‘The Manhattan Alien Abduction’: The controversial story behind Netflix’s documentary

Reports of UFO sightings and stories of people who have been kidnapped by as many old and rich- in terms of imagination and numbers – and if they are they do not stop exciting even the hard rationalists. Literally hundreds of people came to claim that they were captured by aliens and forces from beyond and were then released, making their stories from comical to even bizarrely freaky. And if these stories often come from people in some remote areas, almost forgotten by the map, without witnesses supporting their words, this did not happen with Linda Napolitano, who in 1989 was allegedly kidnapped from her apartment in New York City and transferred to a spaceship by aliens, with 23 witnesses seeing it with their own eyes, as she claims. Napolitano’s story pinned UFO worshipers down for decades. Now, her story reached the but also the courtroom, as she sued the popular platform. The… kidnapping and 23 witnesses. On November 30, 1989, at 3 a.m., Linda Napolitano, a housewife from New York, described a shocking experience. In her apartment, on the 12th floor of a building in Lower East Side, Manhattan, she saw three aliens with gray skin and large black eyes standing on the edge of her bed. A bright light penetrated through her window, and, as she claimed, paralyzed her before elevating her to a UFO. Linda talked about a boat that “opened like a shell” and a space full of lights and buttons, where aliens tested it. “The three of them stand before me and stare at me. I feel I can drown in their eyes,” he said. The next thing she remembers is waking up in her bed again, next to her husband, without explaining what had just happened. What makes her story special are the testimonies of 23 people who claimed to have seen a woman with her nightgown hovering towards a UFO over the Brooklyn Bridge. One distributor said he was “scared” when he saw the woman disappear in the sky, while another witness described the object as a “Christmas ball shining”. After the kidnapping, Linda reported that she was being watched, and one night two men knocked on her door to tell her that they had also seen her hover through her bedroom window. The men, named Dan and Richard, later wrote a letter explaining that they were federal agents protecting UN Secretary General Javier Peres de Queyar that night. In their testimonies, they insisted that he too had seen the suspended woman. Napolitano even argues that aliens did not stop after the 1989 kidnapping. She says they returned years later and targeted her family, causing the nose bleeds. The famous UFO researcher, Bud Hopkins The case became world famous thanks to the famous UFO researcher, Bud Hopkins, who published in 1996 the book “Witnessed: The True Story Of The Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions” (March: :ςς»»») and the book “Witnessed: The True Story Of The Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions”. The true story of UFO abductions on the Brooklyn Bridge). In his work he included anonymous testimonies and gave Linda the nickname “Lida Cortile” to protect her. Hopkins, known as the “father of the alien abduction movement”, as the New York Times had described him, believed that aliens monitor people through implants and try to create hybrids. Linda had contacted Hopkins in 1989, when she confided to him that 13 years earlier he had an alien meeting in the mountains of Catskill, which left a strange object on her nose. Linda began attending group support meetings organized by Hopkins for other “abduction victims”. Seven months later, she mentioned the most famous alien abduction, hers. Hopkins’ ex-wife, Carol Rainey, strongly questioned the authenticity of the story. He argued that Hopkins “selectively omitted” evidence asking questions about the reliability of the testimonies, while arguing that Linda was a “natural talent in front of the camera” that enjoyed attention. Also, after carefully examining the video interviews her husband, from Linda, expressed her fears that he was deliberately misleading, as he desperately wanted his book to succeed, even when a major Hollywood producer wanted to make it a film. Carol went even further, assigning a specialist graphicologist to analyze letters from the two alleged witnesses- agents, which appeared to have been written by Linda herself. Netflix’s documentary and lawsuits The story was recently revived through Netflix’s documentary “The Manhattan Alien Abduction”, which presents the case as a possible fraud, a “complicated prank” better. 77-year-old Linda filed a lawsuit with Netflix for slander and fraud. The documentary’s claims are based on Carol’s revelations, which died in 2023, and potential personal reasons behind her insistence on challenging Linda – perhaps a secret relationship had developed between Linda and Hopkins. The documents filed with the New York State Supreme Court reported that documentary creators wanted to “smile [Linda]”, while describing Carol as “a bitter, alcoholic ex-wife”. Linda’s lawyer, Robert Young, stated in that the lawsuit is not about whether or not aliens kidnapped her, but whether the documentary creators treated her fairly or not. The lawsuit was filed two days before the documentary’s screening began on October 30, 2024. As millions of viewers see fanatically “The Manhattan Alien Abduction” and lawyers face the courts, concerns about who is telling the truth and who is not going to step up undoubtedly. While the U.S. government appears open to discussions about aliens, it is unclear whether those who have reported kidnapping stories tell the truth or suffer false memories, mental health problems or just put them out of their minds. Despite doubts raised, many still believe Linda and the 23 witnesses. As she stated: “If I had hallucinations, then the witnesses saw my hallucinations. This sounds crazier than the whole kidnapping phenomenon.”