Gullibility in Gulf Breeze: The Ed Walters Story

Ó Tim Printy June 2002

Next to Roswell, the Gulf Breeze story is probably one of the most extensively covered and investigated case in UFO history. When talking to UFOlogists, you get the array of opinions on the case. Some declare it as a hoax and others declare it authentic. For almost five years (1987-92), there was a lot of open discussion on the case but when all the dust settled there would be no definitive conclusion. It became a case that nobody could positively prove one way or the other and the different opinions ended in stalemate. If the subject is brought up in UFOlogical circles today, a heated debate can often occur. The Gulf Breeze story is one of fame, fraud, foolery, fighting, fiction, and fanaticism and I hope to endeavor to document the entire case.

The way these pages are essentially setup is to provide a basic chronicle of events that happened. I added my own personal opinions/observations at the end. Occasionally I will add a comment in other sections as well. Before you proceed, I want to make it clear that I think Ed is a fraud and he conned a whole bunch of people with his antics (and still does to this day). Now you know where I stand.

I would like to thank help I received from Photo Electronic Imaging magazine (previously known as Photo Methods) for their sending me a few copies of Hyzer's work that I requested free of charge. I am equally grateful for Phil Klass, who sent me the copies of SUN I requested free of charge (at least I thought the request for 10 million one-cent stamps was a joke). Lastly, I want to recognize a UFO researcher (I will not divulge their name but they know who they are) whom I debated for about a half-year on the subject. Many of his arguments consisted of solely doing a copy and paste of certain web pages and little else. Despite proclaiming a good deal of knowledge on the case, he seemed to be surprised by some of the simplest revelations outside the content that he could access. It made me realize that what was on the web was inadequate and more needed to be presented. His motivation, although misdirected, is appreciated.

I appreciate any input for corrections. There is a wealth of literature on the subject and sometimes the stories are not quite accurate or conflict. Please state the references so I can check up on it and correct the pages (if you can send me an electronic copy, this would be nice). Send email to me at tprinty@aol.com for any further information you can provide.