In Search of History Season 4, Episode 8: Ancient Drugs

Hell's Angels

Behind the scenes interviews with Hell's Angels leaders and members reveal the fascinating life and danger of the Hell's Angels. Hunter S. Thompson shares his notorious experiences and ultimate betrayal by the Angels, and law enforcement gang specialists provide perspective on the gang's violence and criminal activities.The story of how the Angels got their start in the 1940s how the 1954 film The Wild One made them famous. See the Angel's explain their point of view about many of most controversial incidents, including the infamous Rolling Stones concert at Altamont where the club was hired to provide security, with explosive results.

The Night Tulsa Burned

Long-buried tale of the tragic hours that brought Greenwood to a fiery end, and the misunderstanding that started when a white elevator operator accused 19-year-old Greenwood resident Dick Rowland of assault prompted the violent race riot. Eyewitness accounts, archival film, and dramatizations recount the 1921 race riots in Tulsa.

Hitler and the Occult

The Art of Tattooing

Curse on the Gypsies

The Loch Ness Monster

Lincoln: The Untold Stories

The Enduring Mystery of Stonehenge

The End of the World

Fountain of Youth

Why did Ponce de Leon search the ends of the earth and ultimately lose his life in a bid to find the fountain of youth? Travel back to India, considered the source of magical waters of healing, and learn the importance of water mythology.

45 min

Pueblo Cliffdwellers

The Pueblo Cliff Dwellers: High in the cliffs of New Mexico in an area called Chaco Canyon, the mysterious Anasazi built elaborate dwellings known as Great Houses.

45 min

World Series Fix! The Black Sox Scandal

World Series Fix!: The Black Sox Scandal: In 1919, when players couldn't strike, baseball saw one of its greatest scandals. Eight Chicago White Sox, self-dubbed "Black Sox" due to the greedy owner's refusal to launder uniforms, plotted to fix the World Series.

45 min

Athens Triumph and Tragedy

Athens: Triumph and Tragedy: After the Persians' defeat in 479 B.C., Athens entered a Golden Age when her democratic assembly ruled supreme.

45 min

Secrets of the Aztec Empire

The Aztec Empire: Review the history of the Aztec Empire--from the 1200s, when the nomadic tribe first inhabited the Valley of Mexico, to 1519.

45 min

Spies Among Us

The hunt for Communists in the United States clearly reached the point of hysteria by the early 1950s, but what is often overlooked is that it had its origins in a very real phenomenon. The opening of the Soviet archives in the 1990s, and the declassification of certain intercepted Soviet messages from the late 1940s, indicates that Soviet agents had penetrated the U.S. government before and during World War II, in some cases at very high levels, including the Office of Secret Services, the Los Alamos nuclear lab, the State Department and the U.S. Congress. Now evidence gleaned from declassified secret Russian cables and newly opened KGB files shows that Soviet penetration indeed ran deep; even the Congressman who set up House Un-American Activities Committee was on the KGB payroll!

Legends of the Werewolves

The Celts

Beyond the Grave: The Afterlife

The Sphinx of Egypt

The brooding figure of the Great Sphinx stands guard over the pyramids of Giza. With the head of a man and body of a lion, this 240-foot ruin may depict Pharaoh Khafre, son of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid. But speculation still abounds as to its birth. We'll use computers to flesh out its possible original face.

45 min

Mysteries of Easter Island

The mysteries of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) center on the colossal Moai statues and the debated fate of the civilization that created them. Long viewed as a cautionary tale of "ecocide" (self-inflicted ecological collapse), modern research increasingly frames the Rapa Nui story as one of remarkable resilience and ingenuity.

42 min