All language subtitles for The UnXplained Special Presentation S01E05 1080p WEB h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

An elaborate mansion built
to ward off evil spirits.

A forbidden tomb
guarded by a deadly curse.

And an amusement park
that became a playground

for the souls of the dead.

You know, from time to time
it feels like

there's an unseen, evil energy

that shrouds the world
we live in.

Ominous tombs,
abandoned amusement parks

and cursed objects

can all raise the hair
on the back of our necks

and make us wonder if
something sinister is at play.

But is that just
a figment of our imagination?

Or is it possible
that our fears are justified,

and that dark forces lurk
all around us?

Well, that is what
we will try and find out.

♪ ♪

Near the center of this
ancient city in Central Asia,

is a mausoleum known as
Gur-e-Amir.

It is also known as
the Tomb of the King

because inside
its magnificent dome

lie the remains of one of the
most feared rulers in history:

Tamerlane the Great.

RICHARD SPENCE:
Tamerlane was often credited
as being the last of the great

Asiatic conquerors,
in the mold of Genghis Khan.

He started off, basically,
as a minor tribal leader,

and then he embarked
upon a 35-year career

of constant war and conquest...

...during which he's often
credited with exterminating

five percent of the world's
population.

Tamerlane was very adept
at psychological warfare

and putting his adversary
on the wrong foot.

His most chilling battlefield
signature was the erection

of large numbers of towers

around the city
he'd just conquered.

And these towers were made up
from the decapitated heads

of the victims
of the latest conquest.

A really awful warning
to anyone else who might

think about rebelling.

"This is the fate
that awaits you

"if you even think about
any opposition.

I will destroy you
and destroy your city."

SHATNER:
In 1405, Tamerlane died
of a fever at the age of 69.

By that time,
his empire stretched

from Siberia
to the Mediterranean Sea.

But some claim
that even in death,

Tamerlane wasn't finished
exerting his power on the world.

Because his tomb is believed to
be protected by a deadly curse.

Certain people attain
that level of, you know,

absolutely terrifying,
vicious person.

Something is evil in them,
so when they die,

whatever it is
that makes them evil,

a lot of people think
it still exists.

And where would it be? It would
be wherever the body is.

So, in the tomb of Tamerlane
would be this evil presence

that's now still
terrifying in his death.

SHATNER:
For centuries,
Tamerlane's tomb was untouched

by archaeologists
for fear of unleashing

the dark forces inside.

But 80 years ago,
his tomb was finally disturbed,

and there are those who believe

that it set off
a chain of events

that changed
the course of history.

Under the orders of
Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin,

Russian archaeologists enter

Tamerlane's mausoleum
and open his tomb.

MAROZZI:
Stalin was interested
in the clues

behind Tamerlane's greatness.

Tamerlane was such
an incredibly powerful man,

whose career had been
one of bloodshed and savagery.

And Stalin wanted to
send a very strong message

that he was
a 20th-century equivalent.

DOMINIC STEAVU:
When the expedition arrived
on site, they were told

Tamerlane's tomb has remained
undisturbed for centuries,

and not to open the tomb,
that if they did,

something terrible would happen.

Of course, the expedition
proceeded to open the tomb.

And this very powerful smell
of frankincense,

of rose oil and camphor
suddenly bursts forth

and envelops the expedition.

Some of the members
of the expedition believe

that it was the smell
of a curse.

MAROZZI:
There are supposedly
two inscriptions

on the tomb of Tamerlane.

The first inscription reads:

The second inscription read:

And that's an indication
this is a sacred resting place.

This is not somewhere
to be trifled with.

It was not something
that should even be entertained.

SPENCE:
The body was removed and
it was taken back to Leningrad,

where the remains were being
studied at that point in time.

One of the things that was
in the paper was a picture of

a Soviet archaeologist
holding the skull of Tamerlane.

And in the article accompanying
this, there is a reference

that there were locals
who were disturbed about this.

SHATNER:
On June 22, 1941,

two days after Tamerlane's tomb
was opened,

Russia was hit
with a surprise attack

by Germany, its supposed ally.

Over three million Nazi troops
marched into Russia

in the most massive
invasion in history.

Nazi Germany
invaded the Soviet Union

without any warning.

Up until then, there had
been a pact of non-aggression.

So, this came as quite
a surprise to the Soviet Union.

The Nazis called this surprise
attack Operation Barbarossa,

and they were very swift and
overwhelming in their attacks,

and they managed to get
very far into the Soviet Union,

rather quickly,
causing great devastation

and loss of life to the Soviets.

Tamerlane's body is removed
from its tomb on the 20th

and the Eastern Front
erupts in flames two days later.

Remember, there was a curse.

"Whosoever
will disturb my tomb

will unleash an invader
worse than I."

So, a lot of people would say

the synchronicity
between the removal

of Tamerlane's body from
his tomb

and the launching
of Operation Barbarossa

isn't an accident.

SHATNER:
As German troops continued
to overpower Russian forces,

Stalin's advisors began
to question if the curse

of Tamerlane's tomb
had been unleashed.

They urged him to return
Tamerlane's remains

to Uzbekistan
in the desperate hope

that it would
turn the tide of battle.

And to their astonishment,
it worked.

Tamerlane's remains are
put back in in December of 1942,

when the whole course of the war
at the Eastern Front changes.

And from that point on,
it's just one long nightmare

retreat for the Germans
back to Berlin in April, 1945.

SHATNER:
Is it possible that returning
Tamerlane's remains

to his tomb broke the curse

that triggered Hitler's
invasion of the Soviet Union?

For many, the evidence
is hard to ignore.

MAROZZI:
I think for those
who subscribe

to what we call
the Curse of Tamerlane,

there are these
two great coincidences.

Coincidence one,
the tomb is opened

against all the objections
of the Uzbeks,

Hitler invades the Soviet Union.

Coincidence number two,
Tamerlane is reinterred

with full burial rights,
Hitler is defeated.

So it comes full circle.

Two coincidences,
or two proofs that the curse

was absolutely for real.
Take your pick.

SHATNER:
Here, on the bank
of Lake Shawnee,

stands the abandoned remnants
of what was once a simple,

wholesome,
family amusement park.

Opened in 1926,
the park thrived for decades,

until it was abruptly closed
in 1966.

According to local historians,
the reason for the closure

was that what started as
a playground for children

became the site
of numerous tragic

and disturbing incidents.

In the 1940s, a little girl
was riding the swings

and a soda delivery truck
delivered soda

to the concession stand.

(children laughing)

And whenever he did,
he backed up into

the path of the swing,
and killed the little girl.

SMITH:
They tried to play it down

because it was a child
getting killed.

She wasn't the only child
killed here.

There were several kids
that drowned.

One, it was a really sad story,

and I would hope
it wouldn't happen nowadays.

A mother brought her
nine-year-old here

and dropped him off
to go swimming,

and she went on her merry way.

She came back
when the park was closing,

-and she couldn't find her son.
-WOMAN: Come on!

SMITH:
And they looked for the son

until ten o'clock at night,
when they found him.

His arm was stuck in the drain
of the swimming pool and it had

sucked him in
and he couldn't get out

and he had just drowned.

There was another
incidence where there was

a family out on an outing.

They was riding
a canoe in the lake.

The canoe overturned,

and a little boy
drowned in the lake.

SHATNER:
Before its doors were closed,

six children
had died in the park.

And that might have been reason
enough for the park

to remain closed, but it didn't.

In 1985, local resident
Gaylord White

purchased the property
with hopes of reopening it.

JEWEL WHITE:
In the 1950s, Gaylord,
my husband, worked here

when he was in high school.

He fell in love with it.
So, that was his wish,

that someday
he would own the park.

And somebody had
sent us word that the heirs

had finally decided
they were gonna sell it.

That's how we bought it.

We wanted to have
a children's ride park.

SHATNER:
For years,
locals believed that the park

was haunted, maybe even cursed.

Then, in the late 1980s,
the White family

made some curious discoveries.

CHRIS WHITE:
We started finding a lot of
pottery and Native American

tools and arrowheads,
stuff like that.

So, we stopped
doing the bulldozing.

We called Marshall University.

They put together
an archeological team

that would come down
to the park.

They started uncovering bodies.

So, that's when we knew
we had a Native American

burial ground on the property.

I know that one
of the burial sites

was a Native American
14-year-old girl,

and the belief is
that she died from giving

childbirth because the child
was buried next to her.

SHATNER:
A series of tragic deaths
at an amusement park

built on the site of
a Native American burial ground?

A coincidence?

As far as paranormal
investigators are concerned,

not a chance.

SPINKS:
The first time I stepped foot
on Lake Shawnee Amusement Park,

I felt like I was being watched.

It was an ominous,
just negative feeling.

I don't necessarily believe
that places are born bad.

I believe that
things have to occur

for a place to become
negative in nature.

WHITE:
People said whenever they
come to the park that they see

the swings move on their own
or maybe they see a image

of the little girl
that's riding the swings.

SMITH:
Seeing only one swing move
when I look at it,

no one else sees it,
or it stops as soon as

someone else is looking--
that's pretty scary.

More than scary,
it's unexplained.

We tend to be
scientists now, all of us.

We know everything
that's going on.

And when you see something
that you don't understand,

it gets to be creepy.

LOYD AUERBACH:
Millions of people
have had these experiences.

Not just hauntings,
but all sorts of ESP experiences

and related experiences.

These are questions that science
should be looking at

very carefully and closely.

And to say, oh,
it's mass hallucination

or it's this kind of
explanation, without looking

into the experience itself,
either the singular

or the general patterns,
is not scientific.

It's highly unscientific.

SHATNER:
Is Lake Shawnee Amusement Park
home to deadly powers

that are simply
beyond our understanding?

Or is it possible
that just the thought

of dark forces is all that's
needed to give us a fright?

Perhaps clues can be found
by investigating

a vast mansion
that many believe is haunted

by the souls of
restless gunslingers.

SHATNER:
Strange.

Macabre.

Disturbing.

In San Jose, California
stands one of the largest

and most bizarre private
residences in the United States.

Known as the Winchester
Mystery House,

this 24,000 square foot
Victorian-style mansion

contains an astonishing
160 rooms,

17 chimneys,

47 fireplaces,

two basements,

three elevators

and more than 10,000
panes of glass.

And those are just
the ones we know about.

But why?

MAGNUSON:
Well, the Winchester Mystery
House is a very special place

that was built
with no master plan,

but there are a lot
of architectural oddities

that remain a mystery
as to why they're here.

STEVE BURROWS:
Most buildings
start with some drawing,

some blueprints,
some documents that say

"this is what it's gonna
look like when it was finished."

That building looks like
they made it up as they went.

BOEHME:
There are doors that open
to 12-foot drops outside.

There's doors that,
if you step through them,

you'll land in a kitchen sink
on the first floor.

It's almost like
an Escher picture in some ways.

SHATNER:
The mastermind behind this
architectural jigsaw puzzle

was Sarah Winchester,
the widow of the man

who manufactured
the Winchester repeating rifle.

It was famously known as
"the gun that won the west"

because it could
kill more people faster

than any gun
previously invented.

BOEHME:
The Winchester rifle was
special because it could fire

up to 15 rounds
without being reloaded,

which was very different
from most of the smooth bores

used in the Civil War,
say, which were,

you loaded it, you fired
one shot, and that was it.

So, you could imagine the
advantage that you would have

being able to shoot
round after round after round

without reloading.

SHATNER:
When Sarah's husband
died in 1881,

she became the heir
to his massive fortune.

Three years later,
she began construction

on a mansion that would
take 38 years to complete.

She just added things on
if she had a great idea,

so everybody had to listen
and say, "Oh, okay,

you want a large ballroom
up there."

And then they'd figure it out
as they went.

DAVID WHITEHEAD:
Even to this day,
they're still finding

new rooms and new features
to this house.

Was Sarah just
working off of her whims?

Was she just an eccentric,
crazy lady?

Or is there some
other unknown explanation

that we have yet to understand?

SHATNER:
It is suspected that one
reason Sarah kept building

and building around the clock
for 38 years

is that she was trying
to protect herself from all

the dead souls the Winchester
rifles had killed.

Perhaps, it was thought,
if the house was built

as a giant maze, the ghosts
would never be able to find her.

MAGNUSON:
The story is that
Sarah Winchester

went through
a long period of grief.

She unfortunately lost a child,

only weeks old, and she lost
her husband to tuberculosis.

And she started wondering

why are all these
terrible things happening to me?

And what was common
at the time was to seek out

a medium or a spiritualist,
for guidance.

And that person said
that the karma of this--

the gun that won the west--
and all of these terrible thing

associated with this firearm,
is kind of haunting you.

BOEHME:
This spiritualist medium
told her that in order to pacify

these spirits, who were
very offended at having been

killed by Winchester rifles,
she needed to build a house.

And she should
never stop building.

And the idea also was that
the constant sound

of the saws and hammers would
drive the bad spirits away.

MAGNUSON:
Some of the design features
were specifically built

to confuse
evil or malicious spirits.

So, if the stairs
led to the ceiling or if

a door led to the outside,

possibly, they would be confused
and leave the property.

SHATNER:
Did Sarah Winchester
spend nearly 40 years

and the equivalent
of more than $60 million

constructing a bizarre
labyrinth

of stairs, halls and doors

in order to keep
the vengeful dead at bay?

Perhaps.

And for further evidence,
some point to the fact

that the house is filled
with strange symbolism.

WHITEHEAD:
An interesting symbol
that you see all throughout

the house is the symbol
of the sun.

In astrology and astrotheology,
you have the idea of the Zodiac,

which is you have
the 12 houses of the Zodiac,

and the number 13 is the sun.

At the front gates of the house,

on each gate,
you have a symbol of the sun.

And the rays of the sun
add up to 16 on each sun.

So, when you put
the 16 and the 16 together,

you have the date
that William Shakespeare died.

BOEHME:
Th two most cryptic
windows, stained glass windows

in the house are
Sarah's ballroom windows.

They're the only ones
that have any text in them.

And they're two quotes from
different Shakespearian plays,

and they read, "Wide unclasp
the tables of their thoughts."

And then the other one says,
"These same thoughts

people this little world."

We don't know exactly what
that meant to Sarah.

She took that secret
with her to her grave.

MAGNUSON:
Sarah Winchester passed away
September, 1922.

As you can imagine,
there was great excitement

to see this incredible home
that everyone in the town

had seen being built up
over so many years.

All the furnishings were
sold anonymously at auction,

but what was left was one large
safe in the grand ballroom.

WHITEHEAD:
Sarah put a safe
in the grand ballroom,

which is an odd place
to put a safe.

And the safe itself is very odd.

It's basically,
you open up the safe.

and then you find another safe,
and you have to open up

another safe and it's a safe
within a safe within a safe.

BOEHME:
People were
kind of just mystified.

Like, "What's in the safe?"
They were hoping for maybe

treasure, gold bars or jewelry.

MAGNUSON:
After they finally got inside,
they found just two things.

No gold, no silver, no diamonds.

A lock of hair from her baby,
Annie, who passed away

just a few weeks old, and
the obituary of her husband,

who passed away to
tuberculosis very young.

SHATNER:
A lock of hair

and an obituary.

It seems Sarah Winchester's
motives

for building such a strange
and unsettling structure

remain safely hidden somewhere
in the never-ending house.

Ultimately, it's hard to say
what secrets

the Winchester Mystery House
holds,

but one thing is certain.

It was built to confuse
unwelcome guests,

whether they're alive or dead.

But there's another residence,

located in the state of Indiana,

that may be imbued
with even darker forces.

It's a home that many believe

is the most evil place
in North America.

SHATNER: February 16, 2019.

Paranormal investigator
Dave Spinks

and his associate Haley Sharp

have traveled here
to this small town

to investigate a house
that many consider

to be the most evil place
in North America.

Referred to as Willows Weep,

it has been the site
of a series of gruesome deaths

since it was built
in the 19th century.

Brenda Johnson
owns Willows Weep.

-Hi, Brenda.
-Hi, Dave.

SHATNER:
She dismissed the rumors

about it being an evil place

and purchased it
only a few years ago

with plans to renovate it.

-This is my assistant, Haley.
-Hi.

-Hi.
-It's nice to meet you.

SHATNER:
But recent events have

convinced her that she may have

made a terrible mistake.

To this end,
she has invited Dave and Haley

to come and
investigate the house

and see if her strange
experiences can be verified.

-So, how you doing?
-Not good, standing here.

All night last night I was sick
thinking about coming over here

around this house.

So tell us a little bit
about the house,

some of your experiences here.

Well, when I bought
the house, we started

working on it, and then my son
was working on the ceiling,

the boards come
flying off at him

and hurt him, and I've been
scratched in there.

Six claw marks down my back.

Doors slamming on you.
Banging underneath the floors.

I understand there's been deaths
in this house. Can you kind of

-go through those a little bit?
-Yeah.

The man that built the house,
he died in the bathtub.

There was two suicides
and then another hanging.

And I heard that three men
had been poisoned.

About six months prior,
before I bought it,

there was a man that,
he committed suicide in there.

-He fell into the chair...
-SPINKS: And that's where
they found him?

They found him, what,
a couple days later, right?

-JOHNSON: Week.
-SPINKS: A week?
Week later. Okay.

Do you think what's
in that house is evil?

-Yes, I do.
-Without a doubt?

Yes, I do. Without a doubt.

If it wasn't evil
it wouldn't be hurting people.

I don't think
there's nothing good in there.

The house was built
in the late 1800s, correct?

1890. Yes.

So, regarding
the shape of the house--

-it's in the shape of a cross.
-Upside down cross.

SPINKS:
Strange.

JOHNSON:
Yes. Very strange.

SPINKS:
Do you think the guy
was into some weird stuff,

like occult stuff,
that built it?

Why would you build
a house like that

if you wasn't into something?

Absolutely.

So, we're getting ready
to go into this house

and investigate it.

-Would you like to join us?
-No, no way.

-Never go back in there again.
Ever.
-SPINKS: All right.

We're gonna get in there
and investigate.

All right.

-Here we go.
-All right.

Pretty heavy in here.

Definitely.

Well, where do you want
to get set up?

-Right here.
-Okay.

SHATNER:
To see if the house might
contain strange anomalies,

Dave and Haley will use
a temperature sensor,

which can detect fluctuations
in both temperature

and electromagnetic fields.

All right. 41, 40 degrees,
and it's going down.

(device beeping)

SHARP:
It really likes this area.

SPINKS: Yeah.

It's going nuts.

SHATNER: The temperature sensor
has been dropping steadily

by as much as nine degrees.
But why?

So, this room is appearing
to be pretty active so far.

I mean, the whole house
really is.

But we've got a lot of hits
right here on this device.

SHARP:
This is the chair
that Brenda was talking about.

Yeah, look at the blood on it.

It's a really sad, heavy feeling
right here, too,

in the pit of my stomach.

Almost immediately,
the device started going off

in the chair where
a man who killed himself

in the house several
years ago was found in.

SHARP: Something there.

SHATNER: Could the strange
changes in the temperature

of the house be caused
by some explainable force?

a sudden drop
in barometric pressure caused by

the presence of a deep
underground well, perhaps?

Or could it be caused
by something else?

Something that
can't yet be explained?

I'm getting the sickness,
the headache.

-Definitely something negative
here, in my opinion.
-I agree.

All right, so let's get out
of here.

-Let's go.
-All right.

SHATNER:
Dave and Haley
are beginning to suspect

that the stories of
Willows Weep being an evil place

might be based on more
than fear and superstition.

SHARP:
The house is scary.

I wouldn't want to
be in this house alone.

I'd say this house
does have some evil in it.

It does not give you
a good feeling.

It wants to
suck the life out of you.

I've been to many locations,

and this one stands out
above all of them so far.

In my personal opinion,
there are

many spirits and entities
in this house.

There are human spirits
and possibly demonic spirits

that influenced the humans
that have lived in his house,

and quite possibly have
caused them to harm themselves.

SHATNER:
Once outside,
Dave and Haley give owner

Brenda Johnson a report
on their findings,

but not before Dave makes Brenda
a rather surprising offer.

I know you really
don't like this place.

-No.
-And I know that
you want to get rid of it.

-Yeah.
-Because I'd like to
purchase the house from you.

(laughs)

-Mm-hmm.
-Okay. Yes.

SHATNER:
Dave is willing to be
the next owner of Willows Weep.

-All right.
-Thank you, hon. Thank you.

SPINKS:
I told Brenda
if I own this house,

I could investigate it
much further

and much more in depth,
and possibly

come to a conclusion

as to what's causing the evil
that lurks within its walls.

That is, if something
doesn't happen to me first.

-You too.
-SPINKS: Luckily for me,
she agreed.

She really couldn't
wait to sell the place.

SHATNER:
Is it a good idea to investigate
places like Willows Weep

in order to find out whether
dark forces really exist?

Perhaps. But some
people believe that it's

better to simply avoid
these locations at all costs.

Like in the case of
an abandoned island in Mexico

whose only inhabitants
are thousands of eerie dolls.

SHATNER:
Just south of Mexico City.

Dotted amongst the numerous
tree-filled canals

that run through
this ancient city

are dozens of artificial
floating islands

known as chinampas.

But one chinampa stands out

because the branches of
its willow and cypress trees

appear to be growing
something rather unusual.

The place is called
Isla de las Muñecas,

otherwise known as
the Island of the Dolls.

HOROWITZ:
The island is
a forest-like enclave

draped with thousands

and thousands of ordinary dolls.

Childhood playthings
hanging from trees,

vines and branches.

It's very eerie.

These look like
suspended living presences

that are believed
to ward off evil.

It's a spooky living
sculpture that some people say

um, is cursed.

And according to folklore,

you can hear whispering...

(indistinct whispers)

...and you can hear
little girls' voices.

You can see the dolls' eyes
blinking on their own,

which is just terrifying.

SHATNER:
The only permanent residents of
the island are the strange dolls

that have given the place
a ghoulish reputation.

But who created this
macabre spectacle?

And why?

Well, according to local lore,
the story began

in the 1950s,
when the island was owned

by a man named
Julian Santana Barrera.

Julian Santana Barrera

came to live on the chinampa.

And according to the stories,
he came across

a little girl floating
in one of the canals.

Barrera is devastated that
he can't save the little girl,

and pulls her out of the water

and buries her on the island.

Barrera felt, eventually,
that he was seeing the ghost

of this girl walking around
his little chinampa island.

To try to make her happy,

he hung some dolls in the trees.

And he hung
more and more dolls up

to appease the spirit of this
little girl who died tragically.

We can think about
what Barrera did

as a talisman or a symbol

that is used to protect.

All across all across the globe,
you see

these totems being used
in this particular way.

There are stones and there are
ornaments that people

hang in their houses,
in their cars.

Sometimes people carry them
on their physical person.

And the act is done as
a kind of protective gesture.

SHATNER:
Ultimately, Barrera
hung thousands of dolls

all over the island,

not only to honor
the memory of the young girl,

but also to guard against
a dark entity

that he believed
had caused her death.

An entity known as La Llorona.

La Llorona
is a tragic character.

She is the first Native mother

who gave birth to children

from a Conquistador, a Spaniard.

The story says that

her community rejected her
because her children

were Spaniard,
and so she was shamed.

She was so ashamed of this,
in fact,

that she went down to the river
and she drowned her children.

She immediately regretted this.

(woman wailing)

BARNHART:
And now she's this spirit
that haunts lakes and rivers.

La Llorona is a well-known
myth all around Mexico.

And so, a man like Barrera,
who sees a child

floating in the water--
he almost certainly,

at least for a moment,
thought of La Llorona

and that this
is her children, floating.

SHATNER:
Since Barrera's death in 2001,

the island of the dolls
has remained abandoned.

But locals continue to tell
the story of the drowned girl.

Many are convinced that
there's an evil presence

on this island.

And as evidence, they point
to the chilling circumstances

of Julian Barrera's death.

After suffering from
a fatal heart attack,

his body was found
in an unsettling location.

PEREZ:
Barrera dies, and not only
does he die on the island,

but his body is found
in the exact canal

where he found the little girl.

Is there a correlation?
We don't know.

But many people believe

that if you are out at night

by yourself,
playing down by the river,

that La Llorona will "get you."

The British tabloid The Sun

publishes an article
by journalist John Murphy

about the aftermath
of a local house fire.

But, according to
John Murphy, this is not

your typical human
interest story.

Because, although the blaze
burned the home

and nearly everything in it
to the ground,

one object
did manage to survive:

a copy of
a painting depicting...

The Crying Boy.

I was told to go out
and have a look at the fire,

speak to the homeowners
and see what had happened.

I got there, and it was
conventional chip pan fire.

No one, fortunately,
was hurt,

but the house had been

completely gutted.
But the extraordinary thing

was that the print had
actually survived the blaze.

SHATNER:
Initially, John thought that
the painting's survival

was a mildly interesting tidbit,

but not especially newsworthy
on its own.

That is, until a firefighter
on the scene informed him

that this wasn't
the only time that a copy

of a similar painting had
survived such a massive fire.

MURPHY:
When I was speaking to the fire
officer outside the home

on that Monday morning, he told
me about his brother-in-law,

whose house had also been
destroyed by fire, and who also

had a print of The Crying Boy
in the house which survived.

We had an interesting
conversation, and he said,

"This is really, really strange.

"I have been on so many
house fires recently

where there has been
this print in the house."

DAVID CLARKE:
The houses where
there'd been these fires

were completely gutted.
So hot, in fact,

that, say, on the ground floor
of one particular house,

the plaster
was stripped from the walls.

And yet this particular print
was hanging on the wall,

absolutely unscathed.

I contacted my news desk,
phoned through the story.

So, hence the story

of the curse of The Crying Boy
print was born.

SHATNER:
Dozens of homes ravaged by fire.

And in every single case,
a Crying Boy print

had survived unscathed.

But how could
such a thing be possible?

MURPHY:
The story went viral after
The Sun got hold of the story,

and next thing, they ran
telephone campaigns

asking if their readers had
got a print of The Crying Boy

and if so, had they
experienced any disasters

like house fires?

CLARKE:
So, that's where
the rumor became a legend.

But at that stage,
there was no story to explain

who the child was
and why was he crying.

SHATNER:
The Crying Boy portraits
are among a series

of mass-produced artworks

that belong to a genre
known as Big Eyed Art,

sold in British
department stores

in the 1960s and 70s.

But in this case,
who was the artist?

And why was he or she
so obsessed with

with painting a crying boy?

CLARKE:
In the 1950s, there was
a Californian artist,

Margaret Keane,
who painted a whole range

of children, and this
became "Big Eyed" art.

And it was something
that was very popular

in the '50s and '60s.

Lots of European painters copied
Margaret Keane's art style.

Probably the best known
was a series of 27 paintings

by an Italian artist
called Bruno Amadio

who was born in 1911,
died in the early 1980s.

And he was classically trained,
but he didn't make much

in the way of money.
So, in order to make money,

he painted, in the style
of Margaret Keane,

lots of pictures
of small children,

sort of street urchins,
crying girls, crying boys,

and these sold to tourists
in post-war Italy.

He didn't want to be associated
with these paintings because

he just didn't think they were
very good quality paintings,

so he came up with a name,

his nom de guerre
as Giovanni Bragolin,

which was actually,
apparently, his uncle's name.

No one knew
who this Bragolin was.

He didn't have
a biography in the way that

many other
well-known artists did.

So, there's that
element of mystery.

And one of the stories
about the Crying Boy Curse

is that the child in the
painting

is trapped inside the painting

and that the only way that
the child or the spirit

of that child can free itself
is by setting fire

to its surroundings,

and that's the way
it escapes from the painting.

SHATNER:
Recently, forensic investigators

studying the so-called
curse of The Crying Boy

have raised a new possibility
as to how the painting

has come to survive
so many housefires.

And it has nothing to
do with a supposed curse.

There was some investigation
done on these paintings,

and they were actually coated
with fire-retardant material.

And that could just be
the reason that they didn't burn

and the other aspects
of the locations did burn.

You plant an idea,
whether it's in a newspaper,

in a book,
or via Twitter or Facebook,

suggesting that there's
something eerie,

or there's bad luck
that's circulating around

a particular object or painting,

and you're almost guaranteed
to get people saying,

"Yes, I've had bad luck."

And that's exactly what happened
in the 1980s with

the Curse of the Crying Boy.

So, what do you think?

Are dark forces
just a manifestation

of human fears,
and nothing more?

Or are we surrounded by
invisible and malevolent energy

that we don't fully understand?

Well, until we know for sure,

perhaps it's best to listen
closely when our instincts

warn us about deadly powers

that remain...

Unexplained.

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