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The Shriners group that historically brought a circus to the Madisonville / Hopkinsville area is the Hadi Shrine in Evansville. There's now an Al Menah shrine in Madisonville, but it wasn't founded until 2004.

We need to determine which circus was appearing as the Shrine Circus in Hopkinsville in August 1955....
The Hadi Shrine Circus in Evansville have confirmed that the performance in Hopkinsville would have come under the jurisdiction of the Rizpah Shrine Circus in Madisonville.

Now there's a sentence I never thought I would write.

I have just been in contact with them, regarding a request about my research into family ancestry and started off by asking if a program for the 18-20 August, 1955 performances might be available.

If so and no monkeys, then end of quest.

If there were, which I believe we all now anticipate was typical of the times, then I shall raise the subject matter delicately.

How exactly do you approach this though...

"Did you lose any monkeys for a short time on the way back from Hopkinsville"?

"Is there a chance they were either mistaken for aliens or goblins"?

They are just going to think I am an absolute idiot.

Should there be an afterlife, I can imagine Charles Fort having a right good chuckle at all this. - 'Stick with it though and lest forget, frogs do fall from the sky'. :)
 
The Hadi Shrine Circus in Evansville have confirmed that the performance in Hopkinsville would have come under the jurisdiction of the Rizpah Shrine Circus in Madisonville. ...
I have just been in contact with them, regarding a request about my research into family ancestry and started off by asking if a program for the 18-20 August, 1955 performances might be available. ...
First things first ...

The Shrine Circus organized by the Shriners in Madisonville was indeed called the Rizpah Shrine Circus. There was a Rizpah Shrine Circus visit to Hopkinsville in 1955, but the show dates are uncertain.

Earlier posts in this thread suggest the circus was in town during 19 - 21 August. Have you found something indicating the dates were the 18th through the 20th instead?

The most important objective is to confirm the Rizpah Shrine Circus was in Hopkinsville during August 1955 and the dates when the circus performances occurred.

If possible, it would be informative to know the Rizpah Shrine Circus route itinerary during August 1955. Such route schedules were often published within the trade. It could prove important to know where the circus came from and went before and after any Hopkinsville performances.

The third thing that occurs to me is to determine whether the Rizpah Shrine Circus was a transient show organized entirely by the Rizpah Shrine versus an independent circus company contracted to perform under the Rizpah banner. If an independent circus company had been contracted we need to know who it was.

Finally ... It would be interesting to learn what acts were included in the Rizpah Shrine Circus in Hopkinsville in August 1955. If Rizpah assembled the show, there might be records in the shrine archives. If the show was the work of a contracted circus company we might be able to track down their performers from circus archives if the Rizpah records don't cover that issue.

Jinx the famed ice-skating (etc.) chimp was transitioning from TV appearances to circus appearances during the last half of 1955.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinx_(chimpanzee)

According to the Wikipedia listing of known appearances the "Darlene and Jinx" act is last documented as appearing in its Chicago area TV show on 31 July. The act is recorded as having appeared at Rizpah Shrine Circuses in Madisonville in October and December 1955.
 
If so and no monkeys, then end of quest.
If there were, which I believe we all now anticipate was typical of the times, then I shall raise the subject matter delicately.
How exactly do you approach this though...
"Did you lose any monkeys for a short time on the way back from Hopkinsville"?
I wouldn't limit consideration to monkeys and / or apes alone. There might be some other animal that fits the bill.

If there had been no Hopkinsville performance(s) and / or no Shrine Circus movements through Hopkinsville on US 41 in late August there's no reason to ask about losing any animal(s).

Another thing occurred to me ... If there had been monkeys / apes / whatever scheduled for transit out of Hopkinsville on the 21st or 22nd they may have been available for an appearance in Kelly without having been "lost" at all. :thought:
 
I wouldn't limit consideration to monkeys and / or apes alone. There might be some other animal that fits the bill.

If there had been no Hopkinsville performance(s) and / or no Shrine Circus movements through Hopkinsville on US 41 in late August there's no reason to ask about losing any animal(s).

Another thing occurred to me ... If there had been monkeys / apes / whatever scheduled for transit out of Hopkinsville on the 21st or 22nd they may have been available for an appearance in Kelly without having been "lost" at all. :thought:
Good heavens you mean it might have been a booking?
Even if it turns out there were apes of some sort available, they do require handlers around to cue them for performance - just like when you see a dog in a film "acting" there's someone right next to the camera giving it signals . That ice-skating chimp had a few people around him giving him hand signals and saying "here Jinx " and holding bits of fruit. You don't just says to them "hey guys, look cute and get on the roof."
 
Good heavens you mean it might have been a booking?
Even if it turns out there were apes of some sort available, they do require handlers around to cue them for performance - just like when you see a dog in a film "acting" there's someone right next to the camera giving it signals . That ice-skating chimp had a few people around him giving him hand signals and saying "here Jinx " and holding bits of fruit. You don't just says to them "hey guys, look cute and get on the roof."
hmmm I think this would require a fifth conspirator... but.... plausible it may be....

Hmmm didn't one of the reports have a discussion of "lights in the field"... but no description of what they were? Animal handler with a flashlight perhaps?
 
Hmmm didn't one of the reports have a discussion of "lights in the field"... but no description of what they were? Animal handler with a flashlight perhaps?
Yes. The report of lights in the field out back of the Lankford / Sutton farmhouse came from a neighbor. The report was relayed to Davis via Taylor's hunting companion of the 22nd, Taylor, and Ledwith.
But one statement by a neighbor, though it comes to us fourth-hand, is interesting. It was made to the friend with whom Taylor went hunting Monday morning. The friend told Taylor who repeated it to Mr. Ledwith. This witness lived about a quarter-mile north of the Suttons. Early Sunday evening he had noticed lights moving in the fields behind the farmhouse, and thought the Suttons' pigs had gotten loose and were being rounded up. "I thought maybe I ought to go and help them. But I'm glad I didn't--I might have been shot." What is interesting is the time of the observation: the man was certain he saw the lights between 7:30 and 8 o 'clock--that is, between the time of the "landing" and the time when the creatures first approached the farmhouse.
Davis (D & B report, p. 63)
 
Yes. The report of lights in the field out back of the Lankford / Sutton farmhouse came from a neighbor. The report was relayed to Davis via Taylor's hunting companion of the 22nd, Taylor, and Ledwith.

Davis (D & B report, p. 63)
yeah, that's probably the account I was thinking of. It's one of those things were I have to try to match it to the previously established timeline of events... and I don't think any of the occupants of the house would have been in the field like that.
 
... and I don't think any of the occupants of the house would have been in the field like that.
Right ... Starting with Taylor's sighting of the UFO / object overflight around sunset no account claims any of the residents ventured outside any farther than the immediate front and back yard areas.

Multiple accounts mention that during the following day residents (most particularly Taylor) would not go farther away from the house than the fence rows separating the front / back yards from the adjacent fields and overgrown area to the rear of the house area. The police (etc.) investigators and sightseers are the only parties cited as venturing beyond the yards.

A peripheral note involving forays away from the house ... If you check the map of the house area (posted earlier) you'll see the outhouse was situated at the far corner of the back yard. There's no mention of anyone going to the outhouse throughout the evening / night of the 21st / 22nd.
 
... Way too many nuances for a hoax:

- small creatures climbing trees, running on all four limbs, glowing/metallic, with glowing yellow eyes, 'lighting up' at times, making scratching noises on the roof, performing backflips when shot, floating away when hit ...

As an outright hoax, or prank, how much of same was necessary? ...
These multifarious descriptive tidbits might be construed as 'nuances' - remarkably specific details insinuating facticity or tangibility for that which was described. However ...

They can be just as easily construed as a jumbled cluster of attributes and attributions reflecting as much panic as perceptiveness.

Let's not read too much into the number of features and actions cited, as if that alone necessarily affords weight to the observations being reported. For example, using some of the items you cited ...

There's not a single account that mentions the visitors climbing anything. The visitor seen in a tree was seen already perched in the tree. All other accounts of the visitors moving to a higher position involve some sort of flying, leaping or floating. There's only one such reported movement that resulted in the visitor being observed landing in an elevated position - the vaguely-defined kitchen roof event in which the visitor was blown or scared off the roof and landed on a fence (or maybe a barrel).

The earliest accounts don't exactly match in describing how visitors scurried away. All of them generally indicate the visitors dropped into a more prone sort of position. Some claim they scrambled away using all four limbs, some only mention the forelimbs being the primary visible instruments of locomotion, and at least one specifically claimed the lower limbs weren't used but rather were dragged along behind.

The glowing feature is mentioned as a harbinger of the visitor's arrival in the first sighting, but the visitor isn't always described as glowing persistently. It's interesting to note that descriptions of sightings later and later into the evening mention less and less about glowing.

The allusions to metallic appearance aren't identical at all. In some cases 'metallic' is invoked only in terms of describing visitors' attire as having a dull grey color. In other cases the visitors (themselves and / or their attire) are described as shiny like metal, but the accounts vary in describing this metallic quality as (e.g.) "shiny", "chrome", "nickel-plated", or even "aluminum foil." The accounts don't even match in claiming whether this metallic aspect pertains to the creatures, their attire, or both. There's not even any consistency in claiming whether the visitors were clothed or not.

The 'lighting up' / flaring bit is widely mentioned as a general characteristic, but it isn't mentioned as having occurred at any time within any specific episode or in response to any specific action. The stimulus / prompt for this flaring is variously attributed to times the visitors shouted, the visitors were shouted *at*, the visitors were or should have been hit by the gunfire, or whenever the visitors landed on the ground. The claim the visitors flared when they shouted conflicts with the general claims they made no sounds whatsoever.

The scratching on the roof bit is mentioned only in relation to introducing the kitchen roof event. The kitchen roof event is mentioned in only a minority of the accounts. The front door 'grabbing at Taylor' event is universally mentioned, but without a single allusion to the visitor's being heard moving around on the roof overhang.

The characterization of 'back-flips' is more specific than what was actually quoted in most accounts.

It is not the case that any / all visitors presumably hit by gunfire floated away. Some floated to the ground and then scurried off. Some (e.g., the one Lucky shot off the overhang and over the roof's peak) simply disappear from view.

Then there's the fact that Ms. Glennie's documented descriptions of what she personally saw are quite different from the descriptions everyone else gave the various authorities and reporters. One version has it that she saw only circular glows (halos?), with no additional details about the figures themselves. Her own descriptions of figures don't mention any movement whatsoever, and with one exception (the "clawy hands" at the window in the 0330 sighting) don't even describe a specifically humanoid figure or silhouette at all.

The wealth of isolated tidbits doesn't add up to a solidly consistent description of the visitors. Such consistency wouldn't occur until the following day, when Ledwith generated the women's sketch which then served as the seed for the actual shooters' additions and glosses.
 
The Shrine Circus organized by the Shriners in Madisonville was indeed called the Rizpah Shrine Circus. There was a Rizpah Shrine Circus visit to Hopkinsville in 1955, but the show dates are uncertain.
Absolutely and as you have knowledgely highlighted, the background here has a number of tangents.

Aside from that one newspaper reference cited in post #561, I can't locate any local account of this Hopkinsville three night performance at all.

Said reference does state: "proceeds are to be used for crippled children" and that appears to have been the chosen charitable aim at the time:

www.forteanmedia.com/Messenger_01.pdf

I have made contact with the Rizpah Shrine and let's see if we can resolve this issue, at least.

Monkey business related to our case... so unlikely, yet loose ends.

Might also be appropriate though, to post the following, which I only came across earlier today.

Obviously, lighting can strike twice...that acknowledged, surely not...

A newspaper report from 'The Tennessean' in 1935:

Screenshot_20210908-195600.jpg
 
Aside from that one newspaper reference cited in post #561, I can't locate any local account of this Hopkinsville three night performance at all.
Same here ... There was a local newspaper retrospective article on the incident (probably in the Kentucky New Era) that in setting the scene mentioned a circus coming to Hopkinsville that summer, but provided no details whatsoever.

I would think any circus appearance in Hopkinsville would have been prominently advertised and / or reported in the Kentucky New Era.

Said reference does state: "proceeds are to be used for crippled children" and that appears to have been the chosen charitable aim at the time:
That's been the Shriners organization's primary charitable focus for as long as I've been alive. They operate multiple hospitals dedicated to children's maladies. In the early days (e.g., the Fifties) they were focused on crippled children, what with the widespread polio and all.

I have made contact with the Rizpah Shrine and let's see if we can resolve this issue, at least.
Monkey business related to our case... so unlikely, yet loose ends.
IMHO the issue would be seeing if we can lay the escaped monkey hypothesis to rest once and for all. Davis dismissed the suggestion out of hand on (what we now know to be) weak evidence, even though she was generally correct in noting the King Bros. Circus should have been traveling east / west on US 68 rather than north / south on US 41. Hynek dismissed the suggestion out of hand because he claimed he couldn't find any evidence of any circus in the area.

The Nashville newspaper citation of a Shrine Circus in Hopkinsville during either August 18 - 20 or 19 - 21 brings the whole monkey / circus topic to the surface once again.

I'm particularly interested in getting to the bottom of this issue in relation to the possibility of a borrowed - rather than an escaped - animal. Here's why ...

To the very limited extent to which I've been able to determine what Lucky and Taylor did for their carnival work, it seems they were general purpose workers (cf. circus roustabouts) and drivers. It's the driver aspect that interests me ...

Recall the mysterious errand for which 3 men / 2 shooters (Lucky; J. C.; Baker) left the farm shortly after sunrise following the night of the incident and traveled to Evansville. The purpose of this trip has never been clearly established. Davis notes the ambiguity while mentioning the two possibilities she'd been told: they were going to pick up some furniture or they were going to pick up a truck.

There's no mention of their having returned to Kelly the evening of the 22nd with either a load of furniture or a truck.

Now recall the testimony of local boy (at the time) and Lucky's friend Bill Thomas (cf. the Ripley's article). Thomas claimed that Lucky came into Thomas' family's truck stop / diner the following morning (the 22nd) and told him what had happened. As far as I can tell, any truck stop / diner in the Kelly community would have been south of the Lankford / Sutton home. Setting aside the other loose ends in Thomas' story (e.g., no mention of J. C. or Baker), one has to wonder why Lucky may have been heading south first thing in the morning rather than north to the eventual destination of Evansville.

What if Lucky (and the two others) were actually on an expedition to take a truck north that morning? In the American South of the 1950s Sunday was a non-working / dead day when no work or business was performed. If there'd been a circus in Hopkinsville through Saturday or Sunday evening they'd have packed up late following the final performance or during the following day. It wouldn't have mattered if the trucks headed out either late Saturday night versus first thing Monday morning.

Lucky was a professional driver who was staying at his mother's house a few miles away, apparently on a break in his usual employer's (carnival's) schedule.

What if Lucky was contracted by his usual employer - or had made a deal all on his own - to drive one of the circus trucks back north? The Rizpah Shrine Circus was managed out of Madisonville (north of Kelly), and Evansville (even farther north) was a known hub for carnival / circus companies at the time. Lucky could make a little bit of money for a day job, but he needed at least one person to come along to drive his car while he drove the truck.

If this hypothetical possibility was really in play it would establish a connection between Lucky and the alleged Shrine Circus in town the same weekend as the goblins incident.

This is the hypothetical scenario I'd like to either open up or rule out, depending on confirmation whether there'd been a circus in Hopkinsville that weekend.
 
Same here ... There was a local newspaper retrospective article on the incident (probably in the Kentucky New Era) that in setting the scene mentioned a circus coming to Hopkinsville that summer, but provided no details whatsoever.

I would think any circus appearance in Hopkinsville would have been prominently advertised and / or reported in the Kentucky New Era.


That's been the Shriners organization's primary charitable focus for as long as I've been alive. They operate multiple hospitals dedicated to children's maladies. In the early days (e.g., the Fifties) they were focused on crippled children, what with the widespread polio and all.


IMHO the issue would be seeing if we can lay the escaped monkey hypothesis to rest once and for all. Davis dismissed the suggestion out of hand on (what we now know to be) weak evidence, even though she was generally correct in noting the King Bros. Circus should have been traveling east / west on US 68 rather than north / south on US 41. Hynek dismissed the suggestion out of hand because he claimed he couldn't find any evidence of any circus in the area.

The Nashville newspaper citation of a Shrine Circus in Hopkinsville during either August 18 - 20 or 19 - 21 brings the whole monkey / circus topic to the surface once again.

I'm particularly interested in getting to the bottom of this issue in relation to the possibility of a borrowed - rather than an escaped - animal. Here's why ...

To the very limited extent to which I've been able to determine what Lucky and Taylor did for their carnival work, it seems they were general purpose workers (cf. circus roustabouts) and drivers. It's the driver aspect that interests me ...

Recall the mysterious errand for which 3 men / 2 shooters (Lucky; J. C.; Baker) left the farm shortly after sunrise following the night of the incident and traveled to Evansville. The purpose of this trip has never been clearly established. Davis notes the ambiguity while mentioning the two possibilities she'd been told: they were going to pick up some furniture or they were going to pick up a truck.

There's no mention of their having returned to Kelly the evening of the 22nd with either a load of furniture or a truck.

Now recall the testimony of local boy (at the time) and Lucky's friend Bill Thomas (cf. the Ripley's article). Thomas claimed that Lucky came into Thomas' family's truck stop / diner the following morning (the 22nd) and told him what had happened. As far as I can tell, any truck stop / diner in the Kelly community would have been south of the Lankford / Sutton home. Setting aside the other loose ends in Thomas' story (e.g., no mention of J. C. or Baker), one has to wonder why Lucky may have been heading south first thing in the morning rather than north to the eventual destination of Evansville.

What if Lucky (and the two others) were actually on an expedition to take a truck north that morning? In the American South of the 1950s Sunday was a non-working / dead day when no work or business was performed. If there'd been a circus in Hopkinsville through Saturday or Sunday evening they'd have packed up late following the final performance or during the following day. It wouldn't have mattered if the trucks headed out either late Saturday night versus first thing Monday morning.

Lucky was a professional driver who was staying at his mother's house a few miles away, apparently on a break in his usual employer's (carnival's) schedule.

What if Lucky was contracted by his usual employer - or had made a deal all on his own - to drive one of the circus trucks back north? The Rizpah Shrine Circus was managed out of Madisonville (north of Kelly), and Evansville (even farther north) was a known hub for carnival / circus companies at the time. Lucky could make a little bit of money for a day job, but he needed at least one person to come along to drive his car while he drove the truck.

If this hypothetical possibility was really in play it would establish a connection between Lucky and the alleged Shrine Circus in town the same weekend as the goblins incident.

This is the hypothetical scenario I'd like to either open up or rule out, depending on confirmation whether there'd been a circus in Hopkinsville that weekend.
Just as a note on dates, if the circus did a Sat eve performance they would have pulled out late Sat nite or Sunday morning. Circuses wouldn't have taken Sunday off even in the south. They were a 7-day operation.
 
Same here ... There was a local newspaper retrospective article on the incident (probably in the Kentucky New Era) that in setting the scene mentioned a circus coming to Hopkinsville that summer, but provided no details whatsoever.

I would think any circus appearance in Hopkinsville would have been prominently advertised and / or reported in the Kentucky New Era.
Depends... is it considered routine? It's not really news worthy if it happens on a routine basis is it? Or at least not front page. More like a small note in the entertainment section.
 
Post in thread 'Suggestions For A Good Read'
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/suggestions-for-a-good-read.13479/post-2104516

My reference therein relates to:
www.forteanmedia.com/KellyH.pdf

Personally, no conclusions as yet, because it's a lengthy read.
I am assuming... this is largely unknown?
It'll remain largely unknown until and unless you specify what it is and where it was originally published.

It's an interesting document, but it's self-evidently a post-2000 compendium (or perhaps a pastiche) of others' reports and accounts with no author attribution nor any clues as to its original publication venue.

Please identify this document.
 
The document from Scribd appears to be an extended version of a November 2014 document uploaded to cupdf.com by user "corneliusgummerich" (same username as the Scribd uploader). The document info (such as it is ... ) lists this corneliusgummerich as the author.
Hopkinsville Goblins
Nov 18, 2014
Author: corneliusgummerich
SOURCE: https://cupdf.com/document/hopkinsville-goblins.html
 
I would think any circus appearance in Hopkinsville would have been prominently advertised and / or reported in the Kentucky New Era.
I have now tracked down the following, from the 'Kentucky New Era', on 19 August 1955:

Screenshot_20210910-210256.jpg


The reference to "see page 10" is so typical of our case - the copy I have located...

...only runs to page 9.

There might be a furter lead on all this and confusion about the exact dates - more, hopefully, very shortly.

As said, simply an endeavour to close down this 'loose end'.

'Fort Campbell Shriners'... would it be a fair supposition that not one of us had seen that coming...
 
There might be a furter lead on all this and confusion about the exact dates - more, hopefully, very shortly.
The dates agree - see post #561.

Although not stated if the following circus related photograph is from our Hopkinsville event, it's that same 22 August 1955 issue of the 'Kentucky New Era':

Screenshot_20210910-191317~3.jpg


Screenshot_20210910-190801.jpg
 
The Shrine circus, 1955...
index.php
Just a note ... If you look at the platform(?) at the left end of the tightrope it shows "i n x" embroidered(?) on what appears to be a fabric cover. This would seemingly confirm this picture shows Jinx - the chimp of TV fame, documented as having appeared in the Rizpah Shrine Circus at Madisonville on 1 October and 13 December, 1955.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinx_(chimpanzee)
 
The dates agree - see post #561.

Although not stated if the following circus related photograph is from our Hopkinsville event, it's that same 22 August 1955 issue of the 'Kentucky New Era'

index.php

Well ... No, it's not the same issue ...

The side-by-side presentation seen in the posted image is part of a horizontal scrolling display that progresses left-to-right. The page on the right is the front / first page of the 22 August issue. The page on the left is the last page (page 10) of the preceding issue of Saturday afternoon, 20 August. The Kentucky New Era was published daily except for Sundays.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HeYrAAAAIBAJ&pg=2838,3341366
 
I have now tracked down the following, from the 'Kentucky New Era', on 19 August 1955:
View attachment 44841
The reference to "see page 10" is so typical of our case - the copy I have located...
...only runs to page 9.

See my prior post (above) about the mechanics of the Google News horizontal scrolling display (if that was the source you were using). Page 10 of the 19 August issue appeared in a twinned display with the front / first page of the 20 August issue.

Here (as segmented into pieces as images) is the circus review article from the 19 August issue of the Kentucky New Era.

KYNuEra-Fri-550819-p10-A.jpg
KYNuEra-Fri-550819-p10-B.jpg
KYNuEra-Fri-550819-p10-C.jpg
 
I have now tracked down the following, from the 'Kentucky New Era', on 19 August 1955:

View attachment 44841
'Fort Campbell Shriners'... would it be a fair supposition that not one of us had seen that coming...
Perhaps more interesting is the citation of a 'Hopkinsville Shrine Club' as the circus' sponsor.

I've done some cyberspace rummaging to double-check whether there was a Hopkinsville Shrine separate from the Madisonville (Rizpah) Shrine at the time. All references I can find to the Hopkinsville Shrine Club give a Madisonville address. My interpretation is that the 'Hopkinsville Shrine Club' simply represented a local / town group in Hopkinsville that was a subsidiary component of the Madisonville shrine's organization and activities.
Shriners International - Hopkinsville Shrine Club is a fraternal beneficiary societies and voluntary employees association in Madisonville, KY, which was founded in 1940 and has an unknown amount of revenue and number of employees.
https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/shriners-international-hopkinsville-shrine-club,237330501/

The 'Fort Campbell Shriners' represented a similar subsidiary component of the Madisonville shrine.
Shriners International - Fort Campbell Shrine Club is a fraternal beneficiary societies and voluntary employees association in Madisonville, KY, which was founded in 1940 and has an unknown amount of revenue and number of employees.
https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/shriners-international-fort-campbell-shrine-club,237323799/
 
....mechanics of the Google News horizontal scrolling display (if that was the source you were using). Page 10 of the 19 August issue appeared in a twinned display with the front / first page of the 20 August issue...
Yes, that's the sourse and now makes sense, thank you.

This is the full article from the 'Kentucky New Era', published on 23 August, 1955, in which Mrs Langford comments on the possibility that someone was trying to scare her, can't think of any motive, confirms she was thinking of buying the property and is now uncertain.

Screenshot_20210911-081251.jpg


Screenshot_20210911-081304.jpg


Screenshot_20210911-082153.jpg


Screenshot_20210911-082529.jpg
 
Just an aside, I was certain I had seen something similar to the sketches and had a 'sci-fi' connection in that era.

Finally dawned!

Screenshot_20210911-074204.jpg


Screenshot_20210911-072725_resize_18.jpg
 
In reviewing the Kentucky New Era back issues for info on the circus I noticed three local news items of potential relevance ...

(1) The hot dry weather that summer had been tough on gardens and farm crops.

(2) Tobacco cutting was well underway at the time of the incident. Tobacco has to be cut and hung to dry before being taken to market, where it's sold some weeks later. Combined with item (1) above, this means the tobacco crop may have been negatively affected by the hot dry weather, and the incident occurred at the time the prospects for the 1955 tobacco crop should have become apparent. Tobacco was the only cash crop mentioned for the Lankford place.

(3) Squirrel hunting season that year began at the end of the week preceding the incident (Thursday the 18th or Friday the 19th). This would have justified checking the guns and maybe getting in some shooting practice. Recall that Taylor went hunting with an unnamed person (a neighbor?) early on the morning of Monday the 22nd, immediately following the incident.
 
Davis' overall account has this extended sequence occurring early on, following the 1st sighting / shooting and the 1st living room window shooting events. If she'd adopted the Andre version and accepted Ms. Lankford's statement's estimate of the timeframe she doesn't claim having done so *and* it seriously screws up other sections of her report.
The full article I posted - post #626 - as published by the 'Kentucky New Era', on 23 August, 1955 seems to supports Andre's account of the story as reportedly related to him by Mrs Lankford, in 1959.

"I only know what I saw", Mrs. Lankford said. "I saw two of the men. Or maybe I saw the the same one twice. I saw one about 10:30 p.m. and the other around 3 a.m.".

If that 10:30 timeline is correct, then it would appear to dramaticly alter the entire perspective of how events unfolded.

Furthermore, from the 'Madisonville Messenger', the day afterwards , 22 August, 1955.

"Mrs Lankford got only a glimpse of "one of those shiny things" through a screen door and fainted".

This stumble/fainting element, also looks to be present in Andre's evidence.

If the other claims in his report of that 1959 interview are valid, do we have some major issues here?
 
If the other claims in his report of that 1959 interview are valid, do we have some major issues here?
To recap, from Isabel Davis' 'Close Encounters..', the story as reportedly told to Andre by Mrs Lankford, in 1959.

Isabel Davis would only, of course, have become aware of this some 3 years after her own interviews.

Screenshot_20210913-230335.jpg

Screenshot_20210913-230509.jpg
 
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