0:03

Have you ever felt a chill down your spine

0:05

that you couldn't explain? Seen

0:07

an ominous shadow in the corner of your vision, or

0:10

heard a whisper on the wind that seemed

0:12

just a little too clear? Then

0:15

you'll love Sightings, a new weekly

0:17

show from Reverb and Cucode. Sightings

0:20

takes you inside the world's

0:22

most mysterious supernatural events, from

0:24

classic legends like Bigfoot to

0:27

lesser-known phenomena like the Polaroid

0:29

Ghost Rider. Each

0:31

week, you'll be transported into a

0:33

thrilling first-person story that puts

0:36

you at the heart of

0:38

ominous creature encounters, eerie alien

0:40

abductions, and spine-tingling hauntings. Today,

0:44

we're bringing you a special presentation

0:46

of Sightings that will take you back to

0:48

1950s Kentucky, where

0:51

one rural family faces an invasion

0:53

from intruders not of this world.

0:56

And stick around as we unravel

0:58

the truth behind the story, revealing

1:00

how it inspired one of the biggest

1:03

pop culture phenomenons in history. From

1:07

Roswell to Amityville to Loch Ness

1:09

and beyond, Sightings is

1:11

your passport to the extraordinary.

1:14

Click the link in the show notes and

1:16

follow Sightings now to never miss an episode.

1:25

Imagine you're at home with your family. It's

1:27

a quiet night, a normal night, until

1:30

suddenly it isn't. There's

1:33

strange glow outside your house.

1:36

Shadowy figures move across your

1:39

windows. Strange

1:41

sounds echo in the darkness. Something

1:44

is out there. Something

1:46

not of this world. And

1:49

it's coming for you. Welcome

1:52

to Sightings, the series that

1:54

takes you inside the world's most

1:56

mysterious supernatural events. I'm McLeod

1:58

Andrews. And I'm I'm Brian Sigley. We're old

2:01

friends who live for good stories, especially

2:03

ones that push the boundaries of the

2:05

unexplained. So we created this

2:07

series to highlight the encounters, the

2:09

abductions, and the terrifying bumps in

2:11

the night that have become legend.

2:13

So in each episode, we'll dive

2:15

headfirst into an infamous supernatural incident

2:17

that will take you anywhere from

2:19

Roswell to Loch Ness to Amityville

2:21

and beyond. Now you've probably heard

2:23

of some of these before, but

2:25

trust us when we say you've

2:27

never heard them like this. McCloud

2:30

happens to be one of the best narrators

2:32

in the business. Brian, you said we wouldn't

2:34

do this. Well, it's true. You've done some

2:37

of the biggest audiobooks in the world. And

2:39

that's why I'm so excited that in each

2:41

episode of Sightings, McCloud is going to bring

2:43

to life a brand new, mind-bending

2:46

story of a supernatural incident that

2:48

puts you, listener, at the center

2:50

of the action. After

2:52

that, we'll investigate the facts and the

2:54

legends that inspired the story and

2:57

figure out just how far down the rabbit hole

2:59

we're willing to go. For

3:01

our first episode, we're taking you back to a

3:03

quiet summer night in 1955, where one family

3:07

in rural Kentucky encounters terrifying

3:09

intruders intent on invading their

3:12

home. Do they

3:14

run? Do they hide? Or

3:17

do they stand their ground and

3:19

fight? Find out on

3:22

this first episode of Sightings. My

3:53

name is Lucky Sutton. I'm

3:56

25 years old, Kentucky born

3:58

and bred. Not

4:00

to tell you straight off, I ain't never seen anything like

4:02

this shit that's gone down here tonight. I'm

4:05

talking the kind of shit you'll read about in the big papers

4:07

tomorrow. Like Hollywood movies shit.

4:11

Like we're lucky to be alive shit. And

4:13

I mean that, swear to God. Being

4:18

a detail is likely important, and I'm still trying to

4:20

work it all out in my head. I suppose I

4:23

ought to start at the beginning. Set

4:25

the scene, as they say. And

4:28

that scene, at least for tonight, is our farm. I'd

4:32

be lying if I said it was nice. I mean, it's decent

4:34

and all. But

4:36

it sure as hell's got no bells or whistles like shutters

4:38

or even a ripe barn or anything. You

4:40

can find it in Kelly, just off old Madisonville

4:43

Road, and a few miles north of Hopkinsville. Three

4:46

acres of tobacco, some old maple trees, a

4:48

shitbox house I've been telling Ma to fix

4:50

for years. But now that JC's in charge,

4:52

that's a whole other

4:54

story. Anyway,

4:56

speaking of people, there were a bunch of us

4:59

hunkered down when it all started. There was Ma

5:01

and me and Vera, of course, and my brother

5:03

JC and his wife Elaine, and Elise's brother OP,

5:05

plus my friend Billy Ray and his wife June,

5:07

and then the little ones Lonnie

5:10

and Charlton and Mary. That's

5:13

eight of us adults plus the three kids, which

5:16

probably sounds like a lot for these three rooms,

5:18

but you know, it's not normally like this, and

5:20

even if it was, you ought to keep your

5:22

judgments to yourself. Point

5:25

is, it's a farm with good

5:27

fields, plus the house, some pigs,

5:29

goats, too many cats, and a

5:31

whole lot of people. Otherwise,

5:33

they're in a damn thing remarkable about it

5:36

at all, which

5:38

is why it's amazing that of all the farms

5:40

in Kentucky, all the farms on God's Green, this

5:42

is the one a little space bastard decided to

5:44

visit. And you know what?

5:47

Screw them all for doing that. It's

5:52

probably worth knowing. It all started out

5:54

as a pretty normal evening, as far as evenings go,

5:57

since it's been hot as hell all week and the

5:59

skeeter's been. We were all inside trying to make the

6:01

best of it. That meant mostly

6:03

shooting the shit, sometimes playing cards, and I

6:06

ought to say that none of us were

6:08

drinking, at least not more than

6:10

one beer, from me and JC and Billy Ray.

6:13

Now I emphasize that because the first thing people

6:15

will say is that we were fully drunk and

6:17

made this all up, or aren't reliable narrators or

6:19

the like, and they'd be dead wrong, all of

6:22

them. Because I seen this with my

6:24

own eyes, and I guarantee you, I wish I had

6:26

been drunk, so I could have better coped with all

6:28

of it. Yeah,

6:31

as I was saying, it

6:33

must have been about seven when it all started.

6:35

We were all doing our thing, and Billy Ray

6:38

went out to the well for some water. Then

6:41

came running back with some poppycock story

6:43

about seeing a real live flying saucer.

6:46

Course, we all thought it was a load of shit. Billy

6:48

Ray was known for spinning tails. Guess that's what made him

6:51

such a charming bastard. But tonight, we

6:53

were having none of it. Even when Billy

6:55

Ray swore the saucer was sitting in the gully on

6:57

the far end of our plot, we just laughed it

6:59

off. Speaking personally, it

7:01

sounded me like the fool had seen a shooting

7:03

star. I even cracked some

7:05

joke about it, which just about threw Billy Ray

7:08

right off the deep end. He was damn set

7:10

on getting someone to go check out the gully

7:12

with him, but none of us budged an inch.

7:15

And being the hothead he is, he

7:17

seemed brought ready to storm out or throw some

7:19

kind of tantrum, because no one believed him. That's

7:24

when the dogs started barking, not

7:27

just barking, mind you, but

7:29

some kind of infernal fury. We'd never heard

7:31

the thing make before. I never heard any

7:34

dog make this sound before. I

7:36

got up to go see what the trouble was,

7:38

but Billy Ray thought that was his chance to

7:41

show me his flying saucer. And before I could

7:43

even brush him off, he shoved JC's .22 rifle

7:45

in my hand and grabbed the .20 gauge for

7:47

himself. In hindsight, that

7:49

might be the smartest thing Billy Ray's ever done

7:51

in his life. So

7:54

now that I was armed and all, I figured

7:56

the least I could do was follow him out and see

7:58

what all the yapping was about. But

8:01

the moment we stepped outside, the damn dog came

8:03

running at us like a bat out of hell.

8:06

We scanned the horizon to see what spooked her, but hell, if

8:08

we could find the problem, it was pitch

8:10

black out there being a new moon and all, and we couldn't

8:12

hardly see a thing. So I

8:14

turned to head back inside when Billy Ray suddenly

8:16

grabbed my shoulder. He told

8:19

me to look back out at the fields, and

8:21

I'm not exaggerating when I say he

8:23

sounded downright petrified. When

8:26

I saw why he was scared, and

8:29

swear to God, I just about

8:31

shit myself too. A

8:35

strange glow was coming from the far end of

8:37

our field. It was

8:39

kind of silvery like, and damned if I'd ever seen

8:41

anything like it before, but it wasn't the glow

8:43

that scared me. It

8:46

was the thing walking out of it. At

8:50

first it looked like a little man, no taller than

8:52

our fence posts, so maybe three and a half feet

8:54

on a good day. As

8:56

it got closer, I could make

8:58

out a big head, far too

9:00

big to be human, with yellowish

9:02

eyes and arms that nearly reached

9:04

the ground. The

9:06

whole thing, creature, whatever you want to call

9:08

it, was wearing some kind of silvery metal

9:11

that gave off that strange glow. Now

9:13

Billy Ray, big dumb brick that he is, up

9:16

and hollered at the thing, causing it to freeze

9:18

in place, and I tell you, it just stood

9:20

there, staring at us with those

9:22

God forsaken eyes for a good minute or so.

9:25

Maybe because we were too scared, too

9:27

confused, I don't know, but we stared

9:29

right back at it, and it started

9:32

moving towards us again, and it lifted

9:34

its arms up, and that's when I

9:36

saw its fingers were talons. Actual

9:40

goddamn talons. So

9:42

I yanked Billy Ray back into the house

9:44

and slammed the door. Everyone

9:47

else was in the living room laughing about something, but

9:49

Billy Ray and I didn't say a damn word. He

9:52

just aimed back out the wind at that

9:54

thing, which was still on the move, claws

9:56

still reaching for the sky. I

9:59

told Billy Ray to... hold tight until it was

10:01

closer, because even though we're both pretty good shots,

10:03

I wanted to make damn sure we hit the

10:05

bastard. So we

10:07

waited, and I tell

10:09

you, it was excruciating,

10:14

because the thing moved weird and

10:16

kind of slow, but it kept

10:19

coming, sure and steady.

10:22

And once it was about 20 feet away,

10:24

we finally fired.

10:28

And then, all

10:30

hell broke loose. We

10:34

must have clipped the thing, because it

10:36

screeched like some crazy banshee and scurried

10:39

away into the darkness. Meanwhile,

10:41

everyone else in the house went ballistic,

10:43

because there we were shooting like idiots

10:45

into the night. We

10:48

herded everyone back into the living room,

10:50

shut the doors, and had JC and

10:52

OP grab their rifles in case we

10:54

needed to reacquaint ourselves

10:56

with whatever was out there. We

10:59

were about to start explaining what the hell was going

11:01

on when I saw something out of the corner of

11:03

my eye. Another thing

11:05

was at the goddamn window right

11:07

behind little Mary. Ma

11:10

saw it too, and started screaming, but

11:12

JC thought quick and shot right through

11:14

the window screen at the thing. Just

11:17

like the other one, it screeched something

11:19

awful and disappeared into the dark. Of

11:22

course, now everyone in the house was screeching

11:24

just as loud, and I hollered at OP

11:26

to shut them all up while JC and

11:29

Billy Ray and I went to finish the

11:31

thing off for good. But

11:33

the moment we stepped out into the

11:35

night, everything went ungodly

11:38

quiet. Even

11:40

the crickets picked right then to stop

11:42

singing. We

11:45

stepped silent as we could around the

11:47

window JC shot through, hoping to find

11:49

a body or the like. But

11:52

there was nothing. No blood, no

11:54

tracks, none of it. We

11:56

even circled the house three times and couldn't find

11:58

a trace of the damn. them things we shot

12:00

at. Truly, it's like

12:03

they were never even there. And

12:05

you know what? That didn't make one lick

12:08

a sense. Once

12:16

we got back inside, we hunkered down real

12:18

good. The women and kids

12:20

were still a mess, of course, but we men

12:22

knew we weren't going to let anything happen to

12:24

them. At

12:26

least, that's what we hoped. Problem

12:29

was, we had no radio or telephone in the house.

12:32

The damn doors didn't even have locks on them. But

12:34

we knew our guns did at least something to keep

12:36

them at bay. So I

12:39

suggested we hold our ground until

12:41

these things found another farm to

12:43

terrorize. Course,

12:45

right then was the time JC found convenient to

12:47

pick a fight with me, because he thought it

12:49

was a better idea to pile everyone into our

12:51

two cars and drive to the sheriff. Problem

12:54

was, he didn't think about what we'd actually

12:56

tell the sheriff when we got there. I

12:59

mean, seriously, would anyone believe spacemen were attacking

13:01

our farm? Unless we had

13:03

some shred of physical proof, we'd be the

13:05

laughingstock of Christian County. And

13:08

JC tried to push back and get his way. Of

13:11

course, this being his farm and all he likes to

13:13

think, he's the one in charge. Here's

13:16

the honest truth. Thinking you're

13:18

in charge doesn't put you in charge.

13:21

So everyone's eyes turned to me. And

13:25

I tell you, I wasn't keen on hiking those women

13:27

and kids to the end of the night while those

13:29

things might still be out there. So

13:32

I looked everyone over, and

13:35

I made my decision. We'd

13:38

make our stand at the farmhouse.

13:43

So this is what happened. We

13:46

turned this place into a fortress. We

13:49

barricaded what we could, shut off all

13:51

the lights inside, and flipped on the

13:53

outdoor flood lamps. While

13:55

the women and kids huddled in the interior,

13:57

us men posted at windows on each side

13:59

of the house. house and aimed out into

14:01

the dark. And

14:04

then we

14:06

waited. Ma

14:11

always said a full house is a happy

14:13

house. Turns out

14:15

that's a bald-faced lie. Because

14:18

I tell you, I don't think this house

14:20

ever heard quiet like that before. Even

14:22

the kids didn't make a peep. It

14:25

was just the sound of us all breathing,

14:29

praying. Like

14:32

I said before, it was strange for that many of us to

14:35

be at the farm on one night. Usually

14:37

it was just Ma and the little ones, plus

14:39

JC and Arlene of course, because JC stayed on

14:42

to take care of the farm after Pa died.

14:45

But me, I was never as content

14:47

as my brother. I wanted to see

14:49

the world, or at least more of it than

14:51

these hills I knew like the back of my hand. So

14:55

I took off with Billy Ray as soon as I hit

14:57

18. We bumbled around for a

14:59

bit, then landed with the traveling carnival. That's

15:02

where I met Vera, of course, and Billy

15:04

Ray met June. But

15:06

good things don't last forever, and eventually we

15:08

found ourselves back home where we started. We

15:11

were just supposed to be here just a few

15:14

weeks, but soon enough that turned into

15:16

a few months. Time

15:19

has a strange way of slipping away, I guess.

15:23

Anyway, point is, I'm glad me and

15:25

Billy Ray were here to protect everyone.

15:29

I'm even glad OP had decided to crash

15:31

here, even though he couldn't shoot for shit.

15:34

Because frankly, we'd

15:36

be needing all the help we could get. Alright.

15:47

It must have been about 1045 when OP grabbed

15:49

me by the shoulder and pulled me to his side

15:51

of the house. Without a

15:54

word, he pointed up at the ceiling. I

15:56

listened, and I heard it too. One

15:59

of those bastards was creeping around on the roof. You

16:02

could just make out the tapping sound on

16:04

the corrugated metal. We

16:06

followed it across the kitchen where it suddenly

16:08

stopped in place. We

16:11

waited. Listen. Wham!

16:16

The thing pounded on the roof so hard the

16:18

glasses and the cupboard rattled around, and

16:20

after that there was this ungodly scraping

16:22

sound, almost like it was trying to

16:24

claw its way inside. Then

16:27

it suddenly went silent and didn't

16:29

seem to move an inch. OP

16:31

aimed to fire his rifle right through the

16:33

ceiling, but I stopped him and pulled him

16:35

and JC and Billy Ray towards the back

16:38

door. We were

16:40

going to surround the thing, and

16:42

this time we were going to take

16:44

it out. We

16:47

opened the front door as quiet as we could.

16:50

I was first out then JC and

16:52

OP and finally Billy Ray. We

16:55

were all huddled on the porch beneath

16:57

the awning to keep the thing up

17:00

there from seeing us. I

17:02

motioned for OP to go left and

17:04

JC to go right, and

17:06

I had just turned to tell Billy Ray

17:09

to follow me when I saw it. A

17:12

clawed hand was reaching down from

17:14

above Billy Ray. The goddamn

17:16

thing was on the awning right over us.

17:19

Its taloned fingers were just about to reach Billy

17:21

Ray's mop of hair when I did the only

17:23

thing I could think of. I

17:25

jumped out from under the awning and fired at

17:27

the bastard. But just as

17:30

that was happening, JC and OP started

17:32

hollering, and I turned to see another

17:34

one of the things in the maple tree by the fence.

17:37

We all opened fire and it fell

17:39

from the tree. Rather, it

17:41

floated from the tree and

17:44

landed on its feet, looking

17:46

totally unharmed. So

17:48

we fired at it again. This time

17:50

we must have hit it because it

17:53

screeched something wicked and disappeared into the

17:55

weeds. I

17:57

was about to run after it when Billy Ray pulled

17:59

me back just as a another one of the things

18:01

rounded the corner of the house. So

18:03

I aimed right quick and shot

18:05

that bastard point blank in the

18:07

middle of its goddamn body. For

18:11

a moment, it sounded like I shot

18:13

a metal bucket to claim that impact

18:16

made. But there was no blood,

18:18

no holes, no wound at

18:20

all that I could see. So

18:23

I figured my best bet was to

18:25

shoot the thing squared between its yellow

18:27

eyes. But

18:30

it was the damnedest thing. Before

18:32

I could pull the trigger, it retreated

18:35

faster than I've seen anything living ever

18:37

moved before. And even though

18:39

Billy Ray, and OP, and JC got some

18:41

more shots off at it, it disappeared into

18:43

the darkness. That's

18:46

when I knew guns were doing nothing but spooking them. And

18:49

surely, they'd soon enough wise up to

18:51

that fact and push their way inside the house and

18:53

find the women and kids, all of them. Of

18:57

course I wasn't about to let that happen. So

18:59

I made the only choice I thought we had

19:01

left and ordered everyone to retreat to the cars.

19:05

So there we were doing one big, terrified migration

19:07

with Billy Ray, and JC, and OP, and I,

19:10

keeping a lookout as the women and kids made

19:12

a run for the cars. And

19:14

as soon as we were all inside, we

19:17

sped into the night. It

19:25

took us all of five minutes to reach

19:27

the police office in Hopkinsville. Whole

19:30

way Billy Ray kept yammering about how we should

19:32

have believed him. He was right,

19:35

and it was my bad. I'd put

19:37

the entire family in danger, and I'm not sure I'll

19:39

ever forget myself for it. At

19:42

the station, we found Sergeant Pritchett sitting at the

19:44

lobby desk. He's a chubby

19:46

fellow. He usually looks like he's bored out of

19:48

his mind, so I don't think I'll ever forget

19:51

the look on his faces. All 11 of us

19:53

come running in, pale as ghosts. And

19:56

since everyone around town knows, we aren't the type

19:58

to run to the police for help. We didn't

20:00

have to say a word before Pritchett picked up

20:02

the phone and dialed Chief Greenwall. Soon

20:06

enough, we were all heading back to the farm. I

20:09

know what you're thinking, we'd be crazy to go back there.

20:12

But now we have four police cruisers behind

20:14

us. There was Pritchett and

20:16

Chief Greenwall, of course, plus Deputy Batts

20:19

from the county sheriff and Trooper Ferguson

20:21

from the stateies also came along. There

20:24

was even another stateie waiting at the farm when

20:26

we arrived. He said he heard

20:28

the hullabaloo on the radio and thought we'd like

20:30

to know he saw some pretty weird stuff at

20:32

Shady Oaks down the road. Stuff

20:35

like flashes in the sky, he said,

20:37

like meteors heading in the direction of

20:39

our farm. Of course,

20:41

that made me feel a bit less like I'd been

20:43

losing my ever-loving mind, even if it

20:45

put all the cops on edge. So

20:48

everyone drew their flashlights and guns and

20:50

we're about to start searching the farm

20:52

when one more set of headlights pulled

20:55

up. It was Harvey Reeder, an asshole

20:57

photographer from the Kentucky New Era. Everyone

20:59

in town hated him since he was

21:01

as cocky a bastard as he looked.

21:05

Without so much as a hello, he says, all

21:08

right, let's see the little green men already. So

21:13

off we went and searched for them. Flashlights

21:15

were waving all over our fields while Chief

21:18

Greenwall ventured inside the house. I bet he

21:20

half expected to find loads of open liquor,

21:22

but Ma set him straight about that real

21:24

fast. We showed

21:26

him all the windows we shot through, but

21:29

I'll be damned if there was any more

21:31

evidence of the buggers than some blasted out

21:33

screens and spent shells. There weren't even any

21:35

footprints or markings down in the gully where

21:38

Billy Ray said the saucer landed. There

21:41

was one thing, though, out

21:43

by the fence where one of the creatures

21:45

was shot at and scampered away. An officer

21:47

said he saw a bright patch on the

21:49

ground, luminous almost like

21:51

an oil slick. But as we got up

21:54

close, we couldn't see nothing at all. Just

21:59

some kind of cruel. trick of the eye, I guess. Still,

22:03

most everyone seemed to feel in their bones

22:06

that something strange happened here. Even

22:09

the Chief pulled me aside to tell me the

22:11

whole place gave him the shivers. Of

22:14

course, that prick Harvey Reeder wasn't impressed by

22:16

none of it, and just blurted out what

22:18

I figured everyone was thinking. So you gonna

22:20

show us some goddamn proof or what? I

22:24

was about to clock the bastard in the

22:26

face when he accidentally stepped on a cat's

22:28

tail and it screamed something wicked. You

22:31

never saw so many pistols unholstered so fast

22:34

in your life, and I'm pretty sure Reeder

22:36

pissed himself. Good.

22:39

He deserved it. Every last bit.

22:48

So yeah. Right

22:51

now, it's 4 am. The

22:53

cops in them all took off by two, leaving

22:55

the 11 of us alone in the dark. Since

22:59

we didn't dare turn on the lights in the house, it

23:02

wasn't too hard for most everyone to drift

23:04

off despite their nerves. But

23:06

not me. I've

23:09

been staying up to guard the place. You

23:11

know, in case they come back. So

23:15

here I am, staring out the window with my

23:17

shotgun in hand. I

23:20

hope that if we can just make it till

23:22

morning, then maybe we'll be in the clear for

23:24

good. Because these creatures, aliens, whatever you want to

23:26

call them, would have to be numb-sculled idiots to

23:28

think it bright to mess with us in broad

23:31

daylight. But

23:33

that still leaves three hours till sunrise,

23:36

and I'm counting every minute. Of

23:40

course, I think I just heard something. I'm

23:43

familiar tapping on the corrugated metal on the roof.

23:47

Goddamn bastards must have learned nothing at all.

23:51

So here's what's gonna happen. I'm

23:54

gonna nudge Billy Ray away and put the 22

23:56

in his hands. We'll

23:58

cock our guns and aim for the sky. And

24:01

this time, we're

24:04

gonna get our proof. Sightings

24:15

will be back just after this. Okay,

24:28

welcome back to Sightings, where we

24:30

dig into that wild story I

24:32

just narrated for you, taking off

24:34

my narrator hat, putting on my

24:37

human man-person hat,

24:40

not made of any actual people, just

24:42

an identity, and investigate the facts and

24:44

legends to figure out what's believable, at

24:47

least what we believe, and what's straight

24:49

up wackadoo. And here

24:51

to help me do that is my co-host,

24:53

Brian, who actually wrote that incredible story. Well,

24:56

I'm glad you liked McCloud, but I can tell

24:58

from your face that you don't know quite what

25:00

to think about it. Can you blame me? There

25:03

was an all-out war between these

25:05

people and some terrifying, albeit

25:07

tiny, aliens. That's right, they were very, very

25:10

tiny. And since you're from Kentucky, McCloud, I

25:12

have to ask if you've heard of the

25:14

Kelly Hopkinsville encounter before. I've never heard of

25:16

it. No. And that's

25:18

why I assumed you made it up. Okay,

25:21

that's fair enough, but I did get my

25:23

start writing movies and TV shows. But the

25:25

truth of the matter here is that I

25:27

did not make a single thing up for

25:29

this story. All of that happened? The gunfight?

25:31

The aliens? Even the dog?

25:33

Brian? Even the dog, yep,

25:35

all 11 of the family members, the UFO,

25:37

the aliens, the police, all of them are

25:39

based on, or well, not based on, they

25:41

are taken from the written first or secondhand

25:44

accounts of this incident from 1955. Wow.

25:47

What was the dog's name? Gonna

25:50

put me on the spot, aren't you? But

25:53

that's wild. All first-hand accounts. Yeah, and that's exactly

25:55

why I chose it for the first episode of

25:57

this series, because it really speaks to me. why

26:00

the supernatural can be so weird and

26:02

captivating. Absolutely. I mean, it's really easy

26:05

to imagine yourself in these people's shoes

26:07

or, you know, imagine the

26:09

terror that they're all seeing. At least the way you've written

26:11

it for me, it put me right there. Or,

26:14

I guess, not written it because it's... that's

26:17

the story. That is. And now, 70 years later,

26:19

it's kind of irresistible to wonder if

26:21

it really, truly happened like all these people

26:23

said it did. I do wonder

26:26

that. So, let's dive in. It's 1955

26:29

in this tiny corner of Kentucky. Right.

26:33

And that's eight years after Roswell

26:35

happened, just for a little bit

26:37

of context. So UFOs were still

26:39

kind of creeping into public consciousness

26:41

around this time. Right. But the

26:43

whole idea of alien abductions or

26:45

actual encounters with alien beings wasn't

26:47

really a big thing yet, which

26:50

makes this one of the first

26:52

personal encounter reports with creatures

26:54

from another world. More like the first shootout

26:56

with creatures from another world. Very true. And

26:58

this was a rural area, so who knows

27:00

what could have actually happened there? I mean,

27:02

all we have to go on are some

27:04

newspaper articles and the written accounts of the

27:06

Sutton family themselves. The whole Sutton brood. How

27:08

many of them were there again? There were

27:10

11 of them. Wow.

27:13

Okay. Big family. At that rate, they basically made

27:15

up a good chunk of the town population. And

27:18

they're all crammed into this tiny, tiny house.

27:20

They just had two rooms. It's 700 square

27:23

feet. That's like a New

27:25

York City apartment. It is. And

27:27

imagine you got 11 people crammed in there,

27:29

and they're being attacked, and there's nowhere to

27:31

hide. I had to have

27:33

been completely terrifying because these aliens were

27:35

coming at them, and they're weird and

27:37

tiny and creepy. And stupid. I

27:41

do have to remark, these had to be

27:43

the dumbest aliens in the universe. Yeah, not

27:45

the universe is best and brightest, true. And

27:47

what's weird about them, too, is that they

27:50

don't fit the standard, kind of

27:52

the gray alien cliche that we all

27:54

know from popular culture, from movies, from

27:56

TV. Yeah, I'm trying to picture what

27:58

they looked like. Well, I can actually

28:00

help you out with that. because there

28:02

is a composite sketch made from the

28:04

descriptions provided by members of the Sutton

28:06

family. And listeners, if you

28:08

want to check out our socials at

28:10

Sightings Pod, you can see this for

28:12

yourself. So here it is, McLeod.

28:16

Oh, I don't know if

28:18

that's what I was expecting to see. Yeah,

28:21

it looks like it has a bee head

28:23

with these wide spaced bulging

28:25

eyes, but the crazy thing that

28:29

is really throwing me off here, you know,

28:31

the head kind of does look like a

28:33

guitar pick, but it's got these blade-like ears

28:35

that are massive. It's like, it looks like

28:37

shards of glass were shoved into the back

28:40

of its head, or like bat ears or

28:42

something, super long arms, claws. So

28:44

it looks a little bit like a kid, right, if I'm

28:46

being honest. It's adorable, it's

28:48

kind of adorable. Yeah, it's worth noting that

28:50

these little guys, or rather the whole Kelly

28:53

Hopkinsville encounter, inspired the phrase,

28:55

little green men. Really, this was

28:57

the first time? This was the

28:59

first time, and that's kind of

29:01

weird because no one in the

29:03

Sutton family actually said that these

29:05

things were green. But

29:07

it was all over the newspaper and

29:09

it rocketed into public consciousness, the whole

29:11

idea that this random family

29:13

in Kentucky came face to face

29:16

with little green men. Wow. Yeah,

29:18

the Kelly Hopkinsville encounter also happened

29:20

to inspire one more pretty popular

29:22

thing. So I got one more

29:24

picture for you, McCloud. Okay. Yeah,

29:27

so. Oh, that's adorable.

29:30

Look at that cute little guy. I

29:32

mean, it just keeps getting cuter and

29:34

cuter. He's like this little purple gremlin

29:37

man with diamonds for eyes and a

29:39

ruby chest and little lightning bolt, bladey

29:41

ears. Looks like a

29:43

Pokemon. Oh, that's because it is a Pokemon.

29:45

What? Yeah. Okay,

29:48

wait, so how did we get from Kelly Hopkinsville? The

29:51

Pokemon? Well, there's this Pokemon

29:53

called, Sublayi,

29:59

I don't even know. Sounds delicious. It sounds... I

30:02

don't play Pokemon, I don't know how to say its

30:04

name, so I'm just gonna call it Sableye. And

30:07

in the games, this Pokemon

30:09

is depicted as having the same

30:11

kind of like weird swaying gait

30:13

that the aliens had in this

30:15

story. Huh. I mean, that

30:18

just makes me all the more surprised that

30:20

I hadn't heard of it. Yeah, exactly. So

30:22

we got these little Pokemon running around, and

30:24

this family's, you know, trying to fight them

30:26

off, and they managed to do it. But

30:28

I mean, they came back, didn't they? Right

30:31

at the end of the story? They allegedly

30:33

did, and the family allegedly fought them off

30:35

again. And the next day, this was

30:37

huge news in Kentucky. It was on

30:40

the front page of the Kentucky New

30:42

Era newspaper. Wow. So yeah,

30:44

I think it's difficult to

30:46

say that this family

30:48

didn't encounter something,

30:51

you know, on the farm that night.

30:53

So I mean, were there any corroborating

30:55

stories or physical evidence? Sort

30:58

of, maybe. Sort of, maybe. That's

31:00

not terribly reassuring. Well, that night,

31:02

there were allegedly strange phenomena, I'll

31:04

put it that way, reported in

31:06

the skies all over southeast Kentucky.

31:09

Maybe it was a meteor, maybe it was something

31:11

else altogether, but there are written reports of this

31:14

happening in the skies, even from police

31:16

officers. And on

31:19

the farm itself, the police did find

31:21

a bunch of empty bullet boxes in

31:23

the house, but... Oh,

31:25

no. There's always a but. Yeah, but

31:28

there was no mention of any spent

31:30

shells all over the place or bullet

31:32

holes anywhere in any of the reports

31:35

that would be indicative of what you

31:37

would see if this place had turned

31:39

into an actual war zone. Okay, the

31:41

plot thickens. Yeah. Or thins.

31:44

There you go. Maybe the most damning thing of all, though, is the fact that there

31:47

were allegedly neighbors who

31:50

were probably close enough to have heard

31:52

gunfire if it was actually happening. And

31:54

of all of those people, only

31:56

one reported hearing anything at all. And

31:58

he mistook the four bangs. things that

32:00

he heard for being firecrackers. So,

32:03

I don't know. What

32:05

do you think, McLeod? I just keep thinking about

32:08

these aliens and wondering that of all the things

32:10

they could come down to Earth to do, these

32:13

advanced beings, they basically get involved in

32:15

a bar fight. Yeah. I mean, there

32:18

doesn't seem to be any intelligence at

32:20

all there. Yeah, and this family's unloading

32:22

an entire arsenal on them, theoretically, and

32:24

these little creatures are just

32:26

screeching and not blinking. You know, they just

32:28

keep coming back and peeping over all the

32:30

awnings and, you know, trying to just touch

32:32

people's hair. I mean, to my claws. To

32:35

my claws. So, I mean, from where

32:37

I'm sitting, I just have

32:39

to wonder if what these people saw were even aliens

32:43

at all, because it just doesn't

32:45

make any sense. Exactly. So, if

32:47

they weren't aliens, what do

32:49

you think they could have possibly have seen?

32:52

First place my mind goes is people. Okay.

32:55

Dressing up, fabricating aliens to

32:57

try and, I don't know, settle some property

32:59

dispute, get them off their land, get their

33:02

land. Okay, that's the Scooby-Doo theory.

33:04

I like that. I'm intrigued. It

33:07

is the Scooby-Doo theory. Oh, I

33:09

have to say, this would be

33:11

the most violent episode of Scooby-Doo

33:13

in history. Oh my gosh,

33:15

my childhood is ruined. I never thought about

33:17

this. Scooby-Doo would be a bloodbath. And

33:20

he got shaggy getting tattoos of his running killcat.

33:24

Are you kidding me? The Scooby Snacks

33:26

are people. Okay, on

33:28

a more serious note, I

33:30

don't know if that Scooby-Doo theory works for

33:32

me in this case, McLeod. Why? Well,

33:35

unless those neighbors were in head to toe

33:37

bulletproof body armor, I just don't think it

33:39

would have worked. Right. They'd be slaughtered. They'd

33:42

be dead. I guess so. All right. But

33:44

we need an actual culprit. If it wasn't

33:46

the neighbors and it wasn't the aliens, what

33:48

else do you think it could have possibly

33:51

been? Mineral plant,

33:53

animal, some kind of animal. I don't know, like

33:55

a bear, like a little bear cub. The

33:57

Care Bears. The Care Bears, tiny little bear.

34:00

bears, with big ears and

34:02

giant claws. Ah, yeah, big ears, I guess.

34:04

So I do like this animal theory, though,

34:06

because it turns out there are some

34:08

prominent ufologists who think they

34:10

figured out what the family might have

34:13

actually encountered. Oh, really? So there's a

34:15

theory? There is a theory. And at

34:18

first glance, it seems at least somewhat plausible,

34:20

I suppose. All right. I'm not going to

34:22

tell you what it is, though. I want

34:24

you to guess on this one, because this

34:26

one's... Bears. Bears. It's

34:29

not a bear, I'm sorry. Boo.

34:33

Okay. So here we go. We have

34:35

this animal, and it is 25 inches tall.

34:37

Okay. It has large

34:39

yellow eyes. Okay. A large

34:41

head, light gray underside, which I

34:44

suppose could be construed as the

34:46

kind of silvery sheen that the

34:48

family describes seeing on these aliens.

34:51

Plus, they have spindly legs and

34:53

clawed talons. Based

34:55

on that, do you have any guesses so far? I'm

34:58

leaning towards, like, a lizard.

35:01

Lizard, okay. A

35:03

fat lizard. A really big lizard,

35:05

Brian. Let me clarify, then. This

35:07

thing only has two legs. Okay.

35:10

And most importantly, it has wings

35:13

that, when seen on edge, could

35:16

be mistaken for very long arms.

35:18

No. An owl? You

35:20

got it. What? All

35:22

right. What? I

35:24

mean, owl. It's just an owl. It's a

35:27

country. They've seen owls before. I mean... But

35:29

in the owls and this theory's defense,

35:31

great horned owls can be very

35:34

aggressive in defending their nest. They're

35:36

also nocturnal, and they happen to

35:38

be native to this part of Kentucky. So

35:41

I don't think it would be a

35:43

stretch to have seen one of these

35:45

huge great horned owls in the area.

35:47

Okay. But that does raise a

35:49

pretty big question. Namely,

35:53

wouldn't this rural family know what one of these

35:55

owls looked like? I'm not... You

35:57

know, not mistaken for... I don't know. Creatures from another

35:59

planet. That is a valid point and

36:01

that is my thinking on the whole thing. I

36:04

mean the fact that they supposedly shot them point

36:06

blank and that they didn't die. Right.

36:08

Bulletproof owls. Bulletproof owls, yes. The

36:10

new species has yet to be

36:12

discovered. Okay, so if

36:14

it's not little baby bears and it's not Scooby

36:17

Doo neighbors and it's not owls,

36:20

then who could it be? McCloud,

36:22

you're killing me. I'm

36:25

sorry. I'm sorry. I'm fired.

36:27

I'm firing myself. First episode and I'm

36:29

gone. But where my mind

36:32

keeps going is just sort of human

36:34

nature and storytelling and just these people

36:36

and whether or not their account can

36:39

be trusted. Especially, I mean since this

36:41

guy like worked at a carnival, you

36:44

know, that raises flags right there. But

36:46

I can imagine this guy who's, you know,

36:48

lived in a small town in Kentucky, who's

36:51

left, who's seeking a more interesting life. And,

36:54

you know, returns and sucked

36:56

in by the boredom and spun a tall

36:58

tale to make life more interesting. Yeah, and

37:01

this is a hell of a story. And I think

37:03

that's what makes these so interesting is that after all

37:05

these years, we're still sitting here debating what might have

37:08

happened on that night. I mean, part

37:10

of me wants to believe, still

37:12

wants to believe, even despite all

37:14

those more plausible

37:16

explanations. Exactly. And

37:18

maybe over the course of, you know,

37:21

this series, we'll find one that we

37:23

really think happened. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That

37:25

blows our minds. I mean, I think

37:27

that's what's appealing about all these stories.

37:30

Exactly. Exactly. But we want

37:32

to take a moment right now to thank you

37:35

for listening to this very special peek

37:37

at sightings. The series that

37:39

takes you inside the world's most incredible

37:41

supernatural events. Want more alien

37:43

stories, ghost stories, creature

37:46

stories. We've got more episodes

37:48

out right now. So look for

37:50

sightings on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever

37:52

you get your podcasts. We cannot wait

37:54

to see you. And in the meantime,

37:57

keep an eye out for those owls. Next

38:00

time you hear a whoo, run! Thanks

38:03

for listening, everyone. See you all next time.

38:30

Sightings is presented by Reverb and Q-Code.

38:32

If you like the show, be sure

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