This Wild Experiment: Triplets Ripped Apart at Birth for Science

Genetics is everything, right? Or maybe it’s how you’re raised, that truly defines you. What if somebody actively hid those answers? Kept them tangled, secret. For decades. We’re talking about the Separated Triplets Experiment, a seriously messed-up story that kicked off right here in New York. Totally shook up what we thought about research ethics. And it’s not some sci-fi movie. This is real life. Believe it. It’s wild.

The Crazy Reunion That Stopped the City

It was 1980. Bobby, just 19 and green, showed up for his first day at Sunny Sullivan University. But everyone seemed to know him. Greeting him with weird over-the-top enthusiasm. Guys asked about his summer; girls literally ran up, hugged him, even kissed him. Bobby was super confused. Thought maybe it was some bizarre friendly school tradition. Until someone yelled “Eddie!” from behind him. Bobby had just walked in. Who the heck was Eddie? Seriously.

Turns out, Robert “Bobby” Shafran, born July 12, 1961, in Long Island Jewish Hospital, Queens, was taken in by a rich family in Scarsdale. He knew he was adopted. Not a big deal, usually. But Eddie, Edward Galland, born that exact same day, same hospital, taken in by a middle-class Long Island family, was his identical twin. Just unreal. They connected by phone. Heard their own voices echoed back. Kinda creepy. They met, and time just stopped. Twin brothers. Didn’t even know. For 19 years.

And then, another call. Because the twins’ story exploded in the papers, fast. Ellen Nus, a friend of David Kellman’s, saw the photos. Bobby and Eddie looked exactly like David. Same big goofy grins. Same chunky hands. David, also 19, also adopted, also born July 12, 1961, at the same hospital, through the same adoption agency, Louise Wise Services. Way too much coincidence. He wasn’t just a look-alike. They were triplets. The three finally met up at an aunt’s house. Bonded instantly. Like they’d known each other forever. Chasing each other around. Rolling on the floor. Made up for lost time. Pure joy.

Different Lives, Different Worlds: Upbringing Changes Everything

The media, naturally, lost its mind. The “lost triplets” story blew up, before “viral” was even a word. TV shows, newspapers – everybody wanted to cover their incredible, sometimes gut-wrenching, tale. And another thing: They sat there, side-by-side, sharing shocking little similarities: same favorite colors, same cigarette brands, even liked the same kind of girls. So genetics, it seemed, was king.

But a huge part often got missed: their very different upbringings. David, the last one found, was from a working-class, blue-collar family. His adoptive dad, who the boys lovingly called “Bubala,” was incredibly warm. Embraced all three boys like his own. Eddie’s parents were more traditional, classic middle-class folks. Bobby, though, landed big. A wealthy family—his dad a doctor, his mom a lawyer. Not small distinctions. These were completely different worlds.

The Person Who Cooked Up This Human Experiment

The parents were pretty confused by the whole separation thing. So they pushed Louise Wise Services hard for answers. The agency’s excuse? “Too difficult” to place three siblings together. No one bought it. Something felt way off. Why were these boys kept in the dark? And why didn’t their adoptive families know anything either?

It took nearly ten years, until the mid-90s, for a journalist named Lawrence Wright to really start digging. He found psychological papers hidden away. Detailing secret studies on separated twins and triplets. All adopted via a New York agency. Instant cold sweat. The pieces clicked. These triplets weren’t just fate’s victims. No. They were subjects of a hidden scientific experiment.

Dr. Peter Neubauer, a child psychiatrist from Austria, became a seriously influential shrink in America by the 1960s. He was obsessed with the “nature vs. nurture” question. Couldn’t just theorize about it. He acted. And made a secret deal with Louise Wise Services, one of the biggest adoption agencies around. When identical twins or triplets showed up, Neubauer got the heads-up. He and his Child Development Center group got to pick exactly which adoptive parents would get the kids. Making bloody sure the children ended up in drastically different socio-economic spots. Then, researchers secretly watched these kids for years. Tracking their growth. The adoptive families? They were told these were “routine follow-ups” for kids who’d been adopted. Babies Bobby, Eddy, and David. Deliberately separated. Given to families from completely different backgrounds. Then watched. Like lab rats.

The Price Paid: Damage and Deep Scars

The triplets even used their fame, opening a restaurant called “Triplets” in New York. For a time, it was amazing. Raked in tons of cash. But that fairy tale didn’t stick around. The cracks in their fake reality started showing. Bobby, the one from the rich family, eventually bounced from the restaurant. Wanted to be a lawyer. This really made things rough between the brothers.

Eddie, from the middle-class family, had the toughest time. Beneath that outwardly happy-go-lucky vibe as a family man, deep psychological issues festered. He’d also had a really strict, controlling dad. Was that the start? Who knows. Diagnosed as manic-depressive, he just got worse and worse. And even though he had the exact same genes as his brothers, his unique upbringing, maybe made worse by the trauma of being separated unknowingly, just weighed him down. In 1995, only 34, Eddie tragically ended his own life. One of those identical, beaming smiles was gone. Forever. David, though, the guy from the blue-collar family, seemed to almost always be the most stable. Worked in insurance. Lived a pretty quiet life in New Jersey.

A Reporter Digs Up the Dirt

Lawrence Wright’s thorough investigation and his article in New Yorker magazine pretty much ripped the lid off the whole shocking mess. But even with the truth out there, crucial stuff was still super hard to find. Dr. Neubauer saw all the criticism piling up. So he decided to publish his findings. But with a weird twist.

Locked Down Till 2065. Seriously

When Dr. Neubauer died in 2008, he left over 11,000 pages of research stuff to Yale University. With a chilling condition: sealed until 2065. That’s right. Two thousand sixty-five. Almost fifty years after the triplets’ story came out. Decades after Eddie passed away. The full scope of this experiment on human beings, how they did it, and what else it all meant, it’s still locked up tight. It just shows you that some secrets cast a crazy long shadow. Makes healing and understanding so much harder for those involved.

Quick Questions

Q: Why’d they separate the triplets at birth?

A: Identical triplets Bobby, Eddy, and David got pulled apart as babies by Dr. Peter Neubauer and the Louise Wise Services adoption place. For a secret study on “nature vs. nurture.” Put them with families from different backgrounds.

Q: How’d they even find each other?

A: Bobby and Eddie met by accident at age 19 at the same college in New York in 1980. They looked so much alike Eddie’s roommate connected them. Their reunion hit the papers. That’s where David’s friend saw the photos, saw how much he looked like David, and boom, they found out they were triplets.

Q: What was so wrong with this experiment?

A: Well, they unethically split up siblings without anyone agreeing to it. And watching the kids secretly for years, using them like research subjects? That caused major damage. Especially to one triplet who struggled big-time with mental health issues. And died by suicide.