05x05 - Captain Kidd's Treasure

[bunniefuu]

Tonight, a mystery from
the golden age of piracy.

Anyone that's raised on the
Atlantic seaboard has grown up

listening to tales of Captain
Kidd and his lost treasure.

In 1698, Captain
William Kidd raids a ship

on the high seas and
seizes its vast treasure.

Gold bars, silver,
coins, rubies,

emeralds, diamonds,
and other treasures.

These other pirates now know
he's sitting on a fortune.

Captain Kidd wound up
the most wanted man

in the British empire.

What did the
notorious seafarer do

with all of his loot?

We'll explore the top theories

around Captain Kidd's
hidden treasure.

Where could Captain Kidd
have hidden this treasure?

It could be anywhere
as far as Madagascar,

potentially somewhere
in the Caribbean,

possibly somewhere
in the United States.

Here is a true,
buried treasure story,

Kidd's lost treasure.

What happened to Captain
William Kidd's lost treasure

and where is it now?

In 1696, William
Kidd is a celebrated veteran

of the British sea battles
against the French.

Kidd has risen to
the rank of captain,

working as a privateer,
plundering enemy ships

in the service of his
Majesty's government.

The only thing that
differed between pirates

and privateers was
a piece of paper.

That paper was
known as a letter of marque.

When you got a
privateering commission,

you got a letter of
marque from the government

that allowed you to capture
foreign ships legally.

This was not piracy,
this was privateering.

But now, the famed
privateer is a semi-retired,



Kidd is living in New York.

He's married to a
wealthy woman, Sarah,

and they have a
couple of daughters.

He's got a perfect life.

He's well respected around town.

And then comes an offer
that he can't refuse.

He got this offer, this
opportunity to capture

French merchant ships
or any ship traveling

with a French letter of
passage to take their treasure

and then divide it
up with the people

who backed his mission.

Captain Kidd was backed by
four of the most powerful lords

in England and he also had
one of the wealthiest men

in New York backing
him, Robert Livingston.

He had the future governor of
New York and Massachusetts,

Lord Bellomont, backing him.

He had to assume this
was a legal mission.

These were very powerful people.

On September 6,


out of New York Harbor aboard
a swift, well-armed ship

named the Adventure Galley.

He's been given a
crew of over 150 men,

which will give him
loads of resources to rob

very large ships, guaranteeing
the most successful voyage

of his entire career.

But Kidd's promising voyage

is off to a troubled start.

About four months
into this privateering journey,

Captain Kidd is not having
the success he hoped for.

He hasn't found any pirate ship,

he's lost 40 men to disease,

and the only hope he has
is finding prey quickly.

They're under contract
to go after French ships,

but instead, they're
coming across Dutch ships,

and so Kidd is not
attacking them,

but the crew is starting
to demand this.

Kidd can't att*ck
a ship sailing under the flag

of a nation that's not
at w*r with England,

but his crew is
getting desperate.

Privateers generally
functioned under this idea

of no prey, no pay,

meaning if you do not
pursue and raid ships,

no one on board is
getting any money.

This puts Captain Kidd
in a difficult situation,

because of course, he
does need to pursue prey

in order to pay his crew, but
if he pursues the wrong prey,

then there will be no
distinction between himself,

as a privateer, and
a regular pirate.

Finally, the gunner of
the ship, William Moore,

basically confronts Kidd,
saying there's a huge Dutch ship

on the horizon, they
should att*ck it,

they'll get lots of money.

Kidd refuses and the two of them
end up yelling at each other.

Moore says,
"You've made us beggars."

And Kidd says, "You
are a lousy dog."

Captain Kidd takes
a bucket and cracks it over

the head of William Moore,
cracking his skull.

The next morning,
Moore dies of his injuries.

Kidd claims that he
didn't mean to do it,

but the surgeon has suspicions

that it was probably
done on purpose.

Many members of the crew
also start to believe this.

Captain Kidd knows right
away that this is dire.

He has now k*lled a member of
his own crew and he can hear

the murmurings among
the remaining crew.

He's losing them and
that's really dangerous

for him at this point.

He needs to take
a very large ship,

pay the crew to keep them happy

so he can keep his
captainship, avoid a mutiny,

avoid any more v*olence,

and also to keep the respect
of the British government.

After Moore dies, Kidd's
desperate to find a prize.

So he brings the Adventure
Galley around the horn

into the Arabian Sea, hoping
to find one of these prizes

under the protection
of the French.

Then, on January


after leaving New York
Harbor, Kidd is off the coast

of India when his crew spots
a large merchant ship ahead.

She's sitting low in the water,

which means she's
a heavy cargo ship.

She's flying a French color
and, for Kidd, this is perfect

because his letter of
marque entitles him to take

French vessels and the
assets that are on board.

This is a legitimate prize.

Kidd's ship
pulls up alongside its prey

with its g*ns loaded
and ready to fire.

The merchant ship
quickly surrenders.

Kidd's luck finally changes.

On board is a king's
ransom in treasure.

It's the ship Captain
Kidd has dreamt of.

It is filled with really
expensive textiles

such as muslins, calico,
silks, it's full of opium,

other items like tobacco
and teas, sugar and salt.

All of these goods might
amount to $12 million

in today's currency.

Now, his crew are gonna
have everything they want

and his investors are
gonna get the return

on their investment.

Kidd comes across
a very large chest

that is double
padlocked with iron

and to his absolute
astonishment,

it's filled with gold
bars, silver, coins,

rubies, emeralds, diamonds,

amounting to about $2.4
million in today's currency.

But the problem is, Kidd
is quite nervous about it

because he discovers this was
basically Armenian merchants

on an Indian ship with
a local crew and it has

an English captain who presents
a French letter of passage.

And he also says it's
a legitimate capture.

The Quedagh Merchant
is under the protection

of the French, he's
carrying a French pass,

but the Quedagh Merchant
is actually a vessel

belonging to the Grand Mogul.

The Grand
Mogul, Aurangzeb Alamgir,

heads the Mogul empire of India,

ruling a vast expanse
of South Asia.

Captain Kidd knows
that he is now possibly

under thr*at from all angles,

not just the Mogul who
this ship belongs to,

but the English who are going
to have to answer to the Mogul

for what Captain
Kidd has just done.

And he still needs to promise
that this treasure is going

to go to the crew that has
already proven to be mutinous.

That there might be some
question as to whether or not

this is a legitimate target

becomes clear to Captain
Kidd fairly quickly.

He needs to keep that
French letter as proof.

This makes it a
legitimate prize.

Kidd has the Adventure Galley,

the Quedagh Merchant,
and all this treasure.

He has to get this
treasure back to New York.

They start making stops
around the Arabian Sea,

selling off as much of
that cargo as they can

to turn it into hard currency.

What Kidd's doing now, is
he's liquidating these assets

and putting them
into gold and silver

and it makes it easier,
not only to transport,

but also pay his bills.

But the Adventure
Galley is in a bad way.

She's done a lot of miles
in harsh conditions.

She's leaking,
she's in bad repair,

so they're making for
the coast of Madagascar.

They sail south to
Sainte-Marie's Island

off the coast of Madagascar,
and it's a little pirate port,

and that's where Kidd went to
get ready for his voyage back.

During this stop in Madagascar,

long simmering tensions
between Kidd and his crew

come to a head.

With the amount of
money that they took

from the Quedagh Merchant,

they're surprised to find
that the amount of money

they're getting is
actually quite average.

They start threatening
to abandon Kidd

unless they get
their fair share.

There's a pirate ship
that's in the harbor

and it's got a very small
crew, very minimal crew.

Kidd orders his men to
go and att*ck the ship,

but his men respond
by saying, quote,

"We'd rather put two
p*stol balls into you."

And they mutiny.

Kidd ends up losing 98 men who
go and join the pirate ship.

Leaving only a handful

still under Kidd's command.

That pirate ship is now
in position to att*ck Kidd

because he has no men to
work his g*ns or outmaneuver.

You can imagine he must
be feeling that he has

to get out of Dodge
really quickly.

These other pirates now know
he's sitting on a fortune.

So he basically takes off
as many of the stolen goods

off the Adventure Galley
as he possibly can,

burns the ship and sinks
it, and then takes off

on the Quedagh Merchant with
a very tiny crew that's left,

only about 13 people.

Kidd leaves Madagascar,

the Adventure Galley, and
an enduring mystery behind.

What happened to
the loot on board?

In the chaos of trying
to get rid of everything

off the Adventure
Galley and sinking it,

there's always the possibility
that Kidd may have left

some items behind,
some precious items.

Some people believe that Kidd
actually left treasure here

and maybe some was even left
on the Adventure Galley.

And so in 2000, the adventurer
and diver Barry Clifford,

he came to Madagascar.

I was thinking, well, if
Kidd had a lot of treasure,

what did he do with it?

I was always
interested in looking

for the Adventure Galley.

When Barry's diving the wreck,

he believes that he has found
part of Kidd's treasure.

One of the things he was
supposed to have had on the boat

was silver bars.

So I went over to where
the Adventure Galley was,

dove down and had
my detector with me,

and I started getting readings,

like, right under where
Kidd's cabin would've been.

The whole area
was hot with metal

and I found all of
these metal bars.

He believes that
he has found part

of the silver that
was allegedly on board

the Quedagh Merchant.

Barry Clifford
turns the bar over

to the Madagascar government,
who in turn sends it

to the United Nations for
investigation into what it is.

The results
of that investigation

are a disappointment.

The ingot is not
silver, it is lead.

And the experts doubt
that it even came

from Captain Kidd's ship,

but that it was most likely an
old pier that had gone down.

But legend persists of a hoard

that may have been left behind.

Did Captain Kidd's treasure
go down with the ship

in Madagascar, or did it
follow him to the Caribbean?

Is there any more buried
treasure out there?

On his voyage
home from Madagascar,

Kidd makes a stop on the
Caribbean island of Anguilla.

When everybody lands on shore,
they hear the horrible news.

Captain Kidd is now a wanted
pirate and will be sentenced

to hang if captured.

When Captain
William Kidd's prized ship,

the Quedagh Merchant, arrives
in a Caribbean port in 1698,

he learns shocking news.

The vessel's capture is now
considered an act of piracy

and not a legitimate act of w*r.

Kidd's freedom, and perhaps
his treasure, are now at risk.

He thought he would be welcomed,

but it was the exact opposite.

He was the most wanted
man in the British Empire.

And so, now he has
a huge decision.

If the Royal Navy catches him,

he knows what they
do to pirates.

I mean, he could be hanged
before he even gets back.

In his mind, he
knows this has to be

some sort of misunderstanding,

perhaps a problem
with communication

as news traveled
across the ocean,

perhaps by some
upset crew members.

To him, he followed every
rule of his letter of marque.

There were French passes,

the Quedagh Merchant
was protected

by the French government.

Surely, there is
absolutely no way

he could really be
considered a pirate.

But powerful forces are working

against Captain Kidd.

The Grand Mogul of India
owns the Quedagh Merchant

and he's angry that
Kidd took it as a prize.

The Mogul's displeasure
threatens British trade

in South Asia and the profits

of Britain's East
India Trading Company.

Captain Kidd wound up the
most wanted man in the empire

because the Indies was such
an important, new trade,

trading opportunity
for the British.

The English East India Company
was was the great future.

I mean, the present
was the Caribbean

and the sugar plantations,
but India was the future

and they only had, I think
it was 10 trading posts

at the time, but it was
starting to go very well

and it would lead
to empire and lead

to England taking over India.

By the late 17th century,

The East India
Company is already

one of the most powerful
conglomerates in the world.

They're establishing good
trading relationships

with the Indian Mughals, so
there is virtually everything

in the world at stake
for them to make sure

they can protect their trading
relationships with India,

so that way, the
East India Company

can continue to
survive and thrive.

So with the capture
of the Quedagh Merchant,

the Grand Mogul
wanted his ship back.

He wanted the goods
that were on board.

He wanted the products
and the treasure

and he wanted somebody
to pay the price.

Kidd was that man.

They threatened the East
India Company that if Kidd

is not captured and
not made an example of,

they will not only
cut off all trade,

they will consider
it an act of w*r.

It's costing millions
of pounds in trade.

This problem has to be
fixed, Kidd must be taken.

The British
government agrees to go after

their own man even if
he might be innocent.

So even with his
letter of marque,

even though he thought
he had the right

to take these vessels,
things have changed.

It's turned into
a political game.

So Kidd now is in an
impossible position.

He can't stay on board
the Quedagh Merchant

and he can't let
his treasure go.

So what he has to do is
find a way out of this.

He realizes that
he is on a vessel

that is easily recognizable and
in order for him to get back

and prove his innocence,
he actually needs to sneak

into New York and so
he needs to find a boat

that will let him enter the
harbor there without detection.

Kidd has to get rid
of the Quedagh Merchant,

so he needs to offload.

But first,
Kidd must part with some

of the Quedagh Merchant's
valuable cargo.

Kidd basically has to do
a fire sale and sell off

what he can and then
he needs to buy a ship.

And so he sells off enough
goods to have the money to buy

a ship called the San
Antonio and sail it back.

He can't take
everything that's left

on the Quedagh Merchant, but
he does bring some with him,

as much as he can fit
on the San Antonio.

Kidd still has
a very sizable treasure.

We think it was 75 pounds of
gold and 150 pounds of silver.

It had a chest of jewels.

Kidd leaves the
Quedagh Merchant in Anguilla

in the care of his
friend, Henry Bolton.

But what becomes of
the precious cargo

he may have left on board?

Kidd leaves the ship with
Bolton to go and clear his name.

Bolton starts to get worried
because he has the same fear

that Kidd does, now he's on
this ship that sticks out

like a sore thumb.

Bolton maneuvers
the Quedagh Merchant

into a nearby Caribbean
river called the Rio Dulce

where he abandons it
and sets it on fire.

Rumors abound as to
how much treasure

was actually left
aboard the ship

when it was b*rned and sunk.

For more than


of the Quedagh Merchant and
its possible sunken treasure

remains a mystery.

Then, in 2007, some local
residents are diving

in shallow waters off an island
near the Dominican Republic

and come across an old cannon
lying on the ocean floor.

In a collaboration
between Indiana University

and the Dominican
Republic government,

we began assessing the
site and recovering data.

I happen to be hired on as
the historian for the mission.

I have the documents that say
how many cannons there were

and where they were placed.

And so the cannon pretty much
are just about exactly right.

This Is the first
clue that we may have

the Quedagh Merchant
on our hands.

The final piece of evidence
was when we uncovered

a much more significant section
of hull and we were able

to actually identify the
ship construction technique

described in the
historical document.

So, we found the
Quedagh Merchant.

So, the shipwreck
itself didn't have any

of what we normally
think of as treasure.

There was no gold,
no silver, no jewels.

Any of the organic materials
had most likely decomposed

or broken down like
the fabrics, the silks,

the muslins, the sugar.

None of the booty
was actually found.

One could assume
that, A, it was looted

before the ship sank, or B,

Kidd took everything with
him for this journey.

That there wasn't any of
Captain Kidd's treasure found

on the wreckage of the Quedagh
Merchant just doesn't prove

that all of that treasure
left the Caribbean.

His friend Henry
Bolton could have taken

some of that
treasure and kept it.

Kidd could have
buried some of it

to come back and get it later.

Some people have
speculated that Kidd

hid treasure in the Caribbean.

I mean, Kidd was there and
we know that for a fact,

'cause we have
eyewitness accounts.

Some of that treasure
could very well still be

somewhere in the Caribbean.

On May 15,


aboard his new ship, the San
Antonio, bound for New York

and eager to prove
he's not a pirate.

He takes the
goods that he needs,

he takes the wealth that he
needs, and he gets a small sloop

and he starts to sail
towards North America

because the person he really
needs to talk to is going

to be his friend and
financier, Lord Bellomont,

the governor of New
York and Massachusetts.

With the money and the
treasure that Kidd still has

on board the vessel, he wants
to take this back to New York,

so he has something to
bargain with his investors

and the governor.

He is certain that once
he explains the situation

to Lord Bellomont, that
he'll be able to prove

that he was operating
under the law

and that he was
absolutely not a pirate.

At the end of May 1699,

Kidd makes a pit stop
on his way to New York,

and this 10-day stay leads

to a new theory
about his treasure.

Kidd anchors off
Lewes in Delaware Bay

and this is where he
sends his men ashore.

We know Kidd stopped there
because it's actually recorded

in the Maryland archives as
well as in Kidd's journals.

Kidd stays in the
bay for about 10 days.

People believe that this is
where Captain Kidd offloads

a bunch of his
treasure and leaves it.

With the pressure Kidd's under,

maybe he's feeling that he
should be placing caches

of treasure that maybe he can
come back to at a later date.

Captain Kidd had the
means and the motivation

to hide treasure everywhere,

from Madagascar, the
Caribbean, the East Coast.

And part of the reason why
he would've wanted to do that

is because these
caches of treasure

could literally save his life.

They could be used for bribes,

for bartering, and just
the leverage that he needs,

not just to satiate his backers,

but to get himself out of jail.

If he was able to
b*at the piracy rap,

he could come back and
collect that treasure later.

Captain Kidd's treasure could
be used to start a new life,

if he's lucky enough to keep it.

It would make sense for Kidd
to bury his treasure here

because he's been in
Delaware for so long

and he's under thr*at of
his identity being known.

He's been here for 10 days and
he needs to get to New York

to plead his case
to Lord Bellomont.

So, he needed to bury
it and then move on.

And there
may be compelling evidence

that points to this possibility.

So for centuries now,
coins from Kidd's era

have washed ashore in
the Delaware Bay area.

Some believe that this is part
of Kidd's hidden treasure.

Benjamin Franklin
said you couldn't walk

along the banks of the Delaware
River without stumbling

in pirate hunter holes.

People were digging
in Ben Franklin's era

and he claimed there
were holes everywhere.

And there's another dig in 1890

that provides a more
intriguing clue.

A contractor digging in
the area of Delaware Bay

comes across something hard.

He finds a large blue stone

in the shape of a rectangle.

When this rock was brought up,

there was the symbol K on
the underside of the rock.

And this is published in the
Delaware State Journal in 1890.

Having a rock, or
a sort of a marker

with a K carved into it, that
led many to believe that Kidd

actually did leave
behind some treasure

in order to come and
retrieve it later.

Does "K" mark the spot

where Kidd buried his treasure?

If so, nobody's found it yet,

but that's not the
end of the hunt.

Once Kidd leaves Delaware,

there is a paper trail and
this is where we start to get

some hard facts.

And one of those hard
facts is that he's got

gold with him, lots of gold.

Captain William Kidd is a
hunted man in June of 1699.

If caught, he faces
execution for piracy,

but he has one important
negotiating chip,

the location of the
treasure he seized

from the Quedagh Merchant.

Where is he hiding it and does
he still have more to hide

before he gets to New York?

Kidd is very worried about
going straight into New York,

even though that's
where his backers are.

He has this treasure with him,

but he doesn't know what kind
of welcome he's gonna receive.

So, he decides to
loop all the way

around the tip of Long Island
and back to Oyster Bay,

which is on the north
shore of Long Island.

Common sense says you should
put a little treasure here

and a little treasure there
in order to help yourself

escape in case things turn bad.

Kidd then contacts his lawyer
so that he can send messages

to his wife and messages
to Governor Bellomont.

He wants a guaranteed pardon

before he's willing to
deliver the treasure.

Kidd's ultimate goal is
to negotiate a surrender

with Lord Bellomont, governor
of New York and Massachusetts

and his friend and financier.

He needs to prove to
Lord Bellomont that he,

of course, is not a pirate.

In Kidd's mind, he should
be able to clear his name

and turn over the ship's
cargo and the treasure

to his benefactors
and hopefully that

will be the linchpin to
returning to normal life.

Kidd's lawyer James
Emmett contacts Bellomont

and demands a pardon in exchange
for the treasure being delivered

and Bellomont will not
remotely agree to that.

He, at first, won't even
put anything in writing.

He just sends a message
to Kidd verbally

that, "I welcome you back," and
that's not sufficient for Kidd.

So Kidd sends a message back
to him that I need something

in writing and that's
when Bellomont says,

if your story turns out
to be exactly as you say,

I will move heaven and
Earth to get you the pardon

you so richly deserve.

But he's dealing with a
very shrewd Lord Bellomont

and a very aggressive
Lord Bellomont.

Lord Bellomont also has
a personal stake in this.

As Captain Kidd's financier,
he feels he's owed money.

If there's a massive cache
of golds, and jewels,

and valuables, and other
treasures lying around,

or anything valuable, Lord
Bellomont is going to take

what he feels is his fair share.

Kidd is determined
not to give up his treasure

or its whereabouts
without a full pardon

and turns to a friend for help.

Captain Thomas Paine
lives in a big house

on Connecticut Island in
Jamestown, Rhode Island.

Like Kidd, Paine was a
merchant sailor and privateer,

and like Kidd, he also got
into some scraps with the law

over his privateering ventures.

Paine has a side business
as a banker to pirates.

Pirates can't use the normal
banking system so they go

to people like Paine who will
keep the transaction secret.

Paine rows out
to Kidd's ship for a meeting

with his old privateer
friend and firsthand accounts

reveal evidence of at least some

of Kidd's treasure
changing hands.

Kidd gives Paine three
pounds of gold for safekeeping

knowing that Paine will keep
this transaction a secret.

Around $90,000 in today's money.

The understanding is
that it is sort of akin

to burying it, another
way to hide treasure

to save him down the line.

Captain Kidd doesn't
know if he can

trust Governor Bellomont yet,

and so he's not going to give
up this incredible leverage

he has until he
knows that he's safe.

Authorities attempt to
shake down Paine but he denies

anything about having
anything from Captain Kidd.

They search his property
and all of his goods

and they find nothing.

Giddy up, giddy up!

As governor of
Massachusetts and New York,

Lord Bellomont has no
authority in Rhode Island

so he can do nothing further
with Paine as he tries

to track down the fugitive
Kidd and his hidden treasure.

Captain kid can't
imagine that he is

actually being
accused of piracy,

especially since he's backed

by four of the most
powerful men in England.

He thinks once the French
letters of passage

are delivered, everything
will be all right.

By the time Captain Kidd returns

to the British
colonies in New England

to prove he's
innocent of piracy,

he may have already left
portions of his vast treasure

in Madagascar, in the Caribbean,
or on a Delaware beach.

After leaving some of his
remaining gold in the care

of an old privateering
friend in Rhode Island,

Kidd may be looking to
stash the rest of his loot

with another trusted friend.

Kidd decides to stop and
visit his friend John Gardiner

on Gardiner's Island.

He hopes that John will assist
him in holding onto some

of the treasure as
a bargaining chip

for his release
should he be arrested.

Gardiner's wealthy family owns

a five-square mile strip of land

off the east end of
Long Island, New York.

He agrees to help.

So Kidd loads up gold,
jewels, and treasure

and has them transported
to Gardiner Island,

whilst he's in negotiations

with the governor
for his pardon.

I think Kidd drops
the motherlode

of at least 50 pounds of
gold on Gardiner's Island.

He was just hedging his bet.

He could not trust
Bellomont yet.

There's numerous
accounts of Kidd's sloop

going back and forth
to Gardiner's Island

and this is substantiated.

It is believed that Gardiner

actually buried
treasure for Kidd.

Now, Gardiner is taking
a great personal risk here

because this would
make him complicit

if Kidd is then
convicted of piracy.

But because Gardiner viewed
Kidd to be a gentleman

like himself, he agreed to
hold onto that treasure.

He needs to prove to
Lord Bellomont that he,

of course, is not a pirate,

But Lord Bellomont politically
cannot actually be associated

with anyone who might
be a wanted pirate.

So Lord Bellomont sort
of keeps Captain Kidd

on a string here.

He tells him that he's
forwarded all of Kidd's letters

and all of his reports to
the English authorities

and then Lord Bellomont
convinces Kidd to sail

to Massachusetts, to Boston,

where he promises
Kidd will be safe.

On Lord Bellomont's advice,

Kidd agrees to
surrender in Boston.

Believing a pardon is
imminent, he hands over

the French passes, the best
evidence of his innocence.

Once Kidd arrives
to Boston, he is met

with a most
unexpected situation.

Bellomont double crosses him.

He is arrested and then thrown

into solitary confinement
in a Boston jail.

Kidd is
unaware that Lord Bellomont

is in possession of critical
evidence against him.

Bellomont has an informer
and this informer gives him

a letter that Kidd had
written to Robert Gardiner

on Gardiner's Island saying
that he was going to offload

loads of his treasure,

a whole bunch of gold, and
coins, and money, and jewels.

And so Bellomont finds that
this is proof that Kidd stole

a whole bunch of goods
from the Mughal merchants,

that Captain Kidd
was indeed the pirate

that they're looking for.

The government's
informants, they're led

to Gardiner's Island
and Gardiner shows them

where some of Kidd's
treasure's buried.

They're taken to a
field where, sure enough,

they dig up a chest and
the chest indeed does hold

some gold, and silver, and
jewels that will amount

to about $2.4 million
in today's currency.

But Lord Bellomont is furious.

It's only a fraction of
the treasure that was taken

from the Grand Mogul's ship,

less than a 10th of the
value that was taken.

He's absolutely devastated
because this is not

what he was led to believe
that Kidd had captured

from the Quedagh Merchant.

He believes there is much more
and it angers him to no end.

The authorities press
Gardiner, but he says this

is everything that Kidd
brought to the island.

Over the course of the
next few generations,

the Gardiner family becomes
an incredibly wealthy

and prominent family in the
region, which begs the question,

did Gardiner actually keep some
of the treasure for himself?

The family tradition is
that the treasure was buried

in Cherry Tree Field
and that there was

an X marks the spot there.

But the Gardiner family
is incredibly private

and really, nobody's seen the
spot that supposedly it was.

The last direct
descendant of John Gardiner

was Robert David Lion Gardiner

and he would bring out gold
and jewels that he claimed

were part of his
Kidd collection.

When he d*ed in 2004, the
secret of whether or not

this was truly Kidd's
treasure d*ed with him.

Now, the island is under
the control of a cousin

and he will not allow
anyone onto the island.

As for Captain
Kidd, he remains locked up

in solitary
confinement in Boston.

During this time, he is
questioned over and over

about where are all the goods
from the Quedagh Merchant

and Kidd refuses
to say anything.

The authorities
then go to New York

and they arrest
Kidd's wife, Sarah,

and they throw her in
prison and she is questioned

over and over.

And also, her servants
are brought in

and everybody is questioned,
trying to find the whereabouts

of all of these goods.

Soon enough though, Kidd's
wife Sarah is going to be

released from prison
because they just don't have

the evidence to hold her.

Kidd is angry.

He's been betrayed by his
friends, his financier,

and by any official.

So he refuses to give up any
information and says he's going

to take all of his
information to the grave.

Captain William
Kidd is held for nearly a year

in a Boston jail.

Then, in February of 1700,
he's shipped to London

and thrown into the
notorious Newgate Prison.

Kidd faces a m*rder charge
for k*lling his gunner,

William Moore, in a quarrel,

and piracy for seizing
the Quedagh Merchant.

But still, authorities
are no closer to locating

the treasure he's hiding.

Kidd knows that the one
thing that will save him

are his French passes.

These will be key evidence in
his trial to prove that he did

have the jurisdiction to be able

to rob the Quedagh Merchant.

Unfortunately, when
he goes to trial,

the French passes
are never produced.

In an interesting turn
of events, however,

the French passes
were later found,

supposedly having been misfiled.

And today, one can go to the
National Archives in England

and take a look at these
French passes for themselves.

Unfortunately, though, it was
too late for Captain Kidd.

In 1701, Kidd is convicted

of m*rder and piracy.

The penalty is death by hanging.

As a last-ditch effort in
order to try to negotiate

his innocence, Kidd says
he's written a letter

that details where he hid
about a hundred thousand pounds

worth of the goods he stole
from the Quedagh Merchant.

But the British
government won't make a deal.

On May 23, 1701, Captain William
Kidd goes to the gallows.

Prior to his hanging, the
pastor at Newgate Prison

attempts to have Kidd reconcile
with his sins and Kidd is

stalwart and absolute and will
not admit to any wrongdoing.

He refused to give
the last dying speech

because there was a whole
ritual of a public hanging

and he refused to
participate in that ritual.

Execution day was a
party day in England.

I mean, it's a sick
tradition, but it was.

The pie man, the guy
with sh*ts of rum.

They were singing,
they were carousing.

They followed the cart
from Newgate Prison

all the way to execution
dock in Wapping.

It was common
practice back then.

The pirates were hung
on the waterfront

at the low-tide mark.

So the gallows were placed
over the low-tide mark

and people would gather
on the waterfront.

But when the
order is given for Kidd

to be hung, the
trap doors sprung,

the rope around
Kidd's neck breaks.

Kidd falls to the ground.

And there was an English
tradition that occasionally,

when the rope broke,
it was an act of God

and you were pardoned
and people wondered,

is this gonna happen for Kidd?

But of course not, it would
not happen for William Kidd.

And so they rebuilt
the platform,

which took a long time,

and he's quoted as saying that
he really regrets his wife

having to learn of
his shameful death.

He is hung back up
and for the second time,

there is no mistake.

This time, he is k*lled.

After the hanging, this is not
where the indignation stops.

His body is tarred and
gibbeted over the River Thames,

sending a warning message to all

who might consider
piracy as a career.

A gibbet is essentially
a cage that you could

kind of put over the body,

and basically, it stayed there
until it rotted and decayed.

After Kidd's
hanging, British agents

continued to look
for the treasure

and pressure those
close to Kidd.

Kidd had very few confidantes.

So if there's anybody on the
planet who knew the truth

about what happened
to Kidd's goods,

it would've been his wife.

Even after all
Sarah had suffered

with the death of her husband,

the government still
pressured her to confess

and tell where the rest of
her husband's treasure was.

She never acquiesced to this.

Sarah Kidd did
perhaps leave one clue,

however, in her will.

When she d*ed in


it stated that she had assets
in New York and elsewhere.

But whether or not the
elsewhere may have referred

to any of Kidd's
goods is a mystery.

But again, this continues to
fuel the myth and the rumors

that Kidd may have buried
treasure somewhere.

Tales abound of different
sites where Kidd has hidden

or buried his treasure.

Anyone that's raised on Atlantic
Seaboard either knows of

or grew up with the
stories of Captain Kidd

and his lost treasure.

They speculate that it's
in Delaware, Maryland,

New Jersey, lots of New
York, lots of Long Island,

up the Hudson.

Some say Block Island,

or Oak Island in Nova Scotia.

Maybe this is the
final Kidd mystery.

Maybe he didn't want one person
to discover it all at once.

So in the end, Sarah
Kidd could be telling us

that all the theories about Kidd

and the multiple caches
of treasure are true.

So that kind of keeps
the mystery alive, right?

If we can't find it, then
it might still be there.

Ever since the 1700s,
people have been searching

over and over for
Captain Kidd's treasure.

The romanticism about pirates
doesn't just simply come

from a rumor about Captain
Kidd's buried treasure,

it's Captain Kidd himself.

Because we see this
conflict of whether or not

he was a privateer or a pirate.

Everybody looks for treasure.

And so here is a true
buried treasure story,

and lost treasure no less,

so people are enthralled
and they continue to look

for Captain Kidd's
treasure everywhere

from Madagascar to the
Caribbean, back to America.

Captain William Kidd was
one of the late 17th century's

most compelling figures,
a distinguished w*r hero

and privateer, perhaps
unjustly hanged for piracy

with a vast fortune and
treasure unaccounted for.

Ultimately, Kidd's guilt
or innocence may be as hard

to determine as the
location or locations

of his infamous hidden treasure.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History's Greatest Mysteries."