Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible, the actual family members

and police officials have participated

in recreating the events.

What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

HOST: In Spokane, Washington a popular teenager, Russell

Evans, intervened in a fight.

A few hours later, he was found fatally

injured on a lonely road.

Was it hit and run, or murder?

For over a century, fortune hunters

have searched in vain for the legendary Lost Adams Diggings,

a secret mine in Arizona where, according to legend,

a vast mother lode of gold awaits some lucky prospector.

In 1976, State Department official Bradley Bishop

disappeared from his home outside Washington D.C.

Tragically, the next day, the bodies of his wife, his mother,

and his three young sons were found in a North

Carolina coastal park.

Brad Bishop is wanted for murder.

For every mystery, there is someone,

somewhere who knows the truth.

Perhaps that someone is watching.

Perhaps it's you.

Join me.

HOST: Spokane, Washington.

June 4th, 1989 1:05 AM.

Two friends on their way home were startled

when their headlights flashed on a body

stretched out on the road.

13-year-old Russell Evans had apparently

been struck by a car.

He was barely alive.

Call 911.

[coughing]

Brian, help me!

SANDY: I kept trying to calm him down

because he kept trying to move.

And he squeezed my hand a couple times.

Not very hard, but--

just because he hurt.

And, then he quit talking to me.

Blood pressure 90 over 50.

HOST: Russell was admitted to Sacred

Heart Hospital at 1:30 AM.

As his parents stood by, doctors struggled through the night

to stabilize his condition.

Mom's here.

SUE: When I got there, I just wanted to see him.

And so I went right to the trauma room.

And he was unconscious.

Probably be best for you and him both if you went out

to the waiting room for now.

I promise we'll keep you posted, OK?

- OK, thanks. - Can I have an x-ray--

OK, let's get the CT tech, uh, in here.

SUE: I just knew he wasn't going to make it.

HOST: At 9:10 AM, Russell Evans died.

You know, I--

I'm really grateful that I had those eight hours,

because even though he didn't talk to me,

I knew he knew I was there.

And, that was really important to me.

What makes the Evans' family's grief even more painful

is that to this day, they have no idea

who was responsible for their son's death

or why he was killed.

The Spokane Police have always maintained that Russell died

as a result of a random hit and run accident,

but a number of unanswered questions

point to a more sinister scenario.

Russell's parents are convinced that their son was murdered.

Russell Evans was an active and popular eighth grader at Libby

Middle School in Spokane.

By the age of 13, he was already 6 feet 3 inches tall.

Russell excelled at basketball and played

pickup games every day after school with his friends.

He dreamed of one day becoming a pro.

[cheering]

We did everything together.

He was at my house everyday, and he was very well-liked.

Had a good sense of humor.

He got along with pretty much everybody.

He had no problems.

Rusty had already made plans to go to UCLA.

He wanted to be an electronical engineer.

Play pro ball.

And he had it all-- he had it all mapped out.

He had it all--

all put together, which amazed me.

HOST: June 3rd, 1989.

In the hours before Russell died,

he was with Aaron and other friends

hanging out at a local park.

It was a typical summer evening, until they were approached

by two other teenagers.

An argument ensued over Aaron's girlfriend.

Hey man, come here real quick.

- What, man? - What's your name?

Aaron.

[inaudible]

Yeah.

Let me tell you something, man.

Hey, hey.

You guys better just take off before there's real trouble.

Man, you don't even know what trouble is.

Oh, really?

AARON: He said, "You better watch out because I'm gonna get

some of my homeboys on you."

But I didn't really think much of it, you know?

So I just turned around and we left, and he got in his car

with his friend and took off.

HOST: After leaving the park, Russell

spent the remainder of the evening at a friend's house.

Then he called his father to say that he was heading for home.

Around midnight, he ran into another friend, Sade Madison.

- Hey, Russ. - Hey, how's it going?

- Pretty good. - Yeah?

What have you been up to tonight?

We were at the park and two guys came up to Aaron

and started hassling him. - Really?

- Yeah. - Did you know who they were?

No, no.

We had them outnumbered though, they took off.

SEYD: He told me that one of his friends

almost had gotten in a fight that night.

He was all psyched up about it, and telling me

how if it would have happened, he would have been wanting

to jump in the fight, you know?

I gotta get home.

Yeah, so do I. OK, man.

See you later.

SEYD: I said my goodbyes, and he head

off down the street, jogging.

And that's the last time I saw him.

HOST: It was now approximately 12:30 AM.

Based on evidence found at the scene,

the police constructed their version of what happened.

[tires screeching]

On the impact with the vehicle,

he was separated from his shoes, his shoelaces,

and other debris.

He finally came to rest about 75 feet from where

we think he was struck.

From the bruises present on Russell and the other injuries,

I think the most prominent possibility

here is that we're dealing with a motor vehicle accident.

Russell was struck in the back by a bumper and an ornament.

HOST: Dr. Lindholm's report determined

that Russell's injuries were consistent with a hit and run

accident.

JOHN: We looked at him after he died,

and I thought he'd been in a fight.

Later on, when the police started talking

about hit and run, his mom--

mom and I just couldn't buy that.

I mean, the injuries weren't there.

HOST: Russell was found next to the median strip

on Thor Avenue, two blocks from his home.

His shoes and shoelaces were downhill, 86 feet away.

Three separate pools of blood were found as far as

50 feet from where Russell lay.

John and Sue Evans obtained copies

of the official police report.

It contained photos of the pools of blood,

the shoes, and shoelaces.

Oddly, the shoelaces had somehow become

separated from the shoes.

The police report failed to pinpoint the spot

where Russell was found.

Sandy, we want to thank you for coming down.

I know it's really hard.

HOST: The Evans returned to the scene of the accident

with Sandy Ferris, the woman who had found Russell.

Where do you remember the shoes being?

SUE: A question of mine at the crime

scene is, when I saw those pools of blood over a 35 foot area--

in my mind, if somebody was flying through the air

after being hit by a vehicle, I don't see how you

could leave that much blood.

Let me see that, honey.

JOHN: In one of the crime scene photos, where it shows

a shoelace scraped off or broken away from the shoe,

there is blood on the shoelace.

Now tell me, how do you get blood on the shoelace

if you're struck and driven out of your shoes

and thrown 50 feet down the hill?

He was about right up there.

HOST: The Evans became convinced that Russell

had been struck by something other than a motor vehicle.

They brought in a second pathologist,

who agreed with the initial ruling,

but concluded that Russell had been in a fight

before he was killed.

He's right about--

JOHN: This pathologist came back with the findings

that Russell had been in a physical altercation

prior to his death.

If a body flies through the air, when

that body hits the pavement, there

would be some massive scraping.

Russell did not have this.

Well, this isn't making a lot of sense, I'll tell ya.

If you're hit by a bumper, then the bruise is going to be

fairly symmetrical and even.

The bruising along his back is not even.

It's demarcated, showing irregular--

an irregular pattern, rather than coming from one object.

We believe it came from repeated blows--

probably from a baseball bat or two by four.

HOST: Russell's parents came up with their own version

of what happened that night.

[tires screeching]

MAN: I think it was a fight going back up the hill.

According to his hands, he got his licks in.

He had finger marks on his face--

finger bruises, I should say--

on his face, and the side of the nose.

Finger bruising on his upper arms,

as though he were being held.

The people that were allegedly involved in the argument

with this friend of Russ' were polygraphed,

because other people were making allegations about them.

And they volunteered to take the polygraph

because of these rumors that were started by other kids.

And they came in, took the polygraph,

and we interviewed them.

They passed the polygraph with flying colors.

HOST: John and Sue Evans are convinced

that finding an eyewitness will determine what

really happened that night.

At the crime scene, Sandy Ferris believes that Russell himself

provided an important clue.

Russ, can you tell me what happened?

SANDY: When I first got there, first thing I

asked him was, "What happened?"

And he started calling for Brian.

Brian, help me up!

Help me!

He said it more like a person was in listening distance--

that his friend should have been there.

He thought his friend was close by.

After the police had gotten there

and they started to put Russell in the ambulance,

we saw a boy in white shorts up in the bushes,

and he was running up the hill.

And I tried to tell the policeman this,

a couple of times, and he kept telling

me to get on the sidewalk.

I thought maybe that probably could have been the boy

that he was calling for, Brian.

JOHN: One of Russel's friends was named Brian,

and I asked Brian what he was wearing that night.

He said, "Well, I was wearing white shorts

and a white t-shirt, but I was nowhere around."

Then later down the line, when the police questioned him,

he denied owning that kind of outfit.

We've asked for him and talked with everyone that we could

possibly think of, and our assumption

is it was just somebody that was curious that heard

the commotion, that heard the sirens, that

went out to take a look.

HOST: When Sue Evans arrived at the hospital,

the name Brian surfaced again.

How do you want to handle any calls that might be coming in.

I don't want any information given out about him.

Now, someone by the name of Brian's

already called, concerning his condition.

Hmm, that's odd.

SUE: Who would have known about this, unless somebody

named Brian was at that scene--

that he was calling for.

There may be one or two that know more than they're telling.

And the reason they're probably not telling

is that they are afraid for their lives.

SUE: It's very hard for me to believe that anyone

would want to kill my son.

I believe, in my mind, that it was

a fight that got out of hand.

However, my child is dead.

And I think that some justice should happen.

HOST: Next, the poignant reunion of a family who had not

seen each other for 17 years.

In the past year, Unsolved Mysteries

has helped to reunite nine people with missing

relatives or lost loved ones.

Tonight, we are pleased to add Leanne

Robinson's name to this growing list of happy endings.

HOST: In 1972, at the age of 13, Leanne

lived in Carson, California with her three-year-old half sister

Tammi and five-year-old half brother Jim.

That year, their mother Doris lost her battle with cancer,

and at her request the three children

moved in with her neighbor, Ellen Morell.

How are you?

Yeah, come on in.

HOST: With six children in a two bedroom house,

life at Ellen's home was hectic, but the children were happy.

Nevertheless, a social worker assigned to the case

decided that Ellen could not provide an adequate home

for Leeann, Jim, and Tammi.

The social worker felt that Leanne would be better off

living with her father in Texas, and that Jim and Tammi

should be put up for adoption.

LEEANN: I remember feeling immediately

that I was going to run away, or I was

going to take Tammi and Jimmy.

There was just no way I was going to have us be separated.

Away for a while, OK?

LEEANN: I remember wanting to fight,

but I thought if I just be good and do what

everybody tells me to do, then I'll

be able to reunite with them.

I love you both.

HOST: A few months later, Jim and Tammi

were adopted by a young couple chosen by the Department

of Social Services.

Leeann never saw or heard from her brother or sister

again, and has spent the last 17 years trying to find them.

LEEANN: I can't see any reason in this world

why we should be separated and why we shouldn't be together.

They are my brother and sister, and I'm going to keep

searching until I find them.

HOST: Just minutes after her story aired, Leeann Robinson's

search came to an end when she received

a call at our telecenter from her 22-year-old sister Tammi.

Tammi, who lives in Maine and has two children of her own,

immediately put Leeann in contact with her brother

Jim, an Army Sergeant stationed near Monterrey, California.

On December 10th, just four days after our show aired,

Jim and Tammi arrived at Leeann's home

in Los Angeles, California, and met

their older sister for the first time in more than 17 years.

Oh, I can't even tell you.

[crying]

LEEANN: I just had a really good feeling that they--

somebody was gonna call in--

either they were, or somebody that knew them.

And today, when I first saw them, I felt so close to them.

It felt like the 17 years just came together,

and then it was just a few days ago

that we last saw each other.

HOST: For Tammi, The biggest surprise

came when she phoned our telecenter

and discovered that Leeann was there, waiting for the call.

A lady came to the phone and she says, "Hello?"

And I said, "Hello."

I said, "Who is this?"

And she goes, "This is Leeann."

And I was too excited to cry.

I was just too excited to do anything.

I said, "Oh my god, Leeann," I said, "This is Tammi.

And I don't even remember what we said.

The first thing I think I remember her saying

was that she loved me.

LEEANN: This is the happiest time of my life.

I just feel like-- we're so young, you know?

They're 22 and 23.

I'm 32.

We have a whole life ahead of us, and we're all healthy.

We're very fortunate that we could find each other.

HOST: Next, a disturbing story of a government

official suspected of murdering his entire family.

March 2nd, 1976.

Columbia, North Carolina.

A state park Ranger responded to an urgent report of a brush

fire in a remote, wooded area.

As the Ranger brought the fire under control,

he found the disturbing calling cards of an arsonist.

An empty gas can and a shovel.

When the smoke cleared, the Ranger

was shocked to discover evidence of murder as well.

In a shallow grave, he found the remains of five

partially charred bodies--

three young boys and two women.

A thorough investigation of the shocking crime

turned up few clues.

Two articles of the victim's clothing

bore the labels of expensive department stores

in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington

D.C. The shovel came from a hardware store

in the same area.

The Bethesda Police had no missing

persons report they could link to the bodies,

until six days later.

RADIO: Base to unit 12.

Unit 12, base.

Go ahead.

RADIO: [inaudible]

JOE: March the 8th, 1976.

I received a radio call to investigate

the absence of five persons from a residence in Bethesda.

Unit 12 direct.

We're proceeding.

HOST: The call had come from a neighbor of William

Bradford Bishop, a respected economist

with the State Department.

JOE: There was a common driveway to the neighbor's home

and to the Bishop home.

And I met the neighbor there to investigate

the whereabouts of the family.

Mrs. Williams?

Yeah.

Hi.

I'm Joe Sargent.

Hi.

Thanks for coming.

You called in a missing person report?

Yeah, the Bishops.

I haven't seen them for at least a week,

and I'm getting very worried.

Is there anything unusual about why you wouldn't see them

for a certain length of time?

Well, it's not unusual for them to go out of town,

but what's unusual is, usually when they go out of town,

they let me know that they're going out of town,

because I pick up their newspapers for them

and I water their plants.

This time, nothing.

I haven't heard anything.

You said you had the keys.

Yes, I sure do.

May I have them please?

Yes.

OK, I don't see any reason why I can't go in and look around

and make sure everything is OK.

Yeah, I'd appreciate it if you did.

Why don't you just wait right here?

OK, thank you.

JOE: It was rather routine to do an investigation like this.

It's not unusual, and I wasn't overly concerned about it

until I reached the front step of the home

and noticed there were blood droplets on the front step.

Upon opening the front door, I saw blood droplets leaning

from the doorway through the foyer,

and to a set of stairs that led to the upper bedroom

level of the home.

In going to the stairs, I observed blood splatterings

on the wall, and in the one bedroom

I could see into without going any farther into the scene,

almost the entire ceiling and wall was completely

splattered with blood.

Hardly a place you could put your hand there

wasn't blood splatterings.

I've been a police officer for approximately 12 years,

and this was the worst scene that I've ever observed.

HOST: Authorities were finally able to identify

five bodies found a week before in North Carolina.

The victims were Brad Bishop's wife Annette,

his three sons, and his mother.

There was no sign of Brad Bishop.

The Bishops who had seemed to be such a perfect family,

had been ripped apart by unfathomable violence.

Brad Bishop grew up in Pasadena, California.

In 1959, he graduated from Yale University.

Within a few months, Brad married Annette Weiss,

his high school sweetheart.

By the mid-1970s, Brad and Annette had three sons,

and Brad was a State Department's director of

commercial practices and trade.

To most of his coworkers, Brad Bishop

seemed to be on the fast track to a high level State

Department job, but at least one coworker saw a different side

of Brad Bishop.

Brad Bishop had extensive experience overseas.

He liked the international scene from the time

he was in the army in Italy, Brad's career

was very much on track--

although he was exceedingly despondent about not

getting a promotion.

HOST: Brad Bishop and Roy Harrell

ran into one another just outside the State

Department on the day the annual promotion list had come out.

How are you?

Haven't seen you for for a while.

I've been kind of busy, Roy.

What's the matter?

I didn't make the promotion list again.

Neither did I.

Yeah, well I'm more qualified than you are.

Brad, I think that's a subjective--

ROY: He readily apologized.

He said, "I'm--

I think I'm getting the flu.

I don't feel well at all.

And that's the reason I'm leaving work now."

Look, and when you come back, we'll

have lunch sometime next week and talk about it, OK?

OK.

Let's get a taxi.

ROY: So I helped him hail a taxi,

and I watched him drive out.

HOST: The next day Brad Bishop's family would be

found dead in North Carolina.

Bishop himself would drop from sight.

Take care, see you Monday.

HOST: March 18th, almost three weeks after the murders.

A Ranger with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

in Tennessee discovered an abandoned station wagon.

In the back, he found what appeared to be dried blood.

The car was registered to William Bradford Bishop.

Bishop now became the primary suspect in the slaying

of his own family.

WILEY: The courts will have to determine

whether Brad Bishop is guilty of killing his family.

But there was enough evidence in March of 1976 for a warrant

to be issued for his arrest for homicide, based on the fact

that there appeared to be premeditation

in connection with the events that occurred on March 1st.

HOST: The FBI believes they have pieced

together Bishop's activities leading up to the murders.

On the day he left the State Department,

Bishop withdrew several dollars from his bank account

and apparently went to a local hardware store.

JOE: Bradford Bishop went to a gas station

in Bethesda, where he purchased the can full of gas.

And as far as we know, after that, he returned to his home--

probably around 7:30 to 8:00 at night,

after the children were put to bed.

Our investigation shows that Mrs. Bishop

was probably killed first.

She was found beside a book which

she may have been reading at the time that she was killed.

The children were probably killed next,

followed by Bishop's mother.

They were all killed with a blunt instrument,

and none of the victims had an opportunity

to defend themselves.

HOST: According to the FBI, Bishop loaded the five

bodies into the family station wagon

and left Bethesda, Maryland.

He headed 200 miles south to the sparsely populated countryside

near Columbia, North Carolina.

JOE: It's my belief-- you know, murder being

a crime of passion-- that many, many people

are capable of the same thing.

It's just sometimes certain people just flip

out faster and do these things.

Brad Bishop felt from the time I knew him that there was

something lacking in himself.

This feeling was nourished constantly by both his mother

and, to some degree, his wife, who constantly told me

he was inadequate and washed-up and wasn't

going anywhere in his career.

And I think that he conceived in his mind this was a way to--

as he'd often said many times about other people--

this would be a way of putting them in their place.

HOST: The FBI believes that Bishop, after buying

a pair of tennis shoes near the site of the fire,

drove 400 miles to the Great Smoky Mountains

in Tennessee, where his station wagon was found abandoned.

WILEY: Bishop had the advantage.

The bodies were discovered on the second.

The car was discovered on the 18th.

So Bishop had plenty of time in order to escape.

There was no indication of any suicide.

There was no indication of any accident.

And we have every reason to believe that he in fact

disappeared from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

after the car was abandoned there.

HOST: Brad Bishop successfully covered his tracks

and was not seen for two years.

In 1978, 5,000 miles away on a different continent,

a nearly unbelievable chance encounter took place.

Roy Harrell the last man to see Bishop before the murders,

came face to face with him again, in Sorrento, Italy.

ROY: I had gone to the Piazza Tasso Square in Sorrento

to board a bus bound for Rome.

I decided to go to the men's room

before starting that journey.

And I was washing my hands, and this bearded,

disheveled-looking man came in.

My mind's eye, I took his beard and his grubby clothes off

of him, and I saw the Brad Bishop I had seen coming

out the State Department.

You're Brad Bishop, aren't you?

Brad, why don't you get on the bus with me

and come back to Rome?

Oh my god.

No!

Brad!

[shattering]

Brad, Brad!

Come back!

Come back!

I followed him and watched him disappear down

the cliffs going toward the boat landing,

where boats go to Capri.

HOST: Did Brad Bishop brutally murder his own family?

If he did, we can only speculate about what

could have possibly caused him to commit

such an unspeakable crime.

Unless Brad Bishop is found, the truth will remain unknown.

William Bradford Bishop is six feet

one inch tall with brown hair, brown eyes and a medium build.

He is fluent in French, Italian, and Serbo-Croatian

and holds a diplomatic passport.

At the time of the murders, he was 40 years old

The FBI has created this computer

aged photograph to reflect how Bishop might look today at 54.

When we return, the legend of an Indian massacre,

and a fortune in gold still waiting to be

found in the Arizona desert.

There's an old saying among fortune hunters.

As long as a man believes there's a treasure to be found,

he'll be spurred on by the belief

that he'll be the one to find it.

It seems that people have been forever

obsessed with the prospect of uncovering

legendary buried treasure.

This never ending quest to strike it rich

has fueled a million dreams, each with a common goal

of instant wealth.

The Arizona Territory, September, 1864.

Troopers from Fort Apache find two prospectors

wandering in the desert.

By the time they reach the fort, the men are barely alive.

We gotta go back.

We gotta go back.

HOST: One of the prospectors, known only as Adams,

tells the army surgeon a remarkable tale.

You don't understand.

There's mountains of gold up there.

There's a river full of gold up there.

There's gold up there the size of acorns.

About two weeks ago, me and my men

rolled up the [inaudible] river, up into the mountain.

Was looking for Zigzag Canyon, a canyon that was

supposed to be full of gold.

HOST: Adams and his band of 20 miners

were led by a Mexican guide, nicknamed Gotchere.

Gotchere, where's that canyon at?

JOHN: Gotchere had promised to take Adams to the gold,

in return for two horses, a saddle, two $50 gold pieces

and a red silk bandana.

He even said the miners could shoot him

if he couldn't find the gold.

This canyon don't go nowhere.

If you've been lying to me, you're gonna pay for it.

HOST: Eventually, they reached what appeared to be a dead end,

but Gotchere led the party through a hidden portal,

into a narrow zigzag canyon.

TOM: I think Gotchere played the major role

in getting them to the site.

And the reason he was able to do this

was the fact that he was raised by the Apaches,

and he knew the area, and he was familiar with the fact

that gold was important to the white man,

not so important to the Apache.

HOST: Inside the canyon, the men found a stream fed

by a 20 foot high waterfall.

The stream was brimming with what they had come for.

TOM: There was a waterfall there,

and there was sufficient water.

But the amazing thing-- and according to a story,

again-- the gold was visible right on the ground.

Realizing that gold is heavy.

That it settles down.

You'd have to think, well how much

gold was there if there was still

gold visibly on the ground?

That means every flash flood brought

water over that waterfall, and brought more gold from above.

HOST: Adams and his men agreed to pool the fortune

and share it equally.

They set up camp and the prospecting commenced.

Several days later, unexpected visitors arrived.

A local Apache Chieftain named Nana, and 20 of his warriors.

Adams, we got company.

TOM: The Apache-- there were several things

that were sacred to them.

One thing, mountains.

All mountains.

The Zigzag Canyon, probably, undoubtedly,

was sacred, maybe, in some way, because it

was part of the mountain.

[non-english speech]

[non-english speech]

The Apaches believed that gold was the tears of the sun.

Nobody touched the tears of the sun,

because the sun was the all mighty thing

to most Indian cultures.

I mean, it's the source of all life.

Hand me that rifle.

A gift.

TOM: They met with Chief Nana, and Nana

had set down these rules.

That they do not [inaudible] above the waterfall,

for whatever reason-- probably because there was more gold

up there, and he knew it would attract

more white men to the area.

He hoped they would fill their pokes

and leave and not come back.

HOST: Adams struck a deal with Chief Nana.

Any miner found above the waterfalls

would die at the hands of the Indians.

Adams!

Adams!

HOST: But one morning, a miner chasing a stray horse,

ventured above the fold.

He came across a gold nugget the size of a hen egg.

Ain't that the biggest nugget you ever seen?

It sure is.

Where'd you get this at, son?

Up yonder.

Above the falls?

You went above the falls?

Adams, he didn't mean no harm.

My horse got away, Adams.

I don't care.

I promised the chief we wouldn't go up there.

You're going to get us all killed, you understand me?

Take this and get back to work.

No, you keep. It's yours.

Get out of here. Go on.

All of ya'll, go on.

HOST: Discovery fueled gold fever in the camp.

Unbeknownst to Adams, the other miners

began accumulating gold from both above and below the falls.

Some of the gold was stored in a coffee

pot hidden beneath the flagstone of the camp fireplace.

According to legend, the miners amassed

as much as 300 pounds of gold, worth nearly

1 and 1/2 million dollars.

[gun shot] - Ho!

[gun shot]

HOST: One morning, Adams and his partner Davidson

were a mile out of camp when they heard

the sound of dwindling gunfire.

Chief Nana had been true to his word.

From a lookout above camp, Adams and Davidson

stared down helplessly.

I can take this one right here.

No, it ain't gonna do us no good now.

Just wait'll things settle down, then

we'll head on up the canyon, and get out of here.

We waited till the sun went down,

then we snuck up the canyon.

You don't believe any of this, do you?

About the gold?

Look at this.

Well, Adams, like many prospectors,

spent the rest of his life searching

for that Zigzag Canyon, and never could find it.

I think that once a person sees that might

gold in a place like Adams had, he couldn't give up that dream.

There is no way.

He knew it was there.

He had to continue to search for it until he found it.

HOST: Adams never did find his mother lode.

Years later, he died drunk and penniless,

and the story of the lost gold grew into legend.

In the 1920s, a railroad man named

John Mitchell we get an extensive search

for the treasure.

His writings are the basis for today's ongoing quest

for the lost Adams diggings.

Ron Feldman is a camping guide who has studied

Mitchell's accounts for years.

I've always been hooked on the lost Adams.

And it was John Mitchell's story that intrigued me.

And I kind of reread that several times,

and if you pay attention to what John Mitchell says,

he tells you, basically, where the lost Adams diggings is.

HOST: By comparing Mitchell's references with modern day

maps, Feldman discovered that many rivers

and landmarks had gone under different names

in previous years.

He determined that Adams' canyon lay on Eagle Creek,

near the tiny town of Clifton, Arizona, 200 miles north

of Tucson.

In January of 1990, Ron Feldman and geologist Mick McPherson

journeyed to Eagle Creek, hoping to find the lost Adams fortune.

When Ron and I walked into the canyon,

and discovered the little hidden portal

that led into a zigzag canyon.

My feeling, immediately, was that this was the spot.

This is where Adams had been.

This fits the stories that I've read.

It has the right appearance, and it is an appropriate place

where gold could have been concentrated

in great quantities as a [inaudible] deposit.

HOST: Everything about the canyon

seemed to fit Adam's descriptions.

That's got to be the waterfall.

That's gotta be it.

HOST: Feldman and McPherson even found

a trickle along the canyon wall where

a waterfall had once flowed.

MICK: If you put more water into the system,

as there was when Adams was there,

you would have a beautiful, cascading waterfall

into an open pool at the base of the fall.

It's very hard to explain the feeling that rushed through me.

It was very exciting.

Of course, we both knew the legend

of the coffee pot full of gold buried

in the floor of the cabin.

We soon discovered the ruins of a cabin,

started digging in the floor.

We found some relics, but no pot full of gold.

Look at that.

Pan, huh?

Old gold pan.

Haven't seen one that old for a long time.

I wonder if there's anything else here.

I don't know.

Feldman and McPherson also found

the tools needed for making horseshoes,

and a section of railroad track.

MICK: In the early days, John D. Mitchell, the author,

was actually a railroad man.

He worked on the railroads, and we thought of Mitchell

when we found those items.

We thought of Mitchell when we didn't find the pot of gold.

HOST: Could John Mitchell have found the coffee pot of gold,

and perhaps written his history of the legend in a way

to mislead others?

Ron Feldman and Mick McPherson are convinced

they have unlocked the secret of the treasure's location,

and the mother lode of gold is still waiting to be found.

However, other fortune holders feel that Feldman and McPherson

are wrong, and the lost Adams diggings may actually be

in another part of the state.

On our next Unsolved Mysteries, the many

faces of Patrick Michael Mitchell, ladies man, gourmet

cook, notorious bank robber.

His ingenious and daring heists have netted close to $3 million

and earned him a prominent place on the FBI'S

10 Most Wanted List.

Join me, next time.

Perhaps you hold the key.

Perhaps you can help solve a mystery.