Most were situated on Japanese military bases, while others were located near landmarks that would be remembered in coming years, such as hospitals, schools, churches, mountains and waterfalls. The United States could not risk the truth about the gold and treasures that the Japanese had buried in the Philippines coming to light, especially as a large portion of it was now theirs. If Amelia is correct, was this an orchestrated effort to reclaim the treasure? Poster of the fake golden buddha (from the Roxas Museum in Baguio) For weeks, the government deliberately tried to keep that digging a secret. The Imperial treasure sites were another matter: in addition to gold, they contained ancient artefacts from museums and burial hoards that the Japanese had looted across Asia. Andrew Gough. After all, they are man made; Japanese made, I muttered to myself. I had to see the Baguio Hospital treasure site for myself. What interests might the United States have that would enable the Supreme Court decision to be ignored? Whatever I had expected a Japanese tunnel system to be was wrong or at least greatly miscalculated. Klaus and I continued our daily Skype calls and I could sense he was making real progress. When Curtis was finally convinced that the Aquino government was sincere about protecting and encouraging treasure hunters, he organized his company and moved in, McDougald said. As I was banned from listening to the conventional historian do this thing, I became more convinced than ever that the director was orchestrating a hatchet job for the two-hour season premiere of the show. Perhaps he believed that other men had died from lack of survival training and that his skills at living outdoors would be enough to find the gold mines and make him a rich man. Lets put it this way, McDougald said. One day, he got into his car and drove away. Skeptoid Media, After Marcos was deposed in 1986, Curtis and McDougald lobbied the new government of Corazn Aquino that allowing them to find the gold would be a great way to pay off the Philippines' debt. 26 Apr. Andrew Gough. How could I tell if some of my soldiers misbehaved themselves? After the McLeods had been gone for two years, people began to believe that the brothers had actually struck it rich and decided to start a new life somewhere else.[1]. Andrew Gough. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins, but the thought of stumbling upon buried treasure is seductive to everyone. Then McSherry returned to his own pit to clean up the tools and collect the stones. The 49-year-old American treasure hunter has cordoned off this rectangular swath of Indian Ocean in the Seychelles, and now he's somewhere 25 feet below, chiseling off chunks of granite and. It read, I understand you met with my brother, Henry, in Baguio. The six-hundred-pound gorilla at the site was a guy whose mother had been alive when the Japanese had arrived and asked if they could create a tunnel complex in their back garden for the purpose of depositing large quantities of boxes. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Reluctantly, I selected a cobra, which was promptly placed in a barrel-shaped mesh cage. As my interest in the mystery deepened, I reengaged with Sterling Seagrave, the almost singular voice of truth on the subject. I arrived in Manila, where I was greeted by the fixer and transported to Klauss village. It was time to see an excavation in progress. The bogtalay tree is regarded as sacred in the East. In his estimation, the only thing that could have caused the electrocution was large quantities of gold, acting as an electrical conduit. Ten days later she was cured. Seagrave, S., Seagrave, P. Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold. Andrew Gough. In the Philippines treasure reclamation requires a permit that entitles the government to 30% of the findings. We arrived at the site to discover that the tunnel was too flooded to enter, and so we filmed what we could and moved on to the next one. It had been April fools day, indeed. I was intrigued, if not humoured by his attitude, and his attire. There was no follow-up after Bilyeu was pronounced dead. Net Worth: $1 Million Occupation: Treasure Hunter, TV Celebrity & Former Police Officer Birthday: January 6, 1941 Birthplace: Summerland Key, Florida Birth Sign: Capricorn Date of Death: February 19, 2018 Place of Death: Iraan, Texas Nationality: American Ethnicity: Caucasian Married: Twice Children: Darrell, Lauren, Kim, and Kelly Instagram: NA Of course, everyone acts oblivious and says there is no such landmark in the area. The caretaker had lost fingers and toes from chemicals released in the treasure site An estate lawyer looked over his Last Will and Testament. International Precious Metals already has spent $40,000 on its hunt, McDougald revealed. While there, he learned that the village had been a former Japanese military base, and that the locals believed it was ripe with buried Japanese treasure. Amelia claimed to have been contacted by Ferdinand Marcos, the deceased former president of the Philippines, who thanked her for her prayers and informed her that he was in purgatory. I scaled the second descending passage with slightly greater confidence and speed than the first, and as I arrived at the bottom and crept along the next tunnel passage to where Klaus was standing, I was amazed to see that the floor and walls were perfectly smooth. For a short time Roxas went into hiding near Manila and was provided with bodyguards and a place to live. What could go wrong? or. My first Philippine adventure was nearly over, but there was one thing left to investigate: the natural healer who had brought Klauss friend to the Philippines in the first place. Andrew Gough, Afterwards, as we were packing up outside the priests house, Klaus was recounting to one of the other treasure hunters who had assembled that morning that he had discovered leaves deep underground in the backfilled tunnels of one of his sites. Andrew Gough. We followed a muddy path, not too far from a river that was roaring with monsoon-induced floods, and arrived at the site. Marcos had whet his now insatiable appetite for gold and the riches and power that it brought. Bizarrely, the non-believer of a director was not interested in trying to speak to the old woman, who was only over yonder. I have to! Klaus retorted. Even a Japanese prince was said to have arrived and whisked the healer away in his private jet. Bassist Phil Lesh remembers tasting the LSD as . The men asserted that they had been blindfolded and taken to a warehouse, where they had been shown an enormous stash of gold bars. Oh, and I meant to ask, how deep had your dad dug when he discovered the golden buddha near Baguio hospital, Patrick asked matter-of-factly. The Japanese are believed to have visited Germany in the late 1930s, where they not only learned the technique of carving tunnels out of sheer earth and stone, but also how to backfill the tunnels with naturally coloured concrete known as German cement, in order to camouflage them, and to ensure that they did not look man made to novice treasure hunters. The old woman was sensational and described how she and her family had hidden in the hills as the Japanese processed by with an ox pulling a cart that contained what appeared to be a heavy box. Jim Hawkins, the protagonist of Robert Louis Stevenson 's 1881 novel, Treasure Island. In my mind I visualised a hole running straight through my body and out the other side. <]>> An image of what appears to be a cement-filled tunnel or door, deep underground One year later, after an extensive search-and-rescue effort, all three bodies were finally recovered. 20 Nov. 2003, Volume 25, Number 22: 3-6. Roxas informed her that Marcoss air-conditioned burial crypt in the Philippines, at the Ferdinand E Marcos Presidential Center in Batac, Ilocos Norte (which was secured twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week by arm guards), contained a fake corpse full of precious stones and diamonds. Im in the Philippines. Each day after class she dug in the back garden of the schoolyard. You can also find her on Twitter. Cheatham was obsessed with legends of Yamashitas gold and frequently visited Baguio in search of Japanese artefacts. I went for a walk around campus and when I returned the production manager politely asked me to join them, as they were about to begin, and so I did. As it turns out, Klaus had also been in contact with Sterling Seagrave. I knew only a little about the story, let alone the fact that Peggy and her husband Sterling were the worlds most prolific experts on the subject, and had documented the whole sordid affair in their seminal book, Gold Warriors; Americas Secret Recovery of Yamashitas Gold. One even had a cobra as its spiritual guardian that Klaus had encountered before. Subscribe Now:http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=ehowtechWatch More:http://www.youtube.com/ehowtechClaiming a treasure hunter bounty alive i. The show aired on the American History Channel in the United Statesand was well received. With Roxass discovery, Marcoss hopes had become a reality. Robert Curtis meets Ferdinand Marcos in 1975. In a separate but related ruling, Roxas was awarded $6 million for the torture and false imprisonment he endured. Since there was no evidence that he had attempted to climb the cliff, his parents believe that he must have fallen and his body was miraculously caught on the ledge, which is how his remains stayed fully intact for three years. In 1949, a 70-year-old man named James Kidd was a professional treasure hunter from Phoenix, Arizona. Andrew Gough, Learning the art of dowsing These sites were protected by ancient rituals performed by Shinto priests. Andrew Gough. In addition to Okubo, Roxas gained valuable insight from Albert Fuchigami, whose father had been a Japanese officer in the Second World War. Inexplicably, he was being electrocuted. After lunch, I persuaded the director to stop at the hospital on the way out of town. Dunning, B. I stared at the inexplicably responsive dowsing rods in silence. It was impossible for any man in my position to control every action of his subordinate commanders, let alone the deeds of individual soldiers. Off camera, Patrick asked what I felt to be the most illuminating question of the afternoon. As there was no easy way for others to get in contact with the families of the deceased, thousands of people simply disappeared from the lives of their loved ones.[8]. Klaus was already at the bottom as I made my way down slowly, cautiously, and deliberately. Once the cameras stopped, Henry continued taking us through his files, highlighting important photos and newspaper clippings, including one very poignant photo of himself as a young man standing alongside his deceased father. Andrew Gough. McDougald denied that the fort has been desecrated, except for a 4-by-2-foot hole in a wall, and contends his operation is legal. Curtis got plugged in and unexpectedly became far more than a mere key cog in the gold-hunting wheel, overseeing not only the retrieval and sanctifying process, but the site discovery process as well. Henry proudly highlights the victorious Roxas v Marcos Supreme Court case His gun was found a few feet away as if tossed to the side. 0000001826 00000 n In 1908, two young men were searching for gold in Arizona. The healer, operating with nothing but his fingers I wondered if he was employed by the same people that had assassinated Roxas? 0000002456 00000 n I, on the other hand, was experiencing a fair bit of disappointment. Nor, to be honest, did I. It was not clear if they even knew they existed. . He also learned the secret language of the Japanese Shinto priests, who left clues symbols in the landscape, and in the ground. What convinced you to take this seemingly ludicrous case? I enquired. I say successful, because I was not bitten by one of the many cobras lurking in the rice paddies along the way and was only partially bitten to death by hordes of mosquitos the size of hummingbirds. 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres thats the size of shaft you just entered. 0000000016 00000 n It was, and the Roxas brothers are said to have extracted three handfuls of assorted precious stones and diamonds, which they promptly hid before reattaching the golden buddhas head. Andrew Gough. Bob Curtis. The United States had stumbled upon the greatest treasure hoards in history, including more gold bullion than was known to be in existence, and would use this unfathomable wealth to influence world affairs, win the Cold War, launch a space programme, and create a new world order. With Henry Roxas, Rogers treasure-hunting son In 2010, Curtis Merworth, Ardean Charles, and Malcolm Meeks were three friends in Salt Lake City, Utah. I stuffed a generous amount of notes into a contribution vase, said goodbye to Klaus and headed for the airport, via a cobra farm. What if the so-called carer had been planted by a covert government agency? I could not believe my eyes. He found the whole thing rather ridiculous and naive, and hastily threw the flyer in the rubbish bin beneath his desk. Singer-songwriter, poet, translator and occasionally recording artist, born Robert Burns. That fact doesnt stop thousands of people from trying to beat the odds. LOS ANGELES (AP) Robert Hunter, the man behind the poetic and mystical words for many of the Grateful Dead's finest songs, has died at age 78. Without receiving the whole story on the events of the day, many have classified this case as an unsolved mystery. Explaining how the fatal cave-in happened, McDougald began to sound as if he was talking about the Temple of Doom, as well as looking the part. In 1849 during the California Gold Rush, over 30,000 men flocked to trails where gold had been seen. He also informed the press, who also ignored him at least initially. 0000002177 00000 n We had adjoining rooms in the hotel and shared a laugh. McDougald was reluctant to discuss details of the groups actual mining methods, but he stayed in character when describing what he expects to find at the end of the tunnel. For these, the Shinto priests communicated to those with eyes to see in a different language of symbols to that of the military treasure sites, as I would soon discover. Hunter died Monday at his Northern California home . 0000004492 00000 n The Seagraves seminal whistle-blowing book, Gold Warriors. Within hours of the news becoming public, the Philippine Senate adopted a resolution urging Aquino to bar foreigners from hunting for treasure in the Philippines. I tried not to think about it as I descended the first sixty-foot shaft with a bamboo ladder that afforded my already wet and slippery wellies only about three inches of grip before my toes became jammed against the edge of the tunnel. Clearly, the Japanese had returned enough of their war booty to Japan to be satisfied and were not overly concerned about the breadcrumbs they had left behind. Klauss team said that every so often Japanese treasure hunters come to the village enquiring if anyone knows where that landmark is. In 1975, Marcos turned to an American mining engineer named Robert Curtis. Was the healer authentic? McDougald, C. Asian Loot: Unearthing the Secrets of Marcos, Yamashita and the Gold. Despite the depth, there were still twelve inches of water that needed negotiating. #673 On the taxi ride home I unexpectedly wept for the cobra. Not long after his disappearance, hikers found a tin can on the edge of the 55-meter (180 ft) cliff that simply said, Jesse Capen was here. A single boot, drivers license, and camping gear were all recovered, but he was nowhere to be found.[9]. The hospital was on public grounds and was highly visible; covert excavation was simply not an option. It could have happened to General MacArthur, you know. Cathcart recounted how, on 24 May 1993, he had spoken to Roxas and had informed him that he would be escorted on a flight from Manila to Honolulu the next day. At one point Cathcart questioned Roxas for five days straight. His team went and searched and dug but never found anything. For the Ft. Santiago dig is just one of the many treasure hunts now being conducted in the Philippines, as the government increasingly hopes to save its moribund economy through archeology as well as increased productivity. I had expected a Japanese prince was said to have arrived and whisked the healer, operating nothing. Had encountered before of people from trying to speak to the old,! 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