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00:00The Confederate treasury, worth an estimated $142 million today,
00:06seemingly vanished following the American Civil War in 1865.
00:11One of the most enduring theories was that it was stolen,
00:14or quietly diverted, by the men assigned to protect it.
00:20Ivan the Terrible, curator of one of history's most prized libraries,
00:25may have taken a secret location to his grave.
00:30Ivan may have stored the library in the many corridors and chambers
00:33he liked to imprison and torture his enemies in,
00:35right under Moscow's Kremlin.
00:38The unsolved heist of the Irish crown jewels from Dublin Castle in 1907
00:44points to a shadowy cast of characters.
00:48This sparked rumors of a cover-up,
00:50suggesting that certain powerful interests had something to hide.
00:56The chain of history has many missing links.
01:00Prominent people, priceless treasures,
01:03extraordinary artifacts,
01:06their locations still unknown,
01:09lost to the fog of time.
01:13What happens when stories of the past become
01:17vanished history?
01:20In April 1865,
01:34as the Civil War reached its brutal conclusion,
01:37the Confederate States of America
01:39crumbled under the weight of Union victories.
01:41The Confederate capital city of Richmond burned as its leaders fled in the night on two trains.
01:48One carried Jefferson Davis and his desperate government.
01:52The other, the Confederate treasury, a fortune in gold and silver.
01:58The Confederate treasury represented more than money.
02:03It was a symbol of Southern independence and their only hope of sustaining a regime on the brink of defeat.
02:10It included over $700,000 in gold, silver, and donations from Southern families,
02:16such as heirlooms, jewelry, even sweepings from mint floors.
02:22When Richmond fell, the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, and his cabinet fled south,
02:28taking the Confederate treasury with them, a fortune worth about $142 million today.
02:34But just weeks later, when Davis was captured, the treasure was gone.
02:39And that leaves one big question.
02:41Where did it go?
02:49The Civil War began in 1861, when 11 Southern states broke away from the Union,
02:55aiming to protect slavery and their idea of states' rights.
02:59Virginia became the heart of the conflict.
03:02Early victories gave the Confederates hope.
03:05But General Robert E. Lee's defeats at Gettysburg and Petersburg shattered that optimism.
03:12Four years after the war began, the South was in ruins.
03:16Its cities burning, its armies depleted, and its people were starving.
03:23On April 2nd, 1865, Jefferson Davis received word that Lee's lines at Petersburg had collapsed.
03:29An evacuation of Richmond was ordered immediately, but not before the Confederate treasury was removed from its vaults.
03:36That night, at midnight, two trains left Richmond, fleeing ahead of the Union Army.
03:43One carrying government documents and officials.
03:46The other, under the command of Navy Captain William H. Parker, held the treasury.
03:52Guarded by naval cadets, some as young as 12 years old, the train moved towards Danville, Virginia, over 140 miles south.
04:01There, the railroad ended, and the weight of over 9,000 pounds of silver became an insurmountable challenge.
04:08From Danville, the men and their cargo continued their journey south by horseback toward the U.S. men in Charlotte, North Carolina,
04:17where Captain Parker initially planned to secure the treasure.
04:21The Union cavalry in the area forced a change of course.
04:28As Confederate forces dwindled, so did their resources, and the burden of protecting the treasury soon shifted to Secretary of War John C. Breckenridge.
04:40It's said that Breckenridge trusted what was left of the treasure to a brigadier general named Basil Duke.
04:48It was divided into six wagons, guarded by fewer than 1,000 men, and started a dangerous retreat through Georgia,
04:55heading deeper into the south, away from the front lines.
05:01On May 10, 1865, Jefferson Davis was captured near Irwinville, Georgia, carrying only a handful of coins.
05:08Union troops seized $100,000 in gold stored in a Washington bank, but the bulk of the treasury was gone.
05:20Theories about the Confederate treasure's fate began in Danville, where advancing Union forces drove desperate decisions.
05:29It's possible that some of the Confederate treasure was buried in Danville during those chaotic final days of the war.
05:33With the sheer weight of the silver and the logistical challenges of moving it,
05:37Confederate officials might have had no choice but to hide it in remote locations, planning to come back for it once the war was over.
05:45The Confederate government briefly used Danville as essentially its makeshift capital, but was soon forced to keep fleeing south.
05:52It would have been a frantic scene, with soldiers working late into the night, said to have been moving crates and barrels that sparked some theories about part of the treasury maybe being hidden nearby.
06:04Some speculated that the Knights of the Golden Circle, a shadowy organization tied to the Confederacy, played a role in hiding the treasure.
06:16The Knights were known for their coded symbols and elaborate rituals and were said to mark significant hiding places.
06:22They entrusted these locations only to loyal members.
06:26This secrecy has fueled speculation about buried caches throughout the south.
06:31Some people like to say that the gold might be buried in Danville's cemeteries.
06:38But there's been no proof of a link between those sites and the Knights of the Golden Circle.
06:43And there are laws protecting burial grounds too.
06:46Even advanced tools like ground penetrating radar haven't found any proof of hidden Confederate gold in the city.
06:53But for some, that just makes the mystery even more intriguing.
07:01Some believe the fate of the treasury wasn't left entirely to circumstance.
07:06Along its journey, key decisions and those who made them hint at a more deliberate plan.
07:14One of the most enduring theories about the Confederate treasury was that it was stolen,
07:18or, quietly diverted, by the men assigned to protect it.
07:23On May 4, 1865, in Washington, Georgia,
07:27$86,000 in gold and bullion, worth over a million dollars today,
07:31was handed to Confederate Navy officers James Semple and Edward Tidball.
07:36Their mission was to smuggle it to Liverpool in England,
07:39which was the Confederacy's financial hub.
07:43Liverpool was a lifeline for the Confederacy,
07:46a gateway for resources and diplomacy.
07:49The gold was likely intended to pay off debts, secure supplies,
07:53and maintain international alliances.
07:56But it never made it.
07:58Instead, Semple and Tidball vanished,
08:00ultimately abandoning their mission in South Carolina.
08:08Edward Tidball's post-war life was certainly questionable.
08:11Just days after getting the gold from Davis,
08:13he was spotted heading north from Georgia,
08:15and eventually settled in Winchester, Virginia,
08:17where he built Linden Farm,
08:18an extravagant estate far beyond the means of a former Confederate officer.
08:22While Tidball's rise to wealth hinted at possible betrayal,
08:27his companion, James Semple, chose a more elusive path.
08:32Semple's movements after the war are murky.
08:37Historical accounts suggest he fled south,
08:40hiding in the Okefenokee Swamp,
08:42before making his way to Nassau in the Bahamas.
08:45He even exchanged letters with President John Tyler's widow Julia,
08:49which hint at lavish spending on romance and secret dealings.
08:53Operating under aliases like Alan S. James,
08:58Semple moved between Canada and the United States,
09:01funneling resources to Confederates and exile.
09:04So some people wonder whether he might have used the stolen treasury
09:08to fund these operations
09:10and pursue political ambitions after the war's end.
09:13As the treasury's trail faded, it sparked more questions than answers,
09:19leading some to believe its final destination was far from southern soil,
09:24in an unexpected place.
09:26Some believe a portion of the Confederate gold made its way north to Michigan.
09:31During his retreat, Davis' group is said to have had six wagons loaded with gold and other valuables.
09:38But when he was captured, those wagons seem to have vanished.
09:42So one theory speculates that maybe it could have been hidden nearby and then redirected north.
09:51Four years after Davis' capture, two railroads were completed.
09:56One in Georgia and another connecting Muskegon, Michigan to Lake Michigan.
10:01This expanding network would have made it possible to transport concealed gold
10:05without raising too much suspicion.
10:08The mystery took an even stranger turn many years later,
10:14when a deathbed confession linked the Confederate gold directly to Muskegon.
10:20In 1921, George Alexander Abbott, vice president of Hackley National Bank,
10:25made a startling claim on his deathbed.
10:28He confessed to stealing part of the Confederate gold and hiding it in a boxcar,
10:33which was ferried across Lake Michigan.
10:38According to Abbott, a violent storm struck during the crossing,
10:41and the boxcar was pushed overboard, sending the gold into the lake.
10:46If true, millions in Confederate treasure could still lie beneath Lake Michigan.
10:50But the Michigan theory doesn't rest solely on Abbott's confession.
10:57Abbott's uncle was Brigadier General Robert Minty,
11:01a celebrated Union cavalry officer whose unit captured Davis.
11:06So, some treasure hunters have turned their attention to him,
11:11while pointing to the fact that the president of Abbott's bank,
11:14lumber baron Charles Hackley,
11:16saw his wealth grow right around the same time Davis was caught.
11:22Even Muskegon's Hackley Park, dedicated to Civil War veterans,
11:26holds interesting symbolism.
11:28Its layout, with diagonal and curved sidewalks,
11:31resembles the Confederate battle flag.
11:33And in the center of the park,
11:35there's a statue of a cavalry soldier
11:37that bears a striking resemblance to Robert Minty.
11:40Could this be a veiled tribute to a hidden source of wealth?
11:49The Confederate Treasury's disappearance
11:51is a tangle of fragmented truths, lost records,
11:55and enduring speculation.
11:59Jefferson Davis spent his post-war years
12:01defending the Confederacy's ideals,
12:03crafting a narrative that glorified its lost cause.
12:08The Confederate Treasury's fate may never be known,
12:11but its legacy endures as a stark symbol of a rebellion
12:15built on exploitation and oppression,
12:18a reminder of the chaos and consequences of a war fought
12:22to preserve an unjust cause.
12:45In the 16th century, the Tsar of all the Russians,
12:48Ivan the Terrible, had come to possess
12:50an astounding collection of ancient books,
12:53holding powerful knowledge from past civilizations.
12:58Throughout Ivan's fearsome reign,
13:00he kept the location of his stockpile of books
13:03a secret from those around him.
13:05And when he died, his library seemed to die with him.
13:13The library had originated in Constantinople,
13:15now Istanbul in Turkey,
13:17which had been a hub of culture and learning for centuries.
13:22After the city fell to the Turks in 1453,
13:25the Pope arranged a marriage between Constantinople's Princess Sofia
13:29and Russia's Ivan the Great,
13:31who would become Ivan the Terrible's grandfather.
13:35Sofia was sent off to Moscow along with a dowry
13:37of over 800 gold-bound, jewel-encrusted books and scrolls,
13:41the bulk of what had been saved from Constantinople's library
13:43before the Turks ransacked it.
13:45The collection is believed to have included
13:47Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Egyptian texts,
13:50and even 2nd century texts from China.
13:52This library was carefully kept by Ivan's grandfather
13:58and handed down to Ivan's father,
14:00and ultimately to Ivan.
14:03Over the years, historians of the day
14:05recounted having glimpsed the awe-inspiring collection,
14:08and based on their descriptions,
14:10if it were found today,
14:12it might triple what we know about ancient Greek
14:14and Roman literature alone.
14:16Ivan the Terrible was also a collector of books.
14:23So, after the library was passed on to him,
14:26he's said to have grown it even larger.
14:29What we don't know is where he kept it hidden
14:33and what became of it after his death.
14:36So, where is Ivan the Terrible's lost library?
14:46It could be said that Ivan the Terrible
14:50was a product of his time,
14:52and certainly his upbringing.
14:55Despite being born into royalty,
14:57Ivan had a wretched childhood.
14:59When he was three, his father died,
15:01and his mother took the reins as ruler.
15:04She was very active politically and diplomatically,
15:07but when Ivan was eight, she died too.
15:10Many believe she was poisoned
15:12by power-hungry members of the Russian nobility
15:15who had access to the royal court.
15:19To the adults around him,
15:20the orphaned eight-year-old Ivan
15:22was now just a valuable chess piece.
15:24Whoever controlled him, controlled Russia.
15:26So, as the nobles battled over control of Ivan,
15:28he was abused, neglected, and manipulated.
15:31At his age, he couldn't fight back.
15:33So, instead, he took revenge on animals,
15:35torturing birds and throwing dogs and cats
15:37out of the palace windows.
15:42When Ivan was a teen,
15:43he finally asserted himself.
15:45At a feast one day,
15:47he accused Prince Andre,
15:48the most powerful member of the family,
15:51that had probably murdered Ivan's mother
15:54of mismanaging the country.
15:57He had Andre arrested
15:59and either torn apart by dogs
16:01or beaten to death.
16:03Maybe both.
16:04The day Ivan turned 16,
16:08full power was transferred to him.
16:10And just a couple of weeks later,
16:11he married Anastasia Romanova.
16:13By all accounts,
16:15Ivan loved Anastasia,
16:16and her gentle character
16:17was a moderating influence
16:18on his sadistic tendencies.
16:20Thirteen years later,
16:22Anastasia died,
16:23and Ivan was convinced
16:24that she'd been poisoned
16:25by his enemies.
16:26In response,
16:27he ordered interrogations,
16:28tortures,
16:29and executions among the nobility.
16:30Ivan created the Oprichniki,
16:31a legion of bodyguards and enforcers
16:33who lived with him
16:34like monks in a monastery.
16:35But even though they lived
16:36and dressed like monks,
16:37they rounded up actual priests
16:38and monks and beat them to death.
16:40Prominent merchants, officials,
16:41and nobles were tortured and killed,
16:42and their families were thrown
16:43into the river to drown.
16:44No one who was a perceived enemy of Ivans
16:47or of the Oprichniki was safe.
16:49Anyone deemed an enemy
16:50might be boiled alive
16:51by a safe source of blood
16:53and a safe source of blood.
16:54And it is different.
16:55Theali's identity of one king
16:56at the same time.
16:57Anastasia Romanova was a safe source
16:59and also very peaceful Pepsi.
17:00had been killed and their families were thrown into the river to drown no one who was a perceived
17:08enemy of ivan's or of the oprychniki was safe anyone deemed an enemy might be boiled alive
17:15impaled roasted to death over a fire even torn apart by horses thousands were killed cruelly
17:25and indiscriminately it's hard to imagine that someone with such an appetite for cruelty and
17:33suffering would have any use for books that spread knowledge and encourage reflection
17:38but apparently ivan did he cared enough to hold on to the library and to keep it from others
17:47in an ironic twist some believe that the same places that might drive a human mind to despair
17:54could have been the best locations to hide a priceless compilation of knowledge ivan may
18:01have stored the library in the many corridors and chambers he liked to imprison and torture his
18:04enemies in right under moscow's kremlin it would have been the safest place for the books against
18:09the threat of fire which was fairly common in moscow in those days the kremlin was originally built as a
18:17fortress and it had underground secret passages water tunnels with concealed intakes and dungeons
18:26successive rulers sometimes added fortification features so by ivan the terrible's time it was
18:32already a labyrinth in the early part of the 20th century an archaeologist used old maps and diagrams
18:39of the kremlin to speculate where ivan might have hidden his library he found an ancient gate
18:44untouched for centuries but in his excavation soon after he broke through to an underground river
18:50that threatened to flood everything so the search was put on hold ultimately he failed to turn up
18:57any evidence of the lost library that said he had only been able to search beneath a small fraction
19:03of the more than three million square feet of the kremlin
19:06according to some experts the archaeologist may have dedicated the better part of his life
19:15to searching under the wrong royal residence
19:20ivan's library may still be hidden somewhere about 70 miles northeast of moscow in the town of alexandrov
19:29under alexandrovskaya sloboda ivan's base of operations for about 17 of the darkest years of his reign
19:40alexandrovskaya sloboda is one of the oldest known rural residences for muscovite royalty
19:45so like the kremlin its design included storage rooms secret passageways and fortified underground
19:51chambers which may have been used to hold and interrogate prisoners ivan moved his base of operations
19:56there in 1564 soon after his wife's death and that's where he lived with his thousands of a pricknicky
20:04when ivan moved his court to alexandrov he made no indications of ever wanting to return
20:10he went with 4 000 slaves that carried his personal belongings so it would be surprising
20:15if his cherished library didn't accompany him ivan did end up moving back to moscow in 1581
20:24but searches of alexandrovskaya sloboda have yielded no trace of the library and there's also no record
20:32of it making the return journey so either it's still somewhere in alexandrov or it was never brought
20:40there in the first place it's been suggested that one reason ivan might not have brought his library with
20:49him to alexandrovsky sloboda is that it was long gone from the kremlin by then the books from
20:57constantinople could have burned to ashes during the moscow fire of 1547. in the mid-16th century
21:02moscow was densely built and most of its structures were wooden fires were frequent but this one was
21:08exceptional the fire broke out during a windstorm and the high winds fanned the flames powerful blasts
21:18from stockpiles of gunpowder that were being kept in the city only added to the inferno a third of
21:25moscow's buildings were destroyed and thousands of people died as for the kremlin the czar's rooms
21:34the treasury ancient scrolls precious swords and all kinds of other treasures were obliterated so if ivan's
21:41library was anywhere above ground it could have been destroyed like everything else
21:49it's certainly possible that the library perished in the fire but there's no mention in any records
21:54of ivan suffering such a great loss so while it's hard to disprove that theory there isn't any existing
21:59evidence that supports it either ivan the terrible the first czar of all the rushes took the truth
22:08about his precious library to his grave about three years after moving back to the kremlin ivan
22:16suffered a stroke and died while playing a game of chess his library was lost to history and as he
22:23killed his son and heir his family line didn't long outlive him there are still plenty of places ivan's
22:33library might be the town of surygya posad the settlement of diakovo along the moscow river or even
22:39the unexplored passages beneath the kremlin but who knows
22:43if the library ivan the terrible kept hidden and protected all his life is ever found it will be
22:52the only positive legacy of his cruel and unhappy life a gift of poetry and knowledge preserved by a
23:00twisted sociopath returned to benefit humanity in july 1907 a shadow fell over dublin castle the seat of
23:26british power in ireland arthur vickers the dedicated ulster king of arms was the man trusted to guard
23:34ireland's most prized symbols of british power the illustrious regalia of the order of saint patrick
23:42famously known as the irish crown jewels but suddenly this trust was shattered
23:50the irish crown jewels crafted in 1831 from 394 precious stones including diamonds and emeralds
23:59from queen charlotte's collection were more than just displays of wealth they embodied british
24:03authority in ireland underscoring the crown's dominance with rare gems such as a rose diamond
24:08gifted by the sultan of turkey and jewels from the mughal emperor shah alam
24:12security at bedford tower where the jewels were housed was thought to be nearly impregnable
24:20arthur vickers held two keys to the safe one he kept on a chain and the other hidden at home
24:27meanwhile seven other staff members held keys to the office of arms but in the months leading
24:33up to july 1907 repeated warnings about lax security were ignored
24:38the jewels worth an estimated five and a half million us dollars today were last seen on june
24:4611 1907. on july 6 the very morning they were to be used in a knighting ceremony for lord castleton
24:53during king edward the seventh visit vicars's staff discovered the safe had been tampered with and the
24:58jewels were gone so how did someone breach such a secure location without leaving a trace
25:07and where did the crown jewels go the irish crown jewels comprising a jewel encrusted star badge and
25:17collars held significant historical and political value their placement in dublin castle set the stage
25:24for a scandal that would unravel arthur vickers life originally the jewels were often stored at the west
25:34and sun jewelers who were known for their tight security so when they were moved to dublin castle
25:40in 1903 security actually became more lax with more points of access and much less oversight
25:49vickers had proposed securing the jewels in a newly constructed strong room within bedford tower
25:54but a miscalculation prevented the safe from fitting through the doorway so it was placed in the library
25:58outside the strong room a waiting room with multiple entry points and visible to passing visitors
26:05in 1905 vickers himself drafted new office statutes requiring that the jewels be kept in a strong room
26:12but despite his meticulous nature he never followed through on relocating them this oversight combined
26:18with the steady flow of visitors and vickers occasional mishandling of keys created the perfect storm for a
26:26security breach vickers had a reputation for casually showing off the regalia to visitors a habit that
26:33had raised security concerns by late june he had already misplaced a key and was relying more heavily
26:40on staff and security guards who noticed lapses like unlocked doors all red flags that went ignored
26:48whispers of negligence grew into murmurs of suspicion hinting that the theft was more than just oversight
26:56the office of arms was fertile ground for an inside job vickers was responsible for the jewels but was
27:04negligent in his duty he let his staff and others have easy access to the keys and oversaw a culture of
27:11complacency he even threw parties in the library and suspicion soon extended to his inner circle including
27:20francis shackleton who knew the castle's layout inside and out francis shackleton the brother of
27:27famous antarctic explorer ernest shackleton was a man of contradictions so on the surface he moved
27:32effortlessly through elite circles in dublin and london even holding a prestigious post as dublin's herald
27:37of arms but beneath his charm shackleton struggled with escalating debts and a lavish lifestyle he could
27:43barely afford shackleton was close to vickers sharing lodgings with him which granted him easy access to
27:51both the office of arms and the keys to the safe and for those who knew of his financial problems
27:57the idea that he might have orchestrated a theft out of necessity seemed all too plausible
28:03shackleton's circle included even more complex and enigmatic figures whose own troubled pasts and
28:11audacious personalities would only deepen the mystery of the heist one of shackleton's closest
28:19associates was captain richard gorges a military officer with a bad reputation he too was intimately
28:26familiar with dublin castle and given his checkered history he was the kind of man who could play a
28:31role in a high stakes operation one of the leading theories is that gorges who knew the castles lay
28:39out well and shackleton who might have had access to the safe teamed up on a plan together some reports
28:46claim they might have even gotten vickers drunk enough to pass out so they could copy his key
28:52and slip in and out undetected when the dublin metropolitan police investigated they found no
28:59forced entry or any marks on the locks that would suggest tampering this could mean that the safe had
29:05been opened with copied keys with the originals or by professionals inspector john kane of scotland yard
29:13who was called in to investigate quickly became convinced of an internal conspiracy but kane's report
29:20was abruptly dismissed and he was mysteriously recalled to london this sparked rumors of a cover-up
29:26suggesting that certain powerful interests had something to hide but no proof that the theft was
29:32perpetrated by someone inside the castle walls ever surfaced in a country poised on the edge of
29:41political upheaval some believe the disappearance held a more profound symbolic meaning the theft may have
29:50been a strategic move to humiliate british authority a bold statement signaling the rising strength of
29:56irish independence groups at the time nationalist sentiment was intensifying and an act like this
30:02would have struck a powerful chord with the population calling for independence
30:09the jewels were a famous symbol of the british crown so they were also an obvious target for irish
30:16nationalists who wanted to challenge british rule stealing them would be an act of defiance powerfully
30:23symbolic gesture meant to undermine british authority in ireland with acts targeting symbols of british power
30:31on the rise nationalist groups grew bolder in their challenge to the crown's dominance
30:36and the theft of the jewels fit this pattern perfectly nationalist movements were adept at wielding symbolism
30:43for propaganda if they orchestrated the heist it was likely not for monetary gain but for the
30:48statement it made the disappearance of the jewels played into the narrative of british weakness amplifying
30:53the cause of irish independence this has all the markings of a covert operation that prized secrecy over
31:02recognition if the heist was linked to the irish independence movement the jewels were likely hidden
31:09away as a nationalist trophy never intended to resurface though this theory fueled irish independence fervor
31:18no concrete evidence or claims of responsibility ever emerged for some observers the silence surrounding the
31:26heist hints at motives that go beyond political defines the jewels were worth millions in today's
31:35money so it's possible they were also just stolen for the money to be sold into the shadowy world of european black
31:42markets operating in big trading hubs like antwerp and amsterdam that would have been easy to reach from
31:49dublin if broken down into individual stones it would have effectively erased their origin and the jewels
31:56could have easily vanished into europe's bustling markets leaving no trace of them behind
32:02the meticulous nature of the heist suggests this was no ordinary smash and grab the operation bore the
32:08marks of seasoned professionals likely experienced in handling valuable gems and with a knowledge of how
32:15to sell them quietly among the suspects one name stands out francis bennett goldney an antiquities
32:25enthusiast with deep ties to european jewel markets and a reputation for ambition
32:33bennett goldney was a political figure and artifact collector who joined the office of arms just
32:38months before the theft with known ties to european jewel markets he became the prime suspect for those
32:44who believed the jewels were smuggled abroad bennett goldney doesn't seem to have been in ireland at
32:53the time of the heist but plenty of people have wondered about his interest in rare artifacts his
32:59connections to international markets and especially about the fact that when he died it turned out his
33:05house was full of things he'd stolen during his lifetime including famous paintings and ancient documents
33:16that fall he fit his car with an oversized gas tank for an extended trip to amsterdam
33:20accompanied by none other than jp morgan a financier with deep ties to art and antiquities circles
33:26known for discreet and sometimes shadowy acquisitions despite all the circumstantial evidence no clear
33:35financial trail or witness testimony has ever surfaced to confirm that the jewels were sold off in europe
33:43although there have been extensive investigations and countless theories
33:47the fate of the irish crown jewels remains an unsolved mystery
33:52the more we learn about this cast of characters vickers shackleton bennett goldney the more elusive the
34:00truth becomes these weren't ordinary suspects they were men with powerful connections bold ambitions
34:07and in some cases motives that could explain the disappearance
34:14vickers was ruined by the scandal forced out of his post but he professed his innocence to his dying
34:21days claiming he was just a scapegoat his life came to a bloody end in 1921 when he was killed by the ira
34:30during the irish war of independence a reminder of just how intertwined his own life was with the
34:37political tensions in ireland
34:43over a century later the disappearance of the irish crown jewels continues to captivate historians and regular
34:50citizens alike the true story remains lost to time buried among rumors and the silence of those who knew
34:58more than they ever revealed
35:10in late 1941 as japan's forces invaded china america struggled to save and evacuate as many non-combatants as
35:23possible among the evacuees were dozens of individuals who had been dead for roughly 500 000 years
35:31the prized fossils of synanthropus pekinensis peking man
35:39the peking man fossils were discovered in the early 1920s near the village of jacodian
35:4430 miles southwest of peking which was what beijing was then known as and they were believed to be
35:50between 400 000 and 780 000 years old this was an important discovery peking man was identified as
35:59a new hominin species and the hope was that the remains could provide new information in the study
36:04of human ancestry they seem to have had relatively big brains a cranial capacity of about 60 cubic inches
36:13some almost 80 inches which is getting close to the size of modern humans and there were ash deposits
36:20at the jugodian site too that some think might be evidence peking man could control fire
36:25the americans knew the peking man fossils were of significant scientific importance so they devised a plan
36:35to sneak them out of peking get them on a train and then a transport ship to new york so that they
36:43could be preserved until the war ended but then the attack on pearl harbor happened
36:55japan was on the offensive and american rescuers were now fighting to save their own lives
37:08somewhere along the way the crates containing the bones of peking men disappeared
37:13so where did they go
37:16in november of 1941 some workers from peking union medical college which was owned by the americans
37:23carefully prepared the skulls to be moved according to one account they wrapped each fossil in lens
37:29paper soft enough to wipe a microscope's lens then placed them in small boxes and loaded them into a
37:36pair of big wooden crates from the medical college the crates were to be driven to the train station and
37:43loaded onto trains marines would accompany them to the port of chin wong dao then onto a transport ship
37:49the ss president harrison which would set sail for america but somewhere in this process the peking man fossils vanished
37:58there were no verifiable eyewitness accounts or official records of the crates
38:03being unloaded at ching wong dao suspicions and conspiracy theories were born that would swirl for decades
38:10some people have wondered whether the fossils might have been stolen from the train years later marine
38:18guards said that it had been stopped by japanese soldiers who ransacked the baggage taking any
38:24valuables they found and that has sparked speculation that those soldiers might have taken the crates
38:30themselves but the thing is these accounts are third or fourth hand by now and were never verified
38:38some people accused the united states of stealing them but that would raise even more questions
38:45like why would the americans offer to help only to steal them for themselves given that they'd have
38:50to keep them secret so they'd never be able to put them on display in a museum or publish any
38:55scientific papers about them so it's not entirely clear what they'd have to gain from it
39:01one of the few things all parties knew with certainty was that after the train arrived at ching wandao
39:09the crates did not get loaded onto the ss president harrison as planned because the ship never arrived
39:17the harrison had been steaming north from manila with a crew of 154 with orders to proceed to ching
39:25wandao to bring out the marines and the two crates with them on route the ship's captain was seeing
39:33large numbers of japanese vessels but america hadn't officially entered the war so the harrison
39:40wasn't in any clear danger and then in the middle of the night the captain received word pearl harbor had
39:49just been attacked suddenly america was at war with japan and at dawn the harrison was spotted japanese
39:59destroyers approached but didn't fire so it was clear to the captain that the japanese wanted to
40:05take the harrison intact he couldn't let that happen so he ran the harrison at full speed for the nearest
40:11landmass and intentionally drove it over the island's rocky edge tearing a 90-foot dash in the hull
40:20even though the harrison never picked up the crates some have said the search for the peaking man
40:25fossils shouldn't continue on land but rather under the ocean if the crates did make it to ching wandao
40:34they could have been loaded onto any one of several japanese transport ships carrying goods and people
40:41to japan several of those transports were sunk by the allies sometimes mistakenly so did the
40:49fossils go down on one of those ships the wreck of one transport ship the awamaru was found in the
40:591970s there were rumors that had carried a fortune in diamonds gold and other treasures so there was a
41:06huge effort to explore it in the end they didn't find any treasure just personal effects and some of the
41:13crews remains and there was no trace of the two crates of peking man fossils either there are lots
41:21of other second world war era wrecks that haven't been searched so it's possible the crates could still
41:26be down there on the sea floor somewhere another possibility is that the japanese loaded the crates
41:34onto one of the transport ships that were not torpedoed and successfully made it to japan
41:39japan but no hard evidence has surfaced that would support this theory searches by the japanese and
41:46americans in japan have yielded nothing
41:55in 2010 close to seven decades after peaking man's fossils had last been seen
42:01one of the most credible leads yet came from a former marine
42:05this marine had been stationed at camp holcomb in chin wong dao with one of the last american units
42:12to be evacuated during the civil war between china's nationalist and communist parties in 1947.
42:19about five and a half years after the peking man fossils had gone missing
42:23the unit was pinned down in heavy crossfire between the two sides and by nightfall the men had to dig
42:28foxholes for protection while digging they hit a wooden box which turned out to have bones in it
42:38and understandably they were startled so they reburied it but decades later the marine told his son
42:45about the incident who then contacted a researcher who had been searching for the fossils for years and
42:52relayed his father's story the location matched another account from two other marines who said they'd
43:02unloaded the crates from the train at chin wong dao and delivered them to camp holcomb on december 4th 1941.
43:10so just days before pearl harbor and the united states officially entering the war
43:15it's plausible that in the chaos of the evacuation the officer responsible for the fossils decided
43:24to bury them in their crates as the best short-term way to hide them from the japanese and that later
43:30nobody who knew about the fossils and where they'd been buried had survived to tell about it
43:38in november of 2010 following the guidance of the retired marine university researchers visited the site
43:45where peking man fossils may have been buried and found it was covered by warehouses and a parking lot
43:53the local cultural heritage office was alerted and agreed to monitor any further redevelopment of
43:59the area and for any signs of those wooden crates and as of now the mystery of the missing peking man's
44:07fossils remains unsolved
44:09before the bones were put into the crates at the peking union medical college an employee had
44:18the foresight to make detailed casts of the most important specimens so researchers have had those to
44:25study parts of the jokudian site are yet to be thoroughly excavated so there's a chance more skulls may be
44:33found one way or another peking man may yet raise his head again
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