These triplets were separated immediately after birth, all for the sake of a social experiment (11 photos)

These triplets were separated immediately after birth, all for the sake of a social experiment.

Robert Shafran, Eddie Galland and David Kellman grew up thinking they were only children - until they learned the incredible truth.

This story started out as a creepy coincidence, but then it became something even stranger.

Robert Shafran went to college in New York City, and on his first day he encountered a lot of people clapping, hugging and kissing him... and calling him Eddie.

It wasn't until he met his roommate, Michael Domitz, that everything became clear.

It turned out that Michael had previously shared a room with Eddie Galland, a guy who walked, talked, looked and acted exactly like Robert.

“He had the same smile, the same hair, the same expression - it was his double,” Domitz said.

It didn't take long to establish that the two were brothers separated at birth, both adopted and born on July 12 on Long Island in 1961.

This unique story caught the attention of the local press - and then things got even stranger.

Over time, another one appeared who looked exactly the same - David Kelman from Queens. Long separated, the twins actually turned out to be triplets.

The guys discovered that they had a lot in common.

They smoked the same brand of cigarettes, all liked Italian food and preferred older women.

But the story was much more complicated.

The boys soon discovered that they had been deliberately separated at birth, an experiment conducted by a New York psychiatrist named Peter Neubauer.

They weren't the only ones in the doctor's sights: he separated dozens of newborn twins, scattering them among their families, so that he could further study their upbringing like laboratory rats.

The triplets were actually born as quadruplets, but the fourth brother died. The three survivors were placed with an adoption agency called Louise Wise Services.

Dr. Neubauer then suddenly had an idea to study the theory of “Nature versus nurture.”

The adoptive parents of each of the babies were never told that the boys were separated triplets; the parents were only told that their children were part of a study in child development.

And all these families were also not randomly selected. After all, in each of them, when one of the twins was adopted, there was an adopted daughter about 2 years old.

The triplets were closely monitored throughout their lives, although their parents were unaware of the existence of other siblings.

Once a year, each family brought the boys to Manhattan for examinations to analyze their intelligence, behavior and personality.

Every stage of their lives, from first words to learning to ride a bicycle, was documented, and psychologists spent hours watching videos of the children playing with toys and talking, as well as interviewing their parents and older sisters. .

Claire Kellman, David's adoptive mother, said he seemed to feel something.

She shared, “David started talking very early. “I remember him waking up and saying, ‘I have a brother.’ ... It later turned out that all the boys showed symptoms of separation anxiety during their infancy, but it all seemed like something from a past life.”

When the boys finally found each other, the families were furious, but legally nothing could be done.

Robert says: “Our first meeting was just complete surrealism. As soon as we met together, there was a joy that I had never experienced before in my life, and this lasted for a very long time.”

The brothers transferred to the same course and moved in together.

Robert was later found guilty of manslaughter after a robbery in which he participated resulted in the beating of an 83-year-old woman to death.

I am a woman.

True, he was lucky, since the court ruled that his participation in this case was minimal, sentencing him to five years of community service in an orphanage for the disabled.

After they reunited, the trio worked as waiters on New York's Lower East Side before opening a restaurant in SoHo called Triplets.

However, over the years, tensions increased and at 33, Eddie, suffering from depression, committed suicide.

Robert quit the restaurant and retrained to become a lawyer, while David became an insurance agent.

Nancy Segal, professor of psychology and author of Accidental Brothers, met with Dr. Neubauer before his death.

She said: “What struck me most was that he showed no remorse for what he did. He still thought he did the right thing."

Nancy says Dr. Neubauer's research has shown that "genes have a more profound influence than we thought." Adding that most separated twins "end up being very similar."