All language subtitles for Expedition Files S03E07 Mysterious Endings 720p AMZN WEB-DL DDP2 0 H 264-Kitsune

On this episode of "expedition files,"

the CIA works in the shadows.

Now we shine a light on
one of its most controversial

operations, mkultra...

using hallucinogenics as part of secret

mind control experiments...

with sometimes deadly results.

Then, history's most
famous queen, Cleopatra,

is said to die by self-inflicted snakebite.

We reveal the untold twists
of this truly poisonous story.

And how did two people
walk into a museum and vanish

with a 160-million-dollar masterpiece?

For the first time, we
paint the complete picture.

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 nothing better
than a surprise twist ending.

That shock and amazement
when a story ends up

where you'd never expect it.

You know, Bruce Willis is
a ghost in "the sixth sense."

Brad Pitt doesn't exist in "fight club."

And if you haven't seen
those movies, well, I just totally

ruined them for you.

Anyway, tonight, get ready for
that same surprising sensation

as we explore three shocking
true stories with endings

you really won't see coming.

And let's begin on November 28th, 1953,

in midtown Manhattan.

It's just after 4 am,

an unusually quiet time
for the city that never sleeps.

No commuters streaming in
yet from nearby penn station.

But that doesn't mean
I'm alone out here.

In fact, I'm standing by a grisly scene.

CIA employee frank Olson
has fallen from a window at

the hotel statler and
plummeted 10 floors to his death.

The authorities declare
there are no signs of foul play,

calling it suicide.

But decades later,
declassified documents

will cast doubt on the official story.

So, if frank Olson didn't take his own life,

what really happened here?

New evidence suggests
the truth is far more sinister

than anyone ever imagined.

Our story begins 10
years earlier, in 1943.

U.S. army captain frank
Olson has just been transferred

to Maryland's camp detrick
to begin work on a new,

highly secretive biological
weapons program.

At just 33 years old, Olson
is one of the first scientists

inducted into the program.

With a Ph.D. in biochemistry,

Olson's job is to test various biological

substances like Anthrax for use
as weapons against the Nazis.

Over the next few years,
Olson works on other unsettling

secret experiments,
like operation harness

in Antigua, which tests
the airborne spread

of potential bio weapons by
exposing hundreds of sheep,

Guinea pigs, and
monkeys to potent toxins.

In 1950, he participates
in operation sea-spray,

which clandestinely
releases a nonlethal bacteria

into the mists of San Francisco,

tracking how quickly an airborne disease

could attack a populated area.

And though he finds his
work disturbing, he continues

to move up the ranks.

By 1953, Olson has accepted
an official promotion to a new

top-secret program at the CIA.

He now finds himself
at the heart of a deeply

clandestine operation,
something code-named "mkultra."

Led by chief CIA scientist Sidney gottlieb,

mkultra is working to develop
a substance that can do

three extraordinary things...

force alleged spies to tell the truth,

wipe the memory of prisoners,

and, wildest of all, induce a subject

to perform assassinations
against their will.

In short, the CIA wants
to develop mind control.

Olson is a principal investigator for many

of the mkultra experiments,

forced to witness poisonings

and drug-induced interrogations

using the chemical
weapons he helped create.

By the fall of 1953, despite a reputation

as a jovial, sociable family man,

Olson falls into a deep depression.

On November 18th, 1953,
his boss, Sidney gottlieb,

organizes a retreat at a
cabin at deep creek lake

for those on the mkultra project,

purportedly as a morale booster.

Olson and 11 others travel to the lake

for rest and relaxation.

It'll be anything but.

The first night comes
and goes with little fanfare.

Then, after dinner on the second night,

November 19th, gottlieb passes around

glasses of cointreau liqueur to the men.

Twenty minutes later,

things start to go off the rails.

Despite only having a
single drink, Olson becomes

highly agitated.

Witnesses describe him as paranoid,

convinced someone
has played a trick on him.

What'd you do to me?

He shouts delusional
insults at the other men.

The next night, when
Olson arrives back home,

he's a changed man.

He's sullen and confused,
refusing to play with his kids.

His wife Alice tries to
coax out what happened.

Will you please talk to me?

But the normally talkative Olson is silent,

stewing in his despair.

Later that night, Olson makes
a single ominous statement

to Alice.

I made a terrible mistake.

But he won't say anything more.

Over the next four days, a
deeply troubled Olson travels

back and forth to New York
City with two of his colleagues

to visit what Olson believes
is a CIA-approved psychiatrist.

While there, they take him to
see a musical and a magic show

in an attempt to lift his spirits.

But despite this, Olson
continues to show signs

of declining mental health.

Get away from me!

Finally, on November 27th,
nine days after he first began

behaving erratically and with
his depressed and agitated

symptoms continuing,
Olson agrees to enter

a sanitarium named Chestnut lodge.

But before heading to
the facility, he and his CIA

colleague, Robert lashbrook,
spend one final night

in New York staying at the
hotel statler on the 10th floor.

According to lashbrook's
account, in the middle of

the night, around 2 am, he
wakes up just in time to see

Olson sprinting across the room

and diving full force through the window.

It's a grisly scene on the street below.

Olson's mangled body is
strewn across the sidewalk, dead.

Authorities quickly
rule his death a suicide.

But there are whispers of foul play.

Frank's wife is adamant that
he would never kill himself.

The night manager of the
hotel also tells authorities that,

quote, "in all my years in
the hotel business, I never"

"encountered a case where
someone got up in the middle

"of the night, ran across a
dark room in his underwear,

"avoiding two beds, and
dove through a closed

window with the shade
and curtains drawn."

Despite any lingering doubts,
the official story of suicide

holds for over 20 years,
until the mid-1970s.

That's when the U.S.
government declassifies

a bombshell report exposing
decades of illegal CIA activity.

And buried deep within
its pages is the first crack

in the agency's longstanding cover story.

For over two decades,
the CIA insists biological

warfare expert frank
Olson took his own life.

But then, in 1975, a
newly-declassified document

cracks the case wide
open, hinting not at suicide,

but something far more sinister.

It's a single paragraph
that reads in part, quote,

"on one occasion, LSD was
administered to an employee

"of the department of the
army without his knowledge.

"He then developed and was
sent to New York with a CIA escort

"for psychiatric treatment.

"Several days later, he
jumped from a 10th-floor

window of his room and died as a result."

It's a stunning revelation.

Michael Evans, editorial director at

the national security archive,
has spent decades uncovering

buried government secrets
and has dug into what really

happened to frank Olson.

Olson was among an elite
group of chemists and scientists

who were trying to develop
methods to interrogate

suspected enemy spies or
defectors that they thought

might be able to be turned.

This is a time when... 1949
and after, when LSD was really

kind of all the rage among
the people who were in charge

of the CIA at the time, and
including Sidney gottlieb,

who was the chief chemist
at the CIA, were really sort

of enthralled with the
possibilities of what LSD

could do in terms of finding
a truth serum or a way

to control human minds.

The paragraph about the Olson case

reveals that Sidney gottlieb

spiked the cointreau
at the retreat with LSD

and did it without telling anyone.

Just a few days after
frank Olson's death,

there is a memo in the CIA

to impound all of the
LSD that it had on site

or in various places around the world.

So this is clear indication
that they knew immediately that

there was some connection
between frank's death

and the LSD experiments
that they were doing.

Anyone who knew during
all of those years never told

Alice Olson the real story
of her husband's death.

She would discover it by accident

more than two decades later.

In essence, it was a
22-year-long cover-up.

My anger was unbelievable at
how I had been duped for this

length of time and the anguish,
which was unnecessary.

The CIA's secret drugging of
frank Olson enraged his family.

His wife, Alice, along with their son, Eric,

sued the agency for wrongful death.

They settled for $750,000
and an apology, but notably did

not receive an admission of guilt.

Eric was far from satisfied.

He wanted the full story of
what happened to his dad,

so he set out to
uncover the truth himself.

He decides that the time has
come to exhume his father's

remains and to see
what they might learn.

They discovered that
frank Olson had a traumatic

head wound to the front of his face,

when he supposedly had landed

on his back, when he hit the ground.

So this raised a lot of
questions about whether he had

been struck by someone

before potentially being
thrown out the window.

The official story was
that Olson went face-first

through a closed window,
but a new autopsy revealed

no cuts from glass, and it
was concluded that the wound

on his forehead did
not come from the fall.

To Eric, this was clear proof
that his father was murdered.

It's a shocking
accusation, but it also begs

the question, why?

Could it be because the CIA
was worried Olson would reveal

the dirty secrets of mkultra?

Frank Olson was among couple
of dozen people who would have

known almost all the details
about the mkultra project

and about all of these
sinister programs that the CIA

and the army had been
developing and using on people.

Any revelations that he might
have made in a mental state

that was deteriorating

would have been something that the CIA

would have been very concerned about.

It seems Eric was onto
something, because in 2024,

further top-secret CIA
documents were declassified,

showing there was indeed
much more to frank Olson's ending

than was previously known.

In one especially damning
document, we learn that

the psychiatrist that frank
Olson was taken to see

in New York City was
not a psychiatrist at all,

but rather an allergist.

And his primary qualification

was that he was doing
LSD experiments for the CIA.

But taken together,
the collection suggests

strongly that the CIA was
never interested in frank Olson's

mental health, but rather the security

of the mkultra program.

The documents and second
autopsy don't conclusively

prove frank Olson's
murder, but they do lay bare

a disturbing truth.

He was unknowingly
dosed with hallucinogens

by his own employer,
the U.S. government.

If there is one positive thing
to come out of this nightmare,

the declassified files suggest
Olson's death helped bring

an end to this disturbing secret program,

as far as we know. The
full unredacted truth may

remain forever in the shadows.

We've jumped back in time about
2,000 years to witness another

death shrouded in deception.

It's 30 bc, and I am deep
in the heart of Alexandria,

the capital of ancient Egypt,

in the palace of
legendary queen Cleopatra.

Her empire is crumbling,
and minutes from now,

she'll be dead.

History tells us Cleopatra
is about to take her own life,

poisoning herself with a viper's bite.

But millennia later, a
remarkable new theory will

tear up that old papyrus,
rewriting everything we think

we know about the death
of the queen of the nile.

When ancient Egypt is
conquered by Alexander the great,

it ushers in the hellenistic
age, ruled by a dynasty

of Macedonian Greeks
known as the "ptolemies."

Almost 300 years later, in 69 bc,

Cleopatra is born into this royal line,

quickly proving herself
to be a young woman

of sharp intelligence and fierce ambition.

When Cleopatra's father dies in 51 bc,

she's just 18 and thrust
into a battle for the throne.

She initially shares control

with her 10-year-old brother, ptolemy viii.

And if co-ruling with your kid
brother isn't awkward enough,

Cleopatra marries him
to keep the bloodline pure.

Gross, but welcome to
politics in the ancient world.

Her brother-slash-husband
wants the crown to himself.

And before long, the
sibling rivalry explodes

into full-blown civil war.

Cleopatra is driven out of Egypt.

To get rid of her brother-husband
and take back power,

she turns to a visiting
Roman general for help.

His name? Julius Caesar.

According to legend, to
get an audience with him,

Cleopatra is smuggled into his room

inside a rolled-up carpet.

Caesar is transfixed by her beauty.

And even though he's 30
years older than her and married,

Caesar and Cleopatra
begin a legendary romance.

And hey, it also doesn't hurt
that he has the military might

that she needs, and she has

enough riches to keep
the Roman coffers full.

There are many more twists and turns

to Cleopatra's power struggle.

If you're interested, crack
open an Egyptian history

book of your choice.

Suffice it to say, though, Caesar gets

Cleopatra her throne.
He also gets her pregnant.

In 47 bc, Cleopatra gives birth
to Caesar's son, nicknaming him

caesarion, aka little Caesar.

Pizza, pizza.

Cleopatra and Caesar's power-coupling

lasts until 44 bc,

when his senate friends, led
by brutus, stab him in the back.

Literally, like 23 times.

After Caesar's death,
Cleopatra urgently needs

a new ally in Rome.

Caesar's former protégé,
general Mark Antony,

rises to power as one of
Rome's three new rulers.

He asks Cleopatra for a
meeting, and she agrees,

eager to secure his Egypt
alliance with Rome once more.

Cleopatra reportedly arrives
in high-style on a sumptuous

golden barge with purple
sails, dressed in the robes

of the goddess Isis.

Cleopatra's beauty, not to
mention her tremendous wealth,

is intoxicating.

Though he's married,
the great general falls

for her, following right
in Caesar's footsteps.

Mark Antony moves to Egypt
to be with her, and they have

three children together.

In short, she's secured.

Rome's support and
Mark Antony's heart.

There's just one problem.

Mark Antony has a new
political rival, octavian,

the adopted son of the recently
assassinated Julius Caesar.

Octavian wants to be
emperor and is no fan of Antony.

To keep octavian on his side,
Mark Antony agrees to marry

his sister, octavia.

That's right, octavia and octavian.

The ancient romans
loved a matching name set.

Very confusing.

After some quality time with
octavia, Mark Antony realizes

she's no Cleopatra, abandons her,

and returns to Egypt.

It's a fateful choice.

In doing so, he doesn't
just break octavia's heart,

he ignites a war with Rome,

a war that will end in
one of the most iconic

and controversial deaths in history.

After Mark Antony leaves
his well-connected wife octavia

to be with queen of Egypt, Cleopatra,

all hell breaks loose.

Outraged by the insult to
his sister, the rising Roman

ruler octavian declares war
against Antony and Cleopatra.

In 31 bc, Cleopatra
and Antony's combined

forces face off against octavian's fleet

at the battle of actium,
off the coast of Greece,

only to suffer a crushing defeat.

The lovers retreat to
their Egyptian stronghold,

but the support of
their allies is dwindling.

Octavian's army marches on Egypt.

The royal city of Alexandria
falls to the romans,

and instead of allowing
himself to be captured,

Mark Antony falls on his
own sword, death by suicide.

Barricading herself in her chambers

with her treasures, Cleopatra
prepares for the worst.

It is said that as the
romans surround the palace,

Cleopatra is told of her lover's death,

and in despair, she has one
of her handmaidens smuggle

a venomous snake into her chambers

in a basket of figs.

According to the story,
Cleopatra then kills herself

by accepting the deadly snake bite.

The report comes from
the historian plutarch,

writing more than 100
years after Cleopatra's death.

He even says octavian has a sculpture

of the queen of the nile
carried in his victory parade

with a snake clinging to her breast.

Plutarch is far from the only account

of Cleopatra's death, though.

In the 2,000 years that follow,

various other versions of
how she ended her life emerge.

She pricks herself with
a poisonous hairpin.

Drinks a homemade poison.

Applies poisonous ointment to her skin.

Ok, so poison is definitely a theme.

But can we prove it?

With the death of Cleopatra,
the ptolemy dynasty is done,

and Egypt has officially fallen.

The romans make a point of
burying Cleopatra and her story.

We don't even know the
location where she was laid to rest.

So did Cleopatra die
the way we were told?

Or is there another truth
the romans wanted hidden?

The answer might lie in
her burial, but for centuries,

experts have searched in
vain for Cleopatra's tomb.

Historians believe the
ruins of taposiris magna,

outside Alexandria, could
be the location of her burial.

And in 2017, I did some
digging there myself.

Archaeologist Kathleen martínez
and I opened an ancient crypt.

And using a high-tech
camera, we peered inside.

That's a skull.

Look at that, buried in the sand.

- That's a human skull.
- Yes.

My god.

You can see two skulls.

Unbelievable! Another skull.

There were two bodies
together in the crypt,

but no royal implements.

It's an amazing find, but not Cleopatra.

In the years since I joined
the search, Kathleen has

continued her excavations at
taposiris magna, making further

remarkable discoveries,
including new tunnels,

a sunken port, and
hundreds of coins bearing.

Cleopatra's image, as
well as two statuettes.

Intriguing, but no burial site yet.

Meanwhile, other new insights
into her death are emerging

from a different kind of
expert, an acclaimed criminal

profiler who suggests her
death was not a suicide,

but a calculated assassination.

Professor of ancient
religions Hugo Mendez has

closely studied the findings.

In her book, "the murder of Cleopatra",

history's greatest cold case,"
criminal investigator pat brown

argues that the queen
of the nile definitely

did not take her own life.

Brown looks at Cleopatra's
death like any other

homicide cold case.

She's taking stock of
the body, the weapons,

the witnesses, even the motive.

The narrative is suspect
from the beginning.

Cleopatra, this is someone
who was raised with all

of the political intrigue of the era.

She's calculating, she's indomitable.

She's someone who is thought
to have killed members of her own

family to stay on the throne.

She's not the kind of person
who's gonna fall apart because

of Mark Antony.

The author argues that based
on every historical account

of Cleopatra that we have, it
is totally out of character that

she would commit suicide,
even with the romans

at the door.

An analysis of the crime scene

itself also raises serious red flags.

Why did the women not exhibit
any of the characteristic signs

of snake poisoning?
Vomiting, convulsions.

We don't hear about this in the record.

For that matter, why is
the snake never discovered

in the chamber?

The snake should be with the women,

but that's not in the story.

So let's say that there is no snake.

Imagine that Cleopatra is
able to concoct her own poison,

a poison she can stab herself with

or use as an ointment or drink.

The problem is that there is
no poisonous object described

in the scene. So where's
the murder weapon?

The purported crime scene
doesn't make any sense.

It's often said that history
is written by the Victors.

And our understanding of
Cleopatra's death was written

by her enemies.

Interestingly, Cleopatra's
suicide by snakebite story was

strategically promoted by the
same man who had the most

to gain from her untimely
demise, the emperor octavian.

A living Cleopatra would have

been very, very dangerous to Rome.

She was likely the mother
of Caesar's only child,

and she was a respected
leader who had the support

of the Egyptian people.

To openly kill Cleopatra might
have inspired the Egyptians

to rebel.

On the other hand,
keeping her alive would also

have triggered violent
uprisings in her name.

It seems much more likely
that Cleopatra is imprisoned,

beaten, and tortured
by octavian in an attempt

to try to find the location
of her son, caesarion,

who represents a direct threat to his rule.

And ultimately, octavian
had Cleopatra murdered.

The evidence can only be circumstantial

after 2,000 years,

but octavian certainly had the motive,

the means, and the
opportunity to kill Cleopatra.

Since Cleopatra's body
has never been found,

there's no way to reexamine
it for any signs of foul play.

But octavian's behavior
after Cleopatra's death,

you could argue it screams cover-up.

He wastes no time wiping
out every rival to the throne,

including killing Cleopatra
Cleopatra's son, caesarion.

One by one, the royal bloodline
is wiped out, and within weeks,

Cleopatra's dynasty is gone.

And so, despite committing
the most famous suicide

in history, it may be
that history got it wrong,

and Cleopatra didn't
die by her own hand.

Instead, she may have
been murdered by an empire

that sought to erase her.

It's 2017, and I'm in a
quiet little consignment store

in silver city, new Mexico,
where the tables are lined

with secondhand items.

It looks like the usual junk.

But, hey, that painting's
worth something.

And by something, I mean $160 million.

That's because it's by willem de kooning,

the famed 20th-century abstract
expressionist, hiding in plain

sight like just another
garage sale leftover.

It's also at the heart of
one of the most audacious

art heists in history.

Who stole it, and how did it get here?

We expose the secrets
of the crime and reveal

the last people you'd
ever expect to be behind it.

We begin on the day of
the theft, November 29th,

1985, the day after Thanksgiving.

Just before 9 am,

staff at the university
of Arizona museum of art

prepare to open the doors.

While a security guard
unlocks the entrance

for an arriving employee,

a man and a woman also ask to be let in.

The guard thinks nothing of it,

allowing these visitors early entry.

The couple climbs a flight
of stairs to the second floor.

A guard trails close behind them.

The woman suddenly stops.

Turning, she strikes up a
conversation with the guard

about a painting hanging in the stairwell.

Her partner, he keeps going.

Moments later, the
man descends the stairs,

reunites with the woman,
and together they simply walk

out the door not 15
minutes after they arrived.

A little odd, but nothing
to panic about, right?

That is, until he enters
the second floor gallery

and comes face to face

with his worst nightmare,
an empty frame.

One of the museum's
most prized possessions,

willem de kooning's
masterpiece, "woman-ochre,"

has been sliced from its frame.

One vanished painting,
two nameless thieves,

and a trail that will go cold for 30 years.

A $160 million masterpiece
called "woman-ochre" has been

stolen from the university
of Arizona museum.

Painted in 1955 by the
Dutch-American artist

willem de kooning, a
major figure in the New York

art scene and a pioneer
of abstract expressionism.

Museum staff, shaken and confused,

stare at the empty frame.

Panic sets in, as they call the authorities.

The painting was one of
the museum's most important

works, but security was minimal

and there were no
cameras in the gallery.

The theft itself is as brazen as it is crude.

The woman's accomplice has
cut the 30-inch by 40-inch painting

from its frame with a blade,
then simply folded the canvas

and put it under his coat.

And just like that, they
and the painting are gone.

And to make matters worse,
there are almost no leads.

The FBI is called in, creating sketches

of the suspects.

But all they have are
very vague descriptions.

The woman, about 50,
thin, glasses, a scarf wrapped

around her graying hair.

The man, in his 50s, stocky, dark hair,

a trim mustache.

Possibly wearing disguises.

And despite chasing
down every possible clue,

like interviewing art
dealers around the world,

following up on black market tips

and interrogating possible suspects,

the painting has become a ghost.

But that doesn't stop it
from increasing in value.

By 2015, the university
of Arizona estimates that

the still-missing de
kooning masterpiece is worth

a jaw-dropping $160 million.

That brings us back to 2017
and that consignment shop

in silver city, new Mexico.

The store's owner, David Van
auker, has recently acquired

what he believes is just
an ordinary painting as part

of a $2,000 estate sale from
a recently deceased couple,

Jerry and Rita alter.

It leans against that wall
for two weeks, until one day

a customer says it's a de
kooning and offers $200,000

for the artwork.

Van auker, excited, does what
any modern-day sleuth would do.

He googles it.

And what pops up stops him cold.

It's de kooning's "woman-ochre,"
stolen 30 years ago,

now worth millions.

Van auker contacts the
museum, describing the painting.

The museum's curator is hopefully

optimistic but cautious.

Then the photos arrive.
The dimensions come in.

And just like that,
suspicion turns to certainty.

The stolen masterpiece embarks
on an extraordinary homecoming,

back to the museum it vanished
from over three decades ago.

Van auker is offered a
reward, but politely declines,

saying he returned stolen property,

something everyone should do.

With the painting's
authenticity confirmed,

the FBI starts connecting the dots.

Van auker purchased the
piece from the estate of the late

Jerry and Rita alter, a
senior seemingly ordinary

couple living in new Mexico.

Jerry was a retired music
teacher who died in 2012.

And Rita was a speech
therapist who passed in 2017.

They had no criminal record.

Hardly the type to pull off
one of the biggest art heists

in history, or so it seemed.

When authorities revisit
the original case file,

something stands out.

The sketch of the male suspect

bears a resemblance to
Jerry, without the mustache.

And the woman who
distracted the guard?

A possible match for
Rita, minus the gray hair.

Could it be them?

Did this unassuming
couple really steal a painting

worth $160 million?

The CIA's mkultra
program included many

controversial experiments,
but arguably the most

outrageous was
operation midnight climax,

launched in 1953.

Prostitutes on the CIA payroll
in New York and San Francisco

lured unsuspecting
men into fake brothels,

where they were secretly
dosed with LSD, all while agents

observed through one-way mirrors.

The aim was to study how
drugs and sex could be used

for interrogation and control.

This jaw-dropping and
pants-dropping top-secret

operation ran for a decade
before being exposed

in congressional hearings in the '70s.

In the end, it turns out
the biggest trip of mkultra

wasn't the LSD.

It was how kinky the U.S.
government was willing to get

in the name of mind control.

Jerry and Rita alter lived ordinary lives.

But with their deaths, they've
become prime suspects

in an extraordinary
160-million-dollar art heist.

The painting was traced to their estate.

And the resemblance between
the couple in the original

police sketches?

Well, let's just say it ain't looking good

for Jerry and Rita.

That's not definitive
proof they did it, though.

That proof is coming.

The FBI discovers damning evidence.

Travel records and a
photo placing Jerry and Rita

in Tucson on Thanksgiving day, 1985.

They were in town when
the painting was stolen.

Right place, right time.

But then comes the smoking gun.

Pictures of the stolen painting itself.

Photos from inside the alters'
home showing the de kooning,

not stashed away, but proudly hanging

in their bedroom.

Authorities are convinced
they have finally solved

the case that has
baffled them for decades.

But since Jerry and Rita died
before their crime was exposed,

it left investigators with a huge question.

Why did they do it?

Art world investigative
journalist Charles sabba

has been working to
complete the picture.

On the surface, Jerry and
Rita alter appeared to be

a reserved, quiet couple from
New York who retired and left.

New York to live in cliff,
new Mexico, to escape what

they referred to as "the rat race."

He was a schoolteacher.
He played the clarinet.

He played the sax. He taught music.

Everyone describes her as
really adorable, loving, kind.

So Jerry and Rita alter did
appear to be a normal couple,

but because the alters have
passed and never confessed,

it leaves really unsettling
questions that are still out

there as to who actually did
this, or did anyone help them,

or were there any
other crimes committed?

Sabba believes Jerry left
behind a confession of sorts,

hidden within a book of short
stories he wrote and published

in 2011, titled "the cup and the lip."

In his book, "the cup and the lip,"

he describes the couple that
steals artwork, that he says

this couple fills their psychological need

by stealing, by creating
larceny, and then they hide it

in their house where only
for their viewing pleasure only.

I think he is borderline sociopath.

And there is a feeling of power

when you get away with
something like stealing

the important painting.

That whole book pretty much gave us

the psychological profile of him.

Was Jerry's motive really
just about the satisfaction

of committing the perfect crime?

A closer look at the couple
suggests that, in private,

they also seemed to enjoy living large.

These modest retirees somehow owned

a bronze Remington statue,

a prized western sculpture worth

tens of thousands of dollars.

They also traveled to over
140 countries, thanks to a secret

bank account containing
over a million dollars.

There was something very strange about

the alters' lifestyle.

Even though they had modest
incomes and modest careers,

they went from having a
piece of property with a trailer,

to a beautiful home with a built-in pool.

It was very suspicious
and caused a lot of talk.

Not exactly the financial
profile of two retired

school teachers.

How did they have a million
dollars in their account?

How did they travel the world?
How did they buy a Remington?

How did these people
with such modest income...

Become collectors and
house owners and, you know,

world travelers?

To me, it means that they were
finding another means to fuel

that lavish lifestyle.

The suspicions are valid.

But if Jerry and Rita never
sold the "woman-ochre"

for profit, where did all
that money come from?

Could they have been secretly stealing

and selling other artworks?

In 2023, a researcher spotted
two paintings on an art auction

site that looked oddly familiar.

And then he remembered a
photo from inside the alter's home.

Zooming in, there they were.

"Oklahoma Cheyenne," by Joseph sharp,

and "aspens," by Victor Higgins,

stolen from the harwood
museum of new Mexico, in 1985.

The theft of these two
paintings had all the same

hallmarks of the "woman-ochre"
heist, a disguised couple,

paintings cut from their
frames, and a clean getaway.

I strongly believe other works
will come up with the odor

of the alters on them.

If the alters really did snatch not one,

but three paintings, who
knows how many other

masterpieces they might
have stolen and sold.

As for the painting at the center of it all,

"woman-ochre," it triumphantly returned

to the university of Arizona
museum of art, in 2022.

Worth noting, the museum
has now significantly

increased security.

Smuggling it out under
your jacket is, thankfully,

no longer an option.

I'm Josh gates.

I'll see you on the next expedition.