All language subtitles for Expedition Files S04E08 Who Done It 720p AMZN WEB-DL DDP2 0 H 264-RAWR[EZTVx.to]

On this episode of "expedition files"...

Meriwether Lewis lives a life of acclaim

as one of america's greatest explorers

leading the Lewis and Clark expedition.

When he dies by
apparent suicide... My god!

Many are in disbelief,

wondering if it was, in fact, murder.

Now we share the tragic truth.

Then, in 1961, leader
of the United Nations,

dag hammarskjöld is on a
peace mission to a war zone when

his plane mysteriously crashes.

The official account
says this was an accident,

but recently uncovered evidence

suggests something much more sinister.

And New York supreme court
judge Joseph crater is riding

high as the toast of 1930s
Manhattan, but then suddenly

disappears forever.

A century later, long-hidden
evidence suggests the true fate

of the person once known

as the "missingest man in New York."

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."

Colonel mustard in the
study with the candlestick.

Who doesn't love the board game, clue?

There's nothing more
satisfying than solving

a clear-cut case of whodunnit.

But once you're outside of
the world's most dangerous

mansion, solving whodunits
is sadly far from simple.

But tonight, we'll try to play
the real-world blame game

anyway, rolling the dice to
work out who's responsible in

three historic murder mysteries.

Hopefully, it won't be miss Scarlet.

She's my favorite.

We begin in 1809, in the dead of night,

outside a Tennessee roadside inn.

The wilderness is quiet,
but then the calm is broken

by the desperate calls of a dying man.

Help!

Water, please!

This is meriwether
Lewis, famed explorer from

the Lewis and Clark expedition,
and he's just been shot.

Was he robbed,
assassinated, or are his two

gunshot wounds self-inflicted?

He struggles back inside
his cabin, where he will soon

succumb to his fate.

And with no witnesses and
no arrests, conspiracy theories

surrounding his death will
linger for over 200 years,

that is, until 2025, when
a research team claims

they have definitively
explained the mysterious death

of one of america's great heroes.

Growing up on his stepfather's
estate in rural Georgia,

meriwether Lewis spends
his early years not in school,

but instead mastering the
skills of an outdoorsman,

fostering a lifelong love of natural history.

In 1795, at the age of
21, he joins the army.

It's here that he first meets
and forges a bond with

his future partner, William Clark.

The two men serve together
on the western frontier.

Lewis rises to the rank of captain

before leaving the army in 1801.

At age 27, he becomes Thomas
Jefferson's personal secretary,

working directly with
Jefferson on military intelligence.

And we will be back as far as...

Jefferson has set his
sights on expanding

us territory to the pacific.

In 1803, he completes

the Louisiana purchase,
acquiring French-controlled

land for $15 million, a
bargain that nearly doubles

the nation's size.

To explore the vast,
uncharted western territory,

Jefferson selects Lewis
to lead the expedition.

I will.

Lewis' mission is nothing
short of monumental...

chart a route from St. Louis to
the west coast, forge alliances

with native tribes, make detailed maps,

and document unknown flora and fauna.

No big deal.

Knowing he can't do it
alone, Lewis turns to an old

army comrade, William
Clark, to share command.

Together, they form the corps
of discovery, with a mission to

traverse nearly 4,000 miles
of rivers, plains and mountains,

currently blank spaces
on American maps.

Lewis and Clark, along
with a party of more than 40,

depart St. Louis in 1804,
beginning an epic trek to

the pacific coast and back again.

The journey is harrowing,
but the group soldiers on,

surviving in no small part
due to their native American

guide sacagawea, who
manages the first part of

the journey pregnant
and the rest with a baby

on her chest.

Along the way, Lewis and Clark carefully

document their discoveries.

They return with scientific
samples and detailed maps that

transform america's understanding of

the western frontier.

Lewis is appointed governor
of the newly explored

Louisiana territory.

But the position comes
with serious challenges,

and in accepting it, Lewis
also inherits a bitter enemy.

That's because to make Lewis
governor, Jefferson has to fire

the man currently in the
post, James wilkinson.

Now responsible for almost
a million square miles of land,

meriwether Lewis faces a
challenging undertaking that

pushes him to his limits.

It turns out, governing the
untamed Louisiana territory

is far more difficult than exploring it.

Supplying the growing outposts
with horses and equipment

requires large sums of money,

much of it advanced personally by Lewis.

The expenses quickly add up,
and he accumulates significant

debts while serving as governor.

Lewis seeks reimbursement
from the federal government.

But by this time, Thomas
Jefferson has left office.

The new president,
James Madison, is less

responsive, and payment is delayed.

This sends Lewis into a
spiral of depression and anger,

worsened by what many describe
as a heavy drinking problem.

How am I supposed to be governor

if I don't get money
from the government?

I can't do this.

I can't do this.

In September of 1809,
the disgruntled Lewis feels

that he has no choice but to
travel back to Washington to

try to recover the money
he believes he's owed.

It's a journey which he won't survive.

Lewis travels over 300
miles on horseback, arriving at

the inn known as grinder's
stand in Tennessee a month later.

That night, he asks for
his dinner to be brought

to the cabin where he's staying alone.

Once he's finished, he
heads to bed without incident.

But then, during the night,
innkeeper Priscilla grinder is

awoken by the sounds of two gunshots

emanating from Lewis' room.

But she's too terrified to investigate.

At first light, a servant and Mrs. Grinder

go to check on Lewis,
only to find him fatally

wounded by two bullets, one
to his head and one to his body.

He dies soon after.

On October 20th, a
Nashville paper breaks

the news of Lewis' suicide.

He's buried not far from grinder's stand.

But hold on.

We're in the era of
single-shot flintlock guns.

So how does one man
manage to shoot himself twice?

Plus, an examination of Lewis'
body reveals cuts on his neck,

arm and leg. Could
those be defense wounds?

And there's more.

Supposedly, some of
Lewis' money is missing.

Add to all of this the fact
that grinder's stand sits in

the heart of bandit country,
and locals start to say that

his death has all the hallmarks
of a robbery gone wrong.

In 1848, the state of
Tennessee exhumes Lewis' grave

in order to rebury him
alongside an official monument.

As part of this process, they
do a medical examination.

Something that didn't take place

immediately after his death.

A local doctor reportedly noted
that one gunshot wound appeared

to be in the back of his head,

an unlikely scenario for suicide.

The exam concluded it was,
quote, "more probable that

he died at the hands of an assassin."

But who would have wanted to kill him?

Some speculate it was a robbery.

He died along a route that was

notorious at the time for bandit attacks.

Others point to James wilkinson,

the disgruntled former governor
Lewis had replaced, whom Lewis

had allegedly exposed
in illegal land deals

in St. Louis.

What is clear is this...

meriwether Lewis had enemies,

and some had reason to want him dead,

leading some to believe that
Lewis' death was not a suicide

at all, but a calculated act of revenge.

Nearly 40 years after
meriwether Lewis' death,

a medical examination raises
suspicions that he may have

been murdered rather
than died by suicide.

But no suspects are ever investigated.

Today, Lewis' body
remains uninvestigated by

modern forensics.

Academics instead turn
to the historical record

in search of answers.

In 2021, physician
David peck and his wife,

clinical psychologist martie
peck, publish a new book

reinvestigating the case.

Death of meriwether
Lewis is highly controversial.

Was he murdered by somebody
or robbed and murdered?

In our book, I create a
psychological profile of.

Lewis' personality.

Essentially, meriwether Lewis

had a genetic
predisposition to depression.

Only three years after
the expedition ended,

Lewis descended into a
pit of depression and despair

because things really shifted overnight

with the change of presidential

administrations and with
his appointment as governor.

And then, with the bottom
dropping out of none of

his efforts being supported,

that just drove him further downward.

After considering all of the
theories that are put forth

about Lewis' death, we
think that the evidence is

absolutely overwhelming
that he committed suicide.

But what about the 1848
medical report that concluded

Lewis was likely assassinated,

referencing a gunshot
wound to the back of his head?

That finding may be flawed.

By modern standards,
the exam is considered

unreliable because the remains
were severely decomposed,

making it impossible to
determine soft tissue damage

or the bullet's exact entry angles.

There are also other plausible
explanations for the so-called

"defense wounds."

Lewis had just ridden
nearly 300 miles through

the wilderness, leaving him
exhausted and possibly injured.

Or the cuts found on his body
could have been self-harm.

So perhaps Lewis really did kill himself,

botching the first shot
by grazing his head,

then finishing the job
with a shot to the body.

Experts that I consulted,
forensic pathologists,

vascular trauma surgeons,
all said that they're not even

surprised that Lewis survived
those wounds for two hours.

Meriwether Lewis was traveling
with a brace of two pistols,

which would account for the two shots.

He would have simply
held the gun up to his chest

like this and pulled the trigger
and/or shot himself in the head

in the same manner.

It's not something that
would be difficult to do.

The pecks point to a
document that may further prove

their case that meriwether
Lewis committed suicide.

Lewis' will, written right before he died.

En route to fort pickering,

he wrote a will, a second will,

because his first will, apparently,

William Clark was his executor.

But writing a will like
that very shortly before

one would die is not something
that would be considered

a typical thing to do unless,
on some level, a person was

considering killing himself.

In that second will, Lewis
replaced Clark and left

his estate to his mother,
an unexpected decision that

adds to the mystery of his final days.

I think the end for meriwether
Lewis came when it did,

in part because he was by himself.

And his best friend in life,

William Clark, wasn't there for him.

And he was on his way back
to Washington to face a hostile

political environment.

And he also had returned to drinking.

And I think that the effects
of that was too much for him.

And I think the opportunity
to kill himself presented itself,

and the demons knocked on
his door, and meriwether Lewis

answered the door.

When William Clark found
out about Lewis' death,

he lamented, "I fear the weight
of his mind has overcome him."

The pecks believe Clark's
instincts were right and that

meriwether Lewis committed suicide.

But let's remind ourselves,
this is still just a theory.

No one saw Lewis get
shot or do the shooting.

While the cause of
meriwether Lewis' death

may be in doubt, the
cause of his life isn't.

Lewis was devoted to his country,

and without his bravery and
selflessness, we may never

have come to know the
United States of America

as we do today.

It's September 17th, 1961.

It's just before 4 P.M.

I'm in the republic of
the Congo in Africa as

a Douglas DC-6 readies for takeoff.

It's waiting for this man, who's
embarking on a secret mission.

His name is dag hammarskjöld,
the Swedish secretary-general

of the United Nations.

He is the most powerful
diplomat on earth.

And right now, he's racing
to stop a civil war from tearing

the Congo apart.

But with billions in resources
and cold war interests at

stake, powerful forces
are betting against him.

And in just a few hours,
this plane will crash

and hammarskjöld will be dead.

Authorities will blame pilot error.

But was it really an accident
or an ambush in the skies?

Strap in.

We're heading for
some serious turbulence.

In 1953, Swedish diplomat
dag hammarskjöld becomes

the UN's second secretary-general.

Hammarskjöld brings
charisma, idealism,

and practicality to the role,
believing the organization can

hold a divided world together.

In Africa, he faces his greatest test

and his most dangerous mission.

After decades of Belgian rule,
the Congo gains independence

in 1960, but quickly begins
to fall apart as foreign powers

compete for its mineral wealth.

Its richest province,
katanga, tries to break away,

with Belgium accused
of supporting the split.

Hammarskjöld sees this
as a threat to the country's

survival and moves to
keep the Congo united.

But the UN mission grows
increasingly controversial.

By September 1961, fighting escalates.

Civilians are caught in the crossfire,

and tensions rise with
western governments over how

the situation is being handled.

Determined to stop the crisis,
hammarskjöld secretly arranges

is a meeting with katangan
leader molïse tshombe.

In British-controlled northern rhodesia

on September 18th.

On the afternoon of September 17th,

he boards a DC-6 named albertina,

with a crew of seven and eight UN aides

and security personnel,
led by 36-year-old

American sergeant, Harold Julien.

But they will never
arrive at their destination.

Here are the facts.

Shortly after midnight
on September 18th,

hammarskjöld's plane,
the albertina, crashes in.

Congo's neighboring nation
of rhodesia, roughly nine miles

from the ndola airport runway.

Fifteen hours later, search
and rescue teams finally

reach the crash site around 3 P.M.

Of the 16 people aboard,
15 are already dead,

including dag hammarskjöld.

Amazingly, one man survives.

Security officer Harold
Julien is badly burned

and barely breathing.

According to the accounts
of the first responders,

dag hammarskjöld lies
just beyond the fuselage,

on his back, clothes intact,
oddly untouched by fire.

The rest of the victims
are charred almost

beyond recognition.

News of the tragedy shocks the world.

Dag hammarskjöld is mourned
for his leadership and his belief

that diplomacy could
heal a broken world.

I know that I'm speaking
for all of my fellow Americans,

expressing our deep sense of
shock and loss in the untimely

death of the secretary-general
of the United Nations,

Mr. Dag hammarskjöld.

After hammarskjöld's death,

violence in katanga
escalates, forcing the UN

to launch one of its largest
military operations, made up of

international troops
from member nations.

Thousands move in, but it
takes nearly a year and a half of

heavy fighting to end the secession.

Dag's UN mission to prevent

civil war in the Congo
ultimately succeeds,

but he loses his life in the process.

And many wonder whether
his death was truly an accident

or a deliberate attempt to
stop peacekeeping efforts.

In the immediate aftermath
of the crash, the government of

northern rhodesia launches an inquiry.

Their conclusion? Pilot error.

According to the official
version, the crew of

the albertina navigating
without radar in darkness

toward an unfamiliar airstrip simply

misjudged their altitude.

The plane clipped trees,
broke apart, and crashed.

So, case closed? Not so fast.

That's because the sole
survivor of the crash tells

a different story.

And it could blow the
pilot error theory wide open.

Dag hammarskjöld's plane
crash is originally dismissed as

an accident caused by pilot error.

But one eyewitness' account
calls that into question.

Against all odds, lone survivor,

UN security officer Harold Julien,

has made it out of the crash

and lies in a hospital bed,

badly burned and gravely injured.

There was a big explosion...

In brief moments of
consciousness, Harold describes

the plane exploding
midair, quote, "a lot of small"

"explosions around," he says.

There was a big explosion...

But if the crash was simply
the result of navigational

error, why were there
explosions before impact?

He clings to life for five
days before succumbing to

his injuries at ndola
hospital on September 23rd.

In their final report,
rhodesian authorities dismiss

his testimony as the confused
ramblings of a dying man.

Officials also hear from local
witnesses who claim a second,

smaller plane was flying
above hammarskjöld's

aircraft as it circled
ndola airport that night.

Several report loud explosions
and say the albertina burst

into flames before crashing,
raising the possibility that

the plane was shot down.

Perhaps strangest of all,
despite hundreds of photos

taken at the crash site,
the only images show him

already laid out on a stretcher.

Why was his body moved
before he was photographed?

And in one photo, some
believe an ace of spades

playing card can be seen
tucked into dag's collar,

interpreted as a death
card or a calling card

from an assassin.

In 1962, the UN launches
its own investigation.

Using evidence collected
for the rhodesian report,

the UN investigators
call out the sloppy search

and rescue operation.

Why, they ask, did it
take 15 hours to locate

a fiery plane crash only
nine miles from the airport?

But the UN commission fails
to find any evidence of sabotage

or attack, saying the possible
scenarios for the crash include

pilot error and mechanical malfunction.

It's a conclusion that doesn't
exactly inspire confidence,

but it's the final official word on the crash

for half a century.

Over the years, countless
conspiracy theories swirl.

Fingers are pointed in all directions.

The Soviets, the British,
South Africa, even the us

is suspected of orchestrating the crash.

All these nations had a
stake in the Congo in the early

1960s, but for the next four
decades, no evidence emerges to

prove any of them are responsible.

Then, in the 2000s, a group of
independent researchers uncover

recently declassified documents

and speak to newly found witnesses.

These findings push the united
nations to finally take action.

At the center of this
unraveling mystery is

journalist Ravi somaiya,
who has spent years chasing

the story for his book,
"the golden thread."

In the 2010s, the UN
itself reopened the inquiry,

and it's unearthed significant new details.

One of the things the united
nations discovered is that

america had a plane parked
near ndola airfield, but this plane

was a mobile relay station
for picking up signals

and transmitting them to
NSA and other listening stations

around the world.

So, unbeknownst to
the UN at the time, the us

had a spy plane on the
ground in ndola tasked with

intercepting foreign aircraft
communication, possibly

even hammarskjöld's.

One of the reasons america
has been keeping a lot of secrets

is it doesn't want to
admit that it's spying on

the United Nations.

You're not really supposed to do that.

Now, decades later,
former American intelligence

officers have stepped forward
to reveal for the first time

what that spy plane may have
overheard that fateful night.

On the night that hammarskjöld's
plane went down, there was

an operative for the NSA
called Charles south all.

He was stationed in Cyprus.

He heard radio communications
which suggested a second plane

was in the sky and
targeting the albertina.

And then he said he
heard the sound of gunfire.

And then someone said,

"I've hit it. It's going down," effectively.

A second plane in the
air. So who was flying it?

In 1961, surely there weren't
a lot of planes in rural Africa

capable of taking down a DC-6.

But it turns out one side of
the conflict had exactly that,

the katanganese forces,
who were determined to keep

their mineral-rich region away
from the newly independent

Congo nation and directly
opposing UN efforts to

reunify the country.

Their jet, known as a fouga magister,

had twin machine guns and
carried two bombs per mission.

It wreaked havoc on the
UN, bombing and strafing

its ground forces in
the Congo and crippling

their cargo supply.

This fouga jet fighter was so
infamous that hammarskjöld was,

in fact, writing really stern
letters begging for help to try

and get this jet fighter out of the air.

It was really the bane of the existence

of the United Nations in katanga.

And there's also significant
evidence that a Belgian

mercenary pilot was flying this plane.

Yes, investigators suspect a half-Belgian,

half-British, pilot named jan
Van risseghem was the man

who shot down dag.

A U.S. state department memo,

dated just two days after the crash,

but only declassified in 2014,
states hammarskjöld may have

been shot down and lists
jan Van risseghem by name.

He's now a central figure in

the renewed UN investigation.

When investigators
examined his logbooks,

they noticed something strange,
the pages covering the days

around hammarskjöld's
death looked different, written in

a different handwriting
and stamped unlike the rest,

raising suspicions that
they had been altered to hide

that pilot jan Van risseghem
was flying near hammarskjöld's

plane the night it crashed.

Van risseghem died in 2007,

taking any secrets to the grave.

Then, in October 2024,

the UN released a bombshell report

reversing its 1962 findings,

saying there is persuasive
evidence hammarskjöld's plane

was deliberately brought down
and urging the us and britain

to release their classified files.

It now seems likely that
dag hammarskjöld's plane

was shot down, possibly by forces

who saw the UN as a direct threat

to katanga's independence.

And we even have the name
of the most likely suspect.

Over 60 years later, the
UN investigation is still

underway and new
information could still develop,

proving that those responsible
for the plane crash may have

ended hammarskjöld's
life, but not his mission.

It's August 6th, 1930,
and I'm in Manhattan

at Billy haas' chop house, said to be

the best steak in the city, by the way.

And dining right over
there is another superlative,

the most famous guy in
town, Joseph force crater,

a New York supreme court justice

and political power player.

What happens next will
become the talk of the big apple,

because after dinner,
judge crater leaves this

restaurant and will never be seen again.

His disappearance sparks
one of the largest manhunts in

American history, a
search that turns up no body

and no solid suspects.

For 75 years, the mystery will
remain unsolved until a series

of shocking revelations reveal
the scandalous truth behind

the so-called "missingest
man in New York."

Born in 1889 in Easton, Pennsylvania,

Joseph force crater
seems destined for success.

His family builds a
prosperous business running

a grocery store and
surrounding orchards.

But Joe crater is not content to inherit

the family enterprise.

Smart and driven, stands out
early, graduating at the top of

his class before moving to New York City

to attend Columbia law school.

In 1916, crater opens a
law practice in New York's

financial district, determined
to make his Mark on

the city that never sleeps.

At the same time, he plugs
into the city's political machinery,

joining the cayuga Democratic club.

There, he helps organize
voters, pours countless hours

into election law cases,

and begins building the connections that

will quietly shape his rise.

Over time, he becomes deeply
embedded with the cayuga club's

powerful parent
organization, tammany hall.

Founded in 1786, tammany
hall is a political machine,

a tightly run Democratic
party organization that controls

jobs, favors, and elections
across New York City.

For nearly two centuries,
it dominates city politics.

If you want a Democratic nomination,

you go through tammany.

And if you want influence,
you better play by its rules.

As crater rises through tammany
hall, he embraces its perks.

By night, he dives into
jazz age Manhattan,

lavish dinners, Broadway
shows, and Harlem clubs,

quickly earning a reputation as a playboy.

He mingles with chorus girls,
escorts, and underworld figures

like Arnold rothstein
and Jack "legs" diamond.

Meanwhile, his legal career is surging.

He soon lands a coveted post
as law secretary to a powerful.

New York justice, opening
the door to the city's

backroom power deals.

And in 1930, Joseph force crater makes

his boldest move yet. He hands over

a $22,500-contribution to tammany hall,

more than 400 grand today.

Where did crater get such
a huge sum of money?

Could it be from organized crime?

Did crater do a deal with the devil?

In 1930s New York,
Joseph crater stands at

the height of his career,
a symbol of success in

an iconic city.

But behind the polished image,
backroom deals and friendships

with notorious gangsters
raise an unsettling question.

Was crater's rise earned or bought?

Crater now holds a
coveted seat on New York's

supreme court, appointed to the bench

by then governor Franklin d. Roosevelt.

He has made it to the top
of the New York totem pole.

With a 14-year term on the
bench, he now has the power

to sway politics in the
wealthiest city in the nation.

But despite seeming to
have it all, crater soon starts

behaving erratically.

It begins in 1930 on a vacation in Maine

with his wife, Stella.

On August 3rd, crater
receives a phone call from

out of the blue.

Shortly after, he hangs
up and leaves Stella in

their cabin, promising
to return in a few days to

celebrate her birthday on the 9th.

It's a promise he'll never keep.

When crater arrives back in New York,

he goes straight to his
chambers at the courthouse.

His assistant, Joseph
Mara, is surprised to see him.

Judge, I wasn't expecting
you so... so soon.

Mara says crater is acting
strange and secretive,

going through his files,
destroying documents,

and removing others.

He also asks Mara to cash

two checks totaling the
equivalent of $100,000 today.

A few days later, on August
6th, judge crater goes to that

fateful dinner at haas'
chop house alongside lawyer

William klein and Sally Lou ritz,

a showgirl and crater's alleged mistress.

Both friends report noticing
the judge's strange mood.

I'm fine.

His friends last see him

heading to a Broadway
comedy performance

that he bought a ticket for.

At the theater, though,
his seat remains empty.

Despite never returning
for his wife Stella's birthday,

she doesn't report crater
missing until September 6th,

a month after he's last seen,
perhaps assuming that he was

simply with another woman.

As word of the party boy
judge's disappearance gets out,

the press picks up the
story and crater becomes

a national sensation.

They dub him "the
missingest man in New York."

The NYPD launches a massive
investigation, chasing down

hundreds of leads.

Tips pour in from all across
america, with sightings in

California, Florida, even Mexico.

But they all lead to nothing.

It's as if judge crater simply
evaporated into thin air.

Although authorities
can't find the judge himself,

their investigation does
uncover his deep web of

corruption and vices that may
have come back to bite him.

It turns out crater had
expensive gambling debts at

unsanctioned casinos and may
have been involved in illegally

selling judicial appointments.

Curiously, four months
after his disappearance,

crater's wife Stella also
finds a note he had left for her

in his desk drawer.

The note ends, quote, "I am very weary,"

which some believe is
evidence he took his own life.

Most alarmingly, police
discover crater had

recently been subpoenaed

by the state attorney general's office as

part of a huge
anti-corruption investigation.

Well, explain...

It makes them wonder,
was he about to turn state's

evidence against tammany
hall, the powerful and corrupt

Democratic organization
that got him appointed?

Tell me who you paid and when.

I'm in deep with tammany hall.

If crater turned his
back on tammany hall,

were they the ones
behind his disappearance?

For more than 75 years,
we didn't have an answer.

Now, we do.

Famous New York lawman
judge crater is officially declared

dead in 1939, nine
years after he vanished.

In the decades since his disappearance,

many theories have been proposed.

Debt, adultery, corruption, snitching,

but none with any proof.

That would finally change in
2005, when a woman in queens

dies, leaving behind
remarkable notes to be opened

upon her death.

Judge crater biographer
Richard tofel explains.

In 2005, a woman
named Stella ferrucci-good

died in New York.

Miss ferrucci-good left behind
papers indicating to her family

that they should be opened
upon her death and indicated that

her husband had told her
that he believed he knew

who had killed judge crater.

Supposedly, crater had been
taken in a taxi to coney island

and murdered and buried there.

Mrs. Ferrucci-good's husband
was a former New York City

parks department supervisor.

He allegedly overheard
the incendiary claim that

the judge had indeed been
murdered, buried beneath

the coney island boardwalk.

But for tofel, there's a
big problem with this.

I don't think that Ms.
Ferrucci-good's story

ultimately makes sense.

The site to which judge crater
was supposedly taken was

thoroughly unearthed in
the 1950s for the construction

of the New York aquarium,
at a time when interest was still

pretty high in the crater case,
and no sign of any body was

found during that excavation.

I have no reason to believe
that Ms. Ferrucci-good was

making this up.

I think her husband probably
did tell her such a story.

I just don't think the story
happens to have been true.

But despite pouring water
on the ferrucci-good writings,

tofel continued to dig
into the crater case,

uncovering a theory he
believes quite literally puts

the mystery to bed, or in bed, as it were.

I actually believe crater's
disappearance revolves around

a then-quite-famous madam
in New York named Polly adler.

In 1960, there was a blind
gossip item in a book that

indicated Polly adler's memoir
would report that crater had

died in the act in her establishment.

But apparently, the story was
then removed from the memoir.

Polly adler was very
well connected to the mob,

and the mob would easily
have been able to dispose of

the body in such a way
that no trace would be found.

The forgotten account tofel
uncovered was in a book

by Allen Churchill entitled
"they never came back."

It says the unpublished text
was supposed to mention that,

quote, "crater suffered a fatal
heart attack at the moment of"

"peak enjoyment while indulging

in the unique pleasures
of the establishment."

Talk about a juicy detail.

Why would Polly adler
remove this passage from

the final version of her memoir?

Tofel thinks it was partly
for her own protection.

As for why Polly adler might
have taken a direct statement

about crater's death of
her book, the libel laws were

much stricter in this
country than they are today.

And it's easy to imagine
Polly adler, even 30 years after

crater's death, not wanting
to have been quite as explicit

about this in her memoir.

So soon.

This casts crater's earlier
strange behavior in a new

light, suggesting the mounting
pressure from financial

and legal troubles caused
extreme stress... stress that,

if Polly is to be believed,

ultimately led to a fatal heart attack.

But wait a second.

If this is true, why did
the police apparently never

chase down these leads?

Why did it take 75 years
for this theory to be exposed?

In my opinion, the
real scandal here is not

why judge crater wasn't found,
but why no one went seriously

looking for him for three or four weeks.

And the reason I think that no
one went looking for him was,

this was at the beginning of
what turned into a huge scandal

of municipal corruption.

Tammany hall was under
enormous pressure in 1930.

The more information that was
turned up about judge crater,

the more people were likely
to realize that he had bought

his judgeship as many other
judges were doing at the time.

I think crater's associates,
especially in tammany hall,

went out of their way not to find him.

Did the high and mighty
judge really fall to such a down

and dirty end, dying of a
heart attack in a brothel before

being buried by the mob
and never searched for

because of a corrupt city cover-up?

Or is he buried at coney
island, as indicated in

the long sealed letter
of Stella ferrucci-good?

In 1979, judge Joseph crater's
case was officially closed

without being solved.

Tofel's theory is compelling,
not to mention scandalous.

But without physical evidence,

the so-called "missingest man
in New York" stays that way.

There is one final
footnote to this tabloid tale.

In the years after the judge's
disappearance, a new phrase

became popular... "to pull a crater,"

meaning to disappear without a trace.

I'm Josh gates.

Please don't pull a
crater, and I'll see you on

the next expedition.