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Expedition Files S04E01
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00:00On this episode of Expedition Files, in 1968, the USS Scorpion disappears without a trace.
00:09Accident or act of war?
00:13Did a Soviet spy inside the U.S. Navy help destroy it?
00:19For six decades, the truth has been submerged.
00:22Until now.
00:23And Paul Revere famously saved America on his midnight ride during the Revolutionary War.
00:32But does he deserve all the credit?
00:35Remarkable research changes everything we think we know about the birth of our nation.
00:41Then, a shocking claim.
00:44John Wilkes Booth, the killer of Abraham Lincoln, wasn't captured and killed at all.
00:50But instead, lived on to meet a far stranger end.
00:55We dig into this mind-blowing theory.
01:01In the corridors of time.
01:05Are mysteries that defy explanation.
01:10Now, I'm traveling through history itself.
01:16On a search for the truth.
01:20New evidence.
01:23Shocking answers.
01:26I'm Josh Gates.
01:29And these...
01:32Are my Expedition Files.
01:37There are many things we know about America.
01:40Truths held self-evident.
01:42We have 50 states.
01:44We love freedom.
01:44We sing the national anthem off-key before every baseball game.
01:48And our idea of a small soda is still larger than any other nation on Earth.
01:53But tonight isn't about what we know about America.
01:56It's about what we don't.
01:58So prepare to look beneath the stars and stripes to uncover three American mysteries.
02:03We begin in Spain, of all places.
02:06It's May of 1968.
02:08And the Cold War is running red hot as we dive into the enigmatic fate of one of America's most
02:14valuable military assets.
02:44We're on base at Naval Station Rhoda.
02:46We'll come forward to disclose something that, if true, would be one of the most well-kept secrets of the
02:52Cold War.
02:53Is the fate of the Scorpion an accident or an attack?
03:05Commissioned in 1960, the USS Scorpion is one of the Navy's most advanced nuclear attack subs, designed to be virtually
03:13undetectable by the enemy.
03:16Powered by a nuclear reactor, it's built to run silently and stay submerged for months.
03:23At 252 feet long, about the length of a city block, it can reach 33 knots underwater, nearly 40 miles
03:30an hour.
03:32Armed with classified weapons, including two nuclear warheads, it's one of the deadliest and most stealthy assets in the U
03:39.S. Navy.
03:40Here at the Submarine Force Atlantic headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, radio men like Mike Hannon monitor the Scorpion and every
03:48other U.S. submarine operating in the Atlantic.
03:52While here, beneath the waves, the Scorpion spends most of her time training to hunt Soviet subs.
04:00But there's a problem.
04:02The Scorpion isn't exactly ship shape.
04:04The sub has been racking up maintenance headaches.
04:07There's a hydraulic leak they can't fix and a persistently faulty trash disposal unit.
04:13The crew starts calling it scrap iron.
04:16Despite this, in February of 1968, the submarine gets cleared for duty and begins patrols of the Mediterranean.
04:25For three months, the Scorpion travels throughout the Med.
04:29It doesn't find any threats.
04:30And on May 17th, its mission is scheduled to come to an end.
04:35Its last stop is the port of Rota, Spain, before it turns west into the Atlantic and heads home.
04:41On May 21st, the crew radios in from roughly 250 miles southwest of the Azores Islands of Portugal.
04:50They estimate they'll be back in Norfolk in six days' time.
04:58May 27th, 1968.
05:00The USS Scorpion is finally due home.
05:03Families gather at the pier eager to welcome their loved ones.
05:07But something is terribly wrong.
05:09And Radioman Second Class Mike Hannon suspects it.
05:13It's Hannon's job to track messages from the subs at sea.
05:16The Scorpion hasn't sent one in six days.
05:19He's praying there's some logical explanation.
05:22But there's no sign of the Scorpion.
05:27By 6 p.m., the evening news is painting an unsettling picture.
05:32The nuclear submarine USS Scorpion was scheduled to arrive in Norfolk this morning.
05:37But Navy officials say the vessel has yet to make contact.
05:41That's right.
05:42Families worry as the status of the crew of Naval Submarine Scorpion remains unknown.
05:47It's been almost a week since the Navy has received communication from the vessel.
05:52The next day, word spreads across the country.
05:55A nuclear-powered submarine is missing.
05:58And with Soviet tensions at an all-time high, the Navy is looking to avoid a panic.
06:04The government tries to keep a lid on things, quietly sending search vessels out, framed as routine operations.
06:11But behind the scenes, there's much more urgency as the Atlantic fleet surges into action.
06:18Dozens of ships and aircraft search for the missing submarine.
06:22They scour the Scorpion's projected path from the Azores all the way to Norfolk.
06:28Weeks pass, and the Navy offers no explanation to the families who are desperate for answers.
06:34But the operation presses on.
06:37And then, five months in, using cutting-edge sonar and underwater camera systems,
06:43the Navy pulls off the seemingly impossible.
06:46They find the Scorpion.
06:49The wreck of the submarine sits 9,800 feet below the surface of the Atlantic,
06:55approximately 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
06:59The submarine is badly damaged, its hull shattered.
07:03What could have caused this catastrophe?
07:07And was the Scorpion's nickname of Scrap Iron an omen of her destruction?
07:12The Navy's official inquiry is contentious, with various theories hotly debated.
07:18Some experts blame structural failure or a hydrogen explosion during a battery charge.
07:24Others believe one of the sub's own torpedoes accidentally detonated, imploding the ship.
07:29The investigation suspected some form of explosion, but lacked the evidence to prove its cause,
07:36ultimately determining that the reason the USS Scorpion sunk, quote,
07:40cannot be definitely ascertained.
07:47For the next 50 years, the loss of the Scorpion will remain one of the Cold War's biggest mysteries.
07:53But now, former Navy radio operator Mike Hannon has come forward with a stunning claim,
07:59that the Navy knew far more than it ever told the public.
08:02He believes the destruction of the Scorpion and the deaths of her crew was no accident.
08:07At the time the Scorpion was sunk, I was a service clerk, responsible for all incoming and outgoing messages.
08:19One of those messages was what's known in the Navy as a check report.
08:23Check report is a very simple message sent, encrypted, by a submarine when it is on patrol.
08:36The Scorpion was on a 24-hour check report.
08:40That's what we want to hear from him every 24 hours.
08:43The message simply would say, check 2-4, submarine Scorpion.
08:50So, when no check report arrived, Hannon knew something was wrong.
08:54Very wrong.
08:56Any news on Scorpion?
08:58Yeah.
09:03When the daily check report stopped, Navy Command pulled data from the U.S. Sound Surveillance System,
09:09a vast network of underwater hydrophones designed to detect and track submarines across the world's oceans.
09:16Mike Hannon viewed a visualization of that data and believes he saw something that changes everything.
09:22They showed me the tape, and you could clearly see it squiggly up and down the line.
09:30And you could see, boom, here.
09:34A couple seconds later, boom, there.
09:36Two distinct torpedo hits.
09:43And Scorpion was sunk.
09:45After the two explosions, they could determine that a Russian submarine in that immediate area sped up, surfaced, and left.
10:00Hannon believes the hydrophone recording is a smoking gun, proving the Scorpion was sunk in a Soviet submarine attack.
10:08But there is one big problem.
10:10The tape Mike claims he saw of the hydrophone recording, in the 60 years since, no one else has ever
10:16reported seeing it.
10:17And even if we do take Mike at his word, there's another question.
10:21How were the Soviets able to locate a stealth submarine?
10:24Mike believes he has the answer.
10:26His co-worker was a Russian spy.
10:34A bombshell claim from former Navy radio man Mike Hannon suggests the USS Scorpion submarine wasn't lost to an accident,
10:43but instead was destroyed in a calculated Soviet torpedo strike.
10:47But if the Scorpion was a virtually undetectable stealth sub, how could the Soviets have found it?
10:54The answer wouldn't surface until nearly two decades later,
10:58with revelations about John Walker Jr., a chief warrant officer in the Norfolk Communications Office,
11:05alongside radio man Mike Hannon when the Scorpion vanished.
11:08In the 1980s, he was officially outed as a spy and sentenced to life in prison
11:14in one of the most damaging security breaches in naval history.
11:18Walker had been passing the U.S. Navy's most closely guarded secrets to the Soviets,
11:23including top-secret submarine patrol schedules.
11:28If the Soviets had access to the Scorpion's navigation plan,
11:32they would have known exactly where she was headed and could have been waiting to strike.
11:37We had a row of teletype machines where messages were coming in.
11:42And I had noticed that Walker would go back there and just go down the line looking at the messages
11:50on each of the machines.
11:51And I said, why all of a sudden is Walker interested in all of these damn messages?
11:58I think there's a good possibility that Walker could have been involved.
12:18Soviet spy John Walker Jr. died in prison in 2014 without ever being directly linked to the fate of the
12:26Scorpion.
12:26Many experts are also skeptical of Mike's theory, noting that the wreck shows no clear sign of an external torpedo
12:33attack
12:34and that the sub likely imploded due to an unknown catastrophic event,
12:39which means that for Mike and the families of those aboard, there's no emotional closure to the case.
12:46It was painful then and for all the years since, I knew 10 of those guys closely.
12:57The scar that that's left on me, seldom does a night go by that I don't have that whole situation
13:07go through my head and wake me up.
13:10If you had seen those families on that pier, their anticipation, and their dads are coming home, or significant others
13:19are coming home, it broke my heart.
13:22I know that I've said information that's still top secret, but I'm not going to die with the people of
13:33America not knowing what happened with that submarine.
13:47Over a decade ago, a submarine veterans group petitioned the government to reopen the case to determine the true cause
13:54of the Scorpion sinking.
13:55So far, the Navy has declined.
13:57Today, the USS Scorpion still lies at a depth of nearly 10,000 feet on the floor of the Atlantic
14:04Ocean, as does her nuclear reactor.
14:07The Navy monitors the area for signs of radioactivity, but the sub itself remains off-limits,
14:13a silent steel tomb for 99 sailors who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
14:23From a submarine lost at sea to the loss of an American president, it's April 26th, 1865.
14:31The Civil War is at an end, and Abraham Lincoln has just been murdered.
14:35And inside this blazing barn is the man who shot him.
14:39Bring on your arms and come out!
14:41History records that in a few minutes, gunfire will ring out, and John Wilkes Booth will die.
14:47But soon, a conspiracy theory will emerge, one of the strangest theories you could possibly imagine.
14:53That John Wilkes Booth doesn't perish tonight.
14:55That he escapes, slips into a new identity, only to end up as...
15:00Well, I don't want to spoil it for you.
15:02Just get ready for a wild ride, as we use high-tech analysis to unravel the mind-blowing mystery
15:08surrounding America's most infamous assassin.
15:21Our strange story really begins 12 days before the barn.
15:27After four long years of bloodshed, the Civil War is finally over.
15:32President Abraham Lincoln is taking a rare night out to celebrate,
15:36enjoying the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
15:43But just as the performance reaches its climax,
15:46a single gunshot rings out.
15:49Lincoln has been murdered in cold blood.
15:53The killer leaps from Lincoln's box onto the stage.
15:57He lands on both feet, hard.
16:00His leg is now broken.
16:09Many in the audience wonder if this is all part of the play.
16:14That's because the man who just jumped on stage
16:16is one of the most famous actors in America,
16:20John Wilkes Booth.
16:23Before anyone can react, he flees the stage.
16:33Booth rides off into the darkness and vanishes,
16:37sparking one of the most frantic manhunts in American history.
16:41According to some reports, he alters his appearance,
16:44shaving off his trademark mustache to avoid being recognized.
16:48As word of Lincoln's assassination spreads,
16:52Secretary of War Edwin Stanton locks down Washington,
16:56sealing bridges and dispatching teams of soldiers,
16:59detectives, and bounty hunters to track Booth's escape.
17:04A staggering $50,000 bounty, over a million dollars today,
17:09is placed on Booth's head.
17:14After 12 days of desperate searching,
17:17finally, there's a break.
17:18A tip leads Union soldiers to a farm two miles from Port Royal, Virginia.
17:24Two men are said to be hiding there,
17:26one matching the description of John Wilkes Booth.
17:30The soldiers are under clear orders to take Booth alive
17:34so he can expose any possible Confederate conspiracy.
17:41So the soldiers set the barn ablaze,
17:44hoping to force Booth out.
17:46Which brings us back here to the besieged barn.
17:49According to the account of the Union soldiers,
17:52they first demand the two men inside surrender.
17:54Eventually, one man emerges.
17:57It's David Harreld, one of Booth's accomplices.
18:01But the other man refuses to come outside.
18:06Sergeant Boston Corbett then confronts Booth
18:09through the doors of the barn.
18:11Come out, Booth! You're surrounded!
18:13Fearing the suspect is about to fire,
18:16he has no choice but to bring him down.
18:22The soldiers say they drag him,
18:25barely alive, onto the farmhouse porch.
18:29In his pockets, the soldiers find Booth's diary.
18:35Paralyzed from the gunshot,
18:36he apparently can't lift his arms.
18:39With his final breath,
18:40he stares down at his hands
18:42and whispers two words.
18:44Useless.
18:46Useless.
18:48Dawn is breaking,
18:49and John Wilkes Booth is dead.
18:53After 12 days on the run,
18:55the man who killed Abraham Lincoln
18:57has met his end.
18:59In the aftermath of Booth's death,
19:02the body is brought aboard
19:03the Union ironclad ship,
19:05the USS Montauk,
19:06where a surgeon performs an autopsy.
19:11Fearing his remains
19:13might be stolen or desecrated,
19:15Booth's body is then placed
19:16at a D.C. penitentiary,
19:18before ultimately being interred
19:20in a family plot
19:21at Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore.
19:26Meanwhile, four people,
19:28including David Herold from the barn fire,
19:30are found guilty of conspiracy
19:32to assassinate Lincoln
19:33and are hanged on July 7, 1865.
19:38It would seem this tragic case
19:40has come to a close,
19:42but there are those that believe
19:43there's much more to the story.
19:46Enter Texas attorney Finnis Bates,
19:49who publishes a book in 1907
19:51called The Escape and Suicide
19:53of John Wilkes Booth.
19:55In its pages,
19:56Bates recounts the purportedly true,
19:59jaw-dropping story
20:00of a man he befriended
20:01named John St. Helen.
20:04In 1878,
20:06St. Helen falls gravely ill
20:09and believing he's about to die
20:11makes an outrageous confession.
20:13Our name is not John St. Helena.
20:17Our real name is John Wilkes Booth.
20:20He says he is the assassin
20:23of Abraham Lincoln.
20:27According to Bates' tell-all book,
20:30John Wilkes Booth
20:30didn't die in that barn at all.
20:32He escaped justice
20:33and spent the rest of his life
20:35hiding behind a false identity.
20:37Now, that might sound like a crazy claim,
20:39but I promise,
20:41we're just getting warmed up.
20:42Because John Wilkes Booth
20:43then allegedly becomes
20:45an actual mummy
20:46in a traveling sideshow.
20:48Seriously.
20:55In 1878,
20:57a man on his deathbed
20:58named John St. Helen
21:00confesses an astonishing secret.
21:02He claims to be
21:03Abraham Lincoln's killer,
21:05John Wilkes Booth,
21:06and says he faked his death,
21:08escaping capture.
21:10The man explains that
21:11after assassinating Lincoln,
21:13he escaped through southern Maryland,
21:16hidden in the back of a wagon
21:17and slipped back into Virginia.
21:20However,
21:21at one point,
21:21in order to avoid capture,
21:23St. Helen abandoned the wagon
21:25and fled into the woods.
21:26But in doing so,
21:27he lost his diary.
21:29St. Helen says
21:30he sent a messenger,
21:32a Confederate soldier
21:33known only as Ruddy,
21:35back for the diary.
21:36Ruddy collected it,
21:37but then panicked
21:38upon seeing the Union troops
21:40and fled to a nearby barn,
21:41where he apparently ended up
21:43alongside fellow Confederate conspirator
21:46David Harreld.
21:47St. Helen says
21:48it was his messenger
21:49who was shot and killed
21:50in the barn that night.
21:52But because the man
21:54resembled him
21:54and carried his diary,
21:56it led Union troops
21:57to mistakenly identify
21:59the messenger
22:00as Booth.
22:01St. Helen said
22:02in the years that followed,
22:04he assumed various aliases,
22:06constantly on the move
22:07to avoid capture.
22:10I need to show you something.
22:11After telling this
22:13extraordinary tale
22:14to Finnis Bates,
22:16St. Helen presents
22:17an original photograph
22:18of John Wilkes Booth
22:19as proof,
22:20implying that only
22:22the real Booth
22:23would possess
22:23such a picture.
22:25But that's far
22:27from the end
22:27of this twisted tale.
22:29Following his dramatic
22:30deathbed confession
22:32that he is
22:32John Wilkes Booth,
22:34St. Helen recovers
22:35and promptly disappears.
22:38Bates keeps the photograph,
22:40but it would be another 25 years,
22:42in 1903,
22:44before he sees
22:45St. Helen again.
22:46Only this time,
22:47the man is definitely dead.
22:53Bates says he came across
22:55a newspaper article
22:56from Enid, Oklahoma,
22:57describing how a local mortuary
22:59had the preserved body
23:01of a drifter.
23:03The newspaper also reported
23:05the deceased man
23:06had been living
23:07under the name
23:07David E. George,
23:09but before he died,
23:11claimed to be
23:11John Wilkes Booth.
23:14One look at the photo
23:15of David E. George
23:16and Bates was certain.
23:18It was the same man
23:19he'd met years earlier
23:21in Texas,
23:22John St. Helen.
23:23A few years later,
23:25Bates actually buys
23:26the corpse,
23:27just as he's preparing
23:28to publish a book
23:29detailing the wild tale
23:31of Booth's escape
23:32and secret life.
23:34With the mummified body
23:35in tow
23:36and a sensational story
23:38to promote,
23:39Bates is ready
23:40to take his show
23:41on the road.
23:42For the next 70 years,
23:44the so-called Booth mummy
23:45takes to the stage,
23:46touring America
23:47with multiple circus productions,
23:49often with the
23:50less than subtle billing
23:51See the Man
23:52Who Murdered Lincoln.
23:54The attraction even makes it
23:55to the World's Fair.
23:57The mummy is a hit,
23:58but is there any shred
24:00of truth to its origin?
24:01Author Jane Singer
24:02has studied the legend closely.
24:05What's remarkable to me
24:07is how many people
24:10genuinely believe
24:11that John Wilkes Booth
24:12did not die in that barn.
24:15Was there a government
24:16conspiracy to suppress
24:17the fact that Booth
24:19really didn't die
24:20on April 26, 1865?
24:23A lot of people
24:24believed there was.
24:26Enough people
24:26probably believed
24:28and were suspicious
24:28of the government
24:29because toward the end
24:31of the Civil War,
24:31before Abraham Lincoln
24:33was killed,
24:33it was a very
24:34hard-handed regime.
24:36In order to win
24:38this war,
24:39Abraham Lincoln
24:40first had to suspend
24:41the right of habeas corpus.
24:43Can't have a trial.
24:44If you're a traitor,
24:45you get hauled off to jail.
24:46And then we have
24:48General William Tecumseh Sherman
24:50marching from Memphis
24:52to the sea
24:53and literally destroying
24:55much of the Confederacy.
24:57And so,
24:59to believe that
25:00that government
25:01was not trustworthy,
25:03I don't think
25:04was such a far reach
25:05for a lot of people.
25:08And let's be real,
25:09it would have been
25:10a terrible look
25:11for the Union
25:11if Lincoln's killer
25:13had just slipped away.
25:14But Singer isn't
25:15buying the conspiracy.
25:17Why?
25:17Because the soldiers
25:18at Garrett Farms
25:19swore up and down
25:21they knew exactly
25:21who they had.
25:23And other experts
25:24also corroborated
25:25it was John Wilkes Booth.
25:28When we are looking
25:29at Phineas Bates' theory
25:31that John Wilkes Booth
25:33escaped not just
25:35the burning barn
25:36but death,
25:37it doesn't add up
25:39because there were
25:40credible witnesses
25:42called to come
25:43to the Montauk
25:44and identify the body.
25:47Dr. John Frederick May
25:49was a renowned
25:50Washington, D.C. physician
25:52who had removed
25:53a fibroid tumor
25:55from Booth's neck.
25:57About three months
25:57before the assassination
25:59and it left quite
26:00a vivid scar.
26:02And May allegedly said
26:05that's the scar.
26:07That's the person
26:08I operated on.
26:09Unmistakable
26:10in his opinion.
26:12Charles Dawson
26:13who was a clerk
26:14at the National Hotel
26:15where Booth stayed.
26:16When he first saw
26:18the body of John Wilkes Booth
26:19he said,
26:20oh my goodness.
26:21On the right hand
26:22between the thumb
26:22and finger
26:23was a tattoo
26:24with the initials
26:26J.W.B. tattooed
26:28in India ink
26:28and young Dawson said
26:31that's the tattoo
26:32I've seen repeatedly
26:34when Booth signed
26:35the guest register.
26:37These were
26:38ordinary folks.
26:40It would be highly unlikely
26:41that the official autopsy
26:43of record
26:43would be part of some
26:45overreaching conspiracy.
26:49And what of John St. Helen
26:51the mummified man
26:53who insisted
26:53he was the real Booth?
26:55A forensic team
26:56recently used
26:57facial recognition technology
26:58to render
26:59a definitive answer
27:00to his conspiratorial claim.
27:03In 2020
27:04the Smithsonian Institution
27:06created
27:07a Civil War sleuth
27:09facial recognition
27:10software.
27:10software.
27:12They compared
27:13the face
27:15of John Wilkes Booth
27:15to the face
27:16of John St. Helen.
27:18During the testing
27:19of the photographs
27:21there were data points
27:22that weren't matching.
27:23It was clear
27:24that John Wilkes Booth
27:26in photograph
27:26John St. Helen
27:28in photograph
27:29couldn't possibly
27:30be the same person.
27:35So after 147 years
27:37we can finally
27:38scientifically declare
27:40that John St. Helen
27:41is not
27:42John Wilkes Booth.
27:43More than likely
27:44Finnis Bates
27:45spun the fanciful tale
27:47for pure profit
27:48using the story
27:49and the mummy
27:50to promote book sales.
27:51But conspiracies
27:52don't die quietly.
27:54As recently as 2010
27:55Booth's descendants
27:56lobbied to have
27:57his remains exhumed
27:59and his DNA tested.
28:00The request
28:01was denied.
28:02Regardless
28:03I think it's safe to say
28:04if you happen to pass
28:05by a carnival
28:06with a sign
28:07hawking a John Wilkes
28:08Booth mummy
28:08that's one sideshow
28:10you can happily avoid.
28:15I'm at a pub
28:16in Boston, Massachusetts
28:17on April 18th
28:201775
28:21and even though
28:22the beer is flowing
28:23the mood is anything
28:24but celebratory.
28:26These colonists
28:27still technically
28:28British citizens
28:29have been under the thumb
28:30of the crown
28:30for years
28:31and they've reached
28:32their breaking point.
28:33A revolution
28:34is brewing
28:35and militia commander
28:36Joseph Warren here
28:37has received word
28:38that the British
28:39are planning to strike back
28:40tomorrow morning.
28:41They need to take action
28:43now
28:43and what happens next
28:45will become
28:46the stuff of legend
28:47because the commander
28:48dispatches this man
28:49Paul Revere
28:51to set out
28:52on a dangerous mission.
28:55The story goes
28:57that after leaving
28:58the tavern
28:58Revere spots
28:59two lanterns
29:00hanging in a church
29:01signaling the British
29:03are attacking by sea.
29:06And so he begins
29:08his famous midnight ride.
29:12His words echoing
29:13through history.
29:14The British are coming.
29:17The British are coming.
29:18The British are coming.
29:21Revere's heroic ride
29:22will be remembered
29:23as saving America.
29:25One man alone
29:26protecting the birth
29:27of a new nation.
29:28But 250 years later
29:30evidence will reveal
29:32that almost everything
29:33we think we know
29:34about Paul Revere's
29:35fateful night
29:36is in need
29:37of a rewrite.
29:50In 1775,
29:52the year of his famed ride,
29:54Paul Revere
29:54is a silversmith
29:55living in Boston
29:56struggling to make ends meet.
29:59Britain has imposed
30:00taxes on the colonies
30:01causing a recession
30:03and spawning the
30:04taxation without
30:05representation movement.
30:07The most onerous tax
30:09is known as
30:10the Stamp Act,
30:11requiring the colonies
30:13to purchase special paper
30:14for all printed materials.
30:17The tax's true purpose
30:18is to raise money
30:19for the occupying
30:20British troops,
30:21essentially picking
30:22the colonists' pockets
30:23to pay for their
30:24very own oppressors.
30:26In response,
30:27some colonists,
30:28including Revere,
30:29form a clandestine militia
30:31known as the Sons of Liberty
30:33to battle the British.
30:36One of their most
30:37successful protests
30:38is the Boston Tea Party,
30:40where they sneak
30:41onto British ships
30:42and dump all their
30:43highly profitable tea leaves
30:45into the harbor.
30:46No better way
30:47to rile up a Brit
30:48than to mess with their tea.
30:50But the Boston Tea Party
30:51is only the beginning.
30:52What follows
30:53will ignite a revolution
30:55and bring Paul Revere
30:56and what he did,
30:57or notably didn't do,
30:59into the spotlight.
31:06It's 1775,
31:08a year and a half
31:08since the Boston Tea Party,
31:10and the American resistance
31:11to British rule
31:12is gaining momentum.
31:15Intelligence gathered
31:16by the colonial rebel group
31:17known as the Sons of Liberty
31:19reveals that the British
31:20have 700 soldiers
31:22at the ready
31:23for a raid
31:24on the colonists.
31:25In anticipation,
31:27the militia
31:27has been assembling
31:28stockpiles of weapons,
31:30gunpowder,
31:31and supplies.
31:32One of the largest
31:33is in Concord,
31:34a small town
31:35on the outskirts of Boston.
31:36The colonists know
31:38it's only a matter of time
31:39before the Redcoats
31:40make their attack,
31:41so they activate
31:42an early warning system.
31:44If the colonists spot
31:46any aggressive movement
31:47of British troops,
31:49a man will light a signal
31:50in the North Church's bell tower.
31:52If the British are marching
31:53out of Boston over land,
31:55he'll light a single lantern.
31:56If, instead,
31:58the British cross
31:58the Charles River by boat,
32:00he will light two.
32:02Or, as you might remember
32:03it from your childhood,
32:04one if by land,
32:05two if by sea.
32:07On April 18th,
32:09the colonists' fears
32:10are realized.
32:11A spy spots British troops
32:13crossing the Charles River.
32:14Two lanterns it is.
32:16Now, unless you took
32:18Honor's American history
32:19in high school,
32:20here's the version
32:21of Revere's story
32:22you likely remember.
32:23Revere sees the lanterns
32:25and so begins his ride
32:26to spread the alarm.
32:31Alone, galloping
32:32from town to town,
32:34Revere reportedly shouts
32:35that famous phrase.
32:37The British are coming!
32:38The British are coming!
32:40The British are coming!
32:42The British are coming!
32:43After an hour,
32:45it's said that he makes it
32:46to Lexington,
32:46and after another,
32:48he supposedly makes it
32:49to his destination,
32:50Concord,
32:51around 2 a.m.
32:53Revere has reportedly
32:54arrived just in time,
32:56single-handedly giving
32:57the rebel militia
32:58time to arm themselves
32:59and muster into formations.
33:06Just three hours later,
33:08those 700 British soldiers
33:09will march into Lexington,
33:11confronting the colonial militia.
33:14Gunshots ring out,
33:15and with that,
33:16the American Revolution
33:18officially begins.
33:20If it wasn't for Revere's warning,
33:23it all could have gone
33:24very differently.
33:28We all remember this story,
33:30but it may surprise you
33:31to learn that,
33:32for most of us,
33:33what we know
33:33comes from a single source.
33:35The 1861 poem
33:37titled
33:37Paul Revere's Ride,
33:39written an astonishing
33:4086 years after the event
33:42by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
33:46In the hour of darkness
33:48and peril and need,
33:50the people will waken
33:51and listen to hear
33:52the hurrying hoofbeats
33:54of that steed
33:55and the midnight message
33:56of Paul Revere.
33:58It's 14 stirring stanzas,
34:01really selling Revere's
34:03solo glory.
34:04Oh, but there is
34:05one small problem
34:06with the poem.
34:07It's wrong.
34:08It was written to be
34:09rousing, not historical.
34:11Historian Sammy Jerush
34:12explains.
34:14Longfellow's poem
34:15is a lovely poem.
34:18It tells a heroic story
34:20of someone who rose
34:23above the odds
34:24and proclaimed resistance
34:26out loud,
34:27but we have had to uncover
34:30numerous primary sources
34:31to truly piece together
34:33what took place
34:34during the actual
34:34midnight ride.
34:35That includes
34:36Paul Revere's diaries,
34:38Paul Revere's letters
34:38that he had sent
34:39with his own description
34:42of the midnight ride.
34:46In 1942,
34:48historian Esther Forbes
34:50dives into those
34:51primary sources
34:52and publishes
34:52a new biography
34:54of Revere.
34:54And some serious cracks
34:56emerge in Longfellow's
34:58version of Revere's story.
35:00The first issue is here
35:02at the very beginning
35:03of our story.
35:04Esther Forbes discovers
35:05a paper trail,
35:06confirming Commander Warren
35:07dispatches not just
35:09Paul Revere but fellow
35:10militiaman William Dawes.
35:13Warren wants two men
35:14on separate routes
35:15so that if one is captured,
35:17the other can still
35:18complete the mission.
35:20Because as leaders
35:22of the Sons of Liberty,
35:23the fear was that
35:25they would be forced
35:26to give up all this
35:26information and it would
35:28be a lot harder
35:29to take on the British Army
35:30because all of the secrets
35:32would have been given up.
35:34Forbes' biography
35:35wins the Pulitzer Prize,
35:36but to the general public,
35:38the story of Revere's ride
35:39continues to be
35:40shrouded in myth.
35:42And it turns out
35:43the full, true story
35:44isn't just that Revere
35:46didn't ride alone.
35:48Buckle up,
35:49because what comes next
35:50will upend the most
35:51famous parts
35:52of Revere's
35:53legendary story.
35:59Paul Revere
36:00isn't the only
36:01Revolutionary War hero
36:02to take a legendary ride.
36:04In 1777,
36:06as British soldiers
36:07burned Danbury, Connecticut,
36:0916-year-old
36:10Sybil Luddington,
36:12the daughter of
36:12a local militia commander,
36:14reportedly rode alone
36:15through 40 miles
36:16of stormy woods.
36:17It's said that
36:19she warned neighbors,
36:20evaded British patrols,
36:21and by dawn
36:22had mobilized 400 men.
36:25But her ride,
36:26twice the distance
36:27of Paul Revere's,
36:28went unrecognized
36:29at the time.
36:30The first written account
36:31of it surfaced in 1880,
36:33with a statue
36:34then erected in her honor
36:35and markers placed
36:37along her reported route.
36:39Today, some scholars
36:40question whether the ride
36:41really was as epic
36:42as recorded,
36:43but her inspiring story
36:45persists.
36:46A teenage girl
36:47braving the night
36:48to help save
36:49a fledgling nation.
36:50Ride on, Sybil.
36:54Paul Revere's
36:55renowned solo ride
36:57is not as we remember it.
36:59In Longfellow's
37:00immortal poem,
37:01a pair of lanterns
37:02was hung
37:02in the Old North Church
37:03and lit to indicate
37:05where the British
37:06were coming from,
37:07one if by land
37:08and two if by sea.
37:10Once Revere sees the signal,
37:12he begins his ride.
37:14Well, it turns out,
37:15Revere didn't start his ride
37:16because he saw the lanterns.
37:18He started because
37:19he'd been ordered to
37:20by Joseph Warren
37:21back in the tavern.
37:22The signal in the church
37:24wasn't for Revere.
37:25It was for the rest
37:26of the community.
37:28Revere didn't need a signal.
37:29He already had his mission
37:30from Warren.
37:31He already knew
37:32where he had to ride to,
37:33where he had to go.
37:34In reality,
37:35Revere came up
37:36with the signal idea.
37:37He went to the sexton
37:38of the church
37:38and he said,
37:39here's what you're going to do.
37:40If the British
37:41are coming by land,
37:42put one lantern
37:42in the belfry.
37:43If they're coming by water,
37:44put two.
37:44So the signal
37:46was more for other people
37:47to be aware of
37:49where the British
37:49would be coming from.
37:51And there's more
37:52myth-busting to come.
37:54Remember the most
37:54legendary moment
37:56of the ride?
37:57Revere's dramatic cry,
37:58the British are coming.
38:00Well, it turns out
38:01he probably never said it.
38:02At least not like that.
38:04The British are coming.
38:05The British are coming.
38:06The British are coming.
38:08It never happened.
38:09If you're riding
38:10past midnight
38:11and you're yelling
38:12out loud
38:12that the British are coming,
38:13you're waking everybody up.
38:14Not a good move
38:15if you're trying to stay
38:16as discreet as possible.
38:17What Revere actually
38:18ends up doing
38:19on his midnight ride
38:21is he rides
38:22to people's homes
38:24and he knocks
38:25on their doors
38:26and lets them know,
38:27hey,
38:28the regulars
38:29are coming out.
38:31The regulars
38:32are coming out.
38:33What the regulars
38:34refers to
38:35is the British
38:35regular army,
38:37a.k.a.
38:37British soldiers.
38:40So where did
38:41the famous phrase
38:42the British are coming
38:43originate?
38:45It's not from
38:46the Longfellow poem
38:47that's the source
38:48of other errors.
38:49It's actually
38:50from an 1879
38:51school textbook
38:52that misattributes
38:53the phrase
38:54to Revere.
38:56When you read history
38:58and when you study history,
38:59we're only understanding
39:00history from
39:01a certain point of view.
39:02There's no
39:02all-encompassing source.
39:04You have to think
39:05about what's missing.
39:07To put the final nail
39:09in poor old Longfellow's poem,
39:11historians point out
39:12one more major flaw.
39:14Revere never actually
39:15made it to Concord.
39:17The poem gets that part
39:19wrong, too.
39:20It was another rider
39:21who reached
39:22the final destination.
39:23Digging into
39:24the historical record,
39:26it's clear Revere
39:27and Dawes
39:27actually met
39:28a third rider
39:29at John Hancock's
39:31house in Lexington.
39:32That's right,
39:33it wasn't one rider
39:34who saved America
39:35or two,
39:36but three.
39:39The third rider
39:40is a doctor
39:41named Samuel Prescott.
39:44Together,
39:44the three men
39:45set out from Lexington
39:46to Concord
39:47to warn of
39:48the oncoming British.
39:54But halfway there,
39:55the trio is spotted
39:56by a patrol
39:57of British soldiers.
39:59Prescott leaps
40:00to safety
40:01and rides on.
40:03Dawes escapes
40:04the Redcoats
40:05but is thrown
40:05from his horse
40:06and injured.
40:08And Revere,
40:10far from triumphantly
40:11making it to Concord,
40:12he's actually
40:13captured by the British.
40:15The British patrol
40:16that captures Revere
40:18or press him
40:19for information.
40:20But Revere
40:20stands his ground,
40:22doesn't give them
40:22any information.
40:23What he tells them
40:23though is that
40:25you're about to be
40:26surrounded by
40:26a bunch of Americans
40:28who are ready
40:29to take up arms
40:30against you.
40:31The British
40:32don't initially
40:32believe Revere
40:33so they keep
40:34him captured
40:35but they run
40:36into other
40:37British soldiers
40:37who basically
40:38confirm
40:39what Revere
40:40has told them.
40:41And so they
40:42recognize that
40:42that's the bigger
40:43threat that they
40:44have to deal with
40:45and not on this
40:46one guy.
40:46So they end up
40:46letting Revere go
40:47Revere ends up
40:49riding back to
40:50Lexington
40:50and helping
40:51John Hancock
40:51and his family
40:52escape.
40:56So ends
40:57the true saga
40:58of Paul Revere's
40:59midnight ride.
41:01It turns out
41:01he didn't ride alone,
41:03he was never
41:03warned by lamps,
41:05he never reached
41:05Concord
41:06and probably
41:07never shouted
41:07the British are coming.
41:09But whatever
41:10license Longfellow's
41:11poem may have
41:12taken,
41:12Paul Revere
41:13was every bit
41:14a hero.
41:15He was part
41:16of a trio
41:16of daring riders
41:17who along
41:18with tens of
41:19thousands
41:19of brave
41:20militiamen
41:21battled against
41:22oppression
41:22to forge
41:23these United States.
41:25I'm Josh Gates
41:26and I'll see you
41:27on the next expedition.
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