Percy Fawcett and the Lost City of Z
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Welcome to Theories of the Third Kind. Welcome to Theories of the Third Kind. My name is Aaron and I am one of your hosts today. The other host joining me is Daniel Sun. Ayo! Now real quick, before we start today's episode, I just want to say that no AI programs were used or harmed in the creation of this episode. The research for this show and all of its work was created solely by humans.

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In the early 1900s, a legendary figure embarked on a quest deep into the shadows of the Amazon rainforest. Some call it the City of Gold, an elusive archaeological enigma, the heart of the Amazon, or even the quest of a lifetime. Did this individual's obsession with the lost city of Z lead to his ultimate demise in the unforgiving jungle?

Or was he on to a discovery that would rewrite our understanding of human history? In this exploration of uncharted territories and unfulfilled quests, we delve into the mystery that has captivated explorers and scholars alike. This is Percy Fawcett and the Lost City of Zee.

All right. So to start off today's episode, we are first going to talk a little bit about Percy Fawcett. Now, before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. Ryan Reynolds here from Intmobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices back.

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All right. Welcome back.

So who was Percy Fawcett? Percy Harrison Fawcett was born on August 18, 1867 in Torquay, Devon, located in southwest England to Edward Boyd Fawcett and Mira Elizabeth McDougall. His father, Edward, was born in India and was a member, or what they say, fellow, of the Royal Geographical Society, aka RGS.

From an early age, Percy went through school pretty much as an academic loner. He didn't really have many friends and kind of kept to himself. He ended up going to Newton Abbott College in the early 1880s, where afterwards he would join the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Percy would start off as a cadet like most would, but by 1886, he would be commissioned as a lieutenant of the Royal Artillery.

And some state that he actually joined the Royal Artillery against his own will. It was like it was forced upon him, which I could kind of see that. Okay. Now, 1886, this would still be the same year where he would meet his wife, Nina Agnes Patterson.

Ten years later, in January of 1896, Percy would be appointed adjutant, which is similar to a staff sergeant of the 1st Cornwall Artillery Volunteers. After that, in 1897, Percy would be promoted to captain and would serve in Hong Kong, Malta, and Trimcomalee. Now, being stationed there in Trimcomalee, which

which is now modern-day Sri Lanka, Percy wouldn't go with other fellow officers to do, you know, the whole drinking, gambling, and, you know, fraternizing with the locals. That wasn't his thing. No. Instead, Percy would go exploring the nearby jungles in the interior part of the island of Sri Lanka, recording mysterious inscriptions or inspecting the nearby ancient ruins.

By 1901, Percy had finally decided to put a ring on Nina's finger, but not after there was some drama that would occur. After meeting Nina and deciding to get engaged to her, Percy's mother, Mira, didn't really like Nina. So with the help of Percy's siblings, they decided to come up with a nasty plan to break off the engagement.

They told Percy that Nina was not a virgin woman that she said she was. And Percy was like, you're not the pure young woman I thought you to be. After saying that to her, he broke off their engagement. Nina was just like, well, damn, I'm heartbroken now. Oh, look, here's this other captain guy.

She ended up marrying a Captain Pritchard and moved to Alexandria. She would live there with her husband until he would somehow get anthrax and would end up dying. Now, before the captain passed away, he told Nina, supposedly in his final words, go and marry Fawcett. He is the real man for you. Why would you make those your last words? I have no idea. And I hope, honestly, that's not true, but supposedly those were his last words. All right, then.

Now, at the same time, Percy would find out that his family had lied to him about Nina, you know, pretty much being impure. So Percy found her again and begged for forgiveness. She forgave him, and they married in 1901. In that same year of 1901, Percy would join the RGS like his father before him so he could learn to survey and mapmaking.

He would even take a job working for the British Secret Service in North Africa to help with his learning of surveying. Then in 1903, Percy would serve for the War Office on Spike Island in County Court. Then Nina and Percy would have their first son, Jack, and then in 1905, Percy would be promoted to Major. By 1906, they would have their second son, Brian, and then in 1910, they would have their third child, a girl named Joan.

Then there was the start of World War I in 1914, and it wasn't until 1916 that Percy decided that he would return to Britain to serve with the British Army as a reserve officer in the Royal Artillery. At this time, he was about 50 years old, but that didn't stop him from volunteering for duty in Flanders where he would command an artillery brigade. Then in March of 1918, Percy would be promoted to lieutenant colonel after receiving three mentions of dispatches

Meaning that a superior officer wrote about them talking about their great actions, pretty much bragging about like, hey, this person did this and it did this for us. It was great. Promote them. Yeah. Okay. So he ended up getting like a couple medals for that. Nice. All right. So that right there is a little bit about who Percy Fawcett was and some of the notable things in his life that had occurred. Now we are going to get into what today's episode is all about.

his expeditions, which occurred way before March of 1918 and way before the start of World War I. So Dan, can you kick that off for us? So to understand Percy's first official expedition into the Amazon, we first need to talk about rubber and the Amazon forest. That's right, Jeremy, rubber.

So for the longest time, the native populations of the Amazon pretty much lived in isolation. Nobody messed with them. The area was vast and impenetrable. It was a bunch of trees and nobody wanted to go in that bitch. And I didn't blame them because who would? I wouldn't. Anyways, let's fast forward to the mid 1800s.

Brazil wanted to see if they could create incentives for development in that region. They're like, hey, look, we're a new country. We've got this big ass area of land with a lot of forest. Let's create some incentives for people to go inside there and develop it. Everybody was like, I don't think so. It doesn't look too enticing. We're good. So needless to say, it didn't work out well for them.

Now, individuals who had scouted the area and didn't die in the process had stated that there is nothing there. No gold, no precious stones. And due to this, the area was pretty much left alone. Yeah, there was no reason. They're like, hey, why would I go inside there? There's nothing in there except a bunch of tribes people that are going to kill me. Now, around this same time, Europe was going through its industrial revolution. Their growth led to them needing a bunch of certain supplies.

And it was discovered that natural rubber could pretty much satisfy the majority of their needs. Now, this natural rubber was a desirable commodity valued at a high price and thought to create wealth and dividends for whoever could provide the supply of it. However, everybody was like, well, where the hell do we get it from?

Well, word quickly spread that in the rainforests in the Amazon region of South America, including Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia, there contained rubber trees. This caused various entrepreneurs to travel to Brazil with the intention of learning more about the rubber tree and the process of latex extraction, hoping they could make a fortune off of it. By 1855, over 2,100 tons of rubber was exported from the Amazon region.

which this amount only increased due to its demand. For an example, by 1879, over 10,000 tons of rubber was being exported. So this large growth resulted in an expansion of European colonization in the area, attracting immigrant workers, generating wealth, causing cultural and social transformations.

and sadly wreaking havoc upon the indigenous societies there in the rainforest. All right, so why do we mention this? Well, during this period, there were border disputes between Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru. They were all wanting to get more land in order to get their hands on more rubber trees and ultimately make more money. Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru were having issues coming to an agreement

So they decided to get an independent mediator to help settle this dispute. Together, the countries decided on England to help settle their beef. England came in and stated, hey, we need to get some people in here to map out this area.

And this is the beginning of Percy Fawcett's first expedition to South America. Because his ass was hired by them to say, hey, go walk around and figure out the borders, draw it out and bring us back the maps so we can figure out what area is ours so we can get those rubber trees and make a lot of money. So in 1906, at 39 years old, Percy was employed by the Bolivian government to map an area out between Bolivia and Brazil.

It was a long, dangerous expedition featuring giant snakes and flesh-eating piranhas,

However, for Percy, it was just a cakewalk. It was easy. Yeah, it was simple for him. This expedition was expected to take close to two years to finish. However, Percy, his ass, he only did it in a few months. He came back and everybody's like, are you sure you just didn't sketch something out? You just went out there and sat on a rock for a couple months and sketched something out? He's like, hell no.

I went through there and you know what? I have people to back up my claim. And these people that went with him were like, let me tell you what, any physical discomfort that he might've had, he did not show. He was like a machine out there, okay? And the diseases that ravaged us, he was immune to them. Are you sure this guy's not a robot or something? So yeah, that's what it was like for him. It was after this first expedition that the Amazon became Percy's obsession.

Between 1906 and 1924, Percy made seven expeditions exploring mostly the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. However, things didn't always go as planned for him. For an example, during his 1908 expedition, Percy was threatened with mutiny and nearly starved to death, but that didn't stop him.

Three years later in 1911, Percy set off to explore the jungle along the Peru-Bolivia border with the polar explorer James Murray. Now this expedition was a disaster. And let me give you a little backstory real quick. James Murray, when they say he was a polar explorer, he was up exploring like Antarctica and all that. So he was used to the, not Antarctica, but up there in that region. Cold weather, cold weather.

Okay, the hell is he doing down here? Get back to your area. So during this expedition, James started struggling with the tropical climate and quickly became ill. James asked Percy if they could turn back so he could go back and get medical attention, but Percy refused. Eventually, the crew sent James away and went on without him. Now, James survived, and when he got back to England, he planned to bring legal action against Percy, but he never followed through.

Now, during this period is when Percy had to pause his expeditions due to World War I. However, a few years after the war is when he would come across information that would eventually lead him to his final expeditions and ultimately his disappearance. Now, before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

And get an insight

All right, welcome back. In 1920, Percy visited a library in Rio de Janeiro where he found manuscript number 512. This manuscript showed a record from 1743 of a Portuguese expedition to the Amazon.

This expedition supposedly discovered the ruins of an immense stone city that was abandoned. It was noted that on some of the stone monuments in the stone city that hieroglyphs were found, resembling Celtic Oum, an extinct Irish language. After reading over the rest of the manuscript, Percy came to the conclusion that this lost city made of stone existed in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil.

He also stated that the city was perhaps 11,000 years old, contained much gold, and perhaps was one of the seven cities that the conquistadors had searched for. Percy called this place Z. He also stated that Z might be the capital of the lost city of Atlantis.

And it might have some connection to the ancient Celts, a fair skinned red or blonde haired people, the descendants of which Percy claimed to have seen during his travels in the area. So as he was traveling in the area, he claimed, Hey man, I'm seeing some like light skinned people up in here that have red hair. That's not normal. And then after he read this manuscript, he put two and two together and was like, damn, you know what? Maybe,

They're there because the lost city is Z. I could see them all being blonde haired and the red hair would be from rubbing clay in their hair. I remember some tribes did that. Yeah. I know. When I saw he called this place Z, the first thing that came to mind, Zoltan. Zoltan. Oh my God. So only a short time later, Percy set out on another expedition in 1921 to explore the western region of Brazil. However, that expedition had failed to reach its goals as well.

Percy was determined to set out again, convinced that he knew the location of this lost city. He was able to get a group of individuals to finance this expedition. And this group was located in London and they were known as the Glove. That's what their name was. The Glove. If that doesn't sound like some villain group, I don't know. Yeah, it does. It's so weird.

Anyway, this group of financiers ended up funding this final expedition. And in return, Percy promised them riches, you know, as a return in their investment saying, hey, I'm going to go find this lost city of Z that contains gold and I'll bring you some gold back. That's a big promise right there. Yeah. So with funding secured, Percy planned to embark on his eighth expedition in mid to late April.

Now on this expedition, Percy didn't want to take a big group. He stated that a smaller group would look less like an invasion to the local tribes and therefore be less likely to be attacked. So Percy decided to take his eldest son Jack and Jack's best friend Raleigh Rimel. Also, Percy would hire two tour guides to help him through the first part of the area.

Now, something else worth mentioning is that a few days prior to the expedition, Percy left behind instructions that stated, and we quote, I don't want rescue parties coming to look for us. It's too risky. If with all my experience, we can't make it, there's not much hope for others. That's one reason why I'm not telling exactly where we are going.

Whether we get through and emerge again or leave our bones to rot in there, one thing's certain. The answer to the enigma of ancient South America and perhaps of the prehistoric world may be found when those old cities are located and opened up to scientific research. That the cities exist, I know.

A few days later, on April 20, 1925, Percy, his son Jack, and Jack's best friend Raleigh started their expedition, heading north from Coyaba, the capital of Mato Grosso, planning later to return eastwards through the great uncharted wilderness between the Sinju and Araguaia rivers, both southeastern rivers of the Amazon.

After those rivers, Percy would cross the Rio Sao Francisco and Tubaya State to explore the lost city of the 1753 expedition and eventually finish on the coast of Salvador. So a month into their journey, on May 29, 1925, 58-year-old Percy sent a message to his wife indicating that the expedition was crossing the upper Xingu and was now about to enter the Terra Incognita.

In his message, Percy stated, and we quote, Our tour guides go back from here. They are more and more nervous as we push further into the Indian country. We are only carrying minimal provisions. However, you need have no fear of failure. So following that letter, the three members of Percy's expedition then disappeared into the jungle, never to be seen or heard from again.

Yep. They disappeared. Final words. That's the end of Percy. You need have no fear of failure because we're dead. So Percy wasn't expected to be back until 1927. So he was expected to be gone for two years. However, when they failed to reappear, rumors started flying as to, hey, where are they at? What's going on? Now, even though Percy left those instructions stating, hey, you know, if we go missing, don't come looking for our ass.

It didn't matter. People didn't listen because since his disappearance, more than a dozen expeditions have set out to try and discover the fate of the lost expedition. So the first major rescue party was set out a year later after Percy went missing in 1926. And it was led by Commander George Miller. Now, even though this rescue crew was called the Suicide Club,

Due to the people going into this area would more than likely die, it didn't really matter because there was a huge number of volunteers. During the rescue expedition, George's crew was able to pick up on Percy's Trail and followed it across the wilderness of central Brazil and into the Amazon forest. However, they were running low on supplies and were eventually driven back by hostile Indians.

Now, this rescue expedition wasn't a complete failure. According to George, he was able to chat with a local Kalapalo tribe and discovered a plate carrying Percy's name around the neck of an Indian. Due to this, George stated that Percy and the rest of his group were likely massacred, which, by the way, George wrote a book about this expedition along with his theories on what happened to Percy and his expedition, the other two. Yeah, which he released that book after he came back from his...

I guess you could say rescue expedition, which didn't really amount to anything other than theories. So yeah. Now, once George came back and told everybody about what he had found, the majority of people pretty much accepted his story and determined that Percy, hey, yeah, he probably was killed. However, four years later, a different story emerged.

A Swiss traveler named Stefan Ratten traveled into Mato Grosso and claimed to have met an elderly white man with a long beard that was being held captive by the Indians. The man told Stefan that he was a Colonel Percy Fawcett and even showed him a ring that he had. Percy told Stefan that when he returned to Sao Paulo to describe this ring to his loved ones as proof that he is still alive.

So when Stefan returned, he contacted Nina Fawcett, which of course was Percy's wife, and told her what had happened. He also described the ring to her, in which she stated that she recognized the description of her husband's ring. Now this in turn ended up stirring up a ton of controversy, which led to another expedition leaving and trying to find Percy.

So in 1932, Robert Chuchward published an advertisement in the personal columns of the Times. This advertisement stated, now I'm just going to read this exactly how it was posted so it might not make sense, okay? Exploring and sporting expedition under experienced guidance. Leaving England in June to explore rivers of central Brazil. Also, if possible, to ascertain the fate of Colonel Fawcett.

Abundant game, big and small, exceptional fishing, room, two more, guns. That's all it has is just guns. Guns. Highest references expected and given. That's what the advertisement stated. Many individuals responded to this advertisement, including Peter Fleming, who is the brother of Ian Fleming, who created James Bond.

So the expedition crew gathered up and embarked for Sao Paulo, then traveled overland to the Araguaia River and then headed for the upper Xingu and Dead Horse Camp, the likely last known position of Percy. Now this expedition didn't really go as planned. At the very beginning of it, they had a ton of internal disagreements. Due to this, Peter Fleming ended up forming a breakaway party that went to look for Percy independently.

Both expeditions made slow progress for several days before finally admitting defeat, quitting, and heading back home. Well, that didn't work out then, huh? No. So following that expedition in 1932, nothing really happened until 15 years later. So in 1947, Hugh McCarthy, a New Zealand school teacher, decided to quit his job and search for Percy in his lost city of gold.

During his search, he decided to use carrier pigeons to send out the news of his progress. After a while, one carrier pigeon did arrive with a note from Hugh. The note stated that he was about to die. But that's okay, because he had found the exact location of this lost city, which, by the way, he had sent in his last letter. But that letter never arrived, and Hugh was never seen or heard from ever again.

I don't mean to laugh, but how f***ed up is that? You sit there and you get this carrier pigeon and you're like, oh, this must be from you.

And as you read it, it's like, I'm about to die, but it's okay. I found this lost city. I'm waiting for you. I gave you the exact coordinates in the last letter. You're like, what last letter? What last letter? That's just, he definitely expected the letters to arrive, but I don't know. There was no, like no verification. So he was just like in his mind. Yes, these letters are making it. These pigeons are doing a great job. Obviously not.

So a year later in 1948, some additional news about Percy would surface. Now before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break. This is our last one, so don't go nowhere. Alright, welcome back. So a year later in 1948, some additional news about Percy would surface. So earlier that year, an expedition was laying out airfields in the territory of the Kalapalo Indians. This expedition had become friendly with the Kalapalo Indians, especially their chief, Ixari.

Now, one of the individuals in that expedition that was laying out the airfields was a Brazilian named Orlando Villas Boas. According to Orlando, the chief ended up telling not only him, but his entire expedition that many years ago, they had killed Percy along with his two companions. Now, the reason they killed him was because Jack, Percy's son, ended up getting one of the local girls pregnant.

Damn. After killing them, the tribe gathered the three bodies, weighted them down with stones, and threw them into the Tangoro River. However, they were scared of the bodies being found, so they retrieved them, left them on the bank of the river to be scavenged by the animals, after which the bones were dispersed into the wilderness. Now, Villis Boas, the guy who was part of the expedition, stated that he was going to have proof very soon of his claims. However, everyone pretty much just forgot about him.

So two years later in 1950, author Harold T. Wilkins ended up writing a book called Secret Cities of Old South America. In this book, Harold stated that an anonymous informant had told him that a German anthropologist by the name of Irum had seen Colonel Percy Fawcett's shrunken head in a village in the upper Shingu in 1932.

And that the colonel had died defending his son, Jack, who had broken some sort of tribal taboo. So that was one of the additional rumors that came out about what happened to Percy. So from 1948 to 1950, there wasn't much talk about what was going on with Percy. And everybody kind of forgot about the Villis Boas' claim like, hey, I got proof.

So with Harold coming forward with his book, it kind of revitalized the discussion. So the following year in 1951, Villas Boas came forward and stated that he finally had the proof of Percy dying. Villas Boas produced a skeleton in which he stated was from the tribe that he spoke with in 1948. However, a bone analysis was done on the skeleton, which actually disproved his claim. You're full of shit, Orlando. Yeah.

So for the next almost 40 years, not much was said about Percy. Then in 1996, some television crew people got together and some executives and they're like, hey, what's a good mystery that we can cover? And they're like, hey, what about this Percy Fawcett fellow that disappeared in the Amazon? Let's go find him. They're like, you know what? That's a really good idea. Let's turn this into a television show.

So in 1996, a television expedition was put together and this expedition set off into the Mato Grosso to search for any remaining traces of Percy. However, they did not get that far. The Kalapalo Indians stopped the group and held them hostage for several days, only releasing them after confiscating tens of thousands of dollars worth of their equipment.

By the way, I've seen some individuals say that it was about $30,000 worth of equipment and others say that it was about $60,000 worth of equipment. Regardless, those Indians took an assload of equipment. Honestly, what the hell did they do with it? I don't know, $30,000 to $60,000 worth of equipment. That's a lot of equipment. That is. Now, you would think that after, you know, that expedition was pretty much kidnapped in 1996, that individuals would stay away from that area. However, that was not the case.

Only two years later, in 1998, anthropologist Benedict Allen decided to go on a one-man expedition into that area and film it as part of the BBC's Video Diaries series. This dude's got some balls. During this expedition, Benedict was able to talk with the chief of the Kalapalo tribe, but the chief refused to discuss Percy.

Benedict finally was able to bribe him by giving him an outboard motor. Of all things, an outboard motor. I'm going to go up and down this river and catching all the bass. Jesus Christ. After which the tribal chief stated that they had nothing to do with Percy's expedition. What really happened, according to this chief,

is that, hey, there is an aggressive tribe called the La Runa tribe that is about four to five days east of our territory. It was this La Runa tribe that killed Percy and his two companions. Another thing that the chief told Benedict is that the skeleton that Vilas Boas had from the 1950s was not that of Percy, but was rather his own grandfather's skeleton that had been taken.

And Benedict was like, yeah, we already know that. We did some testing on it. But thank you. Can I have my outboard motor back, please? The chief was like, no, you can't have it. I'm gonna go catch some fish. So the chief gave his own grandfather skeleton? Yeah. All right. So that right there was one of the last expeditions that went looking for Percy and pretty much the entire story of Percy Fawcett and the Lost City of Zee.

However, the story does not stop here because just like every week as we dove deep into this, we ended up coming across some strange facts and findings that we are now going to get into and discuss. So Dan, you want to tell us about the first one that we have here? Our first strange fact and finding is about the big old snakes that Percy came across during his expeditions.

So in 1907, while Percy was surveying the Brazilian-Bolivian border for the Royal Geographic Society of London, he ended up becoming friendly with the local Indians. These locals would often warn Percy and tell him to be careful of the colossal snakes in the area. Percy initially dismissed the claims and didn't think much of them. However, one day when he was drifting down the Rio Abura in a canoe, he witnessed, and we quote,

A triangular head and several feet of a long, smooth body appeared under the bow of the canoe. Percy stated that he sprang for his rifle as the creature began to make its way up to the bank and hardly waiting to aim, smashed a .44 soft-nose bullet into its spine, ten feet below the wicked head. Immediately there was a flurry of foam and several heavy thumps against the boat, shaking us as though we had run on a snag.

Now, the gunshot was fatal. However, the reptile was too large to take precise measurements of it. Percy was quoted saying, We stepped ashore and approached the reptile with caution. It was out of action, but shivers ran up and down the body like puffs of wind on a mountain tarn. As far as it was possible to measure, a length of 45 feet lay out of the water and 17 feet in it, making a total length of 62 feet.

its body was not thick for such a colossal length not more than twelve inches in diameter but it had probably been long without food i tried to cut a piece out of the skin but the beast was by no means dead and the sudden upheavals rather scared us a penetrating odour came from the snake

Probably its breath, which is believed to have a stupefying effect, first attracting and later paralyzing its prey. Everything about this snake was repulsive. Percy, of course, would return to South America several times after this one, where he discovered quite a few more odd creatures, such as a species of dog with two noses, which is our next strange fact of finding.

So this next strange fact and finding, like Dan said, is about another odd creature that Percy stumbled upon. So in 1913, during an expedition, Percy spotted a dog that appeared to have two noses. The double-nosed Andean tigerhound is a breed that is supposedly known for its cleft or split-looking nose.

They are not an official breed that is recognized by, you know, the AKC or the CKC, Miracle Kennel Club or the Continental Kennel Club. And that is probably because they are extremely rare. You more than likely won't find them outside of Bolivia, where it seems they originate from, but it is possible to see them there. Even to this day, many people there have them as pets. It is a weird looking dog. I've never seen one like that before. If you look up the Indian Tigerhound, you'll find multiple images of

This right here, they may look like an old image, but it's a modern day image. There's a ton of them that look just like this with the nose. If anyone out there that's listening has one of these dogs, send us a picture of it. We'd love to see it. Yeah. All right. So let's get into our next strange fact and finding, which is about Percy and his favorite wartime equipment, the Ouija board.

So in late 1916, during World War I, Percy arrived at his post where he would have to counter German heavy guns. He is quoted saying, I am not the least bit interested in the innovative work being done on the detection of German guns by flash spotting and sound ranging. The only counter battery shots which we would allow were those against targets clearly visible from British lines or those that we had detected personally on my Ouija board.

So Percy would bring his Ouija board to the front lines and was contacting whatever it is on the other side. And that individual or entity would give him information on where the German heavy guns were located.

It must have worked considering Percy got three mentions of dispatches, which he got one in 1916, 1917, and 1918. Pretty much the three years that he was in war. Yeah, that's weird. Well, continuing on with the strange facts and findings, let's get on to our next one, which is about telepathic messages.

So in 1955, Geraldine Dorothy Cummins stated that she had been in psychic contact with Colonel Percy up until 1948 when he reported his own death to her. Now, as weird as this sounds, Percy's wife, Nina, also claimed that she had received telepathic messages from Percy all the way up until 1934.

To add even more to this, the family of Percy employed a medium to analyze a scarf once worn by him. The medium went into a trance in which they stated that they clearly saw the entire expedition party murdered and their bodies dumped in a lake. Weird. That is weird. And it just keeps getting stranger because the deeper we looked into this occult and paranormal stuff that has to do with Percy, the more we found.

For an example, our next strange fact and finding is about a strange cult. So something many people wondered as they were looking for Percy throughout the years is why Percy's family didn't release any of his records, manuscripts, or letters to sort of help in his search. Well, almost three decades after he disappeared, Percy's younger son, Brian, ended up writing a book

that was called Exploration Fawcett. And this book contained the colonel's own records, manuscripts, and letters, which of course the book immediately became a bestseller. Now in 2002, a Czech theater director named Misha Williams informed the press that the Fawcett family had agreed to grant him exclusive firsthand access to the Fawcett family archives. What he uncovered, he claimed, was a revelation.

Misha Williams stated that Percy's youngest son, Brian Fawcett, in collusion with the rest of the Fawcett family, had deliberately obscured his father's tracks in the book that was written called Exploration Fawcett. The family had always known that the expedition never intended to return.

but rather set up a utopian commune deep in the jungle, part of what Colonel Percy called his Great Scheme. This new society, according to the alleged secret papers, would be founded on Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Principles, which the Colonel had perfected over the years with the help of a spirit entity he called him.

When the Fawcett family was asked about this, like, hey, why did you cover up your father's tracks? And why did you not come to the press and say, hey, our father set up a utopian commune based upon principles in which he perfected over the years by communicating with the spirit entity. Why didn't you tell us that? Instead, you allowed all these expeditions to go into the forest and die looking for him. You know what his family said? They said,

The world was not yet ready for such sensational information. Which I mean, if you look at Edward Jr., Percy's older brother, he actually had a direct connection with Madame Blavatsky. He was like her right-hand man, almost it looked like. He would help her come up with the principles. He wrote for their paper and all that such. So that was pretty much his, Percy's end for the theosophical religion or whatever they want to call it, cults.

When we started researching this, I did not expect it to take a turn into the occult. No, not at all. Which is weird because it wasn't just like a minor turn. It was a full on like, let's go in the other direction. Yeah. Who knew that Percy would, you know, bring along a Ouija board for everything. Speaking of weird, what's our next strange fact and finding, Dan? All right. So this next strange fact of finding is about the collection of horrifying oddities. Okay.

It is called the Dr. Cagliostro's Cabinet of Curiosities in Europe, which for 180 years, they gathered an extraordinary collection of horrifying objects from all over the world. So I figured we had to mention this because they supposedly have the shrunken head of Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett, which I was able to find an image of it. And it looks like someone may have found it in 1958, 33 years after he went missing.

And I must say, his mustache is still looking pretty damn good, if that is his shrunken head.

There was that rumor that from that book in the 1950s about that German person finding out that Percy had his head shrunken. That's right. They killed him. Then they shrunk Percy's head. You figure they would have shrunk Jack's head for doing that to the local girl. And Raleigh's just for being with him. Yeah. Now we do have a photograph of this shrunken head and we'll provide it on our website, theoriesofthethirdkind.com.

You just click on today's episode and it will be right there for everyone to take a look at. So let's get into our next strange fact and finding, which is about John Hemming and his thoughts regarding Percy Fawcett. So John Hemming is a well-known Amazon historian, the Amazon jungle, not the online website, Amazon. So he said that the movie, you know, The Lost City of Z, which they did make a movie about this.

John stated that the movie portrayed Percy as a great explorer, friend to the natives, and skilled in survival. But John said that is not accurate. He said the real Percy was a fan of publicity, he was inexperienced, and he was a racist. In John's book called Die If You Must, he documents Percy's ugly racist notions about the Native Americans.

He goes on to say that in letters and interviews done by Percy, he would describe them as large, hairy men with exceptionally long arms, with foreheads sloping back from pronounced eyes, villainous savages, hideous ape men with pig-like eyes. He even goes on to say that Percy's writings even stated that there are three kinds of Indians. First are docile and miserable people, easily tamed.

The second, dangerous, repulsive cannibals, and they are very rarely seen. The third, a robust and fair people who must have a civilized origin. And he believed that it was the third type of civilized Indians who created and lived in the lost city of Z, and that the others were just too damn primitive to build such grand structures. He did not really like the other two. Well, Percy doesn't sound like that great of a person.

No, I watched a documentary and there was this guy who said Percy was like his childhood hero. He went and talked with John Hemming. And literally the guy was just like, this is how you talk about my hero. He's just like, this is the real Percy. These are the facts. Yeah. Damn. All right. Well, let's get on to our last strange fact and finding, which is about a group of people called the Kogi.

So in Brian Fawcett's book called The Secret Papers, he wrote that his father wanted to deliver his son Jack to the earth guardians of the great white brotherhood.

Now, when he stated the great white brotherhood, people assumed, you know, it wasn't, you know, the Klansmen as in white brotherhood, but more so white for purity and alchemy is what they believe. Okay. Not 100% sure, but that's what they tried to believe. Yeah.

So in 1998, a BBC producer visited a so-called lost city in Colombia. Now this city was populated by people dressed in white robes who called themselves the Kogi. The Kogi claimed to be earth guardians whose purpose is to teach mankind spirituality and how to live harmoniously with nature. Even though it was a lost city, it wasn't much of a city. It was just a series of stone platforms with pathways and some staircases.

The Kogi have lived there for many years, but unfortunately this was in Columbia and not in the Amazon rainforest. With that, it almost makes it seem like that Percy may have ended up in the wrong area. Or maybe he purposely told people, hey, I'm going in this area, but in reality he's going to a different area. That could be it. To throw the individuals off.

So he wanted to deliver his son, Jack. To the Earth Guardians. Earth Guardians being the Kogi, the people who dressed in white robes, possibly. Possibly. They dressed in white robes. It was like a lost city. And they called themselves the Earth Guardians. Kind of fits in. Yeah. And I guess that takes us to our theories section where we talk about what happened to Percy. So the first theory that we're going to talk about, which is probably the most popular one,

This one is that Percy and Jack and Raleigh were all murdered by a native tribe. So it's no secret that the area that they were going to search, that there would be different tribes in the surrounding areas. You had the Kalapalos, the Arumas, Soyas, a whole bunch of different tribes, even though, you know, not all of them were considered to be violent.

Now, it is believed, though, that the Kalapalos tribe were the last ones to see Percy and Jack and Raleigh alive. Supposedly, one story that the chief stated is that, hey, they killed the men because Jack, you know, like we said, decided he needed some skin-to-skin interaction and ended up getting one of the tribe women pregnant. The bodies were thrown into the river, brought out, left along the bank, and scavenged by the animals.

That is one of the main theories and pretty much one of the top believed ones as to what happened to Percy and his expedition. That is the most popular one. I can kind of see that, but I'm going to save my personal thoughts until the end. Yeah. Now the next theory is that they died from a disease or illness. So the three-man team went out on the last expedition encountering unknown diseases and illnesses. Even though Percy seemed to be immune to everything. He's a damn robot. Yeah. Yeah.

But the last time they were seen, supposedly, the younger two looked ill and weak from what a report said. And I think it was Raleigh that stated that he might have gotten bit by a tick and it became infected. But yet, Percy made them continue on. So it is possible that they succumbed to a disease or illness and they ended up meeting their demise that way.

I could see that happening based upon how Percy treated others in past expeditions. It was James. James, the Arctic explorer. Yep. Percy was like, you're sick. Well, see you later. Just kind of left him behind. Yeah. It was either you get left behind or keep trying to move forward. And in being in a jungle area by yourself, I don't think I'd want to be left there. No, uh-uh.

All right, so let's get on to our next theory, which is that they got lost and ended up dying in the jungle. This is a pretty straightforward theory. You know, as Percy and his expedition searched the jungles, they ended up getting lost, couldn't find their way back, and they died. Many people don't really believe in this theory based upon the fact that, you know, Percy was a surveyor and map maker.

And that he was very familiar with the area. So the possibilities of him getting lost, not very high, but still a theory nonetheless. Yeah, I know they said they found his compass in like another tribe area. But being a surveyor and map maker, I think you learn how to navigate your way without a compass, looking at the sky and all that such, you know, oh, the sun's rising over here. This is where it is, you know, shit like that. Yep.

So the next theory is that Fawcett found the lost city of Z. He believed that the civilization no longer existed and that the ruins were still intact. But what if that civilization had not disappeared and they were still thriving in the jungle of Brazil somewhere and Fawcett and his expedition actually found it? Since they found it though, they were not permitted to leave because they had found the hidden location of it. So they lived out the rest of their lives there, possibly as hostages or as part of the civilization.

Hmm. That's a good one. That is a good one. Cause granted you make it there and all that, but then there's like, have we been hidden for so long and you found us can't leave. You're staying. All right. So the last theory that we have is called cult. So this theory is based on the fact of what Misha found during his access to the family archives that Percy went to the jungle and intended on creating a utopian commune of his own.

Part of me wants to believe this, that Percy, his son, and his son's friend Raleigh went and found the ruins of this lost city of Z, kind of rebuilt it, tried to create a commune, neighboring tribes came in, murdered them, the end.

That's 100% what I believe happened. And the reason his family covered it up, because it does state in the family archive that, hey, his family knew what was going to happen. The plan was he's going to go create this utopian commune, disappear, quote unquote, disappear. His family's going to write a book about it. They're going to make a ton of money and then eventually move to where he's at. But Percy ended up dying.

Now, I could definitely see him going out there building his own cult and the teachings of Madame Blavatsky and then supposedly perfecting it himself. But what if this lost city of Z, there were no ruins or anything like that? This was something that he totally made up himself and that he was actually going to create the lost city of Z.

Like he would be the sole creator of this lost city of Z. So people wouldn't, when they go out and search for it and they would find his lost city, they would learn about his teachings, his perfecting Madame of Latsky's theosophical principles. But he died in the process. Yeah. Before he actually recruited people other than his son in Raleigh. That's the theory I'm sticking with is that. I like that one.

I mean, I'd like to think that they possibly did find the lost city of Z for a good outcome, but. Realistically, local tribesmen, you're invading their territory. You're trying to set up your own quote unquote tribe in their eyes. Yeah. They're going to kill you. Yeah. A hundred percent. Unless you give them an outboard motor. Outboard motor.

All right. Well, I would love to hear everyone else's opinions and theories about what happened. If you or a loved one have come across Percy Fawcett and he's living immortally in the forest of the Amazon, or if you or a loved one have now joined that utopian cult that's still there,

there in the Amazon forest, please send us an email to Aaron, A-A-R-O-N at theoriesofthethirdkind.com or Dan, D-A-N at theoriesofthethirdkind.com. We'd love to hear from you and possibly visit your cult. Possibly. Yeah. With that being said, do you have anything else you want to add to today's episode, Dan? We saw this over the weekend, this topic, and we're just like, we had to do it. Yeah. We actually went to...

The Museum of the Weird. Yeah, the Museum of Weird in Austin, Texas on 6th Street. And we came across this little placard of Percy Fawcett. And we read it and said,

damn, we need to do an episode over this. And we read into it even more and decided, hey, it'd be a great episode for this week. Yeah, especially since it got into the occult, exploration. It kind of got into like, I wouldn't say cryptids, but almost, you know, 60 foot long snakes. That's a big snag. Well, I want to thank you all for joining us today. And again, thank you for your support. You are all amazing. Every single one of you.

So with that being said, Dan, you want to roll us out? Sure will. It's okay to be out of this world with your thoughts. Because you are not alone.