All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S14E01.Murder.on.the.Reservation.1080p.UKTV.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

An Oklahoma town so rich, it
inspired a Hollywood movie.

If we had benefited from our own
resources,

we'd have been like Kuwaitis or
Qataris,

but somehow it all went out the
door.

In Cambodia, a place of learning

that was turned into a chamber of
horrors.

For the survivors,

it's really important to continue
to tell their stories.

A secret facility in Latvia
designed with malicious intent.

It's possible that they received
images of the Apollo mission

before the American public.

And an Italian wonderland
born of one man's vision

that defies logical explanation.

With the planes outside and all of
this stuff inside,

it feels like some sort
of fever dream.

Decaying relics.

Ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past.

Their secrets waiting to be revealed.

In the sleepy town of Pawhuska,
Oklahoma, is the relic of a time

when greed and treachery
ravaged a community.

There must be at most, a few
thousand people living here,

but the buildings are pretty grand.

Why would all of this be here
in such a small town?

A distinctive ruin at its centre
holds the key.

Walking in, you find yourself
in a big entrance room or lobby.

Intricate mosaics cover the floors,

and ornate plasterwork decorates the
walls and ceilings.

Other spaces look like they might
have been apartments.

Some are stripped bare,

while others still have desks or bed
frames inside.

This must have been some kind
of hotel or boarding house, maybe.

Its opulence has now faded,
but in its day this was

one of the most prestigious
buildings in the area.

There was clearly a lot of money
being made and spent around town.

But where did it all come from?

This building is linked to

one of the biggest booms in economic
history.

But everything you see was most
likely paid for with stolen money.

It's because of what this land
had to offer.

Soon it would all be soaked
in blood.

I always tell people there's ghosts
here,

and when I say this, the ghost
of our past, our history.

Scott Trotter has a passion
for old buildings.

Since 2021, he's been working
hard to preserve this one.

This was where everybody came,

all the wealthy, famous, infamous,

they stayed here.

This was the most luxurious
hotel anywhere in the area.

There was a good reason
why this was the place to be.

In the early 20th century,

Pawhuska was one of the wealthiest
towns in America.

This was becoming this new little
New York, here on the prairie.

Every shop you can imagine,

every car that they were making at
that time

was being sold in these streets.

What drew people here

was the discovery of a valuable
commodity...

..oil.

It led into the, you know, the
free-flowing money,

that black gold flowing through the
streets here in the 1920s.

News of this boom quickly spread
around the country

and outsiders flocked here looking
to get a piece of the action.

We had all these oil moguls
and all these bigwigs,

this is the place they'd come
and stay.

This is the Duncan Hotel.

It was named after and financed
by two entrepreneurial brothers

lured to Pawhuska by the financial
opportunities it offered.

The hotel first opened in 1910.

Everybody was coming to this town
to start businesses

and put in stores,

and that's why they spared no
expense to build this place

because they knew
they were going to fill it.

In the mid 1920s, business
was booming so much in Pawhuska

that the Duncan brothers decided to
build an expansion onto their hotel.

These are some of the most
expensive pieces of porcelain,

top of its line at that time.

This was the best of the best.

But everything at the Duncan
may have been built on a lie.

One that has its origins

when the rightful owners of this area
first acquired the territory.

Talee Redcorn is a member
of the Osage Nation.

They agreed their first treaty
with the United States in 1808.

And then in the 1870s, we moved
from Kansas, had a treaty,

and moved into Oklahoma,

current Osage reservation.

Part of the reason this land
was available

is because white settlers saw this
region as being less desirable

than other parts of the state.

That's because only around 2%
of the land

was suitable for growing crops.

Little did they know, there was
a vast reservoir of wealth

just beneath the ground.

Oil really impacted the lives
of the Osage,

and it brought a lot of money.

Some estimates put it around $240
million,

which is like billions of dollars in
today's money.

We were, per capita, the richest
folks on this planet at that time.

Suddenly you've got luxury car
dealerships, you know,

high-end boutiques, fancy hotels
like the Duncan popping up.

The entire town was transformed.

But for the Osage, the discovery
of oil

was both a blessing and a curse.

When the scale of wealth became
clear, Congress passes a law.

They say that basically anyone who
is half Osage or more

has to have a court-appointed
guardian to look after them.

The guardians were chosen from local
white businessmen and lawyers,

who were given almost complete
control of their Osage ward's money.

You got somebody that's your
guardian, and you're young

and they're not looking out
for your best interests.

Bad things are going to happen.

It's believed that these guardians
swindled their clients

out of millions.

That money is ours, but it got out
of our control

and out of our people.

We like to say we built Ponca City,
Bartlesville,

and Tulsa on Osage oil.

It's also said that a lot
of the buildings in Pawhuska

were actually built with stolen
Osage money,

and it seems the Duncan Hotel was no
exception.

If you follow the money, you'll get
the answers you're looking for.

Descendants of Wakinyan, a local
tribesmen,

attest that his oil wealth was
funnelled

by his government-appointed guardian
into the hotel,

without his knowledge.

Once construction was complete,

he was told that the venture he had
invested in had gone bust,

and all the money was gone.

So all the glamour and high-end
amenities of the Duncan

are perhaps the product of the
widespread theft of Osage wealth.

I've heard story after story
where the families were destroyed.

It was just a movement of resources
away from the Osage

and into someone else's hands.

This tragic story would be repeated
across the Osage Nation.

So if you've seen the Martin
Scorsese movie,

Killers of the Flower Moon,

it's showing the horrifying lengths
people would go to

to get their hands on all of that
money.

While the film shows the two main
characters

being caught and brought to justice,

this wasn't the case of everyone
suspected of being involved.

This brutal period became known
as the Reign of Terror.

It's estimated that hundreds
were killed

and millions of dollars were stolen.

My great grandfather, his name
was Raymond Redcorn.

Possibly he was murdered.

It's really impacted my family.

The wealth that maybe other
Osages experienced,

we didn't really have because of
this tragedy.

It would take many years for the
sheer scale of the Osage betrayal

to be widely acknowledged.

For much of that time, the Duncan
continued to operate.

Its fortunes still tied
to the oil industry.

But in December of 1981,
a fire broke out.

The inferno sealed the fate
of the Duncan Hotel.

In 2011, after a ten year legal
battle,

the federal government paid out $380
million to the Osage.

The truth is, they are likely owed
much more.

Regardless, Talee is focussed on the
future.

Bad things happen, yes,

but the better thing to do is to
move forward.

TALEE SPEAKS OSAGE

We're very appreciative to what
God's given us.

And that's what's important to me,
especially when I get older.

In Cambodia's capital is a seemingly
ordinary structure

that served as the site of a betrayal
so shocking

it still haunts the country.

In the middle of a busy block,

are a collection of rectangular
three storey buildings.

It's a pretty nondescript structure.

It's very institutional in
appearance.

It doesn't look fancy.

There are some grassy areas, perhaps
for recreation,

which suggests that the site may
have had a civic purpose.

But what exactly was it for?

Off each of the breezy corridors

are a number of different sized empty
rooms.

The walls are bare and the floor
is tiled.

If you imagine that there were
maybe desks in here,

perhaps this was a classroom.

But if this were a place of
learning,

there are certain features harder to
explain.

One of the buildings is covered
with barbed wire from top to bottom,

and the interior is lined with what
can only be described as cells,

and there are hundreds of them.

Inside these walls,

some of the greatest crimes
against humanity of the 20th century

were perpetrated by a regime

which basically pledged to wipe out
all opposition.

MAN SPEAKS CAMBODIAN

The search for answers inspired
Voeun Vandet

to return to this complex as a
custodian of its history.

The structure that stands here today
was originally built in 1962,

it was the Preah Ponhea Yat high
school

and the Tuol Sleng primary school,

so these were classrooms.

Yet nationalised education was a
new concept for the nation...

..established once Cambodia gained
freedom

from French colonial rule in 1953.

Previously, only around 50,000
Cambodians

received formal elementary schooling.

Before long, it was around a million.

For over a decade, this was simply
a place

where children came to learn, play,
and be safe.

But soon, even education
itself was considered a crime

and punishable by death.

But the transformation didn't happen
overnight.

By the early 1950s, as the Cold War
escalated,

China and North Vietnam fell to
communist regimes.

The ideology also began
to take root in Cambodia.

In the early 1960s, a small group
of Cambodians

led by Saloth Sar, later known as
Pol Pot,

formed the Communist Party of
Kampuchea,

later known as the Khmer Rouge.

They wanted a radical communist
revolution

that would erase all Western
influences

and set up a solely agrarian
society.

At first they were small in number
and posed very little threat.

But when a right-wing pro US
military coup

toppled the head of state, Prince
Norodom Sihanouk, in 1970,

the Khmer Rouge began to attract
increasing support.

WEAPON FIRE

Civil war erupted, and over the next
five years,

Pol Pot's forces gradually took
greater control of the countryside.

He now had the numbers to launch
an all-out assault

on Cambodia's capital.

It seemed that after five
years of fighting,

the war was finally over.

In reality, something far worse
was to come.

After only a few hours,

Khmer Rouge troops started
firing into the air.

This was the beginning of the forced
evacuation of Phnom Penh.

About 3 to 4 million lived
in the cities.

This big urban population in cities
like Phnom Penh

was marched into the countryside

and converted into peasants.

In the space of 24 hours they had
to leave everything behind.

Anyone who was thought to pose
a threat to this revolution

was rounded up in these specially
designed detention centres.

There were 189 of these sites
across the country.

This was the most notorious.

Its name was Security Prison 21.

On arrival, after being measured
and photographed,

the prisoners were stripped and
shackled to the floor

in a cell barely big enough to sit
down in.

It was commonplace for the prisoners

to be interrogated and tortured
three times a day.

They were forced to give detailed
biographies of their lives.

Often this information was then used
to round up other people.

They would deprive them of sleep,
deprive them of food,

beat them with sticks wrapped with
barbed wire.

Many of them would just make up
information to make the pain stop.

The brutality of the Khmer Rouge
is absolutely shocking.

If you were a lawyer, doctor
or teacher,

that was enough to get you arrested
and killed.

But as time went on, the Khmer Rouge
became increasingly paranoid

and began to turn on its own members.

Norng Chan Phal was nine-years-old
in December 1978,

when the Khmer Rouge summoned
his father to the capital.

On arrival,

Chan Phal's mother was interrogated
in front of her children.

The next day, the siblings were moved
to a different part of the compound.

At that time, Chan Phal
and his brother were not aware

that their mother was likely
killed that same day.

Neither did they know that outside
the prison walls,

Pol Pot's grip on power was
weakening.

Ultimately, it wasn't the Khmer
Rouge's violence

against their own people that
toppled the regime.

It was the fact they started a war
against their neighbours,

Vietnam, Thailand and Laos.

The goal was to take back territory
that had once been a part

of the Khmer Empire centuries ago.

In late December 1978,

Vietnam launched a full-scale
invasion of Cambodia,

sending tanks and thousands of
troops across the border.

Khmer Rouge fighters made
a chaotic retreat.

By early January 1979, Vietnamese
forces closed in on Phnom Penh.

They found a city that was
practically deserted.

And they discover this S-21
prison complex,

and it's said that the way they
discovered it

is they smelled rotting bodies.

Norng Chan Phal and his brother
were two of those children.

They only lived because they hid

when the Khmer troops abandoned the
prison.

By the time Pol Pot is deposed,

it's estimated that he's basically
murdered

about 1.5 to 3 million of his
people.

At the very least, a quarter
of his own population.

The newly installed moderate
communist government

chose to leave S-21 and to open it
as a museum of genocide.

Pol Pot died before he could be
brought to answer for his crimes.

S-21 exists as a prescient reminder

of the human capacity to inflict
unspeakable cruelty.

For the lucky few that did survive.

telling their story has become
a way of fighting back.

In western Latvia are the remnants
of a forbidden site

that for many years officially never
existed.

We're about two miles from the
coast in an area of dense forest.

But then you see the very distinct
type of housing

that we saw after World War Two,

it's not elegant, but it got
the job done.

They seem out of place.

Why would these apartment
blocks be thrown up

in the middle of nowhere?

Inside, they've been gutted,

but there's a few kind of clues here
and there as to their former life.

A little bit of wallpaper, a family
living room, a kitchen.

While little remains to help piece
together a picture of who was here,

the question of why they were here
is soon answered.

Beyond the buildings rising
above the trees,

you see these enormous antennas.

These things look like something
you might use

to search for signals from alien
life.

But what are they doing here in the
middle of Latvia?

When the world stood on the
precipice of global conflict,

this site held the key to humanity's
survival and destruction.

The stakes in the Cold War
are so high.

If there is a way to defend
yourselves with technology,

you use it.

For two decades, most Latvians
didn't know this covert site existed

because it never appeared
on any maps.

In 2013, Arnis Berzins came to work
as a technical specialist

at this remote facility.

When I saw first time, I was amazed.

This was one of the top secret
places in the Baltic states.

In the city there was living 2,000
people from the Soviet Union.

The motive for its construction was
simple,

to gain the upper hand in the Cold
War

by any means necessary.

As the conflict intensified,

the methods became increasingly
clandestine.

Instead of direct confrontation

with kinetic weapons,

the confrontation in the Cold War
is at a remove.

It's technology versus technology.

And the Soviets especially, were
obsessed

with projecting an image of
competence and success.

A pivotal moment in the race
for technological superiority

came in 1957, when the battlefield
shifted to a new frontier.

The Soviets had sent up the first
man-made satellite of Sputnik,

which orbited the Earth, sending
down a beeping radio signal.

This was a huge deal because for
the first time,

messages could be sent and received

between spacecraft and Earth.

In the US, people were completely
freaked out by this.

They had no idea the Soviets
were so advanced.

Less than a year later, in 1958,

NASA was created to help combat the
threat.

The space race was on,

and our world would never be the
same again.

Within the ten years after Sputnik,

more than 800 satellites had been
launched by both sides.

They've become part of our way
of life

and they've become part of our way
of war.

Whoever could communicate
the fastest

would have a huge advantage in any
conflict.

Especially in this nuclear age,

when a devastating war might unfold
in just a few minutes.

But with the right equipment,

these new communication lines could
be vulnerable to interception.

That's exactly where this place
came in.

The US military had bases
all over Western Europe,

and this facility was right on
their doorstep.

This is the secret Soviet town
of Irbene,

codenamed Little Star.

In the late 1960s, its first radio
telescope began operating.

Its mission had one goal.

The purpose was to obtain
information data

sent by enemy satellites

to NATO observation points in
Western Europe or in USA.

The information was going directly
to Moscow.

All the equipment here was
state-of-the-art for its day.

In Soviet times they use most, most
advanced systems they could get.

So this one used for, to turning
like this 360 degrees around.

And here you can change elevation
movement.

With this one...it's like this for
zero degrees to 90 degrees.

They follow to track towards the
satellite

and the operator was sitting here,

put degrees elevation and then
they intercept the signals.

The Soviets, desperate for any
leverage against the West,

operated this site around the clock.

They have the daily schedule

because satellites flying around the
Earth all the time.

They follow the one satellite
and then changed to another.

And they worked 24 hours per day.

To build, operate,

and keep all of this running,

it required a vast amount
of manpower.

You need scientists to actually
capture the results of your spying.

You need engineers to repair it.

You've got to build a place
for them to live.

There was four residential buildings

which was given to officers and
their families.

There was a medical centre,

barracks for 500 soldiers,
kindergarten and school.

There was everything for quite
a good life.

Over the next decade,

Moscow's spymasters ordered two
more antennae to be installed,

each one bigger than the last,

enabling the Soviets to eavesdrop on
one of America's most iconic moments.

ANNOUNCER:Ten, nine, ignition
sequence start.

ROCKETS ROAR

And there's this story
that they intercepted in 1969,

the signals from USA Apollo
mission on the moon.

NEIL ARMSTRONG:One small step for
man...

..one giant leap for mankind.

It's possible that they received
images of Apollo mission

before the American public.

But the true purpose of this complex
was far more sinister.

It was intended to give the Soviets
an edge over America

if nuclear war erupted.

In the late 1970s, it looked like
that moment had come

when a US ally in Europe identified

what they thought was a deployed
Russian missile.

This news shocked the Soviets

because they knew they hadn't
launched any weapons.

It's said that they picked up

some sort of panicked messages from
Sweden

that said that the Swedish
technicians

had picked up a sign of a Soviet
nuclear attack.

If news of the alleged attack
reached the US,

the Soviets knew the outcome was
mutually assured destruction.

At Irbene, all the radio operators
could do

was inform their superiors and wait.

They were listening in with bated
breath

until the Swedish radio signals
reported

that it was not anything to worry
about,

but actually just like a large flock
of birds.

This anecdote sounds kind of funny,

but it shows it was entirely
possible

for a devastating nuclear war to
begin just on a mistake like that.

For the next ten years,

workers at Irbene continued to listen
in on America and its allies.

Yet it appeared the secret base

wasn't as secret as the Soviets
thought.

In the 1980s, listeners at the
station recall

getting a message from the United
States that said,

"Dear Soviet spies, happy new
years!"

As it turned out,

this was the very least of the
Communist regime's problems.

By the late 1980s, the whole Soviet
system was starting to crumble.

They were bankrupting themselves
- with projects like this.

The first pieces to fall are the
Baltic republics,

Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia.

They all declare independence
from the Soviet Union.

But the Russians weren't really keen
on handing over

a working spy station to a potential
enemy,

a potential American ally.

When the Latvian officials arrived,

they were pretty horrified to
discover

that Russian security services were
destroying everything they could.

The cables, like this,

this is examples,

there are nails in the cables,
and there was a lot of them.

And they are pouring acid
inside the generators

and electricity motors.

The Latvian scientists
didn't give up.

The former Soviet technology

provided the perfect opportunity for
the newly independent nation

to establish its own centre for
space study.

It was really a big job.

We put new systems.

Everything was changed.

We use for astrophysics,

uh, radio astronomy and space
science.

This place that was built as

part of a Cold War military and
espionage operation,

today is engaged in cooperative,
peaceful research

and communication around the world.

In northern Italy, 50 miles
from Venice

lies an unlikely field of dreams.

We're in an area that's a patchwork
of long, straight fields,

little country houses,

it's very, very idyllic.

But then slap-bang in the middle
of this very ordinary scene,

there's something completely
extraordinary.

There are these two giant,
rusting old aeroplanes.

It just doesn't make any sense
because there's nothing nearby

that should have big aeroplanes
right there.

So you just have to ask the
question, "Why are they here?"

Inside the control tower,
the plot thickens.

There's what looks
like a professional oven.

Now, I've not been inside many
control towers,

but that doesn't seem normal to me.

In an adjacent building,
things get even stranger.

It appears to be some sort
of Renaissance villa.

And everywhere you look, there's
some pretty iconic artwork.

It is so bizarre to have these two
vastly different things,

planes and Renaissance art all in
one compound.

Everything seen here was
the brainchild

of an entrepreneur with a wild
vision.

But one who failed to consider

the consequences of his ambition.

Almost as soon as the doors opened,
it was forced into a tailspin.

Luigi Stecca is the man responsible
for this surreal complex.

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

The inspiration came to him
while working at a nursing home

in the early 1990s.

They would also talk to him about

how they always dreamed of going to
Florence and Rome,

seeing the great Renaissance
masters' work.

So Luigi thinks to himself,

"Maybe I can create a place to bring
these two things together."

"And if I can make some money
off the back of it too,"

"then why not?"

In 1998, Luigi decided to turn
his dream into a reality.

This is the Michelangelo Da
Vinci Restaurant.

A curious passion project

that combined the romance of air
travel with food and art.

From the very start, it was a huge
financial gamble.

The cost alone of buying
and transporting the planes

was in the region of £80,000.

Luigi then needed to arrange
a police escort

to get them back safely.

But he wasn't done yet.

For his new venture,

Luigi wanted to recreate
in perfect detail

some of the world's finest artworks.

This isn't a caricature
of the Renaissance.

These are real paintings.

They look good.

You've got Michelangelo's
The Creation of Adam

and The Last Judgement,

the original of which sits above the
altar in the Sistine Chapel.

In total, that's around £3 million
of borrowed money.

The pressure was on to make
the business a success.

In the summer of 2000,
the restaurant opened its doors.

You have aeroplanes attached
to a fake control tower

in the middle of nowhere.

It's just wild that this place
was so popular.

One reason was that Luigi
had a secret weapon

to keep customers coming back for
more.

The restaurant became famous
for its oval-shaped pizzas,

which apparently was the only place
in Italy you could get them

at the time.

The money was pouring in

and it looked like Luigi's ambitious
risk was paying off.

The rich and famous, politicians,
athletes,

they all came to see this
restaurant.

There was a constant stream
of people lining up

to get a table here,

but it also caught the attention of
the wrong kind of people.

After a few months of being open,

local authorities came knocking at
the door.

But they didn't come for the pizza.

The government comes after Luigi,

claiming that he didn't get
any building permits

or the correct ones to build the
Michelangelo Da Vinci.

The government demanded

that the restaurant be brought up
to code,

but they also demanded
that Luigi pay a massive fine

for breaking the rules,

which at the time was over half a
million dollars.

Luigi was on the verge of bankruptcy

and faced losing his beloved
business.

His only option was to fight back.

He spends literally years
fighting this.

He goes back and forth with
the authorities.

They say he has to bring
his buildings up to code.

He says he will.

But there was one thing that
government officials

wouldn't budge on,

and that was that he would have to
pay the massive fine.

Luigi remained defiant...

..but in 2015 the judge ordered him
to pay up.

Although by that time the
Michelangelo Da Vinci restaurant

had already been forced
to close...for good.

Over the next decade,

Luigi's labour of love became the
target of vandals.

Now, local businessman Gianluca
Bertin

has big plans to bring it back to
life.

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

Subtitles by Red Bee Media