by Nick Redfern
It is highly relevant that Moseley refers to Bender’s original story, as Bender actually told more than one version of that 1953 encounter with the three ominous men. In 1962, Barker published Bender’s own, by now significantly different, tale of the event that caused him to quit flying saucer research and shut down the IFSB. It was a story told across 160 infinitely odd pages in Bender’s mighty tome, Flying Saucers and the Three Men. In Bender’s book, however, the MIB are not agents of the FBI, nor of any agency of the U.S. government, as Barker, back in 1956, had alluded to as a possibility in They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. In fact, they are not even of this Earth, as will now be demonstrated.
According to Albert Bender’s new, or, perhaps, reworked story, on a humid night in August 1953, he was busy in the attic—where else?—hard at work on the October issue of the IFSB’s monthly Space Review journal when a strange feeling overcame him, and the now-familiar, strong odor of brimstone saturated the room. A floorboard suddenly squeaked—which Bender immediately recognized as coming from an enclosed section of the attic adjacent to his own. Bender opened the door and, to his complete and utter terror, was confronted by the very same, glowing-eyed entity that had very nearly scared the life out of him months earlier, late on a Saturday night at the local cinema. The manifested Man in Black silently motioned Bender back into the confines of his room. He did as he was told. Bender could now see that two nearly identical figures had materialized and were following dutifully behind the first. Their clothes were black, their shoes were black, and even their Homburg hats were black. All three were even wearing black gloves, as if to deliberately accentuate the unsettling MIB imagery even more. Slowly, step by step, they closed in on Bender, rather like huge spiders bearing down upon an unfortunate fly caught in some monstrous, Lovecraftian web. The three men then carefully formed a circle around Bender, and placed their hands upon his shoulders. Bender was suddenly rendered numb and passed out.
Incredibly, the tale told by Bender was that the MIB then took him from his home to—wait for it—a secret, underground installation deep below Antarctica! Indeed, in the pages of Bender’s book, the locale in question sounds very much like the perfect hangout for a James Bond villain plotting to overthrow an unsuspecting world.
Bender’s story—which is wholly outrageous in nature— is filled with all manner of esoteric data and quasi-scientific gobbledygook, all allegedly gleaned from the aliens as he hung out beneath the frozen wasteland. The gist of it is that those who pilot the flying saucers visit the Earth to extract an ill-defined substance from seawater that Bender theorized was almost certainly being utilized by the aliens as a power source.
After chatting genially with the cosmic visitors about their lives, cultures, religious attitudes, and more, Bender was ultimately returned to his attic, along with the following, stern warning: “You are charged to keep our secret. We do not wish to take extreme action, and you will find that you will often consider giving away some part of this information. When you get such thoughts you will be reminded of the consequences by headaches which will be almost unbearable to you. At such times beware of more serious conditions we can bring about” (Bender 1962).
The unsettling threat of the MIB could not have been made any clearer. But was there any degree of truth to Bender’s—or even to Barker’s—story? That is a complex question, and a tale for a later chapter; for now, it is worth noting that Bender was not the only person allegedly paid a visit by the Men in Black in 1953.
3
FBI Involvement (1950s)
The same year that Bender got the visit from the Men in Black and hastily said his goodbyes to the IFSB, and Barker was grilled by the FBI, the UFO investigator Harold T. Wilkins was apprised of the facts relative to a recent, highly unusual MIB-style encounter that reportedly led the FBI to become embroiled in the strange, cosmic saga. Wilkins’s source for the story insisted on anonymity, as is very often the case in such incidents, but was willing to advise Wilkins that the whole affair could be traced back to a certain official employed by a Los Angeles–based attorney’s office concerned with tracing missing persons.
In a letter to Wilkins, the mysterious informant revealed that in the latter part of January 1953, two emaciated men no less than 6 1/2 feet in height and adorned in the now-familiar black gear arrived out of the blue at the attorney’s office and were quickly and inexplicably given prestigious positions within the company, despite the fact that apparently no one had any real inkling of who they were—aside from the director of the company, who chose to remain oddly tight-lipped about the situation. Whoever the strange men were, they were certainly not run-of-the-mill characters. Rather, they were weird in the extreme. Wilkins’s informant advised him that the bone structures of the hands of the two men differed markedly from those normally seen in humans, such that their wrists and hands appeared to be free of joints, and one of the men possessed remarkable strength: One day, Wilkins was advised, the man in question leaned over the top of a filing cabinet, and the weight of his hand left a half-inch indentation in the top of the cabinet!
Not surprisingly, someone within the company chose to quickly and anonymously call in the Feds, who dispatched with high speed two G-men to investigate the curious affair. Equally unsurprisingly, with J. Edgar Hoover’s finest now hot on their trail, the strange pair hot-footed it to pastures unknown. That was far from being the end of the matter, however. Evidently, as Wilkins told it at least, the FBI confiscated—or in Bureau-speak, “sequestered”—the filing cabinet and turned it over to a chemist specializing in metallurgy, who determined that to produce the indentations present where one of the two men had leaned on the cabinet would have required a force of some 2,000 pounds or more. Somewhat alarmed, to say the least, the FBI, Wilkins’s informant advised him, forwarded a classified report to the Bureau’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, where, of course, it summarily vanished from any and all potential prying eyes.
Is there any truth to this outlandish and sensational tale? Well, here’s where things get a little bit murky. Wilkins was seemingly satisfied that his source of the story was both genuine and reliable. As were others, apparently: In abbreviated form, the case was highlighted in the August 1954 issue of Mystic magazine. The Men in Black were rapidly becoming the talk of the flying saucer world. A matter of mere days after the Mystic article appeared—which referenced the FBI’s alleged involvement in the matter—a resident of Lanesville, Ohio, who had read the article, fired off a letter to J. Edgar Hoover, demanding to know the truth of the matter. In response, Hoover stated, “I would like to advise you that the article you mentioned is entirely incorrect with reference to the FBI, and there is no information on the matter which I can give you” (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1954). But Hoover was not done yet. An FBI document of August 12, 1954, states, “This article was previously brought to our attention, and the field office advised the magazine editor that the story was not true as far as the Bureau’s part was concerned. The editor stated he regretted the error and he would publish a retraction in the next issue, which is not due for several months” (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1954).
Four years later, Gray Barker, Albert Bender, and the Men in Black were once again the subjects of the FBI’s secret interest. On November 22, 1958, an inquiring citizen of Oklahoma City contacted J. Edgar Hoover about the FBI’s treatment of UFO investigators: “Recently many rumors have been printed in UFO periodicals, concerning reports that Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation have discouraged certain saucer investigators, particularly Mr. Albert Bender of Bridgeport, Connecticut, from further research into the secret of these elusive discs. Since you are the Director of the FBI, I would like to know whether or not these reports are factual or whether they are just rumors” (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1958).
Hoover’s response was swift and to-the-point: “I am instructing a Special Agent of our Oklahoma City Office to contact you concerning the matter you mentioned.” A note fro
m Hoover to the special agent in charge at Oklahoma City added, “An agent of your office should contact [the letter writer] immediately and secure copies of or information concerning the periodicals described” (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1958). That’s right: Tell the FBI, in 1950s America, that you’re interested in the Men in Black, and they’ll send a G-man around for a chat—no doubt an intimidating one.
In a memorandum to Hoover of December 9, 1958, the Oklahoma office of the FBI reported that the periodical in question was the Saucerian Bulletin published by our old friend Gray Barker. The Bulletin stated that the three men responsible for silencing Albert Bender were from the FBI, Air Force Intelligence, and the Central Intelligence Agency. The FBI report of December 12th reads as follows: “Bender formed the International Flying Saucer Bureau in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1952 to look into the flying saucer mystery. In 1953 Bender allegedly stated that he knew what the saucers are. Then ‘three men in black suits’ silenced Bender to the extent that even today Bender will not discuss the matter of his ‘hush-up’ with anyone” (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1958).
A month later, on January 22, 1959, Hoover was still hot on the trail of Barker and Bender—and, perhaps, even on the trail of the Men in Black, too: “The Bureau desires to obtain a copy of the book written by Gray Barker entitled They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. Reportedly, the book was published by University Books, Inc., Illinois. Contact this publishing house and if possible, obtain a copy of this book” (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1958).
Three weeks later a copy of Barker’s book was, rather astonishingly, in the hands of J. Edgar Hoover, one of the most powerful and feared figures in America at the time. From the early days in that dark attic in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to the movers and shakers in Washington, D.C., Bender—and Barker—had come a very long way indeed. The FBI subsequently noted that its files contained “no information pertaining to the hush-up of Bender” (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1958). This official, internal statement specifically denying any FBI involvement in the silencing of Bender strongly seems to imply that whoever Bender’s mysterious visitors were back in 1953, they were not agents of the FBI—a fact that might be viewed by some observers as corroboration for Bender’s mind-bending Flying Saucers and the Three Men, in which the Men in Black have alien origins.
It is curious that nowhere in the now-declassified FBI papers is there any mention of the FBI’s 1953 interview with Gray Barker. Can we consider this first head-to-head to have been strictly off the record in nature? Or does the FBI have its reasons for not releasing its files on the matter? Was Barker’s dark-suited visitor not with the FBI, at all? Did Barker actually receive a visit from a real Man in Black, failing to realize the true nature of the macabre entity in his midst? Or, did Barker simply spin the story out of thin air, as a means to cruelly torture the already-stressed-out Bender?
Yet again, the mystery of the MIB proves to be as enigmatic as it does overwhelming. And, although the 1950s were about to come to an end, the Men in Black had barely gotten started.
4
Brad Steiger’s Tales (1960s)
Although Albert Bender birthed the MIB in the 1950s, it was in the following decade that the phenomenon really took off. One of the most learned scholars within the arena of ufology and the larger worlds of the paranormal and the supernatural is Brad Steiger, whose involvement in and keen knowledge of 1960s-era-onward MIB activity cannot be understated. Certainly, it’s an integral part of the overall Men in Black history and mystery.
“When the modern saucer scene really exploded in the ’40s, I was as nuts-and-bolts as anyone,” Steiger said. “I think we were all secretly hoping that they, the aliens, were here; that we had made contact of some kind. Well, a few years went by, and then we’re into the 1950s. And this is when I read Gray Barker’s book on Albert K. Bender and his visit from the three Men in Black. My initial reaction was: Bender is saying that he has the answer to the UFOs? I’m thinking: come on! With dozens of people trying to figure out the flying saucer mystery, he had the answer? But then, as I wrote more in the flying saucer field, I began corresponding with John Keel”—and that’s when, in relation to the Men in Black, things really began to get moving for Steiger.
MIB authority Brad Steiger.
John Keel, whose real name was Alva John Kiehle, was born in 1930. As a testament to his skill as a writer even at an early age, had his very own column in a Perry, New York newspaper by the age of 14. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951, Keel worked for the Armed Forces Radio Network, on one occasion even broadcasting a show from inside the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt. Following the completion of his tour of duty with the military, Keel headed off to the Middle East for a whole series of adventures, and hung out with fakirs, magicians, and occultists, and penned a book in 1957 on these particularly memorable road-trip-style experiences: Jadoo. As time progressed, Keel became more and more caught up within the domain of the unknown and wrote a number of titles now considered absolute classics, including Operation Trojan Horse, The Mothman Prophecies, and The Cosmic Question. Keel also became one of the key, highly influential investigators of the phenomenon of the Men in Black.
Back to Brad Steiger: “In 1967, [Jim] Moseley had a big conference at the Hotel Commodore [in New York City] to celebrate 20 years of UFOs. That’s where I met Tim Beckley [the author of, among numerous other titles, Curse of the Men in Black and The UFO Silencers], and we began a correspondence and a friendship that has lasted all these years. Keel was there, and many other authors in the UFO field; so all the people I had been corresponding with, I now had a chance to meet.”
Steiger was finally face to face with some of the key players within the MIB research arena of the day. And, perhaps somewhat inevitably, it was not long before the man himself became immersed in the mystery of the Men in Black to a significant (and certainly unanticipated) degree. Notable reports, firsthand encounters, and even incidents involving friends began to reach Steiger—many of which were more than unsettling. Of one such report, Steiger states:
At that time, a person who became quite a good friend of mine—a naval officer—said to me, “I can tell you about the UFO sightings I had while I was in the service.” I said, “By all means.” And he told me some remarkable sightings that he had at sea and while docked in Japan—an over-flight. Then, one day, he came up to me and said, “I can’t talk to you anymore; I can’t associate with you.” He said, “Ever since I’ve told you those stories, our phone rings day and night, and there’s nothing but strange noises on the other end. My wife is going crazy, and she blames it on you.” I said, “I’m not calling!” But she blamed the harassment on his association with me and because he knew me. I lost many friends at that time who gave me information and they would later be harassed. At the same time, there was no one knocking at my door, or no one that I could see, and there’s not much that frightens me.
Steiger also had a remarkable account to relate of the most alarming elements of the saga of Albert Bender— namely, the presence of poltergeist-like phenomena in relation to a UFO experience. It was late one evening and Steiger was working in his office. Suddenly, the telephone rang. It was a call from, in Steiger’s own words, an individual who is still, to this day, a well-recognized player on the UFO research scene. Steiger continued that the researcher and his fiancée had had a close sighting of a UFO, and when they returned home, violent poltergeist activity was literally tearing the place apart. As Steiger described it, he could hear screaming in the background; there were thumps and crashes, and what sounded like furniture banging together: “So, I tried to give advice and calm it. And these were techniques—metaphysical and mystical—which did seem to calm things down.”
Unfortunately, it seems that the phenomenon behind the poltergeist activity may have become insanely enraged by Steiger’s success in bringing the terrifying mayhem to a halt, for it then, immediately, set its sights on his home: “Right after I hung up the phone, my office jus
t became alive with something, and there was a large crack that just appeared in the ceiling. I just said, ‘Cut it the hell out!’ On another night when pictures were flying off the wall and so forth, I shouted, ‘Leave me alone!’ And everything stopped. And this gave me a little false confidence that maybe one could command it. Or maybe this was just a nice tactic to lure me into an even deeper situation.”
Perhaps it was the latter, as Men in Black reports continued to pour in to Steiger HQ: “I had another friend who was with me on many of my investigations—one of the toughest guys I ever met. He was visited a number of times by decidedly weird individuals who attempted to threaten him, and on one occasion he saw them in a car and got the license plate of the vehicle they were driving. He, who was very mechanically minded, said the car they were driving didn’t look like any model that he was familiar with. And he had been a private detective, and had a lot of friends on the force. He called in the license plate, and there was no such license plate.”
And then there is the following tale from Steiger, which one would be very hard-pressed to trump: “A good friend of mine wanted to go over to Vietnam—this was when the war was going on—to visit his son, who was stationed there. He was a World War II veteran. He stopped in London first, because he had never been there and wanted to spend some time there. He wrote me quite a long letter.”