All language subtitles for 4 Real Men in Black

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...
‐(barking)

...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.

‐(laughter)
‐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.

(chuckles) 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.

(high‐pitched whirring)

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.

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