Speaker 1: Back one day millions of years ago, insects chitter and
Speaker 1: chirp across a barren, rocky desert scape under an electric
Speaker 1: haze of early morning light. While sheltering in some nearby caves,
Speaker 1: a community of hominids huddled together for warmth as their
Speaker 1: weight to the first golden rays of dawn. When finally
Speaker 1: they come, the hominids emerge into the light to find
Speaker 1: something bizarre and alien standing before them at all obsidian monolith,
Speaker 1: unlike anything they have ever seen before. As the hominids
Speaker 1: grunt and squawk with a mix of fear and confusion,
Speaker 1: some are brave enough to touch it as they make
Speaker 1: futile attempts to fathom its meaning. Hours later, in the
Speaker 1: shadow of the monolith, as the sun reaches its zenith
Speaker 1: in the sky above it, one hominid is scraping about
Speaker 1: in the sand when they grab a thick bone from
Speaker 1: the skeleton of a dead taper nearby and begin to
Speaker 1: flap it about in the dust. Then, gripping it a
Speaker 1: little harder, they start to smash it against the other bones,
Speaker 1: pounding and pounding more with ever increasing intensity, before finally
Speaker 1: they unleash the full force of their strength and bring
Speaker 1: the bone crashing through the center of the tapier's skull,
Speaker 1: smashing it to smithereens. Having finally calmed, the hominid tosses
Speaker 1: the bone high into the air, but as it falls
Speaker 1: back to Earth, the bone and desert landscape are suddenly
Speaker 1: replaced by a bone shaped spaceship drifting above a planet
Speaker 1: through the vast emptiness of space. Many may recognize this
Speaker 1: as one of the most profound and iconic scenes of
Speaker 1: twentieth century cinema. Taken from Stanley Kubrick's nineteen sixty eight
Speaker 1: masterpiece two thousand and one, A Space Odyssey, it is
Speaker 1: a singular moment of cinematic genius, creating, in one expert transition,
Speaker 1: a direct line from the discovery of want and violence
Speaker 1: to the greatest technological achievements humanity can presently comprehend. It
Speaker 1: is a scene that suggests provocatively that not only is
Speaker 1: humanity indelibly characterized by both these things, but that the
Speaker 1: existence of one may be predicated on the existence of
Speaker 1: the other. Taken more broadly, it can also be read
Speaker 1: as a statement on the concept of original sin, or,
Speaker 1: more precisely, to strip away its theological connotations, aposting of
Speaker 1: the age old question of whether our potential to be
Speaker 1: good or bad, as we might describe it, is something
Speaker 1: already inherent within us from the day we are born,
Speaker 1: or whether it is something imprinted upon us by the attitudes, morais,
Speaker 1: and conventions of the world into which we emerge. It
Speaker 1: is a complicated and fraught argument that, barring the most
Speaker 1: extreme type of human experiment, is unlikely to ever be
Speaker 1: satisfactorily answered anytime soon. From time to time, however, a
Speaker 1: unique opportunity presents itself from which we might draw an
Speaker 1: insight into the truth of the matter. You're listening to Unexplained,
Speaker 1: and I'm Richard McClain smith. The pristine and bustling city
Speaker 1: of Nuanberg, as famed priest Martin Luther had, it, shines
Speaker 1: throughout Germany like a sun among the moon and stars.
Speaker 1: Even today, certainly within the walled parts of the old city,
Speaker 1: it remains as mesmerizing as ever, an entire town of
Speaker 1: gingerbread homes, tottering fairy tale towers, and grand, crooked timber
Speaker 1: framed buildings, resplendent under their vibrant terra cotta tiles, all
Speaker 1: in the shadow of its towering medieval castle perched high
Speaker 1: on a hill to the north of the city. It
Speaker 1: was one warm afternoon in late May of eighteen twenty
Speaker 1: eight in the unschlit Plats, a quiet square on the
Speaker 1: western edge of Nuremberg. Sometime around four thirty pm, the
Speaker 1: shoemaker George Fikman was sweeping the cobbles outside its store
Speaker 1: when he was distracted by the sight of a man
Speaker 1: clumsily making his way across the square. It was bizarre
Speaker 1: the way he moved, caught between simply trying to stay
Speaker 1: upright while moving forward at the same time flinging out
Speaker 1: his legs in front of him, one after the other,
Speaker 1: as if they didn't quite belong to him. From afar,
Speaker 1: he looked like any other regular citizen of the city,
Speaker 1: a little short, perhaps, had just under five foot, but
Speaker 1: dressed in a common graycloth jacket, black silk scarf and
Speaker 1: dark felt hat trimmed with yellow ribbon, from under which
Speaker 1: a head of light brown curls could just about be
Speaker 1: seen cascading out. Fikman first assumed the man was drunk,
Speaker 1: but as he looked harder, he soon realized he wasn't
Speaker 1: a man at all, but a boy who appeared to
Speaker 1: be in great discomfort. Rushing quickly over to help, Fikman
Speaker 1: offered his arm for the boy to hold on to,
Speaker 1: causing him to stumble suddenly, then simply stare back at
Speaker 1: him through a pair of vacant, pale blue eyes. The
Speaker 1: boy's toes, he could see now, was sticking out the
Speaker 1: ends of his boots. Fikman asked the boy for his name,
Speaker 1: as if then only seeing the shoemaker for the first time.
Speaker 1: The boy ignored the question and gestured to his feet,
Speaker 1: grimacing with palpable pain. Then, after steadying himself against a
Speaker 1: nearby wall, he reached into his pocket, took out a
Speaker 1: letter and handed it to Vikman. The man studied the
Speaker 1: address on the front of it, with some surprise to
Speaker 1: the well borne captain of the fourth Squadron of the
Speaker 1: sixth Regiment of Light Horses. It read Fikman again at
Speaker 1: the strange, disheveled youth, and asked once more for his name.
Speaker 1: After taking a moment to think about it, he replied instead,
Speaker 1: I want to be the rider my father was yes,
Speaker 1: But what is your name? Said Vikman again, But the
Speaker 1: boy seemed not to understand, his face crumbling as though
Speaker 1: he were about to cry. Please, he said pitifully, I
Speaker 1: want to be the rider my father was. Fikman shook
Speaker 1: his head and looked about the deserted square, then motioned
Speaker 1: for the boy to follow him. After a short but
Speaker 1: arduous walk, Fikman led the mysterious boy to the home
Speaker 1: of Captain Friedrich von Vessenig, the current captain of the
Speaker 1: fourth Squadron. The door was answered an extremely confused looking servant, who,
Speaker 1: like Vikman, also asked first for the boy's name, but
Speaker 1: just as before, the boy replied with his own intense
Speaker 1: look of confusion, before stating once more that I want
Speaker 1: to be the rider my father was. Fikman chuckled to himself,
Speaker 1: then handed the boy's letter to the servant with a
Speaker 1: quick glance at the address. The servant informed the pair
Speaker 1: that the captain was not currently at home and suggested
Speaker 1: they try again later, But as he closed the door,
Speaker 1: the boy began to cry and pointed to his feet.
Speaker 1: Seeing the blisters now clearly visible under the boy's toes,
Speaker 1: the servant softened and agreed to let him wait in
Speaker 1: the barn until the captain returned. While there, the boy
Speaker 1: was given some meat to eat, but no sooner had
Speaker 1: he placed it in his mouth, He immediately spat it
Speaker 1: out with disgust, as his entire body shook from the
Speaker 1: revulsion of it. It was the same when he tried
Speaker 1: the beer they brought him too. When simple bread and
Speaker 1: water was offered, however, the boy gobbled it down with glee. Then,
Speaker 1: with obvious relief at finally being off his feet, the
Speaker 1: boy sat down on a pile of straw with his
Speaker 1: back against the wall and his legs stretched out in
Speaker 1: front of him, then promptly fell into a deep sleep.
Speaker 1: A few hours later, the captain arrived home to much
Speaker 1: excitement from his children, who by then had become well
Speaker 1: acquainted with the peculiar creature now lying asleep in their barn,
Speaker 1: having spent much of the afternoon secretly spying on him.
Speaker 1: Completely bemused as to what they were talking about, the
Speaker 1: captain was then handed the boy's letter from his servant
Speaker 1: and eckleet or it open. Though the writing was legible,
Speaker 1: it was littered with strange grammar and numerous spelling mistakes.
Speaker 1: It read as follows from the Bavarian border, the place
Speaker 1: is unnamed, eighteen twenty eight. I'm sending you a boy
Speaker 1: who would like to faithfully serve his king. This boy
Speaker 1: was laid on me on the seventh of October eighteen twelve.
Speaker 1: I myself have ten children. I have enough to do
Speaker 1: to get by, and his mother only laid the boy
Speaker 1: for being raised, and I was not able to find her.
Speaker 1: I raised him as a Christian, and I have since
Speaker 1: eighteen twelve not allowed him to take a single step
Speaker 1: out of the house, so that nobody knows the place
Speaker 1: where he was brought up, and he himself doesn't know.
Speaker 1: So you can ask him as much as you like,
Speaker 1: but he can't tell you. Read and writing. I have
Speaker 1: already taught him, And when we ask him what he
Speaker 1: wants to become, he said he wants to be a
Speaker 1: cavalryman like his father was. If he had parents, which
Speaker 1: he has none, he would have become a learned boy.
Speaker 1: You only have to show him something once and he
Speaker 1: can do it best. Captain. You shouldn't torture him with questions.
Speaker 1: He doesn't know where I am. I took him away
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, and he doesn't know
Speaker 1: anymore how to go home. If you can't keep him,
Speaker 1: you will have to butcher him or hang him up
Speaker 1: in the chimney. Within the letter to the captain was
Speaker 1: a second letter, which the captain presumed was given to
Speaker 1: the writer of the first when the boy was apparently
Speaker 1: left with him. The child is called Casper. He was
Speaker 1: born on the third yet of April in the year
Speaker 1: eighteen twelve. I ask you to raise him until his
Speaker 1: seventeenth year. Then sent him to Nuremberg, to the sixth Regiment.
Speaker 1: That is where his father was too. I am a
Speaker 1: poor little girl. I cannot feed the boy, and his
Speaker 1: father is dead. Since the captain had no idea who
Speaker 1: the boy was and had no use for him, he
Speaker 1: ordered his servants to have him delivered immediately to the
Speaker 1: nearest police station. It had just gone eight pm when
Speaker 1: the boy was handed over to the police, wailing in
Speaker 1: pain at each step as he shuffled into the station building,
Speaker 1: drawing the attention of all who were inside. Once again,
Speaker 1: the boy was asked for his name, but once again
Speaker 1: he could only stare back vacantly and offer the same
Speaker 1: old refrain in response, I want to be the rider.
Speaker 1: My father was unsure what to do with him. The
Speaker 1: police first made a search of his pockets to see
Speaker 1: if they might find any evidence as to who he
Speaker 1: was or where he came from. Little was found, however,
Speaker 1: save for some rags patterned with blue and white flowers,
Speaker 1: a small envelope with some gold dust in it, and
Speaker 1: a collection of religious texts, including one titled the Art
Speaker 1: of Replacing Lost Time and Years Badly Spent. A red
Speaker 1: and white handkerchief was also found, with the initials K
Speaker 1: h embroidered onto it, suggesting at least a second name
Speaker 1: beginning with H to go with the first one, Casper.
Speaker 1: As the police discussed what they should do next, the
Speaker 1: boy could only watch on through tears as he sat
Speaker 1: in the corner, seemingly unsure where he was exactly or
Speaker 1: what he wanted. Eventually, one officer approached him quietly and
Speaker 1: showed him a coin. The boy's face lit up into
Speaker 1: a huge, beaming smile. Oors oors, he said, strangely, with
Speaker 1: wondrous joy, now suddenly indifferent to the tears of anguish
Speaker 1: still wet on his cheeks. It was, they thought, as
Speaker 1: if he were only a little child encased within a
Speaker 1: teenager's body. Then another officer grabbed a pen and paper
Speaker 1: and showed them to the boy, who seemed to recognize
Speaker 1: what they were taking the pen confidently between his thumb
Speaker 1: and fingers. The officers watched on with excitement as the
Speaker 1: boy dipped it into the ink and began to write
Speaker 1: in careful flowing letters K A S P A R
Speaker 1: H A U S E R. Casper Hauser said the officer,
Speaker 1: is that your name? But the boy could only stare
Speaker 1: back blankly in reply. With nothing else to be done.
Speaker 1: So late in the evening, Casper, as he would from
Speaker 1: then on be known, was taken by horse and cart
Speaker 1: to the prison at Vestner Gate in the north of
Speaker 1: the city, a place for vagrants and minor offenders in
Speaker 1: the shadow of the Imperial Castle. The following morning, a
Speaker 1: private room was prepared for him, where he could be
Speaker 1: watched over by resident jailer Andreas Hiltell, who lived on
Speaker 1: site with his wife and their eight children. As a
Speaker 1: father himself, it was hard not to take pity on
Speaker 1: Casper and his unusual predicament, or to be struck by
Speaker 1: just how childlike he was, even down to the way
Speaker 1: he would pour at things with his hands, as if
Speaker 1: he hadn't yet become accustomed to the dexterity of his
Speaker 1: fingers like everyone else. Hiltol's attempts to communicate with him
Speaker 1: were met only with confused grunts and vacant stairs. After
Speaker 1: hearing the boy could write, however, he procured him some
Speaker 1: paper and ink, and then watched with interest as he
Speaker 1: quickly began to write something down. When the jailer returned
Speaker 1: to Casper's room soon after, he was amazed to find
Speaker 1: he'd covered four sides of paper in writing. Hiltol's amazement
Speaker 1: soon turned to disappointment, however, when the writing was found
Speaker 1: only to comprise the letters of the alphabet and Casper's
Speaker 1: name written over and over again. Over the next few days,
Speaker 1: Casper's time was spent mostly at the police station, sat
Speaker 1: quietly crying to himself in the corner as the police
Speaker 1: waited in vain for someone to claim him. He was
Speaker 1: quick to be cheered up, however, whenever the officers occasioned
Speaker 1: to give him a gift of coins or ribbons, which
Speaker 1: he delighted in playing with as he shouted the word
Speaker 1: horse again, much to everyone's confusion. That was until one
Speaker 1: morning when one officer brought him a large wooden horse
Speaker 1: to play with. On seeing it, Casper burst into tears
Speaker 1: of unbridled joy as he wrapped his arms around it,
Speaker 1: greeting it like a long lost friend. Then, taking the
Speaker 1: various coins and ribbons he had amassed, he proceeded to
Speaker 1: drape them around the horse's neck. Is there something interfering
Speaker 1: with your happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals?
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Speaker 1: A few days after his mysterious appearance in Nuremberg, police
Speaker 1: took Casper for a walk around the city in the
Speaker 1: hope that he might be able to at least identify
Speaker 1: what direction he'd come from. Though he failed to recognize anything,
Speaker 1: it was fascinating to watch the way he moved about,
Speaker 1: or how mesmerized he became by the sudden toll of
Speaker 1: a nearby bell as he pointed to his ear and
Speaker 1: scanned the air above, as if he might somehow see
Speaker 1: the sound of it. Back at the jail, Casper divided
Speaker 1: most of his time between drawing and writing and playing
Speaker 1: with the numerous wooden horses he had now been given.
Speaker 1: As he sat quietly, delicately moving them about the room,
Speaker 1: it was as though he believed they were alive. Whenever
Speaker 1: he was given bread and water, he took pains to
Speaker 1: make sure the horses at their share, first pressing the
Speaker 1: bread against their mouths before dipping their noses in the
Speaker 1: water so they could drink. At one point, he even
Speaker 1: spent two days trying to convince one of the horses
Speaker 1: to take a bridle piece in its mouth, only for
Speaker 1: Hiltel to have to try and explain that the horse
Speaker 1: couldn't open its mouth. Over time, Hiltell allowed Casper to
Speaker 1: sit for dinner with his family, and though he didn't
Speaker 1: eat himself, he seemed to delight in observing their various behaviors.
Speaker 1: Hiltel also allowed two of his children to play with Casper,
Speaker 1: hoping it might help his development. Despite first being scared
Speaker 1: that the jailer's two year old daughter, Margaret, might hurt him,
Speaker 1: Casper soon learned to enjoy their company, and so things
Speaker 1: continued for the next week as all the while, the
Speaker 1: news began to spread of the strange child in the
Speaker 1: tower who'd appeared one afternoon out of thin air, transported
Speaker 1: from another world like something out of a bizarre fairy tale.
Speaker 1: Having been informed of Casper's situation and the terrible treatment
Speaker 1: meted out to him as described in the letter, the
Speaker 1: city's mayor, yak of Binder, made it his personal responsibility
Speaker 1: to help him. He began by having him brought to
Speaker 1: his home, where he was formerly assessed by the mayor's doctor.
Speaker 1: The doctor confirmed the boy's age to be in the
Speaker 1: region of fourteen to sixteen years old, in keeping with
Speaker 1: the dates given in the letter. On account of the light,
Speaker 1: downy hairs on his chin and top lip. Though slightly
Speaker 1: small for his age but only four foot nine inches,
Speaker 1: the boy's physique was judged to be well proportioned, if
Speaker 1: a little on the stocky side, with no obvious physical
Speaker 1: defect save for one large recently healed scar on the
Speaker 1: boy's arm, and though his skin was thought to be
Speaker 1: quite pale, it wasn't considered to be a sign of
Speaker 1: any obvious sickness. One unusual aspect, however, was just how
Speaker 1: weak his limbs were, with the doctor estimating his strength
Speaker 1: to be only that of a child half his age.
Speaker 1: As for his attempts at walking, this was more in
Speaker 1: keeping with a mere two year old. The boy also
Speaker 1: had a clear aversion to bright light, which he took
Speaker 1: great efforts to avoid, shielding his eyes from it at
Speaker 1: the slightest exposure, in keeping with the letter's proclamation that
Speaker 1: he'd been kept inside his entire life. Focusing on distant
Speaker 1: objects was also difficult for him, as if he didn't
Speaker 1: quite understand that they were in the distance at all,
Speaker 1: as opposed to just being small things in front of him,
Speaker 1: all of which led the doctor to conclude that Casper
Speaker 1: was not crazy or an idiot, as he described it,
Speaker 1: but evidently someone who'd been raised like a half wild person,
Speaker 1: having been forcibly and in the most heinous way, removed
Speaker 1: from all human and societal education. With the doctor's assessment
Speaker 1: appearing to confirm what was written in the letter, the
Speaker 1: public's interest in the boy only intensified. The authorities then
Speaker 1: invited people to visit him, in the hope that someone
Speaker 1: might be able to shed some light on where he'd
Speaker 1: come from. Throughout June or manner of visitors came from
Speaker 1: doctors and teachers, to other academics, as well as hundreds
Speaker 1: of members of the general public. Though some came to
Speaker 1: laugh and tease the boy, others, having been touched by
Speaker 1: his plight, came bearing gifts or with the genuine hope
Speaker 1: that they might find a way to communicate with him.
Speaker 1: Casper observed them all with cool detachment, or in many cases,
Speaker 1: didn't observe them at all, preferring instead to play with
Speaker 1: his toys. One visitor, however, soon became a favorite of Casper's.
Speaker 1: George Friederichdwmer had studied under the great philosopher George Wilhelm
Speaker 1: Hegel And had been destined for a solid career as
Speaker 1: a teacher before deteriorating eyesight forced him to retire. Having
Speaker 1: first had his interest in Casper piqued by rumors of
Speaker 1: the wild, feral child being kept locked up in one
Speaker 1: of the city's towers, Dowmer was surprised to find the
Speaker 1: boy's room, by then covered in tens of crude but
Speaker 1: oddly beautiful pictures he'd drawn himself, while the toys that
Speaker 1: ranged from hundreds of tin soldiers to wooden horses and
Speaker 1: other such things common to Nuremberg, despite his apparent lack
Speaker 1: of any civilizing influence, had seemingly unprompted been stacked and
Speaker 1: neatly arranged on the benches that boarded the room. Believing
Speaker 1: Casper to be potentially the most pure form of human
Speaker 1: he'd ever come across, a fascinating creature unblemished by human civilization,
Speaker 1: Dahmer continued to visit him over the next few weeks,
Speaker 1: each time finding small but meaningful ways to engage with
Speaker 1: him and bring him out of his shell. Meanwhile, Mayor
Speaker 1: Binder also continued his regular meetings with the boy, as
Speaker 1: he attempted to get to the bottom of his story,
Speaker 1: and over time, through short, often confused sentences and single
Speaker 1: word grunts, Casper slowly began to reveal it, having done
Speaker 1: his best to make sense of it all. On July fourteenth,
Speaker 1: eight weeks after Casper first appeared, Mayor Binder, released a
Speaker 1: public statement revealing for the first time Casper's story in full.
Speaker 1: It was a tale almost beyond belief. Casper remembered nothing
Speaker 1: of how he came to be in the cage, simply
Speaker 1: that it was all he had ever known. The cage
Speaker 1: was Casper's name for the room in which he was kept, which,
Speaker 1: as he conveyed to the Mayor, was a tiny dirt
Speaker 1: floor space roughly six feet long, four feet wide, and
Speaker 1: only five feet high, Though there were two small windows
Speaker 1: at one end, both were covered with wood, through which
Speaker 1: only a few anemic rays of light ever penetrated. Having
Speaker 1: no concept of day or night, Casper had never seen
Speaker 1: the sun or the moon, and spent more or less
Speaker 1: the entirety of his time in complete darkness and silence.
Speaker 1: From as far back as he could remember, he'd always
Speaker 1: been dressed in a cloth shirt and dark leather pants,
Speaker 1: which had a hole cut out at the backside, through
Speaker 1: which he was able to relieve himself. He would do
Speaker 1: this into a bucket that was kept in a hole
Speaker 1: in the ground in the corner of the room. Whenever
Speaker 1: Casper fell asleep, he would wake up to find the
Speaker 1: bucket had been emptied, while a pitcher of water and
Speaker 1: some pieces of bread had been left out for him. Sometimes,
Speaker 1: when he drank the water, it would taste funny and
Speaker 1: would cause him to fall asleep, after which he awoke
Speaker 1: to find his nails and hair had been trimmed and
Speaker 1: his clothes had been washed. For company, he had two
Speaker 1: white wooden horses and a wooden dog with which he
Speaker 1: would spend most of his time playing. For the rest
Speaker 1: of the time, he slept or simply shuffled about the
Speaker 1: space on his backside, having never learned how to walk. Once,
Speaker 1: when he made too much noise with the horses, a
Speaker 1: man appeared suddenly and beat him on the arm with
Speaker 1: a stick, which, as he explained, was how he got
Speaker 1: the big scar on his arm. It was, he insisted,
Speaker 1: the first and only time he'd ever felt pain. One day,
Speaker 1: the man entered the room again and placed a table
Speaker 1: over his feet, onto which he put a sheet of paper,
Speaker 1: some ink, and a pen to write with. The man,
Speaker 1: who he assumed had been the person keeping him captive
Speaker 1: that whole time, also brought to books with him, which
Speaker 1: he used to help teach Casper how to write. It
Speaker 1: was the most joy that Casper had ever known in
Speaker 1: his lifetime. Throughout it all, the man kept his identity
Speaker 1: hidden by obscuring his face and telling Casper not to
Speaker 1: look in his direction. If the man caught the boy
Speaker 1: looking toward the tiny door in the far corner of
Speaker 1: the room, he told him that if he ever tried
Speaker 1: to get out, something called God would be very angry
Speaker 1: with him and would beat him. After Casper mastered the
Speaker 1: letters of the alphabet, the man turned his attention to
Speaker 1: teaching him how to walk, which he did by hauling
Speaker 1: him off the ground and kicking his legs until he
Speaker 1: learned to put one foot in front of the other.
Speaker 1: It wasn't long after that that their journey began, when
Speaker 1: early one morning, Kasper was awoken suddenly by the man,
Speaker 1: who hurriedly dragged him out of the small door, then
Speaker 1: hoisted him onto his back before whisking him out of
Speaker 1: the building and straight into the cool damp air of
Speaker 1: the outside world. The next thing Casper knew he was
Speaker 1: waking up in the freezing cold, surrounded by strange tall
Speaker 1: things that rustled in the wind above him. Then he
Speaker 1: was stripped naked and redressed in an entirely new set
Speaker 1: of clothes, before being once again hoisted onto the man's
Speaker 1: back and hauled off into the night. Eventually having been
Speaker 1: put down, Casper and the man continued on foot together
Speaker 1: as the man repeated the Lord's prayer over and over again,
Speaker 1: telling Casper to keep his eyes on the ground at
Speaker 1: all times and to never look at him in the face.
Speaker 1: After a while, the man explained that they were heading
Speaker 1: to a place called the Big Village, where Casper would
Speaker 1: learn to be something called a cavalryman, just like his father.
Speaker 1: Over time, Casper's feet began to burn and ache, until
Speaker 1: when he could barely walk any more. They finally arrived
Speaker 1: at the outskirts of the Big Village. There, the man
Speaker 1: pulled Casper back and thrust a letter into his hand,
Speaker 1: telling him he was to deliver it to the captain
Speaker 1: of the sixth Regiment, who lived somewhere in the Big Village. Then,
Speaker 1: after turning Casper in the direction of the city gates.
Speaker 1: He shoved him forward and told him to get walking,
Speaker 1: but Casper didn't budge. As tears filled in his eyes,
Speaker 1: he turned back to the man, whose face was obscured
Speaker 1: by a scarf, and told him, in the few words
Speaker 1: that he had, that he didn't want to be alone,
Speaker 1: and that he wanted the man to go the rest
Speaker 1: of the way with him. Taking a moment to think
Speaker 1: about it, the man then made a deal with the boy,
Speaker 1: agreeing to meet him later if he were to go
Speaker 1: on ahead without him. And with that Casper stepped unsteadily
Speaker 1: from the shelter of the trees and made his way
Speaker 1: toward the city gate. He never saw the man again,
Speaker 1: and so begins the tale of Caspar Houser. At the
Speaker 1: end of his statement, the mayor promised to do all
Speaker 1: that was possible to uncover the crime that, by his reckoning,
Speaker 1: had undoubtedly been committed against Casper, and to discover the
Speaker 1: villain or helpers who committed it. It was stated also
Speaker 1: that anyone who carried within their bosoms a human heart
Speaker 1: should come forward and speak with the police, with the
Speaker 1: offer of a generous reward if they had even the
Speaker 1: smallest shred of evidence that might help them to identify
Speaker 1: and capture the culprit. With it estimated that the boy
Speaker 1: had most likely been held captive since the age of two.
Speaker 1: The police were instructed to focus their attention on any
Speaker 1: children that had been reported missing in the last fourteen years.
Speaker 1: Thanks to the mayor's statement, Casper's story soon caught the
Speaker 1: attention of most of Europe and was even featured in
Speaker 1: papers as far away as the United States of America,
Speaker 1: as many began to speculate about his true identity. Before long,
Speaker 1: some were even speculating that the boy was actually from
Speaker 1: noble stock, but had been snatched away and denied his
Speaker 1: rightful birthright as the result of some nefarious plot. Others
Speaker 1: wondered just how much of the mayor's version of Casper's
Speaker 1: story could truly be believed, since his language skills were
Speaker 1: still reportedly severely limited at the time. Either way, as
Speaker 1: the rumors continued to swirl, all that was left was
Speaker 1: to sit back and wait for more information to come
Speaker 1: to light while the mayor and the relevant authorities debated
Speaker 1: what to do with the young boy. In the meantime.
Speaker 1: Little did they know then that the beguiling tale of
Speaker 1: Caspar Hauser was only about to get even more strange.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to Unexplained Season six, episode five, The
Speaker 1: Boy Who, Part one of two. The second and final
Speaker 1: part will be released next week on Friday, December third.
Speaker 1: If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters,
Speaker 1: you can now do so via Patreon. To receive access
Speaker 1: to add three episodes, just go to patron dot com
Speaker 1: Forward Slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained, the book
Speaker 1: and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before been
Speaker 1: covered on the show, is now available to by worldwide.
Speaker 1: You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones,
Speaker 1: among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music,
Speaker 1: are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and
Speaker 1: rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel
Speaker 1: free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas
Speaker 1: regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you
Speaker 1: have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.
Speaker 1: You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com
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