Netflix's The Manhattan Alien Abduction revisits the alleged 1989 alien kidnapping of Linda Napolitano from the 12th floor of her Manhattan apartment. At about 3 a.m., November 30th that year, she insists that three gray-colored bipedal aliens removed her from her bedroom using a blue light stream that paralyzed her before lifting her into the sky and onto a reddish-orange spacecraft, which then veered off toward the Brooklyn Bridge. Once aboard their craft, these other-worldly beings, claims Napolitano, performed a series of unspecified experiments on the housewife by inserting a metallic device in her nose, before returning her to her home in New York.
She described the aliens as having black eyes; they were allegedly able to communicate with her telepathically - telling her in some strange language to be quiet - before she wound up unable to move as the blue beam lifted her into the night sky and onto the ship. In The Manhattan Alien Abduction, one of several UFO documentaries, she remembered an examination room where a metallic device was inserted into her nose, and then waking up back in Manhattan in bed next to her husband as if nothing had happened. According to her, her first thought was that she'd dreamed the entire episode, until she noticed a lump in her nose.
Linda Napolitano Has Sued Netflix Over The Manhattan Alien Abduction
Napolitano Says The Film Is Unflattering
The story generated some headlines in the early 1990s, but gained traction with the publication of UFO investigator Budd Hopkins' book Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge Abduction, in 1997. Hopkins' book attracted significant skepticism over Napolitano's claims, but the author reported that he had interviewed more than 20 witnesses to the event, which lent the tale some credibility. Despite this, Netflix's The Manhattan Alien Abduction docuseries firmly suggests that Napolitano's story is entirely fanciful, which has so riled up the alleged abductee that she has taken the matter to court.
According to Forbes, Napolitano has sued the streamer in the New York Supreme Court, claiming The Manhattan Alien Abduction is defamatory because it depicts her in an unflattering light and, she alleges, steals Budd Hopkins' work. She is joined in the suit by the author's estate and is asking a judge for damages and to halt the release of the film. Included in the suit are Netflix, Top Hat Productions, several producers, and Carol Rainey, Hopkins' ex-wife, who appears in the series claiming that Napolitano was "pulling the wool over Budd's eyes” when researching the book.
Over 30 Years Later, Linda Napolitano Is Still Sticking By Her Alien Abduction Story
She Insists The Witnesses Prove She's Telling The Truth
In the suit, Napolitano challenges that the show sets her up as "a villain for purposes of controversy and conflict," and "defames her persona and character," and will "destroy her reputation as an honest and decent person.” Now 77, Linda Napolitano still lives in New York and is sticking resolutely to her story, despite the content in The Manhattan Alien Abduction and the evidence provided by Carol Rainey and others painting her abduction event as, at best, hallucinatory.
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“If I was hallucinating,” she told Vanity Fair in 2013, “then the witnesses saw my hallucination. That sounds crazier than the whole abduction phenomenon." The Manhattan Alien Abduction is Netflix's attempt to sort the fact from the fantasy and to tell Napolitano's story objectively and in light of all the evidence. Like almost all alien abduction narratives, Napolitano's extraordinary claims can't be proven based on the evidence available and will likely remain so. Even If Linda Napolitano's claims aren't taken seriously, she is sticking to her story to the very end: “I’ll tell you,” she says, “I wish I was psychotic — at least there is treatment for that.”
Sources: Forbes, Vanity Fair
This docuseries investigates a woman's claim of being abducted in Manhattan, exploring if it's a hoax or possible proof of alien life.
Release Date October 30, 2024
English (US) ·