All language subtitles for Expedition.Files.S04E03.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

On this episode of
"Expedition Files."

At the height of World War II,

a top-secret US military unit
takes on the Nazis

and saves an estimated
30,000 lives

without ever firing a shot.

Armed with inflatable tanks,
fake radio transmissions,

and carefully timed
sound effects,

they deceive enemy forces
with the power of illusion.

For the first time,
we declassify the secrets

behind the so-called
Ghost Army.

[indistinct chatter]

Then, the Knights Templar were
one of the most powerful forces

in the medieval world,
until they were accused of

evil, unholy acts and were
disbanded in disgrace.

Did the Templars
deserve their destruction?

We reveal the shocking truth.

[man groaning]

[Josh] And...

the story of the deadly romance
that started a world war.

The heir to the mighty Habsburg
royal family is found dead

alongside his young mistress.

An assassination
or a suicide pact?

We uncover the truth
of the bloody affair

that reshaped the world.

In the corridors of time...

are mysteries that
defy explanation.

Now I'm traveling through
history itself...

on a search for the truth.

New evidence.

Shocking answers.

I'm Josh Gates...

and these...

are my "Expedition Files."

There's an old expression --
"Three may keep a secret

if two of them are dead."

Founding Father
Benjamin Franklin said that.

Of course, he also flew a kite

in a lightning storm.

But hey, Franklin wasn't wrong.

Secrets rarely

stay hidden forever.

And tonight, we squint through
ciphers and dust off long

buried documents to
expose three stories

that were supposed to
stay secret.

But now, decades,
even centuries later,

we can finally
reveal the truth.

We begin on June 13th, 1944,
Normandy, France.

Seven days ago,
on these very shores,

150,000 Allied troops invaded.

It's considered the greatest
military operation in history,

because this is Omaha Beach,

and that fateful event
was D-Day.

We're one week on
from the Allied assault.

More than 75,000 Americans
led the charge.

But today,
a very different group

of US soldiers has arrived.

They wear standard uniforms,

but they don't wage war
with bullets.

They do it with fabric,

paint, and a whole lot
of deception.

They are a unit so strange,
so implausible,

it sounds more like fiction
than history.

But they will play a huge part
in the conflicts to come,

helping to secure victory,
while barely firing a shot.

After the war, their deeds will
remain secretive, with

many of the men taking their
incredible tale to the grave.

But three-quarters
of a century on,

the story will be declassified,
and the world will finally

come to know the unlikely heroes
of the Ghost Army.

Let's rewind a year and a half
to when 21-year-old John Jarvie

and 18-year-olds Bernie
Bluestein and Art Kane arrive

at the US Army base

at Fort Meade
in Maryland.

Whatcha sketching there?

[Josh] The three men, along
with approximately 1,100 others,

are looking to join a new unit
soon to be called

the 23rd Headquarters
Special Troops.

But the men of the 23rd aren't
your garden-variety soldiers.

They're photographers,
painters, sound engineers,

even fashion designers,
recruited from schools

across the country.

So why are a bunch of artists
going to war?

Their skills in visual art,
construction, sound,

and fabrication make them
uniquely suited for

a new kind of warfare built
on illusion and misdirection.

It turns out the 23rd is being
trained to carry out

the first mass deception
in modern military history.

They'll pretend they're
a division 30 times

their actual size,
erecting bogus airfields,

fabricating fake
planes and tanks,

sending phony radio messages,
and so much more.

Their job is to be everything
except who they really are.

And because no one,
not even their foreign allies,

will know their true identity,
the tales that emerge

will remain more hearsay mystery
than battlefield history.

One of their most notable
missions, Operation Brittany,

takes place here in the forests

of northern France.
It's July 1944.

This German unit is on
the lookout for American forces.

Fearing an Allied attack,
they're trying to decide

if they should move out
or hold their position.

[speaking German]

[Josh]
Having spotted what looks like
a division of American tanks,

the Germans decide to
hunker down and stay put.

But the attack they're waiting
for never arrives.

The tanks they saw were
actually dozens of

large rubber inflatables,
painstakingly detailed by

artists like Kane and Bluestein
to look like the real thing.

Meanwhile, the actual soldiers,
all 11,000 of them,

are already on their way
past the German defenses.

The Nazis have been fooled
by the Ghost Army.

Over the coming months,
their heroic deceits continue.

Kane and Bluestein paint
wooden logs

to mimic aircraft parts.

They sew uniforms
with fake insignias.

They craft rubber tubes
into artillery barrels,

using all their artistry
to pull off remarkable ruses.

The Ghost Army's daring
deceptions will successfully

confuse the enemy
across 17 battles.

What makes their success
so remarkable is

the risk they take.

Armed with only standard
infantry weapons and backed

by a minimal security detail,
they operate largely exposed.

One operation will come
at a terrible price

when the 23rd find themselves
in the crosshairs

in Bouzonville, France.

It's March 1945,
and the war is nearing its end.

The Ghost Army impersonates
the 80th Infantry Division,

dipping into their bag of
tricks, inflatable tanks to

divert German forces away
from the real 80th's movements.

The Germans take the bait,
and the real 80th report very

light resistance to
their new position.

Commanders celebrate
another success.

But it turns out the Ghost Army
has drawn the Germans

too close to their position.

[bang]

Out of nowhere,
a German artillery opens fire,

leaving there the heavily armed
80th Infantry.

The 23rd scrambles in every
direction, desperate to escape

the sudden barrage.
The cost is heavy.

Kane, Bluestein,
and Jarvie escape,

but two men are killed
and 15 more are wounded.

For a unit built on a lie,

the consequences have never
been more real.

Despite the casualties,
Operation Bouzonville is

largely a success.

The real 80th Division
escapes detection.

By now, the Allies have
the Germans on the run.

But to finish the fight,
they need to move

the 30th and 79th divisions,
40,000 troops,

across Germany's
Rhine River.

The problem?

That kind of movement is
hard to hide.

And after Operation Bouzonville,
there's real risk

the Germans have figured out
the 23rd isn't a true

combat unit.

And if so, the Allied forces
are walking into

a deadly fight.

Victory or defeat could all
depend on the Ghost Army.

In World War II, the 23rd
Headquarters Special Troops,

a secret American unit
nicknamed the Ghost Army,

has been thwarting the Nazis

with theatrical
military illusions.

Now, after surviving
an actual enemy attack,

they face their most
daunting mission yet,

deceive the Germans
while 40,000 Allied troops

slip across the Rhine River.

The Ghost Army
attempts the impossible,

simulating a force of 40,000
using diversion tactics

first honed during
Operation Bouzonville,

now deployed in a new mission
known as Operation Viersen.

It's a highly sophisticated
ruse, carefully designed to

convince the Germans that
the real 30th and 79th Divisions

aren't going anywhere.

On the front lines,
artists like Bernie Bluestein

and Art Kane set up their usual
inflatable tanks

and fake artillery.

Nearby, sound effects artists
get to work blasting

fake infantry noises

from specially
designed speakers.

Meanwhile,
radio operators establish

fake communication networks,
known as spoof radio,

designed to mimic the equipment
and broadcast frequencies

used by the real
30th and 79th Divisions.

Amazingly, it works.

Thanks to the efforts
of Bluestein, Kane,

Jarvie, and many others,
the Germans take the bait.

[speaking German]

[Josh] Thinking they are a much
bigger division,

the Germans attack
the 23rd.

-Oh.
-[gunshots blasting]

[Josh] And while
the Germans are distracted,

the real 30th and 79th
Allied divisions

cross the Rhine River 10 miles
north with almost no resistance.

The Ghost Army has helped
win a critical victory,

but at enormous personal risk.

German artillery directed
at the 23rd crashes dangerously

close, damaging equipment
as shells land within 400 yards.

Miraculously, no one is killed,
a narrow escape that

underscores just how exposed
the Ghost Army truly was

and how much they risked
to protect others.

Two months later,
the Germans surrender.

The war in Europe is over.

But then the mystery really
begins, because, seemingly

living up to its name,
the Ghost Army vanishes.

They didn't march home to
medals, ticker tape parades,

or cheering crowds,
just a quiet return to

civilian life, their wartime
exploits kept under wraps.

In fact, the unit wasn't
technically declassified
until 1996.

But even then,
their stories remained buried

in the archives.

In 2005, historian Rick Beyer
learns of the Ghost Army

and their stunning successes,
and makes it his mission to

share their heroics
with the world.

I came to the Ghost Army story
20 years ago.

When I started digging into
this, I thought, oh, my god,

this might be one of the best
stories of all time.

I said, "Well, wait a minute.
You're saying that

"the U.S. Army had a unit
that had blow-up tanks,

"that they went out and used
them on the front lines against

"the Germans multiple times,
fooled the enemy,

"they were never found out,
and then it was all hushed up

after the war?"

And I have talked to so many
people who were in the Army

in World War II and who didn't
know anything about this.

Many soldiers were told to
keep this secret,

and many, many did.

The government wanted to protect
their military intelligence,

so the Ghost Army's
successes stayed secret

for over 50 years.

But behind the smoke
and mirrors was something

far more lasting.

The Ghost Army's disguises
and deception shielded real

soldiers, diverted enemy fire,
and saved an estimated

30,000 lives.

I believe that what they did,
using creativity

on the battlefield to save
lives, was so striking.

If you can avoid the head-on
attack and actually make

the enemy think that
it's coming from someplace else

and get behind them,
you can save lives

in both armies.

I started engaging
with a lot of the veterans

who were in the unit.

And the longer I spent on this,
the more it started turning

into a quest to see these guys
honored the way they should be.

[Josh]
Beyer launched a grassroots
crusade to secure these men

the recognition
they richly deserve.

On March 21st, 2024,
history finally caught up with

the Ghost Army.
Inside the U.S. Capitol,

the secretive unit was awarded
the Congressional Gold Medal,

one of the nation's
highest honors.

Only seven were still alive
to receive

the long-overdue commendation,
including Bernie Bluestein

[Rick] I think for me,
the most meaningful,

moment of that day was
when the three veterans

who attended the ceremony
were there in chairs.

And kneeling in front of them
are the Chairman of

the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
the Commander of the U.S. Army,

the Secretary of the U.S. Army.

And they are kneeling on
the ground so that they can be

face to face with
these veterans.

And I thought that respect
that they showed there was

just extraordinary.

While the methods of
the Ghost Army

might sound antiquated today.

The techniques they pioneered
are actually still deployed

in modern conflicts.

In Ukraine, inflatable tanks,
fake missile launchers,

and decoy radar arrays
have been deployed

to trick Russian drones into
wasting firepower on phantoms.

The lesson of the 23rd endures.

If you're trying to win a war,
make the enemy chase ghosts.

From the story of one secretive
organization to another

roughly 650 years earlier.
It's 1307.

I'm deep inside
a dungeon in Paris.

[screaming in pain]

The man being tortured is
Jacques de Molay, the leader of

the Knights Templar,
the legendary elite

Christian military order.

But now the king of France
himself has leveled a shocking

accusation against
God's holy warriors.

He claims they're evil,
corrupt, and guilty of

devil worship and obscene acts.

De Molay will confess to it
all, and that stunning

pronouncement will prove
a death sentence for

him and the Templars.
But is the confession genuine?

Are the Knights truly unholy?

Centuries from now,
the discovery

of secret documents
will finally reveal the truth

behind the violent downfall
of the Knights Templar.

[groaning in pain]

Just over 200 years earlier,
in the year 1099,

Christian armies from Europe
seize the city of Jerusalem

from Muslim control
at the end of the First Crusade.

But as faithful Europeans make
pilgrimages to visit

sacred sites in the Holy Land,
they're easy targets for

bandits, raiders,
and hostile armies.

That's where these guys
come in.

This fearsome strike force of
knights is established in 1119.

Sworn to God,

armed to the teeth,
and tasked with one mission,

protecting Christian pilgrims.

That red cross on their cloaks
is a symbol of

their willingness to die
for the cause.

Their headquarters is
the former site of Jerusalem's

Holy Temple of Solomon,
giving rise to a name that will

echo through history,
the Knights Templar.

[groaning]

[swords clinking]

They quickly earn
a reputation for fighting

as hard as they pray,
ready to do battle

to protect Christians
anytime, anywhere.

The Templars become
the Vatican's shock troops,

leading charges
in subsequent crusades,

securing territory
across the Holy Land,

and amassing incredible wealth
along the way.

Over time, the order explodes
in size and influence,

controlling land
and fortresses

from Ireland to Syria
to North Africa.

And with that,
they build a sophisticated

financial empire, too.

Think of it as God's ATM
service, a banking system that

allows Christian nobles to
deposit funds in Paris, France,

and safely withdraw
them in the Holy Land,

for a fee, of course.

The Templars also transport gold
and issue letters of credit,

heralding in the medieval
world's version of

Visa or MasterCard.

Even kings borrow money
from them, making the knights

an essential part of
commerce and diplomacy.

Their estimated fortune
and property holdings

balloon to what would be
billions of dollars today.

By the mid 1200s,
the Templars are both feared

and envied, but their glory days
are numbered.

Muslim armies wage war
to claw back the territory lost

in the First Crusade.

One by one,
Christian strongholds fall,

forcing even the fearsome
Knights Templar into retreat.

In 1291, the knights suffer
a crushing defeat

in the port city of Acre,

their final stronghold
in the Holy Land.

[swords clinking]

[groaning]

[Josh]
Despite their setbacks,
the Knights Templar remain one

of the wealthiest and most
powerful orders in the world,

with overflowing treasuries
and an army's worth of

weapons and armor.

Yet they serve no king,

pledging allegiance only
to the Pope.

The Templars' power
and independence makes Europe's

monarchs uneasy, not to
mention their secrecy.

Rumors begin to spread that
the Templars fled Jerusalem

carrying sacred relics,
perhaps even the Holy Grail

or the Ark of the Covenant.

Before long,
critics begin to whisper,

"Have the Knights Templar
strayed from serving

God to serving
their own ambitions?"

[Josh] In the late 1200s,
as Christianity's dominance

in Europe begins to wane,
the Knights Templar still wield

immense wealth and influence.

Some start to question where
their true loyalties lie

and if the order remains devoted
to its sacred Christian mission.

One of their most notable
critics just happens to be

among the most powerful
men alive,

Philip IV, King of France.

He's known as a religious
reformer and a self-styled

defender of
the Christian faith.

Philip's relationship with
the Templars is complicated.

On one hand, he's indebted to
them, having borrowed heavily

to fund wars against
England and others.

But on the other,
he's deeply suspicious of

their secrecy, their armies,
their wealth, and of course,

their allegiance to the Pope
instead of him.

The king raises troubling
questions about the Templars'

secretive rights,
saying they don't behave like

true Christians.

He claims that new recruits are
asked to deny Christ

and spit on the cross
during their initiation.

The famously tight-lipped
Templars fail to deny

the charge, and, before long,
suspicion explodes across

medieval France.

The public begins to spread
wild rumors that the Templars

worship a severed head
and that they engage in obscene

sexual acts.

All of this leads to the most
dreaded charge against them...

heresy.

Backed by the power of
his own whisper campaign,

Philip makes a move against
the order in October of 1307,

on Friday the 13th, a moment
later cited in a popular

but unsubstantiated theory
about the date's dark origins.

In coordinated raids at dawn,
the king's forces arrest

thousands of Templars
across France.

Incredibly, many of the knights
confess to heresy,

seemingly confirming the king's
accusations about corruption

within the Templar ranks.

[screams]

Of course,
the admissions usually come

after extreme torture,
like that endured

by the Templars leader
Jacques de Molay,

stretched on the rack until
he breaks and confesses

to betraying
his Christian faith.

I confess.
Ahh!

King Philip IV even pressures
Pope Clement V to endorse

the arrests and torture,
claiming a moral duty

to root out heresy.

The growing political intensity
forces the Pope to issue

a stunning papal decree,
ordering all Christian monarchs

to arrest the Templars
and seize their assets.

Let's pause for a second.

Does King Philip really believe
the Templars are an evil

organization that
worships the devil?

Or does he have
a different agenda?

Well, if you're suspicious of
Philip, you wouldn't be alone.

At the time, King Edward II of
England writes that the charges

against the Templars
sound like, quote,

"Detestable slander."

Edward initially refuses to
arrest the Templars in England,

but under extreme pressure,
he caves in 1308.

Whatever the motive,
the consequences are severe.

On May 12, 1310, 54 Templars
who had all recanted

their confessions are
nevertheless burned at the stake

in Paris, as an unmistakable
warning to others.

From Scotland to Sicily,
knights are rounded up,

their lands are seized,
their orders dissolved.

Some receive life sentences.

A lucky few are quietly
pardoned and absorbed

into other religious orders.

But in France in particular,
the persecution is unyielding.

Despite his confession having
been obtained under torture,

Templar leader Jacques de Molay
is burned at the stake

in March 1314.

Did the Templars somehow
deserve their terrible fate?

Were they truly heretics?

Or were the French King's
motives something far

less righteous?

In his book,
"The Knights Templar
Absolution,"

historian A. A. Grishin unpacks
a history-changing discovery.

[A. A.] In September of 2001,

Barbara Frale, who was working
at the Vatican archives,

found a document that
was clearly misfiled

and that document had
to do directly with

the top officials of
the Knights Templar Order.

This document is now known as
the Chinon Parchment.

When the document
first appeared,

you literally could not find it.

Even when Barbara published it,
it was in a super obscure

Italian book.

What happened then is that
she allowed me to use

her transcription,
and I made my own translation,

and I published
the accessible text.

The document records
the outcome of an inquiry

Pope Clement V ordered in 1308
at Chinon Castle in France

regarding the leaders
of the Knights Templar,

including Jacques de Molay.

The document proves the Pope
launched his own investigation

separate from King Philip's,
and it will come to a very

different conclusion.

The Chinon Parchment presents
evidence that Pope Clement V

absolved the highly-positioned
members

of the Knights Templar Order

in 1308 after they had
been arrested in 1307

by the King of France.

The Pope never actually
intended for them to be burned

at the stake.
That was not his desire at all.

It really shows that the Pope
did not believe in the fact

that this actually was
a real heresy.

After all, the Pope
investigated, interrogated,

and ultimately, he forgave them.

But if King Philip
was truly the Church's

great defender, why didn't
the Pope's absolution

change his mind?

Thanks to the Chinon Parchment,
we now understand.

The persecution of the Templars
wasn't spiritual.

It was completely political.

King Philip's motivation for
taking down the Knights Templar

was twofold.

As a rather devout king,
he would attempt to

root out heresy.

It was also important that
the kingdom of France was

in need of money.

The Knights Templar were
perhaps the most powerful

and wealthy organization
in Europe

outside of the actual
Catholic Church.

And the King of France wanted
to actually intercept

this wealth and to use it for
his purposes to restore

the situation in his kingdom.

So, according to Grishin,
the King wanted to steal

the Templars' treasure to bail
out his own country

and make himself look like
a hero while doing it.

King Philip...

was prepared to use
every resource he had

in the Kingdom of France in
order to achieve this objective,

to actually get
all of the wealth

the Knights Templar
in France possessed.

It is said that "Absolute power
corrupts absolutely."

Thanks to the discovery of
the Chinon Parchment,

we now know the Knights Templar
weren't brought down for

betraying their faith.

They were destroyed by

the absolute corruption
of a king.

The date is January 29th, 1889.

I'm at the Mayerling,
a secluded hunting lodge deep

in the wilderness of Austria.

And that there is
Crown Prince Rudolf,

heir to the Habsburg family,

rulers of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire.

On the surface,
he has everything.

Power, privilege,
a throne soon to be his.

But behind closed doors, he's
consumed by a dangerous affair

with his 17-year-old mistress,
Baroness Mary Vetsera.

In the morning, both Rudolf
and Mary will be dead.

Their shocking fate will ignite
a royal scandal,

change the line of succession,
and ultimately help

light the fuse of World War I.

130 Years from now,
remarkable documents will be

discovered that uncover
the truth behind a mystery

that reshaped history.

[classical music playing]

This is the story of the end
of not just the prince

and his lover's lives, but that
of the entire Habsburg dynasty.

First gaining power
in the 11th century,

the Habsburgs control
much of Central Europe

for the better part
of 900 years.

In 1889, their empire stretches
from the borders of Switzerland

to Romania, encompassing
50 million people.

And heir to it all is
Crown Prince Rudolf.

He's married to
Princess Stephanie of Belgium,

but he's also having an affair
that will cost him his life.

It's just after 6 AM,

Crown Prince Rudolf has spent
the night with his mistress.

He appears dressed
in his hunting clothes

and instructs his valet to
ready breakfast by 7:30AM.

Then the prince disappears
into his bedroom.

Moments later...

[two gunshots blast]

Two gunshots echo
through the house.

When the valet goes
to investigate,

he finds the prince's bedroom
door locked.

He knows Rudolf is inside
with his mistress, Mary Vetsera,

and the prince had given
strict orders that

they were not to be disturbed
under any circumstances.

The valet assumes there must be
another explanation,

perhaps a firearm
accidentally discharging

as it's being prepared
for a later hunt.

By the time breakfast is laid
out, the staff become concerned

by the prince's absence.

The valet pounds at the door.
Silence.

At 8:30 AM, his unease turns
into alarm.

He calls for two members of
the royal hunting party

and together they force
the door open, bracing for

whatever they might find
on the other side.

At the Mayerling hunting lodge
in rural Austria, unease grows

as Prince Rudolf fails
to answer repeated knocks

on his locked door.

When the servants finally force
their way inside...

the room is dark
and eerily still.

On one side of the bed,
Rudolf's young mistress,

Mary Vetsera, lies lifeless,
a single bullet wound visible

at her left temple.

Beside her, Crown Prince Rudolf
is slumped forward dead.

Between them rests a revolver.

As the valet studies the scene,

two unsettling details
catch his eye.

Blood at the prince's mouth
and an empty water glass

on the nightstand.

To him, it suggests
a chilling possibility...

Poison.

So, what was this?
Murder?

Suicide?

The truth is difficult
to discern.

But would the heir to
the throne dead under

suspicious circumstances,
you better believe fingers are

about to start pointing
in all directions.

When the royal doctor conducts
a brief autopsy,

the truth finally comes
into focus.

Rudolf was not poisoned at all.

He had been shot in the head,
a fatal wound the valet failed

to notice because of
the darkness in the room

and the position of the body.

The prince's head wound is then
wrapped in a bandage and his

body is taken to Vienna.

Mary, however,
receives no autopsy.

Though her relationship with
the prince was an open secret

among the nobility,
it was carefully shielded

from the public.

Her body is quietly smuggled
out of the lodge and buried

in haste before
questions can be asked.

So did Mary shoot and kill
the Crown Prince before taking

her own life?
If so, why?

At the time,
the story was easy to accept.

Rumors swirled that the teenage
Baroness had been infatuated

with Rudolf long before
they ever met.

She collected postcards of him
like treasures and would stroll

the paths of the Prater,
Vienna's grand public park,

hoping to catch a glimpse of
his carriage passing by.

Mary's mother,
a wealthy widow

from an influential
merchant family, supposedly had

grand ambitions
for her daughter.

With both money and social
clout, she made sure Mary moved

effortlessly through the upper
echelons of Viennese

high society.

It was at one of these
glittering court functions

in the autumn of 1888 that
Mary first met the prince.

Rudolf, whose marriage was
reportedly rocky,

was more than willing to make

the acquaintance of
the young Baroness.

Some royal insiders see Mary
as little more than a temptress

trying to lead the crown
prince astray.

By January 13, 1889, Mary was
all in, writing to a friend

that she and the prince had,
quote, "Lost their heads and now

belonged to each other,
body and soul."

That's only about two weeks
before they both wind up dead.

As news of their demise
spreads, even Mary's mother

wonders if her daughter's
obsession had spiraled

into a murder-suicide.

Did Rudolf try to end
the affair, only for Mary to

shoot him and then herself?

[gunshot blasts]

Rumors circulate of suicide
notes left behind the scene,

yet the royal family
remains tight-lipped.

The truth of what happened
in that room is murky,

but one thing is clear.

The palace is determined to
protect the prince's reputation

at all costs.

And that begins with writing
Mary out of the story.

An imperial cover-up is
in full swing,

clumsy and rushed.

First, they say the prince had
a heart attack.

Then it was
a hunting accident.

Finally, changing their story
for the third time

in just two days,
the palace settles on this.

Rudolf died by suicide alone,

the result of
temporary insanity,

a version seemingly crafted
to secure him

a proper church burial.

But whispers spread of
something far more sinister --

assassination.

Tensions across Europe are
running high.

Nationalism is on the rise.

And plenty of players are
looking for an edge to tilt

the balance of power.

Did a foreign government
murder Rudolf?

Suspicion turns toward Germany,
then France.

But the most chilling
theory of all?

That someone within
Rudolf's own family

wanted him out of the picture.

Rudolf had allegedly
butted heads with his father,

Emperor Franz Joseph,
a strict conservative

who prized loyalty
and order above all else.

In contrast, Rudolf was
outspoken in his support

for liberal reform,
even voicing sympathy for

Hungarian independence,
and at times questioning

the very power of the monarchy
he was born into.

Had he lived to become emperor,
he could have upended

the entire Habsburg order.

And it wasn't just
his political leanings.

Rudolf's personal life
also presented big problems

for the imperial dynasty.

Rudolf had been married to
his wife, Princess Stephanie,

for seven years,
but he was cold and distant.

He drank heavily, cheated openly
with prostitutes and mistresses,

and suffered
from chronic illness,

including gonorrhea,
which he passed to his wife.

The infection left
her infertile and destroyed

any hope of producing
a male heir.

Add it all up, and one theory
begins to take shape.

Was the Habsburg Empire
looking to protect its future

by killing one of their own?

What led to the gruesome deaths
of Crown Prince Rudolf

and his mistress Mary?

Some believe Rudolf's own
family, threatened by

his personal problems
and political leanings,

had him killed.

Others believe a foreign power
plotted their deaths.

No matter who pulled
the trigger, though,

one thing is clear.

The fallout was
immediate and far-reaching.

Rudolf's death shatters
the Habsburg succession line.

With no direct heir,
the crown passes first to

his uncle, Archduke Karl Ludwig,
and then to Karl's son,

Rudolf's cousin,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

But Franz is no Rudolf.

Where Rudolf favored reform,
Franz is rigid,

autocratic, and determined
to preserve imperial power

at all costs.

Then, in 1914, history
takes a dramatic turn.

Franz Ferdinand is assassinated
in Sarajevo by

a Serbian nationalist.

Austrians and Hungarians demand
blood for such a dastardly

royal murder and declare war
on Serbia.

The declaration forces many
European nations to take sides.

Within months, the tangled web
of alliances sparks the inferno,

which becomes World War I.

It also ultimately spells
the end of the entire

Habsburg dynasty.

After the war, the family loses
its empire and falls into ruin.

So, who pushed the domino
that started it all?

Who was ultimately responsible
for Rudolf and Mary's deaths.

In the 1930s, Rudolf's wife,
Princess Stephanie,

publishes her memoirs.

She points the finger
at her husband,

citing an undated letter
he left for her before he died,

which read like
a suicide note.

If true, was Mary
a willing participant

or a hapless victim?

Historian Lucy Coatman,
who has spent years

investigating the case,
is writing a new book

on Mary Vetsera, driven by
a shocking discovery --

a bundle of 125-year-old letters
written by Mary herself,

hidden away
in a Vienna bank vault.

[Lucy]
Mary's letters were discovered
in 2015 in the Schüller Bank

in Vienna.

We do know that Mary's mother
had an account at this

specific bank.

What they found in this box was
Mary's letters to her mother,

her sister, and her brother
just before her death.

When we look at the letters,
there's no doubt about the fact

that this is Mary's handwriting.

And so with the finding of
these letters, we really get

the full picture of everything
that she said to her family.

[Josh]
For the first time
in well over a century,

historians can understand what
happened behind closed doors

at the Mayerling Lodge,
in the words of Mary herself.

The letter addressed to
her mother reads, "Dear Mother,

"forgive me for
what I have done.

"I could not resist love.

"In agreement with him,
I wish to be buried next to him

"in the Allen Cemetery.

"I am happier
in death than in life.

Your Mary."

In Mary's farewell notes,
where she repeatedly states

that she's dying out of love
for him in this very childlike

manner, we can really clearly
see that she was just

a young girl who had great
emotions, felt a great love,

if we can put it like that,
and that she was manipulated

by Rudolf to
her untimely death.

Lucy believes that Crown
Prince Rudolf pushed Mary

into dying alongside him.

Indeed, it seems he even
pulled the trigger.

The bullet that killed Mary
entered behind her left temple,

but she was right-handed,
making it unlikely that

she positioned the gun
that way.

The conclusion?

In the early hours of January
30th at the Mayerling Lodge,

Rudolf shot Mary,
then sometime later turned

the gun on himself.

If that's the case, then what
drove the Crown Prince
to suicide?

[Lucy]
We know from contemporaries
that he was always

very anxious.

He was quite interested
in death, for example.

And then I think his psychology
was impacted later on by

various other things, such as
the disintegration of

his marriage, the fact that
he couldn't produce an heir

to the throne.

And he just became more
and more erratic and restless.

So Rudolf had already
approached another woman,

his long-term mistress,

to offer the suicide
pact to her.

She thought it was a joke at
first, realized he was serious,

went to the police.

They said, "We can't get
involved in imperial affairs."

When no one intervened,
Rudolf turned his attention

to the impressionable,
lovesick 17-year-old Mary.

It wasn't out of love
on his part.

He was just too scared to die
alone and he manipulated

a young girl to die
alongside him.

Mary absolutely didn't commit
suicide and the record should

be corrected and we need to
tell people that Rudolf was

the one who committed this act,
that he murdered Mary.

He was the one that
pulled the trigger.

She did not do this herself.

It's a breathtaking
conclusion.

Analysis of
the prince's mental state,

combined with Mary's own words,

have reached out across time
to answer the question of

what happened to these
star-crossed lovers.

But the legacy of this story
isn't just a tragic tale

of two lives cut short.

It's the first tremor
in an earthquake that

would topple crowns,
redraw borders,

and reshape the world
as we know it.

I'm Josh Gates, and I'll see
you on the next expedition.