All language subtitles for Expedition.Files.S04E08.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

On this episode
of "Expedition Files"...

[hawk screeches]

Meriwether Lewis lives
a life of acclaim

as one of America's
greatest explorers

leading the Lewis and Clark
expedition.

When he dies
by apparent suicide...

[woman]
Oh, my God!

[Josh]
...many are in disbelief,

wondering if it was,
in fact, murder.

Now we share the tragic truth.

Then, in 1961, leader of
the United Nations,

Dag Hammarskjöld is on a peace
mission to a war zone when

his plane mysteriously crashes.

[explosion blasts]

The official account says
this was an accident,

but recently uncovered evidence

suggests something much
more sinister.

[gavel bangs]

And New York Supreme Court
Judge Joseph Crater is riding

high as the toast of 1930s
Manhattan, but then suddenly

disappears forever.

A century later, long-hidden
evidence suggests the true fate

of the person once known

as the "Missingest Man
in New York."

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."

Colonel Mustard in the study
with the candlestick.

Who doesn't love
the board game, Clue?

There's nothing more satisfying
than solving

a clear-cut case
of whodunit.

But once you're outside of
the world's most dangerous

mansion, solving whodunits is
sadly far from simple.

But tonight, we'll try to play
the real-world blame game

anyway, rolling the dice to
work out who's responsible in

three historic
murder mysteries.

Hopefully, it won't be
Miss Scarlet.

She's my favorite.

We begin in 1809,
in the dead of night,

outside a Tennessee
roadside inn.

The wilderness is quiet,
but then the calm is broken

by the desperate calls
of a dying man.

Help!

Water, please!

This is Meriwether Lewis,
famed explorer from

the Lewis and Clark expedition,
and he's just been shot.

Was he robbed,
assassinated, or are his two

gunshot wounds self-inflicted?

He struggles back inside
his cabin, where he will soon

succumb to his fate.

And with no witnesses and no
arrests, conspiracy theories

surrounding his death will
linger for over 200 years,

that is, until 2025,
when a research team claims

they have definitively
explained the mysterious death

of one of America's
great heroes.

[hawk screeches]

Growing up on his stepfather's
estate in rural Georgia,

Meriwether Lewis spends
his early years not in school,

but instead mastering
the skills of an outdoorsman,

fostering a lifelong love of
natural history.

In 1795, at the age of 21,
he joins the army.

It's here that he first meets
and forges a bond with

his future partner,
William Clark.

The two men serve together
on the Western frontier.

Lewis rises to
the rank of captain

before leaving the army
in 1801.

At age 27, he becomes Thomas
Jefferson's personal secretary,

working directly with Jefferson
on military intelligence.

And we will be back
as far as...

[Josh]
Jefferson has set his sights
on expanding

US territory to the Pacific.

In 1803, he completes

the Louisiana Purchase,
acquiring French-controlled

land for $15 million,
a bargain that nearly doubles

the nation's size.

To explore the vast,
uncharted Western Territory,

Jefferson selects Lewis
to lead the expedition.

I will.

[Josh]
Lewis' mission is nothing
short of monumental --

chart a route from St. Louis to
the West Coast, forge alliances

with native tribes,
make detailed maps,

and document unknown
flora and fauna.

No big deal.

Knowing he can't do it alone,
Lewis turns to an old

army comrade, William Clark,
to share command.

Together, they form the Corps
of Discovery, with a mission to

traverse nearly 4,000 miles of
rivers, plains and mountains,

currently blank spaces on
American maps.

[triumphant music plays]

Lewis and Clark, along with
a party of more than 40,

depart St. Louis in 1804,
beginning an epic trek to

the Pacific Coast
and back again.

The journey is harrowing,
but the group soldiers on,

surviving in no small part due
to their Native American

guide Sacagawea,
who manages the first part of

the journey pregnant
and the rest with a baby

on her chest.

Along the way,
Lewis and Clark carefully

document their discoveries.

They return with scientific
samples and detailed maps that

transform America's
understanding of

the Western frontier.

[indistinct chatter]

[Josh]
Lewis is appointed governor
of the newly explored

Louisiana Territory.

But the position comes with
serious challenges,

and in accepting it, Lewis also
inherits a bitter enemy.

That's because to make Lewis
governor, Jefferson has to fire

the man currently in the post,
James Wilkinson.

Now responsible for almost
a million square miles of land,

Meriwether Lewis faces
a challenging undertaking that

pushes him to his limits.

It turns out, governing
the untamed Louisiana territory

is far more difficult than
exploring it.

[indistinct chatter]

[Josh]
Supplying the growing outposts
with horses and equipment

requires large sums of money,

much of it advanced personally
by Lewis.

The expenses quickly add up,
and he accumulates significant

debts while serving
as governor.

Lewis seeks reimbursement from
the federal government.

But by this time,
Thomas Jefferson

has left office.

The new president,
James Madison, is less

responsive, and payment
is delayed.

This sends Lewis into a spiral
of depression and anger,

worsened by what many describe
as a heavy drinking problem.

How am I supposed to be governor

if I don't get money
from the government?

I can't do this.

I can't do this.

In September of 1809,
the disgruntled Lewis feels

that he has no choice but to
travel back to Washington to

try to recover the money
he believes he's owed.

It's a journey which
he won't survive.

Lewis travels over 300 miles
on horseback, arriving at

the inn known as Grinder's Stand
in Tennessee a month later.

That night, he asks for his
dinner to be brought

to the cabin where
he's staying alone.

Once he's finished, he heads to
bed without incident.

But then, during the night,
innkeeper Priscilla Grinder is

awoken by the sounds
of two gunshots

emanating from Lewis' room.

[gunshot blasts]

But she's too terrified
to investigate.

At first light,
a servant and Mrs. Grinder

go to check on Lewis,
only to find him fatally

wounded by two bullets, one
to his head and one to his body.

He dies soon after.

On October 20th,
a Nashville paper breaks

the news of Lewis' suicide.

He's buried not far from
Grinder's Stand.

But hold on.

We're in the era
of single-shot flintlock guns.

So how does one man manage to
shoot himself twice?

Plus, an examination of Lewis'
body reveals cuts on his neck,

arm and leg.
Could those be defense wounds?

And there's more.

Supposedly, some of Lewis'
money is missing.

Add to all of this the fact
that Grinder's Stand sits in

the heart of bandit country,
and locals start to say that

his death has all the hallmarks
of a robbery gone wrong.

In 1848, the state of
Tennessee exhumes Lewis' grave

in order to rebury him
alongside an official monument.

As part of this process,
they do a medical examination.

Something that didn't take place

immediately after his death.

A local doctor reportedly noted
that one gunshot wound appeared

to be in the back of his head,

an unlikely scenario
for suicide.

The exam concluded it was,
quote, "more probable that

he died at the hands
of an assassin."

But who would have wanted to
kill him?

Some speculate
it was a robbery.

He died along a route that was

notorious at the time for
bandit attacks.

[loud cracking]

-[man roars]
-[gunshot blasts]

[gunshot blasts]

[Josh] Others point to
James Wilkinson,

the disgruntled former governor
Lewis had replaced, whom Lewis

had allegedly exposed in
illegal land deals

in St. Louis.

What is clear is this --

Meriwether Lewis had enemies,

and some had reason to
want him dead,

leading some to believe that
Lewis' death was not a suicide

at all, but a calculated act
of revenge.

[gunshot blasts]

[Josh]
Nearly 40 years after
Meriwether Lewis' death,

a medical examination raises
suspicions that he may have

been murdered
rather than died by suicide.

But no suspects are
ever investigated.

Today, Lewis' body remains
uninvestigated by

modern forensics.

Academics instead turn
to the historical record

in search of answers.

In 2021, physician David Peck
and his wife,

clinical psychologist
Martie Peck, publish a new book

reinvestigating the case.

[David]
Death of Meriwether Lewis is
highly controversial.

Was he murdered by somebody
or robbed and murdered?

[Martie] In our book, I create
a psychological profile of

Lewis' personality.

Essentially, Meriwether Lewis

had a genetic predisposition
to depression.

Only three years after
the expedition ended,

Lewis descended into

a pit of depression
and despair

because things
really shifted overnight

with the change of presidential

administrations and with
his appointment as governor.

And then, with the bottom
dropping out of none of

his efforts being supported,

that just drove him
further downward.

After considering all of
the theories that are put forth

about Lewis' death,
we think that the evidence is

absolutely overwhelming that
he committed suicide.

[Josh]
But what about the 1848
medical report that concluded

Lewis was likely assassinated,

referencing a gunshot wound to
the back of his head?

That finding may be flawed.

By modern standards,
the exam is considered

unreliable because the remains
were severely decomposed,

making it impossible to
determine soft tissue damage

or the bullet's exact
entry angles.

There are also other plausible
explanations for the so-called

"defense wounds."

Lewis had just ridden nearly
300 miles through

the wilderness, leaving him
exhausted and possibly injured.

Or the cuts found on his body
could have been self-harm.

So perhaps Lewis really did
kill himself,

botching the first shot by
grazing his head,

then finishing the job with
a shot to the body.

Experts that I consulted,
forensic pathologists,

vascular trauma surgeons,
all said that they're not even

surprised that Lewis survived
those wounds for two hours.

Meriwether Lewis was traveling
with a brace of two pistols,

which would account for
the two shots.

[two gunshots blast]

He would have simply held
the gun up to his chest

like this and pulled the trigger
and/or shot himself in the head

in the same manner.

It's not something that would
be difficult to do.

The Pecks point to a document
that may further prove

their case that Meriwether
Lewis committed suicide.

Lewis' will,
written right before he died.

[Martie]
En route to Fort Pickering,

he wrote a will, a second will,

because his first will,
apparently,

William Clark was his executor.

But writing a will like that
very shortly before

one would die is not something
that would be considered

a typical thing to do unless,
on some level, a person was

considering killing himself.

[Josh]
In that second will,
Lewis replaced Clark and left

his estate to his mother,
an unexpected decision that

adds to the mystery of
his final days.

[David]
I think the end for Meriwether
Lewis came when it did,

in part because he was
by himself.

And his best friend in life,

William Clark,
wasn't there for him.

And he was on his way back to
Washington to face a hostile

political environment.

And he also had returned
to drinking.

And I think that the effects of
that was too much for him.

And I think the opportunity to
kill himself presented itself,

and the demons knocked on
his door, and Meriwether Lewis

answered the door.

When William Clark found out
about Lewis' death,

he lamented, "I fear the weight
of his mind has overcome him."

The Pecks believe Clark's
instincts were right and that

Meriwether Lewis
committed suicide.

But let's remind ourselves,
this is still just a theory.

No one saw Lewis get shot
or do the shooting.

While the cause of
Meriwether Lewis' death

may be in doubt,
the cause of his life isn't.

Lewis was devoted
to his country,

and without his bravery
and selflessness, we may never

have come to know
the United States of America

as we do today.

It's September 17th, 1961.

It's just before 4 p.m.

I'm in the Republic of
the Congo in Africa as

a Douglas DC-6 readies
for takeoff.

It's waiting for this man, who's
embarking on a secret mission.

His name is Dag Hammarskjöld,
the Swedish Secretary-General

of the United Nations.

He is the most powerful
diplomat on Earth.

And right now, he's racing to
stop a civil war from tearing

the Congo apart.

But with billions in resources
and Cold War interests at

stake, powerful forces are
betting against him.

And in just a few hours,
this plane will crash

and Hammarskjöld will be dead.

Authorities will blame
pilot error.

But was it really an accident
or an ambush in the skies?

Strap in.

We're heading for some
serious turbulence.

In 1953, Swedish diplomat
Dag Hammarskjöld becomes

the UN's second
Secretary-General.

Hammarskjöld brings
charisma, idealism,

and practicality to the role,
believing the organization can

hold a divided world together.

In Africa,
he faces his greatest test

and his most dangerous mission.

[crowd roaring distantly]

[Josh]
After decades of Belgian rule,
the Congo gains independence

in 1960, but quickly begins to
fall apart as foreign powers

compete for its mineral wealth.

Its richest province,
Katanga, tries to break away,

with Belgium accused of
supporting the split.

Hammarskjöld sees this as
a threat to the country's

survival and moves to keep
the Congo united.

But the UN mission grows
increasingly controversial.

By September 1961,
fighting escalates.

Civilians are caught
in the crossfire,

and tensions rise with Western
governments over how

the situation is being handled.

Determined to stop the crisis,
Hammarskjöld secretly arranges

is a meeting with Katangan
leader Molïse Tshombe.

in British-controlled
Northern Rhodesia

on September 18th.

On the afternoon of
September 17th,

he boards
a DC-6 named Albertina,

with a crew of seven
and eight UN aides

and security personnel,
led by 36-year-old

American Sergeant, Harold
Julien.

But they will never arrive
at their destination.

Here are the facts.

Shortly after midnight
on September 18th,

Hammarskjöld's plane,
the Albertina, crashes in

Congo's neighboring nation of
Rhodesia, roughly nine miles

from the Ndola airport runway.

Fifteen hours later,
search and rescue teams finally

reach the crash site
around 3 p.m.

Of the 16 people aboard,
15 are already dead,

including Dag Hammarskjöld.

[man coughing]

[Josh]
Amazingly, one man survives.

Security officer Harold Julien
is badly burned

and barely breathing.

According to the accounts of
the first responders,

Dag Hammarskjöld lies just
beyond the fuselage,

on his back, clothes intact,
oddly untouched by fire.

The rest of the victims are
charred almost

beyond recognition.

News of the tragedy
shocks the world.

Dag Hammarskjöld is mourned for
his leadership and his belief

that diplomacy could heal
a broken world.

I know that I'm speaking for
all of my fellow Americans,

expressing our deep sense of
shock and loss in the untimely

death of the Secretary-General
of the United Nations,

Mr. Dag Hammarskjöld.

[Josh]
After Hammarskjöld's death,

violence in Katanga escalates,
forcing the UN

to launch one of its largest
military operations, made up of

international troops from
member nations.

Thousands move in, but it takes
nearly a year and a half of

heavy fighting to
end the secession.

Dag's UN mission to prevent

civil war in the Congo
ultimately succeeds,

but he loses his life
in the process.

And many wonder whether
his death was truly an accident

or a deliberate attempt to stop
peacekeeping efforts.

In the immediate aftermath of
the crash, the government of

Northern Rhodesia
launches an inquiry.

Their conclusion?
Pilot error.

According to the official
version, the crew of

the Albertina navigating
without radar in darkness

toward an unfamiliar
airstrip simply

misjudged their altitude.

The plane clipped trees,
broke apart, and crashed.

So, case closed?
Not so fast.

That's because the sole
survivor of the crash tells

a different story.

And it could blow the pilot
error theory wide open.

[Josh]
Dag Hammarskjöld's plane crash
is originally dismissed as

an accident caused by
pilot error.

But one eyewitness' account
calls that into question.

[coughs]

[Josh] Against all odds,
lone survivor,

UN Security Officer
Harold Julien,

has made it out of the crash

and lies in a hospital bed,

badly burned
and gravely injured.

There was a big explosion...

[Josh] In brief moments of
consciousness, Harold describes

the plane exploding midair,
quote, "a lot of small

explosions around," he says.

...there was a big explosion...

[Josh]
But if the crash was simply
the result of navigational

error, why were there
explosions before impact?

[indistinct chatter]

[Josh]
He clings to life for five days
before succumbing to

his injuries at Ndola Hospital
on September 23rd.

In their final report,
Rhodesian authorities dismiss

his testimony as the confused
ramblings of a dying man.

Officials also hear from local
witnesses who claim a second,

smaller plane was flying
above Hammarskjöld's

aircraft as it circled
Ndola Airport that night.

Several report loud explosions
and say the Albertina burst

into flames before crashing,
raising the possibility that

the plane was shot down.

Perhaps strangest of all,
despite hundreds of photos

taken at the crash site,
the only images show him

already laid out
on a stretcher.

Why was his body moved before
he was photographed?

And in one photo,
some believe an Ace of Spades

playing card can be seen tucked
into Dag's collar,

interpreted as a death card
or a calling card

from an assassin.

In 1962, the UN
launches its own investigation.

Using evidence collected
for the Rhodesian report,

the UN investigators call out
the sloppy search

and rescue operation.

Why, they ask, did it take
15 hours to locate

a fiery plane crash only nine
miles from the airport?

But the UN Commission fails to
find any evidence of sabotage

or attack, saying the possible
scenarios for the crash include

pilot error
and mechanical malfunction.

It's a conclusion that doesn't
exactly inspire confidence,

but it's the final official
word on the crash

for half a century.

Over the years, countless
conspiracy theories swirl.

Fingers are pointed in
all directions.

The Soviets, the British,
South Africa, even the US

is suspected of
orchestrating the crash.

All these nations had a stake
in the Congo in the early

1960s, but for the next four
decades, no evidence emerges to

prove any of them
are responsible.

Then, in the 2000s, a group of
independent researchers uncover

recently declassified documents

and speak to
newly found witnesses.

These findings push the United
Nations to finally take action.

At the center of this
unraveling mystery is

journalist Ravi Somaiya,
who has spent years chasing

the story for his book,
"The Golden Thread."

[Ravi]
In the 2010s, the UN itself
reopened the inquiry,

and it's unearthed significant
new details.

One of the things the United
Nations discovered is that

America had a plane parked near
Ndola Airfield, but this plane

was a mobile relay station for
picking up signals

and transmitting them to NSA
and other listening stations

around the world.

So, unbeknownst to the UN
at the time, the US

had a spy plane on the ground
in Ndola tasked with

intercepting foreign aircraft
communication, possibly

even Hammarskjöld's.

One of the reasons America has
been keeping a lot of secrets

is it doesn't want to admit
that it's spying on

the United Nations.

You're not really supposed
to do that.

Now, decades later,
former American intelligence

officers have stepped forward
to reveal for the first time

what that spy plane may have
overheard that fateful night.

On the night that Hammarskjöld's
plane went down, there was

an operative for the NSA called
Charles Southall.

He was stationed in Cyprus.

He heard radio communications
which suggested a second plane

was in the sky
and targeting the Albertina.

And then he said he heard
the sound of gunfire.

And then someone said,

"I've hit it. It's going down,"
effectively.

A second plane in the air.
So who was flying it?

In 1961, surely there weren't
a lot of planes in rural Africa

capable of taking down a DC-6.

But it turns out one side of
the conflict had exactly that,

the Katanganese forces,
who were determined to keep

their mineral-rich region away
from the newly independent

Congo nation and directly
opposing UN efforts to

reunify the country.

Their jet, known as
a Fouga Magister,

had twin machine guns and
carried two bombs per mission.

It wreaked havoc on the UN,
bombing and strafing

its ground forces in the Congo
and crippling

their cargo supply.

This Fouga jet fighter was so
infamous that Hammarskjöld was,

in fact, writing really stern
letters begging for help to try

and get this jet fighter
out of the air.

It was really the bane
of the existence

of the United Nations
in Katanga.

And there's also significant
evidence that a Belgian

mercenary pilot was flying
this plane.

[Josh] Yes, investigators
suspect a half-Belgian,

half-British, pilot named
Jan van Risseghem was the man

who shot down Dag.

A U.S. State Department memo,

dated just two days
after the crash,

but only declassified in 2014,
states Hammarskjöld may have

been shot down and lists
Jan van Risseghem by name.

He's now a central figure in

the renewed UN investigation.

When investigators
examined his logbooks,

they noticed something strange,
the pages covering the days

around Hammarskjöld's death
looked different, written in

a different handwriting
and stamped unlike the rest,

raising suspicions that
they had been altered to hide

that pilot Jan van Risseghem
was flying near Hammarskjöld's

plane the night it crashed.

Van Risseghem died in 2007,

taking any secrets
to the grave.

Then, in October 2024,

the UN released
a bombshell report

reversing its 1962 findings,

saying there is persuasive
evidence Hammarskjöld's plane

was deliberately brought down
and urging the US and Britain

to release
their classified files.

It now seems likely that
Dag Hammarskjöld's plane

was shot down,
possibly by forces

who saw the UN
as a direct threat

to Katanga's independence.

And we even have the name of
the most likely suspect.

Over 60 years later,
the UN investigation is still

underway and new information
could still develop,

proving that those responsible
for the plane crash may have

ended Hammarskjöld's life,
but not his mission.

[big band jazz plays]

It's August 6th, 1930,
and I'm in Manhattan

at Billy Haas' Chop House,
said to be

the best steak in the city,
by the way.

And dining right over there is
another superlative,

the most famous guy in town,
Joseph Force Crater,

a New York
Supreme Court Justice

and political power player.

What happens next will become
the talk of the Big Apple,

because after dinner,
Judge Crater leaves this

restaurant and will never be
seen again.

His disappearance sparks one of
the largest manhunts in

American history, a search
that turns up no body

and no solid suspects.

For 75 years, the mystery will
remain unsolved until a series

of shocking revelations reveal
the scandalous truth behind

the so-called
"Missingest Man in New York."

Born in 1889
in Easton, Pennsylvania,

Joseph Force Crater seems
destined for success.

His family builds a prosperous
business running

a grocery store
and surrounding orchards.

But Joe Crater is not content
to inherit

the family enterprise.

Smart and driven, stands out
early, graduating at the top of

his class before moving
to New York City

to attend Columbia Law School.

In 1916, Crater opens
a law practice in New York's

Financial District,
determined to make his mark on

the city that never sleeps.

At the same time, he plugs into
the city's political machinery,

joining
the Cayuga Democratic Club.

There, he helps organize
voters, pours countless hours

into election law cases,

and begins building
the connections that

will quietly shape his rise.

Over time, he becomes deeply
embedded with the Cayuga Club's

powerful parent organization,
Tammany Hall.

Founded in 1786, Tammany Hall
is a political machine,

a tightly run Democratic Party
organization that controls

jobs, favors, and elections

across New York City.

For nearly two centuries,
it dominates city politics.

If you want a Democratic
nomination,

you go through Tammany.

And if you want influence,
you better play by its rules.

As Crater rises through Tammany
Hall, he embraces its perks.

By night, he dives into
Jazz Age Manhattan,

lavish dinners, Broadway shows,
and Harlem clubs,

quickly earning a reputation
as a playboy.

He mingles with chorus girls,
escorts, and underworld figures

like Arnold Rothstein

and Jack "Legs" Diamond.

Meanwhile, his legal career
is surging.

He soon lands a coveted post as
law secretary to a powerful

New York justice, opening
the door to the city's

backroom power deals.

And in 1930,
Joseph Force Crater makes

his boldest move yet.
He hands over

a $22,500-contribution
to Tammany Hall,

more than 400 grand today.

Where did Crater get such
a huge sum of money?

Could it be from
organized crime?

Did Crater do a deal
with the devil?

[Josh] In 1930s New York,
Joseph Crater stands at

the height of his career,
a symbol of success in

an iconic city.

But behind the polished image,
backroom deals and friendships

with notorious gangsters raise
an unsettling question.

Was Crater's rise
earned or bought?

Crater now holds a coveted
seat on New York's

Supreme Court,
appointed to the bench

by then governor
Franklin D. Roosevelt.

He has made it to the top
of the New York totem pole.

With a 14-year term on
the bench, he now has the power

to sway politics
in the wealthiest city

in the nation.

But despite seeming to have it
all, Crater soon starts

behaving erratically.

It begins in 1930
on a vacation in Maine

with his wife, Stella.

On August 3rd, Crater receives
a phone call from

out of the blue.

Shortly after, he hangs up
and leaves Stella in

their cabin, promising to
return in a few days to

celebrate her birthday
on the 9th.

It's a promise
he'll never keep.

When Crater arrives back
in New York,

he goes straight to
his chambers at the courthouse.

His assistant, Joseph Mara,
is surprised to see him.

Judge, I wasn't expecting
you so -- so soon.

[Josh]
Mara says Crater is acting
strange and secretive,

going through his files,
destroying documents,

and removing others.

He also asks Mara to cash

two checks totaling the
equivalent of $100,000 today.

A few days later, on August 6th,
Judge Crater goes to that

fateful dinner at Haas' Chop
House alongside lawyer

William Klein
and Sally Lou Ritz,

a showgirl and Crater's
alleged mistress.

Both friends report noticing
the judge's strange mood.

I'm fine.

His friends last see him

heading to a Broadway
comedy performance

that he bought
a ticket for.

At the theater, though,
his seat remains empty.

Despite never returning for
his wife Stella's birthday,

she doesn't report Crater
missing until September 6th,

a month after he's last seen,
perhaps assuming that he was

simply with another woman.

As word of the party boy
judge's disappearance gets out,

the press picks up the story
and Crater becomes

a national sensation.

They dub him "the Missingest Man
in New York."

The NYPD launches a massive
investigation, chasing down

hundreds of leads.

Tips pour in from all across
America, with sightings in

California, Florida,
even Mexico.

But they all lead to nothing.

It's as if Judge Crater simply
evaporated into thin air.

[siren wails]

Although authorities can't find
the judge himself,

their investigation does
uncover his deep web of

corruption and vices that may
have come back to bite him.

It turns out Crater had
expensive gambling debts at

unsanctioned casinos and may
have been involved in illegally

selling judicial appointments.

Curiously, four months
after his disappearance,

Crater's wife Stella also finds
a note he had left for her

in his desk drawer.

The note ends, quote,
"I am very weary,"

which some believe is
evidence he took his own life.

Most alarmingly,
police discover Crater had

recently been subpoenaed

by the State Attorney
General's Office as

part of a huge
anti-corruption investigation.

Well, explain...

[Josh]
It makes them wonder,
was he about to turn state's

evidence against Tammany Hall,
the powerful and corrupt

democratic organization that
got him appointed?

Tell me who you paid and when.

I'm in deep with Tammany Hall.

If Crater turned his back on
Tammany Hall,

were they the ones
behind his disappearance?

For more than 75 years,
we didn't have an answer.

Now, we do.

Famous New York lawman Judge
Crater is officially declared

dead in 1939, nine years
after he vanished.

In the decades
since his disappearance,

many theories have
been proposed.

Debt, adultery,
corruption, snitching,

but none with any proof.

That would finally change in
2005, when a woman in Queens

dies, leaving behind remarkable
notes to be opened

upon her death.

Judge Crater biographer
Richard Tofel explains.

In 2005, a woman named
Stella Ferrucci-Good

died in New York.

Miss Ferrucci-Good left behind
papers indicating to her family

that they should be opened upon
her death and indicated that

her husband had told her that
he believed he knew

who had killed Judge Crater.

Supposedly, Crater had been
taken in a taxi to Coney Island

and murdered and buried there.

Mrs. Ferrucci-Good's husband
was a former New York City

Parks Department supervisor.

He allegedly overheard
the incendiary claim that

the judge had indeed been
murdered, buried beneath

the Coney Island boardwalk.

But for Tofel, there's
a big problem with this.

I don't think that
Ms. Ferrucci-Good's story

ultimately makes sense.

The site to which Judge Crater
was supposedly taken was

thoroughly unearthed in
the 1950s for the construction

of the New York Aquarium, at
a time when interest was still

pretty high in the Crater case,
and no sign of any body was

found during that excavation.

I have no reason to believe
that Ms. Ferrucci-Good was

making this up.

I think her husband probably
did tell her such a story.

I just don't think the story
happens to have been true.

But despite pouring water on
the Ferrucci-Good writings,

Tofel continued to
dig into the Crater case,

uncovering a theory he believes
quite literally puts

the mystery to bed,
or in bed, as it were.

I actually believe Crater's
disappearance revolves around

a then-quite-famous madam
in New York named Polly Adler.

In 1960, there was a blind
gossip item in a book that

indicated Polly Adler's memoir
would report that Crater had

died in the act
in her establishment.

[grunts sharply]

[Richard]
But apparently, the story was
then removed from the memoir.

Polly Adler was very well
connected to the mob,

and the mob would easily have
been able to dispose of

the body in such a way that
no trace would be found.

[Josh]
The forgotten account Tofel
uncovered was in a book

by Allen Churchill entitled
"They Never Came Back."

It says the unpublished text
was supposed to mention that,

quote, "Crater suffered a fatal
heart attack at the moment of

"peak enjoyment while indulging

in the unique pleasures
of the establishment."

Talk about a juicy detail.

Why would Polly Adler remove
this passage from

the final version of her memoir?

Tofel thinks it was partly
for her own protection.

As for why Polly Adler might
have taken a direct statement

about Crater's death of
her book, the libel laws were

much stricter in this country
than they are today.

And it's easy to imagine
Polly Adler, even 30 years after

Crater's death, not wanting to
have been quite as explicit

about this in her memoir.

[as Mara]
...so soon.

[Josh]
This casts Crater's earlier
strange behavior in a new

light, suggesting the mounting
pressure from financial

and legal troubles caused
extreme stress -- stress that,

if Polly is to be believed,

ultimately led to
a fatal heart attack.

But wait a second.

If this is true, why did
the police apparently never

chase down these leads?

Why did it take 75 years for
this theory to be exposed?

[Richard] In my opinion,
the real scandal here is not

why Judge Crater wasn't found,
but why no one went seriously

looking for him for three
or four weeks.

And the reason I think that
no one went looking for him was,

this was at the beginning of
what turned into a huge scandal

of municipal corruption.

Tammany Hall was under
enormous pressure in 1930.

The more information that was
turned up about Judge Crater,

the more people were likely to
realize that he had bought

his judgeship as many other
judges were doing at the time.

I think Crater's associates,
especially in Tammany Hall,

went out of their way
not to find him.

Did the high and mighty judge
really fall to such a down

and dirty end, dying of a heart
attack in a brothel before

being buried by the mob
and never searched for

because of a corrupt city
cover-up?

Or is he buried at
Coney Island, as indicated in

the long sealed letter of
Stella Ferrucci-Good?

In 1979, Judge Joseph Crater's
case was officially closed

without being solved.

Tofel's theory is compelling,
not to mention scandalous.

But without physical evidence,

the so-called "Missingest Man in
New York" stays that way.

There is one final footnote to
this tabloid tale.

In the years after the judge's
disappearance, a new phrase

became popular --
"to pull a Crater,"

meaning to disappear
without a trace.

I'm Josh Gates.

Please don't pull a Crater,
and I'll see you on

the next expedition.