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Expedition Files - Season 4 - Episode 10: You Don't Know Me Eng Sub
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00:00On this episode of Expedition Files.
00:03In 1974, the body of a brutally murdered, unidentified woman is found in the sandy dunes of Cape Cod.
00:13Was she the victim of a mob hit?
00:16Or something even more sinister?
00:19Now, nearly 50 years later, the Lady of the Dunes identity is finally revealed.
00:26Then, for centuries, Christians have believed Judas was the ultimate betrayer.
00:31But a recent archaeological discovery is challenging that narrative and raising the question,
00:38what if the story of Judas isn't what we've always been told?
00:44And in 1828, a teenage boy stuns Germany by claiming he's a long-lost prince from a famous royal dynasty.
00:53Will new evidence confirm that he's of royal blood or a master of deception?
01:02In the corridors of time are mysteries that defy explanation.
01:09Now, I'm traveling through history itself on a search for the truth, new evidence, shocking answers.
01:38Scientists have calculated that you make a first impression of someone in just a tenth of a second.
01:44That's all the time it takes to form an opinion, good or bad.
01:47And to put that in context, you've already been watching me for over 150 times that.
01:52And the good news is, you've decided that I'm awesome.
01:55Right?
01:56Tonight, we're taking this concept to the opposite extreme.
02:00Examining three strange and shocking stories from history,
02:04where, far from getting to know our main characters in under a second,
02:07it will take decades, centuries, even millennia to solve the mysteries of who these people really are.
02:14And we begin on a beautiful summer morning in Cape Cod in 1974.
02:20It's here that we find a young girl exploring the scenic Race Point Dunes near Provincetown,
02:26but she's about to walk straight into a nightmare.
02:30It's the decomposing body of an auburn-haired woman, face down, half buried in the sand.
02:36And horrifically, she's missing both her hands.
02:40Authorities will soon arrive, but despite an exhaustive investigation,
02:43they will be unable to identify her.
02:46In fact, her name will remain a mystery for almost 50 years, buried in the sands of time.
02:52That is, until groundbreaking DNA analysis finally answers the question,
02:58who is the Lady of the Dunes?
03:14Minutes after the body is found,
03:17Provincetown Police Chief James Meads is alerted.
03:22He's led the police force for just four years.
03:25This is by far the biggest and most shocking case to ever cross Meads' desk.
03:41When Meads arrives at the crime scene,
03:43he immediately examines the body and finds it's brutalized.
03:48The woman's hands have been completely severed and are missing,
03:52presumably to prevent identification through fingerprints.
03:56Her head has almost been decapitated.
03:59The left side of her skull has been crushed by a massive blow.
04:03Who did this to you?
04:05Under her head, almost like a pillow,
04:08Meads finds a neatly folded bandana and a pair of Wrangler jeans.
04:13The woman appears to have been dead for at least 10 days,
04:16and in the summer heat, her body is in a sorry state.
04:21With no identification and very little to go on,
04:25their best hope of discovering what happened to this Jane Doe is through an autopsy.
04:32The medical examiner suggests she's between 25 and 40 years old,
04:375 foot 6 inches, 145 pounds, with an athletic build.
04:43She's had a lot of dental work.
04:46And something else.
04:47She has several missing teeth, and those that are left are unusual.
04:52She has seven gold crowns.
04:58With no matches on the missing person databases,
05:01Meads comes to believe that the victim's extensive dental work
05:04could be the best chance of getting an ID.
05:07Meads and his team contact thousands of dentists,
05:11desperate to make a connection.
05:15But despite their efforts, the cops come up empty.
05:20And meanwhile, no one has come forward to claim the body.
05:24It's as if the Lady of the Dunes is a ghost.
05:29October 1974.
05:31Three months on from the body being found,
05:34she's buried here in an unnamed grave
05:36in Provincetown's St. Peter's Cemetery.
05:39The funeral is paid for by the town itself.
05:42The community has become invested in the tragic story,
05:45and they're looking for answers.
05:47And no one wants those answers more than James Meads himself.
05:51He pledges to solve this case, whatever it takes.
05:56Six years later, in 1980, he has the woman's body exhumed,
06:01in hopes of finding a clue he missed the first time.
06:09Samples are taken, and the body is re-examined with the latest technology.
06:14Unfortunately, nothing decisive is found.
06:18But unwilling to give up on the case,
06:21Meads retains the skull when the remains are re-buried.
06:24He stores it at the state medical examiner's office,
06:27hopeful it may one day help identify the body.
06:32Over the next several years, police use the skull
06:35to create forensic facial composites of the Lady of the Dunes,
06:39releasing them to the public.
06:42One woman claims the victim looks like her missing sister.
06:45Another says her father was the killer.
06:48A psychic suggests her hands were buried under a nearby building.
06:53Meads and the other officers follow these and hundreds of other leads,
06:57but none pan out.
06:59Thank you all so much.
07:01Then, in 1992, after more than 30 years on the job,
07:0618 of those working the Dunes case,
07:08Chief Meads retires from the force,
07:11seemingly no closer to solving the case than when he started.
07:18With the advancement of DNA analysis,
07:21the body is exhumed again in the year 2000.
07:24However, it's early days for this technology,
07:26and no match is found.
07:30The case fades from public attention,
07:33until remarkable new leads bring it back into the spotlight.
07:37The first lead comes in 2012,
07:40when an informant comes forward saying that he saw a woman,
07:43matching the composite of the Lady of the Dunes,
07:46hanging out with the notorious mobster Whitey Bulger in July of 1974,
07:51the same month she died.
07:54Bulger was known for removing his victim's teeth to prevent identification.
07:59But disturbing MO aside,
08:02investigators are unable to link the mobster to their Jane Doe.
08:08Then, in 2013, the body is exhumed for a third time to collect additional samples for newer forensic techniques.
08:16But, once again, no identification is made.
08:23In 2015, perhaps the most bizarre lead in the case emerges.
08:28It's a theory that one can only describe as jaws dropping.
08:32Joe Hill, son of author Stephen King, is watching the 1975 movie Jaws.
08:37And in one of the beach scenes, he spots a woman in the background with long auburn hair,
08:43wearing a blue bandana and jeans that look just like those found alongside the Lady of the Dunes.
08:51Hill, familiar with the Lady of the Dunes story, reports his lead to a friend at the FBI,
08:57noting that the film had been shot in Martha's Vineyard the same year of the murder,
09:02just a hundred miles south of Provincetown.
09:04He also posts his theory to social media.
09:08Hill's post goes viral, but a Universal Studios archivist is unable to find the name of the extra,
09:14and the FBI doesn't turn up any new leads.
09:17All hope of ID'ing the victim seems lost.
09:21That is, until the FBI makes a stunning announcement in 2022.
09:25Thanks to the latest forensic analysis, and after nearly 50 years,
09:31the Lady of the Dunes has a name.
09:41For almost half a century, Massachusetts' most mysterious murder victim,
09:46the so-called Lady of the Dunes has remained unidentified.
09:50But in 2022, advanced genetic testing conducted by the FBI finally unlocks the truth.
09:58Journalist Megan Carpentier has been tracking the story.
10:02Investigators were able to get DNA from a couple of sources in order to build out this genetic profile.
10:08One was from the body of the Lady of the Dunes, who had been interred.
10:13The other part was from her jawbone, which was part of the investigators' materials.
10:18And then they were able to use forensic genealogy to find family members who had uploaded their own genetic profiles
10:25to public databases looking for family members.
10:28And that's how they were finally able to identify her.
10:32She was no longer the Lady of the Dunes.
10:34Her name was Ruth Marie Terry.
10:39Who was Ruth Terry?
10:41Well, she was born in 1936 to a working-class family in Tennessee.
10:45She moved to Michigan and worked in an automotive plant, where she married, divorced,
10:50and had a son whom she gave up for adoption.
10:53She then headed to California, where she met her second husband,
10:57an antiques dealer named Guy Moldaven.
10:59And that's when her life took a serious turn for the worse.
11:03Move over! What's wrong with you?
11:06When Ruth brought Guy home to her family, he was significantly older.
11:11He didn't seem like he fit in.
11:13She was acting different. He was acting controlling.
11:16The family had a lot of concerns.
11:18These concerns were more than justified.
11:21By the time he met Ruth, Moldaven already had an extremely checkered past.
11:28Over the course of his life, he had five wives.
11:31Ruth was his fourth.
11:33His first wife, he was married to for 10 years.
11:35They had a child together, and then they got divorced.
11:38He had his second wife he was married to for a year.
11:41And then, according to Guy, she abandoned him.
11:51And eventually, police began to question what happened to her,
11:55and they discovered remains in the septic tank of their home.
12:01Police believed the remains belonged to Guy's missing wife and stepdaughter.
12:06But Moldaven had apparently fled the scene.
12:08The FBI launched a nationwide manhunt, and Moldaven was ultimately apprehended.
12:16But unbelievably, the cops couldn't directly tie him to the crime, and he walked free.
12:22That led him to his third wife, who had him convicted of theft,
12:25after which he served a year in prison.
12:31In 1974, Moldaven met wife number four, Ruth Marie Terry.
12:36He was married to her for just five months before he claimed she vanished.
12:42After Terry's disappearance, Guy returned, driving her car,
12:47and seems to have told her family they'd had a fight on their honeymoon,
12:51and she'd just left him, and he had no idea what happened to her after that.
12:55Where is she?
12:56I don't know, man.
12:58She walked down.
13:01The family believed that Terry had made it back to California.
13:05They flew out there, they hired a private investigator,
13:08they did everything they could in 1974 to try to find her.
13:12But they were unsuccessful.
13:14Even after hiring a PI, they were told she'd joined a cult,
13:18and there was no trace of her.
13:21Over the years, Ruth's relatives contributed DNA swabs
13:25in hopes of one day finding out what happened to her.
13:27And eventually, it worked.
13:29In 2022, her DNA was definitively matched to the Lady of the Dunes.
13:36The story of what happened to Ruth Terry has its tragic ending.
13:40So, who killed her?
13:42Well, Guy Moldaven is the extremely likely suspect,
13:45but unfortunately, justice cannot be served.
13:49Guy married his fifth wife about two years after Terry disappeared,
13:54and they stayed married until his death in 2002.
13:58In 2023, the district attorney's office announced
14:02that they were closing the case in the death of Ruth Marie Terry.
14:06The police and prosecutors had determined that her killer was Guy,
14:10and given his background, given the disappearance of his second wife
14:14and the stepdaughter,
14:16the sum total of the evidence prosecutors felt like pointed to Guy and no one else.
14:22It feels pretty rotten that he was able to just live out his life like nothing happened.
14:29While Moldaven sadly escaped justice,
14:32he ultimately couldn't escape being identified as a cold-blooded killer.
14:36And thanks to the determination of investigators,
14:39advancements in DNA science,
14:41and the persistence of her family,
14:43the Lady of the Dunes is anonymous no more.
14:46She is Ruth Marie Terry.
14:50One lingering question remains.
14:52Could Ruth have been the background extra some believe appears in the film Jaws?
14:57The timeline fits,
14:58and her body was discovered just 100 miles from where the movie was filmed.
15:03But despite the intriguing connection,
15:05no definitive proof has ever surfaced that Ruth was on set.
15:10Still, the theory reignited global interest in the case,
15:13and in the end, that attention helped bring Ruth her name back.
15:18The mystery that haunted the dunes for generations,
15:21and the woman at the very heart of it,
15:23may finally rest in peace.
15:32It's A.D. 33.
15:34I'm in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.
15:37It's normally a place of peace and reflection,
15:39but all that is about to be shattered.
15:42A man is being arrested on charges of blasphemy.
15:46Actually, you might have heard of him.
15:48His name is Jesus.
15:49And in the next 24 hours, he will be tried and crucified,
15:54marking the defining moment in the Christian faith.
15:56And the person said to be responsible for betraying him is this man,
16:01Judas Iscariot.
16:02But two millennia after Jesus' death,
16:04an artifact will emerge that some say rewrites the story of Judas
16:09and proves he wasn't a traitor after all.
16:22Okay, folks, hope you've got your Sunday best,
16:24because it's Bible recap time.
16:28The story of Judas Iscariot as we know it today
16:31comes from the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament,
16:35the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
16:38In around A.D. 33,
16:40Jesus has been preaching for several years
16:42throughout the region of Judea,
16:44achieving his famed miracles,
16:46like curing blindness and walking on water,
16:49not to mention gathering passionate followers.
16:52But that adulation has also left Jesus with powerful enemies,
16:57none more so than the Judean ruling authorities
17:00and their backers, the Roman Empire,
17:02who brand Jesus as a heretic.
17:05Meanwhile, Jesus has been continuing to spread the good word,
17:08alongside his 12 most devoted followers,
17:12known as the Apostles.
17:13And one of them is Judas.
17:17The night before his arrest,
17:19Jesus hosts history's most famous dinner party,
17:22the Last Supper.
17:23During the meal,
17:25he announces that one of the Apostles will betray him.
17:28What you are about to do,
17:30do it quick.
17:33And later that night,
17:34just as his prophecy foretold,
17:37Judas follows Jesus into the Garden of Gethsemane.
17:40In the darkness,
17:41where the soldiers cannot easily distinguish him from his followers,
17:45Judas agrees to identify Jesus with a signal,
17:48a single kiss.
17:51With that,
17:52the soldiers move in and arrest Jesus.
17:59But hold on.
18:00Why would Judas give up Jesus,
18:02the leader he supposedly worshipped?
18:04Well,
18:05the Gospels indicate that he's motivated by greed.
18:08According to Matthew,
18:09Judas asks the authorities what they'll give him if he turns Jesus in.
18:13Eager to put Jesus on trial,
18:15the priests respond with an offer of 30 pieces of silver,
18:19a hefty sum today.
18:20Matthew tells us that Judas accepts and that Jesus' fate is sealed.
18:29Interestingly, however,
18:31the Gospel of Matthew indicates that when Judas makes the deal,
18:34he doesn't know that Jesus' punishment is going to be crucifixion.
18:39When he finds out,
18:41Judas returns the money
18:48and then hangs himself.
18:51Judas takes his own life,
18:53apparently consumed by the grief
18:55caused by betraying the man he once revered.
18:58But is that the whole story?
19:01Shocking new discoveries may rewrite the tale of Judas.
19:10For centuries,
19:12the legend of Judas betraying Jesus
19:14has been embraced by the Christian faithful as fact.
19:17But some speculate the Apostles' motives aren't so clear-cut.
19:21Does the Bible really tell the whole story?
19:24To answer that question,
19:26we have to dig deeper into the good book
19:28and what was and wasn't included.
19:31The four canonical Gospels,
19:33Matthew,
19:34Mark,
19:34Luke,
19:35and John,
19:35are considered by modern Christians
19:37to be the definitive accounts of Jesus' life,
19:40despite being written decades after his death.
19:42But intriguingly,
19:44they are not the only ancient texts
19:46that tell his story.
19:48In the early centuries of Christianity,
19:51dozens of other writings about Jesus
19:53are also being published,
19:55and some of them
19:55tell a very different story
19:57about Judas' betrayal.
20:00Perhaps the most famous of these
20:02is the Gospel of Judas,
20:03a text known to early Christians
20:05and condemned around 180 AD
20:08by the bishop Irenaeus
20:10as false teaching.
20:11Written anonymously,
20:13it portrays Judas
20:14not as a traitor,
20:15but as the one disciple
20:17who truly understands Jesus
20:19and carries out his wishes.
20:21In this account,
20:22Jesus speaks of leaving behind
20:24the physical world
20:25and entrusts Judas
20:27with the role of handing him over
20:29to authorities
20:30so he can be sacrificed
20:31and his spirit can ascend to heaven.
20:34But is it true?
20:36That's harder to answer,
20:37because the text itself
20:39was lost for centuries
20:40after being rejected
20:41by the early church.
20:43Our only knowledge of it
20:44came from critics like Irenaeus,
20:46whose account is openly hostile.
20:49The debate over Judas' role
20:52largely remained unchanged
20:53for nearly 2,000 years,
20:55until a discovery
20:56in the late 20th century
20:58brings the text
20:59back into the spotlight.
21:02While details remain murky,
21:04it's reported that
21:05somewhere near El Minya
21:07in Egypt,
21:08a local farmer
21:09uncovers an ancient limestone box
21:11hidden in a cave.
21:13Inside is a leather-bound collection
21:15of papyrus texts
21:17written in Coptic,
21:18the ancient language
21:19of Christian Egypt.
21:21The farmer,
21:22unable to read the text,
21:24apparently sells the papers
21:25to an antiquities dealer
21:27in Cairo.
21:28From there,
21:29the documents change hands
21:31more times
21:31than the cursed idol
21:32in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
21:35In 2001,
21:37the documents find their way
21:38to a Swiss antiques dealer,
21:40Frieda Nussberger-Chakos,
21:42who partners
21:43with preservation specialists
21:44to restore and translate
21:46the mysterious text.
21:48The restoration of the text
21:50takes years,
21:51but when it's completed,
21:53it rocks the Christian world,
21:55becoming known
21:55as the Codex Chakos.
21:57Dr. Kavan Kincannon,
21:59a professor of religion
22:00at USC,
22:01describes it as
22:02nothing short
22:02of revolutionary.
22:04When the Codex Chakos
22:06was unveiled,
22:08a lot of people
22:09were very excited.
22:10The Gospel of Judas
22:11was a text
22:12that we knew existed,
22:13but no one had seen it,
22:15and no one had been able
22:15to access it.
22:16We have so little
22:18material evidence,
22:19so little textual evidence,
22:21from the ancient Christians
22:22that any new edition
22:24of material
22:24is always exciting
22:25and always brings with it
22:27a chance to revise
22:28and to rethink
22:29and to expand
22:30our understanding
22:31of the first centuries
22:32of Christianity.
22:34The announcement
22:35that this Codex
22:36was the lost Gospel
22:37of Judas
22:38sends shockwaves
22:39through the archaeological
22:40and theological communities,
22:42but it's also
22:43immediately confronted
22:44with an urgent question,
22:45is it real?
22:47There are a number of ways
22:48in which ancient manuscripts
22:50can be verified.
22:52One of the ways
22:53in which this text
22:54was dated
22:54was through the use
22:55of carbon-14 testing.
22:58And this is a form
22:59of scientific testing
23:00where you use
23:02the decay of isotopes
23:04to determine
23:05when an organic piece
23:07of material
23:07had its lifespan.
23:09The dating of things
23:11precisely with carbon-14
23:13is difficult,
23:13so you don't always get
23:15the thing that we really want,
23:17which is,
23:17this text was written
23:18on this day
23:20in this year.
23:21In the case
23:21of the Chakos Codex,
23:23the carbon-14 testing
23:24indicated a range of dates
23:26in the 4th to the 5th centuries.
23:28It's clear that this is not
23:30a text that was forged
23:32in modernity,
23:33but a genuine
23:33ancient document.
23:35So the document
23:36is certifiably ancient,
23:37but not quite as old
23:39as the canonical Gospels
23:40that make up
23:41the New Testament
23:41we know today.
23:42Those date
23:43from several centuries earlier.
23:46And that's why
23:47scholars pay attention
23:48to the Gospel of Judas,
23:50because despite
23:51its later date,
23:52it comes from a time
23:53when early Christianity
23:54was still taking shape,
23:56reflecting a range
23:57of different views
23:58about Jesus
23:59and his followers.
24:02Ultimately, though,
24:03it isn't the age
24:04of the document
24:04that's most fascinating.
24:06It's what it actually says,
24:08particularly about Judas.
24:11The Gospel of Judas
24:12is different
24:13from the canonical Gospels.
24:16It adds some extra scenes,
24:18scenes that are important
24:20for how one should understand
24:22the life and death of Jesus.
24:24In this text,
24:25we were going to get
24:26a different Judas,
24:27a Judas who was not
24:28a betrayer,
24:29but Jesus' closest disciple,
24:32a kind of tragic hero
24:33who did what no one else
24:35could do
24:36and helped Jesus
24:37fulfill his destiny.
24:40You will exceed all of them,
24:43for you will sacrifice
24:44the man that clothes me.
24:46Jesus tells Judas
24:47what he's going to do,
24:49that Jesus is pushing Judas
24:52to do this for him,
24:54and he doesn't seem
24:55to have any agency
24:56about this.
24:57He doesn't get to choose
24:59whether he's going
24:59to do this or not.
25:00this is just kind of
25:02written in the stars,
25:03that this is going to happen.
25:06Judas is the passive actor
25:08in what ultimately
25:10is a tragic drama for him,
25:12the best of the disciples
25:14who ultimately
25:14will not be saved.
25:16But as you can imagine,
25:18this new interpretation
25:19rankles the church
25:20as it flies completely
25:22in the face of the,
25:23well, gospel truth
25:25of Christianity.
25:26The Gospel of Judas
25:28was received
25:28with a great deal
25:30of fanfare
25:30and presented as something
25:32that was going to
25:33upend Christian theology
25:34and challenge
25:36the Catholic church
25:37or challenge, you know,
25:38Christian theology
25:39more broadly.
25:40Christian communities
25:41reacted by calling
25:43this text a false text
25:44as a representative
25:45of a heretical form
25:47of ancient Christianity.
25:49Now, though the Gospel
25:50of Judas is different
25:51from the canonical Gospels,
25:53it's not radically different.
25:56Jesus is still presented
25:57as a salvific figure
25:59who comes into the world,
26:01performs miracles,
26:02gathers disciples,
26:04dies on the cross eventually,
26:07and as someone
26:08who is offering wisdom
26:10to a fallen humanity.
26:13I think when it comes
26:14to the question
26:15of what's the right version
26:16or the right story
26:17about Judas,
26:19there isn't really one.
26:23Judas is probably
26:24an invented character
26:26to help answer
26:28a particular question,
26:29which is,
26:30if Jesus was
26:31the Son of God,
26:32if he was this important
26:34pre-existing divine figure,
26:37why did he have to die?
26:40It gives you
26:41a kind of narrative
26:42around which
26:42to build that story,
26:43to explain why
26:45a crucified person
26:47is actually
26:48an agent of the divine.
26:51So the Gospel of Judas
26:53is not necessarily
26:54a deviation
26:55from the canonical tradition,
26:58but just a different
26:59perspective on it.
27:04The Catholic Church
27:05does not accept
27:06the Gospel of Judas,
27:08regarding it
27:08as a heretical text
27:10with no theological authority.
27:12But regardless
27:13of your faith
27:14or lack of faith
27:15in what it says
27:16about Judas
27:17and Jesus' relationship,
27:18there's no debating
27:19that its discovery
27:20and restoration
27:21is extraordinary.
27:22That a truly
27:24historic text
27:25could be lost
27:26for 1,500 years
27:27only to have its message
27:29preserved and deciphered
27:30reminds us
27:31that humanity's story
27:33is still being filled in
27:34and that ancient chapters
27:36are still out there
27:37just waiting to be found.
27:39And that
27:40is something
27:41we can all believe in.
27:48It's May 26th, 1828.
27:51I'm in Nuremberg, Germany,
27:53and I'm not the only one
27:54who's new in town.
27:56This 16-year-old boy's name
27:58is Kasper Hauser.
27:59But other than saying his name,
28:01he can barely speak.
28:02Heck, he can barely walk.
28:04And his only possessions
28:05are two strange letters
28:07that raise
28:08as many questions
28:09as answers.
28:10Who is Kasper?
28:12Where did he come from?
28:13Some will say
28:14he's a destitute,
28:16feral child
28:16raised in isolation.
28:18But others will whisper
28:19something even more shocking,
28:21that he's a secret
28:22German prince
28:23hidden from society
28:25to prevent him
28:26from claiming
28:26his rightful throne.
28:28And for the next 200 years,
28:30no one is able
28:31to solve the riddle
28:32of Kasper Hauser.
28:33That is,
28:34until 21st century science
28:36reveals the truth
28:38about the so-called
28:39wild child.
28:50As the story goes,
28:52Kasper is taken
28:53by a local shoemaker
28:54to meet the authorities
28:55in Nuremberg.
28:57There,
28:58they examine
28:59two letters
29:00he's carrying.
29:00The first
29:01is strikingly brief,
29:03apparently from
29:03the boy's mother,
29:05listing only
29:06Kasper's name,
29:07his birth date,
29:08and that his father
29:09was a deceased,
29:10unnamed cavalry officer.
29:12The second letter
29:14is stranger still,
29:15addressed to
29:16Captain Von Vesenik,
29:17the commanding officer
29:18of a cavalry regiment
29:20in Nuremberg.
29:21It begins by stating
29:22that the boy wishes
29:23to join the army,
29:24but quickly takes
29:26a darker turn.
29:27This letter
29:28is not from his mother,
29:29but from a poor laborer
29:31who claims the child
29:32was given to him,
29:33raised in isolation,
29:34and never allowed outside,
29:36before being abandoned
29:37in Nuremberg
29:38in the middle of the night.
29:40The two accounts
29:41don't align,
29:42offering no clear explanation
29:44of who Kasper is
29:45or where he came from.
29:47And most unsettling of all,
29:49the second letter
29:50ends with a chilling instruction.
29:52If no one is willing
29:53to take the boy in,
29:54he should be hanged.
29:57A new home
29:58or a hanging
29:59is a pretty extreme request,
30:01but we're just getting started
30:02in this bizarre tale.
30:04When questioned
30:05about the letters,
30:06Kasper can only
30:07repeat the words,
30:12and any attempts
30:14at gaining more information
30:15cause him to cry
30:16or say he doesn't know.
30:18However,
30:19to everyone's surprise,
30:21when asked
30:21to write his name,
30:22he does so
30:23in clearly readable letters.
30:25So,
30:26what's the truth
30:27behind Kasper Hauser?
30:28All will soon be revealed.
30:40In 1828,
30:42a strange boy
30:43arrives in Nuremberg.
30:45He's unable to say anything
30:46much more than his name,
30:48Kasper Hauser.
30:49A letter he brought with him
30:50says he was brought up
30:52in secret
30:52and has never been allowed outside
30:54before being dumped here
30:56on the streets of Germany.
30:57The letter also says
30:59that if someone can't take him in,
31:00he should be killed.
31:02The boy is,
31:04in short,
31:05an enigma.
31:06According to the letter,
31:07he knows nothing
31:08of the outside world,
31:09but observers notice
31:10that he does seem
31:11to recognize money
31:12and can even read
31:14limited words.
31:15But with no knowledge
31:17of who raised him
31:18or where,
31:18the boy will need
31:19someone to care for him.
31:22As word spreads
31:24about this mysterious
31:25young man,
31:26a prominent citizen
31:27in Nuremberg
31:28named Professor Daumer
31:29takes him in
31:30and begins tutoring him.
31:32Under the professor's guidance,
31:34the boy's communication skills
31:35develop quickly
31:36and Kasper starts sharing
31:38his remarkable story.
31:42For as long as he can remember,
31:44Kasper sat in a small dark room
31:46without ever getting
31:47to see another soul
31:48or go outside.
31:51He was given
31:52only bread and water,
31:54but never saw the person
31:55who supplied it.
31:56It always arrived
31:57during his sleep.
32:00His only companions
32:02were wooden toys,
32:03two wooden horses
32:04and a wooden dog.
32:06He says he lived this way
32:08for 13 years,
32:09until a few days ago
32:11when a man appeared
32:12and taught him
32:13how to walk,
32:14parrot a few sentences
32:15and write his name.
32:17This unknown man
32:19then took him to Nuremberg
32:20and abandoned him.
32:23The story is shocking,
32:25but could it possibly be true?
32:29Well, Kasper is given
32:30several medical examinations
32:32and they support
32:33and challenge
32:34his claims of isolation.
32:35Raise your right arm.
32:38Doctors confirm
32:39that he has poor motor skills
32:40and may be intellectually impaired.
32:43But he's otherwise
32:44physically healthy
32:46and his memory
32:47appears sharp.
32:53Whatever the story
32:54of his origins,
32:56Kasper has seemingly
32:57found a better life
32:58thanks to Professor Daumer.
33:00Raise your mic.
33:03But in October of 1829,
33:06five months after the boy
33:07first appeared
33:08in Nuremberg,
33:09his new life
33:09takes a violent turn.
33:12One Saturday,
33:13he's alone,
33:14sick and resting
33:15at the home
33:16of the professor.
33:17Hauser needs to use
33:18the outhouse,
33:19so he heads outside.
33:24But a hooded man
33:26is lying in wait.
33:27He attacks Hauser
33:29with a knife,
33:30cutting his forehead.
33:32Hauser says
33:33the man shouts,
33:34you still have to die
33:35before you leave
33:36the city of Nuremberg.
33:39He later claims
33:40he has no idea
33:41what the attacker means.
33:43The incident
33:44turns Kasper Hauser
33:46into a household name
33:47across Germany.
33:48Why would someone
33:50want to harm
33:50this strange
33:51but seemingly
33:52innocent young man?
33:54People begin
33:55to speculate
33:55that Hauser
33:56is someone important,
33:58important enough
33:59that powerful people
34:00might want him silenced.
34:02Some even whisper
34:04they know exactly
34:05who he is.
34:06He's the lost
34:07prince of Baden.
34:12180 miles west
34:14of Nuremberg
34:14is the German state
34:15of Baden.
34:16At this time,
34:17it's ruled
34:18by the Grand Duke
34:18Leopold,
34:19but it shouldn't be.
34:21Leopold's uncle,
34:22Charles,
34:23was the Grand Duke,
34:23but after Charles'
34:25young son died,
34:26he was left
34:27without an heir,
34:28and so the throne
34:28passed to Leopold.
34:30But the thing is,
34:32not everyone believes
34:33Charles' son
34:33actually died,
34:34and some begin
34:36to speculate
34:36that he could
34:37be Kasper Hauser.
34:40They theorize
34:41that in 1812,
34:43Leopold's mother
34:44snuck into Charles' house
34:45and secretly swapped out
34:47the real,
34:47healthy infant prince
34:49with a dying baby.
34:50When the sickly child died,
34:53Leopold was then set
34:54to eventually
34:55inherit the throne.
34:58Supposedly,
34:59the healthy,
34:59stolen baby,
35:00the true prince of Baden,
35:02would become,
35:03after 16 years
35:04imprisoned in secret,
35:06Kasper Hauser.
35:09Once the rumor
35:10spills into the open,
35:11it becomes the talk
35:12of Germany.
35:13The claim
35:14that the mysterious
35:15Kasper Hauser
35:16is really the stolen
35:17prince of Baden
35:18is nothing short
35:19of scandalous,
35:20so much so
35:21that it's about
35:22to cost the wild child
35:23his life.
35:31It's 1833,
35:33and it's been five years
35:35since Kasper Hauser,
35:36the mysterious wild child,
35:38who could speak
35:39little more
35:39than his name,
35:40first appeared
35:41in Nuremberg, Germany.
35:43He's now 21
35:44and lives
35:45in the town
35:46of Ansbach,
35:47under the care
35:47of a new schoolmaster,
35:49Johann Georg Meyer.
35:52One night,
35:53Hauser returns
35:54from a park
35:55and stumbles
35:56into the house,
35:57bleeding
35:57from a deep wound.
36:03Hauser says
36:04he was walking
36:05through a park
36:05when a stranger
36:06handed him a purse
36:07and then stabbed him
36:09with a dagger.
36:16Authorities then
36:17recover a cryptic note
36:18from where Hauser
36:19was apparently stabbed.
36:21The note reads,
36:23quote,
36:23Hauser will be able
36:24to tell you
36:25quite precisely
36:26how I look
36:27and from where I am.
36:29However,
36:29to spare you the trouble,
36:30I want to tell you
36:31myself where I come.
36:33I come from
36:34the Bavarian border,
36:35on the river.
36:36I will even tell you
36:37the name.
36:38The note is then signed
36:40in some kind of code,
36:41M-L-O.
36:44Three days later,
36:46Hauser dies.
36:47The author of the strange note
36:49is never identified.
36:50And rather than quell
36:51the royal rumors,
36:53Casper's death
36:53only fans the flames.
36:55The possibility
36:56that a long-lost prince
36:58was mysteriously assassinated
37:00before he could claim
37:01the throne
37:01becomes a captivating legend
37:03that endures
37:04for two centuries.
37:05That is,
37:06until 2024,
37:08when the case
37:08is re-examined.
37:10Dr. Sharla Marshall,
37:11a forensic geneticist,
37:13closely studied the work.
37:15Casper Hauser
37:16was a very mysterious man.
37:18He also had
37:19a mysterious death.
37:20The more you learn
37:22about it,
37:22the stranger it becomes.
37:23The study looked
37:25at hair samples
37:26from Casper Hauser
37:27that were in private collections
37:29in museums in Germany.
37:30And they compared those
37:32to DNA samples
37:33taken from cheek swabs
37:36from the descendants
37:37of what would have been
37:38Casper Hauser's grandmother.
37:39If the DNA
37:41from Casper Hauser's
37:42hair samples
37:43was a match
37:44to DNA taken
37:45from the House of Baden
37:47living relatives,
37:49then it would be likely
37:51that he was related to them.
37:52If the sequence
37:53did not match,
37:54then the story
37:55probably wasn't true.
37:56It was a rare stroke
37:58of luck
37:59that any of Hauser's hair
38:00survived at all.
38:01Strands were likely preserved
38:03as keepsakes at the time,
38:05given the widespread fascination
38:06with his mysterious story.
38:08They now provide
38:10crucial evidence.
38:12Getting a full genetic match
38:14was key to the study.
38:15Any ambiguity in the data
38:17would only leave the door open
38:19to more speculation.
38:20The study concluded
38:21that Casper Hauser
38:23did not share
38:24the same mitochondrial DNA
38:25as descendants
38:27of the House of Baden.
38:31The DNA samples
38:32are so different
38:33that they couldn't be found
38:35in two people
38:35from the same family.
38:37And so,
38:37the Parsons study
38:38rules out
38:39the Lost Prince theory.
38:41So, Casper Hauser
38:42is not from
38:43the Baden royal family.
38:44While those results
38:45are conclusive,
38:46they only close the door
38:48on one part
38:49of this mystery.
38:50If Hauser
38:50wasn't descended
38:51from royal blood,
38:52the question remains,
38:54where did he come from?
38:57Even though we can't tell
38:58who Casper Hauser
38:59was from his DNA,
39:01we can use other parts
39:03of the story
39:03as evidence,
39:04forensic evidence,
39:05to investigate
39:06who he really was.
39:08What evidence exactly?
39:09The letters.
39:11Both the strange letters
39:12carried by young Casper
39:13when he first appeared
39:14in Nuremberg
39:15and the cryptic note
39:16found at the scene
39:17of his death
39:18were transcribed
39:19by authorities.
39:20These letters
39:21were subjected
39:22to forensic analysis
39:23and the results
39:24were nothing short
39:26of jaw-dropping.
39:27The handwriting
39:28and language analysis
39:29of the letters
39:30explained his background
39:32and where he came from.
39:34And the letter
39:35from the crime scene
39:36where he was stabbed
39:37indicates that they were
39:38all done by the same person,
39:40Casper Hauser.
39:41The phrasing
39:42and sentence construction
39:43of the two letters
39:44Casper Hauser arrived with
39:46and the one found
39:47after his death
39:48show key similarities.
39:49They also match
39:51with phrases
39:51in letters
39:52that Casper wrote
39:53while being tutored
39:54by Professor Daumer.
39:55The conclusion
39:56is that Casper
39:57was in fact
39:58the real author
39:59of all of them.
40:00Which also indicates
40:02that there was
40:02no mysterious assailant
40:04who murdered him.
40:05Many experts
40:06now theorize
40:07he likely stabbed himself.
40:09Far from being
40:10a long-lost prince,
40:12it turns out
40:12Casper Hauser
40:13was more likely
40:14a long-lost soul
40:15who yearned
40:16for acceptance
40:17in society.
40:19I think Casper Hauser
40:20did all of this
40:21for attention.
40:22It's really hard
40:23to come up
40:24with a reason
40:25why he would
40:26put together
40:26a story
40:27about being royalty
40:29and being isolated
40:31his whole childhood
40:31and never talking
40:32to another human.
40:33Just really hard
40:34to come up
40:34with a reason
40:35other than begging
40:36for attention.
40:37Maybe he was ashamed
40:39of his own
40:40actual true life
40:41and he wanted
40:42a more fantastical life.
40:44Think about it,
40:45he was taken in
40:46by the elite.
40:47He was given a home,
40:48he was given
40:49an education,
40:50food.
40:51Sounds pretty good, right?
40:52He certainly upgraded
40:53his circumstances.
40:55Who knows,
40:56maybe that's not
40:56even his real name.
40:58Our story therefore
41:00ends with some
41:01remarkable answers,
41:02but not the most
41:03important one.
41:04Who was Casper Hauser?
41:06There is still hope
41:07to solve the mystery.
41:08Samples of his blood
41:09are held
41:10in a German museum.
41:11Dr. Marshall thinks
41:12future forensic testing
41:14might allow us
41:15to learn even more
41:16about the so-called
41:17wild child.
41:18Until that happens,
41:20Hauser's own gravestone
41:21sums it up best.
41:22Here lies Casper Hauser,
41:25riddle of his time.
41:26His birth was unknown,
41:28his death mysterious.
41:30I'm Josh Gates
41:31and I'll see you
41:32on the next expedition.
41:33We'll see you next time.
41:34All right.
41:35Thank you so much.
41:36We'll see you.
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