The parents, and then the government, turned the lives of the five-legged Dion brothers into a cynical reality show. They made millions by turning them into exhibits and guinea pigs, but when the public interest faded, the sisters were left with irreparable mental trauma and a shattered life.
The five-legged Dion sisters were born on May 28, 1934, on a farm near the village of Corbeil, Ontario, Canada.
Their birth was an incredible event and a global phenomenon as they were the first quintuplets born in the world.
The five girls were born seven months old and were pregnant in 3 bags.
The newspapers paid huge sums for their photos as it was a medical miracle of the time and all eyes were on them.
Shortly after their birth, their father agreed to appear at the World’s Fair in Chicago, which would bring a lot of money to the Dion family.
The Canadian government intervened, claiming that their parents were unable to raise them, and took custody of the girls when they were 9 months old.
They grew up with medical staff in a special environment, called Quintland, where the girls literally lived like guinea pigs.
The quintuplets were monitored by medical examinations and only came in contact with medical staff, while tourists went to the clinic to see them through the windows.
The girls quickly became a popular tourist attraction, attracting thousands of visitors from all over the world. Souvenirs were even made – dolls, cereals and toothpastes – depicting them.
It is estimated that their popularity directly contributed half a billion dollars to the Ontario economy and saved it from bankruptcy.
When the sisters were 9 years old, the parents regained custody, but the exploitation continued.
When they became adults, the girls wanted to take their lives into their own hands and opposed everyone. They had not seen a single dollar from all the exploitation they had suffered.
The lives of the five brothers never became normal and they all suffered from mental trauma of a lost childhood.
They lived isolated from everyone. Three of them died, Emily in 1954 at the age of 20 from a seizure, Marie in 1979 at the age of 45 from a stroke, Yvonne in 2001 at the age of 67 from cancer.
To this day only two of the sisters survive, surviving on little money and little contact with the rest of the world.
