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00:00The Confederate treasury, worth an estimated $142 million today, seemingly vanished, followed the American Civil War in 1865.
00:11One of the most enduring theories was that it was stolen, or quietly diverted, by the men assigned to protect it.
00:20Ivan the Terrible, curator of one of history's most prized libraries, may have taken a secret location to his grave.
00:30Ivan may have stored the library in the many corridors and chambers he liked to imprison and torture his enemies in, right under Moscow's Kremlin.
00:38The unsolved heist of the Irish crown jewels from Dublin Castle in 1907 points to a shadowy cast of characters.
00:47This sparked rumors of a cover-up, suggesting that certain powerful interests had something to hide.
00:56The chain of history has many missing links.
01:00Prominent people, priceless treasures, extraordinary artifacts, their locations still unknown, lost to the fog of time.
01:11What happens when stories of the past become vanished history?
01:20In April 1865, as the Civil War reached its brutal conclusion, the Confederate States of America crumbled under the weight of Union victories.
01:41The Confederate capital city of Richmond burned, as its leaders fled in the night on two trains.
01:50One carried Jefferson Davis and his desperate government.
01:54The 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.
02:09It included over $700,000 in gold, silver, and donations from Southern families, such as heirlooms, jewelry, even sweepings from mint floors.
02:19When Richmond fell, the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, and his cabinet fled south, taking the Confederate treasury with them.
02:30A fortune worth about $142 million today.
02:35But just weeks later, when Davis was captured, the treasure was gone.
02:40And that leaves one big question.
02:42Where did it go?
02:43The Civil War began in 1861, when 11 southern states broke away from the Union, aiming to protect slavery and their idea of states' rights.
03:01Virginia became the heart of the conflict.
03:03Early victories gave the Confederates hope.
03:06But General Robert E. Lee's defeats at Gettysburg and Petersburg shattered that optimism.
03:13Four years after the war began, the South was in ruins, its cities burning, its armies depleted, and its people were starving.
03:24On April 2nd, 1865, Jefferson Davis received word that Lee's lines at Petersburg had collapsed.
03:30An 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.
03:44One carrying government documents and officials.
03:47The 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.
04:02There, the railroad ended, and the weight of over 9,000 pounds of silver became an insurmountable challenge.
04:11From Danville, the men and their cargo continued their journey south by horseback toward the U.S. men in Charlotte, North Carolina,
04:18where Captain Parker initially planned to secure the treasure.
04:22The Union cavalry in the area forced a change of course.
04:30As Confederate forces dwindled, so did their resources, and the burden of protecting the treasury soon shifted to Secretary of War John C. Breckenridge.
04:41It's said that Breckenridge trusted what was left of the treasure to a brigadier general named Basil Duke.
04:49He was divided into six wagons, guarded by fewer than 1,000 men, and started a dangerous retreat through Georgia,
04:56heading 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.
05:09Union troops seized $100,000 in gold stored in a Washington bank, but the bulk of the treasury was gone.
05:21Theories 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.
05:34With the sheer weight of the silver, and the logistical challenges of moving it, Confederate officials might have had no choice but to hide it in remote locations,
05:42planning to come back for it once the war was over.
05:44The Confederate government briefly used Danville as essentially its makeshift capital, but was soon forced to keep fleeing the south.
05:54It would have been a frantic scene, with soldiers working late into the night,
05:58said to have been moving crates and barrels that sparked some theories about part of the treasury maybe being hidden nearby.
06:05Some 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.
06:23They entrusted these locations only to loyal members.
06:27This secrecy has fueled speculation about buried caches throughout the south.
06:32Some people like to say that the gold might be buried in Danville's cemeteries,
06:39but there's been no proof of a link between those sites and the Knights of the Golden Circle,
06:44and there are laws protecting burial grounds, too.
06:47Even advanced tools like ground-penetrating radar haven't found any proof of hidden Confederate gold in the city.
06:54But for some, that just makes the mystery even more intriguing.
07:02Some believe the fate of the treasury wasn't left entirely to circumstance.
07:07Along 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,
07:20or quietly diverted, by the men assigned to protect it.
07:24On May 4, 1865, in Washington, Georgia, $86,000 in gold and bullion, worth over a million dollars today,
07:32was handed to Confederate Navy officers James Semple and Edward Tidball.
07:37Their mission was to smuggle it to Liverpool in England, which was the Confederacy's financial hub.
07:42Liverpool was a lifeline for the Confederacy, a gateway for resources and diplomacy.
07:50The gold was likely intended to pay off debts, secure supplies, and maintain international alliances.
07:57But it never made it.
07:59Instead, Semple and Tidball vanished, ultimately abandoning their mission in South Carolina.
08:09Edward Tidball's post-war life was certainly questionable.
08:12Just days after getting the gold from Davis, he was spotted heading north from Georgia,
08:17and eventually settled in Winchester, Virginia, where he built Linden Farm,
08:20an extravagant estate far beyond the means of a former Confederate officer.
08:25While Tidball's rise to wealth hinted at possible betrayal,
08:29his companion, James Semple, chose a more elusive path.
08:35Semple's movements after the war are murky.
08:38Historical accounts suggest he fled south, hiding in the Okefenokee Swamp,
08:43before making his way to Nassau in the Bahamas.
08:45He even exchanged letters with President John Tyler's widow, Julia,
08:50which hint at lavish spending on romance and secret dealings.
08:54Operating under aliases like Alan S. James, Semple moved between Canada and the United States,
09:02funneling resources to Confederates and exile.
09:05So some people wonder whether he might have used the stolen treasury
09:08to fund these operations and pursue political ambitions after the war's end.
09:14As the treasury's trail faded, it sparked more questions than answers,
09:20leading some to believe its final destination was far from southern soil,
09:25in an unexpected place.
09:27Some believe a portion of the Confederate gold made its way north to Michigan.
09:32During his retreat, Davis' group is said to have had six wagons loaded with gold and other valuables.
09:39But when he was captured, those wagons seem to have vanished.
09:44So one theory speculates that maybe it could have been hidden nearby and then redirected north.
09:52Four years after Davis' capture, two railroads were completed,
09:57one in Georgia and another connecting Muskegon, Michigan, to Lake Michigan.
10:02This expanding network would have made it possible to transport concealed gold
10:06without raising too much suspicion.
10:09The mystery took an even stranger turn many years later,
10:15when a deathbed confession linked the Confederate gold directly to Muskegon.
10:21In 1921, George Alexander Abbott, vice president of Hackley National Bank,
10:26made a startling claim on his deathbed.
10:29He confessed to stealing part of the Confederate gold
10:32and hiding it in a boxcar, which was ferried across Lake Michigan.
10:36According to Abbott, a violent storm struck during the crossing,
10:42and the boxcar was pushed overboard, sending the gold into the lake.
10:46If true, millions in Confederate treasure could still lie beneath Lake Michigan.
10:51But the Michigan theory doesn't rest solely on Abbott's confession.
10:58Abbott's uncle was Brigadier General Robert Minty,
11:03a celebrated Union cavalry officer whose unit captured Davis.
11:07So some treasure hunters have turned their attention to him,
11:11while pointing to the fact that the president of Abbott's bank,
11:15lumber baron Charles Hackley,
11:17saw his wealth grow right around the same time Davis was caught.
11:23Even Muskegon's Hackley Park, dedicated to Civil War veterans,
11:27holds interesting symbolism.
11:29Its layout with diagonal and curved sidewalks resembles the Confederate battle flag.
11:34And in the center of the park, there's a statue of a cavalry soldier
11:38that bears a striking resemblance to Robert Minty.
11:41Could this be a veiled tribute to a hidden source of wealth?
11:49The Confederate treasury's disappearance is a tangle of fragmented truths,
11:54lost records, and enduring speculation.
12:00Jefferson Davis spent his post-war years defending the Confederacy's ideals,
12:04crafting a narrative that glorified its lost cause.
12:09The Confederate treasury's fate may never be known,
12:12but its legacy endures as a stark symbol of a rebellion
12:16built on exploitation and oppression,
12:19a reminder of the chaos and consequences of a war fought
12:23to preserve an unjust cause.
12:29In the 16th century, the Tsar of all the Russias, Ivan the Terrible,
12:36had come to possess an astounding collection of ancient books,
12:39holding powerful knowledge from past civilizations.
12:42Throughout Ivan's fearsome reign, he kept the location of his stockpile of books a secret from those around him,
12:53and when he died, his library seemed to die with him.
13:08The library had originated in Constantinople, now Istanbul in Turkey,
13:18which had been a hub of culture and learning for centuries.
13:22After the city fell to the Turks in 1453, the Pope arranged a marriage between Constantinople's Princess Sofia and Russia's Ivan the Great,
13:32who would become Ivan the Terrible's grandfather.
13:35Sofia was sent off to Moscow along with a dowry of over 800 gold-bound, jewel-encrusted books and scrolls,
13:42the bulk of what had been saved from Constantinople's library before the Turks ransacked it.
13:46The collection is believed to have included Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Egyptian texts,
13:52and even second-century texts from China.
13:54This library was carefully kept by Ivan's grandfather, and handed down to Ivan's father, and ultimately, to Ivan.
14:03Over the years, historians of the day recounted having glimpsed the awe-inspiring collection,
14:10and based on their descriptions, if it were found today,
14:13it might triple what we know about ancient Greek and Roman literature alone.
14:17Ivan the Terrible was also a collector of books.
14:24So, after the library was passed on to him, he's said to have grown it even larger.
14:30What we don't know is where he kept it hidden, and what became of it after his death.
14:37So, where is Ivan the Terrible's lost library?
14:47It could be said that Ivan the Terrible was a product of his time, and certainly, his upbringing.
14:56Despite being born into royalty, Ivan had a wretched childhood.
15:00When he was three, his father died, and his mother took the reins as ruler.
15:05She was very active politically and diplomatically, but when Ivan was eight, she died too.
15:11Many believe she was poisoned by power-hungry members of the Russian nobility
15:16who had access to the royal court.
15:20To the adults around him, the orphaned eight-year-old Ivan was now just a valuable chess piece.
15:25Whoever controlled him, controlled Russia.
15:27So, as the nobles battled over control of Ivan, he was abused, neglected, and manipulated.
15:32At his age, he couldn't fight back.
15:34So, instead, he took revenge on animals, torturing birds, and throwing dogs and cats out of the palace windows.
15:39When Ivan was a teen, he finally asserted himself.
15:47At a feast one day, he accused Prince Andre, the most powerful member of the family,
15:52that had probably murdered Ivan's mother of mismanaging the country.
15:58He had Andre arrested and either torn apart by dogs or beaten to death.
16:04Maybe both.
16:07The day Ivan turned 16, full power was transferred to him.
16:11And just a couple of weeks later, he married Anastasia Romanova.
16:15By all accounts, Ivan loved Anastasia, and her gentle character was a moderating influence on his sadistic tendencies.
16:26Thirteen years later, Anastasia died, and Ivan was convinced that she'd been poisoned by his enemies.
16:34In response, he ordered interrogations, tortures, and executions among the nobility.
16:42Ivan created the Oprichniki, a legion of bodyguards and enforcers who lived with him like monks in a monastery.
16:48But even though they lived and dressed like monks, they rounded up actual priests and monks and beat them to death.
16:57Prominent merchants, officials, and nobles were tortured and killed, and their families were thrown into the river to drown.
17:04No one who was a perceived enemy of Ivan's or of the Oprichniki was safe.
17:12Anyone deemed an enemy might be boiled alive, impaled, roasted to death over fire, even torn apart by horses.
17:23Thousands were killed cruelly and indiscriminately.
17:26It's hard to imagine that someone with such an appetite for cruelty and suffering would have any use for books that spread knowledge and encourage reflection, but apparently Ivan did.
17:40He cared enough to hold on to the library and to keep it from others.
17:45In an ironic twist, some believe that the same places that might drive a human mind to despair could have been the best locations to hide a priceless compilation of knowledge.
18:00Ivan may have stored the library in the many corridors and chambers he liked to imprison and torture his enemies in, right under Moscow's Kremlin.
18:08It would have been the safest place for the books against the threat of fire, which was fairly common in Moscow in those days.
18:15The Kremlin was originally built as a fortress, 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 already a labyrinth.
18:35In the early part of the 20th century, an archaeologist used old maps and diagrams of the Kremlin to speculate where Ivan might have hidden his library.
18:42He found an ancient gate untouched for centuries, but in his excavation soon after, he broke through to an underground river that threatened to flood everything, so the search was put on hold.
18:55Ultimately, he failed to turn up any evidence of the lost library.
18:59That said, he had only been able to search beneath a small fraction of the more than 3 million square feet of the Kremlin.
19:06According to some experts, the archaeologist may have dedicated the better part of his life to searching under the wrong royal residence.
19:18Ivan's library may still be hidden somewhere about 70 miles northeast of Moscow in the town of Alexandrov, under Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, Ivan's base of operations for about 17 of the darkest years of his reign.
19:38So, like the Kremlin, its design included storage rooms, secret passageways, and fortified underground chambers, which may have been used to hold and interrogate prisoners.
19:55Ivan moved his base of operations there in 1564, soon after his wife's death, and that's where he lived with his thousands of aprikniki.
20:02When Ivan moved his court to Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, 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 if his cherished library didn't accompany him.
20:20Ivan did end up moving back to Moscow in 1581, but searches of Alexandrovskaya Sloboda have yielded no trace of the library.
20:30And there's also no record of it making the return journey.
20:35So, either it's still somewhere in Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, or it was never brought there in the first place.
20:45It's been suggested that one reason Ivan might not have brought his library with him to Alexandrovskaya Sloboda is that it was long gone from the Kremlin by then.
20:54The books from Constantinople could have burned to ashes during the Moscow fire of 1547.
21:01In the mid-16th century, Moscow was densely built, and most of its structures were wooden.
21:05Fires were frequent, but this one was exceptional.
21:08The fire broke out during a windstorm, and the high winds fanned the flames.
21:18Powerful blasts from stockpiles of gunpowder that were being kept in the city only added to the inferno.
21:25A third of Moscow's buildings were destroyed, and thousands of people died.
21:30As for the Kremlin, the Tsar's rooms, the treasury, ancient scrolls, precious swords, and all kinds of other treasures were obliterated.
21:40So, if Ivan's library was anywhere above ground, it could have been destroyed like everything else.
21:46It's certainly possible that the library perished in the fire, but there's no mention in any records of Ivan suffering such a great loss.
21:56So, while it's hard to disprove that theory, there isn't any existing evidence that supports it either.
22:04Ivan the Terrible, the first Tsar of all the Russias, took the truth about his precious library to his grave.
22:11About three years after moving back to the Kremlin, Ivan suffered a stroke and died while playing a game of chess.
22:20His library was lost to history, and as he killed his son and heir, his family line didn't long outlive him.
22:31There are still plenty of places Ivan's library might be.
22:34The town of Surygia Posad, the settlement of Diakovo, along the Moscow River,
22:39or even the unexplored passages beneath the Kremlin.
22:42But who knows?
22:46If the library Ivan the Terrible kept hidden and protected all his life is ever found,
22:51it will be the only positive legacy of his cruel and unhappy life.
22:57A gift of poetry and knowledge preserved by a twisted sociopath returned to benefit humanity.
23:09In July 1907, a shadow fell over Dublin Castle, the seat of British power in Ireland.
23:27Arthur Vickers, the dedicated Ulster King of Arms, was the man trusted to guard Ireland's most prized symbols of British power,
23:38the illustrious regalia of the Order of St. Patrick, famously known as the Irish Crown Jewels.
23:46But suddenly, this trust was shattered.
23:50The Irish Crown Jewels, crafted in 1831 from 394 precious stones, including diamonds and emeralds from Queen Charlotte's collection,
24:01were more than just displays of wealth.
24:03They embodied British authority in Ireland,
24:05underscoring the Crown's dominance with rare gems such as a rose diamond gifted by the Sultan of Turkey
24:10and 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.
24:32But in the months leading up to July 1907, repeated warnings about lax security were ignored.
24:38The jewels, worth an estimated five and a half million U.S. dollars today, were last seen on June 11th, 1907.
24:48On July 6th, the very morning they were to be used in a knighting ceremony for Lord Castleton during King Edward VII's visit,
24:55Vickers' staff discovered the safe had been tampered with and the jewels were gone.
24:59So how did someone breach such a secure location without leaving a trace?
25:07And where did the Crown Jewels go?
25:11The Irish Crown Jewels, comprising a jewel-encrusted star, badge, and collars,
25:18held significant historical and political value.
25:21Their placement in Dublin Castle set the stage for a scandal that would unravel Arthur Vickers' life.
25:28Originally, the jewels were often stored at the West and Sun Jewelers, who were known for their tight security.
25:38So when they were moved to Dublin Castle in 1903, security actually became more lax,
25:43with more points of access and much less oversight.
25:49Vickers had proposed securing the jewels in a newly constructed strongroom within Bedford Tower,
25:53but a miscalculation prevented the safe from fitting through the doorway,
25:57so it was placed in a library outside the strongroom,
26:00a 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 strongroom.
26:12But despite his meticulous nature, he never followed through on relocating them.
26:16This oversight, combined with the steady flow of visitors and Vickers' occasional mishandling of keys,
26:24created the perfect storm for a security breach.
26:28Vickers had a reputation for casually showing off the regalia to visitors,
26:33a habit that had raised security concerns.
26:36By late June, he had already misplaced a key and was relying more heavily on staff and security guards,
26:41who 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.
27:01Vickers was responsible for the jewels, but was negligent in his duty.
27:05He let his staff and others have easy access to the keys and oversaw a culture of complacency.
27:13He even threw parties in the library, and suspicion soon extended to his inner circle,
27:19including Francis Shackleton, who knew the castle's layout inside and out.
27:26Francis Shackleton, the brother of famous Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, was a man of contradictions.
27:30So on the surface, he moved effortlessly through elite circles in Dublin and London,
27:35even holding a prestigious post as Dublin's Herald of Arms.
27:38But beneath his charm, Shackleton struggled with escalating debts and a lavish lifestyle he could barely afford.
27:46Shackleton was close to Vickers, sharing lodgings with him,
27:49which granted him easy access to both the Office of Arms and the keys to the safe.
27:54And 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.
28:05Shackleton's circle included even more complex and enigmatic figures
28:10whose own troubled pasts and audacious personalities would only deepen the mystery of the heist.
28:17One of Shackleton's closest associates was Captain Richard Gorges,
28:21a military officer with a bad reputation.
28:25He, too, was intimately familiar with Dublin Castle.
28:28And given his checkered history, he was the kind of man who could play a role in a high-stakes operation.
28:35One of the leading theories is that Gorges, who knew the castle's layout well,
28:40and Shackleton, who might have had access to the safe, teamed up on a plan together.
28:46Some reports claim they might have even gotten Vickers drunk enough to pass out
28:50so they could copy his key and flip in and out undetected.
28:56When the Dublin Metropolitan Police investigated,
28:59they found no forced entry or any marks on the locks that would suggest tampering.
29:02This could mean that the safe had been opened with copied keys, with the originals, or by professionals.
29:11Inspector John Kane of Scotland Yard, who was called in to investigate,
29:15quickly became convinced of an internal conspiracy.
29:18But Kane's report was abruptly dismissed, and he was mysteriously recalled to London.
29:24This sparked rumors of a cover-up, suggesting that certain powerful interests had something to hide.
29:30But no proof that the theft was perpetrated by someone inside the castle walls ever surfaced.
29:39In a country poised on the edge of political upheaval,
29:43some believe the disappearance held a more profound, symbolic meaning.
29:49The theft may have been a strategic move to humiliate British authority,
29:53a bold statement signaling the rising strength of Irish independence groups.
29:57At the time, nationalist sentiment was intensifying,
30:01and an act like this would have struck a powerful chord with the population calling for independence.
30:09The jewels were a famous symbol of the British crown,
30:13so they were also an obvious target for Irish nationalists who wanted to challenge British rule.
30:19Stealing them would be an act of defiance,
30:22a powerfully symbolic gesture meant to undermine British authority in Ireland.
30:27With acts targeting symbols of British power on the rise,
30:32nationalist groups grew bolder in their challenge to the crown's dominance,
30:36and the theft of the jewels fit this pattern perfectly.
30:41Nationalist movements were adept at wielding symbolism for propaganda.
30:44If they orchestrated the heist,
30:46it was likely not for monetary gain, but for the statement it made.
30:50The disappearance of the jewels played into the narrative of British weakness,
30:53amplifying the cause of Irish independence.
30:55This has all the markings of a covert operation that prized secrecy over recognition.
31:04If the heist was linked to the Irish independence movement,
31:07the jewels were likely hidden away as a nationalist trophy,
31:11never intended to resurface.
31:13Though this theory fueled Irish independence fervor,
31:18no concrete evidence or claims of responsibility ever emerged.
31:23For some observers, the silence surrounding the heist
31:27hints at motives that go beyond political defiance.
31:32The jewels were worth millions in today's money,
31:35so it's possible they were also just stolen for the money,
31:39to be sold into the shadowy world of European black markets.
31:43Operating in big trading hubs like Antwerp and Amsterdam,
31:47it would have been easy to reach from Dublin.
31:51If broken down into individual stones,
31:53it would have effectively erased their origin,
31:55and the jewels could have easily vanished into Europe's bustling markets,
31:58leaving no trace of them behind.
32:00The meticulous nature of the heist suggests this was no ordinary smash and grab.
32:07The operation bore the marks of seasoned professionals,
32:11likely experienced in handling valuable gems,
32:14and with a knowledge of how to sell them quietly.
32:19Among the suspects, one name stands out,
32:23Francis Bennett Goldney,
32:24an antiquities enthusiast with deep ties to European jewel markets,
32:29and a reputation for ambition.
32:32Bennett Goldney was a political figure and artifact collector
32:36who joined the Office of Arms just months before the theft.
32:40With known ties to European jewel markets,
32:42he became the prime suspect for those who believed the jewels were smuggled abroad.
32:50Bennett Goldney doesn't seem to have been in Ireland at the time of the heist,
32:54but plenty of people have wondered about his interest in rare artifacts,
32:58his connections to international markets,
33:01and especially about the fact that when he died,
33:04it turned out his house was full of things he'd stolen during his lifetime,
33:09including famous paintings and ancient documents.
33:12That fall, he fit his car with an oversized gas tank for an extended trip to Amsterdam,
33:20accompanied by none other than J.P. Morgan,
33:23a financier with deep ties to art and antiquity circles
33:26known for discreet and sometimes shadowy acquisitions.
33:31Despite all the circumstantial evidence,
33:34no clear financial trail or witness testimony has ever surfaced
33:39to confirm that the jewels were sold off in Europe.
33:43Although there have been extensive investigations and countless theories,
33:48the fate of the Irish crown jewels remains an unsolved mystery.
33:52The more we learn about this cast of characters,
33:56Vickers, Shackleton, Bennett Goldney,
33:59the more elusive the truth becomes.
34:02These weren't ordinary suspects.
34:04They were men with powerful connections,
34:06bold ambitions,
34:07and in some cases,
34:09motives that could explain the disappearance.
34:10Vickers was ruined by the scandal,
34:17forced out of his post,
34:18but he professed his innocence to his dying days,
34:22claiming he was just a scapegoat.
34:24His life came to a bloody end in 1921,
34:28when he was killed by the IRA during the Irish War of Independence,
34:33a reminder of just how intertwined his own life was
34:37with the political tensions in Ireland.
34:40Over a century later,
34:45the disappearance of the Irish crown jewels
34:47continues to captivate historians and regular citizens alike.
34:52The true story remains lost to time,
34:55buried among rumors,
34:56and the silence of those who knew more than they ever revealed.
35:10In late 1941,
35:17as Japan's forces invaded China,
35:19America struggled to save and evacuate
35:21as many non-combatants as possible.
35:24Among the evacuees were dozens of individuals
35:27who had been dead for roughly 500,000 years.
35:31The Peking man fossils were discovered in the early 1920s,
35:43near the village of Jokodian,
35:4530 miles southwest of Peking,
35:46which was what Beijing was then known as,
35:49and they were believed to be between 400,000 and 780,000 years old.
35:53This was an important discovery.
35:57Peking man was identified as a new hominin species,
36:00and the hope was that the remains could provide new information
36:03in the study of human ancestry.
36:07They seem to have had relatively big brains,
36:10a cranial capacity of about 60 cubic inches,
36:13some almost 80 inches,
36:15which is getting close to the size of modern humans.
36:18And there were ash deposits at the Jokodian site, too,
36:22that some think might be evidence Peking man could control fire.
36:28The Americans knew the Peking man fossils
36:31were of significant scientific importance,
36:34so they devised a plan to sneak them out of Peking,
36:37get them on a train,
36:39and then a transport ship to New York
36:42so that they could be preserved until the war ended.
36:48But then the attack on Pearl Harbor happened.
37:00Japan was on the offensive,
37:02and American rescuers were now fighting to save their own lives.
37:08Somewhere along the way,
37:10the crates containing the bones of Peking man disappeared.
37:13So where did they go?
37:15In November of 1941,
37:19some workers from Peking Union Medical College,
37:21which was owned by the Americans,
37:23carefully prepared the skulls to be moved.
37:26According to one account,
37:27they wrapped each fossil in lens paper,
37:30soft enough to wipe a microscope's lens,
37:32then placed them in small boxes
37:34and loaded them into a pair of big wooden crates.
37:38From the medical college,
37:41the crates were to be driven to the train station
37:43and loaded onto trains.
37:45Marines would accompany them to the port of Qin Huang Dao,
37:48then onto a transport ship,
37:50the SS President Harrison,
37:51which would set sail for America.
37:53But somewhere in this process,
37:55the Peking man fossils vanished.
37:57There were no verifiable eyewitness accounts
38:01or official records of the crates
38:03being unloaded at Qin Huang Dao.
38:06Suspicions and conspiracy theories
38:07were born that would swirl for decades.
38:11Some people have wondered
38:13whether the fossils might have been stolen from the train.
38:17Years later,
38:18Marine guards said that it had been stopped
38:20by Japanese soldiers who ransacked the baggage,
38:24taking any valuables they found,
38:26and that has sparked speculation
38:27that those soldiers
38:28might have taken the crates themselves.
38:32But the thing is,
38:33these accounts are third or fourth hand by now
38:36and were never verified.
38:39Some people accused the United States of stealing them,
38:43but that would raise even more questions,
38:45like why would the Americans offer to help
38:47only to steal them for themselves,
38:50given that they'd have to keep them secret
38:51so they'd never be able to put them on display
38:54in a museum
38:54or publish any scientific papers about them,
38:57so it's not entirely clear
38:59what they'd have to gain from it.
39:03One of the few things all parties knew with certainty
39:05was that after the train arrived at Qin Huang Dao,
39:09the crates did not get loaded
39:10onto the SS President Harrison as planned
39:13because the ship never arrived.
39:17The Harrison had been steaming north from Manila
39:20with a crew of 154
39:23with orders to proceed to Qin Huang Dao
39:26to bring out the Marines
39:28and the two crates with them.
39:30En route,
39:31the ship's captain was seeing
39:33large numbers of Japanese vessels,
39:35but America hadn't officially entered the war,
39:39so the Harrison wasn't in any clear danger.
39:43And then in the middle of the night,
39:45the captain received word.
39:48Pearl Harbor had just been attacked.
39:53Suddenly, America was at war with Japan,
39:56and at dawn, the Harrison was spotted.
39:59Japanese destroyers approached but didn't fire,
40:02so it was clear to the captain
40:03that the Japanese wanted to take the Harrison intact.
40:06He couldn't let that happen,
40:08so he ran the Harrison at full speed
40:10for the nearest landmass
40:11and intentionally drove it over the island's rocky edge,
40:14tearing a 90-foot dash in the hull.
40:20Even though the Harrison never picked up the crates,
40:23some have said the search for the Peking Man fossils
40:26shouldn't continue on land,
40:27but rather under the ocean.
40:32If the crates did make it to Ching-Wang-Gao,
40:34they could have been loaded
40:36onto any one of several Japanese transport ships
40:39carrying goods and people to Japan.
40:42Several of those transports were sunk by the Allies,
40:46sometimes mistakenly.
40:48So did the fossils go down on one of those ships?
40:54The wreck of one transport ship,
40:57the Awa Maru,
40:58was found in the 1970s.
41:00There were rumors that it carried a fortune
41:03in diamonds, gold, and other treasures,
41:06so there was a huge effort to explore it.
41:09In the end, they didn't find any treasure,
41:12just personal effects,
41:13and some of the crew's remains.
41:15And there was no trace of the two crates
41:17of Peking Man fossils either.
41:20There are lots of other Second World War-era wrecks
41:23that haven't been searched,
41:24so it's possible the crates
41:26could still be down there
41:28on the seafloor somewhere.
41:31Another possibility
41:32is that the Japanese loaded the crates
41:34onto one of the transport ships
41:36that were not torpedoed
41:37and successfully made it to Japan.
41:40But no hard evidence has surfaced
41:43that would support this theory.
41:45Searches by the Japanese and Americans in Japan
41:47have yielded nothing.
41:55In 2010,
41:56close to seven decades
41:58after Peking Man's fossils
41:59had last been seen,
42:01one of the most credible leads yet
42:03came from a former Marine.
42:05This Marine had been stationed
42:08at Camp Holcomb in Qinwangdao
42:10with one of the last American units
42:12to be evacuated during the Civil War
42:14between China's Nationalists
42:16and Communist parties in 1947,
42:19about five and a half years
42:20after the Peking Man fossils
42:22had gone missing.
42:23The unit was pinned down
42:24in heavy crossfire
42:25between the two sides,
42:27and by nightfall,
42:28the men had to dig foxholes
42:29for protection.
42:32While digging,
42:33they hit a wooden box.
42:35Which turned out
42:36to have bones in it.
42:38And understandably,
42:39they were startled.
42:40So,
42:41they reburied it.
42:42But decades later,
42:44the Marine
42:44told his son
42:45about the incident,
42:47who then contacted
42:48a researcher
42:49who had been searching
42:50for the fossils
42:51for years
42:52and relayed
42:53his father's story.
42:57The location
42:58matched another account
43:00from two other Marines
43:01who said
43:02they'd unloaded the crates
43:03from the train
43:04at Qinwangdao
43:05and delivered them
43:06to Camp Holcomb
43:07on December 4th, 1941.
43:10So,
43:11just days before
43:12Pearl Harbor
43:13and the United States
43:14officially entering the war.
43:16It's plausible
43:19that in the chaos
43:20of the evacuation,
43:22the officer responsible
43:23for the fossils
43:24decided to bury them
43:25in their crates
43:26as the best short-term way
43:27to hide them
43:28from the Japanese.
43:29And that later,
43:31nobody who knew
43:31about the fossils
43:32and where they'd been buried
43:33had survived
43:35to tell about it.
43:37In November of 2010,
43:40following the guidance
43:41of the retired Marine,
43:42university researchers
43:44visited the site
43:45where Peking Man fossils
43:46may have been buried
43:47and found
43:48it was covered
43:49by warehouses
43:50and a parking lot.
43:53The local
43:54cultural heritage office
43:55was alerted
43:56and agreed
43:57to monitor
43:57any further redevelopment
43:59of the area
44:00and for any signs
44:01of those wooden crates.
44:03And as of now,
44:04the mystery
44:05of the missing
44:06Peking Man's fossils
44:07remains unsolved.
44:09Before the bones
44:14were put into the crates
44:15at the Peking Union
44:16Medical College,
44:18an employee
44:18had the foresight
44:19to make detailed casts
44:21of the most important specimens
44:22so researchers
44:24have had those to study.
44:26Parts of the Jokudian site
44:28are yet to be
44:29thoroughly excavated,
44:31so there's a chance
44:32more skulls
44:33may be found.
44:34One way or another,
44:36Peking Man
44:37may yet raise his head
44:38again.
44:39Again.
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