Strapped to a Toilet Seat for 13 Years: Agonizing Story of “Genie”

Strapped to a Toilet Seat for 13 Years: Agonizing Story of “Genie”

Genie Wiley was tied to a training toilet and left in her bedroom all day for over 13 years. She was beaten for making noise of any kind, and her father would stand outside her room growling to intimidate her into silence.⁠ ⁠⠀

⠀

See the harrowing photos and learn her disturbing full story by clicking the link in our bio.

Early life story of the “Feral Child”

Genie was the last, and also second surviving, of the four children at the Wiley household. The pseudonym “Genie” was given to her on her case to protect her identity and privacy.

Her father, Clark Wiley grew up in foster homes and was a machinist during World War II. Soon after getting married, his controlling and abusive nature grew as he began to prevent his wife from leaving home and beat her with increasing frequency and severity.

He disliked children and wanted none of his own. He had always been extremely sensitive to noise and refused to have television or radio in the house and banned his wife from speaking loudly around him so the idea of a crying baby was the last thing he would tolerate.

Around five years into their marriage, his wife became pregnant. Although he beat his wife throughout the pregnancy, and towards the end attempted to strangle her to death, she gave birth to a healthy baby.

His neglect and insanity resulted in the death of his first two children. The first girl died after being abandoned in a garage when she was only a baby. The second child died not long after birth. The third baby boy survived but was constantly abused during childhood until he eventually ran away from home and went to live with his friends.

The fourth, famously known as the “Feral Child” Genie, survived but suffered possibly the worst fate of them all. She was strapped to a toilet seat, isolated from humanity, and left to quietly suffer for over 13 years.

He had forbidden her to cry, speak, or make noise since she was a toddler and her attempts to utter a noise would result in her father beating her which ultimately resulted in her being stripped of the desire to even make basic sounds, let alone speak a language.

But where was her mother all along? Extremely passive, physically abused, stricken by fear and poor eyesight, Genie’s mother, Dorothy Irene Wiley, was the ultimate enabler. After years of abuse, she had nearly lost her eye-sight, as well as the ability to defend herself or her children from her husband’s assaults.

Her Accidental Discovery

In November 1970, when Genie was 13 years and 7 months old, her abuse came to the attention of Los Angeles child welfare authorities.

Genie’s father was initially convinced that she would not survive past the age of 12 and promised that if she did stay alive that long, he would allow his wife to seek outside assistance for her. When Genie was a little over 13 years old, her parents had a violent argument over the broken promise and one day when her husband was out, Dorothy took Genie out of the house for the first time.

Genie’s mother decided to apply for disability benefits for the blind and brought Genie along with her, but on account of her near-blindness, they accidentally entered the general social services office next door where the social workers instantly sensed something was wrong and took action. Genie’s parents were arrested but her father committed suicide the morning before a scheduled court appearance on child abuse charges

After his death, the court dropped the charges on Genie’s mother since the beatings from her husband and her near-total blindness had left her unable to protect her children.

A Rare Opportunity for the “Forbidden Experiment”

While the intentional isolation of a child to deprive them of linguistic input is inhuman and impossible to experiment on, Genie’s case presented a rare opportunity to scientists.

Her case quickly became the center of attention for psychologists and linguists. They attempted to gain insight into the processes controlling language acquisition skills and to test theories and hypotheses identifying critical periods during which humans learn to understand and use language.

At first, they assumed she was autistic and was refusing to speak but later it was discovered that she was simply not capable of verbal communication as she had never acquired the skill. Her initial active vocabulary was limited to the phrases “stop it” and “no more.”

She had two sets of teeth often known as supernumeraries, a rare dental condition. She could barely chew or swallow, and could not fully focus her eyes or extend her limbs. She weighed only 26kg and essentially looked like a toddler rather than a 13-year-old, due to undernourishment.

Within a few months, she developed exceptional nonverbal communication skills and gradually began to learn some basic social skills but her progress was disrupted when Genie’s mother put a stop to the research and turned her over to the state as a result of being unprepared for the responsibility of raising her daughter. Genie’s birth mother then sued the Children’s Hospital and the research team for “excessive testing” which lead to an important ethical dilemma about the treatment and care of Genie.

“If you want to do rigorous science, then Genie’s interests are going to come second some of the time. If you only care about helping Genie, then you wouldn’t do a lot of the scientific research.” — said Harlan Lee in the NOVA documentary

Ultimately, Genie’s case will be studied for generations not only for human development but also for what it can teach us about the rewards and the risks of conducting the “Forbidden Experiment”.

Little is known about her circumstances since the research period ended in 1978 but she is known to have remained in state care. She is now sixty-three years old. Her mother died in 2003 and her brother, who had diabetes, died in 2011.

As one of the worst child abuse cases in history, Genie’s story is still one of the most heartbreaking and bizarre events to have ever happened to a child.