AudioBlog- A 1980 UFO Case that Seemingly Involved Radiation

In 1980, The Roswell Incident by Charles Berlitz and William Moore was published that told the sensationalized story of a forgotten 1947 report by the U.S. Army Air Forces that they recovered a “flying disk” on a ranch in New Mexico, north of Roswell Army Air Field. This was also the year of the Rendlesham Forest Incident, which is sometimes referred to as “Britain’s Roswell” (December 26-28), and the Cash-Landrum Incident (December 29). The Cash-Landrum Incident is significant because the witnesses, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and her grandson, Colby Landrum, showed symptoms of what seemed like radiation poisoning after they reportedly saw a large craft, seemingly in distress, being escorted by as many as 23 Chinook helicopters. While all of the above cases continue to be discussed and continue to fascinate, a case that got a lot of attention that same year has been largely forgotten. It is interesting to note that it also involved what seemed to be the effects of radiation on the witnesses prior to the Cash-Landrum incident.In the September 11, 1980, Anderson, South Carolina, Daily Mail, there is an article (page 8 of the pdf) by Louise Ervin headlined “Jerry McAlister saw ‘something strange.’” Ervin, begins her article asking, “Did a vehicle from another world pay a visit to the Broadway lake area this morning?” According to her, “Jerry McAlister of Parnell Road” wasn’t sure, but was “positive he saw something strange in his back yard” at 4:20 that morning, and since then, “the news media has beaten a path to his door.” Read more →

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The nineteen eighty UFO case that seemingly involved radiation by
Charles Lear. In nineteen eighty, The Roswell Incident by Charles
Bulitz and William Moore was published that told the sensationalized

(00:24):
story of a forgotten nineteen forty seven report by the U. S.
Army Air Forces that they recovered a flying desk on
a ranch in New Mexico north of Roswell Army Airfield.
This was also the year of the Rundelsham Forest Incident,
which is sometimes referred to as Britain's Roswell December twenty
sixth through the twenty eighth, and the cash Lander Incident

(00:47):
December twenty ninth. The cash Lander incident is significant because
the witnesses, Betty Cash, Vicki Landrum and her grandson Kolby Landrum,
showed symptoms of what seemed like radiation poisoning after they
reportedly saw a large craft seemingly in distress being escorted
by as many as twenty three Chinook helicopters. While all

(01:09):
of the above cases continue to be discussed and continue
to fascinate, a case that got a lot of attention
that same year has been largely forgotten. It is interesting
to note that it also involved what seemed to be
the effects of radiation on the witnesses prior to the
cash Landerm incident. In the September eleventh, nineteen eighty Anderson,

(01:30):
South Carolina Daily Mail, there is an article by Louise
Irvin headlined Jerry mc allister saw something strange. Irvin begins
her article asking did a vehicle from another world pay
a visit to Broadway Lake area this morning? According to her,
Jerry mc allister of Parnell Road wasn't sure, but he

(01:50):
was positive he saw something strange in his back yard
at four twenty that morning, and since then the news
media has beaten a path to his Irvin describes McAllister
being kept busy telling his story on the phone for
live broadcasts on radio stations in three states, and people
in television camera trucks wandering the country roads asking directions

(02:14):
to mc allister's home in a remote rural area. Irvin
actually wrote that the trucks asked directions. According to Irvin,
the witnesses included mc allister, his wife and four daughters,
his next door neighbor, and four Anderson County deputies. McAllister
is quoted saying he heard an awful racket he thought

(02:36):
was a helicopter fixing the crash. He described it as
a shrieking noise that actually hurt my ears. He said
that when he looked out his window, he saw his
back yard lit up by a terrific light that was
so bright it hurt his eyes. McAllister says he punched
his sleeping wife with his crutch. Irvin explains that he

(02:58):
has an injured leg and that she got to the
window in time to see the light and hear the noise.
He said to have described the object as thick as
a two story building, seventy feet long and round. He
is quoted as saying all around the edges of the
big object were big bright lights, and across the center
of it was a row of square windows that were

(03:20):
lighted up too. According to him, as his daughter Shirley
got to the window, it turned sideways and swished sideways
over those pine trees. Irvin describes him pointing with his
crutch at a clump of trees at the edge of
his yard. He said that before it took off, it
hovered at what he estimated was twenty five feet above

(03:41):
his yard for about three minutes. According to Irvin, mc
allister compared the action of the saucer like object to
a plate whirling on a stick in a balancing act.
Mc allister said to have called the Sheriff's department to
report his sighting, and is quoted as saying, at first
I think they thought it was a prank. But when
they got here, one of them said, mister, we're sorry.

(04:04):
And they stayed out there for over an hour looking
at it too. All morning. I felt like bursting into tears.
I'm so thrilled I got to see something so great.
According to Irvin, a telescope was set up in the
back yard and some one found some binoculars. Fay mc
allister is quoted as saying, I couldn't believe it. We
all took turns looking at the thing, and we could

(04:25):
plainly see the windows when we looked through the telescope,
but we couldn't see them with our bare eyes. She
said it was beautiful, and that the last moment she
saw it was when she was taking her kids to school.
She said, believe me, our kids were excited. I cooked
grits and eggs, and I can't remember if any one
ate or not. When the kids hit the schoolyard, they

(04:47):
started yelling to their friends that they had seen a
flying saucer. Irvin names another witness, missus Martha Lawless of Cheddar,
who said she and her daughter saw a round, reddish
object moving slowly toward Lord Screenville. An article by Steve
Beyondo headlined investigators report UFO siers have radiation burns, was

(05:09):
published in the September sixteenth, nineteen eighty Anderson, South Carolina Independent.
Beyondo begins the article describing Jerry mc allister as the
Anderson man whose UFO sighting last week made news around
the world. According to Beyondo, mc allister said it had
not significantly changed his life. Beyondo ads if you ignore

(05:31):
the radiation burns. He quotes mc allister. The investigators told
us we had mild radiation burns. My neck glance were
swollen up, and my wife and I both had some
eye problems. But we feel great this morning. According to Beyondo,
the mcallisters were visited by Jim Fillow, a former New
Jersey policeman and co founder of the Scientific Bureau of Investigation.

(05:55):
Philop is quoted saying they recorded a very slight jump
on the counter Geiger when we checked them out. He
added that it should dissipate in a few days. Is
also quoted saying they had found slight indications of conjunctivitis,
which is not unusual according to Biondo. On Monday, a

(06:15):
team of four investigators from MUFON Mutual Unidentified Flying Object
Network Inc. Of sugin, Texas showed up. McAllister is said
to have described the group as more brusque and skeptical
than Philo and his partner, Steve Mazzola had been. He
is quoted as saying they didn't think we was on
the level, and is said to have laughed. A spokesman

(06:37):
for the state's Department of Environmental Controls Radiological Bureau is
quoted as saying, we would investigate if someone asked us
to do it, but it would have to be an
official request. We have no procedure for going and checking
for UFO sightings. Kirk Collins has written extensively on the
cash landrom case on his blogspot dot com site Blue

(06:59):
Blurry Lime, and notes the radiation tie in between that
case and the mccallisters in its July twenty fifth, twenty
twelve posting headlined an interesting precedent. According to Collins, the
McAllister's case was profiled in The Globe, the National Enquirer
in the primetime TV show That's Incredible. He includes the

(07:22):
articles and points out the strange coincidence of the film
crew from That's Incredible being in Anderson on December nineteen eighty,
just before the cash Landrum sighting. Charles Lear is the
author of The Flying Saucer Investigators, available in its second
edition at Amazon dot com.