The Whittakers are known as the most inbred family in the
USA (Image: Soft White Underbelly/YouTube) Get the latest top news stories sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter More Newsletters Subscribe Please enter a valid email Something went wrong, please try again later. More Newsletters We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info Thank you for subscribing! We have more newsletters Show me See Our Privacy Notice See Our Privacy Notice × Group 28 Get the latest top news stories sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign Up No thanks, close We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info × Group 28 Thank you for subscribing! We have more newsletters Show Me No thanks, close See our Privacy Notice A family known as the most inbred in America have been left with a series of heartbreaking genetic defects that were sparked by a pair of identical twin brothers. The Whittakers, who live in the small village of Odd in West
Virginia, have a complex history. Some of the family can only communicate through grunts and barks and often flee when outsiders try to speak to them. They can struggle to remember their parents and other relatives and didn't realise until recent years that their issues were due to inbreeding. The cycle of inbreeding began with identical twin brothers, Henry and John Whittaker. Their children married each other and had over a dozen children. Read More Related Articles 'I was born with two vaginas - I use one for my husband and one for online work' Read More Related Articles 'Someone was in my train seat - entitled passenger told me I was wrong asking her to move' John had nine kids with his wife, and first cousin, Ada Riggs, including Gracie Irene Whittaker in 1920. Henry had seven children with his wife Sally, including John Emory Whittaker, who was born in 1913. John Emory and Gracie married in 1935 and had 15 children. The couple were double cousins, sharing both sets of grandparents, and their offspring suffered severe physical and mental defects, suspected to be because of their inbreeding. Betty, who was born in 1952, is the current head of the family. She promised her mother that she would stay single in order to care for all of her siblings. The family's issues started when identical twin brothers had children who married each other (Image: Soft White Underbelly/YouTube) She, along with her siblings Ray and Lorene, were interviewed by a documentary maker who visited the family. Ray and Lorene, who have a son named Timmy, cannot talk properly and make noises instead of using words, but are still able to understand one another. A family member said: "They understand what you are talking about. If they don't like it, they start yelling - let you know they don't like that idea." Photographer Mark Laita didn't get a friendly hello when he first showed up to meet the family in 2004, with a protective neighbour threatening him with a gun. But Laita became
Friends with Whittakers and has stayed close with them for 20 years. Some of the family only communicate through grunts (Image: Soft White Underbelly/YouTube) Top news stories today Grieving kids left to sleep on sofa Victim of rapist Kim Avis speaks out Two teens die in tragic e-bike crash Man charged over 'bully attack' On the Koncrete KLIPS podcast, he said his first time seeing the family felt like something out of 1972 horror movie Deliverance. Laita said: "We came around to this road, which turns into a country road, which turns into a dirt road, and we come to this
trailer and then a little shack on the other side of the road. "And there's these people walking around and their eyes are going in different directions and they are barking at us. And then one guy, you would look him in the eye or say anything and he would just scream and go running away, and his pants would fall around his ankles, and he would go running off and go and kick a garbage can." The family have physical and mental impairments due to generations of inbreeding (Image: Soft White Underbelly/YouTube) After he offered to take a portrait for them to put in the casket of a family member who had passed away, the Whittakers let him take some pictures. Laita continued: "They are kind of protected by the neighbours and the relatives [who] don't like these people coming to ridicule them." In 2020, Laita made a documentary about their life in 2020, which has been watched more than 30million times. He returned in 2022 for another follow-up after setting up a GoFundMe page, which has raised thousands for the family. Visiting the family after they received the generous donations, the filmmaker found that they had spent the entire sum on a number of home improvements, including a roof, a kitchen refit, a coal heater, and a new truck. Join the Daily Record
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