Imagine walking into a community college classroom in 1980 and being greeted like a long-lost hero by people you’ve never met. That’s exactly what happened to Bobby Shafran. People were hugging him. Girls were kissing him. Everyone kept calling him "Eddy." It sounds like a premise for a cheesy sci-fi flick, but it was the start of one of the most haunting true stories ever captured on film. The three identical strangers documentary isn't just a movie about a cool coincidence. It’s a horror story wrapped in a biological mystery.
Bobby eventually met Eddy Galland. They looked exactly alike. They talked the same. They even wrestled the same way. When the local news ran the story, a third guy, David Kellman, saw the picture and realized he was the final piece of the puzzle. They were triplets. Separated at birth.
It was a miracle. Until it wasn't.
The Dark Reality Behind the Reunion
The early 80s media coverage of the triplets was all sunshine and matching sweaters. They opened a restaurant called Roumanian Triplets. They made a cameo in a Madonna movie. But the three identical strangers documentary peels back that shiny veneer to show the rot underneath. The boys weren't just separated; they were strategically placed.
Louise Wise Services was the adoption agency responsible. They didn't just lose track of the siblings. They purposefully split them up and placed them in three very different homes: one blue-collar, one middle-class, and one wealthy. They never told the adoptive parents that their sons had brothers.
Why? Because of Peter Neubauer.
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Neubauer was a psychoanalyst who wanted to settle the "nature vs. nurture" debate once and for all. He treated these human beings like lab rats. He wanted to see how identical genetic blueprints would react to different socioeconomic environments. It was a "Twin Study" that basically ignored the ethics of, well, being a decent human being.
The Haunting Commonalities
Even though they grew up miles apart with different parents, the triplets shared eerie similarities. They all liked the same brand of cigarettes. They all liked older women. They had all been amateur wrestlers.
But there was a darker commonality. All three struggled with severe mental health issues.
As the three identical strangers documentary reveals, all three boys had spent time in psychiatric hospitals before they ever met. This wasn't a coincidence. It was a side effect. Imagine the trauma of being ripped away from your biological mirrors at birth. The film suggests that the separation itself created a fundamental "missing piece" in their psyches that they couldn't explain until they were nineteen years old.
Nature vs. Nurture: A Rigged Game
The study was never officially published. After the public backlash and the mounting legal questions, the records were sealed at Yale University until 2066. Think about that. Most of the people involved will be dead before the full truth comes out.
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Neubauer’s defenders might argue that he was a product of his time—an era when social science was a bit of a Wild West. But the documentary makes it clear that this wasn't just "science." It was cruel. The researchers would visit the boys' homes, filming them, giving them tests, and watching them grow. The parents were told it was a "standard" adoption study. They were lied to for decades.
The film focuses heavily on the tragic turn of Eddy Galland. Eddy was the most sensitive of the three. He struggled with the "nature" side of his father's strict upbringing. Eventually, the pressure of their shared history and the weight of the experiment became too much. Eddy took his own life. It's the moment in the film where the nostalgia dies and the anger takes over.
The Missing Sisters and Other Victims
The triplets weren't the only ones. The three identical strangers documentary touches on the fact that other twins were also part of this study. Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein are perhaps the most famous example of a twin pair who found each other later in life and realized they were part of Neubauer’s secret project.
They, too, found that their lives had been shadowed by a sense of loss they couldn't name. It makes you wonder how many other people are walking around right now, feeling a phantom limb for a sibling they don't know exists, all because a group of scientists wanted to write a paper that never saw the light of day.
Why We Can't Stop Talking About It
There's something deeply primal about the fear of being watched. The idea that your entire personality—your tastes, your career, your partner—might just be a series of biological pre-sets is existential nightmare fuel.
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The documentary works so well because it moves from a feel-good human interest story into a conspiracy thriller. It challenges the "American Dream" idea that you can be whoever you want to be. If these guys were so similar despite their different upbringings, how much agency do we actually have?
Honestly, the most infuriating part is the lack of accountability. Louise Wise Services is gone. Neubauer is dead. The survivors are left with the wreckage. Bobby and David, now in their 60s, are still processing the fact that their lives were essentially a staged play.
Modern Implications of the Three Identical Strangers Documentary
While the events happened decades ago, the ethical questions are more relevant than ever. Today, we have 23andMe and AncestryDNA. We are uncovering family secrets at a rate that would have made the Louise Wise agency panic.
We are also in an era of "Big Data." Companies track our movements, our preferences, and our health data to predict our behavior. In a way, we are all part of a massive, digital nature-vs-nurture experiment. The three identical strangers documentary serves as a warning of what happens when human curiosity is allowed to operate without a moral compass.
What You Should Do After Watching
If you’ve watched the film and feel that hollow pit in your stomach, you’re not alone. The story is a lot to process. Here is how to actually engage with the aftermath and the broader themes:
- Support Adoption Transparency: Look into organizations like the Adoptee Rights Law Center. They advocate for the right of adoptees to access their original birth certificates and medical records. Many states still have "sealed" records that prevent people from knowing their own history.
- Question the "Data" Industry: Think about who has your genetic information. If you've used a DNA kit, read the fine print. Know who owns your biological "code" and how it's being used for research.
- Watch the "Hidden" Follow-ups: Check out the book Identical Strangers by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein for a different perspective on the same study. It adds a layer of intellectual depth to the emotional gut-punch of the movie.
- Advocate for Research Ethics: If you work in tech or science, study the Belmont Report. It was created specifically to prevent the kind of unethical human experimentation seen in the Neubauer study.
The story of Bobby, Eddy, and David isn't just a curiosity. It's a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and a grim reminder that just because we can study something doesn't mean we should. The triplets found each other, but they lost the chance to grow up together. No amount of scientific data can ever pay that debt back.