You are reading this file from www.UFONet.it

From: ParaNet.Information.Service@paranet.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Corbin)

Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors

Subject: Wanted: Info On Mib

Message-ID: <139236.2A68CC79@paranet.FIDONET.ORG>

Date: 19 Jul 92 01:56:01 GMT

Organization: Paranet Information Service, Denver, CO (303) 431-8797

Lines: 273

> Where could I find some written information on the so called MIB theory.

> It

> sounds interesting, but someone trying to explain something they read,

> or heard

> isn't always as reliable as the source, ie a book or something. Thanks

> in

> advance for your help.

Compliments of ParaNet.

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ParaNet File Number: 00171

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A REVIEW OF MIBS (Men In Black): A HISTORY

" A lot of people of heard of "something" about MIBS without really knowing any

of the details."

"MONSTERS: Giants and Little Men From Mars"

DELL Publications (paperback) (C) 1975

Written by: Daniel Cohen

The purpose of this file is to aquaint users with MIBs history, how they are

related to the coverup allegations, along with associated reference material

and names of files which contain more current thoughts on the subject. Sysops

are encouraged to add in the files contained on their systems at the bottom of

the file, and any other additional reference material which would be useful in

helping others in their personal research.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 10 "The Men in Black and Other Terrors"

When the Condon Committee was sampling public attitudes toward UFOs they gave

this statement to a cross section of the American Public: A government agency

maintains a Top Secret file of UFO reports that are deliberately withheld from

the public." THe respondents were supposed to answer TRUE or FALSE. A

substantial majority, sixty-one percent, thought that the statement was true

while only thirty-one percent said it was false. Among teenagers, the

credibility gap was even wider -- 73 percent believed the statement to be true.

General opinion studies conducted by the Condon Committee, and other surveys

about UFO's came up with the rather paradoxal fact that there were more people

who believed in a conspiracy of silence about UFOs than believed in UFOs in the

first place.

It has often been said that we Americans today are a bit paranoid; that we

always tend to believe that something is out to get us, or something is being

kept from us. It certainly seems that we were a bit paranoid about UFOs.

Most people thought vaguely in terms of an Air Force conspiracy or a CIA

conspiracy or even of a world-wide scientific conspiracy. It was generally

acknowledged that the reason behind such a conspiracy was a desire on the part

of those in power to hide the "truth" fro the public because people would panic

if they knew that we really were being visit by superior creatures from another

world. COnspiracy theorists constantly harkened back to the old "War of the

WOrlds" broadcast, and the panic it started.

Such a belief, however, is rather too simple for the true connoisseur of

conspiracies. He has long ago rejected the simple, straightforward Air Force -

CIA - science establishment - cover-up as too obvious, and really rather

ridiculous. The conspiracy connoisseur pointed out quite correctlyl that no

government or group, no matter how powerful, could possibly supress so much

sensational information for so long -- no earthly group that is.

If the extraterrestrials WANTED to make themselves known then they would land

in a central place, and all the feeble earthly cover-up would simply be blown

away. It is out of this sort of background that the legend of the Men in Black

arose. It concerns strange little men in dark suits who drive around in big

shiny cars and harass people who claimed to have seen a UFO.

The origin of the Men in Black legend can be pin-pointed fairly exactly. Back

in 1953 a man by the name of Albert K. Bender was runnong an organization

called the International Flying Suacer Bureau (IFSB) and editing a little

publication called "Space Review" that was dedicated to news of flying saucers.

The IFSB had a small membership despite its rather grandoise title, and "Space

Review" reached at best, no more than a few hundred readers. But they were all

deeply devoted to the idea that flying saucers were craft from outer soace. In

common with other ture believers, these saucer buffs were convinced that they

were in possession of a great truth, while most of the rest of the world

remained in darkness and ignorance. They felt very important , and thus it was

with a sense of surprise, even shock, that they opened up the October 1953

issue of "Space Review" and found two unexpected announcments:

"LATE BULLETIN. A source which the IFSB considers very reliable has informed

us that the investigation of the flying soucer mystery and the solution is

approaching its final stages."

"This same source to whom we had referred data, which had come into our

possession, suggested that it was not the proper method and time to publish the

data in 'Space Review'."

The second and more shocking item read:

"STATEMENT OF IMPORTANCE: THe mystery of the flying saucers is no longer a

mystery. The source is already known, but any information about this is being

withheld by order from a higher source. We would like to print the full story

in "Space REview", but because of the nature of the information we are very

sorry that we have been advised in the negative."

The statement ended with the ominous sentence, "We advice those engaged in

saucer work to please be very cautious." Bender then suspended the publication

of "Space Review", and siddolved the IFSB.

The tone of the announcemnets would have been familiar to anyone who had much

experience with occult organizations. Occultists often claim they are in the

possession of some great secret which, for equally secret reasons, they cannot

reveal. Even the appeal, "please be very cautious" was not unique. It made

those engaged in "saucer work" feel more important . After all, who is going to

bother to persecute you if you are just wasting your time?

SHortly after Bender closed down his magazine and organization he gave an

interview to a local paper which he asserted the he had been visited by "three

men wearing dark suits" who had order him "emphatically" to stop publishing

material about flying saucers. Bender said that he had been "scared to death"

and that he "acutally couldn't eat for a couple of days." Some of Bender's

former associates tried to press for a more satisfactory explanation, but to

all questions he replied either cryptically or not at all.

This state of affairs created soncsiderable confusions amoung the flying saucer

buffs. What were they to think about sucah a strange story> Some were openly

skeptical of Bender's tale. They said that his publication and organization

were losing money and the tale of the three visitors who "ordered" him to stop

publishing was just a face-saving gesture. Yet, as the years went by the "three

Men in Black" began to sound more rspectable and they took on a life of their

own. Some' were Bender's friends first thought that the Men in Black were from

Air Force or the CIA, and indeed Bender's original statments do seem to sound

like government agents. But after a while the Men in Black begun to assume a

more extraterrestrial, even supernatural air.

Finally in 1963, a full decade after he first told of his mysterious visitors,

Alber Bender elaborated further in a book called "Flying Sauvers adn the Three

Men in Black." It was a strange, confused and virutally unreadable book that

revealed very little in the way of hard facts, but did significantly enhance

the reutation of the Men in Black as extraterrestrials. The book also

introduced into the lore "three beautful women, dressed in tight white

unigorms." Like thei r mail couterparts in black, the women in white had

"glowing eys."

But even before the publication of Bender's book in 1963, the Men in Black (or

MIBSs as they are know to insiders) had already been reported to be vising

others besides Albert Bender. By now they have been reported so often that they

have become an established part of the UFO history. The Men in Black, naturally

enough, wear black suits. They also usually wear sunglasses, presumably to

disguise their "glowing eyes". Most of them are reported to be short and

delicately built with olive complexions and dark, straight hair. They are often

described as "Gypsies" or "Orientals". Most MIBS are reported to travel in

groups of three and usually ride around in shiny new black cars -- often

Cadillacs. These cars are even supposed to "smell new." SOmetimes the MIBs pose

as investigators from the CIA or some other government agancy. They may flash

official-looking credentials, but these can never be checked out. Occassionally

the MIBs display badges with strange emblems on them, or have unrecognizable

symbols painted on their cars. The purpose of the visits seems to be to get

people who have seen UFOs to stop talking about them, or somehow to confuse and

frighten the witnesses.

People who worry about MIBs tend to lump all sorts of mysterious visitors into

the category, even if they don't wear black, have glowing eyes or show any of

the familiar MIB characteristics. The primary qualification for the Men in

Black is that they be of unknown origin, and that they appear to act oddly and

vaguely menancing.

Some of those who write about UFO's and other strange pehomena rather casually

mention "countless" cases where people have been visited by Men in Black. In

reality these "countless" cases are difficult to pin down. In fact, there

really seems to be a rather small number of MIB cases where there are any

details available at all.

The impression given by the writers is that the publicized cases represent only

"the tip of the iceberg." Beyond these, say the writers, are many "more

sensational" cases, the details of which cannot be revealed for a variety of

reasons. In any event solid evidence for a vast number of MIB cases is lacking.

But we are, after all, dealing with beliefs as much as with reality, and

impression is an important one.

Often the MIB cases that we know of are not quite as sensational as Albert

Bender's three visitors, but they are unsettling nevetheless. Take the case of

California highway inspector Rex Heflin. On August 3, 1965, Heflin claimed to

have taken a series of Polaroid photos of a UFO from his car while parked near

the Santa Ana Freeway. The pictures were quite clear and they showd an object

shaped rather like a straw hat apparenlty floating above the ground. These

pictures got a great deal of publicity, and are still among the most requently

repreinted UFO photos. Heflin's story was investigated by the Air Force shortly

after it bacome known. It was also looke into by investigators fot the Condon

Committee durring their inquiry. (The committee investigator produced a pretty

fair imitation of the photos by suspending the lens cap of his camera in front

of his car with a thread and photograph it through the car window). In

addition, a host of unofficial UFO groups tackled the case in their own way.

There was considerable suspicion on the part of official investigators that the

photos had been faked, but this was difficult to prove or disprove without the

original prints. Being Poaroid photos there were no negative.

Heflin said that he had turned over three of the four originals to a man (or

two men, the stories differ) who calimed that he represented the North American

Air Defense Command (NORAD). NORAD denied that they had ever sent out an

investigator or indeed that they had the slightest interst in the photos. The

mysterious person who is alleged to have taken the phots has never been

identified.

On October 11, 1967, over two years after Heflin's original sighting, but while

the Condon investigation was going on, Heflin reported another encounter with

mysterious visitors. A man who said that he was Captain C. H. Edmonds of the

Space Systems Division, Systems Command, a unit of the Air Force that had been

involved in the first investigation of his UFO photos, came to his home. During

the interview the man who called himself Captain Edmonds asked Heflin if he

wanted his original photos back. When Heflin said no, the man was "visibly

relieved." Inexplicably, the man then began discussin the Bermuda Triangle.

This is an area near the island of Bermuda where a number of mysterious

disappearances of airplanes and shops have been reported. These disappearances

have been linked by some to UFOs, though the connection does not seem very

convincing.

While this strange interview was going on Heflin said that he saw a car parked

in the street. It had some sort of lettering on the front door but he could not

make it out. To quote the Condon Report description of the indicent, "In the

back seat could be seen a figure and a violet (not blue) glow, which the

witness attributed to instrument dials. He believed he was being photographed

or recorded. In the meantime his FM multiplex radio was playing in the living

room and during the questioning it made several loud audible pops." All

attempts by the Air Foece, various civilian researchers and the Condon

Committee itself to find "Captain C. H. Edmonds" failed. As far as can be

determined, no such person has ever existed.

A much more bizarre story was supposedly told by an unnamed family who had

sighted a UFO. Sometime after the sighting they said tha--

Michael Corbin - via ParaNet node 1:104/422

UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name

INTERNET: ParaNet.Information.Service@paranet.FIDONET.ORG

From: Don.Allen@p1.f81.n363.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Don Allen)

Newsgroups: alt.paranet.ufo

Subject: MIB Stuff 1/10

Message-ID: <1800.2BD51203@paranet.FIDONET.ORG>

Date: 20 Apr 93 00:57:03 GMT

Sender: ufgate@paranet.FIDONET.ORG (newsout1.26)

Organization: FidoNet node 1:363/81.1 - HomeBody, Sanford FL

Lines: 125

* Forwarded from "MUFONET"

* Originally by Marty Wade

* Originally to Carlos Steffens

* Originally dated 17 Apr 1993, 12:21

CS> Well, what would you recommend as the most informative

CS> article/file/book on MIBs?

I don't think any books have been wholly devoted to the subject,

Carlos, but I'll post the following three articles I've typed up

into a file for you. Enjoy.

A REVIEW OF MIB (MEN IN BLACK)

A History

By Linda Murphy

From 'Astronet Review' No. 1 February 1992.

A lot of people have heard of something about "MIBs" without

really knowing any of the details.

The purpose of this article is to acquaint readers with MIBs

history, how they are related to the cover-up allegations, along

with associated reference material and names of files which

contain more current thoughts on the subject.

When the Condon Committee was sampling public attitudes

toward UFOs they gave this statement to a cross-section of the

American Public: "A government agency maintains a Top Secret

file of UFO reports that are deliberately withheld from the

public." The respondents were supposed to answer TRUE or FALSE. A

substantial majority, sixty-one percent, thought that the

statement was true while only thirty-one percent said it was

false. Among teenagers, the credibility gap was even wider - 73

percent believed the statement to be true. General opinion

studies conducted by the Condon Committee, and other surveys

about UFOs came up with the rather paradoxical facts that there

were more people who believed in a conspiracy of silence about

UFOs than believed in UFOs in the first place.

It has ofen been said that we Americans today are a bit

paranoid; that we always tend to believe that something is out to

get us, or something is being kept from us. It certainly seems

that we were a bit paranoid about UFOs.

Most people thought vaguely in terms of an Air Force

conspiracy or a CIA conspiracy or even of a world-wide scientific

conspiracy. It was generally acknowledged that the reason behind

such a conspiracy was a desire on the part of those in power to

hide the "truth" from the public because people would panic if

they kney that we really were being visited by superior creatures

from another world. Conspiracy theorists constantly hearkened

back to the old "War of the Worlds" broadcast, and the panic it

started.

Such a belief, however, is rather too simple for the true

connoisseur of conspiracies. He has long ago rejected the simple,

straightforward Air Force-CIA-science establishment cover-up as

too obvious, and really rather ridiculous. The conspiracy

connoisseur pointed out quite correctly that no government or

group, no matter how powerful, could possibly suppress so much

sensational information for so long - no earthly group that is.

If the extraterrestrials WANTED to make themselves known then

they would land in a central place, and all the feeble earthly

cover-up would simply be blown away. It is out of this sort of

background that the legend of the Men In Black arose. It concerns

strange little men in dark suits who drive around in big shiny

cars and harass people who claimed to have seen a UFO.

The origin of the Men In Black legend can be pinpointed

fairly exactly. Back in 1953 a man by the name of Albert K.

Bender was running an oranisation called the International Flying

Saucer Bureau (IFSB) and editing a little publication called

Space Review that was dedicated to news of flying saucers.

The IFSB had a small membership despite its rather grandiose

title, and Space Review reached at best, no more than a few

hundred readers. But they were all deeply devoted to the idea

that flying saucers were craft from outer space. In common with

other true believers, these saucer buffs were convinced that they

were in possession of a great truth, while most of the rest of

the world remained in darkness and ignorance. They felt very

important, and thus it was with a sense of surprise, even shock,

that they opened up the October 1953 issue of Space Review and

found two unexpected announcements: "LATE BULLETIN. A source

which the IFSB considers very reliable has informed us that the

investigation of the flying saucer mystery and the solution is

approaching its final stages. This same source to whom we had

referred data, which had come into our possession, suggested that

it was not the proper method and time to publish the data in

Space Review."

The second and more shocking item read: "STATEMENT OF

IMPORTANCE: The mystery of the flying saucers is no longer a

mystery. The source is already known, but any information about

this is being withheld by order from a higher source. We would

like to print the full story in Space Review, but because of the

nature of the information we are very sorry that we have been

advised in the negative."

The statement ended with the ominous sentence, "We advise

those engaged in saucer work to please be very cautious." Bender

then suspended the publication of Space Review, and dissolved the

IFSB.

The tone of the announcements would have been familiar to

anyone who had much experience with occult organizations.

Occultists often claim they are in the possession of some great

secret which, for equally secret reasons, they cannot reveal.

Even the appeal, "please be very cautious" was not unique. It

made those engaged in "saucer work" feel more important. After

all, who is going to bother to persecute you if you are just

wasting your time?

Shortly after Bender closed down his magazine and

organization he gave an interview to a local paper [in] which he

asserted that he had been visited by "three men wearing dark

suits" who had ordered him "emphatically" to stop publishing

material about flying saucers. Bender said that he had been

"scared to death" and that he "actually couldn't eat for a couple

of days.". Some of Bender's former associates tried to press for

a more satisfactory explanation, but to all questions he replied

either cryptically or not at all.

This state of affairs created considerable confusions among

the flying saucer buffs. What were they to think about such a

strange story? Some were openly skeptical of Bender's tale. They

said that his publication and organization were losing money and

the tale of the three visitors who "ordered" him to stop

publishing was just a face-saving gesture. Yet, as the years went

by the "Three Men In Black" began to sound more respectable and

they took on a life of their own. Some of Bender's friends first

thought that the Men In Black were from the Air Force or the CIA,

and indeed Bender's original statements do seem to sound like

[the men could have been] government agents. But after a while

the Men In Black began to assume a more extraterrestrial, even

supernatural air.

Finally in 1963, a full decade after he first told of his

mysterious visitors, Albert Bender elaborated further in a book

called "Flying Saucers and the Three Men In Black". It was a

strange, confused and virtually unreadable book that revealed

very little in the way of hard facts, but did significantly

enhance the reputation of the Men In Black as extraterrestrials.

The book also introduced into the lore "three beautiful women,

dressed in tight white uniforms." Like their male counterparts in

black, the women in white had "glowing eyes".

But even before the publication of Bender's book in 1963, the

Men In Black (or MIBs as they were known to insiders) had already

been reported to be visiting others besides Alber Bender. By now

they have been reported so often that they have become an

established part of the UFO history. The Men In Black, naturally

enough,wear black suits. They also usually wear sunglasses,

presumably to disguise their "glowing eyes". Most of them are

reported to be short and delicately built with olive complections

and dark, straight hair. They are often described as "Gypsies" or

"Orientals". Most MIBs are reported to travel in groups of three

and usually ride around in shiny, new, black cars - often

Cadillacs. These cars are even supposed to "smell new". Sometimes

the MIBs pose as investigators from the CIA or some other

government agency. They may flash official-looking credentials.

but these can never be checked out. Occasionally the MIBs display

badges withstrange emblems on them, or have unrecognizable

symbols painted on their cars. The purpose of the visits seems to

be to get people who have seen UFOs to stop talking about them,

of somehow to confuse and frighten the witnesses.

People who worry about MIBs tend to lump all sorts of

mysterious visitors into the category, even if they don't wear

black, have no glowing eyes nor show any of the familiar MIB

characteristics. The primary qualification for the Men In Black

is that they be of unknown origin, and that they appear to act

oddly and vaguely menacing.

Some of those who write about UFOs and other strange

phenomena rather casually mention "countless" cases where people

have been visited by Men In Black. In reality these "countless

cases" are difficult to pin down. In fact, there really seems to

be a rather small number of MIB cases where there are any details

availabe at all.

The impression given by the writers is that the publicized

cases represent only "the tip of the iceberg". Beyond these, say

the writers, are many "more sensational" cases, the details of

which cannot be revealed for a variety of reasons. In any event

solid evidence for a vast number MIB cases is lacking. But we

are, after all, dealing with beliefs as much as with reality, and

'impression' is an important one.

Often the MIB cases that we know of are not quite as

sensational as Albert Bender's three visitors, but they are

unsettling nevertheless. Take the case of California highway

inspector Rex Heflin. On August 3, 1965, Heflin claimed to have

taken a series of Polaroid photos of a UFO from his car while

parked near the Santa Ana Freeway. The pictures were quite clear

and they showed an object shaped rather like a straw hat

apparently floating above the ground. These pictures got a great

deal of publicity, and are still among the most frequently

reprinted UFO photos. Heflin's story was investigated by the Air

Force shortly after it became known. It was also looked into by

investigators for the Condon Committee during their inquiry. (The

committee investigator produced a pretty fair imitation of the

photos by suspending the lens cap of his camera in front of his

car with a thread and photographing it through the car window.)

In addition, a host of unofficial UFO groups tackled the case in

their own way.

There was considerable suspicion on the part of official

investigators that the photos had been faked, but this was

difficult to prove of disprove without the original pronts.

Being Polaroid photos, there were no negatives.

Heflin said that he had turned over three of the four

originals to a man (or two men - the stories differ) who claimed

that he represented the North American Air Defence Command

(NORAD). NORAD denied that they had ever sent out an

investigator, or indeed, that they had the slightest interest in

the photos. The mysterious person who is alleged to have taken

the photos has never been identified.

On October 11, 1967, over two years after Heflin's original

sighting, but while the Condon investigation was going on, Heflin

reported another encounter with mysterious visitors. A man who

said that he was Captain C.H. Edmonds of the Space Systems

Division, Systems Command, a unit of the Air Force that had been

involved in the first investigation of his UFO photos, came to

his home. During the interview the man who called himself Captain

Edmonds asked Heflin if he wanted his original photos back. When

Heflin said no, the man was "visibly relieved". Inexplicably, the

man then began discussing the Bermuda Triangle. This is an area

near the island of Bermuda where a number of mysterious

disappearances of airplanes and ships have been reported. These

disappearances have been linked by some to UFOs, though the

connection does not seem very convincing.

While this strange interview was going on, Heflin said that

he saw a car parked in the street. It had some sort of lettering

on the front door but he could not make it out. To quote the

Condon Report description of the incident, "In the back seat

could be seen a figure and a violet (not blue) glow, which the

witness attributed to instrument dials. He believed he was being

photographed or recorded. In the mentime his FM multiplex radio

was playing in the living room and during the questioning it made

several loud audible pops." All attempts by the Air Force,

various civilian researchers and the Condon Committee itself to

find "Captain C. H. Edmonds" failed. As far as can be determined,

no such person has ever existed.

A much more bizarre story was supposedly told by an unnamed

family who had sighted a UFO. Sometime after the sighting they

said that they were visited by a very strange individual. Ivan

Sanderson, who reported the incident in his book "Uninvited

Visitors", described the individual thus: "almost seven feet

tall, with a small head, dead white skin, enormous frame, but

pipe-stem limbs." This oddity said he was an insurance

investigator and that he was looking for someone who had the same

name as the husband of this family. He indicated that the man he

was looking for had inherited a great deal of money. Continued

Sanderson; "This weird individual just appeared out of the night

wearing a strange fur hat with a visor and only a light jacket.

He flashed an official-looking card on entry but put it away

immediately. Later on when he removed his jacket he disclosed an

official-looking gold shield on his shirt which he instantly

covered with his hand and removed."

The strange visitor asked some personal questions about the

family, but nothing at all about the UFOs. The creepiest part of

the whole affair came when the eldest daughter of the family

noticed that the "investigator's" tight pants had ridden up his

skinny leg, and she saw a green wire running out of his sock, up

his leg and into his flesh at two points. After the interview,

the "investigator" got into a large, black car which contained at

least two other persons, and seemed to disappear on an old dirt

road that led from the woods. The car drove off into the night

with its headlights off.

In addition to scaring and intimidating people, visits of

MIBs are also supposed to produce a variety of unpleasant

physical symptoms. Bender said he suffered from headaches, lapses

of memory and was plagued by strange odours following the first

visit of the Men In Black. Others who say they have had similar

visitations have made similar complaints.

Another eerie thing attributed to MIB types, is the ability

to look like anyone they want to. Some UFO researchers claim that

MIBs have been posing as THEM in order to silence potential

witnesses. John Keel, who has written a number of UFO books ,

said that he had encountered people who refused to believe that

he was who he said he was. "Later contactees (those who say they

are, somehow or other, in contact with the space people) began to

whisper to local UFO investigators that the real John Keel had

been kidnapped by a flying saucer and that a cunning android who

looked just like me had been substituted in my place. Incredible

though it may sound, this was taken very seriously, and later

even some of my more rational correspondents admitted that they

carefully compared the signatures on my current letters with

pre-rumour letters they had received."

As we said earlier, each era tries to explain strange

encounters in terms of its own system of beliefs. I have been

struch by the similarity of some of these MIB cases with medieval

tales of encounters with the devil or some of hes demons. The

devil, for example, was very often described as a man dressed in

black. The ability to change shape and appear in any form was

commonly attributed to demons, who were able to take the shape of

a victim's friends and neighbors and even assume the likeness of

angels and saints. Many of those who said that they had met the

devil complained of the same range of physical symptoms reported

by those who encounered the MIBS.

The shiny new cars associated with MIBs is reminiscent of the

Haitian belief in an evil society of sorcerers called "zobops".

Haitians say that if you see a big, new car going along the road

without a driver, it's under the control of the "zobops", and you

had better not try to interfere with it.

Now, I am not trying to imply that the MIBs are agents of the

devil, or vice versa, anymore than I would try to say that the

little green men from Mars were really the fairy folk of past

generations. It is just that our visions and fears often remain

the same over the ages, and only our explanations for them

change.

Of course, encounters with the devil during the Middle Ages

were generally more frightening and overpowering experiences than

current experiences with MIBs. Everbody believed in the devil,

while today everybody does not believe in the creatures from outer

space. Mideval society took devil stories in dead earnest, and

anyone who made such a report might find himself facing a painful

death at the stake. The worst one can expect from reporting a MIB

encounter is a certain amount of disbelief and ridicule. In

general, MIB tales are considered too bizarre even to be reported

in local newspapers. They are published only in magazines and

books put out for and by UFO enthusiasts.

Usually such publications are provately printed and are read

by only a few hundred. A few books however, have been issued by

major publishers and have reached a far wider audience. These

cases are also occasionally discussed on radio and TV talk shows,

so the information gets around more widely than one might think.

A lot of people have heard of "something" about MIBs without

really knowing any of the details.

There is one incident which bared certain similarities to the

traditional MIB case that did receive very wide publicity. This

is the story of the "kidnapping" of Betty and Barney Hill. While

most of the MIB cases do not appear directly to involve a UFO,

this one does. The couple was driving to their home in

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from Canada on the night of September

19, 1961. They were on an isolated stretch of road when they

spotted what they thought was a flying saucer abouve them. Then

followed two completely blank hours in their lives. They could

remember nothing from the time they saw the UFO until a time two

hours later when they found themselves in their car several miles

down the road from where they had seen the UFO. For months after

this experience both of the Hills suffered from severe

psychological distress. Finally they consulted a psychiatrist,

who hypnotized them, and under hypnosis the Hills revealed a

strange story of being kidnapped and taken aboard a flying

saucer.

The Hills didn't rush out and try to get publicity about

their experience or write a book about it. In fact, they were

remarkably quiet. But the incident did ultimately come to the

attention of author John Fuller, who had already written an

extremely popular UFO book. With the co-operation of the Hills

and of their psychiatrist, Fuller produced another best seller,

"The Interrupted Journey", which was first serialized in the now

defunct 'Look' magazine.

Though the book is carefully hedged with qualifications that

the experience described might be a hallucunation or a dream

rather than a "totally real and true experience", the distinct

impression left by The Interrupted Journey on thousands of

readers was that the experience was a "totally real and true"

one.

The people or entities that were supposed to be controlling

the spaceship that kidnapped the Hills can be squeezed into the

Men In Black lore. Barney Hill described one of his captors as

looking like "a red-headed Irishman", hardly a MIB type. But

another wore "a shiny black coat", with a black scarf thrown

about his neck.

Under hypnosis Hill drew a picture of "the leader" of his

abductors. It is a strange insect like face with a wide, thin

mouth and huge slanting eyes that seem to go halfway around the

creatures' head. The eyes were the most frightening part of the

saucer inhabitant's strange physiognomy. Once during a hypnotic

session with the psychiatrist Barny Hill cried out in terror,

"Oh, those eyes! They're in my brain!" Glowing eyes, you will

recall, are considered some of the key characteristics of the

typical Man In Black.

Unlike many of the books written by or about people who say

that they had encountered the inhabitants of UFOs, The

Interrupted Journey carries real conviction. One gets the feeling

that the Hills and Fuller are intelligent, sincere and sane

people who really believe that what they described is what

actually did happen.

So this idea was planted in the minds of thousands of readers

of The Interrupted Journey: UFOs can land, the extraterrestrials

can kidnap ordinary people, subject them to a degrading and

almost brutal examination and then wipe all memory of the

incident from their minds, leaving behind only an unexplained

sense of anxiety bordering on panic.

Well, what does all of this mean? Are we being invaded by

some weird bunch of extraterrestrials who have in the words of

the "Shadow" radio show, "the power to cloud men's minds"?

Frankly the evidence does not support such an alarming

conclusion.

Are all the stories hoaxes and hallucinations? Psychiatrists

could certainly have a field day with many of these accounts.

Symptoms such as loss of memory, severe anxiety and other

unpleasant reactions strongly suggest that many of those who

report such experiences are in a disturbed psychological state,

though they would claim the disturbance was caused by the

encounter with the strange visitor. In any event they do not make

the most reliable of witnesses. Some of the other stories are

almost certainly sheer fiction, made up either by some practical

joker or by a writer of sensational books.

Whether all the stories are real of unreal is not a question

that we can answer conclusively here. The point is that we

Americans are building a mythology for ouselves, just as the

Europeans did with their tales of dragons, ogres and elves, and

just as all people have done in all parts of the world in all

ages.

We have often prided ourselves on being a practical,

hardheaded, no-nonsense sort of people who were immune to the

irrational fears and superstitious notions of less clear-sighted

and realistic folk. This proposition is demonstrably untrue and

perhaps we are better off for it. Our monsters, our space people,

even if they don't exist, if indeed they are rather silly, also

make life more interisting and exciting.

***:::::::::***

REFERENCES:

Excalibur Briefing, Thomas E. Bearden, Strawberry Hill Press

1980.

UFOs and Their Mission Impossible, Dr. Clifford Wilson, Signet

Press.

Flying Saucers on The Attack, Harold T. Wilkins, Ace Books 1954.

MONSTERS: Giants and Little Men From Mars, Daniel Cohen, DELL

Publications (paperback) 1975.

*******

WHO ARE THE MEN IN BLACK?

From 'The Unexplained' No. 10. Orbis Publishing. 1991.

As UFO sightings increase, so allegedly does the harassment

of witnesses - by the sinister so-called Men In Black.

Albert Bender, director of the International Flying Saucer

Bureau, an amateur organisation based in Connecticut, USA, once

claimed to have discovered the secret behind UFOs. But

unfortunately, the rest of the world is still none the wiser -

for Bender was prevented from passing on his discovery to the

world by three sinister visitors: three men dressed in black,

known as 'the silencers'.

It had been Bender's intention to publish his findings in

his own journal, Space Review. But before committing himself

finally, he felt he ought to try his ideas out on a colleague.

He therefore mailed his report. A few days later, the men came.

Bender was lying down in his bedroom, overtaken by a sudden

spell of dizziness, when he noticed three shadowy figures in the

room. Gradually, they became clearer. All were dressed in black

clothes. "They looked like clergymen, but wore hats similar to

Homburg style. The faces were not clearly discernible, for the

hats partly hid and shaded them. Feelings of fear left me... The

eyes of all three figures suddenly lit up like flashlight bulbs,

and all these were focussed upon me. They seemed to burn into my

very soul as the pains above my eyes became almost unbearable.

It was then I sensed that they were conveying a message to me by

telelathy."

Bender's visitors confirmed that he had been right in his

speculations as to the true nature of the UFOs - one of them was

actually carrying Bender's report, and provided additional

information. This so terrified him that he was only too willing

to go along with their demand that he close down his organisation,

cease publication of his journal at once, and refrain from

telling the truth to anyone 'on his honour as an American

citizen.'

But did Bender really expect anyone to believe his story? His

friends and colleagues were certainly baffled by it. One of them,

Gray Barker, even published a sensational book, 'They Knew Too

Much About Flying Saucers'; and Bender himself supplied an even

stranger account in his 'Flying Saucers and the Three Men' some

years later, in response to persistent demands for an explanation

of what had occurred from former colleagues.

He told an extraordinary story, involving extraterrestrial

spaceships with bases in Antarctica, that reads like the

far-fetched contactee dream-stuff; and it has even been suggested

that the implausibility of Bender's story was specifically

designed in order to throw serious UFO investigators off the

track.

However, believable or not, Bender's original account of the

visit of the three strangers is of crucial interest to UFO

investigators, for the story has been parelleled by many similar

reports, frequently from people unlikely to have heard of Bender

and his experiences. UFO percipients and investigators are

apparently also liable to be visited by men in black (MIBs); and

although most reports are from the United States, similar claims

have come from Sweden and Italy, Britain and Mexico. Like the UFO

phenomenon itself, MIBs span three decades, and perhaps had

precursors in earlier centuries.

VISITATIONS

Like Bender's story, most later reports not only contain

implausible details, but are also inherently illogical: in

virtually every case, there seems on the face of it more reason

to disbelieve that to believe. But this does not eliminate the

mystery - it simply requires us to study it in a different light.

For whether or not these things actually happened, the fact

remains that they were reported; and why should so many people,

independently and often reluctantly, report such strange and

sinister visitations? What is more, why is it that the accounts

are so mimilar, echoeng and in turn helping to confirm a

persistent pattern that, if nothing else, has become one of the

most powerful folk myths of our time?

The archetypal MIB report runs something like this: shortly

after a UFO sighting, the subject - he may be a witness, he may

be an investigator on the case - receives a visit. Often it

occurs so soon after the incident itself that no official report

or media publication has taken place: in short, the visitors

should not, by any normal channels, have gained access to the

information they clearly possess - names, addresses, and details

of the incident, as well as those involved.

The victim is nearly always alone at the time of the visit,

usually in his own home. The visitors, usually three in number,

arrive in a large, black car. In America, it is most often a

prestigious Cadillac, but seldon a recent model. Though old in

date, however, it is likely to be immaculate in appearance and

condition, inside and out, even having that unmistakable 'new

car' smell. If the subject notes the registration number and

checks it, it is invariably found to be a non-existent number.

The visitors themselves are almost always men: only very

rarely is one a woman, In appearance, they conform pretty closely

to the stereotyped image of a CIA or secret service man. They

wear dark suits, dark hats, dark ties, dark shoes and socks, but

white shirts: and witnesses very often remark on their clean,

immaculate turn-out, all the clothes looking as though just

purchased.

The visitors' faces are frequently discribed as 'vaguely

foreign', most often 'oriental', and slanted eyes have been

specified in many accounts. If not dark-skinned, the men are

likely to be very heavily tanned. Sometimes there are bizarre

touches: in one case, for instance, a man in black appeared to be

wering bright lipstick! The MIBs are generally unsmiling and

expressionless, their movements stiff and awkward. Their general

demeanour is formal, cold, sinister, even menacing, and there is

no warmth or friendliness shown, even if no outright hostility

either. Witnesses often hint that they felt their visitors were

not human at all.

Some MIBs proffer evidence of identity; indeed, they

sometimes appear in US Air Force or other uniforms. They may also

produce identity cards; but since most people would not know a

genuine CIA or other 'secret' service identity card if they saw

one, this of course proves nothing at all. If they give names,

however, these are invariably found to be false.

The interview is sometimes an interrogation, sometimes simply

a warning. Either way, the visitors, even though they are asking

questions, are clearly very well-informed, with access to

restricted information. They speak with perfect, sometimes too

perfect, intonation and phrasing, and their language is apt to be

reminiscent of the conventional villains of crime films.

MENACING ENCOUNTERS

The sinister visits almost invariably conclude with a warning

not to tell anybody about the incident, if the subject is a UFO

percipient, or to abandon the investigation, if he is an

investigator. Violence is frequently threatened, too. And the

MIBs depart as suddenly as they came.

Most well-informed UFO enthusiasts, if asked to describe a

typical MIB visit, would give some such account. However, a

comparative examination of reports indicates that such 'perfect'

MIB visits seldom occur in practice. Study of 32 of the more

reliable cases on file reveals that many details diverge quite

markedly from the archetypal story: there were, for instance, no

visitors at all in four cases, only subsequent telephone calls;

and, of the remainder, only five involved three men, two involved

four, five involved two, while in the rest there was mention only

of a single visitor.

Although the appearance and behaviour of the visitors does

seem generally to conform to the prototype, it ranges from the

entirely natural to the totally bizarre. The car, despite the

fact that in America it is by far the commonest means of

transportation, is in fact mentioned in only one-third of the

reports; and as for the picturesque details - the Cadillac, the

antiquated model, the immaculate condition - these are, in

practice, very much the exception. Of 22 American reports, only

nine even include mention of a car; and of these, only three were

Cadillacs, while only two were specified as black and only two as

out-of-date models.

On the other hand, such archetypal details tend to be more

conspicuous in less reliable cases, particularly those in which

investigators, rather than UFO percipients, are involved. The

case that comes closest to the archetype is that of Robert

Richardson, of Toledo, Ohio, who in July 1967 informed the Aerial

Phenomena Research Organisation (APRO) that he had collided with

a UFO while driving at night. Coming round a bend, he had been

confronted by a strange object blocking the road. Unable to halt

in time, he had hit it, though not very hard. Immediately on

impact, the UFO vanished. Police who accompanied Richardson to

the scene could find only his own skid marks as evidence; but on

a later visit, Richardson himself found a small lump of metal

which might have come from the UFO.

Three days later, at 11 pm, two men in their twenties

appeared at Richardson's home and questioned him for about 10

minutes. They did not identify themselves, and Richardson - to

his own subsequent surprise - did not ask who they were. They

were not unfriendly, gave no warnings, and just asked questions.

He noted that they left in a black 1953 Cadillac. The number,

when checked, was found not yet to have been issued.

A week later, Richardson received a second visit, from two

different men, who arrived in a current model Dodge. They wore

black suits and were dark-complectioned. Although one spoke

perfect English, the second had an accent, and Richardson felt

there was something vaguely foreign about them. At first, they

seemed to be trying to persuade him that he had not hit anything

at all; but then they asked for the piece of metal. When he told

them it had gone for analysis, they threatened him: "If you want

your wife to stay as pretty as she is, then you'd better get the

metal back".

The existence of the metal was known only to Richardson and

his wife, and to two senior members of APRO. Seemingly, the only

way the strangers could have learned of its existence would be by

tapping either his or APRO's telephone. There was no clear

connection between the two pairs of visitors; but what both had

in common was access to information that was not freely and

publicly available. Perhaps it is this that is the key to the MIB

mystery.

************

[On the page is also a boxed article titled; IN FOCUS

THE MAN WHO SHOT A HUMANOID, reproduced

below.]

One inclement evening in November 1961, Paul Miller and three

companions were returning home to Minot, North Dakota, after a

hunting trip when what they could only describe as 'a luminous

silo' landed in a nearby field. At first they thought it was a

plane crashing, but had to revise their opinion when the 'plane'

abruptly vanished. As the hunters drove off, the object

reappeared and two humanoids emerged from it. Miller panicked and

fired at one of the creatures, apparently wounding it. The other

hunters immediately fled.

On their way back to Minot, all of them experienced a blackout

and 'lost' three hours. Terrified, they decided not to report the

incident to anyone. Yet the next morning, when Miller reported

to work (in an Air Force office), three men in black arrived.

They said they were government officials - but showed no

credentials - and remarked unpleasantly that they hoped Miller

was 'telling the truth' about the UFO. How did they know about

it? 'We have a report,' they said vaguely.

'They seemed to know everthing about me; where I worked, my

name, everthing else,' Miller said. They also asked questions

about his experiences as if they already knew the answers. Miller

did not dare tell his story for several years.

*****End*****

AGENTS OF THE DARK

From 'The Unexplained' No. 39.

Rarely - if ever - do the threats of the mysterious Men In

Black, following a close encounter, come to anything. So what

could be the purpose behind their visits?

In September 1976, Dr Herbert Hopkins, a 58 year-old doctor

and hypnotist, was acting as consultant on an alleged UFO

teleportation case in Maine, USA. One evening, when his wife and

children had gone out leaving him alone, the telephone rang and a

man identifying himself as vice-president of the New Jersey UFO

Research Organisation asked if he might visit Dr Hopkins that

evening to discuss certain details of the case. Dr Hopkins

agreed; at the time, it seemed the natural thing to do. He went

to the back door to switch on the light so that his visitor would

be able to find his way from the parking lot, but while he was

there, he noticed the man already climbing the porch steps. "I

saw no car, and even if he did have a car, he could not have

possibly gotten to my house that quickly from any phone," Hopkins

later commented in delayed astonishment.

At the time, Dr Hopkins felt no particular surprise as he

admitted his visitor, The man was dressed in a black suit, with

black hat, tie and shoes, and a white shirt, "I thought, he

looks like an undertaker," Hopkins later said. His clothes were

immaculate - suit unwrinkled, trousers sharply creased. When he

took off his hat, he revealed himself as completely hairless, not

only bald but without eyebrows or eyelashes. His skin was dead

white, his lips bright red. In the course of their conversation,

he happened to brush his lips with his grey suede gloves, and the

doctor was astonished to see that his lips were smeared and that

the gloves were stained with lipstick!

It was only afterwards, however, that Dr Hopkins reflected

further on the strangeness of his visitor's appearance and

behaviour. Particularly odd was the fact that his visitor stated

that his host had two coins in his pocket. It was indeed the

case. He then asked the doctor to put one of the coins in his

hand and to watch the coin, not himself. As Hopkins watched, the

coin seemed to go out of focus, and then gradually vanished.

"Neither you nor anyone else on this plane will ever see that

coin again," the visitor told him. After talking a little while

longer on general UFO topics, Dr Hopkins suddenly noticed that

the visitor's speech was slowing down. The man then rose

unsteadily to his feet and said, very slowly; "My energy is

running low - must go now - goodbye." He walked falteringly to

the door and descended the outside steps uncertainly, one at a

time. Dr Hopkins saw a bright light shining in the driveway,

bluish-white and distinctly brighter than a normal car lamp. At

the time, however, he assumed it must be the stranger's car,

although he neither saw nor heard it.

MYSTERIOUS MARKS

Later, when Dr Hopkins family had returned, they examined the

driveway and found marks that could not have been made by a car

because they were in the centre of the driveway, where the wheels

could not have been. But the next day, although the driveway had

not been used in the meantime, the marks had vanished.

Dr Hopkins was very much shaken by the visit, particularly

when he reflected on the extraordinary character of the

stranger's conduct. Not surprisingly, he was so scared that he

willingly complied wdith his visitor's instruction, which was to

erase the tapes of the hypnotic sessions he was conductiog with

regard to his current case, and to have nothing further to do

with the investigation.

Subsequently, curious incidents continued to occur both in Dr

Hopkin's household and in that of his eldest son. He presumed

that there was some link with the extraordinary visit, but he

never heard from his visitor again. As for the New Jersey UFO

Research Organisation, no such institution exists.

Dr Hopkins' account is probably the most detailed we have of

a MIB (Man in Black) visit, and confronts us with the problem at

its most bizarre. First we must ask ourselves if a trained and

respected doctor whould invent so strange a tale, and if so, with

what conceivable motive? Alternatively, could the entire episode

have been a delusion, despite the tracks seen by other members of

his family? Could the truth lie somewhere between reality and

imagination? Could a real visitor, albeit an impostor making a

false identity claim, have visited the doctor for some unknown

reason of his own, somehow acting as a trigger for the doctor to

invent a whole set of weird features?

In fact, what seems the LEAST likely explanation is that the

whole incident took place in the doctor's imagination. When his

wife and children came home, they found him severely shaken, with

the house lights blazing, and seated at a table on which lay a

gun. They confirmed the marks on the driveway and a series of

disturbances to the telepnone that seemed to commence immediately

after the visit. So it would seem that some real event occurred,

although its nature remains mystifying.

The concrete nature of the phenomenon was accepted by the

United States Air Force, who were concerned that persons passing

themselves off as USAF personnel should be visiting UFO

witnesses. In February 1967, Colonel George P. Freeman,

Pentagon spokesman for the USAF's Project Blue Book, told UFO

investigator John Keel in the course of an interview:

"Mysterious men dressed in Air Force uniforms or bearing

impressive credentials from government agencies have been

silencing UFO witnesses. We have checked a number of these

cases, and these men are not connected with the Air Force in any

way. We haven't been able to find out anything about these men.

By posing as Air Force officers and government agents, they are

committing a federal offence. We would sure like to catch one.

Unfortunately the trail is always too cold by the time we hear

about these cases. But we are still trying."

But were the impostors referred to by Colonel Freeman, and Dr

Hopkin's strange visitor similar in kind? UFO sightings, like

sensational crimes, attract a number of mentally unstable

persons, who are quie capable of posing as authorised officials

in order to gain access to witnesses; and it could be that some

supposed MIBs are simply psuedo-investigators of this sort.

One particularly curious recurrent feature of MIB reports is

the ineptitude of the visitors. Time and again, they are

described as incompetent; and if they are impersonating human

beings, they certainly do not do it very well, arousing their

victims' suspicions by improbable behaviour, by the way they

look or talk, and by their ignorance as much as their knowledge.

But, of course, it could be that the only ones who are spotted

as impostors are those who are no good at their job, and so

there may be many more MIB cases that we never learn about

simply because the visitors successfully convince their victims

that there is nothing to be suspicious about, or that they should

keep quiet about the visit.

UNFULFILLED THREATS

A common feature of a great many MIB visits is indeed the

instruction to a witness not to say anything about the visit,

and to cease all activity concerning the case. (Clearly, we know

of these cases only because such instructions have been

disobeyed.) One Canadian UFO witness was told by a mysterious

visitor in 1976 to stop repeating his story and not to go

further into his case, or he would be visited by three men in

black. "I said, 'What's that supposed to mean?' 'Well,' he said,

' I could make it hot for you... it might cost you certain

injury." A year earlier, Mexican witness Carlos de los Santos

had been stopped on his way to a television interview by two

large black limousines. One of the occupants - dressed in a

black suit and 'Scandanavian' in appearance - told him: "Look,

boy, if you value your life and your family's too, don't talk

any more about this sighting of yours."

However, there is no reliable instance of such threats ever

having been carried out, though a good many witnesses have gome

ahead and defied their warnings. Indeed, sinister though the

MIBs may be, they are notable for their lack of actual violence.

The worst that can be said of them is that they frequently

harass witnesses with untimely visits and telephone calls, or

simply disturb them with their very presence.

While, for the victim, it is just as well that the threats

of violence are not followed through, this is for the

investigator one more disconcerting aspect of the pnenomenon -

for violence, if it resulted in physical action, would at least

help in establishing the reality of the phenomenon. Instead, it

remains a fact that most of the evidence is purely hearsay in

character and often not of the highest quality; cases as

well-attested as that of Dr. Herbert Hopkins are unfortunately

in the minority.

Another problem area is the dismaying lack of precision

about many of the reports. Popular American writer Brad Steiger

alleged that hundreds of ufologists, contactees and chance

percipients of UFOs claim to have been visited by ominous

strangers - usually three, and usually dressed in black; but he

cites only a few actual instances. Similarly, John Keel, an

expert on unexplained phenomena, claimed that, on a number of

occasions, he actually saw phantom Cadillacs, complete with

rather sinister Oriental-looking passengers in black suits; but

for a trained reporter, he showed a curious reluctance to persue

these sightings or to give chapter and verse in such an important

matter. Such loose assertions are valueless as evidence; all

they do is contribute to the myth.

And so we come back once again to the possibility that there

is nothing more to the phenomenon than myth. Should we perhaps

write off the whole business as delusion, the creation of

imaginative folk whose personal obsessions take on this

particular shape because it reflects one or other of the

prevalent cultural preoccupations of out time? At one end of the

scale, we find contactee Woodrow Derenberger insisting that the

"two men dressed entirely in black" who tried to silence him

were emissaries of the Mafia; while at the other, there is

theorist David Tansley, who suggested that they are psychic

entities, representatives of the dark forces, seeking to prevent

the spread of true knowledge. More matter-of-factly, Dominick

Lucchesi claimed that they emanated from some unknown

civilisation, possibly underground, in a remote area of Earth -

the Amazon, the Gobi Desert or the Himalayas.

But there is one feature that is common to virtually all MIB

reports, and that perhaps contains the key to the problem. This

is the possession, by the MIBs, of information that they should

not have been able to come by - information that was restricted,

not released to the press, known perhaps to a few investigators

and officials but not to the public, and sometimes not even to

them. The one person who does possess that knowledge is always

the person visited, In other words, the MIBs and their victims

share knowledge that perhaps nobody else possesses. Add to this

the fact that, in almost every case, the MIBs appear to the

witness when he or she is alone - in Dr Hopkin's case, for

example, the visitor took care to call when his wife and

children were away from home, and established this fact by

telephone beforehand - and the implication has to be that some

kind of paranormal link connects the MIBs and the persons they

visit.

TRUTH - OR PARANOIA?

To this must be added other features of the phenomenon that

are not easily reconciled with everday reality. Where are the

notorious black cars, for instance, when they are not visiting

witnesses? Where are they garaged or serviced? Do they never get

involved in breakdowns or accidents? Can it be that they

materialise from some other plane of existence when they are

needed?

These are only a few of the questions raised by the MIB

phenomenon. What complicates the matter is that MIB cases lie

along a continuous spectrum ranging from the easily believable

to the totally incredible. At one extreme are visits during

which nothing really bizarre occurs, the only anomalous feature

being, perhaps, that the visitor makes a false identity claim,

or has unaccountable access to private information. At the other

extreme are cases in which the only explanation would seem to be

that the witness has succumbed to paranoia. In "The Truth

About the Men In Black", UFO investigator Ramona Clark tells of

an unnamed investigator who was confronted by three MIBs on 3

July 1969. "On the window of the car in which they were riding

was the symbol connected with them and their visitations. This

symbol had a profound psychological impact upon this man. I have

never encountered such absolute fear in a human being."

The first meeting was followed by continual harassment.

There were mysterious telephone calls, and the man's house was

searched. He began to hear voices and to see strange shapes.

"Black Cadillacs roamed the street in front of his home, and

followed him everwhere he went. Once he and his family were

almost forced into an accident by an oncoming Cadillac.

Nightmares concerning MIBs plagued his sleep. It became

impossible for him to rest, his work suffered and he was scared

of losing his job."

Was it all in his mind? One is tempted to think so. But a

friend confirmed that, while they talked, there was a

strange-looking man walking back and forth in front of the

house. The man was tall, seemed about 55 years old - and was

dressed entirely in black.

CASEBOOK

The Odd Couple.

On 24 September 1976 - only a few days after Dr. Herbert

Hopkin's terrifying visit from a MIB - his daughter-in-law

Maureen received a telephone call from a man who claimed to know

her husband John, and who asked if he and a companion could come

and visit them.

John met the man at a local fast-food restaurant, and

brought him home with his companion, a woman. Both appeared to

be in their mid-thirties, and wore couriously old-fashioned

clothes. The woman looked particularly odd; when she stood up,

it seemed that there was something wrong with the way that her

legs joined her hips. Both strangers walked with very short

steps, leaning forward as though frightened of falling.

They sat awkwardly together on a sofa while the man asked a

number of detailed personal questions. Did John and Maureen

watch television much? What did they read? And what did they

talk about? All the while, the man was pawing and fondling his

female companion, asking John if this was all right and whether

he was doing it correctly.

John left the room for a moment, and the man tried to

persuade Maureen to sit next to him. He also asked her "how she

was made", and whether she had any nude photographs.

Shortly afterwards, the woman stood up and announced that

she wanted to leave. The man also stood, but made no move to go.

He was between the woman and the door, and it seemed that the

only way she could get to the door was by walking in a straight

line, directly through him. Finally the woman turned to John and

asked: "Please move him; I can't move him myself." Then,

suddenly, the man left, followed by the woman, both walking in

straight lines. They did not even say goodbye.

***End***

* SLMR 2.1a * ...I'm mad. I've always been mad...

--

Don Allen - via ParaNet node 1:104/422

UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name

INTERNET: Don.Allen@p1.f81.n363.z1.FIDONET.ORG

From: John_-_Winston@cup.portal.com

Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors

Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on MIB

Message-ID: <62232@cup.portal.com>

Date: 17 Jul 92 00:36:44 GMT

References: <1992Jul16.013041.5827@news.unomaha.edu>

<62200@cup.portal.com> <1992Jul16.182152.27028@nntpd2.cxo.dec.com>

Organization: The Portal System (TM)

Lines: 11

Here's some information about MIBs. I probubly have posted this before

but someone may have not read it. MEN IN BLACK.

In the past a certain number of people often come around and ask people

who would see space craft all sorts of questains, Then after they got

the information they would threaten them with everything in the book

if they ever talked about it to anyone. They sometimes would even

kill the person if they didn't shut up. They were called the Men in Black

because they wore dark suits and drove dark colored cars. I recently

got some information about these people. They are from the Sirius Star

System although most of the good type beings from that system such as

as Kadar refer to these Men in Balck's planet as a rather unsightly

planet and from their frame of reference they do not claim them to be

their own, but they must acknowledge that they are even within their

dimension, located within the Sirius system. Our government is

cooperating with Sirians now and the question was asked; What is the

power that makes the entire government have to go along with them?

They have weapons sources (I must be circumspect) that are believed

by the powers that be on this planet (Earth) to be absolutely dominating.

In other words the government believes that it is looking down the

barrel of a very big gun. The Sirians are in the second dimension

soon to go into the third dimension. We are in the third soon

to go into the fourth. The Sirians are trying to keep us from going

into the fourth dimension. The negative Sirians are involved in these

cattle mutilations because of their desirae to create a species that

can perpetuate itself in the harshest of conditions. The people from

Zeta Reticuli aren't doing the mutilations but the primitive Zeta

Reticulians which are from what we would now consider to be from the

past(please don't ask me to explain that because I can't JW.) are

helping the Sirians. One of the beings that was interviewed while he was

asleep is called B'Zal. You talk about a tough dude. He would make the

worse person on Earth look like Mr. Robert (on the kids TV show).J.W.

From: John.Powell@f816.n107.z1.FIDONET.ORG (John Powell)

Newsgroups: alt.paranet.ufo

Subject: MIB Stuff

Message-ID: <1897.2BD90259@paranet.FIDONET.ORG>

Date: 24 Apr 93 03:07:00 GMT

Sender: ufgate@paranet.FIDONET.ORG (newsout1.26)

Organization: FidoNet node 1:107/816 - The Wrong Num, Jersey City NJ

Lines: 52

Tom, I forgot whether or not I'd sent you this earlier...

-+---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpts from _Alien Intelligence_ by Stuart Holroyd. Everest House,

1979, ISBN 0-89696-040-4.

Since the start of the modern era of reported UFO activity,

which is generally considered as dating from the 1947 sighting by

American businessman and amateur pilot, Kenneth Arnold, many people who

have claimed sightings of UFOs or contact experiences with their

occupants have reported subsequent visits from rather sinister gentlemen

whose behavior has been distinctly odd. These reports have emanated

from different countries and from individuals quite unaware that their

experiences were not unique, and they have details in common that add up

to a rather convincing case for the reality of the visitors.

The men are generally described as dark or olive-skinned, rather

oriental-looking, of short stature, and frail build, and are usually

dressed in black, sometimes in ill-fitting or out-of-fashion clothes.

There are generally two or three of them and they seem to travel in

large black cars. Some people who have been visited by 'men in black'

have noted the numbers on the cars' license plates, but when poice have

checked these they invariably found that they are non-existant as

registered license numbers. Other people have reported that the

visitors have appeared and vanished with unaccountable abruptness. They

have used a variety of ruses to command a hearing, masquerading as

government agents, journalists, military or air force personnel, or

representatives of insurance companies, for example. Sometimes they

simply ask a lot of questions, many of them puzzlingly irrelevant, and

then go away, but sometimes they communicate quite unequivocal warnings

of dire consequences if a person does not keep quiet about his UFO

experience. More than one investigator has been effectively silenced or

intimidated by the sinister visitors. UFO cultists who believe that the

world's governments are in cahots to suppress information on the

subject, have spread the idea that the 'men in black' are CIA agents,

but this hypothesis is difficult to maintain in view of the evidence for

their world-wide appearances, the uniformity and peculiarity of their

looks, and the strangeness of their conduct.

-+---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks, take care.

John.

-

--

John Powell - via ParaNet node 1:104/422

UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name

INTERNET: John.Powell@f816.n107.z1.FIDONET.ORG

Date: Thu, 14 Mar 91 11:13:59 EST

Reply-To: FORUM FOR UFOLOGY

Sender: FORUM FOR UFOLOGY

From: Charles

To: Charles McGrew

In-Reply-To: Your message of Wed, 13 Mar 91 15:01:27 EDT

Hi,

OK, here's a bit of stuff for UFO-L -- on MIB's. From Brad

Steiger's disorganized opus "Mysteries of Time & Space"

Prenntice-Hall, 1974, ISBN 0-113-609040-0 (some of the book first

appeared in "Saga" and "Male" magazine -- that should give you some

context of the 'hardness' of this info, but it is grist for the mill).

In September, 1953 Albert K. Bender had figured out parts of the

origin of flying saucers, and sent his theory off to a "trusted

friend". Soon thereafter three men dressed in black appeared, with

his letter in hand. They told him 'the real story', and he became

ill.

Bender, apparently to "save mankind", kept the details to himself

and gave up UFO research. Parts of this story were retold in Gray

Barker's "They knew too much about flying saucers" (1956) [without the

part of 'revealed truth'], and said that several other people (in

Australia and New Zealand) had also been visited.

Bender decided to tell all in his 1962 "Flying Saucers and the

Three Men", which (Steiger says) was disappointing, in that it didn't

tell much (that anyone wanted to know, anyway). Alien bases in

Antartica (which Bender saw by Astral Projection), and so on.

However, others continued to stick to the MIB story, saying that

Bender had in fact been silenced. "Bender was a changed man after the

MIB visited him. It was as if he had been lobotomized." He suffered

headaches that he said were caused by 'them'.

Steiger says that "large numbers" of UFO-ologists have been

harassed by *somebody*. A number of them (none named, unfortunately)

had had photographs and negatives of UFO's confiscated by people

claiming "government affiliation" (curious term, that) - "usually

three, usually dressed in black". [BTW, if you ever get a visit from

MIB, what they're asking you to do is a violation of search and

seizure laws.]

In an issue of "Saucer Scoop" (as usual, Steiger doesn't give an

issue number) John Keel is quoted as saying that MIB are professional

terrorists who go from place to place making sure that too much isn't

found out about the UFO phenominon. Keel says that MIB victims appear

to be subjected to "some sort of brainwashing technique that leaves

him in a state of nausea, mental confusion, or even amnesia lasting

for several days". Keel goes on to charge that local police/FBI/etc.

must be in on it, because they refuse to investigate MIB.

Col. George Freeman (Blue Book) was quoted by Steiger as being

quoted by Keel (do you get the drift here of Mr. Steiger's

"journalistic" zeal?) as saying that MIB cases were investigated by

Blue Book, and that they weren't connected to the Air Force in any

way. Steiger goes on to detail how four bogus USAF officers

(Men-In-Blue, I guess :-) told witnesses in NJ that they "hadn't seen

a thing" in 1967, and that they shouldn't tell anyone what they saw.

... Steiger goes on to give sketchy details of several other MIB

visitations (though several are of encounters with a single man, not

three), claiming to be NORAD officers, from the "UFO Research

Institute", and (my favorite) "a government agency so secret he

couldn't give its name". Also, telephone and mail harassment and

messages from TV's and radios are mentioned. The MIB know where

you're going, where you've been, and what you've been doing, and will

tell you such things to convince you to be quiet.

From there, Steiger goes off the deep end, claiming that MIB are to

be found throughout history, as "Trickster", "Poltergeist" or

"Sorcerer" figures. Well, I didn't say this was a good source, now

did I?

A comment on clothing: I've seen various things about the material

the MIB supposedly wear -- its made of a plastic-like substance, a

rubbery substance, and in Steiger's book the material is described by

"Major Joseph Jenkins, Retired, Field Investigations Director for the

UFO Research Institute of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" in 1968 as

"reminding him of the quilted uniforms (by Korean/Chinese troops) in

the Korean war".

Comments on appearance: I've seen all sorts of descriptions of

MIB's physical appearance -- here's another that I haven't seen

before: "Jim" (no date, no last name): "He was cadaverous... he

looked like those WWII photographs of someone in a concentration camp.

But he seemed alert enough."

Charles

From: murrayb@crfm.gen.nz (Murray Bott)

Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors

Subject: Re: Men in Black

Message-ID: <36988.2009224001@crfm.gen.nz>

Date: 19 Jul 92 10:16:28 GMT

Reply-To: murrayb@crfm.gen.nz (Murray Bott)

Distribution: alt

Organization: Household UNIX, Auckland, New Zealand

Lines: 42

In Brad Steigers book "Mysteries of Time and Space" (Sphere Books,paperback

edition,published 1977 page 193.) Steiger writes

> In 1956 Gray Barker told the Bender story-minus the

>detailed revalations the men in black (MIB) had given

>Bender about the UFO enigma__in They Knew Too Much

>About Flying Saucers. In the same volume he related that

>Edgar R Jarrold, organiser of the Australian Flying Saucer

> Bureau, Harold H Fulton, head of Civilian Saucer Inves-

>tigation of New Zealand, and Ufologist John H Stuart,

>also a New Zealander,had received visits from

>mysterious strangers in black and had subsequently dis-

>banded thei organisations and their research

This paragraph contains some distortions and basic error of facts. The book

"The Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers" by Gray Barker does contain some

material which has helped to artifically create a Mystery

Certainly with regards to Harold H Fulton he did not ever receive any visit

by strangers in black, nor did he ever receive any threats to close or cease

his research

He continued his research until his death in 1986 and was New Zealand

Director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) from 1973 until this time

Fortunately a large portion of his files survive and are now in my

possesion

As far as New Zealander John Stuart is concerned,I have not ever established

contact with him (He appeares to have passed away in very recent years) I do

have on file his photostat copies of his correspondance with Grey Barker

(received from another source)

In light of the ongoing discussion on this by some (on this Net and perhaps

elsewhere) I will be checking some background in other areas and may at some

time in the future post an article on this net (if neccassary) although this

is likely to be some weeks or even months away

Regards

--

Domain : murrayb@crfm.gen.nz

Voice : 64-9-6315825

Snail : PO Box 27117, Mt Roskill, Auckland 1030, New Zealand