We have seen unusual characters in fiction books and we thought what if they would be in real life.
But, some real people can be characters of fiction books. A person who learned to play football although he had a third leg, twins who lived and never talked to anyone except each other, a man who had 24 separate personalities, the names of these people should be synonyms for “incredible.” But still, their stories are real and continue to amaze people.
We want to share with you the lives of the most unusual ones.
1. “The Man of the Woods” Petrus Gonsalves
We all know about the Beauty and the Beast who fell in love with each other. But do you know that this story had real prototypes? It all began in 1537 in Tenerife when an unusual baby was born: his entire body was covered with hair.
The parents believed that their child had a demonic disease (nobody knew about hypertrichosis back then) and when he turned 10, they sold him to French pirates. They called him “The Man of the Woods” and presented him to Henri II, the King of France.
Henri II noticed that the unusual boy was quite smart and that he learned the French language very quickly. The king made sure that Petrus received a good education. After Henri II died, his wife Catherine de Médici took care of Petrus. According to some sources, she even initiated the wedding of Petrus. His wife was a beautiful Queen’s Lady named Catherine.
The couple was different from most families, but they had a strong marriage. They had 6 children, 4 of whom inherited their father’s features. The most famous descendants of Petrus and Catherine are girls Magdalena and Antoinette.
After the death of Catherine de Médici, the Gonsalves family fell out of favor of the “Cour de France” and couldn’t stay there any longer. So, Petrus went to Italy with his family where they lived under the protection of Margaret of Parma.
After some time, the family moved to Viterbo where Petrus died at the age of 81 (which was a very long life back then).
The story of Petrus was not only the reason behind the story of “Beauty and the Beast” but also motivated scientists to study hypertrichosis.
2. “3-Legged Football Player” Francesco Lentini
Francesco was born in Italy in 1889. He could have had a twin brother but due to some problem, his twin’s body fused to Francesco’s spinal cord. In the end, he was born with 3 legs.
Francesco had 11 brothers and sisters and all of them were normal. His parents refused to raise their special boy and gave him to his aunt who later sent him to an orphanage for disabled children.
Francesco said that he thought he was the unhappiest child in the world but when he saw other children who couldn’t hear or speak or were mentally incapacitated, he realized that his condition is far better. Because it allowed him to enjoy the beauty of the world.
He learned to ride a bike and play football. And at the age of 8, he went to the US where he grew up and became a circus performer.
The 3-legged man shows were very popular and Francesco decided to use it to help people deal with their problems. He wrote an autobiography that he sold at his shows.
In the book, he wrote about how he learned to live with his problem and how he made a performer.
“I buy a regular pair of shoes and one more shoe I buy from a guy I know who lost his leg.”
Francesco tried to figure out what could lead to this problem and shared his findings with women, telling them what they shouldn’t do during pregnancy.
At the age of 30, Francesco became a US citizen and got married to Theresa Murrey. They had 4 children and all were healthy. Francesco died at the age of 77. He continued to do shows for his entire life.
3. Incredibly smart child, Christian Heinrich Heineken
This boy called a child prodigy, was born in 1721 in Lübeck, Germany. His father, Paul Heineken, was an artist and architect and his mother was an artist and alchemist named Catharina Heineken. When he was just 10 months old, he could speak by repeating names of objects and sometimes even sentences.
He had a phenomenal memory, at the age of one he could quote the New Testament in Latin. At the age of 3, he gave a lecture about Danish history in the times of Frederick IV. And his lecture was so detailed and interesting that even courtiers were so impressed by this tiny genius.
Unfortunately, Christian only lived to be 4 years old because he had Celiac disease (gluten intolerance) that wasn’t studied back then and his parents continuously fed him cereal.
4. “The Camel Girl” Ella Harper
Ella was very beautiful. Unfortunately, people didn’t notice her pretty face but the strange disease she had. She was born with recurved knees, so they bent in the opposite direction as normal knees. The only way she could get around was on all fours.
When she was 12 years old, she joined the Harris’ Nickel Plate Circus program where she was nicknamed “The Camel Girl.” She was described in all advertisements as a beautiful woman who walked like a camel. Ella made $200 a week (which is equivalent to about $5,000 now).
At the age of 16, Ella decided to leave the show and go to school. When she was 35, Ella got married and she got pregnant soon after the wedding. She had a daughter that died before the age of one for unknown reasons. When Ella was 48, she and her husband adopted a newborn girl but she also died when she was 3 months old. 3 years later, Ella died and was buried next to her children.
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