-Whoa, oh, my god! -That's a gun.
That's schultz's pistol.
We're literally talking hundreds of millions of dollars.
[josh gates] it looks like a steel trunk.
-[man 1] look at this. -[man 2] oh, wow.
[robbie hoffman] dutch walke right down here with the treasure chest,
Right out onto the floating dock and dropped it right in the water.
Let's get in the water, come on.
There are tunnels all over the property.
It is a whole room.
Oh, [bleep]!
Lots of bones down here.
[man] oh, my god, look at that.
[josh] crazy. Get out of here. Are you kidding me?
There's a trunk in here.
[man] there's a trunk.
It's hard to believe, but just 100 years ago,
If someone poured me this drink,
We both could have ended up behind bars.
Between 1920 and 1933, making, moving and selling alcohol
Was illegal in the us.
Prohibition was supposed to reduce bad behavior.
Instead, it created an era of organized crime.
Amid new york city's illegal empires,
A bronx-born german jew carved out a kingdom.
His name was arthur flegenheimer.
He called himself dutch schultz.
Legends say that through bootlegging and illegal gambling rackets,
Schultz stockpiled a fortune,
Worth over $100 million toda
Much of that fortune is said to have been hidden in a large trunk
That's never been found.
But new clues are leading investigators
To dutch's old stomping grounds.
In the catskill mountains, the ruins of an old hotel could hold the jackpot.
Or are the missing millions concealed
In a distillery's long-forgotten tunnels?
Or perhaps submerged in the shadow of an eerie mansion?
Once upon a time in america an unlikely kingpin stashed a pretty penny.
Now, it's time to uncover the last chapter
Of his bloody rags-to-riches tale.
So drink up, this one's on dutch schultz.
[in a hoarse voice] oh, that's strong, cue the titles. Whew!
My name is josh gates...
Hello!
...Explorer, adventurer...
Amazing.
[exclaims]
...And a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.
[bleep] whew! That was exciting.
With a degree in archeology and a passion for the unexplained,
I travel to the ends of the earth investigating
The greatest legends in history.
Okay, let's punch it.
This is expedition unkno.
New york, new york, a town so nice
They named it after a tiny, medieval backwater in northern englan
These days, the impossibly high cost of living here
Makes the five boroughs shin brighter than ever before.
But it was not always so, especially in the bronx.
In the early 1900s, these were meaner streets.
Not many legitimate avenues for an outsider
From a poor tenement upbringing to become one
Of the most powerful men in new york.
Born arthur flegenheimer, to a pair of german jewish immigrants,
From a young age dutch schultz learned
To make his way through a criminal underworld,
Run by the so-called five families of the italian mafi
Yet, at this school of hard knocks,
It was dutch who did the knocking.
In the toughest crowd in the world, he earned a reputation for brutality,
As he moved from hijacking and gambling rackets to bootlegging.
And after prohibition came in 1920,
Dutch killed the competition literally.
He controlled every aspect of his illegal alcohol empire,
From production to distribution.
And it made him extremely wealthy.
Now, where those riches went, that's what we need to figure out.
With his ever-present bodyguard and confidante,
Bernard "lulu" rosencrantz, at his side,
Dutch schultz used brute for and skill to coexist
With the most feared mafioso in new york and dodge the feds.
By 1935, though, the walls were closing in around him.
Mafia lore says that dutch tried to cash out,
Hiding much of his personal fortune in a trunk, a literal box of treasure.
But on October 23rd, 1935, the mafia ended
His retirement plan in a hail of bullets.
Since then, many have tried to find the loot,
But new leads have revealed promising places where no one's looked.
I don't know about you, when I think of bootlegging, I think of nondescript trucks
Driving in the dead of nigh with barrels filled with illegal liquor.
And dutch had plenty of those trucks to be sure,
But for law enforcement, these very waterways
Were much harder to patrol and dutch took advantage.
He had an infamously fast fleet moving his hooch all over the tristate area.
And as for the authorities, well, they were left in his wake.
As for me, I'm headed east, well beyond brooklyn and queens,
To long island and the playgrounds of the rich and famous.
It was on the north shore of long island that jay gatsby stood,
Fixated on the green light of daisy's dock.
Dutch schultz had his own dreams of greatness on the opposite shore,
In the town of oakdale,
Which is where robbie hoffma has asked me to meet him.
At what turns out to be a very respectable address.
Whoa.
-Hey! -[robbie] josh.
[josh] how are you, man?
Robbie hoffman.
-[josh] ah, so nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you too.
Nice digs.
Very nice.
[josh] is this your place?
-I wish. -[laughs] I wish too.
I feel like I'm in, like, a gothic novel here.
Welcome to idle hour.
-Idle hour. -Yes.
[josh] idle hour, as this modest 70,000 sq ft home is known,
Was built in 1901 for william k. Vanderbilt,
Heir to the railroad empire and fortune.
Mr. Vanderbilt's money and, I guess, taste
Attracted the cream of new york's elite,
Who rushed here to stay in what is still one
Of the largest mansions in the country.
So the big question, what's dutch schultz
Got to do with the historic vanderbilt mansion?
Dutch schultz was here with his wife frances and his two children.
What, they lived here?
Yes, they live here for 22 months.
-When? -In 1934 into 1935.
And how did you figure out that schultz was here?
What I did was I started looking up
All of the locations where dutch schultz,
Arthur flegenheimer, was in 1934 into 1935.
I have him in bridgeport, connecticut,
Yonkers, new york, the bronx, he was all over,
Upstate, but I found that he was here, in oakdale, 30 days before he got killed.
So this is right before his death. How do you place him here?
[robbie] uh, a newspaper article.
Two gentlemen were at mike's soda shop, up on main street.
Shout out to mike's soda shop.
And, uh, they actually followed dutch and lulu rosencrantz
Back here and this was the place they were hiding.
[josh] all right, let's talk dutch and his treasure for a minute here.
We know he was super successful at what he did.
We know he amassed a ton of money.
Why do we think there is a treasure, though, to be found today?
Because in 1935, he had thomas dewey
-And the federal government after him for tax evasion. -[josh] right, yup.
[robbie] he had mayor la guardia from the city put a bull's eye on his back
And then he also had the five families, lucky luciano,
These guys were getting real tired of dutch schultz.
And he doesn't wanna end up like capone
And he's not gonna pay the government.
Exactly, god forbid if he does go to jail,
-He doesn't wanna go being broke when he gets out. -[josh] right.
So, what does he do?
Time to liquidate.
He takes his cash, he takes his liberty bonds,
Diamonds, jewelry, gold and puts it in a custom-buil treasure chest.
Wait, hold on, what is a custom-built treasure chest?
Well, it's actually waterproof and airtight.
It was built by an iron worker in the bronx.
And how do we know all that?
His attorney, dixie davis.
[josh] in a 1939 series in collier's magazine,
Dutch's lawyer, dixie davis, says...
[narrator reading]
And I've heard a lot of different theories
As to where this treasure went,
But because dutch was here, you're putting it here.
Yes, he had a very inflated image of himself.
This was the nicest house in the country and he really believed
That this is the place that him and his wife should be living.
So, is the treasure here as well? Like, should I get a shovel?
Not here.
-Not here. -Not here.
There.
Where's there?
I'll take you, josh.
I'm all in, let's go.
Robbie leads me to a dock in front of the estate,
Where he's brought in veteran search and rescue diver, barry lipsky,
Along with a sonar team, to help us find the treasure chest.
I see boats, I see dive tanks, I'm nervous, robbie.
-[robbie] don't be nervous, josh. -Where is this treasure?
-It's in the water. -[josh] no.
-It's in the water. -Really?
[robbie] I really believe.
[josh] so, front of the mansion here,
-We do see this big staircase that comes down to the water. -Yes.
-And... -And here's a picture from the '30s.
There's a boat ramp with a floating boat dock.
I believe dutch schultz and lulu rosencrantz
Carried this 100, 150-pound 3' by 2' by 18" high, a steel box treasure chest,
Down those steps, onto the ramp, onto the floating dock
And placed it in the water.
All right, so now I turn to you with the dive logo.
First of all, how deep is it out here?
We're anywheres from about two to six feet of water.
So, easy peasy.
Absolutely not.
It's never easy. Why? Why not?
Uh, this is a river, it's mixed with salt and fresh water.
There's gonna be mud on the bottom,
That's gonna be so deep that we may not even find the bottom.
Visibility?
Zero.
Visibility will end up, within a few moments,
Blacker than the blackest black you've ever been in before in your life.
Great.
It's the worst kind of diving that you could possibly wanna dive.
Except that it might end in treasure.
In this particular case, there's a lot of optimism, yes.
That's right, okay, so we've got that going for us.
So, where do we start?
Well, we have the boat here with side scan sonar.
We're gonna scan the area.
If we identify a target, we're gonna throw a marker buoy on it.
Once we identify enough targets, we'll dive.
Okay. Let's get into it.
We motor over to the locatio of idle hour's long-banishe dock
And begin our sonar scan for a treasure chest.
What is that, right there?
[barry] mark it, mark it.
-[josh] see that? -[barry] let's check that out.
[josh] uh, it looks like a mass, whatever that is.
It's in the right place.
-[gus] okay, we're gonna spin again. -Yeah.
I mean, there's something there.
[gus] look at this, over here, that's right where you wanna be.
Well, that looks really solid.
[gus] mark that one too.
[barry] grab those two marks there, make sure we get them identified, right there.
[josh] with our sonar scan complete,
It's time to dive into the darkness.
So, what's the plan?
So, gonna, uh, swim over to the, uh, side where the steps are
And we're gonna tie ourselves in, as if we're doing, uh, search type patterns.
So we're gonna be hard-tethered to the shore.
Yes, we are, because it'll be absolutely zero visibility.
So if I'm this close to you underwater, I won't be able to see you.
You will not be able to see me.
[josh] I know that a lot of people, when they get into conditions like thi
Where it's a total blackout, they freak.
They absolutely do, don't keep your eyes open,
Be better off just closing your eyes
And use your mind's eye to see with.
Are you talking about the force?
It's whatever you wanna make it be.
The force actually does work in this kind of conditions.
This is some jedi [bleep] here, okay, let's get in the water, come on.
In addition to a line connecting us to the shore,
Barry and I are going to be tethered to each other
So that the next body he needs to recover isn't mine.
If that sounds dramatic, remember that this river
Is filled with debris, dating back before the vanderbilts.
Even more concerning is the mud,
Thick underwater quicksand, capable of swallowing and trapping us
Beneath the surface.
[barry over radio]
[josh] do not adjust your television set
Or phone or whatever you're watching this on.
You're seeing what I'm seeing, nothing.
[barry over radio]
[josh over radio]
I've never been afraid of the dark before,
But I've never experienced darkness like this.
I'm completely blind, disoriented.
[barry over radio]
[josh over radio]
On the verge of panic, I use barry's advice.
Disregarding my sense of sig and carefully allowing
My hands to evaluate my surroundings.
[barry over radio]
[josh over radio]
[barry over radio]
[robbie] come on. It's gotta be there.
Come on.
[josh] finally, I'm able to wrap my fingers
Around something that I hope won't cut or bite me.
[barry over radio]
[josh over radio]
[barry over radio]
[robbie] they're coming up with something.
They're in the spot, they're right there.
[josh over radio]
[barry over radio]
[josh] near a shuttered mansion, known as idle hour I'm diving in total darkness
Blindly grasping to find the legendary lost fortune of mobster, dutch schultz.
[josh over radio]
[robbie] it makes sense.
Dutch and lulu would have walked right down here with the treasure chest,
Right onto the ramp, right out onto the floating dock
And dropped it right in the water.
[josh over radio]
[barry over radio]
Come on, uncle dutch.
We're close.
[josh] we return to the darkness to continue the search.
[josh over radio]
[barry over radio]
[josh over radio]
[barry over radio]
[josh over radio]
[barry over radio]
They have something very large?
[gus] very, very large, they don't know if they gonna move it.
[robbie] well, let's pull it up.
[josh over radio]
[barry over radio]
[josh over radio]
[barry over radio]
[josh over radio]
[barry over radio]
Please, lord.
[gus] they're coming up, they're coming up.
They're coming up?
[josh over radio]
[barry over radio]
[josh over radio]
Sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart.
As we keep searching, I get to pull up a chair.
Along with some of the more random finds in my treasure hunting caree
Yeah, listen, I really appreciate the effort.
[josh over radio]
The mud is so thick, that if robbie's going to find the box here,
I think it'll take a dredge to recover it.
I wish him all the luck in the world
And head back to the mainlan for another chance at dutch's millions.
In a slightly more visible setting.
Just a few hours north of new york lie the historic catskill mountains,
Which have long been a magnet for outliers.
Artists, hippies, comedians and, yes, even criminals.
In the mid-20th century, it became a vacation hotspot
For those seeking to escape the city.
And it's been the backdrop for hollywood hits, dirty dancing, anyone?
Supposed to take a left at a fork in the road. Oh, there it is.
Oh, it's so dumb, but it's so funny.
Today, many of the resorts have faded away,
But there are still big things happening here.
Like, you know, the world's largest kaleidoscope.
Weird, but cool.
The world's third largest gnome.
But where are the first and second largest gnomes?
This is expedition un-gnome. Huh?
Fortunately for you, I have non-gnome-related business to attend to.
My mission is to link up with two well-known, canadian treasure hunters,
Who, I'm told, have secured exclusive access
To search in a small town in the catskills,
That was dutch's home away from home.
They're also convinced it's home to his missing millions.
[josh] in the nearby, tranquil town of phoenicia,
I pull over to meet steve zazulyk and ryan fazekas.
-Hey, josh. -Steve?
It is.
[josh] steve and ryan are accomplished treasure hunters.
Steve alone has written two books on underwater metal detecting.
And now, they have their sights set on dutch schultz.
So, how did the two of you get interested in the story?
So we researched different things, and this story is legit.
For sure. No question?
-No. -No question.
It is a pretty appealing story.
Oh, my god, like, think about what's in that box.
-Are you kidding me? -Right.
[steve zazulyk] we're literally talking hundreds of millions of dollars.
Who would not wanna go after that, josh?
Okay, so why phoenicia?
Why was dutch all the way up here? I mean, we're a long way from new york city.
-This is where he was making his moonshine. -Right.
Couldn't do that in the city.
Exactly, not on the scale he was doing it.
-[ryan fazekas] no. -[steve] if you see all these mountains behind us,
There's notches in them, josh, so in every one of these notches,
He had a still. He'd make his moonshine in the stills
[ryan] he employed a lot of the people here, and everybody knew him.
Everybody loved him. And thi is where he came to relax and do his business.
[steve] and the thing he lov most was the phoenicia hotel
Best steaks in town.
[josh] so that was his spot. And phoenicia hotel's where?
You're standing right at it, josh.
-[ryan] right here. -[steve] this is it.
-[ryan] we're in front of it. -[josh] this was it? This lot? Oh, wow.
[josh] so what happened to it?
[ryan] well, it was a beautiful wood hotel, sat right on this corner.
And in the early 2000s, there was a fire.
Later on, 20008, they tore it down.
-[josh] oh. -[ryan] and that is it.
What a shame. Multi-million dollar question.
Should be an easy one for you.
Where's the treasure?
Right here. Right in the basement.
Oh, you think it's in the ruins of the hotel?
Now, how do we get to it?
Come on. I got someone you wanna meet.
-Sure. Please. -[laughing]
-Josh, this is bruce alterman. -Josh, nice to meet you.
Hey, bruce. Pleasure. How you doing, man?
Bruce is our research guy.
So anything you wanna know about the dutch, right there.
You're the man?
-I know everything about him. -You're obsessed?
-Totally, for 23 years, now. -[laughing] like everybody else.
-There's a lotta money out there, so why not? -Exactly, right?
-And this is frank. -Frank.
-Josh, good to meet you. -Nice to meet you, too.
[steve] so frank is our gpr guy.
Oh, the remote sensing guy?
-[frank lopergolo] absolutely. -[josh] all right, you're the one who can see underground?
-To the best of my ability. -[all laughing]
All right, so bruce, as an expert on dutch schultz,
You feel confident about the hotel as a location?
Extremely confident.
-And why? -His dying words.
[josh] by 1935, dutch schult is feeling heat on multiple fronts.
He's just skated on two tax evasion trials,
But the special prosecutor,
Future governor of new york and presidential candidate thomas dewey,
Isn't giving up.
So dutch goes to lucky luciano and the five families,
For permission to kill dewey
But targeting a celebrated lawman is too much even for them.
Instead, luciano orders the hit on dutch.
Murder, incorporated finds dutch in the back of newark's palace chophouse
And guns him down.
And in one of those colorful mob flourishes,
The button men used bullets coated in rust
To insure he could never survive.
In a blood poison delirium shortly before his painful death,
Dutch makes a statement to police...
...A hallucinatory diatribe that becomes the stuff of legend.
He literally mentions the hotel, "john, did you buy the hotel?".
And when it comes to dutch and hotels, this is the spot.
This is it. He would come here,
Have his dinner on the porch,
-He'd check on all of his stills. -Right.
And he would sleep here at least once a week, in this hotel.
Wow.
And he was intimately friendly with the owner,
And most likely took his treasure and buried it
In the floor of one of the pantries next to the kitchen, right there.
He had to get out of new york city,
And consequently, wanted to buy the hotel,
But he got cut short from doing that on October 23,
When he was tragically shot.
And since the hotel was torn down, has anybody searched in these grounds?
So josh, you gotta understand.
People have been dying to do this for years.
And no one's had permission, until today.
Amazing.
[josh] steve and ryan's pla sounds simple.
Using bruce's research and frank's ground penetrating radar,
We'll locate the phoenicia hotel's basement,
And hopefully, dig up the treasure.
Well, what do you say? Should we get to work and, uh, tear up some earth, here?
-Oh, yeah. -Absolutely.
Let's get rich, boys. Come on, let's do it.
[all laughing]
[josh] bruce, give me some geography. How was the hotel laid out?
This would be along where I suspect the kitchen pantries were,
-Which had dirt floors. -Okay.
[bruce alterman] dutch schultz theoretically took the steel box,
And buried it in the dirt of one of the pantries,
And put a padlock on that pantry, and told the owner,
Don't let anybody go in ther I'll be back.
All right. Let's do it.
[josh] while frank does the gpr voodoo he does so well,
We fan out with metal detectors to see if any clue lie close to the surface.
[detector blips]
[detector beeps]
Hit.
[device trills]
Old square head nail.
That was in the side of a treasure box!
Dig deeper.
[device blips]
[steve] what are you using that for?
[josh] you don't use a pinpointer?
Usually, the experts don't use a pinpointer.
Oh, okay. Well, why don't you go find a treasure hunt, steve?
-[laughing] -and then we'll talk.
[steve] you getting, uh, you getting some hits, frank.
[device trills]
There's something in here.
Oh, [bleep]. Something here.
[device trills continuously]
That's a coin. That's a coin.
I got a coin. We got a coin!
Look at this.
-Look at this! -Oh, wow.
[josh] the phoenicia hotel was once at the heart
Of mobster dutch schultz's catskills moonshine empire.
Could evidence of his missing fortune be hiding in the foundation
That's awesome.
[josh] so this is a dime.
-[steve] that's a mercury dime. -[josh] yeah, this is old.
This is early 1900s. So we're in, what, here?
[steve] 1934.
[josh] 1934! Look at that!
1934!
[steve] right on.
This is the year before dutch dies, right here.
-That could have been his. -Right? A '34 dime, look at that.
-[steve] right there. -[josh] right there.
-And we just started. Let's keep going. -Yeah, come on! Here we go.
[device trills]
[detectors beeping, whirring]
[detector beeping]
Well, check this out. Whoa. Look at this, look at this.
-Hey, josh! -Yeah?
We got some coins.
-You got coins? -Yeah.
What do you got?
Oh, yeah, you do. Look at this!
[steve] yeah. Two coins here.
-Another mercury dime. -It's a merc.
This exact one, we, we just found one down here.
-Oh, you found a merc? -Yeah.
We got something else, too. What is this?
-This is... Yeah. Yeah. -A penny? This is a wheat penny.
Beautiful. Okay. Keep at it, man.
[josh] while I enjoy collecting loose change,
Frank has finished his gpr scan,
And we're ready to go after the big money.
Okay, frank. Let's talk gpr. What do you got?
So we're seeing multiple hits, linearly, this way along the cellar.
A lot of 'em seem to be settling on what would have been the cellar floor.
Okay. How, how deep down is that from here?
Well, the cellar floor, roughly eight feet.
Wow, so we got some real earth to move there.
Should we bring in the big shovels?
-Absolutely. -Hey, guys!
You wanna dig some [bleep] up?
-[all laughing] -[josh] come on!
[bruce] here we go.
[josh] that's not a trunk, is it?
[bruce] might be.
-[josh] it's the size of one. -[bruce] looks la steel trunk!
[josh] doesn't it?
[bruce] it was two feet by three feet.
-[ryan] part of the wall. -[josh] yeah, it is.
-[steve] look at the size of that. -[josh] wow.
[frank] big old part of the wall.
-[steve] now we're getting somewhere. Look at that. -[josh] look at that.
Old wood.
-[steve] oh, yeah. -[bruce] oh, totally.
-[josh] smell that. -[bruce] more bricks.
[josh] old flooring, you see that? That's the old stone floor.
[bruce] holy cow. That's the old stone floor.
That was the floor of the hotel, originally built in 1901.
[josh] crazy.
[josh] the holes we're digging quickly fill with ground water
From the damp soil being dredged away.
-[bruce] now you're seeing wood. -[josh] yeah.
[bruce] and that would be the ceiling of the basement.
So we're into that basement level, huh?
We are into the basement.
So everything that comes out now is the basement
Where dutch could have buried the treasure.
[josh] the excavators dig for hours,
Finding more wood, metal, and brick.
Unearthing this foundation is no small task.
But bruce's energy never wavers.
I am super excited about this.
It's the first time anyone has been able to dig
Below the floor of the phoenicia hotel where dutch schultz buried his treasure.
And that's what we're looking at right here.
I like that now it's 100%. He did bury it here.
Well, I am thoroughly convinced that he did.
[josh] so, we've gotta be in that pantry area now, right?
[bruce] oh, yes. So once you get through that flagstone floor,
-We'll be totally in the basement. -Right.
Once we start seeing the wood of the ceiling of the basement.
[ryan] josh! Check it out.
[bleep], that...
[josh] is that what I think it is?
[bruce] that's what you think it is. [laughing]
-[steve] whoa! Oh, my god. [laughing] -[josh] that's a gun.
-[bruce] whoa! -[josh] that's a gun.
[bruce] wow!
-[josh] are you kidding me! Whoa! -[bruce] unbelievable!
-[frank] thanks, brother. -[bruce] good job!
-[steve] wow. -[josh] unbelievable!
[bruce] holy cow!
What am I looking at here? What do you think?
-[bruce] that's a gun! That, that's a .32 caliber. -[josh] .32?
-[frank] yeah. -[bruce] absolutely. From the muzzle.
-[josh] right. -[bruce] it was a gangster's gun, not a hunting gun.
It was powerful enough to kill somebody as long as it didn't hit the wallet.
[josh laughing]
But if it hit a chest, it would kill somebody.
-If it hit my wallet, I'd be dead. -[all laughing]
Believe me.
[bruce] well, I... And it was a throwaway gun,
It was easily kept in a vest pocket,
You take it out, you shoot somebody, you throw it away.
This is crazy.
The gun is missing the cylinder, which isn't surprising.
But it's also missing a trigger guard,
Which may be our best clue that this gun was not meant for self-defense.
A glove couldn't go in the old trigger guards,
'cause they were small. So they would chop off the trigger guard,
So a guy with a glove would be able to shoot somebody,
And not leave a fingerprint.
Watch where you're pointing that thing!
-[all laughing] -sorry. Sorry.
Wow!
-[steve] really. -[josh] and it might have been dutch schultz's pistol?
He always carried a gun.
Look at that, a gangster's gun, right there.
Right there. That's a gangster's gun.
-[josh] in the phoenicia hotel. -[all laughing]
This is insane!
[steve] there you go. Yeah, that's crazy.
[josh] all right. We got a lot more earth to turn, here.
The excavators keep digging
And every scoop of dirt they haul up will need to b sifted for evidence.
But steve already has another idea.
Yeah, so josh, I think we should leave the guys here,
'cause we got another really hot spot we should go to.
-You wanna walk away from this? -Yeah.
-They'll call us. -I promise.
No, they won't! Look at these two.
Frank, if you find a treasure box, you're gonna call me?
That's why I'm looking up condos in acapulco right now, but yeah, I'll call.
That's what I'm saying! You're never gonna hear from these guys.
-So, you got another hot spot? -I got another hot spot.
Trust me, you're gonna wanna see it.
[josh] all right. Guys. Do the right thing if you find something, please.
-We're here. Trust me. -All right.
-You're on my speed dial. -Okay, good. Come on, let's go.
While the excavation team continues their work at the phoenicia hotel,
Steve and ryan bring me a few miles away
To a place they think could be just as promising to find dutch's treasure.
-How you doing? -I'm doing great.
Tending this unusual bar is ashley may,
Manager of dutch's spirits.
I see a lot of booze behind you, uh, with the word "dutch" on it.
-[ashley may] yes. -[josh] and I see a very intimidating portrait
Of the man himself.
[ashley] that is dutch.
So, explain this to me. What, what's happening here? Where are we?
-[ashley] so this is harvest homestead farm. -[josh] okay.
[ashley] the home of dutch's spirits.
And what is dutch's spirits?
[ashley] it's a sugar wash moonshine distillery.
[josh] so you're making the same stuff that dutch made?
Yes. And on the same property that he did.
[josh] he was making moonshine here?
[ashley] yes, he was.
-[josh] this was literally his moonshining operation? -[ashley] yes.
-Now I get why we're here. -Mmm-hmm.
We're not just day drinking.
No, this is a great place to be.
[josh] right, because if thi is actually the center of his operation...
-[ryan] where better to loo for the treasure? -[josh] exactly.
Here's the part of this I don't get.
How was he running a whole distillery here without getting shut down?
-[steve] mmm-hmm. -[josh] I mean, how did that happen?
Well, his whole operation was underground, literally.
-Like, underneath us? -Yes. Right below us.
-Oh. -Yes.
-This is not the original distillery. -No, it isn't.
-Can we see the original? -Absolutely.
-I'll take you down there. -Yeah, let's check it out. Come on.
[laughing] okay.
[josh] ashley brings us arou to the back of the property
To a conspicuously lower elevation.
-[ashley] josh, you see all this? -[josh] yeah.
[ashley] this was all buried.
-[josh] all of this was underground? -[ashley] yes, it was.
[josh] there was always chimneys?
[ashley] yes, so when you're distilling, you have to ventilate.
[josh] wow, so this whole thing was a distillery?
[ashley] yes.
[josh] that's crazy.
And so back in the day, what would this have looked like?
[ashley] this whole thing was a turkey farm.
A turkey farm? Sure. Sure it was.
[ashley] mmm-hmm. [laughing]
-[josh] so someone's driving by... -[steve] never know.
-[ashley] exactly. -[josh] nothing going on here.
But look at the scale of this. This is huge.
Remarkably, this facility was only a tiny slice
Of dutch's operation in the catskills,
With others like it hidden in the mountains, churning o enough moonshine
To keep the tristate area good and drunk for almost a decade.
[ashley] and this is the bunker.
[josh] here we go, into the past.
Whoa. This is insane.
[josh] wow.
This is the original bunker?
[ashley] mmm-hmm.
[josh] treasure hunters steve zazulyk and ryan fazek
Think they've found a lead on mobster dutch schultz's missing fortune
Among the ruins of his massive bootlegging operatio
[josh] I, I can't get my head around how huge this place is.
So what eventually happened here? It must have gotten shut down.
The feds raided it in 1932.
-Okay. -And when they found it, they came in,
They found two 2,000-gallon stills...
-Whoa. -...1,000 gallons of liquor, and 10,000 pounds of sugar.
Whoa. So, huge operation.
-Huge. -This guy was running a major, major empire here.
So here's the crazy thing. Day after dutch dies,
All the cars show up here, with the black suits, mafia murder, inc., who knows.
-[josh] right. -[steve] there was definitely something here they wanted.
And did they find what they were looking for?
I heard they got scared off.
Okay.
But somebody was interested in something, here.
Like, big time.
Okay, so is this bunker the extent of what was here, as big as this is?
Oh, no. There are tunnels all over the property.
They had to move the liquor, they had to move their ingredients inside.
So, and have those tunnels been explored?
So, it's a maze of tunnels. Some of them have been explored,
But we don't really know to the extent.
And they are where?
Right over here.
This is a tunnel?
Entrance to one of the tunnels.
-Have you been down there? -No.
-Under the door? -And you just have to just lift this up.
[straining] oh, boy.
[josh] oh, come on.
That's the entrance to the tunnel?
[ashley] you're gonna have to crawl in there.
Are we doing this?
-Let's do it. -Yeah.
All right, ashley, you keep the moonshine cold.
-All right. -All right, we'll be back.
[josh] boy.
[metal door clangs]
[josh] okay, are we ready?
-[steve] yeah. -[josh] okay, here we go.
[josh] these tunnels were a secret underground highway,
Where illegal booze could be transported under the property.
Who knows what kind of maze is under our feet,
Or what could be living down there?
[josh] so, it goes straight back.
I can see that about 20 feet down, there's some sort of pipe that bisects the tunnel.
And then beyond that, maybe 30 or 40 feet down, it looks like a shaft of light.
So you think there's another way in?
[josh] well, there's definitely a sliver of light coming through, so maybe.
Okay, time to shimmy.
Yeah, could somebody heat up a stick of butter for me, please?
[ryan] clear?
[grunting]
Okay.
[steve] there you go. There you go, you got it.
[grunting] okay, I'm through!
[steve] he's in like flynn.
[laughing] okay. I'm in.
[steve] how's it look down there?
It's great. You're gonna love it.
It definitely goes back, I don't know, 60 feet or so.
Looks fairly stable in here at least.
Fairly stable.
You guys wanna come down?
[ryan] yeah.
[josh] steve and ryan climb after me and hand over my trusty metal detector.
Thank god I only ate half that wrap for lunch. [laughing]
Okay. All right, welcome, everybody.
All the piping in here looks really old.
I don't think anyone's been down here in a while.
With slightly more room to breathe, we're able to actively search the tunne
[steve] lotsa bones down here.
[josh] animal parts. Gross.
Nothing up here.
[device whirring]
[josh] ryan, see anything up there?
[ryan] nothing yet.
Check this out.
[josh] what have you got? Oh, look at that.
Top of an old jug.
That is so cool.
This could literally be a bottle of bootleg moonshine.
[steve] yeah.
Piece of prohibition history right there.
Our discovery has us feeling intoxicated
At the thought of what else could be down here.
And we keep scanning every inch of the tunnel.
[device trilling]
[ryan] oh, I got a good hit over here.
-[josh] what? -[ryan] yeah.
-[josh] you do? -[ryan] yeah.
[josh] what do you got?
[ryan] that's a coin.
[josh] get out of here. Are you kidding me?
That is a coin. Dude!
-Yeah. -Unbelievable! Look at this.
-[steve] yeah, it's silver. -[josh] damn right it's silver. Look how clean it is.
Eagle on the back, e pluribus unum, united states of america.
This is a half dollar, yeah?
[steve] yeah, a walking liberty.
A walking liberty.
Other than being worn, though, just absolutely incredible the condition it's in.
Anyone know walking liberty years?
[steve] roughly 1915, 1916 'til the late 40s.
So we're in the period here?
-Definitely. Definitely. -100%. 100%.
-I mean, right in the period. -[both] yeah.
So, there was definitely people coming through these tunnels
With money in their pockets.
I mean, come on.
That is so dope.
Okay. The first of many, I hope.
Amen.
Let's keep looking. Come on.
In the darkness just ahead of us, we realiz our tunnel, singular,
Has just turned into tunnels, plural.
Josh, we got a ladder here.
What? Oh, look at that! Where does that go up to?
I can't see where it goes, but...
Let, let's try up the ladder, and then we can continue forward after.
Sounds like a plan.
[josh] all right, give it a whirl. Let's see what you got.
Ryan leads the way, with steve and I close behin
All right, coming up.
[exhales]
Look at this.
It's like a, it's like a hallway.
Dude, there is a door here.
-[steve] whoa. -[josh] look at this thing.
[steve] holy...
Look at the size of the door.
[steve] and look at the size of the hinges.
Yeah, this, right? The cutout?
This is the kind of thing you put on a door when you try to control access to it.
You know, if you've got something in here,
And you wanna control who's coming through.
Okay, here, can you pull that?
[ryan] yeah.
-[all straining] -[josh] come on!
Oh, wow. This is crazy.
Also, guys.
[whispering] what's the password?
-[whispering] dutch. -[josh] that's correct.
[ryan] wow.
[josh] it's huge.
[josh] look at this brick. What do you think this is?
[steve] definitely part of the oven or furnace.
[josh] totally, right? This could have been a chimney or something.
Looks like we've got some, something boarded up there.
That might have been vents.
[steve] they were cooking moonshine in here.
-[josh] right? -[steve] oh, yeah, for sure.
It looks like it's bombproof.
[josh] I was just thinking the same thing.
I mean, look at the thickness of this concrete. It's insane.
You wouldn't get in here.
No, you wouldn't get in here at all.
No treasure. No moonshine left behind.
Back down the ladder?
[steve] I think so.
Boy, it just keeps going and going.
The maze we're lost in was once traveled by dutch and his gang of bootleggers
As they distilled hooch and moved it secretly
Beneath the farm to who knows where.
But that's not to say they didn't leave anything behind.
-[ryan] uh-oh. I got... I got something good here. -[detector beeping]
-You do? -Yep.
Get the [bleep] out of here. Are you kidding me?
-It's a pocket watch. Really? -[ryan] it's like an old pocket watch, I think.
[josh] 'cause this is insane. Come here. Look at this.
This is crazy.
-[steve] yep. -[ryan laughs] you got to be kidding me.
[josh] look at this. [exhales]
-Oh, my god. Look at that. -[josh] crazy.
And it says, "westclox? Dax"?
Like, think of... There's guys going through there
With this stuff on their bodies.
Like, this is period.
[ryan] it's definitely another piece to the puzzle of what's going on here
-In this tunnel system. -[josh] it's incredible.
Look at that.
Like, have you noticed like, the farther we get deeper,
The better the finds are. It's incredible.
Absolutely. So, let's keep going.
[detector beeping]
We continue down the tunnel and there's a lot of continuing to go.
Didn't they have chiropractors in this town?
[pants] okay. Oh. Oh [bleep]
Guys. I just found another huge tunnel.
It goes as far as the eye can see.
-I am not kidding. -[ryan] this is starting to get crazy.
-[josh] I mean, look at this. -Oh, wow. [laughs]
-[josh] insane, right? -How's that possible?
Look at it. Look at that.
I don't even feel like I'm in new york anymore, josh.
No, no, we're in the pyramids now.
I mean, it's sloping uphill.
-What do you think? -You go that way and steve and I'll go this way
-And then, we'll meet you up top. -[chuckles]
You're less excited about going on the uphill tunnel?
Well, I know [bleep] travels downhill.
[all laughing]
At least someone's got to go up there.
What do you think? Split up? Rock, paper, scissors?
-[ryan] odd man out? -It's one, two, three, shoot.
One, two, three, shoot.
-Oh, that's a tough break, ryan. -I never win.
-Okay, good luck. -Yeah, alright.
-Alright, I'll let you know. -Be safe.
As for us, back in the darkness, steve.
-Here we go. -Yeah, let's go.
[grunts] oh [bleep] hold on. Look at this.
-Wow. -What the hell is this?
-Oh, man. Yep. -Dude, do you see this?
[steve] what... Is that a room?
It is a whole room.
Oh [bleep]
[josh] before diving into the tunnels beneath dutch's spirits,
I felt I had to conduct some critical, historical research
About the sugar wash moonshi they make here today.
Ooh, smells strong.
-Cheers. -Bottom's up.
Cheers. Here we go.
[wheezes] smooth.
-[laughing] mmm-hmm. -Well first of all, it's great.
-[wheezing] second of all, it's strong. -[steve laughs]
-Wow, that is excellent. -Thank you.
'cause this is the thing with moonshine.
Everyone tells you it's gonna be great.
"oh, we make moonshine." and a lot of times it's like gasoline.
-Mmm-hmm. -[josh] that's strong, but it actually is.
No, this is drinkable.
-It's really, really tasty. -[laughs]
I should probably have just one more or like 20 more of those.
-Be careful. I do. -You see it?
[josh] in the catskill mountains, a massive networ
Of tunnels dating back to prohibition
Might be the hiding place of a trunk said to contain
Dutch schultz's long lost millions.
[steve groans] oh, my god. What is that?
I don't know what it is, man. A raccoon, maybe?
Woah.
My concern is that this whole floor here looks
Like it's about to give way above us.
-[steve] it's given way. -[josh] totally.
I mean, it's just being held up by the debris now.
So I don't know what the hell this is.
-I think we should stick to this concrete wall... -Yeah, for sure.
And just try to hug the corner
And I wouldn't touch any of this.
-It looks like it's all gonna fall. -[steve] yep.
[josh] this is crazy.
Holy hell.
I think we're in a house.
This is outdoors and we lost the light. It's dark out.
-That's a tree. -God, this place just never ends.
It's crazy.
There's a trunk in here.
-There's a trunk? -Yeah.
-Look at that. -It's amazing, dude. Look at this.
There is literally a trunk in here.
You can't... I mean, I can't even step there
'cause I'll go right through that basement.
[steve] yeah, you can see... Look at the floor. You gotta be careful.
[josh grunts]
-Anything? -Just spider webs.
I think this house is as old as the distillery.
Obviously, it is. The tunnels come into it.
But it must have been remodeled over time
And somebody must have been living in it
Until eventually it was abandoned.
[steve] originally, I bet you this was part of that whole labyrinth.
There's a whole reason that this place was here for sure.
Right, let's get out of here before this whole thing collapses.
This is a house, dude. This is a house.
Look at this. It's like a huge overgrown house.
The fact that a tunnel is going to the basement.
This must have been a secret...
-Escape. -Escape or a secret place to move booze in and out.
Like, this was part of the operation.
Illegally moving stuff... It must have been.
-Had to be. Yeah. -Right?
But where... Like, where are we
In reference to the distillery?
-No idea. -Like, are we near it?
So there it is. So there's the distillery right there.
That is crazy.
-So we went all the way under this. -The whole way.
All the way to here.
-Under the road, all the way here? -Yep.
[ryan on radio] hey josh, do you copy?
Go for josh. What's up?
Yeah, I've got on the outside of the tunnel here.
It actually comes out of the side of the distillery.
You're not gonna believe this. We punched out into the basement of a house.
It was an old house on the edge of the property.
We came out in there and we literally just walked out the front door.
So we're gonna make our way back towards the distillery
-Break open the moonshine for us, will you please? -Sounds like a plan.
-Let's get a drink. Come on. -Okay, man.
-That's incredible. -[josh] amazing.
[beeping]
[josh] having spent the nigh exploring the tunnels beneath dutch's distillery,
We managed to haul several historic treasure into the light.
Evidence of moonshining, artifacts from the period,
And even cold, hard cash.
Though it's not enough to retire on.
But steve and ryan's search at the ruins of the phoenicia hotel,
Where we catalogued several other finds continue
Who knows what could be next
It is often said that crime doesn't pay.
Well, it did for dutch schul at least for a while.
His life of violence, bootlegging and corruption
Cut short by the gun of a rival.
[gunshot]
Dutch schultz's wealth was and remains alluring.
But the story of his life is clearly a cautionary tale
America though is a land of second chances.
Recreational alcohol got on
As prohibition was repealed to acclaim in 1933.
That joyous boozy moment marked one end of an era for organized crime,
Even as a century of fightin other illegal drugs would follow.
And now dutch schultz too has enjoyed a new life in books, films and legend.
Dutch's crime may pay yet again.
Only this time, the payout will belong
To some smart, dogged and lucky treasure hunter.