Original subtitles

RRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Civil War Gold...

I believe that there are,

potentially, billions in gold

hidden by the Knights of the Golden Circle.

And it played out in Muskegon

because of Charles Hackley.

-He fits the profile. -KEVIN: Wow.

AKRAM: Here you're in the Mason's Temple.

I've always felt that the Masons collaborated

about the missing Confederate gold.

What gold?

-Vault number one. -[laughs]: Oh, my goodness.

Every history textbook in America has this wrong.

Absolutely.

ALEX: Are you saying that Stanton was involved

in the murder of Abraham Lincoln?

-Yes. -You are?

-How do you know that? -I know it for a fact.

-BRAD: Wow. -Wow.

NARRATOR: While tracking down connections

between the men who arrested Jefferson Davis

on the morning of May 10, 1865

and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton,

the man who gave the orders, treasure hunter Kevin Dykstra,

his brother Al, along with researcher Brad Richards

and Marty Lagina's son Alex

have traveled to Washington, D.C.

They are meeting with investigative journalist

and author Warren Getler, whose bookRebel Gold

makes numerous connections between Stanton

and an elaborate plot to assassinate

President Abraham Lincoln

and then steal millions in gold and silver

from the Confederate treasury--

a portion of which, Kevin believes,

now lies at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

The story that I've heard is that

John Wilkes Booth was just, like,

a rogue Southern sympathizer who executed Abraham Lincoln,

-but you're saying that that's not the case. -WARREN: Right.

That's the established history, but it's, it's not true.

NARRATOR: On the evening of April 14, 1865,

President Abraham Lincoln was attending a production

ofOur American Cousin

at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.

John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor,

entered the president's private box

and fired a single .44 caliber bullet

into the back of his head.

As chaos erupted in the stunned theater,

Booth leapt to the stage,

injured his leg and then shouted,

"Sic semper tyrannis"-- death to tyrants.

He then escaped out the back door of the theater

and fled into the night on a waiting horse.

But Booth's act of treachery

was by no means a solitary one.

That same night, there were similar plots

against two other members of Lincoln's cabinet:

Vice President Andrew Johnson,

and Secretary of State William H. Seward.

Although the attempt on Johnson was foiled

before it could take place,

the attack on Secretary Seward-- while not fatal--

was exceptionally brutal, leaving the statesman

scarred for life.

There were eight people who were convicted and four were hung.

We are talking about one of the most elaborate schemes

of what we call today "regime change."

Whoa.

The actual act by Booth, I believe, was organized

by the Knights of the Golden Circle.

And I think there is a real possibility

that Edwin Stanton was a major coconspirator.

NARRATOR: The Knights of the Golden Circle?

The secret organization that was reportedly planning

to take the remains of the Confederate treasury to Mexico

and then use it to set up a rogue government?

In 1854,

as anti-slavery sentiment began growing in the United States,

pro-slavery advocates formed a secret society

known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, or KGC.

Members are believed to have included John Wilkes Booth,

the outlaw Jesse James

and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

When the Confederacy lost the Civil War,

the KGC plotted to form a new nation of slave territories

known as the Golden Circle,

that would stretch from Mexico to the Caribbean.

Is it possible,

as Warren Getler's research suggests,

that not only was the KGC behind the plot

to assassinate Abraham Lincoln,

but that one of the conspirators

was Edward M. Stanton, a member of Lincoln's own cabinet?

If we want to look at some very incriminating evidence

-against Stanton... -Okay.

...the question becomes, did Booth lose his diary, which is--

I actually have a copy of this here to show you guys.

-AL: John Wilkes Booth's diary? -Yes.

-BRAD: Whoa. -And isn't it interesting

that when Stanton returned it, 18 pages were missing?

Wow.

NARRATOR: 18 pages?

Missing from the diary of John Wilkes Booth?

Is it possible that Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

was involved in the plot to assassinate

America's 16th president?

And, if so, what had Booth written

that Stanton would have wanted erased from history?

They're obviously missing for a reason.

Somebody didn't want people to know what was on those pages.

WARREN: Lincoln, he wasn't just fighting the Confederacy,

he was fighting a secret society.

The Knights of the Golden Circle had the power, I would argue,

of the CIA, the FBI

and the National Security Administration combined.

-Oh, wow. -Why do I say that?

Because the U.S. government

was after the Knights of the Golden Circle.

And this is where it gets really interesting.

If we recall, the Knights of the Golden Circle was two things:

it was a Confederate organization

and a Scottish Rite organization.

Oh, my goodness.

NARRATOR: The Scottish Rite is a branch of Freemasonry

designed to advance Master Masons

beyond the organization's third degree.

Formed in 1801, and then later refined

by noted Freemason Albert Pike in the 1850s,

Scottish Rite Freemasonry is considered

one of the most prestigious and elite branches

in the organization.

It is also one of the most secretive.

If you look at the Masonic connection,

he was a Mason, he was a Mason,

he was a Mason.

There it is. That's the package.

BRAD: All the major players are Scottish Rite

33rd degree Masons.

KEVIN: Does any of your research

reveal Stanton in an effort to seize Confederate gold

of any kind and then store it or hide it in places?

The Knights of the Golden Circle were all about

seizing gold and keeping it.

-Okay. -A classic modus operandi

of the Knights of the Golden Circle

was to have sentinels in place

who would protect this money at all costs under a blood oath.

-Wow. -KEVIN: Really?

WARREN: I believe that there are potentially billions in gold

that are underground, hidden by the Knights

of the Golden Circle.

-Still, to this day? -Yes, absolutely.

These huge depositories of underground gold exist,

in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Texas.

They would have people who would be in charge of them,

and, if they were smart, they'd give to the town.

To keep the town happy, maybe to keep the town quiet.

And it played out in Muskegon because one interesting fellow,

Charles Hackley, who was a high-level Mason,

-did exactly that. -He fits the profile.

He built hospitals, he built schools, libraries.

He really pulled the town on his side.

So you're saying Charles Hackley could have been a KGC sentinel?

It's very hard to eliminate the possibility.

We knew it.

NARRATOR: According to Kevin Dykstra's research,

the Union officers who arrested Jefferson Davis

at the end of the Civil War

took possession of six wagonloads

of gold, silver and jewelry.

After being hidden in Georgia for five years,

the treasure was then brought to Muskegon, Michigan

where lumber tycoon-turned-banker

Charles Hackley began laundering it

through a number of local banks and charities,

as well as in gold mines out west.

According to a deathbed confession

made by a lighthouse keeper in the late 1800s,

it was while transporting the stolen gold

to one of Charles Hackley's gold mines in Utah

that a boxcar full of it

was deliberately pushed off a ferryboat

and sent crashing to the bottom of Lake Michigan.

Although Kevin believes he has found a possible debris field,

he must wait for the necessary permits

to see if his theory is correct.

So the question with Stanton is,

was seizing that gold important to keep the economy going?

Right? He made a big fuss about this money.

Or was it that he was an operative

of the Knights of the Golden Circle?

ALEX: Right.

-Two conflicting motives. -Two conflicting.

Or did he, did he thread himself kind of between both?

I've been on this story for 20 years,

and there's a guy I would love for you to meet.

He's a real Booth assassination expert.

Nate Orlowek.

And I think it would be great for you guys to talk to him.

Yeah, I'll get in touch with him. I'll set something up.

-The more we can learn, the better, really. -Absolutely.

We knew this conspiracy was large.

I felt we were at the tip of the iceberg.

I think we're at the tip of Antarctica,

-loaded with icebergs. -[laughter]

As a history teacher, it's mind-blowing.

Yeah, well, it's not the history we learn

in high school or in college.

AL: We appreciate your time.

WARREN: Yeah, great. Good seeing you guys.

Take care.

NARRATOR: After scheduling to meet

with John Wilkes Booth expert Nate Orlowek the next day,

Alex Lagina has arranged for everyone

to find out more about Freemasonry

by suggesting a visit with a former Grand Master

of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia.

Al and I managed to get in touch with a guy by the name of Akram,

who is a former Grand Master of the Scottish Rite here in D.C.

-33 degree. -Yep. Yep.

-BRAD: Really? -KEVIN: Oh, wow.

NARRATOR: For Kevin Dykstra and his team,

what started as a quest

to retrieve millions of dollars' worth

of gold bars at the bottom of Lake Michigan

has expanded to a treasure hunt of a very different kind.

Have any of you guys been in a, like,

-a Masonic temple before? -Never.

NARRATOR: They are now increasingly convinced

that a plot to steal a portion of the Confederate treasury

-was actually part of a vast conspiracy. -[gunshot]

KEVIN: It's really interesting

that research that started in Muskegon, Michigan

now looks like it could very likely involve

John Wilkes Booth.

We're uncovering a bigger conspiracy here.

We very likely could be rewriting history.

ALEX: Well, this is it.

The oldest Masonic temple in D.C.

-BRAD: This thing is huge. -ALEX: Yep.

AL: Man, that's impressive.

-KEVIN: Right here. -Hello, gentlemen.

-ALEX: Hey. How are you? -BRAD: Hey, Akram.

-AL: Hey, Akram. -Fine. How you doing?

-I'm Alex. We talked on the phone. -Hi, Alex.

-How are you? I'm Akram. -I'm Al.

NARRATOR: As the president

of Capital Communications Group, Inc.,

a consulting firm that specializes

in international business

and cultural/political networking,

Akram Elias is considered

one of Washington, D.C.'s most respected residents.

He is also one of the nation's most high-ranking Freemasons,

having achieved the 33rd degree,

the fraternity's highest level, in 2001.

Since then he has served as the head

of several Masonic lodges

and even as Grand Master of Masons

for the District of Columbia,

overseeing all Masonic lodges in the jurisdiction.

Please, come on in.

-Just follow me. -All right. -Okay.

KEVIN: You know, I'm really surprised

that a Grand Master Mason

is willing to take us inside of the temple

and answer questions, because my belief

was that the Masons really didn't share a lot.

-Welcome to the House of the Temple. -Wow.

AKRAM: Salve frater,you know?

Welcome, my brother.

-AL: It's huge. -BRAD [chuckles]: Whoa!

AKRAM: This is the atrium.

This is where people are welcomed into the building

before they go to, um,

the Temple Room.

Is that where the ceremonies are at?

In the Temple Room, yes.

NARRATOR: According to the principles of Freemasonry,

the bond between members is considered more sacred

than any allegiance to creed or even country.

This system of beliefs is taught to members

inside Masonic lodges and temples through secret rituals,

and in the outside world, they employ

secret handshakes, passwords

and signals used to identify each other.

So, this is the tomb of Albert Pike?

AKRAM: This is where he is, uh, entombed, as we say, yeah.

In other words, the sarcophagus.

This is where

the remains of Albert Pike

were preserved.

NARRATOR: Although he was from Massachusetts, a Union state,

Albert Pike not only helped organize the South's secession

but also served as a brigadier general

for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Upon his death in 1891,

he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery

in Washington, D.C.,

the same cemetery

where fellow Scottish Rite Freemason Edwin Stanton

was laid to rest in 1869.

But in 1944, Pike's remains were moved here

to the House of the Temple,

although the circumstances as to why are still a mystery.

-Do you want to follow me this way? -Sure.

-Sure. -Yeah.

AKRAM: Uh, as-as we go up here...

Well, take a look at this.

-Wow. This is amazing. -Man.

AKRAM: Isn't that magnificent?

-AL: That's crazy. -BRAD [chuckles]: Whoa!

AKRAM: Now, here you're really in the temple itself, you know?

KEVIN: This temple is massive.

Everything was figured right down to the nth degree.

And all of those features have a reason.

It really puts in perspective

what we're dealing with here and the size of this effort.

There was a lot of power

with the Masons back in the day.

[chuckles]: What do you guys talk about in here?

-What do we talk about. -AL: Yeah.

Well, all kinds of things.

At the heart, the center of this room,

of this temple, is the altar

upon which every Mason would take his oath,

an oath that has to do with duty and obligation.

Duties are things that others expect of you.

An obligation is self-taken.

It's free will.

Masonry can never tell a person

to take an oath against his religious belief,

his political affiliation

or the allegiance that he or she owes to their country.

So it must have been a real struggle

for Masons during the Civil War.

Absolutely.

Masons were on both sides.

Families were split.

You had generals on both sides who were Masons.

But Freemasonry would never tell you

you need to be with one side or another.

[indistinct shouting]

NARRATOR: During the four years of the Civil War,

the United States was more bitterly divided

than at any other time in its history.

Because battle lines were often drawn state by state,

as well as by ideology,

members of the same family

often found themselves fighting each other.

However, despite the fact

that many Freemasons found themselves

on different sides of the conflict,

their strong bonds of fraternal brotherhood

often trumped their loyalties to country.

So, we're doing as much research as we can

with what happened to the gold at the end of the Civil War.

Gold? What gold?

-Well, the Confederate gold. -[laughs]

So, when we ask you about gold and Confederate gold,

I've always felt that the Masons were involved.

-Am I close? -AKRAM: I mean, as I mentioned,

many were Masons on both sides of the conflict,

and if they were engaged in trying to do something

with that gold, that's quite possible.

AL: Were the Masons connected at all

with the Knights of the Golden Circle?

I wouldn't say the Masons were connd with that as Masons,

but there are individual Masons

who have joined

different organizations, esoteric groups.

That's where the conspiracy theorists

never get it.

They think, "Oh, my God, these Masons

-might have been conspiring!" -Hmm.

It's not about conspiracy.

It's about making free men.

Think on your own. Act on your own.

-So it's not about conspiracy. -Hmm.

AKRAM: When you're looking at the history of Freemasonry,

this is where conspiracy theorists

confuse what's going on.

The idea in Freemasonry is that the individual is sovereign

and can become members of other organizations.

Can you discuss any of these secret societies

from that time period?

At that time, when we're talking about that period of time,

Freemasonry was no longer a secret society.

In fact, Freemasonry was never

a secret society in the United States.

But don't you take an oath to keep secrets?

Yes.

-[laughs] -I take an oath

to keep secrets.

But these secrets

don't have to do with anything

except my own obligation as a Mason.

KEVIN: Well, I can tell you one thing, Akram,

on the theory that we have

with the missing Confederate gold.

I feel a lot more confident that it was

a group of Masons who decided to do this.

It's very-- quite possible, the same way, as I mentioned,

there were Masons on both sides who fought

the conflict, but itas nothing to do with Masonry.

It is up to the individual

to make that individual choice.

I know you're a busy man,

but thank you so much for your time.

Oh, it-it is my... it is my pleasure.

I'm glad I was able to shed some light.

I appreciate, uh, the questions that you've asked.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

-Appreciate it. My pleasure. -AL: See you, Akram.

Thank you.

ALEX: You know,

we've been encountering Masons

in the shadows on Oak Island for years.

-Oh, yeah. -For years.

KEVIN: If we can connect

John Wilkes Booth to Edwin Stanton

and then Stanton to Charles Hackley,

we might be uncovering

a way bigger conspiracy than we thought.

-ALEX: Yeah, I agree. -AL: Me, too.

ALEX: It's my first time in Baltimore.

AL: I know. Me, too.

-It's cool out here. -NARRATOR: One day after hearing

Warren Getler's incredible theory

that the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln

may be connected to Kevin Dykstra's search

for $140 million in stolen Confederate gold

hidden at the bottom of Lake Michigan,

Kevin, along with his brother Al,

history teacher Brad Richards and Alex Lagina

arrive at the Maryland Historical Society

in Baltimore for what promises to be

an important meeting.

-Hi, Nate. -Hi, Alex. How are you?

NARRATOR: Nate Orlowek is an educator and historian

who has been featured in numerous news articles

and documentary programs

both for his expertise on Abraham Lincoln

and on the man who assassinated him,

John Wilkes Booth.

-Well, thanks for meeting with us. -My pleasure.

Seems like a lot of material there.

-Oh, yeah. -Oh, this is a drop in the bucket.

Just, um, some of the major parts.

So, Nate, I don't... I don't know

if you've heard of our research,

but we're basically following Confederate gold

that went missing down in Irwinville, Georgia.

While researching Edwin Stanton, we got real close

to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

and John Wilkes Booth.

NATE: Well, it is very plausible

that Stanton could have very easily have been involved

in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln.

When Lincoln went to the theater April 14,

there was only one security person assigned

to protect the president.

In the afternoon of April 14,

even Lincoln himself sensed

that there was possibly gonna be an attempt on his life.

And he actually went to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

and asked him for a strong guard.

And, Stanton said, "No, you don't really need...

It'll be fine."

In fact, no security was there

except one policeman, John F. Parker,

and he had the worst record on the Metropolitan Police.

NARRATOR: Although Officer John F. Parker--

who had been assigned to guard President Lincoln's private box

at Ford's Theatre by Edwin Stanton--

stood by his post for the first half of the play,

Our American Cousin, at the intermission,

he inexplicably left the premises,

leaving the president completely vulnerable.

It was just minutes later

that John Wilkes Booth entered the room and shot him.

Could it be true

that John F. Parker was not only ordered

to be the sole security officer protecting Lincoln that night,

but was also ordered to leave his post

at a precise moment by Edwin Stanton?

Definitely after the assassination,

Stanton helped to cover it up, and it's very plausible that

he was covering it up because he himself was involved in it.

John Wilkes Booth was a passionate

supporter of the Confederacy.

He was actively helping

the Knights of the Golden Circle,

and probably many of the members of it were involved,

certainly, in helping Booth escape.

NARRATOR: Shortly after fleeing Ford's Theatre,

John Wilkes Booth was somehow able

to cross the heavily guarded Navy Yard Bridge

leading into Maryland, despite a strictly enforced curfew.

After meeting up with fellow conspirator David Herold,

the pair took refuge at the farm of Dr. Samuel Mudd,

where Booth received treatment for his badly wounded leg.

[horse neighing]

Over the next few days,

the pair made their way to the farm

of Richard Garrett in Port Royal, Virginia.

It was here on April 26,

11 days after the death of President Abraham Lincoln,

that Union soldiers from the 16th New York Cavalry

stormed the farm and reportedly cornered John Wilkes Booth

-inside the barn. -Get out of the barn now!

NARRATOR: According to the official record,

Booth refused to surrender,

and was shot in the back of the head

by Sergeant Boston Corbett.

John Wilkes Booth then succumbed to his wound

and died two hours later.

Well, for over 45 years, I've been

researching the question

of whether John Wilkes Booth was killed in Garrett's barn,

as the government would have us believe.

There's the person who the government claims

was John Wilkes Booth,

but I have to bring in the other John Wilkes Booth.

BRAD: So, Nate, you say

"the other" John Wilkes Booth.

What are you getting at exactly with that?

Our conclusion is that the man killed

in Garrett's barn was not John Wilkes Booth.

And there's a tremendous amount of evidence.

One general category is physical evidence

that the man killed in the barn

could not have been John Wilkes Booth.

There were three different

individuals who had made statements

that the man killed in the barn

had reddish hair, and a freckled complexion.

By all accounts, John Wilkes Booth had

raven black hair and a smooth complexion.

The government called a doctor

and asked him to look at the body.

Doctor said the right leg of this body was broken.

By all historical accounts--

there were 2,000 people who saw it-- Booth broke his left leg.

Not only did he say that,

but the very first sentence of his statement--

it's crossed out, but you can read under it.

What it says is, "There is no resemblance

"to that body of John Wilkes Booth,

and I do not believe it to be he."

Who crossed it out?

Well, it must have been someone from the War Department.

Of course, Stanton was the head of the War Department.

Stanton did many things

that are extremely suspicious, that certainly

point, circumstantially at least,

to him being involved in the assassination.

Stanton absolutely was the person

who conducted the cover-up

of the assassination investigation.

The railroading of the eight defendants.

NARRATOR: As Edwin Stanton oversaw the investigation

and prosecution of those accused of conspiring

to kill President Lincoln,

and the attempt on the lives

of both Secretary of State William Seward

and Vice President Andrew Johnson,

eight suspects were prosecuted by a military tribunal,

and four were eventually executed by hanging,

including a woman named Mary Surratt.

All were portrayed

as undercover Confederate sympathizers

acting together as one group.

But could their executions have been an attempt by Stanton

to cover up his own involvement in the conspiracy?

One that involved the theft

of millions of dollars in stolen Confederate gold?

-The man in the barn was not John Wilkes Booth. -Mm-hmm.

There have been many people who've attempted over the years,

and are still attempting,

to try to prevent that fact from coming out.

And for the last ten years, we have been

attempting to do now a DNA test.

The man killed in the barn had three vertebrae

taken out of him, and they were sent

to Washington, and they've been in Washington ever since.

We were gonna match DNA taken from

one of two brothers of John Wilkes Booth.

The Booth family was supportive of this.

Unfortunately, the National Museum of Health and Medicine

said, "We're not going to allow a DNA test to be done."

KEVIN: One has to wonder why the government

won't allow DNA testing.

You almost wonder if that conspiracy is continuing today.

Hey, Nate, I think you've made a compelling case

that every history textbook in America has this wrong.

KEVIN: There's just too much.

You know, it's not a smoking gun,

-but it's a hot gun. -There's way too much.

There's-there's way too much. This was a plot.

Edwin Stanton had his hands in a lot of things.

If we can find evidence to support Nate's theory

about how John Wilkes Booth actually escaped,

it would answer a lot more questions.

-Is that barn still here today? -NATE: Well, no.

It's long gone. So, right now, there is just

a marker on the spot where the farm was.

It's in the northern neck of Virginia, and I...

Is that close to here?

It's about a two-hour drive from Baltimore.

I'd be glad to take you there, and we can...

-you can see it. -KEVIN: Oh, we'd love to go.

If you have time tomorrow, it would be a great trip.

-We got time. -Pretty sure we got time. -Great. Okay.

-Thanks again, Nate. -We'll meet you there. -Thank you.

NARRATOR: As Kevin Dykstra and members of his team

conclude their business in Baltimore,

700 miles west in Muskegon, Michigan...

-New adventures. Nothing like it. -That's right.

NARRATOR: ...team researchers Frederick J. Monroe

and Jeff Zehr are following up on a promising new lead

concerning Charles Hackley that Jeff received

from one of his chiropractic patients.

How did you hear about where we're going?

A patient of mine actually lives

right next door to the Hume home.

-Really? -Right next door,

and he said, "There's some weird doors in our basement,"

and he cannot figure out why they're there.

And they're giving us permission to go to the basement?

-Is that what you said? -They are gonna... they're gonna

take us right through their home

in their basement, so we can see these for ourselves.

I love it.

-JOE GLIDDEN: Foot three. -FRED: Three.

NARRATOR: One month ago,

as Kevin Dykstra and the team conducted

ground-penetrating radar scans

beneath the 19th century home

of Charles Hackley's business partner, Thomas Hume,

they found strong evidence of a secret tunnel

directly connecting the property

to the Hackley Mansion.

-Yeah. -We're walking right on top of the tunnel.

-Yeah, we are. Yeah. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: The discovery foreshadowed a similar one

made just one week ago...

This is the kind of architecture

you'd expect to see in the 1800s.

NARRATOR: ...where Brad Richards and Jeff Zehr

discovered a network of tunnels

that connected the Hackley Mansion

to a number of other Hackley-built properties--

properties that Kevin and his team are convinced

were involved in the secret transport

and laundering of millions of dollars' worth

of stolen Confederate gold.

I believe that Charles Hackley,

if he was gonna move any kind of gold,

a tunnel would be very, very necessary.

And this is just following the gold trail

right to the big 140 million out on the lake.

This is just another avenue.

Old Charles Hackley has quite a compound here, doesn't he?

I know. It's something to see it all just lined up right here.

FRED: Right in a row. Charles Hackley's house,

-Thomas Hume's home. -Yup.

FRED: And we got this. Straight line.

JEFF: Just right here. Yup. They could talk through

-the windows if they wanted to. -Oh, yeah.

[knocking]

-Hey, Doug. -Hey, Jeff.

-Good to see you again. -How you doing? Good to see you.

NARRATOR: Meeting Jeff and Fred is homeowner Doug Pollock.

-Thank you. -Come on in, guys.

Oh, thanks.

Well, we are excited, uh, to see what you have to show us, man.

Well, I'm excited to have you here.

-I love talking about my house. -So, thanks to what

you had already shared with me, I went and did some of my own

-research on Chauncey Chaddock... -Mm-hmm. Yup.

...the guy who built this home.

Chaddock worked with and for Charles Hackley,

-who is, like, right next door here. -Mm-hmm. Yup.

NARRATOR: Chauncey Chaddock was an attorney and businessman

who worked closely

with Charles Hackley in the lumber industry

during the 1850s and '60s

while Hackley built himself up to be a powerful lumber baron

in his hometown of Muskegon, Michigan.

Chaddock then went on to serve as legal counsel

for the Hackley National Bank.

Because the bank was first chartered in 1870--

the year Kevin believes

Hackley had millions in stolen Confederate gold smuggled

to Muskegon from its hiding place in Irwinville, Georgia--

Kevin and the team are curious to see

if there could be yet another tunnel under the property.

When exactly was this house built?

The lot was purchased in the early 1870s.

Now, is it true that this was the first house built here?

-It was the first one in this row, yeah. -In this row, yeah.

-It was before the Hackley-Hume mansions were built. -Yup.

-I'm anxious to see what you really have to show me. -Absolutely.

Let's go see it.

Be careful of the stairs.

-They're old and rickety. -All right.

JEFF: Really excited to be checking this house out.

We have the potential of being able to come up with stuff

that can add up and show this whole theory to be true.

-JEFF: Oh, my goodness. -Oh, my God!

-Vaults! -JEFF: What in the world

are these doing down here?

NARRATOR: Two reinforced metal vaults...

located right next door to the compound

once owned by Charles Hackley

and his business partner Thomas Hume?

Why would anybody need a vault in their basement?

The only reason you would need a vault in your basement

would be to store something, of which you don't want anybody

to get their hands on.

-This is the larger of the two doors. -Mm-hmm.

-Try lifting that up. -This here?

I don't know if I... Yeah.

I mean, I can't lift it up.

Doug, look at the steel casing!

Not to mention the door.

DOUG: And it all leads back to that question,

why is that thing here?

Is it okay if we get inside there and look?

-Please. Check out anything you want to look at. -JEFF: Oh, my.

I mean, just don't shut the door on me.

[Fred laughs]

JEFF: Look here.

Concrete ceiling?

DOUG: So, it looks to be poured in place.

JEFF: But you don't pour cement

like this after a house has already been built.

I believe they built this wall around... that door.

JEFF: You're right. You can't build this after the fact.

This had to be done when the house was built

back in the early 1870s, right?

-Mm-hmm. -It was not retrofitted.

FRED: That's what I'm thinking.

-All right, Doug, can we see that other vault now? -Absolutely. Come on.

You'll see over here I've done...

-I started turning it into a wine cellar on the side. -JEFF: Wow.

DOUG: But this part is pretty original to where it was

-when I found it. -Wow.

The paint is the way I found it. I sealed it,

just to keep the dust out of it.

This is the wall facing the Hume home.

That's exactly right.

-Right here. Huh. -Yep.

We have evidence that there's tunnels that connected

a lot of these buildings and a lot of these houses.

What if there was a tunnel here?

NARRATOR: Given the fact that the team already found evidence

of a tunnel between the 19th century houses

of Charles Hackley and his business partner Thomas Hume,

could Jeff be correct that another tunnel might have also

been constructed between the Hackley-Hume compound

and the vaults in the basement of Hackley's former

business associate and attorney, Chauncey Chaddock?

And if so, could this be one of the places

where Hackley stored a fortune in stolen Confederate gold?

Knowing that that faces the Hume... Hackley-Hume compound

is awful interesting to me.

I'm really curious to see if there's a tunnel

going right to the Hume home.

Vaults and gold go hand in hand together in my book. [laughs]

There's no question that the location of this house

is significant.

It is right next door to the Hackley-Hume compound,

which would make moving gold back and forth

much, much easier.

We know that the gold had to be stored somewhere

before the bank was opened.

We-we know it got up to Muskegon.

We know the bank wasn't ready yet, but the gold was here.

I believe your house very likely could have been that place.

This is what happens when we follow the gold trail.

-We gotta come back, don't you think? -I'd say so.

JEFF: We can get Gary Drayton in here. He's a metal detection expert.

Uh, we've had GPR already we've used

that's been very beneficial.

We'll get the team in here.

So, I mean, there's a lot we, I think, could come back with

after we talk to Kevin.

You're welcome back all you want.

JEFF: Well, thank you so much.

NARRATOR: One day after their informative meeting

with Lincoln assassination expert Nate Orlowek...

-It's just a small point right off the highway, he said. -AL: Huh.

NARRATOR: ...treasure hunters Kevin Dykstra,

his brother Al,

Brad Richards and Alex Lagina head to the site

of the Garrett Farm in Port Royal, Virginia,

the place where John Wilkes Booth was reportedly killed

during a standoff with Union soldiers on April 24, 1865.

KEVIN: We started this whole search

with Confederate gold at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

Now, I definitely feel that what we're uncovering

is leading us to places we never anticipated.

Mm-hmm.

I was able to find a ground-penetrating radar company

-that's actually gonna meet us up there. -Nice.

And we'll be able to use the GPR and see if, possibly,

there's remnants of some type of a tunnel or of a cellar,

or some place that he could have used to escape.

Leave no stone unturned.

NARRATOR: If Kevin and the team can find evidence to support

Nate Orlowek's theory that John Wilkes Booth

may have faked his own death,

it could offer further evidence of an elaborate conspiracy--

one much larger than any of them

had previously thought possible.

-There's that sign. -Cool.

KEVIN: Oh, hey, there's Nate right there.

NATE: Well, we are here. This is the sign.

BRAD: "The Assassin's End. This is the site of Locust Hill,

"Richard Henry Garrett's farm.

"Early on the morning of 26 April, 1865,

"a 16th New York Cavalry detachment cornered

"John Wilkes Booth,

"the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln,

and his co-conspirator, David E. Herold."

They put the sign here because this is where the highway is,

but the actual site is into the woods.

-You don't believe it? -Nope. Not at all. [laughs]

The man we believe was John Wilkes Booth said

he was there briefly.

He continued on south, and the man who was killed in his place

died on this road, and the real John Wilkes Booth died,

most likely, in 1903, in Enid, Oklahoma Territory.

NARRATOR: According to Nate Orlowek's research,

in the years following Abraham Lincoln's assassination,

John Wilkes Booth assumed a number of different aliases.

After living in both Texas and Oklahoma,

he eventually committed suicide by ingesting arsenic,

shortly after confessing his true identity.

Nate, if you're right, this sign is wrong.

Let's get out to that farm site and see what we can find.

This is the area, in general,

where the farmhouse and the barn was located.

Right here?

This general area. We don't know precisely,

but this is the general area.

NARRATOR: Because many at the time believed farmer Richard Garrett

to be complicit in Lincoln's assassination,

the Garrett family became shunned,

and the farm soon fell into decline.

For many years, the abandoned property became a destination

for curiosity seekers and vandals,

until the federal government acquired the land

and tore down the remaining structures

sometime in the 1950s.

If that farm was here, and Booth did escape from this site,

it's possible that there was a tunnel

that went down and out the side of that hill somewhere.

-AL: Yep. -Totally possible.

It could be that John Wilkes Booth could have escaped

just as those soldiers were showing up.

If there was a tunnel, he could have slipped into the tunnel,

exited through the woods and been gone.

So, if that's a possibility, ground-penetrating radar

should find evidence of a tunnel.

Say, Lucas, I think we're gonna split up.

I'm gonna have Brad and Alex work with you, and, Al,

why don't you come with me, and we'll do some scouting

up along this ridge here.

If you guys see anything on that GPR,

-holler out to us, all right? -We will.

-We'll shout for ya. -All right. Thanks.

Yeah, let's go.

NARRATOR: For Kevin Dykstra and his team,

a mystery that began with a deathbed confession

about a fortune in Confederate gold

at the bottom of Lake Michigan

has now exploded into what appears to be

a vast conspiracy connected to the death

of an American president.

But as Kevin continues to follow the trail of clues,

will peeling back the layers of secrets that have been

so well-guarded for more than a century

finally reveal the proof that will rewrite American history?

[indistinct shouting]

Next time on The Curse of Civil War Gold...

LUCAS: This is a void.

-Like an actual open space? -Mm-hmm.

We've got a couple of interesting targets.

They're casting some weird shadows.

That's about half of a boxcar.

KURT HAZARD: This is what was passed on to me.

ALEX: Wow.

KEVIN: This gold was captured by Jefferson Davis?

That seems like the piece of the puzzle fitting together.

-I'm getting a bad feeling about these waves today. -AL: Yep.

MARTY: This cries out disguise.

This was all supposed to be a secret.

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