Gray Barker
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person
Contents 5
| Type | Person |
|---|
Gray Barker (2 May 1925 – 6 December 1984) was an American writer and publisher from West Virginia whose 1956 book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers introduced the Men in Black to UFO lore. Friends and family later said he was privately skeptical and wrote mainly for money, and he took part in several hoaxes.[1][2]
Life
Barker was born in Braxton County, West Virginia, and graduated from Glenville State College in 1947. While working as a theatre booking agent in Clarksburg, he investigated the 1952 Flatwoods monster sightings and began writing about UFOs, including for the Space Review of Albert K. Bender's International Flying Saucer Bureau.[1][2]
The Men in Black
When Bender abruptly closed his organisation in 1953, saying he had been silenced by "a higher source", Barker wrote They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers (1956). It told of mysterious men in black suits who travelled in threes, drove black cars and frightened witnesses into silence.[1][2] Barker published Bender's own account in 1962 through his imprint Saucerian Books, and in 1970 published The Silver Bridge, linking the Mothman sightings to the collapse of the Point Pleasant bridge.[1][2]
Hoaxes
In 1957 Barker and his friend James Moseley wrote a fake letter on State Department paper, signed "R. E. Straith", praising contactee George Adamski's work. Barker later described it in print as one of the great unsolved mysteries of ufology.[1] John Sherwood, who worked with Barker as a teenager, wrote in Skeptical Inquirer that the two had published an invented Men in Black story as fact in the late 1960s, and that Barker privately called his paranormal books his "kookie books".[1] His sister said he wrote them for money, and Moseley said he took ufology as a joke.[1]
Legacy
The Men in Black became a lasting part of UFO folklore and inspired a comic book and the Men in Black films.[1] Barker's papers are kept in the Gray Barker Room of the Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library.[1][2]
References
- Gray Barker — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Gray Barker", e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia · wvencyclopedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.