1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
The gravestone of a daredevil whose outrageous claims confounded the nation.

2
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:08,000
By the next morning, every newspaper in the city has a story.

3
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,000
A statue that celebrates an extraordinary American first.

4
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:17,000
People were so excited about seeing an animal they had only heard about.

5
00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,000
They lined up by the droves.

6
00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:23,000
And a national park that witnessed a hero's tragic fall.

7
00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:25,000
A shadow of doubt was cast upon him.

8
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:29,000
And people wondered, maybe he hadn't crashed at all.

9
00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:33,000
Sometimes the greatest secrets lie in plain sight.

10
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:37,000
These are monumental mysteries.

11
00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:47,000
Among the wooded reservoirs of Westchester County,

12
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,000
just 50 miles north of Midtown Manhattan,

13
00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,000
is the historic hamlet of Somers, New York.

14
00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,000
Somers has beautiful picturesque walkways and trees,

15
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:00,000
and it's real country.

16
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,000
So it's a nice place to be.

17
00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:07,000
And at a quaint crossroads in the heart of this bedroom community,

18
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:12,000
stands an extraordinary monument to this town's most unusual resident.

19
00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:17,000
In the center of town is a 20-foot obelisk granite shaft.

20
00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:24,000
And at the top sits a three-foot tall, four-foot long surprise.

21
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:29,000
It's an elephant.

22
00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:32,000
But the diminutive size of this particular pachyderm

23
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,000
does not reflect the mammoth impact its real-life cousin

24
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,000
had on the town of Somers and the country.

25
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:45,000
So how did this enchanting elephant leave an indelible stamp

26
00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,000
on American popular culture?

27
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:54,000
1805.

28
00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:57,000
Westchester County cattleman, Hacalaya Bailey,

29
00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,000
is relaxing in a bar after a hard day's work

30
00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,000
when he drops in on an unusual conversation

31
00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:06,000
between a pair of sea captains.

32
00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,000
The over here is one sea captain describing a humongous beast

33
00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:14,000
that has enormous strength.

34
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:20,000
The prospect of an exotic, all-powerful beast of burden intrigues the agrarian.

35
00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,000
Hacalaya is thinking, I have a farm.

36
00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,000
I could bring in this humongous animal.

37
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,000
It would save time. It would save money.

38
00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:33,000
So Hacalaya approaches the sea captain and makes him an offer.

39
00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:39,000
For the sum of $1,000, he will buy the mysterious creature, Sight Unseen.

40
00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:41,000
It's said that the sea captain agrees,

41
00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:45,000
but tells the inquisitive farmer he will have to wait for his prize,

42
00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,000
for it must come all the way from India.

43
00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:53,000
And several months later, after a long voyage by sea,

44
00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:57,000
Bailey takes possession of the mysterious beast.

45
00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:00,000
Just as the captain had described,

46
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:05,000
it has huge legs and weighs several tons.

47
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,000
It's an elephant.

48
00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:14,000
In fact, it's one of the first ever to set foot on American soil.

49
00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:18,000
When he sees the elephant, he is just in shock.

50
00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:21,000
Hacalaya is so excited.

51
00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:26,000
Hacalaya marches the bizarre-looking behemoth, which he names Old Bet,

52
00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:29,000
back to his farm in Somers.

53
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:34,000
But along the way, the mammoth creature creates such a stir among locals who see her

54
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:37,000
that Hacalaya has another idea.

55
00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:41,000
What was going to be this beast of burden to work on a farm?

56
00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:44,000
His entrepreneurial skills kicked in,

57
00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:48,000
and he thought, I can do something more with this animal.

58
00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:52,000
At this time, few Americans had even heard of such a beast,

59
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:55,000
let alone seen one in the flesh.

60
00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:59,000
So rather than put the packaderm to work on his farm,

61
00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:03,000
Hacalaya decides he will put her on display

62
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:07,000
and charge a fee to those who want to see her.

63
00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:13,000
Hacalaya prints flyers advertising the arrival of the beast.

64
00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,000
And as the new business takes off,

65
00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:21,000
the enterprising farmer acquires more and more exotic animals,

66
00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:25,000
until he has a veritable traveling menagerie,

67
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:29,000
and a new form of entertainment is born.

68
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:34,000
So Hacalaya barely really began the American circus as we know it.

69
00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:39,000
And for several years, the star of Hacalaya's sensational circus

70
00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:41,000
is its trusty elephant, Old Bet.

71
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:45,000
People were so excited about seeing an animal they had only heard about,

72
00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:49,000
they lined up by the droves to see this elephant.

73
00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:53,000
And it was almost like a dream come true.

74
00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,000
But then tragedy strikes.

75
00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:02,000
One day, Old Bet and Hacalaya are traveling along a road,

76
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:05,000
when they are confronted by a stranger.

77
00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:10,000
From the bushes steps a man, holding a shotgun.

78
00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:15,000
He's agitated and he's angry.

79
00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,000
And he shoots Old Bet.

80
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:25,000
And Old Bet falls to the ground, right in front of Hacalaya Bailey.

81
00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,000
The great elephant is dead.

82
00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,000
Hacalaya Bailey yells, this is murder.

83
00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:35,000
This must be prosecuted.

84
00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:41,000
The elephant slayer is taken into custody,

85
00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:46,000
where he reveals himself to be a local farmer named Daniel Davis.

86
00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:50,000
There are a few theories as to why the farmer shot Old Bet.

87
00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:55,000
The thought might have been that it was a very, very difficult year for farming.

88
00:05:55,000 --> 00:06:00,000
And here comes a man with an elephant making lots and lots of money.

89
00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,000
And jealousy enter into the picture.

90
00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:08,000
Others point out that the incident occurred on a Sunday,

91
00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,000
and since the farmer was a devout Christian,

92
00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:17,000
he may have been enraged by the flouting of local blue laws by Hacalaya and his circus troupe.

93
00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:21,000
This was a terrible loss.

94
00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:26,000
The elephant that brought so much love and happiness to people is gone.

95
00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:31,000
But the story of Hacalaya Bailey and Old Bet doesn't end there.

96
00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:39,000
Old Bet's skeleton is donated to the famous showman P.T. Barnum's American Museum in New York City.

97
00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:44,000
And Hacalaya Bailey's nephew, James Bailey, joins forces with Barnum.

98
00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:48,000
And together, they form the Barnum and Bailey Circus.

99
00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:52,000
They travel from community to community.

100
00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,000
The laughter and the happiness is still there.

101
00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:00,000
And to think that it began with one elephant in a town called Somers, New York, is astonishing.

102
00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:08,000
In 1827, Hacalaya Bailey commissions a granite ironwork and concrete monument to Old Bet,

103
00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:11,000
which still stands in Somers, New York,

104
00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:19,000
as a proud memorial to a legendary animal whose legacy has brought joy to the hearts of millions of Americans.

105
00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:32,000
Nestled in the picturesque Allegheny Mountains is Lewisburg, Virginia,

106
00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:38,000
a sleepy hamlet filled with antebellum homes, green pastures and enchanting ends.

107
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:47,000
And on the outskirts of this charming town is a small rural cemetery that is home to a distinctive granite headstone.

108
00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:56,000
It is about four feet tall and about two feet wide, and the first time that I saw it, the mist was sort of rising around the grave.

109
00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:05,000
Playwright Kathy Kraussoyer is just one of many captivated by this marker, which bears a strange and chilling title.

110
00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,000
The Greenbrier Ghost.

111
00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:14,000
This stone monument tells the tale of justice that's rendered from beyond the grave.

112
00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:18,000
So who was the Greenbrier Ghost?

113
00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:25,000
And what unprecedented role did the spirit play in a tragic story of murder and revenge?

114
00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:30,000
The 1890s, Greenbrier County.

115
00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:39,000
Two young newlyweds, Erasmus Trout-Chu and his wife, Zona, have recently settled in this rural corner of West Virginia.

116
00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:43,000
Trout-Chu was a handsome man, strong and muscular.

117
00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:50,000
Zona was a dark-haired beauty, dark-eyed. People around here called her a wild red rose.

118
00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:57,000
It seems the striking couple is destined to enjoy a long and blissful life together.

119
00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:02,000
But just three months after the two wed, tragedy strikes.

120
00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:08,000
One day while Trout is away at work, a neighbor calls on Zona.

121
00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:13,000
But when he opens the door, he comes across a horrifying sight.

122
00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:19,000
He sees Zona lying at the foot of the stairs, and he realizes that she's dead.

123
00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:25,000
The boy hurries to deliver the shocking news to Trout, who immediately rushes home.

124
00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:32,000
When the coroner arrives to examine the body, he finds Trout beside himself with grief.

125
00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:39,000
Trout was cradling the head and sobbing and it's just grieving like the doctor has never seen.

126
00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:47,000
In fact, the widower is so distraught that he refuses to let the coroner even approach his wife's lifeless body.

127
00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:54,000
Every time he would get close enough to examine the body, Trout would start sobbing.

128
00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:57,000
So the doctor did a cursory examination.

129
00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:02,000
He determined that the cause of death was an everlasting fate.

130
00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:04,000
Basically it meant he really didn't know.

131
00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:11,000
The grief-stricken widower dresses his departed wife in her Sunday best, a beautiful high-collared gown.

132
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:14,000
He then wraps her neck in her favorite scarf.

133
00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:20,000
The tradition at the time was that the women of the village would dress the body.

134
00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:22,000
This was very unusual.

135
00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:27,000
Not long after, Zona's shoe's body is buried in the town cemetery.

136
00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:30,000
Where it is hoped, she will rest in peace.

137
00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:36,000
But no one could foresee the bizarre turn of events that are about to unfold.

138
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:47,000
As the story goes, a few weeks after the funeral, Zona's mother, Mary Jane Heaster, receives a strange visit in the middle of the night.

139
00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:51,000
She notices sort of a chill in the air and a mist.

140
00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:55,000
And as she looks toward the mist, she saw Zona.

141
00:10:55,000 --> 00:11:02,000
And this ethereal form makes a disturbing claim that she did not die of natural causes at all.

142
00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:09,000
Zona tells her, very specifically, that Trout had killed her.

143
00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:16,000
Trout had gone into a fit of rage over the fact that Zona had not cooked meat for supper.

144
00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:22,000
And grabbed her by the neck and squeezed her neck until he crushed her windpipe.

145
00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:29,000
At first, Mary Jane dismisses the incident as a hallucination triggered by her grief.

146
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:36,000
But when the apparition reappears the next three nights, she can no longer ignore its counsel.

147
00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:41,000
So will anyone believe that Mary Jane has seen her daughter's spirit?

148
00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:43,000
And will justice be done?

149
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:51,000
It's 1897 in Greenbrier County, West Virginia.

150
00:11:52,000 --> 00:12:00,000
When a young woman named Zona Heaster-Shu dies in what appears to be a fall down the stairs, her family is devastated.

151
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:02,000
No one more so than her husband Trout.

152
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:08,000
But one month after the tragedy, the young woman's mother, Mary Jane, is found dead.

153
00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:18,000
But one month after the tragedy, the young woman's mother, Mary Jane Heaster, claims that her daughter's ghost has visited her and delivered a chilling message.

154
00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:22,000
That she was murdered and her husband was the killer.

155
00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:30,000
Mary Jane walks straight into the county prosecutor's office and demands that her daughter's body be exhumed.

156
00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:38,000
Despite the unusual nature of the request, the authorities agree to have Zona's body exhumed.

157
00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:44,000
And when her remains are finally examined, the evidence is damning.

158
00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:50,000
The doctor said that her windpipe had been crushed and the ligaments around it torn and ruptured.

159
00:12:51,000 --> 00:13:01,000
The authorities conclude that Trout's extravagant show of grief was actually a cunning ruse to prevent the coroner from examining the body.

160
00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:10,000
And that his insistence on dressing his wife's corpse in a high-coloured was nothing but a ploy to conceal the bruises on her neck.

161
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:15,000
Trout was immediately arrested and charged with the murder of Zona Heaster-Shu.

162
00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:25,000
But at the ensuing trial, Trout's lawyer argues that evidence given by a ghost is inadmissible in court and that the case be thrown out.

163
00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:31,000
But Zona's mother, Mary Jane, is resolute and insists her story is true.

164
00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:38,000
She remained very calm, very convincing, never wavered from her story.

165
00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:46,000
And investigators uncover something shocking that does seem to corroborate Mary Jane's story.

166
00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:49,000
Trout, allegedly, has a history of violence.

167
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:56,000
He had been married twice before. The first wife, he had beaten her and eventually she got away from him.

168
00:13:57,000 --> 00:13:59,000
And the second wife had died very mysteriously.

169
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:07,000
Supposedly they were fixing a chimney on the house and one of the bricks fell and hit her on the head and killed her.

170
00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:17,000
In July of 1897 Trout is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Zona Heaster-Shu.

171
00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:25,000
It's said that after the trial with justice served, Zona's specter never appears again.

172
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:37,000
And to this day hers remains the only known legal case in US history where it's said that a ghost helped convict a killer in a court of law.

173
00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:49,000
In 1981 an historical marker honoring the Greenbrier ghost is erected near Zona's cemetery plot to immortalize this distinction.

174
00:14:50,000 --> 00:15:01,000
And today this gravestone stands as a testament to the extraordinary tale of a young woman who lost her life but found her voice from beyond the grave.

175
00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:10,000
Kauai is the northernmost island in the Hawaiian archipelago.

176
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:23,000
And here on Kauai's southwestern shore, in the small harbor of Waimea, stands a monument to a man whose fate will be forever linked to this idyllic destination.

177
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:29,000
The statue stands about 15 feet tall. It looks out of the ocean. It has this commanding presence to it.

178
00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:36,000
For writer Martin Dugard, it's a fitting tribute to an adventurer whose exploits span the globe.

179
00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:38,000
Personally I believe he's the greatest explorer of all time.

180
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:45,000
But this monument also stands as a memorial to his tragic downfall and violent death.

181
00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:55,000
Who was this daring voyager? And what terrible fate befell him? On a picturesque Hawaiian shore.

182
00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:15,000
The late 1770s, the Pacific Ocean. The greatest seaman of his age, Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy is on his latest mission to find the Holy Grail of navigation, a sea route that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic.

183
00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:24,000
The fabled Northwest Passage, which if navigable, would revolutionize global trade.

184
00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:29,000
He's looking for this mythic route that will link Europe with the Pacific.

185
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:45,000
Towards the end of 1778, Cook and the crew of his ship, the HMS Resolution, are sailing north along the western fringes of what is now Alaska, when their progress is halted by increasingly dangerous ice flows.

186
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:51,000
Unable to go on, Cook orders his ship to head south for the winter.

187
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:59,000
His men can only take so much, he's forced to turn around, knowing that he can come back later and continue the search when the weather gets good again.

188
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:10,000
Then, in January 1779, as they make their journey south to warmer climbs, Cook spies land on the horizon.

189
00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:18,000
It's the big island of Hawaii, and Cook and his men are the first Europeans to set eyes on it.

190
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:30,000
A year earlier, while en route to the Northwest Passage, Captain Cook and his crew had discovered and made landfall on another island in the Hawaiian archipelago, Kauai.

191
00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:38,000
Now, as the resolution approaches the shores of Hawaii, Cook and his men behold an extraordinary sight.

192
00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:43,000
As throngs of natives come out in their canoes to greet the vessel.

193
00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:49,000
The people are so happy to see him that he is just mobbed with enthusiastic Hawaiian.

194
00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:55,000
In the following days, great feasts are held in the esteemed navigator's honor.

195
00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:03,000
Then, two weeks after they first came ashore, Cook and his crew set sail to resume their quest.

196
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:11,000
But within days of leaving the island paradise, bad weather forces the resolution back to the safe harbor of Hawaii.

197
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:19,000
But this time, when Cook arrives, not a single canoe comes out to greet him.

198
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:23,000
What sinister fate awaits Captain Cook?

199
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:32,000
It's February 1779 on the big island of Hawaii.

200
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:38,000
After a storm forced him to temporarily abort his quest to find the legendary Northwest Passage,

201
00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:44,000
British naval captain James Cook sailed into the supposed safe haven of this island paradise.

202
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,000
Just a few days earlier, he had received a hero's welcome.

203
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:52,000
But it seems that the tide had turned against Captain Cook.

204
00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:01,000
In the middle of the night, on February 14th, Islanders steal one of Resolution's small dinghies.

205
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:07,000
The next morning, Cook takes it upon himself to investigate.

206
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,000
Cook goes ashore to speak with the Islanders.

207
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:18,000
Cook and his men confront the chief and his tribe, but they refuse to give back the stolen craft.

208
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,000
What Cook does next seals his fate.

209
00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:26,000
He grabs one of the tribal chiefs, which is just not something you would ever do. You would never touch it.

210
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:28,000
That's when things immediately go south.

211
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:35,000
This warrior stabs Cook in the back with his dagger and then literally a crowd of thousands descend upon Cook.

212
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:44,000
In an instant, Captain James Cook, hero of the British Royal Navy, is brutally murdered, along with four of his men.

213
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:56,000
But one question remains. Why did the Hawaiians suddenly turn on the same man they had welcomed with excitement and reverence only a few days earlier?

214
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:06,000
Some historians have an intriguing theory that the Islanders thought that Cook was more than a mere mortal.

215
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:18,000
When the HMS Resolution sailed into Hawaii, the Islanders were anxiously awaiting the appearance of the god of agriculture and fertility, Lono.

216
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:26,000
And according to legend, Lono's arrival is heralded by white banners flown from crossbars.

217
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:33,000
One of the big symbols of Lono is the big white sheets, and that's exactly what the masts of the ship would have looked like.

218
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:42,000
Unbeknownst to Cook, he had timed his departure perfectly, sailing out of the bay at the end of the Lono celebration.

219
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:52,000
But when he returned just days later, the festival was over, making the Islanders fearful and suspicious.

220
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:59,000
Lono is a seasonal god, so when Cook leaves and comes back, it's like, Lono, you're not supposed to be here anymore. We're done with you.

221
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:06,000
In fact, his ill-timed return may have signaled that Cook was no god at all.

222
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,000
When he came back, they were angry, and they did not want him there.

223
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:17,000
Leading Cook's legacy of exploration to come to a violent end on these idyllic shores.

224
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:28,000
The Captain James Cook Monument in Kaua'i's Waimea town commemorates the first island the famed explorer discovered in the Hawaiian archipelago.

225
00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:37,000
And today, visitors can reflect on the intrepid adventurer who sailed the seven seas and the tragedy that ended his life.

226
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:51,000
Burlington, Vermont is the Green Mountain State's largest city and sits on the shores of an historic body of water.

227
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:59,000
Lake Champlain, which is named for the first European explorer to discover it in 1609, Samuel de Champlain.

228
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:06,000
And on the shores of this majestic natural wonder sits an imposing slab of stone.

229
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:18,000
It's a very curious object, about four feet wide, six inches deep. It's made out of white marble, and etched on this marble is a sea monster.

230
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:28,000
The strange, serpent-like monster depicted here has been the subject of an unsolved mystery that has plagued the region for decades.

231
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:36,000
There's something mysterious that's in the lake, and the search for this infamous creature is taken on mythical proportions.

232
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:42,000
So what elusive entity lurks in the depths of these placid waters?

233
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:54,000
July 1977, Northern Vermont. A young mother named Sandra Mansi is relaxing with her family on the shores of Lake Champlain.

234
00:22:54,000 --> 00:23:01,000
When she notices an odd disturbance on the lake.

235
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:09,000
And she sees something rise out of the water. It has a head and a long neck with a hump on the back.

236
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:21,000
The stunned woman collects herself just in time to grab her camera and snap a photo of the creature before it slips beneath the surface.

237
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:29,000
When she has the picture film developed, Mansi can't believe what it shows.

238
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,000
A sinister, serpent-like creature looming out of the water.

239
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:47,000
Puzzled by the bizarre image, Sandra Mansi sends the picture to the University of Arizona to see if scientists there can shed any light on the matter.

240
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:52,000
They couldn't determine whether it was a live animal or whether it was an animal.

241
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:58,000
All they could determine was that the photo had not been altered in any way.

242
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,000
There was no trickery, there was no montage.

243
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:08,000
In the following weeks and months, the image is circulated to a range of scientific institutions.

244
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:17,000
And eventually, on January 30th, 1981, it finds its way to the pages of one of the country's most venerable publications.

245
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:24,000
Sandra's picture was posted on the front page of the science section of the New York Times.

246
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:33,000
And it caused a huge stir of excitement. How could this possibly be a lake monster? Was the photo real?

247
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:42,000
In the storm of controversy triggered by the image, Mansi learns that she's not the only one who has seen such a creature in Lake Champlain.

248
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:53,000
Over the last 400 years, there have been more than 300 eyewitness accounts of people having seen something on the lake. Some sort of lake monster.

249
00:24:55,000 --> 00:25:04,000
And even more astonishing is that the first sighting purportedly came from the famed explorer who is credited with the discovery of the lake itself.

250
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:07,000
Samuel de Champlain.

251
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:13,000
Samuel de Champlain, who was a naturalist, had a journal that he kept.

252
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:20,000
And he would know different kinds of creatures that he'd seen. And the natives have told him about a monster that was in the lake.

253
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:27,000
It had very sharp teeth and was four, five feet long, and it was greatly feared by the natives.

254
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:35,000
So does the Lake Champlain monster truly exist? And if so, what is it?

255
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:51,000
It's 1977, Vermont. A woman named Sandra Mansi snaps a photo of what appears to be a strange reptilian creature rising from the depths of Lake Champlain.

256
00:25:52,000 --> 00:26:02,000
And when the image is authenticated by experts and then published in the New York Times, the public starts to wonder what frightening beast lurks in this New England lake.

257
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:10,000
With the release of the photo, public interest in the creature reaches a fever pitch.

258
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:17,000
There was a lot of interest by both scientists and other folks that were convinced that there was something in the lake.

259
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:28,000
Some hypothesize that it may actually be a plesiosaur, a species of aquatic dinosaur that is believed to have gone extinct 65 million years ago.

260
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:40,000
It is a marine reptile, has a very long neck, has very sharp teeth. They thought it was a plesiosaur because it had such a narrow head, a long neck with a hump-like body.

261
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:50,000
But whether a population of dinosaur-like creatures could have survived for millions of years without being identified seems unlikely.

262
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:59,000
It would have had to have a huge breeding population, probably 500 animals, in order to maintain its population.

263
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,000
There should have been some sort of fossil evidence.

264
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:09,000
Others argue that the so-called monster was simply some kind of giant fish or marine mammal.

265
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:19,000
Could it have been a row of otters and you see the humps of the animals? Could it have been a sturgeon which can get to be over six feet long?

266
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:27,000
But to many, the image snapped by Sandra Mansi doesn't look like a sturgeon or a series of otters.

267
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:35,000
Researchers have shown something that is picked up through the sonar, something 20 to 30 feet long.

268
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:45,000
While different accounts vary, the evidence does seem to suggest that there is something extraordinary and unusual about this mystical body of water.

269
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:53,000
People are saying something on the lake and we get more eyewitness accounts, people sharing stories with us.

270
00:27:55,000 --> 00:28:04,000
So in 1984, the state of Vermont unveils a tribute to the elusive creature that has intrigued both believers and skeptics for years.

271
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:18,000
And today, the tale of the legendary beast that lurks in Lake Champlain is a reminder that there are still some mysteries out there waiting to be solved, if we dare to take the plunge.

272
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:28,000
Set against the iconic skyline of America's most populous city is the country's biggest and one of its oldest graveyards.

273
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:33,000
This is the Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.

274
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:42,000
And among the three million or so graves here is one large weathered monolith that commemorates an unforgettable tale.

275
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:48,000
It's a huge imposing granite structure. It's about six feet tall with a pyramid on top.

276
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:58,000
This massive memorial marks the final resting place of one New Yorker whose audacious achievements stunned and confounded the nation.

277
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:04,000
It's a story of late 19th century celebrity, of hucksterism, of high wire, daredevils. It's a great New York story.

278
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:10,000
So who was this daredevil showman and what is his dubious claim to fame?

279
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,000
1886, New York City.

280
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:24,000
It's just three years since the Brooklyn Bridge was opened to the public and the towering crossing commands a sense of awe in all who gaze upon it.

281
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:31,000
It's a huge endeavor. It's the longest bridge by a mile. Many people didn't really believe that the bridge would stay up.

282
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:36,000
So it was a place that mingled fascination as well as sort of danger.

283
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:43,000
But one mid-summer afternoon, something happens which sparks a mystery that still remains unsolved to this day.

284
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:52,000
A group of people on the banks of the East River see a figure fall from the Brooklyn Bridge into the swirling waters below.

285
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:56,000
This figure dropped 125 feet into the East River.

286
00:29:56,000 --> 00:30:00,000
Moments later, witnesses see a man crawling on shore on the Manhattan side.

287
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:05,000
He is a 25-year-old news boy named Steve Brody.

288
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:12,000
And he earns the honor of being the first person to plunge off the Brooklyn Bridge and live to tell the tale.

289
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:19,000
An era where jumping and daredevils was quite a big thing by becoming a bridge.

290
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:21,000
Brody cements his place in history.

291
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:26,000
Lauded as a hero, Brody becomes an overnight sensation.

292
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:33,000
By the next morning, every newspaper in the city has a story successfully leaked from the bridge in all the papers across the city.

293
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:40,000
Sensing an opportunity to capitalize on his newfound fame, Brody goes into business.

294
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,000
Brody is a big-time business man.

295
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:52,000
Sensing an opportunity to capitalize on his newfound fame, Brody goes into business and opens up a bar called Steve Brody's Saloon.

296
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,000
And the whole bar is sort of a shrine to his job.

297
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:04,000
And on the wall, he has a framed affidavit from one of the men who fished Brody out of the water after his death-defying leap.

298
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:11,000
Brody's the great showman. He tells all these stories. He's a celebrity. And the bar becomes a great success.

299
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:17,000
For the first year, Brody's bar does a roaring trade.

300
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:23,000
But by the fall of 1889, the crowds at the saloon are starting to thin.

301
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:29,000
The public's interest is set to wane. He has supposedly done this one feat in his life, but not much else.

302
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:39,000
Keen to breathe new life into his flanking business, Brody conjures an audacious scheme to conquer the mighty Niagara Falls.

303
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:49,000
His plan is to paddle out in a robo onto the Niagara River, then plunge over the treacherous 200-foot wall of water.

304
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:56,000
He goes up to Niagara Falls, much like the Brooklyn Bridge doesn't fall war on journalists. And he just emerges out of water at the bottom.

305
00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:04,000
And while Brody claims to have gone over the immense cascade, something about the feat doesn't seem quite right.

306
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:06,000
He is almost entirely unscathed.

307
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:11,000
But the reception Brody gets is not what he anticipated.

308
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:16,000
He is arrested and tried for attempting to commit suicide.

309
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:29,000
And after examining the evidence, the magistrate, who is dubious of Brody's story, insists that the defendant come clean, offering him the chance to expunge the charges.

310
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:37,000
The magistrate gives him a simple choice. Say that you did this and I'll put you in jail and say you didn't do it and I'll let you off.

311
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,000
The legendary stuntman then makes a shocking admission.

312
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:44,000
He says, well, it was a hoax and I'm off.

313
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:55,000
As Brody's confession makes headlines across the nation, the public begins to wonder about the veracity of the stuntman's other daredevil feat.

314
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:59,000
The news coming out of Nagfors really casts doubt on his achievement at the Brooklyn Bridge.

315
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:10,000
So did Steve Brody really jump off the Brooklyn Bridge? Or was the death defying leap that made him a national star also an elaborate hoax?

316
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:22,000
In 1886, Steve Brody catapults to national fame after he reportedly leaps off the Brooklyn Bridge and lives to tell the tale.

317
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:33,000
But when the daredevil's next stunt at Niagara Falls is exposed as a probable hoax, people start to wonder, did Brody really leap from the Brooklyn Bridge?

318
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:46,000
A reporter from the Washington Post decides to investigate the famous feat and in 1901, publishes a stunning account from those who had supposedly witnessed the jump.

319
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:56,000
He finds the people that swore to have either seen Brody jump off the bridge or picked him up in the water and nobody would admit to having seen Brody jump.

320
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:03,000
The very people who's affidavits lined the inside of Brody's bar later admitted that they were paid for their signatures.

321
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:10,000
According to the Post, the informants claim that Brody never leapt from the bridge.

322
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:16,000
He instead had an accomplice toss a weighted mannequin into the water.

323
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:25,000
Brody had constructed this rather elaborate dummy and tied lead weights to the bottom so they would sink into the bottom of the river and never be found. Thus getting rid of the evidence.

324
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:34,000
And Brody, who was purportedly hiding under a pier in a small boat, slipped into the river when the dummy was flung off the bridge.

325
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:40,000
And as soon as the dummy hits the water and starts to sink, Brody pops up out of the East River.

326
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:55,000
Yet the man who now stands exposed as a fame-seeking fraud stubbornly sticks by his claim and continues to insist that his jump was real until the day he passes away in 1901.

327
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:02,000
In the end, the showman achieved the notoriety he so desperately craved.

328
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:10,000
He made a movie about him in 1933. They made a musical. His reputation has survived as a man who grabbed the main chance and ran with it.

329
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:25,000
And today, the elegant tombstone at the Calvary Cemetery in Queens is a lasting tribute to the showman whose dubious tale of a daredevil stunt continues to stand the test of time.

330
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:41,000
Nestled among the snowy spires and deep-etched valleys of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains is Kings Canyon National Park.

331
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:48,000
It rivals Yosemite, Yellowstone. It's one of the least known about parks and one of the most intriguing.

332
00:35:49,000 --> 00:36:00,000
This majestic land of spectacular rock formations and colossal sequoia trees also hides a tragic tale of survival, suspicion and shame.

333
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:07,000
The park was a stage of one of the most controversial survival epics in American history.

334
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:15,000
So what extraordinary events played out here? And how did they lead to the downfall of an innocent man?

335
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:25,000
1957, the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union are locked in a deadly arms race.

336
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:31,000
And the pinnacle of American aviation technology is the T-33 trainer jet.

337
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:41,000
The T-33 was the first jet to actually gain 500 miles per hour at level flight, which was the cutting-edge technology of the time.

338
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:56,000
May 9th, Hamilton Air Force Base, Northern California. Air traffic controllers are tracking the flight of a T-33 as it flies on a routine mission over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Selma, Alabama.

339
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:02,000
Piloting the jet is 23-year-old flying ace Lieutenant David Steves.

340
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:10,000
David Steves was the top gun fighter pilot of his era. Dashing good looks, he was Tom Cruise, 1950s.

341
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:17,000
And the flying conditions on this day are set to take this hotshot's skills to the limit.

342
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:23,000
The Sierras were completely shrouded by a winter storm. He was going to fly above the clouds.

343
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:32,000
Radar operators track Steves' jet as far as the King's Canyon region, but soon after he enters the airspace above the park.

344
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,000
He vanishes from their scopes.

345
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:42,000
There was no crash reported, there was no distress signal, there was just silence. It was really a mystery.

346
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:51,000
A search and rescue mission is immediately launched. But blizzard conditions make finding the downed plane impossible.

347
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:55,000
They had to accept the fact that Lieutenant Steves was gone.

348
00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:01,000
But 54 days later, something happens that takes everyone by surprise.

349
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:08,000
A group of campers in King's Canyon National Park encounters a haggard and bedraggled figure.

350
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:13,000
He was emaciated, he was bearded, they described him as a ghost.

351
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:22,000
The man, starving and on the brink of death, identifies himself as the missing pilot, Lieutenant David Steves.

352
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:31,000
He fractured both ankles, he was suffering from hypothermia, but overall he was still in an incredibly good shape.

353
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:36,000
Back at base, Steves has an amazing tale to tell.

354
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:41,000
Lieutenant Steves described that there was an explosion in the jet.

355
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:48,000
That he had bailed out, slammed into a granite peak and doing so he broke his ankles.

356
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:57,000
Despite his debilitating injuries, Steves claims he managed to find shelter and eventually crawled back to civilization.

357
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:04,000
When the public hears of Steves' harrowing journey, he becomes an instant sensation.

358
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:08,000
Steves was transformed into a national celebrity.

359
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:13,000
Newspapers were clamoring to interview him and I think that he enjoyed the celebrity.

360
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:24,000
But some in the Air Force aren't convinced that the pilot is telling the truth, citing the fact that his plane was never found as cause for suspicion.

361
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:29,000
A shadow of doubt was cast upon him and people wondered, maybe he hadn't crashed at all.

362
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:33,000
Then a more sinister theory emerges.

363
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:38,000
That Steves is really a Soviet spy.

364
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,000
It's 1957, California.

365
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:53,000
Lieutenant David Steves of the US Air Force disappears while flying his T-33 jet somewhere over King's Canyon National Park.

366
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:58,000
When no trace of the plane or its pilot are found, Steves is presumed dead.

367
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:05,000
But two months later he suddenly reappears and recounts an incredible story of survival in the wilderness.

368
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:08,000
But is Lieutenant Steves really telling the truth?

369
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:17,000
With the nation in the grips of the Cold War, some begin to suspect that the celebrated figure is actually a spy.

370
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:22,000
Steves went from the survival hero to potential Russian spy, treason.

371
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:29,000
It was the age of McCarthyism when people didn't trust their own neighbors and the fact that they could not find his wreckage.

372
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:37,000
People wondered, perhaps he had sold the technology to the Russians, snuck back into the mountains and staged the whole thing.

373
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:42,000
Steves insists that his story is true, but the Air Force isn't convinced.

374
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:48,000
It was kind of one of the situations where it's either you quit or we're going to let you go.

375
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:54,000
After his departure, Steves dedicates his life to proving his innocence.

376
00:40:55,000 --> 00:41:02,000
Steves knew that the only way he'd be able to vindicate himself was to locate the wreckage, and so he devoted his life to doing just that.

377
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:05,000
But his efforts are in vain.

378
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:13,000
Then in 1965, at the age of 31, he is killed in a plane crash.

379
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,000
So he died with this shadow of doubt.

380
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:27,000
But then in 1977, 20 years after his plane vanished, hikers in King's Canyon National Park make an astonishing find.

381
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:37,000
It was the canopy of a T-33 jet, and it matched the serial numbers on the T-33 that was Lieutenant Steves.

382
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,000
Lieutenant Steves was vindicated.

383
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:52,000
Though the precise cause of the crash is never determined, the discovery of the part of the plane is enough to prove that Steves was telling the truth all along.

384
00:41:53,000 --> 00:42:04,000
And today, King's Canyon National Park, where this incredible journey began, is a tragic backdrop to a brave story of survival.

385
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:09,000
A shunned hero who was finally exonerated 20 years too late.

386
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:18,000
From a pioneering pack-a-derm to a paranormal plaintiff, a devious daredevil to a downed pilot.

387
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:25,000
I'm Don Wildman, and these are Monumental Mysteries.