Good for her., The treasure-hunting schoolteachers back garden For these, the Shinto priests communicated to those with eyes to see in a different language of symbols to that of the military treasure sites, as I would soon discover. #673 Jim Hawkins, the protagonist of Robert Louis Stevenson 's 1881 novel, Treasure Island. The only way to recover his body was via helicopter. I was intrigued, and worried for him, and a little for myself. Conventional military site treasure symbols. Its going to be dusty, dirty, and there are going to be rodents and spiders, and were probably going to find the gold bars lying on the floor down there somewhere., McDougald said he based his belief that treasure exists on the material that his group is using to locate the site--World War II-era Japanese maps and later engineering drawings and photographs supplied by Curtis. The six-hundred-pound gorilla at the site was a guy whose mother had been alive when the Japanese had arrived and asked if they could create a tunnel complex in their back garden for the purpose of depositing large quantities of boxes. Andrew Gough. Of course it does, I added. Cathcart said his team researched Roxass claims for seven years before concluding that there was a sound legal case. Goodness knows, hes close. In the process I sought to confirm that Japanese treasure hoards in the Philippines were not only real, they were about to be unveiled in all their glory. Years after his disappearance, he was assumed to be dead. Seagrave describes the event like the master storyteller that he was: As the evening progressed, they drank great quantities of sake, sang patriotic songs and shouted Banzai (long life) over and over. Now they moved with a kinetic energy I had never experienced before. That fact doesnt stop thousands of people from trying to beat the odds. I was intrigued, if not humoured by his attitude, and his attire. Cathcart replied without hesitation, as though it were yesterday, and proceeded to list several witnesses who had, in fact, collaborated Roxass story: Ken Cheatham: an American GI who was stationed at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines in the 1970s. No autopsy was performed, despite Cathcarts request, and the official cause of death was ruled as tuberculosis. 0000005407 00000 n 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. In the morning we drove to the University of the Philippines Diliman for the last interview of the trip: the Universitys renowned Second World War historian, Ricardo T. Jose, PhD. Roxas estimated the golden buddha to have weighed one metric tonne and thus, with considerable difficulty, he transported it to his home where he placed it in a spare bedroom and covered it with a blanket. I went for a walk around campus and when I returned the production manager politely asked me to join them, as they were about to begin, and so I did. When he walked back to Dametzs spot only fifteen minutes later, the doctor was gone. They were apparitions; ghost soldiers. Henry proudly highlights the victorious Roxas v Marcos Supreme Court case However, it was not until she had purchased a third new car that the authorities became suspicious, and she swiftly fled, never to be heard of again. We added each other on Skype and began a custom of speaking most days. People named Bob Curtis. But then, at 11 p.m. on Feb. 22, the tunnel caved in, killing two Filipino workers and focusing national attention on the depth of McDougalds undertaking. This technique was true for most of the Japanese military treasure sites; that is, those that contained predominantly gold bullion. I stuffed a generous amount of notes into a contribution vase, said goodbye to Klaus and headed for the airport, via a cobra farm. Finally, in the spring of 1970 Roxas and his team identified the tunnel area entrance and began an arduous seven-month excavation. Torn Treasure Map 1: On the far left side of the map, at the start of the Little Creek River, inside a drawer of a wooden hut. Bob had not heard his friend get up, and his jacket was sitting on the ground. Roxass bodyguards were forced to lie on the floor at gunpoint, along with the rest of the Roxas family, while Marcoss men confiscated not only the golden buddha and the precious stones that had filled its retractable head, but the remaining seventeen gold bars, samurai swords, old coins, and even his childrens piggy bank. When McDougald replied that he does, Maceda asked wryly, Well, the publicity about all this is not going to hurt your book, is it?, McDougald leaned forward, smiled and replied, No sir, I dont think so.. Could these mysterious deaths have been murder, or as some believe, could something supernatural have been afoot? Part of me understood why the director struggled with the filming, and ultimately did a poor job. She watched it and became convinced that I was the one that the spirit of Roxas had alluded to. I thought to myself with some alarm. I was not surprised by their rejections. The sudden, tragic death of Roxas overshadowed the trial, but did not negatively impact the outcome. Robert Hunter, the longtime lyricist for Grateful Dead, died on Sept. 23, 2019; he was 78. The idea is that during Japan's imperialist phase before World War II, they looted every country throughout Asia that they invaded, melted down all that booty into ingots of pure gold, and buried it all in Philippine strongholds to wait out the end of the war. Curtis, who is now in the Philippines but insists that McDougald act as his spokesman, says that he and 10 other Americans successfully conducted a similar treasure hunt under the regime of Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1975 but fled for their lives after locating a huge buried Japanese vault on the outskirts of Manila that McDougald said contained $8 billion in bullion. Another of Roxass helpers was the American, John Ballinger, who had fought in a guerrilla unit in the region during the war. We started filming after 11pm and finished at 2am; hardly condusive to peak performance, but it was nice of the director to squeeze me in. 0000002983 00000 n One mans wallet was apparently thrown near his remains. Best known as lyricist for some of the best known Jerry Garcia / Grateful Dead songs and his various collaborations with Bob Dylan. Klaus jumped out of his sidecar. Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, 6 Mar. Andrew Gough. I followed Klaus down the third descending vertical shaft only to find myself standing in nearly a foot of water. The book is full of errors that could easily be corrected by a second-year student of the language Another author, Donald Gillin, felt compelled to devote an entire book to debunking the Seagraves' version of history. Despite the impressive testimonials, I smelled a rat. The caretaker had lost fingers and toes from chemicals released in the treasure site Cobra blood is thought to contain vital regenerative qualities and is said to bond the drinker to the cobra family 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. Andrew Gough. You must be about two hundred and ten to fifteen feet deep. Dunning, B. For three years, people searched for Jesse and could not find any trace of his remains. Dametz was in poor health, so he needed help from McSherry to get to his digging spot, a small sandy pit in the middle of the forest. 1 Mar 2023. Whatever I had expected a Japanese tunnel system to be was wrong or at least greatly miscalculated. I know nothing, he said humbly. Beyond that is where the cyanide is hidden.. Their relationship was complex to say the least. I protested and attempted to leave a second time, but was restrained. In the background I continued to promote a treatment I had written for a reality TV show, that I would present, that would feature the quest for Japanese treasure in the Philippines, and sent it to all the usual history shows and their production companies. In fact, in Klauss humble village there was a new cemetery under construction when I visited the first time that would make Forest Lawn blush with envy. The doomed engineers had installed booby traps at each of the one hundred and seventy-five treasure sites either explosives and/or cyanide. Affiliation ASCAP Comments Singer-songwriter, poet, translator and occasionally recording artist, born Robert Burns. Within seconds the cyanide had travelled to the surface and killed everyone in the vicinity. He seemed to revel in the horror of the story. They rapidly constructed complex tunnel systems that led to vaults constructed deep underground. And, of course, Marcoss men went even deeper to reclaim the real gold bullion reserve. In the middle of the night, at approximately 2.30am, there was a knock at the door; Marcoss thugs had arrived eight in total all armed with machine guns. Marcos was overthrown in February, 1986, and Mr. Curtis began making overtures to the new government soon after, McDougald said last week, adding that he got involved in Curtis new venture while researching a book he plans to write on hidden wealth in the Philippines. I was not able to track down any good information explaining why the judge upheld the Golden Buddha Corporation's claim against Marcos, but it certainly wouldn't be the first time a court of law made a ruling that was not in harmony with true science or the true history of a case. The pillbox at Baguio Hospital I scaled the second descending passage with slightly greater confidence and speed than the first, and as I arrived at the bottom and crept along the next tunnel passage to where Klaus was standing, I was amazed to see that the floor and walls were perfectly smooth. Allan Quatermain, a hunter and adventurer, the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard 's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines. Cathcart recounted how, on 24 May 1993, he had spoken to Roxas and had informed him that he would be escorted on a flight from Manila to Honolulu the next day. To this day, the gold miners have not been found.[6]. As we walked between sites with the camera crew, Klaus pointed out the many Japanese treasure symbols in the landscape. I knew only a little about the story, let alone the fact that Peggy and her husband Sterling were the worlds most prolific experts on the subject, and had documented the whole sordid affair in their seminal book, Gold Warriors; Americas Secret Recovery of Yamashitas Gold. In 2015, IBM UK had their annual kick-off meeting in Los Angeles, and so I took the opportunity to visit Amelia. He failed 0000000796 00000 n None of the prospecting equipment had been taken. How to Extract Adrenochrome from Children, Why You Needn't Worry About the Missing 411. The point being, Klaus was now very close. Imelda Marcoss mother had been a big fan of the healer. Valmores was entrusted with detailed maps of each of the 175 treasure sites, a privilege that President Marcos would later exploit. See Photos. Since that day, the location has been known as Headless Creek in Deadmen Valley. In 2009, he finally decided to take a month off work to go after his dream. Cathcart recounted how one afternoon a notice was sent to law offices across the country, detailing how a Filipino locksmith was suing his president, Ferdinand Marcos, for having stolen a golden buddha and assorted treasure that he had discovered in the Philippines. This included dismissing cyanide as a poison that can travel through the air, and numerous character attacks on Seagrave and Curtis. He was now finding leaves in the tunnel backfill; actual leaves from a Streblus asper tree, known in the Philippines as bogtalay, that had been placed in the German cement as the Japanese backfilled the tunnels. I was excited to hear what Jose had to say about Japanese treasure in the Philippines, but was informed by the director that my presence was not welcome in the interview room. At two hundred and fifteen feet Klaus was literally on the doorstep of a discovery. Roxas claimed that some 25 years earlier, using a map given to him by the son of a Japanese soldier, he and a team of friends discovered a cave filled with gold, including a golden Buddha, plus the skeletons of the soldiers and engineers who had been sealed inside. 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]. Roxass wife was particularly keen to speak. Marcos had whet his now insatiable appetite for gold and the riches and power that it brought. 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. 0000001059 00000 n The intense publicity, he said, attracts curiosity seekers, it attracts other treasure hunters, and quite frankly we dont have the time to spare.. One day, he got into his car and drove away. Henrys pride and respect for his father touched us all. Slowly putting his ruined life back together, he moved from Reno to Las Vegas . Andrew Gough. These sites were protected by ancient rituals performed by Shinto priests. Jose was clearly a wind-up-and-go type of historian. Each time Curtis was requested by Marcos to select a new site to excavate, Valmores was dispatched to provide the treasure map. 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