The Hopkinsville Goblins Encounter

On the night of August 21, 1955, members of the Sutton family and their guests engaged in what they claimed was a prolonged siege by small, glowing creatures near their farmhouse in Kelly, Kentucky. The encounter, investigated by police, military personnel, and ufologists, became one of the most famous and bizarre close encounter cases in UFO history.

The Witnesses

The witnesses that night included the Sutton family—Elmer “Lucky” Sutton, his wife Vera, and other family members—along with their friends Billy Ray Taylor and his wife June. A total of eleven people, including children, were present at the farmhouse.

The Suttons were a poor, rural family with no apparent interest in UFOs or the paranormal. They were known in the community as honest, hardworking people. They had no obvious motive for fabricating an elaborate hoax.

The Sighting

At about 7:00 PM, Billy Ray Taylor left the house to draw water from the well. He saw a luminous object descend from the sky and land in a gully about a quarter mile from the house. He ran inside to tell the others, who dismissed his story as nonsense.

About an hour later, the family’s dogs began barking frantically. Billy Ray and Lucky Sutton went to investigate, taking their guns. In the darkness, they saw a small glowing figure approaching the house. It was about three feet tall, with a large round head, huge pointed ears, and eyes that glowed with an internal light.

The Siege

The men shot at the creature with a shotgun and .22 rifle. The shots struck it with a sound like hitting a bucket, but the creature simply did a backward flip and fled into the darkness. More creatures appeared. The family retreated into the house.

For the next several hours, the creatures surrounded the house. They appeared at windows, reached through doorways, and climbed onto the roof. The family shot at them repeatedly, but the bullets seemed to have no effect beyond temporarily repelling them.

The creatures moved with a strange motion, described as floating or gliding rather than walking. Their arms, which ended in claw-like appendages, were raised above their heads. Their skin appeared metallic and seemed to glow from within.

Flight to Hopkinsville

Around 11:00 PM, terrified and exhausted, the family fled in their cars to the Hopkinsville police station. Their obvious fear impressed the officers, who returned to the farm with the family.

Police searched the property thoroughly. They found evidence of gunfire—bullet holes and spent shells—but no bodies or other physical evidence of the creatures. The creatures had apparently departed before the police arrived.

The investigators noted that the family members were genuinely frightened. Chief Russell Greenwell later stated that these were not the kind of people who would fabricate such a story. Whatever they had experienced had deeply affected them.

Investigation

The case attracted immediate attention. Military personnel from nearby Fort Campbell arrived to investigate. They found nothing to explain the family’s experience.

Ufologists have studied the case extensively. The detailed descriptions, multiple witnesses, and obvious sincerity of the family have made this one of the most compelling cases in UFO literature.

Description of the Creatures

The creatures were consistently described across all witnesses. They stood about three feet tall. Their heads were large and round, with huge eyes that glowed yellow. Their ears were pointed and stood out from the head. Their arms were long and thin, ending in claw-like appendages.

The creatures’ skin appeared metallic, possibly silver or grayish. It seemed to glow with its own light. The glow intensified when they were shot, then dimmed as they retreated.

The creatures were not aggressive in the sense of attacking the family. They seemed curious, approaching windows and doors to observe. Their mere presence, however, was terrifying enough to drive the family into hours of armed resistance.

Explanations

Skeptics have proposed various explanations. The most popular identifies the creatures as great horned owls, which have large ears and glowing eyes and might appear strange in the dark to frightened observers.

Others have suggested alcohol or mass hysteria. However, witnesses denied being intoxicated, and the consistency of their descriptions argues against simple hallucination.

The family gained little from the incident except unwanted attention. They were mocked and harassed. If the story was a hoax, they were never caught in it and gained nothing from it.

Legacy

The Hopkinsville Goblins case remains one of the defining incidents of ufology. It established templates for “close encounters of the third kind” that would be repeated in countless later reports.

The incident inspired media, including allegedly influencing the design of Gremlins in the 1984 film. The “Little Green Men” trope in popular culture owes something to the Kelly encounter, though the witnesses described the creatures as silver rather than green.

The case continues to intrigue investigators. Whatever the Sutton family encountered that night remains unexplained.