Who are the real Men in Black?
In popular culture, the Men in Black (MIB) are agents of the U.S. federal government who wear black suits and prevent witnesses of UFOs from sharing evidence of their encounters. MIBs do not necessarily wear dark suits and work for the U.S. government. The term “Men in Black” can refer to any mysterious figures who appear after UFO sightings.
Some people believe that the mysterious Men in Black are actually aliens in disguise.
Many are familiar with the movie “The Men in Black” from the 1990s and 2000s film series of the same name, but were there real Men in Black? Discover the conspiracy theory that inspired the comic book series and films of the same name
A Brief History of the Men in Black
While some callers present a rosy picture of UFO phenomena, other UFO enthusiasts believe that there are sinister forces opposing the alien brothers’ benevolent mission. Some of these forces are extraterrestrial and others are terrestrial, and they work together to thwart the truth from coming to light.
Albert K. Bender of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was among the first victims of this sinister “silent group.” In 1952, Bender founded the International UFO Bureau, which became an immediate success, but he closed it the following year under mysterious circumstances.
Men in black had told him the terrifying answer to the UFO mystery and turned his life into a nightmare. He would not elaborate. Three years later, a fellow IASB member, Gray Parker, wrote a book about the incident; the title perfectly captured the paranoia of the UFO world outside: “They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers.”
Through the “Bender Mystery,” the legend of the Men in Black was brought to the world—although a man in black played a sinister role in the Maury Island incident (read more about the Maury Island incident). According to Parker, the unidentified policemen were spreading as far afield as Australia and New Zealand, frightening and silencing more UFO enthusiasts.
By the late 1980s, tales of the alien brothers had become so widespread that The Journal of American Folklore covered them in a lengthy article. The identity of the alien brothers remained unclear. To conspiracy theorists, they were enforcers for the Silence Group, linked to international banking interests that sought to stifle the technological advances and moral reforms the alien brothers wanted to bring to Earth’s population.
To others, they were aliens—perhaps, some speculated, DeRoss Richard Sharp Schaefer. In 1962, Binder sided with the alien school. Breaking his nine-year silence in Flying Saucers and Three Men, which he insisted was not science fiction, Binder revealed that the men in black who had expelled him from UFO science were monsters from the planet Kazek. Even Parker, the book's publisher and Bender's frequent promoter, privately suggested, out of earshot of clients, that it might all have been a "dream."
Fear of the Universal General Staff stems in part from concerns about the potentially hostile motives of UFOs. An early popular book, Flying Saucers on the Attack, by Harold T. Wilkins (1954), suggested that “the Universal General Staff may now be planning for a real war between the worlds.” But along with demonologist and UFO expert John A. Keel, author of UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse (1970) and other works, Wilkins seemed optimistic. In Keel’s view, aliens are not just aliens, but “superterrestrial” beings—entities from other, unimaginable dimensions of reality. Worse, they don’t like us at all. Humans, Keel says aloud, “are like ants, trying to see reality with very limited cognitive apparatus… We are helpless biochemical robots controlled by forces capable of scrambling our brains, destroying our memories, and using us in any way they see fit.” "They've been doing this to us forever"
Men in Black in Popular Culture
In 1990, Lowell Cunningham wrote a series of comic books called "The Men in Black," inspired by the conspiracy theories of the Shadow Men organization. In the comics, the Shadow Men investigate aliens and other supernatural activity, keeping their activities secret by wiping the memories of witnesses or killing them.
The 1997 film adaptation starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones was more comedic and lighthearted than the comics. Its success led to three additional Mickey Mouse films, the latest in 2019.
Who are the real Men in Black?
When we think of the "Men in Black" chasing aliens, we usually picture a faceless man in a black suit. Georgijevic / Getty Images
You may know Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as the "Men in Black" from the 1990s and 2000s film series of the same name. But were there real black men? Discover the conspiracy theory that inspired the comic book series and movies of the same name.
George Adamski was one of the most famous figures in the UFO community—from 1952 until his death in 1965. In his books and lectures, he recounted his encounters with friends from Venus, Mars, and Saturn. He also claimed that senior government officials—who were in contact with the “space brothers”—secretly knew he was telling the truth.
But one day in December 1957, Adamski was shocked to receive a letter written on U.S. State Department letterhead, stamped with the department’s seal and postmarked in Washington, D.C. The letter was signed “R. E. Strath, Committee on Cultural Exchange,” and it said: “The Department has in its files a great deal of evidence to support your claims… While the Department certainly cannot publicly confirm your experiences, I believe it can, in a manner consistent with propriety, encourage your work.”