Location:Home » Books » General AAS » Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience: The True Story of the World's First Documented Alien Abduction
Informations for Non-U.S. Customers, including Europe. Please read. Hot to Order Shipping
Laugh Out Loud fun!December 28, 2007 8 out of 29 found this review helpful
It didn't take long for the relative of Mrs. Hill to cash in after Mrs. Hill passed away. She wrote this book with the "scientist" Mr.Stanton Friedman. Mr. Friedman appears on nearly every UFO "documentary" on the Discovery Channel, TLC, The Science Channel, A&E, etc.. giving his ideas of UFOs. He repeats the same things over and over, never has any new scientific evidence of visitors from space and collects his fee and then moves on to UFO conventions. In fact, making money off of UFOs seems to be his passion not finding out the truth. Ms. Hill has been shown to be a crackpot who took hundreds of photos of UFOs in her life which were nothing more than planes, light posts, car lights, etc. Even the UFO believers have hooted her off stages for her craziness. When she passed away her silliness was picked up by "scientists" like Mr. Friedman to make money off of. Even her psychiatrist, Dr. Simon, says she was imagining her abduction. I would believe him sooner than a man looking to make a buck off a poor woman's delusions like Mr. Friedman. FYI: the star map they praise so much in this book was shown to be worthless over 20 years ago since you can use any set of stars to fit the map. I guess they were hoping people who cared had forgotten.
New Evidence for an Old ControversyDecember 23, 2007 19 out of 19 found this review helpful
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.
not what I was looking forNovember 2, 2007 5 out of 20 found this review helpful
I was dissapointed with the book because I wanted a book that is written like a story, describing the experience of obducted couple in detail. Instead the book offeres very little of that. Instead the book is mainly about analysis of the couple's story, wheather they were telling the truth or not. It deals with different people analysing their story, putting them under hypnosis, comparing their stories. Analysis, analysis, and more analysis. Very little of the actual story of their experience.
Great Reading !October 18, 2007 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The book is an easy reader which you don't want to stop reading. The story in itself is amazing and backed up by many facts and data. I would recommend this book if your are a believer of someone or something else that is out there somewhere.
Good Price - Great ServiceOctober 17, 2007 2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This product came as advertised in very good condition. I was also impressed with the fast deliverly that allowed me to enjoy reading this book without having to wait forever to get it. I would reccomend this seller as someone to do business with.
