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Abduction Digest Number 76
Abduction Digest, Number 76
Wednesday, October 28th 1992
(C) Copyright 1992 Paranet Information Service. All Rights Reserved.
Today's Topics:
CALIF
"Linda" Abduction Case - Part 1
"Linda" Abduction Case - Conclusion
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From: LONE.RANGER@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG (LONE RANGER)
Subject: CALIF
Date: 21 Oct 92 00:11:00 GMT
Just arrived here from California. The abduction fever is much
higher
over there. Was involved in abduction support groups. Are there any
here? I have undergone intense regression, and have much documented
supporet from credible Dr.'s.
Any feedbak?
--
LONE RANGER - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
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INTERNET: LONE.RANGER@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG
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From: Michael.Corbin@p0.f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Corbin)
Subject: "Linda" Abduction Case - Part 1
Date: 27 Oct 92 01:25:05 GMT
* Forwarded from "ParaNet UFO Echo"
* Originally by Michael Corbin
* Originally to All
* Originally dated 26 Oct 1992, 18:24
Below are the original posting that Don Allen provided ParaNet
regarding George Hansen's position on the "Linda" abduction case,
and a rebuttal from Jerome Clark.
We have provided this material in this fashion for clarity and
continuity.
** HOT ITEM **
This was forwarded to me by a friend who is pretty tight in some
UFO circles. According to my friend, this was what was part of
the discussion at the recent get together at the UN. I will
leave it with you. I have no further information available, but
hopefully this posting will serve to stimulate discussion.
Judging from it's contents, I don't think that will be a problem :-)
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Attempted Murder vs. The Politics of Ufology: A Question of
Priorities in the Linda Napolitano Case
by George P. Hansen
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ABSTRACT: UFO abductee Linda Napolitano claims that she was kidnapped,
assaulted, battered, harassed, and nearly drowned by two agents of the U.S.
government. Prominent ufologists Budd Hopkins, John E. Mack, David M. Jacobs,
Jerome Clark and Walter H. Andrus, Jr. accept these claims. Hopkins has
collected extensive materials that could be used to help apprehend and convict
the agents. Yet Hopkins, Clark and Andrus have vigorously argued that these
crimes should not be reported to law enforcement authorities; they indicate
that such could be "politically damaging" to UFO research. These ufologists
are asked to defend their decision and priorities.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Budd Hopkins' case involving the abduction of Linda Napolitano by a UFO has
been discussed in the Wall Street Journal (May 14, 1992, pp. A1, A10), Omni
(April 1992, p. 75), Paris Match (17 Sept. 92, pp. 13-14, 18, 96, 98), and the
New York Times (October 5, 1992, pp. B1, B2). The Mufon UFO Journal labeled it
"The Abduction Case of the Century" (August 1992, p. 9). By virtue of this
intense interest, it will become an exemplar for the study of UFO abductions.
Briefly, it is asserted that at about 3:15 a.m. on November 30, 1989, Linda
Napolitano floated out of her 12th floor apartment in lower Manhattan.
Allegedly three witnesses in a car about two blocks away observed Linda and
three humanoid figures emerge from a window and ascend into a craft hovering
over her building. Two of the witnesses, Richard and Dan, were government
security officers who were guarding the third witness, a dignitary. More than
a year after the case, Richard and Dan wrote to Hopkins describing what they
saw, and a few weeks later they visited Linda in her apartment. Hopkins has
never met these two but has over 80 pages of letters from them, and he has
accumulated much other material pertinent to the case.
The affair is quite complex, and the story is now only beginning to be told.
Hopkins presented a few details at the 1992 MUFON convention in Albuquerque and
then in the September 1992 issue of the Mufon UFO Journal. One of the most
disturbing elements of the case is that felonies were allegedly committed by
the government agents; these include assault, battery, kidnapping and attempted
murder.
Hopkins' published account of this aspect is so sketchy that some might
consider it deliberately misleading. His entire written summary is only one
sentence long: "In April and again in October 1991, Linda would suffer hours-
long forced confinements and interrogations at the hands of these confused
frightened `law-enforcement' officers; she would be struck by a car during a
chase through the streets of lower Manhattan" (Mufon UFO Journal, September
1992, pp. 13, 14). Hopkins' brief statement hardly conveys the gravity of the
situation. It suggests that he may have taken these matters much too lightly.
The kidnappings and attempted murder
On January 28, 1992, Linda Napolitano contacted Richard Butler and requested
a meeting because she was concerned about her personal safety, and she was
worried that Hopkins might not be able to adequately protect her. Linda had
earlier become friends with Butler at meetings in the home of Budd Hopkins. On
February 1, 1992, Linda met with Butler along with Joseph Stefula, a former
Special Agent with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command who has
extensive contacts in law enforcement.
During the meeting, Linda stated that in April 1991 she encountered security
agent Richard on the street near her apartment. She was asked to get into a
car that Dan was driving, but she refused. Richard then picked her up and,
with some struggle, forced her into the automobile. Linda reported that she
was driven around for 3 1/2 hours and interrogated about the aliens.
At the MUFON symposium in July 1992, Linda was asked if she had reported the
kidnapping to the police. She said that she had not and went on to say that
the kidnapping was legal because it had to do with national security; she later
commented that she did not want to go head to head with a government agency
because she might be killed and pieces of her might be found in the East River
(Hopkins did not dispute these statements). Linda did remember another car
being involved with the kidnapping, and under hypnotic regression she recalled
the license plate number of that automobile, as well as part of the number of
the car she was in. Hopkins reports that the numbers have been traced to
particular agencies.
During the February 1 meeting with Stefula and Butler, Linda reported that
on the morning of October 15, 1991, Dan pulled her into a red Jaguar sports
car. Linda happened to be carrying a tape recorder and was able to
surreptitiously record a small part of Dan's questioning, but within a few
minutes he discovered and confiscated it. Dan drove to a beach house on the
shore of Long Island. There he demanded that Linda remove her clothes and put
on a white nightgown, similar to the one she wore the night of the UFO
abduction. He said he wanted to have sex with her. She refused but then
agreed to put on the nightgown over her clothes. Once she did, Dan droppped to
his knees and started to talk incoherently about her being the "Lady of the
Sands." She fled the beach house, but Dan caught her on the beach and bent her
arm behind her. He placed two fingers on the back of her neck, leading Linda
to believe that it was a gun. He then forced her into the water and pushed her
head under twice. He continued to rave incoherently, and as her head was being
pushed under for the third time, she believed that she would not come up again.
Then, a "force" hit Dan and knocked him back onto the beach. Linda started to
run but heard a sound like a gun being cocked. She looked back and saw Dan
taking a picture of her (the pictures were eventually sent to Hopkins). She
continued to move, but Richard came running, seemingly out of nowhere. He
stopped her and convinced her to return to the beach house, and he told her
that he would control Dan by giving him a Mickey Finn. She agreed to the plan.
Once inside, Richard put Dan in the shower to wash off the mud from the beach.
This gave Linda a chance to search the premises; she recovered her cassette
tape and discovered stationery bearing a Central Intelligence Agency
letterhead.
In a brief conversation on October 3, 1992, Hopkins told me that Linda came
to him shortly after she arrived back in Manhattan after the kidnapping. She
was disheveled, had sand in her hair, and was traumatized by the experience.
Linda also reported to Stefula and Butler that on December 15 and December
16, 1991, one of the men had tried to make contact with her near the shopping
area of the South Street Seaport. He was driving a large black Fleetwood sedan
with Saudi Arabian United Nations license plates. To avoid him, Linda said that
she went into a shop during the first incident. The second day a similar thing
happened, and she stood next to some businessmen until he left the area.
<<Concluded in next message..>>
--
Michael Corbin - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
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INTERNET: Michael.Corbin@p0.f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG
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From: Michael.Corbin@p0.f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Michael Corbin)
Subject: "Linda" Abduction Case - Conclusion
Date: 27 Oct 92 01:25:07 GMT
* Forwarded from "ParaNet UFO Echo"
* Originally by Michael Corbin
* Originally to All
* Originally dated 26 Oct 1992, 18:24
<<..Continued from previous message>>
Evidence accumulated by Hopkins
Hopkins reports accumulating much information about the identities of
Richard and Dan, and this could be extremely helpful in a criminal
investigation. He has approximately 80 pages of letters from the two men.
These might potentially be used to identify typewriters on which they were
produced. They may also contain fingerprints. Hopkins has tape recordings of
Richard and Dan; perhaps these could be used to help identify them by
voiceprints. Hopkins claims to know which government agency employs the two.
He says that he knows the identity of the dignitary they were guarding, and
this person should be in a position to help locate and identify Richard and
Dan. (Linda told Stefula and Butler that the dignitary was Javier Perez de
Cuellar, then Secretary General of the United Nations.)
The counsel of ufology's leaders
The reader may be tempted to dismiss Linda's account as a preposterous
script for a grade B movie, and I personally do not believe her claims.
However, several notable figures in ufology have expressed the conviction that
Linda is telling the truth. On October 6, 1992, I spoke with Dr. John Mack,
former head of the psychiatry department at Harvard Medical School, and he
confirmed that he had met Linda and concluded that she was not the type of
person to make up this kind of story. That same day I also spoke with David
Jacobs, a professor of history at Temple University, an abduction research
colleague of Budd Hopkins, and author of the book Secret Life. He too believed
that Linda was telling the truth.
Hopkins presented additional secret evidence to Walter Andrus and Jerome
Clark who are now both persuaded of Linda's honesty. Andrus and Clark are
arguably the two most influential figures in U.S. ufology. Andrus is
International Director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), and he organizes the
largest annual conference on UFOs in the country and regularly writes for
MUFON's monthly magazine. Clark is a columnist for Fate magazine, editor of
International UFO Reporter, and a vice-president of the Center for UFO Studies.
At a meeting in New York City on October 3, 1992, Linda said that she is
willing to testify against Richard and Dan (though she had previously indicated
that she was afraid of filing charges herself). I informed those at the
meeting that I was prepared to make a formal request for a federal
investigation of the attempted murder of Linda. Hopkins, Andrus, and Clark all
vigorously objected to this, and they strongly urged me not to do so. They
said that such action would be "politically damaging" to ufology. I was
extremely puzzled by their reasoning and their apparent priorities. On October
5, 1992, two days later, I called Andrus to make certain that I understood his
position. I asked him to join with me and request a formal investigation of
these allegations by the proper law enforcement agencies. I explained to him
that UFO researchers were generally not qualified to investigate attempted
murder. I was taken aback when Andrus asked me what right I had to raise these
issues. He again urged that the crimes not be reported. The following day I
spoke with Clark. He told me that he accepted Linda's statements, and he
reaffirmed his opposition to reporting the crimes.
I have not been given a satisfactory explanation for their views. At risk
is not only the safety of Linda but also that of the general public. If federal
agents have engaged in kidnapping and attempted murder, they should be brought
to justice. The matter is of great concern for the general citizenry and for
the conduct of UFO abduction research. I call upon Clark, Andrus, and Hopkins
to publicly explain their rationale and priorities.
20 October 1992
-------End of forwarded post----------------------------------------------
The Politics of Torquemada; or, Earth Calling Hansen's Planet
George Hansen, who is short on ufological experience but
long on self-righteous blather, is distributing a document
entitled "Attempted Murder vs. the Politics of Ufology: A
question of Priorities in the Linda Napolitano Case." In an
October 13 memo addressed to Budd Hopkins, Walt Andrus, John
Mack, David Jacobs, and me, Hansen grandiosely announces, "I plan
to publish this in periodicals devoted to UFOs and mail copies to
leading ufologists, boards of directors of MUFON, CUFOS, and the
Intruders Foundation, and funders of UFO research. I also expect
to post this on electronic bulletin boards and send copies to
reporter for Omni, the New York Times, Paris Match, and the Wall
Street Journal."
In the extremely unlikely event that Hansen's communication
does not end up in the CP file of these latter publications and I
receive a call or visit from a reporter from the same, I will
inform him or her of the following:
Hansen claims that when he expressed a desire to "make a
formal request for a federal investigation of Linda, "Hopkins,
Andrus, and I "strongly urged me not to do so. They said that
such action would be politically damaging to ufology." I cannot
speak for budd and Walt, though I know them to be men of
integrity. I can, however, state flatly that Hansen's
characterization of my remarks is, in its first half, misleading
and, in its second, blatantly false.
Hansen called me late on the evening of October 6, two days
after my return from New York City and the meeting with
proponents and critics of the Linda case. As i have told Buldd
and others, I have serious problems with the story. I told Budd
that at this stage too many links in the chain of evidence are
missing to sustain a suspension of unbelief. Moreover, some
aspects of it seem to me to be impossible. At the same time I
have problems with the charge that Linda hoaxed the entire even,
an allegation that -- in view of the extraordinary complexity of
this episode, not to mention what I observed of and learned about
Linda's personality -- strikes me as simplistic and unconvincing.
Tow metal-health professionals (not counting John Mack here) who
know Linda far better that Hansen does concur, emphatically.
My thoughts about all this are complicated, and I could
devote many pages to them. I shall not do so here, however. At
the meeting in which the case was discussed, I kept an open mind;
in fact, I may have been the only individual there who had not
come to a firm and unshakable conclusion. Finally I suggested
what I thought would be a compromise acceptable to all whose
motive was to find the truth.
I urged the critics to refrain, over the next six months,
form pursuing the investigation, which they had indicated now
consisted, or would soon consist, of knocking on the doors of
government agencies looking for evidence of the elusive Richard
and Dan. I stated that, if this story is true, it is no just a
UFO case but a "politically sensitive" event because it
supposedly involves a political figure of international stature
and therefore has consequences far outside the tiny world of
ufology. If that is indeed the case, we would never find Richard
and Dan (if they exist as who they say they are) because banging
on the wrong doors could alert the relevant agency that two of
its agents were leaking a huge secret. They would then be
effectively silenced, and we would never learn the truth.
If, on the other hand, the story is a hoax, I went on, a
six-month delay will have no effect on that fact, and the
evidence will be just as retrievable then as now. I assumed we
were all in this a truth-seeker, I said, and I thought my idea of
a compromise best served that end.
Rich Butler and Joe Stefula, critics and honorable men,
immediately saw my point and agreed. George "Torquemada" Hansen,
however, proceeded to shout that "science doesn't work that way,"
to which I rejoined that , if the story was true, this is not
just a scientific matter but a political one as well. Nothing I
said could have led anyone to think I meant the "politics of
ufology." The context made it clear to everyone that the
"politics" to which I referred was the national and international
political realm of which the Third Man is allegedly a resident
and in which (again if they are who they claim to be) Richard and
Dan operate.
To anyone who has read my voluminous writings on ufology's
problems and concerns, the notion that I would urge the
concealment of truth for any reason -- least of all "political
damage" to ufology -- is laughable.
My printed record shows just the opposite: a fierce
commitment to the truth above and beyond anything else. No one
has been so consistently, even obsessively, outspoken on the
subject of ufologists' need for radical objectivity, vigorous
debate, and fearless scrutiny of all issues, regardless of their
potential effect on someone's misguided vision of ufology's
institutional interests. Anyone who doubts any of this is
invited to read a few IUR editorials.
Therefore I am forced to conclude that Hansen deliberately
misrepresented my remarks. In all the conversations I had with
the principals of this case, I recall no one's saying that
Hansen's proposed "action would be politically damaging to
ufology." If anyone had used that as an excuse for inaction, I
would have spoken up, bluntly, to state precisely what I thought
of that.
At any rate, what the proponents did talk about, in my
hearing, was their concern about Linda's well being. Budd, who
is a profoundly decent man, feels strongly that the attacks on
Linda are unfair, unfounded and injurious to a woman who already
has suffered enough. Valid or invalid, this concern -- not
damage to the "politics of ufology" (whatever that's supposed to
mean) -- dominated Budd's conversations with me.
Still, since our exchanges in New York had been entirely
cordial, I was unprepared for Hansen's behavior when he called me
on October 6. I thought he wanted to continue our discussion of
the case, but as I started to explain my thoroughly ambivalent
feelings, he cut me off, said curtly that he would be brief, and
asked if I thought Linda was lying. I said I doubted it, for
many reasons, which Hansen, who by now had thoroughly demonized
the poor woman, did not want to hear. He informed me that by not
sanctioning his plan to go to federal authorities, I was doing
effectively aiding and abetting gross misuse of police power. I
said that if such action were to be taken, it is Linda's
decision, not mine or his, to make, and I could not see how
anyone could think otherwise. Knowing more about this than
Hansen does, I added that the story contains elements which, if
Linda is telling the truth, seem to explain her what otherwise
looks like a puzzling reluctance to act. In any case, I added,
it was clear enough that Hansen, his pious assertion to the
contrary (see the hilariously hypocritical concluding paragraph
of his article), sought not to help Linda but to destroy her.
Hansen was at least honest enough not to deny that. Instead
he chose to try to intimidate me. He warned that he intended to
turn my name, address, and phone number, along with Hopkins', et
al, into the FBI. He then launched into a diatribe in which he
accused my colleagues and me of "living in a delusional world."
On Hansen's planet, apparently, those who disagree with him are
not just wrong but deluded and, perhaps, as his paper implies,
intellectually corrupt and, moreover, deserving of the attention
of police agencies. I said, "George, you're full of shit," and
hung up on him. His subsequent pronouncements have only served
to confirm the cogency of that analysis.
So what is the significance of the Linda case? I don't
know. Let me repeat: I don't know. Does anybody? It is
staggeringly complex, and the available evidence can be read in
several ways, though certainly in none. I admire Budd Hopkins
for his dogged, courageous pursuit of the evidence, and I respect
those who, like Butler, Stefula, and Don Johnson, honestly
dissent from Budd's interpretation. As an unbeliever (in other
words, neither believer nor disbeliever), I support all rational
debate on the issue.
In my opinion, at this stage of an incomplete and ongoing
investigation, the only conclusion with which I feel comfortable
is this one: Time will tell. Then again, maybe it won't. Am am
I the only one out there with a tolerance for ambiguity?
Jerome Clark
October 24, 1992
PARANET FILENAME: NAPOL.TXT
--
Michael Corbin - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
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