Sadly, however, doctors refused to grand Mordake’s request to have his second face removed, prompting him to take his own life.

Mordake even went as far as to request that the face would be destroyed once he was dead to prevent it from haunting him in his coffin.

“In spite of careful watching, he managed to procure poison, whereof he died, leaving a letter requesting that the ‘demon face’ might be destroyed before his burial, ‘lest it continues its dreadful whisperings in my grave.’ At his own request, he was interred in a waste place, without stone or legend to mark his grave.”

Pictured below is the portrayal of Mordake in American Horror Story “Freak Show”.

As you can tell from this account, there’s a lot of doubt about whether or not Mordake truly existed or not, but given that cases of people being born with two faces have been recorded before, his story is not outwith the realm of possibility.

However, what makes it completely unique is the claim that his face was capable of expression, tears, and whisperings.

The majority of people born with diprosopus in the modern world have died shortly after birth, which makes Mordake’s story even more unlikely.

One of the most famous fictional characters to have been inspired by Mordake is Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone‘s Professor Quirrell, who had the Lord Voldemort’s face attached to the back of his own.

Thankfully, if anyone is born with Mordake’s affliction in the modern world and survives, they will be treated with compassion instead of being forced to live as a recluse, and with medical science improving all of the time, potentially provided with a way to live a relatively normal life.

Regardless of whether Mordake’s story is true or not, it’s easy to see why it’s fascinated generations and inspired so many fictional characters.

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