Lore - Episode 137: Elusive

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

Our passion for solving incomplete puzzles is something that unites us as a culture. We will chase any mystery and dig into every single question we encounter. But that attraction might also put us in grave danger, if history is any indication. ———————— Lore Resources:  Episode Music: lorepodcast.com/music  Episode Sources: lorepodcast.com/sources  Lore News: www.theworldoflore.com/now  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com Access premium content!: https://www.lorepodcast.com/support See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One century ago, something exploded over Siberia. It happened on June 30th of 1908, and I need you to adjust your expectations. When I say exploded, you probably imagine a stick of dynamite, or maybe a bunch of them. But this one was different. First, this explosion didn't happen on the ground. It happened in the air over the Tunguska River, perhaps three to six miles above the surface of the Earth. And second, the explosion is estimated to have been at least 1,000 times greater than the single atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, over 15 megatons, and the effects were devastating.

Close to 800 square miles of forest were flattened, like an enormous hand had brushed across the trees and laid them all down. An earthquake shook the region, and if the Richter scale had existed at the time, some scientists estimate that it would have clocked in at around 5.0. Had it happened over a major city, the damage would have been catastrophic. Even today, over a century after it happened, no one fully knows what it was. Yes, there are some really good theories, but thanks to how remote the event's location was and the available tools at the time, there is a good chance we won't ever know the full truth.

However frustrating that might be. Everyone loves a good mystery, though. For those who enjoy all things historical, there are unsolved cases, like the lost colony of Roanoke or the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Some mysteries involve hidden treasure, like the Beale papers or the secrets, while others ponder the truth behind larger events, like what really happened in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. A lot of the time, these mysteries go unsolved,

and that's part of the real attraction about them. It's not the characters or the specific details of the legend that we love so much. It's the hunt, the chase, the connecting of the dots that might lead us from where we are to the finish line. We want answers, yes, but we love the search for them so much more. Psychologists call it apophynia. It's a tendency to see meaning or connection between unrelated things. It's natural, and a lot of us do it without even thinking about it.

We see the pieces of the puzzles scattered about, and we feel drawn to put them all together. And people will do that when even science or solid evidence tells them otherwise. Most of the time, those puzzles are benign. They are safe and distant, and rarely hold the possibility of answers that will harm us. They are mysteries that started out life as tragic or frustrating, but have become something a lot closer to entertainment over the years. But not every mystery is safe.

In fact, some unsolved events seem to hide a certain level of darkness. From a distance, they are just as enticing as all the others. But the closer we get to them, the more troublesome they become. And in the process, they cause us to ask ourselves a very honest, very dangerous question, one that moves the tale out of mystery and into horror. What if our worst nightmares are real? I'm Aaron Mankey, and this is Lore.

They were driving south for a weekend of celebration. It was August of 1955, and despite the heat, all four of them had climbed into the truck and began that journey that would take them from their home in Pennsylvania to a small town in Kentucky. Elmer and Vera both worked in the traveling carnival business, as did their friends Billy Ray and his wife June. It was a job that kept them on the road most of the year,

so having a bit of downtime in the summer, no less, was a rare treat. And with Elmer's 25th birthday approaching, the four of them decided to head south and visit Elmer's family. Elmer's mother, Glenny, lived on a small farm in the town of Kelly in western Kentucky. She had been widowed twice by the age of 50, but didn't live there alone. She still had three children at home between the ages of 7 and 12, but also had help from one of her adult children, CJ. Add in CJ's wife and her brother, the visit from Elmer and crew

certainly made for a full house. But that's what family gatherings are usually about, isn't it? You gather in one place, share food and stories, laugh and argue. It's what happens when family reunites after being apart for a while. And there was a lot of that on the first night. They had a big family meal and then settled into a series of card games. And having grown up in the Midwest myself, I can't help but wonder if they played a little yuker, or maybe even some triply.

Later that night, though, Elmer's friend Billy Ray got up to refill his water glass. Now, this was rural Kentucky in 1955, so to do that, he needed to walk outside to the well. They would later describe the evening as hot and dry, and I imagine the stars were brilliant in the night sky, so far from the nearest major city. But that's not all Billy Ray saw. Moments later, he burst through the screen door. A look of panic and fright painted across his face.

Someone asked him what had happened, and he gestured back to the door and the darkness beyond it. Something bright had flown over the farmhouse, he said. Something large and round and metallic. And then it had vanished into the woods. The folks around the table laughed out loud. Someone accused him of trying to prank them, while others just shook their heads and went back to the card game.

But Billy Ray refused to give up. He turned to his wife and asked her if she believed him, hoping that at least one person in the room might give him a chance. But she joined the others and laughed her. Everyone except Elmer. Elmer worked with Billy Ray. They spent a lot of time together, more than Elmer did with his family, even. They knew each other well enough that Billy Ray called Elmer

Lucky as a nickname that seemed to have caught on. So in an effort to help his friend out, Lucky stood up and headed toward the door. He wanted to see Billy Ray's flying disc with his own eyes. But the sky was empty outside, and darkness had covered the land around the farm with a blanket of mystery and silence. The two men walked all the way to the well,

talking quietly while scanning the distance for some sign of the object Billy Ray had seen earlier. And then, as if a light had been turned on inside the trees, a figure stepped out of the shadows, a figure unlike anything either of them had ever seen. They later described it as short, maybe the size of a child with thin legs and a larger torso. The figure was glowing with an unnatural light,

and it moved toward them without taking steps, like a ghost floating out of the darkness. Even more frightening, its arms were stretched out toward the men, and when they saw it, they ran back inside. Back in the kitchen, the panicked expressions on their faces was enough to frighten Lucky's mother, Glenny. She quickly helped the younger children off to bed, and then returned to discuss the events more with her son.

But when she came back downstairs, she found Lucky and Billy Ray both armed with guns, each man standing guard at one of the farmhouse's two doors. And that was the final straw. Glenny's rising anxiety erupted, and she demanded that her son and his friend stop their prank immediately. But Lucky refused to listen,

his eyes watching the black rectangle of the doorway intently, finger resting near the trigger of his 12 gauge. A moment later, it was Billy Ray who turned to speak to her, before returning to his vigil beside the door. I hope you never have to find out, was all he offered her in a flat, emotionless voice. It wouldn't be long though, before she would. First there was darkness, and then a shape.

Not just a shape, but a small figure, perhaps three feet tall, with unusual features and long spindly arms. When it appeared on the other side of the screen door, Glenny screamed, and Billy Ray fired his weapon. The shot pierced a hole in the screen, but when he focused on the dark porch on the other side of it, he found nothing there. No body, no blood, no mysterious creature

standing in the pale light that spilled out from the hull. Curious about what had happened, Billy Ray stepped out onto the porch to have a look around. The night air was quiet and still, but as he stood there on the edge of the porch, something brushed against the hair on the top of his head. Flinching, he caught a glimpse of a long, thin hand that had extended from above.

The creature, it seems, had retreated to the roof of the porch. The next few moments honestly sound like something out of an action horror film. Billy Ray rushed back inside while Lucky replaced him, firing his own weapon straight up at where the hand had been. Inside, Lucky's older brother, CJ, saw something appear in the window that he described as an oddly shaped face with glowing eyes

and a long, claw-like hand. He too was armed, and he too opened fire. The men would later claim two amazing details about these moments. First, the creatures never appeared to be hurt. Even when the shots they fired clearly struck them. And second, when one of the men did fire, their target would almost always bounce or fly away, like some sort of gymnast or flying insect.

The house may have seemed to become surrounded by small goblin-like creatures, but inside it was all chaos and noise. The gunshots had frightened the children who had been sleeping upstairs, and Glenny, now a firm believer in what her son had claimed, was praying out loud for God to save them. These goblins, she told them,

had been sent by the devil himself. But the attacks continued, or at least they felt like attacks. A creature would be spotted in a tree near the house, and one of the men would open fire at it, forcing it to float away and out of sight for a while. It would return a few moments later in a different part of the yard, and the process would repeat itself all over again.

And Glenny was beginning to notice something. She pointed out to Lucky and Billy Ray that the creatures tended to approach the house with their arms raised high, almost as if they were surrendering or looking for help. What if, she suggested, they had been handling the situation all wrong this entire time?

But in response, Lucky shook his head and then expressed that ancient sentiment most humans have been born with since the dawn of time. The creatures were unknown and frightening, he told her, and because of that, he felt compelled to attack out of self-defense. It's an innate behavior that we humans have modeled for as long as we've been around,

and even though it sounds primal, it still happens in our modern world today. We attack the things we don't understand. And sadly, we're very, very good at it. Thankfully, reason slowly took over the situation. Lucky and the others began to stop and think, to try and reason out what the creatures might be. Were they the goblins they'd heard about as children?

Were they, as Glenny believed, evil demons sent to torment them? Or were they something else, something from another world that simply defied their expectations and logic? Whatever the answer was, they soon came to a group consensus. If the creatures wouldn't leave them alone at the farmhouse, then they needed to round everyone up and leave the house behind.

Belongings were quickly gathered and the children were pulled from their beds. When everyone was ready, the entire family fled the house out into the darkness, climbing into their cars and then locking the doors. And then, without a glance over their shoulders, they turned the engines on and drove quickly away. Their destination was nearby Hopkinsville.

It was a city of about 20,000 that was located roughly 10 miles to the south. Even though it was the middle of the night, they knew they would at least be able to find an officer who might be able to help them. When the entire family stumbled into the Hopkinsville police station, though, they only found one solitary officer on duty. I can't imagine what that moment must have felt like for the officer.

A long stretch of midnight silence, broken by a crowd of over a dozen frightened, angry people, some of whom were crying children. There must have been a lot of shouting, and a lot of frustration, but they eventually got their story out for the officer to hear. That officer, in turn, got on the phone to call for help, reaching out to the police chief, Russell Greenwell.

But remember, this was essentially a game of telephone, where the message was altered slightly in each retelling. The family hadn't entirely been clear about what they'd experienced, but after telling the officer what they believed they saw, he turned around and told Chief Greenwell that the family had been attacked by little men. Greenwell, though, seemed to keep an open mind. It turns out that he had his own unusual experience just three years before,

and it had left him rather flexible in what he was willing to hear. So he gathered help and instructed them all to meet him at the farm. Along with members of his own police force, he was joined by Kentucky State Police and soldiers from nearby Fort Campbell Army Base. But they weren't alone. Somehow along the way, the local newspaper, the Kentucky New Era, caught wind of what was going on,

and they managed to get to the farm around the same time. The darkness that had surrounded that little farm quickly transformed into a circus, with lights and men and cameras spreading out to explore and investigate. While one of the officers asked the family more and more questions about what they claimed, others went looking for evidence that had happened at all. A lot of the physical clues pointed to gunfire, such as spent casings, holes in screen doors, and shattered windows.

Not definitive proof of an attack by mysterious creatures, but certainly evidence of their reaction to one. Except one thing. It said that investigators found traces of an unusual liquid that had stained a number of the surfaces, like the porch and areas outside the windows. Unusual because of its appearance. At first glance, it almost seemed like water,

but when viewed at an angle, it seemed to glow ever so slightly. Whether or not they took samples of the liquid, I don't know. But it certainly leaves a lot of questions unanswered. The following day, the newspapers published their own version of the events. The article was titled, Story of Spaceship, 12 Little Men Probed Today. Looking back, the use of the word probed is certainly a bit confusing, but it's clear from the context that what they simply meant was that the story was being looked into.

But probe or not, the story the article unfolded was sensational, and the public aided up. Remember the social context now. The events on this Kentucky farm took place just eight years after the Roswell, New Mexico incident. All throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, the American public was obsessed with UFOs and objects in the night sky. It created a constant low-level anxiety and captured imaginations everywhere.

So the paper's headline was both the natural expression of that fear and an obvious attempt to cash in on it, and it worked. But there were critics. Skeptics quickly arrived with theories of their own, that the family hadn't really seen mysterious creatures after all, just a series of encounters with large great horn owls. And sure, if you've seen the viral video of the baby owls in the crawl space of a house, it's true that they can resemble little people from certain angles.

But so much of what Lucky and his family say they experienced won't fit into that neat little box. Others suggested the family had simply gotten drunk over their card game and started to shoot up the farmhouse. But Lucky's mother, Glennie, was a religious woman who never allowed drinking in her house. The fact that the police never found evidence of alcohol, or even noticed the smell of it,

suggested that the family was completely sober when everything happened. Belief and doubt seem to occupy the same space around the story. And the fact that people are still talking about it 65 years later speaks to just how much of a puzzle it really is. And as we discussed before, puzzles are addictive. They pull us in and invite us to solve them. But for Lucky Sutton and his family, this was also their life. And life, as always, had to go on.

Once the police and investigators and journalists had finished their work for the night, the entire family was left where they started, alone on a dark farm surrounded by trees and shadows and memories of what they had seen. And it apparently wasn't over just yet. After settling back in, Glennie claimed that she glanced out one of the windows and spotted the same eerie unnatural face looking back in,

with its large eyes, gray skin, and narrow mouth. It disappeared when she screamed for help, but just to be safe, Lucky and Billy Ray resumed their guard posts for the rest of the night. Thankfully, whatever the creature had been, it was never seen again. There's something magnetic about puzzles, the disparate pieces that beg to be reunited, the chaos that requires order,

and the questions that need to be answered. Whether it's the Voynich manuscript or the daily crossword puzzle, the question is, what's the answer? The question is, what's the answer? The question is, what's the answer? What's the answer? The answer to a mystery can be incredibly elusive.

It might be as inconsequential as penciling in the wrong answer for 16 down, or as devastating as spending a lifetime chasing a riddle that never gives up its solution. Puzzles are attractive, yes, but that doesn't mean all puzzles are easy. Or say, what's the answer? What's the answer? What's the answer?

What's the answer? Puzzles are easy, or satisfying. The events that took place on the Sutton Farm back in 1955 have lingered in the air for over six decades because of that very same attractiveness, a family reunion disrupted by a visit by mysterious creatures that left them fearful for their lives and sent them running for help.

What's not attractive about a story like that? Sadly, most people at the time assume the entire thing was a hoax, or a cry for attention, or a grab for money. It didn't matter that the family never made a dime off what they claimed, and it didn't matter that their nearest neighbor heard all of the gunshots from his own farm and even spotted unusual lights in the woods that separated their properties.

To most, it was all just too unexplainable to be real. Some people viewed it differently, though. In the days and weeks that followed, UFO fanatics tracked down the farm and traveled there. They were trespassing, of course, but that didn't stop them from leaving with pieces of the farmhouse as souvenirs of their adventure. In fact, some UFO historians consider the Sutton's experience

to be one of the best documented cases in history. None of that mattered to the family at the center of it all, though. They honestly just wanted life to return to normal. But of course, it never did. Glennie was so traumatized by the aftermath that she ended up selling the farm and moving into town. Maybe it was the constant stream of visitors reminding her of a night she wanted to forget

or perhaps it was the farm itself and the fear that those small, gray creatures might return. We'll never know for sure, but I think we can sympathize either way. Lucky and his wife Vera would go on to settle down and have children, and over time, they too would learn about what happened to their parents and grandmother back in 1955.

One of their daughters, Geraldine, would go on to write and speak extensively about her bizarre family legacy. She believes her parents were telling the truth, and at the same time has expressed frustration over how easily the local paper got so many details wrong. Most importantly, Geraldine claims that despite her parents only ever claiming that there were three or four

of the mysterious creatures, the newspaper ran articles that claimed the number was much higher, usually a dozen or more. But it was one other error by the newspaper that bothered her the most. In that article, the mysterious creatures were described as not gray, but green. The result of the mistake was the birth of a phrase

that would quickly take root in the mind of popular culture, and it's never really faded away. Which is why, even today, when most people talk about UFOs, they use a very particular phrase to describe the beings inside them. Little green men. I hope you've enjoyed this tour

through one of the most influential moments in the development of the folklore surrounding UFOs. But it's a story that also features something else. And it's an idea that's far older than sightings of flying disks and glowing little gray men. And to help you understand it, I've found another tale that strums the same chord. Stick around after this brief sponsor break,

and I'll tell you all about it. Nothing creates an overwhelming feeling of fear, like war. Throughout history, innumerable armies have faced off against each other. And while their leaders and goals have been almost as varied as their uniforms, one thing that all of them have in common is fear. Fear of danger.

Fear of pain. Fear of death. That fear only gets worse when we add in unusual circumstances or elements of the unknown. And a great example of that can be found in the countless tales that we've inherited from the First World War

and the experiences that were had at sea. Although if one story can be believed, it's easy to see why some sailors were afraid. The events in question took place in April of 1918 in the waters of the Irish Sea north of the Isle of Man, off the coast of Belfast. That was where a British patrol vessel was keeping watch up and down the coast for German U-boats.

They were a pretty new addition to warfare on such a large scale, but had quickly developed a reputation for being a deadly nuisance and a fierce adversary. First of all, they spent most of their time beneath the surface of the waves, making them nearly impossible to track.

And typically, they only resurfaced at night to recharge their batteries and handle necessary maintenance. But they were also highly aggressive, known to shoot first and ask questions only as an afterthought. By the time you spotted one, it was too late.

And because of that, whenever the opportunity presented itself to take one out of commission, the British would jump at the chance. On April 30th, though, this patrol vessel, the HMS Choreopsis, spotted a German U-boat floating on the surface of the water,

exposed and visible. Almost immediately, the British fired upon the enemy, causing the submarine to take on water and begin to sink. But not before the Choreopsis was able to move in on board, who were immediately held as prisoners of war. After the U-boat had quietly sunk

into the depths of the ocean and the patrol ship began to leave the area, the German commander offered up his explanation for why they had been such an easy target, and why he was relieved to see the British arrive, despite his capture. And it turns out, the reason was probably

the last thing the British commander would have expected. According to the Germans, the British had already surfaced during the early hours of the morning, while it had still been dark, for the usual reasons. But while they were there, drifting beneath the black sky and brilliant stars,

something broke the surface of the water alongside the submarine. Something large and unnatural. Something... alive. They described the creature as having enormous eyes and a head covered in what looked like horns. Its mouth opened over

and over again, as if looking for something to bite. All while exposing vicious teeth that shone in the moonlight. And it immediately began to climb the side of the U-boat. At first, the Germans were unable to stop it. As it scaled the side of their ship,

its claws tore into the metal plating that skinned the sub, making it impossible to die for safety. When it reached the deck of the sub, they claimed it wrapped its powerful jaws around the forward gun, before using it as a leverage point for the submarine onto its side.

In a panic, the men on board retrieved their handguns and fired hundreds of rounds into the flesh of the creature. Either because of the pain or because of fear of the sound, the monstrous creature released the ship and quickly slipped back into the water, where it vanished beneath the surface.

Not too long after, the British arrived. And the crew made the easy choice to become prisoners, rather than food for a creature they were certain would return. To this day, no one is sure what the creature might have been. But we do know that the crew of the U-boat

reacted to its mystery and threat the same way humans have for thousands of years. When we face the unknown or unexpected, the things we feel threatened by simply because they've entered our territory, we attack them. Whether it's unnamed creatures

hiding in the shadows, or other human beings who don't look or speak like us, our first instinct has almost always been to lash out, to hurt, and to conquer. It might not be the right answer to every mystery or challenge,

but Shoot First has certainly been our go-to solution since the dawn of time. And the right one? Sadly, history has shown us that that one has been more than a little elusive. This episode of lore was written

and produced by me, Aaron Mankey, with research by Michelle Mudo and music by Chad Lawson. Lore is much more than just a podcast. There's a book series available in bookstores and online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video.

Check them both out if you want more lore in your life. I also make two other podcasts, Aaron Mankey's Cabinets, and the series of the series. I also make two other podcasts, Aaron Mankey's Cabinets of Curiosities, and Unobscured, and I think you'd enjoy both.

Each one explores other areas of our dark history, ranging from bite-sized episodes to season-long dives into a single topic. You can learn more about both of those shows, the TV show, and the books, and everything else going on over in one central place.

The World of Lore.com slash now. And you can also follow the show on Twitter, and Instagram. Just search for Lore Podcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi.

And as always, thanks for listening. you