"strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> ♪ john brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave ♪ >> to some, he's an insane killer who sparked civil war. >> if the revolt at harpers ferry had not occurred, the south probably wouldn't have seceded from the union. >> ♪ glory, glory, hallelujah ♪ glory, glory... >> to others, he's a saint, a martyr, a prophet. >> john brown believed that god had brought him to this earth for the purpose of delivering nearly four million enslaved people into freedom. >> what he touches become relics. >> the local people were producing fake pieces of the rope, fake pieces of the scaffold. >> what about his strange inheritance? >> somehow john brown was able

to bequeath these shackles to my great-great-grandfather. >> really? >> is it a genuine piece of history? >> what does it feel like to hold them in your hands? >> i just go, "wow." >> it is a "wow." i'm jamie colby, and i'm heading into buhl, idaho, today to meet a man with a really strange inheritance. it's a link to a figure out of the history books who remains as divisive as the day he was hanged for murder and treason. >> my name is john boling. in 2010, my mother died, leaving behind a very unusual relic that had been in the family for over 150 years. >> hi, john. i'm jamie. >> hi, jamie. welcome to beautiful, bucolic southern idaho. >> thanks for having me. >> well, we got a lot to talk

about. come on inside. >> john boling is a paramedic and the youngest of four children. >> okay. >> ladies first. >> thank you. his strange inheritance comes from his mom's side of the family -- a long line of congregationalist ministers dating back to the 1800s. but it's not until john's 18 years old and his air force dad retires to oregon that he first sees the coveted heirloom. >> i knew about the shackles for years and years, but i had never seen them. they were "in storage," this mythical place. >> mythical. that seems as good a word as any for this eight-pound set of iron leg shackles handed down by john's great-great-grandfather, minister hezekiah atwood. >> the story was that he had ministered to john brown while john brown was in prison. >> the abolitionist? >> the abolitionist, exactly. and that john brown had somehow bequeathed these shackles to him. >> so john boling's ancestor was given these shackles by one

of history's most consequential antislavery crusaders, who wore them to his own hanging -- an execution that hurtled the united states toward civil war. but is it true, this story john's parents recount so proudly? >> if they had been alive in john brown's day, my parents would have been abolitionists too. so that meant something to me. [ people humming spiritual ] >> the abolitionist movement starts in the 1830s. by the 1850s, however, john brown rejects those who believe moral suasion alone can end slavery. his decision to take up arms against the government is fateful for the country and why his story would resonate throughout history. >> letters, words, talk! the time has ended for that. strength and action are wanted now. >> he felt that slavery was an evil, that he needed to

literally go to war against that evil institution. >> author dennis frye is an historian with the national park service. >> john brown believed that god had brought him to this earth for the purpose of delivering nearly four million enslaved people into freedom. >> brown's violent crusade begins in the kansas territory. >> kansas was not yet a state. and at that time, congress adopted a law that allowed settlers to go to kansas and determine for themselves whether it would be a slave state or a free state. john brown went to kansas to ensure that it would always be a free state. >> "bloody kansas" erupts. on may 21, 1856, brown and a group of followers go on a rampage, dragging five proslavery men from their homes and hacking them to death. >> brown was a wanted man. the united states government

wanted him. >> but while president buchanan puts a price on brown's head, newspapers in the northeast call him a hero. >> brown decides to take his fight to the south. in october 1859, he and his men head for harpers ferry, virginia, plotting to spark a slave insurrection. >> jamie, we are standing at the location of the united states arsenal building. >> on this footprint. >> on this footprint. you, in fact, are actually on the foundation of the structure as it was. we had 100,000 weapons stored here and in an adjoining building. brown needed these weapons to start this war against slavery. >> pretty ambitious. >> he's successful in seizing the bridge to get into town. he actually seizes the armory and the arsenal. but then it all falls apart. >> eight people are killed, including two of brown's sons. brown holes up in this old engine house until he's captured by u.s. army colonel

robert e. lee. >> history changed here inside this building. >> brown is charged with treason, murder, and inciting a slave rebellion. >> this is, jamie, the building where john brown would be brought and tried. >> was it standing-room only? >> the courtroom was just jammed. brown's popularity had expanded way beyond the rather narrow field of abolitionism. >> as his trial focuses the nation, his conviction and death sentence irretrievably divide it. who supported him? >> he was referred to by people like henry david thoreau and ralph waldo emerson as "saint brown the just." >> a saint? >> but, in the south, he was seen as the devil. he was seen as a terrorist. as a result of john brown, people were now willing to go to war either to defend slavery or to end it.

and america divided. and john brown produced the ultimate divide. >> december 2, 1859. knowing full well his belongings are being sought after as relics, he gives them to his guards. he also entrusts one with a handwritten prophecy. >> i, john brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood. >> brown is "a man inspired, the grandest character of the century," writes one of the thousands who witness the hanging -- the actor john wilkes booth. and as brown shuffles to the scaffold he is -- or is not -- wearing this set of leg irons, which 150 years later become john boling's strange inheritance. >> these may actually have been the shackles that bound john brown in his last months on earth before he was hanged in

1859. >> it will soon fall to the heir to find out the truth. >> but first... decades before harpers ferry, president john quincy adams appointed john brown to what federal government position? was it... the answer when we return. on the floor! everybody down! nobody move! on the floor! hey, do something! oh, i'm not a security guard. i'm a security monitor. i only notify people if there's a robbery. there's a robbery! why monitor a problem if you don't fix it? that's why lifelock does more than free credit monitoring to protect you from identity theft. we not only use proprietary technology to detect and alert you to a range of identity threats, if you have a problem, we have a u.s. based team of specialists who'll work to fix it.

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>> president john quincy adams made brown a postmaster in pennsylvania. brown held the job for seven years. >> ♪ john brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave ♪ ♪ but his soul goes marching on ♪ >> less than a year after abolitionist john brown is hanged in 1859, abraham lincoln is elected president. within months, the nation is torn by civil war, with john brown's memory rallying many a union soldier. >> ♪ glory, glory, hallelujah ♪ his soul goes marching on >> america's fascination with brown will endure long after the war. 40 years later, his harpers ferry fort is moved to chicago for the world's fair.

when a monument is erected over his grave in 1899, president william mckinley pays his respects. he's the subject of paintings, poems, and plays -- eventually movies, too. sometimes he's the hero, sometimes the villain. and collectors covet his personal effects, his letters, anything he touched, and a lot he apparently didn't. how early in this time line were people looking to have a piece of john brown? >> even in 1859, the local people were producing fake pieces of the rope, fake pieces of the scaffold, and selling them to people that were looking for souvenirs of the john brown raid. there are many, many more fake objects out there associated with john brown than are real. >> one observer quips that if brown had only spent his time in jail signing autographs, his descendants would be rich.

which brings us back to the shackles that brown may -- or may not -- have worn to the gallows, and our heir's strange inheritance story. >> somehow john brown was able to bequeath these shackles to my great-great-grandfather. >> john boling's father, jack, dies in 1988, his mother, judy, in 2010. he's executor of her estate, which includes hundreds of items she collected over the years. >> she said, "john, i want everybody to come out of this with equal value." and we're not talking sentimental value, we're talking monetary value, which was the way mom looked at life. mom would want me to balance those books literally to the penny. >> and that becomes john's mission. he determines the value of every object to be divided among the four boling children. well, make that almost every object. >> now, we have an exception. >> the shackles. >> yeah, unfortunately.

>> john's brother jim offers him 500 bucks for them. what did you think they were worth? >> i had no idea what they were worth. and i said, you know, "i think we need to find out." >> soon he's questioning that murky family history. >> now, you've got to think, "oh, come on. how can a prisoner give away the prison's property?" >> you would think it would be documented somewhere. >> it was family lore. >> but he'll learn much of that family lore is wrong. >> ♪ amazing grace >> here's another quiz question for you. the answer after the break.

>> ♪ amazing grace ♪ how sweet the sound >> a former slave trader, john newton, in 1754. he had renounced his ways after nine years of captaining a slave ship. >> in 2010, john boling is trying to figure out what to do with his strange inheritance -- a set of iron leg shackles that, according to family lore, were used to restrain abolitionist john brown before he was hanged. some say brown's unsuccessful raid on the u.s. arsenal here at harpers ferry was the unofficial start of the civil war. >> he brought us to a point where no longer were we simply going to have discussion about slavery. >> john boling wants to find out if the shackles are the real

deal and just how much they're worth. he starts with those family stories. >> we thought john brown was able to bequeath these shackles to my great-great-grandfather. now, you've got to think, "oh, come on. how can a prisoner give away the prison's property?" well, heck, we were little kids when we first heard this story. >> john learns that his great-great-grandfather, hezekiah atwood, could never have ministered to brown. brown famously declared he didn't need spiritual guidance and only wanted to be ministered by slave children, a scene captured in paintings like this. >> the story that was handed down through the family doesn't agree with the story that i've found in the historical record. >> so john takes a new look at the shackles themselves. >> you've got a heavy iron "u" with a bar across the opening of

the "u." >> he notices some identifying marks -- "d2" and "er." john scours the internet and finds a small but avid world of collectors of handcuffs and other restraints. turns out that "er" is the mark of elijah rickard, a virginia blacksmith of some distinction in the 1850s. >> his shop was right near the prison where john brown was held. >> do you think he would be shackled during the trial? >> brown was shackled the whole time. there was lots of rumors of as many as 9,000 people mobilizing in the north to come and rescue john brown. >> so the pieces are coming together? >> so the pieces were coming together. >> this 1893 newspaper article squares the circle. it reports that hezekiah atwood was in fact given the condemned man's leg irons, but not by brown. it seems the upstanding

minister cut an under-the-table deal with an elderly african-american woman at the jail to purchase brown's shackles for $8. the news story also attests to the powerful symbolism those shackles held for opponents of slavery, including the famous abolitionist preacher henry ward beecher. >> beecher used a set of shackles which he stated were the shackles that had bound john brown. he "trampled them at the pulpit." the historical record indicates that my great-grandfather's brother lent those shackles to beecher. >> certain the shackles are brown's, john's duty is now to find out what they're worth. and he knows how do that. >> there's no better way to gauge the true fair-market value of anything than to put it up for a public auction. >> so john sends photos of the

shackles to heritage auctions in dallas, which has some expertise in this area. in 2007 it sold an oil painting of john brown for $17,000, and in 2010 a steel pike from the harpers ferry raid for $13,000. don ackerman specializes in antebellum artifacts at heritage. >> i don't doubt that these are the shackles that were used on john brown. these were quite unusual intrinsically just as a set of shackles because they're marked by the maker, but the association on them is really what makes them important. >> that's the theory. but you're about the meet the top bidder on this strange inheritance, and the legacy of john brown was hardly the first thing on his mind. what do you tell people? >> well, most people just don't quite understand it. >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our

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>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> it's june 22, 2013, and john boling of buhl, idaho, has put on the online auction block his family's precious heirloom -- these shackles, now authenticated as having restrained radical abolitionist john brown after his harpers ferry raid. the opening bid of $5,000 brings a measure of relief for the dutiful executor. >> it vindicated me, for one thing, for not having let them go to a sibling for $500. >> vindication turns to elation as the bidding climbs to $10,000, then $11,000. within minutes an anonymous phone bidder snatches them up for $13,145. finally time for john boling to close the books on his mother's

estate. >> it meant that mom would be happy. >> why? >> because i did my due diligence. and in this case, that due diligence paid off. >> the last twist in this story -- who was that anonymous buyer? it took a little digging, but we found the guy, here in chicago. i'm jamie. you have something we want to see, and we found you. can i take a look? >> yes, it's in the house. >> i assumed all along that the buyer of john brown's shackles would be a civil war buff, an historian, or a civil rights activist. gordon gluff is none of those things. rather, he's an amateur magician, escape artist, and collector of handcuffs. >> these were owned by houdini. >> and houdini busted out of these? >> yes, and the jail cell that he was in at the same time. >> and these are john brown's. >> yes, they are.

>> were you more interested in the fact that they were manufactured by this manufacturer, or did you want specifically john brown's shackles? >> first, because they were made by rickard's, without a doubt. i'm a handcuff collector. john brown, that was frosting on the cake. i look at them, and i just go, "wow." >> it is a "wow." >> yeah. i was driven to have them. these might never come around again. >> that realization's now sinking in for john boling, the great-great-grandson of an abolitionist minister who passed down the grim but powerful relic to his descendants. your family was the custodian of a significant piece of history for a very long time. >> yeah, but no family is going to keep something like this forever. >> you did a good job of being custodian. >> well, my parents did. let's chalk one up for them.

[ chuckles ] [ "the battle hymn of the republic" playing ] >> the civil war john brown helped spark seemed to put a curse on harpers ferry. north and south battled over this spot for years. in september 1862, confederate general stonewall jackson bombarded the town, capturing 12,000 union men before joining robert e. lee's army moving north. but just days later and only 20 miles from here, union forces stopped lee at antietam. that bloodiest day in american military history claimed 23,000 dead or wounded. president lincoln seized the moment to issue his emancipation proclamation, freeing the slaves in rebel-held territory, and so many observed john brown's soul did go marching on. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance."

thanks so much for watching, and remember -- you can't take it with you. about it. >> the walls of wall street down late loaded john: the wolf of wall street was downloaded illegally more than any other movie. and the idea is to encourage the proliferation of new ideas. even drug dealers have expanded the situation. and if it doesn't change the name, the lawyers may come. >> i am an intellectual property attorney and you have stolen my