Original subtitles

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.