Prime Time Replay:
Karl Pflock
on the Betty & Barney Hill Abduction Case
MsgId: *high_strangeness(7)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:09:06 EDT 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.127.4.195
Welcome back to High Strangeness! Our guest tonight is Karl Pflock, a longtime ufologist and government official, which may strike some as an oxymoron. A former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, he recently came out of the closet as the author of Roswell in Perspective and the forthcoming The Roswell UFO Mystery: Legend and Reality. Karl, could you tell us when to expect the latter and who the publisher will be?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(8)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:11:54 EDT 1996
From: Karl At: 152.163.233.33
It will be out in '97, in time (I hope) for Roswell's 50th anniversary. I'm not at liberty to discuss anything more at the moment.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(10)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:15:29 EDT 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.127.4.195
Actually, we may all be overdosed on Roswell. Maybe we can return to it later. In the meantime, i understand you've been investigating or reopening some "golden oldie" UFO cases. Could you elaborate?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(11)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:17:34 EDT 1996
From: Karl At: 152.163.233.33
For the past year I've been reinvestigating the Betty and Barney Hill case, still the best abduction case. In addition, I'm working on the (in)famous Fla. scoutmaster case of '51, and several others.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(12)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:20:56 EDT 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.127.4.195
Let's start with the Hill abduction. For cavemeisters, I believe this happened in September of 1961, but didn't receive any major publicity until almost five years later, with the publication of John Fuller's The Interrupted Journey. Two questions: Why the interest in this 30-plus-year-old case, and 2) did you turn up anything new?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(13)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:26:42 EDT 1996
From: Karl At: 152.163.233.9
I've always been fascinated with it, & it's still the best abduction case. I've pursued all the "skeptical" objections to the sighting itself, found all of them wanting, to be polite about it.vAs you know, the aliens who kidnapped Betty and Barney are believed to hail from either Zeta 1 or Zeta 2 Reticuli. Guess what: A planet has recently been discovered circling Zeta 2.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(15)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:28:51 EDT 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.127.4.195
The best abduction case in what sense? Don't be so coy, Karl, or your fellow ufologists will accuse you of being a government dupe, or worse, a gov't agent.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(16)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:32:07 EDT 1996
From: Karl At: 152.163.233.9
Betty and Barney are/were highly credible. Their abduction story emerged under hypnosis when they sought help for anxieties and psychosomatic problems. The star map Betty saw on the ship seems to fit real stars. Etc. Then there's the little matter that their experience happened long before abductions were "in." No other case was publicly known at the time--1961.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(18)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:34:37 EDT 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.127.4.195
Wasn't there also a gov't document retrieved under the FOIA that confirmed a radar contact with an unknown flying object that night?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(19)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:36:07 EDT 1996
From: Karl At: 152.163.233.33
Oh, yeah, and one of the stars on the map wasn't discovered until several years AFTER B & B were captured--and the calculated positions of two others turned out to be wrong, but when corrected, matched Betty's map.I don't think the document had to be FOIA'd, but anyway, the radar contact was at Pease AFB, 80 miles SE of the site of the Hills' experience, and everyone who's looked at it, "skeptic" and nonskeptic alike, agrees it refers to an anomalous target, not B&B's UFO.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(20)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:39:50 EDT 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.127.4.195
A point of curiousity. Betty described an alien with a huge, "Jimmy Durante"-like nose. That proboscis seems to have disappeared from the abduction literature, replaced by mere slits for nostrils. care to comment on the discrepancy?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(22)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:42:46 EDT 1996
From: Karl At: 152.163.233.33
The Durante-nosed aliens appeared in the dreams Betty had about 10 days after the experience. Under hypnosis, both Hills described no noses, just nostril slits. As for others who've described "noseless" aliens in their alleged abduction accounts, I think all or most have been influenced by other accounts, including the Hills'--the prototype case.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(24)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:46:11 EDT 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.127.4.195
Interesting! Your opinion on the skeptical claim that a TV showed aired at almost the same time might have influenced the Hills's recall?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(25)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:51:14 EDT 1996
From: Karl At: 152.163.233.33
Neither Hill liked science fiction, and they didn't watch "The Outer Limits" episode featuring an alien with "wrap-around" eyes. I've been in Betty's home a number of times, and there's nary an SF book in the place.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(27)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:54:06 EDT 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.127.4.195
But a skeptic would say how do we know that for a fact? It's at the very least a curious coincidence, no?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(28)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:55:40 EDT 1996
From: Karl At: 152.163.233.17
It's an interesting coincidence, but there's so much more to the case that it seems to me to be a mere nit. Please note, too, that Barney worked nights, so couldn't have seen the show. And it was he who drew the alien Leader with wrap-around eyes.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(30)
Date: Tue Oct 8 22:59:18 EDT 1996
From: Moderator At: 206.127.4.195
Karl, this is Fleet Fingers signing off. We want to thank you for taking the time to type with us tonight. Would you come again? And drop us a line when the new book is due. We look forward to it. Thanks again!
MsgId: *high_strangeness(31)
Date: Tue Oct 8 23:02:17 EDT 1996
From: Karl At: 152.163.233.33
Thank you, Dennis! I'll be glad to join you again, and you can be sure I'll give you the word on my book. Thx again!
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