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MYS403: A quiet Kentucky night erupted into chaos when a family reported being surrounded by strange, glowing figures that shrugged off gunfire and kept returning until dawn. In this episode, Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli walk through the infamous 1955 Kelly–Hopkinsville UFO encounter, sometimes called the case of the “Kentucky Goblins.”

The discussion carefully weighs what the witnesses claimed against what investigators found. Were these terrified people victims of a hoax, hallucination, or simple misidentification—or did something genuinely unexplained occur? Jimmy examines popular skeptical explanations, including escaped animals and owls, and explains why each struggles to match the full range of reported details.

They also consider paranormal possibilities, including extraterrestrial visitors, and Jimmy explains why Catholic theology has room for aliens—and why there’s no evidence here for darker, demonic explanations. This episode highlights how fear, consistency, and physical clues shape investigations into extraordinary claims, and why some mysteries resist easy answers. Whether the Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter was misunderstood or truly otherworldly, it remains one of the strangest close-encounter reports in American history.

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Links for this episode:

• Davis and Bloecher’s book Close Encounter at Kelly
• Joe Nickell’s article Siege of ‘Little Green Men’ (subscription required)
• Monkey noises
• Chimp noises
• All About Birds on Great Horned Owl sounds

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Chapters:

• 0:23 – Intro
• 1:43 – Going to Kentucky
• 3:57 – The newspaper report
• 13:43 – Little green men or goblins
• 14:40 – Hopkinsville
• 15:58 – The Sutton family
• 22:04 – The encounter begins
• 33:51 – Going to the police
• 40:30 – The second encounter
• 43:19 – Thank you to Patrons
• 43:50 – Sponsor: Holy Terror Quickened, by John Dougherty
• 44:40 – Become a Sponsor
• 45:40 – Theories
• 46:40 – Reason Perspective: Mental illness
• 48:11 – Hallucination
• 51:35 – Hoax
• 1:01:17 – Self-protection hoax
• 1:03:13 – Publicity hoax
• 1:04:20 – Profit hoax
• 1:05:06 – Amusement hoax
• 1:07:19 – Misidentification
• 1:27:27 – A weird encounter
• 1:29:28 – Paranormal
• 1:31:07 – Faith Perspective
• 1:32:26 – Bottom Line
• 1:33:07 – Further Resources
• 1:33:41 – Mysterious Feedback: #392 Marita Lorenz
• 1:47:53 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:48:30 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:48:35 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:49:10 – Thanks to Alix Murray
• 1:49:15 – Next Time: The Ghost of the Banta Inn
• 1:49:39 – Follow the show
• 1:49:50 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:49:58 – Show notes
• 1:50:05 – Become a Patron
• 1:50:13 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:50:36 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 1:50:52 – Outro

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