FBI Wrapper For Serial 403
Serial 403 is one of the individually surfaced FBI records from headquarters file 62-HQ-83894 in PURSUE Release 01. The release metadata identifies it as FBI material, assigns no incident date or location, and places it within a larger case file described as UFO and flying-disc material from June 1947 through July 1968.1
The official PDF is a three-page scanned image record. Its opening page is a case-file wrapper labeled 62-HQ-83894, Serial 403, and FBI - Central Records Center, with a volume 1 serial entry and a declassification note derived from an FBI Automatic Declassification Guide issued May 24, 2007.2
Barker Book-Jacket Pages
The substantive pages preserve jacket imagery for Gray Barker's They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, published by University Books. The front-flap text presents Barker as a Clarksburg, West Virginia businessman who became interested in flying saucers after an alleged 1952 landing near his home, then turned that interest into saucer research and publishing.2
The jacket copy frames the book around researchers who challenged official denials, then allegedly stopped publishing or speaking after visits from three men in dark suits. It does not read like an FBI investigative conclusion; it reads as a preserved cultural artifact about the stories, anxieties, and publishing claims circulating around civilian saucer research.2
The rear-flap page includes Barker's portrait, identifies him as publisher of The Saucerian, and describes saucer research as a hobby that consumed more of his time as he came to see "the stark reality behind the mystery."2
Men-In-Black Folklore In The File
Serial 403 matters because it shows that 62-HQ-83894 did not only preserve sightings, field reports, and technical claims. It also retained the printed folklore and promotional literature that helped shape how the public understood flying saucers, secrecy, and the emerging men-in-black theme.12
Within PURSUE Release 01, this small serial is therefore useful as provenance: the origin point is not an observed incident but a commercial book jacket, copied into an FBI headquarters file. That makes it evidence of the Bureau's collection context around civilian UFO culture, not evidence that the book's claims were independently verified by the FBI.2
Scanned Serial PDF
65_hs1-834228961_62-hq-83894_serial_403.pdf