Her last words, Wallace says, before Jennifer fell into a coma hours before her death just over a week later, were: 'At last we're free, don't forget that TV set I gave you.' 'I said: 'Of course you're not, you're 29.''ĭescribing the moment June responded with 'We've decided', Wallace says 'it was the most chilling moment in my journalistic life - I knew that something would happen.' And suddenly in the middle of this, Jennifer said: 'Marjorie, Marjorie, Marjorie, I'm going to die'. Of Jennifer's death, Wallace explained a conversation that took place ten days earlier, saying: 'They had a great sense of humour and that's what I adored about them, never a pun escaped them, never a joke escaped them.

When Wallace answered in the affirmative, a fledgling relationship began between the journalist and the twins, that would endure until Jennifer's death, and which continues with June, who still lives close to the town where the twins grew up.

The sisters had just pleaded guilty to a five-week crime spree in West Wales, including 16 counts of burglary, theft and arson, when Wallace met them for the first time, describing them as like 'stone effigies, with perfect mirror movement'.Īfter an hour of 'lips sealed', Wallace told the siblings 'I've been reading your writing', which sparked a response from June, who asked 'Did you like them?' The sisters, who had a speech impediment, stopped communicating with adults during childhood and were inseparable until June's death at the age of 29 Her sister June now lives a private life in her native Wales and, Wallace says, 'liberated' by the death of her sibling.Ī new film released on Friday, The Silent Twins, is based on Wallace's book of the same name, and sees Black Panther star Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance playing the sisters. Jennifer died unexpectedly, at the age of 29, from acute myocarditis, after the sisters were moved from Broadmoor after 11 years to a less secure unit. Speaking on Woman's Hour on Tuesday, Wallace, who founded the mental health charity SANE, recounted her extraordinary experiences meeting twin sisters June and Jennifer Gibbons, who grew up in Wales in the 1970s, and were institutionalised at Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital at 19 after petty crime sprees during their teenage years. Charity CEO Marjorie Wallace has revealed how she persuaded two twin sisters who'd made a childhood pact to never speak to adults open up to her using a love of writing - and the 'chilling' moment they predicted one of them would die.

The Silent Twins by Marjorie Wallace