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A bicycle ridden by the target of a massive manhunt.
He probably knew his end was coming.
An intrepid monkey on a quest to make space history.
The scientists are really on the edge of their seat.
And a liquor linked to hallucinations and violence.
It was the evil drink that just sparked this insanity.
[ Gunshot ]
I'm Don Wildman.
Join me on a journey across the United States
as we go deep into the vaults
of the nation's most revered institutions,
unearthing wondrous treasures from the past,
extraordinary artifacts, and bizarre relics,
each with a shocking story to tell
and a secret to be revealed.
These are the mysteries at the museum.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
St. Louis, Missouri,
home of America's tallest man-made monument,
the Gateway Arch.
It stands as a tribute to the city
that launched Lewis and Clark's expedition
into the uncharted West.
And right in the center of town is the Missouri History Museum,
which preserves some of the state's smaller,
but no less significant treasures.
And tucked away in the museum's library
is a rather average-looking group of books.
There are 29 bound volumes, each measuring 8 1/2 by 11,
approximately an inch thick, containing 200 to 300 pages
of hand-typed transcripts.
WILDMAN: According to the Director of Library and Collections,
Christopher Gordon,
these type-written tomes tell a haunting tale
of burning ambition from beyond the grave.
What are these books?
And who authored the words within?
July 1913, St. Louis, Missouri.
Housewife Pearl Curran is mourning the loss
of her recently deceased father
when her friend Emily Hutchings pays a visit.
In hopes of connecting her friend
with the spirit of her father,
Hutchings has brought with her a talking board,
which, according to author Brandon Hodge,
is a popular game of the times.
HODGE: Beginning with the 1890s,
talking boards become sort of a parlor entertainment,
one of America's first fads, and they are used
by those who believe to communicate with the dead.
So the two women put their hands on the wooden pointer,
known as a planchette.
WILDMAN: Suddenly Pearl feels a tug on her hands
as they follow a force
that seems to be moving the pointer on its own.
It appears that someone or something
is trying to deliver a message.
But it's not Pearl's father.
HODGE: And it spells out the phrase "Many moons ago I lived.
Again I come. Patience Worth is my name."
WILDMAN: The women watch in shock
as the phantom speaker carries on.
HODGE: Patience Worth claims she's a 17th-century Englishwoman
who comes to America and gets killed by Indians
in a raid in Nantucket.
WILDMAN: Then, according to Pearl,
what the stranger says next sends shivers down her spine.
The spirit has literary ambitions
and wants to channel her writings through Pearl.
She was searching for someone to actually express herself
and express her literary desires.
WILDMAN: Pearl accepts, and soon the high-school dropout
reads aloud complex and colorful descriptions
of a seemingly bygone era.
Her husband dutifully transcribes page after page,
which are later typed into the manuscripts
now on display at the Missouri History Museum.
Soon Pearl draws a startling conclusion.
Patience is writing poetry.
HODGE: When people find out that these communications are taking place,
word spreads very quickly.
Before you know it, neighbors are showing up at the house,
and she begins hosting these biweekly communication sessions
with Patience Worth.
WILDMAN: A prominent St. Louis journalist named Casper Yost
shows up to one of these sessions and is stunned
by the flowery word craft by Patience Worth.
HODGE: And so he begins to write stories about it,
further fanning the flames of her popularity.
WILDMAN: Yost prints some of Patience's poems,
and soon the literary world begins to take notice.
HODGE: Her poems become published.
Five of them are listed the best in the nation for that year.
WILDMAN: And soon the emerging literary darling
known as Patience Worth publishes her first novel,
a story set in Biblical times entitled "A Sorry Tale."
HODGE: "A Sorry Tale" gets rave reviews.
It's called by "The New York Times"
"a literary feat crafted by a master hand."
Pearl Curran, literally overnight,
goes from this sort of mousy, uneducated housewife
to just a literary phenomenon.
WILDMAN: But not everyone is convinced.
Is Pearl truly communicating
with the spirit of Patience Worth?
Or is there something more sinister going on?
GORDON: She had many people who are convinced it was a fake,
that Pearl Curran was simply using Patience Worth
to build her own celebrity or to try to make money.
WILDMAN: But an examination of Pearl's past
reveals she may not be capable
of perpetrating an elaborate literary hoax.
Pearl Curran dropped out of school at a very young age.
She had a very limited education
and would have had no knowledge of the advanced literature
that Patience Worth seemed to channel through her.
WILDMAN: Others question her mental stability.
GORDON: A number of people began to wonder
whether Pearl Curran actually suffered
from Multiple Personality Disorder.
WILDMAN: Yet friends notice when she channels Patience,
Pearl's personality remains the same.
While her detractors persist,
others, like journalist Casper Yost,
are convinced that Pearl is telling the truth
and that Patience once existed.
HODGE: He felt if he could confirm the truth of her identity,
then he could prove life after death.
So he actually travels across the Atlantic into England
into the area where Patience Worth
claims she's from.
WILDMAN: Before she immigrated to America,
Patience Worth alleges to have lived in Dorset, England,
a place she describes in her writings.
But there's no evidence in the public record that she existed.
WILDMAN: But as Yost digs further,
he comes upon some seemingly familiar scenes.
GORDON: Yost was able to find a church and the ruins of a monastery
that was similar to what Patience had described.
WILDMAN: The locations are places Pearl Curran has never visited,
and their discovery leaves Yost and others convinced
that Pearl is telling the truth...
and that the spirit of Patience Worth is real.
Over time, Patience's literary star fades,
but the conversations between housewife and spirit
allegedly continue until Pearl's death in 1937.
While we may never know the true identity
of the author known as Patience Worth,
these 29 volumes at the Missouri History Museum
testify to the remarkable tale of a midwestern housewife
who many believe had an extraordinary connection
with a scribe from beyond the grave.
Washington, D.C.
Named after America's first President,
this city boasts the world's tallest stone structure,
the Washington Monument.
And just blocks away is an institution
that heralds a different type of towering achievement --
the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Its jaw-dropping collection of historic air and spacecraft
is the largest in the world.
People look forward to seeing the 1903 Wright Flyer,
Charles Lindbergh's airplane, the "Spirit of St. Louis,"
and Columbia, the Command Module in Apollo 11.
WILDMAN: But according to museum curator, Margaret Weitekamp,
tucked amongst the enormous rockets and jetliners
sits a comparatively small and odd contraption.
This metal object that holds a furry occupant
weighs about 250 pounds.
WILDMAN: This strange-looking cradle and primate
played a critical role in a death-defying journey
to the final frontier.
WEITEKAMP: It was, in fact, a very important milestone
in the Cold War and in the beginnings of the Space Race.
WILDMAN: How did this monkey change the future of space travel forever?
Spring 1959, Cape Canaveral, Florida.
In a quest for technological superiority,
the United States and the Soviet Union
are engaged in a fierce battle
to unlock the mysteries of space.
WEITEKAMP: Scientists in both the Soviet Union
and the United States
are really trying to figure out what would it take
to put a living thing into space and bring it back safely.
WILDMAN: One year earlier, the Soviets
launched the first mammal into space, a dog named Laika.
But the mission ended in failure when the dog died.
But the U.S. believes
they've achieved the technological advancements
to launch and return an animal unscathed.
And they think they've identified
the ideal specimens...
monkeys.
WEITEKAMP: The ideas of putting monkeys into space had been one
that the United States had been working
with both the Navy and the Army for some time.
WILDMAN: Scientists determine that their similarity to humans
will provide valuable insight into man's prospects in space.
Resolved to find the best primate for the job,
they acquire eight monkeys and train them for flight.
WEITEKAMP: They looked at the health of the animals,
but they also needed to know
that the living specimen would be able to function,
and so these monkeys had actually been trained
to various tasks.
WILDMAN: After months of evaluation,
a female monkey emerges from the troop --
Able, a name taken from the Naval phonetic alphabet.
WEITEKAMP: Miss Able demonstrated
that she would be able to be calm during flight
and that she would be able to do what was asked of her.
WILDMAN: Scientists decide to send a companion with Able,
a smaller squirrel monkey named Baker.
WEITEKAMP: Two different kind of monkeys gave them
two different kinds of feedback and data.
WILDMAN: Various sensors attached to the duo
will allow scientists to monitor their activity
during the flight.
After months of training, it is determined
the space monkeys are ready to launch.
May 28th, Ms. Able and Ms. Baker
sit securely in the nose cone of a 60-foot-tall Jupiter missile
when the countdown begins.
WEITEKAMP: These scientists are really on the edge of their seat
and watching the sensors
and hoping that this mission will go well.
WILDMAN: 150,000 pounds of thrust
send teeth-chattering vibrations through the rocket.
It would have been a tremendous jolt
for the animals inside the nose cone.
WILDMAN: As the missile ascends, Mission Control begins to worry.
WEITEKAMP: Scientists can see that Able is struggling
with the physical pressures of the G-forces.
WILDMAN: But once the rocket reaches space,
the gravitational pull diminishes.
Able's vital signs level out,
and Mission Control breathes a sigh of relief.
Once it peaks at more than 300 miles above the earth,
the flight crew anxiously awaits
the most dangerous part of the mission...
...the descent.
Then the nose cone breaks away from the rocket
and hurtles towards Earth.
Will Able and Baker make it home alive?
It's 1959.
In their quest to conquer space, scientists at NASA
launch a rocket containing two monkeys named Able and Baker
more than 300 miles above the Earth.
NASA hopes the intrepid pair will become the first mammals
to successfully return from space.
So, will Able and Baker make it back alive?
WEITEKAMP: The animals were descending at 10,000 miles an hour
and experiencing 30 or 40 G's,
which is the force of gravity 30 or 40 times.
WILDMAN: Finally, the rocket module splashes down in the Atlantic,
and the USS Kiowa rushes to retrieve it
as Mission Control holds its breath.
WEITEKAMP: When the USS Kiowa arrived
to fish this capsule out of the ocean,
they were really waiting to see
whether this had been successful.
WILDMAN: They hoisted on board to safety,
and, with great anticipation, popped the hatch.
Inside they find both monkeys alive and thriving.
They biologically were able to withstand
all of the forces that they had experienced,
and that gave them an important bit of information
going forward to create a spacecraft
that would actually be safe enough for a human being
to not only fly in, but function in.
WILDMAN: The space monkeys become instant celebrities.
WEITEKAMP: Able and Baker were getting 100 to 150 letters a day
from schoolchildren and well-wishers and animal lovers.
WILDMAN: The monkeys' successful voyage paves the way
for man's exploration of the moon.
And today Able's taxidermied body is on view
at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum,
a tribute to her pioneering contribution
to the exploration of space.
New Orleans, Louisiana --
first settled by French explorers
and fur trappers in the 1690s.
Today the Big Easy trades on its reputation
as a city that celebrates.
And one institution here highlights New Orleans
and the nation's romance with alcohol --
The Museum of the American Cocktail.
On display here are Art Deco cocktail shakers,
vintage bottles of whiskey,
and a gallery of celebrated barmen.
But according to chemist T.A. Breaux,
there is one seemingly nondescript item
in this collection
that tells one of the most salacious chapters
in cocktail history.
BREAUX: It's made of dark glass.
It stands about a foot tall,
and it represents something that was deemed
both beautiful and sinister.
WILDMAN: This bottle and its contents tell a mind-bending tale
of delirium, hysteria, and violence.
So what is the spirit
and what mysterious power does it possess?
August 28, 1905. Commugny, Switzerland.
Police are called to a local farmhouse
where they make a bizarre discovery.
Police arrived at the residence of one Jean Lanfray
and found him passed out in his barn,
bleeding from a self-inflicted gunshot to the face.
WILDMAN: And soon they discover that
Lanfray is not the only casualty of this tragic event.
Also at the residence, they found his pregnant wife
and two daughters all murdered, all shot.
WILDMAN: When he wakes from his slumber,
Lanfray is arrested for the *** of his family.
Baffled by the senseless crime,
police begin to piece together the farmer's actions
on that fateful day.
According to neighbors,
after a morning of work in the fields,
the farmer took a leisurely lunch
where he consumed two glasses of a French liquor called absinthe.
Then he returned home where he was greeted by his wife.
Jean Lanfray apparently got into an argument with his wife,
and, in response, he pointed a shotgun at her
and pulled the trigger.
Once he came to his senses, he was stricken with grief,
and so he evidently attempted to take his own life.
WILDMAN: When word of the perplexing crime spreads,
many outraged townsfolk are convinced
they know the true motivation behind Lanfray's brutal acts --
absinthe.
Absinthe was originally a medicine
that was distilled from an infusion of medicinal plants
and wine alcohol.
WILDMAN: The powerful green drink became popular in France
after a series of poor grape crops
devastated wine production.
It gained notoriety
for its purportedly unusual side effects.
Absinthe was alleged to cause hallucinations
in chronic absinthe drinkers.
WILDMAN: And in the wake of the brutal ***,
many are convinced absinthe-induced hallucinations
were the real force behind Lanfray's violent actions.
BREAUX: Lanfray's legal counsel agreed that absinthe was to blame.
It was the evil drink
that just sparked this episode of insanity.
WILDMAN: Despite this defense,
Lanfray is ultimately found guilty of the crime.
In the aftermath of the absinthe-soaked case,
temperance advocates in Europe paint absinthe
as a dangerous and destabilizing force.
In 1908, the Swiss government outlaws the drink,
and in the years that follow,
absinthe is outlawed throughout Europe and America.
Absinthe was basically wiped from the planet
in the early 20th century
because, you see, absinthe is a poison.
WILDMAN: But does this simple green spirit
really induce violent fits of rage?
New Orleans, Louisiana.
For nearly 85 years,
the liquor absinthe has been banned in the United States.
Known as the Green Fairy,
the drink is said to have hallucinatory effects
and sends some drinkers into fits of violent rage.
But what's the real story
behind the enigmatic elixir known as absinthe?
For years, chemist and New Orleans resident
T.A. Breaux has been fascinated
by tales of absinthe's hallucinatory effects,
and in 2000, he stumbles upon a gold mine.
I was fortunate enough to have found full, unopened bottles
representing the finest absinthes of the 19th century
that were unearthed in old wine cellars
in the European continent.
WILDMAN: On display at The Museum of the American Cocktail,
this is the same type of absinthe
believed to have instigated acts of extreme violence.
This bottle would have been
exactly what Jean Lanfray would have been imbibing
on that fateful day in 1905.
WILDMAN: Armed with pristine samples,
Breaux and others set out to analyze the infamous liquid
and determine if it is as deadly as claimed.
Scientists begin by trying to isolate the active ingredient
believed to give absinthe its hallucinatory properties,
a naturally occurring and toxic compound called thujone.
And after months of study,
Breaux and his team draw a stunning conclusion.
BREAUX: While it had been believed all along
that absinthe was laden with thujone,
that this was hallucinogenic and potentially poisonous,
found that just wasn't true, not at all.
In fact, many vintage absinthes contained just a tiny trace.
WILDMAN: And in 2007, T.A. Breaux
manages to convince government regulators
that absinthe is safe to consume.
Taxation and Trade Bureau agreed that there was no basis
for the 95-year ban on absinthe in the United States,
so, once again, we can enjoy absinthe.
WILDMAN: But if absinthe doesn't have hallucinatory properties,
what drove the murderous actions of farmer Jean Lanfray?
Little-reported details reveal
that absinthe wasn't the only drink
Lanfray consumed that fateful day.
He consumed about nine bottles of wine.
We can't just blame it all on the two glasses of absinthe.
That was just a convenient scapegoat.
WILDMAN: Breaux also believes that the movement to ban absinthe
was stoked by a determined competitor -- winemakers.
The wine industry found themselves at odds
with the green drink that had become so popular.
The wine industry painted absinthe
as a source of societal ills.
WILDMAN: And today this bottle of vintage absinthe
at the Museum of the American Cocktail
stands as a reminder
of the legend and the myth of the powerful spirit
that has long captured the imagination of the world.
One of the most populous cities in the nation, Houston, Texas,
is a booming center of America's oil and gas industry.
It is also home
to one of the country's most unusual institutions --
the National Museum of Funeral History.
Here visitors can view authentic relics from historic funerals,
explore the grieving rituals of ancient civilizations,
and discover the rich heritage
of those whose job it is to care for the dead.
But there is one artifact here in this mournful collection
that tells the most captivating tale of all.
SPADA: It's a 1973 Mercedes. It's 18 feet long.
It's got silver body with blacked-out windows at the back.
WILDMAN: It's a top-of-the-line hearse,
and according to author James Spada,
it took center stage at the funeral
of one of the most glamorous and celebrated women in history.
She enchanted the world with her refinement and her elegance,
and this hearse will always be a cherished artifact.
WILDMAN: What world-famous celebrity did this hearse bear?
And what were the mysterious circumstances of her death?
September 13, 1982. Monaco.
This small municipality on the Mediterranean Sea
has come to adore its royal princess,
the former Hollywood superstar Grace Kelly,
who, 26 years earlier,
abandoned her film career to marry Prince Rainier III.
Now Princess Grace is
a civic-minded mother of three children,
including a beautiful teenage daughter named Stephanie.
But Grace Kelly's enchanted existence
is about to take a shocking and dramatic turn.
About 10:00 in the morning,
Grace and Stephanie left Roc Agel,
which was the family's vacation home.
WILDMAN: In a small sports car,
Grace and Stephanie set off for Monaco
along a steep mountain road high above the Mediterranean Sea.
It's extremely treacherous. It's got a lot of hairpin turns.
Now, a lorry driver who was behind her
testified that everything was fine.
WILDMAN: But then as the truck driver looks on,
Grace's car does something truly bizarre.
And then he watched in horror
as the car just continually sped up
without any attempt to brake and went straight off the cliff.
WILDMAN: The car careens down the steep hillside
and comes to rest in a wooded field.
Neighbors heard the crash, and they came out,
and they saw Stephanie
coming out of the driver's side of the car,
and she was crying, "Please help my mother.
Please help my mother."
WILDMAN: To those on the scene,
it appears that Princess Grace's condition is dire.
Grace was in the car with her head toward the back seat
and her feet toward the front seat,
and it was clear that she was very, very badly injured.
WILDMAN: An ambulance rushes the princess to a local hospital,
and the next day, the people of Monaco
and the world receive devastating news.
Princess Grace has died.
Four days later, on September 18th,
the nation mourns as Grace's body is carried
through the popular district of Monte Carlo
in this black and silver hearse now on display
at the National Museum of Funeral History.
Grace's funeral was perfect for a movie star or a princess,
and Grace was both.
People lined the streets.
They wanted to say goodbye to Grace.
WILDMAN: In the wake of Grace's passing,
the public struggles to make sense of the tragic event.
Palace officials blame the accident
on faulty brakes in the automobile.
But soon whispers begin to emerge
that this was no accident.
Some believe Grace was a casualty
in a battle with a criminal underworld.
SPADA: The Monaco Mafia was trying to make inroads
into the Monte Carlo Casino,
and Grace was fighting them, and so the theory arose
that they had tampered with her brakes in some way
to remove her from the picture.
WILDMAN: Was Grace Kelly murdered?
Monaco, 1982.
When Princess Grace dies in a terrible car accident
on a steep mountain road,
her adopted homeland struggles to come to grips
with the sudden tragedy,
and it's not long before rumors begin to swirl
around the mysterious circumstances of her death.
So what was the true cause of Grace Kelly's demise?
In their investigation,
police send parts of the car to the manufacturer,
British Leyland,
and after a thorough examination, they determine
that the automobile had not been tampered with
and that the brakes are in perfect working order.
Soon reports from the scene begin to suggest
an entirely different reason for the crash,
that Grace's teenage daughter, Stephanie,
had been behind the wheel that fateful day.
The reasons that the reports arose
that Stephanie was driving the car
was that she was seen
getting out of the driver's side of the car after the crash.
WILDMAN: Others suggest that the cause of the crash
was a bitter dispute between mother and daughter.
There were rumors in the tabloids
that Grace and Stephanie were having a terrible fight
in the car over the fact that Stephanie wanted to marry
her much older boyfriend.
WILDMAN: But perhaps the most credible explanation
emerges from the physicians who examined Grace
when she arrived at the hospital.
After conducting a CAT scan on the ailing princess,
they reached a startling conclusion.
SPADA: And the results of the CAT scan were very interesting.
They determined that Grace had suffered a stroke
which caused her to lose control of the car,
to not brake, to not turn the wheel.
WILDMAN: But many question whether a healthy Grace
could have truly suffered from a stroke
while some are still not convinced
that she was, in fact, the car's driver.
Finally, on the 20th anniversary of Grace's death,
her daughter Stephanie breaks her silence.
In 2002, she gave a remarkably frank interview
to a Paris newspaper.
She adamantly denied that she'd been driving the car.
She said that she had desperately tried
to stop the car,
that she had pulled up the emergency brake.
She was asked if they had been fighting, and she said,
"That's not something I want to talk about."
WILDMAN: And while the exact events leading up to the crash
may never be known, today this silver hearse
at the National Museum of Funeral History
in Houston, Texas,
stands as a timeless reminder of the celebrated life
and mysterious death of a remarkable European princess.
The town of Hershey, Pennsylvania,
is synonymous with chocolate.
But it's also home to a museum that records
the not-so-sweet moments in the region's history,
the Pennsylvania State Police Museum.
Its displays include highway patrol motorcycles,
vintage uniforms,
and the basic implements of a state lawman's trade.
But there is one item in this museum
that, at first glance, conveys a childlike innocence.
MEMMI: It's red.
It's got some white pinstripes on the front fenders.
It's still covered with dirt, probably from the 1960s.
WILDMAN: According to police historian Thomas Memmi,
this beat-up old Schwinn tells a terrifying tale.
So, who owned this bike?
And what role did it play
in one of the most chilling criminal cases
in Pennsylvania history?
1966, Shade Gap, Pennsylvania.
17-year-old Peggy Ann Bradnick and her brothers
are on their way home from school...
when suddenly a strange-looking man emerges from the woods.
And he threatened the children. He cursed at them.
WILDMAN: Then the man grabs Peggy Ann and drags her into the woods.
Her terrified siblings race home and notify the police.
MEMMI: The police quickly arrived on scene.
They also sent men into the woods.
WILDMAN: State police,
along with concerned members of the community,
embark on a desperate manhunt.
But there's little trace of the missing teen.
MEMMI: The only thing they could find
were the schoolbooks that belonged to Peggy
laying on the ground.
WILDMAN: Authorities interview Peggy's terrified siblings,
who are only able to offer a vague description
of the man who abducted her.
MEMMI: The kids were so distraught and scared,
they were unable to get a description,
but claimed it was The Mountain Man.
WILDMAN: The Mountain Man is a notorious fugitive
thought to live in the woods of Shade Gap.
MEMMI: There was a man who had committed
a series of violent crimes, shootings,
and was investigated by the police.
The people in the entire area were aware of this man.
WILDMAN: But the identity of this elusive figure is unknown.
With the investigation at a standstill,
officers decide to speak with the only other person
known to live in the woods,
an eccentric known as Bicycle Pete.
His real name is Bill Hollenbaugh,
and he has gained local notoriety
for riding a red bicycle.
MEMMI: That was his main mode of transportation.
He used that to get around town, he used it to go shopping.
Most people in the town of Shade Gap
recognized him by that bicycle.
WILDMAN: An FBI agent named Terry Anderson
hikes through the woods to Bicycle Pete's remote cabin,
but as he approaches the structure,
things go terribly wrong.
[ Gunshots ]
All of a sudden, there's a blast of a shotgun.
WILDMAN: Terry Anderson drops to the ground
and dies from the gunshot wound.
His stunned colleagues catch a fleeting glimpse
of a man running through the trees
with someone who appears to be Peggy Ann Bradnick.
The pair disappears,
but now investigators finally know the identity
of the man they are hunting.
MEMMI: The Mountain Man who committed all these crimes
and Bicycle Pete, Bill Hollenbaugh...
...was actually the same man.
WILDMAN: And with the *** of a federal agent,
the investigation takes on a whole new dimension.
MEMMI: And at that time, all hell broke loose.
There are approximately 1,000 people involved in the search.
WILDMAN: But it seems that Hollenbaugh's detailed knowledge
of the dense wilderness gives him a distinct advantage.
Can he be stopped before it's too late?
It's 1966 in Shade Gap, Pennsylvania.
A teenage girl is abducted at gunpoint
by an eccentric local known as Bicycle Pete,
triggering one of the largest manhunts in state history.
Can the authorities catch up to Bicycle Pete
before it's too late?
Eight days after Peggy Ann's abduction,
with officers combing the wilderness,
a sheriff's deputy discovers Hollenbaugh hiding out.
But The Mountain Man makes a break for it
with his captive in tow.
MEMMI: Bill did not want to stop. He wanted to keep going.
He probably knew his end was coming.
WILDMAN: The pair flees towards a nearby farm
where a young man named Larry Rubeck is working.
Larry Rubeck saw Bill approaching his home,
and he had raised his 12-gauge shotgun and fired.
[ Gunshot ]
And there was a large blast.
WILDMAN: Bill Hollenbaugh is cut down in his tracks,
killed by a shot through the neck.
But the bullet came not from the brave young Rubeck,
but from a state policeman
who had chased The Mountain Man to the farm.
Finally, Peggy Ann is reunited with her family
and tells them that she was rescued not a moment too soon.
MEMMI: Bill knew that he was trapped, and he said,
"Peggy, I'm gonna be dead, you're gonna be dead,
or maybe both of us will be at the end of this."
WILDMAN: But thanks to the intense efforts
of federal investigators and local authorities,
Peggy Ann Bradnick survived to tell her story.
According to Peggy Ann,
Hollenbaugh told her that prior to the abduction,
he had been covertly following her around town
on his bicycle for months,
but Peggy Ann never noticed until it was too late.
And today in the Pennsylvania State Police Museum,
this rusted, old bike stands as an unlikely reminder
of the obsessive actions of one deranged criminal
and the schoolgirl who escaped his grasp.
Known as the City of Invention, Dayton, Ohio,
is the birthplace of countless creations.
But the city's highest innovative achievement
is reserved for the Fathers of Flight,
Orville and Wilbur Wright, and much of the city
and the nation's rich aviation heritage
is celebrated at the Museum of the United States Air Force.
Here a vast complex of hangars houses
the world's largest and oldest military aviation museum.
From President Kennedy's "Air Force One"
to "Bockscar," the plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki,
and an SR-71 Blackbird,
one of the fastest planes on the planet.
But among these highly heralded crafts
is one seemingly innocuous artifact.
UNDERWOOD: It's flat.
It's about 2 feet by about 3 1/2 to 4 feet high.
It weighs just a few pounds. It's made out of aluminum.
WILDMAN: According to museum historian Jeff Underwood,
this object holds the secrets of a heart-wrenching tale
of honor, suffering, and sacrifice.
You start seeing that somebody scrawled something,
and it's pencil marks.
Then you realize it's dates.
It's a chronology of what's happening on a day-by-day basis.
WILDMAN: What is this scrap of metal
and what harrowing tale do these markings reveal?
November 10, 1942.
It's World War II,
and American troops are preparing to launch an offensive
against the Japanese in New Guinea,
a strategic island foothold in the Pacific.
UNDERWOOD: American troops are being moved to the north side of the island
for that final push against the Japanese.
WILDMAN: On this day, a group of Army personnel
are hitching a ride on a C-47 transport aircraft
called "The Flying Dutchman."
Among the passengers is a chaplain
from Wenatchee, Washington, named Ted Barron.
The plane charts the clear blue skies
high above the mountainous island,
but 30 minutes into the journey, something goes horribly wrong.
Air currents rapidly shift,
slamming "The Flying Dutchman" into the mountain face,
ripping the aircraft to pieces.
UNDERWOOD: The men who survived the initial crash
start pulling the others out.
Some of the men are already dead.
Some are seriously, seriously wounded.
WILDMAN: Chaplain Ted Barron is among the wounded.
In total, seven of his fellow travelers have perished.
UNDERWOOD: The survivors had to reassess
where are we and what do we have?
What do we do next?
WILDMAN: Captain Barron and the other soldiers get to work
scouring the charred plane for provisions.
UNDERWOOD: And they collect what few supplies are available --
a little bit of food,
a little bit of ammunition's still left.
WILDMAN: After days stranded on the forest floor,
the men determine that the chance of being spotted
by an American aircraft from the sky is slim.
But a collective trek out of the forest seems impossible.
There is seven men who basically cannot be moved.
They're burnt, they're banged up really bad.
They have internal injuries.
WILDMAN: So the decision is made to send the healthiest men
out into the unknown in search of help.
UNDERWOOD: And the chaplain, Captain Barron,
who's also injured and really can't walk out,
but he's well enough to take care of the other seven,
that group stays with the aircraft.
WILDMAN: After 32 days of desperately trekking
through the rainforest,
the men reach civilization completely spent
and uncertain about the fate
of the servicemen who stayed behind.
Can they rescue Chaplain Ted Barron
and the remaining crash survivors before it's too late?
It's 1942.
After their transport plane crashes in World War II
on the remote island of Papua New Guinea,
some of the surviving soldiers
embark on an arduous trek through the jungle,
leaving their injured behind.
When they make it back to civilization,
there is one question on their minds --
Can they save their wounded mates?
The haggard soldiers relay the details
of "The Flying Dutchman's" crash and the men who stayed behind,
and soon a U.S. search party sets out to find them.
There are still survivors left at the crash site.
They really don't know where it's at.
They gave them the best information possible,
but they're not pilots.
They're not navigators.
WILDMAN: Eventually, after months of searching,
the rescuers locate the wreckage of "The Flying Dutchman."
But they are too late.
Chaplain Ted Barron
and the other wounded soldiers have died.
The search team recover the bodies from the site,
but the final chapter of "The Flying Dutchman" disaster
has yet to be uncovered...
until 1961, when an Australian search party
looking for one of its downed planes
stumbles upon the wreckage of "The Flying Dutchman"...
and discovers this rusted metal door
now on display at the Museum of the United States Air Force.
On closer inspection, the markings it bears
appear to have been written by Chaplain Ted Barron.
Captain Barron had kept a day-by-day chronology
of what happened to these men.
This is pretty unique stuff.
WILDMAN: Barron documented the injured servicemen's dwindling supplies.
"Sunday, the 22nd of November, drank last can of tomato juice,"
last cigarette the next day,"
then, a couple days later, their rations finally run out.
WILDMAN: But amidst the arduous circumstances,
Barron's makeshift journal radiates hope.
The Chaplain is keeping his and everyone's spirits buoyed
by talking about how they're gonna come soon,
we've got to just keep our chin up.
One person is what keeps all of them going.
WILDMAN: But over time, Barron recorded the deaths
of his companions from starvation,
and subsequent entries reveal
that soon he, too, will share their fate.
You watch the handwriting
as it goes from being very strong and very compact
to the very end he's barely able to write.
He's probably the last alive.
On the first of January, 1943,
he's no longer thinking about the future
because that's the last entry in his diary.
WILDMAN: And it is believed that just days later, he died.
Eventually, Barron's heartbreaking journal
makes its way to the Museum of the United States Air Force,
where, today, it stands as a reminder
of a unique tragedy and one man's unfailing optimism
in the face of unthinkable hardship.
From a sinister spirit to a ghostly scribe...
a beloved princess to an intrepid space traveler...
I'm Don Wildman, and these are the mysteries at the museum.