Lucio Godina (March 8, 1908 - November 24, 1936) and Simplicio Godina (March 8, 1908 - December 8, 1936) were pygopagus conjoined twins from the island of Samar in the Philippines.
Pathology
The Godina brothers were joined only by skin and cartilage at the buttocks and shared no pelvic bone or spinal tissue; in fact their join was so flexible that one could lie down while the other stood. Male pygopagus twins are extremely rare; most are stillborn or die at birth, and there are only a few cases of live-born male pygopagus twins on record.
Life
The twins traveled to the United States as children and began working on the sideshow circuit. While they were working at Coney Island at age 11, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children complained that the twins had no official guardian, so they were adopted by Teodor Yangeo, a wealthy Filipino who was traveling in the United States. From this point on, the twins received an excellent education and became involved in several sports including swimming, tennis and golf. At the age of 21 they married Natividad and Victorina Matos, who were identical twins in an extravagant public wedding in Manila. The two couples then set sail for the United States, where they were scheduled to appear in vaudeville. They performed in various sideshow acts, including in an orchestra on Coney Island and in dance with their wives.
After Lucio died of rheumatic fever in New York City, doctors operated to separate him from Simplicio. Simplicio survived the operation, but died on December 8, 12 days later, from cerebro-spinal meninigitis.