SUBJECT: ATTEMPTED MURDER vs. THE POLITICS OF UFOLOGY FILE: UFO3341
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.
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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
ept. 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.
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.
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20 October 1992
To: Michael Corbin Message #: 3507 3398 <Thread
From: Anson Kennedy Submitted: 27 Oct 92 19:06:00
Subject: "linda" Abduction Case - Status: Public
Received: No Group: INFO.PARANET (1)
RE: "linda" Abduction Case - Part 1
Just one comment.
Have I missed something? Every other account of this case which
named the alleged abductee used the pseudonym "Linda Cortile."
Now her last name is "Napolitano." Has someone slipped and
leaked her real name?
--- Anson
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