Minnie Woolsey was born around 1880 in Rabun County, Georgia, with a condition no one at the time knew how to name.
Historians believe she had Seckel syndrome, a genetic disorder so rare that it is still the subject of medical study today. It causes microcephaly, extremely short stature, and very distinctive facial features: a recessed jaw, a prominent nose, and a complete absence of teeth. Minnie was also bald and had a severe visual impairment, almost total blindness.
A traveling-show entrepreneur discovered her and turned her into a sideshow attraction under the name ‘Minnie Ha Ha’. Years later, director Tod Browning brought her to Hollywood for his film Freaks (1932), where she was immortalized as Koo-Koo, the Bird Girl. No one knows for certain when she died: records place her alive after 1960, and then, total silence.
