by Gary P. Posner (*) July 1992 in Skeptically Speaking.
And often they are not disappointed, though balloon-borne road flares could easily account for the current crop of red lights that drift into view (emitting telltale sparks) and turn to white briefly before extinguishing. (Yawn.)
The original Gulf Breeze "UFO" was a work of art - huge, with a superstructure and substructure, portholes, internal illumination, a paralyzing "blue beam," the whole nine yards -- now there was a UFO worthy of tourist-trap status! One minor problem: only one person, local homebuilder Ed Walters, seemed to be around when the UFO and its occupants made their appearances, and only he was able to capture the craft on film, night after night.
Walters' color Polaroids were first published in the town's weekly newspaper, the Sentinel, in November 1987. Though the mayor and Chief of Police scoffed, and the ordinarily credulous Center for UFO Studies published a Special Bulletin (April 1988) declaring the case an apparent "hoax," the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) embraced Walters, and continues to endorse the case as one of the most important in the history of UFOlogy.
At least MUFON's leadership endorses the case. Some of its investigators have been excommunicated from this bastion of scientific inquiry for having detected on their own telltale signs of double-exposure trickery (Walters' old Polaroid requires manual pulling out of the exposed film, making it ideal for creating such mischief). One, Dr. Willy Smith, a pro-UFO physicist, published a 26-page report in September 1988 detailing the evidence of deception. One of his findings was that the model being used for the double-exposure prints was slightly asymmetrical. Apparently the aliens read his critique, and Walters' later photos were of a more symmetrical craft!
The National Enquirer inquired, but before committing to purchase Walters' photos, it sent them to NASA's Dr. Robert Nathan for analysis. Nathan was unable to certify them as genuine, and the Enquirer passed. (Gasp!) Enter William Morrow & Co., publisher of Whitley Strieber's Communion and Transformation (see last column). Morrow reportedly advanced Walters $200,000 for a book, originally to be titled UFOs: Proof Positive. When Morrow had the photos analyzed, only to receive a similarly sobering report, the title (but not the "non-fiction" categorization) was changed to The Gulf Breeze Sightings: The Most Astounding Multiple Sightings of UFOs in U.S. History, and the book was published in March 1990. Walters reportedly paid 10% of his advance to Dr. Bruce Maccabee, a Navy physicist and long-time pro-UFO researcher, to write his chapter endorsing the photographs as genuine. And ABC-TV has reportedly paid Walters $400,000 for the miniseries rights.
Front page Remember my "work of art" metaphor? No metaphor! In a front-page, banner-headline story accompanied by photographs (see right), the Pensacola News Journal announced on June 10, 1990, that a UFO model had been discovered under insulation in the attic of Ed Walters' former home. Constructed from foam dinner plates and drafting paper, the model was turned over to reporter Craig Myers, and used by a News Journal photographer to, as the caption states and the results attest, "nearly duplicate some of Ed Walters' UFO pictures." Walters claimed that the model must have been planted by debunkers, and that his drawings (on the inside surface of the drafting paper, visible through the craft's bottom) were of a home that he had designed in late 1989, long after his UFO photos were taken. But UFO researcher Philip Klass has since determined that the plans were of a brick home that Walters built in early 1987.
Nine days after the News Journal bombshell, UPI reported on a news conference held, under oath, by Gulf Breeze attorney Tom Smith. Smith told the press that his son had been told by Walters more than two years earlier of his intention to profit from a UFO hoax. Addressing the claims of other local residents to having seen "UFOs" as well, Smith said, "We don't know what anyone else has seen, but we do know that what Ed disclosed early on was a fabrication." Tommy Jr. later personally confessed on camera to having been a participant with Ed in faking some of the original double-exposure photographs.
Attempting to salvage his organization's credibility by finding authentication for the now nearly universally rejected Walters photographs, MUFON's International Director Walt Andrus selected Rex and Carol Salisberry, honored the previous year by MUFON for their "unsurpassed investigative skill," to conduct a fresh investigation. Their conclusion was that the photographs are double-exposure hoaxes. And even more recently, nationally recognized forensic photo expert William G. Hyzer has informed Andrus of the results of his own investigation: hoax. (R.I.P.)
Postscript: ABC-TV has reportedly cancelled its plans for a miniseries based on Ed Walters' "Gulf Breeze Sightings" book.
(*) Gary P. Posner, M.D. Introduction of Posner's Website: "This website, as well as that of the Tampa Bay Skeptics, was started largely to help satisfy the media's demand for skeptical sources of information on paranormal and fringe-science topics. I certainly mean no offense to anyone or their beliefs.
I actually grew up believing in all sorts of paranormal phenomena, especially UFOs. It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I was introduced to the concept of "critical thinking" and began to realize that perhaps I had been misled in my youth. The story of this process of discovery is the subject of my chapter in "Skeptical Odysseys".
My mind remains open to the unlikely possibility that paranormal phenomena are real after all. All I seek are the actual facts, which, as I have learned, can often be disillusioning. But I have found that the thrill of discovering the genuine wonders of the universe, as revealed by science, more than compensates.
I realize that most people hold supernatural beliefs of their own and may not be interested in opening their minds, as I did, to the possibility that they also may have been misled. And that's fine. But please consider reading Daniel Loxton's elegant multimedia essay about what he terms the "beauty ... to be seen in skepticism’s noble tradition of necessary service".
