The Truly Haunting Story of The Man in Black - Area52 Special

Summary

In 1976, Maine physician Dr. Herbert Hopkins was visited by a bizarre, doll-like Man in Black after he hypnotically regressed David Stevens, a teenager who claimed he was abducted by grays near Oxford, Maine in October 1975. The pale, hairless visitor made a penny vanish from Hopkins' palm and claimed Barney Hill died because he 'had no heart, just as you no longer have a coin.' Terrified, Hopkins destroyed all his tapes and UFO records, and the episode includes his own recorded account of the encounter, told with Betty Hill sitting beside him.

Key takeaways

• 1On October 28, 1975, David Stevens and Glenn Gray reported a cigar-shaped craft near Thompson Lake in Oxford, Maine, followed by missing time from about 2:30 to 7 a.m.
• 2Afterward the boys reported swelling, slurred speech and fever, along with poltergeist activity at home, and Deputy Sheriff Eldon Bartlett noted they were terrified.
• 3A crew-cut 'man in blue', possibly military intelligence, warned Stevens to keep quiet, and Glenn Gray refused to speak about the incident or be regressed.
• 4Researchers Brent Rains and Shirley Fickett got involved, and Dr. Herbert Hopkins held about seven hypnosis sessions in which Stevens described grays taking nail, hair and blood samples.
• 5On September 11, 1976, a Man in Black claiming to be from a New Jersey UFO research group (the group was later found not to exist) vanished a penny in Hopkins' hand and ordered him to destroy all his UFO materials.
• 6The visitor claimed Barney Hill died because 'he knew too much.' The host notes Hill officially died of a stroke in 1969 at age 46, with no autopsy, citing Kathleen Marden's book.
• 7After the visit, Hopkins' son found short, tread-like metal marks in the driveway that were gone the next day, and Hopkins suffered months of telephone problems.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

October 28th, 1975. Almost 51 years to the day. It's 2.30 in the morning and David Stevens and his friend Glenn Gray are out for a joyride in Oxford, Maine. They're headed down to a lake called Thompson Lake when all of a sudden they describe something commandeering the steering wheel. Like something took control of the car. The dials start going crazy. The car even turns off into a secluded road where all of a sudden they're face to face with a giant cigar like object staring right at them. The bright lights are blinding them. There's two spotlights that begin chasing them. They turn around and hit the gas. So these lights start following this car. The boys are driving as fast as they can when they realize it is immediately over their head and this giant beam of light flashes down on the car. The car skids for about 15 feet and both of them black out. Next thing they know the boys are parked in front of a giant pond much like this one here. Except the craft is still overhead. Underneath the craft are two discs flying up and down into the water and back out again. This goes on for about 20 minutes. The car won't start. And then in the blink of an eye all the crafts shoot up into space. It's now seven in the morning and the boys are on their way home. So the boys ended up making a pact not to tell anybody we keep this to ourselves. Except they started getting these random wild terrible symptoms. Like their hands and feet started swelling. They started slurring their speech. They couldn't walk straight. They had fever chills. And the mom was getting quite worried. ...

Excerpt from AREA52 Podcast (Chris Ramsay), Oct 30, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.