1 00:00:06,875 --> 00:00:11,042 Narrator: They're designed to be diabolical and destructive... 2 00:00:11,208 --> 00:00:16,042 They were bombs, hidden bombs, attached to everyday objects. 3 00:00:16,208 --> 00:00:18,167 ( explosion, screams ) 4 00:00:18,292 --> 00:00:19,792 Narrator: ...concealed killers, 5 00:00:19,917 --> 00:00:22,208 waiting for the unwary to trigger them. 6 00:00:22,375 --> 00:00:28,667 28 men were scalded to death by the steam boiler explosion. 7 00:00:28,792 --> 00:00:30,500 Narrator: From ancient tombs... 8 00:00:30,625 --> 00:00:34,250 A series of crossbows, just waiting for anyone 9 00:00:34,375 --> 00:00:37,958 who would dare to try to rob the grave of the emperor. 10 00:00:38,042 --> 00:00:40,167 Narrator: ...to world wars... 11 00:00:40,292 --> 00:00:42,458 Martin Morgan: This is how bonkers World War II could be. 12 00:00:42,542 --> 00:00:45,667 You had smart people that imagined the weaponization 13 00:00:45,750 --> 00:00:47,458 of the Norwegian roof rat. 14 00:00:47,542 --> 00:00:51,333 There was even a plan to weaponize a chocolate bar. 15 00:00:51,458 --> 00:00:55,500 Narrator: Tonight, we'll explore the evolution of booby traps, 16 00:00:55,625 --> 00:00:58,667 sinister weapons hidden in plain sight. 17 00:01:04,208 --> 00:01:08,625 Not all inventions are made with good intentions. 18 00:01:08,750 --> 00:01:10,833 Unlock the twisted history 19 00:01:10,958 --> 00:01:13,542 behind the world's darkest marvels. 20 00:01:18,375 --> 00:01:20,667 From movies to books, 21 00:01:20,792 --> 00:01:25,125 there's one surefire way to add suspense to a story-- 22 00:01:25,208 --> 00:01:27,167 booby traps. 23 00:01:29,333 --> 00:01:33,333 But these devices aren't purely works of imagination. 24 00:01:33,417 --> 00:01:36,083 Ancient Egyptians used them 25 00:01:36,208 --> 00:01:39,833 to safeguard the tombs of pharaohs. 26 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:41,708 Kara Cooney: The ancient Egyptians believed that you had to take 27 00:01:41,875 --> 00:01:45,167 everything you would need in the afterlife with you. 28 00:01:45,292 --> 00:01:47,458 And the richer people in ancient Egyptian society 29 00:01:47,542 --> 00:01:49,500 had a lot more to take with them. 30 00:01:49,667 --> 00:01:52,458 Things like rare minerals, gold, and silver. 31 00:01:52,542 --> 00:01:56,583 Things like wood that's been imported, like cedar from the Lebanon. 32 00:01:56,708 --> 00:01:59,500 And then all of that material would be collected, 33 00:01:59,667 --> 00:02:03,042 pushed into these tombs, and then sealed up, 34 00:02:03,167 --> 00:02:05,583 locked away, ostensibly for forever. 35 00:02:05,708 --> 00:02:09,833 Narrator: Also inside the tombs are clever traps 36 00:02:09,917 --> 00:02:11,833 designed to trick intruders, 37 00:02:11,958 --> 00:02:14,333 including those following orders 38 00:02:14,500 --> 00:02:16,208 from an infamous general. 39 00:02:18,042 --> 00:02:21,167 August 1799. 40 00:02:21,250 --> 00:02:24,333 Napoleon and the French army invade Egypt. 41 00:02:24,500 --> 00:02:27,667 Fascinated by the civilization's great pharaohs, 42 00:02:27,792 --> 00:02:32,042 Napoleon orders his engineers to map the Valley of the Kings. 43 00:02:32,208 --> 00:02:36,417 There they uncover the tomb of Amenhotep III, 44 00:02:36,542 --> 00:02:38,875 who ruled in the 14th century B.C. 45 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:44,458 and a booby trap designed to kill anyone who enters. 46 00:02:44,542 --> 00:02:46,208 Kara Cooney: When you go into the tomb, 47 00:02:46,333 --> 00:02:48,500 if you were entering this tomb in the 18th century, 48 00:02:48,625 --> 00:02:51,333 you head straight down and hit a well, 49 00:02:51,458 --> 00:02:55,417 and it is a pit that is 25 feet straight down. 50 00:02:55,542 --> 00:02:57,250 You're on your way in there in the dark, 51 00:02:57,375 --> 00:02:59,458 even if you have a torch, and you hit that well room, 52 00:02:59,542 --> 00:03:03,208 you're gonna fall 25 feet to your death, and then that's it. 53 00:03:03,375 --> 00:03:05,500 Narrator: The well appears to be a variation 54 00:03:05,667 --> 00:03:10,250 on one of the oldest known booby traps-- the pit trap. 55 00:03:12,708 --> 00:03:16,333 Early man uses it to catch and kill animals, 56 00:03:16,458 --> 00:03:20,292 from wooly mammoths to saber-toothed tigers. 57 00:03:20,417 --> 00:03:22,500 After digging a deep hole, 58 00:03:22,667 --> 00:03:25,792 the opening is camouflaged with lightweight debris. 59 00:03:25,917 --> 00:03:28,667 A single step sends unsuspecting intruders 60 00:03:28,833 --> 00:03:33,583 plummeting through a false floor and into a dark abyss. 61 00:03:33,708 --> 00:03:35,125 Kara Cooney: There aren't any spikes at the bottom of it 62 00:03:35,250 --> 00:03:37,292 that we know of, but there's not a way 63 00:03:37,375 --> 00:03:39,792 to walk around the well chamber. 64 00:03:39,917 --> 00:03:41,333 It just goes straight down. 65 00:03:41,500 --> 00:03:44,667 So it is a means of making it very difficult 66 00:03:44,833 --> 00:03:47,375 to get through to the other side of the tomb. 67 00:03:47,542 --> 00:03:50,250 Narrator: The well is just the first line of defense. 68 00:03:50,375 --> 00:03:52,250 Kara Cooney: Behind the well itself 69 00:03:52,375 --> 00:03:54,875 is this false wall that you have to break down. 70 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:56,625 So you have to figure out 71 00:03:56,708 --> 00:03:59,792 how you're going to bridge this expanse 72 00:03:59,875 --> 00:04:03,583 while at the same time break through this false wall. 73 00:04:03,708 --> 00:04:05,833 And once you get past the false wall, 74 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,667 there's more interesting stuff in store because the tomb turns. 75 00:04:08,792 --> 00:04:11,458 18th dynasty tombs did this all the time. 76 00:04:11,542 --> 00:04:15,542 They had a kind of circuitous route that they would take, 77 00:04:15,667 --> 00:04:17,375 as if we're in the underworld itself 78 00:04:17,542 --> 00:04:19,167 and there's no straight lines anymore 79 00:04:19,250 --> 00:04:21,292 and you can't quite find your way in the dark. 80 00:04:21,417 --> 00:04:24,583 And the tomb of Amenhotep III is meant to replicate that. 81 00:04:26,292 --> 00:04:27,667 Narrator: At the end of this labyrinth 82 00:04:27,792 --> 00:04:29,833 lies the pharaoh's burial chamber, 83 00:04:29,958 --> 00:04:32,292 but it's empty. 84 00:04:32,375 --> 00:04:36,000 The Valley of the Kings was systematically ransacked 85 00:04:36,083 --> 00:04:37,333 at the end of the 20th dynasty 86 00:04:37,417 --> 00:04:39,750 and into the beginning of the 21st. 87 00:04:39,875 --> 00:04:43,167 They had stripped all of these mummies of their precious metals-- 88 00:04:43,333 --> 00:04:45,042 silver, gold, all of these things, 89 00:04:45,167 --> 00:04:47,000 And they were able to recommodify 90 00:04:47,125 --> 00:04:50,625 or resell a whole number of things. 91 00:04:50,708 --> 00:04:55,042 Narrator: But some ancient chambers are found perfectly intact, 92 00:04:55,167 --> 00:04:59,917 most famously, the tomb of Amenhotep's grandson-- King Tut. 93 00:05:00,042 --> 00:05:04,917 Kara Cooney: Tutankhamun was a king of the late 18th dynasty. 94 00:05:05,042 --> 00:05:08,333 And yet, when that tomb was found in 1922 by Howard Carter, 95 00:05:08,500 --> 00:05:12,333 an Egyptologist who was working with his patron Lord Carnarvon, 96 00:05:12,458 --> 00:05:15,250 it was found jam-packed with all kinds of stuff. 97 00:05:15,375 --> 00:05:21,042 Aaron Irvin: The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb was absolutely unprecedented, 98 00:05:21,208 --> 00:05:26,708 a complete tomb, untouched, all of the grave goods intact, 99 00:05:26,833 --> 00:05:30,333 the body intact, the sarcophagus intact. 100 00:05:30,458 --> 00:05:34,500 Tutankhamun's tomb gave us the first complete view 101 00:05:34,625 --> 00:05:37,500 of Egyptian society that we had ever received. 102 00:05:37,667 --> 00:05:40,208 Nothing like this had been discovered up to that point. 103 00:05:40,375 --> 00:05:44,375 And honestly, nothing like this has been discovered since. 104 00:05:44,500 --> 00:05:47,542 Narrator: Despite the vast treasure it holds, 105 00:05:47,708 --> 00:05:51,792 there's no sign of a physical booby trap in Tut's tomb. 106 00:05:51,875 --> 00:05:55,417 But rumors soon spread of a different deterrent, 107 00:05:55,542 --> 00:05:59,708 one that also kills. 108 00:05:59,875 --> 00:06:02,167 Almost immediately, we start to see headlines 109 00:06:02,333 --> 00:06:05,542 talking about the curse of the tomb, 110 00:06:05,667 --> 00:06:07,667 the curse of the mummy. 111 00:06:07,792 --> 00:06:12,125 Reporter: Dateline, Egypt, February 16th, 1923. 112 00:06:12,208 --> 00:06:16,958 Aaron Irvin: It's very easy to dismiss this idea of spells and curses. 113 00:06:17,042 --> 00:06:20,500 But the idea of the tombs as this special place, 114 00:06:20,625 --> 00:06:25,042 as being guarded by this sacred magic 115 00:06:25,167 --> 00:06:28,792 that can strike against you if you do not respect it, 116 00:06:28,917 --> 00:06:31,542 this is not simply invented by the modern media. 117 00:06:31,708 --> 00:06:35,083 The Egyptians themselves thought of these places 118 00:06:35,208 --> 00:06:37,833 as being cursed and protected by spells. 119 00:06:37,917 --> 00:06:41,167 Narrator: Six months after the tomb is opened, 120 00:06:41,292 --> 00:06:44,458 a macabre series of events unfolds. 121 00:06:44,583 --> 00:06:48,833 The man who funded the excavation and all of this work, Lord Carnarvon, 122 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:54,083 he dies in a very unexpected and strange manner. 123 00:06:54,208 --> 00:06:55,708 Aaron Irvin: George J. Gould, 124 00:06:55,875 --> 00:06:58,542 an American financier who comes to the site, 125 00:06:58,708 --> 00:07:01,667 suddenly comes down with pneumonia later that year 126 00:07:01,833 --> 00:07:04,667 and then dies under mysterious circumstances. 127 00:07:04,792 --> 00:07:07,458 Kara Cooney: There's also Archibald Douglas Reid, 128 00:07:07,583 --> 00:07:10,250 the radiologist who x-rays Tutankhamun, 129 00:07:10,375 --> 00:07:13,042 and three days later, he dies. 130 00:07:13,208 --> 00:07:17,125 Hugh Evelyn White, another British archaeologist who looks upon the artifacts 131 00:07:17,250 --> 00:07:21,875 and then shortly thereafter unfortunately kills himself, 132 00:07:22,042 --> 00:07:27,542 leaving behind a note that he has been overcome by this curse 133 00:07:27,708 --> 00:07:30,125 coming from Tutankhamun's tomb. 134 00:07:30,208 --> 00:07:34,250 Narrator: Are these tragic deaths just a strange coincidence? 135 00:07:34,375 --> 00:07:36,542 Or is it possible they result 136 00:07:36,708 --> 00:07:39,542 from a supernatural booby trap? 137 00:07:39,708 --> 00:07:43,583 Is the curse of the tomb real? Beside the point. 138 00:07:43,708 --> 00:07:47,333 What matters is its effectiveness as a deterrent, 139 00:07:47,500 --> 00:07:49,458 keeping people from breaking into the tomb, 140 00:07:49,542 --> 00:07:51,375 from threatening the body of the pharaoh, 141 00:07:51,500 --> 00:07:55,083 that is what that booby trap is actually all about. 142 00:07:56,708 --> 00:07:58,625 Narrator: Egypt isn't the only culture 143 00:07:58,708 --> 00:08:02,125 that protects its dead rulers with hidden traps. 144 00:08:04,333 --> 00:08:06,917 Over 4,400 miles away, 145 00:08:07,042 --> 00:08:09,375 in the Shaanxi province of China, 146 00:08:09,542 --> 00:08:12,958 there's a booby trap worthy of Indiana Jones 147 00:08:13,042 --> 00:08:17,083 guarding the majestic tomb of the country's first emperor 148 00:08:17,208 --> 00:08:20,708 Qin Shi Huang. 149 00:08:20,833 --> 00:08:26,625 This massive mausoleum is discovered by farmers in 1974. 150 00:08:26,708 --> 00:08:30,500 It is among, if not the most intricate burial sites 151 00:08:30,667 --> 00:08:32,667 for a single human being that's ever existed. 152 00:08:32,833 --> 00:08:35,583 Narrator: Qin commissions its construction 153 00:08:35,708 --> 00:08:38,708 after he takes the throne in 246 B.C. 154 00:08:38,875 --> 00:08:42,542 An estimated 700,000 laborers 155 00:08:42,708 --> 00:08:45,708 spend 38 years building it. 156 00:08:45,833 --> 00:08:50,208 On completion, it's 20% larger than the Great Pyramid. 157 00:08:50,333 --> 00:08:54,667 Greg Jackson: The tomb is surrounded by an army 158 00:08:54,792 --> 00:08:57,500 of 8,000 terracotta warriors. 159 00:08:57,625 --> 00:09:00,000 They are meant to protect his grave. 160 00:09:00,125 --> 00:09:03,000 There's been plenty of work done around the tomb, 161 00:09:03,125 --> 00:09:06,667 but archaeologists are yet to actually crack it open. 162 00:09:06,750 --> 00:09:10,667 And the reason for that, there are still safety concerns. 163 00:09:10,792 --> 00:09:11,833 There's a lot of mercury in there. 164 00:09:11,958 --> 00:09:15,125 We know that from ground samples. 165 00:09:15,208 --> 00:09:19,125 Narrator: According to ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian, 166 00:09:19,250 --> 00:09:22,500 mercury was considered a wonder element 167 00:09:22,583 --> 00:09:25,500 that bestowed immortality. 168 00:09:25,625 --> 00:09:27,250 That mercury can't disappear. 169 00:09:27,375 --> 00:09:30,667 So even if it had evaporated, 170 00:09:30,792 --> 00:09:33,292 that elemental mercury is still present 171 00:09:33,417 --> 00:09:35,667 in some capacity inside the tombs. 172 00:09:35,792 --> 00:09:38,292 And, of course, that's a serious health consideration. 173 00:09:38,417 --> 00:09:41,625 What ends up happening when you get mercury poisoning, 174 00:09:41,750 --> 00:09:44,958 it basically messes with your central nervous system and your nerves, 175 00:09:45,083 --> 00:09:46,875 and it also messes with your kidneys. 176 00:09:47,042 --> 00:09:49,833 It doesn't allow your kidneys to function the appropriate way, 177 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:52,833 you get buildup of byproducts that ultimately 178 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:54,667 cause cardiac arrhythmia, and then will die. 179 00:09:54,792 --> 00:09:58,167 Narrator: Surprisingly, the toxic mercury rivers 180 00:09:58,292 --> 00:10:00,708 are not designed for defense. 181 00:10:00,833 --> 00:10:05,750 Something far more deadly takes care of that. 182 00:10:05,875 --> 00:10:07,750 Much of what we know about what's inside the tomb 183 00:10:07,875 --> 00:10:09,750 comes from Sima Qian. 184 00:10:09,875 --> 00:10:14,167 His writings explain that there are booby traps, 185 00:10:14,292 --> 00:10:18,667 a series of crossbows just waiting for anyone 186 00:10:18,750 --> 00:10:22,917 who would dare to try to rob the grave of the emperor. 187 00:10:23,042 --> 00:10:26,500 Narrator: Though many question if the crossbows still work. 188 00:10:26,667 --> 00:10:31,083 So far, there are no volunteers to find out. 189 00:10:31,208 --> 00:10:32,500 Greg Jackson: 2,000 years is a long time. 190 00:10:32,625 --> 00:10:34,042 There's plenty of reason to expect 191 00:10:34,167 --> 00:10:35,667 that those crossbows are not going to fire. 192 00:10:35,792 --> 00:10:37,625 All the same, you got to ask yourself, 193 00:10:37,708 --> 00:10:40,333 do you really want to be the first person 194 00:10:40,500 --> 00:10:44,542 that steps inside the tomb to excavate? 195 00:10:44,708 --> 00:10:47,250 That's going to be the person who really finds out 196 00:10:47,375 --> 00:10:50,125 whether or not they've endured the last 2,000 years. 197 00:10:53,333 --> 00:11:01,333 Narrator: But protecting the dead isn't relegated to antiquity. 198 00:11:01,458 --> 00:11:04,917 Narrator: In 18th century England, the study of human anatomy 199 00:11:05,042 --> 00:11:08,000 is improving medical care for the living, 200 00:11:08,167 --> 00:11:13,417 while also creating a demand for dead bodies. 201 00:11:13,542 --> 00:11:18,250 As medicine becomes more scientific, more formalized, 202 00:11:18,375 --> 00:11:23,042 there is an increased need for cadavers to teach anatomy to students. 203 00:11:23,208 --> 00:11:27,000 The problem is that there are not enough legally available bodies, 204 00:11:27,167 --> 00:11:33,417 and there's a really pressing need to get fresh corpses. 205 00:11:33,542 --> 00:11:37,250 You can't just go dig up somebody who's been dead for two weeks, three weeks. 206 00:11:37,375 --> 00:11:41,667 They are no longer useful to learn anatomy because of decomposition. 207 00:11:41,833 --> 00:11:42,958 Rebecca Simon: So, for fresh cadavers, 208 00:11:43,083 --> 00:11:44,833 you need to employ grave robbers 209 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:47,417 who are going to be watching out for new burials 210 00:11:47,542 --> 00:11:49,417 and can go in and steal these bodies. 211 00:11:49,542 --> 00:11:52,583 Narrator: Known as resurrectionists, 212 00:11:52,708 --> 00:11:56,083 these body snatchers can make a nice profit. 213 00:11:56,208 --> 00:11:58,500 Cadavers, they're not readily available, 214 00:11:58,583 --> 00:11:59,833 and that's what gives them their value, 215 00:11:59,917 --> 00:12:02,000 so they turn a pretty penny. 216 00:12:02,125 --> 00:12:03,667 Megan Springate: The resurrectionists would sell the bodies 217 00:12:03,792 --> 00:12:05,750 from $5 to $30. 218 00:12:05,875 --> 00:12:07,583 And, if you look at what that's worth now, 219 00:12:07,708 --> 00:12:11,667 it's like $2,000 to $12,000. 220 00:12:11,792 --> 00:12:14,417 So it was not a bad gig. 221 00:12:14,542 --> 00:12:17,792 Narrator: One frequent customer is Dr. William Hewson, 222 00:12:17,875 --> 00:12:21,750 known today as the father of hematology. 223 00:12:21,875 --> 00:12:24,375 William Hewson was a very respected doctor, 224 00:12:24,500 --> 00:12:26,958 and he was very knowledgeable of the human body. 225 00:12:27,042 --> 00:12:29,167 And in 1998, a group of restorationists 226 00:12:29,292 --> 00:12:30,792 went to 36 Craven Street 227 00:12:30,917 --> 00:12:32,792 where Hewson had been living in London, 228 00:12:32,875 --> 00:12:35,083 and they found about 1,200 bones 229 00:12:35,208 --> 00:12:37,000 underneath the foundation of this house. 230 00:12:37,083 --> 00:12:40,333 They were bones from men, women, children, animals. 231 00:12:40,500 --> 00:12:46,083 And the bones showed evidence of scalpel marks and cuts, 232 00:12:46,208 --> 00:12:48,083 like the kind of cuts that you would make 233 00:12:48,208 --> 00:12:51,000 when you were amputating a limb. 234 00:12:51,125 --> 00:12:53,833 Narrator: The grisly discovery gets worldwide attention 235 00:12:53,958 --> 00:12:55,875 because of Hewson's roommate, 236 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:58,125 none other than Benjamin Franklin, 237 00:12:58,250 --> 00:13:02,750 who worked in London as a diplomat in the mid-1700s. 238 00:13:02,875 --> 00:13:05,500 This led to a whole bunch of questions initially. 239 00:13:05,625 --> 00:13:07,833 Was it possible that Benjamin Franklin 240 00:13:07,917 --> 00:13:09,875 was actually maybe a serial killer? 241 00:13:11,208 --> 00:13:13,167 No. It turned out that Hewson 242 00:13:13,292 --> 00:13:15,833 was actually running an underground anatomy school 243 00:13:15,917 --> 00:13:18,208 and dissecting loads of cadavers. 244 00:13:18,333 --> 00:13:20,917 Megan Springate: The medical schools in London at the time 245 00:13:21,042 --> 00:13:22,750 were teaching anatomy 246 00:13:22,875 --> 00:13:25,833 but not teaching anatomy as in depth 247 00:13:25,958 --> 00:13:28,500 as you would with a cadaver. 248 00:13:28,667 --> 00:13:33,875 So he opened essentially a private anatomy school in the basement of the house 249 00:13:34,042 --> 00:13:35,792 that he was sharing with Ben Franklin, 250 00:13:35,875 --> 00:13:38,333 teaching all of these physicians about anatomy. 251 00:13:38,417 --> 00:13:41,000 But it doesn't last terribly long. 252 00:13:41,083 --> 00:13:43,792 He dies at the age of 34 from septicemia, 253 00:13:43,917 --> 00:13:45,583 or blood poisoning, 254 00:13:45,708 --> 00:13:49,792 probably from his work cutting into cadavers. 255 00:13:49,875 --> 00:13:52,042 Narrator: Hewson isn't the only doctor 256 00:13:52,167 --> 00:13:55,167 looking for fresh cadavers to dissect. 257 00:13:55,250 --> 00:13:57,458 Both private and public medical schools 258 00:13:57,542 --> 00:14:02,167 ramp up their demand, which enrages the public. 259 00:14:02,250 --> 00:14:04,583 The idea that people were being dissected 260 00:14:04,708 --> 00:14:06,833 was absolutely horrific to them, 261 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:08,583 because if these bodies were cut up, 262 00:14:08,708 --> 00:14:09,833 where would their souls go? 263 00:14:09,958 --> 00:14:11,625 It might absolutely destroy 264 00:14:11,708 --> 00:14:12,875 people's lives for the afterlife. 265 00:14:13,042 --> 00:14:15,708 Megan Springate: And they riot. 266 00:14:15,833 --> 00:14:17,667 They go after the medical schools 267 00:14:17,833 --> 00:14:19,625 because they recognize that 268 00:14:19,750 --> 00:14:21,583 if the medical schools weren't buying, 269 00:14:21,708 --> 00:14:25,125 there would be no resurrectionists. 270 00:14:25,208 --> 00:14:27,750 Narrator: When authorities do little to end the practice, 271 00:14:27,875 --> 00:14:31,083 some take matters into their own hands. 272 00:14:31,208 --> 00:14:35,917 Rebecca Simon: And so, we start seeing people paying others to protect bodies 273 00:14:36,042 --> 00:14:39,708 until the body would be decomposed enough to where it wouldn't be worth stealing. 274 00:14:39,833 --> 00:14:42,125 Cemeteries began erecting watchtowers, 275 00:14:42,208 --> 00:14:44,167 and people were employed to watch over the graveyard 276 00:14:44,292 --> 00:14:46,583 all night to make sure nobody was going to come in. 277 00:14:46,708 --> 00:14:49,583 We also see the use of mortsafes, 278 00:14:49,708 --> 00:14:52,292 these iron cages that were placed over coffins 279 00:14:52,375 --> 00:14:55,042 that would make it impossible for somebody to break in. 280 00:14:55,167 --> 00:14:58,167 Narrator: As countless bodies continue to vanish, 281 00:14:58,333 --> 00:15:01,375 inventors step up with creative deterrents. 282 00:15:01,542 --> 00:15:05,167 The earliest is known as the grave gun. 283 00:15:05,292 --> 00:15:08,792 This gun is a bit similar to a shotgun. It has a shotgun barrel. 284 00:15:08,917 --> 00:15:11,958 It was placed on a grave, 285 00:15:12,083 --> 00:15:13,500 and someone coming up to the grave 286 00:15:13,625 --> 00:15:15,292 would step on a trip wire. 287 00:15:15,375 --> 00:15:19,750 And this would trigger the gun shooting the person 288 00:15:19,875 --> 00:15:22,083 who was coming up to the grave. 289 00:15:22,208 --> 00:15:23,667 The grave gun was set up in a way 290 00:15:23,792 --> 00:15:26,500 so that way it was on a swivel so it could turn towards 291 00:15:26,667 --> 00:15:27,792 the direction of the actual grave robber. 292 00:15:27,875 --> 00:15:29,167 ( gunshot ) 293 00:15:29,292 --> 00:15:31,250 Narrator: But even grave guns 294 00:15:31,375 --> 00:15:35,000 couldn't stop the most determined robbers. 295 00:15:35,083 --> 00:15:37,417 Anatomists were particularly interested 296 00:15:37,542 --> 00:15:40,417 in different type of people, deformed people, 297 00:15:40,542 --> 00:15:41,958 people who were extremely tall, 298 00:15:42,083 --> 00:15:43,667 people who were extremely short. 299 00:15:43,792 --> 00:15:46,750 These bodies are rare, so grave robbers will earn loads 300 00:15:46,875 --> 00:15:51,417 if they're able to excavate one of these types of bodies for the anatomists. 301 00:15:51,542 --> 00:15:54,167 So an interesting story occurs in 1817. 302 00:15:54,333 --> 00:15:59,292 In this year, a seven-foot-tall soldier died, and he was buried. 303 00:15:59,417 --> 00:16:01,583 Megan Springate: The caretaker of the cemetery 304 00:16:01,708 --> 00:16:04,833 knows that this soldier is going to be a target, 305 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:08,000 and he sets up the mega grave gun, 306 00:16:08,167 --> 00:16:10,708 which sounds like a terrible B movie honestly. 307 00:16:10,833 --> 00:16:14,917 It is multiple grave guns 308 00:16:15,042 --> 00:16:17,333 pointing at the grave. 309 00:16:17,500 --> 00:16:21,917 This meant that one single trip wire would set off several grave guns at once 310 00:16:22,042 --> 00:16:24,125 to make sure that they're actually going to kill the person 311 00:16:24,250 --> 00:16:26,542 attempting to rob the grave. 312 00:16:26,667 --> 00:16:29,583 One night, the gravedigger heard all the shots go off... 313 00:16:29,708 --> 00:16:31,333 ( gunshots ) 314 00:16:31,458 --> 00:16:33,875 ...and when he and other authorities went to the grave, 315 00:16:34,042 --> 00:16:35,333 they found it actually quite undisturbed. 316 00:16:35,417 --> 00:16:38,000 No one had actually robbed the grave, 317 00:16:38,125 --> 00:16:39,917 but they did find a helmet 318 00:16:40,042 --> 00:16:42,500 that had a single bullet hole in it. 319 00:16:42,625 --> 00:16:44,167 Megan Springate: A bullet in the brain is something 320 00:16:44,250 --> 00:16:46,583 that would have been of interest also 321 00:16:46,708 --> 00:16:48,333 to the anatomy schools. 322 00:16:48,458 --> 00:16:51,458 So it is entirely possible that this resurrectionist 323 00:16:51,583 --> 00:16:54,500 who got shot in the head ended up themself 324 00:16:54,625 --> 00:16:57,375 on a dissection table at a medical school. 325 00:16:59,125 --> 00:17:00,375 Narrator: By 1832, 326 00:17:00,542 --> 00:17:02,292 new laws are enacted in Great Britain 327 00:17:02,417 --> 00:17:05,458 to deter the body snatchers. 328 00:17:05,583 --> 00:17:07,333 The United Kingdom passed the Anatomy Act, 329 00:17:07,458 --> 00:17:09,625 and what this did, is for the first time, 330 00:17:09,708 --> 00:17:13,292 it allowed families to donate bodies of their dead loved ones 331 00:17:13,417 --> 00:17:15,375 to medical schools and anatomists. 332 00:17:15,500 --> 00:17:18,333 It also allowed people to designate their own bodies 333 00:17:18,500 --> 00:17:21,042 after they died in order to go to anatomists, 334 00:17:21,167 --> 00:17:22,625 and any unclaimed bodies, 335 00:17:22,750 --> 00:17:25,208 those who perhaps had no family to speak of, 336 00:17:25,333 --> 00:17:29,042 those bodies could also get donated to anatomists and other medical schools. 337 00:17:29,208 --> 00:17:31,542 And by 1844 in the United Kingdom, 338 00:17:31,667 --> 00:17:34,042 grave robbing had pretty much ceased to exist 339 00:17:34,208 --> 00:17:36,333 because it was no longer a money-making endeavor. 340 00:17:36,500 --> 00:17:40,167 Narrator: But it's a different story in the U.S. 341 00:17:40,250 --> 00:17:43,375 As grave robbing increases, a concerned public 342 00:17:43,542 --> 00:17:51,667 takes extreme steps to protect their deceased loved ones. 343 00:17:51,792 --> 00:17:53,458 Narrator: By the late 19th century, 344 00:17:53,542 --> 00:17:56,500 grave robbing is an issue of public concern. 345 00:17:56,625 --> 00:18:00,250 But one incident in 1878 in North Bend, Ohio, 346 00:18:00,375 --> 00:18:03,667 triggers a national uproar. 347 00:18:03,792 --> 00:18:07,208 John Scott Harrison is an interesting figure in U.S. history. 348 00:18:07,333 --> 00:18:10,000 He's the only man 349 00:18:10,125 --> 00:18:13,375 that is both the father of a U.S. president 350 00:18:13,542 --> 00:18:15,250 and the son of a U.S. president. 351 00:18:15,375 --> 00:18:17,458 Barton Myers: On May 29th, 1878, 352 00:18:17,542 --> 00:18:21,500 John Scott Harrison is buried in an Ohio cemetery. 353 00:18:21,625 --> 00:18:27,250 His family is concerned about the rash of grave robbings that have occurred, 354 00:18:27,375 --> 00:18:30,333 so they put John Scott Harrison's body 355 00:18:30,500 --> 00:18:34,042 in a family vault walled up by brick, 356 00:18:34,208 --> 00:18:37,667 and then hire a watchman to check the grave 357 00:18:37,833 --> 00:18:39,667 every hour for a month. 358 00:18:39,750 --> 00:18:42,958 Narrator: At the burial of his late father, 359 00:18:43,042 --> 00:18:46,667 John Jr. sees something troubling. 360 00:18:46,792 --> 00:18:51,542 Harrison's son notices that one of their family friends-- 361 00:18:51,708 --> 00:18:56,833 Augustus Devin, who has died just about 11 days before-- 362 00:18:56,917 --> 00:18:58,792 that his grave has been disturbed, 363 00:18:58,875 --> 00:19:01,625 that his body is missing. 364 00:19:03,667 --> 00:19:05,708 The family is shocked. They're outraged. 365 00:19:05,833 --> 00:19:09,417 John Scott Harrison Jr. goes to the police, 366 00:19:09,542 --> 00:19:12,125 seeks out a warrant, so that they can potentially 367 00:19:12,208 --> 00:19:15,625 go find the body of Augustus Devin. 368 00:19:15,708 --> 00:19:18,458 John Jr. and the police 369 00:19:18,542 --> 00:19:24,333 eventually visit Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati. 370 00:19:24,500 --> 00:19:28,167 They begin searching the building with police. 371 00:19:28,250 --> 00:19:31,500 They move through the building to the upstairs 372 00:19:31,667 --> 00:19:36,542 and find a square hole on the second floor of the building. 373 00:19:36,667 --> 00:19:39,083 In that hole, there's a rope. 374 00:19:39,208 --> 00:19:41,333 The rope is attached to a body. 375 00:19:41,458 --> 00:19:45,083 They think they've found Augustus Devin. 376 00:19:45,208 --> 00:19:48,500 When they pull up the rope, 377 00:19:48,583 --> 00:19:51,083 it's the body of Harrison's father, 378 00:19:51,208 --> 00:19:53,042 John Scott Harrison. 379 00:19:53,208 --> 00:19:59,292 Narrator: The discovery causes a firestorm. 380 00:19:59,375 --> 00:20:01,667 This idea that somebody as important as Scott Harrison 381 00:20:01,792 --> 00:20:05,500 can still end up as a successful target of the resurrectionists 382 00:20:05,583 --> 00:20:09,583 really is the spark that kicks off this sort of industry 383 00:20:09,708 --> 00:20:14,792 of booby-trapping graves with explosives. 384 00:20:14,875 --> 00:20:16,708 ( explosion ) 385 00:20:16,833 --> 00:20:19,458 Narrator: One of the earliest attempts 386 00:20:19,542 --> 00:20:22,875 comes from Ohio inventor Philip Clover. 387 00:20:23,042 --> 00:20:25,833 It's called the coffin torpedo. 388 00:20:25,917 --> 00:20:29,667 Megan Springate: What it is is a bomb that goes inside the coffin. 389 00:20:29,750 --> 00:20:31,417 You can hide it under the coffin trimmings 390 00:20:31,542 --> 00:20:33,375 of the lining on the inside, 391 00:20:33,500 --> 00:20:36,042 or you can hide it under the clothes of the body. 392 00:20:36,167 --> 00:20:39,667 And it is designed so if somebody tries 393 00:20:39,750 --> 00:20:43,500 to remove the body, it explodes. 394 00:20:43,667 --> 00:20:45,750 ( explosion ) 395 00:20:48,750 --> 00:20:51,792 If you're in close proximity to an explosive device, 396 00:20:51,917 --> 00:20:54,333 the amount of ways that it can actually kill you 397 00:20:54,417 --> 00:20:55,625 and hurt you are innumerable. 398 00:20:55,708 --> 00:20:57,750 You have the concussive forces, 399 00:20:57,875 --> 00:20:59,333 so you can rupture your eardrums. 400 00:20:59,458 --> 00:21:00,667 You can actually collapse your lung, 401 00:21:00,750 --> 00:21:02,500 cause something called a pneumothorax-- 402 00:21:02,583 --> 00:21:04,333 basically air around your lung. 403 00:21:04,458 --> 00:21:07,125 Then shards of what's flying at you, 404 00:21:07,208 --> 00:21:10,375 nails or pieces of wood or metal debris, 405 00:21:10,500 --> 00:21:14,750 they are basically flying objects that at a high velocity 406 00:21:14,875 --> 00:21:16,833 could puncture and go into your tissue. 407 00:21:16,958 --> 00:21:19,333 And then obviously, now you have all these open, gaping wounds. 408 00:21:19,500 --> 00:21:22,583 Narrator: That destructive force is unleashed 409 00:21:22,708 --> 00:21:25,083 in a graveyard in Mount Vernon, Ohio, 410 00:21:25,208 --> 00:21:28,375 on January 17th, 1881. 411 00:21:28,500 --> 00:21:31,000 Barton Myers: Three potential grave diggers 412 00:21:31,083 --> 00:21:32,458 are attempting to disturb 413 00:21:32,583 --> 00:21:34,792 the body of the recently deceased. 414 00:21:34,875 --> 00:21:38,542 They hit the coffin, triggering the torpedo. 415 00:21:38,708 --> 00:21:41,625 ( explosion ) 416 00:21:41,708 --> 00:21:45,375 One of the grave robbers, who we know as only Dipper, 417 00:21:45,542 --> 00:21:47,667 is killed outright by the device. 418 00:21:47,792 --> 00:21:50,375 A second grave robber has his legs broken. 419 00:21:50,542 --> 00:21:53,250 The third left to tell the tale 420 00:21:53,375 --> 00:21:55,417 of what actually occurred that night. 421 00:21:55,542 --> 00:21:59,333 This is the only documented case 422 00:21:59,417 --> 00:22:03,542 of a coffin torpedo actually being detonated. 423 00:22:03,667 --> 00:22:05,375 Narrator: But the coffin torpedo 424 00:22:05,542 --> 00:22:09,292 isn't the only explosive graveyard booby trap. 425 00:22:09,417 --> 00:22:11,667 Thomas Howell, in 1881, 426 00:22:11,792 --> 00:22:16,333 develops a different kind of coffin torpedo, 427 00:22:16,417 --> 00:22:18,333 but he calls it a grave torpedo. 428 00:22:18,417 --> 00:22:19,958 And it sits on top of the coffin, 429 00:22:20,042 --> 00:22:22,750 and any kind of jostling of the coffin 430 00:22:22,875 --> 00:22:25,750 after it's been buried sets it off to explode. 431 00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:34,292 And Thomas Howell took out rather ghoulish ads 432 00:22:34,417 --> 00:22:37,500 in the newspapers to advertise his device. 433 00:22:37,625 --> 00:22:39,542 One of the ads read, 434 00:22:39,667 --> 00:22:42,292 "Sleep well, sweet angel, 435 00:22:42,375 --> 00:22:45,417 let no fears of ghouls disturb thy rest, 436 00:22:45,542 --> 00:22:47,417 for above thy shrouded form 437 00:22:47,542 --> 00:22:51,125 lies a torpedo ready to make minced meat 438 00:22:51,250 --> 00:22:52,542 of anyone who attempts to convey you 439 00:22:52,667 --> 00:22:55,375 to the pickling vat." 440 00:22:55,542 --> 00:22:57,333 Narrator: By the end of the 19th century, 441 00:22:57,458 --> 00:23:00,042 body snatching starts to decline. 442 00:23:00,208 --> 00:23:03,375 Six states passed laws making it easier 443 00:23:03,500 --> 00:23:06,000 for medical schools to use unclaimed bodies. 444 00:23:06,083 --> 00:23:09,875 But it takes 30 more years for all of the states 445 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:12,083 to have enacted these laws 446 00:23:12,208 --> 00:23:15,875 that make the access to legal cadavers 447 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:22,958 much easier for the medical schools. 448 00:23:23,083 --> 00:23:25,750 Narrator: In 1862, the U.S. enters 449 00:23:25,875 --> 00:23:28,792 the second year of a bloody civil war. 450 00:23:28,875 --> 00:23:32,208 As Union soldiers push into southern territories, 451 00:23:32,333 --> 00:23:34,833 the Confederate Army seems outmatched. 452 00:23:34,958 --> 00:23:38,417 The Union Army and the northern states 453 00:23:38,542 --> 00:23:41,750 have a numerical advantage 454 00:23:41,875 --> 00:23:44,667 in just about every possible way you can imagine. 455 00:23:44,750 --> 00:23:47,583 The South is playing catch up in terms of resources, 456 00:23:47,708 --> 00:23:50,875 ordinance, powder, guns, weaponry. 457 00:23:51,042 --> 00:23:55,417 Narrator: Then a new Confederate general steps in. 458 00:23:55,542 --> 00:23:59,083 Gabriel Rains, he attended West Point. 459 00:23:59,208 --> 00:24:02,333 He had always been fascinated with explosive devices, 460 00:24:02,458 --> 00:24:07,083 gunpowder, how that technology could be used in warfare. 461 00:24:07,208 --> 00:24:10,333 Rains lived by a military maxim-- 462 00:24:10,458 --> 00:24:12,833 deception is the art of war. 463 00:24:12,917 --> 00:24:17,333 Narrator: This leads Rains to create a new type of device 464 00:24:17,417 --> 00:24:20,958 called the land torpedo. 465 00:24:23,583 --> 00:24:25,292 Made from a common artillery shell, 466 00:24:25,417 --> 00:24:27,250 it's filled with gunpowder 467 00:24:27,375 --> 00:24:30,333 and attached to a detonator. 468 00:24:30,417 --> 00:24:31,917 Once buried underground, 469 00:24:32,042 --> 00:24:34,750 when the detonator is touched directly, 470 00:24:34,875 --> 00:24:36,417 it explodes. 471 00:24:38,042 --> 00:24:40,833 It could also be detonated through a wire 472 00:24:40,917 --> 00:24:43,875 or a string being connected to the sensitive primer, 473 00:24:44,042 --> 00:24:46,583 and then subsequently to another object. 474 00:24:46,708 --> 00:24:51,083 And then if someone moved that object, 475 00:24:51,208 --> 00:24:52,792 it could detonate the primer 476 00:24:52,875 --> 00:24:55,458 and the subterra shell would explode. 477 00:24:57,375 --> 00:25:00,208 Narrator: Rains' booby traps are first used in Virginia 478 00:25:00,333 --> 00:25:01,917 in the spring of 1862, 479 00:25:02,042 --> 00:25:06,708 the start of a dark new era in modern warfare. 480 00:25:06,875 --> 00:25:09,625 The Battle of Yorktown in 1862. 481 00:25:09,750 --> 00:25:13,000 Confederates that are now being pushed to retreat 482 00:25:13,083 --> 00:25:15,750 fear that George McClellan, the Union general 483 00:25:15,875 --> 00:25:17,667 commanding the Army of the Potomac, 484 00:25:17,833 --> 00:25:19,083 is going to be able to overtake them quickly. 485 00:25:20,625 --> 00:25:25,000 On the evening of May 3rd, 1862, 486 00:25:25,125 --> 00:25:30,000 the Confederate Army is ordered to withdraw from Yorktown. 487 00:25:30,083 --> 00:25:32,833 As they're retreating, Gabriel Rains leaves 488 00:25:32,958 --> 00:25:36,000 a little present for the Union Army. 489 00:25:36,167 --> 00:25:41,917 He orders his men to begin planting subterra shells 490 00:25:42,042 --> 00:25:44,333 all over the position of Yorktown-- 491 00:25:44,458 --> 00:25:49,583 the parapets, the fortifications, in the city itself. 492 00:25:49,708 --> 00:25:54,625 They were bombs, hidden bombs, attached to everyday objects. 493 00:25:56,958 --> 00:25:59,833 Coffee pots, a pickaxe, a shovel. 494 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,000 Narrator: After the traps are set, 495 00:26:03,125 --> 00:26:04,958 Rains and his men leave Yorktown 496 00:26:05,042 --> 00:26:08,917 to join Confederate soldiers heading to Richmond. 497 00:26:09,042 --> 00:26:13,708 As the Union army arrived on May 4th, 1862, in Yorktown, 498 00:26:13,833 --> 00:26:18,667 the soldiers stumbled upon Rains' devices. 499 00:26:18,792 --> 00:26:20,958 Booby traps all over town. 500 00:26:21,042 --> 00:26:24,750 Greg Jackson: So as the Union troops come into the camp 501 00:26:24,875 --> 00:26:26,542 that the Confederates have fled, 502 00:26:26,667 --> 00:26:28,500 the Union army is gonna stop and see valuable goods. 503 00:26:28,583 --> 00:26:30,417 This is not a world of mass production. 504 00:26:30,542 --> 00:26:32,667 They're going to grab those items 505 00:26:32,792 --> 00:26:34,000 and confiscate them, bring them in 506 00:26:34,125 --> 00:26:37,333 to their own supply. 507 00:26:37,417 --> 00:26:39,375 As they're picking up coffee pots, 508 00:26:39,542 --> 00:26:41,833 they're picking up all sorts of supplies... 509 00:26:44,542 --> 00:26:46,542 ( explosion ) 510 00:26:46,667 --> 00:26:47,667 ...they're exploding. 511 00:26:47,833 --> 00:26:49,417 Things are going boom. 512 00:26:49,542 --> 00:26:51,333 ( explosion ) 513 00:26:51,458 --> 00:26:53,500 Several men are killed outright, 514 00:26:53,667 --> 00:26:58,042 another dozen are wounded by Rains' devices. 515 00:26:58,208 --> 00:27:02,167 Narrator: The Union Army's pursuit slows to a crawl 516 00:27:02,292 --> 00:27:05,833 and the Confederates successfully retreat to Richmond. 517 00:27:05,958 --> 00:27:10,750 But Rains' booby traps have a much bigger impact. 518 00:27:10,875 --> 00:27:15,167 The immediate reaction to the use of Rains' devices 519 00:27:15,292 --> 00:27:17,458 at Yorktown is negative. 520 00:27:17,542 --> 00:27:22,417 Both the Union and Confederate Army operated under the Articles of War 521 00:27:22,542 --> 00:27:24,833 at the beginning of the American Civil War. 522 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:27,875 And it was understood that acts of deception were allowed. 523 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:31,208 But perfidious acts, acts that were not 524 00:27:31,375 --> 00:27:34,833 to some tactical advantage or military objective, 525 00:27:34,958 --> 00:27:38,875 an act that would just kill or maim for no purpose, 526 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:41,792 those military acts were not permitted 527 00:27:41,875 --> 00:27:44,000 under the Articles of War. 528 00:27:44,125 --> 00:27:46,917 But we're at a point in American military history, 529 00:27:47,042 --> 00:27:48,875 in world military history, 530 00:27:49,042 --> 00:27:52,917 when the laws of war are very much in a state of flux. 531 00:27:54,500 --> 00:27:57,042 Then enters Francis Lieber, 532 00:27:57,208 --> 00:28:01,583 America's first political scientist and trained historian, 533 00:28:01,708 --> 00:28:05,833 a German emigre who had been in the United States for nearly 40 years. 534 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,833 Lieber eventually is going to be charged 535 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:11,167 by Abraham Lincoln and his administration 536 00:28:11,250 --> 00:28:14,250 for writing a new code for the laws of war. 537 00:28:14,375 --> 00:28:17,375 Greg Jackson: The importance of the Lieber Code 538 00:28:17,542 --> 00:28:19,083 really cannot be understated. 539 00:28:19,208 --> 00:28:21,292 This isn't something that happens in the 19th century 540 00:28:21,417 --> 00:28:22,667 and then fades out. 541 00:28:22,792 --> 00:28:23,667 It's really the building block 542 00:28:23,750 --> 00:28:24,667 that will continue 543 00:28:24,833 --> 00:28:26,000 to build our concepts 544 00:28:26,125 --> 00:28:27,375 of how warfare should be conducted, 545 00:28:27,542 --> 00:28:29,000 right into the 20th, 546 00:28:29,083 --> 00:28:30,542 and even into the 21st century. 547 00:28:30,667 --> 00:28:32,833 The future Geneva Conventions 548 00:28:32,958 --> 00:28:34,000 and so forth, those all-- 549 00:28:34,125 --> 00:28:36,667 at their core, if you will, 550 00:28:36,792 --> 00:28:38,667 the foundation that those were built upon, 551 00:28:38,792 --> 00:28:44,333 it's the Lieber Code. 552 00:28:44,458 --> 00:28:46,500 Narrator: As the Civil War rages on, 553 00:28:46,667 --> 00:28:50,333 the Confederacy continues using nefarious explosive devices. 554 00:28:54,792 --> 00:28:58,708 The most devious design of all debuts in 1864 555 00:28:58,833 --> 00:29:02,333 disguised as a simple lump of coal. 556 00:29:02,458 --> 00:29:04,875 Barton Myers: Another of the most sinister devices 557 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,042 designed by the Confederates during the course 558 00:29:08,208 --> 00:29:11,083 of the American Civil War was the coal torpedo. 559 00:29:11,208 --> 00:29:14,750 Its inventor, Thomas Edgeworth Courtenay, 560 00:29:14,875 --> 00:29:16,833 was born in Belfast, Ireland, 561 00:29:16,958 --> 00:29:18,917 and had emigrated to the United States. 562 00:29:19,042 --> 00:29:23,958 Coal torpedo is an ingenious form of camouflage sabotage, 563 00:29:24,083 --> 00:29:26,875 by taking a small iron canister filled with gunpowder 564 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:29,583 coated in a mixture of beeswax, 565 00:29:29,708 --> 00:29:31,167 pulverized coal, and coal tar. 566 00:29:31,333 --> 00:29:34,875 What this does is it makes this little tiny bomb 567 00:29:35,042 --> 00:29:36,417 look like a piece of coal. 568 00:29:39,833 --> 00:29:42,000 And when it's thrown into a big pile of coal, 569 00:29:42,125 --> 00:29:43,750 it's basically undetectable. 570 00:29:43,875 --> 00:29:46,000 Eventually, that coal 571 00:29:46,125 --> 00:29:47,958 will be shoveled into the boiler, 572 00:29:48,042 --> 00:29:49,583 and then instead of burning like a piece of coal, 573 00:29:49,708 --> 00:29:50,708 it explodes... 574 00:29:50,875 --> 00:29:53,000 ( explosion ) 575 00:29:53,125 --> 00:29:54,833 ...damaging whatever it is 576 00:29:54,917 --> 00:29:58,625 that the coal torpedo is put inside. 577 00:29:58,708 --> 00:30:01,500 This is at a time when coal powers 578 00:30:01,583 --> 00:30:04,125 almost any major piece of machinery. 579 00:30:04,250 --> 00:30:09,125 This left the Union Army incredibly vulnerable 580 00:30:09,208 --> 00:30:12,750 to this new deceptive technology. 581 00:30:12,875 --> 00:30:16,125 Narrator: On April 15th, 1864, 582 00:30:16,250 --> 00:30:19,250 that vulnerability is made clear 583 00:30:19,375 --> 00:30:22,000 aboard the USS Chenango, 584 00:30:22,167 --> 00:30:26,375 a 947-ton steamboat making its maiden voyage 585 00:30:26,500 --> 00:30:28,708 from New York to Virginia. 586 00:30:28,875 --> 00:30:31,083 The Chenango was a paddlewheel gunboat 587 00:30:31,208 --> 00:30:34,000 that was stationed in New York harbor. 588 00:30:34,083 --> 00:30:36,083 And before it even leaves the harbor, 589 00:30:36,208 --> 00:30:40,083 the steam boiler of the ship explodes. 590 00:30:42,500 --> 00:30:46,833 It kills 28 men, who are scalded to death 591 00:30:46,917 --> 00:30:49,417 by the steam boiler explosion. 592 00:30:49,542 --> 00:30:53,208 Eventually, Courtenay would take credit for this attack. 593 00:30:53,333 --> 00:30:56,417 The coal torpedo was successful. 594 00:30:56,542 --> 00:31:00,167 Narrator: The USS Chenango isn't the only ship 595 00:31:00,292 --> 00:31:02,375 targeted by Confederate stealth attacks. 596 00:31:02,500 --> 00:31:04,792 Barton Myers: On November 27th, 1864, 597 00:31:04,917 --> 00:31:09,750 the Greyhound was headed back down the river toward Fortress Monroe, 598 00:31:09,875 --> 00:31:13,917 and it had Admiral David Dixon Porter on board. 599 00:31:14,042 --> 00:31:17,000 As they're headed back down the river, the explosion 600 00:31:17,083 --> 00:31:20,833 of the Greyhound steam boiler occurs... 601 00:31:22,583 --> 00:31:25,208 ...sinking the Greyhound in a catastrophic manner. 602 00:31:25,333 --> 00:31:28,792 Admiral David Dixon Porter, who survived the attack, 603 00:31:28,917 --> 00:31:31,167 believed that the coal torpedo was the culprit, 604 00:31:31,333 --> 00:31:33,958 the technology that had sunk the Greyhound. 605 00:31:34,083 --> 00:31:37,542 Narrator: Ultimately, such tactics aren't enough 606 00:31:37,667 --> 00:31:39,958 to turn the tide of war. 607 00:31:40,083 --> 00:31:45,000 And in 1865, the South surrenders to the Union. 608 00:31:46,750 --> 00:31:50,500 But a precedent is set for using ordinary objects 609 00:31:50,583 --> 00:31:54,000 to hide deadly explosives, 610 00:31:54,083 --> 00:31:59,000 a practice that continues well into World War II. 611 00:31:59,125 --> 00:32:01,500 It's well known and established that during World War II 612 00:32:01,583 --> 00:32:06,125 both the Axis and Allies used some rather crafty 613 00:32:06,208 --> 00:32:08,458 and inventive ways to get at one another. 614 00:32:08,583 --> 00:32:12,500 Narrator: Evidence of this is uncovered in 2015 in England. 615 00:32:12,625 --> 00:32:15,333 Greg Jackson: Victoria Rothschild, she and her family 616 00:32:15,458 --> 00:32:19,333 are clearing out some old things in the house, 617 00:32:19,458 --> 00:32:22,917 and they come across something that belonged to her father. 618 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:26,917 Martin Morgan: Her father, Victor Rothschild, 619 00:32:27,042 --> 00:32:31,000 had been the head of MI-5 during World War II. 620 00:32:31,125 --> 00:32:33,208 And that, of course, was this counter-espionage 621 00:32:33,333 --> 00:32:35,333 element of the British government. 622 00:32:35,458 --> 00:32:38,833 Rothschild commissioned this self-taught artist 623 00:32:38,917 --> 00:32:41,375 named Laurence Fish to create these drawings 624 00:32:41,542 --> 00:32:44,167 so that they could have a guidebook 625 00:32:44,292 --> 00:32:47,167 that illustrated the types of booby traps the Germans were using. 626 00:32:47,292 --> 00:32:51,333 Narrator: Fish's drawings provide vivid proof 627 00:32:51,500 --> 00:32:56,500 of how far explosive booby traps have evolved since the Civil War. 628 00:32:56,625 --> 00:33:00,875 It was everything from a thermos that concealed an incendiary bomb 629 00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:05,333 to a British mess tin that had a false bottom to it 630 00:33:05,417 --> 00:33:09,917 that concealed an explosive charge beneath a meal of bangers and mash. 631 00:33:10,042 --> 00:33:13,167 Or a can of motor oil that had a false bottom 632 00:33:13,292 --> 00:33:15,417 and below it was an explosive charge. 633 00:33:15,542 --> 00:33:18,083 You could even pick it up and shake it, 634 00:33:18,208 --> 00:33:20,000 and it would sound like a can containing motor oil. 635 00:33:20,167 --> 00:33:23,958 There was even a plan to weaponize a chocolate bar. 636 00:33:25,583 --> 00:33:27,167 This was an exploding chocolate bar 637 00:33:27,292 --> 00:33:29,167 that detonated when you broke off a piece, 638 00:33:29,292 --> 00:33:31,167 and it was thought that this could be used 639 00:33:31,250 --> 00:33:32,750 to assassinate Winston Churchill 640 00:33:32,875 --> 00:33:34,583 because he was a bit of a sensualist 641 00:33:34,708 --> 00:33:36,458 and he had a taste for chocolate. 642 00:33:36,583 --> 00:33:38,500 And if you could slip one of these bars 643 00:33:38,667 --> 00:33:42,167 into his collection of chocolate, you might just get him. 644 00:33:42,292 --> 00:33:44,500 Narrator: While the Nazis are developing 645 00:33:44,583 --> 00:33:47,708 their cunning collection of booby traps, 646 00:33:47,833 --> 00:33:49,542 British intelligence is busy 647 00:33:49,667 --> 00:33:56,833 creating diabolical designs of their own. 648 00:33:56,958 --> 00:34:00,458 Narrator: 1941. 649 00:34:00,583 --> 00:34:04,333 Covert British agents enter Nazi occupied territory 650 00:34:04,458 --> 00:34:07,292 with a mission to sabotage enemy operations 651 00:34:07,375 --> 00:34:12,208 using secret devices worthy of James Bond himself. 652 00:34:12,375 --> 00:34:14,583 Now the Nazis aren't the only ones who can think outside the box. 653 00:34:14,708 --> 00:34:16,833 And the Allies, the British in particular, 654 00:34:16,917 --> 00:34:18,417 they're doing the same. 655 00:34:18,542 --> 00:34:21,625 So with a mandate from the prime minister 656 00:34:21,708 --> 00:34:24,167 to set Europe ablaze, 657 00:34:24,292 --> 00:34:26,458 we have British officers that are behind enemy lines 658 00:34:26,583 --> 00:34:30,167 doing their best to use incognito booby-trapped items 659 00:34:30,250 --> 00:34:32,083 to disrupt the German war effort. 660 00:34:32,208 --> 00:34:33,833 Announcer: Then there's the hollowed-out book. 661 00:34:33,958 --> 00:34:36,167 It detonates immediately when the book is picked up. 662 00:34:36,292 --> 00:34:39,208 The items that were being used ranged from an explosive 663 00:34:39,333 --> 00:34:41,250 that was disguised as a bar of soap, 664 00:34:41,375 --> 00:34:44,667 or an explosive disguised inside a pack of cigarettes. 665 00:34:44,792 --> 00:34:47,542 Announcer: Here, the trap is being set in a motorcycle. 666 00:34:47,708 --> 00:34:51,000 Anyone sitting on the saddle is in danger of instant death. 667 00:34:51,083 --> 00:34:53,583 Just about anything that didn't look dangerous 668 00:34:53,708 --> 00:34:58,125 could be made into something that was in the end actually very dangerous. 669 00:34:58,250 --> 00:35:00,125 Narrator: But the most exotic booby trap 670 00:35:00,208 --> 00:35:03,458 the British come up with sounds insane-- 671 00:35:03,583 --> 00:35:05,792 the explosive rat. 672 00:35:08,042 --> 00:35:10,500 The plan was they'd take a couple of hundred rat carcasses, 673 00:35:10,625 --> 00:35:15,833 they would insert small doses of plastic explosive underneath the skin. 674 00:35:15,917 --> 00:35:18,917 And then that rat would be put into German occupied territory, 675 00:35:19,042 --> 00:35:22,083 like in a plant or a factory. 676 00:35:22,208 --> 00:35:23,667 The practice at the time was that if you're 677 00:35:23,792 --> 00:35:26,750 loading a furnace and you see a dead rat, well, 678 00:35:26,875 --> 00:35:30,000 you pick it up by its tail, fling it into the furnace. 679 00:35:30,167 --> 00:35:33,000 That's a good way to get rid of this dead rodent. 680 00:35:33,125 --> 00:35:38,500 So the thinking was that if you could turn dead rats into an explosive, 681 00:35:38,625 --> 00:35:42,750 this could be a great way to disrupt German supply lines and manufacturing. 682 00:35:42,875 --> 00:35:45,000 ( explosion ) 683 00:35:45,083 --> 00:35:47,292 This is how bonkers World War II could be. 684 00:35:47,375 --> 00:35:52,500 You had smart people that imagined the weaponization of the Norwegian roof rat. 685 00:35:52,667 --> 00:35:54,333 By the time that the project was over with, 686 00:35:54,500 --> 00:35:56,708 it had accomplished nothing. 687 00:35:56,875 --> 00:35:58,333 The first consignment of rats 688 00:35:58,458 --> 00:36:00,417 was intercepted by the Germans 689 00:36:00,542 --> 00:36:02,167 and none of them caused any damage to anything. 690 00:36:02,292 --> 00:36:03,667 Narrator: But the Brits' mission 691 00:36:03,833 --> 00:36:05,917 is not a complete failure. 692 00:36:06,042 --> 00:36:11,583 The Germans realized, okay, they're putting explosives in rats now. 693 00:36:11,708 --> 00:36:15,833 We need to be on the lookout for any rat carcasses. 694 00:36:15,958 --> 00:36:19,000 So, the Germans from that day forward, then suddenly had to look 695 00:36:19,083 --> 00:36:21,708 at every dead rat carcass with suspicion. 696 00:36:21,875 --> 00:36:25,833 Because after all, they might be bearing explosives into the factory. 697 00:36:25,917 --> 00:36:27,125 So be cautious with them. 698 00:36:27,208 --> 00:36:28,375 Announcer: The effect of setting 699 00:36:28,500 --> 00:36:29,958 booby traps in an area 700 00:36:30,083 --> 00:36:32,000 is that troops occupying that area 701 00:36:32,083 --> 00:36:33,125 will have to examine everything 702 00:36:33,208 --> 00:36:34,417 before touching any object 703 00:36:34,542 --> 00:36:36,125 or entering any buildings. 704 00:36:36,208 --> 00:36:38,042 This will tend to slow up considerably 705 00:36:38,167 --> 00:36:39,333 their rate of advance. 706 00:36:39,500 --> 00:36:40,917 As it turns out, the whole thing 707 00:36:41,042 --> 00:36:42,917 is a great waste of German resources, 708 00:36:43,042 --> 00:36:47,375 greater than if rats had actually been thrown into boilers. 709 00:36:47,500 --> 00:36:49,500 The Germans spending all of this time 710 00:36:49,625 --> 00:36:51,125 and wasting all of this effort 711 00:36:51,208 --> 00:36:53,917 being concerned with dead rats 712 00:36:54,042 --> 00:36:56,208 was a better use of the weapon 713 00:36:56,375 --> 00:36:59,708 than the explosives in the dead rats to begin with. 714 00:36:59,833 --> 00:37:03,667 Narrator: While the British are busy hiding bombs in rats, 715 00:37:03,833 --> 00:37:07,917 across the pond, an American dentist named Lytle Adams 716 00:37:08,042 --> 00:37:10,167 envisions an explosive contraption 717 00:37:10,250 --> 00:37:13,333 that's even more bizarre. 718 00:37:13,500 --> 00:37:16,042 Martin Morgan: On Sunday, December 7th, 1941, 719 00:37:16,167 --> 00:37:19,833 Lytle Adams had been on a hike in a cave 720 00:37:19,958 --> 00:37:22,208 where he was admiring bats. 721 00:37:22,375 --> 00:37:24,625 Later that day, he learned of the Japanese attack 722 00:37:24,708 --> 00:37:29,208 on the fleet anchorage at Pearl Harbor in the territory of Hawaii, 723 00:37:29,333 --> 00:37:31,250 and that's where the idea first came to life. 724 00:37:31,375 --> 00:37:35,792 The idea of, "What if we could somehow weaponize bats?" 725 00:37:35,875 --> 00:37:39,417 Because once bats move into something like a cave, 726 00:37:39,542 --> 00:37:42,167 it's really not possible to get them out. 727 00:37:42,333 --> 00:37:46,333 It just so happens that Lytle Adams is acquainted with Eleanor Roosevelt. 728 00:37:46,458 --> 00:37:48,458 And because he has her ear, 729 00:37:48,542 --> 00:37:51,167 he pitches the plan about the bat bomb. 730 00:37:51,292 --> 00:37:55,167 Narrator: The bat bomb is an empty bomb casing 731 00:37:55,333 --> 00:37:57,875 filled with over a thousand sleeping bats, 732 00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:01,417 each with a small explosive tied to its leg. 733 00:38:01,542 --> 00:38:03,333 As the bomb is dropped from a plane, 734 00:38:03,458 --> 00:38:08,000 the casing opens, releasing the bats. 735 00:38:08,167 --> 00:38:09,667 The idea is as they would be falling, 736 00:38:09,750 --> 00:38:12,333 they would wake up, and once they woke up, 737 00:38:12,458 --> 00:38:14,167 they would then use their natural nesting instinct 738 00:38:14,250 --> 00:38:16,333 to find places to rest. 739 00:38:16,458 --> 00:38:19,500 At some point, the bats would chew off the charges, 740 00:38:19,625 --> 00:38:22,917 which had a time delay fuse on them, igniting it, 741 00:38:23,042 --> 00:38:26,833 and causing a large-scale fire wherever the bats would nest. 742 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:32,667 And we have to remember that Japanese architecture is very heavily wooden. Paper. 743 00:38:32,833 --> 00:38:35,167 Bamboo, very flammable materials. 744 00:38:35,292 --> 00:38:37,917 You now have a thousand bats starting to roost 745 00:38:38,042 --> 00:38:41,708 in the eaves of these very wooden and paper buildings. 746 00:38:41,875 --> 00:38:43,250 Well, when they explode, 747 00:38:43,375 --> 00:38:46,042 you're going to cause a thousand-plus fires 748 00:38:46,167 --> 00:38:49,375 all over this very flammable city. 749 00:38:51,333 --> 00:38:53,583 Narrator: The bold idea shockingly becomes 750 00:38:53,708 --> 00:38:56,167 an official U.S. government research experiment 751 00:38:56,333 --> 00:39:00,417 eventually known as Project X-Ray. 752 00:39:00,542 --> 00:39:02,083 This project was no joke. 753 00:39:02,208 --> 00:39:04,417 It fell under the auspices of the U.S. Army Air Force. 754 00:39:04,542 --> 00:39:08,750 Narrator: In 1943, it moves into the testing phase 755 00:39:08,875 --> 00:39:12,667 at remote sites in California and New Mexico. 756 00:39:12,792 --> 00:39:16,167 The testing of the bat bomb program, it doesn't go well. 757 00:39:16,250 --> 00:39:19,333 During a test at Carlsbad's Army Airfield, 758 00:39:19,417 --> 00:39:21,333 six bats get dropped a little early. 759 00:39:21,500 --> 00:39:24,083 They end up lighting buildings on fire. 760 00:39:24,208 --> 00:39:26,167 They light a general's car on fire. 761 00:39:26,333 --> 00:39:28,458 And this really sounds like a disaster, 762 00:39:28,542 --> 00:39:30,458 except the whole point to this is to be destructive. 763 00:39:30,583 --> 00:39:32,792 So, in a weird way, 764 00:39:32,917 --> 00:39:35,917 the disaster of these fires only proves to the Air Forces 765 00:39:36,042 --> 00:39:38,375 that they're going in the right direction, 766 00:39:38,500 --> 00:39:40,542 they should continue to pursue the project. 767 00:39:40,708 --> 00:39:42,583 The bat bomb project is transferred to the Navy. 768 00:39:42,708 --> 00:39:45,917 The project remains alive, and the U.S. Navy continues 769 00:39:46,042 --> 00:39:47,917 the further development of the bat bomb program 770 00:39:48,042 --> 00:39:50,667 until ultimately the chief of naval operations 771 00:39:50,792 --> 00:39:53,750 Ernest J. King cancels the entire project. 772 00:39:55,958 --> 00:39:59,417 Narrator: In 1944, after investing two years 773 00:39:59,542 --> 00:40:04,292 and two million dollars, Project X-Ray is dead. 774 00:40:04,417 --> 00:40:07,125 Among the reasons, the U.S. must focus on 775 00:40:07,250 --> 00:40:09,542 a far more frightening weapon-- 776 00:40:09,667 --> 00:40:12,625 the Manhattan Project's atomic bomb. 777 00:40:17,542 --> 00:40:20,333 Booby traps, weapons that wait, 778 00:40:20,458 --> 00:40:22,333 infernal machines. 779 00:40:22,458 --> 00:40:24,958 - ( explosion ) - Whatever name they're given, 780 00:40:25,042 --> 00:40:26,833 these deadly contraptions 781 00:40:26,958 --> 00:40:29,917 have left their devilish mark on history. 782 00:40:30,042 --> 00:40:33,917 They're a testament to the dark side of human ingenuity, 783 00:40:34,042 --> 00:40:39,042 limited only by the twisted imaginations of their creators.