Most Shocking True Stories About Identical Twins

As was demonstrated in the iconic hallway scene from the 1980 horror classic The Shining, there’s something inexplicably strange — and maybe even a little bit creepy — about identical twins. Perhaps it’s because with identical twins, there seems to be two of the same person, something that everyone else would understandably consider to be quite peculiar. But the truth is that identical twins are not all that rare; there is roughly 1 set of identical twins for every 250 births. And yet, most everyone is tirelessly entertained by stories of one twin being misidentified as the other or of inexplicable coincidences involving twin siblings.


As was demonstrated in the iconic hallway scene from the 1980 horror classic The Shining, there’s something inexplicably strange — and maybe even a little bit creepy — about identical twins. Perhaps it’s because with identical twins, there seems to be two of the same person, something that everyone else would understandably consider to be quite peculiar. But the truth is that identical twins are not all that rare; there is roughly 1 set of identical twins for every 250 births. And yet, most everyone is tirelessly entertained by stories of one twin being misidentified as the other or of inexplicable coincidences involving twin siblings.
Here are ten of the most fascinating real-life stories featuring identical twins:

10. Twins Separated at Birth Share Startlingly Similar Lives

On February 9, 1979, two 39-year-old men, who were twins separated at birth, met for the very first time. Astonishingly, despite being adopted by families that lived 45 miles apart, the two shared striking similarities in the lives they lived. For some reason, both of their adoptive parents had named them “Jim”, and both had been married twice — first to women named “Linda”, and second to women named “Betty”. Both also had children, and they had each named one of their sons “James Allan”. At one time, each of them also owned dogs named “Toy”. In fact, when Dr. Thomas Bouchard of the University of Minnesota conducted a study on the men, the personality variables in tests they underwent showed that the twins’ scores on tolerance, flexibility, and conformity were so close to each other that it was as if a person had taken the test twice. And the similarities just kept piling up — both had high blood pressure, had experienced what they believed were heart attacks, suffered from migraines, had undergone vasectomies, and chain-smoked.