The images show waxworks, not a real two-faced man
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on August 5, 2021 at 05:20
- Updated on August 5, 2021 at 07:18
- 4 min read
- By AFP Bangladesh, AFP Germany
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"Two-faced man. This nineteenth-century man is Edward Mordake. He apparently begged doctors to remove his rear face before his suicide at the age of 23. The rear face of Mordek would laugh, cry, whisper, and even hold things. The whispering made his life particularly bitter," reads a Bengali-language Facebook post from July 26.
The claim appears to originate from the urban legend of Edward Mordake, also spelled Mordrake, who had "another face", according to a report from 1895 by The Boston Post.
"One of the weirdest as well as most melancholy stories of human deformity is that of Edward Mordake, said to have been heir to one of the noblest peerages in England," the report reads.
"He was a young man of fine attainments...but upon the back of his head was another face".
It says Mordake "lived in complete seclusion" and "committed suicide in his twenty-third year".
Similar Facebook posts were shared here and here.
Comments on the posts suggest some people believed the claim was true.
"May no more people suffer the same fate - my prayer to God," one person wrote.
"Allah can do everything," another comment read.
However, the posts do not show a genuine person, but various works of art.
Waxwork
The misleading Facebook posts include a coloured photo of a "two-faced male figure", along with a black and white image of a similar -- but not identical -- waxwork.
A Google reverse image search found the artwork seen in the coloured photo featured in this promotional YouTube video from Panoptikum Wax Museum in Hamburg, Germany."
Susanne Fareber, a managing director of Panoptikum Museum said that the coloured photo was taken at their exhibition.
"The coloured photo was taken in our exhibition, possibly also the black and white photo, but this cannot be clearly identified as the background is not visible. We purchased the figures in Russia and therefore did not make them ourselves," she told AFP.
Below are screenshot comparisons between the coloured image from the misleading Facebook post (left) and the YouTube video from Panoptikum Wax Museum (right):
It is not clear if the black and white photo and coloured photo show the same waxwork.
Fareber also shared a photo with a German-language description of the artwork in the coloured photo.
The description reads: "The Two-Faced Man. His name is said to have been Edward Mordake and he had two faces, one in front and one in the back of his head. This could be a hereditary disposition of Siamese twins. He took his own life at the age of 33."
Skull skeleton image
The other photo showing a skull can be found on the Instagram post of Tom Kuebler, a US-based multimedia sculptor.
Kuebler describes himself as 'Sculptor of the Bizarre' on his Instagram account and often posts photos of his artwork.
The post shows a two-faced human skull skeleton sculpture, according to the product description on Kuebler's Etsy page, an online shopping website.
"Sculpted and hand-finished by professional artist Thomas 'Tom' Kuebler, this hyper-realistic two-faced skull with spine is cast in resin chosen for its resemblance to actual bone", the product description reads.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the image from the misleading Facebook post (left) and the image posted by Kuebler (right):
Fact-checking organisations Snopes and USA Today Fact Check also debunked the false claim.
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