WEBVTT - Season 6 Episode 10 Extra: Gold in Them Hills 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:14.720 Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClane Smith, where 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.040 for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:19.640 and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.240 it into the previous show. In last week's episode, The 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.400 Longest Road, we wound our way through the strange and 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:30.640 mysterious tale of the Lost Dutchman's Mind. The story has 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.519 grown more and more convoluted over the years and has 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:37.720 captured many a colorful character in its web. Needless to say, 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.640 it was impossible to include everything in such a short 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.519 space of time, So I'd like to take this opportunity 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.440 to give a shout out to sometime opera singer and 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:52.000 full time Lost Dutchman enthusiast celest Marie Jones. Starting in 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:56.000 the late nineteen fifties, Jones spent over thirty years stalking 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.840 the mountains, rarely seen without her trustee sorn Off rifle 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.320 and pistol strapped to her waist, battling many a foe, 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:06.880 both real and imagined in her epic quest to find 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:11.520 the treasure. But sadly, just like everyone else, she too 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.640 was eventually forced to concede defeat. It is also worth 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:20.280 mentioning the Parolta Stones, a set of sandstone tablets engraved 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.000 with what is purported to be a map leading to 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:27.200 the location of the infamous mine, apparently discovered sometime in 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:31.240 the nineteen fifties. Though most believed the stones to be fake, 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.520 some maintained they are genuine artifacts dating back to eighteen 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.320 forty seven that were created by a member of the 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:42.800 famed Parolta family, upon whose apparent old abandoned mine the 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.120 entire myth is founded. We should perhaps add two that 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:51.040 this major aspect of the story is also heavily contested, 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.360 since there is no concrete evidence to confirm the family 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:59.040 had ever even mind in the Superstition Mountains. Jesse Capon, 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.240 who tragic he died in two thousand and nine while 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:05.040 looking for the treasure, was not even the last person 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.520 to lose their life in the process. The year after 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:12.239 his attempt, three men from Utah, forty nine year old 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:16.560 Curtis Merwith, sixty six year old Arden Charles, and forty 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.360 one year old Malcolm Meeks, also died after planning to 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:23.720 spend three days in the Superstitions as they hunted for 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:27.840 the gold. Their remains were found six months later, after 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:32.320 all three of them failed to return home. Though there 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.880 are numerous stories of lost gold and famed treasure hunts, 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.919 with perhaps the Oak Island mystery being the closest. Certainly 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.079 with regard to the cost of lives, none can really 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.640 hold a candle to this most shaggy and enigmatic of tales. 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.480 It does, however, give me an excuse to talk about 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:55.079 one of my favorite lost treasure locations, a curious mystical 0:02:55.120 --> 0:03:07.160 place called Rein les Chateau. A narrow, dusty road leads 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:11.840 to Rein les Chateau, a quintessential southern French village perched 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.120 high on a hill roughly fifty kilometers from the border 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.720 with Spain, surrounded by rich, verdant fields and rolling tree 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.679 covered hills. This small commune that dates back to medieval 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:29.280 times should, under normal circumstances be a place of relative obscurity, 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:34.440 but Rein les Chateau is no ordinary place. For thousands 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:38.760 of visitors each year, this quaint, humbled village has become 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.120 a site of intense pilgrimage thanks to the emergence of 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:46.960 tantalizing rumors connecting it to everything from supposed secret society 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.480 the priory of Scion, to the ark of the Covenant, 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.680 and even the Holy Grail itself. And at the center 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:57.640 of it all, perched high up on a cliff at 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:00.640 the northern edge of the village, lies the strange and 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:05.760 beguiling Church of Saint Mary Magdalene. At its peak, over 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:08.680 one hundred and twenty thousand visitors were pouring into the 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.920 village each year, despite having less than a hundred full 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:15.800 time residents, as well as over seven hundred books or 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:19.680 dedicated to unraveling its secrets. It has also inspired one 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.400 of the world's best selling books of all time, in 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:28.040 Dan Browne's The Da Vinci Code. Over decades, many lured 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.760 in by Dan Brown's book as much as anything else, 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:35.840 have gone to increasingly extreme measures, tunneling through the church walls, 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.359 digging up basements and graves, and even resorting to explosives 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.880 in their frenzied attempts to find whatever treasure it is 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:47.960 they believed to be located there. So how did this 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:53.760 simple settlement come to inspire such hysteria? The answer lies 0:04:53.839 --> 0:05:06.599 in one name. Baron Jay Sognier baronchet Sonnier was a 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:10.480 Roman Catholic priest who worked at Reine le Chateau from 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:14.799 eighteen eighty five to nineteen oh five. When he initially 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:18.120 moved there, he lived a fairly hand to mouth existence 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.159 on a salary of seven hundred and twenty francs a year, 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.039 worth something in the region of fifteen thousand US dollars 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:30.440 in today's money. However, with each passing year, Sournier's spending 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:34.679 began to increase dramatically, as noted in his accounts, going 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.760 far beyond the reach of his meager salary. Reveling in 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:43.200 this mysterious newfound wealth, the priest began to spend frivolous 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:47.560 amounts renovating the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, which dates 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:50.320 back to the eighth century and had been in poor 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:55.560 condition for years. Lavish details and embellishments were added, such 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:59.560 as ornate stained glass windows and extensions to the building's 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:03.960 foot including a private residential villa just for the priest. 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.880 Over the ten years of his residency, he is thought 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:10.279 to have spent well into the tens of thousands of 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.240 francs on the project, with some even claiming his expenditure 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:18.320 ran up into the millions by today's standards. But it 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.680 wasn't just luxury adornments that the priest added to this 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:27.039 peculiar place of worship. At its entrance, Sournier installed the 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:32.160 chilling figure of Asmodius, a demon, its face contorted as 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:36.880 if ready to inflict agony on any unsuspecting foe. This 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.680 unusual choice for a church is also accompanied by the 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:47.120 foreboding inscription terribilis est locus estate, which translates to this 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:52.640 place is terrible in English. These ominous garnishes have led 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.200 some to believe that the many symbols and details placed 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:00.279 in the church by Sournier might actually contain hidden coats 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:05.680 and naturally, as the priest continued to entertain lavishly with 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.680 fine wines and finer food, but with no visible source 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:13.320 of income, speculation about where it was all coming from 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.480 exactly soon began to grow, and so it was that 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:24.240 in nineteen ten, the Bishoprick investigated and held Soornier to trial. Sornier, however, 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:29.120 refused to attend, claiming suddenly that the money had simply 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.760 been gifted to him by unknown benefactors, though he failed 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:37.600 to produce any evidence attesting to this. The rumors continued 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:41.320 to spread, however, and soon some began to speculate that 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.520 he'd actually found a long lost, buried treasure hidden somewhere 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:49.080 in the depths of the church. It was also claimed 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:53.320 that Soornier and his dutiful housekeeper Marie de Narnaud were 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:57.160 witnessed digging in the church's cemetery at night, leading to 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:01.200 allegations that they were in fact grave Robert and stealing 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:05.360 from the dead. However, if the answers were to be found, 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.720 they would not come from the man himself, who took 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.240 his secrets to the grave when he died in nineteen seventeen. 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:22.280 What makes a Murderer's Mind tick? Killer Psyche is a 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.800 true crime podcast from Wandry that explores these types of 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:30.400 questions about the crimes that killers and criminals commit. Killer 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:34.200 Psyche covers high profile cases that shocked the world, and 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:38.200 host Candice DeLong uses her five decades of experience as 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:43.000 a clinical psychiatric nurse and FBI criminal profiler to dissect 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:47.439 the motivations and behaviors of the most terrifying felons in history. 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.439 And you'll definitely want to listen to a recent episode 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:54.200 of Killer Psyche where Candice looks into the mysterious murder 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:58.320 of Ted Ammon, a wealthy Wall Street financier. Ted had 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.280 been going through a divorce with his wife of thirteen years, 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:06.120 Generosa and child custody and millions in assets were at stake. 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:11.200 Generosa and her new boyfriend Danny Pelosi were the prime suspects, 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:15.479 but Generosa died of cancer before police could prove her involvement. 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:19.640 In twenty oh four, Danny was convicted of second degree murder, 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:23.760 but still maintains his innocence. How does hatred drive a 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:27.120 person to murder the father of their children? Listen to 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.800 Kill a Psyche on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or you 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:34.040 can listen to one Week and Free by joining Wandry 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:40.920 Plus in the Wandry app Few had heard of the 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:45.640 Sonier mystery outside the region until the nineteen fifties, when 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.559 a man named Noel Corbou bought the church estate from 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:54.040 Sournier's housekeeper, Marie Denarnaud, who'd inherited it when he died. 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:59.520 Courbeu claims that Denarnaud teased him with numerous tales about 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:03.360 the estate eight and Sonier's time there, even once telling 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.480 him that she alone held the key secret to the 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.800 vast treasure and promised to tell him all when the 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:14.679 time was right, But then she suffered a seizure, rendering her, 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:19.400 unable to communicate before she eventually died, taking her secrets 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:24.920 to the grave too, and so Courbeu started to sow 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.880 his own seats, telling stories to anyone who'd listened about 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:32.560 the wealth of Rein Le Chateau, hoping to generate interest 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.400 in a new restaurant that he'd opened on the estate. 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:40.560 He claimed that in eighteen ninety two, Sonier found a 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:44.680 collection of parchments and other riches during a refurbishment of 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.240 the church, which were in fact part of Blanche de 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:53.320 Castile's treasure of the French crown. De Castile was once 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.640 Queen Consort of France by marriage to Louis the eighth, 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.400 and his bounty was said to have been concealed at 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:03.679 Rein les Otto. When King Louis was captured during the Crusades. 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:09.320 Coorbou insisted that the parchments contained coded secrets that would 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:14.400 cause unimaginable damage to the Catholic Church. Over the next 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:19.040 ten years, Corbu's tales began to take root, evolving and 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:23.080 growing with every new utterance, before eventually reaching a man 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:27.720 named Pierre Plantart, renowned for his claims to be a 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:32.800 direct descendant of the ancient French Merovingian dynasty, believed by 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:36.440 some to be the true heirs of France. Plantart founded 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.920 the Priory of Scion in nineteen fifty six, claiming his 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.720 male led religious order was just the latest evolution of 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.599 a secret society formed on Mount Zion in Jerusalem in 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.880 ten ninety nine. The organization has claimed to have once 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:55.880 counted Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton among its members, 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.640 and was also intertwined with myths relating to the Knights 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.960 temp All the while, as the story began to gain 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:09.719 media attention, Plantart, along with select friends, continued to interweave 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.360 stories of Rein le Chateau's loot with the mythology of 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:17.359 his own Priory of Scion, hoping to further his fanciful 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:21.120 claim that, as an apparent mere of Indian descendant, he 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:26.360 was in fact heir to the French throne. Plantart even 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:30.120 succeeded in forging the parchments that Sonnier is said to 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:34.160 have found and had them placed in the French National Library, 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:38.280 before the hoax was eventually discovered and the parchments removed 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:49.520 when his accomplice admitted to assisting in the forgery. Despite 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:52.880 being generally debunked in later years, the idea of the 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:56.720 Priory of Scion and its convoluted tales of pure bloodlines 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:02.120 continues to generate great excitement, also inevitably fueling a string 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:06.800 of elaborate conspiracy theories. Over time, the story of the 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:11.240 merrow Vingian dynasty became confused to even blending with a 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:15.079 supposed lineage that goes all the way back to Jesus Christ, 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.520 and soon came the idea that the Holy Grail and 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.280 the Ark of the Covenant were also part of the 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:27.079 treasure hall at Reine le Chateau. As Dante once famously said, 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:32.680 from a little spark may burst a mighty flame. If 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.360 you recognize the priest's name at the heart of this story, 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.600 it's likely you two are one of the millions of 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.920 people who've read the Da Vinci Code. Indeed, this real 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:47.440 life priest inspired the fictional character Jacques Sonier found in 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:51.000 Dan Brown's story, a dark figure who works as the 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:53.840 curator of the Louver and his head of the secret 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:58.840 Priory of Scion. Today, it is almost impossible to deduce 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:02.840 the real truth about Rein le Chateau, with many claiming 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:06.120 it to be a place of great mystical energy, regardless 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:10.600 of what you believe either way. Over a short period 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:14.679 of time, this tale has transformed a sleepy village into 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:19.240 a heartland of genealogical secrets and prophesized wealth. And with 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.400 the story becoming so twisted and confused, its simple reality 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:27.920 will never satisfy the ardent fortune seekers and conspiracy theorists 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:32.640 who want it to be so much more. Ultimately, what 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:36.800 rein Le Chateau shows us is even the world's biggest 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:43.280 hoaxes cannot shake the thrill of the chase. This episode 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:48.040 was written by myself and Donna McKay smith. If you 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:50.720 enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support us, you 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:54.000 can now do so via Patreon. To receive access to 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:57.560 add three episodes, just go to patron dot com forward 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:02.000 slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained, the book and audiobook, 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.080 featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.680 the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:13.120 purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:17.200 All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.520 by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.480 show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free to 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.080 get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:28.840 stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.360 explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:35.280 reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or Twitter 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:40.320 at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com. 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