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Ils en savaient trop sur les soucoupes volantes
En 1953, l'International Flying Saucer Bureau cesse toute activité. Son fondateur déclare que le mystère relatif aux ovnis a été résolu ! Peu après, nombre d'ufologues arrêtent leurs recherches... A chaque fois, ils ont reçu la visite préalable d'hommes au comportement étrange, tout de noir vêtus...
Ainsi naît la légende des Men In Black. Qui sont ces hommes qui, après chaque apparition d'ovnis, rendent visite aux témoins ? Des extraterrestres ou des agents gouvernementaux chargés d'étouffer les affaires ? Gray Barker mène l'enquête...
Ainsi naît la légende des Men In Black. Qui sont ces hommes qui, après chaque apparition d'ovnis, rendent visite aux témoins ? Des extraterrestres ou des agents gouvernementaux chargés d'étouffer les affaires ? Gray Barker mène l'enquête...
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
21 people are currently reading
423 people want to read
About the author
Gray Barker
157 books19 followersAmerican writer best known for his books about UFOs and other paranormal phenomena.
His 1956 book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers introduced the notion of the Men in Black to UFO folklore.
His 1956 book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers introduced the notion of the Men in Black to UFO folklore.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 12, 2015
As ever, my old friend Mike Miley visited during the summer of 2002, the two of us heading off for the cabin near Lake Michigan with a suitcase full of his books, most of them about UFOs and brought all the way from San Francisco. As ever, between psychonautical and nature adventures, I read as many as I could during his stay.
Barker is one of my favorite UFO writers along with John Keel. Both of them, compared, say, to Hynek or Stanton Friedman, play rather loose with the documented facts, but both are better-than-average writers and very good storytellers.
The Men in Black thing really stirred the unconscious. At a later date I was up at the cabin by myself, alone in the woods. I'd been at brother Fin's down in Sawyer, MI earlier for dinner, then had bicycled back in the dark, first north along the Red Arrow Highway, then west down Livingston Road to the private warren of drives leading to the path along the ridge to our isolated roadless cottage. I'd picked up a 40 ounce Blatz, maybe two, at the truck stop by the Bridgman exit of I94 on the way and had gotten well into it while reading a book under the golden glow of a not-too-bright lamp on the enclosed porch. Nature called. I went out the kitchen door to the steep hillside where we toss organic refuse, the light shining dimly behind me, the sounds of the night all about. Then, in the midst of the act, I had a sudden vision of a man in a black business suit coming up to me, briefcase in hand, out of the dark wood, addressing me as if I weren't urinating, as if we were meeting on a public thoroughfare in broad daylight. I'm rarely scared of the night, but the enactment of this little fantasy got me into the house in a flash to turn on more lights.
Thanks Gray!
Barker is one of my favorite UFO writers along with John Keel. Both of them, compared, say, to Hynek or Stanton Friedman, play rather loose with the documented facts, but both are better-than-average writers and very good storytellers.
The Men in Black thing really stirred the unconscious. At a later date I was up at the cabin by myself, alone in the woods. I'd been at brother Fin's down in Sawyer, MI earlier for dinner, then had bicycled back in the dark, first north along the Red Arrow Highway, then west down Livingston Road to the private warren of drives leading to the path along the ridge to our isolated roadless cottage. I'd picked up a 40 ounce Blatz, maybe two, at the truck stop by the Bridgman exit of I94 on the way and had gotten well into it while reading a book under the golden glow of a not-too-bright lamp on the enclosed porch. Nature called. I went out the kitchen door to the steep hillside where we toss organic refuse, the light shining dimly behind me, the sounds of the night all about. Then, in the midst of the act, I had a sudden vision of a man in a black business suit coming up to me, briefcase in hand, out of the dark wood, addressing me as if I weren't urinating, as if we were meeting on a public thoroughfare in broad daylight. I'm rarely scared of the night, but the enactment of this little fantasy got me into the house in a flash to turn on more lights.
Thanks Gray!
March 23, 2015
I was fascinated to learn there were several different civilian research bureaus conducting flying saucer research. Barker introduces the reader to several civilian research bureaus: IFSB; CSI; AFSB. These research bureaus were located in Bridgeport, Connecticut, New Zealand and Austailia.. Most of the research was compiled during the 1950s. Barker introduces the reader to Robert S. Shaver who first published his stories as fiction in "Amazing Stories" as he made a compelling story of two distinct peoples living in underground caverns and whom are at war with each other. Most of Barker's work was published in "The Saucerian," a science fiction publication on determining whether or not flying saucers are real. The reader is also introduced to Hugh A. Brown, and engineer who began his research on Antarctica and the magnetic polar shift due to the excessive build up of ice. Hugh A. Brown first began conducting his research in 1916 and his theory and deductive finding is now the basis for viable environmental geothermal shifts (climate change). This book, in my opinion, is an informational critique about determining your own decision about the existence of flying saucers (UFO's) and people from other galaxies and planets.
January 27, 2013
Originally published in 1956. The first book to explore the Men-In-Black phenomena. Also includes a chapter on the Flatwoods Monster case.
April 23, 2015
A sort of pulp thriller about a series of flying saucer witnesses being silenced by mysterious visitors, this book is largely responsible for introducing the idea of the "Men in Black" to the popular consciousness. The short chapter devoted to WA State's "Maury Island Incident" is a brief primer that will hopefully compel readers to do further research on that important event. It's also both fascinating and novel to read some of the mid-century theories on the origins of UFOs. A great book to get a taste of the cultural perception concerning the United States at the height of the flying saucer craze.
Read
March 11, 2016A mind-blowing classic. Did a real-life Carl Kolchak invent the men in black?
July 5, 2022
Discusses how Barker got into investigating UFOs and some early cases before getting to diving into the book’s main topic: silencing of UFO researchers by threatening and mysterious men in dark suits.
Barker had a large network of UFO teachers and magazine publishers (this is all in the 50s). Three times, he describes how one of his fellow researchers had “solved” the UFO mystery or had physical remains of one, announced they would reveal everything soon, and then have threatening visitors or phone calls telling them to stop. The solutions discovered are never revealed, but it is hinted that Antarctica is involved and that the UFOs may be more supernatural than nuts-and-bolts spaceships. Poltergeists and other inexplicable occurrences seemed to follow those that look too close at UFOs.
This is one of, if not the, first publications discussing what are known as the Men In Black. Not a lot of answers are given, but Barker gives you a good feeling of his frustration as he sees his friends being picked off one by one and told to stop looking at UFOs. He then goes onto to theorize that they switched tactics and instead of silencing researchers, they’ve co-opted them to be used as disinformation distributors. Some interesting stories are given and it’s interesting to see how the Men In Black encounters/legends have evolved since then.
Barker had a large network of UFO teachers and magazine publishers (this is all in the 50s). Three times, he describes how one of his fellow researchers had “solved” the UFO mystery or had physical remains of one, announced they would reveal everything soon, and then have threatening visitors or phone calls telling them to stop. The solutions discovered are never revealed, but it is hinted that Antarctica is involved and that the UFOs may be more supernatural than nuts-and-bolts spaceships. Poltergeists and other inexplicable occurrences seemed to follow those that look too close at UFOs.
This is one of, if not the, first publications discussing what are known as the Men In Black. Not a lot of answers are given, but Barker gives you a good feeling of his frustration as he sees his friends being picked off one by one and told to stop looking at UFOs. He then goes onto to theorize that they switched tactics and instead of silencing researchers, they’ve co-opted them to be used as disinformation distributors. Some interesting stories are given and it’s interesting to see how the Men In Black encounters/legends have evolved since then.
September 5, 2019
There's no greater modern myth than the UFO.
Coming from the world of saucer-fanatic newsletters and conspiracy-theory magazines, Grey Barker is one of the foundational writers of the UFO mythology, and They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers introduces a key element that deepened that world: the Men in Black.
Told as a series of purportedly-true encounters, this imaginative huckster spins rich and evocative yarns, throwing out wild speculation as fact at every turn. It's a terrifically fun read if quite beyond belief.
Highly recommended to anyone into the history of flying saucer lore or UFOlogy.
Coming from the world of saucer-fanatic newsletters and conspiracy-theory magazines, Grey Barker is one of the foundational writers of the UFO mythology, and They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers introduces a key element that deepened that world: the Men in Black.
Told as a series of purportedly-true encounters, this imaginative huckster spins rich and evocative yarns, throwing out wild speculation as fact at every turn. It's a terrifically fun read if quite beyond belief.
Highly recommended to anyone into the history of flying saucer lore or UFOlogy.
March 5, 2021
A merely a prelude.
January 30, 2022
Great book taking you back to the original investigations and activities around the UFO subject.
I would very much recommend it to people who are into the subject.
I would very much recommend it to people who are into the subject.
April 16, 2022
Me da tantita vergüenza decir que lo leí
Read
November 1, 2022Pretty much about stuff i knew but didnt know how they shut people up.I still dont know.
October 31, 2025
THE BOOK THAT BEGAN THE ‘MEN IN BLACK’ MYSTERY
Gray Barker (1925-1984) was an American writer best known for his books about UFOs and other paranormal phenomena. He wrote in the first chapter of this 1956 book, “I am neither a scientist nor a scholar… I operate the largest theatrical film buying-booking agency in the state of West Virginia… I could even have made some money had it not been for… [a] Frankenstein’s monster of my own creation---flying saucer research. Now… my desk overflows with clippings on saucer sightings instead of movie reviews; my filing cases on saucers are more extensive than the files on theatres. All of my spare time has been taken over… and I can only begin to cope with the mass of data and the correspondence, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle containing the answer to the entire mystery---if it could only be put together!” (Pg. 14-15)
He explains that a 1952 report of a ‘Braxton Monster’ was “heartily laughed at … around the nation. I didn’t believe the story myself. But then, I reasoned, a story as good as this one surely had some basis in fact. Better still I might get some publicity out of it. Being a frustrated writer, I thought here was an opportunity to get my name in print again…” (Pg. 16)
He recounts a tape recording from Dominick C. Lucchesi, which stated, “what had happened is something like this: Al [Albert Bender, founder of the International Flying Saucers Bureau/IFSB] told Augie that [their publication] ‘Space Review’ WOULD come out on October 15, but whether it would come out after that was something else. It seems something strange has occurred in IFSB… Finally Al stated bluntly, ‘I know the secret of the disks!’ He added that three men had visited him, and in effect shut him up completely as far as saucer investigation is concerned!... In other words, Al told Augie that he knows what the saucers are! And that the three men pledged him to silence!” (Pg. 113-114)
He states, “The Bender mystery is not solved. I have collected reams of notes about it. I could write two books like this one filled with theories and data I cannot publish here because of space limitations and other reasons… I hope you will read carefully this account of … [a conversation] which took place October 4, 1953, in Bender’s home… Q. Who were the men? A. I can’t answer that. Q. Were they from the government? A. I can’t answer that. Q. Do saucers come from space? A. I can’t answer that… Q. Does the government know about saucers? A. They have known what they are for two years. Q. Will they tell the people what they are? A. It has got to a point where they will have to…If not within five months from now, not for about four years… Q. Why can’t you talk freely about this thing? A. Just before the men left one of them said, ‘I suppose you know you’re on your honor as an American. If I hear another word out of your office you’re in trouble.’ Q. What will they do with you if you give out information? A. Put me in jail and keep me shut up… Q. Were the men friendly with you? A. They were pretty rough with me. Two men did all the talking, and the other kept watching me all the time… Q. Do they come from Mars? A. I can’t answer that… Q. Was the saucer I photographed last year real?... A. I can’t answer that. Q. Will it affect all of our lives? A. There will be changes in everybody’s life. Q. You said that the three men … were pretty rough with you. Can you tell me just what you meant by that? A. They were not too friendly.” (Pg. 129-135)
Later, he records, “I continued to read Bender’s letter to Jarrold. The visit was conducted, Bender told him… by three men, ‘all dressed in black suits,’ but he added to the Australian investigator that they ‘showed credentials.’ It all came about because of something he had written in a thesis and submitted to a ‘certain person.’ ‘I found out,’ Bender stated, ‘that I had stumbled upon something that I was not supposed to know’ … He told Jerrold he was on his honor as a citizen of the United States to remain silent… What was the terrifying information Bender had discovered? Other investigations could only guess..” (Pg. 193-194)
Still later, “I received a telephone call from Lucchesi… ‘I just wanted to tip you off. I’m sending a fellow down to see you. He seems to be on the level, but… watch what you tell him, Gray… He calls himself James Moseley, and says he’s writing a book about saucers… Claims to be a millionaire… I believe he’s in the pay of somebody---just wish I knew who.’ … A day later Moseley walked into my office… Moseley was unusually curious. How long had I been publishing ‘The Saucerian’?... Did I have any absolute PROOF the saucers came from outer space? … I thought it unusual that I should immediately like Moseley… It is, therefore, perhaps likely that some of my close friends among saucer researchers are surprised when they learn that I really know very little about the man. For Moseley is now perhaps the most controversial figure enmeshed in the saucer mystery, and many people think that I should know what strange urgencies drive him to play down, obviously, it seems, interplanetary saucers in his publication, ‘Saucer News.’” (Pg. 228-229)
After Moseley’s next publication contained the caution, “I now owe my readers an apology. I must state that the documents referred to above are no longer in my possession, and that I am not at liberty to make any further references to them… Suffice it to say that I simply am unable to publish this information, as much as I would like to…. I would like to caution all flying saucer researchers to be extremely cautious in dealing with certain phases of the Saucer Mystery.’ Bender, Jarrold, the others---and now Moseley! Somehow I felt that the information Moseley promised would never reach the printed page… With that editorial a great change came over Moseley’s publication. His editorial policy thereafter consisted of an attempt to thoroughly debunk saucers, interplanetary saucers, that is. Thereafter ‘Saucer News’ went to unnatural lengths to attempt to prove that saucers are made on Earth, are secret devices of terrestrial governments.” (Pg. 233)
In the final chapter, he asks, “Why hadn’t the three men visited me? I, too, had received the mysterious telephone calls, often with no one at the other end, that plague all saucer researchers… But no one had ever formally discouraged my work. Why? Maybe I just wasn’t important enough. But, more likely, I didn’t have that certain piece of information. Or maybe that piece of metal from a UFO. Maybe it was because … I still had an open mind about saucers, and that I wasn’t pushing any certain theory as final. I often thought it might be worth being silenced and warned to keep quiet about what I knew if I could actually have something definitely CONFIRMED as to the origin and purpose of the saucers. Maybe I will some day experience that cold feeling of mingled satisfaction and fear, of triumph defeat.” (Pg. 237-238)
Of course, in his 1962 book, ‘Flying Saucers and the Three Men,’ Albert Bender claimed that the three ‘men’ were actually EXTRATERRESTRIALS---and not government agents, which is suggested here by Barker. But at any rate, both books are of great interest for anyone wanting to know more about the ‘Men in Black’ theme in ufology.
Gray Barker (1925-1984) was an American writer best known for his books about UFOs and other paranormal phenomena. He wrote in the first chapter of this 1956 book, “I am neither a scientist nor a scholar… I operate the largest theatrical film buying-booking agency in the state of West Virginia… I could even have made some money had it not been for… [a] Frankenstein’s monster of my own creation---flying saucer research. Now… my desk overflows with clippings on saucer sightings instead of movie reviews; my filing cases on saucers are more extensive than the files on theatres. All of my spare time has been taken over… and I can only begin to cope with the mass of data and the correspondence, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle containing the answer to the entire mystery---if it could only be put together!” (Pg. 14-15)
He explains that a 1952 report of a ‘Braxton Monster’ was “heartily laughed at … around the nation. I didn’t believe the story myself. But then, I reasoned, a story as good as this one surely had some basis in fact. Better still I might get some publicity out of it. Being a frustrated writer, I thought here was an opportunity to get my name in print again…” (Pg. 16)
He recounts a tape recording from Dominick C. Lucchesi, which stated, “what had happened is something like this: Al [Albert Bender, founder of the International Flying Saucers Bureau/IFSB] told Augie that [their publication] ‘Space Review’ WOULD come out on October 15, but whether it would come out after that was something else. It seems something strange has occurred in IFSB… Finally Al stated bluntly, ‘I know the secret of the disks!’ He added that three men had visited him, and in effect shut him up completely as far as saucer investigation is concerned!... In other words, Al told Augie that he knows what the saucers are! And that the three men pledged him to silence!” (Pg. 113-114)
He states, “The Bender mystery is not solved. I have collected reams of notes about it. I could write two books like this one filled with theories and data I cannot publish here because of space limitations and other reasons… I hope you will read carefully this account of … [a conversation] which took place October 4, 1953, in Bender’s home… Q. Who were the men? A. I can’t answer that. Q. Were they from the government? A. I can’t answer that. Q. Do saucers come from space? A. I can’t answer that… Q. Does the government know about saucers? A. They have known what they are for two years. Q. Will they tell the people what they are? A. It has got to a point where they will have to…If not within five months from now, not for about four years… Q. Why can’t you talk freely about this thing? A. Just before the men left one of them said, ‘I suppose you know you’re on your honor as an American. If I hear another word out of your office you’re in trouble.’ Q. What will they do with you if you give out information? A. Put me in jail and keep me shut up… Q. Were the men friendly with you? A. They were pretty rough with me. Two men did all the talking, and the other kept watching me all the time… Q. Do they come from Mars? A. I can’t answer that… Q. Was the saucer I photographed last year real?... A. I can’t answer that. Q. Will it affect all of our lives? A. There will be changes in everybody’s life. Q. You said that the three men … were pretty rough with you. Can you tell me just what you meant by that? A. They were not too friendly.” (Pg. 129-135)
Later, he records, “I continued to read Bender’s letter to Jarrold. The visit was conducted, Bender told him… by three men, ‘all dressed in black suits,’ but he added to the Australian investigator that they ‘showed credentials.’ It all came about because of something he had written in a thesis and submitted to a ‘certain person.’ ‘I found out,’ Bender stated, ‘that I had stumbled upon something that I was not supposed to know’ … He told Jerrold he was on his honor as a citizen of the United States to remain silent… What was the terrifying information Bender had discovered? Other investigations could only guess..” (Pg. 193-194)
Still later, “I received a telephone call from Lucchesi… ‘I just wanted to tip you off. I’m sending a fellow down to see you. He seems to be on the level, but… watch what you tell him, Gray… He calls himself James Moseley, and says he’s writing a book about saucers… Claims to be a millionaire… I believe he’s in the pay of somebody---just wish I knew who.’ … A day later Moseley walked into my office… Moseley was unusually curious. How long had I been publishing ‘The Saucerian’?... Did I have any absolute PROOF the saucers came from outer space? … I thought it unusual that I should immediately like Moseley… It is, therefore, perhaps likely that some of my close friends among saucer researchers are surprised when they learn that I really know very little about the man. For Moseley is now perhaps the most controversial figure enmeshed in the saucer mystery, and many people think that I should know what strange urgencies drive him to play down, obviously, it seems, interplanetary saucers in his publication, ‘Saucer News.’” (Pg. 228-229)
After Moseley’s next publication contained the caution, “I now owe my readers an apology. I must state that the documents referred to above are no longer in my possession, and that I am not at liberty to make any further references to them… Suffice it to say that I simply am unable to publish this information, as much as I would like to…. I would like to caution all flying saucer researchers to be extremely cautious in dealing with certain phases of the Saucer Mystery.’ Bender, Jarrold, the others---and now Moseley! Somehow I felt that the information Moseley promised would never reach the printed page… With that editorial a great change came over Moseley’s publication. His editorial policy thereafter consisted of an attempt to thoroughly debunk saucers, interplanetary saucers, that is. Thereafter ‘Saucer News’ went to unnatural lengths to attempt to prove that saucers are made on Earth, are secret devices of terrestrial governments.” (Pg. 233)
In the final chapter, he asks, “Why hadn’t the three men visited me? I, too, had received the mysterious telephone calls, often with no one at the other end, that plague all saucer researchers… But no one had ever formally discouraged my work. Why? Maybe I just wasn’t important enough. But, more likely, I didn’t have that certain piece of information. Or maybe that piece of metal from a UFO. Maybe it was because … I still had an open mind about saucers, and that I wasn’t pushing any certain theory as final. I often thought it might be worth being silenced and warned to keep quiet about what I knew if I could actually have something definitely CONFIRMED as to the origin and purpose of the saucers. Maybe I will some day experience that cold feeling of mingled satisfaction and fear, of triumph defeat.” (Pg. 237-238)
Of course, in his 1962 book, ‘Flying Saucers and the Three Men,’ Albert Bender claimed that the three ‘men’ were actually EXTRATERRESTRIALS---and not government agents, which is suggested here by Barker. But at any rate, both books are of great interest for anyone wanting to know more about the ‘Men in Black’ theme in ufology.
February 13, 2024
That is a really enjoyable book, it is really dated and it is one that anticipated John Keel and others more fringe writers, it is a good book with a sort of intuitive understanding of the phenomena, also it does read as a pulp fiction book, it has a D. Hammett flavour to it, well worth reading.
October 4, 2024
Idk. Barker’s prose is fun to read, but I’m not sure how valuable/reliable this is.
March 17, 2025
Better read as a novel than a work of non-fiction.
June 17, 2023
This is your typical UFO book with some great storytelling. Gray recounts the experiences of several encounters with UFO related phenomenon as well as a recounting of the initial Flatwoods Monster encounter.
It’s dry, it’s a little overlong but it makes a great audiobook. I don’t know that any clandestine secrets are revealed or that this will change your worldview to skew a bit more paranormal even but Barker does a great job of setting the scene for the era during the heyday of UFOlogy and takes you through a journey to the heart of what spawned the phenomenon.
Great for beginners just jumping into paranormal and Ufological studies.
It’s dry, it’s a little overlong but it makes a great audiobook. I don’t know that any clandestine secrets are revealed or that this will change your worldview to skew a bit more paranormal even but Barker does a great job of setting the scene for the era during the heyday of UFOlogy and takes you through a journey to the heart of what spawned the phenomenon.
Great for beginners just jumping into paranormal and Ufological studies.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews