Mr. Ballin (7:06)

Our next story is called Drunk.

Narrator (7:21)

In October of 2014, a 35 year old woman who we'll call Olivia, met her husband for lunch at a restaurant in western New York. The couple had not originally planned to stay at this restaurant for very long, but one thing led to another. They were having a nice time. And before long it was 6pm and they had been there for six hours. And over those six hours, both of them had had a lot to eat, lots of bread and pasta and cakes and all sorts of stuff. And they had had some alcohol, but not very much. Olivia had been careful to only have four drinks over those six hours because she wanted to be able to drive. And her husband similarly limited his drinking so he'd be safe to drive. And so after they got the check and they paid for their meal, they both hopped in their respective cars and they began driving home. As Olivia was making her way home, she unfortunately got a flat tire. And so she pulled off to the side of the road. And she called roadside assistance. As she was waiting for help to show up, another motorist happened to drive by. And they misunderstood what was happening. They saw Olivia standing outside of her car with the tire popped off, and they thought she'd been in an accident. And so they called the police and reported it. And so the police show up a few minutes later. They pull up right behind Olivia, and when they get out, they ask her, you know, are you okay? Do you need any help? And she would say, oh, no, I just had a flat tire. I'm totally fine. You know, thank you for stopping, though. But the police, as they're listening to her speak, they see her eyes look kind of glassy and glazed over, like she's drunk. And as she was speaking, they could have sworn she was slurring her words. And so they said, hey, ma'am, have you been drinking tonight? And she would tell them that, well, yeah, I have had a few drinks, but only four over the last six hours, and I don't feel drunk at all. That has nothing to do with the situation I'm in now. I'm not drunk. But the police were not buying it, and so they put her through a series of field sobriety tests that she managed to get through, but she struggled with enough that it sent up some red flags. And so they made her blow into a breathalyzer. A breathalyzer is a device that uses your breath to register how much alcohol is in your system, also known as your blood alcohol content, or BAC for short. BAC is scored as a percentage out of 100. And while no one should ever get behind the wheel of a vehicle if they are impaired, it is the case that in America, you are allowed legally to operate a vehicle if your BAC is.08% or lower. For reference, if a 160 pound female consumed about three alcoholic drinks, maybe a little bit more, or in the course of an hour, she would Most likely have a.08% BAC. If that same 160 pound female were to consume, let's say, eight alcoholic drinks over the course of an hour, she would definitely not be allowed to legally operate a vehicle because she would be very, very drunk, her BAC would have spiked to 0.2%, which would put her in the range where she would most likely have alcohol poisoning, and eventually she would most likely lose consciousness. If this same 160 pound female were to consume 13 alcoholic drinks over the course of an hour, her BAC would jump all the way up to 0.4% where she's not just drunk and unable to operate a vehicle at that level. You're talking about potentially dying from consuming that much alcohol. When Olivia blew into this breathalyzer, she fully expected that she would be below the.08% legal limit, because after all, she'd only had four alcoholic drinks over a six hour period, and so that would put her well below that legal limit. But that was not the case. She blew a staggering 0.33%. The cops couldn't believe what they were looking at, because they're looking at Olivia and they're thinking, at that level, she should be somewhere between losing consciousness and dying. But here she is just standing there talking to us, acting a little bit buzzed. And so they assumed their breathalyzer must have made a mistake, so they went back into their car, got another breathalyzer, did it again and again. Olivia blew a 0.33% BAC. The officers couldn't understand how this woman had such an extreme alcohol tolerance. But regardless, they charged her with driving while intoxicated and then brought her to the hospital for medical intervention. There, her BAC remained high even after a full day had passed without her consuming any more alcohol. This is around the time that it was discovered that Olivia had a very, very rare medical condition called auto brewery syndrome, which in a nutshell meant her body transformed glucose from foods to specifically carbs, like bread, pasta, that kind of thing, into alcohol. Olivia, who was totally unaware of this condition, had developed this wicked alcohol tolerance because she was basically drunk all the time. Not because she was a heavy drinker, but because she ate carbs. This condition, if left untreated, can do the same damage alcoholism and binge drinking can do to the body. The only way you can treat it is by drastically changing your diet. When Olivia's condition was discovered and made public, the charges against her were dropped and she would go on to just stop eating carbs altogether.

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Mr. Ballin (14:24)

I which means no more midnight snacks.

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Mr. Ballin (15:28)

The next and final story of today's episode is called Identical Strangers.

Narrator (15:49)

In 1980, Bobby Shaffrin was on his way up to Sullivan County Community College, which is two hours outside of New York City, to begin his freshman year. Even though he was from the area, he didn't know anybody that was going to this particular school and so he was pretty nervous about it. Plus, he wasn't that popular in high school and he had a hard time making friends. When he pulled into a parking spot at the school, he saw a sea of people getting out of their parents cars and carrying boxes up to their dorm rooms. And so he took a deep breath, hopped out of his car, grabbed his backpack and began walking across the lawn towards the dorm building. On his walk over, Bobby was surprised when he felt like all these random strangers on the lawn were looking at him like they knew him. And a couple people yelled out to him and said, hey, it's good to have you back here. And one girl actually ran up to him and kissed him on the cheek and said, oh, my gosh, I'm so happy you're back. And Bobby said, I think you got the wrong person. I. I don't know you. And she laughed and she just ran away. And so Bobby's totally bewildered by this because he doesn't know anybody, but everybody seems to know him. And so he walks up the steps and he goes inside the dorm building. And as he's walking down the hall, people are high fiving him and patting him on the back. And then right as he's about to turn the corner towards his actual dorm room, someone down the hall behind him yells out, hey, Eddie, what's going on, man? And Bobby knew whoever it was was yelling at him. Because this whole situation had been so weird. He felt like this had to be a case of mistaken identity. And so Bobby turned around, and he saw at the other end of the hall, another student who he didn't know, clearly waving at him and yelling out, hey, Eddie, come here. What's going on, man? And so Bobby walks up to him and says, hey, I'm not Eddie. I don't know what's going on, but everybody thinks I'm somebody that I'm not, But I'm not Eddie. Who's Eddie? And the guy said, yeah, okay, Eddie, it's good to have you back here, man. And then walked off. And so Bobby's like, what is going on here? And so Bobby turns and he goes back up to his dorm room, and he goes inside, and he just shuts the door. And he's thinking, I just want to be left alone for a second, because this is just. This is not right. This is not how a freshman who doesn't know anyone gets welcomed at any school or any place in the world. This is totally unusual. And just a couple of minutes after being inside of his dorm room, he hears a knock on the door. And Bobby's like, oh, great. Who is it now? Who is it that thinks I'm someone I'm not? So he opens the door, and there's another student who he doesn't know who's standing there. And this guy, his face just drains of color, and he starts shaking when he sees Bobby. And they're Both looking at each other like, what's going on here? And the student says to Bobby, were you adopted? And Bobby said, yeah. And then the student said, is your birthday July 12th? And Bobby said, yeah. And so the student goes, okay, my name is Michael, and I am best friends with a guy named Eddie Galland. And you are his clone. You have got to be his identical twin. At this point, to Bobby, this almost made sense, but it was so crazy to imagine having some identical twin he didn't know about. And so Bobby asked Michael if he could go meet Eddie because he's got to be a student here. And Michael said, well, actually, Eddie decided not to come back to school this year, which is probably why everyone you talk to was so excited to see you, because they love Eddie and they thought you were him, and so they're psyched to have you back. After talking for a couple of minutes, Michael tells Bobby that they have to go call Eddie, and they have to set up a meeting so that Bobby can meet Eddie and vice versa. And so Michael and Bobby run outside to a payphone booth. They hop inside, they're crammed in there, and they dial up Eddie. And as soon as Eddie answers, Bobby grabs the phone and just says, hey, Eddie, my name's Bobby. And everybody thinks I'm you. And then Eddie says, yeah, I've been getting a lot of calls about that, too. And Bobby would later say that when he first heard Eddie's voice, he said it sounded like his own voice coming through the phone. And so, ultimately, Eddie invited Bobby and Michael to come to his house so that Eddie and Bobby could see if it really was true that they were twins. And so Michael and Bobby hopped in Bobby's car, and they sped two hours to Eddie's house. And when they got there, it was the middle of the night. And Eddie's house is the only house in this quiet suburb that has all the lights on. And so Michael and Bobby walk up the path towards the front door of Eddie's house, and right as Bobby is about to knock on the door, it flies open and. And standing in front of Bobby is his exact clone. It's Eddie. And Eddie's looking back at Bobby, and he can't believe what he's looking at. They are definitely identical twins. And they both immediately saw that Michael would say, after Bobby and Eddie just stared at each other for about a minute, they just started laughing. It was like they were total strangers, but at the same time, they had this connection. Immediately they knew they were related, and they were laughing, and they hugged and they. And they just stared at each other. And Michael said anytime Bobby would tilt his head, Eddie would mimic it, and vice versa. It was like they were looking into a mirror. Shortly after, this story of these two long lost brothers reconnecting found its way to Newsday, which was a prominent local newspaper in New York. And they decided they would look into it to see if it was really true or not. And so one of the editors had a junior reporter fly out and actually see Bobby and Eddie face to face and see if it was really true that they were in fact, identical twins. And as soon as this reporter saw them, they knew immediately that, yep, they're related. And so Newsday printed this totally heartwarming fairy tale story about these two long lost brothers reconnected after all these years just because of a chance encounter in college. And everybody loved it. But this is where the story went from amazing to truly unbelievable. Friends of another young man living in the New York area named David Kelman began telling David that he had to check out this Newsday article about these long lost twins, because these two twins look exactly like David. Specifically, they said, you gotta look at these guys hands. They are just like yours, David. David was known for having these enormous hands. And a lot of the pictures of Bobby and Eddie in the news showed their hands, and they too were enormous. And so David finally picked up a newspaper and looked at a picture of Bobby and Eddie. And sure enough, he was shocked. They looked exactly like him. And then when he read the article, it showed their birthday was July 12, the same as his. And they were born at the same hospital he was born at. And so he's thinking, these are too many coincidences. They have to be my brothers. And so David called Eddie's home phone number and Eddie's mother picked up and she asked who was calling. And David said, hi, my name is David Kelman. I was born July 12, 1961. And I'm looking at a newspaper article of two identical twins that look just like me. And one of them is your son. I think I'm the missing third twin. After hearing this, Eddie's mom apparently dropped the phone and yelled out, they're coming out of the woodwork. So Eddie and Bobby went to David's house, and as soon as they walked in and saw David, they knew right away he was one of them. He was the third twin. And apparently within minutes of meeting each other, they were wrestling and laughing hysterically on the ground. It was like even though they were strangers, they somehow already knew each other and had an Instant connection. David's family members that witnessed this first interaction said it was the most incredible thing they had ever seen. That it was just so wonderful to see these long lost siblings finally reconnected after all these years. Shortly after David realized he was the third missing twin, David Newsday did another story talking about how there was actually three missing twins that had all been reconnected. And once again, it was just this incredible Cinderella story. And now this story went all over the world. They were on the COVID of every magazine, every newspaper, they were on every talk show. And everybody had the same question. What similarities did they discover? And they would say, well, we all wrestled in junior high school and high school. We all smoked the same cigarettes, we liked the same food, we had the same taste in women. And on talk shows, when they would answer these questions, it was immediately clear that they all shared the same mannerisms. And on the show, they would routinely interrupt each other and finish each other's sentences. It really was like they were the exact same person. Despite having been raised completely separate from one another, the boys loved the attention they were getting. They had become international rock stars overnight. And all three of them were immediately so close. They were best friends right away. They moved into an apartment together. They went out partying. They met Madonna. It was just this incredible time in their lives. And so they weren't asking questions about why they had been separated in the first place, but their parents were asking a lot of questions because they had not been told by the adoption agency that the boy they were adopting actually had two identical siblings. They had no idea. So the boy's adoptive parents reached out to the adoption agency, which was Louise Wise Services Jeff, based in New York, very prestigious, Basically, the most powerful and wealthy people in New York use this adoption agency if they're going to adopt. And so the parents reached out to them and asked for a meeting so they could get some answers as to why their kids have been separated. And so the parents go to New York. They go into this meeting room with the top brass of Louise Wise Services, and they say, you know, did you separate our sons at birth on purpose? And one of the executives said, yes, we did, because it's really hard to place three children into one home. At which point, David's adoptive father lashed out and said, that's absolute B.S. if you had told me he had two identical siblings, I would have taken all three. But the agency stood by their decision and said, that's the only reason it happened. And so, sorry, that's all we can tell you. And so the parents were very frustrated and felt like there was much more to the story. And in fact, they felt like the agency was actually lying to them about why they had separated their sons in the first place. But they couldn't get any more information, so they left the agency. And right when they got outside, Bobby's father realized he had left his umbrella inside of the meeting room. And so he turned around, went back inside, walked down the hall quietly, so he didn't want to disturb anyone. Then he opened the door to the meeting room, and he reached in to get his umbrella, and he looked inside, and he saw the people he had just met with from Louise Wise Services, had just opened a bottle of champagne, and they were laughing and smiling, and they were clearly toasting each other on a job well done. And even though Bobby's father did not go in there and confront them about what they were celebrating, he got the sense that they were celebrating having dodged a bullet, that they clearly had just lied to the families of these three triplets, and they'd gotten away with it. And so between the parents, general sense that the agency was clearly hiding something. And then Bobby discovering this champagne toast. As soon as they left, the parents decided they needed to get in touch with some lawyers to help them get to the bottom of why their sons had been separated. And so, initially, a number of really prestigious law firms in New York were excited to take this case. But shortly after, they all contacted the families to say, well, actually, there's a conflict, and we can't do it anymore. And the parents believed this was because the adoption agency, Louise Wise Services, and some of their more prominent and powerful clients were pressuring the lawyers not to dig into this, that clearly there was some secret that they did not want uncovered. And so, unfortunately, the parents hit a dead end and didn't know where else to turn to try to get more information. And so over time, they kind of just accepted that this is just the way it is. And as for their sons, they didn't really care that much, because the way they looked at it, at least they had each other now. And so over the years, the boys continued to stay really close. They started families of their own and had lots of family get togethers. It was just a really happy time in all of their lives. And at some point, the boys actually went into business together and opened their own restaurant in New York called Triplets. And the first year, it was extremely successful, did over a million dollars in revenue. But in the second year, the brothers started to fight with each other about how to run the restaurant. And in many ways, this was their first major conflict. They hadn't grown up together, they had never really fought. And so now they're fighting over money and how to run the business. And it got really bad, really quick, and they just could not come to any sort of compromise. And so at some point, Bobby left the business. He said, I don't want to do this with you guys anymore. And apparently his departure just completely ruined the dynamic. Of the three brothers, Eddie was the most affected by this fracture in their relationships. All he wanted was for his brothers to be really close and for their families to spend time together. And now all of that was in jeopardy. And so Eddie started showing signs of severe depression and was ultimately hospitalized for three weeks. And then shortly after getting out of the hospital, he took his own life. This was beyond devastating for the two brothers and the rest of their family. Around this time, a journalist named Lawrence Wright, who had always had a fascination with identical twins, found an obscure scientific article called Psychoanalytic Study of the Child. It detailed a New York based study about identical twins that were intentionally separated at birth and then given to different adoptive families to be studied. Although it wasn't clear what they were actually studying or why they needed identical twins to do this research. In this article, Lawrence discovered all the babies that had been used in the study came from the same adoption agency, the same one the triplets had come from, the Louise Wise Services in New York. And so Lawrence called Bobby and told him that based on this article, it seems like he and his brothers were used in a scientific study. Bobby and David were totally furious. They felt like they'd been treated like lab rats. They also wondered if their being separated at birth had a negative impact on their mental health and that that might have contributed to Eddie's depression and untimely death. Lawrence wound up writing an article about this twin study he had discovered. And after he published it, another set of twins found out they had been a part of the study and discovered themselves. These two women were also struggling with depression, furthering the idea that the study could have led to irreparable harm to their subject's mental well being. At this point, David and Robbie did not expect anybody to be held accountable for this study. Instead, they just hoped to find out why it was done and what they were testing for and what the results were. And so they began working with Lawrence to try to get those answers. They contacted Louise Wise Services, who did admit that, yes, actually this was part of a study, but they didn't get any Information about what the results were or why they did it. And so they did some digging and they discovered the guy in charge of the actual scientific study was this doctor named Peter Neubauer, who was this very well known psychologist in New York. And so Lawrence managed to get an interview with this doctor, but the doctor basically said, I won't answer any of your questions and I won't give you any information about this study. And he never published his findings. Right before the doctor died in 2008, he made sure the entire study was put under seal inside of the Yale University archives so no one could access it until 2066, which has led many people to believe that the reason he said it so far out was to guarantee all of these subjects in this study would have died by the time it was made publicly available. Protecting his own legacy and the people that were involved in this study. In the recent documentary called Three Identical Strangers, Dr. Neubauer's personal assistant, a woman by the name of Natasha Josephowitz, she was interviewed and they asked her, you know, can you shed any light on why this study was done, what they were testing for, and what the results were? And she would say that she was not actually part of the study. She was more on the periphery, but she was privy to what they were doing. And she said the point of the study was to finally put to bed whether it was nature or nurture that made the person who they ultimately become basically, are your surroundings the thing that ultimately makes you who you become, or is it just your genetic makeup that you're predestined to become a particular person independent of how you were raised? And she said the results were incredible. That basically it has nothing to do with nurture. It's all about your genetic makeup. That we unconsciously trend towards specific behaviors and decisions. But we believe it's free will. We believe we're choosing to do certain things, but in reality, it's basically predetermined. And specifically in the triplets case, Bobby was intentionally placed into a more affluent household where his father was a doctor and his mother was a lawyer. And so they were very well educated, and that was his upbringing. Eddie was placed into a more middle class family with his father being a teacher and his mom being a stay at home mother. And David was put into a low income household where they were all immigrants, English was a second language, and they just had this very small shop that they owned. And Natasha said this study demonstrated that despite these boys being put into different socioeconomic levels, it had almost no impact on who they ultimately became. She said she doesn't know why the study wasn't published, but she hopes someday it will be. Also in this documentary, a doctor named Lawrence Perlman, who was actually one of the researchers in the study that would actually make house visits to each of the boys houses as they were growing up under the false pretext that they were there as part of routine follow up for the adoption agency. And he went on record and said that the study was not just about the effects of socioeconomic class, it was really about the effects of different styles of parenting. He said in the triplets case, each of the boys have been placed into their respective households after that household had already adopted another child. And that first child they adopted effectively became the guinea pig for this study where scientists would come in and they would study this child under the false pretext that they were there just following up for the adoption agency. But really they were creating a baseline of how do these parents parent. And then once that baseline was established, then the triplets were sent into their respective homes with the researchers knowing full well how they were each going to be brought up, with the adoptive father being the X factor. Bobby's father, who was a doctor, was rarely around, but he was devoted and loving to his son. David's father, who was the shop owner, was around all the time and adored his son and loved him unconditionally. Eddie's father was a teacher who was around a fair amount, but when he was, he was very strict and rough with Eddie and quick to discipline him and rarely showed any affection for him. And while Dr. Perlman does not come out and say that Eddie's relationship with his father probably had an effect on him becoming depressed and ultimately taking his life. There are many other people close to this case that believe that's exactly what it was, that David and Bobby had a stable, healthy upbringing and Eddie did not. And so when he was faced with the crisis of the brothers separating, Eddie couldn't handle it. These same people refute what Natasha said about the findings of the study that were all genetically predisposed to become a particular person. They say, if that was the case, then why haven't David and Bobby taken their lives? But ultimately, because the study was never published, we won't know for sure why it was done, what they studied and what the conclusions were. All we have is, is speculation and second and third hand information. But what we do know for sure is these surviving triplets and their families are furious that this study was done. They feel like it ruined their lives. Following the release of the documentary, three identical strangers, Bobby and David, were actually granted early access to the study that was sealed inside of Yale University. And when they looked at it, they were expecting to be blown away with the results. But it turned out it was over 10,000 pages of very technical information and much of it was heavily redacted, so they couldn't even read most of it. They were not able to deduce what the purpose of the study was in the first place or what it accomplished. It was just all very ambiguous. This study was ultimately shut down permanently in 1980, the same year the triplets discovered themselves. As for the adoption agency, Louise Wise Services and all the scientists and researchers involved in the study, none of them were held accountable for their role in this totally unethical study. And so basically everything was swept under the rug. And so Bobby, David, and all of the family members of the triplets were just left with a whole bunch of questions and not a lot of answers.

Sponsor Voice (36:13)

A quick note about our stories.

Mr. Ballin (36:15)

They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are.

Sponsor Voice (36:22)

Fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

Mr. Ballin (36:29)

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studio's podcasts, this podcast, the Mr. Ballin podcast, and also Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run fool and Redacted. Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts to find all of these shows. To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's gonna do it.

Sponsor Voice (37:01)

I really appreciate your support.

Mr. Ballin (37:02)

Until next time. See y.

Additional Voice (37:16)

Foreign.

Mr. Ballin (37:21)

Hey prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.

Sponsor Voice (37:32)

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Mr. Ballin (37:34)

About yourself by completing a short survey@wondry.com.

Additional Voice (37:37)

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