Budd Hopkins

Elliot Budd Hopkins (June 15, 1931 – August 21, 2011) was an American artist, author, and pioneering ufologist renowned for his research into alien abduction phenomena. Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, he survived polio as a child, fostering an early passion for art. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1953 with an art history degree, moved to New York City, and immersed himself in the Abstract Expressionist movement, befriending artists like Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning. His paintings and sculptures are held in prestigious collections including MoMA, the Guggenheim, Whitney Museum, and Smithsonian. Hopkins received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976 and a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1979. His UFO interest ignited after a 1964 daytime sighting of an elliptical object off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, leading him to suspect government cover-ups following a dismissive response from Otis Air National Guard Base. In 1975, he investigated a landing case in North Hudson Park, New Jersey, with MUFON researchers. Hopkins founded the Intruders Foundation to support abductees and conducted hypnosis sessions to recover 'missing time' memories. His seminal books—Missing Time (1981), Intruders (1987), and Witnessed (1996)—popularized abduction narratives, including the high-profile Linda Cortile case alleging hybrid experiments and implants. Despite skepticism over lack of physical evidence like DNA or artifacts, Hopkins insisted his cumulative data provided overwhelming proof of extraterrestrial visitations.