Living sheltered away in the village of Odd, which is 75 miles from Charleston, some members of their clan are unable to properly speak
A family who have a complicated history of inbreeding have been left with heart breaking genetic defects as a result of their incest relatives with some of them only being able to communicate through grunts and barks.
One of the daughters, Betty would not say if her parents were related when questioned about their background by documentary maker, Mark Laita but she later confirmed that her mum and dad are double first cousins. Their eldest, Aileen, passed away in June 1997 after suffering from a heart attack, while oldest boy Emery died a month after being born in 1938 after suffering from pneumonia. Betty, who was born in 1952 is now the head of the family after promising her mother she would not marry so she could look after her 14 siblings.
Timmy is the only member of the Whittaker clan who has graduated from high school. A filmmaker who documented the lives of the unusual family first met with them in 2004 after he found them living in a cramped shack with several dogs. "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 at 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.
Over the years, Laita has returned to visit the family on numerous occasions and filmed a documentary in 2020 about the way they live their lives, which has been watched more than 28 million times. The film showed him speaking with the three siblings, Betty, Lorraine and Ray, as well as with their cousin, Timmy.
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