The PNJ reports that the History Channel’s “UFO Hunters” will be in Gulf Breeze within the next two weeks to film an episode about the “area’s reputation of being a hotbed for sightings of unidentified flying objects.”
In 1987 and ’88, Gulf Breeze businessman Ed Walters reported 20 encounters of UFOs and took numerous photos that were published in the Gulf Breeze Sentinel. Sentinel subscriptions soared to the point that Gannett eventually bought the publication. Gannett shut it down in 2001, but later came back with the Pelican that is inserted in the daily paper on Wednesdays (or is it Thursdays?).
The Walters sightings were a hoax. When he sold his home, the new owners found a model of a UFO that was identical to ones in Walters’ photos. We published a story about in July 1999.
In 2006, Craig Myers wrote the book “WAR OF THE WORDS”. Myers was a WEAR TV reporter who covered the UFO sightings. We wrote about his book (War of Words, Dec. 7, 2006).
Myers said of Walters: “He’s a very smart man, bordering on genius. He loves practical jokes, he loves attention, and he started this thing out as a prank and just got carried away, and it took on a life of its own.”
When the hoax became too big for Walters to back out, Myers hypothesizes: “He’d be better off being known as the guy who saw UFOs and photographed UFOs than the guy who fooled a whole city into believing him.”