On April 8, 2000, Mark Hogancamp was attacked outside of a bar by five men who beat him nearly to death after he drunkenly told them he was a cross-dresser. After nine days in a coma and 40 days in the hospital, Hogancamp was discharged with brain damage that left him little memory of his previous life. Unable to afford therapy, he created his own memory by building a 1 ⁄ 6 -scale World War II -era Belgian town in his yard and populating it with dolls representing himself, his friends, and even his attackers. He called the town "Marwencol", blending his own name with that of a local bartender Wendy and his neighbor Colleen.