All language subtitles for Expedition.Files.S02E01.1080p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta[EZTVx.to].mkv

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.