Episode 51 - Barney and Betty Hill

You were driving, late in the night. Later than you probably want to be driving. In the dark night, lit only by the faint light of the half-moon above. This far from a city or town, the stars were glorious. Each tiny point of light glimmering in their defiance of the night.

The darkness of the fields and forests around you occasionally broken by the glow of lights in distant windows. But never enough to see by. Hours since you had left, hours more until you would arrive. At least you had music to accompany you. Music and a large, paper cup filled with gas station coffee. Steadfast friends in a drive like this.

The road stretched ahead, meandering lazily like an asphalt river. You’d seen four, maybe five cars in the past hour. It was a lonely trip. But not one you hadn’t made before.

Then you saw something that you’d never seen before. A light, you’d thought a star, grew brighter and began to move across the sky. At first, you thought maybe a falling star, but then it suddenly changed direction. It began to grow brighter and larger, and you realized it was closer than you had thought at first.

You felt compelled to get a better look…

Alien abductions have been reported all over the world, although the majority come from the United States. One of the most famous cases, one of the earliest reports that received attention in the US, was the case of Barney and Betty Hill. A couple who claimed they were abducted by an alien craft on the night of September 19th, 1961.

Their story has been told and retold. Featured in documentaries, referenced in television shows, and movies.

Sometimes called the Hill Abduction, sometimes referred to as the Zeta Reticuli Incident, this abduction served as a catalyst for a swath of abduction reports and stories across the country and helped to kickstart alien abduction investigations.

Alien Abduction stories are a relatively recent form of urban myth. People speak of a number of symptoms that accompany being abducted, and the stories have developed into a fairly reliable canon over time. These stories of alien abduction generally involve strange lights in the sky, lapses in memory, unexplained physical responses, and of course, sightings of alien creatures of a variety of shapes.

The Hill’s story of course may sound cliche to hear it now, but at the time, it was one of the strangest and most complete stories of alien abduction to be reported.

I am Andrew Eagle, and I am excited to invite you to accompany me as I pass Through the Veil, and learn something about the history of alien abductions.

You pulled over at a scenic point, a place where you could get off the highway, park the car, and get out to get a clearer look. The lights were still there, flickering in and out of view behind trees, and vanishing occasionally into the darkness. It was odd, without detail, it almost looked like the blinking lights of a plane drifting through the air, but it was changing direction in ways that a plane never would.

You got out of the car and peered upward, trying to catch a look at the object again. With the lights of your car off, you scanned the night sky. Nothing… there was nothing out of the ordinary up there… You started to think that maybe you’d just been seeing things. That maybe you were too tired and you shouldn’t be driving when suddenly you saw it again. Rising from behind the trees. Much closer. Close enough to see that it wasn’t just a large light. There were a series of lights, all connected to a massive, impossible, flying disc.

Covered in lights and panels, you were staring upwards at the object, hanging silently in the air within a couple hundred feet of you.

Through a panel, a window, you could see a figure. Humanoid. But definitely not human. Grey skin; wide, strange eyes; a shiny black suit of some unknown material. Not just one either. Nearly a dozen creatures, watching you from within their vessel.

A deep sense of panic descended on you. You needed to run. You needed to get away.

Rushing back into your car, you pulled back onto the highway, speeding away from whatever that impossible thing was.

Checking your mirrors, you saw the light flying low over the highway. Following you. Chasing you. Gaining on you.

Just as it reached the point in the sky above you, you heard a low hum building in intensity… And then…

You turned in an odd place. You found traveled along a different road. You found your way blocked. There was a strange light in the darkness… Your memory was all gaps and images without context. All disconnected and disparate pieces with frayed edges.

You were miles more down the road. The object long behind you. You were nearly home. The sun was starting to rise in the distance. You couldn’t recall… Anything after the object caught you.

Barney and Betty spent the days after their abduction examining their luggage, their clothing. The objects they remembered from their experience. Neither of their watches ever worked again. Barney found the leather strap from his binoculars which he viewed the UFO with was torn, although he had no recollection of anything tearing it. Their shoes were scraped and damaged.

Betty found the dress she had worn during the abduction was damaged, torn at the hem, zipper, and lining. She would later claim to have found a fine pink powder on the dress as well. They also found strange concentric circles drawn on their car’s trunk that they claimed caused the magnetism sensitive needle of compasses to spin wildly.

Within a couple days, Betty had contacted the nearby Pease Air Force Base to report the incident. She would later report she was afraid of being thought crazy or eccentric, so she withheld many details. A Major from the base, Paul W. Henderson reached out to conduct a more thorough interview, and his report determined they probably misidentified the planet Jupiter.

Within the week following the initial report, the Hills borrowed a UFO book from a local library and contacted NICAP, a civilian UFO research group founded by a retired Marine Corps Major. Betty told NICAP their whole story, as much of it as they could remember. NICAP reached out and organized a long interview with an astroner by the name of Walter Webb.

While the airforce believed the Hills had misidentified a planet as a space craft, Webb believed the Hills’ story. He thought, that except for the expected uncertainties of human observation, such as exact size and distance, the Hills were reporting their experience without any deceit.

Through this and a series of dreams which Betty would later talk about, the Hills decided to attempt hypnotism to see if they could uncover any new memories of their experience. Over the course of years, the Hills’ story was featured in documentaries about UFOs, they were interviewed many times, and they began to make a habit of visiting the stretch of road where they experienced their abduction, seeking sites and recollections that may inform their missing time.

Finding a hypnotist took a long time. Eventually they ended up worked with Benjamin Simon out of Boston. He conducted sessions with each of them individually. The whole process of interviews took six months, starting in January of 1964 and lasting until June.

He started his interviews with Barney.

Simon first had Barney recall the non-human figures. Barney’s memories of the creatures were punctuated by fear and trauma. He reported that due to his fear of the creatures, he kept his eyes closed for much of the experience.

He described over-and-over again, the eyes of the creatures. He talked about their mesmerizing effect, their presence that seemed to physically force Barney to act in accordance with the creature’s orders.

Under hypnosis, Barney described being stopped by the creatures, taken from their car and led onto the vessel. They were escorted into examination rooms. Barney talked about a thorough and invasive physical examination.

He said that they were then reunited, led off the ship and back to their car.

Betty’s hypnosis reported a number of events, and were in general consistent with Barney’s description of the events. However, Simon called off many of their sessions early because recalling the events was so traumatic that Betty often burst into tears and was unable to continue.

After their sessions, the Hills returned to a relatively quiet and normal life. They were always willing to discuss their experience, but seemed generally happy to move on and did not seek publicity. They agreed to work with John G. Fuller, a writer, to publish a book about their experiences that was quite successful.

Barney died suddenly in 1969, at 46.

Betty reported several other sightings later in her life, but none attracted the attention or impact of the original abduction. She lived until she was 85, dying in 2004.

The Hills’ story rocketed them, and stories of UFOs, to the forefront of conversation. These stories were discussed by enthusiasts, professionals, and members of the military, all trying to explain, debunk, and learn from these tales.

There has been a great deal of research into the Hill story over time. Amateur astronomers have tried to analyze a star map that Betty drew under hypnosis which she claimed to have seen on the ship. For several years, it was believed that the map could have been rendered from the view point of the Zeta Reticuli system, however, the woman who originally proposed that stand point has since retracted her hypothesis publicly, citing that continued research has revealed several flaws in the way she identified the possible origin system.

Many people have tried to refute or deny the story, for a variety of reasons. UFO enthusiasts all try to explain it, and identify the places the ships were from; and others try to find any possible explanation that does not include aliens.

In either case, whether the Hills were abducted, or went through some other trauma, I think it is obvious that aliens are here to stay. At least in stories.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of Through the Veil. I hope you enjoyed. I encourage you to subscribe to receive new episodes weekly wherever you listen as we continue our exploration of folklore, urban myth, and magic.

Music this week was: Aliens by Sage Chow

If you are enjoying the show, and have subjects you would like to hear covered, please email me at throughtheveilpodcast@gmail.com or reach out on Twitter, you can find me @ThroughVeil.

As always, thank you, for listening.