When “Men in Black 3″ opens all over the place over Memorial Day weekend, most moviegoers will just be hoping this sequel matches the original for popcorn-munching fun.
But there are numerous individuals who say they’ve been victimized by and live in worry of real MIBs. And those stories, told for decades, are just as terrifying as they are detailed.
Ever since the early 1950s, lengthy just before the first “Men in Black” film hit the silver screen in 1997, men dressed in identical black suits, hats and sunglasses, claiming to be government agents, have reportedly shown up in black autos at the properties or offices of folks who reported UFO sightings.
According to those who were paid these unwelcome visits, the MIBs threatened or harassed the eyewitnesses into staying quiet about their UFO encounters.
Observe some reported Men in Black encounters:
1947: Harold Dahl reported seeing a group of UFOs even though he was on a boat in Washington’s Puget Sound. Soon after, he explained, he was approached by a black-suited individual who threatened him and his loved ones if he ever talked yet again about the UFO sighting.
1967: Robert Richardson was driving his auto at night in Toledo, Ohio, when he hit one thing, which, he claimed, then vanished. He located a piece of metal that he believed originated from the mysterious thing he hit. A couple of days later, two men, sporting black hats and sunglasses and driving a black 1953 Cadillac, visited Richardson at his property at 11 p.m. to inquire questions. A week later, two other men arrived, dressed in black suits, and asked Richardson to turn over the metal to them. When he informed them he had sent it for evaluation, he mentioned, they threatened to harm his wife if he didn’t get it back. He never ever heard from them once again.
But why? Who had been — and, in some situations, still are — these strange folks who give out seemingly meaningless warnings about UFO sightings and try out to intimidate men and women?
“They are the archetypal sinister person who turns up on the doorstep specifically in relation to a UFO encounter,” said Nick Redfern, author of “The Real Men in Black” (New Page Books, 2011).
“People who have been visited by MIB tend to fall into two categories: One is the UFO witnesses. The other category is researchers who’ve been visited,” Redfern told The Huffington Post.
After digging closely into the history of many reported MIB encounters, Redfern (pictured below) thinks he has a good handle on what may be going on.
“What we have, I’m pretty sure, is a sort of covert department or office or personnel within the official infrastructure. There are people who dress in black deliberately and go around and threaten people in certain circumstances relative to UFOs,” he suggested.
“And they look like what you see in the ‘Men in Black’ movies. They look like agents of the government, like [actors] Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. And they issue veiled warnings not to talk about their UFO encounter.”
But then there are the creepier MIB stories that emerge.
Like the one told by Dr. Herbert Hopkins. The respected household physician from Outdated Orchard Beach, Maine, was home alone on the evening of Sept. 11, 1976. At the time, Hopkins was studying a UFO incident.
The mobile phone rang, and a man’s voice recognized himself as a representative of a New Jersey UFO organization (which turned out to be phony).
“He needed to know if he could come here and talk to me about the UFO case.