His conviction was supported by four first-hand accounts and multiple treasure maps given to him by eyewitnesses. It was almost a year to the date of my first visit and now, like then, I had managed to arrive in the middle of the monsoon season. Unfortunately they lost that war and lost the Philippines, and thus never recovered the gold. They decided it would be fun to go on a road trip to look for the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. He left Colorado in search of the lost gold mine in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. Patrick is a great guy, an avid treasure hunter, and was to interview Henry Roxas for the show. Over the course of the next twelve months Marcoss men extracted a vast amount of gold out from the Baguio Hospital site. Klaus had nailed it. I was to tone down my enthusiasm, and bias, for the benefit of the narrative. I was not able to track down any good information explaining why the judge upheld the Golden Buddha Corporation's claim against Marcos, but it certainly wouldn't be the first time a court of law made a ruling that was not in harmony with true science or the true history of a case. Phils skeleton was lying on the ground outside the cabin. The doomed engineers had installed booby traps at each of the one hundred and seventy-five treasure sites either explosives and/or cyanide. In an interview, he claimed that he wanted to start this treasure hunt to encourage people to get outside and explore nature. The buddha was decidedly Burmese in style: 22 carat gold and of a type produced in Asia prior to 1940. Andrew Gough. 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. What did Roger say? Each time Curtis was requested by Marcos to select a new site to excavate, Valmores was dispatched to provide the treasure map. Klaus jumped out of his sidecar. There was no follow-up after Bilyeu was pronounced dead. I was horrified to learn that I had to select which cobra would be sacrificed. I had seen the photos, but they did not prepare me for the sheer enormity of the quest he was undertaking. Remarkably, Roxas never revealed the location of his treasure site, for he knew that doing so would result in his death sentence. This was a game changer. 0000010608 00000 n I unambiguously felt them probing around beneath the surface of my skin. When the cave-in become public Feb. 29, McDougald and his group were forced to go public as well. Those rumors clearly didnt stop some people from continuing the search for gold. Andrew Gough. To come this close and not visit it would be such a shame, I thought. Roxas with the detached head of the golden buddha (from the Roger Roxas Museum in Baguio) He was never seen again. After a raucous reception dinner we agreed a plan for the next several days. Families of the victims pleaded with the governor of the local area to do something. Part of the series: "Red Dead Redemption" Tutorials. For three years, people searched for Jesse and could not find any trace of his remains. Over time I reached out to Klaus in the hope that he would write an article for the magazine. Despite numerous eyewitnesses and various first-hand accounts, most historians doubted the existence of the Black Eagle Trust, let alone the buried treasure hoards, and so I travelled to the Philippines to investigate the story for myself. 2019. His treasure tunnels would be sure to dazzle viewers. Torn Treasure Map 2: Top right side of the map, inside a drawer of the house called "Manito Glade". There are five Americans from the company working at the Ft. Santiago site, McDougald said, along with about 30 Filipino laborers who are digging the 3-foot-by-7-foot tunnel through the forts long-buried catacombs. Amelia with me at Soho House, Los Angeles See Photos. Before he died, Sterling Seagraves participated in Internet forums where he told increasingly unbelievable stories about many people he knew being murdered by the CIA with all sorts of exotic spy weapons "snuffed" was the term he always used. The guerrillas attacked the Japanese with grenades, sealing many workers inside. I was enthralled with Cathcart (then retired and in his eighties and suffering from Parkinsons disease), and surprised by what a stoic figure he was, despite his frailties. The director reluctantly agreed to film her, but she became tense and anxious in the spotlight of the film crew. Klaus demonstrating the art of dowsing He was never seen again. From what? He found the whole thing rather ridiculous and naive, and hastily threw the flyer in the rubbish bin beneath his desk. What ensued was madness. Roxas never saw a penny. For weeks, nearly a dozen members of Aquinos elite presidential security guard cordoned off the entire fort to keep the treasure hunt a secret and to ensure that the government receives its rightful 75% cut of anything McDougalds group finds. Are the Philippines the wealthiest nation on earth? The schoolteacher who taught here was a very cunning woman. This way, he could use them as ransom against Marcos, who owed him money for the gold they had already retrieved and sold. It was not a comfortable place to work. 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. 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. He said they were building an extension to the hospital. Robert Hunter, the man behind the poetic and mystical words for many of the Grateful Dead's finest songs, has died at age 78. We learned that he had found marker artefacts at a shallow depth in the ground at various sites nearby. More of that, he encouraged. Imagine countless fabulous tunnels bored through the green mountains of the Philippines, all filled with mind-boggling stacks of gold bullion and other riches, all waiting there even today for some lucky adventurer to discover them. As the 25 May 1993 golden buddha Supreme Court trial approached, Roxas had been instructed to keep a low profile. Keep going. I wondered if he was employed by the same people that had assassinated Roxas? Andrew Gough, Patrick interviews Roger Roxass son, Henry 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. The rest, as they say, is history, he concluded, slowly, his speech somewhat impeded by the advanced state of his illness. His bizarre and frightening experience lasted mere seconds. They were buried alive. However, it was not until she had purchased a third new car that the authorities became suspicious, and she swiftly fled, never to be heard of again. His team went and searched and dug but never found anything. 1988. The liberal opposition party rallied around Roxas, as they saw an opportunity to gain ground on Marcos, and encouraged him to testify in the Philippine Senate. %PDF-1.4 % The year was 1976. 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. Speak to it and explain what is going to happen, and why, he instructed. But at least I had aimed high. Roxas reported the incident to the police, who predictably ignored his pleas. Looking slightly perilous at the bottom of the tunnel system with Klaus Before hiking the final mile to the site, I was introduced to the caretaker of the land. Sen. Ernesto Maceda, one of the more skeptical critics of the hunt, asked McDougald whether he still plans to finish his book on hidden wealth. Their relationship was complex to say the least. 0000000796 00000 n By JOHN ROGERS September 24, 2019. Klaus Dona. Thank you for your sacrifice, I mumbled awkwardly. 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. I was not surprised by their rejections. 0000003204 00000 n Andrew Gough. Out of that inquisition Cathcart identified a number of people, still living, who might validate Roxass story, and his team pursued them with vivacity. Show that to your doctor back home, the healer would tell them. Maybe in two or three weeks well have some news., According to reliable intelligence sources in the government, the Ft. Santiago dig holds out the greatest promise for hitting pay dirt, and in an official press release March 1, Soriano announced that he expects the group to uncover enough bullion to help pay off the countrys foreign debt in approximately 10 to 15 days.. Roxas was more convinced than ever that a great treasure was buried near Baguio Hospital, and who could blame him? 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. This is the basic theme of the urban legend known today as Yamashita's Gold. It was January 2016, and my interest in the story had waned once more. Klaus dismissed his dowser, who he felt was taking advantage, and began performing the task himself. A few moments later I closed my eyes and chugged a glassful of its blood. He was there as the Imperial Japanese army ransacked much of China and southeast Asia, and he was there for the duration of World War II; and he grew up knowing little about the Japanese besides that they were the world's aggressors, and the brutal assailants of a peaceful people. Despite the depth, there were still twelve inches of water that needed negotiating. Slowly putting his ruined life back together, he moved from Reno to Las Vegas . In a now infamous moment of stubborn, albeit courageous, resolve Roxas returned to Baguio, and in the presence of lawyers and the media, defiantly proclaimed the golden buddha to be a fake. Those who did not kill themselves ritually would gradually suffocate, surrounded by gold bars. I had never been and was excited to take it all in. Twice a day I climb into each of the sites that we are excavating to check for cyanide, he added in his authoritative Austrian accent. In the ensuing days Klaus reshot the tunnel footage himself (on his phone) and I re-did my studio interview at the more civilised time of 10am, and with my good friend Burgess directing. Claiming a treasure hunter bounty . Inexplicably, he was being electrocuted. So McDougald has dropped his previous secrecy and found the spare time to schedule daily press conferences on the lawn outside the torture chamber--at least until he hits pay dirt. I arrived late, dined with Klaus, and the following morning he and his trusted colleague picked me up in the quintessential Philippine vehicle of choice, a motorised tricycle. He complained at length that none of his journalism colleagues would help him and Peggy with their book. The elderly woman recalled the Japanese hauling a box towards one of Klauss treasure sites Unfortunately, some people never come back. Suffice to say I was impressed. 0000005867 00000 n Silliest of all is an old story promoted by a History Channel TV series called The Lost Gold of World War II, which asserts that the Japanese carved symbols on rock faces leading to the locations of all the treasure tunnels, in plain view for the general public to see. After working on my prostate, the healer opened up my liver, heart and spine in the same manner with only his hands. The six-hundred-pound gorilla at the site was a guy whose mother had been alive when the Japanese had arrived and asked if they could create a tunnel complex in their back garden for the purpose of depositing large quantities of boxes. It did not work that way. The story has inspired many books to be written, and many artists have created works based by the event. However, the legal fees and the cost of the trials ate up so much cash that only $175,000 remained. In addition, he is a co-founder of Gemini Marine Exploration, the company that specializes in recovery of historical shipwrecks. Thank you for giving me your life. Amelia was a survivor, but had paid the price for her misfortune; she had lost a leg and a hand in the process. There was more, but as I have signed a non-disclosure agreement, I will refrain from commenting further. Finally, in the spring of 1970 Roxas and his team identified the tunnel area entrance and began an arduous seven-month excavation. Bob Curtis. Privacy Policy. The only problem was he was already dead. All content 2006 - 2023 Andrew Gough. Whilst on trial, General Yamashita defended the charges of war crimes that were levelled against him: My command was as big as MacArthurs or Lord Louis Mountbattens. For a short time Roxas went into hiding near Manila and was provided with bodyguards and a place to live. 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. Their car was parked at the beginning of the popular trail. 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. General MacArthur returns to the Philippines, General MacArthur inspecting the looted gold. The relationship would end badly. The rods always seemed dead. The Asian Pacific Post. 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. You climb down and back up each of these sites twice a day? I asked in disbelief. Wow, I mumbled under my breath. It seems Henry returned to the site as an adult, many years later, in the late 1980s, and dynamited the entrance shut once more, in order to protect what he believes to be even more gold bullion buried beneath Marcoss excavation. My interest in the story had been rejuvenated, albeit under the most peculiar of circumstances. I made a note to myself; next time I visit I must avoid the monsoon season. In fact, they told me it was a dreadful idea. After all, that was why we were there. Allan Quatermain, a hunter and adventurer, the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard 's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines. 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. Klaus was already at the bottom as I made my way down slowly, cautiously, and deliberately. When the Japanese were covering up the (treasure) chamber, they put in layers of clay, then sand, then clay, then sand. The Japanese, in particular, were notorious for this. It would later be appealed and reduced to $22 billion, because the court could not be certain of the contents of each and every wooden crate that was removed from the tunnel system behind Baguio Hospital. %%EOF His mother had told him that she and his father felt honoured to have had their property chosen, and when the Japanese finished they joined in a ceremony that celebrated the completion of the project, and the sacredness of what was buried below. Could he have harnessed the legendary viral energy that I had read so much about? Few would persevere and dig that deep, especially after finding so many valuables at the intermediate level. Andrew Gough. The director simply said, whenever you are ready, and he proceeded to speak uninterrupted for over an hour. The Naha tribe were the indigenous people who lived in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Poster of the fake golden buddha (from the Roxas Museum in Baguio) Roxas at the Golden Buddha hearing (from a clipping at the Roger Roxas museum in Baguio) Andrew Gough. According to Curtis, he had helped the dictator dig up $14 billion in gold bars, with over $85 billion remaining to be found. Seagrave describes the event like the master storyteller that he was: As the evening progressed, they drank great quantities of sake, sang patriotic songs and shouted Banzai (long life) over and over. 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. Cathcart recounted how, on 24 May 1993, he had spoken to Roxas and had informed him that he would be escorted on a flight from Manila to Honolulu the next day. A rare photograph of Roxas in the Baguio tunnel system. After about two hours of digging, McSherry walked over to Dametz to let him know that it was time to drive home. 0000002456 00000 n <]>> This time I was prepared. It detailed the work he had done in the Philippines as part of a team led by Nevada treasure hunter Robert H. Curtis. However, before we left, her son recounted the eerie story of how, on multiple occasions, he and many of his neighbours had witnessed the unsettling sight of Japanese soldiers marching down the street in front of his house only they were not there. Rodger is also known as the father of Darrell Miklos, a TV personality and a treasure hunter too. 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. 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