Their car was parked at the beginning of the popular trail. It simply stood tall and proud and stared at me, gently nodding its head as though it had understood and had accepted its fate. 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. LOS ANGELES Robert Hunter, the man behind the poetic and mystical words for many of the Grateful Dead's finest songs, has died at age 78. Andrew Gough. 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. It came in 1988, right after Curtis and McDougald's headlines renewed the public's interest in the treasure. But the picture changed with the deaths last month of the two Filipino workers, suffocated in a cave-in that McDougalds engineers now attribute to a booby trap left behind by the Japanese. Dont get me wrong. As a result, experienced treasure hunters do not use explosives or, for that matter, motorised devices. Needless to say, Klaus was buoyant with the news. In the middle of the night, at approximately 2.30am, there was a knock at the door; Marcoss thugs had arrived eight in total all armed with machine guns. In his estimation, the only thing that could have caused the electrocution was large quantities of gold, acting as an electrical conduit. I had to see the Baguio Hospital treasure site for myself. While this preceded the Japanese gold heists, each was confiscated as war booty and never returned to its owners. See Photos. Andrew Gough. The initial award was $43 billion the largest civil judgement in history. But the real treasure was buried much deeper still. Without receiving the whole story on the events of the day, many have classified this case as an unsolved mystery. Roxas never saw a penny. That book was followed in 2003 with Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold which told how the Americans got ahold of some or all of it, and added to a similar gold treasure taken from the Nazis, formed a secret fund called The Black Eagle Trust Fund and have been using it ever since as a black fund to fight Communism. I was disappointed when I reached the bottom and learned that I had to crawl on my hands and knees for about fifty feet until I reached the next descending shaft. Reluctantly, I selected a cobra, which was promptly placed in a barrel-shaped mesh cage. Valmores knew where the gold in the region was buried, and although he never violated Prince Takedas trust for his own benefit, he emphatically supported Roxass mission and wanted to help. I was excited to hear what Jose had to say about Japanese treasure in the Philippines, but was informed by the director that my presence was not welcome in the interview room. Not much time was left to pursue the constant enquiries from the Philippines for funding and assistance in various treasure-site excavations around the archipelago. Perhaps he believed that other men had died from lack of survival training and that his skills at living outdoors would be enough to find the gold mines and make him a rich man. It was a daily effort of divide and conquer; some manned the other sites, pumping the monsoon floods out of the tunnels, while most supported excavation efforts at the site that Klaus and his team were most focused on that week. What ensued was madness. Roxas was shown a search warrant with Pios signature that mentioned something about illegal possession of firearms. Could these mysterious deaths have been murder, or as some believe, could something supernatural have been afoot? It has budgeted another $60,000 for the project and has an additional $300,000 to spend if needed. We said goodbye to Klaus and Patrick and drove to Manila for the final shoot of the day, my studio interviews. Andrew Gough, Exhausted, after returning to the surface He never came back. She gave the pills to her husband, who took them and swiftly died. One mans wallet was apparently thrown near his remains. These were not symbols found in military treasure sites. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Yamashita is removed from the courtroom by military police immediately after hearing the verdict of death by hanging. See Photos. Charles McDougald looked every bit a real-life Indiana Jones one recent afternoon as he sat cross-legged outside the World War II-era Japanese torture chamber where he and half a dozen other American treasure hunters are convinced lie buried more than 400 tons of gold worth at least $7 billion. Fuchigami recounted a time when his father had taken him to a treasure tunnel behind Baguio Hospital, and explained how the tunnel tracks and handrails had been used for transporting large quantities of gold. The more cameras the better, he chuckled. Andrew Gough. An estate lawyer looked over his Last Will and Testament. Author Forrest Fenn is a former art dealer who hid millions of dollars in treasure in the wilderness of New Mexico when he was 80 years old. It could have happened to General MacArthur, you know. To come this close and not visit it would be such a shame, I thought. Kidd originally left $500,000 behind. She watched it and became convinced that I was the one that the spirit of Roxas had alluded to. It was January 2016, and my interest in the story had waned once more. Still, I had but one thought on my mind. The hospital was on public grounds and was highly visible; covert excavation was simply not an option. The disease spread quickly. I know nothing, he said humbly. I suppose alls well that ends well. I was further astounded by the conversation that continued off camera. Cathcart replied without hesitation, as though it were yesterday, and proceeded to list several witnesses who had, in fact, collaborated Roxass story: Ken Cheatham: an American GI who was stationed at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines in the 1970s. In reviewing their 2003 book, he wrote: The Seagraves are not fully reliable as historians. I had felt the same energy when I was dowsing with Klaus. Curtis to meet privately with a . Can it? The charges are completely new to me. Was that true, or simply a misdirection to conceal the fact that her husband may have embezzled billions from the Philippine people? She recounted that she ran for cover when she feared she had been spotted. Im betting its here.. Many treasure chambers were sealed with explosives, trapping the workers who constructed them inside. I was intrigued, if not humoured by his attitude, and his attire. Maybe Amelia was right after all, I mused. Andrew Gough. Torn Treasure Map 1: On the far left side of the map, at the start of the Little Creek River, inside a drawer of a wooden hut. The implausibilities pile higher and higher. We had adjoining rooms in the hotel and shared a laugh. Inspecting the Baguio Hospital artefacts in the Roger Roxas Museum Marcos was ruthless. Klauss partner had a video of a woman she had accompanied to the healer who had removed her friends stomach, cleaned it and then put it back; no surgical equipment required. She was greeted by a well-dressed, professional looking man who gave her some medicine for Roger, as he had noticed how poorly he was looking and was concerned for his health. Years after his disappearance, he was assumed to be dead. 0000000796 00000 n One was named Billy Murray. Even a Japanese prince was said to have arrived and whisked the healer away in his private jet. When his sister learned of his tantrum she became enraged, for she understood that the map was designed to be read with the reflection of a mirror, a detail she would have shared with her brother had she known he was actively seeking the treasure. Tunnels filled with a foot of water The smell of decomposed bodies was palpable and they halted work while the disconcerting gasses subsided. A STEM-focused 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit. Andrew Gough, I informed the site manager that he was digging on the spot where Roger Roxas had made the most famous discovery in the history of Yamashitas gold, to which he curtly replied, Yes, I know. When we opened the tunnel, air hit the sand. I loved this kind of thing. Andrew Gough. Anyway, it keeps me fit, he added with bravado. After some time she purchased a new home for her parents and one for herself. She logged onto Facebook and discovered a post featuring a link to The Truth About Yamashitas Gold documentary. He failed This is how wide you can dig. No-one was interested. He found the whole thing rather ridiculous and naive, and hastily threw the flyer in the rubbish bin beneath his desk. He remembered being perturbed, and as he swivelled his chair to take a seat at his desk, he noticed the GBC flyer was still in the rubbish bin. Robert Curtis meets Ferdinand Marcos in 1975. Oihara promised to purchase the golden buddha and to return in a few days with a down payment of one million pesos. 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. Sign Up. Roxas claimed that some 25 years earlier, using a map given to him by the son of a Japanese soldier, he and a team of friends discovered a cave filled with gold, including a golden Buddha, plus the skeletons of the soldiers and engineers who had been sealed inside. When McDougald replied that he does, Maceda asked wryly, Well, the publicity about all this is not going to hurt your book, is it?, McDougald leaned forward, smiled and replied, No sir, I dont think so.. I had met Klaus in 2010, when we had both presented at an alternative-history conference called Megalithomania, in Glastonbury, England. I made a note to myself; next time I visit I must avoid the monsoon season. And yet, the man does not charge for his services. They drove down the road to an area called Topaz Point to search for minerals. The director was beaming with approval. Klaus had nailed it. This was going to happen. Not surprisingly, some of Klauss workers will no longer venture to the bottom of the tunnel complex. The next morning he arrived in his office to discover that the cleaning crew had not visited the night before. Neither of us now trusted the other. See Photos. Fair enough. The schoolteacher who taught here was a very cunning woman. McDougald denied that the fort has been desecrated, except for a 4-by-2-foot hole in a wall, and contends his operation is legal. 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. Dametz was in poor health, so he needed help from McSherry to get to his digging spot, a small sandy pit in the middle of the forest. Theyre sand traps. Their attack on the East was brutal, and largely airbrushed from history. The director reluctantly agreed to film her, but she became tense and anxious in the spotlight of the film crew. They had been in hiding in Manila, where they were awaiting word from Cathcart. During the war, the Japanese Imperial Army tortured hundreds of Filipino prisoners in the Spanish colonial-era fort. Torn Treasure Map 2: Top right side of the map, inside a drawer of the house called "Manito Glade". For reasons I will never understand, I responded to his email and mentioned something about the Philippines. Hours later I arrived and was greeted by the caretaker. I was intrigued, and worried for him, and a little for myself. 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. It was bucketing down. They received permission and resumed digging, attributing their failure to rediscover the fabulous treasure room to booby traps. Out of fear that the maps would be stolen, or thrown out by the cleaning crew, Curtis photographed each one and burned the originals. At a hearing Friday by the Philippine Senate into the treasure hunt, McDougald said that his group is using a sophisticated detection device that pinpoints the depth and density of buried metals. I was still processing the trip and trying to find a balanced view on it all. They decided it would be fun to go on a road trip to look for the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. 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