Small, hairy, clawed

Farmer Maurice Masse was paralyzed by a device aimed at him by a figure beside an object resting in his lavender field; the Gendarmerie documented persistent geometric ground marks and the witness's physical effects lasted for months. CNES keeps the case unexplained.

In the early hours of 12 November 1976, two conscript sentries in the fuel area of Talavera la Real Air Base (Badajoz, Spain) reported interference, a high-pitched whistle, a partial blackout and an agitated military dog. One of them, José María Trejo, described a humanoid figure some three meters tall formed by points of green light, with long arms and no hands or feet, before losing consciousness; his companions opened fire on the apparition, which vanished. The Spanish Air Force opened a file that the Ministry of Defense declassified in the 1990s. The documentation confirms a real alarm occurred, but does not conclusively support the presence of an object or a being; the strongest reading points to perceptual disturbance and contagious hysteria during a night watch.

On the night of September 12, 1952, after seeing a bright light fall over a hill, a group of seven people from Flatwoods (West Virginia) —the May brothers, their mother Kathleen, other children and a National Guardsman— climbed to look for it and described a huge figure with glowing eyes, a hiss and a nauseating smell that made them feel ill. The most accepted explanation —a meteor that night, an aircraft beacon and a perched owl, magnified by fear— is prosaic and well argued. A Tier B case, a folklore icon: multiple witnesses, an object almost certainly mundane.

In the early morning of 29 November 1954, in Petare (east of Caracas), two merchandise-transport workers —Gustavo González and José Ponce— recounted finding a luminous spherical object hovering in the middle of the street and hairy figures about one meter tall. González said he wrestled with one of them, which threw him several meters and left him with scratches. It drew attention because there was police intervention and a prosecutor's record that the witnesses were not intoxicated or deranged. It is one of the most cited humanoid encounters of early Latin American ufology.

On September 10, 1954, during that year's great French wave, metalworker Marius Dewilde reported a dark object resting on the railway tracks near Quarouble and two small figures; he said he was paralyzed by a beam. The Gendarmerie Nationale investigated and documented physical marks: depressions in the wooden sleepers consistent with great weight.

On the night of 21 August 1955, the Sutton and Taylor families —eleven people— said they were besieged for hours at a farmhouse near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, by several small creatures with large heads and bright eyes that approached the house. They fired at them with no apparent effect and fled to the police station in terror. Police and state troopers investigated: they found no traces or landing marks, but did find bullet holes and shell casings. It is the most cited multi-witness encounter of its era and the origin of the phrase 'little green men'.

On 29 August 1967, in Cussac (Cantal, France), two shepherd children —François Delpeuch, 13, and his sister Anne-Marie, 9— said they saw a bright sphere about two meters across and four small, completely black figures near the ground, which rose into the object before it took off with a whistle. The gendarmerie opened an investigation that same day and noted a persistent sulfurous odor and dried grass at the spot. Years later GEPAN —the official French agency— reviewed the case and classified it as 'worthy of further study'.

A wave of tiny-humanoid sightings —only a few centimetres tall— reported mostly by schoolchildren across peninsular Malaysia between 1970 and 1979. Over three days in August 1970 a press count logged no fewer than 39 tiny UFOs and 31 reports of three-inch occupants. Catalogued by Ahmad Jamaludin (Flying Saucer Review; CUFOS, 1981).

On the night of 6 December 1978 night watchman Pier Fortunato Zanfretta radioed his dispatch, in real time, reporting an encounter with an object and beings at Torriglia (Genoa). The Carabinieri certified a physical trace, collected 52 concordant witness statements and filed the case with reliability rated 'good'. The subsequent 11 'abductions' (1978–1981) recovered under hypnosis make it the most documented contact case in Italian ufology — and the most disputed.

On the morning of 1 December 1987, a former police officer the literature calls 'Philip Spencer' (a pseudonym) said he crossed Ilkley Moor, in West Yorkshire, and photographed a ~1.2 m green humanoid with a large head and long arms that gestured at him and fled. Following it, he saw a silver dome rise and vanish; his compass pointed south and, on reaching Ilkley, he found ~2 hours of 'missing time'. The single, very blurry photo was examined by the Kodak laboratory at Hemel Hempstead with no evidence of tampering. Under hypnosis (March 1988) Spencer 'recalled' an abduction with a medical exam and an apocalyptic film. Investigated by Peter Hough and Jenny Randles, it remains unresolved: skeptics read it as a hoax (cut-out/person); its value is as an iconic testimonial case, not as evidence.