You’ve Got a Friend in Me?! 4 Bizarre Friendships
This summer, mental_floss co-founder Mangesh Hattikudur read a book called Picking Cotton, the story of a college student named Jennifer Thompson who misidentified the man who raped her. A decade after his conviction, thanks to a DNA test, Ronald Cotton was exonerated. The real twist, however, is that against all odds, Thompson and Cotton are now close friends.
Thompson and Cotton aren’t alone. Here are four more pairs of pals and partners no one could have predicted:
1. Al and Jeanie Tomaini
Think you know an oddly-matched married couple? Nearly everyone does, but on the basis of looks alone, Al and Jeanie Tomaini take the cake. Al was a circus “giant,” measuring at least 7 feet, 4 inches. While performing, though, he claimed to be 8-foot-4, and who’s going to argue with a man of that stature about a foot here or there? He wore a size 22 shoe and toured as “The World’s Tallest Man,” but the Guinness Book of World Records disputes this title, awarding it instead to the 8-foot-11-inch man Robert Wadlow. Like Wadlow, Tomaini had an overactive pituitary gland that caused him to tower over his 6-foot-1 father.
Jeanie Smith, meanwhile, was billed by sideshow promoters as “the Only Living Half-Girl,” since she was only 2.5 feet tall; Jeanie was born with no legs, and her hands and arms were deformed. Despite these physical handicaps, her circus acts (initiated by her parents when she was 3 years old) featured numerous acrobatic feats. Smith and Tomaini met in the course of performing, and in 1936, while playing at a fair in Cleveland, they eloped. After their honeymoon, the Tomainis continued to tour as “The World’s Strangest Couple.”
Al’s height-accelerating medical condition also caused his early death, in August of 1962. Jeannie lived much longer, dying in 1999 on the anniversary of her daughter Judy’s adoption.
2. Pope John Paul II and Mehmet Ali Agca
OK, it might be a stretch to call these two “buddies.” But there’s no denying their close relationship was unique. In 1981, while he was allegedly on the payroll of Bulgarian intelligence, Agca attempted to assassinate the Pope at St. Peter’s Square in Rome. Although four of his bullets reached their mark, seriously wounding John Paul II, Agca was restrained by a nun and group of spectators and couldn’t finish the job or escape. Intensive emergency surgery saved the Pope’s life, and Agca was sentenced to life in prison in Italy.
Here’s where the story gets really weird, though: most of us would have no pity for a hired political killer, even one who was sent to jail for life. But from his hospital bed, the Pope asked his fellow Catholics to pray for Agca, “whom I have sincerely forgiven.” In 1983, the pontiff famously visited his near-assassin in prison to further extend his sentiment of forgiveness and reconciliation. Indeed, the Pope would later say he believed the hand of the Virgin Mary had deflected the bullet that would have killed him.
When John Paul fell seriously ill in 2005, Agca reportedly sent a letter to his onetime target. The letter has not been published, but unconfirmed sources have said it wished him well while also warning of the forthcoming end of the world. More recently, the Italian press has reported that Agca wants to be publicly baptized in St. Peter’s Square, as a tribute to “the most respectable and kind-hearted human being of the 21st century.” Owing to a pardon from the Italian government in 2000, this may be possible, at least once Mehmet is released from a Turkish prison for a different murder he committed in the seventies.
3. David Wilson and David Wilson
Meeting someone who shares your name may be a surprise, but it’s not that rare, especially when you have a name like David Wilson. But what if you share more than just a name? David Wilson, a 28-year-old filmmaker from New Jersey, found that with David Wilson, a 62-year-old BBQ restaurant owner from North Carolina, shared a link to the most disturbing facet of America’s past.
Working with genealogist Nancy Carter, the younger Wilson found out that his family had belonged for generations to the Wilsons, a wealthy plantation family in North Carolina. It was then that the young filmmaker made “the most awkward [phone] call I ever experienced in my life.” He called the older Wilson, who was still living on one of his ancestor’s rural plantations, and said point-blank what he had found out. With a cameraman in tow, the New Jersey David traveled south, ultimately making a TV documentary about his journey to understand the past and present state of race relations.
Since the documentary Meeting David Wilson came out last year, the two David Wilsons have remained good friends, exchanging cards before the holidays and talking two or three times every month.
4. James Carville and Mary Matalin
It sounds like a romance straight out of The West Wing: liberal political consultant works for one presidential candidate; conservative political consultant works for his opponent; they meet; they meet a couple more times; they start dating; the campaign ends, and they start a family together.
The story of James Carville and Mary Matalin is perfect for television. Naturally, nearly all of it has been broadcast—they were top aides to Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, respectively, during the 1992 campaign, meaning that both were constantly in the spotlight. To this day, nothing much has changed: you’ve probably seen them debating politics on one of the countless cable-news roundtables or Sunday-morning shows. As Matalin puts it, “Not every guy has a wife who calls him a serpenthead — or worse — in front of a couple of million people.”
But what happens at the end of the day (or, more likely, the end of the news cycle), when the couple returns to their home in New Orleans? Supposedly, they try their best to keep politics away from the dinner table. “We know not to bring up political issues,” Carville told Fast Company. “It’s like some people’s mother-in-law. The subject comes up and generally you’re worse off for having the conversation.”
