It looked like a five-gallon gasoline can with a head on top
There was much activity and scurrying around on the part of those present
“These aren’t the kind of people who normally run to the police for help,” the chief would later recount. “What they do is reach for their guns.”
In this instance, it was enough to warrant a trip to the Hopkinsville police station — only after four boxes of .22 pistol shells had been exhausted. There are 11 people in all: eight adults and three kids. It was 11PM the night of Aug. 21, 1955, and they were, by all accounts, terrified at what had unfolded before them some three hours before.
“We need help,” one told the cops, “we’ve been fighting them for nearly four hours.”
Billy Ray and June Taylor had just driven down from Pennsylvania to visit Elmer "Lucky" Sutton. Three met during their days traveling the country with the carnival. The hot, late-August night at the Sutton’s unpainted farmhouse outside of Hopkinsville, Kentucky sent Billy Ray to the backyard well to fetch water for the group.
When he returned, the inhabitants laughed at Taylor, who’d spotted a flying, silver craft, he described as “real bright, with an exhaust all the colors of the rainbow.” It moved toward the house and lowered out of sight, below the tree line. The dog was the next to notice, barking aggressively at something outside. An hour after the first encounter, Sutton joined Taylor outside.
Now it was clear that they were not alone. Standing roughly three-and-a-half feet tall and bathed in light, a creature waited near the door, staring at the pair with glowing eyes set on a large head. Its skin was grayish-silver, an almost metallic quality that reflected back the ambient light.
Taylor and Sutton grabbed a pair of guns and opened fire.
The visitor raised its hand, backing away. It flipped and headed back toward the trees. Another appeared, this time near the window. “It looked like a five-gallon gasoline can with a head on top and small legs,” farmhouse resident Glennie Lankford later told an investigator. “It was a shimmering bright metal like on my refrigerator.”
The creatures were only slightly phased as the gunfire was directed out the window, their metallic skin buffering them from the weapons. Like the one prior, however, the second visitor eventually retreated.
Taylor once again stepped outside to investigate, this time subjecting himself to an even closer encounter, as one of the creature’s clawed hands stroked his hair. The man was pulled back inside, as Sutton unloaded more fire into a nearby tree where another creature waited.
After four hours, the group hightailed it the police station in a pair of cars. Officers arrived on the scene and stayed until 2AM. They returned empty-handed. Whatever had been there a few hours prior had vanished without a trace.
“Only excitement during the period the officers were there came when an MP happened to step on a cat’s tail while walking in the darkness near the house,” the paper wrote the following morning. “The cat let out a squawl and for a few seconds there was much activity and scurrying around on the part of those present.”
The paper described the visitors as “little men.” Subsequent reports inserted an apocryphal “green” into the middle of the description, establishing the foundation for subsequent alien encounters for the next half-century.
A variety of natural phenomenon were ascribed to the incident, ranging from meteors to bioluminescent fungus. Great horned owls have since taken the brunt of the blame, however. The nocturnal, yellow-eyed predators are among the world’s largest owls.
Half-an-hour after the police left, at least one of the visitors returned. It glowed outside of Lankford’s window, with a claw pressed against the screen.
Sources:
Story of space-ship, 12 little men probed today https://www.kentuckynewera.com/eclipse/article_fecf69ce-8611-11e7-beaf-0ffce93df895.html
How the 'Little Green Men' Phenomenon Began on a Kentucky Farm https://www.history.com/news/little-green-men-origins-aliens-hopkinsville-kelly
Hopkinsville's "Little Green Men" https://www.clarksvillian.com/post/aliens-ufo-hopkinsville-ky