You know that's sad, he killed himself trying to be like others so he wouldn't be judged.. After a brief career as a professional “freak,” became a patient of London Hospital from 1886 until his death. Merrick had a non heredited disorder, Proteus syndrome created the extreme deformities of face and form that gave Merrick his cruel nickname and led to his virtual enslavement as a sideshow curiosity. That's how he got the name “elephant man”. Merrick said “My feet and legs are covered with thick lumpy skin, also my body, like that of an Elephant, and almost the same colour, in fact, no one would believe until they saw it, that such a thing could exist.” The elephant man is beautiful, he may be different but he's the same as you and I.