Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter of 1955


FROM The UFO Casebook online:

http://www.ufocasebook.com/2010/kellyaliens.html

Published: 1:56 PM 10/10/2010 

On the night of August 21, 1955, two Kentucky families claimed to have fought unknown beings. In a rural area of Kentucky, near Hopkinsville and Kelly, two families contend they battled extraterrestrial creatures.

The event happened around the Sutton farmhouse, where the Suttons and the Taylors gathered for dinner. At some point during the evening, Billy Ray Taylor went outside to draw water from the well. 

Taylor witnessed a huge, bright object land in the woods about a quarter of a mile from the house. He started towards the house with the water when he saw a strange creature approaching. Billy Ray dropped the bucket and ran into the house. Both he and Lucky Sutton picked up firearms and ran back outside. Taylor fired his .22 caliber rifle and Lucky fired his shotgun but neither weapon had any effect on the creature. 

Sutton and Taylor described the aliens as three feet tall, with pointed ears, thin limbs, long arms and claw-like hands. They said the creatures looked like gremlins, hence they became known as the Hopkinsville Goblins. The beings were either silvery in color or were wearing something metallic. The strangest aspect of these creature was their movements. 

The aliens movements seemed to defy gravity as they floated above ground and walked with a swaying motion like they were walking through water. 

The two men returned to the house. However, another creature appeared at the window… the two families realized they were up against something extraordinary. They ran from the house, got in their cars and headed to Hopkinsville. There they sought help from police who followed them to the farmhouse and searched the area. 

Although they found no evidence of the creatures, they did find that the farmhouse had been shot up by the humans during the battle. The police left shortly after, but the aliens returned and the battle resumed. The defenders’ guns continued to have no effect. The Air Force investigated the event but could not find solid evidence. 

At first, the public reaction was that the incident was a hoax. However, the Suttons and the Taylors never profited from the encounter and there were dozens of eyewitnesses to the event. In addition to the families at the farmhouse, there were law enforcement officers who saw strange lights in the sky. 

In 1957, Air Force Major John E. Albert concluded that the case resulted from the witnesses observing a monkey painted with silver that had escaped from a circus. French UFO researcher Renaud Leclet opined that a pair of Great Horned Owls may have been misidentified as aliens.

However, Dr. J. Allen Hynek believed the incident was real. UFO researcher Allan Hendry wrote “…this case is distinguished by its duration and also by the number of witnesses involved.” Jerome Clark writes that “…investigations by police, Air Force officers from nearby Fort Campbell, and civilian ufologists found no evidence of a hoax”. 

Although they never formally investigated the case, Blue Book confessed to being stumped. So was Isabel Davis, one of the most skeptical of UFO investigators. 

Many of famed film director Steven Spielberg’s projects, like Night Skies, E.T. and Gremlins, were directly inspired by the Kelly-Hopkinsville events. 

The Kelly-Hopkinsville Case: An Overview

August 21 – 22, 1955 

The scene was a small farm outside of the Kentucky town of Kelly. Inside the farmhouse were eight adults and three children.

The night was dark, clear, and hot. At about 7 PM, Billy Ray Taylor (a friend of the Suttons and owner of the farmhouse) came in from the well with the “wild story’s that he had seen a really bright “flying saucer,” with an exhaust all the colors of the rainbow, fly across the sky and drop into a forty-foot gully near the edge of their property. 

However, the Suttons did not take him seriously and laughed the story off as an embellishment of his seeing a “falling star.”

Half an hour later the family dog began barking violently and eventually put its tail between its legs and hid under the house. The two men, Billy Ray Taylor and Lucky Sutton, went to the back door to see what was bothering the dog and noticed a strange glow approaching the farmhouse from the fields. 

When the light came nearer, they resolved what caused it: a glowing three-and-a-half-foot tall creature with a round, oversized head.

The eyes were large and glowed with a yellowish light; the arms were long, extended nearly to the ground, and ended in large hands with talons. The entire creature seemed made of silver metal. As the creature approached, its hands were raised over its head as if it were being held up. 

Understandably startled, the two men reacted by grabbing their guns: a 20-gauge shotgun and a .22 rifle. Withdrawing slightly into the house, the men waited until the creature was within twenty feet of the back door and then fired; the entity flipped over backward and then scurried off into the darkness.

After a few minutes, when it did not reappear, they returned to the living room only to see another (or the same) creature at a side window. They fired through the window screen at it, and again the creature flipped and disappeared. Sure that they had hit and disabled the creature, the two men went outside to find the body.

As they started out the front door Billy Ray, who was in the lead, paused for a moment underneath an overhanging roof. Just as he was about to step into the yard, those in the hallway behind him saw one of the creatures on the roof reach down a taloned hand and touch his hair from above. 

The people indoors screamed and pulled him back inside. Lucky Sutton rushed out into the yard, turned and fired pointblank at the creature, knocking it off the roof. There was another creature in the maple tree close-by.

Both Lucky and Billy Ray fired at this one and knocked it off the limb; it floated to the ground and then ran off quickly into the darkness. Immediately, another entity (or perhaps the one that had been knocked off the roof) came around the side of the house almost directly in front of the group. 

Lucky fired his shotgun at point-blank range and the result was the same: no effect. A sound was heard as the bullets struck, as if a metal bucket lead been hit, but the creature scurried off unhurt. 

Understandably concerned that their guns were apparently useless, the men returned to the house to join the frightened women and children. 

The creatures generally moved in a peculiar fashion. The legs appeared to be inflexible and when they ran, movement was accomplished almost totally by “hip motions.” Usually totally erect, when they ran off they bent over and moved with long arms almost touching the ground. 

The entities’ ability to float was particularly evident when one was knocked off the kitchen roof and floated a distance of about forty feet to a fence, where it was knocked off again by a shot. While they did not appear to have an aura of luminescence, their “skin” glowed in the dark with the glow becoming brighter when they were shot at or shouted at. 

Mrs. Lankford, the mother of the family, counseled an end to the hostilities. Despite the fact that they had been shot at a number of times, no aggressive action was ever proffered by the creatures. 

However, the children were becoming hysterical and the creatures kept returning to peer in the windows at intervals; by 11 PM the family’s patience had worn thin and they all got into two automobiles and headed at top speed to the nearby Hopkinsville police department 

After a half hour’s travel time, the police arrived back at the farmhouse with the still-frightened family. The Hopkinsville police, the state police, and a staff photographer arrived to investigate the situation. A thorough search was made of the house, the yard, and the outbuildings. 

Nothing was found, and the tension ran high: When someone accidentally stepped on a cat’s tail and it yowled, “you never saw so many pistols unholstered so fast in your life!” The searchers checked out the woods area but found nothing. One unusual item that was found was a luminous patch where one of the creatures had been knocked off and fallen to the ground. However, when nothing really extraordinary appeared, the searchers began to leave and by 2:15 AM., the Sutton family was alone. 

The family had been reassured enough to go to bed and shut off the few lights. Mrs. Lankford was lying in bed watching the window when she noticed a weird glow; the glow was one of the creatures staring inward with its hands on the window screen. 

Calling quietly to the rest of the family, she remained perfectly calm. Lucky Sutton, however, grabbed his gun and again shot at the creature through the screen. No effect. The creatures continued to make their appearance throughout the rest of the night, never doing anything overtly hostile and only seeming to show curiosity. 

The last creature was seen at half an hour before sunrise, at about 5:15 AM 

The next morning, investigators came back to search the farmlands during the daytime. Nothing was found even though some even climbed to the roof of the house to look for footprints. The press got hold of the story; besides the reporter who had accompanied the police out during the night, the local radio station and many reporters from other papers in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee arrived at the Sutton house. 

As the news spread, the general public began to show up and cars were backed up for a considerable distance down the road from the Sutton farmhouse. Sightseers stopped their cars, walked through the property, in and out of the house, annoyed the family with requests for pictures and, in general, created a carnival atmosphere the upshot of which was to generally ridicule the family for having seen “little green men from space.” 

However, on that same morning, Andrew Ledwith, an engineer with the local radio station, decided to stop into the station for a talk with the chief engineer (it was Ledwith’s day off). He learned of the happenings at the Sutton farm the night before and because of his interest in UFOs and his previous experience as an artist, he decided to go out and interview the family.

It is fortunate that he did.

The publicity became so obnoxious to the Sutton family that they later simply avoided telling the story and refused to cooperate (one notable exception was with Isabel Davis, who prepared the Kelly report for CUFOS). The drawings that Mr. Ledwith created on the afternoon following the sighting are illustrated above. 

How can such a tale be accepted at face value, one asks? After all, the family itself was considered of “low social status” by the townspeople. Two of the men had worked for a carnival; it could be argued that they were familiar with the art of the trickster. 

The most telling criticism of the incident, however, is that there is absolutely no physical evidence whatsoever that the incident actually occurred. Skeptics point out that no footprints were found (the ground was extremely hard), no marks were on the roof (although the creatures seemed nearly weightless and may not have left marks), there was no blood on then, the bullets did no apparent damage), et cetera. 

One could thus conclude that the family “faked” the entire incident. 

However, investigators who interviewed the Suttons afterward painted a picture of them that is quite different from the sort of people who could fabricate an elaborate hoax: They were uneducated, simple farm folk with no apparent interest in exploiting the rather considerable publicity that they engendered. 

Did “creatures” really visit the farmhouse in Kentucky on that night of August 21, 1955? Or did the many witnesses, mostly adults, excite themselves to the point of exaggerating some lesser stimulus? The Kelly/Hopkinsville case still stands as one of the more provocative CE III events to date. – Allan Hendry, CUFOS 

Project Blue Book – case number 10073 

See the UFO Casebook case file, The Kelly-Hopkinsville Aliens.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

1950-The Trent Photographs

http://www.ufocasebook.com/trentphotos.html

1950-The Trent Photographs

A classic set of impressive UFO photos was taken by Mr. and Mrs. Trent in the early part of the evening, just before sunset, on May 11, 1950, near McMinnville, Oregon. According to the Trent's account the object, as it appeared over their farm was first seen by Ms. Trent while she was feeding the farm's rabbits.

She then quickly called her husband who got the family's camera and Mr. Trent then took two shots from positions only just a few feet apart. The pictures first appeared in a local newspaper and afterwards in Life magazine. Seventeen years later the photos were subjected to a detailed analysis for the University of Colorado UFO Project.

William K. Hartmann, an astronomer from the University of Arizona, performed a meticulous photometric and photogrammetric investigation of the original negatives, and set up a scaling system to determine the approximate distance of the UFO.

Hartmann used objects in the near foreground, such as a house, tree, metal water tank, and telephone pole, whose images could be compared with that of the UFO. There were also hills, trees, and buildings in the far distance whose contrast and details had been obscured by atmospheric haze.

Hartmann used these known distances of various objects in the photo to calculate an approximate atmospheric attenuation factor. He then measured the relative brightnesses of various objects in the photos, and demonstrated that their distances could generally be calculated with an accuracy of about +/- 30%. In the most extreme case, he would be in error by a factor of four. He then wrote:

"It is concluded that by careful consideration of the parameters involved in the case of recognizable objects in the photographs, distances can be measured within a factor-four error ... If such good measure could be made for the UFO, we could distinguish between a distant extraordinary object and a hypothetical small, close model."

Hartmann then noted that his photometric measurements indicated that the UFO was intrinsically brighter than the metallic tank and the white painted surface of the house, consistent with the Trent's description that it was a shiny object. Further, the shadowed surface of the UFO was much brighter than the shadowed region of the water tank, which was best explained by a distant object being illuminated by scattered light from the environment.

"it appears significant that the simplest most direct interpretation of the photographs confirms precisely what the witnesses said they saw"

Hartmann further wrote that "to the extent that the photometric analysis is reliable, (and the measurements appear to be consistent), the photographs indicate an object with a bright shiny surface at considerable distance and on the order of tens of meters in diameter. While it would be exaggerating to say that we have positively ruled out a fabrication, it appears significant that the simplest most direct interpretation of the photographs confirms precisely what the witnesses said they saw."

In his conclusion, Hartmann reiterated this, stressing that all the factors he had investigated, both photographic and testimonial, were consistent with the claim that "an extraordinary flying object, silvery, metallic, disc-shaped, tens of metres in diameter, and evidently artificial, flew within sight of [the] two witnesses."

Controversy - The Skeptics' Case

Not satisfied with Hartmann's findings and totally devoid of any evidence that the UFO was a hoax and hanging from the wires, UFO debunker Robert Sheaffer argued qualitatively that the haze in the photos (the haze veiled the UFO and led Hartmann to conclude the UFO was about 1.3 kilometres distant) could be due to a "dirty" camera lens, and thus the object could still be close to the camera.

He further argued that shadows on the garage were strong evidence for a large time lag between the photos, and alleged that the shadow positions suggested the photos were taken at 7:30 in the morning rather than in the evening (the image on the left depicts the edge enhancement technique which, under typical conditions, can reveal the presence of a wire less than a quarter of a millimetre thick at a distance of up to 3 metres).

Dr. Bruce Maccabee, an optical physicist, analyzed the original negatives and found no support for Sheaffer's time lag claim. He also repeated Hartmann's calculations in much greater detail, including corrections for lens grease and obtained about the same results as Hartmann originally did. (One other important aspect of Sheaffer's dirty lens hypothesis is that it fails to explain why it didn't affect all objects in the photos, and not just the UFO.

All the nearby objects in the photo were all sharp with high contrast, but the objects in the distance such as a barn, a house, trees, and hills (and the UFO), were of low contrast, exactly as would be expected from absorption and scattering of light.)

Maccabee calculated the UFO to be over 1 kilometre away, and about 30 meters in diameter and 4 meters thick.

Regarding the alleged reported time the photos were taken which, according to Sheaffer, would be inconsistent with the position of the shadows on the photos, Maccabee discovered that the garage shadows could only have been caused by a diffuse light source, rebutting Sheaffer's argument.

Maccabee suggested that a bright cloud illuminated by the evening sun could possibly have caused them. Moreover, neither Sheaffer nor Klass has provided a plausible cause as to why the Trents would have lied about this, especially since it is immaterial to analysis of the UFO's distance.

Repeaters

In his book "UFOs Explained," Klass argued that the Trents were "repeaters," citing a story published in the Portland Oregonian June 10 in which Mrs. trent is quoted as saying to reporter Lou Gillette that "she had seen similar objects on the coast three different times but no one would believe me."

Klass further quotes from a newspaper article written about 17 years later, in which she is quoted as saying "We've seen quite a few since then but we didn't get any pictures, they disappeared too fast."

Klass indictment of "repeater" is based solely on Mrs. Trent's claims as reported in the paper. Assuming the account is accurate, an important detail however, is that Mr. Trent apparently did notagree with his wife. For reasons we can only guess, Klass did not include in his book Mr. Trent's response to the following question (story in the June 11, 1950 L.A. Examiner):

"why [did you wait] so long before telling anyone about [the photos]. Trent admitted he was 'kinda scared of it.' He said: 'You know, you hear so much about those things... I didn't believe all that talk about flying saucers before, but now have an idea the Army knows what they are."

This suggests that Mr. Trent had not seen any UFOs before and was skeptical about flying saucers (hence his wife's claim that "no one would believe me")... until he saw one himself.

One get's into a logical muddle here. If, as Klass believes, there are no saucers and therefore the Trents couldn't have seen one, then Mrs. Trent must have been lying when she said she saw several previously. On the other hand, Mr. Trent was telling the truth about his skepticism, although he could well have supported his wife's claim by saying that he too had seen several even if he really didn't believe they existed.

After all, if its a hoax, he could say anything to support the hoax story. One way to get out of this muddle is to assume that they both told the truth regarding previous sightings (Mrs. Trent had several, Mr. Trent had none and didn't believe in saucers).

Of course, Mrs. Trent previous sightings certainly could have been honest misidentifications... and if this were so then she wasn't really "a repeater" unless you classify a person who repeatedly and honestly misidentifies objects as "a repeater" [Maccabee op. cit., private communication].

By Brian Zeiler

Also: www.nicap.org

Sunday, February 14, 2010

1980: Cash-Landrum Encounter

http://www.ufoarea.com/pictures/landcash.jpg

In December 1980, Betty Cash(right), Vickie Landrum (left) and her grandson Colby Landrum, were driving along a road in Huffman, Texas when they saw a bright light in the sky. After driving a little more along the road, they came across a large diamond shaped UFO hovering over the road belching fire out of the bottom. Since the flames were blocking the road, they had to stop the car about 65 yards away from the craft and Betty Cash got out. Vickie and Colby stayed in the car, whereas Betty went on to get a closer look. She spent a long time gazing at it and her skin began to heat up because of the heat from the flames. She returned to the car when the object began to rise and a large number of unmarked black helicopters chased after the UFO. When they got home, they started suffering from sunburn, diarrhea and vomiting. It has been claimed that the craft was a US attempt at making a UFO since it was spewing out flames at the bottom and was joined by many helicopters later on. (UFOs At Close Sight)

http://www.ufocasebook.com/Pineywoods.html

A drive through the Piney Woods of Texas at night is a lonely, somewhat spooky one to begin with, but on this particular night, a routine drive turned into a life changing event for these three people. Fifty-one year old Betty Cash was driving through the woods traveling from New Caney to Dayton on Farm to Market road 1485. Riding with her was her friend, Vickie Landrum, fifty-seven years old, and Vickie's seven year old grandson, Colby. They were looking for an open Bingo game, but found all of them closed down for the Holiday season. They stopped for a meal at a restaurant, and then continued their journey.

Soon, the three began to see a light in the distance, and in a few short minutes this light became a glowing object, slowly crossing the tops of the tall pine trees. The area that they were in was densely occupied by pine and oak trees, surrounded by occasional swamps and small lakes. As they proceeded along their way, their initial thought was that the object was an airplane or helicopter from one of the airfields not too distant from their location. Suddenly, ahead of them loomed an immense diamond-shaped craft, which was hovering over the road ahead of them! At regular, fast intervals, the object would shoot down a stream of reddish-orange flames. Vickie would later describe it as being "like a diamond of fire". Being a devout Christian, she had had never believed in UFOs or extraterrestrials, and at this moment, she believed that she was witnessing the end of the world.

They could also hear a constant beeping sound as the strange craft spit out its fiery downspout. Frightened, Betty came to a quick stop to keep from running under the craft. The car's heater had been running to kill the frosty air of the night, but now the inside of her vehicle was so hot she had to turn off her heater, and leave the car, along with Vickie and Colby. Now outside of the vehicle, they could hear a steady roaring sound coming from the frightening sight ahead of them. Young Colby became so afraid that his grandmother took him back into the car to comfort him. Betty stayed outside. In some strange way, she was fascinated with the almost unbelievable vision before her.

As she stood watching the craft, suddenly the sky was full of helicopters. Betty said, "They seemed to rush in from all directions... it seemed like they were trying to encircle the thing." She assumed that they were from Tomball Airfield, northwest of Houston, or Ellington Air Force Base, south of Houston. The eerie object now began to lift into the air, and proceed to the southwest, with helicopters in pursuit. As Betty returned to the car, the door handle was so hot she could hardly open the front door. Her hand was burned getting inside. She immediately turned on her air conditioner to cool off the inside of the vehicle. After the object had left the area, they restarted their vehicle, hoping to get home and never see the craft again. But after several miles of dark highway, they left the Farm to Market road in favor of the freeway. Ahead in the distance, they could again see the object with its bright lights illuminating the helicopters which were still trying to encircle it.

At this vantage point, the two ladies could actually count the number of copters in the air, 23. Some of them they identified as the double rotor CH-47 Chinook; the others were the faster, single engine rotor type, which they thought were Bell-Huey. After a fast trip home, all three of the witnesses became extremely sick within the next few hours. Betty's head and neck were blistered, and soon her eyes were swollen shut. She was also terribly nauseated. By the next morning, she was almost in a coma. Vickie and Colby suffered very similar symptoms, yet not as severe as Betty's. After a couple of miserable days being cared for at Vickie's home, Betty checked into a hospital where she was treated as a burn victim, remaining for 15 days. Her hair began to fall out, and her eyes swelled so badly, she could not see for about a week.

Colby had problems with his eyes, and Vickie was losing her hair also. In addition, her scalp was numb and painful. All three of the victims were treated for radiation poisoning, and their condition was listed by doctors as life-threatening. Before long, skin sores developed, weight loss began, and skin cancer was diagnosed.

As to the origin of the helicopters, local air bases were questioned, but would not admit to sending any helicopters out that night. The only public statement made by military officials came from Fort Hood press officer Major Tony Geishauser. In an interview with the Corpus Christi Caller newspaper, he stated that no Fort Hood aircraft were in the Houston area that night. "I don't know any other place around here that would have that number of helicopters," he said. "I don't know what it could be... unless there's a super secret thing going on and I wouldn't necessarily know about it." The black top road was badly damaged by the emissions from the craft that night, but it was very quickly repaired. Investigators were at a loss to explain the events of that night, except to say that Betty, Vickie, and Colby had encountered a craft of undetermined origin, or possibly an experimental government craft. The three unwilling participants in this event sued the U.S. Government for medical damages, but during a congressional hearing, the Department of the Army Inspector General denied any military involvement in the case, and disallowed any compensation for the three unwilling participants in the Piney Woods affair.

There would be several other witnesses to the strange craft / and or helicopters of that night. Among them were: An off duty Dayton, Texas policeman and his wife who were driving home from Cleveland the same night and saw a large number of CH-47s. A Crosby, Texas man who was directly under the flight path, reported seeing a large number of heavy military helicopters flying overhead. A Dayton, Texas, oilfield worker Jerry McDonald saw a large UFO fly directly overhead while he was in his back garden. He thought it might be a blimp at first, but soon knew it was something more sinister. "It was kind of diamond shaped and had two twin torches that were shooting brilliant blue flames out the back", he said. He saw that it had two bright lights on it and a red light in the center.

In a freaky circumstance of luck, corroboration of the unknown object of that night would come in 1981. In April, a CH-47 flew into Dayton for the purpose of a public showing. This allowed local residents to view the machine, both inside and out. Colby spotted the helicopter as it was flying into town, and became very upset. Vickie took him to the landing site, hopefully to allay his fears. As they reached the Chinook, a long line of locals had already formed, waiting to see the giant machine. When their turn finally came, Vickie and Colby entered the helicopter.Accompanied by another visitor in addition to Colby, Vickie began to recount her experience in the Piney Woods. Vickie and the other unnamed witness both claimed that the pilot said he had been in the air the night of the traumatic sighting. He was sent to check on a UFO that was in trouble near Huffman! Vickie began to discuss her injuries due to the burns and radiation poisoning. Upon hearing her confession, the pilot quickly clammed up, and moved them out of the craft. The pilot was later found by the UFO group VISIT. He would only admit that he knew of the Cash/Landrum case, but refused to admit that he had been in the area the night of the sighting. (B J Booth)

Other witnesses

There were also others who witnessed the incident near Huffman, Texas. An off duty Dayton policeman and his wife were driving home from Cleveland through the Huffman area the same night. They observed a large number of double rotor Being CH-47 Chinooks, a special kind of the craft used by the Army and the Marines. A man living in Crosby, directly under the flight path, also reported seeing a large number of heavy military helicopters flying overhead. And Oilfield laborer Jerry McDonald was in his back garden in Dayton when he witnessed a large UFO flying over his head. At first he thought it was the goodyear airship, but quickly realized it was something else. "It was kind of diamond shaped and had two twin torches that were shooting brilliant blue flames out the back", he said. As it passed about 45 meters above him he saw that it had two bright lights on it and a red light in the center. But the US army's Fort Hood press officer, Major Tony Geishauser, told the Corpus Christi Caller that no Fort Hood aircraft were in the Houston area that night. "I don't know any other place around here that would have that number of helicopters," he said. "I don't know what it could be.... unless there's a super secret thing going on and I wouldn't necessarily know about it." All other bases in Texas and Louisiana denied they were responsible for the helicopters seen at the incident. (UFO.Whipnet.org)



MUTUAL UFO NETWORK
103 OLDTOWN RD. SEGUIN, TX 78155
December 30, 1998
INJURIES CAUSED BY UFO CLAIM WOMAN'S LIFE

Betty Cash, one of three people injured in a UFO close encounter near Huffman, Texas, on December 29, 1980, died on the 18th anniversary of the event, in Birmingham, Alabama. She had been in poor health ever since the encounter. At the time of the event, Mrs. Cash operated her own businesses near Dayton, Texas. Betty Cash, along with Vickie Landrum and grandson Colby Landrum, encountered a huge UFO accompanied by military helicopters on a dark road in the east Texas Piney Woods. They were exposed to radiation from the object, which caused extreme medical problems such as burns, eye damage, hair loss, diarrhea, and vomiting. Although they and others observed a large number of military helicopters along with the UFO, the U.S. Government refused to acknowledge the event or assist them in any way. After the encounter, Betty Cash was hospitalized and treated for burns and the other maladies. The extent of the injuries was so great, she was forced to close her businesses and never worked again. He life became a series of hospital stays, many of them in intensive care. Eventually, she developed cancer, which was successfully treated. In November 1998, Mrs. Cash suffered a stroke. On December 29, during her recovery, an unusual turn of events claimed her life. Mrs. Cash was a hero in the fight against government UFO cover-ups and brought hope to other victims of UFO incidents. She was devoted to family and friends and never allowed her illness to prevent her from helping others to cope with the trauma of UFO close encounters. Betty Cash will be missed... but never forgotten.
Peter A. Gersten Director

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