Mademoiselle Gabrielle was a legless marvel from the early 1900’s. She was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1884 and began her freak show and exhibition career at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1900 as The Half-Woman. Her first foray into show business proved quite successful as she soon traveled to America to work with the…
Stanislaus Berent was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 24, 1901. ‘Stanley’s’ stunted arms, a condition known as phocomelia, were due to a genetic fault and likely not due to chemical exposure. Phocomelia is a common defect associated with exposure to the drug thalidomide. Over 10,000 children were born with severe malformations due to prescription…
Carl Herman Unthan was born on April 5th, 1848 in Sommerfield, East Prussia. Some stories claim that he was very nearly smothered by the delivering midwife, a popular narrative in the birth accounts of many marvels, and that he was rescued by his father before the evil deed was done. It was his father who…
Born on July 22, 1851 in Siberia, Russia, Nikolai Wassiljewittsch Kobelkoff was the fourteenth child of normal parents. He was born without limbs, as a living torso.
On August 27, 1911 Amelia and John Eckhardt welcomed the birth of twin sons. The two would have been nearly identical if little John Jr. had been born with legs. While Robert was completely formed John Jr. was a perfectly healthy half boy, seemingly ‘snapped off at the waist’. The brothers grew up in…