Gugas, Chris 1921-2007 (Chris Gugas, Sr.)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born August 12, 1921, in Omaha, NE; died of congestive heart failure, October 20, 2007, in Fairfax, VA. Polygraph expert, security consultant, business owner, educator, columnist, and author. As a soldier during World War II, Gugas learned about an invention called a lie detector. He spent the rest of his life operating the polygraph machine, teaching others how to operate it, and defending it as the most accurate method available to determine if a test subject is telling the truth. His defense of the device was passionate and unequivocal. He once told CA that the polygraph was more than ninety-five percent accurate, if operated by an objective, properly trained professional. He founded the National Board of Polygraph Examiners in 1958 to certify professionals. He also taught examiners at the Gormac Polygraph School and served as the executive director of the California Academy of Polygraph Sciences. Gugas himself conducted tens of thousands of polygraph examinations on both innocent and guilty parties, including James Earl Ray, convicted killer of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and testified in hundreds of court cases; he claimed that as many as seventy percent of his subjects (not including Ray) were determined to be telling the truth. Gugas became the director of polygraph services for the Los Angeles firm Professional Security Consultants in 1966, and the executive director of Truthseekers in 1975; prior employers included the Los Angeles Board of Education, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the cities of Los Angeles and Omaha, Nebraska. He was a columnist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal and Security World, and author of the books The Silent Witness: A Polygraphist's Casebook (1979) and (as coauthor) Preemployment Polygraphy (1984).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2007, p. B9.

Washington Post, November 12, 2007, p. B6.