Editing Kaspar Hauser (section)

==== Fatal stab wound ====
[[File:Spiegelschriftzettel von Kaspar Hauser.jpg|thumb|left|A photograph of the note, in mirror writing. The original has been missing since 1945.]]
On 9 December 1833, Hauser and Meyer had a serious argument. Stanhope was expected to visit Ansbach at [[Christmas]], and Meyer stated that he did not know how he would face him.

Five days later, on 14 December, Hauser came back to Meyer's house with a deep chest wound. He claimed to have been lured to the Ansbach Court Garden, where a stranger stabbed him while handing him a purse. He was eager for authorities to find the purse he had left behind, but did not ask about its contents. As he progressively deteriorated, Hauser muttered incoherently about "writing with pencil." Hauser died of his wound three days later on 17 December. 

When a policeman searched the Court Garden, he found a small violet purse containing a pencilled note in ''Spiegelschrift'' ([[mirror writing]]). The message read, in German:

"Hauser will be able to tell you quite precisely how I look and from where I am. To save Hauser the effort, I want to tell you myself from where I come _ _ . I come {{sic|from| from|hide=y}} _ _ _ the Bavarian border _ _ On the river _ _ _ _ _ I will even tell you the name: M.&nbsp;L.&nbsp;Ö."

Inconsistencies in Hauser's account led the Ansbach court of enquiry to suspect that he had stabbed himself and then invented a tale about being attacked. The note in the purse contained a spelling error and a grammatical error, both of which were typical for Hauser. The note itself was folded into a specific triangular form, in the way in which Hauser typically folded his letters, according to Mrs. Meyer.<ref name=":2" />

Forensic examiners agreed that Hauser's chest wound might have been self-inflicted. Many authors believe that he had wounded himself again to revive public interest in his story and to persuade Stanhope to take him to England. However, this time Hauser fatally injured himself by mistake.<ref name=":2">For a detailed discussion of the evidence, see: Walther Schreibmüller: ''Bilanz einer 150jährigen Kaspar Hauser-Forschung'', in: Genealogisches Jahrbuch 31, 1991, pp.&nbsp;43–84, here pp.&nbsp;63–80</ref><ref>A. Lang, Striedinger, Leonhard, Mistler, Trautz, Schreibmüller, and others</ref>