When Betty and Barney Hill arrived at the office of Boston psychiatrist Benjamin Simon on Dec 14, 1963, they appeared to have a number of perfectly normal problems.

Matthew Bowman’s new book, “The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill,” claims that the couple’s story of the 1961 encounter isn’t so much about aliens as it is about race.

BETTY AND BARNEY HILL WERE WELL RESPECTED RESIDENTS OF PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE. I WAS VERY PROUD OF MY AUNT BETTY HILL. SHE HAD A KIND OF PERSONALITY OF LEADERSHIP. NOW, BARNEY, HE WAS VERY ACTIVE ...

Betty and Barney Hill (pictured) became conspiracy theory darlings after they claimed to become the first people abducted by aliens in 1961, transforming their lives forever.

Barney Hill died in 1969. Betty Hill continued to research UFOs until her own death in 2004. Betty Hill was concerned that her collection might fall into private hands and become inaccessible for ...

In The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill: Alien Encounters, Civil Rights, and the New Age in America (Yale University Press, $30), Matthew Bowman, a professor of religion and history, argues that no ...

Bowman uses what has been characterized as the original blueprint for the modern UFO-encounter trope—the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill in rural New Hampshire on September 19, 1961—to ...

The song is based on the Betty and Barney Hill incident, a famous UFO sighting and alien encounter involving a couple in New Hampshire in 1961. “Ballad” pulls us deeper into Toil and Trouble ...

Matthew Bowman’s new book, “The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill,” claims that the couple’s story of the 1961 encounter isn’t so much about aliens as it is about race.