Krao Farini

Krao Farini (1876 – 16 April 1926) was a sideshow performer born in what is now Laos, then part of the northern Rattanakosin Kingdom, with hypertrichosis, a rare condition characterized by excessive hair growth. After being taken from Southeast Asia as a child, she was adopted by the Canadian-born showman William Leonard Hunt, known professionally as Guillermo Antonio Farini, who exhibited her throughout North America and Europe. Farini was promoted as the "Missing Link" between humans and apes, reflecting nineteenth-century ideas about evolution, race, and human origins rather than scientific evidence. Although contemporary publicity portrayed her as a member of a previously unknown forest-dwelling community, modern writers have described these claims as part of the fictional narrative used to market her exhibitions. Farini spent more than forty years performing in museums, circuses, and travelling shows, including the Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. At her death in 1926, fellow performers remembered her as "the best-liked of freaks" and "the peacemaker of the side show".