When
I learned that Mike Rogers had passed, I put a short note up on this blog. It
wasn’t so much an obituary as a notice that he was gone. I shared some of my
interactions with him which I believed to be of interest, but drew no real
conclusions about the validity of some of the things he’d said in the past.
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| Mike Rogers. Photo Courtesy of Mike Rogers. |
Mike
Rogers' daughter took his confession on his death bed - he confessed (for the
second time) to hoaxing the TW sighting with Travis, confirming his role at the
fire tower (the UFO) - he was to stop at a certain viewing point for Travis to
get out, then generate panic in the truck and drive away fast after the
zapping, to leave the impression Travis was abducted. Given the various changes
and contradictions in their stories over the years in response to skeptical
pushback, this version fits the actual facts.
Mike
also confessed to the first part of the Phoenix Lights (V-shape) in which he
was so interested for the past 20 years. If we read his "speculation"
as confession - a lightweight wire-and-plastic construction lifted by helium,
with DEFINITELY!! exactly 7 lights no matter what people reported, released
near Prescott that traveled with the wind speed and direction to Casa Grand -
we might solve that part of the sighting. He agrees the second part was flares.
Before
I announced on Coast-to-Coast AM that Rogers was gone, I had read the comment.
I told the executive producer about it with the caveat that I had not had a
chance to vet the information and I wasn’t comfortable mentioning the hoax claim.
I did know about some of the acrimony between Travis Walton and Mike Rogers and
I knew they had put it behind them. So, I just made the announcement about
Rogers’s passing on air and let it go at that.
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| Travis Walton at the Roswell UFO Festival. |
Somewhere
In The Skies
podcaster Ryan Sprague shared Jennifer Stein’s response regarding Mike Rogers’
alleged deathbed confession about the Travis Walton case. Stein has a wonderful
documentary called “Travis: The True Story of Travis Walton.”
“I
think it’s incredibly disrespectful to tamper with Mike’s final statements. I
do not believe he made any kind of deathbed confession, because filmmaker
Patrick James visited him three days before his passing and got a completely
different story directly from Mike. Patrick James, an Arizona filmmaker, will
be releasing a documentary about the Walton case soon.
‘If
this were truly a final statement, why didn’t his daughter post the audio? Why
just a text, and then take it down? A lot of things don’t add up. I don’t
believe it’s a legitimate post. I suspect it’s Charlie Wiser trying one last
time to convince the world that the Walton case is a hoax. I find this behavior
sad and disrespectful. I had very nice, respectful texts with Mike Rogers in
the weeks before he passed, and he never mentioned any of this.’”
[https://youtube.com/.../UgkxJkWlurO32s0SAlrY...](https://youtube.com/.../UgkxJkWlurO32s0SAlrY...)
Full
interview:
[https://www.youtube.com/live/iNo6BqnzY2Q...](https://www.youtube.com/live/iNo6BqnzY2Q...)
[https://x.com/likeitmatters3/status/2036941617685553567?s=43](https://x.com/likeitmatters3/status/2036941617685553567?s=43)
But
to repudiate this information, Wiser published the following to the comments of
the previous post. “His daughter published a summary of it on Quora - she says
it was recorded. She's deleted the post now but a screenshot is on my Twitter.
She's currently deciding how best to release the information.”
Although
this is evidence that she posted it, that she has since deleted is currently
significant. That she said that there was a recording is also significant, as
is the fact that the information is no longer available to us. Without that
recording, we aren’t left with much evidence expect the apparent fact that she did
post it.
I
confess that I’m confused by all this and it is something that happens far too
often in the UFO field. I can’t count the number of times that I have run into
this sort of thing. Two completely different points of view proving that a
certain case is a hoax and the other underscoring the importance and validity
of the event. Just look at the rumors, half-truths and outright lies that
surround the Roswell crash case.
On
the other hand, it is often important that we have all the information about a
case, a report, a statement that illustrates the conflict so that we might come
to a conclusion that fits our belief structure. This means that some who know
that there is no alien visitation believe any UFO sighting that isn’t a mistaken
view of natural world phenomena about us is a hoax. On the other side are the
true believers who accept any story about alien visitation no matter how
outlandish that claim might be.
I
try to fall in the middle of that continuum because I don’t know that alien
visitation is impossible but that I would like some stronger evidence proving
that visitation. Here is an example of what I mean because there are two camps.
Either Walton was abducted by aliens or he invented the tale with some help.
I
could argue either side of the debate because the published information. Philip
Klass’s attack on the case is filled with holes, but there are contradictions
in Walton’s story as well. There are Roger’s statements that no one saw Walton
abducted because they had driven off. So, where was he for those five days? It
is a case of I just don’t know.
But
the point here is that the tale of a “deathbed confession” by Rogers doesn’t
seem to be accurate. That, of course, leaves us right where we were when we
entered the debate. Logic suggests it must be a hoax given the problems of interstellar
travel and some of the best evidence suggests that Walton was “taken.” To draw
a proper conclusion, we simply need more and better information.
6 comments:
Yes, I agree. I too feel like I must be in the middle of the continuum between believers and skeptics. Like Steve Miller sang, "Stuck in the Middle with You"; "clowns to the left of me and jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle."
Alright, that is enough quotations of song lyrics for today. I returned to your blog for more talk about the case of when Travis Walton went missing in 1975. On Sunday night, I listened to part of an encore of when George interviewed Major Ed Dames in 2022, which I vaguely remember from when I listened then.
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2022-01-25-show/
The webmaster wrote, "Ultraterrestrials were the ones who interacted with Travis Walton in his famed abduction case aboard a spacecraft-- they were almost invisible wraith-like beings, Dames added".
Did Travis Walton ever respond to Major Ed Dames's claims? Guess if anybody has a problem with the concept of space travel, one could go along with the vague unexplained nonsense better known as the Ultra Terrestrial Hypothesis. Let's not ignore the apparent contradiction of beings whom we were told did not travel through outer space happening to have been aboard a spacecraft. Honestly, this makes no sense to me. Perhaps I am too dumb to understand new hip cool trendy ideas like ultra terrestrial inter dimensions or whatever.
Sure is peculiar how the most famous abduction cases are the most atypical.
Anyway, thanks for letting me vent here. Feels great to let others be aware too.
The history of this case led over time to my development of a skeptical mindset relative to the entire UFO phenomenon. When this first broke nationally when I was a young person I read everything I could get my hands on about UFO’s. This case upon my initial review back then was a slam dunk. Multiple witnesses to the UFO and the abduction event, the missing protagonist Mr. Walton, and with the witnesses being solid no-nonsense blue collar guys like me at that time in my life. Then over time the validity of the case seemed to erode. Turned out nobody actually witnessed an abduction per se. We learned later that Travis and his family were very interested in reported alien abduction cases and had discussed it as a desired experience. Mike Rogers we learned was facing a default on his contract and needed an “act of God” to ease that pressure. It came out that Mr. Walton had a previous criminal conviction, and that his family members seemed strangely complacent with the fact that a son and.brother were missing under peculiar circumstances. Over time the authenticity of what was reported was degraded significantly by other information that came out. I went from being a “true believer” to a somewhere in the middle skeptic. And this was not the only so-called “classic” case where I witnessed a similar erosion in the sensational information initially presented with the revelation of more mundane aspects of what may have actually transpired.
Rest in peace, Mike Rogers. I suspect that the real story of what happened long ago is just as interesting as a study of human nature and behavior as the alien abduction story that seized the minds of young people like me back in the day.
"Mike also confessed to the first part of the Phoenix Lights (V-shape) in which he was so interested for the past 20 years. If we read his "speculation" as confession - a lightweight wire-and-plastic construction lifted by helium, with DEFINITELY!! exactly 7 lights no matter what people reported, released near Prescott that traveled with the wind speed and direction to Casa Grand - we might solve that part of the sighting. He agrees the second part was flares."
So Mike was responsible for "The Phoenix Lights Hoax" now, too? Maybe also the Lindbergh kidnapping? What the bloody hell is that paragraph supposed to mean? There is so much BS flying around, Kevin didn't even get around to commenting on this.
Anyone can make a fake account, post whatever they want as whoever they want to pretend to be, then delete it and claim this or that on the internet. It seems the same people who keep claiming there is no evidence don't seem to be troubled by their own lack of real evidence.
The only evidence you presented that Rogers' deathbed confession "doesn’t seem to be accurate" is that Jennifer Stein has accused me of screenshotting a fabricated post by his daughter. Stein has an extremely vested interest in maintaining the validity of this case, as of course does Walton.
She - or you - could have just asked me for more evidence instead of posting yet more speculation.
Charlie Wiser -
I thought I had made it clear that I was waiting for more information and evidence before I decided one way or another on this. I had you comments and I had those made by Jennifer Stein. I have also talked with Walton, Rogers and Pierce about this. You seemed to have suggested that you hadn't heard the tape and that the posting had been taken down. Given all that, I have taken a wait and see attitude. However, if you wish to contact me about this, I'm at KRandle993@aol.com. I welcome the conversation.
As the person who reposted Mike's daughter's post in the first place (because she directed me to it, after our prior communications), it could be that the more information and evidence you were waiting for was with her (or secondhand, with me). I appreciate you reserving judgment, which is more than I can say for many others - including those finding it hard to cope. Jennifer Stein in particular has had a disgusting response to this - accusing me of impersonating someone and fabricating their words, when I have no history whatsoever of lying and she knows this.
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