UFO history. If it is not, then its
conspiring with anyone to discredit Walton’s implications - for all of us - are truly
story (Klass and the debunking Committee for extraordinary.
the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal - CSICOP were mentioned QUESTIONS THAT SHOULD HAVE
specifically) if he had a current military BEEN POSED IN THE WALTON
affiliation, and if indeed a military supervisor CASE:
also raised serious questions about McCarthy’s
had ordered him not to speak of what he had
professional competence and qualifications. To 1. Why law enforcement was not called
seen.
Most readers, Walton’s refutation would seem immediately upon Travis Walton being found in
The results were curious. In Gilson’s
itself all but irrefutable. Heber, Arizona 5 days after his disappearance?
reading they indicated that the man was lying.
More than four decades, what do we 2. Why Travis Walton called the Neff
More than that, however, there was evidence of
make of the Walton case? residence instead of his brother Duane?
“a deliberate attempt to produce
In the end how one views the Walton 3. Where did Travis get the change that
countermeasures.” In other words, it looked like
controversy depends on how one feels about he used to make the telephone call to the Neffs?
someone who may have been trained in beating
UFOs in general and alien-abduction claims in 4. Why was Cy Gilson continued to be
polygraph tests had tried, and failed to mislead
particular. If one believes that it is possible that used as the polygraph examiner?
Gilson and Paramount. As Walton saw it:
UFOs exist as piloted extraterrestrial vehicles, 5. Why wasn’t Travis brought
The attempt to scheme seems to have
one can accept that Travis Walton may have immediately to a medical center immediately
been to fool Paramount into believing they had a
boarded a spacecraft and interacted with its after being picked up from the gas station at
corroborating witness, while deliberately
occupants. If one believes that such things are Heber?
providing enough incorrect details to justify
impossible, one has little choice but to insist that 6. Why was Travis given a bath possibly
claiming that Paramount had disregarded
a heretofore-undetected hoax scheme underlies removing any trace evidence from his body if in
accuracy to a negligent or even to a
the claim. fact he was abducted?
conspiratorial degree.
Nearly all of the available evidence 7. Why did the Walton’s put so much
The corollary plan was apparently to
would lead one to the conclusion that Walton, faith into the UFO community instead of
deceive Cy Gilson, then confess later to
his family, and logging crew may not be presenting themselves to credible medical
discredit the rigorousness of his methodology,
hoaxers. If there is compelling evidence to the practitioners and scientists?
and therefore discredit tests on all seven of us.
contrary, it has yet to emerge - which is not to 8. If the Walton brother’s had discussed
To Walton the logical suspects were
say, of course, that it could never emerge. In the what they would do if they had the opportunity
Klass and CSICOP. Walton noted the possibly
end Klass’s case rests on a single dubious of making contact, why did Travis try to escape
suggestive circumstance that though King’s
polygraph result and a mass of lurid but the craft?
program and Klass’s residence are in the same
apparently baseless speculations. Should the 9. How is it that NORAD or the FAA did
city - Washington, D.C. - Klass had flown in
Walton episode turns out to be a hoax, we may not have any unknown targets in the area where
from CSICOP headquarters in Buffalo, New
be confident it will not be the kind of hoax that Travis Walton allegedly was abducted by a
York, to participate in the show. “Perhaps,”
Klass says it was. In the end Klass’s reckless and UFO?
Walton wondered, from a panicked strategy
emotional attacks have only done damage to the 10. How come local law enforcement or
rehearsal, a hasty tactical session?” Though
skeptical case. As long as it remains the media did not receive any calls concerning
Walton was unaware of it, the incident - if
skeptical case, there is no skeptical case. strange lights in the sky or UFO sightings the
indeed it was as unsuccessful plot to discredit
To be sustained, the critics’ argument night of November 5, 1975, the night of the
his case - was not without precedent. In the early
needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. It would UFO sighting by Rogers, Walton and crew and
1980s James Randi, a magician/debunker
start with three small details, or at least two of alleged abduction of Travis?
associated with CSICOP engineered s hoax
them. The least of them is the absence of These and many more questions still
under the code name Project Alpha and sent two
Travis’s fingerprints on any of the phones at the remain unanswered, and yet, believers still flock
sleight-of-hand artists to a parapsychological
Heber gas station. This absence may be to events held by unscrupulous event organizers
laboratory, with the intention of convincing
explainable as an oversight by local law who fill their pockets with cash and the minds of
experimenters that they possessed psycho-
enforcement as they fumbled ion the early- the feeble believers with the lies and deceptions
kinetic metal-bending powers. The purpose, of
morning cold and dark; in any event, nobody spewed by the attending UFO / Abduction
course, was to prove Randi’s long-standing
disputes that someone called the Neffs around speakers.
contention that parapsychologists are easily
midnight on November 10 1975 from a Heber For The ‘X’ Zone Radio / TV Show and
fooled. Though observers disagreed about how
phone booth, and nobody has proposed a The ‘X’ Chronicles Newspaper, I am, Rob
well Project Alpha succeed, it generated much candidate other than Travis. McConnell []
attention, and debunkers made a great deal of it.
Arguably more difficult to rationalize,
Klass and CSICOP have not commented
however, is the absence of bruises on Travis’s
on Walton’s charges.
body even when the beam slammed his right
In 1996 Fire in the Sky, a much-
shoulder into a collision with, as he writes in his
expanded version of the 1978 book, saw print.
first book, “the hard, rocky earth of the ridge
For the first time Walton answered Klass’s
top.” If there is anything suspicious to be found
charges in detail. In an 85-page appendix
in the story, one finds it here (though Walton has
drawing on a considerable amount of original
his own not entirely plausible-sounding
research, Walton ripped into virtually every explanation) - as well as in the coincidence of
allegation, large or small, Klass had made over
Duane and Travis’s having talked about
the years, and he tore into the logic, consistency,
boarding a UFO prior to the latter’s “actually”
and even honesty of the debunker’s case. He