April 30, 2025 • 27 mins
In 1955, a small farmhouse in Kentucky became the site of one of America’s most bizarre UFO encounters.
The Sutton family claimed they were terrorized by small, metallic-skinned creatures—what we now call the Hopkinsville Goblins.
In this episode, host Robert Barber investigates the timeline of the incident, the military response, and the long legacy of this rural legend.
👽 Alien visitors? Mass hysteria? Or something stranger still?
🎧 Listen now—and if you enjoy deep dives into paranormal folklore, follow State of the Unknown and leave a review. It helps more than you know.
State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the haunted highways, hidden legends, and supernatural stories tucked into the corners of America’s 50 states.
🎙️ New episodes released every other Wednesday.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
It started with the light in the sky.
Too fast.
Too bright.
Too quiet.
And then, nothing.
Just the sound of frogs andcrickets outside a farmhouse in
rural Kentucky.
Just another summer night in thecountry.
Until something stepped out ofthe woods.
(00:24):
They weren't human.
Not exactly.
They were small.
Maybe three feet tall.
with skin like silver foil, armstoo long, and ears that came to
sharp points like horns.
And their eyes, they glowed.
The Sutton family didn't wait toask questions.
(00:48):
They fired.
Shotguns and pistols for nearlyfour hours.
And the creatures?
They didn't bleed, and theydidn't fall.
They just kept coming.
popping up at windows, floatingtowards the house, and vanishing
into the dark.
(01:09):
What happened next drewheadlines, soldiers, and
skeptics.
But that night out on afarmhouse near Hopkinsville,
something came out of the woods,and no one ever figured out what
it was.
(01:40):
I'm your host, Robert Barber.
Today, we head to WesternKentucky, where a summer night
in 1955 turned into somethingfar stranger than a ghost story.
A family under siege, a creatureno one could kill, and a legend
that forced even the military totake a closer look.
(02:01):
This is the story of theHopkinsville Goblins.
This is State of the Unknown.
Christian County, Kentucky.
Late August, 1955.
It was the kind of summer wherethe air clung to your skin.
(02:22):
The kind where the sounds ofcicadas and bullfrogs could
drown out your own heartbeat.
And when the sun went down, thedark didn't creep, it dropped.
The farmhouse sat five milesoutside the city of
Hopkinsville.
No neighbors close by.
No electricity in parts of thehouse.
(02:44):
Just well water, kerosene lamps,and shotgun shells in the
drawer.
There were 11 people inside thatnight.
Two families, all visiting for aweekend dinner.
They'd just finished supper.
The kids were out chasingfireflies.
The adults were passing around ajug of cold well water.
(03:05):
It was quiet, familiar.
The house belonged to GlennyLankford, a widowed matriarch
raising her children on her own.
Her son, Lucky Sutton, wasvisiting with his wife, along
with Billy Ray Taylor, his wife,and a few other relatives.
Simple people, not drunks, notfortune seekers, just rural
(03:29):
Kentuckians trying to make itthrough another humid night.
The stars were bright thatevening.
to see the Milky Way smearedacross the sky like milk on a
blackboard.
But something brighter than astar flashed overhead.
Something fast.
Something quiet.
(03:50):
Billy Ray was the first tonotice it.
A streak of silver light arcingover the treetops, moving too
slow to be a shooting star andtoo quiet to be a plane.
He told the others.
Most of them laughed it off.
But he kept looking toward thetree line.
And just before the sun was gonefor good, he saw something step
(04:13):
out of the woods.
It didn't look human.
Didn't move like anything he'dever seen.
It wasn't walking.
It was gliding.
And in the last streak of lightfrom the setting sun, he swore
he saw it shimmer.
Like metal or silver skin.
(04:38):
At first, it was just a feeling,something in the air, a quiet,
too quiet.
Billy Ray Taylor had gone out tothe well when he saw the figure
again, closer this time.
He ran back into the house, paleand shaking, telling the others
he'd seen a little man, glowing.
(04:59):
But this wasn't just the storyof one man.
Minutes later, they all heardit.
a scratching at the screen, asoft thump on the roof, a
high-pitched metallic sound likecoins shaking in a tin can
coming from just outside thewalls.
Then they saw it.
(05:22):
At the back window, two glowingyellow eyes, wide set and
unblinking, staring into thehouse.
The body behind them?
Small.
Three, maybe four feet tall.
with spindly arms that reachednearly to the ground, hands with
claws instead of fingers,pointed ears sticking out
(05:45):
sideways like antenna, and itsskin shimmered like polished
aluminum in the moonlight.
Lucky Sutton and Billy Raygrabbed their guns, a 20-gauge
shotgun and a.22 rifle, andfired through the screen.
The blast knocked the creaturebackwards.
It flipped, somersaulted in thedark, then stood back up
(06:08):
unharmed.
They fired again and again.
One creature leapt to the roof.
Another hovered, not jumped,hovered off the ground, floating
towards the house before dartingback into the woods.
For the next four hours, thefamily huddled inside, taking
(06:29):
turns firing at the windows.
Every time they hit something,it would tumble, then vanish.
But none of them ever fell forgood.
The children cried.
The adults ran from room toroom, trying to guard every
wall.
And outside, those gleaming eyesjust kept appearing.
(06:50):
At windows, around corners, evenon the roof above them.
At one point, Lucky steppedoutside with Billy Ray to circle
the house.
And from the overhang, a clawedhand reached down and brushed
his hair.
He screamed, turned, and firedpoint-blank at the roofline.
(07:12):
Again, nothing.
The creatures didn't speak,didn't growl, didn't roar.
They made no sound at all,except for the tinny metallic
chirping that drifted in on thewind, just when you thought they
were gone.
The siege lasted nearly fourhours, and then, as suddenly as
(07:34):
it began, it stopped.
No final blast, no runningretreat, just silence.
The creatures disappeared intothe night, leaving the family
alone with a smoking shotgunbarrel, a house full of broken
windows, and a fear that wasn'tfinished yet.
(07:59):
By the time the sun rose, theSutton farmhouse was eerily
still.
No blood, no bodies, no clawmarks, just a wrecked screen
door, holes in the siding, and11 people who hadn't slept a
second.
At dawn, Lucky Sutton and BillyRay Taylor drove straight into
(08:21):
the town of Hopkinsville to thepolice station.
They weren't wild-eyed orranting.
They were quiet, shaken, and anddead serious.
They told their story, and itdidn't sound like a prank.
It sounded like something thatneeded investigating.
So the Hopkinsville policechief, state troopers, and even
(08:43):
a few military police fromnearby Fort Campbell drove out
to the farmhouse.
They expected a hoax, maybe afamily squabble, maybe something
worse.
But when they arrived, theyfound something.
Odd.
Not just the busted windows.
Not just the spent shellslittering the floor.
(09:06):
They found people who were stillvisibly terrified.
Children clinging to theirmothers.
Adults refusing to go outside.
And that house?
It wasn't just shot up.
It looked like a place that hadseen a battle.
Officers spread out, searchingthe area.
(09:26):
they found strange footprints inthe mud.
Small, with three claw-liketoes, unlike any human or animal
tracks in the region.
They tested the wells, checkedthe woods, examined the windows.
No drugs, no alcohol, no reasonto think these people were
(09:47):
anything but sober and scared.
One officer remarked that thegroup was more frightened than
anyone he'd ever interviewedbefore.
Another wrote in his notes thatsomething happened here.
Even if it wasn't what theysaid, it was something.
Later that morning, the pressshowed up.
(10:08):
And within hours, theHopkinsville goblins were front
page news.
Words like aliens and little menstarted to appear in headlines.
Cartoonish sketches were drawn.
Big ears, glowing eyes, sharpclaws.
Radio shows picked up the story.
Even Project Blue Book, the U.S.
(10:30):
Air Force's official UFOinvestigation program, filed the
incident labeling itunexplained.
And yet, the ridicule came justas fast.
Reporters mocked the family'saccents, called them poor,
suggested that they'd beendrinking or trying to get
(10:50):
famous.
But if that was the plan, itbackfired.
The Suttons turned down offersto go on national television,
refused money from Hollywood.
They didn't want attention.
They wanted privacy.
But the story had already takenon a life of its own.
(11:10):
And for the rest of their lives,they'd never fully outrun it.
So what really happened on thatwarm Kentucky night?
Something strange, yes.
But strange doesn't always meansupernatural.
And for nearly 70 years, peoplehave tried to explain the
(11:31):
Hopkinsville goblins.
Some use science.
Some use folklore.
And some just, well, believe thefamily.
The most frequently citedexplanation is the owl theory,
specifically the great hornedowl.
These birds are big.
(11:52):
wingspans up to five feet,bright, reflective eyes,
feathers that shimmer silver inthe moonlight.
And they can fly silently, sosilently that many prey animals
don't hear them coming untilit's too late.
Owls are also territorial.
They'll swoop if they feelthreatened.
(12:15):
And under just the rightconditions, low light,
adrenaline, fear, an owl mightseem bigger, stranger, and more
menacing than it really is.
Skeptics claim that what theSuttons experienced was a group
of owls defending a nearby nest.
That in the stress andconfusion, an owl perched on a
(12:36):
branch became a glowing-eyedgoblin at the window.
But even wildlife experts admitit's a stretch.
Owls don't walk upright, don'thover upright, and don't survive
multiple rounds of gunfire.
And most importantly, they don'tshow up in coordinated waves
across four hours.
(12:58):
There were dozens of sightingsfrom multiple angles, seen by 11
different people in a range oflighting conditions.
For all the similarities, a barnowl does not explain why the
Sutton shot at one and saw itflip, float, and land upright
again, unscathed.
(13:19):
If it was just an owl, it wouldhave been dead by midnight.
And the story would have endedthere.
Then there's the skepticalfallback.
It was all made up.
A prank that spiraled out ofcontrol.
A tale told too well.
Or maybe a group hysteriaepisode shared by an isolated,
(13:41):
anxious family.
But here's the problem with thatidea.
The Suttons weren't media savvy.
They didn't chase interviews orbook deals.
They turned down multipleoffers, including from
Hollywood, when a film studiooffered money for the rights.
Instead, they avoided reporters.
(14:03):
They were treated from thepublic eye.
And for decades, they refused totalk about that night, unless
asked.
Mass hysteria usually spreadsafter people talk about
something, after a rumor takeshold.
But in this case, it happenedbefore.
All 11 witnesses saw the samething at the same time in real
(14:27):
space with consistent details.
There were children, elderlyrelatives, and even a police
officer who believed somethingreal had shaken them.
Even the military police whoresponded that night took the
case seriously enough to file areport, though they couldn't
explain what happened either.
(14:48):
A hoax?
Maybe.
But for what?
The family never benefited,never changed their story, never
wanted the fame that followed.
If it was a lie, it was the kindthat cost more than it gained.
And that makes it harder todismiss.
(15:11):
Then there's the theory thatrefuses to fade.
The one that draws believersfrom around the world every
year.
Descriptions of the creaturesfit classic alien imagery.
Small, humanoid figures.
Large, glowing eyes.
Metallic or reflective skin.
(15:32):
No visible mouths or ears.
Movements that seemed to defygravity.
An object in the sky seenmoments before the encounters
began.
Some believe they were wearingsuits, not shining skin.
that the glow was a result oftechnology, not biology, and
(15:53):
that the chirping, the floating,and the bulletproof behavior
were all part of their design.
The detail about the light inthe sky seen by Billy Ray Taylor
when getting water was oftenbrushed aside, but it matches
countless other close-encountercases reported across the
country during the 1950s.
(16:16):
The Sutton encounter occurredjust eight years after the
Roswell incident and two yearsafter the term UFO entered the
national vocabulary.
What's odd is how primitive theencounter feels.
There were no craft, nomessages, no beams of light or
abductions, just watching,floating, staring through
(16:41):
windows.
The kind of behavior you mightexpect from a drone or from
something sent to observe.
Some researchers even believethat goblins weren't the pilots,
but scouting entities.
Biological robots sent bysomething larger that never
stepped into the field.
(17:03):
And then there's the theory thatthis wasn't a visit from the
stars, but a leak from somewhereelse entirely.
The ultra-terrestrial theorysuggests the creatures weren't
from space, but from anotherdimension.
A slip, a momentary crossing, aweak point between worlds.
(17:24):
It might sound outlandish, butit explains the things that
nothing else does.
The creature's invulnerability,their silent flight, their
strange sounds, their refusal tointeract in a meaningful way.
and their sudden disappearancewithout a trace.
(17:45):
There are older names for beingslike this.
The Fae, the Djinn, shadowpeople, goblins, tricksters.
All across the world, folkcultures have stories of small
beings who live outside ourreality, only crossing over
briefly, just enough tofrighten, confuse, and then
(18:07):
vanish.
It's not a coincidence that theSuttons called them goblins.
Not aliens, not visitors.
Goblins.
Because that's what they feltlike.
Small, watching, mocking almost.
Not evil, but not kind either.
(18:27):
Some believe these beings thriveon belief and that they need to
be seen.
And when too many people believethey exist, they disappear
again.
Like the stories were only evermeant for a few eyes at a time.
So what happened on that Augustnight in Kentucky?
A hoax?
(18:48):
A misidentified bird?
A psychological spiral?
Or did something really visitthat house?
Something that doesn't fit inany category.
Something we're still not readyto name.
Descriptions of the creaturesvaried ever so slightly, but the
(19:11):
details that mattered, the onesthat haunted people, remained
exactly the same.
Three feet tall, glowing eyes,slender limbs that ended in
claws, not fingers, ears likepointed horns, jutting sideways,
impossibly long, and skin thatshimmered like metal, or maybe
(19:34):
wet foil reflecting moonlighteven in the thickest shadows.
When they moved, it wasn't likeanimals.
They didn't run.
They didn't crawl.
They glided.
Some said it was like theyfloated just above the ground,
never making a sound, neverdisturbing the dirt.
(19:56):
Others watched them flip andtumble after being hit by
shotgun blasts, only to rightthemselves without limping
without bleeding, and withoutretreating.
And the strangest part?
They made almost no noise.
No breathing, no vocalizations,just that metallic clicking,
(20:17):
like coins shaking in a tin cup,sometimes near the windows,
sometimes just beyond the walls.
A sound that wasn't quitemechanical and wasn't quite
natural.
It was the kind of thing youdon't realize is unnatural until
you notice how loud the silencehas become.
(20:38):
For years, artists and writerswould depict the creatures in
their own way, some withexaggerated claws, some with
bug-like eyes, some as classicgray aliens in suits.
But the early sketches, thosetaken from the witness
descriptions the next morning,remain chillingly consistent.
(20:59):
Wide set eyes, no neck, slopedshoulders, arms that stretched
past the knees, and a head thatgleamed with a strange silver
light.
They weren't monstrous.
They weren't grotesque.
They were wrong.
Just wrong enough to make yourstomach twist.
(21:21):
Like something that wasn't builtfor this world, but it found its
way in just long enough to lookaround.
The Sutton family didn't givethem names, didn't try to defend
them.
They didn't need to.
Because when something watchesyou from the trees for four
hours, you don't ask what it is.
(21:42):
You just try to survive it.
The Sutton family never wantedto be remembered, but their
story was too strange to beforgotten.
What happened on that farmoutside Hopkinsville became a
spark, igniting curiosity anddisbelief, mockery, and
obsession.
(22:02):
In the years that followed, theHopkinsville Goblins showed up
everywhere.
Sketches in UFO books,retellings in radio dramas,
features in paranormalmagazines, and mentions in
psychology papers and governmentreports.
And by the 1980s, they'd crossedover into something even bigger.
(22:23):
Hollywood.
The 1986 horror comedy Critterswas loosely inspired by the
Sutton case.
So was M.
Night Shyamalan's Signs, where arural family is stalked by
strange beings around theirhome, seen through windows and
shadow, watched, but never quitereached.
(22:44):
The creatures even made theirway into video games, podcasts
like this one, and fan art.
They became more than a mystery.
They became a symbol.
And then, in the 2000s,something unexpected happened.
The goblins came home.
Hopkinsville leaned in.
(23:05):
Locals launched the Little GreenMen Festival, a yearly event
where believers, skeptics, andthe cryptid curious come
together to celebrate the town'smost famous and infamous
visitors.
There are costumes, panels,lectures, merchandise, tours of
the area, and even reenactmentsof that night in 1955.
(23:29):
What started as a nightmare forone family became a celebration
of mystery itself.
And somehow, in all of that, theoriginal witnesses never
wavered.
Glenny Lankford, the matriarchof the family, held fast to her
story until her death.
Her children, too.
(23:49):
Quiet, consistent, never askingto be believed, but never
denying what they saw.
To the end, they swore the samething.
They weren't lying, they weren'tconfused, and something was out
there.
Today, the Sutton farmhouse isgone.
(24:10):
The land has changed, but thelegend is rooted deeper than
ever, because it wasn't justabout aliens or goblins.
It was about encounter.
about that moment when somethingstrange brushes against the edge
of normal life and everythingsafe and known begins to shake.
(24:30):
And once it's happened, it can'tbe undone.
They weren't monsters.
Not exactly.
They didn't speak.
They didn't attack.
They didn't take anything,except the peace of mind from
everyone inside that house.
The Suttons weren't looking forfame.
(24:51):
They didn't want a story.
They already had one, and itlived with them long after the
creatures were gone.
The farmhouse is gone now,reclaimed by time.
The field is quiet again.
The woods have thickened.
But if you stand there afterdark, just long enough to
(25:12):
listen, you might still feel it.
That moment when the worldaround you feels too still.
when the dark seems to lean inand your skin prickles for no
good reason.
The Hopkinsville goblins havebecome folklore, cartoons,
mascots, tourist attractions.
(25:35):
But for one night in 1955, theywere real.
Not just believed, but seen.
And that's what makes this storymatter.
Because whether they came fromthe stars, from the woods, or
from somewhere we still can'tname, they were here.
(25:57):
This is State of the Unknown.
Every other Wednesday, we travelto another corner of America,
uncovering the haunted highways,hidden legends, and untold
stories that refuse to stayburied.
if you enjoyed this episodefollow the show and leave a
review it helps others findthese forgotten stories next
(26:18):
time we leave the cornfields ofKentucky behind and step back
into the shadows of earlyAmerica long before Salem became
infamous another town wasgripped by fear accusations flew
lives were lost in history triedto forget Don't go to the
(26:53):
window.
Just let it pass.
It started with the light in the sky.
Too fast.
Too bright.
Too quiet.
And then, nothing.
Just the sound of frogs andcrickets outside a farmhouse in
rural Kentucky.
Just another summer night in thecountry.
Until something stepped out ofthe woods.
(00:24):
They weren't human.
Not exactly.
They were small.
Maybe three feet tall.
with skin like silver foil, armstoo long, and ears that came to
sharp points like horns.
And their eyes, they glowed.
The Sutton family didn't wait toask questions.
(00:48):
They fired.
Shotguns and pistols for nearlyfour hours.
And the creatures?
They didn't bleed, and theydidn't fall.
They just kept coming.
popping up at windows, floatingtowards the house, and vanishing
into the dark.
(01:09):
What happened next drewheadlines, soldiers, and
skeptics.
But that night out on afarmhouse near Hopkinsville,
something came out of the woods,and no one ever figured out what
it was.
(01:40):
I'm your host, Robert Barber.
Today, we head to WesternKentucky, where a summer night
in 1955 turned into somethingfar stranger than a ghost story.
A family under siege, a creatureno one could kill, and a legend
that forced even the military totake a closer look.
(02:01):
This is the story of theHopkinsville Goblins.
This is State of the Unknown.
Christian County, Kentucky.
Late August, 1955.
It was the kind of summer wherethe air clung to your skin.
(02:22):
The kind where the sounds ofcicadas and bullfrogs could
drown out your own heartbeat.
And when the sun went down, thedark didn't creep, it dropped.
The farmhouse sat five milesoutside the city of
Hopkinsville.
No neighbors close by.
No electricity in parts of thehouse.
(02:44):
Just well water, kerosene lamps,and shotgun shells in the
drawer.
There were 11 people inside thatnight.
Two families, all visiting for aweekend dinner.
They'd just finished supper.
The kids were out chasingfireflies.
The adults were passing around ajug of cold well water.
(03:05):
It was quiet, familiar.
The house belonged to GlennyLankford, a widowed matriarch
raising her children on her own.
Her son, Lucky Sutton, wasvisiting with his wife, along
with Billy Ray Taylor, his wife,and a few other relatives.
Simple people, not drunks, notfortune seekers, just rural
(03:29):
Kentuckians trying to make itthrough another humid night.
The stars were bright thatevening.
to see the Milky Way smearedacross the sky like milk on a
blackboard.
But something brighter than astar flashed overhead.
Something fast.
Something quiet.
(03:50):
Billy Ray was the first tonotice it.
A streak of silver light arcingover the treetops, moving too
slow to be a shooting star andtoo quiet to be a plane.
He told the others.
Most of them laughed it off.
But he kept looking toward thetree line.
And just before the sun was gonefor good, he saw something step
(04:13):
out of the woods.
It didn't look human.
Didn't move like anything he'dever seen.
It wasn't walking.
It was gliding.
And in the last streak of lightfrom the setting sun, he swore
he saw it shimmer.
Like metal or silver skin.
(04:38):
At first, it was just a feeling,something in the air, a quiet,
too quiet.
Billy Ray Taylor had gone out tothe well when he saw the figure
again, closer this time.
He ran back into the house, paleand shaking, telling the others
he'd seen a little man, glowing.
(04:59):
But this wasn't just the storyof one man.
Minutes later, they all heardit.
a scratching at the screen, asoft thump on the roof, a
high-pitched metallic sound likecoins shaking in a tin can
coming from just outside thewalls.
Then they saw it.
(05:22):
At the back window, two glowingyellow eyes, wide set and
unblinking, staring into thehouse.
The body behind them?
Small.
Three, maybe four feet tall.
with spindly arms that reachednearly to the ground, hands with
claws instead of fingers,pointed ears sticking out
(05:45):
sideways like antenna, and itsskin shimmered like polished
aluminum in the moonlight.
Lucky Sutton and Billy Raygrabbed their guns, a 20-gauge
shotgun and a.22 rifle, andfired through the screen.
The blast knocked the creaturebackwards.
It flipped, somersaulted in thedark, then stood back up
(06:08):
unharmed.
They fired again and again.
One creature leapt to the roof.
Another hovered, not jumped,hovered off the ground, floating
towards the house before dartingback into the woods.
For the next four hours, thefamily huddled inside, taking
(06:29):
turns firing at the windows.
Every time they hit something,it would tumble, then vanish.
But none of them ever fell forgood.
The children cried.
The adults ran from room toroom, trying to guard every
wall.
And outside, those gleaming eyesjust kept appearing.
(06:50):
At windows, around corners, evenon the roof above them.
At one point, Lucky steppedoutside with Billy Ray to circle
the house.
And from the overhang, a clawedhand reached down and brushed
his hair.
He screamed, turned, and firedpoint-blank at the roofline.
(07:12):
Again, nothing.
The creatures didn't speak,didn't growl, didn't roar.
They made no sound at all,except for the tinny metallic
chirping that drifted in on thewind, just when you thought they
were gone.
The siege lasted nearly fourhours, and then, as suddenly as
(07:34):
it began, it stopped.
No final blast, no runningretreat, just silence.
The creatures disappeared intothe night, leaving the family
alone with a smoking shotgunbarrel, a house full of broken
windows, and a fear that wasn'tfinished yet.
(07:59):
By the time the sun rose, theSutton farmhouse was eerily
still.
No blood, no bodies, no clawmarks, just a wrecked screen
door, holes in the siding, and11 people who hadn't slept a
second.
At dawn, Lucky Sutton and BillyRay Taylor drove straight into
(08:21):
the town of Hopkinsville to thepolice station.
They weren't wild-eyed orranting.
They were quiet, shaken, and anddead serious.
They told their story, and itdidn't sound like a prank.
It sounded like something thatneeded investigating.
So the Hopkinsville policechief, state troopers, and even
(08:43):
a few military police fromnearby Fort Campbell drove out
to the farmhouse.
They expected a hoax, maybe afamily squabble, maybe something
worse.
But when they arrived, theyfound something.
Odd.
Not just the busted windows.
Not just the spent shellslittering the floor.
(09:06):
They found people who were stillvisibly terrified.
Children clinging to theirmothers.
Adults refusing to go outside.
And that house?
It wasn't just shot up.
It looked like a place that hadseen a battle.
Officers spread out, searchingthe area.
(09:26):
they found strange footprints inthe mud.
Small, with three claw-liketoes, unlike any human or animal
tracks in the region.
They tested the wells, checkedthe woods, examined the windows.
No drugs, no alcohol, no reasonto think these people were
(09:47):
anything but sober and scared.
One officer remarked that thegroup was more frightened than
anyone he'd ever interviewedbefore.
Another wrote in his notes thatsomething happened here.
Even if it wasn't what theysaid, it was something.
Later that morning, the pressshowed up.
(10:08):
And within hours, theHopkinsville goblins were front
page news.
Words like aliens and little menstarted to appear in headlines.
Cartoonish sketches were drawn.
Big ears, glowing eyes, sharpclaws.
Radio shows picked up the story.
Even Project Blue Book, the U.S.
(10:30):
Air Force's official UFOinvestigation program, filed the
incident labeling itunexplained.
And yet, the ridicule came justas fast.
Reporters mocked the family'saccents, called them poor,
suggested that they'd beendrinking or trying to get
(10:50):
famous.
But if that was the plan, itbackfired.
The Suttons turned down offersto go on national television,
refused money from Hollywood.
They didn't want attention.
They wanted privacy.
But the story had already takenon a life of its own.
(11:10):
And for the rest of their lives,they'd never fully outrun it.
So what really happened on thatwarm Kentucky night?
Something strange, yes.
But strange doesn't always meansupernatural.
And for nearly 70 years, peoplehave tried to explain the
(11:31):
Hopkinsville goblins.
Some use science.
Some use folklore.
And some just, well, believe thefamily.
The most frequently citedexplanation is the owl theory,
specifically the great hornedowl.
These birds are big.
(11:52):
wingspans up to five feet,bright, reflective eyes,
feathers that shimmer silver inthe moonlight.
And they can fly silently, sosilently that many prey animals
don't hear them coming untilit's too late.
Owls are also territorial.
They'll swoop if they feelthreatened.
(12:15):
And under just the rightconditions, low light,
adrenaline, fear, an owl mightseem bigger, stranger, and more
menacing than it really is.
Skeptics claim that what theSuttons experienced was a group
of owls defending a nearby nest.
That in the stress andconfusion, an owl perched on a
(12:36):
branch became a glowing-eyedgoblin at the window.
But even wildlife experts admitit's a stretch.
Owls don't walk upright, don'thover upright, and don't survive
multiple rounds of gunfire.
And most importantly, they don'tshow up in coordinated waves
across four hours.
(12:58):
There were dozens of sightingsfrom multiple angles, seen by 11
different people in a range oflighting conditions.
For all the similarities, a barnowl does not explain why the
Sutton shot at one and saw itflip, float, and land upright
again, unscathed.
(13:19):
If it was just an owl, it wouldhave been dead by midnight.
And the story would have endedthere.
Then there's the skepticalfallback.
It was all made up.
A prank that spiraled out ofcontrol.
A tale told too well.
Or maybe a group hysteriaepisode shared by an isolated,
(13:41):
anxious family.
But here's the problem with thatidea.
The Suttons weren't media savvy.
They didn't chase interviews orbook deals.
They turned down multipleoffers, including from
Hollywood, when a film studiooffered money for the rights.
Instead, they avoided reporters.
(14:03):
They were treated from thepublic eye.
And for decades, they refused totalk about that night, unless
asked.
Mass hysteria usually spreadsafter people talk about
something, after a rumor takeshold.
But in this case, it happenedbefore.
All 11 witnesses saw the samething at the same time in real
(14:27):
space with consistent details.
There were children, elderlyrelatives, and even a police
officer who believed somethingreal had shaken them.
Even the military police whoresponded that night took the
case seriously enough to file areport, though they couldn't
explain what happened either.
(14:48):
A hoax?
Maybe.
But for what?
The family never benefited,never changed their story, never
wanted the fame that followed.
If it was a lie, it was the kindthat cost more than it gained.
And that makes it harder todismiss.
(15:11):
Then there's the theory thatrefuses to fade.
The one that draws believersfrom around the world every
year.
Descriptions of the creaturesfit classic alien imagery.
Small, humanoid figures.
Large, glowing eyes.
Metallic or reflective skin.
(15:32):
No visible mouths or ears.
Movements that seemed to defygravity.
An object in the sky seenmoments before the encounters
began.
Some believe they were wearingsuits, not shining skin.
that the glow was a result oftechnology, not biology, and
(15:53):
that the chirping, the floating,and the bulletproof behavior
were all part of their design.
The detail about the light inthe sky seen by Billy Ray Taylor
when getting water was oftenbrushed aside, but it matches
countless other close-encountercases reported across the
country during the 1950s.
(16:16):
The Sutton encounter occurredjust eight years after the
Roswell incident and two yearsafter the term UFO entered the
national vocabulary.
What's odd is how primitive theencounter feels.
There were no craft, nomessages, no beams of light or
abductions, just watching,floating, staring through
(16:41):
windows.
The kind of behavior you mightexpect from a drone or from
something sent to observe.
Some researchers even believethat goblins weren't the pilots,
but scouting entities.
Biological robots sent bysomething larger that never
stepped into the field.
(17:03):
And then there's the theory thatthis wasn't a visit from the
stars, but a leak from somewhereelse entirely.
The ultra-terrestrial theorysuggests the creatures weren't
from space, but from anotherdimension.
A slip, a momentary crossing, aweak point between worlds.
(17:24):
It might sound outlandish, butit explains the things that
nothing else does.
The creature's invulnerability,their silent flight, their
strange sounds, their refusal tointeract in a meaningful way.
and their sudden disappearancewithout a trace.
(17:45):
There are older names for beingslike this.
The Fae, the Djinn, shadowpeople, goblins, tricksters.
All across the world, folkcultures have stories of small
beings who live outside ourreality, only crossing over
briefly, just enough tofrighten, confuse, and then
(18:07):
vanish.
It's not a coincidence that theSuttons called them goblins.
Not aliens, not visitors.
Goblins.
Because that's what they feltlike.
Small, watching, mocking almost.
Not evil, but not kind either.
(18:27):
Some believe these beings thriveon belief and that they need to
be seen.
And when too many people believethey exist, they disappear
again.
Like the stories were only evermeant for a few eyes at a time.
So what happened on that Augustnight in Kentucky?
A hoax?
(18:48):
A misidentified bird?
A psychological spiral?
Or did something really visitthat house?
Something that doesn't fit inany category.
Something we're still not readyto name.
Descriptions of the creaturesvaried ever so slightly, but the
(19:11):
details that mattered, the onesthat haunted people, remained
exactly the same.
Three feet tall, glowing eyes,slender limbs that ended in
claws, not fingers, ears likepointed horns, jutting sideways,
impossibly long, and skin thatshimmered like metal, or maybe
(19:34):
wet foil reflecting moonlighteven in the thickest shadows.
When they moved, it wasn't likeanimals.
They didn't run.
They didn't crawl.
They glided.
Some said it was like theyfloated just above the ground,
never making a sound, neverdisturbing the dirt.
(19:56):
Others watched them flip andtumble after being hit by
shotgun blasts, only to rightthemselves without limping
without bleeding, and withoutretreating.
And the strangest part?
They made almost no noise.
No breathing, no vocalizations,just that metallic clicking,
(20:17):
like coins shaking in a tin cup,sometimes near the windows,
sometimes just beyond the walls.
A sound that wasn't quitemechanical and wasn't quite
natural.
It was the kind of thing youdon't realize is unnatural until
you notice how loud the silencehas become.
(20:38):
For years, artists and writerswould depict the creatures in
their own way, some withexaggerated claws, some with
bug-like eyes, some as classicgray aliens in suits.
But the early sketches, thosetaken from the witness
descriptions the next morning,remain chillingly consistent.
(20:59):
Wide set eyes, no neck, slopedshoulders, arms that stretched
past the knees, and a head thatgleamed with a strange silver
light.
They weren't monstrous.
They weren't grotesque.
They were wrong.
Just wrong enough to make yourstomach twist.
(21:21):
Like something that wasn't builtfor this world, but it found its
way in just long enough to lookaround.
The Sutton family didn't givethem names, didn't try to defend
them.
They didn't need to.
Because when something watchesyou from the trees for four
hours, you don't ask what it is.
(21:42):
You just try to survive it.
The Sutton family never wantedto be remembered, but their
story was too strange to beforgotten.
What happened on that farmoutside Hopkinsville became a
spark, igniting curiosity anddisbelief, mockery, and
obsession.
(22:02):
In the years that followed, theHopkinsville Goblins showed up
everywhere.
Sketches in UFO books,retellings in radio dramas,
features in paranormalmagazines, and mentions in
psychology papers and governmentreports.
And by the 1980s, they'd crossedover into something even bigger.
(22:23):
Hollywood.
The 1986 horror comedy Critterswas loosely inspired by the
Sutton case.
So was M.
Night Shyamalan's Signs, where arural family is stalked by
strange beings around theirhome, seen through windows and
shadow, watched, but never quitereached.
(22:44):
The creatures even made theirway into video games, podcasts
like this one, and fan art.
They became more than a mystery.
They became a symbol.
And then, in the 2000s,something unexpected happened.
The goblins came home.
Hopkinsville leaned in.
(23:05):
Locals launched the Little GreenMen Festival, a yearly event
where believers, skeptics, andthe cryptid curious come
together to celebrate the town'smost famous and infamous
visitors.
There are costumes, panels,lectures, merchandise, tours of
the area, and even reenactmentsof that night in 1955.
(23:29):
What started as a nightmare forone family became a celebration
of mystery itself.
And somehow, in all of that, theoriginal witnesses never
wavered.
Glenny Lankford, the matriarchof the family, held fast to her
story until her death.
Her children, too.
(23:49):
Quiet, consistent, never askingto be believed, but never
denying what they saw.
To the end, they swore the samething.
They weren't lying, they weren'tconfused, and something was out
there.
Today, the Sutton farmhouse isgone.
(24:10):
The land has changed, but thelegend is rooted deeper than
ever, because it wasn't justabout aliens or goblins.
It was about encounter.
about that moment when somethingstrange brushes against the edge
of normal life and everythingsafe and known begins to shake.
(24:30):
And once it's happened, it can'tbe undone.
They weren't monsters.
Not exactly.
They didn't speak.
They didn't attack.
They didn't take anything,except the peace of mind from
everyone inside that house.
The Suttons weren't looking forfame.
(24:51):
They didn't want a story.
They already had one, and itlived with them long after the
creatures were gone.
The farmhouse is gone now,reclaimed by time.
The field is quiet again.
The woods have thickened.
But if you stand there afterdark, just long enough to
(25:12):
listen, you might still feel it.
That moment when the worldaround you feels too still.
when the dark seems to lean inand your skin prickles for no
good reason.
The Hopkinsville goblins havebecome folklore, cartoons,
mascots, tourist attractions.
(25:35):
But for one night in 1955, theywere real.
Not just believed, but seen.
And that's what makes this storymatter.
Because whether they came fromthe stars, from the woods, or
from somewhere we still can'tname, they were here.
(25:57):
This is State of the Unknown.
Every other Wednesday, we travelto another corner of America,
uncovering the haunted highways,hidden legends, and untold
stories that refuse to stayburied.
if you enjoyed this episodefollow the show and leave a
review it helps others findthese forgotten stories next
(26:18):
time we leave the cornfields ofKentucky behind and step back
into the shadows of earlyAmerica long before Salem became
infamous another town wasgripped by fear accusations flew
lives were lost in history triedto forget Don't go to the
(26:53):
window.
Just let it pass.
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