But the real “bombshell,” as Klass describes it in his book, was the fact that Walton had failed an earlier polygraph examination miserably and this information had been suppressed by APRO, which had been proclaiming the Walton case “one of the most important and intriguing in the history of the UFO phenomena.” This test was administered by John McCarthy, who with twenty years of experience was one of the most respected examiners in the state of Arizona. His conclusion: “Gross deception.” Proponents of the Walton case never mention this examination.
If the case is a hoax, what possible motivation could Walton and the others have? Two possibilities have been identified: every year, the National Enquirer offered a multi-thousand dollar award for the “Best Case” of the year (up to $100,000 for “positive proof” of ET). Walton and the other crew members divided a $5000 award from the National Enquirer. The second, and more compelling, motive involved a contract Rogers had with the U.S. Forest Service. Rogers had contracted with the Service to thin out the Turkey Springs area over a year before Walton’s experience. He won the contract when he submitted the low bid of $24.70/acre in June of 1974.
The contract term was 200 working days (“working days” to allow for bad weather and the long mountain winter) to thin 1277 acres, later reduced to 1205 acres. Rogers was seriously behind schedule and in fact, had received an eighty-four-day extension (accompanied with a $1.00 per acre penalty for missing the completion date). Only five days of this extension remained at the time of Walton’s alleged abduction. At the time of Walton’s disappearance, Rogers was in serious trouble: he had over a hundred acres left to finish in five days or he would default on the contract and lose some $2500 — money sorely needed to get through the winter months — or he requests a second extension and accepts another penalty for failing to finish on schedule a second time.
Just two weeks prior to Walton’s disappearance, NBC-TV aired a two-hour movie featuring the abduction tale of Betty and Barney Hill. Rogers has acknowledged watching the first portion of the movie, the portion that detailed the Hills’ “abduction.” Klass speculates in his book that “to a man facing two unattractive alternatives on his Turkey Springs contract, the account of the Hills’ ‘UFO-abduction’ could easily suggest a third.” By making Turkey Springs the site of alien abduction, Rogers could claim his men were too afraid to return and continue working — providing an “act of God” that could result in contract termination with no penalty and full payment to Rogers.
During the months after Klass revealed the results of his investigation, Rogers and Walton entered into a lengthy negotiation with him to have the flawed polygraph exams re- administered — this time with a mutually acceptable, independent polygrapher. Rogers issued a “challenge” to Klass: Duane and Travis Walton and Rogers would agree to be retested by “a mutually acceptable examiner of high standing and proper credentials” and that, if all parties passed the tests, Klass would pay all costs involved; if any of them failed, Klass would be “reimbursed.” Klass agreed in principle with most of the conditions, however as time progressed and negotiations continued it became clear that Rogers was engaging in delaying tactics and was, in fact, doing everything possible to not be retested. Ultimately, none of the principles in the Walton case was given new polygraph examinations.
And there the case laid for seventeen years, with proponents still proclaiming it one of the best documented abductions in history and skeptics decrying the multiple instances of intentional deception which imply “hoax.” Then comes Fire in the Sky and a media blitz to promote the “true story.” Travis Walton has made appearances on national talk shows (from CNBC’s Tom Snyder show to Larry King Live on the night of the movie’s premier), tabloid television shows (such as Hard Copy and Fox’s Sightings), radio call-in shows, and has even appeared via satellite on local news programs (the week of the premier, Walton was interviewed on WAGA Channel 5’s Good Day Atlanta morning show).
In the February, 1993, issue of the Mutual UFO Network’s MUFON UFO Journal, Travis Walton “takes time to address his critics.” Describing himself as a “naive country boy” (Walton hardly seemed naive when he accused Phil Klass of being a government disinformation agent on Larry King Live – a charge for which he has absolutely no proof) Walton tells of his shock at the “attacks” he received from skeptics such as Klass and repeats throughout his article that Klass’ claims had been refuted time and time again. Unfortunately, Walton provides little information in the article which actually refutes Klass’ evidence; instead he offers tantalizing tidbits which seem intended more to enduce the reader to buy a copy of his newly revised book (whose title he has changed to, oddly enough, Fire in the Sky) than to actually “set the record straight.”
Walton claims that the various charges against him “starkly contradict each other” [emphasis in original], but provides no specific examples of these contradictions. He says, “So the irony is that when one’s foremost detractor [Klass] makes an internally inconsistent scattergun assault, he is actually making a perverse sort of endorsement because it says loud and clear that the detractor himself doesn’t believe that any of his attacks has sufficient merit to stand alone.” It is a perverse sort of logic which will go through such convolutions in an effort to justify a failing position.
In a recent issue of his Skeptics’ UFO Newsletter, Klass wonders if Walton will refute the fact that his first polygraph exam indicated “gross deception,” or that his mother was abnormally calm upon hearing word of his disappearance, or that he – along with his mother and brother – had a long history of seeing UFOs prior to November 5, 1975, or that the lie detector test he did pass was seriously flawed. The list can go on and on.
So what can we make of this long and twisted tale? At the time, the Walton experience seemed little more than yet another in a long line of elaborate hoaxes. It continued to have its supporters among the UFO community, but enough questions surrounded it that few considered it “proof positive.” Now, a multi-million dollar movie billed as a “true story” is in theaters across the country. Prior to its release, UFO fans were predicting how this would “raise the public’s awareness” of UFOs in general and the alien abduction phenomenon in particular. Of course, they said they same thing about last year’s Intruders, which seems to have had little impact on the public’s perception of these things. We expect that Fire in the Sky will sway the public just as much. Unfortunately, we also expect that Hollywood will make more of such “fiction as truth” productions. The bottom line for the public is to always view these productions with a critical eye.