June and Jennifer Gibbons were infamous for their unique and tragic story. Born to Barbadian parents in Yemen in 1963, the sisters moved to Wales with their family and were the only black family in their rural community. However, they soon became shy and withdrawn, eventually becoming selectively mute due to bullying.
As teenagers, the twins decided to become writers and started reading classic literature by authors such as Jane Austen and DH Lawrence. They became more isolated and paranoid, leading to a five-week crime spree where they broke into a college and set fire to a local tractor shop. They were ultimately caught and sent to prison, where it was determined they needed psychiatric help. They were then admitted to the high-security psychiatric hospital, Broadmoor, as the youngest female patients.
Now, June tells her own story for the first time on the BBC podcast, June: Voice of a Silent Twin. June describes the sense of despair and isolation that contributed to their self-destructive behavior. Despite this, June reflects on the experience with humor, saying that they once thought that “Broadmoor sounded like a hotel, with parties and discos.”
One educational psychologist remembers the twins as having a “speech impediment” and “extraordinary synchronised movement” between them. The story of the Gibbons twins is a tale of isolation, ambition, love, crime, and tragedy. They inspired a film and a hit song and were even friends with a Kray twin, but for years they only ever spoke to each other.
Despite their tragic ending, their story continues to fascinate and inspire people to this day
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