Conventional wisdom would have it that every person on earth has a "twin" --- a physical counterpart they may never meet.

Toss that topic into any group conversation and one usually hears several stories about mistaken identities. Stories not unlike the ones that follow, related by area women who really might have preferred not knowing who (or what) their "twins" were.

In the words of Sgt. Joe Friday of Dragnet: The stories you are about to hear are true; only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Kay laughed the first time someone called her Pam. Her laughter wore a little thin later in the evening, along about the fourth time someone asked her to autograph a purple-inked auction sale bill, printed on lavender paper.

That famous sale bill found its way into hands of collectors all over the country, with or without the autograph of the gregarious Deadwood madam, Pam Holliday.

Contents of Pam’s Purple Door, otherwise known as the Frontier Rooms, went on the auction block in July 1980, after a May raid permanently closed Deadwood houses of prostitution.

Kay was among the large crowd attending the auction. When a stranger standing next to her commented, "You’ve really had a busy day," she agreed. Her day had been busy.

Several hours later she recognized the significance of that casual remark.

After the auction, Kay joined friends for a drink at Durty Nelly’s. Two couples approached the booth to request Kay’s autograph on their souvenir sale bills.

Her response, "I wouldn’t know why you’d want my autograph," drew a derisive "C’mon, Pam," from the celebrity seekers.

That was when Kay finally realized she apparently was being mistaken for one of Deadwood’s most notorious madams.

Several weeks passed before Kay returned to Deadwood for the Days of ’76 celebration.

We were in a Main Street bar when this guy I’d never see before came up and grabbed me by the arm and asked, "What’s the problem, Pam? Don’t you speak to old friends in public?"

I told him I wasn’t who he thought I was. He got mad and so did I. "Get me out of here," I said to my escort. "If I’m going to have a reputation, I’ll make my own!"

"I had often wondered why so many strange men smiled and said hello to me, but until then I didn’t realize why," Kay laughed. "I just thought Deadwood was an exceptionally friendly town."

It’s been nearly two decades since Deadwood cathouses closed and the girls moved from the area. Kay had nearly forgotten about her embarrassment at being confused with Pam Holliday until she escorted a group of out-of-towners on a Deadwood tour last summer. After visiting the Adams Museum’s brothel exhibit, several of the women in the group commented they had seen a picture of "Kay" and were surprised to know she had once been the madam of one of Deadwood’s nefarious houses.

"I still can’t see the resemblance," Kay protests, "but apparently other people do."

After holding her tongue for a good many years, a Black Hills woman has been wondering if she should now clear up a mystery for her favorite sister-in-law.

My brother’s wife has a good sense of humor, but I doubt she would be flattered to know that back in the 1950s she had a twin working in a Deadwood house.

Back when I was in high school one of my girlfriends dated an airman from the airbase. He and some of his friends drove us up to Deadwood one Saturday. After cruising downtown for a while, he stopped at the riding stables and got out to talk to an attractive young blonde standing outside, not more than 20 feet from the car. I began commenting aloud about how much she looked like my brother’s wife. I didn’t know why the other guys were snickering until one of them finally told me the cute blonde, Toni, worked at the Shasta Rooms. A year or two later, as I was having coffee with my sister-in-law, she described a misunderstanding with her husband’s company supervisor who lived in Deadwood.

"Cal asked us to meet him in Deadwood New Year’s Eve," Dot said, "but it was so cold and snowy we decided to stay home.

"When Cal stopped by a few weeks later. I noticed he kept giving me the eye, but I didn’t think much about it until my husband left the room for a few minutes. Cal smirked when he asked if I’d had fun in Deadwood New Year’s Eve. And he obviously didn’t believe me when I said we were at home that night and in bed long before midnight.

He insisted he’d seen me dancing at the Bodega. Cal knows me pretty well, so whoever he saw must be someone who looks an awful lot like me.

The narrator of the story laughed as she remembered looking across the table at her sister-in-law, wondering if she should tell her that her ‘twin’ was a shady lady from the Shasta.

I finally decided not to say anything. I really didn’t want to explain how I happened to get a close look at one of the girls. And I darn sure didn’t want my older brother asking awkward questions.

Sgt. Friday would probably call it the Case of the Gemini Factor. Or which twin was Toni?