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"We didn't find any little footprints --that is true --but that ground was so hard and dry a tractor wouldn't have left much of a trace on it. I didn't make any footprints there either --so the absence of footprints doesn't prove a thing --nobody with a lick of sense would have expected to find any under those conditions."
Original Source : Frank Edwards - Flying Saucers Serious Business. pp.21-22.
Those seven people had given me almost parallel stories and almost identical pictures. It would be impossible for so many people to give me false accounts and pictures that tallied so closely unless they first talked together and decided what each feature and event looked like; but three of the men had left very early that morning for Evansville and had not been home throughout the day.
These were not interviews in which one person would look at another and say, “Is that what you thought it looked like?' No, all seven were sure of what they had seen, and no one would retract a statement . . . even under close cross-examination.
. . . As the report spread outside the family, they were distorted in all directions; everyone who told the story seemed to add his own ideas of how the creatures looked. For this reason I am pleased that we had the advantage of time. Our morning interview was the first complete report of the whole night's happenings.
Source : J.Allen Hynek - “The UFO Experience”
Let me not say what I did not say. I did not say they were drunk, I said they were drinking [drinkers?]. Generally speaking, let us say they were not really stable people, if you see what I'm saying.
Source : Phenomena. #45, June 2001
That was the first shotgun I ever saw that shot a square hole...(he returned next day and)... The square hole in the screen, he says, now was round
"Besides being transformed from square to round, the hole the next day was nearly 'four times as large' as its original size on the night of August 21, according to Batts. He is quite confident in his theory that the entire story was fabricated."
Source : Phenomena. #45, June 2001
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Mrs. Lankford was an impoverished widow woman who had grown up in this small community just outside of Hopkinsville, with very little education.
She belonged to the Holly Roller Church and the night and evening of this occurrence, had gone to a religious meeting and she indicated that the members of the congregation and her two sons and their wives and some friends of her sons', were also at this religious meeting and were worked up into a frenzy, becoming emotionally unbalanced and that after the religious meeting, they had discussed this article which she had heard about over the radio and had sent for them from the Kingdom Publishers, Fort Worth 1, Texas and they had sent her this article with a picture which appeared to be a little man when it actually was a monkey, painted silver.
This article had to be returned to Mrs. Lankford as she stated it was her property. However, a copy of the writing is attached to this statement and if it is necessary, a photograph can be obtained from the above mentioned publishers.........
"It is my opinion that the report Mrs. Lankford or her son... was caused by one of two reasons. Either they actually did see what they thought was a little man and at the time, there was a circus in the area and a monkey might have escaped, giving the appearance of a small man. Two, being emotionally upset, and discussing the article and showing pictures of this little monkey, that appeared like a man, their imaginations ran away with them and they really did believe what they saw, which they thought was a little man."
Source : forteania.blogspot.co.uk...
"It is felt that the report cannot be substantiated as far as any actual object appearing in the vicinity at that time.”
References follow >>>
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Perhaps the most logical skeptical explanation came years later when Joe Nickell proposed that the “Great Horned Owls” were actually the “little green men” of Kelly in preparation for the 50th anniversary back in 2005. Great Horned Owls are very protective of their nests and also become active around dusk.
originally posted by: grey9438
a reply to: mirageman
A very well done thread on what has been always one of my favorite cases. Ive looked at all the logical explanations and can't find one that seems to work. I don't think it was a hoax because the family did not seek attention or money ( I heard they did charge people to see the house to try to keep them away) so that makes no sense in my mind. I've been more interested if there ever have been more sightings of those creatures though I've found none
for me the best 'skeptical' explanation would be that the story is made up - i'd put it in the folklore folder
originally posted by: Rocketgirl
a reply to: mirageman
I really enjoyed reading your ops. They were well written and kept my attention.
I wonder what those little aliens would have done if they hadn't been shot at. However, I suppose it's a good thing they were shot at because its no telling what could have happened to that family.
From what I can gather that seems to have been the majority viewpoint from the moment the police arrived on the scene. These people were not particularly well educated and did not possess a radio. So I tend to think it wasn't a hoax. At least not one perpetrated by any of those at the farmhouse. It's also interesting that the military felt the need to concoct a story about a 'silver monkey' to explain this case.
The basic story and the witness testimony is still the same as it was 60 years ago. The locals, the media, the police and the military all gave up on it as a just a bunch of dumb farm folk getting excited about nothing. It seems that is the way it will stay. As you say "in the folklore folder".
I think this does show that a close encounter story like 'Kelly' can get discarded as folklore whilst an industry can grow around others. It was never given a 'treatment' like the Roswell incident. A story that has taken on a life of its own and something is continually added down the years to keep it alive no matter how contradictory these stories become.
If the families involved at Kelly had slowly embellished their stories then maybe things would be different today?
Perhaps a handful more 'witnesses' would have come out in the mid-1980s saying they'd seen a small body under a tarpaulin being carried on to a military truck in the dark of the night towards the local military base? Would the sniff of 'attention' have made more people come out claiming to have seen lights in the sky and strange creatures in the woods back in August 55?
Then you get a "UFOtainer" or two writing books, TV specials etc......
That is all it takes to go from folklore to legend in the ufological world. Kelly remains folklore, Roswell has become a legend.
i'm not convinced that a rural upbringing or lack of education makes someone incapable of inventing a good story - neither am i convinced the story is a straightforward hoax though
i'd guess another major factor in the case's lack of promotion would be the 'high strangeness' of the story - the perspective at the time was very much 'nuts and bolts' - this story wasn't helpful to the case the ufologists were trying to make roswell's 'renaissance' was the foundation stone for a number of other stories - area 51, mj-12, grey alien abductions etc - an altogether more attractive (and useful?) commodity