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Many soldiers were told to keep this secret, and many, many did. The government wanted to protect their military intelligence, so the Ghost Army's successes stayed secret for over 50 years. But, behind the smoke and mirrors was something far more lasting. The Ghost Army's disguises and deception shielded real soldiers, diverted enemy fire, and saved an estimated 30,000 lives. In 1878, a man on his deathbed named John St. Helen confesses an astonishing secret. He claims to be Abraham Lincoln's killer, John Wilkes Booth, and says he faked his death, escaping capture. The man explains that after assassinating Lincoln, he escaped through southern Maryland, hidden in the back of a wagon, and slipped back into Virginia.
However, at one point, in order to avoid capture, St. Helen abandoned the wagon and fled into the woods. But, in doing so, he lost his diary. St. Helen says he sent a messenger, a Confederate soldier known only as Ruddy, back for the diary. Ruddy collected it, but then panicked upon seeing the Union troops and fled to a nearby barn, where he apparently ended up alongside fellow Confederate conspirator David Herold. St. Helen says it was his messenger who was shot and killed in the barn that night. But, because the man resembled him and carried his diary, it led Union troops to mistakenly identify the messenger as Booth.
St. Helen said in the years that followed, he assumed various aliases, constantly on the move to avoid capture. I need to show you something. After telling this extraordinary tale to Finis Bates, St. Helen presents an original photograph of John Wilkes Booth as proof, implying that only the real Booth would possess such a picture. But, that's far from the end of this twisted tale. Following his dramatic deathbed confession that he is John Wilkes Booth, St. Helen recovers and promptly disappears. Bates keeps the photograph, but it would be another 25 years in 1903 before he sees St. Helen again.
Only this time, the man is definitely dead. Bates says he came across a newspaper article from Enid, Oklahoma, describing how a local mortuary had the preserved body of a drifter. The newspaper also reported the deceased man had been living under the name David E. George, but before he died, claimed to be John Wilkes Booth. One look at the photo of David E. George and Bates was certain it was the same man he'd met years earlier in Texas, John St. Helen.
A few years later, Bates actually buys the corpse just as he's preparing to publish a book detailing the wild tale of Booth's escape and secret life. With the mummified body in tow and a sensational story to promote, Bates is ready to take his show on the road. For the next 70 years, the so-called Booth mummy takes to the stage, touring America with multiple circus productions, often with the less than subtle billing, "See the man who murdered Lincoln." The attraction even makes it to the World's Fair. The mummy is a hit, but is there any shred of truth to its origin? Author James Singer has studied the legend closely.
What's remarkable to me is how many people genuinely believed that John Wilkes Booth did not die in that barn. Was there a government conspiracy to suppress the fact that Booth really didn't die on April 26th, 1865? A lot of people believed there was. Enough people probably believed and were suspicious of the government because toward the end of the Civil War before Abraham Lincoln was killed, it was a very hard-handed regime. In order to win this war, Abraham Lincoln first had to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. Can't have a trial if you're a traitor, you get hauled off to jail. And then we have General William Tecumseh Sherman marching from Memphis to the sea and literally destroying much of the Confederacy.
And so to believe that government was not trustworthy, I don't think was such a far reach for a lot of people. And let's be real. It would have been a terrible look for the Union if Lincoln's killer had just slipped away. But Singer isn't buying the conspiracy. Why? Because the soldiers at Garrett farms swore up and down they knew exactly who they had. And other experts also corroborated it was John Wilkes Booth. When we are looking at Finis Bates's theory that John Wilkes Booth escaped not just the burning barn, but death, it doesn't add up because there were credible witnesses called to come to the Montauk and identify the body.
Dr. John Frederick May was a renowned Washington D.C. physician who had removed a fibroid tumor from Booth's neck about 3 months before the assassination and it left quite a vivid scar. And May allegedly said, "That's the scar. That's the person I operated on. Unmistakable in his opinion. Charles Dawson, who was a clerk at the National Hotel where Booth stayed, when he first saw the body of John Wilkes Booth, he said, "Oh my goodness, on the right hand between the thumb and finger was a tattoo with the initials JWB tattooed in India ink. And young Dawson said, "That's the tattoo I've seen repeatedly when Booth signed the guest register."
These were ordinary folks. It would be highly unlikely that the official autopsy of record would be part of some overreaching conspiracy. It's 1847. The rescue of the Forlorn Hope marks a turning point, triggering coordinated efforts to reach the remaining members of the Donner Party snowed in at remote camps. The first rescue team sets out to find the stranded pioneers at Truckee Lake, and amazingly, they managed to evacuate 23 survivors, including Margaret Reed. But heartbreak shadows the mission.
James and Margaret's two youngest children are too weak to travel and must be left behind. At nearby Alder Creek, the outlook is just as grim. George Donner is deathly ill, and his wife Tamsen refuses to leave with the rescuers. Those rescuers can only promise to send more help when they can, and hope it will arrive in time. Two weeks later, a second rescue team arrives, but this time, they're met with a nightmarish reality. At Truckee Lake, the remaining pioneers had turned to cannibalism, just like the Forlorn Hope Party had done first at the Camp of Death weeks earlier. Still, the team rescues 17 more people, including the two Reed children their mother was forced to leave behind. But George Donner can't be saved. He
dies of infection. And Tamsen Donner's body is later found near the camp alongside chilling evidence that George's brother Jacob may have been their final meal. Of the 87 who set out in the Donner party, 48 survived, 39 were lost. Also lost was the exact location where much of the tragedy played out. The place where the group known as Forlorn Hope first turned to cannibalism. So in 2022, I joined historical researchers Bob Crowley and Tim Twietmeyer on a trek into the Sierras for the seemingly impossible task of finding the camp of death. By following the route of the Forlorn Hope through the Sierra Nevadas and using clues to the terrain they left behind in diary entries, we identify an area of interest in what is
today California's Tahoe National Forest and fan out with metal detectors. One survivor wrote in his diary that they had left many items behind, including his hand ax. We knew we were hunting for a needle or a hand ax in a haystack. But then, it happened. Oop. Hold on. You got something? Yeah, yeah, we got a hit. Something here for sure. It sounds like metal. What did you find? Oh my word. Look at that. It's what we're looking for. Unbelievable.
Greg, what do you think? Wow, fantastic. Amazing. Yeah, that is that a hand forged ax. This is wild. I mean could this really be? And if this is that axe, then we're standing in the camp of death. No doubt about that. Amazing. Unearthing the axe head was astonishing. Finally, a tangible link to the lost camp of the Donner Party. But we found no trace of the bodies of those that died at the camp of death. Recently, Bob and Tim returned to the site we found, and this time they brought cadaver dogs. Canine forensics is a way of uh training a dog to search out and find human remains that have been buried for decades, if not centuries. When we decided we wanted to try to do a search
at the camp of death, uh we contacted the Institute for Canine Forensics. And they connected us with John Greathouse Kemper and his dog Kaylee, and the forensics search began. As the dog searches in a pattern uh where it's directed, it's kind of say, "Here's an area I need you to search." Kaylee's wandering around sniffing and sitting and wandering, and John's marking these spots with his GPS. In the end, when they searched for an hour or two, she had like 25 alerts. So, then when you map that at a high level, you can see the concentration of where each of the finds was made scattered around in some of the edges of the search pattern. There's definitely something out there that we wouldn't see somewhere
else. And we just kind of looked at each other like, "Oh, wow." It became very clear to us that this was the location that we were looking for. A subsequent search with a different cadaver dog confirmed the findings. There were human remains at the site, and it turns out it's less than 30 ft from where we discovered the axe head. The place known as the camp of death had at last been found. Deep in a remote area in the North Fork American River Canyon of Tahoe National Forest.
The courage and sacrifice that took place at this long lost location is what saved the rest of the Donner party. We did the calculation and that saved 25 additional lives, which when we did the actuarial table of descendants is 25,000 people that were born because of the bravery of what they'd done. A lot of people have asked us what are we going to do next at the Camp of Death and we have been in touch with many of the descendants of those in the Forlorn Hope and I think they were joyful to learn that we believe we found the Camp of Death and for those that were descendants of those that perished there, it gave them closure, peace of mind. We're going to leave it at that. In World War II, the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, a secret American unit
nicknamed the Ghost Army, has been thwarting the Nazis with theatrical military illusions. Now, after surviving an actual enemy attack, they face their most daunting mission yet. Deceive the Germans while 40,000 Allied troops slip across the Rhine River. The Ghost Army attempts the impossible, simulating a force of 40,000 using diversion tactics first honed during Operation Boisonneault, now deployed in a new mission known as Operation Viersen. It's a highly sophisticated ruse carefully designed to convince the Germans that the real 30th and 79th divisions aren't going anywhere. On the front lines, artists like Bernie Bluestein and Art Kane set up their usual inflatable tanks and fake artillery.
Nearby, sound effects artists get to work blasting fake infantry noises from specially designed speakers. Meanwhile, radio operators establish fake communication networks known as spoof radio designed to mimic the equipment and broadcast frequencies used by the real 30th and 79th divisions. Amazingly, it works. Thanks to the efforts of Bluestein, Cain, Jarvie, and many others, the Germans take the bait. Thinking they are a much bigger division, the Germans attack the 23rd. And while the Germans are distracted, the real 30th and 79th Allied divisions cross the Rhine River 10 miles north with almost no resistance. The Ghost
Army has helped win a critical victory, but at enormous personal risk. German artillery directed at the 23rd crashes dangerously close, damaging equipment as shells land within 400 yards. Miraculously, no one is killed. A narrow escape that underscores just how exposed the Ghost Army truly was, and how much they risked to protect others. Two months later, the Germans surrender. The war in Europe is over. But then, the mystery really begins because seemingly, living up to its name, the Ghost Army vanishes.
They didn't march home to medals, ticker tape parades, or cheering crowds. Just a quiet return to civilian life. Their wartime exploits kept under wraps. In fact, the unit wasn't technically declassified until 1996. But even then, their stories remained buried in the archives. In 2005, historian Rick Beyer learns of the Ghost Army and their stunning successes and makes it his mission to share their heroics with the world. I came to the Ghost Army story 20 years ago. When I started digging into this, I thought, "Oh my god, this might be one of the best stories of all time." It's like, "Well, wait a minute.
You're saying that the US Army had a unit that had blow up tanks, that they went out and used them on the front lines against the Germans multiple times, fooled the enemy, they were never found out, and then it was all hushed up after the war. And I have talked to so many people who were in the army in World War II and who didn't know anything about this. Many soldiers were told to keep this secret, and many, many did. The government wanted to protect their military intelligence, so the Ghost Army's successes stayed secret for over 50 years. But behind the smoke and mirrors was something far more lasting. The Ghost Army's disguises and deception shielded real soldiers, diverted enemy fire, and saved an estimated 30,000 lives.
Grant Leslie is a new intern for South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle. For her, it's just another Monday doing her routine task of collecting and sorting the incoming mail. One envelope stands out, written in what looks like a child's handwriting. It's postmarked from Trenton, New Jersey. She opens it, accidentally unleashing terror. [cough] A fine white powder bursts into the air. Within minutes, an evacuation is ordered and the building is locked down. The fine powder continues spreading, floating through corridors and ventilation systems, traveling hundreds
of feet into surrounding offices. Leslie is taken to a secure area, placed under quarantine, and started on a powerful course of antibiotics. At this point, nobody knows exactly what's inside the envelope, but hours later, the tests will confirm it's anthrax. These microscopic particles are toxic spores that attack the body, destroy tissue, and overwhelm the immune system. Anthrax is so lethal that just breathing it in can be fatal without treatment. And the office of Senator Daschle is not the only target. A week earlier, anthrax spores were sent to the Florida offices of the National Enquirer. Anthrax-laced letters also arrived at NBC, ABC, CBS, and the New York Post.
By the end of November, five people will be dead. A photo editor at American Media Inc., two postal workers in Washington, D.C., a New York hospital employee, and an elderly woman in Connecticut. All attacked through cross-contaminated mail. 17 more will become infected, and tens of thousands placed on antibiotics out of fear of possible exposure. Investigators fear that this is another coordinated terrorist attack just like 9/11. And the letters included with the anthrax seem to confirm it, referencing the fateful date alongside statements like death to America. To understand what they're up against,
the FBI turns to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Maryland. One of the first to see the powder up close is microbiologist Dr. Bruce Ivins, a top army anthrax expert. He notes that the sample is a dry, ultra-fine powder, so light it practically floats in the bag. His conclusion? This isn't the product of some amateur. It's an expertly crafted biological weapon. The powder is sent to a specialized lab in Arizona, where scientists identify it as the particularly virulent Ames strain of anthrax.
First isolated in 1981, this particular strain was distributed only to a handful of military and government labs for vaccines and biological defense research. This revelation sends shockwaves through the investigation. Instead of an organized terrorist network, the evidence now suggests that this was an inside job. In a horrifying irony, it seems one of the very labs tasked with preventing anthrax from being used as a weapon, instead unleashed it. The FBI builds a profile of the suspect. Perhaps a scientist with access to the Ames strain of anthrax. But also someone isolated, obsessive, and fueled by grievance.
The envelopes were postmarked in Trenton, New Jersey. So, the FBI and postal inspectors launch an exhaustive operation swabbing more than 600 mailboxes in the region. And eventually, they'll get a hit. This mailbox in nearby Princeton tests positive for anthrax. So, this is where the attack began. But who is the mastermind behind it?
