Travis Walton

[GNC]

Do we really not have a Travis Walton thread? Couldn't find one, just a few mentions here and there. Anyway, his former friend Mike Rogers who witnessed him being abducted now says he wants nothing to do with the case anymore (per FT report). Apparently they have fallen out over a remake of Fire in the Sky, the fanciful film version of Walton's abduction. Does this mean it was all made up between them, or just a spat?

 

[Mythopoeika]

Do we really not have a Travis Walton thread? Couldn't find one, just a few mentions here and there. Anyway, his former friend Mike Rogers who witnessed him being abducted now says he wants nothing to do with the case anymore (per FT report). Apparently they have fallen out over a remake of Fire in the Sky, the fanciful film version of Walton's abduction. Does this mean it was all made up between them, or just a spat?

Travis did say that the original film was massively embroidered. Maybe that's happening again?

 

[GNC]

Travis did say that the original film was massively embroidered. Maybe that's happening again?

According to the report, it's Mike who is protesting about it and Travis seems to be fine with it. If they do remake it I hope it'll be more faithful to the 60s sci-fi style of his account and less like The X-Files, as it was in Fire in the Sky.

 

[Mythopoeika]

According to the report, it's Mike who is protesting about it and Travis seems to be fine with it. If they do remake it I hope it'll be more faithful to the 60s sci-fi style of his account and less like The X-Files, as it was in Fire in the Sky.

I liked the first film, but I would much rather see a film that is true to the accounts given by all witnesses.

 

[Trevp666]

Probably not so much 'Fire in the Sky' but more like 'Pie in the Sky'.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Have never forgiven that filmmaker for embroidering the film narrative of the Travis Walton case, it was completely unnecesary and served to detract from the actual encounter. Okay, it wasn't meant to be a documentary - if only - but there was enough flesh on the bone not to have made stuff up.

Not sure I believe everything about the case but to my mind there is some fire underneath all the smoke that has been generated

 

[charliebrown]

I do not know what to think about Travis Walton.

In recent UFO conventions, Travis claimed that the aliens saved his life as the transport light that put him on the alien ship

stopped his heart and the aliens made his heart beat again.

Today he claims he looks kindly on these E.T.s

 

[dr wu]

Two things that I always wondered about was...did they do any forensics to see where he might have been based on his condition and evidence on him? Did they ever check any places where he might have been hiding...with friends or associates..? And his grandmother once said in an interview after the event that he and his friends were always fooling around , getting in trouble, and doing practical jokes and things. Food for thought....

 

[hunck]

These sites have a lot on the Walton case. All sceptical.

https://badufos.blogspot.com/

https://threedollarkit.weebly.com/travis-walton.html

http://www.debunker.com/texts/walton.html

The picture painted is that Walton & crew boss Mike Rogers cooked up the UFO story aided by Walton's brother Duane. The other members of the crew weren't in on it but were there as witnesses.

In an interview on 30 Apr 2021 Rogers confesses as much to documentary producer Ryan Gordon, detailed on badufos. He later retracts it.

From debunker:

"Ground Saucer Watch," a pro-UFO organization, was the very first UFO organization on the scene of the Walton "abduction". In cooperation with Dr. J. Allen Hynek of CUFOS, Dr. Lester Stewart of GSW began to interview the Walton family while Travis was still "missing." They immediately smelled a hoax. These are their conclusions, without any changes - RS.

1. Walton never boarded the UFO. This fact is supported by the six witnesses and the polygraph test results. [3]

2. The entire Walton family has had a continual UFO history. The Walton boys have reported observing 10 to 15 separate UFO sightings (very high).

3. When Duane was questioned about his brother's disappearance, he stated that "Travis will be found, that UFO's are friendly." GSW countered, "How do you know Travis will be found?" Duane said "I have a feeling, a strong feeling." GSW asked "If the UFO 'captors' are going to return Travis, will you have a camera to record this great occurrence?" Duane, "No, if I have a camera 'they' will not return."

4. The Walton's mother showed no outward emotion over the 'loss' of Travis. She said that UFO's will not harm her son, he will be returned and that UFO's have been seen by her family many times.

5. The Walton's refused any outside scientific help or anyone who logically doubted the abduction portion of the story.

6. The media and GSW was fair to the witnesses. However, when the story started to 'fall apart' the Waltons would only talk to people who did not doubt the abduction story.

7. APRO became involved and criticized both GSW and Dr. Hynek for taking a negative position on the encounter.

8. The Waltons 'sold' their story to the National Enquirer and the story was completely twisted from the truth.

The threedollarkit article argues that

Travis and Mike, assisted by at least one or two confederates (probably including Travis' brother Duane), used the existing Gentry fire tower along Rim Road in the forest to first, simulate a UFO, with a powerful searchlight to "zap" Travis, and second, hide Travis away for five days while he was supposed to be on board a "saucer". (There is an apartment inside the tower, for the watcher to stay during his shift, which apparently was five days!) The other five woodcutters had no idea what was going on - but Travis needed them to be there as witnesses.

 

[Austin Popper]

These sites have a lot on the Walton case. All sceptical.

https://badufos.blogspot.com/

https://threedollarkit.weebly.com/travis-walton.html

http://www.debunker.com/texts/walton.html

The picture painted is that Walton & crew boss Mike Rogers cooked up the UFO story aided by Walton's brother Duane. The other members of the crew weren't in on it but were there as witnesses.

In an interview on 30 Apr 2021 Rogers confesses as much to documentary producer Ryan Gordon, detailed on badufos. He later retracts it.

From debunker:



The threedollarkit article argues that

He does a lot more than retract it. He flatly calls Gordon a liar. Big difference!

The Walton case has always been in my grey basket. Hard to tell much about it with any certainty, but the fact the crew has maintained their story does not point to a hoax, especially one thrown together on the spot as some like to claim. That crew was a bit of a random outfit put together for one contract job, as I recall. At any rate, there was a lot of pressure on them to rat out the others. That chickenshit Klass offered them fat money to "admit" to a hoax.

Anyway, I don't know and don't really care what actually happened, but if Gordon is making things up then he's as big an ass as any hoaxer.

 

[hunck]

He does a lot more than retract it. He flatly calls Gordon a liar. Big difference!

The Walton case has always been in my grey basket. Hard to tell much about it with any certainty, but the fact the crew has maintained their story does not point to a hoax, especially one thrown together on the spot as some like to claim. That crew was a bit of a random outfit put together for one contract job, as I recall. At any rate, there was a lot of pressure on them to rat out the others. That chickenshit Klass offered them fat money to "admit" to a hoax.

Anyway, I don't know and don't really care what actually happened, but if Gordon is making things up then he's as big an ass as any hoaxer.

According to badufos Rogers called Gordon out of the blue & he recorded the conversation on his phone. You can read a transcript of it. The audio may be online too.

My, how quickly things have been happening! On July 3, I wrote about how "Crew Chief Mike Rogers Confesses the Travis Walton Hoax!," which contains a recorded confession of the hoax by Rogers. Normally, you'd think that would settle the matter, but that's not how things work in UFOOLogy. Soon, Rogers was claiming on his Facebook page and elsewhere that documentary producer Ryan Gordon, who made the recording, had digitally altered it, to fake his statements. Of course Gordon objected to this, noting that it accused him of a felony, which was quite injurious to his reputation. Mike agreed to retract the accusation, provided that Ryan acknowledged that Mike retracted his 'confession'. Both agreed, and peace was restored, temporarily.

So it appears he isn't making it up.

Re the crew sticking to their stories, it could be looked at as, either they witnessed something genuinely weird, or they were hoaxed by the others into believing they had. Either way could lead them to stick to their stories.

If it was a hoax, I don't think it was thrown together on the spot. It would've taken some planning - the lights, somewhere to stay during his disappearance for 5 days..

 

[Austin Popper]

The interview I saw had Gordon contacting Rogers. What a mess.

Well I want and looked, and the video is no longer available. As I recall, Rogers said he'd never heard of Gordon but agreed to an interview after being contacted by him. He then went on to say, in no uncertain terms, that Gordon manipulated the interview to make it appear he said things he did not. He then emphatically insisted that they did not hoax the event. I have no idea why it has been taken down.

 

[hunck]

The interview I saw had Gordon contacting Rogers. What a mess.

Well I want and looked, and the video is no longer available. As I recall, Rogers said he'd never heard of Gordon but agreed to an interview after being contacted by him. He then went on to say, in no uncertain terms, that Gordon manipulated the interview to make it appear he said things he did not. He then emphatically insisted that they did not hoax the event. I have no idea why it has been taken down.

Maybe precisely for the reason outlined above.

 

[Austin Popper]

Could be, I don't know. It would appear that someone is completely full of shit. Again, I don't know who.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

According to badufos Rogers called Gordon out of the blue & he recorded the conversation on his phone. You can read a transcript of it. The audio may be online too.



So it appears he isn't making it up.

Re the crew sticking to their stories, it could be looked at as, either they witnessed something genuinely weird, or they were hoaxed by the others into believing they had. Either way could lead them to stick to their stories.

If it was a hoax, I don't think it was thrown together on the spot. It would've taken some planning - the lights, somewhere to stay during his disappearance for 5 days..

Suggest you read the latest on Three Dollar Kit:

https://threedollarkit.weebly.com/blog-how-many-dollars

• Travis Walton and Mike Rogers hoaxed their five workmates with a UFO sighting in the hope of winning $100,000 from the National Enquirer. They got $5000 and didn't own up to the men whose lives they'd ruined even as the checks were handed out.
• Travis thought he was making a film with a self-titled producer who knew him socially. He was fed up with his "job" (UFO conference appearances, pretending to be compassionate about other people's abduction experiences, retelling his Heinlein rip-off abduction story, and coming up with new crap about stolen fetuses and magic DNA to keep things fresh). He thought he'd be paid a large sum to retire on, making his "confession" worthwhile.
• Mike Rogers got wind of the money on offer, tried to get his cut, and when it all fell through both he and Travis pressed the reset button and continue to be toxic people because of their secret.

 

[hunck]

Suggest you read the latest on Three Dollar Kit:

https://threedollarkit.weebly.com/blog-how-many-dollars

• Travis Walton and Mike Rogers hoaxed their five workmates with a UFO sighting in the hope of winning $100,000 from the National Enquirer. They got $5000 and didn't own up to the men whose lives they'd ruined even as the checks were handed out.
• Travis thought he was making a film with a self-titled producer who knew him socially. He was fed up with his "job" (UFO conference appearances, pretending to be compassionate about other people's abduction experiences, retelling his Heinlein rip-off abduction story, and coming up with new crap about stolen fetuses and magic DNA to keep things fresh). He thought he'd be paid a large sum to retire on, making his "confession" worthwhile.
• Mike Rogers got wind of the money on offer, tried to get his cut, and when it all fell through both he and Travis pressed the reset button and continue to be toxic people because of their secret.

No beating about the bush there..

 

[GNC]

Geez, if you'd told me all that when I was a kid, I'd be totally crestfallen. I'm a bit disappointed now, to be honest!

 

[Paul_Exeter]

No beating about the bush there..

Incidentally, that £100.000 prize is actually the equivalent of £500,000 today. Not a bad sum for some broke lumberjacks.

If you explore Three-Dollar Kit you will find the role a fire watch tower played in both the 'craft' itself and as a hiding place for Travis. Personally, I feel this blog has nailed it as a hoax for money, I have to say I'm also a little disappointed however this case was a bit suspect from the off

The blog also 'solves' the Betty and Barney Hill case, which has already started to look fragile over time. The excellent book "Encounters at Indian Head" also offers up a rational explanation involving a cafe with large windows at the top of a ski slope that was in the exact same location in the 'sky' as Barney's UFO.

Leaves me wondering if any of the famous UFO abduction cases will last the test of history. It seems so may were badly investigated by UFO believers who only focused on the data they wanted to see and hear and utilised now discredited hypnosis. That is also rather sad, but then we haven't had a full-on case like Travis Walton or Betty and Barney Hill for decades now; the last in the UK seems to have been the A70 Abduction in 1992, almost 30 years ago and pre-internet and mobile phones:

https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/best-in-edinburgh/terrifying-tale-a70-incident-edinburghs-18655557

Even this case suffers from how it was researched and relies on 'evidence' from hypnosis that bears too many similarities to various science fiction films and tv programmes and also Travis Walton

*sigh*

 

[Analogue Boy]

Geez, if you'd told me all that when I was a kid, I'd be totally crestfallen. I'm a bit disappointed now, to be honest!

Are you disappointed by the fact that Aliens don’t abduct people and perform experiments on them ruining their lives or that people will lie to get money?

There’s lots here to pick apart but it certainly moves the Walton Abduction case firmly to the hoax end of the seesaw of UFO evidence. I wonder if the Edmund Science Co UFO kit is still available for three dollars?

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Are you disappointed by the fact that Aliens don’t abduct people and perform experiments on them ruining their lives or that people will lie to get money?

There’s lots here to pick apart but it certainly moves the Walton Abduction case firmly to the hoax end of the seesaw of UFO evidence. I wonder if the Edmund Science Co UFO kit is still available for three dollars?

Does Whitley Strieber look at his bank account and think to himself that being abducted ruined his life...?

http://www.famousnetworth.org/whitley-strieber-net-worth/

 

[GNC]

Are you disappointed by the fact that Aliens don’t abduct people and perform experiments on them ruining their lives or that people will lie to get money?

The latter. I'm so naive! But like the Betty and Barney Hill case debunking, it seems the classic stories I took to be the Gospel truth as a kid are toppling like ninepins. They'll be telling me Santa Claus isn't real next.

 

[charliebrown]

Travis Walton filming a UFO segment for Discovery Plus Channel said people come up to him wanting to him to describe his alien abductors as grotesque with octopus features or being a giant insect.

Travis said sorry, his abductors had two legs, two arms, two feet, and a head with the eyes in right place and being a weird version of us.

He said very humanoid.

Travis maintains he was bad damaged being taken aboard the UFO by accident, and they fixed him and saved his life.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Three-Dollar Kit is bt far my favourite open-minded but skeptical UFO blog. You can chose to believe its conclusions or not but it does a fantastic job of presenting the evidence for and against and cutting through the bulls*t. To my mind it has debunked the Travis Walton affair as a hoax to make money from the 'National Enquirer':

https://threedollarkit.weebly.com/blog/destroying-the-truth-travis-walton-hoax

 

[SimonBurchell]

Leaves me wondering if any of the famous UFO abduction cases will last the test of history. It seems so may were badly investigated by UFO believers who only focused on the data they wanted to see and hear and utilised now discredited hypnosis.

*sigh*

It is very easy to debunk, and I agree that hypnosis is completely discredited. However, I have experienced too much weirdness to discard completely cases based on what researchers are saying decades after the event. I still think there is a core of strangeness with the Betty and Barny Hill case, and also think that true high strangeness events can be triggered by misobservations* of real-world objects, such as the Moon, or the lights of a building.

*misobservation is perhaps not what I'm trying to express, more like a "temporary reality" using something from consensus reality for its basis.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

It is very easy to debunk, and I agree that hypnosis is completely discredited. However, I have experienced too much weirdness to discard completely cases based on what researchers are saying decades after the event. I still think there is a core of strangeness with the Betty and Barny Hill case, and also think that true high strangeness events can be triggered by misobservations* of real-world objects, such as the Moon, or the lights of a building.

*misobservation is perhaps not what I'm trying to express, more like a "temporary reality" using something from consensus reality for its basis.

I have long thought that most of the high-profile cases had a central core of high-strangeness but that this was subsequently distorted or even deliberately ignored to fit the researcher's beliefs, Take for example, the 1992 A70 Tarbrac UFO case:

https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/best-in-edinburgh/terrifying-tale-a70-incident-edinburghs-18655557

A strange airborne object encountered at night above a deserted Scottish road? A shimmering curtain of light as they drove under it? Yes please! An intriguing and perplexing case in its own right without putting the witnesses through hypnosis months alter after they have devoured all the UFO books and movies they can get their hands on. No wonder they then 'recall', draw and describe and draw Spielberg's ET and scenes from the recently released 'Fire in the Sky' movie.