Witnessed; The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions [Hardcover]

Budd Hopkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

An account of a UFO abduction in New York City features testimony from third-party individuals who witnessed the abduction, including a major world leader who oversaw the events. By the author of Intruders.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It is 3 a.m. on November 30, 1989. On the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a motorcade carrying international diplomats, including a U.N. representative of the highest standing, stalls out and comes to a halt beneath the FDR Drive. An enormous reddish-orange UFO looms above an apartment building, where a pretty housewife is seen by the members of the motorcade to float out of a 12th-story window, accompanied by three ugly gray aliens, and into the spaceship. Because those involved, including the woman ("Linda Cortile"), the U.N. diplomat and his security men (probably "CIA or NSA"), eventually read Hopkins's bestselling last book, Intruders, they all end up contacting him. One of the security men becomes completely unhinged and is either assassinated or consigned to the back wards of a government insane asylum. He gets off easy. The other G-man falls in love with "Linda," only to discover that he has been trysting with her since the age of 10 under alien auspices. Hopkins contends that the "Brooklyn Bridge incident" is the most-witnessed UFO abduction of all time. Because he has changed the names of all the participants?allegedly to spare them ridicule?little in his text can be checked. In any case, according to Hopkins, "outing" abductees is done only by "vicious debunkers" who have "rigid belief systems." Even so, the author himself does everything but write the words "Perez de Cuellar" in describing the high-echelon U.N. diplomat with the tinted glasses and Spanish accent. Hopkins isn't the storyteller that Whitley Strieber is, but his last book rode high on the bestseller lists, and there's a creepy, nightmarish quality to his new one that may ensure it the same fate. Meanwhile, believers will believe and skeptics will remain skeptical. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The long-awaited investigative report by artist and veteran UFO researcher Budd Hopkins (Missing Time, 1982; Intruders, 1987) details a remarkable abduction that took place in downtown Manhattan early on the morning of November 30, 1989. The case is unique for many reasons: several witnesses from vantage points on or near the Brooklyn Bridge saw the UFO and the abductee (Linda Cortile) floating 12 stories up in a blazing blue-white light; three of these witnesses (a highly placed United Nations diplomat and his security guards) later came to understand that they had been abducted at the same time. One of the security guards eventually realized that he had met Cortile years ago during a shared sequence of abductions in which each recalled the other as an "imaginary playmate." Hopkins does his best to document this bizarre series of events and at one point confronts the unnamed UN official with evidence of his involvement. Cases like this illustrate why there are no simple explanations for UFO abductions. George Eberhart

Product Details

• Hardcover: 399 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books; First Edition edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671569155
• ISBN-13: 978-0671569150
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #349,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Witmessed?, August 20, 2003

By 

Takis Tz. (InYourHead) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions (Mass Market Paperback)

Sometimes, and while reading books that deal with the Ufo-aliens-alien abduction issue i feel that i perfectly understand the "nonbelievers"...If you're going to read a book which purpotedly accounts for the sighting and the witnessing of an alien space craft which adducted human beings from a very central part of a city, well, then, you'd expect the author that wrote the book to have gone to greater lengths than the ones he went through.
And having said that, I should add that i would count myself in as a "believer" (however naive and superficial if not religious such a term is)..
But: when you claim that a spacecraft which was very brightly lit came to a quite central part of a city, abducted someone by elevating her and pulling her through her apartment window, and then dove into a nearby river, i would expect (and others too) that you would find way more witnesses than those accounted for in the book.
Hopkins, the author, offers the abductee herself, 2 ex-secret service (?) agents, and a central political figure as witnesses. Now from these, only the real name of the abductee is used as the two agents offer whatever "evidence" they do on condition of anonymity and the same goes for the politician who also saw the happening. For reasons best know to the author, he claims that he couldnt find more witnesses even though that seems highly unlikely for a very populated area such as that where the incident took place.

As far as other evidence is concerned, he offers the hypnotism sessions he conducted with the abductee as well as some drawings and samples of sand. It's not all that shoddy as I'm describing so far though.
Even with so "little"evidence what Hopkins offers (if entirely true) is nevertheless compelling. You do of course have to take him at his word, but if you do, then it seems that an ultraweird sighting and abduction took place in the end of the 80's..One where an alien spacecraft totally disregarded whether it was attracting massive attention (as if it was intending to?) and went forth with its mission.
This is by no means a new "feature" in alien abduction literature and/or lore. During other sightings as well, craft and their crew have been "acting" as if they couldn't have been less bothered about attracting attention.
The one new element Hopkins offers goes beyond the sighting itself and it adds a whole new dimension to what's possibly involved in alien abductions.
Through his hypnotism sessions and subsequent crosschecking with the other 2 witnesses the author discovers a common "childhood" among these formerly not familiar to each other people, a common childhood that seems to be monitored by "beings" that all 3 witnesses recall in detail and who seem to have followed up the whole process with an abduction at a mauch later date when one of the witnesses (a woman) has already grown to an adult. Further investigation by Hopkins shows that the other 2 witnesses may at one point also have been abducted.

The possibility that another species is actually setting up "separate childhoods" for us, where not only are we monitored (so our behavior over a long period of time can be observed)but we are also beeing set up with future "mates" so the structure of human relationships can be studied in detail is -to put it ultramildly- very interesting...

Overall, this is a book addressed to those who are already in "familair" territory with the issue. I dont see how someone who has never read such a book wont be "alienated" (pun intended) with the offerings in it.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scared the ... out of me, February 17, 2003

By 

psychsound "psychsound" (Upstate New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions (Mass Market Paperback)

Believers will believe and nonbelievers will not believe. To believe the story of a real-life abduction and how it affected those who witnessed it, you have to trust the author who writes it. I must say, Hopkins seems like a nice guy and he also seems believable. Reading the book, you get to know the guy and how he does his investigatory work in trying to verify whether this incident actually happened.

Problem is, of course, that reading the book is an act of faith. You will never really know if the sources made anything up. On one hand, you think, these sources have no motive to lie, and too many people would have to conspire to weave a web of lies and remain consistent in reporting the story to Hopkins. Based on their lifestyles, social class and professions, several critical sources could not possibly have known each other before the witnessed abduction. What what about the power of suggestion? There are no real answers, but this is a great read. It will change the way you react to UFO stories.

And I'll say this: if even HALF this book is true, we are in big trouble. BIG trouble. Read the book to find out why.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There goes your reality rug!, September 20, 2001

By 

Reality Rug (Westford, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions (Mass Market Paperback)

I've enjoyed other books by Budd Hopkins and this one met my expectations. I feel for the people who have lost their reality, and that's why I say their "reality rug" is gone.

Budd has written about how certain people are repeatidly abducted throughout their life. Through hypnosis the main events concern Linda. Linda finds out she's been abducted numerous times starting when she was very young. How does one's brain process these tramatic events? How can she protect her children? How does a marriage survive inconceivable events like this?

Then Linda is abducted by two men that witnessed a particular event. They want to find out if she's a human or a "half-breed". She is fighting for her life on an earthly plane and with her alien abductors...and then it gets even more strange. I won't tell you everything, but let's just say, "the butler didn't do it". :-)

I started reading this genre, because I saw a white cigar shaped object floating over a lake one night with my parents and siblings. We were out watching the bats fly around. Never found out what it So very glad for that!