Rosa and Josepha Blazek of Bohemia (1878–1922) were conjoined twins and sideshow performers. Rosalie allegedly gave birth to a son, the only recorded instance of a conjoined twin becoming pregnant and carrying a child to term.
Pathology
Rosa and Josepha were of the pygopagus type (joined at the posterior). They shared tissue and cartilage but were also joined at the spine from the ninth thoracic vertebra up. It was that delicate fusion that negated any possibility of separation.
Behaviour
Physically Rosa was the stronger of the two sisters, both physically and in terms of her personality. Josepha was slightly more deformed than her sister, with her left leg being substantially shorter than her right. Like many conjoined twins, the sisters had radically different personalities; Rosa was talkative and witty, while Josefa was quiet and introverted. The sisters had distinctly different tastes in food and although they shared sensations, one often slept while the other was awake, and they were hungry and thirsty at different times. Their American manager, Jess E. Rose, spoke of the twins' differences: "Rosa was the guiding genius of the two. What Rosa would think...Josefa would do; when Rosa became hungry, Josefa would demand food; when Rosa willed to walk, Josefa automatically stepped forward. Rosa always planned and Josefa put the plans, without even words to convey the suggestion, into action."
Life
The conjoined sisters Rosa and Josepha Blažek were born in Skrejšov, Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic) on January 20, 1878. When the twins were as young as a year old, their parents placed on exhibition in local fairs. At the age of two they could walk, leaning against each other for balance and stepping first with their "anterior" pair of legs and then with their "posterior" pair.
The Blažek sisters became famous in the 1890’s as they toured Europe. They eventually become quite skilled on the violin and stunned crowds with their enthusiastic duets. In matters of promotion the pair was heavily sexualized and posters for their appearance at the Theatre Imperial de la Gaiete featured with bared midriffs and tight corsets. As a result the public conjectured on their sexual activity and the complications their physical condition posed. But, by the turn of the twentieth century, their popularity quickly evaporated due to poor management and overexposure.
Their obscurity was shattered in 1909 when Rosa claimed to be pregnant. Speculation arose that the twins' agent was the responsible party, and he evidently believed the rumors, as he offered the twins a covert settlement of 95,000 marks a year for three years.
The boy was supposedly born on April 16 1910 and named Franz, after his alleged father, a soldier named Franz Dvorak, but was known by the diminutive Franzl or "Little Franz". Even today, much controversy exists regarding the origins of Franz. Many historians and authors believe that the boy was nothing more than a well timed publicity stunt to relaunch the sisters' carrier. While an autopsy confirmed that the two had separate uteri, it fails to mention any evidence of pregnancy. It is known that Franz did spend time in an orphanage, and some believe that is where the boy originated from in the first place.
As Franz grew, he joined the twins’ travelling show as ‘The Son of Two Mothers’ and with their newfound celebrity the three of them left Europe and appeared in the US, previously only visiting America during the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The twins set their sights on vaudeville and established a base in Chicago but their dream of the American stage was cut short when Rosa fell ill with influenza. As Rosa recovered, Josepha became sick and her illness soon overcame her. Doctors were uncertain of the diagnosis and shortly after being admitted into Chicago’s West End Hospital on March 22, 1922, Rosa fell into a coma.
A brother, Frank, appeared out of nowhere and once Rosa also succumbed to a coma Frank spoke for the sisters. It was believed that the sisters had amassed a fortune so this was probably his main motive. Newspapers disagree on the final days of the Blažek twins. Some claim Frank would not allow any attempt at surgical separation and others claimed Rosa insisted on dying with her sister. All newspapers agreed that Frank was a gold digger who only had his eye on their fortune. In the end, there was only $400 left in the sisters belongings.