Men in Black

1968 Timothy Beckley photograph of a man in black

Men in Black (MIB) are strangers dressed in dark suits who visit unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses and ufologists (people who investigate UFOs), and will often proceed to question, interrogate, harass and threaten them into silence. The men sometimes present themselves as being part of a secret unnamed organisation, although it is widely believed that they're government agents.

Encounters with men in black are commonly associated with American UFO conspiracy theories.

Description

Hopkins' description of a man in black

Men in black are generally described as tall men, wearing dark suits (they have also been seen wearing black sunglasses, hats and dark overcoats).

Dr. Herbert Hopkins, who was visited by a "man in black" in 1976, described the individual as wearing a tailored navy suit, dark suede gloves and a bowler-style hat. The man was bald, did not have any eyebrows or eyelashes, had "dead white" skin and wore bright red lipstick.

Some witnesses have described seeing only one man, whereas other accounts have witnessed two or three men in black.

History of Encounters

In 1947, Harold Dahl claimed to have seen multiple UFOs in the sky while he was boating near Maury Island on the Puget Sound, Washington. Dahl reported that one of the UFOs began to spew out metal debris into the lake killing his dog and injuring his son. The next morning a man of "six feet tall" wearing a black suit arrived at Dahl's home and warned him not to talk about his alleged UFO sighting over Maury Island. Photos that Dahl had reportedly taken of the UFOs were fogged up by the man.

Bender's sketch of a man in black

Dr. Albert K. Bender was a well-written ufologist who founded the International Flying Saucer Bureau. In the mid-1950s, Bender was working on a paper that would prove the US Government had covered up evidence relating to UFOs. He claimed that he was visited by three men in dark suits who threatened and warned him not to continue investigating UFOs. Bender maintained that the men were secret government agents tasked with suppressing evidence of UFOs.

The late ufologist John Keel claimed to have encounters with men in black and referred to them as "demonic supernaturals" with "dark skin and/or 'exotic' facial features". According to ufologist Jerome Clark, reports of men in black represent "experiences" that "don’t seem to have occurred in the world of consensus reality". Keel invented the term "men in black" in an article for the men's adventure magazine Saga published in 1967.

In 1967, in Toledo, Ohio, Robert Richardson claimed that he crashed into a UFO while driving one night. A week later, he was visited by two men in black suits who arrived in a Dodge vehicle. Richardson had previously taken a piece of UFO debris from the crash site and handed it over for analysis, but upon telling the men that, they became angry and threatened him with "if you want your wife to stay as pretty as she is, then you'd better get the metal back". They then left and never contacted Richardson again.

In 1968, ufologist Jack Robinson and his wife were stalked by a supposed man in black, who would stand across the street from their New Jersey apartment. The Robinsons often found their home broken into and ransacked, with Jack's research papers moved around. Timothy Green Beckley, a friend of the Robinsons, managed to get a photograph of the man in black who had been harassing them. It is the only known photograph ever taken of a man in black.

In 1976, Dr. Herbert Hopkins of Maine claimed that one night while home alone, he had received a call from an individual interested in reviewing his research. Hopkins agreed, and as he put down the phone, a man had already appeared on his doorstep. Hopkins described the man as bald, having no eyebrows or eyelashes, with pale white skin "like a doll," and wearing bright red lipstick. Once inside, the man manipulated coins, such as making them change color, shape, and disappear. He then ordered Hopkins to destroy his UFO research.

In January 2002, Canadian actor and comedian Dan Aykroyd introduced a television show called Out There, which would cover topics related to UFOs and aliens. While conducting interviews for the show, Aykroyd stepped outside and witnessed a black Ford Sedan appear suddenly. A man stepped out of this car and glared at him, and when Aykroyd looked back, they were gone. Later, he received a call informing him that the show had been canceled.

Supposed men in black captured on CCTV in 2008 at the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel

In 2008, Shane Sovar, a manager of the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel, as well as a security guard claimed that they had seen a UFO outside the hotel window. Three weeks after a UFO investigation team looked into the sighting, three witnesses reported that three men in black had visited the hotel and "terrified" the staff, looking for Sovar and the guard, who were not present at the time. The witnesses described them similarly to Hopkins' account. The hotel's CCTV recorded two of the men entering the hotel lobby. Like the Timothy Beckley photograph, this is only known footage of a men in black sighting.

Other Mentions

• Men in black have reportedly guarded private areas of the Appalachian mountain chain in response to UFO activity, integrating themselves into the Point Pleasant authorities.
• When the Skunk Ape phenomenon was popular, a group investigating it had a hair sample stolen from them by two men in sunglasses and dark suits driving a black vehicle.

In Popular Culture

• The first appearance of men in black in film was in John Sayles' 1984 film The Brother from Another Planet. In this film, John Sayles himself and David Strathairn, both credited as "Man In Black", are aliens in search of an escaped alien slave (the titular "Brother").
• There was a men in black comic book in 1990 based on the UFO folklore that eventually lead to the creation of the popular Men In Black film trilogy, and revival film "MIB: International", and the animated series.
• In the British science fiction television show Doctor Who, the aliens known as the Silence are inspired by the men in black, as well as the character of Mister Dread from the episode "Dreamland".
• Men in black are featured in the popular trading card game MetaZoo: Cryptid Nation.

Videos

Sources

Wikipedia article