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The Sinister Men In Black
From 'The Unexplained' No. 10. Orbis Publishing. 1991.
As UFO sightings increase, so does the harassment of witnesses -
by the sinister 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.
THE MAN WHO SHOT A HUMANOID
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.
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 mt 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.
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 hiUFO experience. More than
one investigator has been effectively silenced or intimidated by the
sinister visitors. Some people believe that the world's governments
are in cahoots 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.
Excerpts from "Mysteries of Time & Space" by Brad Steiger
Prenntice-Hall, 1974, ISBN 0-113-609040-0
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 had had photographs
and negatives of UFO's confiscated by people claiming
"government affiliation" - "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" 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 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 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 "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.
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".
Continuing "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 Investigation of New Zealand, and Ufologist John
H Stuart, also a New Zealander, had received visits from mysterious
strangers in black and had subsequently disbanded their
organisations and their research.
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