Strange Evidence (2017–…): Season 5, Episode 1 - Nuclear Demon Monkey - full transcript
Narrator: Worldwide,
36 billion cameras
are watching us on our streets,
at work, and in our homes.
They capture things
that seem impossible.
Science says this
shouldn't happen.
Woman: Do you say that?
Narrator: Experts carry
out forensic analysis
of these unusual events.
Wow.
What a blast.
This doesn't make sense.
There has to be some
sort of explanation.
What else is going on here?
Narrator: Coming up, in brazil,
a door to the land of the dead.
This is what
nightmares are made of.
Narrator: Is this adolf
hitler's final act of revenge?
Could this be one of
hitler's unexploded bombs?
Pull!
Narrator: And is
america being invaded--
narrator: --By an
african super predator?
They snatched a two-year-old
child, literally tore his arms
off, and pulled out his kidney.
Narrator: Bizarre phenomena.
Oh my gosh.
Ah!
Narrator: Mysteries
caught on camera.
What's the truth behind
this strange evidence?
Curitiba, a city
in southern brazil.
March 13, 2017, 2:30 am.
[thunder]
two security guards on patrol
in a municipal building
investigate a disturbance
in the basement.
They begin to film.
Greg szulgit: You
can imagine what's
going through these
security guards' heads.
This is like a nightmare.
They're patrolling
an empty building,
and the lights in this hallway
are flashing off and on.
Suddenly there's this
door in the distance making
an ominous banging sound.
And the banging repeats.
The night is punctuated
by this slamming sound
of a metal door
opening and closing
and opening and closing.
[banging]
narrator: Locals
claim the building has
a disturbing past, a past
that's left some kind
of angry ghostly presence.
Greg szulgit: Bam, bam, bam.
Then as they approach
and get really close,
the door stops moving.
Narrator: Then total darkness.
The shaken guards
refuse to discuss
their experience in public.
I wouldn't be surprised
if one of these guys
needed a new pair of underwear.
Narrator: Historian
tony mcmahon discovers
that belief in the supernatural
in this area of brazil
is common.
More than 1 in 10 people claim
to be able to communicate
with the dead.
Mysticism and magic are
very strong in brazil,
and there's a huge belief in
something called [portuguese],,
a kind of form of voodoo.
And with this is a
sense that the dead
can exert a malign and evil
influence over the living.
Narrator: Believers claim
angry spirits can bring
illness, misfortune, and death.
Even the country's
leaders are said
to dabble in this dark art.
In 2017, acting president michel
temer and his beauty queen
first lady are driven
from their palace
by what they describe
as evil spirits.
In the [portuguese]
belief system,
a dead person could be
trying to signal their deep
unhappiness through the slamming
of a door, as in this instance.
[banging]
narrator: But
professional magician
ben nemzer is suspicious.
Ben nemzer: It got faster and
faster and louder and louder
as the guy got closer.
And as a magician,
I don't believe
in coincidences like that.
It has to be that
there was someone
trying to scare those people.
Narrator: Explorer george
kourounis wonders if this could
be a sign of criminal activity.
Locals believe that there
are violent spirits living
in the basement
of this building,
but it might all just be
a smokescreen for a much
more sinister practice.
One of the most vile crimes
that we see in this area
is the illicit organ trade.
Narrator: In brazil,
almost 10 million
people live in extreme poverty.
Desperate brazilians
earning under $2 a day
advertise their kidneys
online for up to $10,000.
Illegally trafficked organs
make up 1 in 10 transplants,
netting crooks almost
$2 billion a year.
In 2012, a woman advertises
her kidney for sale,
but she's so
desperate she updates
the post to add
part of her liver,
her corneas, and one lung.
But not all organs are
given up voluntarily.
Over 8 million children
live or work on the streets.
Charities claim helpless
kids are increasingly
the target of organ thieves.
A building like this is a
great place for organized crime
to base their
appalling operations,
including the harvesting
of children's organs.
Narrator: But
investigators discover
no reported criminal
activity in the building.
Greg szulgit: The
doors not just, like,
blowing in the wind.
Something must be
moving in forcefully.
Narrator: Greg szulgit
investigates weather reports
and discovers a
huge thunderstorm
hits the town on the night
of the supposed haunting.
The flickering lights
might suggest that there's
something electrical going on.
Narrator: Brazilian
lightning strikes kill
over a hundred people a year.
Electrical engineer
david wallace
wants to know if it's
possible for electrical storms
this fierce to create
poltergeist-like effects
on inanimate objects, such as
the metal door in the basement.
This area of brazil
averages over 80% humidity,
meaning the air is
saturated with water.
So when you have
dense, humid air,
you have the possibility
of conducting
electricity through it.
Narrator: Wallace and his
team test if electrical charge
in the dense, wet
area of the basement
could cause the door to
somehow swing on its hinges.
To mimic the door
in the footage,
they set up a negatively
charged sheet of aluminum foil
next to a positively
charged metal plate
representing the door frame.
We will run a voltage on
this plate, and we will see,
will it pull the
door to the plate?
And we'll see if we can recreate
what I am seeing in the video.
Energize.
Narrator: Coming up,
a deadly energy lurks
in the air of the basement.
Is it a physical
phenomena that's
there or some unseen force?
We need to find out.
Narrator: And is this--
[explosion]
--the nazis' last revenge?
That was quite a bang.
[thunder]
narrator: In brazil in
a municipal building
that is said to
be haunted, a door
is filmed slamming by itself.
Electrical engineer david
wallace fixes up an experiment
to see if the
region's electrically
charged atmosphere
is causing this
poltergeist-like phenomenon.
He charges his generator
with high voltage.
I actually have a 100,000-volt
generator sitting right here.
Ok, let's get right to
energize the system here.
Energize.
Narrator: 30,000 volts
course through the plane,
pulling the foil
toward the charge.
David wallace: Take it off.
So here we see something
very similar to what
we saw on the video.
I have a metal plate
inside a metal fixture.
And as I increase
the voltage, what we
see as the higher
the voltage goes,
it actually pulls the plate
over towards the fixture,
just like we saw in the video.
Narrator: Wallace shows it's
possible for an electrically
charged atmosphere to swing
a piece of metal haunted
house-style on its hinges.
But when engineer jon
farrow studies the plans
of the building, he
notices its air shouldn't
become electrically charged.
Buildings in
this part of brazil
are designed to carry
lightning from the top
down into the ground, and
this is called grounding.
Narrator: Lightning rods carry
the massive electrical strikes
around the outside of buildings
and stop metal objects getting
charged with high voltage.
If the system is
broken, the people
inside will be left
dangerously exposed
to deadly lightning strikes.
But until the security guards
reveal more details about what
they saw that night, the
cause of the slamming door
remains a mystery.
I don't care what the
security guards are being paid.
It's not enough.
Narrator: Now, the southern
russian city of volgograd.
August 10, 2020, 12:40 pm.
Rush-hour traffic
comes to a halt
as a sinister black cloud
rises above the road.
A local man captures
the event on his phone.
We're looking down the road.
In the distance, we
see smoke rising.
Narrator: And then.
[explosion]
martin morgan: Kaboom.
This fireball looks like it goes
300 or 400 feet into the sky.
[bleep]
he's clearly so
mesmerized by the explosion
that he doesn't realize
his life is in danger
and he should get out of there.
This is a
cataclysmic explosion,
and it's coming towards you.
Narrator: And this
is no ordinary blast.
This doesn't look like
a regular explosion.
It's building energy
with every second.
Narrator: Locals fear
their city is under attack.
This looks like something
out of a war movie.
Narrator: Historian
craig gottlieb discovers
volgograd used to be known by a
different, more infamous name.
This explosion is in
volgograd, which during world
war ii used to be stalingrad.
Narrator: August 23, 1942.
Adolf hitler orders
his feared 6th
army and 4th panzer division
to take the city by any means.
Russia's leader joseph
stalin commands his red army
to halt the nazi
advance at all costs.
It's the single-deadliest
battle in world history.
The nazis
surrounded stalingrad,
starving the population.
Stalin was so intent
on winning this battle
that he kept the
civilians in the city
and refused to allow
them to escape.
Why?
Because he figured
that his forces
would fight harder if
civilian lives were at stake.
Narrator: Stalin's
brutal order might
have motivated his troops, but
it comes at a terrible price.
But in those months that
stretch between August
and February, the
city of stalingrad
is turned into hell on earth.
Narrator: 2 million soldiers
and civilians die in the battle
for control of stalingrad.
And even today, mass
graves are still
being discovered in the
city, many containing
hundreds of skeletons.
But bodies are not the only
horror being unearthed.
So is a deadly legacy
of the luftwaffe.
The bombing was so intense
that the nazis flew over 10,000
bombing missions over the city.
Seeing a massive
explosion like this,
there's the
possibility that we're
looking at an unexploded bomb
from the second world war.
[explosion]
[bleep]
narrator: Hitler ultimately
lost the battle of stalingrad,
but his ability to
kill russian citizens
continues decades later.
Jeff wise: You
know, the chemicals
that these bombs are made out
of over time deteriorate, decay.
Then just, you know,
out of nowhere, boom.
Narrator: Matt
kutcher is a hollywood
pyrotechnic and ballistics
expert with over
two decades' experience.
In this city of
stalingrad, we know
that hitler dropped a
thousand tons of explosives
in just one day.
Quite often we find that
ordinance that hasn't exploded,
it's usually been buried.
Narrator: Matt's been looking
at original blueprints
of nazi ordnance.
Ok, son, be careful.
What we're going
to have to do here
is create our own hitler bomb.
All right.
Narrator: This is a recreation
of a nazi high-explosive bomb.
Over a million were manufactured
during world war ii.
We're going to place it
under the ground subterranean.
All right, grab
some shovels, son.
Right about here is good.
We're going to
attach charges to it,
and we're going to blow it
up and see if that type of ho
explosion, a high
order explosion,
matches what we
see in this video.
Narrator: Coming
up, can matt kutcher
discover the truth behind
this devastating explosion?
[explosion]
3, 2, 1, go.
Oh, that's a blast
from the past.
Narrator: And has
a mississippi swamp
become planet of the apes?
I'm thinking it's going to
come over and rip me to shreds.
[explosion]
[bleep]
narrator: Volgograd, russia, is
rocked by a massive explosion.
Pyrotechnics expert matt
kutcher has built and buried
a replica nazi bomb to see
if the blast in the footage
was caused by a piece
of unexploded ordinance
dropped by adolf hitler.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go.
[bleep]
that's a blast from the past.
All right, let's
go see what we did.
I actually saw the shockwave
from my naked eye up there.
I was able to see
the initial burst,
and then the wave come
traveling and went up and out.
Yeah, it was very cool.
Narrator: Matt analyzes the
footage of the volgograd blast
and compares it to his
own imitation nazi bomb.
Matt kutcher: In our explosion,
you saw a lot of debris
in the blast wave,
but clearly that's
not what we see in the video.
[explosion]
[bleep]
it's a massive
fireball that takes
up the whole end of a street.
Narrator: Most nazi bombs
didn't use a fireball
to destroy their targets.
They killed by
creating a shockwave,
smashing bodies and objects
that fell into their path.
Matt kutcher: So clearly it
wasn't ordinance that went off.
So it must be something else.
Narrator: Former nypd
image analyst conor mccourt
studies the footage for clues.
He notices an unusual detail
just before the fireball.
Conor mccourt: There's different
stages to this explosion.
We're initially seeing
a black plume of smoke,
indicating a fire.
What I'm noticing here
is this looks like smoke,
but this is not smoke.
This is some kind
of chemical cloud
that ignites into an explosion.
If I'm looking for the
source of this white cloud,
one of the possibilities
is a gas station.
Narrator: Russia
produces more than 12%
of the world's oil and gasoline,
over 11 million barrels a day.
Martin morgan: Volgograd
is within a region
that's oil rich.
So gasoline is cheap over there.
The big problem, though, is that
wages are also extremely low.
That's going to lead
toward a black market.
Narrator: Fuel theft in russia
happens on an industrial scale.
In 2009, thieves siphoned
off 27,000 tons of oil
from a pipeline in
the dagestan region.
Such pipelines are
now heavily guarded,
so criminals look
for softer targets.
Gas stations have hatches.
And if you open that
up, you're going
to get access directly
to the storage
tank of the whole gas station.
Criminals have these
specially equipped vans,
drive over the hatch in the
ground, open your hatch,
suck up the gas, and
drive off with it,
leaving a baffled and
impoverished gas-station owner.
Narrator: But hijacking fuel
is a high-risk enterprise.
These criminals are
literally playing with fire.
If something goes
wrong, there's a spark,
boom, massive explosion.
Martin morgan: It could be the
crime in progress that has gone
wrong that produced
the explosion that has
created this massive fireball.
Narrator: Photos confirm
the center of the blast
was a gas station.
This huge explosion ripped
through a 10,000-square-foot
area of downtown volgograd.
Miraculously, only 13
people were injured.
And while no one was killed,
the people of volgograd
fear that next time they
might not be so lucky.
What took hitler and the
nazis six months to accomplish,
the destruction of stalingrad,
a couple of gas thieves
could accomplish the
same goal in seconds.
Narrator: Now the southern
state of mississippi.
October 24, 2013.
A man exploring
some of the state's
19 million acres of untamed
forest and swampland stumbles
on an incredible scene.
[insects chirping]
it just looks like a
landscape with swamp trees,
but then suddenly
a dark figure is
seen there moving among them.
Narrator: The hiker films
with his camera phone
while something black
haired and enormous
seems to be tearing
at a cypress tree.
This thing is massive.
It doesn't quite
look like a bear.
I've never seen
anything like that.
Narrator: The creature seems
to have incredible strength.
Lyle blackburn: This
is a cypress tree.
These are strong trees, but this
creature is literally ripping
it off with his bare hands.
Narrator: Suddenly
the beastly figure
seems to sense the presence
of the hiker and rears up.
It looks like it's displaying
a sign of aggression.
Narrator: The man
pleads for his life.
I can see why he's so scared.
This thing is massive.
I've studied mammals in
north america for years,
and I've never seen one
with this form and this kind
of destructive behavior.
Narrator: Coming up,
is one of nature's
most aggressive primates
on the loose in the woods?
This thing would have
terrified the hell out of me.
Narrator: And a
mysterious invasion
in the midwestern skies--
woman: Oh my god.
Oh my gosh.
That thing is huge.
Narrator: --Targets
america's nukes.
Are we in danger from
an unknown enemy here?
Narrator: In a
mississippi swamp,
a hiker encounters
a hair-covered beast
tearing at a tree.
Narrator: Biologist
roland kays believes
the creature in the footage
may be a deadly african animal.
There are people in north
america who keep chimps as pets
or keep them in sanctuaries.
Is it possible that we're seeing
an escaped pet chimpanzee?
Narrator: Chimps are
highly intelligent,
aggressive, and territorial.
They use simple stone
tools to forage for food
and are almost twice
as strong as a human.
In africa, there are over a
quarter of a million chimps,
and they occasionally
kill humans.
In 2014, a troop targeted a
village in uganda in africa.
They snatched a two-year-old
child, literally tore his arms
off, and pulled out his kidney.
And this started
a reign of terror
that ended with
two more children
dead and six badly injured.
[chimps calling]
narrator: Mississippi hunters
david childers and peyton
lassiter claim to
have encountered
the beast caught on
camera by the hiker
while out in the local woods.
They say it has all the
aggressive qualities
of an alpha male chimp.
David childers: Whenever
I saw this creature,
I was hoping it
would not see me.
As I'm standing there
in complete shock,
I mean, I'm thinking, hey,
look, if this thing sees me,
it's going to come
over, rip me to shreds.
Narrator: The swampy forests of
mississippi, where temperatures
can soared to 115 degrees,
are similar to the jungle
environments of central
africa where chimpanzees
have their natural home.
The fact that mississippi
is a very, very raw landscape,
not heavily
populated, it is quite
possible for a creature of that
stature to make it a refuge.
Narrator: In 2020, a
couple camping nearby
with their pet dogs
see what appears
to be a chimp-like creature
watching them from the woods.
And then this thing starts
throwing rocks and small trees
at them.
Narrator: The couple,
fearing for their lives,
set their dogs on the
attacker, a fatal mistake.
Then suddenly the creature
was throwing something else
at the tent, pieces of dog.
This thing right here
would have definitely
terrified the hell out of me.
Oh yeah.
Narrator: But
biologist steve potvin
compares the creature
in the footage
to images of chimpanzees
and finds they don't match.
It's too big to
be a chimpanzee,
and the ratio of
the body to the legs
doesn't quite match
that of a gorilla.
Narrator: The dimensions
of this creature correspond
to no ape known to science.
Until the man who shot the
extraordinary footage comes
forward to give more
details about this creature,
its true identity
will remain a mystery.
But for some of the hunting
community in mississippi,
there is no doubt that
the film is a glimpse
of something truly terrifying.
It is highly likely that a
creature of significant size
could be hiding out
in the wilderness.
No doubt about it.
Narrator: Now, this small
nebraska town of hastings.
January 4, 2020.
Jackie hoffman
witnesses something
mysterious in the sky.
She grabs her cell phone
and begins to film.
It was like a
machine, and it had,
like, lights shining off of it,
and it was going really fast.
It was so close to
our apartment complex.
That's kind of what
scared me the most.
Narrator: And this is no
isolated close encounter.
In the following days and
months in colorado, kansas,
nebraska, and
wyoming, reports flood
in of similar craft in the sky.
Woman: Oh my god.
Woman: This is hovering there.
Sometimes people only see
a single mechanical object
in the sky.
Other times people are
seeing a whole swarm.
Narrator: Nebraskan eric eckert
films the craft from his porch.
These weren't just
some hobby drones.
They were flying
much faster, 60-plus
miles an hour over
super-long ranges at night.
It told me that, you
know, maybe something
that had a better technology
was running this sort of stuff.
Narrator: Locals demand answers.
Analysis of the
flying objects reveals
them to be large,
unmanned aircraft,
but neither the
american government
nor any american
corporation claim to have
any knowledge of what they are.
It seems wild to me
that hundreds of people
can see the same
event and we still
don't know what's going on.
Narrator: A spate
of similar sightings
of aerial objects over the same
states occurred in the 1970s.
Farmers would go
out to the fields,
and they would start seeing
all of these strange objects
flying up in the sky.
Narrator: And these
objects in the sky
seemed to bring a wave
of death in their wake.
So these farmers would
go out, and they would find
their cows dead on the ground.
Narrator: More than 1,500
cattle across the midwest
are sliced up with apparently
surgical precision.
Wild rumors circulate that the
mutilated animals are being
butchered by visitors
from another world,
and no culprit is
ever apprehended.
So it's no
surprise when you see
these mysterious
crafts that people
don't start getting worried.
Narrator: Coming up, reports
reveal a sinister craft
meddling with nukes.
Several of the
ballistic missiles
were no longer
capable of launch.
Narrator: And a private jet
burns on a state highway.
Has the pilot paid the
ultimate price for failure?
These are some
of the most violent
criminals on the planet.
Narrator: In the midwest,
eyewitnesses across four
states film unknown
craft invading the skies.
I know there was
rumors going around
that it was the
government spying on us
or trying to look for something.
Narrator: But
journalist jeff wise
uncovers troubling evidence
the flying machines are
not american and are
actively blocking
attempts to identify them.
So the government launched
a surveillance plane equipped
with sensors that
could detect the heat
signature of these
mechanical objects,
but they came back
without any useful data.
Narrator: The government
cannot explain the threat,
but wise maps the sightings and
believes whoever is controlling
these machines seems
to be targeting
america's atomic defenses.
One of the things
that I uncovered
is that this area has a lot
of nuclear missile silos.
Narrator: It reminds
historian marty morgan
of an event at a facility in
montana recounted by air force
launch officer robert salas.
In the 1960s, there
was a ufo encounter
over malmstrom air force base.
These lights in
the sky appeared.
Narrator: Salas reported
the red, glowing object had
an alarming effect on the
nuclear missiles stored
at the top-secret facility.
The men on duty discovered
that several nuclear missiles
were no longer
capable of launch.
Narrator: Us authorities deny
the incident ever happened,
but several eyewitnesses
come forward
to confirm salas's account
and insist a terrifying breach
of national security
occurred, perhaps
by a foreign power or
even an unknown enemy.
Maybe what we're seeing now
is related to this sighting
from the 1960s.
And so now we have to be
concerned about an enemy who
might infiltrate
the united states
and attack our
nuclear facilities.
Narrator: The
detonation of just one
intercontinental ballistic
missile in a midwest silo
could kill over
a million people.
The fallout cloud afterwards
would expose 650,000 more
to an agonizing death
by radiation poisoning.
And the strange craft
continue to be seen
while evading identification.
We still don't know who's
responsible for these flights.
And until we find out, we have
a national-security crisis
on our hands now.
Something has to be
done to address this.
Narrator: Now, the mexican
seaside state of quintana roo.
July 5, 2020.
Antonio carlos hernandez
and two friends drive
the carrillo-mérida highway.
Narrator: An ordinary
trip to the beach
takes a strange
and sinister turn.
Helicopters buzz in the sky,
and smoke rises in the distance
as they round the corner into
a scene straight from hell.
Narrator: The burning
wreckage of an aircraft
straddles both
lanes of the highway
with no signs of human life.
So as the burning plane
comes into clear focus,
I can't tell if
people are inside
and are stuck and can't get out.
If I saw a plane in the
middle of the highway,
I would be terrified.
We need to know
what's going on.
Narrator: Coming up, is this
the final flight of a man
who has failed a drug baron?
Retribution in the
mexican drug cartels
is both swift and harsh.
Narrator: In mexico, a raging
inferno engulfs a plane ditched
in the center of the highway.
Engineer nick householder
examines the shape and size
of the aircraft
and discovers it's
a model only used by the
richest people in the world.
Looking a little
closer, the plane
appears to be a bae 125, which
is one of the world's first
and most popular private jets.
Narrator: Flying
in a private plane
is 19 times more dangerous
than getting in a car.
16 people die in 2008
when a private plane
smashes into rush-hour
traffic in mexico city.
But householder's zooms
in on the wreckage
and discovers evidence
this plane hasn't crashed.
Nick householder: All
the wheels are down.
This looks like an
emergency landing.
In an emergency
situation, a pilot could
try to land on the street.
Narrator: And when engineer
brian wolshon examines
the plane in detail for
faults that could have brought
it down, he sees
there is something
odd about the raging inferno.
So one of the most logical
places of fire on an airplane
is the engine or
perhaps the fuel tank.
What we see is the fire is
actually in the fuselage
itself.
Perhaps someone was
trying to start a fire
to hide or burn evidence.
Narrator: Mexico is engaged
in a violent war against
super-wealthy drug traffickers.
South american cartels export
over a thousand tons of cocaine
every year, much of it through
mexico to the united states.
Now, planes like
this are rumored
to be really popular with drug
cartels for running drugs.
Narrator: The cartels pull
in over $39 billion a year
from drug sales in the us.
Nick householder
discovers reports
of second-hand or out-of-date
private jets bought
up for around $1 million each.
The seats are stripped
out, and they are loaded up
with up to $100 million
of cocaine for a journey
from the jungles of
central america to the usa.
Cartel pilots are paid up to
$500,000 for a single flight,
but the risks are enormous.
Some drug cartels have been
known to use the rainforest
as a location to build
makeshift runways by cutting
down patches of trees.
The planes fly in with
no lights, overloaded,
and guided by drones.
Narrator: Incredibly to
the super-rich cartels,
million-dollar planes are
considered disposable.
A million dollars
isn't that much
when you think they're carrying
$100 million of cocaine
on every flight.
Narrator: Over 50 crashed or
abandoned so-called narco jets
are discovered ditched
in the jungles of central
america in 2019 alone.
Journalist liberty vittert
examines the footage further
and spots the
helicopter in the sky
belongs to the mexican military.
She finds a report that
confirms her suspicions.
The report says that
the mexican authorities
deployed a counternarcotics
team via helicopter.
The passengers quickly
departed and then rendezvoused
with the truck waiting nearby.
Narrator: But the chopper
chases down and seizes the truck
and discovers $5 million
worth of cocaine.
The pilot sets fire to the
cockpit to cover his tracks.
This guy hasn't just missed
out on a half million dollar
payday.
He's messed up a drug
drop, so he'll also
now be fearing for his life.
Retribution in the
mexican drug cartels
is both swift and harsh.
They're some of the most
violent and dangerous criminals
on earth, and
they're only getting
more brutal in their methods.
Narrator: Over 90
people a day are
murdered by the cartels in
mexico, many decapitated
or dissolved in
acid, victims of turf
wars, disloyalty, or failure.
So the loss of over $5 million
in cocaine for these pilots
has got to be a very bad day.
36 billion cameras
are watching us on our streets,
at work, and in our homes.
They capture things
that seem impossible.
Science says this
shouldn't happen.
Woman: Do you say that?
Narrator: Experts carry
out forensic analysis
of these unusual events.
Wow.
What a blast.
This doesn't make sense.
There has to be some
sort of explanation.
What else is going on here?
Narrator: Coming up, in brazil,
a door to the land of the dead.
This is what
nightmares are made of.
Narrator: Is this adolf
hitler's final act of revenge?
Could this be one of
hitler's unexploded bombs?
Pull!
Narrator: And is
america being invaded--
narrator: --By an
african super predator?
They snatched a two-year-old
child, literally tore his arms
off, and pulled out his kidney.
Narrator: Bizarre phenomena.
Oh my gosh.
Ah!
Narrator: Mysteries
caught on camera.
What's the truth behind
this strange evidence?
Curitiba, a city
in southern brazil.
March 13, 2017, 2:30 am.
[thunder]
two security guards on patrol
in a municipal building
investigate a disturbance
in the basement.
They begin to film.
Greg szulgit: You
can imagine what's
going through these
security guards' heads.
This is like a nightmare.
They're patrolling
an empty building,
and the lights in this hallway
are flashing off and on.
Suddenly there's this
door in the distance making
an ominous banging sound.
And the banging repeats.
The night is punctuated
by this slamming sound
of a metal door
opening and closing
and opening and closing.
[banging]
narrator: Locals
claim the building has
a disturbing past, a past
that's left some kind
of angry ghostly presence.
Greg szulgit: Bam, bam, bam.
Then as they approach
and get really close,
the door stops moving.
Narrator: Then total darkness.
The shaken guards
refuse to discuss
their experience in public.
I wouldn't be surprised
if one of these guys
needed a new pair of underwear.
Narrator: Historian
tony mcmahon discovers
that belief in the supernatural
in this area of brazil
is common.
More than 1 in 10 people claim
to be able to communicate
with the dead.
Mysticism and magic are
very strong in brazil,
and there's a huge belief in
something called [portuguese],,
a kind of form of voodoo.
And with this is a
sense that the dead
can exert a malign and evil
influence over the living.
Narrator: Believers claim
angry spirits can bring
illness, misfortune, and death.
Even the country's
leaders are said
to dabble in this dark art.
In 2017, acting president michel
temer and his beauty queen
first lady are driven
from their palace
by what they describe
as evil spirits.
In the [portuguese]
belief system,
a dead person could be
trying to signal their deep
unhappiness through the slamming
of a door, as in this instance.
[banging]
narrator: But
professional magician
ben nemzer is suspicious.
Ben nemzer: It got faster and
faster and louder and louder
as the guy got closer.
And as a magician,
I don't believe
in coincidences like that.
It has to be that
there was someone
trying to scare those people.
Narrator: Explorer george
kourounis wonders if this could
be a sign of criminal activity.
Locals believe that there
are violent spirits living
in the basement
of this building,
but it might all just be
a smokescreen for a much
more sinister practice.
One of the most vile crimes
that we see in this area
is the illicit organ trade.
Narrator: In brazil,
almost 10 million
people live in extreme poverty.
Desperate brazilians
earning under $2 a day
advertise their kidneys
online for up to $10,000.
Illegally trafficked organs
make up 1 in 10 transplants,
netting crooks almost
$2 billion a year.
In 2012, a woman advertises
her kidney for sale,
but she's so
desperate she updates
the post to add
part of her liver,
her corneas, and one lung.
But not all organs are
given up voluntarily.
Over 8 million children
live or work on the streets.
Charities claim helpless
kids are increasingly
the target of organ thieves.
A building like this is a
great place for organized crime
to base their
appalling operations,
including the harvesting
of children's organs.
Narrator: But
investigators discover
no reported criminal
activity in the building.
Greg szulgit: The
doors not just, like,
blowing in the wind.
Something must be
moving in forcefully.
Narrator: Greg szulgit
investigates weather reports
and discovers a
huge thunderstorm
hits the town on the night
of the supposed haunting.
The flickering lights
might suggest that there's
something electrical going on.
Narrator: Brazilian
lightning strikes kill
over a hundred people a year.
Electrical engineer
david wallace
wants to know if it's
possible for electrical storms
this fierce to create
poltergeist-like effects
on inanimate objects, such as
the metal door in the basement.
This area of brazil
averages over 80% humidity,
meaning the air is
saturated with water.
So when you have
dense, humid air,
you have the possibility
of conducting
electricity through it.
Narrator: Wallace and his
team test if electrical charge
in the dense, wet
area of the basement
could cause the door to
somehow swing on its hinges.
To mimic the door
in the footage,
they set up a negatively
charged sheet of aluminum foil
next to a positively
charged metal plate
representing the door frame.
We will run a voltage on
this plate, and we will see,
will it pull the
door to the plate?
And we'll see if we can recreate
what I am seeing in the video.
Energize.
Narrator: Coming up,
a deadly energy lurks
in the air of the basement.
Is it a physical
phenomena that's
there or some unseen force?
We need to find out.
Narrator: And is this--
[explosion]
--the nazis' last revenge?
That was quite a bang.
[thunder]
narrator: In brazil in
a municipal building
that is said to
be haunted, a door
is filmed slamming by itself.
Electrical engineer david
wallace fixes up an experiment
to see if the
region's electrically
charged atmosphere
is causing this
poltergeist-like phenomenon.
He charges his generator
with high voltage.
I actually have a 100,000-volt
generator sitting right here.
Ok, let's get right to
energize the system here.
Energize.
Narrator: 30,000 volts
course through the plane,
pulling the foil
toward the charge.
David wallace: Take it off.
So here we see something
very similar to what
we saw on the video.
I have a metal plate
inside a metal fixture.
And as I increase
the voltage, what we
see as the higher
the voltage goes,
it actually pulls the plate
over towards the fixture,
just like we saw in the video.
Narrator: Wallace shows it's
possible for an electrically
charged atmosphere to swing
a piece of metal haunted
house-style on its hinges.
But when engineer jon
farrow studies the plans
of the building, he
notices its air shouldn't
become electrically charged.
Buildings in
this part of brazil
are designed to carry
lightning from the top
down into the ground, and
this is called grounding.
Narrator: Lightning rods carry
the massive electrical strikes
around the outside of buildings
and stop metal objects getting
charged with high voltage.
If the system is
broken, the people
inside will be left
dangerously exposed
to deadly lightning strikes.
But until the security guards
reveal more details about what
they saw that night, the
cause of the slamming door
remains a mystery.
I don't care what the
security guards are being paid.
It's not enough.
Narrator: Now, the southern
russian city of volgograd.
August 10, 2020, 12:40 pm.
Rush-hour traffic
comes to a halt
as a sinister black cloud
rises above the road.
A local man captures
the event on his phone.
We're looking down the road.
In the distance, we
see smoke rising.
Narrator: And then.
[explosion]
martin morgan: Kaboom.
This fireball looks like it goes
300 or 400 feet into the sky.
[bleep]
he's clearly so
mesmerized by the explosion
that he doesn't realize
his life is in danger
and he should get out of there.
This is a
cataclysmic explosion,
and it's coming towards you.
Narrator: And this
is no ordinary blast.
This doesn't look like
a regular explosion.
It's building energy
with every second.
Narrator: Locals fear
their city is under attack.
This looks like something
out of a war movie.
Narrator: Historian
craig gottlieb discovers
volgograd used to be known by a
different, more infamous name.
This explosion is in
volgograd, which during world
war ii used to be stalingrad.
Narrator: August 23, 1942.
Adolf hitler orders
his feared 6th
army and 4th panzer division
to take the city by any means.
Russia's leader joseph
stalin commands his red army
to halt the nazi
advance at all costs.
It's the single-deadliest
battle in world history.
The nazis
surrounded stalingrad,
starving the population.
Stalin was so intent
on winning this battle
that he kept the
civilians in the city
and refused to allow
them to escape.
Why?
Because he figured
that his forces
would fight harder if
civilian lives were at stake.
Narrator: Stalin's
brutal order might
have motivated his troops, but
it comes at a terrible price.
But in those months that
stretch between August
and February, the
city of stalingrad
is turned into hell on earth.
Narrator: 2 million soldiers
and civilians die in the battle
for control of stalingrad.
And even today, mass
graves are still
being discovered in the
city, many containing
hundreds of skeletons.
But bodies are not the only
horror being unearthed.
So is a deadly legacy
of the luftwaffe.
The bombing was so intense
that the nazis flew over 10,000
bombing missions over the city.
Seeing a massive
explosion like this,
there's the
possibility that we're
looking at an unexploded bomb
from the second world war.
[explosion]
[bleep]
narrator: Hitler ultimately
lost the battle of stalingrad,
but his ability to
kill russian citizens
continues decades later.
Jeff wise: You
know, the chemicals
that these bombs are made out
of over time deteriorate, decay.
Then just, you know,
out of nowhere, boom.
Narrator: Matt
kutcher is a hollywood
pyrotechnic and ballistics
expert with over
two decades' experience.
In this city of
stalingrad, we know
that hitler dropped a
thousand tons of explosives
in just one day.
Quite often we find that
ordinance that hasn't exploded,
it's usually been buried.
Narrator: Matt's been looking
at original blueprints
of nazi ordnance.
Ok, son, be careful.
What we're going
to have to do here
is create our own hitler bomb.
All right.
Narrator: This is a recreation
of a nazi high-explosive bomb.
Over a million were manufactured
during world war ii.
We're going to place it
under the ground subterranean.
All right, grab
some shovels, son.
Right about here is good.
We're going to
attach charges to it,
and we're going to blow it
up and see if that type of ho
explosion, a high
order explosion,
matches what we
see in this video.
Narrator: Coming
up, can matt kutcher
discover the truth behind
this devastating explosion?
[explosion]
3, 2, 1, go.
Oh, that's a blast
from the past.
Narrator: And has
a mississippi swamp
become planet of the apes?
I'm thinking it's going to
come over and rip me to shreds.
[explosion]
[bleep]
narrator: Volgograd, russia, is
rocked by a massive explosion.
Pyrotechnics expert matt
kutcher has built and buried
a replica nazi bomb to see
if the blast in the footage
was caused by a piece
of unexploded ordinance
dropped by adolf hitler.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go.
[bleep]
that's a blast from the past.
All right, let's
go see what we did.
I actually saw the shockwave
from my naked eye up there.
I was able to see
the initial burst,
and then the wave come
traveling and went up and out.
Yeah, it was very cool.
Narrator: Matt analyzes the
footage of the volgograd blast
and compares it to his
own imitation nazi bomb.
Matt kutcher: In our explosion,
you saw a lot of debris
in the blast wave,
but clearly that's
not what we see in the video.
[explosion]
[bleep]
it's a massive
fireball that takes
up the whole end of a street.
Narrator: Most nazi bombs
didn't use a fireball
to destroy their targets.
They killed by
creating a shockwave,
smashing bodies and objects
that fell into their path.
Matt kutcher: So clearly it
wasn't ordinance that went off.
So it must be something else.
Narrator: Former nypd
image analyst conor mccourt
studies the footage for clues.
He notices an unusual detail
just before the fireball.
Conor mccourt: There's different
stages to this explosion.
We're initially seeing
a black plume of smoke,
indicating a fire.
What I'm noticing here
is this looks like smoke,
but this is not smoke.
This is some kind
of chemical cloud
that ignites into an explosion.
If I'm looking for the
source of this white cloud,
one of the possibilities
is a gas station.
Narrator: Russia
produces more than 12%
of the world's oil and gasoline,
over 11 million barrels a day.
Martin morgan: Volgograd
is within a region
that's oil rich.
So gasoline is cheap over there.
The big problem, though, is that
wages are also extremely low.
That's going to lead
toward a black market.
Narrator: Fuel theft in russia
happens on an industrial scale.
In 2009, thieves siphoned
off 27,000 tons of oil
from a pipeline in
the dagestan region.
Such pipelines are
now heavily guarded,
so criminals look
for softer targets.
Gas stations have hatches.
And if you open that
up, you're going
to get access directly
to the storage
tank of the whole gas station.
Criminals have these
specially equipped vans,
drive over the hatch in the
ground, open your hatch,
suck up the gas, and
drive off with it,
leaving a baffled and
impoverished gas-station owner.
Narrator: But hijacking fuel
is a high-risk enterprise.
These criminals are
literally playing with fire.
If something goes
wrong, there's a spark,
boom, massive explosion.
Martin morgan: It could be the
crime in progress that has gone
wrong that produced
the explosion that has
created this massive fireball.
Narrator: Photos confirm
the center of the blast
was a gas station.
This huge explosion ripped
through a 10,000-square-foot
area of downtown volgograd.
Miraculously, only 13
people were injured.
And while no one was killed,
the people of volgograd
fear that next time they
might not be so lucky.
What took hitler and the
nazis six months to accomplish,
the destruction of stalingrad,
a couple of gas thieves
could accomplish the
same goal in seconds.
Narrator: Now the southern
state of mississippi.
October 24, 2013.
A man exploring
some of the state's
19 million acres of untamed
forest and swampland stumbles
on an incredible scene.
[insects chirping]
it just looks like a
landscape with swamp trees,
but then suddenly
a dark figure is
seen there moving among them.
Narrator: The hiker films
with his camera phone
while something black
haired and enormous
seems to be tearing
at a cypress tree.
This thing is massive.
It doesn't quite
look like a bear.
I've never seen
anything like that.
Narrator: The creature seems
to have incredible strength.
Lyle blackburn: This
is a cypress tree.
These are strong trees, but this
creature is literally ripping
it off with his bare hands.
Narrator: Suddenly
the beastly figure
seems to sense the presence
of the hiker and rears up.
It looks like it's displaying
a sign of aggression.
Narrator: The man
pleads for his life.
I can see why he's so scared.
This thing is massive.
I've studied mammals in
north america for years,
and I've never seen one
with this form and this kind
of destructive behavior.
Narrator: Coming up,
is one of nature's
most aggressive primates
on the loose in the woods?
This thing would have
terrified the hell out of me.
Narrator: And a
mysterious invasion
in the midwestern skies--
woman: Oh my god.
Oh my gosh.
That thing is huge.
Narrator: --Targets
america's nukes.
Are we in danger from
an unknown enemy here?
Narrator: In a
mississippi swamp,
a hiker encounters
a hair-covered beast
tearing at a tree.
Narrator: Biologist
roland kays believes
the creature in the footage
may be a deadly african animal.
There are people in north
america who keep chimps as pets
or keep them in sanctuaries.
Is it possible that we're seeing
an escaped pet chimpanzee?
Narrator: Chimps are
highly intelligent,
aggressive, and territorial.
They use simple stone
tools to forage for food
and are almost twice
as strong as a human.
In africa, there are over a
quarter of a million chimps,
and they occasionally
kill humans.
In 2014, a troop targeted a
village in uganda in africa.
They snatched a two-year-old
child, literally tore his arms
off, and pulled out his kidney.
And this started
a reign of terror
that ended with
two more children
dead and six badly injured.
[chimps calling]
narrator: Mississippi hunters
david childers and peyton
lassiter claim to
have encountered
the beast caught on
camera by the hiker
while out in the local woods.
They say it has all the
aggressive qualities
of an alpha male chimp.
David childers: Whenever
I saw this creature,
I was hoping it
would not see me.
As I'm standing there
in complete shock,
I mean, I'm thinking, hey,
look, if this thing sees me,
it's going to come
over, rip me to shreds.
Narrator: The swampy forests of
mississippi, where temperatures
can soared to 115 degrees,
are similar to the jungle
environments of central
africa where chimpanzees
have their natural home.
The fact that mississippi
is a very, very raw landscape,
not heavily
populated, it is quite
possible for a creature of that
stature to make it a refuge.
Narrator: In 2020, a
couple camping nearby
with their pet dogs
see what appears
to be a chimp-like creature
watching them from the woods.
And then this thing starts
throwing rocks and small trees
at them.
Narrator: The couple,
fearing for their lives,
set their dogs on the
attacker, a fatal mistake.
Then suddenly the creature
was throwing something else
at the tent, pieces of dog.
This thing right here
would have definitely
terrified the hell out of me.
Oh yeah.
Narrator: But
biologist steve potvin
compares the creature
in the footage
to images of chimpanzees
and finds they don't match.
It's too big to
be a chimpanzee,
and the ratio of
the body to the legs
doesn't quite match
that of a gorilla.
Narrator: The dimensions
of this creature correspond
to no ape known to science.
Until the man who shot the
extraordinary footage comes
forward to give more
details about this creature,
its true identity
will remain a mystery.
But for some of the hunting
community in mississippi,
there is no doubt that
the film is a glimpse
of something truly terrifying.
It is highly likely that a
creature of significant size
could be hiding out
in the wilderness.
No doubt about it.
Narrator: Now, this small
nebraska town of hastings.
January 4, 2020.
Jackie hoffman
witnesses something
mysterious in the sky.
She grabs her cell phone
and begins to film.
It was like a
machine, and it had,
like, lights shining off of it,
and it was going really fast.
It was so close to
our apartment complex.
That's kind of what
scared me the most.
Narrator: And this is no
isolated close encounter.
In the following days and
months in colorado, kansas,
nebraska, and
wyoming, reports flood
in of similar craft in the sky.
Woman: Oh my god.
Woman: This is hovering there.
Sometimes people only see
a single mechanical object
in the sky.
Other times people are
seeing a whole swarm.
Narrator: Nebraskan eric eckert
films the craft from his porch.
These weren't just
some hobby drones.
They were flying
much faster, 60-plus
miles an hour over
super-long ranges at night.
It told me that, you
know, maybe something
that had a better technology
was running this sort of stuff.
Narrator: Locals demand answers.
Analysis of the
flying objects reveals
them to be large,
unmanned aircraft,
but neither the
american government
nor any american
corporation claim to have
any knowledge of what they are.
It seems wild to me
that hundreds of people
can see the same
event and we still
don't know what's going on.
Narrator: A spate
of similar sightings
of aerial objects over the same
states occurred in the 1970s.
Farmers would go
out to the fields,
and they would start seeing
all of these strange objects
flying up in the sky.
Narrator: And these
objects in the sky
seemed to bring a wave
of death in their wake.
So these farmers would
go out, and they would find
their cows dead on the ground.
Narrator: More than 1,500
cattle across the midwest
are sliced up with apparently
surgical precision.
Wild rumors circulate that the
mutilated animals are being
butchered by visitors
from another world,
and no culprit is
ever apprehended.
So it's no
surprise when you see
these mysterious
crafts that people
don't start getting worried.
Narrator: Coming up, reports
reveal a sinister craft
meddling with nukes.
Several of the
ballistic missiles
were no longer
capable of launch.
Narrator: And a private jet
burns on a state highway.
Has the pilot paid the
ultimate price for failure?
These are some
of the most violent
criminals on the planet.
Narrator: In the midwest,
eyewitnesses across four
states film unknown
craft invading the skies.
I know there was
rumors going around
that it was the
government spying on us
or trying to look for something.
Narrator: But
journalist jeff wise
uncovers troubling evidence
the flying machines are
not american and are
actively blocking
attempts to identify them.
So the government launched
a surveillance plane equipped
with sensors that
could detect the heat
signature of these
mechanical objects,
but they came back
without any useful data.
Narrator: The government
cannot explain the threat,
but wise maps the sightings and
believes whoever is controlling
these machines seems
to be targeting
america's atomic defenses.
One of the things
that I uncovered
is that this area has a lot
of nuclear missile silos.
Narrator: It reminds
historian marty morgan
of an event at a facility in
montana recounted by air force
launch officer robert salas.
In the 1960s, there
was a ufo encounter
over malmstrom air force base.
These lights in
the sky appeared.
Narrator: Salas reported
the red, glowing object had
an alarming effect on the
nuclear missiles stored
at the top-secret facility.
The men on duty discovered
that several nuclear missiles
were no longer
capable of launch.
Narrator: Us authorities deny
the incident ever happened,
but several eyewitnesses
come forward
to confirm salas's account
and insist a terrifying breach
of national security
occurred, perhaps
by a foreign power or
even an unknown enemy.
Maybe what we're seeing now
is related to this sighting
from the 1960s.
And so now we have to be
concerned about an enemy who
might infiltrate
the united states
and attack our
nuclear facilities.
Narrator: The
detonation of just one
intercontinental ballistic
missile in a midwest silo
could kill over
a million people.
The fallout cloud afterwards
would expose 650,000 more
to an agonizing death
by radiation poisoning.
And the strange craft
continue to be seen
while evading identification.
We still don't know who's
responsible for these flights.
And until we find out, we have
a national-security crisis
on our hands now.
Something has to be
done to address this.
Narrator: Now, the mexican
seaside state of quintana roo.
July 5, 2020.
Antonio carlos hernandez
and two friends drive
the carrillo-mérida highway.
Narrator: An ordinary
trip to the beach
takes a strange
and sinister turn.
Helicopters buzz in the sky,
and smoke rises in the distance
as they round the corner into
a scene straight from hell.
Narrator: The burning
wreckage of an aircraft
straddles both
lanes of the highway
with no signs of human life.
So as the burning plane
comes into clear focus,
I can't tell if
people are inside
and are stuck and can't get out.
If I saw a plane in the
middle of the highway,
I would be terrified.
We need to know
what's going on.
Narrator: Coming up, is this
the final flight of a man
who has failed a drug baron?
Retribution in the
mexican drug cartels
is both swift and harsh.
Narrator: In mexico, a raging
inferno engulfs a plane ditched
in the center of the highway.
Engineer nick householder
examines the shape and size
of the aircraft
and discovers it's
a model only used by the
richest people in the world.
Looking a little
closer, the plane
appears to be a bae 125, which
is one of the world's first
and most popular private jets.
Narrator: Flying
in a private plane
is 19 times more dangerous
than getting in a car.
16 people die in 2008
when a private plane
smashes into rush-hour
traffic in mexico city.
But householder's zooms
in on the wreckage
and discovers evidence
this plane hasn't crashed.
Nick householder: All
the wheels are down.
This looks like an
emergency landing.
In an emergency
situation, a pilot could
try to land on the street.
Narrator: And when engineer
brian wolshon examines
the plane in detail for
faults that could have brought
it down, he sees
there is something
odd about the raging inferno.
So one of the most logical
places of fire on an airplane
is the engine or
perhaps the fuel tank.
What we see is the fire is
actually in the fuselage
itself.
Perhaps someone was
trying to start a fire
to hide or burn evidence.
Narrator: Mexico is engaged
in a violent war against
super-wealthy drug traffickers.
South american cartels export
over a thousand tons of cocaine
every year, much of it through
mexico to the united states.
Now, planes like
this are rumored
to be really popular with drug
cartels for running drugs.
Narrator: The cartels pull
in over $39 billion a year
from drug sales in the us.
Nick householder
discovers reports
of second-hand or out-of-date
private jets bought
up for around $1 million each.
The seats are stripped
out, and they are loaded up
with up to $100 million
of cocaine for a journey
from the jungles of
central america to the usa.
Cartel pilots are paid up to
$500,000 for a single flight,
but the risks are enormous.
Some drug cartels have been
known to use the rainforest
as a location to build
makeshift runways by cutting
down patches of trees.
The planes fly in with
no lights, overloaded,
and guided by drones.
Narrator: Incredibly to
the super-rich cartels,
million-dollar planes are
considered disposable.
A million dollars
isn't that much
when you think they're carrying
$100 million of cocaine
on every flight.
Narrator: Over 50 crashed or
abandoned so-called narco jets
are discovered ditched
in the jungles of central
america in 2019 alone.
Journalist liberty vittert
examines the footage further
and spots the
helicopter in the sky
belongs to the mexican military.
She finds a report that
confirms her suspicions.
The report says that
the mexican authorities
deployed a counternarcotics
team via helicopter.
The passengers quickly
departed and then rendezvoused
with the truck waiting nearby.
Narrator: But the chopper
chases down and seizes the truck
and discovers $5 million
worth of cocaine.
The pilot sets fire to the
cockpit to cover his tracks.
This guy hasn't just missed
out on a half million dollar
payday.
He's messed up a drug
drop, so he'll also
now be fearing for his life.
Retribution in the
mexican drug cartels
is both swift and harsh.
They're some of the most
violent and dangerous criminals
on earth, and
they're only getting
more brutal in their methods.
Narrator: Over 90
people a day are
murdered by the cartels in
mexico, many decapitated
or dissolved in
acid, victims of turf
wars, disloyalty, or failure.
So the loss of over $5 million
in cocaine for these pilots
has got to be a very bad day.