Im jamie colby, in ocean city, maryland, an irresistible atlantic resort town known for its golden beaches and this historic boardwalk. Now, the population may read 7,000, but more than 8 million visit every single year. And im here to meet a family that has a strange inheritance thats been an icon on this boardwalk for more than a century. Hi, doug. Hi. Im jamie. Nice to meet you. So nice to see you, too. Your family really is so well known here. Yeah, im afraid we are. Yeah, weve been here a long time. A long time, indeed since 1890, to be exact. Doug trimpers greatgrandparents daniel and Margaret Trimper purchase two city blocks of oceanfront land. They start with a pair of small hotels but in 1902 decide to risk everything on a new attraction. Daniel wants to bring in a ride unlike any seen before in maryland. He orders a massive carousel from the herschellspillman company. With a diameter of 51 feet, the merrygoround is one of the largest built up to that point. How special is the
i m jamie colby, just northeast of bellingham, washington, near the canadian border. beautiful isn t it? the woman i m about to meet is the heir of a controversial relic that, according to family lore, connects her and her ancestors to jesse james and his notorious gang from the 1860s and 70s. my name is sandy mills, and i inherited a very old picture from my grandmother, isabelle. she said it was the infamous outlaw, jesse james. i believed it, but it didn t seem like anybody else really did. sandy. hi. i m jamie. so nice to meet you, and i can t wait to hear your story. sandy explains that her roots go back to missouri, where her grandmother, isabelle, shared with her the family legend that their forebears occasionally aided jesse james. the outlaw jesse james. yes, ma am. she would tell me the stories as i was growing up, how they would give them horses and food and shelter, just protect them. to prove it, grandma isabelle shows sandy this picture, known a
[ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] im jamie colby, and today i am in berkeley, california, home to the Famous University and once the epicenter of the Hippie Movement of the 1960s, hardly the place id expect to find this strange inheritance, which attracted the attention of the fbi. My name is tom marek. When my Brother Robert died in 2015, he left me an arsenal of weapons swords, knives, guns, hatchets, you name it. Hi, tom. Im jamie colby. Hi, jamie. Im tom marek. Its so great to meet you, but i have to be honest. From what ive heard, your inheritance is a little disturbing. Its quite unique. Well, lets take a look. Oh, my god, this is not for real i am totally creeped out right now. We have axes. We have knives. We have mallets. Guns. There are a few guns in here. Floor to ceiling, in every nook and niche big and small, sharp and blunt. Intricate rows of knives, arrays of swords, hoards of hatchets. Talk about axes of evil you have to look at this more as an art display. I mean, my b
[ bird caws ] im jamie colby, and today and im in the pocono mountains of pennsylvania on my way to meet an heir with a headspinning story that will take us back to 1970s manhattan, the era of punk rock, disco and wild parties at studio 54. My name is hugh hooper. Back in 2008, my brother hoop received a very strange inheritance. When he died three years later, he left one twice as strange to me. Hugh, hi. Im jamie. How are you doing, jamie . Nice to meet you. So great to meet you. You know, i dont come out of manhattan for just anything, but i heard your inheritance is way cool. It is. Its crazy. But you can keep manhattan. Ill take the country. All right. Lets see it. You wanna see it . Go ahead. Absolutely. Hughs strange inheritance is actually two separate art collections that belonged to two separate people. Heres some of the first, parked on the pathway outside his home. What is this . Well, this is hoops cars. They call this the musicmobile. Christmas albums, paul simon. [ playi