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Speaker 1: It's July and I'm in mount Airy, North Carolina, population

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Speaker 1: ten thousand three. Located at the foothills of the beautiful

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Speaker 1: Blue Ridge Mountains. This is the birthplace of beloved American

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Speaker 1: actor Andy Griffith and the model for Mayberry, the setting

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Speaker 1: for his classic sitcom The Andy Griffith Show. Griffith played

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Speaker 1: Sheriff Andy Taylor, keeping watch over his sleepy town and

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Speaker 1: his young son Opie, played by little Ronnie Howard. When

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Speaker 1: you give you word, never go back on you. You

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Speaker 1: understand that day? Okay, Pa, you can trust me. If

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Speaker 1: the name sounds familiar. Opie grew up to become Happy

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Speaker 1: Days actor and Hollywood movie director ron Howard. To bring

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Speaker 1: in the tourists, mount Airy does its best to recreate

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Speaker 1: the Maybury experience. You can eat at Snappy Lunch, which

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Speaker 1: was mentioned on the show that the same as the

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Speaker 1: port Untamemad show. You can ride around in a replica

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Speaker 1: Maybury police car, or you can spend a couple of

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Speaker 1: hours at the Andy Griffith Museum at our house. Every

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Speaker 1: day we have they're recorded and rewatched all the time.

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Speaker 1: Growing up, we watched it in reruns. It was my

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Speaker 1: father's favorite show. Six thirty PM, Channel five. But not

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Speaker 1: many of these people know that the price of admission

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Speaker 1: to the Anti Griffith Museum will allow them entrance into

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Speaker 1: another smaller museum just downstairs in the basement. The eight

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Speaker 1: dollars prize includes the Siamese Twin exhibit as well as

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Speaker 1: Andy Griffith Museum. Take a peek at It The Siamese Twins,

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Speaker 1: mount Airy's second and third favorite sons. Simon Selection, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: a part of them. This is fascinating, It really is.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if they died together or I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to figure out what happened at the end of their lives.

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Speaker 1: Tanya Jones runs both places and talks about a common

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Speaker 1: reaction from the people who visit the exhibit downstairs. The

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Speaker 1: surprise is why is it here? And it's here because

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Speaker 1: this is where they settled and raised their families. Chang

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Speaker 1: and Ang Bunker, the once world famous joined twins, were

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Speaker 1: born in Thailand called Siam at the time in eighteen eleven,

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Speaker 1: and later in life, settled right here in Mount Airy,

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Speaker 1: many years before people even heard about Mayberry. This episode

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Speaker 1: is about those remarkable twins. It's a complicated and not

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Speaker 1: always happy story, but this story is real. So I

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Speaker 1: mean they weren't a part of the show or anything though,

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Speaker 1: were they definitely know they was only any different show.

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Speaker 1: I'm Murrah go, and this is mobituaries. This MOPI Chang

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Speaker 1: and Ang Bunker, a messy American dream. This is Francis

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Speaker 1: and Caroline. I've seen you before, You've seen him on television.

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Speaker 1: I'm CBS. I'm Francis Hall, okay, and I'm at a

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Speaker 1: family reunion here in mount Airy, North Carolina. And he

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Speaker 1: must be the youngest Bunker here. Yeah, oh my gosh,

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Speaker 1: look at him. Okay, So it's not my family reunion,

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Speaker 1: but I'm happy to be crashing it for the food alone,

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Speaker 1: a sticky rice milk and needed the mano or for

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Speaker 1: this different, different than biscuits and gravy. While this family's

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Speaker 1: North Carolina roots stretched back nearly two centuries, it's tie

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Speaker 1: roots stretched back much farther. Greedys and high to descendants.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the I believe twenty ninth Annual Bunker Reunion.

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Speaker 1: This is the Bunker family. Bunker is the name Chang

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Speaker 1: and Ang adopted when they came to North Carolina. At

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Speaker 1: this reunion, family members take sides. I'm a fourth grade

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Speaker 1: grandson of Chang Bunker, I'm a great grandson of E.

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Speaker 1: I'm a descend to mean. He had the strongest body,

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Speaker 1: but his face was kind of like a plowdboars face.

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Speaker 1: Little uncle Chang he had the weaker body, the crooked

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Speaker 1: the backbone, but he had to pretty his face and hair.

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Speaker 1: Everyone here seems proud to be descended from the twins.

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Speaker 1: Let's read the back of your shirt. It says our

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Speaker 1: family sticks together, and there's a picture of Ing and

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Speaker 1: Chang on the back. But apparently it wasn't always something

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Speaker 1: the family celebrates. Did as Caroline, how she found out

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Speaker 1: about the Sammy's twins? How did you find out about

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Speaker 1: Sammy's twins? I was in the Living Wind one day

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Speaker 1: as a little girl, and I just opened up the

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Speaker 1: secretary and I saw all these articles and pictures of

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Speaker 1: the twins and stashed away. You felt like you were

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Speaker 1: discovering family secrets. Yes, turns out many of the almost

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Speaker 1: one thousand, five hundred descendants of Chang and Ang, I know,

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Speaker 1: it's a crazy number. We'll explain have been on journeys

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Speaker 1: of their own. And that's the other story we're going

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Speaker 1: to tell you. Remember walking down the streets of Little

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Speaker 1: Mount Airy, North Carolina, and going into a store and

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Speaker 1: somebody would look at me and say, you must be

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Speaker 1: one of those Bunkers. So I was a little bit labeled.

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Speaker 1: Alex Sink is a great granddaughter of Chang Bunker. But

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Speaker 1: I have to give a credit to my father because

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Speaker 1: he said, he said, well, you should be so proud

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Speaker 1: of the fact that you come from the Sammy's twins

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Speaker 1: who overcame so many ops tickles, and it's an incredible

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Speaker 1: story to tell. The twins story begins on the other

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Speaker 1: side of the planet in a fishing village in Siam.

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Speaker 1: The boys family was actually ethnically Chinese. The twins were

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Speaker 1: born on a houseboat, perfectly healthy except for a four

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Speaker 1: inch long band of flesh and cartilage joining them at

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Speaker 1: the mid section. Trace your finger down the lower part

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Speaker 1: of your chest, right where the bone stops. That's where

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Speaker 1: they were connected. They shared one belly button right in

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Speaker 1: the center of that band. Despite this connecting band, they

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Speaker 1: led a relatively normal life. They learned to walk and

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Speaker 1: to swim, and to help the family make ends meet,

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Speaker 1: they raised ducks and sold the exit market in Thailand.

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Speaker 1: They weren't raised as curiosities the way that they would

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Speaker 1: become in the United States. That's Joe Orser, a history

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Speaker 1: professor at the University of Wisconsin, eau Claire. He's the

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Speaker 1: author of the Lives Chang and Eng, Siam's Twins. In

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Speaker 1: nineteenth century America, they were given a great amount of

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Speaker 1: freedom to run around and play. One day, when the

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Speaker 1: boys are just twelve years old, a British merchant named

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Speaker 1: Robert Hunter comes sailing down the river and he spots

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Speaker 1: something in the distance, and he saw what he would

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Speaker 1: later describe a monstrosity. He thought it was some sort

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Speaker 1: of animal playing in the water. Then he would ultimately

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Speaker 1: discover that it was these conjoined brothers, and immediately he

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Speaker 1: thinks we can make a lot of money exhibiting these

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Speaker 1: two young boys. Hunter spends five years lobbying the King

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Speaker 1: of Siam for permission to take the boys with him,

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Speaker 1: and if you're picturing Youle Brinner, sorry the King his

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Speaker 1: character is based on in the musical, and doesn't come

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Speaker 1: on the scene for a few more decades. Finally, after

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Speaker 1: Hunter teams up with American ship captain Able Coffin, that

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Speaker 1: King signs off and in eighteen twenty nine, the seventeen

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Speaker 1: year old twins set sail for America, and I don't

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Speaker 1: think they had any idea what they were getting into.

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Speaker 1: They had no idea when they left in eighteen twenty

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Speaker 1: nine that they're not ever going to see their home

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Speaker 1: man again, they're not going to see their mother again,

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Speaker 1: that for the rest of their lives they're going to

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Speaker 1: be in the West. They spend four months on the ship,

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Speaker 1: climbing the mast, learning to play chess, picking up English

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Speaker 1: from the sailors. The America that greets them is in

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Speaker 1: the middle of a transformation. Andrew Jackson is the brand

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Speaker 1: new president. The country's industrializing, and it's a super boring place.

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Speaker 1: There are basically three options for entertainment, card games, cider drinking,

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Speaker 1: and cock fights. That's pretty much it. No surprise Chang

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Speaker 1: and Eng become instant stars. People Magazine existed back then.

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Speaker 1: They would be in at every other week, some of

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Speaker 1: the first entertainers in America. I think at least famous ones.

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Speaker 1: Within months, they are household names. The phrase that would

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Speaker 1: come to describe them, Siamese Twins, becomes very famous very

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Speaker 1: quickly as well. That's right there, the original Siamese Twins.

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Speaker 1: That's where the expression comes from by now that four

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Speaker 1: inch band has stretched to five and a half inches,

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Speaker 1: no small difference. They were able to stand side by side.

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Speaker 1: If you've ever seen pictures of them, they're dressed nicely

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Speaker 1: and each has one arm over the other's shoulder. That

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Speaker 1: was the most comfortable position for them. To me. They

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Speaker 1: kind of looked like two best friends coming home from

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Speaker 1: a late night out. As for the show they put on,

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Speaker 1: there were some acts of acrobatic feats that they would

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Speaker 1: be asked to do. These included somersaults, or lifting weights

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Speaker 1: or playing badminton, you know when each of them holding

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Speaker 1: a racket and hitting the birdie back and forth. They're

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Speaker 1: being asked to perform these types of physical feats for

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Speaker 1: an audience that's paying money just to watch them, just

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Speaker 1: because they're a pair of conjoined twins. But they're not

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Speaker 1: just being docked at. They give as good as they get.

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Speaker 1: Were they funny, Yeah, Some of the commenters said that

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Speaker 1: they had a great sense of humor. They were very

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Speaker 1: quick witted, so you could ask a question and they

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Speaker 1: would be, you know, quick with a response. During one show,

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Speaker 1: they notice a one eyed man in the audience and

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Speaker 1: they tell him they'll re fund half of his admission,

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Speaker 1: because after all, he's only seeing half the show. They

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Speaker 1: traveled the country. In New York City, they're exhibited at

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Speaker 1: the Grand Saloon of the Basonic Hall. In small towns,

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Speaker 1: they perform in living rooms or tents. The small rural communities,

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Speaker 1: they hold exhibits, and you've got wagons full of people

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Speaker 1: kind of converging on the small towns to see the

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Speaker 1: twins and to talk about the twins, and to spread

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Speaker 1: rumors about the twins. There's this one story, a superstition

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Speaker 1: surrounding them that's especially wild. So in Kentucky, shortly after

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Speaker 1: their visit, a woman gives birth to conjoin twins. And

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Speaker 1: immediately the thought is did she see the twins? Was

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Speaker 1: their conditions somehow contracted by her because she saw the twins?

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Speaker 1: And no, she hadn't actually gone to the show, but

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Speaker 1: she had seen pictures of the twins being advertised, And

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Speaker 1: so the question is, well, did that cause almost like

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Speaker 1: a viral exactly we're all wired to find the idea

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Speaker 1: of conjoined twins sign These twins just completely and totally riveting.

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Speaker 1: I remember being a kid and you you'd hear about

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Speaker 1: a set being born and it's just it's you just

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Speaker 1: can't help but be fascinated. Why do you think that is?

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Speaker 1: Because at once it's so familiar and yet also so different,

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Speaker 1: so alien. They had the ideal physical form. It's the

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Speaker 1: fact that they have this extra band of flesh that

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Speaker 1: connects them, and at once it's appealing, it draws your attention,

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Speaker 1: but you also feel a slight sense of horror. They

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Speaker 1: are an early version of, ultimately what would become known

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Speaker 1: as a freak show, a traveling freak show, and those

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Speaker 1: kind of experienced a tremendous level of success in the

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Speaker 1: nineteenth century. Part of the fascination is that Chang and

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Speaker 1: Ang are among the very first Asians in America. This

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Speaker 1: is decades before Chinese immigrants come to work on the railroads.

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Speaker 1: Philosophers opine about their souls, doctors prod them with needles.

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Speaker 1: There's a rom com written about them. Herman Melville alludes

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Speaker 1: to them in Moby Dick Oh, and none other than

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Speaker 1: Mark Twain speculates on them. He writes this, when one

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Speaker 1: is sick, the other is sick. When one feels pain,

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Speaker 1: the other feels it. When one is angered, the other's

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Speaker 1: temper takes fire. And are people actually questioning whether they

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Speaker 1: are one person or two. They're in Alabama and a

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Speaker 1: doctor in the crowd and the audience of one of

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Speaker 1: their shows thinks that they're in some way trying to

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Speaker 1: pull a fast one over on him. So the doctor

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Speaker 1: asks one brother, what will happen if I poke you

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Speaker 1: in the arm with a needle, And the other one says,

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Speaker 1: if you poked my brother in the arm with the needle,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna punch you. Temper Temper, that's Jasper Bunker. He's

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Speaker 1: a great grandson of Anger. It said that the twins

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Speaker 1: had opposite personalities. Ang was more gentle and well mannered.

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Speaker 1: Chang was cranky and love to fight. Sometimes they fought

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Speaker 1: with each other, and sometimes that temper was directed at

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Speaker 1: those who got in their faces. They got in a

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Speaker 1: scuffle and they had at of fight and full fish

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Speaker 1: and started to go, you know, because if you mess

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Speaker 1: with one brother, you're gonna get the other brother got

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Speaker 1: full full fifth go in color. Increasingly their temper was

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Speaker 1: directed at Able Coffin. He'd bought out Robert Hunter for

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Speaker 1: full ownership of the twins contract. They had started to

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Speaker 1: understand that Americans saw them as bonded labor. Uh the

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Speaker 1: money they earned was not going to them but to

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Speaker 1: their owner, and so they knew that Americans believed that

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Speaker 1: they were slaves. Just one of many indignities they suffered.

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Speaker 1: When the twins traveled to England, Coffin and his wife

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Speaker 1: luxuriated in first class while Chang and Eng stayed in

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Speaker 1: steerage with the servants. Soon enough, they'd had enough. Pere's

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Speaker 1: just sent an alex sink again. And they had the

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Speaker 1: courage at the age of twenty one or write the

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Speaker 1: guy letter and said we're done. We can do this

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Speaker 1: on our own, and so they did. It helped that

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Speaker 1: they planned ahead for life as independent men. They were

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Speaker 1: very frugal and saved enough money because I think they

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Speaker 1: had in their mind that they didn't want to spend

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Speaker 1: the risk of their lives and display. There are journals

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Speaker 1: that outline every single penny they spent on their tour.

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Speaker 1: At the age of twenty eight, they traveled through rural

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Speaker 1: North Carolina. When they saw the Blue Ridge Mountains in

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Speaker 1: the distance, they were reminded of Siam. It was a

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Speaker 1: sign they wanted to have a normal life. They were

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Speaker 1: young men. There were normal young men who wanted to

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Speaker 1: have a family, Chang and Ang were ready to settle

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Speaker 1: down and make new connections. And this is where the

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Speaker 1: story gets really interesting. Did you see the bridge yet? No?

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Speaker 1: Chang eventually and this side of the creek, and Ings

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Speaker 1: family had the other side of the creek. During the

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Speaker 1: Bunker Family reunion, I wanted to get a little closer

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Speaker 1: to the life the Chang and Ang led here in

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Speaker 1: mount Airy, North Carolina, so I asked Alex to show

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Speaker 1: me around. And then the outhouse was down the hill.

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Speaker 1: Do we know what the house looked like? We know

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Speaker 1: it was a two holer for the twins. The story

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Speaker 1: of Chang and Ang taking the country by storm and

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Speaker 1: then winning their freedom is so triumphant. So it's a

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Speaker 1: little surprising that some of the family members the reunion

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Speaker 1: drew up not even knowing they were related to them.

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Speaker 1: When I was growing up, nobody talked about the twins

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Speaker 1: very much. Really, why, oh, my grandmother, wouldn't they even

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Speaker 1: let us spring up their name? Why it's because they

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00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:26,280
Speaker 1: know the Victorian age nobody wanted to talk about Now

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00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:32,000
Speaker 1: they created one children, yes, twenty one children. But before

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00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:36,320
Speaker 1: we get ahead of ourselves, after a decade on the road,

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00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:40,440
Speaker 1: Chang and Ang retired to rural North Carolina, where they

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Speaker 1: could start building a life undisturbed by curiosity seekers. They

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Speaker 1: became American citizens, and as they established themselves in town,

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00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:54,880
Speaker 1: they started looking around for potential wives. The story goes

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Speaker 1: that at a friend's wedding, Chang fell hard for Adelaide Eights.

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Speaker 1: It mutual, but as one half of conjoined twins, Chang

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00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:09,760
Speaker 1: realized the relationship was going to be extremely awkward unless

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Speaker 1: Ang also found a spouse. The good news was that

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Speaker 1: Addie Yates had a sister, Sarah. The bad news was

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Speaker 1: that Sarah didn't particularly like Hang. So the twins hatched

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Speaker 1: a plan have all the women from neighboring towns over

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Speaker 1: for a quilting party. The era's version of a group

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00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:32,359
Speaker 1: hang Ang doated on Sarah sharing tales of life on

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Speaker 1: the road. It worked. The twins had found their other halves.

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Speaker 1: What do you think They overcame in the mountains of

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Speaker 1: North Carolina at by saying they wanted to get married, right,

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Speaker 1: my God, And somehow, through their charm and with these

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Speaker 1: two girls fell in love with them and agreed to

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Speaker 1: Can you imagine how scandalous that was the courage of

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Speaker 1: those two sisters too. Absolutely the sisters. For sure. It

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Speaker 1: didn't hurt that the twins were funny and well rich,

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Speaker 1: and that Addie and Sarah were used to not caring

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Speaker 1: what other people thought. I think probably the fact that

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Speaker 1: their mother was was different because of being enormously overweight.

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Speaker 1: Remember Tanya Jones, She's not only head of the Andy

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Speaker 1: Griffith Museum slash Samese Twins exhibit, she's also a descendant

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Speaker 1: of Anger and chair of the Bunker reunion this year.

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Speaker 1: Um She supposedly was the largest person in the area

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Speaker 1: and reportedly weighed over five pounds. And they were used

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Speaker 1: to being in the presence of someone who was looked

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Speaker 1: at as different, so possibly that made them more open minded.

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Speaker 1: It was around this time that the twins considered being separated.

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Speaker 1: They figured if they were going to have normal lives.

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Speaker 1: This was the moment Adelaide and Sarah were against it.

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Speaker 1: I choose to believe that the girls preferred to have

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Speaker 1: them alive together conjoined, rather than possibly dead separated. Both

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Speaker 1: couples were ready to tie their respective knots, but this

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00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:28,080
Speaker 1: was uncharted legal territory, and not because of the brothers

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Speaker 1: being conjoined. Marriage between whites and non whites was illegal.

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Speaker 1: The twins were not white, but they also weren't black,

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Speaker 1: so in this case, hoping to avoid any problems, each

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Speaker 1: brother posted a bond of one thousand dollars, and in

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Speaker 1: April eighteen forty three, in a small double wedding, and

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Speaker 1: can I just say I love double weddings, Chang and

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00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:56,280
Speaker 1: Ang Bunker married Sarah and adelaide the eights and commenced

303
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Speaker 1: building their families. But exactly how did they do that?

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Speaker 1: All right, you knew it was coming. Let's talk about

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00:20:04,119 --> 00:20:08,480
Speaker 1: their sex lives. Well, let me give you a few

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00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:11,760
Speaker 1: facts and then leave the rest for the imagination. This

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00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:15,760
Speaker 1: is unto Huang. He's a professor at the University of California,

308
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Speaker 1: Santa Barbara and author of a biography about the twins

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00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:23,240
Speaker 1: called Inseparable. When they first married, Leah had only one

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Speaker 1: house to the four of them, but later on they

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Speaker 1: set up to separate households. They set up this kind

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Speaker 1: of very rigid, uh schedule. Here's how it worked. For

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Speaker 1: three days and nights they stayed at one brother's house,

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Speaker 1: and then they moved to the other brothers. Let's say

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Speaker 1: they were at Chang's house Chang on the in those

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Speaker 1: three days, can do whatever he likes, whatever he does

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00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:50,399
Speaker 1: with his wife, and Ang during this time would go

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Speaker 1: into a passive meditative state. Imagine a computer in sleep mode,

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00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:02,840
Speaker 1: not shutting down, but inactive unto. Kwang describes the arrangement

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00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:07,280
Speaker 1: as one of alternate mastery. It's what allowed each brother

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Speaker 1: to enjoy intimate relations with his spouse while the other

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00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:15,000
Speaker 1: brother was right there was the bad sort of big

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Speaker 1: enough for three people. Then yes, really, if you're giggling

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Speaker 1: at the description of this unorthodox arrangement, I get it.

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Speaker 1: But it's also kind of beautiful, the very definition of selflessness,

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Speaker 1: to surrender, free will, to sacrifice like that, to give

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Speaker 1: your brother some meaningful time with his wife. The marriages

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00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:42,480
Speaker 1: were fruitful. Chang and Adelaide had ten kids. Ang and

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00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:48,800
Speaker 1: Sarah edged them out with eleven, and they were very

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Speaker 1: loving parents. I mean, you can tail from dislocated even

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Speaker 1: some of the photographs, you know, I was looking today

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Speaker 1: the way Chang had his arm around my grandfather, and

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00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:03,480
Speaker 1: it wasn't stage journey thing. It was just they love

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00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:08,080
Speaker 1: their children. Loving your children is natural for Chang and

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00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:11,920
Speaker 1: Ang brought to this country for exhibition. For these men

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00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:15,760
Speaker 1: to even have children and raise families strikes me as

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00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:20,320
Speaker 1: nothing short of radical, But being Southern gentleman in the

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00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:30,640
Speaker 1: Antebellum South meant something else. Altogether, everything you see around

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00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:34,359
Speaker 1: here was part of our farm. If you had been here,

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00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:37,480
Speaker 1: those fields would have been covered in tobacco plants. While

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00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:40,840
Speaker 1: Chang and Ang objected to themselves being seen as slaves,

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00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:46,640
Speaker 1: they had no problem owning slaves. The slavery was a

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00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:51,320
Speaker 1: fact and antibell themselves. So it was their tickets. I

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00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:55,280
Speaker 1: should emphasize into the southern white world. This is the

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00:22:55,320 --> 00:23:01,680
Speaker 1: point at which the narrative becomes very complicated and uncomfortable,

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00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:05,560
Speaker 1: right because up until this point you're really root for them.

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00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 1: But at this point the story you kind of you

348
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:11,480
Speaker 1: head a brick wall. They did treat this as business.

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Speaker 1: They tend to buy rather young slaves. They will raise

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Speaker 1: them and then sell them later at a profit when

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00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:22,880
Speaker 1: they grow older, almost like investment property. Right. They ended

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Speaker 1: up owning thirty two slaves, including children. Because of their

353
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Speaker 1: wealth and the paucity of Chinese in America, yout Wong says,

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Speaker 1: the twins were able to position themselves as honorary whites

355
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Speaker 1: as in North Carolinian. I'm really, really proud of the

356
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:43,320
Speaker 1: fact that my great grandfather could come and settle down

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Speaker 1: there as an Asian Chinese heritage and make a successful

358
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Speaker 1: life for himself. I'm not proud of the fact that

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Speaker 1: they owned slaves. That's not a source of pride, but

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00:23:57,160 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 1: we have to recognize that at that point in time

361
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Speaker 1: in history, that's how you got work done in a

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00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:07,040
Speaker 1: large farm. Earlier they were treated and they worked like slaves, certainly,

363
00:24:07,359 --> 00:24:10,560
Speaker 1: and now the table is turned. Now they are masters slaves,

364
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:17,200
Speaker 1: the victimize becoming the victimizer. Yes. Absolutely. After Abraham Lincoln

365
00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:20,679
Speaker 1: was elected president in eighteen sixty, the nation was thrown

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00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:24,040
Speaker 1: into crisis, and the twins once again became a convenient

367
00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 1: literary device for journalists. The New York Tribune wrote, Jang

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00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,199
Speaker 1: resolved to sever the union with Ang, which he declared

369
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 1: to be no longer worth preserving. But this wasn't brother

370
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 1: against brother. The twins were united in their allegiance to

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Speaker 1: the South. They sent two of their sons off to

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00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:48,000
Speaker 1: war and converted their fortune into Confederate currency and ultimately

373
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Speaker 1: disastrous decision. They were wiped out financially, so they have

374
00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:56,200
Speaker 1: no choice. They only have one major asset left, which

375
00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:59,639
Speaker 1: is their conjoined body, and that's why they decided to

376
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:04,239
Speaker 1: go back on the road again after many years. They

377
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,560
Speaker 1: were in their mid fifties, now forced to return for

378
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:10,920
Speaker 1: a grueling five years to the life they thought they'd

379
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 1: left behind. They briefly teamed up with P. T. Barnum,

380
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:18,359
Speaker 1: whom they deeply mistrusted. They did a stint with a

381
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:23,480
Speaker 1: traveling circus in Europe. It was humiliating, and then Chang,

382
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 1: a lifelong drinker, suffered a stroke and they came home

383
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:33,480
Speaker 1: to North Carolina. Yet even in their final years, Chang

384
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 1: and Ang couldn't escape the spotlight. I think there's something

385
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:43,199
Speaker 1: very sweet about the fact that in order to negotiate

386
00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:45,520
Speaker 1: the world they had to put their arms around each

387
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:52,240
Speaker 1: other's shoulders. That's such a great thought. Yes, I love that.

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Speaker 1: That's my friend Dr John Lapouk, he's CBS News is

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Speaker 1: senior medical correspondent. He's giving me some perspective on what

390
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 1: life for the twins must have been like. Think about it, MO,

391
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:05,919
Speaker 1: when you're doing something just even just walking up on

392
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 1: a curb that takes split second timing, how did they

393
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:11,879
Speaker 1: do that? Okay, now we're going to lift our left leg.

394
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:13,720
Speaker 1: Now we're going to lift their right leg. But after

395
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:16,560
Speaker 1: Chang had a stroke and they returned to North Carolina,

396
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 1: Ang had to drag him around quite literally for the

397
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:24,240
Speaker 1: next four years. Can you imagine. I mean, they were

398
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:28,000
Speaker 1: told from what I read, that if one of them

399
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:30,640
Speaker 1: died that they'd have to try to separate the two

400
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:34,399
Speaker 1: of them asap right away, uh, in order to for

401
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:36,920
Speaker 1: the other person to have a chance. Now, the odds

402
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:39,760
Speaker 1: of that happening had to be zero back then. I mean,

403
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:45,639
Speaker 1: they couldn't do it when they were healthy. One morning,

404
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 1: after a particularly cold night, Ang's son came into his

405
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:55,200
Speaker 1: father's bedroom. His uncle Chang was dead. Ang was still alive.

406
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 1: To your attach it to a corpse, and that corps

407
00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 1: is probably pretty quickly getting cold. I cannot imagine what

408
00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:03,760
Speaker 1: that moment is like. And so when I think about

409
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 1: Chang and Ang, and I think about those final moments

410
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:09,200
Speaker 1: of Ang, his brother has died in and now the

411
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,919
Speaker 1: clock is ticking. And not only is it ticking, but

412
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:17,639
Speaker 1: he's having two things happen simultaneously. Physically, he's getting weaker,

413
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 1: his blood pressure is probably dropping, he's probably getting infected

414
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 1: septic from the toxins. Something's happening by physical pain, physical pain,

415
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:29,760
Speaker 1: and he knows he's dying. Maybe he's feeling cold and emotionally, emotionally,

416
00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:32,360
Speaker 1: and you just wonder what his last thoughts were, if

417
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:38,920
Speaker 1: he was able to think. Ang surrounded by family, would

418
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:42,639
Speaker 1: live for another few hours, his wife and children rubbing

419
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:45,640
Speaker 1: his arms and stretching his legs. I mean, like there

420
00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:48,320
Speaker 1: is a ticking clock. I mean, it's just it's it's

421
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,320
Speaker 1: like a horror movie. It is a horror movie. But

422
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:57,160
Speaker 1: you wonder for them. They lived sixty two years, they

423
00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:00,000
Speaker 1: were able to actually have a life. It's a mirror

424
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:03,719
Speaker 1: that they even had a life at Almo. I wouldn't

425
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:07,720
Speaker 1: want to have been in their shoes, but it's remarkable.

426
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:17,320
Speaker 1: The brothers died on January seventeenth, eighteen seventy four. Their

427
00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:21,200
Speaker 1: obituary made the front page of newspapers across the country.

428
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:27,119
Speaker 1: In death, they were celebrated and once again exploited. A

429
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 1: public autopsy was performed in Philadelphia. Doctors discovered that the

430
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:37,000
Speaker 1: brothers livers were connected. Indeed, they wouldn't have survived separation

431
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 1: surgery in the mid nineteenth century. Today, they could have

432
00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: been separated. John Lapuke says, without question, doctors had promised

433
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 1: the grieving widows to return the bodies intact. Instead, Chang

434
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:54,480
Speaker 1: and Ang were shipped back with some of their internal

435
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:58,280
Speaker 1: organs removed. You can still see their conjoined livers on

436
00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:02,880
Speaker 1: display at Philadelphia's Mood Museum. Eventually, they were laid to

437
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 1: rest in a double wide casket with a single headstone

438
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: in a cemetery in Mount Airy. But it's to the

439
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: village in Thailand where their story began that their descendants

440
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:23,000
Speaker 1: recently traveled. We were on the bus one day and

441
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 1: and I disapplorted out, oh my gosh, that looks exactly

442
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 1: like the Blue Ridge Mountains. For Alex Sink and nine

443
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:33,280
Speaker 1: other descendants, including her cousin Robin Craver, it was an

444
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 1: emotional experience. I'm where I came from. My ancestors were here.

445
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: They didn't make it back, but I did. They told

446
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,200
Speaker 1: me all about it at the reunion. Here's Alex. I

447
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:49,440
Speaker 1: just felt a connection of knowing that part of my blood,

448
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:53,960
Speaker 1: part of my genetic makeup, my d n A started

449
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 1: in this river in this town. Uh and a little

450
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 1: boat with my great grandfather selling duck eggs. How cool

451
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:08,280
Speaker 1: is that? Homer Bunker is a descendant on the Ang side.

452
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 1: Before we went on the trip, they said, you will

453
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 1: be treated royally, and that can be interpreted in a

454
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:17,000
Speaker 1: number of ways. And when we got there, as they

455
00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 1: have pointed out, we were genuinely treated royally from the

456
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 1: time we arrived at there. For oh my goodness, that

457
00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: was we are now and somebody wrong, largely forgotten in

458
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:37,120
Speaker 1: their adopted country. The twins have superstar status in Thailand.

459
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 1: A lady was brought to tears from meeting me. I'm

460
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 1: just little Robin Cramer from North Carolina. They have this

461
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:48,600
Speaker 1: huge park. In the center of the park is an

462
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 1: enormous statue of the Siamese Twins. And as I went

463
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:56,320
Speaker 1: around the memorial and read the inscriptions or whatever, and

464
00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,160
Speaker 1: it's at that point that I thought, Hey, I need

465
00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:02,160
Speaker 1: to write a song about this. All right, old toomer,

466
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 1: you can't tease us this way. Yeah, well, would you

467
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:07,720
Speaker 1: like to hear my song? Gee? I thought you could

468
00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:13,160
Speaker 1: ask two precious little Sammy's boys, Ing and Chain born

469
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:16,520
Speaker 1: to bring the world so many joys. May eleve and

470
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: eighteen eleven was the date of their arrival. Attached at

471
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 1: the chest, they struggle for survival. Why do you think

472
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 1: their story matters? Oh my gosh, America was always the

473
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 1: beacon of the place where somebody could come and build

474
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 1: a successful life, and they came here with nothing. In fact,

475
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:44,000
Speaker 1: they themselves were in effect owned. The twins decided, We're

476
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 1: going to go off and create our own business and

477
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:51,320
Speaker 1: our own entertainment, and so they worked really, really hard.

478
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we talk a lot about people

479
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:58,560
Speaker 1: with disabilities. I mean, they had the ultimate disability. So

480
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:03,040
Speaker 1: I think it's an incredible, in sparing American immigration story.

481
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: You know, it's really not weird at all that some

482
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 1: of the family members used to be self conscious about

483
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 1: being descended from the twins. Who isn't self conscious about

484
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 1: your family when when you're a kid. I remember being

485
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:20,200
Speaker 1: afraid that people would find out that I called my

486
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 1: mother mamita instead of mom. She's Colombian. I know it

487
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:27,240
Speaker 1: sounds silly, but I was afraid I'd get made fun

488
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:31,240
Speaker 1: of that it would mark me as different. I outgrew

489
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:33,320
Speaker 1: that now I'm happy to let you know that I

490
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:38,600
Speaker 1: called her Mamita. I still do today. The Bunkers have

491
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:42,200
Speaker 1: a lot to be proud of. Alex Sink, whose real

492
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 1: name is Adelaide. She's named after her great grandmother, was

493
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 1: the Democratic nominee for Governor of Florida in two thousand ten.

494
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 1: Another descendant, Caroline Shaw, recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Music,

495
00:32:55,160 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 1: and the late Caleb Haines was a decorated veteran of

496
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 1: both World Wars, and every summer a whole bunch of

497
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:07,040
Speaker 1: bunkers descend on Mount Airy to celebrate the twins as

498
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:12,120
Speaker 1: well they should. Chang and Eng were extraordinary. They may

499
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:16,160
Speaker 1: not have been perfect, far from it, but they had courage.

500
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:18,520
Speaker 1: You would have thought there would have been at least

501
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 1: one episode of the Andy Griffith Show that included that

502
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 1: nodditude that referred to Chang and Hang. But that's that

503
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:31,640
Speaker 1: just proves how little it was in people's radars. I

504
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:35,080
Speaker 1: would have loved don nods as Barney Fife coming in

505
00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 1: and say, I swear I saw them right, or I

506
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: saw one of those buckers downtown today. Next time on Mobituaries,

507
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 1: the death of a Tree and how it uprooted the

508
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:59,880
Speaker 1: sports world. You know, I just don't like all I

509
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,720
Speaker 1: wanted all people to hate me as much as I

510
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,080
Speaker 1: hate down. I certainly hope you enjoyed this moment. If

511
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 1: you would please rate and review our podcast. You can

512
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,600
Speaker 1: follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you can follow

513
00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at morocco. For more great content, please

514
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 1: visit mobituaries dot com. You can subscribe to Mobituaries wherever

515
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:24,640
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. This episode of Mobituaries was produced

516
00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 1: by Megan Dietree and Gideon Evans. Our team of producers

517
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:33,239
Speaker 1: also includes Megan Marcus, Kate mccauliffe, and me Morocca. It

518
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:37,080
Speaker 1: was edited by Megan Dietree and engineered by Dan de Zula,

519
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 1: with additional editing by Sophia Steinerd Evoy. Indispensable support from

520
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:48,120
Speaker 1: Kay limb Young, Kim Genius Taneski, Kira Wardlow, Richard Roher,

521
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:52,239
Speaker 1: and everyone at CBS News Radio. Special thanks to Dr

522
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 1: Henore Ford, Alberto Robina, Tanya Jones, Alex Sink, Zach Blackman,

523
00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:02,080
Speaker 1: Gary Rash, Hebert Yates, and the tire Bunker family. Our

524
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:05,240
Speaker 1: theme music is written by Daniel Hart and, as always,

525
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 1: undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John Carp without whom

526
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:32,240
Speaker 1: Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi, It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituaries

527
00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 1: the podcast, may I invite you to check out Mobituaries

528
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:40,360
Speaker 1: the book. It's chock full of stories not in the podcast.

529
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:44,280
Speaker 1: Celebrities who put their butts on the line, sports teams

530
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:48,920
Speaker 1: that threw in the towel for good, forgotten fashions, defunct diagnoses,

531
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:53,279
Speaker 1: presidential candidacies that cratered whole countries that went could put

532
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:57,080
Speaker 1: and dragons, Yes, dragons, you see. People used to believe

533
00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,640
Speaker 1: the dragons were real until just get the book. You

534
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:04,360
Speaker 1: can order Mobituaries the book from any online bookseller, or

535
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:07,319
Speaker 1: stop by your local bookstore and look for me when

536
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:10,480
Speaker 1: I come to your city. Tour information and lots more

537
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:16,000
Speaker 1: at mobituaries dot com m H