Is the Prime witness in Trinity UFO-crash story a pathological liar?

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Posted On: October 1, 2023

The book Trinity: The Best-Kept Secret (2021, 2022), by Jacques Vallee and Paola Harris, tells a story of a UFO crash and military recovery in New Mexico in August, 1945, the so-called "Trinity" crash.

The story was based on the testimony of two claimed eyewitnesses, Reme Baca and Jose Padilla, first revealed in 2003.

In a series of investigative reports published beginning on May 1, 2023. 

I made the case that the Baca-Padilla story was a shoddy hoax.

In a "declaration" written by Jacques Vallee titled "A Tale of Two Urchins: Truth and Consequences in New Mexico Ufology," dated September 23, 2023, and posted for awhile on the internet, Vallee made several major changes to the story told in his book.

He conceded that I had shown that Reme Baca had previously pitched a very different UFO-crash "memory" to UFO writer Tom Carey, a story Vallee admitted was "fiction".

Vallee also conceded that I had proven that a key figure in the Baca-Padilla tale, Eddie Apodaca (a "friend of the family"), had been with the Army in Europe, at the time Baca and Padilla had sworn they'd seen Apodaca entering the downed alien craft.

Yet Vallee continues to believe the crash tale, mainly based in trust in Padilla, who Harris recently called "one of the most honest people I've ever met".

But my research found that the New Mexico State Police received a very different assessment of Jose Padilla's credibility, and of the UFO story, in two different interviews with Sammy Padilla, the son and house-mate of Jose Padilla, on July 23, 2022.

Sammy Padilla said, "My dad is a pathological liar".

Sammy Padilla also told the State Police that his father had falsely claimed to have been a police officer in California, and to have been wounded in military service.

(I had already independently documented both of those lies before I even knew about these police recordings.)

Sammy Padilla indicated that he believed the entire UFO story to be untrue.

I have published the State Police public records, and my analysis of the state of the debate over the Trinity crash story, in a new article on my free blog, Mirador.

Post from user Implacable_Gaze at at reddit.

Comments:

I think this is why having multiple data points is so important. People can lie, sure, but the chances that one person is lying is significantly higher than the chances that 10 people and radar data are lying.

​Ultimately, if you think about it, the chances that the stories being told arent entirely accurate is extremely high in almost every case.

This doesnt mean that theyre always lying, or that the overall story isnt true, it just means that even when being honest, our memories are just not good enough to get all the details right.

We can believe that the people telling these stories are being honest, but I think we should ALWAYS be skeptical in the absence of corroboration or hard data.

​I'm always a bit disappointed when peoples stories end up being proven false, but I tend to think most people who tell their stories arent liars.

I think when this happens its usually because they mistook one thing for something else, and over time their memories shifted toward their belief.

That said, people who actively lie about these things are actively and intentionally harmful with little payoff.

Fortunately, I cant think of too many times this has been the case.

Comment from user Machoopi at at reddit.

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Posted On: October 1, 2023

The book Trinity: The Best-Kept Secret (2021, 2022), by Jacques Vallee and Paola Harris, tells a story of a UFO crash and military recovery in New Mexico in August, 1945, the so-called "Trinity" crash.

The story was based on the testimony of two claimed eyewitnesses, Reme Baca and Jose Padilla, first revealed in 2003.

In a series of investigative reports published beginning on May 1, 2023. 

I made the case that the Baca-Padilla story was a shoddy hoax.

In a "declaration" written by Jacques Vallee titled "A Tale of Two Urchins: Truth and Consequences in New Mexico Ufology," dated September 23, 2023, and posted for awhile on the internet, Vallee made several major changes to the story told in his book.

He conceded that I had shown that Reme Baca had previously pitched a very different UFO-crash "memory" to UFO writer Tom Carey, a story Vallee admitted was "fiction".

Vallee also conceded that I had proven that a key figure in the Baca-Padilla tale, Eddie Apodaca (a "friend of the family"), had been with the Army in Europe, at the time Baca and Padilla had sworn they'd seen Apodaca entering the downed alien craft.

Yet Vallee continues to believe the crash tale, mainly based in trust in Padilla, who Harris recently called "one of the most honest people I've ever met".

But my research found that the New Mexico State Police received a very different assessment of Jose Padilla's credibility, and of the UFO story, in two different interviews with Sammy Padilla, the son and house-mate of Jose Padilla, on July 23, 2022.

Sammy Padilla said, "My dad is a pathological liar".

Sammy Padilla also told the State Police that his father had falsely claimed to have been a police officer in California, and to have been wounded in military service.

(I had already independently documented both of those lies before I even knew about these police recordings.)

Sammy Padilla indicated that he believed the entire UFO story to be untrue.

I have published the State Police public records, and my analysis of the state of the debate over the Trinity crash story, in a new article on my free blog, Mirador.

Post from user Implacable_Gaze at at reddit.

Comments:

I think this is why having multiple data points is so important. People can lie, sure, but the chances that one person is lying is significantly higher than the chances that 10 people and radar data are lying.

​Ultimately, if you think about it, the chances that the stories being told arent entirely accurate is extremely high in almost every case.

This doesnt mean that theyre always lying, or that the overall story isnt true, it just means that even when being honest, our memories are just not good enough to get all the details right.

We can believe that the people telling these stories are being honest, but I think we should ALWAYS be skeptical in the absence of corroboration or hard data.

​I'm always a bit disappointed when peoples stories end up being proven false, but I tend to think most people who tell their stories arent liars.

I think when this happens its usually because they mistook one thing for something else, and over time their memories shifted toward their belief.

That said, people who actively lie about these things are actively and intentionally harmful with little payoff.

Fortunately, I cant think of too many times this has been the case.

Comment from user Machoopi at at reddit.

Is the Prime witness in Trinity UFO-crash story a pathological liar?

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