The Interrupted Sentimental Journey

Married only 16 months, working separate shifts, the Hills had seen little of each other when they took a belated weekend "honeymoon" with their dog Delsey in the fall of 1961. That quick trip to Niagra Falls and Montreal has become the stuff of legend. Barney was nervous, fearful that a Canadian motel might not accept an interracial couple with a dog late at night. The couple decided to drive all the way home to Portsmouth. They were carrying Betty’s handgun for protection and were afraid it might be discovered at the border as they crossed back into the United States. They were tense and arguing when Betty spotted weird lights in the New Hampshire sky.

Whatever happened that night will remain a mystery. Arriving home, at first, the Hills only remembered the bright lights that followed them down the highway. There was a shared sense of loss, as if a period of time was missing from their memories. They reported their UFO sighting to Air Force officials and to relatives and a few close friends. Betty had nightmares. Barney got ill and could not work. Their relationship appeared to unravel. In desperation, Betty and Barney asked Dr. Benjamin Simon of Boston to hypnotize them separately. The recorded sessions uncovered – some say created – a detailed story in which the couple were examined aboard an alien space craft. Barney was slow to accept the wild tale that came from his own mouth.

Critics sometimes accuse the Hills of cashing in on their abduction tale. In fact, it was years before they told the story publicly at a Quaker meeting house in Dover in 1965. They "went public" only to dispute an unauthorized account of their close encounter that had appeared in the Boston Traveler. John Fuller, a reporter for Look magazine, was in the audience at the Hills lecture that night. Fuller was working on another UFO book entitled The Incident at Exeter. Fuller urged the couple to quickly sign a book contract. They did, but only after Betty negotiated a comfortable share of the royalties for the Hills and Dr. Simon. The story based on the taped transcripts is presented, often in agonizing detail, in Fuller’s best selling book The Interrupted Journey. It has been dissected by UFO believers and skeptics for four decades.

Feeling Alienated

For Barney Hill, a civil rights leader in his community, the UFO incident was distracting, emasculating and embarrassing. He feared that the tabloid publicity would tarnish their battle for equality and dignity. And it did. Barney was, even then, taking on racist businesses that refused to serve black customers. Asked why he would not hire a black student as a grocery clerk, a Portsmouth storeowner said it was common knowledge that hiring Negroes led to interracial marriage.

Flying saucers dominated the first four paragraphs of Barney Hill’s obituary in 1969. His lifetime membership in the NAACP, his founding of the Rockingham Community Action program, his legal battles to end discriminatory hiring practices, his appointment to the New Hampshire’s civil liberties commission – all were dwarfed by the publicity from the alien encounter.

Barney’s sudden death from a cerebral hemorrhage devastated Betty. Her college friend and life-long acquaintance Dr. Mary Ann Franklin suggests that Betty never stopped grieving for her soul mate. Betty’s niece Kathleen Marden offers a telling anecdote in her new book Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience, written with UFO expert Stanton Friedman. Marden recalls the first time Betty left her house following Barney’s funeral. Betty stopped on Route 125 at about 9 p.m. and got out of her car to examine a UFO that hovered over nearby power lines. She assumed, according to Marden that the aliens inside the craft were "curious" about Barney’s death. "When she [Betty] pointed in the direction of Barney’s grave," Marden writes, "the craft rocked back and forth three or four times, crossed over the highway, and headed in the general direction of the cemetery."