Bizarre Mysteries: The Twin Phenomena.

How can identical twins, in some cases unaware of each other’s existence, demonstrate parallel lives?

Whelp, I admit it. I am not a twin and, furthermore, I’ve not had any twin children. Which, to be honest, annoys the crap out of me. I mean, here I am, in an extended family dripping with twins. And all I can offer is a measly, single birth.

It’s embarrassing.

But, ever the optimist, I’ve researched strange events between twins and have found it fascinating. The stories are crazy! A twin who ‘feels’ his twin’s pain from surgery. Or ‘feels’ the impact his or her twin had during a car accident. I’ve even found some twins who swear they knew when their twin died.

And I believe it all.

I have always felt a strong bond with both my sister and brother. As we’ve grown, that bond has only gotten stronger. It seems whenever I think about one of my siblings, they call, text, or suggest a visit. So, I admit, I have trouble wrapping my head around friends or family members who haven’t spoken to their brothers or sisters for years. I cannot imagine not having contact with my ‘sibs.’ And, I’m sure—as their favorite sister—they would be crushed without my wit and loving personality. 😜

Our connection, I believed, was a strong as any siblings could have. Apparently, I was wrong.

Those stinkin’ twins, with their freakish physical and psychic connection, beat us out every time.

No one likes a show-off.

But first, a little history. There are three types of twins; Fraternal, identical, and cojoined. Fraternal twins share a womb but have their own DNA, like any other sibling. Identical twins are exact replica’s of each other, in both appearance and DNA. They are sometimes referred to as the ‘mirror image’ of each other…one may have a mole on the left cheek, the other on the right. Or one may be right-handed, the other left. Cojoined, or Siamese twins, are always identical twins and, most often, female.

Brittany and Abby Hensel. Image credit: NYDailynews

Two famous cojoined twins come to mind…Abby and Brittany Hensel, who have two heads and one body, and the Bunker twins, Chang and Eng, Siamese-American twins for which the term ‘Siamese’ twins was born. Cojoined at the sternum, separation would have proved fatal at the time (1811) but, with today’s medical advances, would have been an easy surgery.

The brother’s died in 1874, within hours of each other.

Chang and Eng Bunker. Image credit: Wikipedia

Studies have been conducted on the unbreakable, unique bond of siblings who happen to be twins. There are countless stories of identical twins who have gotten married or given birth or even died on the same day. Many of these people not only lived hundreds of miles away but, in some cases, were separated at birth and unaware of their twin’s existence.

Like I said. Freaks.

The Silent Twins. Image credit: Cracked.com

Take the case of The Silent Twins. (Why did I just hear a Vincent Price piano intro here?) Jenifer and June Gibbons were twins who, born in Barbados, grew up in Wales. They were dubbed the ‘silent twins’ because they decided on a life of selective mutism, speaking only to each other in a cryptic language no one else understood. As they grew, both their refusal to speak and odd behavior began to morph into something more disturbing.

Like going from being besties, giggling and writing stories and doing each other’s hair, to trying to kill each other. Like, literally.

Jennifer Gibbons tried to strangle June with an electrical cord; June threw her sister off a bridge. You know—good, clean fun.😳

After several rounds of theft, vandalism, and arson, their parents were urged to commit them to a psychiatric hospital, where they stayed for eleven years. One day, the twins’ decided the only way to ensure longevity was for one of them to die. That way, the surviving twin could go on to live a normal life.

Call me crazy, but weren’t they both a tad nutty to start with? How ‘normal’ a life could they have?

But wait, it gets better! After discussing it among themselves (in that creepy, no language-language, no doubt) Jennifer decides to take one for the team and, at age 29, tells June she will be the one to die. And days later, as they were being transferred to a new psychiatric facility, Jennifer did just that. Her sudden and unexpected death was attributed to a sudden inflammation of the heart.

I hear that, following Jennifer’s death, June did become a version of ‘normal’, and went on to marry and start a family.

Next up, the famous ‘Jim Twins.’ Adopted out to separate families at just 4 weeks old, these identical twins (both named ‘James’ by their adoptive parents) found each other when they were close to 40 years old. Only one Jim knew was aware he had a brother out there and began a search later in life. When they finally found each other, what they learned about the similarities they shared throughout their lives was shocking.

For example, along with both boys being named James, both men had children and named their son, James Allan. Both had grown up with a dog they named ‘Toy’ and got headaches the same time of day. James Springer married a woman named Linda, divorced her, and married a woman named Betty; James Lewis married a woman named Linda, divorced her, and married a lady named Betty.

👀😳

Oh, and both men were chain smokers (Salem cigarettes), drank Miller beer (🤢) and had careers in law enforcement.

The ‘Jim twins.’ Image credit: Cracked.com

Moving on, Craig and Mark Saunders were identical twins who did everything together, which, not for nothing, conjured up all sorts of privacy violations in my head. As it turns out, privacy may not be a ‘thing’ for some siblings.

The brothers’ got engaged on the same day , after several double dates with identical twins Diane and Darlene Nettemeier. Later, they married the sisters on the same day. Then, because none of them wished to be separated, they moved into side-by-side homes in the same town…next door neighbors forever.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, Diane and Craig went on to have a set of identical twins of their own.

Or, how about this one? In what has been calculated as a one in a million chance, fraternal twins named Ashlee Spinks and Andrea Springer gave birth to twins, both boys, on the same day. Oh, and they neither planned to get pregnant together nor used fertility drugs, which makes it even more remarkable.

Say, did you know that there can be identical triplets? Yep, crazy pants. Did you also know that there are evil bastards in this world who think nothing of making guinea pigs out of innocent children in the name of science?

Now you do.

Meet Eddy Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran, identical triplets who were born in 1961 and adopted at birth by three different families. Interesting to note here that there were actually four babies, the fourth brother dying at birth.

Quadruplets. I couldn’t find if the fourth child was also identical but the odds are like one in 11 million births. Wowza.

But, as always—with the attention span of a gnat—I digress. The brother’s discovered each other after a fluke encounter when Robert was attending a NY college. There, he had people coming up to him constantly, calling him Eddy. Eddy, outgoing and well-liked, had attended the same university recently. Eventually the two met, realized they were siblings, and posted their story to social media.

Which caught the eye of the third brother, David. Once he eyed the brothers, he knew he was their identical triplet.

These three strangers, in a quest to know each other better, dove into their relationship with all the feets. They became a media sensation, opened a restaurant, moved in together. Soon, though, it became obvious that the brothers were more dissimilar than similar. Their relationship began to crack as issues with mental health surfaced. Sadly, brother Eddy lost his battle with depression and took his own life in 1995.

Identical triplets. Image credit: Wbur.org

Now, the evil side of that story. The triplet’s mother, young and single at the time, gave the boys up for adoption and, unbeknownst to the adoptive parents, the children were subsequently separated and enrolled in a study by a couple of psychiatrists. The experiment, which involved several visits and examinations by psychiatric doctors, intended to measure the ‘nature vs nurture’ theory by placing each child in a different socio-economic status—blue collar, middle-class, and affluent—to assess behavioral or personality differences attributed to social standing. The adoptive parents of each child had no knowledge of the experiment, instead being told the frequent assessments and evaluations were a part of the adoption agency rules and regulations.

They were essentially unwilling, unknowing, lab rats. Talk about unscrupulous. And, sad to say, they were not the only ones enrolled in the ‘developmental study.’ There were a few other sets of twins being studied at the time, all without the knowledge of either the subjects or their parents.

The triplet’s story sparked a Netflix movie, a documentary called ‘Three Identical Strangers.” Today, the surviving twins are still in touch and see each other when they can.

There you have it, folks. Only a smattering of stuff I dug up while researching the mystery of twins. Say, are you a twin? Have any interesting stories about your life? If I get enough feedback, I will do a special ‘twin’ feature with your stories!

Until then, stay safe, enjoy Turkey day, and thanks for reading!

—Q