All language subtitles for Expedition Files - S01E02 - Monsters Unmasked

Coming up on "Expedition Files,"
a grisly serial killer slashes

his way through the foggy
streets of London.

And after 150 years,
we may finally

know his identity.

In one of the most
remote parts of the world,

a savage beast
stalks its human prey.

New DNA evidence
might finally reveal,

is this monster or myth?

And on a Chicago TV station
in the late 1980s,

criminal hackers
terrorize the airwaves.

We dig deep to unmask
the anonymous monsters

who have struck fear
in our hearts.

In the corridors of time...

are mysteries that
defy explanation.

Now, I'm traveling
through history itself,

on a search for the truth.

New evidence,

shocking answers.

I'm Josh Gates,

and these...

are my "Expedition Files."

My kids are young enough to
still be scared of monsters

hiding under the bed,
and like generations of

good parents before me,
I reassure them.

I tell them monsters
aren't real,

that there's nothing
to be afraid of.

But of course,
that isn't quite true.

Although they don't tend
to hide under our beds,

sometimes monsters are real.

Tonight, we examine the files
of three extraordinary cases of

monsters whose terrifying acts
remain shrouded in mystery

to this very day.

From a nightmarish serial
killer whose name is synonymous

with fear, to a frightening
beast said to stalk

the Himalayas, and an agent of
chaos menacing the city of

Chicago, one question threads
the needle

between these three
remarkable stories.

Who, or what, is behind
the monstrous mask?

We begin in London's East End.

The year is 1888.

Life is hard for most
in these seedy slums,

and for women especially.

Many, like Mary Kelly here,
are forced into a life

of prostitution --
police try to maintain order.

Men like Sergeant Harry Garrett,
spend a good part of

their patrol moving prostitutes
off the street.

On your way.

Now, he doesn't know it,
but Sergeant Garrett might have

just saved Mary Kelly's life.

That's because tonight,
her profession is not only

the world's oldest,
but also the most dangerous.

Lurking in the shadows is
a customer of a different kind,

one who takes payment in blood.

Although Mary is safe for now,
sadly, another lady of

the night will not be so lucky.

Polly Nichols is,
in this moment,

making the acquaintance
of a madman.

For 150 years,
his horrifying legacy has

only grown, because the killer
was never caught.

But thanks to a surprising
intervention from across

generations, we may now,
at last, be able to put a face

to the elusive Jack the Ripper.

Polly Nichols is a 43-year-old
mother of five who,

like many women in Whitechapel,
relies on her body

and her wits to make
ends meet.

But no amount of street smarts
can help Polly, because tonight,

on August 31st, 1888,

she becomes Jack the Ripper's
very first victim.

It isn't until 3:40
that morning that Polly's

knife-slashed corpse is
discovered by a cart driver.

Extra, extra!

The news quickly
makes the morning papers,

and police attribute the murder
to "a peculiarly revolting

and barbarous character."

Eight days later, on September
8th, 47-year-old Annie Chapman

is seen spending her hard-earned
streetwalking money

at an East End pub.

Witnesses last see her leaving
at 5:30 in the morning.

Only a half hour later,
Annie is found dead.

Her injuries are ghastly,
as several internal organs

have been removed.

This leads the coroner to state
that these crimes are being

committed by someone with knife
skills of a surgical nature.

Is this a mad doctor
on the loose?

A surgeon?
Or a butcher?

Rumors swirl that London

has a psychotic murderer
on its hands,

and it's confirmed
on September 27th, when

the slasher sends a letter to
the Central News Agency.

The killer taunts the police
with a haunting threat.

My knife's so nice and sharp.

I want to get to work right
away if I get a chance.

And signs off
with the name...

Jack the Ripper.

Overnight, the world
becomes obsessed with
the Ripper.

London is whipped
into a frenzy of fear.

Women refuse to
leave their homes.

People are terrified.

The police devote a huge
amount of manpower

to catch Jack the Ripper.

Making Whitechapel's
police station the hub of

the investigation, local cops,
or British bobbies, haul in

suspect after suspect to narrow
down the search for the killer.

Among those investigating
the case is our young

Whitechapel Sergeant Harry
Garrett, part of the desperate

boots-on-the-ground effort to
find the madman.

Sergeant Garrett and his fellow
police officers flood

the streets
in London's East End,

and their methods aren't
exactly friendly.

I swear
I don't know nothing.

But they fail to pinpoint
any true suspect.

And the terror continues to
loom over London, with citizens

wondering what act of savagery
might come next.

And the Ripper
does not disappoint.

Just three days later,
he strikes again.

On September 30th,
the Ripper attacks

Elizabeth Stride, a 45-year-old
destitute mother of nine,

slashing her throat
and leaving her for dead.

Minutes later,
he strikes again,

attacking 43-year-old
Catherine Eddowes,

a poor Whitechapel
factory worker.

After mutilating her,
he slices out her kidney,

leaving behind his most
gruesome execution yet.

As the Ripper flees the scene,
the police officer spots him

and calls the attention of
Sergeant Harry Garrett,

who gives chase,

but the killer escapes.

However, not all hope is lost,

as the police notice
an odd thing.

The killer has a stiff arm
and stiff knees,

which don't bend
as he walks or runs.

They might have lost him,
but they now have a description

of Jack the Ripper.

Witnesses describe the killer
as being between 5-foot-5

and 5-foot-8 inches tall,
stout and broad-shouldered,

aged between 30 and 40.

He has a full face,
dark hair, a mustache

and possibly a beard.

He's wearing a dark jacket
and a bowler hat.

The police feel like they're
closing in on the Ripper.

The details about his stiff arm
and legs has policemen like

Garrett on the lookout
for this unusual disability.

Meanwhile, the Ripper
sends his most unusual

correspondence yet.

On October 16th, 1888,
George Lusk of the Whitechapel

Vigilance Committee receives
a crudely wrapped box.

A letter from the killer,
known as the From Hell Letter,

explains the macabre contents.

From Hell, dear sir, I send you

half a kidney I took
from one woman.

With the teasing salutation...

Catch me
if you can, Mr. Lusk.

The Ripper has been
rampaging for two months,

what the papers have coined

the "Autumn of Terror,"
but despite the city

being in the grip of fear,
it's business as usual for

the streetwalking women
of Whitechapel.

Except tonight, the killer
does something different.

He makes a house call.

You remember Mary Kelly,
whose life was spared by

Sergeant Garrett?

Unfortunately, on this night,
she won't be so fortunate.

When her body is discovered,

authorities find another
horrific act of mutilation.

But this time, there is one
touch of Ripper brutality that

canonizes the killer as
the most diabolical

of all time.

He has taken a trophy,
Mary's very own heart.

The public outcry over
the horrifying nature of

Mary's murder is deafening.

Detectives investigate multiple
suspects who may possess

the surgical skills needed to
commit such ghastly murders.

They scrutinize Francis
Tumblety, an American doctor

arrested on an unrelated charge
of indecency, but he flees back

to America when police
begin to look at him.

Also on the police's radar is
Aaron Kosminski,

a barber who is apparently
well-known among

Whitechapel residents
to be insane.

Then there's Montague John
Druitt, the son of a surgeon

who is found dead soon after
Mary Kelly's murder.

Some theorize that his suicide
could be madness brought on by

being the Ripper.

The police believe that any of
these men could have the skills

to pull off the Ripper's
gruesome mutilations,

but there's not enough evidence
to pin the crimes

on any of them.

Still, the police wait for
a chance to catch

Jack the Ripper in action.

Surely he would strike again.

But he never does.

The Ripper's murder spree ends
with the ghastly slaughter of

Mary Kelly, leaving
the police clueless.

Who was this demented butcher,
and where did he go?

Years, then decades pass,
and almost a century and a half

later, there is still
no definitive answer.

But now, a shocking revelation
may finally unveil

the true identity of
Jack the Ripper.

And remarkably, it comes from
the direct descendant of one of

the investigators in the case
from 150 years ago.

150 years ago, Sergeant Harry
Garrett failed in his efforts

to stop the serial killer,
Jack the Ripper.

Now someone has
reopened the case,

and it's a family affair.

Harry's
great-great-granddaughter,

author Sarah Bax Horton,
has picked up

where Sergeant Garrett left off.

I was totally inspired
by my police ancestor.

I think that my emotional
connection has driven

my research
and my approach to the case.

Incredibly, Sarah is able
to access files and track down

leads, which at the time,
weren't available

to her great-great-grandfather.

These records were previously
held under the 100-year closure

rule, which is standard for
institutional records.

I discovered two files that had
recently been opened to

the public from Colney Hatch
Lunatic Asylum.

Located just a few miles north
of Whitechapel, Colney Hatch

was the asylum that catered to
locking up the mentally ill

from the East End.

I discovered a man,
a 35-year-old East Ender who was

5-foot-7 inches tall,
stout, broad-shouldered,

a stiff left arm,
having broken his left elbow.

He also had a peculiar gait
or way of walking,

with bent knees
and asymmetric foot dragging,

and he had a violent
antipathy to his wife,

whom he attacked
on several occasions,

and he was known to assault
people with bladed weapons.

That man was Hyam Hyams.

I also discovered from
the files that Hyam Hyams was

a cigar maker, who used a knife
for his trade, and it may be

those skills which transferred
onto the women he accosted.

In my opinion, Hyam Hyams
managed to evade suspicion

owing to the fact that he was
just a man on the streets,

and he presented a very quiet,
inoffensive demeanor.

But when the fits of violence
were upon him,

he became extremely violent
and dangerous towards women.

Even though he was never
a suspect during the active

case, when one looks at
Hyam Hyams, a dark picture

quickly emerges.

Found suffering from bouts of
delirium in Whitechapel,

Hyams attempts to stab
his wife and is eventually

institutionalized in
December of 1888.

Around the same time,
the murders ceased.

So, it seems more than
a coincidence that the Ripper

murders stop at the same time
Hyams is locked up at

the Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum
for the rest of his life.

At the end of my exploration of
the Jack the Ripper case,

I then realized not only that
it might be possible to solve

the case, but that in fact,
I had solved it.

And it's been
the joy of my life.

It's been the joy of my life to
reinvestigate the case in

honor of my police ancestor
and in tribute to the men

and women who collaborated in
an attempt to bring

Jack the Ripper to justice.

And so, incredibly, a family of
detectives joined forces over

the span of 150 years to
shine new light on one of

the world's most
infamous cases.

We'll never know the psychology
that might have driven Hyams to

commit these heinous crimes,
but we do know that the Ripper

was an arrogant killer,
taunting the police,

boasting that he would
never be caught,

except that maybe he has.

If Sarah Bax Horton is right,
Jack the Ripper has finally

been pulled from
the shadows, and Sarah's

great-great-grandfather
Harry can rest easy,
knowing the streets

of East London
are safe at last.

Our next file takes us from
a monster in the city streets

to a terrifying beast
rumored to lurk in

the remote wilderness.

It's July 1986,
on the roof of the world,

here in the Tibetan plateau,
surrounded by the towering

Himalayan mountains.

The man behind me is in
the middle of an amazing

1,200-mile trek across Tibet,
retracing the route of

an ancient Sherpa road.

He's traveled solo, through
valleys and across rivers with

only a sleeping bag
and a modest rucksack.

Unfortunately,
he's also horribly lost.

And that is surprising because
this is Reinhold Messner, one of

the world's
greatest adventurers.

Good news,
he won't be alone for long.

Bad news, he's about to come
face-to-face with perhaps

the most famous monster
of them all, the yeti.

It is a ferocious beast that
has long been cloaked in

mystery, but now we may
finally be able to reveal

the yeti's true identity.

Messner's reputation as
a great climber really begins

eight years earlier,
in 1978.

He became the first person to
summit Mount Everest

without supplemental oxygen.

Messner becomes a mountaineering
rock star, and less than

a decade after his Everest
ascent, becomes the first to try

to climb all 14 mountains in
the world that are taller than

26,000 feet.

But it's on his expedition
hiking across Tibet in 1986

that Messner finds himself in
the current predicament of

being lost.

And even worse, as he's trying
to find the trail again,

it's starting to get dark.

As he's forced to trudge along
by instinct, about

30 feet ahead, something large
emerges from the bushes...

...towering seven feet tall
and covered in dark fur.

As the shape disappears into
the darkness, Messner notices

that this mysterious figure
is standing upright.

Up ahead, he finds a shockingly
huge footprint in the mud.

As he documents it,
it hits Messner.

It's possible that what
he just saw is a yeti.

Shaken, Messner has no choice
but to push on, hoping to find

a village at 14,000 feet above
sea level, where villages are

as scarce as the oxygen.

But it's not long before
the mysterious beast

appears again.

Messner wonders,
is he being stalked?

But for some unknown reason,

the beast rushes off
into the night.

In a panic, Messner has fled
deeper into the wilderness.

At this point, he has to
wonder, did he really just see

a yeti, or is that lack of
extra oxygen

finally getting to him?

Struggling to find a village,
he finally gets a lucky break.

Messner gives his account to
some of the villagers,

and they know instantly
it's not a hallucination.

It's what the locals call
Chemo, an enormous bear,

man, monkey-like creature,
known to throw rocks

and slaughter yaks.

The villagers welcome Messner to
stay the night, but give him

an ominous warning --
one can never find a Chemo.

The Chemo finds you.

Not exactly
a goodnight lullaby.

Later, when he checks
the photos he took

of the footprint,
he realizes the film from

his camera is damaged,
so no visual record exists of

what he encountered.

After his harrowing experience,
Messner becomes obsessed with

finding answers.

He spends the next 12 years
trying to find out

what stalked him that night.

He pursues the Yeti all around
the Himalayas, making 20 trips

in total,
searching in mountains,

scouring monasteries
and villages,

accumulating samples
and biological evidence.

During this time,
he collects hair,

bones, a supposed hand,
and even yeti scat.

But still, he finds nothing
conclusive, and the question

still remains -- what exactly
was the terrifying beast that

Reinhold Messner encountered?

In 1986,
mountaineering legend

Reinhold Messner
comes face-to-face with

a terrifying beast that
he believes is a yeti.

As amazing as Messner's
encounter is, he's far from

the first person to run into
the mysterious yeti.

The legend, it seems, is as old
as the mountains themselves.

The obsession of finding
and identifying this creature

has overtaken many of
the world's most intelligent

and accomplished adventurers.

During the 1921 British
Mount Everest reconnaissance

expedition, explorer Charles
Howard-Bury reports sightings

of a dark creature and enormous
footprints on Mount Everest.

His Sherpas say
it's metoh-kangmi,

or manlike
snow creature.

A journalist mistranslates this
as "abominable snowman,"

giving birth to a modern legend.

In 1953, the great explorer Sir
Edmund Hillary became obsessed

with the yeti when
he found a footprint on

his groundbreaking expedition
to the summit of Mount Everest.

Hillary's interest piqued when
he later came across a proposed

scalp of the creature in
a remote village

in the Himalayas.

She's saying the scalp
is 240 years old.

He persuaded one of the elders
to let him take the scalp

to the west to have
it analyzed.

Unfortunately, in an era before
DNA testing, the response from

experts was mixed.

But the creature's status as
having an unknown origin

could not be ruled out.

When it comes to quests for
the yeti, it's hard to follow

in the footsteps of such greats
as Messner and Hillary.

But hey,
fortune favors the bold.

In 2016, I embarked on my own
extensive journey across

the Himalayas for evidence
of the elusive yeti.

And what we found was
truly extraordinary.

I discovered hair,

bones,

scat.

Mystery poop, check.

All of them turned out to be
goats, human, or some other

non-yeti animal.

Eventually, I hit pay dirt
with an incredible find.

-See this?
-Yeah, it's interesting,
isn't it?

Exploring an extremely
remote area of Bhutan...

Long way down.

...that has had yeti sightings.

I traveled over land and river
with world-class kayaker

and outdoorsman Jerry Moffatt.

-Hey, I got a den over here.
-On my way.

We found what looked like
a den for some creature.

Later, something triggered
our motion detectors,

leaving a set of
three footprints.

And here, look.
That's a print.

That is a print,
and that's a print right there.

Three of them.

Look at that, toe marks.

This has made a significant
indentation in that soil there.

That one is a beauty.
Look at that.

-That one is clear as day.
-What do you think that is?

-It's a big animal.
-I don't know.

I mean, this looks like
a bipedal animal.

That looks like
a human print, almost.

With casting powder and with
the handy use of my belt,

we made an incredibly detailed
cast of one print.

Now we wait.

At a glance, the print seemed
oddly like a very large human.

-Feeling pretty good?
-Yeah, feeling great.

-There we go.
-Awesome.

We wanted to know,
could this be from a yeti?

Awesome work, Jerry.
Great job.

To get a more complete answer,
we consulted

Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, one of
the foremost experts on

zoological footprints.

He used a 3D scan to reveal
more detail of our prints than

human eyes can see.

Foremost in my mind is
the question of,

did you get a footprint
of a yeti?

The combination
of characteristics

that sort of speak to me,
all those features

would indicate in my mind
the likelihood of

this being a bear.

But in Bhutan, we should only
expect either an Asiatic

black bear or a sloth bear.

And does this fit
either of those?

No, it doesn't.

That leaves us with
a brown bear.

And all reports are that
it's now extinct in Bhutan.

So either I found a footprint
of a brown bear that is not

extinct in this area,
as scientists have believed,

or it's a footprint of
something else entirely.

The mystery continues.

Is what people call the yeti
an undiscovered primate,

a giant bear, or something
else entirely?

Now, a new breakthrough with
DNA evidence may finally

provide an answer.

Thanks to a team of geneticists
at the University at Buffalo,

we may have finally pinpointed
the true identity of

this menacing monster.

Since the beginning of
the 20th century,

explorers and scientists have
been trying to find proof that

the infamous beast
known as the yeti exists.

Now, a team of geneticists at
the University of Buffalo may

have finally identified
this frightening creature.

Evolutionary biologist
Charlotte Lindqvist is

an expert on studying ancient
DNA and was a key member

on the team.

So this study represented
the most samples and the most

data that had ever been
analyzed of yeti origin.

We had a total of 24 samples,
which included a tooth.

There was a dried hand
from a monastery,

so we got the skin.

There was also a femur bone,
and then there was hair sample

and also a scat sample that
actually I believe

Reinhold Messner
himself had collected.

The university's study clearly
showed that all of the samples

they analyzed that had been
suggested to be yeti weren't

from an abominable snowman
after all.

So we had a tooth that turned
out to actually be from a dog,

but the ones that had been
collected in

the Western Himalayan mountains,
they were Himalayan brown bear.

The ones that were collected
close to the Tibetan plateau,

they were Tibetan brown bear,
and we also had an example of

a Himalayan black bear.

Unfortunately, there hasn't
been any hard evidence to prove

the existence of the yeti.

However, the good news is that
we've proven that

the brown bear
is not extinct in Bhutan.

But still, the encounters of so
many experienced adventurers

can't be completely dismissed.

I suppose
there are aspects of

bears that,
if you see them up

on their hind legs,
they stand large.

Certainly, I can imagine it can
really generate a deep fear

that perhaps

can start these stories.

But if the DNA we get from
the sample show us it's a bear,

I mean, then...
it's a bear.

There's no way
to get around it.

I mean,
it just doesn't lie.

This DNA evidence is what we've
been waiting for, yet questions

remain, such as that gnarly
scalp that Hillary acquired

that looked distinctly primate.

So, for those of you planning
to venture into the Himalayas

someday, stay frosty.

While many ice cold cases of
this mysterious monster appear

solved, folklore runs deep,
and there's always

a possibility that
the mysterious yeti

could still be out there.

I'm still up high, but I'm
no longer in the Himalayas.

I'm on one of the tallest
rooftops in the city

of Chicago --
it's November 22nd, 1987.

I'm here because a daring group
of hackers is about to break

into a live television
broadcast, inciting pure chaos

and sparking the biggest
media mystery of all time.

How big is this hack?

Nearly 40 years later,
the FBI still considers

the perpetrators the most
wanted video pirates

in the country.

But new evidence may now reveal
who these hackers are

and the motive behind their
attacks, which changed

TV broadcasting forever.

At 9:14 p.m., WGN Channel 9
anchor Dan Rowan is giving

his Sunday sports report about
the Chicago Bears' 30 to 10 win

over the Detroit Lions when
something interrupts the video

feed on the screen.

What's going on?
What's happening?

Who's this guy?

Someone wearing a Max
Headroom mask has hacked into

WGN's live newscast.

It's 1987,
and Max Headroom is one of

the most popular
programs on TV.

Set in the future, Max is
a computer-enhanced media icon,

fighting corrupt television
executives who are trying to

control the masses
through their TVs.

WGN technicians race through
the studio, searching for

the rogue engineer who flipped
the switch, allowing

a Max Headroom wannabe
to crash their sports report.

But they find no one.

Thousands of angry fans call
WGN, complaining about

the weird Max Headroom
messing with their TV screens.

Officials tell viewers
the problem's been fixed.

But what Chicago doesn't know
is Max is just getting started.

Well, if you're wondering
what happened,

so am I.

Just like WGN Channel 9,
rival TV station

WTTW Channel 11
broadcasts their signal

from one of the tallest
buildings in Chicago.

At 11:15pm, the network is
airing reruns of the 1977

"Doctor Who" series,
"Horror of Fang Rock,"

when Headroom strikes again.

And this time, viewers hear
Max's twisted voice.

Catch the wave.

Max speaks in a voice that
sounds like gibberish,

then goes on to do some things,
well, we can't show you on TV.

Chicago viewers are outraged,
the FBI is called in

to investigate.

They want to know, is this just
a stunt or a dangerous threat

to national security?

Remember, it's the late '80s,
and the Cold War

continues to rage on.

The U.S. and Soviet Union are
locked in a deadly game

of disinformation.

Intelligence agencies fear
the Soviets are trying to hack

into U.S. broadcasts.

So they launch a manhunt to
figure out who did it,

why did they do it,
and how?

Even though this crime has
thousands of witnesses,

the FBI can't find
any suspects.

So investigators circle back to
the most important piece of

evidence they have,
the video itself.

And when agents focus on what
Max says, they unlock critical

clues about who's
behind the hack.

When Jack the Ripper stalked
the streets of Victorian London,

investigators were left
chasing shadows and hunches.

At that time, solving crimes
was more about gut instinct

than hard evidence.

But just a few years later,
in 1892, an Argentine police

officer would revolutionize
detective work and help give

birth to forensic science.

Juan Vucetich was able to lock
up the perpetrator of a double

murder thanks to a single
bloody fingerprint left behind.

This groundbreaking moment
paved the way for modern

fingerprinting techniques
we rely on today.

From crime scenes to
unlocking our phones,

the swirls and whirls on
our fingers have become

the gold standard
of identification.

So while Jack the Ripper
may have slipped through

the cracks, he wouldn't stand
a chance in today's world,

thanks to the tiny unique
patterns we carry

on our fingertips.

Months after the most notorious
television hack in U.S. history

takes over the Chicago
airwaves in 1987, the FBI still

doesn't know who's behind
the Max Headroom mask.

But when agents analyze
the audio of the unauthorized

broadcast,
they make a new discovery.

Investigative journalist,
Michael Whelan, has spent years

analyzing the FBI's
investigation into the case.

You know, the FBI, when they're
doing their investigation,

they're going through every bit
of footage with

a fine-tooth comb.

And during the hack,
this figure says, "I think I'm

better than Chuck Swirsky."

Chuck Swirsky is a current
employee of WGN.

He was a broadcaster
for the Chicago Bulls.

You know, he was
a well-known figure.

And in the late 1980s,
he was a Chicago area legend.

So it seems like this Max
Headroom figure is almost

breaking the fourth wall.

He's saying,
"I, a fictional broadcaster,

am better than
this real life broadcaster."

Analyzing other comments
from Max, they decipher more of

his cryptic phrases.

So, in the footage,
the character makes reference

to the greatest world's
newspaper nerds.

The FBI looks into that,
and they realize that there's

another connection to WGN,
because in the 1940s,

the Chicago Tribune launched
their own TV station,

and, you know,
calling themselves the world's

greatest newspaper,
they called it WGN.

So the FBI,
during their investigation,

they begin looking for anyone
who might have had a motive to

lash out against WGN
in particular.

What they find is that
throughout 1987,

WGN had been
laying off employees.

Clearly, some of them might
have had an axe to grind.

But this doesn't add up.

Max hacked into two channels
that night, WGN and WTTW.

Why would Max talk all that
trash about WGN Channel 9 while

broadcasting on their rival
network, WTTW Channel 11?

They tried to hack into it.
It lasted about 10, 15 seconds.

Basically, the engineers
figure out what's going on,

switch to a different
signal, cut them off.

When that failed, these hackers
figure, "We spent all that time

"putting together this
irreverent video targeting WGN,

let's just do it again."
So two hours later,

they pivoted
and went after WTTW.

But whoever this was,
they had a bone to pick

with WGN.

Realizing Max's beef is
with WGN, FBI agents interviewed

dozens of current and former
employees of the network,

but the Bureau can't find
any suspects from WGN.

By 1988, the case of the most
audacious hack in U.S.

television history hits a wall
of static, and it remains that

way for decades.

But now, after combining
the FBI's evidence with

research from dozens of amateur
sleuths obsessed with the case,

Michael believes he knows just
what happened

that fateful night.

Today, when we think about
hacking, we think of someone in

a dark room trying to like
steal your money,

hack into your bank account.

Back in the 1980s,
the internet was still in

its relative infancy.

So hacking like this would have
required physical hacking,

not in the sense of like
splicing into a mainframe

and feeding something into
a wire or something like that.

This would have required
someone to get in between

the broadcast signal
and the transmitter.

That requires some
technical expertise.

Even more alarming, back
in 1987, television signals are

broadcast on radio frequencies
closely guarded

by the U.S. government.

To pull this off, these hackers
had to have inside knowledge of

how the broadcast
system worked.

When you're
thinking of hacking,

you're looking for exploits.

You're looking for something to
poke a hole in and kind of
ram through.

This would have been a TV
station broadcasting a signal

up to a giant transmitter on
top of a really tall building.

And this person basically
got in between them.

They found probably a rooftop.

They had a transmitter of
their own and basically just

overpowered the feed.

This could have been done
with secondhand equipment,

you know, stuff they found on
the black market.

So if you think
about it, it's signal,

transmitter, hacker,
right here, right

in the middle.

They got in the middle of it
and took it over.

That was the ballgame.

Okay, I get it.

The hacker has to be sending up
a signal that's more powerful

than the intended
broadcasting signal.

Then the hackers' content
will be what's transmitted.

So, with this expertise
and gear in hand, this is

probably how
the actual hack went down.

Using a portable camcorder,
the team shoots

their Max Headroom video at
their DIY studio.

Then, the hackers find a rooftop
location, giving them a line of

sight to the skyscraper's
massive antennas.

Using a portable microwave
transmitter with enough energy

to overpower the TV station's
signal, the pirates beam

their video to the antennas,
which broadcasts Max across

the entire city of Chicago.

So we have finally solved
the riddle that eluded

investigators
for almost 40 years.

We know how Max Headroom
invaded the Chicago airwaves,

but of course,
a much bigger riddle remains.

Who was behind the mask,
and why did they do it?

I think they were
trying to make a point.

It was a point that modern
society was becoming beholden

to kind of corporate,
ad-driven interests.

In the 1980s, laws were changed
to make intrusions like this

a felony, due to concerns
about terrorism.

And since 2009, American TV
stations switched from analog

to digital signals, making it
virtually impossible to commit

a hack of this type again.

So, not all monsters
get to be unmasked.

It seems the greatest hackers
in TV history remain

a million-dollar mystery,
at least for now.

But before we disappear off air
ourselves, I do have one last

idea to try to solve this case.

If you masterminds
want to reveal yourselves,

well, you know where
to find my show.

Just hack me.

I'm Josh Gates.

Until next time,
travel adventurously.