As expected, I've chewed on (and chewed up) the Barker article. I have to say Barker proved himself an even more egregious distorter of documented evidence than Frank Edwards.
Having duly read your observations several times and mulled over same...
Just a tremendous contribution and resolves many of the inherent questions.
Really fantastic endeavour and helps to further fight our way through the tangled web we have to contend with!
At present, I am only trusting such as the following... and it's reliant on newspaper reports!
Not sure if I have posted this before... a summary of what seems to be all the earliest accounts re shots fired:
'Kentucky New Era'
22 August
"...and by one of the little men pressed his face against the window and the shotgun was fired through the window. The face disappeared.
The men decided to go outside and see if the visitor had been hit. Taylor was in front and when he emerged from the front door, a huge hand reached down from the low roof above the door and grabbed him by the hair. He pulled away, and the two men went on out of the house.
One of the strange little men was in a nearby tree, another on top of the house. A blast from Sutton’s shotgun knocked another one of the men down but he did not appear hurt. He disappeared in the darkness.
Taylor reportedly opened fire on other members of the invading party, also with little effect".
(End)
'Madisonville Messenger'
22 August
"Taylor started to step out the front door and one of the creatures reached down from the roof and grabbed at him.
"Lucky" Sutton, armed with a single-barrel .12 gauge shotgun, stepped out and shot the little man off the roof. The shot kocked the strange fellow down, but apparently didn't harm him".
(End)
'Evansville Press'
22 August
"Elmer Sutton said he shot at the creatures 17 times with a point .12 gauge shotgun. He said his brother, John, used four boxes of .22 shells in his pistol, shooting at the little men.
He said that when bullets hit the creatures they bounced off "like from a concrete pavement."
"I shot one twice," Elmer said. He said he was about 30 feet from the creature when he shot it with the shotgun and it flipped over and onto the grass then fell to the ground. He said the creature jumped up again and ran off.
He said John Sutton shot one of the creatures with his .22 and the bullets just glanced off the body".
(End)
'Madisonville Messenger'
23 August
"'Lucky' Sutton 26 reported shooting two of the little men with a shotgun Sunday night, knocking the creatures down but apparently not hurting them".
(End)
'The Indinapolis Star'
23 August
"About five feet from the door of the house he stopped and retreated when the Suttons fired a shotgun off into the air. But soon he returned again, and the Suttons fired at him. He fell down from the blast, and then ran off into the fields".
(End)
'Nashville Banner'
24 August
"Sutton and his brother were reported to have shot at one of the men who looked through a window, apparently wounding him with shotgun and pistol fire, Cowherd said.
The wounded man allegedly got up and ran into a nearby field".
(End)
Been going over this again the past couple of days and keep thinking there's a clue here, somewhere...
This seems unique:
'The Indinapolis Star'
23 August
"About five feet from the door of the house he stopped and retreated when the Suttons fired a shotgun off into the air. But soon he returned again, and the Suttons fired at him. He fell down from the blast, and then ran off into the fields".
(End)
"About five feet from the door of the house he stopped and retreated...".
Front door or back door? Where is any other evidence about one of our entities being only 5 feet away and then 'retreating'?