Hello and welcome to the program UFO Warning.
In this episode, we're talking about Ed Walters UFO Polaroids.
That's correct. Ed Walters, UFO Polaroids.
This was a story that happened back in 87 and 88, a collection
of photographs taken by this gentleman.
A lot of controversy around him. I want to kind of develop a
little bit of a base for the story here.
If we go to pnj.com, that's Pensacola News Journal, we find
the article titled Pensacola man truck abducted by clawed aliens.
Still no word on suspect 50 years later written by Troy
Moon. So he starts this article off
talking about in the event that happened about 15 years before
Ed Walter's pictures. But it's interesting says new
details have been released regarding the six suspects
described as short with claw like arms that allegedly
abducted a man and his truck on Interstate 10.
The alleged suspects vehicle was described as an unidentified
space ship. You'd think there would have
been some kind of follow up for a reported abduction by
creatures who somehow moved the man and his pickup truck into a
waiting hovering UFO above Interstate 10, only to return
him and the truck 30 minutes later.
But since the incident occurred on October 17th, 1973, there's
not been another word about the abduction.
The man said the clawed creatures kept him and his truck
for about 30 minutes and after picking him up on Interstate 10
near Luxley Allen, Alabama, as he was returning to Pensacola
from Mobile, he was returned with his truck near Pine Forest
Rd. Now I tried to look that case
up. I couldn't find a word of it
anywhere. If somebody else is familiar
with this case, I'd really be interested to know who the man
was and more about it. The article goes on and says,
but I searched the database and there's nothing since that
original article 51 years ago. Yes, there were other local and
regional UFO reports around the same time.
In fact, the next day, October 18th, 1973, a woman in Milton
reported that a flying saucer had landed at her house and
little green men were walking around on the houses roof, said
Escambia County Sheriff's Dispatcher Larry Pearson.
By the time deputies arrived, the saucer and the little green
men were gone. Goes on here.
It says Florida has the second most UFO sightings in the US,
and then here are the biggest ones.
The same day that Pensacola News reported about that spaceship
abduction, there were also numerous reports of flying
saucers and UFOs. Hundreds in fact, from South
Alabama through northwest Florida.
These things do seem to kind of run in packs.
Most were explained away. Helicopter maneuvers in Mobile,
atmospheric testing at Eglin Air Force Base, and weather balloons
flying near J at the time. And always a good excuse with
the weather balloons. But there never was resolution
to the claw creature abduction. Within a day or so, all the UFO
commotion had died down. It wasn't the big sensation of
the Gulf Breeze UFO incident of 1987 and 80, 1988, when resident
Ed Walters shared pictures with the Gulf Breeze Centennial
showing a UFO he said he captured near his home.
Walters claimed to have conversed with the aliens from
the ship in English and in Spanish using telepathy.
There were numerous sightings by others during this period, but
most people believe Walters photos were a hoax.
After he moved, the new owners discovered a foam model UFO
hidden in the attic. Still, the Gulf Breeze sighting
captivated the community for a month and and national
attention, with a couple of mentions on The X-Files and
various documentaries and shorts.
But the 1973 reports the northwestern Florida instance
were largely ignored. But what happened just down the
coast in Pascagoula, Ms. that same month became a media
sensation, but the publicity wasn't similar at all.
While there was nothing more on the Pensacola incident, there
wasn't as plenty on what maybe happened in Pascagoula 1973.
Both Mississippi men would write books on their alleged
encounters and even one appeared on the television program.
To tell the truth, the Pensacola by the way of Gulf Breeze and
its time in the UFO spotlight wouldn't come until 15 years
later. And a pretty interesting article
takes a few twists and turns there bringing up the Pascagoula
incident. Now we go on to another article
here from the same newspaper. This is dated December 10th
2000, 1017 same author actually. Troy Moon Gulf Breeze UFO
phenomena 30 years later citing still divide public.
It's got a picture here of Ed Walters says in July 1990 with
photos he shot of UFOs and Gulf Breeze.
The Gulf Breeze building contractor claims to have
photographed UFOs on various occasions during the fall and
winter of 1987. An article begins, it says 3
decades after a Gulf Breeze building contractor released UFO
photos of circular UFOs to local media and set off a year long
sky guy watching phenomena, the so-called Gulf Breeze sightings
have become part of American lore.
Ed Walters claimed he shot the photos from his yard on November
11th, 1987. And now even 30 years later,
people are still divided on what really happened in the in Gulf
Breeze in late 1987 through 1988.
Even the nations most legendary UF all of the just fictional FBI
agent Fox Mulder from the 1990s hit Series X-Files weighed in on
the Gulf Breeze sightings when it was revealed the character
investigated the panhandled sightings and wrote an essay on
the phenomena for Omni Magazine says.
I really don't have a good opinion on whether they're fake
or not. There was so much controversy
about it and MUFON went back and forth about it.
When I first saw the Gulf Breeze photos, I knew they were a hoax,
Mulder said in the classic 1994 episode.
EBE. And Mulder was a person who
famously always wanted to believe.
He goes on down here and says. But he's not alone in concluding
that the controversial Walters photographs were a hoax, an
opinion that became more widespread after Walters moved
from his home in 1990. The new owner found a model of a
flying saucer wrapped an old draft paper in the attic.
The model was made out of foam pipe, plates, cardboard, paper
and tended plastic gel. You got to wonder why would you
leave that thing there? Walters claimed the model was
planted, but most thought and still think Walters photos were
a hoax. There were witnesses who alleged
knowledge of the staged UFO. News Journal reporters and
photographers later used the model to stage their own UFO
models that seemed identical to the ones taken by Walters.
Now you can see the picture there.
I did do a short video on this I posted on YouTube, and you can
kind of decide yourself if the pictures that they recreated are
the same. I don't know, They look a little
different to me, but what do I know?
It says. Craig Myers was the lead
reporter on the story for the Pensacola News Journal during
the Gulf Breeze sightings and subsequent controversy.
He wrote a dozen stories on the sightings and specifically
Walters claims, and later wrote a book on the Gulf Breeze
sightings. Today, he works as an editorial
assistant for Middle Tennessee State University, where he still
gives the occasional lecture on the Gulf Breeze Sightings.
Meyers is confident the photographs were faked by
Walters, who was known as a prankster, according to news
reports from the time. Maybe it started as a fun prank,
Meyer said, but then it just took off and snowballed.
He's probably the smartest guy in the room and most of the
rooms he walks into. Walters could not be reached for
comment, but as always, maintained, the photographs he
took were authentic. He also wrote a book on the
topic titled Gulf Breeze Sightings.
And even now, there are those who believe Walter's story and
the validity of his photographs, including noted UFO researcher
and physicist Bruce Maccabee, who has written numerous
research papers and technical papers on the Gulf Breeze
sightings, he says. I think they're real, he said of
Walters photographs, dismissing the model found later.
I think the model is a hoax. Hoax squared.
Even if you dismiss Walters photographs, Maccabee said,
there were too many other witnesses who claimed to see
UFOs in the Gulf Breeze area, and not all of them can be
ignored. You had politicians reporting
seeing objects, he said. There were so many sightings
that you have to account for unless you believe there was a
massive occlusion on the part of the residence of Gulf Breeze and
Pensacola. And then there's a picture of
this lady holding what looks like a kind of a time lapse
photo, possibly of a UFO, it says.
On February 20th, 1990, Gulf Breeze City Councilwoman Brenda
Pollack holds a photograph she took at night of a bright red
light hovering over Gulf Breeze near the Gulf Breeze United
Methodist Church. Says Denny Boone, who was living
in Gulf Breeze at the time with daughters who were then six and
eight years old, says My daughters and I saw something
spinning just barely above the trees at dusk, she recalled.
We were on Central Drive off Hwy. 98 looking W toward the
South side. They saw at first and came
inside to get me. I couldn't believe what I was
seeing, but I know I saw something in the sky that
rotated. It wasn't a plane or copter.
There are countless stories like that.
Hundreds of people began watching the skies over Gulf
Breeze, most congregating at watch parties at Shoreline Park.
Dozens reported sightings, but none came close to matching the
clarity and proximity of Walter's photographs.
I really don't have a good opinion on whether they're faked
or not, said George Williams, state section director of the
Florida Mutual UFO Network in Tallahassee and the field
investigator who has investigated the Gulf Breeze
sightings extensively. There was so much controversy
about it, and MUFON went back and forth about it for years,
but he made a model and buried an installation question mark.
That just doesn't sound right, But I don't know.
But no matter Walter's photos, Williams and Gulf Breeze and
Pensacola remain a UFO hotspot. We still get reports of
interesting stuff in the area, he said.
And in 1987, you had hundreds of people besides Walters reporting
sightings. It's always been an interesting
area. Yeah, that's the thing.
It's just like, well, I mean, if you did fake it, how did they
fake all of these other sightings?
Now, there was one other article here in Wikipedia.
Of course, you know, a lot of times Wikipedia is a little bit
on the debunking side, but they had a little bit more of an
angle on this thing where they were talking about the money
involved, which I did not realize to me that the amounts
were pretty substantial. It says.
So it talks about the model here.
It says probably way down the article and we'll finish up.
It says. The discovery of the model
proved instantly divisive within the UFO community, with Walter's
supporters repeating his claim that the model had been planted.
Boyd, formerly a director of MUFON, later said he was forced
to leave the group when he expressed doubt in the photos.
News columnist Mark Curtis said that two MUFON investigators who
confirmed the hoax war themselves literally chased out
of MUFON by its remaining true believers.
Contrary to claims by his supporters that he had refused
money for telling a story, the News Journal reported that
Walters had been given a $200,000 book advance and
offered $450,000 by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC for
miniseries rights. The paper also reported that
Walters had previously served 18 months in prison in 1967 for
forgery and auto theft charges, and he was granted a pardon by
Governor Barb Martinez in March of 1990.
Wow. So that's, I'm not saying that
this is just what's reported here in Wikipedia from this News
Journal. Very strange. $200,000 would
have been a lot of money back in 1980, seven, 1988, you could
have got a nice little modest house in a lot of states for 50
or $60,000. And if you combine the $200,000
with a $450,000 offer from from a television station, boy that
would have been significant, significant amount of money.
Then it goes and it finishes up. It says on October 5th, 1988,
Unsolved Mysteries and later TV special called UFO Cover Up Live
featured of the Gulf Breeze UFO case.
In 1989, eyewitness Shirley McConnell talked about her
experience on A Current Affair, Unsolved magazines Inside
Edition and A Current Affair filmed.
Current Affair filmed more UFO shows in July 1990.
On a 1994 episode of The X-Files, character Fox Mulder
mentions the Gulf Breeze UFO photos, whose partner Dana
Scholick saying that the first time he saw the photos he knew
they were fake. And we've heard that.
So absolutely a world famous case here.
It's amazing. Was he paid that much money?
Well, I actually don't know, but that's what they're reporting
here. All the whole thing with the
model that was discovered in the house, whether or not that was
his, I guess we don't know that either.
But the pictures are fascinating.
And like I said, they've taken some pictures that were
reconstructions, people saying, well, we're going to redo this
fake picture that you've done and show how easy it is.
They, they don't look exactly the same to me.
I just don't know what goes on here.
I'll finish up, it said. In a February 1993 News Journal
editorial, Curtis revisited the evidence against Walters
account, and that's this journalist mentioning a friend
of the Walters family, Tommy Smith, had come forward
admitting to have witnessed Ed faking the UFO pictures as a
practical joke. Curtis also reported that Walter
and his wife had divorced in November 1992, splitting two and
a half million dollars in assets that Curtis believed came from
the hoax. Well, I don't know.
I mean, the guy was a building contractor.
He was successful, could just earn that straight up.
But you kind of see what happens here.
This is a problem with some of these UFO sightings when money
gets involved. To me, if the guy wanted to take
money for sharing a story with a, with a broadcast company or
whatever, I mean, I'm OK with that.
I'd probably be best if you're transparent about it.
But you can kind of see what happens when this stuff's all
done kind of on the down low and then people find out about it or
there are assertions made, then some people will use that to
denigrate the testimony of this guy.
Overall fascinating case of Ed Walters UFO pulp right pictures.
Until next time, this is UFO warning over and out.