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The Hill UFO Abduction Case
On September 19, 1961, married couple Betty and Barney Hill had a close encounter with a craft and its occupants.
The Hill's experience became the first widely publicised case of the alien abduction scenario, one that would change perceptions towards our 'space brothers' forever.
A Close Encounter
 Betty and Barney Hill
Throughout the 1950's, in the USA, most reported cases of UFOs were restricted to sightings of "strange lights" in the sky, unusual looking aircraft and cases of "Contactees" - people claiming to have had meetings and conversations with the human-like occupants of extraterrestrial crafts.
George Adamski first claimed to have taken photographs of, boarding and flying in ships from space with "Nordic" beings in 1952, helping to popularise a perception that if beings were buzzing about, they must be friendly, intelligent and wise. However, in 1961 a couple named Betty and Barney Hill were to change many of the ideas and notions we had of possible inter-planetary beings and their possible motives.
The couple lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and at the time were active in their local community. Betty was a Social Worker and Barney was employed by the US Postal Service. The couple were an inter-racial couple, Barney being an African-American man, and both were popular with friends and family.
It was September 19th at around 10:30pm, when the happily married couple were returning home from a vacation to Canada when they encountered what Betty at first thought to be a falling star, only it was moving upward like a plane or satellite. Observing the object through binoculars, it became clear they were seeing a multi-coloured "odd-shaped" craft that they then pursued along the highway. At some point the craft descended and flew in their direction. Having stopped on the highway, the craft sat rotating in front of their 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, reminding them of a huge pancake.
 The craft the Hills witnessed
Stepping out of the car, with a pistol, Barney approached the vehicle and saw through binoculars a number of "humanoid" looking men, who peered at him through windows. One communicated to him to "stay where you are and keep looking!". Barney ran back towards the car and drove away at high speed in a hysterical state, telling his wife to look for the craft, but Betty saw nothing but sky.
Arriving home at dawn, they tried to reconstruct their memories of their trip but they were vague, both drawing a picture of a craft in the middle of the road, but found they could not remember much else. Noticing her dress was torn in certain places, Betty went to discard it, but for some reason kept it.
Remembering
 The grey alien beings
On September 21st, Betty made contact with Pease Air Force Base and reported the encounter; although at first she held back some of the details. Major Henderson interviewed the couple a few days later and concluded they had perhaps seen the Planet Jupiter and misidentified it.
Ten days after the encounter, and for five nights in succession, Betty would have vivid nightmares, and in November started writing these dreams down, one in which she wrote of being forced from the car by small grey men in military outfits and calling out to Barney who appeared to be in a trance-like state.
In February 1962 the Hills' began driving along the highway, during the weekends, trying to find the site of the encounter, hoping to uncover memories of the event, but were not successful.
After months of discussing the event amongst themselves and with their church (and the U.S.A.F.), Betty and Barney were referred to a hypnotherapist in Boston by the name of Dr. Benjamin Scott, who met with the couple initially on the 14th of December, 1963. Dr Scott began hypnosis sessions with the couple almost 3 weeks later in January 1964, in separate sessions that would last until June.
 The Star Map
Over the months the two gave amazingly near accurate stories of being taken from their car by small beings who separated them in the craft, and both underwent medical examinations. Barney claimed his anus was inserted with a tube-like device. They reported having conversations with these beings via telepathy, and were told not to be afraid of what was occurring.
Betty recalled in some sessions seeing a "star map", a hologram of stars described as a 3 dimensional map. She was only able to sketch, after some suggestion, a small portion of it consisting of twelve prominent stars connected by lines and three lesser ones that formed a distinctive triangle. She said she was told the stars connected by solid lines formed "trade routes", whereas dashed lines were to less-travelled stars. They were returned to their car afterwards, and for some reason lost all memory of being on the craft.
Going Public
 Betty and Barney Hill with a copy of 'The Interrupted
Journey'.
The couple resumed normal lives up until October 1965 when a Boston newspaper ran a headline story about the encounter; the reporter allegedly having obtained a tape of the Hill’s giving a lecture at a convention the previous year, as well as confidential interviews they had given to UFO investigators. They were rapidly thrust into the international spotlight, and the following year an author, with co-operation from the couple and Dr. Simon, published 'The Interrupted Journey', recalling the case. It was an instant success.
In 1968 Marjorie Fish, an elementary teacher and amateur astrologer read the book and concluded that the map was of the star system named Zeta Reticuli. Crop circle enthusiast’s years later concluded that the map actually represents our Solar System.
 Betty Hill with her alien bust
Psychiatrists and sceptics have for years argued that the Hills had an hallucination brought on by the stress of being an inter-racial couple in the 1960's, however both Betty and Barney denied this publicly, saying they had a happy, normal marriage free of anxiety. It has also been noted that the hypnosis sessions started months after the initial encounter, with many arguing that they had months to concoct a story.
Barney died of a stroke in February 1969. Betty claimed up until her death in 2004 at age 85 that after her abduction experience she had witnessed UFOs several times and she had become a "celebrity" in the UFO community.
Were Betty and Barney Hill abducted by occupants of a flying saucer in 1961?
Had they hallucinated the encounter?
Or was it all a down-right fabrication by two people seeking fame and publicity?
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