In the 1986 best-seller The Silent Twins, author Marjorie Wallace documents the fascinating lives of Jennifer and June Gibbons, English twins with selective mutism who were eventually incarcerated for the many crimes they committed together as teens and adults, including theft and arson.
on 9 March. One of the twins who had, for a day or so, been suffering from a mild 'flu-like illness, collapsed on arrival, dying a few hours later in the local general hospital. Post mortem examination revealed a massive, acute myocarditis.
In 1981, the girls committed a number of crimes including vandalism, petty theft and arson, which led to their being admitted to Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security mental health hospital. The twins were sentenced to indefinite detention under the Mental Health Act 1983. They remained at Broadmoor for eleven years.
Why didn't The Silent Twins speak? Teachers noticed that the twins would only talk to themselves and refused to read and write. They developed their own 'secret language' which nobody else could understand and it meant June and Jennifer became distant from their family, growing increasingly isolated.
June and Jennifer Gibbons were born in April 1963 and grew up in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. They were taken to Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security mental health hospital, when they were 19, before Jennifer died at the age of 30.
A film about real-life twins who spoke to no one but each other is fascinating UK cinema-goers after debuting at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. The Silent Twins tells the story of black sisters June and Jennifer Gibbons, who stopped communicating with the outside world after facing racism and bullying.
'And June could have had a much better life. She has never married or had children or fulfilled her ambition to be a writer.
Numerous studies have established that twins, triplets and other sets of multiples have a higher likelihood of speech delays. (It's also more common in identical twins and multiples than in fraternal.)
Based on the true story of June (Wright) and Jennifer Gibbons (Tamara Lawrance), and adapted to screen from the best-selling book of the same name by investigative journalist Marjorie Wallace, Focus Features has just announced that the film will stream exclusively on Peacock early November.
The sisters, who had a speech impediment, were bullied at school and further withdrew into their own world, leaving their parents, Aubrey and Gloria Gibbons, 'bewildered' at how to deal with them.
In the 1986 best-seller The Silent Twins, author Marjorie Wallace documents the fascinating lives of Jennifer and June Gibbons, English twins with selective mutism who were eventually incarcerated for the many crimes they committed together as teens and adults, including theft and arson.
Twins in horror are frequently seen as either dangerously co-dependent or as complete opposites of one other, one usually being good and the other evil. Twins remain popular in horror because they can serve as walking metaphors for duality and duplicity.
June and Jennifer Gibbons were most likely Autistic or had Asperger's Syndrome. That would have made it difficult to communicate with people and understand the norms (very common among kids with Asperger's or ADHD).
Jennifer Gibbons died on release from Broadmoor Hospital at a clinic in Bridgend. The medical reason given was acute myocarditis, a sudden inflammation of the heart. Jennifer was just 29.
The twins are incarcerated at separate prisons within the Georgia Department of Corrections. Tasmiyah is serving her sentence in Pulaski State Prison and Jasmiyah is serving her sentence in Arrendale State Prison.
The "twinnies," as their mother called them, were born at a Royal Air Force base in Aden, where their father Aubrey was stationed. They had two older siblings, Greta and David, and a sister, Rosie, four years younger.
The Silent Twins had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, under the Un Certain Regard section, on May 24, 2022, was released in the United States on September 16, 2022, by Focus Features, and is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2022, by Universal Pictures.
The Silent Twins (2022)
Rated R for drug use, some sexual content, nudity, language and disturbing material.
The Silent Twins is a truly jaw dropping tale that once read will never be forgotten, and Marjorie Wallace does it justice. This is a well written and well researched book and it is generously interspersed with precious excerpts from the prolific diaries kept by the twins.
Why? Because identical twins share the exact same DNA. In twin studies looking at schizophrenia, scientists have shown that if one identical twin has schizophrenia, then there is a 30-50% chance that the other twin will have it as well1.
One baby was miscarried during the pregnancy without the mothers or doctors knowing. Doctors called these cases vanishing twins or vanishing twin syndrome (VTS). The tissue from a vanishing twin is mostly reabsorbed by the mother's body and the remaining baby.
Monoamniotic-monochorionic Twins
These types of twins share a chorion, placenta, and an amniotic sac. This is the rarest type of twin, and it means a riskier pregnancy as the babies can get tangled in their own umbilical cords.
For over 20 years, Joanne Lee's mother kept the remains of three newborn babies hidden in her wardrobe. For the first time since exposing her mother's crimes, Joanne breaks her silence over her family's horrific ordeal.
The biographical drama film, starring Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance and directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska, is based on the heartwrenching and shocking true story of June and Jennifer Gibbons.