All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.Special.Presentation.S01E13.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
A divine encounter,

that turned the tide of
the American Revolution.

A miraculous glowing light,

that saved wounded soldiers
from certain death.

And the strange tale of a mummy,

and a ruthless assassin.

The founding of
the United States of America is

emblazoned with stories
of high ideals and heroism.

But among the accounts of
fierce battles and great turmoil

are bizarre
and fascinating tales

of otherworldly events.

How much did superstition,
secret identities

and mystical encounters
play a role in

shaping American history?

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

SHATNER:
Inside a Masonic Lodge,

a 20-year-old man
sits blindfolded,

surrounded by Freemasons
dressed in dark robes.

He takes a blood oath to
join their secret brotherhood,

and will remain
a member until his death.

This young initiate is
none other than

the future first president
of the United States

George Washington.

George Washington,
when he joined the lodge

at Fredericksburg,

he had come in to

a large amount of property.

His father died,
and then his older brother died.

And so he joins the Masons

because he wants to be
in the company of

other important men,

and Freemasonry was
an important aspect of

his life in those early years.

He brought Masonic
philosophy into the way

he commanded troops as well.

ALEXIS COE:
During the Revolution,
George Washington

is often described as some
sort of founding superhero.

We see Washington in
so many of the portraits

of the Founding Fathers,

sort of towering above people,

and part of the reason is

he was taller than most people

and he had presence.

SHATNER:
As Commander in Chief
of the Continental Army,

George Washington became

the most visible leader of
the American Revolution.

Today, he is often referred to

as the father of
the United States.

But while Washington's
influence on American history

is well known,
there is much about him

that remains
shrouded in mystery.

Washington was
famously secretive

about his personal life.

However, we know
that he was raised

by a single mother
who read The Bible,

and very few other books.

He could quote from The Bible.

For example,
Washington will say,

"It's providence that
this should happen,"

or that God intended him
to do something.

RICHARD BROOKHISER:
Washington's God, and we know
this from his correspondence,

intervenes in history,
watches over history.

He's this all-powerful force

looking over humanity
and human history,

and capable of helping you out

if you behaved well

and if you asked for his help.

SHATNER:
Is it possible that,
as both a Freemason

and devout Christian,

George Washington
secretly believed that God

would intervene on
behalf of the colonists

in the American Revolution?

Perhaps the answer can be found
by examining how Washington

was able to lead his army
through its lowest point.

After numerous bloody battles
against British forces,

General George Washington
decides to

encamp the Continental Army
for the winter.

For the next several months,

Washington and his troops

will have to endure
the bitter cold.

BROOKHISER:
The problem at Valley Forge was

the army was just not being
supplied with anything.

They didn't have enough food,

they didn't have
enough clothing.

The accommodations that
they built at the camp

were put up at the last minute.

RICHARD SPENCE:
When you get people

crowded together in
unsanitary conditions

with low nutrition,

you will have
a significant mortality rate.

So, in the Valley Forge
situation,

the Continental Army
is at a fairly low point,

and during that six months,

20% of its ranks will die.

SHATNER:
The conditions at
Valley Forge were so severe

that Washington wrote,

"Unless some great and capital
change suddenly takes place,

this army must inevitably
starve, dissolve or disperse."

But then, in the Continental
Army's darkest hour,

Washington reportedly
sought help

from a higher power.

COE:
As the story goes,
Washington got on his knees.

You know, he kneeled
at Valley Forge,

and he asked God for help.

BROOKHISER:
The man who first
reports Washington praying

at Valley Forge was
a man who lived there.

He was a Quaker
named Isaac Potts.

And he's the one who says,

"Oh, I saw him.
I was behind a tree.

I saw the commander in chief,
and he's kneeling in prayer."

Washington certainly
would have prayed

at Valley Forge,
because it was terrible.

It was desperate.

I think he took the situation
very seriously,

and hoped that providence

might improve it.

SHATNER:
There were also reports
that Washington

not only prayed at Valley Forge

but also had a divine encounter.

A soldier named
Anthony Sherman

claimed to witness Washington

saying that
he received confirmation

that his prayers
had indeed been heard.

LANCE GEIGER:
The report was that,
at Valley Forge,

that Washington said,

to an officer,
that he had seen a vision

of an angel talking to him.

The vision given to him
by this angel was

the angel essentially
waved his hand,

and on one side of America
was an ocean and Europe,

and on the other side
was an ocean and Asia,

and so that
the angel had revealed

to George Washington this vision

that America would go
from coast to coast.

SHATNER:
What occurred after Washington's
alleged vision was very curious.

Against all odds,

and despite losing
2,000 men to cold,

starvation and disease,

the Continental Army survived
the winter at Valley Forge.

And then,

only ten days after
leaving the encampment,

Washington and his troops
won a decisive victory

over the British at
the Battle of Monmouth.

Many Americans came to
believe that Washington's prayer

had miraculously changed
the colonists' fortunes.

GEIGER:
This idea of Washington
praying in the woods,

for a young nation that was
still a fragile nation,

it gave us this idea that

God heard Washington praying,

and so there's
a reason to believe that

maybe our nation would survive.

SHATNER:
Could divine intervention
have played a role

in George Washington's success

in the American
War of Independence?

Did faith in a higher power
help Washington

gain the trust of
the Continental Army

and the loyalty of

a top secret spy ring?

SHATNER:
The British Army scores

a decisive victory
over General George Washington

and the Continental Army.

The British take control
of the city

and make it
their military headquarters.

In the summer of 1776,
the Revolutionary War

is not off to a good start
for the Americans.

New York is one of
the largest cities

in the American colonies
at the time.

As a result, Washington
needs to retake New York.

And so, this demonstrates
really a critical need

for intelligence to know
what the enemy is doing,

what the forces
are comprised of,

what their intentions are.

He needs information.

SHATNER:
To obtain the intelligence

that he desperately needs to
retake New York City,

Washington created
an intelligence network

made up not of soldiers
but rather ordinary citizens

living in and around New York.

The group became known

as the Culper Spy Ring.

TYLER:
We're not sure

how the Culper Spy Ring
got its name.

But the one thing
we do know is that

Washington's main spy was

a farmer named Abraham Woodhull,

and they gave him
the codename Samuel Culper.

OLLY:
Abraham Woodhull
enlisted a small group

of perhaps a half a dozen men

who conveyed
military intelligence

from Manhattan to
Washington's headquarters.

And then, because
Abraham Woodhull

could not constantly be

going into New York to
gather information,

he enlisted the services
of Robert Townsend,

who was a merchant in Manhattan.

As a merchant,
he could be really any place.

He could be
down by the waterfront,

he could be in coffee shops,

he could be chatting
in a tavern with people.

So, he was
gathering information.

And so, Robert Townsend
took the name

of Samuel Culper, Jr.

SHATNER:
To ensure that their messages

were not read by the British,

the Culper Spy Ring devised
ingenious methods

of sending coded messages.

TYLER:
The Culper Spy Ring

communicated with each other

by mostly letters.

They used numbers
to represent words,

about 700 different words.

And these numbers

were written in the messages,

and then the spy code
was given to the people

who needed to translate the code

at Washington's headquarters
or wherever.

SHATNER:
Historians have been able
to decode and decipher

many Culper Spy Ring messages
that still exist today.

But there's one message

that continues
to baffle experts.

It's a letter that refers
to a mysterious spy

who was known only as "355."

There is a spy letter
dated August 15, 1779

written by Abraham Woodhull,

in which he says that
he's going to go into the city,

into Manhattan,
to gather information

with the help of a "355."

So, this number 355

is a very tantalizing
and mysterious detail

that leads to speculation
because 355

is the numerical substitution
in the spy code for "lady."

It's so fascinating
to think about a lady spy

during the Revolutionary War

that this has fired
the imagination

of hundreds of people

that have written books
about who this spy could be.

SHATNER:
Over the years, there's been
intense speculation

as to the identity of Agent 355

and what role she played
in the Culper Spy Ring.

Some experts believe

there is evidence to suggest
that the woman

may have been
an African-American slave

who was known as Liss.

BELLERJEAU:
Liss was born into slavery
in Robert Townsend's household.

Townsend was the lead spy
of the Culper Spy Ring,

Culper, Jr.

Now, the British had promised
escaped American slaves,

if they would come over
to the British side,

at the end of the war,
they could become free.

And one of the
British commanders

that was a leading abolitionist

was a man named
Colonel John Graves Simcoe.

And in May of 1779,

Simcoe was staying
in the Townsend home.

Liss got to know this commander,

and when Simcoe left the house,

she escaped with him.

SHATNER:
In recent years,
some historians have theorized

that Liss's escape
with Colonel Simcoe

was actually a ploy,

and that the real reason Liss
left Robert Townsend's house

was so that she could spy
on the British army.

BELLERJEAU:
Now, if Liss was inside
British headquarters,

serving as an enslaved person,

she could pass through rooms
and observe things,

overhear things,

and she wouldn't even
be noticed.

SHATNER:
Was Liss actually a double agent

who was secretly working
with the Culper Spy Ring?

It's an intriguing theory.

And some experts propose that,
not only was Liss 355,

but also, it's possible
she played an important role

in exposing America's
most notorious turncoat,

Benedict Arnold.

There was a secret meeting
of the British officers

held at a house in East Hampton.

Colonel Simcoe went out
with his troops to this meeting.

And the British
talked about how they had

just secured the deal
with Benedict Arnold

to give up the fort
at West Point for money.

Now, an account was written
of this meeting

that said that an enslaved woman
in the house

was passing through a room

and overheard the men

talking about how
an American general

was gonna give up
an American fort to the British.

This woman is described
as a waitress

or perhaps mistress
to Colonel Simcoe.

That's the woman
who I think could be Liss.

SHATNER:
Curiously, less than one month

after this secret meeting
took place,

Benedict Arnold was revealed to
be a traitor to the Revolution.

There are those who believe
that the timing

of these events
is no coincidence,

and that Liss provided
crucial information

that made it possible
to expose Arnold.

But ultimately,

the real identity of 355

remains unknown.

OLLY:
We know the other members
of the Culper Spy Ring,

but who was this woman

who was coded as 355?

Today, we're used to women

playing important roles
as spies,

but in the Revolutionary War,
that would've been very rare,

and so this has
fascinated people since 1779.

SHATNER:
Perhaps it's not surprising
that spies

played a pivotal role
in the American Revolution.

But the real identity
of these secret agents

has been an unsolved mystery
for over 200 years.

And it took nearly as long

to discover the truth about
a strange glowing entity that,

for wounded soldiers
of the Civil War,

was the difference between life

and death.

SHATNER: On the morning after
the bloodiest battle

of the Civil War,
thousands of dead soldiers

lay strewn across
the blood-soaked farmland.

But while the brutality of the
Civil War is well-documented,

approximately two-thirds

of the more than 600,000 deaths
in the war

weren't caused by injuries

sustained on the battlefield,

but rather by disease.

FISHER:
The Civil War represents

the last major conflict

that, um, that humans
experienced, um,

before the, sort of,
the inception

or the origins
of-of germ theory.

You can imagine the conditions
that soldiers live in,

crowded together,
substandard sanitation.

In some cases,

open wounds that aren't
being treated correctly.

It's really gross.
Everything smells terrible.

Uh, these doctors
aren't washing their aprons.

They can't explain

where they're getting
these diseases from,

how they may be spreading it.

SHATNER:
As uncontrollable infections

ravaged both Union
and Confederate encampments,

soldiers and their doctors

debated the cause
of their afflictions.

Many came to believe that
the air itself was poisoned.

RAJ DASGUPTA:
When we talk about

some of the deadliest viruses
that we know,

some of them get transmitted
by respiratory droplets,

the air.

When you cough, when you sneeze,
just by talking.

So, maybe they weren't too off
by saying the air is bad.

SHATNER:
In the mid-19th century,

little was known
about disease control

or preventing
the spread of germs.

But as the scope
of the war widened

and the ferocity
of infectious outbreaks

resulted in even more
horrific causalities...

...doctors were forced
to expand their knowledge

of diseases
and how to contain them.

They realized that maybe a barn
isn't the best place

to be doing amputations
and open surgeries.

So, as the war goes on,

there's beginning to be
an understanding

of what medicine should be.

Things like triage,
things like an ambulance system,

hospitals, these are all
established during the Civil War

in the United States
for the first time.

SHATNER:
In many ways, the Civil War
marked the beginning

of medical science as we know it

and the end of mankind's
superstitious attitude

towards disease.

But there is one event
on the battlefield

that medical historians still
struggle to explain to this day,

because it simply defies
understanding.

Union and Confederate forces
square off

in one of the bloodiest
confrontations

of the Civil War,
the Battle of Shiloh.

After two days
of vicious fighting...

(soldier screams)

SHATNER:
...more than 20,000 men
lie dead or dying.

WYNN:
So, Ulysses S. Grant
is the commander

of the Union army
at this battle.

He went out and looked over
the battlefield

and he could see that there were
so many soldiers who had been

wounded and killed that
he could've walked across

one side of the battlefield
to the other

without ever
touching the ground,

walking from body
to body to body.

SHATNER:
As night falls
over the battlefield,

many injured soldiers
lie helpless,

hoping to be rescued before
their wounds become infected.

What happens next

is one of the enduring mysteries
of the Civil War.

WYNN:
Soldiers are out
between the lines,

wounded during the course
of the battle.

It's cold at night.
They're out there shivering,

and they happen to look down
at their shattered arm or leg,

and they notice this soft,
faint, bluish-greenish glow

seeming to come off
their wounds in the darkness.

There was a connection that was
being made amongst the soldiers

that those who experienced
this glowing wound effect

seemed to have better outcomes

when they went back
to the field hospital,

and it seemed as though

their wounds may not
have been as infected.

JULYE BIDMEAD: They termed
this bluish-green glow

"Angel's Glow." Why?

Because to them,
it looked like a halo.

Mystical light surrounding them.

So, it was a way of them
thinking that God

or the angels were protecting
these particular soldiers.

SHATNER:
Was the so-called "Angel's Glow"

a type of divine intervention

that somehow protected
certain soldiers

from deadly infection?

Perhaps.

But recently,
a new theory has surfaced,

one that suggests
this phenomenon

may have had
a more conventional explanation.

BIDMEAD:
It wasn't

until many years,
like, 150 years later,

that a 17-year-old high school
student visited Shiloh,

and he decided
for his science project

to research bacterium
that glows.

And they were able to find out
that there was a bacteria

that would emit some sort
of parasitic worm.

It would get into the veins,
and then it would glow.

SHATNER:
Could the Angel's Glow
really have been a sign

of a type of bacteria,
rather than guardian angels?

And if so, could this bacteria
have actually been responsible

for saving the lives
of the wounded soldiers?

FISHER:
Presumably,

what happened with those
soldiers with the Angel's Glow

is that those bacteria were
actually infecting their wounds.

And because bacteria exude
a lot of antibacterial

and antimicrobial compounds,
they actually reduce

the level of infection in the
soldiers that they colonized.

SHATNER:
The bacteria theory is
the best scientific explanation

we have for what caused
the Angel's Glow.

If this incredible theory
is true,

then it seems that some forms
of bacteria can actually help us

in the fight against disease.

But the soldiers
whose lives were saved

at the Battle of Shiloh believed

that what healed them could only
have been sent from heaven.

WYNN:
We can't know
what those soldiers experienced

out there on the battlefield
between the lines.

They're in the dark,
they're suffering from shock.

Who's to say that
they didn't experience that,

or that they did
experience that?

Did guardian angels reach down
from the heavens

and comfort the wounded, sick
and dying soldiers at Shiloh?

To the men suffering
on the battlefield,

the possibility
that Angel's Glow saved them

is entirely plausible.

But there's another
strange story from the Civil War

that involves America's
most notorious assassin,

and the unlikely events
surrounding his life

after death.

SHATNER: The St. Louis World's
Fair opens to packed crowds.

Over the course
of the next six months,

more than 19 million people
stroll down a mile-long midway

lined with exhibitions

showcasing the world's
most advanced science,

technology, art,

and one rather
bizarre attraction.

The alleged mummy
of John Wilkes Booth,

the man who assassinated
President Abraham Lincoln.

ORLOWEK:
Encountering a mummy
that is being claimed

to be John Wilkes Booth,

the man who killed,

who I think most people think
was our greatest president,

would be pretty mind-boggling.

YOUNG:
So, it was a high point
of many people's lives

to see the mummy
of the dark figure

of American history,
John Wilkes Booth.

To see some part of that story,
even the horrific part of it,

is still an expression
of grief and attachment

to Abraham Lincoln.

SHATNER:
For nearly three decades,

the mummy of John Wilkes Booth,

America's
most infamous assassin,

drew eager crowds
around the world.

Which was extraordinary,

because according
to the United States government,

the body of John Wilkes Booth
had been buried

in a Baltimore cemetery
since 1865.

According to most
historical accounts,

after John Wilkes Booth shot
President Lincoln

during a performance
at Ford's Theatre

in Washington, D.C.

on April 14, 1865,

Booth fled on horseback
to Virginia,

eluding Union soldiers
that were stationed

at the city exits by
Vice President Andrew Johnson,

with orders to kill anyone
attempting to leave.

Booth was eventually
cornered inside a barn

just south
of Port Royal, Virginia,

where, after he refused
to surrender,

Union troops shot and killed him

on April 26, 1865.

ORLOWEK:
The barn was set on fire.

The traditional version is

that the body was identified
and eventually,

the government released the body
to the Booth family.

SHATNER:
After receiving the body,

Booth's family supposedly
buried him

in the family plot
at a Baltimore cemetery.

But if that's the case,

how did his preserved remains
end up

as a traveling
sideshow attraction?

According to some researchers,

it was all due
to a chance encounter

involving a man
named Finis L. Bates

that occurred 12 years

after Booth's supposed death
in 1865.

MARK EBNER:
Bates was this lawyer,

slash carney barker,
slash showman.

He was

living in a town
called Granbury, Texas,

and befriended
a guy named John St. Helen.

ORLOWEK:
One night,
St. Helen became very ill

and called Bates to his bedside.

And he gasped out to Bates
that in fact,

he was really John Wilkes Booth.

Bates, of course, thought
the man was hallucinating,

because everybody had been told

that John Wilkes Booth had been
killed 12 years earlier.

Booth, slash St. Helens--
he recovers

from this illness,
and he skips town.

Years later, in Enid, Oklahoma,

there is a guy, David George.

George had enough of this world,
and he killed himself.

And there was no next of kin,
but he did leave word,

"Please call Finis L. Bates,"

and that they did.

SHATNER:
As the story goes,

when Finis L. Bates arrived
in Enid, Oklahoma

and viewed the dead body
of David George,

he made
two startling observations.

The first was
that David George's appearance

closely matched that
of John St. Helen's,

the man who had claimed
to be John Wilkes Booth.

And the second was
that George's body

had been strangely preserved.

YOUNG:
The undertaker,
having no money for a burial,

puts arsenic in the veins
to preserve the body,

mummified the body,

and puts it in a store window
as a gag holding a newspaper.

So they get ahold of Bates,
who puts two and two together.

He realizes it's the man

who claimed
to be John Wilkes Booth,

takes possession of this mummy.

He goes
into the sideshow business,

and for a small price,
you could see the mummy

of John Wilkes Booth.

SHATNER:
If Finis L. Bates's story
is true,

and John Wilkes Booth lived

under at least
two other identities

before dying
in Enid, Oklahoma in 1903,

the question is,
how did Booth escape the barn

where he was supposedly killed
by Union troops?

ORLOWEK:
In 1919, the granddaughter

of one of the soldiers
who was at the barn

gave a sworn affidavit saying

that man was not
John Wilkes Booth

who was killed in the barn.

That man had red hair
and ruddy features.

John Wilkes Booth had black hair
and smooth features.

EBNER:
If revisionist history

is to be believed,

John Wilkes Booth was given
a password... to freedom,

and this was done
by the original conspirator

in Abraham Lincoln's death,

supposedly--
Vice President Andrew Johnson.

YOUNG:
John St. Helen is
apparently on his deathbed,

and he made kind of
a deathbed confession.

He tells the whole story
of how it was plotted,

not by himself, but by the
vice president, Andrew Johnson,

who was, of course,
the beneficiary,

became president
because of the death.

SHATNER:
Is it possible

John Wilkes Booth lived
as John St. Helen,

before dying
as David George in 1903,

only to be reborn
as a mummified curiosity?

While this may seem
like a farfetched notion,

according to researchers,

we may never know
what really happened

because authorities
are preventing anyone

from finding out the truth.

In the 1990s,
the Booth family was convinced

that John Wilkes Booth
really got away,

and they agreed to authorize
the exhumation of the body.

There are all sorts of tests
that would compare it with DNA

from anyone
of John Wilkes Booth's

immediate family members.

Unfortunately,
the cemetery fought it,

and the Booth family
was denied permission.

SHATNER:
Now you might be thinking,

if officials at the cemetery
are preventing Booth's grave

from being exhumed,

why not simply do a DNA test
on his supposed mummy?

Not surprisingly,
researchers agree

that a DNA test
would solve the mystery,

if only they knew
where to find the mummy.

ORLOWEK:
So, unfortunately,
it's uncertain where it is.

So unless
we can either find the mummy

or dig up the body
in the Booth plot,

this will forever be a mystery.

SHATNER:
John Wilkes Booth is perhaps
the most notorious figure

in American history,

in both his life and his death.

And while we may never know
if the traveling mummy

was truly Mr. Booth,

the possibility alone was enough

to intrigue thousands
of curious onlookers.

Such is also the case
with another tall tale,

where some speculate

that one of the most popular
landmarks in the United States

can manipulate the weather.

SHATNER:
Standing 630 feet tall

and 630 feet wide,

the St. Louis Arch

is the world's tallest
freestanding arch.

Memorializing Thomas Jefferson,

Lewis and Clark
and other great pioneers,

the arch has been nicknamed
"the Gateway to the West."

Each leg of the arch is sunk in
almost 24,000 tons of concrete

60 feet deep,

enough to withstand earthquakes

and winds as strong
as 150 miles an hour.

The exterior is comprised of
2,000 tons of stainless steel,

the most ever used for
any single project in history.

It is, in short,
a modern engineering marvel.

But that's not even the most
incredible thing about it.

Heavy, dark, dangerous
thunderstorms have been known

on many occasions

to head directly
for the city of St. Louis.

And as they get closer,

they seem to split
right down the middle,

go out and around the city

and reconnect after they've
passed the city of St. Louis.

JOHN BRANDENBURG:
It's very strange,

but there does seem to be
an effect where thunderstorms

tend to kind of break apart
when they get near this thing

and they reform afterwards.

It doesn't mean that St. Louis
doesn't have thunderstorms.

It does.

But it doesn't seem to have

as many thunderstorms
in the area of that arch.

SHATNER:
The St. Louis Arch's
alleged power

to redirect thunderstorms

has led some to give
this phenomenon a name,

the Arch effect.

TRAVIS TAYLOR: Some people
believe that the St. Louis Arch

is changing the flow of the air

that's causing weather patterns
to occur or not.

But a storm cloud top
is 10,000 to 50,000 feet high.

The arch is only gonna be
a few hundred feet high at best.

So how is this
affecting something

that is so much larger?

MICHAEL DENNIN:
I think we all are well aware
of the way structures

certainly impact airflow,
air currents and winds.

And the arch is certainly
very large and very geometric,

and I think it does have what we
might call local micro effects.

But what kind of influences
could that have

on, sort of, larger weather
systems, particularly storms,

either attracting
or not attracting thunderstorms?

That's harder to kind of
really wrap your head around.

SHATNER:
If the shape
of the St. Louis Arch

isn't the reason it's capable
of affecting the weather,

then what is?

According to some scientists,

it's not how the arch
was designed

but what it's made of.

Now, as you look
at the design of this thing,

it's a stainless steel
structure,

it's completely unique
architecturally,

it's basically a ring
made of metal.

Metal is a conductor.

The various stainless steels
and other metals that are in it

conduct electromagnetic energy.

You could, you know, connect a
battery to one side of the arch

and, uh, light a flashlight
on the other side of it,

and that's-that's fairly unique.

You can't do that
with most skyscrapers.

So one mechanism where it
could affect the local weather

is to short out the Earth's
electric field in that vicinity.

In a weird way, it's kind of an
oddly shaped, big lightning rod.

Normally we think of lightning
rods as being sharp and pointed

and there's a clear
ion electromagnetic effect.

It has been proven by Nikola
Tesla and other scientists

that you can use
electromagnetic fields

to create holes
in the atmosphere

to manipulate the weather.

SHATNER:
Could generating a powerful
enough electromagnetic field

actually make it possible
to manipulate something as vast

and unpredictable as weather?

It's an intriguing
and somewhat unnerving notion.

But believe it or not, in 1990,

the United States military

conducted
a series of experiments

designed to do just that.

There was a secret program
by the military called HAARP,

which was instituted to try
to understand the ionosphere.

This is a matter
of national security.

Communications go
through the upper atmosphere,

called the ionosphere,

and we have to study it.

So HAARP shot radio frequency
radiation into the ionosphere

to see how it was distributed
around the planet Earth.

If you look, there have been
many direct correlations

between major storms
and HAARP being active.

It could be that the hurricanes
and superstorms and tornadoes

that are created
while HAARP is working

are actually just
a-a side effect.

But the people that are
operating this device understand

and know its potential for use
as a weather weapon.

SHATNER:
Is the St. Louis Arch not only
an impressive national monument

but also evidence of
the United States government's

ongoing attempts
to control the weather?

Perhaps the answer lies
not by examining the design

of the St. Louis Arch

but by investigating
the extraordinary career

of the man who designed it.

SHATNER:
As World War II rages
across several continents,

acclaimed architect and eventual
designer of the St. Louis Arch

Eero Saarinen

is secretly enlisted
by the United States military

to work for a new
clandestine organization.

Its name?

The OSS,
Office of Strategic Services.

Or as it is known today...

the CIA.

The fact that Eero Saarinen
was in the OSS

designing weapon systems
during World War II

and at a time when the OSS
was looking into ways

to "weaponize weather"

makes this whole connection

to the design of the St. Louis
Arch extremely interesting.

Now, that isn't to say I believe
it can control the weather,

but it does open the door to
the idea that it might've been

one of the things
Saarinen was out to achieve.

SHATNER:
While at the OSS,

Saarinen designed buildings
and weapon systems,

many of which
were never completed or built.

Is it possible he later used
these secret plans

to engineer the St. Louis Arch,

creating something
that can actually control

or perhaps harness the weather?

Controlling the weather
is the ultimate superweapon.

It's even more powerful
than the atomic bomb.

So if Eero Saarinen
was involved in analyzing

and studying the possibility
of weather modification

and you put
all those factors together,

I think you have a guy
that basically conducted

a big, giant
weather modification experiment

with the St. Louis Arch.

SHATNER:
Weather as a weapon?

There are some who think
the idea is not as preposterous

as it seems,

especially when considering
that, even today,

many world governments
are pouring millions of dollars

into research designed
to manipulate weather.

I think weather modification has
definitely been an ongoing...

endeavor of governments
all over the world for decades.

The St. Louis Arch appears to be

an experiment
in weather modification.

The HAARP device appears to be

an experiment
in weather modification.

Who knows what the Russians
and the Chinese are doing?

There's some sort
of technology out there.

There's been lots of work
in the field of weather control.

Using silver iodide

inside of thunderstorms
to decrease the size of hail.

That goes on
in many parts of the world

to alleviate that problem.

They're always firing rockets
into the atmosphere in China

to manipulate the weather.

But is this a good idea?

TAYLOR:
You wonder,
if you could steer a tornado,

what would it take?

Even a nuclear weapon might
just nudge it, if even that.

DENNIN:
One challenge with that
is your shockwave

is gonna be hard to focus,
perhaps,

and it might cause the damage

you were hoping to avoid
with the tornado.

EVANS:
These are forces at work

that could wipe out
major cities.

And we're finding out
every day new things

that we've never seen before.

So maybe
the lesson learned here is

we shouldn't meddle with forces
that we don't really understand,

because we may not like
the result.

♪ ♪

Today, the notion
of man creating

weather modification machines
has actually gone

from science fiction

to fact.

In any case, the St. Louis Arch
remains, as always,

a stunning piece of architecture

that may or may not have
anything to do with the weather.

It's intriguing to think
that American history

is interwoven with stories
of strange encounters,

miraculous healings

and unsolved mysteries.

Could some of these
incredible tales be true?

Well, for now,

that remains...

unexplained.

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