On the night of September 19, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were driving near Lincoln, New Hampshire when they noticed a light moving erratically in the night sky. The Hills paused several times to watch the multicolored craft until they realized the interest was mutual. After a series of strange sounds, the couple came to several hours later and miles down the road. They finished driving to their home in Portsmouth, N.H., each bearing confusing images and impulses from the night before. The Hills reported their experiences to the Air Force, close friends and UFO researchers. In an attempt to end Betty's repeated nightmares about the incident, she and Barney underwent hypnosis sessions that resulted in remarkably similar accounts. Many elements of their ordeal--strange lights, missing time, inhuman entities and medical tests--would repeat thousands of times in skyrocketing alien abduction reports over following decades.
The Betty and Barney Hill story did not receive attention outside of UFO circles until 1966, when journalist John G. Fuller wrote The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours Aboard a UFO. Fuller is also the author of We Almost Lost Detroit, The Ghost of Flight 401 and Incident at Exeter. On May 10, Vintage is reissuing The Interrupted Journey for the first time since its initial publication. --Tobias Mutter