Mystery in Kentucky: The Hopkinsville Goblins and Beyond - Part 1: Visitors from the Sky

Hopkinsville is a vibrant city located in Christian County, Kentucky. Serving as a commercial hub for the southwestern part of the state, the city has been prominent in the production of tobacco and soybeans, but it is better known for something else. Hopkinsville and the surrounding areas have long been the sites of reports of unknown, small creatures. While some believe they dwell beneath the earth in the many abandoned mines and caves, others contend they came from the skies one August night in 1955.

Around 7 p.m. on August 21, 1955, Lucky Sutton, along with his family, was at home hosting visitors, family friends Billy Ray and June Taylor, who were visiting from Pennsylvania. Billy Ray went out into the backyard to collect water from the well when he saw a silver-coloured object with an exhaust that was described as being all the colors of the rainbow. The object passed silently over the house before stopping in midair a short distance away, before slowly descending into a nearby gully. When Billy Ray returned to the house, he told the group what he had witnessed outside, but was met with laughter, as everyone thought he was joking.

As soon as Taylor returned to the house with the water, he began to recount his sighting in the sky. Known among his friends and family for his vivid imagination and tendency to embellish, Taylor’s story was met with laughter and mocking, but the skepticism didn’t last long. Shortly after, Lucky Sutton’s dog, a well-trained guard dog housed in a backyard kennel, started barking frantically. This dog typically barked only when a stranger approached the property or when a wild animal ventured too close. Assuming the dog had detected a wild animal, they decided to unleash him to chase it away. To their surprise, the dog immediately turned back, whimpering with its tail between its legs, crawled under the house, and refused to come out.

Uncertain what had frightened the dog so much, the Sutton family and their guests peered out the windows but saw nothing; the dog continued to whimper underneath the house. Finally, Lucky, feeling compelled to investigate, ventured outside with Billy Ray, armed with a shotgun and a .22 rifle. As they scanned the area around the house, Lucky noticed a green glow through the trees, which appeared to be getting closer. Upon closer inspection, he was startled to find that the glow emanated from a small humanoid creature about four feet tall with pointy ears and pale green skin. The creature, which had disproportionately long arms ending in claws that nearly reached its ankles. But what Sutton found most disturbing were the large black eyes, almost oily in appearance.

Initially, the creature did not notice the men and continued its approach towards the house. However, upon spotting Lucky and Billy Ray, it suddenly flung its arms above its head and charged at them. The men raised their shotguns and fired multiple rounds. Though they hit their target, the creature merely fell to the ground, momentarily stunned. Quickly regaining its composure, the creature rose and retreated back towards the trees, disappearing into the foliage.

The two men, mirroring the actions of the strange creature, immediately turned and ran for the safety of the house. Inside, those who had heard the gunshots were frantically asking what had happened. Once they regained their composure, the two men recounted the terrifying encounter. They had barely finished explaining when someone noticed a face with large, oily black eyes at one of the windows. The men, still clutching their weapons, fired, shattering the glass. The creature fell to the ground but, like before, quickly got up and retreated to the safety of the tree line.

Meanwhile, Glennie Lankford, the matriarch of the Sutton family, was moving from room to room. As she turned down a hallway, she came face-to-face with another goblin-like creature on the other side of an exterior door. Billy Ray, acting swiftly, stepped outside to confront the creature but was grabbed by a clawed hand reaching down from the roof. Those inside quickly pulled him back as Lucky fired at the creature, which managed to evade the bullets and float slowly to the ground before running back into the woods. Seeing more creatures in the trees, Lucky fired at them. Like the creature on the roof, these too seemed to merely float to the ground when hit, before retreating back to the tree line.

For the next several hours, the families felt like hostages in their own home. The beings repeatedly appeared at the windows, only to be driven away by gunfire. Scratching sounds on the roof hinted that the creatures were searching for another way to enter. Eventually, surrounded and running low on ammunition, the group made a desperate dash to their cars and frantically drove to the local police station for help.

The terrified families arrived at the police station, all speaking at once as they recounted the night’s harrowing events. Gradually, they calmed enough to provide individual statements to the officers. Two officers, who had passed by the residence earlier that night, mentioned they had heard what they assumed were firecrackers in the area. Several police officers then accompanied the family back to the farm to investigate. Although they found no trace of the intruders, they noted evidence of the confrontation, including shattered windows, bullet holes in the walls, and spent shells scattered both inside and around the house. After reassuring the family that the intruders had gone, the officers returned to the station. However, the peace was short-lived. Around 3 a.m., the creatures reappeared, again terrorising the families by peering into windows and clambering on the roof until just before sunrise.

As word of the night’s encounters spread, Sutton Farm became something of a tourist attraction. The Suttons were repeatedly disturbed by visitors; some knocked on their door requesting tours, while others trespassed on their property, eager to see the site of the alleged battle. Eventually, the constant intrusion became too much for the family, who decided to leave the farm in hopes of finding a fresh start elsewhere.

What exactly happened at the Sutton residence on that warm August night in 1955? As with any story, details can change over time or be exaggerated to make the tale more exciting or memorable. This seems to be the case with some aspects of the Hopkinsville Goblins story. Some researchers claim that when the families, along with several police officers, returned to the property, they found military police already conducting their own investigation. Allegedly, one soldier, armed with a machine gun, saw the creatures in the woods and emptied his entire magazine trying to kill them. However, just like the bullets fired earlier that night, these too were ineffective as no bodies were recovered. There was no mention of military presence at the farm when the families and police initially returned, and this detail appears to have been added in more recent retellings. It has also been reported that military police accompanied the city police to the Sutton Farm, but this, too, seems to have been included only in later accounts of the incident.

And what of the goblins themselves? Aside from imaginative dressing up, there are few creatures that could be mistaken for a goblin, except perhaps one notable exception—the Great Horned Owl, native to much of North America, including the area surrounding the Sutton property. Although not as tall as the reported height of the creatures (3-4 feet), these owls can reach up to 2.5 feet. Their ‘ear’ tufts could be reminiscent of the pointed ears typically associated with gremlins, and while the North American species of Great Horned Owls have distinctly human-like eyes with visible retinas, their South American counterparts do have black eyes. Could a South American Great Horned Owl—or several—have traveled north and established a presence in the Hopkinsville area? The creatures were said to have tweeted to communicate with each other, while Great Horned Owls are known for their characteristic ‘whoo-hoo-ho-oo’ sounds. Although there is some evidence suggesting that the Hopkinsville gremlins could have been nothing more than Great Horned Owls, there is also evidence that disputes this theory.

What then, of the witnesses themselves? The possibility of the entire incident being a hoax cannot be dismissed outright. As previously mentioned, Billy Ray Taylor was known for exaggerating stories, which might explain his report of seeing an object while collecting water from the well. However, the involvement of multiple witnesses complicates this theory; all 12 people present would need to be complicit in the hoax. June Taylor and the Sutton family were considered reputable and honest by their community, making the likelihood of a hoax less plausible. Another theory suggested that alcohol might have influenced their accounts, but this was dismissed by the police who confirmed that all family members were sober upon their arrival at the police station.

So, did visitors from another planet arrive in Kentucky on a hot August night in 1955? Many people believe they did. However, others contend that the creatures encountered originated not from outer space, but from the many abandoned mines and caves scattered across the area. In 2012, paranormal researcher Greg Newark received an intriguing email from a man in Hellier, Kentucky. This individual claimed that his home and family were under siege by creatures remarkably similar to the Hopkinsville Goblins. According to him, these beings did not descend from the skies but emerged from beneath the earth’s surface.