Marc W. Shako's Blog, page 2
May 13, 2018
The Travis Walton Abduction pt.2
95% of UFO sightings can be written off as nothing: weather phenomena; misidentified aircraft; mistakenly identified stars or planets. 5% cannot be explained. In this series we’ll be looking at the mass sightings. The abductions. The unexplained deaths. Real cases, with real people.
These are the 5%. These, are the UFO files.
This week, it's part two of the Travis Walton Abduction case. In case you missed it, here's part one.
Part Two
It’s been five days since Travis Walton disappeared in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Snowflake, Arizona. The November nights have been cold, some of them sub-zero, and the police are becoming more certain by the day that one of Walton’s co-workers who reported him missing is more than likely his killer. Far from convinced of the strange story of UFOs told by the six men who did return from the forest, they subjected the forest workers to polygraph tests. Police are dumbfounded when five of the men pass, one result is inconclusive. Over 50 searchers, helicopters, and sniffer dogs have been searching the area where Travis disappeared, to no avail. Wary of being hoodwinked, the police have released a picture of Travis Walton, asking anyone with any information to come forward.
Nobody has responded.
If the five days since the disappearance have been difficult for the police, they have been hell for the family. The press have been interested from the off, but since the men passed the lie-detector tests, scrutiny has reached fever-pitch. Worse than that, the family have been receiving prank phone calls. Every time the phone rings, it’s either a reporter looking for a scoop, or a member of the public making fun of them and their story. So when the phone rings on the fifth evening of Travis’s absence, his brother-in-law Grant is reluctant to pick up. The only feeling stronger than that reluctance is the desire to know where Travis is, so he answers.
On the other end of the line is a garbled, excited voice. Another prank. Grant is about to hang up, when the voice becomes clear. “It’s me! It’s Travis!”
He jumps in his truck and heads for the location ‘Travis’ gave. After five days, it’s natural to believe that this is probably just another cruel hoax. But to not check it out would be unforgivable. He picks up Travis’s brother Duane on the way and they head for the gas station from where Travis made the call.
They arrives at the phone booth to see Travis, naked, slumped inside. They grab him and load him into the truck. Travis isn’t making much sense. They tell him they’ve been looking for him and that they were worried sick. Looking at the clock, Travis sees that it is after midnight and apologises. Duane tells Travis to touch his face. Travis feels his chin and the growth of beard there, baffled as he’d only shaved ‘that morning’. “Travis, you’ve been gone for five days.”
While friends and family (and not least Allen Dalis) are relieved to see Travis return, some are none too impressed. By now the police are convinced they’ve been taken for the proverbial ride. And for every UFO nut who has arrived in town, there are as many journalists and sceptics who think this whole thing has been an elaborate charade. They are in for quite the surprise.
The police want answers. Travis is questioned, and his story is out of this world.
He claims that he woke up at the side of the road because of the feeling of cool air against his skin. When he looked up, he saw another disc. This one not illuminated, just hovering by the side of the road. In an instant it shot upward into the night sky and was gone. From there, Travis made his way to the phone and made the reverse charge call to his sister, where Grant answered. The police want to know where he has been for the past five days. Still badly shaken from his experience, Travis tries to put his experience into words.
After approaching the UFO in the forest, he was hit by a beam of light and thrown backwards. At this point he must have lost consciousness, because when he awakes, he’s no longer in the forest. Now he’s in a small, damp room, lying fully dressed on a table he thinks is at the hospital. He wonders why they haven’t taken his clothes off. He turns to one of the ‘doctors’ to ask what is going on. That’s when he turns to the people surrounding him to see that they are not people at all.
Looking back at him are four creatures less than five feet tall, with over-sized heads, and eyes with irises so large that the whites of their eyes can barely be seen. Travis screams and grabs the nearest object, a kind of lightweight pipe, to use as a weapon. He swings it at the creatures, telling them to get back. They turn and leave the room. Travis scrambles to his feet, desperately trying to get his bearings. He moves quickly to the door, checks the curved hallway, and turns left. There he reaches another door. Heart pounding, he enters the room and sees a chair, facing away. He creeps behind the chair, unable to see if anyone is sitting in it, desperately wanting to avoid any further interaction with the small beings he has just encountered. As he gets closer to the chair in the centre of the room, the strangest thing happens: the walls become translucent, and Travis can see beyond them, into a sea of stars. Relieved to see that the chair is empty, he sits and inspects the control panel before him. Worried that touching anything will alert his captors to his presence, he quickly leaves and re-enters the hallway, moving on to another room, where he’s relieved to see another human. Over six-feet tall. Travis tries to engage in conversation, but this tall figure remains silent, leading Travis to another room.
In this room are three more people - two men and a woman. He asks them where they are and what is going on and is again met with silence. They led him to a table and made him lie down. Wondering what was going to happen to him, he lost consciousness, the next thing he knows, he’s naked at the roadside.
The police make the shaken Travis Walton take a lie-detector test. Given Walton’s confused mental state, rather unsurprisingly, the test comes back all over the place, indicating deception. But that is not the end of the story.
Since then, Travis Walton has passed 12 separate lie-detector tests.
One of the crewmen was offered $10,000 to ‘come clean’ and denounce the whole story. While he must surely have been tempted by such a large sum, he declined.
Many have claimed that the whole story was a hoax, yet none have been able to provide proof to substantiate their claims. In the five days that Travis was missing, no evidence of Travis was found in the woods, and not one person came forward saying they had seen him. In the face of ridicule and scrutiny, none of the men have changed their story, despite being offered financial temptation to do so. While Travis Walton has made money from the event, he had to wait years before that was possible. In those years he faced mockery and surely must have been tempted to say that it was not true. During that time, nobody came forward to say it was a hoax, and it was by no means certain that sticking to his guns would have led to financial benefit. Travis did not change one word of his story.
So, you're interested in UFOs? Want to read a novel? Sure you do! Click here for more info!
Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it! Remember, if you don't already follow me on social media, click one of the icons right at the bottom of the page so you don't miss out. Any shares/retweets/likes are greatly appreciated!
These are the 5%. These, are the UFO files.
This week, it's part two of the Travis Walton Abduction case. In case you missed it, here's part one.
Part Two
It’s been five days since Travis Walton disappeared in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Snowflake, Arizona. The November nights have been cold, some of them sub-zero, and the police are becoming more certain by the day that one of Walton’s co-workers who reported him missing is more than likely his killer. Far from convinced of the strange story of UFOs told by the six men who did return from the forest, they subjected the forest workers to polygraph tests. Police are dumbfounded when five of the men pass, one result is inconclusive. Over 50 searchers, helicopters, and sniffer dogs have been searching the area where Travis disappeared, to no avail. Wary of being hoodwinked, the police have released a picture of Travis Walton, asking anyone with any information to come forward.
Nobody has responded.
If the five days since the disappearance have been difficult for the police, they have been hell for the family. The press have been interested from the off, but since the men passed the lie-detector tests, scrutiny has reached fever-pitch. Worse than that, the family have been receiving prank phone calls. Every time the phone rings, it’s either a reporter looking for a scoop, or a member of the public making fun of them and their story. So when the phone rings on the fifth evening of Travis’s absence, his brother-in-law Grant is reluctant to pick up. The only feeling stronger than that reluctance is the desire to know where Travis is, so he answers.
On the other end of the line is a garbled, excited voice. Another prank. Grant is about to hang up, when the voice becomes clear. “It’s me! It’s Travis!”
He jumps in his truck and heads for the location ‘Travis’ gave. After five days, it’s natural to believe that this is probably just another cruel hoax. But to not check it out would be unforgivable. He picks up Travis’s brother Duane on the way and they head for the gas station from where Travis made the call.
They arrives at the phone booth to see Travis, naked, slumped inside. They grab him and load him into the truck. Travis isn’t making much sense. They tell him they’ve been looking for him and that they were worried sick. Looking at the clock, Travis sees that it is after midnight and apologises. Duane tells Travis to touch his face. Travis feels his chin and the growth of beard there, baffled as he’d only shaved ‘that morning’. “Travis, you’ve been gone for five days.”
While friends and family (and not least Allen Dalis) are relieved to see Travis return, some are none too impressed. By now the police are convinced they’ve been taken for the proverbial ride. And for every UFO nut who has arrived in town, there are as many journalists and sceptics who think this whole thing has been an elaborate charade. They are in for quite the surprise.
The police want answers. Travis is questioned, and his story is out of this world.
He claims that he woke up at the side of the road because of the feeling of cool air against his skin. When he looked up, he saw another disc. This one not illuminated, just hovering by the side of the road. In an instant it shot upward into the night sky and was gone. From there, Travis made his way to the phone and made the reverse charge call to his sister, where Grant answered. The police want to know where he has been for the past five days. Still badly shaken from his experience, Travis tries to put his experience into words.
After approaching the UFO in the forest, he was hit by a beam of light and thrown backwards. At this point he must have lost consciousness, because when he awakes, he’s no longer in the forest. Now he’s in a small, damp room, lying fully dressed on a table he thinks is at the hospital. He wonders why they haven’t taken his clothes off. He turns to one of the ‘doctors’ to ask what is going on. That’s when he turns to the people surrounding him to see that they are not people at all.
Looking back at him are four creatures less than five feet tall, with over-sized heads, and eyes with irises so large that the whites of their eyes can barely be seen. Travis screams and grabs the nearest object, a kind of lightweight pipe, to use as a weapon. He swings it at the creatures, telling them to get back. They turn and leave the room. Travis scrambles to his feet, desperately trying to get his bearings. He moves quickly to the door, checks the curved hallway, and turns left. There he reaches another door. Heart pounding, he enters the room and sees a chair, facing away. He creeps behind the chair, unable to see if anyone is sitting in it, desperately wanting to avoid any further interaction with the small beings he has just encountered. As he gets closer to the chair in the centre of the room, the strangest thing happens: the walls become translucent, and Travis can see beyond them, into a sea of stars. Relieved to see that the chair is empty, he sits and inspects the control panel before him. Worried that touching anything will alert his captors to his presence, he quickly leaves and re-enters the hallway, moving on to another room, where he’s relieved to see another human. Over six-feet tall. Travis tries to engage in conversation, but this tall figure remains silent, leading Travis to another room.
In this room are three more people - two men and a woman. He asks them where they are and what is going on and is again met with silence. They led him to a table and made him lie down. Wondering what was going to happen to him, he lost consciousness, the next thing he knows, he’s naked at the roadside.
The police make the shaken Travis Walton take a lie-detector test. Given Walton’s confused mental state, rather unsurprisingly, the test comes back all over the place, indicating deception. But that is not the end of the story.
Since then, Travis Walton has passed 12 separate lie-detector tests.
One of the crewmen was offered $10,000 to ‘come clean’ and denounce the whole story. While he must surely have been tempted by such a large sum, he declined.
Many have claimed that the whole story was a hoax, yet none have been able to provide proof to substantiate their claims. In the five days that Travis was missing, no evidence of Travis was found in the woods, and not one person came forward saying they had seen him. In the face of ridicule and scrutiny, none of the men have changed their story, despite being offered financial temptation to do so. While Travis Walton has made money from the event, he had to wait years before that was possible. In those years he faced mockery and surely must have been tempted to say that it was not true. During that time, nobody came forward to say it was a hoax, and it was by no means certain that sticking to his guns would have led to financial benefit. Travis did not change one word of his story.
So, you're interested in UFOs? Want to read a novel? Sure you do! Click here for more info!
Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it! Remember, if you don't already follow me on social media, click one of the icons right at the bottom of the page so you don't miss out. Any shares/retweets/likes are greatly appreciated!
May 5, 2018
The Travis Walton Abduction pt1.
95% of UFO sightings can be written off as nothing: weather phenomena; misidentified aircraft; mistakenly identified stars or planets. 5% cannot be explained. In this series we’ll be looking at the mass sightings. The abductions. The unexplained deaths. Real cases, with real people.
These are the 5%. These, are the UFO files.
5th November 1975, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Snowflake, Arizona.
Six men are tearing at dangerous speeds through the forest near Snowflake, Arizona. They are piled into a pick-up truck and returning from a hard day’s work in the forest, making clearings in the trees to slow the inevitable forest fires next summer. However, their breakneck driving is not from recklessness, but from sheer terror. “Is it still behind us?!” shouts the driver. Whatever the response, he will not slow down. He has no intention of slowing down until he’s out of that forest and safely back home.
One of the crew pleads with his friends. “We have to go back.” But his pleas fall upon deaf ears. At first. “We can’t just leave him.”
The driver (and crew foreman), Mike Rogers, finally hears the cries from the back and draws the truck to a screeching halt. The men sit silently, breathless, until another man speaks. “He’s right. We have to go back.” It’s agreed. Decision made, the driver turns his truck around, and they make the same journey that the seven of them had taken that morning, but now their thoughts aren’t on the day’s work ahead of them. They’re on the empty seat beside them, and the ominous disappearance of their colleague.
The day leading up to this moment had been pretty average. A bunch of guys working their way through the forest, clearing gaps in the forest to slow any fire that might break out in the coming dryer weather. But all was not well. Two of the crew members, Allen Dalis and Travis Walton, were in the midst of a dispute. Because of this, Dalis had been toying with Walton, felling trees dangerously close to him. Walton knew that there was work to be done and spent the day getting further and further from the belligerent workmate, to avoid conflict and inevitably slowing the whole operation down. Eventually, darkness fell and it was time to go home. They loaded their tools into the back of the pickup and climbed in, ready for rest at the end of a long day. But it was on that drive homeward that things took a dark turn.
As the truck weaved through the forest, a light appeared ahead of them through the trees. The men were all baffled as to what it could be, later struggling to describe the light. Struggling to say if the light was coming from a craft, or if the light was the actual craft itself. But there was a craft. A saucer shaped- object 20 feet in diameter. After a few minutes, they decide to investigate further. The truck comes to a stop and the men sit staring. “What is that?”
That’s when Travis Walton opened his door.
The others were shocked as Travis started towards the craft. They too left the truck and pleaded with him to come back, but he didn’t come back. He carried on towards the strange light. The air felt thick with static as Travis neared the light. There was a blinding flash and a scream, and when the light subsided, Travis was gone. The men had seen enough. They turned and sprinted back to the truck and fled until some semblance of calm was regained.
Now they were driving back to the scene. The men in the truck were terrified, shaking uncontrollably and rattled by what they had seen. Upon returning to the scene of the disappearance they sat in the truck, trying to build up the courage to step back out into the night, into the cold darkness that had taken their friend. The light was nowhere to be seen and they hadn’t actually seen it since that bright flash. They debated what exactly they had seen. A beam of light came from the craft and drew Travis in. They had all seen the same thing. Sure that whatever had taken Travis was gone, the men left the truck. Still shaking, they linked arms and stepped in the forest.
“That’s your story?”
The police were naturally sceptical. Seven men enter a forest with chainsaws, and after a long day of hard work where tempers are flaring, only six come out. The theory put itself together. Foul play was afoot and the most likely answer was that Travis Walton had been murdered, and his body hidden.
And yet their tall tale had about it a ring of truth. The men were genuinely distressed, and were insistent that the police search the area where Travis had gone missing. The police agreed and took the crewmen back to the forest, but their search was without success. A more thorough search was planned for the next day. This, too, was fruitless. The temperatures would drop below zero and the odds of finding Travis Walton alive were diminishing by the day.
The police continue the search but by now are seriously considering the alternate, and much more likely theory that Walton has been murdered. The men are questioned, separately, and the police are amazed that six people have their story so straight. They all report the same thing and none of their stories change. The men even state their willingness to take a polygraph test to prove not only their innocence, but their truthfulness.
The men get their wish. Cy Gilson, a polygraph examiner from the Dept of Public Safety is called in. The men are tested, and not only questioned as to whether they had anything to do with the disappearance of Travis Walton, but also regarding their bizarre cover story of flying discs and lights in the sky. And the strangest thing happens: they pass. Five of the six men come through the test without detection of deception. One test, that of Allen Dalis, is inconclusive.
It has been five cold nights since Travis disappeared, and if he had been alive at the time of his disappearance as his fellow crewmen stated, he was now almost certainly dead. The police begin questioning friends and family members of the crew, including those of Walton, determined to get to the bottom of what is going on.
In the five days since Walton’s disappearance, the spotlight and scrutiny has been building on Allen Dalis. He was the one with a motive. The dispute between him and Travis at the forefront of police minds. His was the lie detector test which had returned inconclusive. So it was that on November the 11th, days after he’d gone missing, that nobody was more relieved than Allen Dalis to hear that Travis Walton had returned.
And if investigators thought the claims of his crewmen were unbelievable, they ain’t heard nothing nothing yet...
Thanks for reading! Part Two of the Travis Walton Abduction will be here next week. Give me a follow on social media so you don’t miss out!
#element-4b91ae39-679b-4b99-82b3-9191d0515e49 .wgtc-widget-frame { width: 100%;}#element-4b91ae39-679b-4b99-82b3-9191d0515e49 .wgtc-widget-frame iframe { width: 100%; height: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0 none;}
These are the 5%. These, are the UFO files.
5th November 1975, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Snowflake, Arizona.Six men are tearing at dangerous speeds through the forest near Snowflake, Arizona. They are piled into a pick-up truck and returning from a hard day’s work in the forest, making clearings in the trees to slow the inevitable forest fires next summer. However, their breakneck driving is not from recklessness, but from sheer terror. “Is it still behind us?!” shouts the driver. Whatever the response, he will not slow down. He has no intention of slowing down until he’s out of that forest and safely back home.
One of the crew pleads with his friends. “We have to go back.” But his pleas fall upon deaf ears. At first. “We can’t just leave him.”
The driver (and crew foreman), Mike Rogers, finally hears the cries from the back and draws the truck to a screeching halt. The men sit silently, breathless, until another man speaks. “He’s right. We have to go back.” It’s agreed. Decision made, the driver turns his truck around, and they make the same journey that the seven of them had taken that morning, but now their thoughts aren’t on the day’s work ahead of them. They’re on the empty seat beside them, and the ominous disappearance of their colleague.
The day leading up to this moment had been pretty average. A bunch of guys working their way through the forest, clearing gaps in the forest to slow any fire that might break out in the coming dryer weather. But all was not well. Two of the crew members, Allen Dalis and Travis Walton, were in the midst of a dispute. Because of this, Dalis had been toying with Walton, felling trees dangerously close to him. Walton knew that there was work to be done and spent the day getting further and further from the belligerent workmate, to avoid conflict and inevitably slowing the whole operation down. Eventually, darkness fell and it was time to go home. They loaded their tools into the back of the pickup and climbed in, ready for rest at the end of a long day. But it was on that drive homeward that things took a dark turn.
As the truck weaved through the forest, a light appeared ahead of them through the trees. The men were all baffled as to what it could be, later struggling to describe the light. Struggling to say if the light was coming from a craft, or if the light was the actual craft itself. But there was a craft. A saucer shaped- object 20 feet in diameter. After a few minutes, they decide to investigate further. The truck comes to a stop and the men sit staring. “What is that?”
That’s when Travis Walton opened his door.
The others were shocked as Travis started towards the craft. They too left the truck and pleaded with him to come back, but he didn’t come back. He carried on towards the strange light. The air felt thick with static as Travis neared the light. There was a blinding flash and a scream, and when the light subsided, Travis was gone. The men had seen enough. They turned and sprinted back to the truck and fled until some semblance of calm was regained.
Now they were driving back to the scene. The men in the truck were terrified, shaking uncontrollably and rattled by what they had seen. Upon returning to the scene of the disappearance they sat in the truck, trying to build up the courage to step back out into the night, into the cold darkness that had taken their friend. The light was nowhere to be seen and they hadn’t actually seen it since that bright flash. They debated what exactly they had seen. A beam of light came from the craft and drew Travis in. They had all seen the same thing. Sure that whatever had taken Travis was gone, the men left the truck. Still shaking, they linked arms and stepped in the forest.
“That’s your story?”
The police were naturally sceptical. Seven men enter a forest with chainsaws, and after a long day of hard work where tempers are flaring, only six come out. The theory put itself together. Foul play was afoot and the most likely answer was that Travis Walton had been murdered, and his body hidden.
And yet their tall tale had about it a ring of truth. The men were genuinely distressed, and were insistent that the police search the area where Travis had gone missing. The police agreed and took the crewmen back to the forest, but their search was without success. A more thorough search was planned for the next day. This, too, was fruitless. The temperatures would drop below zero and the odds of finding Travis Walton alive were diminishing by the day.
The police continue the search but by now are seriously considering the alternate, and much more likely theory that Walton has been murdered. The men are questioned, separately, and the police are amazed that six people have their story so straight. They all report the same thing and none of their stories change. The men even state their willingness to take a polygraph test to prove not only their innocence, but their truthfulness.
The men get their wish. Cy Gilson, a polygraph examiner from the Dept of Public Safety is called in. The men are tested, and not only questioned as to whether they had anything to do with the disappearance of Travis Walton, but also regarding their bizarre cover story of flying discs and lights in the sky. And the strangest thing happens: they pass. Five of the six men come through the test without detection of deception. One test, that of Allen Dalis, is inconclusive.
It has been five cold nights since Travis disappeared, and if he had been alive at the time of his disappearance as his fellow crewmen stated, he was now almost certainly dead. The police begin questioning friends and family members of the crew, including those of Walton, determined to get to the bottom of what is going on.
In the five days since Walton’s disappearance, the spotlight and scrutiny has been building on Allen Dalis. He was the one with a motive. The dispute between him and Travis at the forefront of police minds. His was the lie detector test which had returned inconclusive. So it was that on November the 11th, days after he’d gone missing, that nobody was more relieved than Allen Dalis to hear that Travis Walton had returned.
And if investigators thought the claims of his crewmen were unbelievable, they ain’t heard nothing nothing yet...
Thanks for reading! Part Two of the Travis Walton Abduction will be here next week. Give me a follow on social media so you don’t miss out!
#element-4b91ae39-679b-4b99-82b3-9191d0515e49 .wgtc-widget-frame { width: 100%;}#element-4b91ae39-679b-4b99-82b3-9191d0515e49 .wgtc-widget-frame iframe { width: 100%; height: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0 none;}
April 29, 2018
The Westall UFO
This blog post is currently under review.
