All language subtitles for The UnXplained S04E20 1080p WEB h264-KOGi_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
A ruthless outlaw,
who escaped justice.

A mysterious mountain range,

guarded by a deadly curse.

And giant winged creatures

that soared across the frontier.

When we think of the Old West,

we tend to imagine
a romanticized era

on the American frontier
filled with cowboys,

Native Americans, and outlaws.

But what's less well-known
is that there are many strange

and sometimes
downright bizarre tales

from this time period.

Stories about cursed mountains,

fearsome monsters

and even
flying objects in the sky.

Is it possible the Wild West
was actually much stranger

than we commonly think?

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

♪ ♪

Each year, thousands of tourists
travel to this small rural town,

located 160 miles
east of Albuquerque,

to visit a museum dedicated

to the most notorious outlaw
of the Old West...

...Billy the Kid.

Among the attractions

is a tombstone where,
according to the history books,

the gunslinger was laid to rest.

KRISTINA DOWNS:
Among infamous
outlaws of the Wild West,

Billy the Kid is definitely,
today, the most famous.

He's been the subject
of countless novels.

He has appeared
in more motion pictures

than any other
historical figure.

And his fame has just really
grown and grown and grown.

SHATNER:
The bandit known
as Billy the Kid

reportedly committed his first
murder at the age of 17...

...when he shot
and killed a blacksmith

in a saloon located
in Bonita, Arizona

on August 17, 1877.

He then evaded arrest,
fled to New Mexico,

and adopted the alias
William H. Bonney.

But because of his youth
and his growing notoriety,

he earned his infamous
nickname, Billy the Kid.

Billy the Kid claimed
to have killed 21 men,

one for each year
of his short life.

♪ ♪

He escaped prison
at least three times,

he was shot and stabbed,
and these things

all added to the legend
and the lore surrounding him.

At the height of his infamy,
there was a $500 bounty

on Billy the Kid's head, which
was a crazy amount of money

at that time period.

That resulted in
Sheriff Pat Garrett

and his sizable posse
trying to hunt him down.

According to official accounts,

he was shot down
by Pat Garrett in 1881

and laid to rest
in Sumner, New Mexico.

SHATNER:
In 1882, Sheriff Pat Garret
published a book entitled

An Authentic Life
of Billy the Kid,

which described Garret's
encounters with the outlaw,

including their final showdown
in Sumner, New Mexico.

For decades, historians
considered the book

to be the definitive account
of the death of Billy the Kid.

But then, in the 1940s,
new information came to light

which suggested that,
incredibly,

Billy the Kid had
evaded justice and survived

for more than 60 years.

Investigator and lawyer
William Morrison

visits this rural community

in search of an elderly
prospector and cowboy named

Brushy Bill Roberts.

Morrison has traveled
to meet with Brushy Bill

because he has reason to believe
that Bill may, in fact...

be Billy the Kid.

IAN NELIGH:
In 1949,

William Morrison
came across somebody

who said he knew that
Billy the Kid was still alive

and living in Texas.

And William Morrison
decided that

that's who he needed to find.

So he went to Texas, and he
found Brushy Bill Roberts.

When he asked Brushy Bill
if he was Billy the Kid,

Brushy Bill said,
"Okay, I am Billy the Kid,

"and I will tell my story
if you can secure me a pardon

"from the governor of New Mexico

for the crimes
that I committed."

DOWNS:
Brushy Bill was hesitant
to admit to being Billy the Kid

because there was
still technically

a warrant out for his arrest

and he'd been sentenced to death
and if he were recaptured,

he technically could have
still been executed.

SHATNER:
It may seem outlandish
to consider the possibility

that Brushy Bill Roberts
was Billy the Kid.

But the truth is that,
the more William Morrison

investigated
Brushy Bill's story...

the more he started to believe
that it could be true.

William Morrison
thought that Brushy Bill

very well could be
Billy the Kid.

He had knife wounds
and bullet wounds

that seemed to fit
with the Kid's story.

In addition, Morrison found
several different people

who knew the Kid
in the olden days

who were willing to sign
affidavits saying that,

yeah, indeed, Brushy Bill
was Billy the Kid.

SHATNER:
While the evidence in favor
of Brushy Bill's story

was compelling, many skeptics
asked an obvious question:

If Billy the Kid didn't
actually die in 1881,

then who is buried
in the grave site

located in Fort Sumner,
New Mexico?

The official account
of Billy the Kid's death

comes from Pat Garrett.

But there's a lot of
inconsistencies

in Garrett's story
from the very beginning.

He said that Billy was armed,

but when the body was examined,
there was no weapon on him.

The body was described
as having facial hair.

Billy the Kid was
always described

as not having facial hair.

The body was also described
as having dark skin,

and Billy was always
described as fair-skinned.

So all of the inconsistencies

in Garrets' story
raises a lot of doubt

into his version of
Billy the Kid's death

and it opens the door
for the possibility

that Garrett shot the wrong man.

And Billy the Kid
could have survived,

and Brushy Bill Roberts really
could have been Billy the Kid.

SHATNER:
With the help of
William Morrison,

Brushy Bill was able
to secure a meeting

with Thomas Mabry,
the governor of New Mexico,

in an effort to finally
receive a pardon

for the crimes of Billy the Kid.

But, unfortunately,
the meeting did not go well

for Brushy Bill.

NELIGH:
Brushy Bill's meeting

with the governor of
New Mexico went horribly.

He couldn't remember
Pat Garrett's name.

It's said that
he maybe was suffering

from some kind of
physical ailment.

We don't really know,

but it didn't take long
for the governor to decide

that he wasn't gonna
give him the pardon.

SHATNER:
Soon after the governor
denied his clemency,

Brushy Bill suffered
a heart attack

and died on December 27, 1950.

But even in his final days,
Brushy Bill never wavered

from his claim that he was,
in fact, Billy the Kid.

And the town of Hamilton, Texas

still commemorates
Brushy Bill to this day,

where his tombstone
identifies him

as being
the notorious gunslinger.

The Wild West looms very large

in the American
historical consciousness

for a variety of reasons.

It attracted outlaws,
it attracted people on the run.

And so, it was a place
to reinvent oneself,

to create a new persona.

If you took on a new name

and just called yourself
differently,

how would anybody ever know?

So there is an interest

in these larger-than-life
legendary characters,

like Billy the Kid,

and whether or not
he actually did get shot.

Because it's the story of
how America came to be.

Did Billy the Kid,
one of the most notorious

gunslingers of the Wild West,

survive into the 20th century,
and live a full life?

Some residents of the town
of Hamilton, Texas believe

that the answer is a firm "yes."

Just as there are those
who believe that a mysterious

mountain range, located
in the Arizona desert,

is imbued

with a deadly curse.

SHATNER:
In Southern Arizona,
50 miles east of Phoenix,

lie the Superstition Mountains.

These jagged peaks
rise approximately

1,800 feet into the sky,

and dominate
the surrounding landscape.

According to the folklore
of the Native Apache people,

the Superstition Mountains
are a sacred place

that is guarded by a
supernatural entity known as...

-(thunder crashing)
-...the Thunder God.

To the Native Apache,
the Superstition Mountains

are the home of the Thunder God,

and as such,
they should be respected.

Most Apache will not enter
the Superstition Mountains

because they believe
that to do so

could anger the Thunder God,
causing him to lash out

and probably kill the person
who has violated his space.

RON FELDMAN:
The Apache, they did not live
too much in The Superstitions

because that's where
the Thunder God lived,

was in the Superstitions.

And many times, actually,

I've heard thunder sounds

even when there is
no thunderstorms around.

There's something there.

I mean, definitely,
the mountains do roar at times.

The mountains rumble
by themselves.

And it's been
attributed to, of course,

the Apache religion of
their Thunder God.

SHATNER:
The Superstition Mountains
got their name in the 1800s

when pioneers heard tales
from the local Native Americans

about people
mysteriously disappearing

or suddenly dying after entering
this sacred mountain range.

But in spite of these warnings,

settlers often did not view
the Superstition Mountains

with such reverence.

For those who came to
the Superstition Mountains

during the Wild West era
in search of gold,

the Superstition Mountains,

like every other part of
the American landscape,

were a resource
waiting to be tapped.

This was a place of possibility,

this is a place of
possible wealth.

LYNNE McNEILL:
We tend to associate

this idea of westward
expansion with discovery,

when, of course,
there were humans there...

(chuckles)
...all along for centuries

who already had an existing
relationship with that land.

They knew what was in it,
and had their own beliefs

about what was
an appropriate way

to interact with this landscape.

DOWNS:
The Apache were not happy
to see these settlers

coming into their sacred land,
and according to legend,

put a curse on the land
that would result in the deaths

of anybody who tried to mine
the Superstition Mountains

because they believe
that to do so,

is to risk angering
the Thunder God.

SHATNER:
There are those
who believe the curse of

the Superstition Mountains
is both real...

-(thunder crashing)
-...and deadly.

As evidence, they point
to a curious treasure mystery

that took place in the mountains

over the course of
more than a hundred years.

The story begins with the
untimely demise of the Peraltas,

a family of prospectors
who went searching for gold

in the Superstitions
in the 1840s.

The Peralta family were
supposedly the Spanish

that came first to mine

in the Superstition wilderness.

And they worked several mines
in an area where there was gold,

there was silver,
and they mined for both.

JESSE FELDMAN:
As the story goes,

the Spanish Peralta
family amassed

crude bullion bars
from their mine.

And what I mean by crude,
that would be made of gold,

silver, copper and lead.

And they stored this wealth
in a hidden drift underground.

And then, suddenly,

the Apache attacked the miners.

The Apaches got tired
of them being there

and destroying the natural
beauty of this place.

They were intruders,

and the Apache, in 1848,
wiped them out.

SHATNER:
After the massacre, the Apaches
reportedly buried the gold

and backfilled the mine in order
to appease the Thunder God.

But since that time, treasure
hunters have not been scared off

by the fate of
the Peralta family,

or the supposed curse.

Over the years, thousands of
fortune seekers have journeyed

to the Superstition Mountains
in search of the lost gold.

The desire to find
the hidden resources,

to find this treasure that
history tells us is there,

is exciting people to this day.

And that sense of
possibility and potential,

that there's still
more wealth, more prosperity

to be had, is something that

is really hard to squash.

SHATNER:
According to some estimates,

at least 600 people
have lost their lives

searching for gold
in the Superstition Mountains.

Many of these people died
in bizarre and gruesome ways

that defy explanation,

perhaps lending credence
to the notion

that the mountains are
actually cursed.

The most famous
of these incidents

was the death of a man
named Adolph Ruth.

RON FELDMAN:
Back in the 1930s,
there was Adolph Ruth.

He was a treasure hunter,
amongst other things.

And he came out here
to hunt the actual mine.

And he disappeared.

And after about six months,

they found his head
and his body separated.

It became nationally known.

And a lot of people
wanted to come out

looking for the mine
because of Adolf Ruth.

There's good reason to believe
that there could be a curse

on the Superstition Mountains.

A lot of people have died
prospecting for gold.

And bodies have been
found decapitated,

which seems like something

that couldn't happen
from natural causes,

and something that may have

some kind of
supernatural origin.

In an interesting way,

the stories of
Native American curses

are a way of commemorating
the dark history of the land.

And acknowledging that

the original inhabitants
were forced off of the land

and in many cases killed.

It's about remembering
that the present situation

was arrived at
through some dark actions.

Are the Superstition Mountains
guarded by a deadly curse?

Well, if you ask some of
the locals, the answer is "yes."

And does that suggest that
other seemingly far-fetched

tales from the Wild West
could also be true?

Perhaps the answer
can be found by examining

Native American legends
about a massive flying creature

that is known
as the Thunderbird.

SHATNER:
The spirit of the Wild West
is alive and well

in this small town,

where saloon doors
still swing open,

and horses pull stagecoaches
along Main Street.

Founded in the late 1800s,
Tombstone embraces its history

when outlaws, gunslingers,
and violent shootouts

were all too common.

SHATNER:
The gunfight at the O.K. Corral
is the most well-known tale

from this Wild West boomtown.

But Tombstone's past is
also riddled with bizarre,

supernatural stories--

including tales
of strange creatures

roaming the frontier

that spread like wildfire
in the 19th century.

There are a lot of legends
that have come out of Tombstone,

but there's
one very curious one.

In 1890,

The Tombstone Epitaph
reported a story

about two ranchers
who saw a giant,

flying creature
in the sky above them.

CHAD LEWIS:
The not only were afraid of it,

but apparently,
they tracked it down

and killed this creature.

And tried to take
a photograph of it sprawled out.

SHATNER:
According to local lore,
a photo of the strange creature

was indeed taken
and even published

in The Tombstone Epitaph.

But locating
the supposed picture

has proven to be difficult.

In terms of the photograph,
there are legions of people

who remember
seeing this picture,

even into the 1930s and 40s,

yet no one has ever
been able to locate it.

And in fact, the edition
of The Epitaph

that the story ran in

didn't have
any photographs at all.

SHATNER:
Although the alleged newspaper
photo has never been found,

over the years,
a number of bizarre pictures

featuring cowboys
and a massive winged creature

have surfaced
and can be seen on the Internet.

One photograph depicts
a group of men

with a giant winged beast.

The creature is winged,
but it's not really a bird.

It looks more
like a pterodactyl,

something prehistoric
with large, leathery wings

and a large head with
two feet hanging down below.

It adds to the mystery of
the creature and makes us wonder

what exactly is flying around
in the southern deserts?

SHATNER:
While the images of the winged
creature are compelling,

historians have questioned
their authenticity,

and claim that they may
have been fabricated

as a result of
the fascination people have

with this strange tale
from the Old West.

Although most variations
of the photo seem to be hoaxes,

I think it's weird when
you combine all of the things

of the newspaper encounter,

people swearing that they
personally saw the photograph,

and now it's gone.

It only adds more history
and wonder to the story.

And I think, in some regard,

it makes it even bigger
than it would've been.

SHATNER:
Is the story of the Tombstone
pterodactyl just a tall tale?

Or is it possible

that there really was a species
of giant flying creatures

that roamed the deserts
of the Old West?

Perhaps the answer can be
found by examining accounts

from Native American
folklore of a creature known

as the Thunderbird.

THOMPSON:
The Thunderbird is one of
the most widespread, powerful

creatures and symbols
in Native American mythology.

It is a gigantic bird,
some kind of raptor,

sometimes with
somewhat human qualities.

But it's connected with
thunder and with lightning.

Very often,
it's flapping its wings

is what creates thunder,
and it shoots lightning

out of its eyes.

The Thunderbird is common
in Native American tribes

all over the West.

You'll find them on petroglyphs,

on the rocks,

or you'll find them
in totem poles

as a special bird,
a special spiritual power

of protection
and support and strength.

That's what
the Thunderbird represents.

WEATHERLY:
By some accounts, Thunderbirds
were strictly spiritual beings.

They lived in another world,

and they were frightening
but could also, sometimes,

lend their power to the people.

On other occasions,

they were purportedly
real creatures

that could swoop down
at any time

and snatch up humans
if they so choose.

SHATNER:
Is it possible that
there is a connection

between the Thunderbird
and the winged creature

that was reportedly seen
near Tombstone, Arizona in 1890?

For now, the answer is unclear.

But people remain fascinated
by the idea that massive winged

birds really did soar
over the American frontier.

THOMPSON:
It's important to remember that

this is taking place
in the Wild West,

it's taking place when people
are looking out for marvels

and becoming aware of
Native American explanations,

Native American
mythology at the same time.

So people were aware
that the Thunderbird

was held to be out there.

Which leads us back
to the question,

you know, the Thunderbird,

is it a cryptid, like,
it's out there somewhere?

Is it simply a deity

that's sort of cobbled together

from abstract notions
of what the divine is?

Or is it sort of resulting
from people finding,

you know, pterodactyl
skeletons and saying,

"Wow, there must have been
a great big bird here

at some point"?

Or maybe all three.

So this is still
a great mystery.

Even though no remains of
an actual Thunderbird

have ever been found,

does the fact that
it is such a widespread

and sacred figure
in Native American lore

suggest that it did

or may still exist?

Perhaps.

But there are stories of
other strange creatures

from the Old West for which
there may be tangible evidence.

For instance, there's a cave
in the mountains of Nevada

where miners
reportedly discovered

the bones of giants.

SHATNER:
Inside a narrow cave,

two miners are
searching for bat guano,

a key ingredient
in making fertilizer.

But as they head deeper
into the darkness...

...they make
an unexpected discovery.

They find more than
40 human skeletons,

some of which
are abnormally large.

WEATHERLY:
In 1911, giant bones were
found in Lovelock cave.

Large human skulls

and skeletons that measured

between seven
and eight feet in height,

which for ancient man would've
been rather significant.

HUGH NEWMAN:
This caused a sensation,

and one of the strange things
about the discoveries

in Lovelock Cave
is that the skeletons

were often found with red hair.

So it does seem like they were
a different kind of people

than the Native Americans
from the area.

SHATNER:
Although many of the large
bones found in Lovelock Cave

were unfortunately
lost to time, for decades,

a number of skulls were
preserved at a local museum.

NEWMAN:
Until about ten years ago,

there were four very
large skulls on display

inside the museum.

These were then removed
and ceremonially buried.

What's also interesting is that

over 100,000 artifacts were
excavated from Lovelock Cave.

The strange thing is that many
of the artifacts were huge.

Like, you have
giant-sized sandals,

like a 15-inch-long shoe
which is size 29 U.S.

which would fit someone
who's about nine feet tall.

And even pieces of clothing
which were so big,

it looked as though
they were worn by giants.

SHATNER:
The idea that giant bones
were actually found

in a cave in Nevada
may sound far-fetched to some.

But the truth is that there
were many such discoveries

reported during the Wild West.

THOMPSON:
In the Southwestern
United States,

there's several
very strange stories

of these dead corpses
or skeletons

being found regularly.

In terms of
the reports of giants,

this is a compelling motif.

People were fascinated
by this idea

of a giant race that had
lived here previously.

And this connects to
a lot of biblical belief

that tended to be fairly
literal back in the day.

The Bible talks about back when
there was a race of giants

that lived among the Earth.

And so, for many people
in the Wild West,

when you see some skeletons
dug out of the Earth

that seem to corroborate this,

this was an affirmation of

literal biblical
beliefs, as well.

SHATNER:
Is it really possible

that a race of giants
once inhabited the Old West,

as the numerous discoveries

reported throughout
the 1800s suggest?

And if so,

was evidence of these giants

recovered in Lovelock Cave?

Perhaps a clue can be found
by examining the history

of the Indigenous Paiute people,

who have inhabited
the Nevada desert for centuries.

WEATHERLY:
A woman named Sarah Winnemucca,

who was a descendant of
Chief Winnemucca of the Paiutes,

wrote a book in the 1800s and
recounted her people's battle

with this race of giants,
the Si-Te-Cah.

Now, what's fascinating
about this is that

she says that it was
an actual battle,

not part of tribal lore
or mythology

but something
that actually occurred.

The Si-Te-Cah were red-haired

and lived in the mountains
near the Paiute Nation,

and they were cannibals.

According to the Paiutes,

they naturally grew tired
of being cannibalized

-and they confronted
these giants.
-(shouting)

LEWIS:
A war was started
between the giants

and the Paiute people.

For three years
they battled one another.

The last of the giants

holed themselves up
in the Lovelock Cave.

And the Paiute people
stuffed the openings

with a bunch of brush
and firewood

and lit the place on fire.

And that was the end of
the red-haired, giant cannibals.

NEWMAN:
What's also interesting is that,

when the discovery was made
in 1911 at Lovelock Cave,

they also found evidence
of extreme burning

which took place
near the entrance to the cave.

So this matches
the story almost precisely.

And, again,
we have evidence of red hair

because Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins
actually saved some of the hair

and sewed it
into a mourning dress,

which she used
when she gave lectures.

And so the story of the Paiutes
defeating the giants

then suddenly became a reality.

SHATNER:
For many, the evidence
in support of the Paiute story

about the red-headed giants
is compelling.

Not only because of what
was found in Lovelock Cave,

but also because
there have been reports

of giant bones being discovered
in other places

throughout
the Western Nevada desert.

NEWMAN:
If you go back

and look through the records,

you can find
numerous accounts of bones,

skeletons
and giant-sized artifacts

that have been found
in this area.

In 1904, it was reported

that an 11-foot-tall skeleton
was found.

And then we have accounts
in 1931

of an 8.5-foot skeleton
that was reported.

And so the fact is,
you have the stories,

you have the skeletal evidence

and you have the artifacts

and even the legends
that prove this was

a real story of giants
in this area.

THOMPSON:
To be sure, the Paiutes believed
this to be a historical truth.

People might dismiss 'em
as just folklore.

But, again, who's to say
that it didn't happen?

Of course
there were ethnic conflicts.

Of course there were wars.

And, of course,
people tend to remember this.

So this has been
a real important part

of many, many people's
historical beliefs

and how they think
about their own history.

Was the Nevada desert
once inhabited

by red-haired,
man-eating giants?

Archaeological findings suggest
that such a fantastic notion

is entirely possible.

But not all curious skeletons
from the Old West

were located in remote caves.

In fact,
some were actually displayed

in traveling carnival shows,

like the remains of a petrified
man who was known as...

Sylvester the Mummy.

SHATNER:
Along the waterfront of the city

lies Ye Olde Curiosity Shop,

a quaint
Wild West souvenir store.

Inside, tourists can see
an extensive collection

of strange and macabre relics
from the American frontier.

The main attraction

is one of the best-preserved
mummies in the entire world,

who's known as...

...Sylvester.

My great-grandfather opened
our store back in 1899, so...

we're 123 years old this year.

And without a doubt,

Sylvester is our biggest,

most interesting curio.

Sylvester is so perfect.

He's got his mustache

and hairs on his head.

He's probably about two-thirds
of the size and weight

that he was when he was living.

And he just inspires curiosity.

We got Sylvester in the 1940s.

And when we got Sylvester,

his arms were kind of crossed
in front of him.

And he has a little hole in his
abdomen just above his wrist...

...and a little stain there.

The story we were told was that

-he was shot and died
in the Gila Bend desert...
-(gunshot)

...in Arizona
during the Wild West

and just the right chemicals
in the sand

and the heat and everything
preserved him.

And, today, people come in
and gawk at him

from a lot of
different countries--

around the world, even.

He's, uh, really special.

SHATNER:
While the sight
of a perfectly preserved mummy

from the Old West
may seem puzzling...

...in the 1800s,

mummies
and other strange human remains

were popular attractions
that were commonly displayed

in what were known as...

dime museums.

The dime museum was basically
exactly what it sounds like--

it was a museum
that cost a dime.

Although, in some cases,
it cost more than a dime.

Inside, you could see
all kinds of amazing wonders

and human oddities--

people like the bearded lady.

You'd have strange things
from other countries

that were very exotic
at the time.

Almost anything odd and unusual.

And, really, at that time
in our history,

there weren't other places
you could go see that.

You didn't have TV,
you didn't have the Internet,

you didn't have movies.

If you wanted to see
something different,

you went to the dime museum.

And from there, they took all
kinds of wondrous attractions

onto the road,
in sideshows and in carnivals.

THOMPSON:
Traveling carnivals were

the premier entertainment
of the day.

These would often display
the extraordinary,

the exotic,

but, also,

there was sort of
a macabre element, too.

One of the things
they would even have on display

is actual desiccated or even
slightly mummified corpses

of Wild West people.

And they became
a real compelling attraction.

This ranged
from mummified remains

to strange things--

tiny, little pygmy mummies,

great big giants

and all sorts of other, sort of,
oddities or freaks of nature.

SHATNER:
Why were people in the Old West
so fascinated

by the sight of macabre
and sometimes gruesome displays

of human remains?

It certainly doesn't seem
very respectful to the deceased.

But some historians claim
that mummies

and other strange curiosities

touched on the American spirit
of seeking out the unknown.

McNEILL:
In this same time
of westward expansion,

we see this dawning interest

in carnivals, sideshow
attractions, dime museums,

where you could go
and witness for yourself

the truly extraordinary things
that the world had to show us.

As much
as it may seem exploitative,

as much as it may seem
to be making a spectacle

out of human life,

it's also mirroring this idea

that the world is more wondrous,

more strange
than what we experience

in an established,
well-populated

urban center back east.

HARTZMAN:
During this time in history,

you have a lot of European
descendants traveling out west.

And they were seeing new things

that no one
had ever seen before.

And the stranger,
more odd it was,

the more exciting it was to see.

SHATNER:
Dime museums
and sideshow attractions

lost their popularity
in the early 20th century

as the West became more settled.

But, today,
more than a hundred years later,

curios like Sylvester the Mummy

continue to entertain the public

and are a link to a bygone era.

HARTZMAN:
There's not much left of the Old
West you can still go see.

But what's really amazing
about these mummies,

here you actually have a body

that traveled
through the Old West

as an attraction
people came to see,

and you can still see
the same body today.

Whatever their life was like,

their afterlife
has been so much longer,

and they continue to bring
amazement and wonder to people

from all parts of the world.

The fact that tourists travel
to catch a glimpse of Sylvester

shows that these bizarre stories
from the Wild West

still hold
our enduring fascination.

Which is also the case
in Aurora, Texas,

where some locals
are convinced that,

in 1897,

this small town
was visited by a being

from another world.

SHATNER:
In Central Texas,
about 50 miles east of Dallas,

lies the town of Aurora.

With a population
of 1,500 people,

Aurora looks like any number
of small communities

located in the region.

But, curiously, every year,

thousands of tourists
from all over the world

flock to the town's
local cemetery.

They come to visit
the grave site

of an extraterrestrial.

The alien is supposedly buried
in the Aurora Cemetery,

and people today leave
all sorts of offerings.

(insects trilling)

Everything from tinfoil hats
to coins to lottery tickets.

WEATHERLY:
It's fascinating to think
that an alien being

is buried in a small Texas town,

and many people have tried
to get to the bottom

of the mystery.

On the surface,
it seems simple enough--

excavate the grave and find out
exactly what's there.

However,
at some point in history,

the marker for the grave
disappeared,

so no one knows exactly where
the creature is buried.

SHATNER:
The story
of the so-called Aurora Incident

dates back to April 17, 1897,

when the residents of the town
reported seeing

a strange, unidentified flying
object descend from the sky

and crash in a fiery blaze.

At 6:00 a.m. in the morning,

something came crashing down
in Aurora, Texas.

It smashed through a windmill
on Judge Proctor's property...

...killing the lone occupant.

Whatever this craft was,

it was a puzzle for the people.

The pilot was described as being
very disfigured from the crash.

They don't give a lot
of detailed description

other than to say
that he was not of this world.

They contacted
a nearby military base

who sent a representative down
to inspect the scene.

He declared the dead occupant
a Martian.

The people in Aurora decided
to give the creature

a Christian burial.

It was buried
in the Aurora Cemetery,

along with some of the debris
from the alien craft.

SHATNER:
Two days after the crash,
on April 19, 1897,

the incident was reported
in The Dallas Morning News,

which has led many researchers
to conclude

that this crash did,
in fact, take place.

And for more than a century,

investigators
have tried to prove

that the craft actually came
from another world

by searching for the body

of the supposed
extraterrestrial pilot.

HARTZMAN:
As far as we know,

the body is still in
that same cemetery

in Aurora, Texas.

In the 1970s,

a couple UFO groups tried
to go exhume the body.

But the city denied them
the chance

to take the body out so they
could investigate it further

and see if it really was
an alien from another planet.

SHATNER:
For now, the truth
about the Aurora Incident

remains elusive,

just like countless other
tall tales from the Wild West

that continue
to capture our imagination...

...and inspire historians and
researchers to look for answers.

TRIMBLE:
The West was mythical.

It was bigger than life.

You have to imagine
Easterners coming here

and they sat around the campfire
at night

and told tall tales.

And there was truth to 'em,

a-a whole lot of truth

that was sprinkled into
these stories that were told.

And we don't know
where the truth ended

and the tall tale began.

Is there really an alien buried
in Aurora, Texas?

Did giant thunderbirds soar
across the frontier?

Could Billy the Kid
have faked his own death?

Well, stories like these
definitely make you wonder

whether the Wild West
was much stranger

than the history books tell us.

And as we continue searching
for the truth

behind these legends,

one can only imagine
that we'll uncover

even more bizarre tales from
the West that will remain...

...unexplained.

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