What really happened to Linda Napolitano

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Alien Abduction of Manhattan.
Netflix The Alien Abduction of Manhattan (2024)
documentary revisits the kidnapping of Linda Napolitano, who claims to this day that three aliens forcibly removed her from her New York apartment in November 1989. The story generated some headlines in the early 1990s, but gained momentum with the publication of UFO investigator Budd Hopkins’ book Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge Kidnapping, in 1997. Hopkins’ book drew significant skepticism regarding Ms. Napolitano’s claims, but also garnered a degree of support when it suggested that more than 20 observers came forward to say they had witnessed the abduction firsthand.

Hopkins himself was convinced after receiving a letter from two bodyguards claiming to have seen a woman floating in the air over the Brooklyn Bridge on the night in questionwhile they were on protective duty. Netflix’s alien abduction miniseries has now arrived on the scene, providing an examination of the event and its consequences. Linda Napolitano, who first told her story under the pseudonym Linda Cortile, went public with her dissatisfaction with the Netflix version, for The Independentsuggesting that she was portrayed as a fantasist and went so far as to try to stop the Netflix release.

Linda Napolitano claims she was kidnapped by aliens in November 1989

Aliens performed experiments on Linda Napolitano

At first glance, Mrs Napolitano’s statements seem fantastic: In the early hours of 30 November 1989, she insists that three bipedal gray aliens removed her from her 12th-floor Manhattan apartment, using a stream of blue light that paralyzed her before lifting her into the sky and into a reddish-orange spacecraft, which then swerved toward the Brooklyn Bridge. Once aboard their ship, these otherworldly beings, according to Napolitano, performed a series of unspecified experiments on the housewife before returning her, unharmed, to her room in New York.

She described the aliens as having purple eyes; they were able to communicate with her telepathically – telling her in some strange language to be quiet – before feeling unable to move as the blue beam lifted her into the night sky and onto the ship. She recalled an exam room where a metal device was inserted into her nose. The next thing she remembered was waking up in Manhattan next to her husband, as if nothing had happened. His first thought was that he had dreamed the entire episode, until shortly afterwards he noticed a lump on his nose.

Manhattan alien abduction had at least 23 witnesses

Budd Hopkins interviewed more than 20 witnesses

Until Hopkins’ book, Linda Napolitano’s UFO story was seen as simply another in a long line of unlikely alien encounters, fascinating but unproven. In his book, Hopkins claimed to have discovered at least 23 witnesses who came forward to corroborate Ms. Napolitano’s narrative.although he declined to provide real names or identities. The most important of these were the two bodyguards and their unnamed foreign dignitary client, who at the time was said to be UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar. Critics of Hopkins’ book are skeptical of the other 20 witnesses, who they say were never formally identified or verified.

In their letter to Hopkins, the two bodyguards (who called themselves “Ricardo and Dan“), claim that they were parked on FDR Drive when they saw Napolitano floating in a white nightgown through his apartment window and entering the craft. They also claimed that their client had witnessed the event, although they refused to formally identify him. When Hopkins revealed to them that Napolitano was still alive, Richard and Dan allegedly visited her in her Manhattan apartment and established some sort of mutually supportive relationship. in which all parties agreed to the narrative of November 30th.

What Linda Napolitano said happened to her after being kidnapped

Bodyguards became obsessed with Napolitano

After noticing the lump on his nose, according to allthatisinteresting.com Linda Napolitano went to the doctor and an X-ray allegedly indicated she had something lodged there – an ear, nose and throat specialist later confirmed that some kind of lump had been inserted there, but after it was removed, a buildup of cartilage remained. For Napolitano, this proved that during her ordeal there was interference with her nose, as she remembered. Soon after that, however, events took a sinister turn – bodyguard Dan, apparently in love with Napolitano after their encounter, began stalking her, at least according to Hopkins.

In April 1991, both bodyguards allegedly kidnapped the housewife and interrogated her about her abduction by aliens; they freed her, but then Dan kidnapped her a second time, taking her to a beach house on Long Island. There, it is alleged, he addressed her as “The Lady of the Sand”, made her wear a white nightgown like the one she wore during her alien eventand tried to have sex with her. A 2022 documentary, Linda Napolitano: The Alien Abduction Case of the Century stated that Perez de Cuellar wrote to Hopkins acknowledging his witness to the kidnapping.

Why Many Believe Linda Napolitano’s Alien Abduction Was a Hoax

Unidentified and uncorroborated witnesses

Despite all these claims, most devoted ufologists believe that Napolitano’s story is fabricated and that the abduction never happened. Hopkins died in 2011 and By the 2022 documentary, the story seemed to have been relegated to yet another UFO hoax. Hopkins himself admitted before his death that he had never met Dan or Richard, and although the large number of witnesses that Hopkins claimed to have emerged at first glance seems impressive, most refused to give interviews or even identify themselves. Napolitano insists that the numbers justify his story.

“If I were hallucinating”, she said Vanity Fair in 2013, “then the witnesses saw my hallucination. This seems crazier than the whole abduction phenomenon.” The Alien Abduction of Manhattan is Netflix’s attempt to separate fact from fantasy and tell Napolitano’s story objectively and in light of all the evidence. Like almost all alien abduction narratives, Napolitano’s extraordinary claims are unlikely and highly suspect. and it will remain so. Even though Linda Napolitano is considered a charlatan and even crazy, she sticks to her story until the end: “I will tell you,” she says, “I wish I was psychotic – at least there’s treatment for that.”

SOURCES: The Independent, allthatisinteresting.com, Vanity Fair,