Coming up on Expedition Files.
A knight discovers a sacred cloth
in the 14th century
that people believe could be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ.
Now, 600 years later,
recent scientific analysis may tell us
if it's truly a relic from a higher power.
In the 1800s, a photographer rises to fame and fortune
because of his ability
to capture pictures of ghosts.
Could new evidence suggest it might actually be true?
And we investigate a mysterious stone monument
erected in Elberton, Georgia,
to find out who the mastermind
behind this explosive structure could be.
In the corridors of time,
are mysteries that defy explanation.
Now I'm traveling through history itself.
On a search for the truth.
New evidence.
Shocking answers.
I'm Josh Gates
and these are my...
[Josh reading]
My adventures have taken me
to over 100 countries,
And along the way I've collected
an impressive assortment of cultural objects.
And I'm not talking about key chains or snow globes,
but my office trinkets have nothing
on the three extraordinary items
we're examining tonight.
Objects that have captivated
and confused humanity for centuries.
From a controversial imprint of a divine figure,
to photographs said to capture ghosts
and a circle of stones
that were mysteriously created
and then mysteriously destroyed.
Each relic faces the same question.
What is the true story of this extraordinary object?
And we begin in the year 1354.
Inside the awe inspiring nave
of the Lirey Church in France.
And I'm here because legendary crusader
Geoffroi de Charnay is returning from the Middle East
with what will become perhaps
the world's most famous
or infamous holy relic,
The Shroud of Turin
the cloth said to wrap Jesus body after he died,
capturing the imprint of his face.
In the centuries that follow
this discovery by Geoffroi,
controversy will swirl around the shroud.
Many will claim it's fake
created to promote Christianity.
Others aren't certain it's real.
Offering irrefutable evidence of Jesus and his resurrection.
So who's right?
Well, the latest advances in technology
may finally provide the answer.
[Josh] The first recorded encounter
with the shroud comes in the year...
[Josh reading]
It is believed French knight
Geoffroi de Charnay discovers the fabric.
When the Knights Templar journey
through Constantinople,
during the 14th century crusades.
The night finds a burial cloth
among the treasures of a Byzantine emperor.
When de Charnay looks closer,
he's overcome with emotion
because the faint image of the man
embedded in the fabric looks like Jesus Christ.
De Charnay wonders,
"Is this the burial shroud for the son of God?"
After Christ's death,
the Bible describes how he is prepared for burial.
His body is first cleansed,
then anointed with aloe and expensive perfumes.
He is then wrapped in a white linen
that's covered with resin to hold it close to the flesh.
Embalmed in the burial shroud.
Jesus is laid to rest in a tomb.
When de Charnay inspects the shroud for more clues,
he spots blood stains on the fabric,
like the wounds Jesus allegedly suffered
during his crucifixion.
Holes in his wrists,
a lance wound to his side.
And puncture wounds to his forehead.
To de Charnay this is more than mere coincidence.
The knight is convinced this is the burial shroud,
which enveloped the bloody,
crucified body of Jesus Christ.
Geoffroi spirits the fabric out of Constantinople,
to Lirey Church in France,
believing he has recovered the holiest relic
in all of Christianity.
Despite doubts about the fabric's authenticity,
thousands of Christians make the pilgrimage to view
what they believe is the image of Jesus.
But in 1532, a fire nearly destroys it.
The flames are so hot that it melts
part of the silver container where the shroud is kept.
The sacred relic is then moved to the safety
of the Catholic Church's Turin Cathedral.
Where it becomes known as the Turin Shroud.
For the next 400 years,
scholars around the world
are captivated by one question.
Is the shroud real or fake?
In the 1980s,
advances in radiocarbon dating technology,
give Vatican officials the opportunity to confirm
the shroud's authenticity once and for all.
Scientists get permission to remove a piece
of the shroud's fabric for carbon 14 testing.
Will the ancient mystery of the shroud finally be solved.
On October 13th, 1988,
at a press conference at the British Museum,
The world learns the truth.
Radiocarbon dating conducted on the fabric sample
indicates the shroud was created
between 1260-1390 AD.
That's over 1200 years after the death of Jesus.
For the faithful, the results call into question
the authenticity of the artifact.
Yet for others, the findings raise an intriguing question.
If it's not Jesus,
who is the mysterious figure depicted on the shroud?
Some have argued that the shroud, in fact,
captures a soldier from the late Crusades.
Who was crucified in the same manner
as Jesus centuries after he died.
This was said to have been done
to warn off Christian invaders.
If you come to the Holy Land,
you will suffer the same fate as your Lord Jesus.
And there were even more sensational theories.
Some scholars have proposed
that the shroud was made by
artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci,
asserting the face in the shroud
perfectly matches the one depicted
in Da Vinci's famous painting,
The Salvator Mundi.
But some experts who analyze the ancient artifact
still see compelling signs that the shroud is real.
They claim the evidence can be found
in the fabrics markings.
Close inspection of the shroud reveals
the image is embedded in the fibers.
Not painted on the surface.
Which would likely appear in a forgery.
Some have argued that the image
is impossible to replicate.
And was likely created by a powerful burst
of ultraviolet light, or electromagnetic radiation.
Beyond the capabilities of any technology
at the time of Christ.
Experts demand new tests
to confirm or dispute the 1988 radiocarbon dating.
Yet the Vatican refuses to provide
any more access to the shroud.
Could one of the most
powerful religious organizations on earth,
be hiding something.
In 2022, archeologist William Meacham
discovers five pieces of fabric cut from the shroud
during the 1988 testing.
And submits the strands
to the stable Isotopes laboratory.
At the University of Hong Kong.
Testing the composition of the strands
can uncover their geographic origin,
determining exactly where
in the world the shroud came from.
And when the results are revealed,
they are stunning.
Historian Joe Marino,
one of the foremost experts on the shroud,
has studied the isotopic results.
[Joe] This test was one of the most compelling
pieces of evidence I've seen,
especially for the 20th and 21st century.
The reason is because the Shroud of Turin
is made of flax fibers,
an isotope testing can indicate
where the flax had originally been grown.
And the results revealed
that it came from Israel, Lebanon
and are the western parts of Syria.
So when I saw the results,
I was just absolutely captivated.
[Josh] For believers, this is the best news possible.
The shroud comes from the same place
that Jesus lived and died.
And groundbreaking new findings might finally provide
the identity of the image on the shroud.
[Josh] For centuries, The Shroud of Turin has inspired millions,
while also inspiring a tantalizing question.
Is it real?
New scientific findings
may confirm that the shroud
came from the same place where Jesus was buried.
But even if the shroud was made in the Holy Land,
carbon 14 testing indicates
the fabric was created over a thousand years
after Christ's death.
However, Joe Marino,
believes there are major flaws
with the 1988 radiocarbon test results.
I felt that something had to be wrong
with that carbon 14 test 'cause it just did not match
the other data it accumulated.
And in all scientific experiments,
when a test is done,
labs are supposed to release what's called the raw data,
meaning all the data that they worked with
and what they used to come to their conclusions.
People asked the British Museum
for the raw data, but they wouldn't release it.
Even more intriguing, recent analysis of bacteria
found on the shroud may raise further questions
about the accuracy of the carbon-14 dating
[Joe] If the shroud is authentic
it's been in the open for approximately
2000 years and obviously would
accumulate a lot of debris on it
and environmental factors.
Mold, mildew, skin cells
so it's not really well suited for carbon 14.
And the dating of the linen could be
a thousand years off.
[Josh] And photographic analysis
of the shroud dating back to 1978
provides even more possible evidence of its authenticity.
[Joe] When the scientists put the picture
of the face and the image analyzer,
they saw over both eyes what appeared to be
buttons or possible coins.
And the coins were used in Jewish burial customs
of that period in which Jesus lived
and they would put coins on the eyes,
so they keep them from seeing
the afterlife until they got there.
[Josh] Further analysis of the shroud images
reveals the coins placed over the eyes
are pilate leptons.
Small bronze coins minted only between 29 and 32 AD,
linking the artifacts to the era
in which Jesus is believed to have lived and died.
Jesus was believed to be by most scholars,
to have been crucified in either 30 or 33.
So the fact that this coin is actually there
and it was in use at the time.
That's I mean, that's about as much evidence as you could get
that the shroud could be authentic.
You know, if I were a betting man,
I'd bet every dollar I ever had and ever will have that it's authentic.
After all this new evidence, many feel validated
that the shroud is the real deal.
Has science really come to the rescue of belief?
Well, not so fast.
Critics would argue that the radiocarbon dating
undertaken in the 80s
was comprehensive and accurate.
And even if the shroud is genuine,
it raises another question.
Is this what Jesus even looked like?
Historical and archeological evidence.
suggests that someone from that region
at that time may have looked very different
from the image we've come to associate with Christ.
After almost a thousand years of controversy,
perhaps the only thing we can truly be certain of
is that the debate between Holy Relic
or holy hoax, is sure to continue.
Welcome to the trial of the century.
The 19th century, that is.
It is 1969,
and that man on the stand is fighting for his life.
Or actually, maybe afterlife would be more appropriate.
He is William Mumler,
a photographer, and his pictures have captivated America
because he swears he's able to photograph ghosts.
Today, the state of New York is prosecuting him as a fraud.
But Mumler will vow to the very end
that his photos are real.
So could he really have been
the paparazzi of the paranormal?
Well, in the 150 years since,
many have struggled
to replicate his remarkable images.
Now, we can reveal new insights
that explain the true story
of William Mumler and his photographic phantoms.
Our story really begins. eight years earlier.
It's 1861,
and Mumler the owner of a Boston based
engraving studio,
has dipped his toe into family portraiture.
Taking pictures is not the take it for granted.
Pull out your smartphone
to capture every moment that it is today.
In 1861,
photography is still in its infancy.
The process of taking a single photograph
is labor intensive,
often requiring the subject to sit for several minutes.
While the plate or film is exposed to light.
And in this case, the subject is Mumler himself.
Mumler poses for a self-portrait.
And, as the story goes,
after developing the plate,
he notices something very strange.
Having been all alone in the studio,
Mumler is amazed to see there
sitting in a chair next to him,
a young girl.
The chair visible
through her almost transparent body.
According to Mumler, he's confused.
He thinks he must have made a mistake somehow.
He's just started photography after all.
This isn't even his studio.
It's his girlfriend's Hannah Stuart.
But Hannah isn't confused.
She's fascinated because Hannah deals in the dead.
She's involved in a new religious movement called spiritualism
that believes the living can interact with the dead.
So when Hannah sees Mumler's photo,
She immediately knows what she's looking at.
The girl in the chair is a spirit.
Mumler looks at it in shock.
Then realizes something remarkable.
The girl does look a lot like his long dead cousin
Through Hannah's contacts,
Mumler's photo gets reprinted
in the popular spiritualist publication Banner of Light.
And the community embraces Mumler's photo
as the first picture of a ghost ever captured.
Mumler vows that he can't explain what's happening
and that he's just as astonished as everyone else
by this haunting photo.
Keep in mind that in 1861,
the Civil War is in its bloody beginnings.
Thousands of men are dying,
which means many passionately believe
there are thousands of ghosts
that need contacting.
But can Mumler capture additional spirits in his photos?
And will these same ghosts
end up haunting him In the end.
[Josh] In 1861,
as the nation mourns its losses in the Civil War.
Photographer William Mumler
seems to capture the ghost
of a deceased girl with his camera.
He soon discovers that this is a recurring phenomenon,
and after sessions with other customers,
the resulting photos,
continue to reveal the spirit images,
of people's dead relations.
Word of Mumler's amazing ability
to connect with the dead spreads like wildfire.
Suddenly there are lines out the door
at Hannah Stuart's little photography shop.
Mumler is able to replicate his process again and again,
capturing so called spirits for customer after customer.
With business booming, Mumler charges
an outrageous $10 per photo,
or about $350 today.
Mumler is becoming rich.
And as the most famous spirit
photographer in the world,
it starts putting him in touch
with higher class customers.
As William Mumler's business grows,
so does spiritualism,
the movement that embraces him.
But spiritualism does have its detractors.
Particularly Christianity.
Many Christians are horrified
by who they view as godless spiritualists.
And are determined to prove
that men like Mumler are frauds.
One person that tries to debunk Mumler
is expert photographer James Wallace Black.
But when Black arrives at the studio to investigate,
Mumler is all too happy
to allow Black to observe his process.
He has nothing to hide.
As he takes Black's photograph,
he shows him the plate.
And includes him in every step of the process.
[Black] So you're using mercury
in your development process?
[Mumler] Helps develop the highlights.
And that's where I find the ghosts.
[Josh] Upon developing the photograph,
Mumler lets Black watch
as a translucent figure appears in all its ghostly glory.
Next to the bewildered expert.
Even the people trying to discredit him
be grudgingly begin to admit
that he may be the real deal.
All the while, Mumler swears
that he has nothing to hide.
He claims to simply remove the lens cap
and expose the photo.
Having no other insight into the miraculous results,
that appear on his photographic plate.
But then Mumler starts to take things further.
A visit to his studio is no longer just point and shoot.
It now also includes a seance to summon the spirits.
At an extra cost to his customers.
If a ghost shows up, it may announce its presence
by rapping on a table, wall or floor.
Sometimes the camera levitates.
Or a table tips over the customers completely buy into it.
But the spiritualists who supported him start to turn on him.
Smelling a possible huckster.
Who makes their whole movement seem fake.
Mumler doesn't care if he's lost
the support of the spiritualists.
Everyone's efforts to prove that he's a fraud has so far failed.
Plus, he's made a pile of money.
But there is one problem.
Mumler is running out of customers in Boston.
All the bad publicity is taking its toll.
So William and his now wife, Hannah Stuart Mumler,
leave Boston behind and set up shop in New York City.
And are immediately the toast of the town.
[Stuart] Thank you so much for coming, right this way.
[Josh] The hoi polloi flood to the new studio,
and Mumler churns out one ghost photograph after another.
[Stuart] Okay. This could take some time.
So you want to sit very still and sit up?
[Josh] But Mumler's prolific output attracts
the ire of New York's mayor, Abraham Oakey.
whose political opponents are mostly spiritualists.
Nothing would make Oakey happier
than to reveal the spiritualist community
as charlatans.
[Stuart] Sir, we're ready for you.
[Josh] It's not long before a sting is set up.
An NYPD Officer J.H. Tooker
drops by Mumler's studio undercover.
Mumler photographs Tooker and claims
that the ghost appearing next to him
is the policeman's father in law.
Not recognizing the apparition as his father in law,
Tooker arrests Mumler on the spot,
charging him with fraud.
Suddenly, Mumler's entire life is at stake.
He's now accused of being a fake
by the legal system and facing prison.
Which brings us to April 21st, 1869
when the trial begins.
The prosecution needs to prove that the ghosts in Mumler's photos
are entirely created by the photographer.
But when Tooker takes the stand,
he is forced to admit
that he never met his father in law.
And so there is a possibility that it's him.
The trial is a circus
and becomes more so when the renowned promoter of hoaxes,
P. T. Barnum, testifies against Mumler.
But Barnum's testimony falls apart
when he can't definitively confirm that Mumler's ghosts
are made using fraudulent techniques.
Others testify against Mumler also saying that he's a fraud,
but no one can prove how he did it.
So the jury finds him not guilty.
On May 5th, 1869
William Mumler walks free.
The city of New York has not been able to disprove
that he is a bona fide photographer of ghosts.
But it isn't a complete victory for Mumler,
as the trial has left him in financial ruin
and his reputation is destroyed.
He's forced to close up his shop and return to Boston.
By 1879, Mumler stops taking spirit photographs altogether.
Not long after his wife leaves him,
and he dies in 1884, destitute and alone.
So what's the truth behind Mumler's methods?
Did he perpetrate a massive fraud?
Or can the impossible really be true?
Were the ghosts real?
Now some picture perfect insights may explain it all.
[Josh] At the dawn of photography,
William Mumler becomes instantly famous
for photographing ghosts,
but no one was able to explain how he did it.
Now, 150 years later,
historian Brandon Hodge, who has studied
the spiritual movement extensively,
believes he can explain how Mumler
was able to pull this off with his clients,
both emotionally and practically.
[Brandon] Mumler was able to fool the nation
because he engaged in some subtle sleight of hand.
And this was in a day and age when communion with spirits
was thought to be not only possible
but practical through the spiritualist movement.
Mumler's photography comes at a crucial time
when spiritualists are seeking to claim
a sort of scientific legitimacy.
And Mumler's results are able to provide
what they think is tangible evidence of that.
At a time when the nation is already in deep
mourning with the American Civil War,
And so this was just seen as yet further proof
of the validity of the spiritualist claims.
But even if Mumler was fraudulently taking advantage
of people's desperation to believe,
It doesn't explain how he tricked the masses,
including leading photography experts.
James Wallace Black, himself a famous photographer in his own right.
He was unable at the end to explain
how the image had appeared on film.
While Mumler's exact methods were never conclusively proven.
During these long exposure times,
one of Mumler's methods
may have been pre exposure of the plate.
Where only brief exposure of a subject,
possibly dressed in a shroud or as a ghost
would be exposed to the plate.
That plate would then be set aside,
and when the next subject arrived,
it would be inserted
And once the subjects sat
for several minutes for their own exposure,
the end result would show them
fully formed as well as this ghostly image.
It's incredible to think Mumler's talents
may have been less spiritual, medium
and more street magician.
A street magician taking advantage of a grieving nation,
But is it fair to write off Mumler so completely.
For instance,
consider this photograph, which William Mumler took in 1872.
For someone who gave the name Mrs. Lindahl,
Mumler took her picture,
and it was only after developing it.
That he realized she had given a fake name.
Mrs. Lindahl was in fact, Mary Todd Lincoln.
And if Mumler really didn't know that,
how did this very familiar figure
appear behind the former first lady.
Chills anyone?
Whatever you may think about Mumler's methods,
his work really is haunting.
From photographs from the beyond.
Our next case file takes us
to a monument that is beyond belief.
It is June 1979,
and I'm standing on five acres of empty farmland.
outside of Elberton, Georgia.
A mystery man has just bought this land for $5000.
He goes by Robert C. Christian,
but that is not his real name.
And he's not a farmer or a rancher, as you might expect,
No, he has much bigger
and stranger plans for this land.
R.C. Christian wants to build
America's Stonehenge, right here.
A huge the granite monument, with ten principles
for the future of humanity carved into it.
The monument will be built
and mystery and controversy will surround it for decades.
And now for the very first time,
we can reveal the secrets
of perhaps America's strangest object,
the unsettling monument known as The Georgia Guidestones.
On a late afternoon in June 1979,
a well dressed middle aged man
walks into the Elberton granite finishing company.
With a strange request for the company President
Joe Findlay.
He wants to build a monument,
one that will rival Stonehenge
but with significant differences.
R.C. Christian shows Findley
a scale model of his monument.
He wants it to have messages etched into the stones
to guide humanity on everything from human population
to government, to the use of language.
The messages need to be written in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese,
Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi and Swahili.
The world's eight most popular languages,
plus four dead ones.
Babylonian cuneiform, Sanskrit,
classic Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphics.
And like Stonehenge, he also wants the monument
to be an astrological calendar,
tracking the winter and summer solstices
as well as marking the equinoxes
and phases of the moon.
Findley, whose company deals with wholesale orders
of granite for buildings and tombstones,
has never had a request like this,
and he never will again.
After listening to R.C. Christian's plans,
he's convinced the man is crazy.
So to get rid of him, Findley quotes a price
of several hundred thousand dollars.
Christian doesn't bat an eye.
He just pulls out his checkbook
and asks "Who do I make it out to?"
But a check won't do,
and Christian needs to set up
an escrow account at the local bank.
But in order to do this, the Granite City Bank president, Wyatt Martin,
needs R.C. Christian to give him his real name.
Christian agrees after he gets a promise from Wyatt
to never reveal his identity.
Wyatt says he'll take Christian's secret to the grave.
Christian is now ready to build his monument.
This structure will consist of six huge pyramid blue granite stones,
and will weigh 120 tons,
about the same as 20 African elephants.
[elephants trumpeting]
R.C. Christian has one last ominous request for the builders.
The monument needs to withstand a cataclysmic event,
like a nuclear explosion.
[objects shattering]
After months of construction, the guide stones are unveiled
to a crowd of hundreds of people and dozens of journalists.
But there is one person that's noticeably missing.
The creator, R.C. Christian, who seems to disappear for good.
But this only adds to the mystery of the Guidestones.
What kind of man spends hundreds
of thousands of dollars building a monument
and then doesn't attend its unveiling?
And while the huge stone structure is impressive,
it's the ten guidelines carved into the granite
that capture the public's attention.
[man] "Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
Guide reproduction wisely improving fitness and diversity.
Be not a cancer on the earth.
Leave room for nature.
Leave room for nature."
A strange stone monument covered with cryptic messages
written in 12 languages standing in the middle of nowhere.
I don't know about you, but I have a few questions.
Like what is the purpose of the Guidestones?
What exactly do their messages mean?
And why were they erected here of all places?
The one man with the answers is nowhere to be found.
So it's up to investigators, journalists and the public
to interpret the message and find the meaning,
and they argue over it for the next 40 years.
There are several different interpretations
for the principles carved in stone.
Some believe the Guidestones are a plan for rebuilding civilization
after a catastrophic event, like nuclear war.
Or perhaps the ten principles are a manifesto
to usher in a new age of reason.
But some believe that the stones showcase a more sinister purpose.
The total control of the world's population by a select few.
The first line of the Guidestones makes a shocking decree.
"Maintain humanity under 500,000,000
in perpetual balance with nature."
In 1980, the world's population
is already around $4.5 billion.
To achieve the goal of keeping humanity under 500,000,000,
almost 90% of the world's population needs to disappear.
In other words, a mass genocide or extinction event.
The very next line,
"Guide reproduction wisely,
improving fitness and diversity" is equally troubling.
This sounds like an idea known as eugenics.
A favorite of the Nazis
and considered highly unethical by modern society.
And there's the sinister lines,
"Unite humanity with a living new language,"
and "Let all nations rule internally,
resolving external disputes in a world court.
Avoid petty laws and useless officials."
These seem to be promoting some kind of unified one-world government.
And this, if you believe the conspiracy theorists,
is the very same goal as fabled sinister organizations
like the Illuminati.
For the conspiracy inclined,
the Guidestones aren't a plan for a better life on Earth.
Its ten messages are instructions
for instituting a terrifying New World Order.
One that includes eugenics, depopulation,
and a one-world government,
all in service of a mysterious elite.
It's a decree about the total domination of humanity as we know it.
And it's right there, chiseled in granite for all to see.
And the messages written on the Guidestones
seem to have a literary source.
In 1986, a book titled Common Sense Renewed
is sent to every member of Congress.
It expounds on the evils of overpopulation
and suggests that having more than one child
should be a punishable crime.
The author listed on the book...
You guessed it, Robert Christian.
With such a controversial creed,
it's not surprising that the monument
becomes a magnet for vandalism.
In 2008, someone spray paints
"Death to the New World Order" on the granite stones.
And in 2014, the FBI is even called in,
to look at incomprehensible markings
scrawled on the monument.
On July 6, 2022, just after 4:00 a.m.,
security cameras pick up a shadowy figure carrying a package
as they run towards the monument.
[explosion]
Seconds later, an explosion rocks the Guidestones,
The Shroud of Turin may have been the first item
to bear the image of a holy face,
but it certainly wasn't the last.
Whether it's the "Nun Bun,"
a cinnamon roll with an uncanny resemblance to Mother Teresa,
or "Cheesus," a snack-sized Cheeto
that looks like the son of God,
the Divine seems to have a penchant for unconventional canvases.
And while the legitimacy of these objects is certainly up for debate,
one thing is for sure, they can be quite lucrative.
In 2004, a 10-year-old frozen grilled cheese sandwich
that seemed to bear the image of the Virgin Mary,
sold for a whopping $28,000 on eBay.
-[gospel music playing] -Whether these images are divine intervention
or just wishful thinking, remains to be seen.
But the next time you're brunching at IHOP,
you might want to take a good look at those pancakes.
February, 2024...
The enigmatic monument known as the Georgia Guidestones
is destroyed by an explosion.
And then, hours after the explosion,
claiming the structure is unstable,
authorities knock down the Guidestones
and cart the remains away to an undisclosed location.
It is a quick and violent end
for the granite structure that stood for 42 years.
While the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,
the ATF, and local police all investigate the bombing,
no arrests are made, and they won't be made.
Today, there are still no suspects
in the Guidestones' destruction.
But while the destroyer of the stones may remain a mystery,
it seems its creator won't be much longer.
[explosion]
After the Georgia Guidestones is destroyed by an explosion,
investigative journalist, Van Smith,
publishes a story on the Internet.
As I spent a lot of time, uh,
researching the monument,
I began to realize that it was a much more serious
and, uh, troubling, um, monument
than I had originally expected.
[Gates] In his search to find answers about the Guidestone bomber,
he comes across an obscure documentary film
on the history of the Guidestones
called Dark Clouds Over Elberton.
In this documentary, they interview banker Wyatt Martin,
the one man that knows R.C. Christian's true identity
but refuses to reveal it.
But Van Smith realizes something shocking in the video.
The banker accidentally gives a visual clue
that will lead to the unmasking of the monuments builder.
During the filming, Wyatt shows the filmmakers
some corresponding business letters
between himself and R.C. Christian.
And on one of those letters, there's a return address.
According to Lake,
the filmmakers, armed with the address,
are able to track down R.C. Christian
and reveal his identity.
So we discover that the address
belongs to a medical doctor, Herbert H. Kersten.
The doctor died in 2005,
which, uh, corresponds to the last letter
that, uh, Wyatt Martin received.
He was also a compulsive writer of letters to the editor,
and his writing style
and, uh, subjects that he would write on,
were very similar to what we see in Common Sense Renewed.
[man] "America should now begin to direct
the attention of the world to solving the fundamental problem
which threatens to engulf all humanity.
The uncontrolled reproduction of our species.
Rational planning of human reproduction
is becoming increasingly essential.
Contrary to widespread opinion,
our nation is now overpopulated."
Those editorials hardly seem shocking
for someone who seemingly chiseled
"Maintain humanity under $500,000,000
in perpetual balance with nature" into granite.
But if Dr. Kersten's views were extreme,
just wait till you hear those of some of his so-called friends.
Herbert Kersten frequently bragged about his friendship
with physicist William Shockley,
who won the Nobel Prize in 1956
for being one of the co-inventors of the transistors.
But Shockley went on to infamy in the '70s
when he started endorsing eugenics plans.
For instance, one of the things he wanted to do,
uh, was to pay people who had IQ's under 100 to get sterilized.
If Kersten's friendship with Shockley wasn't bad enough,
we uncovered a letter that he wrote to a South Florida newspaper
where he was endorsing the, uh, former, uh,
KKK grand wizard, David Duke,
considered America's most well-known racist
and anti-Semite, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Dr. Kersten's friendship with Shockley,
and his support of David Duke
is troubling.
Especially when you consider what was written
on the face of the Georgia Guidestones
and in the book Common Sense Renewed.
These messages of the Georgia Guidestones
about maintaining global population of under 500,000,000
and guiding reproduction wisely...
That it's actually a much more sinister message
and deciding actually who will live and who will die.
Were the Georgia Guidestones some vast conspiracy?
Probably not.
They were likely just one man's pet project.
Some build model railways,
others build America's Stonehenge.
But if Dr. Herbert Kersten
was the creator of the Georgia Guidestones,
then the stones themselves are tainted
by some very disturbing ideas.
You could say they were much more dangerous than divine.
And let's not forget our remaining mystery.
While we now may know who created the Georgia Guidestones,
we aren't any closer to knowing who destroyed them.
[explosion]
But I guess they weren't made to withstand nuclear war after all.
I'm Josh Gates. Until next time...
Travel adventurously.