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An epic mountain, thought to be unclimable.

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You're going to fall thousands of feet, so it's a very dangerous dome.

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An iconic bridge whose origins are shrouded in tragedy.

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Suddenly tilted, and twelve guys went into the water.

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And a memorial to a hound whose heroism saved the day.

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What if Smokey gets stuck? What if Smokey dies?

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Sometimes the greatest secrets lie in plain sight.

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These are monumental mysteries.

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Oakville, Washington. Population 682.

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This tiny logging town occupies just one half of one square mile in a corner of the Evergreen state.

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And on the eastern border of this quiet community lies a vast woodland that spans over 91,000 acres.

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This is the Capitol State Forest, one of nature's most majestic monuments.

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But this tranquil and silvan landscape was once home to a bizarre phenomenon

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that puzzled local residents like Sunny Barcliffe.

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I kept thinking, are we in a science fiction movie?

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The events that transpired here sparked a baffling mystery of meteorology, medicine and the military.

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August 7, 1994.

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After spending the night in the Capitol State Forest, two campers emerged from their tent.

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To something completely unexpected.

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They found the surrounding area literally covered with this strange material.

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It was very gooey. It looked like hail, but it was soft.

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And they're not the only ones to encounter this bizarre substance.

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Over the next few days, Oakville police are inundated with similar reports from across the region.

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One sighting later that week comes from Sunny Barcliffe, who along with her mother also witnesses something extraordinary.

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A strange clear goo falling from the sky.

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They have a gelatinous substance raining down. I've never witnessed anything like it before.

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Curious as to what these blobs are, her mother takes a closer look.

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My mom just picked one of the blobules that sniffed it, squished it between her fingers. She had never seen anything like it.

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The next day, Sunny makes an alarming discovery.

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I found her on the bathroom floor. She was nauseated. Everything was spinning around her and she literally could not get up.

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And the illness that has suddenly stricken Sunny's mother appears to be spreading.

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Within a week, there were a number of people in Oakville who became sick with a strange flu-like syndrome.

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Doctors are baffled. The sickness does not discriminate, afflicting both young and old without any apparent cause.

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But Sunny Barcliffe thinks the answer lies in the odd material that blanketed the town.

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It was such a mystery. I wanted to know what this stuff was.

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So what are the so-called Oakville blobs and are they behind this debilitating illness?

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To determine the origin of this mysterious goo, Sunny has samples tested by a scientist.

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And after careful analysis, he reports his findings.

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A human white blood cell was found in that substance.

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As rumor and panic settles over this small logging community, several theories begin to emerge as to why these blobs might contain human cells.

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The first points to a very common sight in the skies above Washington.

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One of the first theories was that this might have been human waste from an airliner.

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If waste had accidentally been jettisoned from passenger planes, that could account for the human cells.

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But one fact gets in the way.

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That was pretty much discounted because they're required to dye that substance blue.

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And this had no color whatsoever.

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And even more bizarre hypothesis points to a different kind of airborne material.

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The Navy was conducting live bombing runs at sea.

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They theorized they had blown up a school of jellyfish and this jellyfish had been ejected into the jet stream.

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But even if the explosions had been enough to blow jellyfish remains into the sky,

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it doesn't explain why the cells inside the material are of human, not marine origin.

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So another idea takes root in the community that the blobs weren't a freak occurrence at all, but a planned attack.

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It was a biological warfare experiment.

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Some residents believe that Oakville's isolated setting on the edge of the Capitol State Forest makes it the perfect military testing ground.

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It was a small controlled population, no one would notice.

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This theory is bolstered by a recollection Sunny has of military aircraft in Oakville airspace just days before the goo hit the ground.

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We saw black helicopters almost every day.

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But representatives from the US military dismissed this idea entirely and shut down further requests for inquiry.

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Their refusal to answer questions leaves some residents suspicious.

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That lends credibility to the idea that it may have been a military experiment.

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In time, everyone who fell ill in Oakville eventually recovers and the cause of their sickness is never determined.

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But even though nearly two decades have passed since the strange material fell from the sky, the people of this close knit community still wonder.

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What were those blobs?

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I still don't have an answer, but I'm still curious about what it was that fell in 1994 in Oakville.

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And so it seems that the truth is still swirling in the skies above Washington's Capitol State Forest.

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At the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on the south shore of Lake Erie sits Weevland, Ohio.

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And not far from the towering skyscrapers of this rust belt metropolis is a quiet city park known as the Rocky River Reservation, which contains a diminutive but very special monument.

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It's bronze. It's about four and a half feet high.

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According to historian James Banks, this sculpture that sits atop an imposing stone base depicts a most unlikely war hero.

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The closer you get, the clearer it becomes that it is a memorial to an animal.

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It's a dog. But who was this little muck? And what role did she play in saving the lives of American troops in the heat of a ferocious battle?

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Papua New Guinea, 1944. This lush Pacific Island is a flashpoint in a world at war.

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One young soldier stationed in this remote outpost is Bill Wynn, a corporal in the U.S. Army's 26th photo reconnaissance squadron.

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The Pacific War was like no other war. The jungle was very humid. It rained almost every day. We just toughed it out and we did it.

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But for Bill and his fellow troops, the hardships of war are eased by the arrival of an unlikely and adorable new recruit.

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A stray Yorkshire terrier that Bill names Smokey after the smokestacks of his native Cleveland. Bill takes it upon himself to train the playful mutt.

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She could ride a scooter. She could roll a drum. I taught her the walking a tight wire blindfold. She could spell her name out of letters. That was a real difficult one.

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But Smokey's role goes far beyond entertaining the troops. She accompanies Bill on many of his dangerous reconnaissance flights over enemy lines.

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I figured if we're going to go down, we're going to go down together.

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She even gets her own custom-made air-core vest. And when Bill is eventually transferred from New Guinea to the Philippines, there's no question. Smokey goes with him.

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It's there that the plucky war dog has her finest hour.

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February 1945, the island of Luzon.

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U.S. forces are in the midst of a pitched battle to take the island back from the Japanese.

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Bill and his squadron have been charged with setting up a lookout post at a recently captured airstrip and must establish a communications link with headquarters in order to relay advanced warnings of Japanese bombing runs.

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To do this, they must run a phone wire beneath the runway to the Army's operation center.

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It became a crucial thing that this telephone wire got through.

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The problem is that digging up the runway to lay the cable will leave Bill and his men vulnerable to attack from the air.

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The Japanese were bombing that airstrip every day, at least once a day.

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The task is estimated to take three days of heavy labor out in the open, exposing the men to almost certain death.

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It's then that one of them has a brilliant idea.

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And key to the plan is Smokey.

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At the edge of the runway, one of the soldiers notices a narrow drainage pipe that seems to run under the airstrip in the same direction that the phone cable needs to be laid.

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And the pipe's opening is just large enough to fit. A small dog.

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This is a totally new trick that Smokey has never tried.

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Threading a wire through a culvert may sound easy, but the chances are that the wire could get snagged or Smokey herself could get trapped.

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To encourage Smokey to go into the pipe, Bill positions himself at the other end and calls to his canine cable carrier.

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Smokey, come. Come on, baby. Smokey, come. Come.

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And upon hearing her master's voice, Smokey dives into the opening.

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Come Smokey, come on. Atta girl, atta girl, atta girl, atta.

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By yelling across the audience, she's still coming and he says, yeah, I'm still feeding wine. Okay, come on Smokey, come on baby.

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But as the minutes pass, without any sign of the dog, the men start to grow anxious.

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What if Smokey gets stuck? Will she back out? What if Smokey dies?

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So will Smokey make it through and save the day?

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The Philippines, 1945. Corporal Bill Wynn and his fellow American soldiers have been charged with the task of laying a vital phone cable across a recently captured airstrip.

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The only problem is doing so will leave them hopelessly exposed to attack from Japanese fighters.

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The Americans have a secret weapon, a four pound Yorkshire Terrier named Smokey. Can Smokey save the day?

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At the edge of the airstrip, Bill and his men wait anxiously for Smokey to emerge from the drainage pipe.

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As the seconds tick by, their fears begin to grow. Then the heroic dog reappears.

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So all of a sudden she burst into a rut and she ran into my arms. She still had the string attached and with that they were able to pull the phone wires through. Most dogs could not do that.

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The Lookout Post is established and Smokey is commended as the hero of the squadron.

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When the war finally ends later that year, Bill and Smokey return to Ohio where the lovable mutt lives out her days performing tricks in vaudeville halls and VA hospitals.

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In 1957, at the age of 14, Smokey passes away and it seems the tale of this war dog will be lost forever.

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But nearly 50 years later, in 2003, a local veterans group proposes that the Cleveland Metro Parks erect a monument as a tribute to Smokey and all the brave dogs that have fought in war.

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And today, the monument stands as a memorial to an extraordinary dog, a hero in war and a born entertainer who warmed the hearts of thousands of Americans.

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Harlem, New York. Starting life in the 1650s as a Dutch village, it's now famed as a worldwide jazz mecca and a vibrant cultural epicenter.

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But for author Franz Litz, the most extraordinary tale in Harlem's rich history is tied to this unassuming plot of land.

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It's a pocket park with a few iron park benches surrounded by iron gates. It's a size of a brownstone without the brownstone in it.

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This is Collier Brothers Park, named after an enigmatic pair of siblings who were at the center of a bizarre mystery that gripped New York and the nation.

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The story behind it is the ultimate urban nightmare.

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So who were the brothers who gave this park its name? And what weird tale of paranoia, obsession and death does it conceal?

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The early 20th century, Harlem is a fashionable and affluent suburb of New York City.

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In 1909, the wealthy Collier family, whose fortune lies in prime Manhattan real estate, moves into a grand brownstone at 2078 Fifth Avenue.

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The two Collier sons, Homer and Langley, though in their late 20s, both still live at home and show little interest in getting married.

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The Collier boys always had a reputation as reclusive eccentrics.

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But after both their parents die in the late 1920s, the grieving sons grow even stranger.

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Both brothers, who are scruffies, smelly, dirty, they look like vagrants.

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And their eccentric appearance is matched by their bizarre behavior.

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Langley would go out at night like Dracula on scavenging missions and collect scraps of meat from trash cans.

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To their neighbors, the brothers' strange conduct certainly seems at odds with the family's vast wealth.

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Word on the street was that gold bars were hidden under the floorboards, there were jewels and treasures.

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And one night, robbers set their sights on the Collier brothers mansion.

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Burglars were trying to sneak in and windows were broken.

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Disturbed by the attack on their home, the brothers board up the windows and retreat even further from society.

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And in the years that followed, they are rarely seen outside the famed family residence.

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Then, on March 21, 1947, police receive a report that there is a pestilent odor emanating from the Collier mansion.

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When they arrive at the property, there is no answer and they force their way in.

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What shocking sights await them within its walls?

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It's 1947, New York City.

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Police have received reports of a horrific stench emanating from a brown stone in Harlem.

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The owners, two eccentric brothers named Homer and Langley Collier, haven't been seen for some time.

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What lies in wait for the police is deeply disturbing.

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The house was a rotting accretion of junk.

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Hundreds and thousands of newspapers, their 14 grand pianos, baby carriages, a disassembled Model T Ford.

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Just about anything you can imagine.

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Then, as police scour the piles of detritus, they stumble upon a horrific sight.

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There's this emaciated figure, Homer Collier was dead in his mansion.

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It becomes clear to investigators that Homer had been sick and housebound for years.

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And they conclude that his sole caretaker had been his younger brother Langley.

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But Langley is not there.

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One theory was that he had killed his brother and fled with all the vast Collier riches.

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When the story hits the headlines, a massive manhunt is launched,

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with reported sightings of Langley Collier in Brooklyn, New Jersey, even North Carolina.

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The story is about a manhunt that was shot in the face by a manhunt.

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There's a lot of reported sightings of Langley Collier in Brooklyn, New Jersey, even North Carolina.

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But in spite of the publicity that the case receives, Langley is nowhere to be found.

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Then, after weeks of hunting through the junk choked house, one of the workers makes another gruesome discovery.

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Langley's decomposing body.

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His face, his hands had been gnawed away by rats.

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But what killed him is even more unusual.

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In their search through the house, police find booby traps made of hidden trip wires attached to piles of junk suspended from the ceiling.

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Which they surmise, a paranoid Langley must have set up to catch intruders.

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And they conclude that Langley died after being crushed by one of his own booby traps.

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He was lying there with a tray of food that he had been bringing Homer.

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After Langley was smothered by his own junk, there was no one to take care of Homer, who died days later of starvation.

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All told, after months of intensive cleaning, crews haul out over 100 tons of trash from bicycles to mannequins.

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But there's no sign of any hidden treasure.

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It seems that the family's once vast fortune had been swallowed up by property taxes.

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Soon after the brothers' deaths, the Collier Mansion is condemned and raised to the ground, replaced years later by a vest pocket city park.

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But that's not the only way in which the legacy of these eccentric brothers lives on.

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Even now, New York City firefighters, when faced with a junk jammed apartment that's on fire, haul it in as a Collier.

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And it's here in Harlem that visitors to the Collier Brothers Park can remember this haunting tale of the Harlem Hermits, who became the Big Apple's most notorious hoarders.

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The picturesque city of San Francisco is home to 800,000 people and one of the most iconic landmarks in the world.

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It's put together with 600,000 field-driven rivets. It's a mile and a quarter long.

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It ranks with the Eiffel Tower, Big Bend, the Empire State Building, maybe surpasses them.

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It is the Golden Gate Bridge. Completed in 1937, it was hailed as a triumph of engineering and human endeavor.

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But few visitors here realize its origins were shrouded in tragedy.

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The Bridge constitutes an epic engineering achievement and it came at the cost of life.

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So what horrific incident marred the construction of the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge?

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January 1933, San Francisco.

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The city is mired in the worst year of the Great Depression.

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Trade is stagnant and the local economy is in ruins.

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But one man has a plan to revitalize the area's flagging economy and bring prosperity back to the region.

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His name is Joseph Strauss.

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Strauss was a dreamer in every sense of the word.

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The 63-year-old structural engineer believes the cure to the city's woes lies to the north on the far shores of Marin County.

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Rich in timber and blessed with acres of fertile agricultural land, Marin County is separated from San Francisco by a seemingly impassable barrier.

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The forbidding waters of California's Golden Gate.

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The strait that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean.

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Strauss' plan is to build a giant bridge that will span this gaping waterway and open the region to trade and commerce.

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Prevailing opinion is that you can't do it. It's impossible to bridge this gap.

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It's a bold idea, but not a new one.

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Since the 19th century, city planners had dreamed of a bridge in this location, but no one had dared attempt it.

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The Golden Gate is over a mile wide and channeled by some of the most unforgiving waters on earth.

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But Strauss is undeterred and convinced his plan can work.

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When construction commences, there is no denying that building the bridge is an extremely dangerous endeavor.

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It would have been bad above land. Being above San Francisco Bay just compounded the danger.

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And yet the hardened laborers who climb out on the scaffolds and cable work each day grow to respect Joseph Strauss, whose planning shows a genuine concern for their welfare.

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Strauss wanted it to be the safest big construction project in American history.

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Strauss institutes a series of groundbreaking safety requirements, including mandatory hardhats, tetherlines and goggles.

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And strong beneath the span of the bridge is an unprecedented Circa-style safety net.

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The net proved itself many times over, workers that slipped and fell, fell into the net.

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After four years of construction, the project has achieved a remarkable safety record.

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But Strauss' good fortune is about to end.

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On the morning of February 17, 1937, a dozen men are working on a five-ton platform beneath the recently completed roadway.

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The foreman of the group is 37-year-old Slim Lambert.

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They were stripping the lumber that is used to provide the forms for the pouring of concrete.

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Suddenly, Lambert hears a gut-wrenching noise.

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This platform tilted and most of the men slid off. Then the entire structure came loose and fell into the net.

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The net, which was never designed to bear the weight of the massive platform, rips free from the bridge.

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Platform and the net and 12 guys went into the water.

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10 of them died.

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In one tragic moment, the incredible safety record of the bridge is all but forgotten.

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So what caused this horrific accident?

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1937, San Francisco Bay, California.

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The Golden Gate Bridge has been under construction for four years and in that time boasts a near-perfect safety record.

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But on February 17, a platform suddenly collapses, sending 12 men plummeting into the bay.

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So if safety was so tight, what went wrong?

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Investigators soon arrive at the sad conclusion.

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That Strauss' meticulous safety planning had overlooked a tiny but crucial design flaw.

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The platform that collapsed was connected to the bridge by a rolling hanger on a track, which allowed the staging to move beneath the span of the bridge.

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Authorities determined that the bolts connecting the platform to the hanger were too small for the amount of weight they were required to bear.

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The bolts that was holding the platform to the girders broke in one corner.

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The torque from that breakage put pressure on the other three they broke, the platform fell into the net.

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Once the net ripped away, the workers plunged into the icy currents of the bay.

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Miraculously, two men survived the 200-foot fall, including the foreman, Slim Lambert.

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For most people, it's receded into the mists of memory. My father was 37 at the time and lived to the age of 88.

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Within months of the accident, on May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge, which had once been seen as an impossible feat, is open to the public.

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And today, the workers who perished in the pursuit of Joseph Strauss' bold dream are memorialized by a simple bronze plaque on the southern tip of the bridge.

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For the 10 million visitors to the site and the 40 million vehicles that cross the span each year, the Golden Gate Bridge is a grand symbol of one man's enduring vision and a tribute to those who gave their lives to build it.

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200 miles due east of San Francisco lies the great untamed expanse of Yosemite National Park, a vast conglomeration of cascading waterfalls, soaring cliffs, and clear mountain streams.

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And dominating this breathtaking wilderness is a colossal landmark that towers over 4,700 feet.

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It demands your attention, and really from the valley floor, it looks like it would be inaccessible.

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This is Half Dome, the mammoth mountain that presides over Yosemite like a proud sentinel, and which boasts an unparalleled pathway up its 45-degree eastern slope, which has long amazed park ranger Carrie Carr.

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The Half Dome Cable's hike is one of the most popular hikes in any national park in the United States.

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But the story of how this iconic walkway came into being is one of the most extraordinary tales in the park's epic history.

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Yosemite Valley, California, October 1875.

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It's an era of burgeoning tourism in the 700,000 acres of protected wilderness.

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Arriving by horseback and stagecoach on newly built roads, visitors are enraptured when they behold a spectacle, the likes of which they've never seen before.

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The lofty peak, known as Half Dome.

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When tourists first looked at Half Dome, it was something they looked upon and thought, gosh, how can we get up there? If the view is this amazing from down here, what's it going to be like up there?

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But neither the near vertical northwest face nor the less severe but equally challenging eastern slope will yield to human endeavor easily.

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In 1870, the chief geologist in California said Half Dome is perfectly inaccessible. It will never be trodden by human foot.

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Given such a challenge, daring residents of Yosemite Valley make several efforts to climb the eastern slope, but all fail.

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Until the fall of 1875, when a certain local blacksmith picks up the gauntlet.

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George Anderson is a 36-year-old Scotsman who, a few years earlier, had made his way to California as a gold prospector.

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George Anderson had this desire in him to get to the top of Half Dome, to be the first person on top, and he looked at it like it was a challenge.

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So Anderson sets about taking on the challenge of scaling the Dome's 45-degree eastern slope.

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It's a very, very flat, slick face that doesn't have a lot of features. There's nothing to grab onto, and if you do fall, you're going to fall thousands of feet.

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So it's a very, very dangerous Dome.

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Anderson ponders the problem of the granite's treacherous surface. He first tries climbing in stockings, then with bare feet to give himself more grip, but he has no success.

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Then he comes up with a surprising solution.

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Anderson decided to tie burlap sacks around his shoes, and what he did after that was he put pitch on the bottom of the burlap sacks, and he thought that that would create a sticking mechanism for him.

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And sure enough, Anderson makes headway.

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But almost halfway up, his ascent is abruptly halting.

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His feet started to stick to the rock so strong that he actually got stuck. He could not move his foot. He had nobody else with him. If he fell, he was going to fall thousands of feet. He's in a very, very dangerous spot.

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Finally, with much difficulty, Anderson manages to pry his foot away from the rock. Badly shaken, he retreats down the slope, disheartened, but not defeated.

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A few days later, Anderson returns to the valley with an astonishing announcement. That he's made it to the coveted summit of Half Dome.

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But with no eyewitnesses to such an unprecedented conquest, the community is skeptical.

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People didn't believe him. They thought that he was making it up. They thought there's no way anybody could be on top of Half Dome.

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So is Anderson telling the truth? Has he really scaled the mighty Half Dome? Or is it all a giant hoax?

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It's 1875, Yosemite Valley, California.

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Scotsman George Anderson is determined to do what many think impossible. Climb to the summit of the 4700 foot tall monolith known as Half Dome.

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After repeated failures, it seems his dream is in tatters. So when he suddenly announces that he's made it to the top, the question on everyone's mind is,

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does he really do it?

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In order for Anderson to prove that he really did make it to the top, he takes a couple of people up to the base of Half Dome to show them how he actually climbed the dome.

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There, Anderson shows the dubious onlookers something astonishing. A revolutionary climbing technique that he used to successfully reach the top.

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He had actually hammered these pieces of metal into the backside of Half Dome. And in those holes, he stuck these eye bolts.

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Once they were securely in place, he would actually stand on each eye bolt. He would then pound in the next one, and then he would step up on that one until he actually reached the top of the dome.

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Little does Anderson know that his use of eye bolts marks a world first in the history of rock climbing.

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It was something that had never been done before, and it paved the way for modern day climbing as what we know it today.

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Not long after his famous climb, Anderson consults on a groundbreaking scheme to build an accessible walkway to the top of the peak.

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And in 1919, the Half Dome Cables hike is completed.

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Every year we see about 45,000 people that will get to the top.

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Today, visitors to Yosemite National Park can ascend the mighty Half Dome and experience the thrill of conquering what was once thought of as the impossible climb.

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Stretching along the 370-mile border with Mexico, the vast desert landscape of Baja, Arizona harkens back to a prehistoric era.

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But there's one place here that speaks to a very different, more recent period.

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An old-time pioneer town and national historic landmark with a name that is synonymous with a standoff that defined the Old West.

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This is Tombstone.

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It's a town that lives in American fact and American fiction.

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As curator Jeffrey Richardson can attest, the events that played out here are inexorably entwined with the actions of one iconic lawman, Wyatt Earp.

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He played a pivotal role in one of the most important events in the American West.

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So what is the true story behind the most famous gunfight in American history and the epic blood feud that it spawned?

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The late 1800s. Tombstone, Arizona is booming with silver mines luring prospectors by the thousands.

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But following in their wake is a band of outlaws notorious for drinking, stealing and murdering.

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They're called the Cowboys. And at their helm is a ruthless killer named Johnny Gringo.

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He was called the king of the Cowboys. Gringo was a deadly man.

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But the infamous bandit is about to meet his match in the form of newly appointed Deputy U.S. Marshal, Virgil Erd.

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Accompanying him are his brothers, Morgan and Wyatt.

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Together, the three men are tasked with taking the town back from the clutches of the Cowboys.

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The federal government was under a great deal of pressure to do something about the outlaws.

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And it's not long before the Cowboys and the Erbs will come face to face in a meeting that will live long in the annals of the American West.

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The gunfight at the OK Corral.

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On October 26, 1881, a band of Cowboys steps onto the streets of Tombstone armed to the teeth and thirsty for blood.

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All that stands between them and control of the town are the three Earp Brothers.

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And then all hell broke loose.

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30 shots were fired in 30 seconds.

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When the dust settles, three Cowboys are dead.

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But the fatal feud between Johnny Gringo's Cowboys and the Earp Brothers has only just begun.

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Some believe that Johnny Gringo took a blood pack to avenge those Cowboys who had been killed.

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On December 28, two months after the shootout, Deputy Virgil Earp is ambushed on the street and barely survives the attack.

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Weeks later, Morgan Earp is shot dead, leaving Wyatt to conclude that it's killed or be killed.

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So he organizes a posse to hunt down Gringo and the Cowboys one by one.

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He was determined to kill the men that killed Morgan and Gringo was the last man on Wyatt's list.

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But the final target of Earp's vendetta has vanished.

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Was he on the run? Was he hiding from Wyatt Earp? Where did he go?

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Will Wyatt Earp be able to find and kill Johnny Gringo?

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It's 1882, Tombstone, Arizona. The gunfight at the Ok Corral has sparked a deadly feud between the Earp Brothers and a gang of outlaws led by Johnny Gringo.

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With one sibling maimed and the other dead, Deputy Marshal Wyatt Earp is out to settle the score with Gringo.

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So, does Wyatt Earp get his man?

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July 14th, 1882.

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Eight months after the shootout at the Ok Corral, a man working for a lumber company makes a macabre discovery on the outskirts of Tombstone.

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A dead body beneath a tree.

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He had a hole in his temple and another hole in the top of his head.

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The corpse is identified as none other than Johnny Gringo, the villainous leader of the Cowboys.

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It's widely presumed that Wyatt Earp has finally got his man.

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Now, of course, it is naturally assumed that Wyatt Earp ultimately took his life.

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And in later years, Earp even admits to killing Gringo.

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But something isn't right about Earp's version of events.

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It's known that in the days preceding Gringo's death, Wyatt Earp was several hundred miles away in Colorado.

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Many historians doubt that he could have made the ride all the way back to Tombstone in time to kill Gringo.

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So what really happened?

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One theory states that Earp didn't kill Gringo at all.

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There's also other outlaws and bandits that had a conflict with him.

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There's even some speculation that some individuals were seeking favor with the Earp, so they killed them.

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So if Wyatt Earp didn't kill his nemesis, why did he take credit for it?

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In the Old West, reputations were made by the settling of scores.

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So some say that the deputy marshal took credit for killing Gringo in order to cement his legacy as a tough acting lawman

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and make good on his oath to avenge his brother's death.

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But the truth may never be known.

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How John Gringo died will always be a mystery, but it sure is fun trying to find those answers.

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Today, this simple grave, marking the spot where Gringo's body was found, lies just outside of Tombstone, Arizona.

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Where these wooden storefronts and dusty roads remind visitors of one of the most infamous gunfights of the American West

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and the blood feud it spawned.

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From a slimy scourge to a daring dog,

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a gun-slinging cowboy to a house of hoarders.

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I'm Don Wildman and these are Monumental Mysteries.