Pasqual Pinon
Pasqual Pinon, known as
The two-headed Mexican, was a performer with the
Sells-Floto Circus in the early
1900s. Pinon was a railroad worker from
Texas who was discovered by a sideshow promoter. A large
benign cyst at the top of his
head had attracted the promoters attention, who decided to draft Pinon into his
freak show. They created a fake face made of
wax to place onto the growth (though some reports state that it was made of
silver and surgically placed under the skin) and he toured around claiming to have
two heads. After several years of touring, the circus manager paid to have the cyst removed and Pinon returned to Texas.
The novel
Downfall by
Per Olov Enquist features Pinon, though portrays the story as factual [
1].
While it is possible for a person to have two heads, the condition
craniopagus parasiticus, a form of
conjoined twins, sees one head upside-down on top of the other – Pinon's "second head" was the same way around.
*
Pasqual Pinon at Phreeque.com. Accessed
10 January 2006.
*Mundie, James G. "
The Two-headed Mexican (Pasqual Pinon)", a pen and ink drawing. Accessed
10 January 2006.
