In August 1955, around 11 PM, eight individuals arrived in a panic at the Hopkinsville, Kentucky police station, claiming, "We need help. We've been battling them for almost four hours."
Who were they fighting? Allegedly, small silver men. The incident at Kelly-Hopkinsville remains a controversial tale: Some view it as strong evidence of alien contact, while others dismiss it as an exaggerated response—possibly influenced by moonshine—to an owl attack.
The events of that summer night in 1955 in Kentucky have left a lasting intrigue. Today, the approximately 300 residents of nearby Kelly, Kentucky commemorate the incident with an annual "Little Green Men" Days Festival every August. The iconic portrayal of aliens as "little green men" originates from this event. Even Steven Spielberg drew inspiration from the encounter while creating E.T.
What precisely transpired during that fateful night in 1955 in Kentucky?
The Bizarre Encounter With 'Little Silver Men'
The story of the Kelly-Hopkinsville incident begins innocuously enough.
On August 21, 1955, Billy Ray Taylor from Pennsylvania was visiting his friend Elmer "Lucky" Sutton at his farmhouse in the small town of Kelly. Taylor stepped outside to the well to fetch some water when he noticed something streaking across the sky.
Taylor described the object as silvery and extremely bright, with an exhaust that displayed colors resembling a rainbow. Alarmed, he rushed back indoors and informed the others present, including his wife and the Sutton family, that he had just witnessed a UFO.
Taylor also mentioned that he hadn't heard an explosion; instead, there was a hissing sound as the object landed somewhere behind the farmhouse. Initially, no one took Taylor seriously—until the dogs started barking. It seemed that someone, or something, was approaching the house.
The frightened group later recounted to the police their terrifying encounter in vivid detail. The intruders had oversized, round heads and long arms with talon-like appendages that almost reached the ground.
Their entire beings seemed to shimmer and emit a glow in the darkness: their eyes emitted a yellowish light and their bodies appeared to be covered in a silvery metallic sheen.
As the creatures approached closer, those gathered at the Sutton farmhouse prepared to defend themselves. Sutton and Taylor seized firearms. When one of the beings pressed its face against the window, they opened fire.
Over the ensuing hours, the aliens alternated between drawing near and retreating, often evading gunfire by leaping into trees. At one point, one of them even reached down and seized Taylor by his hair. Eventually, after a lull in the activity, several individuals piled into a car and raced into town to plead for assistance from the police.
Four city police officers, including Chief Russell Greenwell, promptly responded and drove out to the Sutton farmhouse to assess the situation. Regardless of whether there were aliens involved or not, the individuals at the police station appeared genuinely terrified; one man's pulse was recorded at 140 beats per minute. Chief Greenwell remarked, "These aren't the kind of people who normally run to the police for help."
Despite their thorough investigation, the police found no concrete evidence of the reported "little silver men."
As reported in the Kentucky New Era the following day, the investigation yielded no further activity. Aside from one officer accidentally stepping on a cat's tail in the darkness outside the house, there were no additional incidents.
Despite this, at least one Kentucky police officer believed Taylor and Sutton's account. Sergeant Frank Dudas, who had not visited the Sutton farmhouse himself but had experienced his own encounters with aliens the previous summer when he and another officer reported seeing three flying saucers, found the story entirely plausible.
"I think the whole story is entirely plausible," Dudas told the Kentucky New Era. "I know I saw [the saucers]. If I saw them, the Kelly story could certainly be true."
According to the same article, other officers were "reluctant" to offer their opinions.
So, what could explain what Taylor, Sutton, and the others had witnessed?
Theories About The Incident
The validity of the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter was immediately called into question. Many doubted the truthfulness of the Suttons' account, and neighbors dismissed the entire incident as a drunken debacle fueled by excessive moonshine.
"The lies they told about us," lamented Glennie Lankford, Sutton's mother, who was also present during the incident.
"[They] said we were drinking," but Lankford knew what she had witnessed. "[The aliens] looked like a five-gallon gasoline can with a head on top and small legs," she insisted. "It was a shimmering bright metal like on my refrigerator."
Even the responding police officers agreed that there was no evidence of alcohol consumption at the scene.
However, when the Sutton family attempted to capitalize on the interest in their story by charging admission to their farmhouse, any sympathy or goodwill toward them quickly dissipated. Neighbors became hostile and menacing. Just ten days later, the Suttons decided to leave Kelly permanently.
So, if it wasn't aliens or alcohol, what could explain the events of the Kelly-Hopkinsville incident?
Modern interpretations and theories offer a few possibilities.
One possible explanation involves a natural creature: the owl. Great Horned Owls possess long wings, glowing eyes, and round heads, characteristics that could easily be mistaken for an alien in the darkness by those at the Sutton farmhouse.
Another theory involves a different animal. Arthur "Hoss" Cansler, a sheriff from a nearby town, participated in the investigation at the Sutton farmhouse on August 21, 1955.
According to his account, everyone present was intoxicated, and some were even tossing a cat onto a screen door to startle those inside.
"When I saw [the Suttons' daughter] reach up and pull that cat off the screen, and the cat scream, I knew then that that was the Martian," Cansler recounted to the Kentucky New Era on July 12, 2003.
This theory hinges on the assumption that the witnesses were intoxicated. However, Joann Smithey, a current resident of Kelly who is involved in organizing the annual "Little Green Men" Days Festival, dismisses this idea outright.
"We all laugh at [the notion they were drunk]," Smithey remarked. "Because [Glennie Lankford] didn't allow alcohol, or even cursing, on her property. [The Suttons] were a very quiet, trustworthy family."
More than half a century after the Kelly-Hopkinsville incident, the truth remains elusive. Yet, this hasn't dampened people's curiosity or prevented them from commemorating and speculating about what transpired on that warm August evening.
The Legacy Of The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter
The Kelly-Hopkinsville incident and its subsequent media coverage played a pivotal role in cementing the concept of aliens as "little green men" in popular culture. Although Billy Ray Taylor and the Suttons described the beings as "little silver men," newspapers opted for "little green men." This choice may have been influenced by the longstanding association of green aliens in early science-fiction literature dating back to the 1920s.
Despite skeptics viewing the incident as fiction, Geraldine Sutton Stith, daughter of Lucky Sutton, remains convinced otherwise. "There are millions of stars and planets in the universe," she asserts. "I can't possibly believe ours is the only planet with life."
Today, Stith is dedicated to sharing her family's perspective on the event. As the remaining witnesses have chosen to remain silent, she speaks on their behalf. In addition to writing books like "Alien Legacy" (2007) and "The Kelly Green Men: Alien Legacy Revisited" (2015), she annually addresses audiences at Kelly's "Little Green Men" Days Festival.
The annual festival attracts thousands of attendees, highlighting ongoing fascination with the story that continues to capture the attention of filmmakers seeking the next big hit. Steven Spielberg's iconic film, E.T., is said to have drawn inspiration from the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter.
Numerous other films, such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Signs, Gremlins, Critters, and Poltergeist, have also been influenced by the incident. Additionally, an episode of The History Channel's Project Blue Book focused on it, and a new movie titled The Visitants, slated to begin filming in 2021, will explore the encounter.
Interestingly, The Visitants will be filmed in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, perhaps in hopes of invoking another extraterrestrial visitation.
