If you are reading this, chances are you are familiar with at least the bare essentials of the life and death of Julia Pastrana, the Bear Woman...
However, in 2005, I came across information about this lady that is totally incongruous with what has been written of her last days.
The good news is you don't have to take my word for it. It's available for all to see at the official website of the genealogical records of the Mormon church at http://www.familysearch.org
Here's what I discovered there:
Fairchild Lent was born 1830 in New York.
He married Julia Fairchild Pastrana in 1859 in New York
Julia Pastrana / Julia Fairchild Pastrana was born 1832 in Sinaloa, Mexico
and died in 1860
Fairchild Lent (Jr.) was born in 1860 in Moscow, Russia
Father: Fairchild Lent
Mother: Julia Fairchild Pastrana
Fairchild Lent (Jr.) was married in 1880 in London, England
Zenora Fairchild Lent was born 1866 in Moscow, Russia
Father: Fairchild Lent
Mother: Julia Fairchild Pastrana
So, here's what I think may have happened.
Julia wants to start a family and get out of show business. Her husband on the other hand is loathe to lose his breadwinner. A scheme is concocted whereby Julia and her newborn child are announced to have died. Lent has a Professor Suckalov create a likeness of Julia and later of the child and the gaffs are then exhibited as the preserved bodies of the dead mother and child. Lent tours with the corpses and makes his money while Julia is happy to be out of the spotlight and raises her little family in total obscurity.
Sounds a bit far-fetched, I know, but then think about this:
1) How to explain the genealogical records that fit perfectly with the known facts of Julia's life? Note: the records say she died in 1860 and then go on to say she had another child in 1866. Indicating the record of her death was faked. 2) Look at illustrations of Julia done when she was alive, then look at the photos of the "embalmed" Julia. They're not the same person. In fact the post- mortem Julia looks like it was modeled after the posters used to advertise her, with the tiny waist and posed as a dancer.
3) The report of Julia's death is surrounded by a bunch of hokum. "Into the ear of a passing princess she whispered her own pathetic epitaph: 'I die happy, for I know that I have been loved for myself.' " Yeah, right and Zip said on his deathbed "Well, we fooled 'em a long time." Makes for a good story, though.
4) When the dead Julia was first seen there is no report of her embalmed child alongside her. He shows up later. Take a look at him. Does that look like a newborn?
5) In their book "Julia Pastrana: The Tragic Story of the Victorian Ape Woman" authors Gylseth and Toverud say this (footnote 6, Chap. 6):
"Julia was claimed to have been embalmed, yet in her current state appears at some time to have been stuffed, at least in part, with the easily observable evidence of wood-wool or batting bulging out at various points of her worn anatomy. Was Julia first embalmed, and later partly stuffed? How does an embalmed corpse obtain the rigidity needed to be displayed without any visible support, standing, as Julia was observed to have been, from the earliest days of her posthumous career, at least from 1862 onwards? All this is further evidence that many mysteries regarding Julia remain to be solved."