The True Story of the Worlds First Documented Alien Abduction: A Formal Investigation Begins
When Hohmann and Jackson visited the Hills on November 25, 1961, Betty and Barney thought that they might finally get some answers to their myriad questions concerning UFOs. The Hills incorrectly assumed that the men were government scientists, visiting in an official capacity. However, Hohmann and Jackson’s inquiry seems to have resulted in more questions than answers. Betty wrote in her unpublished diary, “They were questioning us in specific areas. How many miles was it from Colebrook to Portsmouth? How long did the trip take? Why did we average 25 to 30 miles per hour on a clear night with no traffic on highways with fast speed limits? What happened between the two series of beeping sounds? Were any of our belongings missing? How did Delsey, the dog, react? Had we had any strange events since that time? Did we have any nitrates in the car? They stimulated our thinking and we were able to pinpoint specific areas at certain times.”
Betty and Barney began to ruminate more than ever about the unanswered questions pertaining to their UFO sighting—more specifically, about the apparent missing time. On the morning of September 20, 1961, they noticed that their arrival time was later than they anticipated, but placed no particular significance upon the time differential. After Hohmann’s and Jackson’s visit, they realized for the first time that, al- lowing for their observation stops and a period of slow driving, they arrived home at least two hours later than they should have. The exact moment when they became aware of a period of missing time has often been misquoted and used by skeptics to imply that it was Robert Hohmann and C.D. Jackson who planted the previously unrecognized discrepancy in the Hills’ minds. To be accurate, the Hills became aware of the two- to three-hour span of missing time during this November 1961 meeting, not the element of missing time itself. They had always had a conscious, continuous memory of arriving home later than they had anticipated. Betty reported to Kathy that Hohmann’s and Jackson’s questions stimulated Barney’s and her thinking. They began to remember some of the events that transpired between the two sets of beeping sounds when the craft interacted with their vehicle. They recalled that Barney, without explanation, made a rapid left-hand turn onto a secondary road, and all communication ceased. Betty later explained that she assumed Barney had taken one of his many shortcuts, and that if they became lost, they would find their way with no problem. They speculated about Barney’s behavior, when he put his arm across his eyes, uttering, “Oh no, not again.” Immediately after making the turn, he spotted a large, fiery orb by the side of the road, silhouetted against a stand of trees. The missing time and their apparent period of amnesia played repeatedly in their minds.
Shortly after the UFO encounter, the Hills’ dachshund, Delsey, developed an epidermal fungus infection, which was treated by a veterinarian; then she was stricken with respiratory maladies. The Hills had adopted Delsey from a Newton, New Hampshire, couple only six weeks prior to their trip and did not have copies of her veterinary history. At the time, they placed no unusual significance upon Delsey’s medical problems. But within weeks, Betty realized that Delsey had not been bathed following her exposure to the craft. Additionally, she expressed concern that Delsey had suddenly begun to whimper, shake, and move her legs, as if running in her sleep, following their September trip. Although most dogs exhibit this type of behavior from time to time, it was intense and persistent in Delsey.
Hohmann’s query about nitrates was actually directed to Barney. He deliberately asked some extraneous questions designed to put the Hills on the defensive. This was one that was asked merely as a diversionary tactic. He asked Barney if he or anyone in his family had any association with the nitrates industry. The unexpected, out-of-context question elic- ited a response of mild annoyance in Betty. Then she realized she did have nitrates in the trunk of her car—a bag of fertilizer. She enjoyed tending to a large vegetable garden every summer at her parents’ farm in Kingston.
At the end of the season, she had placed her remaining fertilizer in her vehicle, but had not transferred it to her shed prior to their trip. Hohmann and Jackson did not explain their interest in the purpose of nitrates or nitrogen. Betty wondered why the occupants of an extraterrestrial craft would be drawn to nitrates. During her lifetime this question was never satisfactorily answered.
Also present for the five-hour meeting was Barney’s friend, Major James MacDonald, a retired Air Force intelligence officer at Pease Air Force Base, then working as a USAF consultant. In a confidential letter discovered in Betty’s archival materials, she wrote, “It might be well to leave out that Jim MacDonald was formerly with the CIA. I think this is something that he was not supposed to reveal. Since he is a friend, we would not want to cause him any difficulties.” A retired U.S. Air Force colonel informed Kathy that if MacDonald were actively employed by the CIA, he would have been undercover as an Air Force officer, and it would be a serious violation if he told anyone. However, MacDonald had in- deed retired when he informed the Hills about his former CIA position, negating the problem.
His tie to the intelligence community has led to speculation among researchers that his presence at the meeting was more than social, but Betty has consistently rejected this idea. MacDonald’s role at the meeting seemed to be to ask the questions that Betty desired answers to, while Betty’s primary focus seemed to be on the questions asked by Hohmann and Jackson. The substance of MacDonald’s questions revolved around Hohmann’s and Jackson’s knowledge of UFO abduction—specifically, had they ever encountered a case identical to the Hills’? If so, had that person been able to initiate a second contact if they so desired?
One thing is clear about MacDonald’s role at the meeting: It was he, not Hohmann, who first suggested that the Hills might consider hypnosis as a means of discovering what transpired during the two hours of missing time. Hohmann agreed that it would be advisable.
Major MacDonald was one of many of the Hills’ friends who were officers at Pease Air Force Base. They enjoyed social gatherings together on Saturday nights at the base officer’s club. Several also attended Betty’s and Barney’s church, where they were active in its couples group. Major MacDonald dated and later married one of Betty’s best friends, and Barney served as the best man at the wedding.
At the suggestion of Hohmann, Jackson, and MacDonald, Betty and Barney embarked on repetitive weekend journeys to the White Mountains in a concerted effort to jog their memories. They attempted to find the location of a steel construction, railroad-type bridge they had crossed when they left Route 3. At that time, there were three, whereas today only one remains. The other two have been dismantled and replaced by modern bridges. Where did they encounter the roadblock that weighed so heavily on their minds? They were certain that they had encountered a roadblock, but could not pinpoint where it occurred. What was the frightening message that the being in the flying saucer communicated to Barney?
Why did it take them so long to arrive at their home in Portsmouth? Allowing ample time for their observational stops, they still should have arrived at home much earlier than they did. According to Betty, shortly after Hohmann’s and Jackson’s visit, a bizarre, unsettling event occurred at her home. Betty stated that, upon returning to their Portsmouth home after a full day’s exploratory journey to the White Mountains, she and Barney unlocked their door and entered their kitchen. To their amazement, they discovered a pile of dried brown leaves in the center of their table. They checked their doors and windows, and they seemed secure, but somehow, someone had been able to enter their home. They returned to the table and began to discard them. But as the leaves parted, Betty and Barney gasped in astonishment, as they discovered Betty’s blue earrings. These were the earrings that she had taken on their trip to Canada, the ones that matched her blue dress, the ones she was wearing on the night of their encounter. She hadn’t realized that they were missing. She hadn’t even thought about them since she slipped them onto her earlobes on the morning of September 19. In an undated diary entry, she wrote, “My eyes filled with tears [that] ran down my cheeks. I did not want Barney to see my reaction, so I picked up my earrings and went into the bedroom, and put them into my jewelry box where they still remain. I have never worn them again.” Why had they been placed upon her table in this bizarre manner? Could someone have entered their home without a key? Did it offer a clue to what occurred during the period of missing time? Betty suspected that it did.
At the time, Betty and Barney reported the earring incident in strictest confidence to only her closest family members. Kathy remembers their visit to her childhood home and the feelings of distress they exhibited when they discovered that their house had been illegally entered.
They felt a sense of violation and vulnerability. The adults in the room expressed concern about Betty’s and Barney’s privacy and safety, and they devised a plan to install deadbolt locks to thwart additional unlawful entries.
Kathy’s inquiries have revealed that the Hills did not report this occurrence to any investigator at the time of its occurrence. The earliest publication of this incident seems to have been initiated by Dr. Berthold Eric Schwarz, in the August 1977 Flying Saucer Review. On June 20, 1974, Dr. Schwarz, a psychiatrist and neurologist from Montclair, New Jersey, with an interest in the paranormal, penned his first letter to Betty. He had attended a lecture given by her and had also read what he referred to as a “surefire” article she had written. He wrote, “To my mind, what you hinted at, plus other things that have happened to you since your unique experience, are of the utmost significance, and if they could be written up for FSR, which is distributed as you know, to many of the leading libraries, universities, and medical schools in the world, there might be many worthwhile effects.” He became Betty’s confidant and friend, and they corresponded on a regular basis for the next 30 years.
The Hills lived alone and no one had a key to their apartment, so family members and friends could not have been playing tricks on them. They began to think that some agency, perhaps the Air Force or the CIA, didn’t want their UFO encounter to be investigated. Once, when Betty picked up the phone receiver, she simultaneously heard a second party answer, “Base Intelligence.” This incident caused her to suspect that her phone line was tapped. In order not to appear paranoid, the Hills decided to keep the intrusions secret. They forged ahead, undeterred by these events, and continued to search for answers.
Betty and Barney also began to experience anxiety about driving in unpopulated areas at night, especially when they encountered a situation that brought back memories of their UFO encounter. In the early morn- ing hours of January 17, 1962, Barney and approximately 25 clerks at the South Postal Annex in Boston saw a large, red, rounded object, low in the western sky. It turned sideways, showing a narrow edge, and disappeared.
According to Betty, Barney wondered if this was the same object he had witnessed in the White Mountains the previous fall. One night, Barney encountered a roadblock on his way to work that brought forth such paralyzing fear that he returned home. Later, during an evening drive, Betty and Barney spotted a car surrounded by teenagers, stopped at the side of the road. Suddenly, Betty became overwhelmed with a feeling of panic and grabbed the door handle in an inexplicable attempt to flee. For no apparent reason, seemingly mundane events were inducing feelings of terror in Betty and Barney. This marked a significant change in their psyches. They did their best to maintain normality, to follow through with their everyday routines, and to be good family and community members, but the events of September 19–20, 1961, would forever change their routine, ordinary lives. More than ever, they needed answers.