By: Kathleen Marden

Why did I write Captured when so much has been written about the Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience?

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 examination.

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 an inaccurate 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 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.

What did the Hills recall about the night of September 19-20, 1961?

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 mountain tops; and sometimes it dropped down in front of the mountain peaks.

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 he 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 from each side of the craft and something dropped down 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. As the object shifted overhead, the couple heard a series of code-like buzzing or electrical beeping sounds that caused the car to vibrate.

Betty craned her neck upward through the open passenger seat window in an attempt to locate the craft, but all she saw was blackness. The stars were blotted out and the bright sky had suddenly grown dark. Reasoning that she would see the lighted UFO if it were overhead, she informed Barney that it had disappeared. Relieved that they were no longer in danger, Barney drove south on U.S. Route 3.

Near Plymouth, NH, the couple saw a fiery red-orange ball that Betty reasoned was the setting moon. Then, near Ashland, they heard a second series of buzzing/beeping sounds. Betty turned to Barney and asked, “Now do you believe in flying saucers?” He replied, “Don’t be ridiculous.” Barney stopped the car, and then, maneuvered it erratically in a futile attempt to recreate the peculiar sound.

Betty and Barney were surprised to see that dawn was streaking the sky when they arrived home in Portsmouth, NH. Their watches had stopped, but they noted that their arrival time was later than anticipated, even allowing for slow driving and three observational stops.

Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience meticulously re-examines the Hills’ statements to Dr. Benjamin Simon about their trip through Canada and New Hampshire and reveals an abundance of new information.

What events led to the Hills’ abduction?

As you can see, the move toward abduction was a long, slow process taking about an hour to accomplish. By the time Barney returned to his vehicle the alien leader had already begun to alter his conscious state of mind. Within 5-6 blocks Betty and Barney head a series of electrical buzzing or beeping sounds that caused the car to vibrate and imparted a tingling sensation upon Betty and Barney.

This series of events seemed to deepen the leader’s control over Barney, while it initiated mild control over Betty. Her conscious memory remained clearer and was more detailed than Barney’s. She vaguely remembered passing the Jack-O-Lantern Resort eight miles south of the field, and a sharp left turn over a railroad type steel frame bridge.

Both consciously retained vague memories of a roadblock, but couldn’t place where it occurred or connect it to anything. Later, the Hills witnessed a fiery red-orange sphere silhouetted behind a stand of trees and heard a second series of beeping sounds. Then, full consciousness returned and the Hills traveled to their Portsmouth home, arriving more than two hours later than they had anticipated.

Subsequently, they made many trips to the White Mountains to try to jog their memories and over time, more and more details emerged. However, it wasn’t until 1964, after undergoing several grueling months of hypnotherapy with Dr. Simon that their amnesia was penetrated and they were permitted to recall the forgotten events of September 20, 1961.

I should add that Betty experienced a series of frightening dreams a couple of weeks after the initial close encounter. In those dreams, she and Barney were abducted by humanlike men who escorted them to a spaceship where they endured physical examinations and she engaged in an interview with the craft’s leader. This has always added a perplexing element to the story. Did Barney absorb Betty’s dreams? This was Dr. Simon’s hypothesis. In Captured! I conducted a comparative analysis of the hypnosis tapes versus Betty’s dream transcripts to test Dr. Simon’s hypothesis.

How did the authorities respond to the Hills’ UFO sighting report?

On September 20, 1961, Betty reported the sighting to a Newton, NH police officer who advised her to make a formal report to Pease Air Force Base. Later, she stated in interviews that she placed her initial phone call to the 100^th Bomb Wing at Pease the same evening, but the Air Intelligence Information Report is dated 21 September.

She and Barney gave the interviewing officer a general description of the craft they had observed, but Barney omitted his observation of the humanoid figures fearing that he might be judged a “crackpot.” Later that day, Major Paul W. Henderson phoned the Hills and questioned them extensively before transferring them to another location where their testimony was monitored. The following day, he informed the Hills that he had been up all night working on the report and would require a few more details. He also informed them that the control tower had reported “a strange incident” at 2:14 AM on September 20, which could hint of a possible relationship due to time and distance.

The initial project record card indicated that an object was observed through ground-visual and air intercept radar. However, this was altered in later reports, and debunked as nothing more than a ground target due to strong temperature inversion.

Even the initial report stated that both the radar and visual sighting was probably due to an optical condition resulting from a strong inversion in the Lincoln, NH area on the morning of the sighting. However, the Mount Washington Weather Station’s archival material for the evening of 9/19-20, 1961 refutes the information given by the Air Force. It seems that either the Air Force mishandled the Hills’ report through incompetence or a cover-up was in process, almost immediately.

Chapter 3 in Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience provides meticulously accurate technical information about the Air Intelligence Report and Project Blue Book’s mishandling of it. Additional chapters reveal just how interested the military was in the Hill UFO experience.

Who investigated the UFO report and subsequent abduction claim?

Three days after her close encounter with a UFO, Betty visited her local library in an attempt to gain additional information. She checked out The Flying Saucer Conspiracy by Major Donald Keyhoe, the director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. In the back of the book, UFO witnesses were instructed to write to NICAP’s address to report a sighting. Betty wrote to NICAP and on October 21, 1961, NICAP investigator Walter Webb initiated a preliminary investigation in a six hour interview at the Hills’ home.

Over a period of several years Webb conducted an extensive, meticulous investigation of the Hills’ sighting. Additionally, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Dr. James McDonald, Robert Hohmann and C.D. Jackson, Dr. James Harder, Stanton Friedman, Karl Pflock, and myself, to name a few, have engaged in the investigation of the Hill case.

There was substantial evidence to support the Hills’ claim, including the scraped tops of Barney’s dress shoes, broken watches, 12-18 circular highly polished, silver dollar size spots on the trunk of their vehicle that caused a compass needle to spin and spin, only over the spots on the trunk; and Betty’s new dress that was badly torn, and later, became degraded by a pink powdery substance that ruined it. The dress has undergone chemical and forensic analysis and the scientific reports appear in Chapter 24 of Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience.

Additionally, Dr. Simon instructed Betty, through posthypnotic suggestion to draw that star map that she reported seeing onboard the alien craft, only if she could recreate it accurately. The stars on the resulting star map were later identified through the painstaking, meticulous work of Marjorie Fish and underwent scientific review. Stanton Friedman discusses the star map investigation in Chapters 22 and 23.

Finally, the Hills’ individual testimony under hypnotic regression is subjected to a comparative analysis. They were hypnotized separately and the posthypnotic suggestion for amnesia was enforced, so they were unable to remember even their own testimony under hypnosis. Therefore, one could not communicate information to the other that might contaminate their testimony. The only source of contamination could have been from “Betty’s Dreams or Recall?” paper, written two months after the close encounter with an unconventional craft. Months later, Dr. Simon slowly and carefully permitted the Hills to remember, and then hear, the statements they made during their hypnotic regression sessions. The true, complete story of the Hills’ alien abduction is revealed for the first time in Chapters 8-14.

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