9 Side Show Workers Who Actually Existed

1.

Fanny Mills: Also known as the Ohio Big Foot Girl, was born with Milroy disease, causing extreme swelling of the legs and feet. Her feet got to be 17 inches long before she died at the age of 39.

2.

Nicodemus the Indescribable: Nicodemus, born John Doogs, was born with truncated limbs. He was, however, remarkably strong and extremely talented in acrobatics.

3.

Ella Harper: Also known as "Camel Girl", Ella was born with a condition that caused her knees to bend backwards. She performed in circuses in the late 1800s and newspapers everywhere would describe her as ‘the most wonderful freak of nature since the creation of the world’.

4.

Joseph Merrick: Joseph, also known as the Elephant Man is an interesting case. He was born normal and only started noticing deformities when he was three years old in the form of bumps forming on the left side of his body. By the time he was 12, his deformities were severe and his father ended up kicking him out of the house, leaving Joseph homeless, hungry and alone.

5.

Edouard Beaupre: The eldest of 20 children, Edouard was the only one to grow abnormally large. He stood over 7 feet tall by the young age of 17 and still continued to grow. Instead of using his height to sell himself as a "giant freak of nature", he decided to become a strongman.

6.

Mignon The Penguin Girl: Mignon was born with phocomelia which typically stunts the limbs and fuses fingers, but her fingers were fused in such a manner that they resembled flippers, hence her stage name.

7.

Len and Ernie: The "Two Boys, One Head" is actually Ernie Defort born with a parasitic twin attached to his sternum. He didn't tour for long because his health started to deteriorate as his twin brother grew. At 12 years old, they decided to surgically remove his twin, but Ernie was emotionally attached to him and didn't want to undergo the surgery.

8.

Francesco A. Lentini: Francesco is one of the few side show circus workers who actually garnered a ton of respect and praise...well, that's after getting bullied for years, of course. He technically is a pair of conjoined twins but his "brother" (who is made up of one leg and genitals) got attached to his spine.

9.

Schlitzie: Also known as a "pinhead", Schlitzie was born with microcephalus; a condition that causes a sloped forehead and an abnormally smaller head and brain.