Twin Criminals: More White Supremacists?

I'm hoping not to make posts about white supremacist twins a regular feature of this site, but it was too hard to pass up this one.

The twins are accused of sending a mail bomb in early 2004 to a government diversity office in Scottsdale, Ariz., injuring the office’s director and two of his employees. Both are charged with conspiring to blow up a government building while Dennis Mahon is also charged with carrying out the bombing as well as teaching someone else how to make a bomb.

The FBI used the informant in interesting ways in this case.

In one example, Williams testified that the investigators got her to pose for photographs wearing a bathing suit with a grenade hanging down from her neck in between her breasts. For the pictures, she stood in front of a pickup truck and a swastika flag. The photos were then mailed to the brothers.

Twin Criminals

Time presents the "Top 10 Weirdest Twin-Crime Stories."

Your Twins Are Not Interchangeable

Way to have confidence in your sons, dad.

"It didn't even dawn on me he [Nate] was going to make it," Smith told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

So let's say you've entered one of your twins in a raffle for the chance to take a really difficult hockey shot, and he'll win $50,000 if he actually makes it. Now let's say your son doesn't feel like taking the shot -- what do you do, say, "Now son, you'll never make it if you don't try?" If you're this guy, you say, "We'll have your identical twin impersonate you." Of course, he made the shot. This happened in Minnesota, which means that the dad and twins felt bad about it and 'fessed up the next day. The insurance company refused to pay, because the rules say you can't have somebody else take the shot for you. They generously offered to donate $20,000 to charity in the twins' names. I've seen some Internet commentary criticizing the insurance company, but not enough criticizing the dad.

•  Not cool to cheat. It's like having your 18-year-old play the slots. Sure, he probably won't win the jackpot, but what's the point, since he won't be able to collect if he does. The chance to win is the whole reason you play.
• From a parenting standpoint, not cool to treat your identical twins as interchangeable. It might be OK in other sibling situations, but identical twins have enough trouble establishing their own identity without being asked to impersonate each other.
• Not cool to teach your kids to cheat, or to impersonate each other for pranks. OK, if it was a funny prank, it would be cool, but this doesn't fall into that category.

Another for my proposed TV show on twin crime...

The St. Petersburg Times reports on the case of a twin brother who stood in for the other in court, and the lawyer who eventually turned them in:

"It put me in a really tough spot," Thomas said later.

Matthew Mauceri was scheduled to begin trial Tuesday on one count of scheming to defraud. The 2007 case involved $160,000 in checks that didn't clear and auto parts that allegedly never got paid for.

On Tuesday morning, when Thomas started having doubts about his purported client, he asked the man if he really was Matthew Mauceri. The man said he was. Thomas doubted it but hadn't seen his client since December.

"The bottom line was, I wasn't 100 percent," he said.

But he was in a dilemma. On the one hand, he is required to defend his client's rights. On the other hand, ethical guidelines prevent him from allowing a "fraud upon the court."

Also, if it was the wrong brother, Thomas was concerned that he would be discussing information meant only for the brother who was actually supposed to be on trial.

I'm Imagining an Entire TV Series Devoted to Twin Criminals...

From the Telegraph:

James and John Parr were both arrested after watches worth £10,000 were stolen from a shopping centre.

The only clue at the scene was blood on a piece of glass and detectives traced the 25-year-old identical twins through DNA tests.

But James and John both denied the theft and, because they have identical DNA, it has been impossible to prove if either of them were responsible.