Born in 1963, twins June and Jennifer Gibbons became known as ‘The Silent Twins’ as they refused to speak to anyone but each other. The twins created their own secret language through which they communicated.
In an attempt to get them to socialise with others, the twins were kept apart at school. Later, at age fourteen, they were sent to therapists, and separate boarding schools. These attempts, however, backfired, as the girls became even more withdrawn from society.
After their reunion, the twins spent the next few years shut away in their room where they performed plays for one another, wrote in their diaries, and inflicted harm on each other. Their diaries would later reveal an extremely dark side to their bond. They both loved, and hated each other.
One excerpt from June’s diary reads, “Nobody suffers the way I do, not with a sister; with a husband, yes; with a wife, yes; with a child, yes, but this sister of mine, a dark shadow robbing me of sunlight, is my one and only torment.”
Jennifer, born ten minutes later than June, saw her sister as better than her and grew extremely jealous. Sensing this envy, June wrote in her diary, “She wants us to be equal. There is a murderous gleam in her eye. Dear lord, I am scared of her. She is not normal … someone is driving her insane. It is me.”
After awhile the twins began committing crimes like petty theft and arson. It was this criminal mischief, combined with their severe social disorders that landed them in Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security mental facility.
The doctors at Broadmoor found the twins to be deeply disturbed and even dangerous. During a relocation to another facility, Jennifer, the younger twin, placed her head on her sibling’s shoulder, took her last breath, and said, “At long last, we’re out.” Doctors rushed her to a hospital where she was later pronounced dead. The cause of death was determined to be a sudden, lethal inflammation of the heart. However, during an autopsy, doctors did not find any drug or poison in her body and her death still remains a mystery.
June, the surviving twin later revealed that they had made a pact at Broadmoor: One of them had to die, so the other could live a normal life.
