You're right. Nothing else makes sense. We've disagreed recently, but you're right about this one.
Thompson sourced this alleged shadowy character for twenty years based upon a brief meeting at an event in New Mexico (that no-one will ever remember) until one day some girl he works with tells him that it was all a hoax?
Doug Thompson is still lying. He finally made up a story so unbelievable that when called on it he could do nothing to cover his tracks except to say that he'd been snookered by a person that misrepresented themselves. When caught, he started deleting old stories on CHB before we could catch them too. Destruction of evidence.
Anyone trying to track down a 'Tony James Wilkinson' is on a snipe hunt, and dozens of Freepers are calling Thompson a 'stand-up guy' in another thread for 'coming clean'.
DITHF, anyone?