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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cAll right. Now if you\u2019re involved at all… don\u2019t take it,\u201d warned McNeill. \u201cOkay? Get up and walk out now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOkay,\u201d Peel said, staying put.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust walk out,\u201d McNeill repeated. \u201cOkay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGot it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOkay,\u201d McNeill said. \u201cIf you set fire to it, the Investor<\/em>, you know, if you caused that to burn and you burned those kids, burned Mark Coulthurst, Irene, get up and walk out. Okay?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYeah, I understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you didn\u2019t do it, were not involved at all, then just stay sitting there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHere I am.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut if you did it, leave.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGotcha,\u201d Peel said, refusing to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a rambling interview that seemed to cover every phase of John Peel’s short life, Detective McNeill laid the groundwork for his most probing questions. This was the part where the ride promised to get really interesting. In the end everything came down to a few responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Did you murder Mark Coulthurst?” McNeill asked after they were deep into the exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “No,” Peel replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Do you know for sure who murdered Mark Coulthurst?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “No,” Peel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “You have no idea?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Peel shook his head. “No,” he was gesturing. “No.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Did you set the fire that burned the Investor?” McNeill asked Peel about other times in his life where he may have lied to authorities or caused harm to other people. Peel told him he and a friend had killed a woodpecker with a slingshot when he was a little boy, but felt bad about it because they knew Peel\u2019s dad would be livid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Peel’s denials notwithstanding, McNeill wasn’t impressed. His reading of the polygraph charts told him Peel had been “deceptive” during the interview. Peel insisted he’d been telling the truth and wanted a chance to explain. Not only that, but he wanted to take the polygraph examination again. He had been too nervous. Maybe if he took it again tomorrow, he said, he wouldn’t be so nervous. McNeill didn’t know how to answer that one, so he went out and got Galyan and Flothe. Maybe they could respond to Peel’s request. After all, this was their case — their rollercoaster ride — wasn’t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Daryl Galyan entered the polygraph room, he was less than receptive to Peel’s request for a second polygraph exam. He’d looked at the charts, he told Peel. He hadn’t seen anything that would cause him to think the results would change. There wouldn’t be a second ride. “You lied on the polygraph,” Galyan insisted, taking a seat next to Peel. “I can take those charts to any polygraphist, even a first-week student, John, and I can lay those on a table. All right?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peel mumbled a complaint under his breath. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that,” Galyan said, stopping himself short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I said, ‘Well, the machine can’t work that well then, because I wasn’t lying.”‘<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Well, I hate to pop your little bubble, John,” Galyan said, leaning closer, “but the polygraph does work. There are places in there that you are truthful. It shows that there are places in there that you are not truthful, and it shows that. The instrument is one of the best polygraphs that you can buy. John, there’s no question in my mind that you did this thing. The question that I have in my mind is: are you sorry that you got involved?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “So you’re expecting me to say I’m sorry for something I didn’t do?” Peel asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “All I’m doing is talking to you,” Galyan insisted. “All I’m doing is telling you exactly where I’m coming from and exactly why John, there’s no doubt about it, that you did this.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Oh, my God,” Peel said, the bravado gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ”The only question is ‘Why?’ And we’re right back to the same issue here. Okay?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “No. I think it’s about time I got a lawyer, if… if there’s no doubt in your mind.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJohn, I\u2019ve looked at the charts,\u201d Galyan said. \u201cYou are a textbook reactor. I haven\u2019t seen somebody that\u2019s a reactor like you in a long, long time. In the trade, there\u2019s what is known as an emotionally-low responder. Basically all that means is that when a person tells a lie, they write out that they\u2019re lying, but they do it very subtly. Okay? You are absolutely not an emotionally-low responder. You\u2019re a textbook reactor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve looked at the charts, John,\u201d Galyan repeated. \u201cand you\u2019re not telling the truth.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s what the chart says?\u201d Peel asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d Galyan told him that he did not even have to be an expert to know which questions he was answering with lies. \u201cJohn, it\u2019s nothing personal, but I came down here because I want to help resolve this and one of the things that I want you to understand is that you\u2019re a pretty decent young man from everything I\u2019ve learned about you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRight,\u201d Peel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI foresee this whole thing coming to a conclusion very quickly,\u201d Galyan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou do?\u201d Peel asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou lied on the polygraph. I can take those charts to any polygraphist, even a first-week student, John, and I can lay those on a table. You didn\u2019t tell the truth in there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell,\u201d Peel said, \u201cthe machine can\u2019t work that well then, because I wasn\u2019t lying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After an extended back and forth, which had John Peel pleading for the troopers to believe his proclamations of innocence, Peel let his exhaustion show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Whew,” was all he could say, letting out a deep sigh. “I just can’t believe this. You people are wrong.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Is there anything that you want us to do?” Flothe asked. “It’s up to you. Now, we’re the police, right?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n ”Well, okay. Well, wait a day,” the fisherman told them. “I’ll try it again tomorrow, you know, because I’m too tense. After all, that gives me a day to think about it…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “That sort of thing doesn’t make me any difference, John,” Galyan insisted. “The only time that a re-exam does any good is when it would lead to a psychological reason, you’ve got a mental case in there.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Maybe I do have a mental case,” Peel offered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Maybe you do, I don’t know. Okay? All you want to do is just jump up and down and say that you talked to me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Well, if you were in my shoes — innocent — what would you do?” Peel’s question had a bit of everything in it: part pleading, part fear, part anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If I was in your shoes and I was innocent, I wouldn’t be here, John,” Galyan declared. “But I’m not in your shoes and you’re not innocent. That’s the problem that I’m faced with here. I took a week out to come down here…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “You’re in your — in my shoes and innocent, you wouldn’t be here now?” Peel asked, incredulous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “That’s right.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSee you later,\u201d Peel declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAuf Wiedersehen<\/em>,\u201d Galyan replied, \u201cThanks for coming in, John.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Peel made his way out of the office, Sgt. Stogsdill — who was still watching the interrogation from behind the one-way glass — overheard him say: \u201cI understand now what you want is a confession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Troopers believed that\u2019s exactly what they had. They thought the ride was over. But the ride was just beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n Excerpts from the unpublished original manuscript, “Sailor Take Warning,” by Leland E. Hale. That manuscript, started in 1992 and based on court records from the Alaska State Archive, served as the basis for “What Happened in Craig.”<\/em><\/p>\n Copyright Leland E. Hale <\/em>(2019). All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n Order “What Happened In Craig<\/strong>,” HERE<\/strong><\/a> and HERE<\/strong><\/a>. True crime from Epicenter Press about Alaska’s Worst Unsolved Mass Murder<\/em>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dave McNeill started the polygraph exam by asking John Peel a series of baseline questions about his family and childhood.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,98,12,16,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alaskas-worst-unsolved-mass-murder","category-jim-stogsdill","category-john-peel","category-the-investor","category-what-happened-in-craig"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"ride\"\/](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/lie-detector-test.png\")
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“No,” Peel once more replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"ride\"\/](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/polygraph-machine-old-pic.png\")
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\n![\"Craig\"](\"http:\/\/lelandhale.com\/images\/lelandhale-portrait.png\")
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