Linda Cortile
Linda Cortile (pseudonym; real name Linda Napolitano) is a New York City woman whose 1989 alien abduction case — investigated by researcher Budd Hopkins — became one of the most extensively documented and witnessed cases in UFO abduction literature. The case is unusual in that multiple independent witnesses, including two men who identified themselves as Secret Service agents and a senior United Nations official, claimed to observe a woman being floated from a Manhattan apartment building into a hovering craft above the East River. Hopkins published the case in his 1996 book Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions, and it remains a foundational case study in the argument that the alien implant phenomenon constitutes physical, documentable evidence of abduction.
The 1989 incident
On the night of November 30, 1989, Cortile reported waking to find Grey aliens in her Manhattan apartment near the Brooklyn Bridge. She later recalled being floated through her closed window and drawn up into a craft hovering above the building, before being returned. The building from which she was reportedly taken was a high-rise apartment block overlooking the FDR Drive and the East River. Budd Hopkins investigated the case under hypnotic regression over a period of years, gathering testimony from Cortile and from multiple independent witnesses who came forward unsolicited after the abduction.
The case is considered among the most significant in abduction research because of the corroboration from street-level witnesses who had no connection to Cortile and had no prior knowledge of Hopkins or of UFO abduction phenomena.
Implant evidence
X-rays taken after the incident showed what was described by a radiologist as a "tiny one by two millimeter radio-opaque foreign object" located in the right nasal cavity — a position Hopkins noted could not have been reached by normal means. The object subsequently disappeared, leaving a small incision and causing Cortile to wake bleeding from the right nostril a couple of days later. Hopkins cited this case in presentations on alien implants as among the best-documented implant cases, and reproduced the X-ray image in his book Intruders.
The radiologist's letter documenting the object stated: "You do have a tiny one by two millimeter radio opaque foreign object in the area of your right" nasal region, The letter was accompanied by X-rays taken from multiple angles to confirm the object's three-dimensional position inside the skull — a position that a consulting neurosurgeon determined ruled out ordinary means of introduction.
The disappearance of the implant — confirmed by follow-up X-ray — is a feature shared with several other cases Hopkins documented, including that of a young girl examined in Italy who had an identical object disappear from a similar cranial location between initial and follow-up imaging. This disappearing-implant pattern is consistent across multiple cases and is considered indicative of remote retrieval capability.
Witness accounts
Two men who identified themselves as Secret Service agents — later given pseudonyms "Richard" and "Dan" in Hopkins' book — subsequently contacted Hopkins to report that they had witnessed the event from a vehicle on the FDR Drive below. Their account described seeing a woman in a white nightgown being floated in a prone or upright position out of the building's upper stories and drawn up into a hovering light above; they stated they were not initially aware of what they were seeing and at first disbelieved their own perception.
A third witness, described as a senior statesman reportedly linked to the United Nations, also came forward to report witnessing the event from a vehicle in the vicinity. The involvement of this witness — whose identity Hopkins protected and did not disclose publicly — gave the case additional political sensitivity, as the person's role would have placed them near the UN Headquarters on the night in question.
The three independent witness streams are described as mutually corroborating without collusion: none of the witnesses knew each other before the event, none had contacted Hopkins before being contacted or contacted independently, and the details of their accounts aligned with each other and with Cortile's own account.
Scoop marks and physical evidence
Consistent with patterns documented across hundreds of abduction cases, physical marks on abductees often accompanied abduction events. A systematic pattern of oval "scoop marks" — shallow depressions where a layer of skin and subcutaneous cells has been removed without bleeding or pain — and straight-line surgical cuts appearing on abductees after events, with no accompanying memory of injury and no medical explanation for their origin. These marks were documented on abductees across multiple countries including Turkey, Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Hypnotic regression
Hypnotic regression sessions were conducted with Cortile as part of the investigation, using the same methodology applied across the more than 140 abduction cases Hopkins investigated over his career. Hypnotic regression was not considered essential — it is described as a "myth that hypnosis is essential to these cases" — but it was used as a tool to access suppressed or blocked memories, with the physical evidence (X-rays, marks, witness testimony) serving as the primary corroboration.
Hopkins, a painter by profession who devoted the latter half of his career to abduction research, had worked with over 140 individuals who reported abduction experiences, of whom only about five permitted their names to be used publicly. The Cortile case was notable as one where a pseudonym was used to protect the experiencer while still permitting full case publication.
Publication
Hopkins published the case in full in his 1996 book Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions. The book presented the full case file including witness letters, the radiological reports, the hypnotic regression transcripts, and Hopkins' analysis. The case had been previously referenced in his earlier book Intruders, where he first reproduced the X-ray image showing the nasal implant.
Witness total and CIA identification
Michael Salla, in Rise of the Red Dragon (2020), noted that the two bodyguards pseudonymed "Richard" and "Dan" were "later found to be CIA operatives" rather than police officers or Secret Service agents as initially claimed. Salla also documented that the total witness count eventually grew well beyond the initial cluster: "Subsequent to Hopkins' investigation, this number increased to a total of 23 witnesses who had come forward describing various aspects of the abduction."
Analysis by historians
UFO historian Richard Dolan, who independently interviewed three of the witnesses, described the case in detail in UFOs and the National Security State: The Cover-Up Exposed, 1973–1991 (2009). Dolan wrote that "more than a dozen independent observers appear to have seen" the abduction, and identified the "major political figure" whose identity Hopkins had protected as "United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar." According to Dolan, Perez de Cuellar "was in New York City, traveling from a heliport with his two secret service agents" when the event occurred, and Hopkins's subsequent investigation "determined that Perez de Cuellar was not simply a witness, but had been abducted as well." Dolan noted that "significantly, de Cuellar did not deny his involvement, but Hopkins declined to name him in his book."
Dolan also documented an additional witness, pseudonym "Janet Kimble," who came forward in the fall of 1991 describing the abduction as seen from her vantage point on the Brooklyn Bridge. She had been driving across the bridge returning from a retirement party when her headlights dimmed and went out; through her rearview mirror she saw other cars in the same condition. She described seeing what she initially thought was "a building on fire" before realizing she was witnessing figures being lifted into the air. "While I watched," she wrote to Hopkins, "I could hear the screams of the people parked in their cars behind me." Hopkins investigated her claims, drove over the bridge at 3 a.m. to verify sight lines, and reported that Cortile's building was clearly visible — "just as 'Janet Kimble' described."
Implant and marking patterns in abduction research
The pattern of nasal implants and scoop marks documented in the Cortile case was part of a broader phenomenon studied across hundreds of abduction cases. Karla Turner, a PhD researcher and abductee who independently investigated cases across the United States, catalogued the range of implant locations — "into the brain, through the ear into the neck, into the spine, into the legs, the hips" — and noted that while "some of these implants have been seen on X-ray, CAT scan, and MRI," others "never show up," and some that were physically recovered yielded no definitive answers about their function.