On this episode of "expedition files..."
We investigate the world's most infamous shipwreck.
New findings reveal that it was not just an iceberg
that sank the Titanic,
but something even more untamed lurking deep in the underbelly
of the ship.
Then, the greatest escape artist in history,
Harry Houdini, is unable to escape his own demise.
Recent revelations may give us new insight into how he died.
And treasure hunters claim to find
hundreds of millions of dollars in lost civil war gold.
But when they notify the government,
the loot disappears.
Was it stolen by the FBI?
The truth behind this modern-day heist is as stunning
as the treasure itself.
In the corridors of time
are mysteries that defy explanation.
Now, I'm traveling through history itself
on a search for the truth.
New evidence.
Shocking answers.
I'm Josh gates.
And these
are my "expedition files."
Have you heard the news? The moon landing was faked.
They had to fake it because, of course, the earth is flat.
And we're keeping alien spaceship wreckage at area 51.
And not to worry, Elvis is still alive.
You've no doubt come across these
and other ridiculous conspiracy theories
while taking a harmless stroll through the Internet.
But here's the thing.
Every once in a while, some shocking truths
are waiting for us at the bottom of those rabbit holes.
In this episode, we examine the files of
three remarkable conspiracies,
trying to answer the most pressing question of all,
are they fiction or fact?
We begin on the bridge of the largest ship in the world.
It is undoubtedly impressive, but soon it will be legendary.
Because the date is April 14th, 1912,
the time is 11:41 pm,
and this is the supposedly unsinkable Titanic.
Captain Edward Smith here has just returned to the bridge
after feeling the gut-wrenching impact of a massive iceberg.
We all know what happens next.
Soon, the ship and more than 1,500 souls will sink into
a watery grave.
Conspiracy theories about this fateful night have swirled
for more than a century.
But now remarkable new evidence may reveal the secret truth
behind Titanic's tragedy.
And, spoiler alert, it involves so much more
than just an iceberg.
This story begins in 1909.
The British shipping company white star line
is locked in a fierce battle with other rivals
to dominate passenger service across the Atlantic.
To beat the competition, white star's ambitious
chairman, j. Bruce is may,
commissions their newest ship,
a liner that will outshine all others.
Titanic.
However, when construction falls behind schedule,
it puts white star in financial peril.
It's imperative that they launch the ship
so they can sell enough tickets to refill the company coffers.
When Titanic is finally completed three years later
in 1912, it is the largest and most luxurious liner ever built.
And the Titanic is not just lavish,
it's purported to be the safest ship ever to set sail.
Her 16 watertight compartments
are designed to keep the vessel afloat
even if her hull is breached,
leading publications to declare that the ship is "unsinkable."
By the time Titanic is ready to set sail on April 10, 1912,
a staggering amount of money has been spent
on her construction, white star line chairman
j. Bruce is may, knows how much is at stake
if her maiden voyage is a flop.
The ship's captain, Edward Smith,
a British naval officer,
is considered a celebrity by white star passengers.
At 62 years of age, he had served in the royal reserve
and commanded hundreds of Atlantic crossings,
becoming the highest-paid ship's captain in the world.
Smith will do whatever it takes to ensure Titanic's crossing
is a success.
With 2,240 passengers and crew aboard,
the launch of the ship is an exuberant affair.
As Titanic sets sail, famous first-class passengers,
including real estate magnate John Jacob astor,
business tycoon Benjamin guggenheim,
and isidor and ida straus,
millionaire owners of Macy's department store,
indulge in the ship's luxurious amenities.
This includes squash courts,
a heated saltwater swimming pool, and other facilities
only available to first-class passengers.
Below them, the second-class passengers
enjoy one of three separate open-air promenades,
or mingle in the smoking room,
while on the ship's lower decks,
the third-class travelers dance and socialize.
The passengers are blissfully unaware that,
in an effort to keep the decks looking sleek,
Titanic has only enough lifeboats
to accommodate less than half of those aboard.
And on the third day of the crossing,
Titanic sails into dangerous waters.
Starting at 9 am, the bridge receives repeated
warnings from nearby ships of icebergs in the area.
At 10:30 pm, a rival liner even reports she's stopped dead
in the water because they're surrounded by ice.
Captain Smith considers slowing Titanic down
to protect her from a collision.
But witnesses claim white star line chairman,
Bruce is may, pressures captain Smith
to continue near top speed
so Titanic can arrive in New York ahead of schedule
and generate publicity
full speed ahead.
Then, at 11:39 pm, a lookout spots a large,
white mass in the water.
He rings the bridge, informing first officer Murdoch,
iceberg, captain!
Murdoch orders full stop of Titanic's engines.
But it's already too late.
Titanic is about to take a collision on her starboard side,
a mountain of ice that will scrape along her hull
for nearly 300 feet.
The ship has 16 watertight compartments
and was designed to stay afloat if as many as
four of them are flooded.
But the iceberg slices open six compartments,
creating a cascade effect that cannot be stopped.
In other words, a death sentence
for the unsinkable ship.
It took 3,000 people three years to build Titanic,
but it only takes the ocean three hours to destroy her.
By 2:20 am on April 15, 1912,
Titanic is gone beneath the waves.
In the chaos of her sinking
and owing to the lack of sufficient lifeboats,
it is estimated that 1,503 of
the more than 2,200 people aboard perished.
That includes John Jacob astor, Benjamin guggenheim,
isidor and ida straus,
as well as 110 women and 53 children,
52 of whom were from the third-class deck.
News of Titanic's sinking sends shock waves around the globe.
How could the world's most advanced ocean liner
sink so quickly?
Days after the tragedy, the U.S. and British governments launch
inquiries to determine what happened.
They conclude what seems obvious,
that Titanic's sinking was due to, quote,
"a collision with an iceberg
"brought about by the excessive speed
at which the ship was being navigated."
So, open and shut case, right?
Well, hold your propellers.
Shocking new evidence of a long-buried conspiracy
may show that it wasn't just ice that brought the ship down,
but instead, a secret right beneath the passengers' feet.
In 1912, the legendary ocean liner Titanic strikes
an iceberg and is about to sink in the north Atlantic.
But is that the whole story?
In 2017, an Irish journalist examines rare photographs of
the Titanic in southampton,
just days before she departs for New York.
And what the images lay bare is nothing short of alarming.
Titanic historian Craig so pin believes the photos support
a conspiracy theory,
which sends everything we know about Titanic's sinking
up in flames.
Prior to Titanic's departure, it was discovered that there was
a fire in the coal bunker.
And when it was discovered, nothing was done
to try and put this fire out.
So was this fire still raging as passengers boarded the ship
and set sail for New York?
One interesting thing about these photographs
is that two of them showed an inexplicable black streak
along Titanic's starboard hull.
It wasn't a reflection, it wasn't sunlight,
but it was at the very fine, focused area of a streak
that obviously needed further explanation.
We know that the coal bunker fire was also in the starboard side,
and some investigators have argued that that position
was very close to the position on the hull
where these black streaks are.
You put two and two together and you think,
"ok, the coal bunker fire was burning the hull
and the hull was turning black. What else could it possibly be?"
During the official inquiries into the Titanic's demise,
one crew member reveals that a growing fire had started
in the coal room prior to the voyage,
but the judge overseeing the hearings
quickly dismisses it
as irrelevant to the ship's sinking.
Did the judge miss a major clue,
or was he trying to minimize
the coal fire's role in this epic disaster?
Some historians believe the judge was incentivized
to protect the vital shipping industry of britain.
Others theorize that these photographs suggest
the coal Blaze was much, much bigger than originally believed.
They argue that for a fire to damage the hull to the extent
the photograph appears to capture,
it would have to reach temperatures of 1,800 degrees,
a fire that hot would have warped Titanic's steel,
weakening her hull.
Why, before they left port, they didn't douse the fire
in bunker five or six is totally unknown.
Some have speculated that if the fire were still going
at the time they left
and they went and announced this to the white star line,
they may have been stuck at port.
Then, as bad luck would have it, the iceberg strikes Titanic
at the very same location where the coal fire is reportedly
burning, near the ship's sixth watertight bulkhead.
Once this bulkhead gives way,
the ship begins to pitch forward,
flooding more compartments and sealing her fate.
Some have asserted captain Smith knew about the coal fire,
but many believe the captain felt the pressure
to please chairman is may.
So could it be that Smith decided to keep his boss happy
by setting sail on time
and ignoring the potential danger?
For so pin, the decision to leave southampton on time
raises troubling questions about chairman ismay's willingness
to gamble with passengers' lives.
But could Smith have overruled is may?
Does the Titanic's captain also share the blame?
Captain Smith was in charge of everyone
and everything on that ship.
Under today's standards for a vessel to leave
with a fire on board, actively going
and not taking any mitigation efforts
beyond shoveling the coal,
under today's standards,
would be considered criminal negligence.
In the end, the captain and is may suffered
very different fates.
Ismay managed to board one of the last lifeboats,
ultimately surviving.
And even though he was cleared of any blame for the tragedy,
he was accused of cowardice
and was ostracized for the rest of his life.
As for captain Smith, some witnesses say
that he jumped overboard into the icy waters.
And others claim he went down with his sinking ship.
In the end, a fire secretly smoldering in the ship's hold
may have been the true spark
responsible for the Titanic disaster,
fatally weakening her hull.
And so the ship, captain Smith,
and more than 1,500 innocent lives
were lost in a perfect storm of fire and ice.
Eleven years after the Titanic tragedy,
another mystery begs the attention
of conspiracy theorists worldwide.
This drama unfolds, appropriately enough, on stage
here at the in Princess theatre in Montreal, Canada.
The date is Friday, October 22nd, 1926,
and there's a packed house here
to see the greatest escape artist of all time.
Ladies and gentlemen, Harry Houdini.
Now watch closely, not to figure out his tricks,
but for signs of an injury
that sets off a terrible chain of events,
events that will end in nine days' time
with Houdini facing the one truly impossible escape, death.
You may have already noticed the limp.
That's from a fractured ankle he suffered 11 days ago,
performing the Chinese water torture cell
at the capital theatre in Albany, New York.
But that's not the injury we're looking for.
There, did you see that?
His stage assistant and wife, Bess, takes notice.
A pain in his abdomen. That's new.
As with his injured foot,
Houdini, famous for his ability to endure pain,
will not let this affect his performance.
But this time, Houdini is no match for what ails him.
He will soon be dead from what is thought to be appendicitis.
I've shown you how it's done.
Now go try it yourself.
But how did a healthy person who was athletic and fit enough
to do some of the most daring escapes in the world
perish at such a relatively young age
from something many people survive?
The public and media become overrun with conspiracy
theories, refusing to believe this conventional death,
because in 1926, Houdini is not only super famous,
he's considered superhuman.
It began with members of the city's detective force
buckling Houdini into a straitjacket.
He was then hoisted by crane
to a point four or five stories above the street.
And then
he would escape from the straitjacket in about
two and a half minutes.
Houdini wasn't always Houdini.
He was born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874.
At four years old, his family immigrates to the U.S.,
where they face extreme poverty.
At a very young age, he starts earning money working odd jobs,
including shining shoes, selling newspapers,
and as a locksmith apprentice,
a skill which would prove invaluable later in life.
At age nine, he's drawn to performing
and joins a neighborhood circus,
making his debut as the trapeze artist "the prince of air."
He also develops a love of magic, and by 17,
he's an established magician,
changing his name to Harry Houdini
in honor of French magician Robert-Houdini
several years later, as victorian magic shows look
to add suspense and thrills to their productions,
they inspire a new genre of entertainment
known as "escapology."
And it's here that Harry finds his big break.
Because of his knowledge as a locksmith apprentice,
Houdini turns out to be a natural
at freeing himself from handcuffs.
And at one of his shows, Harry is discovered
by an orpheum theater owner who amazed by his skills
makes him the main attraction of the vaudeville circuit
and it's at this time that Houdini discovers
one of his greatest gifts... the art of self-promotion.
He recognizes that the more dangerous his act,
the bigger the payday
so he's soon hanging upside down in straitjackets
over huge crowds
jumping manacled into rivers
and being buried alive
he performs his daring escapes for world leaders,
from Theodore Roosevelt to the Russian royal family,
and even stars in two Hollywood movies.
But his touring schedule starts taking a toll on his body.
And in October of 1926,
despite worsening pain in his side,
he suffers through two days of performances
at the Princess theatre in Montreal.
Still, he pushes on,
boarding a night train for Detroit.
But while on board, the pain becomes excruciating.
Arriving in Detroit, Houdini insists on being taken
directly to the garrick theatre,
where a doctor examines him,
only hours before his next performance.
Houdini's temperature is now 104 degrees,
and the doctor suspects appendicitis.
He recommends he be rushed to the hospital.
Houdini famously responds,
"I'll do this show if it's my last."
That night, Sunday, October 24th,
Houdini thrills another sold-out audience
before he is finally rushed to the hospital,
collapsed under the pain.
My god! Harry! Harry! Are you ok?
Doctors discover that his appendix has burst,
releasing bacteria into his body,
a condition known as peritonitis.
Before the widespread use of antibiotics,
this type of infection was most often a death sentence.
On October 31st, 1926, Halloween,
unlike so many times before,
Houdini cannot escape his own death.
The world seems unable to accept the news.
How could a man with seemingly superhuman powers be gone?
Soon, shocking conspiracy theories emerge,
the most incredible suggesting that Houdini was murdered.
But who would have wanted this beloved entertainer dead?
The answer to this question might send shivers
down your spine.
On October 31st, 1926
world-famous escape artist, Harry Houdini,
dies from what is officially ruled as a ruptured appendix.
Not long afterwards, conspiracy theories arise,
asserting that Houdini was murdered.
But who would have killed him and why?
People start pointing fingers at a group that did have
an axe to grind with the magician, spiritualists.
Spiritualism was a movement which promoted the idea
that one could communicate with the dead
through seances and mediums.
The movement started after the carnage
of the American civil war
and only intensified after the horrors of world war I.
Loved ones were desperate to put their faith
in spiritualists in the hope of communicating
with those who were killed.
But it was the spiritualists who were making a killing.
After attending a seance himself,
Houdini believed he recognized the medium's techniques
and denounced them as frauds who preyed on the brokenhearted.
In response, the psychic community
publicly cursed Houdini, predicting his imminent death.
So, could a curse really have killed Houdini?
Or had spiritualists ensured their grim predictions
by murdering him? And if so, how?
Suspicions turned to a strange event nine days earlier,
just before Houdini performed his show
at the Princess theatre.
I always admire the mystery of magic.
What the eyes see and the ears hear,
the mind believes.
Backstage, on the morning of the performance,
Houdini meets with students from nearby mcgill university.
Out of nowhere, one of the students
named j. Gordon whitehead asks
Mr. Houdini, is it true you can take a punch to the abdomen
without feeling it?
Before Houdini can prepare himself,
whitehead leaps up to deliver several violent punches
to Houdini's midsection.
When whitehead finally stops,
Houdini assures the students that he is unfazed.
But hours later shows signs of abdominal pain
during his performance.
The press is quick to blame whitehead, some even questioning
if spiritualists sent him as an assassin.
Was there more to Harry Houdini's death
than a ruptured appendix?
The stage is set to reveal the shocking truth.
Thanks to a recently resurfaced letter,
we may finally bring down the curtain on this mystery
once and for all.
Historian John Cox has been obsessed with Houdini
since childhood.
The fundamental facts of Houdini's death have been
well-covered in biographies.
He died from peritonitis, which is a massive infection
one gets in your appendix rupture from appendicitis.
But something has been missed,
and it's something that I think is very important
and may be a contributing factor to his death.
One theory suggests that student j. Gordon whitehead,
who punched Houdini in the abdomen
may have been an assassin sent by spiritualists
who the magician exposed as frauds.
But is this possible?
People like speculate that cabal of Montreal spiritualists
that wanted Houdini dead,
they like to set whitehead up as a villain
but the evidence for that is sketchy.
No connection between the student and any
nefarious groups has ever been found, more importantly,
it was common for Houdini to allow fans to strike his abdomen
to show off his conditioning.
This leads to a critical question.
Is it even theoretically possible that a strong punch
could rupture a person's appendix?
Did whitehead's punch kill Houdini?
Some people will say, "no, that's not possible."
But there are rare cases of traumatic appendicitis.
It can happen.
Or was it simply that Houdini was developing appendicitis
and whitehead's punch simply made him ignore the pain
in his stomach.
And you could say that whitehead's punch killed him
in that way, by giving him a reason to not be alarmed
by the pain in his stomach.
Ok, so perhaps Houdini's death was simply
the result of an unfortunate accident.
But after discovering a lost trove of letters hidden
in Houdini's archives, John Cox insists there's
a much bigger story here that everyone has overlooked.
For the past 15 years,
I've really been delving into primary research
that's reading diaries and letters.
In one of the letters, after Houdini broke his ankle,
he says he had a look at his contracts going forward.
And what he found was a clause in the contract that said
should he be unable to perform,
he's on the hook $1,000 a night to the theater.
$10,000 in 1926 is the modern equivalent
of being fined almost $18,000 per day.
Horrified by the penalty if he canceled a show,
it seems Houdini decided to keep performing, despite his ankle,
despite the punches to the gut,
despite the apparent appendicitis.
I think he was thinking, "I'm gonna push through,
"perform with the pain,
"and get through these next three weeks not missing a night
or else I'm gonna have to pay a lot of money."
So we gotta factor that into his thinking,
that maybe he delayed going to the doctor because he knew
there was this contract clause hanging over him.
And of course, two weeks later, Houdini is dead.
We can say with confidence that Houdini died
from a blood infection caused by a ruptured appendix.
There's no evidence that points to assassins,
but we now know that there may well have been
another culprit here, Houdini himself.
The now-disclosed financial penalty for not performing
likely colored Houdini's decisions
and may have ultimately cost him his life.
He might have lived to perform for many years to come if only,
for once, he believed that the show must not go on.
From a mystery about someone we all know
to the mystery of a treasure most never knew existed.
It's 2005, and I'm about 200 miles northwest of Philadelphia
in a remote area known as dents run.
This is a prime patch of forest if you're hunting deer,
but if you believe the conspiracy theorists,
there may be an even more valuable quarry
right under my feet.
Millions of dollars' worth of solid gold bars,
rumored to be buried by union soldiers during the civil war.
Behind me is father and son team Dennis and kem parada.
They've spent years searching for this lost loot,
and they're about to hit pay dirt.
Dennis and kem run a treasure-hunting company
called finders keepers.
But, as we'll soon see,
you don't always get to keep what you find.
The legend is this.
It's 1863, and as the civil war rages on,
union soldiers load a government shipment of 26 gold bars
worth over $50 million today
onto an army caravan near West Virginia.
The soldiers are under secret orders to take the gold to
the United States mint in Philadelphia,
where it will be used to pay for the war effort.
Eleven soldiers and two wagons begin the 350-mile journey
to Philadelphia, but 60 miles into their trek,
with confederate forces patrolling nearby
and the battle of gettysburg on the horizon,
they decide to veer northward near the allegheny river.
The caravan advances slowly through the muddy, rocky terrain
until the wagon breaks down in an area known as dents run.
Several of the soldiers leave to get help.
But when they return three days later,
they find the soldiers they left behind and all the gold
have vanished into thin air,
leaving only an empty wagon.
Now, in what has become a twisted modern-day
treasure hunting tale, we may finally be able to reveal
what happened to this hidden hoard.
In 1863, at the height of the civil war,
50 million dollars' worth of union gold bars
go missing in Pennsylvania.
If you believe the stories,
the union soldiers stole the gold,
burying what they couldn't carry.
Let's be clear, all of this is the stuff of legend,
because the big problem, and it is a really big problem,
is that no official government records of the gold
or its disappearance has ever been found.
Believers of this extraordinary stories say that there are
no records because of a cover-up.
Losing this much gold would have been a huge embarrassment
to the union.
Perhaps they didn't wanna leave a paper trail.
With no public news stories,
memory of this fabled event fades.
That is, until the early 1970s
when a series of articles in treasure hunting magazines
give the legend of dents run new life.
The articles claim that in 1865, government detectives allegedly
recovered two and a half bars of gold
buried under a nearby pine stump.
In the decades following,
a steady stream of treasure hunters descend on dents run,
hoping to find the rest of the gold.
And that includes Dennis and kem parada in 2005
as they make their way through a dry riverbed,
their metal detector sounds off
like they've hit the mother lode.
Digging down about six inches, they find intriguing artifacts
bottles, broken glass, an animal trap, and bullets.
With his background in antiquing,
Dennis has a hunch that these are all civil war era.
And then Dennis notices a small cave
hidden in the side of the hill.
Father and son prepare to venture inside,
hoping that the moment they've dreamed of is about to arrive.
Let me tell you, as someone who's chased my fair share
of lost treasure,
nothing gets your heart pumping quite like stepping into
a dark, unexplored cave.
And what these two men find next will set into motion
one of the greatest treasure-hunting mysteries
of the modern era.
Journalist David Howard has done an in-depth investigation
of this story
and offers detailed insight into the events
surrounding the case.
When they started exploring this cave, it was very narrow,
very wet in there, sort of an unpleasant experience.
But they got inside and they noticed scorch marks on the top
of this cave, which told them that someone had potentially
set up a camp in there.
And if somebody was gonna have left something behind
in this area, that would have been a prime place to do it.
About 30 feet from the entrance,
they find a vertical shaft.
But unfortunately, the entrance is too narrow
for either of them to go down.
Though they can't physically fit into the tunnel,
this doesn't stop the father and son duo from spending
the next nine years searching for gold.
They deployed a number of pieces of technology
that let them essentially look down
under the surface of the earth.
Every one of these tests that the paradas did,
every indication was that it was gold.
But here's the hitch
this potential treasure trove is on state land.
As bad as they might want to, the paradas can't just go
digging up Pennsylvania's state property.
They make the fateful decision to contact the FBI,
telling them about their find.
The FBI did its own investigation,
and they used a device called a gravimeter,
which is one of the most sophisticated methods of
exploring what lies beneath the surface of the earth.
And what they informed the paradas about
in a phone call was that what they found is gold
and that there was as much as
seven to nine tons of gold down there
which in today's currency would be
somewhere in the range of 400 to 600 million dollars.
The FBI takes control of the dig site
and what happens next is a conspiracy theorist's dream.
While there may be controversies surrounding how Houdini
actually died, one thing that isn't debatable
is that he was capable of seemingly supernatural feats.
And Houdini's water torture cell was perhaps
his greatest trick.
In this illusion, he was handcuffed and hung
upside down in a large glass water tank
that was sealed with multiple padlocks
and covered with a cloth.
Would he escape? Yep, every time.
And here's how
Houdini would use modified handcuffs that he could open
by applying pressure in just the right way.
He would jiggle out of these
and pop up to the top of the tank,
which had a fake hinge that allowed him to open it
and climb out, leaving the tank looking
as if it was still padlocked.
Superhuman powers?
No. Super magician?
Definitely.
On march 9, 2018, while seeking a treasure trove of gold bars
that went missing during the civil war,
the FBI asks for permission
to dig up this quiet Pennsylvania hillside,
and a federal judge approves a search and seizure warrant.
Three days later, the FBI arrives at the location
with a backhoe to excavate the site.
The paradas also show up and are eager to take part in
discovering what they believe is a stockpile of gold.
But what comes next for the paradas is heartbreaking.
They're told by the FBI that they'll have to wait
in their car, that there were too many people for them
to be safely at the dig site.
After waiting in their car for a good chunk of the day,
the paradas were finally brought up to the dig site.
The guy who was leading the project told them,
"everybody's cold. It's been a long day.
"We're gonna like stop here.
"And once you come back at 9:00 tomorrow morning,
and we'll continue with the dig at that point."
The paradas took them at their word, didn't think much
of it other than it was kind of like a little bit odd how early
they decided to pull the plug on the work that day.
The next day when Dennis and kem return,
the FBI shows them to the site.
The crew is finished digging
and there's nothing but a big empty hole.
The FBI says they didn't find anything.
In quick order, the FBI disappeared from the site.
The paradas were devastated and confused
that nothing at all had been discovered in there.
But for the paradas, this isn't the end of the story.
It's just the beginning of another chapter.
The paradas started hearing from the residents
who lived around dents run.
Somebody asked them, "hey, did you see those
armored cars go by yesterday?"
Another neighbor said that she heard large equipment
digging of jackhammers rattling all night long.
To her, it was very, very clear that work had taken place
on that mountaintop throughout that night.
Based on the stories that they were hearing from neighbors,
they began to suspect that the FBI had actually worked
through the night, excavated something,
possibly the gold, and driven it away.
Did the FBI really take nine tons of gold out from under
the noses of Dennis and his son?
The paradas are convinced, feeling betrayed
by their own government,
and they aren't willing to give up easily.
In 2022, after four years of being stuck in legal limbo,
the paradas decide they have no choice but to file
a freedom of information request to obtain all documents
related to the FBI's dig.
The FBI initially denied that they had any documentation of
the dig, which seemed preposterous on its face
because the team had watched them shoot video.
Eventually, the FBI conceded that they had over 2,300 pages
of documents and 17 cds with videos and photography.
And after years of looking for answers,
the paradas find the smoking gun they were searching for.
In the midst of these redacted files and obscured images,
they find a video, one that they believe is confirmation
that the FBI knew exactly what was underground
and are ultimately hiding the truth about what they took
from the site.
Good morning.
My name is special agent with the FBI.
We're currently on a site in dents run, Pennsylvania.
We've identified through our investigation a site
that we believe
has U.S. property,
which includes significant sum of base metal,
particularly gold, maybe silver,
and we've been able corroborate a lot of the information,
especially through scientific testing.
And we've identified a site here,
which you can see behind me.
For the paradas, this is definitive proof that the FBI
found gold in the exact spot
that Dennis and kem showed them.
Whether you believe Dennis parada or not,
it's undeniable that their quest for millions
in civil war gold is impressive.
By boldly taking on the FBI and the courts,
Dennis has uncovered video and photo evidence
that could be viewed as extremely suspicious.
The legal drama is ongoing, and the FBI remains unequivocal
that they found nothing of value at the site.
As for the paradas, well, it seems they have no choice
but to keep on digging for the truth.
I'm Josh gates, and I'll see you on the next expedition.