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Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained Season six, episode five, The Boy Who,

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Speaker 1: Part two. George Friedrich Dahmer watched with amazement as Casper

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Speaker 1: poured at the hand mirror and marveled at the face

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Speaker 1: of the strange boy inside it, peering back at him. Then,

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Speaker 1: just as he had done three or four times already,

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Speaker 1: Casper quickly glanced behind the mirror, only to be disappointed

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Speaker 1: once again to find the boy had vanished. That July afternoon,

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Speaker 1: Professor Daumer had gathered at Mayor Yakov Binder's house to

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Speaker 1: meet with the mayor and anselm Rita von foyerback, famed

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Speaker 1: humanitarian and president of the recently established Court of Appeal

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Speaker 1: in the nearby town of Ansbach, who had ultimate responsibility

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Speaker 1: for any decisions involving Casper. Encouraged by the demonstrable warmth

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Speaker 1: and interest that Dawmer had already shown Casper not to

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Speaker 1: mention his credentials as a celebrated teacher, it was quickly

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Speaker 1: decided that he should take the boy for the time being.

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Speaker 1: On July eighteenth, eighteen twenty eight, just over seven weeks

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Speaker 1: after his mysterious arrival in Nuremberg, Casper was given a

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Speaker 1: room in Dawmer's home on the edge of the city,

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Speaker 1: where he lived with Duma and his sister and mother,

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Speaker 1: and was invited to treat the house as his own.

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Speaker 1: Since Professor Dawmer would be working most of the time,

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Speaker 1: Gottlieb Frear Vontuka, the brother in law of famed philosopher

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Speaker 1: George Hagel, was installed as Casper's guardian. Together, they devised

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Speaker 1: a daily course of lessons to help Casper's development, focusing

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Speaker 1: mainly on speaking, reading, and writing. For the rest of

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Speaker 1: the time, Casper was encouraged to keep up his drawing

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Speaker 1: and to exercise as much as possible. Having seen the

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Speaker 1: progress that Casper had made in the short time he'd

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Speaker 1: known him, Daurmer was convinced that his lack of intellectual

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Speaker 1: faculties was not something inherent in his biology, but simply

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Speaker 1: down to the environment in which he had been raised.

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Speaker 1: This became all the more evident as Casper's speaking and

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Speaker 1: writing skills continued to markedly improve in the weeks and

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Speaker 1: months following his arrival at Durmer's home. But there were

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Speaker 1: other things about Casper that Daurmer hadn't expected to discover,

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Speaker 1: such as his extraordinary ability to read in the dark,

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Speaker 1: or pick his way around the house even in the

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Speaker 1: most pitch black conditions, or perhaps more strangely, his heightened

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Speaker 1: sense of smell, or the way in which he seemed

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Speaker 1: superhumanly attuned to someone's presence. Once, as he approached the

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Speaker 1: cemetery of a nearby church went out for a stroll

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Speaker 1: one day, Casper was suddenly overtaken by cold sweats and

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Speaker 1: began to shake wildly. It was the sickly smell in

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Speaker 1: the air, he said, as he tried not to vomit. Dalma,

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Speaker 1: who hadn't smelt anything unusual, then realized he was talking

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Speaker 1: about the corpses in the graveyard. Clearly, as Damer surmised,

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Speaker 1: having been denied the use of his eyes for so long,

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Speaker 1: his other senses had intensified accordingly. And then there was

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Speaker 1: his strange connection to metal. Once, when Casper was shown

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Speaker 1: a magnet, he grabbed at his chest, suddenly complaining that

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Speaker 1: he could feel the magnet dragging at him, as if

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Speaker 1: it were sucking something out of his body. Another time,

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Speaker 1: Casper was said to have correctly identified a gold coin

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Speaker 1: without looking at it. Intrigued by this bizarre ability, Dama

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Speaker 1: devised an experiment in which he asked Casper to identify

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Speaker 1: three different types of metal hidden under a sheet of paper.

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Speaker 1: After placing his hand above each item for a moment,

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Speaker 1: Casper successfully identified them all. Over time, Casper's diet also

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Speaker 1: broadened as he learned to first keep down and then

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Speaker 1: eventually appreciate a much wider variety of food beyond the

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Speaker 1: bread and water he'd become accustomed to. Within only a

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Speaker 1: few months of moving into Dawma's house, he grew a

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Speaker 1: further two inches, and soon as Casper's ability to communicate

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Speaker 1: continue to improve, so too did his powers of reasoning.

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Speaker 1: The way he comprehended himself and the world began to change.

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Speaker 1: Having had no qualms at all about removing his clothes

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Speaker 1: in front of people, Casper slowly began to feel a

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Speaker 1: sense of shame at being naked, and where once he'd

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Speaker 1: looked at a statue of Jesus Christ nailed to the

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Speaker 1: cross in a local church and demanded that somebody free

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Speaker 1: the tortured man, he eventually came to understand the difference

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Speaker 1: between animate and inanimate objects. Those white wooden toy horses

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Speaker 1: that he once so lovingly fed and watered were soon

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Speaker 1: abandoned as childish and boring, and that stranger's face he'd

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Speaker 1: so often seen in the mirror he slowly began to

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Speaker 1: understand was his own. And as his sense of self

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Speaker 1: and the world began to change, so too did his

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Speaker 1: unders standing of the past and his place within it,

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Speaker 1: or more specifically, his understanding of the countless years he

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Speaker 1: spent locked up in the cage, as he called it.

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Speaker 1: For hours at a time, he would try to think

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Speaker 1: back to how he felt before, puzzled as to how

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Speaker 1: on earth that hadn't even occurred to him that there

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Speaker 1: was an entire world beyond the four dark walls that

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Speaker 1: surrounded him. At other times, the assault on his senses

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Speaker 1: from all the new sounds, smells, and colors he had

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Speaker 1: to contend with, and the speed at which his mind

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Speaker 1: was expanding, left him feeling overwhelmed. On occasion, he even

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Speaker 1: longed to be back in the pitch black silence of

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Speaker 1: his prison, often telling people how much more pleasurable it

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Speaker 1: was for him to look at a blank white wall

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Speaker 1: than to have to endure the tortuous, bucolic scenes of

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Speaker 1: the country outside his bedroom window. In time, however, Casper

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Speaker 1: learned to make peace with his new surroundings and even

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Speaker 1: began to take pleasure in the beauty of the outside world.

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Speaker 1: His languish skills had developed so much that he started

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Speaker 1: work on an autobiography. He was, by all accounts, the

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Speaker 1: happiest he had ever been, and especially fond of Professor

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Speaker 1: Durmer and his family and the charity they'd afforded him,

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Speaker 1: telling them that he wanted to stay in Nuremberg until

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Speaker 1: he'd learned everything that Dumer had to teach him. One night,

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Speaker 1: when the sky was especially clear, Dowmer led Casper outside

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Speaker 1: and showed him the many thousands of stars that glistened

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Speaker 1: in the darkness above them. It was, said Casper, the

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Speaker 1: most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in the world. We

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Speaker 1: often talk about how the advent of streaming has revolutionized

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Speaker 1: the way we engage with audio and visual content, placing

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Speaker 1: In late August, Casper told his guardian Von Tuca about

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Speaker 1: a peculiar dream he'd had the night before. Such things

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Speaker 1: were apparently an entirely new experience for the young boy,

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Speaker 1: who claimed never to have had them before he came

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Speaker 1: to stay in Professor Dawmer's home. In it, he found

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Speaker 1: himself walking the halls of a strange, grand building with

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Speaker 1: huge paintings of people in fancy colored clothes hung up

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Speaker 1: on the walls. Looming over him. Then suddenly he was

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Speaker 1: lying in bed in a room he didn't recognize when

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Speaker 1: a woman appeared in the doorway wearing a yellow hat

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Speaker 1: with thick, luxuriant feathers coming out of it, followed by

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Speaker 1: a man in black with a tall hat and a

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Speaker 1: sword at his side, and a blue ribbon pinned to

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Speaker 1: his chest with a cross hanging down from it. A

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Speaker 1: few weeks later, Vontuka took Casper to vest Castle in

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Speaker 1: the center of Nuremberg. As they approached the large French

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Speaker 1: doors at the front and saw through into the grand

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Speaker 1: hall beyond, Casper suddenly froze. Like my dream, he said,

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Speaker 1: much to Vontuka's confusion. It wasn't the same place he'd

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Speaker 1: seen exactly, but yet something about it felt familiar. It was,

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Speaker 1: he said, as if he'd once lived in a place

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Speaker 1: just like it. Another time, Casper dreamt about a woman

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Speaker 1: who sat crying at the end of his bed, calling

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Speaker 1: him Gottfried over and over again. He believed she was

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Speaker 1: his mother. With the dream sounding so vivid and Casper

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Speaker 1: always being so insistent about them, Vontuca began to wander

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Speaker 1: if they were in fact subconscious memories, slowly coming to

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Speaker 1: the surface. When Professor Dawmer heard about the experience at

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Speaker 1: vest Castle, he asked Casper if he could remember anything

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Speaker 1: distinctive about the place he'd seen in his dream. A

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Speaker 1: coat of arms perhaps that could identify the location. After

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Speaker 1: explaining what that meant to the boy, Casper then took

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Speaker 1: a pen and paper and drew a shield split into

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Speaker 1: four quadrants. In one corner he drew what looked like

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Speaker 1: a lion. In another, he put what looked like a scepter,

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Speaker 1: something he hadn't even seen before, while the last two

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Speaker 1: were given to two swords crossed over and a simple cross.

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Speaker 1: After an exhaustive search, however, Dawma couldn't find anything like

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Speaker 1: it anywhere. Even so, it was hard for Dalma and

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Speaker 1: the others who taken such an interest in the young

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Speaker 1: boy not to be stirred by these uncanny experiences. They

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Speaker 1: began to wonder if there might be some truth to

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Speaker 1: the rumors that he had indeed once come from a

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Speaker 1: family of considerable wealth. Over the next year, things continued

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Speaker 1: a pace under Duma's guidance, as Casper continued to expand

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Speaker 1: his mind while never quite losing his childhood innocence nor

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Speaker 1: what was perhaps his most profound characteristic, his inherent sense

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Speaker 1: of injustice at the suffering of any living creature. A

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Speaker 1: trip to the circus proved especially horrifying for Casper when

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Speaker 1: it soon occurred to him that the performing monkeys he

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Speaker 1: and everyone else were laughing at were in fact prisoners,

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Speaker 1: just like he had been forced to repeat their tricks

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Speaker 1: over and over again, night after night against their will.

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Speaker 1: Realizing his own part in their misery, he turned Todwmer

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Speaker 1: and begged him to be taken away. In time, he

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Speaker 1: began to understand love too in a way. One day,

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Speaker 1: he was found sitting alone crying in his room. When

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Speaker 1: Vontooka asked him what the matter was, he replied, through tears,

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Speaker 1: why was it that he didn't have a mother or

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Speaker 1: a brother or sister, and how it would be so

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Speaker 1: beautiful if he did. Though there was nothing that Professor

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Speaker 1: Dowmer could do for Casper in this regard, he was

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Speaker 1: able to indulge Casper's love of horses by ranging for

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Speaker 1: him to be taught how to ride. Strangely, Casper seemed

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Speaker 1: to take to it as though he had ridden horses

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Speaker 1: his whole life. By all accounts were going well, it

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Speaker 1: seemed By the autumn of eighteen twenty nine, however, Duma

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Speaker 1: began to notice a shift in Casper's attitude, in which

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Speaker 1: he seemed increasingly determined to do things on his own terms.

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Speaker 1: He even began to skip some of the lessons that

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Speaker 1: Duma had arranged for him. On October seventeenth, Dawma scolded

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Speaker 1: Casper for missing yet another lesson, although Casper denied doing

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Speaker 1: any such thing. Later, Casper told Dalma that he felt

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Speaker 1: unwell and was told to stay home in bed to recuperate.

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Speaker 1: It was just after midday as Dawma's sister Katerina, was

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Speaker 1: cleaning the house when she spotted what looked like blood

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Speaker 1: on the stairs leading into the backyard. Looking closer, she

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Speaker 1: noticed a bloody footprint too. Believing Casper had most likely

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Speaker 1: suffered a nose bleat but neglected to clean up after himself,

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Speaker 1: Katerina went to his room to ask him about it,

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Speaker 1: but Casper was nowhere to be found. Katerina eventually followed

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Speaker 1: the trail of blood all the way to the outhouse

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Speaker 1: at the back of the courtyard, where, much to her alarm,

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Speaker 1: she found a large, thick puddle of it on the

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Speaker 1: stone floor. Assuming that a cat had probably just given

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Speaker 1: birth there. Katerina cleaned it up and thought nothing else

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Speaker 1: of it. By lunchtime, however, Casper was still nowhere to

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Speaker 1: be found. When Professor Damer returned home from his mid

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Speaker 1: morning walk, he noticed Casper's coat and shirt hanging up

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Speaker 1: by the side, something he did whenever he went to

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Speaker 1: the outhouse. It was only then that they noticed the

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Speaker 1: dark stain the trapdoor that led to the cellar. Realizing

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00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:08,360
Speaker 1: it was blood too, Katerina lifted the door and cried

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00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:11,080
Speaker 1: out at the sight of even more drops of blood

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Speaker 1: on the steps leading into the darkness below, Shouting for

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Speaker 1: a maid to bring a lamp. Katerina then made her

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Speaker 1: way to the bottom, where in the far corner of

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Speaker 1: the room, which was flooded ankle deep with water, she

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00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:30,640
Speaker 1: could just make out a pale skinned Casper lying slumped

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Speaker 1: against the wall. When they finally managed to haul his

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00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:39,520
Speaker 1: seemingly lifeless body into the kitchen, all gasped in horror

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00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:42,440
Speaker 1: at the sight of his blood street shirt and the

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00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:48,240
Speaker 1: sickening gash on his forehead. Then, slowly, much to their relief,

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00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:54,680
Speaker 1: he began to stir the man. The man, he said weakly,

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00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:59,880
Speaker 1: with a look of abject terror on his face. After

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Speaker 1: being put to bed, Casper spent the next forty eight

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00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:07,040
Speaker 1: hours in a state of delirium, during which he intimated

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Speaker 1: that the man who had once kept him prisoner had

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Speaker 1: tried to murder him. Two days after the apparent attack,

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Speaker 1: he was invited to give a statement to the police,

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Speaker 1: As he explained it, after making a visit to the outhouse,

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Speaker 1: he was just about to leave when he caught sight

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Speaker 1: of a man creeping into the courtyard. Having a bad

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Speaker 1: feeling about it, he waited for the man to pass

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00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:35,040
Speaker 1: through before sticking his head out to check if the

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00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:38,520
Speaker 1: coast was clear, when he looked up suddenly to find

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Speaker 1: the man was standing right in front of him. The man,

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00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:46,880
Speaker 1: who he described as being broad shouldered, was dressed all

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Speaker 1: in black, with shiny boots and lemon colored kid's skin

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00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:54,720
Speaker 1: gloves and a dark scarf wrapped around his face so

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Speaker 1: he couldn't be seen. Then shouting you must die before

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00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:03,120
Speaker 1: you leave the city of Nuremberg, he raised his arm

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00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:06,879
Speaker 1: to reveal a huge bladed weapon like a meat cleaver.

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00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:11,159
Speaker 1: The next thing Casper remembered, he was lying on the

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Speaker 1: floor in a pool of blood, having tried to get upstairs.

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00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:18,960
Speaker 1: He soon panicked that the man would come back to

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Speaker 1: get him, so decided his best chance was to hide

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Speaker 1: in the basement. Only when he'd finally managed to find

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00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:28,360
Speaker 1: a dry spot to lie on by the wall, did

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00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:31,840
Speaker 1: he realize the mistake he'd made, worrying then that he

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00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:36,360
Speaker 1: would simply die down there alone before anybody found him anyway,

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00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:48,600
Speaker 1: and then he blacked out. Although Casper didn't see the

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00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:52,199
Speaker 1: man's face, he insisted that his voice was that of

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00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:54,960
Speaker 1: the man who had once kept him imprisoned for so long.

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00:18:56,320 --> 00:19:00,480
Speaker 1: After hearing Casper's testimony, Professor Dawmer and von yer Back

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00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:03,480
Speaker 1: were in little doubt that the man had clearly come

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00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:07,679
Speaker 1: back to kill Casper, spurred on perhaps by the worry

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00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:10,320
Speaker 1: that he might one day be brought to justice for

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00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:15,040
Speaker 1: his heinous crimes. However, despite the best efforts of the

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00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:19,639
Speaker 1: city's chief of Police, Lieutenant Joseph Hickle, no evidence to

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00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:24,720
Speaker 1: support Casper's story was ever found, and before long people

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00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:28,800
Speaker 1: were beginning to ask more questions about the mysterious boy

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00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:32,600
Speaker 1: whose life seemed so comfortable now compared to when he

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00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:37,240
Speaker 1: first appeared out of nowhere. Why had he been attacked

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00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,320
Speaker 1: in the middle of the day for example, and why

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00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:43,440
Speaker 1: hadn't the killer made sure to finish him off if

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Speaker 1: that was his intention. Nonetheless, the city agreed to give

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00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:53,119
Speaker 1: Casper police protection for the foreseeable future, with two officers

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00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:57,600
Speaker 1: ordered to chaperone his every move. A few weeks later,

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00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:01,120
Speaker 1: Casper was once more or to stay in his room

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00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:05,400
Speaker 1: by Professor Dowmer after the pair had argued again over

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00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:10,199
Speaker 1: Casper's increasing tendency to skip his lessons. An hour or

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00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:13,840
Speaker 1: so later, a shot was heard coming from his bedroom,

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00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:16,720
Speaker 1: followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the floor.

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00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:21,159
Speaker 1: When his police guard rushed in to investigate, they found

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00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:26,359
Speaker 1: a bloodied Casper on the floor alongside a pistol. Although

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00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:29,840
Speaker 1: the boy claimed he'd grabbed the gun accidentally, which was

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00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:33,080
Speaker 1: hanging on the wall when he fell reaching for a book,

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00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:37,320
Speaker 1: the officers were not so sure, with one even reporting

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00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:43,000
Speaker 1: it as an attempted suicide. The continuing changes in Casper's

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00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:47,320
Speaker 1: personality led Dowmer to write that his nature has lost

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00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:51,119
Speaker 1: much of its original purity, and that a highly regrettable

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00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:58,320
Speaker 1: tendency to untruthfulness and dissimulation had manifested itself. Things only

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00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:01,439
Speaker 1: became more difficult for Casper when he was forced to

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00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:06,080
Speaker 1: leave Dawma's home in January eighteen thirty as Damer struggled

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00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:10,600
Speaker 1: with an ongoing illness. After four months spent living with

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00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:16,320
Speaker 1: the local businessman, who also found Casper to be infuriatingly untrustworthy,

292
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:20,159
Speaker 1: he was eventually taken in by his guardian, Vontuka in

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00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:25,040
Speaker 1: May of eighteen thirty. It was around this time that

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00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:28,960
Speaker 1: another rumor began to emerge, when a priest from Peste

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00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:33,119
Speaker 1: in the Kingdom of Hungary accused two associates of a

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00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:39,320
Speaker 1: Countess Mathany of being involved in Casper's imprisonment. In response,

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00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:46,080
Speaker 1: Vontuca quizzed Casper with some Hungarian words. Incredibly, Casper claimed

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00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:50,119
Speaker 1: to recognize a significant number of them, including the Hungarian

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00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:55,720
Speaker 1: name Istan, so much so he thought it might even

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00:21:55,960 --> 00:22:06,400
Speaker 1: be his own. At some point, with Casper's story now

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00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:10,080
Speaker 1: widely known throughout Europe, he began to arouse the interest

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00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:14,480
Speaker 1: of the English aristocrat and former Member of Parliament, Philip

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00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:20,560
Speaker 1: Henry Stanhope, The fourth Earl of Stanhope, also convinced that

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00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:24,760
Speaker 1: the boy was descended from nobility. Stanhope traveled to Nuremberg

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00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:27,639
Speaker 1: in May eighteen thirty one to pay him a visit.

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00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:33,000
Speaker 1: Stanhope's meeting with Casper only served to heighten his fascination,

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00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:37,000
Speaker 1: after which he resolved to adopt the boy for himself

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00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 1: and take him back to his family estate in Chievening

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00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:44,720
Speaker 1: in the southeast of England. After negotiating with the city,

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00:22:45,119 --> 00:22:49,159
Speaker 1: Stanhope donated the princely sum of five hundred golden for

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00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:53,080
Speaker 1: the boys, continued upkeep until he could return to take

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00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:58,919
Speaker 1: care of him himself. Then a few months later, something

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00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:04,600
Speaker 1: else came to light. In October eighteen thirty one, Hungarian

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00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:09,520
Speaker 1: noble Ladislaus von mare was passing through Nuremberg when he

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00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:13,879
Speaker 1: requested a meeting with Casper, after then trying out a

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00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:17,119
Speaker 1: number of Hungarian phrases on the boy, to which he

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00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:22,600
Speaker 1: didn't respond. For Maree then said the phrase istan goes

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00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:26,920
Speaker 1: to zalah Kutz, at the sound of which Casper's eyes

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00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:32,959
Speaker 1: widened and he became suddenly animated. Yes, said Casper with

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00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:39,440
Speaker 1: great excitement. That's it. Salah Kutz was the castle home

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00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:45,720
Speaker 1: of the Countess Mathany. Then von Mare asked Casper if

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00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:50,480
Speaker 1: he recognized the name Bartakovich, to which his eyes grew

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00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:58,240
Speaker 1: wide once more. That is my mother's name, he cried out, triumphantly. This,

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00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:02,640
Speaker 1: as it turned out, was also Countess mathanas maiden name.

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00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:08,080
Speaker 1: When the Earl of Stanhope took formal custody of Casper

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00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 1: the following month, he contacted Lieutenant Hickl, the city's chief

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00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:16,280
Speaker 1: of police, and instructed him to look into Casper's extraordinary

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00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:22,040
Speaker 1: claim immediately. In the meantime, with concern growing that Casper's

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00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:25,719
Speaker 1: life may be in danger if his true identity were discovered,

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00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 1: Stanhope made arrangements to have him moved to the town

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00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:33,359
Speaker 1: of Ann's Back, fifty miles from Nuremberg and placed in

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00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:37,160
Speaker 1: the company of thirty two year old teacher, doctor Johann

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00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:43,359
Speaker 1: George Meyer. In January eighteen thirty two. Stanhope then returned

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00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:46,520
Speaker 1: to England, promising Casper that he would be brought to

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00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:51,440
Speaker 1: Chevening House at the first opportunity, but Stanhope would never

336
00:24:51,480 --> 00:25:03,520
Speaker 1: see Casper again. The following month, Lieutenant Hickel traveled to Hungary,

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00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:07,200
Speaker 1: where he visited the castle of Salacootz and the Countess

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00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 1: Mathany herself. However, he found nothing to suggest that Casper's

339
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,720
Speaker 1: story was even remotely true, with the initial rumors of

340
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:19,359
Speaker 1: her involvement blamed on the bitterness of a former employee.

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00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:23,400
Speaker 1: It was said he had simply started it in revenge

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00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 1: for having been sacked from his job as a tutor

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00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:31,600
Speaker 1: to the countess's children. Despite this trail going cold, however,

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00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: more rumors began to crop up, such as that Casper

345
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:38,920
Speaker 1: was in fact the prince and heir to Grand Duke

346
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:43,080
Speaker 1: Carl Louis Frederick of Baden and Stephanie de la Pagerie,

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00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:48,640
Speaker 1: the adopted daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte, Their son they were

348
00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 1: led to believe, had died at birth in eighteen twelve,

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00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:55,120
Speaker 1: only for some to claim he had in fact been

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00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:59,040
Speaker 1: stolen as part of a plot conceived by Carl's stepmother,

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00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:03,440
Speaker 1: Louise von Hochburg, to ensure her own children would inherit

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00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:08,200
Speaker 1: his title. Meanwhile, in Ann's back, with all the talk

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00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:13,000
Speaker 1: of Casper's supposed noble lineage, his enthusiasm for study had

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00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 1: diminished even further, much to the exasperation of his new teacher,

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00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 1: doctor Mayer. With none of the affection for his new

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00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 1: pupil that Professor Daumer had, doctor Mayer grew quickly frustrated

357
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:31,840
Speaker 1: with what he saw as Casper's increasingly duplicitous behavior with

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00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:35,199
Speaker 1: nowhere else to go. However, Casper had little choice but

359
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 1: to endure Maya's bitterness as he awaited the return of

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00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 1: the Earl of Stanhope. Later that year, Anselm Writa von

361
00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 1: Fouerbach published a full account of Casper's story, which he

362
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:52,440
Speaker 1: followed up in January eighteen thirty three with a pamphlet

363
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: speculating that Casper could well be the mythical Prince of Baden,

364
00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: whose life would be seriously endangered should the truth ever

365
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 1: be discovered. Only a few months later, von Foubach fell

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00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 1: gravely ill before dying of an apparent stroke on May

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00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:14,359
Speaker 1: twenty eighth, leading some to speculate that he had in

368
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:22,480
Speaker 1: fact been poisoned. This holiday season, I want to give

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388
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,639
Speaker 1: Earl of Stanhope traveling through Germany on his way to

389
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:39,600
Speaker 1: meet with Casper, Casper and doctor Mayer fell out once

390
00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:45,760
Speaker 1: again over Casper's apparent deceitfulness. A few days later, Maya

391
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:48,960
Speaker 1: and his wife were relaxing together in their home in

392
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:53,120
Speaker 1: Ann's back when a breathless Casper stumbled into the room,

393
00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 1: clutching his chest. I've been stabbed, he said, as he

394
00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:02,400
Speaker 1: grabbed Maya's arm and pointed toward the door. Shocked at

395
00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:06,240
Speaker 1: the sight of blood under Casper's shirt, Maya followed Casper

396
00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:09,240
Speaker 1: out into the snow as he led him to where

397
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:14,160
Speaker 1: he claimed it had happened. There, said Casper a short

398
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:17,880
Speaker 1: time later, pointing toward the back of a small courtyard

399
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:22,959
Speaker 1: garden not far from the Mayor's home. Man had knife,

400
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:28,360
Speaker 1: gave back, stabbed, ran as hard as could bag still there,

401
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 1: he said, still clutching at his chest. Realizing that Casper

402
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 1: was beginning to lose his strength, Maya then helped him

403
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: back to the house and into bed and called for

404
00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:44,120
Speaker 1: a doctor. When the doctor arrived, he quickly found a

405
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:47,280
Speaker 1: small puncture wound just on the left side of Casper's

406
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:51,480
Speaker 1: breast that was still bleeding a little. Thinking it little

407
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 1: more than a superficial wound, he suggested the boy be

408
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:57,600
Speaker 1: given a few days to rest, after which he would

409
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:02,840
Speaker 1: be fine. A police officer was dispatched to the garden, where,

410
00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 1: just as Casper had tried to explain, he found a

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00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:10,560
Speaker 1: small silk bag left out in the snow, inside which

412
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:16,240
Speaker 1: was a note tightly folded into a small triangle. Unfolding it,

413
00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:20,400
Speaker 1: the police officer discovered a message written in pencil back

414
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 1: to front in mirror writing back at doctor Maya's home.

415
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 1: Maya took the note and held it in front of

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00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 1: a mirror to be delivered. It read, houser will be

417
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:36,480
Speaker 1: able to tell you exactly how I look and from

418
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 1: whence I came to save house of the trouble. I

419
00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:43,760
Speaker 1: will myself tell you where I come from. I come

420
00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 1: from the Bavarian frontier on the river. I will even

421
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 1: give my name as well. The writer then signed off

422
00:30:51,240 --> 00:31:02,760
Speaker 1: with the initials M l O with an umlaut. A

423
00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 1: few days later, with Casper's condition showing little sign of improvement,

424
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:10,920
Speaker 1: the police came to interview him about what exactly had

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00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:15,480
Speaker 1: taken place. As Casper went on to explain, on the

426
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:18,280
Speaker 1: morning of the attack, he was approached by a man

427
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 1: who claimed to have a message for him from the

428
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:25,200
Speaker 1: head gardener of the Courtyard park, requesting, strangely, that Casper

429
00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:29,200
Speaker 1: meet with him at three thirty pm that afternoon to

430
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 1: look at some specimens of clay that had been taken

431
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 1: from the garden's artesian well. When Casper arrived, however, there

432
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 1: was nobody there. After moving further into the garden, he

433
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:45,560
Speaker 1: saw a man he didn't recognize, dressed in a dark

434
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: cloak and black hat, coming quickly towards him, saying, suddenly,

435
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:55,120
Speaker 1: I give you this. The man gave Casper the silk

436
00:31:55,160 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 1: bag before quickly stabbing him under the arm. Casper's instant reaction,

437
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 1: he said, was to drop the bag and run straight home.

438
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 1: Later that evening, Casper began behaving strangely, moving his hands

439
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:16,000
Speaker 1: feverishly up and down his sheets, saying, I have much

440
00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 1: to write today, all in pencil, I must write, he said,

441
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:25,040
Speaker 1: Sensing a turn for the worse. Maya then called for

442
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 1: the doctor and the local pastor to come immediately before

443
00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 1: asking Casper if he had anything to say to him,

444
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 1: demanding that he looked him full in the face when

445
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:39,400
Speaker 1: he said it, but Casper could only look back with confusion,

446
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:46,320
Speaker 1: before spouting a series of seemingly random statements, Sin destruction,

447
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:52,480
Speaker 1: cannot get free, the monster stronger than I. Why should

448
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:56,480
Speaker 1: I feel anger or rancor no one ever did me wrong?

449
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:03,600
Speaker 1: And then finally tie it very tired, A long journey

450
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:08,800
Speaker 1: to take. As the last word left his mouth. By

451
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 1: then deathly pale, Casper turned his face to the wall

452
00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 1: and died. Casper Houses post mortem revealed that although the

453
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:28,800
Speaker 1: puncture wound was small, it had in fact penetrated all

454
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:32,560
Speaker 1: the way to his heart, causing him to eventually bleed

455
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:37,640
Speaker 1: internally to death. Although efforts were made to trace the

456
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:42,680
Speaker 1: apparent culprit, police quickly began to suspect, owing largely to

457
00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:47,520
Speaker 1: doctor Mayor's character assessment that Casper had in fact inflicted

458
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:53,200
Speaker 1: the wound on himself. Despite extensive interviews with the local community,

459
00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:56,840
Speaker 1: no one saw a man matching the description given by

460
00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 1: Casper in the vicinity on the day of the supposed attack.

461
00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: The police also thought it strange that, despite Casper telling

462
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,880
Speaker 1: people that the man had thrust a bag into his hands,

463
00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 1: he seemed to have no interest in what was actually

464
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:16,399
Speaker 1: in it. As for the note that was found, one

465
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:20,720
Speaker 1: spelling mistake and grammatical error were found, reminiscent of similar

466
00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:25,200
Speaker 1: mistakes that Casper often made himself. The way it had

467
00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:28,480
Speaker 1: been folded into a triangle was also something that he

468
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:32,200
Speaker 1: was fond of doing. While the paper was found to

469
00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 1: match paper that was later found in a bin in

470
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:40,319
Speaker 1: Casper's bedroom, and despite the Earl of Stanhope offering up

471
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:43,799
Speaker 1: to ten thousand golden for any information leading to the

472
00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:48,120
Speaker 1: capture of the culprit, nobody came forward to claim it.

473
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 1: In September eighteen thirty four, the investigation into Casper Houser's

474
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:59,799
Speaker 1: apparent murder came to an end with an inquest concluding

475
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:05,880
Speaker 1: that no murder had been committed. Few, however, believed that

476
00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 1: Casper intended to kill himself, suspecting rather that he'd tried

477
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,360
Speaker 1: to fake an attack, only to end up stabbing himself

478
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 1: a little deeper than he'd meant to. Professor Dawmer, however,

479
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:22,120
Speaker 1: continued to stand by his former pupil, and even accused

480
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:25,400
Speaker 1: the Earl of Stanhope of being involved in his assassination

481
00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:30,200
Speaker 1: and possibly even the death of Anselm writ of von Foyebach.

482
00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:36,400
Speaker 1: Over time, however, as news of the inquest resolved spread

483
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:41,640
Speaker 1: throughout the German Confederation, most came to doubt Casper's entire story,

484
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:45,720
Speaker 1: believing he'd simply made it all up to find himself

485
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:50,080
Speaker 1: a better life, and so things remained for the next

486
00:35:50,120 --> 00:36:01,759
Speaker 1: one hundred years until something new came to light. In

487
00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:07,359
Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen, novelist Clara Hoffer and her husband moved into

488
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:11,840
Speaker 1: a castle by the name of Schloss Pilsack, located about

489
00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:18,200
Speaker 1: forty kilometers southeast of Nuremberg. It wasn't until nineteen twenty four, however,

490
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,640
Speaker 1: that they began a much needed renovation of the property,

491
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:27,920
Speaker 1: during which a strange dungeon like room was discovered hidden

492
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:32,479
Speaker 1: away on a mezzanine level of the building, roughly six

493
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:36,840
Speaker 1: feet by four and five feet high, with a tiny,

494
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 1: blocked up window at one end and its floor of

495
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 1: hard press dirt. It was almost identical to the room

496
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:47,960
Speaker 1: in which Casper claimed he'd been imprisoned for most of

497
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:53,520
Speaker 1: his life. It was another sixty years later when workers

498
00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:57,400
Speaker 1: carrying out reconstruction work on a basement staircase at the

499
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:04,480
Speaker 1: property discovered something peculiar buried in the earth underneath it.

500
00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:06,920
Speaker 1: It was only when they dug it up and wiped

501
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 1: it clean, however, that they realized what it was, A

502
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:16,760
Speaker 1: large white wooden toy horse, just like the one Casper

503
00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:26,080
Speaker 1: said he used to play with in the cage. If

504
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:28,840
Speaker 1: you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you

505
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Speaker 1: can now do so via patroon. To receive access to

506
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Speaker 1: add three episodes, just go to patron dot com forward

507
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Speaker 1: slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained. The book and audiobook,

508
00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:43,319
Speaker 1: featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on

509
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Speaker 1: the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can

510
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Speaker 1: purchase through Amazon Barnes and Noble and Waterstones, among other bookstores.

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Speaker 1: All elements have Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced

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00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 1: by me Richard McClane Smith. Please subscribe and rate the

513
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Speaker 1: show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free to

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00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:04,759
Speaker 1: get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the

515
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Speaker 1: stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an

516
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Speaker 1: explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can

517
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Speaker 1: reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or Twitter

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