Sideshow 11: Inseparable

them best, were often stumped when playing Who's Who. To think of one without the other was inconceivable to other people, yes, but even more so to themselves. As far as we know, Moses and Aaron weren't keen on separation and independence. Quite the opposite. In fact, they were far more interested in doubling down on their twindom, so much so that they decided they were going to create a lasting legacy based

on this very principle, their own twin utopia. Smack in the northeastern corner of Ohio, the brothers Wilcox got some land, moved west, and found themselves in the sparsely populated township of Millsville. But to have a town, you must have people, So Moses and Aaron quickly got to work. They began buying and parceling off the land for a steel bringing

in more and more settlers. Eventually they would make Millsville and offer they'd give the town six free acres to be developed into a public square, plus a bit of seed money to create the town's first school, and in return, all the town needed to do was changed its name from Millsville to Twinsburg. The town readily accepted the deal, and the name stuck. Not only did it stick, but the town has continued to grow in ways the brothers

could never have dreamed. The twin identity has become so baked into the DNA of that town that every summer since nineteen six it hosts the Twins Day Festival. It's the largest annual gathering of twins in the world, with thousands of pairs attending. Naturally, Singleton's and other kinds of multiples are welcome, but for this occasion, the twosomes are the stars. There are all sorts of contests, parades, and

talent shows at the festival. Twins come dressed in matching sets, hoping to play up their likeness, and it's there, more than anywhere else in the world, where they can be among people who experienced the same rare fortune of sharing real estates in a single uterus. But there's something else there, because it's more than just a celebration of twindom. In fact, the festival functions as an ongoing scientific investigation centering around

the question of nature versus nurture. For years, Twinsburg is drawn researcher is interested in studying the effects of genetics on behavior, personality, predispositions, and diseases. Festival participants, for their parts, are often more than happy to oblige. It's not uncommon to hear stories of multiples being separated at birth, only to find each other years later, and sometimes with uncanny results.

These siblings, who often haven't known the other has existed for their entire life, have been known to develop similar interests, mannerisms, and temperaments. Some would also talk about the feeling that a piece of themselves had been missing. Scientists are only now beginning to develop ideas about why this might be, but we certainly have a long way to go in our understanding. And as for Moses and Aaron, they would go on to spend the rest of their lives together.

In fact, that the age of fifty, they have said that they became sick on the very same day and died within hours of each other, and not wishing to ever change that they were even buried in the same grave. I probably don't need to tell you that families are complicated. Sibling relationships are at the heart of so many great stories, from old myths, religious lessons, folk tales, and even true crime.

Although our genetic makeup might make siblings appear similar, they often can't be more different, and that genetic lottery, a random ticket plucked from the grab bag of d n A is something that will never be able to escape. I'm Aaron Manky and welcome to the side show. Depending on where you're listening right now, you may be able to see it tonight. Gemini, one of the most recognizable constellations in the world, is made up of eighty five stars that are visible to the naked eye. It's too

brightest stars. Castor and Pollox are named after some of the most famous twins in Greek mythology, and their pedigree was nothing to sniff ats either. Their mother was a princess who later became a Spartan queen. The boys had two different fathers, though Castor was the mortal son of tim Dareus, while Pollox was the divine son of Zeus. The myth tells us that when Castor was fatally wounded later in life, Zeus offered his son Pollocks a choice spend his time as a demigod on Mount Olympus or

give half of his immortality to his brother. Pollocks chose to save his twin and gave him half his immortality, and in doing so they would travel together between Mount Olympus and Hades in equal measure, never again to be separated. In the story of human history, the specter of twins looms large. For eons. Stories of twins have belonged to the realms of old world religion and folklore. Thinkers have

been obsessed with understanding their nature. Accounting for only three percent of natural births, their cultural effect has been outsized and profound. Scientific curiosity about twins goes back to ancient times. Hippocrates, the famous physician, wrote about a pair of brothers who he suspected as being twins, based on the fact that the two became sick with the same illness at the same time, which progressed at the same rate and then

cleared up simultaneously. The modern scientific study of identical twins, though, seems to have begun around eighteen seventy five with Sir Francis Galton, the cousin of another than Charles Darwin. The most common twins are fraternal, meaning that two babies are born from two different fertilized eggs. Identical twins result from the splitting of a single egg, and the most rare form of all are twins who are born conjoined, the

result of an incomplete separation of an early embryo. Conjoined twins are further classified according to how and where they are joined, and they can be fused just about anywhere, sharing any number of body parts and internal organs. Now, historically such births have caused quite an alarm, often being

blamed on the devil or witchcraft. Interestingly, one of the first recorded attempts to surgically separate conjoined twin boys was in the Byzantine Empire during the tenth century, but the first successful surgical separation of conjoined twins was in Switzerland in sight nine. Twins have appeared on stage for just

about as long. For his part. P. T. Barnum began billing twins as living curiosities, highlighting their otherness alongside his other born and manufactured x. The questions were always suggested to the audience. Were they one person, were they too? Who would they be without the other? And could they or should they be separated? Many can join twins undergo surgery so they can lead more independent lives, but for some, choosing to stay together has offered something more attractive, the

path to fame and prosperity. Their birth foreshadowed disaster, or so king rama, the second of Siam thought for the price of a few inches of connective tissue at their stern um. The boys were condemned to death, but fortunately for conjoined twins Chang and Eng, their sentence was never carried out. In fact, they're pos sit of celebrity was uncommon in a world where physical differences were often treated as oddities. The brothers were no social pariahs. By age ten,

the brothers had entered the workforce. They had lost five of their siblings and their father to cholera. With a purchase of a fishing boats and reputation in the duck egg trade, they became quite popular among their neighbors. In eighteen twenty four, when they were thirteen years old, the boys had gone for a swim. There they caught the eye of a Scottish merchant named Robert Hunter, who, according to his retelling, at first assumed them to be some

sort of creature. He said, he quickly realized his mistake, but still considered the potential of their monstrosity again his word not mine, and began to think about exhibiting them. Roberts and an American sea captain named Able Coffin approached the boys and their mother, Nock, hoping to have her sign off on his plans. Robert was also tasked with convincing the same King of Siam to give them permission

to go abroad. The king was excited about the positive press the boys would elicit for their small country and was eager to establish deeper ties with western developed nations. For a thirty month contract with her sons, Roberts and Able paid Knock the sum of five dollars. The accounts of the transaction vary widely. Were they sold or simply

entrusted into the men's care. Who did Chang Nang belong to the market for oriental curiosities was flourishing in the West, and Chang and Yang's compound ethnic and physical makeup was irresistible in the eyes of the showman. Their first stop in America would be Boston, where they were billed as the Siamese Double Boys, and they were an instant sensation. Unlike other acts at the time, the boys were not

taught to do tricks or otherwise perform. Rather, they were allowed to conduct themselves as they saw fit, though they eventually would take to performing feats of strength. The price to see them was high, though, with tickets often selling

for the modern quivalent of about one dollars. Now. Where other sideshow acts were put on stage and seen as a spectacle, Chang and Aaning position themselves more like hosts at a tea party, entertaining and conversing with curious guests with bits of English, and this hallmark, the one of respectability, would prove to be a lifelong pillar of the brother's identities. They pursued their own independence outside of their management, aligning

themselves with society's upper crust who came to see them. Frequently. They would entertain doctors and other spectators who addressed the question of separation. It was usually the doctors who would approach them, but the brothers were also known to seek out the Council on their own. Chang and Eng were known to fight ferociously from time to time and had

wildly different personalities. By twenty one, they pursued total independence and announced that they had fulfilled all contractual obligations that had brought them abroad in the first place. Striking out on their own, they would finally get into business for themselves. They traveled to Europe, they traveled across North America. They adopted an American style of dress, save for their long

braided hair. Chang and Ang were already positioning themselves not as servants, slaves, or beholden to others, but rather as agents in their own right. One thing they could not escape, though, was the social order they found themselves in. At the end of the day, it would still never be white. But by the end of the eighteen thirties, the twins began to entertain the idea of retirement. They made their way to Wilkes County, North Carolina and purchased one hundred

fifty acres of land. The newly minted U S citizens also adopted a new American surname. They would now be called Chang and Ang Bunker, they settled into their American identity. They attended church, opened a local store, and eventually took up farming. And what's more, they each married on April thirteenth of eighteen forty three, in true American fashion, Chang En Ang married the farmers daughters from down the way. Chang married Adelaide Yates, and Ang married her sister Sarah

Ann in a proper Baptist church wedding. The papers, of course, were all a twitter at what they called a be steel union, but within ten months both couples welcomed their first child, and over the next three decades, Chang and Ang and their respective wives would have a total of twenty one children. The two families moved into a larger house and began farming tobacco and several other crops. They would eventually build two houses side by side for each

nuclear family and spend alternating days at each. They became gifted carpenters, horse breeders, and marksman. Chang and Yang, who had once been leased out as human exhibits, purchased dozens of enslaved people to maintain their farms. It seems they had no limits when it came to amassing the trappings of white aristocracy. But their retirement wasn't to last. They returned to the stage on and off in the intervening years,

even passing through P. T. Barnum's American Museum. At one point it was said that he was resentful that he hadn't been the one to discover them, and that they found him to be quite stingy and exploitative. They paused in eighteen sixty one with the outbreak of the Civil War. Slaveholders and secessionists as they were, they backed the Confederacy, suffering many great losses, with the deaths of two daughters

and almost total economic ruin. The pair continued to tour the country after the war, but by this time their health was beginning to fail, and Chang's drinking, which had already been quite heavy, became even worse. It didn't help that their appeal as a form of entertainment was also beginning to wane. Barnum had evidently offered to send them on a tour through Europe and offered Chang, and Ang

took him up on in late eighteen sixty eight. While there, they once again consulted with several doctors about the possibility of separating them, but were repeatedly told that it would be much too dangerous. And then, in July of eighteen seventy, on their way back from Europe, Chang suffered a stroke connected only at the stern um. Chang and Yang's bodies seemed to be aging at different rates. Chang's condition would never improve, with his brother physically and spiritually shouldering the

weight of their inevitable demise. It said that in the last years of their life, they became obsessed with their own mortality. They knew their time was coming, cruel and dreadful it would be. They thought they have to carry on with the other's corpse at his side. They didn't have to wait long, though. Chang would eventually catch a fatal case of bronchitis, and Ang, it said, died of fright before doctors could rush in for an emergency separation attempt.

They both passed away on January of eighteen seventy four at the age of sixty two, just a few hours apart the train can doctor has never understood why the girls only traveled on one ticket, after all, it was clear that there were two of them. The girls went by the collective hyphenated Millie Christine, and although they fully acknowledged their two personhood, they really only had one body, so one seat was all they were going to pay for a little less than fifteen years after Chang and

Aang Bunker initially retired. In North Carolina, Millie Christine McCoy had been born into slavery the opposite side of the state. The girls had two hearts, two sets of lungs and intestines, two bladders, and were conjoined at the base of the spine. But it was only ten months after they were born that their career began. Their first visit to the North Carolina State Fair build them as the North Carolina Twins

and the Double Headed Girl. They were allowed to be examined by medical men to indeed certify that they weren't a fraud, that they were well the real McCoy. And as horrible as those examinations sound, we know this is an expectation that had been long impressed upon side show performers. Millie Christine had the compounded problem of being born into legal enslavements. At birth, they didn't even belong to themselves.

The question that was on every spectator's mind was the same as when folks went to see Chang and hang, could they be separated? And more perversely, would they be able to bear children? And what would the mechanics of that even be. The girls were soon sold to a fellow by the name of Joseph Pearson Smith, and in a rash of business dealings gone awry, they were kidnapped.

The swindler, it seems, began exhibiting them privately to small groups in various cities along the East Coast, during which time they once again changed many hands, turning up as side show acts are wont to do at Barnum's American Museum in New York City in eighteen fifty four. By the summer of eighteen fifty five, Millie Christine ended up in Quebec, Canada, in the hands of two showmen, William Thompson and William Miller, who claimed to have found Millie

Christine in Boston. They soon took off to Liverpool, England, where Miller then stole Millie Christine and headed to London, where the twins were examined by more physicians and exhibited to the public for a shilling pert ticket. Thompson eventually caught up with Miller and took up to court the crime. Thompson felt Miller was guilty of stealing his property. However, slavery was no longer legal in England, but Thompson was awarded the closest thing to it, guardianship of Millie Christine.

Back in the States, where enslavement was in its final legal years, Joseph Pearson Smith remember him, was alerted to their whereabouts. He proceeded to purchase Millie Christine's entire family from their original owner. Because he had a plan, Joseph traveled to England, bringing Millie Christine's mother, Monemia in tow. They caught up with Thompson and the twins in Birmingham and January of eighteen thirty seven, and accompanied by a group of disguised policemen, the girls were taken away in

a flurry of draw Mamma. Later, Millie Christine was said to have looked back on this as an act of mercy. They had been separated from their family so young. By purchasing the whole family, Joseph made it possible for them to be reunited with their parents. I'm a bit skeptical of this altruism myself, but even so, this event surely was bitter sweet. The girls would go on to live at Joseph's home in Spartanburg, Tennessee. So while the rest of the family was still enslaved and working on the farm,

Millie Christine was taught to read, write, and sing. The entire family was laboring, but for them the work looked much different. On stage, Millie Christine was billed as the two headed Nightingale and homage to Barnum's wealthy, cosmopolitan, wheeling and dealing Swedish protege Jenny Lynn. An ad from an English newspaper in eighteen seventy one even talked about their performance in glowing terms. She sings duets in soprano and

contralto have voices. The review read, Chicken dances gray facefully and with as much enjoyment as any ballroom couple, and even when alone, she does not let company, being able to carry on a brilliant conversation with herself. It was amusing yesterday to notice how in the middle of a polka, the two heads inclined to each other, and the two voices kept chattering away in their inseparable but beyond doubt

joyous companionship. In early November of eighteen sixty two, the twins suffered one of the greatest losses of their life. Joseph died, and in settling his debts, their family was once again sold off. Millie Christine's biography tells us that they stayed with his widow and even continued to do

so after being legally freed. Following the end of the American Civil War, they were legally emancipated, but still they continued to exhibit, according to them, for the purpose of helping the widow Smith with bills and expenses that were left to her by her late husband. However, recently discovered letters in the National Archive tell a different story that Mrs Smith fused them their freedom and even kept them

hidden from their parents. The letters document an argument between Mrs Smith and Monemia, forcing their mother's hand in signing over custody of the twins. In a powerful turn of events, though Millie Christine, who were young women by this point, eventually claimed their earnings and their freedom. They made their way together with their parents and brother to Welsh's Creek, North Carolina, and there they bought and reclaimed the land

their parents had once worked while enslaved. They would continue to exhibit in various cities in the Greater Area, evidently still in collaboration with Mrs Smith. Much of what we know about Millie Christine comes from the memoirs they wrote in eighteen sixty nine, when they were just seventeen years old. Copies of it were sold at their performances for the

equivalent of about five dollars. Today, some scholars have raised serious doubts as to whether the twins indeed are the authors of their history, and suspect that at the very least their former owners had considerable control over the material, or perhaps were even the true writers. Yet it would be unfair to Milly Christine to entirely discount these materials and assume they were wholly powerless. In the fall of

eighty three, they headed back to their family. They spent months decorating their fourteen room home and even built extra wide doorways for themselves. They would tour off and on until Milly came down with tuberculosis in nineteen twelve. Their attending doctor was advised to not try to separate the twins, but rather to simply provide comforts. He left a message for the governor asking for permission to euthanize Christine. Milly

died on October eight of nineteen twelve. Christine stayed alive for less than a day longer praying and singing hymns. The governor finally granted the doctor permission, and Christine was delivered a lethal dose of morphine to hasten her own death. Neither of them had wanted to ever be without the other. They could never dream of it, and now they never would be. Both in their own time and in the decades that followed, Chang and Yang and Millie Christine were

often compared to each other. Indeed, they were operating in the world of side shows and standalone exhibits at around the same time, and according to at least one source, the two pairs may have even briefly exhibited alongside each other. But in many ways, there seems to be more that set Chang and Yang and Millie Christine apart than held them together. Chang and Ang were quite independent from one another, even having their own families who lived in separate homes

side by side. They fought with one another, They had dramatically different personalities. They explored the possibility of separation at many points, even if it was declared too dangerous to be done. Milly Christine, on the other hand, while becoming highly independent, collectively, were nonetheless so close with one another that they spoke of them selves in the singular They never seem to have entertained the idea of being separated.

The difference between the two can likewise be seen rather dramatically, and the events which unfolded after each had died. Following their deaths, Chang and Yang's respective widows initially did what any person would do with the death of their loved one. The family assembled and paid final respects. They had a local clergyman come and perform last rites. They also objected to allowing an autopsy to be performed on the two men,

and wanted to bury the twins in the cellar. Their local physician convinced them to allow him to preserve the bodies in charcoal so that they may continue to keep them in the house. A doctor from Philadelphia felt the twins owed their autopsy to science after a lifetime of the best medical care available. In the end, the widows finally agreed, but wouldn't allow for their connective band to be dissected. The body was brought to Philadelphia to be

examined in great secrecy, much to the newspapers chagrin. Some of Changan Yang's and trails, namely their joined liver, are still kept at the Mooder Museum, and later doctors and researchers continued to examine their organs even into the nineteen sixties and seventies. Oh and the same museum has a plaster cast made of the twins following their autopsy. In a way, the brothers continue to be sideshow oddities even

after death. And as for Millie Christine, their family guarded their grave for nine months and it seems they had no trouble with grave robbers. In nineteen sixty nine, a descendant of theirs exhumed and reburied them under a new headstone, and the message upon it certainly captures the beautiful complexity of their lives. A soul with two thoughts, two hearts that beat us one. Today's tour through the Side Show gave us a look at unique siblings who, against and

pretty incredible odds, came out on top others. However, I haven't been so lucky. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear one more tale about the side show. Before sending the sacks of apples and piles of potatoes out the door, Daisy and Violet Hilton dutifully weighed them one by one. They pile the fruits and vegetables high on the scale at the parking shop in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The produce counter granted them a bit of anonymity. After all, a lot of their customers who got to know them over the seven years that they worked there, never realized that they were conjoined at the back. The Hilton sisters were born in Brighton, England, just a stone's throw from the seaside community's entertainment strip. Their mother was young, poor and unwed, a local barmaid who wanted nothing to do with her twins. After they were born monsters, she called them.

She was hopeful that they wouldn't survive the night, and was deeply disappointed to awaken the morning and find them very much alive. Her boss, however, saw their potential and was quickly given custody of the newborns. And that's how not long after their birth, they were already being paraded in front of the public for a handful of coins. Over the course of their lifetime, the Hilton sisters would

make money hand over fist on the side show circuit. However, the twins were kept in poverty most of their lives, their managers growing rich from their exploitation. They went to Charlotte for a reason, but stayed there due to great misfortune. In nineteen sixty two, around fifty years old, Daisy and Violet had gone on tour to promote Todd Browning's film Freaks,

which they had started thirty years before. The movie had been recut and re released, and the twins, whose careers had faded over the years, we're hoping to cash in. But it didn't go as they had planned. In a cruel twist of fate, their manager abandoned them at the drive in, leaving them penniless with no way out of town and no prospects ahead. So when they showed up a Charles Reads grocery store, looking worse for wear and

in need of a job, he gave them work. Charles was a compassionate neighbor who was going to help them get back on their feet. His wife took the women shopping for new clothes and helped them fix their hair. They tamed down the trappings of show business life, the red nails, the flamboyant makeup, and outfitted them in the store's signature red and white checkered shirt. When they eventually moved on to become cashiers. A booth was even modified

to fit them both comfortably. The women guarded their private lives carefully. They turned down all interviews and all offers from doctors who wanted to examine them. After a life in the limelight, theirs had become a quiet existence and cons during the years of physical and psychological abuse that they had endured, perhaps even a happy one. Their long story came to an end in the winter of nine when Violet caught the flu and then Daisy did as well.

Charles checked in on them regularly, but weeks into their illness they stopped answering the phone. A wellness checks soon revealed that the twins had passed away, most likely a few days apart. Daisy and Violet Hilton were lowered into their grave, just as they had passed through life together, side by side, through thick and thin. Inseparable Side Show was written by Robin Miniter, with narration by me Aaron Manckey.

Research for the series was by Robin Minater, Taylor, Haggard Dorn, and Sam Alberty, with production assistance from Josh Thayne, Jesse Funk, Ala Williams, and Matt Frederick. Grim and Mile Presents was created in partnership with I Heart Radio. You can learn more about this show and everything else from Grim and mild Over at Grim and mild dot com and, as always, thanks for listening. M HM