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SI N-D 2006 pgs 9/27/06 9:19 AM Page 12 INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Siege of ‘Little Green Men’: The 1955 Kelly, Kentucky, Incident n the night of August 21, 1955, during the heyday of flying- Osaucer reports, a western Ken- tucky family encountered—well, that is the question: what were the humanoid- like creatures that terrified a family at their farmhouse? What actually happened at Kelly, Kentucky, that evening? For the fiftieth anniversary of the inci- dent, I was invited to give a talk at a Little Green Men Festival in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, staged by its Chamber of Commerce. I determined to investigate the story that had caught the attention of the U.S. Air Force’s “Project Blue Book” (which investigated 12,000 UFO reports from 1952 to 1969) and that also inspired a novel (Karyl 2004), a video documen- tary (“Monsters” 2005), and even an Figure 1. Site of the 1955 Kelly, Kentucky, incident can still be seen (although the farmhouse has been replaced by a trailer). Photos by Joe Nickell X-Files comic book (“Crop” 1997). My investigation included visiting attended a Holiness Church tent revival, Charlton (10), and Mary (7); two sons the site in the company of UFOlogist just down the road from the site of the from her previous marriage, Elmer and fellow invited speaker Peter Daven- Kelly incident, held in response to the “Lucky” Sutton (25) and John Charley port. (We were each given a key to the Little Green Men Festival. Many of the “J.C.” Sutton (21), and their respective city by Hopkinsville mayor Richard G. congregation wore green T-shirts with wives, Vera (29) and Alene (27); Alene’s Liebe and chauffeured in his car on the slogan “Son of Man Is Coming brother, O.P. Baker (30 or 35); and a research jaunts by Rob Dollar.) I also Back.” Pastor Wendell “Birdie” McCord Pennsylvania couple, Billy Ray Taylor obtained copies of original newspaper (2005) told me, “I don’t know whether (21) and June Taylor (18). The Taylors, clippings at the Hopkinsville Public the green men is [sic] coming back, but along with “Lucky” and Vera Sutton, Library, conducted further research at I know the Son of Man is coming back.” had been visiting for a while, being the local museum, talked with witnesses occasional carnival workers. to the events, studied detailed reports on Background Not all of the eleven were eyewit- the case, and much more. I even On the evening of Sunday, August 21, nesses to the most significant events. 1955, present at the Sutton farmhouse One of the women, apparently June Joe Nickell is a former private detective and at Kelly were eleven people: widowed Taylor, had been “too frightened to author of numerous investigative books. His family matriarch Glennie Lankford look” (Davis and Bloecher 1978, 14), Web site is at www.joenickell.com. (50); her children, Lonnie (12), and Lonnie Lankford (2005), speaking 12 Volume 30, Issue 6 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER SI N-D 2006 pgs 9/27/06 9:20 AM Page 13 to me at age 62, said that, during the verged on the site. Their search yielded did the eyewitnesses see more than one fracas, his mother had hidden him and nothing, apart from a hole in a window creature, and that was the time (men- his brother and sister under a bed. screen. There were “no tracks of ‘little tioned earlier) when a pair was spotted About seven o’clock, Billy Ray Taylor men,’ nor was there any mark indicating (one on the roof, one in a tree) (Clark was drawing water from the well when anything had landed at the described 1998; Davis and Bloecher 1978, 18, 27). he saw a bright light streak across the spot behind the house.” By the follow- From the outset, people offered their sky and disappear beyond a tree line ing day, reportedly, the U.S. Air Force proposed solutions to the mystery. In some distance from the house. was involved ([Dorris] 1955) but ulti- addition to those who thought it was a According to researcher Isabel Davis, mately listed the case as “unidentified” hoax, some attributed the affair to alco- who investigated the case in 1956 (Clark 1998). hol intoxication. I talked with one of (Davis and Bloecher 1978, 15), Billy the original investigators, former Ray Taylor was different from the other Kentucky state trooper R.N. Ferguson eyewitnesses: (2005), who thought people there had He had looked at the creatures with been drinking, although he conceded extravagant success. He was the only he saw no evidence of that at the site. member of the group who appeared to He told me he believed the monsters arouse immediate doubt in everyone “came in a container” (i.e., a can or bot- who talked to him. Even among tle of alcohol). A visitor to the farm the the family he had a low standing; when he first came into the house and next day did notice “a few beer cans in reported a “spaceship,” they paid him a rubbish basket” (Davis and Bloecher no attention. Later, during the investi- 1978, 35). Whether or not drinking gations, he basked in the limelight of was involved, it was not responsible for publicity. He elaborated and embroi- the “saucer” sighting; other UFOs were dered his description of the creatures (though not his description of the witnessed in the area that evening “spaceship”) and eventually produced (Davis and Bloecher 1978, 33). (More the most imaginative and least credible on this later.) of the little-men sketches. Several Monkeys represented another “the- skeptics who labeled the story a hoax ory.” Supposedly, one or more monkeys referred to him as the probable origi- nator. His behavior was in sharp con- had escaped either from a zoo or a trav- trast to that of the other witnesses, Figure 2. Lonnie Lankford was only twelve eling circus. However, there was never none of whom aroused such prompt when the “Little Green Men” incident occurred. any credible evidence of such an escape suspicion in the investigators. (Clark 1998; Carlton 2005). The search Aliens? About an hour after Taylor reported for a terrestrial explanation of the inci- his “flying saucer” sighting, a barking The earliest articles on the incident did dent would have to continue. dog attracted him and “Lucky” Sutton not refer to “Little green men.” That Solution outside. Spotting a creature, they darted color was apparently later injected by into the house for a .22 rifle and shot- the national media, although “Lucky” I long ago recognized the Kelly flap as gun, thus beginning a series of encoun- Sutton’s son now says his father being very similar to two alleged alien- ters that spanned the next three hours. described them as “silver” with “a green- encounter incidents that occurred in Sometimes, the men fired at a scary face ish silver glow” (“It Came” 2005, 8, 10). West Virginia, the 1952 appearance of that appeared at a window; sometimes, Other details are also somewhat the “Flatwoods Monster” and the 1966 they went outside, whereupon, on one fuzzy. The beings were described in the “Mothman” sightings—the first con- occasion, Taylor’s hair was grabbed by a first newspaper story as “about four feet vincingly identified as a barn owl huge, clawlike hand. Once, the pair shot tall,” having “big heads” with “huge (Nickell 2000), the second as a barred at a little creature that was on the roof eyes,” and “long arms” ([Dorris] 1955). owl (Nickell 2002). and at another “in a nearby tree” that However, they were downsized by Ayear after my Flatwoods Monster then “floated” to the ground. Either the Glennie Lankford (1955) to “two and a article appeared in SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, a creatures were impervious to gun blasts half feet tall” and were said to have large young French UFOlogist, Renaud Leclet, or the men’s aim was poor, since no crea- pointed ears, clawlike hands (with talons wrote articles on the Flatwoods and Kelly ture was killed. at the fingers’ ends), and eyes that cases. He concurred with my determina- After a lull in the “battle,” everyone glowed (or shone) yellow. They also had tion in the former case, and now I can piled into their cars and drove eight “spindly,” inflexible legs (Clark 1998; return the favor in the latter. I had sus- miles south to Hopkinsville’s police Davis and Bloecher 1978, 1, 28). pected owls in the Kelly case, but—since headquarters. Soon, more than a dozen Although the earliest published story I prefer to investigate on site—I was officers—from city, county, and state claims there were twelve to fifteen crea- awaiting an opportunity to visit the area; law-enforcement agencies—had con- tures, the fact is that in only one instance that came with my invitation to speak at SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November / December 2006 13 SI N-D 2006 pgs 9/27/06 9:20 AM Page 14 the fiftieth-anniversary celebration of the event. By then, Leclet had ven- tured to identify the Kelly entities from afar. Although he and I have reached the same conclusion, he refers to the crea- ture as an “eagle owl” (Leclet 2001), a designation for the genus Bubo that is not generally used by most authorities when specifically referring to the species Great Horned Owl (Bubo virgini- anus)—popularly called a “hoot owl.” (See, for example, National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region [Bull and Ferrand 1994].) Confusion can thus occur.1 Echoing descriptions of the Kelly “little men,” the Great Horned Owl has a height of some 25 inches; very large, staring, yellow eyes; long ear Figure 3.

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