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

  One of highest-ranking Masons to have been president of the United States was Harry S. Truman. The 33rd president became a Mason in 1909, and was a member of Grandview Lodge Number 618, of Grandview, Missouri. In the course of over a half century of Masonic membership, Truman is the only presidential Freemason to have celebrated a golden anniversary in the brotherhood; he reached the level of 33rd degree Mason. That congruence—our 33rd president was a 33rd Degree Mason—has fed more than one conspiracy theory over the years.

  Truman, incidentally, was proud and hardly secretive about his Freemason membership. He is reported to have claimed to be more proud of his rank within the Masons than he was of having been president. Not sure I believe that, but then again, Truman was well known for saying things provocatively in a way that no one ever expected.

  So what’s Truman’s tie to the White House cornerstone? In 1949, during the Truman administration, the White House went through a substantial renovation, which is when they added what we know today as the Truman Balcony. The People’s House had fallen into such disrepair that many people, if they knew its true condition, might have refused to live there. So as the building was being gutted all the way to its foundation, this struck many as the perfect time to make a concerted search for the cornerstone that had been missing since 1792.

  During the search, they ran a World War II mine detector across the foundation of the White House. The device gave off its distinctive ping-ping-ping, indicating the presence of a metal object in the White House foundation.

  This was it. The moment everyone was waiting for: Had they found it? Had the cornerstone been located? We’ll never know because Truman himself gave the word not to spend any more effort trying to locate the cornerstone. The location of the stone in question would make excavating it tricky, structurally questionable, and, perhaps most important of all, expensive. Truman was a notably frugal president, and he had enough problems with Congress without picking a fight over removing a stone that would either have to be put back in place or completely replaced afterward.

  But there’s another twist to the story. As the less structurally important walls of the White House were broken open during the renovation, Truman ordered that a block of stone from the executive mansion be sent to Masonic Temples all across the country—one block for one temple in each of the then 48 states. And here’s the best part: Each of those stones from the White House—like the one in the Scottish Rite headquarters today—bore the construction mark of a working Freemason.

  Easy to see how you could build a conspiracy out of something like that, right? But as we posed those questions to Freemason scholars and historians Arturo de Hoyos and S. Brent Morris, we didn’t just find a surprising openness and candor—we found answers that actually made sense.

  Why would anyone want to keep the location of such a stone a secret? they asked. “Why would you want to do that and not advertise it to the world that you found it? You would want to brag about it,” Morris added. For most of us—as with the Freemasons—it’d be far more likely that you’d celebrate the rediscovery of such an important piece of our history, and do so with a bit of special pride that it was Freemasons who set the stone in the first place.

  Starting to sound logical, right? But what if the cornerstone was filled with something powerful . . . or even mystical? And what about the code of secrecy that Freemasons agree to?

  “You know, I wish I knew the powers that I had, being a member of this,” Hoyos laughed, “because when I received the thirty-third degree, I found out that I still had to pay for HBO and Cinemax.” He went on to talk openly about the Morgan Affair that Freemason critics love to feature. He acknowledged that the murder might’ve happened because someone gave away Masonic secrets. It wasn’t sanctioned by the Freemasons, though. It was “a group of people that did something stupid.” So in Hoyos’s eyes, when it came to the White House cornerstone, “If I’m going to admit to a Masonic murder per se, don’t you think I’d tell you about some rock? I mean,” he began to laugh, “we’d be happy to pull it out and parade it.”

  And what about all the secrecy?

  “Sharing secrets, or sharing confidences, builds stronger relationships,” Hoyos explained. So you can believe that Masons are trying to take over the world . . . or you can believe that this organization—whose libraries are open to any researcher who wants to come—is simply trying to build relationships and friendships they can count on.

  But of all the things we heard in their headquarters, the biggest bombshell came when they asked why we weren’t searching for the other missing cornerstone of democracy.

  Want to know how proud, and how open, Truman was of his Masonic identity? You can actually order photographs of Truman in Masonic garb, complete with fez, from the Truman Library, the official repository of his papers and materials related to his administration.

  A Massive Renovation

  The White House was gutted to its foundation during the Truman era renovation, but the cornerstone was never found.

  Stones For Masons

  Workers make forms for concrete during the White House renovation. Truman ordered that blocks from stone walls broken during the renovation be sent to Masonic Temples all across the country. Each stone bore the construction mark of a working Freemason.

  Another Missing Cornerstone

  “What other missing cornerstone of democracy?” we asked.

  The cornerstone of the Capitol building itself.

  That’s right. According to Hoyos and Morris, in addition to the White House, nobody knows the location of the Capitol’s cornerstone, either.

  For some expert insight, we turned to documentarian Jackson Polk, who has captured on film some of the efforts to locate the missing Capitol cornerstone—a cornerstone that was laid by George Washington himself.

  In 1988, with the bicentennial of the Capitol approaching, the Architect of the Capitol decided he wanted to locate the Capitol cornerstone. He quickly discovered that an independent effort to do so was already under way. Charlie Scalla, an air-conditioning mechanic for the Capitol, had become fascinated with the missing cornerstone and began searching, digging, and drilling in the cavernous basements of the Capitol, and doing so without any official permission.

  Under the Capitol

  The Capitol Building

  No one knows the location of the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol building (shown here in an early architectural rendering) either. It’s out there somewhere—but where?

  Scalla’s archaeological curiosity was matched by his sense of how things work in Washington. When he was confronted by the Capitol architect about his freelance exploration of the Capitol’s foundation, an exploration the architect wanted stopped, Scalla was holding a very powerful set of cards. He had made several U.S. senators—who happened to be Freemasons—aware of his efforts, and the senators not only approved of his search, but instructed the architect to give Scalla every possible assistance he could.

  According to Jackson Polk, Scalla was almost undoubtedly within six or eight feet of uncovering the Capitol cornerstone, deep beneath the Senate, when the word came down that the political reality had to be addressed. People in the House of Representatives were upset that the Senate was getting all the attention. There had been enough digging beneath the Senate. It was now the House’s turn, and, for no other reason, the dig was moved.

  Needless to say, the stone was never found.

  Just silliness, right?

  Still, as he showed us the actual footage, Polk believes that the Capitol cornerstone is exactly where George Washington placed it, not far from where Scalla was digging. Despite all the conspiracies, it hadn’t been stolen or even hidden. It was just covered by the accumulation of additional construction, reinforcing stones, and other materials over the course of two and a quarter centuries. And that’s where it’s likely to remain.
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  Which, according to Polk, isn’t just a shame, but a tragedy. Today, we know that cornerstones were sometimes hollow, containing treasures—or even time capsules—from their time. Indeed, the cornerstone of the Washington Monument contains a Bible, along with dozens of documents and artifacts reflecting American life at the time. Now suppose the Capitol cornerstone contains a similar compartment. Imagine what sorts of things might’ve been placed there. Polk thinks there’s a chance that such invaluable materials as alternate drafts of the Constitution itself could be resting within the stone. And yes, that’s pure speculation—but until the stone is located and examined, we’ll never know if the speculation has any basis in fact.

  Incidentally, Polk believes that the location of the Capitol stone is in the southeast corner of the building. Not the northeast where Freemasons traditionally place such stones. Why? It turns out that the tradition of placing the stone in the northeast corner didn’t originate until after the year 1800—long after both of the stones from the Capitol and the White House had been placed.

  That’s one mystery decoded.

  The Capitol Cornerstone

  Unlike the White House cornerstone, the Capitol cornerstone was laid by George Washington himself—as this painting of the president in a Masonic apron attests.

  So Where Is It?

  So what about the White House cornerstone? Was it stolen? Was it dug up? Or did some inner circle of Freemasons somehow walk off with it in the night?

  To find the answer, we relied on one of the most trustworthy of sources: math.

  According to our best estimate, the White House cornerstone was about two feet high, six feet long, and two feet wide. Relying on her background as an engineer, McKinley quickly took those 24 cubic feet, added the fact that granite is 150 pounds per cubic foot, and realized with or without whatever’s inside it, we’re talking about a stone that weighs 3,600 pounds. About the weight of a car. Even a group of thieves would have trouble moving that kind of hunk of stone secretly. They’d need a wagon, a team, pulleys, ropes—and above all—time.

  So what happened to the cornerstone that everyone from Harry S. Truman to Barbara Bush went looking for? The most likely reality is that the stone wasn’t stolen. The more we discovered about the missing White House cornerstone, the more sense it makes that the cornerstone is exactly where it always was—underneath the White House, where it wasn’t just placed on that day in 1792. It was deliberately hidden.

  To me, it’s one of the few explanations that actually makes sense. Think about it. In 1792, America was still a brand-new country. We’d just defeated Great Britain, the world’s greatest military power. Americans had to be counting the days until the British returned to take back what was once theirs. So maybe, at this exact moment, the bad guys were actually the good guys. Maybe the Freemasons—who were also patriots—put the cornerstone where nobody would ever find it—hiding it in such a way that it couldn’t be identified by an invading and possibly marauding army.

  The White House cornerstone was hidden in plain sight, and the decision to hide the commemorative plaque (which also still hasn’t been found) may well have saved the stone from defacement—or actual theft—when the British did invade the United States again, during the War of 1812.

  During that invasion, the White House was burned. You can still see scorch marks in certain places on its exterior. But the White House still stands, and it stands on a strong cornerstone located, I believe, in its southeast corner, exactly where it’s always been, exactly where it’s supposed to be.

  When we first started this journey, the most important thing to me was to find that cornerstone, to put an end to the questions that some of the most powerful people in America have asked for more than 200 years. I now believe the cornerstone is still on the grounds of the White House, just where it was in 1792. And I don’t believe the Masons ever stole it. But there’s something far more important. If we had found the cornerstone and put it on display, it’s just a rock under glass, like any other museum piece. It loses all of its symbolic power. But because the White House cornerstone is still—for all intents and purposes—missing, it retains its power as a symbol, and it keeps us wondering, thinking, and searching.

  The Washington Monument

  The cornerstone of the Washington Monument contains a Bible, along with dozens of documents and artifacts reflecting American life at the time. The question remains, when it comes to the White House cornerstone, was there anything hidden inside?

  The Spear of Destiny: History’s Most Sacred Relic

  What if I told you that the Spear of Destiny—which was supposedly used to stab Christ on the cross—may also hold mystical powers—and that it’s been pursued by everyone from Napoleon to Adolf Hitler?

  Theories abound that the spear may allow its holder to become invincible. And some believe its final resting place may be in a sunken German U-boat off the coast of the United States. Let me be clear: I don’t care if it has magic powers. You tell me that Adolf Hitler wanted this thing, I want to know what it is.

  It’s time to decode the Spear of Destiny.

  The spear itself is mentioned only briefly in the Bible in John 19:34: “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.”

  Just 19 words—and yet they form the heart of the story of the spear.

  Over the centuries, that story gave birth to mystical lore that grew more and more elaborate. It began when Pontius Pilate sent Jesus to his death. It had to be confirmed that Christ had actually died, so a Roman soldier was ordered to stab him. This spear pierced his side, and it’s said that blood and water seeped from his body. The soldier was unnamed in the Bible, though was later claimed to have been known as Longinus.

  As a result of stabbing Christ, Longinus is said to have suffered for years. One story claims that he was subjected to a nightly mauling by a lion.

  Because of the suffering Longinus experienced, and his repentance for the act of stabbing Jesus, some Christian faiths, including the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church, refer to him as Saint Longinus. The weapon he wielded is itself occasionally referred to as the Spear of Longinus.

  Classical Longinus

  A medieval depiction of the Crucifixion.

  The Duke

  John Wayne as Longinus in George Stevens’s 1965 film The Greatest Story Ever Told.

  Other names for the spear include:

  the Holy Lance

  the Lance of Longinus

  the Spear of Christ

  By any of its names, though, the true spear would be among the most revered and coveted of all religious artifacts. Indeed, for centuries, many have believed that Longinus’s spear controls the destiny of this world, for good or for evil. For that reason, conquerors and would-be world leaders were among those who coveted it most highly.

  So where did the spear go?

  It depends on which spear you’re talking about. Throughout history, there have been several relics said to be the Spear of Destiny. In fact, today there are no fewer than three Spears of Destiny that we know of, two of them in prominent locations: one in the Vatican and one in Vienna, Austria.

  For obvious reasons, we started by searching for the spear in the Vatican.

  Unfortunately, the Vatican spear isn’t on display. According to historian Elizabeth Lev, it’s only taken out once a year for a few moments at the end of the day on Good Friday. No exceptions.

  In fact, the Vatican spear is so treasured, it’s located in one of the most prominent pieces of real estate in all of religion: Saint Peter’s Basilica, the burial place of the apostle Peter, who became the very first pope. The spear—along with a series of other relics—makes the framework for the tomb of Saint Peter.

  As Lev explained, the spear is ceremonially removed once a year from
its place of honor, and almost immediately replaced. But no matter how many times we asked, there was no way the Vatican was going to let us test the authenticity of its spear.

  Nevertheless, Lev believes that the Vatican spear is of “a good pedigree,” and could very well be the real thing.

  Theologian Jason Spiehler adamantly disagrees. According to him, toward the end of the 1400s, the Vatican spear “was given by a sultan to Pope Innocent VIII. Why? Because he wants the pope to keep his brother as a political prisoner.”

  For sure, it’s one of the wilder stories. The pope had a sultan locked in jail, hoping that the sultan’s little brother would give the pope the most valuable thing he had: a relic that he claimed was the real Spear of Destiny. It was a total bribe, but here’s the kicker: The younger brother wasn’t bribing the pope to get his big brother out of jail, he was bribing the pope to keep his big brother in jail, so that the younger brother could be the sultan.

  According to Spiehler, there’s no way the young sultan would have traded away what was potentially the most powerful religious relic in Christendom just to keep his brother in jail. I mean, if he had possession of the true spear, why would he even fear his older brother? Think about it: If you had the true spear, would you trade it away?

  Exactly. Which means it’s far more likely that what the sultan really gave the pope was potentially a convincing replica of the spear.

  Still, regardless of whether it was the real spear or not—and regardless of whether it had magic powers—one thing became very clear: The spear clearly had a political function. And Pope Innocent VIII wasn’t the only one to realize this.

  Under the Vatican

  Saint Peter, one of Jesus’s 12 apostles, helped lead Christ’s followers after the Crucifixion.