# Any "evil twin" mixups in real life? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646 "2013-03-22T15:25:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/1 "2013-03-22T15:25:06Z")
The trope of the “evil twin” is centuries, probably even millennia, old in literature, with such works as _Beowulf, Dick Tracy, Star Trek,_ and _The Order of the Stick_ providing examples. I seem to vaguely recall a myth I was once told of seven identical brothers, all invulnerable to different things, who stood in for one another when one of them was sentenced to death. Not able to kill him in the first way, they’d try a different way, and one of the brothers would make a “secret switch” and survive the method of execution that he himself was invulnerable to. Cecil himself [has said](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1277/do-identical-twins-have-different-fingerprints) that identical twins still have different fingerprints. But has there been an example, in real life, of someone being arrested, even punished, for a crime committed by one’s identical twin? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/2 "2013-03-22T15:34:16Z")
There’s the famous case of Will West and William West in 1903, who were noth imprisoned. Not only did they have similar names, but their Bertillon measurements (used before fingerprints) were identical. This wasn’t a case of “all black guys look alike” – these guys really did look alike. They were distinguished by their fingerprints. The case is held to be the pivotal one in dethroning Bertillon’s system in favor of fingerprinting, although that has been disputed. > **[History of Fingerprints](http://www.crimescene-forensics.com/History_of_Fingerprints.html)** > > Brief history of some of the important events in establishing fingerprint identification as a positive means of identification Interestingly, the case of two memn so closely resembling each other purely by chance has been questioned, and many (including Joe Nickell) have made the case that the two Will Wests were really bothers, and possibly true identical twins. [http://www.forensic.to/forens/forens.Feb.01.txt](http://www.forensic.to/forens/forens.Feb.01.txt) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/3 "2013-03-22T15:41:51Z")
I realize the question is specific about biological twins, but there is no shortage of cases where a close lookalike was arrested and tried before the real culprit was identified - twins of circumstance, not biology. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/4 "2013-03-22T16:43:35Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > I seem to vaguely recall a myth I was once told of seven identical brothers, all invulnerable to different things, who stood in for one another when one of them was sentenced to death. Not able to kill him in the first way, they’d try a different way, and one of the brothers would make a “secret switch” and survive the method of execution that he himself was invulnerable to. [**The Five Chinese Brothers**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_Chinese_Brothers) is probably what you’re thinking about. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/5 "2013-03-22T16:46:18Z")
Jose and Ozzie Canseco, identical twin baseball players. Ozzie was a nice guy, but couldn’t play ball as well. Jose was a jerk, but a great ballplayer at his peak. At Jose’s nadir, he was playing outfield and let a fly ball hit him on his head and go into the stands for a home run. Good times. I don’t think they were ever confused like the OP asks. Also, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/6 "2013-03-22T16:46:22Z")
In the beer world, there are Danish twin brothers Mikkel and Jeppe who compete with each other. Mikkel (Mikkeller beer) and Jeppe (Evil Twin beer). Personally, I prefer Evil Twin. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/7 "2013-03-22T16:59:00Z")
There is a story about a pair of twins who were well-known scientists - I can’t recall the name and Google insists on informing me about the science of twins; I believe this was late 19th century. One went to a barber and warned him that his beard grew exceptionally fast, so the barber promised that if it grew back in before the next day, he would re-shave him for free. An hour later his brother plopped down in the chair, grinning through his bristle. May be apocryphal; I’m sure someone has the name on tap. ---
**Author:** ![Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Ambrosio\_Spinola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambrosio_Spinola)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/8 "2013-03-22T17:35:53Z")
I’m not sure if it’s a mix-up exactly, but Robert E. Oliver tried to frame his twin brother Robert J. Oliver for a murder in Dallas quite recently. [But the police didn’t believe him.](http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2011/10/good-twin-bad-twin-police-say.html/) I was thinking of this because there was just a mistrial in the case, when Oliver’s ex-girlfriend got into the jury room. He may not be a great criminal mastermind, but those are Evil Twin actions, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/9 "2013-03-22T18:28:51Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Jose and Ozzie Canseco, identical twin baseball players. Ozzie was a nice guy, but couldn’t play ball as well. Jose was a jerk, but a great ballplayer at his peak. At Jose’s nadir, he was playing outfield and let a fly ball hit him on his head and go into the stands for a home run. Good times. I don’t think they were ever confused like the OP asks. Actually, they tried to fool a promoter by having Ozzie stand in for Jose at a celebrity boxing event. [Link](http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6265329) And does it count that Gallagher the comedian sold his act to his brother and the brother tried to pass himself off as the original? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/10 "2013-03-22T18:30:56Z")
Wasn’t there a case of identical twin brothers, both of them the “evil twin”, who would commit crimes and get away with them because the prosecution could never prove which of the two committed it? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/11 "2013-03-22T18:42:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wasn’t there a case of identical twin brothers, both of them the “evil twin”, who would commit crimes and get away with them because the prosecution could never prove which of the two committed it? There was novel a few years back, _Threat_, that turned on exactly that point. One twin committed a huge blackmail operation to raise funds to free his brother from prison in Vietnam, then, when they were finally tracked down, pointed at each other and said, “He did it!” ETA: Author, Richard Jessup. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/12 "2013-03-22T19:33:59Z")
This is a cross-post from [a one I made yesterday in the ATMB forum](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=685894), to which I have received no response from a mod, so I am assuming it is OK. * * * I am undergoing raging cognitive dissonance. In Cecil’s (early?) 2001 masterpiece [Do twins have identical DNA?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1942/do-twins-have-identical-dna) a reader humbly approached the Master and said that $20 hung in the balance on DNA identification of who is who of identical twins. The answer from on-high was “yes.” The matter was gone over again in Cafe Society, in DNA trickery - has this plot device ever been used in a crime story?, in which His column was cited. The cause of my distress is this, from February 2013: [Twins’ DNA hinders France sexual assault investigation.](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21401200) BBC cites somebody or other who should know that “ordinary” DNA analysis would not help, but some sort of further examination of a huge number of nucleotides may (or will, not clear) sort the two brothers out. Of course, Cecil, writing in 2001, may have chosen not to use His foreknowledge of all things, in order not to spook His acolytes. It would be nice to bump the CS thread, but my spirit tells me to lay my soul bare here. Also I would feel bad if Paul Cunningham was incorrectly relieved of $20. * * * To that post/this one I would like to add: The full and correct (“base pairs”) money quote from the recent French case is the following, from “an expert” being quoted by the journalist: “For a normal analysis, 400 base pairs [of nucleotides] which make up DNA…”[adds the journalist: In the case of identical twins,] “we would be looking at billions.” The article states that it is merely a matter of money, and that it could be done. Of course, the journalist could be totally wrong, the article is false and that it cannot be done, in which case I withdraw my post from ATMB. Also, in all events, my faith in the Master, tottering for a moment, is restored: the original column is a Staff report by **hawkeye**. Finally, a little more searching has turned up these threads in which the issue is discussed: [Paternity testing of children of identical twins](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=663976) [Can two people be convicted of the same crime?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=557310) [A criminal, cloned](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=502169) ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/13 "2013-03-22T19:36:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wasn’t there a case of identical twin brothers, both of them the “evil twin”, who would commit crimes and get away with them because the prosecution could never prove which of the two committed it? [Albert and Ebenezer Fox](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_and_Ebenezer_Fox): > [@](#): > > Despite their respectable background, the twins turned to a life of crime. They made sure never to go poaching together, and often escaped their frequent encounters with the constabulary by providing alibis for each other. Despite this, they did spend time in prison where they attracted the attention of Sir Edward Henry who used twins, including the Foxes, to prove that an individual could be identified by his fingerprints. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/14 "2013-03-22T20:52:19Z")
Everyone, even twins, will have a few spontaneous mutations. These are what are called single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs. So two identical twins will have identical DNA—except for a small number of polymorphisms where they differ. The problem is that you would have to sequence each twin’s genome completely to find the SNPs, and that isn’t cheap. Remember the human genome project, which took a decade of work by multiple labs around the world. Nowadays sequencing is much faster and cheaper, but it would still be a gigantic undertaking. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/15 "2013-03-22T22:03:52Z")
From the site of _Unsolved Mysteries_, the show where I saw the case discussed, there is the tale of [Frederick and Cedric Young](http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Frederick_Young). Although their mother believes Cedric committed a robbery, Frederick (who was stopped for a traffic violation and gave his brother’s name, as Frederick was not a licensed driver) was the twin jailed for the felony. ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/16 "2013-03-22T22:20:48Z")
We had the opposite near St. Louis recently. Someone murdered the wrong twin. [http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-gets-years-for-killing-twin-of-intended-target-in/article\_81499aea-977b-5de1-9105-a941b117987e.html](http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-gets-years-for-killing-twin-of-intended-target-in/article_81499aea-977b-5de1-9105-a941b117987e.html) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/17 "2013-03-23T02:23:38Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Everyone, even twins, will have a few spontaneous mutations. These are what are called single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs. So two identical twins will have identical DNA—except for a small number of polymorphisms where they differ. The problem is that you would have to sequence each twin’s genome completely to find the SNPs, and that isn’t cheap. Remember the human genome project, which took a decade of work by multiple labs around the world. > > Nowadays sequencing is much faster and cheaper, but it would still be a gigantic undertaking. If the mutation produced a detectable dimorphism and the genes linked to it were known, would it be possible with current technology to look at those genes specifically? I’m thinking of a pair of twins I know whose eyes are different colors. That’s something which isn’t linked to a single gene pair and which can be affected by non-genetic factors (see: David Bowie’s eyes), but I’m thinking that if we know which genes are linked to eye color, it might be possible to verify the two men’s against the forensic sample(s). ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/18 "2013-03-23T02:34:38Z")
> [@JerrySTL](#): > > We had the opposite near St. Louis recently. Someone murdered the wrong twin. > [http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-gets-years-for-killing-twin-of-intended-target-in/article\_81499aea-977b-5de1-9105-a941b117987e.html](http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-gets-years-for-killing-twin-of-intended-target-in/article_81499aea-977b-5de1-9105-a941b117987e.html) Whoops.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/19 "2013-03-23T03:06:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wasn’t there a case of identical twin brothers, both of them the “evil twin”, who would commit crimes and get away with them because the prosecution could never prove which of the two committed it? > [@NitroPress](#): > > There was novel a few years back, _Threat_, that turned on exactly that point. One twin committed a huge blackmail operation to raise funds to free his brother from prison in Vietnam, then, when they were finally tracked down, pointed at each other and said, “He did it!” > > ETA: Author, Richard Jessup. Asimov wrote a short story along that line - one of the [Union Club mysteries](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Union_Club_Mysteries), IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646/20 "2013-03-23T03:21:29Z")
> [@JerrySTL](#): > > We had the opposite near St. Louis recently. Someone murdered the wrong twin. > [http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-gets-years-for-killing-twin-of-intended-target-in/article\_81499aea-977b-5de1-9105-a941b117987e.html](http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-gets-years-for-killing-twin-of-intended-target-in/article_81499aea-977b-5de1-9105-a941b117987e.html) Wow. If my wife gave birth to identical twins, I’d insist upon giving them dramatically different _names,_ anyway. The “Dorione/Darione” thing must have driven **every** involved party UP A TREE for years. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-evil-twin-mixups-in-real-life/653646.md?page=2)