'' Most mentally ill family in America”

In 1985, the US psychiatrist Dr Lynn DeLisi walked through the door of a sleek midcentury family house on Hidden Valley Road, Colorado Springs, knowing she was about to encounter something extraordinary. A researcher into genetics and schizophrenia, she “couldn’t help but recognise a perfect sample. This could be the most mentally ill family in America.” Don and Mimi Galvin had always hoped they were exceptional, distinguished by their unusually large number of children, their shared talent for falconry, Don’s lofty role as an instructor at the United States Air Force Academy — but the title awarded by DeLisi was the kind of distinction they never imagined.

Of Don and Mimi’s 12 children — 10 boys followed by two girls, all born in a perfect mentally disorder