# Cork Graham > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Cork_Graham > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Cork_Graham.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cork_Graham > Source revision: 1336318723 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American novelist}} {{Infobox writer | name = Cork Graham | image = Cork Graham, 1986.jpg | alt = Cork Graham in El Salvador (1986) | caption = Graham in [El Salvador](/source/El_Salvador), 1986 | birth_name = Frederick Graham | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1964|11|29}} | nationality = [American](/source/United_States) | occupation = [Author](/source/Author) | genre = [Spy fiction](/source/Spy_fiction), [political thriller](/source/political_thriller), [memoir](/source/memoir) | language = English | notableworks = ''The Bamboo Chest'' | website = {{URL|corkgraham.com}} }} '''Frederick Graham''' (born November 29, 1964),{{cite news|title=A FAMILY LACKS FUNDS TO FREE SON IN VIETNAM|last=Martin|first=Robert A|author2=United Press International|date=March 12, 1984|publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirer|pages=E14}} who writes under the name '''Cork Graham''',{{cite news|title=ADVENTURER WRITES BOOK ABOUT JAIL TIME IN VIETNAM|last=VO|first=KIM|date=March 26, 2005|publisher=Mercury News|pages=1B}} is an American author of adventure memoir and [political thriller](/source/political_thriller) fiction novels. He is a former [combat photographer](/source/War_photography), who was imprisoned in [Vietnam](/source/Vietnam) for [illegally entering the country](/source/illegal_entry) while supposedly looking for [treasure buried](/source/buried_treasure) by [Captain Kidd](/source/Captain_Kidd). == Background == As a boy, Cork Graham lived in Saigon, [South Vietnam](/source/South_Vietnam), from 1968 to 1972 his father working there as an electrical engineer.{{cite news|title=Coming home has a special meaning for 3 Americans Adventurer says quest 'stupid'|date=May 20, 1984|publisher=Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA)|pages=A1}} He enrolled in the [College of San Mateo](/source/College_of_San_Mateo) and became a member of the [Alpha Tau Omega](/source/Alpha_Tau_Omega) fraternity, but he dropped out without graduating. He returned to [Southeast Asia](/source/Southeast_Asia) in April 1983 intending to be a [photojournalist](/source/photojournalist). He arrived at [Bangkok](/source/Bangkok), planning to photograph the conflict in [Kampuchea](/source/Kampuchea). Having no experience and no contacts, however, he could not obtain any work. Graham wrote, "I was living on five dollars a day in the slums of Bangkok. You know the atmosphere, rats. ..." ==Captain Kidd incident== Graham was invited on a [treasure hunting](/source/treasure_hunting) expedition off the Vietnamese island of [Phú Quốc](/source/Ph%C3%BA_Qu%E1%BB%91c). The expedition was looking for treasure allegedly buried by the 17th-century [pirate](/source/pirate) [Captain Kidd](/source/Captain_Kidd). The leader of the expedition was Richard Knight, who has been described as an "extrovert" and "failed actor". Out of work, Graham "snapped at the chance." Graham met Knight on June 7. Knight claimed to be in possession of a map passed down from his grandfather detailing the position of Captain Kidd's buried treasure.{{cite news|title=2 ON CAPT. KIDD TRAIL REPORTED SEEN IN JAIL|last=United Press International|date=July 30, 1983|pages=A05|publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirer}} "I knew I had a story," Graham later said, "whether you find treasure or not." They rented a [speedboat](/source/speedboat) on June 8 and set off from the [Thai](/source/Thailand) resort of [Pattaya](/source/Pattaya), Knight armed with the 300-year-old [treasure map](/source/treasure_map). They were arrested on June 16, 1983, by Vietnamese authorities for illegally landing in Vietnam. According to a western official following the case in [Hanoi](/source/Hanoi), the whereabouts of Knight and Graham were unknown until late July, when it was learned they were being held in a provincial prison at [Kien Giang](/source/Kien_Giang). The Vietnamese government officially reported to British officials that they were holding the pair on September 1.{{cite news|title=FATHER TOLD VIETNAM IS HOLDING SON|last=United Press Internati|date=September 4, 1983|publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirer|pages=A19}} In November a provincial court found them both guilty of illegally landing on Vietnamese territory and assessed each a $10,000 [fine](/source/fine_(penalty)). The boat and all their equipment were [confiscate](/source/confiscate)d. The families of both said they did not have the money to pay the fines and appealed for their release on humanitarian grounds. The Vietnamese government, however, insisted that the provincial court's ruling stood and the amounts had to be paid. The Vietnamese indicated they expected the British and American governments to come up with the money, but both refused on grounds it would set a bad precedent. One diplomat complained "The Vietnamese think we are a charity." The fine, he said, "is essentially a ransom." Late in 1983 the pair were transferred from the provincial prison at Kien Giang to a converted French military building in [Ho Chi Minh City](/source/Ho_Chi_Minh_City). Graham's father said his son was visited by an intermediary in January who "reported back that Fred was doing well. His morale was in pretty good shape and the indications were that he was getting a good, balanced diet, fish and vegetables, and any medical attention he needed." He also reported to Graham's father that Graham and Knight were kept together in a shuttered 16-by-16-foot room, and that they didn't get much light or outside exercise. Graham's father established a "Free Freddie Fund", and on May 18, 1984 Graham was released after his family paid the $10,000 fine.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/18/world/around-the-world-hanoi-frees-american-11-months-after-capture.html|title=AROUND THE WORLD; Hanoi Frees American 11 Months After Capture|agency=REUTERS|date=May 18, 1984|page=5, Col. 6|work=The New York Times|accessdate=2009-09-01}} Graham said "I feel great" when he arrived in [Bangkok](/source/Bangkok) on his way home from Ho Chi Minh City. Knight, who had been unable to raise the money for his release, was still held. Knight had raised only $2,000 and was said to have been suffering from [severe depression](/source/Mood_disorder).{{cite news|title=Tracking Captain Kidd's Treasure Puts Pair in Vietnamese Captivity|last=Branigin|first=William|date=12 May 1984|newspaper=The Washington Post}} [Kenneth Crutchlow](/source/Kenneth_Crutchlow), a British businessman who owned a taxi business (London Transport of Sonoma) heard of the capture of Knight and donated $8,000 for Knight's release. Knight was released on August 20.{{cite news|title=BRITON HELD IN VIETNAM TO BE FREED|last=United Press International|date=August 21, 1984 |page=A20| publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirer}} While Graham and Knight were released in 1984, the two Thai boatmen who accompanied them remained in captivity.{{cite news|title=Englishman springs Thai pair imprisoned in Vietnam after search for pirate treasure |last=Associated Press|date=23 January 1987|page=F06|publisher=The Orange County Register}} They were finally released after 44 months in captivity when Crutchlow paid the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok $6,000. Crutchlow said it was his "duty as an Englishman" to help them. "It was an Englishman who got them into Vietnam. If he wasn't going to help them, then there had to be an Englishman who could." Crutchlow planned to sell one of his [London-style taxicabs](/source/Hackney_carriage) to pay for the fine. A diplomat later called the hunt "a hare-brained scheme." ''[The Washington Post](/source/The_Washington_Post)'' described it as "dubious, since historians have never agreed whether Captain Kidd and his pirate ship, ''[Adventure Galley](/source/Adventure_Galley)'', ever sailed the waters off the [Indochinese](/source/Mainland_Southeast_Asia) coast." "It was pretty stupid," Graham said later of the whole idea and his decision to follow Knight. "I couldn't believe he was really going on this because it was really strange," Perhaps not so "hare-brained" to others, since according to a US State Department memo sent from the US Embassy in Singapore, at 8:34 a.m. [Zulu time](/source/Zulu_time), July 29, 1983: "Luckily, Grimley did not know or chose not to reveal the exact locations of the treasure on the island, else the Vice Consul in Singapore may have set her jib by now."{{cite news|title=State Dept. FOIA declassified telegram |last=US STATE DEPT|date=29 July 1983|publisher=US STATE DEPT}} ==Post incident== Graham returned to America {{Convert|40|lb}} lighter than when he had left home, and doctors diagnosed him with [post-traumatic stress disorder](/source/post-traumatic_stress_disorder). In the mid-to-late 1980s, he went to [Central America](/source/Central_America), again as a freelance photojournalist. After four years in the war, he went to Alaska to live in the silence of nature. Graham returned to Vietnam in 1999 to reconcile with his past. He revisited his second and third prisons in Ho Chi Minh City, one of which was at Bach Dang #3, a street along the Saigon River; the front portion of which had been converted into a restaurant. In 2004, a memoir was published about his Vietnam treasure hunt/prison adventure, titled ''The Bamboo Chest: An Adventure in Healing the Trauma of War'', in which he wrote about confronting (during seven months' solitary of an eleven-month confinement) a case of post-traumatic stress disorder, incurred from observing the Tet Offensive of 1968 as a child in Saigon, South Vietnam.The Bamboo Chest He has provided consulting services on PTSD, as well as lecturing on the hunting of [feral pigs](/source/wild_boar).{{cite news|url=https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/going-hog-wild-feral-pigs-good-initiation-to-2704325.php|title= Going hog wild Feral pigs good initiation to big game |last=McHugh|first=Paul|date=January 20, 2005|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|access-date=2009-09-01}} In June 2011, he became a weekly columnist for [Human Events](/source/Human_Events), focusing on the [United States Constitution](/source/United_States_Constitution) and the [Second Amendment](/source/Second_Amendment).{{cite news|url=http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Cork+Graham|title=Cork Graham's Weekly Column at Human Events|last=Graham|first=Cork|date=June 14, 2011|publisher=Eagle Publishing, Inc.|accessdate=2011-07-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616162916/http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Cork+Graham|archive-date=June 16, 2011|url-status=dead}} He appeared on Discovery Channel’s 2015 series ''[Treasure Quest: Snake Island](/source/Treasure_Quest%3A_Snake_Island)'' as the treasure hunting team’s leader during season one and two, where Discovery Channel used Graham’s personal history to bring credibility to a fully scripted reality TV show. This resulted in a tell-all whistleblower memoir on the media industry, titled ''So You Want to be a Reality TV Star: Everything I Learned About Sex, Drugs, Fraud, and Rock and Roll as Team Leader of Treasure Quest: Snake Island,'' where he claims most of the show was scripted and/or staged, with many of the treasure finds being cheaply made replicas. Graham persevered through a three-year lawsuit against the Discovery Corporation, in order to keep his First Amendment rights, and his memoir available on bookshelves. ==Written works== *{{cite book|last=Graham|first=Cork|title=So You Want to be a Reality TV Star: Everything I Learned About Sex, Drugs, Fraud, and Rock and Roll as Team Leader of Treasure Quest: Snake Island.|publisher=Rigel Media|year=2018|isbn=978-0-9703580-2-8}} * {{cite book|last=Graham|first=Cork|title=The Bamboo Chest, 2nd Edition|publisher=Rigel Media|year=2011|isbn=978-0-9703580-0-4}} * {{cite book|last=Graham|first=Frederick "Cork"|title=The Bamboo Chest: An Adventure in Healing the Trauma of War|publisher=Dragon Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-970-35801-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/bamboochest00fred}} * {{cite book|last=Graham|first=Cork|title=The Sacred Art of Hunting: Myths, Legends, and the Modern Mythos|editor=James A. Swan|publisher=Willow Creek Press|year=1999|edition=illustrated|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sacredartofhunti00jame/page/126 126–128]|chapter=Moose Hunt, Healing Hunt|isbn=978-1-572-23188-7|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/sacredartofhunti00jame/page/126}} ==Television/radio== * ''[Treasure Quest: Snake Island](/source/Treasure_Quest%3A_Snake_Island)'' (2015/2016){{cite news|url=http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/treasure-quest-snake-island/bios/cork-graham/|title= Treasure Quest: Snake Island|last=Graham|first=Cork|date=July 17, 2015|accessdate=2015-08-02}} * ''Myth Hunters: Finding Treasure Island Off of Vietnam'' (2014){{cite news|url= https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2520300/fullcredits#cast|title= Myth Hunters: Finding Treasure Island Off of Vietnam|last=Graham|first=Fred|date=April 13, 2014|accessdate=2014-04-13}} * ''Raiders of the Lost Past--The Hunt for Pirate's Treasure'' (2012){{cite news|url= https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2520300/fullcredits|title= The Hunt For Pirate's Treasure: Raiders of the Lost Past|last=Graham|first=Fred|date=November 16, 2011|accessdate=2011-11-16}} * ''Cork's Outdoors'' (2009) – writer/host * ''[KFOG](/source/KFOG) Morning Show'' (2006) – guest * ''[Good Morning America](/source/Good_Morning_America)'' (1984) – guest ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{cite web|url=http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Cork+Graham|title=Guns & Patriots Weekly Column|publisher=Human Events|accessdate=2011-07-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616162916/http://www.humanevents.com/search.php?author_name=Cork+Graham|archive-date=2011-06-16|url-status=dead}} * {{cite web|url=http://www.combatcamera.org/roster/iccaroster.php#G|title=ICCA Membership Roster: "G"|publisher=The International Combat Camera Association, Inc. (ICCA) |accessdate=2009-09-01}} * {{cite web|url=http://www.piratetreasureisland.com/origin_map.htm|title=THE ORIGIN OF THE MAP|last=Taylor|first=Kevin|date=April 2002|publisher=piratetreasureisland.com|accessdate=2009-09-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503044058/http://www.piratetreasureisland.com/origin_map.htm|archive-date=2009-05-03|url-status=dead}} * {{cite web|url=http://www.oceanrowing.com/KFC/thailand.htm|title=Letter from Ambassador of Thailand to Crutchlow|date=5 February 1987|accessdate=2009-09-03}} * {{cite web|url=http://www.corkgraham.com|title=Cork Graham Official Site|accessdate=2009-09-04}} * {{cite web|url=http://www.corkincombat.com/|title=Combat/News Photography by Cork Graham|accessdate=2009-09-04}} * {{cite web|url=http://www.corksoutdoors.com/|title= Cork's Outdoors Multimedia Magazine|accessdate=2009-05-28}} * {{cite web|url=http://www.globalcounterterror.com/|title= Global Counter Terror (GCT) Magazine|accessdate=2010-07-25}} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Cork}} Category:1964 births Category:American spy fiction writers Category:American war photographers Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American photojournalists Category:Writers from California Category:San Francisco State University alumni Category:People of the Salvadoran Civil War Category:American expatriates in Vietnam Category:Living people Category:American non-fiction outdoors writers Category:American hunters Category:American expatriates in Thailand Category:American male novelists Category:21st-century American male writers Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:American male non-fiction writers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Cork Graham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cork_Graham) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cork_Graham?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.