Original subtitles

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.