In Episode 444, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger head to Ashburnham, Massachusetts, to visit ground zero where Betty Andreasson was allegedly abducted by a UFO on January 25, 1967. Her entire family witnessed a disturbing scene that winter evening. This close encounter of the fourth kind would be thoroughly investigated and come to be known at the Andreasson Affair.
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CREDITS:
Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[DRIVING IN CAR]
RAY: We’re driving through a rural neighborhood on the south side of Ashburnham.
JEFF: We are. We’re just about six miles northwest from Fitchburg, Massachusetts. (BEAT) Okay, we’re going to make a right up here onto Highland Avenue.
[BLINKAH]
RAY: Okay, got it.
JEFF: And our destination is coming up.
RAY: This a short residential street. There are some nice middle class homes here. It looks like a fine place to live.
JEFF: A fine place to live or… visit. (BEAT) You can pull over here.
[CAR STOPS DOORS OPEN AND CLOSE]
RAY: I don’t like the way you said “visit” Jeff. I guess it doesn’t help that it’s getting dark.
JEFF: Well, you and I are visiting from the other side of the state. But if we’re to believe the witnesses, back in 1967, this place was ground-zero for a visit potentially from another planet. We’re talking about a close encounter of the fourth kind. We’re here to investigate the UFO landing and alleged abduction of Betty Anreasson.
[INTRO]
JEFF: Hey, I’m Jeff Belanger. Welcome to Episode 444 of the New England Legends podcast.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger, thank you for joining us on our mission to chronicle every strange legend in New England from UFOs and aliens, to ghosts and monsters, roadside oddities, and all the other wicked strange things that bump in the night. We can’t do it without you! If you’ve got a story you think we should check out, reach out to us anytime through our website.
JEFF: We’ll explore Betty Andreasson’s UFO encounter and abduction right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
RAY: Okay, alien abductions scare the hell out of me.
JEFF: I get it.
RAY: If they have the technology to cross the galaxy, slip into our space, and snatch us away, there’s nothing we can do about it. I mean if a human tries to abduct me, I’ve at least got a fighting chance, but UFOs and aliens?
JEFF: Yeah. Nothing you can do about it, and the worst part is many people won’t believe it ever happened to you.
RAY: We seem to cover a lot of stories like that.
JEFF: We do. Some of these encounters sound too incredible to believe until they happen to you, or someone close to you and you believe that person. Next thing you know, you find yourself wondering about everything.
RAY: Here’s a little background on Ashburnham. It was first settled in 1736, and incorporated in 1765. Back in the mid-1700s, this hilly area was heavily forested. The first people living here built farms and mills. When the railroad arrived in the 19th century, Ashburnham was linked to other parts of the region and could sell their wares more easily. Today the population is about 6,400 people.
JEFF: It always was a small town. Here on the south side, it’s even more rural. Back, back to this house. Something profound happened here to Betty Andreasson and her family. Something we’re still talking about today.
[CRICKETS / NIGHT SOUNDS FADE IN]
RAY: Okay, it’s getting dark now. I can’t help but glance at the sky above. It’s always weird when you’re standing in a location where something like a UFO landing and abduction has taken place. Even though it happened almost 60 years ago, I still get the chills.
JEFF: It’s about to get chillier, Ray. So let’s head back to the winter of 1967.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s late January of 1967 here in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Lyndon B. Johnson is president of the United States, and “Do You Know Where You’re Going to?” by Dianna Ross is the number one song on the radio right now. Here at the Andreasson home, things are hectic.
[TELEVISION SOUNDS IN THE BACKGROUND]
JEFF: Hectic is an understatement! It’s Wednesday, January 25th, just after 6:30 in the evening. Betty Andreasson has just finished serving her seven children and her two parents dinner, and now she’s cleaning up after the meal as the kids watch television in the living room.
RAY: Betty’s parents are staying with the family to help out because Betty’s husband, James has been in the hospital for weeks now. He was in a bad car accident just before Christmas. He’s going to be okay, but it’s a slow recovery, so Betty’s on her own with the house and kids.
JEFF: She’s a tough cookie, though. You can’t be a mother of seven and not be tough. It’s literally impossible.
RAY: That’s true.
[TELEVISION NOISES ARBUPTLY STOP]
RAY: What happened?!
JEFF: I think we just lost power.
RAY: Yeah, I don’t see any lights on the street either. That’s strange, because though it’s winter, it’s not that cold outside, no storms or anything. It’s warm enough that it’s really foggy. Maybe a car hit a telephone pole in this thick fog and knocked the power out?
JEFF: Maybe.
[WALKING ON THE FLOOR]
JEFF: Betty is heading to the living room to find some candles so they can wait out the power outage. (BEAT) Huh… do you see…
RAY: That weird pinkish-orange glow outside?
JEFF: Yeah… that.
RAY: That IS strange. It’s getting brighter and sort of pulsating. Where could that be coming from?
JEFF: Betty’s dad, Waino, is heading into the kitchen to look out the window on the other side of the house.
[WALKING ON FLOOR]
JEFF: Are you seeing…
RAY: Yeah, I’m seeing it. It looks like one, two, three, four… five… five young kids in masks of some kind? They’re maybe four feet tall, and they’ve got pear-shaped heads, with wide eyes like a grasshopper’s. Grey skin. A small slit for a mouth.
JEFF: I don’t think those are kids in costumes… this is strange.
RAY: Really strange.
JEFF/RAY: What?! Those creatures just floated THROUGH the door!
JEFF: Betty’s dad is petrified. Look! He isn’t moving! (BEAT)
RAY: The kids aren’t moving either! Everyone here is in some kind of suspended animation. Everyone except Betty Andreasson. These beings are wearing what looks like blue coveralls with a wide belt. On the sleeve is what looks like a logo. Kind of like a bird.
ALIEN ECHO VOICE: We need something to consume…
JEFF: The voice is echoing inside Betty’s head. I didn’t see their mouths move.
[POTS PANS IN KITCHEN]
JEFF: As if in shock and on auto-pilot, Betty is pulling out some pans to cook something.
ALIEN ECHO VOICE: We want knowledge to consume…
RAY: Betty is a devout Christian. She’s also quite rattled. None of this makes sense. So she reaches for her family Bible in the kitchen. For her, that’s a book of knowledge.
ALIEN ECHO VOICE: We don’t want a book, we want to consume YOUR knowledge.
RAY: These small creatures are leading Betty outside her house toward their craft waiting on the hill.
[SLIDING SPACESHIP DOOR]
JEFF: Inside the ship, they’re laying Betty down on a metal table. The light is very bright white. It’s almost blinding.
RAY: Ouch! These creatures are sticking in a large needle up her nose… now they’re sticking another needle into her belly button.
JEFF: I can see Betty wincing in pain, but she doesn’t move or cry out. It’s like she’s frozen too.
RAY: These creatures are buzzing around Betty really fast. One is looking at her eyes. Another examines her feet. They’re moving as if in fast-motion.
[JET ENGINE/SPACESHIP FLIES OFF / ENGINE HUMS IN BACKGROUND]
JEFF/RAY: Oh man… we’re flying now!
JEFF: They lead Betty to what looks like a window.
RAY: Look outside! It looks like we’re in a sea of shimmering crystals.
JEFF: Yeah. They’re not stars, it’s like they’re all around us and small. Like we’re in an ocean and these crystals are floating around us. And look over there!
RAY: It looks kind of like a pyramid you might find in Egypt.
JEFF: We are NOT in Kansas anymore, Toto…
RAY: No we’re not.
[ALL BACKGROUND SOUNDS SUDDENLY STOP]
RAY: I… I can’t believe it!
JEFF: We’re somehow back in the Andreasson’s home. What time is it?
RAY: The clock on the wall says 11PM. How did we get back here so fast?
JEFF: I have no idea. But I can see the electricity is back on, and all of the people in the house are asleep in their beds… including Betty.
(PAUSE)
JEFF: It’s morning. The family is getting out of their beds for school and to start their days.
RAY: Everyone looks dazed. But Betty is clearly upset.
JEFF: She knows something happened last night. Something very bizarre. She’s troubled. Trying to make sense of what she remembers.
RAY: Her dad is also shaken. He remembers seeing these small humanoid creatures. He remembers seeing them lead Betty outside. But he doesn’t remember much else.
JEFF: Even some of her children recall seeing the creatures and not being able to move. And that takes us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: Okay… there’s a lot more to say on this one.
RAY: I would hope so!
JEFF: So time passes and Betty can’t shake the feeling that something happened to her. Something potentially other-worldly.
RAY: It’s worth pointing out that Betty and Barney Hill’s UFO abduction story happened back in 1961.
JEFF: Right.
RAY: But the story didn’t go public until 1965—just two years before Betty Andreasson’s encounter.
JEFF: Right. And the Hills event occurred not terribly far from Ashburnham. Just about 120 miles due north in New Hampshire.
RAY: Exactly. My point is, UFOs and abductions were on people’s minds.
JEFF: That’s completely fair. So in 1975, Betty Andreasson eventually reaches out UFO researcher Raymond Fowler. Fowler is intrigued enough to investigate. After speaking with Betty and her family, Fowler believes there’s something to this story. He convinces Betty to go under hypnotic regression. Once hypnotized, Fowler is shocked to learn that encounter back in January of 1967, was NOT Betty’s first experience with these beings. She would reveal it began when she was seven years old. These beings show up again when she’s 13, 18, and on into her adulthood. It’s just that this time, there were other witnesses.
RAY: Being a devout Christian, Betty can’t help but interpret what she went through as a religious experience. That maybe these were angelic beings that abducted her. She never really claimed extraterrestrials from another planet. Though plenty of other people interpreted it that way.
JEFF: When something doesn’t make sense, we dig into the most primal parts of ourselves to try and give a label to it. For Betty Andreasson, that meant her Christian faith.
RAY: Raymond Fowler’s book, The Andreasson Affair, was published in 1979. Movie rights were sold, but keep in mind, Stephen Spielberg’s hit film Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out in 1977.
JEFF: Right. That movie featured what we would come to know as the prototypical grey alien. But Betty saw something like those creatures a decade before the film. Which is interesting to say the least.
RAY: Betty Andreasson passed away in 2022. She was 85 years old. Up to her death, she never changed her story of that fateful winter’s night in Ashburnham, where her home became a UFO landing zone that launched a legend.
[OUTTRO]
JEFF: And that takes us to After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometime fly off course.
RAY: After the Legend is brought to you by our patron patrons! We love our patrons because they keep us going. They help us with all of the costs it takes to bring you two stories each week. Hosting, production, travel, and marketing. It all adds up. We’re not backed by some big podcast network, we have you. It’s just $3 bucks per month and for that you get early add free access to new episodes plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. Just head over to patreon.com/newenglandlegends to sign up.
To see some pictures related to this week’s story, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our website and click on Episode 444.
If you’ve seen the New England Legends TV series on Amazon Prime, you’ve seen us cover Thom Reed’s UFO encounter experience that took place on September 1, 1969 out in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Thom took me out to exactly where it happened. We’re talking less than two years after Betty Andreasson’s experience. The 1960s were clearly a time for UFO encounters. Especially here in New England.
Before we part ways until next time, please make sure you’ve subscribed to our podcast because it’s free! You can find us anywhere you get your podcasts. Plus, if you’d post a review for us, and tell your friends about our show, that’s how we grow. The more people who listen, the more who share their own local stories, and we keep on truckin’ along.
We’d like to thank our sponsors, thank you so much to our patreon patrons, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.