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00:00Tonight, the infamous outlaw Jesse James and the hunt for his hidden loot.
00:08He robbed banks and railroads blind for 16 years.
00:12Cash, jewels, $2 million in gold bars.
00:17Legend says he did not spend it, he hid it.
00:20There are stories about him stashing loot all over the United States.
00:25Only a fraction of the millions Jesse James supposedly hid has actually been found.
00:30For many, it's as if James is taunting them from beyond the grave, saying, go ahead, try to find my treasure.
00:37Now, we'll explore the top theories around an enduring mystery.
00:42If James and his gang hid a fortune, where could it be?
00:46It could be in caves, in mountains.
00:49Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas.
00:51In one case, he just let it sink to the bottom of a river.
00:56What really happened to the lost treasure of Jesse James?
01:15April, 1882.
01:17St. Joseph, Missouri.
01:19Although the residents don't know it, the most wanted man in America is secretly living just outside their town.
01:28He's posing as a family man named Thomas Howard.
01:31He's there with his wife, his two kids, and living in a nice house just outside of town.
01:35This seemingly humble farmer is, in fact, America's most notorious outlaw by the name of Jesse James.
01:44Bad man of Missouri, the Robin Hood of the Ozarks, the last fighting rebel of the Civil War.
01:53He and his gang have been knocking off banks, stagecoaches, and trains for nearly 16 years.
02:00By 1882, there were multiple bounties on Jesse James' head.
02:06The largest was $10,000, which was offered by the governor of Missouri to anyone.
02:13A detective, a lawman, just a regular person.
02:16Whoever could bring him in would get a huge payday.
02:19Law enforcement was always on his tail, yet he always managed to stay one step ahead of the authorities.
02:28On April 3rd, 1882, Jesse James is meeting with Robert Ford, who is a new perspective member of the gang.
02:37In truth, Bob Ford has something more sinister planned.
02:43Bob Ford had heard about the $10,000 bounty and figured this was his chance.
02:56And so he takes out his own weapon.
02:59He shoots Jesse James in the back of the head.
03:03And kills him instantly.
03:04The death of Jesse James is huge news.
03:09The whole country is abuzz about his death.
03:12Jesse James' run is officially over.
03:15But what he left behind still fascinates treasure hunters today.
03:20We know that Jesse James participated in dozens of heists and must have acquired millions of dollars.
03:27But what we don't know is where it all went because we haven't found any of it.
03:31Maybe he didn't even put it all in one place.
03:34Jesse James' story begins with his youth on America's frontier.
03:41Jesse James is born in 1847 to a strongly Southern family.
03:48They're in Western Missouri, though they're not wealthy, own slaves.
03:53And just as Jesse's maturing, we see the outbreak of the Civil War, where those Southern sympathies are inflamed to a radical degree.
04:02His older brother, Frank, goes on to join a group that is known as the Bushwhackers.
04:08And the Bushwhackers, to be clear, are fighting guerrilla style.
04:12They're not affiliated officially with Confederate military.
04:15It's much more barbaric.
04:17They would not only surprise and engage soldiers, but sometimes others.
04:22Sometimes innocent bystanders would be beaten or killed.
04:26It was brutal.
04:28It was bloody.
04:28It was probably the worst violence of the entire Civil War.
04:33Frank was out there committing atrocities.
04:36And the Union soldiers and patrols were well aware of this.
04:40And they were looking for Frank.
04:41So the best place to go would be to his home.
04:47They rode on to the James farm looking for Frank James.
04:52And they didn't find Frank.
04:54Frank wasn't there.
04:55But Jesse was.
04:56Where is he?
04:57They strapped him to a plow and severely beat him.
05:03They rode on to the house.
05:04They horsewhipped his mother.
05:07And then they hung his stepdad until he was brain damaged permanently.
05:11It's this moment that really galvanizes Jesse James.
05:16Burning with a need for revenge, 16-year-old James joins one of the most feared Confederate guerrilla groups of the day.
05:23In 1864, Jesse and his older brother Frank join a group of Confederate irregulars under the command of Bloody Bill Anderson.
05:34Bloody Bill is one of the most deplorable villains to fight during the Civil War.
05:43A man who rode into battle with the body parts of his victims strewn about his saddle.
05:51But this was who 16-year-old Jesse is looking up to.
05:58Bloody Bill himself is eventually killed in a skirmish.
06:02Those of his unit who survive are declared outlaws at the end of the war.
06:07Even before the war ends, Confederate guerrillas were wanted criminals.
06:13They were considered outlaws.
06:14They weren't allowed amnesty like regular Confederate troops.
06:17If they turned themselves in, they were given a quick trial and executed.
06:21The James brothers refused to surrender and launch a different kind of insurgency against the Union.
06:28If you're an outlaw, you might just say, what have I got to lose? Let's go for it.
06:34So they just went full speed ahead and they started robbing banks.
06:39And they start going after these banks that specifically have a Union connection
06:44because they still feel that they want to fight the good fight of the Confederacy.
06:48Then in 1869, a brazen bank job puts the name Jesse James on the map.
06:54Jesse and Frank James decide to rob a bank in Gallatin, Missouri.
07:02And the reason they choose it is that Jesse believes that a clerk in the bank
07:08is one of the Union militia responsible for killing Bloody Bill Anderson.
07:12Jesse walked in, and he just killed him right there.
07:21Drew his gun and shot, no questions asked.
07:25Following the Gallatin shooting, his reputation as the roughest, toughest, swaggering outlaw in the West is born.
07:33It is around this time that James and his brother Frank joined together
07:39with one of their old Confederates, Cole Younger, and his two younger brothers
07:44to form what is one of the most famous gangs in the history of the Old West.
07:49The James Younger Gang.
07:52They start pulling bank robberies almost on a weekly basis.
07:56They stole hundreds of thousands of dollars and quickly became notorious.
08:03Jesse was certainly the face of the gang.
08:07There's no question about that.
08:09Jesse James knew the value of public relations.
08:13He would leave written accounts of their exploits behind at the banks that he robbed.
08:20Knowing that newspaper men of the time would print it verbatim,
08:24saying it was, pressable resistance to the Union.
08:29And people were just eating this stuff up.
08:31So he understood how to market himself.
08:35And an elevated version of Jesse James enters our popular culture.
08:39And this notion of him as a Robin Hood really takes hold.
08:43A man who had been an outright racist terrorist.
08:46And it's an image that we still, to this day, struggle to shed.
08:51As the Jesse James legend grows,
08:55law enforcement becomes more desperate to stop him.
08:58But James is always one step ahead.
09:02By 1873, the banks across the Midwest start to tighten up security.
09:06And they become a lot harder to rob.
09:09Jesse and Frank James realize they need a new target.
09:12And they decide a great target, a ripe target, would be trains.
09:20Robbing a train really had two benefits for them.
09:23They would make a huge amount of money because it carried a lot of cash.
09:26And it was one more way to stick it to the North.
09:29It's literally the tendrils of the North extending across the United States,
09:34bringing with us the pernicious influence of Northern industrialists.
09:37On January 31st, 1874, the James Younger gang robs one of the largest railroads in the Midwest.
09:52The gang targets the Little Rock Express that is going to be stopping in the small town of Gads Hill, Missouri.
09:59Because the town is so small, James and his accomplices are able to effectively take the entire town hostage.
10:07They round everybody up, and then they move over to this train station.
10:14They are able to redirect the train onto a sidetrack.
10:20They jump out from underneath the platform, take the conductor.
10:23So aside from robbing the passengers, the real target was gold, bullion, and cash that was on that train.
10:33Reports on the gang's total haul range as high as $22,000, over half a million in today's currency.
10:41Like all of Jesse James' stolen loot, it's never recovered.
10:45The Gads Hill heist was really the most high-profile robbery that they had undertaken to date, and the most lucrative.
10:54After they get off the train, there's a big sheriff's posse on the way.
10:59The James gang has to get out of there.
11:01They've got a lot of gold, and it's heavy.
11:04They can't just take off.
11:05It was strategically advantageous to hide some of it.
11:10A local legend begins really early on that the majority of the money taken from the Gads Hill robbery is still in Gads Hill somewhere.
11:25About 74 years later, in 1948, a timber worker named Harry Wilcox is digging around, and he discovers the entry to a cave.
11:36He claims that after some exploration, he comes to a large chamber, and in the chamber are what we might describe as certain artifacts, and it is the story of those artifacts that causes a sensation in Gads Hill.
11:53Word spreads through town that Harry Wilcox found some of Jesse James' lost treasure.
11:58All Wilcox will tell the press is that he's met with U.S. Treasury agents investigating the matter.
12:06The rumors are just flying everywhere, and one of those rumors is that Harry found $100,000 worth of treasure.
12:15Wilcox is being fairly tight-lipped about what it is that he's found, which only stokes the flames of speculation about whether or not he has found Jesse James' treasure.
12:26He seems to be enjoying the attention, telling the story, but then all of a sudden he downplays it and says he only found a little bit of money and an old gun.
12:37And the question is, why would he meet with Treasury agents unless he found something significant and important?
12:43So Harry Wilcox's descent into the cave is really one of the first moments in which Jesse James' lost loot becomes a part of the American imagination, and all of these different theories and all of these searches begin.
13:02So where else might we start looking?
13:05Well, maybe we just follow the James gang a little bit farther down the trail.
13:09January 31st, 1874, Gads Hill, Missouri.
13:18The James Younger gang, led by Jesse James, robs a train carrying a haul worth more than half a million dollars today.
13:25But where they're hiding their stolen loot remains a mystery.
13:30Some people believe that the gang made it out of Gads Hill.
13:35They did not stop to stash it in a cave.
13:38But the Gads Hill train robbery is incredibly lucrative.
13:42And in addition to it being a lot of value, it's a lot to carry.
13:47It was literally burdening them and their horses, slowing them down.
13:51There's a huge posse of at least 50 men coming after them, maybe from other directions.
13:57That's a lot of weight to carry when you've got a posse chasing you.
14:00Jesse James has local law enforcement looking out for him.
14:04He's got U.S. deputy marshals.
14:06And he also now has to deal with private law enforcement in the form of the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
14:12When the Pinkerton Agency got involved, it was worse than a reward being offered on their heads.
14:18The Pinkertons didn't stop.
14:20They always got their man.
14:21And they didn't play nice.
14:23With all of these forces chasing him, it would have benefited Jesse James and the James Younger gang a great deal
14:29to stash a lot of this loot to continue to stay one step ahead of the authorities.
14:34Some are convinced that Jesse James waited until they were further along in their getaway to stow their loot.
14:40There are a lot of people that don't buy the Gads Hill treasure being hidden in the cave.
14:46A lot of people think that they went farther.
14:50In fact, crossed the border into Arkansas and dropped the treasure in the Black River.
14:55Over time, rumors begin that the treasure is there.
15:05And how do we know it's there?
15:07Well, because not one but two psychics said so.
15:10In the 1920s, a local treasure hunter named L.C. Sells consults two separate fortune tellers
15:17who both tell him to look for Jesse James' treasure in the same spot on the Black River.
15:23Based on the word of two fortune tellers, L.C. Sells puts all of his money into finding.
15:32So he goes to the river bank and he starts to dig.
15:37He and as many as a dozen other men who he enlists to help him in this enterprise
15:43discover a three-foot strong box that they are able to collectively lift out of the hole.
15:51But then they drop it and it falls into the river and disappears from sight.
15:58He continues to invest his money and his time in finding this thing.
16:03He even goes back to the psychics and the psychic says,
16:06well, I know you haven't found it yet, but that's good because two members of your excavation team
16:11had planned on killing you and stealing it the whole time.
16:14That information is enough to spook Sells and he immediately abandons his search for the strong box.
16:21In 1953, L.C. Sells' son, Floyd, picks up where his father left off.
16:28Floyd Sells has more tools to his disposal than his father did and he employs them.
16:34Earth movers, conveyors, water pumps. He hires armed guards.
16:39Using heavy equipment is able to dig effectively a mine shaft in the middle of the river
16:44all the way down to the bottom and beyond.
16:48And at one point, they're down about 22 feet with a shaft and they're using a probe
16:54and they hit something and they think, oh my gosh, we found what dad dropped down here.
17:00But just as they find the treasure, the shaft collapses and the treasure is lost once again.
17:07After the shaft collapsed, he kept spending more money and eventually he was about to go broke
17:14and he had to abandon the project.
17:17Neither the cave in Missouri nor the river in Arkansas have yielded loot from Gad's Hill.
17:24But it was only one of dozens of robberies committed by Jesse James during his crime spree.
17:31Gad's Hill turns out to be just a small part of the vast fortune
17:35that Jesse James was able to accumulate.
17:38This was just the beginning.
17:401874 turned out to be a pretty good year for the James Younger gang.
17:45Started it in Gad's Hill and then they ended it in Muncie, Kansas,
17:50where they robbed a Kansas Pacific Railroad train.
17:54And this time their haul is much bigger, about $30,000,
17:57which in today's currency is around $800,000.
18:00But that heist is but a mere drop in the bucket for what comes next for Jesse James and his crew.
18:09By the start of 1875, the James Younger gang are coming off a banner year,
18:18robbing trains and stagecoaches throughout the Midwest.
18:22It's what they have in mind next, however,
18:26that fuels more speculation about Jesse James' treasure.
18:30This would not only be the biggest haul of James' career,
18:33it would be the biggest haul in the history of American West outlawry.
18:39So legend has it that the next big score happens
18:41after the James Younger gang learns that the Mexican government
18:44has sent a mule train carrying gold bars
18:47up through the state of Chihuahua, just across the border.
18:51If it was the amount that the rumors had said,
18:54which is $2 million in gold,
18:57that would have weighed more than 6,000 pounds,
19:00which is more than three tons.
19:02Using some of their bushwhacker skills,
19:05the gang is able to steal as many as 18 mules laden with gold,
19:10take them across the border,
19:11through the plains of Texas and into Oklahoma.
19:16According to local Oklahoma historians,
19:20the James Younger gang runs into trouble
19:22while making their way through Oklahoma's Wichita Mountains.
19:28A big blizzard hits them in the middle of Indian territory.
19:31The group is forced to try to make their way through
19:34at least a foot of snow
19:36and eventually realizes that they're not going to be able to carry
19:39all of this gold through the blizzard.
19:41The idea quickly comes up,
19:42how do we hide and stash this loot and save our lives?
19:47James identifies a potential hiding space up a ravine,
19:51and that's where they take the money.
19:57They hide it in a cave.
19:59He then writes up something of a contract in an unusual way.
20:04Jesse reportedly took a bucket and engraved in it
20:08the date and then the names of all of the men
20:11who were with them in that gang
20:13and left it as a marker.
20:16We might ask the question,
20:17why not return for the treasure?
20:20Well, the answer is that the James Younger gang
20:23very soon makes the fateful decision
20:26to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota.
20:31Jesse James finds out there's $75,000
20:34in the Northfield bank
20:36that belongs to Adelbert Ames and Benjamin Butler,
20:40two of the most high-profile Union generals
20:44from the Civil War,
20:45and it becomes an irresistible target for him.
20:49For James and his gang,
20:50this is the continuation of the Southern fight
20:52against the Union Army.
20:54On September 7, 1876,
20:57eight members of the James Younger gang
21:00ride into Northfield, Minnesota.
21:03Maybe they thought that this would be an easier score,
21:07but as it turned out,
21:08it was anything but that.
21:10Northfield, Minnesota, at this time,
21:12is a growing and thriving milling town
21:14of about 2,000 people.
21:16This is an admittedly unusual target.
21:19Frank and Cole were concerned
21:22about how remote this was,
21:24that it was not a terrain
21:25that they were familiar with,
21:26that they didn't have allies there.
21:28So the James gang rides into town.
21:30They pretend to be cattle buyers if asked.
21:34Frank enters the bank,
21:35followed by two others.
21:37The rest of the gang stayed outside,
21:39keeping guard.
21:40If anything happened,
21:41they were supposed to shoot and warn the others.
21:43It's only minutes after Frank enters the bank
21:46that one member of the town,
21:48purportedly a hardware store owner,
21:50yells,
21:50they're robbing the bank.
21:51And he begins doling out rifles.
21:54The townspeople, now armed,
21:56run to the bank,
21:57weapons in hand,
21:58and a full-on shootout takes place.
22:01Frank tries to grab whatever money he can.
22:03That turns out to be about $26 in nickels.
22:06All the while,
22:08out on the street,
22:10the rest of the gang is being shot to pieces.
22:13The guys are shot up.
22:15Jim Younger had a bullet through his jaw.
22:17Cole Younger had 11 bullets in him.
22:20After it was all said and done,
22:21Frank ended up getting shot in the knee.
22:24Two of the gang are killed.
22:26The Youngers are apprehended.
22:27And it is only Jesse and Frank
22:29who are able to escape.
22:31This is basically the end
22:34of the Jesse James heyday
22:35after this botched fiasco of a heist.
22:38We now have a reason why nobody would go back,
22:43at least not immediately,
22:45to retrieve that money.
22:47The gang is no more.
22:48The heat is on in a way it never has been before.
22:51And Jesse James does, in fact,
22:54lay low and lives for three years,
22:56the persona of Thomas Howard.
22:59In 1881, Missouri Governor Crittenden
23:02places a $10,000 reward on Jesse James.
23:06When you put a reward on someone's head,
23:09everybody and their dog wants a piece of that.
23:12That's when he meets Bob and Charlie Ford.
23:15They got close to Jesse
23:17and shot him in the back of the head.
23:22April 3rd, 1882.
23:24The stunning news of Jesse James' death
23:28renews interest in his hidden fortune.
23:31But anyone who knows where it is
23:33isn't talking.
23:35Six months after his brother is killed,
23:37Frank turns himself in.
23:39But despite enduring a couple of trials,
23:42he is acquitted
23:42because there's not enough evidence
23:44to convict him.
23:46Frank and his wife
23:47inexplicably pick up
23:50and move to Oklahoma,
23:51more than 400 miles away
23:53from the farm
23:55where they grew up.
23:57They moved to this area called Cement
23:59near the Wichita Mountains.
24:02Very close to where
24:03he is alleged to have helped
24:05bury millions of dollars
24:08in Mexican gold.
24:09Some people claim that he's looking for
24:11that $2 million in gold.
24:13And if anybody would know where it is,
24:16he would.
24:18Curiously, Frank isn't the only
24:19former member of the gang
24:21with his sights set on Oklahoma.
24:23When he is released from prison,
24:24Cole Younger also visits the area.
24:27He comes to Lawton, Oklahoma,
24:29which is also nearby.
24:31But of course,
24:33the rumor is
24:34that he is there
24:36because he also
24:36wants to find the gold.
24:38Rumors persist for years
24:41after Jesse James' death
24:43that his millions
24:44in ill-gotten gains
24:45were hidden away
24:46for safekeeping.
24:47But only the few survivors
24:49of the James Younger gang
24:51would know for sure.
24:52First among them,
24:54his brother,
24:55Frank James.
24:59In his retirement from banditry,
25:01Frank James has a number
25:02of occupations.
25:03A curious one
25:04is that he is a farmer
25:06for a period of time.
25:07In 1906,
25:10Frank James
25:10buys this property
25:11in Oklahoma
25:12near the Wichita Mountains
25:14where that $2 million
25:15possibly is buried.
25:17A few years earlier,
25:20Cole Younger
25:20gets out of prison
25:21and decides
25:23he's going to move out
25:24into that area too.
25:26It is, of course,
25:27tempting to speculate
25:28that he was there
25:29for the same reason
25:30that Frank might have been,
25:31to try to recover
25:32the treasure.
25:34Frank James,
25:35now in his 60s,
25:36plants a small grove
25:38of peach trees.
25:40But locals say
25:41he doesn't seem
25:42all that interested
25:42in farming.
25:44Neighbors often say
25:45that he rides up
25:47to high ground
25:48in Oklahoma
25:48near the Wichita Mountains
25:50and he just,
25:51is just looking
25:53around,
25:55surveying the area,
25:56like he's looking
25:57for something specific.
25:58Now, if Frank
25:59ever found anything,
26:00he was smart enough
26:01not to say a word.
26:03If he found gold,
26:04he kept it to himself.
26:05So rumor has it
26:07that at some point
26:08Frank James did find
26:09a kind of copper kettle
26:10with about $6,000
26:11worth of gold coins inside.
26:13Of course,
26:13that's nowhere near
26:14the millions of dollars
26:15of gold
26:15that were reported
26:16buried there.
26:18The search
26:18for Jesse James'
26:19Oklahoma treasure
26:20goes on for decades.
26:22Finally,
26:23in the mid-20th century,
26:25there's a new lead.
26:27In 1948,
26:28there's a local
26:29Oklahoma police officer
26:31named Joe Hunter,
26:32who comes across
26:33a huge discovery,
26:35a bombshell discovery,
26:36and lets the press know,
26:37I found the bucket.
26:41The bucket is dated
26:42to March 5th, 1876,
26:44and it includes the names
26:47of the members
26:47of the James gang,
26:49including Jesse,
26:50Frank, and Cole,
26:52and states that
26:53the men below
26:54are entitled
26:55to the treasure.
26:56When Joe Hunter
26:57finds this bucket,
26:59this seems to be
27:00not only proof
27:02that the treasure
27:02actually exists,
27:04but it's buried
27:05somewhere in this area.
27:06Unfortunately,
27:07he never finds
27:09any of it,
27:10and he searches
27:10until he dies
27:11in the 1950s.
27:14While some suspect
27:15the Oklahoma treasure
27:16was long since dug up,
27:19others believe
27:20there's more to find
27:21a thousand miles away.
27:23In 1949,
27:25one year after
27:26Joe Hunter
27:27finds the bucket
27:28in the Wichita Mountains,
27:30a mysterious group
27:32of people
27:32show up in Zanesville, Ohio,
27:34a place where
27:35Jesse James
27:36was never known to be,
27:39but they claim
27:40that they are descendants
27:41of the notorious outlaw.
27:44This is actually
27:45the first time
27:45we hear rumors
27:46that Jesse James
27:47perhaps was not killed
27:48by Bob Ford.
27:49The story
27:50that this group tells
27:51is that James
27:52had faked his death
27:53in 1882
27:54and relocated
27:56to Ohio
27:57and in the process
27:58burying as much
28:00as $1 million
28:02in gold
28:03that he had
28:04originally stolen
28:05back in Mexico.
28:11The strangest part
28:13of the Zanesville story
28:14is that one
28:16of the newcomers
28:17claims to have been
28:18part of the
28:19Jesse James gang.
28:21An elderly
28:22African-American man
28:23named Uncle John Trammell
28:25says that he rode
28:27with the notorious outlaws
28:28and was their cook
28:30during their exploits
28:31in the West.
28:32He talks to newspapers
28:34and really anyone
28:35who will listen,
28:36telling them
28:37he participated
28:38in all of these robberies
28:40and that they had
28:41come back to Ohio
28:43and buried a lot
28:44of their treasure there.
28:45One of the claims
28:46from this group
28:47is that Jesse James
28:49left clues
28:51as to where he had
28:52buried his treasure
28:52by carving his initials
28:54JJ
28:54into the trunks of trees
28:56and that there were
28:57other symbols
28:58that could,
28:59once coordinated,
29:01lead you
29:02to a particular place
29:03on a map.
29:04They found two J's
29:06that were carved
29:06on trees
29:07at a couple
29:08of different locations
29:09and they followed
29:10the clues
29:11that they thought
29:12would lead them
29:13to the treasure
29:13and in fact
29:14it did lead them
29:15to a metal box.
29:17But when they open it
29:18to their dismayed,
29:20it is empty.
29:23Nearly 70 years later
29:25in 2018,
29:27Zanesville, Ohio
29:28is back in the spotlight.
29:31A man named
29:32Chad Summers
29:33had been at a yard sale
29:35in Zanesville, Ohio
29:36and he found
29:38a never-seen-before photograph
29:40that he claimed
29:41had Frank and Jesse James
29:44and some other people
29:45pictured in it.
29:46Why would there be
29:47a photograph
29:48of Jesse James
29:49in Ohio
29:50if Jesse James
29:51never came
29:53to Ohio?
29:54That is the thread
29:55that Summers
29:56begins to pull.
29:58This convinces him
29:59that the James brothers
30:00had actually been there
30:01and that they had
30:03buried their loot.
30:04And so this starts him
30:06on this quest.
30:08As he starts looking,
30:09he too finds
30:10those strange marks
30:11on those tree trunks
30:12that the Zanesville gang
30:13found in the 1940s.
30:15As Summers continues
30:17his search in Ohio,
30:18another theory emerges
30:20that could tie
30:21all the alleged
30:21Jesse James hiding spots
30:23together.
30:25How might we connect
30:26treasure hidden
30:29in Missouri
30:30and Oklahoma
30:32and Ohio
30:34together?
30:35Possibly there's
30:36some larger plot
30:37at work here.
30:40Tales of Jesse James'
30:42buried treasure
30:43abound across
30:44the United States.
30:46Some say
30:46all that money
30:47was hidden away
30:48as part of a much
30:49larger conspiracy.
30:51Recently,
30:52another theory emerged
30:53that Jesse James'
30:54treasure wasn't actually
30:55buried in one place
30:56but was very deliberately
30:57stashed in Missouri
30:58Oklahoma,
30:59Ohio, Arkansas
31:00and many, many
31:01other places.
31:02And it's possible
31:03that hiding
31:05all of this gold
31:05might have been
31:07for a much larger,
31:08much more nefarious
31:09purpose.
31:10In 2003,
31:12investigative journalist
31:13Warren Gettler's book
31:14Rebel Gold
31:15claims that Jesse James
31:17was an active member
31:19of a sinister
31:20secret society.
31:22The Knights of the Golden Circle
31:23was an organization
31:24of Southerners
31:26founded in 1854
31:27that advocated
31:29for the annexation
31:30of a golden circle
31:32of slave-owning states
31:33that would begin
31:34in the American South
31:35and stretch around
31:36the Gulf of Mexico
31:37into Central America.
31:40They were working
31:41toward a pro-slavery society
31:44and the creation of
31:46really an empire
31:47of slavery.
31:48The Knights of the Golden Circle
31:49were rumored
31:50to be working
31:50as a spy network
31:51that was operating
31:52throughout the Confederate South
31:53during the entirety
31:54of the Civil War.
31:55They were thought
31:57to be involved
31:57in a lot of different actions,
32:00including the assassination
32:02of Abraham Lincoln.
32:04We know that
32:04this organization exists.
32:06We know that
32:07there was a plan,
32:09but it's what happens
32:10after the Civil War
32:11where things become dramatic.
32:14As this theory goes,
32:16after the Civil War,
32:17the Knights of the Golden Circle
32:18go underground.
32:20They become
32:21a secret society.
32:24Gettler's theory
32:24is that the spoils
32:25of Jesse James' robberies,
32:27at least in part,
32:28were earmarked
32:29for that cause.
32:31According to this theory,
32:33Jesse James
32:34was a high-level operative
32:35within the Knights
32:36of the Golden Circle,
32:38that his job
32:38was not only
32:39to acquire
32:40this huge amount
32:41of wealth,
32:42but then also
32:43to stash it,
32:44hide it,
32:44and store it
32:45deliberately
32:46in various places.
32:48This was an attempt
32:49to fund
32:50what would,
32:52hopefully,
32:53for the Knights,
32:54be the treasury
32:55that would create
32:55this slave nation
32:57that they wanted
32:57to desperately build.
32:59Could it be
33:00that James
33:00was not just
33:01fighting a Civil War
33:03rhetorically,
33:04that his criminal activities
33:05were designed
33:06to raise
33:06a stash of money
33:08that could be hidden
33:09around the country
33:10to help finance
33:11a second Civil War?
33:13They still imagined
33:20a future
33:20where the South
33:21would rise again,
33:21so as a die-hard
33:23Confederate,
33:23Jesse James
33:24would have gladly
33:25offered to support
33:26an organization
33:26that was working
33:27to restore the power
33:29of the slave-holding South.
33:31He would have
33:32taken orders
33:33from Confederate officials
33:35like Jefferson Davis,
33:36who, in fact,
33:37left Richmond
33:38with a load
33:39of Confederate gold
33:40that also disappeared,
33:41and Nathan Bedford Forrest,
33:44who was a fellow
33:45Confederate guerrilla,
33:47turned founder
33:48of the KKK.
33:50When they got
33:51their loot,
33:52they would put it
33:52in this location
33:53as directed
33:55by whoever
33:56was in charge,
33:57then put it here,
33:58put it there,
33:59put it there.
34:00Warren Gettler
34:00goes to the archives,
34:02he researches
34:03the Knights
34:03of the Golden Circle,
34:05and he determines
34:06that they did
34:07a lot of communicating
34:08in code,
34:10that they used
34:10a lot of symbolic,
34:11ideology.
34:12They weren't just
34:13stupid farm boys
34:15running around
34:15the South.
34:16Some of these guys
34:17were very skilled,
34:18and they were spies.
34:19They were very good
34:20at keeping a secret.
34:21And the symbols
34:22that Jesse James used,
34:24J.J.,
34:25are included
34:26in a group
34:27of known symbols
34:28used by the Knights
34:30of the Golden Circle.
34:31Sometimes they would
34:31use the J.J.,
34:32sometimes they would
34:33write the J.J. backwards.
34:35This explains
34:36some of what we see
34:37around Jesse James'
34:38treasure,
34:39where there are
34:40particular markings
34:41around where treasure
34:42may or may not have been.
34:43It's possible
34:44that Jesse James'
34:45own men
34:46never really knew
34:47the extent
34:48of what was going on.
34:50Since 2013,
34:52Utah treasure hunter
34:54Holly Remkes
34:55finds what she believes
34:56are new clues
34:57for where James hid gold
34:59for the Knights
35:00of the Golden Circle.
35:01Ten years after
35:02Gettler's book comes out,
35:04a woman named
35:04Holly Remkes
35:05emerges in Utah.
35:07And she has done
35:09a lot of research
35:10herself into
35:12Gettler's theory
35:13that Jesse James
35:15was engaged
35:16in this kind
35:16of secret messaging
35:17with the Knights
35:18of the Golden Circle.
35:19Holly Remkes
35:20determined that
35:22the symbols used
35:23by the Knights
35:24of the Golden Circle
35:25and Jesse James,
35:26not just the J.J.,
35:27but the orientation
35:28of the J.J.,
35:30could be triangulated
35:31and coordinated
35:32to specific sites.
35:34If the J is
35:35pointing a certain direction,
35:37it means one thing.
35:38If it's pointing
35:39another direction,
35:40it means go another thing.
35:41It could vary
35:42from distance
35:43to direction.
35:44Compass points,
35:45compass bearings,
35:46it's very hard to crack.
35:48She also finds a map
35:50dated to 1895
35:52that has a number
35:54of misspellings
35:55and small errors
35:57that she thinks
35:58are not misspellings
36:00and small errors,
36:00but in fact,
36:02secret clues
36:03coordinated with
36:04the Knights
36:04of the Golden Circle
36:05and Jesse James
36:06in an effort
36:07to hide
36:09and then find
36:10the hidden loot.
36:12She has compiled
36:13a list of
36:14more than 20
36:15possible locations
36:16for that hidden gold
36:19and is still looking
36:21for Jesse's lost loot.
36:25As the James Younger gang
36:27pulls off,
36:28a dazzling series
36:29of robberies
36:30across the Midwest,
36:32they inspire fear
36:33and hatred
36:34in many of their victims.
36:37But some see
36:38a more generous side
36:39to these outlaws.
36:41Jesse James
36:42is seen as a folk hero
36:45to a lot of people,
36:46a modern-day Robin Hood,
36:48robbing from the rich,
36:49a.k.a. the union,
36:51and giving it to the poor.
36:52A lot of people say
36:54that Jesse James
36:55just gave his treasures away.
37:02It's theorized
37:03that maybe he gave away
37:04a lot of his loot.
37:06That's why it's been
37:06so difficult to find.
37:07It's not that it's buried
37:08anywhere specifically.
37:10It's that he's given it
37:11to so many people
37:13that were in need.
37:14There are certainly
37:15many stories,
37:16immortalized countless times
37:18in fiction and film,
37:19of Jesse doing this.
37:21A story of him
37:22and his gang
37:24coming upon a poor widow
37:25who can't afford the mortgage,
37:28and them giving her
37:29not only one payment,
37:31but enough to pay off
37:32the entire mortgage.
37:33There are stories
37:34of them being hidden
37:36by kindly widows
37:37who would feed them
37:39a wonderful meal,
37:41and once the strangers
37:43had left,
37:44they found $20 gold coins
37:46under the plates.
37:48While the stories
37:49of Jesse James
37:49quickly became folklore,
37:52there was intention
37:53behind them.
37:54A significant portion
37:56of Jesse James' story
37:58that we need to keep in mind
37:59is that he was able
38:01to write the story himself.
38:02He wanted to craft
38:04that image,
38:05and he made an effort
38:06to do that
38:06with the letters
38:07that were published.
38:08Obviously, he wanted
38:09to paint himself
38:10in a positive way.
38:12Despite all of the robberies
38:14that he commits,
38:15Jesse James actually
38:16sees himself as
38:17sort of a modern-day Robin Hood.
38:20He writes one letter
38:21in particular
38:22to a newspaper
38:23criticizing Ulysses S. Grant.
38:24He writes, quote,
38:26Grant's party
38:27has no respect for anyone.
38:28They rob the poor
38:30and rich,
38:31and we rob the rich
38:32to give to the poor.
38:34The problem is
38:35a lot of these stories
38:37are unfounded,
38:38and they're appearing
38:39in newspapers
38:40only because
38:41those newspapers
38:43were owned
38:43by Confederate sympathizers
38:45who were looking
38:46for a Southern hero,
38:48and they turned
38:49Jesse James
38:50into that man.
38:52And he found
38:53his most ardent champion
38:54and former Confederate soldier
38:55turned newspaper man
38:56named James Newman Edwards.
38:59Edwards had served
39:00in the Confederate Army
39:03during the Civil War.
39:04He became a newspaper editor
39:05after the war ended,
39:07and he published letters
39:09that he said
39:10Jesse James had written
39:11to him about his heists,
39:13really praising his audacity
39:16as something to be admired
39:18across the American South.
39:20A crazy example of this
39:22is when John Newman Edwards
39:23writes an article
39:24called
39:25The Chivalry of Crime
39:26where he compares
39:27Frank and Jesse James
39:28to the knights
39:28of the round table.
39:30More than anyone else,
39:31Edwards is really responsible
39:32for creating this romantic,
39:33glamorous version
39:34of Jesse James.
39:36But the brutal irony
39:39of this situation,
39:39which is so often the case
39:41when such savior figures emerge,
39:43is that reality
39:45does not match up
39:46to the rhetoric.
39:48There is no evidence
39:50whatsoever
39:51that Jesse James
39:52gave away profits
39:54from his robberies
39:56to the poor
39:57or to the needy.
39:59Jesse James was not
40:00a Robin Hood
40:01of the Ozarks.
40:03He robbed from everybody
40:04for nobody but himself
40:06and killed many of the people
40:09who got in his way.
40:10150 years
40:12after Jesse James' heyday,
40:14he leaves behind
40:15a complicated legacy
40:17and a trail of secrets.
40:20It's possible
40:21that this was a case
40:23of people
40:23looking for something
40:24that really isn't there.
40:26But everyone also likes
40:28a great treasure hunt.
40:30And if the loot
40:31of Jesse James
40:32is still out there,
40:34this story
40:34is far from finished.
40:36Jesse James
40:37is a very complicated character
40:39and the more
40:40you learn about him,
40:41the more mysterious
40:43and weird he becomes.
40:45Like everything in life,
40:47there's two sides
40:48of the story
40:49and the truth
40:50is more complicated
40:51than sometimes
40:52we want to believe.
40:56Jesse James
40:57may have been
40:58a ruthless outlaw,
40:59but he was also
41:00a brilliant image maker,
41:02a master of hype.
41:04It's possible
41:04all of these tales
41:06of hidden fortune
41:07were nothing more
41:08than clever fabrications
41:09on his part
41:10meant to tantalize
41:12the public.
41:13But until the world
41:14knows for sure,
41:15the search
41:16for Jesse James'
41:17lost loot
41:17goes on.
41:19I'm Lawrence Fishburne.
41:21Thank you for watching
41:22History's Greatest Mysteries.
41:24Please,
41:25I'm Lawrence.
41:25Come on,
41:27you好
41:29to hear
41:30say,
41:30discuss
41:32what
41:32say,
41:33and
41:34love
41:35let us
41:37see if we're
41:37here today.
41:38Well,
41:39we take that
41:40and we 15
41:41voor
41:42we 15
41:42were
41:42here
41:43for
41:44the
41:44world
41:45and
41:45to
41:45and
41:47here
41:48we look at
41:49where
41:50we lift
41:51those
41:51pro
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