In 1828, a teenager stumbled into a Nuremberg square clutching a letter that read take this boy in or hang him. He could barely speak, claimed he had spent his entire life in a pitch-black dungeon, and went on to captivate the philosophers, aristocrats, and royal conspiracy theorists of an entire continent.

This episode is a deep dive into the life, elaborate lies, and strange legacy of Kaspar Hauser. We weigh the evidence on whether he was a lost royal prince hidden by conspiracy or one of history's most successful frauds, and explore why 19th-century society was so desperate to believe him.

• The handwriting analysis suggesting Kaspar forged both letters he arrived with, including the line he writes my handwriting exactly as I do
• The physical contradictions everyone ignored, like a man supposedly confined for 16 years eas ...