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Expedition Files - Season 4 - Episode 08: Who Done It? Eng Sub
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00:00On this episode of Expedition Files...
00:05Meriwether Lewis lives a life of acclaim as one of America's greatest explorers leading the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
00:14When he dies by apparent suicide...
00:17Oh my God!
00:18...many are in disbelief, wondering if it was in fact murder.
00:24Now, we share the tragic truth.
00:28Then, in 1961, leader of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld is on a peace mission to a war zone when
00:36his plane mysteriously crashes.
00:39The official account says this was an accident, but recently uncovered evidence suggests something much more sinister.
00:49And, New York Supreme Court Judge Joseph Crater is riding high as the toast of 1930s Manhattan.
00:57But then, suddenly disappears forever.
01:01A century later, long hidden evidence suggests the true fate of the person once known as the Missingest Man in
01:09New York.
01:12In the corridors of time...
01:16...are mysteries that defy explanation.
01:21Now, I'm traveling through history itself...
01:27...on a search for the truth.
01:29...new evidence...
01:34...shocking answers...
01:37...I'm Josh Gates...
01:40...and these...
01:42...are my Expedition Files.
01:50Colonel Mustard, in the study, with the candlestick.
01:53Who doesn't love the board game Clue?
01:56There's nothing more satisfying than solving a clear-cut case of whodunit.
02:00But once you're outside of the world's most dangerous mansion, solving whodunits is sadly far from simple.
02:07But tonight, we'll try to play the real-world blame game anyway.
02:11Rolling the dice to work out who's responsible in three historic murder mysteries.
02:17Hopefully it won't be Miss Scarlet.
02:18She's my favorite.
02:19We begin in 1809, in the dead of night, outside a Tennessee roadside inn.
02:26The wilderness is quiet.
02:28But then, the calm is broken by the desperate calls of a dying man.
02:33Help!
02:35Water, please!
02:36This is Meriwether Lewis, famed explorer from the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
02:41And he's just been shot.
02:43Was he robbed?
02:44Assassinated?
02:45Or are his two gunshot wounds self-inflicted?
02:48He struggles back inside his cabin, where he'll soon succumb to his fate.
02:53And with no witnesses and no arrests, conspiracy theories surrounding his death will linger for over 200 years.
03:01That is, until 2025, when a research team claims they've definitively explained the mysterious death of one of America's great
03:10heroes.
03:20Growing up on his stepfather's estate in rural Georgia, Meriwether Lewis spends his early years not in school, but instead
03:29mastering the skills of an outdoorsman, fostering a lifelong love of natural history.
03:37In 1795, at the age of 21, he joins the army.
03:42It's here that he first meets and forges a bond with his future partner, William Clark.
03:47The two men serve together on the western frontier.
03:51Lewis rises to the rank of captain before leaving the army in 1801.
03:56At age 27, he becomes Thomas Jefferson's personal secretary, working directly with Jefferson on military intelligence.
04:08Jefferson has set his sights on expanding U.S. territory to the Pacific.
04:12In 1803, he completes the Louisiana Purchase, acquiring French-controlled land for $15 million, a bargain that nearly doubles the
04:23nation's size.
04:24To explore the vast, uncharted western territory, Jefferson selects Lewis to lead the expedition.
04:31I will.
04:34Lewis's mission is nothing short of monumental.
04:37Chart a route from St. Louis to the west coast, forge alliances with native tribes, make detailed maps, and document
04:45unknown flora and fauna.
04:47No big deal.
04:52Knowing he can't do it alone, Lewis turns to an old army comrade, William Clark, to share command.
04:59Together, they form the Corps of Discovery, with a mission to traverse nearly 4,000 miles of rivers, plains, and
05:06mountains.
05:07Currently, blank spaces on American maps.
05:14Lewis and Clark, along with a party of more than 40, depart St. Louis in 1804, beginning an epic trek
05:22to the Pacific coast and back again.
05:28The journey is harrowing, but the group soldiers on, surviving in no small part due to their Native American guide,
05:36Sacagawea.
05:37Lewis and Clark, who manages the first part of the journey, pregnant, and the rest with a baby on her
05:42chest.
05:42Along the way, Lewis and Clark carefully document their discoveries.
05:47They return with scientific samples and detailed maps that transform America's understanding of the western frontier.
05:57Lewis is appointed governor of the newly explored Louisiana Territory.
06:01But the position comes with serious challenges, and in accepting it, Lewis also inherits a bitter enemy.
06:10That's because, to make Lewis governor, Jefferson has to fire the man currently in the post, James Wilkinson.
06:18Now responsible for almost a million square miles of land, Meriwether Lewis faces a challenging undertaking that pushes him to
06:27his limits.
06:27It turns out, governing the untamed Louisiana Territory is far more difficult than exploring it.
06:37Supplying the growing outposts with horses and equipment requires large sums of money, much of it advanced personally by Lewis.
06:45The expenses quickly add up, and he accumulates significant debts while serving as governor.
06:52Lewis seeks reimbursement from the federal government.
06:55But by this time, Thomas Jefferson has left office.
06:59The new president, James Madison, is less responsive, and payment is delayed.
07:05This sends Lewis into a spiral of depression and anger, worsened by what many describe as a heavy drinking problem.
07:14How am I supposed to be governor, if I get money from the government?
07:18I can't do this.
07:21I can't do this.
07:25In September of 1809, the disgruntled Lewis feels that he has no choice but to travel back to Washington
07:33to try to recover the money he believes he's owed.
07:36It's a journey which he won't survive.
07:42Lewis travels over 300 miles on horseback, arriving at the inn known as Grindr's Stand in Tennessee a month later.
07:50That night, he asks for his dinner to be brought to the cabin where he's staying alone.
07:55Once he's finished, he heads to bed without incident.
08:02But then, during the night, innkeeper Priscilla Grindr is awoken by the sounds of two gunshots emanating from Lewis' room.
08:11But she's too terrified to investigate.
08:15At first light, a servant and Mrs. Grindr go to check on Lewis, only to find him fatally wounded by
08:21two bullets,
08:23one to his head and one to his body.
08:26He dies soon after.
08:30On October 20th, a Nashville paper breaks the news of Lewis' suicide.
08:35He's buried not far from Grindr's stand.
08:37But hold on.
08:39We're in the era of single-shot flintlock guns.
08:42So how does one man manage to shoot himself twice?
08:46Plus, an examination of Lewis' body reveals cuts on his neck, arm, and leg.
08:52Could those be defense wounds?
08:54And there's more.
08:55Supposedly, some of Lewis' money is missing.
08:58Add to all of this the fact that Grindr's stand sits in the heart of bandit country,
09:02and locals start to say that his death has all the hallmarks of a robbery gone wrong.
09:09In 1848, the state of Tennessee exhumes Lewis' grave in order to rebury him alongside an official monument.
09:18As part of this process, they do a medical examination,
09:21something that didn't take place immediately after his death.
09:25A local doctor reportedly noted that one gunshot wound appeared to be in the back of his head,
09:31an unlikely scenario for suicide.
09:34The exam concluded it was, quote,
09:37more probable that he died at the hands of an assassin.
09:41But who would have wanted to kill him?
09:43Some speculate it was a robbery.
09:46He died along a route that was notorious at the time for bandit attacks.
09:57Others point to James Wilkinson, the disgruntled former governor Lewis had replaced,
10:02whom Lewis had allegedly exposed in illegal land deals in St. Louis.
10:09What is clear is this.
10:12Meriwether Lewis had enemies, and some had reason to want him dead.
10:17Leading some to believe that Lewis' death was not a suicide at all,
10:21but a calculated act of revenge.
10:31Nearly 40 years after Meriwether Lewis' death,
10:34a medical examination raises suspicions that he may have been murdered,
10:39rather than died by suicide.
10:41But no suspects are ever investigated.
10:43Today, Lewis' body remains uninvestigated by modern forensics.
10:49Academics instead turn to the historical record in search of answers.
10:53In 2021, physician David Peck and his wife, clinical psychologist Marty Peck,
10:58publish a new book, Reinvestigating the Case.
11:04Death of Meriwether Lewis is highly controversial.
11:07Was he murdered by somebody or robbed and murdered?
11:11In our book, I create a psychological profile of Lewis' personality.
11:18Essentially, Meriwether Lewis had a genetic predisposition to depression.
11:24Only three years after the expedition ended,
11:28Lewis descended into a pit of depression and despair,
11:34because things really shifted overnight with the change of presidential administrations
11:42and with his appointment as governor.
11:45And then, with the bottom dropping out of none of his efforts being supported,
11:51that just drove him further downward.
11:55After considering all of the theories that are put forth about Lewis' death,
11:58we think that the evidence is absolutely overwhelming that he committed suicide.
12:04But what about the 1848 medical report that concluded Lewis was likely assassinated,
12:10referencing a gunshot wound to the back of his head?
12:14That finding may be flawed.
12:17By modern standards, the exam is considered unreliable,
12:20because the remains were severely decomposed,
12:23making it impossible to determine soft tissue damage or the bullet's exact entry angles.
12:29There are also other plausible explanations for the so-called defense wounds.
12:35Lewis had just ridden nearly 300 miles through the wilderness,
12:39leaving him exhausted and possibly injured.
12:41Or the cuts found on his body could have been self-harm.
12:45So perhaps Lewis really did kill himself,
12:49botching the first shot by grazing his head,
12:51then finishing the job with a shot to the body.
12:56Experts that I consulted, forensic pathologists, vascular trauma surgeons,
13:01all said that they're not even surprised that Lewis survived those wounds for two hours.
13:08Meriwether Lewis was traveling with a brace of two pistols,
13:11which would account for the two shots.
13:16He would have simply held the gun up to his chest like this
13:19and pulled the trigger and or shot himself in the head in the same manner.
13:22It's not something that would be difficult to do.
13:28The Pecks point to a document that may further prove their case
13:32that Meriwether Lewis committed suicide.
13:35Lewis's will, written right before he died.
13:40In route to Fort Pickering, he wrote a will, a second will,
13:48because his first will, apparently, William Clark was his executor.
13:53But writing a will like that very shortly before one would die
14:01is not something that would be considered a typical thing to do
14:07unless, on some level, a person was considering killing themselves.
14:13In that second will, Lewis replaced Clark and left his estate to his mother,
14:19an unexpected decision that adds to the mystery of his final days.
14:24I think the end for Meriwether Lewis came when it did,
14:28in part because he was by himself.
14:30And his best friend in life, William Clark, wasn't there for him.
14:34And he was on his way back to Washington to face a hostile political environment.
14:40And he also had returned to drinking.
14:42And I think that the effects of that was too much for him.
14:46And I think the opportunity to kill himself presented itself,
14:50and the demons knocked on his door, and Meriwether Lewis answered the door.
14:56When William Clark found out about Lewis's death, he lamented,
15:00I fear the weight of his mind has overcome him.
15:03The Pecks believe Clark's instincts were right,
15:06and that Meriwether Lewis committed suicide.
15:09But let's remind ourselves, this is still just a theory.
15:12No one saw Lewis get shot or do the shooting.
15:15While the cause of Meriwether Lewis's death may be in doubt,
15:19the cause of his life isn't.
15:21Lewis was devoted to his country,
15:23and without his bravery and selflessness,
15:26we may never have come to know the United States of America as we do today.
15:35It's September 17th, 1961.
15:39It's just before 4 p.m.
15:41I'm in the Republic of the Congo in Africa,
15:43as a Douglas DC-6 readies for takeoff.
15:46It's waiting for this man, who's embarking on a secret mission.
15:51His name is Dag Hammershould,
15:53the Swedish Secretary General of the United Nations.
15:56He is the most powerful diplomat on Earth,
15:59and right now, he's racing to stop a civil war from tearing the Congo apart.
16:04But with billions in resources and Cold War interests at stake,
16:09powerful forces are betting against him.
16:11And in just a few hours, this plane will crash and Hammershould will be dead.
16:18Authorities will blame pilot error.
16:19But was it really an accident or an ambush in the skies?
16:23Strap in.
16:24We're heading for some serious turbulence.
16:36In 1953, Swedish diplomat Dag Hammershould becomes the UN's second Secretary General.
16:44Hammershould brings charisma, idealism, and practicality to the role,
16:49believing the organization can hold a divided world together.
16:54In Africa, he faces his greatest test and his most dangerous mission.
17:02After decades of Belgian rule, the Congo gains independence in 1960,
17:08but quickly begins to fall apart as foreign powers compete for its mineral wealth.
17:13Its richest province, Katanga, tries to break away,
17:17with Belgium accused of supporting the split.
17:21Hammershould sees this as a threat to the country's survival
17:24and moves to keep the Congo united.
17:27But the UN mission grows increasingly controversial.
17:31By September 1961, fighting escalates,
17:35civilians are caught in the crossfire,
17:37and tensions rise with Western governments
17:39over how the situation is being handled.
17:43Determined to stop the crisis,
17:45Hammershould secretly arranges a meeting with Katangan leader Moisa Chambe
17:49in British-controlled northern Rhodesia on September 18th.
17:55On the afternoon of September 17th,
17:58he boards a DC-6 named Albertina
18:01with a crew of seven and eight UN aides and security personnel,
18:05led by 36-year-old American Sergeant Harold Julian.
18:11But they will never arrive at their destination.
18:18Here are the facts.
18:21Shortly after midnight on September 18th,
18:24Hammershould's plane, the Albertina,
18:26crashes in Congo's neighboring nation of Rhodesia,
18:30roughly nine miles from the Andola Airport runway.
18:34Fifteen hours later, search and rescue teams
18:37finally reach the crash site around 3 p.m.
18:41Of the 16 people aboard,
18:4315 are already dead,
18:45including Dag Hammershould.
18:51Amazingly, one man survives.
18:53Security officer Harold Julian
18:55is badly burned and barely breathing.
19:01According to the accounts of the first responders,
19:04Dag Hammershould lies just beyond the fuselage,
19:07on his back, clothes intact,
19:10oddly untouched by fire.
19:12The rest of the victims are charred
19:14almost beyond recognition.
19:17News of the tragedy shocks the world.
19:20Dag Hammershould is mourned for his leadership
19:22and his belief that diplomacy could heal a broken world.
19:26I know that I'm speaking for all of my fellow Americans,
19:31expressing our deep sense of shock and loss
19:35in the untimely death of the Secretary General
19:37of the United Nations, Mr. Dag Hammershould.
19:40After Hammershould's death,
19:42violence in Katanga escalates,
19:44forcing the UN to launch one of its largest military operations,
19:48made up of international troops from member nations.
19:50Thousands move in,
19:52but it takes nearly a year and a half of heavy fighting
19:55to end the secession.
19:58Dag's UN mission to prevent civil war in the Congo
20:01ultimately succeeds,
20:03but he loses his life in the process.
20:06And many wonder whether his death was truly an accident
20:10or a deliberate attempt to stop peacekeeping efforts.
20:15In the immediate aftermath of the crash,
20:17the government of northern Rhodesia launches an inquiry,
20:20their conclusion, pilot error.
20:23According to the official version,
20:25the crew of the Albertina navigating without radar
20:27in darkness toward an unfamiliar airstrip
20:30simply misjudged their altitude.
20:32The plane clipped trees, broke apart, and crashed.
20:36So, case closed?
20:37Not so fast.
20:40That's because the sole survivor of the crash
20:42tells a different story,
20:44and it could blow the pilot error theory wide open.
20:53Dag Hammarskjold's plane crash is originally dismissed
20:56as an accident caused by pilot error,
20:59but one eyewitness's account calls that into question.
21:03Against all odds,
21:05lone survivor, UN security officer Harold Julian,
21:09has made it out of the crash
21:10and lies in a hospital bed,
21:12badly burned and gravely injured.
21:15In brief moments of consciousness,
21:18Harold describes the plane exploding midair.
21:21Quote,
21:21a lot of small explosions around, he says.
21:24But if the crash was simply the result
21:27of navigational error,
21:28why were there explosions before impact?
21:32He clings to life for five days
21:34before succumbing to his injuries
21:36at Endola Hospital on September 23rd.
21:39In their final report,
21:41Rhodesian authorities dismiss his testimony
21:44as the confused ramblings of a dying man.
21:48Officials also hear from local witnesses
21:50who claim a second, smaller plane
21:53was flying above Hammarskjold's aircraft
21:55as it circled Endola Airport that night.
21:58Several report loud explosions
22:01and say the Albertina burst into flames
22:03before crashing,
22:05raising the possibility that the plane was shot down.
22:09Perhaps strangest of all,
22:10despite hundreds of photos taken at the crash site,
22:13the only images show him already laid out on a stretcher.
22:18Why was his body moved before he was photographed?
22:22And in one photo,
22:24some believe an ace of spades playing card
22:26can be seen tucked into Dag's collar,
22:29interpreted as a death card
22:31or a calling card from an assassin.
22:34In 1962,
22:36the U.N. launches its own investigation.
22:39Using evidence collected for the Rhodesian report,
22:42the U.N. investigators call out
22:44the sloppy search and rescue operation.
22:46Why, they ask,
22:47did it take 15 hours
22:49to locate a fiery plane crash
22:51only nine miles from the airport?
22:53But the U.N. commission fails to find
22:56any evidence of sabotage or attack,
22:59saying the possible scenarios for the crash
23:01include pilot error and mechanical malfunction.
23:05It's a conclusion that doesn't exactly inspire confidence,
23:08but it's the final official word on the crash
23:11for half a century.
23:13Over the years,
23:14countless conspiracy theories swirl.
23:17Fingers are pointed in all directions.
23:19The Soviets,
23:21the British,
23:22South Africa,
23:23even the U.S. is suspected of orchestrating the crash.
23:27All these nations had a stake in the Congo
23:30in the early 1960s,
23:32but for the next four decades,
23:34no evidence emerges to prove
23:35any of them are responsible.
23:37Then, in the 2000s,
23:39a group of independent researchers
23:41uncover recently declassified documents
23:44and speak to newly found witnesses.
23:46These findings push the United Nations
23:49to finally take action.
23:51At the center of this unraveling mystery
23:53is journalist Ravi Somaya,
23:55who has spent years chasing the story
23:57for his book,
23:58The Golden Thread.
24:00In the 2010s,
24:01the U.N. itself reopened the inquiry
24:03and it's unearthed significant new details.
24:06One of the things the United Nations discovered
24:08is that America had a plane
24:10parked near Andola Airfield.
24:13But this plane was a mobile relay station
24:15for picking up signals
24:17and transmitting them
24:18to NSA and other listening stations
24:20around the world.
24:22So, unbeknownst to the U.N. at the time,
24:25the U.S. had a spy plane on the ground
24:27in Andola,
24:28tasked with intercepting
24:30foreign aircraft communication,
24:31possibly even Hammerschultz.
24:33One of the reasons
24:35America has been keeping a lot of secrets
24:37is it doesn't want to admit
24:38that it was spying on the United Nations.
24:40You're not really supposed to do that.
24:42Now, decades later,
24:44former American intelligence officers
24:46have stepped forward
24:47to reveal for the first time
24:49what that spy plane may have overheard
24:51that fateful night.
24:52On the night that Hammerschultz's plane went down,
24:55there was an operative for the NSA
24:58called Charles Southall.
24:59He was stationed in Cyprus.
25:01He heard radio communications
25:03which suggested a second plane
25:04was in the sky
25:05and targeting the Albertina.
25:07And then he said he heard
25:08the sound of gunfire.
25:09And then someone said,
25:10I've hit it.
25:11It's going down effectively.
25:14A second plane in the air.
25:16So who was flying it?
25:18In 1961,
25:19surely there weren't a lot of planes
25:21in rural Africa
25:22capable of taking down a DC-6.
25:25But it turns out
25:26one side of the conflict
25:28had exactly that.
25:29The Katanganese forces
25:31who were determined
25:32to keep their mineral-rich region
25:34away from the newly independent
25:36Congo nation
25:37and directly opposing UN efforts
25:39to reunify the country.
25:43Their jet,
25:44known as a Fuga Magister,
25:46had twin machine guns
25:47and carried two bombs per mission.
25:50It wreaked havoc on the UN,
25:52bombing and strafing
25:53its ground forces in the Congo
25:54and crippling their cargo supply.
25:57This Fuga jet fighter
25:58was so infamous
25:59that Hammercord was in fact
26:00writing really stern letters
26:03begging for help
26:04to try and get this jet fighter
26:06out of the air.
26:06It was really the bane
26:08of the existence
26:09of the United Nations
26:10in Katanga.
26:11And there's also
26:12significant evidence
26:13that a Belgian mercenary pilot
26:16was flying this plane.
26:17Yes, investigators suspect
26:19a half-Belgian,
26:21half-British pilot
26:22named Jan van Rissegham
26:24was the man
26:25who shot down Dag.
26:27A U.S. State Department memo
26:29dated just two days
26:30after the crash,
26:31but only declassified
26:33in 2014,
26:34states Hammershould
26:35may have been shot down
26:37and lists Jan van Rissegham
26:39by name.
26:40He's now a central figure
26:42in the renewed UN investigation.
26:44When investigators examined
26:46his logbooks,
26:47they noticed something strange.
26:49The pages covering the days
26:51around Hammershould's death
26:52looked different,
26:54written in a different handwriting
26:56and stamped unlike the rest,
26:58raising suspicions
26:59that they had been altered
27:00to hide that pilot
27:02Jan van Rissegham
27:03was flying near Hammershould's plane
27:05the night it crashed.
27:09Van Rissegham died in 2007,
27:12taking any secrets
27:13to the grave.
27:15Then, in October 2024,
27:17the U.N. released
27:18a bombshell report,
27:20reversing its 1962 finding,
27:23saying there is persuasive evidence
27:25Hammershould's plane
27:27was deliberately brought down
27:28and urging the U.S. and Britain
27:31to release their classified files.
27:34It now seems likely
27:35that Dag Hammershould's plane
27:37was shot down,
27:38possibly by forces
27:39who saw the U.N.
27:41as a direct threat
27:41to Katanga's independence.
27:44And we even have the name
27:45of the most likely suspect.
27:48Over 60 years later,
27:50the U.N. investigation
27:51is still underway,
27:53and new information
27:54could still develop,
27:55proving that those responsible
27:57for the plane crash
27:58may have ended Hammershould's life,
28:00but not his mission.
28:07It's August 6, 1930,
28:09and I'm in Manhattan
28:11at Billy Ha's Chop House,
28:13said to be the best steak
28:14in the city, by the way.
28:15And dining right over there
28:16is another superlative,
28:18the most famous guy in town,
28:20Joseph Force Crater,
28:22a New York Supreme Court justice
28:24and political power player.
28:25What happens next
28:27will become the talk
28:28of the Big Apple,
28:29because after dinner,
28:30Judge Crater leaves this restaurant
28:32and will never be seen again.
28:34His disappearance sparks
28:36one of the largest manhunts
28:37in American history,
28:39a search that turns up
28:40no body and no solid suspects.
28:43For 75 years,
28:45the mystery will remain unsolved
28:47until a series
28:48of shocking revelations
28:49reveal the scandalous truth
28:51behind the so-called
28:53Missingest Man in New York.
29:03born in 1889
29:05in Easton, Pennsylvania,
29:07Joseph Force Crater
29:08seems destined for success.
29:11His family builds
29:12a prosperous business
29:13running a grocery store
29:14and surrounding orchards.
29:16But Joe Crater is not content
29:19to inherit the family enterprise.
29:21Smart and driven,
29:22he stands out early,
29:23graduating at the top
29:25of his class
29:26before moving to New York City
29:27to attend Columbia Law School.
29:32In 1916,
29:34Crater opens a law practice
29:35in New York's financial district,
29:38determined to make his mark
29:39on the city that never sleeps.
29:41At the same time,
29:42he plugs into the city's
29:44political machinery,
29:45joining the Cayuga Democratic Club.
29:47There, he helps organize voters,
29:50pours countless hours
29:51into election law cases,
29:53and begins building the connections
29:55that will quietly shape his rise.
29:58Over time,
29:59he becomes deeply embedded
30:00with the Cayuga Club's
30:01powerful parent organization,
30:04Tammany Hall.
30:06Founded in 1786,
30:09Tammany Hall is a political machine,
30:11a tightly-run Democratic Party organization
30:14that controls jobs,
30:16favors,
30:16and elections
30:17across New York City.
30:19For nearly two centuries,
30:21it dominates city politics.
30:23If you want a Democratic nomination,
30:25you go through Tammany.
30:26And if you want influence,
30:28you better play by its rules.
30:31As Crater rises through Tammany Hall,
30:34he embraces its perks.
30:35By night,
30:36he dives into Jazz Age Manhattan,
30:38lavish dinners,
30:40Broadway shows,
30:41and Harlem clubs,
30:43quickly earning a reputation
30:44as a playboy.
30:45He mingles with chorus girls,
30:47escorts,
30:48and underworld figures
30:49like Arnold Rothstein
30:51and Jack Legs Diamond.
30:55Meanwhile,
30:56his legal career is surging.
30:58He soon lands a coveted post
31:00as law secretary
31:01to a powerful New York justice,
31:04opening the door
31:05to the city's backroom power deals.
31:10And in 1930,
31:12Joseph Force Crater
31:13makes his boldest move yet.
31:15He hands over
31:16a $22,500 contribution
31:19to Tammany Hall,
31:21more than $400,000 today.
31:25Where did Crater
31:26get such a huge sum of money?
31:28Could it be from organized crime?
31:31Did Crater do a deal
31:33with the devil?
31:40In 1930s New York,
31:42Joseph Crater stands
31:43at the height of his career,
31:45a symbol of success
31:46in an iconic city.
31:48But behind the polished image,
31:51backroom deals
31:52and friendships
31:52with notorious gangsters
31:54raise an unsettling question.
31:56Was Crater's rise earned
31:58or bought?
31:59Crater now holds
32:01a coveted seat
32:02on New York's Supreme Court,
32:03appointed to the bench
32:05by then-governor
32:06Franklin D. Roosevelt.
32:08He has made it
32:09to the top
32:09of the New York totem pole.
32:11With a 14-year term
32:13on the bench,
32:14he now has the power
32:15to sway politics
32:16in the wealthiest city
32:17in the nation.
32:20But despite seeming
32:22to have it all,
32:23Crater soon starts
32:24behaving erratically.
32:25It begins in 1930
32:27on a vacation in Maine
32:29with his wife Stella.
32:30On August 3rd,
32:31Crater receives
32:32a phone call
32:33from Out of the Blue.
32:34Shortly after,
32:35he hangs up
32:36and leaves Stella
32:37in their cabin,
32:38promising to return
32:39in a few days
32:40to celebrate her birthday
32:41on the 9th.
32:42It's a promise
32:43he'll never keep.
32:46When Crater arrives
32:48back in New York,
32:49he goes straight
32:50to his chambers
32:50at the courthouse.
32:51His assistant,
32:53Joseph Mara,
32:53is surprised to see him.
32:55Judge,
32:55I wasn't expecting you
32:57so soon.
32:59Mara says Crater
33:00is acting strange
33:01and secretive,
33:03going through his files,
33:04destroying documents,
33:05and removing others.
33:08He also asks Mara
33:10to cash two checks,
33:11totaling the equivalent
33:12of $100,000 today.
33:18A few days later,
33:19on August 6th,
33:21Judge Crater
33:21goes to that fateful dinner
33:23at Ha's Chop House
33:24alongside lawyer
33:25William Kline
33:26and Sally Lou Ritz,
33:28a showgirl
33:28and Crater's
33:29alleged mistress.
33:31Both friends report
33:33noticing the judge's
33:34strange mood.
33:38His friends last see him
33:40heading to a Broadway
33:41comedy performance
33:42that he'd bought
33:43a ticket for.
33:44At the theater, though,
33:45his seat remains empty.
33:47Despite never returning
33:48for his wife Stella's birthday,
33:50she doesn't report
33:51Crater missing
33:52until September 6th,
33:53a month after
33:55he's last seen,
33:56perhaps assuming
33:57that he was simply
33:58with another woman.
34:01As word of the
34:02party boy judge's
34:04disappearance gets out,
34:05the press picks up
34:06the story
34:07and Crater becomes
34:08a national sensation.
34:10They dub him
34:11the missingest man
34:12in New York.
34:13The NYPD launches
34:15a massive investigation,
34:17chasing down
34:18hundreds of leads.
34:19tips pour in
34:21from all across America
34:22with sightings
34:23in California,
34:24Florida,
34:25even Mexico.
34:26But they all lead
34:27to nothing.
34:29It's as if
34:29Judge Crater
34:30simply evaporated
34:31into thin air.
34:36Although authorities
34:37can't find
34:38the judge himself,
34:39their investigation
34:40does uncover
34:41his deep web
34:42of corruption
34:43and vices
34:44that may have
34:45come back
34:46to bite him.
34:48It turns out
34:49Crater had
34:50expensive gambling
34:51debts at
34:51unsanctioned
34:52casinos
34:53and may have
34:54been involved
34:54in illegally
34:55selling judicial
34:56appointments.
34:58Curiously,
35:00four months
35:00after his
35:01disappearance,
35:02Crater's wife
35:02Stella also
35:03finds a note
35:04he had left
35:05for her
35:05in his desk
35:06drawer.
35:06The note
35:07ends,
35:08quote,
35:08I am very weary,
35:10which some
35:10believe is evidence
35:11he took his own
35:12life.
35:14Most alarmingly,
35:16police discover
35:17Crater had
35:18recently been
35:18subpoenaed by
35:19the state
35:20attorney general's
35:21office as part
35:22of a huge
35:22anti-corruption
35:23investigation.
35:25It makes them
35:26wonder,
35:26was he about
35:27to turn
35:28state's evidence
35:29against Tammany
35:30Hall,
35:30the powerful
35:31and corrupt
35:32Democratic
35:33organization
35:34that got him
35:35appointed?
35:36Tell me who
35:37you paid
35:37and when.
35:41I'm in deep.
35:43the Tammany
35:43Hall.
35:45If Crater
35:46turned his
35:46back on
35:47Tammany
35:47Hall,
35:48were they
35:48the ones
35:48behind his
35:49disappearance?
35:50For more
35:51than 75
35:51years,
35:52we didn't
35:53have an
35:53answer.
35:54Now,
35:54we do.
35:59Famous
36:00New York
36:00lawman Judge
36:01Crater is
36:02officially
36:02declared dead
36:03in 1939,
36:05nine years
36:05after he
36:06vanished.
36:07In the
36:07decades since
36:08his disappearance,
36:09many theories
36:09have been
36:10proposed.
36:11Debt,
36:11adultery,
36:12corruption,
36:13snitching,
36:14but none
36:14with any
36:15proof.
36:15That would
36:16finally change
36:17in 2005
36:18when a woman
36:19in Queens
36:19dies,
36:20leaving behind
36:21remarkable notes
36:22to be opened
36:23upon her death.
36:24Judge Crater
36:25biographer
36:26Richard Toffel
36:26explains.
36:28In 2005,
36:30a woman named
36:31Stella Ferrucci-Good
36:33died in New York.
36:35Miss Ferrucci-Good
36:35left behind papers
36:37indicating to her
36:38family that they
36:39should be opened
36:39upon her death
36:40and indicated
36:42that her husband
36:43had told her
36:44that he believed
36:45he knew
36:45who had killed
36:46Judge Crater.
36:47Supposedly,
36:48Crater had been
36:49taken in a taxi
36:50to Coney Island
36:51and murdered
36:53and buried
36:53there.
36:55Mrs. Ferrucci-Good's
36:57husband was a
36:58former New York City
36:59Parks Department
37:00supervisor.
37:00He allegedly
37:02overheard the
37:02incendiary claim
37:03that the judge
37:04had indeed
37:05been murdered,
37:06buried beneath
37:07the Coney Island
37:08boardwalk.
37:09But for Toffel,
37:11there's a big
37:11problem with this.
37:13I don't think
37:14that Miss Ferrucci-Good's
37:16story ultimately
37:16makes sense.
37:17The site to which
37:19Judge Crater
37:20was supposedly
37:20taken was
37:22thoroughly unearthed
37:23in the 1950s
37:25for the construction
37:25of the New York
37:26Aquarium at a time
37:28when interest
37:28was still pretty
37:29high in the
37:30Crater case
37:31and no sign
37:32of any body
37:33was found
37:34during that
37:34excavation.
37:36I have no
37:37reason to believe
37:37that Miss Ferrucci-Good
37:39was making this
37:39up.
37:40I think her
37:41husband probably
37:41did tell her
37:42such a story.
37:43I just don't
37:44think the story
37:44happens to have
37:45been true.
37:46But despite
37:47pouring water
37:47on the Ferrucci-Good
37:48writings,
37:49Toffel continued
37:50to dig into
37:51the Crater case,
37:52uncovering a
37:53theory he believes
37:54quite literally
37:55puts the mystery
37:56to bed,
37:56or in bed,
37:58as it were.
37:59I actually
38:00believe Crater's
38:01disappearance
38:02revolves around
38:03a then-quite-famous
38:05madam in New York
38:07named Polly Adler.
38:09In 1960,
38:11there was a
38:12blind gossip
38:13item in a book
38:14that indicated
38:15Polly Adler's
38:16memoir would report
38:17that Crater had died
38:18in the act
38:19in her establishment.
38:22But apparently,
38:23the story
38:24was then removed
38:25from the memoir.
38:27Polly Adler was
38:28very well-connected
38:29to the mob,
38:30and the mob would
38:31easily have been able
38:32to dispose of the body
38:33in such a way
38:35that no trace
38:36would be found.
38:38The forgotten
38:39account Toffel
38:40uncovered was
38:41in a book
38:42by Alan Churchill
38:43entitled
38:43They Never Came Back.
38:45It says the
38:46unpublished text
38:47was supposed to
38:48mention that,
38:49quote,
38:49Crater suffered
38:50a fatal heart attack
38:51at the moment
38:52of peak enjoyment
38:53while indulging
38:55in the unique
38:55pleasures
38:56of the establishment.
38:58Talk about
38:58a juicy detail.
38:59Why would Polly Adler
39:01remove this passage
39:02from the final version
39:03of her memoir?
39:05Toffel thinks
39:05it was partly
39:06for her own protection.
39:08As for why
39:09Polly Adler
39:10might have taken
39:11a direct statement
39:12about Crater's death
39:13out of her book,
39:14the libel laws
39:15were much stricter
39:16in this country
39:17than they are today,
39:18and it's easy
39:20to imagine
39:20Polly Adler,
39:22even 30 years
39:23after Crater's death,
39:24not wanting to have
39:25been quite as explicit
39:26about this
39:27in her memoir.
39:29This casts Crater's
39:31earlier strange behavior
39:32in a new light,
39:34suggesting the mounting
39:35pressure from financial
39:36and legal troubles
39:37caused extreme stress.
39:39Stress that,
39:41if Polly is to be believed,
39:42ultimately led
39:43to a fatal heart attack.
39:45But wait a second.
39:47If this is true,
39:48why did the police
39:49apparently never
39:50chase down these leads?
39:51Why did it take 75 years
39:53for this theory
39:54to be exposed?
39:56In my opinion,
39:57the real scandal here
39:59is not why
40:01Judge Crater wasn't found,
40:03but why no one
40:05went seriously looking
40:06for him
40:06for three or four weeks.
40:09And the reason I think
40:10that no one went
40:10looking for him
40:11was this was
40:12at the beginning
40:13of what turned
40:14into a huge scandal
40:16of municipal corruption.
40:18Tammany Hall
40:19was under enormous pressure
40:20in 1930.
40:22The more information
40:24that was turned up
40:25about Judge Crater,
40:26the more people
40:27were likely to realize
40:28that he had bought
40:29his judgeship
40:30as many other judges
40:31were doing at the time.
40:33I think Crater's associates,
40:34especially in Tammany Hall,
40:36went out of their way
40:37not to find him.
40:38Did the high
40:39and mighty judge
40:40really fall
40:41to such a down
40:42and dirty end,
40:43dying of a heart attack
40:45in a brothel
40:45before being buried
40:46by the mob
40:47and never searched for
40:49because of a corrupt
40:49city cover-up?
40:51Or is he buried
40:52at Coney Island,
40:53as indicated
40:53in the long-sealed letter
40:55of Stella Ferrucci Good?
40:57In 1979,
40:59Judge Joseph Crater's case
41:00was officially closed
41:01without being solved.
41:03TOEFL's theory
41:04is compelling,
41:05not to mention scandalous,
41:06but without physical evidence,
41:08the so-called
41:09missingest man in New York
41:10stays that way.
41:12There is one final footnote
41:14to this tabloid tale.
41:15In the years after
41:17the judge's disappearance,
41:18a new phrase
41:19became popular,
41:20to pull a crater,
41:22meaning to disappear
41:23without a trace.
41:24I'm Josh Gates.
41:26Please don't pull a crater,
41:27and I'll see you
41:28on the next expedition.
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