RRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Civil War Gold...
I believe that there are,
potentially, billions in gold
hidden by the Knights of the Golden Circle.
And it played out in Muskegon
because of Charles Hackley.
-He fits the profile. -KEVIN: Wow.
AKRAM: Here you're in the Mason's Temple.
I've always felt that the Masons collaborated
about the missing Confederate gold.
What gold?
-Vault number one. -[laughs]: Oh, my goodness.
Every history textbook in America has this wrong.
Absolutely.
ALEX: Are you saying that Stanton was involved
in the murder of Abraham Lincoln?
-Yes. -You are?
-How do you know that? -I know it for a fact.
-BRAD: Wow. -Wow.
NARRATOR: While tracking down connections
between the men who arrested Jefferson Davis
on the morning of May 10, 1865
and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton,
the man who gave the orders, treasure hunter Kevin Dykstra,
his brother Al, along with researcher Brad Richards
and Marty Lagina's son Alex
have traveled to Washington, D.C.
They are meeting with investigative journalist
and author Warren Getler, whose bookRebel Gold
makes numerous connections between Stanton
and an elaborate plot to assassinate
President Abraham Lincoln
and then steal millions in gold and silver
from the Confederate treasury--
a portion of which, Kevin believes,
now lies at the bottom of Lake Michigan.
The story that I've heard is that
John Wilkes Booth was just, like,
a rogue Southern sympathizer who executed Abraham Lincoln,
-but you're saying that that's not the case. -WARREN: Right.
That's the established history, but it's, it's not true.
NARRATOR: On the evening of April 14, 1865,
President Abraham Lincoln was attending a production
ofOur American Cousin
at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor,
entered the president's private box
and fired a single .44 caliber bullet
into the back of his head.
As chaos erupted in the stunned theater,
Booth leapt to the stage,
injured his leg and then shouted,
"Sic semper tyrannis"-- death to tyrants.
He then escaped out the back door of the theater
and fled into the night on a waiting horse.
But Booth's act of treachery
was by no means a solitary one.
That same night, there were similar plots
against two other members of Lincoln's cabinet:
Vice President Andrew Johnson,
and Secretary of State William H. Seward.
Although the attempt on Johnson was foiled
before it could take place,
the attack on Secretary Seward-- while not fatal--
was exceptionally brutal, leaving the statesman
scarred for life.
There were eight people who were convicted and four were hung.
We are talking about one of the most elaborate schemes
of what we call today "regime change."
Whoa.
The actual act by Booth, I believe, was organized
by the Knights of the Golden Circle.
And I think there is a real possibility
that Edwin Stanton was a major coconspirator.
NARRATOR: The Knights of the Golden Circle?
The secret organization that was reportedly planning
to take the remains of the Confederate treasury to Mexico
and then use it to set up a rogue government?
In 1854,
as anti-slavery sentiment began growing in the United States,
pro-slavery advocates formed a secret society
known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, or KGC.
Members are believed to have included John Wilkes Booth,
the outlaw Jesse James
and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
When the Confederacy lost the Civil War,
the KGC plotted to form a new nation of slave territories
known as the Golden Circle,
that would stretch from Mexico to the Caribbean.
Is it possible,
as Warren Getler's research suggests,
that not only was the KGC behind the plot
to assassinate Abraham Lincoln,
but that one of the conspirators
was Edward M. Stanton, a member of Lincoln's own cabinet?
If we want to look at some very incriminating evidence
-against Stanton... -Okay.
...the question becomes, did Booth lose his diary, which is--
I actually have a copy of this here to show you guys.
-AL: John Wilkes Booth's diary? -Yes.
-BRAD: Whoa. -And isn't it interesting
that when Stanton returned it, 18 pages were missing?
Wow.
NARRATOR: 18 pages?
Missing from the diary of John Wilkes Booth?
Is it possible that Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
was involved in the plot to assassinate
America's 16th president?
And, if so, what had Booth written
that Stanton would have wanted erased from history?
They're obviously missing for a reason.
Somebody didn't want people to know what was on those pages.
WARREN: Lincoln, he wasn't just fighting the Confederacy,
he was fighting a secret society.
The Knights of the Golden Circle had the power, I would argue,
of the CIA, the FBI
and the National Security Administration combined.
-Oh, wow. -Why do I say that?
Because the U.S. government
was after the Knights of the Golden Circle.
And this is where it gets really interesting.
If we recall, the Knights of the Golden Circle was two things:
it was a Confederate organization
and a Scottish Rite organization.
Oh, my goodness.
NARRATOR: The Scottish Rite is a branch of Freemasonry
designed to advance Master Masons
beyond the organization's third degree.
Formed in 1801, and then later refined
by noted Freemason Albert Pike in the 1850s,
Scottish Rite Freemasonry is considered
one of the most prestigious and elite branches
in the organization.
It is also one of the most secretive.
If you look at the Masonic connection,
he was a Mason, he was a Mason,
he was a Mason.
There it is. That's the package.
BRAD: All the major players are Scottish Rite
33rd degree Masons.
KEVIN: Does any of your research
reveal Stanton in an effort to seize Confederate gold
of any kind and then store it or hide it in places?
The Knights of the Golden Circle were all about
seizing gold and keeping it.
-Okay. -A classic modus operandi
of the Knights of the Golden Circle
was to have sentinels in place
who would protect this money at all costs under a blood oath.
-Wow. -KEVIN: Really?
WARREN: I believe that there are potentially billions in gold
that are underground, hidden by the Knights
of the Golden Circle.
-Still, to this day? -Yes, absolutely.
These huge depositories of underground gold exist,
in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Texas.
They would have people who would be in charge of them,
and, if they were smart, they'd give to the town.
To keep the town happy, maybe to keep the town quiet.
And it played out in Muskegon because one interesting fellow,
Charles Hackley, who was a high-level Mason,
-did exactly that. -He fits the profile.
He built hospitals, he built schools, libraries.
He really pulled the town on his side.
So you're saying Charles Hackley could have been a KGC sentinel?
It's very hard to eliminate the possibility.
We knew it.
NARRATOR: According to Kevin Dykstra's research,
the Union officers who arrested Jefferson Davis
at the end of the Civil War
took possession of six wagonloads
of gold, silver and jewelry.
After being hidden in Georgia for five years,
the treasure was then brought to Muskegon, Michigan
where lumber tycoon-turned-banker
Charles Hackley began laundering it
through a number of local banks and charities,
as well as in gold mines out west.
According to a deathbed confession
made by a lighthouse keeper in the late 1800s,
it was while transporting the stolen gold
to one of Charles Hackley's gold mines in Utah
that a boxcar full of it
was deliberately pushed off a ferryboat
and sent crashing to the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Although Kevin believes he has found a possible debris field,
he must wait for the necessary permits
to see if his theory is correct.
So the question with Stanton is,
was seizing that gold important to keep the economy going?
Right? He made a big fuss about this money.
Or was it that he was an operative
of the Knights of the Golden Circle?
ALEX: Right.
-Two conflicting motives. -Two conflicting.
Or did he, did he thread himself kind of between both?
I've been on this story for 20 years,
and there's a guy I would love for you to meet.
He's a real Booth assassination expert.
Nate Orlowek.
And I think it would be great for you guys to talk to him.
Yeah, I'll get in touch with him. I'll set something up.
-The more we can learn, the better, really. -Absolutely.
We knew this conspiracy was large.
I felt we were at the tip of the iceberg.
I think we're at the tip of Antarctica,
-loaded with icebergs. -[laughter]
As a history teacher, it's mind-blowing.
Yeah, well, it's not the history we learn
in high school or in college.
AL: We appreciate your time.
WARREN: Yeah, great. Good seeing you guys.
Take care.
NARRATOR: After scheduling to meet
with John Wilkes Booth expert Nate Orlowek the next day,
Alex Lagina has arranged for everyone
to find out more about Freemasonry
by suggesting a visit with a former Grand Master
of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia.
Al and I managed to get in touch with a guy by the name of Akram,
who is a former Grand Master of the Scottish Rite here in D.C.
-33 degree. -Yep. Yep.
-BRAD: Really? -KEVIN: Oh, wow.
NARRATOR: For Kevin Dykstra and his team,
what started as a quest
to retrieve millions of dollars' worth
of gold bars at the bottom of Lake Michigan
has expanded to a treasure hunt of a very different kind.
Have any of you guys been in a, like,
-a Masonic temple before? -Never.
NARRATOR: They are now increasingly convinced
that a plot to steal a portion of the Confederate treasury
-was actually part of a vast conspiracy. -[gunshot]
KEVIN: It's really interesting
that research that started in Muskegon, Michigan
now looks like it could very likely involve
John Wilkes Booth.
We're uncovering a bigger conspiracy here.
We very likely could be rewriting history.
ALEX: Well, this is it.
The oldest Masonic temple in D.C.
-BRAD: This thing is huge. -ALEX: Yep.
AL: Man, that's impressive.
-KEVIN: Right here. -Hello, gentlemen.
-ALEX: Hey. How are you? -BRAD: Hey, Akram.
-AL: Hey, Akram. -Fine. How you doing?
-I'm Alex. We talked on the phone. -Hi, Alex.
-How are you? I'm Akram. -I'm Al.
NARRATOR: As the president
of Capital Communications Group, Inc.,
a consulting firm that specializes
in international business
and cultural/political networking,
Akram Elias is considered
one of Washington, D.C.'s most respected residents.
He is also one of the nation's most high-ranking Freemasons,
having achieved the 33rd degree,
the fraternity's highest level, in 2001.
Since then he has served as the head
of several Masonic lodges
and even as Grand Master of Masons
for the District of Columbia,
overseeing all Masonic lodges in the jurisdiction.
Please, come on in.
-Just follow me. -All right. -Okay.
KEVIN: You know, I'm really surprised
that a Grand Master Mason
is willing to take us inside of the temple
and answer questions, because my belief
was that the Masons really didn't share a lot.
-Welcome to the House of the Temple. -Wow.
AKRAM: Salve frater,you know?
Welcome, my brother.
-AL: It's huge. -BRAD [chuckles]: Whoa!
AKRAM: This is the atrium.
This is where people are welcomed into the building
before they go to, um,
the Temple Room.
Is that where the ceremonies are at?
In the Temple Room, yes.
NARRATOR: According to the principles of Freemasonry,
the bond between members is considered more sacred
than any allegiance to creed or even country.
This system of beliefs is taught to members
inside Masonic lodges and temples through secret rituals,
and in the outside world, they employ
secret handshakes, passwords
and signals used to identify each other.
So, this is the tomb of Albert Pike?
AKRAM: This is where he is, uh, entombed, as we say, yeah.
In other words, the sarcophagus.
This is where
the remains of Albert Pike
were preserved.
NARRATOR: Although he was from Massachusetts, a Union state,
Albert Pike not only helped organize the South's secession
but also served as a brigadier general
for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Upon his death in 1891,
he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery
in Washington, D.C.,
the same cemetery
where fellow Scottish Rite Freemason Edwin Stanton
was laid to rest in 1869.
But in 1944, Pike's remains were moved here
to the House of the Temple,
although the circumstances as to why are still a mystery.
-Do you want to follow me this way? -Sure.
-Yeah.
AKRAM: Uh, as-as we go up here...
Well, take a look at this.
-Wow. This is amazing. -Man.
AKRAM: Isn't that magnificent?
-AL: That's crazy. -BRAD [chuckles]: Whoa!
AKRAM: Now, here you're really in the temple itself, you know?
KEVIN: This temple is massive.
Everything was figured right down to the nth degree.
And all of those features have a reason.
It really puts in perspective
what we're dealing with here and the size of this effort.
There was a lot of power
with the Masons back in the day.
[chuckles]: What do you guys talk about in here?
-What do we talk about. -AL: Yeah.
Well, all kinds of things.
At the heart, the center of this room,
of this temple, is the altar
upon which every Mason would take his oath,
an oath that has to do with duty and obligation.
Duties are things that others expect of you.
An obligation is self-taken.
It's free will.
Masonry can never tell a person
to take an oath against his religious belief,
his political affiliation
or the allegiance that he or she owes to their country.
So it must have been a real struggle
for Masons during the Civil War.
Absolutely.
Masons were on both sides.
Families were split.
You had generals on both sides who were Masons.
But Freemasonry would never tell you
you need to be with one side or another.
[indistinct shouting]
NARRATOR: During the four years of the Civil War,
the United States was more bitterly divided
than at any other time in its history.
Because battle lines were often drawn state by state,
as well as by ideology,
members of the same family
often found themselves fighting each other.
However, despite the fact
that many Freemasons found themselves
on different sides of the conflict,
their strong bonds of fraternal brotherhood
often trumped their loyalties to country.
So, we're doing as much research as we can
with what happened to the gold at the end of the Civil War.
Gold? What gold?
-Well, the Confederate gold. -[laughs]
So, when we ask you about gold and Confederate gold,
I've always felt that the Masons were involved.
-Am I close? -AKRAM: I mean, as I mentioned,
many were Masons on both sides of the conflict,
and if they were engaged in trying to do something
with that gold, that's quite possible.
AL: Were the Masons connected at all
with the Knights of the Golden Circle?
I wouldn't say the Masons were connd with that as Masons,
but there are individual Masons
who have joined
different organizations, esoteric groups.
That's where the conspiracy theorists
never get it.
They think, "Oh, my God, these Masons
-might have been conspiring!" -Hmm.
It's not about conspiracy.
It's about making free men.
Think on your own. Act on your own.
-So it's not about conspiracy. -Hmm.
AKRAM: When you're looking at the history of Freemasonry,
this is where conspiracy theorists
confuse what's going on.
The idea in Freemasonry is that the individual is sovereign
and can become members of other organizations.
Can you discuss any of these secret societies
from that time period?
At that time, when we're talking about that period of time,
Freemasonry was no longer a secret society.
In fact, Freemasonry was never
a secret society in the United States.
But don't you take an oath to keep secrets?
Yes.
-[laughs] -I take an oath
to keep secrets.
But these secrets
don't have to do with anything
except my own obligation as a Mason.
KEVIN: Well, I can tell you one thing, Akram,
on the theory that we have
with the missing Confederate gold.
I feel a lot more confident that it was
a group of Masons who decided to do this.
It's very-- quite possible, the same way, as I mentioned,
there were Masons on both sides who fought
the conflict, but itas nothing to do with Masonry.
It is up to the individual
to make that individual choice.
I know you're a busy man,
but thank you so much for your time.
Oh, it-it is my... it is my pleasure.
I'm glad I was able to shed some light.
I appreciate, uh, the questions that you've asked.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
-Appreciate it. My pleasure. -AL: See you, Akram.
Thank you.
ALEX: You know,
we've been encountering Masons
in the shadows on Oak Island for years.
-Oh, yeah. -For years.
KEVIN: If we can connect
John Wilkes Booth to Edwin Stanton
and then Stanton to Charles Hackley,
we might be uncovering
a way bigger conspiracy than we thought.
-ALEX: Yeah, I agree. -AL: Me, too.
ALEX: It's my first time in Baltimore.
AL: I know. Me, too.
-It's cool out here. -NARRATOR: One day after hearing
Warren Getler's incredible theory
that the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
may be connected to Kevin Dykstra's search
for $140 million in stolen Confederate gold
hidden at the bottom of Lake Michigan,
Kevin, along with his brother Al,
history teacher Brad Richards and Alex Lagina
arrive at the Maryland Historical Society
in Baltimore for what promises to be
an important meeting.
-Hi, Nate. -Hi, Alex. How are you?
NARRATOR: Nate Orlowek is an educator and historian
who has been featured in numerous news articles
and documentary programs
both for his expertise on Abraham Lincoln
and on the man who assassinated him,
John Wilkes Booth.
-Well, thanks for meeting with us. -My pleasure.
Seems like a lot of material there.
-Oh, yeah. -Oh, this is a drop in the bucket.
Just, um, some of the major parts.
So, Nate, I don't... I don't know
if you've heard of our research,
but we're basically following Confederate gold
that went missing down in Irwinville, Georgia.
While researching Edwin Stanton, we got real close
to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
and John Wilkes Booth.
NATE: Well, it is very plausible
that Stanton could have very easily have been involved
in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln.
When Lincoln went to the theater April 14,
there was only one security person assigned
to protect the president.
In the afternoon of April 14,
even Lincoln himself sensed
that there was possibly gonna be an attempt on his life.
And he actually went to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
and asked him for a strong guard.
And, Stanton said, "No, you don't really need...
It'll be fine."
In fact, no security was there
except one policeman, John F. Parker,
and he had the worst record on the Metropolitan Police.
NARRATOR: Although Officer John F. Parker--
who had been assigned to guard President Lincoln's private box
at Ford's Theatre by Edwin Stanton--
stood by his post for the first half of the play,
Our American Cousin, at the intermission,
he inexplicably left the premises,
leaving the president completely vulnerable.
It was just minutes later
that John Wilkes Booth entered the room and shot him.
Could it be true
that John F. Parker was not only ordered
to be the sole security officer protecting Lincoln that night,
but was also ordered to leave his post
at a precise moment by Edwin Stanton?
Definitely after the assassination,
Stanton helped to cover it up, and it's very plausible that
he was covering it up because he himself was involved in it.
John Wilkes Booth was a passionate
supporter of the Confederacy.
He was actively helping
the Knights of the Golden Circle,
and probably many of the members of it were involved,
certainly, in helping Booth escape.
NARRATOR: Shortly after fleeing Ford's Theatre,
John Wilkes Booth was somehow able
to cross the heavily guarded Navy Yard Bridge
leading into Maryland, despite a strictly enforced curfew.
After meeting up with fellow conspirator David Herold,
the pair took refuge at the farm of Dr. Samuel Mudd,
where Booth received treatment for his badly wounded leg.
[horse neighing]
Over the next few days,
the pair made their way to the farm
of Richard Garrett in Port Royal, Virginia.
It was here on April 26,
11 days after the death of President Abraham Lincoln,
that Union soldiers from the 16th New York Cavalry
stormed the farm and reportedly cornered John Wilkes Booth
-inside the barn. -Get out of the barn now!
NARRATOR: According to the official record,
Booth refused to surrender,
and was shot in the back of the head
by Sergeant Boston Corbett.
John Wilkes Booth then succumbed to his wound
and died two hours later.
Well, for over 45 years, I've been
researching the question
of whether John Wilkes Booth was killed in Garrett's barn,
as the government would have us believe.
There's the person who the government claims
was John Wilkes Booth,
but I have to bring in the other John Wilkes Booth.
BRAD: So, Nate, you say
"the other" John Wilkes Booth.
What are you getting at exactly with that?
Our conclusion is that the man killed
in Garrett's barn was not John Wilkes Booth.
And there's a tremendous amount of evidence.
One general category is physical evidence
that the man killed in the barn
could not have been John Wilkes Booth.
There were three different
individuals who had made statements
that the man killed in the barn
had reddish hair, and a freckled complexion.
By all accounts, John Wilkes Booth had
raven black hair and a smooth complexion.
The government called a doctor
and asked him to look at the body.
Doctor said the right leg of this body was broken.
By all historical accounts--
there were 2,000 people who saw it-- Booth broke his left leg.
Not only did he say that,
but the very first sentence of his statement--
it's crossed out, but you can read under it.
What it says is, "There is no resemblance
"to that body of John Wilkes Booth,
and I do not believe it to be he."
Who crossed it out?
Well, it must have been someone from the War Department.
Of course, Stanton was the head of the War Department.
Stanton did many things
that are extremely suspicious, that certainly
point, circumstantially at least,
to him being involved in the assassination.
Stanton absolutely was the person
who conducted the cover-up
of the assassination investigation.
The railroading of the eight defendants.
NARRATOR: As Edwin Stanton oversaw the investigation
and prosecution of those accused of conspiring
to kill President Lincoln,
and the attempt on the lives
of both Secretary of State William Seward
and Vice President Andrew Johnson,
eight suspects were prosecuted by a military tribunal,
and four were eventually executed by hanging,
including a woman named Mary Surratt.
All were portrayed
as undercover Confederate sympathizers
acting together as one group.
But could their executions have been an attempt by Stanton
to cover up his own involvement in the conspiracy?
One that involved the theft
of millions of dollars in stolen Confederate gold?
-The man in the barn was not John Wilkes Booth. -Mm-hmm.
There have been many people who've attempted over the years,
and are still attempting,
to try to prevent that fact from coming out.
And for the last ten years, we have been
attempting to do now a DNA test.
The man killed in the barn had three vertebrae
taken out of him, and they were sent
to Washington, and they've been in Washington ever since.
We were gonna match DNA taken from
one of two brothers of John Wilkes Booth.
The Booth family was supportive of this.
Unfortunately, the National Museum of Health and Medicine
said, "We're not going to allow a DNA test to be done."
KEVIN: One has to wonder why the government
won't allow DNA testing.
You almost wonder if that conspiracy is continuing today.
Hey, Nate, I think you've made a compelling case
that every history textbook in America has this wrong.
KEVIN: There's just too much.
You know, it's not a smoking gun,
-but it's a hot gun. -There's way too much.
There's-there's way too much. This was a plot.
Edwin Stanton had his hands in a lot of things.
If we can find evidence to support Nate's theory
about how John Wilkes Booth actually escaped,
it would answer a lot more questions.
-Is that barn still here today? -NATE: Well, no.
It's long gone. So, right now, there is just
a marker on the spot where the farm was.
It's in the northern neck of Virginia, and I...
Is that close to here?
It's about a two-hour drive from Baltimore.
I'd be glad to take you there, and we can...
-you can see it. -KEVIN: Oh, we'd love to go.
If you have time tomorrow, it would be a great trip.
-We got time. -Pretty sure we got time. -Great. Okay.
-Thanks again, Nate. -We'll meet you there. -Thank you.
NARRATOR: As Kevin Dykstra and members of his team
conclude their business in Baltimore,
700 miles west in Muskegon, Michigan...
-New adventures. Nothing like it. -That's right.
NARRATOR: ...team researchers Frederick J. Monroe
and Jeff Zehr are following up on a promising new lead
concerning Charles Hackley that Jeff received
from one of his chiropractic patients.
How did you hear about where we're going?
A patient of mine actually lives
right next door to the Hume home.
-Really? -Right next door,
and he said, "There's some weird doors in our basement,"
and he cannot figure out why they're there.
And they're giving us permission to go to the basement?
-Is that what you said? -They are gonna... they're gonna
take us right through their home
in their basement, so we can see these for ourselves.
I love it.
-JOE GLIDDEN: Foot three. -FRED: Three.
NARRATOR: One month ago,
as Kevin Dykstra and the team conducted
ground-penetrating radar scans
beneath the 19th century home
of Charles Hackley's business partner, Thomas Hume,
they found strong evidence of a secret tunnel
directly connecting the property
to the Hackley Mansion.
-Yeah. -We're walking right on top of the tunnel.
-Yeah, we are. Yeah. -Yeah.
NARRATOR: The discovery foreshadowed a similar one
made just one week ago...
This is the kind of architecture
you'd expect to see in the 1800s.
NARRATOR: ...where Brad Richards and Jeff Zehr
discovered a network of tunnels
that connected the Hackley Mansion
to a number of other Hackley-built properties--
properties that Kevin and his team are convinced
were involved in the secret transport
and laundering of millions of dollars' worth
of stolen Confederate gold.
I believe that Charles Hackley,
if he was gonna move any kind of gold,
a tunnel would be very, very necessary.
And this is just following the gold trail
right to the big 140 million out on the lake.
This is just another avenue.
Old Charles Hackley has quite a compound here, doesn't he?
I know. It's something to see it all just lined up right here.
FRED: Right in a row. Charles Hackley's house,
-Thomas Hume's home. -Yup.
FRED: And we got this. Straight line.
JEFF: Just right here. Yup. They could talk through
-the windows if they wanted to. -Oh, yeah.
[knocking]
-Hey, Doug. -Hey, Jeff.
-Good to see you again. -How you doing? Good to see you.
NARRATOR: Meeting Jeff and Fred is homeowner Doug Pollock.
-Thank you. -Come on in, guys.
Oh, thanks.
Well, we are excited, uh, to see what you have to show us, man.
Well, I'm excited to have you here.
-I love talking about my house. -So, thanks to what
you had already shared with me, I went and did some of my own
-research on Chauncey Chaddock... -Mm-hmm. Yup.
...the guy who built this home.
Chaddock worked with and for Charles Hackley,
-who is, like, right next door here. -Mm-hmm. Yup.
NARRATOR: Chauncey Chaddock was an attorney and businessman
who worked closely
with Charles Hackley in the lumber industry
during the 1850s and '60s
while Hackley built himself up to be a powerful lumber baron
in his hometown of Muskegon, Michigan.
Chaddock then went on to serve as legal counsel
for the Hackley National Bank.
Because the bank was first chartered in 1870--
the year Kevin believes
Hackley had millions in stolen Confederate gold smuggled
to Muskegon from its hiding place in Irwinville, Georgia--
Kevin and the team are curious to see
if there could be yet another tunnel under the property.
When exactly was this house built?
The lot was purchased in the early 1870s.
Now, is it true that this was the first house built here?
-It was the first one in this row, yeah. -In this row, yeah.
-It was before the Hackley-Hume mansions were built. -Yup.
-I'm anxious to see what you really have to show me. -Absolutely.
Let's go see it.
Be careful of the stairs.
-They're old and rickety. -All right.
JEFF: Really excited to be checking this house out.
We have the potential of being able to come up with stuff
that can add up and show this whole theory to be true.
-JEFF: Oh, my goodness. -Oh, my God!
-Vaults! -JEFF: What in the world
are these doing down here?
NARRATOR: Two reinforced metal vaults...
located right next door to the compound
once owned by Charles Hackley
and his business partner Thomas Hume?
Why would anybody need a vault in their basement?
The only reason you would need a vault in your basement
would be to store something, of which you don't want anybody
to get their hands on.
-This is the larger of the two doors. -Mm-hmm.
-Try lifting that up. -This here?
I don't know if I... Yeah.
I mean, I can't lift it up.
Doug, look at the steel casing!
Not to mention the door.
DOUG: And it all leads back to that question,
why is that thing here?
Is it okay if we get inside there and look?
-Please. Check out anything you want to look at. -JEFF: Oh, my.
I mean, just don't shut the door on me.
[Fred laughs]
JEFF: Look here.
Concrete ceiling?
DOUG: So, it looks to be poured in place.
JEFF: But you don't pour cement
like this after a house has already been built.
I believe they built this wall around... that door.
JEFF: You're right. You can't build this after the fact.
This had to be done when the house was built
back in the early 1870s, right?
-Mm-hmm. -It was not retrofitted.
FRED: That's what I'm thinking.
-All right, Doug, can we see that other vault now? -Absolutely. Come on.
You'll see over here I've done...
-I started turning it into a wine cellar on the side. -JEFF: Wow.
DOUG: But this part is pretty original to where it was
-when I found it. -Wow.
The paint is the way I found it. I sealed it,
just to keep the dust out of it.
This is the wall facing the Hume home.
That's exactly right.
-Right here. Huh. -Yep.
We have evidence that there's tunnels that connected
a lot of these buildings and a lot of these houses.
What if there was a tunnel here?
NARRATOR: Given the fact that the team already found evidence
of a tunnel between the 19th century houses
of Charles Hackley and his business partner Thomas Hume,
could Jeff be correct that another tunnel might have also
been constructed between the Hackley-Hume compound
and the vaults in the basement of Hackley's former
business associate and attorney, Chauncey Chaddock?
And if so, could this be one of the places
where Hackley stored a fortune in stolen Confederate gold?
Knowing that that faces the Hume... Hackley-Hume compound
is awful interesting to me.
I'm really curious to see if there's a tunnel
going right to the Hume home.
Vaults and gold go hand in hand together in my book. [laughs]
There's no question that the location of this house
is significant.
It is right next door to the Hackley-Hume compound,
which would make moving gold back and forth
much, much easier.
We know that the gold had to be stored somewhere
before the bank was opened.
We-we know it got up to Muskegon.
We know the bank wasn't ready yet, but the gold was here.
I believe your house very likely could have been that place.
This is what happens when we follow the gold trail.
-We gotta come back, don't you think? -I'd say so.
JEFF: We can get Gary Drayton in here. He's a metal detection expert.
Uh, we've had GPR already we've used
that's been very beneficial.
We'll get the team in here.
So, I mean, there's a lot we, I think, could come back with
after we talk to Kevin.
You're welcome back all you want.
JEFF: Well, thank you so much.
NARRATOR: One day after their informative meeting
with Lincoln assassination expert Nate Orlowek...
-It's just a small point right off the highway, he said. -AL: Huh.
NARRATOR: ...treasure hunters Kevin Dykstra,
his brother Al,
Brad Richards and Alex Lagina head to the site
of the Garrett Farm in Port Royal, Virginia,
the place where John Wilkes Booth was reportedly killed
during a standoff with Union soldiers on April 24, 1865.
KEVIN: We started this whole search
with Confederate gold at the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Now, I definitely feel that what we're uncovering
is leading us to places we never anticipated.
Mm-hmm.
I was able to find a ground-penetrating radar company
-that's actually gonna meet us up there. -Nice.
And we'll be able to use the GPR and see if, possibly,
there's remnants of some type of a tunnel or of a cellar,
or some place that he could have used to escape.
Leave no stone unturned.
NARRATOR: If Kevin and the team can find evidence to support
Nate Orlowek's theory that John Wilkes Booth
may have faked his own death,
it could offer further evidence of an elaborate conspiracy--
one much larger than any of them
had previously thought possible.
-There's that sign. -Cool.
KEVIN: Oh, hey, there's Nate right there.
NATE: Well, we are here. This is the sign.
BRAD: "The Assassin's End. This is the site of Locust Hill,
"Richard Henry Garrett's farm.
"Early on the morning of 26 April, 1865,
"a 16th New York Cavalry detachment cornered
"John Wilkes Booth,
"the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln,
and his co-conspirator, David E. Herold."
They put the sign here because this is where the highway is,
but the actual site is into the woods.
-You don't believe it? -Nope. Not at all. [laughs]
The man we believe was John Wilkes Booth said
he was there briefly.
He continued on south, and the man who was killed in his place
died on this road, and the real John Wilkes Booth died,
most likely, in 1903, in Enid, Oklahoma Territory.
NARRATOR: According to Nate Orlowek's research,
in the years following Abraham Lincoln's assassination,
John Wilkes Booth assumed a number of different aliases.
After living in both Texas and Oklahoma,
he eventually committed suicide by ingesting arsenic,
shortly after confessing his true identity.
Nate, if you're right, this sign is wrong.
Let's get out to that farm site and see what we can find.
This is the area, in general,
where the farmhouse and the barn was located.
Right here?
This general area. We don't know precisely,
but this is the general area.
NARRATOR: Because many at the time believed farmer Richard Garrett
to be complicit in Lincoln's assassination,
the Garrett family became shunned,
and the farm soon fell into decline.
For many years, the abandoned property became a destination
for curiosity seekers and vandals,
until the federal government acquired the land
and tore down the remaining structures
sometime in the 1950s.
If that farm was here, and Booth did escape from this site,
it's possible that there was a tunnel
that went down and out the side of that hill somewhere.
-AL: Yep. -Totally possible.
It could be that John Wilkes Booth could have escaped
just as those soldiers were showing up.
If there was a tunnel, he could have slipped into the tunnel,
exited through the woods and been gone.
So, if that's a possibility, ground-penetrating radar
should find evidence of a tunnel.
Say, Lucas, I think we're gonna split up.
I'm gonna have Brad and Alex work with you, and, Al,
why don't you come with me, and we'll do some scouting
up along this ridge here.
If you guys see anything on that GPR,
-holler out to us, all right? -We will.
-We'll shout for ya. -All right. Thanks.
Yeah, let's go.
NARRATOR: For Kevin Dykstra and his team,
a mystery that began with a deathbed confession
about a fortune in Confederate gold
at the bottom of Lake Michigan
has now exploded into what appears to be
a vast conspiracy connected to the death
of an American president.
But as Kevin continues to follow the trail of clues,
will peeling back the layers of secrets that have been
so well-guarded for more than a century
finally reveal the proof that will rewrite American history?
[indistinct shouting]
Next time on The Curse of Civil War Gold...
LUCAS: This is a void.
-Like an actual open space? -Mm-hmm.
We've got a couple of interesting targets.
They're casting some weird shadows.
That's about half of a boxcar.
KURT HAZARD: This is what was passed on to me.
ALEX: Wow.
KEVIN: This gold was captured by Jefferson Davis?
That seems like the piece of the puzzle fitting together.
-I'm getting a bad feeling about these waves today. -AL: Yep.
MARTY: This cries out disguise.
This was all supposed to be a secret.
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