01x06 - Mysterious Relics

[bunniefuu]

Coming up on expedition files.

A knight discovers a sacred cloth

in the 14th century

that people believe could be

the burial shroud of Jesus Christ.

Now, 600 years later,

recent scientific analysis may tell us

if it's truly a relic from a higher power.

In the 1800s, a photographer

rises to fame and fortune

because of his ability

to capture pictures of ghosts.

Could new evidence suggest

it might actually be true?

And we investigate a

mysterious stone monument

erected in elberton, Georgia,

to find out who the mastermind

behind this expl*sive structure could be.

In the corridors of time,

are mysteries that defy explanation.

Now I'm traveling through history itself.

On a search for the truth.

New evidence.

Shocking answers.

I'm Josh gates

and these are my

My adventures have taken

me to over 100 countries,

and along the way I've collected

an impressive assortment

of cultural objects.

And I'm not talking about

key chains or snow globes,

but my office trinkets have nothing

on the three extraordinary items

we're examining tonight.

Objects that have captivated

and confused humanity for centuries.

From a controversial

imprint of a divine figure,

to photographs said to capture ghosts

and a circle of stones

that were mysteriously created

and then mysteriously destroyed.

Each relic faces the same question.

What is the true story of

this extraordinary object?

And we begin in the year 1354.

Inside the awe inspiring nave

of the lirey church in France.

And I'm here because

legendary crusader

geoffroi de charnay is

returning from the middle east

with what will become perhaps

the world's most famous

or infamous holy relic,

the shroud of turin

the cloth said to wrap

Jesus body after he died,

capturing the imprint of his face.

In the centuries that follow

this discovery by geoffroi,

controversy will swirl around the shroud.

Many will claim it's fake

created to promote christianity.

Others aren't certain it's real.

Offering irrefutable evidence

of Jesus and his resurrection.

So who's right?

Well, the latest advances in technology

may finally provide the answer.

The first recorded encounter

with the shroud comes in the year

It is believed French knight

geoffroi de charnay discovers the fabric.

When the knights templar journey

through constantinople,

during the 14th century crusades.

The night finds a burial cloth

among the treasures

of a byzantine emperor.

When de charnay looks closer,

he's overcome with emotion

because the faint image of the man

embedded in the fabric

looks like Jesus Christ.

De charnay wonders,

"is this the burial shroud

for the son of god?"

After Christ's death,

the Bible describes how

he is prepared for burial.

His body is first cleansed,

then anointed with aloe

and expensive perfumes.

He is then wrapped in a white linen

that's covered with resin

to hold it close to the flesh.

Embalmed in the burial shroud.

Jesus is laid to rest in a tomb.

When de charnay inspects

the shroud for more clues,

he spots blood stains on the fabric,

like the wounds Jesus allegedly suffered

during his crucifixion.

Holes in his wrists,

a Lance wound to his side.

And puncture wounds to his forehead.

To de charnay this is more

than mere coincidence.

The knight is convinced

this is the burial shroud,

which enveloped the bloody,

crucified body of Jesus Christ.

Geoffroi spirits the fabric

out of constantinople,

to lirey church in France,

believing he has

recovered the holiest relic

in all of christianity.

Despite doubts about

the fabric's authenticity,

thousands of christians

make the pilgrimage to view

what they believe is the image of Jesus.

But in 1532, a fire nearly destroys it.

The flames are so hot that it melts

part of the silver container

where the shroud is kept.

The sacred relic is

then moved to the safety

of the catholic church's turin cathedral.

Where it becomes

known as the turin shroud.

For the next 400 years,

scholars around the world

are captivated by one question.

Is the shroud real or fake?

In the 1980s,

advances in radiocarbon

dating technology,

give Vatican officials

the opportunity to confirm

the shroud's authenticity once and for all.

Scientists get permission

to remove a piece

of the shroud's fabric

for carbon 14 testing.

Will the ancient mystery of

the shroud finally be solved.

On October 13th, 1988,

at a press conference

at the British museum,

the world learns the truth.

Radiocarbon dating

conducted on the fabric sample

indicates the shroud was created

between 1260-1390 ad.

That's over 1200 years

after the death of Jesus.

For the faithful, the

results call into question

the authenticity of the artifact.

Yet for others, the findings

raise an intriguing question.

If it's not Jesus,

who is the mysterious

figure depicted on the shroud?

Some have argued

that the shroud, in fact,

captures a soldier

from the late crusades.

Who was crucified in the same manner

as Jesus centuries after he died.

This was said to have been done

to warn off Christian invaders.

If you come to the holy land,

you will suffer the same

fate as your lord Jesus.

And there were even

more sensational theories.

Some scholars have proposed

that the shroud was made by

artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci,

asserting the face in the shroud

perfectly matches the one depicted

in Da Vinci's famous painting,

the salvator mundi.

But some experts who

analyze the ancient artifact

still see compelling signs

that the shroud is real.

They claim the evidence can be found

in the fabrics markings.

Close inspection of the shroud reveals

the image is embedded in the fibers.

Not painted on the surface.

Which would likely appear in a forgery.

Some have argued that the image

is impossible to replicate.

And was likely created

by a powerful burst

of ultraviolet light, or

electromagnetic radiation.

Beyond the capabilities of any technology

at the time of Christ.

Experts demand new tests

to confirm or dispute the

1988 radiocarbon dating.

Yet the Vatican refuses to provide

any more access to the shroud.

Could one of the most

powerful religious organizations on earth,

be hiding something.

In 2022, archeologist William meacham

discovers five pieces of

fabric cut from the shroud

during the 1988 testing.

And submits the strands

to the stable isotopes laboratory.

At the university of Hong Kong.

Testing the composition of the strands

can uncover their geographic origin,

determining exactly where

in the world the shroud came from.

And when the results are revealed,

they are stunning.

Historian Joe Marino,

one of the foremost

experts on the shroud,

has studied the isotopic results.

This test was one of the most compelling

pieces of evidence I've seen,

especially for the 20th and 21st century.

The reason is because

the shroud of turin

is made of flax fibers,

an isotope testing can indicate

where the flax had originally been grown.

And the results revealed

that it came from Israel, Lebanon

and are the western parts of Syria.

So when I saw the results,

I was just absolutely captivated.

For believers, this is

the best news possible.

The shroud comes from the same place

that Jesus lived and died.

And groundbreaking new

findings might finally provide

the identity of the image on the shroud.

For centuries, the shroud

of turin has inspired millions,

while also inspiring

a tantalizing question.

Is it real?

New scientific findings

may confirm that the shroud

came from the same place

where Jesus was buried.

But even if the shroud

was made in the holy land,

carbon 14 testing indicates

the fabric was created

over a thousand years

after Christ's death.

However, Joe Marino,

believes there are major flaws

with the 1988 radiocarbon test results.

I felt that something had to be wrong

with that carbon 14 test

'cause it just did not match

the other data it accumulated.

And in all scientific experiments,

when a test is done,

labs are supposed to release

what's called the raw data,

meaning all the data

that they worked with

and what they used to

come to their conclusions.

People asked the British museum

for the raw data, but

they wouldn't release it.

Even more intriguing,

recent analysis of bacteria

found on the shroud

may raise further questions

about the accuracy

of the carbon-14 dating

if the shroud is authentic

it's been in the open for approximately

2000 years and obviously would

accumulate a lot of debris on it

and environmental factors.

Mold, mildew, skin cells

so it's not really well

suited for carbon 14.

And the dating of the linen could be

a thousand years off.

And photographic analysis

of the shroud dating back to 1978

provides even more possible

evidence of its authenticity.

When the scientists put the picture

of the face and the image analyzer,

they saw over both

eyes what appeared to be

buttons or possible coins.

And the coins were used

in Jewish burial customs

of that period in which Jesus lived

and they would put coins on the eyes,

so they keep them from seeing

the afterlife until they got there.

Further analysis of the shroud images

reveals the coins placed over the eyes

are pilate leptons.

Small bronze coins minted

only between 29 and 32 ad,

linking the artifacts to the era

in which Jesus is believed

to have lived and died.

Jesus was believed

to be by most scholars,

to have been crucified in either 30 or 33.

So the fact that this

coin is actually there

and it was in use at the time.

That's I mean, that's about as

much evidence as you could get

that the shroud could be authentic.

You know, if I were a betting man,

I'd bet every dollar I ever had

and ever will have that it's authentic.

After all this new evidence,

many feel validated

that the shroud is the real deal.

Has science really come

to the rescue of belief?

Well, not so fast.

Critics would argue that

the radiocarbon dating

undertaken in the 80s

was comprehensive and accurate.

And even if the shroud is genuine,

it raises another question.

Is this what Jesus even looked like?

Historical and archeological evidence.

Suggests that someone from that region

at that time may have

looked very different

from the image we've

come to associate with Christ.

After almost a thousand

years of controversy,

perhaps the only thing

we can truly be certain of

is that the debate between holy relic

or holy hoax, is sure to continue.

Welcome to the trial of the century.

The 19th century, that is.

It is 1969,

and that man on the

stand is fighting for his life.

Or actually, maybe afterlife

would be more appropriate.

He is William mumler,

a photographer, and his

pictures have captivated america

because he swears he's

able to photograph ghosts.

Today, the state of New York

is prosecuting him as a fraud.

But mumler will vow to the very end

that his photos are real.

So could he really have been

the paparazzi of the paranormal?

Well, in the 150 years

since, many have struggled

to replicate his remarkable images.

Now, we can reveal new insights

that explain the true story

of William mumler and

his photographic phantoms.

- Our story really begins.

- Eight years earlier.

It's 1861, and mumler the

owner of a Boston based

engraving studio,

has dipped his toe into family portraiture.

Taking pictures is not

the take it for granted.

Pull out your smartphone

to capture every moment that it is today.

In 1861, photography

is still in its infancy.

The process of taking

a single photograph

is labor intensive,

often requiring the subject

to sit for several minutes.

While the plate or film is exposed to light.

And in this case, the

subject is mumler himself.

Mumler poses for a self-portrait.

And, as the story goes,

after developing the plate,

he notices something very strange.

Having been all alone in the studio,

mumler is amazed to see there

sitting in a chair next

to him, a young girl.

The chair visible

through her almost transparent body.

According to mumler, he's confused.

He thinks he must have

made a mistake somehow.

He's just started photography after all.

This isn't even his studio.

It's his girlfriend's Hannah Stuart.

But Hannah isn't confused.

She's fascinated because

Hannah deals in the dead.

She's involved in a new religious

movement called spiritualism

that believes the living

can interact with the dead.

So when Hannah sees mumler's photo,

she immediately knows

what she's looking at.

The girl in the chair is a spirit.

Mumler looks at it in shock.

Then realizes something remarkable.

The girl does look a lot

like his long dead cousin

through Hannah's contacts,

mumler's photo gets reprinted

in the popular spiritualist

publication banner of light.

And the community

embraces mumler's photo

as the first picture of

a ghost ever captured.

Mumler vows that he can't

explain what's happening

and that he's just as

astonished as everyone else

by this haunting photo.

Keep in mind that in 1861,

the civil w*r is in its bloody beginnings.

Thousands of men are dying,

which means many passionately believe

there are thousands of ghosts

that need contacting.

But can mumler capture

additional spirits in his photos?

And will these same ghosts

end up haunting him in the end.

In 1861,

as the nation mourns

its losses in the civil w*r.

Photographer William mumler

seems to capture the ghost

of a deceased girl with his camera.

He soon discovers that this

is a recurring phenomenon,

and after sessions with other customers,

the resulting photos,

continue to reveal the spirit images,

of people's dead relations.

Word of mumler's amazing ability

to connect with the

dead spreads like wildfire.

Suddenly there are lines out the door

at Hannah Stuart's

little photography shop.

Mumler is able to replicate

his process again and again,

capturing so called spirits

for customer after customer.

With business booming, mumler charges

an outrageous $10 per

photo, or about $350 today.

Mumler is becoming rich.

And as the most famous spirit

photographer in the world,

it starts putting him in touch

with higher class customers.

As William mumler's business grows,

so does spiritualism,

the movement that embraces him.

But spiritualism does have its detractors.

Particularly christianity.

Many christians are horrified

by who they view as godless spiritualists.

And are determined to prove

that men like mumler are frauds.

One person that tries to debunk mumler

is expert photographer

James Wallace black.

But when black arrives

at the studio to investigate,

mumler is all too happy

to allow black to observe his process.

He has nothing to hide.

As he takes black's photograph,

he shows him the plate.

And includes him in

every step of the process.

So you're using Mercury

in your development process?

Helps develop the highlights.

And that's where I find the ghosts.

Upon developing the photograph,

mumler lets black watch

as a translucent figure

appears in all its ghostly glory.

Next to the bewildered expert.

Even the people trying to discredit him

be grudgingly begin to admit

that he may be the real deal.

All the while, mumler swears

that he has nothing to hide.

He claims to simply remove the lens cap

and expose the photo.

Having no other insight

into the miraculous results,

that appear on his photographic plate.

But then mumler starts

to take things further.

A visit to his studio is no

longer just point and sh**t.

It now also includes a

seance to summon the spirits.

At an extra cost to his customers.

If a ghost shows up, it

may announce its presence

by rapping on a table, wall or floor.

Sometimes the camera levitates.

Or a table tips over the

customers completely buy into it.

But the spiritualists who

supported him start to turn on him.

Smelling a possible huckster.

Who makes their whole

movement seem fake.

Mumler doesn't care if he's lost

the support of the spiritualists.

Everyone's efforts to prove

that he's a fraud has so far failed.

Plus, he's made a pile of money.

But there is one problem.

Mumler is running out

of customers in Boston.

All the bad publicity is taking its toll.

So William and his now

wife, Hannah Stuart mumler,

leave Boston behind and

set up shop in New York City.

And are immediately

the toast of the town.

Thank you so much for

coming, right this way.

The hoi polloi flood to the new studio,

and mumler churns out one

ghost photograph after another.

Okay. This could take some time.

So you want to sit very still and sit up?

But mumler's prolific output attracts

the ire of New York's

mayor, Abraham oakey.

Whose political opponents

are mostly spiritualists.

Nothing would make oakey happier

than to reveal the spiritualist community

as charlatans.

Sir, we're ready for you.

It's not long before a sting is set up.

An NYPD officer j.H. Tooker

drops by mumler's studio undercover.

Mumler photographs tooker and claims

that the ghost appearing next to him

is the policeman's father in law.

Not recognizing the

apparition as his father in law,

tooker arrests mumler on the spot,

charging him with fraud.

Suddenly, mumler's entire life is at stake.

He's now accused of being a fake

by the legal system and facing prison.

Which brings us to April 21st, 1869

when the trial begins.

The prosecution needs to prove

that the ghosts in mumler's photos

are entirely created by the photographer.

But when tooker takes the stand,

he is forced to admit

that he never met his father in law.

And so there is a

possibility that it's him.

The trial is a circus

and becomes more so when

the renowned promoter of hoaxes,

p. T. Barnum, testifies against mumler.

But barnum's testimony falls apart

when he can't definitively

confirm that mumler's ghosts

are made using fraudulent techniques.

Others testify against mumler

also saying that he's a fraud,

but no one can prove how he did it.

So the jury finds him not guilty.

On may 5th, 1869.

William mumler walks free.

The city of New York has

not been able to disprove

that he is a bona fide

photographer of ghosts.

But it isn't a complete victory for mumler,

as the trial has left him in financial ruin

and his reputation is destroyed.

He's forced to close up his

shop and return to Boston.

By 1879, mumler stops taking

spirit photographs altogether.

Not long after his wife leaves him,

and he dies in 1884, destitute and alone.

So what's the truth

behind mumler's methods?

Did he perpetrate a massive fraud?

Or can the impossible really be true?

Were the ghosts real?

Now some picture perfect

insights may explain it all.

At the dawn of photography,

William mumler

becomes instantly famous

for photographing ghosts,

but no one was able

to explain how he did it.

Now, 150 years later,

historian Brandon

hodge, who has studied

the spiritual movement extensively,

believes he can explain how mumler

was able to pull this off with his clients,

both emotionally and practically.

Mumler was able to fool the nation

because he engaged in

some subtle sleight of hand.

And this was in a day and age

when communion with spirits

was thought to be not only possible

but practical through

the spiritualist movement.

Mumler's photography

comes at a crucial time

when spiritualists are seeking to claim

a sort of scientific legitimacy.

And mumler's results are able to provide

what they think is

tangible evidence of that.

At a time when the

nation is already in deep

mourning with the American civil w*r,

and so this was just

seen as yet further proof

of the validity of the spiritualist claims.

But even if mumler was

fraudulently taking advantage

of people's desperation to believe,

it doesn't explain how

he tricked the masses,

including leading photography experts.

James Wallace black, himself a

famous photographer in his own right.

He was unable at the end to explain

how the image had appeared on film.

While mumler's exact methods

were never conclusively proven.

During these long exposure times,

one of mumler's methods

may have been pre

exposure of the plate.

Where only brief exposure of a subject,

possibly dressed in

a shroud or as a ghost

would be exposed to the plate.

That plate would then be set aside,

and when the next subject arrived,

it would be inserted

and once the subjects sat

for several minutes

for their own exposure,

the end result would show them

fully formed as well

as this ghostly image.

It's incredible to think mumler's talents

may have been less spiritual, medium

and more street magician.

A street magician taking

advantage of a grieving nation,

but is it fair to write off

mumler so completely.

For instance,

consider this photograph, which

William mumler took in 1872.

For someone who gave

the name Mrs. Lindahl,

mumler took her picture,

and it was only after developing it.

That he realized she

had given a fake name.

Mrs. Lindahl was in

fact, Mary Todd Lincoln.

And if mumler really didn't know that,

how did this very familiar figure

appear behind the former first lady.

Chills anyone?

Whatever you may think

about mumler's methods,

his work really is haunting.

From photographs from the beyond.

Our next case file takes us

to a monument that is beyond belief.

It is June 1979,

and I'm standing on five

acres of empty farmland.

Outside of elberton, Georgia.

A mystery man has just

bought this land for $5000.

He goes by Robert c. Christian,

but that is not his real name.

And he's not a farmer or a

rancher, as you might expect,

no, he has much bigger

and stranger plans for this land.

R.c. Christian wants to build

america's stonehenge, right here.

A huge the granite

monument, with ten principles

for the future of humanity carved into it.

The monument will be built

and mystery and controversy

will surround it for decades.

And now for the very first time,

we can reveal the secrets

of perhaps america's strangest object,

the unsettling monument known

as the Georgia guide stones.

On a late afternoon in June 1979,

a well dressed middle aged man

walks into the elberton

granite finishing company.

With a strange request

for the company president.

Joe find lay.

He wants to build a monument,

one that will rival stonehenge

but with significant differences.

R.c. Christian shows findley

a scale model of his monument.

He wants it to have messages

etched into the stones

to guide humanity on

everything from human population

to government, to the use of language.

The messages need to be written in

English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese,

arabic, Hebrew, hindi and Swahili.

The world's eight most

popular languages,

plus four dead ones.

Babylonian cuneiform, sanskrit,

classic Greek and

Egyptian hieroglyphics.

And like stonehenge, he

also wants the monument

to be an astrological calendar,

tracking the winter and summer solstices

as well as marking the equinoxes

and phases of the moon.

Findley, whose company

deals with wholesale orders

of granite for buildings and tombstones,

has never had a request like this,

and he never will again.

After listening to r.C. Christian's plans,

he's convinced the man is crazy.

So to get rid of him,

findley quotes a price

of several hundred thousand dollars.

Christian doesn't bat an eye.

He just pulls out his checkbook

and asks "who do I make it out to?"

But a check won't do,

and Christian needs to set up

an escrow account at the local bank.

But in order to do this, the granite

city bank president, Wyatt Martin,

needs r.C. Christian to

give him his real name.

Christian agrees after he

gets a promise from Wyatt

to never reveal his identity.

Wyatt says he'll take

Christian's secret to the grave.

Christian is now ready

to build his monument.

This structure will consist of six

huge pyramid blue granite stones,

and will weigh 120 tons,

about the same as 20 African elephants.

R.c. Christian has one last

ominous request for the builders.

The monument needs to

withstand a cataclysmic event,

like a nuclear expl*si*n.

After months of construction,

the guide stones are unveiled

to a crowd of hundreds of

people and dozens of journalists.

But there is one person

that's noticeably missing.

The creator, r.C. Christian,

who seems to disappear for good.

But this only adds to the

mystery of the guide stones.

What kind of man spends hundreds

of thousands of dollars

building a monument

and then doesn't attend its unveiling?

And while the huge stone

structure is impressive,

it's the ten guidelines

carved into the granite

that capture the public's attention.

"Maintain humanity under 500,000,000

in perpetual balance with nature."

Guide reproduction wisely

improving fitness and diversity.

Be not a cancer on the earth.

"Leave room for nature."

A strange stone monument

covered with cryptic messages

written in 12 languages

standing in the middle of nowhere.

I don't know about you,

but I have a few questions.

Like what is the purpose

of the guide stones?

What exactly do their messages mean?

And why were they

erected here of all places?

The one man with the

answers is nowhere to be found.

So it's up to investigators,

journalists and the public

to interpret the message

and find the meaning,

and they argue over

it for the next 40 years.

There are several

different interpretations

for the principles carved in stone.

Some believe the guide stones

are a plan for rebuilding civilization

after a catastrophic

event, like nuclear w*r.

Or perhaps the ten

principles are a manifesto

to Usher in a new age of reason.

But some believe that the stones

showcase a more sinister purpose.

The total control of the world's

population by a select few.

The first line of the guide

stones makes a shocking decree.

"Maintain humanity under 500,000,000

in perpetual balance with nature."

In 1980, the world's population

is already around $4.5 billion.

To achieve the goal of keeping

humanity under 500,000,000,

almost 90% of the world's

population needs to disappear.

In other words, a mass

genocide or extinction event.

The very next line,

"guide reproduction wisely,

"improving fitness and

diversity" is equally troubling.

This sounds like an

idea known as eugenics.

A favorite of the Nazis

and considered highly

unethical by modern society.

And there's the sinister lines,

"unite humanity with

a living new language,"

"and " let all nations rule internally,

resolving external

disputes in a world court.

"Avoid petty laws and useless officials."

These seem to be promoting some

kind of unified one-world government.

And this, if you believe

the conspiracy theorists,

is the very same goal as

fabled sinister organizations

like the illuminati.

For the conspiracy inclined,

the guide stones aren't a

plan for a better life on earth.

Its ten messages are instructions

for instituting a

terrifying new world order.

One that includes

eugenics, depopulation,

and a one-world government,

all in service of a mysterious elite.

It's a decree about the total

domination of humanity as we know it.

And it's right there, chiseled

in granite for all to see.

And the messages

written on the guide stones

seem to have a literary source.

In 1986, a book titled

common sense renewed

is sent to every member of congress.

It expounds on the

evils of overpopulation

and suggests that

having more than one child

should be a punishable crime.

The author listed on the book

You guessed it, Robert Christian.

With such a controversial creed,

it's not surprising that the monument

becomes a magnet for vandalism.

In 2008, someone spray paints

"death to the new world

order" on the granite stones.

And in 2014, the FBI is even called in,

to look at incomprehensible markings

scrawled on the monument.

On July 6, 2022, just after 4:00 A.M.,

security cameras pick up a

shadowy figure carrying a package

as they run towards the monument.

Seconds later, an expl*si*n

rocks the guide stones,

The shroud of turin may

have been the first item

to bear the image of a holy face,

but it certainly wasn't the last.

Whether it's the "nun bun,"

a cinnamon roll with an uncanny

resemblance to Mother Teresa,

or "cheesus," a snack-sized cheeto

that looks like the son of god,

the divine seems to have a

penchant for unconventional canvases.

And while the legitimacy of these

objects is certainly up for debate,

one thing is for sure,

they can be quite lucrative.

In 2004, a 10-year-old

frozen grilled cheese sandwich

that seemed to bear the

image of the virgin Mary,

sold for a whopping $28,000 on eBay.

Whether these images

are divine intervention

or just wishful thinking,

remains to be seen.

But the next time

you're brunching at ihop,

you might want to take a

good look at those pancakes.

February, 2024

The enigmatic monument

known as the Georgia guide stones

is destroyed by an expl*si*n.

And then, hours after the expl*si*n,

claiming the structure is unstable,

authorities knock down the guide stones

and cart the remains away

to an undisclosed location.

It is a quick and violent end

for the granite structure

that stood for 42 years.

While the Georgia

bureau of investigation,

the A*F, and local police

all investigate the bombing,

no arrests are made,

and they won't be made.

Today, there are still no suspects

in the guide stones' destruction.

But while the destroyer of the

stones may remain a mystery,

it seems its creator

won't be much longer.

After the Georgia guide stones

is destroyed by an expl*si*n,

investigative journalist, Van Smith,

publishes a story on the Internet.

As I spent a lot of time,

researching the monument,

I began to realize that it

was a much more serious

and, troubling, monument

than I had originally expected.

In his search to find answers

about the guides tone bomber,

he comes across an

obscure documentary film

on the history of the guide stones

called dark clouds over elberton.

In this documentary, they

interview banker Wyatt Martin,

the one man that knows

r.C. Christian's true identity

but refuses to reveal it.

But Van Smith realizes

something shocking in the video.

The banker accidentally

gives a visual clue

that will lead to the unmasking

of the monuments builder.

During the filming, Wyatt

shows the filmmakers

some corresponding business letters

between himself and r.C. Christian.

And on one of those letters,

there's a return address.

According to lake,

the filmmakers, armed with the address,

are able to track down r.C. Christian

and reveal his identity.

So we discover that the address

belongs to a medical

doctor, Herbert h. Kersten.

The doctor died in 2005,

which, corresponds to the last letter

that, Wyatt Martin received.

He was also a compulsive

writer of letters to the editor,

and his writing style

and, subjects that he would write on,

were very similar to what we

see in common sense renewed.

"America should now begin to direct

the attention of the world to

solving the fundamental problem

which threatens to engulf all humanity.

The uncontrolled

reproduction of our species.

Rational planning of human reproduction

is becoming increasingly essential.

Contrary to widespread opinion,

"our nation is now overpopulated."

Those editorials hardly seem shocking

for someone who seemingly chiseled

"maintain humanity under $500,000,000

"in perpetual balance

with nature" into granite.

But if Dr. Kersten's views were extreme,

just wait till you hear those of

some of his so-called friends.

Herbert kersten frequently

bragged about his friendship

with physicist William shockley,

who won the nobel prize in 1956

for being one of the

co-inventors of the transistors.

But shockley went

on to infamy in the '70s

when he started

endorsing eugenics plans.

For instance, one of the

things he wanted to do,

was to pay people who had

IQ's under 100 to get sterilized.

If kersten's friendship with

shockley wasn't bad enough,

we uncovered a letter that he

wrote to a south Florida newspaper

where he was endorsing the, former,

kkk grand wizard, David Duke,

considered america's

most well-known r*cist

and anti-semite, according

to the anti-defamation league.

Dr. Kersten's friendship with shockley,

and his support of

David Duke is troubling.

Especially when you

consider what was written

on the face of the Georgia guide stones

and in the book

common sense renewed.

These messages of

the Georgia guide stones

about maintaining global

population of under 500,000,000

and guiding reproduction wisely

That it's actually a much

more sinister message

and deciding actually who

will live and who will die.

Were the Georgia guide

stones some vast conspiracy?

Probably not.

They were likely just

one man's pet project.

Some build model railways,

others build america's stonehenge.

But if Dr. Herbert kersten

was the creator of the

Georgia guide stones,

then the stones themselves are tainted

by some very disturbing ideas.

You could say they were much

more dangerous than divine.

And let's not forget

our remaining mystery.

While we now may know who

created the Georgia guide stones,

we aren't any closer to

knowing who destroyed them.

But I guess they weren't made

to withstand nuclear w*r after all.

I'm Josh gates. Until next time

Travel adventurously.