[OVNI-SCIENCES] Re: Kelly/Hopkinsville, 50ème anniversaire

[JLRIV1 at aol.com]

Bonsoir à tous,,
 
Dans quelques jours, ce sera le 50ème anniversaire de la fameuse  "fusillade" 
de Kelly/Hopkinsville, dans le Kentucky. Cette célèbre observation  
d'humanoïdes avait fait l'objet d'une très bonne enquête, quelques mois plus  tard, 
d'Isabel Davis, l'une des ufologues les plus brillantes et les plus  minutieuses 
que j'ai jamais eu le plaisir de rencontrer (elle a publié son  enquête dans 
un livre co-écrit avec Ted Bloecher: "Close encounters at Kelly and  others of 
1955", CUFOS, 1978) et "résolue" par le français Yann Mège en 2000,  lors d'un 
séjour sur place.
Je n'ai pas le temps de traduire tout l'article, que je vous mets ci-après,  
mais l'un des enfants Lankford, présent mais qui n'a rien vu car sa mère 
l'avait  fait se réfugier sous le lit, confirme le récit des faits, insiste que 
l'on ne  buvait jamais dans la maison Lankford car la mère était très religieuse 
- pour  avoir été moi-même dans cette partie du Kentucky , je peux confirmer 
qu'il y a  encore beaucoup de protestants totalement abstinents et des comtés  
"dry". Il reconnaît que son demi-frère buvait parfois et était connu pour  
raconter des histoires mais que, ce soir-là, il était sobre et que c'est sa mère  
qui a vu la première les êtres. Ce n'était pas des chats, des singes ou des  
oiseaux; les êtres étaient argentés, non pas verts. Il n'y a eu que quelques  
coups de feu tirés.
L'article contient aussi beaucoup de détails sur la vie à l'époque.
 
Jean-Luc Rivera
 
 
http://www.kentuckynewera.com/articles/stories/public/200508/13/04vC_news.ht
ml

Saturday,  August 13, 2005
Hopkinsville, Kentucky
Kentucky New Era

The Kelly  Œcommotion'
Life hasn't been easy since the aliens came calling

By  Jennifer P. Brown

Kelly, a tiny town about five miles north of  Hopkinsville, was made famous 
by the Aug. 21, 1955, report of an alien  invasion.

If Lonnie Lankford had been a little older, his mother might  not have pushed 
him under the bed that night she thought she saw an alien  outside her 
bedroom window. 

It was the evening of Aug. 21, 1955, and  Glennie Lankford was trying to 
protect the children in the little farmhouse off  Old Madisonville Road at Kelly. 
So, Lonnie, who was 12 years old, was scrunched  under the mattress with his 
brother, Charlton, 10, and sister, Mary,  5.

He never saw the little creatures that frightened his mother and sent  his 
older half-brother, Elmer "Lucky" Sutton, running for a shotgun.

But  Lonnie Lankford heard plenty, both that night and in the days and weeks 
that  followed, and he remains clear about what did and did not happened that 
night 50  years ago.

His mother saw a space creature outside her window, not a cat  or a monkey or 
a bird. There were more in the yard and on the roof.

The  creatures were silver, not green. They were small, about 3 feet tall, 
and had  webbed hands and feet, and big round eyes.

Shots were fired at the  creatures, but there was no raging gun battle that 
went on for hours.  

Most important, Lonnie says, no one was drinking at the house that  night. No 
beer, or liquor or moonshine was allowed inside. That was Glennie  Lankford's 
rule. 

"I remember the commotion and the hollerin' and  screaming," Lonnie, 62, said 
Friday afternoon. "I didn't see them, but my momma  did, and I believe her
because she was a religious woman and she wouldn't  lie."

The Legend of Kelly

Today, the world knows the Kelly story  as the tale of the Little Green Men, 
or the Kelly Green Men.

In the days  following the first news story of the family's report, published 
on Aug. 22,  1955, in the Kentucky New Era, the world beat a path to Kelly, a
tiny  community about 5 miles north of Hopkinsville.

The New York Daily News  reported on its front page, "Spacemen Take 
Kentucky." A headline in the Los  Angeles Times read, "Kentucky Gains New Fame." 

Someone -- maybe a  headline writer -- couldn't resist the word play on Kelly 
and Green, and the  little men changed colors, from silver to green. (A 
French journalist, Yann  Mege, who traveled to Hopkinsville in 2000 to research the 
story, has theorized  that the phrase "little green men" originated from the 
Kelly story.)

The  family, embarrassed by reports that they were drunk or simply pulling an 
 elaborate prank that night, rejected the attention and turned away 
reporters.  While the world laughed, they were often insulted.

The Kelly incident  became a legend that grew over time. It remains a classic 
chapter in the U.S.  Air Force's "Project Blue Book," a catalogue of more
than 12,000 UFO  sightings in the United States between 1952 and 1969.

A different time  

In the summer of 1955, air conditioning was rare in Christian County  homes 
and highly prized in public places such as theaters, stores and  churches.
People spent a good amount of time simply trying to endure the heat  and 
humidity, said William T. Turner, county history. Fans blew in hallways and  at 
night people often slept, or languished, on pallets on their  porches.

The First Presbyterian Church in Hopkinsville was running a  newspaper ad 
that touted its air-conditioned sanctuary. Window air conditioning  units were 
selling for $169 at Keach Furniture.

Many people in  Hopkinsville had black-and-white television sets and received 
antenna signals  for three stations, channels 4, 5 and 8, all out of 
Nashville, Tenn. At 7  o'clock on Saturday nights, they watched "The Lawrence Welk 
Show." 

Six  movie theaters, including three drive-ins, were showing westerns, 
romance  stories, monster movies and science fiction. The Alhambra had "Rainbow Over 
 Texas," starring Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Trigger. The Family Drive-In was 
 showing "Daltons Ride Again," and the Skyway Drive-In had "Revenge of the  
Creature" and "Flying Saucers."

The Shrine Circus came to town, featuring  clowns, dancing dogs, elephants 
and ponies. Hopkinsville resident Margaret Rash  played the organ for the
circus. 

There were parties at restaurants --  the Coach and Four in Hopkinsville and 
Gray's Steak House out on Madisonville  Road.

One day, people stood in line to apply for jobs at the new Moe  Light Plant 
of Thomas Industries.

At Buddies restaurant next to the fire  station on East Ninth Street, people 
paid 10 cents for a  hamburger.

Former Gov. A.B. "Happy" Chandler campaigned at the courthouse  for another 
term in office. His opponent, Bert Combs, courted voters at the  Memorial 
Building. 

Dalton Bros. Brick was developing a new subdivision  on South Jessup.

Almost everybody in Christian County, even the ones in  Hopkinsville, still 
had a connection to farming. They worked on farms, or in  tobacco warehouses, 
or they worked for businesses that couldn't survive without  the money 
generated by farming.

Many families, like Lonnie Lankford's,  lived on small farms and lived a 
modest life. 

The Kelly sighting  

At Glennie Lankford's house, there was no indoor plumbing. There was an  
outhouse in the back. Water had to be toted from an outdoor well.

Billy  Ray Taylor, a visitor from Pennsylvania and friend of "Lucky" Sutton, 
was going  to the outhouse when he saw a light streak through the sky, said
Lonnie, who  related the story Friday at his home off U.S. 68 near the 
eastern edge of the  Hopkinsville city limits.

Taylor saw a spaceship land in a field of  sagebrush, but he didn't tell 
anybody what he saw when he returned to the  house.

Then Lonnie's mother screamed. She had seen a space creature  through the 
bedroom window. "Lucky" ran for his double-barrel shotgun and fired  at the 
creature. It retreated, but was not hurt.

Stepping outside on the  small front stoop, "Lucky" felt a tug at his hair. 
One of the creatures had  reached for him from the roof, Lonnie said.

"Lucky" backed into the yard  and saw four or five aliens on the roof. He 
fired a few shots. Again, the  creatures seemed to retreat but were not hurt.

Later, according to the  family's story, everybody in the house, including 
Glennie, the three children,  "Lucky" and his brother, J.C. Sutton, and Billy 
Ray, loaded up in a couple of  vehicles and headed for Hopkinsville.

At the Hopkinsville Police  Department, they asked Police Chief Russell 
Greenwell for help.

Police  officers, Kentucky state troopers and soldiers from Fort Campbell 
converged at  the Lankford place that night and searched for a spaceship and 
aliens. They  found nothing, according to the report in the U.S. Air Force "Blue 
Book."  

Over the years, Lonnie has heard the speculation that his family  actually 
saw some escaped monkeys from the Shrine circus. He laughs at the  suggestion. 

"I ain't ever seen a silver monkey, or a green one," he  said.

Lonnie concedes that his older brother, "Lucky" had a reputation  for telling 
tales and that he drank. But on that night, "Lucky" wasn't drinking  and he 
didn't invent a story about space creatures.

"He was one of the  biggest liars in Hopkinsville, but he didn't lie about 
that," Lonnie  said.

To this day, Lonnie wishes he had not crawled under the bed after  his mother 
screamed. 

"I wish I had seen one of them, but I didn't and  I'm not going to lie about 
it," he said. 

It's hard to tell, Lonnie said,  how many people have made money off the 
Kelly Green Men since that night in  1955. It seems like everybody but his family 
made something off the  story.

"Here I sit, broke and poor, and I ain't made nothing off it,"  said Lonnie, 
who is disabled after years of manual labor. He worked so many  different 
jobs, it's hard to list them all... roofer, gas station attendant,  truck driver, 
saw mill hand.

But Lonnie still has a sense of humor about  his family's brush with fame.
Three years ago, he went to a Halloween dance  at the Hopkinsville Elks Club.
He dressed as an alien. Hardly anyone knew the  story behind the mask and 
cape that night. 

Lonnie has been looking for  his costume this week. Next weekend, for the 
Little Green Men Festival's Alien  Ball, he'd like to go as an alien.