The Perricone Quads made history when they made their way into the world on a cold and stormy Halloween 88 years ago and they catapulted a Beaumont family into the public eye. Maria Concetta “Bessie” Mazzu Perricone and Philip “Filippo” Perrione, of Italian descent, already had five sons and had lost a daughter to complications from the whooping cough when the bundle of four boys came along.

Carl, Donald, Anthony and Bernard Perricone made national headlines many times through the years — they were the second documented set of quadruplets born in the U.S. and the first surviving male quads in the world. But it was their decision to serve together in the same unit during the Korean War, something that was unheard of at the time — that kept them in the limelight and showed their true patriotism.