“I have deposited in the county of Bedford, about four miles from Buford's [Tavern], in an excavation or vault, six feet below the surface of the ground, the following articles, belonging jointly to the parties whose names are given in number three, herewith:

The first deposit consisted of ten hundred and fourteen pounds of gold, and thirty-eight hundred and twelve pounds of silver, deposited Nov. eighteen nineteen. The second was made Dec. eighteen twenty-one, and consisted of nineteen hundred and seven pounds of gold, and twelve hundred and eighty-eight of silver; also jewels, obtained in St. Louis in exchange to save transportation, and valued at thirteen thousand dollars.

The above is securely packed in iron pots, with iron covers. The vault is roughly lined with stone, and the vessels rest on solid stone, and are covered with others. Paper number one describes the exact locality of the vault, so that no difficulty will be had in finding it.” - Thomas Jefferson Beale, from the second cipher text of the Beale Papers, allegedly written in 1822.

Is it time to channel your inner Gus Chiggins and get to hunting for gold? Or maybe all of this a cunning ruse or just a flat out lie? We explore that and more this week with The Beale Ciphers on Hysteria 51!

Special thanks to this week’s research sources:

Books and Papers

Nickell, Joe. “Discovered: The Secret of Beale's Treasure.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 90, no. 3, 1982, pp. 310–324. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4248566. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4248566?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3Aa34aec73e13b80ba0f2d706fd12112c0&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Websites

Rational Wiki - https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Beale_ciphers

Mental Floss - https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/540277/beale-ciphers-buried-treasure

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beale_ciphers

Skeptoid - https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4301

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Be the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting!

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We are off this week.... sort of. We have a best of show, but first we dive in to continue or JFK Lose Your Own Adventure Sage. Then, it's back to 1964 to visit Jim and his photo shenanigans once again!

Original Description

Nothing worse than a photobomb. There you are minding your own business, taking a picture of your lovely daughter and next thing you know some idiot time traveler / astronaut / inter-dimensional being drops his/her/its mug into your frame. And while we’ve all been through it, there’s a famous version we’re talking about this week - The Solway Firth Spaceman. Where did the other figure come from? Could this be a real, true documentation of a close encounter? How much is free film for a year actually worth? We dive in deep and see what develops. Plus, Conspiracy Bot actually did research this week (albeit unsuccessfully, but...ya know...baby steps). Brent channels his inner British housewife from the 1960s (it wasn’t a huge leap). And John starts talking about time travel again (we wish it existed so we could go back and stop him). All of that and more on the podcast that doesn’t do a ton of photo shoots, but when we do they’re in the UK and they involve a spaceman – Hysteria 51.

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Be the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting!

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This week we're opening up the paranormal hotline and diving into the bizarre, the eerie, and the downright hilarious messages left by you, our fantastic listeners! From ghostly greetings to alien anecdotes, you'll hear firsthand accounts of the strange and unexplained... or at least complaints about us and how we pronounce things.

So join us as we explore the oddities of your encounters, answer your burning questions, and maybe even solve a mystery or two along the way. Don’t forget to grab your tinfoil hat and prepare for listeners voicemails – it's time to Dial H for Hysteria!

Email us your favorite WEIRD news stories:

weird@hysteria51.com

Support the Show

Get exclusive content & perks as well as an ad and sponsor free experience at https://www.patreon.com/Hysteria51 from just $1

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Be the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting!

https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hysteria51?ref_id=9022