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okay so we received this letter was sent to our business and it looks sketchy as [ __ ] American history is no stranger to Anonymous letters The Zodiacs were cryptic Circle vills were political and the Watchers were ominous in each of these three cases the trail went cold I've always thought this was strange the capture The public's attention disturbing letters dominated headlines someone named The Watcher entire news Cycles were dedicated and then they never found enough to charge a suspect nothing so how seriously should we take a cryptic letter since 2008 a mysterious man using the pseudonym Matthew Thornton has sent strange en cryptic letters to people and businesses tens of thousands have appeared across 27 States States debating if the author is super intelligent or conspiracy theorist this small subreddit says the letters have a deeper meaning that they have hidden messages in symbolism and [Music] metaphors the thoron letters have always been cryptic and ideological but in the past year the tone [Music] changed wow dude I got him right here what is this you tell me what is it why did I get that this is Ellie and after receiving some letters she came to us with questions so I run a bar downtown first thing that I see when I open it was the little square that said last bar in America that freaked me out cuz I was like oh my God I am a bar you know what I mean like that person has my address and knows where I am 50% of my week it doesn't have a return address it just says 120 degrees west Tahoe 39th parallel 39 North I'll cut to the chase I don't know I don't know since late last year we've been looking for him seemingly random people in businesses all across the country have been receiving mysterious letters what looking in your eyes now I can see all you do is pull me down it's probably just his Ghost Rider name or it could be a group I don't get it I don't know maybe this is some kind of weird treasure hunt people don't know people have no idea I told you many times I'm tired love is long gone of the I'm trapped alone in [Music] my okay here are the big questions where are the letters coming from who are the letters coming from are the recipients safe and what do the letters mean I spoke to a father who had received these letters out of fear he would only talk to me anonymously and I don't blame him I had like overwhelming anxiety cuz I was like what the hell is this it's one thing to see these through a screen but once they show up at your house they're horrifying he spread his letters out across a table and showed me them and highlighted one specifically it said you can't see me I'd be afraid to open it most people open them with like plastic gloves after this he changed his locks he said all he could think about were his daughters wondering if whoever sent this knew about them too I immediately like had a weird feeling about it this is weird is somebody stalking us everything is cryptic seems like a puzzle almost like zodiac that's weird that's weird it I was super weirded out what's your speculation as to why this guy's doing this I don't know some of it's like biblical and some of it's like anti-war but then you've got the page that has like the little bomb saying Omaha Beach at 40° or something I don't know it's so like there's so many different elements to it I don't I don't get it I don't know from what I've seen in the these letters two distinct voices speak through the same pen over here you have the protester expressing in a kazinski and way discontent with capitalism Reliance on plastic and demands for reduced fossil fuel dependence it's a Manifesto over here the same mind that writes about our broken world has fashioned its own religion pitching salvation offered from the night sky warnings of the apocalypse and invitation to heaven we are looking at a scattered paper gospel covered in mentions of the Stars deep space galaxies almost as if it's proof that all other religions are wrong and this one is right who is this guy the Zodiac Killer seems to Crave publicity he sent letters and to newspapers and the police I've learned from these famous cases that there's usually a superiority complex I think the Zodiac fairly intelligent and wanted some attention Anonymous authors hide hidden Clues not because they don't want to be found I think he believed he was smarter than law enforcement it's that they don't think anyone is smart enough I'm smarter than you I'm better than you and I'm going to show you and no one could find him Thorton's letters are covered in coordinates Illustrated Maps he taunts us telling us to try any town in America it's a game he liked the game game so let's play it we both received a letter that was it was from Matthew Thornton yeah Matthew Thornton okay I don't think that's his real name it's believed that Matthew Thornton is a pseudonym signed the Declaration of Independence bro don't do this start a YouTube channel they said the author nods to this in many letters mistaking the Constitution for the Declaration of Independence either on purpose or on accident saying We the People Matthew Thornton was the last to sign in 1776 he was number 56 and a doctor just like my dad adding on to the Nicholas Cage of it all it doesn't have a return address it just says 120° West Tahoe 39th parallel 39 North which leads here deep in Lake Tahoe on the border of California Nevada and on it the word Pomo Pomo Pomo Pomo Pomo Pomo Pomo California the Pomo are a Native American people that live around Sonoma over here every envelope I've seen has been processed in Sacramento which according to USPS covers these zip codes our guy is somewhere in here [Music] [Music] what I've spent a lot of time looking at Matthew Thorton's handwriting online people joke about it it's strange erratic it's the kind of thing that makes you wonder how he's doing but this isn't his actual handwriting thoron goes back and writes over his old letters why you might ask I don't know this bothered me for weeks until I found this what thoron does is called overwriting overwriting and correcting of naturally written letters is strong evidence of the writer's intent to deceive [Music] wa holy [ __ ] okay now I mean see it see it do you see it Matthew thoron 555 on YouTube not buried in some obscure reference not hidden in astronomical coordinates just there on an old letter one of his first from 12 years ago all right you ready for this uhoh yeah look at this this flat area here was a main State this was someone's estate this was a this would have supported easily 20 or 30 people here so he's talking about gold being under the ground gold seems to also be a central theme in a lot of his letters for sure I recognized Ellie's expression I was feeling it too it's hard to explain but the Imagine just collapsed into reality the voice was distinctly human that area here was a main State this was someone's estate neither as frightening or as harmless as I was prepared for that's your guy [Music] um all right Anonymous author probably starting a religion getting more threatening by the day scaring recipients coming from the land of the zodiac disguising handwriting what do I do what do I do what do I do what do I do what do I do what do I do I need to know what letters Matthew thoron has sent I don't think I have a complete list people have been uploading these letters to Reddit for years so Gallery DL reddit.com Matthew thoron hopefully this works now the real work begins on September 11th of 2020 the Reddit account minimum teaching 5816 was created 8 minutes and 26 seconds after they joined the subreddit and commented on a now deleted post I am Matthew Thornton there is only one of me like a voice in the wilderness look closely at the drawings because they convey truth something is coming for all of us just believe in me there's only one of [Music] me oh dude there's a few accounts that claim to be Thornton so we can't be sure that this is actually him however we do know what he sounds like [Music] [Applause] hey hey is this Matthew yes sir it's him before we go on I want to take a second and tell you a little bit about today's sponsor delete me there's an industry out there that I like to call Big Data you've probably heard of it there's these corporations that find whatever information they can on you stuff like your name your phone number your home address your email address your family members they take all of this they package it together and then they sell it I don't like that if you want your data removed you can go to their website you can dig around for their opt out page and they'll remove your info but you have to do that for every data broker individually so I use a tool called delete me you go on you tell them a little bit about yourself they take the data you've given them and they protect it under an s SO2 type 2 certification and then they go to hundreds of these data broker websites and request to get your data removed on your behalf just in my first month delet me searched 3 and a half th000 listings for my information they found it on 55 different websites and then they got it removed the best part is that this isn't a one-time thing they routinely go back and check to see if anything new pops up and then they get that removed too if you're looking to protect yourself online delete me is a great place to start because delet me has sponsored this portion of today's video they're giving a 20% discount to anyone that uses the link in the description join delet me.com chule 20 and use code chule 20 at checkout once you do that and sign up you'll get assigned to privacy expert and you'll get your first report back in 7 Days thanks so much to delete me for sponsoring this portion of the video back to it every Tuesday for the past few weeks thoron and I have been talking you have the permission to record this every time he beats me to it he tells me to record our calls before I can ask with other people it's really happening there is one of me he wants Witnesses if you could ask this guy any questions what do you want to ask him why super simple start off with why the one question only he can answer and I don't smell too bad those Tuesday calls are disarming you got a good sense of humor we should go out right sometimes I have to remind myself who I'm talking to I can't forget that this has been a one-sided conversation for way too long thousands of people have received these letters and they deserve to know Matthew yes sir hey Matthew it's Jack I'd love to meet up with you in person and ask you some questions and see what your life is like yeah I would have a problem with that um absolutely but of course whenever I ask for an address a meeting place even just a town he goes silent I told him I have friends in Northern California and I asked how far away he was still silence I'm not even the first person he's done this with a few years ago someone tried to find him unfortunately for me his response was I have left many Clues as to where I produce all of this maybe you could show up with recorders and a pizza from a local provider there's only one of me bring me your best questions bro [Music] I don't know I mean I just don't know I don't know I guess I should have expected this from a guy that's sending out cryptic letters all around the us so I did what anyone would do this is me hold up in my holiday and Express at this ergonomic desk built for maximum efficiency I sorted through over 1,000 letters looking for GPS coordinates zip codes landmarks anything and then it's been years and the thousands of people that are looking for him myself included can't find him these towns out here are small and if there's one thing that I know about small towns it's that nothing and nobody can slip under the radar so I'm out here in California and all I have is this 12-year-old photo day after day I went to post offices the guys inside couldn't talk to me for legal reasons which totally makes sense Li liaries so unfamiliar police stations going in local newspapers Thornton yeah and finally the grocery store he was he was here this morning this is it do you want to meet outside the Civic Center in Jackson yeah that'd be all There's an actual um there's a little table out there Matthew so here clip this one onto your there's the microphone all right that should be good really is that good there yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah there there's a reason for me to be here all right right away I met both versions of Matthew the protester and the Prophet The Prophet spoke in coordinates and conspiracy theories the 120 West you know by 39° it's all my letters the coordinance with the crown of California in it but then without warning this other voice would emerge it was grounded practical concerned with real world problems there are people that are horribly displaced by fire this version of thoron proudly told me about his family dad was he was within himself a quite a remarkable person you know how did your mom and your dad meet on an air base yeah um omah where do they go from there that's the best story ever there's all these gaps all of a sudden dad's gone to Korea he was deployed uh my brother and sister almost born over in okao and he shared the raw pain of a young boy watching his family fracture so where do you go from there I mean tell me about your childhood no that's when Mom again being the one that was the risk taker wanted to go buckled in we was heading home we knew the shortcut home and uh that's where she popped it out she says what do you think about leaving dad and I was like 12 that uh she broke my heart that was quite the thing I had to go with her I I couldn't stay at at home and Dad could be in trouble for that there was no supervision during the day but I would have made it work if I really thought about it I mean part of me kind of wondered if I had in my time searching for Matthew I spent countless hours staring at this image the Rosetta Stone here's a guy that's relentlessly sending Letters Out forcing the world into deciphering what they might mean I kept finding myself reading this one line over and over again the Rosetta Stone was the key to deciphering the mysterious ancient Egyptian language for the longest time it felt like Thorton was taunting me I was looking for something anything that would make it all click but I never found it not until we met up I thought it was just going to keep going but 2008 came along and it all stopped the whole economy just froze what heck is going on down here I don't know but now it's official we are in a recession Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 900 points I was one of those people as a business person I was like in the top five 10% of the the wealth of this country because I was the risk taker that's why I employed the people insured them and then I ran into 2008 uh it was the damnest thing I packed my truck and drove to Vegas in Vegas my brother so it was quite the thing quite the thing why'd you go to your brother I had really no us to stay this was a turning point forclosures have hit a record high no I woke up to being a nomad it it was actually quite uh an enlightening event for me around 2008 or so when my material world started failing me that's when I lost everything I became a nomad had no home so I lived with my brother that I had a lot of time on my hands I had a constellation guide and I got out and studied the night sky I used to go out 3:00 in the morning and watched pre Dawn in the high desert I I discovered things I saw things in the sky it was like a pulse a feeling and no matter where I was I was happy with it so he started writing about it and I wasn't really writing in those first years I was doing more star charts and then putting words around them and that's when I discovered um I confused the two faced with an immense loss and an existential crisis he found Refuge with his family and his pen name was born honoring what his dad told him was their generational Pride a signature by a distant relative at the very bottom of the Declaration of [Music] Independence thoron writes to cities and businesses hit with economic hardship evangelizing to those who might be where he was what he's doing sending these letters out scaring a bunch of people it might be wrong but he's still a human a human who has dealt a really rough hand so I'm going to spare the details but we've been in touch with his family and we've offered to get him some help if he wants [Music] it Brian Reed who you may know from the podcast EST toown helped us a lot on this episode I want to point in the direction of his new podcast it's called question everything trust in the media is down and in this show Brian is critiquing and asking the journalism industry how we got here in his first episode which you should definitely listen to he invited on his biggest critic to absolutely drill into him it was inspiring convicting to us as reporters we're glad it exists but uh anyway times are weird this feels really important the link is down below thanks again to delete me for sponsoring a portion of this video and oh my God thanks to our patreon supporters you guys are amazing you're everything you are the theme in our engine thanks for watching