Cash-Landrum UFO Case Updates: Witness Reports

The 1980 Cash-Landrum UFO case near Huffman Texas remains a fascinating unsolved mystery. If the witnesses' claims were true, something genuinely extraordinary happened, regardless of the nature of the object they described. The involvement of military helicopters in the incident has always caused the hope that military records or crewmen could be located to provide  more information.

Unfortunately, the incident was not immediately reported. Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and her grandson Colby Landrum were out for a drive the night of December 29, 1980 when they had their encounter with a fiery UFO. However, they did not report it, or even tell Betty's doctors about it when she became ill. It was not until Betty's second trip to the hospital that the UFO story came out, and more time passed before Vickie reported it. 

The local police gave Vickie contact information for the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), and the UFO report. was finally made on February 2, 1981. Unfortunately, while their information was given to  UFO organizations, there were delays in getting a response. Consequently, the initial interviews were made by a tabloid newspaper instead. Afterwards, a local reporter put Betty Cash in touch with MUFON's John Schuessler. She met with him the next day on Feb. 22, but another week passed before Schuessler saw Vickie and Colby Landrum on Feb. 28, and then visited the roadway where the sighting took place. With all the combined delays, almost two months were lost before the UFO investigation began.

The initial search in the surrounding area produced no additional witnesses. However, after when the story was covered in the media, an appeal was made for anyone else who had seen anything to help. Over the following months and years, a few people did come forward claiming that they, too had seen something around that time. (See this map, which includes details on the secondary witnesses.) The problem remains that none of them had reported seeing anything until after the UFO story received publicity.

Sometimes, people come forward after decades with genuine accounts and add depth to the historical record. But it pays to be careful, because some of these claims are false. For example,  something similar happened in the old West. There were lots of imposters claiming to be famous outlaws who'd somehow survived their reported deaths. John James is one such example, pictured below from "The Many Faces of Jesse James." These fakes "help" keep interest in a story alive, but do nothing to bring us closer to the truth.

Real Witnesses are Needed

If it was real, more people must have seen it. Any helicopter personnel who may participated in the pursuit of the UFO are at (or nearing) retirement age and could now discuss this case without the fear of risk to their military careers. It is possible that once-secret government documents could now be made available, if we knew where to look. Others in Texas from the Huffman area may have been witnesses and be able to add valuable details.

If you are a witness to the 1980 Cash-Landrum incident, or have details that would help in its investigation, please use the link below to send an email reporting your information. Contact is confidential, and your name will not be used without your permission. If you've previously reported your sighting, please mention it in your email.                  

Blue Blurry Lines: Cash-Landrum UFO Case Updates

(This is for matters relating to this specific case only.)

Witnesses who are are coming forward for the first time are encouraged to file a report to NUFORC or MUFON, in order that their sightings can be added to the records on the case. 

Erica Lukes, Ted Roe and the Attack on Isaac Koi

Erica Lukes is Director of Communications for Ted Roe's new IAUAPR ( International Association of U.A.P. Researchers) group.

Isaac Koi is a well-known researcher from the UK working to preserve and share UFO literature and documents, with the stated purpose of making them freely available to all. Isaac is known personally by a few trusted colleagues, but uses a pseudonym while working in the UFO community in order to protect his career. Recently, exposure of his identity has been threatened, causing him to announce that he was leaving UFO research.

Isaac Koi "Goodbye" post on Facebook

Here's how it came to be. 

(Note: The entire discussion along with the others that followed can be found at:

 Cross-referenced copy of Isaac Koi’s farewell statement )

Nov. 28, in the Facebook group "ET Disclosure International," Chris Rutkowski started a discussion about how an old fake photo was featured in a recent book, "UFO's and Alien Abduction Phenomena: A Scientific Analysis" by Harold Povenmire. Chris Bledsoe is featured in the book, and he was touting Povenmire's reprint of a newspaper April Fool's Day joke from 1950 as a genuine photo of an alien body.

Rutkowski offered Isaac Koi's website ( http://www.isaackoi.com/alien-photos/koi-alien-photo-01.html ) documenting the history of this hoaxed photo.

From "UFO's and Alien Abduction Phenomena"
by Harold Povenmire

Bledsoe angrily defended the photo as genuine, said Povenmire was infallible, and asked "Who the heck is Koi?" Without knowing anything about the book or photo, Erica Lukes had joined the conversation to support Bledsoe and picked up on the issue of Isaac's anonymity, "Understanding peoples motives is crucial. When we come forward and put our identities out in the public area we risk our professional careers and our personal relationships."

After that, Ted Roe came in saying, "Isaac Koi deserves some respect for his work, however, operating under a pseudonym makes everything he says suspect." It snowballed from there, with Roe losing his cool, "I have..I'll ask.....Who the fuck is Isaac Koi and why won't he comply w the standards we do?"

Ted Roe
"Exec Dir IAUAPR.org, 
Exec Dir NARCAP.org"

It escalated with unsubstantiated allegations against Isaac and his "followers," charges of bullying and abuse. When a conference was discussed where Isaac had met with researchers, including some from NARCAP, Roe said that his friends had taken pictures, pictures that would identify Isaac.

Afterwards Roe threatened, "watch how I make these malcontents famous anytime someone searches their name."

Roe now claims the controversy started with an attack post on him elsewhere by skeptic Gilles Fernandez, but that's a smokescreen. Roe has issued a series of denials that he's made any threats of exposing Isaac Koi's identity.

Ted Roe's Facebook page

Confronted about his actions, Roe denies it while insulting anyone who shows support for Isaac, portraying them as imaginary followers or Isaac's "minions" of trolls.

Roe's denials, insults and accusations

There's a backstory.

a comment from Erica Lukes on the Roswell Slides from the defunct MUFON group.

This attack on Isaac Koi is Erica Lukes' revenge enacted by Ted Roe, fallout in part from the Roswell Slides fiasco. Lukes was a guest host for MUFON's show on KGRA where she interviewed Jaime Maussan between BeWitness and his MUFON symposium appearance, allowing him to defend the Slides against the critics he said were trying to discredit him. Her primary concern was trying to get the meanies to stop saying unfavorable things about her friends. Lukes has referred to Maussan and Paola Harris as role models that have guided and supported her. She sees anyone criticizing the fakes that these two promote as hateful debunking abusive meanies. She apparently saw the team that exposed BeWitness in that light. Isaac Koi, Chris Rutkowski and I were among the members of the "Roswell Slides Research Group," and it's tragically comic that Lukes rushed in to defend yet another fake photo of a dead alien, this starting this disgusting episode.

Listen to MUFON UFO Radio June 16, 2015

There have been shrill cries from Roe and Lukes about bullying and abuse, but they seem to have
engaged in plenty of this behavior themselves while pretending to be the victims. This Dec. 1 post from "UFO Classified  with Erica Lukes" shows she hasn't let the Slides fiasco go. She portrays herself as a victim of bullying attacks, just like Anthony Bragalia.

Erica Lukes on the Roswell Slides

Later in 2015, as part of Erica's MUFON job, she elected to shut down their Facebook discussion group with over 12,000 members. The real purpose was to silence conversations by and about John Ventre (and other embarrassments). I exposed her hand in this publicly, and it made her furious. Time passed, Erica eventually left MUFON and there were no other conflicts until we heard that she was part of a new organization, one that would provide, "... peer-reviewed publication, networking and collaboration, events, expert analysis, and more..." the International Association of UAP Researchers.

When Isaac posted a notice about Ted Roe's new IAUAPR group, I asked that since Erica was a member would her mentors Maussan & Paola Harris be a part of it. I'm sure that infuriated her, and her boss Ted Roe came to her defense and started a feud with Isaac. It trailed off when Isaac refused to respond to Roe's insults.

Erica Lukes found an opportunity to strike back. At the discussion at ET Disclosure International, the topic of Isaac's anonymity came up. Erica seized on this and then Ted Roe took over for her. She'd like to punish me, Gilles  Fernandez and the other "meanies," but found Isaac Koi an easier target. As a result of Roe's threats, Isaac is being forced to withdraw from ufology in order to protect his career and family. Isaac's done an invaluable service to the study of UFOs by working to preserve its history. This a huge loss to UFO scholarship.

Ted Roe is just a henchman. This is clearly the work of Erica Lukes​.

- - -

For further details and documentation:

Cross-referenced copy of Isaac Koi’s farewell statement (PDF, 151 pages)

ATS discussion: Isaac Koi to leave UFOlogy after Ted Roe NARCAP allegedly threatens to expose his anonymity. 

Cash-Landrum UFO case in American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales

 American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore (Vol I) edited by Christopher R. Fee and Jeffrey B. Webb is a new book described as, "A fascinating survey of the entire history of tall tales, folklore, and mythology in the United States from earliest times to the present, including stories and myths from the modern era that have become an essential part of contemporary popular culture." It's a hardcover book, weighing in at 1138 pages.

It also features a few entries on UFO matters, such as the Ancient Aliens notions popularized in Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken, aliens & abductions, Area 51, the Hopkinsville Goblins and others. 

The Cash-Landrum case is also discussed on pages 199-201, in an a section by Curt Collins.

The book (including the full Cash-Landrum entry) can be previewed at the listing on Amazon.

The Cash-Landrum File: Civil Action No. H84 348

UK historical researcher Isaac Koi posted on ATS:

"I am now pleased to be able to share a further collection of material – about 30 booklets of documents produced by Quest Publications (some of which are over 100 pages long). ...thanks to Russel Callaghan and others in the Birdsall family, the under-appreciated “Archives For the Unexplained” ("AFU") in Sweden has now scanned nearly 30 of the collections of documents published by Quest Publications."

Of particular interest, is 101-Cash_Landrum_File-Civil_Action, a collection of legal documents relating to the Cash-Landrum UFO encounter. Below is a link to the ATS article:
101-Cash_Landrum_File-Civil_Action

Direct link to the booklet:
The Cash-Landrum File: Civil Action No. H84 348

I do not believe a complete collection of legal files exists, but between this, the CUFON collection and John Schuessler's book, almost everything has been disclosed.


Many thanks to Isaac Koi for preserving this, and many other UFO historical records.

The $20 Million Cash-Landrum UFO Story

The Cash-Landrum UFO case publicity made a splash in 1981, but had a second wave starting in 1983 after the filing of the lawsuit against the US Government for 20 million dollars in damages. The suit stuck to the details of original incident, avoiding later embellishments such as the legend of the scorched road being removed and replaced by men in unmarked trucks.

Despite the resolve of Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum, there was not sufficient evidence to take the case to trial, and as attorney Peter Gersten later revealed, it was a bluff: 

“The lawsuit was brought in hope that behind the scenes the government would say, `Let’s keep this quiet, we’ll take care of the medical expenses and make sure nothing else happens’." 

Houston Chronicle, Texas Magazine, Page 8, 2 Star Edition, 11/17/1996

 See this earlier article for more on the lawsuit: Cash-Landrum UFO Case: Legal Rumors

Tabloid News

The article below on the Cash-Landrum lawsuit was sent to me by Martin Kottmeyer from his clippings of UFO stories from the 1984 period. It's typical of the coverage at the time and likely came from the tabloid National Examiner. It’s a good summary of the story, but has a few notable variations from canon. Quotations in newspapers, especially tabloids can’t be trusted for fidelity, but it’s interesting that Vickie refers to helicopter searchlights, something absent from earlier accounts. Betty Cash had breast cancer, but said, “The doctors told me radiation definitely caused my cancer.” The tests run during her original hospitalization were negative for radiation exposure.

The other point of interest is Vickie’s reference to the “Pentagon man,” which eventually evolved into a veiled death threat: “He questioned me and I answered him, and then he told me that people had died for less than what I was trying to do.” Vickie Landrum from her appearence on “Sightings” TV episode, segment: “Physical Effects,” July 31, 1992.

The Cash-Landrum case occurred at the same time lore surrounding Roswell was being developed, and distrust of the Government and the belief in a “Cosmic Watergate” UFO cover-up was central to them both. Without a villain to explain the lack of evidence, about all that is left are stories.

Also pictured, UFO sketch by Betty Cash.
Click here for larger version.