The Scariest And Disturbing Sideshows And Freak Shows From The Past That Will Give You The Chills

The freak shows were exhibitions of several physical deformities and abnormalities in humans and animals. Also known as “freaks of nature,” they were unusual humans with large or small body parts, tall and long in height, Conjoined twins, and with rare diseases and conditions. Some of them were trained to perform certain acts such as swallowing hot coals, sword-swallowing, and pulling heavyweights. These performers (freaks) had terrible difficult lives, society didn’t consider them normal, and even in some cases, they were brought legally and illegally from different parts of the world. Primitive people were brought to build a human zoo.

In modern times (19th and early 20th century), they were also known as sideshows. They became popular in the mid-16th century in England, and even Queen Victoria was amused. In American P.T. Barnum, founder of Barium and Baily Circus entertained millions of people with these shows. He opened a human curiosity exhibit in 1841 at the American Museum in Manhattan. During the late 19th century and the early 20th-century, freak shows were at their height of popularity.

These shows were also an essential part of the circus. It was common to see most circuses having freak shows, and they were considered a major place for displaying human oddities. Check out, dangerous and creepy circus performers from the past.

In the mid-20th century, these sideshows and freaks shows became a thing of the past. The advancement of medical technology, treatment of several diseases and abnormalities, and the popularity of televisions played an important role in abolishing these cruel acts.

Here below we have compiled a list of the most disturbing, scary and bizarre sideshows and freak shows from the past.

#1 Martin Laurello, the “Human Owl,” could turn his neck a full 180 degrees. He appeared in Sam Wagner’s freak show on Coney Island, 1938

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#2 Daisy and Violet Hilton, a pair of British Siamese Twins who toured the US sideshow in the 1930’s, celebrating their 17th birthday

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#3 Director Tod Browning poses with cast members from his film Freaks, 1932

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#4 Known to many as “The Bearded Woman,” Annie Jones toured with P.T. Barnum, becoming the country’s top “bearded lady” and acting as a spokesperson for Barnum’s “Congress of Freaks.”

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#5 Billed as the “Living Human Skeleton,” Isaac Sprague began irreversibly losing weight at age 12 for reasons that remain unclear, 1866

The weight loss continued throughout adulthood until his untimely death

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#6 George Sherwood Stratton, better known as General Tom Thumb, standing on a chair between two guards, 1860

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#7 Tattooed Lady Betty Broadbent prepares for an appearance at the fair in Flushing, Queens, New York, 1939

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#8 English freak and sideshow performer Horace Ridler in 1946. Extensively tattooed, he exhibited himself as “The Great Omi” or “The Zebra Man.”

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#9 The Two-Headed Nightingale: Millie and Christine McKay were Siamese twins born into slavery in America’s South. They were sold to be displayed as a “freak” show and toured the Northern USA and Europe as a singing duet.

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#10 Canadian circus performer Anna Haining Swan Bates poses next to her father Alexander Swan (seated) and her mother Ann Haining Swan, a woman of average height, 1870s

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#11 A Burmese family, two of whose members have faces covered in hair, are just one of the attractions advertised by American showman and circus owner P.T. Barnum. 1890

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#12 The well-known circus sideshow performer Josephine-Joseph, whose half male, half female body earned them a role in the film Freaks, 1932

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#13 Ruth Berry, born around 1910, was a prominent attraction from 1930-1965.

She was born with phocomelia in all four limbs and her fingers were fused, giving her the appearance of having flippers. She was known professionally as "Mignon" which means "cute" in French. Circa 1930s.

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#14 13-year-old Mildred Buder, a pupil in the De Muth Dancing School, practicing her acrobatics and her piano lesson at the same time, 1938

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#15 Dutch midget Johanna Pauline Musters, a.k.a. “Princess Pauline,” “Lady Dot” or the “Midget Mite,” standing on the hand of her manager Verschueren, 1890

She weighed eight and a half pounds and measured 17 inches in height.

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#16 Elderly American musician “Professor” W.H. McMillan, a one-man band, sits with his bow and fiddle at the ready next to his drum and cymbal kit in front of a circus tent in Oakwood, Texas, 1910s

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#17 Frank Lentini was born with a parasitic twin, ultimately leaving him with a third leg, 1914

When his family moved to the United States from Italy, Lentini entered showbiz as "The Great Lentini," joining the Ringling Brothers Circus.

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#18 Daisy and Violet Hilton were fused at the hip and put into a circus freak show at the age of three, 1927

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#19 Born without the lower half of his torso, Johnny Eck is seen here with Angelo Rossitto in the film Freaks, 1932

He would also make several appearances as a bird creature in Tarzan movies.

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#20 Born into slavery, conjoined twins Millie and Christine McCoy would later be sold to the circus and travel the world for 30 years as a singing novelty act, 1871

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#21 Portrait of American Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker sitting on two wooden chairs,, 1865

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#22 A sideshow performer brings in the crowd to Coney Island’s Dreamland Trained Wild Animal Arena for a show in New York, New York. Early 1910s

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#23 Jojo the “Lion Man,” a popular sideshow attraction, 1910.

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#24 Duke, the jungle tiger trained by George Carresello a famous animal trainer, playing the saxophone, 1925.

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#25 Dwarves and the tall man on stage at a sideshow.

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#26 A foot of the elephant on the head of a trainer, 1938.

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#27 French contortionist, 1865

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#28 Colonel Routh Goshen, known as the Arabian Giant, poses in a photo studio for a publicity shot, 1865

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#29 German circus performer hung to 656 feet by the hair, 1960

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#30 Members of Bertram Mills’ “freak” show are examined by doctors. On the examination table is the “Giraffe Necked Woman.” 1935

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#31 Contortionist at a “freak” show, 1925

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#32 American silent film actor and sideshow performer Jack Earle shares sweeping duties with two members of the Doll family while on tour with the Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus, 1938

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#33 A traveling circus sideshow attracts customers to see “JoAnn the Doublesex Wonder” during a stop in the small town of Abingdon, Virginia, 1967

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#34 Joseph Merrick, England’s famous Elephant Man, 1880s

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#35 Julius Graubert (Right), the pinhead

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#36 Stephan Bibrowski, better known as Lionel the “Lion-faced Man.”, 1914

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#37 Madame Devere from Brooksville, Kentucky had a beard that was 15 inches long. Chicago, Illinois, 1890

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#38 A man electrocuting his wife for a fairground sideshow. Boston, Lincolnshire, 1957

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#39 Circus performer Millie Kayes swallowing the head of a 12-foot python in the bar of the Peggy Bradford hotel, 1952

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#40 Krao Farini was a hairy, flexibly-jointed woman found in the Laotian jungle in 1885 and put on display by P.T. Barnum as a “Missing Link.” 1889

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#41 “Sealo the Sealman,” a retired sideshow performer, enjoying a donut for breakfast, 1960

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#42 Silas Whaley, the man without a stomach, pulling his stomach in so far it seems like he doesn’t have one as he awes onlookers in carnival sideshow at the Greenbrier Valley Fair, 1938

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#43 A circus strongwoman balances a piano and pianist on her chest, 1920

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#44 African American sideshow circus entertainer Sylvia Portis, known as Sylvia the Elephant Girl, smiling and displaying her feet, which are deformed and show signs of the disease elephantiasis, 1944

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#45 Cabinet photograph of a young man with his entire chest and arms tattooed, New York, New York, 1890

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#46 People standing in line to see a “freak” show in Coney Island

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#47 German clowns, 1899

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#48 A circus woman performs a sword swallowing trick

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#49 Portrait of Zip the “freak” standing on the beach at Coney Island, 1925

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#50 Known as “The Ohio Big Foot Girl,” Fannie Mills suffered from Milroy disease, which caused her legs and feet to become gigantic, 1890

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#51 Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome allowed Felix Wehrle to stretch his skin to great length and take on the name “Elastic Man.”

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#52 Better known as the “elephant man,” Joseph Merrick lived a tragic life. Rejected by his parents, he was left to join a touring freak show act, 1889

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#53 Grady Stiles Jr. a.k.a. “Lobster Boy” came from a long line of family members who suffered from the same birth defect that lent him his stage name.

As an adult, he was an alcoholic and would eventually murder his daughter's fiancee, 1948

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#54 Dubbed the “Four-Legged Girl From Texas,” Myrtle Corbin was born with a severe congenital deformity that caused her to have two separate pelvises and a smaller set of legs, 1882

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#55 Born with a very rare orthopedic condition that caused her knees to bend backward, Ella Harper a.k.a. “Camel Girl,” received a $200 per week salary as the star of a touring freak show act.

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#56 Mirin Dajo became famous for astounding the medical community by piercing his body with all kinds of objects seemingly without injury, 1940s

However, this would ultimately prove to be his downfall when he died from swallowing a needle.

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#57 Madam Gustika, who was billed as being from the “Duckbill tribe,” is seen here smoking a pipe through the large plates in her lip, 1930

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#58 The Jaramillo sisters, Natalia and Aurora, were from Albuquerque, New Mexico. It remains unclear how exactly they first got into show business, 1908

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#59 Minnie Woolsey, known as “Koo-Koo the Bird Girl,” suffered from Seckel syndrome, giving her both physical and mental disabilities.

She lacked both teeth and hair and worked at a Coney Island sideshow until her death.

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#60 Pasqual Pinon toured the United States as the “Two-Headed Mexican,” decorating the tumor growing out of his head with a wax face, 1917

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#61 Charles Sherwood Stratton was paid $3 a week as a member of Barnum’s touring act under the name Tom Thumb.

He would eventually marry in 1863 (pictured), before dying at the age of 45 two decades later.

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#62 Born with the rare Hypertrichosis or “werewolf syndrome,” Alice Doherty was put in a freak show by her mother at just two years old under the stage name “Wooly Girl.”, 1902

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#63 Due to acromegalic gigantism, Jack Earle grew to 7’7″ tall, 1930

He traveled with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for 14 years before becoming a salesman.

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#64 Members of The Ringling Brothers’ “Congress of Freaks” lineup for a group portrait, 1924.

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#65 Sideshow Boxers, 1900s

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#66 Bear Man” the bearded dwarf walking on all fours at the Greenbrier Valley Fair, 1938

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#67 George and Willie Muse were black albino identical twin brothers who had the misfortune of being born in the Jim Crow American South, 1920s

They were kidnapped, told to grow out their hair and forced into the circus freak show life as "Men From Mars."

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#68 At a Coney Island “freak” show an albino is photographed with the Fat Lady. A Flea Circus poster is in the background.

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