Spielberg has recently said that his famous family friendly alien film, ET: The Extraterrestrial, was originally going to recount the alleged horrific experience of a family in rural Kentucky who says they were harassed by aliens. ET was eventually toned down, but similar mischievous “little green men” recounted in the alleged true story terrorized an entire town in the movie Gremlins.

E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, the lovable alien. (Credit: Universal Pictures)

Spielberg told the Entertainment Weekly:

It was going to be called Night Skies, based on a piece of UFO mythology … where a farm family reported little spindly grey aliens attacking their farm, even riding cows in the farmyard… This farm family basically huddled together for survival … It’s a story that’s well-known in the world of ufology, and we based our script on that story.

The Kentucky encounter never made it to the silver screen because Spielberg was able to talk Harrison Ford’s girlfriend at the time, Melissa Mathison, into rewriting the screenplay, producing the loveable character we know today. The creatures that the Sutton and Taylor families claim attacked them the night of August 21, 1955 near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, were not so loveable.

It all started during a visit by the Taylor family to the Sutton’s farm. There was no running water, so Billy Ray Taylor went out to fill a bucket at the well around 7 pm. While outside he says he saw a rainbow colored disk-like UFO land in the forest. When he reported this to the rest of the group inside, no one believed him.

Taylor convinced one of the others to help him investigate, so the two men grabbed their guns and headed outside. It didn’t take long before they saw a creature with long skinny arms, just over three feet tall, with large pointed ears, large claws and wearing a silver jumpsuit. It began walking towards them with its arms in the air. Scared for their lives, the two men fired on the creature. However, their bullets sounded as though they were hitting metal and had little effect. They saw more of the creatures on their roof, in the trees, and in the forest. When hit with the bullets, the monsters would just roll up into a ball and zoom away.

The aliens in Kentucky drawn from witness testimony by an Air Force investigator. (Credit: USAF)

The creatures continued to harass the families for the next few hours. Several people hid in fear, while the men blasted away. At one point, during a lull in the activity, they decided to make a run for it, high-tailing it to the local sheriff’s office. The Sherriff reported later that they seemed genuinely excited and in fear for their lives. Several officers returned to the farmhouse, some seeing strange lights, but none of them saw the creatures. The officers did note the multiple bullet holes in and around the farmhouse, evidence that the men were shooting at something. Once the police were convinced that the little creatures were gone, they left. However, the Suttons and Taylors said the creatures came back and scurried around the home until dawn.

When the story hit the national media it became a sensation. Even the Air Force came out to investigate, finding no explanation for what sort of vermin had been pestering the families. The headlines dubbed the creatures “little green men”, making the phrase famous and synonymous with alien encounters.

Spielberg didn’t end up making ET a film about this encounter; however, the pictures of the creatures drawn by the witnesses bear a striking resemblance to the little green monsters that devastated a whole city in his movie Gremlins.

Gremlin from the movie. (Credit: Warner Bros./Amblin Entertainment)

Whether it is their rascally behavior, or because he is a UFO buff, the monsters of Hopkinsville certainly caught the imagination of Spielberg, and although the events in Kentucky teeter on the brink of obscurity, Spielberg’s movies inspired by these little buggers are unforgettable classics.

The following documentary covers the Hopkinsville incident, and whether or not it was intended, the reenactments are very cliche and funny.

Chuck has investigated several cattle mutilations in Southern Colorado over the past few years, and while preparing a talk for a recent UFO conference, he was trying to look for patterns in the places that the mutilations took place. With this on his mind, Colorado had its largest natural earthquake in a century. It was a 5.3 on the Richter scale and centered in the southwest part of the state. Within 15 hours Virginia received one of the largest earthquakes it had ever had as well. It registered as a 5.8. Neither quake caused much damage, but Chuck noticed that they were both near the 37 degree latitude line. He then noticed that his cattle mutilation cases were also near the 37 degree latitude line.

Chuck and Debbie with their friends from PostInteractive.net in Roswell, New Mexico, 2010. From left: Matt Morgan, Debbie Ziegelmeyer, Trina Bivens, Chuck Zukowski. (image credit: Alejandro Rojas)

Chuck decided to consult his sister Debbie Zeigelmeyer, the MUFON state director for Missouri, a state that is also along the 37 degree latitude line.  She said she had a cattle mutilation case in her state along with a large amount of UFO sightings in that area. Chuck found many UFO reports along the 37 degree latitude line, and plotted the sightings along with the cattle mutilations on this map. He was so impressed by his findings that he dubbed the 37 degree latitude line the Paranormal Freeway.

UFO sightings and other paranormal activity along the 37 degree latitude line. (image credit: Chuck Zukowski)

In my report I took the population of the states along with the number of reports each had received this year. I determined which states had the most sightings per population. Chuck’s home state of Colorado was number 2 on the list, Missouri was number 5. Kansas, Kentucky, and Nevada, all states along the 37 degree latitude, also made it to the top 10. The states along the 37 degree latitude that were not in the top 10, California, Utah and Virginia, did not show significant activity as far as reports per population.

Top 10 UFO hotspots ranked by reports per population adjusted. Data: MUFON (image credit: Alejandro Rojas)

I found a map of Air Force bases in the United States to find out if there was more USAF activity in the states with higher reports. Colorado and Kansas have bases near the 37 degree latitude line. In fact, the USAF Academy is near Chuck’s Paranormal Freeway, along with Peterson AFB, home of Air Force Space Command, and Schriever AFB, the newest and one of the most secretive USAF bases. Chuck noted that, although it isn’t on this map, Area 51 is also nearly right at 37 degrees latitude. However, the other UFO hotspots along the Paranormal Freeway do not have many USAF bases.

United States Air Force bases. Click the image to enlarge. (image credit: NABTS)

Over the years there have been many stories of UFOs in areas with nuclear facilities. Most nuclear silos can be found in the area where Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska meet, north of the Paranormal Freeway. As for nuclear power plants, they can mostly be found on the east coast. There are less of them in the central United States.

Nuclear reactors in the united States. (image credit: modernsurvivalblog.com)

So what does this all mean? I have no idea. Chuck has speculated that perhaps there are secret military bases in these areas. It is hard to say, and Debbie says she is still in the middle of increased UFO reports.

She says, “We’ve already had 54 reports in October. Some are a flying stunt team, some are drones, and some are B2 bombers. But, a good deal of them are large hovering Triangle shape craft with orange lights.  On Oct. 4th the triangle craft was seen by several [witnesses] hovering over the intersection of two major [highways].”

Let us know if you have any ideas on what may be the secret of the Paranormal Freeway. Chuck, Debbie and I will also be discussing this issue along with Missouri’s recent UFO sightings on Open Minds Radio.