All language subtitles for The UnXplained S02E03 Mysterious Curses 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DDP2 0 H 264-Kitsune_track4_[eng]

SHATNER: An ordinary day
that many believe to be

the most dangerous of the year.

A lake that swallows people...

[muffled yelling]

...into a bottomless abyss.

And a priceless diamond

that brings death

to every man that touches it.

Can places, things,

or even people

actually be cursed?

There are those who insist

that not only
do curses exist, but

that these dark forces are
actually lurking all around us.

So, how do we get rid of them?

Well...

that is what we'll try
and find out.

♪

SHATNER:
Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Nestled beside the sleepy
suburbs of Clinton Township

lies Round Valley Reservoir.

First formed in 1960
as a primary water source,

this man-made lake
is beloved by locals

for its great fishing
and scenic views.

But many believe

this idyllic watering hole

conceals a deadly secret.

For more than 40 years,

people have been disappearing
in Round Valley Reservoir.

And not just a few.

More than two dozen men
have been lost

beneath these placid waters,

never to be seen again.

Locals do believe
that this lake is cursed,

and it's easy to understand why,
with so many tragic deaths

surrounding it
in just about 40 years.

And while I can't be sure
if it's cursed,

there's always one thing
that's given me the chills.

I heard someone say
that when one body is found

at Round Valley Reservoir,

another quickly replaces it.

We don't even know for sure how
many bodies there really are.

[indistinct radio chatter]

When I worked in news,

I would hear the police scanner
crackle to life

with "Round Valley,"

"fishermen," "trouble,"
"boat," or

- "Somebody has gone
under the water." - [muffled yelling]

It's a creepy, horrible feeling
when you hear this,

because you know that

90% of the time,
this is not going to end well.

I can't explain

why these people at the bottom
of the lake haven't been found,

especially after searching
for them

with such a degree of intensity.

Even after bringing in
cadaver-sniffing dogs,

using sonar technology

and submarines to crawl
the lake, there was no sign.

It's almost as if some
of these people disappeared

without a trace.

And an interesting thing,

if you're looking
for bones in Round Valley,

is that you aren't necessarily
going to find a fisherman

who disappeared 13 years ago.

You may find a bone
that was in the ground

long before Round Valley
became a reservoir.

SHATNER:
Bones from a time before Round Valley became a reservoir?

There are some who believe

that these bones may have been
the very reason

the bodies of those
who have disappeared here

have never been found,

and that the lake's refusal
to give up its victims

is actually an act of revenge.

There was a town here once.

For centuries, people put down
roots in this valley.

It was very fertile
and rich farmland.

There were thousands of acres.

And people grew their own food.

They raised their animals.

Then, in the 1950s, there was
a drought in New Jersey.

And they needed a source of
water for, predominantly, Newark

but the surrounding area
as well.

And so, they had
to fill in somewhere,

and Round Valley, they believed,
was the best choice.

People were opposed
to the reservoir being built.

It was a small farming
community, very close-knit,

and no one wanted
to leave their homes.

Most of the homes were
eventually erased or moved.

KIRILUK-HILL:
Their homes were either torn down

or they were put on flatbeds
and taken out of the valley.

And that construction started
on the reservoir.

In the 1960s,
they started filling it.

There was a lot
of bad feeling here when,

when the-the landowners
were pushed out of their valley.

Did these ill feelings
carry over?

There are people
who will say, "Yes, they did."

There are people who come here

who think the town
is still here.

They still think
they see that church steeple

and that barn silo
underneath the water.

Are they seeing it?

Not really.

They were torn down.

But the foundations were left
in place.

Of course,
there were fence posts.

There were some things
left below.

When you're at Round Valley,
you feel

the spirit of the people
who came before you.

There is a presence here

that can make you feel
a little disconcerting.

Some local people
call Round Valley

"the Bermuda Triangle
of New Jersey,"

because as much
as this is a place

of great beauty
and great enjoyment,

it-it's also a place

where death happens

really more than it should.

SHATNER:
The idea that any body of water,

let alone a man-made one
less than a century old,

could somehow be imbued
with a deadly curse

seems far-fetched,
to say the least.

And yet outlandish

and presumably
irrational notions such as these

have been held by nearly every
culture throughout history.

But why?

We all are afraid of things,

and we would like
to be able to understand them,

if only to give a little
mental illusion of control

over things
that go bump in the night.

And so, we come up
with stories, and they help.

They're entertaining
and maybe they're true.

And then they get passed down
to children and grandchildren,

and they gain authority
through time.

A curse has to be believed
in order for it to have power.

It's kind of like hypnosis.

You have to be willing
to go under hypnosis

in order for it
to actually be effective.

So maybe these curses
are created by us,

by our imagination,

by us trying to deal
with the mystery of nature.

It's just a game
that we're playing,

but we ascribe meaning to it.

So, if we ascribe meaning
to a curse,

could that actually
make the curse real?

SHATNER:
Although it may be human nature

to blame inexplicable tragedies
on some sort of dark force,

according to skeptics,
there's nothing supernatural

about the disappearances
at Round Valley Reservoir.

They claim that
these strange occurrences

must have a perfectly rational
explanation.

KIRILUK-HILL:
Some people

who live around here think
it's more a matter

of respecting your environment.

And when the wind swirls,

you can get waves up to three
feet tall on this reservoir.

And that's where
people get in trouble.

They're not expecting it.

In my career
I've handled anything from, um,

plane crashes,
homicides, suicides,

um, you know, lost children.

But, uh, when you're out there
in a small boat

and there's fog
coming across the lake,

it can be very eerie at times.

You have
these 40-mile-per-hour winds

that come up out of no place.

They only allow small boats.

You have excessively cold water,

which leads to hypothermia.

I can guarantee,
probably nine out of ten people

that are out on this lake don't
wear their life preservers.

I think
it's because of those factors.

And you know what?
Just plain bad luck. Period.

SHATNER:
So, where did the bodies of the lost men

of Round Valley Reservoir go?

Could it be
that they're merely trapped

somewhere deep beneath
the lake's surface,

in a place searchers
haven't yet looked?

Or are they really victims
of a deadly curse?

Either way, the very notion
that such a malevolent force

could corrupt an entire lake
is a chilling proposition.

Not unlike the notion
that a curse

could be contained
in something so small

that it could fit
in the palm of your hand.

JOSEPH McLEAN GREGORY:
The Hope Diamond makes people want to "ah"

of the most beguiling and
infamous diamonds in existence.

Set in a pendant surrounded
by 16 white diamonds,

this dazzling gray-blue stone

weighs a colossal 45.54 carats.

Although
throughout its history

the massive diamond
has been known variously

as the Tavernier Blue
and Le Bleu de France,

today it is simply known
as the Hope Diamond.

GREGORY:
What makes the Hope Diamond

so mesmerizing is
the whole presentation

of the diamond itself, and

I think that's what brings out
the beauty of the diamond.

It highlights the blue stone.

KURIN:
This is a piece of rock that's the size of a walnut!

It almost looks sapphire-like.

And yet, because people feel
it has this amazing story

about curse and misfortune,

they regard it specially, so
when you go to the Smithsonian

and you go
in that Winston Gallery,

you can't get close to it.

There's always mobs
of people around it.

Everybody's taking pictures
around it.

Everybody's whispering and
trying to figure out things,

and they feel it's almost like
they're around a celebrity.

SHATNER:
Although renowned for its breathtaking beauty,

the Hope Diamond
has also become known

for a far different type
of facet,

one that many regard
to be deadly.

In 1908,

The Washington Postdid a story
noting all the people

that owned this diamond
and suffered misfortune.

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
faced the guillotine.

The Hope family went bankrupt.

All sorts of peoples
whose throat were slit,

and people who went off cliffs,

and everybody who was associated
with it died.

And so that became
kind of a theme story about it

and-and really led
to the diamond's notoriety.

SHATNER:
Could it be that one

of the most recognizable
gemstones in existence,

admired by thousands of people
on a daily basis from afar,

is also cursed?

But if so, how?

Putting together the story
of the Hope Diamond

is like a detective story.

It really is a puzzle.

It started out in India.

The diamond, a big blue diamond,
is basically acquired

by this guy
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier.

He is a, uh,
Belgian-French diamond trader.

He's fascinated by diamonds.

And he's really the first one
that goes to India

to find out where diamonds
really come from.

The rumor about the Hope Diamond
is that it was actually stolen

from the statue of a Hindu god.

KURIN:
Tavernier does report on a story from India.

Somebody climbed up
on the statue,

stole that large diamond,

secreted it,
and then tried to get it out.

The next morning,
they opened the temple,

and they found him dead,
holding the diamond.

And so, from that day forward,
apparently, the legend goes

that the god cursed anyone
who would bear this stone.

It seems to be that we have
many cases where people

have had heart attacks
after putting on the stone.

Uh, you know,
people have committed suicide.

There's been tragedy
that has surrounded this stone

from day one.

SHATNER:
Is it possible that the fantastic stories

about a Hope Diamond curse

are based on nothing
more than morbid fantasies?

According
to Evalyn Walsh McLean,

a wealthy mining heiress
who died in 1947,

the curse is,
in fact, very real.

And she would have known,

because she owned
the Hope Diamond for 36 years.

Evalyn Walsh McLean
was my great-grandmother,

and she was the last
and longest owner

of the infamous Hope Diamond.

KURIN:
Evalyn Walsh McLean

was definitely iconoclastic
and rebellious.

And I think
when she bought the diamond

from the jeweler Pierre Cartier,
she liked the idea of the curse

because-- she actually
wrote about it--

she said, "I'm not a queen.
I wasn't born rich.

"So maybe I'm not subject
to the same kind of forces

"that these other people
have been

that came from a different
station in life."

But the Hope Diamond had tragic
consequences for her family.

GREGORY:
Her mother-in-law did not want her to buy the diamond,

because it had a curse
that she had heard about.

So, Evalyn went down
to a local church,

met with a priest
to get the diamond blessed.

The priest placed it
on a velvet pouch.

That night,
there was no storm in the air,

but lightning
and thunder came in.

Lightning hit a tree
across the street.

So, Evalyn got
a little scared of it.

Evalyn's mother-in-law
and her friend

passed away within a year.

And next,
Evalyn's youngest son Vinson,

was hit by an automobile.

On top of that,
my grandmother Evie McLean,

she commits suicide.

And then Evalyn's husband
Ned McLean

commits suicide in a,
in a mental hospital.

So, then she started thinking
that, yes, it could be cursed,

but she still wanted
to keep the diamond.

It was just a piece of her life.

It was a soul to her.

SHATNER:
But was the Hope Diamond really cursed?

As far as Evalyn Walsh McLean
was concerned,

the priceless stone's beauty
was so great

that she was willing
to ignore the risk.

But there are others,

including some
in the scientific community,

who believe that the Hope
Diamond curse is not only real

but that,
under certain conditions,

its evil properties can actually
be seen with the naked eye.

So, with the Hope Diamond,
uh, it does have

this amazing property,
and that is, if you, um,

expose it to, uh,
ultraviolet light

and then turn off the lights
in the room,

the diamond will glow
a deep, dark red.

Intense. And that may last
for several minutes.

We've done a number
of experiments

with other blue diamonds,
and many blue diamonds

will glow blue, blue-green,

but nothing glows
as intensely and as sharply

and for the length of time
as the Hope Diamond.

Physicists that have explained
this have talked about, "Well,

"the exposure
to ultraviolet energy

excites the electrons
in the gem."

Other people think
there's something else afoot.

[laughs]

They think about other forces

that are locked
inside the diamond

that have this mysterious power
that can affect them.

It's very much
of a majestic diamond.

And what we do know

is that it attracts people
who want to touch it.

It makes people want
to "ah" and "ooh" over it.

It's beautiful.

It's a color of its own,
it's a piece of its own,

and my true feeling is, everyone
has tragic events in their life.

So, with my great-grandmother
having tragic events,

I feel like,
with or without the diamond,

they were gonna occur anyway.

What's harder to believe?

That the Hope Diamond
is actually cursed?

Or that virtually everyone
who came into contact with it

over the years suffered
a horrific tragedy

by coincidence?

Perhaps the answer
can be found by examining

another supposedly
cursed object,

one that was once found
in thousands of homes

all over the world.

The SunDAVE SPINKS:
There were so many fires that these paintingsThe Bd

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
a conventional chip pan fire,

and 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."

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 the-- 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:
And the story went viral after The Sungot hold of the story,

and next thing, they ran
telephone, uh, 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 painting the Crying Boy?

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

Margaret Keane, who painted
a whole range of, um, 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, um,
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,

uh, 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,
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, um, a biography

in the way that many other
well-known artists did.

So, it's a...
There's that element of mystery.

And one of the, um, 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:
Cursed paintings,

and mass-produced ones at that.

Why would anyone believe
such an outlandish notion?

In Gothic literature,
there are examples

from the early 19th century
of paintings that come to life.

There is Oscar Wilde's
famous story

The Picture of Dorian Gray,

which is a painting
that was kept in the attic

that does the aging
for the character in the story.

M.R. James, the famous writer
of ghost stories--

he had a story called
"The Mezzotint,"

which is about an eerie painting

that changes
every time you look at it.

It's amazing to think, uh,

when I think back
to that day in Rotherham,

that a story from a small town

in the north of England
has evolved to such a degree

with so many column inches
dedicated to it,

and it's become a global story,

with instances of fires
happening across the world.

Instances of fires

where these prints have been
in existence.

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 some--
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.

SHATNER:
But even if we accept the wild notion

that the Crying Boy paintings
are fireproof,

that would only mean that it can
survive a fire, not cause one.

In any case, perhaps in future,

when buying art for your home,

it would be best to choose
something a bit less emotional.

Unlike another deadly curse

that, taste aside,

is truly unavoidable.

SANFORD HOLST:
Friday the 13th-- the fear, the dread.

all around the world,
it happens.

From the moment
the new day dawns...

...to the 12th chime
of midnight...

[clock chimes]

...it is utterly unavoidable.

No continent is safe.

No country is spared.

No city is immune.

No matter where you are
or what you're doing,

there's no escaping

Friday the 13th.

HOLST:
It's actually very interesting,

the whole idea
about Friday the 13th,

the mysteriousness,
the-the fear, the dread.

There's a natural human desire
to understand things,

to know why something happened.

And sometimes,
if the unexplainable happened

but there was a curse involved,
you say,

"Aha, I have the reason."

We never know when they're gonna
turn out to be real,

but we have to give all of them
a fair shot and say, "Maybe."

SHATNER:
Believe it or not,

there is some statistical
evidence which suggests

that more bad things happen

on Friday the 13th
than any other day of the year.

But is it really cursed?

And if so, how?

13 is an unstable number.

In numerology,
12 is a perfect circle.

We think of the heavens as

divided into the 12 houses
of the zodiac.

The 12 months of the year,
the 12 apostles.

12 is a very rounded
and total number.

13 is an odd number,
an unbalanced number.

WHITEHEAD:
There was a lot of superstition that surrounded it

to the point
where many buildings were built

without a 13th floor

simply because they were worried
that there was somehow

gonna be a cursed floor if they
installed it into a building.

SHATNER:
Although it would seem

that the public's awareness
of Friday the 13th

really came of age
in modern times,

- as it turns out...
- [clock bell tolls]

the origin of this curse

actually dates back
to the 14th century.

It goes back, in my opinion,

to what happened
to the Knights Templar.

[horse neighing]

So, the Knights Templar were
founded in the 12th century,

and they were the world's first
combination of warrior and monk.

They were the guardians
of a lot of the treasures

of various kings and popes
and monarchs,

and because
of their amazing reputation,

they became known as the world's
first international bankers.

Friday the 13th was
such a pivotal day

in the life
of the Knights Templar

that it ended one chapter
and began another.

It literally was the day of
the destruction of the order.

And the Friday the 13th
that was so critical

to the Knights Templar happened
on the 13th of October in 1307.

The king of France needed money,

but he owed money to everybody,
including the Templars,

and he decided
the Knights Templar had money,

he wanted it,
so he attacked them.

[bell clangs]

[distant shouting]

Everyone was arrested,
people were thrown in jail.

They were tortured,
they were being killed.

Then there were long trials.

These trials were conducted
by the Catholic Church,

and it basically ended

with the death
of Jacques de Molay,

the grand master.

WHITEHEAD:
Jacques de Molay was a powerful, enigmatic figure,

and so it was important
for the Church and the Crown

to execute him publicly
to show as an example.

And when they were burning
Jacques de Molay,

the fire was being lit,

he cursed Pope Clement

and also King Philip and said,

"Within this year,

you will die."

And, lo and behold, they did.

[church bell rings]

HOLST:
What happened was, within 33 days,

the pope died
of a terrible illness.

And all of a sudden, it just
seized him and killed him,

just like that, suddenly.

Seven months later,

the king of France was
on a hunting expedition,

had a massive stroke,

- fell down dead on the ground,
right there. - [horse neighs]

SHATNER:
In the years since the Templars'

eventual exile from Europe,

there were many
who began to believe

that Jacques de Molay's
death curse applied

not only to his enemies

but also to the very day

that spelled
the beginning of the end

for the Knights Templar,
the day they were arrested--

Friday the 13th.

But is it really possible

that a centuries-old curse
still has the power

to cause bad luck
after 700 years?

There is this legend
around Jacques de Molay

that he possessed some kind
of extraordinary power.

When it comes
to the Knights Templar,

one of the things
that stand out is, of course,

they were the guardians
of the Temple of Jerusalem.

And some people believe
that they may have found

some ancient artifacts there,

possibly
the Ark of the Covenant,

or came across
some ancient knowledge

that was sort of confiscated

and held sacred
from the general public.

And so, some people look
at Jacques de Molay

as some kind of a sorcerer in
a way, where he had this ability

to put a curse that actually
really did come into fruition.

HOLST:
When something happens

such as De Molay's curse,
the Templar curse,

it's entirely possible that this
actually has reality behind it.

It's entirely possible

that just simply
saying the words

and putting it in everyone's
mind was like a common prayer

between so many people.

And the power of so many people
desiring it and wanting it

might have influenced events
as they happened.

Did Jacques de Molay channel
some type of dark force

when he cursed Friday the 13th?

Perhaps.

But what if that theory
is missing the target?

Because there are those
who believe

that it isn't the day
that's cursed,

but the number 13 itself.

And if that's the case,

could there be other numbers

that hold dark
and deadly powers?

Numbers that should be avoided

at all costs?

Jimi Hendrix dies
of a drug overdose.

Kurt Cobain,
lead singer and songwriter

of the trailblazing
grunge rock band Nirvana,

dies of a self-inflicted
gunshot wound.

Internationally famed vocalist
Amy Winehouse

is found dead
of alcohol poisoning.

Aside from their remarkable
musical talents

and the fact that
they all tragically passed away

well before their time,

they all have something else
in common:

at the time of their deaths,
each of them was 27 years old.

There is sort of a weirdly
persistent pop culture

legend that talks about

the strange number
of pop cultural figures,

especially musicians,
who have died at the age of 27.

I think it's attracted
a lot of interest because

it's obviously a young age.

Also, a lot of the people
involved-- the circumstances

of their death have been
sort of mysterious or unclear.

So I think that really
grabbed people's attention

and imagination.

The 27 Club has definitely given
a lot of these rock stars--

up and coming-- the fear.

Their families, their parents
have all been scared,

warning their, their siblings
and their children,

"We know that this--

"you're-you're getting
success now,

"but be careful because

no one wants to be
part of the 27 Club."

SHATNER:
The 27 Club?

While it may sound like
something the tabloids invented

to sell newspapers,

there is evidence to suggest
that such a club

not only exists
but has far more members

than you might think.

WOOD:
You have Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones,

Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison
from the Doors.

Clearly, this is a club
that not everybody

wants to be a member of.

ERIC SEGALSTAD:
There was a study

that just came out
from Liverpool,

where the researchers looked
at the average age of death

for people who had played
on charting records

over the last, whatever,
30 or 40 years,

uh, and compared that
to the general population

in the same countries,
in the UK and the U.S.

So I reached out and asked,

do you see a statistical spike
at the age of 27?

And they did,
and they couldn't explain it.

There must be something
greater at play,

and, uh, it keeps happening.

SHATNER:
While it would certainly appear

that celebrities are more prone
to accidental deaths

at the age of 27
than the normal population,

according to some experts,

it's not fame that's behind
the curse of the 27 Club,

but the number 27 itself.

In horoscopic astrology, Saturn
return is this phenomenon

where the planet Saturn returns
to the exact same spot

in the sky as the day
you were born.

That takes about
29 and a half years.

Astrologers say that you enter
this phase of Saturn return

starting in your 27th year,

and astrologers say
that this particular time

is really a time when you,
as a person,

are on the threshold
between the face of youth

entering to the face
of maturity.

I think that for a lot
of the 27s,

they might have faced
their own troubles

around this time trying
to enter adulthood

after having a successful

or an artistically
very intense period of youth.

SHATNER:
Is it possible the number 27

actually carries a mathematical,

or even celestial, jinx?

It's possible.

But if so, why does it only
seem to affect famous people?

Many believe the answer

as to why the curse
of the 27 Club

is limited to celebrities
is the same reason

some people are seduced by fame
in the first place.

Rock and roll has always
romanticized extreme behavior.

If you're growing up
as a young artist,

the concept of it retains
a kind of dark glamour.

Therefore, people
orient their lives

around that kind of stuff.

It becomes sort of a part of
what rock and roll's all about.

You think that that is
what it is to be a musician.

YOUNG: Whether this is
conscious or unconscious,

what you have, if you die at 27,

is eternal youth.

You never have to be
an older person.

You never have
to get the wrinkles.

You never have to go into
the full disillusionment.

So those who left young
get to stay young.

WHITEHEAD:
It's become a myth in our culture now.

And so, could it be
a self-perpetuating prophecy

where, because people start
to believe it,

they actually manifest it
into reality?

SHATNER:
Is the story of the 27 Club a cautionary tale?

One that tells us that we need
to accept the fact that curses,

like fate, are simply

inescapable?

And if we can't avoid
deadly curses,

perhaps we should ask whether
there's anything we can do

to protect ourselves
once they come for us.

R:Contractors begin uncovering
a series of strange artifacts

while renovating
a string of 18th century houses

in the area:

mummified animals,

dismembered dolls,
broken knife blades,

strange bottles filled
with human hair,

bent nails,

and silver pins.

And all concealed
within hidden nooks and voids

throughout the old homes.

The artifacts are so unnerving
that many began to wonder

who had placed them
throughout the homes.

And perhaps
more importantly, why?

After looking at a, a number of

instances of, of these
either intentional deposits

or objects that were located
in strange places--

uh, shoes, um, animal parts,

bottles with, um,
unusual contents in them--

certain patterns
that seemed to be prevalent

throughout the area,
uh, became apparent.

We see them in England
and in the Netherlands

and in Germany,
where a lot of the people

who settled in New York State
originally came from.

And so it's clear that people
brought their folk beliefs

and folk religion with them

when they moved
across the Atlantic Ocean.

Evidently, in all these cases,

there was a very strong belief
in, uh, the agency of evil

to affect people's
everyday lives.

Particularly in a number
of stories that related

to fears of illness

or of the potential for curses

to access houses
through openings,

particularly, uh,
through fireplaces,

uh, doors, windows,
that kind of thing.

The more you look, the more
you find of these objects,

and it becomes
increasingly clear

that the numbers of objects
that we have found,

which go into the thousands,

is really just
the tip of the iceberg.

SHATNER:
But were these strange objects carefully collected and hidden

in order to invoke
a deadly curse

or as a means of preventing one?

I think what people
were really focused on

was finding ways of turning
that harmful magic around

and either repelling it
or trapping it or thwarting it

in some way from
getting into their houses.

So, the local sort of
white witch or wizard

could be paid
to produce a charm for you,

and the charm would eventually
be concealed on your property

as a trap, essentially,
to impale any negative energies

coming into the house
looking to attack you

and stop it from going further
into the house,

where it might do you harm.

SHATNER:
While such arcane practices may seem like the stuff

of fairy tales and fantasy,

is it possible
that mystical talismen

and other charms
can actually protect people

from the deadly effects
of curses?

YOUNG:
Things that are mysterious,

if we put it
in the right narrative,

then we have a semblance
of control or understanding,

even though we made up
the story.

The explanations may not be
very sound,

but they still give us
some comfort.

WHITEHEAD:
Maybe these curses

are created by us,
by our imagination,

by us trying to deal
with the mystery of nature...

[thunder crashing]

...and then it actually
comes to life,

because we bring the curse
to life,

by attaching our mind
to it collectively.

Relics that can guard us
against evil?

Perhaps you believe such ideas
are as nonsensical

as the notion
of curses themselves.

Well, then, maybe you'd be
comfortable taking a dip

in Round Valley Reservoir, huh?

Or hanging a picture
of the Crying Boy

over your fireplace.

Or perhaps you're eager
to tempt fate

by placing the Hope Diamond
around your neck

in celebration
of your 27th birthday.

Well, until then,
I think the rest of us

will choose to play it safe

and let those things remain,

at least for now, unexplained.