Little Green Men? UFO Sightings In Georgia

📍 Location

📝 Description

The Georgia case commonly linked to the phrase Little Green Men refers to the Cobb County UFO hoax of July 1953. Three local men claimed they found a dead, apparently Martian body on Bankhead Highway near the village of Leland in Cobb County, GA. They said two additional small beings fled the scene in a red saucer after being struck by their pickup. The story rapidly spread through newspapers and TV, prompting police involvement and national attention. Within hours, Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and Emory University anatomy professor Marion Hines concluded the ‘Martian’ was actually a hairless, green-dyed monkey with its tail removed. The monkey remains preserved in a formaldehyde-filled jar at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation museum in Decatur. In 2025, outlets like Axios and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution revisited the episode as a famous UFO hoax from the era, emphasizing the debunking and the enduring cultural footprint of the event.

🔍 Circumstances

Night of July 7–8, 1953: Cobb County police officer Sherley Brown encountered three young men by a dilapidated pickup on Bankhead Highway near Leland, who claimed to have discovered a small ‘Martian’ body and that two other beings had escaped in a UFO. The incident quickly drew media attention and investigations by authorities. The men presented a two-foot-tall humanoid corpse; the scene involved a burned circle on the pavement. The event spurred a wave of calls to media outlets and police departments nationwide. Within a day, experts from the GBI and Emory University evaluated the remains and debunked the claim as a monkey carcass dyed green. The moniker ‘little green men’ entered popular shorthand in coverage of the era’s UFO frenzy.

👤 Physical Description

The supposed Martian body was described as a small humanoid entity, about 2 feet tall. However, investigators concluded the so-called Martian was actually a hairless monkey carcass, tail removed, dyed green, with depilatory cream used to remove hair. The hoax included a display of the creature and a burned circle on the pavement.

ℹ️ Additional Details

The preserved specimen is now housed in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s museum in Decatur. The remark by Marion Hines, “If it came from Mars, they have monkeys on Mars,” became a well-cited line in debunking the hoax. The case remains one of the most famous early UFO-related hoaxes in the United States, illustrating how sensational stories can arise from misidentified animal remains and social hysteria.

🔗 Sources (6)

👥 Community Contributions

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