UFO Contact: April 1, 1967, from Loco, TX

Watts being interviewed in 1968 by UFO investigators.

Carroll Wayne Watts said he had a close encounter with a UFO the night of March 31, 1967, but it was not reported until the following day, on April 1. Watts lived in the tiny town of Loco, in the Texas Panhandle, just south of Wellington, about 100 miles east of Amarillo. His story was carried in United Press International news service, UPI, and published March 2, as reprinted below.

Loco, Texas, near the Oklahoma border. 

Saucer Speaks 

A Wellington farmer said today that he spoke to a flying saucer Friday night. The man, Carroll Watts, said he was returning home from his father`s residence about a mile north of his home at about 10:30 Friday night when he saw a light from about where an abandoned house stands. He turned off the dirt road and headed toward the light. He said he drove to within about 20 feet of an object which “appeared to be about 100 feet long and eight or ten feet high.” 

"I walked around the side of it, and about 20 feet down the side. I found a port or door. I knocked on it three or four times and it opened mechanically,” he said. “A voice began speaking to me - it was an unemotional voice neither masculine nor feminine. It asked me if I would be willing to submit to a rigorous physical examination. “I asked them why I would want to take a physical and they told me that if I passed it, I would be able to make a flight with them. They said any man who passed the physical could make a flight, but no women or children would be taken.” 

“They pointed out a machine against the opposite wall from where I was standing outside the door. They said all I had to do was stand before the machine to take a physical. About two or three feet forward from the machine was a map. It was about a yard square and began about a foot from the floor. It appeared to be a large-scale land map - but I couldn’t tell what it was a map of." 

“Then they informed me that they had a machine that, when the ship within 300 yards of a building, could tell how many people were in the building and their ages. They (the voice) then asked me again to take the physical - and when I declined, they told me that several people had taken the test and had made the flights." 

“They, whoever they were, said they were stationed all over the world and could come and go as they pleased - no one could stop them. I told them I didn’t want to take that physical and I got back in my car and turned the lights on the ship. As I pulled in front of it, it rose slightly and turned to the south. There was a light, about 20 inches across, on the of the nose. As the ship was sitting, it gave off a clear fluorescent light, but when the ship began to move, the light took on a reddish cast. As I drove off, the object lifted from the ground and took a heading to the south. It made no noise whatsoever. I guess the whole thing lasted about ten to 15 minutes.” 

Project Blue Book file card: "Psychological"

As he spoke to UPI by telephone, Watts had two Air Force investigators at his home. The investigators were sent to Wellington from Altus Air Force Base, Okla. One man in Wellington said Watts was considered to be “above reproach.”

The incident is the third reported in the Wellington area in the last month. On March 21, Watts reported sighting such a craft flying at about 50 miles an hour over a road for about eight miles. On March 23 an Air Force man reported that he was chased along a road by a similar craft for some time.

- - -

Dr. Hynek is baffled.

This was only the beginning of Watts' story. He had a series of encounters over the following months with events and players that resemble the Barney and Betty Hill story, hypnotic regression by a Budd Hopkins type, Polaroid UFO photography like Ed Walters, and close encounters of the postal and telephonic kind with astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who said:

"If this is a hoax, it is a very, very clever one. In fact, it would be such a clever hoax that it would be almost as interesting as what this farmer claims has happened to him."

 More on Watts' incredible saga to come.

Val Johnson 1979: Prelude to Cash-Landrum?

Val Johnson in a reenactment for That's Incredible!

The Cash-Landrum story is a perplexing case, and a lot of attention is given to Betty Cash's skin problems, which have been mythologized as radiation burns from the UFO. As dramatic as it is, it’s by no means the first instance of UFO “sunburn.” Claims of burns from UFO encounters go way back; some notable early examples are the Sonny Desvergers “Scoutmaster”story, Palm Beach, Florida, 1952, Levelland, Texas, 1957, Loch Raven Dam, Maryland, 1958, and Stefan Michalak, Falcon Lake, 1967. 

It didn’t end there, and reports and rumors of UFO burns became a staple in UFO literature. In 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind introduced the concept to millions, and was highlighted in the scene where Roy Neary shows his wife his burns from a UFO, and insists that it is not a "moonburn."

Val Johnson

There were other cases shortly before the Cash-Landrum event with UFO burns, some that received nationwide news coverage. The Jerry McAlister UFO sighting on September 11, 1980 has previously been posted here.  His case featured a huge, brilliant UFO that allegedly left the witnesses suffering eye damage and radiation burns.

Before that, a much more famous case featured some details that would be found again in the Cash-Landrum case. On Aug. 27, 1979, Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson was driving  along a lonely road at night, when he saw a blindingly brilliant UFO above the road ahead. Unlike the C-L case, he didn’t stop, and his vehicle collided with the UFO. The car was damaged, and he suffered injuries including “welder’s burns” to his eyes. When help arrived, Johnson was taken to the hospital for an examination and to treat his injuries.  Unlike the C-L case, there was extensive visible damage to his car, and it was preserved as evidence and carefully examined.

That’s Incredible!

There’s another possible connection to the Cash-Landrum case. The popular television show, “That’s Incredible!” debuted in March of 1980 and ran until 1984. It often featured UFO cases, and in its first season they aired a segment on the Val Johnson story. It featured a reenactment of the event, and an appearance by investigator Alan Hendry of the Center for UFO Studies. Johnson was presented as a credible witness, and it showed that his doctor, employer and family stood behind him. 

What was strange, though, was that at the end of the segment, host John Davidson asked Johnson a question out of left field.

“Was it a religious experience for you? 

Many times these events are a religious experience.”

A strange and seemingly scripted question, perhaps to allow Johnson the opportunity to unburden on the topic. The effect was to suggest that UFO sighings are expected to have a religious element.

Vickie Landrum in particular put emphasis on how she initially took the UFO to be the Second Coming. She said, "The Bible says the sky will split and in a rain of fire, Jesus will come." Could the Cash-Landrum witnesses have been influenced by this program, perhaps in how they reported their story? In 1981, they appeared on “That’s Incredible!” themselves.

The rare segment with Val Johnson on “That’s Incredible!” recently surfaced on YouTube. It’s certainly interesting in and of itself, for the insight into his case it provides, and as a bit of UFO history.

For the full story of the Val Johnson case, see this article by Chris Rutkowski:
 The Val Johnson CE2 case of 1979 

AATIP's UFO Medical Study and the Cash-Landrum Case

The Cash-Landrum UFO case was a small part of the Pentagon's AATIP studies.

Popular Mechanics has a new article out by Tim McMillan, Inside the Pentagon's Secret UFO Program, and it looks at a number of issues concerning the AATIP and AAWSAP story. One of the questions it seeks to answer is whether or or it was a UFO program. He points to one of the studies contracted by the program, one written by Dr. Christopher "Kit" Green, “Clinical Medical Acute & Subacute Field Effects on Human Dermal & Neurological Tissues.”

McMillan quotes Dr. Green as saying:

However the 2019 documentary, Third Eye Spies by Lance Mungia disclosed that:
"(Kit Green) tells me he regularly collaborates with Hal (Puthoff), but on what, neither one of them will say. ...Turns out that Kit and Hal really were collaborating. Kit brought Hal into a top-secret Pentagon UFO assessment program revealed in December 2017 by the New York Times. Oh, and Hal says they have recovered UFO debris, but that’s another story.”

For some background on the UFO-related carerer of Dr. Green, I recommend Keith Basterfield's article: Christopher 'Kit' Canfield Green - further information

About Dr. Green's AAWSAP paper, McMillan says that:

"In light of the cumbersome clinical language, just a cursory scan reveals the entire focus was on examining injuries that may have occurred after contact with UFOs or UAP. In fact, the very term 'UFO' appears 16 times in the report; the word 'anomalous' is used 27 times... 'Advanced Aerospace Systems Applications Program' is mentioned in bold on four occasions."

The paper also mentions the Cash-Landrum UFO encounter on 7 occasions, but does not contain a thorough examination of it. It's an important element though. The Cash-Landrum case is regarded as a benchmark of sorts for other UFO injury cases. Cash-Landrum investigator John Schuessler included the case in his 1996 booklet, and it was a key refence for Green's paper: 

“The Schuessler catalog, UFO-Related Human Physiological Effects, was complied in 1996 by MUFON's past Director, John F. Schuessler. Covering the time period 1873 - 1994, the catalog comprises a summary of 356 selected cases of UFO-induced physiological effects on humans during close encounters.”

McMillan also notes:

"Green also stresses that while his work focused on encounters with unknown or unidentified aerial objects, all of the injuries he assessed could be accounted for by known terrestrial means, and did not provide any evidence for extraterrestrial or non-human technologies."

McMillan's story included this link to the full AAWSAP study by Dr. Green archived from Scribd:

Clinical Medical Acute & Subacute Field Effects on Human Dermal & Neurological Tissues

by Christopher Green, M.D., Ph.D.

Keith Basterfield has done an analysis of the paper and some comments on what it contains.

Kit Green's Defense Intelligence Reference Document unveiled

Update:

In late March 2022, the DIA released 38 of the DIRDs, including Dr. Green's original paper.

Anomalous Acute and Subacute Field Effects On Human Biological Tissues

. . .

For more information of the interest of the US government in the Cash Landrum case, please see our previous articles:

The US Government’s Cash-Landrum UFO Investigations

The US Government’s Cash-Landrum UFO Investigations, Part Two

For documents and literature on the C-L case, please check:
The Cash-Landrum UFO Case Document Collection

Media coverage of UFOs prior to the Cash-Landrum encounter

Some cultural and historical background for the study of the Cash-Landrum sighting:

UFOs were big in the media in those days.

There was even an annual cash prize from the National Enquirer for the best UFO story of the year, judged by some prominent UFOlogists.
Bob Pratt on the National Enquirer UFO Blue Ribbon Panel

A lot of the media attention was fueled by the success of a 1977 movie by Steven Spielberg (more on that below).

Project UFO, an NBC television series debuted in 1978 and ran for two seasons.

It loosely adapted Blue Book cases, while taking its visual depiction of UFOs from CE3K- gigantic and brilliantly lit.

On April 24, 1980, there was a failed helicopter mission to rescue American hostages held in Iran, Operation Eagle Claw. The secret training for this mission was conducted at Area 51 in Nevada and the mission failure led to the base's public exposure. A second mission Iran rescue mission, "Honey Badger" was planned and test flights involving CH-47s flew across much of the United States. When President Reagan was elected in November, it was clear that the mission was unnecessary, but the operation remained active until Jan 1981. Reports of these test missions likely fed into reports of "mystery helicopters" at the time. The Cash-Landrum case was initially linked to this phenomenon.

In August, 1980 Secretary of Defense Harold Brown disclosed details of secret US stealth technology experimentation. There was much press and speculation leading up to this. (Incidentally, the test flights for the F-117 stealth plane were conducted at Area 51, birthplace of many UFO legends.)

 Another key media influence in the latter half of 1980 was the movie Hangar 18  (a Hollywood version of the Aztec UFO crash legend). The movie's advertising misleadingly promoted as a documentary, and the advertising traded heavily on US Government cover-up and conspiracy, drawing on distrust and paranoia following the Watergate affair. The movie poster played on government distrust:

 "The government is concealing a UFO 

and the bodies of the alien astronauts. 

 Why won't they tell us?"

(Betty Cash's cardiologist recommended that she see this movie- it is highly likely she saw the television advertisements for it.)

Close Encounters of The Third Kind was rereleased nationwide to theaters August 1980 in a Special Edition. Almost every element of the Cash-Landrum UFO encounter was featured in the movie:

Brilliantly lit, gigantic UFO

   

 Car encounters UFO on lonely road

   

Witnesses suffer skin burns from UFO

A young boy endangered by a UFO   

Helicopter menaces witnesses

 

US military has knowledge of UFO and has scheme to for cover-up

Whatever actually happened on Dec 29, 1980, the incident was quickly absorbed and reshaped to fit into the existing UFO paradigm. The witnesses claimed it was a military exercise, but the chief investigator and promoter of the case preferred an extraterrestrial solution.

Hollywood's Plan 701 From Outer Space

Hollywood and UFOlogy have a long history together and at times, it seems like one feeds the other. Here's the story of how a movie producer and a famous actor were enjoying the view in California wine country when an unidentified flying object interrupted their conversation, and how the event led to a UFOlogy Hollywood connection.

Tony Cataldo and Martin Landau

The witnesses were Tony Cataldo and Martin Landau, both entertainment professionals, and business partners in the company Miracle Entertainment. 

Martin Landau in some of his famous roles

Landau is a distinguished actor who is probably best known for his role as Rollin Hand in the classic espionage show Mission Impossible, but science fiction fans may remember him for his work in Space: 1999 as Commander John Koenig, and other projects over the years ranging from the Twilight Zone to the X-Files. Landau portrayed Bela Lugosi of “Dracula” and “Plan 9 From Outer Space” fame in the 1994 movie “Ed Wood,” for which he was awarded an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Cataldo has a distinguished career producing movies as well as success in other endeavors: see http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0145874/ and his bio at MUFON. Their sighting details are fascinating. In 2001, while at Cataldo’s 30 acre vineyard estate in Napa, California, he and Landau were sitting on the porch enjoying conversation and a glass of wine when a massive UFO appeared. The visitation was jarring and made even stranger when this translucent object flew away, leaving a rainbow trail.

Cataldo reported a UFO in Napa

Unfortunately we don't have testimony on this sighting from Landau, but Cataldo has gone on record in this short film, where he describes the circumstances of the event and also discusses joining the board of directors at the Mutual UFO Network:

404: Sadly, a formal report of this sighting does not seem to have been filed, and details of this case are not available in MUFON's online Case Management System.

Falling Upwards: 701

Cataldo’s sighting has led him to become very active in representing UFOs in the media, and he is currently working on his next film, “701 The Movie.”

701The Movie

Tobias McGriff of Blue Orb Cinema provided a description of 701 on Facebook:

“Great news that we can finally talk about. '701' will be the first ever full feature film that is based on actual government UFO cases with a Hollywood budget for the re-creations and played to a national/international audience. Think 'real Close Encounters'. We are proud that Blue Orb Cinema's own Tobias McGriff has come aboard as one of the Producers on this groundbreaking project! It will feature the talent of Tracy Torme (Star Trek: Next Gen, Sliders, Contact much more), award winning UFO filmmaker James Fox , Former Cannon Films CEO and high profile Producer Tony Cataldo as well as Ines Romero. This film is going to feature some of the most credible witnesses ever featured on the UFO subject. Get ready to have your mind blown!”

Unlike MonsterQuest 

Flatwoods 411 in 701

 UFO Magazine's blog had an insightful article explaining how the producers are working closely with UFOologists, in which Frank Feschino explained that 701 will finally allow a quality presentation of the Flatwoods Monster case. 

“Unlike the MonsterQuest producers, the 701 people in California are keeping in constant touch with me and working with me every step of the way!”

More On Media Projects

Cataldo is playing a vital role in keeping the Mutual UFO Network a presence in the media as well. He was recognized by the director, Jan Harzan, at the 2014 MUFON Symposium, who gave thanks “to Tony Cataldo, our newest board member for his help negotiating the contract for Season 2 of Hangar 1.”

Hangar 1, companion show to Ancient Aliens on H2

Season one of Hangar 1 performed well, but there were some problems with the content. MUFON insider Susan Swiatek has explained that season two will be greatly improved, based on genuine UFO cases and actual MUFON investigations.

UFOlogy's Plan?

Bela Lugosi's unfinished business

There are some who keep saying that UFOlogy is dead. Is it possible that, like Dracula in the movies, it can’t really be killed? By the time of “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” Bela Lugosi’s greatest days were behind him, and he was just a tired shell of his former self. He died during the making of the film, but Ed Wood found another actor to wear Dracula’s cape in order to finish the work. 

...but Lugosi's business is not left unfinished.

UFOlogy can strive to follow this example and pass the cape from one generation to the next. Maybe Hollywood can help in this effort. The show must go on.

Bob Ryan wants you to get involved

Is that something you might be interested in? If so, do your part. Support UFO research.

Exposure to Flying Saucers: Your life may change!

This is an autobiographical piece of sorts, where I look at my memories of being exposed to the notion of Flying Saucers from childhood and beyond.

Me circa 1965,  ready for school.

Roughly the order of exposure, regardless of my love for them:

Past my bedtime, but caught this episode that gave me the creeps!

Not really Saucers, but Ancient Aliens at the Earth's core!

Not really My Favorite Martian, but nothing else on… At least he's friendly!

WE are in control (but lost).

Less scary when we have the Flying Saucer! Space travel goes mainstream via prime time TV.

THEY are in control (but humorless).

A scary show, bad aliens every week!

This is where I got hooked! All the Blue Book classics in four color glory!

An examination of alien races, featuring Orthon and the Flatwoods Monster!

After that, the first "real" book I ever bought!

 Flying Saucers- Here and Now!  by Frank Edwards!
And this book had pictures of real flying saucers!
They can't put it in a book if it isn't true!

 And in the news...

The first UFO case I remember on the news, mostly due to it happening in my home state of Mississippi.

The Pascagoula (Hickson/Parker) Alien Abduction

Through the 70s, I read every UFO book I could find in the library (not many, but free). Along the way, I also had interest in many other sensational things like the NASA programs, comic books, Bigfoot and Fortean weirdness. The only movies I recall seeing about UFOs were Chariot of the Gods (spooky), and later, Close Encounters (disappointing). By 1980, my interest in UFOs was waning, but a film advertised as if it were a documentary caught my attention.

WHY WON'T THEY TELL US?
I actually took my mother to see this!

Hangar 18 was so bad it may have killed my interest in the topic. After seeing it, I just drifted away to more concrete and productive interests. I still loved science fiction and monster movies, though!

If a UFO show came on, I'd watch it, but there was all this very weird stuff about abductions, probing, cutting cows and Cosmic Watergate… pretty ugly and unbelievable stuff. Later, it was more entertainingly served up on the X-Files, which I didn't realize at the time was basically a filmed adaptation of the 80s "darksider" UFO mythology.

Years passed, and I happened to watch a film on Netflix about Gray Barker, a flying saucer writer who was equal parts trickster:

Shades of Gray

I became fascinated with Barker and tried to learn more. Reading about him, I kept seeing mention of a friend and co-conspirator of his who was also featured in the film. Having not found my answers in the literature, one day I wrote him a letter. Before long, the phone rang, 

"Hi, it's Jim Moseley…"

The conversation was interesting, the first of many.

I was back in the grip of the saucers...