All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S05E08.Behind.Enemy.Lines.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Narrator: A secret world
war ii allied base in Albania

with an extraordinary backstory.

So this place not only has a
history of the guerrilla camp

but also as a way point
for people escaping capture.

An infamous asylum in the usa

that became notorious
for a brutal treatment.

Surgeons would
literally go into the brain

and experiment with damaging

or severing certain
parts of the brain.

And the underground
home of a satanic society

with an American founding
father among it's members.

This is a strange, spooky place

but it has an incredible
history of glamour,

celebrity, scandal
and debauchery.

Decaying relics and
ruins of lost worlds,

they were forged
by years of toil

but now they are
haunted by the past,

their secrets are
waiting to be revealed.

On the Balkan
peninsula of Europe

is what's known as
the land of the eagle.

Deep in the hills
of southern Albania

are the dramatic remnants
of a secretive history.

Albania is a mountainous

and somewhat beautiful
and desolate region.

There's a rugged
beauty to this landscape

but it's very, very isolated,

it's probably one of the
forgotten countries of Europe.

This is a mysterious place.

For much of the last century,

it was hidden away
behind closed doors

and it retains a certain
mystique even today.

There's still a lot of things
to be explored in this area.

A lot of secrets to be
uncovered from those decades.

The isolation was born of a conflict
that touched every corner of Europe.

Clinging to the hillside
overlooking the bay of flora

is a relic of those
troubled times.

This village produced 45 of
what Albanians called martyrs.

Heroes of world war ii,

this tiny village has a
phenomenal tale to tell.

A few miles away
is a mysterious cave

linked to the village

and that's also connected
to a remarkable escape story.

That is a machine gun tripod,

that's the smoking gun.

This is their guerrilla home.

This is their cathedral.

But what were British and
American secret agents

doing in this remote backwater?

This is a classic
world war ii story,

you've got spies, resistance,

smugglers, heroes,
villains, this has got it all.

This humble looking
settlement played a key role

in secret operations
led by British soe

and American oss
agents during world war ii.

They choose this village as a base
from which to wage a guerrilla war.

Ex special forces
operative, klint janulis,

has come here to find out more.

I served in Iraq in
the special forces

and the us special forces are
guerrilla warfare specialists.

I'm here to understand

why the precursors to
the modern spec ops units

decided to choose this
abandoned destroyed village

as a base of operations

because it was those
groups like the oss and soe

that basically
wrote the playbook

on guerrilla warfare
that we still use today.

Founded during the war,

these organisations
co-ordinated espionage activities

behind enemy lines.

But to take a closer
look at this former base

in such rugged terrain,
requires some serious wheels.

Driving up here,

I was trying to put
myself in the position

of an attacking soldier,

and I realised just how
terrifying that would be

because getting up here,
you see the fortified positions.

From down there,

there's not much of a view
but you're completely exposed.

From up here you are safe
from bullets, artillery rounds,

yet you've got a clear
field of vision 270 degrees.

Oh, wow.

This place looks like it was
designed to be a fortress.

This is a snipper
point, snipper point.

You could even have
small artillery pieces up here

and be protected and secure,

and you have a view
of the entire valley

from this exact location.

This is where I would
want to fight a guerrilla battle

against an invading
force down that valley.

Up close, the village displays
all the marks of a battle ground.

It's obvious that there's
been combat here,

the mortar on these walls here
have these pock marks in them.

Some of them look like
the pock marks you'd see

from the impact of a bullet,

some look like the ones
you'd see from artillery

which are going to be more
dispersed and sort of chaotic looking.

The other really important
question for me is, who attacked?

Where did they come from?

Because just behind these
two massive fortifications

is a funnel of death for anybody
trying to get into that village.

Klint's meeting
with sofokli daupaj

who's family lived here before
they were displaced by the fighting.

Translation: "This
tile carries the names

"of my great-grandfather and
of my great-great-grandfather."

(Speaks foreign language)

Translation: "They
had three rooms,

"one here, a second
here and a third here.

"We were at the
house of my ancestors,

"the house of my
grandfather, great-grandfather

"and of my
great-great-grandfather.

"As you see, what
remains is only the ruins.

"This is because of
the second world war."

This is tragjas,

a settlement that dates
back to the 6th century bc.

It was once home to
hundreds of Albanian families,

just like sofoklis,

who had a proud tradition
of resisting foreign invaders.

This is a place that has
been a centre of conflict

and on the border of
conflict for centuries.

These are people
who have not had

a large connection
to the outside world.

So they're very insular,

they don't like a
heavy-handed foreign rule.

For centuries, these villagers
fended off Turkish raiders.

In 1847, the people of tragjas

somehow beat back the
soldiers of the ottoman empire.

So did Turkey's military
forces take revenge on tragjas?

To get to the
heart of the story,

klint is heading
out to vlore bay,

an area littered with
the wreckage of war.

For me, I want to understand
both sides of the equation.

The guerrilla warfare,

why a little tiny
village like tragjas

had so much investment in
special operations activities,

and out here in this bay

where we had large
maritime things going on.

And I want to check
out this ship wreck

because that's going to help me
understand the conventional side.

As you move through
the murky waters

emerging into different
parts of the ship,

you can almost imagine
the people walking around,

going about their business.

Holy cow.

That was amazing.

That was absolutely incredible.

You could see all
the holes in the ship,

you could see the outline,

you could see where the engine
was, or looked like an engine.

Man, it was
perfectly crystal clear.

That was fantastic.

That's the best shipwreck

I've ever, ever had the
opportunity to check out.

Exploring the wreckage further

throws up some questions
and a few surprises.

Which high profile passenger
was this ship carrying,

and how is it linked to
the attack on tragjas?

Ex special forces
operative, klint janulis,

is come to explore a
shipwreck in Albania

which is part of the
secret history of the region.

This ship has been the
victim of a devastating attack.

But this doesn't
look like a war ship,

there's no sign of guns or
turrets, so what happened?

This ship is a testimony

to a time before the
outbreak of world war ii

when the Italian
dictator bernito Mussolini

took the world by surprise

by attacking the
main Albanian ports

including vlore which
lies near tragjas.

Mussolini was looking at

expanding this Italian empire.

Albania was an easy
grab for the Italians.

Mussolini wanted
this piece of territory

that was just across
the adriatic from Italy.

When Mussolini's forces crossed

Albania's southern
border into Greece,

Great Britain stepped in

and began to target
Italian ships in the region.

One of these was the po,

and in march 1941, she was
sunk by British torpedo bombers.

In the darkness
and with it's lights off,

the British airmen believed

this was a legitimate
war-time target,

they had no idea what this ship
actually was and who was on board.

The po was in
fact a hospital ship

evacuating wounded Italian
soldiers from the Greek Albanian front.

By coincidence, one of the
nurses aboard this hospital ship

was Mussolini's own daughter.

Edda ciano, Mussolini's
daughter survived the attack,

but the sinking was
part of a campaign

that was soon
costing Italy dear.

The Italians are
losing on every front.

Equipment, leadership,
moral is breaking down.

They're trying to maintain
their control of key areas

and certainly, the
coastal region in Albania

is considered by the
Italians as a key area.

The Albanian resistance
sensed an opportunity,

and tragjas became both a base
and supply point for local guerrillas

who now took the
fight to the Italians.

The guerrillas decide
to make a fight of it

and in this case,
they do very, very well

and they cause
very heavy casualties

because in this terrain,

it's ideally suited for
guerrilla style defence.

Klint has returned to tragjas

to investigate why it
became a focal point

of the resistance movement.

Essentially, I'm
making a, sort of,

logistical reconnaissance
of this village.

The tactical
advantages of this village

are pretty obvious right away.

Thick walls, rough terrain,
good, strong buildings.

But really what I'm
interested in is the logistics.

Armies win and lose
based on logistics.

Special operations units specialise
in inverting the logistical chain.

Most armies rely on large
numbers, large logistics chains.

Spec ops, small numbers,
find the weak point

in the armies big
logistics chain, cut it in half.

In the logistics
war, water is crucial,

and this isn't just a well,
this is a natural spring.

Which means hydro static
pressure is pushing water out,

they've got water year round.

Anybody attacking from up the
hill, they'd have to haul their water up.

Now... yeah, this is cool.

This reminds me a lot of
Greek villages I've been in

that were designed
to be windy and mazy.

Basically to defend
against pirates,

which meant anybody that was
trying to come in and attack by foot,

would get run through corridors
and mazes and funnel points

which we call funnels of death.

With these advantages,

the guerrillas were making life
a nightmare for the Italian army.

They were able
to pick off troops

and harass infantry columns
with lightening hit and run raids.

Eventually, Italian
colonel, Franco climenti,

bought in a whole division to
re-establish control of tragjas

and the four other
villages in the area.

On new year's day 1943,

there was a massive
pitched battle

where 2,000 very
well equipped Italians

were beaten by the local
Albanian guerrilla forces.

This David versus Goliath battle
ended in victory for the Albanians.

Despite increasing his troop
numbers to well over 5,000 men,

outnumbering the
Albanians by three to one,

colonel clementi
was himself killed

as his forces suffered
a humiliating defeat.

But repercussions soon followed,

Mussolini's forces returned
to tragjas to take their revenge,

this time, their
targets were civilians.

Translation: "Italians
came here first

"and it is said they even
hit the village with mortar fire

"from the mountain
peak of cherpu.

"Above the village of urakam.

"Then when they
burned the village,

"they alienated the
villagers even further."

Despite the reprisals, the
Italian army were disintegrating.

And so the allies
sent undercover units

to support the local resistance

fighting against Mussolini's
crumbling occupation.

And the Nazi's who were
also closing in on Albania.

British agent, Jerry field,
based his team here in tragjas.

Jerry field was this very
daring operative for the soe.

And he came in with
a small group of men

and initially set up
shop right in tragjas

and worked with
the local partisans,

relayed information
back to the British,

tried to supply local partisans
who were fighting the Nazi's,

and basically
trying to figure out

how to do as much damage
to the Germans as possible

without actually
having to commit

any British troops except for
him and his very small team.

Field's principle task was
to smuggle in arms from Italy

which had been
invaded by the allies.

Once the Americans
and British land in 1943

and occupy southern Italy,

it's only a very short hop from
a major Italian port like Bari

across the adriatic
into Albania.

It's very easy to supply
guerrillas by boat,

and, of course, you
send in small teams

to make contact with the
guerrillas and you supply them.

Yet klint has discovered

the British secret agents
suddenly abandoned tragjas.

He's been given
coordinates for a location

that will help him
understand why.

Even today, it's
really hard to find.

It's not on the map

and most locals don't know
where it is or that it even exists.

I didn't expect to find
this, and this tells quite a lot

because this is a British
machine gun mount

and it says right
here a mk iv, 1942.

And then you'd have the ability

to mount a really heavy
machine gun on this

and anybody coming up that hill

would have faced
a barrage of gunfire.

But also this thing is heavy,

I've carried machine
gun mounts before.

We can't be too far from
the cave. We're getting close.

Ok.

This isn't just a rock
overhang, this goes really deep.

Oh, this has got
to be the place.

That is a machine gun tripod,

that's the smoking gun,

this is their guerrilla home,

this is their cathedral.

But how is this cave

linked to a remarkable
American escape story?

Just looking at this,
makes me really think...

Yeah, it's a great
guerrilla hide out

but this is potentially a
really horrible death trap.

Couple of hand grenades
thrown down in here,

and look at all these,
these are gonna just,

you'll just die under
a massive stalactite.

And that is something I'm sure
they thought about constantly.

It could have just even
been as simple as a bomb

landing just overhead the cave.

Imagine being right here,
a 500-pound bomb lands.

Agent field led his team down
from the mountains above tragjas

to this place, sea view cave.

A perfectly camouflaged
hideaway near a dog leg cove

used to smuggle arms
and supplies into Albania.

For months, field and his team

survived here on mule
meat and rain water.

I can't imagine how surreal it would
have been to live here every day

and then go fight, pick up
elicit supplies from the coves.

Go sabotage the enemy

and then come back to this
and have a meal of a hot mule.

After being forced
out of tragjas

when the Nazi's rolled into
Albania in September 1943,

field's team now had
to co-ordinate resistance

from this extraordinary cave.

But it would soon prove to be
more than just a secret base,

it was also to play a key role
in an incredible escape story.

An American plane that was
carrying 13 American nurses,

ran low on fuel and
got lost in bad weather.

They crash landed in a field

in the middle of Albania
in the middle of winter.

Trapped in Nazi occupied
territory with no food or supplies,

local partisans
smuggled the nurses

out of the Albanian interior

across the snowy
mountains towards the coast.

They had to dodge
German patrols.

At one point they got caught up

when the Germans were
invading a particular town

and the group got split up,

but they all survived and
were able to keep moving on.

After eventually making
contact with the soe,

they bought the
nurses to this cave.

And klint himself,
a combat medic,

believes he may have found
some evidence from their time here.

This is world war
ii medical gauze.

It looks just like medical
gauze we use today.

From a med kit
from 76 years ago.

Wow.

You can even see the
cotton stitching in it still.

That's pretty cool.

How did the nurses
manage to complete

one of the most remarkable
escapes of the second world war?

In Albania, 13 American nurses

were trying to evade the
clutches of the Germans

during world war ii,

to complete an
extraordinary escape.

Allied agents led the
nurses to a secret cove

where an American
boat was waiting

to take them to
allied controlled Italy.

So after walking hundreds
of miles in the middle of winter

through some of the
roughest terrain I can imagine,

the nurses managed
to hook up with the soe

who were fortunate enough

to be able to have arranged

transportation that day.

So they came down this crazy
ravine and valley that I just walked,

and the first thing they'd see

is this gorgeous smuggler's
cove, and that's their ticket home.

So in the end,

they wound up travelling
between 600 and 800 miles

on this incredible
survival escape march.

It's one of the great survival
stories of world war ii.

But while the nurses
were heading home,

the villagers and partisans
were still in a war zone.

This was their home. For
them, there was no escape.

Klint wants to find out

what became of them
after field's unit left tragjas.

How did the Nazi's respond

when they found out about
the heavy resistance movement

going on right
here in this village?

Translation: "They
came in and they burned,

"they ruined everything.

"You can see only
ruins remain here.

"That's why the population abandoned
the village and resettled elsewhere,

"they were left with nothing
here but bare walls and ruins."

The Germans decided to
raise this village to the ground

while the British
and American agents

that had been working
with the villagers

were sitting on these hillsides,

watching as this group that
they had known, cared about,

lost every single thing
they had in one fell swoop.

The Nazi's left the
settlement engulfed in flames.

Sofokli explains
how it made his family

even more determined
to take the fight back.

Translation: "My eldest
uncle joined the partisans,

"the 5th brigade,

"he even went with them to fight
the Germans up to yugoslavia."

I really loved
hearing sofo's stories

because it reminds
me that world war ii

was such a big complex mess

and a lot of people,
particularly in the United States,

had family members who served

and took great risk and may
have died or been injured.

The little tiny villages all
over Europe just like this one,

every day people had to make
decisions about whether or not

they were going
to resist and fight.

Decisions they made here

could have resulted in their
entire family being executed.

They were fighting
for their homelands.

They were working with the soe

and the office of
strategic services

and doing so at great
risk to their families life,

their lives and the
communities' lives.

Today, a memorial to the
partisans stand here in the rubble.

A fitting monument to
their brave resistance

against the forces of fascism.

On the banks of the fork river

deep in the heart
of West Virginia usa,

there's an enormous structure
with an incredible story to tell.

It's an incredibly
imposing building,

like something
from the colonial era.

It looks like it was laid out
for some vast civic purpose.

And there's a whole lot
of other buildings around it,

almost like it's some
kind of a college campus.

You can see that it was
a major project in it's day.

Inside, there's a
confusing picture

about the purpose
of this strange place.

There's something a bit
eerie about the juxtaposition

between the children's toys and
the serious medical instruments.

When you look
inside, it's a mess.

I mean, clearly it's
abandoned, neglected.

There's peeling paint,

there's bars over some
windows and doors.

It has a forbidding quality.

This was clearly
a place designed

to keep people in but not
those convicted of a crime.

This place emerged out
of an enlightened view.

It was meant to be a haven

for people who were
cast out from the world.

What started it is a
really noble experiment,

quickly degenerated into a
real horror show of abuse.

What turned this
dream into a nightmare?

And who were the inhabitants
forced to call this place home?

Construction here
began in the mid 1800s.

In time, these halls would
witness terrible things

that left their Mark on the building
and on the surrounding community.

It's purpose was the
management of the clinically insane.

Two centuries ago,

mental illness was viewed
very differently than it is today.

Those showing signs of it were
thought to be possessed by demons.

The treatment of mental health
back in the early 19th century

was almost worse
than a death sentence.

Families with members

who had mental health
problems often hid them away.

Those who weren't lucky
enough to be able to do that

had their relatives simply
carted off and locked up.

Mental health was
never really understood

and they were a lot of
super natural explanations.

I mean, even the word
'lunatic' comes to the idea

that it was somehow
inspired by the moon.

But one forward-thinking doctor

would stand as a beacon of hope.

His name was doctor
Thomas kirkbride.

Doctor kirkbride was one
of those rare reformers.

He saw a new way, a new world

in which people could be
treated and cared for and cured.

And key to that,

was the provision of a healthy,
open, normal environment.

This place was going
to be his masterpiece.

This is the trans-allegheny
lunatic asylum.

In the mid-19th century,

ideas about mental illness
were finally changing,

and the asylum was designed

as a place for the most
progressive, scientific

and humane treatment
of the mentally ill.

Kirkbride wanted to move
away from the prevailing model

in which the mentally ill
might be chained in city jails.

And so instead, one
of the main buildings

is this huge structure

that was designed
so that sunlight and air

could easily come in as opposed
to, sort of, damp, dank cells.

Originally intended
to house 250 people,

patients were given the freedom

to walk the long,
bright corridors

and enjoy the lovingly
manicured grounds.

But before long, kirkbride's
great humanist vision

would be twisted
beyond all recognition.

The understanding of mental illness
was still very much in it's infancy.

Patients were being referred with
conditions like fits or superstition

or loss of limbs,
or even asthma.

This is a time period in which women
who behaved in unconventional ways

could be deemed
insane and sent away.

A whole range of people

who didn't necessarily
conform to societal expectations

might be considered

as having a nervous condition
that required treatment.

At it's height,

the asylum was crammed
with 2,600 patients,

more than ten
times it's capacity.

As the numbers increased,

so did the depths
of the depravity.

As Rebecca gleeson, who
manages the site, has discovered.

Unfortunately, because
of all the different people

that were coming in
and not able to leave,

they weren't getting that fixed,
it became like warehousing.

Not only did such over crowding

lead to people
sleeping on the floors,

but it completely worked against
the therapeutic atmosphere

that the asylum was
meant to engender.

But worse was still to come.

Soon the hospital was inundated

with dangerous criminally insane
inmates from nearby prisons.

We have to remember that

there are so many different
types of patients that were here.

You've got mentally
challenged patients,

you've got someone
suffering from depression,

bipolar disorder, major
depression, schizophrenia.

All different types of
aspects of mental illness.

And then you have
the criminal predator

that was added to
the situation as well.

It sounds like it became
a hellish place to be.

There were actually
murders, there were assaults,

and I can imagine just an
atmosphere of fear all the time.

But the violence
and terrible conditions

were just the
tip of the iceberg.

Understanding of the
brain and mental disorders,

it was still very rudimentary.

And treatments were
experimental and often brutal.

And in the 1950s,

the treatments were to
become even more grotesque

when the centre became the home

of the West Virginia
lobotomy project.

The man behind it all was
doctor Walter Freeman.

He is known as the
father of the lobotomy.

To perform an ice-pick lobotomy,

they would take
this long, sharp piece

and they would point it
towards the corner of your eye.

They would ting it once

to break through your skull,

and the second time to basically

get into your prefrontal lobe.

And they go back and forth,

something like a windshield
wiper does in your vehicle.

The belief was that
patients who suffered

from obsessive behaviours,

had fixed circuits
in their brains.

Surgeons would sweep
the rods from side to side

and physically cut
the connections.

It's astonishing, almost
barbaric to modern eyes.

But back then, even the
sister of a us president

choose to undergo one
of Freeman's lobotomies.

Rosemary Kennedy had
her operation by Freeman

and she was lobotomised.

She ended up spending
the rest of her life,

50 plus years, in
a mental hospital,

only being able to
mumble a couple of words

and not anything comprehensibly.

Had this procedure not
been done to her brain,

she might not necessarily have
had to have been institutionalised.

It just left many of these patients
a shell of their former selves.

They sat around passively.

So maybe they weren't raging,
you know, in hallucinations,

but they also weren't anything

like a healthy person
with an intact mind.

How any surgeon, let
alone a brain surgeon,

could have thought that sticking
a metal rod through the eye

and rummaging it around
in the brain indiscriminately

was helpful, is beyond belief.

What happened to the
trans-allegheny asylum,

and what became
of the patients there?

Most of them would never leave.

The only area that was expanded
to accommodate more people

was the graveyard.

We're in our morgue.

Unfortunately
thousands of people

died at the asylum
over the last 130 years.

Now, this freezer here,

basically two bodies would lay
in there and be able to stay cool.

Now, at one point in time,

the walls were lined
with these refrigerators.

But in 1994,

the doors of the asylum
were finally closed,

and at last, the years of
neglect were at an end.

You can only imagine how horrified
doctor kirkbride would have been

if he'd seen what became
of his visionary asylum

that he had so many hopes for,

and it turned into,
really, such a hell hole

that didn't help patients, and in
many cases made them worse.

Today, the hospital
lies abandoned,

a disturbing reminder
of a well meaning project

that went terribly,
tragically wrong.

It's an eerie place to visit.

Some of those horrors
just don't go away.

They live on in the space
in some way, shape or form.

30 miles west of London

is a scene typical of
the English countryside.

But here set amongst
the rolling hills

is an opening to a
subterranean world.

There's this incredible
gothic entrance,

but then when you enter,

you go deeper underground

and you end up in these
sinister-looking caves.

Dark chambers with
heavy metal gates,

almost like cells,
are hidden away.

This is a strange
and spooky place,

but yet it has this
incredible history of glamour

and celebrities and dignitaries,
but above all, debauchery.

How did these caves
become infamous?

And how did one of
america's founding fathers

become embroiled
in the controversy?

The origins of these
subterranean passageways

date back to the mid-1700s.

Their history is filled
with tales of pagan rituals,

the dark arts and
scandalous depravity.

Jack orr is a
historian at the site.

These caves go a quarter
of a mile underground,

and the thing that's
so incredible about it

is that it's not at all
natural in any way.

It's completely 100% man-made,

which 250 years ago,

that's just an incredible
feat of human engineering.

The elaborate network
excavated to provide the chalk

that would help to
build the great west road

to link this area and London.

What these caves
became is actually shocking.

It sounds like the thing
of myth and legend,

but this is real life.

So we're about to go
into the heart of the caves,

and this is where the
very mundane story

becomes slightly more macabre.

These are the hellfire caves,

home to one of the most
secret societies in British history.

The hellfire club was made up of

some of the most famous
and respected men of the age,

at it's forefront was the owner of
the caves, sir Francis dashwood.

Sir Francis dashwood
was a rather wealthy man.

He was born into landed gentry.

And just like other men
of his status at that time,

he spent his final
years of education

visiting the royal
courts of Europe,

sampling the intellectual arts

and all of the treasures
that the continent had to offer.

It was in Italy that he
found his true passion,

and it was here that
sir Francis dashwood

began to revel in the
study of the forbidden arts,

particularly the
elusion mysteries

which were the most famous
secret ancient Greek initiation cult.

Inspired by what he
had seen and heard,

dashwood returned home

to set up the exclusive
hellfire club on his family estate.

There were lots of
rumours of nefarious deeds.

It was whispered that men
practised all manner of black magic

and satanic rights
in these caves.

It wasn't just dark satanic worship
that the members liked to do,

they also knew how to party.

Women were bought in from London
to join the frolics dressed as nuns.

And comely local
nymphs were hired

and allegedly laid out on alters

so men could lick holy
wine from their navels.

In the hellfire club days,

there would have
been curtains across

and beds inside this chamber.

If you look at the back wall,

we still have the
original tally marks

from where the men
were keeping score

when they took their
prostitutes inside here.

Incredibly, the shocking antics

were carried out by some of
the most famous men of the day.

They included one of the most

influential figures
in the United States.

Some of the members of the
hellfire club were very famous,

but one of the most famous members
was William hogarth, the artist.

And some of his art is
actually down our caves.

But the odd thing is is
the most devilish figure

who matched dashwood in
debauchery was actually an American.

Benjamin Franklin,

one of the founding
fathers of the United States,

was a good friend
of the dashwood's.

And he would
frequently visit the UK

and when he did, he would attend

these scandalous
parties deep underground.

Franklin loved the fun,
prankish nature of the club

that he found here.

He often wrote home to
his friends in Philadelphia

about dashwood and his friends.

One of the letters even said,

"dashwood's genius
is just as apparent

"above the earth as
it is below the earth."

With so much to lose,

these powerful men
went to great lengths

to make certain word of their
nefarious activities stayed hidden.

To try and protect
their reputations,

members of the hellfire
club took assumed identities.

Your reputation was
everything in those days,

you say the wrong
thing and you're out.

And devil worshipping,

keeping anything
about black magic,

any of those sort of books,

that was still illegal,
that was still a crime.

Much of what happened
there is unknown,

and a lot of the documentation
has been burnt or destroyed

in order to cover
up the scandal.

Even though the
members of the hellfire club

were sworn to secrecy,

word inevitably got out.

It seems the antics
of the hellfire club

were somehow
leaked to the public.

Rumour has it that it was
an old member of the club

that exposed it for
what it really was.

The public
outrage took it's toll,

so in 1766, the club
was closed down.

With the doors to his very
colourful club now closed,

dashwood is said to have
lived a more wholesome life

until his death in 1781.

This incredible flint structure is
another creation of dashwood.

It's the mausoleum
for his family,

but like everything,

there is a darker
side to this creation.

Dashwood and his four
wives were all buried here,

as is one other member
of the hellfire club

was part of a strange story.

So there used to be an urn in
the middle of this mausoleum,

and in that urn was the
heart of Paul whitehead,

and he was a former
poet and the head steward

of the hellfire club.

Whitehead's heart lay here
peacefully for almost a century

until the victorian era.

Now, the victorians were weird,
they loved death, they loved Gore,

so they made this
a tourist attraction.

It's rumoured that his heart
was stolen by Australian visitors

around 100 years ago.

And ever since, people say

they've seen him wondering
the caves and the hills

holding the place where
his heart should have been,

looking for it in the grounds.

Today, the hellfire caves
are open to the public.

And for those wanting to
channel the spirit of dashwood,

they can even be
hired for private parties.

Because of the dark, debaucherous
history of the hellfire club,

they have left this
lingering legacy behind

and now we are
meant to be one of

the most haunted
sites in all of england.

Now they're abandoned,
crumbling ruins.

Many remind us of dark times

but some were once
beacons of hope and progress,

lasting testimonies
to human imagination,

enterprise and spirit.

Captioned by
ai-media ai-media. TV