All language subtitles for The UnXplained S04E17 1080p WEB h264-KOGi_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
A vault buried in the middle

of the Mojave Desert.

Plundered pirate gold

at the bottom
of the Atlantic Ocean.

And a forest in Upstate New York

that may conceal a bootlegger's
forgotten fortune.

For hundreds of years,

there have been legends
about vast treasures

that are hidden
throughout the United States.

Stolen gold and other
ill-gotten gains

connected to wars, piracy

and even deadly acts of revenge.

But are these legends
of lost treasure

simply tall tales?

Or is it possible
that the valuables

are really out there,
just waiting to be discovered?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

This wooded region, located
in the Allegheny Mountains,

is a popular destination
for wildlife enthusiasts,

and also for treasure hunters.

Because, for more
than 150 years,

Dents Run has been believed
to be the hiding place

of a vast amount of stolen gold.

DANIEL BARBARISI:
There's been a lot of attention

on the Dents Run treasure,

and that's tied to
something of a legend

that came out of
the time of the Civil War,

when it's believed
there might have been

a wagon with lots and lots
of gold on it,

hundreds of millions of
dollars' worth in today's money,

that was used
to pay Union soldiers

that was being transported
through Pennsylvania.

SHATNER:
According to the legend,

in early 1863,
a shipment of 26 gold bars,

property of the U.S. government,

was loaded onto
a Union Army caravan

in Wheeling, West Virginia.

The caravan was under orders
to take the gold

to the United States Mint,
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

where it would be used
to pay for the war effort.

Gold shipments were
incredibly important

for the Union
and its success under Lincoln.

He was reliant on that gold
to pay soldiers,

and to pay off some debts
to foreign lenders.

And so these operations of
transferring gold were secret,

and they were
protected by troops

to watch it and guard it.

That was the only way
it could be shipped.

SHATNER:
11 union soldiers
and three wagons

began the 350-mile journey
to Philadelphia,

but just 60 miles
into their trek,

an unexpected turn of events

forced the caravan
to change their plans.

JAMES BURKE:
The wagons were dead headed
for Philadelphia,

but then Southern soldiers

were getting close
to Pennsylvania,

and they were afraid
it would get robbed,

so that's when they detoured.

So, they went up
the Allegheny River,

and when they
got to Dents Run,

the story says
one of the wagons broke down,

up on the mountainside.

SHATNER:
Unable to continue as planned,
three of the Union soldiers

escorting the caravan
reportedly left to get help.

But when they
returned days later,

they found empty wagons.

The other soldiers--
and the gold--

had vanished without a trace.

Now, according to
the gold story,

the Union soldiers
robbed the gold.

They took part of the gold
that they could carry,

and they buried the rest
someplace around Dents Run.

That's what brings
the enthusiasm to the story.

SHATNER:
Could there be
stolen Civil War gold

buried somewhere
in the Allegheny Mountains?

It's certainly
an intriguing thought.

But there's just one problem.

No official government records

of the lost gold
have ever been found.

WARREN GETLER:
People would assume
that it would be

in the record
of the U.S. government,

in the national archives,
but it's not.

And the reason it's not
is because it would have been

a huge embarrassment
to the Union, to Lincoln.

And it might have caused
an economic panic

to have this amount
of gold go missing.

SHATNER:
It wasn't until 1974
that an article

in Treasure magazine
brought the mystery

of the Dents Run treasure
into the public spotlight.

The story reported that
in 1865, government detectives

recovered two and a half
bars of gold

buried under a pine stump

near where the empty wagons
were found.

In the years since
the article was published,

a steady stream
of treasure hunters

have done
their own prospecting

in the hopes of finding
gold at Dents Run.

BURKE:
We're talking
about 26 bars of gold.

We've had several
people come to us,

one claiming that they
found one bar of gold,

another claiming that they found
a bar and a half of gold,

and you don't know
if any of them's true.

They're out there
looking for it,

but I don't think
they found it.

SHATNER:
Are there more gold bars
still buried

in the hills
of northwestern Pennsylvania?

Gold that has been hidden
for over 150 years,

as treasure hunters believe?

Well, while exploring
a dry riverbed in 2005,

deep in the backwoods
of Dents Run,

treasure hunters Dennis Parada
and his son Kem

discovered some
intriguing artifacts,

and a possible hideout,
that may hold the answer.

Right at this location here,
we discovered a bonfire pit.

And when we dug down
about six inches,

we found a lot of bottles,

broken glass, an animal trap

and bullets all over
the place up there.

All the bullets, the glassware,

everything here was dated
around the Civil War period.

And then I looked
off to the left,

and there was a hole
in the mountain.

As soon as I came down here
and I saw the cave,

I was just drawn right in.

I had to go in immediately
to see what was in there.

SHATNER: After descending
into the cave

to search for more
Civil War artifacts,

Dennis and his son found signs

that they weren't
the first people

to enter the secluded hollow.

My son's looking, and he says,

"Dad, there's a hole
carved into the ceiling

for a torch up towards
the back of the cave."

He put a flashlight in there,

and 32 feet back
from the entrance,

there is a vertical shaft.

SHATNER:
Dennis and his son were
unable to fully explore

the narrow cave.

But they spent years
drilling exploratory holes

into the ground above it
to search for traces of gold.

And then, in 2014,

their efforts finally paid off.

We drill down eight feet,
hook up the equipment.

Gold. Off the scale.
Our machine's going, "Gold."

KEM PARADA: It's saying,
"Large gold item, ten inches."

So I says,
"100% the treasure was here."

The Civil War treasure.

And I'm, like, screaming,
"We found it, we found it."

GETLER:
Dennis Parada had been
working with the state,

getting permission
from government

to doing it the right way,

being correctly permitted,

but they would not
allow him to dig it up.

And so I called Denny
and I suggested to him

that we work together.
I can help him with it.

I said, "The only way
you're likely to see it

come out of the ground
is to bring the FBI,

the Feds, in to retrieve it."

SHATNER:
What happened next
is subject to some debate,

but according to Dennis Parada,

the FBI took control
of the dig site

in late January of 2018.

They conducted a series
of scans of the area

using a device
known as a gravimeter.

A gravimeter measures density,

and the density of gold is 19.5,

and the density of sandstone,
which it was hidden in,

in a cave underground, is 2.5.

The differential
would show up hugely

in a heat map of that site.

They did those measurements
over a full day,

and they came back
with the results,

that showed
a very high reading of gold.

That's when things get crazy.

The FBI kicked us off,
and they said, "Go home."

And then they returned
at 8:00 pm that night,

and dug till the next morning.

DENNIS PARADA:
When the FBI dug,

I come up here, and I could
see what was going on.

There was 20-some
to 30-some agents

up here at all times,
standing around.

The backhoe was
digging constantly.

When the FBI left,
I came back up to the site

the next day to retrieve
my hidden cameras,

and then I ran some tests
on the site area.

And the readings we had
before of metal underneath,

gold and silver, were all gone.
Everything was gone.

SHATNER:
Is it possible that
the FBI took possession

of the Dents Run Treasure?

For now, that question
remains unanswered.

In part because the FBI
refuses to comment

on what they recovered
from the underground cave

in Dents Run in January of 2018.

We want the truth to come out.

This is a big moment
in U.S. history.

If the FBI did take
the amount of gold

that we think was there,

based on our instruments
and our readings,

this would be, by far,
the biggest treasure

ever recovered on American soil.

Until more information
is disclosed,

the Civil War gold,
rumored to have been

hidden in the hills
of Dents Run,

shall remain an incredible
American treasure mystery.

Just like another legend

involving a notorious pirate
and his plundered gold

that may lie off the coast
of North Carolina.

SHATNER: Every year,
thousands of people gather

at the Ocracoke Pirate Jamboree

to experience a taste

of swashbuckling life
on the high seas.

The fair commemorates the defeat

of the most famous and feared
pirate in colonial history,

known by the name of...

Blackbeard.

BRADLEY WILLIAMSON:
Edward Teach,

also known as Blackbeard,
is a legendary pirate.

Now, not much is known
about him in his early years.

But it's believed
that he grew up in Bristol,

which is a town in England,

and from there,
he moved on to Jamaica,

where he worked as a privateer
in the War of Spanish Secession,

and that was where his career
as a pirate really began.

SHATNER:
During the War
of Spanish Succession,

from 1701 to 1713,
the English government

gave captains
of private merchant ships

permission to attack
and plunder vessels

that were owned
by Spain and France.

Blackbeard was
one of those captains,

who were referred to
as "privateers."

After 1713, when the war ended,

if you continued
to be a privateer,

you were no longer a privateer,
you were a pirate.

Blackbeard, and a lot
of them, became pirates

because there was no other way
of making a living.

SIMON:
In 1717, Blackbeard
got his own ship,

and became one of the most

infamous pirate captains
who ever lived.

He made himself look
as terrifying as possible.

He had a very long black beard,

he had very long black hair,
and during battle,

he would put fuses,
or even candles,

into his beard and hair

so smoke would,
kind of, rise up,

and it looked like
he was coming out of hell.

Imagine this huge,
towering figure

with this big,
burly black beard,

and slow-burning fuses
coming out

from underneath his hat,
just sparkling.

That really created
his reputation

as the legendary
pirate Blackbeard.

SIMON:
Blackbeard and his fellow
pirates were plundering

and stealing loot
from ships all the time.

In fact, so many,
we don't even know

the exact number of ships

that Blackbeard
was able to loot.

But they're able
to take a lot of loot.

SHATNER:
In 1718, after spending years

capturing and plundering ships
on the high seas,

Blackbeard's notorious career

came to an abrupt end
when he was attacked

off the southern tip
of Ocracoke Island.

The governor of Virginia
told his coast guard

to capture Blackbeard
at all costs.

And so the job went to
Lieutenant Robert Maynard.

And on November 22nd of 1718,

Maynard came upon
Blackbeard's ship

and immediately
engaged him into battle.

And Blackbeard engaged
in a fight with one of the men,

who ended up stabbing
Blackbeard in the thigh.

And, supposedly, Blackbeard
shouted, "Well done, lad!"

And then Lieutenant
Robert Maynard ends up

beheading Blackbeard
on the ship.

And Blackbeard's head was placed
on the bowsprit of a ship,

and sailed up and down
the Eastern Seaboard

so everyone would know

that Blackbeard
had been killed in battle.

SHATNER:
In the centuries since
Blackbeard's death,

the mystery
of his lost fortune

has captivated generations
of treasure hunters.

If someone went out to
find Blackbeard's treasure,

they would find
approximately $12.5 million

in today's currency.

And so, all kinds of rumors
and legends about his treasure

are definitely still out there,
and people are looking for it.

And, reportedly,
what Blackbeard said was,

"Only the devil and I know
the whereabouts of my treasure,

and the one of us who lives
the longest should take it all."

SHATNER:
With little information
to go on as to where on earth

Blackbeard's treasure
may be hidden,

fortune seekers began searching
the waters of Onslow Bay

for the legendary pirate ship,
the Queen Anne's Revenge.

Just four months
before his death,

Blackbeard ran
his frigate aground

near the outer banks
of North Carolina.

Some speculate that the pirate
wrecked his ship on purpose

as a way to cheat his crew
from receiving

their share
of the latest plunder.

The sunken vessel
eluded discovery until 1996,

when Mike Daniel
and a team of divers

used their
treasure hunting skills

to pinpoint exactly

where "X" marked the spot.

MIKE DANIEL:
Over the years, I have
found a lot of treasure.

A lot of gold,

a lot of emeralds,
a lot of silver.

For instance,
I found a shipwreck

called the Maravillas,
1656 Spanish galleon,

one of the richest ever to sink.

The whole process of
finding a shipwreck

is first,
you get the documentation

that gives you
a pretty good idea

of where
you should be looking.

And so, in order to go search
for the Queen Anne's Revenge,

you know, we started
looking through

the various
historical documents,

and it was said that
the Queen Anne's Revenge

supposedly ran aground
trying to enter

Topsail Inlet,
up in North Carolina.

Even though
it's Beaufort Inlet today,

it was Topsail Inlet
at the time.

And once you've got
that pinned down,

now what you do is
you set up a grid system,

and then travel down that line
towing a magnetometer,

a electronic piece
of equipment

that measures
very minute magnetism.

If there is an anomaly
in the water,

it would tell you
something's there.

And we had a pretty major hit.

I go down, take a look,

and I spot the three
cannons right away.

They're sitting off to
the side of this big mound...

And that's when we actually
said, "Yeah, we've got it."

SIMON:
Today, over 400,000 items

have actually been excavated
off of the Queen Anne's Revenge.

And these include things like
24 huge cannons came out of it.

They've also found other goods
such as personal effects,

and they've found
weapons as well.

SHATNER:
But despite the vast
number of artifacts

archaeologists have salvaged
from the Queen Anne's Revenge,

they found no sign
of Blackbeard's treasure.

Which begs the question:
Where could it be?

It's a mystery
that still fascinates

treasure hunters to this day.

SIMON:
The big question is
what happened to the gold

on the Queen Anne's Revenge?

It's possible that
some of it has just been,

kind of, dispersed into the sea.

It could be, perhaps,
that Blackbeard

offloaded much of it before

actually abandoning
the Queen Anne's Revenge.

It's one of the big
mysteries about Blackbeard

that we just don't really know.

It's extraordinary to think
that the treasure of Blackbeard,

the most notorious
pirate in history,

could one day be recovered.

But there's another gold fortune

that may have been hidden
in the mountains of California

that is no less compelling.

It belonged to
a Mexican American vigilante

who was known as the
"Robin Hood of the Old West."

Here, 13 miles outside
the small town of Coalinga,

stand three jagged
sandstone outcroppings

known as the Joaquin Rocks.

They are named after
an infamous outlaw

named Joaquin Murrieta,

who, according to legend,

hid a treasure
beneath these peaks

worth millions
of dollars in gold.

Joaquin Murrieta was
my fifth great-grandfather.

He was an outlaw, a vigilante,

a robber, in the 1840s.

And that is where the legends
of, not only his adventures,

but the gold of Joaquin,

and where he put his treasure,
come about.

SHATNER:
Did Joaquin Murrieta hide
a stockpile of stolen gold

in the Diablo Mountains?

Perhaps, but according
to historians,

Murrieta did not start out
as a dangerous criminal.

In fact, he reportedly
immigrated with his family

from Mexico to California
in the late 1840s

to mine for gold.

VALADEZ:
In 1848, gold was discovered
up in the foothills

of the mountains
here in California.

And Joaquin Murrieta,
so we are told,

he established a mining claim

to make his fortune
with his wife, his brothers,

and perhaps other family members
from Sonora, Mexico,

and started making money
in the early years

of the California Gold Rush.

SHATNER:
By all accounts,
Murrieta and his family

soon amassed
a substantial fortune.

But then a gang
of American prospectors

attacked him
and stole his land.

VALADEZ:
According to the story,
his brother was lynched,

His wife was brutally raped,
and then murdered.

And Joaquin himself
was left for dead.

VALADEZ:
Having just barely survived

this harrowing circumstance
where he lost everything,

Joaquin began to organize

other bands
of dispossessed Mexicans,

and then they began

a series of attacks
for revenge...

...from Los Angeles
to San Francisco,

to Sacramento,
to the gold fields.

SHATNER:
Over the next three years,

Joaquin Murrieta and
his band of vigilantes

delivered their brand of justice
throughout Gold Country.

In doing so, they acquired
huge amounts of treasure.

PETER MURRIETA:
Joaquin had a lot of gold
that he had amassed over time.

And during the process of that,
he started to build a network

of people that
were giving him harbor.

And that's where the legend
starts of Robin Hood,

of somebody who would
take money from white people,

and then give it to a family
that gave him safe harbor.

SHATNER:
Word of Murrieta's exploits soon
spread throughout California.

Eventually, the governor
offered a $1000 cash reward,

and called upon the newly formed
California Rangers

to hunt Murrieta down.

Joaquin knows that
these rangers are closing in.

He's starting to figure out
he's got to do something.

He's got this treasure
that he carries with him.

What's he gonna do?

The most prominent idea
would be that

he buried
his treasure somewhere.

SHATNER:
According to the story,

the California Rangers
eventually caught up

with Joaquin Murrieta
and his gang

in the Diablo Mountains.

(gun hammer clicks)

The Rangers reportedly
returned to Sacramento

a few days later with
a severed head in a jar

as proof that Murrieta
had finally met his end.

But that wouldn't be the end

of Joaquin Murrieta's legacy.

The way that we know
about Joaquin

is that there was a young writer

living up in the gold fields,
a guy named John Rollin Ridge.

And he published a book called

The Life and Adventures
of Joaquin Murieta.

And when that book came out,

it was the equivalent
of a New York Times bestseller.

It was a blockbuster.

MURRIETA:
Joaquin Murrieta's story
is the story

that Johnston McCulley
used to create Zorro,

and, of course, Bob Kane
used the story of Zorro

to create Batman.

And so, if you ask
a lot of scholars

who's the first
Latinx superhero,

they say, "Oh, that's
Joaquin Murrieta, no doubt."

SHATNER:
Today, Joaquin Murrieta
is celebrated by many

as a folk hero,
but the question remains:

What happened to
all the gold he was rumored

to have stashed
in the Diablo Mountains?

Well, some historians
believe Joaquin Murrieta

never buried his fortune
in the first place.

They claim he wasn't killed
by the California Rangers,

but rather escaped to Mexico.

MURRIETA:
A powerful part of
the legend in our family

is that the same people
that he gave help to,

and gold to, and that hid him,

also gave this great
last act of care

by going to a courthouse
where there's a head in a jar,

and saying, "Yeah, that's
totally him, I swear to it."

And that was how he was able
to get away and live,

because that wasn't his head.

The biggest mystery to me

is where did that gold go?

We certainly don't know where,

but it's got to be somewhere.

Did Joaquin Murrieta
stash his gold treasure

in the Diablo Mountains?

Or is it possible that,
as some believe,

he escaped with it to Mexico?

Either way, the fate
of this storied bandit

and his treasure
is a fascinating mystery.

As is the case
with a notorious gangster

and a vault
that he reportedly buried

in the Catskill Mountains,

filled with
millions of dollars.

SHATNER:
Phoenicia, Upstate New York.

This quaint town
at the base of the Catskills

is primarily known for being
a popular vacation destination.

But it is also known
as the hiding place

of an incredible lost fortune.

Because, according to legend,
somewhere in this area,

a safe was buried that contains

tens of millions of dollars
in cash, bonds and jewelry

that belonged
to a gangster named

Dutch Schultz.

Dutch Schultz was
one of the most iconic

early 20th-century
mobsters in America.

He was someone that had
a name and a reputation

that spread across the country
as a real tough guy,

and he became a millionaire
during prohibition

on bootlegging
and various other rackets.

ALTERMAN:
Dutch Schultz became
what was known as

the "Beer Baron of the Bronx,"

because during prohibition,
it was hard to get beer,

and if you wanted beer,

you had to get it
from Dutch Schultz

because he controlled
everything above 57th Street

and in the Bronx.

SHATNER:
In the early 1930s,

the FBI started building
a case against Dutch Schultz,

in an effort to crack down
on organized crime.

The investigation was led
by U.S. Attorney Thomas Dewey.

Thomas Dewey was
a very smart prosecutor.

He went methodically after
all of the criminals.

So, Dutch became so paranoid

that he wanted to
bury his wealth

before they could take it.

BURNSTEIN:
Supposedly, while he was
under indictment,

Dutch Schultz had
a customized safe

constructed for him
that was airproof,

soundproof, weatherproof.

Him and his bodyguard
put what was thought to be

anywhere between $5
and $10 million in that safe,

as well as jewelry and bonds,

and they allegedly
took that safe

up to the Catskills
and buried it somewhere.

NATE HENDLEY:
The Dutch Schultz treasure
is an intriguing notion

because one of the items

allegedly put into
the treasure box

were Liberty Bonds,
and these are simply

bonds that could be
redeemed at a future date

for more than the value
you paid for them.

But no Liberty Bond
associated with Dutch Schultz

or any of his accomplices
has ever been redeemed.

This is used as one of the clues

that this treasure
is still at large.

SHATNER:
If it's true

that the Lost Treasure
of Dutch Schultz

does, in fact, exist,
then where could it be hidden?

Well, according
to many researchers,

the most likely place
is somewhere along

an old brook named
Stony Clove Creek.

ALTERMAN:
Even though Dutch
was a city kid,

he knew the Catskills well
because that's where

he had his stills
making the whiskey.

He'd stay
at the Phoenicia Hotel,

and then drive up
and look at all of his stills.

Back in 1935, there was a train

that went from New York City
up to the Catskills.

It went through this area

near Stony Clove Creek
and Phoenicia.

One station
was called Lanesville,

which was really nothing
more than a little shack.

At that time, Dutch was afraid

of being nabbed in a checkpoint
with the treasure.

So, treasure hunters
have theorized that

he got off the train
at Lanesville,

buried the treasure
somewhere along the banks

of the Stony Clove Creek
because it's extremely remote.

SHATNER:
Is it possible that the Lost
Treasure of Dutch Schultz

is buried somewhere along
the banks of Stony Clove Creek?

We may never know for sure,
because in 1935,

a rival gangster named
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano

ordered a hit on Dutch Schultz.

ALTERMAN:
Dutch Schultz had
set up his operation

at the Palace Chop House,

a small restaurant,
bar establishment

in Newark, New Jersey.

And two assassins,
Charles "The Bug" Workman

and Mendy Weiss,
walk into the bar.

Charles shoots Dutch twice.

And there's that famous
picture of Dutch Schultz

with his head on the table
after he's been shot twice.

He's grievously injured,
but not dead.

SHATNER:
Dutch Schultz was immediately
rushed to the Newark Hospital,

and some researchers believe
that, on his deathbed,

Dutch left a final clue
as to where

his treasure vault is buried.

HENDLEY:
During his deathbed rant,
he's giving little tidbits

of possible information
about his treasure.

At one point he says,

"Don't let Satan
draw you too fast."

That could just be a ramble,

but some
treasure hunters believe

this line could be a reference

to a geological formation
in the town of Phoenicia

called the "Devil's Rock."

ALTERMAN:
There have been scores
of treasure hunters

trying to find this treasure

up in the Catskills
around Phoenicia.

It is worth so much

that today you could
probably buy

a fleet of jumbo jets

with just what's in
that treasure box.

And that's why
everyone's looking for it.

Will the alleged clue

that Dutch Schultz
left on his deathbed

reveal the location
of his hidden vault someday?

It's a fascinating possibility.

But there's another
famed treasure vault

that was buried
in the Nevada desert

that is just as intriguing.

It was built by the owner
of a Las Vegas casino,

and is believed to contain
20 tons of silver.

SHATNER:
Just beyond the Vegas Strip,

in the affluent neighborhood
of Rancho Circle,

detectives are called
to 2408 Palomino Lane.

There they find the owner
of the popular Horseshoe Casino,

54-year-old Ted Binion,

lying dead
on the floor of his den.

Ted Binion was made
to run a casino.

He had a big personality,

and lived a life
on the wild side.

Definitely a big partier.

And so, when police
first examined the scene,

they thought that Ted Binion

probably died
of a drug overdose.

People thought
that Teddy's lifestyle

had caught up with him.

SHATNER:
Binion's Horseshoe
casino and hotel,

located in the mesmerizing
neon section of Las Vegas

called Glitter Gulch,
was founded in 1951

by gambling legend and
career criminal Benny Binion.

DOUG SWANSON:
Benny Binion opened up
the Horseshoe

as the great gambling club
of Las Vegas.

Benny was part of this wave
of mobsters, racketeers,

coming into Las Vegas
at this period.

Moe Dalitz,
Moe Sedway, Bugsy Siegel,

they were coming to Las Vegas
where gambling was legal,

and they could
set up their operations

without having to
worry about being arrested.

SHATNER:
In 1964, at only 21 years old,

Ted Binion became casino manager
for the family business.

And for 30 years, he lived
a life filled with parties,

drugs and connections
to organized crime.

But by 1996,
Ted's fast lifestyle

and criminal activity
finally caught up to him,

ending his career at the casino.

SWANSON:
Ted Binion was
arrested in a drug bust,

and the FBI believed
that he was laundering money

out of the Horseshoe.

So, he had this whole
array of problems,

and which ultimately
culminated in him

losing his gambling license.

SHATNER:
After being forced out
of the casino,

Binion was faced
with the challenge

of where to stash a massive
collection of silver and cash,

which he had
accumulated for himself,

and had locked in a vault
at the Horseshoe.

DAVID ROGER:
Ted Binion had, in the basement

of the Binions'
hotel and casino,

large bundles of cash,

40,000 pounds of silver coins,

silver bars, bullion,

and when he lost his license,

he obviously had to
move the silver out.

SWANSON:
There were rumors
that Ted buried

$7 million to $14 million worth

of silver bars and coins
somewhere out in the desert.

And so, what happened
to the silver?

Are there still millions
of dollars' worth of silver

floating around
out there somewhere?

SHATNER:
Shortly after
Ted Binion's death in 1998,

there was a surprising twist
that proved that the rumors

concerning his buried silver
were, in fact, true.

A deputy investigating Binion's
ranch in the Nevada desert,

caught a team of workmen
loading a dump truck

with more than $4 million worth
of silver bars.

Their leader was
a man named Rick Tabish.

Rick Tabish operated
a trucking operation

that was very successful,

and he knew
a lot about construction,

and the story is that
Teddy had Rick help him

construct an underground vault
on his property,

about 80 miles outside
of Las Vegas,

where Teddy put millions and
millions of dollars of silver.

And so, Rick was subsequently
arrested in that case.

ROGER:
Rick Tabish knew
what was inside the vault,

and right after
Ted Binion's death,

he got a group of guys,
a belly dump truck,

and went and dug up the silver.

SHATNER:
Rick Tabish was found guilty

for stealing $6 million worth
of silver bars and coins.

The stolen silver was
returned to the Binion family,

but that's not
the end of the story.

Because there are many who claim

that the recovered
silver bullion

was only a fraction
of the hidden fortune

that Ted Binion had buried
out in the Nevada desert.

ROGER:
We recovered all the silver
that Rick Tabish had,

but it isn't a stretch
of the imagination

to think that there may be
other items of value

that we don't know about.

People have hopped over
the fence at Ted Binion's ranch

and tried digging in
the middle of the desert

to find the buried treasure,

but nobody knows where
Ted Binion's silver went,

and nobody really knows
how much is missing.

Only Ted knows, and he's dead.

SHATNER:
What is it about buried treasure

that compels people
to risk everything

in search of something
that may not even exist?

Perhaps the answer lies

in examining another
modern-day treasure hunt,

one that took place
deep in the Rocky Mountains,

where, against all odds,
a fortune of hidden gold

was actually found.

SHATNER:
The Thrill of the Chase hits
bookshelves across the country.

The book, written by
an eccentric

80-year-old man
named Forrest Fenn,

traces his
incredible life story,

from serving as a pilot
during the Vietnam War,

to becoming one
of the most successful

art dealers in America.

But even more excitingly,

the book also reveals
that Fenn buried

an incredible treasure somewhere

in the Rocky Mountains.

The treasure chest
that Forrest hid

has actually been photographed
and put in his book.

It was a bronze chest,

ten inches by ten inches
by five inches deep,

and it contained
hundreds of gold coins

worth more than
half a million dollars.

SHATNER:
To entice treasure hunters
to look for the hidden gold,

Forrest Fenn composed
a cryptic poem

with nine clues
pointing to its location.

And just as Fenn hoped,

the poem inspired people

to take him up on his challenge.

Forrest Fenn's treasure
became a real phenomenon,

a worldwide phenomenon.

People would come
from everywhere

to seek this treasure.

Forrest Fenn liked to say
that he thought there were

something like 350,000 people
looking for his treasure.

There were some people
who became a little too obsessed

with Forrest Fenn's chase,
and it cost them their lives.

A man fell down from a mountain,

another was
washed away in a river,

and a third man died
from exposure to the elements.

And so, at a certain point,

there were a lot of calls
for Fenn to end the hunt.

SACHA DENT:
Forrest begged people not to go

where a 79 or 80-year-old man
could not go.

Unfortunately, I think

the larger
the financial incentive,

the more common sense
goes out the window.

SHATNER:
Ten years after Forrest Fenn
launched the hunt

for his treasure,
on June 6th, 2020,

he announced that
a 32-year-old medical student

named Jack Stuef
had finally found the fortune

in the Wyoming desert.

BARBARISI:
After it became known
that Jack was the finder,

initially, people
were very excited.

And then they figured out
that he wasn't gonna tell them

where the treasure was found,

and so, that put him
in opposition

to the community
in lots of ways,

and that's a perfect ground to
breed conspiracies and questions

and all that because
you don't have all the answers.

Probably the most
prevalent conspiracy theory

is called the "nudge,"

which is the hypothesis
that, in some way,

Forrest Fenn quickened
the end of his treasure hunt,

that he singled out Jack Stuef,

and, in some way,
pushed him towards

the actual spot
where the treasure was.

SHATNER:
Did Forrest Fenn give away

the location
of his hidden treasure,

perhaps because numerous people
had died looking for it?

We may never know for sure

because Forrest Fenn passed away
on September 7th, 2020,

and Jack Stuef has refused
to address the rumors.

DENT:
Whether or not Forrest
helped Jack,

in the end, there could
only ever be one winner,

which meant there would be
hundreds of thousands of losers.

It's mysterious that
people will devote

their time and energy
to something

where they are, in all
likelihood, going to fail,

and will do it with
such energy and life,

as if they know
they're going to win.

But treasure hunting
is innately human.

It's part of our curiosity.

It doesn't matter
if the treasure

is really out there or not,

it's the adventure of it
that matters.

Are we captivated
by legends of hidden riches

because we truly believe
they're out there?

Or do such tales exist

only to fulfill
our dreams of adventure?

Well, while some lost
treasures may be mythical,

others are almost certainly

stashed somewhere
in the United States.

And it's that possibility
that compels people

to keep digging
and diving and searching

for those incredible fortunes

that, for the moment, remain...

unexplained.

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