Floated Into a UFO

by Charles Lear

In the 1970s, New York artist and UFO investigator Budd Hopkins began to specialize in abduction research after being confronted by multiple reports. He wrote about his research in the 1981 book “Missing Time” and it wasn’t long after the book was published that people started to be featured in the press and on television with claims of their own abduction experiences. In an interview for the PBS series “Nova,” Hopkins stated that his “best case” was one that involved witnesses who claimed to have seen a woman accompanied by three small humanoids float out of a 12th story apartment in Manhattan and into a waiting craft close to the Brooklyn Bridge. The woman who was reportedly seen was originally identified by Hopkins as “Linda Cortile” (now known to be Linda Napolitano) and the case has become known as the “Linda Case” or the “Brooklyn Bridge Abduction Case.”

Hopkins described the “Linda Case” in his 1996 book, “Witnessed.” According to him, Linda had written him a letter in spring of 1989 after reading his 1987 book, “Intruders.” In the letter she described seeing strange nighttime visitors while lying paralyzed in bed as a child. She also wrote that she was asked by a doctor about what looked like evidence of surgery inside her nose as he was dealing with some built up cartilage that caused a lump that had concerned her. She wrote that she had never had surgery in her nose and that this was confirmed by her mother.

Hopkins interviewed Linda in person, had a hypnosis session with her, and a typical grey alien abduction scenario unfolded with the exception that she recalled one of the creatures talked to her as she began to yell. According to her, it said “Nobbyegg” and “No kave” repeatedly and then put its hand over her mouth to shut her up.

Then, on November 30, 1989, Linda called Hopkins to tell him she had been abducted at around 3:00 a.m. that morning.  A few days later, under hypnosis, she recalled floating out of her apartment window and up into a craft in a bluish-white beam of light.

This would have remained just another typical abduction case had it not been for a letter Hopkins received in February 1991. The letter began with the writer describing himself and his partner as police officers who didn’t know who to turn to until they found a book of Hopkin’s in a bookstore and got his address by looking through the telephone book. He then wrote that, in late November 1989 between 3:00 and 3:30 a.m., he and his partner were in their patrol car under the F.D.R. Drive on South Street and Catherine Slip (just north of the Brooklyn Bridge) when a reddish glow caught their attention. They looked up and saw a large oval hovering over an apartment building. A bluish-white beam came out of the bottom, and the oval moved to an apartment window below. They then saw a woman in a white nightgown, “looking like an angel,” float out of the window and then up into the oval escorted by three small humanoids, one above and two below. The oval then flew off, plunged into the East River, and never emerged during the 45 minutes they remained in the area. The writer said that he and his partner wished “to stay anonymous for the time being on account of our profession.” The writer closed the letter by saying that he and his partner were hoping to find the woman and that they would contact Hopkins if they did. It was signed “Police Officers Richard and Dan.

Hopkins was excited by the prospect of having witnesses who could corroborate an abduction because that would be a first and would make this case extremely significant. He was also concerned that Linda might be alarmed by the sudden appearance of “Richard and Dan” if they happened to find her, so he called her to let her know that she might be visited. He asked her not to tell them about her recollections of that night in order not to taint their version of events and to ask them for an audiocassette recording of their account.

Richard and Dan did visit Linda and it is here that things start getting messy. After the visit, Linda called Hopkins, and with her permission, he recorded the conversation. According to the shortened transcription in his book, after Richard and Dan introduced themselves and showed identification, Dan asked Linda how she managed to float out her window as if she had had some control during the event. Linda described both men as being emotionally affected by what they witnessed and meeting her to the point that they had tears in their eyes but she felt as if Dan somehow believed that she was responsible for her own abduction. She reported that Richard had promised to send Hopkins an audiocassette.

Hopkins received the tape and on it, Richard repeated the description of what they witnessed with a more detailed description of the humanoids which he now said he’d observed through binoculars. His description matched descriptions of grey aliens except that he thought their eyes might have been white.

Hopkins then got a letter from Dan saying that he’d gone on a long fishing trip to “think things out and relax.” He wrote that both he and Richard were dealing with feelings of guilt for not intervening and that Richard dealt with his feelings by secretly watching Linda.

Hopkins did what he could to find Richard and Dan and speak to them in person but was unable to do so. He then began to suspect that they were not police officers.

Richard wrote another letter where he described that there had been a third witness. According to him, this person was an important public official and that he and his partner were assigned to drive him to a meeting and then afterwards take him to a heliport where they were to board a helicopter out of Manhattan. They ended up stopped under the F.D.R. when the car stalled and then all three witnessed the abduction. The public official was later speculated to be Javier Perez de Cuellar, who was then Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Linda then called Hopkins and told him that Richard and Dan had forced her into a car and interrogated her asking if she worked for a government agency. Dan then wrote to Hopkins saying that he, Richard and the third witness had all been abducted along with Linda. Then, Linda told Hopkins that Dan had kidnapped her a second time and tried to rape her and that Richard had shown up to save her. The big bombshell revelation was Richard writing to Hopkins telling him that he and Linda had been abducted together since childhood, formed a relationship that only existed on the alien craft, had become lovers (Linda was married), and that he was the father of her youngest child. Linda confirmed all but her child’s paternity under hypnosis.

As this case had the potential to be used as a strong argument for the validity of alien abduction reports, other researchers looked into it. One of these was Greg Sandow who posted his thoughts about the case online. He points out that de Cuellar denied being there and that he would have been attended by the UN security force in New York and not by agents of the United States. The biggest issue Sandow brings up is that we only have Linda’s and Hopkin’s word that Dan and Richard exist as they have never come forward. Hopkins said another witness, whom he called Janet Kimble, approached him but she too refused to come out publicly.

The case was investigated by Joseph J. Stefula, Richard D. Butler, and George P. Hansen, and they discuss their findings in a critique. According to them, they went to the apartment building, and despite a 24-hour security guard out front, were told by the supervisor that there had been no UFO reports. They also found that the heliport in the area only operated from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. They found problems with Hopkin’s investigation, including the fact that he had never interviewed Dan or Richard face to face.

The most damning evidence comes from Hopkin’s ex-wife, Carol Rainey, who writes in an article in Paratopia Vol. 1, Issue 1 that Linda lied to Hopkins repeatedly. She gives one example in which Linda had called saying she and her cousin, Connie, had escaped yet another kidnapping attempt by Richard and Dan. She promised to have her cousin call to confirm the account. The phone rang later, Hopkins answered it and Rainey describes that a “peculiar look” came over his face. He hung up and told Rainey that it had been Linda pretending to be her cousin.