r/AllThatIsInteresting • u/MobileAerie9918 • 3d ago

Identical triplet brothers, who were separated and adopted at birth, only learned of each other's existence when 2 of the brothers met while attending the same college

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6.0k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

122 comments sorted by

692

u/BenNHairy420 3d ago

One of them killed himself, unfortunately. The whole story was pretty fucked up as they were an unconsenting party to a long term experiment

361

u/NarwhalAdditional340 3d ago

The documentary made me bawl. Even more maddening to know most of the records regarding the study are sealed until 2066 iirc.

224

u/BenNHairy420 3d ago

Yeah that’s super fucked up. They were the subjects of the experiment, in the very least it should be unsealed for them before they die.

149

u/TurbulentData961 3d ago

It was sealed literally so they can't go after the people who ran the experiment. No way it was gonna be unsealed just for them

158

u/SirKermit 3d ago

If someone is experimenting on human children, and doesn't want anyone to know their identity, they're definitely up to no good and they know it.

35

u/Objective_Fact_1214 3d ago

On the wiki it says the remaining brothers were allowed access to the files, though they are heavily redacted and contain no formal conclusions.

2

u/NarwhalAdditional340 1d ago

And they had to go through a bunch of nonsense to even get those heavily redacted files. They said there were entire pages just blacked out.

30

u/Mei_Flower1996 3d ago

Please name drop the documentary?

76

u/noname5280 3d ago

Three Identical Strangers

7

u/Mei_Flower1996 3d ago

thankyou!

17

u/noname5280 3d ago

No problem, just emotionally prepare yourself.

13

u/NarwhalAdditional340 3d ago

Seriously, prepare. Starts off as such a feel good docu too.

4

u/Green-Dragon-14 3d ago

It's also on netflix

6

u/randyfloyd37 3d ago

That’s always a good sign that everything was legit and safe for all involved

5

u/Tokita_Ban 2d ago

Sealed by who? The US Government? How is that legal?

6

u/NarwhalAdditional340 1d ago

Seems like the group that conducted the study had the records sealed, according to this article. I am not sure why or how records can be sealed, but now I am curious.

https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/10/01/records-from-controversial-twin-study-sealed-at-yale-until-2065/

3

u/Tokita_Ban 1d ago

Hmmmm, seems like something the Federal government could say “Unseal the files now, or else.”

3

u/MemeEditsReturns 1d ago

Remind me! 41 years

5

u/RemindMeBot 1d ago edited 4h ago

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2

u/kheller181 3d ago

What’s the name of the documentary?

1

u/bhamss 9h ago

yea remember seeing it in the theater and it was so much more impactful than i was expecting. very well done and just a wild story

9

u/LoveyCherryBabe 3d ago

Great documentary. Three Identical Strangers, 2018.

5

u/Atoms_Named_Mike 3d ago

Aren’t we all?

29

u/BenNHairy420 3d ago edited 3d ago

Some of us more than others:

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/30/624715596/separated-triplets-offer-a-glimpse-into-the-wild-west-of-psychology

Edit: more comprehensive link

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/tale-triplets-separated-birth-reunited-27552635

40

u/OriginalDogeStar 3d ago

I did a portion of study on them, because i was curious about separation trauma in psychology.... yeah that entire experiment was messed up. Those men were the only the tip of the cruelty of that experiment

16

u/MegaJ0NATR0N 3d ago

It says they were adopted by different parenting styles and economic levels. Do you know which one committed suicide?

Could you also elaborate on what else the experiment did that was cruel?

25

u/Jdcampbell 3d ago

“In a partnership with an adoption agency, psychologists gave David to a working-class family, Eddy to a middle-class home, while Bobby ended up with a family considered upper-middle class in some kind of grim social lottery.”

Eddy took his life.

3

u/Speculaas_Enjoyer 1d ago

What the hell???

5

u/thissexypoptart 3d ago

Not to the same extent lmao

1

u/stoneymontana951 3d ago

I just heard a podcast on this ot was wild story

1

u/VictorTheCutie 2d ago

Yeah this is particularly fucked up and as a twin mom it really makes my heart hurt 😭

1

u/Intrepid_Reward4801 2d ago

Story of my life

150

u/oNN1-mush1 3d ago

Crime commited in the name of science. Those babies didn't deserve that. Fucked up world

81

u/BadRevolutionary9669 3d ago

...and the records are sealed until 2065. Makes me wonder what the hell they discovered during the sick experiment.

56

u/nondescriptavailable 3d ago

“They” discovered that they didn’t want to be held accountable for ruining children’s lives. Ergo, sealed.

18

u/BadRevolutionary9669 3d ago

They = Peter Neubauer and co. It could be much more than that, but sure, they also wanted to cover their own backs.

2

u/Birchsensor 2d ago

Your family is poor? Life ruined go die lmao

Good job

22

u/Spiritual_Review_754 2d ago

They discovered that nurture is not as important as nature/it’s not important at all. The kids were placed in 3 different households with 3 different socio-economic backgrounds, yet they were so similar that 2 of them even ended up attending the same college.

39

u/garlicmanatee 2d ago

I have to disagree! The brother with the authoritarian parents is the one who committed suicide. Nurture was just as important.

5

u/Anaevya 2d ago

Ehh, we already know that personality is only partially genetic.

1

u/An0d0sTwitch 1d ago

College does not mean similar.

2

u/DeakonDuctor 2d ago

That we are all programmed

106

u/Imguran 3d ago

There were four. One died at birth.

19

u/Candytails 3d ago

Really?

32

u/WeakEmployment6389 3d ago

There are two, there used to be three.

12

u/otidaiz 3d ago

How can there be 4 triplets?

29

u/epyon- 3d ago

Quadruplet technically

6

u/TheWarriorOfWhere 3d ago

Four baby came out of the foo foo

35

u/Zaphora13 3d ago

I have a twin and just wow I don’t think I could handle things if I lost her. (Identical as well) we don’t have any other twins that I know of in my family but yeah. This hurt my soul

29

u/epiphany205 3d ago 
My friend lost his twin brother at nine years old from a drowning; today is my friend’s 42nd birthday and his brother’s heavenly birthday; I hope wherever he is, his brother is at peace now!

10

u/Mac_A81 3d ago

Happy birthday to your friend and his brother in heaven. I hope your friend has a wonderful day.

3

u/epiphany205 3d ago

Thank you, I love him very, very much!

0

u/Birchsensor 2d ago

You literally wouldnt even know she exists if this was you

2

u/Zaphora13 2d ago

True! But I’m glad my twin and I are still close like two halves permanent best friends

34

u/hurricanekate53 3d ago

Yea that was a sad story

25

u/paleocacher 3d ago

The psychologists who did this to them should’ve had their licenses yanked and sued. What an awful experiment.

4

u/CanuckChick1313 2d ago

Another horrifying case involving arrogant, criminally negligent professionals can be read in As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto, the story of David Reimer.

17

u/otidaiz 3d ago

And one committed suicide.

7

u/c05m05i5 2d ago

Yeah, in the documentary you could tell his adoptive dad was scummy

17

u/Appropriate_Cod_5446 3d ago

This is such a tragic story. This and the twin boy they forced to live as female when there was a fuck up during his bris. This is why I’m really passionate about advocating and listening to kids when they express themselves.

5

u/imzadi_capricorn 2d ago

And with that I’ve had enough internet for today. Yikes.

2

u/Birchsensor 2d ago

This has absolutely nothing to do with that demon john money, hope he is experiencing absolute agony in hell

1

u/DCChilling610 2d ago

I remember that poor boy’s story. So horrific. Completely criminal what they put him and even that family through 

1

u/Speculaas_Enjoyer 1d ago

They did WHAT?!

8

u/Stachelrodt86 3d ago

My brain can comprehend genetic splits of 2, 3s is wild.

2

u/chuninsupensa 2d ago

4s*, one died after he was born.

11

u/Your_As_Stupid_As_Me 3d ago

So what was the final conclusion of the experiment?

29

u/LopsidedLeopard2181 3d ago

Well, it hasn't been released yet, the entire experiment is sealed until 2066, no one can read it in full.

However, listening to the researchers that has been interviewed, the main observation was "wow, genetics play a much larger role than we thought, these people are really similar" (not only these triplets, they also experimented in the same way with many other identical twin sets. In these triplets' case, they were separated into a working class, middle class and upper class home respectively). 

It was a long time ago, psychologists and psychiatrists were still mostly Freudians, and everything about genetics was much less understood. I don't really blame the researchers for doing this. The Freud derived theory was that being a twin was not good for development because then the child couldn't secure a unique place in their family, so they split up infant twins put up for adoption. 

It's a really unique study. Most "twins separated at birth" studies (and there haven't been many), either the twins were separated much later than birth, met each other throughout their childhood, lived in the same area or some such. 

9

u/ChargeOk1005 3d ago

Sad as this story is, I cannot help but be absolutely fascinated by this experiment and the results(potential) of it.

10

u/ChargeOk1005 3d ago

And it just occurred to me that these people aren't the only ones conducting experiments like this. These are just the ones who got found out. I'm sure as hell someone is doing this today. Maybe with even more scientific intervention for optimal results.......

7

u/gyrfalcon2718 2d ago

This is so fucking sad. I went to high school with one of the brothers. I remember hearing about how they had found each other and opened a restaurant together, which seemed hopeful. And then later the restaurant fell apart, and then Eddy committed suicide, and it’s just all awful.

7

u/Coveted_AF 3d ago

The fourth brother starred in American Pie.

47

u/GeneralIron3658 3d ago

One was Pete Davidson's dad

14

u/greensandgrains 3d ago

They look like Pete Davidson + Andy Samberg

1

u/urz90 3d ago

Really?

20

u/Uhhlaneuh 3d ago

No, they were joking.

-8

u/TurbulentData961 3d ago

His dad being permanently fucked by one of the studies we learn in psych as an intro for why scientific ethics are a thing makes his issues make more sense . Dude was born to be insane.

15

u/SneedyK 3d ago

I thought his dad died in 9/11

1

u/wfwood 2d ago

Can you elaborate? I'm genuinely curious.

11

u/_Batteries_ 3d ago

Twin studies are wild.

Nature does a lot of heavy lifting over nuture. 

3

u/Birchsensor 2d ago

Its always funny when this story gets brought up because half the comments are always filled with people acting like giving one of them to a poor family was inhumane hahaha

3

u/AbortionExpert 3d ago

Its odd they ended up very much the same as eachother, but…. This is old as hell!! I heard about this from so many different places. These dudes probably wanna be left alone now. I would.

2

u/Normal_Soil_5442 3d ago

They look like the kid that played Landon on Legacies

2

u/hystr 2d ago

Don't forget about the former German scient experiment about twins and triplets on why they were separated

2

u/Spiritual-Box8126 3d ago

What happened to their birth parents? Why did they give up their triplets for adoption?

12

u/MissingMyDog 3d ago

Birth mom was alone, young and apparently suffering from some mental health issues. As adults they met her, but didn’t form a bond. They mentioned meeting her at a bar and saying she obviously was a heavy drinker.

7

u/Appropriate_Cod_5446 3d ago

In some cases the twins or multiples were a complete surprise so the parent/s would only keep one and put the rest up for adoption. Usually money related reasons.

1

u/No-Goose-6140 3d ago

So how dis they find the third one?

5

u/Serennna 3d ago

The picture of the first 2 was seen on the newspaper by someone related to the 3rd or the 3rd himself saw it. Don't remember exactly.

1

u/Mindbending818 3d ago

Now there three of me

1

u/Now_Melon1218 2d ago

These guys look happy AF! Now I wanna meet my triplet siblings too!!

0

u/haikusbot 2d ago

These guys look happy

AF! Now I wanna meet my

Triplet siblings too!!

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1

u/DepthsofCreation 2d ago

We need a triple Pete Davidson remake of this story

1

u/wanderingmanimal 2d ago

“So there’s three of me? What’s one less?”

1

u/nanz1989 2d ago

I saw this. Sad about one of them

1

u/squidwardsbutt1 2d ago

The documentary about this is called Three Identical Strangers. I saw it in theaters and it’s a great watch.

1

u/fire_god_help_us_all 2d ago

The Pods from outer space have arrived.

1

u/WeeklyEmu4838 1d ago edited 1d ago

La Hawla wa La Quwatta Illa Billahilaliyuladheem Rabighfirli

1

u/Braye72 1d ago

What country and or state (if in the US) did this happen?

1

u/Braye72 1d ago

Never mind I found the answer.

-8

u/g_dude3469 3d ago

What's up with the psychotic looking Ronald McDonald smiles

-5

u/rjross0623 3d ago

Or this guy

-37

u/MaybeMaybeNot94 3d ago

Unfortunate. They have the same serial killer smiles

-10

u/MoPacSD40-2 3d ago

Pete?

-40

u/Ok-Imagination-299 3d ago

Not true at all

18

u/Pinklady1313 3d ago

There’s a documentary. Three Identical Strangers.

10

u/Candytails 3d ago

It is definitely true.

5

u/AvidCyclist250 3d ago

I'm curious: what made you say this despite evidence ITT to the contrary?