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Expedition Files Season 3 Episode 1
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00:00On this episode of Expedition Files.
00:04In 1975, Union leader Jimmy Hoffa vanishes from a parking lot without a trace.
00:12Was it a mob hit? If so, where's the body?
00:16A new theory may finally solve one of the FBI's longest-running investigations.
00:21Then, the Holy Grail, the cup of Jesus Christ, has been hunted by kings and crusaders.
00:32This biblical relic was said to be lost.
00:36Has it now been found?
00:41And, groundbreaking engineer Rudolf Diesel disappears on an ocean liner
00:46while transporting secret plans that could change the course of World War I.
00:51We reveal what may have been one of the greatest espionage operations in history.
00:59In the corridors of time
01:01are mysteries that defy explanation.
01:08Now, I'm traveling through history itself
01:12on a search for the truth.
01:18New evidence.
01:21Shocking answers.
01:24I'm Josh Gates.
01:27And these
01:28are my Expedition Files.
01:32One of my first jobs out of college was working as a waiter
01:40at a Hollywood institution called The Magic Castle,
01:43a private club for magicians.
01:45I learned two things working there.
01:47One, magicians are lousy tippers.
01:50And two, there's nothing an audience loves more than watching something disappear.
01:54So tonight, prepare to be amazed as we take vanishing acts to their most shocking extreme.
02:00I promise, no top hats, rabbits, or one-dollar tips in sight.
02:05We examine three of history's most extraordinary disappearances.
02:09People and things that were suddenly gone without a trace,
02:13leaving the rest of the world guessing.
02:15That is, until now.
02:17We begin on July 30th, 1975.
02:21It's a muggy afternoon, just after 2.30 p.m.
02:25I'm standing outside the Maka's Red Fox restaurant, about 20 miles northwest of Detroit.
02:31The guy on the payphone here?
02:33He isn't just your average angry diner.
02:35In fact, he's one of the most powerful men in America.
02:38This is Jimmy Hoffa.
02:40At 62, Hoffa is the former president of the Teamsters,
02:43the most formidable labor union in America.
02:46Right now, he's on the phone with his wife, Josephine,
02:49upset that he's been stood up for a crucial meeting.
02:52He tells her to throw some steaks on the grill
02:54and expect him back by 4 o'clock.
02:56But those steaks, well, they're going to go cold.
02:59And Jimmy Hoffa isn't coming home for dinner.
03:01Because just minutes from now, he'll disappear,
03:04setting off one of the most extraordinary missing persons cases in history.
03:09For over 50 years, the world will ask the same question.
03:13What really happened to Jimmy Hoffa?
03:16And why has his body never been found?
03:29In the middle of the last century, pretty much everyone knows the name Jimmy Hoffa.
03:39To millions, he's a hero.
03:41As Teamster president, he stands up against big business
03:44to secure better wages and benefits for the blue-collar workers who depend on it.
03:48You've heard of the supply chain?
03:58The vast network that moves goods from factories to stores.
04:02Well, in the 20th century, the Teamsters control it.
04:05The organization of truck drivers and warehouse workers literally keeps the American economy moving.
04:11Hoffa rises through the ranks as a street-fighting labor organizer.
04:15He becomes union president in 1957.
04:18His influence is undeniable, but his methods are often controversial, even illegal.
04:24You see, in the 50s, organized crime has its hooks in a lot of local unions.
04:33In return for their loyalty and occasional muscle, Hoffa lets mob-connected businessmen borrow
04:38massive chunks of money from the Teamsters' pension fund.
04:42That money helps build glitzy Vegas hotels and casinos.
04:47The mob gets low-interest loans, and in exchange, they give union jobs to Teamsters,
04:53everyone from bellhops to cabbies.
05:00Workers adore Hoffa.
05:01The government?
05:02Not so much.
05:03Especially Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
05:06See, it's not just Hoffa's mob buddies who are breaking the law.
05:09Hoffa plays dirty himself.
05:11Extortion, wiretapping, embezzlement.
05:14In 1967, after years of attempts, the Feds, led by Kennedy,
05:19finally nail Jimmy for jury tampering and misusing union pension funds.
05:24He gets 13 years behind bars.
05:28With his raincoat covering handcuffs, Hoffa arrives at federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
05:40It seems the street-fighting labor boss has finally met his match.
05:44But don't count Hoffa out just yet.
05:46He's about to get help from a very unlikely friend, President Richard Nixon.
05:50On December 23, 1971, Nixon commutes Hoffa's sentence, and Jimmy gets out after serving less than five years.
05:59Nixon thinks that freeing him will earn him support from Hoffa's loyal followers.
06:03But for Hoffa, freedom comes with a caveat.
06:09Nixon bars him from any union activity until 1980, effectively minimizing his power and influence.
06:16In 1974, Hoffa sues the government to lift the ban.
06:21With an appeal underway, Hoffa tries to shore up support for a run at the union presidency at the next election.
06:28Which brings us back to the restaurant parking lot on that muggy day in July of 1975.
06:36When Hoffa fails to arrive home, his family calls the police.
06:40The next morning, investigators find Hoffa's car in the Marcus Red Fox parking lot.
06:45There's no sign of a struggle and no sign of Jimmy.
06:49Several people report seeing the famous labor leader at the restaurant the day before.
06:54One witness claims she saw Hoffa get into a maroon Mercury sedan with three other men.
07:00It is the last time anyone will report seeing Hoffa alive.
07:07A nationwide manhunt is launched.
07:13As it heats up, rumors circulate that the mafia is involved in Hoffa's disappearance.
07:19Hoffa's family finds his date book, and it makes the mob the prime suspect.
07:23It reveals the names of two men he intended to meet that day at the restaurant.
07:28Tony Giacalone, a.k.a. Tony Jack, a senior figure in the Detroit mob.
07:34And Tony Provenzano, a.k.a. Tony Pro, a capo or captain for the Genovese crime family.
07:42Investigators track down both Tonys. Each has a strong alibi and deny that a meeting with Hoffa was even scheduled.
07:51But there is a thread for the investigators to pull on.
08:00Tony Giacalone's son happens to own a Mercury sedan, just like the one the eyewitness described.
08:06And there's another interesting wrinkle.
08:07A man called Chucky O'Brien borrowed the car that morning to supposedly run some errands.
08:13Chucky was a known Hoffa union associate.
08:16Jimmy treated him like a stepson.
08:18When authorities process the car, they find bloodstains on the seat.
08:27And that's not all.
08:28A few strands of hair matching Hoffa's color also go into evidence bags.
08:33Police dogs hit on Hoffa's scent, suggesting Jimmy was in the back seat and, even more disturbingly, the trunk.
08:43But O'Brien claims he didn't pick Jimmy up at the Moccas Red Fox that day.
08:47And the blood on the seat? Chucky says that comes from a salmon he delivered to a teamster's house that morning.
08:57If this all sounds very fishy to you, you're not alone.
09:00However, tests on the blood reveal O'Brien is telling the truth, at least about the salmon.
09:06It's fish blood, not human.
09:08As to the hair, well, it's the mid-70s.
09:11And we're more than a decade away from DNA technology that could confirm whether it belonged to Hoffa.
09:19Days turn to weeks, and there's still no sign of Jimmy.
09:23In November of 1975, nearly four months after the disappearance, investigators catch a break.
09:28Ralph Picardo, a mob-connected convict serving time for murder, claims he knows the truth of Hoffa's disappearance,
09:36and gives up the details to the feds in exchange for a reduced sentence.
09:41Ralph points the finger at the two Tonys, saying they sent four wise guys to kidnap Hoffa from the Moccas Red Fox,
09:48and that they took him to a second location where he was shot and killed.
09:58Then, according to Picardo, the body was packed into a 55-gallon drum, loaded on a truck, and driven to a mob-controlled landfill in New Jersey, where it was buried.
10:11However, several days of searching at the dump turns up little more than toxic waste and animal bones, likely discarded from nearby meat processing plants.
10:23In late 1975, a grand jury grills Tony Pro, Tony Jack, and several of the other alleged mob co-conspirators.
10:31But nobody talks. They all plead the fifth.
10:36With scant evidence and no body, the case of the missing union leader goes colder than the Detroit River in February.
10:43In 1982, authorities declare Jimmy Hoffa legally dead, despite never in any way answering what happened to him.
10:53The world is left mystified as to his final fate.
10:57But then, 19 years later, a game-changing revelation will crack the case wide open.
11:02In 2001, 19 years after Jimmy Hoffa went missing, a shocking discovery jolts the case back into the national spotlight.
11:19DNA testing confirms the hair found in the car is Hoffa's.
11:23There's no longer any doubt.
11:25The infamous union boss was inside that vehicle.
11:28But where was he taken? And what was done to him?
11:32For over two decades, mafia historian Christian Cipollini has dug into the blood-soaked theories surrounding what happened to Hoffa and his body.
11:43The Hoffa case fascinates me because this is something that doesn't have closure.
11:49It's like the JFK assassination. It's like the disappearance of Amelia Earhart.
11:54We want some answers.
11:55One of the first major theories that really stuck in the American psyche came to light when a former mobster named Tony the Greek, he said Hoffa was killed and then transported to New Jersey and buried under the giant stadium which they were building at the time.
12:15The problem with that theory is that the mafia likes to do things in a practical way. Keep it simple.
12:25What the mob probably didn't do was pack the body of the most famous missing man in America on a truck, taking it across state lines to bury it in such an extravagant way.
12:39Rumors swelled into an urban legend that Jimmy Hoffa was buried in the stadium's foundations. But when it was demolished in 2010, no trace of him was found.
12:51Which leads us to popular theory number two, the Irishman. In 2003, Frank Sheeran, a former Teamster official and alleged mob hitman is dying of cancer. On his deathbed, he gives a jaw dropping confession to his lawyer.
13:09He claims Hoffa was abducted and murdered by the mob. Sheeran says he was not only there that day, but he was the one who actually pulled the trigger.
13:20Sheeran's confession becomes a best-selling book, later adapted into Martin Scorsese's movie The Irishman, in which he's played by Robert De Niro.
13:30Sheeran gives the exact address of a house in Detroit where he claims Hoffa was murdered.
13:35In 2004, investigators tear up the floorboards and they do discover blood. Unfortunately, it's not a match for Hoffa.
13:51The only evidence of Frank Sheeran being involved in the Hoffa hit and disappearance were his own claims. And his own story changed many times over the years.
14:06The Irishman theory is great pop culture Americana, but it doesn't rest on solid evidence.
14:14So what really happened to Hoffa's body? Why hasn't it been found?
14:21Over the years, dozens of theories have been put forward, mostly by former wise guys looking for 15 minutes of fame and a quick buck.
14:29One claims Hoffa was dumped in the Florida Everglades. Another swears he was dropped out of an airplane into the Great Lakes.
14:36Yet another says he buried Hoffa beneath a swimming pool.
14:38It's estimated the FBI has spent tens of millions of dollars chasing bogus leads. In 2022, they even reinvestigated the dump in New Jersey. But once again, they came up empty handed.
14:5350 years of searching for the body of Jimmy Hoffa. What they did right in this hit, we assume, is they destroyed the body.
15:05So if it is the mob, how did they make Hoffa disappear permanently?
15:11In 2025, it's revealed that the FBI caught a major break when Detroit mobster Anthony Palazzolo, a.k.a. Tony Powell, confesses to the hit, saying he turned Hoffa into literal mincemeat at his place of business, the Detroit Sausage Company.
15:26Supposedly, the remains are then cremated at a mob owned dump called Central Sanitation. And Christian believes the evidence was then further erased.
15:36From Marcus Red Fox to Central Sanitation is just a short drive. This entire crime could have been carried out in less than an hour.
15:49A year or so later, Central Sanitation burned to the ground and you wouldn't be able to find any evidence, even if it was there.
15:58The key to pulling off this perfect crime was leave no body.
16:05Run through a sausage grinder and cremated not once, but twice. Tony Pal's confession suggests a logical and grisly conclusion to the Hoffa mystery.
16:18Jimmy Hoffa was a titan of his age, but in death, his remains will never be found because there's nothing to find. Hoffa's final resting place has gone up in smoke, literally.
16:29From a missing man who helped shape a century to a missing object that shaped the last two millennia.
16:45It's the year 33 AD, just outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
16:50This group of men here, they're guests at history's most famous dinner party.
16:55That one there is Peter. And over in the shadows, brooding and restless, Judas.
17:01And then there's our host, Jesus of Nazareth.
17:06According to Christian scripture, by this time tomorrow, Jesus will be executed on a Roman cross.
17:12And the simple cup he now lifts is about to become Christendom's most sacred and most controversial relic, the Holy Grail.
17:21Many will come to believe the Grail grants divine power or even eternal life, but soon it will vanish.
17:29Will it be lost forever or will it end up hiding in plain sight?
17:34The story of the Grail is one of mystery.
17:48The Bible doesn't even provide a physical description of it.
17:52The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, written more than a half a century after Jesus' death, refer simply to a cup.
18:02The cup is used ceremonially to represent Christ's sacrifice.
18:07The scripture also has nothing to say about where this cup went after the fateful supper, nor any of the subsequent claims of its magical qualities.
18:17For centuries, it seems to have simply vanished.
18:24Then, in the Middle Ages, tales emerge of the Grail as an artifact imbued with incredible power.
18:31Mostly set in the mystical realm of King Arthur, these are stories of heroic knights and sacred mysteries.
18:38Think of them as the Star Wars saga, only set a long time ago in a castle far, far away.
18:44But here's where things get really interesting.
18:48Because at the same time that we get these medieval myths about the chivalrous knights of the Round Table,
18:54there's also a real-life group of God's warriors, the Knights Templar.
18:59An order of military monks, equal parts holy and badass.
19:04They roam the Christian world with one foot in the church and the other on the battlefield.
19:09After the First Crusade, they're charged with protecting wealthy Christian pilgrims on their travels to the Holy Land.
19:16The Templars' home base is in the heart of Jerusalem, and it's said to contain vast wealth and holy relics.
19:24Rumors begin to spread.
19:28Did they discover Jesus' chalice and keep it for themselves?
19:32If so, where did they put it?
19:39The Holy Grail could be anywhere across the vast Templar network, stretching from England to Syria.
19:45But in 1312, the Templars are forcibly disbanded, without ever revealing if they did indeed get the Grail.
19:52In the centuries that follow, the legend and lore of Christ's cup only grows.
19:57With many vessels emerging that people claim are the real deal.
20:01There's the silver Antioch chalice, found in the ruins of a church in Turkey.
20:08The onyx chalice of Doña Araca, housed in a basilica in Spain.
20:15And who could forget the Nantios cup, a humble wooden bowl from a monastery in Wales.
20:22At least that one looks like the cup of a carpenter.
20:25In fact, over 200 vessels across Europe have, at one time or another, been presented as the possible Holy Grail.
20:34Most of them, well, let's just say they don't hold water.
20:38But a couple seem real enough to cause even skeptical Grail seekers to take a second look.
20:49Behold the Sacro Catino, a.k.a. the Genoa Chalice.
20:54Sure, it looks like a satellite dish from the Emerald City.
20:57But according to the medieval chronicle of the Italian city of Genoa,
21:01Crusaders seized this mysterious green vessel during the capture of the biblical city of Caesarea in the year 1101.
21:10Now, according to the chronicle, the chalice is said to be crafted out of pure emerald,
21:15and is associated with the Last Supper, fueling the belief that it could possess extraordinary powers.
21:22The cup even appears to glow from within, radiating what some have said is a divine light.
21:28But can the Genoa Chalice be proven to be the true Holy Grail?
21:40In the Middle Ages, the Emerald Genoa Chalice is considered by many to be the Holy Grail.
21:46In the 1800s, when Napoleon annexes Genoa,
21:49the French Emperor personally demands that the prized chalice is shipped to the Paris Academy of Sciences
21:55to verify its authenticity.
21:58But while in transit from Genoa to France, the cup fractures.
22:04Upon examination, Parisian scientists determined the dish is not an emerald at all, but Byzantine glass.
22:11That's a big problem, because this particular style of glass was not in use until hundreds of years after Jesus' death.
22:19And so it becomes another failed contender in the enduring quest for the Holy Grail.
22:32And as it turns out, Napoleon isn't the only power-hungry authoritarian to seek the Grail.
22:38A century later, Adolf Hitler becomes fascinated with the Grail and its supposed powers.
22:45His most lethal enforcer, Heinrich Himmler, reportedly dispatches the Nazi SS on expeditions across Europe in search of the relic.
22:54For more on this, please see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
23:04And Indy's adventure is just one of many modern spins on the Grail legend.
23:11If you look around, Grail mythology is everywhere in pop culture.
23:16From Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, to Monty Python, to gaming's Assassin's Creed franchise.
23:23To the faithful, the Holy Grail remains not a thing of fiction, but a divine relic that could still be found.
23:32Despite centuries of pursuit, though, it has remained elusive.
23:36But now, Professor of History and Folklore Dr. Lynn McNeil claims there may be compelling new evidence for the Grail's existence.
23:44Within the context of Christianity, the Grail is one of the most sacred objects on this planet today.
23:54And we're left wondering what happened.
23:58If we still have it, if it is findable, if it exists, if it is extant in the world, this would be magnificent.
24:07Recent research is starting to show that the Chalice of Valencia is the historic cup of Christ.
24:16This may be more than just a local belief. This could actually be possible.
24:21The Holy Chalice of Valencia, also known as the Santo Caliz, has been protected in the Cathedral of Valencia, Spain, for the last 600 years.
24:30Although details are spotty, it is believed the Chalice came from the Holy Land to Rome with St. Peter in the first century AD.
24:38Later, in the third century, St. Lawrence brought the cup to his native Spain, where it has been safeguarded for centuries.
24:45Since arriving in Valencia, religious pilgrims have traveled from all around the world to glimpse what they believe to be the one true cup.
24:54But others are unconvinced. After all, it's kind of hard to imagine Jesus would use something this ornate.
25:02But in 1960, a Spanish archaeologist discovers this chalice is actually three separate pieces.
25:08He claims the stand of the cup comes from the medieval period, while the base dates to the ninth century.
25:15But here's the kicker. The cup itself was crafted between the second century BC and the first century AD.
25:23And the agate stone it's made from is only found in the Holy Land.
25:27This cup really could date from the time and place of Jesus.
25:31The entire cup itself is not what Jesus would have drank out of.
25:39Just that top part, that simple stone cup, that would be the grail.
25:45The rest of it would be casing placed around it.
25:49Then this is a common practice of putting sacred objects in an intentionally ornate container
25:55to show their importance through the way we display them.
26:01Another interesting element is the idea that this cup would have needed to meet certain ritual requirements.
26:10A lot of people forget that the Last Supper wasn't just any meal.
26:14It was a Seder. It was a Passover meal.
26:17Any cup used in the Passover meal needs to hold a minimum amount of liquid.
26:23And this particular cup is just the right size to hold the required two revets,
26:31is the Talmudic measurement that's needed to be held with wine.
26:36And this holds 2.5.
26:38So to know that this holy chalice, that it's dated to the right time period,
26:43that it is ritually correct for a Passover dinner.
26:46For believers, these elements really just become the final proof
26:52that this is, not just in our hearts, but in history, the Holy Grail.
27:05To many, this case is far from closed.
27:08After all, the chalice has many gaps in its history before arriving in Spain.
27:13Like many religious mysteries, this ultimately comes down to a question of faith.
27:18The Grail's significance lies in what it represents to those who seek it,
27:23whether that means it's a physical cup or not.
27:26I'll raise a glass to that.
27:28Nearly 2,000 years after the Grail vanishes, another disappearance sends shockwaves through history.
27:38It's September 29th, 1913.
27:41I'm about to board the SS Dresden, a British passenger liner sailing from Belgium bound for England.
27:48Checking in behind me, a brilliant engineer named Rudolph Diesel.
27:52The very name powers the world, engine and fuel alike.
27:56And in his suitcase are revolutionary designs, ideas that could challenge empires,
28:02rattle industries, and maybe even get a man killed.
28:06And sure enough, by dawn, Diesel will disappear.
28:09For over a hundred years, historians will spin their wheels asking what really happened to him.
28:15That is, until a new theory fuels the search for answers.
28:30In the late 19th century, the world is racing toward the future.
28:34But its steam-powered engines are stuck in the past, burning through coal, guzzling water, and constantly breaking down.
28:45Enter Rudolf Diesel, a German engineer with a mind like a finely tuned machine.
28:50Precise, relentless, and absolutely obsessed with efficiency.
28:54In 1897, he unveils his masterwork.
29:03The engine that bears his name.
29:05The diesel engine's innovation? Compression ignition.
29:11That means air inside the engine's cylinder gets squeezed really hard until the pressure makes it white-hot.
29:17Then, fuel is injected and spontaneously combusts, creating a massive amount of power.
29:25It's cheaper than steam, and best of all, no more coal shoveling.
29:29Diesel's prototype is fueled with peanut oil.
29:35Almost overnight, Diesel's engine becomes an economic and industrial game-changer around the world.
29:40Soon, Diesel achieves incredible wealth and fame.
29:45But success comes with serious headaches.
29:48Rivals want his secrets.
29:50Powerful industries feel threatened.
29:53The German government wants greater control of their favored son.
29:56And over the next decade, Diesel's fortune slips away.
30:02Lost to bad investments, legal battles, and his own lavish lifestyle.
30:09By 1913, Europe is at a crossroads.
30:13The storm clouds of World War I are gathering.
30:16Desperate for cash to pay down his debts, Diesel makes a bold and risky move.
30:21Taking on a business partner to open a diesel engine plant in England.
30:25That's where he's headed, on the SS Dresden, to cut the ribbon on his brand-new English factory.
30:31But with pre-war tensions rising between Britain and Diesel's native Germany,
30:36transferring cutting-edge technology is a dangerous game.
30:45The morning of September 30th, Diesel's business partner expects to meet him for breakfast.
30:50When the famously punctual Diesel doesn't show, his partner pays a visit to his cabin.
31:01Inside, Diesel's nightshirt lays neatly atop the bed, which hasn't been slept in.
31:06His gold watch, luggage, and his wallet are in the room.
31:09But neither Diesel nor the important documents he's said to be traveling with are anywhere to be found.
31:16His diary is empty, save for the sign of a cross penciled next to yesterday's date, September 29th.
31:23The last time anyone saw Rudolf Diesel.
31:26Famous inventor Rudolf Diesel is on his way to England on the SS Dresden, when he mysteriously vanishes.
31:42The crew scours the decks for any sign of the missing engineer.
31:49At the stern of the ship, a curious discovery.
31:54Diesel's hat and jacket neatly folded near the railing.
31:58The crew declares him a man overboard.
32:01Almost immediately, news of Diesel's disappearance makes international headlines.
32:05And 11 days later, the story takes a truly tragic turn.
32:12Sailors aboard a Dutch steamer find a body floating in the North Sea.
32:17Given the state of decomposition, they retrieve a few personal effects before returning the dead man to a watery grave.
32:27Diesel's son later identifies a pillbox and an eyeglasses case as belonging to his father.
32:33Diesel's family claims it must have been an accident.
32:37But the sea was calm that night, and the Dresden's railings were too high for a simple misstep.
32:43If Diesel went overboard, it wasn't by chance.
32:47But could it have been by choice?
32:52Perhaps Diesel's dire financial situation prompted him to commit suicide.
32:57For a man who revolutionized engines, his bank account was running on fumes.
33:01Before he set sail, he gave his wife a sealed bag, instructing her not to open it for a week.
33:08After his presumed death, she looks inside, finding documents revealing his deep debt and 20,000 marks, worth about $120,000 today.
33:19This final gesture would seem to frame this as a suicide.
33:23But is it?
33:24Because here's the thing.
33:26No one who knows Diesel believes he's capable of self-harm.
33:30Not his friends, not his family, not his colleagues.
33:33Yes, he was in debt, but he was also on the verge of winning another fortune.
33:38And for a man as meticulous as Diesel, there was no note, no will, just that enigmatic cross in his diary.
33:44It all seems very out of character.
33:47And then there's the missing important documents Diesel was said to be traveling with.
33:53Which leads many to believe that this isn't a suicide on the high seas, but a maritime murder.
33:59The approach of World War I makes the Diesel mystery even murkier.
34:07At the time, submarines are the hottest thing in warfare, and Diesel's engine could superpower them, making them cheaper, faster, with more range, giving whoever has Diesel's technology a deadly advantage.
34:21The Kaiser wants that tech locked down in Germany.
34:26The government warns Diesel, share it with foreign powers, and it's treason.
34:31But the engineer believes his invention is for everyone, not just one military.
34:39And there's more. Diesel's journey has a double agenda.
34:43Publicly, he was set to attend the ribbon cutting of his new factory, set to build engines for agricultural machines and cargo ships.
34:51Behind the scenes, he was meeting with British military officials, discussing how his engines, German-designed engines, could power specialized British warships, including submarines.
35:04Some believe German agents silenced Diesel to keep his plans out of enemy hands.
35:09Possible, but as it turns out, the Kaiser isn't the only one with the motive and means to do Diesel in.
35:27His engine doesn't just threaten military power, it threatens big oil.
35:31Unlike gasoline, Diesel's engine runs on peanut oil or coal tar, cheap fuels that don't require massive oil empires.
35:40Empires like that of the world's richest man, J.D. Rockefeller, who has a reputation for protecting his riches by any means necessary.
35:48As intriguing as the murder theory may be, there is a glaring problem.
35:55Not a shred of evidence has surfaced in over a century to prove Diesel was assassinated by the German government or Big Oil.
36:02Operations that would surely have left witnesses and some sort of paper trail.
36:06So if he wasn't murdered and he didn't commit suicide, then what happened to Rudolf Diesel?
36:13Could it be that he didn't die at all?
36:20While Jimmy Hoffa vanished without a trace, leaving only rumors of his fate, other mob hits unfolded in broad daylight designed to stun the public.
36:29In 1957, Albert Anastasia, once head of Murder, Inc., was gunned down in a New York barbershop, a towel over his face as bullets tore him apart.
36:40In 1979, Carmine Galante was murdered mid-meal in Brooklyn, a cigar clenched between his teeth.
36:47Then, in 1985, Gambino boss Paul Castellano was brazenly executed outside Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan, ambushed in the street as crowds looked on.
37:00These assassinations were more than power plays, they were spectacles.
37:05Unlike Hoffa's vanishing act, they left indelible, gruesome evidence, reminders that the mafia often preferred its messages written in blood.
37:17Rudolf Diesel was one of the greatest engineering minds our world has ever known.
37:23Now, a bold new theory shakes up everything we thought we knew about what happened to him.
37:28Author and historian Douglas Brunt claims that there's a shocking truth behind Diesel's disappearance, something you'd never expect.
37:37Rudolf Diesel is the most underappreciated inventor of his time.
37:41He had a very sort of liberal approach to the sharing of information around the technology.
37:45And Diesel abhorred the nationalism and the more aggressive foreign policy of the Germans.
37:52There was also evidence that he had very high contact with the British Royal Navy, which was at that time run by Winston Churchill.
37:58And so, the most likely conclusion of the Diesel mystery, looking at all the evidence, is that he did not slip and fall overboard, he did not commit suicide, he was not murdered, but with the assistance of British naval intelligence, he staged his own disappearance.
38:14Brunt believes the British government orchestrated one of history's greatest cover-ups, faking Rudolf Diesel's death to secretly harness his genius while protecting him from deadly German retribution.
38:29My belief is that Rudolf Diesel got on the Dresden, and then got right back off, and then the Dresden left without him.
38:43This is supported by the steward's cabin list, saying he was not aboard when the Dresden set sail.
38:50In the very first days after Diesel's disappearance, the mysterious details of his financial position start to show up in the media to try to get the suicide theory some traction.
38:59If they wanted to get it to look like Diesel was sad and depressed and suicidal and bankrupt, it would be very easy to plant those kinds of stories and get it printed.
39:10Spinning a tale of Diesel's despair may have fueled the suicide theory, but what about the body found at sea, the one bearing his belongings, yet strangely never recovered for autopsy?
39:21It's possible there may have been a corpse as part of this deception.
39:27Perhaps British intelligence felt they needed to float a corpse out there, some happenstance steamer would come upon.
39:34But then, strangely, there are no interviews with the fishermen on record, there's no record of their names, and they returned the corpse to the water, which is not the custom of the day.
39:44Okay, so we've got young Winston Churchill and the British Royal Navy executing a plan to drop a dead body into the ocean, one that isn't Diesel, to mislead the German government.
39:57Sounds a little out there, but what if I told you that Churchill pulled exactly the same stunt 30 years later during World War II in something known as Operation Mincemeat?
40:07Operation Mincemeat was a World War II deception operation using a corpse.
40:12They handcuffed a briefcase with fake battle plans to a corpse and floated it into the coast of Spain where they knew Nazi agents would find it.
40:20And Hitler took the bait. He thought we were going one way, we went the other.
40:25Operation Rudolph Diesel could be a precursor to Operation Mincemeat.
40:30And then there's the bizarrely exceptional performance of the submarines of the British Navy in the war.
40:35And they're all diesel powered.
40:39So it seems like diesel might actually have been alive in the service of Churchill's Royal Navy building submarine diesels in Canada for the war effort.
40:49There's an interesting final twist to this theory.
40:52In 1914, a newspaper ran a story claiming Rudolph Diesel was alive and living in Canada.
40:59Maybe the story was a hoax, or maybe British intelligence had it buried.
41:03Coincidentally, around that time, Vickers Shipyard in Montreal suddenly became much more successful at churning out diesel engines for submarines.
41:13Today, a century after his disappearance, Rudolph Diesel's engines are still running all over the world, proving, if nothing else, his legacy is alive and well.
41:23I'm Josh Gates, and I'll see you on the next expedition.
41:27The End
41:29To be continued...
41:30The End
41:31To be continued...
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