When you have that many kids you plop out, the older ones end up raising the younger ones while the brood mare is off working on church business - committees, church dinners, all that shit. … I’ve known personally myself.,a family with 10 boys in one side and 5 girls in another side, and one of the girls was knocked up by one of her brothers.
I always hate these. I never know who to believe.
I mean, my default is to believe the kid, but anybody can make stuff up for money or attention.
I always liked the movie (with Tom Bosley as the family doctor) (and read the book about the family too*) but the stories about abuse in the family have made me uncomfortable.
*As I understand it, the movie was not based on the book - the studio bought the rights to the family’s story, and made a movie loosely based on their existence, while Helen Beardsley was independently writing the book (the book came out in 1968, the book in 1965, but the movie production started in 1962)
I just found another story describing Frank’s abuses, this time from Joe Beardsley – the first of two produced by Helen & Frank.
Contrary to what was portrayed in the movie, Helen and Frank did not meet in the navy commissary. Joe indicated that Helen was introduced to Frank by Frank’s sister, with whom Helen worked. He also mentioned that his mom worked for the commission on the status of women under then Governor Ronald Reagan. (I later looked up the bio of Helen Beardsley and learned that both these references were true).
Although the bio of Helen Beardsley indicates that the marriage ended when she died, I recall Joe telling me that they divorced and he remembers that the kids all took sides. The Beardsleys all banded together as one unit and the North children formed their own coalition. Joe and his sister Helen didn’t know which “side” to take. It was obvious that Joe is a sensitive soul and he admitted that he greatly affected by the feelings and emotions of those around him. At one point he mentioned that most of the kids, as adults, were in therapy together (a mere feat in itself to get 16 people together in one room) and it came out that Frank Beardsley was a pedophile. I asked if he was victimized and he said that only the girls were. I didn’t press for more details.
Here’s Joe as a toddler.
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