June and Jennifer Gibbons

June and Jennifer Gibbons

American twin sisters, a medical mystery
Date of Birth: 11.04.1963
Country: USA

Content:
  1. The Silent Twins: June and Jennifer Gibbons
  2. Biography

The Silent Twins: June and Jennifer Gibbons

The American twin sisters, June and Jennifer Gibbons, known as The Silent Twins, have remained a mystery to psychiatrists, psychologists, and linguists. From early childhood, the girls only communicated with each other, completely ignoring the outside world. They invented their own language and only loved one person in the world - their younger sister. They wrote books that no one wanted to publish, but which were fully completed and good novels. Later, after many years in a psychiatric hospital, June and Jennifer decided that one of them had to disappear, and soon, under very strange circumstances, Jennifer died of a heart attack. After this, June became more sociable, was able to socialize and continue living.

June and Jennifer Gibbons

Biography

June and Jennifer Gibbons were born on the same day and at the same hour in 1963 and grew up in Wales. Their parents, Gloria and Aubrey Gibbons, were immigrants from the Caribbean islands, and in addition to the twins, they also had a younger sister named Rose. June and Jennifer behaved very strangely from an early age - they did not speak at all, but communicated perfectly with each other. Soon, they were diagnosed with a speech defect, but it seemed that this was not the reason for their silence - their parents were surprised to find that the whole world around them seemed to not exist for the twins. They secluded themselves and were completely satisfied only in each other's company.

June and Jennifer Gibbons

As time went on, June and Jennifer continued to remain silent. However, they communicated perfectly with each other in a language that was completely incomprehensible to those around them. When they were sent to school, they had a hard time - they became targets for cruel peers, and soon the school administration had to constantly send them home. It was during this period that it was decided to separate June and Jennifer - they were sent to different boarding schools so that they could socialize and start perceiving the surrounding world away from each other. Unfortunately, each of the sisters became even more withdrawn, and it was soon recognized that this experiment had failed.

June and Jennifer Gibbons

However, there was only one person in the world with whom June and Jennifer could communicate normally - their younger sister Rose, whom the girls adored and dedicated all their games to, and later the stories they began to write together. After the failed experiment with the boarding schools, June and Jennifer locked themselves in their room for a couple of years and started writing books. Their stories were very entertaining, with complex plots, unexpected twists, and characters. They wrote several novels and also recorded some stories on a tape recorder, dedicating it all to Rose. Unfortunately, the sisters were unable to sell their novels, although at least one of them, "Pepsi-Cola Addict," later became a rare, collectible book.

June and Jennifer Gibbons

In the late 1970s, the sisters committed several minor crimes, such as arson, and as a result, both ended up in the Broadmoor Hospital psychiatric facility, where they spent a long 14 years. During this time, they were heavily treated with various psychotropic drugs, after which both lost their literary abilities and stopped writing completely. It is known that after leaving the hospital, Jennifer began to suffer from mental disorders. It turned out that the sisters had long had an agreement that if one of them died, it would be a signal for the other to start speaking and living a normal life. And in the end, after many years in the hospital, the sisters came to the conclusion that one of them had to go. Jennifer volunteered herself, and June agreed. Soon, an event occurred that still puzzles the medical community - in 1993, Jennifer suddenly died of acute myocarditis, which seemed to have arisen out of nowhere. It was strange and inexplicable, but there were no signs of violent death or suicide - it really looked like death due to a heart condition.

Left alone, June, as the sisters had agreed, gradually began to speak. Later, she said in an interview that she now felt free, and Jennifer had given her life through her death. She gave several interviews, including for Harper's Bazaar and The Guardian. It is known that over time, June, who continued to live with her parents, settled into life, began to communicate, and no longer needed psychiatric help. According to some information, she even began to live in a common-law marriage. She never wrote any more books.

The case of The Silent Twins has remained a mystery to psychiatrists, psychologists, linguists, speech therapists, and pediatricians.

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