Excerpts from “Mysteries of Time & Space” by Brad Steiger
Prenntice-Hall, 1974, ISBN 0-113-609040-0
In September, 1953 Albert K. Bender had figured out parts of the origin of flying saucers, and sent his theory off to a “trusted friend”. Soon thereafter three men dressed in black appeared, with his letter in hand. They told him ‘the real story’, and he became ill. Bender, apparently to “save mankind”, kept the details to himself and gave up UFO research. Parts of this story were retold in Gray Barker’s “They knew too much about flying saucers” (1956) [without the part of ‘revealed truth’], and said that several other people (in Australia and New Zealand) had also been visited. Bender decided to tell all in his 1962 “Flying Saucers and the Three Men”, which (Steiger says) was disappointing, in that it didn’t tell much (that anyone wanted to know, anyway). Alien bases in Antartica (which Bender saw by Astral Projection), and so on. However, others continued to stick to the MIB story, saying that Bender had in fact been silenced. “Bender was a changed man after the MIB visited him. It was as if he had been lobotomized.” He suffered headaches that he said were caused by ‘them’.
Steiger says that “large numbers” of UFO-ologists have been harassed by *somebody*. A number of them had had photographs and negatives of UFO’s confiscated by people claiming “government affiliation” – “usually three, usually dressed in black”. [BTW, if you ever get a visit from MIB, what they’re asking you to do is a violation of search and seizure laws.]
In an issue of “Saucer Scoop” John Keel is quoted as saying that MIB are professional terrorists who go from place to place making sure that too much isn’t found out about the UFO phenominon.
Keel says that MIB victims appear to be subjected to “some sort of brainwashing technique that leaves him in a state of nausea, mental confusion, or even amnesia lasting for several days”. Keel goes on to charge that local police/FBI/etc. must be in on it, because they refuse to investigate MIB.
Col. George Freeman (Blue Book) was quoted by Steiger as being quoted by Keel as saying that MIB cases were investigated by Blue Book, and that they weren’t connected to the Air Force in any way. Steiger goes on to detail how four bogus USAF officers told witnesses in NJ that they “hadn’t seen a thing” in 1967, and that they shouldn’t tell anyone what they saw.
… Steiger goes on to give sketchy details of several other MIB visitations (though several are of encounters with a single man, not three), claiming to be NORAD officers, from the “UFO Research Institute”, and “a government agency so secret he couldn’t give its name”. Also, telephone and mail harassment and messages from TV’s and radios are mentioned. The MIB know where you’re going, where you’ve been, and what you’ve been doing, and will tell you such things to convince you to be quiet.
A comment on clothing: I’ve seen various things about the material the MIB supposedly wear — its made of a plastic-like substance, a rubbery substance, and in Steiger’s book the material is described by “Major Joseph Jenkins, Retired, Field Investigations Director for the UFO Research Institute of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania” in 1968 as “reminding him of the quilted uniforms (by Korean/Chinese troops) in the Korean war”.
Continuing “Mysteries of Time and Space” (Sphere Books,paperback edition,published 1977 page 193.) Steiger writes: In 1956 Gray Barker told the Bender story-minus the detailed revalations the men in black (MIB) had given Bender about the UFO enigma in “They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers”. In the same volume he related that Edgar R Jarrold, organiser of the Australian Flying Saucer Bureau, Harold H Fulton, head of Civilian Saucer Investigation of New Zealand, and Ufologist John H Stuart, also a New Zealander, had received visits from mysterious strangers in black and had subsequently disbanded their organisations and their research.