Man who uncovered America’s most inbred household on the ‘craziest factor I ever noticed’

Filmmaker Mark Laita had a memorable first encounter with the Whittaker family, comparing it to a scene from the 1972 survival horror film Deliverance.

The movie tells the story of four city men who venture into a remote part of Georgia and face terrifying encounters with some toothless, redneck hillbillies.

His comparison might be slightly unjust. The Whittakers, like the simple mountain people in the film, are believed to be inbred, uneducated, and live in squalor, isolated from society in their backcountry shack.

READ MORE: Man who uncovered inbred Whittaker family says ‘they’ve been lying to me the whole time’

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Yet, there’s no evidence to suggest they share the same violent, sadistic tendencies. Laita was granted access to the Whittakers’ peculiar world, travelling to the fittingly-named Odd – a rural hamlet in West Virginia.

A police officer guided him down a secluded lane. On the Koncrete KLIPS podcast, he shared his initial impressions of the family and their surroundings.

“It was like that little scene from Deliverance that everyone knows,” he said. “We came around to this road, which turns into a country road, which turns into a dirt road, and we come to this trailer and then a little shack on the other side of the road,” reports the Daily Star.

“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.

“This would happen over and over. It was out of control – the craziest thing I have ever seen.”

He found three siblings and a cousin living together in a filthy, squalid home with several dogs. Some spoke only in grunts or squeals, and were beset with physical and mental health issues and irregularities.

They appeared to have little contact with anyone in the outside world, he said. Unsurprisingly, then, they weren’t overly welcoming at first. When Laita first attempted to photograph the family, neighbours threatened him. In his YouTube videos, Laita warned any curious folk intending to visit to mock or disturb the family to think again as they will be chased off.

The Whittakers eventually allowed him to take some photos after he offered to take a portrait for them to place in the casket of a loved one who had recently died. “They are kind of protected by the neighbours and the relatives [who] don’t like these people coming to ridicule them,” he added.

“And everybody in the area kind of knows of them and are like, ‘let’s go over to the Whittakers’ and laugh at them or whatever.” After his first alarming visit, Laita kept in touch with the family.

But Laita’s return in 2020 to shoot “Inbred family – The Whittakers” soon became a sensation on his YouTube channel, Soft White Underbelly.

The gripping documentary zooms in on the life and challenges of the three siblings, Betty, Lorraine and Ray, along with their cousin Timmy while probing into the mystery around their parentage and health conditions. Tragically, another brother Freddie had passed away from heart trouble.

Betty dodges questions about the family’s past and is tight-lipped when it comes to detailing why several relatives are living with disabilities. But during a follow-up video a year on, Betty divulged that indeed, their parents were double first cousins.

Laita’s efforts have galvanised financial support for the Whittakers, initially fixing up their homestead which evolved to a campaign to purchase a brand new property for them. However, things have recently turned sour after Laita announced “I’m done with them” claiming “they’ve been lying to me all along”.

Laita earlier this year announced the death of 67-year-old Larry after a suspected heart attack, so he launched a fundraising drive and handed over $1,000 (£790) towards Larry’s funeral – only to discover he wasn’t even dead.

It came after fans spotted the dad alive and well in a video titled “The Death of Larry Whittaker,” in which Larry is seen sitting on the front porch of the family home discussing his own supposed passing.

Laita said he had given Larry’s daughter, BJ, $1,000 (£790) towards the funeral after the family claimed they needed the cash to host the event. She apologised and he later decided to forgive her.

To add insult to injury, Mark said he handed over another $700 to help Larry take BJ to North Carolina start a new life, but has since found out he’d apparently kept the money and not taken her anywhere.

In a recent video update called Spring 2024, Mark chats to Larry’s cousin, Jason Whittaker about the situation. After Jason admits he’s been in rehab and isn’t even clean during the interview, Mark replies: “You’re the only person who’s honest with me in this family.”

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