These twin sisters did everything together. They were inseparable. But the terrifying true story about their tormented lives sound like something straight out of a Stephen King film.

As children, June and Jennifer Gibbons spoke their own coded language, became criminals and even repeatedly tried to murder each other despite their love for one another.

“This sister of mine, a dark shadow robbing me of sunlight, is my one and only torment,” June wrote in her diary. Both of them repeatedly communicated that they wanted to gain their freedom by killing the other off.

The sisters were the only black girls in their small Welsh town of Haverford West, which may have made them feel excluded from everyone else around them at a very early age. While growing up, they began relying on one another more and more, and shutting out the rest of the world. They even refused to speak, causing people to dub them the “Silent Twins.”

They were adamant about mirroring each other’s every move. According to the Chicago Tribune, whenever they felt threatened in public spaces, they would freeze in place, remaining speechless and motionless for any given amount of time. A therapist, Cathy Arthur, began studying their mystifying case, and even she was taken aback at how in sync the two girls were. When she took them horseback riding, in an effort to promote individuality, it became clear that would never be a possibility.

If one of them fell off their horse while riding, the other would follow almost immediately.

Soon enough, the Gibbons took up committing crimes together, such as arson and theft because, as June wrote in an entry, “No friends. nothing else to do. Nothing to fill the cold hour.” During this time, that’s when they attempted to snuff each other. June once tried to drown Jennifer in a river. Jennifer strangled June with a telephone cord. Strangely enough, they were somehow able to forgive and forget.

Their appalling crime spree continued until 1982, when they were detained for burning down a barn. A judge found them both insane and sent them away to the notorious Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security psychiatric institution, when they were 18.

While locked up, they were generally kept apart, but that hadn’t prevented them from continuing to attack one another. They even attempted suicide multiple times to escape their suffering.

At the age of 29, they finally made a promise that one of them had to die. It seemed like the only way out from a life of hell.

A reporter, Marjorie Wallace, who became close with the women and later wrote a biography about them, went to visit them during this complex time.

That’s when Jennifer explained to her: “Marjorie, I’m going to die. We’ve decided.” And she meant it.

On the day they were released from Broadmoor to a lower security facility, Jennifer allegedly died due to an inflammation of her heart. However, the real cause of her death remains a mystery.

Ever since her sister’s death, June has lived a seemingly normal, happy life with her family in Wales. It’s almost as if she never shared that incredibly bizarre life with her psychotic twin, or that she even had a sister in the first place.

She was finally freed from the dark shadow that kept her from the sunlight.

We don’t know about you, but we definitely think this real-life horror story should be made into a movie for the big screen.

Related Stories

10 Youngest Murderers in History

10 Bone-Chilling Urban Myths (That Aren’t Really Myths)

This Little Girl’s Heartbreakingly Dark Childhood Gave Her the Desire to Kill