What would you do if there were two of you? Hopefully none of this stuff.
Let's talk about that.
♪ (theme music) ♪
- Good Mythical Morning! - Now, everybody knew at least...
- ...one set of twins growing up. - Mhm.
And you know those twins. And when I say that, you think of some specific
twins. And while it was cool, wasn't a little bit mysterious, a little bit weird?
Twins can be a little bit weird, can't they? Yes!
Yes, you could get the Olson twins, but at the same time, you could get
those creepy twin girls from The Shining.
- Ugh. - So today, we present to you the...
- ...bizarre, interconnected lives of twins! - Let's get started with some Swedish...
- ...twin sisters: Ursula and... - Do it.
... Sabina Eriksson. Back in 2008, they were on holiday in the UK when they
actually made an inadvertent appearance on the British version of Cops called...
- ...Motorway Cops. You just have to... - Okay.
...watch the video to see what they did. Let's roll that.
So that's Ursula. She goes out into the road.
- No! - Yep. She got hit by that tractor trailer.
- Ooh, is that's what's left of her? - That's just a hat.
Ooh, what?! - And then her sister, Sabina, went...
- ...out and got hit by a Volkswagen. - Right after?
Slow-mo! Slow-mo. Again, this is Ursula. They're playing Frogger in real life.
- Oh. - And then... boom.
- Ooh! She's under! - Tough to see through that man's head.
- (officer) Calm down! - (officer) Don't get going anywhere.
And then this is the one that got hit by the Volkswagen.
This is the second one. This is Sabina. She's okay, as you can see.
- At least she's physically okay. - She's running after that Land Rover.
She really wants to get back out on that road and get by another car.
- (officer) Calm down. - Calm down, girl!
- (officer) They're high on somethin'. - Ya think?
(British accent) "They're high on somethin'!"
- They're high on something. - They're high on bein' twins, man!
One of 'em ran and hit the side of that truck.
- Yeah, yeah. - And the other ran in front...
- ...of the Volkswagen. Why?! - That was Ursula.
Well, I don't know. Like I said, maybe it was Frogger in real life, which I've
always thought about doing. But then Ursula got both of her legs crushed.
Don't do that at home, kids. And then Sabina goes out after her. Gets hit by
the Volkswagen. And then she runs away from the cops. She gets away.
They basically capture her for a little bit, but then she gets out of police custody.
- They captured her jacket. - Uh, yes they did, Link.
They also captured her, but then she... (stammering) They let her go.
- They were like, "Uh, she seems fine." - Mm.
Apparently she wasn't fine, because the next day, she went on the stab a man
five times with a kitchen knife and then jump off a 40-foot bridge.
- May she rest in peace. - No, may man rest in peace.
But, of course, Sabina, just like when she gets hit with a Volkswagen, she just got a
little shaken up, jumping off that 40-foot bridge.
- She walked it off? - Of course, she was then charged...
...with murder, but she used an interesting defense called "folie à deux,"
which is "shared psychosis." For some reason, they used the French way...
- ...of saying that. Basically saying... - More power to 'em.
...someone can have a delusion and then transfer it to another person.
And amazingly, this actually worked, and she only got charged with manslaughter.
- Mm! - 'Cause she slaughtered a man with...
- ...a knife! But it wasn't murder. - Okay. Well, okay.
- It wasn't murder. - Shared psychosis. I got one of...
...those for you.The Silent Twins from Wales, June and Jennifer Gibbons,
refused to speak to anyone but each other, okay? And when they spoke to each other,
it was in a secret twin language. Which sounds totally weird, but actually
50% of young twins will do this. It's called cryptophasia. They were...
- ...also avid writers, which is really nice! - Of course!
They wrote in their journals often about how they wanted to kill each other.
(laughing) Well, gotta write about something.
And they wrote some young adult novels. Jennifer wrote Discomania.
- Oh, that sounds exciting. - It was about a disco that makes...
- ...you go crazy. - (laughing) Which disco doesn't?
June wrote Pepsi-Cola Addict, which is about a Pepsi-Cola addict.
- She wrote Pepsi-Cola Addict?! - Yes, she did.
(Rhett) Oh my gosh! That's one of my favorites!
(Link) It's got a great cover on it, too. It's like "That's irresistible. I gotta...
- ...read that. Now, they were unable... - (Rhett) Yeah.
...to set the publishing world on fire, so they just set a barn on fire.
- Okay. - And the age of 18, they were sent...
- ...to a psychiatric hospital... - Really.
...and they made a pact that one of the twins had to die.
- Of course. - Fast forward 11 years. On the...
...day that they were released from the psychiatric hospital, Jennifer
died suddenly from an inflammation of the heart. No evidence of drugs,
no evidence of foul play at all, but June was quoted as saying,
"At last, Jennifer has given up her life for me."
- She did. She sacrificed herself for her. - And here's the weird thing. June went...
...on to lead a normal life and continues to live in Wales, where you should...
- ...visit her. Hang out with her. - Yeah, you should. I'm sure...
...she's real normal. Okay, now a lot of people have suspected that twins can
communicate telepathically, but has that ever really been tested? Yes, it has...
- ...by a British television show! - Oh!
In 2003, a TV show sat down 8-year-old, identical twins, Richard and Damien Powles.
Basically what they did is they put Little Richard -- not the singer; the boy...
- Which, that's a good TV show. - ...in one room. And then they put...
...Damien in another room, and then they started doing stuff to Richard.
- Okay. - First thing they did is they stuck...
...his hand in ice water, and immediately Damien peed himself. No, that's not...
- ...what happened. Yeah, well, I was... - Well, that would be warm water.
...trying something. But actually, what happened is there was a blip on --
they had him hooked up to a polygraph test to monitor his reactions to this --
and there was a blip on the polygraph. There was a reaction. Then they brought...
- ...out the rubber snakes! - Ooh!
Very scientific. "Do we have any rubber snakes? Scare him with the rubber snakes!"
Apparently he was very scared by the rubber snakes, and then there was...
- ...another blip! Damien responded. - Blip? Oh!
Now, this sounds really compelling and really amazing...
- It does. - ...but then the producers went on to...
...say that this was not a legitimate experience, and you shouldn't conclude
anything from this, and there were no scientists involved. So while there was
a blip on the polygraph, it probably wasn't real. But there was a blip in
the ratings, and that's what really matters!
- That's all that matters. - (stammering) I actually looked into this.
There haven't been any real scientific studies to prove that that happens,
even though a lot of twins say they can communicate telepathically. It hasn't
ever been proven in a scientific laboratory.
I do not believe. I know you didn't ask, but I do not believe in that.
But I don't even know what I'M thinking and feeling half the time.
- So who am I to say? - Mm. That's a problem.
- Ronald Anderson. Good ol'... - We can talk about that later.
...Ronald Anderson. He was sitting in an LA jail "sail." [cell] Uh, sail, sail.
Serving a six-month sentence for spousal abuse -- ugly -- when, simultaneously,
he was caught at his wife's house attempting to murder her.
I'm guessing it wasn't him, Link. I'm guessing that it had something to...
- ...do with the fact that he was a twin. - Bingo! It was... (stammering)
- There's a pattern here. - There was no real suspense, there.
- They're all twins. - We're talking about twins.
His identical twin brother, Donald -- so Ronald had a brother Donald...
- Oh, gosh. That's crazy. - ...they did that -- was sitting in...
...jail as Ronald, and then Donald comes up. Now, this is not the first time
he's done that. He did it three other times. Donald went to jail for Ronald,
and in 1970, Ronald enlisted in the US Army to be a helicopter mechanic,
and he was headed off to Korea, but the night before he goes off to Korea, he's
like, "You know what? I don't wanna do this. I'm out."
- (laughing) Donald steps up. - Cue Donald. Donald steps up...
...and says, "I'll do it. I love you, brother."
- Donald, what is your deal? - (Link) I mean, look. Here's a picture...
...of him looking at a picture of his brother.
- (Rhett) He loves his brother! - (Link) Look how much he loves him.
- (Rhett) He really loves his brother. - (Link) He said, "I'll do it."
He didn't know anything about helicopters or being in the Army, but he showed him...
- ...rifle drills using a broomstick. - And then they never -- no -- they...
...never found out, he figured out the helicopter stuff, and he stayed over
there. But back to the last thing. They figured it out when he tried to...
- ...attempt to kill his wife. - Right, yeah. That's not Donald.
- It's Ronald. - So they put Donald -- they did the...
...old un-switcheroo -- put Donald in, took Ronald out, and Ronald was
just, like, no further punishment for him, for impersonating his brother.
- So who's in jail now? - Donald.
- Or is it? Or is it? - No, Ronald. I'm confused.
- (crew offscreen laughing) - I don't know!
- Okay, we'll figure that out. - It should be Ronald.
Back in 2009, somebody broke into a German luxury department store...
...stole 5 million euros-worth of jewelry and watches.
And the German police said, "We have found the DNA of two different people.
Actually, we found DNA of two people who have the same DNA?"
They were twins, Link! Identical twins. This was Hassan and Abbas O.
O is not their last name, but according to German law, if you're charged with a
crime, you can't have your full name spelled out.
- Hm! - So anyway, they arrested both of...
...these guys. They're like, "We don't know which one did it, but we're gonna
arrest both of 'em." And then right before their trial, the court says, "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." So they let
them both go. But here's a picture of 'em. It's clearly the guy on the left!
- (Rhett) Look at him! - (Link) His tongue is waggling.
(Rhett) He's wearing black. He's got his tongue out. He's wearing jewelry that...
- ...he probably stole in the picture! - That necklace is definitely...
- ...5 million euros. - Germans, you just need to let me...
...help with your... criminal justice process. It's the guy on the left.
- Mm. - But if you're in Germany, and you...
...wanna commit a crime and you're a twin, do it together. That's the...
- ...lesson there. - All right, I've got on that's pretty...
...interesting here. Back in 1988, a group of geneticists were secretly
trying to create the perfect child. But they ended up just creating...
- ...twins, okay? But then they said... - Okay.
...one of the brothers, Julius Benedict, became what some called, "the perfect...
- ...human specimen." And then they... - Really?
...said that all the leftover garbage genes went into his brother, Vincent.
And the interesting thing is they always dressed the same. They went on adventures
together, and they documented those adventures. Let's watch this.
- Okay, now grab my hand. Go on. - (grasp)
(Vincent) Ah! Ah! Ah! Ease up. Ease up.
See, one of them's stronger than the other one.
- Ah, yeah. They look very different. - Right.
- See, that's it. Relax. - (laughing) I'm just nervous.
Okay, 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3.
Teachin' him how to dance. You've been Shrieked! (laughing)
Thanks for liking, commenting, and subscribing.
- You know what time it is. - Hey, I'm Gillian.
- I'm Alexa. - We're at the National Botanic Garden.
(both) And it's time to spin The Wheel of Mythicality!
If you're a twin and you wanna look different and cooler that your other...
- ...twin, get a Rhett & Link hat! - Hat!
At rhettandlink.com/store. Look at that!
- Twinsies! - I couldn't be a twin.
- Oh, unless we both put on hats. - Yeah.
Click through to Good Mythical More, where we're gonna play Mortal Kombat!
- Look at this. - Twin Edition! Click that "i."
(Rhett) "Link is a flat tire."
- Aw, dang it. I hate it when this happens. - (spitting)
- I didn't renew my AAA membership... - (spitting)
...so I'm gonna have to figure out how to take care of this myself.
- Yeah, sorry about that, boss. - First thing I'm gonna do is...
- ...just wet it a little bit. Yeah. - Not gonna help.
- And now I've gotta get some -- - Kinda liked it, but...
- ...not really gonna help much. - I've gotta get a straw, and I'm...
- ...gonna have to put it in the valve. - Oh, yeah. That's definitely a straw.
- Woo, don't a-- you don't have to... - (blowing)
...actually blow like that.
[Captioned by Kevin: GMM Captioning Team]