Today, Pamela Kinney joins us at Paranormal Watch to talk about her latest book, Haunted Richmond.

Welcome, Pamela!

Thank you for interviewing me, Deborah.

We would love to get to know you. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m an author, as Pamela K. Kinney for not only Haunted Richmond, Virginia, but of horror, science fiction and fantasy fiction too. I also write under the pseudonym, Sapphire Phelan, for erotic and sweet paranormal, fantasy and science fiction romance.

I’m happily married—was thirty-one years as of March 12th, have an adult son who will soon be 30 years old, and am owned by two cats (both females), Bast and Ripley. I joined a few months ago, a local paranormal ghost group called Virginia Society for Paranormal Education and Research, and actually done some ghost hunting.

What attracted you to the paranormal and to Richmond, Virginia?

I live in Chesterfield, a suburb of Richmond, so I got to know a lot of the local ghost stories and legends. And I always was into the paranormal, growing up in a family where seeing ghosts were the norm and having a mother who would have dreams that came true exactly on the date she said would. This just made me curious about the paranormal and I started reading books by Hans Holzer and others.

Have you ever seen a ghost? If so, will you share the circumstances of this encounter with us?

Many times. One that I mentioned about in my book’s intro happened years ago and appeared solid just liked you and me. This happened at the Whaley House in San Diego. I was in high school, on a field trip for my geography class. A girlfriend, Debbie Noonan and I, couldn’t afford to take a tour of the place, so after eating at Taco Bell across the street, decided we would check it out by looking through the windows. While Debbie stared through the one that looked into the hallway, I glanced through the one that looked into the courtroom. A tiny lady in an old-fashioned dress and her dark hair in a bun walked between the aisles to the doorway and she was about pass through it. I ran over to Debbie’s window to catch her, but she never came through. Later we saw the front door open and walk up to a couple ladies sitting at a desk, and asked, “Where’s the tour guide in the costume?” One lady said that they didn’t wear costumes. Then I was asked to describe the woman and after I did, was told I had seen the ghost of Mrs. Whaley. Anyone interested, can learn more about this cool haunted house/museum at http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/ca/whaley_house.cfm . Mrs. Whaley isn’t the only ghost seem there.
Other ghosts I’ve seen was the nasty man I also mention in my intro chapter of my book, he haunted a place my husband and I had rented in El Cajon, California. In college my father passed away and I never saw him, but he haunted the duplex my parents and I lived in for three days after he died. After his funeral, the hauntings stopped. My mother claimed to have seen him.

Have you visited the places you talked about in Haunted Richmond? What was your favorite place to visit?

Most of them. The Jackson Ward one is not a safe place to visit these days and besides, I never an address to the house so wouldn’t been able to trace it down, if it was still there. I’ve been to Hollywood Cemetery and it’s a gorgeous place and I enjoyed it. My other favorite places were Shockoe Bottom, Wrexham Hall (that’s nearby where I live—I can walk to it), Centre Hill Mansion in Petersburg, Byrd Theatre, and Crab Louie’s (it has good food).

Do you have a must-see location that you would like to visit in the future? If so, what is it about that place that attracts you?

Gettysburg battlefield, as I heard loads of paranormal stuff going on there. The British Isles, as I always wanted to go there as a tourist, esp. Ireland, as both great-grandfathers on my father’s side came from there. I ate up and still do, all the ghost books set in Ireland, England and Scotland. I would love to stay in an English haunted castle. There are also places in Virginia I like to visit as I am contracted to write another book on Virginia, this time on folklore, myths and legends of the state for Schiffer. I plan to this summer so can finish the book then and even take some pictures for it.

Where can readers find a copy of your book?

Haunted Richmond, Virginia can be found at Barnes and Noble bookstores and Borders too, plus local, independent bookstores. Actually any bookstore, long as they can order, can get the book in. Here’s the ISBN: 978-0-7643-2712-4. Only Books a Million doesn’t carry them in store, but the book can be ordered at the bookstore and shipped to the your home.
Online (though I’ve seen other places on line, and even at eBay stores too):
Schiffer Books
Amazon.com

Amazon.com.uk

Barnes&Noble

Do you have a website or a blog where we can learn more about your books and your experiences with the paranormal?

http://FantasticDreams.50megs.com is my website. http://PamelaKKinney.blogspot.com and I have a myspace at http://www.myspace.com/PamelaKKinney.

Thank you for visiting us, Pamela. It was a pleasure having you. Best wishes for the success of your book.

I was very young when I saw the made-for-TV movie, The UFO Incident, which starred Estelle Parsons and James Earl Jones. The scene where Jones was hypnotized continues to haunt me to this day. Since then, I’ve read several books about UFO abduction cases and am in the middle of reading this latest book, Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience. The following is an interview with Kathleen Marden, niece of Betty Hill and co-author of Captured.

1. Why did you decide to write Captured!, when the Betty and Barney Hill 1961, UFO abduction has been mentioned in so many books and articles?

Actually, up until this year only one book has provided the reader with a fairly complete and accurate account of the Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience. That was The Interrupted Journey by John Fuller, a New York Times best-seller released in 1966. It focused primarily upon the Hills’ close encounter with an unconventional craft in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, their amnesia in conjunction with a period of missing time, and the hypnosis sessions with neurologist/psychiatrist Dr. Benjamin Simon, whose excellent reputation was built upon his success in the treatment of amnesia and conversion hysteria through the use of hypnosis.

Subsequently, over a period that spanned forty years, other books and articles addressed various issues in the Hill case. However, too often, accurate detailed information was omitted and replaced by false and misleading propaganda released by so-called skeptical writers. This misinformation, or some would call it disinformation, has been blindly accepted by many scientists and members of the mainstream media who have been deceived by debunkers who do their research by proclamation, not investigation.

To add to the muddied waters, over time, Betty’s memory of the UFO experience morphed as a result of the normal adaptive process that is characteristic of one’s recall of events long ago. This misinformation, unwittingly disseminated by Betty, has been published in recent years contributing to the creation of a modern myth.

My decision to write Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience was made, in part, due to the vast amount of solid, accurate, scientific research conducted by early investigators such as NICAP’s Walter Webb. Additionally, I found hundreds if not thousands of pages of letters, diary entries, memoirs, technical reports and scientific research meticulously done on the case. Most of this information has never been released to the public.

Then, in 1996, I hit pay dirt when Betty gave me a copy of the audiotapes of Barney’s and her separate hypnosis sessions with Dr. Benjamin Simon. I transcribed the tapes for comparative analysis, and when I examined the Hills’ individual testimony; I discovered that an abundance of information had never been made public. John Fuller had included the more emotionally charged excerpts of the Hills ’ hypnosis sessions in the Interrupted Journey, but often they were a combination of accurate and inaccurate information. I discovered that Dr. Simon had asked Betty and Barney the same questions 2, 3, 4, or even 5 times. With each new query about a specific event Dr. Simon was able to elicit more accurate information than he had during the emotionally charged sessions. It was only in the retelling of the event over and over again that an accurate and consistent picture emerged, and that story has never been told.

In order to confirm or refute Dr. Simon’s hypothesis that Barney had absorbed Betty’s dream material I conducted a comparative analysis of the hypnosis transcripts versus her five page “Dreams or Recall?” paper written in November, 1961. Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience provides the reader with a fresh look at all of the never before revealed information pertaining to the Hill case and it examines old information in a new context.

2. What were the Hills doing on the night they encountered a UFO? Briefly describe what they saw? What made it unusual?

Betty and Barney were returning home from an extended weekend vacation in Niagara Falls and Canada. They had planned to spend the night in Montreal, but as they were searching for a motel on the outskirts of the city, Barney decided to drive on to New Hampshire. At some point along the route they heard that a hurricane was coming up the coast, so they felt it was important to arrive home before the hurricane hit. This meant that Barney would have to drive during the night. But they agreed that if he became tired they would stop at a motel.

He’d had a good night’s sleep the previous night and a pleasant day in Montreal. Because he felt refreshed and energetic he continued to drive on through New Hampshire’s Wilderness and White Mountain regions. In the Groveton/Lancaster area Betty spotted what at first glance appeared to be a satellite or a shooting star, only it shot upward. As she watched it, the perplexing light increased in size and seemed to slowly descend in her direction. Finally she told Barney about her observation and requested that he stop the car for a closer look.

Just south of Twin Mountain, through binoculars she observed its unconventional appearance as it passed in front of the moon flashing long points of multicolored light. When Barney viewed it through binoculars it reminded him of a large aircraft coming in for a landing, only it was silent. Returning to their vehicle they traveled on through the 10 miles or so of Franconia Notch, a narrow cut through the mountains. Over the next several minutes, the object descended to a position just above the mountaintops; and sometimes it dropped down in front of or behind the mountain peaks.

Barney halted the car momentarily from time to time to get a better look at the enigmatic craft, and once, pulled to the side of the road for an unencumbered observation. It was then that he was able to notice the stair-step flight pattern—the rotation—the blue-white lights—and the fact that it was completely silent, although it descended to approximately 1000 feet. Betty’s description was identical to Barney’s, allowing for individual differences in phraseology.

Then, only three miles south of the Franconia Notch the object suddenly stopped spinning and shifted ahead of Betty and Barney. Barney stopped the car directly in the middle of the road and jumped out to look at the craft. The elliptical object was now hovering only 80-100 feet above the car and a red right parted from each side of it. Almost immediately, it left its position and in a gliding motion, it shifted to an adjacent field. Fascinated, Barney walked toward it and through his binoculars observed 8-11 humanoid figures peering down at him.

Suddenly, with military precision, all but one moved toward what Barney thought was a control panel. Next, short bat-like wings began to slide out of each end of the craft and something dropped down through its bottom. At that moment, the figure in the window communicated a frightening message to Barney to stay there and just keep looking. He seemed to be losing the ability to carry out self initiated action and this loss of control frightened him immensely. But he managed to pull the binoculars down from his eyes, breaking the strap in the process, and flee toward his vehicle where Betty awaited his return. Hysterically laughing or weeping (Betty couldn’t determine which it was), Barney informed her that they were going to be captured. Barney shifted into first gear and hit the accelerator. As he sped down U.S. Route 3 the object, which had glided overhead, seemed to emit a series of code-like buzzing or electrical beeping sounds that caused the car to vibrate.

Soon, the object seemed to have left the area and the Hills continued along their route home to Portsmouth. However, without explanation Barney suddenly made a sharp left turn over a steel frame bridge twelve miles south of the field. He drove along NH State Highway 175 for approximately four miles before turning back toward U.S. Route 3 toward Plymouth and Ashland. Near Ashland, as far as they could recall, they observed a fiery red-orange orb behind a stand of trees. Next, they heard another series of buzzing/beeping sounds. Barney stopped the car and drove from side to side in a futile attempt to reproduce the enigmatic sounds. Betty asked Barney, “Now do you believe in flying saucers?” And he, being a confirmed skeptic and unwilling to admit that he had observed one at close range replied, “Don’t be ridiculous. That wasn’t a flying saucer.”

Their arrival home was a little later than they had anticipated, even allowing for slow driving and stops during the period of observation. Later that day they reported their UFO encounter to Betty’s family and Pease Air Force Base. A formal Air Intelligence report was made on 9/21/1961.

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