R.I.P. Schappell Twins

Word has just come down that the conjoined Schappell twins, Lori and George (b. 1961) passed away on April 7.

Wait! You’re already a little confused, I bet. How can identical twins be differently gendered, you wonder? It turns out, and this is quite true, look it up, that one of the siblings was trans. The pair were once name Lori and Dori; Dori became George 2007. Conjoined twins are already remarkable. George stands apart even from most of them — even though he couldn’t stand apart. Nor could he stand, period. Due to spina bifida, his legs were fairly useless. His sister would drag him around on a stool. Nonetheless George was an accomplished country musician who actually toured, recorded, and won contests, all with Lori, who was connected to George by the forehead, standing right there. One of his tunes was used in the Farrelly Brothersmovie Stuck On You (2003). Meanwhile Lori worked in a hospital. George would just sit there and read while she worked. Lori also once won a bowling competition. Which makes me wonder why the Farrelly Brothers didn’t also cast them in Kingpin.

The pair were from West Reading, Pennsylvania. They spent their first 24 years in a facility for the mentally disabled. Much as with Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, they were finally ably to communicate that they were of ordinary intelligence. Starting in the 1990s they began making the rounds of talk shows: Maury Povitch, Jerry Springer,Howard Stern. In 2004 they guest starred on an episode of Nip/Tuck.

The siblings were 62 at the time of their passing. They were the world’s oldest pair of conjoined twins.