Mysteries at the Museum (2010) s11e10 Episode Script
Ben Franklin Bones; Heroine of Flight 847; Doctor Zhivago Pilot
The search for an unknown creature of the deep.
(woman) This monster would've been the length of about eight to nine school buses.
An insidious cover-up inside the White House.
(man) It is scary that they could keep this secret from the American people.
And the tragic tale of a femme fatale.
Her seductive powers led to her downfall.
[rifle shots.]
These are the mysteries at the museum.
London, England-- flowing through this ancient city is the majestic River Thames.
The waterway is lined with a host of iconic British landmarks, including Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Houses of Parliament, and the Tower Bridge.
But not far from the water's edge is a museum that honors a notable American-- the Benjamin Franklin House.
The Founding Father lived here for 16 years while working to achieve independence for the United States.
Today, visitors can experience the house exactly as Franklin left it.
Among his personal effects are his leather wallet and a letter he penned to his sister.
But one grim and grizzly artifact casts a sinister shadow over Franklin's time in the British capital.
It's beige in color with jagged, bristled edges.
It's about eight inches long by maybe four inches tall, and it's only when you look at it more closely you realize it's part of a human skull.
(Don) These remains connect Benjamin Franklin to a ghastly series of events that played out almost 250 years ago.
Many people have wondered, was there a darker side to one of America's Founding Fathers? (Don) 1997, London, England.
Workers are restoring an historic townhouse at 36 Craven Street, the former residence of Benjamin Franklin.
(John) In 1997, the house was purchased and was to be turned into the Benjamin Franklin Museum.
The whole idea was to present it to the public the way it looked when he was there.
(Don) But a month into the renovation, the team makes a deeply disturbing discovery-- a laborer in the basement unearths what appears to be a fragment of bone.
He keeps digging, and then finds something even more chilling-- an entire pit of human remains.
This is absolutely mind-boggling.
You don't find a pit full of human bones in the basement of one of the Founding Fathers.
(Don) More than 2,000 bone fragments are pulled out of the basement.
They appear to belong to some 28 people, including one infant.
And that's not all.
When a forensic pathologist analyzes the bones, he discovers that they bear the tell-tale signs of drill holes and cuts that could only have been made with a serrated knife.
This clearly showed that the bodies were cut up.
(Don) Investigators are baffled.
How did these chopped-up human remains end up in Franklin's basement, and more importantly, who buried them there? To establish when the bones were interred, investigators send samples from the basement to a lab for carbon dating-- the results are astounding.
They were able to date the bones to exactly the same time that Benjamin Franklin lived there.
(Don) So was Ben Franklin a serial killer? News of the grisly stash sparks a media firestorm.
The fact that Ben Franklin had a hidden pile of bones in his house is not something anyone expected to hear about.
(Don) And as the story spreads, a startling theory emerges.
Some say that while Franklin lived in London, he became a member of a secretive organization known as the Hellfire Club.
Members of the Hellfire Club came from the best parts of society.
They were very decadent, very raucous, and there was a lot of religious dark practice, maybe a little bit of devil worshipping.
(Don) According to this theory, Franklin frequently hosted gatherings of the Hellfire Club at his London home, where he and his fellow members practiced human sacrifice.
(John) This could be ritualistic murder of a heinous nature.
(Don) But as rumors swirl, a new piece of evidence comes to light that solves the mystery once and for all.
Documents reveal that Franklin did not live in the house alone.
In fact, for a number of years, he shared his home with a lodger-- a young surgeon named William Hewson.
Historical records showed that William Hewson started his own anatomy school in the house.
And this, of course, eliminated any ideas of secret societies or of devil worshipping.
(Don) According to the documents, Hewson taught anatomy lessons and surgical techniques using human cadavers.
It's thought that this could explain the drill holes and saw marks, but why would Hewson have buried the body parts in the basement? According to historians, the practice of dissecting a body was considered sacrilegious in the 18th century and was against the law.
(John) So surgeons who did this line of work had to be quite secretive about it.
(Don) Dr.
Hewson would've relied on grave robbers to provide him with a steady supply of cadavers for study.
What William Hewson was doing was illegal, so once he was finished with the cadaver, rather than take it out of the house, he would bury it downstairs in the basement.
(Don) Many historians believe that Benjamin Franklin, a noted man of science, was probably aware of Dr.
Hewson's illicit activities and may have been present at the dissections himself.
There's no way that he could have not known that that was happening.
(Don) Today, these bones remain on display at the Benjamin Franklin House in London.
They endure as a grim reminder that sometimes even the most famous men in history have skeletons in the closet or the basement.
Kansas City, Missouri, is the former home of Trans World Airlines, famously known as TWA.
Today, the history of this legendary air carrier is celebrated at the TWA Museum.
Its collection includes a 1968 flight attendant's uniform, a menu from a first class cabin, and a scale model of a TWA Boeing 747.
But one artifact here seems to have nothing to do with aviation at all.
(woman) The object is probably less than two inches in length.
It's cylindrical in shape, and it is made from copper and steel.
(Don) This bullet casing played a critical role in a heart-stopping tale of terror and courage against the odds.
This is a story about heroism at 30,000 feet.
(Don) June 14, 1985.
TWA Flight 847 takes off from Athens, Greece, bound for Rome, Italy.
On board are 139 passengers and eight crewmembers.
As the plane climbs to its cruising altitude, the flight seems to be going smoothly.
But then, there's a sudden commotion.
[indistinct shouting.]
Two men jumped out of their seats, brandishing guns.
[shouts indistinctly.]
(Don) The two men begin yelling in Arabic, but the terrified passengers cannot understand them.
Then one woman steps forward, a German flight attendant named Uli Derickson.
Uli tries speaking to the men in English, but to no avail.
So she switches to German and finds that one of the men can understand her.
At this point, all the pressure was on Uli.
They told her they were gonna hold everyone hostage until 50 of their counterparts imprisoned in Israel were released.
(Don) The men order Uli to tell the pilots to divert the plane to Beirut.
There, they plan to establish contact with United States authorities, who they hope will in turn negotiate the release of the prisoners with the Israeli government, and they'll stop at nothing to see that happen.
(Pam) They told Uli that they would kill the passengers.
At this point, she just felt like she had to comply with their demands.
(Don) The pilots fly the aircraft to Beirut.
There, the crew contacts U.
S.
government officials and relays the terrorists' demands, but it soon becomes clear that the negotiations will not be swift.
Thirty-two hours later, there's no update from the Americans.
Uli was concerned for her life as well as the lives of all the passengers.
(Don) As the hours pass, the terrorists become increasingly agitated.
The hijackers were becoming very upset, because they wanted what they wanted now.
(Don) Suddenly, shots ring out.
[two gunshot blasts.]
Uli watches in horror as the hijackers shoot one of the passengers.
The hijackers said, "See? We told you.
We're going to start killing the hostages.
" (Don) Uli realizes she may be the only person who can stop the carnage, so what will she do to save the passengers and crew? It's 1985, Beirut, Lebanon.
The passengers and crew of TWA Flight 847 are being held hostage by terrorists.
The only person who can communicate with the hijackers is a flight attendant named Uli Derickson.
So can Uli somehow save the day? With the pressure mounting, Uli tries something unorthodox.
In trying to keep the hijackers calm, Uli chose to sing to them.
She sang "Brahms' Lullaby.
" [singing in foreign language.]
[singing continues.]
["Brahms' Lullaby" plays on guitar.]
(Don) Then she tries appealing to their humanity by talking about her family.
Uli did tell the hijackers about her son at home and how much he was going to miss her.
["Brahms' Lullaby" stops.]
(Don) Uli's tender-hearted approach appears to work.
The terrorists begin to calm down, and as she continues to speak with them, they pull back from the brink.
Uli seems to have established a rapport with the hijackers, and things were calming down.
(Don) Hours later, the White House completes its negotiations with the Israeli government, who agree to a prisoner swap.
For Uli, the crew, and everyone else on board, their ordeal is over.
The hijackers agreed to release Uli, the other flight attendants, and the passengers.
(Don) Uli Derickson is hailed as a hero for her efforts aboard Flight 847.
(Pam) Through Uli's negotiations with the hijackers, she was able to save over 100 lives.
(Don) And today, in the TWA Museum, this tiny bullet casing recovered from the scene recalls the story of one woman's triumph over a terror in the skies.
The Wrigley Building, the John Hancock Center, and Willis Tower are just a few of Chicago's iconic buildings.
So it's only fitting that the Windy City is celebrated as the birthplace of the skyscraper.
But amid these famous structures is a lesser-known institution-- the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.
Its collection includes knives used by British soldiers in the 1940s, surgical instruments from the Vietnam War, and a U.
S.
Air Force Medal of Honor.
But there's one object here with no obvious link to the battlefield.
(woman) The artifact is about six inches wide and nine inches high.
The front cover has a title in Russian and the colorful illustration of a vast and empty landscape.
(Don) This novel is hailed as a classic, but few realized it sprang from an epic struggle between two world superpowers.
(Liz) This story was considered so powerful that it could cripple a government.
(Don) What role did this book play in a battle for global supremacy? 1956, the Soviet Union.
Sixty-seven-year-old author, Boris Pasternak, is one of Russia's most respected writers.
His collection of poetry, My Sister, Life , is beloved by his fellow countrymen.
Boris Pasternak is known for his poetry, as well as his translations of Western works into Russian.
(Don) But for Pasternak, this success isn't enough.
The ambitious author wants to cement his place in history by writing the great Russian novel.
Pasternak is passionate about his work and determined to have a lasting legacy in Russia.
(Don) The author has been slaving away on what he believes will be his masterpiece-- a tragic love story called Doctor Zhivago.
The sprawling novel, set against the tumultuous backdrop of the Bolshevik Revolution, shines a light on the daily hardships of the Russian people.
[typewriter keys clicking.]
(Liz) Doctor Zhivago was Pasternak's life work.
It shows the devastation that the civil war had upon regular people and individuals.
Pasternak thought that his novel would be able to speak to an entire generation.
(Don) But just when Doctor Zhivago is about to be published, [phone ringing.]
Pasternak gets crushing news.
Soviet officials have interpreted the book as an attack on the Communist regime and have banned the novel.
Pasternak is so frustrated that he cannot get his great work out for his own people to read.
(Don) The determined author refuses to give up.
He resolves that even if the novel's intended audience won't be able to read it, those outside the Soviet Union will.
Pasternak smuggles manuscripts of Doctor Zhivago out of Russia and secretly arranges for them to be published in different languages in Europe.
Critics across the continent hail the novel as a work of genius, and it becomes an instant bestseller.
But despite this positive reception, Pasternak remains dejected.
(Liz) His novel will never be read by the people to whom he thinks it matters most, the Russian people.
(Don) But he's about to get help from a most unusual source.
It's the 1950s.
Author Boris Pasternak has penned what he believes to be the ultimate Russian novel-- Doctor Zhivago.
But communist authorities censor the book, meaning his own countrymen may never get the chance to read it.
But a new chapter in the book's life is about to be written by the most unlikely hand.
1958, Washington, D.
C.
With America locked in a bitter Cold War against the Soviet Union, the U.
S.
Central Intelligence Agency is looking to undermine the Russians in any way they can.
One day, CIA agents receive a package from their British counterparts in MI6.
Inside is a book, Doctor Zhivago .
Agents scour the text, and just like Soviet officials did, they interpret it as a pointed critique of communism, and that's when they're struck by a clever idea.
What if they use the novel to attack the Soviet Union from within? The CIA thought that this book would be powerful piece of propaganda, because it would reveal the suffering that people were living in under communism.
(Don) The CIA begins printing copies of Doctor Zhivago in Russian, and in September, agents bring the books to the World's Fair in Brussels.
There, they pass the text to sympathetic Soviet diplomats, who are eager to read Pasternak's banned book in its original format.
The diplomats find it so engrossing that they tear off the covers and smuggle their copies back to Russia, and just as the CIA had hoped, the book spreads like wildfire throughout the Soviet Union.
(Liz) Russians were so excited to read this novel.
People were smuggling books into Russia and sharing it with their friends.
The publishing of Doctor Zhivago in Russian ended up being a hugely successful campaign.
(Don) Just one month after the CIA's plot began, Boris Pasternak is awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature, and demand for his book skyrockets, even in his home country.
(Liz) Ultimately, Pasternak accomplished his goal and more.
Doctor Zhivago was published in Russian, Italian, French, German, English, and was read worldwide as a bestseller.
(Don) Doctor Zhivago is considered one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, and today, this copy of the first official Russian language edition remains on display at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.
It recalls the amazing plot twist that finally brought a revolutionary author's greatest work to his own people.
Staunton, Virginia.
Among this town's many historic mansions is the childhood home of the 28th president of the United States-- Woodrow Wilson.
And set on its grounds is an institution that celebrates his life and legacy-- the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.
On display is Wilson's 1919 Pierce-Arrow automobile, a desk he used while a student at Princeton University, and even his Oval Office telephone.
But there's one item here that looks like it belongs not in the White House, but in a doctor's office.
(man) It is about a foot long and six inches wide.
It consists of two curved, metal pieces coming together in a rubber tube, and the small, metal piece at the end of the object can be used to amplify a heartbeat.
(Don) This stethoscope is connected to one of the most elaborate political cover-ups in American history.
(Andrew) This is a story about secrecy, devoted love, and executive power.
(Don) 1919, Washington, D.
C.
After successfully leading the nation through World War I, President Woodrow Wilson is viewed as a forceful and passionate leader.
(Andrew) Wilson had a very large role at the negotiating table in France.
He was strong and vigorous.
(Don) More than anything, Wilson is known for his high public profile-- he is the first commander-in-chief to deliver the State of the Union address in person to Congress in over 100 years.
He holds twice-weekly press conferences in the White House, and he regularly attends international conferences around the globe.
Woodrow Wilson had been a very hands-on president, and he had a large role to play in the future of the world.
(Don) But on October 2nd, something strange happens.
President Wilson suddenly disappears from the public eye.
Without warning, members of the press are banned from entering the White House.
Even the Vice President, Thomas Marshall, finds his requests to speak with Wilson flatly denied.
(Andrew) In a single night, people who had had constant meetings with the president suddenly found themselves out in the cold.
No one is allowed to see the president.
(Don) First Lady Edith Wilson tells White House staff that the president prefers to work in private.
Despite his sudden withdrawal from view, in the weeks that follow, the presidents seems to be completing his normal tasks.
He authorizes the sale of wheat flour to Russia and Poland, issues a statement on a pending coal miners strike, and vetoes a bill that would enforce Prohibition.
But as months go by without any sightings of the president, tongues begin to wag.
(Andrew) Rumors abounded that the president was insane, had syphilis, or even that he was dead.
(Don) Although the president eventually attends cabinet meetings, quelling talk of his death, he makes no public appearances for the rest of his term and leaves office in 1921.
For decades, Wilson's strange withdrawal into the shadows remains a mystery, but nearly 70 years later, the stunning circumstances of his disappearance finally come to light.
It was scary that such a small circle of people could keep this secret from the American people.
(Don) So what really happened to Woodrow Wilson? Midway through his second term as president, Woodrow Wilson mysteriously withdraws from public view.
This strange disappearance of a national leader has confounded historians for decades, but new evidence is about to solve the riddle once and for all, and what the truth reveals is more disturbing than anyone could have imagined.
In the early 1990s, the personal diary of former White House physician, Dr.
Cary T.
Grayson, is released to the public, and it documents a shocking cover-up.
According to Grayson, it all began on October 2, 1919.
That morning, First Lady Edith Wilson discovers her husband collapsed outside their bathroom.
The president had a massive stroke.
(Don) Wilson is treated by Dr.
Grayson, but the episode leaves the president incapacitated.
He finds even commonplace activities, like reading or eating, to be extremely tiring.
After the stroke, he couldn't even hold a pen without help.
(Don) Wilson's road to full recovery seems uncertain, and Edith has no idea how long it will take.
And that leaves the First Lady with a desperate choice-- allow him to resign with his legacy incomplete or somehow hide his illness and keep her beloved husband in office.
Edith devises an audacious plan.
She tells the press that Wilson is voluntarily stepping out of the public eye to focus on his work.
But behind the scenes, she assumes many of the responsibilities of the highest office in the land herself.
Edith Wilson is able to keep the secret of her husband's condition throughout the rest of his presidency, and she is successful in that it keeps her husband in office.
Edith will read and evaluate the many issues and petitions sent to her husband, deciding when they should come before him and whether or not they require his approval.
During this time, Edith is actually serving as president.
(Don) Edith Wilson carries out a multitude of her husband's duties in secret until the end of his presidency.
(Andrew) Edith's role at this time was perhaps a little bit scary.
It also raises the question of whether Edith was right, putting her husband before the needs of the nation.
(Don) Right or wrong, Edith Wilson's actions earn her a unique place in history.
Some historians call Edith the first female president.
(Don) Today, this stethoscope belonging to White House physician, Dr.
Cary T.
Grayson, is on display at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.
It recalls a president's debilitating illness and the loyal First Lady who went above and beyond to protect her husband's legacy.
Washington, D.
C.
, is home to nearly 200 museums, celebrating everything from national politics to ancient art.
And one of its most intriguing institutions is the International Spy Museum.
Here, visitors can admire a traditional ninja costume, a model of the famous Trojan horse, and an Aston Martin driven by Great Britain's most famous secret agent, James Bond.
Alongside these technical marvels is a simpler but equally powerful tool of espionage.
(woman) The artifact is about eight inches by 11 inches.
It's flat.
There's a beautiful logo printed in a deep, dark red-brown, and it has elegant handwriting in French, a very attractive script.
(Don) The woman behind this letter is known as one of the most famous spies of all time.
But what few realize is that there's more to her tragic tale than meets the eye.
(Amanda) Her seductive powers had helped her rise to stardom but also led to her downfall.
(Don) 1917, France.
World War I is raging across northern Europe, pitting the Austro-Hungarian and German armies against the French, Russian, and British, and as the conflict rolls on, the casualties on the French side grow higher and higher.
World War I was horrific for France.
It is just bleeding out, and public morale is at such a low.
(Don) In the spring, the French military makes an announcement that seems to offer an explanation for why their army is losing so many men-- their campaign has been undermined by a spy.
The military says this informer was passing French secrets to the Germans but has finally been apprehended, and to everyone's amazement, the suspect is no ordinary spy.
In fact, she's one of the most well-known people in France, an exotic dancer named Margaretha Zelle MacLeod, better known as Mata Hari.
Mata Hari is one of the most famous women in Europe.
People found her captivating.
They could not take their eyes off of her.
(Don) The entertainer has fascinated the public for years with her seductive routines, flamboyant lifestyle, and whirlwind affairs.
She's traveling back and forth throughout Europe.
She enjoys having a good time, and she very much enjoys powerful men and officers, having a rather cosmopolitan life.
(Don) But according to the French police, Mata Hari's many liaisons had nothing to do with romance.
They say that she seduced military officials and tricked them into revealing top-secret information, everything from combat strategies to troop movements.
She would then pass the intelligence on to the Germans, who would use it to launch devastating attacks against the French, resulting in the deaths of thousands of soldiers.
(Amanda) It was said the evil that this woman has done is unimaginable.
(Don) The public is stunned.
In July, Mata Hari is made to face a military tribunal.
The dancer vehemently proclaims her innocence, but the evidence appears damning.
(Amanda) The authorities have telegrams that discuss the movements of a German spy, code name H21, and they seem to parallel Mata Hari's movements perfectly.
(Don) It takes just 45 minutes to find her guilty and sentence her to death.
On October 17th, Mata Hari is put before a firing squad.
A seductress to the end, she blows a kiss to the soldiers as they aim and fire.
[rifle shots.]
She was a performer to the last.
(Don) Mata Hari goes down as one of history's most notorious secret agents.
(Amanda) It was said that she was, perhaps, the greatest woman spy of the century.
(Don) But it seems that's not the end of the infamous siren's tale.
Decades after her execution, new evidence comes to light that flips the story of Mata Hari on its head-- so what's the truth behind this so-called seductive spy? It's 1917, France.
An exotic dancer named Mata Hari has been executed for espionage.
[rifle shots.]
Authorities claim she used her powers of seduction to persuade French officers into giving up top secret information, which she then passed on to the Germans.
But decades later, new information surfaces that sheds new light on the life and crimes of this beguiling star.
In 2001, the French government declassifies a series of documents from Mata Hari's case.
The papers reveal that the evidence used to convict her is not as clear-cut as it seemed in the trial.
In fact, the telegrams, the very proof that sealed Mata Hari's fate, don't show what the French government claimed at all.
Although they seem to accurately track her travels throughout Europe, none of them contain even a single French military secret.
(Amanda) There's no evidence that she passed any secrets to Germany.
(Don) Not only that, a closer look at the documents suggests that Mata Hari was, in fact, a spy for France.
The only evidence of her passing intelligence is information she got from Germany and then she gave to France, so she was really spying for the French.
(Don) The suspicious telegrams lead historians to a remarkable conclusion-- Mata Hari was framed.
But why would French officials have set up the celebrated dancer? Some believe that the French government needed to blame someone for their poor performance during World War I, and Mata Hari was the perfect scapegoat.
(Amanda) She's exotic, she's a foreigner, she sleeps with whoever she pleases.
It's easy for people to think that she would be a spy.
(Don) Whatever the truth, the siren's legacy endures.
(Amanda) Mata Hari really becomes the symbol for the femme fatale, the seductive female spy that can get information from anyone by using her charms.
(Don) Today, this letter that Mata Hari wrote to one of her many paramours is on display at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.
C.
It recalls the enigmatic beauty whose seductive powers may have led to her own demise.
New Bedford, Massachusetts.
In 1841, author Herman Melville sailed from this port city on the expedition that inspired his great American novel, Moby-Dick .
Today, the area's nautical history is showcased at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Here, visitors can view scrimshaw carvings from the 18th century, the skeleton of a baby blue whale, and the world's largest model whaling ship.
But one item here looks like it belongs not in a maritime museum but in a science fiction movie.
It's a metallic cylinder.
It's very thin.
It's about two and a half feet high, and it almost looks like a big bullet.
(Don) This strange instrument recalls a wondrous tale of adventure, exploration, and creatures from the deep.
This is a story of the incredible possibilities beneath the Earth's oceans.
[growling noises.]
(Don) 1997, Newport, Oregon.
Dr.
Christopher Fox is a veteran researcher for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
Their role is to monitor and do scientific study of the oceans and atmosphere.
(Don) One of NOAA's most powerful tools is a scientific instrument called the hydrophone.
The listening device, like this one in the collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, is a microphone designed for recording or monitoring sound underwater.
Most of the time, Fox and his fellow scientists pick up sounds of sea life or ships.
But one day, they hear something louder and stranger than anything they've heard before.
[deep whooshing noises.]
(Christina) They couldn't figure out what these sounds were.
It had not previously been recorded.
It actually sounded like a "bloop!" [deep whooshing noises.]
(Don) Fittingly, the scientists nickname the unusual sound the Bloop, and according to their data, it appears to originate from over 3,000 miles away.
Fox is astonished.
For a sound to travel such a distance, its source must be deafeningly loud.
When you find something so abnormal, it really gave people a lot of pause of what that could actually be.
(Don) The short, seemingly random sound pattern bears no similarities to the long, steady hum of submarines or other man-made machines, and it doesn't match the pattern that would be expected from an underwater earthquake, volcano, or other geological phenomena.
It was unknown where the sound was coming from.
(Don) With these simple explanations ruled out, a more remote, even outlandish possibility, emerges-- that the sound could be emanating from some kind of unknown sea creature.
[growling noises.]
With 95 percent of the Earth's oceans still unexplored, it's believed there are many underwater species yet to be discovered.
We know more about the surface of Mars and the moon than we know about the floors of the sea.
There is life down there, and we don't necessarily know what it is.
(Don) But for a marine animal to make a noise as powerful as the Bloop, it would have to be gargantuan in size.
A blue whale, the largest known living creature on the planet, emits a call that's more deafening than a jet plane.
And based on his calculations, Fox estimates that the Bloop is three times as loud.
If we were to consider that this monster's about three times the size of a blue whale, it probably would've been the length of about eight to nine school buses.
(Don) So is this thunderous sound really coming from a giant, undiscovered sea creature? [growling noises.]
It's 1997.
Dr.
Christopher Fox and a team of researchers have recorded an underwater sound in the Pacific Ocean.
They've named it the Bloop.
The sound is one of the loudest and most powerful ever recorded, leading some to suspect the source may be a giant marine creature that's never been seen before.
So is there some massive, mysterious beast lurking in the deep? When rumors of a colossal, unidentified animal living in the ocean hit the press, imaginations run wild.
(Christina) People are thinking, "Well, maybe there's a giant monster under the sea that we just don't know about," and it's a lot of speculation.
(Don) Fox and his fellow researchers continue to monitor the Bloop for weeks, but they cannot determine what is making the thunderous sound.
Then, suddenly, it stops.
And now that it's gone, it seems that finding the source of the strange sound will be impossible.
No one hears the Bloop for years.
Then, in 2008, scientists in the Antarctic are monitoring acoustic activity when they pick up the same unusually powerful sound, and this time, whatever is making it appears to be close by.
(Christina) This phenomenon happened again, and it happened to be recorded closer to their source.
(Don) The researchers methodically search the region, yet they find no trace of a large marine creature.
But they do notice an interesting natural phenomenon that might solve the mystery once and for all.
They witness large glaciers moving and breaking apart, a geologic process known as cavving.
So the glaciers were moving, and these have unique sounds.
It was loud, and it wasn't terribly long, and it wasn't rhythmic.
(Don) The noise created by the friction between the enormous slabs of ice is identical to the one first picked up by Fox and his team at NOAA.
It had a similar signature, similar frequency, and similar volume to what they had heard in the '90s, so this actually was a sound made by ice breaking apart and not by an underwater sea creature.
(Don) Scientists believe that glacial cavving is the most likely source of the Bloop.
Still, many continue to wonder what unknown, magnificent creatures lurk in the deep.
(Christina) There's so much left to explore, and we don't really know what else we're gonna find.
(Don) Today, this hydrophone, used to detect underwater sounds, is on display at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts.
It recalls the maritime mystery and the Bloop heard round the world.
From a famous Founding Father to a pioneering First Lady.
A terror in the skies to a monster at sea.
I'm Don Wildman, and these are the mysteries at the museum.
(woman) This monster would've been the length of about eight to nine school buses.
An insidious cover-up inside the White House.
(man) It is scary that they could keep this secret from the American people.
And the tragic tale of a femme fatale.
Her seductive powers led to her downfall.
[rifle shots.]
These are the mysteries at the museum.
London, England-- flowing through this ancient city is the majestic River Thames.
The waterway is lined with a host of iconic British landmarks, including Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Houses of Parliament, and the Tower Bridge.
But not far from the water's edge is a museum that honors a notable American-- the Benjamin Franklin House.
The Founding Father lived here for 16 years while working to achieve independence for the United States.
Today, visitors can experience the house exactly as Franklin left it.
Among his personal effects are his leather wallet and a letter he penned to his sister.
But one grim and grizzly artifact casts a sinister shadow over Franklin's time in the British capital.
It's beige in color with jagged, bristled edges.
It's about eight inches long by maybe four inches tall, and it's only when you look at it more closely you realize it's part of a human skull.
(Don) These remains connect Benjamin Franklin to a ghastly series of events that played out almost 250 years ago.
Many people have wondered, was there a darker side to one of America's Founding Fathers? (Don) 1997, London, England.
Workers are restoring an historic townhouse at 36 Craven Street, the former residence of Benjamin Franklin.
(John) In 1997, the house was purchased and was to be turned into the Benjamin Franklin Museum.
The whole idea was to present it to the public the way it looked when he was there.
(Don) But a month into the renovation, the team makes a deeply disturbing discovery-- a laborer in the basement unearths what appears to be a fragment of bone.
He keeps digging, and then finds something even more chilling-- an entire pit of human remains.
This is absolutely mind-boggling.
You don't find a pit full of human bones in the basement of one of the Founding Fathers.
(Don) More than 2,000 bone fragments are pulled out of the basement.
They appear to belong to some 28 people, including one infant.
And that's not all.
When a forensic pathologist analyzes the bones, he discovers that they bear the tell-tale signs of drill holes and cuts that could only have been made with a serrated knife.
This clearly showed that the bodies were cut up.
(Don) Investigators are baffled.
How did these chopped-up human remains end up in Franklin's basement, and more importantly, who buried them there? To establish when the bones were interred, investigators send samples from the basement to a lab for carbon dating-- the results are astounding.
They were able to date the bones to exactly the same time that Benjamin Franklin lived there.
(Don) So was Ben Franklin a serial killer? News of the grisly stash sparks a media firestorm.
The fact that Ben Franklin had a hidden pile of bones in his house is not something anyone expected to hear about.
(Don) And as the story spreads, a startling theory emerges.
Some say that while Franklin lived in London, he became a member of a secretive organization known as the Hellfire Club.
Members of the Hellfire Club came from the best parts of society.
They were very decadent, very raucous, and there was a lot of religious dark practice, maybe a little bit of devil worshipping.
(Don) According to this theory, Franklin frequently hosted gatherings of the Hellfire Club at his London home, where he and his fellow members practiced human sacrifice.
(John) This could be ritualistic murder of a heinous nature.
(Don) But as rumors swirl, a new piece of evidence comes to light that solves the mystery once and for all.
Documents reveal that Franklin did not live in the house alone.
In fact, for a number of years, he shared his home with a lodger-- a young surgeon named William Hewson.
Historical records showed that William Hewson started his own anatomy school in the house.
And this, of course, eliminated any ideas of secret societies or of devil worshipping.
(Don) According to the documents, Hewson taught anatomy lessons and surgical techniques using human cadavers.
It's thought that this could explain the drill holes and saw marks, but why would Hewson have buried the body parts in the basement? According to historians, the practice of dissecting a body was considered sacrilegious in the 18th century and was against the law.
(John) So surgeons who did this line of work had to be quite secretive about it.
(Don) Dr.
Hewson would've relied on grave robbers to provide him with a steady supply of cadavers for study.
What William Hewson was doing was illegal, so once he was finished with the cadaver, rather than take it out of the house, he would bury it downstairs in the basement.
(Don) Many historians believe that Benjamin Franklin, a noted man of science, was probably aware of Dr.
Hewson's illicit activities and may have been present at the dissections himself.
There's no way that he could have not known that that was happening.
(Don) Today, these bones remain on display at the Benjamin Franklin House in London.
They endure as a grim reminder that sometimes even the most famous men in history have skeletons in the closet or the basement.
Kansas City, Missouri, is the former home of Trans World Airlines, famously known as TWA.
Today, the history of this legendary air carrier is celebrated at the TWA Museum.
Its collection includes a 1968 flight attendant's uniform, a menu from a first class cabin, and a scale model of a TWA Boeing 747.
But one artifact here seems to have nothing to do with aviation at all.
(woman) The object is probably less than two inches in length.
It's cylindrical in shape, and it is made from copper and steel.
(Don) This bullet casing played a critical role in a heart-stopping tale of terror and courage against the odds.
This is a story about heroism at 30,000 feet.
(Don) June 14, 1985.
TWA Flight 847 takes off from Athens, Greece, bound for Rome, Italy.
On board are 139 passengers and eight crewmembers.
As the plane climbs to its cruising altitude, the flight seems to be going smoothly.
But then, there's a sudden commotion.
[indistinct shouting.]
Two men jumped out of their seats, brandishing guns.
[shouts indistinctly.]
(Don) The two men begin yelling in Arabic, but the terrified passengers cannot understand them.
Then one woman steps forward, a German flight attendant named Uli Derickson.
Uli tries speaking to the men in English, but to no avail.
So she switches to German and finds that one of the men can understand her.
At this point, all the pressure was on Uli.
They told her they were gonna hold everyone hostage until 50 of their counterparts imprisoned in Israel were released.
(Don) The men order Uli to tell the pilots to divert the plane to Beirut.
There, they plan to establish contact with United States authorities, who they hope will in turn negotiate the release of the prisoners with the Israeli government, and they'll stop at nothing to see that happen.
(Pam) They told Uli that they would kill the passengers.
At this point, she just felt like she had to comply with their demands.
(Don) The pilots fly the aircraft to Beirut.
There, the crew contacts U.
S.
government officials and relays the terrorists' demands, but it soon becomes clear that the negotiations will not be swift.
Thirty-two hours later, there's no update from the Americans.
Uli was concerned for her life as well as the lives of all the passengers.
(Don) As the hours pass, the terrorists become increasingly agitated.
The hijackers were becoming very upset, because they wanted what they wanted now.
(Don) Suddenly, shots ring out.
[two gunshot blasts.]
Uli watches in horror as the hijackers shoot one of the passengers.
The hijackers said, "See? We told you.
We're going to start killing the hostages.
" (Don) Uli realizes she may be the only person who can stop the carnage, so what will she do to save the passengers and crew? It's 1985, Beirut, Lebanon.
The passengers and crew of TWA Flight 847 are being held hostage by terrorists.
The only person who can communicate with the hijackers is a flight attendant named Uli Derickson.
So can Uli somehow save the day? With the pressure mounting, Uli tries something unorthodox.
In trying to keep the hijackers calm, Uli chose to sing to them.
She sang "Brahms' Lullaby.
" [singing in foreign language.]
[singing continues.]
["Brahms' Lullaby" plays on guitar.]
(Don) Then she tries appealing to their humanity by talking about her family.
Uli did tell the hijackers about her son at home and how much he was going to miss her.
["Brahms' Lullaby" stops.]
(Don) Uli's tender-hearted approach appears to work.
The terrorists begin to calm down, and as she continues to speak with them, they pull back from the brink.
Uli seems to have established a rapport with the hijackers, and things were calming down.
(Don) Hours later, the White House completes its negotiations with the Israeli government, who agree to a prisoner swap.
For Uli, the crew, and everyone else on board, their ordeal is over.
The hijackers agreed to release Uli, the other flight attendants, and the passengers.
(Don) Uli Derickson is hailed as a hero for her efforts aboard Flight 847.
(Pam) Through Uli's negotiations with the hijackers, she was able to save over 100 lives.
(Don) And today, in the TWA Museum, this tiny bullet casing recovered from the scene recalls the story of one woman's triumph over a terror in the skies.
The Wrigley Building, the John Hancock Center, and Willis Tower are just a few of Chicago's iconic buildings.
So it's only fitting that the Windy City is celebrated as the birthplace of the skyscraper.
But amid these famous structures is a lesser-known institution-- the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.
Its collection includes knives used by British soldiers in the 1940s, surgical instruments from the Vietnam War, and a U.
S.
Air Force Medal of Honor.
But there's one object here with no obvious link to the battlefield.
(woman) The artifact is about six inches wide and nine inches high.
The front cover has a title in Russian and the colorful illustration of a vast and empty landscape.
(Don) This novel is hailed as a classic, but few realized it sprang from an epic struggle between two world superpowers.
(Liz) This story was considered so powerful that it could cripple a government.
(Don) What role did this book play in a battle for global supremacy? 1956, the Soviet Union.
Sixty-seven-year-old author, Boris Pasternak, is one of Russia's most respected writers.
His collection of poetry, My Sister, Life , is beloved by his fellow countrymen.
Boris Pasternak is known for his poetry, as well as his translations of Western works into Russian.
(Don) But for Pasternak, this success isn't enough.
The ambitious author wants to cement his place in history by writing the great Russian novel.
Pasternak is passionate about his work and determined to have a lasting legacy in Russia.
(Don) The author has been slaving away on what he believes will be his masterpiece-- a tragic love story called Doctor Zhivago.
The sprawling novel, set against the tumultuous backdrop of the Bolshevik Revolution, shines a light on the daily hardships of the Russian people.
[typewriter keys clicking.]
(Liz) Doctor Zhivago was Pasternak's life work.
It shows the devastation that the civil war had upon regular people and individuals.
Pasternak thought that his novel would be able to speak to an entire generation.
(Don) But just when Doctor Zhivago is about to be published, [phone ringing.]
Pasternak gets crushing news.
Soviet officials have interpreted the book as an attack on the Communist regime and have banned the novel.
Pasternak is so frustrated that he cannot get his great work out for his own people to read.
(Don) The determined author refuses to give up.
He resolves that even if the novel's intended audience won't be able to read it, those outside the Soviet Union will.
Pasternak smuggles manuscripts of Doctor Zhivago out of Russia and secretly arranges for them to be published in different languages in Europe.
Critics across the continent hail the novel as a work of genius, and it becomes an instant bestseller.
But despite this positive reception, Pasternak remains dejected.
(Liz) His novel will never be read by the people to whom he thinks it matters most, the Russian people.
(Don) But he's about to get help from a most unusual source.
It's the 1950s.
Author Boris Pasternak has penned what he believes to be the ultimate Russian novel-- Doctor Zhivago.
But communist authorities censor the book, meaning his own countrymen may never get the chance to read it.
But a new chapter in the book's life is about to be written by the most unlikely hand.
1958, Washington, D.
C.
With America locked in a bitter Cold War against the Soviet Union, the U.
S.
Central Intelligence Agency is looking to undermine the Russians in any way they can.
One day, CIA agents receive a package from their British counterparts in MI6.
Inside is a book, Doctor Zhivago .
Agents scour the text, and just like Soviet officials did, they interpret it as a pointed critique of communism, and that's when they're struck by a clever idea.
What if they use the novel to attack the Soviet Union from within? The CIA thought that this book would be powerful piece of propaganda, because it would reveal the suffering that people were living in under communism.
(Don) The CIA begins printing copies of Doctor Zhivago in Russian, and in September, agents bring the books to the World's Fair in Brussels.
There, they pass the text to sympathetic Soviet diplomats, who are eager to read Pasternak's banned book in its original format.
The diplomats find it so engrossing that they tear off the covers and smuggle their copies back to Russia, and just as the CIA had hoped, the book spreads like wildfire throughout the Soviet Union.
(Liz) Russians were so excited to read this novel.
People were smuggling books into Russia and sharing it with their friends.
The publishing of Doctor Zhivago in Russian ended up being a hugely successful campaign.
(Don) Just one month after the CIA's plot began, Boris Pasternak is awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature, and demand for his book skyrockets, even in his home country.
(Liz) Ultimately, Pasternak accomplished his goal and more.
Doctor Zhivago was published in Russian, Italian, French, German, English, and was read worldwide as a bestseller.
(Don) Doctor Zhivago is considered one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, and today, this copy of the first official Russian language edition remains on display at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.
It recalls the amazing plot twist that finally brought a revolutionary author's greatest work to his own people.
Staunton, Virginia.
Among this town's many historic mansions is the childhood home of the 28th president of the United States-- Woodrow Wilson.
And set on its grounds is an institution that celebrates his life and legacy-- the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.
On display is Wilson's 1919 Pierce-Arrow automobile, a desk he used while a student at Princeton University, and even his Oval Office telephone.
But there's one item here that looks like it belongs not in the White House, but in a doctor's office.
(man) It is about a foot long and six inches wide.
It consists of two curved, metal pieces coming together in a rubber tube, and the small, metal piece at the end of the object can be used to amplify a heartbeat.
(Don) This stethoscope is connected to one of the most elaborate political cover-ups in American history.
(Andrew) This is a story about secrecy, devoted love, and executive power.
(Don) 1919, Washington, D.
C.
After successfully leading the nation through World War I, President Woodrow Wilson is viewed as a forceful and passionate leader.
(Andrew) Wilson had a very large role at the negotiating table in France.
He was strong and vigorous.
(Don) More than anything, Wilson is known for his high public profile-- he is the first commander-in-chief to deliver the State of the Union address in person to Congress in over 100 years.
He holds twice-weekly press conferences in the White House, and he regularly attends international conferences around the globe.
Woodrow Wilson had been a very hands-on president, and he had a large role to play in the future of the world.
(Don) But on October 2nd, something strange happens.
President Wilson suddenly disappears from the public eye.
Without warning, members of the press are banned from entering the White House.
Even the Vice President, Thomas Marshall, finds his requests to speak with Wilson flatly denied.
(Andrew) In a single night, people who had had constant meetings with the president suddenly found themselves out in the cold.
No one is allowed to see the president.
(Don) First Lady Edith Wilson tells White House staff that the president prefers to work in private.
Despite his sudden withdrawal from view, in the weeks that follow, the presidents seems to be completing his normal tasks.
He authorizes the sale of wheat flour to Russia and Poland, issues a statement on a pending coal miners strike, and vetoes a bill that would enforce Prohibition.
But as months go by without any sightings of the president, tongues begin to wag.
(Andrew) Rumors abounded that the president was insane, had syphilis, or even that he was dead.
(Don) Although the president eventually attends cabinet meetings, quelling talk of his death, he makes no public appearances for the rest of his term and leaves office in 1921.
For decades, Wilson's strange withdrawal into the shadows remains a mystery, but nearly 70 years later, the stunning circumstances of his disappearance finally come to light.
It was scary that such a small circle of people could keep this secret from the American people.
(Don) So what really happened to Woodrow Wilson? Midway through his second term as president, Woodrow Wilson mysteriously withdraws from public view.
This strange disappearance of a national leader has confounded historians for decades, but new evidence is about to solve the riddle once and for all, and what the truth reveals is more disturbing than anyone could have imagined.
In the early 1990s, the personal diary of former White House physician, Dr.
Cary T.
Grayson, is released to the public, and it documents a shocking cover-up.
According to Grayson, it all began on October 2, 1919.
That morning, First Lady Edith Wilson discovers her husband collapsed outside their bathroom.
The president had a massive stroke.
(Don) Wilson is treated by Dr.
Grayson, but the episode leaves the president incapacitated.
He finds even commonplace activities, like reading or eating, to be extremely tiring.
After the stroke, he couldn't even hold a pen without help.
(Don) Wilson's road to full recovery seems uncertain, and Edith has no idea how long it will take.
And that leaves the First Lady with a desperate choice-- allow him to resign with his legacy incomplete or somehow hide his illness and keep her beloved husband in office.
Edith devises an audacious plan.
She tells the press that Wilson is voluntarily stepping out of the public eye to focus on his work.
But behind the scenes, she assumes many of the responsibilities of the highest office in the land herself.
Edith Wilson is able to keep the secret of her husband's condition throughout the rest of his presidency, and she is successful in that it keeps her husband in office.
Edith will read and evaluate the many issues and petitions sent to her husband, deciding when they should come before him and whether or not they require his approval.
During this time, Edith is actually serving as president.
(Don) Edith Wilson carries out a multitude of her husband's duties in secret until the end of his presidency.
(Andrew) Edith's role at this time was perhaps a little bit scary.
It also raises the question of whether Edith was right, putting her husband before the needs of the nation.
(Don) Right or wrong, Edith Wilson's actions earn her a unique place in history.
Some historians call Edith the first female president.
(Don) Today, this stethoscope belonging to White House physician, Dr.
Cary T.
Grayson, is on display at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.
It recalls a president's debilitating illness and the loyal First Lady who went above and beyond to protect her husband's legacy.
Washington, D.
C.
, is home to nearly 200 museums, celebrating everything from national politics to ancient art.
And one of its most intriguing institutions is the International Spy Museum.
Here, visitors can admire a traditional ninja costume, a model of the famous Trojan horse, and an Aston Martin driven by Great Britain's most famous secret agent, James Bond.
Alongside these technical marvels is a simpler but equally powerful tool of espionage.
(woman) The artifact is about eight inches by 11 inches.
It's flat.
There's a beautiful logo printed in a deep, dark red-brown, and it has elegant handwriting in French, a very attractive script.
(Don) The woman behind this letter is known as one of the most famous spies of all time.
But what few realize is that there's more to her tragic tale than meets the eye.
(Amanda) Her seductive powers had helped her rise to stardom but also led to her downfall.
(Don) 1917, France.
World War I is raging across northern Europe, pitting the Austro-Hungarian and German armies against the French, Russian, and British, and as the conflict rolls on, the casualties on the French side grow higher and higher.
World War I was horrific for France.
It is just bleeding out, and public morale is at such a low.
(Don) In the spring, the French military makes an announcement that seems to offer an explanation for why their army is losing so many men-- their campaign has been undermined by a spy.
The military says this informer was passing French secrets to the Germans but has finally been apprehended, and to everyone's amazement, the suspect is no ordinary spy.
In fact, she's one of the most well-known people in France, an exotic dancer named Margaretha Zelle MacLeod, better known as Mata Hari.
Mata Hari is one of the most famous women in Europe.
People found her captivating.
They could not take their eyes off of her.
(Don) The entertainer has fascinated the public for years with her seductive routines, flamboyant lifestyle, and whirlwind affairs.
She's traveling back and forth throughout Europe.
She enjoys having a good time, and she very much enjoys powerful men and officers, having a rather cosmopolitan life.
(Don) But according to the French police, Mata Hari's many liaisons had nothing to do with romance.
They say that she seduced military officials and tricked them into revealing top-secret information, everything from combat strategies to troop movements.
She would then pass the intelligence on to the Germans, who would use it to launch devastating attacks against the French, resulting in the deaths of thousands of soldiers.
(Amanda) It was said the evil that this woman has done is unimaginable.
(Don) The public is stunned.
In July, Mata Hari is made to face a military tribunal.
The dancer vehemently proclaims her innocence, but the evidence appears damning.
(Amanda) The authorities have telegrams that discuss the movements of a German spy, code name H21, and they seem to parallel Mata Hari's movements perfectly.
(Don) It takes just 45 minutes to find her guilty and sentence her to death.
On October 17th, Mata Hari is put before a firing squad.
A seductress to the end, she blows a kiss to the soldiers as they aim and fire.
[rifle shots.]
She was a performer to the last.
(Don) Mata Hari goes down as one of history's most notorious secret agents.
(Amanda) It was said that she was, perhaps, the greatest woman spy of the century.
(Don) But it seems that's not the end of the infamous siren's tale.
Decades after her execution, new evidence comes to light that flips the story of Mata Hari on its head-- so what's the truth behind this so-called seductive spy? It's 1917, France.
An exotic dancer named Mata Hari has been executed for espionage.
[rifle shots.]
Authorities claim she used her powers of seduction to persuade French officers into giving up top secret information, which she then passed on to the Germans.
But decades later, new information surfaces that sheds new light on the life and crimes of this beguiling star.
In 2001, the French government declassifies a series of documents from Mata Hari's case.
The papers reveal that the evidence used to convict her is not as clear-cut as it seemed in the trial.
In fact, the telegrams, the very proof that sealed Mata Hari's fate, don't show what the French government claimed at all.
Although they seem to accurately track her travels throughout Europe, none of them contain even a single French military secret.
(Amanda) There's no evidence that she passed any secrets to Germany.
(Don) Not only that, a closer look at the documents suggests that Mata Hari was, in fact, a spy for France.
The only evidence of her passing intelligence is information she got from Germany and then she gave to France, so she was really spying for the French.
(Don) The suspicious telegrams lead historians to a remarkable conclusion-- Mata Hari was framed.
But why would French officials have set up the celebrated dancer? Some believe that the French government needed to blame someone for their poor performance during World War I, and Mata Hari was the perfect scapegoat.
(Amanda) She's exotic, she's a foreigner, she sleeps with whoever she pleases.
It's easy for people to think that she would be a spy.
(Don) Whatever the truth, the siren's legacy endures.
(Amanda) Mata Hari really becomes the symbol for the femme fatale, the seductive female spy that can get information from anyone by using her charms.
(Don) Today, this letter that Mata Hari wrote to one of her many paramours is on display at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.
C.
It recalls the enigmatic beauty whose seductive powers may have led to her own demise.
New Bedford, Massachusetts.
In 1841, author Herman Melville sailed from this port city on the expedition that inspired his great American novel, Moby-Dick .
Today, the area's nautical history is showcased at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Here, visitors can view scrimshaw carvings from the 18th century, the skeleton of a baby blue whale, and the world's largest model whaling ship.
But one item here looks like it belongs not in a maritime museum but in a science fiction movie.
It's a metallic cylinder.
It's very thin.
It's about two and a half feet high, and it almost looks like a big bullet.
(Don) This strange instrument recalls a wondrous tale of adventure, exploration, and creatures from the deep.
This is a story of the incredible possibilities beneath the Earth's oceans.
[growling noises.]
(Don) 1997, Newport, Oregon.
Dr.
Christopher Fox is a veteran researcher for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
Their role is to monitor and do scientific study of the oceans and atmosphere.
(Don) One of NOAA's most powerful tools is a scientific instrument called the hydrophone.
The listening device, like this one in the collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, is a microphone designed for recording or monitoring sound underwater.
Most of the time, Fox and his fellow scientists pick up sounds of sea life or ships.
But one day, they hear something louder and stranger than anything they've heard before.
[deep whooshing noises.]
(Christina) They couldn't figure out what these sounds were.
It had not previously been recorded.
It actually sounded like a "bloop!" [deep whooshing noises.]
(Don) Fittingly, the scientists nickname the unusual sound the Bloop, and according to their data, it appears to originate from over 3,000 miles away.
Fox is astonished.
For a sound to travel such a distance, its source must be deafeningly loud.
When you find something so abnormal, it really gave people a lot of pause of what that could actually be.
(Don) The short, seemingly random sound pattern bears no similarities to the long, steady hum of submarines or other man-made machines, and it doesn't match the pattern that would be expected from an underwater earthquake, volcano, or other geological phenomena.
It was unknown where the sound was coming from.
(Don) With these simple explanations ruled out, a more remote, even outlandish possibility, emerges-- that the sound could be emanating from some kind of unknown sea creature.
[growling noises.]
With 95 percent of the Earth's oceans still unexplored, it's believed there are many underwater species yet to be discovered.
We know more about the surface of Mars and the moon than we know about the floors of the sea.
There is life down there, and we don't necessarily know what it is.
(Don) But for a marine animal to make a noise as powerful as the Bloop, it would have to be gargantuan in size.
A blue whale, the largest known living creature on the planet, emits a call that's more deafening than a jet plane.
And based on his calculations, Fox estimates that the Bloop is three times as loud.
If we were to consider that this monster's about three times the size of a blue whale, it probably would've been the length of about eight to nine school buses.
(Don) So is this thunderous sound really coming from a giant, undiscovered sea creature? [growling noises.]
It's 1997.
Dr.
Christopher Fox and a team of researchers have recorded an underwater sound in the Pacific Ocean.
They've named it the Bloop.
The sound is one of the loudest and most powerful ever recorded, leading some to suspect the source may be a giant marine creature that's never been seen before.
So is there some massive, mysterious beast lurking in the deep? When rumors of a colossal, unidentified animal living in the ocean hit the press, imaginations run wild.
(Christina) People are thinking, "Well, maybe there's a giant monster under the sea that we just don't know about," and it's a lot of speculation.
(Don) Fox and his fellow researchers continue to monitor the Bloop for weeks, but they cannot determine what is making the thunderous sound.
Then, suddenly, it stops.
And now that it's gone, it seems that finding the source of the strange sound will be impossible.
No one hears the Bloop for years.
Then, in 2008, scientists in the Antarctic are monitoring acoustic activity when they pick up the same unusually powerful sound, and this time, whatever is making it appears to be close by.
(Christina) This phenomenon happened again, and it happened to be recorded closer to their source.
(Don) The researchers methodically search the region, yet they find no trace of a large marine creature.
But they do notice an interesting natural phenomenon that might solve the mystery once and for all.
They witness large glaciers moving and breaking apart, a geologic process known as cavving.
So the glaciers were moving, and these have unique sounds.
It was loud, and it wasn't terribly long, and it wasn't rhythmic.
(Don) The noise created by the friction between the enormous slabs of ice is identical to the one first picked up by Fox and his team at NOAA.
It had a similar signature, similar frequency, and similar volume to what they had heard in the '90s, so this actually was a sound made by ice breaking apart and not by an underwater sea creature.
(Don) Scientists believe that glacial cavving is the most likely source of the Bloop.
Still, many continue to wonder what unknown, magnificent creatures lurk in the deep.
(Christina) There's so much left to explore, and we don't really know what else we're gonna find.
(Don) Today, this hydrophone, used to detect underwater sounds, is on display at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts.
It recalls the maritime mystery and the Bloop heard round the world.
From a famous Founding Father to a pioneering First Lady.
A terror in the skies to a monster at sea.
I'm Don Wildman, and these are the mysteries at the museum.