When I say treasure, you probably think of a good thing - finding gold or jewels or perhaps
some ancient scroll of wisdom.
Treasure is valuable by its very nature - that means the people who buried it want it protected
- throughout history, there have been tales of people willing to put curses on their treasure
in order to stop unwanted hands from getting hold of it.
Even if you don't believe in curses - these stories are too strange and creepy to ignore
- my name is Danny Burke and this is the Top 10 Cursed Treasures That Ended Lives
Starting off at number 10 now we have King Tuts Curse[a].
This is perhaps one of the most famous curses of all time that were starting off with.
In 1922, Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered Tutakhamuns tomb in the Valley of Kings Egypt
- to this day, it remains the only royal burial of an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh found in modern
times.
An inscription on the wall read -Death shall come on swift wings to him who disturbs the
peace of the King- … ignoring this warning, Carter and his team entered and began to remove
the priceless artifacts.
6 weeks later, Carters associate died from a mosquito bite.
Soon after, relatives of the team began to die in mysterious circumstances.
One famous example involved their secretary being found dead in her bed which drove her
father to commit suicide.
In total, there have been some 11 deaths linked to King Tuts curse, and some say they will
never end unless the tombs treasure is returned …
Moving on to number 9 now we have The Hope Diamond[b].
This is one of the most famous diamonds in the world - a 45.52 carat piece that has been
owned by a number of famous people over the years going right back to King Louis the 16th
and Marie Antoinette who owned it during the French Revolution and their beheadings - they
werent the only deaths that legend has linked to the diamond though.
They say that tragedy befalls anyone who owns or wears it.
Here are some random owners Ive plucked out from the long list - Jacques Colet bought
it and later committed suicide.
Prince Ivan Kanitovski was the next owner before being killed by Russian revolutionists.
The original merchant who brought the diamond from India to Paris was later torn to pieces
by wild dogs in Constantinople.
The list of gore, misery and death just goes on.
The last person to privately own the diamond, a woman called Evalyn McClean - had her daughter
die of an overdose and her son died in a car crash.
Of course, these could all be random tragic events - some say the stories were fabricated
to add to the diamonds fame - but either way, the Blood Diamond now sits behind glass at
the Smithsonian Museum.
Next up at number 8 we have the Lost Dutchmans Mine[c].
According to legend, there is a vast and plentiful gold mine hidden somewhere in southwestern
US.
If you want me to be more specific about that - they say its thought to be in the Superstition
Mountains, east of Phoenix Arizona.
In the 1840s, the Peralta family of northern Mexico supposedly developed rich gold mines
in the mountains.
They kept it very secret and when they were supposedly killed by the Apache tribe, the
secret of the mines location died with them.
Today, the area is known as the Massacre Grounds.
A few decades later, a German man called Jacob Waltz set out to look for the mine - they
called him -the Dutchman- … he tracked down of the descendants of the family to help him
find the mine.
He and his partner, Jacob Weiser, worked the mine - there was more gold than they could
ever image.
They supposedly hid some caches of gold in the mountains.
According to the story, Weister was killed by the Apache tribe and Waltz died in Pheonix
some 20 years later.
He supposedly passed the knowledge of the mines location on to his neighbour who cared
for him before he died.
Neither she nor other treasure hunters over the years have been successful in finding
the mine.
Many of them have met mysterious deaths during their search, leading to the legend of the
Lost Dutchman and the cursed treasure he found …
Moving on to number 7 we have Cahuenga Pass[d].
In 1964, a shepherd named Diego Moreno told people he had found treasure in the mountains
near LA.
Today, the area is called Cahuenga Pass and Whitley Heights.
The treasure was immense - more than $200,000 in gold, diamonds, pearls.
They had been left there on the trail by four agents from Mexico.
They planned to exchange them for guns to aid a political struggle in Mexico but before
they reached their destination, one of the agents suddenly died in a mysterious death.
The other agents suspected French spies were trying to bump them off, so they split the
treasure up and hid it in the hills.
When they found that the treasure had been stolen, they blamed each other - a fight broke
out and two of the agents killed each other.
Another agent died later while breaking up a bar fight later.
Meanwhile, the Shepard was in a tavern on his way to L.A to sell the treasure.
That night, he had a nightmare in which he entered LA with the treasure and died.
He decided to bury it under a large ash tree.
The shepard fell ill though on the rest of the journey.
His friend cared for him as he died - the shepards final words were to tell his friend
where the treasure was buried so that he could have it.
Soon after though, his friend had violent convulsions and also died.
He was buried by his son and his friend - they managed to locate the treasure but as you
can probably guess by now - one of them had convulsions and died when they began to dig
- the other ran for his life.
They say the treasure still remains there to this day - buried under an Ash tree along
the Cahuenga pass …
Moving on to number 6 we have The Cursed Dollars[e].
In 2011, a 49 year old man from Illinois found a bag containing 150,000 dollars in his garden
while he was picking broccoli.
He told police who and turned the bag over on the understanding that if the money was
not claimed by anyone else by the end of 2012, it would be his.
Eventually, his 87 year old neighbour staked a claim.
Before she died in January 2013, the woman, who suffered from dementia, told the court
that she had gotten rid of the money because it was cursed.
The court decided to give the bulk of the money to the womans daughter and give the
man a smaller finders fee.
However, just 10 days before he as set to collect his money - he died suddenly from
diabetic problems after waiting two years for his share.
Curse or tragic timing?
At the number 5 spot we have The Money Pit[f].
In 1795, three teenage boys stumbled across a man made hole on Oak Island, just off the
coast of Nova Scotia.
Theories about who dug the whole ranged from Spanish sailors from a wrecked galleon to
British troops fighting during the American Revolution.
Whoever made it - legend says it holds ancient treasure for anyone with the skills to retrieve
it.
So far they have found wadern barriers, a strange layer of coconut husks and a mysterious
code written on a stone.
It was deciphered and found to read -Forty Feet Below Two Million Pounds are Buried-
… its because of this, that treasure hunters from all over the world have flocked to the
island - hoping to be the ones to cash in - and many of them have met strange deaths.
In 1861, a water pump exploded killing a worker.
In 1897, a man died in a pulley accident.
In 1951, a team used a clamshell digger than fell off a barge and sunk.
Most famously, in 1965, adventurer Robert Restall, his son and two of their co workers
died after inhaling poisonous gas while trapped in the bit.
The Money Pit has claimed a number of victims over the years, and nobody is any closer to
finding the treasure …
Moving on to number 4 now we have the Koh i Noor diamond[g].
Just like the Blood Diamond earlier - this is a very expensive, very famous diamond that
has been blamed for a number of deaths over the years.
They say theres records of the diamond going back 5000 years in the middle east.
The curse was first mentioned in 1306.
The 105 carat diamond came with a Hindu text that read -He who owns this diamond will own
the world, but will also know all its misfortunes.
Only god, or a woman, can wear it with impunity- … so, there you go - if any females are
watching, the curse wont affect you - also if God is watching, it wont affect you either.
It was stolen by the British in the 1800s.
Queen Victoria had it cut up into small diamonds - some of which can be seen in the coronation
crown of the Queen Mother - is this a nod to the fact that a male can never wear the
diamond?
Perhaps - do we have any volunteers to test the theory?
Next up at number 3 we have Charles Island[h].
This island is located off the coast of Milford in Connecticut - they say that the whole island
has been cursed not once, not twice - but three times in its history.
According to legend, the first came in 1639 when the Paugussett tribe chief traded it
to European settlers - but not before cursing it over their kidnapping of his daughter.
60 years later, Scottish pirate Captain William Kidd was lured to the island into a trap that
led to his trial and execution, he cursed the island that led to his downfall.
Fast Forward to 1721 and a group of connecticut sailors stumbled across some treasure in Mexico
that belonged to an Aztec Emperor called Guatemozin.
The sailors brought it back home to Connecticut but soon after, disasters befell them that
led to the death of 4 out of 5 of their group.
The last man panicked, believing the treasure to be cursed, and buried it on Charles island.
In the years since, many treasure hunters have tried and failed to retrieve the cursed
treasure and locals blame the cursed island for the lack of humans settling there in all
this time.
Next up at number 2 we have The Curse of the Amber Room[i].
Have you heard of the 8th wonder of the world?
Thats what people used to call this room - a gift to Peter the great in 1716, celebrating
peace between Russia and Prussia.
It was covered, floor to ceiling in gold and jewels - the walls were made of pure amber.
Fast forward to the World War 2 and the Nazis managed to take control of the building and
the room - and then they took the room - no really - they took it.
They took it apart and carried it bit by bit back to Germany.
After the war though - nobody knew where it was!
Some say it was buried in the mountains, others say the Nazis stole a fake one and that the
Russians still have the real one - either way, there is a curse attached to the whole
thing, supposedly.
The curator of the room while the KGB investigated the case died of typhoid.
An investigator was killed in a car crash after talking about it, a famous amber room
hunter was mysteriously murdered in a forest - Im beginning to think this room doesnt want
to be found …
And finally at number 1 we have Quin Shi Huangs Tomb[j].
Quin Shi Haung is known as Chinas first Emporer.
When he died in 210 B.C - his tomb was filled with everything that his people felt was appropriate
for a man of his standing - this included hundreds of slaves, concubines, gold and jewels
as well as thousands of terracotta statues - they make up what is known as the Terracotta
army.
As you can see from these pictures - the area is huge and a lot of it has been excavated
- except for one area.
To this day, the mausoleum which holds the Emperor is off limits to all.
Well, the official line is that the site is surrounded by a thick river of mercury which
could easily kill excavators who are not too careful.
Others say that this is just the cover story and that the the tomb and its final treasures
are protected by an ancient curse - there are writings that talk about a number of booby
traps that protect the area - are the scientists put off by the thought of this too?
Either way, of all the treasures weve looked at so far - Quin Shi Huangs might actually
remain untouched …
Alright guys - what did you make of that?
I know some of you don't believe in curses - Id have to lean towards that side of things
too - but I do find these kinds of stories fascinating - especially if there is no rational
explanation for the tragedies that surround the cursed treasure.
Leave your thoughts on that down below, let me know if youd like me to talk about more
cursed objects - until next time, thanks for watching as always, my name is Danny Burke
and Ill see you all in the next video!