106 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
106 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: GRAY BARKER AND THE MEN-IN-BLACK FILE: UFO1409
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Subj: RE: I'M CONFUSED
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BJ> I remember the name 'Gray Barker' from MANY years ago,but from
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BJ> then, he and Alex Bender (I think) were visited by 'TheMen in B
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BJ> after THAT, refused to discuss UFO's,and many OTHER things AT A
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Howdy Bud,
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I'm not real sure what happened to Barker,he may well be
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dead,but as of 1979,Bill Moore had stated in The Phila.Experiment
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that reprint facsimiles of the original Varo edition of The Case
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For The UFO could be obtained through Gray Barker at Saucerian
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Press,P.O.Box 2228,Clarksburg,West Virgina 26302. I tried writting
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to Barker at the time,but all my letters came back "return to
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sender". By the way,wanna buy some slightly used maps of the
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Phila.Navy Yard circa 1943? How bout some microfilm reprints of
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every Philly Daily from the 1940's?...Ah,,never mind.
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Anyway,I do have some info on Bender.The following is from the
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file MIBS_HST.ZIP,I have included only the text pertaining to Bender,but
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there is much more on the history of MIB's and it's worth reading.
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The origin of the Men in Black legend can be pin-pointed fairly
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exactly. Back in 1953 a man by the name of Albert K. Bender was
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runnong an organization called the International Flying Suacer
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Bureau (IFSB) and editing a little publication called "Space
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Review" that was dedicated to news of flying saucers.
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The IFSB had a small membership despite its rather grandoise title,
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and "Space Review" reached at best, no more than a few hundred
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readers. But they were all deeply devoted to the idea that flying
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saucers were craft from outer soace. In common with other ture
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believers, these saucer buffs were convinced that they were in
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possession of a great truth, while most of the rest of the world
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remained in darkness and ignorance. They felt very important , and
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thus it was with a sense of surprise, even shock, that they opened
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up the October 1953 issue of "Space Review" and found two
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unexpected announcments:
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"LATE BULLETIN. A source which the IFSB considers very reliable
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has informed us that the investigation of the flying soucer mystery
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and the solution is approaching its final stages."
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"This same source to whom we had referred data, which had come
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into our possession, suggested that it was not the proper method
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and time to publish the data in 'Space Review'."
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The second and more shocking item read:
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"STATEMENT OF IMPORTANCE: THe mystery of the flying saucers is
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no longer a mystery. The source is already known, but any
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information about this is being withheld by order from a higher
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source. We would like to print the full story in "Space REview",
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but because of the nature of the information we are very sorry that
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we have been advised in the negative."
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The statement ended with the ominous sentence, "We advice those
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engaged in saucer work to please be very cautious." Bender then
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suspended the publication of "Space Review", and disolved the
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IFSB.
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The tone of the announcemnets would have been familiar to anyone
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who had much experience with occult organizations. Occultists often
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claim they are in the possession of some great secret which, for
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equally secret reasons, they cannot reveal. Even the appeal,
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"please be very cautious" was not unique. It made those engaged in
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"saucer work" feel more important . After all, who is going to
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bother to persecute you if you are just wasting your time?
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SHortly after Bender closed down his magazine and organization he
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gave an interview to a local paper which he asserted the he had
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been visited by "three men wearing dark suits" who had order him
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"emphatically" to stop publishing material about flying saucers.
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Bender said that he had been "scared to death" and that he
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"acutally couldn't eat for a couple of days." Some of Bender's
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former associates tried to press for a more satisfactory
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explanation, but to all questions he replied either cryptically or
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not at all.
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This state of affairs created soncsiderable confusions amoung the
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flying saucer buffs. What were they to think about sucah a strange
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story> Some were openly skeptical of Bender's tale. They said that
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his publication and organization were losing money and the tale of
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the three visitors who "ordered" him to stop publishing was just a
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face-saving gesture. Yet, as the years went by the "three Men in
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Black" began to sound more rspectable and they took on a life of
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their own. Some' were Bender's friends first thought that the Men
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in Black were from Air Force or the CIA, and indeed Bender's
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original statments do seem to sound like government agents. But
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after a while the Men in Black begun to assume a more
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extraterrestrial, even supernatural air.
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Finally in 1963, a full decade after he first told of his
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mysterious visitors, Alber Bender elaborated further in a book
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called "Flying Sauvers adn the Three Men in Black." It was a
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strange, confused and virutally unreadable book that revealed very
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little in the way of hard facts, but did significantly enhance the
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reutation of the Men in Black as extraterrestrials. The book also
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introduced into the lore "three beautful women, dressed in tight
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white unigorms." Like thei r mail couterparts in black, the women
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in white had "glowing eys."
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Also see: "Flying Saucers on The Attack" Harold T. Wilkins Ace
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Books (C) 195? A good account of the Albert K. Bender incident
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including views towards the MIBs durring the era it all started.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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********************************************** |