Brad Meltzer's Decoded (2010) s01e01 Episode Script
The White House
What if I were to tell you that the cornerstone of our democracy is actually missing? In 1792, stonemasons laid the cornerstone for the white house.
It's the first government building in Washington.
Now, descriptions of the stone vary from something small that you can carry to something that's massive.
The men who placed it were brothers in one of the world's most secretive organizations -- of course, the freemasons.
The day after it's placed, the stone vanishes.
This thing just disappears.
[ Camera shutter clicking .]
Some people say that the stone was inscribed by our founding fathers.
Others say it was hollow, that it contained landmark documents of great, unimagined wisdom.
Many believe this was stolen by the masons themselves.
But they, of course, deny any involvement.
Whatever the case, nobody has seen the white house cornerstone for more than 200 years, and let me tell you right now -- I want to know why.
I'm Brad Meltzer.
I've spent my life collecting stories.
The best include signs, symbols, and codes, secret meanings that are hidden in plain sight.
Some have become the basis for my novels, but I've only scratched the surface of what's out there.
And now history has given me the resources to investigate the rest.
This is "decoded.
" -- Captions by vitac -- [ telephone ringing .]
White house.
[ Laughter .]
Hey! Hey, Brad! Listen, we got your message, and we're on our way to the white house, man.
No one knows where the first piece of the white house is to this day.
And when you tell me that the very first piece of the white house is missing, I want to know where it went.
Well, Brad, when you say, "missing," what do you mean? Maybe it's that it's in a different place than we thought.
It could be that someone took it.
Some people say that it's hollow and it contains something special.
You know, when the masons get involved, the tales get larger and larger.
We have the tools, and we got to use it.
We got to find it.
So, no pressure -- "team, find the cornerstone.
" [ Chuckling .]
Okay.
The white house might be the most famous home in the world.
But the secret service is very protective of the exact floor plan, so decoding it, of course, fascinates me.
When president John Adams first moved in in 1800, it was the biggest home in America -- 28,000 square feet.
Today the black burn marks still exist -- you can see them on the basement's original sandstone structure -- from where the British set fire to the white house in 1814.
Originally, it was known as the "president's palace" or the "executive mansion.
" But it was Teddy Roosevelt who embossed stationery with the term "white house" on it in 1901, unintentionally renaming the building for Martha Washington's childhood home in Virginia.
While heavily guarded now, up until the Truman administration, you could actually drive under the north portico in your car and put up the top on your convertible during a rain storm.
The west wing was completed in 1930, and the white house complex, as it's called today, measures some 55,000 square feet Double its original size.
It's got a bowling alley, jogging tack, movie theater, its very own flower shop But here's the best secret -- when you're walking through the ground-floor corridor, you'll see two statues.
Make a turn between those.
You'll be in a small room with chairs stacked to the ceiling.
That's where they store the chairs for the state dinner.
When you go out the other side of that room, head down the narrow corridor.
When you hit the dead end, make a right-hand turn.
You'll see a steel door.
That is the entrance to the bomb shelter, the true, hidden, secret tunnel that's below the white house.
This is the first piece of the white house we're talking about.
It's the first piece of our democracy, and it's missing.
Powerful people have searched for the cornerstone.
Nobody knows where this thing is.
That, to me, is the definition of a good mystery.
Where do you think it would have originally been? The masons typically laid them in the northeast corner.
So, here's the northeast side.
I don't even know, really, what a cornerstone is or how big were they, how heavy were they.
If you get me material and size, I can calculate how heavy it is.
Okay.
How do you do that? Is that like a mathematical formula? Yeah, it's just density and size.
But it's gonna be around, I don't know, 150 pounds.
My favorite thing about McKinley is that, as a mechanical engineer Wow.
She needs everything to be proven using math or science.
She doesn't make guesses.
She finds facts, and we need that.
And here, her dad was a Mason, so she knows something about how they work, too.
Here's what's intriguing me.
Brad said that the answer lies with the masons.
I think they're behind this, because with all these secrets they have, maybe they think there's some kind of power they get from stealing the white house cornerstone.
I mean, it's distinctly possible that they're the ones that are behind this.
Honestly, I'm kind of disappointed that you would go there.
Why would you just go, "the masons," like every other conspiracy theorist? You haven't even met them.
Let's see what they look like.
I'm really interested to see.
You know what? They're not gonna have horns coming out of their hair, 'cause my dad didn't.
He was a Mason.
I still think they've got the information, they hold the key to this.
Scott's a former prosecutor.
You know what that means? It means he's lied to every day.
No one tells him the truth.
So Scott's a skeptic by nature.
He questions everything, but he always follows the evidence.
Okay, I'm on the cornerstone.
What is it? What was it for? I've got to hit the library of congress.
There's got to be some documentary, historical evidence of what happened from the moment it was laid there all the way to the last time anyone knows anything about it.
What I like about buddy is that he asks the questions that I would ask.
And he has this uncanny ability to use that charm to get people to talk to him.
With everything going on with the cornerstone, this is gonna be essential for us.
Okay, we need to find out who's looked for this thing, what did they find, what didn't they find.
I'm gonna be with you? Yes, and we're gonna talk about the masons, and I'm gonna prove to you what I'm saying.
Are you guys good? I think we're good.
We're good for now.
I'm keeping an open mind.
If he keeps talking crazy, we're not good.
I'm keeping an open mind.
Well, let's do it.
So now it's time to divide and conquer to make sure we cover more territory.
Mac and Scott are gonna go speak to a guy who's an expert on the white house, and he knows about previous searches there, what might have been found in the past.
Very nice to meet you.
At the same time, buddy's gonna find out about what cornerstones actually physically are.
In Washington, the cornerstones served a dual purpose.
They were functional, but they were symbolic of this new government, this new order.
So it was the most important stone of the building.
What about the size of one of the stones -- the actual size in dimensions? Well, it depends on which building.
Let's say these.
This is granite.
6 1/2' x 6 1/2' x 2 1/2' high.
By comparison, how much larger would you say that the cornerstone of the white house might be? Well, the white house, you know, we don't know specifically.
It was said to be a large stone that was placed there.
I understand that sometimes there are brass plaques or plates put in a cornerstone.
Well, certainly for the white house.
There was a brass plaque that was placed under the cornerstone at the white house, listing the people that were there, maybe a blessing, the date that it was placed.
So, I'm wondering if cornerstones are ever used as a sort of time capsule.
Yes.
Some early cornerstones were hollowed out.
Okay.
And a zinc or copper container was placed inside and then sealed.
I'm wondering if there might be something worth finding in the white house cornerstone.
The thing that would be worth finding would be the brass plaque.
From what I understand, cornerstones were either ceremonial or functional, so the idea that cornerstones were sometimes used as time capsules made me think it's even more likely that someone stole it.
So, Scott, some serious people have looked for this.
Yes.
Presidents have searched for this cornerstone.
I think the first search was probably Teddy Roosevelt.
They knew the stone was laid masonically, and knowing that masons always put their cornerstones in the northeast, of course, they looked in the northeast corner.
Right.
But what did they find? Nothing.
Really? The next search came during Truman's administration, and they decided to take a world war ii mine detector to the building.
No luck.
Couldn't find it, either.
George Bush sr.
Was in office during the bicentennial of the laying of the cornerstone, so, of course, they wanted to find it, but they couldn't, so Just can't find it? Just can't find it.
To this day, still a mystery.
Were they hiding it in another corner? I think that would be a great idea.
What better way to keep it a secret than put it somewhere contrary to where you normally put your cornerstone? Why do you care about this? The cornerstone? Yeah.
I am a Mason myself.
You're a Mason? Yes.
I am a member of federal lodge number one, and, believe it or not, it was started by James hoban, who was the architect and designer of the white house.
Interesting.
Okay.
The freemasons have spent centuries collecting the most powerful members of our society.
Eight signers of the declaration of independence were freemasons, nine signers of the u.
S.
Constitution, and 14 times they took the white house.
You're telling me 14 presidents are part of the same secret club? I want to know who's in that club.
I want to know what they do.
Do you think it's there? I want to believe that it's there.
Why do you want to believe that? I mean, this is the first stone dedicated for our new capital city.
You know, when they were founding our government, the idea was not that it would last for 5 or 50 or 500 years but to last forever, and I think this stone is a symbol of that.
Scott, maybe the stone is actually missing.
Sure.
Um there's always a chance that it's missing.
Who would want to steal the white house cornerstone? You know trying to think how I should answer that question.
Maybe -- maybe someone who would want to keep it a secret to preserve it and make sure that it lasts forever.
Who would want to -- wait, who would want to keep it a secret? Um You? The masons? I-I-I mean, possibly.
I mean, obviously, the freemasons are known to preserve the ancient knowledge.
You know, whenever cornerstones are laid, it's always in the northeast corner, yet it might not be in that corner.
Maybe they laid it somewhere else.
This is when it got much more interesting.
It certainly made me think the masons had the opportunity and, possibly, the motive.
I'm trying to figure out the location of this white house cornerstone.
Do you have anything in the archives on the cornerstone specifically? Well, let's look.
White house cornerstone -- I would think there'd be pages that would come up.
I only have one specific account.
You're kidding.
No.
There's one document? Right.
That's remarkable.
Well, I guess we're gonna need that one.
Here.
Follow me.
You know, in my experience, there are usually volumes written on historical events like the laying of the cornerstone.
The fact that there was only one single letter in this case was very suspicious to me.
Okay.
So, this is the city gazette , printed November 15, 1792.
Whoa.
There it is.
"A letter from a gentleman in Philadelphia to his friend in Charleston, dated October 20, 1792.
" "From a gentleman in Philadelphia" -- that's interesting.
It's a nameless gentleman.
So, "on Saturday, the 13th, the first stone was laid in the southwest corner of the president's house.
" The southwest corner.
Southwest corner, not what we'd think.
Oh, my word.
Okay, it looks to me like after the ceremony, they proceeded to partake in 16 different toasts, which, whenever I've taken 16 shots, it's been hard for me to figure out where things were.
Do you know what happened to the original letter? Somehow, it resurfaced in 1946.
Is there any explanation for where it was in the intervening 150 years? We're not sure what happened.
It is.
This concerns me, because how do we even know that this letter, written by a nameless author, is an actual account? We have no way of knowing.
Hmm.
Okay, here's what I think -- when you write something secretly, then there's got to be some truth in there.
There's something in there that, for some reason, you don't want people to know that you gave away, and that, to me, is one of the most trusted sources of history.
Hey, buddy.
Hey, I just got back from the library of congress, and it's really, really weird.
In the entire library of congress, there's one letter that describes the cornerstone ceremony.
What do you mean, one? I don't understand it.
What did it say? It says that the cornerstone was laid in the southwest corner.
That -- wait, what? Yeah, it says in the southwest corner.
Then that was intentional.
Yeah.
Do I know if the masons stole the cornerstone? Of course not.
But I know what it looks like -- that the evidence is starting to mount against them.
The masons placed the cornerstone in a strange location, and then they barely speak about it or write about it for more than 200 years.
Several presidents, including Harry Truman, a 33rd-degree Mason himself, have looked for it, and nobody's been able to find this thing.
What we need to find out now is if the masons have a reason to lie.
Why would they steal the cornerstone? Why would they hide it? And if so, what is that motive? The cornerstone of the white house -- the very first stone laid in our capital -- has been missing for more than 215 years.
And nobody knows where it is.
And even though they deny it, all signs seem to point to the ultra-secretive organization known as the freemasons.
This is where people play the scary music.
They say they're the likely culprits that took it.
The masons, of course, claim that they're innocent.
But let's be clear -- there are many people who think just the opposite.
[ Carillon plays .]
I do take a critical view of masonry, definitely.
The greater population of freemasonry -- the average Mason that you would meet -- is probably a very moral, upstanding member of the community.
My real contention is with what I would call the "inner core" of freemasonry -- this handful of elite adepts, called the "inner circle" or "inner cabal" -- and the inner doctrines of masonry that they intentionally hide from the low-level masons who haven't progressed as far in the craft.
What are they hiding? Their ultimate agenda, which is the new world order.
This inner circle, this inner cabal, want to ultimately rule the world.
And the people of the world will be forced to conform to this belief system, and those who don't conform will be killed.
And you believe that's what they believe? Well, I know that's what they believe, 'cause I've read their writings.
A lot of their books that were reserved only for masons have made their way out into the public, and people scan them onto the Internet.
So a lot of this information is laid open for the public to see but most people don't go and seek it out.
As well researched as Chris pinto's ideas seem to be, I just did not buy it.
I found it hard to believe that my dad was mixed up with guys bent on world domination.
Do you think it's possible, then, based on everything you've told us, that the masons could have been responsible for the disappearance of the white house cornerstone? Well, certainly.
If there was something inside the white house cornerstone, those who were involved would see the cornerstone as possibly some kind of talisman of power, if you will.
How far do you think the inner circle are willing to go to maintain their secrets? These are guys who have sworn blood oaths to have their throats cut and to be disemboweled before they reveal the secrets of their order.
And freemasonry has a record of so carefully guarding their secrets that they've even been willing to kill people to protect them.
Really? Oh, yeah.
And willing to kill people, or Willing to kill people, and they have killed people.
Is there an example of that? Sure.
Probably the most famous example of all is the case of Captain William Morgan back in 1826.
According to the accounts of that time, Morgan had been a freemason, and so he published their rituals for everyone to see.
And so they kidnapped him.
And then they told him that a council of masons had determined that he needed to die.
And they murdered him.
Do you think that could happen again? I do believe that that kind of thing continues to go on even today.
There are some who would write off Chris pinto's suspicions as extreme, and I'm one of them.
But the only way we're gonna get to the truth is by talking to everyone.
You have to listen to and consider every theory, especially when you're dealing with the masons.
They're a secret society.
They keep secrets.
That's what they do.
But the bottom line is that the masons don't want to talk to us.
I know some people say that and they don't really mean it, but the masons don't want to talk to anyone.
And you know why? Because everybody burns them.
Everyone blames them for every bad thing that's happened in this world.
But I'm gonna do my best to get behind the wall of secrecy that's been there for centuries.
[ Indistinct conversations .]
[ Pool balls clacking .]
All right.
Oh! I got to hear about Mr.
pinto.
Yeah.
What's this guy about? You want to start? The most interesting thing to me is that there is a sane, intelligent, well-researched guy sitting there completely sincerely telling us that the masons are murderers, there's a new world order coming.
I didn't think he said anything that was truly credible.
Oh, dear.
Well, if this organization believes this, and they're responsible for laying the white house cornerstone The organization doesn't believe that.
They absolutely could be responsible for its disappearance.
They put it there.
Yeah, and then they take it away so they can get it.
That's true.
They put it there and later came and got it? I'm not saying I was convinced.
I'm just saying that some of this stuff that he's talking about -- about the inner circle and an outer circle -- I thought made some sense.
I really did.
Scott -- when the guys at the airport come up and start giving out pamphlets and converting people, Scott's the first guy they go to, because he's got that look.
[ Chuckles .]
No, that's not true at all.
Listen, I knew McKinley was having a great time busting my chops, but I knew, as an attorney, that we needed to listen to what everybody had to say before I drew a conclusion.
I mean, if we discounted what people like Chris pinto had to say just because we disagree with them, then we might have missed something really important.
Hey, Brad, what's up? This is an unbelievable piece of news I just got.
We have got permission to actually go inside the headquarters of Scottish rite freemasonry.
Sweet! Not only that, they're actually bringing out their top masons to meet with you guys.
They know the history like nobody else.
Sweet.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to ask them whatever you want to ask them.
Okay.
Hey, we're on it, and we're heading there now.
Thanks, Brad.
You have to understand, the masons hide symbols in everything.
And their official headquarters, which is known as the house of the temple is no exception.
Started in 1911, it was modeled on the persian tomb of mausolus, the original mausoleum, which became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
It's got two giant limestone sphinxes that guard the entrance.
They have human faces but lions' bodies.
And they represent two pillars of masonic belief -- wisdom and strength.
The building itself is a labyrinth of rooms and passageways.
Symbols like the 2-headed eagle, which represents power over east and west decorate the walls.
The biggest room is known as the temple room.
It's where the supreme council convenes every two years to elect 33rd-degree masons.
Just outside is the seat where a guard is placed, in the tiler's seat, to protect against non-masons from entering.
An inscription the back of the chair says "know thyself," which was written on ancient temples.
Albert pike, the father of modern-day masonry, he's always close by, because he's entombed in one of the building's walls.
Wow! I'm psyched to be here.
It's amazing.
Look at this thing.
Yeah, this place is cool already.
Look at all the masons in the space program.
John Glenn? Buzz aldrin.
You guys ready? Mm-hmm.
Oh, man.
Oh.
Oh, look at that.
Where do they get this stuff? Signatures of some of the supreme court justices of the United States who were masons.
Many people with power at the origins of the country appear to have been masons.
This is president Truman's.
A stone from the wall of the white house.
It's got masonic symbols on it.
Can you see it? It actually has a compass and a square.
Taken from the wall.
It doesn't really say where.
I know, it doesn't.
Wait.
Is this a piece of the cornerstone? I had to call in every favor I could, but I managed to get buddy, Mac, and Scott inside the house of the temple.
This is freemason headquarters in Washington, D.
C.
, and Mac just found something that she thinks might be a piece of the actual white house cornerstone.
We have no idea what it is yet, but, let me tell you, when it comes to the masons, it will always be a good story.
Unbelievable.
Stone from the wall of the white house.
I'm really intrigued that there's a picture of a cornerstone laying and there's an actual stone right under it.
And you know, these are -- these are smart guys.
They -- they -- everything's done for a purpose.
Maybe that's a piece of the cornerstone.
Hi, there.
Hi.
Hi.
I'm art de hoyos.
This piece of stone here is interesting It is.
To us.
That is actually not the stone.
It is a stone.
It's one of the stones that president Truman sent to the various masonic grand lodges throughout the country during the white house reconstruction.
What was unique about them is that they had these Mason marks.
Traditionally, masons would put a symbol on the stone that identified them as the craftsman.
Why don't we continue the conversation -- have you been up to the temple room? We have not.
Why don't we go up there? Sounds good.
I intended to meet Brent Morris.
I think we can find him up here.
Okay.
Come on.
Thanks a lot.
This is really cool.
Oh, Brent.
Art.
You're the man I need to see.
I'm here.
Come on up to the library.
Appreciate it.
I'm noticing all this Egyptian symbols and statues and pictures.
What's that about? Well, freemasonry is an eclectic organization, so we've borrowed symbols from all sorts of cultures.
Look at these, Scott.
They're crazy.
It's like a serpent with an Egyptian goddess face.
It was amazing to me, the masonic symbols, like pyramids and triangles and all-seeing eyes were everywhere, especially in Washington.
And these held very special meanings to the masons who designed and built this city.
So, the pyramid is said to represent the great pyramid of giza, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
And it's a nod to the masons' origins as builders.
The triangle, with its three even sides, has been a sacred symbol for thousands of years.
But to masons, it reminds them of the three degrees of masonry, the three orders of architecture.
And for the catholic masons, obviously, the father and the son and the holy spirit.
And the all-seeing eye is the eye of Providence.
It's the reminder to masons that the supreme being watches and judges his words and actions.
So once I knew what to look for, I couldn't help seeing these on buildings and corporate logos and even on the back of the dollar bill.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
This is the temple room.
Very, very impressive.
[ Chuckles .]
It's awesome, isn't it? Wow.
Yeah.
Inner circles and outer circles.
I'm not seeing any of that in here.
Are you a member of the inner circle or the outer circle, Arturo? [ Laughs .]
Freemasonry has 33 degrees.
You know, I wish I knew the powers that I had, being a member of this, because when I received the 33rd degree, I found out that I still had to pay for hbo and cinemax.
You know, there was [ Laughs .]
That's got to be disappointing.
It was.
There were no great benefits that went with that.
I mean, it's simply an honor, really.
That's really what it is.
Now, we've heard that the ultimate purpose of the masons is to take over the world.
How do you feel about that? Right, you know, I have read that.
I'm the archivist and historian of the supreme council.
I have access to all of our most important documents.
In my experience, I've never seen the kind of lunacy that I read about on the Internet.
But there are some that believe that cornerstones have some sort of magical power.
You mean, like supernatural power? Well, I guess.
I mean, you have a cornerstone here, right? All buildings have a cornerstone.
But in freemasonry, we see ourselves as a temple in the making.
What we want to do is improve and ennoble our character.
And what freemasonry does is teach you to become a better person in society.
But not to take over the world? No [Chuckles.]
Not to take over the world.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the cornerstone ceremony at the white house.
Sure.
The stone is being put in before the building's erected.
They dug a foundation, it is lowered into place ceremonially instead of just picking it up and chucking it in the corner.
So it's probably below grade.
No one can see it.
And how big is this stone we're talking about here? Couple of feet deep, three or four feet wide, five or six -- you want a large, substantial stone.
In the museum, we saw a stone that was part of the Truman renovation.
Yes.
Truman is a high-ranking Mason? Truman was grand master of masons in Missouri.
There's some fascinating photographs, from when the renovation was going on, of the gutted white house with bulldozers inside moving soil, and scaffolding.
Amazing.
I would love to see some of those images, if I could.
Our library is open to you.
Our library is open to any researcher.
Come on and I'll show you.
Thanks.
So, why do you think people pick on the masons? I think that the people need somebody to blame for the tragedies that we see in life.
And because freemasonry has been around a long time, we got to be the bad guys.
Arturo, isn't it in part because of the secrecy? Why, again, does everything have to be secret? Sharing secrets, or sharing confidences, builds stronger relationships.
You know that there's someone that has made a promise that he won't betray you Yeah.
Or his fellow masons.
But what happens if somebody does? What do you have to say about the Captain Morgan affair? I mean, wasn't somebody killed That's a great -- because they gave the Mason secrets away? Possibly so.
William Morgan never really became a Mason, as best we can tell.
He had tricked his way into a masonic lodge in upstate New York.
And there were six people, I think, who served time in prison.
I personally think that these guys were taken over by their zeal, you know? It wasn't sanctioned by freemasonry in any way.
These were a group of people that did something stupid.
Who happened to be masons.
Who happened to be masons.
That's right.
Bulldozing the basement of the white house.
Oh, wow.
Harry Truman rips apart the walls of the white house.
The guy tears everything apart.
They bring in mine sweepers, they bring in different things to find it.
This little "beep, beep, beep" goes off, and then he says, "yeah, you know what? Forget about it.
Let's not look here anymore.
" Wait, wait, wait go back.
What do you mean "don't look here?" I want to know what's there.
I want to know where it is, if it's in there, I want to know what's in it.
I want to know if George Washington's frozen head is inside.
Tell me what's inside this thing.
And that's a good mystery.
And I want to know the answer.
Hey.
Got something good, huh? This is really good.
[ Chuckles .]
Well, just check this out.
These are the Truman renovations of the white house.
This is the white house? Oh, my God, it's completely gutted.
Look how deep down into the foundation of the white house they are, right? Yeah.
Amazing.
The mine sweep goes through, and they get a ping.
It looks to me like Truman found the cornerstone And Truman stops the renovation.
We're inside freemason headquarters, and we're searching for the missing cornerstone of the white house.
Now, do I know that the cornerstone was stolen for sure? No.
Can I say for sure that the masons are the ones who took it? Absolutely not.
But it is starting to look like president Harry Truman -- coincidentally -- this is perfect -- a 33rd-degree Mason himself -- may have known more than anyone suspected.
These are the Truman renovations of the white house, 1952.
Four years of digging, looking for the cornerstone, Truman stops the renovation.
Subsequently, Truman sends stones to all the lodges -- the grand lodges in the United States -- stones with masonic markings on them.
I think something was found.
Guys, you know, I don't want to, you know, blow holes in your theory, but I got to blow holes in the theory.
There's no evidence, there's no records that we have that shows that Truman found it.
Yes, he was a 33rd-degree Mason, but I don't believe that they found the cornerstone.
What I think that those stones that he found were, were simply stones with masons' marks on them and that he shared the stones with the members of the grand lodges.
He gave one to us.
I really don't believe that this is the cornerstone.
What would he do with it if he found it? Had he discovered it, I imagine he would have made a big to-do about it.
There would have been some kind of fanfare.
If you believe the anti-Mason sentiment, this cornerstone and all cornerstones had some sort of empowerment of the building.
And if they took it upon themselves, they could have empowerment for themselves.
How do we know? You're telling us one thing.
This might be telling us something else.
Well, I mean, people are gonna believe what they want to believe.
But I don't believe that a piece of rock has some kind of magical powers about it.
This was a stone that had ceremonial significance, was the foundation of this building, and I just cannot believe that the president, Mason or otherwise, would have concealed something like this.
Brent, we're talking about Truman.
Buddy suggests that Truman concealed the fact that he discovered the stone.
Why would you want to do that and not advertise it to the world that you found it? You would want to brag about it.
But if your organization is sworn to secrecy, you take an oath of secrecy, right? Right.
You're not gonna tell us.
Brent and I will both admit that we've taken degrees in masonry that have information that we can't share, but that's not one of them.
I mean, I'm sorry guys, I just don't buy it.
When we were upstairs, we had that discussion about the Morgan affair.
If I'm gonna admit to a masonic murder per se, don't you think I'd tell you about some rock? I mean [Chuckles.]
We'd be happy to pull it out and parade it.
Where would you go? To find the cornerstone of the white house? Or what happened to it.
It's probably still down in the basement, underneath many feet of stonework above it, supporting the white house.
But you know that's not the only cornerstone that's missing.
What other cornerstone is missing? That's the capitol.
They don't know where it is.
You're killin' me.
Really? [ Chuckles .]
George Washington presided over the ceremony as a Mason.
And they can't find that one either? Can't find that one either.
Back for the bicentennial in 1992, Jackson polk was a television producer doing independent research, frantically looking for the lost cornerstone.
Okay.
All right.
I believe them.
Those guys don't look like they're hiding anything.
After the pictures, I thought I had it, and then I started to come around to their arguments.
Their arguments are ironclad.
That's the problem.
As an attorney, when you talked to those two guys, did you get a sense of, "these guys are telling the truth," or did you get a sense of, like, "aw, I don't know"? Well, here's exactly what I thought.
They came across as very believable, and I wanted to believe them, I wanted to trust them, but I still got the feeling that we weren't hearing it all.
Look at all the memorabilia in there.
I mean, they save these things.
They show them off.
They're proud of being masons.
They're proud of what these stones represent.
If they found them, they might be the ones who wanted to advertise them.
So, now, not only do we find out that the white house cornerstone is missing, but now the capitol cornerstone is missing, too? That's crazy to me.
And the only way we're gonna find an answer is we're gonna have to find out what's the connection between these two.
So, what I haven't answered for myself here is really how big, how heavy is this thing.
How easy or difficult is it to spirit away? We're talking about a big stone.
I've asked everyone, and no one can give me a precise size.
The best estimate I've been given is two feet high, six feet long, and then probably two feet.
So 24 feet cubed.
We think it's made of some kind of building stone.
Let's say, granite.
How about granite? Yeah.
Granite is 150 pounds per feet cubed.
Check it out.
Just for the stone -- and this is without the brass plate or anything on it -- it's 3,600 pounds.
Are you kidding me? That's about the weight of a car.
There's no way one or two people or three people are carrying this thing away from the white house.
If you drag the thing along, it's gonna leave a giant scar in the ground.
[ Chuckling .]
To wherever you're going.
There's no way that it was pulled away.
See, that's what I'm saying.
The evidence is starting to mount, based on the size of this thing and the weight of it, that it didn't move off the white house grounds.
It's gonna be, like, how do you take that way with no one noticing? But then, if it's still there, where is it and why can't we find it? [ Sighs .]
So, now I'm thinking, is it possible that the white house cornerstone was actually deliberately hidden, that it was never stolen? That actually makes sense to me.
Think about it.
America was a brand-new country.
We just defeated the most powerful military the world had ever seen.
They had to be counting the days until the British returned to take back what was once theirs.
So maybe, at this exact moment, the bad guys are actually the good guys.
Maybe the masons put the cornerstone where nobody would ever find it, with the brass plaque hidden under the stone.
Now if buddy can get to the bottom of the capitol's missing cornerstone, we may finally be able to put this 200-year-old question to rest.
Here's the thing -- the more we discover about the white house cornerstone, the more it makes sense that the masons hid the stone, rather than stole it.
Now buddy is about to meet an expert on the missing capitol cornerstone.
And if he can get to the bottom of what happened at the capitol, it may shed some light on what really happened at the white house.
The iconic U.
S.
capitol was anything but when it was first built on Jenkins hill, overlooking the swampy new city.
George Washington himself laid the original cornerstone during a masonic ceremony back in 1793.
But it was founding father Thomas Jefferson who insisted on calling the home of congress the capitol, because it literally meant, in Latin, "city on a hill.
" A crypt was built to hold the remains of president Washington's body below the floor of the rotunda.
That's were he was supposed to be buried.
But when his will stated that he'd be buried at mount Vernon, it was left vacant.
Until recently, they used to keep the catafalque down there.
It's a platform that holds the coffin during a funeral.
And it held everyone from Lincoln's to jfk's to Ronald Reagan's bodies.
There's a steep metal staircase in the capitol which leads to a walkway on top of the actual dome.
The 365 steps inside obviously represent the days of a given year.
But the best part of the capitol is the part you can't see on the tour.
When the building was first built, there was no air conditioning, so they used to have to pump air in through underground passageways.
I've been down there, crawling in these underground chambers, and they are amazing.
What we're hoping to do is find out about the capitol cornerstone and then relate it to the white house cornerstone and see if we can draw any conclusions.
The capitol cornerstone was the cornerstone of democracy, literally.
The cornerstone of the United States capitol -- the original -- was missing.
In 1988, for the 200th anniversary of the stone, the architect of the capitol decided, "okay, let's find it definitively for sure.
" Unbeknownst to him, there had already been a dig going on in the senate.
Really? A fella who had the keys on his belt to all the doors -- an air-conditioning mechanic for the u.
S.
Senate, named Charlie scala -- Charlie had been digging for it for months.
You mean, independently of anyone else? Yes.
Right here is Charlie scala.
Charlie did not have official permission to do this when he started.
He just did it because he thought it'd be a good idea.
I love this guy going rogue.
Did he get in any kind of trouble for this independent dig? He could have and maybe should have, but did not, because he'd befriended several United States senators who were freemasons and understood what he was doing.
You got to be kidding me.
No, no, no.
And when it came up as a problem in one of the meetings, they encouraged the architect of the capitol to not only leave the guy alone but help him find it.
Wait, wait.
The two men who encouraged him to look further for this thing were masons? And senators at the same time.
Why didn't they find it, do you think? The architect of the capitol initially started the search for the cornerstone, but then he said, "oh, well, we've looked in the senate long enough.
Politically, now we have to go look over in the house side.
" Unbelievable.
They dug all under the southeast corner of the house wing and found nothing.
Okay, okay, so, I'm confused and I'm trying to get this straight.
Where do masons usually place a cornerstone? These days, in the northeast corner of a building.
"These days"? The northeast corner became important for cornerstones apparently in the early 1800s, after the white house and the capitol were built.
Okay.
Where do you think it is? It's about 8 or 10 feet away from where Charlie is standing right there in that picture.
[ Laughs .]
Was he was right there at the time that he was then taken off of the project? Yes, which frustrated all of us, because he was within 8 or 10 feet of finding the original u.
S.
Capitol cornerstone when the architect of the capitol called off the dig in the senate and said, "oh, now we have to move to the house.
" And that was all politics.
Now, honestly, I would think finding the cornerstone would be a good idea.
What if -- what if -- they put something in the cornerstone that we can read now? What if they had a different constitution? Thomas Jefferson wasn't in the constitutional convention.
He didn't get along with those guys.
But they took his information.
What if, out of that, they wrote a different document that maybe turned America from an agrarian society to an urban society? We're now an urban society.
Wouldn't it be great to find that document now? And some people have speculated that that may be what's in there.
Wow.
When Jackson mentioned the idea of an alternate constitution inside the capitol cornerstone, I was blown away.
I mean our entire legal and political system are based on the constitution.
How could we possibly have a more perfect union than the one we have now? But as long as we can't find the capitol cornerstone, we're never gonna know.
Do you think that there's any connection between the missing capitol cornerstone and the missing white house cornerstone? Only that they're missing.
I mean, there's no [ Chuckles .]
There's no symbolism issue here.
Or there's no relationship? Well, no, I don't think it's a masonic conspiracy of some kind.
I think they just frickin' lost it.
[ Laughs .]
Yeah, I bet.
Yeah.
What a hell of a ride.
I felt like that was a crash course in American history.
Yeah, no kidding.
So, what do you think? Well, I think that we've been looking for something that is exactly where it's supposed to be in the first place.
I began this quest searching the historical record of the white house cornerstone, and there was so little written about it, I was really suspicious.
Then I saw that Washington wasn't even at the laying at the white house cornerstone.
He believed that the capitol cornerstone was a much bigger deal.
So, yeah, there was a ceremonial masonic laying of the white house cornerstone, but there was less written about it.
And not only that, it turns out that those traditions about where masons would lay cornerstones in a ceremony didn't happen until after both the white house and the capitol cornerstones were laid.
And that's why I don't think the white house cornerstone is missing in the traditional sense that it's gone.
Look, we knew it didn't get up and walk away on its own, but I just didn't think there was enough evidence there that it had been stolen.
I learned, from my interview with Jackson polk, that the cornerstone was structural.
It was functional.
If the cornerstone was truly structural, and Truman had decided to get it out, he would have had to dig out not only the inside of the white house but a ton of soil on the outside of the white house.
It would have been a huge, expensive, messy, project, and it would have endangered the structural integrity of the white house, so I believe it's still there.
It's the simplest explanation.
It is, which sometimes is the right explanation.
Yeah.
When we first started this journey, the most important thing to me was to find that cornerstone, to put an end to the questions that some of the most powerful people in America have asked for over 200 years.
I now believe the cornerstone is still on the grounds of the white house, just where it was in 1792.
And I don't believe the masons ever stole it.
But there's something far more important.
If we had found the cornerstone and put it on display, it's just a rock under glass like any other museum piece.
It loses all of its symbolic power.
But because the white house cornerstone is still, for all intents and purposes, missing, it retains its power as a symbol and it keeps us wondering, thinking, and searching.
It's the first government building in Washington.
Now, descriptions of the stone vary from something small that you can carry to something that's massive.
The men who placed it were brothers in one of the world's most secretive organizations -- of course, the freemasons.
The day after it's placed, the stone vanishes.
This thing just disappears.
[ Camera shutter clicking .]
Some people say that the stone was inscribed by our founding fathers.
Others say it was hollow, that it contained landmark documents of great, unimagined wisdom.
Many believe this was stolen by the masons themselves.
But they, of course, deny any involvement.
Whatever the case, nobody has seen the white house cornerstone for more than 200 years, and let me tell you right now -- I want to know why.
I'm Brad Meltzer.
I've spent my life collecting stories.
The best include signs, symbols, and codes, secret meanings that are hidden in plain sight.
Some have become the basis for my novels, but I've only scratched the surface of what's out there.
And now history has given me the resources to investigate the rest.
This is "decoded.
" -- Captions by vitac -- [ telephone ringing .]
White house.
[ Laughter .]
Hey! Hey, Brad! Listen, we got your message, and we're on our way to the white house, man.
No one knows where the first piece of the white house is to this day.
And when you tell me that the very first piece of the white house is missing, I want to know where it went.
Well, Brad, when you say, "missing," what do you mean? Maybe it's that it's in a different place than we thought.
It could be that someone took it.
Some people say that it's hollow and it contains something special.
You know, when the masons get involved, the tales get larger and larger.
We have the tools, and we got to use it.
We got to find it.
So, no pressure -- "team, find the cornerstone.
" [ Chuckling .]
Okay.
The white house might be the most famous home in the world.
But the secret service is very protective of the exact floor plan, so decoding it, of course, fascinates me.
When president John Adams first moved in in 1800, it was the biggest home in America -- 28,000 square feet.
Today the black burn marks still exist -- you can see them on the basement's original sandstone structure -- from where the British set fire to the white house in 1814.
Originally, it was known as the "president's palace" or the "executive mansion.
" But it was Teddy Roosevelt who embossed stationery with the term "white house" on it in 1901, unintentionally renaming the building for Martha Washington's childhood home in Virginia.
While heavily guarded now, up until the Truman administration, you could actually drive under the north portico in your car and put up the top on your convertible during a rain storm.
The west wing was completed in 1930, and the white house complex, as it's called today, measures some 55,000 square feet Double its original size.
It's got a bowling alley, jogging tack, movie theater, its very own flower shop But here's the best secret -- when you're walking through the ground-floor corridor, you'll see two statues.
Make a turn between those.
You'll be in a small room with chairs stacked to the ceiling.
That's where they store the chairs for the state dinner.
When you go out the other side of that room, head down the narrow corridor.
When you hit the dead end, make a right-hand turn.
You'll see a steel door.
That is the entrance to the bomb shelter, the true, hidden, secret tunnel that's below the white house.
This is the first piece of the white house we're talking about.
It's the first piece of our democracy, and it's missing.
Powerful people have searched for the cornerstone.
Nobody knows where this thing is.
That, to me, is the definition of a good mystery.
Where do you think it would have originally been? The masons typically laid them in the northeast corner.
So, here's the northeast side.
I don't even know, really, what a cornerstone is or how big were they, how heavy were they.
If you get me material and size, I can calculate how heavy it is.
Okay.
How do you do that? Is that like a mathematical formula? Yeah, it's just density and size.
But it's gonna be around, I don't know, 150 pounds.
My favorite thing about McKinley is that, as a mechanical engineer Wow.
She needs everything to be proven using math or science.
She doesn't make guesses.
She finds facts, and we need that.
And here, her dad was a Mason, so she knows something about how they work, too.
Here's what's intriguing me.
Brad said that the answer lies with the masons.
I think they're behind this, because with all these secrets they have, maybe they think there's some kind of power they get from stealing the white house cornerstone.
I mean, it's distinctly possible that they're the ones that are behind this.
Honestly, I'm kind of disappointed that you would go there.
Why would you just go, "the masons," like every other conspiracy theorist? You haven't even met them.
Let's see what they look like.
I'm really interested to see.
You know what? They're not gonna have horns coming out of their hair, 'cause my dad didn't.
He was a Mason.
I still think they've got the information, they hold the key to this.
Scott's a former prosecutor.
You know what that means? It means he's lied to every day.
No one tells him the truth.
So Scott's a skeptic by nature.
He questions everything, but he always follows the evidence.
Okay, I'm on the cornerstone.
What is it? What was it for? I've got to hit the library of congress.
There's got to be some documentary, historical evidence of what happened from the moment it was laid there all the way to the last time anyone knows anything about it.
What I like about buddy is that he asks the questions that I would ask.
And he has this uncanny ability to use that charm to get people to talk to him.
With everything going on with the cornerstone, this is gonna be essential for us.
Okay, we need to find out who's looked for this thing, what did they find, what didn't they find.
I'm gonna be with you? Yes, and we're gonna talk about the masons, and I'm gonna prove to you what I'm saying.
Are you guys good? I think we're good.
We're good for now.
I'm keeping an open mind.
If he keeps talking crazy, we're not good.
I'm keeping an open mind.
Well, let's do it.
So now it's time to divide and conquer to make sure we cover more territory.
Mac and Scott are gonna go speak to a guy who's an expert on the white house, and he knows about previous searches there, what might have been found in the past.
Very nice to meet you.
At the same time, buddy's gonna find out about what cornerstones actually physically are.
In Washington, the cornerstones served a dual purpose.
They were functional, but they were symbolic of this new government, this new order.
So it was the most important stone of the building.
What about the size of one of the stones -- the actual size in dimensions? Well, it depends on which building.
Let's say these.
This is granite.
6 1/2' x 6 1/2' x 2 1/2' high.
By comparison, how much larger would you say that the cornerstone of the white house might be? Well, the white house, you know, we don't know specifically.
It was said to be a large stone that was placed there.
I understand that sometimes there are brass plaques or plates put in a cornerstone.
Well, certainly for the white house.
There was a brass plaque that was placed under the cornerstone at the white house, listing the people that were there, maybe a blessing, the date that it was placed.
So, I'm wondering if cornerstones are ever used as a sort of time capsule.
Yes.
Some early cornerstones were hollowed out.
Okay.
And a zinc or copper container was placed inside and then sealed.
I'm wondering if there might be something worth finding in the white house cornerstone.
The thing that would be worth finding would be the brass plaque.
From what I understand, cornerstones were either ceremonial or functional, so the idea that cornerstones were sometimes used as time capsules made me think it's even more likely that someone stole it.
So, Scott, some serious people have looked for this.
Yes.
Presidents have searched for this cornerstone.
I think the first search was probably Teddy Roosevelt.
They knew the stone was laid masonically, and knowing that masons always put their cornerstones in the northeast, of course, they looked in the northeast corner.
Right.
But what did they find? Nothing.
Really? The next search came during Truman's administration, and they decided to take a world war ii mine detector to the building.
No luck.
Couldn't find it, either.
George Bush sr.
Was in office during the bicentennial of the laying of the cornerstone, so, of course, they wanted to find it, but they couldn't, so Just can't find it? Just can't find it.
To this day, still a mystery.
Were they hiding it in another corner? I think that would be a great idea.
What better way to keep it a secret than put it somewhere contrary to where you normally put your cornerstone? Why do you care about this? The cornerstone? Yeah.
I am a Mason myself.
You're a Mason? Yes.
I am a member of federal lodge number one, and, believe it or not, it was started by James hoban, who was the architect and designer of the white house.
Interesting.
Okay.
The freemasons have spent centuries collecting the most powerful members of our society.
Eight signers of the declaration of independence were freemasons, nine signers of the u.
S.
Constitution, and 14 times they took the white house.
You're telling me 14 presidents are part of the same secret club? I want to know who's in that club.
I want to know what they do.
Do you think it's there? I want to believe that it's there.
Why do you want to believe that? I mean, this is the first stone dedicated for our new capital city.
You know, when they were founding our government, the idea was not that it would last for 5 or 50 or 500 years but to last forever, and I think this stone is a symbol of that.
Scott, maybe the stone is actually missing.
Sure.
Um there's always a chance that it's missing.
Who would want to steal the white house cornerstone? You know trying to think how I should answer that question.
Maybe -- maybe someone who would want to keep it a secret to preserve it and make sure that it lasts forever.
Who would want to -- wait, who would want to keep it a secret? Um You? The masons? I-I-I mean, possibly.
I mean, obviously, the freemasons are known to preserve the ancient knowledge.
You know, whenever cornerstones are laid, it's always in the northeast corner, yet it might not be in that corner.
Maybe they laid it somewhere else.
This is when it got much more interesting.
It certainly made me think the masons had the opportunity and, possibly, the motive.
I'm trying to figure out the location of this white house cornerstone.
Do you have anything in the archives on the cornerstone specifically? Well, let's look.
White house cornerstone -- I would think there'd be pages that would come up.
I only have one specific account.
You're kidding.
No.
There's one document? Right.
That's remarkable.
Well, I guess we're gonna need that one.
Here.
Follow me.
You know, in my experience, there are usually volumes written on historical events like the laying of the cornerstone.
The fact that there was only one single letter in this case was very suspicious to me.
Okay.
So, this is the city gazette , printed November 15, 1792.
Whoa.
There it is.
"A letter from a gentleman in Philadelphia to his friend in Charleston, dated October 20, 1792.
" "From a gentleman in Philadelphia" -- that's interesting.
It's a nameless gentleman.
So, "on Saturday, the 13th, the first stone was laid in the southwest corner of the president's house.
" The southwest corner.
Southwest corner, not what we'd think.
Oh, my word.
Okay, it looks to me like after the ceremony, they proceeded to partake in 16 different toasts, which, whenever I've taken 16 shots, it's been hard for me to figure out where things were.
Do you know what happened to the original letter? Somehow, it resurfaced in 1946.
Is there any explanation for where it was in the intervening 150 years? We're not sure what happened.
It is.
This concerns me, because how do we even know that this letter, written by a nameless author, is an actual account? We have no way of knowing.
Hmm.
Okay, here's what I think -- when you write something secretly, then there's got to be some truth in there.
There's something in there that, for some reason, you don't want people to know that you gave away, and that, to me, is one of the most trusted sources of history.
Hey, buddy.
Hey, I just got back from the library of congress, and it's really, really weird.
In the entire library of congress, there's one letter that describes the cornerstone ceremony.
What do you mean, one? I don't understand it.
What did it say? It says that the cornerstone was laid in the southwest corner.
That -- wait, what? Yeah, it says in the southwest corner.
Then that was intentional.
Yeah.
Do I know if the masons stole the cornerstone? Of course not.
But I know what it looks like -- that the evidence is starting to mount against them.
The masons placed the cornerstone in a strange location, and then they barely speak about it or write about it for more than 200 years.
Several presidents, including Harry Truman, a 33rd-degree Mason himself, have looked for it, and nobody's been able to find this thing.
What we need to find out now is if the masons have a reason to lie.
Why would they steal the cornerstone? Why would they hide it? And if so, what is that motive? The cornerstone of the white house -- the very first stone laid in our capital -- has been missing for more than 215 years.
And nobody knows where it is.
And even though they deny it, all signs seem to point to the ultra-secretive organization known as the freemasons.
This is where people play the scary music.
They say they're the likely culprits that took it.
The masons, of course, claim that they're innocent.
But let's be clear -- there are many people who think just the opposite.
[ Carillon plays .]
I do take a critical view of masonry, definitely.
The greater population of freemasonry -- the average Mason that you would meet -- is probably a very moral, upstanding member of the community.
My real contention is with what I would call the "inner core" of freemasonry -- this handful of elite adepts, called the "inner circle" or "inner cabal" -- and the inner doctrines of masonry that they intentionally hide from the low-level masons who haven't progressed as far in the craft.
What are they hiding? Their ultimate agenda, which is the new world order.
This inner circle, this inner cabal, want to ultimately rule the world.
And the people of the world will be forced to conform to this belief system, and those who don't conform will be killed.
And you believe that's what they believe? Well, I know that's what they believe, 'cause I've read their writings.
A lot of their books that were reserved only for masons have made their way out into the public, and people scan them onto the Internet.
So a lot of this information is laid open for the public to see but most people don't go and seek it out.
As well researched as Chris pinto's ideas seem to be, I just did not buy it.
I found it hard to believe that my dad was mixed up with guys bent on world domination.
Do you think it's possible, then, based on everything you've told us, that the masons could have been responsible for the disappearance of the white house cornerstone? Well, certainly.
If there was something inside the white house cornerstone, those who were involved would see the cornerstone as possibly some kind of talisman of power, if you will.
How far do you think the inner circle are willing to go to maintain their secrets? These are guys who have sworn blood oaths to have their throats cut and to be disemboweled before they reveal the secrets of their order.
And freemasonry has a record of so carefully guarding their secrets that they've even been willing to kill people to protect them.
Really? Oh, yeah.
And willing to kill people, or Willing to kill people, and they have killed people.
Is there an example of that? Sure.
Probably the most famous example of all is the case of Captain William Morgan back in 1826.
According to the accounts of that time, Morgan had been a freemason, and so he published their rituals for everyone to see.
And so they kidnapped him.
And then they told him that a council of masons had determined that he needed to die.
And they murdered him.
Do you think that could happen again? I do believe that that kind of thing continues to go on even today.
There are some who would write off Chris pinto's suspicions as extreme, and I'm one of them.
But the only way we're gonna get to the truth is by talking to everyone.
You have to listen to and consider every theory, especially when you're dealing with the masons.
They're a secret society.
They keep secrets.
That's what they do.
But the bottom line is that the masons don't want to talk to us.
I know some people say that and they don't really mean it, but the masons don't want to talk to anyone.
And you know why? Because everybody burns them.
Everyone blames them for every bad thing that's happened in this world.
But I'm gonna do my best to get behind the wall of secrecy that's been there for centuries.
[ Indistinct conversations .]
[ Pool balls clacking .]
All right.
Oh! I got to hear about Mr.
pinto.
Yeah.
What's this guy about? You want to start? The most interesting thing to me is that there is a sane, intelligent, well-researched guy sitting there completely sincerely telling us that the masons are murderers, there's a new world order coming.
I didn't think he said anything that was truly credible.
Oh, dear.
Well, if this organization believes this, and they're responsible for laying the white house cornerstone The organization doesn't believe that.
They absolutely could be responsible for its disappearance.
They put it there.
Yeah, and then they take it away so they can get it.
That's true.
They put it there and later came and got it? I'm not saying I was convinced.
I'm just saying that some of this stuff that he's talking about -- about the inner circle and an outer circle -- I thought made some sense.
I really did.
Scott -- when the guys at the airport come up and start giving out pamphlets and converting people, Scott's the first guy they go to, because he's got that look.
[ Chuckles .]
No, that's not true at all.
Listen, I knew McKinley was having a great time busting my chops, but I knew, as an attorney, that we needed to listen to what everybody had to say before I drew a conclusion.
I mean, if we discounted what people like Chris pinto had to say just because we disagree with them, then we might have missed something really important.
Hey, Brad, what's up? This is an unbelievable piece of news I just got.
We have got permission to actually go inside the headquarters of Scottish rite freemasonry.
Sweet! Not only that, they're actually bringing out their top masons to meet with you guys.
They know the history like nobody else.
Sweet.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to ask them whatever you want to ask them.
Okay.
Hey, we're on it, and we're heading there now.
Thanks, Brad.
You have to understand, the masons hide symbols in everything.
And their official headquarters, which is known as the house of the temple is no exception.
Started in 1911, it was modeled on the persian tomb of mausolus, the original mausoleum, which became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
It's got two giant limestone sphinxes that guard the entrance.
They have human faces but lions' bodies.
And they represent two pillars of masonic belief -- wisdom and strength.
The building itself is a labyrinth of rooms and passageways.
Symbols like the 2-headed eagle, which represents power over east and west decorate the walls.
The biggest room is known as the temple room.
It's where the supreme council convenes every two years to elect 33rd-degree masons.
Just outside is the seat where a guard is placed, in the tiler's seat, to protect against non-masons from entering.
An inscription the back of the chair says "know thyself," which was written on ancient temples.
Albert pike, the father of modern-day masonry, he's always close by, because he's entombed in one of the building's walls.
Wow! I'm psyched to be here.
It's amazing.
Look at this thing.
Yeah, this place is cool already.
Look at all the masons in the space program.
John Glenn? Buzz aldrin.
You guys ready? Mm-hmm.
Oh, man.
Oh.
Oh, look at that.
Where do they get this stuff? Signatures of some of the supreme court justices of the United States who were masons.
Many people with power at the origins of the country appear to have been masons.
This is president Truman's.
A stone from the wall of the white house.
It's got masonic symbols on it.
Can you see it? It actually has a compass and a square.
Taken from the wall.
It doesn't really say where.
I know, it doesn't.
Wait.
Is this a piece of the cornerstone? I had to call in every favor I could, but I managed to get buddy, Mac, and Scott inside the house of the temple.
This is freemason headquarters in Washington, D.
C.
, and Mac just found something that she thinks might be a piece of the actual white house cornerstone.
We have no idea what it is yet, but, let me tell you, when it comes to the masons, it will always be a good story.
Unbelievable.
Stone from the wall of the white house.
I'm really intrigued that there's a picture of a cornerstone laying and there's an actual stone right under it.
And you know, these are -- these are smart guys.
They -- they -- everything's done for a purpose.
Maybe that's a piece of the cornerstone.
Hi, there.
Hi.
Hi.
I'm art de hoyos.
This piece of stone here is interesting It is.
To us.
That is actually not the stone.
It is a stone.
It's one of the stones that president Truman sent to the various masonic grand lodges throughout the country during the white house reconstruction.
What was unique about them is that they had these Mason marks.
Traditionally, masons would put a symbol on the stone that identified them as the craftsman.
Why don't we continue the conversation -- have you been up to the temple room? We have not.
Why don't we go up there? Sounds good.
I intended to meet Brent Morris.
I think we can find him up here.
Okay.
Come on.
Thanks a lot.
This is really cool.
Oh, Brent.
Art.
You're the man I need to see.
I'm here.
Come on up to the library.
Appreciate it.
I'm noticing all this Egyptian symbols and statues and pictures.
What's that about? Well, freemasonry is an eclectic organization, so we've borrowed symbols from all sorts of cultures.
Look at these, Scott.
They're crazy.
It's like a serpent with an Egyptian goddess face.
It was amazing to me, the masonic symbols, like pyramids and triangles and all-seeing eyes were everywhere, especially in Washington.
And these held very special meanings to the masons who designed and built this city.
So, the pyramid is said to represent the great pyramid of giza, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
And it's a nod to the masons' origins as builders.
The triangle, with its three even sides, has been a sacred symbol for thousands of years.
But to masons, it reminds them of the three degrees of masonry, the three orders of architecture.
And for the catholic masons, obviously, the father and the son and the holy spirit.
And the all-seeing eye is the eye of Providence.
It's the reminder to masons that the supreme being watches and judges his words and actions.
So once I knew what to look for, I couldn't help seeing these on buildings and corporate logos and even on the back of the dollar bill.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
This is the temple room.
Very, very impressive.
[ Chuckles .]
It's awesome, isn't it? Wow.
Yeah.
Inner circles and outer circles.
I'm not seeing any of that in here.
Are you a member of the inner circle or the outer circle, Arturo? [ Laughs .]
Freemasonry has 33 degrees.
You know, I wish I knew the powers that I had, being a member of this, because when I received the 33rd degree, I found out that I still had to pay for hbo and cinemax.
You know, there was [ Laughs .]
That's got to be disappointing.
It was.
There were no great benefits that went with that.
I mean, it's simply an honor, really.
That's really what it is.
Now, we've heard that the ultimate purpose of the masons is to take over the world.
How do you feel about that? Right, you know, I have read that.
I'm the archivist and historian of the supreme council.
I have access to all of our most important documents.
In my experience, I've never seen the kind of lunacy that I read about on the Internet.
But there are some that believe that cornerstones have some sort of magical power.
You mean, like supernatural power? Well, I guess.
I mean, you have a cornerstone here, right? All buildings have a cornerstone.
But in freemasonry, we see ourselves as a temple in the making.
What we want to do is improve and ennoble our character.
And what freemasonry does is teach you to become a better person in society.
But not to take over the world? No [Chuckles.]
Not to take over the world.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the cornerstone ceremony at the white house.
Sure.
The stone is being put in before the building's erected.
They dug a foundation, it is lowered into place ceremonially instead of just picking it up and chucking it in the corner.
So it's probably below grade.
No one can see it.
And how big is this stone we're talking about here? Couple of feet deep, three or four feet wide, five or six -- you want a large, substantial stone.
In the museum, we saw a stone that was part of the Truman renovation.
Yes.
Truman is a high-ranking Mason? Truman was grand master of masons in Missouri.
There's some fascinating photographs, from when the renovation was going on, of the gutted white house with bulldozers inside moving soil, and scaffolding.
Amazing.
I would love to see some of those images, if I could.
Our library is open to you.
Our library is open to any researcher.
Come on and I'll show you.
Thanks.
So, why do you think people pick on the masons? I think that the people need somebody to blame for the tragedies that we see in life.
And because freemasonry has been around a long time, we got to be the bad guys.
Arturo, isn't it in part because of the secrecy? Why, again, does everything have to be secret? Sharing secrets, or sharing confidences, builds stronger relationships.
You know that there's someone that has made a promise that he won't betray you Yeah.
Or his fellow masons.
But what happens if somebody does? What do you have to say about the Captain Morgan affair? I mean, wasn't somebody killed That's a great -- because they gave the Mason secrets away? Possibly so.
William Morgan never really became a Mason, as best we can tell.
He had tricked his way into a masonic lodge in upstate New York.
And there were six people, I think, who served time in prison.
I personally think that these guys were taken over by their zeal, you know? It wasn't sanctioned by freemasonry in any way.
These were a group of people that did something stupid.
Who happened to be masons.
Who happened to be masons.
That's right.
Bulldozing the basement of the white house.
Oh, wow.
Harry Truman rips apart the walls of the white house.
The guy tears everything apart.
They bring in mine sweepers, they bring in different things to find it.
This little "beep, beep, beep" goes off, and then he says, "yeah, you know what? Forget about it.
Let's not look here anymore.
" Wait, wait, wait go back.
What do you mean "don't look here?" I want to know what's there.
I want to know where it is, if it's in there, I want to know what's in it.
I want to know if George Washington's frozen head is inside.
Tell me what's inside this thing.
And that's a good mystery.
And I want to know the answer.
Hey.
Got something good, huh? This is really good.
[ Chuckles .]
Well, just check this out.
These are the Truman renovations of the white house.
This is the white house? Oh, my God, it's completely gutted.
Look how deep down into the foundation of the white house they are, right? Yeah.
Amazing.
The mine sweep goes through, and they get a ping.
It looks to me like Truman found the cornerstone And Truman stops the renovation.
We're inside freemason headquarters, and we're searching for the missing cornerstone of the white house.
Now, do I know that the cornerstone was stolen for sure? No.
Can I say for sure that the masons are the ones who took it? Absolutely not.
But it is starting to look like president Harry Truman -- coincidentally -- this is perfect -- a 33rd-degree Mason himself -- may have known more than anyone suspected.
These are the Truman renovations of the white house, 1952.
Four years of digging, looking for the cornerstone, Truman stops the renovation.
Subsequently, Truman sends stones to all the lodges -- the grand lodges in the United States -- stones with masonic markings on them.
I think something was found.
Guys, you know, I don't want to, you know, blow holes in your theory, but I got to blow holes in the theory.
There's no evidence, there's no records that we have that shows that Truman found it.
Yes, he was a 33rd-degree Mason, but I don't believe that they found the cornerstone.
What I think that those stones that he found were, were simply stones with masons' marks on them and that he shared the stones with the members of the grand lodges.
He gave one to us.
I really don't believe that this is the cornerstone.
What would he do with it if he found it? Had he discovered it, I imagine he would have made a big to-do about it.
There would have been some kind of fanfare.
If you believe the anti-Mason sentiment, this cornerstone and all cornerstones had some sort of empowerment of the building.
And if they took it upon themselves, they could have empowerment for themselves.
How do we know? You're telling us one thing.
This might be telling us something else.
Well, I mean, people are gonna believe what they want to believe.
But I don't believe that a piece of rock has some kind of magical powers about it.
This was a stone that had ceremonial significance, was the foundation of this building, and I just cannot believe that the president, Mason or otherwise, would have concealed something like this.
Brent, we're talking about Truman.
Buddy suggests that Truman concealed the fact that he discovered the stone.
Why would you want to do that and not advertise it to the world that you found it? You would want to brag about it.
But if your organization is sworn to secrecy, you take an oath of secrecy, right? Right.
You're not gonna tell us.
Brent and I will both admit that we've taken degrees in masonry that have information that we can't share, but that's not one of them.
I mean, I'm sorry guys, I just don't buy it.
When we were upstairs, we had that discussion about the Morgan affair.
If I'm gonna admit to a masonic murder per se, don't you think I'd tell you about some rock? I mean [Chuckles.]
We'd be happy to pull it out and parade it.
Where would you go? To find the cornerstone of the white house? Or what happened to it.
It's probably still down in the basement, underneath many feet of stonework above it, supporting the white house.
But you know that's not the only cornerstone that's missing.
What other cornerstone is missing? That's the capitol.
They don't know where it is.
You're killin' me.
Really? [ Chuckles .]
George Washington presided over the ceremony as a Mason.
And they can't find that one either? Can't find that one either.
Back for the bicentennial in 1992, Jackson polk was a television producer doing independent research, frantically looking for the lost cornerstone.
Okay.
All right.
I believe them.
Those guys don't look like they're hiding anything.
After the pictures, I thought I had it, and then I started to come around to their arguments.
Their arguments are ironclad.
That's the problem.
As an attorney, when you talked to those two guys, did you get a sense of, "these guys are telling the truth," or did you get a sense of, like, "aw, I don't know"? Well, here's exactly what I thought.
They came across as very believable, and I wanted to believe them, I wanted to trust them, but I still got the feeling that we weren't hearing it all.
Look at all the memorabilia in there.
I mean, they save these things.
They show them off.
They're proud of being masons.
They're proud of what these stones represent.
If they found them, they might be the ones who wanted to advertise them.
So, now, not only do we find out that the white house cornerstone is missing, but now the capitol cornerstone is missing, too? That's crazy to me.
And the only way we're gonna find an answer is we're gonna have to find out what's the connection between these two.
So, what I haven't answered for myself here is really how big, how heavy is this thing.
How easy or difficult is it to spirit away? We're talking about a big stone.
I've asked everyone, and no one can give me a precise size.
The best estimate I've been given is two feet high, six feet long, and then probably two feet.
So 24 feet cubed.
We think it's made of some kind of building stone.
Let's say, granite.
How about granite? Yeah.
Granite is 150 pounds per feet cubed.
Check it out.
Just for the stone -- and this is without the brass plate or anything on it -- it's 3,600 pounds.
Are you kidding me? That's about the weight of a car.
There's no way one or two people or three people are carrying this thing away from the white house.
If you drag the thing along, it's gonna leave a giant scar in the ground.
[ Chuckling .]
To wherever you're going.
There's no way that it was pulled away.
See, that's what I'm saying.
The evidence is starting to mount, based on the size of this thing and the weight of it, that it didn't move off the white house grounds.
It's gonna be, like, how do you take that way with no one noticing? But then, if it's still there, where is it and why can't we find it? [ Sighs .]
So, now I'm thinking, is it possible that the white house cornerstone was actually deliberately hidden, that it was never stolen? That actually makes sense to me.
Think about it.
America was a brand-new country.
We just defeated the most powerful military the world had ever seen.
They had to be counting the days until the British returned to take back what was once theirs.
So maybe, at this exact moment, the bad guys are actually the good guys.
Maybe the masons put the cornerstone where nobody would ever find it, with the brass plaque hidden under the stone.
Now if buddy can get to the bottom of the capitol's missing cornerstone, we may finally be able to put this 200-year-old question to rest.
Here's the thing -- the more we discover about the white house cornerstone, the more it makes sense that the masons hid the stone, rather than stole it.
Now buddy is about to meet an expert on the missing capitol cornerstone.
And if he can get to the bottom of what happened at the capitol, it may shed some light on what really happened at the white house.
The iconic U.
S.
capitol was anything but when it was first built on Jenkins hill, overlooking the swampy new city.
George Washington himself laid the original cornerstone during a masonic ceremony back in 1793.
But it was founding father Thomas Jefferson who insisted on calling the home of congress the capitol, because it literally meant, in Latin, "city on a hill.
" A crypt was built to hold the remains of president Washington's body below the floor of the rotunda.
That's were he was supposed to be buried.
But when his will stated that he'd be buried at mount Vernon, it was left vacant.
Until recently, they used to keep the catafalque down there.
It's a platform that holds the coffin during a funeral.
And it held everyone from Lincoln's to jfk's to Ronald Reagan's bodies.
There's a steep metal staircase in the capitol which leads to a walkway on top of the actual dome.
The 365 steps inside obviously represent the days of a given year.
But the best part of the capitol is the part you can't see on the tour.
When the building was first built, there was no air conditioning, so they used to have to pump air in through underground passageways.
I've been down there, crawling in these underground chambers, and they are amazing.
What we're hoping to do is find out about the capitol cornerstone and then relate it to the white house cornerstone and see if we can draw any conclusions.
The capitol cornerstone was the cornerstone of democracy, literally.
The cornerstone of the United States capitol -- the original -- was missing.
In 1988, for the 200th anniversary of the stone, the architect of the capitol decided, "okay, let's find it definitively for sure.
" Unbeknownst to him, there had already been a dig going on in the senate.
Really? A fella who had the keys on his belt to all the doors -- an air-conditioning mechanic for the u.
S.
Senate, named Charlie scala -- Charlie had been digging for it for months.
You mean, independently of anyone else? Yes.
Right here is Charlie scala.
Charlie did not have official permission to do this when he started.
He just did it because he thought it'd be a good idea.
I love this guy going rogue.
Did he get in any kind of trouble for this independent dig? He could have and maybe should have, but did not, because he'd befriended several United States senators who were freemasons and understood what he was doing.
You got to be kidding me.
No, no, no.
And when it came up as a problem in one of the meetings, they encouraged the architect of the capitol to not only leave the guy alone but help him find it.
Wait, wait.
The two men who encouraged him to look further for this thing were masons? And senators at the same time.
Why didn't they find it, do you think? The architect of the capitol initially started the search for the cornerstone, but then he said, "oh, well, we've looked in the senate long enough.
Politically, now we have to go look over in the house side.
" Unbelievable.
They dug all under the southeast corner of the house wing and found nothing.
Okay, okay, so, I'm confused and I'm trying to get this straight.
Where do masons usually place a cornerstone? These days, in the northeast corner of a building.
"These days"? The northeast corner became important for cornerstones apparently in the early 1800s, after the white house and the capitol were built.
Okay.
Where do you think it is? It's about 8 or 10 feet away from where Charlie is standing right there in that picture.
[ Laughs .]
Was he was right there at the time that he was then taken off of the project? Yes, which frustrated all of us, because he was within 8 or 10 feet of finding the original u.
S.
Capitol cornerstone when the architect of the capitol called off the dig in the senate and said, "oh, now we have to move to the house.
" And that was all politics.
Now, honestly, I would think finding the cornerstone would be a good idea.
What if -- what if -- they put something in the cornerstone that we can read now? What if they had a different constitution? Thomas Jefferson wasn't in the constitutional convention.
He didn't get along with those guys.
But they took his information.
What if, out of that, they wrote a different document that maybe turned America from an agrarian society to an urban society? We're now an urban society.
Wouldn't it be great to find that document now? And some people have speculated that that may be what's in there.
Wow.
When Jackson mentioned the idea of an alternate constitution inside the capitol cornerstone, I was blown away.
I mean our entire legal and political system are based on the constitution.
How could we possibly have a more perfect union than the one we have now? But as long as we can't find the capitol cornerstone, we're never gonna know.
Do you think that there's any connection between the missing capitol cornerstone and the missing white house cornerstone? Only that they're missing.
I mean, there's no [ Chuckles .]
There's no symbolism issue here.
Or there's no relationship? Well, no, I don't think it's a masonic conspiracy of some kind.
I think they just frickin' lost it.
[ Laughs .]
Yeah, I bet.
Yeah.
What a hell of a ride.
I felt like that was a crash course in American history.
Yeah, no kidding.
So, what do you think? Well, I think that we've been looking for something that is exactly where it's supposed to be in the first place.
I began this quest searching the historical record of the white house cornerstone, and there was so little written about it, I was really suspicious.
Then I saw that Washington wasn't even at the laying at the white house cornerstone.
He believed that the capitol cornerstone was a much bigger deal.
So, yeah, there was a ceremonial masonic laying of the white house cornerstone, but there was less written about it.
And not only that, it turns out that those traditions about where masons would lay cornerstones in a ceremony didn't happen until after both the white house and the capitol cornerstones were laid.
And that's why I don't think the white house cornerstone is missing in the traditional sense that it's gone.
Look, we knew it didn't get up and walk away on its own, but I just didn't think there was enough evidence there that it had been stolen.
I learned, from my interview with Jackson polk, that the cornerstone was structural.
It was functional.
If the cornerstone was truly structural, and Truman had decided to get it out, he would have had to dig out not only the inside of the white house but a ton of soil on the outside of the white house.
It would have been a huge, expensive, messy, project, and it would have endangered the structural integrity of the white house, so I believe it's still there.
It's the simplest explanation.
It is, which sometimes is the right explanation.
Yeah.
When we first started this journey, the most important thing to me was to find that cornerstone, to put an end to the questions that some of the most powerful people in America have asked for over 200 years.
I now believe the cornerstone is still on the grounds of the white house, just where it was in 1792.
And I don't believe the masons ever stole it.
But there's something far more important.
If we had found the cornerstone and put it on display, it's just a rock under glass like any other museum piece.
It loses all of its symbolic power.
But because the white house cornerstone is still, for all intents and purposes, missing, it retains its power as a symbol and it keeps us wondering, thinking, and searching.