North Carolina Welcomes the Conjoined

Just finished watching the documentary Bound by Flesh on Netflix, when it occurred to me that North Carolina serves as the final resting place not to just one but TWO sets of famous conjoined twins.

Chang and Eng Bunker

The first set are the original "Siamese twins", Thai - born Chang and Eng Bunker, who originated  the now-archaic term for conjoined twins and have death masks on display at the mutter museum. After a lifetime of traveling on the sideshow circuit, the Bunker twins eventually settled in Mt. Airy, NC, where most of their descendants reside to this day. Chang and Eng's shared plot can be found at the White Plains Baptist Church Cemetery in Mt. Airy.

Daisy and Violet Hilton

The second set of twins are the Hilton Sisters: Daisy and Violet. Film buffs may recognize them from Tod Browning's 1932 Horror Freaks. They also serve as the basis for Sarah Paulson's characters Bet and Dot Tattler in American Horror Story: Freak Show (although the characters' upper-torso conjoining more closely resembles that of the sisters Abigail and Brittany Hensel than the Hiltons, but I digress).

Born in Bristol, UK,the Hilton sisters followed the Bunkers' path on the vaudeville and sideshow circuit before finding their way to Charlotte, NC where they settled in their final years. The Hilton sisters's final resting place can be found in the Forest Lawn West Cemetery in Charlotte, NC.


Feel free to learn more about the Bunkers and the Hiltons in the links below, as well as Hensels for a modern day lifestyle comparison.

Chang and Eng Bunker
http://chnm.gmu.edu/lostmuseum/chang/

Daisy and Violet Hilton
http://thehairpin.com/2014/06/bonded-and-bound-by-flesh-the-story-of-daisy-and-violet-hilton

Brittany and Abby Hensel
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22181528