The Keyy-Hopkinsville Goblin Case of 1955

by Dr. Gregory L. Little

Hopkinsville, Kentucky has two claims to fame. The first is that it is the birthplace of Edgar Cayce. The second is that it was the scene of one of the classic cases of ufology.

Nestled between the towns of Hopkinsville and Kelly was a small farm owned by 21- year-old Billy Ray Taylor but farmed and lived on by Taylor’s friends, The Sutton family. Taylor dropped by to visit the Suttons about 7:00 p.m. on August 21, 1955. It was hot, and Taylor went outside to get a drink of water from the well. He flew back into the farmhouse a few moments later agitated and excited. All 11 members of the Sutton family listened as Taylor told them he had seen a “flying saucer” go across the sky and drop into a gully about 200 yards away. The eight adults and three children laughed at Taylor. One of them suggested that Taylor had seen a falling star and was embellishing his story a bit. Taylor continued to try to convince the Suttons about what he had seen, but they weren’t buying it.

About 30 minutes after Taylor ran in from the well the Sutton’s dog began barking wildly. They looked out the door just in time to see the dog dash under the house with its tail between its legs.

Taylor and Lucky Sutton stood at the door and watched in disbelief as a three and a half foot tall, glowing creature was gliding toward the farmhouse. Its head was very large and round. It had yellow eyes and arms so long that the hands of the creature almost touched the ground as it moved. The hands had talons.

The two adults ran to a gun case and grabbed a 20-gauge shotgun and 22 rifle. They both shot the creature when it reached 20 feet from the door. It somersaulted, and then simply disappeared. Sutton and Taylor went outside where they immediately spotted another creature sitting on the farmhouse roof. They shot it. A third creature was spotted in a maple tree. It too was shot. Sutton shot a fourth creature at point blank range when it popped around a corner of the house directly confronting him.

The effects of the gunfire on the creatures was not what one would expect of flesh and blood beings. While the first creature performed a somersault and then disappeared after being hit, the second creature slowly tumbled from the roof. The third creature floated to the ground and then waddled away after it was hit in the maple tree, and the final creature, hit at point blank by a shotgun blast, simply backed away slowly. Sutton stated that it sounded as if he had hit a bucket.

After the fourth creature had been encountered, Sutton and Taylor ran into the house and shut the doors. All 12 witnesses huddled together and watched in abject terror as the aliens began peering in the farmhouse windows. Eventually they made a dash for their cars and went to find the police in Hopkinsville.

Both local and state police accompanied the Suttons back to their farm that night. They carefully searched the area but found only a small luminescent spot on the ground where Sutton said one of the creatures had tumbled after he shot it. The police left at 2:15 a.m.

Shortly after the police left the creatures returned, peering in the windows at the terrified family. Shotgun blasts and rifle fire met the creatures with the only affect upon the walls, screens, and windows of the farmhouse. Just before sunrise the creatures disappeared.

Editor’s Note: This fascinating account is excerpted from Dr. Greg Little’s book People of the Web (1990).