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Strange Woods Podcast > Episode > Episode 33 – Eyes in the Back of His Head: The Tale of Edward Mordrake

Episode

Episode 33 – Eyes in the Back of His Head: The Tale of Edward Mordrake

Hello, ya’ll! Welcome back and get ready for the creepy and sad tale of a two-faced man…literally. This episode discusses Edward Mordrake, a man with an entire face growing on the back of his head! Was he real? Is that even possible? Let’s find out today!

 

                                             STOP! INSIDE JOKES AHEAD!  

If you haven’t gotten to listen to the episode yet, spoiler alert! This post contains lots of stuff that will make waaay more sense if you listen to the episode before or while reading. So if you haven’t already, pump the brakes and listen to the episode or just click above to play so that you can be in on all the shenanigans to follow! 

 

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Produced by Peter Woodward

Listener Story

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Our listener story this week comes from Beverly from Nova Scotia! It’s a creepy one about strange movements and sensations in a strange bed…

EDWARD MORDRAKE

The Legend

This is the legend of a young gentleman named Edward Mordrake (other sources also spelled Mordake). The earliest reference to this man was in a 1896 medical encyclopedia entitled Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Dr. George M. Gould and Dr. David L. Pyle. 

Edward Mordrake (Mordake) was born in England at the turn of the 20th century. He was born into a life of wealth and privilege, part of an affluent family. Edward was known for his musical talent and incredible intelligence. On paper, he appeared to have every advantage in life. However, it seems he had one big setback…a second face growing on the back of his head. 
 
The second face was said to be a waking nightmare. The story states that the face was that of a female and could whisper, laugh, or cry. It also reportedly drooled frequently. It was also said to sneer when Edward was happy and smile when he was sad. No audible voice was heard from the face, but according to Edward, it spoke horrible things to him at night. Bro. Yikes. 

Edward begged doctors to remove his “devil twin”, but unfortunately, no one was willing to do it. Despite Edward’s best efforts to establish himself and thrive in spite of his abnormality, the constant assault of “the face” proved to be too much for him. He committed suicide by poisoning himself at the age of 22, citing the terrible voices and urgings of the face as his reason.  

Is It True?

It is a deeply sad story. But is it true? Unlikely. Probably not. Here are the problems:
 
The story itself is very dramatized with very little scientific fact to back it up. Even in the book Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, almost no science-based information is presented in the description of the Mordrake case. Also, the origin of the story is credited only to a “lay source”, making it unable to be confirmed. 
  • But what about the photograph of Edward and his second face? Lots of skepticism exists about this photo. It possesses unusual quality and clarity for that time period. The theory is that it could be a retouched photo of a certain wax figure in Germany. 
So where did this story come from?
  • The general thought is that Edward Mordrake and his two faces was a literary creation of poet and fiction author Charles Lotin Hildreth. This gentleman published an article in 1895 called “The Wonders of Modern Science: some half human monsters once thought to be of the Devil’s brood”.  In this article, Hildreth described a several human oddities, among them a fish woman, a melonhead, and a crab person. In this mix, he discussed the case of Edward Mordrake. This is thought to be the “lay source” referenced in the medical encyclopedia.

But Is It Possible?

Though generally acknowledged to be a fictional account by most sources, this condition is not impossible. In fact, there are other medical anomalies that may have inspired the tale of Edward Mordrake: craniopagus parasiticus and diprosopus. 
Craniopagus parasiticus

Craniopagus parasiticus is a condition which results from underdeveloped conjoined twins. It is extremely rare and the twins would have to be of the same gender. The patients usually don’t usually survive out of childhood; in fact, the oldest known survivor was 4 years old!

Diprosopus

Diprosopus is a condition which features craniofacial duplication in part or in full and found on the head. Though not fully understood, it is thought to be another rare form of conjoined twinning. It is not as rare as Craniopagus parasiticus, but is similar in survival rate with most resulting in stillbirth. 

WHAT ELSE DID WE DISCUSS?

Creepy Crawlers!

Moon Shoes!

Countertop Ice Machines!

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Another for the books! We hope you enjoyed this interesting and weird tale. 

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Remember to keep your eyes peeled…both sets…front and back…and don’t forget to always STAY STRANGE!

LATER, STRANGERS!

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