why was john mud merrick the elephant man so mistreated and did he die a virgin?

i think he had sex with a few nurses who was on the merrick wagon though

John Merrick was born (1862-1890) during the Victorian times and they treated anyone with a deformity as a freak and were always unkind to them,  not many people took the time to look past the persons deformity and see the real person there.

Medicine was still in an experimental stage and so no one knew that it was possibly an illness or something that John had inherited via genes etc to make him the way he was.

As for him being a virgin well we will never know the correct answer to that question, I am assuming as he did not have any girlfriends he was still a virgin when he died.