History's Greatest Mysteries

He was the actor whose most famous role was assassinating a president. But was John Wilkes Booth also an escape artist? Did Booth evade justice and live for decades after killing Abraham Lincoln? For the first time, Booth family members share family lore, and what they believe is evidence of the assassin's escape, passed down through generations.

A cryptic journal sparks an unprecedented investigation into whether a UFO crashed at Roswell, NM in 1947. Major Jesse Marcel, the first government official on the scene, believed to his dying day that an extraterrestrial spaceship plummeted to earth and the U.S. government covered it up. Now, the Marcel family has come forward with a journal found among Marcel's possessions. The journal may contain coded-clues to the truth behind Roswell. Former CIA operative Ben Smith embarks on a new investigation that includes a cryptographic analysis of the journal, a high tech geological study of the crash site, and interviews with witnesses who have never spoken publicly. What really crashed in Roswell? The US government claimed it was a weather balloon and then changed its story. Others spoke of alien bodies, and extreme government intimidation.

A former CIA operative's investigation into the Roswell crash arrives at a critical moment when the mysterious journal found among the possessions of Major Jesse Marcel undergoes a crucial test. As a US Army intelligence officer, Marcel was the first government official at the crash site. Investigator Ben Smith is taken to a secret location believed to be the real resting place of the airborne object, as a local archeologist finds evidence that a military cleanup may have taken place. A leading code-breaker continues his attempt to decipher the journal which may be written in a home-brewed code and contain hidden information about what happened at Roswell. And witnesses describe a series of bizarre events surrounding the now legendary crash, while an incredible new technology attempts to read words on a 70 year old photograph that may hold clues to the mystery: Did an extraterrestrial spaceship crash at Roswell?

Investigator Ben Smith travels to Jesse Marcel's hometown on Louisiana's Gulf Coast to speak with family members who reveal information that supports Marcel's story of a government coverup. Smith speaks with Leslie Kean, the investigative journalist who broke The New York Times story about a clandestine U.S. government program to investigate UFOs. Smith also digs deeper into the mystery of the journal as he studies writing samples to determine if the journal might have been written by one of Marcel's fellow officers who later claimed he was ordered to oversee the military's coverup. Back in Marcel's hometown, Smith meets with a man who swears Marcel confided in him about alien bodies-- something Marcel had never mentioned to the press or family. As the results come back from soil, metal and forensic handwriting analysis, Smith shares his findings with the Marcel grandchildren.