Kaspar Hauser

What are you talking about? Um, and then-

Who is Kasper Hauser?

He just goes home, and Bethany's there.

How did, how did it happen?

Um, throughout history, I mean, there have been people who have just sort of emerged from the woods, and they, they don't speak English.

Um, I don't know if you're familiar with Kaspar Hauser and his story, but, um, he, he was a child who was apparently reared in total isolation and could not speak, uh, or reason.

Um, and he gets lumped into, to feral humans by others, not by me.

Okay.

There arrived one morning in the busy little hamlet of Council Grove, Morris County, Kansas, during the month of May, a strange, mysterious person.

He attracted much attention, for he was to the denizens of that remote frontier town as curious a personage as the man in the iron mask, or the awkward Caspar Hauser, whose appearance at the gates of Nuremberg once startled the good people of that staid and quiet town, hoary with the conservatism of centuries.

The stranger who came so unexpectedly to Council Grove in the spring of 1861, evidently a priest, talked but little.

It was an exceedingly difficult task to engage him in conversation, so profoundly did he seem impressed with the idea of some impending danger.

There arrived one morning in the busy little hamlet of Council Grove, Morris County, Kansas, during the month of May, a strange, mysterious person.

He attracted much attention, for he was to the denizens of that remote frontier town as curious a personage as the man in the iron mask, or the awkward Caspar Hauser, whose appearance at the gates of Nuremberg once startled the good people of that staid and quiet town, awry with the conservatism of centuries.

The stranger who came so unexpectedly to Council Grove in the spring of 1861, evidently a priest, talked but little.

It was an exceedingly difficult task to engage him in conversation, so profoundly did he seem impressed with the idea of some impending danger.

But either way, make sure you close your windows when you go to bed.

Now, let's take a look at the mystery of Kasper Hauser.

It's one of the most significant 19th century enigmas involving child isolation, royal conspiracy theories, and unidentified assailants.

Appearing on the streets of Nuremberg in 1828, Kasper Hauser claimed to have been raised in total darkness and solitude.

His life and sudden violent demise five years later remains a subject of intense historical and genetic debate.

Now, let's take a look at the factual account based on contemporary police records, medical examinations, and modern DNA analysis.

But either way, make sure you close your windows when you go to bed.

Now let's take a look at the mystery of Kaspar Hauser.

It's one of the most significant 19th century enigmas involving child isolation, royal conspiracy theories, and unidentified assailants.

Appearing on the streets of Nuremberg in 1828, Kaspar Hauser claimed to have been raised in total darkness and solitude.

His life and sudden violent demise five years later remains a subject of intense historical and genetic debate.

Now let's take a look at the factual account based on contemporary police records, medical examinations, and modern DNA analysis.

So if Hauser was the true prince, his existence threatened the legitimacy of the reigning House of Baden.

This would explain the extreme measures taken to keep him isolated and eventually to eliminate him.

And tonight, we look at the story of a boy who came from nowhere.

Of Kaspar Hauser, who appeared in the streets of Nuremberg in 1828, claiming to have spent his entire life imprisoned in darkness.

Of the letters he carried and the strange story he told.

of the theory that swept across Europe, that this bewildered boy was in truth a stolen prince, hidden away to keep him from the throne, of the violent and unexplained death that ended his life five years later, and of the extraordinary piece of modern science that, in the year 2024, finally answered one of the great questions about him, while leaving the deepest questions of all exactly as unanswered as they were nearly two centuries ago.

One more time, breathing in deep, slow, through the nose, filling the lungs for four seconds, holding for six, and slowly and controlled, back out again.

Now, as you breathe normally, let's head back to Nuremberg, the 1800s, and the boy who came from nowhere.

The letters that Kaspar Hauser carried into Nuremberg that day were, from the very beginning, a puzzle in themselves.

The first one, addressed to Captain von Weissnig, bore a strange heading.