UFOs: The Long Black Road

Dreams have provided inspiration for the creation of both fiction and physical inventions. From time to time, I have what I call OC-Dreams (for obsessive-compulsive) where a thought or situation replays in a loop while I try to solve it. Sometimes it’s about writing or editing a UFO article. When I woke from the last one, I was left with a powerful urge to make the article real, but as in many dream-inspired ideas, additional ingredients from the real world are required to make it work.

It began with a statement that most UFOs reported could be identified or explained, with only a small subset left as unknowns. Dr. J. Allen Hynek cited the unknowns from Project Blue Book as 23%, but his colleague Allan Hendry at the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), concluded in The UFO Handbook, that of the 1307 reports made to them, only 8.6% remained unidentified after analysis. Often, the unknown status is given chiefly due to insufficient information. However, this void is exploited by promoters who portray it as evidence of physics-defying performance from anomalous aerial vehicles made by no civilization on the earth.

The King of the World? - Amazing Stories, May 1946

The problem is that such notions about UFOs are often based on something other than facts. Take the extraterrestrial hypothesis for the origin of UFOs. Long before Kenneth Arnold’s famed flying saucers sighting, spiritualism and science fiction spread ideas and beliefs about extraterrestrial beings coming to earth and interacting with humans, with or without spaceships. When the summer of saucers came along in 1947, some followers pointed to the news and said, “toldja so!” The spiritualists used the saucers as the proof behind their cosmic gospel for a new age. 

Kenneth Arnold’s UFO that was not like the other 8.

Others factions championed UFOs as extraterrestrial based on a science-flavored belief system. In the absence of tangible evidence, they became convinced that the elusive saucers represented physical structured technological craft made by an intelligence from another world. The tenets of their faith stated that flying saucers are extraterrestrial spacecraft, and that their reality is covered up by the U.S. government. But someday soon, the truth would be known. 

The Flying Saucer Are Real, True magazine, Jan. 1950.

Opportunists, hucksters, and frauds mixed the spiritual humbug with the pseudoscientific humbug into a message that the 10% or so of UFO unknowns represent spaceships of extraterrestrial origin, and there are far more of them that are never observed or reported. There are more they say, since many explained cases are just cover-ups. Lack of evidence is evidence – of the cover-up.

Vickie Landrum

Bringing that fantasy-based baggage into a UFO case virtually guarantees the investigation will be doomed to myth-building, such as what happened in the Cash-Landrum case and countless others before and since. As Vickie Landrum said in 1981: 

"I don't want no more (UFO) investigators having me go over the deal... I don't, and there's a lot of quacks, there really is, that's supposed to be big UFO dealers and wheelers, and they're not after hunting the truth, they're after something, proving something that's unreal." 

Anyone rationally interested in the UFO mystery must become aware of the history of the topic and the unscientific beliefs that were baked into the topic from the start. Seek out primary documents and put away the notions from books and TV shows produced for entertainment. UFOs are real, but very little of what’s believed and said about them is. The beliefs are interesting to folklorists, but otherwise, they need to be left in the past. The hard question to ask is: What does the actual evidence show and where does it lead?

In my dream, the article was only one paragraph long, which prompted me to find a song quotation that served as a coda, cautioning that the work to finding UFO solutions was more of a grind than a glamorous endeavor - and it provided no guarantee of a happy ending. From Jeff Lynne’s “Long Black Road” for Electric Light Orchestra (ELO):

“You gotta get up in the morning, take your heavy load

And you gotta keep goin' down the long black road.”

. . .

 

For more information on the foundational fantastical UFO concepts and their promoters, see these articles from The Saucers That Time Forgot.

Pre-saucer beliefs:

Theosophy and Spiritualism - The UFO Prophecy of Frederick G. Hehr

Meade Layne and the Occult - 1946, Before Saucers, Kareeta: UFO Contact in California

Charles Fort and the ETH - The 1st UFO book? Forgotten Mysteries by R. DeWitt Miller

Science-flavored beliefs:

 Frank Scully’s Conspiracies - Operation Hush-Hush: The UFO Crash and ET Bodies Cover-Up

Mixing science with fantasy - The UFO Evidence of Robert C. Gardner

From fact to fantasy - Tracing the UFO Mothership Connection

Extraterrestrial Evidence and Disclosure by Richard Shaver

Long before Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Devil's Tower had a connection with extraterrestrial life. An ancient connection.

April 1947, two months before the report of flying saucers by Kenneth Arnold, "The Shaver Mystery" was the sole focus of editor Ray Palmer's June 1947 issue of Amazing Stories. The Shaver Mystery was about how we humans are the offspring of god-like ancient aliens, the reality behind all our myths and legends. After abandoning Earth, some of those they left behind were transformed into nasty little degenerate "deros." We came to call their space ships UFOs, and from their cavernous secret underground bases, their dero offspring are responsible for abductions, mutilations and other  of mankind's woes. Ray Palmer's editorial explained:

With the aid of such machines as the telaug (telepathic augmentor) and disintegrating rays, plus various instruments such as the "stim" which enhanced physical and emotional pleasures, these dero took to tormenting surface people and thereby being the basis for all of our legends of cavern wights, little people, demons, ghosts and — during the war — gremlins. They cause many unexplained accidents, such as those train wrecks, plane crashes, cerebral hemmorhages, etc. which are otherwise unexplainable. 

Further, Mr. Shaver declared that the Titans, living far away in space, or other people like them, still visit earth in space ships, kidnap people, raid the caves for valuable equipment, and, in general, supply the basis for all the weird stories that are so numerous (see Charles Fort's books) of space ships, beings in the sky, etc.

So, before the first flying saucer sighting, Richard Shaver was saying extraterrestrials were abducting humans.

Shaver the Experiencer

Richard Shaver's article for the June issue, "Proofs," was a response to the critics of his writings. In his introduction to his essay, he talks about the problems of being an experiencer or witness and knowing and telling the truth:

My strength is dedicated to informing you of the key and the way to the kind of life that produced the beauty and wisdom of those immortal beings of the past, beings whose actual existence has been proved a thousand times to those who, like myself, have had actual experience in the caverns. For we have seen and touched and used those antique mechanisms and we know whereof we speak. But until today, those who knew have feared to broadcast their knowledge, for in olden times it would have meant being burnt at the stake, and today most certainly the insane asylum.

There were giants in the earth in those days

Shaver's Titans were giants, and had been mentioned in the the Bible, and myths around the world. But for those who needed even more evidence, he delivers in "Proofs."

YOU ask for proofs of the giganticism of the far past — and you can find Devil's Tower (Wyoming) in any Atlas. It is a national monument ! If it isn't a gigantic petrified stump larger than any redwood ever hoped to be, I will eat my hat! The stump alone is taller than the Empire State building! What size were men when trees grew that size?

THEY were the men who are spoken of as the Aesir, under Ygdrasil's branches, planning a battle against the Frost Giants! And they had telaug beams (Odin's Eye), and they had "magical" underground dwarfs, and icy underworld realms of magic — and we have only the Devil's Tower to prove it today. But it was a long time ago; when the sun itself was more beneficial and less aging. BUT, BROTHER, HOW CAN YOU ASK FOR PROOF WHEN YOU HAVE A DEVIL'S TOWER?

There you have it, Devil's Tower proves the Shaver Mystery, and therefore, all the extraterrestrial space travel and beings within.

On the need for Disclosure

Richard Shaver fought against skeptical unbelievers, railed against official denials, and can be said to be a founding father for Disclosure:

MANY things could be obtained of infinite value from these people in the caverns, if all of our civilization was aware and trying to salvage even a bit of the mighty wisdom the Elder race left behind them in their miracles of machine art. BUT it can't be done as long as "officialdumb" frowns upon all such efforts as "superstition," "black art," or "crackpots." It is a vital and unseen side of our life WHICH MUST BE OPENED TO THE PUBLIC GAZE! 

“The fact is that any honest investigation of super-normal manifestation always and invariably turns up mighty important data; which data is shelved by fearful, ignorant and bigoted people who are quite sure that the school books are right, and that they cannot go contrary to opinion or they will lose their ‘position.’  ...SOMEONE, SOMETIME, HAS TO CONQUER THAT BLIND DENIAL OF FACT AND COME OUT IN THE OPEN WITH THE TRUTH...”

There's much more to Shaver's argument in "Proofs." For those who dare to read it all:

Amazing Stories, June 1947

The telaug of the dero could affect our minds, so who knows what misinformation they were making Shaver believe... or what they are making us believe now!

The Placard of the Roswell Slides: The Final Curtain

Special Rush report from The Roswell Slides Research Group


The Roswell Slides second biggest mystery was the content of the placard on the alleged alien body.

Several statements were made about it, some contradictory:

The Roswell Slides and the Truth by Anthony Bragalia

This ‘placard’ is not very evident in the video grab image. However, it has been enlarged by experts and the writing, in red ink, is handwritten, not typed, as would be found in a biological display in a museum.

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-roswell-slides-update-by-tony.html

Tom Carey was interviewed about the Roswell Slides on the March 22, 2015 episode of Jaime Maussan’s Contacto on Tercer Milenio TV. Carey said that experts have been able to read some words on the placard on the case and that, “debunkers will be disappointed.”

The Conspiracy Show With Richard Syrett Apr 12, 2015

Tom Carey and Don Schmitt were interviewed, of the show's expert presentations, Schmitt said: 

This will be part of the event, part of the program in May, that all of these analytical reports, all of the analyses, all of the main experts as well as the photographic experts who examined- there’s a placard, very fuzzy, that can not be legibly read by the naked eye, yet we’ve had everyone from Dr. David Rudiak, to Studio MacBeth, even the Photo Interpretation Department of the Pentagon, as well as Adobe have all told us that it’s beyond the pale, that it cannot be read, it is totally up to interpretation. 

So, we truly feel we have performed due diligence; we have done everything we can to substantiate and prove what is contained within these slides, whether it is something of a human malady or something truly extraordinary. https://youtu.be/fQyAVrFnTos?t=1h24m2s

During BeWitness, it was announced that despite the work of a number of experts, the placard could absolutely not be read. 

In the second slide the placard was visible, and the writing was evident, if unclear.

News coverage, claiming the placard could not be read,

"We couldn't make anything clearly out of the placard... several others, who did not have much luck." - Adam Dew

"Nobody could read anything decisively in the placard, unfortunately. I am sure people will make attempts to do this going forward...." - Adam Dew

He was right, and most of the placard has now been read.

A member of The Roswell Slides Research Team used a newly acquired source image of the placard seen in front of the body. By manipulating the commercial software, SmartDeblur, he managed to significantly clear up the blurred text. Other members offered suggestions and helped narrow down the actual words.

Nab Lator deblurred the placard image.

Chris Isbert created an animated GIF to display the text.
http://s263.photobucket.com/user/europa73/media/macmini_1_zpsib9x40yc.gif.html

The first line was the most clearly resolved:

MUMMIFIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY

There is little doubt that this is the true and correct text. The other 3 lines of the text are somewhat hard to read, some words more clear than others. The original results yielded:

MUMMIFIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY

At the time of burial the body was clothed in a xxx-xxx cotton

shirt. Burial wrappings consisted of these small cotton blankets.

Loaned by the Mr. Xxxxxx, San Francisco, California

The entire effort only took hours, quite a difference from the claimed “years” of research that the Slides promoters camp claimed. Because the Slide hucksters haven’t released proper high resolution scans of the slides, our work was made more difficult. We could probably get clearer results from better images.

The mystery of the placard is solved, and so is the nature of the body in the case.

A boy, from Earth. 

The question then, becomes, how was this not discovered by the experts examining the case in the years of investigation?

Subsequent information filled in the missing placard letters. 

Mesa Verde Notes September 1938 Volume VIII, Number 1.

---

MUMMIFIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY

At the time of burial the body was clothed in a slip-over cotton 

shirt. Burial wrappings consisted of three small cotton blankets. 

Loaned by Mr. S. L. Palmer, San Francisco, California.

The Roswell Slides Research Group

José Antonio Caravaca, Spain
Isaac Koi, UK
Nab Lator, France
Lance Moody, USA

Tim Printy, USA

Curt Collins, USA

Tim Hebert, USA

Paul Kimball, Canada

Gilles Fernandez, France

Trained Observer, USA

Chris Rutkowski, Canada

Roger Glassel, Sweden

S. Miles Lewis, USA

Thanks to our colleagues and associates, including Alejandro Espino (for the 
Israel Ampuero team, Spain), Philippe Hernandez, Jeff Ritzmann, Aaron J Gulyas, Irna France, Nick Redfern, Fin Handley and many, many more who provided help.

The Miracle of Fatima: Photographic Proof from the Vatican and LIFE magazine?

Fake Fatima Miracle of the Sun photo

Polluting History

LIFE magazine used to be a vital part of the average American household, delivering a mixture of news and entertainment, always accompanied by large, striking photographs. In 1951, they carried some sensational news about the 1917 "Miracle of the Sun" at Fatima in Portugal. The Vatican had released photographs as proof of it, evidence of "rigorously authentic origin."

The Picture and Story:

LIFE - Dec 3, 1951 - Page 45

VATICAN PAPER PUBLISHES PHOTO IN PROOF OF FATIMA MIRACLE At the anniversary of the miracle of Fatima this year ( Life, Nov. 5), Cardinal Tedeschini told crowds of Catholics at the Portuguese shrine that last year Pope Pius XII had a vision similar to that seen by three children of Fatima 34 years ago. The children saw visions of the Virgin Mary, and at the final vision the sun danced in the sky. Thousands of spectators at Fatima that they too had seen the strange antics of the sun. The Pope declined to comment on the Cardinal's announcement, but two weeks ago the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, published new information in picture form This picture, showing the sun near the horizon, was dated 12:30 pm, Oct. 13, 1917, the day of the final vision. There was no eclipse recorded on that date; the sun's blackness, said L’Osservatore, was caused "by its very rapid rotation.." Such a midday position cannot be explained scientifically; no astronomical observations in other parts of the world verify that it happened. The picture, said L’Osservatore, was of "rigorously authentic origin" and had been taken by a witness with a camera who "succeeded in fixing the exceptional scene.”

A reader speaks out; the Retraction:

LIFE - May 12, 1952 - Page 20

LIFE May 12, 1952 (letters to the editor)

PICTURE OF THE WEEK Sirs: Recently you gave the distinction Picture Picture of the Week (Life, Dec. 3) to a picture of the Fatima "miracle" published in L Osservatore Romano as of "rigorously authentic origin." Now that the picture has been designated a fraud by the official newspaper of the shrine of Fatima, I trust that you will publish a retraction, out of journalistic honesty and in fairness to the many doubters who objected to the picture.

J. McKechnie Plainfield N.J.

• In reprinting the picture published first by L'Osservatore Romano, LIFE merely quoted the claims of the Vatican newspaper. Subsequently the official newspaper of the shrine of Fatima stated that the picture was taken in 1922 (not 1917), at sunset (not noon) and several miles from Fatima. -ED.

LIFE's "retraction" was given much smaller space than their original story. Checking old newspapers provided better details.

Youngstown Vindicator - Mar 10, 1952

Youngstown Vindicator, 3/10/1952

The Milwaukee Sentinel story of the photo fiasco had a fascinating quote from the journal, "The Voice of Fatima":

The Milwaukee Sentinel - Mar 10, 1952

Fatima Pictures Reported Made Long After Miracle

The Shrine of Fatima’s official newspaper... “The Voice of Fatima,” said:

“In the interests of accuracy we would like to state that the photographs...were not in fact taken on that date but several years later (May 13, 1921, near Torres Novas) during an atmospheric effect at sunset. They were thought to resemble the October prodigy and were published in Portugal at the time but later withdrawn in order to avoid confusion. There is no photographic record of the sun on the original date and indeed, if the effect is supernatural, it would be unlikely to be recorded by the camera.”

The Milwaukee Sentinel - Mar 10, 1952

If I understand correctly, then the fuss was over nothing. 

God, Mary and Miracles are "unlikely" to be photographed.

The photo printed in LIFE magazine still circulates on the Internet as genuine...

The Cash-Landrum Incident: The Suppressed Case Files

C. 2013 by Curtis L. Collins

     The physical evidence in the Cash-Landrum UFO incident is much of what makes it such a compelling and enduring case. Another key factor is the reputation and expertise of the case’s chief investigator John F. Schuessler who had the difficult jobs of seeking evidence, promoting the case and protecting the witnesses. The medical records have been long protected by Schuessler, citing the privacy of the witnesses as reason for withholding them. What is less widely known, is that there was other case evidence that Schuessler chose not to share. Part of that evidence, a previously unknown government UFO file will be made publicly available here for the first time.

Complaint C-12, Cash-Landrum file from the Texas Dept. of Health

     In the summer of 1981, Schuessler was busy preparing a presentation on the case for the September Center for UFO Studies symposium. Meanwhile, Vickie Landrum and Betty Cash were working on the case themselves. In late July 1981, it seemed their efforts were beginning to show results. Senator Lloyd Bentsen replied by letter to Betty, advising her to contact Bergstrom Air Force Base to file a report and claim for damages, stating that “...they will be most willing to assist you in any way possible.” Betty took a flight to Texas, and together with Vickie and Colby, made the long drive to Austin to visit the base. On August 17, 1981 they finally came face to face with Government officers. Their hopes and expectations were high, perhaps unrealistically so, due to the effusive tone of the letter. Base officials merely questioned them about the events, then explained that the Air Force no longer investigated UFO cases. The witnesses were told there was nothing the Air Force could do beyond providing them with damage claim forms. They were profoundly disappointed, and it proved to be just one event in a long series of false hopes.

Some news clippings set the stage for the report:

Before leaving Austin that day, the three paid an unscheduled visit to their state representative - Larry Browder, D-Coldspring. Browder was out, but an aide was alarmed enough to take notes. She promised to do what she could. Trace Effects: The Cash-Landrum Incident by Billy Cox Florida Today 12/6/83

Corpus Christi Caller, Sept. 16, 1981

At the request of state Rep. Larry Browder, D-Coldspring, the Texas Department of Health’s Bureau of Radiation Control is investigating the Dayton incident.
“We came into this thing fairly late in the game,” said Russ Meyer, manager of the state’s public health department in Houston.
On Sept 16, he drove the stretch of road where the sighting is supposed to have occurred. His radiation detection equipment did not find any traces of remnant radiation in the area. He also took soil samples, but their testing of them is not complete yet.
“If there had been radioactive contamination in large amounts, some would still be left there,” he said. However, he said certain types of radiation - such as ultraviolet light, infrared light and low-energy X-rays - might not leave any residual traces.
Meyer has recommended that the trio’s medical records be reviewed by the state health  department’s medical advisory board. Specialists he said, could differentiate between radiation and symptoms that could be attributed to such things as chemical toxins. 
-The Houston Chronicle, TX, Sept 25, 1981 State, private agencies probing claims of UFO encounter by Cindy Horswell

Reporter Billy Cox later questioned Meyer about the investigation: 

Department chief Russ Meyer, spent a whole day - Sept 16- scouring a 10-mile stretch of open highway between Huffman and New Caney. “Our major purpose was to verify the presence of radioactive trace effects, but we found no evidence of that. The only conclusion we could draw was that there was no residual radioactive material in the area at the time. If those people suffered radiation contamination in that area, it must have had a short half-life.”-Trace Effects: The Cash-Landrum Incident by Billy Cox Florida Today  12/6/83

Meyer apparently felt the witnesses were credible:

“I have no doubt those women saw something,” he said. “But as to whether they were zapped with radiation, I don’t know. They could have been exposed without there being any residual trace long the road.”-The Courier Conroe TX, Oct. 30, 1983 6A UFO victims plan to file $20 million suit by Cathy Gordon

     The events springing from August 17, 1981 trip to Austin and the information that came from it were apparently not pleasing to John Schuessler, who downplayed their significance and  concealed the information and reports produced. Schuessler said of the the Bergstrom interview “It revealed revealed nothing new” (MUFON Journal Oct. 1982), but examination of it reveals some witness statements that contradict Schuessler’s version of the story. Instead he claims that the meeting was a failure, another act of US Government refusing to help the victims. In reality, the advice and damage claims forms obtained at that meeting led to the filing of legal case, and the publicity given to the witnesses allowed their story to be heard by the public.

     The other witness meeting with Government representatives on August. 17 led to an investigation by the Texas Department of Health’s Bureau of Radiation Control. The TDH report revealed that there was no residual radiation found along the road, but they were not dismissing the case. They made an important offer: they were interested in continuing the investigation, starting with their doctors examining the medical records. There is no documentation of it in the TDH files, but Schuessler refused or ignored the State’s offer to help the witnesses.

Internal TDH memo repeating report desire of examining witnesses' medical files. Denied.

     There is another piece of information in the TDH report that was incidental in their investigation, but has immense significance to the UFO case history. Charles Russ Meyer began his TDH investigation by contacting Vickie Landrum on September 2, 1981. She gave him a brief description of events and suggested he contact John F. Schuessler, for further details. Meyer and two TDH associates met with Schuessler September 10th. Schuessler provided them with a detailed account of the events and the medical treatment given to Betty Cash. Meyer needed to start his investigation with examining the scene for traces of radioactivity. he asked Schuessler about the location. From the report:

“I then asked Mr. Schuessler if he had pin-pointed the location of the siting. Mr. Schuessler stated that due to the late hour and the ladies’ emotional state they could only state that they believed they saw the object on the straight portion of FR 1485 between a beer joint and some kind of highway warning sign.”

     The discrepancy between what Schuessler reported to the TDH team and what Schuessler said about the location in his UFO reports is troubling. When discussing the case, Schuessler told how the witnesses were able to return to the precise location, and that the scene contained some identifiable, distinct features:

“It is interesting to note, that although neither Vickie or Betty had been back to the site since the incident, they both were able to take us to nearly the exact same location. The separate site visits verify the location of the incident for us.”  -The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident, page 54

“They were able to point out a spot on the road that indicated that it had been heated to an extreme level of heating. It was burned, and it was very clear to the naked eye.”-Unsolved Mysteries (NBC) February 6, 1991

“We had a very large flying machine that that came over the road that actually left marks on the road, so you know where it was exactly.”   -Sightings (Sci-Fi Channel TV Series): “Physical Effects” July 31, 1992

     Betty Cash was interviewed by telephone by UFO researcher Chris Lambright on July 12, 1985 while the legal case was still brewing. Lambright asked her about the sighting location, and she replied, “I have only been back on that road twice. And I have no desire to ever go back on it again.”

     Betty moved to Alabama shortly after her initial meeting with Schuessler and she was not available for field investigations. There were two filmed on-site recreations of the event that Betty Cash participated in, one for “That’s Incredible!” in July 1981, and another for “The UFO Experience” in 1983. Schuessler participated in these productions, so it is possible that his later claims of her identifying the location stem from these media events. It was Vickie Landrum and her grandson Colby that accompanied Schuessler on the attempt to find the sighting location.  Photos were taken at the general area, later to be said to be the precise location.

Schuessler photograph showing alleged UFO sighting location.

     The Meyer report documenting that Schuessler and the witnesses not knowing the precise sighting location does answer some troubling questions. Now we can understand why there are no photographs of a scorched road or trees, and why soil/pavement samples were never presented as evidence. The claim that the sighting location was found and investigated was the foundation of his case. If this claim was false or inaccurate, the entire case is tainted. It raises other questions about how evidence was presented and just how much of it can be verified.

 The Texas Department of Health (TDH) Bureau of Radiation Control file can be viewed in full as a PDF at the link below.

Texas Department of Health Bureau of Radiation Control: Complaint C-12

Texas Dept. of Health report. See Page 17 of PDF.

 Texas Department of Health file: Complaint C-12

Table of Contents

(Note: Files not in order, presented as scanned by the TDH. 

Pages 1-8 are inferior duplications. Better copies presented later in the file.)

1-3 Russ Meyer report 9/17/1981 (inferior copy- see better one on page 17)

4-8 Newspaper clipping 9/29/1985 Austin American Statesman ‘U.S. test gone wild’ brings suit by John Kelso (Note better copy on page 33)

9-10 TDH Memo: “contact with News Media” 9/12/1985

11-15 Soil sample reports (Note: some apparently included in error from unrelated cases.) 

16 “Complaint C-12” file cover? photo of FM-1485

17-19 Russ Meyer report 9/17/1981: “Citizen request about possible exposure to radiation”

20 Memo 10/1/1981 “access to the medical records” “DMC” - David M, Cochran

21 Memo 10/9/1981 from George R. Anderson M.D. seeking medical records

22-23 Report from David K. Lacker “Legislative Contact, Bureau of Radiation Control”

24 Notes from Randy Cosson, aide to Rep. Browder on meeting Vickie Landrum

25-32 Newspaper clippings The Conroe Courier 2/22/1981, 2/23/1981

33-36 Newspaper clipping 9/29/1985 Austin American Statesman 

UPDATE: Schuessler's Memo of the TDH Meeting

    In the appendix of John F. Schuessler's The Cash Landrum UFO Incident, he reproduces a VISIT  memo documenting his meeting with TDH officials. This doesn't answer the questions about the location controversy, but it may provides some insight into why the State's offer of medical help was refused.

Subject/Purpose Cash/Landrum Case 9/10/81J. Schuessler met with Russ Meyer, G. Freeland, M. Vredenburg of the Radiation Control Branch of the Texas Dept. of Health per V. Landrum request

Discussions/Comments (Info. Obtained, Conclusions)1. State Representative Browder requested the above noted group to look into the case , as the result of Betty Cash & Vickie Landrum visiting his office in August.  Russ Meyer is a Regional Inspector and acted as spokesman for the group. 

2. I gave them any an overview of the incident and the injuries. They were quite interested, but said they couldn't prove whether or not radiation had been present. This type of case is not their normal job. They would like to have a doctor tell them whether or not his opinion is radiation this case. They would report that opinion back to the representative in Austin. It would then be up to him to pursue the source, type, responsibility, etc.    They could send a report to the state Medical Advisory board or but it only meets once a year. They felt they would live, since they are now alive. 

Action Required  They will look at Betty's hospital records if she wants to give permission. They suggested going to Dr. Vince Collins,  Rosewood Hospital, for his opinion on the case.

(Dr. Vincent Collins was a prominent radiologist in Houston.)  

C. 2013 Curtis L. Collins