Jean Libbera, aka “The Double-Bodied Man,” had his parasitic brother, Jacques Libbera, connected to him from his chest-stomach area.
Jean Libbera was born in Rome in 1884 with a parasitic twin attached to his abdomen.
He was one of 13 children, another of whom also had a parasitic twin but did not survive past infancy.
Libbera’s twin, Jacques, was a vestigial parasite. This condition occurs when an embryo only partially separates into twins and the two sides develop asymmetrically in utero, resulting in the smaller twin being attached to the larger, more developed one.
Parasitic twins like Jacques are a type of conjoined twin.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, conjoined twins are incredibly rare, affecting only about one in 50,000 pregnancies worldwide.
Parasitic twins, meanwhile, reportedly account for around 10 percent of conjoined twins and affect less than one in a million births worldwide.
Because vestigial twins almost always die in the womb, today, doctors typically remove the parasitic twin after birth to prevent the surviving twin from experiencing medical issues.
In the early 20th century, audiences at circuses and sideshows all over the world were captivated by Jean Libbera, the “Double-Bodied Man,” who had a small parasitic twin named Jacques growing out of his torso.
Jacques had two arms, two legs, and a partially formed head embedded in Jean’s stomach, but reportedly depended entirely on Jean’s bodily functions to survive.
Consequently, Jean had the burden of carrying his twin brother around with him his entire life.
Still, despite his condition, Jean managed to lead a fairly normal existence. He got married, had four children, and lived to be about 50 years old.
But with few records of Jean Libbera’s life outside of sideshow advertisements, much of his story is shrouded in mystery.
