WEBVTT 00:00:00.830 --> 00:00:03.260 [Reporter] Officials in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia 00:00:03.260 --> 00:00:06.460 have taken custody of a 13-year-old girl and they say 00:00:06.460 --> 00:00:08.930 was kept in such isolation by her parents 00:00:08.930 --> 00:00:10.820 that she never even learned to talk. 00:00:11.100 --> 00:00:14.260 The girl still wore diapers and was uttering infantile noises 00:00:14.270 --> 00:00:16.820 when a social worker discovered the case two weeks ago. 00:00:17.050 --> 00:00:18.670 But the authorities are hoping she still 00:00:18.670 --> 00:00:20.980 may have a normal learning capacity. 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:23.890 [Narrator] Among the first to see the child was 00:00:23.890 --> 00:00:26.690 Temple City Detective, Sergeant Frank Linley. 00:00:34.830 --> 00:00:38.300 [Linley] I already knew that the child was 13 1/2 years old. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:41.500 And I took one look at her.. 00:00:41.500 --> 00:00:44.360 and she wasn't much bigger than my daughter, 00:00:44.360 --> 00:00:46.760 Beverly, who had just turned seven 00:00:46.760 --> 00:00:48.410 about three months earlier. 00:00:48.940 --> 00:00:53.100 And I really had a hard time conceiving of the idea 00:00:53.120 --> 00:00:55.190 that the child was the age that she was. 00:00:56.340 --> 00:01:00.230 The child obviously had been severely mistreated 00:01:00.230 --> 00:01:02.330 as she was still in diapers, couldn't walk, 00:01:02.330 --> 00:01:05.710 she had no verbal skills at all at that point. 00:01:09.190 --> 00:01:12.750 The last time I was on this street was probably 00:01:12.750 --> 00:01:14.340 30 years ago. 00:01:16.350 --> 00:01:17.560 Yep, there it is. 00:01:18.860 --> 00:01:20.110 Hasn't changed much. 00:01:20.590 --> 00:01:22.030 The back yard looks the same. 00:01:22.030 --> 00:01:24.150 It's all weeds and dead grass. 00:01:26.330 --> 00:01:29.310 Looks the same as it did in 1970. 00:01:30.720 --> 00:01:32.940 [Narrator] The house belonged to Clark Wiley. 00:01:32.940 --> 00:01:35.550 A loner, Clark had turned his back on the world 00:01:35.550 --> 00:01:38.380 after his mother had been killed in a hit and run accident. 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:40.580 After the accident, 00:01:40.580 --> 00:01:43.610 things in the Wiley house would never be the same again. 00:01:47.510 --> 00:01:49.420 [Linley] The house was completely dark. 00:01:50.150 --> 00:01:54.380 All the blinds were drawn and there were no toys, 00:01:54.380 --> 00:01:57.010 no clothes, nothing that would ever indicate 00:01:57.010 --> 00:01:59.900 to you that a child of any age lived there. 00:02:04.590 --> 00:02:09.340 The child's bedroom was back in this corner. 00:02:10.250 --> 00:02:12.470 That was the bedroom. 00:02:12.470 --> 00:02:16.790 The windows were covered to about three inches from the top. 00:02:17.190 --> 00:02:19.670 Which were the only natural light that had ever come in 00:02:19.670 --> 00:02:22.120 there in all the time the child was in the bedroom. 00:02:23.040 --> 00:02:25.780 Entire furnishings of the bedroom consists of a cage 00:02:25.780 --> 00:02:31.130 with a pull down chicken wire lid and some type 00:02:31.130 --> 00:02:35.320 of piece of wire securing it when they closed it down. 00:02:35.320 --> 00:02:36.700 There was a potty chair 00:02:37.540 --> 00:02:40.370 with some kind of homemade strapping device. 00:02:41.060 --> 00:02:45.710 [Narrator] For 13 years, Genie had spent her nights locked in bed. 00:02:45.710 --> 00:02:48.130 Her days, strapped to a potty chair. 00:02:48.770 --> 00:02:51.570 During that time Clark had ordered his son John 00:02:51.570 --> 00:02:54.180 and wife Irene, never to talk to her. 00:02:55.810 --> 00:03:00.560 In her darkened room, she had led a life of near total isolation. 00:03:02.980 --> 00:03:06.880 Even close neighbors were completely unaware of her presence. 00:03:08.530 --> 00:03:10.500 [Laicans] We came home from work and the police was here 00:03:10.500 --> 00:03:11.420 and they came to question us. 00:03:11.810 --> 00:03:14.190 That's when we found out, you know, 00:03:14.190 --> 00:03:16.610 what happened and, you know, that they had a little girl. 00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:20.510 Nobody knew, nobody knew before. 00:03:21.250 --> 00:03:22.820 And when we found out 00:03:22.820 --> 00:03:24.610 what happened and how she was treated, 00:03:24.610 --> 00:03:28.900 I mean, everybody was shocked and just unbelievable. 00:03:29.990 --> 00:03:31.550 [Narrator] For their whole marriage, 00:03:31.550 --> 00:03:33.770 Clark had imposed his will on Irene. 00:03:34.330 --> 00:03:35.830 And blind with cataracts, 00:03:35.830 --> 00:03:38.010 she had been too scared to resist. 00:03:38.010 --> 00:03:40.090 But one day something broke. 00:03:40.510 --> 00:03:42.570 While Clark was out buying groceries, 00:03:42.570 --> 00:03:44.520 she seized her chance and fled. 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:45.500 It was the first glimpse 00:03:45.500 --> 00:03:48.370 the world would have of Clark and Irene's dark secret. 00:03:48.990 --> 00:03:52.100 [Linley] I met Clark and Irene at Temple City Sheriff's Station. 00:03:52.100 --> 00:03:54.680 They were both under arrest at the time. 00:03:54.680 --> 00:03:58.030 When we interviewed Irene she would make no mention 00:03:58.030 --> 00:04:01.310 of the family whatsoever, particularly the children. 00:04:01.310 --> 00:04:04.720 I attempted along with my partner to interview Clark. 00:04:05.070 --> 00:04:07.390 He refused to talk to us. He wouldn't say a word. 00:04:07.390 --> 00:04:08.570 He never even acknowledged 00:04:08.570 --> 00:04:10.140 that he understood what we were talking about. 00:04:10.140 --> 00:04:11.570 [Woman] Mr. Wiley? [Wiley] Yes. 00:04:11.570 --> 00:04:14.820 [Woman] Why did you keep your daughter in a room-- 00:04:14.820 --> 00:04:16.310 [Man] Mr. Wiley has no comment. [Wiley] No comment. 00:04:16.310 --> 00:04:18.190 [Man] We haven't had time to discuss the charge 00:04:18.190 --> 00:04:19.340 and we haven't even seen them. 00:04:20.430 --> 00:04:21.950 [Narrator] Unable to face the truth, 00:04:21.950 --> 00:04:24.130 Clark took matters into his own hands. 00:04:27.610 --> 00:04:31.190 [Reporter] This morning the authorities reported that 70 year old Clark Wiley, 00:04:31.190 --> 00:04:34.030 shot and killed himself just before he was to go to court 00:04:34.030 --> 00:04:35.900 and be arraigned for child abuse. 00:04:37.580 --> 00:04:40.680 [Narrator] After 13 years, Genie was at last free. 00:04:41.080 --> 00:04:42.430 And for scientists, 00:04:42.430 --> 00:04:45.190 she was just the case they had been waiting for. 00:04:47.750 --> 00:04:52.280 For 13 years Genie had lived a life of complete isolation. 00:04:53.150 --> 00:04:55.950 Raised in a city bedroom, Genie was as much 00:04:55.950 --> 00:04:59.190 a feral child as if she had been brought up by wolves. 00:05:00.580 --> 00:05:03.360 At 13 she was the size of a six year old. 00:05:03.960 --> 00:05:06.610 Worst of all she had never been taught to speak. 00:05:07.220 --> 00:05:10.200 The question now, could she ever learn? 00:05:14.060 --> 00:05:17.070 Genie's case was so scientifically important 00:05:17.070 --> 00:05:19.630 that the government funded a team of scientists 00:05:19.630 --> 00:05:22.610 to help answer the many questions she posed. 00:05:25.810 --> 00:05:28.410 Two of the scientists who would become especially important 00:05:28.410 --> 00:05:31.600 to Genie were child psychologist James Kent 00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:33.440 and linguist Susan Curtiss. 00:05:34.100 --> 00:05:36.630 [Curtiss] It's so wonderful to see you. God. 00:05:36.630 --> 00:05:40.430 [Narrator] Neither had ever encountered a case as extreme as Genie's. 00:05:46.630 --> 00:05:49.190 [Kent] We looked at her as a-- 00:05:49.190 --> 00:05:50.390 as a newborn in a way. 00:05:50.390 --> 00:05:51.690 Even though we know she hadn't-- 00:05:51.690 --> 00:05:54.600 she came with 13 years of memories and experiences. 00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:57.400 Not all of them wonderful. Most of them not, I think. 00:05:57.400 --> 00:05:58.870 And so we thought we needed 00:05:58.880 --> 00:06:02.710 to start to expose her to what the world was going to be 00:06:02.710 --> 00:06:04.690 like for her outside the hospital bed. 00:06:05.780 --> 00:06:08.630 [Narrator] To Genie, everything was a new experience. 00:06:10.390 --> 00:06:12.230 [Kent] We did what you would do with-- 00:06:12.230 --> 00:06:13.250 with your own kids. 00:06:13.250 --> 00:06:15.270 If you were introducing them to the world. 00:06:15.270 --> 00:06:17.760 You'd take them out and hold them up and show them. 00:06:17.760 --> 00:06:19.280 Sort of judge from how they reacted 00:06:19.280 --> 00:06:20.150 to whether this was too much 00:06:20.150 --> 00:06:22.460 or not enough and you could move on and do the next thing. 00:06:22.940 --> 00:06:25.390 [Narrator] Genie was making amazing progress. 00:06:25.390 --> 00:06:27.130 As the experts looked on, 00:06:27.130 --> 00:06:29.860 they realized that she might be the answer to the question 00:06:29.860 --> 00:06:32.020 that had troubled science for so long. 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:37.150 [Curtiss] So we seized this wonderful opportunity 00:06:37.150 --> 00:06:39.990 that she provided us in as loving a way 00:06:39.990 --> 00:06:46.150 as we could but using it to finally get our chance 00:06:46.150 --> 00:06:49.840 to address head-on specific hypotheses 00:06:49.840 --> 00:06:53.480 and notions about human language and the human mind. 00:06:55.370 --> 00:06:58.060 [Narrator] These hypotheses were based on the latest ideas 00:06:58.060 --> 00:07:00.420 about how children's brains developed. 00:07:00.730 --> 00:07:02.320 According to the theory, 00:07:02.320 --> 00:07:05.910 young children could only learn certain things at certain times, 00:07:05.910 --> 00:07:07.950 called critical periods. 00:07:08.230 --> 00:07:10.720 Language was one of these critical periods 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:12.170 and according to the theory, 00:07:12.170 --> 00:07:16.220 Genie who was now a teenager, had missed her chance forever. 00:07:18.540 --> 00:07:22.070 But incredibly, Genie seemed to be proving the theory wrong. 00:07:22.070 --> 00:07:25.320 As this footage shows, Genie was blossoming. 00:07:25.320 --> 00:07:27.730 Not only was she delighted by the world around her 00:07:27.730 --> 00:07:29.260 but she was learning the words 00:07:29.260 --> 00:07:31.210 for the new things she was seeing. 00:07:35.700 --> 00:07:39.260 [Curtiss] She was extremely interested in everything around her. 00:07:39.260 --> 00:07:41.870 She wanted to know the word for everything around her. 00:07:41.870 --> 00:07:45.280 She wanted to engage people all around her. 00:07:45.280 --> 00:07:47.240 She was not mentally deficient. 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:48.770 Her lights were on and everyone 00:07:48.770 --> 00:07:54.090 who worked with her from teachers to therapists to me, 00:07:54.090 --> 00:07:56.620 knew that she was not retarded. 00:07:56.620 --> 00:07:59.050 It was clear as day. 00:08:00.090 --> 00:08:02.830 And as she began to learn more and more words, 00:08:02.830 --> 00:08:07.220 hundreds of words, much more rapidly than I ever imagined. 00:08:07.220 --> 00:08:12.140 And string them together, I began to think maybe I will be wrong. 00:08:12.140 --> 00:08:14.010 Maybe she will be the one 00:08:14.010 --> 00:08:17.450 that will prove that this hypothesis is incorrect. 00:08:18.090 --> 00:08:20.170 [Narrator] But Genie could not escape the effects 00:08:20.170 --> 00:08:22.180 of her past so easily. 00:08:22.180 --> 00:08:25.200 She was still haunted by her traumatic upbringing. 00:08:25.200 --> 00:08:28.590 Trapped by the memories of the awful fate she had suffered. 00:08:28.590 --> 00:08:32.230 And linguistically, she had stopped making progress. 00:08:32.230 --> 00:08:33.870 [Curtiss] She learned tons of words. 00:08:33.870 --> 00:08:37.190 She has an enormous vocabulary. But language is not words. 00:08:37.400 --> 00:08:42.320 Language is grammar. Language is sentences. 00:08:42.489 --> 00:08:45.730 How do you make a sentence? What can be a sentence? 00:08:45.730 --> 00:08:46.800 What is a sentence? 00:08:46.800 --> 00:08:49.210 How do you automatically know something's a sentence? 00:08:49.940 --> 00:08:53.670 So it wasn't because she was cognitively deficient 00:08:53.670 --> 00:08:58.900 in other respects, it was because she was cognitively deficient 00:08:58.900 --> 00:09:02.470 in this island of human mind. 00:09:02.470 --> 00:09:05.180 The mental faculty that we call grammar. 00:09:05.180 --> 00:09:06.500 [Narrator] At the time Genie was found, 00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:09.020 brain science was in its infancy. 00:09:09.020 --> 00:09:11.150 But today we have a much clearer picture 00:09:11.150 --> 00:09:12.910 of what actually happens in cases 00:09:12.910 --> 00:09:15.210 of extreme neglect, like Genie's. 00:09:16.430 --> 00:09:19.970 [Perry] In Genie's brain, the left part of her brain, 00:09:19.970 --> 00:09:23.490 her cortex, that has those neural systems responsible 00:09:23.490 --> 00:09:25.220 for speech and language. 00:09:25.220 --> 00:09:27.300 Because she never heard any words 00:09:27.300 --> 00:09:29.490 and because she was never taught-- 00:09:29.490 --> 00:09:31.240 spoken to very often. 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:32.990 They didn't get stimulated. 00:09:32.990 --> 00:09:34.420 And because they weren't stimulated, 00:09:34.420 --> 00:09:38.640 they got smaller and less functional 00:09:38.640 --> 00:09:41.210 and disconnected and ultimately 00:09:41.210 --> 00:09:43.840 that part of the brain literally physically changes. 00:09:44.390 --> 00:09:47.190 [Narrator] Today with modern imaging technology, 00:09:47.190 --> 00:09:51.390 we can actually see what happens in the brains of feral children. 00:09:51.390 --> 00:09:53.250 And the effects are shocking. 00:09:54.150 --> 00:09:55.940 Without normal stimulation, 00:09:55.940 --> 00:09:58.490 their brains are smaller and malformed. 00:09:58.490 --> 00:10:02.350 And the earlier this neglect begins and the longer it carries on, 00:10:02.350 --> 00:10:04.820 the worse the damage will be. 00:10:04.820 --> 00:10:06.420 Starved of stimulation, 00:10:06.420 --> 00:10:08.520 Genie's brain had simply not developed 00:10:08.520 --> 00:10:10.510 the capacity for language. 00:10:10.510 --> 00:10:12.160 And now that she was a teenager, 00:10:12.160 --> 00:10:14.580 she would never be able to learn. 00:10:14.580 --> 00:10:18.750 Despite this, Genie continued to be a close part of everyone's life. 00:10:18.750 --> 00:10:21.280 But, there was more trouble ahead. 00:10:24.190 --> 00:10:26.220 [Kent] Children have to belong to somebody when they grow up 00:10:26.220 --> 00:10:27.940 and she was still a child. 00:10:27.940 --> 00:10:29.710 And she needed a family to belong to. 00:10:29.710 --> 00:10:31.170 So that's what we would have liked, 00:10:31.170 --> 00:10:33.040 a family that she could belong to. 00:10:34.270 --> 00:10:37.000 And that's not what happened unfortunately. 00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:40.690 What did happen is about the worst outcome 00:10:40.690 --> 00:10:43.400 I think we would have envisioned. 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:45.680 [Narrator] On her 18th birthday, 00:10:45.680 --> 00:10:48.200 Genie moved back with her mother, Irene, into the house 00:10:48.200 --> 00:10:51.370 in which she had been so terribly abused. 00:10:51.370 --> 00:10:52.830 But after only a few weeks, 00:10:52.830 --> 00:10:55.280 it was clear that Irene couldn't cope. 00:10:55.280 --> 00:10:58.000 From here, Genie was moved into state care 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:00.260 with terrible consequences. 00:11:01.750 --> 00:11:04.740 [Curtiss] I was a student and people wouldn't listen to me. 00:11:04.740 --> 00:11:08.180 People who needed to intervene did not listen to me. 00:11:08.180 --> 00:11:12.150 And so I spent lots and lots of time on the phone pleading 00:11:12.150 --> 00:11:14.910 with people to intervene and save this person, 00:11:14.910 --> 00:11:18.510 who had had the worst experience 00:11:18.510 --> 00:11:22.690 of deprivation and isolation in all recorded medical history. 00:11:23.260 --> 00:11:25.260 [Narrator] Genie moved from home to home. 00:11:25.260 --> 00:11:28.660 Sometimes with the very people who served as her therapists. 00:11:28.660 --> 00:11:31.660 This potential conflict of interest raised tensions 00:11:31.660 --> 00:11:34.520 among the many people involved in her life. 00:11:34.520 --> 00:11:37.400 And a tug of war erupted over the child. 00:11:37.400 --> 00:11:39.790 As Genie's condition deteriorated, 00:11:39.790 --> 00:11:41.910 Irene decided that Susan Curtiss 00:11:41.910 --> 00:11:45.270 and the other academics had become too close to Genie. 00:11:45.270 --> 00:11:47.320 A lawsuit followed. 00:11:49.780 --> 00:11:53.370 [Curtiss] I went from being asked to be her guardian, to one week 00:11:53.370 --> 00:11:56.960 later being prevented from seeing her or phoning her. 00:11:56.960 --> 00:11:58.670 And ever since then I've been prevented 00:11:58.670 --> 00:12:00.920 from having any contact at all. 00:12:00.920 --> 00:12:05.140 So although I have lots of, you know, I'm still a scientist, 00:12:05.140 --> 00:12:09.470 I'm still interested in knowing things about her language now. 00:12:09.470 --> 00:12:11.820 And all kinds of interesting things 00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:13.800 I would like to pursue academically, 00:12:13.800 --> 00:12:16.980 primarily, I would just like to see her. 00:12:17.530 --> 00:12:19.380 [Narrator] Now a ward of the court, 00:12:19.380 --> 00:12:21.610 Genie lives in an adult care home somewhere 00:12:21.610 --> 00:12:24.840 in Los Angeles, prevented from seeing the people 00:12:24.840 --> 00:12:27.300 who once meant so much to her.