Hey, it's your favorite secret host here from your favorite secret podcast.
Today I checked out a legendary European mystery that spawned a famous book series and one heck of a movie starring Tom Hanks aka.
Woody from Toy Story.
So don't go anywhere.
I'm Carly Q, and this is Who, When, Wow Mystery Edition.
Our past is vast and wild Many things have brought us to this day History has been compiled.
Some important details have slipped away.
In our spectacular shared existence, we consider it our business to recognize a few folks you may not know.
History will never be the same.
When I came into the office today, I tried my best to act normal and natural.
Morning, Carly.
Nothing.
Just normal and natural.
Okay.
When in reality, I was scrutinizing every last detail of every single interaction.
Hey, Carly Q. Hi.
As you may recall, last week I got a pretty crummy surprise.
Namely, an anonymous letter left on my desk saying someone was on to us.
Yikes!
Luckily, Lewis and I realized that instead of just being scared and intimidated by this, we should work to figure out who sent us the letter and why.
Phew.
That went okay.
Harley Q, is that you?
Lewis, you're down here already?
Of course, we have work to do.
All week, I'd been compiling a list of potential suspects.
Co-workers and other staff members here at Butthead, the guy who owns the bodega down the street from me and, of course, at the top of the list, the mailman.
Could be another rat, you know.
You know, it was a letter.
But so far, none of them had panned out.
And I was feeling all caps frustrated that we hadn't cracked the case yet.
What about the bodega guy?
Nothing.
I even tried buttering him up by buying a bunch of butter, but he wouldn't budge.
I don't think it's him.
My rat friend Nibbles was helping out with our strategy session too.
That's exactly the problem, Nibbles.
I have to be careful how I ask, because I don't want to accidentally give away too much information to someone who doesn't know.
Seems like the butthead bosses don't know.
It's been a week since we got the letter and everything's been quiet.
And I'm certainly grateful for that.
But I'm still extremely frustrated this mystery is still unsolved.
But just then... A new time field file!
Event.
1967.
The Accursed Treasure of Renle Chateau.
Secret Society.
A secret society?
A cursed treasure?
Are we thrilled or is it just me?
Nothing lifts my spirits like a good bit of bad treasure.
You know, people say I'm a treasure.
I pulled out my handheld digital assistance device. and plugged in the clues from the file.
1967, secret society, thing with a French name I can't pronounce.
The Accursed Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau is a book published in 1967 about the town of the same name, a small village in southern France.
It's rumored to have hidden treasure and a connection to the secret society called the Priory of Scion.
This all sounds vaguely familiar.
Elements of the town, its history and the Priory of Scion were used as source material for the popular 2003 novel by Dan Brown called The Da Vinci Code.
Pokemoji.
Yes, I knew it.
I saw the Tom Hanks film adaptation like a hundred times.
And who doesn't love a good Tom Hanks film?
Haters of an American cinematic legend?
That too.
Laughs like a box of chocolates.
There's no crying in baseball!
Wilson!
Classics.
Okay.
H-Dad, got any more info on... Tom Hanks was born in 1956 in Concord, California.
No, no, no.
More info about the treasure.
Oh, right.
The town's treasure is rumored to be in or around the town's church and is said to include millions of gold pieces and significant medieval documents.
Did he say millions?
A series of excavations in the late 1950s and early 60s found no evidence of treasure, but tens of thousands of tourists still descend on the town each year to look for it.
Wow.
I wonder where it is.
Be it the bell tower, or the steeple, or the chapel, or the rectory, or the tabernacle.
Okay, you're just naming parts of a church.
Yeah, and?
We tried to get more info out of H-Dad, but... Analyzing.
Analyzing.
Analyzing.
So we decided to break till lunchtime.
Luckily, the rest of the morning flew by, and all of a sudden...
Attention, Butthead employees.
It's butter sculpture lunch break.
Help yourself to an extra stick of butter with your lunch.
Then use the leftovers to make a butter sculpture.
That's lunch.
I grabbed Nibbles and H-Dad and we took off for the elevator.
Hey, Odie.
Basement companion.
So nice to see you.
Louis, it's... well... Odie.
We've got a real juicy mystery today.
Ever heard of the hidden treasure at... Rennes?
Le Chateau?
I believe I have.
This is a very intriguing story.
As I recall, it revolves around a number of colorful characters.
The central one is Pierre Plantard, the co-writer of a book about this place.
The accursed treasure of Rennes-la-Chateau.
That's right.
But there's other important people in this story, too.
Particularly a local hotel owner named Noël Cobu and his tale of a 19th century priest who initially discovered some of the treasure.
This is great.
I love a good treasure hunt.
Can you set us back to 1967 when the book was published?
I can, and I suggest you start at Noël's hotel, L'Hôtel de la Tour, and go from there.
Sounds like a plan.
Then a quick refresher on our time travel rules...
No changing the past.
Be back by the end of lunch.
And to ensure your safety on the return journey, you may want to consider bringing me back a freshly baked croissant.
You got it.
Oh, and remember that the elevator's translation function will help you understand the local language.
Oui!
That's French for yes.
Oui, indeed.
Then just remember, when you're at the chateau, mind the tempo.
Okay, here you go.
Tempo?
What tempo?
Hey grown-ups Mindy here from Wow in the World and your family's next favorite game show, podcast Two.
What's in a Wow People Who Wow Edition?
In this getting to know you game show, we are visited by some of the world's most interesting people to get the wows and the wads of their lives.
Like this one from 300-time Guinness World Record breaker, David Rush.
I had the longest time balancing a running chainsaw on my chin.
So, is this a true wow record he broke?
Or a big phony what?
Listen to Two What's in a Wow, People Who Wow edition wherever you get your podcasts.
Just follow on the Wow in the World feed and meet a new person who wows every Friday.
We made it to Rennes-le-Château.
What a charming little town.
Ooh la la.
Look at that view.
C'est magnifique.
Whoa.
We were on top of a hill surrounded by rolling fields in every direction and a clear blue sky overhead.
Bonjour, sky.
Bonjour, rolling hills.
The town was all very old-timey with brick buildings and big stone walls.
I think I'd be bored living in a place like this, but I sure do love coming to visit.
Me too.
Me three.
Rats in these old towns really knew how to make the place theirs.
I bet they got some real good sewers.
Gross, Nibbles.
Okay, we gotta learn more about the hidden treasure slash secret society here.
Let's start at the hotel.
We walked through the town and found the hotel, which was a large, beautiful stone house.
Nibbles hid in my backpack as we found a charming husband and wife team manning the front desk.
Bonjour.
Welcome to L'Hôtel de la Tour.
Do you need a room?
No, actually, we were hoping to speak to the owner, Noël Corbeau.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Noël sold this place three years ago.
The owner is now Henri, but he's not in right now.
Can we help you instead?
Sure.
We just have some questions to ask.
You must be journalists reviewing that new book that came out, no?
Oh, yeah.
That is us.
Literary critics extraordinaire.
Here to write about that very book.
What can you tell us about it?
Well, one of the authors, Pierre Plantard, he is a very interesting figure.
He was here often the past few years doing research Much of his book was based on Noel's tale.
And what exactly was that?
Before this was a hotel, it was a villa belonging to the town priest back almost 80 years ago.
Now, how does a priest afford a fancy villa like this, you ask?
I didn't ask, but I do want to know.
In the early 1890s, the priest had become mysteriously wealthy.
Wealthy from what?
Noelle had a theory.
Yes, we love theories.
When he bought the villa 15 years ago, he claimed to have learned a big secret.
That back in 1892 the priest had somehow found part of a vast treasure hoard while renovating the church, including gold and certain ancient documents.
Whoa.
But according to Noel, the priest had only found part of the treasure, meaning there's more still out there waiting to be found.
Which is why people have been coming here looking for it.
And there will surely be more now that Pierre has published his little book.
So Noelle first introduces the story of the treasure, and now Pierre is popularizing it with his book.
Yes, but the claims in Pierre's book go even further.
According to him, the priest himself already had found the most important part of the treasure a pair of medieval parchments that prove the long and storied history of a secret society called the Priory of Sion.
These medieval parchments, they are the cornerstone of Pierre's book.
I don't know why we are telling you all this about the book when obviously you have already read it.
Right.
Yes, of course we have.
We're writing a book report of... A review.
A review of it.
So, of course we've read it.
We are very intrigued by the, um, stylistic choices.
The formatting.
Ugh.
The font.
Love the font.
The font's great.
Uh, okay.
Okay.
One more question.
All of this secret society stuff aside, what about the actual treasure treasure?
You know, like the gold?
Yeah, is it real?
And if so, where is it?
If we knew that, do you really think we will still be working here?
We all had a good chuckle at that.
It was a good point.
We thanked them for their time and left.
Outside on the street, Nibbles hopped out of my backpack.
What do you think, Nibs?
It's sure some story.
I'm not sure what to believe, though.
Yeah, me neither.
These two guys, Noel and Pierre, it really seems like somebody's making something up.
But I can't tell who.
Me neither.
Simone said the priests found the treasure back in 1892.
Could we go back then and see for ourselves?
I pulled out H-Dad to check the file.
Negatory.
The time seal on this file covers the entire year of 1892.
Giant red X emoji.
Well, it was a good idea, but I'm thinking we should just go check out this church ourselves.
Good thinking, Carly.
The church was just a few minutes away, and what a church it was.
It was traditionally ornamented with lots of stone statues all around and beautiful stained glass windows.
Altar carly, you're just naming things in a church again like, come on, i'm just, that's what i'm doing, that's how i'm processing.
I feel even holier than a swiss cheese in here.
Maybe we should split up.
I'll take the main floor nibbles.
You check the basement, carly.
You take the tower, Great plan.
We each went off to explore our parts of the church.
I took a spiral staircase up to the top of the tower, which was just a simple stone platform surrounded by a wall, so you wouldn't fall off.
The view was totally stunning.
What a view!
But unfortunately, there wasn't much more to be found.
There weren't any secret latches or hidden compartments in any of the stones.
And there wasn't really anything else up there.
So after a few minutes, I went back downstairs to find Lewis.
Nothing down here.
You?
Same.
Nibbles popped up from the basement.
Nothing downstairs except some delightful old French rats.
I asked them about the treasure, but they don't know anything.
They haven't even seen Ratatouille.
Then I guess we're all empty-handed.
Okay, let's recap.
Noelle buys the old priest's villa and hears a story about there being buried treasure here that the priest found, including some documents that Pierre writes about in his book.
But so far, no more treasure has actually been found.
Anything I'm missing?
Then, H-Dad, have you finished analyzing yet?
We could really use some more info.
Affirmative.
Pierre's book and the Priory of Scion's secret society captured people's imaginations everywhere, spawning a series of books in the 1980s that later inspired the Da Vinci.
And the Tom Hanks movie.
Buzz, you're a toy!
No, not that movie.
But the truth about Pierre's claims did not stay hidden forever.
For further information, fast forward to 1993.
1993?
I wasn't expecting to visit the 90s today.
Me neither.
But let's go before the end of lunch.
Oh!
We rushed back to the elevator, punched in the coordinates for 1993.
Maybe we're going to be wearing cargo pants.
I don't know about the 90s with the fashion and everything.
The village looked pretty much the same.
There were a few new buildings, but the church was right there where we left it.
Not sure what we're looking for, but I'm guessing it involves that mess of people over at that tavern.
Let's go see what's happening.
We hustled over right away.
The crowd was so big, it looked like it might have been the whole town gathered together.
As we walked up, people were shushing each other.
We finally got close enough to see that everyone was watching a TV screen.
And we arrived just in time to see a newscaster come on.
Authorities made an inadvertent discovery today after searching the home of Pierre Plantard for an unrelated court case.
Mountains of evidence that he invented the Secret Society, the Priory of Sion, and fabricated the famous parchments proving its existence.
Documents that he claimed had been found in Rennes Chateau.
He even admitted to planting other false documents in various locations around France, including Le Bibliothèque Nationale.
So they would seem to independently authenticate his claim.
I pulled Louis away from the crowd.
Did you hear that?
Yeah, and I think I may have just put something together.
Noelle had this whole story about the priest and the treasure, right?
Pierre must have heard that story and then decided to incorporate it into his Priory of Scion hoax to give it more juice.
Really?
Really.
Pierre made it seem like his parchments were part of what Noelle's priest had initially found, which instantly helped attract more attention to his claim.
Wait, so Pierre just made it all up to get attention?
Affirmative.
Pierre was essentially a con man hoping to use his fake story to jockey for wealth, power and influence.
Okay, but then what about the treasure?
Is there actually any gold anywhere, or what?
No treasure has ever been discovered in Rennes-le-Château.
Furthermore, scholars now believe the source of the priest's mysterious wealth was simple fraud.
Illegal financial activities like keeping donations that were meant for the church.
Wow, so it's just nothing.
Noel appears to have exaggerated the claims of whatever he found in the priest's villa most likely to draw tourists to his hotel.
Well, I'll be.
No treasure at all?
I'm devastated.
You and me both, nebs.
But nothing a good croissant can't fix.
Incoming message from Butthead HQ.
Attention Butthead employees.
Five minutes, i guess that's time.
Let's go get some croissants and get out of here.
We made a quick stop at the bakery.
You know what we will take one two three ten, all ten of these croissants ran back to the elevator and of course we had to stop at a bakery.
Welcome back.
Mmm, is that the warm, buttery croissant I smell?
It sure is.
Here you go.
Mmm, delicious.
Now, tell me, how was your trip to France?
Perfectly pleasant, except... There's no treasure.
It was all made up.
Pierre and his whole Priory of Sion story was fake for sure, and Noelle's tale of the priest's treasure was almost certainly fake too.
I had wondered who in this story was lying, and it turns out it was all of them, even the priest.
It's fakes upon fakes upon fakes over there.
Such a complex case.
And to think.
The real truth about everything didn't come out until 1993, over 25 years after Pierre first published his book.
It took a long time to unravel.
Wait a minute.
I just figured it out.
That's what you meant with your riddle, Odie?
So, mind the tempo.
In music, tempo refers to time or the pace at which something happens.
Lewis's point is exactly what you meant.
That we should take note of just how long it took for the truth about this town to finally come to light.
Exactly right, basement companion.
The fact is, sometimes things just take time.
Thanks, Odie.
Great advice.
Enjoy the rest of that croissant.
Oh, you have already finished it.
And it was wonderful.
Have a good day, basement companion.
You might as well have one too, Louis.
Louis walked me back to my desk where I told him I'd had a minor revelation.
Odie's advice about the tempo?
I'm wondering if it doesn't just apply to secret society treasure hunts, but maybe anonymous letter investigations too.
Oh?
Just because we haven't cracked the case yet doesn't mean we never will.
I just need to give it some time.
True fact.
I think that's right on the money, Carly Q. Like I always say, life is like a box of chocolates.
You never know what you're gonna get.
Tom Hanks' horoscope.
I got that.
Don't be so hard on yourself.
We'll figure this out.
Catch you later, Carly Q.
Yeah, we will.
Thanks, Lewis.
And with that, it was back to work.
But what an adventure.
Pretty wild to think how one priest illegally keeping some money in the 1890s led to a giant hoax, a flurry of treasure hunts and a global book and movie franchise over 100 years later.
Life is like a box of chocolates.
Sometimes you get that delicious caramel one, and sometimes the cherry liquid.
Gross.
I'm still working through my list of suspects for the mystery letter, but I'll be solving more time-sealed mysteries in the meanwhile.
So don't stay away.
Until next time, this is Carly Q signing off.
And remember, you never heard this.
H-DAD initiating end credits mode.
Who Went Wow Mystery Edition is an original Tinkercast production with help from GZM Shows.
Handshake emoji.
High five emoji.
Tinkercast, the executive producers are Guy Raz, Mindy Thomas, and Meredith Halpern-Ranzer.
The shows are written by Aaron Weissman, Susan Mawady-Diraj, and Tom Van Kalken.
The head writer for Tinkercast is Kenny Curtis, and Carly Shiraki is a producing consultant.
Big shout-outs to the rest of the Tinkercast team, including Jed Anderson, Jessica Bode, Rebecca Caban, Natasha Crandall, Lizzie Freilich, Kristen Jang Twee Mac, Erica Medina, Henry Moskal, Jody Nussbaum, Ali Paksima, Linda Rothenberg, Steph Sosa, Tyler Thal, Joanna Weber and Anna Zagorski.
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The Who Went Well theme song was composed and performed by The Pop-Ups.
For more information on their three-time Grammy-nominated all-ages music, find them at thepopupscom.
Producers for GZM shows are David Kreisman, Ben Strauss, Chris Terry, Amy Cervini and Claire McClanahan.
The production manager is Sharon Michaels.
Sound design and editing for Who Went Wow Mystery Edition is done by Chris Terry and Oded Levari.
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Original music was created by Jennifer Rocamp.
Voice editing is by Yoni Reckham.
And voice direction is handled by David Kreisman and Amy Cervini.
Could you give me another one on that, please?
And voice direction is handled by David Kreisman and Amy Cervini.
Our main cast features Carly Shiraki as Carly Q. Brandon Salerno as Lewis.
Melissa Vanderschief as Nibbles the Rat.
Kenny Curtis as H-Dad.
And Angel Desai as Odie.
Help support Who Went Wow by becoming a member of the World Organization of Wowzers and discover wows all year long.
Sign up today at Tinkercast.com slash membership.
You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at Tinkercastcom.
Slash YouTube for full-length episodes of Who Went Wow, Mystery Edition.
And reach out to us at hello at Tinkercastcom if you have a mystery you'd like Butthead to investigate.
H-Day, powering off.
Peace sign emojis.
History will never be the same.
Shh, it's starting.
GCN shows Imagination Amplified.
