This week at Dead End Horror, we'll be talking Sci-Fi/Horror!! I'll be writing a little about alien abductions...oohhh! More specifically, I'll be telling you about the supposed alien abduction of Travis Walton. Ever hear of him?? Me either. So sit back, relax and as always, enjoy!
Travis Walton (born February 10, 1953) was an American logger who claims he was abducted by a UFO on November 5, 1975, while working with his crew in Arizona. Walton was nowhere to be found after several days of searching, but reappeared five days later, after the supposed abduction. His case received a large amount of publicity and is one of the best known cases of an alleged alien abduction. It was one of the few alien abdcution cases that actually had several eyewitnesses, all claiming to have seen the same thing.
The abduction was said to have happened a little after 6 p.m. Walton and his crew were getting ready to go home after a long day of work. They piled in to Mike Rogers' , (who was Waltons boss) truck for the drive back to Snowflake. Shortly after beginning the drive home, the men reported seeing a bright light from behind the trees. They drove closer to the light and claim to have seen a large silvery disc hovering above a clearing. They estimated it to be about eight feet high and twenty feet in diameter. Rogers slowed the truck to get a better look, as he did Walton jumped from the truck and ran towards the disc. The other man shouted at Walton to get away from the disc and to get into the truck, but Walton stood there, awestuck and unable to move.
Walton was almost completely under the disc when it started to make high pitched mechanical noises and moving from side to side. Walton started to retreat from the object but a beam of blue-green light emanated from the disc and struck Travis. The crew reported that Walton then "rose a foot in the air, his arms and legs outstretched, and shot back stiffly some 10 feet, all the while in the glow of the light. His right shoulder hit earth and his body spralwed limply over the ground". Waltons boss was convinced that he was dead, so they drove away quickly afraid that the disc was chasing their truck. After some discussion, the men decided to go back and look for Walton. After a half hour of searching, he was nowhere to be found.
At about 7:30 one of Waltons coworkers called the police and initally claimed that one of their loggers was missing, not elborating on the fact that he was taken by a silvery disc. The men told their story to Sheriff Ellison, who later said "If they were acting, they were awfully good at it". Ellison notified Sheriff Gillesepie and he told Ellison to keep the men there until he could get there and question them. Rogers insisted that they go back to where it all happened to search for Walton with tracking dogs. There were no dogs available, but they decided to return to the scene. Many of the crew were too upset to help in the search, so the Sheriff elected to go back to Snowflake and relate the bad news to friends and family.
Meanwhile, back at the scene, officers were getting suspicious of the story told by the crew. There was no physical evidence to back up their claim. More police and volunteers arrived to help search for Walton, they found no trace of him. By the morning of November 6, several officals and volunteers continued to scour the area where Walton had went missing. Still there was no trace of him anywhere and the police were beginning to think this was a hoax made up to cover up a and accident or a homicide. After interviewing some of the crew, police found out that a few of them had an interest in UFO's and they were sure that all of this was a prank being played by Walton and his coworkers. The Sheriff suggested that the crew had a light a balloon and released it at the appropriate time, trying to fool everyone.
On Monday November 10, Rogers's remaining work crew took a polygraph test. They were asked if they had intentionally caused harm to Travis, if they knew where his body was buried, and if they were making up the UFO story. The polygraph tests proved conclusive, thus proving, for at at least the time being, that all of the men were being truthful about their knowledge of the incident. Following the outcome of the polygraph tests, Sheriff Gillespie announced that he accepted the UFO story and that "Theres no doubt they are telling the truth".
Just before midnight on November 10, Grant Neff, who was married to Travis' sister, received a phone call from someone who claimed to be Walton. He said the caller spoke in a weak voice and told Neff that he was at a gas station and for him to come and get him. Grant was doubtful and thought it was a prank until the caller got hysterical and told him that he needed help. Neff arrived to find Walton collapsed in a telephone booth, still wearing the exact same clothes he disappeared in. On the way back to Snowflake, Walton repeatedly mumbled about terrifying eyes and seemed scared and anxious. After finding out that he had been gone not for a few hours, but for five days, Walton was stunned and stopped speaking.
The Walton family kept Travis' return a secret, which led to charges that he was covering up evidence that he didn't want the police to see. Following a promise made to the authorities, Duane Walton drove Travis to Pheonix, Arizona to get a medical examination. The Waltons then learned that the doctors they went to see, were actually hypnotherapists. They left and went home. Duance received a phone call from Coral Lorenzen of APRO, a civilian UFO research group. She promised to have Travis examined by two certified medical doctors. Duane agreed and the examination was to begin on tuesday at 3:30 p.m. The examination revealed that Walton was in relatively good health except for a small red spot on Travis' elbow that looked like a hypodermic injection and the fact that his urine lacked ketones, which should have been higher due to him not eating for five days.
Travis agreed to tell Sheriff Gillepie his tale of abduction. He said the last thing he remembered was being struck by a beam of light. When he woke he was in a reclined bed, which he thought was a hospital bed. He realized he wasn't alone in the room, he saw three greyish figures in orange jumpsuits surrounding him. He realized these figures weren't human. He recalls them being below five feet, with large bald domed shaped heads, and looking like fetuses with enormous eyes, almost all brown with no white in them. He said it seemed like their eyes just stared right through him. He said he feared for his safety and jumped to his feet, ordering the creatures away. He said he grabbed a glass like cylinder from the shelf tried to break it to make it into a makeshift knife, but found the object unbreakable. After waving the cylinder and shouting at the creatures, they simply left the room.
Travis then said he left the "exam room" and went down a hallway which led to another spherical room with only a high-backed chair in it. He said he sat in the chair and was using a lever on the chair that brought up a screen of stars on the ceiling, he said after a while of playing with the lever he decided to stop when he saw a rectangle shape in the corner of the room, which he thought might be a door. On his way to the door, he heard a sound behind him and thought it was one of the creatures. Travis reported that instead he was pleasntly surprised to see a tall human figure wearing blue coveralls and a glass helmet. Travis said he asked the man a number of questions, and the man only looked at him and smirked. He motioned for Travis to follow him, so he followed the man down a hallway which lead to a door and a steep ramp down into a large room.
Travis was lead into yet another room, this one containing three more humans, a woman and two men. These three weren't wearing helmets, so Travis began questioning them, and they responded with the same smirk as the man with the helmet. They led him to a small table and had him sit down. Travis says he realized the woman was holding a device that looked like an oxygen mask in her hand, but before Travis could fight her off she placed it over his mouth and he passed out. When he woke up, he was a gas station in Heber, Arizona. The disc shaped craft was hovering over the highway and after a moment, the craft shot away in the night sky. After hearing the story of Waltons abduction, Sheriff Gillepie thought that perhaps Travis may have been hit on the head and drugged, then taken to a real hospital which he had mistaken for the alien spacecraft.
Gillepie asked for Travis to take a polygraph test and promised to keep it a secret. Duane agreed and they drove to Scottsdale, Arizona where they first met with APRO consultant James Harder. He hypnotized Walton and tied to get as much information as he could about the five days Walton was missing. It was reported that Travis encountered an impenetrable mental block and said that if the regression continued, he would die. Meanwhile, the two hypnotherepists Duane had taken Travis to see before, claimed that they talked to Walton for two hours and found many inconsistencies in his story. Gillespie had arranged for the polygraph, but somehow news of the polygraph was leaked and Duane Walton canceled, thinking that the Sheriff had somehow leaked the news. The National Enquirer wanted Walton to take a polygraph test and arranged for one after Duane made them promise that they have the power to veto any disclosure to the public.
The polygraph examiner insisted that Travis failed and at one point tried to cheat. He was asked if he had "colluded" with anyone to perpertrate a hoax. Travis said he didn't know the word so the examiner explained that it meant planning or conspiring with others. After completing the exam, it was determined that Travis was lying. The examiner said that "Based on his reaction on all charts, it is the opinion of the examnier that Walton, in concert with others, is attempting to perpertrate a UFO hoax, and he has not seen any spacecraft". He also reported that Travis would his breath, in an effort to "beat the machine."
In 1978 Walton published The Walton Experience in which he had his own narrative for the aftermath. And in 1993 Waltons book was adapted into the film Fire in the Sky directed by Robert Liberman and starring D.B. Sweeney as Travis Walton. The film found moderate success and ufologists' complaints about inaccuracies and exaggerations. Travis Walton and Mike Rogers made a few promotional appearances for the film and appeared on Larry King where he and Walton debated with Klass, who called Rogers a "goddamned liar". At the time of the Fire in Sky's release, Walton re-issued The Walton Experience under the same title as the film.
After the inital publicity subsided, Walton remained in Snowflake and became foreman at the lumber mill. He married Dana Rogers and they had several children. Over the years, Travis has occasionally appeared at UFO conventions or television specials. In 2009 he appeared on the game show Moment of Truth and when asked if he had really been abducted in 1975, he responded yes, an answer that the polygraph examiner had determined to be deceptive. In a 2011 interview, Walton revealed that he he is still suffering from post traumatic stress from the abduction.
Umm...wow!! To be honest, I don't believe this at all. I'm more of a believe it when I see it kind of person, you know?? I mean, some parts seem relatively believeable but then theres the back and forth between whether or not he lied during the polygraph test. What I'm wondering is what happened between the time he passed out from the oxygen mask thinger and woke up at the gas station?? Did they anal probe him? Did they dress him up in girl clothes? Did they touch his fun bits?? IDK!! So, anyway, theres all the things you need to know about Travis Walton, supposed alien abductee. Now don't forget to check out Zombie Zanes list of top Sci-fi/Horror movies and his review Masters of Horror episode 3: Dance of the Dead. You'll know it before I type it, check back next for more new stuff at Dead End Horror. Thanks mucho!!
No comments:
Post a Comment