Unexplained Fantastical Observations

BY BONNIE MEROTH, J.W. OCKER AND DAVID MENDELSOHN

ALIEN ADVENTURES IN THE GRANITE STATE > Ever since Ezekiel saw a fiery, celestial wheel-in-a-wheel in the skies of ancient Chaldea, people have been sharing their tales of instrusions into our Earthly airspace, but few such tales echo in the vaults of history. New Hampshire is the setting for two that do, and these two still shape the way we look at — and look for — UFOs. This year, “disclosure” efforts are underway in Congress and the Department of Defense, and it’s been 75 years since the world was told that a flying saucer had crashed in Roswell, New Mexico — a report that was quickly denied and covered up. With sightings seemingly on the increase, this month seems like a good time to review our own pieces of the great UFO puzzle.

The hooded headlights of the 1957 Chevy Bel Air sliced into the night over Route 3 near Lancaster.

Eerily quiet on this clear, temperate evening, not another car was in sight. Brilliant stars silvered the sky, fighting the light of the gibbous moon. Four miles south of Lancaster, the female passenger watched what looked like a falling star strangely moving upward. Over the next hour, its light grew, moving in closer until it appeared as a silent rotating craft lighted on one side. Erratically but swiftly, it approached and backed off their vehicle. Rounding a bend in the road near Indian Head south of Franconia Notch, the driver slammed on the brakes in the middle of the road as the light from the hovering silent airborne craft shrouded their car from about 80 to 100 feet overhead, then set down within 100 feet of him. Through the binoculars, the driver could see figures ... not human.

Betty and Barney Hill’s UFO experience became the world’s first documented alien abduction and a chronicle, titled “The Interrupted Journey,” became a film starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons.

Engulfed in the blackness of the late summer New Hampshire night, a teenage Navy recruit walked down the quiet country highway. Suddenly, a huge bright object loomed above him. Throwing himself on the ground to avoid being hit, blood draining from his face, he huddled against a stone wall. Intense bright lights pulsated around an apparent ring on “the thing” above him. Silently wobbling and floating in the sky, approaching at close range in his direction, it eventually backed off far enough to give the terrified teen the chance to run to a nearby house where he fruitlessly screamed and banged on the door. Finally, a car driven by a middleaged couple came along and took the hysterical Norman Muscarello to the Exeter Police Department.

Muscarello’s experience was confirmed and shared by several others, including police officers.

It became a famous book, “The Incident at Exeter,” by Saturday Review columnist John. G. Fuller.

The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience and the Incident at Exeter are the top two alien adventures in the state. Each is high on the global credible-UFO list, in spite of initially being disclaimed by the government. The Hills’ experience is considered the fourth and most extreme kind of UFO encounter, an abduction of the witness or other direct contact. The third kind of encounter is ground contact with close observation of animate beings associated with the UFO. The second, observation of a UFO in close proximity with physical vestiges. And the first, testimony with a witness stating upclose contact within 500 feet.

According to Susan Howe, New Hampshire MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) state director and also on the CAG (Case Assistance Group) and CAG team, the Hills were the first abductees (now called “experiencers”) by aliens (now called “entities”) in New Hampshire. She added that the first recorded UFO sighting in the state allegedly took place on Mount Washington in the mid-1800s (see sidebar, page 73). And it didn’t end there.

Howe notes, “Out of 674 reported cases in the state scientifically researched by MUFON between 2006 and 2022, investigators classified 109 as unknown. Within the unknown cases 30 were triangle/boomerang/chevron-shaped objects, 12 were cigar/tic-tac bullet/cylinder-shaped, 12 were disc-shaped, one was sphere-shaped, five were fireballs, nine looked like stars, and 12 were listed under other/unknown-shaped. Four involved entities.”

Interestingly, the highest number of unknowns by county was in Rockingham County, where the Incident at Exeter occurred. The active database at MUFON reports 24 sightings from 2006 to the present from that county. Grafton County, where the Hills were abducted, reported 11 unknowns. Within a 12-month period from March 2021 to March 2022, MUFON determined four cases to be Unknown Aerial Vehicles, two in Belknap County and two in Grafton County. MUFON also notes that their active database begins in 1986 but that cases go back much further. Howe adds that there is a glacial circle, a bowl-shaped area, northeast of Castle in the Clouds and around Keene and Hanover, that seems to be popular with UFOs. Mostly triangle-shaped aircraft are reported there. The craft that accosted the Hills was a flat, circular disc, perhaps 60 to 80 feet in diameter with a double row of rectangular windows extending across its rim.

The Hills were on their way home from Colebrook to Portsmouth when they noticed something in the sky was following them, ultimately stopping. Barney approached it, looking through binoculars, .32 pistol in hand, when the saucer displayed red lights and tilted toward him. He saw strange humanoid creatures through rectangular windows. Fearing capture, he ran back to the car, warning Betty. By the time they were speeding down the road, the vessel was overhead and they felt a penetrating electric vibration along with a cadent buzzing sound from the trunk. They later remembered a second series of buzzing 35 miles down the highway, where they found themselves on a dirt road blocked by a huge, fiery orb. By the time they reached their home, they had lost two hours of the night.

Revealed under hypnosis, their incredible saga told of being forcibly taken aboard the ship by barrel-chested, short, humanoid, black-eyed figures. The Hills were both physically violated in examinations. Betty’s favorite blue dress was torn. Barney’s shoes were scuffed and the strap on his binoculars broken. The beings performed what seemed to be an amniocentesis test on her. The aliens were confused about the function of a zipper and that Barney’s teeth came out but Betty’s did not. They took samples of hair and fingernails. The Hills’ watches stopped.

After the abduction, more issues came to light. Barney had a concentric circle of warts form where the aliens had placed a cupping device. Marks on the trunk of their car made a compass spin. Betty’s dress was soiled with a mysterious substance that could not be identified. Even their healthy dachshund, Delsey, had physical repercussions. Under hypnosis, Betty recreated a “star map” from the wall of the spaceship. Some of her celestial marks were of stars not discovered until later years.

Much of their abduction story could not be refuted.

by David Mendelsohn

When my wife and I first moved up here in 1974, it seemed that New Hampshire was the national hotspot for UFO activity. Then, in 1976, we saw something strange circle Nottingham Lake at night, then dart off so quickly that no human could withstand the Gs. Ten minutes later, two fighter planes from Pease AFB arrived. That same year, we attended a small ET conference at UNH that featured Betty Hill. She was charming, quite believable, and even managed a laugh as two frat boys took their seats halfway through, wearing hastily cobbled costumes consisting of space blankets, tin foil and rabbit ear television antennas.

In the early ’90s, we began gathering folks with diverse backgrounds for dinners that we’d host. The exchanges were always pretty amazing. One particular evening involved a painter, a surgeon, a mortician and Betty. She quickly became the central spirit among us. I remember Betty being gracious in recounting, in detail and with relish, her abduction experience — a story she must have told hundreds of times before. After a spirited Q and A, I recall absolutely no one left there a skeptic.

I was shooting large-format, black-and-white portraits as a personal project at the time, so I invited Betty to the studio. All alone under that dark cloth, on the ground glass I saw her — chain smoking, her face acid-etched in character. I could almost map constellations in her pores. When I was content that we’d shot what we came for, Betty revealed something to me about her experience. She told me that only two other people on the planet knew what she was about to tell me. She asked that I tell no one. It was a gift to me, so I’ve kept her secret. As encounters go, I have met only one abductee. I am glad mine was Betty. — Betty Hill departed Earth in 2004, taking her secrets with her, but her presence will certainly hover over this issue and this year’s Exeter UFO Festival, Sept. 3 & 4. David Mendelsohn still takes his remarkable portraits of local character (see our monthly Transcript pages). You can see more of his work at davidm.com.

And the same is true of the Incident at Exeter, which happened four years later.

From eyewitnesses on Rochester Hill looking toward the seacoast to the reports from residents in the Hampton, Exeter and Kensington area, testimonies declared as fact added up until there was convincing evidence of a visit from a classic UFO.

On that calm, clear night in September, reports flew in to the local police departments and Pease Air Force Base from those who had seen something otherworldly in the sky and near the ground.

By the time Norman Muscarello burst into the Exeter Police Department to report his attack, the dispatcher had already fielded a number of similar reports. The dispatcher radioed police officer Eugene Bertrand, who had already placated a woman with her own account of the UFO who had pulled over on Route 108. He took Muscarello back to the scene where the officer saw what he described as “this huge, dark object as big as a barn over there, with red flashing lights on it” that was moving in dead silence toward them. Holstering his service weapon, thinking it unwise to shoot, he called police officer David Hunt for backup. The three men witnessed an object about 100 feet away and about 100 feet in altitude as it swayed with pulsating red lights flashing in rapid sequence in a left-to-right cycle.

Horses kicked their stalls. Dogs howled. Later, allegedly, hens stopped laying eggs. Eventually, the UFO slowly rose and disappeared over the trees. Silently. No evidence of propulsion.

Betty and Barney Hill’s abduction and the Incident at Exeter have defined the terms of the alien experience ever since. These events on two September nights in New Hampshire remain among the best-documented and best-publicized in UFO history.

In the UNH archives, a pale, indigo-blue, tattered and stained dress speaks to the time when extraterrestrials allegedly abducted two Portsmouth residents.

In Exeter each September, the Exeter Kiwanis Club sponsors a UFO Festival (exeterufofestival.org) that reminds visitors of a time on a September night, 57 years ago, when aliens visited our seacoast. — Bonnie Meroth

by J.W. Ocker

This year has been full of UFOs. But not in the skies. I’m talking in the halls of our most vaunted political and science institutions. In May, Congress held its first public hearing on UFOs in a half-century. In June, NASA established a lightly funded ($100K) team of astro-physicists to examine the phenomenon. In July, Congressman Mike Gallagher stuck an amendment in the 2023 Defense Authorization Act to provide protection for UFO whistleblowers. And at some point this year, the DoD is launching the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG for, um, short), one of the responsibilities of which is analyzing UFOs.

Ufology has gone legit. The biggest evidence is that these blips on the screens and fires in the skies are not called UFOs anymore. They’ve been rebranded as UAPs—Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon.

Feels less abducty, I guess.

It also feels like any second (and here’s your mandated X-Files reference) the truth won’t be out there anymore, but right here. On our phones and TVs. Back in the day, to get our fill of close encounters of the various kinds, we had to visit fringe sites or read certain books with bug-eyed beings on the covers or attend events like our own Exeter UFO Festival. Now, it’s a proper news item alongside confusing British politics, controversial SCOTUS decisions, and unending COVID variant updates.

What happens if all this official attention from people with big brains and high positions (two distinct categories) yields a conclusion beyond, “It’s true. These flying objects are unidentified.” What if these government inquiries and studies result in the manifestation of that classic meme

ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAL-ROJEK

with the wild-haired History Channel guy: “It was aliens.” I don’t mean (but I can hope) the revelation of long-standing and shadowy alien-government collusion. I mean, “The U.S. government knows categorically that many UFOs are alien ships.” *cough* “UAPs.”

The world changes then, right? The government has definitive proof of intelligent life beyond our planet. Time to end war, erase terrestrial borders, and build starships.

But maybe not.

According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2021, 41% of Americans already believe that some UFOS are of alien origin (up 33% from 2019). Our reaction to the news might, in fact, be blasé. But that also might not be our fault. Bureaucracy can be a real murderer of mystery, and even ufology can get boring when wrapped in red tape and stamped by military acronyms.

Except that UFOs are already boring. Comparatively, at least.

After all, “Are UFOs alien spacecraft?” is the equivalent of asking, “What car are they driving?” The real fun starts with the mollusk meat: Who’s behind the steering wheel? Are they bulb-headed grays? Reptile-people? Red-headed Nazis? (New Hampshire abductee Barney Hill made the comparison in his abduction report.) Really, the most important question that should be asked on the Senate floor isn’t “Are UFOs real?” but “Is anyone having dinner with them?”

Then, perhaps, besides having our general curiosity about their existence and appearance sated, we get to ask them all the big questions: “Can you teach us your advanced science?” and “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?” and “What do you think of Coke?” But the biggest question is yet another layer of delectable mystery, “Got any friends?”

Because even after we get a resounding “No” to our collective question “Are we alone in the universe?” the immediate next question is, “How ‘not alone’ are we?” So even when the aliens are revealed, that could just mean we have two intelligent species wondering together if the truth is out there.

The universe is big enough to continue bestowing mysteries.

But only the AOIMSG will be able to tell us for sure. NH

Since Congress held its first congressional public hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), also known as UFOs, earlier this year, interest has grown. A survey of sightings in the United States ranks New Hampshire as the sixth most-likely place to spot an inexplicable encounter with a flying object. Fifth was Oregon, which has a three-day UFO fest inspired by the1950 encounter of Evelyn and Paul Trent with what looked like a flung hubcap over their farm outside McMinnville. Paul’s photos of the object made it into Life Magazine. Fourth is Vermont, where four UFOs appeared over Lake Champlain in 1986 leading to what’s known as the Buff Ledge Camp Abduction. One of the UFOs entered the waters of the lake and then emerged. Memories of two camp counselors suggest they were beamed up and examined, a la the Hills, seven years earlier. New Hampshire boasts 85 significant UFO sightings per 100,000 people.

The Exeter UFO Festival is back (Sept. 3-4) after a pandemic hiatus and it’s taking place during a year that’s been marked by unprecedented government and military disclosure ranging from Tic Tac UFOs to an alphabet soup of new government acronyms like UAP, AATIP and AARO (which stands for the government’s “All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office). The two-day event, hosted by the Exeter Area Kiwanis Club, will feature community fun and involvement in multiple locations with guest speakers, activities and town merchants on board, filling the city center with UFO-related décor that leans towards the kitschy. Visit exeterufofestival.org for details. Featured speaker Kathleen Marden is the niece of UFO “experiencer” (or abductee) Betty Hill and co-author of “Captured!” which details her famous aunt’s story with the help of the late Stanton Friedman — a nuclear physicist and the original civilian investigator of the Roswell UFO Incident.

Bryce Zabel is a stickler when it comes to the story of Betty and Barney Hill. After all, the investigative reporter and Hollywood producer created an episode of his Emmy-winning NBC-TV series, “Dark Skies,” about it, and he has the book “Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience,” by Betty’s Hill’s niece Kathleen Marden, under contract. But Zabel says the 92 words forged in metal for New Hampshire Historical Marker #0224, regarding the Hills, contained two key misrpresentations of the facts of the case. “The idea that Betty and Barney Hill ‘were not public with their story’ is inaccurate,” wrote Zabel. “While not actively seeking publicity, the Hills did tell their story to numerous individuals — friends, family and co-workers — plus, they filed two official reports.” More importantly, Zabel noted, “The Boston Traveler did not ‘leak’ the story of Betty and Barney Hill, the newspaper ‘reported’ it. Leak is an incorrect, pejorative way to describe journalism. Award-winning investigative reporter John Luttrell broke the story in a legitimate, responsible and ethical manner.” Zabel added, “I think that THE local story is the one about John Luttrell and the Boston Traveler and their pursuit of the story wherever it took him across New Hampshire. ... For years, history has really held that “The Interrupted Journey” by John Fuller was the ultimate investigative piece, something I’ve made a big deal about this year as being definitively not true. ... it was Luttrell who broke the story through guts and patience and good journalism. Fuller not only stood on Luttrell’s shoulders, he also fudged key facts (i.e., leaving out the anal probe, substituting a car jack when Barney actually had a gun), which is not exactly what journalists are supposed to do. Luttrell has been vilified for years by people who simply do not understand how journalism works.” Zabel reached out to the New Hampshire Department of Historical Resources to request corrections and found them cooperative, hoping that the new sign might be ready for the 60th anniversary of the Hills’ alledged abduction (last year). A more recent call to the department indicates that, with supply-chain issues affecting the foundry they use, it might take another five years to finally set this story straight.

This stereoscopic image, often touted as “the oldest-known UFO photo,” reveals a cigar-shaped object that seems to be flying in the clouds over Mount Washington. Ryan Mullahy, a UFO writer, researcher and founder of the website N.H. UFO Research, saw it but wasn’t convinced. “The object in the photo is not in the cloud but on the surface of the mountain itself,” he says, noting it could be a wooden ruler used to measure the snow or to show scale.