Sure, you’ve heard stories about twins being separated at birth, but sometimes, you can’t tell the truth from fiction. What about triplets strategically separated at birth for a special experiment unbeknownst to even the adoptive parents? Well, that’s the real life story of Three Identical Strangers, a documentary about triplets who found each other late in life.
Documentary Shares Story With World
Director Tim Wardle brings the story of Robert Shafran and his identical twin brothers in Three Identical Strangers. As told in the film, Robert Shafran, known as Bobby, got to college in 1980 and was startled to be greeted warmly by perfect strangers! At this small community college in upstate New York, girls kissed 19 year-old Bobby affectionately and others shared gossip with him…all on his first day!
Documentary Shares Story With World
Mistaken Identity
Alas, things started to click when he heard some students calling him “Eddy.” One of the students say his confused reaction to being greeted by the name “Eddy.” He explained that Bobby looked just like a guy who was at the school the year before.
Mistaken Identity
Seeing Double
An even stranger coincidence, Bobby’s roommate Michael Domitz was roommates with this lookalike the year before. So Domitz questioned Bobby, asking if he was adopted and if his birthday happened to be July 12. Bobby answered yes to both. Michael claimed that Bobby had, “the same grin, the same hair, the same expressions — it was his double.” Eddy, Michael Domitz’s previous roommate, had transferred to a different college.
Seeing Double
Connecting The Dots
Soon after, Bobby was able to called Eddy at home in Long Island. That’s when he discovered Eddy was his twin, who was given up for adoption but to a different family. This separation happened when they were just months old.
Connecting The Dots
Eerily Similar
After phoning Eddy Galland, the two discovered lots of similarities. First of all, Eddy and Robert laughed and spoke the same way. Oh, they also had the same exact birthmarks and genius IQ scores of 148. In addition, they loved the same movies and could quote the same lines from those films. Both boys were amateur wresters and lost their virginities around the same time!
Eerily Similar
Media Frenzy
This strange reunion became a media sensation. Bobby Shafran and Eddy Galland were soon photographed for newspapers like The New York Post. However, there’s more to this story, as you guessed from the documentary title. Not long after they appeared in The New York Post, they found their other brother, David Kellman. Now, the triplets were reunited.
Media Frenzy
Sinister Experiment
Austrian-born Freudian psychologist, Peter Neubauer, had emigrated to the USA after WWII. Supposedly, this scientist, who worked with Anna Freud, came up with an experiment to separate twins in order to study nature versus nurture. Yes, he actually fundamentally altered the lives of more than 60 sets of twins to study human development, without even telling the adoptive families.
Sinister Experiment
Cheerful Reunion
In the beginning, things were looking up. Although the three boys grew up in different socioeconomic classes with different families in various parts of New York, they seemed like clones! Everything was exciting for the three brothers at first.
Cheerful Reunion
Life In The Spotlight
During their talk show appearances in the early 80’s, they shared fun details like how they all tried to pursue wrestling as a career or only smoked Marlboros. Also they all shared similar body language and even preferred older women. The three men wore their black hair in curls and enjoyed wearing matching clothing. Unsurprisingly, the media was obsessed with them.
Life In The Spotlight
Building A Life Together
During all this excitement, their happenstance discovery seemed like the best thing in the world. In the documentary, Shafran explains how the three of them were starlets of the New York nightlife and specifically of Club 54. The triplets shared an apartment in the 80’s.
Building A Life Together
Random Movie Cameo
Another crazy moment was when the three of them got stopped on the streets of Manhattan and asked to appear in a movie with Madonna! Yes, they have a cameo in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). At the time, things were going well…
Random Movie Cameo
Using It To Their Advantage
Apparently, they really used the whole identical triplets things to their advantage whenever possible. I mean wouldn’t you? Galland confessed that once they used their identical looks so that one of the brothers could use another’s health insurance for his appendectomy.
Using It To Their Advantage
Business Venture
That’s not all they did with their newfound trio! In 1988, they used their media coverage to promote their new restaurant called Triplets Roumanian Steakhouse. The SoHo restaurant actually made them $1 million in the first year. However, this euphoria would soon fade.
Business Venture
Trouble In Paradise
Sadly, the financial success and overall harmony was coming to an end. Only a few years after, their differences outweighed their similarities. The three got into many disagreements over work ethics and management style. Their restaurant was closed in 2000.
Trouble In Paradise
Unanswered Questions
After the excitement wore off, the triplets and their respective families were left wondering why the adoption agency failed to tell anyone about their siblings? Why didn’t anyone have the option to adopt all three? Who else was yet to find a long-lost sibling?
Unanswered Questions
Calling A Meeting
Left with these troubling questions, the six adoptive parents organized a meeting during the late 80’s with representatives from the Louise Wise Services Jewish adoption agency. The parents were told things like, the agency was worried no one would want to adopt three kids. However, they saw something at the meeting that left them unsettled.
Calling A Meeting
Something Was Up
It was Shafran’s father who returned to the conference room for his umbrella and saw something eerie. His wife explained in the film, “He went back to get it. And he walked into the room to see them breaking open a bottle of champagne and toasting each other, as if they had dodged a bullet.” Therefore, the parents began to grow suspicious.
Something Was Up
Fateful Impact
Clearly, many could not understand how Neubauer could get any agency to conduct such a cruel social experiment. Some of the lasting affects from the two decades of his experiment have yet to be discovered. Even though Neubauer passed away in 2008, a great deal is now known about his study goals. he wanted to gather data to measure the impact on those with the same genetic background exposed to different parenting styles.
Fateful Impact
Biological Mother
In the film, they only mention the biological mother briefly, without revealing her name. Apparently, the triplets did locate her and meet her in their late 20’s. Their mother had gotten pregnant the night of her high school prom. Shafran speculates she had serious emotional problems. However, they did not reveal if the triplets kept in touch with her.
Biological Mother
From Participants To Victims
Things quickly changed for the triplets who were on top of the world at one point. Robert quit the restaurant and became a lawyer. Tragically, Eddy, who struggled with depression, committed suicide when he was only 33. Finally, David closed the restaurant and went on to become an insurance consultant. David emphasized the emotional impact of the separation, claiming, “They refer to us as participants. We weren’t participants. We were victims.”
From Participants To Victims