Legends, Hoaxes and the Big Lie: I Was Framed

In a January 1993 paper titled “Ed Walters, The Model, and Tommy Smith” written for the MUFON Journal, Art Hufford articulated the Mutual UFO Network’s response to allegations that Ed Walters had hoaxed his UFO photos. Hufford briefly mentioned that MUFON assigned two additional investigators, Rex and Carol Salisberry (left), but then dismissed them because they “failed to deliver a complete report on the allegations (as outlined by MUFON’s Deputy Director for Investigations, Dan Wright).” He then spent the rest of the paper announcing the results of a subsequent investigation by The Salisberrys’ “supervisor,” Gary Watson.

When presented with the model (right) found by Robert Menzer, and the sketch inside with his handwriting in it, Ed Walters explained that he had earlier heard people rummaging around his garbage. He didn’t mention it earlier because he didn’t realize the significance at the time. But now he contended that some “debunker” wanted to discredit him by stealing something from him, and putting it inside a model to discredit him.

Watson produced evidence corroborating this dog-ate-my-sketch scenario. Going through Walters’ records, he found only one proposed housing construction that matched the specs on the sketch: specifically for a 1740 square foot dwelling with a 2393 square foot slab area built on 712 Jamestown Drive. There was only one proposed project (later abandoned) that matched the specs completely, a house proposed by a Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Thomas in September 1989. Problem was, that Walters first began photographing the UFO in November 1987. So, contended Watson, and therefore MUFON, Walters could not have used that model to hoax UFOs two years earlier.

As for Tommy Smith, Walters admitted that he knew him, but not very well. This led Watson to wonder why Walters would let him in on such an intimate secret as a purported hoax. More important, although Smith said Walters created the hoax shots through double exposure, he could not account for some of the photographs (specifically those taken with the Nimslo 3D) which appeared genuine. Smith claimed that the Nimslo 3D photos were of an airplane, when no known airplane had that configuration. Moreover, the photographic techniques Walters allegedly showed him could not reproduce the effects seen in the photograph. For example, Smith said Walters created the effect of a blue beam by slowly peeling the back off the Polaroid, and exposing it to light. This will just produce a splotch. Smith claimed to know for certain that the infamous Photo 19 was a double exposure, but couldn’t give details of either the technique used to create the double exposure, or the circumstances of the photograph itself.

Worst of all, Smith had good reason to lie against Walters. As B.J. Booth pointed out in “The Gulf Breeze, Florida UFOs,” Ed Walters was running against Smith’s father, Thomas Sr., for city council that year. Furthermore, Mayor Ed Gray and Police Chief Jerry Brown were always critical of Walters’ claims, and had supposedly demonstrated some antipathy for the man. So if someone were willing to come forth and testify that they had helped create a hoax, they would most likely promote that claim without much scrutiny. Moreover, the revelation created a double political windfall for Thomas Sr. by (1) discrediting his main opponent, and (2) depicting himself and his family as upright citizens who told the truth no matter the personal consequences.

In short, Tommy Smith had an agenda, couldn’t really describe how the photos were produced, let alone faked, and it would seem unlikely that Walters would confide in him. This led MUFON to officially adopt a “final” position on Walters’ veracity:

Gary Watson's reinvestigation of the Ed Walters case also dealt with some of the other issues surrounding this case, but time and your interest do not permit going any further. Watson's reinvestigation found no basis for rejecting the original MUFON conclusion... that Ed Walters IS TELLING THE TRUTH. [emphasis original]

I’m inclined to disbelieve that Smith’s story is true, at least in its details. Yet, Ed Walters could very well have confided a hoax to another teenager, specifically Hank Boland, who confirmed Walters’ story to the Gulf Breeze Sentinel under the alias Patrick Hanks. Boland and Smith knew each other. In one newspaper interview, Smith named Boland as a co-conspirator.

Figure 1. Smith interview

Of course, even if one could absolutely prove Smith a liar, that still wouldn’t make Walters’ account any more accurate. In fact, despite MUFON’s insistence that the Walters photographs (and his subsequent sightings and reported abduction) were genuine, mounting evidence indicated that he had engaged in fraudulent behavior.