Plagued by the ‘Men in Black’ - Fact or fiction?

We came across an intriguing case, investigated by Tyne Tees resident – Mrs. Anne West - on behalf of Contact UK. She told of a number of interviews held with a local woman, from the Cumbria area, who claimed she had been ‘plagued’ by what appeared to be visits by the infamous ‘Men in Black’.

At the time, believed to be the mid to late 1970s, Mrs. ‘E’ (then in her early 20s) was separated from her husband, after having split up following the birth of her son, but had formed a friendship with two other girls, of similar age, who lived in a nearby block of flats. One evening, at about 10.30pm, the housewife was sat talking with the two girls, when they noticed a bright light in the sky, which dropped down and landed in a field belonging to a nearby school. Curious, they left the flat and made a search of the field but found nothing. As they made their way back home, Mrs. ‘E’ noticed a black piece of rock or coal, which she kicked with her foot, near to the outer coal house.

She bent down and picked it up, remarking on its unusual shape - like that of an eggshell, which had been cracked in half, showing small red lumps on it. She showed it to the other two girls and then decided, as it was so unusual, to ask her father (who was a coal miner) if he could tell her what it was. When her father arrived home, she showed it to him. He told her it wasn’t coal or coke, and suggested that it be taken to the Museum.

“From the moment I brought the ‘rock’ into the house, I had the distinct impression that I was being watched. At first I thought I was imagining it, but the feeling grew worse. I felt uneasy and didn’t like going home. I noticed more red lumps on the ‘coal’ or ‘rock’ and decided to place it into the outer coal house until I could send it off to the Museum.

It was at this stage that my friends and I began to notice we were being followed by what I can only describe as oriental looking men, dressed in black. On one occasion, while at College, we noticed two of them stood near the walls of the corridor watching us. Wondering what the hell was going on, we walked over to confront them. As we got closer, they walked away down the corridor. We gave chase, but they just disappeared.”

It appears that the attention of these ‘men’ was directed towards the two girls, rather than Mrs. ‘E’, who described to her of an incident which took place, while they were waiting for a bus to get to a local dance, when a black ‘old fashioned’ car pulled up next to them. In the front of the car were sat the same two men that had been in the College. They were then invited to get into the car.

One would no doubt feel that if you or I were in that position we would not have got into that vehicle, and probably ran away, but it is claimed that, due to ‘Dutch courage’ from drinking earlier, the girls chose to do the opposite. This is what they had to say:

“We got into the back seat and, after being asked where we were going, the car moved away. We thought it strange why we couldn’t hear any noise of the engine, or even the turn of the ignition key. We arrived at the dance hall and all four of us got out and went into the hall. One of us purchased four tickets for the other two men. When we went to speak to them, they were no longer there. We went to try and find them but there was no sign of them, so we went to the ticket desk and asked the woman if she remembered them coming into the hall. The woman confirmed we had bought four tickets but told us we had been on our own, which made us feel very nervous.”

The story does not end there. The two girls decided to carry on with the evening and, after drinking heavily, left in what was referred to as a drunken state to catch the last bus home. As they left the hall, to their surprise the car was waiting, parked outside. Once again we cannot understand, bearing in mind their emotive frightened and drunken state, that they would entertain being given a lift home. Even if they had believed these two ‘oriental’ men were just that, rather than anything bordering on the paranormal, why on earth would they have put themselves into danger?

However, they did get into the vehicle and remarked on the absences of engine noise, along with a strange slight odour. At some stage in the journey one of the girls asked to stop, as she felt sick. The car then pulled up outside a bus stop, and according to the two girls:

“We seemed to fall onto the floor and ended up rolling about in the curb, the car having disappeared.”

It was then said that the incident(s) involving the attention of the two suspicious men, frightened the two girls to such an extent that they stayed at home as much as they could, fearing what might happen further if they went out. The focus of the men’s attention was then switched to Mrs. ‘E’, who was out walking near the local post office, when:

“I was approached by these ‘men’. I was terrified. One of them spoke to me in a strange language. The dialogue seemed more like sums, or letters, than words. When the other man realised I couldn’t understand what was being said, he spoke to me saying, ‘Where is the beautiful lady?’ I didn’t know what he was talking about and ran into the post office, determined not to come out until they had gone.”

By this time Mrs. ‘E’ had sent the rock off to the coal museum, but was annoyed to discover that the recovery of the artefact - which was published in a local newspaper - had been attributed to a man who had found it, rather than her.

One evening, she noticed something crawling over the wall of the lounge. Whether there was a connection with everything else that had happened and what was going to happen is, of course, speculation.
“I got up to take a closer look and felt goose pimples all over my body. It was an insect, or looked like one. Its body was two inches long. It had many legs, no neck and stumpy head, which seemed to sink into its back. It was horrible. I took my slipper off and killed it, throwing it out in the bin.”

At this point in the proceedings, she was receiving a number of visits from the ‘Men in Black’ who were continually knocking on her door and asking for the ‘beautiful lady’. Once again, one wonders why she didn’t contact the Police and report this harassment, especially as we learnt, through her, that the two girls had been burgled. In addition to this, the girls claimed of being frightened after having seen a brilliant ruby red globe pass right through the wall of the house. This appears to have been the final straw for the two girls, who packed up and moved away to London.

“After the girls left, I was on my own and decided the only thing I could do was let the men in and allow them to search the flat for the ‘beautiful lady’. When they next tuned up, I allowed them in and they had a look around, but didn’t find anything. To my great relief, they left and didn’t bother me again.”

Over the next several months life went back to normal, and she began to settle into this new routine, but like many things in life, just when you thought things were normal, something happens to knock you out of that tranquil peace of mind. It began with the normality of a visit to the local park. By now her son was walking and holding onto the back of the pushchair. As the couple watched some children playing on the swings, separated by a wire fence, Mrs. ‘E’ noticed:

“…what looked like a rather large lady, walking towards us; at first I didn’t pay much attention, but then felt uneasy after smelling a strange odour in the air. The hairs on my arm began to stand up. I looked and saw that ‘she’ wasn’t walking, but actually gliding along the path. I was terrified and pulled my son close to me to protect him. Suddenly, everything seemed to standstill, as if time had stopped. Everything was moving very slowly. I turned to look at the woman, but she was now different. Her body was all afire and her hair flames. Her face was like that of a skull. The eyes were blazing red sockets.”

{At this stage Mrs. ‘E’ broke down and the interview had to be stopped for almost an hour, to allow her to recover her composure}

“As the monstrosity came closer, the odour became stronger. It smelt like sulphur and ammonia. I could hardly breathe. I thought I was going to die. I began to pray. I was so frightened and clutched my son close to me. It was almost touching me. The heat was stifling and impossible to breathe. I could feel myself passing out. Suddenly a brilliant white light seemed to cover me, blocking everything. When it faded away, so did the monstrosity. I never want to see that thing again. I know that if I do, I will die.”

Once again, life returned to normal. However, it was to change again when, during one evening, she was shocked to see a black shape appear on the lounge wall. Suddenly a hole appeared and she saw two men, wearing what looked like diving suits, waving at her. She was helped in by the two men; the next thing she knew was coming round in a small room. She had trouble focusing her eyes, but became aware of figures of men and women gazing down at her, and felt she should not worry. A bright object appeared above her head and two small ‘discs’ were placed in each side of her ears, two inches below the lobes, so that, she was told, ‘they could communicate with her’.

“After a few minutes I was helped off a couch, which I was on, and taken out of the room to a passageway and then through another door. My sight had cleared a little and I then saw the face of a blonde haired woman. She smiled at me and said, Magyar Hagar. I didn’t understand. She explained it meant teacher. I glanced around and saw what looked like babies high chairs - the ones they eat off. I was then taken over to where a large screen was placed. On this screen were many mathematical equations, which I couldn’t understand. I was then taken over to one of the ‘high chairs’ and placed inside one. I was then instructed to place my hand into an opening in front of the chair and to tell the ‘teacher’ what I thought it was. In the opening were placed organs of the body and I had to put them in the right order. I was then taken back to the other room and placed on the couch. When I woke up, I was back in my front room.”

Mrs. ‘E’ claimed she had been on the ‘ship’ many times, and was taught many things, and that there were other people from other planets, who were there to learn. She asked them what the monstrosity was (the woman in the park) and was told its name was Kalhoute.

Mrs. Anne West, who carried out research into the claims made, discovered that the dance hall had been pulled down years ago. The ‘rock’ could not be traced. Repeated attempts to interview the father of Mrs. ‘E’ proved unsuccessful. A cursory check of the witness’s ears failed to determine the presence of anything unusual.

Although we can see correlations with other incidents, involving complaints of interaction with presumed Alien species and allegations of abductions that will be found in the Volumes of Haunted Skies, we felt unwilling to form any judgment on what was alleged to have taken place, as fascinating as this account appeared to be.

In addition to this we were unsuccessful in tracing the current whereabouts of Anne West, in order to ascertain when and where this happened. We spoke to Geoffrey Ambler from Contact UK, in 2012 (known to us personally) hoping he might be able to put us in touch with Anne West. Unfortunately, this matter took place a couple of years before he became involved.

Was it all in the mind, rather than any fabrication? Unlikely, in our opinion, but we shall probably never know. However, we felt it was worth bringing to the attention of the reader, if only to contrast it with similarly described incidents, involving visits from the ‘Men in Black’. (Source: Awareness, Issue 4, 1985. Contact UK/Anne West/Francis Copeland, Contact UK)