June and Jennifer Gibbons

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June and Jennifer Gibbons (born April 11, 1963 in Barbados , † Jennifer: March 9, 1993 in Bridgend , Wales ) were identical twins who grew up in Wales. The two became known as " The Silent Twins " because they suffered from a complex form of mutism and only communicated with each other. They published several fiction texts, which, however, only met with increased interest after their story became known. When one of the two sisters died, the other began to lead a normal life.

Life

June and Jennifer Gibbons were born as twins to the married couple Gloria and Aubrey Gibbons in Barbados . Aubrey, who worked as a technician for the Royal Air Force , brought his family to Haverfordwest , Wales . The twins grew up together and were inseparable from the start. As children, they developed a variant of very quickly spoken patois that was only understood by their nuclear family.

As the only black people in their community's school, they were avoided, excluded and bullied . This went so far that the children were released from school early so that they would not be harassed . They began to expand their language and let it become idiosyncratic , so that shortly afterwards they only understood each other. This idioglossy led them to withdraw more and more. So they only talked to their younger sister Rose. In addition, they began to act simultaneously. This unsettled their surroundings. So the twins made fun of doing everything at the same time and together, for example extremely slow, zombie- like walking, drinking tea synchronously or taking off their coats at the same time .

Therapists tried to get teenagers to talk to others when they were 14 years old. Their parents sent the twins to various boarding schools , but the two became catatonic . When they were reunited, they retired to their common room for two years, where they played with puppets and sometimes organized very complex theater plays in the soap opera style. After receiving diaries for Christmas 1979, they began writing short stories and novels. A correspondence course in creative writing helped them do this. Her stories were mostly set in Malibu , California , and were about people who acted strangely and developed criminal energy, such as June's title Pepsi-Cola Addict .

Her novels were self- published by New Horizons. The twins tried unsuccessfully to put short stories in magazines. They also flirted with American boys whose parents were employed by the United States Navy . They even had both deflowered at the same time . But even these escapes from their self-chosen isolation did not bring the desired result. Frustrated and misunderstood, they began to develop criminal energy and committed some crimes, including arson and theft. They were eventually placed in the Broadmoor Hospital mental health clinic in Crowthorne . In this high security facility , which was similar to a prison and which also housed serial killers like Peter William Sutcliffe and Myra Hindley , they stayed for 11 years, during which they were unsuccessfully treated with neuroleptics . Jennifer in particular suffered from constant immobilization and developed tardive dyskinesia . Over the years the medication was lowered so they at least kept their diary going. However, they lost their interest in creative writing. Marjorie Wallace , a journalist from The Sunday Times , took on her case and published an article and later a book about the two of them. The story was also picked up by The Sun and given in abridged form. In Germany, Die Zeit published a five-page article about the two in 1987.

Wallace said the two had previously made a pact that if either died, the other would lead a normal life. During their stay in the clinic, they decided that one was going to die. Jennifer finally agreed. In March 1993 the two were moved to the more open Caswell Clinic in Bridgend . On arrival, Jennifer could not be woken up. She was transferred to a hospital, where she died shortly after of myocarditis , which can be caused, among other things, by drug abuse. However, no drugs or poison were found in her blood indicative of suicide . June then went public and gave interviews to Harper's Bazaar and The Guardian . Today she lives quietly and secluded in West Wales and is no longer dependent on psychiatric support.

reception

In addition to various newspaper reports and the book by Marjorie Wallace, the fate of the twin couple was taken up several times in different forms. The following is a brief, chronological overview:

  • Jon Amiel : The Silent Twins (hour-long documentary based on a script by Marjorie Wallace)
  • Picture Frame Seduction : Forgotten Daughters ( Hand of the Rider , 1984, written for the documentary The Silent Twins )
  • Manic Street Preachers : Tsunami (on This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours , 1998)
  • Radiohole: More or Less Hudson's Bay, Again (play, 2003)
  • Luke Haines : Discomania (on The Oliver Twist Manifesto , 2001)
  • Vanessa Walters: Double Take (2004, play)
  • Lucie Brock-Broido: Elective Mutes , poem in her anthology A Hunger (Knopf 2005, ISBN 0-394-75852-8 )
  • April de Angelis & The Silent Twins (Opera, 2007)
  • Dog and Pony Theater Company: The Twins Would Like to Say (Play, 2010)
  • Linda Brogan & Polly Teale: Speechless (Play, 2010)
  • Death Grips : The Powers That B (concept double album, part 1: Niggas on the Moon , 2014; part 2: Jenny Death , 2015)

literature

  • Marjorie Wallace: The Silent Twins. Prentice Hall Press, New York City 1986.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Marjorie Wallace The Silent Twins , Prentice-Hall, October 1986, ISBN 5-551-73250-9 .
  2. ↑ a b Kathleen Morgan: Tragic tale of twins and their secret world. Herald Scotland, August 2, 2010, archived from the original on February 17, 2015 ; accessed on October 24, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f April de Angelis: 'Have I the strength to kill her?' The Guardian , June 28, 2007, accessed October 25, 2015 .
  4. ^ A b c Marjorie Wallace: The tragedy of a double life , London: The Guardian , July 13, 2003. Retrieved October 24, 2015
  5. ↑ Uta van Steen: Silence for two, write alone . In: The time . No. 45 , October 30, 1987 ( zeit.de ).
  6. ↑ Hilton Als (2000): We Two Made One , The New Yorker
  7. ^ Inquiry into death of silent twin . The Independent , March 12, 1993. Accessed October 24, 2015
  8. ↑ [1]
  9. ↑ None of It: More or Less Hudson's Bay, Again (screenplay) . ( radiohole.com [PDF]).
  10. ^ Double take. thestage.co.uk, accessed October 24, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Kelly Reaves: The Twins Would Like to Say at Steppenwolf. Gapersblock.com, May 3, 2010, accessed October 25, 2015 .