10 Wild Stories of Criminal Twins

1.

Being a criminal is an exercise in trust -- you're always expecting someone to stab you in the back, and there's no honor among thieves. So who better to go into illegal business with than your own brother? Nicholas and Matthew Deparasis were a pair of Virginia Beach twins who set up a profitable operation retailing drugs and guns out of a series of crack houses in the area. It didn't take the police long to put together an ironclad case against the duo, and both pled guilty in 2014. Fittingly, they received identical sentences of 13 years behind bars.

2.

Raising twins must be a nightmare for a parent. You probably learn to tell them apart over time, but that doesn't stop them from pulling all kinds of shenanigans. The horrific case of Jasmiyan and Tasmiyah Whitehead goes a little further than that, though. The twin girls had a rough family life, being raised by their grandmother when they were young until their mother could regain custody. They clashed with her repeatedly and in 2010 things went out of control. A fight got physical and escalated into Jasmiyah strangling her mother with a ribbon while Tasmiyah stabbed her to death with a kitchen knife. The twins called the police and claimed they'd come home to a grisly crime scene but it wasn't long before the truth came out.

3.

Who would screw with the Amish? Well, a set of terrible twins, for one. Caleb and Daniel Tate were home from college for winter break when they decided to get up to some mischief. This wasn't your ordinary shenanigans, though. The duo went into their shed and built a bunch of pipe bombs and other explosives out of propane canisters and then went on a destructive spree around Chester County, specifically targeting Amish structures like produce stands and well sheds. It wasn't hard for police to track down the twins, as they left fingerprints at the crime scene and they now face multiple charges including arson by explosion, arson by possession of explosive devices and theft.

4.

Twins and sex is a weird combination, and for George & Stefan Spitzer, it turned out to be an illegal one as well. Their prosecution in 1998 was one of the first major cases against the "date rape drug" Rohypnol, which George and Stefan used to incapacitate women at bars. The duo would then take the victims home and videotape themselves having sex with them without consent. It wasn't long before women started going to the police, and when cops raided the apartment the Spitzers shared they found seven boxes of Rohypnol along with the tapes, which sometimes featured the two brothers switching places with unwitting partners.

5.

One of the strangest and most tragic stories of twins on the wrong side of the law ever is the case of Jennifer & June Gibbons, who were born in Barbados but moved to Wales when they were babies. As the only black kids in their school, they were ostracized and eventually retreated so far inward that they spoke a language that only they could understand. They were eventually separated and sent to different boarding schools, but after getting back together they turned first to literature and then crime, eventually committing a string of arsons and being locked up in the notorious Broadmoor mental institution.

6.

The Fox brothers demonstrate that twin crime has been a thing since at least the 1800s. Albert Ebenezer Fox and Ebenezer Albert Fox were a duo of infamous poachers who terrorized the Stevenage area for decades. The twins would never go out and swipe game at the same time, so when the cops came calling the other brother could provide a foolproof alibi. Their criminal activities were so annoying that it actually prompted law enforcement to create the field of fingerprint analysis as a way of identifying perps.

7.

Most of these twin crime stories are pretty bizarre, but this one might just take the cake. Ursula & Sabrina Eriksson were Swedish tourists on a trip to England in 2008 when something seemingly snapped in their brains. Ursula and Sabrina jumped out of their bus in the middle of a busy motorway, diving into traffic and causing a massive backup. Ursula's legs were crushed by a truck so she was hospitalized, but a seemingly calm Sabrina was released after she apparently calmed down. That would prove to be a mistake, as the next day she was met by a self-employed welder and stabbed him to death with a kitchen knife. We still have no idea what caused the sisters to have a simultaneous psychotic break.

8.

Pete and Pat Bondurant were the undisputed top dogs in Pulaski, Tennessee, during the 1980s, and the obese drug lords blazed a trail of corpses that cops followed to their door. In 1986, Pete drugged a woman named Gwen Dugger and shared her sexually with his brother. When a friend objected, Pat beat Dugger to death in front of her with an axe handle. They threatened the friend with worse, but eventually she got the courage to go to the cops about the Bondurants. The lucky discovery of a diaper pin that Dugger kept as a memento helped seal the deal and both twins got 25 years in prison.

9.

There's no denying that "identical twins" is a sex fantasy that a lot of dudes have, but it's not really a good thing to base a business on. That's a lesson that Katelyn and Sarah Lothrop learned the hard way. The redheaded 19-year-old twins posted a saucy ad on popular classified site Backpage.com promising to "make your dreams come true & then some." Cops set up a sting at a local La Quinta Inn & Suites and busted both girls as well as their pimp for aiding and abetting prostitution.

10.

Probably the most famous lawbreaking twins of all time, Reginald & Ronald Kray ruled the East End of London with an iron fist in the '50s and '60s. After being dishonorably discharged from the army, they built a criminal empire centered around the nightclub they owned. The Krays led a double life as both famous celebrities of Swinging London and ruthless, murderous criminals. They ran a profitable protection racket and organized armed robberies, arson and other acts of violence for decades. Their criminal house of cards collapsed when police gathered enough evidence to tie the brothers to the murders of George Cornell and Jack "The Hat" McVitie, two low-level gangsters. Both were sentenced to life in prison.