The Hopkinsville Goblins
August 21, 1955 - This was the night that a rural farmhouse near Hopkinsville, Kentucky was terrorized by at least two goblin-like creatures. The detailed accounts from this famous encounter are extraordinary in that they come from a wide range of sources and remain convincingly consistent.
Most of the action revolved around a home out in the country where two families (the Suttons and the Calloways) were enjoying a summer weekend together. At around 7pm one of the men walked to the outdoor pump for a drink of water. He ran back inside with a wild tale of strange lights swirling around in the night sky. His friends and family laughed it off and told him that he had probably just seen some shooting stars.
Less than an hour later, people began hearing strange knocking and scratching sounds coming from outside. The family dog started barking frantically, then it ran under the house where it would stay until the next day.
Two of the men decided to go outside and have a look around - with guns of course. As soon as they walked out on the front porch they saw a bizarre creature approaching them from the woods. Let's call it a goblin. Standing three and a half feet tall, it seemed to float a few inches off the ground. The goblin had a huge head with big floppy ears and eyes that glowed. Its upper body was muscular, but its lower half was tiny and spindly. It moved through the air in a bizarre swishing motion as if it were swimming.
As the goblin came closer it held up its arms and revealed talon-like hands. That was the cue for the men to start shooting. They fired off a volley of bullets and the thing went flipping back into the woods. Seconds later another taloned hand flopped down from the roof of the porch and started grasping at the men's hair. Both men ran screaming into the house.
Even though the entire house was already in a state of panic, the goblins were only just getting started. Soon they were clawing at the walls and doors, or popping their heads up in the windows. More shots were fired but the goblins kept coming back for their playful and terrifying game of peekaboo.
At the exact same time that all hell was breaking loose in the farmhouse, a state trooper reported seeing strange, "meteor-like objects" flying overhead and what sounded like artillery fire.
Over three hours into the ordeal, the families inside the farmhouse ran to their cars and drove to the nearest police station. The cops on duty listened wide-eyed as the traumatized group told their unbelievable story.
Then, accompanied by twenty police officers, the families returned to the farmhouse. There was no sign of the goblins, but there was plenty of damage to the house. Investigators also found a strange luminous patch in the yard that they photographed before it faded away.
Police interviewed neighbors who reported seeing strange lights and hearing what sounded like a gunfight coming from the Sutton house.
By around 2am the police had left the scene and the families tried to get some rest, but the goblins had other plans. They once again started peeping through windows and more shots were fired.
By dawn the goblins were gone.
There have been countless investigations into the Hopskinsville encounter by believers and skeptics alike, but none of the eyewitnesses have ever recanted their stories or offered up any inconsistencies that would undermine their credibility. In fact, many other witnesses would come forward with similar sightings that shared some of the quirky details.
Possible explanations run the gamut from extraterrestrials to barn owls. The old Sutton farmhouse still stands today, and the mystery of what happened that night lives on.
