Original subtitles

[narrator] The remains of a site that produced the weapons

that tamed the Wild West.

These buildings are what made America what it is today.

[narrator] A facility that revolutionized communications on this

world and beyond.

What happened here kicked off the space age.

[narrator] And the ruins of a socialite's mansion, where the revelers

would bring down the house.

The parties she held here are legendary.

She scandalized the entire region.

[narrator] In Hartford, Connecticut, a set of abandoned structures

once armed the nation.

[Hale] These buildings represented the work of a real hero,

not the man, but the woman.

[narrator] Less than a mile from downtown, an architectural anomaly

sticks out in the skyline.

[Prof. Zarsadiaz] This dome seems like it's quite out of place for America.

It seems like it's something you'd see in Russia.

[narrator] This blue dome's aesthetic isn't the only

strange thing around.

Derelict buildings are scattered across a revitalized

industrial complex.

[Morgan] They have broken roofs, shattered windows.

They're obviously not in use.

[Dr. Mitchell] This must have been one big sight.

About half a mile away, across a nicely mowed park,

there are at least two more abandoned buildings.

[narrator] Once, this place forged a new way of life for America,

and the world.

[Glaser] Forget Henry Ford and his Model Ts, this is where America's

real manufacturing revolution began.

[Morgan] These buildings ultimately became so successful that

the enemy had only one option, and that was burn them

to the ground.

[narrator] Jack Hale first visited this site in 1980.

He spent the years since learning about its creator.

I call the founder of these buildings the first

international arms dealer.

He was an incredible salesman, you might say hustler.

[narrator] This man is credited with inventing a gun that helped

shape the modern world.

[Morgan] The big innovation that the revolver introduces is that

it makes it possible for an individual to fire multiple

shots before needing to reload.

[narrator] Opening in 1855, this place produced 250 revolvers a day.

This is Coltsville.

The whole site was a 200-acre company town really made to

manufacture Samuel Colt's guns.

[narrator] Leah Glaser has studied the secrets of how Samuel Colt

began his revolver revolution here.

[Glaser] He came up with a machine-driven factory where

machines did each piece of the process and that workers

were trained just simply to operate those machines.

Like in modern factories, this place would have different

areas making different parts of the gun, and they would go down

the line and essentially be all assembled together.

[Morgan] Over 50 years before Ford begins this assembly line

productivity, Samuel Colt is implementing that with

the production of revolvers.

[narrator] Many claim this was the first time anyone successfully

implemented assembly line manufacturing.

But while Coltsville revolutionized how things were

made in America, Colt himself revolutionized

how they were sold abroad.

[Hale] Samuel Colt figured out how to sell his product by giving it

away to influencers.

[narrator] Colt gifted lavishly engraved and gilded revolvers to heads

of a number of states, knowing that mass orders for

their national armies would follow.

The story is he sold guns to the Russian czar and then

he went to Turkey, that was an enemy of Russia,

and sold to them.

[Dr. Mitchell] In Turkey, he presented the Ottoman Sultan

with a golden revolver, which led to them ordering

5,000 of his guns.

[narrator] This success in the East is reflected in

the buildings here.

[Glaser] The Blue Dome is said to be having been inspired by

Russian architecture.

It was definitely an attempt on his part to prove

his international credibility.

[narrator] While the dome was built to display Colt's international

prowess, other structures here were constructed to boost

his workers' morale.

[Morgan] Colt attempted to realize Coltsville as a place where it

was pleasant for the workers to live, rather than living in

some awful godforsaken hovel.

Coltsville was meant to provide for the workers.

There was housing, there was a community center.

[Glaser] There was a library, there were lectures for his workers,

there were greenhouses half a mile long that were growing

any kind of fruit that you can imagine.

I guess it was like the modern campuses of Silicon Valley.

[narrator] However, for the workers, these perks came

with high demands.

Colt worked them hard, and he worked them fast.

It was repetitive work.

[Morgan] He insisted on a 10-hour workday.

And if anybody didn't like that, they could hit the bricks

and leave, because this was before labor organizing was

a significant force within the United States of America.

[narrator] Employing over 1,000 people, Coltsville became the largest

private armory in the world.

Yet Samuel Colt would soon find himself at a crossroads,

where he had to choose between the success of his company

or his personal beliefs.

[Hale] The Civil War started in April of 1861.

At that time, Colt was selling guns to both the Union Army

and to the South.

[narrator] Colt's factory was in the Union heartland of the North.

But his political beliefs firmly aligned with

the Confederate South.

[Hale] Samuel had to figure out where he was going to land.

He's an opportunist.

He took advantage of whatever was happening, and it became

clear that where his bread was being buttered was on the Union side.

[Prof. Zarsadiaz] During the Civil War, Coltsville manufactured about

27,000 guns per year, and this became one of

the largest manufacturers of guns for the Union.

[narrator] But Samuel Colt wouldn't live to see the impact his weapons

would have in this conflict that shaped America.

[Dr. Mitchell] On the 10th of January, 1862, Colt died from

complications with gout. He was just 47 years old.

[narrator] From his shadow, an unlikely leader emerged.

[Glaser] After Samuel Colt dies, his wife, Elizabeth,

is obviously devastated.

It's compounded by the fact that 10 days later,

their youngest child, Henrietta, also passes away.

And so she's obviously dealing with a lot, and she kind of

funnels that grief into making sure that her husband's

legacy remains.

[Dr. Mitchell] At a time when she couldn't even vote, Elizabeth took

the reins of Coltsville.

At its peak under Elizabeth, it's said the company was worth

over $100 million in today's money.

[narrator] Elizabeth took the Colt Company to new heights.

But while the Civil War was still raging, grave danger was

brought to her doorstep.

[narrator] In Hartford, Connecticut, Elizabeth Colt had

taken the reins of the Coltsville Armory in

the midst of the Civil War.

But shortly after her husband Samuel's death,

another catastrophe was just around the corner.

[Hale] In February of 1864, the main armory building

caught fire.

The building went up like a tinderbox.

There is some indication that it could have been an arsonist

from the South.

[narrator] The truth of whether the fire was set by a Confederate

arsonist has never been proven.

Yet ironically, thanks to Elizabeth, it only made

Coltsville stronger.

She had insured the company.

Sam didn't believe in insurance, but she did.

So she had the money to rebuild.

[Glaser] When they rebuilt it, they were replacing

all the machinery. They were now state-of-the-art.

So it gave the Colt Company a big, big leg up coming out of

the Civil War.

[narrator] Even with a new state-of-the-art factory,

no one could have predicted the popularity of a gun

Elizabeth's company would begin manufacturing here in 1873.

When people talk about iconic American weapons, The Colt.45

is right up there.

These guns are so evocative of the Wild West.

[narrator] Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and Butch Cassidy

all carried Colt.45s.

People begin to refer to it as "the gun that won the West."

[narrator] Despite this success, the 20th century ushered in new

challenges for Coltsville.

In 1905, Elizabeth Colt died at the age of 78.

[Hale] She had sold the company the year before, but her death

was a huge impact on the community.

Under the new ownership, these buildings continued to

make weapons, supplying guns to the American war effort

in both World Wars.

But just before the turn of the millennium,

their story came to an end.

[Glaser] By 1994, the company left Coltsville.

It just wasn't able to keep up with the newest

technology anymore.

[Hale] It became clear that the Colt factory here was not the right

kind of building for the manufacturing process.

[narrator] These buildings were left abandoned, and much of

the company town was turned over to the city of Hartford.

Today, over 30 years later, many of Coltsville's buildings

have been converted into apartments, and the remaining

structures are entering a new chapter of their life.

In 2014, Congress passed legislation that authorized

the establishment of Coltsville National Historic Park.

[narrator] The National Park will celebrate the history of this

groundbreaking establishment with some of the abandoned

buildings serving as visitor centers.

[Glaser] It is my hope that the National Park will expand

the conversation about firearms beyond the Second Amendment

and understand their place in American history as

a 19th century industrial phenomenon.

[narrator] In the Garden State, one complex of buildings

changed how we communicate across the globe and beyond.

[Carl] This building was filled with state-of-the-art equipment.

It's all forgotten history, because, except for

documentation in archives, No one alive knows about this history.

[Bell] We're close to the Jersey Shore, but this doesn't look

like a vacation complex.

[Dr. Davis-Hayes] This site is huge, with dozens of buildings

in a state of disrepair.

[Meigs] A lot of the structures have that low slung, quickly-made

feel that you see on a lot of military bases.

[narrator] What was accomplished here would win wars and start a new

era of human exploration.

What happened here kicked off the space age.

[narrator] On the Shark River, near the Jersey Shore,

lies a huge complex of neglected buildings.

Retired school teacher Fred Carl has been coming here for

over 30 years, seeking to reveal its mystery to others.

[Carl] It is vitally important to tell the tale of our nation, and how

people use technology to conquer the issues of the day.

This site was marsh and farmland, but it was

acquired in 1912 by one of the great telecommunications

companies, the Marconi Company.

[Meigs] Marconi was fascinated by the science of

electromagnetism, but he was more than a pure scientist.

He also had a practical streak.

With each breakthrough, he wanted to figure out how it

could be applied to human communication.

We wouldn't be where we are today with modern

communications without his technological advances.

[narrator] Marconi had proved that long wave radio signals could be

sent across oceans by using a layer of the Earth's

atmosphere known as the ionosphere.

Long wave wireless was very important because that

wavelength would bounce off the ionosphere and make it

across the Atlantic.

[Meigs] Once Marconi showed that he could transmit telegraph

signals long distances over the air, he immediately wanted

to turn that into a global communications business.

He began buying up properties around the world and building

telegraph transmitting and receiving stations.

[narrator] This was Marconi's primary receiving site on

the East Coast of North America.

This place would become known as Camp Evans.

[Carl] Why did Marconi pick this site?

Because it was the highest elevation site available near

New York City.

[Bell] This station had six 400-foot towers built on the hill close

to the Atlantic coast, which meant that for the first

time, America could receive messages from Europe.

[narrator] But soon, simpler shortwave radio technology would make

this site obsolete, and it was put up for sale.

Its new owners would turn this place of innovation

into a den of hatred.

[narrator] Near the Jersey Shore, Camp Evans was home to

the Marconi Company and its successors for 13 years.

It was bought by an organization in 1925,

not for its engineering history, but for

its scenic location.

[Meigs] And here the story gets really weird.

A group called the Monmouth County Pleasure Seekers Club

took it over for their weekend retreats.

[Dr. Davis-Hayes] The club acquired the land

and began to erect bungalows, tents,

and a number of crosses.

[narrator] This club was a front for the Ku Klux Klan.

The leader of the New Jersey chapter of the Klan was

a wealthy attorney named Arthur H. Bell.

He organized fairs and marches here and started an association

with the overtly Nazi German-American Bundt.

[narrator] The Monmouth Pleasure Seekers ran this property for a decade,

but Bell would be removed from his position due to his close

links to the German-American Bundt, which put ownership of

the old Marconi site in dispute.

They lost their court cases and their appeals and were

evicted for non-payment of rent, and then they faded away.

[narrator] The site would become a military camp in 1941,

named the Camp Evans Signal Laboratory.

[Bell] Most of the low buildings that you see on site today were

built during the Second World War.

It was basically a one-stop shop for their experiments

with radio.

[narrator] Immediately after the war, the scientists here would start

to answer a question posed by Nazi Germany's most successful

wonder weapon.

[Bell] Germany's V2 rocket program had produced the world's first

long-range rocket that flew within the ionosphere at

the edge of space.

[Meigs] Was there any way to track objects that were going past

the ionosphere and into space? That was the big question.

[narrator] But many scientists at the time thought it was impossible to

communicate with objects in space because radio waves could

not penetrate the ionosphere.

[Carl] A long wave radio wave will bounce off that and go

across the ocean.

And that's what this Marconi station was built on.

The fact that radio waves did not go into space,

as theorists said.

[narrator] The scientists stationed here came up with an audacious

project to prove the ionosphere was not impenetrable.

[Meigs] The problem was there was no way to test whether

your signals were getting past the ionosphere.

The scientists here came up with a brilliant solution.

They decided they were gonna bounce their signals

off the moon.

They called it Project Diana, named after the goddess

of the moon.

So in January 1946, they modified a radar antenna

that looks like a set of mattress springs, jacked up

the power and aimed it at the moon.

An echo was picked up two and a half seconds

after the broadcast, and that's the time it takes

for light to travel to the moon and back.

[Meigs] For the first time, humans had communicated with, or at least

interacted with, an object in space.

And it happened right here at Camp Evans.

[narrator] Project Diana's success would have wide-ranging consequences.

[Bell] The piercing of the ionosphere with radio waves opened up

the possibility of space exploration that up until that

point, had only been a dream within science fiction films

and comic books.

[narrator] The scientists of Camp Evans would go on to work on projects

during the Vietnam and Gulf Wars.

It always seemed to be a convenient spot to tuck

secret projects away.

[narrator] After more than half a century of use by the Army Signal Corps

and 85 years after the Marconi Company first came here,

Camp Evans closed its doors for good in 1998.

Today, the accomplishments of Camp Evans live on through

the work of Fred Carl and many others.

[Bell] Now, part of the camp is the site of

the InfoAge Science Learning Center, housing a number of

different museums.

[Carl] Our partner, Princeton University Physics Department,

they actually can control the dish from their physics

building in Princeton, and they helped train graduate

students on the study of pulsars.

Pretty awesome for a site where they started communication in space.

[narrator] In the foothills of Colorado's Sangre de Cristo Mountains are

the remains of a town where people fought for their rights

and paid the ultimate price.

[Butero] Since I was eight years old, my father used to bring me out

here when they would hold a service.

I always hold this as sacred ground.

[narrator] Fifteen miles from the city of Trinidad, near the border with

New Mexico, a cluster of dilapidated buildings sits

fenced off behind barbed wire.

This looks like a set for a Wild West dystopian movie.

[narrator] The surrounding land still bears the scars of an industry

that transformed the region.

[Morgan] As you look closely at the landscape,

it's punctuated by flag heaps, a pretty powerful indication

that there was mining here.

[narrator] But this canyon hides the secrets of a terrible event

that changed the nation.

[Butero] These people were fighting for two things -- economic justice

and social justice.

They basically wanted to be treated like human beings.

[Dr. Mitchell] This almost brought down one of America's

most powerful families.

Everyone knew they had blood on their hands.

[narrator] In the shadow of Colorado's Spanish Peaks, a remote ghost

town was the site of one of the great untold labor disputes

of the 20th century.

Third-generation coal miner Bob Butero is carrying on

the legacy of those who fought here.

[Butero] I've always maintained that I stand on their shoulders.

The lives that they sacrificed made mining a lot safer

and healthier for me.

[narrator] Coal was first uncovered in Colorado in 1880.

And within a few years, driven by

the Industrial Revolution, mines were cropping up

all over the state.

Most of these mines were owned by John D. Rockefeller Jr.,

through the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company,

company, also known as CFI.

[Morgan] This is a company that was so big, so prominent, that at one

point, 10 percent of the people of the state depended on CFI

for their livelihood.

[narrator] As the mining industry boomed, communities began to flourish

across the region.

Among them, one town would go down in history,

its name forever tied to one of Colorado's darkest days.

This is Ludlow.

[Rodriguez McRobbie] The town of Ludlow was an important railroad junction

as it was near the mouths of two canyons.

[narrator] The coal mines in this area were some of the most dangerous

in the entire nation.

The fatality rate for miners in Colorado was more than double

the national average.

[Butero] A lot of it was just because the companies had no real good

concern with the miners.

There was numerous reports of the bosses saying that a mule

was more valuable than a man, because with a man,

they could just hire him, where a mule,

they had to buy him.

[narrator] By 1913, 30 years after the first boom, conditions in

the industry had not improved.

Miners had to live in coal camps where the companies had

control over all aspects of their lives.

[Rodriguez McRobbie] These towns were patrolled by company-appointed marshals.

They would enforce curfews, inspect the miners' houses,

and crack down on anybody who might be complaining about

the workers' conditions.

[Butero] All the way through our history,

in the US Constitution, you have the freedom of speech,

but in a coal camp, you had no freedom of speech.

[narrator] While mine bosses went to great lengths to discourage

dissenting and organizing, unions could only be

kept at bay for so long.

The United Mine Workers of America arrive in Colorado in

August 1913, and help the miners set out their demands.

[Morgan] First and foremost, they wanted CFI to live up to

the legal standard that was already required by the state

of Colorado in terms of health and safety on the job site.

They were requesting a 10% increase in compensation,

which actually was a nickel.

[Morgan] The president of Colorado Fuel and Iron refuses to meet

with their representatives.

That shuts down any possibilities that may have

existed toward reaching a peaceful settlement.

On September 23rd of 1913, the miners informed the coal

companies that they were striking.

And there was over 10,000 coal miners that did this.

So it wasn't like it was only a handful of

disgruntled people.

[narrator] And so began the Colorado Coalfield War.

And the mine owners' response would be brutal.

[Dr. Mitchell] The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company evicted the workers

from the company towns, but the union had anticipated

this move, and they erected tent colonies all across the region.

[narrator] The tents, used to house the miners and their families,

were built on wooden platforms, each outfitted with

a cast iron stove.

The largest of these colonies was erected on one of the few

areas in Ludlow not owned by the mining companies.

This is the site of the Ludlow tent colony.

There was about a thousand inhabitants here.

[narrator] The union paid minor stipends to keep them going, and they

furnished coal, food, and clothing.

[narrator] To keep the mines in business, the coal companies hired

replacement workers, known as strikebreakers or scabs,

as well as security guards to protect the mines.

Many of these guards came from the notorious Baldwin-Feltz

Detective Agency, who had a reputation for

violent repression.

They would just basically antagonize the miners.

They would bring what they called the death special.

It was an armored type car that they would come, drive by

the miners and shoot bullets into the tents.

This forced the workers to dig pits and trenches underneath

the tents for safety.

[narrator] As tensions escalated over the next month, several miners

and guards lost their lives in gun battles.

On October 28th, the governor of Colorado sent

in the National Guard to impose order in the strike zones.

[narrator] While the miners welcomed this at first, they soon discovered

that the National Guard was actually there to

break the strike.

Many mine guards and Baldwin-Feltz agents even joined

their ranks and were given National Guard uniforms.

On April 20th, 1914, tensions came to a head.

[Butero] The National Guard accused the miners of holding three

scabs against their will.

There was no evidence of that, but they started opening fire

on the tent colony.

Over the course of 14 hours, the strikers traded gunfire

with the National Guard.

[narrator] After hours of fighting, when most of the colony members

had retreated, the National Guard doused

the camp with kerosene and set the camp alight.

[narrator] The next day, the bodies of two women and 11 children were

discovered in one of the cellars under a tent.

The fire stole all of the oxygen, and they sat down

there in their dugout and suffocated.

[Dr. Mitchell] They also found the bodies of two union leaders who had been

shot in the back. They had been executed.

More than 20 people lost their lives that day.

[narrator] As news of the Ludlow massacre spread,

outrage swept the nation.

The fallout would change labor relations across America

and see the Rockefellers' reputation tarnished.

[narrator] After the massacre of striking miners and their families by

Colorado's National Guard, union leaders

issued a call to arms.

[Butero] They basically ran the National Guard out of Los Animas.

After that is when the US Army came into the area.

[narrator] Eventually, the United Mine Workers of America ran out of

money and had to call off the strike.

Ultimately, none of their demands had been met.

[Dr. Mitchell] The Ludlow backlash was a disaster for

the Rockefellers' reputation to the point that they hired

PR experts to help with damage control.

At the time, this was very novel and it attracted quite

a bit of media attention.

[narrator] Rockefeller would eventually visit Colorado to hear

the miners' grievances, and slowly, but surely,

things began to change.

[Dr. Mitchell] Over the following years, working conditions improved

greatly, not only for miners, but for the average

American worker.

They achieved an eight-hour day, paid overtime,

higher wages, and benefits, not to mention

better safety conditions.

[narrator] Although working conditions had improved for the miners in

Southern Colorado, an overall shift to cleaner

and more efficient energy sources would plunge the coal

industry into decline.

By the 1950s, most of the mines in the area had closed down.

[Rodriguez McRobbie] Rather than selling the homes to the miners already living in

them, the companies instead decided to evict the workers

and then raise the buildings.

This had a devastating effect on the region.

And by 1954, Ludlow was completely abandoned.

[narrator] Today, the site of the massacre is owned by

the United Mine Workers of America.

They have erected a monument to the fallen and hold a service

here every year to pay tribute to the miners.

[Butero] This is not taught in the US history books.

It's not even taught in Colorado history books.

We need to preserve it so everybody that comes out here

understands what happened on this date, April 20th, 1914.

[narrator] In the shadow of Mount One Testicat, a set of ruins were

once a den of debauchery for one of America's

greatest eccentrics.

[Stanway] This is a place you would not expect to find in the woods in

the middle of New Hampshire.

What happened here was sex, alcohol on the tap,

and behind it all were all of these crazy people.

[Dr. Thomas] This is 500 acres of deep, dense forest.

[narrator] Within this labyrinth of trees hides a forsaken structure.

[Alcock] There are fragments of crumbled ruins, bits of stone.

These are simply the bare foundations left behind.

[narrator] Yet one feature has survived.

[Meares] You see this elaborate stone staircase that leads

to nowhere.

It's like something from a fantasy movie or a fairy tale

gone wrong.

There's a lot of stories about this place, but you have to

sort out what's true and what isn't.

[narrator] Whether fact or fiction, every story centers around

one woman.

She was well-known for pushing all types of social boundaries.

She really kind of identified herself as a queen.

[narrator] In New Hampshire, the stone carcass of

an abandoned building lies hidden deep in the forest.

It's something Eric Stanway has grown to love.

[Stanway] I found out about these ruins by accident.

I just came up here one time, and then I found out the actual

story behind them is far more interesting and far more

licentious than anything you can possibly think of.

[narrator] This is Madame Sherri's castle.

While today it's associated with an American legend,

its story begins in the City of Love, where Madame Sherri was

known by another name.

[Stanway] Madame Sherri was born Antoinette Bremer in

Paris in 1878.

Antoinette was a complete extrovert, and she was

determined to become famous on the stage.

[Dr. Thomas] Paris at the turn of the 20th century was a place of style,

elegance, and daring.

For young Antoinette, it was a time for her to truly blossom.

[narrator] Antoinette found work dancing and singing cabaret in

bars and clubs.

Yet fate would take her across the Atlantic.

[brassy music playing]

[Stanway] She met an American and they got married and they decided to

move to the Big Apple.

[Meares] When Antoinette moved to New York, she opened

a costume house and it rented out elaborate costumes, both to

individuals and most importantly,

to Broadway reviews.

[narrator] Just off Broadway on West 47th Street, Antoinette wanted

her store to stand out.

[Dr. Thomas] Antoinette decided she needed a flashy new showbiz name to

promote her business, and she was inspired by

Otto Harbach's play, "Madame Sherri."

[narrator] To grab people's attention, Antoinette changed her name to

Madame Sherri.

[Alcock] Because of her wacky dress sense,

the name Madame Sherri really stuck.

It was what she became known by, a bit like Lady Gaga today.

[narrator] With her new name, Madame Sherri was soon mixing

with New York's movers and shakers.

It's something Matthew Scaccia knows well.

[Scaccia] Madame Sherri and her husband lived a life in the main social

circle of A-list people in New York.

Madame Sherri was definitely an it-girl.

[narrator] But Madame Sherri's time in the bright lights of

Broadway wouldn't last.

Soon, heartbreak would cause her to begin a new chapter of

her life in the forests of New Hampshire.

[narrator] In the woods of New Hampshire is the home of eccentric French

socialite Madame Sherri.

But this lady of intrigue was brought here by tragedy.

In 1924, Madame Sherri's husband tragically died.

[Stanway] Everything came crashing down when her husband died.

Sherri was completely bereft.

And eventually, by the invitation of Jack Henderson,

a silent film star, started coming to his parties

up here in New Hampshire. And she loved it so much.

In 1929, she decided to pull up roots in New York

and move here.

[narrator] With the support of her wealthy friend Charles La Mer,

she bought nearly 600 acres here.

Yet, she didn't want to live an ordinary country life.

[Stanway] She was going to build a castle.

And it was going to be something that no one in this

area had ever seen.

[Meares] Madame Sherri had no blueprints, which drove

the local builders crazy.

She would just stick sticks in the ground, showing where

she wanted rooms to be.

[narrator] By 1931, this trendsetter's vision was finished.

The real piece de resistance was the outside staircase.

This allowed Madame Sherri to make grand entrances,

showing off the latest eccentric fashions that she was

styling herself in.

[Alcock] It was said that this place was built to host parties that

matched Madame Sherri's eccentric personality.

[narrator] Due to the clandestine nature of the parties here,

the reality is hard to decipher from the legend.

[Stanway] These parties were in the middle of prohibition,

and all of the liquor that came here was totally illegal.

All the people who came to these parties were not local.

Once state justice was rumored to party here.

There were rumors of gangsters, Al Capone, Legs Diamond.

[narrator] Whatever the truth, many claim it wasn't just booze

on the menu.

[Stanway] Imagine the wildest party you've ever been to --

sex, booze, all sorts of licentiousness.

And then multiply that by 10, and you get an inkling of what

happened here.

[narrator] Yet in 1933,

when Prohibition ended, the party didn't stop here.

[Dr. Thomas] Madame Sherri's castle was a unique

and stylish party spot.

Even after Prohibition, people were still looking for

those crazy, wild, debaucherous parties.

[narrator] But now, the depravity spread out of this forest into

the local town.

Madame Sherri scandalized the entire town.

[Alcock] The people of the town were traditional rural folk,

people who went to church on Sunday.

This was the complete opposite side of the spectrum to

Madame Sherri.

She would go about town with a monkey on a leash and wearing

a fur coat with nothing on underneath.

[Stanway] And she'd have all these crazy young people around her.

And she used to go buy her groceries down there.

She pulled the cash out of her cleavage.

[narrator] This cash that funded Madame Sherri's eccentric lifestyle

came from her protege, Charles La Mer,

a costume designer known across Hollywood.

But in the 1940s, everything changed when

he thought she began suffering from delusions of grandeur.

Her associates stopped sending her checks that funded all of

her lavish lifestyle.

When the money ran out, everything went straight to hell.

[narrator] Broke and destitute, in the late 1950s,

Madame Sherri did something unexpected.

In 1958, Madame Sherri felt a pull towards religion.

She became a Jehovah's Witness and moved to Vermont.

[narrator] In her absence, this building was left to fend for itself.

It was a fight it would lose, as Madame Sherri discovered

when she returned.

[Stanway] In spring of 1959, she came back here.

The entire place had been trashed.

And she ran from room to room, screaming and howling, some in

English, some in French, saying, "This was our love nest!"

And she locked the doors, and she never, ever came back.

[narrator] Three years later, vandals returned to the castle

and burned what remained to the ground.

All that's left of the castle, say, after that fire, is what

you see here today.

[narrator] Today, the parties that were held here nearly a century ago

are still legendary, although the details may be

a little fuzzy.

But Matthew is part of an organization that looks

after the remains of the castle and allows thousands to visit each year.

[Scaccia] The property and surrounding 500 acres are owned by

the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.

It's a space that people love to come and enjoy.

[narrator] Despite dying in 1965 at the age of 84, these ruins have

given Madame Sherri what she always desired, a place in

America's history book.

[Stanway] If there's anything to learn, it's that you only go through

life once, and you should really just grab it with both

hands, because she sure as hell did.