Who Were The Men in Black?

A sub-genre of the UFO mythos is the concept of the "Men in Black" strange men who arrive to intimidate or warn off witnesses to strange events.

Their first appearance, apparently, was the 1947 Maury Island UFO story that has been largely discredited as a hoax by both believers and debunkers. In the narrative two strange and mysterious 'men dressed in black' came to warn the witnesses about telling what they had seen.

They trope of the men in black would - throughout the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's - traverse the fringe elements of the UFO world.  The pulp books on alleged sightings, landings, abductions, contacts as well as coverups and conspiracies would feature these enigmatic people.  Tracking down these 'men in black' encounters proves hard work.

So hard, that their credibility, and the increasingly bizarre discriptions of their behaviors, had been severely tried.

So, 1) Were there men in black? and if so, 2) Who were they?

After conducting significant research into a variety of government files and historic records it becomes clear that in that wild year of 1947 when strange sightings filled the calendar from January to December it was an odd situation. Spring accounts were laughed off, ignored or investigated merely as tall tales that might serve to cover the espionage work of foreign powers trying to gain access to U.S. atomic secrets and ongoing research. As such, these cases were investigated and not by the military.  The F.B.I. was often the first ones to interview such witnesses in the name of protecting those secret atomic plans and ongoing research projects.

After September of 1947 this would change slightly. That was when a new structure for the military and the intelligence community was established.  Up until then, the Army Air Force would have still been operating under war-time intelligence procedures for intelligence gathering (and indeed some Air Fields and offices would continue to use those models into the next decade).

On September 19, 1947,  the military and intelligence communities were restructured and and the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency were created along with transforming the Army Air Corp into the United Air Force.

Indeed, some of the early investigations found in Project Blue Book (under the tenure of Project Sign or Grudge) reflect that the U.S.A.F. utilized the F.B.I. and other intelligence agencies to interview witnesses and run background checks to determine their general character.

The F.B.I. (formed in the 1920's) had an strict dress and conduct code. The agents (almost always men in early years) were to wear clean, neat dark suits, matching dark socks and garters (never patterned socks) and a plain dark color necktie and a snap brim hat. The Director, J.Edgar Hoover, had exacting requirements as to how they filled out their forms, notebooks, and kept their lockers. All was designed to present a uniform of business attire for an army of intelligence officers - capable of going toe to toe with foes from all walks of life with the same authority and confidence as a police officer or a military officer. This meant that male fashions might evolve into various fads (wide lapels, narrow legs, long jackets, etc.) for the most part the "uniform" of the F.B.I. remained in a very conservative - even staid - classic look.  Changes came late and slowly but it is still the standard to wear business formal for court and other official occasions.

That, to this day, is the standard in Washington D.C. for almost all who work in government and offices around that city. The classic dark suit, white shirt and conservative tie is still the "go-to" attire. Walk any street, visit any restaurant, ride the rail, stroll the lobby of any hotel and you will see them everywhere.

So - - did people see "men in black"? They probably did and were shown a badge with three letters on it. They would run backgrounds, asked a lot of questions of witnesses, and friends and employers of witnesses to gain insight into reputation, associates and behaviors.  If the investigations of these people were deemed credible, then the Air Ford would be notified to add that information to their investigations and to help direct their views concerning any eyewitness accounts.