YORK'S world-famous reclusive Chaplin twins are the inspiration for a new Hollywood film. Tinsel-town A-listers Rooney Mara and her sister Kate are starring in a film based on the lives on Freda and Greta Chaplin
twin sisters from Tang Hall who shot to fame in the early 1980s following a sensational court case in York.
The twins were prosecuted at York Magistrates' Court for breach of the peace for harassing a local truck driver, Ken Iveson.
It was the first time their strange lives came to the attention of the wider public – and their story was reported in newspapers across the world: journalists from Brazil, Sweden and Minnesota covered the case.
The twins were bizarre mirror images of each other. They dressed identically, spoke in unison and even walked in step.
They were inseparable and at the trial would shout out together to plead their innocence.
Press reports at the time record them saying: "No, no, no, no, no. It's not true. It's not true. We haven't been near him, we haven't been near there, it is a bitter, bitter lie" and the magistrates ordering them to be quiet.
They were jailed for one month.
Read more:
- Famous city twin sister Greta Chaplin dies at 64
- Obituary: Freda Chaplin, York's famous twin dies aged 77
- Freda Chaplin death: buried with twin Greta in York grave
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A MAJOR open-air event planned for York this summer has been cancelled as a casualty of the cost-of-living crisis.
