In October of 1970, Dorothy Irene Wiley got into a violent argument with her husband, Clark, which ended in her walking out with their 13-year-old daughter, Susan, who goes by Genie, and taking her to her parents’ home in Monterey Park, California. Dorothy and Clark had an 18-year-old son (let’s call him Davis), but Davis had recently run away from home and was living with friends. Dorothy, who went by Irene, was a single mother for the first time, and in desperate need of support for herself and her daughter, and made her way to the disability services department in nearby Temple City, where she was hoping to be able to get disability payments for her severe nearsightedness. However, due to this vision problem, Irene accidentally made her way to the social services office next door, where a social worker took one look at Genie, and knew something was very wrong.