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A gruesome tale of jealousy and ***.
BOMMERSBACH: She's all battered up She's bruised.
It looked like she had been in the fight of her life.
WILDMAN: The stunning secret of a racing champion.
DINKINS: His early leads out of starting gate
seemed too good to be true.
And a barbarous beast that stalks the South.
She says the eyes burned like the depths of Hell.
WILDMAN: Within the walls of great institutions
lie secrets waiting to be revealed.
These are the mysteries at the museum.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
Florence, Arizona.
This austere, sun-drenched landscape
played backdrop to what was once a rowdy western town.
And dedicated to collecting and preserving
the history of the area
is the Pinal County Historical Society Museum.
The museum proudly displays a variety of relics
from the region's outlaw days,
including saddles from local cowboys,
barbed wire from area ranches,
and furniture built from homegrown saguaro cactus.
But one glass case conceals an artifact
that appears to have little to do with the Wild West.
BOMMERSBACH: This is a very sweet little thing.
It's very soft. It's made out of wool.
It's really cuddly,
and it's something that you'd like to have in your house.
WILDMAN: Yet, this innocent child's toy is a reminder
of a salacious crime that fascinated the country.
They covered this story like white on rice.
I mean, it was unbelievable.
WILDMAN: How was this handcrafted doll linked to one of the most
sensational criminal cases of the 1930s?
Monday, October 19, 1931 -- Central Station, Los Angeles.
As the morning rush hour dies down,
a station agent notices two unclaimed trunks
from an inbound Phoenix train,
and there's something strange, even sickening, about them.
The luggage is leaking.
There was flies all over the place,
and there's this puddle of red stuff
underneath the trunk.
WILDMAN: The agent sends for a policeman,
and when the officer picks the lock,
he makes a macabre discovery.
He jumps back so hard, the lid slams back down,
because what he's looking at
is a woman's body that is shoved into this trunk.
A head in one end, and the feet down in the other end.
WILDMAN: And the contents of the second trunk
are just as horrible.
The dismembered remains of another female
cut with surgical precision.
Police estimate the corpses were dismembered
within hours of their deaths.
They determined the cause of death to be gunshot wounds.
WILDMAN: Working with Arizona police,
California investigators soon identify the victims
as 24-year-old Hedvig Samuelson and 32-year-old Anne LeRoi.
And it seems the women shared an address.
BOMMERSBACH: The victims live in the same house together.
They're sharing a bungalow.
WILDMAN: Upon studying the baggage's claim checks,
investigators discover the trunks belong
to a 26-year-old Phoenix passenger
named Winnie Ruth Judd.
BOMMERSBACH: The investigators quickly discovered
that Winnie Ruth Judd had been roommates with these women,
that she worked with Anne LeRoi, that they were friends,
that they all ran in the same kind of circle.
WILDMAN: Authorities are eager to question Judd,
but the young woman is nowhere to be found.
Yet, four days later,
Judd staggers into the Los Angeles Sheriff's office.
The petite, doe-eyed woman
looks like she hasn't slept or eaten for days.
BOMMERSBACH: She's all battered up.
She's bruised. A hand is wounded.
It looked like she had been in the fight of her life.
WILDMAN: Judd tells police her attackers were
none other than her deceased friends,
Anne LeRoi and Hedvig Samuelson,
who ganged up on her with a gun during a violent argument.
BOMMERSBACH: She was saying, you know,
"We had this fight about a friend,
"and they came at me, and then they're hitting me,
and then they had the gun and I had to fight for the gun."
WILDMAN: As Judd lunged for the weapon, she says it went off,
sending a bullet into her left hand.
Yet she still managed to gain control of the gun,
turn it on her attackers, and fire.
She says, "I was fighting for my life.
I killed in self-defense."
WILDMAN: But investigators find Judd's story lacking.
BOMMERSBACH: The main question is,
"Okay, so why in the world do you have the trunks,
"and why in the world are you here in Los Angeles?
How does this make any sense?"
And she has no answer for this.
WILDMAN: The authorities delve into Judd's background
and soon uncover the name of a man linked both
to the accused murderess and her alleged victims.
His name is Jack Halloran.
Jack Halloran was a family man.
He was a pillar of the community.
He ran a major construction company in downtown Phoenix.
WILDMAN: But the handsome 44-year-old has a few secrets,
and chief among them
is a tempestuous affair with Winnie Ruth Judd.
I mean, she was physically and emotionally
in love with this man.
WILDMAN: Investigators learn that Judd introduced her lover
to Samuelson and LeRoi and invited him over
to the bungalow they shared to socialize.
BOMMERSBACH: He's a frequent visitor at this house,
and he brings other businessmen in town over to see him,
and this house becomes a party house in Phoenix.
WILDMAN: But Judd became jealous when Halloran
showered the roommates with gifts.
BOMMERSBACH: Sammy and Anne had a real vested interest
in keeping Jack Halloran on the line.
Whether he was romantically involved with them or not,
he was providing a lot of money.
He was providing ***.
WILDMAN: Investigators think that on the night of the shootings,
that jealousy drove Judd to kill.
After the victims lay dead,
they theorize Judd shot herself in the hand
to make it look like self-defense
before fleeing Phoenix,
the gruesome evidence crammed into her luggage.
Judd is formally charged with ***
and stands trial in January.
Within a month, she's found guilty.
During her incarceration,
Judd occupies her time by sewing elaborate dolls,
like this one on display
at the Pinal County Historical Society Museum.
BOMMERSBACH: She took up all this hand work
as a way of killing a lot of time.
WILDMAN: Yet, in the wake of the trial, a nagging mystery lingers.
BOMMERSBACH: And the biggest question was, "Who helped her?"
You took one look at this tiny, little woman,
and you knew she couldn't handle that trunk.
WILDMAN: 50 years after the so-called Trunk Murders,
that question drives Phoenix reporter,
Jana Bommersbach, to dig for answers.
Piecing together archival records and transcripts,
she concludes that Judd pulled off the crime
solely through the efforts of one man -- Jack Halloran.
She says that she was told by Halloran,
"Listen, you take these trunks to LA.
"Otto's gonna pick you up, they'll take them
and they'll throw them out in the ocean."
She thought this was an escape plan.
She thought he was taking care of her.
WILDMAN: But, if authorities knew
of Halloran's role in the hideous crimes,
why wasn't he tried as an accomplice?
Bommersbach points to the unspoken code of secrecy
among Phoenix's good, old boys network.
BOMMERSBACH: The fear was if Halloran goes down,
who else is gonna go down with him?
How many other gentlemen in the community of Phoenix
who have association with these girls
are going to be dragged into this thing with him?
WILDMAN: Bommersbach reasons that rather than bring him down,
investigators swept Halloran's involvement under the rug.
Winnie Ruth Judd dies in 1998 at the age of 92.
But 80 years after her crimes, this handcrafted doll
at the Pinal County Historical Society Museum
embodies the enigmatic woman
behind one of the 20th century's most sensational scandals.
Coventry, Connecticut.
This town was once home
to Revolutionary War hero, Nathan Hale,
who was raised along the banks of its idyllic lake.
And in an old farmhouse is an institution
that honors one of the state's earliest industries --
the Museum of Connecticut Glass.
This utilitarian assortment
of 19th century flasks, inkwells, and bottles
embodies the sophisticated skill behind glass making.
But the form of one artifact here
goes far beyond functionality.
HAGEN: It's about six inches high, and it's almost translucent,
and it features the molding of a face.
WILDMAN: And as author Carrie Hagen can attest,
this bottle bears a secret message.
HAGEN: This artifact might look like a frivolous perfume bottle,
but it is really a token
of a crime that shocked Americans.
WILDMAN: How did this piece of glassware come to epitomize
a heart-wrenching saga that consumed the nation?
Philadelphia -- July 1, 1874.
After a long day at work,
businessman, Christian Ross, returns home.
He is eager to see his two sons,
5-year-old Walter and 4-year-old Charley.
But the boys are nowhere to be found.
HAGEN: He starts looking through the neighborhood,
and all of a sudden,
he looks up and sees Walter walking towards him.
WILDMAN: Visibly distressed,
the 5-year-old tells his father something troubling.
HAGEN: Earlier that day,
two men in a horse-drawn wagon pulled up in front of the house
and offered candy to him and to Charley.
WILDMAN: After eating the treats, the strangers offered
to take the boys to the sweet shop for more.
When they arrived, Walter hopped out to buy the candy.
He tells his father
that when he returned, the wagon had vanished.
He looks back and forth on the street and he doesn't see
the wagon with his little brother in it anywhere.
WILDMAN: Christian Ross immediately alerts police,
yet 48 hours later,
Charley's whereabouts remain a mystery.
Finally, three days after the boy's disappearance,
a chilling clue arrives by post.
HAGEN: Christian receives an odd-looking letter.
It's written in horrible grammar,
and in it, he is told, "We is got him."
"We have your child.
Come up with $20,000 or never see your son again."
WILDMAN: The steep sum sends Ross into a panic.
HAGEN: Christian Ross does not have $20,000.
He is not as wealthy as they assumed he was.
WILDMAN: To make matters worse,
the kidnappers refuse any direct line of contact.
They tell Christian that the only way
that he can communicate with them
is by putting an advertisement in the personal section
of the Philadelphia Public Ledger newspaper.
WILDMAN: On July 8th, he posts an ad accepting the terms,
and over the next 3 weeks,
several messages between Ross and the kidnappers
are printed in the paper for all to see.
HAGEN: They had never heard of somebody
demanding money for the return of a child.
Soon, editorials were talking about
this kidnapping that had happened,
and people became very outraged.
WILDMAN: But after a month of correspondence,
Christian Ross appears no closer to bringing Charley home,
until another handwritten note turns up at his door.
The kidnappers tell Christian Ross
that on July 31st,
he needs to take a train from Philadelphia to New York.
WILDMAN: They instruct him to bring
the $20,000 ransom in a suitcase
and stand in the train's last car.
As he travels,
he must be on the lookout for the kidnappers' signal.
He needed to look to see a white flag waving in the air,
and when he saw that white flag,
he needed to drop the suitcase full of money.
WILDMAN: On the appointed day,
Christian Ross boards the New York-bound train,
but there's just one hitch --
He doesn't have the money in the suitcase.
Inside, he has a note.
WILDMAN: It informs the kidnappers he must be able to see his son
before handing over the money.
But will the risky maneuver succeed
or put Charley in greater danger?
It's the summer of 1874.
Four-year-old Charley Ross
is abducted off the streets of Philadelphia.
Investigators working with Charley's father
spring into action
as a shocked nation watches in disbelief.
So, what will come
of the desperate search for Charley Ross?
On August 1st, Christian Ross stands
on the platform of a New York-bound train,
waiting for the kidnappers' signal,
but it never comes.
And 13 hours later, Ross finds himself at the end of the line.
HAGEN: Christian arrives and he's still holding the suitcase.
He hasn't seen a white flag.
WILDMAN: Gutted, Christian Ross heads home.
Weeks pass, months pass, and Charley is not returned.
WILDMAN: Police keep up the search with a rare measure,
allowing citizens the right to arrest anyone
suspected of harboring the child.
HAGEN: So, suspicion was everywhere.
People on the street were questioning
mothers of little boys that looked like Charley,
and street children were coming forward
saying they were Charley
in the hopes of claiming some of the reward.
WILDMAN: When the tactic fails to bring Charley home,
a local business comes up with a unique way
to keep the case fresh in people's minds.
A perfume company decides to put
the face of Charley Ross on one of its bottles.
WILDMAN: The bottles bearing Charley's likeness,
like this one on display
at the Museum of Connecticut Glass,
are a 19th century precursor to a modern practice.
HAGEN: This was the seeds of putting
the face of missing children on milk cartons.
WILDMAN: The search for Charley continues for more than half a century.
Sadly, Charley was never found.
WILDMAN: Some theorize he was raised by his kidnappers' family,
eventually forgetting his true identity.
HAGEN: It's also possible that the kidnappers killed him
when they realized that they wouldn't be able
to get their money and get away with it.
WILDMAN: In the end, the chilling tale of abduction
gives rise to the still common cautionary phrase,
"Don't take candy from strangers."
Today, this bottle of perfume
at the Museum of Connecticut Glass
recalls the sweet-faced boy whose tragic disappearance
taught Americans this heartbreaking lesson.
Portland, Maine.
In 1866, this town was leveled by a massive fire.
Yet it rose from the ashes like the mythological phoenix,
which appears on the city's seal.
And, in the heart of this resilient community
is an institution dedicated to other legendary creatures --
the International Cryptozoology Museum.
Inside, visitors can marvel at bizarre beasts
that have allegedly stalked and haunted the American landscape.
But, one object on display appears far from fantastical.
COLEMAN: The object is 5 ½ inches tall, 8 inches long.
It's made of metal, and it is attached to a piece of wood.
WILDMAN: As director, Loren Coleman can attest,
what came into view beyond this wire mesh
shocked and terrified the nation.
People who saw this thing couldn't believe their eyes.
WILDMAN: What horrifying incident played out beyond this window screen?
1964 -- Fouke, Arkansas.
Teenager Mary Beth Searcy is settling in
for a night of schoolwork
when a chill suddenly enters the room.
She stands up to close the window
when she notices something strange.
Mary Beth looks out, sees the moonlit front yard,
and all of a sudden, out of the edge of the forest,
Mary Beth sees this hairy creature
walking on two legs coming towards her.
WILDMAN: A horrified Searcy recoils in terror.
She's frightened to death.
And she spends the rest of her night
staring in dread at the screen window,
a piece of which is on display
at the International Cryptozoology Museum.
But, the beast appears to have vanished for now.
Spring, 1971.
25-year-old Bobby Ford and his wife, Elizabeth,
have recently moved into a new home.
One evening, Bobby heads out on a hunting trip,
leaving Elizabeth alone.
And just as she's falling asleep,
something startles her out of her slumber.
COLEMAN: All a sudden, Elizabeth woke up
and she saw the curtain moving on the window.
WILDMAN: As she moves closer to inspect,
she soon realizes it's more than just the wind.
COLEMAN: There's an arm coming towards her,
and she all of a sudden sees its eyes.
WILDMAN: Elizabeth retreats in horror,
and the creature disappears back into the night.
COLEMAN: Elizabeth was trembling.
She kept thinking, "What is this? What is this?"
WILDMAN: Later that evening,
Bobby returns home to his terrified wife,
who describes her encounter with this horrific beast.
She says the eyes burned like the depths of Hell.
WILDMAN: Worried it may return to attack his wife,
Bobby grabs his gun and goes in search of the monster.
Then, he spots it.
A shaggy-haired, dagger-clawed, 7-foot creature.
He immediately fires.
As the beast runs off,
Bobby chases it into the darkness.
But then, he hears Elizabeth shriek.
Bobby discards his gun, races towards his wife.
He thought the monster had her in its grip.
WILDMAN: As Bobby runs towards the house,
he's suddenly grabbed and thrown to the ground.
What mysterious creature has Bobby in its clutches,
and will he survive the attack?
It's 1971 in Fouke, Arkansas.
25-year-old Bobby Ford and his wife, Elizabeth,
have just moved into their new home,
but it soon becomes a house of horrors
when they're viciously attacked
by a hairy, man-like monster with fiery red eyes.
So, what is this barbarous beast?
Bobby manages to break free
and escape to the safety of his home.
The monster retreats back into the swamplands.
Bobby reports the harrowing encounter
to local authorities.
COLEMAN: What the law enforcement officials found were
actual pieces of the house had been ripped away.
WILDMAN: But, most telling of all, they discover three-toed tracks,
measuring an astonishing 17 inches long by 7 inches wide.
In the months that follow, more people have run-ins
with the massive, hairy, red-eyed beast.
There actually have been
hundreds of sightings in the Fouke area
by respectable, credible eyewitnesses.
WILDMAN: But many wonder if the monster
is actually some kind of big cat.
COLEMAN: In the Fouke area, there are reports of mountain lions.
There are also reports of black panthers.
WILDMAN: These felines are capable of leaving
deep claw marks in the frames of houses,
and have eyes that glow when caught in a beam of light.
But, many Fouke residents don't accept this explanation
and point to a unique feature of the beast.
All of the reports talk about
an upright creature walking for a long amount of time.
WILDMAN: Others posit that the monster's description
tracks closely to that of a black bear.
COLEMAN: Black bears are dark, they're hairy,
they're broad-chested,
and they reach about six feet in height
if they're on their back feet.
WILDMAN: But black bears have five toes,
and the footprints found, only three.
Unable to tie the creature to any known living animal,
many theorize it could be a new species altogether.
The local people in Fouke know this creature exists.
What it is remains a mystery.
WILDMAN: The legend of the Fouke monster
lives on at the International Cryptozoology Museum
in Portland, Maine,
where this piece of screen stands as a reminder
of the hairy beast that may still be lurking
in the swamps of Arkansas, poised to strike again.
Akron, Ohio.
Perched along six major highways,
the city moves at 70 miles an hour.
And the quest for speed is at the very heart
of one of the city's notable institutions,
the All-American Soap Box Derby Hall of Fame Museum.
On display are over 100 gravity-powered racers
that have taken top prize
at one of the world's most unique competitions.
DINKINS: The All-American Soap Box derby is absolutely
the greatest amateur racing event in the world.
WILDMAN: And among these handcrafted racers
sits a car whose outward appearance
seems to blend in with the rest.
DINKINS: The artifact is 40 years old.
It's green in color.
It's got four wheels,
and it's a former world champion.
WILDMAN: Yet museum director Bobby Dinkins
asserts that this racer holds
a more dubious claim to fame than its counterparts.
It's probably our most famous car
for the wrong reasons.
WILDMAN: How is this innocent-looking racer
linked to one of the most memorable scandals
in amateur racing history?
March, 1973 -- Boulder, Colorado.
Engineer, Robert Lang,
helps his 14-year-old nephew, Jimmy Gronen,
build what they hope is the ultimate racing machine.
A soap box derby car that will win
the All-American World Championships.
Every kid's dream if they were a soap box derby racer
was to win the All-American race.
Soap box racers are powered solely by gravity
and must adhere to strict construction requirements
set out by the derby.
Just one year earlier,
Robert Lang helped his own son, Bobby,
build a champion racer,
and is convinced he can do the same for his nephew.
DINKINS: So, they took the same mold
that they used to build Bobby's car
and use that as a starting point.
If they can make it more aerodynamic,
less drag on the car, less friction,
the car would definitely go faster.
WILDMAN: After months of tireless refinement,
it's finally ready.
In August, they head to Akron's Derby Downs,
home to the All-American
Soap Box Derby World Championship.
It's the best gravity racers in the world.
WILDMAN: To reach the derby finals,
Jimmy has to first beat out six other drivers
in head-to-head matchups.
As race time approaches, Jimmy climbs into this car,
on display at the All-American Soap Box Derby Hall of Fame,
and positions himself behind the metal starting gate.
DINKINS: The starting gate works as a mechanism
to hold the cars in place,
and then once those starting gates go down,
gravity pulls them down to the end of the track.
WILDMAN: It takes most gravity racers several seconds to build speed,
but incredibly, the instant the metal gate drops,
Jimmy's car leaps into the lead,
flying down the track at 35 miles an hour.
He won. He won by a number of car lengths.
WILDMAN: The size of Jimmy's lead leaves the crowd awestruck.
DINKINS: Typically, soap box derby racers win by a small margin.
When cars win by a large margin,
it's definitely an astonishing feat.
WILDMAN: But, if spectators assume the big win was beginner's luck,
they're mistaken.
Heat after heat, Jimmy's car soars down the hill.
DINKINS: No other car was able to take the lead at the starting gate
throughout the day against Jimmy.
WILDMAN: By the time he reaches the finals,
it seems nothing can stop his winning streak.
Sure enough, he plummets past his opponent
and across the finish line, claiming the victory he coveted.
DINKINS: Jimmy Gronen becomes the world champion
of the All-American Soap Box Derby.
WILDMAN: But, just hours after Jimmy's impressive victory,
derby officials are filled with doubt.
Never in the derby's 37-year history
has a car consistently bolted ahead of the others.
His early leads out of the starting gate
seemed too good to be true.
Something was up.
WILDMAN: What is the secret behind the blazing speed
of Jimmy Gronen's wonder car?
In 1973, 14-year-old Jimmy Gronen
takes the soap box derby world by storm,
winning race after race
and leaving the competition in the dust.
But skeptics think there's more to this teen's incredible speed
than just gravity.
So, what's secret behind Gronen's wonder car?
The day after the race,
organizers make an unprecedented move.
They call for review of the car, and they cut the car open.
WILDMAN: Inside, they find something that shouldn't be there --
A hidden cache of metal and wire.
And it points them towards an astonishing conclusion.
It was a magnet that gave him a competitive advantage
over the other children in the race.
WILDMAN: Derby officials learn the battery-powered magnet
is drawn to the metal in the starting gate,
so when the gate drops forward at the start of a race,
it yanks the car along with it,
releasing it down the track like a slingshot.
And it turns out this isn't the first time
the car's designer, Jimmy's uncle, Robert Lang,
was embroiled in controversy.
Just a year earlier, spectators voiced similar doubts
about the championship car he built for his son.
But that car mysteriously disappeared
before officials could analyze it.
WILDMAN: In light of the controversy,
derby organizers stripped Jimmy of his title
and announced stricter enforcement of the rules.
Robert Lang agrees to give $2,000 to a youth charity
to atone for his cheating.
And this racer, on display at the All-American
Soap Box Derby Hall of Fame Museum,
embodies the lengths some people are willing to go
to be the first across the finish line.
Frankfort, Kentucky.
For over a hundred years, these rolling hills
marked the gateway to the western frontier.
But as tens of thousands of pioneers journeyed west,
many families settled in the Bluegrass State itself.
Helping to chronicle and preserve
the state's long and storied lineage
is the Kentucky Historical Society.
Alongside exhibits of pioneer relics,
frontier weapons, and cherished heirlooms
sits the facility's genealogical library.
And deep within its stacks,
a truly bizarre chapter in Kentucky's history
is waiting to be revealed.
DANIELS: This artifact is a legal-size manila folder,
roughly under a pound in weight,
containing correspondence, photo copies, photographs.
WILDMAN: According to Cheri Daniels,
the contents of this folder speak of something so strange,
for years people thought it was a myth.
DANIELS: The reaction upon hearing this story for the first time
is one of great surprise.
I've told people, "Well, Google it."
"You'll see pictures of it out there."
WILDMAN: What does this dossier reveal
about a scientific anomaly that defies belief?
1960 -- Hazard, Kentucky.
On a bitterly cold morning, a nurse named Ruth Pendergrass
settles into her usual shift at the county health department.
But her quotidian routine
suddenly comes to a screeching halt
when an unusual-looking woman walks in.
DANIELS: All of her skin was a shade of blue.
Her fingernails were blue, her lips were blue.
WILDMAN: A bewildered Pendergrass thinks
the woman is suffering from severe hypothermia,
but to her amazement, the woman says she's fine.
In fact, she swears there is
nothing particularly unique about her appearance.
And she said this was a condition
she had had all of her life, and that she was just one
among several of the blue people that lived outside of town.
WILDMAN: Then, the seemingly skittish woman abruptly departs.
Desperate for an answer as to the cause
of the woman's bizarre condition,
Ruth Pendergrass seeks out
the one man who may be able to help,
Dr. Madison Cawein.
DANIELS: Dr. Cawein was a hematologist
at the University of Kentucky hospital.
WILDMAN: Cawein has long heard rumors
of blue people roaming the hills of Kentucky,
and has been obsessed with learning more about them.
So, based on Nurse Pendergrass's account,
he decides to stake out the local hospital
in the hope that a blue person will return.
And after only a short while, his gambit pays off.
DANIELS: One day, two people,
it turns out they were brother and sister,
walk in, and their skin was this shade of blue.
WILDMAN: Seizing on the lucky break,
Cawein approaches the siblings cautiously,
hoping not to scare them off.
DANIELS: The brother and sister
were very embarrassed over their condition,
but he eventually gained their trust.
WILDMAN: And soon, the true purpose
of the siblings' hospital visit emerges.
They want to be rid of their blue skin once and for all,
but can Dr. Cawein uncover the truth
behind their strange condition?
And more importantly, can he find a cure?
It's 1960 in eastern Kentucky.
Dr. Madison Cawein has just encountered
something medically remarkable --
two siblings who claim to have been born with blue skin.
Over time, the doctor becomes obsessed
with this stunning affliction.
So, can he uncover its cause and find a cure?
The siblings reveal their family ancestry to Cawein,
beginning with the amazing tale
of an immigrant named Martin Fugate.
The patriarch of their family came from France in the 1820s
and married a redheaded girl from Kentucky.
WILDMAN: But when the couple tried to build a family,
something surprising happened.
DANIELS: They have seven children, and out of the seven children,
four of them end up with blue skin.
WILDMAN: Aside from their bizarre appearances,
the children enjoyed healthy, long lives
and the family never sought a medical explanation
for the mysterious condition.
DANIELS: As the years progressed,
not only were there more and more generations
born with this condition, but the stories
behind this type of condition actually spread.
WILDMAN: Over time, the prying eyes of curious gawkers
drove the families deep into the woods.
They were obviously very embarrassed over this,
and with each generation, that embarrassment grew.
WILDMAN: But now, with two
of the legendary blue people of Kentucky before him,
Dr. Cawein believes he can get to the bottom
of this century-old mystery once and for all.
Based on the family's long history of blue skin,
Cawein speculates that the condition
isn't environmental, but hereditary.
And to confirm his theory,
he tests samples of the siblings' blood.
He discovered that they were missing an essential enzyme.
WILDMAN: The enzyme, called diaphorase,
is responsible for binding red blood cells with oxygen.
Without this enzyme, their blood was not properly oxygenated,
and this caused their skin to appear blue.
The condition requires both parents to carry not one,
but two mutated genes
to pass it on to their offspring,
an occurrence that should be incredibly rare,
but thanks to the region's remoteness
and the family's self-imposed exile,
the genes were passed down from generation to generation.
With the cause finally isolated,
Cawein must now develop a cure, and he discovers one
in the most unlikely of medicines.
The doctor finds a solution
in a chemical called methylene blue,
which is ironically a blue dye
but also happens to oxygenate the blood.
WILDMAN: When Cawein administers the unconventional treatment,
the results are nearly instantaneous.
DANIELS: Right before his eyes,
the blue tone turned to a healthy shade of pink.
WILDMAN: Amazingly, after a century of standing out,
the once blue people of Kentucky can now blend in.
Before long, the bizarre condition
that embarrassed the descendants of Martin Fugate
into hiding for generations becomes a thing of the past,
but their captivating story,
preserved in these medical records and articles
at the Kentucky Historical Society,
remains available to any visitor who means to unlock
the sometimes colorful secrets of the human body.
Washington, D.C. -- just miles from the White House.
On the banks of the Potomac River
is the Navy's oldest shoreline establishment --
The Washington Navy Yard.
And on these historic grounds sits an institution
dedicated to preserving this military legacy --
The National Museum of the U.S. Navy.
On display are a Long Tom cannon from the War of 1821,
a World War II quadruple gun mount,
and safety plugs for the nuclear bomb
dropped by the Enola Gay.
But among these fearsome icons of military might
is one artifact that was not used in any war.
MARLAND: This object is very heavy.
It's 29 tons.
58 feet long, and on the bottom is a sphere
with two plexiglass windows that allow you to look inside.
WILDMAN: According to curator Jennifer Marland,
this hulking object attempted one of the most
daring marine missions of the 20th century.
MARLAND: This craft was built
to go to places that no one had gone before.
WILDMAN: What was this vessel's depth-defying mission,
and was it a success?
It's 1946 in Switzerland.
62-year-old physicist Auguste Piccard
has enjoyed a career not only as a scientist
but as a high-flying balloonist,
having set an altitude record of over 75,000 feet
using a balloon fitted with a pressurized aluminum chamber.
But for his next mission,
the scientist sets his sights on a far lower realm.
MARLAND: Auguste Piccard thought, "What would it take
"to, instead of going up,
descend into the deepest depths of the ocean?"
WILDMAN: But, there's a problem.
Even the most armored submarines of the day
would be crushed by the uncharted depths.
These pressures are over a thousand times greater
than the pressures at sea level.
WILDMAN: To create a vessel
capable of withstanding the crushing deep,
he modifies his gondola design,
and with the help of his son, Jacques,
swaps out its lightweight aluminum frame
for heavily reinforced steel.
In 1953, when he unveils the groundbreaking craft,
named "The Trieste" after the Italian town
in which it was made, it immediately makes waves.
And eager to unlock
the scientific mysteries of the ocean deep,
the U.S. Navy makes a surprising offer.
MARLAND: The Navy decided that they wanted to buy her
and bring her to the United States.
WILDMAN: Realizing he's too old to pilot the craft himself,
Piccard agrees to sell it under one condition --
that his son, Jacques, must be one of the mission's pilots.
The Navy agrees.
And soon, Jacques Piccard
and a Navy Lieutenant named Donald Walsh
set their sights on the lowest point on Earth
off the coast of Guam in the Pacific Ocean --
Challenger Deep.
MARLAND: Challenger Deep is located
35,814 feet below the surface of the ocean.
This is more than a mile deeper
than Everest is high above the surface of the earth.
WILDMAN: And after years of tests and modifications,
on January 23, 1960,
the two adventurers closed the Trieste's hatch
and began their epic 7-mile descent.
The first six miles goes smoothly,
but as the craft lowers to 31,000 feet below sea level,
the two men hear a terrifying sound.
There was a big ***.
[ Explosion ]
The cabin shook as if an explosion had happened outside.
WILDMAN: Even a tiny crack in the hull could cause a massive implosion
that would instantly kill them both.
Can the Trieste endure the bone-crushing depths
and bring its crew back alive?
It's 1960 in the Pacific Ocean.
Inside a cutting-edge pressurized vessel,
Swiss explorer Jacques Piccard and Navy Lieutenant Donald Walsh
are attempting to dive the deepest known region on Earth.
But at 31,000 feet, it seems their craft
is struggling to withstand the ocean's crushing force,
so can these two pilots survive their epic submaritime mission?
Piccard and Walsh find no sign
their vessel has been compromised,
and with just 4,000 feet
separating them from the bottom, they make a daring decision.
MARLAND: They were so close.
They had to continue down.
Their goal was just in sight.
WILDMAN: Bracing themselves for the worst,
they plunge deeper, and it's not long
before they reach an incredible 35,800 feet below sea level.
MARLAND: At four hours and 48 minutes, they touch bottom.
WILDMAN: But this historic achievement
is just one half of the duo's mission.
They had proven that man could go
to the deepest depths of the ocean,
so after 20 minutes on the bottom,
they started the trip up and now they just had to prove
that they could come back alive.
WILDMAN: The nerve-racking trip
takes three hours and 18 minutes,
but when the Trieste finally breaks through the waves,
the divers had made history
as the first men ever to complete a journey
to the lowest known point on Earth.
News of their success travels quickly across the globe
and the two pilots become overnight celebrities.
MARLAND: Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard were flown to Washington,
and there, they met President Eisenhower
to commemorate this amazing accomplishment.
WILDMAN: And for over half a century,
no other men reached the same depth
until 2012 when film director James Cameron
completes a solo dive to Challenger Deep.
In between these two historic dives,
12 people walk on the moon, and yet only three people
have gone down to Challenger Deep.
WILDMAN: Today, the Trieste still hangs on display
at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy,
documenting the story of the incredible depths
mankind explored almost a full decade
before reaching the moon.
From a missing child to a murderous mistress,
a southern Sasquatch to a souped-up soap box.
I'm Don Wildman and these are the Mysteries at the Museum.