The Goblins of Kentucky: The 1955 Hopkinsville Encounter That Still Has No Explanation Part 1

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to the Strange History Podcast,

0:04 Speaker 1: the show where history insists on being normal and then

0:08 Speaker 1: Kentucky absolutely refuses. Tonight, we're returning to one of America's

0:13 Speaker 1: strangest encounters, the Goblins of Kentucky. But we're going deeper, literally,

0:19 Speaker 1: because the story doesn't end in a farmhouse yard in

0:22 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five. It winds into caves, into folklore older

0:27 Speaker 1: than state lines, and into places where the light doesn't

0:30 Speaker 1: follow you. So take a breath, grab a flashlight, and

0:34 Speaker 1: maybe don't whistle underground.

0:36 Speaker 2: A night that should have stayed ordinary.

0:39 Speaker 1: On August twenty first, nineteen fifty five, near Hopkinsville, just

0:44 Speaker 1: outside the small community of Kelly, eleven people gathered at

0:47 Speaker 1: the Sutton farmhouse. It was humid, quiet, southern summer stillness.

0:54 Speaker 1: Billy Ray Taylor stepped outside for water and saw glowing

0:57 Speaker 1: objects streak across the sky and drop into the woods

1:00 Speaker 1: with purpose. Not a meteor, not drifting debris, but something

1:04 Speaker 1: that chose where to land. When he came back inside,

1:07 Speaker 1: breathless and pale, the room laughed it off. Kentucky does that.

1:12 Speaker 1: Then the dogs screamed.

1:14 Speaker 2: The first goblin.

1:16 Speaker 1: What appeared from the tree line. Wasn't tall or imposing.

1:19 Speaker 1: It didn't roar or charge. It hovered three to four

1:23 Speaker 1: feet tall, long spindly arms, clawed hands, large pointed ears,

1:29 Speaker 1: eyes that glowed yellow like lanterns, turned inward. Witnesses later

1:33 Speaker 1: said it didn't seem aggressive, just curious, as if observing

1:37 Speaker 1: a science experiment that had suddenly noticed it was being watched.

1:41 Speaker 1: The family fired, and the creature flipped backward, like gravity

1:45 Speaker 1: had briefly lost interest.

1:47 Speaker 2: Four hours of the uninvited.

1:50 Speaker 1: This wasn't one creature. They came in waves, peeking through windows,

1:55 Speaker 1: crawling onto the roof, hovering near the tree line. Every

1:58 Speaker 1: time they were shot, they retreated, not injured, not bleeding,

2:03 Speaker 1: just inconvenienced. Witnesses described metallic sounds when bullets struck them,

2:09 Speaker 1: as if they were armored or not entirely solid in

2:12 Speaker 1: the way we understand. And then they came back again

2:16 Speaker 1: and again and again. Four hours passed like this, a strange,

2:22 Speaker 1: exhausting siege where the attackers never attacked. That detail matters.

2:27 Speaker 1: Predators attack, animals flee, but watchers linger.

2:33 Speaker 2: Law enforcement meets the unexplainable.

2:37 Speaker 1: When the family fled to the police station in Hopkinsville,

2:40 Speaker 1: officers expected drunks or pranksters. Instead, they found terrified people,

2:45 Speaker 1: including children whose stories matched perfectly. No alcohol, no conflicting accounts,

2:51 Speaker 1: no motive. Back at the farmhouse, officers found dozens of

2:56 Speaker 1: bullet holes, shell casings everywhere, scratches on wind frames, no

3:01 Speaker 1: signs of hoax materials, and yet no creatures. Several officers

3:06 Speaker 1: later admitted they felt watched while standing in the dark

3:09 Speaker 1: around the house. Kentucky knights can do that. But the

3:13 Speaker 1: story doesn't end above ground. Here's where things get much

3:17 Speaker 1: stranger and much older. Kentucky is riddled with caves more

3:22 Speaker 1: than any other US state, and long before nineteen fifty five,

3:26 Speaker 1: people in this region told stories about small beings that

3:30 Speaker 1: lived underground, not aliens, not ghosts, cave folk.

3:35 Speaker 2: The goblins of the caves.

3:38 Speaker 1: Throughout Kentucky and the Appalachian region, there are decades, even centuries,

3:42 Speaker 1: of stories describing small humanoid creatures living in cave systems.

3:48 Speaker 1: Pale or gray skin, large eyes adapted to darkness, long limbs,

3:53 Speaker 1: and strange movements, a tendency to observe rather than attack.

3:58 Speaker 1: In particular, stories cluster around areas near major cave networks,

4:03 Speaker 1: including the massive system beneath mammoth cave. Local legends speak

4:07 Speaker 1: of lantern like eyes appearing deep underground, echoing footsteps where

4:12 Speaker 1: no humans were present, tools or belongings disappearing inside caves,

4:17 Speaker 1: a feeling of being followed quietly. Some early settlers referred

4:22 Speaker 1: to them as knockers, similar to European mind spirits. Others

4:28 Speaker 1: simply called them the little ones and warned children never

4:32 Speaker 1: to mock cave entrances or throw stones inside.

4:36 Speaker 2: A chilling connection.

4:39 Speaker 1: Now Here's where the Hopkinsville encounter takes on a different shape.

4:42 Speaker 1: The goblins didn't speak, didn't attack, didn't pursue when the

4:48 Speaker 1: family fled, seemed unfamiliar with windows, doors, and rooftops, almost

4:53 Speaker 1: as if they weren't used to houses, almost as if

4:56 Speaker 1: they didn't normally live above ground. Some researchers believe the

5:00 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five incident wasn't an invasion, but an accidental

5:04 Speaker 1: surface encounter, a disturbance, a crash, something, forcing cave dwelling

5:10 Speaker 1: entities upward for a short time, and when the threat

5:13 Speaker 1: humans with guns became too intense, they retreated downward.

5:18 Speaker 2: Aliens or ancient neighbors.

5:21 Speaker 1: Of course, UFO Researchers argue the goblins were extraterrestrials, but

5:26 Speaker 1: folklorists raise an unsettling alternative, What if they weren't visitors,

5:31 Speaker 1: What if they were locals. Appalachian folklore is full of

5:35 Speaker 1: warnings about beings who live beneath the hills. Avoid prolonged contact,

5:41 Speaker 1: appear briefly, then vanish for decades, react poorly to loud

5:45 Speaker 1: disturbances and violence. Sound familiar. Even the glowing eyes often

5:51 Speaker 1: cited as alien, are common in cave adapted animals and

5:55 Speaker 1: in folklore describing subterranean humanoids.

5:59 Speaker 3: Tonight's This episode is brought to you by Cave Safe flashlights.

6:03 Speaker 3: Regular flashlights illuminate the dark ours also help you not

6:07 Speaker 3: make eye contact with anything that shouldn't have eyes. Features

6:11 Speaker 3: include extra wide beam, panic strobe, and a polite reminder

6:15 Speaker 3: not to throw rocks into holes. Cave Safe. If it

6:19 Speaker 3: lives underground, let it stay there.

6:21 Speaker 2: Why Kentucky keeps its secrets.

6:25 Speaker 1: After nineteen fifty five, sightings faded, but stories didn't. People

6:30 Speaker 1: near cave systems still report unexplained sounds at night, shapes

6:35 Speaker 1: watching from sinkholes, dogs refusing to approach cave mouths, a

6:39 Speaker 1: sense of being tolerated, not welcomed. Kentucky doesn't deny its goblins,

6:46 Speaker 1: it simply coexists with them. So tonight, dear listeners, remember

6:52 Speaker 1: not everything strange comes from the stars. Some things come

6:56 Speaker 1: from beneath your feet. And if Kentucky's goblins taught us anything,

7:00 Speaker 1: it's this. Sometimes the oldest mysteries don't want to hurt you.

7:05 Speaker 1: They just want to be left alone in the dark

7:08 Speaker 1: where they belong. I'm Amy and this has been the

7:12 Speaker 1: Strange History Podcast, where history doesn't end at the surface.

7:17 Speaker 1: Sleep well, and if you hear knocking underground, don't knock back.