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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:01,379 --> 00:00:03,758 SHATNER: An ordinary day that many believe to be 2 00:00:03,862 --> 00:00:06,896 the most dangerous of the year. 3 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:08,551 A lake that swallows people... 4 00:00:08,655 --> 00:00:10,137 [muffled yelling] 5 00:00:10,241 --> 00:00:12,586 ...into a bottomless abyss. 6 00:00:12,689 --> 00:00:14,689 And a priceless diamond 7 00:00:14,793 --> 00:00:17,620 that brings death 8 00:00:17,724 --> 00:00:19,620 to every man that touches it. 9 00:00:23,551 --> 00:00:25,551 Can places, things, 10 00:00:25,655 --> 00:00:28,344 or even people 11 00:00:28,448 --> 00:00:31,931 actually be cursed? 12 00:00:32,034 --> 00:00:33,965 There are those who insist 13 00:00:34,068 --> 00:00:37,034 that not only do curses exist, but 14 00:00:37,137 --> 00:00:41,620 that these dark forces are actually lurking all around us. 15 00:00:43,620 --> 00:00:45,413 So, how do we get rid of them? 16 00:00:45,517 --> 00:00:47,344 Well... 17 00:00:47,448 --> 00:00:50,103 that is what we'll try and find out. 18 00:00:50,206 --> 00:00:52,137 ♪ 19 00:01:07,206 --> 00:01:09,275 SHATNER: Hunterdon County, New Jersey. 20 00:01:11,172 --> 00:01:14,551 Nestled beside the sleepy suburbs of Clinton Township 21 00:01:14,655 --> 00:01:17,551 lies Round Valley Reservoir. 22 00:01:19,379 --> 00:01:22,137 First formed in 1960 as a primary water source, 23 00:01:22,241 --> 00:01:24,931 this man-made lake is beloved by locals 24 00:01:25,034 --> 00:01:27,931 for its great fishing and scenic views. 25 00:01:28,034 --> 00:01:30,034 But many believe 26 00:01:30,137 --> 00:01:32,586 this idyllic watering hole 27 00:01:32,689 --> 00:01:36,275 conceals a deadly secret. 28 00:01:39,551 --> 00:01:41,344 For more than 40 years, 29 00:01:41,448 --> 00:01:45,655 people have been disappearing in Round Valley Reservoir. 30 00:01:45,758 --> 00:01:49,000 And not just a few. 31 00:01:50,241 --> 00:01:52,551 More than two dozen men have been lost 32 00:01:52,655 --> 00:01:54,689 beneath these placid waters, 33 00:01:54,793 --> 00:01:57,000 never to be seen again. 34 00:01:57,103 --> 00:02:00,448 Locals do believe that this lake is cursed, 35 00:02:00,551 --> 00:02:04,034 and it's easy to understand why, with so many tragic deaths 36 00:02:04,137 --> 00:02:06,448 surrounding it in just about 40 years. 37 00:02:08,448 --> 00:02:11,103 And while I can't be sure if it's cursed, 38 00:02:11,206 --> 00:02:14,000 there's always one thing that's given me the chills. 39 00:02:14,103 --> 00:02:17,931 I heard someone say that when one body is found 40 00:02:18,034 --> 00:02:20,000 at Round Valley Reservoir, 41 00:02:20,103 --> 00:02:23,724 another quickly replaces it. 42 00:02:23,827 --> 00:02:26,620 We don't even know for sure how many bodies there really are. 43 00:02:26,724 --> 00:02:28,620 [indistinct radio chatter] 44 00:02:30,586 --> 00:02:32,620 When I worked in news, 45 00:02:32,724 --> 00:02:35,689 I would hear the police scanner crackle to life 46 00:02:35,793 --> 00:02:37,965 with "Round Valley," 47 00:02:38,068 --> 00:02:40,862 "fishermen," "trouble," "boat," or 48 00:02:40,965 --> 00:02:42,655 - "Somebody has gone under the water." - [muffled yelling] 49 00:02:42,758 --> 00:02:45,586 It's a creepy, horrible feeling when you hear this, 50 00:02:45,689 --> 00:02:48,068 because you know that 51 00:02:48,172 --> 00:02:51,275 90% of the time, this is not going to end well. 52 00:02:54,103 --> 00:02:56,000 I can't explain 53 00:02:56,103 --> 00:02:59,827 why these people at the bottom of the lake haven't been found, 54 00:02:59,931 --> 00:03:02,379 especially after searching for them 55 00:03:02,482 --> 00:03:05,137 with such a degree of intensity. 56 00:03:05,241 --> 00:03:08,931 Even after bringing in cadaver-sniffing dogs, 57 00:03:09,034 --> 00:03:11,379 using sonar technology 58 00:03:11,482 --> 00:03:15,206 and submarines to crawl the lake, there was no sign. 59 00:03:15,310 --> 00:03:17,551 It's almost as if some of these people disappeared 60 00:03:17,655 --> 00:03:19,275 without a trace. 61 00:03:19,379 --> 00:03:21,275 And an interesting thing, 62 00:03:21,379 --> 00:03:23,758 if you're looking for bones in Round Valley, 63 00:03:23,862 --> 00:03:27,344 is that you aren't necessarily going to find a fisherman 64 00:03:27,448 --> 00:03:30,034 who disappeared 13 years ago. 65 00:03:30,137 --> 00:03:33,172 You may find a bone that was in the ground 66 00:03:33,275 --> 00:03:36,137 long before Round Valley became a reservoir. 67 00:03:38,068 --> 00:03:43,413 SHATNER: Bones from a time before Round Valley became a reservoir? 68 00:03:43,517 --> 00:03:45,551 There are some who believe 69 00:03:45,655 --> 00:03:48,034 that these bones may have been the very reason 70 00:03:48,137 --> 00:03:51,551 the bodies of those who have disappeared here 71 00:03:51,655 --> 00:03:53,620 have never been found, 72 00:03:53,724 --> 00:03:58,965 and that the lake's refusal to give up its victims 73 00:03:59,068 --> 00:04:02,206 is actually an act of revenge. 74 00:04:04,379 --> 00:04:06,689 There was a town here once. 75 00:04:06,793 --> 00:04:11,241 For centuries, people put down roots in this valley. 76 00:04:11,344 --> 00:04:13,758 It was very fertile and rich farmland. 77 00:04:13,862 --> 00:04:15,310 There were thousands of acres. 78 00:04:15,413 --> 00:04:17,379 And people grew their own food. 79 00:04:17,482 --> 00:04:19,000 They raised their animals. 80 00:04:19,103 --> 00:04:23,206 Then, in the 1950s, there was a drought in New Jersey. 81 00:04:25,068 --> 00:04:28,206 And they needed a source of water for, predominantly, Newark 82 00:04:28,310 --> 00:04:30,482 but the surrounding area as well. 83 00:04:30,586 --> 00:04:33,275 And so, they had to fill in somewhere, 84 00:04:33,379 --> 00:04:35,931 and Round Valley, they believed, was the best choice. 85 00:04:36,034 --> 00:04:39,310 People were opposed to the reservoir being built. 86 00:04:39,413 --> 00:04:42,413 It was a small farming community, very close-knit, 87 00:04:42,517 --> 00:04:45,724 and no one wanted to leave their homes. 88 00:04:45,827 --> 00:04:49,655 Most of the homes were eventually erased or moved. 89 00:04:49,758 --> 00:04:52,275 KIRILUK-HILL: Their homes were either torn down 90 00:04:52,379 --> 00:04:54,689 or they were put on flatbeds and taken out of the valley. 91 00:04:54,793 --> 00:04:58,448 And that construction started on the reservoir. 92 00:04:58,551 --> 00:05:02,448 In the 1960s, they started filling it. 93 00:05:02,551 --> 00:05:06,275 There was a lot of bad feeling here when, 94 00:05:06,379 --> 00:05:09,275 when the-the landowners were pushed out of their valley. 95 00:05:10,620 --> 00:05:13,551 Did these ill feelings carry over? 96 00:05:13,655 --> 00:05:16,517 There are people who will say, "Yes, they did." 97 00:05:16,620 --> 00:05:18,137 There are people who come here 98 00:05:18,241 --> 00:05:19,655 who think the town is still here. 99 00:05:19,758 --> 00:05:22,344 They still think they see that church steeple 100 00:05:22,448 --> 00:05:24,931 and that barn silo underneath the water. 101 00:05:25,034 --> 00:05:27,000 Are they seeing it? 102 00:05:27,103 --> 00:05:28,655 Not really. 103 00:05:28,758 --> 00:05:30,068 They were torn down. 104 00:05:30,172 --> 00:05:32,172 But the foundations were left in place. 105 00:05:32,275 --> 00:05:34,172 Of course, there were fence posts. 106 00:05:34,275 --> 00:05:38,103 There were some things left below. 107 00:05:38,206 --> 00:05:41,241 When you're at Round Valley, you feel 108 00:05:41,344 --> 00:05:45,206 the spirit of the people who came before you. 109 00:05:45,310 --> 00:05:47,413 There is a presence here 110 00:05:47,517 --> 00:05:50,620 that can make you feel a little disconcerting. 111 00:05:52,103 --> 00:05:54,413 Some local people call Round Valley 112 00:05:54,517 --> 00:05:58,482 "the Bermuda Triangle of New Jersey," 113 00:05:58,586 --> 00:06:01,034 because as much as this is a place 114 00:06:01,137 --> 00:06:05,862 of great beauty and great enjoyment, 115 00:06:05,965 --> 00:06:08,000 it-it's also a place 116 00:06:08,103 --> 00:06:11,344 where death happens 117 00:06:11,448 --> 00:06:13,103 really more than it should. 118 00:06:14,551 --> 00:06:16,620 SHATNER: The idea that any body of water, 119 00:06:16,724 --> 00:06:18,931 let alone a man-made one less than a century old, 120 00:06:19,034 --> 00:06:22,620 could somehow be imbued with a deadly curse 121 00:06:22,724 --> 00:06:24,965 seems far-fetched, to say the least. 122 00:06:25,068 --> 00:06:27,620 And yet outlandish 123 00:06:27,724 --> 00:06:31,827 and presumably irrational notions such as these 124 00:06:31,931 --> 00:06:35,620 have been held by nearly every culture throughout history. 125 00:06:35,724 --> 00:06:37,862 But why? 126 00:06:37,965 --> 00:06:39,793 We all are afraid of things, 127 00:06:39,896 --> 00:06:42,413 and we would like to be able to understand them, 128 00:06:42,517 --> 00:06:45,482 if only to give a little mental illusion of control 129 00:06:45,586 --> 00:06:48,344 over things that go bump in the night. 130 00:06:48,448 --> 00:06:52,793 And so, we come up with stories, and they help. 131 00:06:52,896 --> 00:06:55,965 They're entertaining and maybe they're true. 132 00:06:56,068 --> 00:06:58,482 And then they get passed down to children and grandchildren, 133 00:06:58,586 --> 00:07:01,758 and they gain authority through time. 134 00:07:01,862 --> 00:07:05,137 A curse has to be believed in order for it to have power. 135 00:07:05,241 --> 00:07:06,586 It's kind of like hypnosis. 136 00:07:06,689 --> 00:07:08,551 You have to be willing to go under hypnosis 137 00:07:08,655 --> 00:07:10,413 in order for it to actually be effective. 138 00:07:10,517 --> 00:07:13,344 So maybe these curses are created by us, 139 00:07:13,448 --> 00:07:14,896 by our imagination, 140 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:17,241 by us trying to deal with the mystery of nature. 141 00:07:17,344 --> 00:07:18,724 It's just a game that we're playing, 142 00:07:18,827 --> 00:07:20,551 but we ascribe meaning to it. 143 00:07:20,655 --> 00:07:23,551 So, if we ascribe meaning to a curse, 144 00:07:23,655 --> 00:07:25,689 could that actually make the curse real? 145 00:07:27,379 --> 00:07:29,206 SHATNER: Although it may be human nature 146 00:07:29,310 --> 00:07:34,034 to blame inexplicable tragedies on some sort of dark force, 147 00:07:34,137 --> 00:07:36,344 according to skeptics, there's nothing supernatural 148 00:07:36,448 --> 00:07:40,344 about the disappearances at Round Valley Reservoir. 149 00:07:40,448 --> 00:07:43,586 They claim that these strange occurrences 150 00:07:43,689 --> 00:07:46,517 must have a perfectly rational explanation. 151 00:07:46,620 --> 00:07:48,413 KIRILUK-HILL: Some people 152 00:07:48,517 --> 00:07:50,620 who live around here think it's more a matter 153 00:07:50,724 --> 00:07:52,896 of respecting your environment. 154 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:54,931 And when the wind swirls, 155 00:07:55,034 --> 00:07:59,655 you can get waves up to three feet tall on this reservoir. 156 00:07:59,758 --> 00:08:02,517 And that's where people get in trouble. 157 00:08:02,620 --> 00:08:05,413 They're not expecting it. 158 00:08:05,517 --> 00:08:08,310 In my career I've handled anything from, um, 159 00:08:08,413 --> 00:08:11,275 plane crashes, homicides, suicides, 160 00:08:11,379 --> 00:08:13,551 um, you know, lost children. 161 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:18,448 But, uh, when you're out there in a small boat 162 00:08:18,551 --> 00:08:20,551 and there's fog coming across the lake, 163 00:08:20,655 --> 00:08:22,586 it can be very eerie at times. 164 00:08:22,689 --> 00:08:24,586 You have these 40-mile-per-hour winds 165 00:08:24,689 --> 00:08:27,068 that come up out of no place. 166 00:08:27,172 --> 00:08:29,172 They only allow small boats. 167 00:08:29,275 --> 00:08:31,413 You have excessively cold water, 168 00:08:31,517 --> 00:08:33,482 which leads to hypothermia. 169 00:08:33,586 --> 00:08:35,862 I can guarantee, probably nine out of ten people 170 00:08:35,965 --> 00:08:38,724 that are out on this lake don't wear their life preservers. 171 00:08:38,827 --> 00:08:41,793 I think it's because of those factors. 172 00:08:41,896 --> 00:08:45,620 And you know what? Just plain bad luck. Period. 173 00:08:47,620 --> 00:08:49,689 SHATNER: So, where did the bodies of the lost men 174 00:08:49,793 --> 00:08:51,827 of Round Valley Reservoir go? 175 00:08:51,931 --> 00:08:54,586 Could it be that they're merely trapped 176 00:08:54,689 --> 00:08:56,931 somewhere deep beneath the lake's surface, 177 00:08:57,034 --> 00:09:00,068 in a place searchers haven't yet looked? 178 00:09:01,517 --> 00:09:05,758 Or are they really victims of a deadly curse? 179 00:09:05,862 --> 00:09:09,103 Either way, the very notion that such a malevolent force 180 00:09:09,206 --> 00:09:14,379 could corrupt an entire lake is a chilling proposition. 181 00:09:14,482 --> 00:09:17,000 Not unlike the notion that a curse 182 00:09:17,103 --> 00:09:20,413 could be contained in something so small 183 00:09:20,517 --> 00:09:23,758 that it could fit in the palm of your hand. 184 00:09:31,344 --> 00:09:33,172 JOSEPH McLEAN GREGORY: The Hope Diamond makes people want to "ah" 185 00:09:33,275 --> 00:09:37,517 of the most beguiling and infamous diamonds in existence. 186 00:09:37,620 --> 00:09:41,275 Set in a pendant surrounded by 16 white diamonds, 187 00:09:41,379 --> 00:09:43,655 this dazzling gray-blue stone 188 00:09:43,758 --> 00:09:48,655 weighs a colossal 45.54 carats. 189 00:09:48,758 --> 00:09:50,689 Although throughout its history 190 00:09:50,793 --> 00:09:53,655 the massive diamond has been known variously 191 00:09:53,758 --> 00:09:58,275 as the Tavernier Blue and Le Bleu de France, 192 00:09:58,379 --> 00:10:03,620 today it is simply known as the Hope Diamond. 193 00:10:03,724 --> 00:10:05,655 GREGORY: What makes the Hope Diamond 194 00:10:05,758 --> 00:10:08,482 so mesmerizing is the whole presentation 195 00:10:08,586 --> 00:10:11,655 of the diamond itself, and 196 00:10:11,758 --> 00:10:13,620 I think that's what brings out the beauty of the diamond. 197 00:10:13,724 --> 00:10:15,724 It highlights the blue stone. 198 00:10:15,827 --> 00:10:19,275 KURIN: This is a piece of rock that's the size of a walnut! 199 00:10:19,379 --> 00:10:21,034 It almost looks sapphire-like. 200 00:10:21,137 --> 00:10:23,965 And yet, because people feel it has this amazing story 201 00:10:24,068 --> 00:10:26,620 about curse and misfortune, 202 00:10:26,724 --> 00:10:29,344 they regard it specially, so when you go to the Smithsonian 203 00:10:29,448 --> 00:10:31,344 and you go in that Winston Gallery, 204 00:10:31,448 --> 00:10:32,793 you can't get close to it. 205 00:10:32,896 --> 00:10:34,827 There's always mobs of people around it. 206 00:10:34,931 --> 00:10:36,965 Everybody's taking pictures around it. 207 00:10:37,068 --> 00:10:39,965 Everybody's whispering and trying to figure out things, 208 00:10:40,068 --> 00:10:43,068 and they feel it's almost like they're around a celebrity. 209 00:10:43,172 --> 00:10:45,931 SHATNER: Although renowned for its breathtaking beauty, 210 00:10:46,034 --> 00:10:48,241 the Hope Diamond has also become known 211 00:10:48,344 --> 00:10:51,206 for a far different type of facet, 212 00:10:51,310 --> 00:10:54,931 one that many regard to be deadly. 213 00:10:55,965 --> 00:10:58,068 In 1908, 214 00:10:58,172 --> 00:11:01,724 The Washington Postdid a story noting all the people 215 00:11:01,827 --> 00:11:04,172 that owned this diamond and suffered misfortune. 216 00:11:04,275 --> 00:11:10,206 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette faced the guillotine. 217 00:11:10,310 --> 00:11:12,689 The Hope family went bankrupt. 218 00:11:12,793 --> 00:11:15,482 All sorts of peoples whose throat were slit, 219 00:11:15,586 --> 00:11:17,655 and people who went off cliffs, 220 00:11:17,758 --> 00:11:19,931 and everybody who was associated with it died. 221 00:11:20,034 --> 00:11:23,689 And so that became kind of a theme story about it 222 00:11:23,793 --> 00:11:26,620 and-and really led to the diamond's notoriety. 223 00:11:26,724 --> 00:11:28,793 SHATNER: Could it be that one 224 00:11:28,896 --> 00:11:32,172 of the most recognizable gemstones in existence, 225 00:11:32,275 --> 00:11:36,517 admired by thousands of people on a daily basis from afar, 226 00:11:36,620 --> 00:11:39,448 is also cursed? 227 00:11:39,551 --> 00:11:42,034 But if so, how? 228 00:11:43,793 --> 00:11:46,137 Putting together the story of the Hope Diamond 229 00:11:46,241 --> 00:11:47,517 is like a detective story. 230 00:11:47,620 --> 00:11:49,172 It really is a puzzle. 231 00:11:49,275 --> 00:11:50,862 It started out in India. 232 00:11:50,965 --> 00:11:53,344 The diamond, a big blue diamond, is basically acquired 233 00:11:53,448 --> 00:11:56,689 by this guy Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. 234 00:11:56,793 --> 00:12:01,241 He is a, uh, Belgian-French diamond trader. 235 00:12:01,344 --> 00:12:04,000 He's fascinated by diamonds. 236 00:12:04,103 --> 00:12:07,862 And he's really the first one that goes to India 237 00:12:07,965 --> 00:12:11,379 to find out where diamonds really come from. 238 00:12:11,482 --> 00:12:14,793 The rumor about the Hope Diamond is that it was actually stolen 239 00:12:14,896 --> 00:12:18,103 from the statue of a Hindu god. 240 00:12:18,206 --> 00:12:22,793 KURIN: Tavernier does report on a story from India. 241 00:12:22,896 --> 00:12:24,655 Somebody climbed up on the statue, 242 00:12:24,758 --> 00:12:26,827 stole that large diamond, 243 00:12:26,931 --> 00:12:30,482 secreted it, and then tried to get it out. 244 00:12:30,586 --> 00:12:33,137 The next morning, they opened the temple, 245 00:12:33,241 --> 00:12:37,344 and they found him dead, holding the diamond. 246 00:12:37,448 --> 00:12:42,172 And so, from that day forward, apparently, the legend goes 247 00:12:42,275 --> 00:12:46,551 that the god cursed anyone who would bear this stone. 248 00:12:46,655 --> 00:12:49,206 It seems to be that we have many cases where people 249 00:12:49,310 --> 00:12:52,724 have had heart attacks after putting on the stone. 250 00:12:52,827 --> 00:12:55,206 Uh, you know, people have committed suicide. 251 00:12:55,310 --> 00:12:57,448 There's been tragedy that has surrounded this stone 252 00:12:57,551 --> 00:12:59,137 from day one. 253 00:12:59,241 --> 00:13:02,482 SHATNER: Is it possible that the fantastic stories 254 00:13:02,586 --> 00:13:04,724 about a Hope Diamond curse 255 00:13:04,827 --> 00:13:08,724 are based on nothing more than morbid fantasies? 256 00:13:08,827 --> 00:13:11,034 According to Evalyn Walsh McLean, 257 00:13:11,137 --> 00:13:15,862 a wealthy mining heiress who died in 1947, 258 00:13:15,965 --> 00:13:19,793 the curse is, in fact, very real. 259 00:13:19,896 --> 00:13:21,827 And she would have known, 260 00:13:21,931 --> 00:13:27,551 because she owned the Hope Diamond for 36 years. 261 00:13:27,655 --> 00:13:29,862 Evalyn Walsh McLean was my great-grandmother, 262 00:13:29,965 --> 00:13:31,827 and she was the last and longest owner 263 00:13:31,931 --> 00:13:33,344 of the infamous Hope Diamond. 264 00:13:33,448 --> 00:13:35,103 KURIN: Evalyn Walsh McLean 265 00:13:35,206 --> 00:13:38,862 was definitely iconoclastic and rebellious. 266 00:13:38,965 --> 00:13:40,793 And I think when she bought the diamond 267 00:13:40,896 --> 00:13:46,379 from the jeweler Pierre Cartier, she liked the idea of the curse 268 00:13:46,482 --> 00:13:48,206 because-- she actually wrote about it-- 269 00:13:48,310 --> 00:13:50,862 she said, "I'm not a queen. I wasn't born rich. 270 00:13:50,965 --> 00:13:54,931 "So maybe I'm not subject to the same kind of forces 271 00:13:55,034 --> 00:13:57,241 "that these other people have been 272 00:13:57,344 --> 00:13:59,862 that came from a different station in life." 273 00:13:59,965 --> 00:14:05,931 But the Hope Diamond had tragic consequences for her family. 274 00:14:06,034 --> 00:14:09,000 GREGORY: Her mother-in-law did not want her to buy the diamond, 275 00:14:09,103 --> 00:14:12,620 because it had a curse that she had heard about. 276 00:14:12,724 --> 00:14:15,620 So, Evalyn went down to a local church, 277 00:14:15,724 --> 00:14:18,758 met with a priest to get the diamond blessed. 278 00:14:18,862 --> 00:14:21,068 The priest placed it on a velvet pouch. 279 00:14:21,172 --> 00:14:23,793 That night, there was no storm in the air, 280 00:14:23,896 --> 00:14:26,068 but lightning and thunder came in. 281 00:14:26,172 --> 00:14:28,965 Lightning hit a tree across the street. 282 00:14:29,068 --> 00:14:32,448 So, Evalyn got a little scared of it. 283 00:14:32,551 --> 00:14:35,724 Evalyn's mother-in-law and her friend 284 00:14:35,827 --> 00:14:37,655 passed away within a year. 285 00:14:37,758 --> 00:14:40,517 And next, Evalyn's youngest son Vinson, 286 00:14:40,620 --> 00:14:42,068 was hit by an automobile. 287 00:14:42,172 --> 00:14:46,344 On top of that, my grandmother Evie McLean, 288 00:14:46,448 --> 00:14:48,068 she commits suicide. 289 00:14:48,172 --> 00:14:50,103 And then Evalyn's husband Ned McLean 290 00:14:50,206 --> 00:14:53,137 commits suicide in a, in a mental hospital. 291 00:14:53,241 --> 00:14:56,275 So, then she started thinking that, yes, it could be cursed, 292 00:14:56,379 --> 00:14:58,655 but she still wanted to keep the diamond. 293 00:14:58,758 --> 00:15:02,275 It was just a piece of her life. 294 00:15:02,379 --> 00:15:03,827 It was a soul to her. 295 00:15:03,931 --> 00:15:07,965 SHATNER: But was the Hope Diamond really cursed? 296 00:15:08,068 --> 00:15:10,103 As far as Evalyn Walsh McLean was concerned, 297 00:15:10,206 --> 00:15:13,103 the priceless stone's beauty was so great 298 00:15:13,206 --> 00:15:16,413 that she was willing to ignore the risk. 299 00:15:16,517 --> 00:15:17,862 But there are others, 300 00:15:17,965 --> 00:15:21,103 including some in the scientific community, 301 00:15:21,206 --> 00:15:24,896 who believe that the Hope Diamond curse is not only real 302 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:27,172 but that, under certain conditions, 303 00:15:27,275 --> 00:15:33,172 its evil properties can actually be seen with the naked eye. 304 00:15:35,689 --> 00:15:37,655 So, with the Hope Diamond, uh, it does have 305 00:15:37,758 --> 00:15:41,034 this amazing property, and that is, if you, um, 306 00:15:41,137 --> 00:15:43,931 expose it to, uh, ultraviolet light 307 00:15:44,034 --> 00:15:45,931 and then turn off the lights in the room, 308 00:15:46,034 --> 00:15:50,310 the diamond will glow a deep, dark red. 309 00:15:50,413 --> 00:15:53,206 Intense. And that may last for several minutes. 310 00:15:53,310 --> 00:15:55,448 We've done a number of experiments 311 00:15:55,551 --> 00:15:57,827 with other blue diamonds, and many blue diamonds 312 00:15:57,931 --> 00:16:00,689 will glow blue, blue-green, 313 00:16:00,793 --> 00:16:05,137 but nothing glows as intensely and as sharply 314 00:16:05,241 --> 00:16:08,137 and for the length of time as the Hope Diamond. 315 00:16:08,241 --> 00:16:10,965 Physicists that have explained this have talked about, "Well, 316 00:16:11,068 --> 00:16:13,689 "the exposure to ultraviolet energy 317 00:16:13,793 --> 00:16:17,034 excites the electrons in the gem." 318 00:16:17,137 --> 00:16:19,068 Other people think there's something else afoot. 319 00:16:19,172 --> 00:16:20,241 [laughs] 320 00:16:21,275 --> 00:16:23,034 They think about other forces 321 00:16:23,137 --> 00:16:25,103 that are locked inside the diamond 322 00:16:25,206 --> 00:16:29,068 that have this mysterious power that can affect them. 323 00:16:29,172 --> 00:16:31,896 It's very much of a majestic diamond. 324 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:33,931 And what we do know 325 00:16:34,034 --> 00:16:36,896 is that it attracts people who want to touch it. 326 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:39,896 It makes people want to "ah" and "ooh" over it. 327 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:41,448 It's beautiful. 328 00:16:41,551 --> 00:16:45,000 It's a color of its own, it's a piece of its own, 329 00:16:45,103 --> 00:16:48,862 and my true feeling is, everyone has tragic events in their life. 330 00:16:48,965 --> 00:16:52,103 So, with my great-grandmother having tragic events, 331 00:16:52,206 --> 00:16:54,413 I feel like, with or without the diamond, 332 00:16:54,517 --> 00:16:57,000 they were gonna occur anyway. 333 00:16:57,103 --> 00:16:59,793 What's harder to believe? 334 00:16:59,896 --> 00:17:02,241 That the Hope Diamond is actually cursed? 335 00:17:02,344 --> 00:17:05,482 Or that virtually everyone who came into contact with it 336 00:17:05,586 --> 00:17:10,413 over the years suffered a horrific tragedy 337 00:17:10,517 --> 00:17:12,310 by coincidence? 338 00:17:13,413 --> 00:17:15,310 Perhaps the answer can be found by examining 339 00:17:15,413 --> 00:17:18,517 another supposedly cursed object, 340 00:17:18,620 --> 00:17:23,448 one that was once found in thousands of homes 341 00:17:23,551 --> 00:17:26,275 all over the world. 342 00:17:35,103 --> 00:17:37,137 The SunDAVE SPINKS: There were so many fires that these paintingsThe Bd 343 00:17:37,241 --> 00:17:40,172 publishes an article by journalist John Murphy 344 00:17:40,275 --> 00:17:44,413 about the aftermath of a local house fire. 345 00:17:44,517 --> 00:17:45,965 But according to John Murphy, 346 00:17:46,068 --> 00:17:48,931 this is not your typical human interest story. 347 00:17:49,034 --> 00:17:51,310 Because, although the blaze burned the home 348 00:17:51,413 --> 00:17:53,517 and nearly everything in it to the ground, 349 00:17:53,620 --> 00:17:59,413 one object did manage to survive: a copy of a painting 350 00:17:59,517 --> 00:18:04,172 depicting the Crying Boy. 351 00:18:04,275 --> 00:18:07,172 I was told to go out and have a look at the fire, 352 00:18:07,275 --> 00:18:10,000 speak to the homeowners, and see what had happened. 353 00:18:10,103 --> 00:18:13,275 I got there and it was a conventional chip pan fire, 354 00:18:13,379 --> 00:18:15,379 and no one, fortunately, was hurt, 355 00:18:15,482 --> 00:18:17,827 but the house had been completely gutted. 356 00:18:17,931 --> 00:18:19,965 But the extraordinary thing 357 00:18:20,068 --> 00:18:23,724 was that the print had actually survived the blaze. 358 00:18:23,827 --> 00:18:26,137 SHATNER: Initially, John thought that the painting's survival 359 00:18:26,241 --> 00:18:29,482 was a mildly interesting tidbit 360 00:18:29,586 --> 00:18:33,137 but not especially newsworthy on its own. 361 00:18:33,241 --> 00:18:36,965 That is, until a firefighter on the scene informed him 362 00:18:37,068 --> 00:18:40,241 that this wasn't the only time that a copy 363 00:18:40,344 --> 00:18:44,931 of a similar painting had survived such a massive fire. 364 00:18:45,034 --> 00:18:46,793 MURPHY: When I was speaking to the fire officer 365 00:18:46,896 --> 00:18:50,724 outside the home on that Monday morning, 366 00:18:50,827 --> 00:18:52,379 he told me about his brother-in-law 367 00:18:52,482 --> 00:18:55,413 whose house had also been destroyed by fire and who also 368 00:18:55,517 --> 00:18:59,137 had a print of the Crying Boy in the house which survived. 369 00:18:59,241 --> 00:19:01,310 We had an interesting conversation, 370 00:19:01,413 --> 00:19:04,827 and he said, "This is really, really strange. 371 00:19:04,931 --> 00:19:07,413 "I have been on so many house fires recently 372 00:19:07,517 --> 00:19:11,896 where there has been this print in the house." 373 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:13,965 CLARKE: The houses where there'd been these fires 374 00:19:14,068 --> 00:19:17,344 were completely gutted, so hot, in fact, 375 00:19:17,448 --> 00:19:19,379 that, say, on the ground floor of one particular house, 376 00:19:19,482 --> 00:19:21,793 the plaster was stripped from the walls. 377 00:19:21,896 --> 00:19:26,068 And yet the-- this particular print was hanging on the wall, 378 00:19:26,172 --> 00:19:28,724 absolutely unscathed. 379 00:19:31,206 --> 00:19:34,137 I contacted my news desk, phoned through the story. 380 00:19:34,241 --> 00:19:37,586 So hence the story of the curse of the Crying Boy print 381 00:19:37,689 --> 00:19:39,724 was born. 382 00:19:39,827 --> 00:19:43,827 SHATNER: Dozens of homes ravaged by fire, 383 00:19:43,931 --> 00:19:46,551 and in every single case, 384 00:19:46,655 --> 00:19:51,000 a Crying Boy print had survived unscathed? 385 00:19:51,103 --> 00:19:54,655 But how could such a thing be possible? 386 00:19:54,758 --> 00:19:58,655 MURPHY: And the story went viral after The Sungot hold of the story, 387 00:19:58,758 --> 00:20:04,310 and next thing, they ran telephone, uh, campaigns asking 388 00:20:04,413 --> 00:20:07,275 if their readers had got a print of the Crying Boy, 389 00:20:07,379 --> 00:20:12,413 and if so, had they experienced any disasters like house fires? 390 00:20:12,517 --> 00:20:14,586 CLARKE: So, that's where the rumor became a legend. 391 00:20:14,689 --> 00:20:18,310 But at that stage, there was no story to explain 392 00:20:18,413 --> 00:20:21,413 who the child was and why was he crying? 393 00:20:21,517 --> 00:20:25,034 SHATNER: The Crying Boy portraits are among a series 394 00:20:25,137 --> 00:20:28,482 of mass-produced artworks that belong to a genre 395 00:20:28,586 --> 00:20:30,586 known as big-eyed art, 396 00:20:30,689 --> 00:20:35,000 sold in British department stores in the 1960s and '70s. 397 00:20:35,103 --> 00:20:38,931 But in this case, who was the artist? 398 00:20:39,034 --> 00:20:41,655 And why was he or she so obsessed 399 00:20:41,758 --> 00:20:45,172 with painting the Crying Boy? 400 00:20:45,275 --> 00:20:49,103 CLARKE: In the 1950s, there was a Californian artist, 401 00:20:49,206 --> 00:20:54,034 Margaret Keane, who painted a whole range of, um, children, 402 00:20:54,137 --> 00:20:56,448 and this became big-eyed art, 403 00:20:56,551 --> 00:20:58,068 and it was something that was very popular 404 00:20:58,172 --> 00:20:59,862 in the '50s and '60s. 405 00:20:59,965 --> 00:21:05,103 Lots of European painters copied Margaret Keane's art style. 406 00:21:05,206 --> 00:21:10,310 Probably the best known was a series of 27 paintings 407 00:21:10,413 --> 00:21:13,586 by an Italian artist called Bruno Amadio, 408 00:21:13,689 --> 00:21:18,000 who was born in 1911, died in the early 1980s. 409 00:21:18,103 --> 00:21:20,344 And he was, um, classically trained, 410 00:21:20,448 --> 00:21:23,827 but he didn't make much in the way of money. 411 00:21:23,931 --> 00:21:25,413 So, in order to make money, 412 00:21:25,517 --> 00:21:27,896 he painted, in the style of Margaret Keane, 413 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:29,896 lots of pictures of small children, 414 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,137 uh, sort of street urchins, 415 00:21:32,241 --> 00:21:34,586 crying girls, crying boys, 416 00:21:34,689 --> 00:21:37,448 and these sold to tourists 417 00:21:37,551 --> 00:21:39,793 in post-war Italy. 418 00:21:39,896 --> 00:21:42,689 He didn't want to be associated with these paintings 419 00:21:42,793 --> 00:21:44,137 because he just didn't think 420 00:21:44,241 --> 00:21:45,827 they were very good quality paintings, 421 00:21:45,931 --> 00:21:49,206 so he came up with a, with a name, his nom de guerre, 422 00:21:49,310 --> 00:21:52,241 as Giovanni Bragolin, 423 00:21:52,344 --> 00:21:55,413 which was actually, apparently, his uncle's name. 424 00:21:55,517 --> 00:21:57,724 No one knew who this Bragolin was. 425 00:21:57,827 --> 00:22:00,517 He didn't have, um, a biography 426 00:22:00,620 --> 00:22:03,103 in the way that many other well-known artists did. 427 00:22:03,206 --> 00:22:06,379 So, it's a... There's that element of mystery. 428 00:22:06,482 --> 00:22:09,206 And one of the, um, stories 429 00:22:09,310 --> 00:22:11,586 about the Crying Boy Curse is 430 00:22:11,689 --> 00:22:15,241 that the child in the painting is trapped inside the painting, 431 00:22:15,344 --> 00:22:17,275 and that the only way that the child 432 00:22:17,379 --> 00:22:19,931 or the spirit of that child can free itself is 433 00:22:20,034 --> 00:22:22,724 by setting fire to its surroundings, 434 00:22:22,827 --> 00:22:26,103 and that's the way it escapes from the painting. 435 00:22:26,206 --> 00:22:28,206 SHATNER: Cursed paintings, 436 00:22:28,310 --> 00:22:30,724 and mass-produced ones at that. 437 00:22:30,827 --> 00:22:35,310 Why would anyone believe such an outlandish notion? 438 00:22:35,413 --> 00:22:37,482 In Gothic literature, there are examples 439 00:22:37,586 --> 00:22:41,344 from the early 19th century of paintings that come to life. 440 00:22:41,448 --> 00:22:43,655 There is Oscar Wilde's famous story 441 00:22:43,758 --> 00:22:45,689 The Picture of Dorian Gray, 442 00:22:45,793 --> 00:22:48,068 which is a painting that was kept in the attic 443 00:22:48,172 --> 00:22:52,310 that does the aging for the character in the story. 444 00:22:52,413 --> 00:22:55,206 M.R. James, the famous writer of ghost stories-- 445 00:22:55,310 --> 00:22:57,896 he had a story called "The Mezzotint," 446 00:22:58,000 --> 00:22:59,862 which is about an eerie painting 447 00:22:59,965 --> 00:23:02,655 that changes every time you look at it. 448 00:23:02,758 --> 00:23:04,310 It's amazing to think, uh, 449 00:23:04,413 --> 00:23:06,862 when I think back to that day in Rotherham, 450 00:23:06,965 --> 00:23:09,241 that a story from a small town 451 00:23:09,344 --> 00:23:12,344 in the north of England has evolved to such a degree 452 00:23:12,448 --> 00:23:15,275 with so many column inches dedicated to it, 453 00:23:15,379 --> 00:23:17,551 and it's become a global story, 454 00:23:17,655 --> 00:23:21,206 with instances of fires happening across the world. 455 00:23:21,310 --> 00:23:23,275 Instances of fires 456 00:23:23,379 --> 00:23:27,275 where these prints have been in existence. 457 00:23:28,793 --> 00:23:30,793 SHATNER: Recently, 458 00:23:30,896 --> 00:23:33,931 forensic investigators studying the so-called 459 00:23:34,034 --> 00:23:37,862 "Curse of The Crying Boy," have raised a new possibility 460 00:23:37,965 --> 00:23:41,103 as to how the painting has come to survive so many housefires. 461 00:23:41,206 --> 00:23:43,379 And it has nothing to do 462 00:23:43,482 --> 00:23:46,275 with a supposed curse. 463 00:23:46,379 --> 00:23:48,586 There was some investigation done on these paintings, 464 00:23:48,689 --> 00:23:50,310 and they were actually 465 00:23:50,413 --> 00:23:52,655 coated with fire retardant material. 466 00:23:52,758 --> 00:23:56,482 And that could just be the reason that they didn't burn 467 00:23:56,586 --> 00:24:00,241 and the other aspects of the locations did burn. 468 00:24:00,344 --> 00:24:03,965 You plant an idea, whether it's in a newspaper, in a book, 469 00:24:04,068 --> 00:24:06,758 or via Twitter or Facebook, 470 00:24:06,862 --> 00:24:09,034 suggesting that there's something eerie 471 00:24:09,137 --> 00:24:11,586 or there's some-- there's bad luck 472 00:24:11,689 --> 00:24:15,551 that's circulating around a particular object or painting, 473 00:24:15,655 --> 00:24:19,068 and you're almost guaranteed to get people saying, 474 00:24:19,172 --> 00:24:21,379 "Yes, I've had bad luck." 475 00:24:21,482 --> 00:24:23,896 And that's exactly what happened in the 1980s 476 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:25,551 with the Curse of the Crying Boy. 477 00:24:25,655 --> 00:24:28,379 SHATNER: But even if we accept the wild notion 478 00:24:28,482 --> 00:24:30,931 that the Crying Boy paintings are fireproof, 479 00:24:31,034 --> 00:24:35,172 that would only mean that it can survive a fire, not cause one. 480 00:24:35,275 --> 00:24:38,344 In any case, perhaps in future, 481 00:24:38,448 --> 00:24:40,551 when buying art for your home, 482 00:24:40,655 --> 00:24:45,896 it would be best to choose something a bit less emotional. 483 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,275 Unlike another deadly curse 484 00:24:48,379 --> 00:24:50,793 that, taste aside, 485 00:24:50,896 --> 00:24:53,448 is truly unavoidable. 486 00:24:58,448 --> 00:25:00,137 SANFORD HOLST: Friday the 13th-- the fear, the dread. 487 00:25:00,241 --> 00:25:04,620 all around the world, it happens. 488 00:25:04,724 --> 00:25:08,482 From the moment the new day dawns... 489 00:25:09,724 --> 00:25:12,137 ...to the 12th chime of midnight... 490 00:25:12,241 --> 00:25:14,448 [clock chimes] 491 00:25:14,551 --> 00:25:17,275 ...it is utterly unavoidable. 492 00:25:17,379 --> 00:25:19,862 No continent is safe. 493 00:25:19,965 --> 00:25:22,862 No country is spared. 494 00:25:22,965 --> 00:25:25,655 No city is immune. 495 00:25:25,758 --> 00:25:28,310 No matter where you are or what you're doing, 496 00:25:28,413 --> 00:25:31,206 there's no escaping 497 00:25:31,310 --> 00:25:33,931 Friday the 13th. 498 00:25:35,724 --> 00:25:38,482 HOLST: It's actually very interesting, 499 00:25:38,586 --> 00:25:40,758 the whole idea about Friday the 13th, 500 00:25:40,862 --> 00:25:43,379 the mysteriousness, the-the fear, the dread. 501 00:25:43,482 --> 00:25:46,344 There's a natural human desire to understand things, 502 00:25:46,448 --> 00:25:48,172 to know why something happened. 503 00:25:48,275 --> 00:25:50,103 And sometimes, if the unexplainable happened 504 00:25:50,206 --> 00:25:52,103 but there was a curse involved, you say, 505 00:25:52,206 --> 00:25:54,551 "Aha, I have the reason." 506 00:25:54,655 --> 00:25:56,896 We never know when they're gonna turn out to be real, 507 00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:00,965 but we have to give all of them a fair shot and say, "Maybe." 508 00:26:01,068 --> 00:26:02,793 SHATNER: Believe it or not, 509 00:26:02,896 --> 00:26:06,103 there is some statistical evidence which suggests 510 00:26:06,206 --> 00:26:08,379 that more bad things happen 511 00:26:08,482 --> 00:26:12,034 on Friday the 13th than any other day of the year. 512 00:26:13,206 --> 00:26:15,931 But is it really cursed? 513 00:26:16,034 --> 00:26:19,310 And if so, how? 514 00:26:20,275 --> 00:26:22,413 13 is an unstable number. 515 00:26:22,517 --> 00:26:25,000 In numerology, 12 is a perfect circle. 516 00:26:25,103 --> 00:26:26,758 We think of the heavens as 517 00:26:26,862 --> 00:26:29,655 divided into the 12 houses of the zodiac. 518 00:26:29,758 --> 00:26:31,689 The 12 months of the year, the 12 apostles. 519 00:26:31,793 --> 00:26:34,793 12 is a very rounded and total number. 520 00:26:34,896 --> 00:26:37,620 13 is an odd number, an unbalanced number. 521 00:26:37,724 --> 00:26:40,655 WHITEHEAD: There was a lot of superstition that surrounded it 522 00:26:40,758 --> 00:26:42,965 to the point where many buildings were built 523 00:26:43,068 --> 00:26:44,689 without a 13th floor 524 00:26:44,793 --> 00:26:47,862 simply because they were worried that there was somehow 525 00:26:47,965 --> 00:26:51,172 gonna be a cursed floor if they installed it into a building. 526 00:26:51,275 --> 00:26:53,206 SHATNER: Although it would seem 527 00:26:53,310 --> 00:26:55,310 that the public's awareness of Friday the 13th 528 00:26:55,413 --> 00:26:58,448 really came of age in modern times, 529 00:26:58,551 --> 00:27:00,137 - as it turns out... - [clock bell tolls] 530 00:27:00,241 --> 00:27:01,862 the origin of this curse 531 00:27:01,965 --> 00:27:05,896 actually dates back to the 14th century. 532 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:07,655 It goes back, in my opinion, 533 00:27:07,758 --> 00:27:10,034 to what happened to the Knights Templar. 534 00:27:10,137 --> 00:27:11,862 [horse neighing] 535 00:27:11,965 --> 00:27:16,068 So, the Knights Templar were founded in the 12th century, 536 00:27:16,172 --> 00:27:21,379 and they were the world's first combination of warrior and monk. 537 00:27:23,103 --> 00:27:26,448 They were the guardians of a lot of the treasures 538 00:27:26,551 --> 00:27:28,448 of various kings and popes and monarchs, 539 00:27:28,551 --> 00:27:31,137 and because of their amazing reputation, 540 00:27:31,241 --> 00:27:36,517 they became known as the world's first international bankers. 541 00:27:36,620 --> 00:27:39,620 Friday the 13th was such a pivotal day 542 00:27:39,724 --> 00:27:41,655 in the life of the Knights Templar 543 00:27:41,758 --> 00:27:44,482 that it ended one chapter and began another. 544 00:27:44,586 --> 00:27:47,724 It literally was the day of the destruction of the order. 545 00:27:47,827 --> 00:27:50,862 And the Friday the 13th that was so critical 546 00:27:50,965 --> 00:27:56,206 to the Knights Templar happened on the 13th of October in 1307. 547 00:27:56,310 --> 00:27:59,931 The king of France needed money, 548 00:28:00,034 --> 00:28:02,965 but he owed money to everybody, including the Templars, 549 00:28:03,068 --> 00:28:05,413 and he decided the Knights Templar had money, 550 00:28:05,517 --> 00:28:07,724 he wanted it, so he attacked them. 551 00:28:07,827 --> 00:28:09,137 [bell clangs] 552 00:28:09,241 --> 00:28:10,965 [distant shouting] 553 00:28:11,068 --> 00:28:13,724 Everyone was arrested, people were thrown in jail. 554 00:28:15,517 --> 00:28:17,379 They were tortured, they were being killed. 555 00:28:17,482 --> 00:28:19,413 Then there were long trials. 556 00:28:19,517 --> 00:28:23,379 These trials were conducted by the Catholic Church, 557 00:28:23,482 --> 00:28:25,620 and it basically ended 558 00:28:25,724 --> 00:28:27,931 with the death of Jacques de Molay, 559 00:28:28,034 --> 00:28:29,862 the grand master. 560 00:28:31,965 --> 00:28:34,965 WHITEHEAD: Jacques de Molay was a powerful, enigmatic figure, 561 00:28:35,068 --> 00:28:38,724 and so it was important for the Church and the Crown 562 00:28:38,827 --> 00:28:41,793 to execute him publicly to show as an example. 563 00:28:41,896 --> 00:28:45,482 And when they were burning Jacques de Molay, 564 00:28:45,586 --> 00:28:47,344 the fire was being lit, 565 00:28:47,448 --> 00:28:51,137 he cursed Pope Clement 566 00:28:51,241 --> 00:28:54,068 and also King Philip and said, 567 00:28:54,172 --> 00:28:55,793 "Within this year, 568 00:28:55,896 --> 00:28:57,275 you will die." 569 00:28:57,379 --> 00:28:59,827 And, lo and behold, they did. 570 00:28:59,931 --> 00:29:01,758 [church bell rings] 571 00:29:01,862 --> 00:29:04,620 HOLST: What happened was, within 33 days, 572 00:29:04,724 --> 00:29:08,103 the pope died of a terrible illness. 573 00:29:08,206 --> 00:29:11,137 And all of a sudden, it just seized him and killed him, 574 00:29:11,241 --> 00:29:12,896 just like that, suddenly. 575 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:14,724 Seven months later, 576 00:29:14,827 --> 00:29:17,655 the king of France was on a hunting expedition, 577 00:29:17,758 --> 00:29:19,758 had a massive stroke, 578 00:29:19,862 --> 00:29:23,000 - fell down dead on the ground, right there. - [horse neighs] 579 00:29:26,344 --> 00:29:28,034 SHATNER: In the years since the Templars' 580 00:29:28,137 --> 00:29:29,931 eventual exile from Europe, 581 00:29:30,034 --> 00:29:31,896 there were many who began to believe 582 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,206 that Jacques de Molay's death curse applied 583 00:29:35,310 --> 00:29:37,206 not only to his enemies 584 00:29:37,310 --> 00:29:38,758 but also to the very day 585 00:29:38,862 --> 00:29:41,068 that spelled the beginning of the end 586 00:29:41,172 --> 00:29:44,517 for the Knights Templar, the day they were arrested-- 587 00:29:44,620 --> 00:29:47,206 Friday the 13th. 588 00:29:47,310 --> 00:29:49,068 But is it really possible 589 00:29:49,172 --> 00:29:52,172 that a centuries-old curse still has the power 590 00:29:52,275 --> 00:29:56,896 to cause bad luck after 700 years? 591 00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,551 There is this legend around Jacques de Molay 592 00:29:59,655 --> 00:30:03,000 that he possessed some kind of extraordinary power. 593 00:30:04,965 --> 00:30:06,931 When it comes to the Knights Templar, 594 00:30:07,034 --> 00:30:09,137 one of the things that stand out is, of course, 595 00:30:09,241 --> 00:30:12,517 they were the guardians of the Temple of Jerusalem. 596 00:30:12,620 --> 00:30:14,724 And some people believe that they may have found 597 00:30:14,827 --> 00:30:16,517 some ancient artifacts there, 598 00:30:16,620 --> 00:30:18,241 possibly the Ark of the Covenant, 599 00:30:18,344 --> 00:30:21,379 or came across some ancient knowledge 600 00:30:21,482 --> 00:30:23,620 that was sort of confiscated 601 00:30:23,724 --> 00:30:25,896 and held sacred from the general public. 602 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:28,068 And so, some people look at Jacques de Molay 603 00:30:28,172 --> 00:30:31,379 as some kind of a sorcerer in a way, where he had this ability 604 00:30:31,482 --> 00:30:35,862 to put a curse that actually really did come into fruition. 605 00:30:35,965 --> 00:30:38,517 HOLST: When something happens 606 00:30:38,620 --> 00:30:42,172 such as De Molay's curse, the Templar curse, 607 00:30:42,275 --> 00:30:46,413 it's entirely possible that this actually has reality behind it. 608 00:30:46,517 --> 00:30:48,241 It's entirely possible 609 00:30:48,344 --> 00:30:50,620 that just simply saying the words 610 00:30:50,724 --> 00:30:54,034 and putting it in everyone's mind was like a common prayer 611 00:30:54,137 --> 00:30:55,724 between so many people. 612 00:30:55,827 --> 00:30:58,551 And the power of so many people desiring it and wanting it 613 00:30:58,655 --> 00:31:02,172 might have influenced events as they happened. 614 00:31:02,275 --> 00:31:06,379 Did Jacques de Molay channel some type of dark force 615 00:31:06,482 --> 00:31:09,724 when he cursed Friday the 13th? 616 00:31:09,827 --> 00:31:12,655 Perhaps. 617 00:31:12,758 --> 00:31:16,689 But what if that theory is missing the target? 618 00:31:16,793 --> 00:31:18,689 Because there are those who believe 619 00:31:18,793 --> 00:31:22,344 that it isn't the day that's cursed, 620 00:31:22,448 --> 00:31:26,068 but the number 13 itself. 621 00:31:26,172 --> 00:31:28,241 And if that's the case, 622 00:31:28,344 --> 00:31:31,310 could there be other numbers 623 00:31:31,413 --> 00:31:35,793 that hold dark and deadly powers? 624 00:31:35,896 --> 00:31:38,517 Numbers that should be avoided 625 00:31:38,620 --> 00:31:41,758 at all costs? 626 00:31:49,379 --> 00:31:52,655 Jimi Hendrix dies of a drug overdose. 627 00:31:57,379 --> 00:32:00,551 Kurt Cobain, lead singer and songwriter 628 00:32:00,655 --> 00:32:03,551 of the trailblazing grunge rock band Nirvana, 629 00:32:03,655 --> 00:32:07,034 dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 630 00:32:12,034 --> 00:32:14,827 Internationally famed vocalist Amy Winehouse 631 00:32:14,931 --> 00:32:17,793 is found dead of alcohol poisoning. 632 00:32:19,172 --> 00:32:22,517 Aside from their remarkable musical talents 633 00:32:22,620 --> 00:32:25,724 and the fact that they all tragically passed away 634 00:32:25,827 --> 00:32:27,689 well before their time, 635 00:32:27,793 --> 00:32:31,827 they all have something else in common: 636 00:32:31,931 --> 00:32:37,793 at the time of their deaths, each of them was 27 years old. 637 00:32:39,620 --> 00:32:44,517 There is sort of a weirdly persistent pop culture 638 00:32:44,620 --> 00:32:47,482 legend that talks about 639 00:32:47,586 --> 00:32:50,931 the strange number of pop cultural figures, 640 00:32:51,034 --> 00:32:55,793 especially musicians, who have died at the age of 27. 641 00:32:55,896 --> 00:32:59,241 I think it's attracted a lot of interest because 642 00:32:59,344 --> 00:33:01,689 it's obviously a young age. 643 00:33:01,793 --> 00:33:04,379 Also, a lot of the people involved-- the circumstances 644 00:33:04,482 --> 00:33:09,793 of their death have been sort of mysterious or unclear. 645 00:33:09,896 --> 00:33:12,206 So I think that really grabbed people's attention 646 00:33:12,310 --> 00:33:14,275 and imagination. 647 00:33:14,379 --> 00:33:18,275 The 27 Club has definitely given a lot of these rock stars-- 648 00:33:18,379 --> 00:33:19,931 up and coming-- the fear. 649 00:33:20,034 --> 00:33:23,758 Their families, their parents have all been scared, 650 00:33:23,862 --> 00:33:26,793 warning their, their siblings and their children, 651 00:33:26,896 --> 00:33:28,068 "We know that this-- 652 00:33:28,172 --> 00:33:30,206 "you're-you're getting success now, 653 00:33:30,310 --> 00:33:32,034 "but be careful because 654 00:33:32,137 --> 00:33:34,310 no one wants to be part of the 27 Club." 655 00:33:34,413 --> 00:33:37,793 SHATNER: The 27 Club? 656 00:33:37,896 --> 00:33:41,275 While it may sound like something the tabloids invented 657 00:33:41,379 --> 00:33:43,241 to sell newspapers, 658 00:33:43,344 --> 00:33:46,655 there is evidence to suggest that such a club 659 00:33:46,758 --> 00:33:50,655 not only exists but has far more members 660 00:33:50,758 --> 00:33:52,655 than you might think. 661 00:33:52,758 --> 00:33:55,448 WOOD: You have Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones, 662 00:33:55,551 --> 00:34:00,206 Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison from the Doors. 663 00:34:00,310 --> 00:34:02,413 Clearly, this is a club that not everybody 664 00:34:02,517 --> 00:34:04,034 wants to be a member of. 665 00:34:04,137 --> 00:34:05,448 ERIC SEGALSTAD: There was a study 666 00:34:05,551 --> 00:34:07,931 that just came out from Liverpool, 667 00:34:08,034 --> 00:34:11,724 where the researchers looked at the average age of death 668 00:34:11,827 --> 00:34:15,068 for people who had played on charting records 669 00:34:15,172 --> 00:34:17,724 over the last, whatever, 30 or 40 years, 670 00:34:17,827 --> 00:34:19,862 uh, and compared that to the general population 671 00:34:19,965 --> 00:34:22,758 in the same countries, in the UK and the U.S. 672 00:34:22,862 --> 00:34:25,172 So I reached out and asked, 673 00:34:25,275 --> 00:34:28,241 do you see a statistical spike at the age of 27? 674 00:34:28,344 --> 00:34:31,551 And they did, and they couldn't explain it. 675 00:34:31,655 --> 00:34:34,620 There must be something greater at play, 676 00:34:34,724 --> 00:34:37,206 and, uh, it keeps happening. 677 00:34:39,034 --> 00:34:40,448 SHATNER: While it would certainly appear 678 00:34:40,551 --> 00:34:43,620 that celebrities are more prone to accidental deaths 679 00:34:43,724 --> 00:34:47,482 at the age of 27 than the normal population, 680 00:34:47,586 --> 00:34:49,206 according to some experts, 681 00:34:49,310 --> 00:34:54,586 it's not fame that's behind the curse of the 27 Club, 682 00:34:54,689 --> 00:34:58,793 but the number 27 itself. 683 00:34:58,896 --> 00:35:03,068 In horoscopic astrology, Saturn return is this phenomenon 684 00:35:03,172 --> 00:35:06,517 where the planet Saturn returns to the exact same spot 685 00:35:06,620 --> 00:35:09,000 in the sky as the day you were born. 686 00:35:09,103 --> 00:35:11,379 That takes about 29 and a half years. 687 00:35:11,482 --> 00:35:15,379 Astrologers say that you enter this phase of Saturn return 688 00:35:15,482 --> 00:35:17,206 starting in your 27th year, 689 00:35:17,310 --> 00:35:21,206 and astrologers say that this particular time 690 00:35:21,310 --> 00:35:24,068 is really a time when you, as a person, 691 00:35:24,172 --> 00:35:27,517 are on the threshold between the face of youth 692 00:35:27,620 --> 00:35:29,931 entering to the face of maturity. 693 00:35:30,034 --> 00:35:32,103 I think that for a lot of the 27s, 694 00:35:32,206 --> 00:35:33,896 they might have faced their own troubles 695 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,793 around this time trying to enter adulthood 696 00:35:36,896 --> 00:35:39,206 after having a successful 697 00:35:39,310 --> 00:35:44,000 or an artistically very intense period of youth. 698 00:35:45,586 --> 00:35:47,689 SHATNER: Is it possible the number 27 699 00:35:47,793 --> 00:35:49,793 actually carries a mathematical, 700 00:35:49,896 --> 00:35:53,724 or even celestial, jinx? 701 00:35:53,827 --> 00:35:55,551 It's possible. 702 00:35:55,655 --> 00:36:01,620 But if so, why does it only seem to affect famous people? 703 00:36:01,724 --> 00:36:03,620 Many believe the answer 704 00:36:03,724 --> 00:36:06,103 as to why the curse of the 27 Club 705 00:36:06,206 --> 00:36:09,896 is limited to celebrities is the same reason 706 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:14,862 some people are seduced by fame in the first place. 707 00:36:14,965 --> 00:36:18,137 Rock and roll has always romanticized extreme behavior. 708 00:36:18,241 --> 00:36:21,551 If you're growing up as a young artist, 709 00:36:21,655 --> 00:36:25,103 the concept of it retains a kind of dark glamour. 710 00:36:25,206 --> 00:36:28,689 Therefore, people orient their lives 711 00:36:28,793 --> 00:36:30,448 around that kind of stuff. 712 00:36:30,551 --> 00:36:35,344 It becomes sort of a part of what rock and roll's all about. 713 00:36:35,448 --> 00:36:39,379 You think that that is what it is to be a musician. 714 00:36:39,482 --> 00:36:42,896 YOUNG: Whether this is conscious or unconscious, 715 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:44,931 what you have, if you die at 27, 716 00:36:45,034 --> 00:36:47,620 is eternal youth. 717 00:36:47,724 --> 00:36:49,931 You never have to be an older person. 718 00:36:50,034 --> 00:36:51,586 You never have to get the wrinkles. 719 00:36:51,689 --> 00:36:54,379 You never have to go into the full disillusionment. 720 00:36:54,482 --> 00:36:58,310 So those who left young get to stay young. 721 00:36:58,413 --> 00:37:01,586 WHITEHEAD: It's become a myth in our culture now. 722 00:37:01,689 --> 00:37:05,275 And so, could it be a self-perpetuating prophecy 723 00:37:05,379 --> 00:37:08,103 where, because people start to believe it, 724 00:37:08,206 --> 00:37:10,655 they actually manifest it into reality? 725 00:37:10,758 --> 00:37:16,137 SHATNER: Is the story of the 27 Club a cautionary tale? 726 00:37:16,241 --> 00:37:19,344 One that tells us that we need to accept the fact that curses, 727 00:37:19,448 --> 00:37:22,689 like fate, are simply 728 00:37:22,793 --> 00:37:25,413 inescapable? 729 00:37:25,517 --> 00:37:28,517 And if we can't avoid deadly curses, 730 00:37:28,620 --> 00:37:31,862 perhaps we should ask whether there's anything we can do 731 00:37:31,965 --> 00:37:36,448 to protect ourselves once they come for us. 732 00:37:45,689 --> 00:37:49,827 R:Contractors begin uncovering a series of strange artifacts 733 00:37:49,931 --> 00:37:53,310 while renovating a string of 18th century houses 734 00:37:53,413 --> 00:37:55,551 in the area: 735 00:37:55,655 --> 00:37:57,724 mummified animals, 736 00:37:57,827 --> 00:38:01,103 dismembered dolls, broken knife blades, 737 00:38:01,206 --> 00:38:04,310 strange bottles filled with human hair, 738 00:38:04,413 --> 00:38:05,896 bent nails, 739 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:08,482 and silver pins. 740 00:38:08,586 --> 00:38:13,379 And all concealed within hidden nooks and voids 741 00:38:13,482 --> 00:38:16,448 throughout the old homes. 742 00:38:16,551 --> 00:38:19,724 The artifacts are so unnerving that many began to wonder 743 00:38:19,827 --> 00:38:23,103 who had placed them throughout the homes. 744 00:38:23,206 --> 00:38:26,206 And perhaps more importantly, why? 745 00:38:28,068 --> 00:38:30,068 After looking at a, a number of 746 00:38:30,172 --> 00:38:34,000 instances of, of these either intentional deposits 747 00:38:34,103 --> 00:38:37,482 or objects that were located in strange places-- 748 00:38:37,586 --> 00:38:40,000 uh, shoes, um, animal parts, 749 00:38:40,103 --> 00:38:43,103 bottles with, um, unusual contents in them-- 750 00:38:43,206 --> 00:38:45,758 certain patterns that seemed to be prevalent 751 00:38:45,862 --> 00:38:49,137 throughout the area, uh, became apparent. 752 00:38:49,241 --> 00:38:52,068 We see them in England and in the Netherlands 753 00:38:52,172 --> 00:38:54,034 and in Germany, where a lot of the people 754 00:38:54,137 --> 00:38:57,172 who settled in New York State originally came from. 755 00:38:57,275 --> 00:38:59,793 And so it's clear that people brought their folk beliefs 756 00:38:59,896 --> 00:39:01,344 and folk religion with them 757 00:39:01,448 --> 00:39:04,172 when they moved across the Atlantic Ocean. 758 00:39:04,275 --> 00:39:06,413 Evidently, in all these cases, 759 00:39:06,517 --> 00:39:10,689 there was a very strong belief in, uh, the agency of evil 760 00:39:10,793 --> 00:39:12,896 to affect people's everyday lives. 761 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:16,862 Particularly in a number of stories that related 762 00:39:16,965 --> 00:39:20,034 to fears of illness 763 00:39:20,137 --> 00:39:21,724 or of the potential for curses 764 00:39:21,827 --> 00:39:24,206 to access houses through openings, 765 00:39:24,310 --> 00:39:28,137 particularly, uh, through fireplaces, 766 00:39:28,241 --> 00:39:31,724 uh, doors, windows, that kind of thing. 767 00:39:31,827 --> 00:39:35,206 The more you look, the more you find of these objects, 768 00:39:35,310 --> 00:39:37,137 and it becomes increasingly clear 769 00:39:37,241 --> 00:39:39,862 that the numbers of objects that we have found, 770 00:39:39,965 --> 00:39:41,827 which go into the thousands, 771 00:39:41,931 --> 00:39:43,793 is really just the tip of the iceberg. 772 00:39:43,896 --> 00:39:48,137 SHATNER: But were these strange objects carefully collected and hidden 773 00:39:48,241 --> 00:39:51,758 in order to invoke a deadly curse 774 00:39:51,862 --> 00:39:55,310 or as a means of preventing one? 775 00:39:55,413 --> 00:39:57,517 I think what people were really focused on 776 00:39:57,620 --> 00:40:00,344 was finding ways of turning that harmful magic around 777 00:40:00,448 --> 00:40:03,275 and either repelling it or trapping it or thwarting it 778 00:40:03,379 --> 00:40:05,068 in some way from getting into their houses. 779 00:40:05,172 --> 00:40:07,862 So, the local sort of white witch or wizard 780 00:40:07,965 --> 00:40:10,551 could be paid to produce a charm for you, 781 00:40:10,655 --> 00:40:13,034 and the charm would eventually be concealed on your property 782 00:40:13,137 --> 00:40:16,068 as a trap, essentially, to impale any negative energies 783 00:40:16,172 --> 00:40:17,827 coming into the house looking to attack you 784 00:40:17,931 --> 00:40:19,586 and stop it from going further into the house, 785 00:40:19,689 --> 00:40:20,965 where it might do you harm. 786 00:40:23,448 --> 00:40:26,068 SHATNER: While such arcane practices may seem like the stuff 787 00:40:26,172 --> 00:40:28,068 of fairy tales and fantasy, 788 00:40:28,172 --> 00:40:31,448 is it possible that mystical talismen 789 00:40:31,551 --> 00:40:34,862 and other charms can actually protect people 790 00:40:34,965 --> 00:40:38,896 from the deadly effects of curses? 791 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:41,310 YOUNG: Things that are mysterious, 792 00:40:41,413 --> 00:40:43,310 if we put it in the right narrative, 793 00:40:43,413 --> 00:40:47,000 then we have a semblance of control or understanding, 794 00:40:47,103 --> 00:40:48,862 even though we made up the story. 795 00:40:48,965 --> 00:40:51,931 The explanations may not be very sound, 796 00:40:52,034 --> 00:40:54,172 but they still give us some comfort. 797 00:40:55,275 --> 00:40:56,724 WHITEHEAD: Maybe these curses 798 00:40:56,827 --> 00:40:59,551 are created by us, by our imagination, 799 00:40:59,655 --> 00:41:01,827 by us trying to deal with the mystery of nature... 800 00:41:01,931 --> 00:41:04,000 [thunder crashing] 801 00:41:04,103 --> 00:41:07,137 ...and then it actually comes to life, 802 00:41:07,241 --> 00:41:08,965 because we bring the curse to life, 803 00:41:09,068 --> 00:41:12,551 by attaching our mind to it collectively. 804 00:41:13,965 --> 00:41:18,344 Relics that can guard us against evil? 805 00:41:18,448 --> 00:41:21,103 Perhaps you believe such ideas are as nonsensical 806 00:41:21,206 --> 00:41:24,275 as the notion of curses themselves. 807 00:41:24,379 --> 00:41:27,586 Well, then, maybe you'd be comfortable taking a dip 808 00:41:27,689 --> 00:41:30,034 in Round Valley Reservoir, huh? 809 00:41:30,137 --> 00:41:34,068 Or hanging a picture of the Crying Boy 810 00:41:34,172 --> 00:41:36,413 over your fireplace. 811 00:41:36,517 --> 00:41:38,931 Or perhaps you're eager to tempt fate 812 00:41:39,034 --> 00:41:41,517 by placing the Hope Diamond around your neck 813 00:41:41,620 --> 00:41:45,896 in celebration of your 27th birthday. 814 00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:47,724 Well, until then, I think the rest of us 815 00:41:47,827 --> 00:41:49,206 will choose to play it safe 816 00:41:49,310 --> 00:41:51,793 and let those things remain, 817 00:41:51,896 --> 00:41:57,068 at least for now, unexplained. 65095

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