The rural West Virginian relatives who rose to viral fame after being dubbed “America’s most inbred” family are back in the news again.
Chances are you’ll have heard or read about the Whittakers after a YouTube series drew attention to their rather unusual gene pool, as well as the toll it has exacted on newer generations of the family.
As per reports, inbreeding within the family can be traced back for a century, starting with a marriage between two cousins descended from identical twin brothers.
Today, many of the Whittakers live with disabilities, while their family setup was brought to public attention through a series of YouTube videos published on the popular channel Soft White Underbelly. The channel’s creator, Mark Laita, has been documenting interactions with the family for over 20 years.
In 2004, the Whittakers – who live outside the small town of Odd, West Virginia – became known to the entire world. Laita’s documentary, featuring siblings Ray, Betty, Larry, and Lorene, alongside Lorene’s son, Timmy, saw the clan branded “America’s most inbred family”.
After a rocky beginning – a family member is said to have pulled a gun on Laita – Laita was eventually able to befriend the family. Later, however, the documentary filmmaker revealed that the Whittakers had lied to him.
In March 2024, Laita announced that one of the family members, Larry, had died of a possible heart attack. Per The Mirror, Mark said: “There’s some news with the Whittaker family. Sadly, Larry Whittaker passed away last week. I think he had a heart attack.”
“Larry was always a great dude to me. He was always really nice. Larry was always a standup guy and he and Betty really ran the show very well. Larry will be greatly missed. It’s going to be hard on Betty now.”
Laita personally donated $1,000 to Larry’s funeral, but later it turned out the Whittaker family had lied. Larry was alive, as announced in a YouTube video titled “The Death of Larry Whittaker.” Larry was seen sitting outside the family home in rural West Virginia.
A more recent update appears to confirm that the authorities have now intervened, with adult protective services in West Virginia taking Ray, 72; his sister Lorene, 79; and her son Timmy, 46, from the family home, according to the Daily Mail.
Ray and Lorene’s sister Betty, 73, and brother Larry, 69, it’s said, were unexpectedly left behind at the home with no explanation.
“They said they were helping them, and they couldn’t live here no more. I miss them a lot, I raised them,” Betty said, as per the Mail.
Larry, meanwhile, claimed that they weren’t told where their relatives are now.
“I’ve been staying at home, waiting on a phone call, but that’s all I know,” he said. “They haven’t called or let me know nothing.”
Larry also stated his opinion that fame might have played a role in the decision for adult protective services to intervene.
“People out there making money off them [the videos], and they don’t like it,” he said. “They told us don’t talk to nobody. They watching.”
Officials from West Virginia’s Department of Human Services said they are ‘aware of the situation’ but that confidentiality regulation prevented them from talking about the case.
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