>> when i tell people my story, they don't believe it. i guess i wouldn't believe the story if someone else were telling it, but. i'm telling it. it's true. every word of it. it started when i was born. 56 years oago. but the real story began when i was 19 years old when i went to college. it was 1980. it was the first day of school at the community college in the catskills 100 miles where i grew up. so i drove up there alone.

i at least had this old car. it was a 1970 volvo. had like 130,000 miles on it. the car was burgundy and hood was green. actually the car was called the old bitch. but it got me there. sullivan was a community college. this wasn't some long standing institution of higher learning. all these station wagons are dropping kids off. i was nervous. i just got to the school. i didn't know anybody. i was a freshman. i was never the captain of the football team in high school. so i was never really popular. so i'm walking around trying to find where dorm is. meanwhile all these people are coming up to me saying, hi, how

are you? how was your summer? mine was great, how was yours? why are et they asking? i ussdon't know. people were being extremely friendly and going out of their way to do it. i mean claps on the back and high fives. and i was a little bit. bewildered by this no one gets this kind of welcome their first day of school. and girls were kissing me, like fully kissing me saying i'm so glad you came back. i was saying thank you, but i had never been there before and i didn't know. it was bizarre. and the next thing i heard right behind me, welcome back, eddie. eddie, how are yo with us i'm like my name is not eddie. i don't know what you're talking about. sure, you're really funny. i'm like, i'm not eddie.

i dent know who eddie is is. welcome back, eddie, they were all saying. i finally made it to this dump of a dorm room. before a minute had gone by, who now? who now is going to come to find eddie? i had been at college the previous year and knew he wasn't coming back to school. as soon as this guy turned around, i was actually shaking. the color from my face dropped because i knew it was his double. he had the same grin, the same hair, the same expressions, it was his double. and i see this guy's face. and he's like, just standing there. the first thing out of my mouth was were you adopted?

and i was like, yes. >> i said is your birthday july 12th. he said, yes. oh, my gosh, you're not going to believe this. you have a twin brother. you have a twin. >> oh, my god. >> i said, come with me. the two of us were crammed into this phone. booth shoulder to shoulder and we have to close the door of the both phone. and i'm trying to put the coins in and they keep falling on the floor. and bobby is picking up the coins. and he calls this guy and he's like, hey, eddie, you're not going to believe this. this guy is more hysterical than i am like weirded out. so i was like, hi, eddie. but it was my voice that said yes. and i said, hi, eddie, my name

is robert and i'm meeting all these people who say i'm you. and he said, i've been getting some calls. i said, were you adopted he said yes. >> i said when was your birth y birthday. do you know the agency? >> no, hold on. and i heard him go, mom. >> he came back and said. >> louise wise services. >> sometimes when you're just having a dream and know this can't be real, you know there's nothing you can do to stop it, start t change it, and that's what i did. i just wanted to see what was going to happen next. i'm like, let's go meet eddie. so we got into the old bitch. it was about 9:00 at nagt night.

it's about a two-hour ride. weerp speeding on route 17. we were going 100 miles per hour, perhaps more. we were speeding dro ining drivt as this car would go. ask we got pulled over by. a new york state trooper. as i rolled down my window, there's this gigantic cop with like the sunglasses even though it's nighttime. i clocked you at 88 in a 50. son, you better have a really good reason. i was like, well, you're never going to believe this. the two of us are yelling at this guy. >> you done know, he has a twin brother and we're going to see. and the guy was, yeah, right. here's your ticket. have a good day.

and on to long island we go. >> so we got there, but it's like the middle of the night. and this is really quiet neighborhood. so we get out of the car and walked up this little path to the house. the lights were on in the house. and i reach out to knock on the door. as i reach out to knock on the door, it opens. and here us i am. his eyes were my eyes and it's true. >> they looked exactly alike.

they are duplicates of each other. there was no doubt in my mind they were twins. he's going, oh, my god. he's going holy crap. >> they just looked at each other and every time bobby moved his head, eddie moved. and then eddie would move and bobby would move. like they were looking at a mirror. it was the weirdest thing. >> it was like the world faded away and it was just me and eddie. >> so i'm in the newsroom. it's the middle of a busy day. we got a call from somebody who says they have an amazing story to tell us. we're not going to believe this story. and my first reaction, it's a hoax. so i told our reporter, i want to rent a plane. in those days we had enough

money to do this. i want to rent a plane. i want to see these two kids face to face or i don't believe this. we flew the journalists up to sullivan community skplej he called me and he said, it's true. and i remember saying, oh, my god. this is a great story. this is a memorable, heartwarming skoir. story. then it went from being amazing to being incredible. >> i was on the new york subway. quite late at night. read an article about two boys who found each other that were twins separated at birth and found each other at sullivan county can community college. there was no picture, but the story was fascinating.

i came home and went to sleep. my mother came into the room and said, wake up, i have to show you something. and she shows me a newspaper with a picture of two boys. and i had to focus. i locked at the photograph and i said is that david? and she's like, no, but look at the hands. is and i was like, holy macke l mackerel, this is beyond amazing. >> this was a picture in the newspaper of two guys in the post. i picked up the picture and i looked at it and i was like in shock. because the two guys in the post look exactly like my friend david. i stared at it. and it wasn't even just the look on their face. it was the way they were holding their hands. they had these big, meaty hands.

david always had these hands that looked like baseball mitts. when i saw their hands, i just knew that this is david. >> it was just a normal day. et i got to school. ran into my buddy ad allen. et he said, david, take a welcome at this. he has a copy of "the new york post." and he opens it up. he says, look at this. look familiar? something to that effect. i said, yeah, right, sure. but then we looked at it a little more closely. it was an article that said twins reunited after more than 19 years and had the picture of two of what looked like me. it all started to sink in. oh my god, this is not

believable. this is unbelievable. wow, this is big, this is serious, this is not a coincidence. this is not a minor resemblance. this is real. this is happening. this is really serious. and i ditched classes and got home. my mother was waiting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. i said do you see this? you see this? we exchanged newspapers. it had july 12th, 1961 and it was louise wise adoption agency. but it said eddie from long island. i remember it said sob of a physician. and my first thought i said he's got the wealthy family. this sob is probably driving a

benz. he got a doctor. >> and i remember being with david in the kitchen. we were like really nervous. i mean, we were jumping around. we were 19 years old. this was surreal. david picked up the phone and he called information. he reached eddie's mom. >> i said, hi, is eddie home. she said no, who is calling please. i said, well, my name is david and i was born july 12th, 1961, and i'm looking at a newspaper is and basically i think i'm look iing at two of me. i think i might be the third. and i think she dropped the actually. >> i remember hearing her voice over the phone. oh, my god, they are coming out of the woodwork.

>> it was a miracle. the furs time that the boys met together, the three together was at my house. the three of. ep them ended up like pupallies wrestling on the floor. it was the most incredible can -- it was the most incredible thing. they belonged to each other. they knew each other. there was no formal introduction. i mean, when you meet somebody for the first time, you don't end up rolling around on the floor with them. >> it was truly not fully believab believable. even though it was happening. it was still surreal. you think you're dreaming. you're looking and you're looking the other one sand realize they are look at you. >> to have all three of them at

one time, it was really madness. my emotions were shock, shock and more shock. i can't explain it. >> one of our reporters came are running over to me and said you're not going to believe this. you're not going to believe the call with just good got. there's a third kid. >> they even moved the saim way. all of us sat back and watched three separate lives becoming one. >> the the way i put it was i look more like eddie than dade. does that make sense?

and then we started comparing notes. >> what do 19-year-olds compare? booze, cigarettes, food, women, music, cars. i just bought a brand new merck are ri capri. and i'm thinking some physician, huh? >> i think it was eddie who said right at the beginning, i don't know if this will turn out to be great or terrible. so there was always a question mark, a big question mark about where the story eventually was going. >> we didn't realize from then on just how much things were going to change. >> one of the most remarkable stories i have seen in some

time. a story about triplets eddie and robert and david, reunited after 19 years. >> a story about triplets that gives new meaning to the phrase long lost brothers. >> we went on everything. >> you're not seeing double. you're going o to be seeing triple. >> i don't know who's who here. come on out, gentlemen. >> you just had to stop what you're doing and watch themselves on every show. >> it became a circus. it became a media circus. i'm talking viral. it was viral even then. >> you have been on the front page of every newspaper in the world. >> true. >> people magazine, even the "new york times," good housekeeping. >> david, let's begin with you. which one is david? >> you're edward. who are you? >> you're robert.

>> robert and edward. >> it was a fairy tale story. and people need to hear wonderful things. >> these three young men are all seated in the same position. >> it was kind of amazing. they really were strangers. they looked identical, but they were strangers. they really didn't know one another. but their behaviors were so similar. >> our lives are parallel to a fete normal degree. it's ridiculous. >> we're all the same. we started discussing our personalities. sglil start a sentence and he'll finish it. >> you were all wrestlers at one time. >> you all smoke the same brand of cigarettes. >> marlboro. >> do you all smoke the same brand? >> yes. >> do you like the same colors? >> yes. >> i was curious, how is the

taste of women? similar? >> yes. definitely. >> seems that they all liked older women. >> well. >> another astonishing coincidence is each of the brothers grew up with an adopted sister. all the girls now 21 years old. >> i can't get over it. extraordinary coincidence, you all have to agree. >> it's beautiful. >> you say you love each other but you have only phone each other a short time. >> how long did it take to have that fooeling? feeling? >> like that. >> this were more like clones than they were like brothers. it was just absolutely astounding because they grew up in what appeared to be pretty different households.

>> we had been adopted by a blue collar family, middle class family and a more affluent family. bobby's father was a medical doctor. and his mother was an attorney. so they were very well educated and living in one of the most prestigious areas of the country. eddie's father was a teacher. he had a college education and they lived in what would be considered a middle class neighborhood. my family on paper were the least educated. they were immigrants. english was a second language to them. they had a little store. they were the more blue-collar

family. but my father was just this incredibly generous, warm guy. >> david's father was larger than life. if you can imagine this guy, he was a big guy with a big cigar hanging out of his mouth. >> he was bubla. if you know yiddish, it's like loving and hugging and kissing. >> we spent more time at david's house than any place else. he celebrated us like no other person. he said, i have two more sons. >> when the boys found each other, it just sort of happened then and there. here's this wonderful story and

that's it. nobody questioned what was going on except the parents, of course. >> when the families met up the first time, there was great anger in all of them about the fact that the parents had never been told that there were two other children. >> they didn't tell us a word when we were adopted. we knew nothing about the other two until the boys met at school. that was 20 years later. moving in together, it's a big step. getting used to each other's idiosyncrasies. it's an adventure.

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♪ drop off onya. pick up perry. and get to the store by five. on it. yes girls, i'm totally free this thursday. tell kat, to call carla, to confirm katrina is still coming. olly. at least it was six months old and separated. if you imagine those three bodies like lying together and sudden bly the coldness of being alone in a crib. it was a terrible deprecation. >> i remember being told by my mother that i would slam my head against the wall. i would knock myself out. >> my mother said i would bang my head on the inside of the

crib. and i would hold my breath until i passed out. >> i believe it was absolutely separation anxiety. >> all of us had been adopted from louise wiia louise wise se. >> overseen by a board of directors drawn from new york city's social, financial and political elite. >> they were the preeminent adoption agency on the east coast for jewish babies, in particular. that was the place to go. >> what we have felt at louise wise services, where i have been active for a great long time, is that adoptive parents should be told as much about the background of a child as

reasonable. >> our parents, they wanted answers. they were angry. they arranged a meeting and six of them went in to louise wise agency to dtry to get some answers in terms of piecing together what happened. >> this was a meeting with the top brs ass at the agency. they were asked is it true that you separated these boys at birth. and they said, yes, we did. >> why? how could you tonot tell us?

what did you do? why and how could you? >> they said the reason was because it was hard to place three children in one home. >> the parents had been told it was in our best interest that we had been split up. that not every parent would welcome triplets and triplets would be difficult to place. which i think that moment my father blew his stack. he said we would have taken all three. there's no question. and he was furious. >> the meeting came to an end. >> they all left. they felt like they had gotten nothing. and my father realized that he had left his umbrella in there. >> he went back to get the

umbrella. and he walked into the room to see them breaking open a bottle of champagne and toasting each other as if they had dodge d a bullet. >> it looked like they just missed getting hurt or killed or what have you. that was memorable. >> all of our parents came away from that meeting angry. >> the parents went to some pretty prestigious law firms and initially they were met with a lot of enb news yaenthusiasm an in a short period of time were

told there's a conflict and they could not take the case. >> they said we have a number of associates who are trying to adopt through louise wise and we don't want to ruin their chances. so that lawsuit was out. >> we were too happy being together to be that angry. we didn't understand it. and to a degree, we b almoalmos didn't care. our heads were in the clouds. we knew our parents were pissed off, but it was like, well, that's our parents thing to do. we were out partying. >> this was new york in 1980. drugs were different, people were different, music was different. >> sex, drugs, rock and roll.

>> they were running amok in new york, i will say. studio 54 was cooking. limelight, they were hitting them all. >> new york loved us. new york loved us. >> all the newspapers were following the boys around no matter where we went. >> i remember one morning walking in and my mother throwing "the new york post" at me, at the kitchen table saying, i got to look at the paper to find out where you were last night? >> the boys thought they were going to be stars. and actually, they did star in one movie. >> walking down the street, all of a sudden we hear, guys, guys, you're the guys.

could you please be in my movie? >> we didn't know who she was. she was done. >> they stood at the side and ogled her. >> we got an apartment together. the triplets apartment. >> the triplets apartment, it's like if you had the most bachelor apartment times three. >> the liquor store used to deliver the liquor. >> at one point eddie had appendicitis. he had no insurance. so he checked into the hospital as bob and had his appendix taken out as bobby. i hope bobby's appendix to this day stays pretty healthy. >> going on dates together, living together, from the time

we met till later, there was nothing that would keep us apart. >> i feel like i was the first serious girlfriend. initially, i couldn't really tell them apart. i would bump into them and i wasn't sure which one i was going out with. bob has this very raw, natural type of intelligence that i think i was attracted to. >> i always thought david was the best, right, of the three of them. i have said it before. i got the pick of the litter. >> without a doubt, eddie was the handsomest of all the three triplets. of course, i'm partial. but i adored him. >> when i met him, he was the last hold out.

the cass nova of the three. and i said, oh, boy, this guy is a real bachelor-like player. but he was so warm in his smile and he had wonderful, beautiful hands, soft hands. when i shook his hand, i just fell in love with him. i'm from a big, colorful, irish catholic family and he was a jewish guy. when he came to the house for the first time, he looked at my dad and he said, i don't know if you know this, i've been seeing brenda every night pretty much since the first day i met her. i thought, oh, my god. my dad knows we're together every night. he looked at me. like, okay, and that was eddie. >> i do.

>> we love you. >> everyone loved him. if there was a scale, bobby would be reserved. david would be middle. eddie was just the lovable, mushy, huggable, funny, he just exuded warmth and love. >> first thanksgiving with daddy. >> happy birthday dear jamie.

>> he loved family gatherings. >> eddie really, really loved being around david and bobby. eddie seemed to get the most out of the three of them meeting. for whatever reason. >> he wanted his brothers and him to have a beautiful life and everyone to get along. and he wanted everyone to be one big family. >> eddie was absolutely the driving force in terms of leading the search for our birth mother. he got a fever and he just wanted to do it. and he was rallying because it was an exciting thing to do. >> we figured what are the chances of having triplets born

in new york on july 12th, 1961. >> we figured out that new york public library shared birth records. >> we each grabbed a book and went page by page by page by page and within a couple hours, it was bingo. >> male, male, male, three in a row. >> july 12th, 1961. >> right next to it. birth mother's last name. >> the first meeting was a bar on 47th street. it was like her local neighborhood watering hole. on the east side. and it was awkward. >> she told the story of what happened. unfortunately, it wasn't a romantic story. she was a young girl.

>> basically prom night knock up type thing. >> i don't think she ever got over the fact that she had tripp lets and had to give them up. >> to us, at 19, you drink like a fish and think you're invi invincible. but we found it a little concerning that she was pretty much keeping up with us. the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree and that's the tree. i was less than thrilled. and we had our parents already, so we met her and it was okay. but she was not a particularly close part of our lives. we were all young and starting

our marriages and careers. >> identical triplets, now they run a new york restaurant called, what else, you guessed, triplets. >> welcome, hello and welcome. >> we had a lot of people coming for us. they came to see the triplets. they wanted to be wait iinged o by one of the triplets. we served vodka and frozen blocks of ice and get the whole room up and dancing. >> it was like this big party. >> triplets become wildly successful in new york city. >> et we did over a million dollars the first year.

>> that's when things kind of got funky. >> in the mid-'90s, i started working on a story for the new yorker magazine about identical twins reared apart. i have always thought what would it be. like if you turn the corner one day and you saw yourself. in the process of my research, i came across this obscure scientific article. it referenced this secret study

in which identical siblings had been separated. i was shocked and intrigued. they were separating identical babies at birth. for the purpose of the scientific experiment. and these babies had all come from one adoption agency in new york city. >> the first thing out of my mouth was were you want adopted? >> there i am, can't be real. >> twins separated at birth. >> reunited after 19 years. >> it's beautiful. >> blue collar family, middle class family and more affluent family. >> adoptive parents should be told as much is reasonable. >> something was just not right. >> they were breaking open a bottle of champagne as if they had dodged a bullet. >> all of us were adopted from

louise wise. >> louise wise. >> these babies had all come from louise wise services. and more people than ever struggle with debt. intuit is here to change this story... with giant solutions like turbotax, quickbooks and mint that give everyone the power to prosper. intuit. proud makers of turbotax, quickbooks and mint. woman 1: this... woman 2: ...this... man 1: ...this is my body of proof. man 2: proof of less joint pain... woman 3: ...and clearer skin. man 3: proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... woman 4: ...with humira. woman 5: humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain, stop further irreversible joint damage,

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he told me all about the experiment. i said this is like nazi stuff. >> this raelt hitting like a tidal wave. >> we were a science experiment. >> these people split us up and studied us like lab rats. >> we didn't recognize this stuff until it was put in our face, until it was in newspapoo print. but there were clues in the past. i remember from a very young age people would come to the house,

usually a young man and a young woman. and they had me taking tests. they did iq tests, personality tests, eye/hand card nation tests. >> i do remember people coming to the house, having tests done, square pegs in round holes, ink block tests. what does this mean to you, that kind of stuff. >> eddie told me when he was younger he remembers people watching him and taking notes. and they would ask him questions and he would get frustrated with the questions. and he remembers they were videotaping him. >> i remember the filming more than anything else. >> i remember having super 8

millimeter films taken of me on a swing set or a slide is. every single time they came they filmed. riding my bike, throwing a ball and wanted to see how many times i could go on my pogo stick, roller skating, shooting a bow and >> the stuff i did would be more complex as i got older. >> i didn't know why they needed to come so often. why were they asking me all of these questions. >> somewhere around age nine or ten i started becoming less comfortable with it. i was like mom, do i still have to do this? do i still have to do this? >> when our parents adopted us they were each told we were being followed as part of a normal study of the development of adopted children. they had no idea that we had been separated.

>> the agency said the children born in this period of time were all going to be in a study of adopted children. as far as we knew that was it. >> this is a new thing they were going to follow up with all of the children and at the time we accepted it. >> you're talking about a group of people that went and held a baby and did psychological testing to testing on a six month old baby and then went to another house to see his brother and then went to another house to see his brother and did this over years and years and years and years with full knowledge that we were within 100 mile radius and not knowing each other.

it's just uncon shenable. >> who would think that anybody would be evil enough to come up with something like this? >> in the process of my research i learn that had the person really in charge of the study was dr. peter newbower. very distinguished psychiatrist in new york, director of the freud archives. he set up shop in new york and became one of the great men of psychiatry in america. >> what i learned is that the people were separating identical siblings and a team of

scientists would follow them. but it wasn't just the triplets. there were others. >> after my article came out another twin set discovered themselves. >> and here they are today. >> appreciate you coming today. >> my pleasure. >> it's amazing. the story is incredible. is that the way to tell it? >> it is funny. we say if it hadn't happened to us we wouldn't believe it. >> it is a disney movie. >> it is a little darker than a disney move i have. >> i was at my apartment with my two-year-old daughter. i answered the phone and it was the adoption agency. we have news for you. you have a twin sister and she is looking for you. >> you both went to film school. >> i don't know if you noticed -- >> yes.

>> i asked, why were we separated and they said for a twin study. >> we felt our lives had been ork straited by these researchers that put desires, career interests before the needs of us and interest of us and the other twins. >> nobody is sure how many identical twins were involved in this stud ky. i was told six to eight but we don't really know. >> when you a study like this normally you produce the results and you show how large the sample is and all this sort of thing but this study was never published, which makes it all the more intriguing. >> we did have an attorney try to get us some of the study

records. >> we received a small amount of information. it was very dry technical data the that didn't shed any light on the reasons for the study. it was garbage. >> i don't know if the results were or if there were results because i never saw them. >> they are trying to conceal what they did from the people they did it to. why? i mean what was the purpose of it? the study was never published. why? are you guys good with brakes? we're ok. just ok? we got a saying here. if the brakes don't stop it, something will. that's not a real saying. it is around here. i wrote it. just ok is not ok. especially when it comes to your network. at&t is america's best wireless network, according to america's biggest test. now with 5g e. more for your thing. that's our thing.

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i was research assistant.

>> so come on in. would you like a cup of coffee? here are some of my buddies, michelle obama and i. she is very tall. i have to tell you, i said i love you. he gave me a kiss on this cheek. this is wall goal gore. this is me when i was 18. i thought he was a hoot. >> i just do the hearsay.

the first time i heard about the twin study it was still just a dream in peter's head. >> what was he like? >> sexy. nice looking, interesting. his background were very. he was very focused on wanting to make a difference in childrens lives. peter started thinking wouldn't it be interesting to have a study of mothers who wanted to give up their children who happen to be identical twins and then could be separated at birth. if we could put them in two totally different environments we would put to rest the

dilemma, nature or nurture forever. now, you may think this is terrible. how could you do this? you have to put yourself back in the late 50s and 60s. this was not something that seemed to be bad. nobody said to take children apart are terrible. that was not at all in anyone's thoughts. this was a very exciting time. psychology was just beginning to be the deal that everybody is talking about. this was all in terms of research and opportunity. >> one of the great questions that science has ever asked is how do we become the people we are? how much of nature versus how much of nurture shapes us into the people that we become. >> i did not go and do the

research. i would hear about it. i was in the office. what they found out was incredible. >> our lives have paralleled to a phenomenal degree. it is ridiculous. >> we are all the same. discussing their penalties. >> our personalities are the same. >> you were raised in different homes. >> true. >> i did not believe that it be as much her red tear as it was. >> i'll start a sentence and he'll finish it. >> you were all wrestlers? >> yes. >> do you all smoke the same brand? >> yes. >> do you like the same colors? >> yes. >> how is your taste of women? is it similar? >> yes. >> we are moved to behaviors.

>> you both went to film school. >> i don't know if you noticed but -- >> yes. seems to be inherited. >> we don't like that. we would prefer we have some influence over our lives. wouldn't you rather know that than to have some control over this? so it doesn't matter what you do. so i think it's upsetting to people to see how little influence they have, how little control they have. we don't like that. we fight that. >> if the conclusions of the study were so shocking and so earth shaking -- >> why haven't you published your study?

>> there's a lot that we don't know. we have antic dotes that are very provocative but we don't know. we don't have the data. >> i don't know what happened to the study. i moved to switzerland in 1965 and lost touch with what was going on. all of that research should be seen. this study was the first and it's also the last. it will never be done again. it will never be replicated. it is one. it is a monumental study. >> in terms of their motivation they use today justify what they did i don't even care because i -- it's not justifiable what they did.

coming from the holocaust our family has knowledge that when you play with humans you do something very wrong. >> they did not have the endings. >> what were some of the similarities you had as you were all growing up in your own respective households? >> we'll smoke the same cigarettes. we all love the same food. our taste in women were similar. >> what are some of the stranger things you found out you had in common? any other more surprising discoveries?

>> some times you think you're having a unique thought or idea and you go to share it with someone and they say your brother just told me. it is little annoying and unnerving. >> being in business with my brothers damaged our relationship. there were conflicting work ethics and my father had passed away. he really anchored us together as a group and kept the peace so to speak. >> they started to argue like kids would argue. they didn't have that opportunity, that gift of being able to be brothers for 18 years. >> when you're living in a family of children you learn how to adjust to each other.

but they met as adults and never learned how to live with've other. >> as things went on things got more complicated. as things got more complicated what ended up happening is i left. moving in together, it's a big step. getting used to each other's idiosyncrasies. it's an adventure. a test. [ grunting ] a test that jeff failed miserably. [ upbeat music starts ] the spacious volkswagen tiguan. more room means more fun.

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we felt we were being betrayed. bobby felt he was being pushed out. either way it did major major damage to the relationship. >> i think it took an extreme toll on eddy more so than i think david and bobby. he wanted everybody to be pieced together. he was crushed about it. it was eating at him. >> he dearly loved him. he wanted his brothers to be together. he was not really sure how to deal with it all. you're just seeing a lot more kind of up and down behaviors, erratic behaviors.

>> you're see ago lot more unnatural highs and lows. >> he would call people and at bizarre hours of the evening and then they would say i haven't seen or heard from eddy in ten years. why is he picking up the telephone and calling me at 2:00 in the morning. you know, those are signs. >> it was more than somebody that needed counseling. this is something very very serious. >> he could be unbelievably charming but the down swing was a lot of anger. there was just deep deep

darkness. >> it made sense in hindsight. >> i didn't walk down the aisle thinking i have a man who is suffering from manic depression. >> people say how could you not know? he was so yunique and so wonderful and so special, that was eddy, you know? >> i would advise he needed to be in a fa sulty. >> i mean i felt bad that i put him through this trauma. i knew how hard it was. i spent my 16th birthday in a

psych ward. >> we were all really disturbed kids. we were all under psych at trick help. >> we all had challenging and dysfunctional teenage years. >> one of you were involved in a murder, is that right? >> it's up to you, guys. >> no. one was accused of being involved in a murder. it was me who never met this person that was killed. never was present or anything like that. it was peer pressure, friends pressuring me to telling the story to the police. i never hurt anyone in my life. >> we can feel it.

we can feel it. >> a lot of people in this study had dysfunctional childhoods and some mental problems. it raises questions, you know, if you are a person that devoted yourself to study mental illness then is that a factor that you were searching? >> the story is incredible. >> it is a little darker than a disney movie. >> when we first met we realized we had all of these similarities. we had similar manner ifrms. we both studied film and then we also found out we both had suffered from depression. >> so this is the letter that i

received from services. you were born at 12:51 p.m. on october 9th, 1968 to a 29-year-old jewish single woman. she was very intelligent with a high iq. she entered college on a merit scholarship but emotional problems interrupted her attendance. she had history of voluntary hospitalizations for emotional problems. although i have not been able to locate the original medical reports secondary sources noted your mere's diagnosis was schizophrenia. >> it was disturbing to read that my birth mother had been in and out of institutions. i started finding out more about the other twins and triplets in the study. it turns out that not only had many of them struggled with mental health problems but that their birth parents had mental health issues and their adoptive

families had never been told. >> how possible is it that your mother had mental health issues? >> i don't think they were severe. i think that she was -- she may have had some minor issues. she may have had a little more than minor issues. >> were the scientists purposely choosing children wloz biological parents had mental illness and placing them into different homes to see is mental illne illness heritable.

>> eddy was in the hospital for i think it was three weeks and then he came back to work at the restaurant. i wasn't there. i think he could give you better detail about it. >> i was run ning the kitchen. he was running the front of the house. that's the way it worked. i didn't know where he was. he lived across the street. >> so david called me from the restaurant and he asked me to look out the window to see if eddy's car was in the driveway because if it was in the driveway we knew he was home. so the car was in the driveway. i said to david, do you want me

to go over there and david said yes. >> and she called me back a few minutes later and her voice was trembling and shaking. she said you got to come home. i said why? and she said please, you have got to come home. and i pulled up. we lived across the street and i pulled up. cop cars were all there. i pulled up blocking half the street, left the door open and started running into the house. the cops grabbed me and wouldn't let me in. they said you don't want to see this. you can't see this. you don't want to see this. that's when i knew he was gone.

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i told bobby, i need to talk to you. he kind of knew. he kind of knew before the words

came out of my mouth. eddy committed suicide. he shot himself and took his own life. >> i don't remember who told us. i just remember darkness. >> on father's day i gave the eulogy and i don't remember everything i said but i do remember saying that my brother eddy could light up a room with

his smile. >> why eddy? why not me? i would rather it me than eddy. i don't know why eddy and why not me. maybe just because -- i don't know. i just don't know. i can't answer this. >> thank you. >> you're welcome.

>> i would like to know the truth about the experiment. my understanding within this small group of twins that were separated and studied, there was more than one suicide. it's almost impossible just to be a coincidence. >> given eddy's mental illness,

who knows what's in their dna. >> if they have anything conclusive is it predicting anything in the future i want to know about i want to know about it. >> tlsz still so much we don't know. i have more questions than i have answers. >> some times you know what you didn't find out like with this story. >> well, i didn't get to the bot pom bottom of it. no one has.

that is why it is so tantalizing. >> here is the research i kept when i was writing about twins. it's been a while since i have had a look in this box. this is interesting. many cassettes. before he passed away i managed to talk to dr. newbower. he was reluctant. he had not ever spoken about it to my knowledge. >> let's see what he has to say. >> okay. i have got it on now. how did this study come about? >> i tell you, i would rather not speak about it. >> really?

why? >> when do you plan to pubbilis it? >> probably about a year or year and a half from now. >> he was elusive. he was protecting something. >> tell me a little bit about the scope of the study and how many people were involved in it. >> the study was only based on a small number of ie dendentical separated at birth for many many reasons. we don't want to talk about that now. we had to stop it because it was expensive. >> who was your primary support? >> some private foundation that got the money from washington. >> okay. >> private charities in washington. what does that sneen i don't know where their funding came

from. >> okay. thanks again for your time. >> i think that there's a great deal of sensitivity about that story. that's lot of powerful people that would like to have this story silenced. >> what happens in the study as far as you're aware? >> before newbower died he left all of the newpower placed it under -- so far as i know no body has been able to access it. >> what do we have here?

>> this is the yal ufrt web site and this is the child development center. 66 boxes filled with information. charts, films and tapes and research findings, home visits. that's a big one. it says that the dates of the study was from 1960 to 1980. i guess our reunion kind of closed the study. nchgs about access. the records are restricted until 2066. it's sealed. so they did all that they did to have this whole list tucked away in a dusty library somewhere where nobody could touch it. >> researchers wishing to use these records must secure

written authorization from jewish board of children and family services. >> the jewish board was apparent organization of the child had development center run by peter newpower. my understanding is they are a very very powerful organization with very deep political connections. >> thank you for calling jewish board of children and family services. >> hi. my name is david kellman. i was one of the subjects of the study run by the child development center. it is being kept at yale university. on their web side it said i would need permission to the board to gain access to the

records. the receptionist got me to you. >> okay. i'm not aware of when the study was. >> there have been a number of journalists and some of the twines have tried to gain access to this material. >> so far as i know they haven't been able to see the results of this study. >> is there a way i can go directly to someone that would be able to provide access to me as i was one of the subjects in a study? >> if anybody that has the right they should know what was lesh learned. >> i have no idea what wlo would be the one to ask right now. i would need to look into that. >> so you're the first line of

defense so to speak? >> i guess, yeah. >> okay. i'll send an e-mail to you the subject will be twin. >> peter newbower passed away and we don't know whaktly what they were looking for or what they found out. moving in together, it's a big step.

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willing to go on record about what was done. i was 24. this is essentially my first job. i had to be careful. you look just like your twin brother. i would have been fired ton son spot, right? it was a little bit temping. a little bit of temptation. it's like i know your dwitwin. i saw somebody a week ago that looks exactly like you. the question whether i feel guilty is interesting. i never felt a responsibility. i came on after this was

designed however i was a participant. you could say i was ethically compromised by that. in retro specific i think it was unethically wrong. i got some notes here. okay. >> these are my original notes. copies of psychologicals that i did. >> i had the triplets. >> here we go. >> i will not mention the name. he is a loud energetic boy. his need to establish his a ton

my shows off his intelligence and strength and putting down others including his parents. yeah. this one is eager to show off his new bicycle and new sports equipment while i filmed him. he was very intense in his play and got quite rough. hyper aggressiveness. okay. so apparently his parents are not cognizant of his problems for able to help him establish more appropriate control over his actions. so i didn't think the parents were very tuned into the struggles. >> what were the findings of the study? i have no idea because i left the study after ten months and

results were never published. all i have is my little tiny piece. it is a mystery. it is a huge loss, all of this is just buried in these archives. >> it's like some people have speculated that the purpose of this study, the ultimate purpose was looking at mental health. >> there was never a mention of the mental health of the biological parents while i was in the study. we were not interested in mental health. that's not what we were interested in. we were looking for differences in parenting. >> we want to understand parenting practices and how it

would effect development. so you're saying they were interested more in the family dynamics. they didn't know that. they didn't know how the family is going to interact with this newly adopted child. the only way they could possibly know about the family dynamics is if they already had a child placed in that family. >> another astonishing coincidence is that each of the brothers grew up in their families with an adopted sister. all of the girls now 21 years old. >> the triplets, they all had an older sibling. they were placed in families where there was an older adopted child. it was part of the design.

>> good to see you. >> good to see you. >> i just want to show you guys. >> what were the findings of the study? i have no idea because they were never published. we were looking for differences in parenting. we want to understand parenting practices and how it would effect the development of the triplets. they were placed in families where there was an older adopted child. it was part of the design. >> how do you feel watching

that? >> like a lab rat. it only just makes it -- i mean it -- >> that much worse. >> not just studying the kids but they are studying the parents. >> so they did in fact know the parenting tile of each parent. >> they knew exactly who they it was when they called and. >> in terps of how they parented

therapy. >> the three families were quite different. david's father stood out. there was nobody in the world like his son. he was so proud of him. whatever he did was wonderful. bobby's father was very busy as a doctor and didn't have the time to be with bobby that david's father had but was as devoted to him as possible. the most traditional was eddy's father. he was rather strict. he was the boss. he made the rules and eddy was supposed to follow. >> reporter: et di's -- it couldn't have been good.

that matters. >> what did you say? >> because otherwise i would have known and we would have seen him. eddy would have talked about him. just ok? is it fresh? sort of. the chef had it this morning. unfortunately he went home sick, but he left instructions with kyle! this fish is raw. do we need a minute? yes. just ok is not ok. especially when it comes to your network. at&t is america's best wireless network, according to america's biggest test. now with 5g e. more for your thing. that's our thing. we're more than just medium 1-topping pizzas for $5 each... we're $5 bone-out wings... $5 garlic knots... $5 desserts... we're all this. just $5 each. call. click. carry-out, or delivery. the $5 lineup.

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this was the last picture we ever have of edward. he was very gregarious. he got into all the things young boys do. he wrecked a car and a few things like that. but, i mean, occasionally i disciplined him. >> eddy and his dad were very different as people. eddy was more artsy kind of kid, you know. he wasn't into sports. elliot had a very strong militaristic kind of approach to life. very traditional. he was a teacher, he was all about punctuality. >> i was a strict disciplinarian. and my children, unfortunately, had me as a strict

disciplinarian too. >> eddy said he always sort of didn't feel like he fit in with his family. he always felt like -- like he went in the right place. >> how much did you have any sense that edward was unhappy? >> he didn't discuss his problems with me. we were a rather quiet family. we didn't tell our problems to one another. we protected each other. it was a nice family. >> some people are just not a

good fit. >> it wasn't his father's fault. elliot did what he believed to be best as a parent. they were just different people. >> i got the phone call from i believe it was bobby. and he told me to sit down. and i said, no need to. and he told me about it. and then, standing right there, i went over to my wife and told her edward had committed suicide. and we stood there for quite a while crying.

and that was it. i often wonder whether i didn't teach him something. because of the way he left. and maybe i didn't teach him something. how to live life or something. that bothers me occasionally. >> why did the boys' lives turn out completely different? i don't need to read any books, i don't need to read any studies.

i saw it firsthand. with those three boys. it's all about nurture. >> these three young men, they're all seated in the same position. >> we found a lot of similarities because that's what people were looking for. they smoked the same kind of cigarettes, you say, oh my god, they're smoking marlboros, what's amazing! what you're not looking for are their differences. >> i can't get over it. you all wrestled at one time? >> yes. >> yes. >> yes. >> we found the ways that we were alike and we emphasized them, and we wanted to be alike. we were falling in love with each other. >> i think there were superficialities.

they liked the same things, and they had similar interests. but deep down, they were different. >> they were not case study of biology being destiny. >> i've come to believe james and the environment are close competitors. you can say we drift in the direction our genes tell us to go. but it doesn't mean you are destined to be one person or another. >> i believe that i'm still here today because a foundation was given to me by my parents. i believe that absolutely made

the difference in terms of struggling with whatever demons i struggle with. >> i believe nature and nurture both matter. but i think nurture can overcome nearly everything. >> because the study's never been published, we simply don't

know definitively how many people's lives were separated in this fashion. >> there may be still twins out there that still don't know that they're twins. >> it -- there's probably at least four individuals who were subjects in the study who don't know that they have a twin. >> if they know that there are still twins out there that are missing out on life, it boggles the mind. >> there's two ways of thinking about it. these people really should know that there is a twin, or oh my god, these people should not know that they were used thus, it would make them so upset. maybe this is why the study cannot be published as yet. until they're gone. >> it really opens up the possibility anybody could just walk around the corner and discover that you have a twin out there.