Tag Archives: True Crime

Episode 41 – Gangsters Glory



Dutch Schultz was one of the most ruthless mobsters of Prohibition Era New York, and had his fair share of enemies. Legend has is that paranoia drove Schultz to hoarding his loot and concealing it within a safe, that he and his team buried in the Catskill Mountains. Many believe Dutch Schultz revealed a code to his buried treasure while on his deathbed, and the mobster’s safe is still waiting to be found.

Patreon.com/Relic

@losttreasurepod

Music by by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Photos taken at the Museum of the American Gangster


Episode 40 – The Curious Village



Rennes-le-Château was just another quiet village in the shadow of the Pyrenees, until one day when a mysterious priest showed up in town with a seemingly endless surplus of cash. Vanishing just as quickly as he arrived, Father Saunier left his parishioners with only suspicion and questions. When a failed writer moved into his crumbling estate, he discovered something shocking about the priest’s “fortune”–and kicked off three decades of bizarre speculation, conspiracy theory, and one of the best selling novels of the 2000’s. What is the treasure of Rennes-le-Château?

Music by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Music by Peritune https://soundcloud.com/sei_peridot


Episode 33 – Silk and Slaughter



Genghis Khan ushered in the 13th century of a tidal wave of carnage and conquest. Yet for all of the horrors attributed to the Mongol ruler, history paints a much more nuanced portrait of a rational, progressive, and open minded leader. Yet for someone who had garnered such notoriety, Genghis Khan’s death and subsequent burial is shrouded in legend and mystery. What is the truth, and is it wise to go looking for it?

Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/


Episode 30 – The Woman on the Train, or The Dorak Affair



James Mellaart took the archaeological world by storm when he discovered one of the oldest Neolithic sites in the world. Then, a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger on a train promised Mellaart an even more earthshaking find: the treasures of a bygone culture that neighbored the once-thought legendary city of Troy. However, what happened next challenged Mellaart’s credibility for the rest of his life. The truth behind the strange case of the “Dorak Affair” is still hotly debated to this day.

Music from Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Suggested reading from Suzan Mazur, who has covered the case extensively.


Episode 27 – Empty Frames



In 1990, two individuals dressed as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and altered the course of the art world forever. One of the most audacious crimes ever committed kicks off Relic’s Season 2, the arc of which will focus on heists, deception, the paranormal, and the occult.

All music from Purple Planet and Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/


Episode 24 – Yamashita’s Gold



During World War II, the Japanese amassed their hoard of stolen wealth primarily on the Philippine island of Luzon. After the war, rumors began to emerge that a general by the name of Tomoyuki Yamashita had buried most of the loot in unspecified locations. For many years, this was nothing more than an urban legend…until a local man named Rogelio Roxas supposedly uncovered a cache of gold in an abandoned tunnel. This was when things got weird…

Music from: Derek Fiechter. MusOpen. And Kevin Macleod


Episode 10 – City of Black Sails



For all of the lore surrounding history’s legendary pirates, not much is known about their lives on land. According to the same book that first introduced the world to pirate mythology, a chance encounter at sea led to the establishment of a democratic pirate republic in a hidden cove off the Madagascar coast. When a team of pirate captains pulled off the biggest heist in the golden age of piracy, it was said that they took refuge here. To this day, the treasure of the Gunsway Heist and the pirate hideaway of Libertalia has never been found.

Music by Derek Fiechter. Sample from Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy.”

Research shout-out to Henry Louis Gates Jr.


Episode 7 – The Lamb, The Thief, and The Judges



The Ghent Altarpiece, or the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, is one of the most important pieces of Renaissance art–which is probably why it’s also known as the most frequently stolen painting of all time. In 1931 the most beguiling portion of it went missing for good, and what followed was an eighty-year caper involving Nazis, psychics, and stolen cheese.

Music in this episode provided by Musopen, the open source, public domain, classical music databse.

Fantasie op. 16. Composed by César Franck Franck, Performed by Michael Schopen

Prelude, Choral et Fugue Composed by César Franck, Performed by Mehmet K. Okonsor

Sonata for Cello and Piano, Composed by César Franck, Performed by Paul Pitman, Bang-Eun Lee