So, having found an active link to this rare, out-of-print book I treated myself to some bank holiday reading. All I knew about the case beforehand was:
1. The short television clip:
https://www.macearchive.org/films/atv-today-02121980-ufo-abduction
2. Short articles, e.g.:
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/1...vale-feature-new-book-veiled-vale-mike-white/
3. The excellent four-part podcast from Saucer Life:
https://saucerlife.com/2021/11/05/the-janos-people-part-1/
It has been this podcast based on the book by Frank Johnson that really opened my eyes to this case and my thoughts have evolved somewhat. What quickly became apparent is how little we know about the author and the family:
The author: Frank Johnson is a retired biologist with 'an interest in extraterrestrial biology.' We are not told why the Mann family chose him to write their account of what happened that night or what fees might have been charged for his services.
The family: John and his wife Gloria, his sister Frances and their two young children Natasha (5) and Tanya (3) who live near Gloucester. We are told these are pseudonyms and the surname 'Mann' isn't mentioned but is later used in the ATV clip in 1980. Again, that it all we know but there is a photo of the family in the book that matches the family who give the short interview to ATV in which they promote Frank's book
Yet we are provided with reams of meticulous details about the Janos people, their planet and their spaceships. In fact, the book begins by describing the Janos people's biology and history before we have even met the Mann family, and so it goes on...
The podcast spells it out very well and as in most 20th Century CE3/contact cases it is inevitably exposed as fiction as the evidence obtained through hypnosis speaks of anachronistic control panels and machinery on the flying saucer. For example, as the flying saucer powers-up for flight, the Janos pilot peers anxiously at a circular gauge with needle (!) and explains to John it measures the power output and they have to be careful not to overload the engine (shades of Star Trek, anyone?). Then we have a box on the floor with mesh on its sides that the Janos speak into to communicate with the rest of the crew (to be fair this was 1978 and it wasn't until 1979 that Kate Bush pioneered the wireless microphone:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_microphone).
Then you have the Janos people wearing the 'space pyjamas' as popularised by Star Trek and other space-based science-fiction of the 60s and 70s, *sigh*. Curiously, Frank relates how attractive the female Janos were in these tight-fitting garments, drawing attention to their slender bodies and "small breasts". Yet when the male Janos are depicted wearing "swim trunks" in a film shown to the abductees, there is no mention of any visible bulge caused by the reproductive organs of the males, or indeed any other attributes of the male physique, curious eh...?
So sadly the evidence points to the interior of the flying saucer and the Janos people being fiction drawing on contemporary science fiction and reimagined through hypnosis. But that leaves what happened before they entered the flying saucer, a narrative heavily based on the Betty and Barney Hill testimony. In fact, almost word-for-word as the sequence of 'light in the sky moves through to 'large craft above the road and 'people' looking down at them the windows' makes it difficult to accept. To my mind, this isn't a book about the Mann family meeting the Janos people one night, it is about the Janos people meeting the Mann family. Retired biologist Frank Johnson is clearly indulging himself in his own fantasy about a race of extraterrestrials and the human Mann* family merely serve as vehicles to deliver this fantasy. (*note the name Mann: the Janos people meet Man(n)).
Which leads to me two possible conclusions; the Mann family were hopelessly exploited by a fantasist who took their story for this own personal fantasy, or the Mann family are also a fiction of his imagination. As regards the latter point, all we have is a photo and a brief TV interview with a family using pseudonyms and doing so to promote Johnson's book, and that is about it unless anyone knows any different? Are they a real family or are they actors hired by Johnson to play the roles of the 'anonymous' family? Did he neglect to mention this to ATV? After all, why would a family who desire anonymity go on national television? Moreover, I find it curious that in the age of the
News of the World the family could expect to stay anonymous despite showing their faces and revealing the approximate location of where they live, as surely in the 70s a quick tour of the local pubs by a half-decent reporter would soon reveal their true identity.
Well, it is just a theory and I heard mention of Jenny Randles in the podcast, does anyone know if she met the family...?