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.â€
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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