Walter Winchell

Walter Winchell (1897-1972) was an American newspaper and radio gossip columnist, influential in mid-20th-century media. In the context of early UAP/UFO discourse, he promoted R. DeWitt Miller's 1947 book Forgotten Mysteries as a solution to flying saucer reports, citing 19th-century parallels during the 1947 disc craze. Winchell speculated UFOs might be secret Navy flying wing aircraft or stemmed from Soviet cosmic ray bomb rumors, countering official denials. In 1949, he claimed UFOs were Russian experimental guided missiles, prompting responses from UFO proponents like Meade Layne. He was outscooped by Frank Edwards on Major Donald Keyhoe's seminal 1950 article. Winchell had no direct role in military UFO programs or research but amplified public speculation on the phenomena.