The Kelly-Hopkinsville Incident, 1955, Family Terrorised By Alleged ET's

This is another well known case, that has yet to be disproven. Although Project Blue Book never investigated the case, it has been acknowledged that amatuer ufologists and even airforce officers never found anything to inidicate the case was a hoax. Police were called on this occasion too, and although they did not sight anything out of the ordinary, they were critical in judging the credibility of those who were present at the time.

The incident allegedly started at 7pm, on August the 21st, 1955, where members of the Sutton family where entertaining their friend Billy Ray Taylor. There were eight adults and three children present at the time, and the night was described as being warm but clear. Blly Ray Taylor exited the house to get a drink from the water pump where he saw what was described as "a bright lughtrainbow coloured exhaust" in the western half of the sky. He ran back inside and told everybody about them, but they just laughed, thinking he had become over excited at a shooting star.

Not long after, the Suttons dog was heard to be barking violently and ran underneath the house with its tail between its legs, where it stayed for the rest of the night. Billy Ray and Elmer Sutton went outside to investigate, they described what they witnessed as "a luminous, three-and-a-half-foot-tall being with an oversized head, big, floppy, pointed ears, glowing eyes, and hands with talons at their ends. The figure, either made of or simply dressed in silvery metal, had its hands raised".

The men, who were obviously suprised and scared, grabbed their guns, a 22. rifle and a shotgun, began shooting at it. They reported that the creature "flipped over and fled into the darkenss", of a nearby field. The men satisfied they had scared it off, returned to the living room of the house with the rest of the family. A few minutes later another (possibly the same creature)creature appeared at the window, peering in at the now terrified family. Again, Billy Ray and Elmer Sutton fired their weapons through the screen window.

Sure that they had hit and injured or possibly killed the thing, they ventured outside to find the body. The other members of the family were huddled in the hallway behind them. As they ventured out, the family in the hall witnessed a taloned hand reach down and touch his hair. The family now understandibly terrified grabbed Billy Ray and pulled him back inside the house. Elmer Sutton rushed out and shot the creature at point blank range, knocking it off the roof. Another, seperate creature was observed in a tree close to the house. This time both men shot at it knocking it off the limb. It flipped and scurried into the darkness. At that same point in time, yet another creature (or perhaps the one on the roof) came around the corner of the house, directly in front of Elmer Sutton. He shot the creature at point blank range with his shotgun, which seemed to have no effect and the creature scurried off again. A sound similar to bullets hitting metal was heard as the bullets hit the crature.

The following is how the family described the creatures:

The creatures generally moved in a peculiar fashion. The legs appeared to be inflexible and when they ran, movement was accomplished almost totally by "hip motions." Usually totally erect, when they ran off they bent over and moved with long arms almost touching the ground. The entities' ability to float was particularly evident when one was knocked off the kitchen roof and floated a distance of about forty feet to a fence, where it was knocked off again by a shot. While they did not appear to have an aura of luminescence, their "skin" glowed in the dark with the glow becoming brighter when they were shot at or shouted at.

Pictures given by the group




At this point in time, the men were convinced that their guns were uselss against whatever it was that was terrorising them, and they decided to huddle in with the rest the family in the house. The creatures kept peering inside the house at regular intervals, and finally at 11pm, the family decided enough was enough and they jumped in two cars and raced to nearby, Hopkinsville police station.

Half an hour after they had departed, they arrived back at the house with the police and a staff photographer. A detailed search occured but nothing was found apart from one unusual thing, a luminous patch near a fence where one of the creatures had been shot at. There were spent casings of bullets everywhere.

Ploice investigators concluded that none of the family were under any influence of alcohol or drugs and were sincere. They also concluded that the family were in genuine distress and a poilce officer with medical training measured that Billy Rays pulse rate was twice that of what it shouldve been. Nobody doubted that the family were part of a hoax or were mistaken about what they saw.

The police reassured the Suttons and Billy Ray and left at about 02:15am on the 22nd of August. Not long after one of the creatures returned and Billy Ray again fired through one of the windows. They continued to make regualr appearances, all throughout showing no hostility only what seemd like curiosity. The last time the creatures where seen was 05:15am.

The incident earned publicty almost immediately and members of the public started turning up in droves. Some wanted pictures for the family, others turned up to simply ridicule them for seeing"little green men". The family repeatedly wanted the public to leave and seemed embaressed at all the publicity they incurred.

The most telling criticism of the incident, however, is that there is absolutely no physical evidence whatsoever that the incident actually occurred. Skeptics point out that no footprints were found (the ground was extremely hard), no marks were on the roof (although the creatures seemed nearly weightless and may not have left marks), there was no blood on then, the bullets did no apparent damage), et cetera. One could thus conclude that the family "faked" the entire incident.

When interviewed by a radio station, in two seperate groups the family described almost the exact same thing. The two men who were closer described the creatures as less "stockier" than the others, and Billy Ray said one had antennae. All surviving family members and relatives stick by their accounts to this day.

Geraldine Hawkins, Elmer Suttons daughter explained:

It was a serious thing to him. It happened to him. He said it happened to him. He said it wasn't funny. It was an experience he said he would never forget. It was fresh in his mind until the day he died. It was fresh in his mind like it happened yesterday. He never cracked a smile when he told the story because it happened to him and there wasn't nothing funny about it. He got pale and you could see it in his eyes. He was scared to death

One corraborating report came from a state highway trooper not far from where the incident occured. He reported that he saw "unusual meteors" flying overheard accompanied by "artllery fire sounds".

Two explanations for the event were

In 1957, U.S. Air Force Major John E. Albert concluded that the Kelly-Hopkinsville case was the result of the witnesses seeing a "monkey painted with silver [that] escaped from a circus," and that Mrs. Lankford's imagination had exaggerated the event. Isabel Davis, for one, rejected this explanation as not only entirely speculative, but absurd: "[m]onkeys are hairy creatures, monkeys have long tails, monkeys are notorious chatterboxes, and monkeys struck by bullets bleed and die ... no amount of 'optical illusion' can explain a mistake of this magnitude

That one was quite far fetched

And...

An explanation for the case has been proposed recently by Renaud Leclet, a French Ufologist. It could be a misidentification of a pair of Great horned owls, which are nocturnal, fly silently, have yellow eyes, and aggressively defend their nests. Leclet argues that this explanation fits well with the details of the case, including the appearance and behaviour of the "humanoids". The metallic sound of the striking bullets can be explained by the fact that some bullets hit some metallic objects of the farm, such as the fence. This misidentified bird hypothesis was echoed by Joe Nickell in a Skeptical Inquirer article.

So what did happen that night? Are these explanations by skeptics substantial?

Thoughts?






[edit on 17/1/2009 by OzWeatherman]

Here is an interesting video on the case too



And if that doesnt work

au.youtube.com...


[edit on 17/1/2009 by OzWeatherman]

Monkeys painted silver and horned owls?!?

Really... skepticism can easily be as much of a disease as faith.

I remember this case. Been around for quite awhile (obviously). It amazes me the absurdities that surface when trying to explain away an incident such as this. Seriously, what are the chances that a monkey painted silver gets out of a cage and roams around a farm, avoiding a maelstrom of 800+FPS projectiles designed specifically for the purpose of killing? AT POINT BLANK RANGE?!? How were carcasses of the owls not found? Blood? A monkey would've left footprints, and probably a bit of that fantastic bullet-reflecting silver paint, as well as fingerprints. Owls would've flown away at the first gunshot and probably not returned. As well, owls "bleed and die" (lol... I love that one!).

Personally, since this has been investigated, witnesses found credible, it should be considered as it is: A farm family was scared to death by some unknown beings that could apparently float and reflect bullets at point blank range. No "theories" should be made. What they saw is what they saw, and it doesn't fit the description of anything terrestrial that we know of.

reply to post by Earthscum


Yes its definently one of the more extreme skeptic theories. And there is even less evidence to assume that it was a monkey or an owl for that matter.

Ozzie, it has been a while since I have heard anything about this particular case. From what I heard about this case, these creatures terrorized these two families for what seemed to have been the better part of the night. That was until some of the family members went outside with their rifles and started firing at these flying creatures. This is one of the more mysterious incidents in Ufology. There is hardly any evidence, with the exception of witness accounts and sketches made by the witnesses to confirm this reported close encounter. Also, we haven't really seen any evidence to debunk either families claims as to what they saw.

Both of these encounters are perplexing to say the least. Even the Christian County Sheriff's Office along with the United States Air Force found little evidence or anything out of the ordinary. Even the county sheriff thought that the family was joking around with him. If this story doesn't hold any water in ufolore, then why did one of the most famous UFO investigators look into the incident?

Famed UFO investigator Dr. J. Allen Hynek also believed the account of the Kelly aliens, and discussed the case with Davis. This case is still being investigated today, and there have been many books, and television specials made relating to the Kentucky events of 1955.

Full article can be found Here

To give you some further information on the locations.......
These incidents took place in Hopkinsville and Kelly in Christian County, Kentucky. Hopkinsville has a population of 30,089 at the 2000 Census. Hopkinsville is the county seat of Christian County which is located 135 miles from Louisville, Kentucky. Kelly, Kentucky itself is in a rural area of Christian County just twelve miles outside of Hopkinsville.

I've always been intrigued by this incident. The lack of physical evidence other than the shotgun blasts will forever leave this case as one of the great mysteries of the subject, but I for one think its legitimate. I'm also of the opinion that this case created one of the few truly accurate descriptions of an extraterrestrial with its multiple witness descriptions. I fully expect if the conspiracy were ever to be revealed, at least one species that would be revealed would look just about like the sketches that were made.

I would like to see the witness testimonies, particularly Hynek's notes - but I haven't read that any witnesses have said they saw more than one unidentified creature at once. I find it very difficult to form any kind of opinion on this without source material. I hope one of the nice things about forums like this is that eventually the notes of people like Hynek could be published.

If they didn't see more than one creature at once it raises the possibility of one creature approaching multiple times and being recounted.

This wikipedia quote made me lol:

What they saw a strange creature emerge from the nearby trees. Jerome Clark describes the creature as:

a luminous, three-and-a-half-foot-tall being with an oversized head, big, floppy, pointed ears, glowing eyes, and hands with talons at their ends. The figure, either made of or simply dressed in silvery metal, had its hands raised.

When the creature approached to within about 20 feet of the Taylor home, the men began shooting at it, one using a shotgun, the other man using a .22 rifle. The creature, they said, then flipped over and fled into the darkness. Sure that they had wounded the creature, Lucky and Billy Ray went out to look for it. Hendry writes that as the men were stepping from the porch, "a taloned hand reached and touched his hair from above."They shot at the creature -- it was perched on an awning over the porch -- and it was knocked from the roof.

Playing devil's advocate, if they were aliens what a welcome to Earth .

Another point I'd like to raise as part of this discussion is the calibre and type of firearms used. It's been a long time since I've shot but as I understand it a .22 is great for killing vermin, but not so great for bigger things:

en.wikipedia.org...

It also doesn't necessarily leave the kind of big wounds that produce huge quantities of blood.

The shotgun element is more interesting, but they do lose lethality pretty rapidly in proportion to distance, so it's quite possible to pepper something pretty horrifically but not kill it out-right, even pretty up close.

If it was from a circus it's possible that it wasn't a monkey but a chimp. No tail, used to being around people, and quite capable of tearing off arms/testicles when angry and wounded. It's quite possible it would attack if shot at. Chimps are seriously vicious buggers once they get started.

I wouldn't put it past circuses, particularly back then, putting a chimp in an 'little green men' suit in order to draw customers.

Of course, one would expect to find a chimp corpse somewhere, but without looking at source material it's difficult to know how far they searched. It may have crawled into a hole and died a slow, agonising death.

So I would also like to know if there was a circus or state fair nearby or within range of a chimp.

Did it rain overnight and wash away any traces of blood?

The problem I have with things like 'glowing' etc. is that I think it's very difficult for anyone to accurately recall very stressful or abnormal situations. Time and time again psychological studies have shown we're really not as good a witnesses as we think.

Your mileage may vary and this isn't an attempt to debunk, rather just questions and ideas.


[edit on 17-1-2009 by jackphotohobby]

Originally posted by jackphotohobby
IPlaying devil's advocate, if they were aliens what a welcome to Earth

.

Yeah you wouldnt want to come back after a reception like that would you

If it was from a circus it's possible that it wasn't a monkey but a chimp. No tail, used to being around people, and quite capable of tearing off arms/testicles when angry and wounded. It's quite possible it would attack if shot at. Chimps are seriously vicious buggers once they get started.

I wouldn't put it past circuses, particularly back then, putting a chimp in an 'little green men' suit in order to draw customers.

Interesting that you say that, because both Sutton and Taylor were carnival workers. Hmmm

Oz, your threads are not only well researched, but also extremely intriguing and very, very close to what we all want to see. This specific case is the expression of the bad facet of aliens, some classic CE that raises many questions about who is visiting who and WHY: this is the reason why the best researchers will always mention this incident, possibly better corroborated by evidences than the Hill incident.

The lack of matching stereotyped description is a strong clue that tells to us to take it very seriously, and even after very serious investigations were made, all in this case spells that it's real. I hardly support cases lacking of proofs, but this case is one of those that in my humble opinion are REAL CE.

reply to post by OzWeatherman


The annoying thing is that works in their favour as well as against them . Working in a carnival may mean they stand a better chance at telling the difference than other people, on the other hand they may not have worked with animals or being thrown by costumes. The devil's in the detail, and it will be interesting to see what else this thread throws up in the way of info. Hynek doesn't strike me as the sort of person that wouldn't have thought of that, but I'd like to know .

reply to post by OzWeatherman


This case was discussed in 2005, you may want to take a look.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Like I said at that time there is an excellent video documentary produced and directed
by Barry Conrad titled Monsters of the UFO: Incident at Kelly. I met Barry sometime
ago in LA at a UFO conference and he gave me a copy of Incident at Kelly as a gift.
He was very proud of this production because he made a research for months and
was able to locate and interview some of the original witnesses. In my opinion this
is the best documentary I have seen of the classic 1955 Kelly Kentucky Incident.

You may watch some scenes of the documentary here.

www.youtube.com...

You may also check Barry Conrad's Monsters of the UFO: Incident at Kelly DVD here.

www.worldoftheunknown.com...

To know more about Barry Conrad's work go here.

www.barryconrad.com...

i can't believe the bs about the monkey and the owl...so i won't talk about it.
What is important is that we are probably far from an hallucination, as it struck everybody in the house. Was it a drug in the food ? No, I just think they saw something very scary. A bunch of aliens who wanted to know more about us. Maybe some " kids " who had took Daddy's saucer to play chicken and accidentally came to the house. Who knows? and who can tell the truth? What i'm sure of is that the "aliens" are here, among us, watching us, and that the day we find out about them they'll come forward.

reply to post by internos


that's wierd. When I first saw the pics you posted, I thought they were some papyri I remember seeing. Me thinks we should look into this. I seriously remember seeing a papyri with some being like that and I remember thinking that it reminded me of Flash Gordon. I know I've seen something ancient with the winged shoes (probably Greek? Can't remember which god it was representing), but the one I'm thinking of had the 'ears' that reminded me of Flash's headgear.

I think we should start looking at ancient pictograms... these beings can't be new here. Maybe native americans know of these?

Also, I've noticed that certain 'aliens' are found in certain areas, kind of like wildlife. Just nonsense observation, probably, but when you combine crypto and aliens, it seems a bit more apparent. Kind of like how Chupacabra is native to S. America (if it exists), or the redheaded giants in N. America, Dogmen, etc. The universal (found everywhere) alien creature seems to be the classic 'Grey'. Brown and red 'skunk ape' (bigfoot) is native to N. Americca, and Yeti (white version) is found in Himalayas region. I shouldn't mix crypto and alien, but until I can find out what is Earth native and what is not, they kind of all go into the same thought process. Anyways, I think I made my point in an unarguably drawn out, yet Earthscum-esque, statement.

reply to post by Earthscum


Basically Earthscum. This is an incident that needs to be recorded and researched to see if anything corelates to this, even thou i'm pretty such uncle sam has this incident recorded, acknowledge, and has possible "solutions".

All of the strange things out there...makes you wonder if magic and dragons where once real...say 20,000-30,000 years ago, Cro-magnum could have co inhabited this planet with other sentient beings.

Here is a recent sighting of a small alien with big ears, in Thailand:

www.ufoevidence.org...

Officials in Thailand are investigating claims by villagers who say they have seen an alien.

About 10 people from Huay Nam Rak claims to have spotted the alien in a nearby rice field, reports The Nation.

The 'extraterrestrial' was said to have a small body, a large head and didn't leave any footprints.

It is reported the creature wandered around in the field for about an hour without taking any notice of the villagers.

Sawaeng Boonyalak, 35, who was among those who rushed to see it, said: "The alien is about 70 cm high and has yellow skin and a flat chest. Its mouth is very tiny. It has bald big head with big eyes and big ears.

"Suddenly, the alien floated to a tree top. After more villagers came to see it, it floated into the sky into the bright light."

District chief Wisit Sitthisombat who interviewed the ten residents said they were consistent in their testimonies.

He said: "I asked them to draw what they have seen and the pictures came out similarly."

Does this alien look familiar?

i269.photobucket.com...


Omnitrix eye guy:
www.freewebs.com...

This is one of the stories I read as a child that condemned me to a lifetime interest in UFOs and general weirdness. It's distinct peculiarity sets it aside from many other accounts. I'd like it to be true.

Speculating...It still irks me as much as when a kid that the first response was to open fire on them. Now I'm older and wiser, I can understand why they would fire on them. The creatures seemed benign and curious. Many humans are benign when they try and stroke a dog. The dog doesn't understand the motivation and bites and barks. I think their reaction was in a similar form.

Imagine another person coming into your personal or intimate space. Each time you move away they do it again. Wasn't that essentially what the creatures were doing? Now if that person was a floating, silver alien and you were armed and scared? A lot of people would react that way.

True or not, the story begs the question of how exactly could a peaceful, trusting First Contact ever occur? How could we be reassured of peaceful intent?

(some old sketches
of 'aliens'. Big ears are rare!)

I remember reading about this case and thinking two things.

1. Either this happened with some strange beings or it was an amazing group hallucination. I somehow doubt the hallucination as the witnesses accounts were so similar and the dog was scared, which says something happened.

2. Why did they immediately start firing? I know this might sound silly but if the creature had it's arms up then doesn't that indicate surrender? It's hard to say what any of us would do in such a situation but i would hope if a creature approaches with it's arms held high that our first action would not be to shoot at it.

Maybe the creatures spent the night running on and around the home to teach them a lesson or something. They seemed able to sense fear so maybe that was their revenge? Or maybe the entire thing was some strange beings having a lot of fun.

Quite simply i have no idea what happened in this case, and we never will.

I got chills I forgot about this case., I first read it in 3rd grade in a alien handbook (wasn't into it just found it and needed something to read), and like others surely think its weird that this isn't one of the top 5 alien encounters?

This was always an interesting one I remember form quite some time ago.

Its no real wonder that a number of researchers have started to look into the mythological and cultural story in an attempt to correlate UFO cases.

I suspect that you will find if those pictures were shown to someone interested in that particular field the little guys in question would be instantly identified as Elves.

Annoyingly I also remember a few cases where the same form was identified in South America but unfortunately do not have references to the particular cases.