1 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:06,920 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh. There's Chuck, 2 00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:09,640 Speaker 1: and on the back of each of our heads is 3 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:12,520 Speaker 1: a little devilish fiend named Jerry. 4 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 2: I knew that was coming. 5 00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:16,000 Speaker 1: Each of us has a Jerry on the back of 6 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:18,560 Speaker 1: our heads and we hate it so much. 7 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:21,320 Speaker 2: Oh, I just punched the back of my head all 8 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 2: day long. Yeah, and you know how end up hurting 9 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:23,759 Speaker 2: just me. 10 00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:26,800 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true. She can move just in time. 11 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 2: Big thanks to Dave Rus. But this is from the 12 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:34,240 Speaker 2: house stuffworks dot com. Side sure, and we're talking about Edward, 13 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:38,280 Speaker 2: not more Drake. It's more Dake. I thought it was 14 00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:41,320 Speaker 2: more Drake until twenty five seconds ago before we recorded. 15 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: I'm glad we sorted that out, by the way. 16 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 2: I look this over and over and over, and I 17 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 2: said more Drake in my brain every time. But there 18 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:50,800 Speaker 2: is no ruh and there is no Edward more Dake. 19 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:58,000 Speaker 1: Oh okay, sure, no, I think that's fair. He does 20 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:01,440 Speaker 1: exist in some way, shape or form m hm, at 21 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:07,720 Speaker 1: least on paper, specifically a paper called the Boston Sunday Post. 22 00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:08,720 Speaker 2: Yeah. 23 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:11,520 Speaker 1: There is an article in eighteen ninety five that was 24 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:15,880 Speaker 1: published in The Sunday Post that was written by an 25 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:23,600 Speaker 1: author named Charles Lowton Hildreth, great name, super nineteenth century name. Yeah, 26 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:32,520 Speaker 1: And the article was about, essentially, what's the word I'm 27 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: looking for? 28 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 2: Chuck a gentleman suffering from a rare defect. 29 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 1: Not just him, a bunch of different ones. So the 30 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:44,920 Speaker 1: headline was the Wonders of Modern Science. The subhead was 31 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: some half human monsters once thought to be of the 32 00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:48,480 Speaker 1: Devil's brood. 33 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 2: That's right. 34 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:54,320 Speaker 1: And so in this article there were a number of 35 00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:59,040 Speaker 1: different poor people who were half crab half person. One 36 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 1: guy who had hands where his feet were and feet 37 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:03,480 Speaker 1: were his hands were about. 38 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 2: How about the melon child of Radnor, whose head looked 39 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:09,880 Speaker 2: like a right melon and had a small vertical slit 40 00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 2: for a mouth. 41 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, there was one. There was a vicious creature that 42 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 1: was half man, half crab, with monstrous nippers and big 43 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:22,560 Speaker 1: claws below the elbow. The Norfolk spider is particularly creepy. 44 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: You want to tell them about him? 45 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:28,840 Speaker 2: Uh? The Norfolk spotter. Yes, that was the spider with 46 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:33,760 Speaker 2: the human head, of course, and a clergy person confirmed 47 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 2: this by saying, I wish s. Migel was around to 48 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:40,000 Speaker 2: read this, but I will I saw this monstrous thing myself. 49 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:43,240 Speaker 2: Otherwise it would not have credited so awful a manifestation 50 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:44,600 Speaker 2: of the creator's wrath. 51 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:48,000 Speaker 1: That was very good, thank you. So there were some 52 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:51,760 Speaker 1: illustrations too, including of the Norfolk spider, and he looked 53 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:56,120 Speaker 1: more confused than scary. But a giant spider with the 54 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,040 Speaker 1: human head is just unsettling on all sorts of levels. 55 00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:04,359 Speaker 2: Yeah, but we're focusing on Edward more Dake. I want 56 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:07,440 Speaker 2: to say, are in there so bad? But Edward had 57 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:13,520 Speaker 2: a condition congenital defect, wherein he had a shrunken second 58 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 2: face on the back of his head, which is why 59 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:18,200 Speaker 2: you joked about Jerry being on the back of our head. 60 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:22,200 Speaker 2: And this face would actually speak, and it was sort 61 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:24,280 Speaker 2: of like an evil twin. They called it the devil 62 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 2: twin that would whisper in his ear, such that Edward 63 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:30,760 Speaker 2: Moore Dake would eventually take his own life at twenty 64 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 2: three years old. However, and of course none of this 65 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:35,600 Speaker 2: is true. 66 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,680 Speaker 1: No, despite the fact that in this article The Wonders 67 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:42,360 Speaker 1: of Science, that was published in eighteen ninety five in 68 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: the Boston Sunday Post, written by Charles Lawton Hildreth sites 69 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:51,600 Speaker 1: the Royal Scientific Society that had reported on all of 70 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:56,800 Speaker 1: these different people, it was totally made up. In fact, 71 00:03:56,880 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 1: Charles Lawton Hildreth was a science writer, Yeah, speculative fiction 72 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 1: at the very least. 73 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, poet too, yeah, and measure. 74 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:10,480 Speaker 1: He had a really great imagination. And the paper he 75 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:14,320 Speaker 1: was working for, the Boston Sunday Post is Dave Rush 76 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 1: equates it with the National Inquirer today. Yeah, maybe even 77 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,839 Speaker 1: the World Weekly News almost in this case. 78 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:22,960 Speaker 2: But I still love the weekly World News. 79 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 1: Yeah. I always say it backwards, kind of like you 80 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 1: want to say more, Drake. 81 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:29,200 Speaker 2: What'd you say, World Weekly News? Yeah, same thing. 82 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:33,840 Speaker 1: So Hildreth just basically sat down and let his imagination 83 00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:38,960 Speaker 1: pour out into an article cited the Royal Scientific Society. 84 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:44,040 Speaker 1: The Boston Sunday Post published it, and it came out 85 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: in a newspaper. A year later. Hildreth dies, but the 86 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:50,080 Speaker 1: story goes on. 87 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:54,760 Speaker 2: Hmmm, shall we be right back, yes, all right? After this. 88 00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:14,839 Speaker 1: Stop you should know? Still stop you should I should know? 89 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:35,680 Speaker 2: All right, like you said, uh, the author of that 90 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:38,479 Speaker 2: original Sunday what was it, Sunday. 91 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:40,880 Speaker 1: Post, Boston Sunday Post. 92 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:44,200 Speaker 2: It on Fridays, the paper of Record is how they 93 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:49,640 Speaker 2: called it. He died in eighteen ninety six, and this 94 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:52,360 Speaker 2: was a year after he wrote that story. But in 95 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,440 Speaker 2: that same year there were a couple of doctors who 96 00:05:55,680 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 2: published a legitimate book called The Anomalies and Curiosities of 97 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:05,480 Speaker 2: Medicine and said it was quote derived from an exhausted 98 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:11,000 Speaker 2: research of medical literature, and they included an entry on 99 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:15,040 Speaker 2: Edward Moore Dake. And what they did was basically the 100 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:19,080 Speaker 2: modern Internet, because they copied word for word what Hildreth 101 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:23,680 Speaker 2: had written and pasted it into their own work as fact. 102 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:27,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, so what they copied and pasted that was in 103 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 1: the original article was essentially this that Edward Moredake was 104 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:34,440 Speaker 1: a very handsome young man. He had it all. He 105 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:38,200 Speaker 1: was a scholar, he was amusing and then yeah, yeah, right, 106 00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:43,159 Speaker 1: he was very handsome, very graceful. He just had a 107 00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 1: big problem, and that was he had an evil twin 108 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:49,080 Speaker 1: face on the back of his head that said all 109 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:51,960 Speaker 1: sorts of terrible stuff to him. No one else could 110 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:54,680 Speaker 1: hear what it was saying except Edward. But you could 111 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:59,880 Speaker 1: watch its lips gibber without seizing, and the eyes of 112 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:01,960 Speaker 1: the face would follow you around the room if you 113 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:06,159 Speaker 1: were in its in its field of vision. And Edward 114 00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:09,080 Speaker 1: just couldn't stand this thing. He asked the doctors to 115 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:12,320 Speaker 1: crush the second face, even if it meant he was 116 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:14,800 Speaker 1: he was going to die as a result. He didn't 117 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:16,760 Speaker 1: care at that point so much. So, like you said, 118 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 1: he took his life by drinking poison at age twenty three, 119 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:25,320 Speaker 1: and he left the Royal Scientific Society said a note 120 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:29,640 Speaker 1: that said, when you bury me, destroy the face on 121 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:33,640 Speaker 1: the back of my head, lest it continues its dreadful 122 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:36,600 Speaker 1: whisperings in my grave. So this was the story of 123 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:41,280 Speaker 1: Edward Mordeck that Hildreth originally wrote that these American doctors 124 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:46,680 Speaker 1: published as fact in an actual book. So this has 125 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: gone from being in a paper and now being in 126 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:52,600 Speaker 1: a book by doctors who claimed that it's from an 127 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: exhaustive research of medical literature, which gives it a real 128 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:57,920 Speaker 1: veneer of reality. 129 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:01,000 Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, And we also fail to mention that the 130 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:05,200 Speaker 2: devil twin was a girl. Oh yeah, a beautiful girl, 131 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:08,120 Speaker 2: lovely as a dream, hideous as a devil, but exhibited 132 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:11,480 Speaker 2: every sign of intelligence of a malignant sort. However, it 133 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:15,240 Speaker 2: sounds like one of our Halloween stories. Yeah, like fully, 134 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:18,400 Speaker 2: but like you said, none of it was true. However, 135 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:23,360 Speaker 2: this is a this is a thing that sort of 136 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:27,840 Speaker 2: can happen and one of the reasons why people believed 137 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:29,760 Speaker 2: it for a long long time is that there are 138 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:34,880 Speaker 2: some very very rare congenital defects where you can have 139 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:39,120 Speaker 2: a face on your head like two faces. One's called 140 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:45,079 Speaker 2: craniofacial duplication or die pro diprosopis, that is Greek for 141 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:51,000 Speaker 2: two faced, and fewer than fifty cases worldwide, I believe 142 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,440 Speaker 2: since eighteen sixty four. Most of those were stillborn. It's 143 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:59,280 Speaker 2: very very sad, obviously, but very very rare, and also 144 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:01,920 Speaker 2: happens a lot in the animal kingdom. Well, not a lot, 145 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:03,280 Speaker 2: but happens in the animal kingdom. 146 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:03,800 Speaker 1: Yeah. 147 00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:05,920 Speaker 2: You ever seen like a chicken with two faces? That's 148 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:06,400 Speaker 2: what that is. 149 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:10,760 Speaker 1: So there was a baby girl born in India in 150 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, I remember, and she had two 151 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 1: faces and was actually worshiped as a reincarnation of the 152 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:24,000 Speaker 1: Hindu goddess Durga, who was a divine feminine energy who 153 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:26,400 Speaker 1: was very good by the way, because she defeated a 154 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:29,920 Speaker 1: demonic army of evil. But she had three eyes in 155 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 1: multiple arms. And the little girl, I think, reportedly died 156 00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:36,920 Speaker 1: at two months. I remember that, don't you. Sort of 157 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:39,720 Speaker 1: it was a big deal. Yeah, there was another girl 158 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:42,640 Speaker 1: who was born I think around the same time, if 159 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 1: not a couple of years before after. Her name was 160 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:48,480 Speaker 1: Manar Maged. She was born in Egypt in two thousand 161 00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:50,800 Speaker 1: and five, so a couple of years before. She had 162 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:56,520 Speaker 1: a slightly different version of this called craniopagos parasiticus. And 163 00:09:56,559 --> 00:09:59,560 Speaker 1: this is not where you have like an extra face 164 00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:05,480 Speaker 1: on your face. You have an entirely conjoined twin attached 165 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:07,720 Speaker 1: to the back of your head. The problem is that 166 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:11,320 Speaker 1: the twin is considered parasitic. It doesn't have any organs 167 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:14,520 Speaker 1: of its own, it doesn't have a brain, It just 168 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:18,199 Speaker 1: has like the body. But the stuff that's inside the 169 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:21,520 Speaker 1: parasitic twin is actually sucking the nutrients and the life 170 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:24,720 Speaker 1: blood and everything out of the surviving twin. So it's 171 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:29,600 Speaker 1: a really deadly situation. And yet at least three people, 172 00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:34,600 Speaker 1: including Minarmaged, have had their parasitic twin removed and have 173 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:36,680 Speaker 1: lived to tell the tale. 174 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:40,240 Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of times there are no limbs like 175 00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:44,600 Speaker 2: I've seen sort of like a full head attached to 176 00:10:44,640 --> 00:10:46,760 Speaker 2: a head with what looks like just sort of an 177 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:50,880 Speaker 2: upper Torso, yes, it can happen in various stages but 178 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:53,800 Speaker 2: or various ways. But it doesn't happen like you talk 179 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:56,600 Speaker 2: about rare or this one is listed as six out 180 00:10:56,600 --> 00:11:02,120 Speaker 2: of every ten million births, so super super rare. And 181 00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:05,800 Speaker 2: there are different times that Edward more Dake has been 182 00:11:05,800 --> 00:11:08,600 Speaker 2: portrayed in pop culture, like there was a Tom Waite 183 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:11,920 Speaker 2: song called Poor Edward. If you followed American horror story 184 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:14,680 Speaker 2: during the Freak Show season, there was a character named 185 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:19,000 Speaker 2: Moore Drake the RTS finally in there that was based 186 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:22,040 Speaker 2: on him, obviously, but if you've ever googled that and 187 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:25,720 Speaker 2: just heard about the story and then seen a mummified 188 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:29,600 Speaker 2: head with the face on the back and as Edward 189 00:11:29,679 --> 00:11:33,560 Speaker 2: Moore Dake, it is very compelling and realistic. But that 190 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:36,640 Speaker 2: is a fake. It's what's known as a gaff, which 191 00:11:36,679 --> 00:11:41,600 Speaker 2: is joke art. And the artist was edwarked Ewert, you WERET. 192 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:43,720 Speaker 2: You weret Schindler. 193 00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:48,040 Speaker 1: So the real reason that people believe it was a 194 00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:51,360 Speaker 1: thing is in part because of the photos, but more 195 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:55,160 Speaker 1: to the point, because those photos were shared along with 196 00:11:55,240 --> 00:11:58,200 Speaker 1: the story as if it were real on Facebook. That's 197 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:01,600 Speaker 1: why people believed it shared at least two hundred and 198 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:04,199 Speaker 1: sixty thousand times, so it went kind of viral. I 199 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:06,840 Speaker 1: guess you could say yeah, and people were like this 200 00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:11,000 Speaker 1: poor guy, this is awful, and nobody stopped to think, like, 201 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:13,560 Speaker 1: is this real? Did this guy really have a face 202 00:12:13,679 --> 00:12:16,800 Speaker 1: that would torment him and say evil things that only 203 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:19,880 Speaker 1: he could hear, Like this doesn't make any sense, and 204 00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:22,040 Speaker 1: that's an actual big problem today. 205 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:23,600 Speaker 2: This is a good. 206 00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:27,280 Speaker 1: Example of that. Yeah, yeah, So I guess if you 207 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:30,840 Speaker 1: believe in clones and shape shifters and people making clouds 208 00:12:31,360 --> 00:12:34,400 Speaker 1: on TikTok, I think you should stop and reevaluate things 209 00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:36,160 Speaker 1: for a minute and see what you come up with. 210 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:42,400 Speaker 2: Short Stuff is out. You Know. Stuff you Should Know 211 00:12:42,559 --> 00:12:46,079 Speaker 2: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, 212 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:49,720 Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 213 00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:50,800 Speaker 2: to your favorite shows.