What was it that happened on the evening of August 21, 1955, some 8 miles North of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, remains a mystery after nearly 60 years.
The so-called Hopkinsville Goblins case was a sensational story at the time, covered widely by the media, but now has faded and known mostly by UFO investigators and paranormal researchers. Here’s the strange and incredible story of the Hopkinsville Goblins.
Billy Ray Taylor and his wife were visiting their friends Cecil “Lucky” Sutton and his family at Sutton’s mother Glennie Langford’s home. It was a small farm-house located 8 miles North of Hopkinsville with no running water, in all there were 11 people in the home.
At about 7:00 pm Billy Ray went to the well for water. While outside he noticed an object moving in the sky, a bright, glowing disk.
He watched the disk for a few minutes and eventually it appeared to land out of his sight. Billy Ray returned to the house and told the others what he had seen, no one believed him and laughed it off as simply a “shooting star.”
If however the story is to be believed, Billy Ray Taylor had just witnessed the arrival of the Hopkinsville Goblins.
As the group sat around inside the house the dogs started barking. Then Glennie Langford, who was in a bedroom, screamed. Langford had seen a strange-looking creature peering through the window.
Billy Ray and “Lucky” Sutton grabbed guns and went outside. As soon as the two left the house the saw a bizarre creature moving towards them.
The thing was 3 to 4 feet tall, had very long thin arms that almost touched the ground and webbed hands with talons. Its head was over sized by human standards, it had large pointed ears and large wide-spread eyes that had a yellowish glow.
The Hopkinsville Goblin appeared to float just off the ground although it did move its legs. The men opened fire on the Goblin, they were sure they hit the creature, one said it sounded like “rocks rattling in a can.” The gun shots did not appear to harm the creature but it did retreat behind some trees.
Then as the two stood on the porch a large clawed hand reached down from the roof, apparently trying to grab one of the men. Billy Ray and “Lucky” then moved out from under the porch and looked at the roof, more Goblins, more gunfire, and again it seemed to have no effect on the Goblins.
There were now Goblins on the roof and in the trees, about a dozen in all. The men watched as the Goblins appeared to float from the roof and trees to the ground and back up. At this point the men decided to retreat to the hopeful safety of the house.
There can be no doubt that the 11 people inside the house just wanted the Goblins to go away, but they didn’t. The Hopkinsville Goblins soon began peaking in the windows and doors as if curious.
Clearly the weapons the men had were totally ineffective on the creatures, but that didn’t stop them from shooting more rounds thru the windows and doors. By about 11:00 pm the group decided that they needed to escape so they ran to the two cars and fled, headed for Hopkinsville.
They arrived at the Sheriffs office and spoke with Sheriff Russell Greenwell. Of course Greenwell knew all the people involved and could see they were truly terrified. Greenwell would later say “These were not the kind of people who could be easily scared.”
The Sheriff and a total of about a dozen law enforcement officers descended on the home. The officers stayed at the scene until shortly after 2:00 am. During that time they searched the area and spoke to witnesses and neighbors, but there was no sign of the Hopkinsville Goblins.
It seems they were just hiding and soon after the officers left they reappeared. The Goblins reportedly continued to torment the people in the house until about 4:30 am when they just seemed to disappear, never to be seen again.
So what really happened so many years ago when the Hopkinsville Goblins reportedly invaded a small farm-house? Many of the people involved in the Hopkinsville Goblin case are now dead, so the witness testimony that we have is all there will ever be.
When the Police officers arrived at the Langford home on the night of the event they interviewed neighbors and got some interesting information.
The closest neighbor told police that they did in fact see a strange light in the sky but it did not seem to be any type of craft, just a meteor. They also said they did hear some gunfire coming from the Langford house which they had at first believed to be firecrackers, but they only heard 4 shots.
Lucky Sutton and Billy Ray Taylor claimed to have used more than 4 boxes of 22cal ammo on the goblins as well as a shotgun but this appears to not be the case.
Lonnie Langford was in the house that night but did not see the goblins . He was just 12 years old at the time and his mother Glennie forced him under the bed when she saw a goblin looking in the window. Lonnie, now nearly 70 says he remembers the night very well.
He says there were a few gunshots and a lot of screaming but there was no one-sided gun battle. This and the statement of the neighbor as well as what officers observed that night, they found only a single hole in the screen door from a 22cal handgun, shows that the story was greatly exaggerated or perhaps it was all a hoax.
