" In his latest book, "The Real Men in Black: Evidence, Famous Cases, and True Stories of These Mysterious Men and Their Connection to the UFO Phenomena", the popular, bestselling author Nick Redfern (pictured left) delves deep into the strange world of these mysterious operatives. "
" Nick Redfern is fully qualified to explore this theme. He works full"-"time as an author, lecturer and journalist, and has researched a wide range of unsolved mysteries, including Bigfoot, UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, alien encounters, the worlds of the supernatural and the paranormal, and government conspiracies and cover"-"ups."
" Nick is a regular contributor to "UFO Magazine, Fate, Fortean Times", and "Paranormal Magazine", and author of numerous books. Originally from England, Nick Redfern lives in Arlington, Texas with his wife, Dana, and his website is www.nickredfern.com."
New Dawn "magazine spoke to Nick about the Men in Black - their origins, some classic cases, previously unknown reports, secret government files, and the many theories that have been presented to explain the mystery."
NEW DAWN (ND): What prompted you to write about the Men in Black (MIB)?
NICK REDFERN (NR): In speaking to people about the MIB phenomenon, two things became clear to me. The first was that, even in the UFO research community, many people assumed that the mystery of the Men in Black was one that was mainly set in the 1950s and 1960s. In other words, many people assumed the MIB had gone away and aren't active today. However, I had in my files cases as late as 2009. So, that was one reason to write the book - to demonstrate that the phenomenon is still very much ongoing, and not just a mystery of the past. The second reason was because many people's views on the MIB were kind of based on the Hollywood "Men in Black" movies starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. The films are good fun, and entertaining. But, they only portray the MIB as agents of a secret arm of the government. The reality, however, is that most MIB are described as being far stranger than that - they sound almost alien, creepy, weird, and not even human in many respects. So, that was the other, main purpose in writing the book: to reveal that while the government secret-agent angle is certainly valid, it doesn't tell the whole story.
ND: The Men in Black first appeared in the early 1950s, to a UFO investigator named Albert Bender. Can you tell us about his encounters with the MIB?
NR: Albert Bender was a man who, in the early 1950s, established a UFO research group - called the International Flying Saucer Bureau - in his home-town of Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA. Bender was an unusual character, who lived in the attic of his step-father's home, and who was deeply interested in not just UFOs, but also the world of the occult, and was very knowledgeable in both areas. Bender's IFSB attracted a huge amount of attention, and created links with UFO groups and researchers all around the world, including Australia and England. In other words, the group became very successful, very quickly. Then something strange happened: without warning Bender suddenly shut down the IFSB and quit Ufology. The rumour-mill - based on what Bender had quietly told a few friends and colleagues, albeit in a brief, enigmatic fashion - was that he had been silenced by three men in black-suits who warned him to leave UFO research, which he did until 1962 when he briefly resurfaced with his own book on the events in question, "Flying Saucers and the Three Men".
ND: Gray Barker was a legendary UFO researcher and writer from the 1950s onwards who chronicled the exploits of the MIB. Can you tell us about Barker and what he uncovered?
NR: Barker was a man who, like Bender, was heavily into both UFOs and the occult, and also horror movies, gothic horror stories and things like that. So they kind of gravitated to each other and became friends. Barker was also an excellent, atmospheric writer who quickly and astutely realised there was a fascinating story to be told about Bender's silencing by the three men, and Barker told the story in his 1956 book, "They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers". In that book, Barker relates the silencing of Bender, but alludes to the theory the MIB were from the US Government. However, in 1962, Barker - who was a publisher as well as an author - published Bender's very own book, the aforementioned "Flying Saucers and the Three Men". Bender portrays the MIB as very different from anything that might surface out of the Pentagon! In Bender's book, the MIB come across as definitively supernatural entities. He talks about them materialising in his bedroom, along with accompanying overpowering odours of brimstone - which is a classic facet of supernatural encounters. They have weirdly glowing, or self-illuminated, eyes. And they have the ability to render Bender unconscious or place him into an altered state of mind. So, it's very ironic that the man who arguably started the MIB mystery - which many people assume is all about government agents - actually described the MIB as nothing like CIA or FBI people. They were much, much stranger.
ND: The Men in Black turned up during the famous "Mothman" sightings at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in the 1960s - which became the subject of the Hollywood movie, "The Mothman Prophecies", starring Richard Gere. What is the story behind the Mothman-MIB connection?
NR: The link between Mothman and the MIB is just as weird as the saga of Albert Bender a decade earlier. "The Mothman Prophecies" movie was based on the book of the same title written by legendary Fortean author, John Keel, and told the story of this ominous, glowing-eyed, winged creature seen in and around Point Pleasant in the mid-to-late 1960s. Despite its cartoon-style name, Mothman was a very unsettling, shadowy thing that haunted the town's old TNT plant and hung around in the shadows, like some grim-reaper-style thing. And, on this latter point, sightings of Mothman culminated in the collapse of the town's Silver Bridge that spanned the Ohio River, and which led to the deaths of dozens of people who were on the bridge and drowned. Some researchers saw Mothman as the cause of the disaster. But, today, more seem to take the view that Mothman is some form of warning phenomenon; that it tries to warn people of impending disaster, rather than actually causing it. And when the Mothman encounters were at their height, UFOs were buzzing about, and the Men in Black were seen roaming all around Point Pleasant, making veiled threats to Mothman witnesses and local journalists, and even plaguing people like Keel and Gray Barker, who also wrote a book on the affair called "The Silver Bridge". It's almost as if the MIB were trying to prevent people from learning the truth about both the UFO presence and the true nature of Mothman.
ND: John Keel had his own face-to-face encounter with the MIB. Will you tell us about that?
NR: Yes, this is an extremely bizarre story that was provided to me by the well-known author on all-things paranormal, Brad Steiger. Steiger said to me: "I've "never" put this in "any" of my books, and I feel a little awkward, but on the other hand, what I am about to tell you really happened." Steiger added that Keel "...began to tell me of the visitations he'd had with three men who had not knocked, but had entered, his apartment. They literally came "through" the door. He told me of an evening when they were challenging him to lay off the whole Mothman thing; to lay off UFOs, if he knew what was good for him." Well, having heard that astounding aspect of the story - which sounds astonishingly like Albert Bender's experiences with the three MIB that materialised in his attic - you might think: "could it get any stranger?" Yes, it could; and it certainly does, as Steiger added to me: "John was the sort of person who responded to threats like the red flag to the bull. But, he said to me that, on this occasion, they reached under his sink and took out a jug of Clorox. They said: 'What is this?' and John said: 'That's disinfectant, it's very powerful.' They brought it over to him, took the cap off, and gave him a smell. John wrinkled his nose, and when they asked if it was Clorox, he said 'Yes, that's what it is. Now put it back before you spill it.' Whereupon, the three of them - in front of him - put it to their lips one at a time and took large gulps of it. Now, by the time John had finished the evening, telling me stories like this, I decided that maybe I wouldn't be quite so brave and quite so powerful. I began thinking: we're not dealing with FBI agents or the Air Force."
ND: Some people have suggested the MIB are government agents. Does evidence exist to support this theory?
NR: There's absolutely no doubt at all that at least some Men in Black do originate with official agencies. For example, in the book I cite several significant cases from the 1960s - including one from England and one from the United States - where people had classic encounters of the MIB variety, with the MIB turning up in a black car, wearing black suit and hat, and making a veiled comment to the witness about not speaking publicly on their encounter. However, the significant thing is that thanks to the Freedom of Information Acts in each country, we now have the files on both events. In the English case, the documents identify the Man in Black as being attached to the British Royal Air Force's Provost & Security Services. The P line-height: 5px;">
"The Real Men in Black: Evidence, Famous Cases, and True Stories of These Mysterious Men and Their Connection to the UFO Phenomena" by Nick Redfern (New Page Books, 2011) is available from all good bookstores and www.amazon.com. You can find out more about Nick Redfern at his website "www.nickredfern.com".
The above article appeared in New Dawn Special Issue 17.
Read this article and much more on UFOs by downloading
your copy of "New Dawn "Special Issue 17
(iPad compatible e-book)
FOR ONLY US5.95
(c) New Dawn Magazine and the respective author.
