Customer Reviews

Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience: The True Story of the World's First Documented Alien Abduction

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Captured! - the Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience: The True Story of the World's First Documented Alien Abduction is an in-depth analysis of the first (widely reported) case of what would come to be known as "alien abduction."

The root of the story is that author John G. Fuller, worked with Barney and Betty Hill and Dr. Benjamin Simon to expand on an October 25th, 1965 Boston Traveler newspaper story, "UFO Chiller: Did THEY Seize Couple?"

The result of this effort was the best-selling book, The Interrupted Journey (1965). (Just as an aside, a lot of people forget that the original title was the more sensational, The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours Aboard A Flying Saucer. The abbreviated title was obviously the more intriguing choice!)

Stanton Friedman, author of Top Secret/Majic: Operation Majestic-12 and the United States Government's UFO Cover-up, Crash at Corona: The U.S. Military Retrieval and Cover-Up of a UFO, and the forthcoming Flying Saucers and Science: A Scientist Investigates the Mysteries of UFOs: Interstellar Travel, Crashes, and Government Cover-Ups, is probably UFOlogy's most respected, articulate and well known scientific defender. There are other credentialed academic investigators into UFO's, but Stanton is one of the relatively few to be degreed in what I would consider "hard science" - nuclear physics. His resume lists the names of some very "high-tech" organizations: General Electric, General Motors, Westinghouse, TRW Systems, Aerojet General Nucleonics, and McDonnell Douglas.

Stanton is given unique insight in the case by working with Kathleen Marden, the niece and close confidant of Betty Hill. Coming from such different perspectives, the reader gets an interesting, and entertaining, review of an admittedly controversial topic.

Despite the subject matter, and the fact that the incident being discussed is more than 45 years old, the book has a breezy presentation, very well illustrated (though what's being illustrated isn't always clear) and sprinkled with "pull quotes" and bordered boxes of additional material that, in the days before People Magazine, would have been relegated to footnotes. The style of the book reminds me more of "Entertainment Tonight" than Incident at Exeter: Unidentified flying objects over America now. The result is that the book has a very current flavor. This fact alone may make it more palatable for a younger generation of readers, educated through sound-bites and MTV.

The book goes a long way to make the Hills more "real" and their personal story is told in full for, so far as I know, the first time. As an interracial couple in the late 50's, early 60's, they would've been a remarkable couple entirely independent of their "missing time" incident. More than just victims of a strange event, they were pioneers in the fledgling civil rights movement long before such a struggle became a popular cause. Their contributions to equality were recognized on the national level by a personal invitation to President Lyndon Baines Johnson's 1965 inauguration. Also included in the book is a copy of Barney's appointment to the New Hampshire Civil Rights Commission. In phrasing quaint, or even condescending, to current sensibilities Barney is described as "eminently qualified to serve on the Human Rights Commission as a representative of the Negro Race" (page 298.) In reading the book I couldn't help but reflect that except for the "Interupted Journey" the Hills might well have been as renowned for their contributions to Civil Rights as they are (in some camps) as notorious as the first alien abductees.

In this book are three sources of data addressed in detail for the first time: a series of in-depth interviews between Ms. Marden and her Aunt Betty; analysis of the actual hypnotic sessions conducted by Dr. Simon (though the book, understandably, doesn't contain full transcripts); and a forensic analysis of the dress worn by Betty as the time of the encounter.

Without ruining the book for other readers by giving away too much detail, this evidence not only lends more credence to the Hills' account, but also provides Stanton the springboard to launch a passionate attack on the many detractors who've come forward over the decades to poo-poo the incident. Singled out for particular scorn is Susan Clancy's, Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens. You can tell that Stanton's been aching for the right opportunity to take on Susan's book and in Captured, he's found the perfect venue.

As to whether or not Captured "proves" that the Hills were abducted by aliens, well, that's going to be up to each individual reader to decide for themselves. But with this book, they're going to have a lot more evidence to consider.

CAPTURED! is thoroughly researched and well written. Highly recommended.

I know it is faithfully based on the audio tapes that were made while Betty and Barney Hill were under hypnosis, because I am one of the two or three living people who listened to all of those tapes.

My notarized testimony of my involvement with Betty and Barney Hill is included at several places in this book.

Ben H. Swett
Colonel USAF (Retired)

Having read other works by Stanton Friedman, I had an idea as to what to expect when I started reading this book. I was definitely not disappointed.

Before reading Captured! - the Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience: The True Story of the World's First Documented Alien Abduction, I was familiar with the basics of the Hill sighting/abduction case, general background information, the major sighting/abduction experience and the star map drawn by Betty. However, from the details about their personal lives, family, friends, education, professions, etc; to the recounting of their multiple sightings and abduction experiences, I was literally blown away by the amount of information presented.

This book clearly illustrates a well researched investigation into who the Hills were and what they experienced, never before have I seen such an in depth analysis of such a controversial abduction case. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the alien abduction phenomenon or UFOs in general. If anyone has doubts about what the Hill's witnessed to what was done to them aboard an extraterrestrial space craft, they should be easily forgotten after reading this book.
Having read other works by Stanton Friedman, I had an idea as to what to expect when I started reading this book. I was definitely not disappointed.

Before reading Captured! - the Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience: The True Story of the World's First Documented Alien Abduction, I was familiar with the basics of the Hill sighting/abduction case, general background information, the major sighting/abduction experience and the star map drawn by Betty. However, from the details about their personal lives, family, friends, education, professions, etc; to the recounting of their multiple sightings and abduction experiences, I was literally blown away by the amount of information presented.

This book clearly illustrates a well researched investigation into who the Hills were and what they experienced, never before have I seen such an in depth analysis of such a controversial abduction case. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the alien abduction phenomenon or UFOs in general. If anyone has doubts about what the Hill's witnessed to what was done to them aboard an extraterrestrial space craft, they should be easily forgotten after reading this book.

I am an avid collector and reader of books on this subject. The Hill Case has long deserved to be re-visited again in these times. The original Fuller book, the Interrupted Journey, is a classic but suffered from the times it wass written in. There were details that were known then but could not be discussed in the 1960's as they can now.
I enjoyed how a lot of the gaps in the story were filled in as well as giving rather interesting biographical information on the Hills.
The issue I have with the book is that it spends a lot of time in too much detail about things that don't matter to the narrative and fighting debunkers. Using many pages "proving" that a now empty space over the door frame of a rest room at a restaurant orignally held the actual clock that Betty looked at over 40 years ago wasn't the great revelation that Friedman thinks it is. He also comes off as a bit too touchy over the debunkers concerns and goes into them in excruciating detail. Both of these type of things take up nearly half of the book.
Friedman doesn't take on the obvious questions about the case that have been brought up over the years because he takes things at face value. He takes everything that the "aliens" say and do without any thought of how they may be devious or deceptive. The so called "Star Map" that they showed to Betty is to Friedman an actual map. He doesn't ask the question as to why these beings show Betty a map from her perspective. He doesn't ask why on one hand the "leader" cannot understand what time is as Betty discusses it with him when only minutes the same leader says to her (paraphrase)"We need to hurry as we haven't much time left!". Surely this and many other of the "edges" ask for some analysis.
Knowing his work it is pretty much what I expected.

Went over everything in the Hill case piece by piece. New information
not published in other books about the Hill experience. I can't see
how anyone can read this and not feel that this really happened.

This book is a well organized, and highly personal, account of the Hill abduction back in 1961. I hope that other reviewers will not reveal all the details of this book, as there are some interesting topics that were never brought up in John Fuller's classic book. They make for fresh reading and debate.
The only chapter that bothered me somewhat was Chap 22 (concerning the famous star map). I guess that Stanton Friedman was addressing this chapter to the astronomically undereducated, as he pointed out that many people do not know the difference between a "solar system" and a "galaxy." Hopefully, most of the people that read this book are much more advanced in their understanding of astronomy. But, it never hurts to teach!
I do not feel that Marjorie Fish's map is valid anymore, because anyone can go to a website such as "SolStation.com" and view a 3D map with any nearby star at the center. If you do this with Zeta Reticuli, you do NOT get a close match with the Hill star map. I, personally, feel that the greys originated in the star system Beta Hydri, but began looking for new homes when their star began expanding and moving off the main sequence. We are just one of several star systems that they have explored, perhaps.

A facinating book. Very well written and believable. I have read so
many ufo books that were just nonsence. This one is not. It will hold
your attention.

I didn't expect much because I had read so much about this event. But I was surprised. Lots of new info. Betty & Barney were much smarter folk than the 'naysayers' would like for you to believe. If you think you've read it all, try this book for the 'rest of the story'.

CAPTURED! THE BETTY AND BARNEY HILL UFO EXPERIENCE charts one of the most famous documented alien abductions in history, using previously unpublished information about the lives of the Hills before and after Barney's death in 1969 to explore their lives and Betty's experiences as a UFO investigator. The coauthor is a physicist and ufologist, the original civilian investigator of the Roswell Incident, and here adds breadth and depth to a riveting story highly recommended for any collection strong in UFO abduction stories - this is a classic which can't be missed.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden have assembled the most thorough presentation ever written on this controversial incident. I have read a couple previous publications on this incident, but "Captured" is by far the best. I am old enough to have a vivid recollection of the publicity that surrounded this incident when it happened, and in spite of reading other books and articles about it, I was always skeptical, as I am about all contact and abduction cases.

"Captured" however, presents a very sound argument that something very bizarre happened to Betty and Barney Hill that night, and that Betty and Barney were very reluctant to divulge it or make it public. Kathleen Marden, Betty Hill's niece, presents details of the abductions, gleaned from never before published personal interviews with her aunt that, when applying Occam's Razor, can only be explained by alien abduction. Physical evidence like Barney's scratched shoes and Betty's torn and soiled dress cannot be ignored nor can the damage to their vehicle. Excerpts from transcripts of tape recordings made while Betty and Barney were under hypnosis are included in support of other evidence presented.

Relating to the story as presented, Friedman and Marden also point out the intentional inaccuracies in the reporting of the incident at the time, by people like the magician The Amazing (James) Randi, Dr. Carl Sagan and others. Intentional inaccuracies, the motives for which are perplexing if not troubling.

Friedman and Marden have done an outstanding job and have created a well documented history of the incident, the people, and the times, as well as an interesting read.