Overview
Kelly is a tiny community on U.S. Route 41 in Christian County, about eight miles north of Hopkinsville in western Kentucky. On the night of August 21-22, 1955, the Sutton farmhouse there became the scene of one of the strangest close-encounter stories in American history.
Eleven or twelve people were in the house, five adults and seven children by most counts. One of them, Billy Ray Taylor, said he had seen a glowing object in the sky nearby. Soon after, the family said small creatures, two to four feet tall, with big pointed ears, clawed hands, spindly legs and glowing yellow eyes, began approaching the house. Two of the adults fired guns at them for nearly four hours.
The family went to the Hopkinsville police. About sixteen officers, including city police, state troopers, deputies and military police from nearby Fort Campbell, came out to the farm. They found broken windows and holes in screens from the shooting, but no creatures or physical traces. The family said the creatures came back around 3:30 in the morning, and they packed up and left.
The case is often linked to the 'little green men' phrase, although early articles did not describe the creatures as green; the color was added by some later newspaper stories. Today the farmhouse site is private and unmarked, but the area has had a community festival and, since 2025, a UFO expo in Hopkinsville.
Visiting
Where: Kelly, on U.S. 41 about 8 miles north of Hopkinsville, Christian County, KY.
Access: The farmhouse site is private property, unmarked and posted no trespassing; do not go onto the land. Roadside America reports a flying-saucer display that once stood in Kelly has been removed. View the area only from the public road.
Events: Kelly 'Little Green Men' Days festival (kellyky.com), held in the community; Hopkinsville held its first GoblinCon UFO and Paranormal Expo at the Bruce Convention Center on October 17-18, 2025.
Timeline
- Aug 21, 1955, eveningBilly Ray Taylor reports a glowing object in the sky near the Sutton farm.
- Aug 21-22, 1955The household reports small creatures approaching the house and shoots at them for nearly four hours.
- Aug 22, 1955About 16 officers search the farm and find no creatures; the family says the creatures return around 3:30 a.m. and then leave the house.
- 1950sProject Blue Book files the case, listing it as a hoax.
- 2017Kelly's Little Green Men Days festival coincides with the total solar eclipse.
- Oct 17-18, 2025Hopkinsville holds its first UFO and Paranormal Expo, GoblinCon, 70 years after the encounter.
Reported sightings
Sutton farm, Kelly, Christian County
Aug 21, 1955, evening On the record
Billy Ray Taylor, one of the visitors staying at the Sutton farm, said he saw a bright object in the sky come down nearby. Taylor and some others in the house were itinerant carnival workers. Not long after, the household said, the first small figure came out of the dark toward the house, and the night of shooting began.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSutton farm, Kelly
Aug 21-22, 1955 On the record
The family described creatures two to four feet tall with large pointed ears, claw-like hands, spindly legs and glowing yellow eyes. Two adults said they shot at them for nearly four hours, and that hits sounded like bullets striking a metal bucket. Early press reports said 12 to 15 creatures, while the witnesses themselves spoke of a few short, dark figures.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSutton farm, Kelly
Aug 21-22, 1955 On the record
The family reported to the Hopkinsville police, and about sixteen officers responded: four city officers, five state troopers, three deputy sheriffs and four Army military police from Fort Campbell. They found broken windows and holes in screens from the gunfire, but no creatures, craft or other physical evidence.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSutton farm, Kelly
Aug 22, 1955, ~3:30 a.m. On the record
After the officers left, the family said the creatures returned at about 3:30 in the morning. The household then packed up and left the farm. The Air Force's Project Blue Book later filed the case and listed it as a hoax without further comment.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgEvidence
Bullet damage to the house Explained
Police found broken windows and holes in screens consistent with the gunfire the family described.
No creature traces Unexplained
The police search found no bodies, blood, tracks or craft.
Project Blue Book file Disputed
The Air Force listed the case as a hoax, without explanation.
What each side says
What witnesses and researchers report
Researchers who take the case seriously stress the number of witnesses, adults and children, and the fact that the family went to the police the same night. Sixteen officers took the report seriously enough to search the farm.
Believers point out that the witnesses held to the same basic description of small, big-eared, glowing-eyed beings, and that a family does not usually spend hours firing at its own house as a joke.
What skeptics and scientists suggest
Joe Nickell proposed that the family saw great horned owls, which hunt at night, fly silently, have yellow eyes and aggressively defend their nests, and that a meteor may have been the 'object' in the sky. Seen in poor light by frightened people, owls could seem small, big-eared and hard to hurt.
Project Blue Book simply called the case a hoax. Skeptics also note that the most famous detail, the green color, was added by later newspapers and was not part of the witnesses' first descriptions.
Open questions
- What was the glowing object Taylor said he saw?
- Why did the Air Force label it a hoax without explaining why?
Did you know?
- Early articles did not call the beings green; that detail was added later by some newspapers.
- Some UFO researchers compared the creatures to gremlins.
- Fort Campbell, a large Army base, lies south of Hopkinsville, which is why military police joined the search.