NARRATOR: Wherever there are strange encounters...
they appear.
NICK POPE: These people see a UFO,
and suddenly these sinister counterintelligence officers
turn up.
NARRATOR: They question witnesses and demand silence.
STEVE EDMISTON: A man shows up dressed in a black suit
and white shirt. Gives a warning:
If you tell anybody about whatever it is that you saw,
bad things could happen to you or to your family.
NARRATOR: Who are the men in black?
NICK REDFERN: Men in black are without doubt
the most feared beings in ufology.
NARRATOR: Who do they work for?
KNUTE BERGER: Some people believe the men in black
weren't guys from the government.
NARRATOR: And what do they want?
POPE: Perhaps the men in black are the gatekeepers...
of the UFO secret.
NARRATOR: There is a doorway
in the universe.
Beyond it is the promise of truth.
It demands we question everything
we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is right before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
NARRATOR: Blackhawk helicopters descend upon
a government facility secluded on a mountaintop:
the U.S. National Solar Observatory.
Men dressed in black swarm in, seize material,
evacuate employees, and shut the site down.
The National Solar Observatory
is a U.S. government science project.
It has some sensors. They're pointed up in space;
it's looking at the sun, at other phenomenon, heavens.
RICHARD DOLAN: This is one of the most powerful
and, uh, professional solar observatories on the planet.
And it was shut off for the day.
There wasn't really a good explanation ever given
as to why this happened.
Did we discover a signal from outer space?
Did we see a spacecraft? Were we contacted?
DAVID CHILDRESS: Government investigators questioned all the witnesses,
gathered evidence, and they told people strongly
not to speak about this event.
So it would seem that these government investigators
were in fact the men in black.
But who are they, who do they work for?
NARRATOR: The men in black?
Government agents assigned to monitor
extraterrestrial activity?
Is it possible that this top secret police force
actually exists?
There's been a lot of speculation
as to who the men in black are.
It's altogether likely that they're part of
some shadowy government agency
who doesn't want reports out there.
The government was involved in a lot of efforts
to discredit and debunk the phenomena,
and to suppress the reporting of UFO incidents.
The men in black are without doubt
the most feared and sinister beings in ufology.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: The men in black have always been described
by eyewitnesses wearing these black suits
with the black, dark shades and black hats.
POPE: They call on the house of the witness;
they introduce themselves, usually as a G‐man.
The whole experience ends with the men in black saying,
"It is in your best interests to stay silent."
NARRATOR: While the idea of a real ET police force
may seem far‐fetched, encounters with the men in black
have been reported for more than seven decades.
And recently, new evidence has come to light
that may prove the agency's existence.
Author and ufologist Mike Bara
arrives at the island to investigate a UFO encounter
that occurred in 1947.
Known as the Maury Island incident,
it is the first case on record involving the men in black.
Mike is meeting near the site of the incident
with investigative filmmakers
Scott Schaefer and Steve EDMISTON,
who have secured recently declassified
government documents about the event.
The Maury Island incident was first reported
by local Harold Dahl, who worked as part
of an informal harbor patrol retrieving logs
that had floated free from nearby lumber mills.
When you talk about the Maury Island incident,
what exactly happened?
What did Harold Dahl exactly claim to have seen that day?
So June 21, 1947, Dahl was right off the island here
on a boat scavenging logs, that's what he did.
‐And around 2:00...
...six donut‐shaped discs came down.
If we go over here, we can show you where it happened.
BARA: So this is where this event actually took place
right through here.
SCHAEFER: Yes, out on the water, just up the shoreline here.
All right, so Mike, imagine you're out in your boat.
You got a crew of two people and your son and a dog.
‐Right. ‐And all of a sudden, you see six flying disks
come over your boat.
One of them appears to be in trouble. It's wobbling.
And all of a sudden, some chaff falls out of it,
and then seconds later, hot molten slag.
And it hits your boat,
kills your dog, injures your son.
EDMISTON: And they decide they've got to get off the water,
and there ain't no place to go except this beach,
where we're standing right now.
Okay.
NARRATOR: Harold Dahl escaped the rain of metal unharmed,
but he claimed that the most frightening aspect
of the incident occurred the next day...
when he was paid an unexpected visit
by a strange man.
A man shows up at Harold Dahl's house
and invites Harold Dahl to go to a diner
because he would like to talk to Harold
about what Harold saw on the water.
So he goes there, and basically intimidates Dahl, right?
He absolutely gives what we now believe
is that classic Man in Black warning.
‐BARA: Right. ‐If you tell anybody
about whatever it is that, you know,
you saw on the water yesterday,
bad things could happen to your or to your family.
We think it's the first man in black associated with
a UFO case...
‐Wow. ‐...in modern history.
NARRATOR: While Harold Dahl
was frightened by the visit from the man in black,
it didn't stop him from recounting his UFO sighting
to Chicago‐based Fate magazine publisher Ray Palmer,
who in turn hired a pilot named Kenneth Arnold
to investigate.
Arnold had become famous for his own reported UFO sighting,
when he claimed to have seen nine strange objects
flying above Mt. Rainier.
He enlisted the help of two U.S. Army Air Force officers
to investigate Dahl's claims:
Captain Lee Davidson
and First Lieutenant Frank Brown.
EDMISTON: They had actually come out,
conducted interviews at the Winthrop Hotel in Tacoma
of the witnesses,
and they were provided samples of this slag‐like material.
They left just after midnight on August 1, 1947.
They get on their B25 bomber,
made it about 45 minutes into the flight;
when the plane spontaneously caught fire, inexplicably.
The two pilots, the Army Intel officers,
Captain Davidson and Lieutenant Brown,
perished in the crash, along with the slag materials.
NARRATOR: A spontaneous fire?
Is it possible that the plane crash
that killed both investigators
and destroyed the evidence they had obtained
was not an accident?
After this incident,
Harold Dahl refused to talk about his UFO encounter,
and even went so far as to insist it was a hoax.
EDMISTON: You go online, it's a hoax.
But as we started to investigate,
and we stuck exclusively to actual government documents,
they began to tell a different story.
A story, not of a hoax,
but of a man who faced so much danger,
that he decided to invent a fabrication,
that he'd made it up.
NARRATOR: Under the Freedom of Information Act,
Schaefer and EDMISTON obtained formerly classified documents
that confirm an FBI investigation
into the Maury Island incident took place;
one that reached all the way to the top of the Bureau.
So here we are on August 14 of 1947,
and this is a teletype that was written by
‐J. Edgar Hoover himself. ‐BARA: Wow.
And he is confirming what he has been told by his deputy.
What he's been told is that it's a hoax,
because that theory had been injected into the media;
and three hours later,
there is another teletype from the field agent, Jack Wilcox.
He writes this teletype directly to Hoover.
Your conclusions are wrong.
Dahl was only going to say his story was a hoax,
only if questioned by authorities would he say that.
He did not want any further trouble.
So isn't that almost confirmation
that he's been receiving pressure
from these men in black?
NARRATOR: Despite the efforts of FBI Field Agent Jack Wilcox,
shortly after the exchange of these teletypes,
the FBI closed the Maury Island case.
But while producing their movie, Schaefer and EDMISTON
were approached by a man who claimed he could prove
Dahl's sighting was not a hoax.
Elmer Frombach Jr., who grew up on Maury Island,
had come down to these beaches,
was aware of the story in the mid‐1960s
and actually found a sample of the slag... in the trees.
Wow. You're kidding me.
No. So we were so excited when he came to us,
'cause we'd never met him, and we weren't soliciting that.
We can take you to the tree.
We can talk about it right there.
Okay. All right, great. Let's do that.
‐Let's go. ‐Do it.
SCHAEFER: Elmer told us that he found the piece of slag
embedded right in this nook right here.
In 1966, he was up here looking for firewood,
and he took out his Boy Scout knife and pried it right out.
Where is this piece of slag right now?
‐Where is it? ‐I just happen to have it in my pocket.
‐Right here.
So let's see if it fits.
‐It kind of does. ‐Oh, my.
Yeah, that's just wedged right in there.
It fits perfectly. So this is it?
‐SCHAEFER: That's it. ‐Wow.
So you're telling me I could be holding
‐a piece of metal from a UFO? ‐It's possible.
Okay, has this thing ever been tested by anybody?
EDMISTON: Elmer Fromback. He actually put it on loan
to this northwest Museum of the Mysteries,
and they're the custodians.
They have loaned it to us,
and we're actually working with the folks to see if we can
get permission to do that. Which would obviously
‐be very exciting. ‐Yeah.
BARA: I learned a lot from Steve and Scott today.
The fact that there's so much documentation
about the FBI interest in the case
I think is really over the top.
And the whole "men in black" phenomenon actually started here
with this case, and that makes it of historic importance.
NARRATOR: Curiously, the man in black that allegedly visited Harold Dahl
is not mentioned in any of the FBI documentation
that Schaefer and EDMISTON were able to obtain.
Could it be that the man in black,
like the others in his organization,
answers to another, even more secretive authority?
NARRATOR: In 2017,
the Washington State Senate passed a resolution
acknowledging the 70th anniversary
of the Maury Island incident.
We take a moment to recognize the impact
of the UFO phenomenon that swept our country
in the summer of 1947,
from Maury Island to Roswell, New Mexico.
I urge adoption of this resolution.
I also rise in support of this resolution.
In 1947, there were six UFOs sighted. Six.
It is not that it ended in 1947, Mr. President.
The incidents continue.
They continue.
The question before the senate is adoption of this resolution.
‐As many is in favor, please say aye. ‐MAJORITY: Aye.
‐As many is opposed, please say no. ‐MINORITY: No.
Resolution is adopted.
NARRATOR: While the Maury Island incident involved the first reference
to a figure resembling the notorious men in black,
some researchers believe they became an official
government organization five years later.
In 1952, The U.S. Air Force organized a highly specialized
and highly confidential unit called the 4602nd
Air Intelligence Service Squadron, or AISS.
An internal Air Force intelligence letter,
dated November 13, 1961...
the so‐called "Betz Memo"...
outlined the 4602nd's responsibilities to locate,
recover and deliver descended foreign space vehicles.
NYE: So these were top secret units
that all had a top secret mission.
And for a short period during the Cold War,
something existed called an Air Intelligence Service Squadron.
And these were units custom‐built
to go and recover Soviet technology.
Yes, they may well have got their hands on
the odd Soviet satellite and missile,
but the real mission was UFOs.
Their job was to go collect intelligence
from crashed plane or saucer sightings.
So they had a rapid response unit, and they were all tasked
with being able to get to a site
within a maximum of six hours that was in their territory.
DOLAN: The 4602nd were very, very capable men.
and over time, it is true,
they connected up with Project Blue Book,
and were involved in writing some UFO reports as well.
The 4602nd may literally be the real life men in black.
NARRATOR: In the exact same month that the 4602nd was formed,
the U.S. Air Force launched a new program to investigate
UFO reports: "Project Blue Book."
And it was the 4602nd that was assigned to conduct
Project Blue Book's investigations.
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek was the scientific advisor
and driving force behind Project Blue Book.
But according to his son, Paul Hynek,
it quickly became clear to his father that what the Air Force
really expected of him was less investigating
and more debunking.
The Air Force, their job was to find answers, not the truth.
So he was always at odds with his Air Force partners.
But over time he realized there was a phenomena here
that merited serious scientific study.
Project Blue Book was the third of the Air Force's projects,
after Project Sign and Project Grudge.
And Project Blue Book, especially after 1953
and the formation of the 4602nd Air Squadron,
was really more of a PR exercise
to tamp down public hysteria.
NYE: Project Blue Book studied over 12,000 reported UFO sightings,
and they were able to identify the aircraft
in all but 700 of these incidents.
NARRATOR: The CIA formed a scientific committee
called the Robertson Panel
to review the unsolved UFO cases.
The panel then issued a top secret recommendation
suggesting that the government systematically debunk
UFO sightings, claiming that reporting on UFOs
might cause "hysterical mass behavior."
Many researchers believe that the debunking campaign
was led by the same outfit that was heading up
Project Blue Book's investigations: the 4602nd.
The 4602nd had around 20 detachments throughout the U.S.
And their job was to go and collect intelligence
from crashed plane or saucer sightings.
A lot of people think that the men in black
come from the 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron.
And I think that's entirely likely, because
if you have this rapid deployment
of intelligence‐educated
paratrooping Air Force guys coming to get
as much information from a crash,
seems like part of their job duty would also be
to clamp down on the dissemination of that
potentially highly classified and valuable information.
SCHAEFER: Their job was to spread disinformation.
To seed amongst the public that if you saw a UFO,
you might be crazy.
Don't admit you saw something strange in the sky,
because your life will change from that moment on.
REDFERN: You can easily understand how people became terrified
by the men in black.
You see something crash to the ground,
you phone your local Air Force base.
You get a knock on the door, and there are these strange guys
who threaten you not to talk about these events again.
HYNEK: My father heard about men in black
from actual UFO witnesses who reported that after
they had made their, uh, experiences known,
they were then visited by what we call "men in black."
I'm not aware of my father having actual interactions
with the men in black, but he did feel their presence,
and he did speak about them.
NARRATOR: Project Blue Book
was officially terminated in 1969.
But many suspect the 4602nd continued to operate
in the shadows for years.
We're quite sure that from the late 1950s onward,
and through the 1980s and probably beyond the '80s,
although under a different name, this program existed.
CHILDRESS: This was totally classified for decades.
Then, in the '80s, people began getting documents.
And some of them clearly state that their mission
is to go and find UFO debris,
uh, evidence of crashed UFOs.
And yet, the Air Force continued to deny they investigate UFOs.
NARRATOR: Are the men in black a secret government agency
that is tasked with both investigating the UFO phenomena
and covering up that it is real?
But if so, what is the purpose of the coverup?
According to many who have encountered them,
the men in black are not only hiding the truth
about alien visitation,
but are protecting an even bigger secret.
World War II Air Force veteran Albert Bender establishes
one of America's first UFO organizations:
the International Flying Saucer Bureau.
The IFSB publishes a quarterly journal, Space Review,
to share stories of UFO sightings
with its 600 worldwide members.
But just one year after launching,
Bender claims he was visited by strange men in black suits
who threatened both his fledgling organization
and his life.
Albert Bender started to have doubts about
whether or not he should continue
doing his research, putting out his journal.
And there was a very good reason for this.
He'd actually been visited and threatened
by the men in black himself.
BIRNES: Albert K. Bender coined the term
"men in black" to describe the people who cautioned him
not to talk about UFOs,
not to talk about flying saucers,
and, above all, not to talk about extraterrestrials.
CHILDRESS: He became very frightened about
this encounter with these men in black
and he stopped publishing his newsletter.
And for a decade, it was a mystery
among UFO investigators what had happened to him.
NARRATOR: Although Bender would not speak publicly about it for years,
he would share some of his frightening experiences
with friend Gray Barker.
DOLAN: Gray Barker was a‐a researcher in West Virginia
who knew Albert Bender.
In fact, he had subscribed to Bender's journal
back at the time.
REDFERN: When Bender started to talk about
these strange, mysterious men in black,
Barker realized, "Wow, this is a really cool,
intriguing, sinister story."
Bender reluctantly gave some of the data to Barker,
and it was enough to allow Barker to write his 1956 book,
They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers.
NARRATOR: Gray Barker's They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers
introduced the men in black
to a wide audience for the first time.
In the book,
Barker described a visit he himself received
from an FBI agent questioning him
about the International Flying Saucer Bureau
and wondered if the agent might also have been
one of the men in black.
REDFERN: At that particular time, the FBI were watching Gray Barker.
J. Edgar Hoover actually ordered
one of his personnel to go out and purchase a copy
of Gray Barker's They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers.
SCHAEFER: Hoover was personally interested.
We have a binder full of FBI memos,
memos from Hoover to his field agents
discussing flying disc investigations.
And we think that he was, you know,
kind of obsessed with the men in black.
BARA: J. Edgar Hoover wanted to actually know
who these men in black were,
which strongly indicates they weren't FBI.
They must've come from
some other intelligence agency, some other U.S. military agency,
or they came from somewhere else entirely.
NARRATOR: If J. Edgar Hoover was trying to gather information
on the men in black,
could that indicate that they are not affiliated
with either the FBI
or the 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron?
In 1962,
nine years after his first terrifying encounter,
Albert Bender came out of hiding
to write his own book, Flying Saucers and the Three Men,
in which he made a controversial revelation
about the men in black's true identities.
REDFERN: He said late one night, when he was working in his office,
Bender started to suddenly feel ill and sick, he felt dizzy,
and he had to lay down,
and as he did so, he saw these three
shadowy, fedora‐wearing figures
literally materialize through the walls.
They were dressed in black suits,
and they had these shining eyes.
BERGER: Bender said that the men in black
had communicated with him telepathically.
He felt that they were aliens.
And so it became another mystery,
a mystery within a mystery is,
who are the men in black?
What is the secret?
What is the answer, if there is a single answer?
BARA: After Bender's encounter, people began to wonder
if maybe the men in black were actually extraterrestrials
that were trying to suppress the revelation
of the alien presence on the planet Earth.
After 1962,
Bender actually quit ufology.
This was not some sort of publicity stunt at all.
He just walked away from the subject, never came back.
And a lot of people believe the men in black visited him again
and threatened him.
NARRATOR: Did Albert Bender's encounter
reveal the truth about the men in black,
that they are, in fact,
extraterrestrials disguised as humans?
Perhaps further clues can be found by examining
a curious connection between the men in black
and what some believe is an otherworldly entity,
the legendary monster known as the Mothman.
NARRATOR: Throughout the 1950s and '60s,
there were numerous reports of encounters
with the men in black.
The most notorious was connected,
not to a sighting of a UFO,
but a monster.
On November 15, 1966,
in Point Pleasant, West Virginia,
two young couples were driving down
a dark road outside of town.
As they passed by an old building, they were startled
by a frightening sight.
They claimed to have‐have seen a large, uh, winged creature,
six to seven foot tall,
gray in color, and two large red eyes.
They said this creature flew over their car
and followed them back into town.
That was the beginning of the Mothman sightings.
NARRATOR: The young couples' harrowing account
was picked up by the local press and incited panic across town.
The legend of the Mothman was born,
and dozens of encounters with the winged monster
would be reported over the next year.
There were over a hundred reported sightings
to the local authorities.
You had some people who, you know, claimed
to have seen it while driving in their car, you had, uh,
other people seeing it in their front yard.
NARRATOR: For the people of Point Pleasant,
the mystery of the Mothman persists to this day.
Where did this monster some from?
Why did it suddenly appear in this small town?
And perhaps most curious of all,
why were the first Mothman sightings
followed by a visit from the men in black?
BARA: Some people think he was a being from another world.
The supporting evidence of that is the fact that
multiple witnesses who saw the Mothman
were actually intimidated
by what can now be described as men in black.
Men in black, typically, are only associated with UFO cases.
People described them as looking like cadavers.
They looked like pale‐faced zombies
dressed in black suits with black fedoras.
DOLAN: I interviewed Mothman witnesses
who did have men in black experiences.
This was 40 years after the fact at the time,
and they were still
clearly traumatized by the event.
I had no reason to disbelieve these people, none whatsoever.
NARRATOR: One resident who claimed to have been visited by the men in black
was Mary Hyre, a local journalist
who reported on the Mothman sightings
for the Point Pleasant Register and the Athens Messenger.
REDFERN: Mary Hyre was just
a normal, legitimate journalist
investigating your average stories around town,
and then she was suddenly plunged
into this issue involving the Mothman.
NARRATOR: Mary Hyre had begun investigating
the mysterious incidents in and around Point Pleasant
with a New York based UFO researcher named John Keel.
REDFERN: John Keel heard about the Mothman story
and decided, "I'm gonna go up there,
I'm gonna see what's going on," and when he did so,
he hooked up with Mary Hyre, and the two of them
sort of became like the Mulder and Scully of that era
and secured a great deal of information,
interviewed a lot of people.
NARRATOR: These investigations would eventually lead
to the popular book, and later Hollywood film,
The Mothman Prophecies.
But not everyone was pleased with the information
Mary Hyre and John Keel were gleaning from the public
about the Mothman.
Mary Hyre was visited by men in black,
eh, who told her to stop writing
about the Mothman and all these strange encounters.
Stop writing about this.
You don't want to be involved in this.
This is a classic example of the men in black
not just terrorizing and threatening UFO witnesses,
but also journalists, as well.
NARRATOR: Was this just one more case of the men in black
attempting to cover up a potential alien encounter?
Or might the fact that numerous witnesses
reported being visited, and threatened,
by these mysterious characters indicate
that they were protecting an even bigger secret?
Eight miles north of Point Pleasant
is the McClintic Wildlife Management Area,
a 3,600‐acre wilderness
known to locals as "the TNT area."
This former World War II military installation
is believed by many
to be the home of the Mothman.
The reason it's called "the TNT area" is because
they manufactured explosives and TNT for the war effort.
When the war ended in 1945,
the government basically just deserted that area there.
That's where the first Mothman sighting took place.
And then you had some people who, you know,
claimed to have seen it in the TNT area,
near some of the vacant buildings.
NARRATOR: Within days of the first Mothman sighting in 1966,
residents of Point Pleasant were surprised
by another unexpected visitor at the TNT area:
the U.S. military.
According to reports from locals,
they had barricaded the site
and swiftly turned away anyone who approached it.
While no explanation
was ever given for the military's sudden arrival,
some researchers suggest that it could provide a clue
as to the truth behind the men in black.
There are a lot of people who think
the men in black are government agents.
There are an equal number of people in the UFO community
who believe that they are actually extraterrestrials.
The fact is, we really don't know
who or what the men in black are.
And in fact, some of the aliens may be
impersonating government agents to intimidate witnesses.
NARRATOR: Could it be that those who believe
the men in black are government agents
and those who believe they are from another world
are both right?
But if so, are extraterrestrials impersonating the men in black,
or are aliens and government agents
actually working together?
Perhaps further clues can be found
by examining another mystery associated
with these shadowy characters: black helicopters.
NARRATOR: Seven‐year‐old Colby Landrum
is with his grandmother and her friend
driving along a desolate two‐lane road
when they have a life‐changing experience.
Betty Cash, my grandmother, Vicky Landrum and myself
headed back home towards Dayton.
It was real late at night. Nobody else on the road.
And, uh, we encountered a bright light.
It actually looked just like a big glowing ball of flame.
It was probably about the size of a water tower.
100 foot across, 100 foot tall, but in a diamond shape.
It was, uh, surrounded
by 23 Chinook double‐rotor helicopters.
To me, it looked like it was being escorted
by the helicopters.
In my belief, the government definitely knew about it.
There's no way that something
of that size is gonna have 23 Chinook helicopters.
They were in, like, escort mode.
They were definitely transporting it.
NARRATOR: For UFO researchers, the presence of helicopters
is one aspect of the Cash‐Landrum incident
that makes it particularly intriguing.
Since the 1970s, encounters with the men in black have often
been connected to reports of unmarked black helicopters.
A black helicopter, which has now also become legend,
is a helicopter that doesn't have insignia markings on it.
It's stealthy, it's simply painted black
and it has come to be known
as the vehicle of choice for the men in black.
One of the most baffling aspects of the men in black mystery
is how quickly they seem to arrive on the doorsteps
of people who've had recent UFO encounters.
Now, if the men in black are actually flying around
in black helicopters, well, a helicopter would be
the perfect tool, if you like, to get from town to town
and threaten people very, very quickly.
BARA: Black helicopters can be very intimidating.
They've been seen by multiple credible witnesses at one time.
Maybe the men in black
and the black helicopters are actually associated.
Maybe it's "men in black helicopters."
NARRATOR: Could the helicopters witnessed during the Cash‐Landrum incident
have been piloted by the men in black on an emergency dispatch
to follow and retrieve an alien spacecraft?
Many people think it could possibly have been some kind
of an antigravity device that our government was building,
and it was being tested.
Others think it might have been a‐an extraterrestrial craft
that got in trouble
and came into our atmosphere and into our presence
and was being followed by these military helicopters.
NARRATOR: According to Colby Landrum,
whatever it was that they witnessed that night
seemed to be emitting dangerous levels of radiation.
LANDRUM: Betty stopped the car.
You could feel the heat off of it. The heat was very intense.
There was an imprint
from my grandmother's hand on the actual dash.
It was hot enough, for when she grabbed
the dash when we stopped...
I mean, it was an indention of where her hand was sitting.
NARRATOR: Following the incident, all three witnesses were examined
at a NASA‐run laboratory for radiation exposure.
JoAnne Donaldson was a member of the NASA medical team
that conducted the examination.
JOANN DONALDSON: Our role was to make sure
all of the readings, uh, were recorded
correctly and accurately,
and that everything was documented accordingly
to the established protocols for doing a radiation testing.
They did get radiation exposure, and I fully believe
that their story was absolutely true.
There was no fabrication in that experience.
LANDRUM: I got nauseous and sick.
It probably lasted two or three days with me.
My grandmother, she had the same symptoms,
but she also had blisters on her skin.
They would bust open and she'd have sores
for several years after that.
Betty Cash suffered the most severe part of it.
She was out of the car the longest.
According to the doctors, she had the most exposure to it.
HARZAN: The Mutual UFO Network, also known as MUFON,
investigated the Cash‐Landrum case,
and radiation exposure was verified by a radiologist later
and put into their public record.
What was rare about this incident is it's one
of the very few that resulted in court proceedings,
because Cash and Landrum actually sued the Air Force
for their injuries.
LANDRUM: The lawsuit was against the federal government.
Uh, it was thrown out.
They just said that it was not government‐affiliated.
NARRATOR: Could the Cash‐Landrum incident
and the connection between the men in black
and black helicopters provide evidence
that the U.S. government is, in fact,
working alongside extraterrestrials?
Is this the secret that the men in black
are so vigilantly defending?
Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,
and suggest that their ability to hide the truth
is due to a powerful and disturbing technology.
NARRATOR: 70 years on from the Maury Island incident
and the first known men in black sighting,
the mysterious figures continue
to capture the public's imagination.
We're still fascinated with all the stuff
that this unleashed in 1947.
And it's amazing, the kind of life it's taken on.
Especially, you know, when you trace it back to kind of
a single incident, and then track it
through these other experiences and the connecting of dots,
that it's kind of, you know, gained a momentum.
BARA: You know the men in black have gone from these
very scary, intimidating, possibly
ghost‐like extraterrestrial beings
to this cultural phenomenon.
TSOUKALOS: I think the world of entertainment,
especially Hollywood movies like Men in Black
are part of disclosure, because those movies are preparing us
for the fact that we are not alone in the universe.
NARRATOR: While real‐world accounts paint
a much different picture than what has been portrayed
in the movies,
both describe a technology that may explain how the men in black
have been able to operate in the shadows for so long.
CHILDRESS: With the Men in Black movies,
they are using this special device called the neuralyzer.
When this device is activated on you, the subject,
you will not have any memory of what happened before.
And they plant new ideas in your head.
"Oh, this is what you just saw."
And yet there seems to be some device like this.
It's mentioned in men in black books
that there's a device called the RHIC EDOM device:
"radio hypnotic intracerebral control" dash EDOM,
"electronic dissolution of memory."
BARA: What if you really can wipe somebody's memory
with just a little flash of a device
and make them forget very, very specific things?
Maybe they're around us all the time.
Maybe what we think we know about UFOs and aliens
is actually a deliberately manipulated,
consciousness‐raising timeline
that's been controlled by men in black all along.
POPE: UFO sightings haven't stopped.
Quite the opposite.
So if UFO sightings are still going on,
there's no reason to suppose that men in black
aren't still going around speaking to witnesses.
And if they're successful in their mission,
we don't get to hear about it.
It's quite possible that the men in black are still operating,
still intimidating witnesses
and still being the gatekeepers of the UFO secret.
NARRATOR: Could there be an alien presence on planet Earth
that is far more widespread than we have ever imagined?
Are the men in black working to keep humanity in the dark?
And if so, when the truth finally comes to light,
will it be forever wiped from our memories?
Perhaps it has already happened.