CASH-LANDRUM CASE

HUFFMAN, TEXAS - By NICAP - On the evening of December the 29, 1980, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and Colby Landrum had visited several small towns in the Piney Woods area of east Texas looking for a bingo game, but discovered that all games had been canceled while the clubs made preparations for the Christmas and new year celebrations. Instead they settled for a meal in a road side restaurant in New Caney.

 

Betty Cash was then a 51 year old business woman who owned a restaurant and a grocery store. Vickie Landrum, then 57, worked for Betty in the restaurant and also occasionally as a school meals assistant. Colby Landrum, Vickie's grandson, was then 7.

  

After leaving the restaurant some time between 8.20 and 8.30 pm, Betty drove them along Highway FM 1485, a road usually used only by people who live in the area because it is so isolated. Although only about 50km from Houston the area is sparsely populated and is covered by oak and pine trees, and dotted with swamps and lakes.

It was about 30 minutes later when the three noticed a bright UFO above the tree tops some distance away. Colby was the first to spot it and pointed it out to the others. As they drove on it appeared to get larger and larger. As they realized that the object was approaching the road only a short distance ahead they began to get worried but hoped to get by it in time and leave it behind. But before they could do so the object had straddled the road blocking their way.

Drawing of U.F.O
Seen by Cash, Landrums 12/29/80
[Photo ©2003]

Vickie screamed "Stop the car or we shall be burned alive!" The object, many times larger than the car remained hovering at tree top level and sending down an occasional large cone of fire like a rocked blast. In between these blasts it would settle downwards some 7.5 meters or so only to rise up again on the next cone of fire. Vickie described it as being "like a diamond of fire".

When Betty eventually brought the car to a stand still the UFO was only 60 meters away. It looked as if it was made from dull aluminum and glowed so bright that it lit up the surrounding forest like daylight. The four points of the diamond were blunt rather than sharp and blue spots or lights ringed its centerline. Had the UFO not come to rest over the road the cone of fire from its lowest point would have set the forest on fire. The object also emitted an intermittent bleeping sound.

The three of them got out of the car to take a better look at the object. Vickie stood by the open door on the right hand side of the car with her left hand resting on the car roof. Vickie is a committed Christian who does not believe in UFOs or extraterrestrial life and when she saw the bright object she thought it was the coming of the end of the world. Because she expected to see Jesus come out of the light she starred at it intently.

Colby begged his grandmother to get back in the car and hold him and after about three minutes she did so and told him not to be afraid because "when that big man comes out of the burning cloud it will be Jesus." As Vickie held Colby she screamed at Betty to get back in the car with them. But Betty was so fascinated by the UFO that she had walked round to the front of the car and stood there gazing at it.  Bathed in the bright light she stood there even though the heat was burning her skin. Eventually as the object began to move up and away she moved back to the car door. When she touched the door it was so painfully hot that she had to use her leather jacket to protect her hands as she got back in the car.

As the three of them watched the departing UFO, a large number of helicopters appeared overhead. As Betty said, "They seemed to rush in from all directions...it seemed like they were trying to encircle the thing." Within a few seconds the UFO had disappeared behind the trees lining the road. It was then that they realized how hot the interior of the car had become. They switched off the heater and put on the air conditioner instead.

 

 When the effects of the bright light had worn off, Betty started the engine and they drove off down the darkened highway. After a mile or so of twisting road they were able to join a larger highway and turn in the direction of the departing UFO. This was about 8km and five minutes later. The object was clearly visible some distance ahead and looked like a bright cylinder of light. It was still lighting up the surrounding area and illuminating the helicopters.

 By this time the helicopters were spread out over an 8km distance. One main group was near the UFO but moving in an erratic flight path. As they watched from their new vantage point they counted 23 helicopters. Many of them were identified as the large double rotor CH-47 Chinooks, the others were very fast single rotor types and appeared to be of the Bell-Huey type but were not properly identified. A lot of air crew members must have seen the UFO that night.

 As soon as the UFO and helicopters were a safe distance ahead Betty drove on. When she reached an intersection she turned away from the flight path of the UFO and towards Dayton where the three of them lived. She dropped Vickie and Colby off at their home at about 9.50 and went home by herself. A friend and her children were there waiting for Betty but by this time she was feeling to ill to tell them about what had happened. Over the next few hours Betty's skin turned red as if badly sun burned. Her neck swelled and blisters erupted and broke on her face, scalp and eyelids. She started to vomit and continued to do so through out the night. My morning she was almost in a coma.

 Some time between midnight and 2am Vickie and Colby began to suffer similar symptoms, although less severe. At first they suffered the sunburn like condition and then diarrhea and vomiting. It was a miserable night for all three victims.

 The following morning Betty was moved to Vickie's house and all three were cared for there. Betty's condition continued to deteriorate and three days later she was taken to hospital. The burns and swelling altered Betty's appearance so radically that friend who came to visit her in hospital did not recognize her. Her hair began to fall out and her eyes became so swollen that she was unable to see for a week.

The appearance of helicopters at UFO sightings is becoming a common event, and the large number of helicopters at this incident is just another link in the chain. One thing is for certain, it is virtually impossible to be mistaken about the presence of CH-47 helicopters when you are directly beneath these large and noisy machines. The evidence of all the witnesses was consistent. They were interrogated separately about both the UFO and the helicopters and all gave consistent descriptions and sketches that indicated they had seen a large number of CH-47s.

Finding out where the helicopters had come from was a more difficult task than identifying them. according to a official at Houston Airport abound 350 to 400 helicopters operate commercially in the Houston area but they are all of the single rotor type, there are no CH-47s. The official also said that because helicopters fly on visual flight rules they do not have to contact the tower. Other information provided by Houston was that outside a 24km radius from the airport helicopters must stay below an altitude of 550 metres, and that due to a technical limitation the Houston control radar is restricted to a minimum altitude of 600 metres around the Huffman area.

The US army's Fort Hood press officer, Major Tony Geishauser, told the Corpus Christi Caller that no Fort Hood aircraft were in the Houston area that night. "I don't know any other place around here that would have that number of helicopters," he said. "I don't know what it could be..... unless there's a super secret thing going on and I wouldn't necessarily know about it."

All other bases in Texas and Louisiana denied they were responsible for the helicopters seen at the incident.

MAP SHOWING THE AREA OF THE ENCOUNTER

Betty, Vickie and Colby were not the only witnesses to the strange happenings at Huffman. An off duty Dayton policeman and his wife were driving home from Cleveland through the Huffman area the same night and also observed a large number of CH-47s. A man living in Crosby, directly under the flight path, reported seeing a large number of heavy military helicopters flying overhead. Oilfield laborer Jerry McDonald was in his back garden in Dayton when he saw a huge UFO flying directly over head. At first he thought it was the Goodyear airship, but quickly realized it was something else. "It was kind of diamond shaped and had two twin torches that were shooting brilliant blue flames out the back", he said. As it passed about 45 meters above him he saw that it had two bright lights on it and a red light in the center.

Since their encounter Vickie and Colby have been plagued with periodic outbreaks of skin troubles, as if they were more susceptible to infection than before. But the most far reaching injury has been the damage to their eyes. Their eyelids became infected very rapidly and have never fully recovered. Since the incident Vickie has had to have three new pairs of spectacles with successively stronger prescriptions to match the deterioration of her eyesight. Her eyesight continues to deteriorate and she still suffers from periodic infections. She fears she may eventually go blind. Colby has suffered similar problems but has needed only one new pair of glasses. Within a few weeks of the encounter, Vickie had lost about 30 per cent of her hair, and had large bald patches on her head. When it grew back it was of a different texture. Colby lost only a small patch of hair on the crown of his head, this too grew back in time.

Betty's injuries seemed even worse. She experienced a severe sun burn like condition and developed large water blisters, some as large as golf balls, over her face head and neck. One of these covered her right eyelid and extended across her right temple. She also developed a long term aversion to warm water, sunshine or other heat sources. In the year following the encounter she has spent five periods in hospital, two of those in intensive care. She lost over half of the hair on her head and has also had skin eruptions, many as big as a large coin, which leave permanent scars.

Doctors are baffled by these symptoms but speculate that they could be caused by some kind of radiation.

One day in April 1981 a CH-47 flew into Dayton. As Colby watched he became very upset. Vickie decided to take him to the spot where the helicopter had landed in the hope that it would seem less frightening on the ground. When they reached the landing zone they found a lot of people there already and had to wait some time before they were allowed to go inside the helicopter and talk to the pilot. Vickie and another visitor both claim that the pilot said he had been in the area before for the purpose of checking on a UFO in trouble near Huffman. When Vickie told the pilot how glad she was to see him, because she had been one of the people burned by the UFO, he refused to talk to them any more and hustled them out of the aircraft.

The UFO organization VISIT later located the pilot and questioned him. He admitted to knowing about Vickie and Betty's encounter with the UFO but maintained that he had not been in the area in December and had nothing to do with any UFO. Unless another pilot decides to come forward it seems that the source of the helicopters will remain a mystery.

 UFO CASE FILE- CASH-LANDRUM

ROSWELL

ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO- Roswell, New Mexico is often referred to as the Mecca of the UFO controversy.  The beginning of the fame started in 1980 when Charles Berlitz and William Moore brought the story before the public with their book “The Roswell Incident”.  While the book itself has been largely forgotten, the tale of a government cover-up of a real UFO captured the imagination of the public and has never let go.

Newspaper Headlines

The Roswell Army Air Field was in 1947 the home of the only nuclear bomb squadron, the 509^th, which had seen action in the U.S.’s attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan.

The little town of Roswell itself was in some ways supported by the business brought to it by the Air Field.  On July 8, 1947 the town must have been abuzz with the news reports that stated: “Roswell Army Air Field Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.”  The excitement was short lived.  The next day a retraction was printed that explained the findings were nothing more than an experimental Weather Balloon.  This information seemed to satisfy the public at large until the “The Roswell Incident” was published 33 years later.  Since that time, the arguments about what really happened have raged on, and the little town of Roswell has never been the same.  

Famous photo of the material found at the crash sites

The story that came out after the book included such intrigue as Military Personnel taking control of parts of the town for several hours on that July day in 1947.  Witnesses who claimed to have been threatened and intimidated by the Military now detailed stories of having seen alien bodies, strange technology, and even an autopsy of the lifeless aliens conducted in a morgue on the Base.     

The claims also included having seen spacecraft, and parts of a spacecraft removed from Roswell and transported possibly to Area 51.  Witness run the range from being local farmers, soldiers, nurses, doctors, and people who had been children at the time of the incident.

Since the ‘80’s numerous books, movies, and of course Websites have made the Roswell story famous worldwide.  The town now does a brisk tourist business and hosts an annual celebration commemorating the crash.  

 Unsolved Mysteries - Roswell (Part 1)

  Unsolved Mysteries - Roswell (Part 2)

 

THE REAL MEN IN BLACK

SOLMS, TEXAS - In the summer of 1966 two identical five-year-old boys played aimlessly games between themselves. We will call them Tim and Tom. Tim was older by 3 minutes and the more aggressive, Tom had been sickly as a baby and was happy to follow Tim’s lead as least for the time being.

The real twin brothers on their farm in the 60's.

 At midday the boy’s activity suddenly halted they heard a sound, one, which they, raised on a farm and used to a variety of noises, had never heard before.  Tom looked at his brother to see if he was hearing the same noise.  “Do you hear that?” “Yeah.”   “So where is it coming from?”  Simultaneous the matching faces of the boys looked up.  Out of the northeast they saw what looked like a rocket, or what they at first thought looked like a rocket.  Randolph Air Force Base was close by, so along with the sound of cattle, chickens and the occasional rattlesnake the little boys where also familiar with the sound and appearance of passing jets.

This was no jet.  In midair the object suddenly stopped and then slowly started to turn.  The young boys left their activities and stood stock still starring at the unusual sight.  “Do you see that?” asked one to the other.  “Yeah what is that thing?”  Their attention riveted they watched as the object continued its revolution.  At one point they swear to this day that they saw portholes in the side.   Says Tom: “ I could see people looking down at me.  I just saw shadow shapes moving inside.” 

After a few minutes it sped away to the north at a rapid rate of speed.

Immediately the twins ran to the grownups watching a football game inside the house.  Of course no one believed the two boys. This was the stuff that was expected from a child’s imagination. 

However, thirty-six years after the event both men remember this incident and the aftermath vividly.

 “It was no blimp”, says Tom looking at the incident now from the perspective of an adult. “It speed away too quickly, and the shape was wrong. It was more of a cigar shape. Then there was that noise.  That woo, woo, woo sound that had made us look up in the first place.  Also things happened afterward, strange things that happened mostly to my brother that we will never forget.” 

Shortly after seeing a strange craft in the sky over their farmhouse, Tim and Tom began noticing a few strange occurrences.  Remember that in 1966 few people had heard of odd things happening to people who had seen UFO’s.  Only much later when they were older would they hear other reports of men dressed in black and driving black cars that matched their own experiences.  At the time, no one believed the word of the little twins, and as far as they knew they were alone with their fears. 

Tim the boldest one was the sole witness to the MIB’s visits.  He had taken it on himself to ride his bike about a half-mile every day to pick up the families mail.  These trips had always been uneventful until just a few days after their sighting. He was going to the mailbox when he saw an unusual sight in his neighborhood, a large limousine like car with tinted windows.  Tim had never seen windows like that so at the time he could only tell his brother that “you couldn’t see inside the car”.  As the car went by he could see that the driver side window was down. He could see four people in the car; the driver was a large man in a black suit wearing sunglasses and a black hat.  The car went down the road for about a mile then stopped, turned around and came back, driving slowly.  He noticed that the car seemed to be veering toward him, and he quickly rode his bike into a nearby ditch and the vehicle narrowly missed.  As the car drove away Tim thought he could hear laughter coming from the men inside.  Again the car stopped and began to turn around, Tim took an opportunity to make it to the dirt road before the car returned.  The black car and strange occupants just went by without stopping.

He immediately returned and informed his brother about what had occurred.  His brother did not believe him. Tom thought Tim was making the story up to frighten him, but he was impressed that his usual stoic brother really seemed scared, so he suggested that he began doing this chore. To his surprise Tim readily agreed this, despite the fact that they had often argued about who would be the one to go in the past. 

Tom went for two weeks at the regular time, taking the same route his brother had taken, and saw nothing. No men, no car, no strangers of any kind appeared.  He cockily told Tim he didn’t believe him.  But he in reality he was not so sure.  They knew each other very well, after all and it was not like Tim to carry a joke this far, and for so long a time.

Finally Tim could no longer stand being the one left behind each day, watching his brother perform what he considered his chore.  He wanted his job back.

Tim was gone a long time, at least thirty minutes, and Tom was beginning to wonder if he should tell his mother of his concern.  They had not mentioned the black limo to their parents, since Tim was sure that if Tom didn’t believe him no one else would either.  Now Tom was thinking that might not have been such a good idea. Finally he saw Tim manically riding toward him shouting that he was being chased again.  Tom got on his bike but, it took him some time to convince his brother to let him go back, Tim was visible shaken.  Tom stated he would just go to the mailbox and take a look. They both went and half way up the road Tim pointed out the tire tracks in the field that Tom had not seen there the day before.  Tim explained they had not stopped at the dirt road this time.  They had continued.  Tim took a deep breath and told his brother the whole story- he had gotten the mail out of the mailbox and turned around to come back when he heard a car coming behind him.  It was the black limo again, this time the car rode up to his back tire, and tried, Tim was convinced, to run over him.  He could hear their laughter just as he had the first time. .  When he tried to get to the ditch they followed and chased the little boy down the dirt road, almost hitting him twice and only giving up when the road had become so hazardous for the large car that it had to turn back leaving it’s telltale tire prints in the soft earth of the field.

With the logic that anyone who remembers their childhood well could understand the boys concocted a plan. Both boys would ride their bikes to get the mail.  Tom would be the look out and Tim would grab the mail and both boys would race back to the farmhouse as fast as possible.

Late one night after the boys had gone to bed Tom lay wake thinking.  Years would pass before the sighting of the strange object in sky and the mysterious men would be connected in their minds.  Years would pass before they would find that others who had reported seeing UFO’s had also had visits from the MIB’s and only then would they find that no matter how many individuals had witnessed a particular sighting usually only one person encountered the strange men.  That night Tom had only one question on his mind however, and it disturbed him enough to wake Tim.

“Tim”

 “What?”

 “Those men you saw-- how did they know?”

 “Know what?”

 “Well, teachers can’t tell us apart, other kids have trouble telling us apart, heck everyone has trouble telling who’s who, so how did they know I wasn’t you?”  To this day neither of the twins has an answer for that, at least not yet.

TV Series Unsolved Mysteries - M.I.B.

 

    

SHIPS IN THE AIR?

TEXAS - A general belief is that  interest in UFO’s began with an incident in 1940’s when aviator Kenneth A. Arnold spotted nine flying disc like objects near Mount Rainier, Washington. That theory is a misconception. While the crash of a UFO in Roswell, New Mexico, and earlier sightings during World War II generated much speculation and circulated new phrases such as "Flying Saucer," and "UFO" into mass consciousness the roots of the mysteries are far older than you would think. Christopher Columbus while standing on the deck of the Santa Maira at night spotted unknown objects in 1492. Beginning in November 1896 and ending in May 1897 a strange, unidentified object was spotted by literally thousands of people from the West Coast, to the Great Lakes, and even the Gulf of Mexico. Deepening the mystery is the fact that air travel would not be revolutionized until 1904 at Kitty Hawk. The Airplane, commonly put forth as an explanation for mysterious sightings in the sky, had not even been thought of in the 1890’s. The craft first reported in California was slow paced, and cigar shaped. This airship moved silently through the night as dazed witness on the ground marveled at the sight. For them this ship must have indeed been a wonder, although Airships had been tried in France between 1852 and 1884, no study of such craft would be seen in American until 1914. (See http://inventors.about.com)

Cigar Shaped UFO (from the website Lights in the Texas Sky)

In Denton, Texas on the night of April 13, 1897 two independent witnesses reported sightings of the Airship. One witness described the ship as being about fifty feet long, with two great "mugs" thrust out on each side, a broad tail or steering sail behind, and a long beak or blade resembling a cut-water on a ship in front. The long craft had a powerful searchlight as well as smaller lights that seemed to shine out of windows on the side. The detail in this report can be explained as the observer had been standing in his yard watching the stars through a pair of marine field glasses. While the second witness was not able to provide the same amount of detail as the first their accounts strongly resembled each other’s and it was not long before the story began to circulate across the state. Soon their stories were matched again and again, as across Texas the Airship was spotted by huge numbers of people. Newspapers ran stories on the Airship including the Dallas Times Herald, and The Austin Daily Statesman as well as smaller papers such as The Bastrop Advisor. The last sighting was in Forth Worth on May 12, 1897. While opinions and speculation on the mystery were put forth at the time no one has ever offered any proof or a solution.