Travis Walton Answers

[updated confirmed Travis Walton answers "Moment Of Truth" show lie detector fiasco.

In an article i posted previously, "Sherrif's nephew claims Travis Walton hoax well known", A person from You Tube claimed to be Sherif's Sank Walton's grand nephew he was the" chief Ifinvestigator" on Walton's abduction. I thought we should showcase his answer here.

Sherif’s nephew claims Travis Walton Hoax well kno...

If Travis reads this I hope he can clear up another attack here it is:

Mikod2

"this guy went to the show "the moment of truth" and when they asked him if he was abducted in 1975 he said yes, but the lie detector proved it was a lie. I believed him, but now i think I don't..."

This is Travis Walton, verify this by e-mailing me at [removed]responding to Mikod2 post about the Moment of Truth show. Yes, I was on it but the show does not use real polygraph. They use a further mutated version of a long-discredited method found by the Govt Accounting Office to yield 80% false positives (truth tellers judged as lying). No real examiner accepts the show's verdicts.

A couple of years ago the corporation employing me for nearly a decade announced a lay off of the 50 most recently hired. I was on the list. I went home and got a call that same day from the show offering the opportunity to win 6 figures. Hopeful solution to the lay off? All I had to do was truthfully answer a bunch of questions. No problem, but I was wary. The polygraph operator was their man, with incentive to keep his employer from paying any prize money. E-mailed some friends about my misgivings. Job situation clouded my judgement. Already had one situation with examiner using obsolete method. I asked if they used modern accepted technique, was assured they did. Turned out that claim was grossly untrue. Found out no previous "contestant" had ever won big prize! Most shows filmed never aired because "contestants" walked out. The show was about to be cancelled and they needed something to boost ratings. Sequence showing me being tested was fake, "examiner" was an actor, my arm rested comfortably on table as per proper method. For their "test" my arm had to balance perfectly still on a narrow metal rail for a very long time -- excruciating. Would cause stress unrelated to lying. The examiner lied to me saying he knew police polygraph examiner Cy Gilson and was using same method. Other gross violations of proper method. Show was deceptively edited. When "untruthful" verdict was announced audience erupted in loud booing. Host Mark Walberg turned to crowd and asked, "How many still believe he is telling the truth?" Audience roared with loud, long cheering. Asked how many don't believe him? A few scattered yells from the back. This was edited out to deceive TV viewers that booing was against me, not the show. I solicited an opinion about the methods used by The Moment of Truth from world renowned polygraph expert Cleve Backster. Backster is still in practice with over 50 years experience and originated procedures adopted as the gold standard throughout the field. He has twice testified before the U.S. Congress and in landmark court cases. He has held high posts in the top polygraph organizations and presided over countless training courses for law enforcement at local, state and federal levels, including Fort Gordon, U.S.Army Counterintelligence Corps, the CIA, the U.S. Dept of Defense Polygraph School, Canadian Police College Polygraph Examiner School, and the the FBI Academy. His school, Baxter Associates said, "Moment of Truth uses a technique that was discarded years ago...a non-validated technique."

Another top expert gave me his opinion on The Moment of Truth. Dr. David C. Raskin, a former Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah is the author of the most respected textbooks in polygraphy and published many oft-cited papers on lie detection and his refinement of the most widely accepted method in use today. In his 50+ years in the field he has been a court recognized expert in famous trials like the Howard Hughes will, Jeffrey (Fatal Vision) McDonald, serial killer Ted Bundy, the DeLorean affair, and the McMartin preschool case. He has testified before British Parliament, Israeli Kineset, and four times before the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Senate with regard to cases like Watergate and Iran-Contra. Dr Raskin told me, "...I have always thought those TV programs are a disgrace... Any polygraph examiner who participates in such charades should not be allowed to practice. I have been asked to be the principal in such shows and I have always refused...I agree with the criticisms made by Mr. (Michael) Martin." Martin created the aforementioned THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MOMENT OF TRUTH website, www.polytest.org/momenttruth.html

Thinking the show would air as scheduled, I lined up experts and national media appearances to refute the show, and took the most rigorous new polygraph tests available. So they cancelled the show, but told me I was still bound by the contract which specified a one million dollar penalty if I revealed anything about the show before it aired. I added to my book the basics about the show in a general way, and detailed the new tests without telling why I sought new tests. Now that it finally aired in South Africa, Portugal and France I am free to reveal their deceiving of TV audiences around the world. It is possible their unethical examiner deceived them about the validity of his methods, but I know they were aware of THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MOMENT OF TRUTH website (www.polytest.org/momenttruth.org

The most rigorous testing standards available to me were to be found in NM where results are admissible in court and so are tightly regulated by state law. I took two tests from the most respected firm which does testing for New Mexico State Prison, Albuquerque Police Dept and even the United States Marshal's Service. State of the art method and modern 5 trace equipment with digital scoring and readout was used. I passed both new tests flawlessly. More details in the newest edition of my book. But skeptics will try to pretend a deceptive game show's results supercede five properly conducted tests. And the 12 other tests passed by others and all the other evidence.

Travis responds

Travis Walton here. I won't insult your intelligence by telling you that the previous poster claiming to be me was not. First I want to thank you all for your support and commend you for recognizing the "sheriff's nephew" as a fake. He isn't the first to try to gain attention by claiming some connection to the center of this. Even persons taking a supportive position sometimes do it by claiming to be a close school chum, girlfriend or coworker.

One supporter claimed to have attended the homecoming party after I was returned -- except that party was movie fiction. Another man bragged in the chainsaw shop about knowing me and Mike, unfortunately Mike was standing there too and wasn't even recognized by the man.
There are too many lies in the "sheriff's nephew" post to refute all here.

The main points should be sufficient to see it's all fiction. If "nephew" doesn't even know town marshall Sank Flake was never County Sheriff, how much "inside story" could he have? Public record that Marlin Gillespie was Cnty Sheriff. Neither my son nor either of his cousins could figure out who "nephew" was, even after checking the his yearbook. Ken Peterson said his family never owned any property in Concho, which is 30 mi from Snowflake, not 5. Allen never lived in Concho. It's established record that the entire crew lived in Snowflake. The night of the incident the crew met with lawmen at a service station closed for the night, not a diner (that was the movie). There was no Red Robin diner in Heber in 1975. The 1st Red Robin opened in 1993 - in Pennsylvania. "Nephew" changed his claim to the Red Onion but that 1st opened 20 years after the incident. I didn't socialize with Allen off the job. I never rode in any police car in connection with the incident. Allen DID help with the search.

I most certainly DID do interviews locally and interviewers did ask townspeople questions and NONE ever claimed "nephews" story. The big debunkers follow every UFO report with checks on astronomical charts and local aviation, yet never claimed air force helicopter maneuvers. Debunkers scoured this community for discrediting stories yet never used "nephew's" tale that was supposedly known in town. I was an employee only, the contract was Mike's alone. The "contract motive" theory was thoroughly discredited by an affidavit signed by the Forest Service Contracting Officer. I never spent a night in the hospital after my return, but the doctor who examined me wrote a detailed report which did not describe "dirty needle marks" on my stomach and eye. He put my blood & urine samples through the county medical examiner's drug screen which showed no trace of any drug. Also at least 2 of the 5 or 6 polygraph tests I passed asked if I had taken drugs during the incident. All 6 crewmen went back that night, Mike going back alone was movie fiction. The actual polygraph questions are a matter of public record, not "nephew's" version.

Skeptic though Sank is, he will be furious to learn "nephew" is claiming he knew incident was hoax. If Sank can figure out who "nephew" really is, he might join me if I sue for libel, slander and defamation of character. "Nephew" isn't the first impostor to try attaching their selves to this case and won't be the last. In my book I take each charge leveled by the debunkers and, by citing independently verifiable documents and statements by experts, prove their case to be just the sort of sham the "County Sheriff's nephew" has posted.

Thank you Travis hope to hear from you.

Joe Capp
UFO Media Matters
Non-Commercial Blog