Mr Wiley yes why did you keep your daughter in the room Mr Wiley has no comments had time to discuss we haven't have any social worker discovered the case two weeks ago for social workers at the Los Angeles County Welfare Office Wednesday November 4th 1970 started off just like any other day they answered phones processed and filed paperwork and made referrals but that afternoon when the door to their office swung open it would stop everyone in their tracks it wasn't the woman that appeared in the doorway that shot them it was the little girl standing next to her the young girl's appearance went so beyond disheveled that at first glance social workers believed she was homeless but that wasn't the case at all the little girl's story would go on to make news as one of the worst cases of child abuse in U.S history nobody had seen anything like it and the more everyone learned about her and her life the sicker they got few stories have captured both public and scientific attention like that of the young girl you're going to hear about today I'm Brooke thanks for tuning in to armchair investigator today we'll be exploring the life of Jeannie a girl who had spent her entire childhood locked in a room isolated and mistreated by the people who were supposed to love protect and care for her most the girl standing in front of social workers appeared to be about six or seven years old walked hunched over and held her hands in an odd position they described her movements as almost rabbit-like for being so young nobody could believe how withered and Haggard she looked it was clear that the girl had a host of medical concerns and besides making a few jumbled noises she was mute she was also incontinent unable to fully Focus her eyes couldn't extend her arms and was seemingly unable to perceive hot or cold the girl had almost two complete sets of teeth a condition known as hyperdantia this made it difficult for the girl to not only chew but swallow resulting in a constant stream of drool trickling from her mouth not only that everyone was shocked to learn that the girl who appeared to be about six or seven was actually 13 years old and she weighed just 59 pounds despite all of this the social workers running with her happened by accident her mother who had cataracts and used a walking stick to get around was looking for the Department that dealt with services for the blind when she accidentally entered the wrong office the mother's decision that day may have been the one 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 spot in my memory and after today's story you'll understand why now the world came to know her as Genie but that wasn't her real name it was the name given to her in the 70s to help protect her identity her birth name which is Susan was released to the public many years ago but I'm still going to be referring to her as Genie throughout the video you see even though Genie's mother Dorothy Irene Wiley better known as Irene was there to inquire about applying for a Disability Pension all that was put on the back burner as social workers fixated on the young girl her condition was so bad that she was immediately taken to Los Angeles Children's Hospital authorities conduct an emergency home search at the Wiley residence and what they discovered was more disturbing than anyone could have possibly imagined for 13 years Genie had been kept in almost total isolation in a small dark room she was never socialized with had never received an education and was never given love affection or any type of human stimulation in place of all the things children need to thrive she instead experienced sensory cognitive and emotional deprivation and I don't say this slightly when I say that nearly everyone who went on to work with Jeannie and help her was scarred in some way shape or form by her story Genie's father if you can even call him that a man named Clark would keep her in homemade Straight Jackets chained to a potty chair during the day and at night she was wrapped in a sleeping bag and chained inside a crib that had chicken wire fastened around the top and sides Genie was left in dirty diapers for days at a time and because she spent so much time strapped to the potty training chair she had a thick callus all the way around her bottom 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 made so much as a peep he covered the windows in Genie's room with aluminum foil to block out the sun officer Frank Lindley said the room was as dark as a coal mine at midnight just seeing Janie's bedroom was all police needed to see to arrest Clark on charges of child abuse Mr Wiley why did you keep your daughter in a room Mr Wiley has no comments we haven't had time to discuss the charge we haven't even seen them Genie's story spread like wildfire she was being compared to the wild child found in southern France in 1800 who would come to be known as Victor you see Victor had emerged from a nearby forest and villagers believed the boy to be about 12 years old his food preferences his lack of speech his animalistic behaviors and scars on his body indicated that he had been in the wild for most of his life Victor presented a unique and rare opportunity he gave those around him a chance to see human nature stripped of society and culture as you can imagine this wasn't something that most researchers got the chance to study as it was a situation that no one would set out to create on purpose I think it's hard to get an idea of how the boy truly looked and behaved and if you're like me you might be Conjuring up images of Mowgli from The Jungle Book but I want to read you an excerpt about his description when he was taken to the National Institute for the deaf and introduced to its director the new pupil was a raging spitting snarling filthy Savage defecating where he is urinating where he is biting covered with scars long hair wadded yellow teeth long fingernails a Savage the director had never seen anything like that in his life now that researchers had the opportunity to see how a human would behave when stripped of society and culture it begged a new question could you civilize a wild child some doctors believe that Victor was profoundly and intellectually delayed from birth and unable to learn While others thought that Victor was delayed because of his years of living in the wild a Doctor by the name of jean-marketard believed that he could civilize Victor he would go on to journal about his work with the boy and it would become one of the most documented cases of wild children throughout history but what happened to Jeannie how did she end up in such dire circumstances at the hands of her parents it's not as if Janie crept out of a forest in fact she was raised in a quiet suburb of Temple City California as is often the case with stories like this in order to get the full picture not only do we have to go back to the beginning but in Genie's situation we have to go back even further I need to introduce you to Clark Wiley Jeannie's father and tell you a bit about his life and while his life circumstances don't excuse his actions it'll help you glean some insight into his formative years Clark Wiley was actually born Pearl Wiley on March 29 1901 in Oregon and for the first few years of his life was raised in brothels ran by his mother his father wasn't in the boy's life Pearl was often teased because of his more traditionally feminine name and he spent a lot of time alone two things that he grew to resent his mother for years Clark bounced between foster homes in the Pacific Northwest when he reached adulthood he legally changed his name to Clark and would go on to develop a relationship with his mother but the things that he had witnessed and endured in childhood had had such a profound effect on Clark that for the rest of his life he'd fixate on his mother he even went as far as to keep a room in his home as a shrine to her Clark worked as a machinist on aircraft assembly lines in La during and after the second World War on September 28 1944 he married Irene Oglesby a native of Oklahoma who had migrated to LA in search of work Irene had a loving and close relationship with her father while it was said that her mother was strict and unapproachable as a child Irene had suffered a severe head injury when she slipped and hit her head on a laundry press this resulted in neurological damage that gave way to a host of neurological problems as well as degenerative vision by 1970 she was 100 blind in her right eye and had lost 90 percent of her vision in her left eye when the couple married Irene was in her early 20s Clark who was 20 years older than her was a very controlling man who ran his home with an iron fist he was even known to keep a gun in his lap Irene would later say that her life ended on her wedding day one thing Clark was adamant about he didn't want children and yet Dorothy got pregnant and children came the couple would go on to have four children the first a baby girl who at two months old had died of pneumonia after being left in a cold garage after clerk could no longer stand her crying their second child a boy named Robert also died under mysterious circumstances from blood poisoning their third child a healthy baby boy named John survived but due to neglect he developed very slowly five years later on April 18 1957 Jeannie was born but her birth wasn't without complications and she would ultimately end up needing a blood transfusion in 1958 Clark's mother suddenly and tragically died after being hit by a drunk driver at the time six-year-old John had been living with his grandmother due to her belief that her son Clark had serious mental health issues and was an unstable parent John and his grandmother were getting ice cream when she was suddenly struck by an out of control pickup truck the driver was only given a probationary sentence something that outraged Clark that's when Clark began to isolate him and his family even further to make matters worse Clark blamed his six-year-old son for the death of his mother and John had no choice but to return to his parents care after Clark's mother had passed Clark moved his family into her two-bedroom home in Temple City his mother's passing would have such a deep impact on him that he spiraled deeper into paranoia and anger he quit his job and all but shut out the outside worlds he brutalized his wife and two children even more they were basically as prisoners Irene described him at this time as a paranoid violent psychopath much of his rage was directed towards Jeannie believing that she was mentally disabled at just 20 months old her father began keeping her in a locked dark and isolated room neighbors reported hardly ever seeing the family because the home was only two bedrooms and one of the rooms was a shrine to Clark's late mother and the other room was used for Genie that meant that Clark Dorothy and John all 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 did interact with her it was to bark or growl he forbid anyone from talking to her and her arms and legs were almost always restrained due to the Straight Jackets he had his wife make for her and the fact that she was almost constantly strapped down to a potty training chair she virtually couldn't move anything except her hands and feet there were very few actual words spoken to Jeannie outside her room everyone had to whisper making it so that she was barely even exposed to hearing other people talk most of the time her father took to terrifying her by standing outside her door and growling like a wild animal while clawing on the door talk about being absolutely petrified Genie's visual senses weren't stimulated either because the only place she had ever known was her bedroom she couldn't focus her eyes Beyond 12 feet her eyes literally had no need to be able to see long distances her room was the only thing she knew once in a while Genie was allowed to play with two plastic raincoats that were hung in her bedroom and sometimes she was allowed to look at the TV Guide or play with bare spools Genie was fed mainly a liquid diet and was given very little to eat baby food cereal and on occasion a hard-boiled egg Clark demanded that Genie be fed quickly and in total Silence by her brother so that contact with her was kept to a minimum if she choked or spit out her food it was rubbed in her face some experts believe essay may also have been involved due to Genie's inappropriate behavior towards older men having also endured abuse at the hands of her husband stricken by fear and poor eyesight Irene finally mastered up the courage to flee in 1970 and walked into a Los Angeles County welfare office in hopes of receiving some type of Disability Pension and assistance that's when a child abuse case was immediately opened against Clark and Irene but Clark would never face Justice for the horrible things he had done on November 20th 1970 the first day of his trial he shot himself leaving behind a note at his feet that read the world will never understand along with clothes for his funeral a second note for his son John that said be a good boy I love you and four hundred dollars the charges against Irene were dropped after it was discovered that she too was a victim of Clark's abuse and suffered from mental illness Irene claimed that soon after Genie was born a doctor had told Clark that Genie was severely delayed and wouldn't live long he told his wife that if Genie did live to see the age of 12 that they would then get help for her well once Genie did miraculously reach the age of 12 Clark refused Irene's request that their daughter be seen by a doctor it wasn't until one day when Clark threatened to kill Genie that Irene took her daughter and went to stay at her parents home a few days later she would end up at the Los Angeles County Welfare Office seeking services after being taken to UCLA's Children's Hospital Jeannie became a ward of the State medical professionals there stated that she was the most profoundly damaged child they had ever seen and perhaps one of the most frightening side effects of Janie's abuse was that she was incapable of crying the biggest question loomed over them what should be done to help her and thus began the process of rehabilitating 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 consequence of extreme social isolation if given an enriched learning environment could she overcome her deprived childhood and learn language even though she had missed the critical period her team consisted of Pediatricians psychologists linguists and other professionals experts from around the U.S petitioned to examine and treat her Genie's horrifying situation presented a rare opportunity to study brain and speech development specifically how language makes us human among Genie's team was psychologist David Rigler linguist Susan Curtis psychologist James Kent special education teacher Jean Butler and oklahoma-based psychiatrist Jay Shirley who was an expert in Social isolation he would go on to say that Jeannie was the worst case of social isolation that he had ever seen what they discover was that Genie could understand some words like blue orange mother and door and she could say go stop it sorry and no more and I'm also just going to point out how utterly tragic the few words that she did know were sorry stop it no more but she mostly remains silent and when stressed or excited she urinated and defecated on herself due to Genie's lack of speech it was incredibly difficult to assess her intellect it seems she was capable of expressing only a few emotions like fear and anger and surprisingly she could laugh Genie's team said her laughter was so contagious and pure that it made everyone around Genie wanna laugh too we all know somebody like that whose laughter is just so contagious and it just is good for the soul and everybody said that Genies was like that sadly Genie always expressed her anger inwardly towards herself she would scratch her face and arms yet still never utter a sound Genie's team worked on finding healthier ways for her to express her anger outwardly they basically showed her how to have Tantrums How to slam doors throw things anything so that she wasn't hurting herself Susan Curtis a linguist on Genie's team said language and thought are distinct from each other for many of us our thoughts are verbally encoded for Genie her thoughts were virtually never verbally encoded but there are many ways to think she was smart she could hold a set of pictures so they told a story she could create all sorts of complex structures from sticks she had other signs of intelligence the lights were on during this time there was a heightened increase in the scientific study of language and to language scientists Genie was a blank slate she was a way to understand what part language has in our development and vice versa one of the first tasks Genie's team was presented with was figuring out of her developmental delays were a symptom of her abuse and neglect or if they were present from birth solitary confinement has been deemed as one of the most severe punishments you can enact on a person in fact trauma symptoms 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 the electrical activity in her brain as she slept [Music] what they found was an unusually high number of sleep spindles as we know sleep is vital for brain restoration and maintaining cognitive function evidence indicates that sleep spindles facilitate neuroplasticity and offline processing which supports learning memory consolidation motor skills and overall intellectual performance it's been found that children with neurodevelopmental disorders tend to display more abnormal spindle generation but it's still didn't answer the question of whether Janie was born with a neurodevelopmental disorder or if it was due to her neglectful upbringing Dr James Kent's plan was the first to be adopted he believed Genie should form relationships and attachments in his eyes it meant that if she could do that she had the capacity to learn for about a month nobody noticed anything in regards to Genie forming relationships positive or negative until one day as Dr Kent was leaving her expression changed to one of sadness she even held his hand in order to stop him Jeannie's team was encouraged by this Genie was taken into care in November by Spring she knew more than 100 Words and by the end of May she began repeating words that were being spoken around her Genie's team looked for different avenues that she could express herself and communicate her progress was rapid and promising by her third day at UCLA she was helping to dress herself and using the toilet over the coming months Jeannie learned to play chew how to dress herself and discovered a love for classical music she expanded her vocabulary learned basic sign language and sketched pictures to communicate what words could not and she performed well on intelligence tests in some areas she gained a year development over just a couple of months she was able to bathe herself to the same level as a nine-year-old and yet in some areas her progress was much slower she was still chewing food at the level of a one-year-old Jeannie developed a love for shopping colors and collecting Plastic Beach buckets that she would keep by her bed her team noticed that she loved anything plastic they attributed this to the two plastic grain coats she was allowed to play with almost as if plastic equaled play for her Jeannie understood the notion of object permanence the idea that something still exists even when it remains unseen unheard and untouched something most children develop by the age of two this concept is best seen in a game of peekaboo it's why babies are so surprised and delighted when things come back after being out of sight Genie also grabbed the notion of deferred imitation the ability to mimic behavior that she'd seen at an earlier time for example barking like a dog that she had seen earlier in the day she was even beginning to grasp the idea that people had different viewpoints 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 come before scientific research it was argued that any scientific findings could help benefit deprived children in the future could the clock actually be turned back for Genie could a teenager learn to talk until the late 1960s it was largely believed by linguists that children could not learn language after puberty Noam Chomsky who's been called the father of modern Linguistics believed that we as humans acquire language not just because we're taught it but because it's baked into our genes he believed that our ability for language wasn't just due to nurture but also nature neuropsychologist Eric lenberg agreed with Chomsky that we are born with the principles of language but he believed that there was a deadline or cut off for being able to apply those principles he believed that if a first language wasn't acquired by puberty it could be too late this was called the critical period hypothesis Genie could help put those theories to test and she helped prove that wasn't necessarily true she had a curiosity about the world around her she wanted a name for the things she saw she was like a sponge just soaking in everything Susan Curtis said one striking memory of those early 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 came in he would slide open the little window and hand her something that wasn't wrapped a bone of some sort some meat fish whatever and he would allow her to do her thing with it to explore it tactilely to put it up against her lips and feel it and touch it almost as if she were blind Jeannie's team found that while she was highly communicative she struggled with grammar and sentence structure showing researchers that grammar becomes incomprehensible to Children if they never receive exposure to it between the ages of 5 and 10. but communication and language still remain entirely attainable Genie could construct simple phrases to express what she wanted or was thinking like applesauce by store but she was unable to put the words into a properly structured sentence like let's go to the store and buy applesauce Jeannie would even go on to describe in her own words the abuse she endured father hit arm big wood Genie cry not spit father hit face spit father hit big stick father is angry father hit Genie big stick father take peace would hit cry father make me cry because Genie didn't have the ability to form more sophisticated sentences it demonstrated that language is different from thought for four years Janie became the center of the researchers lives but this presented in itself an ethical issue how far should a relationship go between researcher and subject Genie would go on to live with members of her team leading to what many felt was a huge conflict of interest in 1971 Genie went to live with her teacher Gene Butler who obtained permission to bring Genie home with her for socialization purposes it was there that Genie's body began showing signs of puberty an indication that her health was improving and the atrophy in her leg muscles had begun to reverse as she was finally allowed to run and play soon however Jean began turning away the other members on the team from visiting Genie claiming that they were subjecting her to too much Gene applied to be Genie's foster parent But ultimately was rejected Genie's team would later accuse Gene Butler of trying to become the next Ann Sullivan the famed teacher most known for her work with Helen Keller Jeannie then went to live 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 family environment and welcomed other members of the team to visit her Dr wrigler recalled a time that particularly stood out to him one time a father and his young son who was carrying a fire truck passed by them they passed and then they turned around and came back and the boy without 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 to people the team felt that Genie was a powerful non-verbal Communicator almost as if she possessed a kind of telepathy while linguist Susan Curtis worked with genie on her speech Dr James Kent continued to work on her emotional development Genie was enrolled in a nursery school and later a public school for children with special needs where she could interact with other children Jeannie was thriving she had a good sense of humor and learned to iron and sew in the summer of 1972 as Genie was out with Susan Curtis shopping she turned to Curtis and said Genie happy during this period Jeannie's mother Irene had her eyesight restored from a cataract operation and moved back into their home in Temple City she continued to visit Genie But ultimately felt unwelcome Irene couldn't help but feel like Genie's team looked down on her and in reality many of the members on Genie's team did question Irene's role in her daughter's abuse even if it was passive once the funding ended for the study in 1975 Genie returned to live with her birth mother something many people were shocked over 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 the researchers on her team alleging they exploited her daughter for Prestige and profit the suit was settled in 1984 and Genie's contact with her team was all but severed when her mother found caring for Genie too difficult Genie was placed in foster homes a decision that proved disastrous her foster parents ran their home in a militant fashion and for somebody like Jeannie who had been through what she had been through this wasn't the ideal situation for her for 18 months she was often subjected to further mistreatment naturally Genie's progress came to a screeching halt she again turned Inward and closed herself off from the outside world she began trying to hold in her bowel movements and didn't utter a single word for five months during this time Susan Curtis was the only person from her team to visit her and even though she was no longer receiving pay for her work with Jeannie Curtis truly cared about her and wasn't ready to sever ties eventually Genie ended up back at Children's Hospital due to malnourishment and unfortunately her situation only got worse after being beaten or vomiting Genie became so afraid to open her mouth that she regressed back into total silence she then went to a series of state-ran institutions psychiatrist Jay Shirley visited her on her 27th and 29th birthdays and described her as silent depressed and chronically institutionalized he said she was this isolated person incarcerated for all those years and she emerged and lived in a more reasonable world for a while and responded to this world and then the door was shut and she withdrew again and her soul was sick Jeannie's brother John would go on to live a very different life from Jeannie but it wasn't without difficulties John too had been a victim of his father's abuse he said my house was like a concentration camp I never knew what normal was he would spend his life trying to cope and recover from the trauma he had endured in 2008 he told ABC News I was left out in left field and no one came to my rescue John last saw his sister Jeannie in 1982. during John's 2008 interview 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 I can't forget after Clark died in 1970 John moved in with his maternal grandparents for a while then stayed with various friends before returning to the family home but it was just too painful for him to be in the home where so much had occurred that's when John set his sights East and worked odd jobs at gas stations and factories he joined the Navy but was discharged six months later John eventually settled in Ohio and worked as a house painter after time's gone by and I put a family together and you know I don't have the hurt that I used to have and I'm happy for my sister for getting all the attention she's gotten in all the help professional help I would have expected a lot more from my parents than what they gave me they can give me the tools of knowledge to get out and feel comfortable about accomplishment and setting goals I feel like at times that God's failed me and maybe he has and and maybe he hasn't you know I'm alive to you know to enjoyed a lot of things God's given me that you know God hasn't really failed me on my failed him since you know I've let all this time go by but it's never too late he passed away in 2011. Irene passed in 2003 Genie's whereabouts remain unknown but as of 2008 it's believed she's in an assisted living facility in Los Angeles she'll be turning 66 this April of 2023. it seems like doctors never got their 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 language but she was abused in so many ways she was malnourished and deprived of stimulation of her five senses and here's the thing despite Clark's emphasis on a doctor telling him that Genie was severely delayed I reinstated that Genie had started to make babbling sounds and produce words prior to her father placing her in isolation at 20 months this suggests that she may have been developing language at a normal speed prior to abuse occurring at the end of the day does the question of her being delayed or not really matter no here was a little girl who had a horrific life her parents failed her the system failed her and even her team failed her most of them accepted that although their intentions had been in the right place their methods were flawed I think as medical professionals scientists and researchers it was hard for them to toe the line between giving Genie the love and care she so desperately needed versus collecting data and information that could be used to help others in the future I'm not sure that it's even possible for them to toe the line I think they really needed a neutral liaison to advocate for Genie I know I've given you a lot to unpack today but I cannot wait to hear from you had you heard about genie before today if you enjoyed today's video give it a thumbs up and hey while you're at it consider subscribing to the channel so you don't miss out on the next investigation [Music]