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Expedition Files - Season 4 Episode 4
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00:00En este episodio de Expedition Files.
00:04Noah's Ark.
00:05La historia de un hombre salvó el mundo de los criaturas de un desgrado apocalíptico es una de la Biblia
00:11más épica tales.
00:13Pero es un allegorio, o es based en fact?
00:16Ahora, un descubrimiento en los montones de Turquía muestra el legendario Ark may haber sido encontrado.
00:24Luego, en el aftermath de 9-11, los 2001 Anthrax attacks spread fear across America.
00:32El sender de los letros de los muertos remains unknown, hasta que el FBI uncoversa un culprito no uno esperaba.
00:41Y en el 1940, el mobster Bugsy Siegel es guno en su habitación de Beverly Hills mansion.
00:48Por décadas, su kille permanece uno de los mejores secretos del mundo.
00:53Until an unpublished memoir threatens to expose the betrayal that brought him down.
01:04In the corridors of time
01:08Are mysteries that defy explanation.
01:12Now, I'm traveling through history itself.
01:18On a search for the truth.
01:22New evidence.
01:25Shocking answers.
01:28I'm Josh Gates.
01:30And these are my expedition files.
01:40Our high school football coach had a catchphrase that he'd try to inspire the team with before every game.
01:46He'd say, you know what makes diamonds?
01:49Pressure.
01:49Did it work?
01:50I wouldn't know.
01:51I was metal detecting for treasure behind the bleachers.
01:54But coach What's-His-Name had a point.
01:56The most extreme situations can lead to the most extraordinary things.
02:00Tonight, we pressurize three such tales, multifaceted mysteries born under the most intense of circumstances.
02:09We start with a DIY project created under the most powerful pressure imaginable, the impending end of the world.
02:16The vessel behind me is 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits tall.
02:24Now, you're probably asking yourself, what the heck is a cubit?
02:27Well, it's a unit of measurement recorded in the book of Genesis.
02:31Because this shipbuilder here is Noah.
02:34And that is his ark.
02:36It's a work in progress.
02:37It's also no ordinary boat.
02:39Because God himself has commissioned it to be big enough to hold two of every known animal on earth.
02:45And according to scripture, it's going to be completed just in time.
02:49Because the long-term forecast is, well, let's just say, wet.
02:53Millennia later, biblical scholars and archaeologists will scour the globe,
02:58searching for evidence of a great flood and traces of this fabled ship.
03:03And eventually, on a remote mountain in Turkey,
03:06an international team of researchers claim to make a discovery of biblical proportions.
03:11Could it be the true final resting place of Noah's ark?
03:27If you're like me, then it's been a few years since Sunday school.
03:31So let's crack open the best-selling book of all time for a quick recap.
03:35In the book of Genesis, God is angry.
03:38No, like really angry.
03:42Much better.
03:44Fed up with the wickedness, corruption, and violence of humanity,
03:47the rather vengeful God of the Old Testament decides to destroy his creation and start over.
03:57To kick off Humanity 2.0, God picks Noah, supposedly the only righteous man on earth.
04:09He comes to him in a vision, instructing him on how to build a literal lifeboat for humanity.
04:21Divided into three decks, with a large door on the side.
04:26Converting our cubits, the ark is roughly 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high.
04:34Tradition says Noah builds the ship with the help of his three sons,
04:37and that once it's ready, God commands the animals to gather, instinctively making their way to the ark.
04:45Noah is going to need every last inch, because God wants every species on earth on board.
04:52Not to mention food and supplies to ride out the coming storm.
04:56According to Genesis, building the ark takes around 100 years.
05:00Noah is a spry 600 years young when the rain starts.
05:04Accompanied by his wife, three sons, their wives, and the huge animal menagerie,
05:11Noah hunkers down for the end of the world.
05:16For the next 40 days and 40 nights, a monstrous storm devastates the earth.
05:22The waters rise, and all land disappears.
05:32Scripture says after about a year adrift, the waters recede.
05:38And the boat comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
05:45When Noah releases a dove and it returns clutching a freshly plucked olive leaf,
05:50it's proof that land and life are re-emerging.
05:55Humanity has its do-over.
05:58Sure, there are plot holes in this account big enough to sail an ark through,
06:01but that hasn't stopped countless biblical scholars and true believers
06:05from investigating whether elements of the flood and the ark are based on verifiable historical events.
06:16In the first century AD, Roman Jewish historian Josephus
06:20links the biblical tale to a strikingly similar Mesopotamian account
06:25carved on clay tablets some 2,000 years earlier of a great flood.
06:30He suggests they may be describing the same ancient disaster,
06:34placing the resting place of Noah's Ark in the region
06:37near the modern-day borders of Turkey, Iran, and Armenia,
06:41home to a mountain known as Ararat.
06:49In 1829, French and Armenian mountaineers make the first recorded ascent
06:54of the remote, nearly 17,000-foot summit,
06:57but they report no sign of the ark.
07:01Almost 50 years later, in 1876, explorer James Bryce summits the mountain
07:07and is seemingly more successful,
07:10reportedly returning with a mysterious piece of hand-hewn timber
07:14that some will claim is proof of Noah's ship.
07:19Then, in October 1959, an event unfolds that some believe
07:23finally reveals a real sighting of the ark.
07:26So we're just going to take off from over here, head northeast,
07:29and then once we approach around the base of the Ararat,
07:32we take a quick loop.
07:35Turkish Air Force pilot Ilhan Derupinar is preparing to fly a reconnaissance mission
07:40near the Turkish-Iranian border.
07:45As he flies over the remote wilderness south of Mount Ararat,
07:49he is stunned by what looks like a large rock formation
07:52that seems completely at odds with the surrounding terrain.
07:56He snaps an aerial photo.
08:03In addition to being about 500 feet long and 150 feet wide,
08:08the formation seems oddly boat-shaped.
08:13The resemblance and dimensions aren't lost on Derupinar or his superiors.
08:19Immediately, they notify the Turkish government
08:22that they might have actually found Noah's Ark.
08:26An expedition team is scrambled.
08:29They spend two days looking for physical evidence of the wooden ship,
08:33excavating with hand tools,
08:35not to mention other techniques like a little dynamite.
08:40When the dust settles, no definitive evidence is found.
08:44Even so, the Derupinar site will continue to fuel debate for decades to come.
08:50Is something buried within the hill?
08:52Or is it just a strange rock formation?
08:56Eighty years later, the remote site and mysterious formation
08:59is investigated once again, this time with cutting-edge technology.
09:04And the data may show something truly astonishing.
09:07Potential evidence of Noah's Ark.
09:16For centuries, Biblical scholars have searched for evidence of the legendary Noah's Ark.
09:23Then, in 2019, radar scientist Matt Daniels led a modern expedition
09:28to the remote slopes near Turkey's Mount Ararat,
09:31where many Biblical scholars suggest the Ark came to rest.
09:35And what he discovered there raised eyebrows.
09:39We took a bunch of technical experts, 3D laser scanners, ground-penetrating radar,
09:44all of this technical expertise to collect data on that site in the mountains of Ararat.
09:52The real purpose of it was to create a high-definition, photorealistic model of the site
09:58and figure out what's underneath the ground.
10:00When we processed the data, it was shocking because we saw a lot of different structures,
10:05right angles, things that looked like rooms.
10:07We were like, well, what is this? Like, what's going on here?
10:11Everything points towards keep going.
10:14Matt was intrigued.
10:15The data may indicate buried, man-made structures.
10:19Unfortunately, without permission from the Turkish government to excavate,
10:22the team is unable to verify exactly what is buried under the mountain.
10:26But if it's really Noah's Ark, then the slopes would have to have been flooded in Biblical times.
10:32So, is that even possible?
10:35The answer might lie in the Black Sea,
10:38the nearest large body of water capable of producing that kind of flooding.
10:42While Mount Ararat sits more than 150 miles away today,
10:47scientists have long questioned whether ancient geography
10:50once put these two regions much closer together.
10:54In the 1990s, an international team of geologists and oceanographers
10:58set out to answer the question, did the Black Sea ever experience a massive flood?
11:05They used seismic soundings, essentially underwater sonar, to map the seafloor,
11:10and then drilled sediment cores, which are long cylinders of mud from the seabed
11:15that preserve a layered record of the Black Sea's past.
11:19These cores revealed a dramatic environmental shift.
11:22In the deepest layers, scientists found freshwater shells, evidence that the Black Sea was once an isolated freshwater lake.
11:31Then, abruptly, those species disappeared, replaced by saltwater marine life.
11:37The only explanation?
11:39Seawater from the Mediterranean broke through, rushing in and transforming the lake into a saltwater sea.
11:46The data also suggests the water level rose rapidly, by as much as 500 feet.
11:53And radiocarbon dating places this dramatic event at roughly 7,500 years ago.
12:00According to their analysis, a rapidly rising Black Sea overflowed,
12:05dumping the equivalent of almost 200 Niagara Falls worth of water a day for 300 days, flooding 60,000 square
12:14miles,
12:15an area that would have included Mount Ararat.
12:18Known as the Black Sea deluge hypothesis, it has been floated as potential scientific evidence for the Biblical Great Flood.
12:25And so, in 2021, an expedition set out to test the theory.
12:31Dr. Farouk Kaya was the expedition leader on the 2021 expedition.
12:36So, unlike previous expeditions, the goal of the 2021 effort was to not find a boat or structure or man
12:43-made materials,
12:44but to see if there was marine sea life.
12:47Dr. Kaya and his team analyzed soil samples taken all around the unusual rock formation.
12:53And what did they find?
12:55So, Dr. Kaya and his team found, through their core samples and their testing, three different things.
13:01They found organic sea life, fossilized coral, seashells, that type of material.
13:07And then they dated this organic sea life to the time, about the time of the Biblical Flood.
13:18The slopes near Mount Ararat apparently do contain evidence of ancient marine life.
13:24And while this supports the conditions required for the ark to end up there,
13:28searchers are a long way from proving it actually did.
13:32Soil samples and radar scans are continuing.
13:34But the only way to know for sure is to launch a full-scale excavation of the mysterious Durupinar site.
13:41But given the remote location near the border of Iran,
13:45and that it's smack in the middle of a Turkish military zone, that permission may take a while.
13:50In the meantime, while researchers hunt for definitive answers,
13:54it's left to the faith of millions to hold this story afloat.
14:03Fast forward thousands of years, and we turn from a Biblical Flood to a very different kind of threat.
14:10It's October 15th, 2001, four weeks after the 9-11 attacks shook America to its core.
14:17And now, another act of terror.
14:20But this doesn't come from the skies.
14:22It comes in the mail.
14:24Envelopes filled with a mysterious white powder start arriving at media companies and congressional offices,
14:30including here at the Hart Senate building in Washington, D.C.
14:34Nobody knows it yet, but one of the most secure buildings in the country has just been breached by a
14:40silent killer.
14:41Its name? Anthrax.
14:43Over the next two months, five people will die,
14:46and the FBI will launch one of the largest criminal investigations in U.S. history.
14:52But for years, the case will go cold.
14:55That is, until genetic forensics leads to a stunning revelation,
15:00and a suspect the FBI never expected.
15:16Grant Leslie is a new intern for South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle.
15:21For her, it's just another Monday doing her routine task of collecting and sorting the incoming mail.
15:28One envelope stands out, written in what looks like a child's handwriting.
15:34It's postmarked from Trenton, New Jersey.
15:37She opens it, accidentally unleashing terror.
15:41A fine white powder bursts into the air.
15:49Within minutes, an evacuation is ordered, and the building is locked down.
15:54The fine powder continues spreading, floating through corridors and ventilation systems,
16:00traveling hundreds of feet into surrounding offices.
16:05Leslie is taken to a secure area, placed under quarantine, and started on a powerful course of antibiotics.
16:13At this point, nobody knows exactly what's inside the envelope.
16:17But hours later, the tests will confirm it's anthrax.
16:23These microscopic particles are toxic spores that attack the body, destroy tissue, and overwhelm the immune system.
16:31Anthrax is so lethal that just breathing it in can be fatal without treatment.
16:37And the office of Senator Daschle is not the only target.
16:41A week earlier, anthrax spores were sent to the Florida offices of the National Enquirer.
16:47And anthrax-laced letters also arrived at NBC, ABC, CBS, and the New York Post.
16:58By the end of November, five people will be dead.
17:01A photo editor at American Media Inc., two postal workers in Washington, D.C.,
17:06a New York hospital employee, and an elderly woman in Connecticut.
17:11All attacked through cross-contaminated mail.
17:15Seventeen more will become infected, and tens of thousands placed on antibiotics out of fear of possible exposure.
17:24Investigators fear that this is another coordinated terrorist attack, just like 9-11.
17:30And the letters included with the anthrax seem to confirm it, referencing the fateful date, alongside statements like death to
17:39America.
17:42To understand what they're up against, the FBI turns to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
17:50at Fort Detrick in Maryland.
17:52One of the first to see the powder up close is microbiologist Dr. Bruce Ivins, a top Army anthrax expert.
18:03He notes that the sample is a dry, ultra-fine powder, so light it practically floats in the bag.
18:10His conclusion? This isn't the product of some amateur.
18:14It's an expertly crafted biological weapon.
18:19The powder is sent to a specialized lab in Arizona, where scientists identify it as the particularly virulent Ames strain
18:27of anthrax.
18:29First isolated in 1981, this particular strain was distributed only to a handful of military and government labs for vaccines
18:37and biological defense research.
18:41This revelation sends shockwaves through the investigation.
18:45Instead of an organized terrorist network, the evidence now suggests that this was an inside job.
18:52In a horrifying irony, it seems one of the very labs tasked with preventing anthrax from being used as a
18:58weapon, instead unleashed it.
19:02The FBI builds a profile of the suspect, perhaps a scientist with access to the Ames strain of anthrax, but
19:10also someone isolated, obsessive, and fueled by grievance.
19:19The envelopes were postmarked in Trenton, New Jersey, so the FBI and postal inspectors launch an exhaustive operation swabbing more
19:28than 600 mailboxes in the region.
19:31And eventually, they'll get a hit.
19:33This mailbox in nearby Princeton tests positive for anthrax, so this is where the attack began.
19:40But who is the mastermind behind it?
19:44One name emerges that seems to fit the FBI's profile.
19:48Dr. Stephen Hatfield, a virologist and former Army biodefense expert from nearby Maryland.
19:55He works at the Army's Institute of Infectious Diseases until 1999, where he could have accessed the Ames anthrax strain.
20:06After leaving the Institute, Hatfield goes to work for a military contractor, maintaining ties to the biodefense world.
20:13During this period, he also commissions a report detailing how anthrax could be delivered through the mail.
20:20And records show that Hatfield had also recently filled a prescription for the antibiotic Cipro, commonly used to treat anthrax
20:29exposure, raising suspicions that he may have been trying to protect himself.
20:34As investigators begin connecting these dots, scrutiny intensifies.
20:39And soon, details of the anthrax investigation leak into the media, placing Hatfield at the center of a rapidly growing
20:46storm of public suspicion.
20:48In June 2002, the FBI raids Hatfield's home, searching for traces of the anthrax spores or the equipment used to
20:58produce them.
20:59They even drain this nearby pond, where they suspect Hatfield may have dumped his lab equipment or other evidence.
21:06After pumping out 50,000 gallons of water, they do recover one thing.
21:11But far from being incriminating, it turns out to be a turtle trap.
21:17In fact, not a scrap of physical evidence ever links Dr. Stephen Hatfield to the attacks.
21:24After six years under a cloud of suspicion, the government officially clears his name.
21:29He then sues the Department of Justice for violating his privacy and wins $5.8 million.
21:36With Hatfield no longer a suspect, the investigation reaches an impasse.
21:41But then in 2007, a scientific breakthrough enables the FBI to track the anthrax spores from the original letters back
21:50to a single laboratory flask.
21:52And to a suspect who had been right under their noses from the very beginning.
22:02For years, the FBI's hunt for the culprit behind the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks went nowhere.
22:09That is, until science opened a new path.
22:12A genetic trail hidden in the anthrax spores themselves.
22:16Investigative journalist Gregory Gordon reveals how scientists used microscopic evidence to close the case.
22:24Looking at these samples of anthrax again and again, they identified some mutations in these spores.
22:34And they thought maybe this could be a genetic marker.
22:37And so they searched for these mutations in all 1,070 samples in the FBI repository.
22:46This took five to six years.
22:48They finally concluded that these mutations were leading them to a specific flask at Fort Detrick, Maryland, the bioweapons lab.
23:01And the owner of that flask?
23:04Dr. Bruce Ivins.
23:06Remember him?
23:07One of the Army's top anthrax vaccine experts and a close advisor to the FBI on this case from the
23:14very beginning.
23:15Now, they had to ask a chilling question.
23:18Was he a trusted partner or was he the enemy within?
23:22Bruce Ivins had a stellar reputation in the biodefense community and, in fact, the Pentagon had given him a civilian
23:30award for his work in trying to develop vaccines to defend against an anthrax attack.
23:37But in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the funding for Ivins' program was disappearing.
23:47And so he was kind of in a panic.
23:50His life's work was about to disappear.
23:53The motive that began to emerge was something all too simple, money.
23:58To be exact, more funding for Ivins' biodefense research.
24:01After the letters were discovered and fear was sweeping the nation, people were afraid to even open their mail.
24:10There was suddenly a rejuvenation of support for the next generation anthrax vaccine and it was all systems go.
24:19The program was rejuvenated and he was back on track.
24:23Motive? Check.
24:25But what about means and opportunity?
24:27And then Ivins' lab records to the peak of investigators showed that in the weeks before the first anthrax letters
24:39were mailed, he had spent dozens of hours late at night working all by himself without any real good explanation.
24:47So outside of the lab, investigators found he had been plagued with behavioral and mental health problems for much of
24:55his life.
24:56He had had bouts of very severe anger and obsession.
25:02There was a dark side that was dragging Bruce Ivins down.
25:07The FBI places Ivins under surveillance.
25:10They search his home, monitor his emails and then deliver the final blow.
25:15Suspending his security clearance, cutting him off from the lab and his life's work.
25:21In the weeks that follow, Ivins begins to unravel.
25:25During a group therapy session, the pressure on him becomes too much and he allegedly threatens to go out in
25:31a blaze of glory.
25:32He was sinking into depression as this investigation drew to a climax.
25:38He talked about the fact that he was going to end up being the blood sacrifice of this gigantic investigation.
25:46He made all kinds of veiled threats to the point where his therapists were reporting him to law enforcement.
25:53But in mid-summer 2008, there was a tragic turn in the case.
25:58On the 29th of July, Bruce Ivins was found dead of an overdose.
26:02A week later, the FBI closes the case, declaring him the sole perpetrator.
26:08But was he?
26:09If you look back at the totality of the evidence, his bizarre behavior and his murderous threats, and perhaps most
26:19importantly of all, the science that it pointed back to his flask.
26:24It's a big arrow pointing at Bruce Ivins. No question about that.
26:28Despite all the signs pointing to Bruce Ivins, doubts persist.
26:33He denied the charges to the end, and there was no physical evidence tying him to the Princeton mailbox.
26:40Some of his colleagues also insist he lacked the expertise to produce such weaponized spores.
26:46A report by the National Academy of Sciences even challenges the claim that the anthrax strain came from his flask.
26:53The FBI, though, is convinced they got their man.
26:56So, did they?
26:58Well, perhaps the ultimate proof is in the mail.
27:01Since 2001, America has never been attacked by weaponized anthrax again.
27:10It's June 20th, 1947.
27:13I'm in Beverly Hills.
27:14And this here is Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, the man who put Las Vegas on the map.
27:20He's famous for his movie star good looks and penchant for partying with cinema royalty.
27:25Heck, one day, Warren Beatty will play Bugsy on the big screen.
27:29He's also infamous for shaking down bookies, extorting rivals, and murdering enemies.
27:35But tonight, Bugsy's colorful life will come to a brutal end.
27:40Soon, gunfire will rip through the night and rip through Siegel.
27:44His murder will inspire decades of speculation, but no one will ever be charged with the crime.
27:50And then, some 70 years later, a shocking claim might rewrite everything we thought we knew about the mob, the
27:58man, and his murder.
28:14Brooklyn, New York, 1920.
28:18Benjamin Siegel grows up in a poor Russian-Jewish immigrant family and hates the life of backbreaking labor waiting for
28:25him.
28:25On the streets, he finds another path.
28:29Siegel starts running his own gang and becomes known for a violent temper so explosive, friends call him crazy as
28:36a bed bug.
28:38And the name sticks, Bugsy.
28:40He teams up with two gangsters, Meyer Lansky and Mo Sedway, building a ruthless Prohibition-era operation, bootlegging, gambling, and
28:54murder for hire.
28:59Lansky is the brains.
29:00Bugsy is the muscle.
29:02Sedway is the loyal lieutenant.
29:05Together, they help build the National Crime Syndicate, a loose alliance of mob leaders meant to reduce turf wars and
29:13run organized crime more like a business.
29:18In 1931, Bugsy makes his boldest power move yet, when he brazenly guns down feared Sicilian gangster Giuseppe Joe the
29:29Boss Masseria.
29:33With Masseria gone, Bugsy and his partners rise fast in the new mob order, establishing a notorious hit squad known
29:42as Murder Inc.
29:44Bugsy's power is growing, but as the bodies stack up, he's making some serious enemies.
29:49Soon, this titan of terror's own blood will be spilled, igniting a mystery lasting 60 years.
30:02In the mid-1930s, gangster Bugsy Siegel moves to Los Angeles.
30:08Wearing tailored suits with a matinee idol grin, the ruthless hitman looks like he belongs on the silver screen.
30:15He even parties with Hollywood A-listers like Clark Gable and Gene Harlow.
30:21But behind the scenes, he's laying the groundwork for a mafia takeover of the West Coast underworld.
30:28Acting on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate, he pushes into the Los Angeles rackets it wants to control.
30:34From horse betting and illegal casinos, to prostitution rings, demanding a cut of the profits.
30:44Anyone who resists? Well, let's just say Bugsy makes them an offer they can't refuse.
30:56Bugsy takes up with Virginia Hill, a fiery Southern belle, mob courier, and wannabe Hollywood starlet.
31:04Their relationship is passionate but notoriously turbulent.
31:08Marked by her wild spending, screaming matches, and even allegations of physical abuse.
31:15But for all their chaos, Bugsy and Virginia share a driving ambition and a gambler's hunger for high-stakes glory.
31:27By the 1940s, Bugsy is looking beyond Hollywood for new money-making opportunities, and he finds them in Las Vegas.
31:35What began as a dusty railroad stop deep in the Mojave Desert is now a city on the rise, powered
31:42by cheap electricity from the nearby Hoover Dam.
31:45And a wartime influx of workers, and more than 10,000 servicemen stationed at a nearby base, all eager for
31:53entertainment.
31:55With gambling legal in Nevada, the timing is perfect.
31:58The once-sleepy casinos along Fremont Street now blaze with neon lights, drawing in young GIs ready to test their
32:07luck.
32:07But to Siegel, Vegas still lacks one thing, glamour.
32:12He believes a luxury hotel and casino, one worthy of movie stars and wealthy high rollers, could transform Las Vegas
32:20from a frontier town into a world-class destination.
32:25Siegel convinces Meyer Lansky and other East Coast bosses to bankroll a bold new venture, the Flamingo Hotel, a lavish
32:34mob-financed gambling palace rising from the Nevada desert.
32:39Bugsy even brings in his old New York pal Mo Sedway to help him run the operation.
32:44Together, they envision the Flamingo as the crown jewel of a new criminal empire and a source of enormous riches.
32:55But by the time the Flamingo opens in December 1946, construction costs have ballooned to over a million dollars.
33:03Even worse, the hotel tanks on opening night.
33:06The Vegas dream Siegel sold to the mob has become a financial nightmare.
33:11Some of Bugsy's associates, including his former best friend Meyer Lansky and Mo Sedway, suspect him of bungling their investment,
33:20or even worse, stealing the cash for himself.
33:24Six months later, on the night of June 20, 1947, Siegel is back in L.A.
33:33Bugsy and his friend and mob associate Alan Smiley quietly read the L.A. Times, unaware that tomorrow they'll be
33:41front-page news.
33:44Just after 10.45 p.m., nine shots rip through the living room window from outside.
33:53Four of them hit Bugsy.
33:55One bullet tears through his cheek and explodes his left eye out of his socket.
34:00He dies instantly.
34:02Smiley survives with just a graze on his arm.
34:05But he doesn't get a look at the shooter, who leaves behind no trace other than .30 caliber shell casings
34:11in the front yard, suggesting a military-issue M1 carbine rifle may be the murder weapon.
34:19With little evidence, Siegel's murder becomes one of the greatest unprosecuted cases in American mob history.
34:26Decades later, though, explosive claims will emerge, and the revelation of a culprit no one saw coming.
34:38After being gunned down in his home in cold blood, the murder of gangster Bugsy Siegel sits unsolved for 60
34:45years.
34:46But now, Claire White, director of education at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, believes new testimony reveals the shocking
34:54truth of who was actually behind the hit.
34:57What's so fascinating about Siegel's death is he is killed with this military-grade rifle.
35:04That's very uncommon for mob hits at the time.
35:08And he has so many enemies, even more so than your average mobster.
35:12And that really does call into question, who committed this and why?
35:17Who knew exactly where Siegel would be that night, when he'd be in his living room, planted on that couch?
35:24Some point the finger at the person who knew him best, his longtime girlfriend, Virginia Hill.
35:30After all, their relationship was famously volatile.
35:33And then there's this rather suspicious detail.
35:36Virginia's brother, Chick Hill, who was living in Siegel's house at the time and home that night, was conveniently out
35:43of harm's way when the shots rang out.
35:46By this point in Hill and Siegel's relationship, by all accounts, by all witnesses, this is truly an abusive relationship.
35:54There are people going on record saying that they have seen Hill with bruises, they're fighting constantly, screaming, in a
36:00way that people are taking notice.
36:04Just a few weeks prior, in Las Vegas, another mobster, a man named Bernie Sindler, says that he overheard Virginia
36:12Hill and Bugsy Siegel fighting,
36:14and then later overheard Virginia Hill discussing this with her brother.
36:20Not Chick Hill, this is another brother with military experience.
36:24And her brother essentially saying, like, if he lays his hands on you one more time, I'm gonna kill him.
36:31The night of Siegel's death, Chick Hill, her other brother, is there in the house.
36:37Maybe he's the one who pulled open the curtain, making it possible for someone with a military background,
36:44which both of Virginia Hill's brothers have, to come up and take Siegel out for the way that he treated
36:53their sister.
37:00So did Virginia's brothers decide Bugsy had it coming?
37:04It's a tempting theory, but most experts say it doesn't hold up.
37:09There are people who put stock in this theory, but why aren't the Hill brothers taken out or at least
37:15reprimanded in some way?
37:16If this was a unsanctioned hit on one of the higher ranking mobsters on the West Coast, then why didn't
37:26the mob in any way retaliate?
37:29There's no indication that the mob thought that the Hill brothers were responsible.
37:35And I think, equally importantly, it doesn't seem like law enforcement thinks that the Hill brothers are responsible.
37:42Nothing happens to any of the Hill brothers.
37:45But for me, the biggest problem with the theory that Virginia Hill's brothers took out Bugsy Siegel
37:52is what happens minutes after Siegel is killed in L.A.
37:57300 miles away in Las Vegas, on the evening of June 20th, Moe Sedway and Gus Greenbaum walk out onto
38:04the floor of the Flamingo
38:05and Moe Sedway says, I'm in charge now.
38:08How could Sedway have known if the mob wasn't at least in some way responsible for Siegel's death?
38:14Unlike Bugsy, who loved the spotlight, Moe Sedway had a quiet demeanor and knew how to fly under the radar.
38:21Could he really have organized the murder of his old friend?
38:25Well, it turns out there is fresh, shocking testimony that could answer this question.
38:30And the source? Moe's own wife.
38:33Robbie Sedway, the son of Moe Sedway and his wife Bea, comes forward saying that Bea Sedway was working on
38:42her memoir.
38:43And in it, she was going to explain what happened on the night of June 20th, 1947,
38:49and tell the world who killed Benjamin Bugsy Siegel.
38:56Bea passed away in 1999, but her unpublished memoir reportedly contained a bombshell.
39:03Namely, that before he was killed, Bugsy Siegel was planning to murder her husband, Moe.
39:08In her account, Moe uncovered evidence that Siegel was recklessly overspending and even stealing from the Flamingo Project and snitched
39:17on him to syndicate leaders.
39:19When Siegel learned Moe had exposed him, he began plotting revenge.
39:23Knowing his life was in danger, Moe turned to the syndicate once more and received their blessing to take out
39:30Siegel in order to protect himself.
39:33If Moe was the man behind the hit, it would certainly explain why he and his buddies were so prepared
39:39to take over the Flamingo.
39:41But even if the story is true, Moe was 300 miles away in Vegas when it all went down.
39:47So then, who actually pulled the trigger?
39:52According to Bea's manuscript, the person who killed Bugsy Siegel is a man named Matthew Moose Panza.
40:00Moose is Bea's lover. Moose became a bodyguard sometimes for Moe.
40:08And it would make a lot of sense that that is who they would task with taking out Siegel.
40:14Moose was a hunter. He was allegedly a very good shot.
40:19And according to Bea, he borrowed the M1 carbine from a friend of his who'd just returned from the war.
40:27Apparently, the night of the crime, he tiptoes up to the window, opens fire,
40:40and then quickly hightails it to Santa Monica, where he breaks apart the gun, throws the barrel into the ocean,
40:47and throws the butt up onto a rooftop of one of the buildings.
40:50So, did Bea Sedway's proposed memoir solve one of the most famous mob mysteries in American history?
40:58With everyone directly connected to Bugsy long gone, we may never know for sure.
41:03And there are no shortage of alternate theories for who orchestrated the hit on Siegel,
41:08including his own girlfriend, Virginia Hill.
41:10There's also a curious footnote to this story.
41:13After her husband, Moe, died, Bea Sedway married the supposed trigger man, Moose Panza.
41:20I guess when it comes to the mob, there's nothing more romantic than a good old-fashioned assassination.
41:25I'm Josh Gates, and I'll see you on the next Expedition.
41:28I'm Josh Gates.
41:29I'm Josh Gates.
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