men in black n.

dark-clothed men of unknown identity or origin, who supposedly visit those who have encountered a UFO or alien in order to prevent them from publicizing their experience

  • [1956 G. Barker They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers 92

    Three men in black suits with threatening expressions on their faces.]

  • 1956 G. Barker They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers 166

    What, if anything, linked the South Pole with the three men in black and the solution to the saucer mystery?

  • 1957 R. Palmer Editorial in Flying Saucers from Other Worlds June 4/2 page image

    We are reminded of Gray Barker’s book ‘They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers’ (incidentally, Gray Barker is our Eastern Editor, and his report will be in every issue of FLYING SAUCERS), and of the ‘men in black’ who go around silencing people who talk too much about flying saucers…. In any event, no men in black will scare the editors of FLYING SAUCERS into silence, and no pressure group will put them out of business.

  • 1958 P. S. Miller Reference Library in Astounding Science Fiction Aug. 143/1 page image P. Schuyler Miller

    ‘Security Check’ is the one in which two men in black call on the little craftsman who has been making SF sets for television.

  • 1969 P. J. Kass The Fly in the Saucer in Boston Globe 16 Mar. e22/4

    For example, there are the alleged ‘Men in Black’ who supposedly try to intimidate UFO witnesses into silence.

  • 1971 Castle of Frankenstein July 52/1 page image

    This story parallels the many reports of M.I.B.’s (Men in Black)—otherwise known as ‘The Silence Group’—who purportedly threaten and silence UFO investigators and other people who claim evidence of UFO sightings or contacts.

  • 1978 R. Palmer Flying Saucers & the Stymie Factor in Science Fiction Review May 69/1 page image Raymond A. Palmer bibliography

    I understand fully why some researchers invent such ‘excuses’ for clamming up and dropping out of research as ‘the men in black’, the FBI, the CIA, or whatever evidence of paranoia you can suggest.

  • 1982 R. A. Lupoff Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Mar. 146/1 page image Richard A. Lupoff bibliography

    She didn’t know much about ufology. She’d never heard about the men in black, even.

  • 1994 Science Fiction Age July 85/3 (advt.) page image

    Are alien abductions and men in black, really a result of an elite Airforce/CIA mind control program?

  • 2001 N. Spinrad On Books in Asimov’s Science Fiction Mar. 129/2 page image Norman Spinrad

    There are people out there who claim to have been visited by the Men in Black, though of course they can’t remember why.

  • 2014 A. Gallardo Zomburbia 257 page image Adam Gallardo bibliography

    My best friend was dead on the football field and I was being abducted by men in black. I was officially losing my shit.

Research History
Suggested, and most cites submitted, by Bill Mullins.
Definition based on the OED entry.

Last modified 2022-07-27 16:12:55
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.