Chapter 1: What happened during the Cash-Landrum Incident?
Imagine you're visiting New York City. The streets are bustling. The energy is high. The smell is questionable, but you're excited. You're on your way to meet your friends. You've got your headphones in, listening to your favorite podcast, and you're waiting for a walk signal to change.
And then when the little hand turns into the little person, you step out onto the street and bam, you're hit by a city bus. Luckily, you survive the accident, but your injuries are serious. The doctors tell you your health might never fully recover. What do you do? Well, among other things, you probably sue the New York City Transit Authority for negligence and pain and suffering.
After all, those medical bills are piling up and they're not going to pay themselves. You think you have a good shot. You have a clear account of what happened. injuries to support your claim, medical records galore, and witness statements corroborating your accident. Everyone says it was a city bus. Everyone says you had the right of way. You should be good, right?
Well, what if, after you file your lawsuit, the city just dismisses your claims outright? They deny any involvement. The accident? What accident? The bus? It wasn't theirs. The injuries? Not their problem. Now imagine that the bus wasn't a bus at all. You ready? It was a UFO that spit fire. What would you do then? This is the story of the Cash Landrum Incident.
Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You can find us here every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram, at The Conspiracy Pod, and we would love to hear from you, so if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. And be sure to watch all the way through.
After today's case, I'll be sharing some conspiracy-related news stories our team is keeping a close eye on. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Cologuard. Do you know what's really scary? Not screening for colon cancer when you turn 45. The Cologuard test is non-invasive, requires no special prep or time off work, and ships right to your door so you can do it at home.
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Oh, Canada, a vast, idyllic land filled with beavers, loons, lumberjacks, and polite, friendly folks. We have those things for sure, but there's a darker side to the Great White North, full of mystery, crime, the paranormal, and dark history.
Join me, Mike Brown, and co-host Matthew Stockton every Monday for the Dark Poutine podcast as we tell dark stories from north of the 49th parallel with the Ottaway Game covering more international cases. You can listen to Dark Poutine for free wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
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Chapter 2: What symptoms did the witnesses experience after the encounter?
Hey, it's Alan Cross, and have I got a story for you. In my new one-of-a-kind true crime podcast, Uncharted, Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry, I take you inside unbelievable stories. The attempted assassination of Bob Marley, the crazy satanic panic of the 1980s, the Lincoln Park cyberstalker, and so much more.
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According to NASA, there's roughly one septillion stars in the universe. Or to put it another way, one billion trillion stars. That's one with 24 zeros after it. An unimaginable number. And scientists pretty much agree. Given that scale, advanced alien life forms almost certainly exist. somewhere out there. They should theoretically be common and detectable.
And yet, most scientists also agree we don't have any actual evidence of their existence. That apparent contradiction is known as the Fermi Paradox, after physicist Enrico Fermi. You might have heard of it before. We've covered it on this show and one of my favorite episodes. But the thing about the Fermi Paradox is its premise operates under the assumption that evidence doesn't already exist.
that mankind hasn't encountered aliens, that every person who has ever claimed otherwise is either mistaken, a liar, a fool, or a con artist. Today, I am talking about three people whose names have been added to that list despite never claiming to see an alien, just a UFO. and despite having enough corroborating evidence to sue the United States government.
Their story begins in the Lone Star State, Texas, about 30 miles outside of Houston. It's December 29th, 1980. Betty, Cash, and Vicki Landrum are driving home after a night out. Betty was once Vicki's boss at a small cafe in Dayton. Betty owned the place, Vicki waited tables, but now they're just good friends.
The two middle-aged women spent the evening playing bingo, along with Vicki's seven-year-old grandson, Colby. Vicki and her husband, Ernest, won custody of Colby a few years back, so she's more like a mother to him than anything. It's a cold and cloudy night. Betty is behind the wheel. Vicki rides shotgun, and Colby sits quietly in the back.
Nothing unusual happens until they reach an uninhabited stretch of the highway about 15 miles northwest of Dayton. That's when they notice a bright light above the treetops ahead. And after they round a corner, they find the source. A giant, diamond-shaped object flying above the road.
It's a dull, metallic gray, as tall as a water tower, and blindingly bright, with flames shooting out the bottom. Vicki screams at Betty to stop the car. They come to a halt about 100 feet away from the object, and everyone jumps out of the vehicle. The first thing they notice is the heat. It's excruciating. It feels like they're burning up, and the air smells like a lighter fluid.
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Chapter 3: How did the witnesses' health issues lead to a lawsuit against the government?
At some point, a swarm of helicopters surrounds the craft, big ones with double rotor blades, the kind you'd expect to find in the military. To the women, it looks like the choppers are there to help the object, like they're on a rescue mission. Before they know it, the sky is empty again. The light and the flames and the choppers drift back over the trees. and disappear.
Betty, Vicki, and Colby are alone again, in the car, unsure what they just witnessed. They continue their drive home, confused and scared, and before they reach their destination, they make a pact not to tell anyone what happened. After all, who would believe them? They can hardly believe it themselves. Now, obviously, the cat doesn't stay in the bag forever.
I mean, we're able to talk about it now. Their secret pact eventually gets broken, but there's a good reason for it. And that reason is a big part of what made this case so famous. See, Betty, Vicki, and Colby don't just bring home traumatic memories of that night. They bring home physical trauma too, what some would consider hard evidence. It starts that night in the car.
Even though it's the middle of winter, they end up riding home with the air conditioning on because their skin feels so hot. It looks like they've been badly sunburned. By 1 a.m., Betty has dropped Vicki and Colby off at home. Vicky covers her grandson's skin in baby oil to try and soothe the pain. The burns have already started to blister, but the blisters are just the beginning.
Vomiting and uncontrollable diarrhea starts that night too, which leads to dehydration. No matter how much water they drink, it never feels like enough. Two days later, Vicki feels well enough to check on Betty at her home, and it's a good thing she does. Betty is in terrible shape. She's too weak to even get up and pour herself a glass of water. She's hospitalized the next day.
Doctors have no idea what's wrong with her, but her symptoms are alarming. About 50% of her hair falls out in clumps. That's on top of the burns, blisters, nausea, diarrhea, headaches, and weakness. By some accounts, doctors put a biohazard warning outside Betty's door. It gets to the point where they become concerned she might not survive.
which is actually what puts an end to the trio's secret pact. Hearing that Betty's illness could be life-threatening is enough for them to break their silence. If the truth can save her life, that's what matters. After weeks in the hospital, Betty is finally released. By that point, her eyesight starts failing. Doctors prescribe her medicine, but they never reach a diagnosis.
And that's true for all three who were there that night. No one has it as bad as Betty, but Vicky spends about four weeks in a hospital with doctors who are just as confused. She develops scattered bald spots, thinning skin, eyes that look like they're decaying.
Her eyeglass prescription changes multiple times over the course of a few months, and eventually her peripheral vision fades and she develops cataracts. Colby also needs glasses, and his blisters eventually turn into raised scars. And even though his physical symptoms are the lightest, it's clear he's traumatized from that night.
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Chapter 4: What was the role of John Schuessler in the Cash-Landrum case?
So, in February 1981, Betty picks up the phone and places a call to a man she thinks might be able to help. an employee at NASA, and she learns he's absolutely the right guy for the job. Most UFO stories have a UFO guy. You know the kind. They go by many names. UFO researchers, ufologists, paranormal investigators, sky watchers.
But no matter what title they use, they often raise eyebrows because they're not always seen as being credible. I'm sure you've seen the ancient aliens meme guy, the one with the hair. But this UFO story is different. In February 1981, Betty Cash places a phone call to a man named John Schuessler. He's a UFO guy, sure, but he's much more than that.
He works for NASA at the Johnson Space Center, where he's a flight manager overseeing a team of around 200 aerospace engineers. He's currently preparing for what will be NASA's boldest flight yet, launching Space Shuttle Columbia on its maiden voyage, the first of many trips. It will eventually famously disintegrate in 2003, leading to the deaths of seven astronauts.
But that's still more than two decades away. John's Columbia voyage will go on to become the first orbital flight of a reusable spacecraft in history. He'll spend two days in space, making 37 trips around the Earth, and the project's success will open the door for NASA's space shuttle program for decades to come. So, pretty impressive. John's interest in UFOs is separate from his work at NASA.
It started in the 60s, during the peak of UFO mania in the United States. John thought he'd spend six months debunking a bunch of sightings and turn his research into a book. But things didn't go as expected. Sure, there were the wild claims that were easily discredited, but he ran into a few that he couldn't easily dismiss.
the experience led him to forming the mutual ufo network an organization dedicated to investigating the phenomena further and his colleagues at nasa now consider him their go-to ufo guy on staff anytime they get a phone call from someone who says they saw a strange object in the sky They get forwarded to John. It's a headache more than anything. Most calls are nonsense.
Strangers making strange claims. It's why when Betty Cash places that call to John's office, he doesn't actually pick up. And when she then leaves a voicemail, he doesn't bother calling back. He assumes it's another fake lead. What he doesn't realize is he's actually heard of Betty before.
A doctor friend told him about a woman who came into the hospital with horrible injuries, claiming to have been burned by a UFO. They wanted John to investigate, but told him they couldn't ethically pass along the woman's name. John only puts the pieces together that it was Betty, the woman who left him a voicemail, after a reporter friend pushes him to investigate her case.
He drives to visit Betty in Houston on February 22nd, and she is an open book. She answers all of John's questions about that night, about her symptoms, her medical history, the medicine she's been taking. He photographs her injuries and asks her to keep a running diary of her symptoms moving forward. To him, she seems like a credible witness.
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Chapter 5: What evidence did John Schuessler find to support the witnesses' claims?
Frustrating is the fact that no one will claim the helicopters. The most logical explanation is they belong to the military. For starters, there are Air Force bases nearby, and based on witness descriptions, they look exactly like the kind the military uses. Plus, who else could it be? Who else owns that many helicopters? John reaches out to all the military bases in Texas.
but they deny any involvement in the incident. In fact, they act like they have no idea what he's talking about, but like John is just some weirdo talking nonsense, which is a hard pill to swallow because John's sitting there with three people who have documented health problems, which seem to have a direct one-to-one connection with this military style event that seven other people also saw.
and the best the military can do is shrug and say, sorry, not us, can't help you. Even if they're telling the truth and it wasn't them, shouldn't the government know if 20-something foreign craft suddenly entered their airspace? His Vicki Landrum tells the newspapers, if the government really doesn't know anything about it, they'd better find out.
Now, John's investigation continues for months and eventually years. He's dedicated to helping Betty and the Landrums. But unfortunately, he doesn't make a whole lot of progress. It's just more obstacles. Turns out, getting medical professionals to speak publicly about health complications caused by an apparent UFO encounter proves nearly impossible.
The Texas Department of Health eventually decides to test the area where the incident occurred for radiation, but according to their representatives, their equipment doesn't register anything. which might not be surprising by the time they investigate, it's been almost nine months since the UFO sighting.
And even if they acted sooner, there are certain types of radiation that don't always leave traces like ultraviolet and infrared light. At some point, John tries to build out his case by hiring a private pilot to fly over the area and take pictures. But before the photos can be developed and studied, the pilot's home gets broken into and his camera is stolen with the undeveloped film inside.
That could be a total coincidence, right? Cameras can be expensive, especially back then. Makes sense that a robber might steal one. But also, we all know that if you run into enough coincidences, you might just be dealing with a conspiracy. Now, John may never go so far as to use that word, but he does eventually draw two conclusions.
One, that the case he's built to substantiate Betty, Vicki, and Colby's claims is irrefutable. And two, the UFO was either from another planet, from another country... or part of a top secret government project gone wrong. Which one was it? Well, eventually the government launches a probe of their own and the answer might be found not in what they choose to investigate, but what they don't.
By 1983, life hasn't really gotten better for Betty, Vicky, or Colby. They're famous now, but not in a good way. Their story has been splashed all over the National Enquirer and just about every major newspaper in Texas. Even though they've never claimed that what they saw came from another planet, they can't escape the alien associations or the sensationalized coverage.
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Chapter 6: How did the government respond to the Cash-Landrum lawsuit?
In 1983, Betty and the Landrums decide to do something about it. They want answers. They want to know what happened to them, and they want the people responsible to pay. They follow the advice of John and their lawyers and file a civil lawsuit against the government for their medical expenses plus pain and suffering. $15 million for Vicki and Betty, plus another $5 million for Colby.
And when you know it, the government changes its tune. They tap Lieutenant Colonel George Saran of the Air Force to conduct a thorough investigation. And according to the government, he does just that. He leaves no stone unturned and hands over his findings to the court. His conclusion? Oh, the government did no wrong.
Now, a lot of time passes between the filing of the lawsuit and the judge's final decision, about three years, which is to be expected. It's the court system. There's lots of feet dragging and appeals. As far as UFO cases go, there's a lot of evidence handed over. official medical records, witness statements, testimony from NASA, the Air Force, the Army, and the Navy.
Mind you, the judge is in a tough position. The government is technically his employer, and if he sides with Betty and the Landrums, he could be labeled as that UFO judge, which would probably be disastrous for his reputation and career. I mean, What would you do in that situation? Ultimately, the judge doesn't let the case go to trial.
And when his ruling finally comes out, it's clear that he weighs the results of the government's investigation heavily. He writes, quote, The attendant facts failed to establish that the unidentified flying object or helicopters were owned and operated by the U.S. government or any agency or instrumentality thereof. The judge dismisses the case for a lack of evidence.
Now, especially in a case that involves a UFO claim, when the average person hears lack of evidence, there's a pretty good chance their mind hears it didn't happen or it's a hoax. but that's not what the judge actually says. You'll notice the decision never questions Betty or the Landrums' account of that night. It doesn't question their pain or suffering.
It simply says there's not enough evidence that the UFO and helicopters belonged to the government, which, as I said, is a conclusion drawn largely from the government's findings. So... Let's take a closer look at that investigation. George Saron says he called up every military base in Texas.
And just like with John's investigation, they all say they know nothing about the UFO or the helicopters. And official military logs back up that statement. Those logs were entered into evidence, and apparently there were no official flights scheduled in that area on December 29th, 1980. except there's a pretty big asterisk on that statement.
Saron admits that his probe didn't include any classified records, which means he couldn't have ruled out the military, not entirely. So it's possible it was a top secret operation. And yet the judge in the case seems to just take Saron's word that it wasn't.
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Chapter 7: What were the judge's findings in the Cash-Landrum case?
But here's what I'll say. You might not have heard of Dr. J. Allen Hynek before, but if you're tuning into this show, you've probably heard of Project Blue Book. It's the government program that investigated UFO sightings during the 50s and 60s. Hynek worked on Project Blue Book and at the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois.
He called the Cash Landrum incident a crucial case because of the absolutely unequivocal physical effects. He said, "...the connection with the event is clear. It's one-to-one. We have other cases, but rarely as clear-cut as this." John Schuessler never questioned the women's account. He documented their symptoms, spoke to the doctors, interviewed witnesses.
He saw their pain and suffering firsthand. He didn't know what happened that night. He never felt confident drawing a conclusion with the evidence he had. But he did say he believed the U.S. government had answers. They knew what happened that night, and gaslit the world anyway.
If you find that hard to believe, I'd recommend looking up the White House Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. It was created in 1994 to investigate unethical radiation experiments the US government ran on its citizens without their permission. And it found hundreds of them that federal officials conducted over three decades. But maybe George Soran was telling the truth.
Maybe the government had nothing to do with what happened that night. Maybe the UFO and those helicopters were actually foreign invaders, either from another country or another planet far, far away. Maybe they felt it was important to keep the Fermi Paradox alive. We here at Conspiracy Theories are always trying to stay on top of what's happening in the news.
There's always so much happening in our world, and we found some stories we think are worth sharing. You know all those conspiracy theories about a global surveillance state? Well, Meta apparently plans to add facial recognition to its smart glasses, a feature they're calling Name Tag. And it's safe to say even Mark Zuckerberg understands what that could mean for our privacy rights.
The New York Times reportedly reviewed internal documents from the company that suggested they intend to launch Nametag, quote, during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns. The good news is there's nothing happening right now that could possibly distract their critics. Nothing at all.
What's more frightening, according to Apple Insider, the technology has already been used to capture footage of people's most private moments. Going to the bathroom, removing clothes, entering bank information. And those videos are all apparently seen by the real human beings training Meta's AI in Kenya. But expensive glasses aren't the only things using you to mine information.
Data collected from the popular, once much more popular, augmented reality game Pokemon Go has helped map the world. That data is now being used to train robots that deliver you food, and do so with absolutely no issues. Isn't Coco cute? As for its evolution, well, I guess we'll find out.
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Chapter 8: What lasting impact did the Cash-Landrum Incident have on the witnesses' lives?
Be sure to check us out on Instagram, at theconspiracypod, if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Among the many sources we used for this episode, we recommend checking out contemporaneous coverage by the Houston Chronicle, Corpus Christi Caller Times, and Texas Monthly.
Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story, and the official story isn't always the truth. This episode was written and researched by Connor Sampson, edited by Mickey Taylor, fact-checked by Sophie Kemp, and engineered, video edited, and sound designed by Alex Button. I'm your host, Carter Roy.