We begin with the most scandalous circus performer of them all. Grady Stiles Jr. came from a long line of circus performers with ectrodactyly––which fuses fingers and toes together to form claw-like hands and feet. Unfortunately, the mental anguish of being displayed in “freak shows” and being called Lobster Boy took its toll on Grady, and he became a cruel and abusive alcoholic, often using his colossal upper body strength to beat his wife and daughters.
Let’s jump ahead to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1978. On the eve of his daughter’s wedding, Grady grabbed a shotgun with his claws and shot and killed his daughter’s fiancé. He was convicted of murder but never served time as no prison could care for him. Instead, he received 15 years’ probation under house arrest.
Joseph Merrick: The Elephant Man
Next up is perhaps the most tragic of all exhibits, The Elephant Man. Joseph Merrick lived a woeful life––after both his siblings died, he developed terrible physical deformities. He left school at 13 and worked in a factory rolling cigars until his right hand became so deformed, he couldn’t work. Aged 17, he lived in a workhouse, but by the time he was 20, his face was so disfigured; he had difficulty eating.
Joseph knew there was only one escape from the hell of the workhouse, so he became a “novelty exhibition,” where cruel showmen advertised him as Half-a-Man and Half-an-Elephant. If you want to find out more about Merrick’s life, watch David Lynch’s 1980 film.
This Bearded Woman Was Kidnapped As A Child
Annie Jones was born in 1865 in Virginia. As a result of her hirsutism, she joined P.T. Barnum’s circus aged just nine months! Her parents received a $150-a-week salary. When she was just a kid, a New York phrenologist kidnapped her in what was almost certainly a Barnum publicity stunt. The police, along with Barnum, found her being exhibited at a church fair. When the man claimed Annie was his daughter, the matter went to court.
But it all ended happily ever after: The minute Annie walked into the courtroom and saw her parents; she ran straight over to them. The judge declared the case closed.
Chang and Eng: The Original Siamese Twins
Chang and Eng Bunker were conjoined twins born in Thailand in 1811. The brothers are the reason conjoined twins became known as Siamese Twins because back then, the country was still called Siam. As in: “Are you the King of Thailand?” – “Yes, Siam!” They came to the USA around 1830 and toured as a curiosity act. Then, in 1839, they settled down in North Carolina, became US citizens, and married a pair of sisters.
Between them, Chang and Eng fathered a staggering 21 children. We don’t even want to think about how that worked! To paraphrase Joey from Friends “Eyes open or eyes closed?”… Candles on, or candles off?
This New Car Of Yours Better Have A Sun Roof, Karen
This 1935 photograph shows the Giraffe Necked Woman of Bertram Mills’ “Freak Show” being examined by doctors. Unfortunately, there’s not much information available about this long-necked lady, but it’s most likely she comes from the Kayan or Karen tribes of Myanmar and northwest Thailand. Although, like Thailand used to be Siam, Myanmar was still known as Burma back then. For centuries, the tribeswomen have been lengthening their necks with brass rings.
You’ll be glad to hear that the Karen tribes of Myanmar and Thailand are nowhere near as entitled as Karen from your Accounts Department!
Poor Krao Farini Was Advertised As The Missing Link
Krao Farini was a hirsute woman born with hypertrichosis. Legend says she was he was captured as a child in the jungles of Laos––then part of Siam––by the explorer Carl Bock in 1885. P.T. Barnum falsely advertised her as a primitive human and billed her the missing link between humans and apes. Her name purportedly means “ape” in Siamese. She lived in New York until her death in 1926, aged 50.
As well as her body hair, she had an extrathoracic vertebra, one extra pair of ribs, cheek pouches, hypermobility of her joints, and no cartilage in her ears and nose.
Hunting For The Ohio Big Foot Girl
Fannie Mills was born in Sussex, England, around 1859. She had Milroy Disease, which caused her legs and feet to grow to gigantic proportions. Indeed, her feet grew to be 17 inches long, and she wore a size 30 shoe! Her parents emigrated to the USA, where she became known as The Ohio Big Foot Girl. Her father took out an advert offering $5,000 and a well-stocked farm to any respectable man that would marry his daughter!
That respectable man was one William Brown. They married in 1886, and Fannie had a baby in August 1887. Sadly, the baby died, and Fannie died in 1899, aged just 39.
This Man With A Most Excellent Mustache Had Elastic Skin
Remember Marvel’s The Fantastic Four? Their spacecraft was bombarded by cosmic radiation granting the four astronauts their superpowers. Reed Richards gained the ability to stretch his body into any shape and became Mister Fantastic. But how do you become a super-stretchy superhero without cosmic radiation? Well, Felix Wehrle was born in Wisconsin in 1858 with a condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. He discovered he could stretch his skin to great lengths as a child.
You may think that we’ve moved on from sideshows in the 21st Century, but Gary Turner from England––who suffers from the same skin condition––performs in sideshows even today.
The Living Human Skeleton Narrowly Escaped A Museum Fire
Isaac Sprague was born in Massachusetts in 1841. He enjoyed a normal childhood, but after falling ill after swimming in a lake when he was 12, he began irreversibly losing weight despite having a healthy appetite. In 1865, he joined P.T. Barnum’s American Museum and was billed as the Living Human Skeleton until the museum burned down in 1868, with Sprague narrowly managing to escape with his life!
By the age of 44, he weighed just 43 pounds (19.5 kg). Time and again, he tried to leave the sideshow life but had to care for his wife and three healthy sons while battling a gambling addiction. He died penniless in 1887.
Fedor Jeftichew: Jo-Jo The Dog-Faced Boy
As a child, Russian performer Fedor Jeftichew went by the name Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy and toured Europe with his father, The Wild Man from the Kostroma Forest. In 1884, that man again––P.T. Barnum brought him to Stateside, where he became known as… you guessed it: Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Man. Barnum invented a story that he and his father were captured and kept in a cave by a hunter. Barnum forced Fedor to bark and growl as part of the act.
Fedor died from pneumonia in Greece in 1904. But his legacy doesn’t end there. He was made famous in the movies. No, not as Chewbacca, but in The Greatest Showman (2017), where Luciano Acuna Jr. portrayed Dog Boy.
Surely A Three-Legged Soccer Player Is Cheating
Now, many men joke about having a third leg, but Frank Lentini didn’t have to lie! Born in 1889 with a parasitic twin, his family moved from Sicily to the United States. Frank joined several circuses; the famous Ringling Brothers Circus, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and Barnum and Bailey. He was known as The Great Lentini. As well as having three legs, Frank had four feet and two sets of genitals!
