Cash Landrum: Legal Action in the Lone Star State.

Greetings. December of 1980.

The Cash–Landrum Incident occurred in the vicinity of Houston, Texas in December of 1980. The three primary witnesses claimed that an unidentified flying object they encountered was responsible for causing health and property damages which resulted in civil court proceedings, though the case ended in a dismissal.

On the evening of December 29th of 1980, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Vickie's grandson Colby Landrum were driving home to Dayton, Texas, in Cash's Oldsmobile Cutlass after enjoying dinner at a local restaurant. They later testified that at about 9:00pm local time, while driving on an isolated two-lane road surrounded by dense woods, they spotted an unidentified light above some trees nearby. At first they first thought it was an airplane approaching Houston Intercontinental Airport and gave it little notice, Houston Intercontinental being about 35 miles distant, or approximately 56 kilometers. A few minutes later, while on the same dark and meandering road, they saw what they believed to be the same light as before, but thought it was now much closer and far brighter. They said that the light came from a huge diamond-shaped object, which hovered just above treetop level, and that the object's bottom was expelling flames and emitting significant heat. Landrum, aged 57, told Cash, aged 51, to stop the automobile, fearing they would be burned if they got any closer to the UFO. A devoutly religious lady, Landrum interpreted the unidentified object as a sign of the "Second Coming of Jesus Christ," telling Colby, aged 7, "That's Jesus. He will not hurt us." Cash said she was anxious, and considered turning her automobile around, but abandoned the idea because the road was too narrow and she presumed the car would get stuck on the road's shoulders, which were muddy from that evening's rainfall. 

Cash and Landrum testified that they soon got out of the car to observe the flying object, but that Colby was terrified, and so Landrum quickly returned to the car to comfort the young boy. Cash remained outside, seemingly mesmerized by the bizarre sight. In the words of UFO historian Jerome Clark: "The object, intensely bright and a dull metallic silver, was shaped like a huge upright diamond, about the size of the Dayton water tower, with its top and bottom cut off so that they were flat rather than pointed. Small blue lights ringed the center, and periodically over the next few minutes flames shot out of the bottom, flaring outward to create the effect of a large cone. Every time the fire dissipated, the UFO floated a few feet downward toward the road. But when the flames blasted out again, the object rose about the same distance." The witnesses said the heat coming from the UFO was strong enough to make the car's metallic body painful to the touch. Cash said she had to use her coat to protect her hand from being burned by the door handle when she finally got back into the car. When she touched the dashboard, Landrum claimed her hand made an impression in the softened vinyl, leaving an imprint that was evident weeks later. Civilian UFO investigators later cited the impression as physical proof of the witnesses' account.

The witnesses said that the object, somewhat abruptly, began to ascend over the treetops, and gained quite a bit of altitude in the nightsky. Cash and Landrum claimed that a group of helicopters approached it, surrounding the UFO in a tight formation. The ladies counted 23 helicopters, and later identified some of them as tandem-rotor Boeing CH-47 Chinooks used by military forces worldwide. Cash eventually claimed that the helicopters had United States Air Force markings, but did not clarify her declarations. With the road now clear, Cash says she decided to drive on, claiming to see glimpses of the unidentified object and the accompanying helicopters receding into the distance.

In the weeks and months following the alleged event, Cash and Landrum suffered from a series of medical issues, which motivated the ladies to contact their U.S. Senators, Lloyd Bentsen and John Tower, who suggested that the witnesses file a complaint with the Judge Advocate Claims office at Bergstrom Air Force Base. In August of 1981, Betty Cash, Vicky Landrum, and Colby Landrum were interviewed at length by military personnel at Bergstrom Air Force Base, and were subsequently informed that they should seek the advice and assistance of an attorney, in an effort to gain some financial compensation for their injuries. With attorney Peter Gersten taking on the case pro bono, the case wound its way through the U.S. courts system for several years, with Cash and Landrum suing the United States federal government for $20 million dollars. Testimony from NASA personnel, and members of the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, and U.S. Navy was collected and taken into consideration. Persuaded by their testimonials that no agency of the United States government possessed any such unidentified object, or apparatus, and that no military personnel had operated any of the reported helicopters, a U.S. District Court judge dismissed their case on August 21st of 1986.

From the initial sighting of the unidentified object to its ultimate departure, the witnesses said the encounter lasted a total of about 20 minutes. Based on descriptions that appear in "The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident," written by MUFON's own John F. Schuessler, "it appears that they [the witnesses] were driving southbound on Texas state highway FM 1485/2100 when they claimed to have seen the object. The initial location of the reported object, based on the same descriptions, was just south of Inland Road, approximately at 30.0926°N 95.1109°W." Robert Sheaffer has concluded, in Skeptical Inquirer magazine, that despite media reports to the contrary, "neither Cash, nor Landrum, nor Schuessler had any idea [of precisely] where this incident actually took place!" Mr. Sheaffer's statement truly speaks volumes about the witnesses' claims and their validity, or lack thereof. 

 

Nobody knows what truly happened on December 29th of 1980, if anything happened at all, with the anecdotes ruling the day.

Thank you for your time and consideration.