Cursed Histories S01E01
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CreativityTranscript
00:00A Stone Age mummy emerges from the icy Alps
00:04and unleashes a spell of death for those who dare to get too close.
00:08As many as seven people are believed to have been part of this kursler,
00:12are suffering illness and death.
00:14Is there something more sinister at work here?
00:17An ancient city in Afghanistan is reduced to rubble,
00:21but the souls of its former citizens remain eternally screaming in the dead of night.
00:26The myth that you can still hear the screams likely is due to how they were all slaughtered.
00:33A gruesome story penned on a centuries-old scroll makes its way across Europe,
00:39leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
00:41Every single time it seems like the person who has the manuscript
00:47has fallen on some sort of misfortune.
00:51Is this the curse of the scroll at work?
00:56The ابwehr's precision of knowing,
00:59the absence of imagination is where it is.
01:03Provide the ambiguity
01:04to the Allahu ekst.
01:12The2015 family equipment
01:16MSプ ROS
01:16In a laboratory in Austria, scientist Rainer Henn is one of the first people to touch a mummified corpse,
01:32which his team had retrieved from the Alps mountain range in Europe.
01:38For the past few months, he has studied every inch of the corpse,
01:42and now he's ready to present his findings at a highly anticipated conference.
01:49But Rainer Henn never makes it to the conference.
01:53On his way, he's killed in a head-on collision.
01:59Henn is the first of many people to meet an untimely death after studying this mysterious mummy.
02:06Those closest to the corpse have soon joined it in the afterlife.
02:12But who do these remains belong to?
02:15And could they carry a lethal curse?
02:17In 1991, two German tourists are trekking the Alps that border Italy and Austria,
02:38and they take a shortcut down a ridge.
02:42And undergoing this shortcut, they come across this eerie, strange sight.
02:49In the remote region known as the Ertstel Alps,
02:53the hikers step closer to a figure protruding from a cocoon of ice.
02:58Much to their horror, they discover it to be a dead body,
03:01its brown, leathery skin preserved by the alpine climate.
03:05Could it be a fellow hiker?
03:07And how long have they been lying here?
03:10They had no idea of the age of it at the time,
03:12because in the Alps, the air is such that bodies can mummify more quickly.
03:17So the assumption was, of course, this is a poor hiker, perhaps, who lost their way.
03:23But the true identity of the iceman is far more shocking.
03:28As an archaeologist, I think it's one of the most interesting and amazing finds of our lifetime.
03:37A crew of researchers, journalists and mountaineers are called in to retrieve the remains.
03:42They break the Ertstel mummy free from the ice and transport him to a lab.
03:49There were quite a number of objects in the local vicinity of where he was.
03:56It was a staggeringly important discovery.
04:01They discovered that it was, in fact, thousands of years older than they had thought.
04:07Initial examinations confirm him to be a prehistoric man,
04:10one that lived 5,300 years ago.
04:15Ötzi is named after the Ötzel Alps, where he was found.
04:19Researchers discover that Ötzi is 5'3 inches tall, 110 pounds,
04:25and approximately 45 years old at time of death.
04:29This ancient iceman predates ancient Greece, Stonehenge,
04:33and even the Great Pyramids of Giza.
04:36It is the oldest human mummy to ever be found in Europe,
04:39and one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.
04:43It was a really dramatic moment for everyone involved,
04:47and it came to be very important for changing our understanding of human societies at that time.
04:53Determining just how Ötzi died, however,
04:58will take years of study and claim the lives of many along the way,
05:03the first of whom is scientist Rainer Henn.
05:07Rainer Henn was a forensic pathologist,
05:11and he was part of the team that went out to retrieve Ötzi,
05:17taking him from the frozen ground and placing him in a body bag.
05:22Henn, in the role of lead forensic investigator,
05:27is tasked with unravelling Ötzi's origin story and his frozen final days.
05:36But dead men don't speak, and they don't give lectures either.
05:40On his way to present his findings, he was killed in a car accident.
05:44Could breaking this ancient mummy free from the frozen ground have unleashed a deadly curse?
05:56Could the brush of Henn's bare hand have provoked the dead man's wrath?
06:01As the community grieves Henn's untimely death, trouble is brewing in the Alps.
06:10Kurt Fritz was from Alpine Search and Rescue,
06:14and it was his task to get the researchers to the body of Ötzi,
06:20and then to take that body and get it down the mountainside.
06:25And he is called out to rescue some people in trouble.
06:30And that's when suddenly Mother Nature strikes.
06:36A vicious rumble echoes in the distance.
06:40Within minutes, a massive avalanche pummels Fritz's team.
06:44One by one, the climbers emerge from the bank.
06:47All except for Fritz.
06:49This second death in connection with Ötzi has led some people to wonder about whether there is a curse.
06:57He's an experienced mountain climber.
06:59He's a hiker.
07:01He's got good physical strength.
07:03He's got knowledge of the conditions.
07:06Yet, of his entire party, he is the only one that perishes.
07:11Is it the curse of Ötzi?
07:15Fritz is laid to rest,
07:17as researchers continue to delicately unravel the Iceman's past.
07:22News of the discovery ripples through the scientific community.
07:26But journalist Rainer Holtz wants to broadcast the story around the globe.
07:31Rainer Holtz is an Austrian journalist
07:33who has exclusive access to filming the extrication of Ötzi
07:40from where he's been for thousands of years.
07:43And he is able to relay those pictures on an exclusive basis to the world.
07:51Shortly after the film airs, Holtz succumbs to an aggressive brain tumour,
07:57marking the third fatality from Mars' recovery crew.
08:01With his death comes the first inkling of panic and a deluge of rumours.
08:05Could disturbing the Iceman slumber have unleashed a dangerous curse?
08:10It's a very old fear of human beings
08:15that if you desecrate the resting places of the dead,
08:19they are going to take revenge one way or the other.
08:23The interesting thing about the Ötzi mummy
08:25is that the idea of a curse came about for it being a mummy.
08:30But it's not the same thing as the Egyptian mummies.
08:33It wasn't set up in a certain way.
08:35It's not, you know, in a burial chamber with curses inscribed on it.
08:39Yet by this time, that's already in our public psyche,
08:44that mummies and curses are connected.
08:47And so when you have an idea like that,
08:50what you end up getting is a bit of a confirmation bias.
08:53You start looking for things.
08:56So a bad thing happens, it's a scrap to the mummy.
08:58A bad thing happens, somebody else related to it.
09:00It's also a scrap to the mummy.
09:02And it builds up this whole idea of a mummy's curse.
09:05For a few years, the deaths seem to stop.
09:08Perhaps it wasn't a curse after all,
09:10but just an odd string of coincidences.
09:14Still, many remain wary of getting too close
09:17for fear that their life could be next.
09:21Mountaineer Helmut Simon, on the other hand,
09:23refuses to let go,
09:25having been the first to discover the mummy in 1991.
09:29He develops a special bond with his prehistoric brother
09:32and routinely hikes the path to the Iceman's grave.
09:37Simon is one of the mountaineers
09:39who chanced upon the body of Otzi.
09:44And he develops a kind of strong spiritual connection
09:48with this ancient corpse.
09:50Simon is completely charmed by Otzi,
09:55to the extent that he makes several pilgrimages each year
09:58to the museum that houses the cadaver of Otzi.
10:03He is forging this special bond with this warrior of 5,300 years.
10:09But he also develops a legal connection
10:13because he goes to the courts, basically, to get compensation.
10:18He wants recognition that it was he who found Otzi, the Iceman.
10:24One clear morning, Simon straps on his boots
10:29and departs for a solo alpine hike,
10:31as he's done many times before.
10:36Suddenly, a freak blizzard strikes the region.
10:39His wife and children anxiously await his return.
10:45But as night sets in,
10:46they're forced to call search and rescue.
10:49In the three days that the search party is out looking for Simon,
10:53half a metre of snow falls.
10:54So, everyone at that point is very sceptical
11:00that Simon's actually going to make it out alive.
11:03More than a week passes
11:04before a hunter stumbles upon Simon's body.
11:08It's presumed that the hiker fell to his death
11:10and landed in an eerie but familiar pose.
11:13When the search and rescue team finally reaches Simon,
11:16they find that his body is in the exact same position
11:20that Otzi was in.
11:24Is this mimicry evidence of a curse at play?
11:31Or is this just a normal resting position
11:34for somebody who's on the verge of death?
11:38He's face down with his arm under his head.
11:41People tend to feel more comfortable
11:42laying on their stomachs than on their backs.
11:45So, it could just be that with his last energy,
11:48this is the way he ended up.
11:51And that may be what happened to Otzi as well.
11:53It was so similar.
11:56So similar to the positioning.
11:59Was Otzi sending a message?
12:02The mysterious incidents return in full force.
12:06One hour after Simon's funeral,
12:09the head of the mountain rescue team
12:10dispatched to find the hiker
12:12suffers an unexpected yet fatal heart attack.
12:15Peter Warnicke was 45 years old when he died.
12:24His death goes a long way in proving
12:28to a lot of people around the world
12:30that this curse is legit.
12:34For some, the curse is confirmed.
12:36For others, the curse is a joke.
12:38Conrad Spindler is one of the scientists
12:43working on the Otzi project.
12:46And while he's working,
12:47the team around him are joking about the curse.
12:50And nobody believes it, of course.
12:53It's just silliness.
12:54And in jest, he says,
12:56watch out, I'm going to be next.
12:58Perhaps the sceptical scientist spoke too soon.
13:03He's joking around.
13:05He says, oh, I might be the one that's next.
13:07And then several days later, he dies.
13:09Although the official cause of death
13:10is complications from multiple sclerosis,
13:13this coincidence again points to the curse.
13:16It seems pretty convincing
13:18that it could be indeed a curse.
13:22For the brave investigators
13:25that continue to probe into Otzi's past,
13:28a breakthrough is on the horizon.
13:30X-rays and a CT scan reveal signs of an attack.
13:34Once they were able to do a full examination of the body,
13:37they were able to discover that this was someone
13:39who had probably been murdered.
13:43It's an archaeological study turned cold case,
13:46perhaps the coldest in human history.
13:49They found evidence of trauma to his head.
13:55They found an arrowhead in his shoulder.
13:59Taking a closer look at the arrow in his left shoulder,
14:02we can see it's actually cut through an artery.
14:06An injury to this degree could have led to a lot of blood loss,
14:10shock to the system, and even a heart attack.
14:14More pieces of the puzzle are revealed
14:16when another team conducts DNA analysis on Otzi's body,
14:21revealing the presence of blood
14:22from at least four other people.
14:25These findings have led some to speculate
14:27that Otzi had claimed more victims when he was alive.
14:31Perhaps he was in a battle and killed others
14:34before receiving his fatal wound.
14:36Many hoped that solving this cold case
14:40would bring an end to the curse.
14:43But unfortunately, this wasn't the case.
14:48As many as seven people are believed
14:51to have been part of this curse law
14:52are suffering illness and death as a result of it.
14:55The last on the list, most recent, was Tom Loy.
15:00Tom Loy is an American molecular archaeologist
15:04and is in charge of studying the bloodstains
15:07found in Otzi's clothes and weapons in 1992.
15:12That same year, Loy is diagnosed
15:15with a very rare blood disorder.
15:19Loy's research is crucial for cracking the case
15:22of the mummy's killing, but even he isn't spared.
15:25In 2005, Loy's disease engulfs him,
15:29and he is deemed the seventh victim of Otzi's spree.
15:32Today, Otzi rests in a refrigerator room
15:36at the South Tyrol Archaeological Museum in Italy,
15:40attracting over 300,000 visitors a year.
15:43The wise will keep their distance
15:45from the Stone Age wonder,
15:47for no one knows when the Iceman's vengeance
15:49will stir again.
15:51Here lie the ruins of Shari Golgola,
16:04an ancient citadel that was once the beating heart
16:07of Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley.
16:10Today, all that remains are the ashes of an empire.
16:14Shari Golgola is based in modern-day Afghanistan
16:21in the Bamiyan Valley,
16:22and if you go there today,
16:24all you're going to see is a pile of dusty bricks
16:28on a hillside.
16:29It certainly doesn't suggest what it once was,
16:32which was a bustling metropolis on the Silk Road.
16:37A huge amount of money passed through this city,
16:41which became immensely rich.
16:43In the 13th century,
16:45a brutal siege wiped the city off the face of the map,
16:51and it was never rebuilt again.
16:54All that remains here is rubble,
16:56and yet this place still attracts people.
16:58Many are curious about the strange phenomena
17:02that occurs when the sun falls low.
17:06Its now decaying walls stand quiet during the day,
17:09but dusk brings the echoes of fear and agony,
17:13the howls of its victims.
17:17The eerie history of this site
17:20has brought in researchers and tourists alike
17:24who claim that they can hear the disembodied screams
17:29coming from this once-proud city.
17:33Known as the City of Screams,
17:36the agonising cries of its former citizens
17:38have been heard echoing throughout the valley,
17:41and few dare to step inside the place when dark.
17:44The ruins of Shari Golgola in Afghanistan
17:46are the site of a major historical massacre,
17:52and massacre sites are places
17:58that are often associated
18:00with lingering ghosts or spirits.
18:06The myth that you can still hear the screams
18:08likely is due to how they were all slaughtered.
18:12Genghis Khan, renowned for employing ruthless war tactics,
18:27in his relentless pursuit of expanding
18:29his vast Mongol Empire across Asia and beyond.
18:34Genghis Khan was leading through fear,
18:39and he was conquering through fear,
18:40and the idea being that if you have a reputation
18:44and are known to do terrible, terrible things,
18:47you're less likely to going to have resistance.
18:51By the year 1221,
18:54the forces of Genghis Khan are bearing down
18:58on the borders of the Khwarezmian Empire.
19:01This medieval empire in Central Asia
19:04played a significant role on the Silk Road trade route
19:07connecting Asia to the Middle East.
19:09For over a century,
19:11the Khwarezmian Empire enjoyed a prominent role
19:14in both commerce and culture.
19:17However, Genghis Khan has his sights set on the region.
19:23Shah Muhammad II is the ruler of the Khwarezmian Empire,
19:27and Genghis Khan sends out an army to hunt him down.
19:32The Shah has other ideas and decides instead to name his son,
19:38Jalal Haldin, as his successor and flees the region.
19:44To wipe out the successor of the mighty Shah,
19:47Genghis appoints his own kin to the mission.
19:50His favorite grandson, Mutu Khan,
19:53is sent ahead to pillage the city of Shari Zohak
19:56and execute its leader.
19:57He sends his 15-year-old grandson to Shari Zohak,
20:02giving the boy a chance to lead a military conquest himself
20:07as part of the practice of being a military leader.
20:12It's a decision Grandpa Genghis may soon regret.
20:17Anxious to prove himself,
20:19Mutu Khan leads the Mongol army into the Bamyan Valley
20:22to the city of Shari Zohak.
20:24But Mutu Khan's military career is cut short.
20:27He's hit by an arrow.
20:30The story makes it seem as if this particular arrow
20:35sort of comes out of nowhere,
20:37is in a hail with the others.
20:39And so there's this sense of it being a shock
20:46that this leader, this boy, is the one who's killed.
20:49When word reaches Genghis Khan
20:52that his favorite grandson has been killed,
20:56he's absolutely outraged.
20:58Genghis descends on the Bamyan Valley in a fit of fury,
21:02vowing to avenge his beloved grandson's death.
21:05He orders his army to kill every living thing in its path.
21:09And he said, kill everyone, kill every child, kill every beast.
21:14And this is what happened over the course of several days,
21:17that they destroy the entire place.
21:19And this was to visibly manifest his power,
21:23but also the anger of an aggrieved grandfather.
21:27It's still called the Red City to this day
21:32because it was a city bathed in the blood of the slaughtered civilians,
21:36the slaughtered animals, every living creature in this city.
21:40And the walls were reportedly stained with the blood.
21:43Genghis's army sweeps the valley like a tsunami
21:46before they reach the Shah,
21:48who has fled to the impenetrable city of Shari Golgola.
21:51Shari Golgola, that became the next target of Genghis Khan.
21:57For understandable reasons, he now wanted to go after the Shah.
22:00So his desire to revenge his grandson
22:02and also pursue his power and take over the empire
22:05meant that he had to go to the seat of power itself.
22:08Shari Golgola was a heavily fortified city.
22:13It's set to have had five walls and three moats.
22:16This was intended to be absolutely impregnable
22:20to protect the population,
22:23but also to protect the enormous wealth within its walls.
22:27The Mongols surround the city,
22:29launching attack after attack for months on end.
22:33The failed assaults only fuel Genghis's desire
22:35to decimate the city to a point of no return.
22:39After 48 days of being outside of the city walls,
22:43Genghis Khan receives an arrow with the note.
22:52The note contains an offer
22:54from the Shah's disgruntled daughter.
22:57But it comes with two conditions.
22:59Genghis Khan must marry the Shah's daughter.
23:01And secondly, the fortress must remain unharmed.
23:07Why would the daughter of royalty turn on her own empire?
23:10Some claim that the Shah's daughter
23:13had fallen in love with Genghis Khan.
23:17His commitment, his bravery,
23:19his battle to bring down the city
23:22had inspired awe and subsequently love
23:26in the Shah's daughter.
23:27It's more likely, however,
23:30that the Shah's daughter
23:32was seeking to sabotage Shah's reign,
23:35because he had recently remarried
23:37and she disapproved of that match.
23:41Genghis Khan agrees to the jilted daughter's terms,
23:44and with that,
23:45the disastrous demise of Shari Golgola is sealed.
23:48The Shah's daughter directs Genghis Khan
23:55to dam a canal that leads into the city,
23:59and by doing so,
24:00it reveals a secret entrance.
24:04And Genghis Khan gives very clear orders to his army.
24:08They were to go into the city
24:10and kill every man, woman and child,
24:15and even livestock.
24:17The blood-curdling wails of the innocent
24:21are so loud that they reverberate
24:23throughout the entire Bamiyan Valley.
24:26This siege is particularly brutal
24:29because the people of Shari Golgola
24:33may very well have been spared,
24:36if not for the duplicity of their ruler's daughter.
24:41Deception does not go unpunished.
24:43Even Genghis Khan's enabler,
24:45the Shah's daughter will succumb to his sword.
24:49Genghis Khan murders the Shah's daughter,
24:51and the reason behind it
24:53is as simple as he cannot trust her
24:55after witnessing what she did
24:57to her father and her people.
24:59Genghis Khan cuts down the Khwarezmian traitor
25:03in the final blow of his merciless quest.
25:06But her father, Jalal al-Din, escapes for now.
25:10But the fall of Shari Golgola
25:12marks the collapse of his empire.
25:14The Khwarezmians have vanished from history
25:18after the Mongol destruction of the Khwarezmian state.
25:22They vanished from history.
25:23This is why this story is so evocative.
25:27Over 800 years since the fall of the city,
25:31no one has ever refortified it,
25:34which makes you wonder
25:36whether it is the cries of the dead citizens inside
25:41that stopped people from fortifying
25:44this once proud, living, breathing city.
25:50Although the once thriving Shari Golgola
25:53was reduced to near rubble long ago,
25:55all visitors must do is wait until nightfall
25:58to know the remains of this city
26:01will never forget its violent demise.
26:11This unassuming 18th century French scroll
26:14contains 157,000 words,
26:18written so small they are illegible to the naked eye.
26:21But take a closer look and you'll find a story
26:24riddled with violence, torture and misery.
26:27A tale so vile that it has become known
26:30as the gospel of evil.
26:32It really is an extreme text
26:36that would make the most perverted blush.
26:40This manuscript has since become
26:42one of the most valuable pieces of erotica in the world,
26:45with ravenous collectors and researchers
26:47vying for a glimpse.
26:50Under lock and key, however, is where it belongs.
26:53For those unlucky enough to come into its possession
26:56must face an evil that seeps beyond the page.
26:59Every single time, it seems like the person
27:03who has the manuscript
27:04has fallen on some sort of misfortune.
27:10Its latest victim, a Parisian antique dealer
27:13who purchased it at an auction
27:15and got caught in one of the nation's
27:17biggest financial scandals to date.
27:20Could the horrific words on this manuscript
27:23be so powerful that they bring misfortune
27:26to anyone who dares to share it?
27:30Who was the twisted mind behind this manuscript?
27:33And could his written word truly have such power?
27:38This tale of evil begins in the late 1700s.
27:42Marquis de Sord was a French aristocrat
27:44who was no stranger to public scandal.
27:47The sad is known to have hired the services of sex workers
27:53and then held them against their will
27:56and tortured them in the most appalling, grim ways.
28:01And he was known to the authorities.
28:02He's accused of torturing, even burning some women
28:08who he brought into his home,
28:09of kidnapping women, of abusing domestic help.
28:13It was not uncommon for wealthy aristocrats
28:17to evade punishments for some crimes they committed.
28:21But Saeed's immoral acts started to lead people
28:24to question what he was doing
28:26and the consequences he should face.
28:32The context here is really important.
28:38This is 18th century Catholic France.
28:42There was a strong presence from the church
28:46that was guiding morality in the country.
28:50And so the more you moved away from the church's teachings,
28:53the more immoral the actions were going to be.
28:56We need to understand the time period
28:59and we also need to understand his life as a child
29:03and his upbringing.
29:05He was raised by nannies and not treated well.
29:10He was beaten, he was whipped, he was locked in wardrobes.
29:15He had a really horrible life as a child.
29:18And I think that these things carried through
29:20into his adult life.
29:22Perhaps most disturbingly, in 1774,
29:26Desaard and his wife become subjects of a shocking scandal
29:30when they reportedly trapped several adolescent servants
29:33in their isolated chateau
29:35and exposed them to six weeks of torture and exploitation.
29:40This really was a depraved mind at work.
29:44The very term sadism,
29:47that idea of deriving pleasure from inflicting pain,
29:51comes directly from this man, the Marquis Desaard,
29:57who, in his texts and in his personal life,
30:02was a sadist,
30:04who enjoyed whipping and hurting other people
30:08for his own sexual gratification.
30:11Each of the Marquis's offences drove more atrocious than the last,
30:15soon reaching a point where even those closest to him
30:18refused to turn a blind eye.
30:21Eventually, his mother-in-law ends up turning him in.
30:25Sault's own mother-in-law asks King Louis XVI
30:29to issue a royal warrant.
30:31This was just a way of saving grace.
30:35Their wealth, their prestige,
30:37their being welcomed at social things
30:39was actually beginning to be directly affected.
30:43So she put her foot down and turned him in.
30:46In 1777, the Marquis Desaard is captured and imprisoned.
30:54And then, in 1784,
30:57he is transferred to the dreaded, terrifying Bastille.
31:05One of the most notorious and formidable prisons in France
31:11before the French Revolution, the Bastille.
31:14This is like a fortress in Paris where political prisoners
31:19and the most dangerous people are kept.
31:22And it's in the darkness of his fetid, filthy cell
31:27that he begins to write this story, 120 Days of Sodom.
31:32And he writes it on this enormous scroll of paper.
31:36And he writes it in tiny, tiny script.
31:42This big, long, 40-foot scroll of paper
31:45that he would roll up every night
31:47after three or four hours of writing
31:49and hide it away in the wall
31:51where he had managed to get out a piece of brickwork.
31:54And he would hide it so that the officials,
31:57the guards, would not take it from him.
31:59And you imagine this is by candlelight.
32:01It must have completely destroyed his vision.
32:04But nevertheless, he's frenzied, he's determined
32:08to get every word down on paper
32:11and then get that story out to the public.
32:18Dessard himself describes the text
32:20as the most impure tale ever written since the world began.
32:25Before Dessard can finish the last chapter of his cruel fantasy,
32:29his desire to incite chaos overtakes him.
32:31One day, while at the Bastille,
32:34the Marquis Dessard inspires a riot.
32:38He starts shouting and screaming
32:40that the prisoners are being slaughtered by the wardens.
32:45And as a result, he is transferred to the asylum.
32:50Dessard is transferred to the Charentan Asylum,
32:54a mental institution on the outskirts of the city.
32:56Just ten days later, an angry mob swarms the Bastille.
33:01The French Revolution has begun.
33:04The prison is looted and the manuscript is lost.
33:07After the storming of the Bastille,
33:15Sord believes that his work has been lost to time
33:18and that it will never be published or seen by anybody again.
33:22The idea of the scroll being lost
33:25leaves the Marquis Dessard devastated.
33:28Dessard was so distraught,
33:30he claimed to have wept tears of blood.
33:32Although the exact cause of his death is unknown,
33:36in 1814, with his health deteriorating,
33:39Dessard dies while in confinement at the Charentan Asylum.
33:43And upon his death,
33:45his son tries to erase his father's legacy.
33:47His son takes the decision
33:51that they do not want to be associated
33:54with the work of his father forevermore.
33:57So all the unpublished work of the Marquis Dessard
34:01has to be burnt.
34:02It all must be destroyed.
34:04It must never see the light of day.
34:08One of the works to survive, however,
34:10is Dessard's treasured Gospel of Evil.
34:14During the storming of the Bastille,
34:16one of the mob civilians finds it
34:19and decides to sell it on to a wealthy family.
34:22The 120 days of Sodom remain shrouded in secrecy
34:26until almost 120 years later, in 1904.
34:31And that's when we start to associate it with misfortune.
34:36Over a century after Dessard's quill touches paper,
34:40his vile work is published
34:41and unleashes a trail of suffering in its wake.
34:44The manuscript lands on the desk of a Berlin-based
34:50sex researcher and psychiatrist named Ivan Bloch.
34:57And when he is faced with this manuscript,
35:01he decides to publish it.
35:05Ivan Bloch publishes 100 copies of the 120 days of Sodom,
35:10obscuring his name with a nom de plume.
35:13Dr Eugen Duren.
35:17That's the pseudonym that Irvin Bloch
35:19decides to publish the manuscript under.
35:25Dr Bloch goes on to establish himself
35:29as one of the first and leading sexologists
35:33of the early 20th century.
35:36And he goes on to publish his own multi-volume study
35:40looking at the science of sex.
35:45But Bloch's fate is cut short.
35:48After just three volumes are published,
35:50he dies unexpectedly at the age of 50.
35:53He ends up dying as he's writing this.
35:59So we have to think,
36:01does this 120 days
36:04carry some sort of negative energy with it?
36:07And did this energy end up affecting Bloch?
36:11It's as if Marquis de Soud himself
36:16is acting out in vengeance
36:18for his scroll being publicized
36:20without his permission.
36:23Is there something more sinister at work here?
36:27After Bloch dies,
36:30a couple that were very much part
36:32of the avant-garde movement in France,
36:34Viscount Charles de Noailles
36:36and his wife Marie Lohr,
36:38they acquired the 120 days of Sodom.
36:42Now, they're not just intrigued by the content,
36:45and yes, they are intrigued by the content,
36:47but bizarrely,
36:49Marie Lohr is a direct descendant
36:52of Marquis de Soud.
36:56Charles and Marie Lohr
36:58kept the manuscript locked away
36:59in their library cabinet.
37:01But every now and again,
37:02at their exclusive soirees,
37:04they'd unravel the parchment
37:06to feed the imagination of their guests.
37:08Charles and Marie Lohr entertain a host
37:13of members from the avant-garde movement,
37:16including the Spanish filmmaker Buñuel
37:19and Salvador Dali, the artist, of course.
37:23As his work becomes better known
37:26and spreads especially among other people
37:30who think of themselves as free thinkers,
37:34the Marquis de Soud's own reputation
37:37goes from being a shadowy figure in the past
37:41about whom his own family was ashamed
37:44to someone who is venerated in certain circles.
37:50But Marie's celebration of sexual freedom
37:52was cut short when she dies early of an embolism.
37:56Heartbroken and alone,
37:58Charles stows the scroll away,
38:00but he too dies a little over a decade later.
38:04Was it just bad luck
38:06or was it the cursed scroll claiming more souls?
38:11When Charles and Marie die,
38:13the scroll is passed down to their daughter, Natalie.
38:17And like her parents,
38:19she circulates this manuscript at parties.
38:23Are the words on the scroll so powerful
38:28it can conjure deceit?
38:30As Natalie learns,
38:32indulging in this forbidden fruit
38:33has its repercussions.
38:36Natalie is the victim of a harsh betrayal
38:39when the friend smuggles the manuscript to Switzerland
38:41and sells it to the highest bidder.
38:44Natalie files a lawsuit in the French courts
38:48to get the scroll back
38:50and the courts agree with her.
38:52They demand that the scroll
38:55must be returned to its rightful owner.
38:58The problem for Natalie
39:00is that the scroll being in Switzerland,
39:04she couldn't automatically get the scroll back.
39:07What she had to do
39:08was then launch an action in the Swiss courts.
39:12Of course, all of this
39:13takes an enormous personal toll
39:16on Natalie as well,
39:18a hugely emotional burden
39:21that she has to carry.
39:22And one might imagine,
39:24one could even speculate,
39:26that this is the curse of the scroll at work.
39:30The Swiss court rules against the Noaille family
39:33and their prized possession
39:35vanishes into the antique market,
39:37passing through the hands of collectors
39:39for over a decade.
39:41The scroll doesn't see the light of day again
39:43until 2014.
39:46In 2014, we have Gerard L'Ertier,
39:50who purchases the scroll at an auction.
39:54He's an antiques dealer from Paris,
39:57but he's not an average antiques dealer.
40:00He is the king of manuscripts.
40:02He's able to turn paper into gold, as it were,
40:05and was a great collector
40:07of many letters and manuscripts.
40:10He owned letters from famous people
40:12like Frida Kahlo and JFK.
40:16L'Ertier added de Sade's scroll to his collection
40:19at a cost of over 7 million euro.
40:23The year of L'Ertier's purchase
40:25also happens to mark the bicentennial
40:27of the Marquis de Sade's death,
40:29the perfect excuse to display his work
40:31in a lavish museum.
40:33The exhibit would attract crowds
40:35from across France,
40:36but would it also attract misfortune?
40:40So now he's in possession of this manuscript,
40:43and his life starts to literally go to hell
40:47in a handbasket at this point.
40:51One autumn day,
40:53as visitors and antique patrons
40:55gawk at de Sade's scroll,
40:57French officers storm the museum
40:59and seize L'Ertier's collection.
41:01He is arrested and accused
41:03of scamming 18,000 clients
41:05out of nearly 1 billion euro.
41:09He's accused of undertaking
41:11a Ponzi scheme or a pyramid scheme,
41:14the idea that he could return
41:17greater investments on his manuscripts.
41:21L'Ertier's career is ravaged
41:23before his eyes.
41:24He ends up being arrested
41:28and charged with fraud.
41:30He's set up a Ponzi scheme
41:34that was considered
41:36the largest ever in France.
41:38Local antiquarians shun him
41:40from the industry,
41:41and people scrutinize his every move.
41:44Just like the nefarious Marquis,
41:47L'Ertier is ousted
41:48from Paris' affluent social circles.
41:50Is de Sade's sinful scroll to blame?
41:54He did later wonder
41:56whether perhaps it was cursed
41:58and if he had never touched it,
42:00whether he would have
42:01befallen such misfortune.
42:03Is there a curse?
42:09Maybe.
42:10Did he bring some of this on himself?
42:13100%.
42:15But it's interesting to note
42:18that anybody that has actually purchased
42:21or published 120 Days of Sodom
42:25ends up having some kind of negative thing
42:28happen in their life.
42:29Could this be a manifestation
42:30of the Marquis de Sade's wrath
42:33who had his precious magnum opus
42:36torn away from him?
42:38There certainly was a reputation
42:40about the Marquis de Sade
42:41even during his own lifetime
42:43that he was engaging
42:44not only in sexual experimentation,
42:47but that was also a sign
42:49that he was engaged in the occult
42:51and these kind of arcane practices.
42:54And I think in that sense,
42:56that could infuse the book itself
42:59as this sort of container
43:00of a malevolent energy.
43:03The content of this novel
43:05was so horrifying
43:07that it was banned
43:09in different countries
43:10across the globe
43:12at different times
43:13throughout history.
43:15When something is banned,
43:16when something becomes,
43:18you know, inappropriate or illegal
43:19to read, to use, to listen to,
43:23it's meant to provide a level of control
43:26for those who might not be able
43:28to control themselves.
43:30But at the same time,
43:31that means that for some people
43:32that becomes the forbidden fruit.
43:34In 2017,
43:36de Sade's novel is deemed
43:37to be a national treasure,
43:39a far cry from its censored past.
43:42Now in the government's possession,
43:44it will likely make its rounds
43:46between researchers, critics
43:47and exhibits in the years ahead.
43:50But admirers beware.
43:53It's almost like
43:54the words on the page
43:56and the images they conjure
43:59generate this negativity
44:02that filters into everyday life.
44:06In the end,
44:07the Marquis absolves himself,
44:09writing,
44:10it is not my mode of thought
44:12that has caused my misfortune,
44:13it is the mode of thought
44:15of others.
44:16One could speculate
44:17that the mere act
44:18of sharing the story
44:21activates a curse
44:23that is inherent in this book.
44:25The Marquis absolves himself,
44:31which is assuming
44:32in order to explain
44:33theå°¾ is not there
44:34bippinc ponoch
44:34or whether or not
44:35perhaps there is not there
44:36that happens
44:36in the end.
44:37The Marquis Miss