Filmmaker behind inbred Whittaker family documentary says ‘they’ve been lying to me from the start’

The filmmaker who discovered the now famous America's "most inbred family" and put them on the world stage has finally declared, "I'm done with them," claiming, "they've been lying to me all along."

Mark Laita has been documenting the lives of the Whittakers since 2020 on his YouTube channel, Soft White Underbelly , and earlier this year announced the death of 67-year-old Larry after a suspected heart attack.

But things took a turn when he launched a fundraising drive and handed over $1,000 to help with Larry's funeral—only to find out Larry, who speaks with grunts and barks , wasn’t dead.

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The truth came out when fans noticed Larry alive and well in a video titled "The Death of Larry Whittaker," where he's seen sitting on the porch of the family home, discussing his supposed death.

Mark said he had given Larry's daughter, BJ, $1,000 toward the funeral after the family claimed they needed the money. Although BJ apologized, Mark decided to forgive her.

However, things got worse. Mark handed over another $700 to help Larry take BJ to North Carolina for a fresh start. But he later found out that Larry apparently kept the money and never took her anywhere.

In a recent video update, Spring 2024 , Mark spoke with Larry's cousin, Jason Whittaker, about the situation.

After Jason admitted he had been in rehab and wasn't even clean during the interview, Mark said, "You're the only person who's honest with me in this family."

Mark continued: "You know BJ's lying to me, Betty's lying to me, Larry's lying to me, and I called up Kenneth, the one person I thought was honest with me…"

"After our last video, Larry called me and said, 'Hey, I'm going to take BJ to North Carolina,' and he asked for $700. I told him, 'As long as you're taking your daughter to North Carolina to get her away from your family, I can continue my relationship with you guys, but I don't want to be involved if everyone's lying to me.'"

"Larry said, 'Yeah, I'm gonna take her tonight.'"

Mark said he sent the money but used his "ways of finding out what's going on with that family." He soon discovered BJ never went anywhere, and Kenneth had lied about it too.

Mark added, "Now I know even Kenneth is lying to me. They're all lying to me, so I'm done with them."

Jason responded, "I don't blame you."

Mark then asked Jason what he thought the future held for the family, adding, "I don't think BJ’s ever going to leave if there’s a possible source of money, which they think there is, but I’m done with them."

Jason replied, "It doesn’t look very good."

Mark added, "They were all getting money from the state before I even came into the picture."

"I don’t know what to do with them other than just walk away."

Jason agreed, "That’s the best thing to do, just wash your hands of them."

The Whittakers live in Odd, West Virginia. The family's inbreeding started when identical twin brothers Henry and John’s children married and had kids of their own. This led to several generations of inbreeding, including Larry’s parents, and many of the children born from these unions suffered severe disabilities.