The Ufo Silencers: Mystery of the Men in Black (8 page)

Later, when Smyth spoke to Gray Barker by telephone, he learned that neither Barker nor any of the staff had disclosed any of the information to anybody!

Our House is Watched

During the last week of May the strange series of events seemed to be drawing closer home, when my wife, Mary, mentioned during a supper conversation that she had noticed some odd people near the house each morning as she went marketing.

A large black car was parked near our front door and a statue-like, tall, corpse-white man with very light hair was always standing beside it. The car, she told me, had bright red upholstery. The tall man, however, had not caused her any alarm. But a dark, swarthy-faced man in a dark or black suit had looked piercingly at her as she emerged from the outer door, and then had peered into the vestibule, as if to determine if anyone else were coming out. Since this had occurred on four successive days, it was getting on her nerves. She had hesitated to mention it, she told me, for fear I would think she was "imagining things," and assured me that she actually had seen the men.

I pondered on this, for I knew that when I left work at
8:00
each morning, I had seen nobody on the street. Whoever the men were, they were avoiding me and showing up half an hour later, when

Mary went shopping. Why did they not try to frighten me, for I had been involved with the Saucer News investigation of the experiences of Smyth, and other strange events?

Suddenly I remembered that James W. Moseley's name was on my mail box. He did this so that he could receive mail from certain confidential sources at our address—and then he often stayed for several days at a time at our house when engaged on research projects which involved much reading and concentration (thus he would avoid telephone calls and the many personal visits by friends and people interested in interviewing him).

Could it be that the visitors were checking up on Jim and were relatively disinterested in Mary and me?

I immediately phoned Jim and told him about the men, though noises on the line led me to believe the line was being tapped. Jim told me to instruct Mary to secure the license number of the car, should she see it again, and suggested I familiarize her with the Cadillac emblem so that she might recognize it. (Both Jim and I knew that most of the men-in-black reports included a large car, usually a Cadillac.)

The phone call evidently set off another series of happenings which are difficult—or impossible—for me to evaluate.

Next morning when Mary went to shop, nobody stood at the factory entrance as usual; nor did a large black car with a pale-faced individual occupy its usual position. However, as she returned home, she noticed Jim Moseley standing in the middle of the nearby street acting almost, it seemed, like a traffic policeman! She stood and watched him for perhaps three to four minutes, while he turned and looked in all directions, apparently without noticing or recognizing her. Mary had the impression that he was attempting to see what would happen if he exposed himself, and that he evidently did not wish her to approach him. So she entered the house. She gave it little further thought, except for thinking that it was a very early hour for Jim, who usually arose about noon, to be in Jersey City (Jim at that time lived in Manhattan and the trip to Jersey City would have consumed about 45 minutes).

A grocery item she had forgotten to purchase made it necessary for her to return to the market, so she went out again. Jim was still standing in the same position, still looking in all directions and not appearing to notice her. She observed that while he was dressed in the usual business suit, he was also wearing the gray topcoat he had worn the past winter. She knew that I had gone to work dressed only in a business suit, and that I had remarked how warm the morning was. In fact, the topcoat was the only circumstance which really struck her as odd about his being at the intersection.

She went to the store, and when she returned, she again stood and watched Jim at his "station." Then she entered the house and proceeded to clear the breakfast table, with the thought that Jim probably would ring the bell, have a cup of coffee and a chat before he returned to
New York
. She also again wondered how Jim had managed to get up so early—for he liked to do his UFO research late at night, and into the early morning hours, away from the pressures of his office and the many telephone calls.

In about ten minutes the phone rang and it was Jim on the line. He explained he was still in bed, but has awakened and was wondering about the "MIB" situation. He had an impulse to call her briefly before going back to sleep. He asked her if she had looked outside yet to see if the men were still there.

Without explanation, she asked Jim to hold the phone. Then she ran outside (our windows do not overlook the street). Jim or the man who had looked exactly like him, was no longer there, and, for the first time, this was very upsetting to my wife. She wondered if she were "imagining things," due to her worrying about the visitors. She ran back into the house, and tried to explain what she had seen to Jim; though by that time she had become quite shaken.

Although he couldn't quite understand just what she had seen, Jim advised her either to stay in the house, or dash over to her neighbor's house and stay with her until I returned that evening.

When I returned I found a very frightened wife, who by that time had regained her composure and was able to give me all the details in a coherent manner.

I called Jim, and although I kidded him about Mary's seeing his doppelganger, I secretly wished that I were able to get my hands on the impersonator. Later that Night I called Gray Barker and gave him all the details, and he tended to connect it with the Smyth report of the impersonations described above.

Days passed without further incident. Mary, however, had begun to leave the house the same time as I did on weekdays, and would visit various neighbors while I was away. On Saturday, May 18, Jim called to make arrangements for Timothy Green Beckley and himself to visit us and make copies of some of my many tape recordings. It was agreed that they would arrive early (for Jim), at
ten o'clock
the next morning.

As they approached my house, they observed a black Cadillac parked in front of the closed factory next door. They decided not to stop, but to drive around the block and make some passes in front of the house, to observe and take pictures (Jim had thoughtfully brought his camera). They also noted the swarthy man Mary had described, standing in the factory entrance. They managed to make only two passes and to secure the two pictures accompanying this article, before the man evidently fled; on the third circuit of the house both he and the Cadillac were gone.

Mary had identified the man in the photograph as the same person who had looked at her so piercingly on those five mornings.

At this writing (July 1st), there has been no repetition of any of the visitations. Yet, on June 11, George Smyth had called me with a report which seemed to tie in with Mary's experiences.

He asked me what I thought Jim had been doing in
Elizabeth
that morning, and I replied that he had not been there, for I had just talked to him at his apartment, having awakened him in order to get a telephone number which I urgently needed.

Smyth then related what had occurred. He had been on the bus, going to work as usual, and had observed Jim standing in front of the Carteret Hotel in
Elizabeth
, as he passed there on his usual route. Jim, he said, had smiled and waved at him. Smyth stated that Jim had worn a gray suit, with striped tie and white shirt (Moseley’s favorite mode of dress). The only relevant information concerned a trench coat "Jim" carried on his arm, which Smyth described. Jim has never worn that type of coat, to my knowledge.

A day or two after the incident, Smyth began to hear from acquaintances who told him they had been questioned by a very tall, gray-haired man, who also made inquiries about him. All but one of the people had asked the man for identification, whereupon he departed abruptly without further questioning. Those questions by the tall stranger had one thing in common: all were employees or owners of the various eating places Smyth frequented near his place of work. Only one person, the operator of a hot dog stand, had spoken at length with the person. Apparently the tall man already possessed a great deal of information about Smyth (although the stand operator knew much about Smyth, it seemed he was unable to supply the man with anything he did not already know!).

During the early evening of June 15, Smyth's phone rang and a "cultured voice," as he described it, advised him to stop all saucer research and to discontinue any connections with Barker, Moseley,
Beckley
, Keel and myself. Further, he should not

attend the forthcoming Congress of Scientific Ufologists (later National UFO Conference) in
Cleveland
. If he did not comply with the requests, he would deeply regret it, the voice warned.

Since Smyth does not know
Beckley
, nor exchange information with him, and since he did not plan to attend the Congress, his caller was evidently partially misinformed.

On the 18th Smyth called to tell me had had been unable to go to work that day, due to a particularly upsetting occurrence. Early in the morning, as he was preparing to leave and catch his bus, his dog had begun howling like a wolf while it looked out the window. Smyth went to the window and looked out. On the other side of the street was a large black car, with one man in the driver's seat, and two people in the rear, both of which were attending some kind of electronic equipment. One of the men apparently wore earphones, while the other raised a contraption which he described as "a crystalline wheel," with a two to three foot rod extending from it. The wheel began to glow with a yellow light; then the light suddenly concentrated into a yellow beam, which shot out, striking Smyth in the forehead, as he felt a blast of heat. Before he blacked out, he was able to note the license plate on the car. It resembled a U.S. Government plate, and bore the identification, "U 1436." The car quickly left after the ray struck Smyth. When he recovered consciousness, he was suffering a splitting headache. The headache persisted throughout the day and two more "blackouts" occurred.

They Have Been in
Cleveland
,
Ohio

During the Cleveland Congress, a rather odd incident occurred in the luncheon room of the Wild Boar Inn, a part of the Sheraton Airport Motor Inn, where most of the attending delegates were lodged. On the afternoon preceding the Open Session, a group of delegates met to have lunch prior to departure for the
Valley Forge
High School
auditorium where the public lectures would take place.

The tables, each seating four, were occupied by the elite of the Congress, such as Captain Robert Loftin, Moseley,
Beckley
, Ralph Fanning, Gene Duplantier, and Allen H. Greenfield. Mary and I, along with Barker and Roseanne Maruca (a bibliographer, interested in Ufology, who has just completed cataloging the huge UFO publication collection of Moseley—and is trying to track down the many items which recently have disappeared).

Mary suddenly glanced toward a table, directly behind me, and near the door of the
Inn
. In a voice, which suddenly had been raised, and which startled all of us, she exclaimed, "Concentrate, everybody, we are being watched. Quiet everybody! We are under surveillance!"

Barker looked up from his late breakfast to determine what was causing Mary's concern. He said nothing, but just stared past me. As quickly as propriety allowed, I managed to turn my chair and my head to look in that direction. I saw the backs of two male figures, leaving the room in a most precipitate manner.

Mary, who had observed the men for some minutes before speaking out, and then, in her fright, had cried out rather loudly, told us that a very pale, blue-eyed man, with silver-colored hair, had been staring at Barker from an uncluttered table near the entrance of the room. He had been dressed in a black turtle-necked sweater, and had been accompanied by another man, in a black suit, and who wore large sunglasses. The latter had not been looking at our group; but when Mary made her exclamation, he appeared to be startled, quickly arose, and beckoned for the silver-haired man to follow him.

And that is just about all of it. Barker did call me, immediately after he had returned home from the Congress, noting that he had been unable to evade the constant "tailing" of a car driven by a dark-clothed priest, which followed him most of the way home from Cleveland.

'Doppelganger is a German word describing the exact double of an individual. It is not so much associated with the etheric or astral body as it is a kind of physical double. Although this phenomenon is said to occur rarely, it is firmly implanted in occult tradition. I personally feel this case involved an impersonator, carefully made up to resemble Jim, with the rather glaring mistake of wearing a topcoat in summer.

Much evidence points to Moseley having a double, or that a person of the
New York
area looks very much like him. When I appeared with him on the Long John Nebel "Versus" show early in the spring of that year, John chided Jim for not speaking to him when he encountered him in a passing taxi cab. He told Jim he had rolled down the window and spoken to him, and that he (Jim) had looked him directly in the eye, but had apparently not recognized him at all. Jim had been on various Long John radio shows many, many times, and surely would recognize John. Jim told John he had no memory of the encounter, and apologized for not speaking—though he could not possibly imagine how he could fail to recognize the famous radio personality.

'Smyth's dog behaved similarly to "Bandit," the dog belonging to Newell Partridge, of West Virginia, who complained the animal might have been kidnapped by "Mothman," in November, 1966. He said the dog "howled like a wolf' prior to his seeing two glowing eyes near his barn. Men in black were also connected with the Mothman sightings. Readers may also remember that Albert K. Bender, who first publicized the three men, suffered painful headaches (see Flying Saucers and the Three Men, published by Paperback Library, Inc.).

The Problem of Unidentified Flying Objects

There has been a new theory advanced to explain—and not explain away—the more mysterious elements and behavior patterns of the flying saucers. Much of the speculation on this theory came from Allen Greenfield, of
Atlanta
,
Georgia
, one of the principal proponents of the "Alternate Reality" theory. When first advanced in the 1960s, the theory caused a spark of speculation among many saucer researchers as to the actual origin of many of the objects reportedly observed.

Although now retired from UFO research,
Greenfield
met with us in the days of his heavy UFO involvement. On one such occasion, we sat him down to sound him out on his theory.

Our first question was an expected one: "What actually is the Alternate Reality Theory?"

"Maybe it's just another theory, like so many others: hoaxes; psychological solutions; natural phenomena; spaceships, 4-D or whatever. But I think we just may have hit upon something of significance—as I suspect my colleagues in this theory will agree." Mr. Greenfield went on to explain that if his theory turns out to be valid, we are dealing with "awesome implications which are really tremendous. It will alter our entire concept of human history. Indeed, it may well alter our very way of living."

Greenfield
continued by making the following six points:

1.  The UFO phenomena and other "border" phenomena seem to be, at least in some cases, linked.

2.   Many of the accounts of contact or near-contact seem to be

true to the extent that they are reasonably accurate subjective accounts of actual experiences of one kind or another. However, there are indications that these experiences, while accurate so far as the witness is concerned, and while having objective external stimuli, are viewed within the context of the observer's own background experience. Also, there is the distinct possibility that some amount of willful deception may be involved on the part of the UFOnauts.

3.   The concept of "they walk among us" is not only not "farfetched," but is probably quite true. This may serve to explain a number of baffling cases that have shown up over the years.

4.   We seem to be dealing with groups of entities with more than one purpose. In other words, some saucers may well be hostile, some unconcerned, some friendly in one sense or another.

5.   The work of such persons as Tom Cornelia (Peter Kor), the late Ray Palmer, Steve Erdmann, Jerome Clark, Paul Thomas and others are particularly important to understanding this theory.

6.   Other works, outside the direct usual UFO sphere, are also relevant.

Greenfield
then pointed out that the Fall, 1966 issue of Saucer News, edited by James W. Moseley, had an article which should be of interest to anyone engaged in "AR" studies. The article, "Perspective: Flying Saucers—Physical or Psychic." is by Peter Kor. In this article, Kor poses three possible frameworks of explanation for the saucer phenomena: 1. Psychic; 2. Conventionally Physical; 3. Substratic (intangible).

"Each of these frameworks has unique consequences," Kor points out, "which can be tested by fundamental trends in the saucer evidence. Which one do you think best fits the history and facts of the flying saucer saga?"

While the degree of
Greenfield
's agreement with Kor's alternatives is "tenuous" (in his own words), he did find much of what Kor had to say of interest. "Here we apparently have a new term introduced to the field: substratic. Let's not make a mistake, 'substratic' is not the same as 'alternate realities.' It seems to mean a UFO phenomenon that is inherently tangible. It would be interesting to hear how, within this framework, Mr. Kor accounts for cases of physical evidence."

At about the time interest in
Greenfield
's comments on the AR theory had attracted a number of "inner circle" researchers in the
New York
area, who had gathered mainly for the purpose of discussing plans for the 1967 Congress of Scientific Ufologists. Mr. Greenfield continued by stating that "Another article can be gleaned from the July- August, 1966 issue of the outstanding British journal, Flying Saucer Review. The article by Jerome Clark, 'The Strange Case of the 1897 Airship' poses a very basic question about the nature of UFO and contact accounts: Are they accurate to the extent that the witnesses are reporting what they have seen within the witnesses' own ecological framework? If the answer is affirmative, the implications are quite vast.

The following series of informal questions concern, generally, the "AR" theory, and were asked of Mr. Greenfield over the course of many deep conversations on the subject.

In relation to the so-called "interplanetary" theory of saucers, what does the AR theory have to offer:

"As you know there are inconsistencies in the interplanetary theory, that is, in relation to the evidence. The AR theory does not rule out the possibility of interplanetary visitations, but rather says that this may be only a part of the explanation for the phenomena observed. Pure physical phenomena might explain some of the evidence submitted, but there is a large body of evidence that it does not explain. Similarly, a wholly non-physical phenomenon would not explain all the evidence. The AR theory seeks to coordinate all the evidence into a single coherent pattern."

How then, Mr. Greenfield, does the AR theory account for saucers, per set

"At this point, a theory does not offer a definite reason for UFOs. There does not seem to be the idea that they are vehicles of a sort, though their exact nature and reason for existence is unsure. There is also the matter of the sub-theory of seeing the phenomenon as a manifestation of the viewer's own background experience, that is as subjective viewing of an objective stimulus, the exact nature of which is currently unknown."

Does the AR theory account for mysterious disappearances?

"Yes, if one accepts the idea that reality is not fixed (at least not fixed in our present understanding of reality), it is not difficult to understand how persons or objects might be caught in some sort of reality warp and enter or leave a given state of reality. This would serve to explain many legends and Fortean phenomena as well."

In relation to the above answer we pointed out to Mr. Greenfield that many sightings are made by more than one person, each of at least a slightly different background, yet their descriptions normally coincide to a large extent. His reply was well thought out.