Not a UFO, Not Bigfoot, but a Mysterious sighting of a Vanishing Cat

And now for something completely different...

Working outside in the morning, I found cat tracks. Bad news- I have a dog with a feline intolerance of the fatal kind.

Chores continue, but breaking for lunch, I see a cat in the edge of the trees.

I move closer and see that it's an unfamiliar cat,

a gray and white one, a bit like this.

Random similar cat pulled off the Net.

Closer still, getting concerned the cat is not moving, fearing the worst,

wondering if somehow, the allegedly murderous dog got out.

At some point, maybe 15 feet away, the cat seems to change form, and in its place, 

I see something with writing on it. Closer inspection reveals it to be the empty of a bag of sand, blown away from one of my morning chores.

So, I had to go back and look up a word I'd heard, pareidolia, basically that's when you see something like an empty bag, but your mind thinks it matches a cat instead.

This kind of thing has happened to me many times before, but this time, I had a phone camera handy to recreate it. Usually, even after scary false alarm, the memory of it soon fades away.

Funny thing is, if I had looked away and the wind had carried it into the woods, I'd have fiercely sworn the cat simply ran away.

A true story, and I am prepared to produce the bag in a court of law. Some of you may be asking yes, but what about the very real cat tracks? 

Not all mysteries are fully solved!

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...

Area 51, the CIA and Cold War UFOs: TD Barnes

In the 2010 Mirage Men book, Mark Pilkington discusses how Dr. Leon Davidson thought some UFO radar appearances were man-made, created for covert counterintelligence purposes. Pilkington discussed a CIA program that created radar "ghosts," Project Palladium, and how it might have been used to also spoof UFOs.

CIA Saucers?

TD Barnes, president of Roadrunners Internationale, was kind enough to answer some of my questions about his work at Area 51 and the purpose and capabilities of the CIA radar program known as Project Palladium.

TD Barnes

Q: What can you tell me about Project Palladium?

A: Gene Poteat was a fast-rising star in CIA who headed up the project. As you will see, the CIA Project OXCART at Area 51 was the purpose and need of Project Palladium to determine if we would be able to safely overfly Russia with the Mach 3 A-12 Blackbird intended to replace the U-2. We were very hot in the arms race at the time and didn't have a clue what the Russians were up to. 

Eugene Poteat and TD Barnes

Q: Was Palladium or another radar spoofing system used on China in the early 60s? I'm wondering if the "ghost planes" it could generate explain the story told in Above Top Secret by Timothy Good:

"Miles Copeland, former CIA organizer and intelligence officer, related an interesting story to me involving the Agency's attempt on one occasion to use fictional UFO sightings to spread disinformation. The purpose, in this case, was to 'dazzle' and intoxicate' the Chinese, who had themselves on several occasions fooled the CIA into sending teams to a desert in Sinkiang Province, West China, to search for nonexistent underground 'atomic energies.' The exercise took place in the early 1960s, Copeland told me, and involved launching fictional UFO sighting reports from many different areas. The project was headed by Desmond Fitzgerald of the Special Affairs Staff (who made a name for himself by inventing harebrained schemes for assassinating Fidel Castro). The UFO exercise was 'just to keep the Chinese off-balance and make them think we were doing things we weren't,' Copeland said."

A: I'm not sure the project name of the spoofing action in China. We were doing a lot U-2 overflights of China and losing a lot of planes in the process. I recall our training a group of Taiwan Chinese at Groom Lake in 1969 in a C-130E to drop motion and light sensors in the desert of northwest China to gather intelligence on the Chinese nuclear weapons development program. These were palletized sensors that looked like ordinary rocks that they dropped out of the back of a C-130 over Locknor and Zhang Sinzu area. 

"TALL KING" parabolic shaped radar antenna

Though I have no first-hand knowledge of UFO disinformation, I don't doubt for a minute that we did it. Our U-2 and Blackbird flights were UFO sightings that we really didn't want to occur, especially the CIA A-12 whose existence we wanted to keep secret. In the A-12 alone, we flew 2850 flights out of Area 51 and many of them were responsible for UFO sightings. The Air Force Bluebook investigators having to make up stories to cover for us caused a lot of the skepticism that exists today. Psy-Ops by all parties were a major component of the Cold War, but in our case we preferred to be undetected.  

A-12, CIA plane built by Lockheed.

Thanks to Mr. Barnes for answering my questions. For more information on him and his work, check out http://roadrunnersinternationale.com/

For more information on Project Palladium, see Gene Poteat's article, 
Stealth, Countermeasures and ELINT 1960-1975 pdf

Cash-Landrum Case versus Nuclear Accident Response Methods

Radiation Accident: Field Exercise

If the Cash-Landrum UFO incident involved an accident producing a radiation leak, and  a military cover-up, they would have had to use standard equipment and techniques to deal with the aftermath. The video below is of a test showing the Government response to a nuclear weapons accident resulting in area contamination.

"The NUWAX-81 Nuclear Weapon Accident Exercise documents the Defense Nuclear Agency (now renamed the Defense Special Weapons Agency) directed response to a simulated nuclear weapon accident in the vicinity of a hypothetical California town. Other agencies involved included the Department of Energy (DOE), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and State of California emergency response teams.
The film summarizes the highlights of six days of field exercise play, involving over 600 accident response personnel at the DOE Nevada test site in April of 1981."

This film was made the spring after the Cash-Landrum encounter of Dec. 29, 1980, so it should provide an accurate picture of the response methods and materials available. It's not an exciting film, but worth a look for the historical connection to the case.

The NUWAX-81 Nuclear Weapon Accident Exercise

Defense Nuclear Agency Educational Documentary

The pieces don't fit very well in the puzzle. The film shows that a response to a radiation leak would have been so big, it would have disrupted the surrounding towns, an operation that would have been noticed. Also, the witnesses' injuries in this case were not consistent with "radiation burns" and hospital tests did not indicate exposure to radioactive materials. Trying to link the case to radioactive materials may have been a false trail.

Remembering Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum

Betty Cash

Betty J. Cash 1929 - 1998

Betty J. Cash, 69, of Fairfield, Alabama, died December 29, 1998, in Birmingham, Alabama. She was born on February 10, 1929, in Birmingham to Jack L. (Jesse) and Pauline (Lockhart) Collins.

Betty moved to Dayton, Texas where she operated a business with her husband James F. Cash, taking sole ownership after their divorce. After developing health problems, she moved back to Alabama to be cared for by her mother. 

Betty was survived by her son, Toby Howard, daughter Mickey Geisinger, sisters Lois Green, Midge Helms. Sister Shirley Ann McNair, and brothers, James H. Collins, Jesse W. Collins and Charles Wayne Collins have all since passed.

She was buried at Cahaba Heights Baptist Church Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama.

Vickie Landrum

Vickie Landrum 1923 - 2007

Vicie “Vickie” Marzelia Landrum, 83, of Liberty, Texas passed away Wednesday, September 12, 2007.  She was born on September 19, 1923 in Laurel, Mississippi to Johnny and Emily Holifield.  Vickie liked to play bingo, computer games and sew, but above all she loved to play with and take care of her grandchildren. 

  

Vickie is preceded in death by her parents; loving husband, Ernest Wilson Landrum, Sr.; and 2 brothers. She is survived by her children, Ernest Landrum, Jr. (deceased), Gloria Jean Roper, David Landrum, Paul Landrum, and Jayne Landrum; fourteen grandchildren; twenty-four great-grandchildren; and nine great-great-grandchildren. 

She was buried at Ryan Cemetary in Tarkington Prairie, Texas.

(Note: Betty Cash's obituary is my creation based on the scant details available.

Vickie Landrum's obituary appeared in the East Texas News.) 

Dr. J. Allen Hynek on the Cash-Landrum UFO case

Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Speaking on the Cash-Landrum UFO Close Encounter of the Second Kind

“Something sure as hell happened..."

Dr. Hynek, as seen in Spielberg's CE3K

Dr. J. Allen Hynek was only indirectly involved with the Cash-Landrum case, but he knew it well. From the beginning, John F. Schuessler was sending copies of his Project VISIT reports to Hynek’s Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). In April 1981, Dr. Hynek’s protege, Allan Hendry, (CUFOS’ chief investigator) was contracted by the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR) to investigate the incident. Further, Schuessler made his first lecture on the case at Hynek’s CUFOS symposium in September 1981. While Hynek himself did not investigate the case, he was very familiar with it. 

In 1981, just as the news of the Cash-Landrum story was spreading through mainstream media, Dr. Hynek was contacted by a Texas newspaper, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times for his comments on the case.

Corpus Christi Caller-Times September 13, 1981 p. 1A

Dr. J. Allen Hynek, founder of the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Ill., and the country's premier UFO investigator, termed the Dayton incident a “really crucial case,” because of the “absolutely unequivocal physical effects.”

“Something sure as hell happened: Those women didn’t pull out their hair and blind themselves," said Hynek. "The connection with the event is clear-cut. It's one-to-one. We have other cases, but rarely as clear-cut as this.”

“We are dealing with a real event , but we’re not sure if it’s a government exercise or a UFO sighting," said Hynek, who headed Project Blue Book, a U.S. Air Force study of UFOs from about 1948 to 1969. "There’s a lot of secret stuff going on that most people don’t know about.”

Hynek believes the women should file a lawsuit to compel disclosure.

Corpus Christi Caller-Times September 13, 1981 p. 1A

Texans Tell of Strange Encounter by Pamela Lyon

OMNI Magazine Interview with Dr. J. Allen Hynek

The year before he died, Dr. Hynek was interviewed at length by Pamela Weintraub of OMNI magazine, it appeared in the February 1985 issue. A number of UFO cases were discussed, and in a rather surprising way, the conversation turned to the Cash-Landrum case.

Dr. Hynek. Portrait from OMNI magazine

Omni: ... close encounters of the third kind might be anybody's fantasy.

Hynek: I can't disagree. That's why I'd like to focus most of my new research on close encounters of the second kind, where there are actual physical marks. -Perhaps a foreign consciousness is creating not just illusions but the real ship and the-real creatures as well. If they weren't physical creations, they couldn't leave traces. That's the importance of the close encounter of the second kind. Let us suppose that a very, very advanced civilization has, as a part of its everyday technology, the ability to project a thought form that, like a holographic image, temporarily assumes three-dimensional reality. This is just speculation of the wildest sort, but if the UFO phenomenon is doing anything, it's causing us to expand our imagination, to make us aware that this nice, cozy world we live in is only the world we see around us, not the sum total of our environment. 

Omni: Are there any close encounters of the second kind that you feel would particularly help to reveal this broader reality? 

Hynek: I'd like to get to the bottom of the Cash/Landrum affair. The story there concerns Betty Cash, Vicki Landrum. and Vicki's grandson Colby The three were coming back from a Bingo game when they saw a glowing triangle spewing flames above them in the sky. They stopped the car to watch the thing, and as it moved off, they reportedly saw about twenty-three helicopters escorting it out. After they got home there were all sorts of physiological effects: Their eyes swelled, their hair fell out, they developed blisters, they were nauseated and weak. The event completely altered their lives. 

Omni: What do you think was at the root? 

Hynek: My best guess is that they were exposed to some kind of microwave radiation. 

Space-shuttle engineer John Schuessler, who's investigating the case, is veering toward the idea that the three were exposed to a government device escorted by twenty-three helicopters, He's even helped Betty, Vicki, and Colby to institute a lawsuit against the government. But there's another side of all this: Where would twenty-three helicopters come from? First of all, it was Christmas week, and people at the bases said they would never conduct military exercises at a time like that. 

Omni: Certainly you can't be suggesting the possibility of twenty-three extraterrestrial helicopters? 

Hynek: No, that's preposterous. But perhaps Cash and the Landrums saw a holographic image of the helicopters. I could buy that more than I buy twenty-three solid, physical helicopters from some unknown base, when no baseman will admit seeing so many helicopters of that particular kind. 

Omni: Yet I really think that we're obliged to  consider the fact that some of these sightings are due to government craft. Recently, James E. Oberg traced many reports to secret Soviet satellite launchings. 

Hynek: Today, of course, such technology may account for many reports. From 1947 through 1955, however, almost none of the maneuvers ascribed to UFOs could have been duplicated with human technology. And even today, our technology can duplicate only part of the phenomenon. We still don't have craft that can hover and then take off at fantastic speed. 

Omni: As far as you know. But the government has been implicated in other ways as well. A group known as CAUS [Citizens Against UFO Secrecy] claims that the government has been orchestrating a massive cover-up of UFO information. They've recently invoked the Freedom of Information Act to obtain classified information. Have they found anything, and do you believe there's a government cover-up? 

Hynek: What can be covered up? You can cover up ignorance, embarrassment, sinister political acts. I myself don't see real evidence for a diabolical, Machiavellian cover-up. I do perceive a strong reluctance to share information with the public.

The conversation turns to other UFO topics. See this link for a PDF of the entire article:

Omni Magazine February 1985 interviewed by Pamela Weintraub.

Flaming UFO: An Examination of the Cash-Landrum Original Testimony

UFO Fire: Flames or Glow? Separating the Heat from the Light

"… more glowing than on fire…"   -Colby Landrum, 2013

“In addition to lighting the whole area like daytime, the UFO periodically belched flames downward. Each time the object would shoot flames downward it would rise. As the flames stopped it would drop in altitude. The intense glow, however, never changed.”
-John Schuessler, MUFON Journal November 1981

MUFON Journal April, 1981 illustration of the UFO,

Whatever it was, one thing that seemed definite about the Cash-Landrum UFO is that it "belched flames downward." When investigator Chris Lambright shared the transcript from his 1985 interview with witnesses Vickie Landrum and Betty Cash, it became apparent that there were problems with the details circulating about the UFO's description and characteristics. Examination of the case documents shows that there is much confusion in separating the UFO itself from the light, and the flame-like effects it produced. When Colby Landrum appeared on Martin Willis’ Podcast UFO, he was questioned on specific details about the object: 

“To me, it was like a diamond shape with flames coming out the bottom, not just massive flames, the whole thing looked [like it] radiated bright orange and it actually looked like it was more glowing than on fire. As a kid, that seems to stick in your head... a lot of things I don’t remember, but this particular thing about the object I do remember.”
Colby Landrum, Podcast UFO, Dec. 4, 2013

Identifying this pyrotechnic characteristic could prove to be a vital clue in either identifying or eliminating a terrestrial craft as a suspect for the UFO. This prompted me to review the records, with emphasis on the earliest reports with direct statements from the witnesses. What did the witnesses originally say about the fire, and did it change over time?

(Note: Abbreviations used, VL= Vickie Landrum, BC= Betty Cash, CPL= interviewer Chris Lambright.)

First reports: the best evidence

“a deal came down and it was like fire was coming from it.” (Referring to Betty’s illness) “...could it have had anything to do with that thing that we stood and watched, ‘cause we were close enough to it that we felt a fire from it."
VL’s call to Robert Gribble at NUFORC Feb. 2, 1981

“It was bright, the lights were bright. And there was a lot of heat coming from this object.”  (No mention of fires or flame.)
BC - Parkway Hospital Tape Early Feb. 1981

"The whole road ahead and around it glowing as if by fire. I believe it was fire because it glowed down and let up a little."
VL- Parkway Hospital Tape Early Feb. 1981

“this bright object that made the sky just split up & it looked like the world was coming to an end, it was a very bright red.”
BC’s handwritten account of the encounter, Parkway Hospital, Feb. 7, 1981 

There is a gap in the record from February 8th until the 21st. During this time, the case was being managed by Bill English (a rogue member of APRO), who sold the story to the tabloid Weekly World News, providing them with Betty's and Vickie's taped statements from Parkway Hospital.

To date, no records of the conversations between the witnesses and English or the tabloid have surfaced. It was during the tabloid involvement that the definite descriptions of fire begin to appear.

The light  from it was glowing, lighting up the whole road like it would set it on fire.
 VL- The Courier (Conroe TX) Feb. 22, 1981

"It looked like the whole sky had split and fire was coming down almost to the road.”
VL- Weekly World News March 24, 1981

"this fire was coming out of the bottom of it. And it wasn't just one little streak.'' 
VL- Feb. 28, 1981 interview, The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident by J.F. Schuessler

“a bright silver... an aluminous thing. It was diamond-shaped with fire coming out of the bottom,” flames produced “air brakes” sound, but louder. Asked if flames were like a rocket, “That’s the way it was, but it didn’t fly off.” No smoke was noticed. Flames produced a roar compared to tornado, big winds, big engine, “air brakes” sound, but louder.
BC- 1981 undated interview, The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident by J.F. Schuessler

“ ... fire was shooting out the bottom of it ... and then it would let up, when it would let up... it made... I don't know what kind of sound to tell you it was making, it... similar to air brakes... or?... a whooshing sound.”
BC- Bergstrom AFB Interview, Aug. 17, 1981

“... it was hanging up, you know, over the trees... when the fire'd comedown, it would lift up, and when the fire'd let up, you know... when the fire'd kinda go away... that's when it would come back down... and finally when big gust of fire came down and the sound was so shrill, that's when it lifted to where it would get up and go away.. the flame come down, you know? ... just like, just like a rocket” 
VL- Bergstrom AFB Interview, Aug. 17, 1981

Night rocket launch.

1985 Interviews of the Witnesses

July 10, 1985, Chris Lambright interviewed Vickie Landrum in her Dayton home, seeking further details. He tried to determine when and from where the object emitted the glowing light.

Vickie Landrum from 1985 interview with Chris Lambright

CPL: Were the flames coming down all the time? 

VL: No, no. They would let up and then come back down.

CPL: How could you see it if the flame went out?

VL: It didn’t go completely out. It went up and then it would come back down. It was like something, like a motor or something that was in trouble. And finally, when the flame come whooshing down, there was a loud noise…the loud noise it made…it lifted slowly.

CPL: Was the flame more or less constant, or did it just cease?

VL: It never did just completely cease. It was permanently…It was just a big light. It was glowing over the road so much we saw the object.

Two days later, Lambright followed up by talking to Betty Cash by telephone.

Betty Cash compares flame to blowtorch.

Blowtorch flame, warming up and in operation.

CPL: When the light came out, it came out only from the bottom?

BC: That is right. 

 Lambright asked for clarification on the color and characteristics of the light.

BC: I have described it on several occasions myself as a blow torch light. You know, a welding light…they don’t all come out one color…you can look at them and they are different colors. 

CPL: Are you talking about an arc-welder?

BC: Well, one of them welding torches that shoots flames out. A propane torch.

CPL: Right, a blow torch cuts a nice sharp flame and it’s real brilliant bluish color. 

BC: Yes, and if you will look you can see the yellow and white…you know. 

CPL: Did you notice anything about the flame itself that would have made it look very red, so you would have described it as red? 

BC: Well…not really as a red. But there was a reddish-yellowish looking color. 

Chris Lambright detail. Different versions attempting to show witness descriptions of object and lighting.

As a boy, Colby Landrum was rarely quoted at length in the press coverage, and he later withdrew, refusing to discuss the events. In his first television appearance as an adult, he described the object.

”It was a bright red, glowing object. Kind of looked as if you took a piece of metal and heated it up with a torch. It kind of looked like it was on fire, but it was kind of floating.”
Colby Landrum, UFO Hunters, “Alien Fallout” aired January 14, 2009

Conclusions

Betty Cash, who witnessed the encounter the most closely, did not mention fire or flames in the earliest two reports, just heat and light. Vickie Landrum initially said the object produced heat and was glowing as if by fire  As they were asked to repeat their story, it appears the glow and the heat may have combined into a description of “flames.” Admittedly, it’s a bit unclear and confusing, as are many details reported in the case. Often, eyewitness testimony can become unintentionally contaminated by external influences or just grow in the retelling.

In the interview at Bergstrom Air Force Base, Vickie and Betty included details of John Schuessler's investigation in their description of events, such as the measurements of the UFO's position and size. Colby was the only witness who could originally describe a shape for the object, Schuessler emphasized the diamond shape in his initial report. The witnesses absorbed the report, and this new information was incorporated into their story.

In examining the original testimony, the witnesses reported seeing the brilliant light and feeling heat produced by the unidentified flying object. The more dramatic description of fire and flames may have been a later interpretation.