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GEORGE LIPPERT – Three Legs, Two Hearts
George Lippert was born in Germany in 1844. In addition to being born with three legs, he was also born with two functioning hearts although that condition was unknown until is autopsy in 1906.
His third leg was fully formed and even possessed an extra toe, giving Lippert a total of sixteen. The leg was not functional. Lippert claimed that his leg had been fully functional until it sustained a fracture. Whether this is a fact or not remains a mystery, but during his career the leg hung motionless.
Early in his career George was billed as the ‘only Three Legged Man on Earth’ and he proved to be quite an attraction. Lippert even worked an exhibit with P. T. Barnum. However evidence indicates that he may not have been the easiest person to do business with. No photographs exist of George Lippert. The pitch card above shows only a painting of Lippert and remains the only pitch card ever used by Lippert. Considering that his career spanned decades and coincided with a great boom in sideshow photography, this is highly unusual and raises several red flags.
Furthermore, when another three legged man appeared in 1898, Lippert was quickly pushed aside and the new prodigy rose to great fame. The Three Legged Man was replaced. By 1899 Lippert was penniless and homeless. He eventually found a benefactor in a florist named Mary Riggs and Lippert cohabitated with Riggs in Salem, Oregon for seven years.
In the summer of 1906 George Lippert died of tuberculosis at the age 62. The autopsy revealed his two hearts and also showed that one heart died two to three weeks before his eventual death. Doctors declared that if Lippert had not had tuberculosis he could have easy lived on for many years. He would have been sustained by his secondary heart.
Image: One of two known variants of the portait pitch card of Lippert. In author’s collection.
© 2006 – 2012, J Tithonus Pednaud. All rights reserved.
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RECOMMENDED READING
American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia
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THE AUTHOR
J Tithonus Pednaud has dedicated this site to highlighting the remarkable lives of those born exceedingly different. These so-called freaks and human oddities stand as uplifting testaments to human spirit and serve as inspiring examples of human tenacity.
26 Responses to “GEORGE LIPPERT – Three Legs, Two Hearts”
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Holy crap, he’s like a Time Lord. That is so cool.
HE IS A TIME LORD EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE
Okay, I’m glad I’m not the only one whose mind immediately turned to Doctor Who. Perhaps he never really died, just regenerated as a new Marvel?
On a different note, I stumbled upon this site through Wikipedia and I’m completely hooked! I need sleep and yet I click on story after story…well done sir! This is exactly what the internet should be for, in my opinion.
No, no he did not.
HI I AM A Chimera WHOS BEEN (NATURALEY ) GROWING NEW INTERNAL ORGENS. I KNOW HAVE 2 HEARTS AND WHEN I CONTACT DOCTERS THEY JUST WANT TO CUT ME OPEN AND TAKE THE NEW HEART OUT WITCH WOULD KILL ME, AS I KNOW HAVE 2 DIFRENT circulatory system THE MEDICAL PEOPLE TREAT ME LIKE I AM NOT THERE.. I WAS UNDER THE U-N PROTECTION FOR A TIME TELL THE WANTED TO CUT ME OPEN TOO.. I DONT WANT TO STOP THE CHANGES BUT LIVE THROW THEM ( evolution )
P.S THE U-N HAS THE MEDICAL PROOF FOR THE A LONG TIME.
I have 2 hearts, both work, i look normal but i am broader at the shoulders, i have listened to them, my doctor has given me a x-ray, my blood pressure is normal.
according to my family and the doctors present at my birth i should have been dead
I am Rosie King, i am proud, and i know what its like to be a freak.
HOLY CRAP HE’S A TIMELORD! I don’t mean to steal the comment, I just thing it’s a proper reaction. That’s so amazing! And to think, that if it hadn’t been for tuberculosis he would’ve lived a very long time.
HURRAY FOR THE REAL TIME LORDS!
wtf is a timelord?
Oh, that’s not a human, that’s a Time Lord.
i have two heart but the right side one are not totaly formed…………
TimeLord
Omg! I’m so glad everybody is saying Time Lord!
I see what happened here. He used the chameleon arch to excape some terrible danger, but something went wrong in his TARDIS during th process, so when he became human he was deformed and didn’t complete the whole process, thus his two hearts.
This may sound odd to you people but In Quran ALLAH said “GOD did not give any man two hearts in his chest”Sura 33, The Parties (Al-Ahzãb)[33:4]. . .and to date whether you believe it or not not even a single word from Quran has been proved wrong. and while i was searching for man with two heart this is the only page i came across. and this too without any proper evidence.
ah ha!!! finally!!! a real time lord!!!!!! so the Doctor is in fact, not the last of his kind……. Never mind, this guy died.
I love how the first comment is “Holy crap, he’s like a Time Lord!” That just made my day. :D
TimeLord!Awww Yeaahhh!:)
He didn’t die, he just left in his TARDIS. You just can’t predict Time Lords.
ما جعل الله لرجل من قلبين في جوفه : معناها يا عزيزي الملحد أن المرأة هي التي تحمل وتنجب بطبيعة الحال وليس الرجل وبالتالي يصبح في جوفها قلبين ….. قلبها وقلب الجنين…ولبس للرجل أن يحمل وينجب وما جعل الله للرجل رحم ليحمل … أنتم من أغبى بني البشر
كنت وقحا للغاية. حتى إذا كنت ذكية جدا ثم لماذا لم تكتب باللغة العربية بدلا من اللغة المستخدمة في هذه الصفحة؟
Woah, is this guy a Time Lord?
Well, the 9th Doctor said that the regeneration process was a bit dodgy, that he might end up with two heads… or no head. And Time Lords are only supposed to have 12 regenerations in a cycle…