It was not until 2009 that a state social worker went into the schoolhouse, found them all in the stinking rubbish, and rescued them. In 2011 a lawyer for the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission took up their case and won a jury verdict of $240m, the largest ever for the eeoc, for lost pay, abuse and discrimination. Legal caps reduced it to $1.6m, and by 2017 only about half had been extracted. But the point had been underlined. Workers with disabilities had to be properly paid and properly treated.

For Willie Levi, rescue was like a holiday. They went to the Super 8 Motel, slept in clean beds and had waffles for breakfast. From now on, he would be protected. He wouldn't have to work with turkeys any more. He certainly wouldn't eat them, ever again. And he could tell the true story to other people, especially to Dan Barry of the New York Times, who turned his notes from "the boys in the bunkhouse" into an unsparing documentary and a book. Mr Barry picked his portrait, in his red St Louis Cardinals cap, to be the first picture in it, as he had so often taken the lead in talking.

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