Jessica, the Unknown Burton
Text taken from And God Created Burton by Tom Rubython
But Christmas of 1964 was not a happy holiday. It was dominated by discussions about Burton’s youngest daughter, Jessica; a situation which had finally come to a head after she had been put into an institution and the family had agreed not to visit her.
The story of his daughter, Jessica, had been a blight on Burton’s lfe for over five years; ever since Burton’s sister, Catherine Jenkins, a state registered nurse, recognized some problems soon after she was born on 29 November 1959. The problems, obvious to Catherine Jenkins, took two years to be acknowledged by doctors.
By the time she was two years of age, Burton’s [first] wife Sybil, found Jessica was continually misbehaving, sometimes uncontrollably. As she passed three, then four, and finally five Sybil had to face up the fact that Jessica was retarded. In those days such children were labeled spastics. But Jessica was not deformed in any way and she was an exceptionally beautiful child. The problem was that her mental capacity had not developed and Burton told friends, trying to describe what was wrong, that she had the mental capabilities of a very smart dog. He said, “The shock to me of being told my child had the intelligence of a reasonably clever dog was considerable.”
Burton was always away on filming and most of the burden fell on Sybil as she gradually learned the inescapable truth about Jessica’s condition. After years of tests, specialists finally diagnosed autism as the problem. Then autism was a little understood condition. Autistic children are perfectly normal, physically and intellectually, but because of inner trauma, they shut themselves off from the world and their only form of expression is anger. Autism also varies in intensity.
Sybil was absolutely devestated the day she was told by an autism specialist that Jessica’s autism was 100 per cent. The specialist told Sybil there ws no cure and that Jessica would always be very difficult to handle.
By the time Burton was aware something was serious wrong, he and Sybil had split up and by the time he realized the true nature of the condition, he was married to Taylor. Kate [Burton’s older daughter], a bright, happy child, grew up with little knowledge of her sister’s problems. It soon became very evident that Jessica would need special care forever nd would not have a normal life.
The Jenkins family were never told anything about her condition and Jessica was mostly kept away from them. They eventually started to wonder where she was and when David Jenkins asked Burton about her, he just looked back at him “darkly” and said nothing. Burton found it upsetting just to talk about it, so he didn’t. Graham Jenkins remembered, ‘Outwardly, she appeared a normal, healthy child, if somewhat withdrawn. She never smiled or showed pleasure in the silly games children enjoy. In New York, she spent all of her waking hours staring, uncomprehending, at the flicker of the television screen.’
There was also talk that the autism had been set off by the trauma surrounding the marriage break up. Sybil sometimes alluded to the problems caused by photographer’s flashbulbs going off in Jessica’s face ---- triggering abnormal behavior. David Jenkins said, ‘We do know that Jessica had just begun to talk when Richard left; then, abruptly, all communication ceased. She became locked in her own myserious world, where she has remained ever since.’ That possibility haunted Burton for the whole of his life.
At first Sybil tried to treat Jessica as normally as possible, taking her out to the movies or to eat and be with older children, but she became more disruptive as she got older. If they went outside of her apartment in New York, Jessica often caused a disturbance and could even become violent. She was often hard to restrain. Eventually Sybil began to find it very upsetting to be with her daughter and to never see her smile or talk. She also found her increasingly difficult to control.
Sybil was advised by specialists in America that, sooner or later, Jessica would have to go to a special institution. They recommended the Devereux Center in Long Island, a specialist institution run by the Devereux Foundation. At Long Island, all the nurses had special training to cope with autism and to give their patients as normal a life as possible.
Ivor and Gwen Jenkins, who were childless, took over most of the burden of looking after Jessica and regarded her as their own. When the decision was made for Jessica to be put in an institution, Gwen was devestated and was insistent that Jessica was responding and making headway. Gwen believed Ivor Jenkins was able to communicate with her in a limited way. But they lost the three-way argument with the doctors and her parents, and Jessica was moved to Long Island.
At first Sybil visited Jessica often, as did Burton when he was in New York.
But when they visited, they found she didn’t recognize them nd doctors said she was locked in a world no one would be able to penetrate. As Sybil described it: ‘Nobody knows what autism really is. That’s the hell of it. It’s a sort of mental illness. Jessica lives in a world of her own. She doesn’t recognize me or Rich or anybody. There’s no way of telling just how much she understands.’
During the Christmas holidays in 1964, Elizabeth Taylor began discussing with Burton a plan to take Jessica out of the Devereux Center and to bring her to live with them permanently. She figured they could afford to employ specialist nurses to care for her 24 hours a day.
Taylor was encouraged by the success she had enjoyed with Maria, who was born a cripple and was now leading a normal life because of her intervention. Taylor genuinely believed that she could intervene again and make a difference to Jessica’s life and maybe even cure her.
Gianni Bozzacchi, who was Taylor’s personal photographer, confirmed that Taylor wanted to bring Jessica into their household, where she could be looked after by a hired nursing team. But Burton told her she did not know what she was talking about. Taylor, however, didn’t give up on the idea and pursued it for a long time. In the end, she backed off when Burton told her that Sybil would never give her permission.
Today there is a very well-endowed trust fund that is believed to have grown to well over $10 million to provide for 51-year-old Jessica’s care.
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