The True Story Of Genie Wiley: The Feral Child Kept In Isolation For 13 Years

Mr. Wiley, yes, why did you keep your daughter in the room? Mr. Wiley has no comment, he had time to discuss, we have not had any social workers, we discovered the case two weeks ago to the social workers at the Los Angeles County Welfare Office, Wednesday, November 4, 1970. Like any other day, they answered processed phones, filed documents and made referrals, but that afternoon, when the door to their office opened, it stopped everyone in their tracks, it wasn't the woman who appeared at the door who shot them, it was the girl standing next to her the young woman's appearance was so disheveled that at first glance the social workers believed she was homeless, but that was not the case at all the girl's

story

would make the news as one of the worst cases of

child

abuse in the hi

story

of the United States no one had seen anything like it and the more everyone learned about her and her life, the sicker she became, few stories have captured as much public and scientific attention as that of the young woman you are talking about to listen today.

I'm Brooke, thanks for tuning in to The Armchair Investigator. Today we will explore the life of Jeannie, a girl who spent her entire

child

hood locked in an isolated room and abused by the people who were supposed to love, protect and care for her the most. The girl standing in front of the social workers looked to be about six or seven

years

old, walked hunched over and held her hands in a strange position. They described her movements as almost like those of a rabbit, because she was so young, no one could believe how withered and emaciated she looked.

It was clear that the girl had a number of medical problems and, in addition to making some confusing noises, she was mute, was also incontinent, could not fully concentrate, her eyes could not extend her arms, and she was apparently unable to perceive heat or light. cold, the girl almost had two full sets of teeth, a condition known as hyperdantia, this made it difficult for the girl to not only chew but also swallow, resulting in a constant stream of drool dripping from her mouth, not except that everyone was surprised to learn that the girl who seemed to be about six or seven was actually 13

years

old and weighed only 59 pounds despite all this the social workers who accompanied her happened by accident her mother who had cataracts and used A walking cane was looking for the Department that dealt with services for the blind when she accidentally walked into the wrong office.

The mother's decision that day may have been the only thing that saved Genie from her life of unimaginable hell. I first learned about Genie years ago. Her story was so tragic that it burned a permanent place in my memory. and after today's story you will understand why the world now came to know her as Genie, but that was not her real name, it was the name she was given in the 70s to help protect the identity of she. Her birth name, which is Susan, was revealed to him. to the public many years ago, but I am still going to refer to her as Genie throughout the video you see, even though Genie's mother, Dorothy Irene Wiley, better known as Irene, was there to ask about applying for a Disability Pension, everything that was put in the background while social workers focused on the young woman, her condition was so bad that she was immediately taken to Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Authorities conducted an emergency search of Wiley's residence and what they discovered was more disturbing than anyone could have imagined for 13 years. For years, Genie had been

kept

in near-total

isolation

in a small, dark room, never socialized, never educated, and never given love, affection, or any kind of human stimulation in lieu of all the things children need. To prosper, however, he experienced sensations. cognitive and emotional deprivation, and I don't say this lightly when I say that almost everyone who worked with Jeannie and helped her was marked in some way by her story. Genie's father, if you can call a man that. named Clark

kept

her in homemade straitjackets chained to a potty during the day and at night she was wrapped in a sleeping bag and chained inside a crib that had chicken wire tied around the top and sides.

Genie was left in dirty diapers for days. at the same time and because she spent so much time tied to the chair to go to the bathroom, she had a thick callus around her butt because her father didn't like noise, he would bark at her like a dog or hit her with a piece of Wood, If she took a look, she covered the windows of Genie's room with aluminum foil to block the sun. Officer Frank Lindley said the room was as dark as a coal mine at midnight. Just seeing Janie's room was all the police needed to see. arrest Clark on child abuse charges Mr.

Wiley, why did he keep his daughter in a room? Mr. Wiley has no comment, we have not had time to discuss the charge, we have not even seen them. Genie's story spread like wildfire that she was being compared to. the wild child found in the south of France in 1800, who would become known as Victor. Victor had emerged from a nearby forest and the villagers believed the boy to be about 12 years old. his food preferences. his lack of speech. his animalistic behaviors and his scars. His body indicated that he had been in the wild for most of her life.

Victor presented a unique and rare opportunity. He gave those around him the opportunity to see human nature stripped from society and culture. As you can imagine, this was not something that most researchers had the opportunity to study as it was a situation that no one would set out to create on purpose. I think it's hard to get a sense of what the boy actually looked and behaved, and if you're like me, you may be conjuring up images of Mowgli from The Jungle Book, but I want to read you an excerpt from his description of being brought in. to the National Institute for the Deaf and was introduced to its director.

The new student was a raging, spitting, snarling, disgusting savage, defecating where he is urinating where he is. biting covered in scars long hair wrinkled yellow teeth long nails a savage the director had never seen anything like it in his life Now that researchers had the opportunity to see how a human would behave when stripped of society and culture, he posed a new question, could you? Civilizing a Wild Child Some doctors believe that Victor had a profound intellectual retardation from his birth and he could not learn. While others thought that Victor was delayed due to his years of living in the wild.

A doctor named Jean-Marketard believed he could civilize. Victor would go on to keep a diary about his work with the boy and it would become one of the most documented cases of

feral

children throughout history, but what happened to Jeannie? How did she end up in such dire circumstances at the hands of her parents? As if Janie had snuck out of a forest, in fact she grew up in a quiet suburb of Temple City, California, as is often the case with stories like this, to get the full picture we not only have to go back to the beginning but also to the principle.

The Genie situation we have to go back even further. I need to introduce you to Clark Wiley Jeannie's father and tell you a little about her life and, while the circumstances of her life do not excuse her actions, they will help you gain insight into her formative years. Clark Wiley was actually born Pearl Wiley on March 29, 1901 in Oregon and during the early years of her life he was raised in brothels run by her mother. Her father was not in the child's life. Pearl was often made fun of because of her more traditionally feminine name. and she spent a lot of time alone, two things he came to resent her mother for years.

Clark bounced between foster homes in the Pacific Northwest. When she reached adulthood, she legally changed her name to Clark and would develop a relationship with her mother. but the things he had witnessed and endured in childhood had had such a profound effect on Clark that for the rest of his life he became obsessed with his mother; She even went so far as to reserve a room in her house as a sanctuary for Clark. She worked as a machinist on aircraft assembly lines in Los Angeles during and after World War II. On September 28, 1944 he married Irene Oglesby, an Oklahoma native who had emigrated to Los Angeles in search of work.

Irene had a close and loving relationship with her father. While her mother was said to be strict and unapproachable as a child, Irene had suffered a serious head injury when she slipped and hit her head on a clothes press, this resulted in neurological damage which gave way to a series of problems. neurological and degenerative. vision in 1970 she was 100% blind in her right eye and had lost 90 percent of vision in her left eye by the time the couple married. Irene was in her early 20s. Clark, who was 20 years older than her, was a very controlling man who ran her household. with an iron fist, he was even known to have a gun in his lap.

Irene would later say that her life ended on the day of her wedding. One thing Clark was adamant about: he didn't want children, and yet Dorothy became pregnant and children came, the couple would have them. They had four children: the first, a girl who at two months had died of pneumonia after being abandoned in a cold garage after the employee could no longer bear her crying. Their second child, a boy named Robert, also died under mysterious circumstances from blood poisoning. Their third child, a healthy baby named John, survived, but due to neglect he developed very slowly.

Five years later, on April 18, 1957, Jeannie was born, but her birth was not without complications and she would eventually end up needing a blood transfusion. blood in 1958. Clark's mother. She died suddenly and tragically after being hit by a drunk driver at the time when six-year-old John was living with her grandmother because she believed her son Clark had serious mental health problems and was a unstable father John and his grandmother were getting ice cream when she was suddenly hit by a runaway van, the driver only received a probationary sentence, something that outraged Clark, that's when Clark began to further isolate him and his family to make matters worse. things.

Clark blamed his six-year-old son. son due to the death of his mother and John had no choice but to return to the care of his parents after Clark's mother died. Clark moved with his family into their two-bedroom home in Temple City. His mother's passing would have such a profound impact on him that he fell into a deeper spiral of paranoia and anger, leaving his job and almost shutting out the outside worlds, he further brutalized his wife and two children, they were basically prisoners. Irene described him at the time as a violent and paranoid psychopath. Much of her anger was directed at Jeannie.

Jeannie believed she had a mental disability. When she was only 20 months old, her father began keeping her in a closed, dark room. and isolated. Neighbors reported that they rarely saw the family because the house had only two bedrooms and one of the rooms was a shrine to Clark's late mother. and the other room was used for Genie, which meant Clark Dorothy and John slept around the living room, Clark and a recliner, Irene and a chair at the dining room table, and John on the floor. The rare times Genie's father interacted with her, it was to bark or growl, he forbade anyone from speaking to her, and her arms and legs were almost always restrained due to the straitjackets he made his wife make and the fact that I was almost constantly tied to a chair to go to the bathroom, I practically couldn't go to the bathroom.

She moved nothing except her hands and feet, very few words were said to Jeannie outside her room, everyone had to whisper, so she was barely exposed to hearing other people talk most of the time her father was spending time with her. terrify her. Standing outside her door and growling like a wild animal as she clawed at the door, talk about being absolutely petrified, Genie's visual senses were also not stimulated because the only place she had ever known was her bedroom, she couldn't focus her eyes beyond 12 feet of her. Her eyes literally had no need to be able to see long distances.

Her room was the only thing she knew. From time to time, Genie was allowed to play with two plastic raincoats that hung in her bedroom, and sometimes she was allowed to watch the TV guide. or play with bare reels. Genie was fed mainly a liquid diet and was given very little to eat, cereal porridge and occasionally a hard-boiled egg. Clark demanded that Genie be fed quickly and in total silence by her brother so that her contact with him outside of her was kept to a minimum whether he choked or spit out the food, rubbed it on her face;

Some experts believe that the trial may also have been involved due to Genie's inappropriate behavior towards older men, that she also suffered abuse at the hands of her fear-stricken and poverty-stricken husband. Irene finally gathered the courage toflee in 1970 and entered a Los Angeles County welfare office in hopes of receiving some type of disability pension and assistance, it was then that a child abuse case was immediately opened against Clark and Irene, but Clark would never face to justice. for the horrible things he had done on November 20, 1970, the first day of his trial, he shot himself, leaving a note at his feet that said: the world will never understand, along with the clothes for his funeral, a second note for her son John who said: a good boy, I love you and four hundred dollars, the charges against Irene were dropped after it was discovered that she was also a victim of Clark's abuse and suffered from mental illness.

Irene claimed that shortly after Genie's birth, a doctor had told Clark that Genie was severely retarded and would not live long, telling his wife that if Genie lived to be 12, then they would get help for her once Genie was born. miraculously turned 12 years old. Clark rejected Irene's request that they treat her daughter. by a doctor it was not until one day when Clark threatened to kill Genie that Irene took her daughter and went to stay at her parents' house, a few days later she would end up at the Los Angeles County Welfare Office looking for services after being taken to UCLA Jeannie Children's Hospital became a state ward.

The medical professionals there declared that she was the most deeply damaged child they had ever seen, and perhaps one of the most terrifying side effects of Janie's abuse was that she was unable to cry. The biggest question loomed over them: what should be done to help her and so began the rehabilitation process. Genie, the National Institute of Mental Health, had agreed to fund a scientific project on her from 1971 to 1975. The team explored the developmental consequences of extreme social

isolation

if, in an enriched learning environment, she could overcome her deprived childhood and learn the language even though it had been lost.

In the critical period, her team was made up of pediatricians, psychologists, linguists and other professionals, experts from all over the United States requested to examine and treat her horrible situation. Genie's horrific situation presented a unique opportunity to study brain and speech development, specifically how language makes us human. Among the Genie team was psychologist David Rigler. linguist Susan Curtis, psychologist James Kent, special education teacher Jean Butler, and Oklahoma psychiatrist Jay Shirley, an expert in social isolation, would go on to say that Jeannie was the worst case of social isolation he had ever seen, making him What they discovered was that Genie could understand some words like mother blue orange and door and could say, "That's enough, I'm sorry and that's it," and I'm also going to point out how absolutely tragic the few words she knew were: "I'm sorry." , don't do it anymore", but she mostly remains silent and when she is stressed or excited she urinates and defecates on herself due to Genie's lack of speech.

It was incredibly difficult to evaluate her intellect. It seems that she was only able to express some emotions like fear and anger and, surprisingly, she could laugh. The Genie team. He said that her laugh was so infectious and pure that she made everyone around Genie want to laugh too. We all know someone like that whose laugh is so contagious and good for the soul and everyone said Genies was like that, unfortunately Genie always expressed it. She was internally angry at herself, she scratched her face and arms, but still she never made a sound. Genie's team worked to find healthier ways for her to express her anger outward, basically they showed her how to throw tantrums, how to slam doors, throw things, anything so she wouldn't get hurt Susan Curtis, a linguist on the team. of Genie, said that language and thought are different from each other.

For many of us, our thoughts are verbally encoded. For Genie, her thoughts were practically never verbally encoded, but there are many ways to think that she was intelligent. she held a set of images to tell a story she could create all kinds of complex structures out of sticks she had other signs of intelligence the lights were on during this time there was a further increase in the scientific study of language and for language scientists Genie was a blank slate, she was a way to understand what role language has in our development and vice versa. One of the first tasks presented to Genie's team was to discover whether his developmental delays were a symptom of his abuse and neglect or whether they were present since solitary confinement has been considered one of the most severe punishments ever imposed on him. they can impose on a person;

In fact, symptoms of trauma can develop in as little as 15 minutes to an hour. Now imagine what 10 years can do to a person. Dr. Shirley wanted to see the effects of long-term isolation on Genie's brain. Over four nights, her team collected and measured electrical activity in her brain while she slept. What they found was an unusually high number of sleep spindles, as we know. that sleep is vital for brain restoration and maintenance of cognitive function. Evidence indicates that sleep spindles facilitate neuroplasticity and offline processing, supporting learning, memory consolidation, motor skills, and overall intellectual performance. It has been found that children with neurodevelopmental disorders tend to show more abnormal spindle generation, but it still doesn't answer the question of whether Janie was born. with a neurodevelopmental disorder or whether it was due to her negligent upbringing.

Dr. James Kent's plan was the first to be adopted. He believed that Genie must form relationships and attachments before his eyes, which meant that if he could do so, he would have the ability to learn for about a month, no one noticed anything regarding Genie forming positive or negative relationships until one day, as Dr. Kent was leaving, his expression changed to one of sadness, he even took his hand to stop him. Jeannie's team was encouraged by this Genie was taken care of. In November, in the spring, she knew over 100 words and, at the end of May, she began repeating the words that were spoken around her Genie team.

She looked for different ways to express herself and communicate. Her progress was rapid and promising on her third day at UCLA she was helping him get dressed and use the bathroom for the next few months. Jeannie learned to play chew, dress up, and discovered her love of classical music. She expanded her vocabulary. She learned basic sign language and drew pictures to communicate what words couldn't. He performed well on intelligence tests in some areas, he gained a year of development in just a couple of months, he was able to bathe at the same level as a nine-year-old, and yet in some areas his progress was much slower. , was still chewing. food at the level of a one-year-old girl Jeannie developed a love for buying colors and collecting plastic beach buckets that she kept next to her bed.

Her team noticed that she loved anything plastic and attributed it to the two layers of grains Jeannie understood the notion of object permanence, the idea that something still exists even when it remains invisible, unheard and untouched, something that most Children develop at the age of two. This concept is best seen in a game of Hide and Seek and is why babies are so surprised and happy when things return after being out of sight. Genie also grasped the notion of deferred imitation, the ability to imitate a behavior she had seen at an earlier time, for example, barking like a dog she had seen.

Earlier that day, she was even beginning to grasp the idea that people had different points of view and different ways of thinking. Her team began to believe that she could make a full recovery, but none of them could agree on a course of action should her therapeutic interests arise. Before scientific research it was argued that any scientific discovery could help benefit disadvantaged children in the future. Could the clock be turned back for Genie? Could a teenager learn to speak? Until the late 1960s, linguists largely believed that children could not learn language after puberty. Noam Chomsky, considered the father of modern linguistics, believed that we, as human beings, acquire language not only because we They teach it, but because it is integrated into our genes.

He believed that our capacity for language was not only due to education but also to nature. Neuropsychologist Eric Lenberg agreed with Chomsky that we are born with the principles of language, but he believed there was a deadline for applying those principles. He believed that if a first language was not acquired at puberty, it might as well be acquired. Later this was called the critical period hypothesis. Genie could help test those theories and helped show that that wasn't necessarily

true

. She was curious about the world around her. She wanted a name for the things she saw. She was like a sponge.

Diving into everything that Susan Curtis said, one amazing memory from those first few months was an absolutely wonderful man who was a butcher and he never asked her name, he never asked anything about her, they just connected and communicated somehow and every time We entered, he opened. the little window and would hand him something that wasn't wrapped, a bone of some kind, some meat, fish, whatever, and he would let him do his thing with it, explore it tactilely, put it against his lips, feel it and almost touch it. As if she were blind, Jeannie's team discovered that, while she was very communicative, she had problems with grammar and sentence structure, proving to researchers that grammar becomes incomprehensible to children if they are never exposed to her between the ages of 5 and 10, but communication and language still remain.

Completely attainable, Genie could construct simple sentences to express what she wanted or was thinking, such as applesauce at the store, but she could not put the words into a properly structured sentence, such as let's go to the store and buy applesauce. Jeannie would even describe in her own words the abuse she endured father hit arm big wood Genie cry don't spit father hit face spit father hit big stick father is angry father hit Genie big stick father take peace hit cry father makes me cry because Genie did not have the ability to form more sophisticated sentences he demonstrated that language is different from thought for four years Janie became the center of the researchers' lives, but this in itself presented an ethical question of how far a relationship should go. between the researcher and the subject.

Genie continuing to live with members of her team led to what many felt was a major conflict of interest in 1971. Genie went to live with her teacher Gene Butler, who obtained permission to take Genie home with her for socialization purposes. . It was there that Genie's body began to show signs of puberty, an indication that her health was improving and the atrophy in her leg muscles had begun to reverse when she was finally allowed to run and play soon, however, Jean began to reject the other members of the team from visiting Genie, claiming that they were subjecting her to too much application from Gene. to be Genie's adoptive father, but was ultimately rejected.

The Genie team would later accuse Gene Butler of trying to become the next Ann Sullivan, the famous teacher best known for her work with Helen Keller. Jeannie then moved in with another member of her team, family therapist Dr. David. Rigler and this seemed to be a good fit for her, they wanted to give her stability routine a familiar feel to her and welcomed other team members to visit her. Dr. Wrigler recalled a moment that particularly stood out to him, when he was a father and his young son. that he was carrying a fire truck passed by them, they passed by and then they turned around and came back and the boy without saying a word handed the fire truck to Jeannie.

Dr. Wrigler said she never asked for it, she never said a word, she did this kind of thing. Somehow, the team felt that Genie was a powerful non-verbal communicator, almost as if she possessed a kind of telepathy, as linguist Susan Curtis worked with Genie on her speech. Dr. James Kent continued to work on her emotional development. Genie was enrolled in daycare. school and then a public school for children with special needs where she could interact with other children. Jeannie was thriving, had a good sense of humor, and learned to iron and sew in the summer of 1972, while Genie was shopping with Susan Curtis, whom she turned to.

Curtis and said that Genie was happy during this period. Jeannie's mother, Irene, got hercataract surgery and moved back to his home in Temple City. She continued visiting Genie. But in the end she didn't feel welcome. Irene couldn't help but feel that the Genie team looked down on her. She and indeed many of Genie's team members questioned Irene's role in her daughter's abuse, even if she was passive once funding for the study ended in 1975. Genie returned to live with her biological mother, somewhat which surprised many people, as Jeannie was literally returning to the scene of her abuse in 1979, her mother filed a lawsuit against the hospital and Genie's individual caregivers, including investigators on her team, alleging that they exploited her daughter. to gain prestige and profit.

The lawsuit was settled in 1984 and Genie's contact with her team was almost separated from her when her mother found it too difficult to care for Genie. Genie was placed in foster care, a decision that proved disastrous. Her foster parents ran her home militantly and for someone like Jeannie, who had been through what she had been through, this was nothing. In the ideal situation for her for 18 months, she was often subjected to more abuse, naturally, Genie's progress stopped abruptly, she again turned inward and isolated herself from the outside world, she began to try to hold back her bowel movements and did not utter A single word for five months during this time, Susan Curtis was the only person on her team to visit her and although she was no longer paid for her work with Jeannie Curtis, she truly cared about her and was not ready to sever ties with time.

Genie. She ended up back in Children's Hospital due to malnutrition and unfortunately her situation only got worse after being hit or vomiting. Genie was so afraid to open her mouth that she returned to total silence. She then went to a series of state institutions, psychiatrist Jay Shirley. He visited her on her 27th and her 29th birthdays and described her as a silently depressed and chronically institutionalized person. He said that she was an isolated person imprisoned for all those years and that she emerged and lived in a more reasonable world for a while and responded to this world and then the door closed and she withdrew again and her soul was sick.

Jeannie's brother John would live a very different life than Jeannie, but not without difficulties. John had also been a victim of abuse by his father. He said my house was like a concentration camp. He never knew what normal was, he would spend his life trying to cope and recover from the trauma he had suffered in 2008, he told ABC News. They left me out in left field and no one came to rescue me. John last saw his sister Jeannie. in 1982. During John's interview in 2008, he spoke about his life and detailed his struggles with alcohol abuse, divorce, and estrangement from his own daughter.

He said: I have forgiven but cannot forget after Clark's death in 1970. John moved in with his maternal grandparents for a while. He then stayed with several friends before returning to the family home, but it was too painful for him to be in the house where so many things had happened. It was then that John set his sights east and worked odd jobs at gas stations and factories. He joined the Navy. but he was discharged six months later, John finally settled in Ohio and worked as a house painter after time passed and I started a family and you know, I don't have the pain I used to have and I'm happy for my sister . for all the attention that has been received in all the help professional help I would have expected much more from my parents than what they gave me they can give me the tools of knowledge to go out and feel comfortable with the achievements and goal setting that I feel sometimes God It has failed me and maybe it has and maybe it hasn't.

You know I'm alive so you know I enjoyed a lot of things God has given me and you know God really hasn't failed me since then. You know, I let all this time go by, but it's never too late. She passed away in 2011. Irene passed away in 2003. Genie's whereabouts remain unknown, but as of 2008 she is believed to be in an assisted living facility in Los Angeles. 66 in April 2023. It seems like doctors never got answers about Genie's developmental delays, but here's what we do know. Not only was Genie deprived of regular opportunities to practice and hear the language, but she was also abused in so many ways that she was malnourished and deprived. stimulation of her five senses and here's the thing, despite Clark's emphasis that a doctor told him Genie was severely retarded.

I established that Genie had begun babbling and producing words before her father placed her in isolation at 20 months. This suggests that she may have been developing language at a normal rate before the abuse occurred at the end of the day. Does the question of whether she was late or not really matter? No, here was a little girl who had a horrible life, her parents failed her, the system failed her. and even her team failed her, most of them accepted that, although her intentions had been in the right place, her methods were flawed. I think as medical professionals, scientists and researchers, it was difficult for them to walk the line between giving Genie the love and care that she so needed.

She is desperately needed instead to collect data and information that could be used to help others in the future. I'm not sure it's possible for them to follow the line. I think they really needed a neutral link to defend Genie. I know I've given you a lot to discuss today, but I can't wait to hear from you. If you had heard of Genie before today, if you enjoyed today's video, please like it and while you're at it, consider subscribing to the channel so you don't miss out. in the next investigation