Kelly–Hopkinsville

What the file holds

No file unit of the Project Blue Book series in the National Archives catalogue bears the case’s name. A search of the series for “Hopkinsville” on 15 October 2026 finds nine units, and the papers of 1955 are in one titled “OLD GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT, August 1955” (NAID 28963358), after the case on its first 41 images. On images 42–117, behind a separator sheet marked “21-22 August 1955 / HOPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY” and, by hand, “No Case” (image 43), are:

• a typed copy of the Kentucky New Era of Monday 22 August 1955 (images 52, 51, 50), and a United Press dispatch of the same day (image 115);
• a statement written on 22 August 1955 by the woman of the house, witnessed by Major John E. Albert (image 53);
• the Air Force’s papers of 1956–57: a memo for Dr. Hynek (image 57), an unsigned paragraph written after it (image 110), a request of the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) of 29 August 1957 (image 56), Campbell Air Force Base’s reply (image 46) and a statement of Albert’s of 26 September 1957 (images 48, 47);
• papers from civilian investigators: a talk by Frank Edwards at a public meeting of Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York in April 1956 (images 62–75), letters and a newsletter of that group, and an account by a radio station employee from Hopkinsville who interviewed the household (images 79–105).

The family’s names are redacted in the statements and letters, but not in the copy of the newspaper and in the dispatch, which name Cecil (Lucky) Sutton and Billy Ray Taylor. No police report is in the file.

The night of 21 August

The Kentucky New Era of the next afternoon tells the story as Chief of Police Russell Greenwell and Deputy Sheriff George Batts got it “from the still terrified and excited Sutton and Taylor families” (image 51):

“About 7 p. m. one of the men went out of the house to get a bucket of water. He saw what looked like a flying saucer come over the trees and land in a field at a point about a city block behind the house. There was no explosion, only a semi-hissing sound, and the watcher returned to the house with the bucket of water.

A short time later somebody reported some little men with big heads and long arms were approaching the house. The men were described as having huge eyes and hands out of proportion to their small bodies. The visitors were wearing what looked to be metal plate.

The men got their guns, a shotgun for Sutton and a .22 caliber target pistol for Taylor. By and by one of the little men pressed his face against the window and the shotgun was fired through the window. The face disappeared.” (image 51)

Taylor, going out first, was grabbed by the hair by “a huge hand” from the low roof; “A blast from Sutton’s shotgun knocked another one of the men down but he did not appear hurt”; and “When the occupants of the house saw their chance, they jumped onto their cars, and drove to Hopkinsville for help.” (image 51) Deputy Sheriff Batts “said the men told him that in all they fired up about four boxes of .22 pistol shells” (image 50).

The cars reached the police station “about 11 o’clock last night”, with “at least five adults and several children. All appeared highly excited.” One of the men said: “We need help … We’ve been fighting them for nearly four hours”. The spokesman described “12 or 15 men, who appeared to be about 4 feet tall” (image 52).

The woman of the house, aged 50, wrote her own statement on 22 August, with Major Albert as witness:

“On Sunday night Aug 21, 55 about 10:30 P. M. I was walking through the hallway which is located in the middle of my house and I looked out the back door south & saw a bright silver object about two and a half feet tall appearing round. I became excited and did not look at it long enough to see if it had any eyes or move. I was about 15 or 20 feet from it. I fell backward, and then was carried into the bedroom.” (image 53)

Her sons, their wives and two friends “were all in the house and saw this little man that looked like a monkey.” And: “About 3:30 A. M. I was in my bedroom and looked out the north window and saw a small silver shinning object about 2 1/2 feet tall that had its hands on the screen looking in. I called for my sons and they shot at it and it left.” (image 53)

The United Press dispatch of 22 August gives the family’s description: “HE WAS ABOUT THREE FEET TAL, WITH EYES LIKE SAUCERS AND SET ABOUT SIX INCHES APART, WITH HANDS LIKE CLAWS AND GLOWING ALL OVER.” (image 115) The radio station employee, who interviewed the household afterwards, wrote that “THEIR EYES YOU’LL REMEMBER WERE EXTREMELY LARGE LIKE A NIGHT OWL..AND APPARENTLY JUST AS SENSITIVE”, and that with the porch lights on “THE OBJECTS WOULD ONLY APPROACH FROM THE SIDE” (image 96).

The newspaper places the farmhouse “on the Old Madisonville Road about eight miles north of Hopkinsville” (image 52); ATIC and Albert say six miles (images 56, 48). The pin is OpenStreetMap’s point for Kelly (node 153608549), rounded by us to 36.97° N, 87.48° W; it marks the hamlet, not the farmhouse.

What the police found

“More than a dozen state, county and city officers from Christian and Hopkins counties went to the scene between 11 p. m. and midnight and remained until after 2 a. m. without seeing anything to prove or disprove the story about the ship and its occupants.” (image 52) The paper names four city police officers, Chief Greenwell among them, State Trooper R. N. Ferguson, Jr., G. W. Riley, Deputy Sheriff Batts, two Hopkins County deputies, at least three troopers from Madisonville, and: “Four M.P.’s also went.” (image 51)

“Officers reported they found no tracks of ‘little men’ nor was there any mark indicating anything had landed at the described spot behind the house. There was a hole in the screen at the window through which occupants said a shot had been fired at one of the strange little men.” (image 51)

“All officials appeared to agree that there was no drinking involved.” Two officers who went back early in the morning heard that the “little men” had come back “about 3:30 a. m.” (image 50) The UP dispatch: “STATE AND LOCAL POLICE WHO COMBED THE FIELDS NEAR THE FARM HOUSE TODAY WERE UNABLE TO FIND ANY TRACE OF THE REPORTED SPACE SHIP OR ITS CREW.” (image 115) Major Albert, at the farm the next morning: “Deputy Sheriff Batts was at the scene where this supposedly flying saucer had landed and he could not show any evidence that any object had landed in the vicinity.” (image 48)

No police report survives in the file. In 1957 the Sheriff’s Office and the Hopkinsville police were asked, and “Neither had a report of investigation on file; however, Chief Greenwell had an informal file of newspaper articles and letters on this incident.” (image 46) A memo of 1956 says that the Kentucky State Police report “and available sketches are on file with Trooper Riley’s case report at Frankfort, Kentucky” (image 57). It is not in the releases.

How many witnesses

The documents give different numbers, and the officers on the night did not settle it:

• The newspaper, 22 August 1955: “There were some 10 or 12 persons at the house, including several children, but investigating officers were not able to determine exactly how many of those present actually claimed to have seen any of the little men from the space ship.” (image 52) At the police station, the two cars held “at least five adults and several children” (image 52).
• The statement, 22 August 1955: the woman lists herself, her two sons, their wives and two friends, seven adults by our count, who “were all in the house” (image 53).
• The radio station employee: the account came “DIRECTLY FROM THE LIPS OF THE SEVEN ADULTS INVOLVED” (image 79).
• Frank Edwards, April 1956: “In the middle of the night eleven people rushed from a farmhouse”, and later: “Seven of the eight adults in the house saw one or more of the little beings at one time or another.” (images 68, 69)
• An unsigned page in the file: a drawing of the creatures “as allegedly sworn to by all 8 members of the family” (image 114).
• Major Albert, 1957: “there were about eight people sleeping in two rooms” (image 47).

“Eleven” appears in the file only in Edwards’ talk of 1956.

What the Air Force did

No official investigation is on record, but the military was there from the first night. Four military policemen went to the farm with the officers (image 51). The next morning Major Albert, a reservist on his way to Campbell Air Force Base, heard the news, called the base, and “it was suggested that as long as I was close to the area, that I should determine if there was anything to this report. I immediately drove to the scene” (image 48); the woman’s statement of that day bears his signature as witness (image 53). A memo of 10 September 1956 records the police chief’s word that the affair “was investigated by Air Force officers from Fort Campbell”, and adds: “I understand that MP’s and a Pfc from Fort Campbell investigated at the farmhouse on late Monday afternoon. The Pfc was a Mr. Hodson and his account and pictures were published in the Clarksville Tennessee Leaf Chronicle.” (image 57)

The Air Force’s own interest came a year later. An unsigned paragraph written after 10 September 1956 explains why papers were being gathered:

“This case, which has not yet been brought to the ‘official’ attention of the Air Force, may cause some embarrassment if suddenly submitted ‘cold’ to ATIC. Preparatory counter-measures are considered warranted. For this reason all possible information is being collected on this sighting.” (image 110)

On 29 August 1957, told that a magazine article was coming, ATIC asked Campbell AFB for “any factual data”. Its own view: “Lacking factual, confirming data, no credence can be given this almost fantastic report. As the incident has never been officially reported to the Air Force, it has not taken official cognizance of the matter.” It had heard that two officers from Campbell had investigated, and “has no knowledge of such reports.” (image 56) The base replied that its former adjutant, Captain Robert J. Hertell, said that “to his knowledge, an official investigation was never ordered”, and that “A search of base files failed to produce any record of correspondence regarding this matter.” (image 46) With the reply went Albert’s statement of 26 September 1957, which ends: “It is felt that the report cannot be substantiated as far as any actual object appearing in the vicinity at that time.” (image 47)

Another undated page in the file calls it “a rather fantastic case that has never been reported to us”, offered “If we may add a touch of levity to this discussion of UFO cases” (image 114).

The story went on circulating without its date. An article on the UFO reports of 1966, clipped into the FBI’s file, tells it among that year’s sightings, in words close to the UP dispatch of 1955: “three feet tall, with eyes like saucers and hands like claws” (FBI file 62-HQ-83894, Section 10, p. 29).

Why this scores where it does

Witnesses: 2. Seven adults in one house, the family and two friends, without training, who told the story the same night to the police; the officers could not establish how many of them claimed to have seen anything.

Radar and optics: 0. No instrument was involved. No photograph of the figures exists in the file; Pfc Hodson’s “pictures”, published in Clarksville, are not in it, and the memo does not say what they show.

Physical trace: 0. The officers found “no tracks” and no mark of a landing. The one trace is a hole in a window screen, where the occupants said they had fired.

Multi-channel: 1. Everything about the figures comes from the household. The officers confirm the fear, the shooting and the lack of drinking, not what was shot at.

Documentation: 3. A newspaper of the next day, a statement written that day and a wire dispatch, then the Air Force’s papers of 1956–57. The police reports and the State Police report are not in the releases.

Anomaly: 2. Taken as told, the figures fit nothing identified. The explanations on file, an escaped monkey or imaginations after a religious meeting, are opinions given two years later, and the circus train “cannot be confirmed”.

Data today: 2. The Blue Book file is public; the police reports, the drawings and the civilian investigators’ report are not.

The overall is 1.2: class D, testimony only.

What would settle it

• The Kentucky State Police report and sketches, which a memo of 1956 places “on file with Trooper Riley’s case report at Frankfort, Kentucky” (image 57).
• The report of Isabel Davis and Arthur Ledwith of Civilian Saucer Intelligence, “The Landing at Kelly - August 21-22, 1955”, with sketches of the “little men” as described to Ledwith “by the eyewitnesses the day after the incident occurred” (image 113).
• The account and pictures of Pfc Hodson in the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, and any record kept by the military policemen from Fort Campbell (images 57, 51).
• The article with the picture of “a monkey, painted silver” that Albert says the family had (image 48).