They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers: Gray Barker's Book in the FBI Files

Source file: 65_hs1-834228961_62-hq-83894_serial_403.pdf Originating agency: FBI (Record Group 65) — Case File 62-HQ-83894 Date range: 1950s (the document itself was released under the FBI's automatic declassification schedule of May 24, 2007) Page count: 3 (all read) High-significance pages: page 2 (book cover and publisher summary), page 3 (rear jacket and author page)

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Official Blurb (from war.gov)

The FBI's 62-HQ-83894 case file includes investigative records, eyewitness testimonies, and public reports concerning Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs documented between June 1947 and July 1968. The records include high-profile incident accounts, photographic evidence from sites like Oak Ridge, TN, and technical proposals regarding potential propulsion systems. Additional topics include convention programs, researcher accounts, and extensive media coverage from the period. This file is partially posted on FBI vault with more redactions and some pages missing. Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions.

Summary

Serial 403 in the FBI's central flying discs case file (62-HQ-83894) is of an unusual character: it is not a classic investigation report or agency correspondence, but a photographic reproduction of the cover, jacket copy, and author page of the book "They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers" by Gray Barker, published by University Books, Inc., New York. The very fact that the Bureau retained a copy of a civilian publication in an official investigative file reveals that the FBI tracked civilian literature on flying saucers and monitored individuals who promoted claims that the government was concealing information. The book itself presents the "Men in Black" mythology — the silencing of researchers by dark-suited visitors — and the broader phenomenon of researcher intimidation, motifs that the FBI found worth documenting and preserving.

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Research Article

Introduction

Among the FBI documents disclosed in 2026 under the UAP document release is a surprising item: Serial 403 in the central flying discs case file (62-HQ-83894) contains no field report, eyewitness statement, or intelligence analysis. Instead it contains a full photographic reproduction of a book's cover, jacket flap, and author photograph. The book is "They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers" by Gray Barker, published by University Books, Inc., at 404 Fourth Avenue, New York 16, N.Y., priced at $3.50. That simple fact — the FBI preserving a copy of a civilian publication in an official investigative file — says much about the nature of government involvement in the topic.

The Book and Its Author: Gray Barker

Gray Barker was a businessman from Clarksburg, West Virginia, who ran a film booking agency and wrote for the local Clarksburg News. Until 1952 he had no interest in flying saucers, but that year he encountered an incident that allegedly occurred near his home — one of the "most astonishing" flying saucers that had apparently landed close by. He investigated the story and found the "shaken and fearful eyewitnesses convincing enough to go on with further investigations."

From that point on, Barker became one of the most prominent figures in American flying-saucer research. He launched a periodical called The Saucerian and wrote for trade publications in the film industry. His book was written after several years of contact with leading figures in the field — figures who he claimed were being silenced one by one.

"The Men in Black" and the Silencing Phenomenon

The book's central claim, as set out in the publisher's jacket copy, is that prominent flying saucer researchers who had challenged the government's denial of extraterrestrial origins "have been silenced." According to Barker, this silencing was not physical but psychological: those researchers ceased publishing their findings and refused to discuss flying saucers further or explain their silence.

The agent of silencing, in Barker's account, was a visit by "three men in dark suits" who appeared at the researchers' homes. The visitors' identities remained unknown, and Barker offered several possibilities: government agents, extraterrestrial beings, or some third party. The essence of the story is defined as "the true account of what happened to certain researchers who discovered where the saucers come from."

The "Men in Black" (MIB) phenomenon that Barker described became one of the most enduring motifs in American flying-saucer culture. His book is among the earliest published sources to have documented this trope in the 1950s.

H.G. Rhawn and the Commercial Endorsement

The front jacket copy includes an interesting detail: H.G. Rhawn, publisher and owner of the Clarksburg News — the newspaper of Barker's hometown — authorized University Books to publish a letter from him. The letter, as described, "carefully dissociates itself from any belief in flying saucers" while arriving at the conclusion that when a man as level-headed and commercially successful as Barker finds the subject important enough to write about, flying saucers deserve serious investigation. This combination of official skepticism and implied encouragement characterized many credible-source responses to the topic in the 1950s.

Why the FBI's Retention of This Document Matters

The presence of this book in case file 62-HQ-83894 suggests several important findings:

First, the FBI monitored civilian literature on flying saucers. The main file was not limited to government reports or internal correspondence; it included surveillance of what the general public was reading and publishing. The Bureau incorporated items such as book covers and publisher summaries into its official record.

Second, Barker himself and his claims about the silencing of researchers were sufficient to attract Bureau interest to the point that an item connected to his book is retained in the central file. If the book entered the file, it is reasonable to infer the Bureau was tracking Barker as a prominent figure in the flying-saucer community.

Third, the retention of material of this type in an "EBF" (external buffer between internal files and outside items) indicates a systematic process by which external materials relevant to the Bureau's inquiry were integrated into the main file.

Fourth, the FBI retained the document without annotation or substantive commentary. There is no handwritten note, no clear "CLASSIFIED" stamp, and no attached analysis visible on the pages available. The book — or a photograph of its cover — is preserved as a factual item to be identified and stored in the file.

Historical Context

The 1950s were a period of intense popular interest in flying saucers and of tension between the government and civilian research communities. The FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, monitored movements and individuals suspected of spreading disinformation or alarming the public. Whether Barker was considered a genuine threat or merely a subject of cultural interest is not known.

The book was published by University Books, Inc., a house that specialized in fringe-but-serious subjects of the era, including psychiatric literature, parapsychology, and boundary phenomena. That fact lent the publication a degree of commercial credibility. The $3.50 price was reasonable for a hardcover in the mid-1950s, indicating the book was aimed at a broad audience rather than only collectors or specialists.

Summary

This FBI document — ostensibly "just" a book cover — presents a deeper layer of the interaction between the Bureau and civilian UAP literature in the 1950s. The FBI was not passive but active in monitoring what was printed and circulated. Gray Barker, who became one of the most insistent voices claiming the government was concealing information about flying saucers and silencing researchers, was known to the agency.

The retention of this item in the official file reminds us that the FBI's involvement with flying saucers was not one-dimensional: alongside witness interrogations and correspondence with the Air Force, the Bureau also monitored civilian literature, the public narrative, and the figures who shaped it. Barker, with his book about "the Men in Black" and the silencing of researchers, was precisely the kind of voice the FBI found worth documenting.

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Key People

• Gray Barker — Book's author; businessman from Clarksburg, West Virginia; editor of The Saucerian; civilian flying-saucer researcher
• H.G. Rhawn — Publisher and owner of the Clarksburg News; wrote a letter of support to the publishing house

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Locations

• Clarksburg, West Virginia — Barker's hometown; site of the 1952 incident that drew him into research
• New York, New York — Location of University Books, Inc. (404 Fourth Avenue, New York 16, N.Y.)
• Washington, D.C. — FBI headquarters, where the file is held

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Incidents

Incident	Date	Location	Pages
Flying saucer landing near Barker's home (as claimed)	1952	Near Clarksburg, West Virginia	2
Visits by "three men in dark suits" to flying-saucer researchers	1950s (not precisely dated)	Not specified	2
Silencing of leading flying-saucer researchers	1950s (not precisely dated)	United States (general)	2

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Notable Quotes

"One by one, the leading figures among flying saucer researchers, who have challenged the government denial that saucers come from outer space, have been silenced." — page 2

"Three men in dark suits have visited these saucer researchers. Nobody knows what they said, but it was enough to reduce their hearers to silence." — page 2

"They might be government agents, they might even be men from outer space, or they might have muscled into a situation fraught with many possibilities." — page 2

"Mr. Barker never was interested in flying saucers until 1952 when one of the most astonishing ones allegedly landed near his home in West Virginia and he investigated the story and found the shaken and fearful eye witnesses convincing enough to go on with further investigations." — page 2