Edward Mordrake is the apocryphal subject of an urban legend who was, according to the legend, born in the 19th century as the heir to an English peerage with a face at the back of his head. According to legend, the face could only laugh or cry, with Mordrake begging doctors to remove it, claiming it whispered horrific things to him, before committing suicide at the age of 23.
Description
An account described Mordake's figure as one with "remarkable grace" and with a face similar to that of an Antinous. The second face on the back of Mordrake's head – supposedly female – reportedly had a pair of eyes and a mouth that drooled. The duplicate face could not see, eat or speak, but was said to "sneer while Mordake was happy" and "smile while Mordake was weeping". According to legend, Mordrake repeatedly begged doctors to have his "demon face" removed, claiming that at night, it whispered things that "one would only speak about in hell", but no doctor would attempt it. This then led to Mordrake secluding himself in a room before committing suicide at the age of 23. An account of Mordrake's story was detailed in Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine:
Earliest reference
The first known description of Mordake is found in an 1895 Boston Post article authored by fiction writer Charles Lotin Hildreth. The article describes a number of cases of what Hildreth refers to as "human freaks", including a woman who had the tail of a fish, a man with the body of a spider, a man who was half-crab, and Edward Mordake. Hildreth claimed to have found these cases described in old reports of the "Royal Scientific Society". It is unclear whether a society with this name existed. Like many publications of the time, Hildreth's article was not factual, and was likely published by the newspaper to increase reader interest.
''Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine''
The 1896 medical encyclopediaAnomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, co-authored by Dr. George M. Gould and Dr. David L. Pyle, included an account of Mordake. The account was copied directly from Hildreth's article, and was credited only to a "lay source". The encyclopedia described the basic morphology of Mordake's condition, but it provided no medical diagnosis for the rare deformity. An explanation for the birth defect may have been a form of craniopagus parasiticus, a form of diprosopus, or an extreme form of parasitic twin.
Mordake has been the subject of various texts, plays, and songs:
Mordake is featured as the "2 Very Special Cases" on a list of "10 People with Extra Limbs or Digits" in the 1976 edition of The Book of Lists.
Tom Waits wrote a song about Mordake titled "Poor Edward" for his album Alice.
In 2001, Spanish writer Irene Gracia published Mordake o la condición infame, a novel based on Mordake's story.
A US thriller film titled Edward Mordake, and based on the story, is reportedly in development. An intended release date has not been provided.
Three episodes in the FXanthology series , "Edward Mordrake, Pt. 1", "Edward Mordrake, Pt. 2", and "Curtain Call", feature the character Edward Mordrake, played by Wes Bentley.
A short film based on the story of Mordake entitled Edward the Damned was released in 2016.
The Two-faced Outcast is another novel about Edward Mordake, originally written in Russian in 2012–2014 and published in 2017 by Helga Royston.
Canadian metal bandViathyn released a song called "Edward Mordrake" on their 2014 album Cynosure.
Irish quartet Girl Band's song "Shoulder Blades", released in 2019, features the lyrics "It's like a hat for Ed Mordake".
