Edward Mordrake was reportedly the 19th century heir
to an English peerage. He supposedly had an extra
face on the back of his head, which could neither eat
nor speak, although it could laugh or cry. Edward
begged doctors to have his “demon head” removed,
because, supposedly, it whispered horrible things to
him at night, but no doctor would attempt it. He
committed suicide at the age of 23.
The true tale of Edward Mordake (Mordrake) has been
lost to history. His unusual case occurred early in
medical history and is referenced only in tales handed
down. The tale of his life has become so muddled
through the passage of time that no solid date of birth
or death is evident to modern researchers.
The story always begins the same way. Edward is said
be have been heir to one of the noblest families in
England.He was considered a bright and charming
man – a scholar, a musician and a young man in
possession of profound grace. He was said to be quite
handsome when viewed from the front – yet, on the
back of his head there was a second face, twisted and
evil.
In some versions of the story, the second face of
Edward is a beautiful girl.This is an impossibility as all
parasitic twins are of the same sex. Often it was said
that it possessed its own intelligence and was quite
malignant in its intentions.It has been said that the
eyes would follow spectators and its lips would ‘gibber’
relentlessly and silently. According to legend it would
smile and sneer as Edward wept over his
condition.While no voice was ever audible, Edward
swore that often he would be kept awake by the hateful
whispers of his ‘evil twin’.
The story has always concluded with young Edward
committing suicide at the age of twenty-three.The
method of his death also differs, sometimes poison
does him in and in other versions a bullet ‘between the
eyes of his devil-twin’ puts him out of his misery. In
both versions Edward leaves behind a letter requesting
that the ‘demon face’ be destroyed before his burial,
‘lest it continues its dreadful whisperings in my grave.’
Is the story of Edward true?The 1896 text Anomolies
and Curiosities of Medicinementions a version of the
story and Edward has been featured in many texts,
plays and even music as the Tom Waits song ‘Poor
Edward’ is based on the story. However, the tale was
considered false for quite some time. It was simply too
fantastic to believe and, obviously, many parts of the
story simply do not make medical sense – years of
retelling warped what was likely a very real occurrence.
Chang Tzu Ping was discovered in China in the late
70’s or early 80’s. In his 40′s, Chang had been born
with a second face consisting of a mouth, a malformed
tongue, several teeth, a patch of scalp, and the vestige
of other facial constructs. The throat and the lips of
the second face could not move independently, but the
mouth did reacted in tandem to Chang opening his.
Shortly after being discovered he was brought to the
United States to have the second face surgically
removed.The entire case was documented – including
the surgery – on the 80’s televison program ‘That’s
Incredible’ – and yet there exists almost no secondary
evidence of his existence. The operation was
considered successful and Chang likely went home to
his villiage to live the remainder of his life without his
‘devil face’.
It does not require a great leap of faith to conclude
that the tale of Edward is based on some nugget of
fact, perhaps he had something similar Chang’s
condition – mutated by storytellers over time.Consider
that the case of Chang Tzu Ping is relatively unknown
despite only occurring a few decades ago or the
strange tale of The Boy of Bengal These are indeed
very rare cases and the human mind has a tendency to
classify the unusual as impossible – it often helps us
sleep well at night.
