Customer Reviews

The Gulf Breeze Sightings

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I read this book many years ago and revisited it when I returned to Gulf Breeze last summer. As a former resident of Gulf Breeze, I can say with certainty that there were strange things in the skies in the early 90's. I never saw the exact craft that Ed had taken umpteen photos of, but I saw my share of fighter jets chasing glowing orbs, and I had a real good daylight sighting of a pulsating reddish-orange sphere at treetop level.

I came late to the Ed Walters story, as the events depicted in this book coincided exactly with my freshman year at FSU in Tallahassee. I moved back to Gulf Breeze in 1988 and heard the stories from a friend of mine who was a good friend to Ed's family.

I was sold that my friend (Patrick Hanks in the book) was convinced of the authenticity of Ed's story. He offered strange tales from Ed's past that I would later read in Ed's second book. He seemed truly perplexed and never hinted that the whole thing was a big joke. Later, he was visited in Chicago by "the authorities" and vowed never to talk about it again.

There are many UFO abduction stories in print. What makes this story interesting, aside from the fact that it occurred in my home town, is the unprecedented siege laid upon Walters by the UFO. Most abductees see a light in the sky that descends on them, then the next thing they know they are in hypnotic regression therapy, spewing forth details of their abduction.

Walters was literally under siege by the aliens. He would hear voices in his head telling him to step forward so that he could be brought aboard, but he consistently refused, dodging the blue beam, and incessantly snapping photos then ducking for cover. This went on for months and meanwhile everybody in town was seeing UFO's nightly.

This was the first close encounter case in the annals of ufology that allowed for an investigation to take place while the sightings were still occurring. MUFON gave Walters a stereoscopic camera that used dual lenses to take photos so that the object in the picture could be triangulated to determine its size and distance from the camera. Walters managed to take some photos with this camera, which is foolproof to the double exposure techniques of which he has been accused.

Walters was finally nabbed by the blue beam from Shoreline Park South in May 1988 and what he learned under hypnosis became his second book, which I read many years ago but have not revisited recently.

I cannot be sure that this was not an elaborate hoax, but I am sure of UFO's in the Gulf Breeze skies, an increase of military presence in the Pensacola area airspace, many stories from friends and neighbors who saw odd things, took pictures and videos, and my own "missing time" experience, shared with a friend in 1992.

There are so many tales of alien abduction. I once assumed they were all made up, but my Gulf Breeze experiences have shown me that people need not make up stories. There is something strange going on.

This is a great UFO story, about a man, his wife and children in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Ed Walters claimed that he was hounded by a UFO near his home that even tried to beam him up. Basically the book is about Ed Walters taking photographs of a mysterious UFO outside of his home and then publishing them in the local newspaper. He writes about his experiences photographing the UFO and the MUFON investigation that followed shortly afterwards, during which time he took more UFO photographs and eventually published them in this book. So basically the book is about a series of extraterrestrial events near the Walters household in Gulf Breeze, Ed Walters taking photographs of this UFO and the MUFON investigation that followed.

So how does the story pan out? Well it is pretty much the bees knees of UFO sightings. The book is full of color pictures of a mysterious UFO with portholes at the sides which seems to be flying everywhere around Ed's home. It seems pretty believable and even has statements on photographic analysis from Dr. Bruce Maccabee to authenticate the photographs. Bud Hopkins, the famous alien abduction memory retrieval expert, even chimes in. So as a true story UFO romp it certainly is very good... except...

All the pictures are indeed fake. In fact this story destroyed the MUFON outfit which split because of two groups that came out of it, Pro-Ed Walters and Anti-Ed Walters. Dr. Maccabee was paid $20,000 for his analysis to appear in the book before the investigation was over. What you also don't know is that Ed Walters has never released his photographs for analysis elsewhere and that he holds the copyright to all the photographs that he took AND the ones that he said he did not take. The other photographs where published in newspapers elsewhere, so he had anonymous witnesses to the events. The big blow to Ed's story came when he denied taking these other photographs but a quick search found that he had copyrighted them. Also anomalies associated with talking photographs against a piece of glass using reflection methods of fakery cropped up in these photographs as well as his own. The anomalies where originally called scratches and blotches due to the development process and the camera he was using, but this is false, and since all the photographs have them then they where taken with the same camera and the same fakery process. Ed is in fact the photographer of the anonymous photographs that appeared in the newspapers after he had taken his and since he owns their copyright it pretty much goes to show that Ed has lied about his story.

I believe that there was a UFO FLAP over Gulf Breeze and that many people did see UFOs in the sky but this book is a complete hoax that just capitalized on the whole event. Ed Walters has simply faked a ton of photographs during this UFO flap and sold them off as what people where seeing. This is in fact false. Ed and his wife where the only people to ever witness this type of UFO. No one else saw this UFO and there are no witnesses to back up their claims, even though Ed lives in a pretty densely populated area. People may have seen UFOs at Gulf Breeze, but they didn't see the UFO in the pictures that Ed took.

A lot of controversy surrounds this book because of the high quality UFO pictures in the photo section. They're said to be a little "too good." Additionally, a model of the UFO was found in the attic of Ed Walters's old house. Regardless of if it's real or a hoax, the format's interesting (Ed and his wife write alternate chapters) and you can't beat the picture his wife took of him standing outside with a towel wrapped around his waist while angrily shaking his fist at a UFO that interrupted his shower.

If you start this book with an open mind, expect it to be blown. It's not the pictures, but the (human) reactions to it all that scare me. Ed Walters is well off with a good job, and well liked in the neighborhood. His taking time out to set up fun things for the neighborhood kids (to keep them off the streets) to do, say alot about the man. But it's his (human) reactions to things that drive the nail of truth home. In one chapter an alien comes up on Ed's back porch and scares the crap out of him. And Ed reacts like we all would, he gets pissed off and wants to go out and tackle the little bastard and drag him into the house. In a previous review someone states, a modle flying saucer was found in Ed's old house. The word to remember is (old). Because it's another debunker at work. And Ed's had lots of toe-to-toe meetings with debunkers. As you read this book, think to yourself (how would I react)? Their isn't a word in this book that rings untrue. And thats what scares me the most. As the former comander of N.O.R.A.D. said, Before we welcome these aliens with open arms theirs one thing I want to know. Are we Columbus or are we the Indians. Sleep tight......

Okay first up this is great read and many UFO buffs will certainly be shocked by Ed and Francis Walters story of a UFO encounter that they backup with multiple photographs in the book. There are also multiple witness testimonies and the book does its very best to try and describe every event as it unfolded in their daily lives. Wonderful and riveting stuff and the long winded and often complex photo analysis really does its utmost best to show that these photographs could not have been hoaxed. Certainly a compelling argument and the fact that most of the photographic `experts' seem to be able to conclude that the photographs are not a result of `double exposure' is a sealing of proof that the photographs are real.

However you do not need to `double expose' anything to achieve the same results and this is EXACTLY why their analysis is not that credible. I am sorry but the fact that no-one has ever mentioned the following, including the photo experts, really does put me in the position of total skepticism... Even better is the fact that you do not need to `double-expose' anything or alter the original negative as the camera is capturing exactly what you are seeing. I would however see this as a problem for some complex shots like the UFO hiding behind trees or anything else in the foreground but the photographs 1 and 2 in which Ed said he had captured such a thing where not printed in my edition of the book and I can not find them anywhere else either. I would love to see these but alas have not found them. Either someone ripped them out of my copy of the book or Ed did not publish them. Anyway I want to be the first to point out that this is how a lot of the photographs could have been reproduced without direct 'image altering' or 'double-exposure'. In fact the process dates back to the 18th century where instead of using a camera the audience watched the ghost float across the room as a reflection on a sheet of glass that covered a portion of the stage.

PLEASE give me credit for this if you use it elsewhere because I worked hard to find this out. I do not doubt about the existence of UFO's and I believe that many of the shots/videos of other UFO's are real.... but alas Ed's pictures can be exactly replicated ... without interfering with the original negative or print. I also fail to understand why many of the `experts' did not notice this. It is pretty obvious from photograph 11 that the image is semi-transparent and can be reproduced this way along with many others. Remember where you read this first and enjoy creating your own set of Gulf Breeze photographs ... but beware.. people like me will be able to spot your hoax a mile away. Have a nice day and do get the book because regardless of the above it is an enjoyable read!

This is quite possibly one of the finest non-fiction books you will ever buy on the UFO phenomenon and a very in-depth case study. The Walters family walks us through a very easy to read explanation of what transpired over the period of some 8 or 9 months in their quiet town. Unlike some of the reviews read here, written by skeptics who would tell you otherwise, over 200 documented witnesses where involved with this case and Walters photos were not the only ones presented. There were also many videos taken, stereo photographic evidence and two passed polygraph tests. This is a must read for anyone interested in cutting to the chase and weeding through UFO books looking for the real deal. This was the real deal.

I live about 95 mles from Gulf Breeze and did not know about all of the UFO sightings until I read the book.Ed Walters is the man along with others that have brought the Gulf Breeze UFO'S to the mainstream. This book has some excellent photographs of the alien spaceships that have been seen over Gulf Breeze.This book reminds me of the X-Files books not because of UFO's but because this book keeps you on the edge of your seat.If you are in to aliens and other X-File type books get this one because it has alot of intresting pictures and diagrams illustrated by the author. Some of the information in this book was also mentioned on the X-Files TV show along time ago.

This wonderful book tries to present the simple fact that alien ships really are visiting the earth. Dubunkers have no ground to stand on with this one. The debunkers themselves are relegated to the group of people who have never observed the phenomenon. For this reason they imagine that such a thing could never happen. It's difficult to imagine that level of obtuseness when there is now so much solid supporting evidence for the information and the phenomenon. Grow up. We live in a busy neighbourhood (space) and we get visitors. Many are from our own future, some are interdimensional travellers, others are ETs.They have the technology to make it work. They are tourists, anthropologists and scientists. We live in a galaxy with so much life that they couldn't help but knock at our door. Ed Walters had a real experience.