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The Worst Episodes of Secrets of the Dead

Every episode of Secrets of the Dead ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Secrets of the Dead!

Part detective story, part true-life drama, long-running series explores some of the most iconic moments in history to debunk myths and shed new light on...
Genres:DocumentaryMystery
Network:PBS

Worst Episodes Summary

"Amazon Warrior Women" is the worst rated episode of "Secrets of the Dead". It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 8/4/2004. This episode scored NaN points lower than the second lowest rated, "Churchill's Deadly Decision".

  • Amazon Warrior Women
    NaN/100 votes
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    #1 - Amazon Warrior Women

    Season 4 Episode 6 - Aired 8/4/2004

    (Archaeology) The myth of the Amazons, a tribe of bloodthirsty blond women thundering across arid battlefields to the horror of their male foes, has lingered for centuries. Their exploits seized the imagination of the Greek scribes Homer, Hippocrates, and Herodotus. But proof of their existence had always been lacking. Now, a 2,500-year-old mystery may have been solved, cracked by an American scientist whose ten-year odyssey led her tens of thousands of miles in pursuit of the truth. After unearthing evidence of a culture of ancient warrior women in the Russian steppes, Dr. Jeannine Davis-Kimball followed a trail of artifacts to a remote village in Western Mongolia, where her quest for a living link to a long-imagined tribe ended with a startling discovery. There, among the black-eyed Mongols, Davis-Kimball found a blond child, a 9-year-old girl named Meiramgul. Through DNA testing, Davis-Kimball finds that the DNA sequences of the warrior women and those from the girl of Mongolia are identical.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Churchill's Deadly Decision
    NaN/100 votes
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    #2 - Churchill's Deadly Decision

    Season 9 Episode 5 - Aired 5/12/2010

    Find out why Churchill chose to sink the French fleet.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Deadliest Battle
    NaN/100 votes
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    #3 - Deadliest Battle

    Season 9 Episode 6 - Aired 5/19/2010

    The Battle of Stalingrad, the deadliest single battle ever seen, has been lauded as a shining example of Stalin's military genius, and altered the course of World War II permanently. The battle established the Soviet Union as a superpower to be reckoned with in the long Cold War that lay ahead. More than a half-century later, with newly uncovered evidence the full impact of this horrific battle is revealed.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Resurrecting Richard III
    NaN/100 votes
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    #4 - Resurrecting Richard III

    Season 13 Episode 7 - Aired 9/24/2014

    Scientists test the bones of England's fierce King Richard III.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • JFK & LBJ: A Time For Greatness
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    #5 - JFK & LBJ: A Time For Greatness

    Season 14 Episode 2 - Aired 8/4/2015

    For many, President Lyndon B. Johnson is chiefly remembered for escalating the United States military involvement in Vietnam. But his legacy is much more than his role in the Vietnam War. In fact, Johnson engineered the passing of two of the most important laws Congress ever approved: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Leonardo: The Man Who Saved Science
    NaN/100 votes
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    #6 - Leonardo: The Man Who Saved Science

    Season 16 Episode 5 - Aired 4/5/2017

    An investigation to discover if Leonardo da Vinci came up with all of his credited ideas and inventions, or were they borrowed from ancient scholars and scientists?

    Director: Mark Daniels

    Writer: N/A

  • Gangster's Gold
    4.8/1035 votes
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    #7 - Gangster's Gold

    Season 18 Episode 6 - Aired 11/18/2020

    Join three groups of treasure hunters, armed with modern technology and newly uncovered clues, as they set out to find the lost treasure of notorious Prohibition-era gangster Dutch Schultz and solve an 85-year-old mystery.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Titanic's Ghosts
    5.6/1014 votes
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    #8 - Titanic's Ghosts

    Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 11/20/2002

    In the aftermath of the Titanic, Canadian rescue ships recovered 328 bodies and buried dozens in unmarked graves. Today, scientific breakthroughs may help 3 families of missing passengers learn the true fate of their relatives.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Carthage's Lost Warriors
    6.1/1040 votes
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    #9 - Carthage's Lost Warriors

    Season 13 Episode 3 - Aired 4/2/2014

    146 B.C.: Carthage, the proud capital of the vast Carthaginian Empire, is ablaze. Marauding Romans are mercilessly slaughtering and pillaging. Any survivors face a terrifying fate as slaves on Roman galleys or in their quarries. Escaping the bloody carnage is impossible...or is it? Could some of the once-mighty Carthaginians have got away? And even more incredibly – could they have turned west on an epic journey across the vast Atlantic Ocean to new shores? Did they set foot in South America, long before Columbus ever walked the face of the Earth? Ancient documents suggest there was a Carthaginian getaway, and modern science has found evidence to support these extraordinary claims.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Syphilis Enigma
    6.2/1027 votes
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    #10 - The Syphilis Enigma

    Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 7/31/2001

    In 1492, Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic in search of gold. But what his men carried back with them to Europe was something far less appealing. They brought the scourge of syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease never before seen in the Old World. At least that is what scientists have generally believed. But now, the discovery in Europe of a pre-Columbian body with definite signs of syphilis has archaeologist Charlotte Roberts convinced that syphilis existed in the Old World long before Columbus ever set sail. New evidence from across Europe is beginning to turn the prevailing Columbus theory on its head (UK/PBS 55 min)

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Gangland Graveyard
    6.2/1038 votes
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    #11 - Gangland Graveyard

    Season 5 Episode 2 - Aired 11/16/2005

    On October 6, 2004, FBI agents began digging up a Queens swamp in the hopes of finding the remains of the man who killed John Gotti's son. Instead, they unearthed a severed foot and other pieces of human skeleton, along with personal effects. Forensic tests tied the remains to Mob family captains who had been killed by mob boss Joseph "Big Joey" Massino. This program documents the search which opens a window into the grisly world of the mob.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Lost In The Amazon
    6.2/1060 votes
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    #12 - Lost In The Amazon

    Season 11 Episode 1 - Aired 4/20/2011

    On April 20, 1925, Colonel Percy Fawcett, his elder son Jack Fawcett and Jack’s lifelong friend, Raleigh Rimmell, departed from Cuiabá, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, to find “Z” — Col. Fawcett’s name for what he believed to be an ancient city lost in the uncharted jungles of Brazil. The search for the mysterious Lost City of Z would be the great explorer’s last expedition. All three men would vanish without a trace. Eighty-six years later, Secrets of the Dead has mounted a modern day quest with explorer Niall McCann to find the truth behind the disappearance of famed adventurer Col. Percy Fawcett and his party in Lost in the Amazon

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Blackbeard's Lost Ship
    6.3/1017 votes
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    #13 - Blackbeard's Lost Ship

    Season 8 Episode 4 - Aired 4/22/2009

    Edward Teach, alias Blackbeard, was the most notorious pirate of his day. At the height of his rein, he commanded a fleet of four ships and a crew of 400 men. They were ruthless seafaring raiders who terrorizing vessels in American waters. In 1718, Blackbeard even blockaded the city of Charleston, crippling its economy. Eventually he was caught and beheaded by a posse from the Royal Navy. Now, 300 years later, a marine archaeology team believe they have found his sunken flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, off the North Carolina coast.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Nero Files
    6.3/1032 votes
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    #14 - The Nero Files

    Season 17 Episode 4 - Aired 2/20/2019

    Take a look at the life of Nero and find out what history may have gotten wrong about him

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • China's Terracotta Warriors
    6.5/1067 votes
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    #15 - China's Terracotta Warriors

    Season 11 Episode 2 - Aired 5/4/2011

    The life-sized terracotta warriors of China are known throughout the world. This clay army of 8,000 including infantry, archers, generals and cavalry was discovered by archaeologists in 1974 after farmers digging a well near the Chinese city of Xian unearthed pieces of clay sculpted in human form. An amazing archaeological find, the terracotta warriors date back more than two thousand years. But what was the purpose of this army of clay soldiers? Who ordered its construction? How were they created? Secrets of the Dead investigates the story behind China’s Terracotta Warriors and documents their return to former glory for the first time.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Lost Vikings
    6.6/1033 votes
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    #16 - The Lost Vikings

    Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 5/16/2000

    Why did Greenland's Vikings disappear? The Vikings of Greenland left no clues to their sudden and mysterious disappearance. Or did they? On a desolate coast of Greenland, an international team of archaeologists, forensic anthropologists, entomologists and botanists sets out to investigate clues in a complex chain of events that may have led to the demise of a Viking colony. Unearthing the ruins of a settlement that included a cathedral complete with stained glass, the scientists carefully identify and date the vestiges of the Viking society. Among their discoveries are a "mini Ice Age," a war with neighboring Inuits, and a religious order that may have doomed the Vikings to obsolescence. (UK/PBS 55 min)

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Tomb of Christ
    6.6/1019 votes
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    #17 - Tomb of Christ

    Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 7/24/2001

    For centuries, visitors to the Church of the Holy Seplulchre in Jerusalem believed that they stood within what was merely a symbolic representation of Jesus' burial place. But what if the edicule within the church, an ancient crumbling structure, really does house Christ's actual tomb? Oxford archaeologists Martin and Birthe Biddle reconstruct Jesus' final day and trace the history of the various incarnations of the edicule -- looking for evidence that there is a tomb present, and trying to decipher whether or not Christ actually lay there. (UK/PBS 55 min)

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Cavemen Cold Case
    6.6/1034 votes
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    #18 - Cavemen Cold Case

    Season 12 Episode 4 - Aired 5/15/2013

    Scientists say some of the 49,000 year-old Neanderthal bones discovered in El Sidrón, Spain, bear signs of cannibalism.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • JFK: One PM Central Standard Time
    6.6/1094 votes
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    #19 - JFK: One PM Central Standard Time

    Season 13 Episode 1 - Aired 11/13/2013

    Fifty years after the tragic shooting of President John F. Kennedy, Secrets of the Dead chronicles minute-by-minute the assassination as it was revealed in the CBS newsroom from the moment the President was shot until Walter Cronkite's emotional pronouncement of his death, one hour and eight minutes later.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Princes in the Tower
    6.6/1039 votes
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    #20 - The Princes in the Tower

    Season 21 Episode 3 - Aired 11/22/2023

    Find out if one of history’s greatest cold cases—the imprisonment of two princes in the Tower of London—can finally be solved. Their disappearance led to centuries of mystery and speculation. Were the boys murdered by their uncle, the notorious King Richard III? Or was it a massive conspiracy to hide the truth?

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Cannibalism in the Canyon
    6.7/1015 votes
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    #21 - Cannibalism in the Canyon

    Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 5/17/2000

    What happened to the peaceful ancient Pueblo civilization of the American southwest? For 1000 years, the Anasazi -- a democratic people with rich achievements in architecture, agriculture, astronomy and art -- flourished in what is now New Mexico. Yet around 1200 A.D., something brought their utopia to a sudden and mysterious end. Paleo-anthroplogist Christy Turner has found what he believes are clear signs of cannibalism among the Anasazi ruins, but American Indian groups and other archaeologists are skeptical. And while the evidence is difficult to refute, the meaning of the findings is still open to debate. In the shadow of a debate both scientific and political, question remain: Did the Anasazi culture become cannibalistic, or did cannibals from afar stumble across the perfect victims? (UK/PBS 55 min)

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Vampire Legend
    6.7/1047 votes
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    #22 - Vampire Legend

    Season 15 Episode 1 - Aired 10/27/2015

    Information gathered about aberrant, unorthodox burial practices from medieval times shed some light on how today's myths about vampires may have started.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Murder at Stonehenge
    6.8/1018 votes
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    #23 - Murder at Stonehenge

    Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 7/3/2001

    A mysterious skeleton buried in a shallow grave beneath a famous ancient monument. Who was he? How long had he been there? And why had his head been severed from its body? Archaeologist Mike Pitts works with scientists, forensics experts and historian to dig up ominous information about early Britain and the circumstances that surrounded the man's death. Was he a cattle thief, an insurgent, or a pagan sacrifice in a newly Christian world? (UK/PBS 55 min)

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • D-Day
    6.8/1028 votes
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    #24 - D-Day

    Season 4 Episode 5 - Aired 5/19/2004

    In the three years leading up to D-Day, the Allies had assembled an array of weapons and transport vessels specially designed to overcome Hitler's defenses --  among them gliders, landing craft, minesweepers, and swimming tanks. This is the story of the maverick innovators who conceived of such an armory and its implementation into the largest amphibious invasion in the history of the world, and of the brave young men who woe;dd it so capably on the beach of Normandy. Runtime: 1:36.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Lost Diary of Dr. Livingstone
    6.8/1071 votes
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    #25 - The Lost Diary of Dr. Livingstone

    Season 13 Episode 2 - Aired 3/26/2014

    New forensic technology helps researchers study Dr. David Livingstone's lost diary, which reveals he witnessed the massacre of slaves by their traders.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A