The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident That Caused Radiation Poisoning In Witnesses
Intercontinental UFO Galactic Spacecraft Research and Analytic Network ArchivesVickie and Colby Landrum standing with Betty Cash.
One of the most significant issues regarding the credibility of UFO sightings is often a lack of proof. Photographs and videos are fantastic when available, but skeptics are quick to disregard these as evidence. In the modern age, it is especially easy to fake or alter images, further complicating any claims of authenticity.
However, the Cash-Landrum UFO incident is notable because its evidence could not have been faked. The witnesses had nothing to gain from their story — and much to lose.
The encounter, as retold by Robert Sheaffer in the Skeptical Inquirer, took place on Dec. 29, 1980. Around 9 p.m., Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Landrum’s seven-year-old grandson Colby were driving near Houston, Texas, when they spotted something in the sky above them.
At first, they thought they were seeing a helicopter or perhaps a low-flying plane. After all, there were airfields in the area — but the object didn’t look like anything they had ever seen. For starters, it was massive and shaped like a diamond, and it occasionally sent out flames toward the road below.
Cash felt a mix of fear and fascination as she pulled the car over to the side of the road and exited the vehicle. Suddenly, black helicopters surrounded the UFO.
“They seemed to rush in from all directions,” Cash recalled. “It seemed like they were trying to encircle the thing.”
The flames put out by the UFO were allegedly so hot they made the car impossible to touch — but that’s not all. Almost immediately, the witnesses began to experience severe health complications. All three suffered from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, burning eyes, and pain similar to a sunburn.
Betty Cash’s symptoms continued to worsen over the next few days. She developed massive blisters, and by the time she went to the hospital on Jan. 3, 1981, the pain was so intense that she could barely walk. Cash was discharged after 12 days but soon returned to the hospital for another two weeks.
All three witnesses eventually recovered, but the incident stuck with them. Initial reports chalked their illness up to “ionizing radiation syndrome,” but experts later claimed that if they had indeed been suffering from radiation poisoning, the dose would have been lethal based on the symptoms they displayed.
Meanwhile, skeptics have pointed to the possibility that the entire event was a case of Munchausen syndrome, a psychiatric condition in which someone fakes a disease. The burn patterns on Betty Cash’s arms, for instance, were distinctly round in a way that radiation burns wouldn’t be.
Her medical records have also never been released. Critics argue that this is to avoid any mention of the term Munchausen syndrome, although that is just as much a theory as the actual UFO sighting itself.
