History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time Read online

  From there, Brewer led us to a specific grave, which we then scanned with ground penetrating radar (GPR). A GPR unit does exactly what its name says—scans the territory beneath the surface of the earth and records the bounce-backs of its signals, searching for anomalies.

  Sure enough, at the grave in Green Hill Cemetery, there was an anomaly: a mass in the grave that didn’t conform to expectations.

  Was it a hidden cache of gold? Jefferson Davis’s frozen head? What was inside?

  Without exhuming the grave, there was just no way to find out. And because Green Hill is a public cemetery, digging it up wasn’t going to happen.

  Is it any wonder that Brewer was a consultant on the movie National Treasure?

  A Public Hiding Place

  The first stop for the fleeing Confederates and their treasure may have been the last stop for a portion of the wealth. Some say that as much as $200,000 never left Danville, Virginia, and is buried in Green Hill Cemetery, still the focus of intense scrutiny by seekers of Confederate gold.

  Obviously, most of us didn’t think we’d be finding the lost Confederate gold on our first time out. But it did raise the question: Was the Confederate treasure simply stolen . . . or was it hidden by the KGC as part of a large and complex plan for when the South would rise again? Until a treasure hunter like Brewer finds definitive proof, we may never know. After all, the only people who really know are long dead.

  In the end, one detail is unarguable: There will always be those searching for treasure. Never forget: We are a country founded on legends and myths. We love them, especially legends of treasure. Looking for treasure isn’t just part of being an American, it is America.

  I believe at least some of the rebel gold is still out there somewhere. But the bottom line is, the only reason the treasure’s remained hidden for more than 150 years is because it was put there by experts. If it was easy to find, it would’ve been unearthed a long time ago. And as time marches on, the people with the necessary knowledge, like Bob Brewer, become fewer and farther between.

  The Grave

  As we followed Bob Brewer on his treasure hunt for Confederate gold, it wasn’t the grave itself that caught his interest. It was the misspelling on the tombstone’s inscription. Instead of sayler’s creek, the inscription read sailor’s creek.

  Mistake by the stone carver, right? Not to Brewer. In his eyes, the misspelling was a clue. A clue that formed an anagram: sailors.

  To Brewer, those letters can be rearranged to spell: rails so.

  What’s rails so? The letters so mean “south.” As in, railroad south. Rails to the south.

  And what was right nearby that grave? You guessed it. The original tracks and railbed that was used back then. Railroads that were once real helpful in moving the Confederate treasure.

  A Message Carved In Stone?

  According to some, the misspelling in this headstone (“Sailor’s Creek” instead of “Sayler’s Creek”) was a deliberately encoded clue for where the Confederate gold was hidden.

  Cracking the KGC Code

  A little warning here. Treasure hunter Bob Brewer’s system for interpreting hidden KGC signs is a bit complicated. And by complicated, I mean, sometimes it can even look a bit crazy. But the bare bones of the system is this: Each sign suggests a distance or a heading that leads to the next sign.

  So Brewer draws a line from sign to sign on a topographical map of the area, and where the lines intersect, he’ll either find treasure or he’ll find another sign that will lead him to the next clue. One of the first codes he cracked was on this Bible Tree.

  The trunk of Bob’s tree is covered with carvings he spent a lifetime trying to decode. One of them refers to a specific Bible passage—1 Thessalonians 2:3.

  Other carvings seem purely symbolic: a cross, a bell, a horse, a bird, and what looks like random numbers and letters. See Exhibit 9B for the KGC’s secret alphabet.

  Brewer suspected that each of the 60 carvings was part of a code for something else. The only way to find out was through trial and error. He spent years analyzing the symbols, measuring distances, looking for other nearby signs. But nothing on these trees is what it seems.

  According to Brewer, the KGC were masters of misdirection who intentionally loaded their carvings with false leads. They were betting that most treasure hunters would get so frustrated after chasing these bogus clues, they’d give up before they ever found anything. But Bob kept trying. Before long, he had a map full of coordinates that would ultimately lead him to the rebel gold.

  Some other typical symbols and treasure marks include:

  Animal: a travel symbol, which—when combined with a directional clue—tells where you should be headed

  Picture of a ghost (top right): This means you’re looking for a grave.

  A heart or the letter H (which stands for heart, middle right)

  Numeral: a distance measure telling you how far you need to go or a reference to something you’re looking for (The number 8 might send you to a nearby gazebo. Why that gazebo? It has eight sides, naturally. Bottom right.)

  Again, as you can tell, this isn’t a simple process. There are hundreds of such symbols, which can produce a near-infinite number of combinations—and a near-infinite number of interpretations.

  It calls for a special kind of mind: analytical, experienced, and, some would say, somewhat eccentric (which is a nice way to say somewhat crazy).

  But in the end, this is a long way from the x marks the spot treasure maps of our childhoods.

  The Georgia Guidestones: America’s Stonehenge

  What if I told you that America has its own Stonehenge? These giant stones were set up on a hillside outside, of all places, Atlanta in 1980. The man who had them built remains anonymous, as does the monument’s true purpose. In fact, other than their half-million-dollar price tag, almost nothing is known about the stones at all. They’re composed of 119 tons of solid granite and have coded messages that are engraved into them in the world’s eight most commonly spoken languages.

  These rectangular pillars are also precisely crafted to track astrological and solar cycles. There are some who interpret the messages here as a sign of the end of days. Others theorize that they’re a call for genocide on a massive scale. So what’s the message they contain? Who built them? Why are they located on a remote hillside in Georgia? And, of course, what are they intended to guide us toward?

  How and why the Guidestones were built have never been answered. But here’s what we do know: The monument didn’t just appear out of nowhere.

  On a summer day in 1979, a man using the alias R. C. Christian shows up at the Elberton Granite Finishing Company, presents very detailed and specific plans, and tells them he wants to build the Georgia Guidestones. The only details we have about the man is that he was balding, with a fringe of white hair, and had an accent that suggested he was from one of the Plains states. Also, he had money—a lot of money. And the only thing he absolutely demanded was that he remain completely anonymous. To this day, no one has been able to figure out who he is.

  What Christian commissioned, though, was no small undertaking. In fact, even with as deep a history of working with granite as Elberton had, they’d never encountered anything like the request from “R. C. Christian.”

  In fact, even if there was nothing more to the Georgia Guidestones than the stones themselves, the monument would be exceptionally impressive—a testament to the skills and abilities of the granite company R. C. Christian hired.

  But there is more to the Guidestones than the granite slabs. Much more. Some say it’s mysterious, others say it’s sinister.

  The Raw Numbers

  Take a look at the raw numbers to get a sense of how massive a project this was:

  Height: 19 feet 3 inches at its tallest p
oint

  Height of the four basic stones: 16 feet 4 inches

  Weight: 237, 746 pounds (more than 118 tons)

  Capstone dimensions: 9 feet 8 inches long

  6 feet 6 inches wide

  1 foot 7 inches thick

  Weight: 24,832 pounds

  Total volume of granite used: 951 cubic feet

  Cost: $500,000

  This was not a simple pile of rocks.

  The Stones

  The stones were unveiled during a public ceremony in 1980. They were controversial immediately. Supporters like Yoko Ono praised their message as a stirring call to rational thinking. But opponents attacked them, calling them the Ten Commandments of the Antichrist.

  So what’re the messages on the stones? First, you need to know that each message appears in English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian—the eight most widely spoken languages on Earth—which means the ten lines on each slab are intended for all of the world’s inhabitants. See Exhibit 8A for a model of the four main slabs.

  But as for the messages themselves, the first nine, reading up from the bottom, seem to be a benign call to higher thinking: Don’t be a cancer on the earth; seek harmony; balance personal rights with social duties; avoid petty laws; resolve international conflicts in a world court; protect people with fair laws; rule with reason; unite humanity with a new language; and guide reproduction wisely. But it’s the topmost directive on the stones that stops everyone cold:

  Now reread that directive again.

  A human population under 500 million would certainly be more “in balance” with nature. But . . .

  To achieve a population under 500 million would mean that more than 6.5 billion of us would have to die.

  Or be killed.

  Now reread that again.

  Exactly. The directive makes some believe that the Guidestones are calling for the mass murder of billions of innocent people—a global genocide that would kill the vast majority of the human race.

  Which interpretation is accurate? Or is there another interpretation altogether?

  The only way to find out is to decode who—or what—is behind the creation of the Guidestones themselves.

  No question, whoever built the Georgia Guidestones, they were determined to protect their anonymity. So to find out more about the mysterious R. C. Christian, we began by talking to Guidestone historian Raymond Wiley, coauthor of The Georgia Guidestones: America’s Most Mysterious Monument. According to Wiley, the pseudonym R. C. Christian is a clue itself—a fairly blatant one—that hearkens back to a 15-century physician and mystic named Christian Rosenkreutz, the idea of the Rose Cross, and the secretive organization known as the Rosicrucians.

  Orientation to the Star

  In addition to the messages written on it, the Georgia Guide-stones are oriented to the stars:

  The east and west corners of the monument track sunrise and sunset.

  A slot cut in one of the slabs marks the winter and summer solstices.

  A shaft drilled through the central stone marks Polaris, the North Star.

  A slit cut through the capstone marks perfect noon.

  That means the Guidestones have a calendar, a compass, a translator, and a guide. It’s like a granite Swiss Army knife.

  The Rosicrucians

  A Secret, Sacred Fellowship

  Rosicrucian sacred knowledge is said to include elements of alchemy. This 1928 illustration depicts Christian Rosenkreutz, who founded the secretive Rosicrucian Society in Germany in the early 15th century.

  People think that the Freemasons are fascinating. Let me tell you about the Rosicrucians. Christian Rosenkreutz is said to have founded the secretive Rosicrucian Society in Germany in the early 15th century, but some dispute that the man even lived at all. Some people say he’s not even real. Others say he’s more than one person.

  For the members of the society, Rosenkreutz was a doctor who had spent a lifetime gathering what he called sacred knowledge. Studying ancient Turkish, Sufi, and Persian paths toward understanding, as well as Western medical knowledge, he supposedly traveled through the Middle East, being instructed by masters of ancient wisdom.

  When he returned, Rosenkreutz supposedly founded his own church to pass on the learning to make sure that it didn’t die with him. So, at first, all the members were doctors. Each one took an oath to heal the sick without payment, to maintain the secrecy of the fellowship, and to find a replacement for Rosenkreutz before he died.

  The sacred knowledge is said to include elements of alchemy and psychic manipulation. Yup. Modern Rosicrucians are believed to have even been able to tap the ultimate power of the human mind. Some think the sect has evolved and they now seek to protect and guide humanity away from its own destruction. Others have accused the Rosicrucians of being out-and-out evil. To be clear, there are offshoots of Rosicrucians everywhere.

  The symbol of the church was this: a cross with a white rose at its center. They call it a rosy cross. The R and the C from the words Rosy Cross undoubtedly represent the founder’s last name—Rosenkreutz—and some believe they’re a link to the R and the C in the Guidestones benefactor’s pseudonym—R. C. Christian.

  And ready for this? If you look at the Georgia Guidestones from above, they resemble . . . a cross with a rose affixed.

  So is that the grand answer? Do the Georgia Guidestones serve as a beacon to followers of an all-but-forgotten religion that’s dedicated to unlocking hidden powers of the mind?

  I can’t say it’s the craziest idea I ever heard. Ever join a fraternity or sorority? The appeal—and power—of secret knowledge is always tantalizing. Indeed, people join secret societies in order to be a part of something special . . . something that will set them apart from the rest of us.

  But in the wrong hands, this desire for secret knowledge can lead to something far less attractive. Something that, according to journalist and Rosicrucian investigator Van Smith, might even be evil.

  The Power Of The Mind

  Psychic manipulation and harnessing the powers of the human mind are at the heart of Rosicrucian sacred knowledge. This early 17th-century engraving shows human mental abilities classified in terms of God and the universe.

  “The Georgia Guidestones were built explicitly to survive an apocalypse,” Smith asserts. More important, he believes “this apocalypse is going to be man-made.” In fact, with the commandment that the population be reduced to 500 million people—and that 6.5 billion of us are going to have to die—he says that when it comes to the Guidestones, “What it really is, is humanity’s tombstone.”

  To prove his point, Smith insists that the Rosicrucians have a mastery of psychic abilities, including:

  Psychokinesis: the ability to move objects with your mind

  Astral projection: the ability to travel vast distances in time and space by projecting your thoughts

  And the ability to control the minds of others

  It’s that last one—controlling the minds of others—that Smith says is the most potentially dangerous of all Rosicrucian abilities. Indeed, he believes it’s already played a part in one of the most notorious of all American assassinations: the 1968 murder of Senator Robert F. Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan.

  That’s right. Smith believes that Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Senator Kennedy not of his own volition, but under direct psychic guidance from secret Rosicrucian masters. His proof? The ramblings of Sirhan’s diaries, and the fact that the killer was a Rosicrucian.

  With all due respect to Smith, I’ve got to disagree. Sure, Sirhan Sirhan was technically a Rosicrucian, but he became one by mail order. Right. Mail order. I can be a bride by mail order, so to me, mail order doesn’t quite count. And it doesn’t seem as if Sirhan represented anybody or anything but himself. Look
at the historical record. During Sirhan’s trial, five different mental-health experts all testified that Sirhan was a paranoid schizophrenic. So the idea that the Rosicrucians were somehow controlling his mind, mentally manipulating him to shoot Senator Kennedy, well . . . that’s just preposterous to me.

  I will say it’s worth looking at those mail-order ads. They appeared in the back pages of science fiction and hobbyist magazines in the 1950s and 1960s and even earlier (see Exhibit 8B). There, among the other odd advertisements, were some for a group calling themselves the Rosicrucians. The advertised mix of the promise of mysterious powers and the ability to unleash those powers for your own benefit was just the sort of nuttiness that could attract the applications, and the membership fees, of the foolish, the young and gullible . . . and even someone lonely and the criminally disturbed.

  So how do you find the truth about Rosicrucians? We went to someone who would know, a Rosicrucian herself.

  Sirhan Sirhan

  Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin was a Rosicrucian—by mail order. The idea that those beliefs played any part in his crime is considered ridiculous by most historians.

  A Real Rosicrucian

  The very first thing Reverend Bette Benner wants you to know about Rosicrucianism is that, “If someone tells you they’re a Rosicrucian, they’re not.”

  Wait a minute. This is a religion that’s supposedly out to conquer the world, or at least win converts, and its real members won’t tell you they’re real members?