All language subtitles for Cursed Histories 1 divicast. com

A Stone Age mummy emerges from the icy
Alps and unleashes a spell of death for

those who dare to get too close.

As many as seven people are believed to
have been part of this crusade or

suffering illness and death.

Is there something more sinister at work
here?

An ancient city in Afghanistan is
reduced to rubble, but the souls of its

citizens remain eternally screaming in
the dead of night.

that you can still hear the screams
likely is due to how they were all

slaughtered. A gruesome story penned on
a centuries -old scroll makes its way

across Europe, leaving a trail of
destruction in its wake.

Every single time, it seems like the
person who has the manuscript has

fallen on some sort of misfortune.

Is this the curse of the scroll at work?

In a laboratory in Austria, scientist
Rainer Henn is one of the first people

touch a mummified corpse, which his team
had retrieved from the Alps mountain

range in Europe.

For the past few months, he has studied
every inch of the corpse, and now he's

ready to present his findings at a
highly anticipated conference.

But Rainer Henn never makes it to the
conference.

On his way... He's killed in a head -on
collision.

Hen is the first of many people to meet
an untimely death after studying this

mysterious mummy. Those closest to the
corpse have soon joined it in the

afterlife.

But who do these remains belong to and
could they carry a lethal curse?

In 1991, two German tourists are
trekking the Alps, the border Italy

and Austria, and they take a shortcut
down a ridge.

And undergoing this shortcut, they come
across this eerie, strange

sight. In the remote region known as the
Erdstall Alps, the hikers step closer

to a figure protruding from a cocoon of
ice.

Much to their horror.

They discover it to be a dead body, its
brown leathery skin preserved by the

alpine climate.

Could it be a fellow hiker? And how long
have they been lying here?

They had no idea the age of it at the
time because in the Alps, the air is

that bodies can mummify more quickly. So
the assumption was, of course, this is

a poor hiker perhaps who lost their way.

But the true identity of the Iceman is
far more shocking.

As an archaeologist, I think it's one of
the most interesting and amazing

finds of our lifetime.

A crew of researchers, journalists and
mountaineers are called in to retrieve

the remains.

They break the earth still mummy free
from the ice and transport him to a lab.

There were quite a number of objects in
the local vicinity of where he was.

It was a staggeringly important
discovery.

They discovered that it was, in fact,
thousands of years older than they had

thought.

Initial examinations confirm him to be a
prehistoric man, one that lived 5 ,300

years ago.

Ötzi is named after the Utzal Alps,
where he was found.

Researchers discover that Utsi is 5 foot
3 inches tall, 110 pounds and

approximately 45 years old at the time
of death.

This ancient Iceman predates ancient
Greece, Stonehenge and even the Great

Pyramids of Giza.

It is the oldest human mummy to ever be
found in Europe and one of the greatest

archaeological discoveries of the 20th
century.

It was a really dramatic moment for
everyone involved, and it came to be

important for changing our understanding
of human societies at that time.

Determining just how Ötzi died, however,
will take years of study and claim the

lives of many along the way, the first
of whom is scientist Rainer Henn.

Rainer Henn was a forensic pathologist
and he was part of the team that went

to retrieve Otzi, taking him from the
frozen ground and placing him in a body

bag.

Henn, in the role of lead forensic
investigator, is tasked with unravelling

Otzi's origin story and his frozen final
days.

But dead men don't speak, and they don't
give lectures either. On his way to

present his findings, he was killed in a
car accident.

Could breaking the ancient mummy free
from the frozen ground have unleashed a

deadly curse?

Could the brush of Hen's bare hand have
provoked the dead man's wrath?

As the community grieves Hen's untimely
death, trouble is brewing in the Alps.

Kurt Fritz was from Alpine Search and
Rescue and it was his task to get

the researchers to the body of Oxy and
then to take that body and get it

down the mountainside. And he is called
out to rescue some people in trouble.

And that's when suddenly...

Mother Nature strikes.

A vicious rumble echoes in the distance.

Within minutes, a massive avalanche
pummels Fritz's team.

One by one, the climbers emerge from the
bank.

All except for Fritz.

This second death in connection with
Ötzi has led some people to wonder about

whether there is a curse.

He's an experienced mountain climber.
He's a hiker. He's got good physical

strength. He's got knowledge of the
conditions.

Yet, of his entire party, he is the only
one that perishes.

Is it the curse of Ötzi?

Fritz is laid to rest as researchers
continue to delicately unravel the

past.

News of the discovery ripples through
the scientific community, but journalist

Rainer Holtz wants to broadcast the
story around the globe.

Rainer Holtz is an Austrian journalist
who has exclusive access to filming the

extrication of Oxy from where he's been
for thousands of years.

And he is able to relay those pictures
on an exclusive basis to the world.

Shortly after the film airs, Holt
succumbs to an aggressive brain tumor,

the third fatality from Mars' recovery
crew. With his death comes the first

inkling of panic and a deluge of rumors.

Could disturbing the Iceman slumber have
unleashed a dangerous curse?

It's a very old fear of human beings
that if you desecrate...

the resting places of the dead, they are
going to take revenge one way or the

other.

The interesting thing about the Utsi
mummy is that the idea of a curse came

about for it being a mummy, but it's not
the same thing as the Egyptian mummies.

It wasn't set up in a certain way. It's
not in a burial chamber with curses

inscribed on it. Yet by this time,
that's already in our public psyche,

mummies and curses are connected.

And so when you have an idea like that,
what you end up getting is a bit of a

confirmation bias. You start looking for
things.

So a bad thing happens, it's a scrap to
the mummy. A bad thing happens to

somebody else related to it, it's also a
scrap to the mummy. And it builds up

this whole idea of a mummy's curse.

For a few years, the death seemed to
stop.

Perhaps it wasn't a curse after all, but
just an odd string of coincidences.

Still. Many remain wary of getting too
close for fear that their life could be

next.

Mountaineer Helmut Simon, on the other
hand, refuses to let go, having been the

first to discover the mummy in 1991.

He develops a special bond with his
prehistoric brother and routinely hikes

path to the Iceman's grave.

Simon is one of the mountaineers who
chanced upon the body of Oxy.

And he developed a kind of strong
spiritual connection with this ancient

Simon is completely charmed by Ötzi to
the extent that he makes several

pilgrimages each year to the museum that
houses the cadaver of Ötzi.

He is forging this special bond with
this warrior of 5 ,300 years.

But he also develops a legal connection
because he goes to the courts,

basically, to get compensation.

He wants recognition that it was he who
found Otzi, the Iceman.

One clear morning, Simon straps on his
boots and departs for a solo alpine

as he's done many times before.

Suddenly, a freak blizzard strikes the
region.

His wife and children anxiously await
his return.

But as night sets in, they're forced to
call search and rescue.

In the three days that the search party
is out looking for Simon, half a meter

of snow falls.

So everyone at that point is very
skeptical that Simon's actually going to

it out alive.

More than a week passes before a hunter
stumbles upon Simon's body. It's

presumed that the hiker fell to his
death and landed in an eerie but

pose. When the search and rescue team
finally reaches Simon, they find that

body is in the exact same position that
Utsi was in.

Is this mimicry evidence of a curse at
play?

Or is this just a normal resting
position for somebody who's on the verge

death?

He's face down with his arm under his
head.

People tend to feel more comfortable
laying on their stomachs than on their

backs. So it could just be that with his
last energy, this is the way he ended

up. And that may be what happened to
Ötzi as well.

It was so similar.

So similar to the positioning.

Was Otzi sending a message?

The mysterious incidents return in full
force.

One hour after Simon's funeral, the head
of the mountain rescue team dispatched

to find the hiker suffers an unexpected
yet fatal heart attack.

Dieter Warnicke was 45 years old when he
died.

His death goes a long way in proving to
a lot of people around the world,

that this curse is legit.

For some, the curse is confirmed.

For others, the curse is a joke.

Conrad Spindler is one of the scientists
working on the Ötzi project.

And while he's working, the team around
him are joking about the curse.

And nobody believes it, of course. It's
just silliness.

And in jest, he says, watch out, I'm
going to be next.

Perhaps the sceptical scientist spoke
too soon.

He's joking around. He says, oh, I might
be the one that's next. And then

several days later, he dies.

Although the official cause of death is
complications from multiple sclerosis,

this coincidence again points to the
curse.

It seems pretty convincing that it could
be indeed a curse.

For the brave investigators that
continue to probe into Ötzi's past, a

breakthrough is on the horizon.

X -rays and a CT scan reveal signs of an
attack.

Once they were able to do a full
examination of the body, they were able

discover that this was someone who had
probably been murdered.

It's an archaeological study turned cold
case, perhaps the coldest in human

history. They found evidence of trauma
to his head.

They found an arrowhead in his shoulder.

Taking a closer look at the arrow in his
left shoulder, we can see it's actually

cut through an artery.

An injury to this degree could have led
to a lot of blood loss, shock to the

system, and even a heart attack.

More pieces of the puzzle are revealed
when another team conducts DNA analysis

on Ertzi's body.

revealing the presence of blood from at
least four other people.

These findings have led some to
speculate that Ötzi had claimed more

when he was alive.

Perhaps he was in a battle and killed
others before receiving his fatal wound.

Many hoped that solving this cold case
would bring an end to the curse,

but unfortunately this wasn't the case.

As many as seven people are believed to
have been part of this curse, or are

suffering illness and death as a result
of it. The last on the list, most

recent, was Tom Loy.

Tom Loy is an American molecular
archaeologist and is in charge of

bloodstains found in Otzi's clothes and
weapons in 1992.

That same year, Loy is diagnosed with a
very rare... blood disorder.

Loy's research is crucial for cracking
the case of the mummy's killing, but

he isn't spared.

In 2005, Loy's disease engulfs him, and
he is deemed the seventh victim of

Ötzi's spree.

Today, Ötzi rests in a refrigerator room
of the South Tyrol Archaeological

Museum in Italy, attracting over 300
,000 visitors a year.

The wise will keep their distance from
the Stone Age wonder.

But no one knows when the Iceman's
vengeance will stir again.

Here lie the ruins of Shari Golgola, an
ancient citadel that was once the

beating heart of Afghanistan's Bamiyan
Valley.

Today, all that remains are the ashes of
an empire.

Shari Gogola is based in modern -day
Afghanistan in the Bamiyan Valley, and

you go there today, all you're going to
see is a pile of dusty bricks on a

hillside. It certainly doesn't suggest
what it once was, which was a bustling

metropolis on the Silk Road. A huge
amount of money passed through this

which became immensely rich.

In the 13th century, A brutal siege
wiped the city off the

face of the map and it was never rebuilt
again.

All that remains here is rubble and yet
this place still attracts people.

Many are curious about the strange
phenomena that occurs when the sun falls

Its now decaying walls stand quiet
during the day but dusk brings the

fear and agony, the howls of its
victims.

The eerie history of this site has
brought in researchers and tourists

who claim that they can hear the
disembodied screams coming from this

once proud city.

Known as the City of Screams, the
agonising cries of its former citizens

been heard echoing throughout the
valley.

and few dare to step inside the place
when dark. The ruins of Shari Gokula in

Afghanistan are the site of a major
historical massacre.

And massacre sites are places that are
often

associated with lingering ghosts or
spirits.

The myth that you can still hear the
screams likely is due to...

how they were all slaughtered.

Enter 13th century warlord Genghis Khan,
renowned for employing ruthless war

tactics in his relentless pursuit of
expanding his vast Mongol Empire across

Asia and beyond.

Genghis Khan was leading through fear.

And he was conquering through fear. And
the idea being that if you have a

reputation and are known to do terrible,
terrible things, you're less likely to

going to have resistance.

By the year 1221, the forces of Genghis
Khan are bearing down on the

borders of the Khwarezmian Empire.

This medieval empire in Central Asia
played a significant role on the Silk

trade route connecting Asia to the
Middle East.

For over a century, the Khwarezmian
Empire enjoyed a prominent role in both

commerce and culture.

However, Genghis Khan has his sights set
on the region.

Shah Muhammad II is the ruler of the
Khwarezmian Empire.

And Genghis Khan sends out an army to
hunt him down.

The Shah has other ideas and decides
instead to name his son, Jalal al -Din,

as the successor and flees the region.

To wipe out the successor of the mighty
Shah, Genghis appoints his own kin to

the mission. His favorite grandson, Mutu
Khan, is sent ahead to pillage the city

of Shari Zohar.

and execute its leader.

He sends his 15 -year -old grandson to
Shari Zohak, giving the boy a chance to

lead a military conquest himself as part
of the practice of being a

military leader.

It's a decision Grandpa Genghis may soon
regret.

Anxious to prove himself, Muta Khan
leads the Mongol army into the Bamiyan

Valley to the city of Shari Zohak.

But Muta Khan's military career is cut
short.

She's hit by an arrow.

The story makes it seem as if this
particular arrow sort of comes out of

nowhere, isn't in a hail with the
others.

And so there's this sense of it being a
shock that this leader, this boy,

is the one who's killed. When word
reaches Genghis Khan... that his

grandson has been killed, he's
absolutely outraged.

Genghis descends on the Bamiyan Valley
in a fit of fury, vowing to avenge his

beloved grandson's death.

He orders his army to kill every living
thing in its path.

When he said, kill everyone.

Kill every child, kill every beast. And
this is what happened over the course of

several days, that they destroyed the
entire place.

And this was to visibly manifest his
power, but also the anger of an

grandfather.

It's still called the Red City.

to this day, because it was a city
bathed in the blood of the slaughtered

civilians, the slaughtered animals,
every living creature in the city, and

walls were reportedly stained with the
blood.

Genghis's army sweeped the valley like a
tsunami before they reached the Shah,

who had fled to the impenetrable city of
Shari Golgola.

Shari Golgola, that became the next
target of Genghis Khan.

For understandable reasons, he now
wanted to go after the Shah. So his

revenge his grandson and also pursue his
power and take over the empire meant

that he had to go to the seat of power
itself.

Shari Gurgola was a heavily fortified
city.

It's said to have had five walls and
three moats. This was intended to be

absolutely impregnable to protect the
population, but also to protect the

enormous wealth within its walls.

The Mongols surround the city, launching
attack after attack for months on end.

The failed assaults only fuel Genghis's
desire to decimate the city to a point

of no return.

After 48 days of being outside of the
city walls, Genghis Khan receives an

with a note.

The note contains an offer from the
Shah's disgruntled daughter.

But it comes with two conditions.

Genghis Khan must marry the Shah's
daughter.

And secondly, the fortress must remain
unharmed.

Why would the daughter of royalty turn
on her own empire?

Some claim that the Shah's daughter had
fallen in love with Genghis Khan.

His commitment, his bravery, his battle
to bring down the city had inspired

awe and subsequently love.

in the shah's daughter it's more likely
however that the shah's daughter was

seeking to sabotage shah's reign because
he had recently remarried and she

disapproved of that match genghis khan
agrees to the jilted daughter's terms

with that the disastrous demise of shari
golgola is sealed

shah's daughter directs genghis khan to

dam, a canal that leads into the city.
And by doing so, it reveals a secret

entrance. And Genghis Khan gives very
clear orders to his army. They were to

go into the city and kill every man,
woman and child and even

livestock.

The blood -curdling wails of the
innocent are so loud that they

throughout the entire Bamiyan Valley.

This siege is particularly brutal
because the people of

Sharia Golgola may very well have been
spared, if not for the duplicity of

ruler's daughter.

Deception does not go unpunished. Even
Genghis Khan's enabler, the Shah's

daughter, will succumb to his sword.

Genghis Khan murders the Shah's
daughter.

And the reason behind it is as simple as
he cannot trust her after witnessing

what she did to her father and her
people.

Genghis Khan cuts down the Khwarezmian
traitor in the final blow of his

merciless quest.

But her father, Jalal al -Din, escapes
for now.

But the fall of Shari Golgola marks the
collapse of his empire.

The Khwarezmians have vanished from
history after the Mongol destruction of

Khwarezmian state.

They vanished from history. This is why
this story is so evocative. Over 800

years since the fall of the city, no one
has ever re -fortified it,

which makes you wonder whether it is the
cries of the dead citizens inside

that stopped people.

from fortifying this once proud, living,
breathing city.

Although the once thriving Shari Golgola
was reduced to near rubble long ago,

all visitors must do is wait until
nightfall to know the remains of this

will never forget its violent demise.

This unassuming 18th century French
scroll contains 157 ,000 words written

small they are illegible to the naked
eye. But take a closer look and you'll

find a story riddled with violence,
torture and misery. A tale so vile that

has become known as the gospel of evil.

It really is an extreme text that would
make the most perverted blush.

This manuscript has since become one of
the most valuable pieces of erotica in

the world, with ravenous collectors and
researchers buying for a glimpse.

Under lock and key, however, is where it
belongs.

For those unlucky enough to come into
its possession must face an evil that

seeps beyond the page.

Every single time it seems like the
person who has the manuscript has...

fallen on some sort of misfortune.

Its latest victim, a Parisian antique
dealer who purchased it at an auction

got caught in one of the nation's
biggest financial scandals to date.

Could the horrific words on this
manuscript be so powerful that they

misfortune to anyone who dares to share
it?

Who was the twisted mind behind this
manuscript?

And could his written word truly have
such power?

This tale of evil begins in the late
1700s.

Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat
who was no stranger to public scandal.

De Sade is known to have hired the
services of sex workers and then held

against their will and tortured them in
the most appalling, grim ways. And he

was known to the authorities.

He's accused of torturing, even burning
some women who he brought into his home,

of kidnapping women, of abusing domestic
help.

It was not uncommon for wealthy
aristocrats to evade punishment for some

they committed.

But Saeed's immoral acts started to lead
people to question what he was doing

and the consequences he should face.

The context here is really important.

This is 18th century Catholic France.

There was a strong presence from the
church that was guiding morality in

the country.

And so the more you moved away from the
church's teachings, the more immoral the

actions were going to be.

We need to understand the time period.
And we also need to understand his life

as a child and his upbringing.

He was raised by nannies and not treated
well.

He was beaten. He was whipped. He was
locked in wardrobes. He had a really

horrible life as a child. And I think
that these things carried through into

adult life.

Perhaps most disturbingly, in 1774,
Dasard and his wife become subjects of a

shocking scandal when they reportedly
trapped several adolescent servants in

their isolated chateau and exposed them
to six weeks of torture and

exploitation. This really was a depraved
mind at work.

The very term sadism, that idea of
deriving pleasure from inflicting

pain... comes directly from this man,
the Marquis de Sade, who,

in his text and in his personal life,
was a sadist who

enjoyed whipping and hurting other
people for his own sexual gratification.

Each of the Marquis' offences drove more
atrocious than the last, soon reaching

a point where even those closest to him
refused to turn a blind eye.

Eventually, his mother -in -law ends up
turning him in. Saul's own mother -in

-law asks King Louis XVI to issue a
royal warrant.

This was just a way of saving grace.

Their wealth, their prestige, their
being welcomed at social things was

beginning to be directly affected.

So she put her foot down and turned him
in.

In 1777, the Marquis de Sade is captured
and imprisoned.

And then in 1784, he is transferred to
the dreaded, terrifying

Bastille.

One of the most notorious and formidable
prisons in France before the French

Revolution, the Bastille. This is like a
fortress.

In Paris, where political prisoners and
the most dangerous people are kept.

And it's in the darkness of his fetid,
filthy cell that he begins to

write this story, 120 Days of Sodom. And
he writes it on this enormous scroll

of paper.

And he writes it in tiny, tiny script.

The big, long 40 -foot...

Scroll of paper that he would roll up
every night after three or four hours of

writing and hide it away in the wall
where he had managed to get out a piece

brickwork and he would hide it so that
the officials, the guards would not take

it from him. And you imagine this is by
candlelight. It must have completely

destroyed his vision. But nevertheless,
he's... He's determined to get every

word down on paper and then get that
story out to the public.

Dessard himself describes the text as
the most impure tale ever written since

the world began.

Before Dessard can finish the last
chapter of his cruel fantasy, his desire

incite chaos overtakes him. One day
while at the Bastille...

The Marquis de Sade inspires a riot. He
starts shouting and screaming that the

prisoners are being slaughtered by the
wardens.

And as a result, he is transferred to
the asylum.

De Sade is transferred to the Charenton
Asylum, a mental institution on the

outskirts of the city.

Just ten days later, an angry mob swarms
the Bastille. The French Revolution has

begun.

The prison is looted and the manuscript
is lost.

After the storming of the Bastille,
Thord believes that his work has been

to time and that it will never be
published or seen by anybody again.

The idea of the scroll being lost leaves
the Marquis de Sade devastated.

De Sade was so distraught he claimed to
have wept tears of blood.

Although the exact cause of his death is
unknown, in 1814, with his health

deteriorating, de Sade dies while in
confinement at the Charenton Asylum, and

upon his death, his son tries to erase
his father's legacy.

His son takes the decision that they do
not want to be associated with the work

of his father forevermore. So all the
unpublished work... of the Marquis de

has to be burnt.

It all must be destroyed.

It must never see the light of day.

One of the works to survive, however, is
de Sade's treasured Gospel of Evil.

During the storming of the Bastille, one
of the mob civilians finds it and

decides to sell it on to a wealthy
family.

The 120 days of Sodom remain shrouded in
secrecy until almost 120 years later

in 1904.

And that's when we start to associate it
with misfortune.

Over a century after de Sade's Quill
touches paper, his vile work is

and unleashes a trail of suffering in
its wake.

The manuscript lands on the desk of a
Berlin baith.

sex researcher and psychiatrist named
Ivan Bloch.

And when he is faced with this
manuscript, he decides to

publish it.

Ivan Bloch publishes 100 copies of The
120 Days of Sodom, obscuring his name

with a nom de plume.

That's the pseudonym that Irvin Bloch
decides to publish the manuscript under.

Dr Bloch goes on to establish himself as
one of the first and leading

sexologists of the early 20th century,
and he goes on to publish his own multi

-volume study looking at the science of
sex.

But Bloch's fate is cut short.

After just three volumes are published,
he dies unexpectedly at the age of 50.

He ends up dying as he's writing this.

So we have to think, does this 120 days
carry some sort of negative

energy with it? And did this energy end
up affecting Bloch?

It's as if Marquis de Sould himself is
acting out in vengeance for his scroll

being publicized without his permission.

Is there something more sinister at work
here?

After Bloch dies, a couple that were
very much part of the avant -garde

in France, Viscount Charles de Noailles
and his wife Marie -Laure, they acquired

the 120 Days of Song.

Now, they're not just intrigued by the
content, and yes, they are intrigued by

the content, but bizarrely, Marie Lohr
is a direct descendant of Marquis de

Sade.

Charles and Marie Lohr kept the
manuscript locked away in their library

but every now and again, at their
exclusive soirees, they'd unravel the

parchment to feed the imagination of
their guests.

Charles and Marie Lohr, entertain a host
of members from the avant -garde

movement, including the Spanish
filmmaker Buñuel and Salvador Dali, the

of course.

As his work becomes better known and
spreads especially among other

people who think of themselves as free
thinkers, the Marquis de Sade's own

reputation goes from being...

a shadowy figure in the past about whom
his own family was ashamed, to someone

who is venerated in certain circles.

But Marie's celebration of sexual
freedom was cut short when she dies

an embolism.

Heartbroken and alone, Charles stows the
scroll away, but he too dies a little

over a decade later.

Was it just bad luck, or was it the
cursed scroll claiming more souls?

When Charles and Marie die, the scroll
is passed down to their daughter,

Natalie.

And like her parents, she circulates
this manuscript at parties.

Are the words on the scroll so powerful
it can conjure deceit?

As Natalie learns, indulging in this
forbidden fruit has its repercussions.

Natalie is the victim of a harsh
betrayal when the friend smuggles the

manuscript to Switzerland and sells it
to the highest bidder.

Natalie files a lawsuit in the French
court to get the scroll back and the

agree with her. They demand that the
scroll must be returned to its rightful

owner.

The problem for Natalie is that the
scroll...

Being in Switzerland, she couldn't
automatically get the scroll back. What

had to do was then launch an action in
the Swiss court.

And, of course, all of this takes an
enormous personal toll on Natalie as

a hugely emotional burden that she has
to carry. And one might imagine, one

could even speculate, that this is the
curse of the scroll at work.

The Swiss court rules against the
Noailles family, and their prized

vanishes into the antique market.

Passing through the hands of collectors
for over a decade, the scroll doesn't

see the light of day again until 2014.

In 2014, we have Gerard Lertier, who
purchases the scroll at

an auction.

He's an antiques dealer from Paris, but
he's not an average antiques dealer.

He is the king of manuscripts. He's able
to turn paper into gold, as it were,

and was a great collector of many
letters and manuscripts.

He owned letters from famous people like
Frida Kahlo and JFK.

L 'Héritier added the Sade scroll to his
collection at a cost of over 7 million

euros.

The year of L 'Héritier's purchase also
happens to mark the bicentennial of the

Marquis de Sade's death.

the perfect excuse to display his work
in a lavish museum.

The exhibit would attract crowds from
across France, but would it also attract

misfortune?

So now he's in possession of this
manuscript, and his life starts to

go to hell in a handbasket at this
point.

One autumn day, as visitors and antique
patrons gawk at de Sade's scrolls,

French officers storm the museum and
seize Laritier's collection.

He is arrested and accused of scamming
18 ,000 clients out of nearly €1

He's accused of undertaking a Ponzi
scheme or a pyramid scheme, the

idea that he could return greater
investments on his manuscripts.

Laritier's career is ravaged before his
eyes.

He ends up being arrested and charged
with fraud. He set up

a Ponzi scheme that was considered the
largest ever in France.

Local antiquarians shun him from the
industry, and people scrutinize his

move. Just like the nefarious Marquis,
Le Ritier is ousted from Paris' affluent

social circles.

Is de Sade's sinful scroll to blame?

He did later wonder whether perhaps it
was cursed and if he had never touched

it, whether he would have befallen such
misfortune.

Is there a curse?

Maybe.

Did he bring some of this on himself?

100%. But it's interesting to note that
anybody that has actually

purchased or published

120 days of Sodom ends up having some
kind of negative thing happen in their

life. Could this be a manifestation of
the Marquis de Sade's wrath who had his

precious magnum opus torn away from him?

There certainly was a reputation about
the Marquis de Sade, even during his own

lifetime, that he was engaging not only
in sexual experimentation, but that was

also a sign that he was engaged in the
occult and these kind of arcane

practices. And I think in that sense,
that could infuse the book itself as

sort of container of a malevolent
energy.

The content of this novel was so
horrifying.

that it was banned in different
countries across the globe at different

throughout history.

When something is banned, when something
becomes inappropriate or illegal to

read, to use, to listen to, it's meant
to provide a level of control

for those who might not be able to
control themselves.

But at the same time, that means that
for some people that becomes the

fruit.

Desard's novel is deemed to be a
national treasure, a far cry from its

past.

Now in the government's possession, it
will likely make its rounds between

researchers, critics and exhibits in the
years ahead.

But admirers beware.

It's almost like the words on the page
and the images they conjure

generate... this negativity that filters
into everyday life.

In the end, the Marquis absolves
himself, writing, It is not my mode of

that has caused my misfortune. It is the
mode of thought of others.

One could speculate that the mere act of
sharing the story activates a

curse that is inherent in this book.