Lietest: Deception, Truth & the Polygraph [Paperback]

Leonard H. Harrelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1998

Leonard H. Harrelson is a world-reknown polygraph expert who has tested more than 50,000 people and trained more than 1,500 polygraph examiners. This book provides an overview of the polygraph, as well as Harrelson's views on how to properly conduct an examination. Case stories range from murders, arson, thefts, sex and politics. His stories relating to interrogation and interrogation analogies make this a must-have reference for those who seek the truth. Isuues concerning reliability and validity as well as the legal status of the polygraph also are included.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

In 1955, Leonard H. Harrelson became president of the Keeler Polygraph Institute. He has tested more tham 50,000 people during his career. He was in charge of training more than 1,500 students from the United States and around the world, many of them from law enforcement and government agencies. He has testified in court on hundreds of occasions. Harrelson is particularly well-known for his skills as an interrogator.

Product Details

• Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: Jonas Pub (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966178807
• ISBN-13: 978-0966178807
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,711,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If you're looking for enlightenment, don't read this book, August 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Lietest: Deception, Truth & the Polygraph (Paperback)

As someone who works in a law enforcement related field, and encounters police officers from the 'Keeler school' on a regular basis, I now understand why many of their reports are unreliable, and resulted in a requirement in my jurisdiction that all polygraphs be tape recorded. To advise polygraphists to take examinees by the hand and kneel in prayer, so as to increase the likelihood of obtaining a confession, is the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard. Irrespective of whether it works, the terms 'over reaching' and 'ethical' come to mind. Perhaps ethics, as most people understand the term, is a foreign concept to Mr. Harrelson.

It becomes apparent that the author's techniques are questionable rather early in the book, particularly when he begins alternating between referring to himself in the third/first person. This book appears to be no more than a self-serving opportunity for the author ramble on as to what he perceives to be his great skills and talents. Hopefully the next generation of law enforcement personnel and polygraphists will display more professionalism and eschew the John Wayne and J. Edgar Hoover techniques.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Lie Test" Provides Fascinating Reading!, February 10, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lietest: Deception, Truth & the Polygraph (Paperback)

"Lie Test" is an impressive compilation of captivating stories presented in a clear and easy to read format. Further, this work could be a text on how to conduct a successful interrogation. Mr. Harrelson is an intriguing personality with an apparent uncanny ability to understand human behavior. His book is both enchanting and educational. A must read for any person interested in polygraph or in the art of interrogation!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Incomplete Perpetuation of the Fallacies about Polygraphs, January 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lietest: Deception, Truth & the Polygraph (Paperback)

This book tries to continue the misconceptions about polygraphs -- that they have some amount of accuracy and usefulness. It does not mention the devastation that it has caused for cases where the polygraph (polygraph "expert") falsely accuses someone of lying.

Polygraphs only record, however accurate, physiological responses. The correspondence of these reactions to any deception is a matter of interpretation. The interpretation is always clouded by presumptions of what is the "real" truth and how the subject "should" be reacting.

This book does not explain how easy it is for a subject to apply countermeasures to manipulate the results. This book does not explain how the polygraph is oppressive and dangerous to the uneducated (about the polygraph). The uneducated do not know that the polygraph is used as a fear tactic to trick the subject into a confession. They do not know that, no matter how impartial the examiner may act, the object is to "discover" something that is being withheld. The book does not explain that this is why the interrogator accuses so many subjects of lying or withholding the truth. It is to frustrate them and get them to confess, either at the polygraph or afterwards in court.

Better alternatives are Charles Clifton's "Deception Detection"...