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The photographer who introduced millions of people to the Whittaker family has opened up about his unsettling first encounter with the West Virginia family, revealing the bizarre behaviour that has stayed with him years later.
The Whittakers became widely known after photographer Mark Laita featured them on his YouTube channel, Soft White Underbelly.
His documentaries explored the family's isolated lifestyle, alleged history of inter-family relationships and the disabilities experienced by some members.
According to accounts from the family, their history allegedly traces back generations, with relatives marrying within the family.
Laita has previously described his encounter with the Whittakers as “one of the most disturbing interviews I’ve ever done”, and said one particular aspect of the visit has remained etched in his memory.
He eventually gained access to the family's remote home after dealing with protective neighbours. Accompanied by police, Laita travelled down increasingly isolated roads before reaching the property.
Speaking on the Koncrete Klips podcast, he recalled the strange scene that greeted him.
“We came around to this road, which turns into a country road, which turns into a dirt road.”
He continued: “Then 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.”
Laita compared the experience to the movie Deliverance, which depicts a disturbing encounter in rural America.
“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.”
He said the behavior repeatedly occurred during his visit.
“And this would happen over and over. It was out of control - the craziest thing I have ever seen.”
Laita first documented the family in his 2020 documentary Inbred Family - The Whittakers, although he acknowledged that communicating with them could be extremely difficult.
He later returned to film more aspects of their lives, including their Christmas celebrations, trips to the state fair and visits to their family cemetery.
Despite spending more than two decades documenting the family, Laita has admitted to having complicated feelings about his work.
“It feels exploitative but I think it's good for us all to know that these things exist,” he explained.
He compared the situation to everyday transactions, arguing that exploitation exists in many aspects of life.
“The hotel I'm staying at, they're exploiting my need for sleep," he said.
"The restaurant I ate breakfast at is exploiting my hunger.
"Everything is exploitative. Photography and video are especially by nature exploitative.”
Laita's relationship with the family has not always been straightforward.
In 2024, he reportedly donated around £1,000 toward the funeral expenses of Larry Whittaker, only to subsequently discover that Larry was actually still alive.
More recently, the Daily Mail reported that authorities removed several members of the family from their home in Odd, West Virginia.
Ray Whittaker, 72, his sister Lorene, 79, and her son Timmy, 46, were reportedly among those removed. Relatives Betty, 73, and Larry, 69, claimed they were given little explanation for the decision.
“They said they were helping them, and they couldn’t live here no more,” Betty said. “I miss them a lot, I raised them.”
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There’s been a shocking update in the story of America’s so-called “most inbred family,” as the man who first brought them to public attention claimed they’ve been lying to him the entire time.
Mark Laita, the documentarian behind the viral Soft White Underbelly YouTube series, has been following the Whittaker family for over a decade.
His 2020 video, shot in the tiny village of Odd, West Virginia, about 75 miles from Charleston, thrust the family into the public eye.
The Whittaker Family. Credit: Soft White Underbelly/YouTube
The Whittakers are the descendants of a tangled family tree that began when identical twin brothers, Henry and John, had children who later married each other.
That union produced 15 offspring, many of whom suffer from mental and physical challenges believed to stem from inbreeding.
Their story spread like wildfire, but fame quickly turned dark, and the attention drew more than just viewers.
In September, adult protective services in West Virginia removed three family members from the home: Ray Whittaker (72), his sister Lorene (79), and her son Timmy (46).
No explanation was given to the rest of the family.
Betty Whittaker, 73, told Daily Mail: “They said they were helping them, and they couldn’t live here no more. I miss them a lot, I raised them.”
Larry, 69, who was also left behind, added: “I’ve been staying at home, waiting on a phone call, but that’s all I know. They haven’t called or let me know nothing. They won’t tell us where they at.”
He suggested the viral attention may have prompted the intervention: “People out there making money off them [the videos], and they don’t like it,” Larry said. “They told us don’t talk to nobody."
"It's a lot going on, people calling round, we just got tired of it. That's why I don't go out, I don't talk to nobody," he added.
This comes after Laita revealed the family had lied about Larry’s death, a deception that sparked a fundraiser and drew sympathy from fans.
In a video titled The Death of Larry Whittaker, the journalist is shown confronting Larry, who is very much alive and sitting on his porch. “No, I just heard of it last night on a video,” Larry said about his own alleged passing.
His daughter BJ, who appeared in the same video, confessed: “I’m not proud of what I’ve done, I’m not… I shouldn’t have done it… I’m trying to get help for my drug addiction.”
Laita claimed he donated $1,000 for the fake funeral and later gave Larry another $700 to help BJ move to North Carolina, a trip that never happened.
Speaking with Larry’s cousin Jason in a follow-up video titled Spring 2024, Laita revealed: “After our last video, Larry calls me up and says: ‘Hey, I’m going to take BJ to North Carolina,’ and he wanted $700."
"I said, ‘As long as you’re taking your daughter to North Carolina to get her away from your family, then I can continue my relationship with you guys, but I don’t want to be part of you guys if everyone's lying to me.’”
He concluded: “I don’t know what to do with them other than just walk away,” to which Jason agreed: “That’s the best thing to do, just wash your hands of them.”
The man who discovered a family described as the ‘most inbred family’ in the USA has accused them of ‘lying’ to him.
Mark Laita discovered the Whittaker family back in 2004 and called them the ‘most popular inbred family in the United States’.
He then spent time with them, getting to know them in their own home and documenting their lives in the aptly-named town of Odd, Virginia, sharing the content to his YouTube channel.
The relationship between documentary filmmaker and subject hasn’t been smooth sailing all the way, and at one stage one of the family allegedly ‘pulled a gun’ on him.
In one particular video, Laita talked with a cousin within the family called John who explained some of the negative attention they have had from people.
"When I was growing up, people would come here and they would throw eggs at the house," he explained.
"They would throw stuff at the house and scream all hours of the night. I mean, people [were] just rude."
So, because of this, when Laita first became involved, one of the family allegedly grabbed a firearm, although they later made friends.
However, there was one moment that soured the relationship after Laita realized that he’d been lied to.
He believes that the Whittakers faked the death of a relative - Larry - after a heart attack.
Laita donated $1,000 to the funeral costs, but later learned that Larry was, in fact, alive and well.
In a video entitled ‘The Death of Larry Whittaker’, the supposed dead man could be seen outside the family house discussing the matter.
Asked if he was responsible for the hoax, Larry said: "No, I just heard of it last night on a video.”
Laita then told him that money had been given to his daughter BJ to help with the expenses.
BJ later fessed up and apologized, although it isn’t clear whether the money was returned.
After that incident in 2024, it seems as if peace has been restored, as Laita has been back with them filming.
He even continues to help the family, who had a fire at their mobile home last year that Laita started a GoFundMe page for.
The Whittakers were given this unwanted title because of - you’ve guessed it - their family history.
For over a century there have been close marriages within the family, which stem from two twin brothers, Henry and John Whittaker.
As a result several members of the family are mentally and physically disabled.
Henry and John’s children Harry and Sally, cousins, but more closely related because of their identical twin fathers, married and produced seven children, including a son called John.
John then married his first cousin Ada and had nine children, including Gracie.
Gracie then married her double first cousin, also called John, and they had 15 children.
You get the picture.
Unsurprisingly, this pattern of intermarriage produced a number of genetic disabilities.
There has been hardship as well, with at least one incident of rape by an unidentified culprit leading to the birth of one family member.
Two members of the Colt clan, the incestuous Australian family that shocked the nation, have been found living together after being separated. The Colts were a family of immigrants from New Zealand who moved to New South Wales, in Australia in the 1970s. They lived in a remote, rural part of the bush, in a tumbledown farm.
This seclusion would disguise the full horror and depravity of what went on behind closed doors. In 2012, it had been discovered that the 40-member-strong Colts had been engaged in four generations of incest, beginning with Tim and June Colt (pseudonyms to protect their true identities) who originally emigrated. Social services first became aware of the family in 2010, and once they had gathered enough evidence that children were being neglected, they raided the house and uncovered something one cop described as "like nothing I've ever seen."
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Children and adults alike had reportedly regularly been engaging in sexual acts with each other, and many of the youngest children had been born with deformities. They had no access to running water or hygiene facilities, lived in huts and tents, and many suffered from fungal infections and illnesses as a result of the dirty and squalid conditions. The eldest Colts were arrested, and charged with incest and child neglect. The Children's Court of New South Wales ruled to separate the Colts, and in their final statement determined: "There is no realistic possibility of restoration of any of the children [to their biological family]."
Now Martha Colt, whose five children were all the result of incest, has been found living with her brother Charlie. NSW Police child protection squad detectives discovered that the pair were sleeping together in Griffith, in the Riverlands region of South Australia and in Western Australia’s Avon Valley. on April 15 this year. Despite all this, the Colts are not expected to face a trial until 2019 at the earliest date.
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Commenting on the case, Julie Aganoff, a Queensland psychologist and expert in family trauma and child abuse cases, stated: "Incest is actually not that uncommon. And in time, across the world, cases like this one are not unheard of either. It’s only because victims are so reluctant to come forward that we think they’re rare. I see people in their 30s, and in their 50s and 60s who have never talked about their abuse before. I’m often the first person they’ve discussed it with and a lot of that is to do with shame and stigma."
If you or anyone else you know has suffered as a result of physical, sexual, emotional abuse, or has been neglected as a minor, then please know that you are not alone. There is no shame in admitting that you have been hurt. If you've been affected by any of the issues raised in this article then please don't hesitate to visit the official website of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood.
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