Today in 1826, Captain William Morgan, an ex-Freemason, was arrested and jailed for failing to pay debts owed and alleged theft. He had previously vowed to write a book exposing all of the Freemasons’ secrets. Several days after being jailed, Morgan was broken out of prison by a group a Freemasons who escorted him to Fort Niagara in New York, after which he was never seen or heard from again. Morgan’s book, Illustrations of Masonry, was released soon after his disappearance and became an instant best-seller. Several theories exist to explain Morgan’s disappearance. Popular ones include Morgan being taken out to the Niagara River by ship and tossed overboard, being bribed to leave the country, or simply being murdered and having his body hidden.