The Real Men In Black: Evidence, Famous Cases, and True Stories of These Mysterious Men and their Connection to UFO Phenomena [Paperback]

Nick Redfern (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2011

The Men in Black were elevated to superstar status in 1997 in the hit movie of the same name. Although the Hollywood blockbuster was fiction, the real Men in Black have consistently attempted to silence the witnesses of UFO and paranormal phenomena since the 1950s.

In The Real Men in Black, author Nick Redfern delves deep into the mysterious world of these mysterious operatives. He reveals their origins and discusses classic cases, previously unknown reports, secret government files, and the many theories that have been presented to explain the mystery.

Highlights of The Real Men in Black include:


• The story of Albert Bender, the first man to claim an encounter with the Men in Black


• The involvement of the MIB in the Mothman saga that dominated the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia in the 1960s


• Encounters with the MIB at the site of one of the world's most famous monsters: Loch Ness


• Exclusive interviews with leading researchers of the MIB phenomenon

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Nick Redfern is the Brit with a knack for ferreting out

all the dope on outrageous subjects."
--Jim Marrs, best-selling author of Alien Agenda

About the Author

Nick Redfern works full-time as an author, lecturer, and journalist. He writes about a wide range of unsolved mysteries, including Bigfoot, UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, alien encounters, and government conspiracies. He writes regularly for UFO Magazine, Fate, Fortean Times, and Paranormal Magazine. His previous books include The NASA Conspiracies, Contactees, and Memoirs of a Monster Hunter, all published by New Page Books. Nick has appeared on numerous television shows, including the BBC's Out of this World; History Channel's Monster Quest and UFO Hunters; National Geographic Channel's Paranatural; and SyFy Channel's Proof Positive. He lives in Arlington, Texas and can be found online at www.nickredfern.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: New Page Books (June 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 160163157X
• ISBN-13: 978-1601631572
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nick Redfern is a full-time author and journalist specializing in a wide range of unsolved mysteries, including Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, UFO sightings, government conspiracies, alien abductions and paranormal phenomena. He writes regularly for the London Daily Express newspaper, Fortean Times, Fate, and UFO Magazine. His previous books include Three Men Seeking Monsters, Strange Secrets, Cosmic Crashes, and The FBI Files. Among his many exploits, Redfern has investigated reports of lake monsters in Scotland, vampires in Puerto Rico, werewolves in England, aliens in Mexico, and sea serpents in the United States. Redfern travels and lectures extensively around the world. Originally from England, he currently lives in Dallas, Texas.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 58 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Really fun, but flawed July 18, 2011

By Harrison Koehli

Format:Paperback

I'm kind of ambivalent about this book. First of all, Redfern does a great job introducing the topic. He tells the history of the MIB mythos, introduces the key players and personalities (Bender, Barker, and Keel), the most famous (and not-so-famous) case studies, and interviews some great researchers on their thoughts on what is behind the MIB phenomenon. He even includes what could be the only photographs snapped of these strange, darkly clad dudes. So if you want to immerse yourself into the history and research of the MIB, the book is pretty good.

My qualms about the book are twofold. First of all, I don't care for Redfern's style. It's half pulp-paranormal-mystery-expose, with just a hint of tabloid fluff. In other words, he's not a very "serious" writer, but that's just my taste. My real problems with the book come in part 2: "The Theories". I don't think Redfern shows very much imagination here. For example, his explanation for Bender's experiences is pretty lacklustre, and ignores possibly overlapping reasons (kind of like those who dismiss all abductions as "just" sleep paralysis, neglecting to propose that sleep paralysis may be an integral part of the abduction phenomenon, or somehow induced). My margin notes often read "not mutually exclusive!", especially next to the quotes from Greg Bishop, who I also think tends to use the "juvenile dictionary" a bit too much when doing his theorizing. The chapter on "Tulpas" was the worst for this type of wiseacring.

That said, there are some interesting ideas in Part 2, but none of them quite hit home. I think John Keel, about whom Redfern quotes some unsubstantiated criticism, got closer to truth about these phenomena than the majority of others in the field over the last 60 years. His book, The Eighth Tower, is a classic, and only surpassed I think, by Laura Knight-Jadczyk's High Strangeness: Hyperdimensions & The Process Of Alien Abduction. She deals with pretty much all the features Redfern brings up, but ties them all together in a picture that actually makes sense. In other words, not the hodgepodge of pet theories Redfern collects.

All that said, it was a fun book, informative, and only at times overbearingly annoying. So if you can handle that, do check it out. Just round out your reading.

53 of 59 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Men in Black - Redfern Tackles the Bizarro Boys June 2, 2011

By Linda S. Godfrey

Format:Paperback

Men in black, mysterious figures in black suits that pop up at UFO sighting scenes like mushrooms after a spring rain, have become so solidly entrenched in pop culture that very popular - and imaginative - movies have been made about them. Nick Redfern's new book tracks their history from the days when MIB were esoteric lore known only to UFO geeks, to today's guys with cool shades who show up on your local theater screen. The real Men in Black are far more sinister than I had guessed.

The book was especially persuasive to me personally since it includes the experiences of colleagues I've come to know and trust over the years including Brad Steiger, Marie D. Jones and Raven Meindel. The terror they and many others experienced was subtle - compared to sightings of, say, Bigfoot or werewolves -- yet very traumatic.

Sporting black suits and hats some have compared to those of the Blues Brothers, Men in Black started showing their pale and unexpressive faces in the middle of the 20th Century, around the same time flying saucers entered the public consciousness. Witnesses and researchers of the UFO phenomenon found themselves threatened and harassed - often in unexplainable ways - by the lurking strangers who usually drove shiny black cars. Scarily, MIB continue these terror tactics to present day, sometimes updating their transportation to black helicopters or other vehicles.

In my book, Strange Wisconsin, I reported an incident told me by a farmer in western Wisconsin who was deer hunting with his children when the three saw a UFO rise from a nearby tree top and then shoot off over a field. They were so terrified they decided to forget hunting and just leave, but as they exited the woods they saw a convoy of shiny black pickup trucks heading single file across the field in the same direction the UFO had gone. Just the sight of so many new trucks in the sleepy area was strange enough, but where did they suddenly come from and why would they all take off across someone's field in mid-November? What was their connection to the silver, discoid craft and how did they know it was there?

Readers will discover similar weird anomalies in every tale in Redfern's book. And after grounding readers in many frightening examples of the MIB mystery, Redfern spends the second half of the book wrestling with possible explanations for the creepy figures. Redfern notes that strange people clad in black have appeared to those dabbling in occult studies and practices throughout history. If this is true, perhaps the MIB are not connected to aliens from space at all. Redfern explores such disparate possible origins for them as elaborate thought- forms created by human imagination, time cops from far in the future and perfectly human secret agents.

Author and MIB researcher Colin Bennett is quoted extensively in the book, and he comes to the conclusion that the MIB entities appear to "eat" human energy generated by the fear they provoke. This was interesting to me because I have often said much the same thing about the unknown, upright canines I have studied and written about for the past 19 years.

Are strange creatures, MIB, UFOs and other scary phenomena part of some massive, unknown entity that exists just one step above us on the psychic food chain? Perhaps unreality bites.

Whatever MIB may be, Redfern and the many experts he consults agree they are not desirable company. There is one simple weapon that seems to work against them but I won't give that away here. I'll just say that to be forewarned is to be fore-armed, and that you will want to read this book to know what to do before the MIB come calling on you.

Linda S. Godfrey, author of Monsters of Wisconsin: Mysterious Creatures in the Badger State

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Restoring Paranoia to Its Proper Place July 24, 2011

By Timothy P. Young VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Since the 1997 film Men in Black, the MIB have largely, in the public consciousness, been seen as being as the movie portrays them--secretive cosmic cops, for want of a better term. However, those who have an interest in both UFO lore and paranormal history know them to be quite something else. They have appeared throughout paranormal history as sinister, confusing, and intimidating. Redfern's book, while far from definitive, brings back the paranoia about the Men in Black, restoring them to their proper place.

The book is divided into two parts: Cases and Theories. The paranoid among us will have the most fun with the first section, which gives a good overview of some well-known cases as well as updating the lore to bring more recent cases (even into this century) to light. While it's true that the reader can sometimes (not always) deduce plausible, less conspiracy/paranormal-minded explanations for some of these (in particular a case in London in Chapter 10, which Redfern spends quite a bit of time discussing), they all prove fascinating.

Theories, on the other hand, is where much of the value of the book lies. Most books or articles on the MIB take one theory for their existence (or lack thereof) and run with it. Redfern, to his credit, supplies us with many of the available theories, making certain to state that all or none of them could be responsible for the phenomenon.

In addition, the extensive bibliography he includes will help the true armchair researcher to delve more deeply into these mysteries, should he or she desire.

One problem with books on Fortean phenomena has always been that the more formal academics tend to write books that are largely pedantic, and offer little to draw the neophyte in. On the other side of the spectrum, the more sensational writers pepper their text with exclamation points, italics, and questions that remain unconsidered in the rest of the text. Redfern's book balances the two--the research is solid, and while he sometimes veers towards the sensational, he reigns it in quite well. Redfern's writing here is largely informal, and reminds one of chatting with a friend who happens to have deep knowledge of a subject.

Great paranoid fun with a solid dose of critical thought. Recommended.