UFOlogists regard it as one of the most significant and well-documented cases in the history of UFO incidents, while skeptics maintain there was no actual physical evidence that the encounter ever took place and the reports were due to "the effects of excitement" and misidentification of natural phenomena such as meteors and owls.
On the evening of August 21, 1955, five adults and seven children arrived at the Hopkinsville police station claiming that small alien creatures from a spaceship had been attacking their farmhouse and that they had been holding them off with gunfire "for nearly four hours".
Two of the adults, Elmer Sutton and Billy Ray Taylor, claimed they had been shooting at a few short, dark figures who repeatedly popped up at the doorway or peered into windows.
Estimates of the size of the alleged creatures varied from 2 to 4 feet (61 to 122 cm), and details such as "large pointed ears, clawlike hands, eyes that glowed yellow and spindly legs" later appeared in various media.
[1][4] Psychologists Rodney Schmaltz and Scott Lilienfeld cite the alleged incident as an example of pseudoscience and an "extraordinary claim" to help students develop critical thinking skills.
Although contemporary newspaper stories reported that "all officials appeared to agree that there was no drinking involved",[5] Schmaltz and Lilienfeld suggest that intoxication may have played a part in the sighting.
According to Nickell, meteor sightings also occurred at the time that could explain Billy Ray Taylor's claim that he saw "a bright light streak across the sky and disappear beyond a tree line some distance from the house".