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ufo's flying saucers in the bender

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mystery by charles lear

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in the early days of the flying saucer

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mystery the us air force was the only

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organization doing any sort of

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significant investigation

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then in 1952 a number of private groups

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were organized

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and the first citizen investigators went

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into the field and endeavored to solve

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the mystery for themselves

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the first of these to rise to global

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attention was the international flying

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saucer bureau founded by albert k

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bender they put out a quarterly

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publication called space review

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and were taken seriously by their fellow

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enthusiasts they didn't last long

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however as bender put an end to his

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creation in 1953

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after telling his followers he had

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solved the mystery he later informed

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them

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he'd been visited by three men wearing

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black suits and hamburg hats

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who'd threatened him into keeping silent

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about his discovery

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the mythos of the men in black entered

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flying saucer lore

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and the bender mystery became a subject

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that is still being debated today

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albert k bender was born on july 16 1921

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in doria pennsylvania

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what the k stood for seems to be a part

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of the mystery

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he served stateside as a dental

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technician in the u.s army air forces

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from june 8 1942 to october 7

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1943 he was stationed at langley field

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virginia

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after his service he moved to bridgeport

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connecticut with his mother and

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stepfather

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his mother died shortly thereafter

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bender lived in the attic which had a

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bedroom and a den

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he was employed as the chief time keeper

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at the acme shear company

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it may have been a conscious nod to his

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profession or just an ironic coincidence

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but bender had 20 clocks in his living

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space that would all ring

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chime and clang every 15 minutes the

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clocks were just one of the many

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manifestations of bender's eccentric

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nature

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that increasingly expressed itself as he

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entered his late twenties

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he was a fan of horror movies ghost

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stories and the occult

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he adorned his attic space with

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halloween decorations fake skulls

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shrunken heads rubber spiders and snakes

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and his own

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macabre paintings when friends came over

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he put on recordings of spooky noises

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and enjoyed showing off what he called

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his chamber of horrors

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his offbeat interests in living space

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were interesting enough that an article

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was written about him

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and published in the may 25th 1952

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sunday herald a local bridgeport

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newspaper

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flying saucers were added to bender's

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list of interests and they eventually

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became as chief interest

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bender and some friends formed the ifsb

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in april 1952

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and its membership quickly grew beyond

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the borders of connecticut

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the first space review put out in

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october 1952

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included a list of representatives in 14

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states and one in ontario canada

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bender had a letter announcing the

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formation of the group published in the

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december 1952

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issue of the ray palmer publication

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other worlds

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the letter captured the attention of

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flatwoods monster investigator

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gray barker who contacted bender and

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expressed his desire to become a member

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bender convinced him to become the state

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representative for west virginia

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barker would later become the chief

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investigator for the organization

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and he became good friends with many in

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the group by this time the group had

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lived up to its name and was truly

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international

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there were chapters in south america

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europe and the ifsp

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was in contact with newly formed

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organizations in australia and new

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zealand

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they inspired people all around the

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world to form their own groups

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and civilian investigators were here to

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stay the ifsp however

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was not barker wrote about the events

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leading to its demise in his 1956 book

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they knew too much about flying saucers

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according to barker in his

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book he received a letter from bender

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dated september 16

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1953 it contained the mysterious

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instruction not to accept any more

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memberships

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until he'd seen the october issue of

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space review he then received a letter

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on tape from new jersey based member

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dominic lucesi this was common among

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members as according to barker

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a saucer investigator without a tape

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recorder is considered

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almost a non-entity lechesi described

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being present when fellow member august

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c

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review

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after october bender then said he

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discovered the secret of flying discs

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and told roberts about the visit by the

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three men

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he said they confiscated his copies of

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back issues of the magazine

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and as an american citizen he was sworn

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to secrecy about his discovery

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in the october 1953 space review bender

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announced

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the mystery of flying saucers is no

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longer a mystery

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he apologized for not being able to

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elaborate saying because of the nature

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of the information we have been advised

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in the negative

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barker got in touch with roberts and

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suggested roberts and lucey go to

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connecticut

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and speak to bender in person barker

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emphasized it was important they

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remember everything that was said

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they were sure bender wouldn't allow a

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tape recorder or a notepad

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and barker suggested robert should slip

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away to the bathroom periodically

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where he could make notes unseen he

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could tell bender he'd taken a laxative

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or had bowel issues roberts complained

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he wasn't a good actor

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and barker suggested he should actually

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take a laxative

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roberts and lucy interviewed bender and

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while they didn't get the answer to the

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mystery

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they did get some interesting replies to

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some of their questions

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he told them the government had known

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what the saucers were for two years

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and if they didn't tell the public in

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the next five months it would be four

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years before they did so

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after the october 1953 issue only three

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more issues of space review were

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published

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these were for members that didn't want

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refunds flying saucers were not even

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mentioned

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and the articles focused solely on space

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the ifsp

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was closed barca was putting out his own

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magazine the sausarian

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and he reached out to his readers to

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help him solve the bender mystery

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some of them speculated but no one came

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up with a convincing explanation

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the aerial phenomena research

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organization had formed in the fall of

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1951 just prior to ifsb

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apro's director coral lorenzen offered

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the suggestion

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in the november 15 1953 apro bulletin

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that a pulp magazine publisher ray

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palmer had been funding ifsb

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and had backed out lorenzen reasoned

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that with no funds to run the

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organization

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bender had made up the story in order to

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be done with it barker assures the

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reader in his book

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that this was not the case david houchin

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curator of the gray barker collection at

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the clarksburg harrison public library

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in west virginia

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came up with a theory during a great

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barker tribute on the radio show

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exploring the bazaar houchin presents a

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scenario based on two letters to bender

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that are housed in the collection

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according to him a man in clarksburg

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suffered an epileptic seizure

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and was taken to the hospital someone

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had taken his wallet

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but he had barker's ifsb business card

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on him

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an official visited barker and

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interviewed him in an attempt to

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identify the man

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barker claims in his book that the

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official showed him fbi credentials

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while halton feels he was probably a

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local police detective

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barker got paranoid called bender and

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got no answer

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because bender was on vacation he then

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wrote to bender that he'd been

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investigated

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by the fbi and others should expect the

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same

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barker also called washington d.c based

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member

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reverend s l dawg and gave him the same

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information

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doll had been seeing flying saucers

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everywhere was taking pictures

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and some of them were taken at a

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restricted site the day after barker

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called him

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three actual fbi agents visited him and

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he wrote a letter to bender to tell him

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about it

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bender came back from his vacation to

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find barkers and dawe's letter waiting

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for him

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houchin suggests this panic bender and

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he adopted dawe's three-man scenario as

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an excuse to shut down the organization

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barker played up the paranoia in his

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book and the mib mythos took

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root bender wrote his own book flying

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saucers and the three men

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which was published by barker through

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his salsarian books in 1962.

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in bender's book the three men become

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three ethereal creatures with glowing

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eyes from the planet chaoc

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spelled k-a-z-i-k silent z

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could chaoc have been what the

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mysterious k stood for in bender's name

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bender's book was met with dubiousness

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by most in the flying saucer community

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there are now three major speculations

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making the rounds in ufological and

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paranormal discussions

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on radio the web and in literature one

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is that bender came up with a story to

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get out of the flying saucer business

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one is that he was visited by mib of

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either governmental

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or extraterrestrial origin and the third

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is that his interest in the occult

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caused him to call up some entities he

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couldn't get rid of

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where one comes down on the bender

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mystery is a good indication of one's

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place in the world of the paranormal