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I'm a big fan of Tom Waits. Lately I've been listening more and more to his CD Alice, which is, or is at least adopted from the German (I'm pretty sure it's German) play Alice, based (at least loosely) on Lewi's Carroll's obsession with Alice Liddell who was only 10 years old when she became the inspiration for Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Throught the Looking Glass.

Anyway, to the point:

One of the songs on Alice, called "Poor Edward" is a disturbing, yet true story about Edward Mordake, a British nobel who was born with a second face on the back of his head. It was the face of a beautiful woman. The face couldn't speak, but it's mouth and eyes could move. It's eyes were said to follow people's movements, and it was said to laugh as Mordake wept. Though the face could not speak, Mordake claimed that it kept him awake at night. He said that at night it spoke to him of evil things: "Things heard only in hell." He begged his physicians to remove the face, even if it killed him. No doctor would attempt the surgery though, so Mordake killed himself at the age of 23. Though I originally read he hanged himself, I have also read some sources which say that he poisoned himself and one source which says he put a bullet between the eyes of his devil twin.

Mordake requested that the face be removed after his death and destroyed so that it may not continue to torment him in the grave. I also read from one source that he wrote in a confession, things that his devil twin told him about hell. He was said to have shown this confession to a few of his friends before sending it to the Bishop.

Sorry for the long post, but I just found this story so creepy and interesting. The song was great before I knew what it was about, but this just give it even more of a creepy feeling.

I know. I'm skeptic too. The only reason I say it's a true story is that the majority of sources I've read about the story from claim it is. The ambiguities and inconstancies between stories suggest that it isn't though.