Seagrave stressed that I should proceed with caution, for the story was taboo and highly dangerous. The new, freelance director who had been hired to replace him had read my LinkedIn profile and decided that my business background meant I was not someone he wanted to feature. What is worse, it triggered a political backlash. After lunch, I persuaded the director to stop at the hospital on the way out of town. Roxas was more convinced than ever that a great treasure was buried near Baguio Hospital, and who could blame him? The Cultural Committee is investigating whether the search should continue. Patrick is a great guy, an avid treasure hunter, and was to interview Henry Roxas for the show. Roger Roxas was a former Filipino soldier turned locksmith, and president of the Treasure Hunters Association of the Philippines, who lived in Baguio, a mountainous resort town about 130 miles north of Manila. This entire field was part of the Japanese military base, you see., The low-growing tree that points towards the gold The site has been targeted by treasure hunters in the past, but nobody is patient enough to see it through. McDougald, C. Asian Loot: Unearthing the Secrets of Marcos, Yamashita and the Gold. Its a known Japanese symbol that means the seeker is going to love what is below, he added in his hypnotic Austrian drawl. 32 0 obj <> endobj Cathcart and his team had done their homework. Intriguingly, Santy introduced Marcos to Imelda, and once dated the former beauty queen back in the day. Hunter died Monday at his Northern California home . Their car was parked at the beginning of the popular trail. Is that really necessary? Roxass brother, Danilo, attempted to resist the men and was badly beaten. Could he have harnessed the legendary viral energy that I had read so much about? In all, Prince Chichibu is said to have managed the construction of one hundred and seventy-five treasure sites, all across the Philippines. The Japanese had muscled control of the Philippines away from the United States, and were transferring their war booty from Singapore to Japan, when they were forced to come ashore and secure their treasures. Inexplicably, he was being electrocuted. Roxas was seeking damages, not only for the torture he had endured (and, of course, the golden buddha and its concealed precious stones and all the miniature gold bars that accompanied it), but also for the large quantities of gold that Marcoss men had recovered from the tunnel system that Roxas had discovered. Curtis had raised funding for his treasure hunt by claiming that Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos himself had personally invited him to recover the gold based on his unique expertise. At one point Cathcart questioned Roxas for five days straight. He complained at length that none of his journalism colleagues would help him and Peggy with their book. Still, I was excited to see Klaus again and to inspect some other treasure sites that I had been tracking for some time. The following day we departed for the mountainous, northern resort town of Baguio to meet with Roger Roxass son, Henry, and to examine his museum, which is dedicated to his father. Yamashita is removed from the courtroom by military police immediately after hearing the verdict of death by hanging. Whatever I had expected a Japanese tunnel system to be was wrong or at least greatly miscalculated. It is not a matter of if he will succeed, but when, and I believe it will be soon. You can also find her on Twitter. Back on the surface the cameraman filmed various objects that Klaus had found in the tunnel backfill: symbols such as seashells, leaves, gold dust and other assorted items that should not exist at that depth in the earth, and certainly not with man-made cement and gold dust embedded in them. 0000003280 00000 n Unfortunately, my role in the narrative would be minimal. Not much time was left to pursue the constant enquiries from the Philippines for funding and assistance in various treasure-site excavations around the archipelago. Klaus had briefed me as to what the sites would be like. Amelia was a survivor, but had paid the price for her misfortune; she had lost a leg and a hand in the process. This is how wide you can dig. There, some say, it remains today waiting for someone possibly for you to find it and walk away. Understandably, one of the diggers confessed after Marcos henchmen began extracting his teeth, one at a time. He brushed off the incident as an attempt to stir up trouble by the opposition, the name given to citizens who are against Nicolas Maduro, the current president of Venezuela. I could hardly move. I was intrigued and thought I had nothing to lose, and so I decided to email him one last time. For years Fuchigami studied his fathers treasure map and secretly searched for the entrance to the site. One day, he got into his car and drove away. He was never found.[4]. Andrew Gough. It was a daily effort of divide and conquer; some manned the other sites, pumping the monsoon floods out of the tunnels, while most supported excavation efforts at the site that Klaus and his team were most focused on that week. Andrew Gough. The old woman was sensational and described how she and her family had hidden in the hills as the Japanese processed by with an ox pulling a cart that contained what appeared to be a heavy box. The award was later substantially reduced and nothing was ever collected. Curiously, his death was not announced publicly until ninety days later. Finally, in the spring of 1970 Roxas and his team identified the tunnel area entrance and began an arduous seven-month excavation. I had seen the photos, but they did not prepare me for the sheer enormity of the quest he was undertaking. But Japan needed that money badly to pay for its war effort; it would not have converted it to gold bars and sent it away to be buried. Then McSherry returned to his own pit to clean up the tools and collect the stones. Cancel at any time: I was also disappointed to learn that the History Channel had made a reality TV series about a team of questers seeking Japanese treasure in the Philippines, after every channel and production house informed me it was a bad idea. When I asked others if they knew of his whereabouts I was informed that he had travelled to somewhere remote and had discovered something so spectacular that he had cut off all but essential communication with the outside world. Years after his disappearance, he was assumed to be dead. I arrived late, dined with Klaus, and the following morning he and his trusted colleague picked me up in the quintessential Philippine vehicle of choice, a motorised tricycle. We added each other on Skype and began a custom of speaking most days. Neither of us now trusted the other. It could have happened to General MacArthur, you know. I have to! Klaus retorted. 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. His team went and searched and dug but never found anything. Santy, as he was known, tortured Yamashitas driver, Major Kojima Kashii, until he gave up his secrets; the Japanese had buried unthinkable quantities of gold and vast hoards of ancient treasure in subterranean vaults across the Philippines. Over the years Roxas became convinced that Yamashita had buried a great treasure in Baguio, and his stature as president of the Philippine Treasure Hunters Association attracted many acquaintances who would confirm his hunch. Although Roxas presented no evidence whatsoever other than personal testimony from many of his associates all of whom had banded together as the "Golden Buddha Corporation" which existed only to pursue this lawsuit they somehow managed to win the case, and were awarded over 40 billion dollars. Net Worth: $1 Million Occupation: Treasure Hunter, TV Celebrity & Former Police Officer Birthday: January 6, 1941 Birthplace: Summerland Key, Florida Birth Sign: Capricorn Date of Death: February 19, 2018 Place of Death: Iraan, Texas Nationality: American Ethnicity: Caucasian Married: Twice Children: Darrell, Lauren, Kim, and Kelly Instagram: NA Oh, and I meant to ask, how deep had your dad dug when he discovered the golden buddha near Baguio hospital, Patrick asked matter-of-factly. Much to his surprise, and with no background or training in the discipline, Klaus achieved instant success. Klaus explained how the Japanese engineering maps have long since disappeared, and to avoid chiselling into a hidden cyanide deposit, excavators like himself were required to bring in a dowser multiple times a week to check for danger. People named Bob Curtis. There was no blood or any sign of struggle. Why wouldnt they be, I thought to myself, after a moments reflection. Roxas informed her that Marcoss air-conditioned burial crypt in the Philippines, at the Ferdinand E Marcos Presidential Center in Batac, Ilocos Norte (which was secured twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week by arm guards), contained a fake corpse full of precious stones and diamonds. My experience with dowsers was not good. Real or imagined? In the early 1960s, Hunter volunteered as a test subject for a psychedelic chemicals research program (MKULTRA) sponsored by the CIA and was paid . If you like this programming, please become a member. Honolulu: Supreme Court of Hawaii, 1988. There is every indication that this cave-in was caused by a booby trap, McDougald said, reporting the results of an investigation by his teams geologist and resident mining engineers. When the Japanese were covering up the (treasure) chamber, they put in layers of clay, then sand, then clay, then sand. The caretaker had lost fingers and toes from chemicals released in the treasure site Klauss team said that every so often Japanese treasure hunters come to the village enquiring if anyone knows where that landmark is. 0000004492 00000 n Curtis to meet privately with a . Understandably, they had become discouraged and had run out of funds. I had packed industrial-strength gloves and knee pads! During Fridays Senate hearing, several senators indicated that they plan to pursue criminal charges against the treasure hunters for violating an old law against desecrating national shrines, of which Ft. Santiago is one of the most famous. I was fitted with wellies, an old helmet and a rusty harness that consisted of a single metal hook that latched onto a solitary harness strap on my back. Andrew Gough. There was also the odour; the smell of decomposed bodies. One mans wallet was apparently thrown near his remains. <]>> Real or imagined, I was perceived as an expert on the subject. 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