This Paranormal Life - #233 Alien Shootout - The Kelly-Hopkinsville UFO Encounter

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

In 1955 in Christian County USA, a family gathering was interrupted by some very unwelcome intergalactic gatecrashers. One of the most chaotic scenes in paranormal history followed, and the story would go on to inspire Steven Spielberg and The Legend of Zelda series. This is the unbelievable story of The Kelly-Hopkinsville UFO Encounter.BUY OFFICIAL TPL MERCHwww.thisparanormallife.com/storePatreonpatreon.com/ThisParanormalLifeYouTubeyoutube.com/thisparanormallifeTwittertwitter.com/ThisParaLifeInstagraminstagram.com/thisparanormallifeSecret Society Facebook Pagewww.facebook.com/groups/thisparanormallife/Edited by Kami Tomanwww.tomanedits.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleIntro music: www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Isn't undiscovered bird technically a UFO? Is there a number so big that just thinking about it will make your head explode? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Yo! And welcome back to This Paranormal Life. This is the weekly comedy podcast wherein every Tuesday we investigate a different paranormal tale or claim and get to the bottom of whether it's truly paranormal or not. As always, you are joined by myself, Mr. Kit Greer-Molvena, professional paranormal investigator extraordinaire. And across from me sits Mr. Rory Powers.

How are you doing today, Rory? Humbled to be here. Very humbled to be here. Namaste, brother. It's exciting. In fact, we've had quite a weird start to the day so far uh i i missed my alarm i slept in accidentally till about 11 30 which is rude because this was supposed to start bang on the dot at nine yeah i so i missed that um we we had a call with a ceo of a company which i was almost late to uh after that we went and got uh enormous cold brew ice coffee which put us on edge so now we've had

to have a little whiskey to take the edge off you need the diners to offset the uppers brother so i'm kind of all over the place i'm sleepy i'm awake i'm drunk i'm sober a little bit here and a little bit there so it's going to be an exciting podcast and i'm ready to take on the industry that's what you have to do to investigate the paranormal you have to be wild but you have to be sensible you have to be serious but you have to be crazy doesn't help to be a little crazy and sure maybe the scales are skewed towards crazy maybe you gotta say you know what sensible all in on wild okay well now you're contradicting yourself i don't dislike the line of inquisition you're going down here i think this kind of mindset could be helpful for

where we're going i guess maybe i'll take crazy and you can take normal and that's just like every week yeah that's why this show works folks we. We've gone perfectly in balance. As all things should be. I hope all our listeners are sitting at home perfectly balanced with crazy and chill, ready to dive into today's investigation. Maybe a little extra crazy, though. Never hurt anyone. It was 21st of August, 1955. The setting? A tumble-down farmhouse in Christian County, Kentucky.

Smack-bang between the towns of Kelly and Hopkinsville. Okay. The extended family of 50-year-old Glennie Lankford has come over for the evening. There was Lucky, Glennie's oldest son, and his wife, Vera. Their friends, Billy Ray and June Taylor, were there too. Also in attendance was 21-year-old J.C. Sutton and his wife, Aileen, and brother-in-law, O.P. Baker. Okay, you're throwing a lot of names at me here.

Then there were the three children. Oh, Jesus. Lonnie, 12, Charlton, 11, and Mary. Depending on accounts, five or seven. This has to be irrelevant. I don't remember the names, let alone the ages of these children building up witnesses here, Rory, for what's about to follow. I do feel it does set the mood for what's about to take place here, given that in my notes, researcher Amy has drawn a kind of detective's corkboard of strings

with all the names, ages, and connections between characters. Wow, this is like a horizontal family tree we're looking at here, folks. Of everyone who was present in the house that night. After dinner, they all start to squeeze around the table to play cards. Billy Ray Taylor had been outside fetching a drink from the well. He suddenly burst in through the front door looking shaken. Y'all ain't gonna believe what I just seen in them woods. There's a round metal thing flying around over the farm with rainbow streaks trailing behind it.

Glenny, the matriarch of the house and voice of reason, dismissed this information immediately. Must have been a meteor. Come on, sit down. I'll deal you in. But Billy Ray was too frightened to join in the fun. He whispered to his wife, June. You believe me, right, darling? Seeing the deadly serious expression on Billy's face, June and the others couldn't help but burst out laughing. None of them were about to fall. So rude!

None of them were about to fall for such an obvious lie. But Billy was adamant about what he'd seen. He grabbed Lucky by the arm and dragged him aside to see for himself. When Billy is too shocked to gamble with his family, about what he'd seen. He grabbed Lucky by the arm and dragged him aside to see for himself. When Billy is too shocked to gamble with his family, that's when I know something's wrong. Because he had a problem. He had a serious addiction. And this thing cured the addiction. The two men looked out over the farmstead. Lucky started mouthing off immediately. See? Nothing. Billy Ray, you're too much, buddy. But before he could step back inside, something in the sky caught his eye. Wait, what the? There, flying

towards the house, was a small glowing object. As it zoomed closer, Lucky couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was a tiny humanoid floating towards him. It looked pale silver with oversized eyes and ears. It had enormously long arms that were raised straight up as if the creature was surrendering. Oh my god. So this thing's skydiving out of the craft? The craft is gone? Either that or this thing was the craft from the beginning. Oh my god. They both screamed and bolted back into the house, slamming the door behind them. So lucky. Is there really something out there? Are you and Billy just afraid of losing the cards like last time? Barricade the doors. I'm getting my gun. The family were on the table, jumped out of their skins.

Glennie was a no-nonsense Christian woman and wasn't about to stand such foolishness. What in tarnation is going on, Lucky? Billy Ray's right! There's something out there! Glennie had lived on this spot for decades and had never seen anything out of the ordinary. All she wanted to do was have a quiet evening and get the kids off to bed safe and sound. She refused to be afraid in her own house, but the boys couldn't be persuaded to stand down. Lucky guarded the front door with his shotgun while Billy stationed himself at the back of the house with a rifle pointed towards the screen door. If you need to convince them that it's real, it seems like the way to do that is

pretty accessible. Open the front door and show him the floating man of steel hovering above the tree line. Glennie shuffled over to Billy Ray to try and get the truth out of him. She couldn't have the children being scared. What is this all about, Billy? You trying to scare the girls? You watch and you'll see what it's about. So threatening. Really sounds like he's snapped. He's doing exactly what you said. He's letting Glennie check out the goods for herself. It's true. Glennie's curiosity got the better of her, and she crouched next to Billy looking out over the backyard. After ten minutes or so, she was starting to lose her patience.

Not to mention circulation in her lower body. Just as she was about to get to her feet, a creature appeared outside. She could barely believe her eyes. She'd never seen a creature like it. Its arms were so long they almost scraped the ground. When it was moving, its legs weren't even bending. They just hung there limply like stilts. Oh god, that's really scary. Glennie was petrified. She shrieked and lost her balance, landing on the floor with a thud. The creature was startled, and Billy Ray took a shot at it. Silence fell, and Billy pushed open the screen door to take a look at whatever he'd just gone done.

He hit it? As soon as he crossed the threshold, a clawed hand appeared from the roof and swiped at his hair. What? These things are like Predator. They are in the rafters. His wife, Aileen, yanked him back inside as Lucky pushed his way through the family. He flew out the door and spun around, aiming his shotgun at the creature on the roof. Oh my GD.

This is Call of Duty Warzone. What's happening here? We got tangos at 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 o'clock. Someone's got a heartbeat sensor pointed at the rooftop doing 360 no-scopes at Goblin Man. They need a UAV inbound. I think I've done a case on this podcast before where in 45 minutes, all they found was a footprint in some mud and a shadowy silhouette on a rooftop.

We are three minutes in and someone has been sucked up into the rafters by a goblin claw. Yeah, very infrequently does this many shots get fired within the first few minutes of a podcast. He hit the beast and it rolled off the roof, landing on the ground. Like a f***ing bad guy from Die Hard. As the family stepped forward nervously to inspect the body, it leapt up and floated away into the woods, its legs still dangling uselessly. The group was terrified and fled back into the house. Suddenly, another creature appeared, this time at the window. Billy shot it once again, breaking the glass but also hitting the creature square in the chest.

Rather than falling, this little silver man backflipped off the windowsill into the air and disappeared into the dark. What? Lucky yelled, Barricade the women and children into the bedroom! There's no time! They didn't need to be told twice. They ran into the room and locked the door then he and billy went outside to deal with the situation at this point i'm imagining pretty much a neo and trinity with uh coats filled with uzis and nine millimeter pistols walking out into

the room just looking for these bastards i mean what did you say the year was? 1955? So I don't think it's mini Uzis and katanas. It's probably a civil war relic blunderbust that once fired once will backfire, sending gunpowder into their own eyes. Oh yeah, gunpowder all over their faces. Takes a day and a half to reload. By the time you get off shot number two, the little silver men have burnt your barn down and killed your family. By the time you're on round two, you're trying to shank the aliens with a potato peeler. They tipped out looking for signs. They're in the tree. Again, the creature floated away. More and more were popping up. Another by that stump!

This is like a f***ing circus game here. Like whack-a-mole, they're just popping up, knock them down, win a giant stuffed elephant at the end. You know, if this is what the alien invasion is going to look like, I am not a supporter of the Second Amendment, ladies and gentlemen. We need to bear arms and f***ing stockpile them. You're going to need a lot of ammunition. They just keep popping up.

Unfortunately, their shots weren't having any effect. Those that hit made a metallic sound and seemed to be ricocheting off the creatures. The family watching from the bedroom could hear scratching on the roof. It sounded like something was trying to claw its way inside. Good lord. Well, this is according to the witnesses. I'm personally not sure about that. One just took a swing at Billy's head with its claws. Yeah. And they're trying to scrape through the roof. I think they're persistently curious about eating human flesh. Yeah. After nearly

four hours of trying to keep the invaders at bay, the entire family made a break for it, ran to their cars, piled into two trucks and raced to the police station in Hopkinsville. The officer that took the report wasn't exactly convinced by their story, but did believe that they were truly afraid. So Rory, just like the policeman in our story, I think it's about time we take a look at what exactly the family claimed invaded their home that night. Yeah, let's do it exhibit number one this is the little man drawn by andrew ledwith from descriptions from mrs lankford mrs elmer sutton and mrs jc sutton whoa all right folks i mean little man is maybe not the right way to describe it. It is humanoid in shape, but its arms reach its feet

pretty much, uh, dangling lifelessly. I don't really see any limbs or joints. They look like sticks. The head is really strange. It almost has the ears of a bat with sort of like an acorn head on top. And it is, it's a pretty big head. I'm not going to lie. I would say it's about a third of its entire body is the head. This thing is weird. I don't even see aliens really that look like this. I guess if you took off those bat ears,

maybe it's kind of alien gray looking. Damn, that's a really good point. If you take off the mothman ears, you're left with a pretty stereotypical alien gray. Yeah. Pretty interesting observation there. So weird. Now, you can contrast that with exhibit number two. This was described separately by Billy Ray Taylor. So the thing to bear in mind here is that these are two different examples

described by different people. But as you might notice they're incredibly similar very similar with i mean this is just maybe a more detailed version of the original drawing we got the long arms going down to the feet maybe a bit more form on like the hands and the body and the ribs but then same old weird acorn head with the mothman ears the eyes are almost identical uh and a little mouth below the weird pointy nose that they have this thing is really strange i'm not really getting across the fact that it is metallic though i think in my head i thought it was like a little metal terminator man uh but this looks like an you know an organic creature yeah difficult to know right it looks very organic looks like very alien like um and yet they said that the bullets ricocheted off it

and they heard a metallic sound you're telling me if i put the butt of my shotgun in that little thing's mouth and pulled the trigger it wouldn't explode that looks like i could step on it and it would die i think if you put the butt of it in it and pull the trigger you would't explode that looks like i could step on it and it would die i think if you put the butt of it in it and pull the trigger you would get shot in the face isn't the butt the other way oh really i think you mean the barrel i'm confused because i'm the butt of everyone's jokes and i thought that meant that i was aiming the gun shit the barrel is what i meant yeah i'm imagining you as a medieval executioner. It's like, and for your crimes

you have been sentenced to die! You put the noose around your own neck. I've got a rifle. I'm holding it backwards. The barrel's going into my own heart. Any last words? The guy's like, nobody f***ing tell him. Nobody tell him. So long, dickhead.

And lastly, out of these descriptions, you can see, I'll show this to you briefly because it is almost f***ing featureless. There is a spaceship below. Jesus Christ, what does that look like? A pie? It looks like a pie, folks. We're looking at a... This is an apple pie with somehow

less features than an apple pie none of the holes cut in the top just a completely flat apple pie very true so these metallic pie people attacked the barn for four straight hours and were impervious to gunfire of course they want to invade America, the home of the pie. We have returned to the motherland. Now, after writing down the whole report, the officer picked up the phone and dialed Chief Greenwell's home number. Chief, I'm sorry to bug you. We're going to need you to come down here.

A spaceship has landed at Kelly. This is your idea of a joke, it ain't mine. I'm not joking, Chief. The state police are sending units there. I'm getting too old for this shit. It seems like he's saying this has happened many, many times before. He doesn't seem that shocked by the situation. Chief, another

UFO has sat down. Oh, God. I'm eating my breakfast. Does anyone see my neuralyzer? Imagine being that bored by the paranormal. That is baffling. After 40 years, I'll tell you, being on the force ain't what it used to be. You think it's all bustin' perps and bank robbers. It's actually a lot of paperwork about intergalactic felons.

It would get boring after a while. Anything gets boring after a while, even aliens. Even probing. The chief got dressed and headed for the Sutton farm. When he arrived, his officers were just about to search the house. The family refused to go inside until they knew everything was safe. Fair. Everyone was tense. Rory, as an officer on the force that day, how are you breaching that house after everything you've heard? Personally, myself, I'm no expert on how to breach units, but I would say flashbang through the door.

Simultaneously, I have two men enter through the top rooftop with breach charges set on the sides of the walls. Through comms and radio chatter, we initiate an attack strike at the exact same precise moment where every room has been entered from every angle at every moment. Night vision goggles on,

even if it's daylight, because you've got to be prepared. Red dot sight, ACOG scope, four grips, 420 weed skins, and I just come four grips, 420 weed skins, and I just come out blasting, sliding down the stairs, spraying bullets in every direction. Spillix banger, I'm blaring.

You yell open fire to the SWAT team, all of them instructed to place the barrel of the gun pointing towards their own chests. The only firepower I've brought is guns. The one thing we know don't work against them um so yeah maybe maybe i'm not the best person to do it because it's a paranormal entity you know it's a paranormal mission so maybe you got to get weird with it i'll like i'll piggyback on top of a priest through the front door you use a priest as a human shield i would duct tape priests to my body

still have uzis of course but um they couldn't come at me without defeating the holy man needless to say it's a daunting task to be the first one to breach this house after everything that's gone on how would you do it sorry i kind of probably knock politely that's smart yeah that actually that's pretty smart i suppose yeah because you don't know if they're friendly or if they're if there's anyone even in there maybe there's people in the family left i mean they seem pretty serious about getting into the house so i think they want to stay there it'd be great if uh if the rest of the family show up to the barn and they're like before you go in be careful uh some of our older relatives are still residing at the top breach battering

they've gotten taller and taken human form one of them is imitating an old woman beg for your life alien scum please no welcome to earth welcome to earth marg. So you know her. You know her. What are you doing? Those are our friends. You're from another planet too, are you? Elderly scum.

You didn't even say alien that time. So the police made their search. Then the officers filed out of the house declaring there was nothing amiss. Oh, man. Just then, one of the police stepped on the tail of a farm cat which yowled the chief later said you never saw so many pistols being unholstered so fast in your life oh my god there were men there that day i'd call brave men men

i've been in dangerous situations with they felt it too too. They told me so. Why would you bring that many trigger happy police officers to a site where aliens have invaded? Maybe that's the exact people that you need to bring to be fair. The search continued and besides a few shotgun shells, there wasn't much in the way of evidence. The only interesting find was a silver stain on the ground that was barely visible but shimmered like a patch of oil. A small piece of tin foil was found near a fence post. Besides that, there was absolutely nothing. Police drove off in their squad cars and left the family alone once again. They were still scared but nonetheless tried to get some sleep. It was past 2 o'clock in the morning at this point.

Glenny was tossing and turning in bed, unable to shift the image of the little creatures from her mind. As she rolled over and glanced out of the window, her heart leapt. They were back. No! A silver humanoid had its face pressed up against the window. It raised a clawed hand and started scratching on the window. It raised a clawed hand and started scratching on the window. Glennie whispered for help. Unlucky was there in a flash. He blasted the creature, even splintering the window frame with his point-blank shot.

It doesn't work, brother! Just like before, the little man seemed impervious to bullets. They get off on it! They came in waves like a game of Nazi zombies in Call of Duty World at War until just a few minutes before sunrise. They obviously f***ing love it. They're appearing at point blank range being like, oh yeah, I dare you to shoot me. Yeah, put that bullet in my body. They're loving this.

In the morning, the police returned to conduct a more thorough investigation. Because obviously their search needs to be more thorough. They didn't find anything. The creatures were just like hiding behind. They're hiding under the bed. Yeah. For seconds before the police were like, yeah, there's nothing here.

Insane. At least keep one of the police around till you go to bed again. But again, they find nothing. In the light of day, they were able to get a good look at the roof. It had been a while since the last rain, so there was a thick layer of dust up there.

And there were no footprints or scratch marks on the roof. The layer of dust was completely undisturbed. Chief Greenwell interviewed the women and children, purposely adding incorrect details to try and trip the witnesses up. And yet, he was corrected each and every time, and their stories remained completely consistent. Hmm. That's kind of weird.

I didn't know police did that. It's kind of a f***ed up thing to do to someone who's been the victim of an attack. The creatures were eating Pop-Tarts, no? Like, imagine if someone stole your backpack with your laptop in it, and you go report it to a detective. And they're like, all right, so, yeah, so where were they when they stole your backpack with your laptop in it and you go report it to a detective and they're like all right so yeah um so where were they when uh when they stole your banana you know what do you

what are you talking about you mean my laptop yeah of course yeah um so they they took the laptop and uh when was the last time was there anything important in the uh banana why do you keep saying banana oh sorry i just making sure we're on the same page here so how long have you had the uh pineapple you mean banana so it was a banana why try and catch them out just take the statements take the statements be a good police officer it's the first thing they teach you at police academy the old banana trick it's like going to a police officer and being like uh hey um my uh my husband was uh stabbed um can you find out who the killer was and the police officer's like hmm interesting

because when i looked at his dead, dead cold body, it looked like he'd been beaten to death viciously. So what do you think about that? You're like, this is so horrible. I loved him. Stabbing, you say, because it looked like he'd been, had his head caved in with a hammer. So I don't know, what do you think about that? Unprofessional.

Of course unprofessional. You're trying to catch the wrong people. Take her away, boys. I think we got this wrapped up. Are you kidding me? I called you. Oh, you want to find a killer? We take one and no one, no? What? The problem was there was zero physical

evidence of these creatures. No spaceship, no debris, no blood, no scorched vegetation or marks on the ground. News of the encounter spread like wildfire. Reporters and photographers showed up hoping to catch a glimpse of an alien. Soon enough, the sightseers descended on the farm. More than 2,000 people rocked up. The surge of traffic blocked local highways and the Suttons were inundated. Wow.

Were they getting some bunts for this? Were they charging? To deter people, they started charging $1 admission to the property. You know, but that's one old-timey dollar, right? It's worth about $10 today, apparently. Oh, okay. That's not too bad. Not too bad.

And the locals were pissed about this. Oh, okay. That's not too bad. Not too bad. And the locals were pissed about this. Suddenly, the Suddens were branded as greedy liars, and their name was dragged through the mud. They ended up moving away less than a year after the incident, leaving the farm they'd called home for almost 30 years.

Wow, that's quite sad. Now, arguably, the most convincing piece of evidence in all of this was the family's obvious fear when they went to the police. A police officer with medical training had taken Billy Ray's pulse and found it was 140 BPM. The chief didn't think they were lying, saying, these aren't the kind of people who normally run to the police for help. I will say that is quite high, but I've reached beyond 150 just using my Ring fit adventure on nintendo switch i've reached higher than that just eating chili heat wave doritos yeah i think mine was higher when we had that cold brew coffee for lunch today or when i realized i'd slept in this morning

glennie had a glowing reputation in the local area and everyone interviewed maintained that as a christian woman she absolutely would not have lied two of her sons that weren't there that night defended her saying if mama saw it it was there wow chief greenwell spoke up on her behalf too saying she was the most impressive witness she's the type of person who wouldn't lie if her life depended on it which is really good to know it is one of the type of person who wouldn't lie if her life depended on it, which is really good to know. It is one of the strengths of this case that there were so many people in the house that night who seemed to all agree on the facts of what happened. Yeah. Yeah. It's a real shame that when the police showed up, they didn't even get a sighting. All they had was that cat tail noise. It's got to be hard to be those two sons who were seemingly the only family members that weren't there when the event took place

because you're kind of roped into the family as well and if the family's moving farm I guess you're like well shit I guess we're coming too you guys seem pretty convinced you saw something can we actually maybe stay on the farm because we didn't see shit we were there we kind of missed the whole context

of what happened I'm not saying it didn't happen shit. We were there. We kind of missed the whole context of what happened. Yeah, so I'm not saying it didn't happen. I'm sure it did, but... Granted, the bullet holes all over the house are alarming. Yeah, it must be hard for them to be kind of roped into that whole ordeal, that whole event. I mean, would you want to stay at that farm after your family were airship evacuated from the premises?

It's completely deserted. It's given up. Would you want to stay there? Bullet holes in the walls? I guess it is kind of interesting. I mean, if your family came out with that story, would you just run with it? Right. Right.

Yeah. It's got to be hard because it's your family. So you trust them. But also, it didn't happen to you. It sounds ridiculous. So you'd be kind of torn. I guess it's kind of the equivalent of like in those movies where a rich old relative dies and the condition is you can have their house if you stay the night in this haunted ass, creepy goosebumps mansion. What a weird condition. Why do they want someone to spend the night? Like, just give it to them or don't. Yeah. this is kind of their equivalent it's like y'all can have the farm if

you can spend 24 hours in space town ufo city where you're going to be heckled all night by little gray men doing backflips off the roof i love the idea of them trying to like move away to a different area and like flip the house on the um property market without letting on what happened right what a tough gig for that estate agent having to go around and really make up some bullshit story for why there's shotgun blasts all over the place yeah yeah a rat got in or a raccoon or something. But hey, the view from the second floor, though, is out of this world. You could say these prices are alien. A weird thing to say.

You could almost say this place was haunted by little gray spacemen. That one was too specific. Forget I said that one. The whole scene raised more questions than it answered Rory. If the family had truly been engaged in an hours-long gun battle, why were there only a handful of shells on the premises? Investigators noted that there were huge inconsistencies in the size and shape of the holes in the screen door.

None of the holes seemed to match the bullets from any of the guns in the house, and one of them was somehow square. Perhaps the most damning missing piece is that nobody outside the family ever saw a single one of those creatures. So needless to say, there are a couple of different theories about what's really going on here. Rory, what do you say we blast through them and you decide which you think is most likely? love this quick fire quick fire theories this is great this is like power stories all over again i think that's what it was called i don't want to draw too many unsavory comparisons because a lot of people weren't so fond of powers uh tales or what i've called it you know it takes uh it's a grower it grows on you we didn't really give it a time to grow because we did it once it bombed and we i think deleted it from the episode yeah some ideas need to be put out of their misery theory number one

aliens let's face it well i thought that was what we were talking about the whole time wasn't that the whole thing they looked a bit like aliens they could float they could repel bullets theory number one and this is a wild one folks maybe that ufo and the floating little gray men were from another planet i know that was the whole thing well i'd love to see some of this confidence come back at the conclusion stage because somehow i don't think you're gonna be so hot on theory number one all right When push comes to shove, mother****er. Maybe, maybe, just maybe, they weren't human at all. Okay.

Weird structure. Weird structure to the episode. That had been established. That isn't a rug pull. That's not the rug pull you think it is. Ladies and gentlemen, if you've just joined us, we might be talking about aliens today. I'm not sure you showed me a picture of an alien gray with cosplay cat ears on that's all it was theory number two was it a cat it was an e-girl it was an alien gray e-girl with a cat ear headset there's not many silver animals on earth and even fewer in kentucky

whatever the family saw truly scared the shit out of them and maybe they're right it may have been aliens we know we know theory number two okay hoax so the two options are exactly exactly what we've said more than 45 minutes and the other option is it was a joke no no one said it was a joke i said it was it a hoax okay the family may have concocted this story to cover up some other illegal activity of some kind. Maybe they had a fight or they did some illegal hunting around the property. Right. They could have made the whole thing up to get money or fame. As we know from doing TPL for over four years, people have been pulling stunts like this for a lifetime.

stunts like this for a lifetime. It's always a little risky when you're investigating a paranormal story and this traumatic, horrible paranormal experience ends with the witnesses selling tickets or books about their experience. And then getting chased out of town for being scam artists. Yeah, we've had to move town many, many times doing a similar graft.

Theory number tres. Okay, I can't wait to hear this one owls all right was this the alien jesus christ uh kid is showing me an image of are are these baby owls they are okay uh these are these are this is terrifying folks um they are basically imagine an owl without its feathers so it's a naked little fluffy body giant black eyes does have the similar strange beat sharp nose um they kind of stand up straight like humanoids yeah and they've got to be a similar size as the creatures that are described in the story. Hard to know. I would have thought they'd be a little smaller, but maybe they're not a million miles off.

I mean, picture this, you know, 2 a.m., you've been gambling all night, you're drunk off your ass, you look outside and that mother is hovering outside your window because it has talons as well. So scratching possibly. your window because it has talons as well so scratching possibly exactly rory young owls look pretty damn similar to aliens and on a dark night you might get them confused owls can fly they have talons like the aliens described they can bend their head in strange ways they defend their nests aggressively and will attack anything they perceive as a threat. However, on the other hand, they would die from one bullet, let alone dozens of shotgun rounds. Right. You hit that thing with a shotgun blast. It is just a poof of feathers.

I don't know many owls that backflip off rain gutters into the night. Theory number four. It wouldn't be this paranormal life if we didn't discuss the possibility of monkeys what one more bizarre theory is that the family were visited by escaped monkeys covered in silver paint apparently the practice you're grasping at straws now the practice wasn't unheard of from circuses where they would paint them and it may explain uh the silver paint found on the ground what was the purpose of painting the monkeys well what are you getting out of that man space monkeys robot monkeys i'm trying to put my mind in the mindset of a 1950s carnival owner. Right, right. A hard mindset to nail down.

It's a pretty chaotic and self-destructive mindset. The thing is, whilst they certainly would have appeared alien to a farm family from Kentucky in the 50s who may not have seen monkeys before, but they can fly, they don't have claws, and they would have died if they'd been shot. Of course. Yeah, they can't float through the sky.

All right, I'm not sensing a lot of excitement about the monkey theory. Moving on to the final theory. So just to reiterate, so far we have aliens, hoax, baby owls, space monkeys, and... Mass hysteria? We have covered it in other episodes sometimes people get ideas into their head about what's going on that isn't really happening who's hysterical in this situation though the monkeys or the witnesses these monkeys went pardon the pun ape shit sometimes the spray paint had a lot of toxins in it that bled right through the skin. The monkeys were hallucinating being in a jungle and the people were hallucinating the monkeys being aliens.

It was a real concoction of an evening. The broad picture is don't eat the corn because the corn scent and everyone loopy. The monkeys are the humans are tripping balls. The corn is the linchpin of this whole case. I know we have covered stories in This Paranormal Life, such as, to be honest, I think Phantom Monkeys in New Delhi, India. That was one, yeah.

That was genuinely one. Where people seemingly kind of created a hysteria in the community of what was really going on. We had one where people, another great case where people just started dancing in a town and they couldn't stop until some of them just danced themselves to death. Creepy stories. It's fascinating stuff. Definitely read up about it. The final theory of what may have explained this whole evening of antics is simply put by our researcher, Amy, drinking. Okay, right. Sure. Is it possible that all 11 or so inhabitants of the house were

suitably intoxicated by moonshine or some other farmhouse beverage? Yeah, I don't want to paint with a broad brush here, but based on the location, the year, the fact that they were gambling all night playing cards and the names of the individuals, I'm not ruling out the fact that possibly Moonshine could have been involved. And the ready access to firearms. Right, yeah. If the second you see a space monkey, there's a blunderbuss in your hand i'm gonna assume that blunderbuss wasn't far out of reach have you ever had moonshine i haven't have you uh no i have um i was offered it the last time i was in georgia someone uh brewed their own you go to immigration the passport control officer said no worries bro i see you're american can i interest you in a tipple of moonshine um but uh it's a big thing in it's not called moonshine but isn't it

something it's got an irish name as well pochine pochine yeah which is a similar is that potato based oh yeah yeah i've always wanted to try that as well. I'm pretty sure, though, if it goes wrong, it can make you blind. That's the word on the street. So, yeah, you maybe want to get someone you trust to test it or to brew up a batch. But it's alcohol, right? So I don't know. This may be me talking out of ignorance, but is the idea that it's just really strong alcohol or does it actually have like psychedelic aspects to it i think it's just a really strong alcohol i think absinthe is the one that historically was purported

to have psychedelic effects but i think it's all bollocks i think it's just really strong alcohol like i've had that experience before maybe it's a different experience if you have a lot of alcohol in a tiny dose whereas i've just had 24 cores lights in one evening i'm not saying it's a similar experience i didn't hallucinate a lot more vomiting with the curves i think i pissed my pants and blacked out so if i could just do that with one shot of alcohol i still don't want to do it i'm not saying i'm a 1950s farmer but i once drunk 25 natty ice in one sitting because if it's booze it's just gonna have booze effects it's like giving someone a shot be like take this shot bro and within within 20 minutes you'll be calling your ex-girlfriend right so i don't want i didn't want to do that with alcohol i don't want to be sick i you know it seems weird but

maybe there is some sort of beneficial i don't know maybe it's cool or trippy or weird or oh i completely agree it like it really frustrates me when people talk about all the kind of supposed effects of different types of alcohol people i always try to stay away from the guy at the party who's like whiskey makes me fight and vodka makes me want to bang right tequila you know tequila makes me want to race drag cars uh it's like no it's all alcohol if you were an asshole when you were drunk, you were just an asshole beforehand. Looking for an excuse to be an asshole. Barely contained. Yeah.

I once, when I was at university, I went to a party. It's actually how I met a really good friend of mine. I went to his wedding this year, but he just went to a party and had a bottle of rum that was yeesh, maybe around 60%, if not stronger rum. Like if you let a match near it it this thing would go up in flames um and i think that was maybe the strongest percent alcohol thing i've ever had before that's a lot yeah uh and i was like all right take off the safety belt let's go for a ride it's awful it's awful it's poison it tasted like i ate satan's asshole it was terrible i didn't enjoy it i almost vomited um it didn't make me feel any different i just got trashed really quick so um i don't know all you moonshine brewers out there let us know is there some sort of like

secret hillbilly secret effect that we don't know about if someone wants to send us moonshine i probably won't drink it but i'm fine with that but i will uh put it in a beer bong maybe that'll be a bonus episode we both drink moonshine and then present a case i don't know if we even need to present the case i think the listeners will tune in for that one i take the shot the intro music plays kit i'm here today to talk to you the episode ends projectile vomiting and then the credits music you just hear the the unmistakable sound of a human cranium hitting the deck. It's so quick.

Our story begins today when I'm pissing. I'm pissing. It's over. Roll the credits. I mean, I'm glad that when I had that shot of 60% rum, night monkeys didn't start attacking my apartment window. That's when you know it's time to go to bed you don't want to be dancing in the club and having to lean into people and be like do y'all see those monkeys they're like yeah yeah i love this song too no do y'all see the monkey

there plot twist you think you're in a club But you're hallucinating the club But you're actually in a monkey enclosure In the local zoo You're just You're drinking coconuts Full of monkey piss Thinking it's a delicious cocktail In a nightclub I'll see those monkeys

In an absolute monkey enclosure They open up the zoo the next morning You just fit in an absolute monkey enclosure. They open up the zoo the next morning and start letting in customers. You're ass naked covered in glow sticks with a whistle in the gorilla enclosure. Still having a good time, but you are quite conscious that half the people on the club are monkeys. You're still partying. You're still boozing, but you just want to bring it up in case anyone else sees it. That's such a good bit.

Yeah, you're not stopping the night. Yeah. Yo, I'm going to go to the smoking area. You do see the monkeys though, right? This is f***ed. Rory, whilst we are reaching somewhat the end of our investigation, I didn't want to let the moment pass before mentioning that, you know, the police

weren't the only people to turn up that night to investigate what was going on at the Kelly Hopkinsville encounter. High-ranking members of the U.S. Air Force also showed up. Specifically those involved in project blue book here we go they've insisted over and over again that there was no official investigation but there are seven documents related to the kelly hopkinsville encounter in the files of

project blue book wow i won't get into the details uh but it seems as if they did look into it. Disappointingly, at least Captain Robert Hertel said that, out of all the cases I investigated for the commander, and out of all the incidents that happened around Campbell Air Base during my three and a half years there, this incident impressed me the least. Ooh, that's a bad review. These were the early days of Yelp as well, so there weren't many reviews going around. As researcher Amy points out, is he trying to throw us off the scent and really? This was one of the most important UFO cases?

Or was he truly saying it was a f***ing bust? It's hard, isn't it? From my experience with Project Blue Book, again, if you pardon the pun, it's quite an open Blue Book. They're pretty upfront with their findings. I feel like if this is the 1950s, this is not long after the creation of the organization. Maybe at a point where they were pretty much contractually obliged to attend any claim of UFO activity. Yeah, we've kind of seen through previous investigations. They're not too choosy

about what they rock up to see. I think we got excited quite early on when we were like, and then guess what? Guess who showed up? Project Blue Book. After investigating

a lot of paranormal cases, it's almost weirder when they don't show up. Yeah, they show up to the opening of an envelope, guys. Yeah. Yeah, if there's a new Jamba Juice or JCPenney opening up at the mall, they'll be there in some capacity, just making sure.

Flashing the business card, just letting everyone know. So, you know, I do appreciate their honesty, though, that they came, they checked it out. But maybe in this case, at least from their findings, they couldn't see much. Of course, whether this case turns out to be truly paranormal or not uh the kelly hopkinsville encounter as it came to be known has influenced pop culture for decades is one of the u.s's most famous ufo encounters steven spielberg himself was inspired to make et and close encounters of the third kind specifically because of this incident. Wow. Maybe more importantly and culturally influential, Pokemon Sableye is based on the creatures that I just showed you.

Oh, he totally is, yeah. Because his swaying movements were inspired by the aliens in our story. Have you seen a picture of him? He looks just like these creatures. Yeah. Yeah, wow, that's really cool. And I know we've mentioned it with a previous case that i can't recall right now but come on this thing has to be related to the ufo hunting side quest in legend of zelda majora's mask a hundred percent let me remember right now using my brain what

case that was uh because i feel that they took the design for the aliens in the game from the case you're trying to remember but i feel that they took the farmhouse shootout until sunrise setting from this case yeah to the point where i thought there was maybe some correlation between the two cases like they'd happened in the same time frame or around the same area because i remember i hosted that last investigation and i remember there was uh mentioned in some of the articles and news reports of this case right but uh even when reading about it i was like i don't want to hear about this one because this is its own kind of paranormal encounter um the episode i'm thinking of was the flatwoods monster that's the one we did a whole investigation uh into that story and

i believe if you look at the design of the flatwoods monster which i'll show you right here that's straight out of that's the one from majora's mask pixel for pixel i think they took that creature and then used it in this alien encounter um to do the whole barnyard night raid thing but um yeah i swear there is some sort of correlation between these two cases i don't remember exactly what it was maybe the look of them or the shape of them or the area i mean i don't remember where flatwoods is to be fair so the flatwoods monster was in 1952 and project blue book were involved it's incredibly similar period. So yeah, I'm not surprised that there was some crossover between these two cases.

I just love it when these cases cross over into pop culture in a way that we all know and love. Yeah, and now we can be a part of that. Steven Spielberg himself will be tuning in any moment now. Rory, as you well know from doing over 200 episodes of This Paranormal Life, at the end of every episode, we do have to come to a conclusion as to whether the case we've just discussed is actually paranormal or not.

Looking at everything we've talked about, what do you think today? It's a hard one. This is really a hard one. Because, you know, little floating gray men aside, even at the beginning of the story, the family claimed that they did see a ufo which they drew a full illustration of that's right uh i think you know let's not dance around it folks the the weak spot the achilles heel of this case is the lack of evidence even when the police showed up moments after the attack took place, there was no, I mean, I know there's no footprints because they can float, but no sign of scratches. The strongest evidence I was able to provide was that one of the men who was there was excited.

Yeah. Yeah. Which isn't a real, it's not a real backbone to build a case on. What was the, I may be breeze past this. What was the, something about the, the gunshots, the bullet holes being different sizes or one of them was square? What the hell? What the f*** was that about? It kind of came out of left field, to be honest.

I guess they were insinuating that the markings and damage to the walls and windows wasn't even really consistent with the guns they claimed to have been firing. Right. Oh, so that wasn't paranormal that was almost like a plot hole they were like this yeah always plot hole in the evidence brought forward by the family right so they were like it looks like you guys had a family shootout in the in your home saloon uh not that you were fighting off owls in the night or spacemen in the night um i love this story i love the cultural impact it's had uh i think personally because of the lack of evidence brought forward in today's case i'm

gonna have to go with a no i'm doing it shoot i think it's gonna have to be a double no um i mentioned it i think pretty early in the case there is no evidence uh you're very upfront with that i appreciate it they claim that the aliens were clawing through the rooftop uh and yet when the police took a cursory glance at the roof there was a thick layer of dust completely undisturbed so um that kind of says it all ladies and gentlemen if you disagree send your thoughts and feelings through to this paranormal life podcast at gmail.com being said, loved looking into this case. Thank you so much to Amy Grisdale for researching it and to Cami Thoman for editing it.

Oh, but if you are sick of hearing double no's week after week, and you just want to hear some even more tantalizing and potentially true paranormal tales, head on over to patreon.com forward slash thisparanormallife. This is the home of This Paranormal Life and where you can pick up over 45 full-length bonus episodes that we've recorded over the last few years for just $5 a month. Crazy! It's a way that our listeners support the show

and means that we can continue to keep making it for you guys, as well as providing some additional content for you guys in return. So hold on a minute there, Kit. I hand over five bucks, a measly $5. In some countries, that's as much as a coffee. And you give me in return a year's worth of this paranormal life episodes did i stutter rory wow well my what a bargain oh no sorry i didn't it was quite rude but i have to get across that it's such a steal that you're shocked i'm blown away that's right we think it's an amazing deal for just five dollars you can get almost 50 bonus episodes i think that's a pretty good deal it's a steal patreon.com it's illegal actually it's paranormal you're under arrest it's in the link of this very

podcast stealing content from us for only five dollars we should increase the rate i don't i i know we don't we shouldn't talk about this like live on because this is a little awkward to show them behind the curtain but we're giving it away business we're giving it away well you know five dollars it's still still something you know some youtubers have a house on the hollywood hills right that's because they have millions of listeners we don't quite have millions of listeners just yet i have a bedroom yeah i know in the swamps of east london yeah i'm it's not a swamp i'm attacked every night i go home it's actually one of the night coolest places to live in the world i can't even afford delivery plus i have to pay extra the fact that you could afford delivery is fine i had to i actually live a

normal life i paid six don't don't like aggressively undersell yourself when you actually have a pretty privileged life. Let it be known. I'm just saying if we cranked up those 10 bucks, we change it to 10 bucks a month, double our revenue. All of a sudden, me and freaking Lil Nas X are in the Hollywood Hills cruising around in a convertible.

No, that's not how he made his money. He made the hit single of the... Drink it through these. Never mind. Patreon.com forward slash This Paranormal Life. Get in now, because those prices are going up. So thank you so much for listening. We will, of course, be back on Tuesday with a brand new paranormal tale.

And until then, remember to live fast, investigate, and die young, baby!