JD'S Memes
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ROBERT L
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ROBERT L
Moderator
- May 2, 2021
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Newly released FBI files on a mysterious search for lost Civil War gold have further raised the suspicions of treasure hunters who contend that the government is covering up the discovery of the riches. Back in March of 2018, federal agents descended upon a state park in Pennsylvania that was believed to be the hiding spot of an apocryphal cache of gold bars said to have gone missing while in transit at the close of the Civil War. Treasure hunters Dennis and Ken Parada led the FBI to the location following years of research and were certain the riches would be found there. When it was announced that the search had come up short, the pair were understandably suspicious and an epic legal battle began.
Over the last few years, the Paradas have attempted to obtain answers about the allegedly futile treasure hunt by suing the federal government for their files on the search. After being stonewalled by the FBI until last month, when a court finally ordered the bureau to begin handing over the materials, the father-and-son duo have now reportedly gotten their hands on the first batch of records and the insights contained within them are rather eyebrow raising. The most tantalizing of the files is a key document that the Paradas have specifically sought for quite some time: a geophysical survey of the site which was conducted at the behest of the government and indicates that a mysterious mass resembling nine tons of gold was seemingly buried at the location.
While independent experts who have examined the assessment say that it was well conducted, they also caution that it is not certain that the survey actually detected a sizeable quantity of gold and that some kind of technical error or misidentifcation could be to blame for the findings. Despite using the report as justification in their pursuit of the treasure within the state park, this would appear to be the government's post-excavation argument as well, since they insist that the riches were not found during the search. As one might imagine, the Paradas have considerable doubts about that conclusion.
To that end, another file contained in the FBI release is a fairly terse report on the dig which was written exactly one year after it occurred and indiated that no "metals, items, and/or other relevant materials were found" as a result of the excavation. However, an attorney representing the Paradas notes that this review was penned after the treasure hunters started pursuing answers from the government. "It says almost nothing, and it's crazy," declared Anne Weismann, who posited that the failure of the FBI to provide a full accounting of the events surrounding the dig will "heighten my view that this is not an accurate record and this was created as a cover-up. And I don’t say that lightly.”
Beyond those two intriguing reports, the Paradas also received a bevy of photos taken at the site during the dig, although the images are not particularly useful in proving their argument that the FBI secretly recovered and removed the gold in the dead of night, which is their theory for what ultimately became of the riches. Although the duo and their legal team expect to receive more documents in the coming months, its hard to fathom that they will find a proverbial smoking gun which proves their case. That said, considering the lengths that they have gone to date, one can expect that the treasure hunters will continue their pursuit as doggedly as they went after the gold in the first place.
Over the last few years, the Paradas have attempted to obtain answers about the allegedly futile treasure hunt by suing the federal government for their files on the search. After being stonewalled by the FBI until last month, when a court finally ordered the bureau to begin handing over the materials, the father-and-son duo have now reportedly gotten their hands on the first batch of records and the insights contained within them are rather eyebrow raising. The most tantalizing of the files is a key document that the Paradas have specifically sought for quite some time: a geophysical survey of the site which was conducted at the behest of the government and indicates that a mysterious mass resembling nine tons of gold was seemingly buried at the location.
While independent experts who have examined the assessment say that it was well conducted, they also caution that it is not certain that the survey actually detected a sizeable quantity of gold and that some kind of technical error or misidentifcation could be to blame for the findings. Despite using the report as justification in their pursuit of the treasure within the state park, this would appear to be the government's post-excavation argument as well, since they insist that the riches were not found during the search. As one might imagine, the Paradas have considerable doubts about that conclusion.
To that end, another file contained in the FBI release is a fairly terse report on the dig which was written exactly one year after it occurred and indiated that no "metals, items, and/or other relevant materials were found" as a result of the excavation. However, an attorney representing the Paradas notes that this review was penned after the treasure hunters started pursuing answers from the government. "It says almost nothing, and it's crazy," declared Anne Weismann, who posited that the failure of the FBI to provide a full accounting of the events surrounding the dig will "heighten my view that this is not an accurate record and this was created as a cover-up. And I don’t say that lightly.”
Beyond those two intriguing reports, the Paradas also received a bevy of photos taken at the site during the dig, although the images are not particularly useful in proving their argument that the FBI secretly recovered and removed the gold in the dead of night, which is their theory for what ultimately became of the riches. Although the duo and their legal team expect to receive more documents in the coming months, its hard to fathom that they will find a proverbial smoking gun which proves their case. That said, considering the lengths that they have gone to date, one can expect that the treasure hunters will continue their pursuit as doggedly as they went after the gold in the first place.
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Esco
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