Anyone interested in supernatural folklore is likely to have heard of the Danny Robins series “Uncanny” on Radio 4. Episodes are written and presented by Danny Robins, with guest various experts – notably Ciarán O’Keeffe for the septics and Evelyn Hollow for the believers. The latest venture is “Uncanny Cold Cases”, currently running, presenting older stories instead witness testimony.
This is worth a listen if you’re interested in what leads people to believe what they do, and an awful lot of people do think they’ve seen a ghost. But for some reason, Uncanny can’t keep away from UFO stories. With ghosts, people say they’ve seen something strange and you either believe them or don’t, but UFOs are more objective.
The latest episode is “The White Mountain UFO”, which is referring to the alleged abduction of Barney and Betty Hill in 1961. The couple were driving back from a holiday in Montreal to their home in Lancaster, New Hampshire, USA. Seeing a light in the sky they stopped to have a better look. Having seen a flying saucer and aliens they fell into a daze and woke up in their car, close to home, with no recollection of how they got there. The story has become embellished over time.
A mundane explanation is that they were over-tired, hallucinating and it’s lucky they didn’t fall asleep and drive into a tree. However, under hypnosis they both told a similar story about being abducted by aliens in the missing hours.
In an era of cold war paranoia, and in a country gripped in the 1960s flying saucer hysteria, the Hills were interviewed by the USAF and NICAP, the (American) National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena.
So far so meh. Where Uncanny suddenly became interesting was with some physical evidence. Apparently Mrs Hill’s dress had some unexplained pink stains that were investigated later and found to be contaminated in a way that was impossible by natural means. They found Rhodium and Tellurium on the dress, which are present at the earth’s surface at 0.0002 parts per million – but possibly more common in space. These are the “facts” presented.
But is this the smoking gun Uncanny is suggesting? Some physical indisputable evidence? I hadn’t heard of the dress being tested before before, so I did some digging. You’ll never guess what I found.
The tests were actually done by analytical chemist Phyllis Budinger, who had become interested in the case. She believes in UFOs. She contacted Kathleen Marden, Betty Hill’s niece, and obtained five fabric samples in 2001; the lining, three from the discoloured areas and a fourth from a clean patch as a control. Over the next couple of years she conducted tests – infrared spectra on the surface and of solvent extractions, and good old microscope analysis. She also got some X-ray fluorescence tests done by the University of Pittsburgh. The results appeared in a book, “Captured!”, written none other than Ms Marden and Stanton Friedman, where it’s stated that this new analysis found rare and unusual heavy metals. And this appears to be the source used in Uncanny.
However, this is a very selective interpretation. These heavy metals are indeed seriously rare. However the figure giving their prevalence is an average over the earth’s surface but this says nothing about concentrations. Being rare on average is not the same as being rare on early 1960s dresses.
Those doing the XRF were somewhat more circumspect. They noted it was unusual, and suggested the graduate chemistry department conduct more extensive scans to corroborate, describing their own tests as “cursory”. As far as I can tell, no such further testing was carried out.
Budinger herself suggests getting a biologist involved and looking at the DNA, but concluded the pink was a result of mould caused by whatever was contaminating the fabric in some areas.
The results can be found as Technical Service Response No UT025 from Frontier Analysis Ltd.
So that’s that for the physical evidence. What of the hypnosis? Both of the hills recounted a story with details very similar to episodes of a TV programme “The Outer Limits” that aired in the weeks before the hypnotic regressions. The Hills may have been accessing repressed memories of their abduction three years earlier, or they may have been remembering a TV programme they watched three weeks earlier. You decide.
The sessions were conducted by psychiatrist Dr. Benjamin Simon, who concluded that the abduction experience as recalled under hypnosis “did not take place but was a reproduction of Betty’s dream which occurred right after the sighting.” The story revealed under hypnosis is often presented as true, but this is a misrepresentation. Dr Simon’s letters to Philip J. Klass make his scepticism clear. Meanwhile other people, including the aforementioned Ms Marden, need it to be true to sell books. This may affect their credulity, again you decide.
Further corroborating evidence of the Hills account was presented in the episode – specifically radar returns (contacts) of an unknown object at the time of their disappearance. These may have been taken from various books on the subject – quite likely Jacques Vallée’s “Dimensions”, which describes a return signal monitored by Pease Air Force Base. This was on the approach radar, and the extract reads:
observed unidentified aircraft come on precision approach radar 4 miles out, aircraft made approach and pulled up at half a mile, shortly after observed weak target on downwind, then when it made low approach, tower unable to see any aircraft at any time.
This was at 2:14am local time, after the Hill’s sighting, possibly the UFO flying away after being undetected for the last four hours? Or perhaps it was an unidentified aircraft on an aborted approach, which isn’t exactly unusual.
Another return comes from the North Concord Air Force in Vermont, which tracked an object for 18 minutes – fitting the podcast. It was recorded by Project Blue Book. However, it’s not corroboration either:
…one object detected on height-finder radar at 62,000 feet, appearing at 196 degrees at 84 miles, lost at 199 degrees at 80 miles, moving north then south, observed for 18 minutes.
It was high in the air, moving slowly and erratically, exactly like a weather balloon – which was their actual assessment. It was also seen at 5:22pm Eastern time – long before the Hills’ sighting.
Mr Hill died before his time in 1969 aged 43, but his wife survived until 2004 and was well known in UFO circles, although not universally believed according to many accounts.
So where does this leave the BBC’s Uncanny podcast? The evidence that this story doesn’t amount to a white hill of beans is out there, so why didn’t Dr O’Keeffe blow it out of the water? I guess that’s entertainment!