Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Cash-Landrum Incident Part One: In the Pines

Transcript

The Cash-Landrum Incident Part One: In the Pines · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hey y'all, as I'm sure all of you know as listeners,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: producing a true crime podcast can take a toll. Because
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: it does, and because Halloween is almost here, we decided
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to take a little break from the usual, emotionally devastating
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: content for a few episodes to tell another kind of story.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It's still a Texas mystery, perhaps a tragic story about
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: three folks who, if telling the truth, you could certainly
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: classify as victims. though some believe it's simply an elaborate hoax.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Whichever it is, you could easily call the case cold.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: After Halloween, we'll return to Gone Cold's usual subject matter.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: But for now, here's the story of the Cash Landrum incident.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: On a cool and clear December night in 1980, Lamar
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and Marie Walker were driving through the Piney Woods on
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: their way back from Plum Grove, Texas, where they had
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: been visiting her parents. Lamar was a veteran patrol officer
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: for the Dayton Police, a small town about 37 miles
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: northeast of the heart of Houston. As they made their
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: way home, traveling east on Farm to Market Road 1960,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: just inside the Liberty County limits, Lamar heard something. A deep, fast,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: rhythmic thump repeating continuously, and it was getting louder. He
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: asked Marie what it was, but she didn't know. When
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: it got loud enough, Lamar decided it sounded like helicopters.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: It was late and there was virtually no traffic, so
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: he rolled down his window and slowed the car to
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: a crawl. Looking up in the sky, Lamar could see
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: flashing lights, probably around four or five hundred feet up.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: he thought, and maybe 1,000 feet away. Closer and to
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: his left, he clearly saw three twin-rotor helicopters, or CH-47 Chinooks,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: military aircraft. It was a peculiar sight. As the man
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: began to see more lights, he noticed they appeared to
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: be flying in vector formations, each consisting of three crafts.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: There were three or four such formations as best as
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Marie and Lamar could tell. By this time, they'd pulled
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to the side of the road to watch. The groups
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: were spread out and shining either landing lights or spotlights
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: toward the ground. Whatever the case, it appeared as though
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the helicopters were searching for something. Lamar figured they were
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: looking for a downed aircraft or performing training maneuvers. And
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: perhaps they were. Other ordinary folks would also report seeing
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: swarms of Chinook helicopters that night, including two women named
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Betty and Vicky and a boy named Colby. But those
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: three also saw something else entirely, something that would change
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: each of their lives for the rest of their lives.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: On the evening of Monday, December 29.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: 1980, Betty Cash was driving home toward Dayton, Texas, with
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: her friend Vicki Landrum and Vicki's grandson, Colby. They'd gone
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: out looking for a bingo game, first to Cleveland, where
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: they usually went to play at the local VFW club.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: But the building was dark and empty when they arrived.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Thinking it had been canceled due to the holidays, they
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: traveled to the Legion Hall in nearby New Caney, but
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: it was also closed. Hoping to prevent the trip from
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: being a complete bust, they stopped at a truck stop
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: diner near U.S. Highway 59 and FM 1485 on the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: east side of town. They stayed about an hour and
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: left sometime between 8.45 and 9 p.m. The three climbed
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: back into Betty's two-door 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme after eating
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: and headed home. A serious woman, meticulous in appearance, Betty
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Joyce Cash was 51 years old. Once a private nurse,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Betty operated a grocery and restaurant in Dayton after taking
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: sole ownership of the business following her divorce more than
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: 12 years earlier. She was a native of Birmingham, Alabama.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: 57-year-old Vicki Marzelia Landrum was originally from Laurel, Mississippi. and
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: worked for Betty as a waitress at the diner. She
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: was devoutly religious and deeply Southern. After becoming a father
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: in 1974, Vicki's son Paul, she said, could not properly
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: care for the boy, and her daughter-in-law had no interest
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: in being a mother. So, Vicki and her husband Ernest
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: took legal custody of the pale, yellow-haired baby, named Colby.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Though he's most often reported as seven years old on
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: that December night in 1980, Colby Lee Landrum was just six.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: It was exactly a month, in fact, before his birthday.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: As they cruised down FM 1485 between New Caney and Huffman,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the piney woods towering on both sides of the dark, deserted,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: and narrow two-lane road The country-western music on the radio
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: drifted at a low volume, the analog warmth of the
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: eerie pedal-steel guitars barely noticeable under Betty and Vicky's back-and-forth,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: which rarely let up for a moment of comfortable silence.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: There were no houses or businesses around for miles, only
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the dense, green forest. As the two women chatted, Colby
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: noticed a bright red glow illuminating the sky. coming from
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: somewhere behind the tall trees. What's that, Aunt Betty? the
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: boy asked. Before she could say anything, Colby was pushing
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: his grandmother's face toward the light. What, honey? Betty responded,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: glancing back at him quickly. Both she and Vicki had
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: noticed it before, but being caught up in conversation, they
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: failed to register just how strange it was. Out loud,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: they wondered what it could be. but nothing simple, nothing ordinary,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: made sense. Whatever it was, it was getting closer, but
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: they couldn't tell if it was moving toward them or
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: standing still. Betty slowed down. As the car veered on
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the road's bends, the passengers lost view of the light
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: here and there, but it kept coming back, brighter every time.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: They began to hear a faint noise they'd later describe
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: as beepings. The light grew closer and closer and began
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: to resemble fire. Suddenly, a large object appeared directly over
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the road several hundred feet in front of them. It
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: was huge, its top appearing to reach far beyond the
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: 80 to 100 foot tall pine trees that lined either
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: side of FM 1485, and it was hovering well above
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the pavement, probably around 50 feet. Flames spewed violently from
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: the object's bottom, and it emitted a rumble they'd later
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: describe as resembling the sound made while welding metal. Just
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: moments before, the inside of the car had been cool
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and comfortable, but it became hot in an instant, uncomfortably so.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, Betty yelled. Terrified, Colby hopped over the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: bench seat and into his grandma's arms. In a panic,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Betty stepped on the gas, but after Vicky shouted for
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: her to stop, slammed on the brakes, coming to a
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: screeching halt 150 feet or less from the floating behemoth.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: In immediate reaction to the stop, Vicky had grabbed the
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: dashboard and stiffened her arm to protect herself and Colby.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Betty looked around. The sides of the road immediately dropped
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: into small ditches, and she feared that if she tried
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: to turn around, she'd get stuck. Perhaps not confident in
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: her ability to do so, she feared simply putting the
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: car in reverse and flooring it. It was getting unbearably hot.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Vicki convinced herself they were experiencing the rapture. Betty didn't
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: know what to think. She opened the door, stepped out,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: and stood behind it. Because of the glaring brightness of
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the fire, she couldn't see around her to flee. Colby
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: was wailing hysterically. As Vicki opened the passenger door, he
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: tried holding her back and begged her not to get out.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: But she did, standing behind it like Betty on the
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: other side, while bracing herself by placing her left hand
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: against the roof. Vicki grabbed Colby as he leapt from
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: the car, pulling him close to her. They all stared
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: at the object hovering in the sky, even as the
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: glare of the flames, as though they were ultraviolet, was
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: severely discomforting to their eyes. Peeking through small slivers in
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: their hands, Betty and Vicky were having trouble making out
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: specific characteristics. of whatever it was they were looking at.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: But Colby said he could. It was metallic gray and diamond-shaped,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: with a rounded top and side points. He couldn't tell
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: exactly what the bottom point looked like. The fire was
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: simply too bright. Occasionally, the flames shot out with even
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: more intensity, raising the object another 20 or 30 feet
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: into the air. Vicki and Betty later described the sound
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: it made as it did, like the air brakes on
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: a semi-truck. When the fire died back down, the craft,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: which looked to be about the size of a water tower,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: lowered back toward the road, though it never touched it.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: It was as if it was trying to go high
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: enough to make its way over the trees, but was
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: struggling with some sort of mechanical failure. And every time
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: it tried, a blaring, shrill, beeping sound rang out without rhythm.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: It felt like their eardrums were going to burst every time.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Several minutes had gone by, and by this point, Colby
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: was terrified. He jumped back in the car, trying to
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: pull his grandma in with him. However, she resisted. For
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: another couple minutes, she stood petrified, studying the object, but
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: finally grew so afraid, she too returned to Betty's Oldsmobile
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and shut the door. She embraced Colby, whose heart was pounding.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Within seconds, both of them were sweating profusely. After calming
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: her grandson and assuring him that everything would be okay,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: giving him a biblical reason for it, Vicki noticed that
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Betty was still outside. In fact, she'd shut the door
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and had begun walking toward the craft. Vicki screamed for
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: her to return. You'll burn up. But Betty slowly proceeded.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: For another few minutes, upon stopping near the car's bumper,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Betty Cash tried to make out more detail. She was scared,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: but an obsessive curiosity had taken hold of her. Finally,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: the heat made it impossible to remain there, and Betty
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: made her way back. She started to grab the door handle,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: but upon the slightest touch, it burned her, and she
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: drew back her hand. Using the end of the sleeve
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: of her leather coat, Betty opened the door and climbed
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: back inside. Vicki scolded her best friend for remaining outside
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: and walking closer, demanding to know why she had. I
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: don't know, Betty replied. offering only that she guessed she
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: just wanted to get a better look at the thing.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Both women began sobbing as they realized they wouldn't last
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: much longer. Nothing had changed, the light was still almost blinding,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: and the heat, they believed, would surely kill them. Then,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: the flames intensified without letting up. The object rose above
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: the trees and began to disappear out of sight. Though
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: they remained fearful, Betty Cash, Vicki Landrum, and her grandson, Colby,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: were relieved when the strange craft that hovered above FM
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: 1485 finally flew away. Leaning forward in the car, they
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: could see it about 500 feet or so up in
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the air. Suddenly, the flames that shot from the object ceased.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: but it still emitted a reddish glow. It then turned
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: on its side and began heading south. Betty noticed the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: car wasn't running, but she'd never shut it off. She
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: turned the key in the ignition. The car didn't start
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the first time. Luckily, she only had to give it
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: one more go. As they drove off, Betty flipped on
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: the air conditioner. It was 40 degrees outside. Hoping to
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: hear something that explained what they'd just seen, she then
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: turned on the radio. But it didn't work. As they
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: made the turn on FM 2100, Betty and Vicki heard
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the distinct sound of helicopters. They stopped and leaned forward
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: to look out the windshield. In the sky, twin-rotor helicopters, Chinooks,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: came into view, with a few single-rotor helicopters mixed in.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: The choppers appeared to be following the diamond-shaped craft. When
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: it was all said and done, Betty and Vicki had
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: counted 22, until Colby pointed out one more, bringing the
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: total to 23. Within minutes, all the aircraft were out
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: of sight. As they drove home, all three of the
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: observers began feeling ill, overcome with stomach pains, nausea, and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: burning skin. Betty's head was pounding and Vicki felt unbearable
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: pain in her eyes. They agreed to keep what they'd
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: seen between them. Twenty minutes later, at about ten till ten,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: they reached Dayton, where Betty dropped off Colby and Vicki
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: before heading home. Betty's headache had gotten worse. It made
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: her even more nauseous and she was intensely thirsty. Her
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: mouth felt as dry as it ever had. An employee
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: of Betty's was at her house when she arrived. The woman,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: named Wilma, often stayed there with her two children when
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: her husband worked night shifts. Betty told her she'd never
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: felt so sick. She also told Wilma about the craft.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: The woman laughed it off as if she was joking
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: and went to bed. Betty stayed up and watched the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: 10 o'clock news, hoping to see a report about the
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: fiery aircraft she, Vicki, and Colby had seen, but there
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: were none. By morning time, Betty's skin burned, and blisters
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: appeared on her head, face, neck, and back. She was
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: still too weak to get out of bed for a
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: glass of water. At Vicki's house that night, the redness
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: on both her and Colby's faces initially seemed like something
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: she could treat herself. She rubbed baby oil on their skin.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Colby woke around one that morning, crying and asking for water.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: He was running a fever and had vomited in bed.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: All three of the observers had become undeniably ill, but
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Betty bore the brunt. Her condition continued to worsen over
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the next several days. Vicki tried to help her friend,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: but Betty refused to see a doctor at first. She
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: didn't know what to tell them, and she was afraid
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the truth would make them think she was crazy. On
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: January 2, 1981, four days after the encounter, Betty was
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: finally admitted to Parkway Hospital in North Houston under the
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: care of Dr.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: V.B.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Chenoy. When her daughter Mickey visited her there from Dallas,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: she became almost inconsolable at the sight of her mother.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Because Betty's face had swollen so much, she was unrecognizable.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Mickey said her head had grown to a size comparable
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: to that of two men's heads. Dermatologist Dr. Solomon Brickman
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: examined her on January 5th and documented crusted areas on
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: her scalp. swelling across her forehead and cheeks, and swelling
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: and crusting around her eyelids. Her scalp was painful to
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the touch, along with minor hair loss, and the areas
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: beneath her jaw and around her neck were swollen and tender. Dr.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Brickman's diagnosis was cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection, with secondary
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: swelling of the scalp and face. Betty received antibiotics and steroids.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: According to her medical history, the cellulitis improved, and her
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: headaches had eased enough for her to leave the hospital
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: on January 19th. But the improvement didn't last. After Betty
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: returned home, she developed diarrhea, her headaches grew worse, and
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: her hair began falling out in clumps. On January 25th,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: six days after her discharge, Betty was again admitted to Parkway.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: This time, the hair loss was pronounced. Dr. K. Kumar
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: described two large bare areas on the side of her head.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: There'd be more later. The facial cellulitis had improved, but
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Betty's headaches had become severe enough to require injections for relief.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Doctors investigated several possible explanations. A CT scan showed no
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: remarkable changes in her brain, and an EEG was essentially normal.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: An eye examination documented irritated skin around her forehead and eyelids,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: but did not establish radiation damage inside her eyes. When
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: doctors pressed for an explanation of how Betty had come
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to be in such a condition, both she and Vicki
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: simply stated they didn't know. But Colby was also there.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: It was that thing we saw, he blurted out. For
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the first time since the incident, Vicki and Betty came
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: clean and described the entire ordeal in detail. Shockingly, they
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: weren't met with ridicule like they expected. Rather, Dr. Chenoy
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: became even more concerned. In fact, he reprimanded the women,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: insisting he might have been better equipped to diagnose and
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: treat Betty had they told the truth all along. He
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: later admitted, however, he likely would have been just as lost.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: On January 28th, Dr. Brickman examined the round patches of
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: missing hair and noticed some regrowth within them. His diagnosis
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: was alopecia areata. A scalp biopsy taken the following day
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: produced findings consistent with that diagnosis. The examinations documented an
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: illness that required treatment, but they didn't establish what had
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: caused it. While Betty underwent another round of hospital care,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Vicki was managing her own symptoms and looking after Colby.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Their medical care followed a different course. Vicki sought treatment
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: for her eyes in Liberty, a small city east of Dayton.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: She had suddenly lost most of the sight in her
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: right eye. Cataracts she hadn't had before, Vicki said, had
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: begun to appear after the encounter. Mostly, however, she concentrated
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: on Colby, caring for her grandson the best she could
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: at home. She later explained that money was one reason.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Once she could no longer work at the cafe, which
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: had closed due to Betty's hospitalizations, the household depended solely
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: on her husband's take-home pay of $ 243 a week. Rent, bills,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: the car payment, and gas for the car left little
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: for groceries, much less repeated medical visits. Vicki was also
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: reluctant to put Colby through extensive testing while Betty's doctors
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: still lacked an explanation. Apart from treatment for his eyes,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: she said, which would become red and puffy, especially when
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: he played outside, she would continue caring for him herself
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: unless he became seriously ill. Colby showed obvious signs of trauma.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: He became severely frightened at the sight of helicopters. He
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: had recurring nightmares and refused to enter dark rooms alone.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Betty remained at Parkway Hospital until February 9th. Her two
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: admissions had kept her hospitalized for much of the five
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: weeks following the encounter. She had received treatment for the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: swelling and headaches, and doctors had investigated the patchy loss
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: of her hair. Betty had lost considerable weight and now
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: weighed only 94 pounds. But she left without an established
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: connection between those findings and whatever she, Vicki, and Colby
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: had encountered on the road. John Schuessler was an aerospace
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: engineer who sometimes contracted for NASA on the space shuttle program.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: He was also deputy director of the Mutual UFO Network,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: or MUFON, and headed Project VISIT, the Vehicle Internal Systems
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Investigative Team, though his interest in unidentified flying objects was
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: separate from his aerospace career. By the time Schuessler spoke
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: with Betty Cash, nearly eight weeks had passed since the
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: night on the road. She had already been hospitalized twice.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: The account had passed through several hands before it reached Schuessler,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: the man who had spent years investigating it. He recalled
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: hearing an unnamed version of Betty's story from a physician
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: before he met her. The doctor had described a woman
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: at Parkway Hospital who said she'd been burned during a
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: UFO encounter, but would not identify her. Vicki Landrum had
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: already reached out to various law enforcement agencies looking for help,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: but none would. On February 2, 1981, she called the
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle. The report reached the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, known as APRO, in Tucson, Arizona.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: There it came to the attention of a member named
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Bill English. English spoke with Vicki more than once. According
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: to her later account, during one conversation he told her
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: that Betty was going to die from her injuries. It
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: was a UFO researcher's statement, and an odd one at that,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: not a prognosis from Betty's treating physician. The women recorded
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: their accounts on tape at English's request, and he passed
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: that material to Dick Donovan of the Weekly World News,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a highly exploitative tabloid. He'd apparently sold the story to
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: both that tabloid and another, The Globe. The women believed
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: he was trying to help. The first named contact documented
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: in John Schuessler's initial case file came on February 20, 1981,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: when reporter Kathy Gordon of the Conroe Courier called him
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: about the women's account. Gordon was writing the first article
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: about the Cash Landrum incident as a two-part story that
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: ran a couple days later in the February 22nd and 23rd,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: 1981 editions of the newspaper, not quite two months after
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the fact. The day after Gordon contacted Schuessler, Betty reached
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: out to the man herself, calling him collect from Dayton
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: at one o'clock that afternoon. She described the encounter as,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: her continuing illness, and the expense of her treatment. She
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: also described her dealings with English. In her article, Gordon
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: approached the story with both the benefit of the doubt
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: and skepticism. I'm not one to believe in flying saucers
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: or nothing like that, Vicki Landrum told the reporter. I
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: think it's more likely it's something the military's up to.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: But in the second part of the newspaper story, Bill
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: English seemed to insist the object they'd seen was indeed extraterrestrial,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: and that the crafts flying after it weren't helicopters at all,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: but unmanned probes scanning the Earth for samples, and were
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: somehow attached to the large, diamond-shaped craft. His B-movie, science-fictionesque
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: theory likely did little to advance the seriousness in which
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: some were giving the case. It's unclear if he even
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: really believed it himself. On February 22nd, the day Gordon's
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: story ran, Schuessler met Betty at her brother's apartment in
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Houston's Normandy Woods complex. Her mother was also there. He
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: documented her account of the encounter and the preceding medical problems.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Schuessler took photographs, including pictures of the patches where her
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: hair had fallen out. His notes preserved descriptions that would
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: later become points of disagreement, including whether the car's engine
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: had stopped on its own and whether she had actually
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: seen military markings on the aircraft. While some would later
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: use the discrepancies in their stories as proof of a hoax,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Schuessler was convinced Betty, Vicki, and Colby were telling the truth.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Six days after his in-person interview with Betty Cash, Schuessler
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: and fellow UFO investigator Alan Holt went to Dayton to
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: meet Vicki and Colby Landrum. The men questioned them, then
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: accompanied them to the road outside New Caney, where the
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: incident took place. Vicki identified the area where she believed
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Betty had stopped. Betty had also taken them to almost
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: the exact spot, although both women claimed they hadn't been
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: back since the night it happened. Holt walked ahead to
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the position where Vicki and Colby said the object had
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: hung above the pavement. Schuessler paced the distance between those
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: two points. His calculations came to approximately 133 feet. On
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the road where the unidentified aircraft had apparently hovered, The
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: investigator noted a large, circular patch that appeared to have
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: melted and re-solidified. It was about 20 feet in diameter.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: For miles up and down FM 1485, there was no
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: other spot like it, he said. Instead, the old, cracked
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: pavement was remarkably consistent. Schuessler drew a map showing the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: stopping place and the additional points along the drive where
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: they said they had watched the object and helicopters. Holt
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: prepared his own account, and his partner planned to finish
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: their independent reports before comparing them. The helicopter descriptions received
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: particular attention. Schuessler later reported that Betty selected a CH-47
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Chinook from pictures of American and foreign aircraft, although she
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: remained uncertain about the smaller, single-rotor helicopters. Vicki drew what
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: she remembered. Colby also drew a tandem rotor aircraft, and
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: his grandma showed the investigators a scene he had constructed
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: with the illuminated colored pegs of a light-bright toy. Two
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: weeks after she was released from Parkway, family took Betty
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Cash back home to Birmingham, Alabama to care for her.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: No longer able to work, she was forced to close
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: her business. John Schuessler assembled an initial case report dated
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: March 4, 1981. Its 35 pages included questionnaires, interview notes, drawings,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: and a map. The work then expanded beyond the three
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: people who had been in the Oldsmobile. He sought other observers,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: medical assistance, and information about the aircraft the witnesses believed
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: were military. According to Schuessler's later account, an offer of
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: medical help arrived on March 12th from Dr. Peter Rank,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: a radiologist in Madison, Wisconsin. Rank supplied medical release forms,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: which Betty and Vicki signed, and helped establish a process
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: for collecting and reviewing their records. By early April, a
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: package of Betty's hospital information had arrived. It included specialist examinations,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: imaging reports, and biopsy findings. But important material was missing,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: including blood test results and some of the physician's notes. Dr.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Rank reviewed the records and questioned whether alopecia areata adequately
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: explained the reported combination of hair loss, skin inflammation, and
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: nail damage. He favored a radiation explanation, since all those
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: symptoms plus the headaches and nausea fit right into that,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: but he could not establish the type or dose. Betty
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: later said her blood was tested for radiation poisoning, but
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: the results were negative. The medical inquiry had produced a
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: consulting physician's interpretation, but no measurement of an exposure. For
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the field investigation, Schuessler enlisted Bill Eatwell, a project visit
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: member and private pilot, to photograph possible effects around the
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: reported encounter area from the sky. Eatwell later said he
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: had noticed nothing extraordinary before a burglary interrupted that work.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: His camera and undeveloped film were stolen from his home.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: The photographic effort was lost, but there was nothing that
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: definitively proved the film had contained evidence or that the
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: burglary was connected with the case at all. But something
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: else later happened, something just as suspicious, concerning the scene
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: of where the alleged encounter took place, that perhaps gave
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: the burglary more weight. And as he continued his investigations,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: John Schuessler discovered more people, including Dayton policeman Lamar Walker,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: who witnessed helicopters on that night or around that time,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and others he found had seen similar unidentified flying objects.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: That's next time on Gone Cold. If you'd like to
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: join Gone Cold's mission to shine a light on unsolved
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: homicides and missing persons cases, get the show ad-free. and
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: have access to bonus content, you can at patreon.com slash gonecoldpodcast.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: You can also support the show by leaving a five-star
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: rating and written review on Apple Podcasts or wherever else
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: you listen. However you choose to support Gone Cold, we
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all.