'Silent Twins' Wouldn't Speak Until One Sacrificed Themselves For The Other

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'Silent Twins' Wouldn't Speak Until One Sacrificed Themselves For The Other

It's well documented that twins have a connection like none other. Both fraternal and identical twins can attest to a type of telepathy that occurs between them. It can't really be explained, but it's definitely a thing.

There is arguably not a more well-documented case of twin telepathy than June and Jennifer Gibbons, twin sisters who grew up in Wales.

If you love odd and creepy old news, get ready for this roller coaster.

Growing Up

June and Jennifer Gibbons were born in Barbados in 1963. Their father was a technician in the Airforce and shortly after their birth, the twins and their family moved to Wales. June and Jennifer were the only black children in their class at school, so they were often segregated. Because of the traumatic exclusion they suffered, teachers dismissed them early in order to let them get home safely every day.

Their language was already difficult to understand due to their high-speed communication, and it eventually turned into something called cryptophasia, meaning a language only twins can understand between each other. June and Jennifer began only speaking to each other or their sister Rose. By the time they turned 14, therapists were brought in to have the girls speak to others. However, they never did. Each girl was sent to a different boarding school in an attempt to socialize, but they became catatonic and withdrawn.

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Eeerie Writing

After being reunited from boarding school, June and Jennifer spent hours in their rooms together in complete isolation. In 1979, they were each given journals as Christmas gifts. It inspired them to send away for a mail-order writing course so they could learn how to write novels. They each wrote several, all of them centering around women with criminal tendencies and strange behavior.

June wrote a novel called Pepsi-Cola Addict, where a high-school student was seduced by a teacher and then gets sent away to a reformatory where a guard forces him into a homosexual relationship. Jennifer wrote a book called The Pugilist, where a doctor's child needs a heart transplant so the doctor kills the family dog to use its heart. The dog's spirit then lives on in the child and gets revenge on the father.

Unbelievable Facts

So how did they end up in an asylum?

Criminal Life and Dangerous Behavior

June and Jennifer Gibbons had their novels published and tried selling their work to magazines as well. The girls were on unemployment and used their money to buy marijuana and alcohol. They kept journaling their lives.

"God knows what memories would be mine had that summer not told me the secrets of love, passion and sex," Jennifer wrote in her journal. "They are all there in my mind like a string of golden flashes. Somebody gave me an opportunity to do something about my life, and I took it as a child will take candy."

Both girls lost their virginity to the same boy in the same week. Their constant togetherness did not always mean they got along. June tried to drown Jennifer in the river. Jennifer tried to strangle June with a radio cord.

The twins began to live a life crime, including arson and theft. They burned down a store in 1981, injuring a fireman and causing over $200,000 in damages. Two weeks later they vandalized and attempted to burn down a technical college.

Both twins were admitted to Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security mental institution.

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Hospitalization

June and Jennifer spent 14 years locked up at Broadmoor Hospital. Both were placed on high dosages of anti-psychotic medications for obvious reasons. After some time on the meds, neither twin could concentrate on anything so their dosage was lowered. June and Jennifer kept documenting their lives after the adjustment, but they eventually lost interest in their creative writing.

In March 1993, June and Jennifer were to be moved to a lower-security hospital called Caswell Clinic.

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Jennifer's 'Sacrifice'

June and Jennifer had a long-standing agreement that if one of them died, the other had to live a normal life. Once they had been hospitalized, these discussions began to heat up and it became clear to them that one of them had to sacrifice themselves so the other could be set free.

Jennifer agreed to be the sacrifice for her sister.

During transportation to Caswell Clinic, Jennifer fell asleep with her eyes open on June's lap. When they took Jennifer to get medical attention she soon died of acute myocarditis, a sudden inflammation of the heart.

But here's the thing: no one knows why it happened. Jennifer had no evidence of drugs or poison in her system. According to June, Jennifer had been acting strange for a few days prior to her death, but there are still no answers to how Jennifer's heart suddenly became inflamed.

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So where is June Gibbons now?

June Gibbons Now

Days after her sister died, June Gibbons is reported to have said "I'm free at last, liberated, and at last Jennifer has given up her life for me."

"June could have had a much better life. She has never married or had children or fulfilled her ambition to be a writer," said June and Jennifer's older sister Greta.

June now lives in a small community, where she is no longer monitored by psychiatric services and has been accepted by the people in her town. She has put the past behind her and is moving forward with her life.

Have you ever heard of these twins before?

Meagan has an intense love for Netflix, napping, and carbs.