Gulf Breeze UFO: Fairly damaging evidence against Ed Walters

I haven't found a thread on the Search function dedicated solely to this yet, which is surprising but I am sure it must have come up in another thread concerning this (The Gulf Breeze, Florida Flap) case.

I for one, in the face of all of this insurmountable evidence against Mr. Walters, am left incredulous with mouth agog. Especially after the likes of Dr. Bruce Macabee and Jeff Ritzmann had so closely examined Ed's photos with utmost scrutiny only to give them the "thumbs up" A-OK of authenticity which in this field of study is almost as hard to acquire as an actual UFO or Extraterrestrial Craft.

Frankly, I don't know what to think. Mr. Walters passed a supposed psych eval/lie detector test under his own submission with questions in regards to this and passed I might add, but......I dunno. Just at a loss about it all really.

So without further adieu, here's the bad news for Ed, which as of today was news to me. Didn't David Biedny recently qualify his photos on The Paracast recently? More recent than this finding I think. I could be wrong.




Ed was perplexed by a model found in the attic of his old home (L - Myers 112) (R - Jerry Black's on line video UFO update)

Startling revelations: June-July 1990

©Tim Printy October 2008

The summer of 1990 was going to be a hot one for Gulf Breeze when a model was discovered in Ed's old home that could unhinge Ed Walters claim to extraterrestrial encounters. The events surrounding this model are somewhat confusing but the basic story begins when Ed Walters decided he needed to move. The public attention had been too much for him and by the fall of 1988, he moved. Ed's house was put up for sale and bought in 1989 by Robert and Sarah Menzer, who had little knowledge of what had transpired in 1987-88. When Mr. Menzer decided to hook up the ice maker line for his new refrigerator, he noticed the line was crimped coming out of the wall. Figuring that the lines shutoff valve was located in the attic of the house, Mr. Menzer began to trace out the line in order to shut off the water to the line. As he removed some insulation, he discovered something odd. A nine-inch model of a UFO was hidden underneath the insulation! Mr. Menzer, oblivious to what this could potentially mean, simply placed it aside and continued with his tracing of the line. When he could not find the shutoff valve, he called Ed who promptly told him that the shutoff was outside the house. Robert did not see any reason to mention the model in this conversation and it would be interesting what would have transpired had he done so. Instead, the model sat in the Menzer's garage for a few months before something occurred to bring it into the public eye.

In June 1990, Craig Myers of the Pensacola News Journal, who was researching the case for some time, began to take a new approach in trying to see if there was a possibility that the case was a hoax. He felt that it was possible that Ed may have left something behind in one of the homes he had lived in over the recent years.


Source and rest of story


Any fleshing out of this matter by anyone here in addition to this source would be nice. Is this true? Did Ed lie? Dang!!


Cheers,

Erik

[edit on 22/SepamTue, 22 Sep 2009 11:40:04 -0500/08 by redwoodjedi]

[edit on 22/SeppmTue, 22 Sep 2009 12:19:54 -0500/08 by redwoodjedi]

I remember this story from a while back, Ed Walters was a hoaxer, only a member of the GFL would dissagree.
S&F for the info

[edit on 22-9-2009 by zaiger]

Originally posted by zaiger
I remember this story from a while back, Ed Walters was a hoaxer, only a member of the GFL would dissagree.
S&F for the info

[edit on 22-9-2009 by zaiger]

I gotta tell ya, this took me as a bit of a bitter blow not because I thought that the massive amount of photo evidence was convincing (always looked a little holographic to me kind of double exposure work) but because of the credibility of those that did the photo analysis was/is so rock solid and substantiated that the evidence was almost impossible to refute.

Sorry if this is "old news". I do not get TV or receive a newspaper and so I get all of my info through digging around what I have found to be fairly reliable sources although even those are in question in these heavily propagandized and slanted times.

Thank and Cheers, Zaiger!

Erik

edit to add: Just looked up GFL (told you I was periodically challenged!). Quite humorous. Living science fiction/fantasy. Hmmmm....

[edit on 22/SeppmTue, 22 Sep 2009 12:35:32 -0500/08 by redwoodjedi]

reply to post by redwoodjedi


No sorry dont take that the wrong way old news is always cool, there are always a few new things in it. All in all it was a good find and i know what you mean about the reputation of the people who analyzed it. I would be so pissed if stanton friedman started making UFO predictions or channeling aliens.

Originally posted by zaiger
reply to post by redwoodjedi

 

No sorry dont take that the wrong way old news is always cool, there are always a few new things in it. All in all it was a good find and i know what you mean about the reputation of the people who analyzed it. I would be so pissed if stanton friedman started making UFO predictions or channeling aliens.

Yes! That is precisely my feelings on this matter. Furthermore, dare I admit it, I bought the damned Charlatan's book!! I want my money back. How do people like this sleep at night?!? It disturbs me at some subtle level to the point of finding myself feeling not only taken in and buying it hook, line and sinker, but also looking extremely foolish.

This is such a tough field full of fringey lunatics and New Age wackos, I wonder if it will ever be taken seriously as an honest and bonafide science.

Cheers,

Erik

Didn't they find an actual scale model of one of the "UFO's" in his attic?

reply to post by redwoodjedi

No matter what group you are part of there will always be the couple whack jobs that scream louder get attention and make you look crazy having any connection to them.

Originally posted by draknoir2
Didn't they find an actual scale model of one of the "UFO's" in his attic?

Yes. That is in the article as well as a picture in the OP. It looks like nothing more than some styrofoam plates and paper no more than ten inches in diameter. I'm still miffed. Fudge.....

Cheers,

Erik

Originally posted by zaiger
reply to post by redwoodjedi

 

No matter what group you are part of there will always be the couple whack jobs that scream louder get attention and make you look crazy having any connection to them.

Never have I seen a finer candidate of a quote to make as a banner to hang high over any UFO Symposium. I wonder who would sit under it willingly....

Cheers,

Erik

Originally posted by redwoodjedi

Originally posted by draknoir2
Didn't they find an actual scale model of one of the "UFO's" in his attic?

Yes. That is in the article as well as a picture in the OP. It looks like nothing more than some styrofoam plates and paper no more than ten inches in diameter. I'm still miffed. Fudge.....

Cheers,

Erik

Duh... sorry for skimming.

I do remember when all those "sightings" were happening. A lot of the photos looked very double exposed, and the model looked just like the UFO in some of them.

I think maybe he had some genuine sightings, but felt pressured to "deliver" a consistent stream of them to keep himself in the limelight... and that's when the hoaxing began.

Originally posted by draknoir2

Originally posted by redwoodjedi

Originally posted by draknoir2
Didn't they find an actual scale model of one of the "UFO's" in his attic?

Yes. That is in the article as well as a picture in the OP. It looks like nothing more than some styrofoam plates and paper no more than ten inches in diameter. I'm still miffed. Fudge.....

Cheers,

Erik

Duh... sorry for skimming.

I do remember when all those "sightings" were happening. A lot of the photos looked very double exposed, and the model looked just like the UFO in some of them.

I think maybe he had some genuine sightings, but felt pressured to "deliver" a consistent stream of them to keep himself in the limelight... and that's when the hoaxing began.

I dunno....I look at all of the photos now and they all exude that same damn holographic, double exposed look and I just really wanna throttle the guy.

We investigators already look like a bunch of Nut Whacks. Stuff like this does not work in our favor. I don't know what is more damaging. That fact that this was hoaxed or the fact that it took so long to identify as a hoax and might have damaged some good folks with it.

Cheers,

Erik

Don't be too disheartened by those who failed to realise the photos were fakes. Remember, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes, thought the Cottingley Fairies were real, and you can see the pins used to hold the drawings to leaves in some photos!
It`s the whole "I want to believe" thing, and sometimes that's all there is.

Originally posted by TheAmazingK
Don't be too disheartened by those who failed to realise the photos were fakes. Remember, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes, thought the Cottingley Fairies were real, and you can see the pins used to hold the drawings to leaves in some photos!
It`s the whole "I want to believe" thing, and sometimes that's all there is.

Naaaah. I don't want to believe. I want to know and to understand because of being an experiencer myself and would like some kind of affirmation or validation. I'm probably never going to get it but have to keep researching, keep studying and blah, blah, blah...

Again, I am not disheartened by the inauthenticity of the evidence but instead I am disheartened by those that suffered as a result of it. Other than that, Mr. Walters can take his alleged photos and put them between two pieces of bread and feed himself a crap sandwich for all I care.

Cheers,

Erik

Rather than try to explain all the finer points of the case, I'll refer you to this broadcast:
Paratopia: Bruce Maccabee

In which Dr. M goes over some of the finer stuff that negates the obvious fakery. Myself, I find the data compelling in that I've held some of the later photos in my hands, and if they're fakes - they are so utterly subtle it's ridiculous. Hoaxers often don't play that game.

There is also much peripheral data that few people have seen, such as the many silver ball sightings on video tape from different locations - and one from Ed. These pieces came out before the advent of CGI as we know it today in the hands of consumers. Those are to me, very compelling, and if fact more compelling than the original GB (ED Walters) sighting photos.

Also of note is that Gulf Breeze did not start or end with Ed Walters. Not by a long shot.

I wrote a brief research paper back 10+ years ago for ParaScope on AOL which goes into a bit of the GB history:

Gulf Breeze: A Situation Report

by Jeff Ritzmann
Special Assignments Team

Gulf Breeze has been virtually synonymous with UFOs since Ed Walter's many encounters from November 11, 1987 to May 1, 1988. However, few people realize that the Florida panhandle is not new to UFO reports and sightings.

UFOs have been reported in and around Gulf Breeze since July 24, 1952, when a Warrington Navy man reported seeing three amber-red lighted objects. Just a short while later, an East Pensacola woman reported seeing disc-shaped objects flying overhead, that had an "orange glow" to them.

That same day, several residents of Eglin Air Force Base reported two orange colored discs hovering to the south-southeast for three or four minutes before vanishing. These people were very familiar with conventional aircraft and their characteristics, and they were certain these discs were not conventional aircraft.

On November 25, 1957 crewmen of a B-66 jet bomber from Eglin AFB reportedly saw three unidentified objects in the Gulf of Mexico, south of Hurlburt Field. The crew originally thought they were stars, yet they also showed up on Eglin's radar screens.

October 19, 1973, Clarence Ray Patterson reported he was "picked up" in his truck by a UFO while returning to Pensacola from Mobile, Alabama on Interstate 10. Police called by Patterson found that he was seriously upset and crying, but not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Patterson told the police that an "unidentified spaceship" hovered over his truck, then pulled him, truck and all, inside. Once inside the craft, Patterson said he was taken from his truck by six "strange looking creatures." His description of these beings was sketchy, but he could recall they were short, and had "clawlike" hands. Patterson stated that during the examination the creatures seemed able to read his mind. During this approximately 30 minute encounter, he was taken from Loxey to State Road 297 in Esambia County. After being released unharmed, he drove to Pensacola and contacted the police immediately.

Eglin Air Force Base itself has had its share of odd sightings as well. On February 2, 1976, an unidentified object was sighted at the east end of Duke Field. Air Force officials say the UFO did not show up in more than 40 photographs, or on their radar screens. Officials could not explain why this was so. Strange it wouldn't photograph, since the object being reported to be as large as a Boeing 707, or C-130 cargo plane. Half a dozen people saw this object; the first to see it was a military policeman while making his rounds about 4:35 a.m. According to Lt. Steve Phalen of the Eglin Information Office, the object was then visible till first light. When Phalen was asked why nothing appeared on any photographs, he answered, "That's a good question."

If one hearkens back to Ed Walters account of "swirled areas of grass" in Shoreline Park, and the 34-foot circle of burned grass at the public school behind his home, this next account may ring a bell. In the little panhandle town of Florida of Vernon, a resident named Joan Pflueger reluctantly reported a 26.5 foot circle in her pasture, a circle that had small burned circles around the outer edge. This was after several local residents reported seeing UFOs in the area at night. Ms. Pflueger found the suspicious mark in her field a few days later, on April 11, 1980. The area affected was described as looking "sucked up" by a giant vacuum. Pflueger hadn't a clue as to what had made the mark, but she did recall the day before her dog had acted "crazy, and trying to tear down a screen door to get outside." She stated the dog had never acted so oddly before. Ms. Pflueger was genuinely puzzled about the entire matter, saying less about the evidence in her pasture, and more about her hope that the incident wouldn't attract a lot of attention. "I guess I'll have to keep my gate locked all the time now," she said.

One can see by these reports that Ed Walters isn't the first person to have experiences with UFOs in the panhandle area of Florida, nor was this phenomenon new to Gulf Breeze in 1987. Many people make the assumption that Walters must be the key to the Gulf Breeze sightings, or that the sightings started with him. Clearly this isn't the case.

Gulf Breeze continued to be a hotbed of UFO reports in 1996. Although sightings were decidedly down in 1996, Carole Baker, a recorder and compiler of UFO reports in the area, said the sightings had "changed a bit." The familiar sightings of the bright red UFO over Shoreline Park, better known as "Bubba," had been replaced by daylight sightings of spherical chrome-colored objects, seen and recorded on video moving at unheard of speeds. The Skywatching group that gathers at Shoreline Park had a rather close encounter with a "Tinkerbell," an object about the size of a golfball that passed by very close, then stopped directly above of the group. The object exited into the woods at the park, not to be seen again that night.

All in all, the number of sighting reports was down, but were more spectacular, closer, and easier to observe. One thing is for sure, Gulf Breeze still logs more reports of UFOs within its boundaries than any other town in the United States. One has to wonder what attraction there is to this particular area. Some ufologists point out that Gulf Breeze is virtually surrounded by military installations, and suggest that UFOs seen there are the result of military testing. This may explain some of the sightings, but it doesn't square up with all of the video and photographic evidence collected thus far.

(c) Copyright 1997 ParaScope, Inc.
------------------------------------------------------------

So, while I have questions about Gulf Breeze, I still feel it to be a very compelling case. I trust Dr. M's assessment of the case, but I also have my own questions about certain things which have never been answered.

Have UFOs been seen and filmed around GB Fla? No question to my mind. Are they 'alien'? Who the hell knows. I'm currently researching a connective angle to Gulf Breeze, which might help to add to, or explain some of the sightings...possibly, I'm just not sure. I'm not even sure I'll be able to find out enough to really attribute anything. But, there's a peek of a lead.

I have recently been informed that there are very interesting geological features, which I'll write about at another time. But it seems to explain a certain experience I and others had many years ago there.

As far as my own opinion about Ed's stuff, what I have seen in firsthand prints of the classic GB UFO, looked damned compelling. However I was never given prints to work from directly, and I was not able to examine them in any sort of serious depth. But, unlike most, I held original prints in my hands one day at a meeting where Dr. M brought some of them in to show us.

I found them extremely interesting. Would I qualify them as "alien"? No one can really do that, because how do you make that definitive conclusion. All I can say is based on what I saw, these didn't have the hallmarks of fake. It would have taken a lot of work to make the photos look as the majority have seen them.

The road shot for instance, was nothing but a black photo with a small light blotch. No details could I see until after the photo was enlarged and light blasted. There was also a special process run on them at Polaroid which allowed for looking into the layered emulsion - if I remember correctly. These adjustments led to what you see today. None of the photos that I saw looked that good raw. In fact, they were very dark with smudges of bright light.

The road shot is very often the one people say is wrong due to the "reflection" on the road, which is not a reflection but seemingly a "pile" of substance of some kind, which to my eye appears to be dissipating over the crown surface of the road. I think I asked Dr. M about this on the show, so that should be in there.

So, I have to ask myself how far someone is going to go, to fake something. Ed, just as a for instance, would have to know what would be seen when all the processes were run on his photos. How or why would you fake a "craft" and not have it be seen directly, but only seen in several instances after extreme processing? And that said, how would Ed know that that extreme processing wouldn't reveal his alleged fakery?

As far as the found model, there's a lot to that story with conflicting sides. For starters, it doesn't match any GB photo. And are we to really believe that a guy who would fake this for that long, gain worldwide attention, and be ostracized from the community - would leave direct evidence under some insulation in his former attic? That's almost more unbelievable to me than some of the excuses for the notion of fakes.

I find the case compelling, and not because of Ed Walters, but the host of other sightings by other people, it's history, and my own experiences there. Do I have final answers? Of course not, no one seems to. Everyone reserves the right to be wrong, and I'm no different.

Is Gulf Breeze the source an unknown phenomena? To me yes. But for many more reasons than Walters.

[edit on 22-9-2009 by jritzmann]

reply to post by redwoodjedi


Kevin Randle writes about this hoax in his book "The Randle Report: UFOs in the 90s". He gives a whole chapter on the story and all the evidence pointing to a hoax. This is a case of very sloppy work by the people assigned to investigate the case. It is a true case of believers wanting to believe despite the evidence.

I always thought the photographs were fakes. I never understood how a man with the credentials of Dr Bruce Maccabee could be so wrong. I guess it is a case of too embarrassed to realize one was taken by a charlatan like Ed Walters.

Ed Walters has been given a bad, undeserved rap. Here are some of the facts as remembered by me.

He was not the only to videotape UFOs in Gulf Breeze. The newspapers constantly reported on the latest footage by others.

Regarding the UFO model found in his former home, there was a documentary in which the individual that found the model was interviewed and one can see that there is some manufacturing of questions and answers which were asked and the answers given are not based on fact.

Ed Walters was given a 3-D camera which he did not handle and was set up by either Bruce Maccabee or someone associated with MUFON. The reason I'm not clear on everything is because it's been a long time although I still have the videotapes from the '90s.

The resultant 3-D photos are found in Ed's book and if you have free vision as I have you don't need a special viewer to see the photos in 3-D. You can hoax all you want with single photos but not so easy to do with 2 photos taken at slightly different angles to represent the separation of the eyes. The "UFOs" in the photos are way in the distance and the shrubery in front of the camera is in great 3-D.

Ed Walters was shown on the beach with his camcorder and the videographer showed a UFO in the distance with Ed in the foreground.

Look at this case with a grain of salt but not with an empty salt shaker!


[edit on 22-9-2009 by Skeptical Ed]

Originally posted by zaiger
reply to post by redwoodjedi

 

No sorry dont take that the wrong way old news is always cool, there are always a few new things in it. All in all it was a good find and i know what you mean about the reputation of the people who analyzed it. I would be so pissed if stanton friedman started making UFO predictions or channeling aliens.

Why don't you just get pissed off every time he opens his big, stupid mouth! He's the worst that has happened to UFOlogy.

Here's a detailed report of the investigation into Ed Walters.

reply to post by Skeptical Ed


How is he the worst thing that has happened to UFOlogy? I just want to know i have seen him making some pretty good points on numerous documentaries the only thing I have seen him support which i dissagree with was the MJ-12 documents? Just to make it clear im not arguing with you i just want to know.
Who is the best thing for UFOlogy?

reply to post by redwoodjedi

You definitly don't suffer under "IWTB" and that's always awesome to see.

Lot's of regular, normal people do though. And that's why hoaxers hoax. It's not for the serious and inquiring, (Unless they're devious mis-informers! Fear the paranoia!) more so, it is for regular people. Investigators have a tendency to go after the truth with iron clad determination. They just get caught up in hoaxes, because part of actually looking for the truth is pulling it out of the tangle of untruths. Whereas regular people living normal little lives have quite the capability for blind obssesion and fleeting interest, and as such, love these things.

By the way, the eating of a crap sandwich should be the standard legal punishment for this sort of thing. In the middle of an auditorium, broadcasted world wide in HD, so we can see the look on their faces when they take their first steamy bite.