WEBVTT - Falling Star 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:05.600 Strange Arrivals is a production of I Heart Radio and 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:15.760 Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. At dusk in early August, 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:21.119 I saw lights in the sky. My wife and I 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:24.119 were having dinner with another couple. We were at my 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:28.680 family's summer cottage on an island in Lake Winnipesauke. My 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:32.800 wife saw them first, four or five red lights hovering 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.840 above the horizon. It's impossible to say how far away 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:40.559 they were. It was dark, and it's hard to estimate 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.080 distances over water anyway, but they were at least a 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:48.720 few miles off, probably more. We walked down from the 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:53.159 porch and onto the dock. The lights moved slowly. They 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:55.600 would be in one shape and then shift to another. 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:00.640 At some point, two or three other lights material realized. 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:07.200 We watched for several minutes. Four years later, we all 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.880 have different memories about how it ended. I still don't 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:13.240 know what we saw that night in the New Hampshire sky. 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:18.000 One person agreed with me that it was probably something ordinary, 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.240 we just couldn't figure out what. But the other two 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.880 shared a different opinion. They thought it was probably a UFO, 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:31.560 something from outer space. We also can't agree on how 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:36.000 the night ended. Those of us looking for an earthly explanation, 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:39.560 remember the lights blinking out one by one, as though 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:43.919 they had lost power. Those who thought the lights were extraterrestrial, 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:49.360 remember them flying off at great speeds. Nobody is budging 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:53.800 on their memory. This incident was the colonel that began 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:58.120 this podcast. If we all witnessed the same event, why 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.880 would two of us think aliens and to think anything 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:07.480 but aliens? More crucially, how did this initial assumption change 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.120 the way we remembered what we saw. To try to 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.120 get an answer to these questions, I decided to take 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:19.760 a look at another sighting, one that took place almost 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:22.960 sixty years ago, at a spot about an hour's drive 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:29.520 from where we stood that night. I'm Toby Ball and 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:53.160 this is Strange Arrivals, Episode one, Falling Star. In September, 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:58.200 John F. Kennedy had been president for eight months, making 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.720 it only five months since the Bay of Pike's fiasco. 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.280 That same month, Russian cosmonaut Jurger Garan became the first 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.200 person in space, prompting President Kennedy to call for a 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.720 national initiative to put a man on the Moon by 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.560 the end of the decade. Of the world now look 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:18.600 into space to the moon end of the planets beyond. 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.040 During that same September, Betty and Barney Hill took a vacation. 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:28.919 The couple lived in Portsmouth, a small city on New 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.920 Hampshire's Atlantic coast. They drove west across Massachusetts at New 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:36.560 York State to see Niagara Falls. From there, they crossed 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:40.520 into Canada and visited Toronto. They were planning to drive 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:43.880 east and spend a final night in Montreal before returning home, 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:52.000 but that plan changed. Barney Hill was African American. He 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.760 worked a graveyard shift as a distribution clerk in the 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:58.360 South Boston Postal Annex. Every day he made a grueling 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.040 two hour commute from their home in Portsmith to the north. 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.720 His wife, Betty Hill, was white. She was a social 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.800 worker for the state of New Hampshire. Both were active 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.880 in the community, particularly on the issue of civil rights. 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:15.440 Barney was an officer in the Portsmouth n Double A 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.359 c P, a member of the New Hampshire State Advisory 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:20.960 Board of the U S Civil Rights Commission, and a 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.279 member of the board of directors of the Rockingham County 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:27.159 Poverty Program. Betty was involved in the N Double A 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.080 c P as well, and was the United Nations envoy 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:34.719 to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Their 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.400 civil rights work even earned them an invitation to Lyndon 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:42.480 Johnson's presidential inauguration. In short, they were professionals and respected 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:48.760 members of their community. On the night of September, instead 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:52.080 of spending the night in Montreal as initially planned, Betty 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.480 and Barney decided to drive home. Why did they change 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:59.560 their minds depends on who you ask. It could be 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.320 that they got lost in Montreal and were unsettled because 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:06.000 they couldn't understand directions given in French, or that they 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:08.720 wanted to get home before tropical Storm Esther arrived in 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:14.240 New England, or maybe they simply ran out of money. Regardless, 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:18.279 they cut their vacations short and headed home. Betty and 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.200 Barney re entered the United States at a remote border 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.520 crossing near the town of Colebrook, New Hampshire. It was 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:26.920 there they stopped to eat before making their way back 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:31.440 on the road. Two years later, Betty and Barney would 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.159 undergo hypnosis to try to recall the strange events of 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:45.480 this night. These sessions were recorded and transcripts made, so 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.760 we have a detailed account of Betty and Barney stop 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:52.800 in Colebrook. The recordings, with a couple of exceptions, continue 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:56.360 to be in private hands, but the transcripts are available. 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.479 In a couple of places, we will use actual audio 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.440 from Betty and Barney's separate hypnosis sessions. In other places, 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.520 actors will read from transcripts. And one of these sessions 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:12.480 that took place on February n Barney recalled this visit 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:18.919 to the restaurant performed here by an actor. There is 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:25.039 a dars skinned woman in there. I think dark by 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:29.480 Caucasian standards, and I wonder is she a light skinned 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:34.599 Negro or is she Indian? Or is she white? She 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.880 waits on us and she is not very friendly. And 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:43.040 I noticed this, and others are there and they're looking 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.359 at me and at Betty, and they seem to be 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:51.920 friendly or please, but the dark skinned woman doesn't. I 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.719 wanted them more so is she Negro? And I wonder 0:06:55.760 --> 0:07:00.000 if I if if she is wondering, if I if 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.440 I know she is me growing and is passing for white. 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:05.560 I eat a Hamburg and I have come in patient 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:09.240 with Betty tonight to drink her coffee so we can 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.400 get started. And in the clock on my watch says 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.200 five minutes after ten, and I know I should be 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:23.760 in Port Smith. I think by two o'clock. They left 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:28.080 Colebrook heading south on a dark, remote highway. They were 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:32.080 about sixty miles south of the Canadian border when it happened. Well. 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:36.960 Barney was driving, Betty caught something out the window. When 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:40.560 they were about four miles south of Lancaster, New Hampshire, 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:45.520 Betty spotted a new light in the sky. Kathleen Martin 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.720 is the director of Experiencer Research for the Mutual UFO 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:54.120 Network or mouf ON. I am also the niece of 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:57.880 Betty and Barney Hill. I was thirteen years old when 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:02.040 they had their experience in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:05.400 At first, she thought of a falling star, but she 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:08.800 realized that falling stars don't fall upwards, and that's what 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.240 this one was doing. She thought, well, could it possibly 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:15.240 be a satellite? But that didn't make sense either. My 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:19.400 family was interested in the space program, and my grandfather, 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:21.560 brother and I used to go out and look for 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:27.760 satellites at night. They continued to drive south on Route 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:34.080 three through upstate New Hampshire, and she was watching this 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.440 light in the sky as it grew larger and larger. 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.840 It was a bright light night, so it was easy 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.040 to see outside. The moon was about three quarters full. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.920 As she watched this, and it grew larger and larger. 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:53.720 She became very curious, so south of Twin Mountain, she 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.000 asked Barnie to stop by the side of the road. 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.400 This was at the Mount Cleveland picnic area, and got 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.079 out of the car with binoculars and looked up at 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:08.079 this thing in the sky. The perplexing thing is that 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:13.320 it did not make any sound whatsoever. Barney was arguing 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.280 that it must be a commercial plane and they simply 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:20.600 couldn't hear it and route to perhaps Montreal or Toronto. 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:25.679 And then this thing, this object bounced back and the 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:31.120 sky toward Barney. He realized it was highly unusual. He 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.960 was still attempting to identify it. Betty had already returned 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.760 to the car. He got in and said, oh, it's 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:42.880 it's really nothing, It's just a plane. They entered Franconian 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.040 Notch State Park, where steep mountains rise on each side 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.440 of the road and there are no houses to be seen. 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:51.199 This stretch is one of the most beautiful in New 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:56.120 Hampshire and isolated it can also be claustrophobic, especially at night. 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:02.440 So they proceeded self into Anconia Notch and as they 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:08.040 passed by Cannon Mountain, they got a view of this 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:12.720 object passing over the top of a building on top 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.320 of the mountain, and the light in the building blinked 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:22.560 out as it passed by. Strange arrivals will return in 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:40.040 a moment. As they entered Franconia Notch, Betty and Barney 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.080 watched as the light that they've been tracking flew over 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:48.199 Cannon Mountain. In a hypnosis transcript read here by an actress, 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:53.480 Betty described losing track of the object. I don't know 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.080 if it went down in the valley between the two 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.200 mountains or if it turned its light off. And this 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:03.680 puzzled me because I kept looking for it, and then 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:07.160 I thought, well, maybe they're going away. They are and 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.600 interested in us. But then we came out by Old 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:15.920 Man of the Mountains, and there it was. The Old 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.360 Man in the mountain was a rock formation in Franconian 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.280 Notch that looked like the profile of a craggy face. 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.679 From the time they lived Mount Cleveland Picnic area. They 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:28.120 perceived that the light was following them The couple made 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:30.360 several brief stops to get a look at it, but 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:32.400 it was there stopped by the old man in the mountain, 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.480 that caused a change in their experience. What had been 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:37.000 a point of light in the sky was now a 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.640 craft of some sort, a physical object with a shape 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.680 and a size, and colored lights, and it made no sound. 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.120 They stopped again at the base of the old man 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.960 of the mountain. They got out and they looked up 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:57.880 at this thing again through binoculars. The old man's profile, 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:01.280 I believe is forty eight feet from warhead to chimp. 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:05.480 And they then were able to measure the diameter of 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.720 this object. They said that it was about one and 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.720 a half times, maybe a little more the length of 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:18.920 the old man's profile. That's about seventy five or six 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.400 cars lined up back to back. As they're watching it, 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:24.880 it appeared to be lighted on only one side, and 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.960 it appeared to be rotating, which was very perplexing. And 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:33.000 then it started to move in a stair step pattern, 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:38.360 this very unusual pattern. Barney, of course, was in a hurry. 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.760 He wanted to get home. He was wide awake, he 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:44.880 had been well rested the night before. But they knew 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:47.880 that they could stop for some rest if they grew tired. 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:51.640 At this point about Barney being well arrested would become 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:56.200 a matter of dispute later on. So they got into 0:12:56.240 --> 0:13:01.640 the car. They drove self, and as they exited Franconian 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:09.319 Notch and came into North Lincoln, that object swooped down 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.320 in the sky, and then they realized that it was 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:17.240 a highly unusual craft. Barney stopped the car in the 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:22.080 center of the highway because the object was overhead, and 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.880 the object at first appeared to be about two hundred 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.560 feet high, and then it appeared to descend to about 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:32.680 a hundred feet above their vehicle. We saw the object 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.840 off in a great distance. It appeared to be winking, 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:38.959 but now that it was closed, it looked as if 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.840 there was just one solid band of light and this 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:46.120 was moving back with it. This is Barney interviewed by 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:50.200 Harv Morgan for the Cleveland based radio show Contact on 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:55.920 October three years after the fact. And I had closed 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.679 the car down to appoximately five Well, this was very 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:01.880 up Addy, So I came to a complete stop in 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.320 the center of the highway. I got out of the 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:06.800 car and I took the binoculis. I rested my left 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:08.679 arm on the door that was opened at the car 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.120 door and my right elbow on the roof of the car, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.960 and I tried to look, but the car was motor 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.880 was running, so I had to step away. As I 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:20.440 stepped away from the car, the object swung from the 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.280 passenger side over to the left, which would have been 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:26.880 the side that I was driving, making a large art 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:32.600 like turn, placing it over a field. Barney was transfixed 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.040 by the ship. He walked away from the car and 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.200 into the field to a point where he was just 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:41.880 below the craft. There was absolutely no sound associated with 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.840 this object. It must have at the time been approximately 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:50.080 a hundred feet up above my head. This would be 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.720 about ten stories up. The size of it was about 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:58.680 to approximately if you were looking at a large military 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:02.600 plane or at any commercial airliner. From tail to head. 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.280 This is the size of it. As the series of 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.360 windows were around it, this is how huge it was. 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.840 He trained his binoculars on those windows and saw about 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:18.320 ten figures looking back at him. There was nothing unusual 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.800 about them. They did have on what I thought was 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.080 a black type shiny uniform similar to the black leather 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:29.960 type jacket you find motorcyclist wearing the one that I 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:33.320 will now for identifying purposes, called a leader, while he 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:37.480 had on a military type cap with surdvisor, while the 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:41.120 others did not. They moved back away from the window. 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:45.520 All this one with the black leather type uniform. I 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:48.680 will say, uniforms continue to look down at me. Well, 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:50.400 thank You want to get earlier that they were pretty 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.720 human looking with and you have to consider that looking 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:57.000 at anyone in a window ten stories up with the 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.480 binocular the only thing you can discern is that they 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:04.280 looked human and nothing would test about them. Now listen 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.200 the last pitch. Did you feel there was anything sinister 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.360 about these people? Did you get that impression? Yes, they did, 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:14.600 only that it was a strange situation. And therefore I 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.360 have thought of this many times. That is to say, 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.960 was there anything sinister about them? Or was it because 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:26.560 of the unusual situation that I was in magnifying my feelings? 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:32.120 I did feel that there was something sinister, strange, unusual 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:37.560 about the whole thing. One of the beings remained at 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.400 the window looking at Barney, who looked back through his binoculars. 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:45.120 The others turned away, and from what Barney could see, 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:47.600 she began to pull levers that were attached to a 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.280 panel in the wall. This lever pulling seemed to deploy 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:57.920 what Barney described as fan type wings tipped by red lights. Well, 0:16:58.040 --> 0:16:59.840 this was too much for me, and I made it 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.480 used to be treating to the card, seeming to the 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.840 wife that they had seen me, they had seen us, 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:12.119 and we had to get away. Barney sounds very calm 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:17.880 in this interview, but Barney said no secession on February 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.520 gives a sense of the trauma of this moment. A warning. 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:27.600 This clip is very emotionally intense. This creature, this leader 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:35.760 is telling me something you're telling yourself. How how is 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:41.000 he getting it to you? I can see it in 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:52.240 his face. See, yes, M telling you And he's looking 0:17:52.280 --> 0:18:01.920 at me. What did I tell you? M Stay there 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:09.440 and keep looking, Just keep looking and stay there and 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:14.960 just keep looking. Yes, keep looking? Could you Harry tell 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.600 oh I got a pullice binoculis away from my eyes? 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.480 Because if I don't, I'll just keep staying there. Look 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.439 at Harry tell you lest oh, No, he didn't say it, 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:31.399 you felt you sell? I know you know he's n't there. Yeah, 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:36.600 just stay there, He's saying to be all. I'll think 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.280 in my head, all right, pull over, docles away, God 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:51.119 give his all right, God is my God? Give me 0:18:51.160 --> 0:19:07.359 his fans backing away? Oh oh oh Again. Barney fled 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.240 back to the car in a panic. He was convinced 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:12.600 that the figures on the craft had seen him and 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.919 we're going to capture him and Betty. They started driving 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.280 south again, trying to get away, and then they heard 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.760 a series of beeps coming, it seemed from the rear 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:26.399 of their car. These beeps were very peculiar because it 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.680 was much like a pony for being struck in place 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:33.280 to give you a very subtle, typed vibration, and that's 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:36.119 the way the car vibrated. And it was b b 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.760 b b b b b beep. And I said to 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:42.040 my wife, my god, what is that? I said, look 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.879 out the window. They're right overhead. And she looked out 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.480 of the window, but you couldn't see anything. And later 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.520 we find out that you couldn't see the sky as well, 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:56.840 so apparently the glasses moved overhead over us. This beeping 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:59.520 noise was followed by a hazy period for both Betty 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:03.919 and Barney, almost as if they dozed off for thirty 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:06.879 miles of driving. They didn't speak with each other. They 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:10.240 had only vague memories of this period, including the impression 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:14.280 that they'd seen something glowing, maybe the moon. And then 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.280 thirty five miles further south, we will beat the game. 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:20.879 And this is the only time. My wife and I 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:24.160 then began to communicate with one another by saying, well, 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:27.000 what was it we saw? This is surprising because that 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:32.479 about my mile period we did not discuss anything. They 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:36.320 were unsettled, but they continued towards home. They took a 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.360 detour in the conquered the state capital, trying to find 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:41.520 a cup of coffee and a police officer to tell 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:44.640 their story to at that time of the morning. They 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:48.960 found neither. They just drove on to their home in Portsmouth, 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:52.600 New Hampshire, expecting to arrive about two o'clock in the morning. 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:57.280 But when they arrived it was already dawn, sun was 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:03.399 streaking the sky. It was start at five o'clock. There's 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:05.399 a two or three hour gap between when Betty and 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.320 Barney expected to arrive in Portsmouth and when they actually did. 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:13.000 This quote unquote missing time becomes a key piece of 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:22.320 evidence in support of the Hills story. Betty and Barney 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:24.240 Hill arrived at their home at about five in the 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:28.639 morning on September. They had driven through the night from Montreal. 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.200 They had memories of a harrowing experience with the UFO 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:36.320 and were exhausted and distressed. Betty was afraid that the 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:38.640 things that they had in their car might be contaminated. 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.920 She wouldn't let Barney bring the bags inside the house. 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:44.800 They threw away the food they had in their cooler, 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.240 and then they began to notice strange things, things that 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:55.840 seemed like evidence. Barney went into the house and checked 0:21:56.000 --> 0:22:00.280 the time. His watch had stopped running at that point, 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:04.200 so he just reset it and rewounded. The same thing 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:08.320 happened to Betty. Her watch was not running either, even 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:11.360 though she had said it at ten o'clock that evening. 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:16.159 Both watches broke on the same night, within a certain 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:23.040 time frame. Those watches never ran again. Looking for advice, 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:28.199 particularly about possible contamination, Betty called her sister, who had 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:33.400 a neighbor that was a physicist. The neighbor, for some reason, 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:37.000 told Betty that if she had a compass, she should 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:39.399 take it to the car to see how the needle 0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:46.720 on the compass would react. Folklore's John Horrigan interviewed Betty 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:49.240 Hill in her home. It was one of the last 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:53.880 interviews she gave. What happens when you look at the car, 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:56.960 Kylie Polish spots are the chuck of the car, really, 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:02.600 and that day it was Louis getting um tropical rains 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:05.320 from a hurricane that was going through, and it was 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:10.480 heavy downfall and didn't affect spots at all. They stayed 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:15.280 there for months. Your sister, who claimed to have seen 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:18.399 a U phone, suggested that you do what went around 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:21.600 the She talked to the physicists who said, go out 0:23:21.640 --> 0:23:24.640 with the compass and check out the spots, which we did. 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:28.760 What happened, and the compass was very, very erratic, almost 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:33.720 spinning or just you know, And we tried it other 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:35.840 parts of the cab and it didn't react, but just 0:23:35.920 --> 0:23:38.679 near where the spots were, hence the inference being a 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:43.680 magnetic anomaly. Something was was really distorting the magnetic drawal 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:48.560 of the compass. She remembered the strange buzzing noises coming 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:50.560 from the rear of the car from the night before. 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:54.119 She wondered if these spots might be connected to that sound, 0:23:55.280 --> 0:24:00.159 and there were more strange clues. Betty's best dress us 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:03.000 that she had been wearing that day was torn in 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:06.480 several places. It was torn at the top of the zipper, 0:24:06.640 --> 0:24:08.880 a one inch tear on one side and two inch 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:11.840 tear on the other. It was torn from waste to 0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:15.040 ham line. The ham was torn down on one side. 0:24:15.160 --> 0:24:18.359 She couldn't understand how this happened as she was sitting 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:22.240 as a passenger in the seat of this vehicle. The 0:24:22.280 --> 0:24:26.119 binocular strap on the binoculars that Barney had around his 0:24:26.520 --> 0:24:30.760 neck was severed. He couldn't understand why there was vegetative 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:36.880 matter on his clothing. Also, Barney's best dress shoes were 0:24:36.960 --> 0:24:40.600 so deeply scraped that he had to buy new shoes. 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:43.440 He was a meticulous dresser, so he used them for 0:24:43.600 --> 0:24:48.760 yard work after that. He couldn't understand that either. But 0:24:48.880 --> 0:24:53.840 there was no conscious recall for a couple of hours 0:24:53.880 --> 0:24:58.879 of their time. Even when they considered the moments that 0:24:58.960 --> 0:25:02.760 they stopped to look at this craft, it was very, 0:25:02.880 --> 0:25:09.720 very perplexing. The stopped watches, barney scuffed shoes, the spots 0:25:09.720 --> 0:25:13.439 on the trunk, and then Betty's torn dress, the broken 0:25:13.480 --> 0:25:17.800 binocular strap, the missing time. All these bits of evidence 0:25:17.800 --> 0:25:20.280 confirmed to the Hills that what they had experienced that 0:25:20.400 --> 0:25:23.480 night was abnormal, but it also seemed that there was 0:25:23.520 --> 0:25:28.880 something missing, something forgotten. Two years later, when they would 0:25:28.920 --> 0:25:32.360 undergo hypnosis and new memories would emerge, they would find 0:25:32.400 --> 0:25:35.520 that there was more to the story next time on 0:25:35.640 --> 0:25:48.000 Strange Arrivals. Strange Arrivals is a production of I Heart 0:25:48.080 --> 0:25:51.800 Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. This episode 0:25:51.840 --> 0:25:54.439 was written and hosted by Toby Bowl and produced by 0:25:54.480 --> 0:25:58.720 Miranda Hawkins and Josh Thane, with executive producers Alex Williams, 0:25:58.800 --> 0:26:02.439 Matt Frederick and and Manky. Betty Hill was portrayed by 0:26:02.520 --> 0:26:08.440 Gina Rickike. Barney Hill was portrayed by Jason Williams. Special 0:26:08.480 --> 0:26:11.320 thanks to the Milne's Special Collections and Archives at the 0:26:11.400 --> 0:26:16.760 University of New Hampshire, John Horrigan, w y A M 0:26:16.800 --> 0:26:21.119 in Norwich, Connecticut, John White, and David O'Leary, the executive 0:26:21.119 --> 0:26:25.080 producer of the History Channel's dramatic series Project Blue Book. 0:26:25.720 --> 0:26:27.760 Learn more about the show over at Grimm and Mile 0:26:27.880 --> 0:26:31.439 dot com. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the 0:26:31.440 --> 0:26:35.119 iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:26:35.160 --> 0:26:36.080 your favorite shows.