Floated into a UFO by Charles Lear. In the nineteen seventies, New York
artist and UFO investigator Bud Hopkins began to specialize in abduction research after being confronted
by multiple reports. He wrote about his research in the nineteen eighty one 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 humanoids flowed out of a twelfth story apartment in Manhattan an indoor waiting
craft close to the Brooklyn Bridge. The woman who was reportedly seen was originally
identified by Hopkins as Linda Courtille, 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 nineteen ninety six book Witnessed. According
to him, Linda had written him a letter in the spring of nineteen eighty
nine after reading his nineteen eighty seven 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 build up cartilage had 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 gray
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
nabiegg and no calf repeatedly, and then put its hand over her mouth to
shut her up. Then, on November thirtieth, nineteen eighty nine, Linda
called Hopkins to tell him she had been abducted at around three 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 blush white beam of
light. This would have remained just another typical abduction case had it not been
for a letter Hopkins received in February in nineteen ninety one. 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 Hopkins in a bookstore and got
his address by looking through the telephone book. He then wrote that in late
November nineteen eighty nine, between three and three thirty am, he and his
partner were in their patrol car under the FDR Drive on South Street in Catherine's
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, flowed out of the window and then up into the oval,
escorted by three humanoids, one above and two below. The oval then
took off, plunged into the East River and never emerged. During the forty
five 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 Lynda 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 record collections of that night in
order not to taint their version of events, and to ask them for an
audio cassette 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
transcript 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 had 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 audio cassette. 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 those
of gray 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 relaxed. 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 he and his partner
were assigned to drive him to a meeting and and afterwards take him to a
heliport where they were to board a helicopter out of Manhattan. They ended up
stopped under the FDR when the car stalled, and then all three witnessed the
abduction. The public official was later speculated to be Avier Perez de Quilar,
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 Hopkins saying
that he, Richard in 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 the savor. The
big bombshell revelation was Richard writing to Hopkins telling him that he and Linda had
been abducted 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 the Quellard 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 Hopkins's
word that Dan and Richard exist, as they have never come forward, Hopkins
said. Another witness, whom he called Janet Kimball, approached him, but
she too refused to come out publicly. The case was investigated by Joseph J.
Stefila, Richard D. Butler, and George P. Hansen, and
they discussed their findings in a critique. According to them, they went to
the apartment building and despite a twenty four 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 seven a m. To seven
pm. They found problems with Hopkins investigation, including the fact that he had
never interviewed Dan or Richard face to face. The most damning evidence comes from
Hopkins's ex wife, Carol Rainey, who writes in an article in Peratopia,
Volume one, Issue one, that Linda lied to Hopkins repeatedly. She gives
one example in which Lynda had called, seeing she and her cousin Connie at
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.