When I was a kid growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, I read every book I could find on the subject of UFOs, especially those about contact with aliens and abductions. Of course, I watched anything on TV about UFOs, too. One of the more memorable shows about alien abductions was the 1975 TV special The UFO Incident, starring pre-Star Wars James Earl Jones, which detailed Betty and Barney Hill’s 1961 supposed encounter on a road in rural New Hampshire with aliens from Zeta Reticuli, which was adapted from the best-selling 1966 book The Interrupted Journey. The 1978 book about the abduction of Travis Walton was later adapted into the 1993 film Fire in the Sky.
Back then I ate it all up; I was a firm believer. It seemed these abductions only happened to people in sparsely inhabited locations, but still, fear of being abducted may have been one of the reasons I relocated my childhood bedroom to the mostly unfinished, windowless basement of my parents’ two-story Brooklyn home. I reasoned it would be much more difficult for “them” to tractor-beam me up to their hovering ship from underground, rather than from the exposed top floor of our suburban house.
Eventually I discovered media which was skeptical of alien abductions, such as Skeptical Inquirer magazine, which provided more rational explanations for such claims. I came to disbelieve these abductions were happening as literally described, and realized the stories were more likely due to misinterpreted phenomena like sleep paralysis, or even outright hoaxes.
Despite the growing public belief that UFOs are alien spacecraft, and despite alien abductions being accepted as fact in the true-believer community, alien abduction claims have not captured public interest in many decades. However, the current resurgence of interest in UFO sightings (rebranded as “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP) has certainly provided the environment to reignite and heighten fears of being abducted. As if on cue, along came the Netflix series The Manhattan Alien Abduction.
The 3-episode series covers a chilling premise: at 3:00 a.m. on November 30, 1989, in one of the most heavily populated areas on Earth, aliens levitated a woman, Linda Napolitano (who originally used the pseudonym “Cortile”), out of her bed on the 12th floor of a Manhattan apartment building, and floated her in a beam of light into their hovering spacecraft, in full view of many witnesses all around the city.
Manhattan Alien Abduction is a hybrid between a documentary and a suspenseful drama, with the supposed abductions being dramatized with eerie special effects. In each episode, Linda reveals the details of her claimed experiences with aliens and secretive government agents, as well as her interactions with UFO believer and investigator, the late Budd Hopkins, whose 1996 book Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions, played a key role in shaping the narrative of this case.
Linda Napolitano
During Manhattan Alien Abduction, Linda retells accounts, recovered through memory regression therapy, of repeatedly being taken from her apartment by strange beings, missing significant time, and having a mysterious object implanted into her nose. Her narrative (including the claim that her young son also underwent abductions), is deeply personal, and draws viewers into her fear and confusion, as she seeks answers. We’re told that Linda’s initial New York abduction had 21 witnesses, which included neighbors, passersby, and even a pair of United Nations workers, who all reportedly saw Linda levitated out of her apartment window into the sky in a beam of light.
Linda also alleges that after her abduction, she was approached by shadowy government agents who warned her to remain silent. According to her, these men intimidated her and hinted at her involvement in something far larger than she could comprehend. She claimed they closely monitored her and even threatened her, all to suppress her story.
Hopkins’ investigation and documenting of Linda’s claims is heavily covered in Manhattan Alien Abduction. Hopkins’ former wife, Carol Rainey, assisted his investigations at the time of the incident, and is also featured in the show. She later came to suspect Linda’s story was a fabrication too easily accepted by her husband. If true, this might reflect the broader issues with alien abduction research. Hopkins’ unquestioning acceptance of Linda’s story, combined with his reliance on unverified witnesses and unproven conspiracies involving the government, weakens the case he sought to build.
Carol alleges that Linda was not actually hypnotized during her memory regression sessions with Hopkins, and made the entire thing up. Carol says the supposed abduction witnesses were never interviewed or even identified, and that the X-ray results showing a supposed nasal implant could have been faked. Carol even suggests Linda fabricated the government agents whom she claimed to have interacted with, as nobody else ever met or spoke with them.
Linda Napolitano now, in ‘The Manhattan Alien Abduction’
Carol’s views in Manhattan Alien Abduction provide a skeptical counterbalance to Linda’s claims, but details of her concerns aren’t revealed until the middle of the final episode. Rather than appropriately highlighting the problematic aspects of Linda’s story throughout the whole series, this construction could lead the audience to believe that this alien abduction actually happened. The producers of Manhattan Alien Abduction even give Linda the last word. In the final scene of the series, she directly addresses the audience from her bedroom with a chilling warning:
“Quite frankly, at this stage in my life, I don’t care. It’s not easy to believe. Let’s face it. That’s the truth. Unless you have experienced this yourself. Sometimes I watch all the people walking and talking and smiling. I wonder how many have had the same experience I have had and they just don’t know it. I’m nothing special. I’m just one out of all those millions. Before I go to bed, the first thing I do is look behind the drapes … in the closet … You never know when it’s going to happen. But I don’t feel any safer. Not at all. These aliens, these creatures … if they want you, they are gonna get you.”
Despite all this, Linda has filed a lawsuit against Netflix claiming that the tone of the series damages her character.
As today’s reignited interest in UFOs indicates, everything old in this mythology can be made new again. Will The Manhattan Alien Abduction help cause the return of irrational, unnecessary fears of alien abductions? Only time will tell.
AIPT Science is co-presented by AIPT and the New York City Skeptics.
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