On this episode of "Expedition Files"...
[hawk screeches]
Meriwether Lewis lives a life of acclaim
as one of America's greatest explorers
leading the Lewis and Clark expedition.
When he dies by apparent suicide...
[woman] Oh, my God!
[Josh] ...many are in disbelief,
wondering if it was, in fact, murder.
Now we share the tragic truth.
Then, in 1961, leader of the United Nations,
Dag Hammarskjöld is on a peace mission to a war zone when
his plane mysteriously crashes.
[explosion blasts]
The official account says this was an accident,
but recently uncovered evidence
suggests something much more sinister.
[gavel bangs]
And New York Supreme Court Judge Joseph Crater is riding
high as the toast of 1930s Manhattan, but then suddenly
disappears forever.
A century later, long-hidden evidence suggests the true fate
of the person once known
as the "Missingest Man in New York."
In the corridors of time...
are mysteries that defy explanation.
Now, I'm traveling through history itself...
on a search for the truth.
New evidence.
Shocking answers.
I'm Josh Gates.
And these...
are my "Expedition Files."
Colonel Mustard in the study with the candlestick.
Who doesn't love the board game, Clue?
There's nothing more satisfying than solving
a clear-cut case of whodunit.
But once you're outside of the world's most dangerous
mansion, solving whodunits is sadly far from simple.
But tonight, we'll try to play the real-world blame game
anyway, rolling the dice to work out who's responsible in
three historic murder mysteries.
Hopefully, it won't be Miss Scarlet.
She's my favorite.
We begin in 1809, in the dead of night,
outside a Tennessee roadside inn.
The wilderness is quiet, but then the calm is broken
by the desperate calls of a dying man.
Help!
Water, please!
This is Meriwether Lewis, famed explorer from
the Lewis and Clark expedition, and he's just been shot.
Was he robbed, assassinated, or are his two
gunshot wounds self-inflicted?
He struggles back inside his cabin, where he will soon
succumb to his fate.
And with no witnesses and no arrests, conspiracy theories
surrounding his death will linger for over 200 years,
that is, until 2025, when a research team claims
they have definitively explained the mysterious death
of one of America's great heroes.
[hawk screeches]
Growing up on his stepfather's estate in rural Georgia,
Meriwether Lewis spends his early years not in school,
but instead mastering the skills of an outdoorsman,
fostering a lifelong love of natural history.
In 1795, at the age of 21, he joins the army.
It's here that he first meets and forges a bond with
his future partner, William Clark.
The two men serve together on the Western frontier.
Lewis rises to the rank of captain
before leaving the army in 1801.
At age 27, he becomes Thomas Jefferson's personal secretary,
working directly with Jefferson on military intelligence.
And we will be back as far as...
[Josh] Jefferson has set his sights on expanding
US territory to the Pacific.
In 1803, he completes
the Louisiana Purchase, acquiring French-controlled
land for $15 million, a bargain that nearly doubles
the nation's size.
To explore the vast, uncharted Western Territory,
Jefferson selects Lewis to lead the expedition.
I will.
[Josh] Lewis' mission is nothing short of monumental--
chart a route from St. Louis to the West Coast, forge alliances
with native tribes, make detailed maps,
and document unknown flora and fauna.
No big deal.
Knowing he can't do it alone, Lewis turns to an old
army comrade, William Clark, to share command.
Together, they form the Corps of Discovery, with a mission to
traverse nearly 4,000 miles of rivers, plains and mountains,
currently blank spaces on American maps.
[triumphant music plays]
Lewis and Clark, along with a party of more than 40,
depart St. Louis in 1804, beginning an epic trek to
the Pacific Coast and back again.
The journey is harrowing, but the group soldiers on,
surviving in no small part due to their Native American
guide Sacagawea, who manages the first part of
the journey pregnant and the rest with a baby
on her chest.
Along the way, Lewis and Clark carefully
document their discoveries.
They return with scientific samples and detailed maps that
transform America's understanding of
the Western frontier.
[indistinct chatter]
[Josh] Lewis is appointed governor of the newly explored
Louisiana Territory.
But the position comes with serious challenges,
and in accepting it, Lewis also inherits a bitter enemy.
That's because to make Lewis governor, Jefferson has to fire
the man currently in the post, James Wilkinson.
Now responsible for almost a million square miles of land,
Meriwether Lewis faces a challenging undertaking that
pushes him to his limits.
It turns out, governing the untamed Louisiana territory
is far more difficult than exploring it.
[indistinct chatter]
[Josh] Supplying the growing outposts with horses and equipment
requires large sums of money,
much of it advanced personally by Lewis.
The expenses quickly add up, and he accumulates significant
debts while serving as governor.
Lewis seeks reimbursement from the federal government.
But by this time, Thomas Jefferson
has left office.
The new president, James Madison, is less
responsive, and payment is delayed.
This sends Lewis into a spiral of depression and anger,
worsened by what many describe as a heavy drinking problem.
How am I supposed to be governor
if I don't get money from the government?
I can't do this.
In September of 1809, the disgruntled Lewis feels
that he has no choice but to travel back to Washington to
try to recover the money he believes he's owed.
It's a journey which he won't survive.
Lewis travels over 300 miles on horseback, arriving at
the inn known as Grinder's Stand in Tennessee a month later.
That night, he asks for his dinner to be brought
to the cabin where he's staying alone.
Once he's finished, he heads to bed without incident.
But then, during the night, innkeeper Priscilla Grinder is
awoken by the sounds of two gunshots
emanating from Lewis' room.
[gunshot blasts]
But she's too terrified to investigate.
At first light, a servant and Mrs. Grinder
go to check on Lewis, only to find him fatally
wounded by two bullets, one to his head and one to his body.
He dies soon after.
On October 20th, a Nashville paper breaks
the news of Lewis' suicide.
He's buried not far from Grinder's Stand.
But hold on.
We're in the era of single-shot flintlock guns.
So how does one man manage to shoot himself twice?
Plus, an examination of Lewis' body reveals cuts on his neck,
arm and leg. Could those be defense wounds?
And there's more.
Supposedly, some of Lewis' money is missing.
Add to all of this the fact that Grinder's Stand sits in
the heart of bandit country, and locals start to say that
his death has all the hallmarks of a robbery gone wrong.
In 1848, the state of Tennessee exhumes Lewis' grave
in order to rebury him alongside an official monument.
As part of this process, they do a medical examination.
Something that didn't take place
immediately after his death.
A local doctor reportedly noted that one gunshot wound appeared
to be in the back of his head,
an unlikely scenario for suicide.
The exam concluded it was, quote, "more probable that
he died at the hands of an assassin."
But who would have wanted to kill him?
Some speculate it was a robbery.
He died along a route that was
notorious at the time for bandit attacks.
[loud cracking]
- [man roars] - [gunshot blasts]
[gunshot blasts]
[Josh] Others point to James Wilkinson,
the disgruntled former governor Lewis had replaced, whom Lewis
had allegedly exposed in illegal land deals
in St. Louis.
What is clear is this--
Meriwether Lewis had enemies,
and some had reason to want him dead,
leading some to believe that Lewis' death was not a suicide
at all, but a calculated act of revenge.
[gunshot blasts]
[Josh] Nearly 40 years after Meriwether Lewis' death,
a medical examination raises suspicions that he may have
been murdered rather than died by suicide.
But no suspects are ever investigated.
Today, Lewis' body remains uninvestigated by
modern forensics.
Academics instead turn to the historical record
in search of answers.
In 2021, physician David Peck and his wife,
clinical psychologist Martie Peck, publish a new book
reinvestigating the case.
[David] Death of Meriwether Lewis is highly controversial.
Was he murdered by somebody or robbed and murdered?
[Martie] In our book, I create a psychological profile of
Lewis' personality.
Essentially, Meriwether Lewis
had a genetic predisposition to depression.
Only three years after the expedition ended,
Lewis descended into
a pit of depression and despair
because things really shifted overnight
with the change of presidential
administrations and with his appointment as governor.
And then, with the bottom dropping out of none of
his efforts being supported,
that just drove him further downward.
After considering all of the theories that are put forth
about Lewis' death, we think that the evidence is
absolutely overwhelming that he committed suicide.
[Josh] But what about the 1848 medical report that concluded
Lewis was likely assassinated,
referencing a gunshot wound to the back of his head?
That finding may be flawed.
By modern standards, the exam is considered
unreliable because the remains were severely decomposed,
making it impossible to determine soft tissue damage
or the bullet's exact entry angles.
There are also other plausible explanations for the so-called
"defense wounds."
Lewis had just ridden nearly 300 miles through
the wilderness, leaving him exhausted and possibly injured.
Or the cuts found on his body could have been self-harm.
So perhaps Lewis really did kill himself,
botching the first shot by grazing his head,
then finishing the job with a shot to the body.
Experts that I consulted, forensic pathologists,
vascular trauma surgeons, all said that they're not even
surprised that Lewis survived those wounds for two hours.
Meriwether Lewis was traveling with a brace of two pistols,
which would account for the two shots.
[two gunshots blast]
He would have simply held the gun up to his chest
like this and pulled the trigger and/or shot himself in the head
in the same manner.
It's not something that would be difficult to do.
The Pecks point to a document that may further prove
their case that Meriwether Lewis committed suicide.
Lewis' will, written right before he died.
[Martie] En route to Fort Pickering,
he wrote a will, a second will,
because his first will, apparently,
William Clark was his executor.
But writing a will like that very shortly before
one would die is not something that would be considered
a typical thing to do unless, on some level, a person was
considering killing himself.
[Josh] In that second will, Lewis replaced Clark and left
his estate to his mother, an unexpected decision that
adds to the mystery of his final days.
[David] I think the end for Meriwether Lewis came when it did,
in part because he was by himself.
And his best friend in life,
William Clark, wasn't there for him.
And he was on his way back to Washington to face a hostile
political environment.
And he also had returned to drinking.
And I think that the effects of that was too much for him.
And I think the opportunity to kill himself presented itself,
and the demons knocked on his door, and Meriwether Lewis
answered the door.
When William Clark found out about Lewis' death,
he lamented, "I fear the weight of his mind has overcome him."
The Pecks believe Clark's instincts were right and that
Meriwether Lewis committed suicide.
But let's remind ourselves, this is still just a theory.
No one saw Lewis get shot or do the shooting.
While the cause of Meriwether Lewis' death
may be in doubt, the cause of his life isn't.
Lewis was devoted to his country,
and without his bravery and selflessness, we may never
have come to know the United States of America
as we do today.
It's September 17th, 1961.
It's just before 4 p.m.
I'm in the Republic of the Congo in Africa as
a Douglas DC-6 readies for takeoff.
It's waiting for this man, who's embarking on a secret mission.
His name is Dag Hammarskjöld, the Swedish Secretary-General
of the United Nations.
He is the most powerful diplomat on Earth.
And right now, he's racing to stop a civil war from tearing
the Congo apart.
But with billions in resources and Cold War interests at
stake, powerful forces are betting against him.
And in just a few hours, this plane will crash
and Hammarskjöld will be dead.
Authorities will blame pilot error.
But was it really an accident or an ambush in the skies?
Strap in.
We're heading for some serious turbulence.
In 1953, Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld becomes
the UN's second Secretary-General.
Hammarskjöld brings charisma, idealism,
and practicality to the role, believing the organization can
hold a divided world together.
In Africa, he faces his greatest test
and his most dangerous mission.
[crowd roaring distantly]
[Josh] After decades of Belgian rule, the Congo gains independence
in 1960, but quickly begins to fall apart as foreign powers
compete for its mineral wealth.
Its richest province, Katanga, tries to break away,
with Belgium accused of supporting the split.
Hammarskjöld sees this as a threat to the country's
survival and moves to keep the Congo united.
But the UN mission grows increasingly controversial.
By September 1961, fighting escalates.
Civilians are caught in the crossfire,
and tensions rise with Western governments over how
the situation is being handled.
Determined to stop the crisis, Hammarskjöld secretly arranges
is a meeting with Katangan leader Molïse Tshombe.
in British-controlled Northern Rhodesia
on September 18th.
On the afternoon of September 17th,
he boards a DC-6 named Albertina,
with a crew of seven and eight UN aides
and security personnel, led by 36-year-old
American Sergeant, Harold Julien.
But they will never arrive at their destination.
Here are the facts.
Shortly after midnight on September 18th,
Hammarskjöld's plane, the Albertina, crashes in
Congo's neighboring nation of Rhodesia, roughly nine miles
from the Ndola airport runway.
Fifteen hours later, search and rescue teams finally
reach the crash site around 3 p.m.
Of the 16 people aboard, 15 are already dead,
including Dag Hammarskjöld.
[man coughing]
[Josh] Amazingly, one man survives.
Security officer Harold Julien is badly burned
and barely breathing.
According to the accounts of the first responders,
Dag Hammarskjöld lies just beyond the fuselage,
on his back, clothes intact, oddly untouched by fire.
The rest of the victims are charred almost
beyond recognition.
News of the tragedy shocks the world.
Dag Hammarskjöld is mourned for his leadership and his belief
that diplomacy could heal a broken world.
I know that I'm speaking for all of my fellow Americans,
expressing our deep sense of shock and loss in the untimely
death of the Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Mr. Dag Hammarskjöld.
[Josh] After Hammarskjöld's death,
violence in Katanga escalates, forcing the UN
to launch one of its largest military operations, made up of
international troops from member nations.
Thousands move in, but it takes nearly a year and a half of
heavy fighting to end the secession.
Dag's UN mission to prevent
civil war in the Congo ultimately succeeds,
but he loses his life in the process.
And many wonder whether his death was truly an accident
or a deliberate attempt to stop peacekeeping efforts.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, the government of
Northern Rhodesia launches an inquiry.
Their conclusion? Pilot error.
According to the official version, the crew of
the Albertina navigating without radar in darkness
toward an unfamiliar airstrip simply
misjudged their altitude.
The plane clipped trees, broke apart, and crashed.
So, case closed? Not so fast.
That's because the sole survivor of the crash tells
a different story.
And it could blow the pilot error theory wide open.
[Josh] Dag Hammarskjöld's plane crash is originally dismissed as
an accident caused by pilot error.
But one eyewitness' account calls that into question.
[coughs]
[Josh] Against all odds, lone survivor,
UN Security Officer Harold Julien,
has made it out of the crash
and lies in a hospital bed,
badly burned and gravely injured.
There was a big explosion...
[Josh] In brief moments of consciousness, Harold describes
the plane exploding midair, quote, "a lot of small
explosions around," he says.
...there was a big explosion...
[Josh] But if the crash was simply the result of navigational
error, why were there explosions before impact?
[indistinct chatter]
[Josh] He clings to life for five days before succumbing to
his injuries at Ndola Hospital on September 23rd.
In their final report, Rhodesian authorities dismiss
his testimony as the confused ramblings of a dying man.
Officials also hear from local witnesses who claim a second,
smaller plane was flying above Hammarskjöld's
aircraft as it circled Ndola Airport that night.
Several report loud explosions and say the Albertina burst
into flames before crashing, raising the possibility that
the plane was shot down.
Perhaps strangest of all, despite hundreds of photos
taken at the crash site, the only images show him
already laid out on a stretcher.
Why was his body moved before he was photographed?
And in one photo, some believe an Ace of Spades
playing card can be seen tucked into Dag's collar,
interpreted as a death card or a calling card
from an assassin.
In 1962, the UN launches its own investigation.
Using evidence collected for the Rhodesian report,
the UN investigators call out the sloppy search
and rescue operation.
Why, they ask, did it take 15 hours to locate
a fiery plane crash only nine miles from the airport?
But the UN Commission fails to find any evidence of sabotage
or attack, saying the possible scenarios for the crash include
pilot error and mechanical malfunction.
It's a conclusion that doesn't exactly inspire confidence,
but it's the final official word on the crash
for half a century.
Over the years, countless conspiracy theories swirl.
Fingers are pointed in all directions.
The Soviets, the British, South Africa, even the US
is suspected of orchestrating the crash.
All these nations had a stake in the Congo in the early
1960s, but for the next four decades, no evidence emerges to
prove any of them are responsible.
Then, in the 2000s, a group of independent researchers uncover
recently declassified documents
and speak to newly found witnesses.
These findings push the United Nations to finally take action.
At the center of this unraveling mystery is
journalist Ravi Somaiya, who has spent years chasing
the story for his book, "The Golden Thread."
[Ravi] In the 2010s, the UN itself reopened the inquiry,
and it's unearthed significant new details.
One of the things the United Nations discovered is that
America had a plane parked near Ndola Airfield, but this plane
was a mobile relay station for picking up signals
and transmitting them to NSA and other listening stations
around the world.
So, unbeknownst to the UN at the time, the US
had a spy plane on the ground in Ndola tasked with
intercepting foreign aircraft communication, possibly
even Hammarskjöld's.
One of the reasons America has been keeping a lot of secrets
is it doesn't want to admit that it's spying on
the United Nations.
You're not really supposed to do that.
Now, decades later, former American intelligence
officers have stepped forward to reveal for the first time
what that spy plane may have overheard that fateful night.
On the night that Hammarskjöld's plane went down, there was
an operative for the NSA called Charles Southall.
He was stationed in Cyprus.
He heard radio communications which suggested a second plane
was in the sky and targeting the Albertina.
And then he said he heard the sound of gunfire.
And then someone said,
"I've hit it. It's going down," effectively.
A second plane in the air. So who was flying it?
In 1961, surely there weren't a lot of planes in rural Africa
capable of taking down a DC-6.
But it turns out one side of the conflict had exactly that,
the Katanganese forces, who were determined to keep
their mineral-rich region away from the newly independent
Congo nation and directly opposing UN efforts to
reunify the country.
Their jet, known as a Fouga Magister,
had twin machine guns and carried two bombs per mission.
It wreaked havoc on the UN, bombing and strafing
its ground forces in the Congo and crippling
their cargo supply.
This Fouga jet fighter was so infamous that Hammarskjöld was,
in fact, writing really stern letters begging for help to try
and get this jet fighter out of the air.
It was really the bane of the existence
of the United Nations in Katanga.
And there's also significant evidence that a Belgian
mercenary pilot was flying this plane.
[Josh] Yes, investigators suspect a half-Belgian,
half-British, pilot named Jan van Risseghem was the man
who shot down Dag.
A U.S. State Department memo,
dated just two days after the crash,
but only declassified in 2014, states Hammarskjöld may have
been shot down and lists Jan van Risseghem by name.
He's now a central figure in
the renewed UN investigation.
When investigators examined his logbooks,
they noticed something strange, the pages covering the days
around Hammarskjöld's death looked different, written in
a different handwriting and stamped unlike the rest,
raising suspicions that they had been altered to hide
that pilot Jan van Risseghem was flying near Hammarskjöld's
plane the night it crashed.
Van Risseghem died in 2007,
taking any secrets to the grave.
Then, in October 2024,
the UN released a bombshell report
reversing its 1962 findings,
saying there is persuasive evidence Hammarskjöld's plane
was deliberately brought down and urging the US and Britain
to release their classified files.
It now seems likely that Dag Hammarskjöld's plane
was shot down, possibly by forces
who saw the UN as a direct threat
to Katanga's independence.
And we even have the name of the most likely suspect.
Over 60 years later, the UN investigation is still
underway and new information could still develop,
proving that those responsible for the plane crash may have
ended Hammarskjöld's life, but not his mission.
[big band jazz plays]
It's August 6th, 1930, and I'm in Manhattan
at Billy Haas' Chop House, said to be
the best steak in the city, by the way.
And dining right over there is another superlative,
the most famous guy in town, Joseph Force Crater,
a New York Supreme Court Justice
and political power player.
What happens next will become the talk of the Big Apple,
because after dinner, Judge Crater leaves this
restaurant and will never be seen again.
His disappearance sparks one of the largest manhunts in
American history, a search that turns up no body
and no solid suspects.
For 75 years, the mystery will remain unsolved until a series
of shocking revelations reveal the scandalous truth behind
the so-called "Missingest Man in New York."
Born in 1889 in Easton, Pennsylvania,
Joseph Force Crater seems destined for success.
His family builds a prosperous business running
a grocery store and surrounding orchards.
But Joe Crater is not content to inherit
the family enterprise.
Smart and driven, stands out early, graduating at the top of
his class before moving to New York City
to attend Columbia Law School.
In 1916, Crater opens a law practice in New York's
Financial District, determined to make his mark on
the city that never sleeps.
At the same time, he plugs into the city's political machinery,
joining the Cayuga Democratic Club.
There, he helps organize voters, pours countless hours
into election law cases,
and begins building the connections that
will quietly shape his rise.
Over time, he becomes deeply embedded with the Cayuga Club's
powerful parent organization, Tammany Hall.
Founded in 1786, Tammany Hall is a political machine,
a tightly run Democratic Party organization that controls
jobs, favors, and elections
across New York City.
For nearly two centuries, it dominates city politics.
If you want a Democratic nomination,
you go through Tammany.
And if you want influence, you better play by its rules.
As Crater rises through Tammany Hall, he embraces its perks.
By night, he dives into Jazz Age Manhattan,
lavish dinners, Broadway shows, and Harlem clubs,
quickly earning a reputation as a playboy.
He mingles with chorus girls, escorts, and underworld figures
like Arnold Rothstein
and Jack "Legs" Diamond.
Meanwhile, his legal career is surging.
He soon lands a coveted post as law secretary to a powerful
New York justice, opening the door to the city's
backroom power deals.
And in 1930, Joseph Force Crater makes
his boldest move yet. He hands over
a $22,500-contribution to Tammany Hall,
more than 400 grand today.
Where did Crater get such a huge sum of money?
Could it be from organized crime?
Did Crater do a deal with the devil?
[Josh] In 1930s New York, Joseph Crater stands at
the height of his career, a symbol of success in
an iconic city.
But behind the polished image, backroom deals and friendships
with notorious gangsters raise an unsettling question.
Was Crater's rise earned or bought?
Crater now holds a coveted seat on New York's
Supreme Court, appointed to the bench
by then governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.
He has made it to the top of the New York totem pole.
With a 14-year term on the bench, he now has the power
to sway politics in the wealthiest city
in the nation.
But despite seeming to have it all, Crater soon starts
behaving erratically.
It begins in 1930 on a vacation in Maine
with his wife, Stella.
On August 3rd, Crater receives a phone call from
out of the blue.
Shortly after, he hangs up and leaves Stella in
their cabin, promising to return in a few days to
celebrate her birthday on the 9th.
It's a promise he'll never keep.
When Crater arrives back in New York,
he goes straight to his chambers at the courthouse.
His assistant, Joseph Mara, is surprised to see him.
Judge, I wasn't expecting you so-- so soon.
[Josh] Mara says Crater is acting strange and secretive,
going through his files, destroying documents,
and removing others.
He also asks Mara to cash
two checks totaling the equivalent of $100,000 today.
A few days later, on August 6th, Judge Crater goes to that
fateful dinner at Haas' Chop House alongside lawyer
William Klein and Sally Lou Ritz,
a showgirl and Crater's alleged mistress.
Both friends report noticing the judge's strange mood.
I'm fine.
His friends last see him
heading to a Broadway comedy performance
that he bought a ticket for.
At the theater, though, his seat remains empty.
Despite never returning for his wife Stella's birthday,
she doesn't report Crater missing until September 6th,
a month after he's last seen, perhaps assuming that he was
simply with another woman.
As word of the party boy judge's disappearance gets out,
the press picks up the story and Crater becomes
a national sensation.
They dub him "the Missingest Man in New York."
The NYPD launches a massive investigation, chasing down
hundreds of leads.
Tips pour in from all across America, with sightings in
California, Florida, even Mexico.
But they all lead to nothing.
It's as if Judge Crater simply evaporated into thin air.
[siren wails]
Although authorities can't find the judge himself,
their investigation does uncover his deep web of
corruption and vices that may have come back to bite him.
It turns out Crater had expensive gambling debts at
unsanctioned casinos and may have been involved in illegally
selling judicial appointments.
Curiously, four months after his disappearance,
Crater's wife Stella also finds a note he had left for her
in his desk drawer.
The note ends, quote, "I am very weary,"
which some believe is evidence he took his own life.
Most alarmingly, police discover Crater had
recently been subpoenaed
by the State Attorney General's Office as
part of a huge anti-corruption investigation.
Well, explain...
[Josh] It makes them wonder, was he about to turn state's
evidence against Tammany Hall, the powerful and corrupt
democratic organization that got him appointed?
Tell me who you paid and when.
I'm in deep with Tammany Hall.
If Crater turned his back on Tammany Hall,
were they the ones behind his disappearance?
For more than 75 years, we didn't have an answer.
Now, we do.
Famous New York lawman Judge Crater is officially declared
dead in 1939, nine years after he vanished.
In the decades since his disappearance,
many theories have been proposed.
Debt, adultery, corruption, snitching,
but none with any proof.
That would finally change in 2005, when a woman in Queens
dies, leaving behind remarkable notes to be opened
upon her death.
Judge Crater biographer Richard Tofel explains.
In 2005, a woman named Stella Ferrucci-Good
died in New York.
Miss Ferrucci-Good left behind papers indicating to her family
that they should be opened upon her death and indicated that
her husband had told her that he believed he knew
who had killed Judge Crater.
Supposedly, Crater had been taken in a taxi to Coney Island
and murdered and buried there.
Mrs. Ferrucci-Good's husband was a former New York City
Parks Department supervisor.
He allegedly overheard the incendiary claim that
the judge had indeed been murdered, buried beneath
the Coney Island boardwalk.
But for Tofel, there's a big problem with this.
I don't think that Ms. Ferrucci-Good's story
ultimately makes sense.
The site to which Judge Crater was supposedly taken was
thoroughly unearthed in the 1950s for the construction
of the New York Aquarium, at a time when interest was still
pretty high in the Crater case, and no sign of any body was
found during that excavation.
I have no reason to believe that Ms. Ferrucci-Good was
making this up.
I think her husband probably did tell her such a story.
I just don't think the story happens to have been true.
But despite pouring water on the Ferrucci-Good writings,
Tofel continued to dig into the Crater case,
uncovering a theory he believes quite literally puts
the mystery to bed, or in bed, as it were.
I actually believe Crater's disappearance revolves around
a then-quite-famous madam in New York named Polly Adler.
In 1960, there was a blind gossip item in a book that
indicated Polly Adler's memoir would report that Crater had
died in the act in her establishment.
[grunts sharply]
[Richard] But apparently, the story was then removed from the memoir.
Polly Adler was very well connected to the mob,
and the mob would easily have been able to dispose of
the body in such a way that no trace would be found.
[Josh] The forgotten account Tofel uncovered was in a book
by Allen Churchill entitled "They Never Came Back."
It says the unpublished text was supposed to mention that,
quote, "Crater suffered a fatal heart attack at the moment of
"peak enjoyment while indulging
in the unique pleasures of the establishment."
Talk about a juicy detail.
Why would Polly Adler remove this passage from
the final version of her memoir?
Tofel thinks it was partly for her own protection.
As for why Polly Adler might have taken a direct statement
about Crater's death of her book, the libel laws were
much stricter in this country than they are today.
And it's easy to imagine Polly Adler, even 30 years after
Crater's death, not wanting to have been quite as explicit
about this in her memoir.
[as Mara] ...so soon.
[Josh] This casts Crater's earlier strange behavior in a new
light, suggesting the mounting pressure from financial
and legal troubles caused extreme stress-- stress that,
if Polly is to be believed,
ultimately led to a fatal heart attack.
But wait a second.
If this is true, why did the police apparently never
chase down these leads?
Why did it take 75 years for this theory to be exposed?
[Richard] In my opinion, the real scandal here is not
why Judge Crater wasn't found, but why no one went seriously
looking for him for three or four weeks.
And the reason I think that no one went looking for him was,
this was at the beginning of what turned into a huge scandal
of municipal corruption.
Tammany Hall was under enormous pressure in 1930.
The more information that was turned up about Judge Crater,
the more people were likely to realize that he had bought
his judgeship as many other judges were doing at the time.
I think Crater's associates, especially in Tammany Hall,
went out of their way not to find him.
Did the high and mighty judge really fall to such a down
and dirty end, dying of a heart attack in a brothel before
being buried by the mob and never searched for
because of a corrupt city cover-up?
Or is he buried at Coney Island, as indicated in
the long sealed letter of Stella Ferrucci-Good?
In 1979, Judge Joseph Crater's case was officially closed
without being solved.
Tofel's theory is compelling, not to mention scandalous.
But without physical evidence,
the so-called "Missingest Man in New York" stays that way.
There is one final footnote to this tabloid tale.
In the years after the judge's disappearance, a new phrase
became popular-- "to pull a Crater,"
meaning to disappear without a trace.
I'm Josh Gates.
Please don't pull a Crater, and I'll see you on
the next expedition.