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00:00On this episode of Expedition Files, 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, a group of young girls accuse their neighbors of witchcraft, setting off hysteria that will end in 20 executions.
00:14Now, we discover what may be the true cause of the Salem Witch Trials.
00:19Then, in 1980, at a military base in England, a unit of U.S. airmen will all swear they witness a UFO.
00:31With stunning audio evidence, we unravel the secrets behind the case known as Britain's Roswell.
00:40And, at the turn of the 20th century, a man known as Rasputin the Mad Monk is famed for his mystical powers, becoming an advisor to the Russian royal family before he's violently assassinated.
00:58Now, we uncover a shocking theory revealing who killed him and why.
01:03In the corridors of time are mysteries that defy explanation.
01:16Now, I'm traveling through history itself on a search for the truth, new evidence, shocking answers.
01:33I'm Josh Gates.
01:35And these are my Expedition Files.
01:44When I meet people on my travels, they often say, what you do for a living is crazy.
01:50But, hey, one person's insanity is another's Tuesday night in a cursed Egyptian tomb, am I right?
01:55The line between madness and normalcy, well, sometimes it's just a matter of perspective.
01:59And finding that perspective is the task at hand, as we examine three remarkable mysteries of madness.
02:07In each case, trying to find the sane within the insane.
02:11We begin our journey in a Massachusetts court.
02:14But these are no ordinary proceedings.
02:16Because the year is 1692.
02:19And this is the town of Salem.
02:21The meeting house is packed with people here to see the trial of the woman beside me.
02:27Her name is Martha Corey.
02:29Her crime?
02:30Witchcraft.
02:31They say she consorts with the devil.
02:34That she wields dark forces to harm the innocent.
02:37And she's not alone.
02:38When all is said and done, hundreds will have been accused.
02:42Dozens imprisoned.
02:43And 20 executed in a community gripped by fear.
02:47But what is really happening here?
02:50Religious hysteria?
02:51Mass paranoia?
02:52Or is there something darker hiding in the shadows?
02:56The jury's out, but it won't be for much longer.
02:59Go, Dad!
03:01Go, Dad!
03:01Go, Dad!
03:02Go, Dad!
03:03Go, Dad!
03:04Go, Dad!
03:05Go, Dad!
03:06Go, Dad!
03:07Go, Dad!
03:08Go, Dad!
03:09Go, Dad!
03:10Go, Dad!
03:11Go, Dad!
03:13Our story begins seven decades before the witch trials, when Salem is founded in 1626 by Puritans from England.
03:25Devout, disciplined, and dedicated to carving out a new life in an unforgiving wilderness.
03:31Over the next century, their world is shaped by toil, fear, and absolute devotion.
03:37Add in tensions within the new community, not to mention conflict with Native Americans, lurking
03:44French rivals, starvation, disease, and a deep-seated fear of the devil.
03:50And you've got a powder keg, just waiting to blow.
03:59Our Father of the Lord, may you love the merciful upon you, and in the miserable love, use your suffering, our Lord, O God.
04:07We're inside the home of Reverend Samuel Parris, and on the bed before me are his daughter, Betty, and her cousin, Abigail Williams.
04:15No one knows what's wrong with the girls, but their symptoms seem severe, as they suffer violent spasms and convulsions.
04:23Desperate prayers are whispered, herbal remedies tried, but nothing helps.
04:28A local physician is summoned, he examines the girls, and despite their terrifying condition, finds no evidence of disease, and jumps to the only other conclusion his world view allows, an evil hand is upon them.
04:49His official diagnosis? Witchcraft.
05:06Soon, the mysterious affliction spreads, as two other girls in the village, 12-year-old Ann Putnam Jr. and 17-year-old Elizabeth Hubbard, also fall ill.
05:15Others in the community also start reporting seizure-like symptoms, and claim to witness shadow figures and invisible attacks of stabbing and choking.
05:32Meanwhile, the girls who were first afflicted name their tormentors.
05:36They claim to be attacked by the specters of three women, household slave Tituba, as well as local outcast Sarah Osborne, and a destitute beggar named Sarah Good.
05:48All three are arrested.
05:50Under pressure, Tituba confesses, claiming the devil, quote, came to me and bid me serve him.
05:56And even more shocking, she implicates the two other women, claiming they, and unnamed others in the town, are also witches.
06:06During Sarah Good's trial, accusers paint her as a bitter, envious outcast, whose poverty and anger make her a prime vessel for the devil's work.
06:18She's a witch!
06:20Sarah passionately declares her innocence, but her cries are ignored.
06:25All three women are branded as heretics and thrown into jail.
06:33The incarceration of this trio, seen as social outcasts, doesn't come as a surprise to some.
06:39But it turns out, this is only the beginning.
06:42What happens next will change everything.
06:45And that brings us back to Martha Corey.
06:48Martha is considered a respected, not to mention a devout member of the community.
06:52But when she questions whether Salem's young women are truly the victims of witchcraft, she quickly finds herself accused by one of the young girls and standing trial herself.
07:03The community is shocked.
07:10Unlike the other three accused women who had no defenders, Martha Corey is known to some as the gospel woman and is as pious as they come.
07:20Martha stands her ground, denying everything.
07:22But in this climate, an accusation is as good as guilt.
07:26And as the judge seals her fate, the town crosses the point of no return.
07:31If someone as faithful as Martha Corey can be condemned, then everyone's at risk.
07:38Soon, a tidal wave of accusations sweep through Salem and the surrounding villages,
07:44dragging down residents like Elizabeth Proctor and Rebecca Nurse.
07:47Even the previously jailed beggar, Sarah Good, finds her four-year-old daughter, Dorothy, now locked up with her.
07:56Officials encourage the accused to beg for forgiveness, whether they're guilty or not.
08:02The rules are brutally simple.
08:03Deny it, you hang.
08:06Confess, you live.
08:07But remain locked up until you can pay off your arrest fees.
08:12Despite Boston judges warning not to allow so-called spectral evidence in court,
08:16the advice is ignored, and citizens continue to be arrested due to invisible evidence.
08:23In short, madness has come to Salem, and death isn't far behind.
08:30On May 10th, one of the original accused, Sarah Osborne, dies in jail.
08:35A month after that, five women will be hanged at Gallows Hill in Salem,
08:40including another of the original three, Sarah Good.
08:42By the spring of 1692, the witch hunt has spread far beyond Salem.
08:52The breaking point finally comes when the governor of Massachusetts, William Phipps,
08:56intervenes, partly because his own wife has been accused.
09:00He orders the witch trials stop and bans any future use of supernatural claims as courtroom evidence.
09:06Nearly a year and a half after the accusations began, the spell is finally broken.
09:14Over the next few weeks, arrests are suspended and prisoners set free.
09:18But the damage has already been done.
09:21By the time the hysteria burns out, nearly 200 people have been accused of witchcraft.
09:26Of those, 19 have been hanged, and one man, Giles Corey, is even pressed to death under heavy stones.
09:32As for Tituba, she's imprisoned for well over a year,
09:39and records show that a landowner buys her by paying her jail fees,
09:43but her ultimate fate is lost to history.
09:47For over 325 years, the Salem witch trials have served as a warning about the dangers of paranoid groupthink.
09:55Arthur Miller's 1953 play, The Crucible, even used the story as a metaphor for McCarthy-era witch hunts.
10:02But one question still lingers.
10:05It's about Abigail and Betty's mysterious illness,
10:08the event that ignited all the chaos and tragedy that followed.
10:12Safely assuming they weren't under a witch's spell, what truly afflicted them?
10:18Well, for years, one of the main theories was that the young girls were simply faking it.
10:23As adolescents in a strict Puritan society, they had little control over their lives.
10:27Their sudden sickness made them the center of attention and gave them power over adults.
10:36Others have claimed that existing tensions between rival families and unhappy neighbors
10:41may have inspired the initial accusations, which then spiraled out of control.
10:46But let's not forget, Abigail and Betty weren't alone.
10:53In total, 10 young girls, many in different households, began displaying the exact same bizarre symptoms.
10:59To many, it's hard to believe they all conspired to fake the same disorder.
11:03So if it wasn't a fabrication, what in the world caused it?
11:07Now, a jaw-dropping theory aims to explain all.
11:16The Salem witch trials remain a chilling, cautionary tale,
11:22where fear ran wild and innocent lives were lost,
11:25after young girls claimed to be cursed by witchcraft.
11:29But if it wasn't lies, and it wasn't the devil, then what was it?
11:33In the 1970s, another theory emerges.
11:36Maybe the girls weren't cursed, maybe they were poisoned.
11:40The first two girls to experience the affliction are Betty Paris and Abigail Williams.
11:46In the 1970s, it was proposed by one researcher that maybe the affliction in Salem was caused by ergot.
11:55Ergot is a fungus that grows on rye or wheat.
11:58But when we really zoom in and look at the evidence of the Salem witch trials,
12:02ergot actually doesn't make sense.
12:03There are multiple people living in the house with Betty Paris and Abigail Williams.
12:09So why would just two people become sick?
12:12Why wouldn't everyone in the house eating the same bread become ill?
12:17And with several thousand people living in and around Salem at the time who were not afflicted,
12:22the moldy bread theory is, well, toast.
12:25But something set off their unsettling symptoms.
12:29So if it wasn't a cursed carb, what was it?
12:32Recent revelations in mental health may finally offer an alternate explanation.
12:37Perhaps the girl's affliction was real, but its roots weren't physical, they were psychological,
12:42due to something known as conversion disorder.
12:45Conversion disorder is a real medical issue people experience, and it can convert into physical symptoms.
12:55Witching, jerking, outbursts, uncontrollable behavior like that.
13:01Also called functional neurological symptom disorder,
13:04It is a mental affliction that can manifest physically as well,
13:08in ways that are often completely bewildering to the patient.
13:12The cause?
13:13Extreme stress.
13:14If we think about the conditions that Betty Paris and Abigail Williams were living in in 1692,
13:19this does make sense.
13:21Their children living in a very strict Puritan household,
13:25hearing these sermons constantly about the dangers of the devil and the invisible world.
13:31They're hearing from their peers about the wars going on with the indigenous tribes of the area,
13:37that they could be attacked at any moment.
13:39It's a really stressful situation, particularly for kids that young.
13:46So the theory is that because of the hard and isolated life of Puritan colonists,
13:51the young women of Salem had a very particular type of breakdown.
13:54In cases like that, of if some people are complaining of this illness,
14:01others soon think that they might be susceptible to it as well.
14:05You would call that mass psychogenic illness.
14:08It's interesting to observe that when the afflicted witnesses were separated from the other witnesses,
14:15they did recover.
14:17Betty Paris is separated from the rest of the family.
14:20Her illness resolves itself.
14:22She makes a full recovery.
14:25Could it be that four young girls suffered a neurological condition
14:29that then snowballed throughout their community until tragedy ensued?
14:33Remarkably, evidence that may support the theory emerged more than 300 years later.
14:39In 2012, 18 cheerleaders in Leroy, upstate New York,
14:44all began exhibiting inexplicable ticks and twitches,
14:47terrifying their small town and drawing a media circus.
14:51Soon, community tensions boiled over in a desperate search for the truth,
14:56just as they did four centuries earlier.
14:59But unlike Colonial Salem, cooler heads prevailed,
15:02and in time, the girls' symptoms mysteriously vanished,
15:05without hauling anyone to the gallows.
15:08It makes you think, perhaps the only bewitching thing at work in Salem
15:12was the human mind.
15:13300 years after the hysteria of Salem,
15:24we're about to experience a very different case
15:27of what some will say is collective madness.
15:31It's just after midnight on December 26th, 1980,
15:35a blisteringly cold night in the Rendlesham Forest near Suffolk, England.
15:39Did you see that?
15:41Something is moving in these woods, something strange.
15:45And what happens here over the next few hours
15:48will become one of the most baffling UFO encounters of all time,
15:52because the key witnesses are serving members of the American Air Force.
15:57But is it really something out of this world?
16:01One thing's for sure, I won't be needing this anymore,
16:04because the real light show is about to begin.
16:17At Royal Air Force Base Woodbridge,
16:20U.S. Air Force security are on routine patrol.
16:24It's the height of the Cold War,
16:25and the U.S. operates the base on English soil under a NATO agreement.
16:29At 3 a.m., Airman First Class John Burroughs
16:35spots an odd light in the forest beyond the East Gate.
16:41Staff Sergeant Jim Penniston, also on patrol, sees the light as well.
16:46Together with a third serviceman, Edward Kabanzak,
16:49they head deeper into Rendlesham Forest to investigate.
16:53According to the men's accounts,
16:58the lights grow brighter and stranger with every step.
17:03Their radios crackle, then cut out entirely.
17:10Finally, they see it.
17:13The men will claim that a metallic, triangular object
17:16appears to hover just above the forest floor,
17:19its smooth, black surface reflecting an eerie light.
17:23No sound, no wind,
17:25just an otherworldly energy
17:27that seems to vibrate through the air itself.
17:32Penniston would later contend
17:33that he actually touches the mysterious craft.
17:37He says the surface is perfectly smooth and warm,
17:40marked with strange symbols
17:42that he later records in a notebook.
17:44Then, in an instant,
17:49the metallic enigma blasts off
17:51with a blinding streak of light
17:53that disappears into the night sky.
17:57If that were the end of the story,
17:59Rendlesham would go down
18:01as one of the most intriguing,
18:02unexplained events in history.
18:04A close encounter of the second kind,
18:07if I'm remembering my Spielberg correctly.
18:09But this mystery?
18:10It's just getting started.
18:11In the early morning hours,
18:15investigators locate
18:16three strange imprints in the soil,
18:19spaced evenly apart
18:20in a nearly perfect triangle.
18:23Their Geiger counter also spikes,
18:25showing higher-than-average radiation
18:27as they investigate the mysterious clearing.
18:33Two days later,
18:34on the night of the 28th,
18:36more lights are reported
18:37darting through the forest,
18:39moving erratically,
18:40defying logic.
18:41Deputy Base Commander
18:46Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt
18:47has had enough.
18:49He personally leads a team
18:51into the woods
18:52armed with radiation meters,
18:54night vision scopes,
18:55and a tape recorder.
18:56What follows is the actual audio
18:58from that night.
18:59We found a small blast,
19:04what looks like a blast
19:06in our scrubbed-up area here.
19:09Even stranger,
19:11only the trees facing the clearing
19:12have fresh damage.
19:15One of these trees
19:17that face into the blast,
19:18what we assume is the landing site,
19:20all have an abrasion
19:22facing in the same direction.
19:25Then, a sergeant spots something.
19:27It's coming this way.
19:31It is definitely coming this way.
19:35I will observe you
19:36what appears to be a beam
19:37coming down to the ground.
19:41This is unreal.
19:42Back at the base,
19:55Halt documents the series
19:57of strange encounters
19:58in a memo titled
19:59Unexplained Lights.
20:01The British Ministry of Defense
20:03launches an official investigation,
20:05but things only get murkier.
20:06Despite the eyewitness reports,
20:10despite the radiation readings,
20:12and despite a high-ranking
20:14U.S. officer filing
20:15an official memo,
20:17the Ministry of Defense
20:19quickly concludes
20:19there was no defense significance
20:22to the events.
20:24Perhaps they just wanted
20:25the whole story to go away,
20:27but it doesn't.
20:28In 1983,
20:32the top-secret encounter
20:33is finally revealed
20:34when a government memo
20:35is released
20:36under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
20:38And just like that,
20:40Rendlesham becomes
20:41the biggest UFO bombshell
20:43since Roswell
20:44in 1947.
20:47But while believers
20:48see proof of alien visitation,
20:51skeptics have a more
20:52down-to-earth explanation.
20:54Just a few miles away
20:55from the base,
20:56the now-defunct
20:57Orford Ness Lighthouse
20:58used to emit
20:59powerful beams of light.
21:01Some suggest
21:02that when it shined
21:03through the trees,
21:04it created the illusion
21:05of a hovering craft.
21:07Back in 2017,
21:09I traveled to the English airbase
21:10for an exclusive interview
21:12with Lieutenant Colonel Halt himself,
21:15the man who witnessed the event
21:16and who wrote
21:17the infamous memo.
21:19Do you think what you saw
21:21was extraterrestrial?
21:22I'm firmly convinced myself
21:23that yes,
21:24it was extraterrestrial.
21:26Colonel,
21:26what do the skeptics say?
21:27How do people explain this away?
21:29The biggest story is
21:30the lighthouse.
21:32To test that theory,
21:34we trekked to the lighthouse
21:35and got it operational
21:37for the first time in decades.
21:40Ah!
21:40Look at that!
21:43Then,
21:43we ventured into
21:44Rendlesham Forest
21:45and located the reported
21:46landing site
21:47to see firsthand
21:48how the lighthouse's beam
21:50appears from the ground.
21:51boom.
21:54Boom.
21:55One,
21:56two,
21:57three,
21:58four,
21:59five.
22:00Just like clockwork
22:01every five seconds.
22:06And these guys
22:07worked at this base
22:08for years.
22:08This lighthouse
22:09would have been something
22:10that they saw
22:10pretty regularly.
22:12I think it's really safe to say
22:13that's not what they saw.
22:14I left England
22:17convinced of two things.
22:19One,
22:19whatever Lieutenant Colonel Halt
22:21saw that night
22:22in Rendlesham Forest,
22:23it wasn't just
22:24the rhythmic flash
22:25of a lighthouse.
22:26And two,
22:27he is steadfast
22:29and unwavering
22:30that he witnessed
22:31something
22:31not of this world.
22:33So,
22:33what on earth
22:34did he see?
22:35Now,
22:36a former UK
22:36Ministry of Defense official
22:38reveals a shocking
22:39new theory.
22:40In 1980,
22:49U.S. Air Force officers
22:51stationed in Britain
22:52reported what they believe
22:53to be a close encounter
22:54with an alien spacecraft.
22:57Over the years,
22:59another theory
22:59has persisted,
23:01that the entire incident
23:02was an elaborate prank.
23:04A U.S. military
23:05police officer
23:05came forward
23:06in 2003
23:07claiming he was
23:09trying to scare
23:09a fellow guard
23:10by flashing the lights
23:12on his patrol car.
23:13But the story
23:14doesn't match up
23:15with the hovering lights
23:16in the sky
23:16that were spotted
23:17over multiple nights.
23:19A more recent theory
23:20is that disgruntled
23:21British special forces
23:22were playing a prank
23:24on their American counterparts.
23:26But former UK
23:27Ministry of Defense official
23:28turned UFO investigator
23:30Nick Pope
23:31isn't convinced.
23:32I should say that
23:35in strict evidential terms,
23:38the prank story
23:40is just a classic
23:41friend-of-a-friend story.
23:43It seems to have been
23:44invented by a ufologist
23:46who wanted to write himself
23:48into the narrative.
23:50So if it's not a prank
23:51and not a lighthouse,
23:53was it aliens?
23:54The UK military
23:55conducted a detailed investigation
23:57into unidentified aerial phenomena,
24:00including the Rendlesham incident.
24:01Their report
24:02was eventually declassified
24:04and in 2024,
24:06its conclusions
24:06were brought to light.
24:08And they offer
24:08a stunning possibility.
24:10The study suggests
24:11that what witnesses
24:12believed were UFOs
24:14may actually have been
24:15plasma.
24:17No, not the stuff
24:18coursing through your veins.
24:19This is electromagnetic plasma,
24:21a glowing, supercharged
24:23swirl of particles
24:24that's visually elusive.
24:26Here on Earth,
24:27it's often seen
24:28as lightning
24:29in auroras
24:30or from meteors
24:31entering the atmosphere.
24:32And there were reports
24:34of meteors
24:34over England
24:35at that time.
24:38Rendlesham Forest
24:39might be
24:40one of these cases
24:41where a strange
24:43atmospheric plasma
24:45phenomena
24:46might be involved.
24:47if a meteor
24:49had come down
24:50and superheated,
24:52supercharged
24:53the atmosphere,
24:55particularly if there was
24:55a bit of mist
24:56and fog,
24:57this would cause
24:58a very spooky
25:00looking light display.
25:03Electromagnetic plasma
25:04can sometimes appear
25:05as a type of so-called
25:07ball lightning
25:07that can dart around
25:09in wild,
25:10unpredictable ways,
25:11much like what witnesses
25:12saw at Rendlesham.
25:14And, get this,
25:15plasma might even explain
25:17the mysterious spike
25:18in radiation
25:19recorded during
25:20the Rendlesham incident.
25:23When plasma revs up,
25:25its charged particles,
25:26like speedy little electrons,
25:28start zipping around
25:29and releasing bursts
25:30of electromagnetic radiation.
25:32And to top it off,
25:33these plasmas may even be able
25:35to cause visual hallucinations.
25:38There has been
25:39some scientific work
25:41to show how the stimulation
25:43of the temporal lobes
25:45can produce
25:46hallucinations,
25:48strange sensations.
25:50So, the theory is
25:52that these close encounters
25:55that the witnesses
25:56experienced at Rendlesham
25:58were actually close encounters,
26:00but not with extraterrestrials,
26:02but with these plasmas.
26:07But how can plasma
26:09account for the structured craft
26:11Jim Penniston
26:11says he touched?
26:13You know,
26:13the one with the strange symbols?
26:15And let's not forget
26:16the three curious indentations
26:18left in the ground.
26:21Skeptics say
26:22that these indentations
26:24in the ground
26:25were maybe
26:26nothing more
26:27than burrowing animals.
26:30Rabbits, perhaps.
26:32Well, my response to that
26:33is, what,
26:34radioactive rabbits?
26:35I think it's one of these rare
26:39multifaceted events.
26:42Exotic atmospheric plasmas
26:44may have played a part
26:47in things,
26:47but there may genuinely be
26:50something truly unknown
26:52over and above all of that.
26:55There are mysteries
26:56out there still
26:58to be solved.
26:59To this day,
27:02Halt, Penniston,
27:03and the others
27:04maintain what they saw
27:05wasn't a prank,
27:07a lighthouse,
27:08or the effects of plasma,
27:09but something
27:10not of this earth.
27:12Skeptics respond
27:13that some of their stories
27:14have changed
27:15or become embellished
27:16over time.
27:17Penniston, for instance,
27:18never mentioned
27:19touching a craft
27:20in his original report.
27:21But it is hard
27:22to dismiss
27:23the strange events
27:24of this case
27:25out of hand.
27:26At the heart
27:27of this mystery
27:27are multiple,
27:29credible military personnel
27:30who certainly saw something
27:32in Rendlesham Forest.
27:34As for the rest of us,
27:35all we can do
27:36is look up
27:37at the night sky
27:38and keep wondering
27:39what's really out there.
27:47It's December 29th, 1916,
27:50and I'm crashing
27:50a stately dinner party
27:52in St. Petersburg.
27:53And the most infamous
27:54man in Russia
27:55has just arrived.
27:57Meet Grigory Rasputin,
27:59a charismatic mystic
28:00who can purportedly
28:02heal the sick
28:02and see the future.
28:04But his enemies swear
28:05he's the devil incarnate.
28:07And tonight,
28:08Rasputin has unknowingly
28:10stepped into a deadly trap.
28:12Before the evening
28:13is through,
28:14he will be poisoned,
28:15shot multiple times,
28:16and drowned.
28:18But the real twist
28:19isn't how he dies,
28:20but who is secretly
28:22behind the murder.
28:25Grigory Rasputin
28:34is born on January 21st,
28:371869,
28:38in a small village
28:39in Siberia.
28:40From a young age,
28:42locals whisper
28:42that he has
28:43supernatural powers,
28:44even the ability
28:45to heal animals.
28:48Then, in his 20s,
28:50Rasputin experiences
28:51a religious epiphany,
28:53one that calls him
28:54to become
28:54a self-proclaimed
28:56Orthodox Christian prophet
28:57and healer.
28:59I will hate your call.
29:04He embarks on a pilgrimage
29:05that's said to take him
29:07across the world,
29:08including Greece
29:09and the Holy Land,
29:10where he allegedly
29:11deepens his mystical powers,
29:13honing the ability
29:14to see the future
29:15and heal people
29:16with his prayers.
29:17He returns to Russia
29:23amid growing rumors
29:24of his supernatural gifts,
29:26attracting the attention
29:27of aristocrats
29:28eager to leverage
29:29his power.
29:31And on November 1st, 1905,
29:34he meets Tsar Nicholas II
29:35and Tsarina
29:36Alexandra Romanov,
29:38becoming part
29:39of their inner circle.
29:40Then, in 1912,
29:45one of the Tsar's children,
29:46eight-year-old Alexei,
29:47suffers a serious injury
29:49in a carriage accident.
29:51As the sole male offspring,
29:53Alexei is the successor
29:54to the throne.
29:55Unfortunately,
29:56he also suffers
29:57from a rare genetic disorder
29:59called hemophilia
30:00that impairs blood clotting,
30:02increasing his risk of death
30:03and putting the future
30:04of the Romanov dynasty
30:06in question.
30:07Gripped by fear
30:10and desperation,
30:11Tsar Nicholas turns
30:12to Rasputin,
30:13pleading for him
30:14to save his gravely ill son.
30:17Rasputin retreats
30:18into a trance-like ritual,
30:20invoking his mysterious powers.
30:23When he emerges,
30:24he delivers
30:25a startling command.
30:27No doctors,
30:28no medicine.
30:29He insists
30:30that a vision
30:31has shown him
30:31that the boy
30:32will recover on his own,
30:34if left completely untouched.
30:37Miraculously,
30:39Rasputin's vision
30:40proves correct.
30:41Alexei's bleeding
30:42soon stops.
30:44And from that moment on,
30:47the Tsar entrusts Rasputin
30:48with some of the empire's
30:50most sensitive
30:51political secrets.
30:55Rasputin flaunts
30:56his influence
30:57with reckless abandon,
30:59boasting that he steers
31:00Russia's destiny,
31:01taking bribes
31:02and shocking
31:03polite society
31:04with nights
31:05of drunken debauchery,
31:06even sexual scandal.
31:08There are whispers
31:09that he's sleeping
31:10with the Tsarina herself.
31:15Many in Russia
31:16now see Rasputin
31:17as a nefarious puppet master.
31:20Some even claim
31:21he's a satanic force,
31:23corrupting the monarchy
31:24from within.
31:25In 1914,
31:26one woman tries
31:27to assassinate the monk
31:29by stabbing him
31:30in the street.
31:31She fails,
31:32but the die is cast.
31:34Rasputin has enemies
31:35everywhere,
31:36and more than a few
31:37want to see him dead.
31:45For nine years,
31:47Rasputin's influence
31:48over the Romanovs
31:49deepens.
31:50But as his power
31:51reaches its height,
31:52many start to believe
31:53his unchecked influence
31:55could spell the downfall
31:56of the Russian dynasty.
32:01On July 30th, 1914,
32:03Russia joins World War I.
32:07Rasputin opposes
32:08Russia's involvement
32:09in the war.
32:11He urges Tsar Nicholas
32:12to stay in Petrograd
32:13and govern.
32:15But Nicholas ignores
32:17the monk's advice
32:17and marches off to war.
32:23The result is catastrophic.
32:25While exact figures
32:26will be debated,
32:27estimates suggest
32:28that under Nicholas II's command,
32:30as many as
32:31one to two million
32:32Russian soldiers
32:33lose their lives.
32:36The Tsar's focus
32:37on the front
32:38leaves a power vacuum
32:39in the capital.
32:41Rasputin steps in,
32:43filling posts
32:43with his allies
32:44and deepening
32:45the Tsarina's
32:46dependence on him
32:47amid rumors
32:47of their affair.
32:50Many nobles
32:50see the mad monk
32:51steering the empire
32:52and blame him,
32:54not just the war,
32:55for Russia's unraveling.
32:56Which brings us back
33:00to December 29th, 1916,
33:03when Rasputin
33:04has been invited
33:04to a gathering
33:05hosted by Russian aristocrat
33:07Prince Felix Yusupov.
33:09Convinced the monk
33:10is a parasite
33:11feeding off
33:12the royal family
33:13with his supernatural,
33:15almost demonic,
33:16powers of persuasion,
33:18Yusupov,
33:18along with several associates,
33:20has been plotting
33:21Rasputin's death.
33:22And tonight,
33:23they strike.
33:26Yusupov's account
33:26of the assassination
33:27in his 1927 memoir
33:29has become
33:30the best-known version
33:31of the events.
33:33According to the dramatic tale,
33:35the so-called
33:35mad monk
33:36miraculously dodges
33:37multiple attempts
33:38on his life.
33:41As the night unfolds,
33:43Yusupov and his
33:44co-conspirators
33:45make Rasputin
33:46feel welcome,
33:47feeding him
33:47cakes and wine,
33:49secretly laced
33:50with cyanide.
33:52Hours pass,
33:55and incredibly,
33:56the poison
33:56has no effect.
34:01So,
34:02Yusupov accelerates
34:03the plan.
34:12One shot
34:13to the chest
34:13takes Rasputin down.
34:16But not out.
34:18Unable to comprehend
34:22how Rasputin
34:23could still be alive,
34:24Yusupov claims he,
34:25quote,
34:26must have been raised
34:27from the dead
34:27by the powers of evil.
34:29They try shooting him again,
34:32but still,
34:35he doesn't die.
34:37Then,
34:38in a frenzy of panic,
34:39rage,
34:40and fear,
34:41they go the extra mile
34:42to ensure the mad monk
34:43meets his maker.
34:44In perhaps one of
34:48history's greatest
34:49examples of overkill,
34:51Yusupov writes
34:51that the conspirators
34:52wrapped the now
34:53poisoned and shot
34:54Rasputin
34:55in a curtain
34:56and then dump him
34:57in the frigid waters
34:58of the Neva River.
35:03Rasputin is
35:04finally dead.
35:05But the mystery
35:06is only beginning.
35:08That's because
35:09this account
35:09of his demise
35:10is missing something
35:11critical,
35:12another gunshot,
35:13one that may change
35:15everything history
35:16remembers about
35:17the death
35:17of Rasputin.
35:24The Salem Witch Trials
35:26remains one of the
35:27most infamous cases
35:28of collective madness,
35:30but it wasn't
35:31the last.
35:32In 1944,
35:33the town of
35:34Mattoon, Illinois
35:35is gripped by terror.
35:37Residents claim
35:38a shadowy intruder
35:39is spraying gas
35:41through windows.
35:41victims report
35:43nausea
35:43and even paralysis.
35:45There are dozens
35:46of incidents
35:47and the town
35:48unravels with panic.
35:49Wild theories emerge,
35:51including a disgruntled
35:52chemistry teacher,
35:54an escaped Nazi,
35:55or a deranged
35:56serial killer.
35:57But in the end,
35:58there is
35:59zero evidence.
36:00No footprints,
36:01no fingerprints,
36:02no gas canisters.
36:04So,
36:04what was it?
36:05Well,
36:06this was the height
36:07of World War II.
36:08Tensions were running high,
36:09triggering a psychological
36:11chain reaction
36:12of mass hysteria.
36:14The mad gasser
36:15of Mattoon
36:16wasn't real,
36:17but the madness was.
36:19And it spread like poison,
36:21carried not by air,
36:22but by fear.
36:26According to Prince
36:27Felix Yusupov,
36:28Razputin,
36:29the evil hypnotist
36:30draining Russia's soul,
36:32has been poisoned,
36:33shot twice
36:36and dumped
36:38in a river
36:39in an assassination plan
36:40to remove his influence
36:42over the powerful
36:43Romanov family.
36:47When his body
36:48is retrieved
36:49days later,
36:50Yusupov alleges
36:51that Razputin's lungs
36:52are filled with water,
36:54indicating he died
36:55of drowning,
36:56which would mean
36:57the mad monk
36:57was,
36:58astoundingly,
36:59still alive
37:00when he hit the water.
37:03When news
37:05of Razputin's
37:06assassination breaks,
37:07the Romanovs
37:08are shocked
37:09and devastated.
37:11Tsarina Alexandra
37:12is convinced
37:13his death
37:13has doomed
37:14Russia's future.
37:18As for the assassins,
37:20there's enough
37:20widespread ill will
37:22toward Razputin
37:23that Felix Yusupov
37:24and company
37:25face no prison time,
37:27only exile.
37:28But in the years
37:29since 1916,
37:31rumors have swirled
37:32that the aristocrats
37:33were not acting alone.
37:35Was there someone else
37:36pulling the strings
37:37on the murder
37:38of the mad monk?
37:40Can Prince Yusupov's
37:41account of the assassination
37:42even be trusted?
37:44The official autopsy
37:45revealed no trace
37:46of poison
37:47in Razputin's system.
37:49So were those
37:50cyanide-laced cakes
37:51just a detail
37:52added by the prince
37:53for dramatic effect?
37:55Historian Andrew Cook
37:56has examined the evidence
37:57and discovered
37:58something extraordinary.
38:00I think as often
38:03is the case
38:04in historical mysteries,
38:06the answer is actually
38:07staring us in the face.
38:08We're just not
38:09seeing it.
38:10Things are pretty bad now.
38:11It's 1916.
38:13There's no way
38:13that Russia's
38:14going to win this war.
38:16If Russia
38:17had pulled out
38:18of the war
38:20and then
38:21the German army
38:22united
38:23and concentrated
38:24100%
38:25of its effort
38:26on Britain and France,
38:27Britain and France
38:28would have been
38:29utterly defeated
38:30within as little
38:31as two weeks.
38:33Rasputin was
38:34apparently lobbying
38:35the Tsarina
38:36to arrive
38:38at a negotiated
38:39peace
38:39with the Germans.
38:43So British intelligence
38:44or MI6
38:45as we call them today
38:46had a very crystal clear
38:48motivation
38:49for wanting
38:50to dispose
38:51of Rasputin
38:52because if Rasputin lives,
38:54Britain, France
38:55loses World War I.
38:58And there's more
38:59to this compelling theory.
39:00Prince Yusupov,
39:01who led
39:02the Russian assassins,
39:03was an old friend
39:04of this man,
39:05Oswald Rayner,
39:06from the British
39:07Secret Intelligence Service,
39:08who was stationed
39:09in Russia.
39:10Oswald Rayner
39:12and Prince Yusupov,
39:14they had been
39:14students together
39:16at Oxford University,
39:18got to know
39:19each other very well.
39:20So we know
39:21that both Yusupov
39:23and British intelligence
39:25wanted Rasputin dead.
39:28They were convinced
39:28that it had to be done
39:30and they went ahead
39:31and did it.
39:32Forensic evidence
39:33also suggests
39:34Rayner didn't just help
39:35plot Rasputin's assassination.
39:37He may have actually
39:39been present
39:39to deliver
39:40the killing blow.
39:42Yusupov's memoir
39:43supposedly offers
39:44a play-by-play account
39:46of Rasputin's death.
39:47But while it says
39:48he was shot
39:49once in the chest
39:50and once in the abdomen,
39:51he neglects to mention
39:53the most crucial detail,
39:55what the autopsy records
39:56as the kill shot,
39:58a single bullet
39:59to the forehead.
40:01I think we can surmise
40:03from the medical evidence
40:05that the first two shots
40:07were fired
40:07by Russian noblemen.
40:11Someone who wants
40:12to make damn sure
40:12the person is dead
40:14right that minute
40:15shoot them in the head.
40:16The kill shot
40:18is clearly fired
40:19by someone else
40:20other than
40:21the Russian nobleman.
40:28Number one,
40:29because it's a different
40:30firearm
40:31from the first two bullets
40:32and secondly,
40:33because it's a professional
40:34shot in the middle
40:35of the head.
40:39Did a British spy
40:41actually go
40:42licensed to kill
40:43on Rasputin?
40:45If so,
40:46it rewrites history.
40:47Rasputin wasn't just
40:48killed by a group
40:49of Russian noblemen,
40:50he was assassinated
40:51on the orders
40:52of the British government.
40:54There's also
40:54a haunting coda
40:55to this tale.
40:56Just before Rasputin's
40:58murder,
40:59he's said to have made
40:59a frightening prophecy.
41:01If he dies,
41:02the entire Romanov dynasty
41:04will soon follow him
41:06to the grave.
41:07And sure enough,
41:08two years after
41:08his assassination,
41:10Bolshevik forces
41:11execute Tsar Nicholas II
41:13and his entire family
41:14in cold blood.
41:16A coincidence?
41:18Perhaps.
41:18But to some,
41:19it remains the final proof
41:21that Rasputin's
41:22mystical powers
41:23were no illusion
41:24after all.
41:26I'm Josh Gates
41:27and I'll see you
41:28on the next expedition.
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