FBI UFO file: Gray Barker book jacket, Serial 403
Official file: 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_403
Published · Updated
Key facts
- Document type
- Document
- Agency
- FBI
- Released in
- R01 · 2026-05-08
- Incident date
- not indicated
- Incident location
- N/A
- Pages legible
- 2/3
- VIRIN
- 260508-O-D0360-1017
Official description
Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions.
About this type of document
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.
See the glossary →✦ AI summary
FBI Central Records Center file 62-HQ-83894, Serial 403, a 3-page item. Page 1 is the file-folder cover sheet; pages 2 and 3 carry the front and back flap text of the dust jacket of "They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers" by Gray Barker (University Books, Inc., New York; $3.50). The jacket copy says that, one by one, leading flying-saucer researchers who challenged the government denial that saucers come from outer space have been silenced after visits from "three men in dark suits"; it says nobody knows who these visitors are and that they might be government agents, men from outer space, or others. It describes Barker as a Clarksburg, West Virginia, businessman with a film booking and buying agency who, it says, became interested in flying saucers in 1952 when one allegedly landed near his home and he found the shaken eyewitnesses convincing; it adds that he publishes the periodical The Saucerian. It states that H. G. Rhawn, publisher and owner of the daily Clarksburg News, authorized University Books to publish a letter from him which, while carefully disclaiming any credence in flying saucers, concludes that they deserve serious investigation when so sober a businessman finds the field important enough; the letter itself is not in the file. The back flap calls the book a behind-the-scenes chronicle of civilian saucer research and lists Barker's earlier jobs (head of an English department in a Maryland school system, audio-visual consultant, theatre manager, projection technician). The file contains no FBI commentary on the jacket text.
Generated with AI from the official file — may contain errors.
▸Transcript(2 of 3 pages legible)
[PAGE 1] [Diagram: orange file-folder/envelope cover sheet, torn at top. Label: "62- [HQ-83894] Serial 403 EBF" with barcode "62-HQ-83894-E403" and a red "X". Second label: "FBI - CENTRAL RECORDS CENTER / HQ - HEADQUARTERS" with table Class/Case# 0062 83894, Sub [blank], Vol. 1, Serial# 403, "ONLY"; "9/18/226771" with barcode "RRP00AI1WL". Printed text partly obscured by the label: "DO NOT DESTROY", "[D]IPA # 1142292" (handwritten). Handwritten in red/black at bottom: "62-83894-403". Blue caption box: "Declassification authority derived from FBI Automatic Declassification Guide, issued May 24, 2007."][PAGE 2] $3.50 They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers by GRAY BARKER 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. Outwardly, nothing seems to have happened to these men. They are still alive, still living where they used to. But they no longer publish saucer research material and they will not talk about saucers or why they no longer will speak of them. Three men in dark suits have visited these saucer researchers. Nobody knows what they said, but it was enough to reduce their bearers to silence. Perhaps the silenced men know who the three dark-clad visitors are, but they won't talk about this either. And nobody else seems to know who these men are. 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. This is part of the true story told by an otherwise prosaic and successful Clarksburg, West Virginia, business man, Gray Barker, whose busy film booking and buying agency in Clarksburg News Building scarcely seems to be the place to give forth this story stranger than that of any of the pictures that Mr. Barker is booking. 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. Then, after several years of close contact with the leading men in the field, he found them suddenly silenced, one by one. Who they are, what they were doing when they were silenced, Mr. Barker's astonishing theories of what they had discovered that impelled others to silence them, is told in his book. H. G. Rhawn, publisher and owner of the daily Clarksburg News, the author's home town paper, has authorized University Books to publish a letter from him which, while carefully disclaiming any credence in flying saucers, concludes that when so sober and successful a business man as Mr. Barker finds the field important enough, flying saucers deserve serious investigation. They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers is a (continued on back flap) JACKET BY GROPPER ASSOCIATES, INC. [PAGE 3] GRAY BARKER (continued from front flap) behind-the-scenes chronicle of civilian saucer research. It is an immensely readable book. We suggest you do not pick it up if you have work to do, for you will be unable to put it down until you reach the amazing climax. Mr. Barker tells the story in such a straightforward and documentary manner that the reader's first moment of incredulity will give way to conviction as he is acquainted, page-by-page, with the terrifying inside facts. A six-footer, handsome, and with a warm, infectious laugh, Mr. Barker retains in his voice just a trace of the accent of the West Virginia farming country where he grew up, somewhat belying the rich and varied career he has crammed into his thirty years. He has been head of an English department in a Maryland school system, an audio-visual education consultant for a large school supplier, theatre manager and motion picture projection technician. Begun as a hobby, saucer research has taken more and more of his time as he has realized the stark reality behind the mystery. Finding time for his literary career between details of operating his business, he publishes The Saucerian, a flying saucer periodical, and contributes to educational journals and motion picture technical magazines. UNIVERSITY BOOKS, INC 404 Fourth Avenue New York 16, N. Y.
Generated with AI from the official file — may contain errors.
Source: U.S. Department of War / AARO — public domain · war.gov/ufo