Three Identical Strangers is an amazing documentary that plays like the best of fictional detective stories.

The story begins in 1980 when 19-year-old Robert (Bobby) Shafran begins college in a small town in upstate New York. Greeted by many young people on campus as “Eddy,” it is obvious that he is being mistaken for someone else. A friend of “Eddy” (Eddy Galland) deduces that Bobby is Eddy’s twin and that the two must have been separated at birth. They arrange an immediate meeting at Eddy’s house on Long Island. The story makes headlines in the local newspapers where David Kellman sees it and realizes that he is also Eddy and Bobby’s double. The overnight twins are now overnight triplets. Raised in different New York City suburbs, one (Eddy) is well off, one (Bobby) is middle-class, and one (David) is from a struggling family of immigrants. All three knew that they were adopted as infants but neither they nor their adopted parents were aware of any family relationships.

The boys became instant celebrities who were invited on every extant TV talk show. They moved together into an apartment in Greenwich Village where they became part of the New York party scene and eventually opened a popular restaurant of their own in the city. Despite their euphoria, however, there were questions that the boys’ adoptive parents wanted answers to.

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