Credit: Soft White Underbelly via YouTube
Man Who Met America’s Most Inbred Family Reveals Thing That Still Haunts Him
The man who made America‘s most inbred family famous has likened his first meeting with them to a scene from a horror film.
Documentary maker Mark Laita first encountered the Whittaker family in 2020 and has since shared his experience of meeting them for the first time.
He found the inbred family in West Virginia, but noted that they were not an easy group of people to get close to.
Laita noted that neighbors of the Whittaker’s were very protective of them, and that it was actually a local police officer who eventually took him to their home.
The documentary-maker described his first encounter
The filmmaker opened up on the Koncrete Klips podcast, where he recalled meeting the ‘most inbred family’ for the first time.
He compared it to a scene out of a horror film, but slowly built up a good relationship with them over time.
Unwilling to chat to him at first, the family were very wary of outsiders.
However, slowly but surely, Laita gained their trust, and initially took pictures of them to place in the casket of a loved one.
From here, he returned to film his famous series Inbred Family – The Whittakers.
Viewers quickly became fascinated by the family, which prompted Laita to document their life.
What is the horror scene he compared the family to?
Deliverance is a 1972 thriller about four city men who canoe into a remote part of Georgia and encounter unsettling, sometimes dangerous situations with the locals.
Early in the movie, there’s a memorable moment where one of them plays ‘Dueling Banjos’ with a local boy – a scene that captures both the charm and unease of two very different worlds colliding.
Where do the Whittaker family reside?
Like the rural community portrayed in the film, the Whittakers live in an isolated area with limited access to education and modern amenities.
But they are nothing like the characters in the movie beyond their remoteness, and there is no evidence to suggest any violent or harmful behavior.
Things took a turn for the worst last year, when three members of the family reportedly vanished.
Ray Whittaker, 72, his sister Lorene, 79, and her son Timmy, 46, seemingly disappeared from the family’s compound.
Their siblings, Betty, 73, and brother Larry, 69, spoke to the Daily Mail, noting that they were left behind without any sort of explanation.
Betty said: “They said they were helping them, and they couldn’t live here no more.
“I miss them a lot, I raised them.”
They have since been made aware that the state’s adult protective services have taken the family members in.
Naturally since discovering the family, the documentary-maker has received mixed feedback in the time since creating the series, as some claim that he is ‘exploiting’ the family – a statement he actually agrees with.
“It feels exploitative, but…”
Expanding on this claim, Laita said: “It feels exploitative but I think it’s good for us all to know that these things exist.
“The hotel I’m staying at, they’re exploiting my need for sleep.
“The restaurant I ate breakfast at is exploiting my hunger.
“Everything is exploitative. Photography and video are especially by nature exploitative.”
But others have been highly complimentary of his work, calling it ‘incredible.’
Another said: “This just made me rethink my life and how blessed I am.
“It’s such a world out there and thank you for allowing yourself to get over your fears to even put yourself in a position to go there and research / speak to the family.
“We all want to be heard, visited , or seen in a way.”
He’s issued advice to anyone wanting to visit them…
Laita has also shared some important advice for anyone curious to meet them.
He says the family is unlikely to deliver a warm reception to visitors, adding: “They are kind of protected by the neighbors and the relatives [who] don’t like these people coming to ridicule them.”
Meanwhile, pastor William Plumley tells the Daily Mail: “I think the documentary about them is good and bad, good because it has helped them.
“But also, it’s brought a lot of people to the area who just want to mess with them.”
“It was like that scene from Deliverance.”
But recalling their first meeting, Laita said: “It was like that scene from Deliverance that everyone knows.
“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.
“And there’s these people walking around and their eyes are going in different directions, and they are barking at us.”
The filmmaker added: “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.
“He would go running off and go and kick a garbage can.
“And this would happen over and over. It was out of control – the craziest thing I have ever seen.”
Related Article: America’s Most Inbred Family Transformed
Related Article: Man Who Made America’s Most Inbred Family Famous Has Warning For Anyone Trying To Visit Them
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