He quickly succeeded, for he was saying something about cyanide. He simply slit her open with his fingers. For years Fuchigami studied his fathers treasure map and secretly searched for the entrance to the site. It felt like a flamethrower had pierced my stomach and opened me up below my navel. I stared at the inexplicably responsive dowsing rods in silence. Net Worth: $1 Million Occupation: Treasure Hunter, TV Celebrity & Former Police Officer Birthday: January 6, 1941 Birthplace: Summerland Key, Florida Birth Sign: Capricorn Date of Death: February 19, 2018 Place of Death: Iraan, Texas Nationality: American Ethnicity: Caucasian Married: Twice Children: Darrell, Lauren, Kim, and Kelly Instagram: NA A search team began combing the nearby jungle, hoping to find the bodies of the missing men. The doomed engineers had installed booby traps at each of the one hundred and seventy-five treasure sites either explosives and/or cyanide. Never-before-seen photos of authentic Black Eagle Trust bank statements, representing but a small portion of the wealth acquired from Japanese gold. The first clue to the treasure reportedly came in 1971, when a locksmith in the mountain resort of Baguio found a Buddha statue filled with gold and jewels. He had not given up he had simply changed tactics and shifted his attention to individual members of Roxass excavation team, who were tortured. I, on the other hand, was experiencing a fair bit of disappointment. One year later, after an extensive search-and-rescue effort, all three bodies were finally recovered. Andrew Gough. I had been miles away. She was clearly in her 90s, and yet it was a long shot, but lo and behold we hit the jackpot. Look at this tree, he abruptly proclaimed, stopping us dead in our tracks. Apparently, it was my destiny to help. Phils skeleton was lying on the ground outside the cabin. Amelia was a Filipino living in Los Angeles, who had gone to high school in Baguio with Roxass sister. Andrew Gough. It was 2001 and I was living in Istanbul and working for IBM. In 1971, Dametz claimed that (The AntiChrist) will be a political, religious, commercial autocrat of the world.. Curtis then used another old miner's trick to attract funding to go back and continue the hunt: he claimed his team's expulsion was the result of being just inches away from a fabulous treasure room worth billions that Marcos wanted for himself. I thought he was a fascinating guy, and I was pleased to have made his acquaintance. Although born in the United States, Sterling Seagrave grew up deep inside China, on the border with Myanmar (then called Burma). Hes also a sign of Mexicos healthcare crisis, Some pharmacies in Mexico passing off fentanyl, meth as legitimate pharmaceuticals, TikTok faces bans in a number of countries over security fears. It dried and fell out, leaving a cavity, and the dirt collapsed inside, causing the tunnel to cave in.. As the uniformed men began kicking in the door, they warned Roxas, whose family and friends were acting as bodyguards while he slept upstairs, that they had three minutes to let them in or they would be killed. He shared that he was required by what essentially amounted to local treasure-hunting health and safety customs to hire a dowser several times a week. Klaus had nailed it. My interest in the story had been rejuvenated, albeit under the most peculiar of circumstances. Curtis, who is now in the Philippines but insists that McDougald act as his spokesman, says that he and 10 other Americans successfully conducted a similar treasure hunt under the regime of. 0000002177 00000 n
Explaining how the fatal cave-in happened, McDougald began to sound as if he was talking about the Temple of Doom, as well as looking the part. Ill explain, but were not at the bottom yet. McDougald said the fatal accident may slow the treasure hunt. General MacArthur returns to the Philippines, General MacArthur inspecting the looted gold. Aquinos executive secretary, Catalino Macaraig, said last month that the government has granted more than 80 permits to foreign and local treasure seekers in the two years since Aquino took power, and that applications continue to arrive at the presidents office at the rate of one a day. Dunning, B. He brushed off the incident as an attempt to stir up trouble by the opposition, the name given to citizens who are against Nicolas Maduro, the current president of Venezuela. He never replied. Once European settlers started showing up to hunt for gold, the Naha mysteriously disappeared. Roxas informed her that Marcoss air-conditioned burial crypt in the Philippines, at the Ferdinand E Marcos Presidential Center in Batac, Ilocos Norte (which was secured twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week by arm guards), contained a fake corpse full of precious stones and diamonds. Marcos was overthrown in February, 1986, and Mr. Curtis began making overtures to the new government soon after, McDougald said last week, adding that he got involved in Curtis new venture while researching a book he plans to write on hidden wealth in the Philippines. Most were situated on Japanese military bases, while others were located near landmarks that would be remembered in coming years, such as hospitals, schools, churches, mountains and waterfalls. She recounted that she ran for cover when she feared she had been spotted. Death was one idea that neither Burchfield nor the Dead shied away from. It did not work that way. Unfortunately, some people never come back. Reward: Otis Miller's Revolver & 5 x Erotic Photograph. I had delivered Discovered Science a sensational story, one that would feature Klauss network premier. Marcos had them tortured until they gave up the location of the treasure, whereupon he took it all, thus becoming fabulously wealthy. Andrew Gough. In 1908, two young men were searching for gold in Arizona. In addition, American, French, Belgian, British and Australian divers are spending millions of dollars combing the bottom of the Philippine Sea in search of old Spanish galleons and other commercial ships that sank with thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars in treasure as long ago as the 1500s. This is something I was told had happened to other treasure hunters as well. Tunnels filled with a foot of water As he detailed the story of how he first became embroiled with Roxas, his manner and cadence reminded me of Jimmy Stewart, or Tom Hanks. Juan Quijon: a Filipino army cook who later testified that in 1972 he had been assigned to a newly formed unit called Task Force Restoration, which was created by Marcos to recover treasure, mostly gold, from Japanese treasure sites. I watched the show and their drive-by shooting approach to treasure hunting with dread. Roxas had been caught out. It was time to see an excavation in progress. They investigated and validated first-hand testimony that corroborated the existence of the golden buddha and the gold bullion. I am sorry that you must die for me, I repeated, over and over. 0000017483 00000 n
We had adjoining rooms in the hotel and shared a laugh. The first-hand accounts corroborated those of Robert Curtis, who has so often been unjustly discredited in the story. Operation Golden Lily and the Black Eagle Trust Fund are absent from all the world's historical texts that I searched, save those written in support of this particular mythology. Roxas escaped from his hotel and testified in front of the Senate once more, before ultimately being arrested for not appearing at the court hearing for his alleged illegal arms possession. During one fateful visit Cheatham visited Roxas just days after his discovery. As we walked between sites with the camera crew, Klaus pointed out the many Japanese treasure symbols in the landscape. Honolulu: Supreme Court of Hawaii, 1988. Descending into another of Klauss amazing tunnel systems It had been April fools day, indeed. Web. In 2016 in Bolivar, Venezuela, 28 men who worked as gold miners left their homes to hunt for the precious metal and mysteriously disappeared. Their uncle, Charlie McLeod, was worried because they never wrote home. Andrew Gough. The caretaker had lost fingers and toes from chemicals released in the treasure site I go deep underground in an effort to try and find out Given the lack of any findings and the shaky nature of the most prominent support for there being any truth to the legend of Yamashita's Gold, we can summarize a few points about the Yamashita's Gold story: If that gold does exist anywhere, it exists in a superposition: it was plundered and spent long ago by the corrupt Marcos regime; it was plundered and spent long ago by the CIA; it was taken back to Japan and distributed among the organized crime community; and it somehow still exists in tunnels waiting for History Channel camera crews. In my mind I visualised a hole running straight through my body and out the other side. The Naha tribe were the indigenous people who lived in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The intense publicity, he said, attracts curiosity seekers, it attracts other treasure hunters, and quite frankly we dont have the time to spare.. Even a Japanese prince was said to have arrived and whisked the healer away in his private jet. Later that day I drove to Klauss village. This technique was true for most of the Japanese military treasure sites; that is, those that contained predominantly gold bullion. Bob Curtis. The massive and disproportionately large cemetery under construction in Klauss humble village Once the cameras stopped, Henry continued taking us through his files, highlighting important photos and newspaper clippings, including one very poignant photo of himself as a young man standing alongside his deceased father. Things became even worse. Burning Shinto-priest incense that was discovered in the backfilled tunnels deep underground But how? "Yamashita's Gold." His father was a well-known frontier doctor and surgeon in Burma, himself the son of third-generation missionaries in Burma. It has budgeted another $60,000 for the project and has an additional $300,000 to spend if needed. Despite the fact the Klaus always lights incense and states his intentions before descending, they have experienced the same sensation I have plus the even more disturbing impression that someone was tapping them on their shoulder. Singer-songwriter, poet, translator and occasionally recording artist, born Robert Burns. President Marcos consults with Las Vegas-based psychic, Olof Jonsson. Eventually, Roxas and his team identified the entrance and discovered various artefacts, such as Japanese bayonets, rifles, and even a human skeleton in a Japanese uniform. Since that day, the location has been known as Headless Creek in Deadmen Valley. Roxas was shown a search warrant with Pios signature that mentioned something about illegal possession of firearms. Crawling through the inhospitable tunnel system The plan was that I was to be the quester and Klaus was to be the person who convinces me the whole thing is real. Roxass bodyguards were forced to lie on the floor at gunpoint, along with the rest of the Roxas family, while Marcoss men confiscated not only the golden buddha and the precious stones that had filled its retractable head, but the remaining seventeen gold bars, samurai swords, old coins, and even his childrens piggy bank. I was also looking forward to seeing Patrick again, a larger-than-life friend of Klauss whom I had met on my first trip. He read just about every book on the subject while working the night shift as a bellhop for 10 years. So why have so many devoted so much to this tale? In order to protect himself from further abuse, he formed the Golden Buddha Corporation (GBC) with Felix Dacaney, a childhood friend who was living near Atlanta, and assigned his interest in the case to the GBC. Curtis fled back to the US in the late '70s, claiming he had destroyed his maps and escaped the Philippines ahead of Marcos's assassins. Andrew Gough, Seashells with cement in them, black stones with gold dust, incense, and a heart, complete with artery It was bucketing down. Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, 6 Mar. I had contributed to the first five series of Forbidden History and was excited to have the opportunity to return to the Philippines for the sixth. Andrew Gough. Roxas was determined to get it out of the chamber as fast as he could, but even with a group of strong young men they struggled to extract it, until finally applying a technique involving rolling logs and rope. 1 Mar 2023. They were always building this or that in the Philippines as an excuse to look for treasure, due to the fact that obtaining permits was difficult and brought unwanted attention. Marcos wanted more and, in addition to Santy, he sought Ben Valmores, whom his people understood to have been the keeper of the treasure maps. The cobra settles down in its mesh cage Night fell, and Billy never returned. Thank you for your nutrients and for their blessings. Such a thing is well proven to be one way that intelligence agencies move funds around. Years after his disappearance, he was assumed to be dead. The bogtalay tree is regarded as sacred in the East. He left Colorado in search of the lost gold mine in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. Andrew Gough. xb```Vvk>c`0p s*9yZJa`Xl Q|bg7633;,3i She reiterated that I was to be very involved in the whole Roxas affair. I had felt the same energy when I was dowsing with Klaus. I believe its here. What ensued was madness. In the process I sought to confirm that Japanese treasure hoards in the Philippines were not only real, they were about to be unveiled in all their glory. 0000003549 00000 n
The implausibilities pile higher and higher. While he kept an active presence on the speaker circuit, he flat-out refused to appear in the usual history/mystery TV shows, claiming that they were not serious enough. When I came across leaves in my tunnel complex I had only another ten feet or so left until I was in the chamber. I was fascinated, not only by the camaraderie between treasure hunters, and the fact that other Imperial treasures had been discovered, but also by the fact that Klaus was actually as close to the prize as he thought he was. Cathcart shared how his office had received a call saying that Imelda Marcos had ordered the killing death by poison and that the CIA had carried out her orders. Fearing that Curtis and his colleagues would expose the find, Curtis later said, Marcos and his top military aide, Gen. Fabian C. Ver, threatened to kill them. 0000001139 00000 n
Each would have been an ideal candidate to contribute to the legal and organised excavation of Klauss treasure sites. For the most part the program was the story of Roger Roxas, the Filipino locksmith who discovered a golden buddha and, allegedly, an enormous chamber full of gold bullion (both of which were later stolen by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos), only to have the US Supreme court demand that Roxas be awarded what amounted to the largest civil settlement in history: US$22 billion. I sat down with Cathcart and his wife in their affluent Beverly Hills home, and was joined by their live-in carer, who sat nearby, listening intently to our every word.
In addition to Klaus filming on my iPhone, I took the opportunity to set up my GoPro as well and affixed it to a tripod and placed it on a nearby table. While he was talking a hostile player started attacking me, which caused the npc to run away. I wondered. The director was also our health and safety manager for the shoot, and he opted to leave the cameraman behind and do the filming at the bottom of the tunnel complex himself. Andrew Gough. The facts behind the urban legend that billions in Japanese gold lie buried in the Philippines. They used the same water from the streams as everyone else and unwittingly infected many of the other men. McSherry left Dametz and found his own sandpit about 45 meters (150 ft) away. Families of the victims pleaded with the governor of the local area to do something. Could these mysterious deaths have been murder, or as some believe, could something supernatural have been afoot? Cathcart and his team had done their homework. In 1849 during the California Gold Rush, over 30,000 men flocked to trails where gold had been seen. In 1949, a 70-year-old man named James Kidd was a professional treasure hunter from Phoenix, Arizona. Curiously, my GoPro showed only the opening and concluding moments of the procedure and nothing in between; a physical impossibility. You must be about two hundred and ten to fifteen feet deep. What struck me instantly was how deep Klaus had dug since I first visited. A rare photograph of Roxas in the Baguio tunnel system. Billy and Bob were prepared to camp for several days near the Norris ranch while they looked for gold. When his body was finally discovered in 2012, it was 11 meters (35 ft) off the ground inside a crevasse on the edge of a cliff. [7] It was given to the Barrow Neurological Institute of Phoenix, Arizona. For years, 35-year-old Jesse Capen was obsessed with the legend of the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. Marcos became the mastermind of a covert gold retrieval operation and acted in partnership with both the Japanese and the United States Central Intelligence Agency. As if that was not sensational enough, he added that this site was the one that President Marcos had visited and declared he was going to excavate next, only he died before getting the chance. His luck was about to change. At midnight, General Yamashita and the princes slipped out, and dynamite charges were set off in the access tunnels, entombing the engineers. Before long they gained access to the tunnel system, including tracks, rails and side tunnels. Klaus demonstrating the art of dowsing Despite his altruistic intentions (ie not wanting to risk more of the team getting injured than was necessary), this approach would prove fatal, as he did not do a very good job, and Klaus would have to reshoot the tunnel footage himself, weeks later, and with far inferior equipment. He recounted how he was struck with a sense of justice and responsibility as he retrieved the flyer, uncrumpled it, wiped off the coffee stains, and dialled the phone number at the bottom. Robert Curtis had paid a very high price for becoming involved in gold recoveries with Ferdinand Marcos, but he was stubborn, and he still had the only copies of the full set of Japanese treasure maps to have surfaced since the war. Before hiking the final mile to the site, I was introduced to the caretaker of the land. Andrew Gough, Henry highlighting the fake golden buddha affair A look of relief radiates from his face In all, Prince Chichibu is said to have managed the construction of one hundred and seventy-five treasure sites, all across the Philippines. After Oihara departed, Roxas and his brother Danilo began prising the head of the golden buddha with a wooden plank and hammer to determine if it was detachable. 0000001059 00000 n
My business proposal for additional funding to expedite Klauss work had been met with a polite not interested from Richard Bransons people, while Elon Musks people had been less gracious they blocked my IP address. Still, I seized the opportunity and worked with the production team to shape the initial storyline and ensure that it did not become a hatchet job. 0000005867 00000 n
He met his wife Peggy in the United States after both had become prominent figures in JFK assassination conspiracy theories. I went for a walk around campus and when I returned the production manager politely asked me to join them, as they were about to begin, and so I did. I laid back down and thought to myself, What the hell had I just got myself into. Website designed by Artifice Design. They were apparitions; ghost soldiers. They have a tendency to overreach, exaggerating the roles of Japanese gangsters and ex-military American bit-players when the bankers, politicians and CIA operatives are scary enough. In addition, he is a co-founder of Gemini Marine Exploration, the company that specializes in recovery of historical shipwrecks. A month later American intelligence officers would learn of the existence of the vast treasure hoards but not before a gruesome fate awaited the men who had overseen the treasures safe deposit deep in the earth. The sudden, tragic death of Roxas overshadowed the trial, but did not negatively impact the outcome. My spare time was spent editing the Heretic Magazine with my friends Mark Foster and Beth Johnson. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Klaus shared that he felt many were not reputable insomuch as they often claimed to not be feeling it today and concluded I need to come back tomorrow, effectively doubling their income. Henrys pride and respect for his father touched us all. The award was later substantially reduced and nothing was ever collected. Oihara promised to purchase the golden buddha and to return in a few days with a down payment of one million pesos. During World War II, the Philippines briefly fell to the Japanese, being finally surrendered in April and May of 1942. COVID origins? How exciting is that?, Klaus posing with a Japanese treasure symbol, a heart, which he found in a backfilled treasure tunnel Heres a list, Greek transportation minister resigns over train collision that killed at least 36, Ohios senators to unveil rail safety bill in wake of East Palestine derailment, After months of pounding, Ukrainian official says military may pull back from Bakhmut, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Shocking, impossible gas bills push restaurants to the brink of closures, Elizabeth Holmes cites her new baby as a reason she should avoid prison for Theranos scam, What time is it on the moon? The covert Black Eagle Trust accounts were inspired by the Nazi black eagle stamped on the gold bars acquired by the Third Reich. McDougald was reluctant to discuss details of the groups actual mining methods, but he stayed in character when describing what he expects to find at the end of the tunnel. He heard of what the locals called Second World War ghost ships; large Japanese freighters that arrived in the evening and, after unloading countless boxes into a tunnel system, had disappeared by daybreak. I was not aware that Peggy had passed away the previous year, and that Sterling had only just passed in May 2017, aged 80. Oh, and I meant to ask, how deep had your dad dug when he discovered the golden buddha near Baguio hospital, Patrick asked matter-of-factly. I was fitted with wellies, an old helmet and a rusty harness that consisted of a single metal hook that latched onto a solitary harness strap on my back. Podcast transcript | Subscribe. She logged onto Facebook and discovered a post featuring a link to The Truth About Yamashitas Gold documentary. It does not need to be any wider, Klaus added authoritatively. Andrew Gough. When he finally went to look for them, he came upon the skeletons of Willie and Frank lying next to a creek where they had set up camp. In 1942 Prince Chichibu is said to have examined potential treasure-vault sites around greater Manila, and further afield. It was apparent to Roxas that Judge Pio Marcos was the informer, not the mastermind behind the siege, for his nephew, President Marcos, had long sought confirmation of the existence of Japanese treasure hoards in the Philippines. Andrew Gough. An estate lawyer looked over his Last Will and Testament. 32 25
Theyre sand traps. I recalled thinking at the time. Still, I was excited to see Klaus again and to inspect some other treasure sites that I had been tracking for some time. It was hardly secure. Their 2000 book The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family included their story of how Japan went about accumulating this staggering wealth from all the Asian nations they looted, via a secret initiative called Operation Golden Lily. The suspicious and rather convenient dig on the site of Roger Roxass treasure site Klaus had briefed me as to what the sites would be like. McDougald, who has lived here for more than a decade and secured his doctorate in business from the University of the Philippines in 1983, is not the moving force behind the dig. Estimates of the total buried treasure start at $100 billion and soar to a high of $2 trillion in gold bullion, a figure cited by a respected Manila columnist, Hilarion Henares.
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