#1 Black and white twins
A mixed-race British mom, Kylie Hodgson, gave birth in 2005 to twins, one of each one black, the other white. The odds of such a birth are about a million to one, experts said. Although occurrences of this nature sometimes occur when a woman conceives twins fathered by two different men, this was a much rarer case in which a single pairing produced twins with distinctly different physical attributes (e.g., skin tone, hair color, eye color) rather than a blending of their parents' characteristics. The parents, Kylie and her partner, Remi Horder, are of a mixed race themselves, both having been born to white mothers and black fathers. Their twin girls Kian and Remee were both born with blue eyes, with Remee having blonde hair and Kian having black hair and somewhat darker skin than her sister. Since then, Remee's skin tone has become lighter, while Kian's has become darker and her eyes have turned brown.
#2 World's heaviest twins: Over 723 pounds each
Billy Leon McCrary (19461979) and Benny Loyd McCrary (19462001), known together as the McGuire twins, were listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "World's Heaviest Twins", with 723 pounds and 745 pounds correspondingly. Born in Hendersonville, North Carolina, the twins began using the stage name McGuire and gained popularity as tag-team wrestlers and in carnival stunt shows. Billy McCrary died on July 14, 1979, at the age of 32, following a motorcycle accident during a stunt at Niagara Falls. Benny lived for 21 more years, until his death at age 54 on March 26, 2001, of heart failure.
#3 Twin boys, twin lives
The stories of identical twins' nearly identical lives are often astonishing, but perhaps none more so than those of these identical twins born in Ohio. The twin boys were separated at birth, being adopted by different families. Unknown to each other, both families named the boys Jim. And here the coincidences just began. Both James grew up not even knowing of the other, yet both sought law-enforcement training, both had abilities in mechanical drawing and carpentry, and each had married women named Linda. They both had sons whom one named James Alan and the other named James Allan. The twin brothers also divorced their wives and married other women both named Betty. And they both owned dogs which they named Toy. Jim Lewis and Jim Springer finally met in 1979, after 39 years of being separated.
#4 Twin sisters, twin boys delivered the same day
On 2004, twenty-one-year-old twins Ashlee Spinks and Andrea Springer both delivered twin boys by Caesarean section at Northside Hospital (Georgia, USA) the same day. The mothers who did not use fertility drugs to conceive were 6 months pregnant when they discovered they were both carrying twin boys and were both due on the very same day. This "one in a million" coincidence is attributed mainly to the fact that not only do Ashlee and Andrea have an obvious history of twins in their family, but both their husbands' families also have a history of twins.
#5 Twins born in different years
Catalin and Valentin from Romania are twins with different years of birth. Catalin was born in December (2 months premature). The doctors were able to wait and deliver her second son Valentin two months later in February. Romanian doctors attributed the time lag in the births to a rare congenital condition that gave the twins mother two uteruses due to a congenital malformation that occurred when she was herself an embryo in her mother's womb. Approximately one in every 50,000 women has a double uterus but the hospital believes this was the first case where a woman had become pregnant at the same time in both wombs and given birth nearly two months apart. The two brothers were both healthy when they were released from the hospital on the same day.
#6 World’s oldest twins: Over 100 years old
Kinsan Ginsan was the affectionate name give to twin sisters from Japan who were record-setting in terms of their longevity. Gin and Kin, whose names mean silver and gold in Japanese, were born on 1 August 1892 in Nagoya, 170 miles west of Tokyo. Kin was the elder daughter and Gin was the younger daughter. Tests proved that they were identical twins, although for some reason they had different blood types. In 1991, they celebrated being about to reach 100 years of age and were featured in a newspaper article in which the mayor of Nagoya met both of them and congratulated them. Their health and vitality, despite being over 100 years old, was said to be "an ideal form of living in your sunset years", and they became national celebrities in Japan. Kin died in 2000 and Gin in the next year, at the age of 108.
#7 Twins with the greatest height difference between each other
Hussain Bisad of London, England who is 7 feet 9, and his 5-feet-5 twin sister, Khardra, who lives in their homeland of Somalia, have a 28-inch difference in the height between them, holding the world record for the greatest height difference between twins. Hussain also holds the record for having the biggest hand span of any living man.
#8 Identical twins, suspects of the same crime for sharing DNA
$6.8 million worth of jewelry were snatched from the cases of Kaufhaus des Westens, a luxurious seven-story department store. Three masked, gloved thieves were caught on surveillance cameras sliding down ropes from the store's skylights, outsmarting its sophisticated security system. That night they got away, but they did leave evidence: DNA, found in a drop of sweat on a latex glove discarded next to a rope ladder used to reach the ground floor. Police ran the material through the German crime database. And they got a hit two in fact. The computer identified 27-year-old Lebanese identical twins Hassan and Abbas O. Police arrested the brothers and charged both with burglary, an offense that carries a potential 10-year prison sentence. But later on, before the case went to trial, they were released. Here's the thing: the authorities had no choice, as the court ruling made clear: "From the evidence we have, we can deduce that at least one of the brothers took part in the crime, but it has not been possible to determine which one." The German law doesn't allow detaining someone indefinitely, just because he is suspected of a crime. Police will continue to keep an eye on them, hoping to be led to the loot. But with the brothers' arrest warrants suspended, they are free to travel, and the authorities cannot tap their phone lines or keep tabs on their bank accounts.
#9 Twin brothers, different parents after test tube mix-up
Wilma and Willem Stuart were a Dutch couple who had been unsuccessfully trying to conceive for years and decided to try IVF. They soon learned they would be parents of twins. When the two boys were born, Koen had blue eyes, dark hair and pink skin, Tuen had dark eyes dark hair and brown skin. A DNA test revealed that Koen was the Stuarts child but Tuen was not Willem's. The report of the investigation has not been made public, but speculation is that a piece of lab equipment called a pipette, like a large eyedropper, had been used twice, causing another man's sperm to be mixed with Willem's. The hospital called it a "deeply regrettable mistake". The Stuarts remembered there was a black couple in the waiting room the same day during the IVF process. The hospital located the man and confirmed he was Tuen's biological father. Although he was under no obligation to meet his son he never knew he had, he did when Koen was 18 months old. The biological father only looked at him from a distance and didn't try to claim him and was comfortable that the Stuarts loved the child, and let them continue raising him.
#10 Oldest mother to give birth to twins
70-year-old Omkari Panwar and her husband, 77, from India, already have two adult daughters and five grandchildren. Male children are especially important among India's Hindus. Only a male heir can carry out funeral rites and female infanticide remains a chronic problem, largely because the dowry system, though banned, is commonly practiced. Their male child will also be able to work the families land. To pay for the IVF treatment vital to producing a male heir to the family's smallholdings, they sold their buffalos, mortgaged their land, spent their life savings and took out a credit card loan. Mrs. Panwar gave birth to twins a boy and girl by emergency Caesarean section. The twins were born a month premature and weighed 2 pounds each, but are healthy according to doctors.
#11 Experimental twins
Elyse and Paula were born to a woman with schizophrenia and were put up for adoption. Child psychologist Dr Viola Bernard, a consultant to the adoption agency believed twins should be separated to improve their psychological development so Elyse and Paula were sent to different families. Elyse knew that they had been adopted but neither one knew they were twins. When Elyse turned 33 she decided to contact the New York State Adoption Information Registry to look for her birth mother. It was then that she also discovered she had a twin. About six months later the twins were reunited. What makes this story even more incredible is it was also discovered that Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein were part of a secret nature versus nurture study by Dr Neubauer and his colleague Dr Viola Bernard. Neubauer was a noted child psychiatrist and studied five sets of twins and one set of triplets who were all deliberately separated at birth. The adoptive families would travel separately to the center once a month for 12 years for IQ tests and speech analysis. Researchers would also visit their homes and film the children playing. The adoptive parents were told they were part of a child development study but were kept in the dark about the twin/ triplet aspect. The set of triplets and two other sets of twins in the study have also been reunited, but it is not known if the remaining two sets of twins have. The controversial study has not been published, but will be in 2066, when most of the participants will likely be dead.
#12 Conjoined twins
Many know and have followed the story of the Hensel twins. They are now 18 and recently graduated from high school. Only four known sets of conjoined twins who share an undivided torso and two legs have ever survived into adulthood. By coordinating their efforts, they have been able to enjoy many hobbies and sports including volleyball, kickball, swimming, basketball, and cycling. Two years ago the girls passed their driver test and had to pass the test twice because each girl received a driver's license. They also play the piano and are avid computer users. Abigail and Brittany expect to date, get married and have children. They hope that by providing some information about themselves they will be able to lead fairly typical lives.
#13 Telepathy twins
Even though the idea of a special connection between identical twins is often myth and legend little research has been done in this field. The book "Twin Telepathy" claims an overwhelming body of evidence indicating that there is indeed a special connection. One of the experiments involved 8-year-old Richard Powles who was put in a soundproof room in front of a bucket filled with ice-cold water. On command, Richard plunged his arm into the ice cold water, giving a gasp as he did so. In another room well out of sight or earshot, his identical twin brother Damien was wired up to a polygraph. A polygraph expert monitored his respiration, abdominal muscles, pulse and galvanic skin response (sweat on the hands). All Damien had to do was sit quietly and "tune in" to his brother's feelings. At the exact moment of Richard's sharp intake of breath caused by the freezing water, there was a sudden blip on the line monitoring Damien's respiration rate. In another experiment, Richard was asked to open a cardboard box; in it was a huge rubber snake that jumped out at him. This, too, was instantly picked up by his twin as the pulse line on the chart clearly indicated. The book also concludes there are three especially telepathy-prone groups mothers and newborn babies, dogs and their owners, and identical twins. Of these, it is the twins who pick up the signal at full strength most often, provided that they are in the right states of mind. The image above is a stock photo as no pictures could be found of Richard and Damien.
#14 Psychic twins
Linda and Terry Jamison are twins from the United States who claim to have predicted the September 11th attacks two years ahead of time. On November 2, 1999, they claimed that through an automatic writing process there would be a terrorist attack on the federal government and the World Trade Center in 2001. The actual quote is, "we are seeing various terrorist attacks on federal government and also the New York Trade Center, the World Trade Center". The twins did not specify the time or indicate who would be responsible. The Jamison twins also predicted that John F. Kennedy Jr. would die by a plane crash. However, it has been pointed out that the Jamison twins are frequently incorrect. In December 2003, they incorrectly predicted that Saddam Hussein would be killed by U.S troops and that Pope John Paul II would die in June 2004.
#15 The silent twins
Dubbed the "Silent Twins," June and Jennifer Gibbons shared an unmistakable bond, but what they did with this bond is what is truly strange. From infancy, the two girls never acknowledged or tried to speak to anyone but each other. In fact, they never outwardly spoke with anyone. They were called "elective mutes" and decided, presumably, to turtle away from the rest of the world and live in their own little bubble, with each other. The two locked themselves away, not speaking to anyone, not even their parents. They were aspiring novelists who wrote endlessly together, but their work was rejected. Later in life, they began to commit crimes such as arson and theft. Following this, they were locked away in an institution for the criminally violent insane.
