One day in 1946 two boys was born. Billy and Benny Mccrary. Two people who would go on to be recognized as the world’s heaviest twins. The McGuire Twins. From birth, they weren’t unlike any other set of twins, born less than two minutes apart they both were birthed prematurely and they only weighed in at 5 pounds. The weight gain itself started at the age of 4 after a nasty case of German measles which in turn had damaged their pituitary glands – the hormone-producing gland that controls a human’s rate of growth. By 10 years old they weighed in at 200 pounds and in high school they reached 600 pounds, their father decided to put them to work to lose weight. The twins became truck farmers, selling vegetables they’d grown out of the back of their ’53 Chevrolet pick-up. But the hard work of farming wasn’t enough to keep the weight off.
Despite the weight though they both lived pretty active lives they had wives, specially built cars and where able to fly (although they had to book two seats a piece) they were also regulars on the late-night talk show circuit, such as the tonight show, Making them celebrities in the city of Hendersonville. They made their in-ring debut in 1972 under the name The Mcguire Twins, this name was used because it was easier for the ring announcers to say. They used the finishing move the “Tupelo Splash”, which involved one of the twins diving belly-first onto a prone opponent; they would follow this with “The Steamroller”, where the twin would roll back and forward over the opponent. They quickly became an attraction touring the world a total of 7 times working for such promotions as New Japan Pro wrestling, The National Wrestling Alliance and Stampede wrestling.
Due to limited mobility a plan had to be set out for them when it came to matches, always being portrayed as these immovable objects, in 1998 in an interview with inside wrestling magazine benny stated that… “Of course, we didn’t take bumps like the average wrestler So he worked out a routine for us. Guys run against us and fall down. They come in and try to give us a body slam, we turn around and give them one.” this style of wrestling actually led them to being undefeated for 14 years Billy himself once said about their careers that ‘’ Let’s face it. We’re making the best of a bad situation.”
The McGuire Twins were also Keen bikers and during a 3000-mile mini bike trip from New York to Los Angeles as part of a Honda promotion they made a stop off in El Paso Texas and it was during this stop-off that they actually met Gory Guerrero and he convinced them to make the transition into the Wrestling ring.
Sadly in 1979 Billy died due to injuries sustained during a mini motorcycle stunt in Niagara Falls on his way to Ripley’s Believe it or not museum in Ontario Canada. Benny lived for another 22 years, and in that time, he continued sporadic wrestling appearances teaming with Andre the Giant now and again. In 1998 Benny returned to Hendersonville and opened a pawn shop and lived out the rest of his days working with his wife.
Benny McCrary died of heart failure in 2001 at Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville.
There is a 13-foot-wide memorial at Crab Creek Baptist Church Cemetery that holds the record as the world’s largest gravestone. The 3-ton granite monument was inscribed with two Honda mini-bikes and the words, “World Record Holders.”
So, Benny and Billy McCrary may leave behind the moniker of the world heaviest twins but I believe they leave behind a legacy of good hardworking people who made the most of the hand that they had been dealt and tales of awed fans who paid the admission ticket to see them perform against the likes of Antonio Inoki and The Bass brothers. It’s my hope that you’ll read this article and do some research into these fascinating gentlemen as they have quite the life story, one of which echoes in the pantheon of life and professional wrestling itself.