From Rosolino to the circus
Francesco A. Lentini was born on May 18, 1881, in Rosolino, Italy, with a third full-sized leg extending from the right side of his body. By the early 1890s he was in the United States and soon appeared as “The Great Lentini” with P. T. Barnum, Ringling Brothers, and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
He married Theresa S. Murray of Massachusetts. Their children were Josephine “Jennie” in 1909 in Scotland, Natale in 1917 in Connecticut, Frank in 1920 in Connecticut, and James in 1922 in Pennsylvania.
Wethersfield address and a place kick
From 1926 to 1938 Lentini and his family lived in Wethersfield. On April 29, 1926, Frank and Theresa purchased 181 Brimfield Road. The 1930 U.S. Census listed the family in town and recorded his occupation as circus performer.
In the fall of 1931, while boys played touch football near the Brimfield Road home, Lentini kicked the ball with his third leg. Dick Lasher, a local schoolmate of Frank Jr., recalled the place kick.
Stage work and a printed pitchbook
Lentini performed across the country and in Europe. In Hartford on October 19 and 20, 1928, the Allyn Theater billed “Lentini and Company” alongside Major Del Bert, Ruth Duncan, an orchestra, and the Three Lido Boys. Sources describe his condition as a partially absorbed conjoined twin that included a pelvis, a rudimentary set of male genitalia, a full-sized extra leg with a small foot, a total of sixteen toes, and two sets of functioning male organs.
Lentini said he could run, ride, skate, drive, and swim using the extra limb as a rudder. He often wore a raincoat in public to conceal the limb. His act included audience questions. He sold a pitchbook titled “The Life History of Francesco A. Lentini, Three Legged Wonder” that mixed autobiography with notes on health and sex education.
Later years and records
On October 20, 1937, Frank transferred the Brimfield Road property to Theresa for one dollar in a document executed in Santa Barbara. In 1938 the Home Owners Loan Corporation foreclosed. Through the 1940s and 1950s he continued to appear on sideshow bills, including Coney Island.
Accounts place him in Florida in later years, with neighbors recalling a cottage in the Miami area and others citing a residence in Gibsonton. A Tennessee death certificate recorded his death in Jackson on September 21, 1966, at age 77, listing his usual residence as Uleta, Florida, and his occupation as showman with Cliff Wilson Shows.
Francesco A. Lentini was born May 18, 1881, in Rosolini, Italy, with a third full-sized leg.
Billed as “The Great Lentini,” he toured widely and later lived at 181 Brimfield Road in Wethersfield, where a 1931 touch-football game featured a place kick from his extra limb…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/eJvHeyy7en
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) August 23, 2025