--- title: The Manhattan Alien Abduction: True Story Behind Netflix Doc description: The three-part series presents conflicting accounts of the alleged November 1989 abduction of a New York City woman named Linda Napolitano. canonical: https://time.com/7160509/the-manhattan-alien-abduction-netflix-true-story/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-10-31T17:45:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:51:51.870Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The Controversial Story Behind Netflix's New Docuseries 'The Manhattan Alien Abduction' og:description: Netflix's new docuseries presents conflicting accounts of the alleged November 1989 abduction of a New York City woman. og:url: https://time.com/7160509/the-manhattan-alien-abduction-netflix-true-story/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt622d0f92fc32b27b/698a993b09208f7b26423fc8/The-Manhattan-Alien-Abduction.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The-Manhattan-Alien-Abduction og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Controversial Story Behind Netflix's New Docuseries 'The Manhattan Alien Abduction' twitter:description: Netflix's new docuseries presents conflicting accounts of the alleged November 1989 abduction of a New York City woman. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt622d0f92fc32b27b/698a993b09208f7b26423fc8/The-Manhattan-Alien-Abduction.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Controversial Story Behind Netflix's New Docuseries _The Manhattan Alien Abduction_ > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 31, 2024 5:45 PM UTC  Linda Napolitano in The Manhattan Alien Abduction. Linda Napolitano in The Manhattan Alien Abduction.Netflix  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 31, 2024 5:45 PM UTC As the famous [Arthur C. Clarke](https://techland.time.com/2008/03/18/arthur%5Fc%5Fclarke%5F19172008/) quote goes, "Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in [the universe](https://time.com/6246973/james-webb-telescope-stars-origins-of-universe/) or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." [Netflix's new documentary](https://time.com/7096188/this-is-the-zodiac-speaking-netflix/) _The Manhattan Alien Abduction_ explores the latter possibility, but ultimately seems to err on the side of skepticism—at least in this particular case. The three-part series, helmed by Vivienne Perry and Daniel Vernon, investigates the alleged abduction of Linda Napolitano (previously known by the pseudonym Linda Cortile), a New York City housewife who claimed that in the early morning hours of Nov. 30, 1989, three extraterrestrial beings kidnapped her from her 12th-floor downtown apartment, beamed her through the sky to their spaceship, and performed experiments on her before returning her to her bedroom. The case was previously documented from an apparent believer's standpoint in the 1997 book [_Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge Abduction_](https://www.amazon.com/Witnessed-Story-Brooklyn-Bridge-Abduction/dp/0747531935) by the late author Budd Hopkins, a prominent ufologist who had a close relationship with Napolitano prior to his death in 2011\. However, the purported evidence put forth in _Witnessed_ in support of Napolitano's claims is contested in _The Manhattan Alien Abduction_ by Hopkins' late ex-wife Carol Rainey, a filmmaker who documented her then-husband's exploration of Napolitano's experience. Rainey gave her own side of the story—which was that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax orchestrated by Napolitano—to Netflix before she died in 2023. The docuseries leans heavily on interviews with Napolitano, now 77, and Rainey—who clearly had a contentious relationship with one another—as well as previously unseen footage captured by Rainey, and dramatic reenactments to reconstruct the events surrounding the alleged abduction and its aftermath. Napolitano's story has also been documented in the 2018 podcast [_Somewhere in the Skies_](https://www.audacy.com/podcasts/somewhere-in-the-skies-25086/kiss-the-sky-the-abduction-of-linda-napolitano-38109094) and the 2022 Apple TV+ documentary _The Alien Abduction Case of the Century: The_ _Linda Napolitano_ _Story_. ## What supposedly happened to Linda Napolitano?  (L-R): Budd Hopkins and Linda Napolitano in The Manhattan Alien Abduction. Netflix The April before her alleged November 1989 abduction, Napolitano sent Hopkins a letter describing a previous extraterrestrial encounter that she claimed to have experienced during a weekend in the Catskills 13 years earlier. Soon after, she began attending meetings of Hopkins' support group for abductees. After this purported first encounter, Napolitano claimed that she had found a strange bump on the side of her nose that, when x-rayed, had apparently been revealed to be a small foreign object. Hopkins took this as evidence that aliens had inserted an implant into her nostril and referred to it as the "radiological smoking gun." But the object had reportedly disappeared when a specialist later tried to remove it. Following the November 1989 incident, the crux of Hopkins' case in support of Napolitano's claims rested on the assertion that 23 people had allegedly come forward saying they had witnessed her floating through the Manhattan sky. "If I was hallucinating," Napolitano told [_Vanity Fair_](https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/05/americans-alien-abduction-science) in 2013, "then the witnesses saw my hallucination. That sounds crazier than the whole abduction phenomenon." However, none of the witnesses' identities have ever been verified and there is no concrete evidence that the two men who provided the most compelling testimonies—alleged security officers named Richard and Dan who were supposedly parked in a nearby car guarding then-UN Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar—even existed as they exclusively communicated with Hopkins through letters. Cuéllar later provided a [statement to PBS](https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-strange-arrivals-59865365/episode/the-secretary-general-63307799/) in which he refuted any claims that he had been involved in such an incident. "I cannot but strongly deny the claim that I have had an abduction experience at any time," he wrote. "On several occasions, when questioned about that matter, I reiterated that these allegations were completely false and I hope that this statement will definitely put an end to these unfounded rumours." Some of Rainey's footage included in the series also shows that the alleged witnesses' descriptions of what they supposedly saw that night greatly varied in nature, with one woman claiming she had simply seen a bright light through her curtains. Rainey goes on to criticize Hopkins for failing to heed discrediting elements of the case. "Budd cherry-picked compelling details but ignored anything that presented difficult questions," she says. ## What's the truth?  Carol Rainey in The Manhattan Alien Abduction Netflix In the end, it's left up to viewers to decide who and what they believe. But Napolitano has made it clear she doesn't approve of her portrayal in the series. Leading up to its Oct. 30 premiere, [Napolitano sued Netflix](https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/netflix-manhattan-alien-abduction-ufo-linda-napolitano-b2637980.html) in an attempt to halt the project's release. According to her complaint, which was filed in New York State Supreme Court on Monday, the documentary defames Napolitano and paints her in an unflattering light while allowing Rainey to play a prominent part in the story as “an expert 'skeptic' in this field" when she was instead an "embittered, alcoholic ex-wife hell bent on revenge against her husband." The lawsuit claims the doc was Rainey's "last dying act of retribution to get even with her ex-husband, rather than exhibit the actual truth as investigated and written about…in _Witnessed_." Considering _The Manhattan Alien Abduction_ has made its debut, it appears a judge did not grant Napolitano's request to block Netflix from airing the series. Netflix did not immediately respond to TIME's request for comment on the lawsuit. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7160509/the-manhattan-alien-abduction-netflix-true-story/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7160509/the-manhattan-alien-abduction-netflix-true-story/"},"headline":"The Controversial Story Behind Netflix's New Docuseries The Manhattan Alien Abduction","datePublished":"2024-10-31T17:45:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:51:51.870Z","description":"Netflix's new docuseries presents conflicting accounts of the alleged November 1989 abduction of a New York City woman named Linda Napolitano.","url":"https://time.com/7160509/the-manhattan-alien-abduction-netflix-true-story/","keywords":["Television","Explainer","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt622d0f92fc32b27b/698a993b09208f7b26423fc8/The-Manhattan-Alien-Abduction.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt622d0f92fc32b27b/698a993b09208f7b26423fc8/The-Manhattan-Alien-Abduction.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The-Manhattan-Alien-Abduction","caption":"The Manhattan Alien Abduction","creditText":"Netflix","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7160509/the-manhattan-alien-abduction-netflix-true-story/","name":"The Controversial Story Behind Netflix's New Docuseries The Manhattan Alien Abduction"}}]}] ```