The secret case of Genie Wiley, the wild child. TLC Documentary

[News anchor] Officials in the

Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia

have taken custody of a 13 year old girl,

who they say, was kept in such isolation
by her parents,

that she never even learned to talk.

The girl still wore diapers,

and was uttering infantile noises,

when a social worker discovered the case

two weeks ago.

The authorities are hoping

she still may have a normal
learning capacity.

Among the first to see the child

was Temple City detective,

Sergeant Frank Linley.

[Eerie music]

[Sgt. Linley] I already knew that

the child was 13 1/2 years old,

and I took one look at her,

and she wasn't much bigger

than my daughter, Beverly,

who had just turned seven
about 3 months earlier.

And, I really had a hard time

conceiving of the idea that the child

was the age that she was.

The child, uh, obviously,

had been severely mistreated.

She was still in diapers, couldn't walk,

she had no verbal skills at all,
at that point.

[Eerie music]

The last time I was on this street

was probably 30 years ago.

Yep, there it is.

Hasn't changed much.

The back yard looks the same.

It's all weeds and dead grass.

Looks the same as it did in 1970.

[Narrator] The house belonged
to Clark Wiley.

A loner, Clark had turned his

back on the world,

after his mother had been killed

in a hit and run accident.

After the accident,

things in the Wiley house

would never be the same again.

[Sgt. Linley] The house was
completely dark.

All the blinds were drawn.

There were no toys.

No clothes.

Nothing that would ever
indicate to you

that a child of any age
lived there.

[Eerie music. Passing cars whoosh.]

The child's bedroom was

back in this corner.

That was the bedroom.

The, uh, windows were covered

to about 3 inches from the top,

which was the only natural light

that had ever come in there,

in all the time the child was

in the bedroom.

The entire furnishing to the bedroom

consisted of a cage,

with a, uh, pull-down chicken wire lid,

and some type of -- piece of wire,

securing it, when they closed it down.

There was a potty chair,

with some kind of homemade
strapping device.

[Narrator] For thirteen years,

Genie had spent her nights

locked in bed,

her days strapped
to a potty chair.

During that time,

Clark had ordered his son John,

and wife Irene,

never to talk to her.

In her darkened room,

she had led a life

or near total isolation.

[Eerie music]

Even close neighbors

were completely unaware

of her presence.

[Neighbor] I came home from work,

and the police was here,

and they came to question us.

That's when we found --

found out what, you know,

happened, and uh, you know,

that they had a little girl.

Nobody knew. Nobody knew before.

And, uh, then we found out

what happened, how she was treated.

I mean, everybody was shocked,

and, just -- unbelievable.

For their whole marriage,

Clark had imposed his will on Irene.

Blind with cataracts,

she had been too scared to resist.

But one day, something broke.

While Clark was out buying groceries,

she seized her chance, and fled.

It was the first glimpse
the world would have

of Clark and Irene's dark secret.

[Sgt. Linley] I met Clark and Irene

at Temple City sheriff station,

and they were both
under arrest, at the time.

When we interviewed Irene,

she would make no mention

of the family, whatsoever;

particularly, the children.

I attempted, along with my partner,

to interview Clark.

He refused to talk to us.

He wouldn't say a word.

He never even acknowledged

that he understood
what we were talking about.

[Reporter] Mr. Wiley?

[Clark] Yes ma'am.

Why did you keep your daughter

in a room --

[Lawyer] Mr. Wiley has no comment.

[Clark] No comment.

[Lawyer] We haven't had time to discuss
the charges.

We haven't even seen them.

[Narrator] Unable to face the truth,

Clark took matters into his own hands.

[Eerie music]

[News announcer] This morning,

the authorities reported

that 70 year old Clark Wiley

shot and killed himself,

just before he was to go to court

and be arraigned

for child abuse.

[Narrator] After 13 years,

Genie was, at last, free.

For scientists, she was just the case

they had been waiting for.

For 13 years,

Genie had lived a life

of complete isolation.

Raised in a city bedroom,

Genie was as much a feral child

as if she had been

brought up by wolves.

At 13, she was the size

of a six year old.

Worst of all,

she had never been taught to speak.

The question now:

Could she ever learn?

[Traffic softly whooshes.]

Genie's case was so
scientifically important,

the government funded
a team of scientists

to help answer the many questions
she posed.

[Clomps up the steps.]

Two of the scientists

who would become especially important
to Genie

were child psychologist James Kent,

and linguist Susan Curtiss.

[Susan] So good to see you.

[Narrator] Neither had ever

encountered a case

as extreme as Genie's.

[James Kent] We looked at her

as a newborn, in a way,

even though we know she hadn't.

She came with 13 years

of memories and experiences,

not all of them wonderful.

Most of them not, I think.

And so, we thought we needed

to start to expose her

to what the would was going to

be like for her,

outside the hospital bed.

[Narrator] To Genie,

everything was a new experience.

[James Kent] We did what you would do

with your own kids,

if you were introducing them
to the world.

Take them out,

hold them up, and show them. [Chuckles]

Sort of judge, from how they reacted,

whether this was too much,

or not enough.

And you could move on,

and do the next thing.

[Narrator] Genie was making

amazing progress.

As the experts looked on,

they realized that she might
be the answer

to the question that

had troubled science for so long.

[Susan Curtiss] So, we

seized this wonderful opportunity

that she provided us,

in as loving a way as we could,

but, using it to...

finally get our chance to

address, head on,

specific hypotheses,

and notions about

human language,

and the human mind.

[Narrator] These hypotheses

were based on the latest ideas

about how children's brains developed.

According to the theory,

young children

could only learn certain things

at certain times,

called 'critical periods.'

Language was one of these

'critical periods.'

According to the theory,

Genie, who was now a teenager,

had missed her chance forever.

But, incredibly,

Genie seemed to be

proving the theory wrong.

As this footage shows,

Genie was blossoming.