The Birth of the Black-Eyed Kids | Brian Bethel’s Terrifying Encounter (SITS CLASSIC)

Summary

In 1996, Texas journalist Brian Bethel was approached in a movie theater parking lot in Abilene by two boys with completely black eyes who repeatedly asked to be let into his car. His written account, shared on a ghost-story email list and the Usenet group alt.folklore.ghoststories in 1997, went viral and launched the worldwide Black-Eyed Kids phenomenon. Bethel recounts the encounter in detail, answers skeptics, and reflects on what these beings might be and why they need to be invited in.

Key takeaways

• 1Brian Bethel's encounter took place around 9:50 PM outside a theater on North First Street in Abilene, Texas, while the theater was showing Mortal Kombat.
• 2The 'spokesman' boy said, 'We don't have a gun or anything,' and later, 'We can't come inside your car unless you tell us it's okay.'
• 3Bethel says the boys vanished from an open parking lot within seconds, and he describes time seeming to slow and background noise disappearing during the encounter.
• 4A woman who claimed psychic ability asked whether the kids had all-black eyes before Bethel mentioned it, and told him he would have been killed if he had let them in.
• 5Bethel's account was first sent to a small ghost-story email listserv around July or August 1997, then posted to the Usenet group alt.folklore.ghoststories, where it spread widely.
• 6Bethel cites secondhand stories of people who let the kids in and later suffered illness resembling radiation sickness, with a black car arriving to collect the kids (a possible Men in Black link), plus a claimed fatal car accident in Portland, Oregon.
• 7Bethel rejects the prank-with-contact-lenses explanation, citing the cost and rarity of such lenses at the time and his failed attempts to recreate the scene. He leans toward an extradimensional or ultraterrestrial explanation.
• 8Aftershock Comics released a 'B.E.K.' comic series, and Bethel collects new reports at BEKreports@gmail.com.

Glossary terms

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Transcript excerpt

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Excerpt from Somewhere in the Skies, Oct 16, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.