Weird History

[IceWizard]

Alfred Hitchcock was frightened of eggs.








The master of suspense, who terrified audiences with movies like Psycho and The Birds,
considered himself an ovophobe—someone frightened of eggs. Alfred Hitchcock explained
to an interviewer in 1963:

"I’m frightened of eggs, worse than frightened; they revolt me.
That white round thing without any holes, and when you break it, inside there’s that
yellow thing, round, without any holes…Blood is jolly, red. But egg yolk is yellow, revolting.
I’ve never tasted it."

[Charon]

   



Weird History
34m  ·
Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde. This photo came from an undeveloped roll discovered by police at an abandon hideout. It played a major role in the glamorization of the gang, 1933.
Photo: FBI/ Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

[Hotrod77]

wow i love the bonnie pic 1933 soo cool, i love these very awesome stuff Charon!

[Charon]

What in the world was everyone thinking in the '90s? A shrimp restaurant based on a fake shrimping boat company from Forrest Gump? Two alien-based diners? Granted, the Rainforest Cafe was pretty cool -but I'm skeptical about any restaurant that requires people to either buy or borrow a doll'
Weird History

10 Of The Wildest Restaurants From The Themed Restaurant Craze Of The 90s - rnkr.co/weirdstaurants

   

The site has loads more:  Weird History:
See More: rnkr.co/BizarreMedievalDeaths

   

[Charon]

Weird History
tgSdopons3o1rmred  ·
After having his entire family executed by Austro-Hungarian soldiers, Momčilo Gavrić  joined the Serbian army at the age of 8, becoming the youngest soldier in WWI, 1914./
Photo:Unknown author/ Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

   

[Charon]

hxxps://www.ranker.com/tags/weird-history

If'n u r bored...

[Charon]

TYPHOID MARY and a few other Weird History segments

Woman Forced To Spend 30 Years In Isolation After Ignoring A Common Hygiene Practice
BY EMMA PATTERSON
March 30, 2021


In the early 1900s, no one knew the dangerous truth about household cook Mary Mallon — not even Mary herself. So when she placed her peaches and ice cream in front of her employers, they dug in, excited to once again taste her famous dish. What followed was a deadly mystery that took decades to fully unravel. "Typhoid Mary" turned out to be one of history’s biggest social pariahs, and all because of a bowl of ice cream.

Mary Mallon


Like most New Yorkers in the early 1900s, Mary Mallon was an immigrant. She arrived in New York from Ireland in 1883, and she sought work doing the one thing she enjoyed: cooking. It wasn’t long, though, before she started to notice a worrying trend.


National Museum of American History/Twitter
Sudden Illnesses


Weeks into every cooking job, the family she worked for would be struck by concerning symptoms: high fevers, splitting headaches, and terrible digestive woes that left them weak and exhausted. But Mary, curiously, never got sick.


Ice Cream with Peaches


She hopped from house to house, which is how she started working for the Warren family. Days after they ate Mary's ice cream with peaches, it happened again: Each member of the family got sick. This time, however, Mary’s employer didn’t chalk it up to fate.



Struck By Typhoid


Instead, Mr. Warren hired an investigator to find out why his family was suddenly suffering from typhoid, an uncommon disease for their part of Oyster Bay, Long Island. George Soper, the investigator, slowly tracked the illness’ path.



An Irish Cook


In each household affected by typhoid, there was a common thread: an Irish cook. The problem was, as Soper searched for the cook, he learned something alarming about her history. This mysterious Irish cook, it turned out, had a habit of skipping town.



Mary's Secret


Mary Mallon always left her employment as soon as a case of typhoid fever broke out, often conveniently forgetting to leave a forwarding address. By the time Soper found her working in the household of another family, he realized something terrible about Mary.



How Did It Spread?


Soper didn’t yet have proof, but time would prove his hunch right: Mary Mallon was the first asymptomatic carrier of typhoid to be identified in the United States, and it wasn’t difficult to figure out how she spread it to countless people.



Wash Your Hands


Typhoid usually spreads because the carrier didn’t take the right hygienic precautions, such as washing their hands after going to the bathroom. When a cook, who touches the food of every household member, neglects to wash their hands, the results are messy...


Fatefully Bad Decision


And that’s exactly what happened with Mary. Whether it was because of her own exhaustion as an overworked cook or plain carelessness, it’s likely that Mary didn’t wash her hands before making meals for her employers — a fatefully bad decision.


Cold Food Spreads Bacteria


Soper deduced that Mary’s employers couldn’t have contracted typhoid from her hot meals, because the high cooking temperatures would’ve killed the deadly bacteria. That’s when they identified the real source: Mary’s famous ice cream served with peaches.



Going Downtown


Soper gave Mary the cold, hard facts. All seven families she’d worked for had contracted typhoid fever, and one little girl died. Even with this knowledge, Mary refused to be tested for typhoid ... until the police showed up at her door.



Forced to Give Samples


The cook was shoved into an ambulance and taken to Willard Parker Hospital. For the next four days, a restrained Mary was forced to provide urine and stool samples, which yielded scary results: She was filled with typhoid bacteria.



Born With Typhoid


While in the hospital, the dirty truth about Mary’s typhoid was finally pieced together. She was probably born with typhoid and had unknowingly transmitted it to countless people throughout her life. There was no telling how many more people she'd infect…


PBS
She Never Washed Her Hands


Unless the doctors were able to cut it off at the pass, that is. When Mary admitted that she hardly ever washed her hands, the authorities sentenced Mary to a short quarantine on North Brother Island.



Forced Quarantine


While in quarantine, Mary refused to have her gallbladder removed, even though it was probably the source of her typhoid. She also refused to stop working as a cook if and when she returned to the mainland. With that, Mary earned herself a very unflattering nickname.


"Typhoid Mary"


To the public, she became known as “Typhoid Mary." Everyone was content to have her safely quarantined on North Brother Island, but Mary herself was miserable. She suffered from a nervous breakdown and complained that the doctors treated her like a “guinea pig."


Mary in Denial


All the while, Mary never believed that she was the reason all those people got sick. Despite this stubbornness, after two years on North Brother Island, the New York Commissioner of Health told Mary she could return to society on one condition.


Return To Society


He forced Mary to sign an affidavit promising that she would never work as a cook again. She agreed and returned to New York City, where she successfully faded into the crowd...until, a few years later, a group of hospital workers suddenly fell ill. 


Public Domain
Mysterious Irish Cook Returns


Various restaurants, hotels, and spas also reported outbreaks of typhoid. It didn’t take long for Soper to notice a common thread with each outbreak: an Irish cook, sometimes named Mary Brown or Mary Breshof, always left a string of illness in her wake.



Caught In The Act


In 1915, Soper found Mary cooking for Sloane Hospital for Women, where 25 people were infected and 2 died of typhoid. With that, Mary was taken into custody and forced back to North Brother Island. This time, though, it was an extended stay.


Lifelong Quarantine


This extended stay ended up lasting Mary for the rest of her life. For 23 years, she lived alone in a cottage on North Brother Island, where she could cook all she wanted without hurting others. By the time she died in 1938, there were big changes on the mainland.


50 Potential Deaths


By then, other asymptomatic typhoid carriers had been identified, making Mary’s forced confinement the subject of controversy to this day. Some estimate that Mary may have caused — whether intentionally or not — 50 deaths. And to think, it all started with a bowl of ice cream...


A Sinister Nurse


It's possible that despite her nickname, "Typhoid Mary" never really grasped how dangerous she was to the public. The same can't be said for Julia Lyons, a woman who used the 1918 Flu pandemic to her advantage. She's one of the most sinister nurses in history...


Bettmann/Getty
Julia Lyons


At the time, though, most people didn’t know that Julia Lyons, “a woman of diamonds and furs” and “silken ankles," wasn’t who she claimed to be. In September of 1918, she’d been arrested after posing as a Department of Justice representative and cashing stolen checks.


Hatching A Plan


But Julia, Chicago authorities soon learned, was more clever than they gave her credit for. When their heads were turned, she escaped from custody and disappeared into the city. She needed a way to blend in...and she knew the perfect way to do so.


Becoming A "Nurse"


Julia looked around and noticed how panicked everyone was about the flu. The way she saw it, people were so desperate for nurses that no one would notice if she, say, donned one of the thousands of nurse’s uniforms laying around the city.


Apic/Getty Images
A Criminal At Heart


That’s how Julia Lyons became Nurse Julia (she also went by various aliases, including Marie Walker, Ruth Hicks, and Mrs. H.J. Behrens). She started working as a “nurse” in a handful of households, but couldn’t contain her scheming ways for long.


Ulterior Motives


As if caring for sick, innocent patients without any kind of medical knowledge wasn’t bad enough, Julia decided that she wanted to get more out of being a nurse...and by “more,” we mean money. She was no Florence Nightingale.


Photo by © Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Tricking Her Own Patients


Whenever she picked up prescriptions for her patients, she lied to them about how much the medicine cost. Once, according to the Chicago Tribune, she charged a patient $63 for a dose of oxygen that was actually worth about $5.


High Anxiety/20th Century Fox
Once A Crook...


Her usual plan went like this: She would go to the houses of sick people, posing as a nurse from an agency. She’d gain their trust, overcharge them for prescriptions, and later flee the property with all the jewelry, clothing, and valuables she could carry.


Heart Of Stone


All the while, her patients had no clue that their lives were in the hands of a phony. As one story goes, a 9-year-old once begged Julia to help care for his brother, who was “out of his head with illness.” Her response was characteristically callous.


Kindly Nurse...


“Oh, let him rave,” she reportedly said. “He’s used to raving.” The sick boy died, not that Julia seemed to care. Still, no one caught on to the act: With her “rose-lipped smile and pearly teeth,” it was hard to believe that Julia had anything but good intentions...


Paul Thompson/FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Web Of Lies


Julia preyed on her patients' vulnerability. When one patient started to grow suspicious of his less-than-capable nurse, she won him over by sweetly saying, “Don’t you remember me? Why, when I was a little girl I used to hitch on your wagons!”


...Always A Crook


This lie arrived just in time. A detective was on Julia's tail until the sick man, who assumed he had simply forgotten Julia since her childhood days, vouched for Julia’s credibility. When she disappeared soon after with his watch and other valuables, the man was stunned.


National Archives and Records Administration
Conniving Cohorts


“By golly, I guess I was wrong,” he told the Tribune. It seemed like Julia would go on scheming and robbing the weak forever...but even she couldn’t outrun the law. Detectives linked Julia to two women from the “shady world,” Eva Jacobs and “Suicide Bess” Davis.


US/National Archive
"Flu Julia"


After spying on them, police found out that Julia intended to marry a restaurant owner named Charlie the Greek. It was through this connection that they finally located who the Tribune called “Flu Julia” — but she wasn’t going to be arrested without a fight.


Unhappy Honeymoon


“The wedding’s all bust up!” Julia reportedly screeched as she was being arrested. According to some accounts, Charlie the Greek stood there as his bride was carted away, confused about the woman he’d known for a whopping ten days. “I thought I knew her,” he said.


Pickpocket/Agnès Delahaie
Something Up Her Sleeve


Still, just because Julia was in police custody didn’t mean her scheming days were behind her. On the contrary; even the police could tell that Julia had something up her sleeve. “Be careful, she’s pretty slick,” Deputy Sheriff John Hickey was warned.


Fox Photos/Getty Images

So Far, So Good...


It was Hickey’s job to transport Julia to court, a job he took lightly. “Oh, she won’t get away from me,” he allegedly told the other detectives. In a way, he was right: He did get Julia to the courthouse, where 50 victims testified against her.


Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images

Julia's Great Escape


The trouble came 90 minutes later, when an “excited” Hickey called the police with his tail between his legs. Julia, he claimed, had escaped from the moving vehicle and into a getaway car, which Hickey had been unable to chase down the street.



Crooked Police


It was pretty obvious to his fellow police officers that Hickey was lying about how Julia escaped. Hickey was eventually suspended for accepting a bribe from Julia, but the truth still hurt. Julia Lyons had once again escaped and was now at large...




Something's Fishy


This time, however, the police were more careful. They scanned through page after page of nurses’ registries until they found a possible lead. There was a Mrs. James working as a nurse on Fullerton Boulevard, and something about her story seemed suspicious.


Wikimedia Commons

Caught In The Act


For one, she was new to the household, and her physical description fit that of Julia. Sure enough, when they arrived at the flu-ridden household, they found Julia, perfectly healthy and very unhappy to see them.


Night Nurse/Warner Bros.

"Slicker Julia"


“Mrs. M.S. James, née Flu Julia, née Slicker Julia, who walked away one November day from former Deputy Sheriff John Hickey, walked back into custody, involuntarily,” the Chicago Tribune reported on March 21st, 1919.



Pleading Insanity


This time, Julia had no one to help her escape — not that she was about to give up. During her lengthy trial, she first claimed that she had been forced into her life of crime by a “band of thieves,” and when no one believed her, she pleaded insanity.


Bettmann/Getty

Ladies At Large


By this point, though, everyone knew not to trust Julia Lyons. She was found guilty of larceny and served up to a decade in prison for her crimes.


More from Complex

Decades After 'Baby Jessica' Was Rescued From A Well, She Explains Her Unusual Story
BY EMMA PATTERSON
March 30, 2021


The story of the girl dubbed "Baby Jessica" and her harrowing 58 hours underground is one that has stuck in the public’s consciousness for over 30 years. Even with the saga's happy ending, the details that led up to the accident still leave us baffled. No longer a baby, Jessica is finally ready to confront the aftermath of the accident that changed her life, her rescuers, and the lives of everyone who watched her story unfold.

Jessica McClure


All it took was a split second for Jessica McClure’s life to change forever. The 18-month-old was toddling around her aunt’s backyard on October 14, 1987, when the phone rang. Her mother turned to answer, and in that moment, Jessica fell.


People/YouTube
Into the Well


The well she tripped into was 8 inches in diameter and 22 feet below the ground. She was lodged deep into the well casing with one leg stuck high above her head. She started to cry, a sound that would symbolize one of the defining moments of the 1980s.


People/YouTube
Media Circus


All it took was word-of-mouth for the story to spread. Paramedics, police, and firefighters swarmed the backyard. It was a gripping story happening in real time — perfect for the 6 o’clock news.


Bettmann/Getty
Complicated Rescue


As the hours dragged on, it was proving itself to be a much more difficult rescue than they originally thought. Their plan to drill a shaft parallel to the well and then a right angle across to Jessica hit a snag — literally.


People/YouTube
A Creative Idea


The workers found that their tools weren’t strong enough to penetrate the hard rock around the well. Rescue teams had to get creative — and fast. They pumped oxygen down to Jessica as they brainstormed ideas...which is when someone floated the idea of waterjet cutting.


upyernoz/Flickr
Dangerous Plan


A relatively new process at the time, waterjet cutting meant using a very high-pressured jet of water to cut through stone, metal, and granite. The problem was, the only thing between Jessica and the dangerous water jet was the stone. They were in for a nail-biting rescue...


Jeff Topping / Stringer / Getty
Baby Jessica Singing


The only way they knew Jessica was still alive was by her singing. When she wasn’t crying, she was singing songs like “Winnie the Pooh,” along with the people watching on TV and in real life. Literally overnight, she became media sensation.


People/YouTube
All Hands on Deck


Hundreds of donations poured in from all over the country. Local news stations were inundated with calls from strangers about their own experiences with similar incidents. Meanwhile, the crowd on the ground grew, everyone hoping to have a hand in Baby Jessica’s rescue.


People/YouTube
Historic Moment


And though numerous people helped save Jessica’s life, it was one paramedic who went down the shaft himself: Robert O’Donnell. He inched his way through muck to get to Jessica, and the image of him holding her aloft, finally free, ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize.


Photo by Barbara Laing / Liaison Agency
What Happened Next?


The most harrowing 58 hours of Jessica’s life were over, but the aftermath of the ordeal had only just begun. Ronald Reagan’s statement that “everybody in America became godmothers and godfathers to Jessica” throughout the rescue only rang true for so long.


ABC7NY/YouTube
High and Low Points


The fact is, all those who watched the rescue eventually left the scene to carry on with their own lives. The McClures had to deal with the fallout, and though there were high points, the low points proved to be the most painful.


People/YouTube
Fame is Fleeting


The high points were great: The family’s fame brought them to Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, and a TV movie was made starring Patty Duke and Beau Bridges. The family met George H.W. Bush, and about $1 million in donations were put into a trust fund for Jessica.


Bettmann/Getty
Jessica's Injuries


The physical effects were another thing entirely. After surviving more than two days underground with her foot high above her head, Jessica was left with more than a few bruises. She lost a toe to gangrene and her entire foot had to be painfully reconstructed.


Bill Nation/Sygma via Getty Images
Lasting Scars


A large gash across her face left a scar that stretches from her hairline to the bridge of her nose. The only bright side seemed to be her age: Though the world could never truly forget Baby Jessica’s horrible ordeal, Jessica herself was too young to remember it at all.


Bettmann / Contributor / Getty
High-Profile Divorce


It wasn’t until a few years later when, during an episode of Rescue 9-1-1, Jessica asked who the little girl trapped in the well was. At this point, Jessica’s parents — who were only 18 during Jessica’s accident — had endured a long, messy, and high-profile divorce.


Bill Nation/Sygma via Getty Images

Grown-Up Jessica


Finding out about her past was like finally finding a missing puzzle piece for Jessica. Now 34 years old with kids of her own, Jessica is finally ready to share what happened when the cameras left her life for good.


People/YouTube

15 Surgeries


“The term ‘Baby Jessica’ is still an everyday thing,” she told People. She underwent 15 surgeries in the years following the accident, and though most of her surgeries were paid for by the generous donations from the public, the money didn’t last forever.


Bettmann / Contributor / Getty

Financial Loss


She started with $1.2 million in a trust fund, but the stock market crash of 2008 left Jessica with about $300,000. Still, the loss hasn’t affected Jessica as much as you may think. As she grew up, she saved the money for a few very special reasons.


People/YouTube

Whirlwind Romance


“When my husband and I first started dating he did not know who I was,” she explained to People. When she finally told him why people always stared at her, though, everything fell into place. “About a month into our relationship we were already engaged.”


Jessica Morales/Facebook
Close to her Past


Two kids later, Jessica and her husband, Daniel Morales, were able to buy their first house with the money left over from the trust fund. The house is located just 2 miles from where Jessica’s life hung in the balance back in 1987...

People/YouTube
Tragic Aftermath


Jessica isn’t the only one whose life was changed by the ordeal. The paramedic who lifted her out of the well, Robert O’Donnell, battled post traumatic stress disorder from the incident, and he took his own life in 1995.

David Woo/Sygma via Getty Images
Visiting the Well


Nowadays, Jessica lives a relatively normal life with her family, even though she’ll never really shake the fame she gained all those years ago. And on the 30th anniversary of her rescue, Jessica visited the notorious well for the first time in years.

People/YouTube
She's a Survivor


“Seeing the well for the first time...it was hard, but it wasn’t upsetting,” she told People. After all, Baby Jessica and grown-up Jessica are both survivors. “To me it’s a symbol that it could’ve taken my life, but it didn’t.”

People/YouTube
Poor Kimberly Mays


One of the defining events of the ‘80s, Jessica McClure’s 58-hour ordeal was met with support from all over the country. It's rare for events to make such a cultural impact, but the ones that do are truly unforgettable...much like the case of poor Kimberly Mays.

Regina Twigg


In early December 1978, Regina Twigg walked through the maternity ward of Hardee Memorial Hospital, pulling her IV behind her. The ward was empty, except for a lone woman holding a baby.

“This is a very sad story"


Instead of looking elated at her newborn daughter, the woman was on the verge of tears. Before she could ask her what was wrong, however, a nurse pulled Regina out of the room with just one sentence: “This is a very sad story.”

Blessings


Decades after that strange moment in the maternity ward, she and that sad woman’s paths would cross yet again. Back in 1978, however, all Regina could do was count her blessings: This time, the sadness wasn’t about her.

ABC 20/20
Vivia


Regina and Ernest Twigg already had five children, but when they’d entered the maternity ward that day, all they could think about was the sudden death of their daughter Vivia from a heart defect a few years before.

ABC 20/20
Baby Arlena


But as it turned out, they had no reason to worry. Mere hours after her birth, Baby Arlena was thriving and breastfeeding like a champ. When Regina saw Arlena the next morning, however, it was like a light had been dimmed.

ABC 20/20
Blue Cheeks


Arlena’s pink cheeks were blue, she had lost ounces of weight overnight, and she refused to breastfeed. All at once, Regina’s fears came rushing back, and this time, they were confirmed: Arlena had a heart defect.

ABC 20/20
Loss


Arlena needed to be monitored for the rest of her life. “We didn’t know from one day to the next, ‘are we gonna lose her, too?'” Arlena’s oldest sister recalled. Regina was extremely protective of Arlena, who grew to be a weak but sweet kid.

ABC 20/20
Barbara and Bob Mays


Mere miles away, another family was grappling with their own newborn addition. Barbara and Bob Mays were brand new parents, but unlike Arlena, their daughter was a picture of health. The Mays practically belonged on a greeting card…

ABC 20/20
C-Section


On the outside, anyway. The reality was that Kimberly's birth was long and arduous, requiring an unexpected C-section that left both Barbara and Kimberly worse for wear. After a long recovery process, however, the family of three finally returned home...

ABC 20/20
Diagnoses


That is, until Barbara was diagnosed with cancer. Two years later, Kimberly and Bob became a family of two. Bob remarried, and Kimberly seemed to live a privileged life, nothing like little Arlena from the other side of town.

ABC 20/20
Taken Young


At just 9 years old, Arlena fell into a coma as a result of her disease and died soon after. The entire Twigg family was devastated...until the doctor brought them news that left them more shocked than ever before.

ABC 20/20
Blood Types


Arlena’s blood work showed an unusual inconsistency: Her blood was type B. This normally wouldn’t be a cause for concern, but since both Regina and Ernest were type O, the chances of them having a type B child wasn’t just rare — it was impossible.

Not Theirs


The genetic tests confirmed it: Arlena, whom they’d raised as their own for almost a decade, was not their biological child. On top of the grief they felt over Arlena’s death was a seemingly unanswerable question: Where was their child?

ABC 20/20
Only Two


Little did they know, she was right under their noses. The Twiggs soon learned that only two baby girls had been in Hardee Hospital’s maternity ward the week of Arlena’s birth, and after hiring a detective, they learned their daughter’s name.

Reaching Out


It was Kimberly Mays. The Twiggs immediately reached out to Bob Mays, not to obtain custody of Kimberly but merely to see if she was, in fact, their biological daughter. But Bob refused to respond.

ABC 20/20
Court Orders


“I wouldn’t care if they traced her heritage to Cabbage Patch USA,” Bob Mays once told reporters. “I’m her father, I always have been, and I always will be.” Ultimately, court ordered genetic tests revealed Bob’s greatest fear.

ABC 20/20
Families At War


Somehow, Kimberly and Arlena had been switched at birth, and the media frenzy that followed catapulted each family to national attention. Instead of demanding answers as to how the switch occurred, all anyone cared about were the warring families.

Nasty Press


The Twiggs vied for visitation rights, but Bob Mays was equally determined that they never set eyes on Kimberly. Regina was villainized for sticking her nose where it didn’t belong...even though Kimberly’s home life wasn’t what it seemed.

ABC 20/20
Abuse Rumors


Despite what Kimberly told reporters, life with Bob wasn’t all fun and games. His ex-wife claimed that he would hit Kimberly, throw her around if she misbehaved, and verbally abuse her. The press even caught wind of the abuse...

How Did It Happen?


But Bob’s side of the story was that Kimberly was his daughter no matter what, and that was enough for the press. Years later, it’s believed that Bob used the press to distract from the question on everyone’s minds: How did the switch happen?

ABC 20/20
Bob's Control


Back then, Bob was in total control of the narrative. “Bob Mays did not want...[us to have] any connection to Kimberly,” Regina Twigg said. But Bob’s wishes weren’t to come true. A judge eventually granted the Twiggs visitation rights with Kimberly.

ABC 20/20
Reunion At Last


When Kimberly was 12, the entire Twigg family met their long-lost sister and daughter for the first time. According to home videos, Kimberly called Regina “mom” soon after meeting her...which was too close to comfort for Bob.

ABC 20/20
Caught In The Middle


“They were total strangers, and until we could get this under control...it was my opinion that we shouldn’t let them have any visitation at all,” Bob told the press in 1993. Kimberly had a choice to make: To fight Bob’s wishes, or to obey them?

ABC 20/20
Abrupt Rejection


By then, Kimberly had made her decision. Now 14, the girl who had appeared so happy with the Twiggs suddenly wanted nothing to do with them. She not only decided to stop visiting the Twiggs, but to cut all ties with them the most permanent way she knew how.

Divorcing The Family


Kimberly petitioned a state judge for a legal “divorce” from the Twiggs. Kimberly, who once called Regina “mom" and was on tape laughing and bonding with her biological family, sat before a judge and claimed that she wanted nothing to do with the Twiggs.

ABC 20/20
Can't Handle The Pressure


“To get them out of my life I’ll do everything I can,” Kimberly told Barbara Walters in an exclusive 1993 interview. Her reasoning? To make everything — the press, the judgement, and the pressure coming from all sides — finally stop.

ABC 20/20
Regina Stands Firm


During the court proceedings, the judge asked Kimberly what her greatest fear was in regard to the case. "Being taken away from my father,” she responded. Still, Regina Twigg was steadfast in her belief that Kimberly needed a connection with her biological family.

ABC 20/20
Door Is Always Open


"If she ever wants to see us again...all she has to do is come to the door, because we’re here, and we love her,” Regina told Barbara Walters in an interview. Even then, Regina saw the writing on the courtroom wall.

ABC 20/20
Case Closed


Eventually, the judge declared Kimberly legally divorced from the Twiggs, and denied them any visitation rights. The divorce seemed to mark the end of the media frenzy surrounding Kimberly, and her life was expected to go back to normal...

Back With The Twiggs


Until months later, when Kimberly was found in the most unlikely of places: with the Twiggs. Kimberly admitted years later that it was Bob’s abusive ways that drove her to a YMCA shelter and then to the only other safe place she could think of.

ABC 20/20
Not A Paradise


“I stayed [with the Twiggs] a year and a half to two years almost,” Kimberly revealed. She depended on the family she had emancipated herself from for food and shelter, but it wasn’t always the paradise she hoped for.

ABC 20/20
Not Close


“I was never close with Regina,” Kimberly said of her experience living with the Twiggs. “But I do know she has a good heart.” Still, Kimberly can't stop wondering about that fateful day in the hospital. “How did I get switched, and why?” she wonders years later.

ABC 20/20
New Witness


Despite the years of media attention, no one had ever uncovered the true story behind the switch, and it seemed they never would...until someone spoke up from the most unexpected place.

ABC 20/20
No Accident


When Patsy Webb came forward with her own story in 1993, it was from her deathbed. A former nurse’s aide at Hardee Hospital, she claimed she was there the day the babies were switched...and that none of it was an accident.

ABC 20/20
Switching The I.D. Bands


Even before hearing Patsy's story, Regina was convinced that Dr. Ernest Palmer, the longtime chief of Hardee Hospital, had ordered the staff to switch the babies’ ID bands. The reason why goes all the way back to Barbara and to her "sad story."




Regina speculated that Barbara, who was desperate for a baby, gave birth to a little girl with a heart defect. She was told that the baby wouldn’t survive into adulthood...at the same time Regina gave birth to a healthy baby girl.




Dr. Palmer, a close friend of Barbara’s family, allegedly switched the babies in order to spare the Mays further heartbreak. For years, the Twiggs were the only vocal supporters of this theory...until Patsy came along.

Protecting Herself


“Dr. Palmer asked me to switch the bands on the baby and mother,” Patsy revealed. She refused to do so, but she stayed silent because she didn’t want to be fired. When Patsy’s side of the story broke, the hospital shrugged her off.




They claimed that Patsy was “eccentric,” an unreliable witness. But her family — and many reporters connected to the case — felt that she was telling the truth, which she did, her son claims, in order to clear her conscience before she died.




“She never asked for money, she wasn’t seeking any type of notoriety, she didn’t want [that],” an attorney close to the case said. “She wanted to tell her story...and move on.” Patsy’s story could have turned the case in an entirely new direction...




But because she only did one interview, Patsy’s story never gained much attention, and Kimberly’s own story ended the way it did: Divorce, reconciliation, and eventual estrangement from anyone she ever called family. Nowadays, Kimberly refuses to live in the past.




“I wish I could turn back the hands of time on a lot of things, [but] I can’t,” Kimberly admitted as an adult. No one knows what would have been different had the switch never occurred, but Kimberly finally knows her next step: “I have to move forward.”


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[Charon]

9 Reasons Peter Pan Is Historically The Worst - rnkr.co/PeterPanJerk


   

FB and weird history if'n one cares...

[Charon]

Weird History
YhnesgefmttthSdflSegpordrarnhuy rSsatS o4e:rS0e0d PM  ·
12 Behind The Scenes Alan Rickman Stories That Made Us Miss Him Even More - rnkr.co/AlanRickmanStoriesWH THIS IS THE SITE IF'N ONE WANTS TO DO A LOOK SEE.

   

[Charon]

When you ask your grandparents about getting to and from school...