Imagine walking into your first day of college and everyone knows your name. But they aren't calling you by your name. They're calling you Eddy. That’s exactly what happened to Bobby Shafran in 1980 at Sullivan County Community College. It’s a scene straight out of a movie, which is probably why the documentary Three Identical Strangers became such a massive hit. But honestly, the "feel-good" reunion of three brothers—Bobby Shafran, Eddy Galland, and David Kellman—is only about ten percent of the actual story. The rest is a messy, disturbing dive into unethical psychology that still hasn't been fully reckoned with.
They were nineteen.
They had the same grin, the same hands, and the same way of sitting. They even wrestled the same way. When the news broke, it was a media circus. They were on every talk show, lived in a bachelor pad together, and even had a cameo in a Madonna movie. It was the ultimate "small world" story. But beneath the surface, the circumstances of their birth and subsequent adoption were orchestrated by people who treated human beings like lab rats.
The Louise Wise Services Conspiracy
The boys weren't just "separated." They were strategically placed. The now-defunct Louise Wise Services adoption agency was the engine behind this, but the fuel was a psychological study led by Dr. Peter Neubauer and Dr. Viola Bernard. This wasn't some accidental oversight where a file got lost. It was a deliberate, secretive "nature vs. nurture" experiment.
Each boy was sent to a family with a very specific socioeconomic status and a very specific parenting style. Bobby went to a wealthy family (his father was a doctor). Eddy was placed with a middle-class family. David ended up in a working-class home. Each family already had an adopted daughter, and each family was told their son was "part of a study" on child development. What they weren't told was that their son had two identical brothers living within a 100-mile radius.
Neubauer was a prominent psychoanalyst, and he wanted to know: if you take three identical genetic blueprints and put them in three different environments, who do they become? It's a question that sounds interesting in a textbook but is horrific in practice. Researchers from the Center for Child Development would visit the boys periodically, filming them, testing them, and interviewing the parents. The parents thought they were helping with a general study. In reality, they were providing data points for a secret comparison.
Why the Experiment Was Fundamentally Broken
If you're going to play God with people's lives, you’d think the science would at least be sound. It wasn't. The Three Identical Strangers saga reveals a level of confirmation bias that would get a modern researcher laughed out of a peer review. Neubauer and his team were looking for specific outcomes to prove their theories about the environment's role in personality.
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One of the most tragic aspects of this "experiment" was the history of mental health in the boys' biological family. Their biological mother struggled with mental illness. The researchers knew this. Instead of seeing it as a variable to monitor for the boys' well-being, they viewed it as a "stress test" for their environments.
It’s dark stuff.
Eddy Galland eventually struggled with depression and took his own life in 1995. While it’s impossible to pin that tragedy on a single cause, the weight of the separation, the discovery of the experiment, and the genetic predisposition he shared with his brothers undoubtedly played a role. The study didn't just observe life; it interfered with the fundamental right of these children to know their own kin.
The Missing Files and the Yale Vault
Even after the documentary brought this to global attention, getting answers hasn't been easy. The records of the study are held at Yale University. They are restricted. They aren't scheduled to be fully released until 2066. Think about that for a second. Most of the people involved, including the subjects themselves, will likely be dead before the full scope of the manipulation is public.
Why the secrecy? The official line is privacy for the subjects, but many believe it’s a shield for the institutions involved. The Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services eventually took over the records of Louise Wise Services. While they have expressed regret and allowed Bobby and David some access to their files, the heavily redacted documents they received were a slap in the face.
The documents revealed that the researchers were obsessed with "ego strength" and "oedipal patterns." They were trying to map the human soul using children as the ink.
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The Fallout: Nature vs. Nurture Re-Examined
The Three Identical Strangers case is often used to argue for "nature." When the boys first met, the similarities were uncanny. They all smoked the same brand of cigarettes (Marlboro). They were all wrestlers. They all liked older women. They had the same taste in colors.
But as they grew older and the novelty wore off, the differences—the "nurture" part—became more apparent. Their upbringing shaped their coping mechanisms, their tempers, and their worldviews. David Kellman often spoke about how his "working-class" father was the most affectionate of the three dads, while Bobby’s father was more distant. These differences mattered. They shaped how the men navigated the trauma of finding out they were part of a science experiment.
The Ethical Ghost of Peter Neubauer
Dr. Neubauer died in 2008 without ever publicly apologizing or even admitting he did anything wrong. He defended the study to the end, supposedly believing he was contributing something monumental to the field of psychology. But what did we actually learn?
- We learned that separating twins or triplets causes profound, lifelong attachment trauma.
- We learned that institutional ethics boards are a necessity, not a suggestion.
- We learned that "science" can be used as a veil for narcissism.
The study was never even published. All that pain, all that deception, and for what? A pile of boxes in a vault in New Haven. It’s a cautionary tale about what happens when "the pursuit of knowledge" loses its humanity.
What We Can Learn From the Triplets Today
If you've watched the film or read the news reports, you might feel a sense of helplessness. It feels like a story about victims. But Bobby and David have worked hard to reclaim their narrative. They aren't just the "strangers" anymore; they are men who have had to build a brotherhood from scratch as adults.
If you are interested in the ethics of psychology or the history of adoption, there are a few things you should look into to understand the full context of this era.
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Understand the Era of "Closed Adoptions"
Back in the 60s and 70s, the "clean slate" theory was king. Social workers believed it was better for everyone if the biological past was completely erased. We now know this is psychologically damaging. If you are involved in adoption today, advocate for "open" or "semi-open" arrangements where the child's history isn't treated like a shameful secret.
Watch for Institutional Gatekeeping
The Yale records are a prime example of how institutions protect their own reputation over the rights of individuals. Support organizations that fight for "Adoptee Rights to Information." In many states, it is still shockingly difficult for adopted adults to access their own original birth certificates.
Question "Scientific" Authority
Just because a study is being conducted by a prestigious university or a well-known doctor doesn't mean it’s ethical. The Neubauer study happened because nobody dared to tell a famous psychoanalyst "no." In any field—whether it's medicine, tech, or psychology—the human cost must always be weighed against the potential data gain.
The Reality of Genetic Predisposition
The story of the triplets confirms that we aren't just blank slates. Genetics provide the "range" of our personality, but our environment decides where within that range we land. If you're struggling with mental health issues that seem to "run in the family," remember that your environment is a variable you can change, even if you can't change your DNA.
The story of the Three Identical Strangers isn't a miracle; it's a tragedy that was narrowly survived. The fact that Bobby and David are still here to tell it is a testament to their personal resilience, not the "success" of the study that tore them apart.
To get the most accurate picture of the story, look for interviews with the film's director, Tim Wardle, who spent years winning the brothers' trust. He has often spoken about how the most chilling parts of the story didn't even make it into the final cut because they were too difficult to verify legally. The truth is likely even stranger than the screen version.