Mystery of the Men in Black: The UFO Silencers

by Timothy Green Beckley

  on the explanation for the UFO mystery, while the third merely sat and carefully observed Bender. The story they gave was "fantastic" and extremely frightening, Bender later said, and it portended great changes in all fields of human endeavor, particularly in science. Before leaving, one of the MIB turned toward Bender and said, "If I hear another word from your office, you're in trouble."

  Later Bender made a telephone call to a friend in which he casu­ally mentioned his theory and subsequent visitation of the three men. Immediately after hanging up, the phone rang. A voice uttered that he knew of Bender's conversation and that he had made a "bad slip" and warned him to be more attentive in the future.

  From this moment on Bender refused to discuss anything else concerning his visitation or theory.

  In 1953 several other researchers had similar visits from enigmatic entities who bestowed the disks upon them after they had been very close to printing the truth, unknowingly, in their publications. One of those visited was Edgar Jarrold, head of the Australian Flying Saucer Bureau, and a regular correspondent of Bender's. In fact, many researchers suspect that Jarrold is the one to whom Bender first im­parted his "secret."

  Jarrold seems to have undergone the eerie spectrum of visitations, weird phone calls and poltergeist activity. Jarrold was also puzzled by a mysterious black car which hung around his office at night. The auto contained two persons who evidently had him under surveillance.

  Although no one knows what became of the Australian investiga­tor, apparently the ultimate climax came when he was in a large depart­ment store in Sydney. Jarrold was at the top of a flight of stairs leading from the ground floor when he received a violent push from the back, which sent him flying downstairs. This took place in broad daylight and from all accounts nobody was standing near him. Whatever pushed him was invisible, yet retained its physical bulk in order to carry out the attack.

  This ties in with poltergeist activity reported in connection with UFO sightings in many areas including Point Pleasant, West Virginia, home of the "Mothman." In Canada, recently, an entire household was besieged by invisible entities soon after the occupants had close UFO sightings. At about the same time, in Toledo, Oregon, the residents of this small community were puzzled with the frequent visitations made by strange crawling lights which seemed to move up the very walls of their homes. A UFO flap was in the process during this period and sightings included reports of stump-like creatures and pulsating UFOs which brightened up the neighborhood at night.

  Kenneth Arnold himself seems to have been visited by these invis­ible entities: "At my home I have been visited by unseen entities whom I believe to be pilots of these weird disks. They were invisible to me and made no attempt to communicate. I was aware of their presence because I could see my rugs and furniture sink down under their weight as they walked about the room or sat on various objects."

  In many cases, these poltergeists are the forerunners of the Men in Black who frequently turn up anywhere from 24 to 48 hours after these invisible pranksters first show themselves. In some cases the si­lencers seem to bring about these occurrences which follow shortly after their visits.

  Since the beginning in 1967 the activities of these MIB have been on the rise. Important investigators across the country have reported a weird series of events which include strange phone calls, visits by invis­ible beings and harassment by various persons claiming to be from the government. They have continually photographed the homes of persons having close encounters with UFOs and have disguised them­selves as government officials, salesmen, poll takers and termite exter­minators, in order to gain access to saucer information.

  Because the Air Force has been accused of sending these individ­uals, on March 1, 1967, a memo entitled "Impersonations of Air Force Officers" signed Lieutenant General Hewitt Wheless, Air Force Assis­tant Vice Chief of Staff, was sent to all commands. It read: "Informa­tion, not verifiable, has reached Hq USAF that persons claiming to represent the Air Force or other Defense establishments have contacted citizens who have sighted unidentified flying objects. In one reported case an individual in civilian clothes, who represented himself as a member of NORAD, demanded and received photos belonging to a private citizen. In another, a person in an Air Force uniform ap­proached local police and other citizens who had sighted a UFO, assembled them in a school room and told them that they did not see what they thought they saw and that they should not talk to anyone about the sighting. All military and civilian personnel and particularly Information Officers and UFO Investigating Officers and UFO Inves­tigating Officers who hear of such reports should immediately notify their local OSI officers."

  Some More Men in Black Cases

  According to Saucer News, Mr. Tad Jones, who witnessed a hover­ing sphere on a major highway in January, 1967, received two threat­ening notes warning him not to tell anyone what he had seen. The printing of these "prank" warnings was identical to the printing of a note placed under the door of Connie Carpenter in Middleport, Ohio. Respected researcher John Keel, author of numerous articles and books, has written extensively about would-be "kidnappers" who have come after UFO witnesses and UFOnaut sighters.

  On Long Island, two men in Air Force uniforms harassed UFO witnesses. One of these men identified himself as Lieutenant Frank Davis and threatened two different people with a revolver, warning them to "watch out who you talk to." It almost seems as if this MIB had stolen his identity by combining the names of the two Army inves­tigators who died in the airplane crash in the Maury Island case. If so it was a sick disguise.

  A Colonel John Dalton interviewed at least three other Long Island residents and asked them to fill out complicated forms which contained involved questions about the witnesses' personal lives. Through officials on Long Island, John Keel had a check run on the men. The Air Force denied that it knew anything about either one or that men with those names were assigned anywhere on the Island.

  Lt. Davis turned up again in a postman's uniform and later engaged in taking photographs of the homes of UFO sighters. In yet another MIB case a black Cadillac made a deliberate attempt to run over a UFO witness on the main street of a Long Island town.

  During the same period, one of my close friends, investigator Robert Easley, of Defiance, Ohio, was reportedly followed by a man in a black sedan with no license plates. The man was dressed in black shoes, black pants, and a blue pullover shirt.

  In the wee hours of July, 11, 1967, Mr. Easley was awakened by a phone call from a lady who told him that she and seven others were observing two bright fast-moving UFOs. After she hung up, he imme­diately got dressed and went to the scene. While checking on this report, he noticed that he was being followed by a man in a black sedan with no license plates.

  On July 15th, he was again followed by the same man in the same car as he was driving home. When he pulled into his driveway, the unknown car sped off. Later that evening as he sat talking with his girl friend on the front porch, the car came down the road and stopped right in front of the house, as soon as the topic of UFOs entered their conversation. Easley could feel the man looking at them. When they got off the subject the car left, but when they got back on it about an hour later, the same car came back again. It was as if the driver could hear what they were saying or read their minds!

  On July 17th, as Easley was checking out another routine UFO report, the man appeared and followed him to and from the scene of the sighting, dressed in the same black shoes, black dress pants and dark pull-over shirt.

  Between the 11th and 17th of July, Bob received a total of 12 strange phone calls. In each case, the only sound on the other end of the line was a strange beeping noise, each call lasted for about 15 sec­onds, followed by complete silence. The beep sounded far away, as if coming from a machine.

  In Europe as well, witnesses are being threatened into silence! Mysterious voices and sounds are appearing on telephones and tapes and imposters pretending to be either famed saucer investigators or government off
icials, are visiting contactees and those claiming to have observed UFOs at close range.

  Even Dr. J. Allen Hynek ran into these accounts. In the Decem­ber, 1967, issue of Playboy, he said: "I have on occasion been told what seemed to be a straightforward story, when suddenly the witness lapsed into a highly confidential mood and told me that he was sure that his phone was being tapped or that he was being watched, sometimes on a regular schedule either by the 'government' or by 'occupants of the craft.'"

  Following the death of Snippy the race horse in Alamosa, Col­orado, attributed to a flying saucer, there were several strange incidents in the area. One witness, a University student, wrote a letter to Riley Crabb, director of the Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, in which he told of the odd things which had happened to him after his consecutive sightings of a bright UFO on September 17, 1967, and another made in the company of 100 fellow students at Highlands University, the following Wednesday. "The day immediately after this sighting I received a phone call from a friend who said that his life had been threatened if he so much as magnified the incident to higher authorities. He said I should refrain from doing the same."

  A week later, Crabb's correspondent was out riding with a detec­tive who serves as night police on the campus. They drove up into the mountains near Gallinas canyon to get a view of the town. Suddenly, a light appeared in the sky. At first it didn't seem to be different from any other aircraft. Then it moved erratically and reversed direction without the circular deviation of known aircraft. It declined in the Eastern hori­zon near an old water tower, located above five miles distant from the witnesses. "We decided to take a chance and raced full speed in that direction. By the time we arrived, there was a series of small brush fires near the tower. After extinguishing these we searched the area for the culprit. There was a deserted ranch house nearby with a wooden fence. On the other side of the fence was a sharp decline into another canyon. Upon reaching this fence we stopped to obtain our direction and radio in a report. Just as suddenly as you blink an eye it became terribly hot. The area immediately before us in the decline became blood red. At that moment an object about 50 to 75 feet in diameter shot straight up into the sky at fantastic speed. The object was blood red. After an intense overall search of the area we radioed in for official help."

  Two days later the student received a phone call late at night warning him that it would be better if he forgot what he had seen. Above all he was told that he should tell no one about his experience, because they wouldn't believe him anyway. "The next day a stranger met me in the street on my way into town. He knew about everything revolving around the sighting and even added information that confirmed some of my own research on Atlantis. About the sighting he made an open threat to keep my mouth shut."

  A few days later, he was again walking downtown along the road when a black car came speeding in his direction. "It veered over and almost hit me. I was too angered and shaken to forget that car. The windows were not clear glass, but tinted a smoky color, making it impossible to see the occupants. The rear license plate did not register any state. It showed nothing but three X's."

  Even this was not the end of the student's encounter with an unknown. "Toward the end of October, while having a cup of coffee at my favorite cafe, a shot broke the monotony of the smoke-filled room. The bullet came through the front window and slammed into the wall about an inch above my head. Had I not just bent over to sip my cof­fee I would have been dead!"

  This was followed by a streak of bad luck and freak accidents. After being bed-ridden for two weeks with pneumonia and failing his studies, he began to take the hint. "I've lost all hopes of returning to Highlands University. Here I am back home and unemployed, and classified 1-A."

  The officer who had been with the student during the spectacular sighting later lost his job and was divorced by his wife.

  Mystery on the Mohawk

  For a period of approximately four years, an area on the banks of the New York State barge canal (Mohawk River) in Scotia, New York, was the site for very unusual MIB-type activities.

  According to Jennifer Stevens, a highly qualified UFO investiga­tor from Schenectady, in April of 1967, a woman, identified only as "Peggy G." was walking a friend to her car at about 11:00 p.m. The two stopped to watch what appeared to be a very large bright star. As they watched the "star," it began to get closer and before they knew it the object was hovering a short distance from them. Suddenly, a base­ball-sized projectile shot from the larger UFO, went whizzing over their heads and disappeared into the trees across the street.

  Nothing more was seen for a period of six weeks. Then Peggy called Mrs. Stevens and told her that there had been additional sight­ings in the immediate vicinity of her home. Also, some of her neigh­bors had reported animals missing. One of the neighbors had told sev­eral people that "little men" had kidnapped her dog.

  Peggy also stated that she had experienced "poltergeist" activity in her home, beginning shortly after her original sighting. She had seen the shadow of a man materialize and then disappear on several occa­sions, and had also seen objects in the house moving, apparently by themselves. Her cat, she said, had suddenly taken to hissing, spitting, and arching its back at nothing which could be seen.

  During the Christmas season these manifestations got worse and finally came to a climax with the meeting of a strange man. In order to make extra money, Peggy had taken on an afternoon job in a local department store while her children were at school and her husband at the office. After she had worked in the store for only a few days, a man employed as a guard approached her and seemed interested in telling her something. At lunch the man, whom Peggy describes as being "old and yet young," informed her that he was a member of a secret organi­zation working on earth called the "Cosmic Brotherhood." He told her that at one time he had been a professor in a well-known college and was incredibly old. A co-worker overheard the conversation, and mum­bled under his breath that the security guard was crazy. With this the guard looked up and half shouted, "If you don't get away from here and forget what you've heard, I'll turn myself into the most horrible thing you've ever seen." As Peggy watched, rays of light shot from the secu­rity officer's eyes and the other worker retreated in terror. Not too long after this the guard left his job and attempts to track him down have been fruitless.

  In February of 1968, two young men were returning home late one evening when they claim to have come upon a flying saucer which was resting on the frozen Mohawk River. They thought they could see the outline of a white-suited human form near the craft.

  According to Mrs. Stevens, the next morning some 300 yards from where the UFO had been seen, a 16-year-old boy was found dead. His body had been frozen deeply into the ice. "The police called it 'death due to exposure,' but they were unable to explain why his tracks showed that he had apparently been running, then dragging one

  foot as if pulled from above," Jennifer points out with concern.

  On subsequent nights after the strange death, Jennifer and a group of investigators from a local UFO organization patrolled the river bank to se if they could gather further clues. "After several nights of freezing toes and noses, we had a good sighting of our own. An oval, red-glowing object fluttered in silence. It hovered, blinked off and on in a five-four pattern. I grabbed a bright flashlight and signalled back in an identical manner. In a moment the UFO blinked back. This exchange went on for several minutes, and then the object began to come toward us. The hair began to rise on the back of my neck. Had I done a stupid thing? Were we in trouble?" Just then a plane appeared overhead, the object blinked out and disappeared from view.

  This was not, however, the end of the eerie entanglement with these little understood aspects of the UFO enigma. Several days after the events on the Mohawk, Jennifer’s husband was seated in a cafeteria sipping a cup of hot coffee when a strange man took the stool next to him. Without any introduction the mysterious stranger began to dis­cuss, with a great degree of knowle
dge, the events surrounding the UFO sighting.

  He began with, "There have been people watching the sky every night down by the river in Scotia." Mr. Stevens was rather shocked since he had been one of those involved, but keeping his cool he said, "I beg your pardon?" The man then went on to talk about UFOs. He refused to answer any questions directly and either parried or avoided them completely. Before leaving he warned, "People who look for UFOs should be very, very careful."

  This meeting with a possible MIB was followed by the usual pat­tern of phone calls and poltergeist activity in the Stevens' household. At about this same time, Peggy G. also reported interference on her telephone and claims she observed two light-skinned men with com­pletely expressionless faces, stringing silver tape over the wires near her home. After calling the police they disappeared as if listening in on her call. Later one of the officers remarked unconsciously, "Oh, the silver tape again."

  During the next three weeks all parties involved were repeatedly followed by a light blue Lincoln which would even park outside their homes, sometimes for hours.

  The mystery of the strange death on the Mohawk, the disappear­ance of neighborhood pets, the weird poltergeist phenomena and the sightings of the UFOs themselves have never been explained. They are part and parcel of the flying saucer mystery.

  Physical Evidence

  If a common denominator is to be found in any of the MIB cases, it appears to be that these individuals are greatly concerned with any physical evidence, any piece of actual hardware being in the hands of contactees. It almost appears as if they are determined to confiscate any material which could easily prove UFOs to be real at any cost—even death! We can't forget soon enough the Maury Island case, which in­volved "slag," or let's take, for example, the story Brad Steiger relates: "Late one evening in mid-February, 1968, I received a long distance phone call from a close friend of mine who is a traveling salesman for a large automotive parts company. 'Hey, Brad,' he said, after telling me that he was calling from a city about 300 miles from my home, 'Would you believe that I'm in the midst of a damned saucer flap? A mother and daughter say they saw a UFO in their field. Several farmers have been seeing UFOs land regularly. Hell, the locals here drive out on certain evenings and watch the things hover over high-tension wires. Everyone in town, including the cops, take the things as a matter of course.'"