Genie (feral child) is found in Los Angeles, California - November 4, 1970



Genie (born 1957) is the pseudonym of a feral child who was the victim of extraordinarily severe abuse, neglect and social isolation, making her one of the most well-known cases recorded in the annals of abnormal child psychology. Born in Arcadia, California, Genie was locked alone in a room from the age of 20 months to 13 years, 7 months, usually strapped to a child's toilet or bound in a crib with her arms and legs immobilized. During this time she was almost never exposed to any speech, and as a result she did not acquire a first language. Her abuse came to the attention of Los Angeles child welfare authorities on November 4, 1970.

In the first several years after Genie's life and circumstances came to light, psychologists, linguists and other scientists focused a great deal of attention on Genie's case, seeing in her near-total isolation an opportunity to study many aspects of human development. Upon finding that she had not learned a language, linguists saw Genie as potentially being an important way to gain further insight into the processes controlling language acquisition skills and linguistic development. Extensive observation of their new-found human subject enabled them to publish academic works testing theories and hypotheses identifying critical periods during which humans learn to understand and use language.

Upon being removed from her parents' house, Genie gradually started to acquire and develop new language skills. On broader levels her language development followed some normal patterns of young children acquiring a first language, but researchers noted many marked differences with her language acquisition. The size of Genie's vocabulary and the speed with which she expanded it consistently outstripped both researchers' anticipations, and many of the earliest words she learned and used were focused on observable properties of people or objects, very different from those of a typical first-language learner. However, she had far more difficulty with acquisition of basic grammar and syntax, resulting in her vocabulary being much more advanced and sophisticated than most people in equivalent phases of learning and using these rules, and her acquisition of them remained far slower than normal. In addition, tests on her brain found discrepancies far larger than any prior observations of people with fully intact brains, which affirmed existing postulations on brain lateralization and gave rise to many new hypotheses on lateralization and its effect on language.

Genie's case has been compared extensively with that of Victor of Aveyron, an eighteenth-century French child who similarly became a classic case of late language acquisition and delayed development.

After her rescue, Genie was cared for initially at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Her subsequent placements eventually gave rise to rancorous debate. After approximately eight months at Children's Hospital, she was moved to one foster home for a month; the first of several moves. Upon removal she was then placed with the scientist heading the research team studying her, where she lived for almost four years and where most of the testing and research on her was conducted. Soon after turning 18 she went back to live with her mother, who could not adequately care for her; after a few months she was then placed in a series of at least six institutions for disabled adults, where she experienced further physical and emotional abuse. Cut off from almost all of the people who had studied her, her newly acquired language and behavioral skills regressed rapidly.

As of 2008 ABC News reported that Genie was living in California, "in psychological confinement as a ward of the state — her sixth foster home. And again, she is speechless."

Genie was the fourth and last child of parents living in Arcadia, California. Her father worked in a factory as a flight mechanic during World War II and got a job in the aviation industry after the war ended; her mother had come to California as a teenager with family friends fleeing the Dust Bowl. Neither one of them had any meaningful education. Her mother's family and friends had strongly opposed their marriage because Genie's father was twenty years older than her mother. The couple seemed happy to some who knew them, but others thought of Genie's father as something of a distant loner. Her mother began suffering increasingly frequent beatings at his hands, which progressively became more severe. Genie's mother already had vision problems, the result of neurological damage from a childhood accident. After she married, her eyesight became progressively worse, due to the pre-existing damage, severe cataracts and a detached retina. Her diminishing vision forced her to become increasingly dependent on her husband.

From the outset of their relationship, Genie's father made it very clear that he neither liked children nor wanted to have any. Still, after about five years of marriage his wife became pregnant. Genie's father continued to beat her through her pregnancy, and near the end apparently attempted to beat and strangle her to death. She was in the hospital recovering from this when she went into labor, but gave birth to a daughter who appeared to be healthy. Disturbed by the girl's crying, her father placed her in the garage; as a result, at 10 weeks old she died of pneumonia. Their second child was a boy diagnosed with Rh incompatibility who died at two days of age, allegedly from choking on his own mucus. Another son was born three years later, once again with Rh incompatibility. He was slow to develop, and late to walk and to talk. When he was four, his paternal grandmother grew concerned about her son's increasing instability and took over her grandson's care; he made good progress with her for several months before eventually being returned to his parents. Around the time Genie was born, her father began to isolate himself and his family from those around them.

Genie's birth was a standard Caesarean section with no complications. The next day, showing signs of Rh incompatibility, she required a blood transfusion, but she was otherwise a healthy weight and size. A medical appointment at three months showed that she was gaining weight normally, but found a congenital hip dislocation which required her to use a highly restrictive Frejka splint for the next seven months. Due to the splint Genie was late to walk, and researchers believed this led Genie's father to start speculating that she was mentally retarded. At subsequent appointments, up until the age of 11 months, records indicate that she was alert and sitting up on her own, but falling behind in weight gain; at birth she had been in the 50th percentile for weight, but at 11 months she was down to the 11th percentile. Genie's mother later recalled that Genie was not a cuddly baby, did not babble much, and resisted solid food, but by six months she was reportedly in overall good condition and, "taking food well."

When Genie was 14 months old, she came down with a fever and was taken to a pediatrician. Upon examining her, the doctor said that although her illness prevented a definitive diagnosis there was a possibility that she was mentally retarded. He also suggested that the brain dysfunction kernicterus might be present; Rh incompatibility is a significant risk factor for kernicterus, and severe cases can lead to serious brain damage. Her father took this opinion to mean that Genie was severely retarded, using it as justification for isolating and abusing her.

When Genie was 20 months old, her paternal grandmother was killed when a pickup truck ran her over in a hit-and-run traffic accident. As a child, Genie's father was not very close to his mother, having only had limited contact with her while mostly growing up in orphanages. During most of his adult life, they constantly argued about her unsuccessful efforts to convince him to adopt a less rigid lifestyle. However, according to Genie's mother and brother, her father was almost singularly fixated on his mother, always treating his marriage as ancillary, at best. He already had difficulty controlling his anger, and his mother's death deeply affected him; when the truck's driver subsequently received only a probationary sentence for both manslaughter and drunk driving, he became nearly delusional with rage. He then quit his job and further increased the family's isolation. They moved into the two-bedroom house his mother had lived in, and left her bedroom untouched as a shrine to her. Genie was increasingly confined to the second bedroom, while the rest of the family slept in the living room.



From the time Genie was born, her father displayed hostility toward her, discouraging his wife and son from paying her any attention. His instability had steadily increased after she was born, and researchers later speculated that his mother's death, and the outcome of the subsequent trial, made him feel as if the outside world had completely failed him. This convinced him that he would need to protect his family from the outside world. He still thought that Genie was severely retarded and would therefore need his additional protection, and believed the best way to provide this for her was to hide her existence entirely.

During the day, Genie was tied to a child's toilet in a makeshift harness which, according to Genie's brother, their father had forced his wife to make. The harness was designed like a straitjacket to prevent her from moving her arms or legs, and while in it Genie wore only diapers and could only move her extremities. At night, when her father remembered her, she was bound in a sleeping bag and placed in a crib with a metal-screen cover, her arms and legs immobilized. Researchers concluded that, if Genie vocalized or made any other noise, her father beat her with a large plank he kept in her room. To keep her quiet he would bare his teeth and bark and growl at her like a wild dog, sometimes making Genie's brother do this as well, and he grew his fingernails out to scratch her. If he suspected her of doing something he did not like he would make these noises outside the door to intimidate her, and beat her if he believed she had continued to do it. The exact reason for his dog-like behavior was never definitively discerned, but at least one scientist who studied Genie speculated he may have viewed himself as a guard dog and was acting out the role. This instilled an intense fear of cats and dogs in Genie that persisted long after she was freed.

Apart from her father's beatings, Genie's only meaningful human interaction occurred during the few minutes when she was being fed. She was not given any solid food; instead, she was fed baby food, cereal, pablum, an occasional soft-boiled egg, and liquids. Food was spooned into her mouth as quickly as possible, and if she choked or could not swallow fast enough it would be rubbed into her face. Although Genie's mother claimed Genie was fed three times a day, she also said that when hungry Genie would risk a beating by making noise to get attention, leading researchers to believe Genie's father often refused to feed her. Bowing to pressure to keep contact with his sister to a minimum, her brother was often forced to feed her in this manner. The few minutes per day she was being fed were normally the only times Genie's father allowed his wife to be with Genie, but she could not feed Genie herself. Later she claimed that, when possible, at around 11 PM she surreptitiously tried to feed Genie; this led to Genie developing an unusual sleep pattern, which continued for several months after she was freed. Once, when Genie was suffering from constipation, her father forced her to drink an entire bottle of castor oil. The ensuing effect on her health was so serious that Genie's father allowed a doctor to examine her, and she ultimately barely survived.

The only sensory stimulation Genie experienced from outside her home came by way of two windows, through which she could hear some traffic noises and see both the side of a neighboring house and a couple inches of sky, and could also occasionally hear birds and airplanes flying over the house. Even these stimuli were extremely limited, as the windows were almost entirely blacked out and the house was well away from the street. On rare occasions, her father would also allow her to play with plastic food containers, old spools of thread, TV Guides with many of the illustrations cut out, and two plastic raincoats. He had an extremely low tolerance for noise, to the point of refusing to have a working television or radio in the house. He almost never allowed Genie's mother or brother to speak, and viciously beat them if he heard them talking; their conversations were therefore always very quiet and out of Genie's earshot. They were particularly forbidden to speak to or around Genie, preventing her from being exposed to any meaningful amount of language besides her father's occasional swearing. He almost never permitted anyone to leave the house, only allowing Genie's brother to go to and from school; even he had to prove his identity before entering the house, as Genie's father wanted to be absolutely sure the family was completely isolated. To discourage disobedience, he frequently sat in the living room with a shotgun in his lap. He did not allow anyone else in the house, and at night would frequently leave the outside lights on to help prevent anyone else from coming; in case someone did come, he always kept his gun nearby.

Genie's mother was almost completely blind by this time, and was essentially passive by nature to begin with. Her husband threatened to kill her if she attempted to contact her parents, close friends who lived nearby, or the police. He also forced Genie's brother into silence, giving him instructions on how to keep his father's actions secret and beating him more often and more severely as he grew older. Genie's brother felt completely powerless to do anything to stop his father, as he knew his mother could not put up any resistance and feared severe retribution for attempting to intervene. Completely convinced that Genie would die by age 12 her father promised that, if she survived past that age, he would allow his wife to seek outside assistance. When Genie turned 12 he reneged on that promise, and Genie's mother took no action for another year.

In late October 1970, Genie's mother and father had a violent argument in which she threatened to leave if she could not call her parents. He eventually relented, and shortly thereafter Genie's mother left her husband to live with her parents in Monterey Park and took Genie with her; Genie's brother, by then 18, had already run away from home to live with friends. A 2002 episode of the television series Body Shock said they got away while Genie's father was buying groceries. Three weeks later, on November 4, Genie's mother brought Genie along while seeking disability benefits in nearby Temple City, California. On account of her near-blindness, she inadvertently entered the general social services office next door. The social worker who greeted them instantly sensed something was not right when she saw Genie; she was shocked to learn Genie's true age was 13, having estimated from her appearance and demeanor that she was around 6 or 7 and possibly autistic. She notified her supervisor, and after questioning Genie's mother and confirming Genie's age they immediately contacted the police. Genie's parents were arrested and Genie became a ward of the court, and a court order was immediately issued for Genie to be taken to Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Upon Genie's admission David Rigler, a therapist and USC psychology professor who was the chief psychologist at Children's Hospital, and Howard Hansen, then the head of the psychiatry division and an early expert on child abuse, took direct control of Genie's care. The day after Genie's admission physician James Kent, another early advocate for child abuse awareness, examined her. He later stated this examination revealed by far the most severe case of child abuse he would ever encounter, and he came away from it extremely pessimistic about Genie's prognosis. The officer who arrested Genie's parents questioned them with his partner, and found that Genie's mother would not speak about her family—and particularly not her children—and Genie's father never seemed to acknowledge anything said to him. When officers interviewed people in the neighborhood, they found no one knew Genie's parents ever had a child besides their son, and their neighbors were stunned and horrified when police informed them of Genie's existence and of the abuse Genie's father had inflicted on his wife and children. In the house the family had been living in, police found several devices which had been used to restrain and hit Genie. They also discovered detailed notes Genie's father had written, chronicling both his mistreatment of his family and his efforts to conceal it; after reading through them, the lead detective on the investigation said, "Hitler could have taken lessons from [Genie's father.]" Rigler said the hospital could not get Genie's developmental history, and largely had to rely on the police investigation to piece together Genie's childhood.

News of Genie's rescue reached major media outlets on November 17, 1970, receiving a great deal of local and national media attention. That night, Walter Cronkite included a segment on Genie in the CBS Evening News. The Los Angeles Times ran two consecutive front-page stories on Genie, and continued to run prominent stories on her and her family for over a week. Newspaper reports showed several photographs of the other members of Genie's family, and local and regional television news networks shot extensive video of Genie's parents. However, only one picture of Genie was publicly released; this picture, shown in both the November 17 Los Angeles Times article and on the CBS Evening News report, significantly fueled public interest in Genie. Children's Hospital staff said reporters began regularly coming to the hospital hoping to see her, making it very difficult for them to maintain her anonymity. Acting at least partially on advice from his attorney, Genie's father refused to speak to the media. Genie's brother also made no public statements, but cooperated with the investigation and gave detectives important information on his father's abuse.

After the story reached the media, large crowds went to the family's house to try to see Genie's father, which he reportedly found extremely difficult to handle. On November 20, on the morning before a scheduled court appearance on charges of child abuse, Genie's father committed suicide by gunshot; his son was standing with a friend outside the house, with no knowledge of his father's intentions. When police arrived, they found two suicide notes from Genie's father. One, for his son, contained instructions for handling his body and a few of his possessions, and the other was directed at the police. One of the notes—police did not specify which—contained the declaration, "The world will never understand."

More on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_%28feral_child%29