I kept wondering who in the family was in on it in order to keep convincing others to join, and to keep supporting exploration into the funds.

Me too. And it's one thing to fool the family members, but it amazed me that they also managed to involve a congressman and keep the newspapers reporting on it for so many years.

Good thing we've learned our lesson, and in the digital world we no longer have a mechanism in place to secure funds that can't simply be lost or destroyed so as to leave us without access to .... oh wait

lol. Yeah, right, the more things change, the more they stay the same. ; -)