- 13 minutes ago
Expedition Files S04E04
Category
馃摵
TVTranscript
00:00On this episode of Expedition Files.
00:04Noah's Ark.
00:05The story of a man saving the world's creatures from an apocalyptic flood
00:10is one of the Bible's most epic tales.
00:13But is it an allegory, or is it based in fact?
00:16Now, a jaw-dropping discovery in the mountains of Turkey
00:20suggests the legendary Ark may have been found.
00:24Then, in the aftermath of 9-11,
00:27the 2001 anthrax attacks spread fear across America.
00:32The sender of the deadly letters remains unknown
00:35until the FBI uncovers a culprit no one expected.
00:41And in the 1940s,
00:43mobster Bugsy Siegel is gunned down in his Beverly Hills mansion.
00:48For decades, his killer remains one of the underworld's best-kept secrets
00:53until an unpublished memoir threatens to expose the betrayal that brought him down.
01:03In the corridors of time
01:07are 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.
01:31And these are my Expedition Files.
01:40Our high school football coach had a catchphrase
01:43that 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.
02:01Tonight, we pressurize three such tales.
02:04Multi-faceted mysteries born under the most intense of circumstances.
02:08We start with a DIY project created under the most powerful pressure imaginable.
02:14The impending end of the world.
02:17The 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, an international team of researchers claim to make a discovery of biblical
03:11proportions.
03:12Could 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.
03:43Fed 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.
05:57Sure, 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.
06:29He suggests they may be describing the same ancient disaster,
06:34placing the resting place of Noah's Ark in the region near 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 of the remote,
06:55nearly 17,000-foot summit, but 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,
07:09reportedly returning with a mysterious piece of hand-hewn timber
07:14that some will claim is proof of Noah's ship.
07:18Then, 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 Durupanar 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.
07:55He 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 Durupanar or his superiors.
08:19Immediately, they notify the Turkish government
08:21that 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 Durupanar 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?
08:55Eighty years later, the remote site and mysterious formation is investigated once again,
09:01this time with cutting-edge technology.
09:04And the data may show something truly astonishing.
09:07Potential evidence of Noah's Ark.
09:17For centuries, Biblical scholars have searched for evidence of the legendary Noah's Ark.
09:24Then, in 2019, radar scientist Matt Daniels led a modern expedition to the remote slopes near Turkey's Mount Ararat,
09:32where many Biblical scholars suggest the Ark came to rest, and what he discovered there raised eyebrows.
09:40We took a bunch of technical experts, 3D laser scanners, ground-penetrating radar,
09:45all of this technical expertise to collect data on that site in the mountains of Ararat.
09:53The real purpose of it was to create a high-definition, photorealistic model of the site and figure out what's
10:00underneath the ground.
10:01When we processed the data, it was shocking because we saw a lot of different structures, right angles, things that
10:08look like rooms.
10:09We're like, well, what is this? Like, what's going on here?
10:12Everything points towards keep going.
10:15Matt was intrigued.
10:17The data may indicate buried, man-made structures.
10:20Unfortunately, without permission from the Turkish government to excavate,
10:23the team is unable to verify exactly what is buried under the mountain.
10:28But if it's really Noah's Ark, then the slopes would have to have been flooded in Biblical times.
10:33So, is that even possible?
10:36The answer might lie in the Black Sea,
10:39the nearest large body of water capable of producing that kind of flooding.
10:43While Mount Ararat sits more than 150 miles away today,
10:48scientists have long questioned whether ancient geography once put these two regions much closer together.
10:55In the 1990s, an international team of geologists and oceanographers set out to answer the question,
11:02did the Black Sea ever experience a massive flood?
11:05They used seismic soundings, essentially underwater sonar, to map the seafloor,
11:11and then drilled sediment cores, which are long cylinders of mud from the seabed that preserve a layered record of
11:18the Black Sea's past.
11:20These cores revealed a dramatic environmental shift.
11:24In the deepest layers, scientists found freshwater shells,
11:28evidence that the Black Sea was once an isolated freshwater lake.
11:32Then, abruptly, those species disappeared, replaced by saltwater marine life.
11:38The only explanation?
11:40Seawater from the Mediterranean broke through, rushing in and transforming the lake into a saltwater sea.
11:47The data also suggests the water level rose rapidly, by as much as 500 feet.
11:54And radiocarbon dating places this dramatic event at roughly 7,500 years ago.
12:01According to their analysis, a rapidly rising Black Sea overflowed, dumping the equivalent of almost 200 Niagara Falls worth of
12:10water a day for 300 days, flooding 60,000 square miles,
12:16an 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.
12:26And so, in 2021, an expedition set out to test the theory.
12:32Dr. Farouk Kaya was the expedition leader on the 2021 expedition.
12:37So, unlike previous expeditions, the goal of the 2021 effort was to not find a boat or structure or man
12:45-made materials,
12:45but to see if there was marine sea life.
12:48Dr. Kaya and his team analyzed soil samples taken all around the unusual rock formation.
12:55And what did they find?
12:57So, Dr. Kaya and his team found, through their core samples and their testing, three different things.
13:03They found organic sea life, fossilized coral, seashells, that type of material.
13:08And then they dated this organic sea life to the time, about the time of the biblical flood.
13:19The slopes near Mount Ararat apparently do contain evidence of ancient marine life.
13:25And while this supports the conditions required for the ark to end up there, searchers are a long way from
13:31proving it actually did.
13:33Soil samples and radar scans are continuing.
13:36But the only way to know for sure is to launch a full-scale excavation of the mysterious Durupinar site.
13:42But given the remote location near the border of Iran, and that it's smack in the middle of a Turkish
13:48military zone, that permission may take a while.
13:51In the meantime, while researchers hunt for definitive answers, it's left to the faith of millions to hold this story
13:58afloat.
14:04Fast forward thousands of years, and we turn from a biblical flood to a very different kind of threat.
14:11It's October 15th, 2001, four weeks after the 9-11 attacks shook America to its core.
14:18And now, another act of terror.
14:21But this doesn't come from the skies, it comes in the mail.
14:25Envelopes filled with a mysterious white powder start arriving at media companies and congressional offices, including here at the Hart
14:33Senate building in Washington, D.C.
14:35Nobody knows it yet, but one of the most secure buildings in the country has just been breached by a
14:41silent killer.
14:42Its name? Anthrax.
14:45Over the next two months, five people will die, and the FBI will launch one of the largest criminal investigations
14:52in U.S. history.
14:53But for years, the case will go cold.
14:56That is, until genetic forensics leads to a stunning revelation and a suspect the FBI never expected.
15:17Grant Leslie is a new intern for South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle.
15:23For her, it's just another Monday doing her routine task of collecting and sorting the incoming mail.
15:30One envelope stands out, written in what looks like a child's handwriting.
15:35It's postmarked from Trenton, New Jersey.
15:38She opens it, accidentally unleashing terror.
15:42A fine white powder bursts into the air.
15:51Within minutes, an evacuation is ordered, and the building is locked down.
15:55The fine powder continues spreading, floating through corridors and ventilation systems, traveling hundreds of feet into surrounding offices.
16:07Leslie is taken to a secure area, placed under quarantine, and started on a powerful course of antibiotics.
16:14At this point, nobody knows exactly what's inside the envelope.
16:18But hours later, the tests will confirm it's anthrax.
16:24These microscopic particles are toxic spores that attack the body, destroy tissue, and overwhelm the immune system.
16:32Anthrax is so lethal that just breathing it in can be fatal without treatment.
16:39And the office of Senator Daschle is not the only target.
16:43A week earlier, anthrax spores were sent to the Florida offices of the National Enquirer.
16:48And 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.
17:02A photo editor at American Media Inc., two postal workers in Washington, D.C., a New York hospital employee, and
17:10an elderly woman in Connecticut.
17:12All attacked through cross-contaminated mail.
17:1617 more will become infected, and tens of thousands placed on antibiotics out of fear of possible exposure.
17:26Investigators fear that this is another coordinated terrorist attack, just like 9-11.
17:32And the letters included with the anthrax seem to confirm it, referencing the fateful date, alongside statements like death to
17:40America.
17:43To understand what they're up against, the FBI turns to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
17:51at Fort Detrick in Maryland.
17:54One of the first to see the powder up close is microbiologist Dr. Bruce Ivins, a top Army anthrax expert.
18:04He notes that the sample is a dry, ultra-fine powder, so light it practically floats in the bag.
18:11His conclusion? This isn't the product of some amateur.
18:15It's an expertly crafted biological weapon.
18:20The powder is sent to a specialized lab in Arizona, where scientists identify it as the particularly virulent Ames strain
18:29of anthrax.
18:30First isolated in 1981, this particular strain was distributed only to a handful of military and government labs for vaccines
18:39and biological defense research.
18:42This revelation sends shockwaves through the investigation. Instead of an organized terrorist network, the evidence now suggests that this was
18:51an inside job.
18:53In a horrifying irony, it seems one of the very labs tasked with preventing anthrax from being used as a
18:59weapon, instead unleashed it.
19:04The FBI builds a profile of the suspect, perhaps a scientist with access to the Ames strain of anthrax, but
19:12also someone isolated, obsessive, and fueled by grievance.
19:21The envelopes were postmarked in Trenton, New Jersey, so the FBI and postal inspectors launch an exhaustive operation swabbing more
19:30than 600 mailboxes in the region.
19:32And eventually, they'll get a hit.
19:35This mailbox in nearby Princeton tests positive for anthrax, so this is where the attack began.
19:41But who is the mastermind behind it?
19:45One name emerges that seems to fit the FBI's profile.
19:49Dr. Steven Hatfield, a virologist and former Army biodefense expert from nearby Maryland.
19:56He works at the Army's Institute of Infectious Diseases until 1999, where he could have access to the Ames anthrax
20:04strain.
20:07After leaving the Institute, Hatfield goes to work for a military contractor, maintaining ties to the biodefense world.
20:14During this period, he also commissions a report, detailing how anthrax could be delivered through the mail.
20:22And records show that Hatfield had also recently filled a prescription for the antibiotic Cipro, commonly used to treat anthrax
20:30exposure, raising suspicions that he may have been trying to protect himself.
20:35As investigators begin connecting these dots, scrutiny intensifies.
20:41And soon, details of the anthrax investigation leak into the media, placing Hatfield at the center of a rapidly growing
20:48storm of public suspicion.
20:49In June 2002, the FBI raids Hatfield's home, searching for traces of the anthrax spores or the equipment used to
20:59produce them.
21:01They even drain this nearby pond, where they suspect Hatfield may have dumped his lab equipment or other evidence.
21:07After pumping out 50,000 gallons of water, they do recover one thing.
21:12But far from being incriminating, it turns out to be a turtle trap.
21:18In 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.
21:30He then sues the Department of Justice for violating his privacy and wins $5.8 million.
21:38With Hatfield no longer a suspect, the investigation reaches an impasse.
21:42But then in 2007, a scientific breakthrough enables the FBI to track the anthrax spores from the original letters back
21:51to a single laboratory flask.
21:54And to a suspect who had been right under their noses from the very beginning.
22:04For years, the FBI's hunt for the culprit behind the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks went nowhere.
22:11That is, until science opened a new path.
22:15A genetic trail hidden in the anthrax spores themselves.
22:19Investigative journalist Gregory Gordon reveals how scientists used microscopic evidence to close the case.
22:26Looking at these samples of anthrax again and again, they identified some mutations in these spores.
22:36And they thought maybe this could be a genetic marker.
22:40And so they searched for these mutations in all 1,070 samples in the FBI repository.
22:48This took five to six years.
22:50They finally concluded that these mutations were leading them to a specific flask at Fort Detrick, Maryland, the bioweapons lab.
23:04And the owner of that flask?
23:06Dr. Bruce Ivins.
23:08Remember him?
23:10One of the Army's top anthrax vaccine experts and a close advisor to the FBI on this case from the
23:16very beginning.
23:17Now, they had to ask a chilling question.
23:20Was he a trusted partner or was he the enemy within?
23:25Bruce Ivins had a stellar reputation in the biodefense community.
23:30And in fact, the Pentagon had given him a civilian award for his work in trying to develop vaccines to
23:38defend against an anthrax attack.
23:39But in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the funding for Ivins' program was disappearing.
23:50And so he was kind of in a panic. His life's work was about to disappear.
23:55The motive that began to emerge was something all too simple, money.
24:00To be exact, more funding for Ivins' biodefense research.
24:04After the letters were discovered and fear was sweeping the nation, people were afraid to even open their mail.
24:13There was suddenly a rejuvenation of support for the next generation anthrax vaccine and it was all systems go.
24:21The program was rejuvenated and he was back on track.
24:26Motive? Check.
24:28But what about means and opportunity?
24:31And then Ivins' lab records to the peak of investigators showed that in the weeks before the first anthrax letters
24:41were mailed,
24:42he had spent dozens of hours late at night working all by himself without any real good explanation.
24:49So outside of the lab, investigators found he had been plagued with behavioral and mental health problems for much of
24:58his life.
24:58He had had bouts of very severe anger and obsession.
25:04There was a dark side that was dragging Bruce Ivins down.
25:09The FBI places Ivins under surveillance.
25:12They search his home, monitor his emails and then deliver the final blow.
25:18Suspending his security clearance, cutting him off from the lab and his life's work.
25:24In the weeks that follow, Ivins begins to unravel.
25:27During a group therapy session, the pressure on him becomes too much and he allegedly threatens to go out in
25:34a blaze of glory.
25:35He was sinking into depression as this investigation drew to a climax.
25:40He talked about the fact that he was going to end up being the blood sacrifice of this gigantic investigation.
25:48He made all kinds of veiled threats to the point where his therapists were reporting him to law enforcement.
25:56But in mid-summer 2008, there was a tragic turn in the case.
26:00On the 29th of July, Bruce Ivins was found dead of an overdose.
26:05A week later, the FBI closes the case, declaring him the sole perpetrator.
26:10But was he?
26:11If you look back at the totality of the evidence, his bizarre behavior and his murderous threats, and perhaps most
26:21importantly of all, the science that it pointed back to his flask.
26:26It's a big arrow pointing at Bruce Ivins. No question about that.
26:32Despite all the signs pointing to Bruce Ivins, doubts persist.
26:36He denied the charges to the end, and there was no physical evidence tying him to the Princeton mailbox.
26:42Some of his colleagues also insist he lacked the expertise to produce such weaponized spores.
26:48A report by the National Academy of Sciences even challenges the claim that the anthrax strain came from his flask.
26:56The FBI, though, is convinced they got their man.
26:59So, did they?
27:01Well, perhaps the ultimate proof is in the mail.
27:03Since 2001, America has never been attacked by weaponized anthrax again.
27:12It's June 20th, 1947.
27:15I'm in Beverly Hills, and this here is Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, the man who put Las Vegas on the map.
27:22He's famous for his movie star good looks and penchant for partying with cinema royalty.
27:28Heck, one day, Warren Beatty will play Bugsy on the big screen.
27:31He's also infamous for shaking down bookies, extorting rivals, and murdering enemies.
27:38But tonight, Bugsy's colorful life will come to a brutal end.
27:42Soon, gunfire will rip through the night and rip through Siegel.
27:46His murder will inspire decades of speculation, but no one will ever be charged with the crime.
27:52And then, some 70 years later, a shocking claim might rewrite everything we thought we knew about the mob, the
28:01man, and his murder.
28:16Brooklyn, New York, 1920.
28:20Benjamin Siegel grows up in a poor Russian-Jewish immigrant family and hates the life of back-breaking labor waiting
28:27for him.
28:28On the streets, he finds another path.
28:32Siegel starts running his own gang and becomes known for a violent temper so explosive, friends call him crazy as
28:39a bed bug.
28:40And the name sticks, Bugsy.
28:43He teams up with two gangsters, Meyer Lansky and Mo Sedway, building a ruthless Prohibition-era operation, bootlegging, gambling, and
28:57murder-for-hire.
29:01Lansky is the brains.
29:03Bugsy is the muscle.
29:05Sedway is the loyal lieutenant.
29:08Together, they help build the National Crime Syndicate, a loose alliance of mob leaders meant to reduce turf wars and
29:15run organized crime more like a business.
29:21In 1931, Bugsy makes his boldest power move yet, when he brazenly guns down feared Sicilian gangster Giuseppe Joe the
29:31Boss Masseria.
29:36With Masseria gone, Bugsy and his partners rise fast in the new mob order, establishing a notorious hit squad known
29:44as Murder Inc.
29:46Bugsy's power is growing, but as the bodies stack up, he's making some serious enemies.
29:52Soon, this titan of terror's own blood will be spilled, igniting a mystery lasting 60 years.
30:06In the mid-1930s, gangster Bugsy Siegel moves to Los Angeles.
30:11Wearing tailored suits with a matinee idol grin, the ruthless hitman looks like he belongs on the silver screen.
30:19He even parties with Hollywood A-listers like Clark Gable and Gene Harlow.
30:25But behind the scenes, he's laying the groundwork for a mafia takeover of the West Coast underworld.
30:32Acting on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate, he pushes into the Los Angeles rackets it wants to control.
30:39From horse betting and illegal casinos.
30:42To prostitution rings.
30:45Demanding a cut of the profits.
30:48Anyone who resists?
30:50Well, let's just say Bugsy makes them an offer they can't refuse.
31:00Bugsy takes up with Virginia Hill, a fiery Southern belle, mob courier, and wannabe Hollywood starlet.
31:07Their relationship is passionate but notoriously turbulent, marked by her wild spending, screaming matches, and even allegations of physical abuse.
31:19But for all their chaos, Bugsy and Virginia share a driving ambition and a gambler's hunger for high stakes glory.
31:30By the 1940s, Bugsy is looking beyond Hollywood for new money-making opportunities, and he finds them in Las Vegas.
31:38What began as a dusty railroad stop deep in the Mojave Desert is now a city on the rise, powered
31:46by cheap electricity from the nearby Hoover Dam, and a wartime influx of workers, and more than 10,000 servicemen
31:54stationed at a nearby base, all eager for entertainment.
31:59With gambling legal in Nevada, the timing is perfect.
32:02The once sleepy casinos along Fremont Street now blaze with neon lights, drawing in young GIs ready to test their
32:10luck.
32:11But to Siegel, Vegas still lacks one thing, glamour.
32:15He believes a luxury hotel and casino, one worthy of movie stars and wealthy high rollers, could transform Las Vegas
32:24from a frontier town into a world-class destination.
32:29Siegel convinces Meyer Lansky and other East Coast bosses to bankroll a bold new venture, the Flamingo Hotel, a lavish,
32:38mob-financed gambling palace rising from the Nevada desert.
32:43Bugsy even brings in his old New York pal Mo Sedway to help him run the operation.
32:48Together, they envision the Flamingo as the crown jewel of a new criminal empire and a source of enormous riches.
32:59But by the time the Flamingo opens in December 1946, construction costs ballooned to over a million dollars.
33:06Even worse, the hotel tanks on opening night.
33:10The Vegas dream Siegel sold to the mob has become a financial nightmare.
33:15Some of Bugsy's associates, including his former best friend Meyer Lansky and Mo Sedway, suspect him of bungling their investment.
33:23Or even worse, stealing the cash for himself.
33:28Six months later, on the night of June 20, 1947, Siegel is back in LA.
33:37Bugsy and his friend and mob associate Alan Smiley quietly read the LA Times, unaware that tomorrow there'll be front
33:45page news.
33:48Just after 10.45 p.m., nine shots rip through the living room window from outside.
33:57Four of them hit Bugsy.
33:59One bullet tears through his cheek and explodes his left eye out of his socket.
34:04He dies instantly.
34:05Smiley survives with just a graze on his arm.
34:09But he doesn't get a look at the shooter, who leaves behind no trace other than .30 caliber shell casings
34:15in the front yard, suggesting a military-issue M1 carbine rifle may be the murder weapon.
34:22With little evidence, Siegel's murder becomes one of the greatest unprosecuted cases in American mob history.
34:29Decades later, though, explosive claims will emerge, and the revelation of a culprit no one saw coming.
34:42After being gunned down in his home in cold blood, the murder of gangster Bugsy Siegel sits unsolved for 60
34:50years.
34:51But now, Claire White, director of education at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, believes new testimony reveals the shocking
34:59truth of who was actually behind the hit.
35:02What's so fascinating about Siegel's death is he is killed with this military-grade rifle.
35:09That's very uncommon for mob hits at the time.
35:12And he has so many enemies, even more so than your average mobster.
35:17And that really does call into question, who committed this and why?
35:22Who knew exactly where Siegel would be that night, when he'd be in his living room, planted on that couch?
35:29Some point the finger at the person who knew him best, his longtime girlfriend, Virginia Hill.
35:35After all, their relationship was famously volatile.
35:38And then there's this rather suspicious detail.
35:41Virginia's brother, Chick Hill, who was living in Siegel's house at the time and home that night, was conveniently out
35:48of harm's way when the shots rang out.
35:51By this point in Hill and Siegel's relationship, by all accounts, by all witnesses, this is truly an abusive relationship.
35:59There are people going on record saying that they have seen Hill with bruises, they're fighting constantly, screaming, in a
36:05way that people are taking notice.
36:09Just a few weeks prior, in Las Vegas, another mobster, a man named Bernie Sindler, says that he overheard Virginia
36:17Hill and Bugsy Siegel fighting,
36:19and then later overheard Virginia Hill discussing this with her brother.
36:25Not Chick Hill, this is another brother with military experience.
36:29And her brother essentially saying, like, if he lays his hands on you one more time, I'm gonna kill him.
36:36The night of Siegel's death, Chick Hill, her other brother, is there in the house.
36:42Maybe he's the one who pulled open the curtain, making it possible for someone with a military background, which both
36:50of Virginia Hill's brothers have, to come up and take Siegel out for the way that he treated their sister.
37:05So did Virginia's brothers decide Bugsy had it coming?
37:09It's a tempting theory, but most experts say it doesn't hold up.
37:14There are people who put stock in this theory, but why aren't the Hill brothers taken out, or at least
37:20reprimanded in some way?
37:21If this was a unsanctioned hit on one of the higher ranking mobsters on the West Coast, then why didn't
37:31the mob in any way retaliate?
37:34There's no indication that the mob thought that the Hill brothers were responsible.
37:40And I think equally importantly, it doesn't seem like law enforcement thinks that the Hill brothers are responsible.
37:47Nothing happens to any of the Hill brothers, but for me, the biggest problem with the theory that Virginia Hill's
37:55brothers took out Bugsy Siegel is what happens minutes after Siegel is killed in LA.
38:02300 miles away in Las Vegas, on the evening of June 20th, Mo Sedway and Gus Greenbaum walk out onto
38:09the floor of the Flamingo, and Mo Sedway says, I'm in charge now.
38:13How could Sedway have known if the mob wasn't at least in some way responsible for Siegel's death?
38:19Unlike Bugsy, who loved the spotlight, Mo Sedway had a quiet demeanor and knew how to fly under the radar.
38:26Could he really have organized the murder of his old friend?
38:30Well, it turns out there is fresh, shocking testimony that could answer this question.
38:35And the source? Mo's own wife.
38:38Robby Sedway, the son of Mo Sedway and his wife Bea, comes forward saying that Bea Sedway was working on
38:47her memoir.
38:48And in it, she was going to explain what happened on the night of June 20th, 1947, and tell the
38:56world who killed Benjamin Bugsy Siegel.
39:01Bea passed away in 1999, but her unpublished memoir reportedly contained a bombshell.
39:07Namely, that before he was killed, Bugsy Siegel was planning to murder her husband, Mo.
39:14In her account, Mo uncovered evidence that Siegel was recklessly overspending, and even stealing from the Flamingo Project, and snitched
39:22on him to syndicate leaders.
39:24When Siegel learned Mo had exposed him, he began plotting revenge.
39:29Knowing his life was in danger, Mo turned to the syndicate once more and received their blessing to take out
39:35Siegel in order to protect himself.
39:38If Mo was the man behind the hit, it would certainly explain why he and his buddies were so prepared
39:44to take over the Flamingo.
39:46But even if the story is true, Mo was 300 miles away in Vegas when it all went down.
39:52So then, who actually pulled the trigger?
39:57According to Bea's manuscript, the person who killed Bugsy Siegel is a man named Matthew Moose Panza.
40:06Moose is Bea's lover.
40:09Moose became a bodyguard sometimes for Mo, and it would make a lot of sense that that is who they
40:16would task with taking out Siegel.
40:19Moose was a hunter.
40:21He was allegedly a very good shot.
40:24And according to Bea, he borrowed the M1 carbine from a friend of his who'd just returned from the war.
40:33Apparently, the night of the crime, he tiptoes up to the window, opens fire.
40:45And then quickly hightails it to Santa Monica, where he breaks apart the gun, throws the barrel into the ocean,
40:52and throws the butt up onto a rooftop of one of the buildings.
40:55So, did Bea Sedway's proposed memoir solve one of the most famous mob mysteries in American history?
41:03With everyone directly connected to Bugsy long gone, we may never know for sure.
41:07And there are no shortage of alternate theories for who orchestrated the hit on Siegel, including his own girlfriend, Virginia
41:15Hill.
41:15There's also a curious footnote to this story.
41:18After her husband, Mo, died, Bea Sedway married the supposed trigger man, Moose Panza.
41:25I guess when it comes to the mob, there's nothing more romantic than a good old-fashioned assassination.
41:30I'm Josh Gates, and I'll see you on the next Expedition.
41:33I'll see you on the next one.
Comments