Betty and Barney Hill

Were Betty and Barney Hill Really Abducted by Humanoid Aliens?

February 27, 2021
ExoNews Editor

Article by Aharon Abhishek February 10, 2021 (meaww.com)

• One night in September 1961, New Hampshire residents Betty and Barney Hill (pictured above) were abducted while driving on an interstate road. According to their first hand accounts, dream writings and hypnotic regression, they were taken by two small alien beings who were “nearly human” with huge dark eyes, noses, and black hair. They stood about five feet tall and wore matching blue uniforms. Their skin was gray. Barney told Walter Webb, an investigator with the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, that the “beings were somehow not human.” They later recalled that these aliens were from the Zeta Reticuli star system.

• The two small gray beings led Betty into the forest (off of the highway). Barney, her husband, followed them until they reached a metallic disc ‘as wide as their house’. Betty saw that Barney was ‘dazed and practically sleepwalking’. The aliens walked the couple inside the metallic craft where there were other alien beings waiting. They were instructed to removed their clothes. The aliens took strands of their hair, clipped nails, and scraped their skin. They probed their heads, arms, legs, and along with their spines with needles connected to long wires. The beings inserted one of the needles into Betty’s belly. And all the while, the “leader” of the beings was keenly observing the experiments.

• Betty recalled asking the leader where they were. The leader replied, “if you don’t know where you are, there wouldn’t be any point in telling you where I am.” This implied telepathic communication. Some have linked the possibility if an extraterrestrial breeding program to produce alien-human hybrid beings with the Betty and Barney Hill abduction case.

• The Betty and Barney Hill case has become one of the most famed alien tales, taking its place in pop culture in the form of a 1975 flick, ‘The UFO Incident’. Many claims of alien abduction followed the Hill’s encounter. Most recently, the Betty and Barney Hill case and possible ties to a alien hybrid program was recounted in the season finale of the Discovery+ series’ ‘UFO Witness’ earlier this month.

Alien abduction tales and theories are a dime a dozen, but some have remained an enigma to date. The “Betty and Barney Hill’s

Alien Abduction” story on a September 1961 night has been one of those stories that have defined the whole abduction genre. Soon after, this incident was named the ‘Zeta Reticuli Incident’ after the couple claimed their aliens were from the Zeta Reticuli system. The story, like most famed alien tales, also saw its place in pop culture in the form of a 1975 flick, ‘The UFO Incident’.

Now, the events of the abduction will be examined again. This time, Discovery+ will reopen the chapter as part of its show, ‘UFO Witness’. The final episode titled, ‘The Hybrid Secret’ will explore the possibility of the alien-human breeding program and also looks at the Betty and Barney incident as one of the important links.

A look at the recount by both Betty and Barney sees them describe their abductors as gray beings with large eyes. These extraterrestrials had walked the couple into a metallic disc that was as wide as their house. The couple’s memories were reportedly erased. To date, there is no doubt the story has been looked at as a mystery and absolute balderdash.

According to History, Betty with the help of hypnosis recounts how the couple was experimented upon. The beings as they called them removed

their clothes, took strands of their hair, clipped nails, and also scraped their skin. Their heads, arms, and legs along with their spines were probed by needles that were connected to long wires. One of them was inserted into her belly. And all the while, a “leader” of the beings was keenly observing the experiments.

Did the Hills actually see humanoid aliens?

Although Betty’s account pretty much leaves a lot to the readers’ imagination, thinking of the aliens with a human structure might not be too much of a stretch. Barney, in his report to National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) investigator Walter Webb, said the “beings were somehow not human.” There are, of course, two explanations— fragged memory and the possibility that they weren’t humans, or at least they didn’t look like a normal human being.

Soon after their reports of being abducted, Betty experienced dreams with such incredible detailing that she actually wrote them down. Two small men walking her into the forest in one of her writings. Barney followed suit, although she describes him to be dazed and practically sleepwalking. The men reportedly stood about five feet and all wore matching blue uniforms. They were “nearly human” and had dark huge eyes, noses, and black hair as well. Their skin was gray.

2:10 minute video clip summary of Betty and Barney Hill case (‘Showmax’ YouTube)

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Why Aren’t Alien Abductions Taken Seriously?

February 23, 2021
ExoNews Editor

Article by Pritha Paul February 3, 2021 (meaww.com)

• The existence of extraterrestrial beings is considered a deeply guarded government secret. As a result, the debate has raged about whether or not UFOs are real, and whether people have truly experienced alien abductions as many claim. One source estimates that 3.7 million people in the U.S. alone have experienced an alien abduction.

• A significant number of people stay in constant fear of aliens visiting their bedroom at night, being taken aboard a spaceship and subjected to medical experimentation including the removal of eggs or sperm. Abductees have told tales about sexually producing hybrid offspring with their alien abductor, and receiving important information about the fate of the Earth.

• One of the most famous alien abduction cases occurred on a September night in 1961. Betty and Barney Hill were driving down a winding country road in New Hampshire’s White Mountains when they noticed a strange light that seemed to be following them. When they finally got home at dawn, they did not feel clean and their watches had stopped working. Barney’s shoes were strangely scuffed and Betty’s dress was ripped. And they could not recall two hours of their drive.

• With the aid of a psychiatrist, the Hills were able to regain flashes of their memory. According to whatever they could remember, Gray beings with large eyes had walked them into a metallic disc where the beings examined the couple and erased their memories. Their account set a precedent for how alien abductees would be scrutinized. Betty and Barney Hill would be accused of being liars, fantasists, crazy or simply sleep-deprived people. Not many in the media seem to take extraterrestrial abductions seriously.

• In Episode 6 of the Discovery+ series ‘UFO Witness’, Ben Hansen notes that while people who claim to have experienced such abductions have no history of mental instability, they often have a proclivity for fantasy. Other psychological explanations include dissociation – where mental processes detach from reality, often in response to extreme or stressful life events. Childhood trauma and hypnotic suggestibility can play a part in this.

• Sleep Paralysis and temporal lobe sensitivity could also explain claims of alien abduction, when the mind is awake but the body is unable to move, just as a person passes between stages of sleep and waking. This rare condition is often accompanies by a feeling of fear or dread and the sense of another presence. Also common are a feeling of pressure on the chest, difficulty breathing and the feeling of being held or restricted to a lying position. When Michael Shermer collapsed from sleep deprivation following an 83-hour bike race, Shermer perceived medical personnel as aliens from the 1960s television series ‘The Invaders.’

While the existence of extraterrestrial beings has been considered to be a deeply guarded government secret, an age-old debate has raged

over the same not just because of UFOs being spotted in the sky, but also due to accounts of people experiencing alien abductions. However, non-believers have often clubbed such people with the recent rise of the anti-vaccination movement and the prominence of the Flat Earth movement – diminishing the seriousness of such accounts.

Nevertheless, a significant number of people stay in constant fear of aliens visiting their bedroom at night, being abducted, taken aboard a spaceship, and being subjected to medical experimentation including the removal of eggs or sperm. There have been abductees who have also told tales about forming sexual relationships with their alien abductors and subsequently producing hybrid offsprings with their same as well as having received important information about the fate of the Earth.

Although the exact tally of such accounts varies, they have been put at over 3.7 million in the United States alone to “at least several thousand worldwide.” The idea that the US government might be hiding aliens in a secret military base led to the mission, “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” on September 20, 2019. Although more than 2 million people responded “going” and 1.5 million “interested” on the event’s page on Facebook, only about 150 people were reported to have shown up at the entrance to Area 51, with none succeeding in entering the site.

First alien abduction claim

On a September night in 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were driving down the empty winding country road in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. They had not seen a car for miles and a strange light seemed to be following them. When they finally got home to Portsmouth at dawn, they did not feel clean and their watches stopped working. Also, Barney’s shoes were strangely scuffed and Betty’s dress was ripped. There was also a loss of time and memory. They could not recall two hours from their drive.

With the aid of a psychiatrist, they were able to regain flashes of their memory. According to whatever they could remember, gray beings with large eyes had walked them into a metallic disc. After entering the disc, the beings examined the couple and erased their memories. Their account not only started an Air Force inquiry, part of the secretive initiative Project Blue Book that investigated UFO sightings across the nation. It also set the precedent for how alien abduction stories got told from then on.

The husband and wife became forever embroiled in the debate of whether they were liars, fantasists, crazy or simply sleep-deprived people who relied heavily on their scrambled memories. Despite the widespread interest in seeking proof of the alien life form, not many seem to take extraterrestrial abductions seriously. In Episode 6 of Discovery+ series ‘UFO Witness,’ Ben Hansen sets out to discover exactly why these claims are swept under the rug.

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‘What Is the Alien Agenda?’ Asks Reader Who Witnessed ‘Air Battle Between Two UFOs’ 40 Years Ago

October 8, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Michael Alexander September 26, 2020 (thecourier.co.uk)

• Malcolm Robinson is a Scottish UFO investigator, but somewhat of a skeptic, he says, because 95% of all UFO sightings can ultimately be explained. The glaring fact of this phenomenon is the enormous scale and secrecy. Reports of alien contact and craft sightings are world-wide, but their operations are still at the fringes of our awareness.

• Robinson himself saw an extraterrestrial craft forty years ago that was decidedly not military. He believes that aliens have almost certainly visited the Tayside and Fife regions of Scotland. Robinson says that the question is no longer “are we alone”? Instead we must ask “what is the alien agenda”?

• Australian investigator Phil Tindale also witnessed UFO craft forty years ago and is convinced we are not alone. The UFO question is “a question that we have ignored for the past 70 years,” he says. Actually, Tindale says that as 10-year-olds in the South Australian town of Aldgate, he and his twin brother Rob witnessed a “hostile chase between two highly advanced craft resulting in one of those craft crashing into a tree”. The crash was reported by a third witness who was able to have a close look at the craft which resembled an “eight metre long yellow speed boat from it’s under side”. But by the time police arrived, the object had disappeared leaving only unexplained broken branches. (see previous ExoArticle)

• Reported UFO cases date back to the 1500’s when townsfolk in Nuremberg, Germany witnessed a battle between celestial objects. It was reported in the broadsheet journals of the time.

• Then in the 1940’s, a new and increased wave of alien activity began. Pilots reported seeing strange spherical craft following them into battle during WW2 known as ‘Foo Fighters’. These were initially thought to be advanced Nazi technology.

• Then in 1947, the Roswell UFO crash was made famous by a military report printed in the local paper. The report was quickly redacted and replaced with an explanation involving a weather balloon. But first hand witnesses have since validated the initial report, leading to an explosion of conspiracies.

• In 1961 came the first report of an alien abduction, with Betty and Barney Hill providing compelling and consistent testimonies of the incident which occurred along a roadside late at night. They described being taken on board a craft and subject to various procedures. Subsequent investigations verified the Hill’s experience and left authorities scratching their heads.

• Even mass sightings have been reported on numerous occasions. One of the more compelling events occurred in in Ruwa, Zimbabwe in 1994 where a craft landed near the Ariel primary school. No less than 60 people witnessed the event. Humanoid entities disembarked from the craft and approached the children. Some witnesses reported telepathic communication that included a warning about humanity’s destructive trajectory. A number of investigators looked into the Ruwa event, including John E. Mack, head of Harvard Medical Psychiatry.

• The environmental message is now recognized as a common theme of the contact experience. “It is estimated that nearly 40% of people who have had alien contact receive some variation of an environmental message or warning, says Tindale. “Mass sightings and high quality witnesses have been useful in confirming the reality of the alien presence, but it is the individual and detailed accounts that provide better insight into what is truly going on.” The emerging picture is complex and incomplete. It shows multiple alien groups exist with different intentions, and varying degrees of interest in humanity’s well being, ranging from benevolent to hostile.

• Before Terry Lovelace became a lawyer, he was in the military. While serving in the US Army, Lovelace and a friend were camping at ‘Devils Den’ in Arkansas when they had a terrifying abduction experience which left Lovelace and his friend badly burned by radiation. Both were brutally interrogated and humiliated by the Army’s investigation unit. “It was made clear to them that the event was not to be discussed ever again,” says Tindale.

• Disagreement and even conflict between alien groups has been observed. Yet other people describe ongoing contact with entities that seem benevolent and appear to be concerned for our welfare. Reports describe varying physical features, while other extraterrestrials are indistinguishable from humans.

• “Many people are helped physically and spiritually by these contact events,” says Tindale. “Over half of all contact experiences are described as positive and nearly all communication is telepathic. “Telepathic ability seems to vary between alien groups, but it appears to be the galactic language.”

• Abductees describe being “willed” to perform tasks or comply with requests. The experience resembles a compelling need or a personal desire to obey. Some abductees report using their own will power to deny the alien requests, but claim that it is considerably difficult to do so.

• In May 2018, at Melkbosstrand South Africa, a witness described seeing a point in the sky that looked “crinkled”. Then from this small area a craft emerged into the atmosphere, and then three more objects chasing and attacking the first craft. Then a fleet of around 100 “cloaked” craft of varying shapes and sizes popped out of the sky, flying towards the horizon at incredible speed. Their color matched the blue sky but not perfectly. Some of the craft were so large they covered as much as 90 degrees of his field of vision. And all were totally silent.

• Knowledge of the UFO reality affects every aspect of our society. It challenges our beliefs in religion, science and even politics. We are now faced with arguably the greatest challenge in human history. One consolation is the common environmental interest that we share with these beings.

• It is not difficult to understand the secrecy, both from an extra-terrestrial perspective and from our own military’s point of view. Can we learn to appreciate the creatures that we share our planet with, and appreciate the value of our own beautiful Earth? Will this new reality change our view towards each other? Whether this intervention ultimately helps humanity or not, our response will be paramount.

**16th century illustration of UFOs over Nuremberg**

Australian investigator Phil Tindale, who witnessed an “air battle between two UFOs” 40 years ago and is

interested in Scottish sightings, explains why he is convinced we are not alone.

Australian man Phil Tindale has good reason to have a strong interest in UFOs.

As 10-year-olds in the South Australian town of Aldgate just over 40 years ago, he and his twin brother Rob witnessed a “hostile chase between two highly advanced craft resulting in one of those craft crashing into a tree”.

The crash was reported by a third witness who was able to have a close look at the craft which resembled an “eight metre long yellow speed boat from it’s under side”.

However, by the time police arrived, the object had disappeared leaving only unexplained broken

branches.

Phil recently contacted The Courier from Australia after reading a Courier feature online about renowned Scottish UFO investigator and self-confessed UFO sceptic Malcolm Robinson who believes that aliens have almost certainly visited Tayside and Fife.

Like Malcolm, Phil has concluded 95% of UFO sightings are explainable by “natural identifiable solutions”.

However, he also takes the view that 5% fall into the unexplained category.

Four decades on from his own experience, Malcolm says he is “100%” convinced what he saw was extra-terrestrial, and not military.

But he also believes the question is no longer “are we alone”. Instead we must ask “what is the alien agenda”?

“It’s a question that we have ignored for the past 70 years,” says Phil.

“Reported UFO cases date back to the 1500’s when a township in Germany witnessed a battle between celestial objects which was reported in the broadsheet journals of Nuremberg.

“From the 1940’s a new and increased wave of alien activity began.

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The UFO Community Still Believes — and Science is Starting to Listen

April 7, 2019
ExoNews Editor

by Chabeli Herrera March 19, 2019 (orlandosentinel.com)

• Over the past two years, scientists, politicians and professionals have increasingly been willing to touch the taboo subject of UFOs and perhaps lend a little credence to those who still believe.

• In December 2017, the New York Times reported that the U.S. had funded a secret, $22 million project to study UFO claims from 2007 to 2012. Declassified video taken in 2004 by two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets off the coast of San Diego showed a craft with no apparent propulsion moving at alarmingly fast speeds. Navy pilot Commander David Fravor who witnessed the Tic Tac-shaped craft told the Washington Post that it was “something not from Earth.”

• Harvard’s astronomy department chair, Avi Loeb, along with colleague Shmuel Bialy, wrote in a publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters that an interstellar object seen passing through our solar system called Oumuamua “is a lightsail, flowing in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment.” Loeb theorized that, “Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization.”

• NASA’s Ames Research Center scientist Silvano Colombano went on record recently to suggest that NASA and the scientific community should be more open-minded in its approach to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. NASA is preoccupied with finding biosignatures through its Center for Life Detection Science than interested in analyzing alleged UFO sightings.

• MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) does analyze UFO sightings. It has 3,500 members in 42 countries. Barbara Stusse, 80, has been coming to MUFON meetings for three years. She says that her mother saw a UFO in 1947. In 1965, she read about Betty and Barney Hill and “believed it”.

• Kathleen Marden is MUFON’s director of experiencer research. She was 13 years old in September 1961 when her Aunt Betty Hill and her Uncle Barney Hill saw a UFO in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There were two hours they couldn’t account for, and Barney was sure he’d seen eight to eleven figures dressed in black shiny uniforms that were “somehow not human”. Under hypnosis, the Hills related how they were abducted and physically examined inside the UFO. “They examined their hands, they took their shoes off, they examined their feet, they did tests on them that appear to be testing their nervous systems, as well,” says Marden. She has written about the government’s ‘tampering’ with the Hill case. But lately Marden has seen a recent shift in the credence that people give to the UFO phenomenon, with the 2017 New York Times article being the turning point.

• Trish Bishop of Kissimmee, Florida, relates her story of March 2013 at dusk when she saw a tall, muscular man wearing a formfitting tan colored uniform, boots and gloves was lingering in her backyard at the edge of a forest. But his face wasn’t human. His eyes bulged far out of their sockets. His jaw was over-sized. And his skin was white as chalk. Paralyzed with fear, she pretended not to watch the man while she called for help on her phone. Then man appeared to be climbing invisible steps. When he was about 10 feet off the ground, he turned his back to her and pulled himself up “into a UFO?” she thought — and he was gone. After four years, she got the nerve to report the incident to MUFON.

• The challenge with UFO and alien sightings has always been the lack of evidence. Bishop said she was too scared to take a photo of her alien. Little to no consequential evidence exists in other cases. University of Central Florida psychology professor Alvin Wang thinks that people project their predisposition to believe in conspiracy theories, and seek out others who reaffirm that belief. “[T]hey get …confirmation support, when they are members of UFO believers community,” said Wang.

He appeared as if a hologram at first — then solid — suddenly there and clear as you or I, at the edge of the forest behind Trish Bishop’s home in Kissimmee.

It was a Thursday in March 2013, the glow of the afternoon tucking in for the day behind the trees. He stood tall, at least 6-foot-3, perhaps 220 pounds and certainly muscular, wearing a formfitting tan colored uniform, boots and gloves. He lingered by the crape myrtle tree in the middle of the backyard.

When he turned around, it was his face, she remembers, that stopped her.

Bulging eyes jutting so far out of the sockets that Bishop wondered whether he could close them. Skin white as chalk.
And a jaw so large, it dispelled any notions the government worker had of the visitor being human.

“If you compare a human jawbone to his, we would be a chihuahua to a pit bull,” Bishop said.

Paralyzed with fear, she watched as what she believed to be an alien appeared to climb invisible steps, stopping often to snatch glances at her from where she sat on her back porch, fumbling with her phone to appear as though she couldn’t see him.

Her finger was pressed on the number “9” to dial for help.

When he was about 10 feet off the ground, he turned his back to her and pulled himself up — “into a UFO?” she thought — and was gone.

Bishop sat stunned. “I’ve got a freaking alien in my backyard,” she thought.

It would be four years before she told anyone her story, before she’d discover the Mutual Unidentified Flying Objects Network, a nationwide organization 50 years old, and file her report under case number 84886 with the local Florida chapter.

But she worried: Who would believe her?

These days, more people than you’d think.

Across restaurants and meeting rooms in the United States, MUFON groups still gather every month to discuss cases like Bishop’s with the enthusiasm that once gripped the nation during the Cold War, when UFO sightings still made a splash on the front page.

The Space Coast group, made up of some former NASA employees and engineers, has 118 members, the largest in the state. Across the U.S. they number 3,500, with additional offices in 42 countries.

For many years, they were alone entertaining UFO theories. No more.

In the past two years, scientists, politicians and professionals have increasingly been willing to touch the taboo subject and perhaps lend a little credence to those who still believe.

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Once Upon a Time, Betty and Barney Hill Told a Story That Was Out of This World

April 2, 2018
ExoNews Editor

by Ray Duckler March 17, 2018 (concordmonitor.com)

• This article recounts the alien abduction case of Betty and Barney Hill (pictured above) in 1961. Betty was a white college graduate and a social worker, and her black husband, Barney, was an honored member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. The couple were driving from Canada back home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, when they encountered the UFO.

• As Betty and Barney Hill drove south on Route 3 through the White Mountain National Forest, they reached Indian Head Resort where the encounter first occurred. Today, a green historical marker near Indian Head Resort reads: “On the night of September 19-20, 1961, Portsmouth, NH couple Betty and Barney Hill experienced a close encounter with an unidentified flying object and two hours of ‘lost time’ while driving south on Route 3 near Lincoln. They filed an official Air Force Project Blue Book report of a brightly-lit cigar-shaped craft the next day, but were not public with their story until it was leaked in the Boston Traveler in 1965.”

• Between the Indian Hill Resort and Lincoln NH, Barney noticed cigar-shaped UFO hovering above the tree-line. He stopped and got out to take a look. Through his binoculars he could see humanoid beings in the UFO’s windows looking back at him. Barney immediately ran back to the car yelling at Betty that they had to leave. Their car began to vibrate and they both felt a tingling sensation. This is when they lost all memory, which was later regained through hypnosis. They recalled that by the time they had driven past Lincoln and were almost to Thornton NH, a group of aliens blocked their car on Route 3 and took the couple aboard the UFO craft.

• Barney described the beings as having spindly legs, a bulky torso, cat-like eyes, and they wore shiny black uniforms. Betty recalled throwing a punch or a kick, which might explain why her dress was torn. She said they tried to probe her naval but it hurt so much that they stopped. They were examined by the alien beings on board the UFO for two hours.

• The next thing that Betty and Barney Hill knew, they were again driving on Route 3, thirty miles south of Thornton near Ashland. By sunrise, they reached their home in Portsmouth. They reported their UFO sighting to the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. Continuing to suffer from severe anxiety, Barney went to see Boston psychiatrist, Dr. Benjamin Simon. Dr. Simon hypnotized Barney and learned that his anxiety was caused by his belief that he and his wife had been abducted by aliens. Betty’s description of the event, also made under hypnosis, matched up closely with Barney’s.

• In 1965, a Boston journalist got a tip on the encounter and ran with the story, although the Hills declined requests for an interview. The Hills took refuge from the ensuing media storm at Betty’s mother’s house in Kingston NH near the Massachusetts border. Barney died in 1969 at age 46 from a brain aneurysm. A book and a movie were eventually made based on the UFO abduction. Betty recovered from a brain tumor, but died in 2004 from lung cancer at age 85.

Leon Noel moved carefully toward the row of twisted, sagging apple trees near the Interstate 93 overpass in Lincoln, each step swallowed by two feet of snow.

He pointed with a sweeping motion across the horizon. “There,” he said. “That’s them.”

The trees had been zapped by radiation emitted from an alien craft in 1961. At least that’s what Noel had always told his children and then his grandchildren. “They thought it was gospel,” Noel said.

That was a family joke. The part about Barney Hill squinting through binoculars and seeing humanoids above this same field, peering from windows like passengers on a plane, was not.

Neither was the part about Hill making a mad dash back to his car on Route 3, screaming in terror to his wife, Betty Hill, that the couple had to leave, fast, or risk capture.

Or the piece about the Hills being taken aboard the craft somewhere near Thornton, then losing all memory for two hours, then arriving at home in Portsmouth as the sun rose and their thoughts were unchained, allowing them to focus, at least partially, on what had happened.

It occurred during a six-hour stretch, beginning near midnight on Sept. 19, 1961, if you believe in that sort of thing.

And don’t take my word for it.

Look it up.

“Who knows?” Noel said. “I don’t. All I know is something happened.”

Noel drives the steam locomotive at Clark’s Trading Post. He’s lived in Lincoln for nearly 50 years.
His hands and smile are gigantic, and his silver hair rises from his head and shoots in different directions, sort of like that craft that Barney and Betty Hill insisted they saw that night 57 years ago.

The yarn is part of the town’s landscape, much like those funny-looking apple trees.
As Noel worked his way through the high snow, a 12-year veteran of the Lincoln Police Department pulled over to see what was happening. He declined to give his name.

“I have more than a passing familiarity with what happened,” the officer said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m a believer.”

What about you?

An alien concept

The Hills lived in Portsmouth and were just passing through on their way home from Canada. A mixed marriage before those unions were fully accepted, Barney, an African American, died in 1969 from a brain aneurysm at age 46, and Betty, who was white, passed in 2004 from lung cancer at 85.

And yet, like Noel and that steam locomotive, they’re forever connected to the Lincoln region. As Noel says, “It was a big thing. My aunt lived here and she was right here, so it was a big thing to talk about. But nothing ever came of it because …”

Noel’s voice trailed off, then he laughed, as though his mind had hit that universal stop sign we all approach. Look one way, and your mind tells you it’s not true.

Look the other way, however, and your mind asks, “Why not?”

“There is something out there,” Noel says. “For the billions of stars that you look out at with the naked eye at night, we can’t be the only flea on the dog.”

If what Betty and Barney – the most famous couple with those names since the Flintstones – claimed was true, the 1969 moon landing would be transformed into a walk in the park. But no matter what you believe, the story was out of this world once the media got a hold of it four years after the incident.

A zany-sounding episode, sure, but whiffs of legitimacy – including government scrutiny and hypnosis by a respected Boston physician – followed this like a comet’s tail. In fact, even the state added some credibility, planting one of those green historical markers near Indian Head Resort, right there on Route 3, to celebrate the 50th anniversary in 2011.

It reads: “On the night of September 19-20, 1961, Portsmouth, NH couple Betty and Barney Hill experienced a close encounter with an unidentified flying object and two hours of ‘lost time’ while driving south on Route 3 near Lincoln. They filed an official Air Force Project Blue Book report of a brightly-lit cigar-shaped craft the next day, but were not public with their story until it was leaked in the Boston Traveler in 1965.”

Then come the words that push you to Google: “This was the first widely-reported UFO abduction report in the United States.”

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Tag: Betty and Barney Hill

Were Betty and Barney Hill Really Abducted by Humanoid Aliens?

Why Aren’t Alien Abductions Taken Seriously?

‘What Is the Alien Agenda?’ Asks Reader Who Witnessed ‘Air Battle Between Two UFOs’ 40 Years Ago

The UFO Community Still Believes — and Science is Starting to Listen

Once Upon a Time, Betty and Barney Hill Told a Story That Was Out of This World