All language subtitles for Mysteries.Unearthed.with.Danny.Trejo.S02E12.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[suspenseful music]

[thrilling music]

- [Danny] Mysteries can be
buried anywhere.

Under the earth.

[rumbling]
[plane engine buzzes]

Beneath the sea.

[thrilling music]
[plane woosh]

Or even right
under our own feet.

[thrilling music]
[coins jingle]

And when we stumble upon them,

sometimes what we find
can change history.

[thrilling music]

Tonight we're digging
up all kinds of trouble,

from a mysterious potion...

[thrilling music]

- Floating inside are
rusty nails and hair.

- The liquid is
not rum, not wine.

It's 200-year-old human urine.

[thrilling music]

- [Danny] To a
backyard discovery

that nearly ends with a bang.

- She goes pale.

She yells out to him, "Stop!
That might be a bomb!"

[thrilling music]

- [Danny] To a cursed relic
flushed and forgotten.

[thrilling music]

- What they did to incur
such a horrible curse was

serious enough that the person

went ahead and invoked

Satan along with two demons.

[thrilling music]

- Join us now, because
nothing stays hidden forever.

[thrilling music]

There are a few rules

that come with hunting
for scrap metal.

Follow the law, use a magnet,

and most important, if
it glows, let it go.

[eerie music]

- On September 13th,
1987 in Goiania, Brazil,

two scavenger hunters

are combing through
an abandoned hospital

to see if they can
find anything valuable.

As they go through the
hallways and patients' rooms,

they're looking for metal
that they can sell for scrap.

[thrilling music]

- After a long day
of searching, though,

they have little to show for it,

so they decide to
pack up and head home.

But on their way out,

they encounter what
looks like a machine

with a large stainless
steel casing.

[thrilling music]

- [Danny] There's
just one problem.

It's way too big to haul out.

- These guys aren't going to
just walk away from a payday,

so they grab
screwdrivers and hammers

and start taking
the machine apart.

[thrilling music]

Piece by piece,
they load the parts

into a rusty wheelbarrow
and head for home.

[thrilling music]

- [Paul] Soon the guys
start feeling sick,

vomiting, diarrhea,
and dizziness,

but they chalk it up
to something they ate

and try to soldier on.

Later, they haul it
over to a junk dealer

to sell it for a profit.

[thrilling music]

- [Danny] The merchant
then stashes the parts

in his garage for safekeeping.

- [Dr. Hakeem] That night, the
dealer walks into his garage

and he sees something strange.

[thrilling music]

He sees a faint blue light

glowing from a canister
in the scrap pile.

As he approaches, he notices
that the source of the light

is what looks like a powder
made up of crushed gemstones.

[thrilling music]

- [Paul] He takes the canister
home

and he shows it off
to friends and family.

His whole neighborhood turns out

to see this
mysterious substance.

He passes out
fragments as souvenirs

and some of his friends'
kids even rub it

on their body like glitter.

[intriguing music]

- Over the next couple days,
several guests become sick.

Some so much so they're
rushed to the hospital.

[thrilling music]
[siren blaring]

But it's the same symptoms as
the guys who discovered it,

nausea, dizziness,
vomiting, diarrhea.

This clearly is
not food poisoning.

- [Dr. Hakeem] The junk dealer's
wife is the first to connect

the dots.

She takes the canister,

goes to the local public
health department,

slams it on a counter,

and tells anyone who's
willing to listen,

"This is killing my family."

Officials think they
know what's going on,

so they pull out a
scintillation counter,

a device used for
measuring radiation,

and when they point
it at the canister,

it lights up like
a Christmas tree.

[thrilling music]

- [Danny] The reading
confirms their worst fear.

It's not just
radioactive, it's deadly.

[thrilling music]

- [Austin] It turns out that the
machine that they dismantled

was a radiotherapy unit
designed to shrink tumors

with controlled
doses of radiation.

[thrilling music]

And that canister
with the blue glow

contained the radioactive
agent Cesium-137.

[thrilling music]

- [Danny] Even scarier, now
that it's been unleashed,

dangerous amounts of radiation

are spreading across
the entire city.

[thrilling music]

- [Dr. Hakeem] Government teams
sweep the area in helicopters

with radiation detectors.

Traces of radiation are found
as far as 100 miles away,

and 40 homes are so contaminated

they have to be
completely demolished.

[thrilling music]

- [John] In the end, over
100,000 people are treated

for radiation exposure, and
four die from its effects.

The cruel irony to all
of this is that a machine

that was designed to
save people's lives

ended up hurting an
entire community.

[thrilling music]

- [Danny] From a deadly glow in
Brazil

to something far darker hidden
in the California mountains,

this next find reveals
the troubling end

to a sky-high mystery.

[eerie music]

- [Dr. Hakeem] It's September
29th, 2008 in Mammoth Lakes,

California.

A sporting goods
store manager named Preston

Morrow is hiking with his dog
through the

Sierra Nevada mountains.

On a whim, Preston decides

to take a diversion
off the main trail.

[thrilling music]

He cuts through dense
underbrush and steep terrain,

and then something
unusual catches his eye.

[intriguing music]

- He crouches down
for a further look

and he sees a wallet
with a pilot's license,

a bunch of ID cards,
and $1,000 in cash.

[intriguing music]

- Thinking that the
items belong to a hiker,

he decides to bring
everything home with him

to try and find the owner.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] Preston shows
the items to his coworkers

and when they see the name
on the ID, they're shocked.

[intriguing music]

- Steve Fossett is a
millionaire adventurer

who has made headlines
all over the world.

[intriguing music]

- [Steve] He's climbed
Mount Kilimanjaro.

He swam the English Channel.

He's raced hot air balloons
with Richard Branson.

This guy's a legend.

- [Danny] But for the past
year, Fossett has been missing

after he took off in a
small single-engine airplane

from the mountains in Nevada
on September 3rd, 2007.

- [Dr. Hakeem] It was supposed
to be a short pleasure flight,

but he was never
heard from again.

[intriguing music]

- [Paul] A massive search
effort was put together

to find any trace of the
millionaire or his plane.

But no trace was ever found.

[intriguing music]

- [Jen] Fossett's disappearance
shocked the world,

but among pilots, the Sierra
Nevadas were known to be

so dangerous that they had a
chilling nickname for them.

The Nevada Triangle.

[intriguing music]

- [Adam] Much like the marine
Bermuda Triangle

where ships and sailors
have often disappeared,

in the Nevada Triangle,

over 2,000 aircraft
have been lost...

since World War II.

- [Danny] Theories
range from wormhole

to alien abductions.

But experts suggest a more
down-to-earth explanation

for Fossett's disappearance.

[intriguing music]

- [Paul] This area of
the Sierra Nevadas

is notorious for downdrafts.

These are bursts of wind

that can push with
incredible force anything,

especially small light aircraft,
in the mountain passes.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] Thanks to
Preston Morrow's discovery,

investigators have their first
real lead in nearly a year,

sparking a new
search for answers

and a chance to finally
solve the mystery.

- [Dr. Hakeem] Search teams
returned to the area

and eventually find
Fossett's plane,

just a quarter mile from
where his ID cards were found.

And what they determined
is that, at full speed,

Fossett's plane slammed into
the side of the mountain...

[thrilling music]

completely destroying
the plane in a second.

- [Danny] Among the debris,

searchers uncover the
last piece of the puzzle.

- [Adam] Two small bone
fragments are recovered

from the wreckage
of the airplane.

[intriguing music]

Their DNA matched
to Steve Fossett,

proving that this
millionaire adventurer,

who had conquered so much
of the natural world,

ultimately met his fate
in the Nevada Triangle.

[intriguing music]

[eerie music]

- [Dr. Hakeem] In 2018, Matthw
Emanuel decides to have

some landscaping done in his
backyard in Staten Island.

As workers clear space
to install a fence,

one of them notices a rusty
metal box tangled in poison ivy.

He calls Matthew over
to get the sign off

before moving this thing.

And Matthew says,
"Go right ahead,"

because it's been an eyesore

for four years since he
bought this property.

- He figured it was just
an old electrical box,

but as the landscaper
clears away the ivy,

he sees that there are no
wires attached to this box.

So he digs it out...

[intriguing music]

flips it over...

[intriguing music]

and notices a dial on top of it.

[intriguing music]

This is not an electrical box.
It's a safe.

[intriguing music]

- [Dr. Hakeem] They forget about
the fence

and turn their
attention to opening it.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] Inside the safe,
they see a familiar face.

- Benjamin Franklin is
staring back at them

from several thick
stacks of $100 bills.

Three-inch-thick stacks.

They also find
diamonds, jewelry, gold.

This is a literal
treasure trove.

[intriguing music]

- [Dr. Hakeem] Matthew rushes
inside, his hands shaking.

He weighs the jewelry
on his kitchen scale

and it's over a pound of
gems and precious metals.

[intriguing music]

He peels the damp bills
apart and hangs them to dry.

He counts them, and it
adds up to $16,000 cash.

[intriguing music]

And the gold,
jewelry, and gemstones

is worth probably even more.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] Just as
Matthew starts dreaming

about how to spend his
unexpected windfall,

he finds something
else in the safe.

[intriguing music]

- [Austin] Tucked in with the
valuables and the money

is a piece of paper with
an address written on it.

And it's the house
two doors down.

Matthew's neighbors
are an older couple,

and he heads off and he
knocks on their door.

- [Danny] When
they open the door,

he asks a simple question,

"Have you ever been robbed?"

[intriguing music]

Their answer is, "Yes."

- [Andrew] Back in 2005, long
before Matthew moved into the

area, a thief began terrorizing
the neighborhood.

Over a 10-year period, 100
homes were burglarized,

$4 million in cash
and valuables stolen.

- [Danny] The man behind
that decade-long crime wave

is Robert Costanzo,
better known to the press

as the Ninja Burglar.

[intriguing music]

- [Kavitha] In 2016, he was
caught and sentenced

to 22 years in prison.

As to how the safe ended
up in Matthew's backyard,

nobody can say for sure.

But police believe that the
thief was caught mid-heist,

an alarm went off, and he
took the safe and just ran.

[thrilling music]

- [Austin] But it's not that
easy to run with a 100-pound

safe, so he ditched it in
a neighbor's yard

before making his escape.

And there it sat,
for years, unnoticed.

[thrilling music]

- [Andrew] When Matthew shows
the recovered treasure

to his neighbors,
they're speechless.

They're, of course, happy
to get the cash back,

but they are most relieved
about the jewelry,

most of which was
family heirlooms

that they thought had
been lost forever.

So, of course, Matthew returns
everything to his neighbors.

Police estimate that the total
value of the cash and jewelry

is around $52,000,

but the value of
doing the right thing,

priceless.

[eerie music]

- [Danny] Next, another
unexpected backyard discovery,

only this one could wipe
out an entire neighborhood.

[eerie music]

- [Andrew] It's May 1st, 2021,

and Sam and Pamela Coffey
are clearing away grapevines

in their backyard in Missouri.

And as they do so, Pamela
notices something odd

sticking out of the
newly disturbed dirt.

It looks a little
bit like a fish,

so she picks it up, takes
it inside to rinse it off.

[intriguing music]

- It looks like there are
Japanese characters on it,

and even after
they've rinsed it,

they still can't
really read it well.

So, Sam gets out a knife

and tries to scrape
some of the dirt

out of where the characters are.

[intriguing music]

Pamela takes a couple of
photographs of the object,

and runs it through an
image recognition app.

[intriguing music]

- As Sam is poking and
prodding this object,

Pam's looking on the
internet, and she goes pale.

She yells out to him, "Stop!
That might be a bomb!"

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] The search
results are clear.

It looks like a World War
II Japanese Navy mortar.

And it's in their kitchen.

[intriguing music]

- [Andrew] So, Sam carefully
picks it up,

takes it out to the driveway,

gently places it on the
ground, and calls 911.

[intriguing music]

- [John] Soon the police, the
ATF,

and a bomb squad show
up at their house.

[intriguing music]

The blast radius of this
thing is potentially 500 feet.

The whole neighborhood's
in danger now.

[intriguing music]

- [Andrew] A bomb disposal
robot is deployed.

It picks up the bomb, places
it into a blast-proof truck,

which drives it to a
local Air Force base

where a few hours later
it's safely detonated.

[intriguing music]
[bomb blasting]

- [Danny] When news of
the discovery gets out,

the public is stunned.

How did a live Japanese
bomb end up in Missouri?

- [Martin] Very quickly, a
theory emerges

that this device got to Missouri

as a part of the Fu-Go
campaign of 1944 and 1945,

when the Japanese launched a
barrage of over 9,000 balloons

that were equipped
with explosive devices.

[intriguing music]

- [Andrew] The idea is that
these devices would make it

to the US mainland, drop,
and detonate in thick brush,

starting forest fires and
instigating widespread panic

in the country.

[thrilling music]

Most of these bombs never
made it to the US mainland,

but some did.

So, possibly,
another one of these

veered a little bit off course,

landed in the dirt to
Missouri, sank into the earth,

and stayed there, unexploded,

until it was found
80 years later.

[intriguing music]

- [John] Eventually, Sam and
Pamela invest in a metal

detector and they go ahead and
they scan their entire backyard.

Fortunately, they
don't come across

any funny fish-shaped charges,

and they've been free of
any explosives ever since.

[thrilling music]

[intriguing music]

- [Don] In 2010, an elderly
German man named Cornelius

Gurlitt is stopped crossing
the Swiss-German border

with 9,000 euros in cash.

[intriguing music]

It's just under the legal
reporting threshold,

so it catches their attention.

They wave him on, but
border agents report it

to local authorities.

Investigators
decide to follow up

and pay Cornelius a visit at
his home in Munich, Germany.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] When the agents
enter the apartment,

they discover
something astonishing.

[intriguing music]

- This modest
apartment is stuffed,

floor to ceiling, with art.

[intriguing music]

We're talking about masterpieces

by some of art's biggest names.

Names like Picasso and Monet.

[intriguing music]

- Altogether, the
investigators find

close to 1,200 pieces of artwork

with an estimated worth
of close to $1.4 billion.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] How did
one of the world's

greatest art collections end
up in a tiny Munich apartment?

The answer is shocking.

- Investigators realize
that Cornelius Gurlitt

is the son of
Hildebrand Gurlitt,

one of four art dealers
that Nazis had commissioned

to sell off what Hitler
proclaimed to be degenerate art.

This was mostly modern art

deemed to be ungerman
by the Nazis.

- [Danny] But some of the
pieces had much darker origins.

- The Nazis
systematically targeted

Jewish families'
private collections,

forcing them to
surrender the art

through a combination of both
extortion and outright theft.

- [Micah] Jewish collectors
faced impossible choices,

either sell their works of art

for lower than their actual
value to pay punitive Nazi taxes

or just watch their
priceless collections

be confiscated entirely.

[intriguing music]

And it was Hildebrand
who brokered everything.

- [Danny] But it turns out

Hildebrand kept a lot
of the art for himself.

- [Don] In the years after the
war,

those who profited
from the Nazi program

were often prosecuted
and forced to give back

their dubiously
acquired treasure.

So Hildebrand kept quiet
about his collection,

and when he died in 1956,
he passed it to his widow,

who then later
passed it to his son.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] Cornelius holds onto
the art for over four decades

until investigators
seize the collection.

[intriguing music]

- [Hugo] Cornelius insists
to authorities

that his father acquired
this art collection legally.

But he agrees to cooperate
in at least helping them

determine the origin and
provenance of these words.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] Then in 2014,

before investigators
can press charges,

Cornelius suddenly passes away,

and he leaves his
entire collection,

[intriguing music]

worth over $1 billion,

to the Museum of Fine
Arts in Bern, Switzerland.

- [Don] With German authorities
still investigating

the art's proper ownership,
the museum takes the collection

with the promise
to return any works

looted from Jewish collectors.

By 2020, 14 stolen masterpieces
find their way back

to the descendants
of Holocaust victims,

with dozens more still
under investigation.

- [Hugo] The rest of the
collection,

including hundreds of
controversial masterpieces,

are now being displayed in
exhibits all around the world.

The hope is that,
with each exhibition,

someone somewhere might
recognize something

that belongs to their family.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] Hidden art isn't the
only thing that can

stir up trouble.

In California, one
discovery in the dirt

does the same on a
much bigger scale.

[intriguing music]

- [Andrew] In January of 1848,

a carpenter named James Marshall

is overseeing the
construction of a sawmill

along the American River in
what is now Coloma, California

when he spots a problem.

There's a blockage
in the channel

that carries water away
from the mill's water wheel

and the wheel isn't turning.

- Marshall calls several
of the workers over

and they start digging
to clear it out,

get the flow going again,

and suddenly something
catches Marshall's eye.

- [Danny] Marshall
is no geologist,

but it looks like gold.

[thrilling music]

- [Don] Knowing that
gold is malleable,

he picks up a pea-sized pebble
and pounds it with a rock.

[intriguing music]

Instead of shattering, it bends.

Marshall holds it up and
shouts out to his crew,

"Boys, by God, I believe
I found a gold mine."

[intriguing music]

- [John] Marshall brings the
nugget to his boss, John Sutter,

who also tests it and concludes
that it's the real deal.

The two men decide to
keep the discovery quiet

until the mill is finished
and fully operational.

- [Paul] Sutter's worried
that if word gets out,

that prospectors will come
and overrun the property,

prevent his men from getting
the sawmill constructed.

- [Andrew] But Sutter just
can't help himself.

He ends up bragging
about the discovery

in a letter to a friend,
and very soon word gets out.

[intriguing music]

By May, any man with enough
strength to heft a pickax

heads for Northern California
in search of their fortune.

- [John] Soon talk of
gold in California

is spreading across the country.

One army officer sends
some of the gold east

and it gets into the hands
of President James Polk,

who refers to it in his
State of the Union message.

- [Danny] From here, the
California Gold Rush takes off.

- [Andrew] Between 1849 and
1855, an estimated 750,000

pounds of gold are extracted
from the ground,

transforming the American West.

Cities like San
Francisco explode in size

and California becomes
a state in 1850,

just a few years after
it was ceded by Mexico.

- [Danny] While the Gold
Rush brings riches to many,

it's less prosperous
for the two men

who accidentally started it.

- [John] Just as Sutter feared,

his land is overtaken
by rabid miners

who were looking
to strike at rich.

They destroy his crops, eat
his livestock, and bankrupt it.

In 1850, having lost all of
its workers to gold mining,

the sawmill shuts down before
ever even being finished.

- [Don] James Marshall suffers
an even worse fate.

For his role, the state
of California does end up

granting Marshall a $200 per
month pension for two years.

It's barely enough to live on.

And so the man who sparked
America's biggest gold rush

dies penniless in a small cabin

in Kelsey, California in 1885.

[intriguing music]

[intriguing music]

- [Andrew] It's the summer of
2021

and Skipper Darryl Ertel
is piloting his boat

across the glassy
waters of Lake Superior.

[intriguing music]

As he passes over a deep trench,

something flickers on his sonar.

[intriguing music]

Something large, 600 feet
below, on the lake's floor.

[intriguing music]

Looking closely, he sees
the unmistakable shape

of a steamship smokestack.

[intriguing music]

Now he's not aware of any
ships of that description

having wrecked
anywhere in this area,

so his interest is peaked.

[intriguing music]

- Later, Ertel heads
back to the water

with a remote-operated camera

and he sends the camera
down into the waters

of Lake Superior,

and the images that
start to come back to him

are a bit unsettling.

[intriguing music]

The first thing he sees is a
pilot's house, then a hull,

and then finally a name

that's etched into the side of
the ship, the Adella Shores.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] What he's found
is no ordinary wreck.

Ertel has just unearthed
a 112-year-old mystery.

[intriguing music]

- Built in 1894, the Adella
Shores was a massive 195-foot,

735-ton wooden steamer.

[intriguing music]

It was designed to
haul heavy freight.

In 1909, she followed
the steel icebreaker,

Daniel J. Morrell, into a storm.

[eerie music]

The icebreaker managed to
push its way through the storm

in these blinding
horrible conditions.

But the Adella Shores, well,
she vanished without a trace.

[intriguing music]

- The ship and all 14 of its
crew are never seen again.

The experts are baffled by this

because a ship this size
should have been able

to weather the storm.

Some blamed ice
piercing the hull.

But others blamed something
darker,

a curse.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] One that
may have started

before she even left the dock.

[intriguing music]

- At the launch event
for the Adella Shores,

a woman named Bessie, who
was the real-life sister

of the ship's namesake Adella,

was responsible
for christening it.

[intriguing music]

Now, to christen a ship, you're
supposed to break a bottle

of alcohol, like champagne
or wine, against the hull.

But Bessie's family had a
strict no-alcohol policy.

So instead of a
bottle of champagne,

she smashed a bottle of water.

[intriguing music]

Now, the mariners and
sailors involved believed

that this immediately
cursed the ship,

because it was not a
sufficient tribute to them.

- [Danny] What happens next

only reinforces
the superstition.

[intriguing music]

- [Sami] Now, only a few years
after the christening ceremony,

the Adella Shores sinks
in pretty shallow waters.

So, a crew comes, raises
the ship, restores it,

the ship goes back into service.

But only a few
years after that...

[eerie music]

the same thing happens again.

The Adella Shores sinks
in shallow waters,

gets lifted out of the
water, gets restored,

goes back onto the water again.

- [Andrew] And then a few years
later,

when the ship finally
disappears in 1909,

newspapers resurrect old
rumors about the cursed vessel.

While we may never know

what ultimately sank
the Adella Shores,

we do know one thing.

Thanks to a curious captain,

we have at least
solved the location

of one of the lake's
great nautical mysteries.

[eerie music]

- [Danny] Not all dark omen
stay buried at sea.

This next hill brings
the bad luck ashore

and makes it personal.

[eerie music]

- [Sami] It's 2023 and there's a
German construction crew

that is busy at work
extending the city hall

of Rostock, Germany,

a town that's about 150
miles north of Berlin.

[eerie music]

As an excavator is
digging into the side

of this construction site,

it pings off of something
very large and really hard.

[eerie music]

When they go to see what
the excavator actually hit,

it looks like an old
building foundation.

[eerie music]

- [Hugo] They call an
archeologist to take over.

When they keep digging out more
of this ancient foundation,

they realize that it's
actually multiple stone houses

dating back as far
as the 13th century.

- [John] Among the ancient
structures,

they find a wealth of
household treasures,

medieval dishware, even the
remains of a water system.

And in one section, they find
what appears to be a latrine

with bits of metal
at the bottom.

- [Danny] When one
researcher decides

to give that metal
a closer look,

he notices something strange.

[eerie music]

- [Hugo] One of these pieces
looks different from the others.

It's rolled up kind
of like a scroll.

When he unfurls it, he
sees etchings on it.

The writing is faint,

but the researcher
makes out the words,

"Sathanas taleke
belzebuk hinrik berith,"

written in a medieval
script called blackletter.

- [Danny] Recognizing the
words "Satan" and "Beelzebub,"

he quickly realizes
they've stumbled

on an ancient curse tablet.

[eerie music]

- Curse tablets were
typically sheets of lead

that featured spells
with a wide range

of different applications.

According to historians,
often they were used

to target ex lovers, rival
dancers, and even enemy horses.

- [Paul] But curse tablets had
never been found in

Germany before.

Historians had thought that
only the ancient Greeks

and Romans used curse
tablets in a span of time

going from roughly 800
BC to around 600 AED.

But this curse tablet
comes from the 1400s.

[eerie music]

- [Danny] The tablet's
age is astonishing,

but the dark forces it calls
upon are even more outrageous.

[eerie music]

- This tablet is targeting
a couple, Taleke and Henrik.

Now, what they did to incur
such a horrible curse,

we have no idea.

But whatever it was,
it was something

that was serious enough that
the person who made this curse

went ahead and invoked
Satan, along with two demons,

Beelzebub and Berith.

[eerie music]

- [Danny] But the true
clue to their intent

isn't just the
demons they invoked,

it's where they chose
to hide the curse.

- [Sami] The fact that this
curse tablet was placed in a

latrine is kind of significant

considering that,
back in the day,

latrines were
kind of seen as a

direct link to the underworld
and to Satan himself.

[eerie music]

Whether or not the curse
tablet actually worked

remains a mystery.

But clearly this
spellcaster meant business.

[eerie music]

[eerie music]

- [Don] It's Saturday, August
10th, 2024 at La Jolla Cove.

Lots of swimmers,
snorkelers, and kayakers.

On the water, a group
drifts farther from shore

until one of them jerks upright,

nearly knocked off their kayak,

not by a wave, but
by a wall of stench.

[suspenseful music]

Rotting, rancid,
and unforgettable.

[suspenseful music]

- [Andrew] The kayakers
eventually see something in the

distance it's long and bloated.

They assume that
it's a sea serpent,

but as they get closer,
they realize that it isn't.

- Oh, there we go.
- Yeah.

- It's over 12 feet long, with
a silvery ribbon-like body.

And the group works to
get it onto a paddleboard

so they can drift it to shore.

They're hoping somebody
might be able to identify it,

but nobody on the
beach has any idea.

So, they call in the pros.

[suspenseful music]

- Scientists with
the National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration
arrive on the scene

and know exactly
what they're seeing.

[suspenseful music]

It's called an oarfish.

It's a deep-sea creature
that is incredibly rare.

In the past 100 years,

fewer than two dozen have
washed up on California shores.

- [Don] Oarfish can grow
over 30 feet long.

They have these large haunting
eyes and blood-red spines

that gather on their heads
in a cluster like a crown.

A lot of people think they
were the original inspiration

for the monstrous
creatures you see

on the edges of
old maritime maps.

- [Danny] But the sight of one

rising from the deep
isn't just wondrous.

It's a warning.

[suspenseful music]

- [Paul] In Japan, oarfish are
known as doomsday fish.

[suspenseful music]

The theory is that they
can sense deep-sea tremors

before they hit land.

So if you see one
on the surface,

it means that something big
and bad is about to happen.

[suspenseful music]

- [Andrew] This legend grew in
2011

when multiple oarfish
were purportedly spotted

washed up on a beach in Japan

just before the catastrophic
Tohoku earthquake...

[suspenseful music]

and subsequent tsunami

that caused the deadly
Fukushima nuclear disaster.

[suspenseful music]

In 2019, scientists conduct
a comprehensive study

and conclude that this is
all just a coincidence.

There is no causal
connection between the

appearance of oarfish and
any natural disaster,

but if you were to ask the
kayakers at La Jolla Cove,

they'd probably disagree.

Because just a few days later,
Southern California is hit

with a 4.4 magnitude earthquake.

[suspenseful music]

- The ocean is
not the only place

that people look for
protection from dark forces.

Sometimes the danger is
a lot closer to home.

[chilling music]

- [Don] In 2024, a renovation
crew in the seaside town

of Cleethorpes, England
is tearing down walls

in a centuries-old building.

[chilling music]

As they expose
the ancient frame,

one of the workers
notices something unusual

tucked into a
hidden wall cavity,

a strange bulb-shaped
object packed in dirt.

[chilling music]

- [Dr. Hakeem] The crew freezes.

With the object's rounded shape

and that faint metallic
glint, they think the worst.

What if it's an unexploded
ordinance from World War II

left over from the Blitz?

[chilling music]

- When the sunlight
hits this object,

they realize it's not metal.

It's actually made of glass.

But what it is,
they have no idea.

[chilling music]

- [Danny] After carefully
extracting the glass

from the wall, they notice
it is full of liquid.

[chilling music]

- [Don] Convinced they've
uncovered some very well-aged

booze, one of the workers
goes for the cork,

ready to take a swig of history.

[chilling music]

The project manager doesn't
think that's a great idea.

He takes this bottle

and he brings it to the
archeology department

at a nearby university
to find out more.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] Third-year
undergraduate Zara Yeates

examines the contents
more closely.

- [Paul] She's able to date it
to somewhere between 1790 and

1840, but she still doesn't
know what's inside.

[intriguing music]

- [Dr. Hakeem] Using
multi-spectral imaging and x-ray

fluorescence, Zara peers through
the bottle without breaking it

open, and what she finds
surprises everyone.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] The liquid
is not rum, or wine,

or any kind of alcohol.

It is 200-year-old human urine.

[chilling music]

- [Paul] Floating inside the
liquid are rusty nails and hair.

This is definitely not a
concoction meant for drinking,

but it is something
that historians

have encountered before.

[chilling music]

- [Don] It's what's known
as a witch bottle,

a kind of medieval
form of home security

once common throughout Britain.

The person seeking protection
would put some urine

into a bottle, along
with personal items,

like nail clippings and hair.

- [Nicola] These bottles were
intended

to repel any malevolent forces.

The curse or the
spell would be drawn

to this bottle in the wall,

and they would go and they
would get trapped inside.

[chilling music]

- [Don] The idea was simple.

As long as the bottle
stayed sealed and intact,

the person inside the
house remained protected.

So, next time you're
renovating an old house

and you discover a mysterious
bottle hidden in the walls,

maybe think twice
before popping the cork.

[chilling music]

[intriguing music]

- [Martin] It's September, 2017,

and Martyn and Michaela
Tasker are exploring

Roughton Moor Woods,

an area that used to
be an old military base

but is now a park
and a favorite place

for bird watchers
and dog walkers.

[intriguing music]

- [Paul] As they make their way
deeper into the woods,

they spot a container that's
partially buried in the ground.

Curiosity-piqued, they
start to uncover it.

[intriguing music]

When they pry open the
lid and look inside,

they find rows of
rusty canisters,

each one about 10 inches
tall and three inches wide,

about the same size as a
typical 32-ounce water bottle.

- They have no idea
what these things are,

but they do know this was
a former military base.

And a lot of people like
to collect military things,

so they gather up these
canisters and others

and bring them to their house.

[intriguing music]

- [Danny] To help figure
out what they found,

the couple reaches out to
a friend in the military.

- While they're waiting to
hear back from their friend,

they open one of the canisters
and find a thick liquid.

[intriguing music]

They pour some of them
out on the ground,

and immediately they're
hit by this terrible smell,

which leaves them
gagging and coughing.

[intriguing music]
[people coughing]

- [John] So they realize they
had to clean this stuff up.

But before they do, they get a
phone call from their friend,

and the news he has to
tell them is terrifying.

- [Danny] He thinks
the canisters

are old mustard gas shells.

[thrilling music]

- [Martin] First used during
World War I,

mustard gas is a
chemical irritant

that attacks the mucus
membranes of the body.

[chilling music]
[people gagging]

It can have a powerful
negative effect

on the respiratory system

that can cause
coughing and bleeding.

It can temporarily blind you.

[chilling music]

Mustard gas is so
potent and so dangerous

that it is eventually, on
an international basis,

banned by the 1925 Geneva
Convention Protocol.

[chilling music]
[people coughing]

- [John] Now the Taskers are
starting to panic.

Not only have they exposed
themselves to a deadly compound,

but their friend informs them

that just possessing a chemical
weapon in the UK is illegal.

- This is where the
bad decisions

just keep getting worse.

[thrilling music]

They take a boat out onto
the nearby Stixwould Lake,

where they decide to dispose
of the contraband themselves

and they dump the remaining
canisters into the water.

[thrilling music]

- [Paul] The next day, however,
Martyn has to go to the hospital

because blisters have
erupted all over his arms.

[thrilling music]

And Michaela experiences
difficulty breathing,

so much so that she passes out
in the doctor's waiting room.

- [Danny] The Taskers
decide to fess up,

and authorities
launch a huge search

to retrieve the
canisters from the lake.

- [Martin] It goes on for 11
days.

Houses are evacuated,
roads are closed.

They bring in a dive team
that uses side-scan sonar

in an attempt to find what the
Taskers dumped into the lake.

[thrilling music]

- [Jen] In the end, a
seven-man navy dive team

equipped in full
chemical protection suits

retrieve 10 canisters
from the water.

And then the police
pull another 140

from a nearby burial
site on the grounds

of the Roughton Moor Woods.

When they're analyzed further,
tests revealed, thankfully,

that all the canisters
are still sealed.

[thrilling music]

- [Martin] In the end, both
Martyn and Michaela

are convicted of illegal
possession of a chemical weapon

and illegal dumping of
a hazardous substance

into a waterway.

[thrilling music]

For this, they
are both sentenced

to more than a year in jail.

However, this story could
have ended a lot worse

for Martyn and Michaela,

because being exposed to
100-year-old chemical weapons

could have led them
to an early grave.

[thrilling music]

- [Danny] Whether it's gold in
the ground or a curse in the

pipes, one thing's for sure.

When you start digging, trouble
has a way of finding you.

I'm Danny Trejo. Thanks for
watching "Mysteries Unearthed."