Unfortunately, my role in the narrative would be minimal. 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. The United States could not risk the truth about the gold and treasures that the Japanese had buried in the Philippines coming to light, especially as a large portion of it was now theirs. Klaus and I posing with the priest and the artefacts he discovered at a shallow depth in the ground They began holding press conferences to try to raise more money in which they claimed to have found tunnels stacked to the ceiling with gold bars (but hadn't thought to take any pictures or bring back any evidence), and these claims sufficiently irked the government to the point that his team was expelled from the country in 1975. I was intrigued and thought I had nothing to lose, and so I decided to email him one last time. These sites were protected by ancient rituals performed by Shinto priests. This was a time, Cathcart stressed, when the town was buzzing with rumours of a local mans discovery. I knew what it was, but I could not believe my eyes. "Yamashita's Gold." You can also find her on Twitter. Before I could comment Klaus had taken out his dowsing rods and located the entrance shaft to the tunnel system that the bent tree was pointing towards. Little did they know the arduous effort that a successful excavation would require. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins, but the thought of stumbling upon buried treasure is seductive to everyone. As usual, he did not want any money for his trouble. Allan Quatermain, a hunter and adventurer, the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard 's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines. There was more, but as I have signed a non-disclosure agreement, I will refrain from commenting further. The group fled the country in July, 1978, and did not return until late last year. We are not at the bottom yet? Since there was no evidence that he had attempted to climb the cliff, his parents believe that he must have fallen and his body was miraculously caught on the ledge, which is how his remains stayed fully intact for three years. It was going to be easy to bust this guy, I confidently thought. 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Two Australian brokers: who testified that in the early 1980s they had negotiated nine contracts with Marcos to sell what amounted to $1.63 trillion-worth of gold bullion. We all like to imagine were going to knock a stone wall down and were going to find golden chests overflowing with emeralds and rubies and diamonds, all guarded by a big cobra snake, he said. When asked about Bilyeu one month after his disappearance, Fenn said that he did not feel any sense of responsibility but he wanted to take part in the search to find Bilyeu. Claiming a treasure hunter bounty . 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. 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. The site has been targeted by treasure hunters in the past, but nobody is patient enough to see it through. She recounted that she ran for cover when she feared she had been spotted. Prior to his death, Fuchigamis father presented him with a coded map of the treasure complex. April 30, 2019 But in war someone has to lose. 0000004492 00000 n It was peculiar and appeared to be a topographical map. Amelia did as the dream-induced spirit encounter with Roxas instructed. The Japanese had muscled control of the Philippines away from the United States, and were transferring their war booty from Singapore to Japan, when they were forced to come ashore and secure their treasures. Random encounter with treasure hunter. It had been April fools day, indeed. Its a heart a symbol placed in the tunnel by the Shinto priests, he replied proudly. All I remember is, there I was, possibly a short distance away from some of the greatest lost relics in history, and all I wanted to do was leave. 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. In addition, he is a co-founder of Gemini Marine Exploration, the company that specializes in recovery of historical shipwrecks. Curiously, his death was not announced publicly until ninety days later. 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. No sooner than I was reflecting on the creepiness of being there, Klaus screamed. Japan's imperial war efforts were incredibly expensive and Japan had little wealth of its own. Abcarian: Mask mandates? 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. I wondered. It read, I understand you met with my brother, Henry, in Baguio. The only problem was he was already dead. He quickly succeeded, for he was saying something about cyanide. Klaus confided that he was working on four different sites and shared the many clues and symbols that he had discovered in each. While he was talking a hostile player started attacking me, which caused the npc to run away. trailer Still, I had but one thought on my mind. Inspecting the Baguio Hospital artefacts in the Roger Roxas Museum I was moved by Cathcarts story; it was epic, tragic and inspirational. Executive Secretary Catalino Macaraig said 80 treasure-hunting permits had been granted in the last year from among the two to three applications received each day by the office of the President.. After some time she purchased a new home for her parents and one for herself. Marcos was ruthless. His friend preferred to stay anonymous, but lets call him Bob for the sake of the story. Could he have harnessed the legendary viral energy that I had read so much about? 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. I am sorry that you must die for me, I repeated, over and over. They looted museums, banks, gold reserves, private art collections even the sacred graves of ancient tombs were pillaged. They were not only deposited in the deepest tunnel systems, they also did not offer intermediate chambers or directional validating artefacts a short distance beneath the surface. And so, while we all love a story of lost gold and would thrill to plunge a shovel into a green hillside that we suspect conceals an endless fortune, the urban legend of Yamashita's Gold is another of those most unlikely to have a happy ending. The United States had stumbled upon the greatest treasure hoards in history, including more gold bullion than was known to be in existence, and would use this unfathomable wealth to influence world affairs, win the Cold War, launch a space programme, and create a new world order. Anyway, it keeps me fit, he added with bravado. Los Angeles Times. That was the good news. Roxass brother, Danilo, attempted to resist the men and was badly beaten. Jim Hawkins, the protagonist of Robert Louis Stevenson 's 1881 novel, Treasure Island. He was dazed, and yet actually excited about what he believed had caused it. Amelia was a Filipino living in Los Angeles, who had gone to high school in Baguio with Roxass sister. An image of what appears to be a cement-filled tunnel or door, deep underground Baguio Hospital, where Roxas made his famous discovery The Cultural Committee is investigating whether the search should continue. A few days after the update released I came across that treasure hunter npc encounter where you can buy a map from him. One even had a cobra as its spiritual guardian that Klaus had encountered before. The cobra settles down in its mesh cage We followed a muddy path, not too far from a river that was roaring with monsoon-induced floods, and arrived at the site. I could hardly move. We had adjoining rooms in the hotel and shared a laugh. The rods always seemed dead. Im sorry what was that? I retorted apologetically. When will Klaus enter his first chamber? Hunter died Monday at his Northern California home with his wife . For a short time Roxas went into hiding near Manila and was provided with bodyguards and a place to live. Curtis was an expert in changing the metallurgical fingerprints of gold to disguise its origins. I was amazed, and excited. Cheatham was obsessed with legends of Yamashitas gold and frequently visited Baguio in search of Japanese artefacts. 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. Andrew Gough. 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. Not surprisingly, some of Klauss workers will no longer venture to the bottom of the tunnel complex. Slowly putting his ruined life back together, he moved from Reno to Las Vegas . It has budgeted another $60,000 for the project and has an additional $300,000 to spend if needed. Whatever they did plunder had likely been well spent building the Imperial Navy well before the end of the war. 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. Oihara promised to purchase the golden buddha and to return in a few days with a down payment of one million pesos. Skeptoid Podcast. Even a Japanese prince was said to have arrived and whisked the healer away in his private jet. Not long after his disappearance, hikers found a tin can on the edge of the 55-meter (180 ft) cliff that simply said, Jesse Capen was here. A single boot, drivers license, and camping gear were all recovered, but he was nowhere to be found.[9]. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. His luck was about to change. Dont get me wrong. This is something I was told had happened to other treasure hunters as well. Thank you for giving me your life. Did the Japanese deposit immense quantities of gold in the Philippines? Japanese armies did indeed seize valuables and plunder national treasuries of southeast Asian countries. We said goodbye to Henry and headed out for lunch. The first-hand accounts corroborated those of Robert Curtis, who has so often been unjustly discredited in the story. During Fridays Senate hearing, several senators indicated that they plan to pursue criminal charges against the treasure hunters for violating an old law against desecrating national shrines, of which Ft. Santiago is one of the most famous. 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. Andrew Gough. See Photos. 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. Tunnels filled with a foot of water Despite the depth, there were still twelve inches of water that needed negotiating. In 1949, a 70-year-old man named James Kidd was a professional treasure hunter from Phoenix, Arizona. And there it was the Japanese bunker that John Ballinger had told Roxas to look for back in 1970. 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. The hospital was on public grounds and was highly visible; covert excavation was simply not an option. Lives in La Mirada, California. His team went and searched and dug but never found anything. After working on my prostate, the healer opened up my liver, heart and spine in the same manner with only his hands. It is not a pleasant journey to the bottom of the tunnel complex: three descents down makeshift ladders and three separate crawls on ones hands and knees. Curtis had raised funding for his treasure hunt by claiming that Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos himself had personally invited him to recover the gold based on his unique expertise. Let us email you a link to each week's new episode. Phil never returned from his trip, so the police were called. Nope, we had to move on; places to be. Real or imagined, I was perceived as an expert on the subject. McSherry left Dametz and found his own sandpit about 45 meters (150 ft) away. Curtis to meet privately with a . 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. It did not work that way. Europe and others push for a standard lunar time zone, Bola Tinubu, the declared winner of Nigerias presidential election, appeals for unity, A 5,000-year-old restaurant highlights Iraqs archaeological renaissance, Chicago Mayor Lightfoot ousted; Vallas, Johnson in runoff. Andrew Gough. I sat on the bed trying to make sense of what had just happened, when the healer informed me that I needed to stop on my way to the airport and drink a cobras blood in order to complete my healing process. We ascended the tunnel system and on the surface above Klaus performed a master class in dowsing. Fred C. Dobbs, the protagonist of B. Traven 's 1927 novel, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and the movie of the same name. As there was no easy way for others to get in contact with the families of the deceased, thousands of people simply disappeared from the lives of their loved ones.[8]. His efforts proved fruitless, however, and Fuchigami became despondent about the fact that he could not locate the tunnel system that his father had shown him as a child, even with a map. The 49-year-old American treasure hunter has cordoned off this rectangular swath of Indian Ocean in the Seychelles, and now he's somewhere 25 feet below, chiseling off chunks of granite and. How exciting is that?, Klaus posing with a Japanese treasure symbol, a heart, which he found in a backfilled treasure tunnel We learned that he had found marker artefacts at a shallow depth in the ground at various sites nearby. Bob woke up a couple hours later in the early evening and noticed that Billy was nowhere to be seen. Not bad for a sixty-nine-year-old. I nodded and reflected on how pathetically difficult I found traversing the tunnel to be. I had retreated to a solitary place inside my head where I was contemplating the whole astonishing quest when I heard Klaus attempting to get my attention. startxref 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? It felt like a flamethrower had pierced my stomach and opened me up below my navel. 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. 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. Each would have been an ideal candidate to contribute to the legal and organised excavation of Klauss treasure sites. This included dismissing cyanide as a poison that can travel through the air, and numerous character attacks on Seagrave and Curtis. The bogtalay tree is regarded as sacred in the East. 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. All Rights Reserved. The first indication of a secret treasure came in April 1971 when a Filipino locksmith found a 1-ton. He described the odds as 5% more chance than highly probable, approaching absolute certainty.. Singer-songwriter, poet, translator and occasionally recording artist, born Robert Burns. The remains of the Shinto shrine entrance to the Japanese military headquarters in Klauss village As a result, I was frequently contacted by Filipinos who believed they had located lost Japanese treasure hoards and were seeking both expertise and financial assistance in support of their proposed excavations. 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. The moss-covered marker stone that could be a topographical map of the treasure sites in the region Since there were so many people, everyone was in close proximity to one another. He failed Klaus and I continued our daily Skype calls and I could sense he was making real progress. Soriano, who has been quoted as estimating the buried wealth at $900 billion and is currently overseeing the Ft. Santiago dig, told The Times in a recent interview: To my knowledge, nothing has been recovered yet. 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. I was also disappointed to learn that the History Channel had made a reality TV series about a team of questers seeking Japanese treasure in the Philippines, after every channel and production house informed me it was a bad idea. Inexplicably, he was being electrocuted. How could I tell if some of my soldiers misbehaved themselves? 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