The Wild Boy of Burundi

A newspaper starts the rumour

It started with a newspaper article. The Johannesburg Times carried a an article about a boy from Burundi who was raised by a band of monkeys. This came to the attention of Harlan Lane, a recognised expert on feral children who has just published a book about Victor called The Wild Boy of Aveyron.

Following the trail

Lane thought this was a wonderful opportunity to research first-hand the story of a feral child, rather than work from written records as he had had to do in the case of Victor. Accompanied by Richard Pillard, a psychiatrist from Boston University, Lane set off with 11 cases of equipment.

Not what he seemed

Their investigation revealed that the boy had never lived with monkeys. Severely autistic, his mother had died in childbirth, the father in civil unrest, and the boy's identity was lost as he was passed among various institutions and foster families.