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A device at the heart of a daring and deadly heist.
SCHORR: Start working their way
through the remains of this huge explosion.
A camera believed to have captured evidence of UFOs.
KITEI: If I don't get a picture of this,
no one's going to believe it.
And a bizarre sea monster that washed up on a California beach.
It looked like nothing they'd ever seen.
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.
Located in Southern Michigan,
the picturesque town of Marshall is home to an institution
that celebrates the wondrous world of illusion,
the American Museum of Magic.
Its collection features costumes worn by Penn & Teller,
a trick guillotine, and a life-size sarcophagus.
But there is one object on display here
that had a mystifying impact
that reached far beyond the stage.
LAUB: It's a rather thin red belt made out of leather
with a brass interlocking buckle to it,
and it has a leather pouch on the side.
WILDMAN: According to museum curator Dennis Laub,
it was central to one magician's involvement
in a covert project gone horribly awry.
People immediately saw how crazy the whole project had been
and how illegal and unethical it had been.
WILDMAN: So what role did this belt play
in one of the most egregious government plots ever concocted?
San Francisco, California, 1957.
Wayne Ritchie is a 30-year-old Deputy U.S. Marshal,
highly regarded for his commitment to the force.
But on December 20th, at his office Christmas party,
Ritchie's behavior takes a bizarre and terrifying turn.
LAUB: He was having a drink,
he was visiting with his fellow employees,
and suddenly he noticed things starting to change.
Christmas lights that were around seemed to be twirling,
and he was quite disoriented.
He began to think that people in the room did not want him there,
that people were out to get him.
WILDMAN: In a matter of minutes,
he's overcome by paranoia and escapes to his office.
LAUB: He went upstairs to his desk
and grabbed his pistol and left the party.
WILDMAN: An agitated and confused Ritchie
stops at a local bar
for a couple of drinks to calm his nerves,
until suddenly he's possessed by an urge to act.
Ritchie turns his gun on the bartender and demands cash.
Then the government agent is subdued by a patron...
[ Glass shatters ]
...and hours later, he awakes in handcuffs,
reeling in shock and horror.
LAUB: Deputy Marshal Ritchie
had been just a totally upstanding citizen
and an employee of the government.
This outburst was totally out of his character
and was odd even to him.
WILDMAN: With his connections in law enforcement,
Ritchie avoids criminal charges,
but he's forced to resign from the Marshal Program,
and for years, Ritchie grapples with the devastating events
of that fateful night.
So, what caused this calm and collected U.S. Marshal to crack?
It seems the answer may lie
in a secretive and sinister government plot.
1953, New York.
As the Cold War rages, a veteran CIA agent named Sidney Gottlieb
is tasked with leading a covert project called MKUltra.
The program's aim is to develop mind-control techniques
to extract valuable intelligence from Soviet agents and spies,
and Gottlieb believes he has found the means
to achieve his goals
in a powerful chemically derived psychoactive drug
called lysergic acid diethylamide,
otherwise known as LSD.
LAUB: They thought about it being used
to break people down psychologically
so they would be more willing to give out information freely.
WILDMAN: But to take the drug
out of the lab and into the field,
CIA personnel must learn how to surreptitiously dose the enemy.
So Gottlieb approaches a master of sleight of hand,
a magician named John Mulholland.
John Mulholland was one of the more significant
magical performers on the East Coast,
and he was very enthused about it
and began working almost immediately
developing an outline of principles
that he thought would be useful to the task at hand.
WILDMAN: And soon the performer instructs federal agents
on how to drug the enemy.
LAUB: Mulholland teaches agents
that the use of everyday objects in everyday situations
are important, so he will tell you
how to conceal a chemical in a matchbook
and then be able to deliver the drug
right out of the matchbook into somebody's drink.
WILDMAN: To conceal the drug,
the magician instructs agents to hide it in a belt,
like the one on display at the American Museum of Magic,
a belt Mulholland once himself wore onstage.
Now, to measure the effectiveness of the program,
Gottlieb develops a sinister plan --
to test the drug on unsuspecting Americans.
It became important to try it on all different levels of society,
so they began looking for opportunities to try it
anywhere where people gathered.
WILDMAN: For years, the CIA doses unsuspecting individuals
in social settings -- all in the name of government research.
But instead of inducing compliance,
the drug causes many subjects to snap.
Some are left with lasting psychological damage.
One victim even takes his own life.
Over time, other government agencies
catch wind of MKUltra's unorthodox procedures,
and it's promptly shut down in 1973.
By the time the program totally ended,
thousands of unsuspecting people
were made participants of these experiments.
WILDMAN: While the press sheds light on the covert scheme,
many of the project's subjects still remain in the dark,
including Wayne Ritchie.
But over 20 years later in 1999, while reading the newspaper,
Ritchie comes across the obituary
for the head of project MKUltra, Sidney Gottlieb.
And as if a switch has been flipped,
Ritchie finally understands his outburst 40 years earlier.
LAUB: He realized that at the party,
there was a guest there by the name of Sidney Gottlieb,
and once he realized that,
he began to suspect
that he had been drugged with LSD at the party,
and it had essentially ruined his career and changed his life.
WILDMAN: Upon this shocking realization,
Ritchie files suit against the government,
but thousands of MKUltra documents
were destroyed by the CIA.
With an incomplete record of the project,
it is impossible to prove
that Ritchie was, in fact, dosed with LSD.
While the exact details
leading up to Wayne Ritchie's violent outburst
may never be known,
today this belt at the American Museum of Magic
is a reminder of an outrageous government plot
to control the human mind
and the sleight of hand that made it possible.
New York City.
What started life as a Dutch trading post in 1624
is now the most populated and multicultural metropolis
in America,
and charting the evolution of this city and it dynamic past
is the New-York Historical Society.
Among its 1.6 million holdings on display
is an 18th-century merchant's carriage...
an antique helmet
from New York's original fire department...
and a bronze cast
of Abraham Lincoln's hands and face.
But according to historian Dael Norwood,
one artifact holds the key to an event in American history
that took place not in New York,
but thousands of miles from its shores.
The artifact's about a foot tall, about a half a foot wide.
It's made up of brittle, yellowed pages.
WILDMAN: Bound between the leather covers of this aged tome
hides a bone-chilling story
that inspired the future President Abraham Lincoln.
NORWOOD: It's a tale of extreme maritime suffering and hardship
and eventual redemption --
one of the most famous tales in early American history.
WILDMAN: So, what frightful ordeal
did the author of this memoir suffer,
and how did it shape the very future of our country?
August 1815.
American Captain James Riley
is piloting his merchant ship Commerce
just off the coast of North Africa.
After months at sea and with a hold full of trade goods,
they are heading for home.
But fog and powerful currents push the ship off course,
and disaster strikes...
when she smashes against a hidden reef.
The worst has happened. The ship has wrecked.
From a hit like that, you can't recover.
WILDMAN: The ship sits in the deadly clutches of Cape Bojador,
a jagged, desolate stretch of coastline
known as the Father of Danger.
After making it to shore,
Riley and his men determine their best chance of survival
is to trek inland in search of civilization.
But there is one glaring problem.
They are on the edge of one of the most inhospitable landscapes
known to man...
the Sahara Desert.
What Riley finds is a barren plain --
dreary, no shrub or vegetation or animal
that appears before his eye.
WILDMAN: But with little provisions,
the men must journey on in search of help.
And finally, one night, after days of trekking,
the men spot a campfire in the distance.
Immediately Riley's hopes raise.
As he says, "Joy shot through my veins like an electric spark."
WILDMAN: In hopes of salvation,
the exhausted crew approaches the camp,
[ Weapon unsheathes ]
...they are surrounded by scimitar-wielding tribesmen.
The terrified men expect to be slaughtered at any minute,
but the tribesmen seize them and make them their slaves.
It's a better situation, but it's also a worse one.
They are given some sustenance, but they're also abused.
Riley and his men are marched through the harsh desert sun
and fed a meager ration of desert snails and camels' urine.
They burn quite horribly. They get swelling.
Their skin starts to crack and peel.
WILDMAN: Within weeks, the men are emaciated.
Riley knows that if they cannot escape,
they will all perish in the desert.
There's nowhere to run.
They're in the middle of a desert.
They don't know where they are.
They don't know any way to get out,
and they don't know any way to reach help.
WILDMAN: The odds seem insurmountable for Captain James Riley.
So can he find a way to get his crew home alive?
August 1815, North Africa.
Captain James Riley and the shipwrecked crew of the Commerce
have been captured by tribesmen
and forced to march across the Sahara Desert.
Now his men are at death's door.
Can Captain Riley and his crew somehow make it out alive?
After months in the desert,
the nomads bring the Americans to a tribal council.
NORWOOD: The primary issue, as Riley understands it at this council,
is, what is to be done with all these slaves?
WILDMAN: Then a trader named Sidi Hamet
shows an interest in buying the American sailors,
and Riley seizes on the opportunity.
NORWOOD: Through gestures and sighs and tears,
he's able to move Hamet to sympathy with his plight.
WILDMAN: Riley comes up with a daring plan
which he hopes will free him and his men.
Using a few phrases of broken Arabic,
he manages to communicate an offer to Sidi Hamet.
He claims to have friends in Essaouira, or Mogador,
a port in Morocco,
and he tells Hamet if he brings them there,
he will get him paid, and paid quite lavishly,
for their ransom.
WILDMAN: After considering the offer,
Hamet agrees to buy the men,
but makes it clear to Riley what the consequences will be
for betrayal.
NORWOOD: He says, "Listen, I'm going to invest all I have
in you and your crew,
but if it turns out you're lying to me, I'll kill you,"
and he indicates that by drawing a line across his throat.
WILDMAN: As the group makes its way to Mogador,
Riley is seized by fear because he knows he is bluffing.
The trick is that Riley
doesn't actually have any friends in Mogador.
He's never been there.
WILDMAN: Desperate to save himself and his men,
Riley pens a hopeful letter.
He addresses any good Christian merchants of the town
and pleads for assistance.
He tells Hamet to give the letter
to the first white man he sees.
Hamet sends a rider ahead.
Incredibly, one of the first men he sees
is a clerk who works for the British Consul to Mogador,
William Willshire.
When Willshire reads the letter,
he takes pity on the American sailors
and agrees to pay Sidi Hamet his ransom.
Finally, after months of arduous life in the desert,
Riley and his emaciated men are free.
In the wake of this deadly adventure,
Riley returns home to Connecticut,
where he pens his memoir,
a book that comes to be known as "Sufferings in Africa."
NORWOOD: Riley's narrative becomes one of the greatest adventure tales of its time.
It's widely reprinted in both newspapers and magazines.
WILDMAN: Riley uses his experiences
to advocate for the abolition of slavery in the United States.
When a young Abraham Lincoln reads Riley's tale,
he is gripped by the account,
and as President, he lists it as one of the three books
that most influenced his political thinking.
Today at the New-York Historical Society,
visitors can see and read the original manuscript
and marvel at the courage, endurance, and ingenuity
that made its author's survival possible.
Situated alongside
the prestigious University of Virginia
in the charming town of Charlottesville
is the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society.
The institution is known for its regional archives
and houses artifacts that reflect the city's close ties
to the Civil War.
But nestled in this unassuming edifice
is also an artifact linked to one of the greatest mysteries
of the 20th Century.
MEEKS: It is sort of silver in tone, three to four inches in length.
It's got a ribbon tied around the middle of it.
WILDMAN: According to Historical Society President Steven Meeks,
these glass-enclosed locks of hair
once belonged to a woman who lived a royal life
filled with riches and revolution.
MEEKS: I think the world was captivated by her story.
Here's something physically remaining of that person.
WILDMAN: To whom did this lock of hair belong?
And what role did she play in a stunning imperial scandal?
Berlin, 1920.
This German metropolis
is a haven for hundreds of Russian refugees
escaping the violent Bolshevik Revolution.
Communist ideologues led by Vladimir Lenin
have overthrown the Russian Empire
and ordered the execution of Czar Nicholas II,
his wife, son, and four young daughters,
Alexei, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia.
It's believed the Czar has been killed
and the Royal Family has fled, but their fate is unknown.
MEEKS: There was no formal documentation of the execution,
and the Soviets denied that the entire family had been executed.
WILDMAN: Many Russian refugees
and sympathetic Czarists remain hopeful
that the Bolsheviks somehow spared the lives
of the innocent royal children,
but few dare to believe that one could be living among them
on the streets of Berlin.
February 1920.
A young Slavic woman
is convalescing in a local hospital
after attempting suicide.
Physically and emotionally scarred,
the woman refuses to speak to doctors
or even identify herself.
MEEKS: I don't think they really knew what to do with her,
so the Germans started calling her Miss Unknown.
She read the newspapers
and kept that air of silence about who she was.
WILDMAN: For over a year, she reveals nothing.
Then, on a fall day in 1922, while reading the paper,
she is shocked out of her stupor.
In the news is a story on the possible survival
of the youngest Romanov daughter, Anastasia,
and the distressed woman makes an astonishing claim.
When she saw this article, she proclaimed, "I'm Anastasia."
News of her profound declaration quickly spreads across Europe.
If true, Anastasia would be the de facto leader
of the Russian Empire upon its restoration
and heir to the Romanov family fortune.
Before long, people flock to her bedside
to see the supposed princess.
One such visitor
is Princess Anastasia's childhood friend and expatriate
Gleb Botkin.
Gleb Botkin was a New York reporter.
I think in the beginning, he was a disbeliever.
WILDMAN: But as he gazes at the self-proclaimed princess,
Botkin is immediately struck by her resemblance to Anastasia
and her telling of stories from their youth.
The age factor, similar height and build --
she also had a deformity of the foot
that was identical to what the Grand Duchess had.
So he was fully convinced
that she was, in fact, Grand Duchess Anastasia.
WILDMAN: Botkin arranges for Anastasia's passage to New York.
There she moves in with a second cousin
and is received by high society as the Grand Duchess.
MEEKS: She showed up at almost every social function
you could think of.
She probably became one of the world's
most well-known celebrities at that point.
WILDMAN: Anastasia is living the life of luxury,
but is she really the royal princess she claims to be?
The 1920s, Europe.
Bolshevik revolutionaries have seized power in Russia,
killing the Czar, and, by all accounts,
his entire immediate family.
But when a young woman turns up in a Berlin hospital
claiming to be Grand Duchess Anastasia,
the daughter of the Czar,
she is feted like she's his last surviving descendent.
But is this Anastasia all she says she is?
In New York City, Anastasia is living extravagantly
and enjoying the perks of her fame,
but several distant relatives scattered across Europe
learn of Anastasia's exploits
and doubt she is truly the daughter of the fallen Czar.
Then, on October 13, 1928,
Czar Nicholas' mother and Anastasia's grandmother,
Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna,
dies in her native Denmark.
Now, with the family fortune hanging in the balance,
the Dowager's relatives issue a statement
denouncing Anastasia as an imposter.
Members of the royal family did not want to support her claim.
They issued a statement totally discrediting Anastasia.
WILDMAN: But Anastasia responds with her own statement,
maintaining her royal blood
and accusing them of despicable greed.
And before long, a bitter court battle ensues,
lasting over 40 years in Germany,
until the court hands down its shocking verdict.
It cannot definitively establish Anastasia's heredity,
so the wealth cannot be hers.
In the end, they did not prove she was Anastasia,
but more importantly for her supporters
was that they did not disprove her claims.
WILDMAN: Weary from the protracted court battle,
Anastasia recedes from the public eye
and eventually settles in Charlottesville, Virginia.
It's there she makes a home until her death in 1984.
But doubts about her identity linger beyond the grave...
until 2002, when this sample of Anastasia's hair
is discovered in one of her books.
To silence the century-long debate surrounding her identity,
forensic scientists from Penn State
subject the biological sample to DNA testing
and draw a stunning conclusion.
Anastasia was not a Romanov, but a fraud.
Anastasia was probably, in fact, Franziska Schanzkowska,
a woman of Polish descent
who had gone missing in Berlin in 1920.
WILDMAN: And with her passing 22 years earlier,
she took the secrets of this remarkably bizarre scandal
to the grave.
Today these strands of hair
at the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society
are a reminder of one of the greatest royal imposters
the world has ever known.
Washington, D.C.
Laid out according to architect Pierre L'Enfant's design,
the boulevards of this capital city
are lined with buildings in the neoclassical style,
and on one of those thoroughfares
lies a grand structure
containing a unique slice of American history,
the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum.
Here visitors can take in vintage postal biplanes...
a Ford Model "A" mail truck...
and more modern vehicles
all showcasing the history of the nation's letter carriers.
But among these imposing displays,
one small item looks completely out of place.
SCHORR: It's a wooden box.
It's about 17 1/2 inches high,
about 8 inches wide and 6 inches deep.
WILDMAN: According to Collections Manager Beth Schorr,
this artifact was at the heart of a tale so dastardly,
it still has the power to shock today.
SCHORR: It played a pretty significant role
in a major event in railway mail-service history.
WILDMAN: What is this relic?
And what part did it play
in one of the country's most explosive crimes?
October 11, 1923, southern Oregon.
Police are called to the site of a devastating train wreck.
When they arrive, they are greeted
by a still-smoldering scene of epic destruction.
They start working their way through the smoke and the heat
and the remains of this huge explosion.
But this was no ordinary train.
It was known as the Gold Special.
SCHORR: It's rumored that the train's carrying gold bouillon
worth almost $40,000, a significant amount at that time.
WILDMAN: And it's reported
that the gold has been destroyed in this violent explosion.
Police soon discover two bodies, the engineer and the brakeman,
both shot to death.
And among the wreckage, they find a third, a mail clerk
who has been guarding the train's valuable cargo.
Who is behind this horrible crime?
With no witnesses, investigators scour the rubble for clues.
SCHORR: They find a detonator wrapped in overalls.
That detonator is here at our museum.
WILDMAN: But this device used to blow up the Gold Special
fails to yield any clues about the criminal's identity.
So, as historian Nancy Pope explains,
investigators turn to an unlikely ally.
They turn to, of all things,
a chemist in the University of California,
a fellow named Dr. Edward Heinrich.
WILDMAN: Heinrich, a leader
in the burgeoning field of forensic profiling,
examines the overalls left behind,
and based on the contents,
creates a detailed picture of their owner.
POPE: He finds some things in the pocket --
pine needles, and from this he deduces
that the person who wore them was working in the woods
in the Pacific Northwest.
WILDMAN: But the most important clue
is a piece of paper stuffed in one of the pockets.
With lettering so faded it cannot be read by the naked eye,
Heinrich must use the latest scientific tools
to unlock its secret.
POPE: He used U.V. light and iodine
to bring up the writing on the paper,
and it turned out to be a Registered Mail receipt
that a man named Roy De Autremont had used
to mail a letter to his brother.
WILDMAN: Police immediately track down one Paul De Autremont
in Eugene, Oregon.
He claims no involvement in the crime,
but tells investigators that he has three lumberjack sons --
Hugh, Roy and Ray De Autremont,
who seem to fit Heinrich's profile of the perpetrators.
But there's a problem.
The boys have gone missing.
A national manhunt ensues,
and as investigators circulate wanted posters,
reports of the brothers' whereabouts come pouring in.
POPE: What's driving a lot of this
is not just the violence of the crime, but reward.
And the reward is $15,900.
WILDMAN: But no leads pan out,
and the search grows colder as three years pass by.
Will the men responsible for this heinous crime
ever face justice?
Summer 1926, southern Oregon.
After a devastating attack on a train
leaves three crew members dead,
investigators are able to identify the men
they believe are responsible.
Officials launch a nationwide manhunt,
but after a three-year chase, the robbers remain at large.
So can authorities bring these fugitives to justice?
Finally a tip comes in
that gives investigators their first solid lead in years.
An Army soldier serving in Manila
realizes that one of the men in these wanted posters
looks a lot like one of his fellow soldiers...
a man by the name of James Price.
WILDMAN: Authorities locate James Price.
It isn't long before he cracks
and admits his real name is Hugh De Autremont,
one of the brothers they've been searching for.
But De Autremont will not provide details
of his brothers' whereabouts,
and he is made to stand trial alone.
During the proceedings, it is revealed
that the De Autremont brothers hijacked the train
and used dynamite to blow up the mail car.
But in doing so,
they accidentally destroyed the entire car,
killing the clerk.
In the wake of the devastation,
they shot and killed two crew members...
...and fled.
Hugh De Autremont is sentenced to life in prison,
all the while refusing to betray his brothers' whereabouts.
But the violent details of the case
draw in news readers from coast to coast.
SCHORR: The trial is quite sensational.
As a result, it gets out into the national press,
and authorities start receiving more and more tips
about the other two brothers.
One of these tips comes from a steelworker
in Steubenville, Ohio,
who's certain that these two brothers work with him.
WILDMAN: The lead proves to be sound,
and finally, four long years after the train robbery,
Ray and Roy De Autremont are arrested,
and they, like their brother Hugh, are given life sentences.
And today, nearly 90 years later,
this detonator sits
at the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum
as the only remaining evidence
of one of America's most violent great train robberies.
Las Vegas, Nevada.
With over 150,000 hotel rooms,
this city is filled with visitors
hoping to soak in the Strip's bright lights
and outsized spectacles.
But less than 2 miles away from the neon
is a building dedicated
to a different kind of radiant display,
the National Atomic Testing Museum.
Its collection includes instruments
from the Los Alamos nuclear testing facility...
warheads once used at testing ranges...
and cultural mementos from the Atomic Age.
But amidst these mid-century relics
is one rather modern piece of everyday technology...
and author Lynne D. Kitei knows firsthand
that this ordinary camcorder
once recorded an out-of-this-world event.
KITEI: I thought to myself, "If I don't get a picture of this,
no one's going to believe it."
WILDMAN: What bizarre sky-high incident
was recorded on this small device?
March 13, 1997, Phoenix, Arizona.
Thousands of people, including Dr. Lynne Kitei,
are gathering to witness the great Hale-Bopp Comet,
which is nearing its closest approach to earth.
The Hale-Bopp Comet was very clear in the northwest sky,
and thousands of people were outside
looking up at the sky for a glimpse.
WILDMAN: But at 8:20 P.M., as they scan the heavens,
the stargazers suddenly gasp in shock.
What they see is not a comet at all.
KITEI: It doesn't look like anything you've ever seen before
or even could imagine.
WILDMAN: Spectators observe a strange set of lights
on what appears to be a slow-moving craft
just 50 to 75 feet above the ground.
KITEI: We have a panoramic view of the city skyline,
so we know what planes and helicopters look like.
This was so different, and it was close.
WILDMAN: Stunned eyewitnesses grab their cameras,
but the unidentified flying object disappears
before anyone can get a clear shot.
But then, an hour and a half later,
the peculiar lights appear once again over downtown Phoenix.
When the same phenomena popped up in the same location,
I had the camcorder on the ready.
WILDMAN: Dr. Kitei records the event on her video camera,
the same one on display at the Atomic Testing Museum.
KITEI: And I caught a glimpse of a mile- to two-mile-wide orbs,
balls of light in a giant mile-wide "V" formation
gliding very, very slowly right over their heads, rooftop level.
WILDMAN: Then the mysterious V-shaped lights
suddenly vanish into the distance.
Shocked by what they saw,
concerned citizens across Arizona
reach out to the government and demand answers.
But their calls fall on deaf ears.
There was no investigation. There was no explanation.
WILDMAN: Only one official,
a local councilwoman named Frances Barwood,
seems willing to listen.
Many of her constituents were asking her and calling her,
"Why isn't there an investigation?
Why isn't there an explanation?"
WILDMAN: But when Barwood digs for answers,
she is summarily ridiculed by her peers.
She was ignored by the council for her question,
but also plastered to the wall
with jokes and cartoons and so forth by the print media.
WILDMAN: But the councilwoman continues her quest for the truth.
She approaches officials at Sky Harbor Airport
to find out if they detected anything unusual
on the night in question,
and the air traffic controllers admit something startling.
KITEI: They witnessed the same exact phenomena
about 1,000 feet out, hovering over restricted airspace.
WILDMAN: And even though the controllers
saw the lights with their own eyes,
the unidentified object was not detected by their radars.
KITEI: Even air traffic controllers
could not explain what these were.
WILDMAN: So what exactly are the Phoenix Lights?
Phoenix, Arizona, 1997.
Several hundred residents have reported seeing
otherworldly lights in the skies over the city,
and some have recorded these bizarre illuminations on video.
But are these really UFOs?
Or is there some more logical explanation
for this strange phenomenon?
In the wake of the sightings,
some suggest that the craft's presence
above restricted airspace
and its ability to avoid radar detection
indicate that it is part of a high-tech,
top-secret government program...
while others conclude that what was spotted that night
was really an alien spacecraft.
Amidst growing media pressure,
the Air National Guard steps forward with an explanation.
They inform reporters that on the night of March 13,
pilots from nearby Luke Air Force Base ran flight exercises
in "V" formation.
To the untrained eye, the lights of the separate jet planes
would have appeared to have been from one single craft.
But many local aviation experts
attest that this explanation doesn't hold water.
Planes just can't keep that rock-solid formation,
and those that saw it take off at blank speed
said there was no sonic boom or sound associated with it.
WILDMAN: The Air National Guard asserts
that the second set of lights captured on Dr. Kitei's camera
were high-intensity flares launched into the air
during the flight exercises.
But this explanation also has its skeptics.
Flares only last for a few minutes.
They drift and drop haphazardly.
They have huge smoke trails and illuminate the area around it.
Not one person described any of those characteristics...
that saw the true Phoenix Lights.
WILDMAN: To this day,
the real explanation of the Phoenix Lights
remains a source of debate,
leaving Lynne Kitei more determined than ever
to uncover the truth.
KITEI: I don't know what they were,
but I know that they were,
and it's time we get this topic out in the open,
address it, accept it, and study it.
WILDMAN: Until then, this camcorder remains
at the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas...
an electronic witness to an event
that to this day defies explanation.
An aquarium with thousands of marine specimens...
fierce-looking fossils
and a living rainforest several stories high
are among the wonders on display
at the California Academy of Sciences.
But deep in the collection's archives
is an object that curator Douglas Long
claims is linked to an otherworldly legend.
LONG: It's about 2 1/2 feet wide, about 4 1/2 feet long,
and, in total, weighs about 60 pounds.
WILDMAN: This sizable skull was once part of a hideous specimen
that sparked mass intrigue when it was discovered in 1925.
It looked like nothing they had ever seen.
WILDMAN: So what kind of creature did this skull come from?
And could it prove the existence of a legendary beast?
1925, Moore's Beach, Santa Cruz, California.
A local beachgoer notices something strange
along the sandy shore, the decomposing body
of what appears to be a bizarre sea creature.
And as he moves in to inspect it...
he's immediately overcome by a foul odor and the enormous size.
The creature's unusual features leave some to conclude
that it is some sort of unclassified beast.
LONG: Some people claim that it had a coat of hair.
Some people claim that it had a coat of feathers.
Some people said that it had skin like an elephant.
One person said that it had four legs with toenails.
WILDMAN: As word of the mysterious beast spreads,
an amateur naturalist named E.L. Wallace
arrives to inspect the curious-looking carcass,
and he is immediately struck by two distinctive features.
LONG: He was very intrigued by what appeared to be a long neck
and this beaked head.
And he proclaimed that it was a plesiosaur.
WILDMAN: Plesiosaurs are a classification of ancient marine reptiles
that have been extinct for over 65 million years.
So how did a long-extinct animal wash up on the California shore?
LONG: He had surmised that this plesiosaur had been encased
in a massive block of ice,
was dislodged from a glacier high in the Arctic,
took the current south from Alaska
along the coast of California, defrosted,
and then finally washed up on the beach in Santa Cruz.
WILDMAN: But others draw a far more menacing conclusion.
After interviewing locals and snapping photographs,
some journalists are convinced
they've found evidence of a legendary monster.
LONG: The local newspapers published
that they were the remains of some sort of sea serpent
that had washed up on the beach.
WILDMAN: Since man first explored the seas,
there have been tales of vicious beasts
known as sea serpents.
These long snakelike monsters
are believed to have attacked fishermen,
sunk ships, and preyed on wildlife.
Since 1880, there have been numerous sightings
off the coast of California
of what many believe is this dangerous and elusive beast.
LONG: From fishermen, whalers, seafarers,
most of those were fleeting glimpses of things
that they may have never seen before,
but rarely is there something that washes up on a beach.
WILDMAN: Soon the creature is given a name --
the Santa Cruz Sea Serpent.
So is it proof that this fabled monster is real?
It's 1925, Santa Cruz, California.
When locals find the carcass of a bizarre creature
washed up on a popular beach,
some speculate that it's physical proof
of the fabled Santa Cruz Sea Serpent.
But what's the truth behind this amazing find?
WILDMAN: When leading biologists at the California Academy of Sciences
catch wind of the vexing marine mystery,
they rush to Moore's Beach.
LONG: The group then brought the remains back to the laboratory,
where it underwent further investigation
and further preparation,
including the cleaning of the skull.
WILDMAN: The same skull at the California Academy of Sciences
leads them to a stunning conclusion.
It was the examination of the skull
that led the researchers to identify the remains
of the Moore's Beach Monster as...
the Baird's beaked whale.
WILDMAN: Baird's beaked whales are known for their distinctive snouts.
They inhabit deep waters,
often diving down to 6,000 feet below sea level.
LONG: They're not found near shore,
so they were a very mysterious group of marine mammal
and still remain a very mysterious group today.
WILDMAN: Only two specimens
had ever been collected in California before 1925.
But if this creature is really a beaked whale,
why was it described as having such bizarre features,
including the long extended neck of a sea serpent?
Douglas Long believes the answer lies
in the decomposition of the whale's body.
LONG: So the neck of the sea serpent
turned out to be a large, more or less, blanket of blubber.
So on the beach, it looked like a neck
because they no longer had any real association
with the rest of the body.
WILDMAN: While it's not the legendary Santa Cruz Sea Serpent,
this specimen at the California Academy of Sciences
reminds us of the many wondrous and mysterious beasts
that lurk in the ocean deep,
some of which may have yet to be discovered.
From a brazen heist to a Saharan tale of survival...
an imposter princess to a monster from the deep...
I'm Don Wildman, and these are the mysteries at the museum.