Alien Abduction: The Story of Barney And Betty Hill

On the night of September 19, 1961, the newly married couple, Barney and Betty Hill were driving home from their honeymoon. While navigating the White Mountains in New Hampshire, the Hill couple encountered something straight out of a Sci-Fi horror film which later became one of the first well-documented alien abduction cases ever recorded.

In the initial scene, the couple recall on their drive back to Portsmouth, New Hampshire seeing a bright light in the sky following them. Daring to ignore it, the light grew brighter and bigger as time passed. It took them a while before they decided to pull over and investigate the mysterious light with a pair of binoculars. What Betty reported thinking was a satellite turned out to be a flying object of some sort. The pair got back in their car and continued to drive. 

Betty and Barney remembered reaching Route 3 in Lincoln, New Hampshire before they realized the flying saucer appeared to hover only 100 feet above their car. As a result, Barney stopped the vehicle again and pulled out his handgun, aiming it towards the flying object. Barney detailed the saucer was big and flat like a pancake. There were windows into the saucer and beings in gray uniforms staring out at Barney. Unable to shoot with his handgun, Barney got back in his car and kept driving until the couple lost consciousness.

Two hours had passed with no recollection of the rest of the drive home. The couple appeared to be unharmed, but a few physical changes raised more questions for the pair. According to the Betty and Barney Hill Collection, Betty’s dress was stained and torn while Barney’s shoes were immensely scuffed. As well, the strap for the binoculars was broken and both of the couple’s watches seemed to have stopped.

In the aftermath, the couple remained quiet about the encounter. It wasn’t until they began to experience nightmares and intense feelings of anxiety that both Barney and Betty sought out Benjamin Simon, a psychiatrist, to understand the events of September 19th. By this point it was 1964. Months of sessions with Simon, including hypnosis therapy, helped them uncover the mysterious gap in their memory. 

According to the recorded sessions, the couple were put to sleep by the beings in the saucer before being led onto the spacecraft and separated to be tested. The extraterrestrial beings took hair, skin, and nail samples and administered a needle into their arms. Apparently one of the test’s included a needle being inserted into Betty’s stomach as a form of a pregnancy test. 

Later on, a reporter decided to pick up their story. This led to their case becoming well known across the United States, and now, beyond. Betty continued researching UFOs and talking about her experience for the remainder of her life until her passing in 2004. Sadly, Barney died in 1969. 

Among all the eerie descriptions, the one fascinating piece of information to come out of the hypnosis sessions was the recreation of the star map Betty saw while she was in the spacecraft. Years later a woman named Marjorie Fish analyzed the drawing and concluded the star map was supposed to be of the star system Zeta Reticuli.

Whether or not the story of Barney and Betty Hill was a hoax or nothing but the truth, it’s nice to recognize the impact this case has had on modern day perceptions of extraterrestrial beings and UFOs sightings in popular culture. Most of the tropes in the media surrounding aliens echo the details of this abduction, and because of that, this over 60-year-old story can be marked as culturally significant.