Original subtitles

[Kasper] A decaying facility first designed to tame the Wild West.

[music playing]

[Klint Janulis] There are a lot of strange contraptions here.

I've seen prisons.

I've seen torture chambers.

This reminds me a little bit of both.

[Kasper] A stately home once embroiled in an audacious plot.

[Prof. Geoff Wawro] Just kind of walking around.

You're always in danger of stepping on a rotted plank or something

and plunging to your death.

[Kasper] And a resort on the banks of the Dead Sea

[Kasper] And a resort on the banks of the Dead Sea

collapsing into the abyss.

It opened up, just caved in.

We've got many more.

They're all over the place.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Kasper] Decaying relics.

[music playing]

[Kasper] Ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past.

Their secrets waiting to be revealed.

Their secrets waiting to be revealed.

[music playing]

[Theme music playing]

[Kasper] In Scotland's Loch Lomond is the setting

for one of the strangest stories of the Second World War.

[serene music playing]

[Prof. Geoff Wawro] What makes this castle so bewitching is

how it is almost merged with nature, over the years.

how it is almost merged with nature, over the years.

It's been basically encroached upon by the surrounding woods.

[Fran Scott] Just to get to it

you've got to climb over a barbed wire fence

and fight your way through thorny bushes.

[Kasper] Trespassers have been beguiled by the castle ruins,

but it's a place of hidden dangers.

[Fran Scott] This is a grand place,

and it's been consumed by this jungle of a forest.

and it's been consumed by this jungle of a forest.

It's a bit like a fairy tale in there.

It's all rather beautiful.

[Dominic Selwood] But don't let that beauty fool you.

This place is derelict and seriously dangerous.

[Dominic Selwood] There's falling stone from walls in all directions,

and that is just the danger that's above you.

Below, you can see these holes in the floor,

and in some parts it's caved in completely.

[Kasper] Layers of dirt, obscure, deadly booby traps,

[Kasper] Layers of dirt, obscure, deadly booby traps,

a side effect of being open to the elements.

[Dominic Selwood] Most places you stand in the building, you can see the sky.

There are three or four floors above you, but they're just gone.

[Prof. Geoff Wawro] And one of the most striking features is as you walk in

there's this massive beam, presumably from the roof,

that is just toppled down into the interior, into the keep of this castle.

It's just kind of stuck in the ground.

[Kasper] A historic castle on the edge of collapse,

[Kasper] A historic castle on the edge of collapse,

still standing to tell its story.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Kasper] Today, visitors aren't welcome in the castle ruins,

but 80 years ago it was safe haven for hundreds of people.

During the Second World War, this was used as a military hospital,

but the building is much older than that.

[Kasper] John Carruthers preserves the history of the Loch Lomond region.

[Kasper] John Carruthers preserves the history of the Loch Lomond region.

This is the first time he's been allowed inside the grounds.

[Dominic Selwood] It has these beautiful, almost gothic stone walls

and spiral staircases.

And scattered on the floor

are these Victorian looking metal brackets

are these Victorian looking metal brackets

that were once used for holding up the ceiling.

[John Carruthers speaking]

[Fran Scott] Then we find the old entrance room.

It's a huge base with a beautiful grand fireplace.

This wasn't only built as a place for sick people.

This wasn't only built as a place for sick people.

[Kasper] This is Buchanan Castle.

It's a name that reverberates in local folklore.

Because Buchanan is the name of one of Scotland's proud clan families.

[Prof. Geoff Wawro] Clans themselves were more like tribes.

[Prof. Geoff Wawro] Clans themselves were more like tribes.

And to be a member of a clan like to Buchanan clan,

you could be Buchanan by blood.

Or you could be Buchanan by alliance and affiliation.

[John speaking]

[John laughs]

[Narrator] The clan chiefs were de facto kings of their lands.

They built these castles to rule from.

[Wawro] The Buchanans have a very active history in Scotland,

dating back to the 1400s.

when they make a very risky move

to ally with the French against the English,

which you know, was fraught with peril

because the English were closer to hand,

they had bigger armies,

they were always agitating on the frontier,

they were always agitating on the frontier,

so this could have meant disaster for the Buchanan clan.

[Narrator] But it wasn't the English who left this place in ruin.

[Narrator] The Buchanan dynasty was over

and their family home would share its fate.

A neighboring clan purchased the land

and built a new castle, which still stands in ruins.

[John speaking]

[Narrator] The Newcastle became a house of leisure.

But in the second World War it would be repurposed as a field hospital.

And on one evening in 1941,

a doctor serving here received an unusual patient.

[Selwood] On May 12, Dr. J. Gibson-Graham

was stationed at Buchanan Castle,

now called the Drymen Military Hospital.

A pilot was brought to him, going by the name of Alfred Horn,

A pilot was brought to him, going by the name of Alfred Horn,

who'd injured himself when bailing out of his aircraft over a wheat field.

[narrator] The Doctor noted in his memoir

that his patient was a sallow man of good physique,

and he spoke good English.

[narrator] Alfred Horn's real name was

Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of Nazi Germany,

and he'd come here to meet on old friend.

[narrator] In 1941, Buchanan Castle was in use as a field hospital.

Its newest patient was a German pilot who landed in a wheat field.

He said his name was Alfred Horn.

[John speaking]

[narrator] After his injuries were seen to,

Horn was taken for questioning.

There, he revealed his true identity.

His name was Rudolf Walter Richard Hess,

second in command of the Third Reich.

[John speaking]

[Selwood] Dr. Gibson-Graham was put in charge of Hess' case,

and it appears the two formed something of a bond.

As Hess told the Doctor his entire story.

[Scott] Hess joined the Nazi party very early on.

And formed a close friendship with a young Adolf Hitler.

And formed a close friendship with a young Adolf Hitler.

Some people have called him Hitler's most loyal follower.

[narrator] But after the Nazis came to power,

Hess's influence on the Fuhrer had diminished.

[Wawro] He was a very weak man,

and he was being pushed up by more aggressive Nazis

like Goring, like Himmler, like Bormann.

And so it's been speculated that he flew to Scotland

basically to try to win favor with Hitler.

[narrator] Hess's plan was to meet someone

[narrator] Hess's plan was to meet someone

who had influence over the British prime minister.

He was looking for the Duke of Hamilton,

[Wawro] The Dukes of Hamilton,

they are one of the ancient Scottish noble families.

He's met the Duke of Hamilton and receptions in the past.

But as it turns out,

the Duke of Hamilton has no interest

in helping Rudolf Hess.

When informed of this plan,

he's doesn't want to get his hands dirty,

refuses to be helpful.

[Selwood] This was a huge blow to Hess.

[Selwood] This was a huge blow to Hess.

He'd come all this way, risked his life,

disobeyed his Fuhrer,

only to be given the cold shoulder by the Duke.

[narrator] With or without the help of the Duke.

Word reached Churchill that Hess was in Britain,

but the deputies offer for peace was ignored.

[Wawro] Churchill says, I don't want to hear from Rudolf Hess.

That would look bad. I've committed to fighting these people on the beaches,

on the landing grounds, never surrendering.

Why do I want to negotiate with this sort of fallen Nazi.

[narrator] Hess's plan had failed.

[Wawro] When the mission is revealed to Hitler.

He's aghast, ashamed, baffled.

He's aghast, ashamed, baffled.

Tries to cover it up as long as possible.

But the British advertised the news

that they have this head of the Nazi Party in captivity.

And so, predictably, Dr. Joseph Goebbels,

the head of Nazi propaganda,

comes out and totally disowns Hess.

He says, he's crazy, he says, we have no idea how this happened.

[narrator] With his mission of failure

and his career in ruin,

the disgraced Rudolf Hess

could only confide in one friend.

[Selwood] So on May, 17th, Hess and Dr. Gibson Graham

left Buchanan House

and started a new journey

to the Tower of London.

[birds chirping]

[birds chirping]

[narrator] Rudolf Hess spent the rest of his life in prison.

After the war Drymen Military Hospital was decommissioned

and the castle fell into disrepair.

[narrator] Now all that's left of Buchanan Castle

is an empty shell waiting to collapse.

Set back from the shores of the Dead Sea.

Decaying structures create a chilling scene.

[Meigs] This place looks like the set of a disaster movie.

[Meigs] This place looks like the set of a disaster movie.

The roads and bridges are falling down.

You see the carcasses of buildings,

dead trees, empty swimming pools.

[Janulis] There's empty abandoned shops,

roads with holes in them that look like craters,

and IED or bombs.

Everything's just falling apart here.

[Scott] There are security fences, warning signs,

whole areas of the town, which are off limits.

[Meigs] It's not clear what happened here,

[Meigs] It's not clear what happened here,

but it's keeping all the people away.

[narrator] Has this site in the famously troubled West Bank

been caught up in conflict?

It becomes apparent the creators

extend well beyond the roadside.

And then here and there you see

strings of weird holes in the ground.

[Scott] There are huge craters in the ground,

some of them even in the middle of the beach.

[Meigs] Your first instinct is to think

[Meigs] Your first instinct is to think

these must be manmade, they're so regular.

[narrator] But the warning signs

and the cordoned off nature of the site

clearly indicates that the danger isn't over.

[Scott] To go beyond those fences

would be like entering a minefield.

You just don't know what you'll be stepping onto.

[Meigs] This whole area is in the grip

of some powerful forces,

but what are they?

[narrator] Despite the warning signs and eerily quiet air,

the empty remains display

an infrastructure built for crowds of people.

You can clearly see the logistics of this place

are set up for tourism.

There's restaurants, pools, bars,

Everything you'd want in a nice seaside resort.

[Trotsky] We have no electricity today,

so the fence is a closed.

I will have to go around the receptions area

I will have to go around the receptions area

to go into the beach and pool area.

So why don't you follow me? We'll go in.

[narrator] Dr. Arthur Trotsky is part owner

of the Mineral beach resort in the occupied West Bank.

This is what's left of the office.

This used to be a beautiful, modern, air conditioned office.

Okay, let's take a look over here,

you'll see the restaurant.

This was an amphitheater

and we step musical performances on the stage.

We'd actually have the whole theater filled up

and chairs and we'd have those.

Quite good for the evenings

Dead sea, stars, the wind, the breeze, beautiful.

[narrator] But the fact that all this infrastructure

is empty and disintegrating

is empty and disintegrating

isn't the only thing that's wrong here.

It appears to be strangely setback

several hundred feet from the beach.

Okay, this was the water line,

right end of the bridge here, this was a lifeguard tower.

And these umbrellas were right on the beach.

That's how high the water was.

[narrator] The water line has dropped so much

that some resort owners

have physically moved infrastructure

to try and stay close to the water.

But in 2014,

Arthur's resort was struck

by an entirely different catastrophe.

[Scott] These dropping water levels

kicked off a chain reaction.

Nobody saw coming.

[narrator] December 29th, 2014.

Arthur Trotsky is relaxing at his resort Mineral beach

on the banks of the Dead Sea

when the peace is suddenly shattered.

[Trotsky] I was sitting in a cafe.

I heard this loud crash,

so I ran out here and I saw this huge sinkhole.

[narrator] Resorts along the coast

had been dealing with a dropping water level

for many years.

Now, a new phenomenon

was threatening their lively hoods.

[Trotsky] You see this in the middle of the parking lot?

We've got many more over there.

The massage rooms went down into sinkholes.

The beach has sinkholes.

They're all over the place.

[narrator] The receding water line

and sinkholes are connected.

But the root cause of both phenomena

But the root cause of both phenomena

is neither simple nor obvious.

[Scott] The fast dropping water level alone

isn't why these places are abandoned,

but it is part of the story.

From here on, you must follow me

exactly to walk on my footprints.

Okay?

Because there are a lot of hazards here.

And that's why you must follow me, okay?

[narrator] With around 400 sinkholes

appearing along the western coast every year,

this area south of Mineral Beach in Israel

is out of bounds to all but a few experts.

[Eli] It's happened to me to find myself

in the bottom of the sinkhole.

Covered by a pile of avalanche above me.

[narrator] Eli Raz is a geologist

and has spent decades

studying the causes of these collapses.

studying the causes of these collapses.

The very reason for the sinkholes appearance

is the drop in the level of the Dead sea

which is a man-made problem.

Now beneath there is a subterranean salt layer.

[narrator] The problem here lies with this layer of salt.

And it's a byproduct

of the Dead Sea's remarkable geology.

This is a rift valley

similar to Death Valley in the U.S.

or the Great Rift Valley in Africa.

It's a place where tectonic plates

It's a place where tectonic plates

are pulling apart

and the earth is dropping away.

In some cases, even below sea level.

This is the lowest place you can stand on earth

and yet underwater it goes down another thousand feet.

[narrator] Gravity, then does the rest.

[Meigs] All the water that flows in here

carries with it some minerals and salts that it's picked up

as it trickled through the rocks and desert.

But then the sun beats down on the water.

The water starts to evaporate,

The water starts to evaporate,

the minerals and salts stay behind.

That's the reason the ocean is salty.

Things flow into it, but they can't flow out.

But this dead sea is ten times

as salty as the oceans.

[narrator] Crystals and chunks of salt

found at places like Mineral Beach

reflect this high salt level.

It's what gives the Dead Sea it's fame.

[Meigs] This area has been believed to have healing properties

for thousands of years.

Cleopatra actually was said to have set up a resort here,

Cleopatra actually was said to have set up a resort here,

so she could visit the healing waters of the Dead Sea.

[narrator] But the sinkholes

are a relatively new phenomenon.

So why has this high salt content

and dropping water level

only recently become so dangerous?

[Eli] As long as the Dead Sea water

was high enough

they penetrated to the area and protected the salt player.

The problem for the Dead Sea

The problem for the Dead Sea

is that it depends on a source of water,

and that main source of water is the River Jordan.

All along the way, water is being taken out

for drinking water for farming.

Farms in Jordan farms in Israel,

and the occupied West Bank.

[Eli] The Jordan River is blocked now.

There are dams on the Jordan River

and other tributaries.

And water continuously evaporating back.

There is no water coming anymore.

[Meigs] So now, instead of having the water

[Meigs] So now, instead of having the water

in some kind of balance,

we have more water evaporating

every year than is coming in,

and the difference is dramatic.

The Dead Sea is sinking at a rate

of almost a meter a year.

[narrator] As the sea water disappears,

groundwater takes its place.

This has a devastating impact

on the layer of salt under the ground.

When the Dead Sea level is high,

that stops fresh ground water

that stops fresh ground water

getting to this layer of salt

but when the levels of the Dead Sea receded,

this fresh water could now get to the salt

and cause it to dissolve.

As it dissolved it left huge hollows in the ground

and it was only a matter of time

before the ground above collapsed.

[Eli] The first sinkhole that I saw

appear in 1981.

appear in 1981.

But since then the rate of sinkholes appearance

accelerated very much.

There is no other place upon the earth

where this formation of sinkholes is so rapid.

[narrator] They have almost cost Eli his life.

But the real cost has come to the tourism industry,

The most remarkable damage

is the damage to tourism.

The Dead Sea invoked here a lot of tourists,

and now they are prevented.

We cannot access the sea shore.

[narrator] Ironically, it is the very salt

that causes sinkholes to open up

that will also save the Dead Sea from drying up.

[Scott] What's interesting here is the Dead Sea

won't ever disappear completely

won't ever disappear completely

because as the level gets lower,

the salt concentration gets higher.

And so the water becomes less likely to evaporate.

But the damage has already been done

to people's homes and livelihoods.

[intense music playing]

[narrator] In the United Kingdom

is a city concealing a true engineering mystery.

is a city concealing a true engineering mystery.

[Jerram] This is one of the iconic cities of the world.

Liverpool.

A completely urbanized, built up area.

It would be really surprised

at what you can find under your seat.

[Polly] Just off the center of Liverpool

is this facade that's still standing

that's missing the rest of its building.

[narrator] This'll facade is the gateway

to an underground maze

to an underground maze

where the clues don't seem to add up.

[Auerbach] These are very complex,

convoluted passages.

It really feels like a labyrinth,

you know, like one of those dreams.

That you just keep running down.

There's another corridor, another corridor,

and you never get to the end of it.

[Jerram] You look up and you see that there's ornate structures.

There's brick work that's been finely designed.

There's arches.

There's something quite grandeur about these,

even though it seems dark and dingy at first look.

even though it seems dark and dingy at first look.

[narrator] The dirt and rubble lay in contrast

to the elaborate architecture,

but artifacts on display

could give a clue to these tunnels pasts.

[Polly] There's a whole collection of trinkets

that have been found down here

that date back over a hundred years.

Bits of China, bottles.

All these signs of a life that was once lived.

[narrator] A subterranean network

undisturbed for over a century,

a time capsule on a grand scale.

a time capsule on a grand scale.

[Jerram] This is one of the best kept secrets

in Britain, really.

I actually studied in this town

and knew nothing about it in the late '90s.

It's a secret that was kept for over one hundred years.

[narrator] The stories of this place

are bloody and dark.

but the search for the truth

would lead somewhere nobody could have predicted.

[narrator] In Liverpool is a tunnel system

that history nearly forgot.

In the 1800s,

international trade had put the city on the map,

but not everyone here was prospering.

[Polly] Liverpool is rapidly expanding

and is one of England's largest port cities.

It's very bourgeoisie business is booming,

It's very bourgeoisie business is booming,

and the population is expanding.

[Auerbach] Edge Hill was one of the poorest of these areas,

but it had at least one resident

that was doing well for himself,

and his name was Joseph Williamson.

[narrator] Joseph Williamson was the son of a glass maker.

At eleven years old,

he came to the city of Liverpool to find his fortune.

[Auerbach] Joseph Williamson had worked his way up

the business ladder largely through the tobacco trade,

the business ladder largely through the tobacco trade,

and by 1803 he was a very wealthy man.

He saw the poverty and suffering of Edge Hill,

and he decided to do something about it.

[keys jingle]

[narrator] Tom Stapleton is part of a group

who have been unraveling

the history of these tunnels for 20 years.

[Stapleton] Williamson appears to have

perhaps become a philanthropist by default.

perhaps become a philanthropist by default.

He was always happy to give a man a day's pay

after they've done a day's work,

but he would not give handouts.

He was not in the business of handouts to charity.

[Jerram] One of the early theories

about how these tunnels came to be

was that he wanted to give people the chance

to work for that money, not a freebie.

And so he paid people hands on labor

to come and make these tunnels.

[narrator] Stories of Williamson's philanthropy

[narrator] Stories of Williamson's philanthropy

are legendary,

But some think this could be a cover

to hide the real purpose of his underground chambers.

During Williamson's time, Liverpool was a hot bed

of Christian sectarianism and even extremism.

[narrator] While religious unrest swept Liverpool streets.

Williamson, himself a Protestant, continued digging.

[Auerbach] What's strange about these excavations, though,

[Auerbach] What's strange about these excavations, though,

is they're not in some remote location.

The tunnels all lead directly to Williamson's house.

[Stapleton] We're now in what we

are calling a sunken back yard

at the back of Williamson's house.

And through this bay window here,

We're looking into a very large kitchen area,

um, in the basements of what was

his three-story Georgian house above here.

his three-story Georgian house above here.

[Jerram] He lived alone with his wife.

So, why would you need to have such a big kitchen area just beneath your house?

What was the need for that?

[Stapleton] It's quite an enormous space, really, for a kitchen,

and it contains this wonderful array of four cooking ranges,

which really was, I suppose, I have to say, a complete mystery

and a surprise to us when we uncovered it.

[Auerbach] It became a bit of a local legend

[Auerbach] It became a bit of a local legend

that Williamson had some type of end-of-days cult going,

that he and his followers were seeking to prepare themselves for Armageddon.

And the story ran that all this underground construction

was that so they'd have a refuge.

[narrator] Williamson's secrecy invited speculation,

but rumors of the occult were never proven.

[Auerbach] We may not know what they were for,

[Auerbach] We may not know what they were for,

but we know that Williamson wanted to keep them a secret.

One of his friends even threatened to sue a writer

who was gonna publish a story about them.

And that report remained unpublished for years.

[narrator] Joseph Williamson took the secret of his tunnels to the grave.

[Jerram] Williamson was busy beavering away

with these tunnels until his wife died.

with these tunnels until his wife died.

And then, he started to do less and less,

and then, himself, he died in 1840,

and that's when the tunneling stopped.

And so, it's from that point onwards

that the tunnels sort of disappeared into folklore.

[narrator] For 150 years, the tunnels lay forgotten

under the streets of Liverpool.

But in 1999, they would be rediscovered

and their true purpose finally revealed.

[narrator] Buried in Liverpool is a 200-year-old subterranean palace

that had been lost to time.

But in 1999, workers on a building site

discovered a hole in the ground.

[Stapleton] Under this car park,

that area under these two parking bays, 14 and 15,

is roughly where this big hole in the ground was.

is roughly where this big hole in the ground was.

It was just big enough to drop a ladder through,

and for a fairly slim man

to squeeze his way through the hole,

and realize that he was into something important.

[Ha] So, when they actually found the tunnels,

it was like stumbling across Atlantis.

It opened up a whole underground world,

and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

[Stapleton] I remember when I arrived here

before any excavation started,

before any excavation started,

I could say there was a pile of rubble from there to there.

Uh, you could sort of clamber over the top of it for a few yards here.

And then beyond that, to the far end, it was exactly up to there.

You could look along it and maybe see the end, but you couldn't.

You couldn't get over it.

[narrator] The team of amateur archaeologists

began removing hundreds of tons of dirt by hand.

[Ha] After chipping away, they finally found the tunnel floor.

[Ha] After chipping away, they finally found the tunnel floor.

But that was just the first level.

They found another.

This was a multi-leveled tunneling system.

[Stapleton] At that time, it was absolutely impossible

for anybody to judge just how deep

this cellar system might end up being.

And it was years and years later,

before we finally emptied it out,

and realized the full depths of what we'd discovered.

[narrator] As the team dug deeper,

the true origin story of these tunnels was becoming clear.

the true origin story of these tunnels was becoming clear.

[Stapleton] As we lowered to this level,

bit by bit in this chamber,

it became apparent for the very first time to us

what he was doing.

He was going to vault over here in these brick arches,

and then, pop two layers of [indistinct] above,

and then, four-story buildings on top of that.

[narrator] They discovered stone buttresses strong enough,

to stop the ground from falling in.

to stop the ground from falling in.

But that didn't explain how the tunnels got there in the first place.

However, the team still hadn't reached the bottom.

It's only when they went a bit deeper

that the purpose was finally revealed.

[Stapleton] We discovered this floor here,

which consists of three large blocks of stone.

One over there, the one we're standing on and one behind.

One over there, the one we're standing on and one behind.

They're not real rock formations,

they've clearly been carved out of the rock.

[narrator] Beneath Edge Hill is a material

prized for its malleability and fine finish.

That material is sandstone.

It appears that Williamson was extracting the stone

to extend his own estates.

Not only for himself, but for the whole community.

[Stapleton] We don't know how much of this went on,

but we do know for sure that he donated

all of the stone that was needed

all of the stone that was needed

to build one of the local churches.

That's St. Jude's Church,

which was just a few hundred yards down the road.

[narrator] The secret of the Williamsons' tunnels appeared to be solved.

But some mysteries about this place might never be explained.

[Stapleton] One thing that really intrigues me

is this this appeared to be a process that was going on in full-swing.

They were obviously working on three blocks of stone

or four blocks of stone all at once,

or four blocks of stone all at once,

and then, suddenly stopped.

And I found that a very intriguing question.

We'd like to know answers.

But I'm afraid we never will.

[narrator] After Joseph Williamson's death,

the digging stopped and the tunnels would disappear from memory.

Nearly two centuries after Joseph Williamson's death,

the legend of his tunnels

still captures the imagination of Liverpudlians,

still captures the imagination of Liverpudlians,

and the search for the truth continues.

[Stapleton] We believe that there are other spaces which are a lot bigger.

There's a great tunnel, which we know of,

and we hope it still exists,

and we're having great trouble trying to find it.

And we haven't been able to find a way into yet,

but we're determined to find it.

[narrator] On the southern plains of Wyoming,

lies a sinister building designed to tame the untamable.

[Jim Meigs] We're really out in the middle of nowhere.

It's a beautiful country, the Wild West.

But here, in the midst of all this natural beauty,

we also see an outpost of barbed wire and guard towers.

[Klint Janulis] We're looking at a building

that sticks out of the prairie like a sore thumb.

that sticks out of the prairie like a sore thumb.

The walls of this place are built of stone slabs

that were quarried from the local bedrock.

Very strong, almost impenetrable.

You can imagine cattle and cowboys

roaming around on these plains.

But this building tells us a whole other story.

[narrator] H ow dark that story is starts to become clear

once you walk inside.

[Ha] There's a chamber that looks like

[Ha] There's a chamber that looks like

some kind of human-size pressure cooker.

And there's all these other strange sorts of contraptions.

[Meigs] One room is particularly creepy.

There's not much left in it.

There's kind of an ominous hook hanging from the ceiling.

A square on the floor.

And then a window looking out across the beautiful countryside.

[Janulis] As a soldier in the invasion of Iraq,

I saw a lot of prisons and torture chambers.

And this place reminds me a little bit of both.

I would hate to be inside this thing.

I would hate to be inside this thing.

[narrator] So, who was locked up in here?

And what horror did these walls bear witness to?

In the middle of the 19th century,

the northern frontier of America

was a land of opportunity,

but it wasn't for the faint-hearted.

[Janulis] When the frontier was opened,

the only people that would go out there

were the people who were foolhardy, brave

were the people who were foolhardy, brave

or trying to escape from something.

The criminals were going out there because there was no law.

[narrator] It was these people that gave the Wild West its name.

[Ha] They're used to taking the law into their own hands.

With quick draws, lynchings and cash rewards for killings.

But there's change on the horizon.

[narrator] As the 20th century approached,

the territory's government hoped to join the Union,

and the population was growing weary

and the population was growing weary

of Wyoming's wild side.

[Janulis] The problem was that you still had your criminal element.

And these people didn't wanna live

amongst a bunch of lawless criminals.

[Ha] This is a turning point in history.

We're at a crossroads.

The West was known for being wild for a reason,

but it needed to be tamed.

[narrator] For their plan to work,

something dramatic had to be done,

and this site was at the heart of it all.

The Wyoming State Penitentiary.

The Wyoming State Penitentiary.

[Janulis] This building was meant to lock up

the wild elements of the American West,

making it safe for merchants and farmers to come settle the area.

[narrator] Tina Hill is an expert in the history of the building.

[Hill] Now, we're in Cell Block A.

It's our original cell block.

All of our cells could be locked and unlocked

by the bar called the Johnson bar.

-When the bar is up, all the cells are locked. -[door rattles]

Pull the bar down, all the cells are unlocked.

Pull the bar down, all the cells are unlocked.

The cells are five-by-seven.

We would have two to a cell.

We did not have hot water.

It was very cold in A block.

We're the only state penitentiary in Wyoming,

so we had everyone.

This was a minimum, medium, maximum security penitentiary.

We had people here for forgery.

We had people here for first-degree murder.

[narrator] And mixed in amongst these ranks

were some colorful characters.

One of our most infamous inmates was Bill Carlisle.

One of our most infamous inmates was Bill Carlisle.

He was a train robber.

He robbed the Union Pacific Railroad four different times.

He wound up escaping from here.

Got put in a shirt crate.

They put the crate on the train,

which is right down the street.

He popped out of the crate, robbed the train and escaped.

[narrator] Trying to civilize Wyoming's wild element was never going to be easy.

Escape attempts were common occurrences.

[Hill] We had a mass escape in 1912.

[Hill] We had a mass escape in 1912.

At the time, our penitentiary

was surrounded by a wooden stockade.

Twenty inmates escaped through a hole

that they had broken through on the stockade.

People were out on the streets,

shooting at anyone they didn't recognize

because they just assumed they were escaped inmates.

[narrator] Most of the inmates were soon captured,

but a few managed to flee the town after a violent encounter.

[Hill] One resident was shot and killed by the inmates.

Four inmates escaped.

Two of 'em came back deceased.

Two of 'em came back deceased.

The other two they never found again.

[narrator] A stone wall was soon built to replace the old wooden stockade.

But for some, it was clear that simply locking up

violent criminals wasn't enough.

[Ha] So, the prison needed something else to deal with these cowboys,

and why not churn something from the past into the future?

[narrator] Torture and execution

[narrator] Torture and execution

were about to become this prison's calling card.

[narrator] In Southern Wyoming stands the old state prison.

Built to tame the wilder elements of the population,

soon after the turn of the 20th century,

a decision was made to upgrade the facility.

[Meigs] In 1916, the prison expanded.

They added a death house

where they could house the worst prisoners,

those with death sentences,

those with death sentences,

and they could carry out executions.

It was a time in US history when executions were on the rise.

[narrator] While execution was an accepted punishment,

the method of killing was open to interpretation.

One of the stranger ways of executing somebody

in the American West was the Julian Gallows.

It was basically a sort of mousetrap self-execution platform.

[narrator] Designed so that the condemned inmate

would start their own execution process,

would start their own execution process,

only a few features of the elaborate system remain.

They would slip a noose around their neck

and step onto a trap door

knowing that they would fall through that door,

and hopefully snap their neck.

[narrator] By stepping on the platform,

a chain reaction was started in the room below,

using water, weights and pulleys.

Ultimately, it would end in the collapse

of the support structure beneath the trap door.

His weight would start a bucket of water underneath

His weight would start a bucket of water underneath

to start draining out.

It would take about a minute to a minute-and-a-half

for the bucket of water to empty out.

The trapdoor would spring open,

the man would fall through and down he would go.

[Meigs] The Julian Gallows that they installed in the prison

was poorly designed.

There wasn't much distance for the prisoners to drop.

More than once, prisoners experienced

the hell of not having their neck broken,

and slowly strangling at the end of the noose.

[narrator] In total, nine men were killed using this device.

[narrator] In total, nine men were killed using this device.

But soon deemed too inhumane,

a unique contraption nearby shows how

the business of execution was being modernized.

[Ha] Just as the foundations of the prison are being laid down,

eugenics is starting to catch on.

This is the idea that we should select

who is genetically superior and inferior,

and eliminate the undesirables to improve the human race.

Unfortunately, that dangerous idea

coincided with the development

of chemical warfare in the First World War.

of chemical warfare in the First World War.

All of this set the context for the development of the gas chamber.

It was an attempt to be more scientific, more clinical.

If anything, it was worse than hanging.

[narrator] Installed in the 1930s,

this gas chamber was meant to provide

a more humane system of execution.

But did it?

[Hill] The inmates were brought in,

strapped down by their chest, arms and legs.

strapped down by their chest, arms and legs.

Underneath the chair was a pan of sulfuric acid mixed with water.

When it was time, the warden would pull this lever

and a cheesecloth sack of cyanide towels

would drop down into the acid.

Hydrocyanic acid gas would then be formed.

In about 30 seconds, a man was unconscious.

Two-and-a-half to three minutes, he was dead.

[Janulis] The other aspect of this gas chamber

was it had a window for public viewing.

If you can imagine the scene,

a bunch of people sitting in chairs

a bunch of people sitting in chairs

watching a single person in that room

as it slowly fills with gas.

And they clutch at their own throats

as they convulse and defecate and urinate.

That was a public execution in 1936.

[narrator] Use of the gas chamber continued until 1965.

And all those encountering that fate spent their final days here.

Right now, we're in the bullpen for death row.

This is where you would be waiting for your execution.

This is where you would be waiting for your execution.

You're in your cell 24 hours a day.

If you were behaving, they would allow you

to come out here to the bullpen

to exercise for an hour.

Inmates were up here between three months

and a year-and-a-half waiting for their execution.

[Janulis] Imagine living that psychological burden,

of knowing your death is on the horizon,

the exact date, and there's nothing you can do about it.

[narrator] In 1981, the frontier prison was deemed outdated,

[narrator] In 1981, the frontier prison was deemed outdated,

and its doors were closed for the final time.

Throughout its life, thousands had been incarcerated here,

and an unlucky few had paid the ultimate price.

While the prison story ended years ago,

the death penalty still remains.

[Hill] As long as Wyoming has been able to decide

whether or not we were gonna have capital punishment,

whether or not we were gonna have capital punishment,

the state of Wyoming has always had capital punishment.

[narrator] Wyoming is now in the minority.

[Janulis] Death sentences are decided on state-by-state.

And most of the United States have abolished them.

As a result, they've fallen 85%

over the last 25 years.

[Ha] We still have so far to go.

Liberty and justice for all.

It's an aspiration. It's an ideal.

What's so frightening for me

is that what horrifies us today

is that what horrifies us today

was seen as perfectly acceptable,

even progressive, in the past.

But what progress have we made

when we give anyone the legal right

to take the life of another?