ELECTRONIC DIOGENES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000200570005-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 22, 1999
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: November 20, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

eJLY I E WS
dV 2 0 1964
Approved For Release 1999/09/08 CIA-RDP
CPYRGHT
ONLY 1U M,1 N'
W"o
in Cleve Backster to give a lie detector test He's from Lafayette, N. J., (pop. 500), where i,
to his client, Leroy Harrison, 41, a printer this. father ran a country store. After taking a
J)sychology degree in Middlebury College. Backster
charged with killing pretty Phyllis Ann argot a midshipman's commission in the Navy and
Jones, 24, and dumping her body in a pit !,went to work for the Army, teaching interrogation
off Route 539 in New Jersey. ? to its Counter-Intelligence Corps. He started and
"A private investigator worked for months to 1 headed the CIA's interrogation section. One of his
help establish Harrison 's innocence," Backster said..l!jobs was to brief State Department people headed
1.4
li 4- h d t t'
ou
i ua ion
Commissioned in Navy
azar
s s
"But the lie detector test confirmed his guilt. He overseas on ow o avo
confessed. His lawyer pleaded him guilty to second "For example, picking a reliable,' dentist," he
degree murder to escape the death penalty. He ane.~theticbut "Dentists cause n also be used Peas a ntothol
truth a serum
got 25 to. 30 years." i1
Backster, crew cut, 40, and highly energetic, is jjco make people talk."
one of the country's leading polygraph or lie de- After the CIA he -worked in Chicago with
graph,, examiners. I-Ie's graduated over 200 since
1958; ?hlmost all police officers from every corner
iof the country. About 2.000 trained examiners are
a dozen police departments, including New York +;e.,,af,-~",- ,i,z i,siy;. started v~,.,wn,.t +n'+. ;,?~i.,_
w sing over 1,000 polyc'ranhs. . 1
"They're not machines," Backster said. "They're
instruments that register changes in breathing,
heart beat and skin resistance to a slight electric
shock. Such changes and' careful questioning usu-
I,- I
ally detect' any deception. Russian agents have
beaten everything but polygraph tests."
He related the .classic case of Sgt. John 'Dunlap,
the National Security Agency courier. Dunlap sub,.
1:
mitted to a polygraph examination a year ago
when he wapted to change to civilian status. By
the time the smoke cleared Dunlap appeared as a
1; heavy, horse player, and owner of fancy cars and
boats, which he acquired not on his slim army pay,
but from a $100,000 Russian payoff. He committed
' fasts Not Popular,
i
Polygraph tests aren't popular. Science hasn't
Cleve Backster (right) and volunteer test lie I, accepted them completely. The courts will, if both ,
detector. li defense and prosecutipn agree to them. Under the
City's, and for the. CiA and the' National Security law no one can be colilpclled to take one.
Agency. He acts as consultant to most of the other "But only liars ale afraid of them," ,Backster
17 federal agencies using polygraphs and for Many insisted.
clients in private industry. Thee are now transistorized,. portable poly-i
"Industry uses polygraph for preemployment h urapits which are proving highly effective. And'1
Ulan up to a respongible executive's job.
One company s suuden and large losses ceased
when polygraph tests disclosed that three out ol,
meter Polygraph with tabs on a person, instead of
wires, which can be heard on an FM band 300 feet
away. -
"Find `a way, to' discover truth," he said, "and
you have a weapon more powerful than any bomb."
"ing the cash register in a discou'nt'.house;
'tfackster tested the boy and the night manager')
who accused` him. The manager flunked, finally
admitted he had borrowed money from the kid
and was trying to frame him.
"I'd rather have 10 that find someone innocent
tYppPdt"i~b~i~Yls~3J'~l`~/b : C IA-RDP75-00001 R00020057000 -9