All language subtitles for The UnXplained S06E05 Strange Stories of the Presidents 1080p HULU WEB-DL AAC2 0 H 264-playWEB_track4_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
A missing brain

that could unravel America’s
most infamous assassination.

A deceased president roaming
the halls of the White House.

And an alleged meeting

between the leader
of the free world

and visitors from outer space.

The men who have had the honor

of being the president
of the United States

are celebrated
as esteemed leaders,

their names immortalized
in the annals of history.

But what’s less commonly known

is that there
are many bizarre tales

involving U.S. Presidents.

Strange stories
that encompass everything

from the unusual circumstances
of their death

to matters of national security
and even...

encounters with
extraterrestrial life.

Could the truth behind
these astonishing accounts

re-write America’s past,
and perhaps re-shape its future?

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

♪ ♪

SHATNER:
A crowd of excited well-wishers gathers

to greet
President John F. Kennedy

and First Lady
Jacqueline Kennedy

as they step off
of Air Force One.

The Kennedys join
Texas governor John Connally

and his wife, Nellie, in
a waiting convertible limousine

and ride in a motorcade
through the heart of the city,

surrounded by
cheering onlookers.

LEE MANDEL:
There were roughly 150,000 to 200,000 people

waiting in the crowds,

and Governor Connally’s
wife said,

"Mr. President, you can’t say
that Texas doesn’t love you."

And he said,
"No, you certainly can’t."

And those were the last words
he ever spoke.

SHATNER:
As the motorcade drives through the downtown district,

three gunshots are fired
in quick succession.

And two bullets strike
President Kennedy

in the throat and head,
critically wounding him.

By the time that first agent
reached the president,

it was already almost too late.

The president
had been shot twice,

and it was the immediate call
to go right to the hospital.

SHATNER:
President Kennedy was swiftly

taken to
Parkland Memorial Hospital,

arriving just six minutes
after being shot.

WILLIAM MADSEN LAW:
They put him on a gurney. They take him

and they wheel him
into Trauma Room 1.

After President Kennedy’s
brought in,

they did these
lifesaving procedures,

but I think, basically,
they knew he was gone,

and then he’s
pronounced dead at 1:00.

SHATNER:
News that President Kennedy had been assassinated

instantly spread
throughout the country.

But while Americans were
experiencing

both shock and grief,

a series of strange occurrences

was unfolding back
at Parkland Hospital in Dallas

that would ultimately lead
many people to wonder

if there was
a government conspiracy

to cover up the truth
about JFK’s assassination.

LAW:
After President Kennedy was dead,

there was a problem in the fact

that the Secret Service came in,

and they wanted
to take the body.

Now, by law in Texas,

the, uh, coroner,

Dr. Earl Rose, said,
"You’re not taking him.

"I have jurisdiction here.

He has to stay here
and have an autopsy done."

One of the Secret Service said,
"You’re either gonna

get out of our way,
or we’re gonna run over you."

The Secret Service
was saying, "Yes,

we are taking the body
back to Washington D.C."

However, this is a homicide
investigation locally,

by the Dallas Police Department,
the D.A.’s office.

The medical examiner has a duty
not to release that body.

Eventually, Vice President
Johnson got involved,

and the body was released.

SHATNER:
President Kennedy’s body was flown from Dallas

to Washington, D.C.,

and then taken to Bethesda
Naval Hospital in Maryland.

But why was the Secret Service
so determined

to move JFK’s remains
halfway across the country?

Perhaps the answer lies
in examining the bizarre events

that transpired during
the president’s autopsy,

which took place
late in the evening

following his assassination.

LAW:
There was a full autopsy done at Bethesda, Maryland.

And the two doctors were
James Humes and James Boswell.

However, they were not
board-certified pathologists.

Instead, they were
pure military guys,

who would follow orders.

In essence,
this may be the heart

of the mystery of whether
there was conspiracy or not.

SHATNER:
Even more questionable

than the presence
of military doctors

is the fact that,
during this autopsy,

President Kennedy’s brain

was actually removed
from his head

and placed in a collection
of evidence labeled simply

"item number nine."

Item number nine was
a stainless steel bucket

that was about
seven inches high,

eight and a half inches
in diameter,

that contained
President Kennedy’s brain.

Also in item number nine
were several autopsy slides,

tissue slides,
and also several boxes

of paraffin tissue samples.

And so, there’s something
very unusual about the way

the whole thing was handled.

SHATNER:
Three days after the autopsy,

on November 25, 1963,

President John F. Kennedy
was laid to rest

at Arlington National Cemetery.

However, not all
of his remains were buried

because,
for some strange reason,

JFK’s brain was still locked
inside a steel bucket.

And, as it turns out,
over the next few years,

the president’s brain

would be moved
to multiple locations

in and around Washington D.C.

MANDEL:
Dr. George Burkley, who was the White House physician,

requested the brain
be delivered to him

immediately
after the first autopsy.

And the brain was sent
from Bethesda

to the White House,
where it was stored

at the old executive
office building.

And it stayed there
until April of 1965,

when Senator Robert Kennedy

requested that
his brother’s brain

and all the autopsy materials
that were at the White House

be brought
to the National Archives

and given to Evelyn Lincoln.

Evelyn Lincoln was President
Kennedy’s personal secretary.

And she wasn’t an employee
of the National Archives,

but she was working there,

getting his papers ready,
things like that.

And she put it,
the next day, in a footlocker

in the National Archives
and locked it up.

SHATNER:
The idea of JFK’s brain

sitting in
an ordinary footlocker

in the National Archives

is surreal, to say the least.

But what’s even more bizarre
is that, on Halloween Day,

October 31, 1966,

President Kennedy’s brain
simply disappeared.

They opened the footlocker,
and, lo and behold,

none of the items from
item number nine were there.

The brain was gone.

No one knows
what happened to it.

It was never seen again.

The popular story is,
is that Robert Kennedy

took the brain
and all that stuff because

he didn’t want it
to be a sideshow.

If Robert Kennedy did
steal the brain

and took the slides and tissues
and that sort of thing,

he muddied the waters,

and that’s why we have
all these mysteries.

SHATNER:
Did Robert Kennedy steal his late brother’s brain

in order to keep it
out of the public eye?

Perhaps.

But others are convinced

that the disappearance
of JFK’s brain

is connected to the much larger
mystery surrounding his murder,

which remains the most
infamous assassination

in American history.

MARTIN K. A. MORGAN:
Six decades out from the great tragedy that unfolded

in Dallas in November 1963,

we are no closer
to having a sharp picture

of what happened
to our president.

If we had the brain,
there would be small particles

from whatever bullet
struck him in the head.

Those particles
could be analyzed.

But we don’t have that brain.

So we’re left
with question marks.

And when you combine the fact
that the Secret Service

illegally takes possession
of the presidential body,

violating the laws
of the state of Texas,

with the fact that
the president’s brain

later disappears,

it’s very difficult not to be
suspicious, now isn’t it?

SHATNER:
As part of a 12-day tour of Asia,

President Donald Trump lands
in the Chinese capital.

He is greeted
by government authorities

and boards a secure limousine

and a U.S. military aide
follows closely behind

carrying a mysterious
black briefcase.

Later that day, President Trump

travels to a state
legislative building,

where he meets with
Chinese President Xi Jinping.

His aide continues
to follow close at hand,

with the briefcase in tow,

but is then confronted
by security.

A scuffle breaks out
between the Secret Service

and Chinese soldiers,

because the briefcase
in question

happens to be
the nuclear football.

The nuclear football
is a briefcase that carries

information and materials
that are associated

with reacting
to a nuclear strike

or authorizing a nuclear strike.

And whenever
the president is traveling,

he will be accompanied
by a military officer

that’s carrying what’s called
"the football."

And so, when President Trump

is in China, and this

military member
of his staff is stopped,

a Secret Service agent
ultimately grabs

one of the Chinese
security agents,

throws him to the floor,

because it is
absolutely critical

that the president cannot be
separated from the football.

SHATNER:
The nuclear football is one of the world’s

most mysterious objects.

For decades,
people have wondered

what exactly is this
so-called football?

And how does a seemingly
ordinary briefcase

allow the president to launch
America’s nuclear arsenal

at any time?

PETER FEAVER:
The nuclear football is a critical part

of the command and control
of the military.

The official name is the
president’s emergency satchel.

It’s a briefcase.

But everybody inside
the White House

would refer to it
as "the football."

Part of the mystique is just
the fact that it’s a visible,

tangible sign
of this awesome power

that the President
of the United States has

to make a decision
to execute a nuclear strike.

WACKROW:
When it comes to the nuclear football,

everybody, including
our foreign adversaries,

are very keenly aware

of what it is,

and they want to know
how it works.

However, you need to have secret
compartmentalized clearance

that’s beyond top secret
to really fully understand

what’s within
the nuclear football.

SHATNER:
What is contained

within this highly classified
black briefcase?

It’s a mystery that dates back
to when the nuclear football

was created,
more than 60 years ago.

American spy planes discover
that the Soviet Union

has installed
nuclear missiles in Cuba,

just 90 miles
from the coast of Florida.

President John F. Kennedy
guides the United States

through the ensuing
military standoff,

which becomes known as
the Cuban Missile Crisis.

After 13 days
of tense negotiations,

the two superpowers reach
a diplomatic compromise,

narrowly averting
an all-out nuclear war.

FEAVER:
It’s clear that President Kennedy

was sobered
by the kind of decision

that he was facing
in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

And the president
and his team realized

that they needed
a robust capacity

that would allow
the president to talk

to the armed forces at any time.

That’s when
the nuclear football apparatus,

and particularly linking
the president to that,

was advanced significantly.

SHATNER:
Although the nuclear football

has been shrouded
in secrecy for decades,

there are a select few
who possess intimate knowledge

of its contents.

They are known as
the president’s military aides,

and they are responsible

for keeping the football close
to the commander-in-chief

at all times.

One former presidential
military aide

is retired U.S. Marine
Peter Metzger.

I was the U.S. Marine
military aide

to the President
of the United States,

in this case, President Reagan.

Wherever the president went,
I was trained to know

what to do in the event

the president had to exercise
his constitutional authority.

SHATNER:
As a matter of national security,

the military aides who have
been privy to the secrets

of the nuclear football
remain tight-lipped.

However, over the years,

some clues regarding
the contents of the football

have been revealed.

Inside the briefcase is

a series of notebooks,
effectively.

Think of them as notebooks
that contain a list of options

that the president can
choose from that would be passed

through the chain of command
down to the operating forces

that would carry out
the command.

I really can’t describe,

of course, in great detail
what the options are,

but they would be a range
from limited strikes

all the way to,
perhaps, the full use

of the nuclear arsenal.

SHATNER:
As a safeguard, the "menu" of nuclear options

can only be unlocked
by using a special set of codes

that are printed
on a small card

that is referred to
as the "biscuit."

FEAVER:
The biscuit is a card, almost like credit card size,

that the president carries
on the president’s person.

And this combines
with the information

in the nuclear football
to authenticate that

this is the President
of the United States

who is making these decisions.

SHATNER:
The nuclear football and the biscuit combined

allow the president to unleash
America’s nuclear arsenal

from anywhere in the world.

And it begs the question,
what would happen

if the president
accidentally lost the biscuit?

The presidential biscuit’s been
misplaced a couple of times.

In March 1981,
when President Reagan

had only been in office
for a couple of months,

he was shot by
a would-be assassin.

He was spirited off
to a hospital.

When he reached the hospital,

the attending
physicians and nurses

cut him out of his suit.

And as a part of cutting him
out of his suit,

pieces of suit were thrown off
into the corner,

and that included
the presidential biscuit.

Which, when you think
about it, is terrifying.

Luckily, the FBI
ended up in custody

of the presidential biscuit,
and nothing negative came of it.

SHATNER:
Despite some concerning close calls

and a few tantalizing hints,

ultimately,
the full details regarding

the president’s
nuclear football will remain

a closely guarded
government secret.

METZGER:
As the mil aide carrying the football,

every time I touched it,
I felt, "This is for keeps.

Whatever’s gonna happen,
this is the real deal."

In terms of the football itself,

the systems that
are there to protect it

are really, really good
and are highly classified.

Period.

It’s easy to see why the secrets
of the nuclear football

have never been revealed,
and, hopefully, they never will.

But there’s another
presidential mystery

that many historians
are eager to solve.

It involves the
surprisingly gruesome death

of President George Washington.

SHATNER:
After serving two terms as America’s first president,

66-year-old George Washington
has retired from public office,

hoping to find tranquility
in his golden years.

Washington immerses himself
in the daily management

of his expansive 8,000-acre
estate at Mount Vernon.

But, as it turns out,

the former president’s
peaceful retirement

doesn’t last long.

JEREMY RAY:
On December 12, 1799,

Washington starts his day
like he would almost any other.

He goes out and inspects
all of the outlying farms.

While he’s out,
a rainstorm starts.

Turns into sleet,

into snow.

When he returns that evening,

his outer coat
is pretty much soaked.

He’s advised by his secretary
to change his clothes.

Washington actually says,
"No, I’m fine."

He knows he’s running late,
and he has guests there.

He doesn’t want to keep them
waiting for dinner.

So, instead of
changing out his clothes,

he goes and has a seat,
and he eats.

SHATNER:
After entertaining his guests,

Washington retires
for the evening,

but is awakened
in the middle of the night

with a violent and
mysterious throat illness.

(coughing)

Around 3:00 or 4:00
in the morning,

Washington awakes.

He’s coughing. He’s shivering.

Martha Washington insists
on getting someone

to come help them.

But the worst thing someone
could do to a sick person

in the 18th century
was call a doctor.

They knew next to nothing,
and so,

it never, ever
improved the situation

and killed many people.

SHATNER:
When doctors arrived at Washington’s Mount Vernon home,

they performed
strange treatments

to battle his unknown illness.

Treatments that,
by today’s standards,

sound like torture.

RAY:
This is the private bedchamber of George and Martha Washington.

In the 18th century,
doctors were working

with the tools and the knowledge

they had available
to them at the time.

The thought process
was that the body

had to remain in balance
with its fluids:

blood, yellow bile,
black bile, and phlegm.

So, all of these pastes are
applied to Washington’s body

to create blisters
so that they can open it up

and that these can ooze out,

so that they can remove
any excess fluids

to try and reduce
the inflammation.

Really, you’re looking
at chemical burns being applied

to his body, uh,
during all this.

SHATNER:
Other treatments included applying dried beetles

- inside Washington’s throat...
- (man coughing)

...and administering an enema.

But doctors also performed

a gruesome procedure
which involved draining

Washington’s blood
from his body.

RAY:
They were doing this system of bloodletting to try

and reduce the blood and
reduce the swelling in the body.

George Washington was bled
four times that was recorded.

It is estimated around

about five pints of blood
was removed from him.

So 40% of his total
blood volume.

COE:
What made it far worse

was that Washington kept
insisting on being bled.

And Tobias Lear, his secretary,
taking notes this entire time,

talks about how unnerving
it was for everyone in the room

to see this, to see
Washington clearly fading,

but begging, demanding
that he be bled again.

And it got to the point where
the blood didn’t even rush out.

It sort of slowly crawled out.
He hardly had anything left.

LENGEL:
Washington begins turning white from loss of blood.

He is deathly, deathly ill.
He knows he doesn’t have long.

And then, finally,
he takes a few more

labored breaths, and he dies.

And it’s almost as if
a wail of anguish

spreads out
across the whole country.

SHATNER:
George Washington’s sudden and unexpected death

shocked and deeply
saddened the entire nation.

But what was
the mysterious illness

that ultimately sent
Washington to his deathbed?

Because the truth
behind his affliction

is clouded by
incomplete information

and gruesome medical practices,

we may never know
exactly how and why

America’s first president
passed away so suddenly.

But according to
one historical account,

Washington’s spirit
may have lived on.

63 years after
the death of George Washington,

a Union Army regiment battles
Confederate forces

for control
of a key strategic hill

known as Little Round Top.

MORGAN:
The regiment is under the command

of a man named
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

He could not abandon Union
positions on Little Round Top

because then the Confederacy
would be in a position

to drive the Union
off the field of battle.

Everyone’s wounded
to some extent.

They’re almost
out of ammunition.

And because of that,
he was left with no choice

but to order,
"Fix bayonets and charge."

It’s one of
the most memorable moments

of the entire
American Civil War.

SHATNER:
In his memoirs about the Civil War,

General Chamberlain wrote
that as the Union soldiers

prepared to launch
their desperate charge...

...they were joined by
an unlikely compatriot.

MORGAN: Chamberlain
and other men,

they would say that they saw

someone wearing
a tri-corner hat.

The type of hat that people
quit wearing around about 1800.

And that that man
was on horseback.

Chamberlain himself
would even say

that it was the spirit
of George Washington

that came back at
this critical moment,

this moment when
the fate of the republic

was held in the balance,

to encourage the men to charge
the enemy rather than retreat.

Chamberlain even said that
they saw Confederate soldiers

take shots
at the man on horseback,

and their bullets couldn’t
seem to stop George Washington.

It looked like
they passed right through him.

And ultimately, Union forces
stopped the Confederate invasion

because of
the divine intervention

of George Washington,
back from the grave,

to guide the republic
and save it once again.

LENGEL:
These are extraordinary circumstances.

Who really knows
what these soldiers saw?

We do know that they felt
something powerful.

And it helped them to do
almost superhuman things.

So something gave them
the strength

to do something extraordinary.

And only they knew
what that was.

While the grim circumstances
of George Washington’s death

and the accounts of his ghost

appearing at the Battle of
Gettysburg are... shocking,

there are many more
bizarre stories

that have been connected
to American presidents,

including some
that reportedly involve

alien encounters.

SHATNER:
High above this remote oil-drilling outpost...

...the United States Air Force
detects a mysterious,

unidentified flying object
on radar.

A pair of
F-22 Raptor fighter jets

are immediately scrambled
to intercept the UFO,

and the pilots report
seeing a strange,

cylindrical silver object
floating in the sky.

It’s described as
about the size of a car,

just kind of hovering
around 40,000 feet.

It’s deemed a threat
to civilian aircraft,

and so President Joe Biden
orders it to be shot down.

And then the official
statement was,

"We deemed it a threat
to our airspace.

"We take those threats
seriously.

We shot it down.
It’s not a concern anymore."

That’s the end of the story.

BIRNES:
There’s this strange object hovering over Alaska,

but the government
never revealed what it was.

Was it from China?

Was it from Russia?

Or was it a flying saucer?

SHATNER:
What was the mysterious UFO

that President Biden felt

needed to be shot
out of the sky?

Officially, the White House
claims that the object crashed

into the ocean,
and has not been recovered.

But this is not the first time
a UFO has come

to the attention of
America’s Commander-in-Chief.

And many people are convinced
that U.S. presidents

have been hiding the truth

about extraterrestrial
spacecraft

for more than 70 years.

Air traffic controllers detect
multiple unidentified objects

flying in the sky
over the nation’s capital.

BIRNES:
July 19, 1952, squadrons of UFOs

flew over the Capitol.

They flew over
the Washington Monument.

They flew over the White House.

Go to The New York Times
and you know what you’ll see?

UFOs flying over the Capitol.
That’s what you’ll see.

Therefore, Harry Truman
was the first president

to actually set American policy
having to do with UFOs.

And here’s what he did.

Immediately, the explanation
for all those UFOs

over Washington D.C. in 1952
was radar anomalies,

temperature inversion.

The pilots weren’t sure
what they were seeing.

And so will the president say
UFOs are among us?

Absolutely not.

SHATNER:
Did the Truman administration cover up

the truth about alien
spacecraft visiting our planet?

In the 1950s,
many Americans believed that

the government was withholding
important information about UFOs

and in fact, there are
those who claim

that America’s next president

actually met
with extraterrestrials.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower
is on a winter holiday,

when, in the middle
of the night,

he simply disappears.

When you’re president
of the United States,

we should know
where you are at all times.

But this one evening,
in February of 1954,

Eisenhower just goes missing.

To the point
where the Associated Press

put out a wire saying he died.

He died in the middle
of the night.

And then two minutes later,
they retracted it

and said, "No, our mistake."

And the next morning,
he shows up at church.

So, something happened in
the middle of that night

that is obviously off the books,

unexplained and really strange.

SHATNER:
Where was President Eisenhower

during the time
that he disappeared?

Well, according
to numerous accounts

that surfaced
after the incident,

Eisenhower allegedly attended
a most unusual meeting.

There’s a story
that on February 20, 1954,

President Eisenhower had

a meeting
with extraterrestrials.

This took place at an airbase.

Eisenhower was
presumably asked

to renounce and give up
nuclear weapons.

And in exchange,
the extraterrestrials would give

the U.S. technology
which would change the world.

The story is that Eisenhower
turned down this deal

because he couldn’t be sure that

the Soviets would do
the same thing.

SHATNER:
Did President Eisenhower

really meet
with extraterrestrials?

Well, if he did, the government
successfully covered up

any definitive evidence.

But in recent years,

it’s become harder
to keep secrets about UFOs,

because multiple
government organizations

have been actively investigating

this mysterious phenomenon.

There have been
several recent hearings

on UFOs, both in Congress
and with NASA.

And so what we’ve seen

is this subject
increasingly moving

out of the fringe
and into the mainstream.

Which makes me wonder,

what is it they’re not
telling us?

The president,
particularly in his capacity

as Commander-in-Chief,
can make that call.

And maybe we will see it
one day soon.

"My fellow Americans,
people of the world,

we are not alone."

If American presidents know

that aliens are visiting Earth,

then they certainly
haven’t shared that information

with the public.

And the same can be said
about another secret

that’s known
only to a select few.

It’s the unsettling possibility

that the White House is cursed.

SHATNER:
After five years of harrowing conflict,

Confederate
General Robert E. Lee

surrenders to Union
General Ulysses S. Grant,

finally ending the Civil War.

Just five days later,
in Washington D.C.,

President Abraham Lincoln
and his wife, Mary Todd,

enjoy a performance
at Ford’s Theatre.

Abraham Lincoln goes
to Ford’s Theatre

that fateful evening.

As he’s engrossed in the play,

there’s that terrible shot

that echoes through the theater.

(gunshot)

The back of Lincoln’s head
is blown to pieces.

This was a horrifying, traumatic
moment for the entire nation.

The assassination of a president

really at his moment
of greatest triumph.

SHATNER:
After President Lincoln’s assassination,

the country went into
a period of profound mourning

that lasted for several months.

And in a surreal twist,

some even claimed
that Lincoln’s murder

cast a dark, supernatural shadow

on the White House.

LENGEL:
After his assassination,

it’s really only
a short step from there

to people seeing
Abraham Lincoln’s ghost

in the White House.

Apparently, Lincoln’s ghost

scared the dickens out of
the entire White House staff.

And then Mary Todd Lincoln,

like many people at the time,
in the mid-19th century,

was very interested
in spiritualism.

And there is a photograph of her

showing a figure that appears
to be Abraham Lincoln.

President Lincoln
just kind of emerges

out of the background
in this photograph.

It’s really quite creepy.

Now, where the Lincoln ghost
came from, we don’t know.

But, there’s such
a elemental power

to the Lincoln apparition

that the White House becomes

kind of a...
a tragic epicenter

of all the nation’s suffering.

SHATNER:
What are we to make of the bizarre sightings

of Abraham Lincoln’s ghost
in the White House

in the years
immediately after his death?

Were these incredible reports

merely hallucinations,
fueled by grief?

Perhaps.

But curiously...

...over the years,
the apparitions

of not just Abraham Lincoln

but numerous former presidents
have been seen

roaming the halls
of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Witnesses have claimed
to see Thomas Jefferson

playing the violin
in the Yellow Oval Room.

Andrew Jackson laughing
in the Rose Room.

And William Henry Harrison
fumbling around the attic.

So, as crazy as it may sound,

is it possible
that the White House

is the final resting place
for the souls

of American presidents?

President Harry Truman lies
fast asleep in his bed.

BELANGER:
In a letter to his wife Bess, President Truman writes,

"At 4:00, I was awakened

by three distinct knocks
on my bedroom door."

(knocking)

"I jumped up
and put on my bathrobe,

"opened the door,
and no one there.

"Went out and looked
up and down the hall,

"looked into your room,
still no one there.

The damn place is haunted,
sure as shootin’."

LENGEL:
Harry Truman is really unsettled by this experience,

and it was Truman
who decided enough is enough

and he’s gonna get rid
of the entire interior

of the White House.

He tears it all out.

And maybe he imagined
in some way

that he was gonna get rid
of the ghosts that way,

but, uh, it didn’t work.

BELANGER:
During the reconstruction,

official White House
photographer Abbie Rowe

clicks this picture.

And if you look way back

in the lower right-hand corner,

there’s this figure
that’s almost see-through.

And you might say,
"Well, come on, it’s 1950.

It’s an old camera,
old technology."

But if you look just
a little bit to the left

of that semi-see-through figure,

you’ll see
three men standing there.

And you can make out
their hat, their tie,

their clothes, and so on.

And they’re just as far away.

And so people point
to this photo and suggest

this may be a documented ghost
photo inside the White House.

SHATNER:
Is the alleged apparition in the photo

merely a double exposure,

or a trick of light?

Or could it be
definitive evidence

that supernatural spirits
haunt the White House?

For now, all we can say for sure
is that it’s unnerving

to think that the president’s
residence might be haunted.

But there’s another
potential scenario

that is even more concerning.

It’s the possibility
that someone

other than the president

could be secretly
running the country.

SHATNER:
After leading the country to victory in World War I,

President Woodrow Wilson embarks
on a grand speaking tour

across the United States

to encourage America to join

the newly-formed
League of Nations.

Wilson travels more than
8,000 miles in just 22 days.

And the grueling journey
takes a toll

on the president’s health.

Upon his return to
the White House on October 2,

Wilson suffers
a devastating stroke

and collapses
on his bedroom floor.

LENGEL:
Woodrow Wilson experiences a series

really debilitating strokes.

He recovers partially,

but he’s still unable
to communicate clearly.

He’s unable
to make any decisions.

He’s unable to carry out
the functions of government.

And he’s hidden from view.

He’s hidden in a back room
in the White House

behind curtains so that people
can’t really see him.

SHATNER:
With President Wilson incapacitated,

you would think
that the vice president

and the cabinet would assume
control of the country.

But remarkably, it was
the First Lady, Edith Wilson,

who stepped in
to fill the void.

LENGEL:
Edith Wilson takes over.

She becomes the gatekeeper.

So, they have to go
to Edith and say,

"What does the President want?"

And she says, "Well, let me
tell you what he wants."

But it’s really
what Edith wants.

And it’s a frightening situation

because she is intelligent,

but she doesn’t know anything
about national affairs.

She doesn’t know anything
about international affairs.

But nevertheless, she’s
a very strong-minded woman.

And Wilson’s cabinet
is too afraid

to do anything about it.

Edith Wilson is proxy president

for the remainder
of Wilson’s second term.

But this is being hidden
from the public.

It’s a dangerous situation,

but we only realized
how dangerous

after Wilson left office.

SHATNER:
While the thought of a proxy president

is obviously concerning,

the truth is that when it comes
to the many strange tales

involving U.S. presidents,

we may never know
the full story.

BELANGER: When you hear
about these stories,

about past presidents

that are obviously
off the books,

unexplained and really strange,
we connect to it.

Because when you’re president
of the United States,

you are privy
to a lot of information

that affects a lot of people--

all the events,
all the decisions

that have literally shaped
our nation, shaped our world,

shaped who we are,
and on and on.

We don’t like
our presidents saying,

"I don’t know if I can trust
you with this information,

and we don’t have
all the answers yet."

LENGEL:
The United States presidency

has so many legends

and stories associated with it

in its 225-year history,

and these are important stories.

Whether you believe them or not,

they expose the beating heart
of the country.

They’re symbolic
of our history as a nation.

And that’s one of the reasons

we really need
to listen to them.

Even though the president
of the United States

is perhaps the most public
figure on Earth,

it’s surprising
how many strange stories

lie hidden in the history
of the Oval Office.

Could there be
even more bizarre tales

that may one day be revealed?

Or are there some events

that are just too incredible
to be shared

and should remain...

unexplained?

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