No sooner than I was reflecting on the creepiness of being there, Klaus screamed. Roxass life was not his own. I wanted to leave, but the caretaker said I mustnt; the healer had sent me, and I needed to complete his process. I returned to England and became engulfed by life and my time-consuming corporate job. He had a PhD in theology and had his work presented in multiple Christian publications, including a terrifying pamphlet that claimed that the Antichrist was coming. Remarkably, Roxas never revealed the location of his treasure site, for he knew that doing so would result in his death sentence. It was clear, however, that as brilliant as Jose was at Second World War history, he was pretty much winging it with the rest. See Photos. 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. The Imperial treasure sites were another matter: in addition to gold, they contained ancient artefacts from museums and burial hoards that the Japanese had looted across Asia. The smell of decomposed bodies was palpable and they halted work while the disconcerting gasses subsided. We are not at the bottom yet? Thats how the healer works; the sheet serves as an X-ray filter and highlights what needs to be healed. Santy, who tortured General Yamashita Tomoyukis driver, Major Kojima. Seagrave, S., Seagrave, P. Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold. She said that the second NDE had occurred relatively recently, when an elderly man had accelerated his car into her, while she was crossing an intersection, when he should have braked. Curiously, my GoPro showed only the opening and concluding moments of the procedure and nothing in between; a physical impossibility. This was but the precursor to the sobering conditions I would encounter when I explored Klauss first tunnel-system site. Olof testified that he too had been to President Marcoss summer palace and had examined the golden buddha, and confirmed that it was the one in Cheathams photo. Those who tired or died in the process were quickly replaced. I wondered. The day before they were due to depart, she walked downstairs from their hotel room and entered the bakery at street level. One was named Billy Murray. 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. What is that, I asked. No problem. Multiple men began to go missing or die in Deadmen Valley following the decapitation of the McLeod brothers. And yet, the man does not charge for his services. Little did they know the arduous effort that a successful excavation would require. As I prepped for my studio interview, I found myself captivated by Roxass quest. It detailed the work he had done in the Philippines as part of a team led by Nevada treasure hunter Robert H. Curtis. 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. Follow me.. Andrew Gough. And over here we have a marker stone, Klaus added in his patented Austrian deadpan. 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. Unfortunately, there had also been a cholera outbreak in New York City from the drinking water at that time. The treasure still has not been found. Andrew Gough, A leaf of the bogtalay tree Torturing surrendered military leaders was a war crime, but those of minor rank were considered fair game. I was lying on a table in my underwear with a sheet laid over my body. He wrote that he would leave all his money to someone who could prove the existence of the human soul. He complained at length that none of his journalism colleagues would help him and Peggy with their book. They chose to go on a day when it was 46 degrees Celsius (115 F), but they didnt bring their cell phones with them. What? I was later told he had decided he did not like me before we ever met. Henry proudly highlights the victorious Roxas v Marcos Supreme Court case 0000001826 00000 n I will always appreciate your sacrifice. You could smell it respectfully, both literally and figuratively. A rare photograph of Roxas in the Baguio tunnel system. 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. However, that's a far cry from the claim that the US filled this one with Japanese gold from the Philippines after World War II gold that we're pretty sure doesn't exist. Many treasure chambers were sealed with explosives, trapping the workers who constructed them inside. She reiterated that I was to be very involved in the whole Roxas affair. There are far more people attempting to find treasure than there are success stories. Roxas was more convinced than ever that a great treasure was buried near Baguio Hospital, and who could blame him? He shared that he and his wife had their emails and phone calls monitored and had received repeated death threats. Although General Yamashita was spared torture during his inquisition, he would become the victim of the ultimate indignity death by hanging. His shirt read Trust me, I do this all the time.. I was still processing the trip and trying to find a balanced view on it all. . Over time I reached out to Klaus in the hope that he would write an article for the magazine. Understandably, they had become discouraged and had run out of funds. I wondered. Amelia was a Filipino living in Los Angeles, who had gone to high school in Baguio with Roxass sister. Hunter died Monday at his Northern California home with his wife . Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Privacy Policy. Many versions of this story have long been floating around, but by far the best known and most influential is a series of books by Sterling & Peggy Seagrave. Andrew Gough. I tried not to get carried away with the possibility. 0000002983 00000 n 0000005867 00000 n Andrew Gough. The director films Klaus in the flooded tunnel complex over two hundred feet below the surface It was not a comfortable place to work. We embarked on the long drive back to Klauss village and our last night as a team. Andrew Gough. The bogtalay leaves were associated with an Imperial treasure, the symbolism being that while the leaves of the bogtalay tree are near its fruit, the fruit of the tunnel system are its nearby chambers and the treasure they contain. I know nothing, he said humbly. Scientists competed in their attempt to somehow prove that a soul left the body at the time of death. Since there were so many people, everyone was in close proximity to one another. In 1931, a fur trapper named Phil Powers decided to try his luck at striking it rich. Roger Roxas was a former Filipino soldier turned locksmith, and president of the Treasure Hunters Association of the Philippines, who lived in Baguio, a mountainous resort town about 130 miles north of Manila. Prior to his death, Fuchigamis father presented him with a coded map of the treasure complex. 0000005640 00000 n While the Seagraves wrote from a historical and geopolitical perspective, conventional treasure hunters had also been in on the game. While in Los Angeles I also met with Dan Cathcart, the lawyer who had famously represented Roxas in the Supreme Court and had heroically won the case over Ferdinand Marcos. As dozens of Filipino reporters crowded around, firing questions, the 47-year-old San Francisco author and academic casually adjusted his white Panama hat, shifted his bronze-hilted hunting knife and explained just how convinced he and his Nevada-based company are that they are digging in the right place for buried treasure that could help retire the Philippines $29-billion foreign debt. 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. The old woman was sensational and described how she and her family had hidden in the hills as the Japanese processed by with an ox pulling a cart that contained what appeared to be a heavy box. The hospital was on public grounds and was highly visible; covert excavation was simply not an option. See Photos. Marcos men were elated, and they never enquired about the other one hundred and thirty-five treasure maps. In reviewing their 2003 book, he wrote: The Seagraves are not fully reliable as historians. I loved this kind of thing. Dan Cathcart at his home, taking me through his Roxas v Marcos file Imelda Marcoss mother had been a big fan of the healer. If you like this programming, please become a member. Whatever they did plunder had likely been well spent building the Imperial Navy well before the end of the war. The leaves of the bogtalay tree were placed in the cement backfill of the treasure tunnels by Japanese Shinto priests 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. But Japan needed that money badly to pay for its war effort; it would not have converted it to gold bars and sent it away to be buried. Cathcart and his team had done their homework. Part of the series: "Red Dead Redemption" Tutorials. For weeks, the government deliberately tried to keep that digging a secret. Nope, we had to move on; places to be. See Photos. He left Colorado in search of the lost gold mine in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. The implausibilities pile higher and higher. He related how he had accompanied a friend who was ill to the Philippines so that he could visit a famous healer. They know the Philippines well, but are unreliable on Japan and do not read Japanese. 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. 0000003280 00000 n Intriguingly, the alleged body of Marcos was later reburied in the Cemetery of Heroes in Metropolitan Manila in a ceremony shrouded in secrecy. It was 2001 and I was living in Istanbul and working for IBM. Andrew Gough, Amelia after her second NDE No autopsy was performed, despite Cathcarts request, and the official cause of death was ruled as tuberculosis. They decided it would be fun to go on a road trip to look for the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. In his 1986 book Falsifying China's History about Sterling's earlier work, he wrote: The book is so biased, so unreliable, so riddled with errors, and so utterly lacking in historical perspective that much of it could be classified as fiction rather than as a work of history. The bad news was that nobody on the production team believed that the Japanese had buried treasure in the Philippines, let alone that Klaus was about to discover some of it. Back on the surface the cameraman filmed various objects that Klaus had found in the tunnel backfill: symbols such as seashells, leaves, gold dust and other assorted items that should not exist at that depth in the earth, and certainly not with man-made cement and gold dust embedded in them. Further disappointment ensued when Bruce was no longer able to travel to the Philippines to direct the episode. I had never been and was excited to take it all in. Legitimate historians in both Japan and the Philippines dismiss the entire story as fiction. Japanese armies did indeed seize valuables and plunder national treasuries of southeast Asian countries. I was intrigued and thought I had nothing to lose, and so I decided to email him one last time. Much to their horror, the driver then performed a three-point turn and accelerated at the Seagraves, forcing them to dive into the ditch where they collected themselves before running for cover in nearby woodland. See Photos. Okubo recounted to Roxas how General Yamashita had transferred large quantities of gold and silver from Manila and stored them in wooden boxes deep underground, accessible by a tunnel complex near Baguio Hospital. In 1975, Marcos turned to an American mining engineer named Robert Curtis. Santy, as he was known, tortured Yamashitas driver, Major Kojima Kashii, until he gave up his secrets; the Japanese had buried unthinkable quantities of gold and vast hoards of ancient treasure in subterranean vaults across the Philippines. 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. They drove down the road to an area called Topaz Point to search for minerals. Klaus explained how the Japanese engineering maps have long since disappeared, and to avoid chiselling into a hidden cyanide deposit, excavators like himself were required to bring in a dowser multiple times a week to check for danger. 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