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Info-ParaNet Newsletters Volume 1 Number 001
Info-ParaNet Letters Volume 1 Issue 1 + 2 + 3 + 4
Subjects -
Welcome to ParaNet
Re: Gulf Breeze
Jaques Vallee & "Dimensions"
Corrections
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From: mcorbin@paranet.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Corbin)
Subject: Welcome to ParaNet
Organization: Paranet Information Service, Denver, CO (303) 431-1343
Welcome to ParaNet!
I wanted to take this opportunity to give you all a couple of
ideas about what this newsletter is about.
First, Paranet is the world's first international news
organization to provide information about the mysterious UFO
phenomenon. For over forty years, our government and the
civilian population has attempted to study and understand
thousands of reports of Unidentified Flying Objects. Out of the
thousands reported, it is estimated that around 20% of these
sightings were truly unexplained. It is ParaNet's idea to link
the layman with the 'movers and the shakers' in the UFO community
and keep people informed of the latest findings. This is
accomplished via our network message area combined with a vast
library of text files which have been contributed to ParaNet by
the scientific and research community.
What we will accomplish via this newsletter is the marriage
between ParaNet's network and you, the Unix user. We encourage
your input and contributions of ideas, materials and discussion.
The rules are simple....No personal attacks. We expect divergent
opinions and viewpoints from skeptics, scientists and the general
population. It is in this spirit that ParaNet has grown to the
level that it is today.
A few other minor details. With this newsletter, you may reply
to any message that you wish via the path that it comes to you.
If you wish to contact me personally, you can do so either by
sending mail to me at mcorbin@scicom.alphacdc.com, or by phoning
my voice at 303-420-6758. I will do my best to reply to you
promptly. If you have material that you wish to contribute,
please insert it into a private message to me or send it via
postal mail to me at:
ParaNet Information Service
P.O. Box 928
Wheatridge, CO 80034-0928 USA
With this in mind, let's get to it. Hope you all enjoy!
Michael Corbin
Administrator
--
Michael Corbin - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: ...!scicom!mcorbin
INTERNET: mcorbin@paranet.FIDONET.ORG
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From: Jim.Delton@f1.n304.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jim Delton)
Subject: Re: Gulf Breeze
Organization: FidoNet node 1:304/1 - NEXUS, Flagstaff AZ
If the florida blimp is the same as the one they are flying in southern
Arizona to catch drug dealers, it is unlikely anyone will mistake if
for a UFO. It is tethered in place and contains a bunch of radar
equipment for long range survelience of planes coming up from mexico.
The plan calls for something like 4 to 7 of them spread out across the
whole southern border of the country eventually.
--
Jim Delton - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: ...!scicom!304!1!Jim.Delton
INTERNET: Jim.Delton@f1.n304.z1.FIDONET.ORG
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: mailrus.cc.umich.edu!edhew@xenicon.UCAR.EDU (Ed Hew)
[In the message "Info-Paranet Newsletter", Paranet Aliases <scicom.alphacdc.com!info-paranet@mailrus.uucp writes... ]
> To All:
>
> I would like to pose a hypothetical question to you. I am very
> interested in your comments.
>
> Scientist X voluntarily does field investigation on a UFO
> sighting. Witness E writes a book on sighting and pays scientist
> X for use of his materials. Does this tarnish the scientist's
> objectivity?
I would tend to think that anyone time *anyone* is paid for the use
of their information there is a possibility that such information may
be coloured to suit the financial benefactor.
Specific to this case, I'm sure that most scientists will have enough
integrity to *not* massage the facts, but then there will always be
some that can be bought, as with any other group of humans.
> Mike
--ed {edhew@xenicon.uucp}
Ed. A. Hew Technical Trainer Xeni/Con Corporation
->work: edhew@xenicon.uucp -or- ..!{uunet!}utai!lsuc!xenicon!edhew
home: edhew@egvideo.uucp -or- ..!{uunet!}watmath!egvideo!edhew
home: changing to: edhew@xenitec.uucp [but be patient for new maps]
# I haven't lost my mind, it's backed up on floppy around here somewhere!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: megatron@charlie.oz.au (Peter Tzanetos)
>Scientist X voluntarily does field investigation on a UFO
>sighting. Witness E writes a book on sighting and pays scientist
>X for use of his materials. Does this tarnish the scientist's
>objectivity?
>
Sounds a little familier. It would all depend of the way that the
writer presented the scientist work. A scientist is not able to
speculate in what might be. He is dealing with the facts that he
sees and must present them that way. If for example he made a study
of radiation around an alleged UFO landing, and reported that the
radiation was higher than the surrounding area but still at a level
that you could expect from the rocks in the area then it is up to the
writer to report accurately on these findings.
In the above the scientist cannot say that anything had landed if all
he has is the proof of radiation consistent with the minerals,
although higher than the surrounding area.
It is the duty of the writer to present the research of others as he
received it and clearly make comments as being that of he own or
others but not that of , "Scientists proves that UFO landed".
In Whitley Strieber's book "Communion" he presents a report from
his psychiatrist Dr. Donald Klein in which its states that he is not
suffering a mental illness. That does not mean that he feels he is
telling the truth or that he is not suffering from a medical
condition.
In summery then, the credibility of a scientist will not be affected
if his research is presented as he finds it. If distorted then that
scientist will be in a position to have to clear what he said and may
not be so keen on further assistance with UFO writers.
Bob...
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From: Linda.Murphy@paranet.FIDONET.ORG (Linda Murphy)
Subject: Jaques Vallee & "Dimensions"
Organization: Paranet Information Service, Denver, CO (303) 431-1343
Picked this up yesterday --- it is the first Vallee book I had ever read, and
prior to that, his short interview in an issue of UFO Magazine...
on Page 223
"I have alluded to the fact that the major groups of UFO believers have been
closely monitored by government agents. There is a good reason for this
attention: their influence can be manipulated for political goals or simply as
a test of various forms of deception. One of the recommendations of a recently
declassified CIA/US Air Force panel on UFOs, which met in Wahington in 1953,
was precisely to monitor the activities of civilian groups:
'The Panel took cognizance of the existence of such groups as the
"Civilian Flying Saucer Investigators" of Los Angeles and the
"Aerial Phenomena Research Organization" (Wisconsin). It was believed
that such organizations should be watched because of their great influence
on mass thinking if widespread sightings should occur. The apparent
irresponsibility and the possible use of such groups for subversive
purposes should be kept in mind."
"It is difficult to be more explicit. This political control factor does
explain certain bizarre aspects of the UFO problem, including the behavior of
some celbrated contactees, who could have been set up in their roles in order
to propagate alleged extraterrestrial messages in this and other countries."
**** skipping down
"Also among the leaders of NICAP (National Investigations Committe on Aerial
Phenomena), one of the most influential UFO groups in the 50's and 60's, were
at least three well-known intelligence operatives: Bernard Corvalho, Nicholas
de Rochefort, and Colonel Joseph Rayn, men who were trained practioners of the
modern techniques of psychological warfare."
**** skipping over to next page
"Many UFO groups are gullible to any rumor that seems to support the extra-
terrestrial credo, without seriously investigating WHERE the rumor comes from
and WHO may have an interest in spreading it. The skeptical zeal of some of the
more vical debunkers is also inspired by the need to maintain political
control. To prevent genuine scientific study from being organized, all that is
needed is to maintain a certain threshold of redicule around the phenomenon.
........Efforts are made to systematically discredit professional researchers
who investigate the phenomenon."
(brief descriptions of psychological warfare where, in Britton, "equipment has
been developed to use low-lying clouds as a screen off which to bounce huge
propoganda shows. Tape recordings of primitive gods have been prepared, to be
played from helicopters, thus frightening tribes... **** further *** Durring
the Vietnam war U.S. military unit called the 4th Psysop Group invented an
image projector called the "Mitralux" -- which used slides and a 1000 Watt
lighbulb to project pictures on buildings, mountains and cloud banks --
**** Vallee also says that under Nixon administration, a White House task force
had proposed a scheme for the invasion of Cuba that involved a submarine equipped
with lasers. It would "paint" an image of Christ over the island to simulate
the Second Coming. This "miracle", it was thought, would disturb the Catholic
population in Havana, paralyzing communications... and etc., to the point,
where commandos could seize strategic points and overthrow the Castro Regime)...
I also found it interesting, where Vallee talks about "contactees" who are
sometimes *warned* about the information they put out (such as "Now is not the
time") --- and if they persist, well.... , the case cited, the individual
asking the woman to stop was "deadly serious". It is of interest that Vallee
makes the comment that by the time various investigators get to the individual,
so much has transpired, that many reports are left "incomplete" or lack enough
detail, or various forms of investigation had wound up leaving the individual
in such a confused state, that it is nearly impossible to get to the bottom of
the situation. The title of this particular subchapter "The Phenomena Negates
Itself" is very appropriate.
I can only say one thing Mike --- if you haven't read this book, I highly
recommend you pick it up and read it. And also, due to some "innuendos" that
are rippling around --- I can only say --- anybody who goes to the Library,
can come up with this information. It is just a matter of putting it together.
However, it is only a matter of how it is put together, whether or not it makes
logical sense... And to find that more then one individual can also come to
same types of conclusions independantly, then merits, in my mind, a workable
hypothesis in regards to at least one aspect of the phenomena.
Vallee also states that the entire problem MUST be looked at from an
"International" level --- which, as we both know, is the intent and goal of
ParaNet as we expand to embrace the world... [now, if I can get cooperation
from my computer, perhaps we will realize our goal]"
-- Linda
[above from "Dimensions" by Jaques Vallee (C) 1988 Balantine books, pages 218-227]
( 1:304/1)
--
Linda Murphy - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: ...!scicom!Linda.Murphy
INTERNET: Linda.Murphy@paranet.FIDONET.ORG
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From: mcorbin@paranet.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Corbin)
Subject: Corrections
Organization: Paranet Information Service, Denver, CO (303) 431-1343
It has been brought to my attention that I have erred in a
couple of factual statements that I have made pertaining to the
Gulf Breeze matter and some statements that I made regarding Ed
Hanson. In the interest of fairness, I would like to stand
corrected on them:
1) Ed Hanson (Walters) never admitted that he was 'Believer
Bill'. Although this is the general consensus among some
researchers, there is nothing to substantiate this at all.
2) Ed Hanson (Walters) never admitted to hoaxing a ghost photo.
Recently, ParaNet received some letters from Ed Hanson who is now
claiming that Dr. Smith's reputation could be less than
favorable. Although ParaNet never endorsed Dr. Smith nor his
ideas, we continue to rate the Gulf Breeze case a hoax.
Irregardless, of what issues are raised about Dr. Smith or Ed
Hanson, the fact still remains that the issues here are not
necessarily the credibility of the parties involved, although
this can be important, but more importantly, whether the photos
of the UFO are hoaxed or authentic. Therefore, the challenge
still stands - We are asking MUFON to provide the original
photographs of the Gulf Breeze UFO for an analysis by an
independent laboratory to determine their authenticity. Again,
if Gulf Breeze is authentic and Ed Hanson has been visited by
ETs, the photos will stand the test of an independent laboratory.
Finally, in the interest of fairness, we have provided a copy of
the letter by Manual Hunneus and will be providing a letter from
Ed Hanson in refutation to Dr. Smith. The following messages are
also being printed here for the readers benefit dealing with a
couple of articles written by Jennifer Tucker, a Staff Writer for
the Tribune Newspaper in Pensacola. These may be very
interesting.
Mike
--
Michael Corbin - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: ...!scicom!mcorbin
INTERNET: mcorbin@paranet.FIDONET.ORG
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: mcorbin@paranet.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Corbin)
Subject: 10289FL.UFO Article
Organization: Paranet Information Service, Denver, CO (303) 431-1343
NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE
DATE OF ARTICLE: January 29, 1989
SOURCE OF ARTICLE: Tribune
LOCATION: Tampa, Florida
BYLINE: Jennifer Tucker
========================================================
THIS FILE WAS PROVIDED BY THE UFO NEWSCLIPPING SERVICE
AND PREPARED BY PARANET ALPHA -- PARANET INFORMATION
SERVICE
1-303-431-1343 9600 BAUD
DENVER, COLORADO
NOTE: THESE FILES ARE NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION OUTSIDE
OF THE PARANET INFORMATION SERVICE NETWORK
========================================================
GULF BREEZE UFOS CONTROVERSY HANGS OVER PANHANDLE TOWN
By Jennifer Tucker
Tribune Staff Writer
GULF BREEZE--Ringed by two story pines and six figure real
estate, Gulf Breeze is a mostly unremarkable town severed by U.S.
98 in the Florida Panhandle.
To visitors, its most memorable feature is a flashing neon
fish pointing the way to Pensacola Beach.
To 6,000 residents, its most pressing problem is a 70 mile
detour around the Pensacola Bay Bridge, hit and crippled by a
barge two weeks ago.
In 16 years, only two murders have torn this town. In 12
years, only 10 bank robberies have occured.
But in the last year and a half, more than 135 local
witnesses have reported seeing something they can't identify.
One prominent Gulf Breeze resident has taken more than 30
photographs of a UFO. This man, who protects his anonymity
behind the name "Ed," has photographed a craft so fantastic and
unfamiliar that many people believe the pictures are first rate
fakes.
Skeptics merely point to the east where Eglin Air Force
Base, one of the country's largest military installations, lies
like a wall to wall flying carpet.
The Gulf Breeze stories--told to the nation by NBC's
"Unsolved Mysteries" and CNN, among others--have inspired UFO
researchers to undertake a dramatic debate of possibility vs.
probability.
Researchers agree on only one thing: Either the Gulf Breeze
UFO sightings are some of the most phenomenal ever recorded, or
the Gulf Breeze UFO sightings are some of the most exaggerated
ever reported.
Among the eyewitnesses are a federal judge, a politician and
a prominent physician.
THE NEIGHBORS
Art and Mary Hufford don't even live in town. Their homey,
ranch style house is on a sycamore lined street in Pensacola, a
bridge's drive away from Gulf Breeze.
But the Huffords remember, in perfect detail, an evening in
early November 1987. The couple was in their car, just two miles
from home, when they saw something gray, oval and silent fly over
the treetops, Art says.
The craft remained in view for several minutes, yet when
they got home and talked about it, Art says they couldn't come up
with a rational explanation.
"It just didn't make any sense," says Art, a soft spoken
chemical engineer with a master's degree and 25 years' experience
at Monsanto Chemical Co.
Both Huffords are elders in the Presbyterian church, and
Mary is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Pensacola.
"We thought UFOs were something that happened to Billy Bob
out on a boat after too many beers," Art says, wryly.
But then, several weeks after their sighting, the couple saw
Ed's photographs in the Pensacola edition of the Gulf Breeze
newspaper. "It was like someone had taken a picture out of our
brains," Art says. "That was it."
Through 1988, the couple shared their experience with others
similarly affected. At social gatherings, when Art mentioned the
sighting, he says people would pull him aside with whispered
confessions of their own experiences.
And Art is convinced that what he saw was not a product of
modern technology or man made trickery.
"Frankly," Art says, "the debunkers make me mad. I saw what
I saw."
PARTY INVITATIONS
Fenner and Shirley McConnell of Gulf Breeze had sent out
invitations to their annual June get together with tongue planted
firmly in cheek.
The front of the invitation featured a cartoon of alien
creatures rollicking through city streets, and inside they told
revelers it would be a "UFO watching party."
Two days before the 1988 party, the couple says, their
invitation sprang to life outside their bedroom window. They saw
a cylindrical craft, ringed in windows and lights, hovering over
Pensacola Bay.
Fenner McConnell, a physician and medical examiner for
Florida's District 1, says the craft came within 75 yards of the
house, and at one point "I thought it was going to land on it."
Shirley McConnell, a caterer, says she was overcome by "an
eerie feeling," but she immediately recognized the craft from
Ed`s photographs.
The couple went outside to get a better look. It hovered
for nearly four minutes and then "kind of drifted away," Fenner
McConnell says.
"I'm not saying that I believe it's from another planet,"
Shirley McConnell says, "but it's something I had never laid eyes
on in my life. People can say whatever they want about me, but I
know what I saw. Ed didn't make this up."
Likewise, Brenda Pollak says the large, lighted craft she
saw twice in one night during the spring of 1988 was not a
figment of her imagination.
She was driving east across the Pensacola Bay Bridge when
she saw it the first time, looking "too big and too bright...and
very different from anything I had ever seen before."
Nearing her home on Shoreline Drive in Gulf Breeze, Pollak
pulled into the parking lot of the city's recreation center and
parked.
She says she watched the craft hover over the bay--unaware
that a few blocks away, Ed was taking a photograph of the very
same craft.
"I was exhilarated," says Pollak, a two term City Council
member who works with Ed on community projects.
"I can tell you now--for every one person who has reported
seeing the craft, there are 10 who talk about it but don't want
anyone to know," Pollak adds.
"And I can also tell you if this is a hoax, it can't be Ed
because it would make him look like an idiot and the community
look crazy."
THE RESEARCHERS
Scientists can't help making comparisons.
In the 1970's, a Swiss laborer named Edward Meier took
hundreds of photographs of a 'spaceship' near Zurich.
Although some people consider his photographs authentic,
others believe they are fakes, basing their conclusions on
damning photographic analyses.
Nevertheless, scientists acknowledge that Meier`s pictures
are remarkably clever.
So it is with Ed, whose photographs have been analyzed and
scrutinized by two of the country's foremost photographic
experts.
Moreover, the photographs--and Ed's cooperation with some
UFO investigators--have caused a political rift so powerful that
participants think the case could damage the future of UFO
research in America.
At odds are investigators with the Mutual UFO Network, a 20
year old group of scientists and 'grass roots' researchers, and
the Center for UFO Studies, a non profit conclave founded by J.
Allen Hynek, a leading American astronomer who died in 1986.
Network directors support Ed's story; the center does not.
The network bases its opinion primarily on the findings of
Bruce Maccabee, a Naval physicist studying optics and underwater
sound in addition to working with the FBI.
The center bases its opinion on its own researchers as well
as on Robert Nathan, a member of the technical staff of NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
INTRICATE REPORT
Maccabee, who published an intricate 90 page report
examining the evidence, concludes that the photographs are real.
He applied the properties of physics and various
mathematical theories to determine things such as the size of the
ship, the distance of the craft from the camera lens and odd
angles of the photographs.
More important, Maccabee says, he wasn't "biased by the idea
that it's too impossible, therefore it can't be real." Critics
would "rather take the approach that if the pictures could have
been hoaxed then they must have been," he says.
Maccabee reasons that Ed could not have performed the
photographic feats necessary to pull off such an elaborate hoax.
"A professional magician would have a difficult time doing this,"
he says.
Last year, staffers at a Pensacola television station tried
to reproduce Ed's photographs using a model. They gave up after
their attempts failed miserably, Maccabee says.
He further admonishes skeptics for questioning the look of
the craft--"Nobody knows what UFOs look like," Maccabee says.
And he points out what he considers to be the weighty
circumstantial evidence in Ed's favor--including testimony from
friends and witnesses, one of them Ed's wife.
Skeptics, however, side with NASA's Nathan. Although he
acknowledges that he "hasn't given the pictures the kind of care
Bruce has," Nathan says a visual examination reveals glaring
inconsistencies--typical of double exposures.
IRREGULARITIES IN PHOTOS
The spaceship is brighter and more in focus than the
background, he says, and these irregularities are repeated in
picture after picture.
Nathan concludes that the object looks like "a gas burner
turned upside down" and that its apparent lack of symmetry is
simply "inconsistent with what you would expect from a highly
developed society."
Mark Rodeghier, scientific director of the Center for UFO
Studies, says the Gulf Breeze case has "deteriorated into a
shouting match" because his organization was forced to play
devil's advocate.
Investigators with the Mutual UFO Network were too quick to
judge the photographs favorably, he says, and those comments
biased Maccabee's analysis.
"Except those intimately connected with the network, 90
percent of serious UFO researchers think Gulf Breeze is a hoax,"
Rodeghier concludes.
Among those who agree with that assessment is Philip Klass,
considered the country's premier debunker of UFOs. Although he
has not seen the Gulf Breeze photographs, Klass says he has
scanned Maccabee's report and finds it improbable.
"Any UFO case, whether it involves pictures or not, is sort
of like that old adage that a woman cannot be 10 percent
pregnant. If one photo is a hoax, then they all must be thrown
out," says Klass, who surmises that the photographs are too
"suspect" to be real.
Klass reiterates his claim by stating, "In 22 years of
investigating, I have never investigated or heard of a UFO case
that cannot be explained in prosaic terms."
JUST THE FACTS
"I deal in facts," says Jerry Brown, Gulf Breeze's 42 year
old chief of police, whose carpeted office smells faintly of
cinnamon and coffee.
"Granted--anyplace, any time, anything can happen to you.
But why would people call about a prowler and not call about a
UFO that's landed in their yard?"
The police chief knows Ed and likes him. Yet Brown says
he's concerned about the possibility "that one person, as a
practical joke...could destroy what it's taken so many years to
build."
Ed`s supporters, meanwhile, believe Gulf Breeze attracted
the unknown visitors because of the reputation the city already
had built--as a well off, well educated, open minded community.
"There is a direct correlation between education and the
acceptance of the UFO phenomenon," says Donald Ware, Florida
director of the Mutual UFO Network.
"I am convinced the reason one man was given so many
photographic opportunities is because the aliens wanted us to see
those pictures," Ware says.
=================================================================
Michael Corbin - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: ...!scicom!mcorbin
INTERNET: mcorbin@paranet.FIDONET.ORG
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: mcorbin@paranet.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Corbin)
Subject: 13089FL.UFO Article
Organization: Paranet Information Service, Denver, CO (303) 431-1343
NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE
DATE OF ARTICLE: January 30, 1989
SOURCE OF ARTICLE: Tribune
LOCATION: Tampa, Florida
BYLINE: Jennifer Tucker
========================================================
THIS FILE WAS PROVIDED BY THE UFO NEWSCLIPPING SERVICE
AND PREPARED BY PARANET ALPHA -- PARANET INFORMATION
SERVICE
PARANET INFORMATION SERVICE BBS
1-303-431-1343 (9600)
1-303-420-6758 (VOICE)
DENVER, COLORADO
NOTE: THESE FILES ARE NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION OUTSIDE
OF THE PARANET INFORMATION SERVICE NETWORK
========================================================
'STATE OF SIEGE'
ED'S UFO ENCOUNTERS HAVE MADE HIS LIFE HELL
By Jennifer Tucker
Tribune Staff Writer
GULF BREEZE--Ed isn't the "UFO type."
He's a WASPish baby boomer with a kid in college and a two
car garage. As a custom home builder in a community full of
custom homes, he depends on personal referrals for his
livelihood.
He doesn't seem to need the money he could earn from a best
seller based on his experiences. Yet local sources indicate he
has recently signed a book contract.
Nevertheless, Ed is the guy who has taken all the
photographs, made all the noise, caused all the fury. Just over
a year ago, Ed says a UFO appeared in front of his house in Gulf
Breeze and he immediately took several photographs of the craft.
Ed walked into the street to get a closer look and a "blue
beam" shot down from the ship, temporarily paralyzing him, he
says. At the same time, Ed says he heard a loud "hum" and was
instructed by an authoritative voice to "be still."
Within seconds, he says, he was raised off the ground, then
thrown to the concrete as the craft disappeared. From that
moment on, Ed says, a resonant "hum" always preceded the
appearance of the UFO.
Seven months later, after 21 encounters resulting in more
than 30 photographs and one videotape, Ed says he was abducted
again. This time, the aliens removed the hum and he has not seen
or photographed a UFO since, he says.
To Ed, 42, this was no phantom object, no trick of nature or
imagination. It was real. It made his life a living hell.
And it forced him to defend himself, he says, not against
the aliens, but against the people who call him crazy.
WORDS POUND
"Look," Ed says in one of a series of telephone interviews,
his words pounding with the passion of a clenched fist. "Before
Nov. 10, 1987, I wouldn't have believed in UFOs either unless one
landed in my front yard."
"Uh, no pun intended."
Ed guffaws like Gulliver in a land of Lilliputians.
If Ed has been enlightened with truths no scientist knows,
then it is wisdom learned reluctantly. He can barely get through
a sentence without revealing his fears or defending his position.
He describes the experience as "a state of siege."
Yet, he doesn't plead for understanding. And he doesn't
expect it, really. Besides the photographs themselves, Ed's take
it or leave it attitude is his most convincing argument.
And it's an argument he can't win, critics say, not with a
pocket full of Polaroids.
Ed, meanwhile, has remained anonymous because he fears his
fate. "I would always be known as the UFO guy."
He'd rather be known as a good businessman, a good father
and a good buddy to the kids he says he's kept off the streets by
welcoming them into his home.
"No, no, no. It was an awful experience. If you ever take
a photograph (of a UFO), do not show it to anybody. Put it in a
drawer and show it to your grandkids," he says wearily.
Ed's story is lengthy and strange, and he knows it. He says
his first encounter, in November 1987, resulted in five blurry
color photographs he made with a 17 year old Polaroid camera.
TAKE A PICTURE
"Put yourself in the mood of peacefully sitting in your
office and looking out your front window and you see something
that...looks like it just escaped a Steven Speilberg movie," he
says. "You figure you better take a picture of it."
Ed's humor about his experience is as revealing as it is
disarming. Like a schoolboy trying to explain a pock marked
report card, Ed uses humor to cushion the blow. His laughter
bounces and rolls like a runaway basketball, but his words slam
into listeners' ears with the power of a Michael Jordan slam
dunk.
For months, Ed snapped dozens of pictures. Many were taken
near his home, situated in the sleepy center of town next to a
large, overgrown field.
Others were taken at Shoreline Park, a spot facing the
skinny barrier island called Pensacola Beach. Stray kittens
crowd the wooded park, whose main features are a whitewashed
gazebo and a good stretch of concrete.
Still others were taken along deserted county roads, whose
curves are familiar to Ed, the builder.
Skeptics and believers agree--the photographs are remarkably
unidentifiable. The craft (or crafts) captured on film are
mostly spherical in shape, with dark, recessed points that Ed
surmises are windows. Lights encircle the bottom of the craft
and a round bulb is perched on top.
In many instances, Ed snapped the pictures in what he
describes as frenzied fear, at dusk or near dawn. Moreover, the
craft maneuvered so rapidly that Ed says his opportunities for
precise pictures were limited.
ALIEN ENCOUNTERS
He also was having alien encounters Ed says he couldn't
capture on film. On several occasions, Ed says, he was pursued
by a "blue beam" of light that shot from the craft.
He says a bowl full of bubbling residue was found in his
back yard after one late night visit. The Mutual UFO Network,
which initiated investigation of Ed's claims, had the substance
analyzed at independent chemical laboratories in Florida and
Texas. These revealed a strange liquid high in magnesium and
trace elements, Ed says.
More frightening were face to face meetings with the aliens
themselves--what scientists call an encounter of the third kind.
The first time he saw one of the "creatures," Ed says he was
awakened at 3 a.m. by the now familiar hum that preceded their
visits. When he peered out the glass doors of his bedroom, Ed
says, he was face to face with a childlike creature clad in gray.
He says he saw more of these creatures at a later date, an
experience that produced one of the most dramatic photographs in
Ed's portfolio.
In it, the craft is pictured hovering just above the road,
lights reflecting on the wet pavement. Moments after he took
this picture, Ed says he realized the craft was moving toward him
so he slid from the truck and crawled underneath it.
From his prone position, Ed says he could see a blue beam
flash from the craft several times, each time depositing a
creature on the road.
He assumed the creatures were "after him" and, riddled with
terror, he jumped back in the truck and sped away. He didn't
even think about taking a picture, he says.
OFFICIAL VISIT
After Ed's photographs began to appear in the Gulf Breeze
Sentinel newspaper--with his approval but without his name--Ed
says he was visited by two men who identified themselves as U.S.
Air Force personnel. Wielding badges printed with "Air Force
Special Security Services," the visitors behaved "very
aggressively" and demanded Ed turn over his photographs, he says.
Ed refused, explaining they were in the hands of
professional photographic analysts. (Many were; others were
still in Ed's possession.)
By spring, two major UFO organizations--the Mutual UFO
Network and the Center for UFO Studies--had been in touch with
Ed. So had dozens of media representatives, including the
National Enquirer, which Ed says turned down the story because
one analysis tentatively labeled the photographs a hoax.
With that, the seed of suspicion was planted. And Ed, who
states vehemently, "My word is my bond," was forced into a corner
full of accusations.
After taking 24 photographs with his old Polaroid, Ed began
using cameras and film provided by UFO researchers--unbroken
packages and factory perfect equipment. He produced 11
photographs with the new equipment supplied by UFO investigators.
Ed also built a so called stereo camera that allowed him to
take two pictures simultaneously, creating a 3-D effect. With
this camera, he took about eight photographs.
"If I hadn't taken any pictures with these cameras, I would
have been branded guilty by non photography," he says,
sarcastically.
By using mathematical equations, analysts studying the
photographs could determine its distance from the camera and its
size. Most often, these conclusions placed the craft 65 to 180
feet from the camera, at an approximate size of 12 feet in
diameter and 9 feet high.
UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE
These estimates correspond quite precisely to an unusual
occurrence in Gulf Breeze during the spring. A circular patch of
dead grass was discovered on the high school grounds, and lab
analysis by UFO investigators revealed the grass wasn't killed by
disease or suffocated by petroleum derivatives.
The patch had a 12 foot diameter.
In addition to providing his photographs for publication, Ed
agreed to numerous psychological exams, a lie detector test that
included a five hour interview, and an electronic voice analysis.
In each case, investigators concluded Ed was sane and
honest.
"There was never any question that what happened, happened,"
Ed says. "But I don't know why me--why I was privy to these
things.
"I didn't feel 'chosen,' I felt abused," he says. "I was
tormented, a prisoner in my own house. I surrounded myself with
people at work and family at home.
"My kids never knew if Daddy was going to go away and not
come back."
Ed says he took the photographs to the local newspaper
because he felt a kind of civic duty to warn nearby residents.
Yet his reward from skeptics was name calling tirades that
labeled him "everything from an agitated fool to a
schizophrenic," Ed says.
People trying to discredit him, he says, have played "hide
and seek with the truth" while distorting the facts to fit their
opinion.
CLASSIC CAMPAIGN
"What this is is a classic disinformation campaign by the
debunkers in order to brand me as loony tunes," Ed says, his
voice rising in defense. "They ran out of legitimate scientific
criticisms of the photographic evidence. You have to keep in
mind that none of these debunkers have ever talked to any of the
other witnesses."
Dozens of independent eyewitnesses in Gulf Breeze and
Pensacola have reported seeing UFOs in the last year, and many of
these reports coincide with the appearance of Ed's photographs.
Yet Ed has been criticized for being alone in his torment--
the only one able to take photographs of the craft.
"Look, where are you at 3 a.m.? It would have been pretty
bizarre to have a mass of people around me at 3 a.m.," he says.
Moreover, Ed says his closest neighbors have seen the UFO.
But they are afraid of ridicule.
Currently, Ed says he has no plans to make his identity
public or to sell the detailed, chronological log that he's
written about the ordeal. (Sources in Gulf Breeze, however,
report Ed has signed a lucrative book contract.)
"I have no monetary motive here," he says. "Sometimes, I
think a book might be the right thing to do for public education,
but it might not be the right thing for my family.
"What might be a lot of money to some people is not enough
for me to sell my soul," Ed says.
After long conversations, Ed's words are punctuated by sighs
instead of laughter. He sounds less enthusiastic about the
subject and more excited by the solitude he's enjoyed for several
months.
"Not to be frivolous, but I'm still the same old Ed. I've
still got my feet on the ground.
"But it has affected me almost daily," he says, chuckling
softly. "I'll be doing mundane chores, like pumping gas or
buying bolts at the hardware store. And I'll look around and
wonder.
"I wonder if they (the aliens) need gas. Or on a rainy,
miserable day, I wonder if they are getting wet.
"It's just...I know they are out there."
=================================================================
JOURNAL EXCERPTS REVEAL ED'S FEAR
The Gulf Breeze Sentinel published many of Ed's photographs
as he presented them, even creating a special edition to showcase
these images. The following are excerpts from Ed's commentary
that accompanied the photographs appearing in the special
section.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"After taking those original five photos in my front yard,
what was unreported was the UFO shot a blue beam that froze and
lifted me from the ground. The blue beam keeps you from moving
even your eyelids, and your chest cannot expand, so you have to
pant to breath. While in the blue beam, the UFO can talk to you
using telepathy."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"A strange hum began in my head...I really thought I was
going crazy but when I went outside, I again saw the UFO appear
in the same spot in the sky...Finally, there was a telepathic
voice command that I 'step forward.' I thought to myself, 'No
way' and took another picture. The voice said in another
language, 'Photographs are prohibited.'"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"The UFO was hovering at the back of the house as I went out
with gun and camera in hand. I pointed the camera and the gun.
I wasn't really going to shoot. I was just scared. The UFO
winked out."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"At 3:30 a.m., we were in bed when I heard the dog bark. I
jumped up and pulled up quickly the blind on the French door.
There standing only 12 inches from my face was a shielded
creature looking straight back into my eyes. I fell back and it
turned to leave. When I recovered and ran out, the UFO was
overhead...The UFO stopped me from following the creature so that
the UFO could shoot over and beam the creature up in the blue
beam."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"At 2 a.m., the hum returned and when we checked in the
front I saw and photographed a totally different UFO, which
seemed to have an energy veil shooting from the bottom."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"The sightings have changed me and my family and, if given
the chance, I would simply not have taken the first picture
which led to the next and next, until my contact with the UFO has
become overwhelming."
=================================================================
PHOTOGRAPHS IN QUESTION
By Jennifer Tucker
Tribune Staff Writer
GULF BREEZE--The controversy in Gulf Breeze is not limited
to a pocketful of Polaroids.
It is made more puzzling by new explanations and startling
accusations that threaten the credibility of Ed, the principal
photographer of UFOs in Gulf Breeze.
At the center of the debate is a teenager and his mother.
And an old photograph that turned up several weeks ago.
Seventeen year old Bill, who refuses to reveal his real
name, was one of a group of kids who spent a lot of time at Ed's
house during the last three years. He says they participated in
games and activities designed to help forget the smallness of the
city.
Gulf Breeze has no movie theater, bowling alley or skating
rink, and is situated in dry Santa Rosa county.
Nevertheless, he and his friends used to have a lot of fun
at Ed's house, Bill says. Among the activities were so called
"spooky" games--seances, ghost stories and the like.
Often, Bill says, Ed would take Polaroid photographs of the
players and some of the pictures would reveal a "phantom...foggy
thing" next to the image of the person.
"It was all in fun," Bill says. "It got everybody spooked
and stuff."
"One time," Bill says, "Ed asked his house guests something
like, 'Wouldn't it be great if we did an ultimate joke?'"
Although Ed never revealed his plans, Bill believes the answer
appeared in the form of a UFO.
"Because I saw the pictures he took of the ghost thing, I
figured this has got to be it...the prank," Bill says. "Ed never
told anyone how he did the photographs. We all thought it was
trick photography."
Ed bristles at the notion that he has pulled a sophisticated
prank.
"First, I categorically deny that I ever used those exact
words," Ed says. "There is nothing that I have ever done that
can be construed as a prank."
And that includes the 'ghost' photograph revealed only weeks
ago, he adds.
This photograph, of a young girl and a fuzzy white blur,
were the combined result of a 17 year old camera, a film defect,
and a game room full of mirrors and glass, Ed explains. He
attributes the blur to reflections off glass.
He did, however, take out of focus pictures when the kids'
talk turned to ghost stories.
"I did not recreate that photo repeatedly and intentionally
at parties. No," Ed says. His rage also swells at the
suggestion these gatherings were 'ritual seances.'
"Kids like to tell ghost stories...and if that sounds like a
ritual seance, I'll kiss your butt," he says, angrily.
Bill's mother, Linda Chepult, says her son has been unfairly
criticized for his honesty, and his reputation has been sullied
by those who believe the UFO pictures are real.
"The whole thing has gone to such an extreme that for an
average person with reasonable intelligence, it's hard to
believe," she says. "But I don't think Ed will ever come out and
tell the truth because too many prominent people have supported
him.
"And besides," Linda adds, "I didn't like the seances and
the blobs appearing over the kids' heads."
Bill explains he has no reason to lie about what he saw or
heard at Ed's house. "I believe in life on other planets," Bill
says, "but I don't believe they are coming to Gulf Breeze."
Ed, meanwhile, says he won't be labeled a liar so easily.
"I'm standing up for my honesty," Ed says. "I'm not going
to let somebody call me a liar without standing up and saying
they are wrong.
"Listen, the most important thing to me is my family. It is
my first responsibility," Ed says. "Why would I want to make
this up?"
=================================================================
5/89
Mike
--
Michael Corbin - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
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