The Silent Twins

[I'mConvinced]

I have tried the search function to no avail so apologies if this is a repeat.  The Silent Twins is one of my more favoured mysteries and it's a real humdinger:

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https://www.npr.org/2015/05/08/405191622/the-silent-twins

June and Jennifer Gibbons were twin sisters who hadn't spoken to anyone but each other their whole lives. That is, until journalist Marjorie Wallace came along and unearthed their inner world.

 

Almost as mysterious as their lives was the death of Jennifer:

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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/inquiry-into-death-of-silent-twin-1497079.html

Michael Morgan, director of administration at Broadmoor, refused to comment on Jennifer's medical condition, except to say: 'If she had been unwell she would not have been transferred.' 

 

There were dark things in the minds of these children:

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https://www.ranker.com/list/silent-twins-jennifer-and-june-gibbons/erin-wisti

 

They shared an uncanny connection of some sort:

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https://www.ranker.com/list/silent-twins-jennifer-and-june-gibbons/erin-wisti

At age 14, June and Jennifer’s parents and teachers were concerned about the girls' development. They decided it'd be best to separate the twins to encourage socialization; however, this backfired dramatically as the twins became catatonic until they were reunited. After their reunion, the girls returned to spending the bulk of their time alone together.

 

This was also noted in prison:

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https://www.npr.org/2015/05/08/405191622/the-silent-twins

The doctors thought June and Jennifer were deeply disturbed and dangerous. Some days, only one twin would eat, and the next day, the other would indulge as her sister starved. Other times, the nurses would find them frozen in the same pose, even though there were locked in cells on opposite ends of the hospital.

 

Did they really share some sort of telepathic connection? Can a seemingly health person simply choose to die and then do so within minutes?  What did they feel between them that was so awful that death was the only solution? 

[+Not A Rockstar]

I never heard this before, and it is seriously complex! I think the suffering in their childhood contributed to their sense of being necessarily together to cope, but, I wonder what mental condition it was to take such a bizarre extreme.

As for her death, I mean some yogis can control their body functions to rare degrees. maybe she could will herself to die and had been doing it for longer than the drive. It was noted she had lost weight beforehand, after all.

Very odd story. Thanks for sharing it.

[I'mConvinced]

2 hours ago, Not A Rockstar said:

As for her death, I mean some yogis can control their body functions to rare degrees. maybe she could will herself to die and had been doing it for longer than the drive. It was noted she had lost weight beforehand, after all.

Here's the weird thing about that. It takes training, serious training, just to consciously slow your heart rate. So if she had just stopped her heart then maybe I could buy that they had the innate ability somehow. That's not what killed her though.

They know when they decided:

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WALLACE: I took my daughter in, and we went through all the doors and then we went into the place where the visitors were allowed to have tea. And we had quite a jolly conversation to begin with. And then suddenly, in the middle of the conversation, Jennifer said, Marjorie, Marjorie, I'm going to have to die, and I sort of laughed. I sort of said what? Don't be silly. You're 31 years old. You know, you're just about to be freed from Broadmoor. Why are you going to have to die? You're not ill. And she said, because we've decided. At that point, I got very, very frightened because I could see that they meant it. And then they said, we have made a pact. Jennifer has got to die because they said the day that they left Broadmoor, the day that they were free from the secure hospital, one of them would have to give up their life to really enable the other one to be free. I later found out that they had been quarreling violently - from the staff at Broadmoor - about who was going to die. And then they passed over a little pine that they'd written, which was (reading) that two is your laughing, that two is your smiling and now I'm dead, that too is your crying

So she did have a few days to prepare...but prepare what? In the end she died from a bizarre heart infection. No trace of poison or drugs. Could it just be pure coincidence that she was harbouring an undetected heart condition and died on the day promised? It's a stretch but possible.

[+Not A Rockstar]

the whole thing is bizarre, but if they could not get drugs to do this with, I have heard of people dying of broken hearts so maybe she was able to do this with the strength of her emotions somehow. They were not normal people. If they did have a drug source or poison, what could have done that? The autopsy does not tell us much.

[stereologist]

The story mentions that the twins used cryptophasia, a language between twins. I've seen it before. I remember learning to understand some young twins. So when one of them said to me: "Boy Ka-Ka Nay" I knew he was telling me that I was drinking poop water. It was a beer.

 

[+Not A Rockstar]

1 hour ago, stereologist said:

The story mentions that the twins used cryptophasia, a language between twins. I've seen it before. I remember learning to understand some young twins. So when one of them said to me: "Boy Ka-Ka Nay" I knew he was telling me that I was drinking poop water. It was a beer.

 

do you know more about this? Can you add any insight to these twins in the OP? I really am puzzled to know what to make of it all, Stereo   Did they somehow take the twinning too far in their psyches and come to feel only one could live and be whole and if they both lived they were just halves or something?

[stereologist]

1 hour ago, Not A Rockstar said:

do you know more about this? Can you add any insight to these twins in the OP? I really am puzzled to know what to make of it all, Stereo   Did they somehow take the twinning too far in their psyches and come to feel only one could live and be whole and if they both lived they were just halves or something?

I know nothing about this story. I was not surprised to hear they had their own language. From what I read it seems that they were far removed the sounds they would have heard from other people speaking. It's definitely an odd tale. They seemed to have some unusual ideas about life including what I took as insulating themselves from other people. Yet, they wrote stories which they expected other people to read.

[+Not A Rockstar]

From what little I can find it does sound they were very isolated by peers and harassed growing up, so maybe it enhanced their oneness notions. It seems sad and is really a mystery for now, I guess.

Thanks for your time and info

 

[HollyDolly]

Really strange story. There is a book about it, but i forgot the author's name.Think the book was entitled The Silent twqins.They had the book at the local library.

[I'mConvinced]

It turns out their special language was actually just English but sped up and distorted. 

Trying to find the actual pathology report is proving tricky.