I just watched the Jim Boumgarten segment again today. I have seen this story several times, and every time I watch it, I end up yelling at the TV.

Maybe I am flat out crazy, but if everybody who lived in my hometown was confusing me with this doppelganger of a different name, I just might have a simple question for any or all of these people. A very simple question.

"WHO IS THIS MAN??"

Jim, why the frick are you wondering about this "twin" and on national television asking about him when you are in constant contact with people who know who this guy is?!?! Why, in the name of all things visible and invisible, would you be wasting UM's airtime with this story when you could ask anybody who is mistaking you to tell you who this guy is?!?! If the story is true, this is far-and-away the most easily solved mystery in the history of UM.

Because the solution to the unsolved mystery here is so obvious, it leads me to believe the story is bunk. It is my belief that Mr. Boumgarten was pulling a stunt to get on TV and get some attention, OR maybe UM was pulling a prank and goofing on the viewers.

Do you guys agree with me, or am I missing something?

There is a third possibility that could still mean the story was bunk. Maybe his friends were gaslighting him.

I'd have to review the story,but possibly.If there was someone,then maybe it was just someone who looked like him,but not related.I can't imagine one or the other not asking ?'s when they called him by another name,and just walking off and dismissing the whole thing.

I don't necessarily believe the story is bunk, but I think Billy Boumgarden probably knew he had a twin brother all along and for whatever reason, just simply did not want to meet him.

I thought it was a telling sign that whenever someone mixed this guy with Jim, he never questioned them or said "I think you got me confused with someone else". He just simply expressed a look of disgust and walked away without saying anything.

Maybe Jim knew this all along, but thought that making an impassioned plea would make Billy want to reunite with him.

Well, he also had a long-lost sister he never knew about and then later found a year before he died, so I don't think his story is bogus.

I always wondered why on Earth nobody asked the townspeople. It didn't seem that hard.

RobinW, you might be onto something. Why wouldn't the guy just say, "I'm not Jim" or something? He just seemed really put off. I felt bad for the father who was standing there yelling to him and waving nicely and the guy just looked pissed off and got into his car. It was a little funny in the reenactment, to be honest, but the twin just seemed very...unfriendly. At least in the reenactment.

Seems to me like this mystery could have easily been solved. I don't think Jim is making anything up, I believe UM even had the hospital and date on which he and his twin were born. So I don't think there's any doubt that a twin existed. The easy way to solve this, IMHO, would have been to have gotten the name of the company that his brother-in-law played the softball game against, and found out who the pitcher was that day. I see two possibilities:

-Jim's twin was in fact the man seen around town and at the softball game but simply wanted nothing to do with his biological family and was happy with his life.

-Jim's twin had passed away (either at a young age or before Jim starting looknig for him) and the man seen around town was simply a "dead ringer" for Jim.

I tend to lean towards the man being nothing but a lookalike. IIRC, in an older Jim Boumgarden thread, Jim's daughter posted something about how her father and his twin had some heart condition at birth. So maybe the twin died at a very young age which could account for why no one has found him after all these years.

Seems to me like this mystery could have easily been solved. I don't think Jim is making anything up, I believe UM even had the hospital and date on which he and his twin were born. So I don't think there's any doubt that a twin existed. The easy way to solve this, IMHO, would have been to have gotten the name of the company that his brother-in-law played the softball game against, and found out who the pitcher was that day. I see two possibilities:

-Jim's twin was in fact the man seen around town and at the softball game but simply wanted nothing to do with his biological family and was happy with his life.

-Jim's twin had passed away (either at a young age or before Jim starting looknig for him) and the man seen around town was simply a "dead ringer" for Jim.

I tend to lean towards the man being nothing but a lookalike. IIRC, in an older Jim Boumgarden thread, Jim's daughter posted something about how her father and his twin had some heart condition at birth. So maybe the twin died at a very young age which could account for why no one has found him after all these years.

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=122733

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=239565

The twin exists/ed but did not wish to be reunited with this birth family.

The twin exists/ed but did not wish to be reunited with this birth family.

I thought that was only speculation by the posters here. Didn't one of Jim's relatives post here and say he never found his brother?

I thought that was only speculation by the posters here. Didn't one of Jim's relatives post here and say he never found his brother?

That's what his son posted about. (His son's post from the Updates thread is posted in the second link.)

" The update Spike didn't air: A good friend of my fathers, who runs a store in the area, said that he thought he saw a ghost when a man walked into the store. When he confronted him about the case he said he didn't want to have anything to do with the family then walked out of the store and got in his truck and left. My fathers friend tried to stop him but the "twin" wasn't willing to talk.
This also confirms some the other reports my family received saying the same thing, that he didn't even know about.

If the twin doesn't want to be contacted, then their isn't much we can do, hopefully he will change his mind someday and contact me (it isn't hard to find me online) If he has any kids, they would be my cousins and about as close as you can get to being half brother and/or sister."

From the long post, it really sounds like the twin exists/ed and did not wish to be involved with his birth family for whatever reason. I think it's too weird that someone wouldn't just go "Look, I understand your situation but I'm not who you think I am." rather than act secretively/defensively whenever confronted or approached by someone who knew Jim.

I'll also add that when I was in college, I had people approach me and mistake me for someone else and I told them "No, my name is _______. I'm not the person you're looking for." rather than avoid the conversation and run off as the twin was alleged to have done on multiple occasions.

Sorry, but I think this segment was a prank played by UM. If your remember, it was JIM who was running into people who knew his doppelganger. The ONLY thing he would have had to do was ask who this mystery man was.

Sorry but this seg, if true, seemed like a waste of time to me. Jim didn't have to go on national TV to find this mysterious twin. He merely had to ask anybody that mistook him who they were talking about.

This all-too-obvious solution leads me to believe that the show was playing an April Fools joke of some sort.

If the man truely was his twin, why wouldn't he just meet with Jim? They obviously had to know of each other's existence, and if it's true that the twin didn't want contact with the family, why not just meet with Jim and tell him to his face?

You would think that someone would have called in recognized jim as the twin. It's sad that jim never got to have a face to face.

I cant imagine anyone not wanting to meet their identical twin. Id be very overwhelmed by the news but I cant imagine after the shock wore off to not want to meet them. I can understand the choice of not wanting to meet his birth parents especially if he thought they weren't good people but not wanting to meet your twin or your twins children? Just odd. Especially bc Im quite certain the twins adoptive parents have since passed

I just watched the Jim Boumgarten segment again today. I have seen this story several times, and every time I watch it, I end up yelling at the TV.

Maybe I am flat out crazy, but if everybody who lived in my hometown was confusing me with this doppelganger of a different name, I just might have a simple question for any or all of these people. A very simple question.

"WHO IS THIS MAN??"

Jim, why the frick are you wondering about this "twin" and on national television asking about him when you are in constant contact with people who know who this guy is?!?! Why, in the name of all things visible and invisible, would you be wasting UM's airtime with this story when you could ask anybody who is mistaking you to tell you who this guy is?!?! If the story is true, this is far-and-away the most easily solved mystery in the history of UM.

Because the solution to the unsolved mystery here is so obvious, it leads me to believe the story is bunk. It is my belief that Mr. Boumgarten was pulling a stunt to get on TV and get some attention, OR maybe UM was pulling a prank and goofing on the viewers.

Do you guys agree with me, or am I missing something?

haha, yes. This case is one of the stupidest, STUPIDEST ever to air.

One of the biggest problems I have with it is the part where Jim says "if you don't call me by my real name, I'm not gonna play basketball with you." Seriously, I would have just been happy at the potential of making 3 new friends and couldn't care less what they called me.

I think Jim invented this "evil twin" because he was rude to people his entire life and wanted everyone to believe it was somebody else.

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/40893/doink-o.gif

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/40893/doink-o.gif

That was one of those moments that truly creeped me out as a kid.

Sorry, but I think this segment was a prank played by UM. If your remember, it was JIM who was running into people who knew his doppelganger. The ONLY thing he would have had to do was ask who this mystery man was.

Sorry but this seg, if true, seemed like a waste of time to me. Jim didn't have to go on national TV to find this mysterious twin. He merely had to ask anybody that mistook him who they were talking about.

This all-too-obvious solution leads me to believe that the show was playing an April Fools joke of some sort.

This (except for blaming the show--I blamed Jim and his accomplices--) is exactly what I called the UM hotline to say, also wrote a friend (who happened to be an identical twin) to say when it first aired. The UM operator said "people are calling up just furious" so apparently a lot of us had the same reaction.

This (except for blaming the show--I blamed Jim and his accomplices--) is exactly what I called the UM hotline to say, also wrote a friend (who happened to be an identical twin) to say when it first aired. The UM operator said "people are calling up just furious" so apparently a lot of us had the same reaction.

Calling furious? Why?

I think Jim invented this "evil twin" because he was rude to people his entire life and wanted everyone to believe it was somebody else.

I'd believe that Jim had a sick sense of humor or even suffered dissociative episodes before I'd believe in any actual twin--it's just too incredible he wouldn't have been turned up anywhere (for instance, by searching the annuals of every area high school for Jim's class year) or that someone wouldn't have outed the twin. He had to have had at least one enemy who wouldn't cover for him or at least would corroborate his existence to give Jim peace of mind. His kids may or may not have believed there was such a person. This one smells bigtime!

It is hard to believe there could be two men as ugly as that on the entire planet, let alone in one town.

It is hard to believe there could be two men as ugly as that on the entire planet, let alone in one town.

Thanks for the laugh. I needed it after a crap day.

Calling furious? Why?

Because when the relative was at the baseball game, they felt he should have asked the person he took to be Jim what was going on. The way it was presented, he thought it was only Jim weirding out on him and didn't learn till afterwards the man was (supposedly) not him. (This is why I used the word accomplices--if this in fact never happened, the relative was in on the prank, the prank being on UM and the viewers.) In any case, the team should have been contacted and asked the man's identity. The publicity of a national TV program was totally uncalled-for.

Another crap case was of the lady with a son named Benjamin who kept dreaming of her grandfather, and he finally said he would watch over them. Even if the story were every word true, no one could prove it but the family. It was a sentimental family story, but not worthy of UM treatment.

That was one of those moments that truly creeped me out as a kid.

is that Matt Bourne and...?

is that Matt Bourne and...?

That was "Skinner" believe it or not.

Yep-he took over after Bourne's problems took hold again.

Thought it might be Steve Lombardi, didn't the brawler play Doink occasionally too? I still remember the Bourne Again promo in ECW. Don't think I ever saw a match but I've read about the gimmick. Man I miss old ECW.

It is hard to believe there could be two men as ugly as that on the entire planet, let alone in one town.

Well, there was another at one time--his aunt's brother Bud!

I just watched this segment for the first time in quite a while and I’m surprised so many believe this to be a hoax. TheCars made a few good points in his post. The birth certificate featured on the segment alone shows that he actually did have a twin. That’s concrete evidence that the twin is real. Also mentioned by TheCars is the fact that all they had to do was find out who the pitcher was in the game that day. It seems odd that this wasn’t done but then again, the segment mentioned that Jim and his family didn’t think much of it until five years later when his father saw the twin. So my guess is that so much time passed that they couldn’t ask for the name of the pitcher.

I found his son's Facebook page, and I'm not going to link it here but it is fairly easy to find. He posted an article written about his dad in 1992 and one of the comments asked him if they ever found the twin and his response:

We had leads, still get some leads, but never found the twin. He did find a sister from his mother's side and brothers from what they believed to be his father's side.

This was posted about a year ago. This coincides with the text update on the Film Rise segment about this.

Probably one of the more bizarre cases I saw on Unsolved Mysteries, and that's saying something.

The only thing I can think of with this one is that this twin, if indeed he was the man everyone was seeing, wanted nothing to do with the family for whatever reason and didn't want to be found. Maybe he believed something about them that was untrue. Like he was left in a garbage can or something at birth. Otherwise I can't imagine him not even wanting to meet his own twin. and even that doesn't hold water cause why would be blame his twin for that?

I mean his reaction whenever people mistook him for Jim didn't make much sense. Looks like sooner or later he'd just tell somebody they were mistaking him for someone else. But to just walk away disgusted every time without saying anything is puzzling to say the least. Almost like he knew about Jim and they were mistaking him for Jim and simply wanted nothing to do with them. I can only imagine what would have happened had he actually ran into Jim.

As for the theory about this guy simply being a doppleganger who was not Jim's twin, that to me doesn't hold water either. Because again, why not simply tell them "I believe you are mistaking me for someone else." That's what any normal and rational person would have done. And they would probably come forward, out of sheer curiosity if nothing else to identify themselves and to simply say, " I know I look like you but my name is such and such and I'm not your twin. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Hope ya find him." simply blowing people off like he allegedly did doesn't make sense for a stranger who just happened to resemble Jim either.

Either the story was a complete hoax, or this guy knew about Jim but simply wanted nothing to do with him or his birth family for some unknown reason. If that's the case, its a shame because it may mean he believed some falsehood about them, perhaps told to him by his adoptive family.

Even though Jim is deceased, perhaps his children can still find the twin and set the record straight. But unfortunately I'd say there is a good chance the twin is also deceased.

Even though Jim is deceased, perhaps his children can still find the twin and set the record straight. But unfortunately I'd say there is a good chance the twin is also deceased.

Maybe not. If he's alive, he would be 73.

Jim, unfortunately died young. He was only 47 and passed away just two years after the UM broadcast.

Random "conspiracy theory" about this case:

What if Jim (or someone in his family) did in fact find the twin prior to the UM segment, who essentially said that he wanted nothing to do with his biological family (as noted in a different thread on this site by someone claiming to be Jim's son), and Jim contacted UM about the story with the hopes that national exposure would get his twin more willing to come forward and connect?

Random "conspiracy theory" about this case:

What if Jim (or someone in his family) did in fact find the twin prior to the UM segment, who essentially said that he wanted nothing to do with his biological family (as noted in a different thread on this site by someone claiming to be Jim's son), and Jim contacted UM about the story with the hopes that national exposure would get his twin more willing to come forward and connect?

The only reason I can think of that the twin would want nothing to do with Jim or his family is if he believed something bad about them, something that may or may not have been true. So it seems unlikely if that is the case an UM episode wouldn't change his mind.

But then again, so many things about this case and segment don't make a lick of sense. The man seen who resembled Jim's behavior didn't make any sense whether he was a stranger and it was a case of mistaken identity, or he was the twin. The rational thing to do would have been to either tell the person who saw him they were mistaken him for someone else, or just tell them he wanted nothing to do with Jim or his family for whatever reason. Just walking away looking disgusted and saying nothing makes little sense.

Especially that sighting at that company softball game. This friend of Jim's supposedly sees the man resembling him on the opposing team. I'm guessing this was a competition against another company. Did he not know who the opposing team was or where they came from? Or what company they represented? Seems like at that point they could have located the twin but yet didn't for some reason.

I figure there just about has to be more to this case than this segment revealed. They already established Jim did have a twin, but whether this man seen was him or not I guess was the mystery.