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Copyright A 2002; revised 2003 by Lori Carangelo. Published by ACCESS ... Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. Carangelo, Lori. Chosen children : ...
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Chosen
Children
Billion Dollar Babies
in America's Foster Care, Adoption & Prison Systems
Electronic Edition
by Lori Carangelo
Published by ACCESS PRESS, PO Box 401, Palm Desert, CA 92261-0401
Copyright © 2002; revised 2003 by Lori Carangelo
Published by ACCESS PRESS, PO Box 401, Palm Desert, CA 92261
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carangelo, Lori.
Chosen children : billion dollar babies in America's foster care,
adoption, and prison systems / Lori Carangelo.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN 0-87047-124-4
1. Foster children—United States. 2. Adopted children—United
States. 3. Foster home care—United States. 4. Adoption—United
States. 5. Juvenile delinquents—United States. 6. Problem youth
United States. I. Title.
HV875.55 .C375 2001
362.73'3'0973—dc21 2001044679
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a
reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a
review in a magazine or newspaper.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN – 0-942605-17-9
Dedicated
Dedicated to the incarcerated adoptees who risked sharing
their personal stories and their feelings for the first time in
their lives.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks are due to:
o Attorney Elizabeth Alexander, Jennie Gainsborough and
Staff (ACLU Prisoner Project, Capital Punishment Project).
o Amy Thurston (National Adoption Information Clearinghouse).
o Vitit Muntarbhorn (Special Rapporteur, United Nations Centre
for Human Rights, Rights of the Child Project).
o Jean Paton, MA, MSW, (1909-2002), “Mother” of the
American Open Records & Anti-Adoption Movement.
o Kay Russell (Origins USA—A Legislative Inquiry).
o Patrick J. Callahan, PhD (Forensic Psychologist,
Homicide Profiler)
Also by Lori Carangelo:
THE ULTIMATE SEARCH BOOK – 2004 Electronic Edition
Worldwide Adoption, Genealogy & Other Search Secrets
E-book pub. by Access Press
http://UltimateSearchBook.com
INFERTILITY CURES
E-Book pub .by Access Press
http://InfertilityCures.com
ITALIAN TONIGHT!
Chefs Worldwide Share Their Italian Recipe Secrets
http://ItalianTonight.com
pub. by Clear Light Books
http://www.clearlightbooks.com
Contents
Foreword_______________________________________________ x
Prologue _______________________________________________ xi
PART I—THE PROBLEMS
1. Introduction: Following The Dollars __________________________ 3
2. Foster Care _____________________________________________ 9
3. Adoption______________________________________________ 15
4. Prisons _______________________________________________ 53
PART II—THE ALTERNATIVES
5. Introduction: Alternatives To Foster Care, Adoption, Prison Systems-
Policies, Practices & Programs That Work_____________________ 71
6. Alternatives To Foster Care _________________________________85
8. Alternatives To Prisons ____________________________________ 99
PART III—THE CHOSEN CHILDREN—CASE HISTORIES
9. Introduction - America's Dirty Little Secret Adoptee Outcomes _____121
10. The 8 Ball Cafe - Adoption and Addiction ____________________ 167
11. Why Adoptees Kill Their Adopters (Case Histories) ___________ 225
12. Why Most Serial Killers are Adoptees (Case Histories) ___________ 293
Epilogue ________________________________________________ 315
Bibliography _____________________________________________ 317
Resources _______________________________________________ 321
Index ___________________________________________________ 329
"When adopters say 'I don’t know why my kid. lies,' I say,
‘He’s living one of society’s biggest lies: You belong in this family.’”
-Nancy Verrier, MA, MFT, adopter,
in "Birth Scene—A Different Kind of Relationship:
Thoughts on Adoption"
Foreword
The people discussed in Chosen Children were not" born to
lose," but their life histories reflect the powerful influence of the
American way of adoption and foster care and of people on the
outside who are able to make of adoption and foster care an
experience that is destructive. Secrecy is always a temptation to
those who are outside of the secret. Lori Carangelo reveals the
process.
I am impressed by her word "commodified." Recently, I
expressed it in another way and believe it is a process which we
need to identify and to discard. What bothers me the most in the
situation around us is the transformation of people into principles
of behavior, instead of screaming, breathing human flesh... The
principle of illegitimacy takes hold.
I was transformed into an "adopted person." Ever since then,
I was a person of limited rights and did not realize this until I
reached middle age.
The severe problems illustrated in Chosen Children demand the
"de-commodifying" of people in foster care, adoption, and prisons
Humans brought about this limitation. Humans can correct it.
--Jean Paton, MA, MSW, and Adoptee (1909-2002)
Founder, "Orphan Voyage" and "Mother" of the
Open Records Movement and
Anti-Adoption Movement, since 1953.
In Chosen Children, Lori Carangelo calls upon her obvious compas-
sion, research capabilities, as well as her expertise from having
researched over 14,000 individuals enveloped in the secret world
of foster care, adoption, and prisons—all of whom she helped to
reconnect with the families from whom they were separated as
children. ... A fascinating "must read" for both liberals and
conservatives interested in following the dollars we are spending
to create monsters of these billion dollar babies.
—Dr. Stanley S. Reyburn
Past President, Palm Springs Writers Guild
Part I.
The Problems
“One sure measure of any society is hoe it treats its children.”
-Loring Brace, initiator of the Orphan Trains in America
Prologue
In the wake of America’s “War on Terrorism” and the war on Iraq, more
families are being systematically dismembered, more parents and children
are being incarcerated, and more people are being subjected to human rights
violations--in America’s Foster Care, Adoption and Prison systems—than in
any other nation since World War II.
It is estimated that half the United States population has an adoption, or
relinquishment of a child for adoption, in their immediate family. Our federal
government guaranteed funding of more than $1-billion for four years under the
“Safe and Stable Families Amendment Act”—funds mostly earmarked to promote
adoption instead of family preservation. For the last half of the twentieth century,
American and foreign born children and adults who have been trapped in America’s
closed systems of Foster Care, Adoption and Prisons, along with the myriad of
abuses committed against them, have been swept under seal of secrecy. It’s time
to take a long hard look at the results and to understand the obvious dollar amounts
as well as hidden pricetag from perpetuating them.
The purpose of this book is to humanize the Chosen Children with faces, names
And voices—those who have been forgotten and destroyed in these symbiotic systems
--and to reveal the politics, problems, and proven lifesaving alternatives. The goal
is toward replacing these systems with more equitable and more workable solutions to
America’s social problems. In doing so, I cast aside cumbersome class distinctions
and politics of others, and so “birth” parents are “parents” (as they always have been),
“adoptive parents” are more simply “adopters,” while the “adoptee’s” dual existence
is acknowledged by the single term. I try to avoid the terms “Liberal” or “Left,”
“Conservative” or “Right,” nor “Conservative Left,” “Liberal Right,” but instead put
a face and a name to special interests.
Whether the truth shocks, angers and/or enlightens the reader, it is intended to
provide direction for positive change.
A billion here, a billion there;
pretty soon it adds up to real money."
—Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen (1896-1969)
1
Following the Dollars
How Foster Care and Adoption Fuel
the Prison System (and Vice Versa)
America's government-run foster care, adoption, and
penal systems are becoming privatized as symbiotic multi-billion
dollar industries. Shrouded in secrecy and skewed statistics it is
unclear what each is accomplishing. The emerging picture shows
a system where questions of cost outweigh the needs of the
children and adults trapped in these institutions. Particularly
disturbing is the fact that the kinship model with true parents is
being replaced by the adoption model and "psychological par-
ents.” Incalculable is the hidden price tag of long-term injury to
individuals, to families, and ultimately to society.
Foster Care and Adoption
According to a PR Newswire (8-21-00):
The highly touted increase in adoptions of foster children an-
nounced by the United States Department of Health and Human
Services yesterday actually masks the failure of a new federal
adoption law. ... The average annual increase in foster care
adoptions since passage of the so-called Adoption and Safe Fami-
lies Act (ASFA) equals fewer than 1.1% of the total number of
children in foster care on any given day," said Richard Wexler
Executive Director of the National Coalition for Child Protection
Reform. "But since 1985, the foster care population has increased by
an average of 5% per year. The number of children in foster care right
3
4 CHOSEN CHILDREN
now is the highest it’s ever been…even as it encouraged adoption,
ASFA made it easier than ever to take children from their parents
just because those parents are poor.”
The House passed a version of the 2001 "Promoting Safe and
Stable Families Amendment Act- (S.1503); adoption agencies
then began pressuring the Senate to pass the guaranteed in-
creased funding—over $1-billion guaranteed over the next four
years, mostly earmarked to “promote and increase adoptions.”
Concurrently, there has been a significant reduction to state
administrative grants in Medicaid--a reduction which severely
impacts parents who are at risk of losing their children to the
system as result of such deductions. .More than ever before in our
nation s history, there is a deliberate, organized strategy by the
Religious Right to place a bounty on the heads of children and
adopt them into Christian homes, instead of family preservation.
Foster Care accounts for $4.97 billion in federal spending alone-
Adoption costs the American people at least $33.35 billion, not just
$1.4 billon value already placed on "Adoption Services"
-Market Data Enterprises (PR Newswire, 12-14-2000).
Adoption total includes Title IV-E Adoption Assistance for
children freed for adoption under a broad "special needs” cat-
egory which includes “race, emotional ties to foster parents,
religion” and so forth (in 1993, Florida, Louisiana, and Wisconsin
claimed 100% of their public adoptions were special needs to
obtain funds. Included were $33-billion in legal fees for only
50,000 adoptions multiplied by the $60,000 average cost of a
private adoption, (according to a 7-16-98 quote by Amy Thurston,
National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, Washington, DC
1-888-251-0075). Multiply $10,000 tax credit per child
times 50,000 adoptions and there goes another $500 billion.
These figures did not include private grants, such as W.K.
Kellogg Foundation’s $42-million grant for “Initiative to Improve
Foster Care and Facilitate Adoption” and “Families For Kids
Initiative.” Neither did they include the cost of “Post Adoption
Services” such as counseling, adult adoptee and parent registries,
search and reunion services, and adoption subsidies
Exempting private nonprofit adoption agencies from taxation
also means additional loss of revenues. One of their lobbying
organizations, National Council For Adoption (NCFA), collects
about $2-million annually in membership fees to perpetuate a
secret adoption system.
FOLLOWING THE DOLLARS 5
On October 15, 2001, NCFA was also awarded a “first ever”
federal grant of over $6-million out of $8.6 million in total grants
from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to
promote -adoption awareness.- The grants are authorized by
Congress and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson under a law
that requires HHS -to develop and implement programs to train
staff at federally funded health centers and clinics- and expanded
- to provide adoption information and referral to pregnant women
on an equal basis with other alternatives presented to women."
The end result, however, is that the mothers are encouraged to
relinquish their newborns for economic reasons -in child's best
interests.- As we will see in "Part II: The Alternatives” section of
this book, successful programs that help keep families together
and self sufficient in the long term are not being funded on an
“equal basis” with adoption. And NCFA is a heartbeat away
from tapping into $1 billion in federal funds under the “Promot-
ing Safe and Stable Families Amendment Act."
Prisons
State and Federal Prisons cost $28.9 billion, including some
(but not all) juvenile detention facilities. It costs $80,000 per year
to keep one child in a juvenile institution and from about $500,000
to $1 million to keep a prisoner behind bars from age fifty to
seventy. The average total cost per inmate per day was $54.25
(Alaska being the highest at $105.27 and Alabama the lowest
at $25.62.).
The total spent on prisons does not include privatized prisons
in twenty-seven states, and does not include the monitoring of 2.6
million people on probation nationwide. The Criminal Justice
Institute's 1997 Corrections Yearbook shows a steady increase
since 1991, when “only” $1.2 billion was spent on prisoners' food
and $2.7 billion on operating medical care and surgery. Capital
(unspent for new construction, physical plant improvements and
equipment) was over $2.7 billion. California reported the largest
operating and total budget ($3.9 billion), while New York had the
largest capital budget ($1.5 billion) and Utah had the smallest
operating budget ($43 million). The operating budgets are allo-
cated for staff, food, clothing, medical services, programs, utili-
ties, maintenance, and so on. The average spent on food was
$3.65, medical $6.59. Twenty-three agencies charged inmates for
health care in 1997, and several more are planning to do so in 2002.
6 CHOSEN CHILDREN
California's Department of Corrections (CDC) itemizes
California's l997-98 budget for prisons at $3.9 billon, the average
annual cost per inmate was$21,470 for their inmate population of
152,506 the staff employed was 43,405 at 38,645 institutions 2,409
in parole departments and Administration, and 26,832 sworn
peace officers.
• CDC has been involved in the largest prison building program
in the United States at a cost of $5.27 billion ... amounting to 32
state prisons and 38 camps.
Dan Macallair writes, in “California Has Chosen Prisons Over
College,” the San Francisco Chronicle, (12-22-96), A-22:
In the 132 years prior to 1984, California built twelve prisons and
twenty-eight universities. Since 1984, twenty-one new prisons and
one university. In 1984, public colleges and universities accounted
for 14% of the state budget, while the Department of Corrections
consumed just 3% of the state budget. According to a recent
projection by the independent Rand Corporation, by 2006 the
Corrections budget will account for 18% of the state budget, while
spending on higher education evaporates.
David Pollock, Via 900 Magazine (1995) estimated “In every
state in the USA, 5,000 people head for jail each week, creating a
need for more and more prisons." Fox Files, Fox television net-
work (7-20-98) reported:
Private prisons house over 110,000 prisoners in 27 states The
largest group of private prison facilities is owned by Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA) which spent $40-million for its Ohio
facility alone, recruited and hired inexperienced guards off the
street and provided them with "bargain basement" training Pris-
oners at mixed violence levels were sent from overcrowded Wash-
ington DC prisons to this CCA medium security prison. The
prisoners ran the prison, with violent prisoners preying on me-
dium security prisoners. There were killings. CCA alone recorded
$54 million in profits in 1997. Prior to 1998, no laws regulated
private prisons and there was no one to oversee them. Should
they be run at the lowest bid?
Grand Total
The grand total spent in 2001 for foster care, adoption and
prisons is conservatively estimated at from $67.3 billion, to more
than $567.3 billion if you include adoption tax credits (loss of
revenues), based on skewed statistics available. "Hidden costs"
FOLLOWING THE DOLLARS 7
may in fact exceed FY 2001 federal outlay of $382 billion for
military defense. Like defense spending, foster care, adoption,
and prisons are self-perpetuating and are self-regulating and not
accurately represented. Nonprofit organizations such as United
Way, which funds private nonprofit adoption agencies such as
the Children's Center (Hamden, Conn.), does only local reporting
and cannot provide data on its adoption funding nationwide. Not
reflected are the hidden costs of medical and psychiatric treat-
ment for victims of all three systems and the long-term costs to
society for the loss of productive citizens and increasing crime.
Beginning in the Reagan administration, funds for vital ser-
vices such as mental health have been consistently cut at least
25%. Early in American history, insane asylums were ware-
houses for unruly women, drunks, and orphans. Today, the
untreated mentally ill account for 50% of America's homeless.
Unknown numbers of mentally ill children and adults are ab-
sorbed by the foster care, adoption, and penal industries. Our
addiction to prison as a panacea for all social problems has
outstripped our ability to pay. California has begun releasing the
mentally ill from prisons. There are not enough facilities to treat
those paroled.
Geopolitical Mass Child Stealing:
A Matter of Supply and Demand
For five decades, even illegally procured or kidnapped chil-
dren have been legally adopted with the blessings of the United
States Department of State. The State Department's current legal
advisor, Peter Pfund, opined that “Children kidnapped from
other countries could be legally adopted in the United States
under state confidentiality laws if it was judged to be in the child's
best interests." In 1999, Elian Gonzales' Cuban father's custody battle
brought home the impact of special interests as the world watched
Attorney General Janet Reno's every move of that drama.
According to the United Nations Rights of the Child Project/
Sale of Children Report," the United States is the largest market
for stolen children in the world. It is also one of few countries in
which American and foreign children can be institutionalized
and adopted under state secrecy laws, making it difficult to
follow the money trail. Currently, China, South America, and
most Third World Countries are popular with baby brokers since
Romania and Russia halted international adoptions of Caucasian-
8 CHOSEN CHILDREN
looking children. A legal adoption of a foreign child costs an
average $20,000, while an average private adoption of an Ameri-
can child costs $60,000, according to Amy Thurston, National
Adoption Information Clearinghouse (NAIC). Iraqi war orphans
Would now be up for grabs wre it not for that country’s anti-
adoption and anti-foreign guardianships policy.
Adam Pertman, Boston Globe Staff Writer, author of Adoption
Nation, and an adopter, wrote:
There is a wall between those who can adopt babies and those who
cannot, and it is built of money.
Couples who adopt usually have combined salaries of $50,000
to $60,000, according to Herbert Friedman, a Boston adoption
attorney. Additionally, over 1,000 companies nationwide have
been providing workers with “adoption aid" ranging from paid
leave to large cash payments. Wendy's Hamburgers has been
paying $4,000 per adoption or $6,000 for adoption of a child with
special needs, plus six weeks paid leave. Perhaps the words of
America's most adamant supporter of the adoption industry
sums it up best:
"This is a capitalist system where the laws of the market work their
magic," says Bill Pierce, [former] president [and still active in
projects] of the Washington-based National Council for Adoption.
"People seem to believe that $16,000 or $17,000 is too much for a
new car. If we're going to have quality service, you're going to have
to pay for it." ("Corporate America Helping Foot the Bills,"
Boston Globe (3-9-98).
The “quality service" which commodities those trapped in
America's symbiotic foster care, adoption and prison systems
will be more closely examined in the following chapters.
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS - RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
Fifty-ninth session. Item 13 of the provisional agenda,, 6 January 2003
Report submitted by M. Juan Miguel Petit, Special Rapporteur, E/CN/2002/79, page 25:
IV. OTHER ISSUES IN FOCUS - A. Adoption
110. During the course of 2002, the Special Rapporteur received many complaints relating to
allegedly fraudulent adoption practices. Where such practices have the effect that the child
becomes the object of a commercial transaction, the Special Rapporteur, like his predecessor,
considers that such cases fall within the "sale" element of his mandate. The Special Rapporteur
was shocked to learn of the plethora of human rights abuses which appear to permeate the
adoption systems of many countries. The Special Rapporteur considers that the best
environment for most children to grow up in is within a family, and that the adoption by a parent or
parents of a child who does not have a family able to look after him or her is a commendable and
noble action. Regrettably, in many cases, the emphasis has changed from the desire to provide
a needy child with a home, to that of providing a needy parent with a child. As a result, a whole
industry has grown, generating millions of dollars of revenues each year, seeking babies for
adoption and charging prospective parents enormous fees to process paperwork. The problems
surrounding many intercountry adoptions in which children are taken from poor families in
undeveloped countries and given to parents in developed countries, have become quite well known,
but the Special Rapporteur was alarmed to hear of certain practices within developed countries,
including the use of fraud and coercion to persuade single mothers to give up their children
"Fifty percent of homeless youth on the street
are runaways from foster care."
—Family Law Quarterly
2
Foster Care
In 1999, the "invisible homeless" were chased from public
view as a result of local vagrancy laws. Those in temporary
shelters for the homeless have not been counted, but statistics
reveal that half of America's homeless youths are runaways from
foster care. In 2001, the President's Federal Budget Proposals
reduced the 1999 allocation for the Independent Living Program
from $140 million to $105 million. While the Bush administration
is significantly increasing such allocations in 2002, it is too late to
help nine decades of former foster kids.
In recent years, there has been public recognition in the media
of the plight of America's foster kids. The picture they paint is
disturbing: these children often drift from one temporary home
to another, from one abusive or neglectful situation to another,
and often are routinely drugged to control them ("Prescription
for Tragedy," Los Angeles Times, 5-17-1998, Metro 31). By the time
they are legally emancipated adults and returned to the streets
from which many of them had been rescued, 75 have been
sexually abused. They carry a lot of painful psychological and
emotional baggage and usually have no employable skills. The
newly created Independent Living Programs (ILPs) are an at-
tempt to ease a new generation's transition into society and
independence, but they are too late for millions of "the lost." The
sad fact is that two-thirds of prison inmates had been in foster care
("Sex, Drugs and No Place To Go." Los Angeles Times, 2-18-
1994, A-38).
9
10 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Foster homes were thought to provide something closer to the
one-on-one nurturing the child lacked from his parents or from
the ill-reputed orphanage or expensive private boarding school
of the past. Los Angeles has more kids in foster care than any
other city in the nation. Like most urban areas in economic decline
it has been so overwhelmed by case loads and under-staffing that
caseworker follow-up has been lax or impossible. Today, it is not
unusual to read a news story about a child who was injured or
who needlessly died in foster care—after being unjustly taken
from parents who were not unfit.
Foster homes can be state-run, county-run, private nonprofit,
or church-run facilities. They may house children of one gender
exclusively or both sexes. These children can be of single or mixed
races, specific or mixed ages, have educational, physical or men-
tal disabilities, and may be substance abusers, physically, sexually,
emotionally abused or neglected, violent or nonviolent. One
would think there would be a wide array of criteria to ensure that
the different needs of these children were met. Unfortunately,
one criteria far outweighs the rest. It all comes down to cost. As
reported in Time magazine (10-8-90, p.44), ten years ago, foster parents
typically earned only 80 cents per hour. The situation has not
improved much. So why would anyone want to be a foster
parent? Some foster parents do it for the money. Once their
homes are licensed to house a specific number of children, they
can receive salaries and the children's upkeep can be subsidized.
Childless couples may also become foster parents in hope of a
shortcut to adopting an infant or younger child in states that
permit adoption by foster parents.
The older or more abused that the foster child is at the time of
adoption, the greater the likelihood that the child will be returned
back to the agency by his adopters or run away.
Seventy-five percent of all children in foster care have
experienced some form of sexual abuse. (Adoption and
Sexually Abused Children, Joan and Bernard
McNamara, University of Maine-Portland, 1990, p.160)
Fifty percent to 75% of children initially placed in foster care
were eventually returned to their parents. (Adoption
Fact Sheet, Office of Civil Rights)
FOSTER CARE 11
Sixty-nine percent of inmates in California state prisons
were foster children; sixty-nine percent in Massachusetts
State Prisons were foster children. (Testimony of United
States Congressman, Congressional Record)
Too often, foster kids' stories of abuse at the hands of their
parents, stepparents, guardians, counselors, or foster parents are
disbelieved. Their pain is dulled by drugs, their security and
survival dependent on what they can steal or on obedience to the
gang they call "family." The runaways, the incorrigibles, the
disturbed, the addicts, the violent, are shuttled through a revolv-
ing door from group home to juvenile detention, to youth author-
ity, to prison—where they are warehoused without treatment,
threatened, assaulted, killed, or recruited by hardened criminals.
Kevin Sieg, "Growing Up a Foster Kid," (Newsweek, 10-26-98,
p.20), writes about an "orphan" who never knew his father and
who was taken from his mother by Social Services when he was
in third grade, "aged out" of the foster care system in Cleveland
on July 1, 1998, when he turned eighteen:
He wonders how he's going to pay for school and where will he go
for the holidays and summer. He is completely alone in decision
making. Still, he considers himself lucky. Of the more than 20,000
kids who aged out of foster care across America last summer, only
35% graduated from high school. Only 11% will go on to college or
vocational school.
He feels that kids adapt when their very survival depends on it.
But most aren't as lucky as Sieg, who is a music major at the
University of Akron. Sieg believes the solution is for more citi-
zens, community and civic groups, churches, synagogues, and
the corporate community to be actively involved in foster kids'
transition to adulthood and to provide support for their educa-
tional and career goals.
Eileen Brazelton, in "A Psychiatrist Comments," wrote that
"Politics, rather than an understanding of children's needs, often
dictates decisions about a child's placement." The Adoption and
Safe Families Act of 1997 allows funding for "family preservation
and support services for no more than fifteen months" as a move
to speed up adoptions.
The Nebraska Supreme Court granted a stay of execution
for Randolph Reeves, who was scheduled to be executed
January 11, 1999. His Omaha Tribe filed a brief claiming
12 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Reeves was "emotionally damaged" when the State of Nebraska
took him from his reservation parents at age three, and that,
because of the removal, the State is "the party to blame" for
Reeves' actions. The Nebraska Supreme Court agreed, and on
January 7, 2000, the Nebraska Supreme Court reversed the death
sentence and remanded Reeves for re-sentencing. The decision
could have significant impact on every facet of child abuse,
custody, foster care, and adoption law. In any case, the real issue
of why so many permanent family separations are deemed
necessary is ignored. In view of what is now known of the lifelong
impact of early separation on the child, existing alternatives to
foster care need to be expanded.
The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (PL-
96-272) contained a provision calling for statewide tracking sys-
tems for children in foster care who received care within the
previous twelve months. The Reagan Administration chose to
implement a voluntary system that has ultimately proven to be
inconsistent from state to state. One must ask why government is
so reluctant to publish factual data on children in its care.
In Adoptalk, the newsletter of the North American Council on
Adoptable Children (Spring 2000, p. 9), Terry Harrak, who had
been a foster kid, wrote:
Being a former foster youth has significantly shaped my outlook on
life. Foster care left me completely on the defensive. I always had
to defend myself against social workers who never once asked
what I wanted when considering placements for me. I remember
attending my quarterly meeting with my social worker and whom-
ever was my care provider at the time. When I asked my social
worker to tell me the purpose of the meeting, she responded, "to
make sure the placement is adequate for the child, and will meet this
or her needs."
"Then why do you ask me to sit outside?" I asked.
I entered foster care a few days shy of sixteen and "aged out"
at eighteen. During my two years in foster care, I had two different
social workers, cycled through four different placements, and
attended three different schools. I'm now twenty-years old, work
full-time, and go to community college part-time. I look at my peers
and see the life they are living—going to school full-time, living on
campus, joining college clubs, and going to parties.
What I resent most about the foster care system is that workers
never made any genuine effort to reunite me with my family or at
FOSTER CARE 13
least help me to develop a relationship. Just like other young
people, foster youth need permanent adults in their lives.... Youth
need adult relationships and a place to call home, and in all possible
cases, youth need families. I feel like I haven't been at home for five
years because home to me was a little rundown farmhouse where
I lived with my father and my brother. If child welfare systems are
really in the business for the welfare of children, then my only
advice would be to treat them as you would treat your children.
Terry Harrak is currently working at the Youth Law Center in
Washington, D.C. on issues related to foster care, and also works
part-time with the Child Welfare League of America through
their Youth Initiative project. In January 1999, Terry spoke at the
First Lady's Summit on Independent Living at the White House.
In December 1999, he went back to the White House to witness
President Clinton's signing of the Foster Care Independence Act
of 1999. He said it was incredible to watch how the independent
living legislation moved from idea to law, thanks in part to efforts
made by young people. In the summer of 2000, Terry participated
in a speak out panel of foster care graduates and adoptees at the
North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) con-
ference.
As many adoptees spend time in foster care prior to adoptive
placements, and the current administration has sought to escalate
adoptions as a "quick fix" for problems of long term foster care
without considering adoptees' outcomes, issues of foster care and
adoption are allied.
“Adoption is a form of domestic terrorism”
-Reverend Ruth Peterson
3
Half the United States Population is
Affected by Adoption
Conservatively estimated, 140-million Americans—almost
half the United States population—have an adoption in their
immediate family.
This is because, decades ago, the emphasis changed from
Society’s desire to provide a needy child with a home, to that
of providing a needy childless adult with someone else’s child.
A multi-billion dollar industry has been spawned, propelled by
monetary federal incentives to the states to increase adoptions.
Aided and abetted by Child Protective Services’ police power
and private baby brokers who represent “best interests” of
adopters, coercion and fraud is deemed justifiable when
separating single mothers from their newborns.
By 2003, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on
Rights of the Child had begun to address the problem as one
that is prevalent “in developed countries,” including the
United States.
If the plight of those still in the system receives little
notice, even less attention is given to adoptees' outcomes.
Georgianne Bone, herself an adoptee and former employee at
Patton State Hospital, a mental health facility in California,
worked with three Caucasian male patients: a rapist, a child
molester, and an arsonist. All three had been adopted from foster
care. One might assume their behaviors originated at the pre-
adoption stage, unless one considers that most serial killers and
most adoptees who killed their adopters were adopted at birth
(as will be discussed in Part III). That the child was separated
from his parents, at whatever age, whether or not the child was
abused before or after adoption, secrecy adds a burden that may
exacerbate behaviors leading to bad outcomes.
Adoption is an experiment in euthenics (outcomes controlled
by environment), rather than eugenics (outcomes controlled by
breeding). One of the biggest problems with any experiment in a
closed system is the unavailability of reliable data. The need for
adoption data becomes exponentially critical commensurate with
the increasing commercialization of adoption, as the "Internet
Twins" case demonstrates.
Twin girls born in the United States were caught in a tug of war
between two couples on both sides of the Atlantic; both seem to
have been adopted by would-be parents. ("FBI Launches Adop-
15
16 CHOSEN CHILDREN
tion Probe in L.A.," Los Angeles Times 1-17-01). Eventually, the
Missouri state court of jurisdiction ordered the biracial twins
returned to their Missouri mother. One of the prospective
adopting couples, the Kilshaws in England, who have other
children of their own, are now seeking to adopt a "war
orphan" from Afghanistan, a Muslim country which does not
condone adoption. To understand all the ramifications of the
adoptive status, one needs to first take a world view of
adoption in terms of human rights and then take a closer look
at the data.
Human Rights
A multitude of complaints about adoption abuses have been forwarded
to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on “The Rights of the Child”,
an ongoing effort, via AmFOR’s Human Rights & Adoption page at
at http://abolishadoption.com/HumanRights.html . Anti-adoption
activists say that adoption affected persons are deprived of human rights
as defined under the following Articles in the 1948 "Universal Declaration
of Human Rights" by Amnesty International, and accepted by the United
Nations and the United States:
Article 1: "All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit
of brotherhood."
Adoption law refers to (and treats) the adoptee as the "adopted
child" even at legal age; the adoptee is not permitted emancipa-
tion from his/her adoptive status at legal age. The adult adoptee
may not exercise the same rights under the same conditions as
non-adopted citizens (example: access to their true birth record
from vital records offices).
Article 2: "Everyone is entitled to all rights and freedoms set
forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind,
such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or
other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or
other status..."
Social status and religion as well as politics are inextricably
woven into the fiber of American adoption. Domestic adoption is
most aggressively promoted by the well-funded National Coun-
cil For Adoption (NCFA) organization of Christian adoption
agencies; Holt International promotes adoption of foreign-bom
children by Americans. Both are intent on "Christianizing" chil-
dren through adoption into Christian families. Holt's contractual
agreements with prospective adopters included a written
ADOPTION 17
requirement that the child will be raised as a Christian and worship
Jesus Christ. In the 1950s and 1960s, Jews who could not adopt
through the Christian adoption agencies, but those who could
afford black market adoptions, bought their children. In “My
Father, Uncle Milty,” Bill Berle explains that his adopter, the late
famed comedian Milton Berle, through his celebrity contacts
found channels for procuring the newborn boy for his wife, Ruth.
Article 3: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security
of person."
Adoptees are not at liberty to access true information about their
pre-adoption identities and families' identities; they cannot have
security of person, having been given or sold to strangers for
adoption.
Article 4: "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and
the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."
In a free society, each person, more or less, holds title to his own
human capital, and is prevented by law from selling this title
except for limited periods of time and under a restricted set of
conditions. A dollar value has been literally placed on human
lives in certain instances:
1. When White Americans bought and sold Black Africans
for slaves;
2. When monetary damages are awarded in an industrial
accident or death, turning on the capital value if the
person at time of the accident or death;
3. When one contracts for one's labor;
4. When a child is adopted.
Unlike movie stars and athletes whose human capital is trans-
ferred by third parties for a specified period (as in #3), adoptees,
like the African slaves, are subject to class restrictions beyond
legal age—for life—as result of the adoption contract to which
they were never party. The difference between a slave and a free
person turns not on the existence of property rights in human
capital but on who may hold title and for how long.
The first step in removing rights from slaves and adoptees is to
change and withhold their true identities.
Article 5: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
18 CHOSEN CHILDREN
The child is never a party to the "contract" which transforms him
into an adoptee. Both adoptees and parents are subjected to
inhuman and degrading treatment—when there is needless sepa-
ration of the child from the parent, when the system and special
interests commodity the child according to "supply and de-
mand," and when adoption is pursued as a punitive response to
illegitimacy, unwed parenthood, poverty or social class. Closed
adoption in particular is regarded by activists as a form of child
abuse, because it prevents free exchange of information that may
be vital to the child's well being, such as family medical updates,
social background, and changes in circumstances.
Article 6: "Everyone has a right to recognition everywhere
as a person before the law."
Adoption law in every state requires that the adoptee's true birth
record be sealed from his own or anyone else's access except by
court order, and a falsified birth certificate is issued naming his
adopters as his "parents" on the date of his birth. Thus, the
adoptee becomes a "legal fiction," a legal term which denies him
personhood before the law. The child's parents also become
"nonexistent" as the "parents" before the law upon relinquish-
ment of their parental rights.
Article 7: "All are equal before the law and are entitled
without discrimination to equal protection of the law..."
In Carangelo v. O'Neill/State of CT, the federal court held that the
adult adoptee has "the same rights as other adoptees" while
adoption activists maintain they are treated as "separate but
equal," in violation of the United States Constitution's Bill of
Rights and basic human rights. Neither are rights applied to all
adoptees equally. In 1992, a Louis Rhodes, Executive Director of
the Arizona Civil Liberties Union, replied to an adoptee who
believed he was not treated equally with Native Americans who
are adopted, "That our government has laws that treat rights of
American Indians differently or separately ... they do not have
greater rights, only different rights." It is not only the Native
American adoptee who is treated as "different" or "separate but
equal." The courts have been clear (in Brown v. Board of Education)
that "separate but equal" is unconstitutional.
Article 8: "Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by
the competent national tribunals for acts violating the
fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or
ADOPTION 19
by the law."
The United Sates Supreme Court has repeatedly refused certio-
rari to hear class actions by adoptees in the 1970s —(ALMA Society
v. Mellon, and Yesterday's Children v. Kennedy) and by "adoption
affected persons" in 1990 (Carangelo v. O'Neill/State of CT--on the
constitutionality of adoption secrecy laws and fundamental rights
of persons impacted by adoption.... Attorneys believe the Su-
preme Court is "not ready" to hear their issues. In DeBoer,
(popularly known in media as "the Baby Jessica" case") Justice
John Paul Stevens opined
"Neither Iowa law, Michigan law nor federal law authorizes unrelated
persons to retain custody of a child whose natural parents have not been
found to be unfit, simply because they may be better able to provide for
her future and her education."
Yet the constitutionality of adoption itself has never come
under scrutiny in an American court. The Supreme Court
would have to find the practice unconstitutional, perhaps
making all past adoptions null and void.
Article 10: "Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and
public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal,
in the determination of his rights and obligations and of
any criminal charges against him."
Child Protective Services (CPS) exercises its police power in
removing children from their families based on "suspicion" of
abuse or neglect, often arising from anonymous phone tips. The
burden is then upon the parents to prove their fitness to parent,
usually not before a jury, while authorities retain possession of
the children, or released to parents only after compliance with
arbitrary conditions and "maintenance agreements" as deter-
mined by the same authority that took the children. The younger
and more "adoptable" the child, the less likely it will be that the
child will ever see his parents again.
The adoptee usually is not physically present in court for any
proceedings leading to his/her placement and adoption; s/he may
or may not not have a Guardian ad Litem appointed, but no
public jury trial would be permitted in any case, and the
proceedings are sealed as "confidential" from public scrutiny.
Parents who voluntarily relinquish children are usually not per-
mitted to participate in a hearing on a petition to adopt the child.
20 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Adult adoptees are referred to the Juvenile Court or Adoptions
Court regarding their grievances and for court orders to release
their adoption decree, birth record, adoption record and even to
access the hospital medical record of their birth. The Juvenile
Court treats the adult adoptee as a child and the Adoptions Court
is equally discriminatory on who shall have access to what, since
it has a conflict of interest in maintaining confidentiality of its
files, so more often denies requests to violate that confidentiality.
Parents and adoptees may request an Administrative Fair Hear-
ing if certain criteria are met, but they are neither impartial nor
"fair" as public and private adoption agencies are pretty much
self-regulating and self- policing.
Article 11: "Everyone charged with a penal offense has the
right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty
according to law in a public trial at which he has had all
the guarantees necessary for his defense ..."
Permanent removal of a child from his family with court-ordered
falsified sealed birth records and lifelong secrecy is a punishment
without a crime where the court has never declared the parent to
be unfit to parent. Yet that is exactly what occurs in every
voluntary relinquishment for adoption.
On February 14,1987, the American Bar Association issued its
informal opinion (#87-1533) that dual representation of parents
and adopters by the same attorney is a conflict of interest. Yet, in
most relinquishments and adoptions, there is either no attorney
representation for the parent, and separately for child, or there is
dual representation by one attorney, usually paid by the adopter,
representing both the parent(s) and adopter(s).
Article 12: "No one shall be subject to arbitrary interference
with his privacy, family or correspondence, nor to attacks
upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has a right to
the protection of the law against such interference or
attacks."
Coerced relinquishment of parental rights for purpose of procur-
ing children for adoption has been the ultimate "government
interference into the family." Upon relinquishing their parental
rights to give up their child for adoption, no parent is guaranteed
privacy or lifelong anonymity by any adoption attorney, facilita-
tor or agency, in fact, the birth record is not sealed and the
amended (falsified) birth record issued until the adoption is
ADOPTION 21
finalized, not upon relinquishment, so sealing of the record is not
designed to protect privacy of parents. A "relinquishment agree-
ment" is a unilateral agreement giving up rights. For decades,
parents have not even been permitted to possess a copy of the
relinquishment they signed.
Article 15: "Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one
shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied
the right to change his nationality."
Over the past five decades, most adoptees have been deprived of
knowledge of their true nationalities and even of their true race or
multi-racial backgrounds. The Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints regards accurate documentation of one's gene-
alogy to be an essential requirement of the religion and has
resulted in the largest collection of vital records information
worldwide Yet both the adoption industry and the Mormon
Church has encouraged adopters to "seal the adoptee to the
genealogy of the adopter. " State laws now require the collection
and disclosure of such information, but interpreting and
communicating it is still at the discretion of the case worker,
agency, attorney or court holding the adoption file.
Article 16: "... The family is the natural and fundamental group unit
of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State."
While Article 16 also stresses the "right to marry and to found a
family," American families today are more often "non-tradi-
tional." That is, more are single-parent families. Currently, even
in adoptive families, only 16% of children placed for adoption are
being raised in two-parent households, as compared to 25% of
children raised by two parents in the general population (accord-
ing to a 2001 release of US Census study "Living Arrangements
of Children: Fall 1996" by Jason Fields.
22 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Article 18: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought,
conscience and religion...."
The objective of largest, best funded and most powerful lobby of
adoption agencies, the federally and privately funded National
Council For Adoption (NCFA), is to "Christianize" children
through adoption into Christian families. Federal funding of
religious endeavors is a violation of the principle of separation of
church and state.
Article 20: "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly
and association; no one may be compelled to belong to an association."
Adoptees are prohibited by law and practice from freedom of
association with their own families and are instead compelled to
form a lifelong association with strangers. Adoptees who cannot
"attach" or "bond" to their adoptive families develop emotional
problems and antisocial behaviors which may result in their
being institutionalized in mental hospitals or prisons.
Article 25: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health
and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and
medical care and necessary social services . . . Motherhood and childhood are
entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of
wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection."
In America, funding and support for the vilified "welfare mom"
has been plundered and instead benefits the "subsidized adopter."
On April 15,1993, the extent of adoption's commercialization
and disintegration of human rights became even more apparent
to this writer when I responded to an ad by "DDC-Dependent
Care Connection" in Westport, Connecticut. Advertised as a
"national counseling and referral service," this United States and
ADOPTION 23
international clearinghouse was a "baby supermarket" with a
computer hotline for large corporations including California Law
Corporation, and adoption agencies needing immediate infor-
mation as to availability of babies and children according to age,
gender, size, color, and nationality for adoption anywhere in the
world. They offered a $20,000 annual salary for telemarketers.
Today "embryo supermarkets" at fertility clinics create and sell
designer embryos on speculation for adoption. The ethical ques-
tions of such trafficking aside, the number of adoptees created
this way and how they fared, is unknown.
Adoption Data
Despite all the spending for adoptions under the hodge podge
of non-uniform state laws and federal mandates, the Department
of Health and Human Services seems to be resisting the necessity
for counting adoptees. Using the most commonly cited figure of
6 million adoptees in the United States, it can be conservatively
estimated that 140-million Americans—almost half the United
States population—has an adoption in their immediate family.
Quoting the Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints - the largest genealogical library in the world –
Abigail Van Buren, in her "Dear Abby" column, Los Angeles Times
(5-30-92), provided this definition of "immediate family":
parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings (of which adoptees
have two sets, but not even including the adoptee's children and
grandchildren). Add a conservative estimate of 6-million adoptees
to 12-million adopters and 12-million parents, aunts, uncles and
siblings, and you have 140-million people affected by adoption,
falsified, and sealed birth records. That's a lot of unrequested
secrecy imposed on their lives—by statute, policy, and practice—
even after the adoptee is of legal age.
Nineteenth and early twentieth-century orphans were at least
emancipated at legal age. In November, 1998, President Clinton
directed DHHS to work with courts and nonprofit agencies on a
"National Internet Registry" of children legally eligible for adop-
tion, yet the federal government has resisted implementing the
National Adoption Data Collection System approved by Congress
in 1988, which could count adoptees, aid analysis of adoption
practices, and thereby assist lawmakers and helping professionals.
24 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Neither does Immigration and Naturalization know how many
American kids leave the country for adoptions abroad. "Adop-
tion Hits Harsh Snag," San Diego Tribune (7-7-98, B-l) investi-
gated the forced relinquishments and trafficking of infants from
Mexico for illegal adoptions in the United States. American kids
also disappear.
The Justice Department was unhappy with New Hampshire
University researcher Jerry Hoataling's findings in the thirty-
page, June 14,1990, "Condensed Executive Summary Report on
Missing Children. "His report revealed a high incidence of family
abductions and kids disappearing from institutional care.
Hoataling was supposed to work another year under contract to
the Justice Department but his project funds were cut off, ending
analysis; so he could not answer this writer's question on how
many "missing children" were sold for black market adoptions.
He said the official records kept on adoptions were so inefficient,
that even though there was a basis for methodologies, he was
"finding ranges that worked out to be 4, 5, 6 and 10 times as high "
Neither did the 2000 Census count all adoptees in the United
States, in the past, the Census has combined "children in house-
hold, natural or adopted." In a report titled "Living Arrangements
of Children: Fall 1996," written by Jason Fields and released
in 2001, the U.S. Census Bureau stated that the number of
adopted children in the U.S. "rose from 1.1 million, in l991, to over
1.5 million in 1996." However, the Census Bureau is quick to point
out that this number might not truly reflect the number of
adopted children as many adopters may not have wanted to
reveal to census takers the adoptive status of "children in the
household."
The aforementioned Census study cites that "only 16% of
adopted children are being raised in two-parent families—as
compared to 25% of all children being raised in two-parent
homes." There has been a steady increase in single and gay
parenting through adoption, despite that adoption is touted as
providing children with a "stable two-parent family." Histori-
cally, the "unwed mother" and the "single parent" have been
unjustifiably blamed for a wide range of social ills, yet most
relinquishing parents are not told that their children may not be
placed in the "preferred two-family home". Organized groups of
single and gay persons in some states have successfully asserted
what they believe is their "right" or "entitlement" to adopt.
ADOPTION 25
The 2000 Census was the first census to ask for a tally of
"children in household" and separated the categories, "natu-
ral" and "adopted." At this time, even that figure has not been
published. It was reportedly going to be available "during the
next three years," but with 2003 half gone, the figure and its
category have fallen into the same black hole as most adoption
data. Neither did the 2000 Census still did not count adopted
adults, overlooking five decades of American adoptees among us.
Even the sealed records lobby, National Council For Adoption
(NCFA) conservatively estimated in the 1989 Adoption Factbook.
"only 5-to-10-million adoptees in the United States," a fraction
of those registered with private adoptee/parent search groups.
The formula statisticians use for estimating an unknown seg-
ment of the population involves taking a random telephone
sampling nationwide of over a thousand individuals. The per-
centage who acknowledge, for instance, their adoptive status can
be an indicator "give or take 3." However, some states have
been more aggressive than others in their efforts to transform its
citizens into adopted persons. This author has developed a com-
pletely unscientific method for counting adoptees, in the course of my
daily travels, I have asked ten strangers per day whether
there has been an adoption in their immediate families. On
average, six to eight out of ten say yes—a real eye-opener,
even here in California, the largest private adoption market in
the country.
For "adoption data," the federal government has relied on The
National Council For Adoption (NCFA). NCFA (formerly the
National Committee For Adoption) is a 1,200-member organiza-
tion of Christian adoption agencies, which lobbies to "increase
adoptions" and also to "keep adoption records sealed;" fifty five
are Mormon and eleven are affiliated with the Gladney Center in
Texas (formerly Gladney chain of homes for unwed relinquish-
ing mothers). NCFA's web-site "Adoption Fact Book Page" is
described on Internet's Alta Vista search engine as "covering a
broad array of statistics and half-truths." NCFA's adoptee poster
child was President Gerald Ford, despite the fact Ford was raised
by his own mother and always knew his own father. His was a
step-parent adoption, and not the typical adoptee experience.
26 CHOSEN CHILDREN
In contrast to the NCFA, the American Adoption Congress
(AAC), an umbrella for about 114 search-support groups that
network with thousands of groups and individuals worldwide,
and which favors open records for adult adoptees, mcludes on its
web-site its annual budget of only $175-thousand—a fraction of
the NCFA's budget even before NCFA was awarded the $6-
million federal grant.
Pitfalls of Adoption
Every kind of family formation entails risks. Childbirth entails
medical, economic, and social risks. Adoption entails risk of a
pregnant woman changing her mind about relinquishing her
child and risks associated with raising a stranger's child. With
adoption, the prospective adopters can be emotionally and finan-
cially manipulated, while parents may be coerced. Moreover,
state laws make the process cumbersome and expensive. The
bottom line is that the adoption system doesn't work for the
majority affected. Over 100,000 websites, news groups, books,
articles, lobbies, and lawsuits by the adoption-affected tell us so.
Pitfalls of adoption are greatest for the adoptee.
The "Attachment Disorder" studies by Dr. Barry Brazelton
support the kinship model over adoption. His studies reveal that
seventy-two hours after birth, a baby can hear, can possibly
vaguely see, and has formed "attachment" behaviors learned in
the womb from its mother's natural body rhythms. In "Fathers
Can Recognize Newborns By Touch," Los Angeles Times (6-20-93),
61% of blindfolded fathers recognized their newborns just by
stroking the backs of their hands; the mothers had similar results
stroking their babies' cheeks. Adopers and foster parents are at a
disadvantage, their children don't "attach."
Dr. Lee Bloom, former Unit Director, Coldwater Canyon Hos-
pital, Hollywood, California, was quoted in "Growing Up Be-
hind Bars," Rolling Stone magazine, (12-20-86):
Of internees at Coldwater Canyon Center for Personal Develop-
ment Psychiatric Hospital, 65% to 85% are adoptees. Most were
referrrals from the Juvenile Probation Department. (Coldwater Canyon
psychologist, Richard Sherman, later reported "At times, as many
as half of Coldwater's preteen and teenage hospitalized population
are adoptees.")
Dr. Phyllis Chesler, in Mothers on Trial, quoted Dr. William
Murdoch, child psychologist at Loma Linda University School of
ADOPTION 27
Medicine, Loma Linda, California, and Director of Charter m-
Patient Unit, Redlands, California"
Forty percent of psychiatric internees are adoptees. Adopted chil-
dren have a higher rate of emotional and psychological problems
than the general population of youngsters.
In Sacred Bond, Chesler also quoted Dr. Steven Nickman (as
cited by Geraldo Rivera, The Geraldo Show, (7-28-88):
Forty percent of adoptees end up in schools for disturbed children
(of an estimated 2% of the general population)
Ruben Pannor, MSW, Director of Community Services at Vista
del Mar Child Care Services of Los Angeles, co-author of The
Adoption Triangle and nationally recognized adoption expert,
reports that in his counseling experience, "About 35% of young
people receiving psychological help are adoptees."
Betty Jean Lifton, quoted from a report by an Illinois physician
at a conference of The American Adoption Congress Conference,
NY (1988): "Twenty to 35% of internees at several hundred
private psychiatric hospitals, in 13 regions, are adoptees."
Lincoln Caplan (An Open Adoption), quoted in Bottom Line (9-
15-90) estimates "five to 15% of the patient load in mental clinics
is the average reported figure for adoptees under psychiatric
care, although official (government) statistics estimate only 2% of
the population are adoptees. Twenty to 30% of adolescents and
children in private psychiatric therapy are adoptees."
Often an adoptee's "dysfunction" results from post-adoption
abuse of another kind as the following AmFOR case file reflects.
Donna Lee Morgan was named Donna Lee Sayre at birth, July
10, 1953, in San Antonio, Texas. She resided with her adopters
from 1959 until 1966 when, at age 13, she was abandoned by her
adopters, John and Florence Morgan, to a state mental hospital
where she was confined against her will by court order for 7 years
until 1973 when, at legal age, she was magically permitted her
freedom. The court order alleged "schizophrenic reactions" and
"sexual preoccupations" (although she was 13) with "autistic reveries."
Today, it might have been determined that she had been sexually
abused and was reacting as any sexually abused child would
react, but sexual abuse was not often reported, even in the 1970s,
whereas past sexual abuse of young female adoptees by their
male adopters or other adoptive family members is frequently
reported today by now-adult adoptees. Donna was able to get her
adoption file opened by court order and found that her mother
28 CHOSEN CHILDREN
had died. She also obtained her medical-psychiatric records
from the Florida mental hospital. But the Baptist Hospital in
Texas initially refused to release her record of birth. It was only
through AmFOR's intervention and much persistence that it was
eventually provided to her with an apology from hospital staff.
H.J. Sants and E.E. Wellisch suggested that adopted children
have, in addition to general causes of maladjustment, the burden
of "adoption stress" — the stress to which they were subjected as
result of their particular status. They found "genealogical bewil-
derment" to be a large factor in their condition. The theory is that
a child's ignorance of his past causes "genealogical bewilder-
ment," which makes him/her more prone to dysfunction.
Professor David Fanshel, of the New York School for Social
Work, reported that 25% of the girls in residence at the school
maintained for disturbed girls by the Jewish Board of Guardians
in New York were adopted.
Most of the world's major religions emphasize the importance
of family relationships. The Talmud, Koran, and Bible are con-
cerned with true lineage. In 1981, in Houston, Texas, the Presby-
terian General Assembly unanimously supported legislation
“regarding the rights of adult adoptees and their natural families."
In the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the
world's largest depository of worldwide genealogical records,
children are "sealed to their parents for eternity." However
today, the trend is to "seal" adopted children to the genealogy of
their Mormon adopters, which would seem in juxtaposition to
their religious beliefs, as well as a conflict of church and state.
Another example of adoption politics in religion is found in
Bloodline of the Holy Grail—The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed,
(Element Books, 1997). Laurence Gardner, Royal Historiogra-
pher, uses the King James Bible, archival manuscripts, and other
data to prove that Jesus had a brother James; that virgin meant
"young woman" (Semetic); that his (Essene) parents' had two
marriage ceremonies—one legitimized his conception; that Jesus
married and had children; that his lineage can be traced from the
House of David through the Royal House of Stewart; that the
Catholic Church erased his lineage to advance its political power,
just as the Church now falsifies adoptees' baptismal birth records,
substituting adopter's names for "parents" on the date of birth.
ADOPTION 29
A Brief Chronology of Government-Protected
Child Stealing
In the 1930s, before most states began sealing adoption records,
Florence Clothier, a psychiatrist, observed "Severing of the indi-
vidual from his parents and racial antecedents, lies at the core of
what is peculiar to the psychology of the adopted child "
In the 1940s, according to an article in Good Housekeeping
(March, 1991) entitled, "The Woman Who Stole 5,000 Babies "
Tennessee Children's Home Society Director, Georgia Tann, with
The help of Judge Camille Kelly and the Crump political machine,
stole babies and toddlers (through coercive acquisition techniques
as well as outright kidnapping off the street and by lying to mothers
that “the baby died") and sold children to adopters who
could pay in Tennessee, New York, Kentucky, and California-- in-
cluding Hollywood celebrities such as Joan Crawford (Mommie
Dearest). Tann died just prior to prosecution in the 1960s
Nationwide, pro-secret adoption propaganda probably began
In the late 1940s via journalists pearl Buck (author of Out of
Wedlock: A Study on the Problems of-the Unwed Mother and Her
Child, reprinted 1978, Greenwood Press) and Leontyne Young .
Both were adopters who advised that it is in the child's best interests
to forever separate children from their unwed mothers." Today
Mona Charen, Ann Landers, and other newspaper columnists
support Buck Young, NFCA, and the government's ridiculous
unsubstantiated, untrue statistics such as "only 6% of adoptees
search for their parents. Search groups with over 100,000 annual
registrants could not exist unless a larger pool of searching
adoptees exists.
In October 1941, in "Problems of Illegitimacy As Concerns the
Worker in the Field of Adoption," we find the admission that "the
philosophy of the agency, to a large extent, determines whether
the unmarried mother will keep her baby." This is also true today.
In 1953, Jean Paton, MA, MSW, a social worker and adoptee,
conducted the first studies on families involved in sealed adoption
under the name The Life History Center in Philadelphia.
In the June 1955 edition of Western Journal of Surgery,
Paton described "passive, hostile and dependent behaviors
in an adopted boy—behaviors she later defined as “adopted
child syndrome." Her studies revealed confused, damaged chil-
dren and families, due to this secrecy and stigmatization. The
30 CHOSEN CHILDREN
stigma may be a thing of the past, but statutory secrecy remains.
In Paton's first book, The Adopted Break Silence (1954), she con-
cluded the adopted "feel isolated, unwanted and lonely to an
extent that few realize. Adopted people have a tendency to spend
many years in unraveling the mystery or their origins and par-
ticularly in breaking the fantasy of their parents." While Paton is
credited with pioneering both the Open Records Movement and
the Anti-Adoption Movement, she said her supporters described
her as "too sweet" for the fray, in both the 1950s as well as
currently. She spoke at American Adoption Congress national
conferences well into her 90s, writing eye-opening letters to the
editor and writing her memoirs which, like closed adoption,
span half of the twentieth century. This author was privileged to
visit with Paton in 1987 and to have maintained a dialogue of
kindred philosophies until recently. Jean Paton died March 27,
2002 at age 93. Her cause lives on.
In 1956-57, Cornell University studies on higher integrated
functions of the central nervous system concluded that the brain
may be damaged in its functional capacity during long-main-
tained efforts to adapt to adverse life situations (such as those
with which adoptees are often unable to cope).
From 1955-1960, according to Dr. Paul Toussieng, child psy-
chologist at the Meninger Clinic, 10.9% of all children in psychi-
atric clinics were adoptees.
On April 5,1975, Child Welfare League Executive Director
Joseph Reid argued in Senate subcommittee hearings that "profi-
teering in child placement should be made a federal offense." It
was not a crime then, and is not a crime now. As late as 1945,
according to a Federal Children's Bureau consultant's report, less
than half the United States had enacted measures designed to
prevent baby brokers from conducting business as "commercial
agencies." December, 1957, the New York State Joint-Legislaive
Committee on Marital and Family Laws investigated illegal
importation of babies to the United States from Greece and Italy.
The baby brokers had erected billboards in thirty-three states
offering babies for sale without violating federal law. It is difficult
to categorize today's “legal adoptions” costing $30,000 to $60,000
as anything other than "selling babies."
On September 4, 1976, Margaret Lawrence gave a talk to the
84th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Associa-
tion from her paper, "Inside, Looking Out of Adoption." She
ADOPTION 31
stated, "There is a slave psychology in the adoptee because he
must submit to the will of his parents as a reflection of what they
have done for him."
In 1978, the Indian Child Welfare Act (Public Law 95-608) was
amended to provide adult adoptees of Native American heritage
"different" rights than non-Indian adoptees. In the 1980s, adoptees'
"Attachment Disorder" was further denned as a "subset spectrum
of adoptees" who exhibit eight antisocial Adopted Child
Syndrome (ACS) behaviors, according to noted child psycholo-
gists Kirschner, Sorosky, Schecter, Carlson, Simmons, Work,
Goodman, Silverstein, Mandell, Menlove, Simon, Senturia, Of ford,
Aponti, Cross, and others. However, the spectrum is never
defined, so it is likely that all adoptees are at risk, in this author's
opinion.
The ACS behaviors are:
1. conflict with authority (for example: truancy)
2. preoccupation with excessive fantasy
3. pathological lying
4. stealing
5. running away (from home, school, group homes,
situations)
6. learning difficulties (underachievement, over
achievement)
7. lack of impulse control, (acting out, promiscuity, sex
crimes)
8. fascination with fire, fire-setting
In 1982, the following was published in Behavior Genetics, Over-
representation of Adoptees in Children with Attention Deficit Disorder
(ADD,) vol. 12, no. 3:
In a sample from two populations of children diagnosed with
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD: DSM-3) diagnosis for hyperac-
tivity, a 17% rate of non-relative adoption was found. This figure
represents approximately an eightfold increase over the base rate
on non-relative adoption, estimated in non-ADD control groups,
and in the general population. This analysis suggests that approxi-
mately 23% of all adopted children would be expected to have
ADD. However, in applying all possible variables, the percentage
is probably much higher.
In 1988, June Idler, Riverside County (Southern California) Juvenile
Probation Department, quoting from the Interstate Juvenile Compact
32 CHOSEN CHILDREN
of 1988, concurred that "45 % of all “602s” (felonies
committed by juveniles) were committed by adoptees."
July 24, 1989, President Reagan’s “White House Memo
#906627: Administrative Support For The Adoption Option"
put the federal government into the adoption business by offering
tax incentives and cash subsidies to people who adopt "special
needs children,”a category which has been greatly expanded since
then. Family rights activist Eugene Austin began disseminating
pamphlets referring to adoption as "geopolitical mass child stealing "
On October 6, 1991, a front page story in the Houston Chronicle
about baby broker Leslie Thacker, who sold United States
babies in England, France, Italy, and Mexico, reported that
Thacker was criminally convicted of buying a baby.
On January 22,1992,United Nations Center for Human Rights
(Geneva, Switzerland) issued its "Rights of the Child" Project
“Sale of Children" Report which includes adoption, slavery
pornography, and prostitution. The report identified the United
States as the largest market for stolen children in the world.
In 1998, the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse
nationwide data on adult access to their own adoption file infor-
mation was as follows;
Nine states had no statutory scheme for disclosure to adult
adoptees; those states were Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire,
North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming. Iowa
offered an application for pre-1941 adoptions disclosure
Four states—Kansas, Alaska, Tennessee, and Oregon added
in 2000-provided the adult adoptee with a copy of their original,
true, pre-adoption birth certificates dentifying their parents.
In 2000, forty states had amended laws for disclosure of
identities under certain conditions; many require adult adoptee
and parent registration, yet most would not inform the party who
had not registered that their missing waiver of confidentiality was
required or that contact was requested. Some states, such as Delaware,
now use a "contact veto” to register a party's refusal to be contacted or
refusal to disclose information.
In 2001, the federal government has guaranteed over $1-billion
funding over the next four years. Mostly earmarked to promote
adoption under the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amend-
ment Act, (S.1503) California Governor Gray Davis, by his exclu-
sive order, froze the sale of all California's birth and death
records, ostensibly to combat "identity theft" while California's
ADOPTION 33
AB-1349 was seeking to open original birth records to adult
adoptees, but failed to pass.
Lisa Demer of the Anchorage Daily News (4-25-01) reported
"Natives Receive Apology for 1950s Racial Adoptions." A project
dating to the 1950s in which Alaska Native and American Indian
children were taken from tribal homes to be adopted by white
families was wrong, hurtful and born of arrogance, the head of
the nation's largest welfare organization [Shay Bilchik, Executive
Director of the Child Welfare League of America-CWLA] told a
national conference in Anchorage.
Foreign born children adopted by Americans are now granted
automatic citizenship under Title 1 of the Child Citizenship Act
of 2000 (CCA). Public Law 106-395, Section 320 of the Immigra-
tion and Nationality Act (effective 6-13-01). In 2001, the situation
has not improved, for most adoptees wishing to know their
medical and social backgrounds.
In 2002, the trend some states have begun to adopt follows
The Uniform Adoption Act, which calls for sealing of adoption
birth records "for ninety-nine years" and making it a felony
crime to make "unauthorized searches" for one's own parents or
adult children. Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were among the first
to pass legislation according to those recommendations.
In 2003, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on “Rights of
the Child”, overwhelmed by reports about increased trafficking of
and sale of children for adoption, began to look into coercion and
fraudulently obtained relinquishments from single mothers, not
only in Third World countries but also in “developed countries”,
including the United States.
Abraham Lincoln said "You destroy your enemy when you
make him your friend." Battles may be won or lost but a painstak-
ing, ongoing educational process may change belief systems one
mind at a time. Each new generation learns anew, often by first
repeating mistakes of the past. m the millennium, collaboration
between courts, agencies, and families is needed to ensure system
wide changes that are in me best interests of children and families.
Adoptees’ Outcomes Mired in Politics
None of the parties to an adoption go through it unscathed—
not in the 1950s and 1960s and not today—especially adoptees.
There are voluminous studies and case histories, many detailed
34 CHOSEN CHILDREN
in Part III of this book, supporting that adoptees are overrepre-
sented in psychotherapy, psychiatric hospitals and prisons, re-
gardless of the age at which they had been surrendered to
strangers. In No One Goes Crazy Alone, Paul Wachtel explains that
family therapists believe no man is an island, so human miseries
must be understood in terms of how intertwined human destinies
are. Our very definitions of "homelessness," "mental illness,"
and "child welfare" dictate and constrain the solutions we seek.
Decades ago, Jean Paton asked "Do you have to be truant, steal
cars, get into juvenile detention homes, or drop out of school in
order for people to realize that you need to have someone tell you
about your origins?" The answer is still yes. Dr. David Brodzinsky,
who conducted one of the nation's largest studies of adopted
children at Rutgers University, recognized that adoption itself is
a psychological burden to the adoptee and that their problems
and symptoms often fall into the "adopted child syndrome"
pattern. Adoptees seem to have trouble trusting others and
forming close relationships. Often they feel they don't belong, or
are unloved and unwanted. With excessive fear of abandonment,
they are constantly testing limits and seeking approval, affection,
and acceptance. They experience a severe identity crisis in adoles-
cence around whether they feel they are a full member of the
adoptive family or just being loyal to their rescuers. Finding
parents or being found by them can stress all parties, no matter
the depth or lack of relationship. Where adopters have a "shape
up or ship out" mentality, adolescent adoptees are more likely to
act out. High level professionals agree that adoptees should have
access to their origins. But politics thwart good sense.
One such political roadblock is the National Right To Life
(NRTL) and its member organizations. NRTL's "Adoption Not
Abortion" bumper sticker sounds reasonable. But NRTL lacks
resources or willingness to help parents wishing to keep their
babies, so they have become an adoption agency promoting
secret adoption as if adoption is the only alternative to abortion.
In a survey by Americans For Open Records (AmFOR) one
thousand mothers who had been victimized by the adoption
experience revealed they would subsequently opt to either keep
or abort, rather than experience again the lifelong pain of surren-
dering another child to strangers and the unknown fate of secret
adoption. These mothers share their hard-learned experiences
with their daughters, in the hope that another generation will not
ADOPTION 35
opt for lifelong separation by adoption as a "quick fix" for
temporary problems of youth, insufficient education, and em-
ployable skills, substance abuse, and inadequate day care. Be-
cause many adoptions today are a response to infertility, AmFOR
added a free book to its website titled “Infertility Cures—Instead of
Adoption,” which includes natural cures, risks versus success rates
of drug and technological intervention, statistics, sources and
suggested reading at http://abolishadoption.com/infertility.html .
Republican Senator Slade Gorton's "Fairness for Adopted
Children Act" prohibits discrimination by insurance companies
from writing or executing insurance policies based solely on
whether a child is adopted. Insurance companies deal with
actuarial tables. Gorton's fear of discrimination may be based on
the fact that insurance underwriters must weigh risk factors, and
that they have reason to categorize adopted children as a high
insurance risks. Adoptees' have insufficient medical histories
and are over represented in psychiatric care; there is a lack of
reliable data. At the same time, Lloyd's of London was writing
policies to insure against adoptive parents loss for attorneys fees
and other costs if the mother revokes her consent to the adoption
and keeps her child.
Neither is adoptive status included in data on inmates' prison
files. It would not look good for the adoption industry if too many
adoptees were criminals, but that may in fact be the case—not
because they are "bad seeds," but because a closed and inflexible
system has caused their behaviors. Each year incarcerated
adoptees' requests for help in finding their kin flood the more
than 2,000 adoptee search groups in the United States.
Studies have continued to be amassed on the injury done to all
parties by the statutory secrecy imposed on all adoptions. One of
the most significant is the ongoing Bouchard studies, of over
seven hundred pairs of twins separated at birth by adoption. It
provides living evidence in the "nature versus nurture" debate
that genetic pull is greater than environmental influences.
Adoptees are overrepresented in the nation's psychiatric and
penal facilities. They've been telling us why, but no one has been
listening. Adopters are still lured by the false assurance that, with
love, any child can be raised to meet the adopter's expectations.
Rhetoric about the benefits of adoption can be believed only if
you discount the fact that adopters are subject to the same
36 CHOSEN CHILDREN
problems of living as parents. Depending on the supply of and
demand for adoptable children, today's adopters may be married
or single, well educated or borderline illiterate, lead mainstream
or alternative sexual and spiritual life-styles, and be of a different
race and nationality than the child they adopt. Today, only 16%
of adoptees are being raised in "two-parent" adoptive families
("Living Arrangements of Children, Fall 1996," Census study
report by Jason Fields, released 2001). Even adoptive couples
may divorce or otherwise abandon the child due to change in
finances, substance abuse problems, or disenchantment with the
child, as his dissimilar personality or attachment disorder emerges.
The 1950s and '60s adoptions workers usually did not disclose
negative family background. Instead, they attempted to "match"
ethnic backgrounds and physical characteristics of the child's
parents in selecting its adopters so that adopted children could be
raised believing they were born to their adopters. The aspect of
"make believe" was touted as an incentive to adopt. Physical and
sexual child abuse by parents or adoptive parents existed then as
now, but was never talked about. "Fetal alcohol syndrome," most
of today's 4,500 inheritable illnesses, and AIDS were unknown.
Until the late 1980s, most states did not require pre-adoption
medical histories. Adopters were left in the dark as to possible
causes of their adopted child's "hyperactivity," learning disabil-
ity, or tendency toward antisocial behaviors.
In the 1970s, adopters were encouraged to tell their children of
their adoptions but to "sugar coat" it with a "chosen child" story
that reinforced their perception of having been first rejected by
their original parents. Being "special" isolates. Now adult adoptees
from the 1970s through '80s are rebelling against the unrealistic
expectations and prohibitions of the adoption industry, particu-
larly the expectation of lifelong secrecy concerning their origins.
On NBC's Dateline (9-28-98), and in "Which Ones Are
Yours?" by Jacquelyn Mitchard, Ladies Home Journal (12-98,
p.5), the absurdity of the adoption industry's brainwashing
was documented in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Scott Albrecht (a
federal agent), his adopters Bob and Rosemary Albrecht, then
Governor Tommy Thompson (who is now HHS Secretary),
and Juvenile Court Judge David Konkol, have decided that an
adoptee is a "blood relative."
Scott Albrecht is a single male adoptee who Judge Konkol
barred from adopting two-year old Abby Mole. Abby's mother,
ADOPTION 37
who was Scott Albrecht's sister Suzy Mole, (also an adoptee), had
died of cancer. Her husband, Steve Mole, died in a car accident.
At first, the court favored adoption by the baby's godparents,
Garth and Michele Jorgenson, a married couple unrelated to the
child, who had been friends of Abby's deceased parents, by
ruling that an adoptee cannot be a "blood relative" for priority in
adopting under state law.
In Mitchard's report of the Abby Mole case, adopters from all
over wrote letters to the editor and reportedly phoned their
legislators, undoubtedly prompted by the National Council For
Adoption lobby of adoption agencies who profit from media
attention whenever controversy over adoption issues emerges.
Scott Albrecht got the Wisconsin Children's Code changed to
include "blood relatives, including by adoption, with full rights
and responsibilities" ... an interesting perversion of "rights."
Judge Konkol's decision was then reversed. It is part of the
increasing trend to make the adopted magically become "blood
relatives" as an extension of the "as born to" legal lie. All lies tend
to lead to more lies.
Incredibly enough, there was no mention in all the talk on
Dateline of "adoptee rights," that this adoptee and his deceased
sister, as well as the child about to be adopted, do not have the
"right to know" who their true "blood relatives" really are. They
do not know whether the cancer which killed Susy Albrecht, the
child's biological mother, could have been detected earlier and
cured had she known there was cancer in her family's medical
history, or any other inherited medical problems that could
impact their surviving child, Abby Mole.
According to attorney Elizabeth J. Samuels, Associate Profes-
sor of Law at Baltimore Universtiy ("How Adoption in America
Grew Secret," Washington Post, 10-20-01), closing of records was
"consistent with an emerging social idea about adoption: that it
was a perfect and complete substitute for creating a family by
childbirth, so the adopted child had no other family and would
never be interested in learning about any other family."
Following are excerpts from the pro-adoption National Coun-
cil For Adoption (NCFA) "Brief of Amicae Curiae, Addendum"
in opposition to Oregon's Ballot Measure 58 which opened records
to adult adoptees in that state:
The purpose of sealing adoption records: (1) To protect the parties
to adoption from public scrutiny; (2) To protect the integrity of the
38 CHOSEN CHILDREN
adoptive family and prevent unsolicited or unwanted interference
from others; (3) To be consistent with all other social services which
hold confidentiality as a predominant principle of ethical practice;
(4) To facilitate the grieving process for birth parents by providing
closure.
Obviously, NCFA didn't survey the 12,000 adoptees and par-
ents who requested and obtained family reunions through
AmFOR, nor the 2,000 adoption search-support groups
nationwide—many with over 200,000 registrants. How is it that
adopters can be deemed “fit to parent” yet they are too immature
to deal with the reality of the child’s parents directly or via the
courts, while divorced parents must do so. The difference hinges
only on the fact that, in adoption, the child goes to strangers.
Study after study evidences that the parent grieving loss of a child never
has closure so long as that child remains lost to an unknown fate,
in much the same way that parents of any missing children continue
to grieve.
Death by Adoption
Dr. Boruch Elman wrote AmFOR:
I received correspondence from the editors of a prominent diagnostic
guide for Doctors, and they are considering my recommendation that
Doctors should query patient as to any “adoption in the family.” I
have problems with adoption because of the genetic dishonesty it entails.
downplaying of the genetics is hindering the efforts of humanity to
understand viral illnesses including AIDS (because viruses are little more
than genetic particles).
Called a "liar" and a "menace" by Green Ribbon Campaign
adoption activists on-line, Dr. Laura Schlessinger (the Dr. Laura
show, 10-18-00) told an adoptee on her program that adoptees
"didn't need an updated family medical history when deciding to
have children." She also advised a mother "not to tell her son that
his father was an anonymous sperm donor." She went on to
advise her audience "no one needs a family medical history
because “all the tests are now available." Doctors don't routinely
test their patients for any of the more than 4,500 genetically
transmissible diseases unless the patient has a "family history" of
a disease. By the time the patient is exhibiting symptoms of a
disease, it is too late to prevent it. In this golden age of genetic
research, adoptees are dying who could be saved by prevention
or early treatment. Adoption secrecy also covers up adoptee
deaths from abuse and also hides living children who were
alleged to have "died at birth." Here are some chronological
examples of the various forms of "death by adoption":
Spring, 1956. Jane Roe, was a mother who, in 1956, had been
told that her infant son had died, only to be contacted by him 20
years later to learn that her son had lived, been placed for adoption
without her knowledge and sought contact with her. The Affidavit
of Jane Roe, in Doe v. Sundquist (1996) successfully challenged
Tennessee's sealed adoption records laws
ADOPTION 39
1964. Adoptee Birthfamily Connections (1994), story captioned
"You Existed Before You Were Adopted" tells the story of Terry,
an adoptee, by his brother who had been also adopted into the
same family: "Our adoptive father began abusing my brother and
me before either of us had started elementary school. By the time
I was 8, we were both demonstrating what would not be recog-
nized as classic signs of abuse, but at that time, we were simply
labeled "bad" and returned home each time we ran away, or
punished for other troubled behavior." Terry's adoptive brother
left their abusive adoptive home for Texas when he was nearly 16,
his adopters' rights were terminated and he was emancipated at
17. Terry chose to remain with their adopters in Tennessee, m the
1960s, under the influence of his adopters and of the 1960s drug
culture, just after his 21st birthday, in the midst of an argument
with his young wife, Terry yanked out a handgun he'd bought
"for protection" 2 weeks earlier and killed himself. His brother
says it's taken decades to recover from the psychological damage
caused by the combined effects of the loss of his biological family,
the abuse by his adopter and his adoptive brother's suicide, and
continues to be one requiring faith, strength and dedication.
April 11, 1965. A Death At White Bear Lake, by Barry Siegel
(Ballantine Books, 2000) documents the true story of adopted
child abuse-murder and cover-up that took over 20 years for
justice to be done—a historical and sociological study of the
plight of the abused adopted child in American society. The
victim, 3-1/2 year old Dennis Jurgens, was reportedly found dead
in his crib by his adopters, Harold and Lois Jurgens, who claimed
he had fallen down the evening before. Rigor mortis has already
set in when police arrived and the autopsy determined that death
was due to peritonitis due to a rupture of his bowel. Although
everyone who knew the family suspected the death was due to
child abuse, the case fell through the cracks and was eventually
forgotten, until the mother who had given him up for adoption
walked into the police station in White Bear Lake, Minnesota in
1996 demanding justice for her son. Lois Jurgens, the central
character, with her husband has somehow managed to adopt 6
children from different agencies in different states.
October, 1981. Newsweek reported the plight of James Grant
George, an adult adoptee when Kansas City, Missouri Judge
Gene Martin said no to his request to open his court file in order
to discover his parents' identities. George had leukemia and
needed a bone marrow transplant from a blood relative to save
his life. The judge ruled "Although the circumstances were dire,
they were not compelling enough to open his adoption file.
40 CHOSEN CHILDREN
George's comment to media: "If I were a convicted murderer,
the governor could give me a pardon. Obviously, the 'crime of
illegitimacy' is not pardonable in the state of Missouri."
April 12, 1987. The New Haven Register (CT) in "Mom Hunts for
the Son She Gave Up," this author asked Judge Glenn E. Knierim,
Connecticut's probate court administrator, to give her son's
adopters her updated medical information regarding her inheritable
cardiac disorder and allergies to at least 10 cardiac medications.
Knierim responded that, under state law, he had no authority to take
such action. My son was then of legal age to receive such information
directly, but Connecticut did not then, and does not now, permit unsolic-
ited provision of medical updates or contact from parent to adoptee
nor from parent to adopters. When I found my son, by paying a search
underground $2100, he had begun searching for me but could not
afford court fees to try to open his adoption file. I learned that he had been
deaf at birth, a diagnosis overlooked by my physicians and The Children's
Center (Hamden, CT) in their eagerness to facilitate relinquishment
and adoption by any means, including deceit. Neither was his deafness
disclosed to his adopters who, upon discovering his condition, provided
the surgery that cured him, they were afraid to tell The Children's Center,
lest the agency render him "unadoptable" prior to finalizing the adoption.
November 1, 1987. New York Law Journal, on-line, in "NYC
Settles Lisa Child Abuse Suit" by Daniel Wise (10-1-99) informs
us that (on 9-30-01) New York City agreed to pay $985,000 to the
estate of Lisa Steinberg, a 6-year old black market adoptee who
was beaten to death by her adopter in 1987, to settle claims that
city agencies failed to protect her from child abuse. Lisa was
pummeled to death by Joel Steinberg, at the time a criminal
defense lawyer. Mr. Steinberg, who had custody of her for her
entire life but never [legally] adopted her, was convicted of
first-degree manslaughter in 1989 for killing her. Lisa's mother,
Michele Launders, who originally demanded $100 million in
damages, had paid Mr. Steinberg $500 in 1981 to find an adoptive
home for Lisa, sued the City, as well as Mr. Steinberg and his
abused live-in companion, Hedda Nussbaum, school officials
and Child Welfare workers, for failing to take action to protect
Lisa after receiving clear warnings that she was in danger. Child
Welfare workers and police officers had been to [Steinberg's]
home and had seen evidence of abuse but failed to act on it. Ms.
ADOPTION 41
Nussbaum, who testified against Mr. Steinberg at the murder
trial, was allowed to settle the civil suit by agreeing to pay $500 to
a charity of her choice, as long as it is dedicated to helping abused
children. Mr. Steinberg and Ms. Nussbaum waited 12 hours after
the lethal blows were struck before summoning aid from St.
Vincent's hospital where Lisa was taken and died three days later
from severe brain injuries.
May 4, 1989. The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA) story on an
adoptee dying of AIDS highlights the misplaced priorities of
"family secrets" over adoptees' life-and-death issues. He said his
adopters encouraged secrecy by cloaking family problems and
that "Keeping secrets has been a way of life for me." When he
informed his adopters he had AIDS and wanted to locate his
mother before it was too late, his male adopter declared he "had
no son." That's when Brian Wilkins decided to become Hawk
Ramsay. "Ramsay" is the name of his mother who gave him up
for adoption when he was an infant and "Hawk" reflects his
Cherokee and Choctaw roots as well as the Navy nickname he
earned while serving on the U. S. S. Kitty Hawk. Brian found his
mother who was supportive of her son until the end.
July 15, 1996. TIME International, in "Korea Saves a Son," at age
21, Brian Bauman, born Kim Sung Duk in South Korea in 1974,
and who had been adopted at age three by Steve and Elaine
Bauman of Minnesota, was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous
leukemia, an insidious form of the disease. He was told he would
die within five years if he didn't receive a bone-marrow trans-
plant. To save Brian's life, he needed to search for his family. To
many Koreans, adoption of any kind is considered shameful;
Korean families who gave up children to met the increasing
demand by childless American adopters, were careful to hide the
fact from neighbors, teachers and the children themselves. Dur-
ing its impoverished postwar period, Korea began sending thou-
sands of children abroad for adoption and that human tide is
considered a national disgrace. Brian's story was publicized in
1995 in Korea's major media; the newspaper, Hankook Ilbo, was
flooded with letters from Korean parents who had surrendered
children in the past. The Korean Broadcasting System conducted
its own search with help from the eastern Child Welfare Society
which had placed Brian and found his mother, known only as
"Mrs. Shin." Mother and son were secretly reunited but neither
she nor his 33 year old sibling were a match needed for bone
42 CHOSEN CHILDREN
marrow transplantation. An unrelated Korean donor, Suh Han
Kook, 23, was found as result of the publicity and over the next
few months thousands of Koreans volunteered to place their
names on two donor registries
December, 1996: Terminal Illness Emergency Search (TIES)
website describes their first case—an adoptee with AIDS named
"Grady" who wanted to find his mother before it was too late but
the court and agency that held his mother's identity would not
oblige. TIES, then coordinated by adoptee Deb Schwartz, rallied
volunteers over Internet and in less than 24 hours, Grady was
reunited with his mother by phone. TIES has disbanded due to
lack of volunteers.
February 6, 1997. On Oregon Department of Human Services
web page captioned "Little Known Service United Families,"
Christine Joachim, reports: "The man's voice on the other end of
the phone is weak. He's in his 40s and dying of a genetic disease,
but says his concern is not for himself. Adopted at birth, he's
trying to locate a half-brother he's never met to deliver a lifesav-
ing message: 'You may be genetically at risk for this fatal disease,
too, but it can be licked if it's detected early.'"
April 4, 1998. Adoptee Birthfamily Connection post by New
York adoptee, Patricia Coleman Ward: "My son has leukemia
and it would be helpful to find my brother born in the 1950s,
Bronx, New York; his birth name would be Coleman."
August 14, 1998: NBC-TV's Extra aired the story of adult
adoptee Michelle Robertson's life and death struggle to get the
Monroe County, New York court to open her adoption file in
order to discover her parents identities. Roberts has Hodgkin's
Disease and requires a bone marrow transplant from a biological
relative to save her life. The court denied her request.
July 30, 1998. The Albany Democrat-Herald (Salem/AP, 7-30-98)
highlighted lifesaving reunion of adoptee Barbara Casali-Mingus,
31, who had became a "gray market" adoptee in 1967. The
encounter was amiable but she discovered her mother was dying
of cancer. Her mother admonished her to be checked for the
disease. "I told her I had been checked last year. She says that
didn't matter, to get checked anyway. I did and I have cervical
cancer. I had an operation and recovered. She saved my life."
September 8, 1998: The Shreveport Times (Louisiana) reported
a similar situation with a twist. Shreveport Juvenile Court Judge
Gallagher said no to Leonard Hargrove Jobron, a 50-year old
ADOPTION 43
adoptee whose daughter had leukemia; Jobron's illnesses pre-
cluded him from being a suitable donor for his daughter and the
Donor Bank found no match in two years. These cases leave one
to wonder exactly what does constitute "good cause" required by
statute to open a sealed adoption file.
December 7, 1998. The Wall Street Journal, asks "Are Adoption
Agencies Liable for Not Telling All?"—"Kristi and Blane Cesnik
already had two adopted daughters with severe emotional prob-
lems when the set out to adopt more children. They say they made
it clear that they couldn't handle another disabled child. But two
infant boys they adopted in 1990 and 1991 both turned out to have
cerebral palsy and serious developmental disorders. Now the
Cesniks are suing the New Beginnings Adoption and Counseling
Agency in federal court in Columbus, Georgia. The St. Cloud
Minnesota couple claims the agency led them to believe that both
infants were healthy, even though they say it had medical records
indicating otherwise."
July 17, 1999. Delaware Reunion Registry website, captioned
"Dying To Know You" contains the story of Anna Bound, an
adoptee, wife, and mother. Her baby was sickly, his condition
could not be diagnosed. Doctors needed Anna's medical history
in order to care for her son. Being an adoptee, she didn't have it.
The adoption agency wanted $800 for the information, which she
could not afford. A few months later, in December 1996, Anna
died unexpectedly from an inherited disorder she didn't know
she had. She left behind a grieving husband and child. Anna was
24 years old.
September 13, 1999: CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather
reported that adoptee Curtis Endicott died of a lifelong undiag-
nosed lung ailment on September 11,1999 at age 51, while waiting
for Oregon's successful Adoptee Rights Initiative (Measure 58) to
take effect... Measure 58 (HB 3194) passed by a strong margin in
the November 1998 election but was held up by a court injunction.
Endicott had been and active campaigner in support of the
measure and an active participant in the ensuing lawsuit in which
he had been granted intervenor status
January 25, 2000. Post on Internet website for former Willows
Maternity Home mothers and adoptees at
http://member.tripod.com/~bedgie/thewillows.html - Adoptee
Deborah Baker O'Connor, born at Willows Maternity Home 4-17-
47, lost her battle with leukemia.
44 CHOSEN CHILDREN
June 20, 2000: Adoptee Birthfamily Connection, an Internet website
for searching adoptees and parents posted this message: "William
Ferguson, born Baby Boy Stephens in Modesto, CA., 2-8-52,
to Janet Stephens from Ceres, CA. is searching for a Live Liver
Donor. He has already lost his son to leukemia in 1997 at age 10
for lack of matching donor."
August 16, 2000. Adoptee Birthfamily Connection posted a
message by Mary Rindahl which echoes that of mothers whose
doctors or midwives falsely told them "the baby died." Decades
later some of those "dead babies" shows up as adult adoptees
searching for their mothers, most having been stolen at birth for
black market adoption. Mary writes: "My own child was born 11-
25-70 in Wheatridge County at the Lutheran Medical Center.
He weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and his alleged 'body' disap-
peared from the delivery room as though it never existed. The
doctor refuses to take responsibility for my son's disappear-
ance. My son will be 30 years old 11/25/00 and I will never
stop searching for him."
December 11, 2000: The Boston Globe in "Second Chances:
Adoption's Secret Terminally ill Woman Seeking Biological Past"
reported the double troubles of adoptee Susan Martin. Diag-
nosed with leukemia, Martin, 34, requested any documents to
which she is entitled, from Boston's Department of Social Ser-
vices. She hoped to use them to locate her blood relatives and
made a second potentially life-altering decision—to also search
for her own biological son given up for adoption almost 18 years
prior. All these agencies would do is place Martin's information
in a file until the other party should inquire. Martin stated "I'm
not in this just for the bone marrow now, or even mainly for that
reason anymore. This is an opportunity for me to have a relation-
ship with the woman who gave me the greatest gift that any
person can give another: life."
February 5, 2001: The Denver Channel, in "Court Date Set for
Adoptive Mother of Dead Child; Birth Mother talks To 7 News
About Her Daughter" (by Wayne Harrison) details the young
adoptee's death as follows: "Jeanne Newmaker is charged with
criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death, which carries
a maximum sentence of 12 years . . . Her adopted daughter,
Candace, died during a controversial "re-birthing" therapy in
Evergreen, Colorado, last year. Candace, who was supposed to
work her way out of a blanket to be "reborn" to her adoptive
ADOPTION 45
mother during a therapy session, died of asphyxiation a day later.
Jeanne Newmaker had brought her daughter to the clinic in
Evergreen to treat her for attachment disorder ... a two week
intensive program that cost $70,000... Candace Newmaker was
... with her birth mother until she was adopted by Jeanne at age
5. In her first interview, birth mother Angela Elmore talked about
her daughter: "What kept me going all these years she's been
gone was the fact that she would find me and I would hold her
again," Elmore said. "I will never see her again."
May 23, 2001: The Korean Herald reported in "Citizens Cam-
paign for Bone Marrow Donation for Adoptee, Korean-American,"
that the Korean Organ Donor Program was campaigning to help
a Korean adoptee living in the U.S. and suffering from leukemia
May 23, 2001: Syracuse Online reported in "Shelbourne Woman
Charged with Causing the Death of Her Adopted Daughter," that
Laura Higginbottom, 33, was charged with involuntary man-
slaughter in the case of three-year old Logan Higginbotham who
died of massive head injuries.
June 2, 2001: D's Search Posts, an Internet website for searching
adoptees and parents, has the following message posted: "Emer-
gency Search: male adoptee, born 5-27-53, Kansas City, has been
diagnosed with leukemia; desperately searching for information."
September, 2001: Ladies Home Journal article, "I am a Medical
Miracle" (by Diane Costanzo, "Health Report," p. 76) detailed the
plight of Melinda Kerner, a 40-year old adoptee and mother of
two children, five and nine. She has leukemia and her doctor gave
her about five years to live. Kerner then paid the adoption agency
that had originally placed her the nonrefundable fee they require
to do a "search" for her parents. The agency reported that her
parents "declined to release their names to Kerner." Kerner is
currently in remission thanks to a new experimental drug but her
prognosis cannot be predicted. A bone marrow transplant would
have been better. One can only speculate whether both of her
parents could be so indifferent to their daughter's life-or-death
request—or whether the adoption agency bungled the contact.
While it's not impossible that both of Kerner's parents are heart-
less, Kerner was never permitted to ask her parents directly.
December 15, 2001: Holt International's website has a special
page devoted to an adoptee's medically urgent search at
http://www.holtintl.org/brundage.shtml - Tami Brundage, 27-year
old Holt adoptee from Korea was diagnosed with leukemia. Holt's
46 CHOSEN CHILDREN
file says she was "abandoned." When Tami was taken in by Holt,
it was the practice of Holt-Korea to falsify birth names and declare
their wards as "abandoned" even when the mother's names were
known. The children's' health information and ages were often
falsified as well to make them more appealing to American
adopters. The now-adult adoptees have no "paper trail" leading
to their parents and must rely on passive reunion registries.
May 20, 2002. Elaine Tomasini, an adoptee born 2-3-62 in
Buffalo, New York, asked AmFOR for free search assistance to
locate her biological family. Tomasini has leukemia. A bone
marrow transplant from a relative could save her life, but their
identities remain sealed in her adoption file.
According to Peggy McKay, former Kansas Social Services
Supervisor, "Nothing awful has happened in Kansas," where
adult adoptees have always had access to their birth records.
Nothing awful happened in Alaska, an "open records" state, nor
in Traverse City, Michigan, where "open adoption" is practiced.
Yet 47 states withhold birth records from adult adoptees.
Donor Offspring
In response to Donor Offspring and Donor Parents who are
searching for each other, AmFOR initiated the first worldwide
Donor Offspring/Donor Parent Search & Registry website at
http://abolishadoption.com/DonorOffspring.html .
As the idea of donor insemination as an answer to infertility
caught on and spread in the years following World War II,
embarrassed couples who used donor insemination rarely
told anyone where their babies came from—including the
children themselves. Many sperm banks and doctors who
performed the procedures advised parents to keep it secret,
just as adoptees had been advised. The presumption may have
been that infertile men couldn't handle openness about donor
insemination. But since the shift of social theory, and since the
powerful influence of single women in their 40s and 40s for
whom the stigma of male infertility is a non-issue, there is also
growing tendency among donor children—and donors—to
attempt unravel the mystery. Donor insemination has become
an increasingly popular option among thousands of single
women without male partners who want to have babies before
their child bearing years end, as well as among thousands of
lesbian couples choosing the procedure. Generally, the
non-biologically related partner adopts the resulting child
who is then co-parented by both women.
In "When Dad Is A Donor" (Newsweek, 8-13-01, p. 46), the
article's authors, David Noonan and Karen Springen believe that
ADOPTION 47
the fact that some children who are the product of donor insemi-
nation today know more about their anonymous biological fa-
thers "illustrates just how much things have changed" and that
these children have a chance of meeting their donor fathers
someday. Has it changed? Confidentiality laws and fertility clinic
and physician willingness to disclose identifying information has
not changed.
Bill Corday was 37 when, after the death of the man he now
refers to as his "social father," his mother told him. he had a donor
father. Corday, now 56, has begun to search for his biological
father and has become a well-known advocate for the rights of
donor offspring. John Sylla, 42, a Los Angeles lawyer who do-
nated sperm 35 times nearly two decades ago when he was a
student at the University of Chicago, would like to know any
children he may have fathered. Susan Hollander, mother of a son
conceived by donor insemination, now heads the "Alliance for
Donor Insemination Families," based in Englewood, Colorado.
Hollander advises, "It can be a very natural and loving kind of
process if the parents are at peace with how they've made their
family. If they're not, that gets transferred to the child."
CBS-60 Minutes explored the ethics of today's infertility solu-
tions by interviewing now-adult "designer babies"—donor off-
spring whose donors had been selected for their I.Q. and talents.
They said the pressure of their parents' expectations that they
would become like their anonymous fathers who they could not
meet caused them to suppress any such inclinations instead.
"What we're getting instead of reproduction is production and
making babies consumer products according to the customer's
shopping list of genetic traits. Just one sperm bank in California
reports production of 30,000 babies per year (according to CBS-60
Minutes, 7-22-00).
One would think that the legal community would support
adoptees' and donor offspring's "right to know" their origins and
parents. Instead we find yet another roadblock to "child's best
interest."
A Conflict of Interest: ACLU, Attorneys and Adoptees
Chapter One reviewed some "conflicts of interest" of well-funded
organizations that stand in the way of organized adoptees and
parents seeking access to their own records. Despite their dedica-
48 CHOSEN CHILDREN
tion to upholding the Bill of Rights, lawyers, particularly those
who are organized, also represent a conflict of interest for adoptees
seeking their basic civil and human right to access their informa-
tion. This conflict of interest also accounts, in part, for the deficit
of attorneys willing to adequately represent indigent and incar-
cerated adoptees pro bono. Heading the list of these lawyers is the
National Academy of Adoption Attorneys which has consis-
tently lobbied against "open records" legislation; The Uniform
Laws Commission which has taken rights previously permitted
adoptees and parents and bestowed new rights to adopters; and
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) whose "open records"
policies have become a "disappearing act."
To untangle the complex web of attorney conflict of interest in
the adoption arena, one must first be aware that almost any
practicing civil law attorney may derive income from facilitating
adoptions or represent an adoption agency, its insurers, or other
adoption-related interests. Even "jailhouse lawyers" such as
Everett Osborne, (Airway Heights Correctional Facility, in Wash-
ington State), can and do facilitate adoptions (for prison staff)
through their paralegal work. Also, in most states, a lawyer may
represent both the relinquishing parents and the adopters who
pay the attorney's fees for such dual representation despite that
the separate interests of the parties presents a conflict of interest.
And the American Bar Association agrees. (February 14, 1987,
American Bar Association formal opinion #87-1533). Yet the
decades old practice persists today.
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State
Laws (NCCUSL) is a body of 300 lawyers, headquartered in
Chicago, Illinois, which does not necessarily strive for "fair" laws,
just laws that are the uniform—the same from state to state. Like
the Supreme Court, their politics influence their decision making.
Liberal views prevailed when the 1982 Model Adoption Act,
which Congress proposed to be implemented at the time, recom-
mended that the states open records to adult adoptees. Underly-
ing the original Draft Model Act is the policy that "adoption is
intended to serve the adoptee and, when irreconcilable conflicts
arise, the adoptee's rights should prevail. The adult adoptee is
capable of deciding what is in his own welfare, including whether
inspecting his own birth certificate is in his best interests." And
that "the adoptee's right to know should prevail over the pre-
sumed interest of the parent in remaining anonymous." Yet in
1992, a conservative NCCUSL produced a Uniform Adoption Act
ADOPTION 49
which removes more rights of parents while bestowing rights to
adopters, by recommending sealing of adoptees' true birth records
"for 99 years" and making unauthorized access to one's own
adoption record and to one's own family a felony crime.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and its ACLU
Foundation, are funded by donations and more than 300,000
members with 53 affiliates and 200 chapters, which makes it the
nation's foremost advocate of individual rights, including "fun-
damental rights" by working through the courts, in the legisla-
tures, and through public education. Certainly, it would seem
that adoptees present a compelling case for their "right to know"
their own origins as an equal protection right. On April 21,1987,
ACLU's Southwest Florida Chapter at Fort Meyers issued a
written policy statement which "openly agreed with and ac-
cepted the ACLU-Oakland County, Michigan Affiliate policy
that the falsification and sealing of adoption birth records is
discriminate and therefore unconstitutional." Southwest Florida
ACLU Director, Nancy Stone Parley, asked that their "open
records policy" be recommended to the national ACLU. To
adoption reformers, this seemed a good beginning. But the Fort
Meyers Chapter and all known support for open adoption records
mysteriously dissolved. On August 8, 1988, James A. Long,
(Executive Director, ACLU, Miami, Florida), wrote that he was
referring AmFOR's request for lobby assistance to their legisla-
tive chairperson, Mrs. Budd Bell, with regard to "restoring the
constitutional right of adopted children and adults to medical
information." But the ACLU decided not to address the sealed
records controversy.
In 1989, Patricia Erickson, (ACLU Foundation of Southern
California at Los Angeles) responded to AmFOR's several re-
quests for ACLU assistance, with several adoptee and parent
cases, ACLU's form letters stated ACLU had "no one is available"
to address their legal questions and need for representation. But
on August 24, 1990, Lise Hamlin, (ACLU Children's Rights
Project, New York City) wrote:
When Ms. Carangelo wrote to the Children's Rights Project, she
was writing to a group of lawyers who specialize in foster care
litigation. We handle class action suits designed to reform govern-
ment child welfare. We do not venture into adoption reform.
50 CHOSEN CHILDREN
And on July 7, 1992, Louis Rhodes (Executive Director, Ari-
zona Civil Liberties Union-ACLU) wrote to an Arizona adoptee
who questioned why his "right to know" his roots is treated with
separate laws than those that apply to Native Americans who are
adopted and have the right to know their tribe of origin, as
follows:
The courts and legislatures must try to balance the rights of
adoptees and the privacy rights of the birth parents. Privacy rights
of birth parents are very important to state legislatures, although
this trend appears to be changing... Our government has laws that
treat the rights of American Indians differently or separately. These
laws have traditionally had the effect of restricting rights of Ameri-
can Indians when compared to others' rights. Due to the status of
being treated differently by our government and our laws, it may
appear that American Indians have more rights than you concern-
ing this particular issue of adoption. They do not have greater
rights, only different rights.
So much for "equal protection" guaranteed by our federal Con-
stitution.
In 1990, AmFOR decided to attempt its own federal court
challenge to Connecticut's sealed adoption statutes. It had been
over a decade since such class actions by adoptee groups were
attempted but denied certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court (ALMA
Society v. Mellon, 601 F2d 1225,2d Cir. 1979; Yesterday's Children v.
Kennedy, 569 F. 2d, 1977). As anticipated, Martha Stone (Director,
Connecticut Civil Liberties Union-CCLU) declined to assist our
efforts due to "conflict of interest." We filed Carangelo/Schafrick
et al v. ONeil/State of Connecticut et al, without an attorney but
requested that the court appoint pro bono counsel. On October
16, 1989, Professor Steven Wizner, (Yale University Legal Ser-
vices Organization) wrote that he was considering assisting our
efforts with regard to an "open records" lawsuit in Connecticut,
and did assign the project to one of his students who abruptly
moved to California, abandoning the project. On May 11,1990,
Chief Judge Ellen Bree Burns (USDC-CT) granted our request and
appointed Robert E. Grant (Law Offices of George DuBorg,
Whethersfield, Connecticut) who was paid from the court's pro
bono fund.
On October 4,1990, Grant amended our Complaint and filed it
with our Motion To Add Names Parties to the class action. On
November 18, 1990, Grant informed us that he "may have a
ADOPTION 51
conflict of interest and must withdraw from the case” explaining
that he was unaware that the he currently represented Lexington
Insurance Company, insurer for The Children’s Center, one of the
Defendants in our case. Celebrity attorney, Gerry Spence, Attorney
Bruce Morrison who was awaiting a Clinton appointment, and
200 other lawyers we solicited, all declined.—most citing “conflict
of interest.” After four years of unassisted pretrial arguments in the
U.S. District Court of Connecticut, and an appeal to the Second Circuit
Court of Appeals which, on February 26, 1993, was denied as
“frivolous.”
Our case was then accepted for filing and docketed in the
Supreme Court of the United States as Case Number 93-6838 on
November 18, 1993. The nine sitting Justices at the time were:
William Renquist (Chief Justice); Thurgood Marshall; David Souter;
Harry A. Blackmun; Sandra Day O’Connor; John Paul Stephens;
Anthony M. Kennedy; Anthony Scalia; Byron A. White. On November
10, 1994, the Justices denied Certiorari without dissent. Legal experts
said that the politically supreme court is “not ready” to hear and decide
constitutionality of adoption laws.
On September 25, 1998, AmFOR wrote attorney Taylor Flynn
(ACLU of Southern California) requesting that ACLU establish a
policy on opening adoption records as an equal protection issue. Flynn
never responded and ACLU opposed Oregon’s “Measure 58” which today
permits Oregon’s adult adoptees to access their original birth certificates.
The bill, which was temporarily blocked by Attorney Warren Davis,
as adopter, and six anonymous alleged “birth” mothers, was passed by
more than 50% of the vote on November 3, 1998 and became law
in Oregon, thanks to the private funding and persistence of one adoptee,
Helen Hill.
"There is a host of intellectuals and others who believe that
sacrifices of freedom are needed in the name of efficiency."
—Raymond Blackburn, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
4
Prisons
The United States has the largest incarcerated population
of any country in the world. According to the Justice Department,
as of June 2001, almost 2 million people were in federal, state,
and local facilities, and is over 2-million in 2003. We have 25
of the world's prisoners, but we're only 5 of the world's population.
Not only does the "born loser" system "create monsters" by
filling our prisons with former foster kids and adoptees in need
of rehabilitation, but it also creates more foster kids and adoptees
as a result of warehousing their parents. So many men in our
inner-cities are incarcerated that it has become increasingly diffi-
cult to create and sustain a two-parent family. According to
Cynthia Beatty, in "Parents in Prison, Children in Crisis: An
Issue Brief" (CWLA Press, imprint of Child Welfare League of
America, 1977, p. 20);
Over 50% of inner-city children have a parent who is in jail, in
prison, on probation, on parole, or in hiding because of an out-
standing arrest warrant.
If children are present at the time of the parent's arrest, police
may take the children to the police station, and attempt to contact
adults suggested by the arrestee, or arrange for the Child Welfare
agency to take custody. Consequently, the children may be
informally placed with friends or relatives, or they may be
placed in foster homes or group care facilities through the
Child Welfare system.
The majority of people behind bars were in state prisons, and
racial disparities were profound. Black males were incarcerated
53
54 CHOSEN CHILDREN
in record numbers—a total of 791,600 Black men; nearly one in
eight Black males between the ages of 20 to 34, were in prison on
any given day, accounting for 79% of all state prison drug
offenders. Despite a dramatic drop in the nation's crime rate since
2000, America continues to incarcerate vast and growing num-
bers of prisoners—and increasingly imprisons younger and
younger offenders "as adults," alongside hardened criminals.
The most punitive states have been primarily in the south, while
states ranked least punitive tend to be in the north and northeast,
no doubt due to the racial aspect of punishment and southern
conservative ideology. Approximately 300,000 mentally ill people
are admitted to jails and prisons each year—five times the num-
ber admitted to state mental hospitals.
The United States Department of Justice, cited in the Los
Angeles Times, (9-27-98):
One in fourteen inmates is estimated to be mentally ill, or on minor
charges, or on no charges at all; 60% of men and 70% of women
arrested since 1998 have been incarcerated on drug charges (usu-
ally cocaine and methamphetamine). On any given day, over
100,000 women are being held in jail or prison. Most of these are
substance abusers. Their criminal behavior is linked to their addic-
tion. The typical male or female offender has been physically or
sexually abused and comes from a single parent home in which at
least one family member has been incarcerated; 69% of male
offenders had an income below poverty level. The California Youth
Authority, which teaches all of its wards, reports that most read far
below grade level. About 70% of repeat offenders are illiterate.
On NBC’s Today show, June 29, 1998, hosted by Katie Couric,
it was reported:
With 20% cut from the Mental Health Budget, half of homeless are
the mentally ill. No longer forced into hospitalization, the mentally
ill are not being properly treated; forced treatment is demeaning
and doesn't work. Two and a half million have schizophrenia, a
brain disease; schizophrenics are rarely violent. Violent offenders
could receive treatment by court order.
Some states, including California since 1996, have restored judge's
discretion in sentencing. So there may actually be a record number
of over five million imprisoned, which was the total prison
population in 1995. The United States imprisons 565 persons per
PRISONS 55
100,000 population, which is six to ten times higher than the
percentage rate in most countries.
The situation hasn't changed much since a chart in TIME
magazine (2-7-94, p.58) on rate of "Incarceration Worldwide" per
100,000 population, 1990-1991:
UNITED STATES 565 PER 100,000 POPULATION, VERSUS:
India—only 34 per 100,000
Japan 42
Ireland 44
Albania 55
Denmark 71
Australia 79
France 95
China 111
Canada 111
Venezuela 177
South Africa 311
CBS News (10-6-98) reported that Amnesty International identi-
fied the United States as a "perpetrator of police brutality in
prisons and on the streets." Amnesty International's report iden-
tifies California as a particular offender due to the use of the "stun
gun" on unruly defendants in the courtroom and for subduing
shackled inmates in their cells, as well as police expediency,
corruption preventing fair trials, maltreatment of the mentally ill,
the rape of female prisoners by guards, the death penalty, and
ignoring those seeking asylum.
In a Los Angeles Times front page story (5-5-98) headlined "State
Thwarted Brutality Probe at Corcoran Prison, Investigators Say"
journalists Mark Arax and Mark Gladstone detailed brutality by
prison guards. The prison guards' union gave contributions to
former California Governor Pete Wilson's campaign. Wilson and
the District Attorney ignored reports of brutality, including kill-
ings and rapes.
The powerful guard union and its legions of lawyers mix rival
gangs for "blood sport" at Corcoran and Pelican Bay and still get
promoted rather than facing any disciplining action. Rival gangs
are also thrown together at the $273-million state-of-the art Hi-
Desert Prison at Susanville where nearly half of the 4,100 inmates
are given nothing to do and lack even pencils to write to their
families.
56 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Children become hostages when their parents are incarcer-
ated. Children are usually not present when a parent is arrested
and are not factored into criminal justice system statistics. The
best estimate, according to a 1999 New York Times article, is that 2
million children under the age of 18 are left behind on any given
day. Most have incarcerated fathers, but the Bureau of justice
statistics estimates 200,000 children have mothers behind bars,
many for nonviolent crimes such as supporting a drug habit. The
number of children with two parents serving time is unknown.
The New York Times article also estimated that an additional 5-
million children have parents who have been incarcerated and
are on probation or parole. Amnesty International reported an
increasing number of children whose rights are abused in Ameri-
can courts and prisons ("Activists Say Courts Abuse Rights of
Juvenile Defendants," Los Angeles Times, 11-13-98).
Part of the increase in prison population is from mandatory
sentencing for even nonviolent repeat offenders under "Three
Strikes" laws and other "tough on crime" legislation. Prior to
prison overcrowding, a 1993 study by the Bureau of Justice
alarmed the public by stating that 88 of inmates on parole or
probation commit other offenses-usually of the violent variety.
But other research revealed that only 7% of the male prison
population is responsible for all the nation's violent crime. In
California, only 2% of "Three Strikes" cases statewide are for
violent crimes (in "Record Number of Prisoners Crowd the
Nation's Prisons," The Desert Sun, reprinted in Prison Life maga-
zine; and Tony Snow, "To Curb Crime, the United States Must
Humiliate Felons Again," The Desert Sun, 5-17-94):
"Three strikes and you're out" has been widely supported by
corporate managers as a great way to take common criminals off
the streets. Yet no similar law has been enacted to punish corpo-
rations which have cost the nation upward of $3.4 billion, while
the Savings and Loan scandals were costing the nation $300 to
$500 billion and the tobacco industry kills more than 400,000
Americans for profit every year.
There is no evidence that "across the board" Three Strikes
laws, life sentences or the death penalty are deterrents to crime.
On October 11, 1998, Henry Weinstein, Legal Affairs Writer,
reported in the Los Angeles Times:
Three Strikes Law Overstated, Study Says: Attorney General Dan
Lungren has overstated the impact of California's "Three Strikes
PRISONS 57
and You're Out' law in reducing crime, according to a study by two
law professors scheduled to be published in the Loyola of Los
Angeles Law Review in November. The (Beres-Griffith) study con-
tends that there is no proof that the law, which enhances sentences
for repeat offenders, has led to a sharp reduction in crime as
Lungren has repeatedly asserted... declining unemployment and
violent rates moved in the same direction... the drop in crime in
California began one year before three strikes was adopted.
According to Bores-Griffith, a good deal of the earlier crime drop—
particularly in youth homicides—is attributable to a variety of
factors.... Among them are ineffective police programs, especially
those that remove guns from juveniles. The older felony thief is in
prison on "Three Strikes" while thefts by a younger element has
increased.
In "Three-Strikes Law Has No Effect, Study Finds," Los Angeles
Times, (3-2-99, A-3), Greg Krikorian reported:
The study by the Justice Policy Institute . . . based in San
Francisco, found no correlation between California's general drop
in crime and the imposition of longer, mandatory sentences for
repeat felons .... based on information from the California
Criminal Justice Statistics Center and the data analysis unit of the
state Department of Corrections... Since the law took effect... less
than 1 of the almost 4,000 second and third strike inmates have
been convicted of murder... one-fifth were found guilty of violent
offenses including robbery . . . 37% were convicted of property
crimes... 30% were found guilty of drug offences, mostly possession.
In "Federal Prosecutors Routinely Break Law" (Los Angeles Times,
11-22-98, A-24) and "Hidden Evidence Problem Tracked" (Los
Angeles Times, 1-11-99, A-10), nationwide investigations of fed-
eral agents and federal and state prosecutors reveal they have
knowingly hidden evidence and done other illegal acts-often
leading to wrongful convictions, retrials and appeals that cost
taxpayers millions of dollars. Tax money is also diverted from the
housing and rehabilitation of prisoners to salaries of staffs char-
acterized by high turnover and graft.
Today, "tough on crime" politicians respond to juvenile crime
by urging that children be sentenced "as adults." The American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) "Briefing Paper on the Death
Penalty" reminds us:
58 CHOSEN CHILDREN
In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled Constitutional the execution of
sixteen and seventeen-year old (though not fifteen years old)
juvenile murderers. The Court likewise upheld the Constitutional-
ity of executing mentally retarded people. Although juries are
permitted to consider retardation as a mitigating factor, many
people on Death Row today are mentally retarded... the Court has
held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits execution only if the
illness prevents the person from comprehending the reasons for
the death sentence or its implications.
As of late 2002, since the 1973 reinstatement of the death penalty,
100 people were exonerated and released from Death Row .
DNA testing played a role in only 10% of those exonerations.
Recent death penalty studies, such as the landmark Columbia
Law School study, "A Broken System," have found that inad-
equate representation—including lack of standards and re-
sources—is the most common reason for reversal of death sen-
tence convictions. The Innocence Project at the Benjamin N.
Cardozo School of Law in New York City was created by Barry C.
Scheck and Peter Neufield in 1992. It remains a nonrofit legal
clinic which only handles cases where post-conviction DNA
testing of evidence can yield conclusive proof of innocence.The
Innocence Protection Act, signaling bipartisan consensus in Feb-
ruary 2000, is a strong measure requiring states to provide quali-
fied and experienced lawyers to all defendants facing the death
penalty and affords greater access to DNA testing by con-
victed offenders.
Foster Kids and Adoptees in Prison
Almost 70% of inmates in California State Prisons, the largest
prison population of any state, are former foster kids. Statistics of
this type about foster kids surprise no one; for five decades, crime
rates attributed to foster kids were touted as support for the
"adoption option." For as many decades, placing newborns, as
well as older foster children, with committed (married) couples
offering the permanence of a stable home and economic advan-
tages that higher education affords has been the goal of social
workers and judges "in the child's best interests." Since the
adoption option has been a politically expedient "quick fix" for
children and the alleged "answer to abortion," the revelation that
not only foster kids but also adoptees are more likely to commit
PRISONS 59
crimes than the general population is "politically incorrect," even
though it is true. AmFOR hears from incarcerated adoptees who
are searching for their families, has assisted their searches without
fee, and has documented their existence both in this book and on
our website at http://abolishadoption.com/AdoptedPrisoners.html
An ongoing project has been to collect data on incarcerated adoptees
via volunteers to minister to prisoners, not only to prove an over-
representation of adoptees versus the general population is incarcer-
ated, but also to demonstrate the reasons.
As previously cited by June Idler, Interstate Juvenile Compact,
in Southern California, "Forty-five percent of all felonies commit-
ted by juveniles were by adoptees."
In a study by Dr. Wayne S. Wooden and Dr. Martin Louis
Berkey ("Study on Youthful Firesetters in the San Bernadino
County California Juvenile Justice System"), 13% of 69 firesetters
were adoptees, compared to a control group of non-firesetters
which had only thirty-five adoptees." A statistic by the Center For
Adoptive Families reveals:
Twenty percent of adolescents in drug rehabilitation and residen-
tial substance abuse treatment programs are adoptees.
There are adult adoptees in every state prison. No one knows
exactly how many because adoptive status is seldom addressed
in police reports, prisoner case files, or at trial. Public defenders,
judges, and jailers usually fail to see the "relevance" of adoptive
status and the accused perpetrator often does not volunteer this
information. Yet organizations of adoptee search-support groups
report that a significant percentage of inquiries are from incarcer-
ated adoptees, significant enough to be categorized as an
overrepresentation of adoptees in our nations prison population.
The very existence of adoptees in prison seems an oxymoron.
How can this be? Aren't adoptees the lucky ones, "rescued" from
the taint of poverty/neglect, abuse, and being known as bastards?
Weren't they "reborn" into loving, nurturing two-parent adop-
tive homes, given educational and career opportunities? The
answer is that there is no follow up on adoptees' outcomes. State
law only requires follow up until the adoption becomes final—
usually within a year from date of placement. According to
Eunice Baker, former adoptions social worker at the Children's
Center (Hamden, CT), "if the adopters didn't contact the agency
to report a problem, it was assumed no news is good news."
What we do know, according to ACLU's Judy Bellin, a violent
felon is more likely to end up on Death Row if the felon is male,
has been sexually or otherwise abused as a child, is Black, and
cannot afford adequate legal representation. The United States
also incarcerates a larger percentage of the mentally ill than any
other nation. (Sentencing Project, Washington, D.C. "Incarcera-
tion and Insanity" in "America Behind Bars: A Comparison of
International rates of Incarceration").
60 CHOSEN CHILDREN
ACLU's Bellin acknowledges that, while we know about foster
kids, men, women. Blacks, the mentally ill, and others in prison,
prisons do not maintain data on incarcerated adoptees. She states
that she has reviewed hundreds of Death Row inmates' files and
recalls "only one or two who she knew were adopted as children."
This writer has found many adoptees behind bars; several
have contributed their unscripted narratives in Part III of this
book. It appears there is an overrepresentaation of adoptees in
prison as compared to the general population. Seventy percent of
male inmates at the Monroe correctional facility in Washington
State were adopted.
Washington Adoptee Rights Movement (WARM) has helped
quite a few inmates with their searches. At the 1998 American
Adoption Congress Conference held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
an adoption researcher gave a workshop called "Adoption and
Criminal Behavior." She had been working with several female
inmates from Broward County Correctional Institution, a women's
prison in Florida. These women had learned of WARM'S newslet-
ter, and advertised in it to locate their parents. The researcher
learned from a chaplain and a resident psychiatrist at the facility
that 40% of the female inmates were adoptees and 80% of these
adoptees represented violent crimes.
Yet the United States has the largest incarceration rate of any
country in the world while accelerating closed adoptions.
This is not to say that all adoption-affected individuals act out
their feelings on society by committing crimes. As psychologist
Annette Baran explains, "If you're strong, you cope; if you're not,
you don't." Each of us has different coping limits, and different
ways of expressing or internalizing emotional pain.
An article on the Internet website, "Health News You Can
Use," advises:
There is no question that some individuals start with the benefit of
genetic predisposition. Strong relationships pop up near the top of
every list of "resilience skills," along with a mind that is accus-
tomed to asking questions. Adoptees' relationships are crippled by
abandonment and rejection issues and most do not feel at liberty to
ask the most important question—Who am I? Who are my parents?
Why was I given away?
"Adopted Child Syndrome" (ACS) behaviors, as well as the
child's adoptive status, are usually overlooked in police investi-
PRISONS 61
gations and news stories about children who kill. Attorney Donald
Humphrey, himself an adoptee, has called attention to the syn-
drome as a factor in cases where children murdered their adopters
in his talk, "Violence in Adoption," at a conference of the American
Adoption Congress, 9-23-92.
The syndrome was first used as a defense in a murder case
when Dr. David Kirschner, a child psychologist, identified the
syndrome as a contributing factor with regard to fourteen-year
old Patrick DeGelleke's psychotic rage when he killed his adopt-
ers by setting fire to their home. The New York Times' account of
the crime explained that DeGelleke's shocking act was, to him,
the only way to remove what he perceived to be the barrier
preventing him from finding his birth parents—his adopters—
Betty Jean Lifton, in "How the Adoption System Ignites a Fire,"
New York Times, (3-1-94, p. 27), cites David Kirschner, child
psychologist, and Arthur Sorosky, psychiatrist, who helped set a
precedent in the DeGelleke case by supporting the "Adopted
Child Syndrome" defense. The mostly male adoptees who com-
mit crimes reveal a set of eight antisocial behaviors:
Adopted Child Syndrome (ACS) Behaviors:
1. conflict with authority, (example: truancy)
2. preoccupation with excessive fantasy
3. pathological lying
4. stealing
5. running away
6. learning difficulties (underachievement, over achievement)
7. lack of impulse control, including sexual acting out,
(ranging from promiscuity, to prosecutable sexual offenses)
8. setting fires
The likelihood that Patrick DeGelleke would have ever killed
again is presumed nil.
Patrick Campbell (Connecticut) and Tammy and Kathryn
Tomassoni (Arizona), now adult adoptees, were tried and con-
victed as juveniles for the murders of their respective adopters.
They are among the few adoptees, convicted of killing their
adopters, who have been released from prison due to being
convicted "as juveniles;" they never killed again. Others have
been convicted "as adults" despite having been under legal age
62 CHOSEN CHILDREN
at time of their crimes. Campbell and the Tomassoni sisters are
reportedly leading "normal" lives since their release since their
release (according to telephone interviews aired on the Montel
Williams Show). Apparently the horrific rage, from physical or
other abuse by adopters, is satisfied once the adoptee kills his/
her abuser.
On the other hand, most of the world's serial killers are
American adoptees who usually kill only strangers or as a "sub-
stitute" for the actual source of their rage. According to those who
profile such behavior (including Dr. Patrick Callahan), in such
cases, the source of the serial killer's rage is never confronted and
so their rage is never completely dissipated and they are com-
pelled to continue killing. The adoptees who killed that are
profiled in Part III of Chosen Children, the Case Histories section
of this book, have never had the opportunity of contact with the
parents from whom they were separated at birth or at a young
age. Lacking factual information, they could only fantasize
their "shadow parents" and the reasons for being given away
to strangers.
Some male serial killers profiled are thought to have targeted
"only prostitutes," or only certain women, not so much for
reasons of opportunity but because each victim represented the
mother he perceived as rejecting him. Vincent Bugliosi tells us
this in Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders,
(Bantam Books, 1974, p. 184):
Charles Manson was bom "No Name" Maddox on December 11,
1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the illegitimate son of a sixteen-
year old girl named Kathleen Maddox. Manson stated that his
mother was a teenage prostitute.
About 90% of children of incarcerated fathers continue to live
with their mothers. But if the mother, as sole care-giver, is
arrested, generally the child will experience multiple out-of-
home placements, separation from his or her siblings, loss of
financial support, and barriers to visitation. Social work policy
suggesting that "every child is entitled to a permanent family"
prompts the caseworker, and the court upon caseworker recom-
mendation, to focus more on "freeing the child for adoption"
rather than on reunification efforts or legal guardianship which
can offer the same permanence. Twenty-five states have termina-
tion of parental rights or adoption statutes that explicitly pertain
PRISONS 63
to incarcerated parents who may be easily coerced to perma-
nently relinquish these rights "in the child's best interests"—
despite the fact that the nonviolent offender may, at some point,
be able to resume parental responsibilities and that the child may
express need for contact with that parent in the meantime.
In contrast, the crimes of procurers (baby brokers) are swept
under the seal of secrecy. These crimes include fraudulent mis-
representations, coercion, and duress to obtain signed relin-
quishments of parental rights. "Adoption 2002" is a federal push
for even faster "fast tracking" for not only older foster kid adoptions
but all adoptions. Social workers have been known to ignore
statutory requirements concerning the revocations of such relin-
quishments intended to safeguard rights of parents and children.
For decades, there have been physicians who have lied to
unwed mothers, telling them "the baby died," then falsified
death certificates and original birth certificates in order to pro-
vide laundered documents needed to legalize adoptions of stolen
newborns in high demand. Georgia's estimated two hundred
"Hicks' Babies," (named for the doctor who sold them to their
adopters), and Tennessee's five-thousand babies stolen for adop-
tion by Georgia Tann, then Director of Children's Home Society,
are just two examples of the hundreds of known mass child
stealers who made their living on black market adoptions in the
1950s and '60s. Those babies and children are now adults seeking
their families.
Fees for legal adoptions in recent years have ranged from
$20,000 to $80,000. A child can also bring as much as $120,000 on
the black market for a variety of illicit purposes.
Lawbreaking has also been the specialty of a new cottage
industry of amateur adoptee-parent searchers who, despite sealed
records and secrecy statutes, manage to produce a name, a
medical history, a clandestine contact between adoptee and
parent or sibling—some as an altruistic service, others for a price.
Many of these searchers are themselves adoptees and parents"
who "cut comers" to obtain identities for others, a form of "civil
disobedience." A few of these searchers have been entrapped by
FBI stings and imprisoned "to set an example" for others cutting
comers in their efforts to end their clients' quests for answers to
"Who am I?" and "Is my child alive and well?"
64 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Privatization A Double Edged Sword
Privatization of prisons is included in “The Problems" section of
this book because privitization is not necessarily the answer to
government inefficiency. Privatized or Managed Care means
negotiated quality of care for a specific segment of the population
for a negotiated price. One, if not the key issue, is who designs the
managed care system.
Privatized Health Management Organizations (HMOs) exem-
plify the problems created when business professionals, rather
than medical professionals in partnership with patients, make
medical treatment decisions for patients as a means to cut costs,
thereby limiting rather than enhancing access to healthcare.
Foster homes and prisons now utilize HMOs. California also
privatized its failed child support collection system; the federal
government is still considering privatizing the already plun-
dered Social Security system. President George Bush, in fact,
made it a key element of his campaign.
An "Adoption Health Management Organization" (AHMO) is
less likely to be designed by persons affected by adoption than by
accountants, social workers, or by the state child welfare agency
with outside political forces—each of whom have a "personal
stake" (their paychecks) in the decisions that are made.
With legal private domestic adoptions now averaging $60,000
apiece, one can only speculate the extent to which a totally
privatized "Adoption Health Management Organization
(AHMO)" would further erode the rights of the parties
involved and increase unethical adoption practice already
being swept under seal... and still be justified as efficiency "in
the public interest."
According to the Child Welfare League of America's govern-
ment publication Adoption and Privatization: An Issue Brief:
Forty-one states—a remarkable 82%—reported that they were
planning or implementing fundamental changes in the delivery of
their child welfare services and many of these systems identified
"privatization as a key approach to structuring service delivery
more efficiently..."
Although privatization is not new (80% of all adoptions in Cali-
fornia are private or independent adoptions), the shift in alloca-
tion of service delivery responsibility is alarming, as the private
sector is taking a far greater role in providing, managing and
PRISONS 65
monitoring adoption planning and services, traditionally pro-
vided by public agencies.
The evil legacy of such "efficiency" through privatization is
easily hidden. Any member of the public interested in knowing
of any past complaints against a private adoption agency in
Connecticut, for example, is advised to submit a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request. These requests may result in
disclosure only as to licensing approvals and building inspec-
tions but nothing about past abuse of children in their care.
An example of a privatized "Super Max" prison of the future,
at Huntsville, Texas, was shown on ABC-News special Nightline
series, "Crime and Punishment, Part II." Termed an "Ad Seg"
prison for "Administrative Segregation," the prisoners are con-
sidered too dangerous to live in the general prison population .
Over $2 billion of federal prison construction funds were spent,
primarily in Texas, where there is no pay for prisoner labor and
fewer prisoners are released early. As a result, prison population
has tripled within the last seven years and there is increased
violence, gangs, and killing of prisoners and guards. With no
human contact, the inmates placed in solitary confinement are
suffering from acute sensory deprivation.
Only 13% of Ad Seg prisoners were incarcerated for murder;
most were incarcerated for burglary for drugs and were sent to
Ad Seg because they caused trouble in prison or were victimized
and requested solitary confinement to avoid assault, sodomy. It's
a constant routine of restraints and strip searches, with the ever
present threat of chemical restraint (pepper spray in the eyes) if
the prisoner doesn't immediately comply. The correctional offic-
ers are often poorly trained, underpaid and in fear themselves.
With a starting salary of $18,000 per year, guard training time has
been reduced and standards are inevitably lower.
In "Private Prisons: Are They The Answer?" Albuquerque Jour-
nal (9-27-98, A-l), Loie Fecteau reported:
Many tout efficiency of privately run institutions, but others ques-
tion accountability of the growing industry... Opponents of the
trend toward private prisons, such as Democratic gubernatorial
challenger Martin Chavez, said real costs of using private prisons
to house inmates are unknown... Opponents of private prisons,
like Chavez and Senator Cisco McSorley (D-Albuquerque) said
private prison operators are interested primarily in the bottom line.
66 CHOSEN CHILDREN
They say the new prisons are understaffed and many guards are
in experienced..."
The privatized Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), un-
regulated and unaccountable until 1998, so mismanaged its pris-
ons in Ohio that prisoner deaths resulted. "FOX Files," FOX TV
Network (7-30-98) reported the brutality and killings at the $40
million Ohio prison privately run by CCA. Prisoners of varying
violence levels were transferred there from overcrowded Wash-
ington, DC prisons and inexperienced guards were hired with no
regulatory entity to oversee the prisons. CCA had reported $54
million in profits in the previous year.
Despite that some private prisons have pioneered innovative
programs, such as the therapeutic drug treatment program at the
women's prison owned by Corrections Corporation of America
(CCA) in Grants, New Mexico, the problems have outweighed
the benefits.
CCA now manages 82 prisons with 73,000 beds in 26 states,
including Puerto Rico, Great Britain and Australia—raking in
about $500 million annually. No other company has benefited
more from the private prison boom yet been so plagued by under
staffing, high turnover, and lax security. Ten times more inmates
have escaped from CCA facilities than from California prisons. In
Youngstown, Ohio, a class-action lawsuit by prisoners forced the
company to improve conditions but CCA is again under fire since
the deaths of prisoners transferred from Connecticut prisons to
their Virginia facility.
For counties, the appeal of private prisons is a matter of
economic development—creating prison jobs and property tax
revenues. But low-paying prison jobs and tax collection are offset
by the loss of far more wage earners and taxpayers who remain
incarcerated for unnecessarily long periods without rehabilitation
opportunities due to under-staffing and cost-cutting efficiency.
CCA is the sixth largest corrections system in the United States
and wants to be the largest. In the fall of 1998, Tennessee residents
were subjected to CCA's television commercials that featured
employees in idyllic poses and scenes. The TV spots promising
phantom savings were a new step in the uninterrupted national
push by the Nashville-based company to take over the operation
of more prisons and jails from state and local governments. Yet
from Ohio to Tennessee, the public and lawmakers have been
increasingly vocal about alleged CCA wrongs, including escapes,
PRISONS 67
substantial personnel turnover, and poor employee training. The
loss of public scrutiny exacts a higher cost.
On March 15, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that
California Governor Gary Davis "is ending California's experi-
ment with privately operated prisons, fulfilling his promise to the
state prison guards union that spent $2.3-milllion to elect him four
years ago. the state has spent roughly $500 million to build each
of its 33 prisons. In 2002, they remain at 190% of capacity,
according to the Department of Corrections.
With such waste of money and human resources, isn't it time
to look at alternatives to all three symbiotic systems—foster care,
adoption, and prisons? Part II suggests many such alternatives.
Part II.
The Alternatives
"People who are willing to sacrifice freedom for security will have neither."
—Benjamin Franklin
5
Alternatives to Foster Care,
Adoption and Prison Systems
Policies, Practices and Programs That Work
INTRODUCTION
We have followed the dollars—the known and esti-
mated billions of taxpayer dollars wasted and unknown billions
of dollars of private profits made from human misery inflicted on
the lives of those trapped in America's failed "born loser system."
Abandoned, "throwaway" children don't just disappear.
They are recycled, and in the recycling are further abused.
"Monsters" and "bad seeds" are not born, they are created and
commodified by the foster care, adoption and penal industries,
the "born loser system."
The United States government has had a long tradition of
helping those who have made mistakes—Savings and Loans,
auto manufacturers, and even individuals who are in dire need.
There are better solutions for families than the "born loser sys-
tem," even in a capitalist democracy, which need not be an
oxymoron if constitutional "checks and balances" are imple-
mented to prevent commercialization and profiteering. Instead
of total privatization replacing total government control, a joint
public-private partnership that has worked well in private indus-
try council job-training/placement programs could combine the
best of both worlds—efficiency and accountability.
Not all survivors of the foster, adoption and penal systems
have failed to get on with their lives, but for those who need help,
71
72 CHOSEN CHILDREN
"model programs" that pop up here and there should be expanded
They disappear because funding for education, skills training
and rehabilitation has taken a back seat to funding of foster care,
adoption and prisons—the "born loser" system.
In the Newsweek cover story on "Home Schooling" (10-5-98), it
was suggested that educating at home offers an environment m
which to pass on one's family values, work ethic and definition of
responsibility. Home schooling is becoming a way of life for some
who can afford to be at home with their children, while schools fail
to provide safe, quality education. But totally removing the child
from interaction with teachers and other students also severely
limits scope of their realities to their own family's perceptions.
In "Study: Prison Funding Rises As Schools Cut," The Desert Sun
(9-23-98, A-5) a San Francisco report stated:
Under former Governor Pete Wilson's administration, California's
Budget for higher education decreased 3% while corrections spend-
ing has jumped 60%, according to a new study. The study con-
cluded that the gap between corrections and higher education has
been greater under Wilson's leadership than any other governor in
California history.
Merely increasing teacher salaries will not improve the quality of
education for those who cannot afford costly private schools for
their children. Seven states have experimented with down sizing
elementary school classrooms and improved learning resulted.
Head Start, Gain and other successful programs assure nutritious
school lunches and help families. (USA Weekend, 9-25-27-98).
In "m The Trenches," People magazine (11-23-98, p.143). Bill
Hewitt and Walden Siew reported:
The Defense Department's Troops To Teachers' program sends
Arthur Moore to a new frontier: seventh grade. At the Harlem Park
Community School inner-city Baltimore, former Army Staff Ser-
geant Arthur Moore, 43, has been handed 12 "special education"
seventh graders to prepare them to join mainstream classes. Since
1994, the program, known as Troops To Teachers" has brought a
military- style focus to schools to address two trends: the down
sizing of the military, which each year produces some 31,000
retirees-many relatively young; and the need for an estimated 2.2-
million new instructors over the next decade as school populations
increase. Thus far, the Defense Department has helped place 3,000
veterans of all services in 871 school districts. For each vet who
qualified by October 1, 1995, school districts received an incentive
grant of up to $50,000 to help pay their salaries over five years.
ALTERNATIVES TO FOSTER CARE 73
In "Californians Want Greater Access To Government Informa-
tion, Poll Shows," The Desert Sun/AP (10-25-98, A-5) it was reported:
. . . Those polled (78%) also believe officials who violate open-
records laws should be penalized... Trumpeted as the first survey
of its type in the nation, the poll by Santa Monica-based firm
Fairbank, Maslin, Maulin and Associates, found respondents be-
lieve too many government agencies operate secretly. They said
they should have greater access to records and information.
Just as aggressive chemotherapy and radiation are begun after a
cancer is removed, after opening up and removing pork barrel
legislators from office and repairing a system, aggressive reform
is critical curing society's ills, as follows:
(1) uniform rights,
(2) uniform fair laws,
(3) preventative measures.
Special interests such as drug and tobacco industries call
proven methods for cancer prevention "experimental, radical, or
dangerous to the national economy and public interest."
Special interests who profit from society's misery—the foster
care, adoption and prison industries—call alternative solutions
to these failing, cancerous systems "experimental, radical, or
dangerous to the national economy and public interest."
Hillary Clinton and other child advocates are fond of saying that
"it takes a village to raise a child." But the United States has yet to join
the world "village" in fully addressing children's rights issues.
Many "children's rights" organizations tout an artificially
created "right of the child to a permanent family" or "right to be
adopted." Kinship fostering, co-parenting, and legal guardian-
ship with true records, would better serve the child's short-term
or long-term needs and preserve the child's equal protection and
fundamental rights.
Adoptive Families magazine (July-August, 1995, p.6), reported
that Norman Goldberg, an adopter, founded the National Adop-
tion Foundation and that NAF made an arrangement with Nation's
Bank, Danbury, Connecticut, since merged with Bank of America.
Low rate, unsecured loans and low rate home equity secured
loans could be made over the phone, with no application fees, no
74 CHOSEN CHILDREN
prepayment penalties, no hidden charges, for grants or loans, to
cover adoption expense. So great has been the society's desire to
increase adoptions, it will even borrow to finance adoptions
before it will subsidize a "welfare mom" and her child.
Since 1990, insurance companies have been writing "Adoption
Cancellation Insurance" policies that cover adopters for what
they have paid to or for the mother in the event that she or the
father change their minds and revoke their relinquishments of
parental rights. Foreign adoptions are now covered by some
insurers.
Until America regards its children as people with basic human
rights—instead of property purchased under contract law, as are
adoptees "designer babies," anonymous ovum/sperm donors,
and surrogates selected for their attributes—the United States
will continue to breed "born losers."
In November, 1994, House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, ignited a
fire storm by suggesting that some welfare children would be
"better off in orphanages." Liberals pointed to the oppressive
conditions of 19th century "orphan asylums" and conservatives
made vague references to studies alleging successful outcomes of
former orphanage residents. Hillary Clinton dubbed the idea
"unbelievable and absurd." But Gingrich may have new support
from today's sociologists and management experts, including
Richard McKenzie, Professor of Management, UC-Irvine, who is
Editor of "Rethinking Orphanages in the 21st Century" (Sage
Publications, 1998). A few present-day versions of the residential
school, whose demonstration programs are considered successful,
have been slowly springing up here and there across the nation. SOS
Children's Villages, an international organization that has two
homes in Miami and Chicago, and a third underway in Los Angeles.
The California Lutheran Church has several group homes across the
country and Minnesota has been setting up "residential academies."
Hershey Children's Home in Pennsylvania has over 1,000
children in residence and an endowment of $4-billion.
The Supreme Court must place the rights and needs of Ameri-
can citizens above "politically correct" expediency, so the nation
may heal and prosper. The nine Justices, who work in secret, are
appointed for life because society fears elections would further
politicize the high Court. The Justices could be appointed for
limited terms, and be subject to mandatory retirement, so that a
balance of political persuasions, as a form of oversight, can be
achieved more often.
"Train up a child in the way he should go and in keeping with his
individual gift or bent and when he is old he will not depart from it."
—The Bible, Proverbs 22:6, amplified
6
Alternatives
to Foster Care
Real family preservation programs include community-
based care, funding of education and vocational training, public
and private partnership job training and placement programs,
with employer incentives to hire trainees, residential schools, free
national health insurance, on-the-job day-care, with incentives
for small businesses, as well as large corporations to participate,
and work-at-home incentives for business, an open system for
out-of-home placements with public accountability, uniform fair
laws. These are some of the necessary elements to providing a real
alternative to the current system of foster care.
Prevent Government-Protected Child Stealing
It is astounding to contemplate the long-range negative im-
pact, even on future generations, that the current foster care
system has had upon the former foster kids. It is even more mind-
boggling to realize that the billions of dollars of federal and state
funds presently poured into the Foster Care industry have,
overall, perpetuated family dismemberment. In recent years, the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) justified fund-
ing by building a bureaucratic Child Abuse Database and many
parents lost children to the foster care system as result of Child
Protective Services (CPS) false claims of child abuse.
On A Current Affair (April, 1991), Kerry and Kurth Davidson
lost their child due to false charges of sexual child abuse. HHS
investigator, Don Chapman, was quoted as saying he has "the
power of God" after kidnapping the Davidson's daughter, Crys-
75
76 CHOSEN CHILDREN
tal, for 15 days. It was determined that the counselor had put the
"molestation" idea in the child's head.
Such injustices have escalated in recent years as media and
internet news groups such as CPSWatch.com attest. Like the
Davidsons, many innocent people became permanently regis-
tered as child abusers or sex offenders on the FBI's national
registry, despite being cleared of all charges. In Nazi Germany, a
vindictive neighbor could anonymously accuse someone falsely;
the Gestapo then carried off the accused and built a case by
conducting a coercive interrogation. The United States Bill of
Rights protected Americans from this kind of activity until it was
violated by the Child Abuse Industry. Russia outlawed anony-
mous reporting in 1988. Anonymous reporting has continued in
the United States since 1977 and needs to be abolished. Respon-
sible reporting and prosecution must be restored. Parents' legal
costs, to recover children who were wrongly taken have ruined
them financially; yet state laws prevent victims of child abuse
laws from recovering damages by giving DHHS a shield of
sovereign immunity.
In "Foster Care System Begins Overhaul," Los Angeles Times
(11-10-98, A-l) staff writer James Rainey reported:
Children and Family Services will boost staffing in reorganization
that will allow closer, community-based oversight of 73,000 young-
sters. Taking a page from the many police departments that have
community-based programs with success, the overburdened, of-
ten-criticized Department of Children and Family Services will
assign social workers to small neighborhoods, attempt to recruit
thousands of new foster parents and place foster children in their
existing neighborhoods... When taken from problem parents, the
children would no longer be scattered to the far comers of the vast
county. Instead, they would remain in their own neighborhoods, in
their own schools and close to support them in coping with the
trauma of being removed from their parents... encouraging foster
parents and parents to work closely together so the children can
maintain contact with their biological parents.
The "neighborhood approach" has been employed on the largest
scale in Cuyahoga County, Ohio (including Cleveland) which
finds that reversing the feelings of distrust for "faceless bureau-
crats who used to come to snatch babies and break up families"
may take years.
ALTERNATIVES TO FOSTER CARE 77
Family preservation programs are only as good as their facili-
tators. The Casey Foundation and others now suggest that chil-
dren will be better served if parents and foster parents work
together. Social Services personnel are being upgraded. The
family participants are referred for voluntary assistance by Social
Services, Salvation Army and legislators. But social welfare activ-
ists in Los Angeles are skeptical of programs touted as the
"solution" to the problem of abused and neglected children after
years of focusing on "foster care adoption" as the "family preser-
vation program of the 1990s."
Couched in terms of "family preservation" the Family Preser-
vation Act of 1991 made federal subsidies and tax credits avail-
able for adoptions. "Subsidized adopter" is now the conservative
term for what used to be the vilified "welfare mom." The State has
abdicated its obligation to insure that any child will have quality
of education, skills training and preparation for adult living, not
just for those who fuel the adoption industry. One way to insure
these things for children is to help their parents as well.
The Clinton Administration's welfare reforms limited Aid To
Dependent Children (AFDC); compel the average welfare recipi-
ent—a mother with two or more children—to get off welfare and
go to work within two years. The Los Angeles Times (10-16-98, B-
1) "Welfare Reform Is Flawed, Study Says," by Carla Rivera,
confirms the nearsightedness of such plans:
Employment—It finds many recipients are being trained for dead-
end, low-paying jobs. County official disputes recommendations.
A variety of well-paying jobs that can support a family are avail-
able in Los Angeles County but welfare recipients are not being
trained for them... The report, funded by the Arco Foundation by
the nonprofit Economic Roundtable, identifies 48 entry level jobs
that pay living wages and are projected to yield 145,000 openings
over the next five years.. .there are as many as 5.4 unemployed job
seekers for each new opening; few of them have the skills to put
themselves in contention. Although the majority—76%—have
worked before, 54% lack a high school diploma, 23% have limited
or no English language skills and 38% do not have access to a car,
the study found ... the emphasis is on work over training ...
A new approach may help thousands but the "experts" are
saying the real challenge will be to coordinate a new approach
"with other programs which may have faded from the spotlight"
into one system of care.
78 CHOSEN CHILDREN
In "One Shelter's Approach," Los Angeles Times (12-27-93, B-4),
it was reported that on any given night 15,000 parents and
children were homeless in Los Angeles County. Founded by the
Sisters of Carondelet in 1978, "The House of Ruth" has provided
women and their children with long term-temporary shelter,
comprehensive support and the skills they need to obtain and
keep safe, secure, permanent housing. Among the services pro-
vided are: basic care, shelter and food, health screening, on-site
child care, basic education, parenting classes, high school equiva-
lency, English as a second language, community college classes
and money management, substance abuse case referrals, housing
placement and moving assistance.
"A Mother's Addiction, A Family's Recovery," (Washington
Post, 7-31-01, A-l), highlights the recovery story of lyarn Brice.
The House of Ruth, Washington D.C., provided up to $38,000
worth of housing, services, therapy, drug tests, two Ruth counse-
lors and a Ruth staffer, to Iyarn Brice—a mother of 9—one of 18
women and 41 children, for their drug detoxification, supervised
living, rehabilitation and reunification programs. A bill before
Congress, the Child Protection, Alcohol and Drug Partnership
Act, calls for spending $1.9-billion, annually over 5 years, to treat
and rehabilitate substance abusing parents who have children in
the welfare system. Local districts plan to add funding. Some
child advocates believe that the indulgent acts of addicts nullify
their right to raise children. Even when addicts manage to get
clean, only one-third are able to do so without a relapse, accord-
ing to treatment experts.
Other child welfare advocates say the best solution is having
children raised by their parents—despite years of drug addic-
tion—if they are drug-free and caring. That reinforces children's
sense of being loved and diminishes their fears of abandonment.
Recently enacted federal law, in fact, requires officials to find
permanent homes for any child who has been in foster care for 15
months of the previous 22 months — a response to dysfunctional
child welfare systems and to long waits for addicted parents to
reform. The result was 330 adoptions in the District of Columbia
in fiscal 2000—a record. Of the 2,796 city children now in foster
care, 1,072 are on track for adoption. Three of them are lyarn
Brice's Children.
ALTERNATIVES TO FOSTER CARE 79
Rather than "reorganization" or total privatization, perhaps
the solution to government incompetence in the Foster Care
industry is to offer incentives for public-private partnership roles
to corporations as well as small businesses in the management of
temporary or long term care of children for whom kinship care
cannot be found.
Model Programs
Model programs for both care and education of children who
can and cannot be in the custody of their parents include:
Homebuilders is still a successful, community-based family
preservation program with headquarters in Washington state
and designed to assist families at risk of losing their children to
foster care. By helping families in trouble, the program seeks to
avoid removing children from the home. Washington estimated
it saved $17-million in its first few years since the program began
in 1974. The comparisons:
Homebuilders, 5 weeks $2,600
Foster care, 9 months $3,607
Group Care, 12 months $19,465
Correctional institutions, 3 months $14,437
Acute Psychiatric Hospital, just 1 month $10,000
Residential Treatment, 12 months $67,525
(Source: National Governor's Association, chart in Family
Values newsletter.)
These figures do not include all of the long-term savings that
result from keeping children out of the "born loser system."
There have been, and still are, tens of thousands of successful
voluntary projects initiated by one person, like "The Wandering
Monk" who fed poor children in special soup kitchens separated
from addicts and derelicts, in New Haven, Connecticut.
STARSS (Sharing, Talking And Relationships for Students
Success) was begun in the 1992-3 school year in Oceanside
Unified School District, San Diego County, California, for kids
who already have severe acting out problems as well as for kids
who just need to know they are okay and need more self-
confidence.
80 CHOSEN CHILDREN
PIP (Primary Intervention Program), an early detection and
prevention program, is the basis for STARSS. With completion of
the three year grant program which was funded through
California's "Early Mental Health Initiative," teachers, parents,
school administrators and even the 900 children involved pro-
nounced it a success. It provided children with one-on-one time
and attention, in a special activity room with a paraprofessional
called a "special friend," for non-directed play. The child could
take the lead, make choices and have their choices respected—
something children often do not have a chance to do. Free parent
education was also a key element of the voluntary program which
addressed problems in the home to strengthen relationships
between parents and school.
Teen Parent Services is offered to 350 young mothers by BBF
Family Services, also known as Building Brighter Futures, a
thirty-seven-year old nonprofit organization. In order to con-
tinue receiving public assistance, the young mothers must stay in
the program until they obtain their high school diploma or GED.
They get counseling and help with transportation, child care and
discuss issues such as parenting skills, birth control, employ-
ment, with volunteers according to their expertise. The focus on
the program is to help the young women become self-sufficient.
The New York Times, July 15,1990, Section 12, "Teenagers Need
Effective Parents To Win Drug Battle," by Brian O'Callahan:
We must reverse our spending priorities so that 80% of our "drug
war" money is taken away from interdiction, enforcement and
rehabilitation and put into parent education and assistance. Paren-
tal assistance programs like Homebuilders or family preservation
and parent-school collaboration programs must be given more
funds. The focus must be on talking to parents, not just children.
Better parents are a better weapon in the "war against drugs."
Senator Patrick Moynihan, when arguing against a $1-billion
appropriation for family preservation and support, said The
ability of social workers to intervene with the goal of family
preservation has never been proven."
Away School is described in "Boot Camp For Moms," Los
Angeles Times (5-27-93, E-l), brainchild of Asenath Andrews,
Principal of Catherine Ferguson Academy, which teaches stu-
dents living skills needed to make it on their own. They camped
in Yellowstone National Park and helped build a day care center
ALTERNATIVES TO FOSTER CARE 81
in Washington, DC, funded with both public school money and
a grant from the state of Michigan.
Co-parenting is an alternative to permanently removing a
child from parents. One or both biological parents may share
custody of their child with a relative or court appointed guardian.
The benefit to the child and his parents is an extended "family" to
share the responsibility and one or two homes with which the
child is familiar rather than frequent moves from one foster home
to another and no real family.
The Women's Alternative Center (WAC), an alternative to
foster care, was created to prevent the need to separate mothers
and children. In 1887, the Milford Industrial Home, also known
as the Nebraska Maternity Home, was a reformatory and chari-
table institution for unwed mothers who had financial problems
and could not arrange their own care. Each of the "inmates" was
taught homemaking and nursing skills and obtained a high
school diploma. Those who could go on to earn a living and pay
the monthly upkeep for themselves and their children were
permitted to stay. So far, so good, but those who did not pay
within six months had to give up their babies for adoption, which
need not be the price to pay today. An innovative program,
sponsored by Women's Alternatives me. in Delaware County,
Pennsylvania, today, the Women’s Alternative Center serves only
female heads of households and their children by providing
educational and clinical services to women in a crisis situation
through three to six month comprehensive residential and non-
residential programs for mothers and children with problems. By
providing temporary housing, a supportive environment, rel-
evant skills and necessary training for female heads of household,
WAC enabled families to become financially and emotionally
independent and effectively manage and direct themselves and
their children within their communities and the mainstream of
American society. WAC was initially headquartered in a three-
story home in rural Chester Heights, offering families a contrast
and easy access to urban areas. WAC was funded as a demonstra-
tion project on a grant from the United States Department of
Health and Human Services (DHHS) and its operation was
maintained through corporate, foundation and community sup-
port. The Center's residential families lived in a safe and support-
ive environment. WAC also helped prevent child abuse and
82 CHOSEN CHILDREN
neglect and made the community more aware of the needs of the
female headed household.
Bridge of Hope, which the media called "the most innovative
program for homeless mothers and children in the nation," is
similar to WAC but extends post-program services including
mentoring. Headquartered in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, the
Michigan program was launched with 1,000 homeless applicants.
Genesis House is described in "Life Off The Streets," TIME (11-
16-98, p. 8), Wendy Cole reports:
At Genesis House, society's "throwaway women" get a fresh chance
. . . Opened in 1983 (on Chicago's South Side) by a British-born
feminist theologian named Edwina Gately, Genesis House is just
one of a handful of United States recovery centers for prostitutes
(many of whom are raising children). As social services and law
enforcement agencies have learned about its success rate and
unusual approach in dealing with seemingly intractable clients, it
has become a model for similar programs from Florida to Thailand.
Nonetheless, Genesis House is in financial jeopardy from the loss
of a half million dollars in federal funds and had to find volunteers
to replace about half of its twenty-five paid staff members. About
70% of enrollees complete the program and 80% of the graduates
don't relapse."
What about children whose parents cannot parent them, even
with help? There are alternatives to traditional foster care that can
be implemented for these children also.
SOS Village Works. In "SOS Tries To Save 'Unadoptables,'"
Press-Enterprise (10-11-92, C-6), Maya Bell of the Orlando Sentinel
reported:
These are women who are committed to giving new lives to
children with dim futures, children who have drifted from foster
home to foster home, children torn from their brothers and sisters.
They will live in the first "SOS Children's Village" in the United
States, a one block neighborhood in northwest Broward County,
Florida, where the recipients are about to embark on an important
experiment to treat one of society's greatest ills. They will partici-
pate in a program that has built homes and provided professional
full-time mothers for 25,000 "unadoptable" children in twenty-six
countries around the world. They have been succeeding in salvag-
ing some of America's neediest kids. Launched forty-three years
ago in Austria to care for the orphans of World War II, SOS Village
came to Florida at the urging of Broward Circuit Court Judge
ALTERNATIVES TO FOSTER CARE 83
Estella Mortality. When Moriarity read the obituary of SOS Founder
Hermann Gmeiner, a Nobel Prize nominee, six years ago, she knew
kids who would benefit from his vision. She had seen plenty of
them in her courtroom...
Although highly regarded, the SOS Villages had not come to
the United States without questions from Child Welfare experts
for one reason: By its design, SOS Villages do not provide tradi-
tional homes. Fathers are not welcome. In fact, SOS Moms who
marry are asked to leave. Neither does SOS allow adoption, the
very thing driving Child Welfare experts dealing with society's
"throwaway kids." SOS Mothers are expected to be forever
the psychological and spiritual parent for their care, but not
the legal one.
Why aren't SOS kids being adopted? According to David
Hughes, Director of the organization's North American head-
quarters, they are subjected to too many changes, reinforcing
their feelings of rejection and depleting what little self esteem life
had left them. Single women proved more suitable than couples
who are difficult to find and keep for the long term. Perhaps it is
because these single moms do not have the pressures of marriage
to contend with and can be more centered on the child. SOS
retains custody of children in its care as a form of quality control.
The organization can easily get rid of the rare mother who does
not work out.
Although Al Polito, Director of Broward County's SOS pro-
gram says it will not accept children with severe emotional
behavioral problems, the Moms know the road will not be an easy
one. Few foster children are without problems, especially those
who fit the SOS criteria of "having little chance of being adopted."
The professional Moms in the Broward program were paid
$18,000 per year in 1991 but their only job has been in their homes
and their only commitment their children. They were given no
allowance to run their households, to feed their kids, to buy them
clothes, to pay their power bills. They had only the support of
Polito, the Village administrator/father figure, three "aunts"
who live in a nearby house and a "network of experts."
Father Flanagan's Boys Town and its affiliate Girl's Town
USA, historically, has billed the state only for the costs of wards
who needed special education. But in September, 1998, the Ne-
braska State Supreme Court ruled that Nebraska taxpayers must
shoulder the costs of educating young wards of the state who are
84 CHOSEN CHILDREN
placed at Boys Town and similar institutions. State officials said
the decision is likely to cost taxpayers $2-million annually, plus
$11.5-million in back payments, to Father Flanagan's Boys Town
and other institutions that educate wards of the state.
Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, in Texas, Stephen Girard College,
and the Milton Hershey School, both in Pennsylvania, are ex-
amples of other model residential care and education programs.
Open Arms, cosponsored by a Savannah, Georgia hospital
and Lutheran Ministries "Open Arms" fills the gap left by parents
without grandparent support, HMOs, Social Services and busy
nurses who don't have the time to simply cuddle and nurture an
infant. "Open Arms" takes care of "border babies"—infants who
are born seriously premature or who have been abused or aban-
doned or who have parents who cannot care for them. The infants
stay in a three-bedroom bungalow operated by Open Arms until
the courts place them in foster care, put them up for adoption, or
return them to their parents who might otherwise permanently
lose their babies from temporary situations. Communities need
to promote hospital volunteerism like this through churches,
libraries, retired citizens groups, local organizations.
What You Can Do
Where there are kids in need of foster care, citizens, commu-
nity civic groups, churches, synagogues, and the corporate com-
munity need to be actively involved in foster kids' transition into
adulthood and provide support for their educational and career
goals. Acquiring sites for the new foster home model includes
converting abandoned military bases, hotels, and other aban-
doned structures to permit use as residential educational-voca-
tional schools. Almost every city has an abandoned building that
might be in an area suitable for a day academy for training kids
in the skills in demand in their area—a school, church, or "big
box" (former K-Mart, abandoned supermarkets. Target, Mont-
gomery Ward stores, and so forth) might require little conver-
sion. Public-private joint effort can make dreams a reality. Com-
munity-based public-private partnerships could both fund and
benefit from the resulting "employables," and make dreams a
reality.
By expanding such alternatives to foster care, the "need for
adoption" can be greatly reduced and eventually eliminated. The
next chapter offers alternatives to adoption and explains why
adoption must be phased out—rather than reformed.
"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants to tear it down."
—Robert Frost, "The Mending Wall"
7
Alternatives to
Adoption
True alternatives to the current system of adoption would
include support for families in danger of losing their children for
economic reasons, individualized custody (not ownership), fos-
tering, child guardianship, an open system under uniform fair
laws guaranteeing uniform rights, true and uniform birth records,
joint public-private partnerships for family preservation and
program oversight, and removing financial incentives for sepa-
rating children from their families.
An-ti-adop-tion (an-ti-adop-shun) (against adoption) n. 1. the
normality of the intact, assisted or extended biological family; adj.
to refuse to choose and bring into certain relationship; specifically,
to refuse to permit a non-related person or persons to take into the
non-related person's or person's family by legal or illegal process
and raise as that person's or persons' own child. 2. to reject and not
use (the ideas, policies or practices of adoption) as one's own; 3. to
not choose adoption, in favor of truer expressions of custody which
do not commodity children and which do not remove a child's
equal protection rights for life in exchange for a home and care.
(Based on Meriam-Webster Dictionary definition of "adoption,"
2nd College Edition, and as used by anti-adoption organizations.)
Just when the general public was getting used to pro- and anti-
sealed records rhetoric, anti-adoption dialogue began to prolifer-
ate, particularly on Internet. One anti-adoption website is this
85
86 CHOSEN CHILDREN
author's website, http://AbolishAdoption.com ,which was first pub-
licized by ABC-TV affiliate KESQ, (Channel 3, Palm Springs, on
2-14-02.). The petition to Abolish Adoption, which is on the home
page, is joint-sponsored by Adoptees and "Birth" Parents for
Open Records (ABORN); Adoption: Legalized Lies; Americans
for Open Records (AmFOR); Musser Foundation; Origins-USA-
An Inquiry; Orphan Voyage aka Jean Paton (the "Mother" of the
Anti-Adoption Movement). Their web-sites are listed in the
"Resources" section at the back of this book. The petition is
addressed "To The American People; The President of the United
States; The United States Congress; American Civil Liberties
Organization (ACLU); Amnesty International Hague Intercoun-
try Adoption Conference; United Nations "Rights of the Child"
Convention; and Whom It Concerns. It outlines the negatives of
the American system of adoption, with supporting links and
viewable comments by those who have been injured by adoption
and so have added their names in support, from all over the
nation, as well as from several other countries, most notably
Canada and Australia.
Legislation: Amend or Repeal?
As with voters who voted in Oregon's ballot measure for adult
adoptee access to their original birth certificates ("Measure 58"),
anti-adoption proponents are not only individuals directly af-
fected by adoption but also those who simply understand and
support the civil liberties and human rights issues. They under-
stand that amending bad law still leaves bad law. Perhaps no law
has undergone so many amendments as adoption law.
Jessica DelBalzo (Adoption: Legalized Lies) is neither an adop-
tee nor parent. She is a college student outraged by the civil rights
violations inherent in the American way of adoption. That senti-
ment is echoed by the anonymous leader of ABORN, whose
screen name is "Jeep Driving Genius." She herself is not "adop-
tion affected." Those who criticize her preference for anonymity
are quickly squelched by Jeep's reminder that neither are adoptees'
true identities known—even to themselves.
Chosen Children has examined not only the "sealed records"
component of adoption but also adoption itself. In Theory of War,
true story of Jonathan Carrick, an American White slave, Carrick
was purchased for $15 in 1865 at age six to be "bound out" until
age 21. Adoptees express their pain of being denied their birth
ALTERNATIVES TO ADOPTION 87
rights in identical terms as Jonathan Carrick: "There's more than
just the fact of slavery [adoption]—My family tree stops short of
this Deed of Purchase [Adoption Decree]."
American adoption as a form of custody relies on contract law
in much the same way that property is contracted for. The
property—the adoptee—is not a party to the adoption contract.
Neither is the adoptee's parents—They merely agree to "relin-
quish" parental rights and custody. The main difference is that
the consumer has more rights when purchasing a used car in
adopting a human being. Legislation usually seeks to restrict or
remove rights. When legislation seeks to "restore" rights (by
amending instead of repealing adoption law), the result is still
the creation of a class distinction with special, or different, or
limited rights.
On November 3,1998, thanks to adoptee Helen Hill's generos-
ity in personal funding of $100,000, Oregon's "Measure 58,"
passed with 58% of the electorate in favor of adult adoptees' right
to their true birth certificate. It was the first time the issue was on
any state ballot. Perhaps more than any other single reform in
recent years, "Measure 58" was heralded by its supporters as
signaling the phasing out of America's closed records system—
but not adoption itself. Adult access to one's birth certificate is not
a solution to the medical and social amnesia still imposed on
adoptees by statute for eighteen to twenty-one years in Oregon,
Kansas, Alaska, and Tennessee, the so-called "open records"
states. Neither has any state addressed the broader adoption
issues swept under the seal of secrecy.
Nothing awful has happened in Scotland, which has been
"open" since 1935, nor in England, open since 1976, nor in other
open societies such as Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Finland,
Israel, Mexico.
When put to the vote, polls have always been in favor of the
adoptee regaining his "right to know." In 1991, Cecile Comeau,
then Executive Director of "Mouvement Retrouvailles" (Canada's
equivalent to "The Open Records Movement" in the United
States), conducted a televised poll in Quebec province which
asked viewers: "Should adoptees have the right to origins?" The
switchboard "blew-out" when 10,000 viewers attempted to call in
simultaneously; before the "blow out," 2,600 were "For," and
only 52 "Against."
88 CHOSEN CHILDREN
The August 1985 issue of Playgirl magazine included a Reader's
Poll which asked "Should adopted children have the right to seek
out their natural parents?" (Note that "adoptees" and "children"
were considered synonymous.) The results were published in
Playgirl's November 1985 issue:
Of 641,016 readers participating, 82% said "Yes, they have the
right" and only 18% said "No, they do not."
One wonders if the response would have been the same had
the question been "Should adopted children be emancipated
from their adoptive status at legal age?"
Fifteen years later. Parenting magazine (November, 2000, p. 30)
published the results of their three-part August poll of its readers:
1. Should adoptees be able to access their own birth records?
77 — Yes, in all cases
21 — Yes, except when the [birth]mother has
requested otherwise
2 — No
2. Should the release of information be restricted to medical
records and not include the identity of [birth]parents?
No — 70
Yes — 30
3. Should [birth]mothers be informed when their children
access their birth records?
Yes — 78
No — 22
ABORN has collected tens of thousands of signatures on it's
petition to open records nationwide at http://ABORN.org
1986 study by Harriet Ganson and Judith Cook, presented to
the American Sociological Association's 81st meeting, cited that
"Ninety-four percent of adoptees who wrote to public officials
favored model state adoption legislation allowing open records;
only 6% opposed it."
Right to Personhood
Until AmFOR's petition captioned "Abolish Adoption," no poll
had ever questioned whether the practice of adoption should be
abolished. The issue of "personhood," through knowledge of
one's true identity, origins, and biological connectedness, is the
primary issue for most adoption reform activists. Should the
ALTERNATIVES TO ADOPTION 89
practice of adoption be abolished?" Children's rights advocates
argue for the right of a child to a safe, permanent home. Why
strip the child of his personhood in the process? Homeless
children have immediate needs and intervention may be nec-
essary. But does a child have a "right to be adopted" as some
child rights advocates claim? Or does the child have a right
not to give up his personhood through adoption in exchange
for care? In Chapter 3 of this book, 23 Articles of the Declara-
tion of Human Rights are provided, as well as how each is
violated by the practice of adoption.
California is one of the few states which gives "Priority in
placement" of children to existing family members, particularly
the grandparents. Yet baby brokers and courts in every state,
including California, as in every state, have more often opted to
"send a message" that the child is somehow "better off "by filling
the needs of infertile or childless strangers wishing to adopt.
Just as there are better alternatives to the present Foster Care
system, there are better alternatives to the "quick fix" of secret
adoption for temporary problems of young, poverty stricken and
even substance-abusing parents. Parents do not "own" their
child for life; neither should adopters be able to bind their
children to contracts for life.
Jean Paton, an adoptee and former social worker, conducted
the first studies on adoptive families and negative affects of
adoption secrecy, in 1953. Paton has, over the years, suggested
that an alternative to present-day adoption, which she refers to as
colonialism, may be to "adopt a family":
“Merge the two families for the good of the child. Let the child have
contact with both families with responsibilities shared. Instead of
legal conflict, which makes very lucrative profits for lawyers, let
there be a core of people who know how to encourage reconcilia-
tion in these situations. Let the child know his name from the outset
and that he is loved and cared for by everyone involved. For this to
succeed, we must learn adoption all over again and give it a new
name. It is ridiculous for a society to spend thousands of dollars
over the custody of one child who needs less conflict rather than
more. In the same way that we now advocate getting the govern-
ment off our backs, let us also get the lawyers out of adoption.
Instead, let us find wise reconcilers and put them to work. We
would save money, save souls of children and give peace to those
who bring them into the world.”
90 CHOSEN CHILDREN
All of us are on the planet as result of the sex act. Where
pregnancy was simply the result of unprotected sex, there exists
several alternatives for prevention—abstinence, birth control, the
"morning after" pill, temporary or permanent surgical steriliza-
tion; women in for instance, over populated third world countries
have been given a "sterilization pill" that works, though it is
regarded by some as a form of genocide. Abortion is often
misused as a form of birth control.
Sex is not the only cause of pregnancy. A girl or woman may
want to have a child for a variety of reasons, including to have
someone to love and to be loved in return. So the politicized issue
of teen pregnancy is not properly addressed by simply offering
birth control, abortion or adoption, when what is needed is a
family for the mother as well as for the child.
Falsification and sealing of birth records as an "alternative"
sends the wrong message that while it's not okay to abandon
one's child on a doorstep, it is okay to abandon one's child to the
adoption industry. How is it that a mother can be "unfit" or
"incompetent" to raise her own child, yet competent enough to
sign an irrevocable agreement to give away her child to an
unknown fate to strangers while a desperate and pressured by a
crisis situation? In contract law, incompetence and coercion or
duress voids the contract.
Closed adoption supporters cite the need for adoption "to
prevent dumpster babies." In 2001 "baby dumping" became legal
in Texas and Florida "in safe places," theoretically giving the
mother a brief time period to reclaim the baby she so unceremo-
niously dumped. Just how the mother will be able to prove which
anonymously dumped baby is hers and how the courts will do a
turnabout and decide that it's "in child's best interests" to be
returned to the mother who abandoned him, remains to be seen.
Such laws will not "save babies" because they do not help
mothers to keep their babies. Instead, they encourage abandon-
ment to the adoption industry.
Like death, adoption is a drastic "final solution," one that the
child must live with permanently—solutions that preclude all
other possibilities. In "Together Again: Mom, 17, Gets Back Infant
She Abandoned on Church Steps," The Examiner (8-8-89, p. 13)
Nina Breem, a teenager, did not know she was pregnant until
delivery in her parents' bathtub. Panicked, she hid the baby from
her parents at a local hospital until the hospital discharged the
ALTERNATIVES TO ADOPTION 91
infant and she then left the baby on a church doorstep. She got her
baby back, perhaps due to compassion of the court in England
where this incident occurred.
In similar recent cases in the United States, teenagers were
unaware they were pregnant, or just too frightened to tell their
parents, so they abandoned their babies. The result has usually
been convictions of the young parents for child abuse with court
ordered placement of a surviving infant for secret adoption by
strangers—a legal abandonment.
In "Woman Pleads Guilty To Baby's Prom Death," The Desert
Sun (8-21-98, A-5) reported:
Freehold, New Jersey: m an emotionless and childlike voice, a
young woman described how she gave birth in a bathroom at her
senior prom last year, fished the baby out of the toilet bowl,
wrapped him in plastic bags and dumped him in the trash . . .
Twenty-year-old Melissa Drexler pleaded guilty to aggravated
manslaughter in the baby's death, sparing herself a murder trial
and a possible life sentence."
Drexler, dubbed the "Prom Mom" by media, contended she did
not know she was pregnant; she said that the baby was stillborn.
The American system prefers to punish the parents with impris-
onment, instead of assisting them.
What about drug addicted mothers? There are alternatives to
permanently separating the drug addicted mother from her child
through imprisonment and adoption. In "ABC Club Helps Moth-
ers-To-Be Fight Addiction," The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA,
9-10-90). Kelley Russell reports:
Born addicted to the drugs Rebecca abused during her pregnancy,
was taken from her mother after birth. Losing her baby prompted
the 24-year old to quit her amphetamine habit and stay in a
recovery home. Ten months later, she got her baby back. The
twenty-seven-year old ABC Club is one of only two recovery
homes in Riverside County to also offer a program for pregnant
addicts. The Club plans to add nurseries so the women can also stay
a short period after their deliveries, to help handle the extra stress
of becoming a new Mom and getting clean.
As for encouraging fathers to take responsibility, the Los Angeles
County District Attorney's computerized, punitive child support
collection program proved a catastrophe. Instead of enforcing
court ordered child support from truly "deadbeat dads," the
92 CHOSEN CHILDREN
computer made many mistakes—billing men by the same name
who did not owe child support, nor even had children, putting
liens on their property, suspending driver licenses of men with-
out notice so that they lost their jobs and could not make pay-
ments even if they wanted to. But also, the multimillion dollar
computer system failed to collect support payments sufficient to
justify cost of the program. President Bush's 2001 Federal
Budget Proposals included expenditures for "booting" cars
owned by persons owing child support. Restricting their trans-
portation will not enhance their ability to find a job and be
responsible parents.
On November 11,1998, the Los Angeles Times reported that the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors had voted to "test"
privatizing the child support system.
A program for fathers was featured in the Los Angeles Times on
(6-30-93, E-6). Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation
(MDRC) demonstration programs in nine states, called "Parents'
Fair Share," were helping noncustodial fathers to get jobs and to
participate in their children's upbringing. The program cost
$2,000 per person served, mostly for worker training. A man
cannot support his family without skills for a job of value that will
provide adequate income. Being a participant in his child's up-
bringing is more powerful motivation than any DA's threat for
non-support.
Abolishing Adoption
Closed adoption, the practice of granting property interest in
children via coerced relinquishment, falsified birth certificates,
sealed records and lifelong secrecy, is already beginning to be
phased out by independent adoption practice in which the par-
ents choose adopters and participate in making an adoption plan.
Called "open adoption," it has been a successful demonstration
program disproving the need for closed adoption in voluntary
relinquishments. However, in the cities and counties in some
states that permit open adoption (such as Traverse City, Michi-
gan and San Bernadino County, California), any agreements
made between the involved parties—such as about post-adop-
tion visitation by parents— have not been enforceable by law.
But in 2001, California was the first state to enact legislation recog-
Nizing such agreements. But as in closed adoptions, the child's
Original birth certificate is still sealed and a falsified version issued
ALTERNATIVES TO ADOPTION 93
according to statute, a slap in the face to the parties striving for
truth in custody arrangements.
Child Guardianship
In one version of "subsidized guardianship," the court ap-
points co-guardians to act on behalf of a child when the parents
cannot do so. In the Vera Institute on Justice "Report on Guard-
ianship," author Maeri Schwartz envisions a situation where co-
guardians work as family mentors and partners during times of
crisis. The co-guardians may be family friends or relatives. The
co-guardian is like a caseworker in a family preservation project
but with access to the family that no outsider can hope to achieve
within time limits imposed on those efforts. Schwartz' study
names 10 states that, as of 1995, operated subsidized guardian-
ship programs at some level. Feedback from the states indicated
varying degrees of success and challenge.
Three years into the Massachusetts and New York "Guardian-
ship Demonstration Project," researchers reported that the ma-
jority of children were thriving with their guardians. An Illinois
program administrator's efforts to transfer about 2,000 children
from kinship care to guardianship were slowed by a lack of
alternative funding to cover the cost of federal medical insurance.
Like other child welfare plans, subsidized guardianship must be
monitored. It is not the panacea for every situation but it is an
option that could help achieve stability for kids without perma-
nently severing their kinship ties and basic human rights as
adoption does. (Source: New York City Comptroller, Office of
Policy Management, "A Model For Subsidized Guardianship, "
by Matthew Grosser, Diane Pausell and Regina Poreda, NY May
1995; Merrill Schwartz, "Reinventing Guardianship: Subsidized
Guardianship, Co-Guardians and Child Welfare,' Institute of
Justice Inc., June 1993).
Guardianship and Co-guardianship are truer expressions of
custody for gay and lesbian parenting. Presently, one of the gay
or lesbian partners adopts the child of his/her partner, the child
being conceived by donor insemination in the case of lesbian
copartners or by a surrogate in the case of the gay co-parents. The
courts struggle with the realities of the child's situation versus the
desires of the adults. Again, the child must adjust to legal fiction,
particularly if adopted by one of the co-parents. Why place the
burden of "make believe" on a child? Why not raise the child
94 CHOSEN CHILDREN
honestly, as his/her guardians, or parent plus guardian, rather
than as "two mothers" or "two fathers" plus a surrogate "birth"
mother. It is not only the legal lies of adoption, anonymous
donor-assisted conception and the surrogate process that must
be addressed, but also the false sense of "entitlement" to some-
one else's child as part of their "American Dream" bad law
encourages...
In Doe v. Sundquist, 1997 FED App. 0051 P, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Sixth Circuit found that information concerning
a birth is not protected from disclosure by the Federal Constitu-
tion, and:
.... privacy does not encompass a general right to non-disclosure
of private information. A [birth] parent's privacy, or anyone's, can
be adequately protected by tort law, including restraining orders.
Further, the court opined that a birth is simultaneously an intimate
occasion and a public event—the government has long kept records
of when, where, and by whom babies are born. Such records have
myriad purposes, such as furthering the interest of children in
knowing the circumstances of their birth.
The original birth certificate is not sealed upon the mother's
relinquishment, only upon final decree of adoption, thus negat-
ing the argument that sealing protects the mother's identity.
As previously detailed. Judges, attorneys and agencies still
callously say "no" to adult adoptees needing to open their adop-
tion files, even to save their lives, despite publicized need of some
adoptees for a lifesaving bone marrow transplant from a biologi-
cal relative. Aforementioned (Chapter 3) examples: Linda Kerner
(2001); Tami Brundage (2001) (Chapter 3); Susan Martin (MA,
2000); Michelle Robertson (NY, 1998); Patricia Coleman (NY,
1998); Leonard Hargrove Jobron (LA, 1998); Kirn Sung Duk (MN,
1996); James Grant George (MO, 1981). The only way to obtain
accurate current medical information is directly from the parents
whose identities are kept secret. Exactly what constitutes "good
cause" as required by statute to open a sealed adoption file and
how closed adoption serves "child's best interests" remains a
mystery, since discretionary decision as to "good cause," and
"best interests" will differ from judge to judge.
Uniform Fair Laws
"Government protected child stealing" is a term used when a
child is stolen to sell for adoption and the abduction and sale was
ALTERNATIVES TO ADOPTION 95
made easier because of statutory secrecy over adoptions, the
"legal" falsification of an adoptee's birth records, the sealing of
the original, true birth record, and the ease at which non-uniform
birth certificates can be forged and passed off as "originals." Birth
certificates issued from state to state, even from county to county—
in addition to birth certificates issued by hospitals, physicians
and clergy—are not uniform, making out-of-state verification
difficult. Some suggested reforms include:
1. Require the child's presence during custody proceedings;
2. Require uniform birth certificates from nationwide;
3. Invalidate relinquishments signed during pregnancy, and within
six months after birth, or where parents were not notified in time
to prepare a defense, or were not represented by counsel at
termination hearings with witnesses cross-examined (See United
States Supreme Court, Armstrong v. Manzo, in re Gault, and others
from Sheppard's);
4. Require the court to determine authenticity of original birth
documents by contacting the issuing state's or country's vital
records agency;
5. Make inability to confirm original birth documents prima facie
proof of kidnapping and take child into protective custody on the
spot pending criminal investigation by law enforcement (not
Social Services);
6. Make all past and present adoption records public records for
inspection by anyone;
7. Require a "show cause" to seal a vital record. A child's
ignorance is a strong ally of adult society and some adults have
learned to rely heavily on it for so long, they simply cannot
recognize a child's—or even an adult adoptee's—right to truth.
The truth is that most adoptees were not taken from parents who
were unfit, just impoverished.
The book, Wrongful Adoption—Law, Policy and Practice, by
Madelyn Freundlich (Executive Director of The Evan B. Donaldson
Institute), and Lisa Peterson (Legal Consultant to Spence-Chapin
Services to Families and Children, an adoption agency), was
published by Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) as an
"official" account—an historical, social and legal monograph.
Spence-Chapin is one of the oldest pro adoption propagandists.
In the Overview to Wrongful Adoption, Freundlich and Peterson
tell us:
96 Chosen Children
During the first half of the twentieth century, the majority of
adoption agencies had full disclosure policies that supported pro-
viding adoptive parents with all the facts in a child's case record.
Actually, records were open until post-WW II prosperity enabled
an increased demand for adoptable newborns by infertile couples.
Before that, nothing prevented exchange of information between
mothers and adopters. But a child born of an unwed pregnancy
was kept a family secret. It was not known, in the first half of the
past century, that there are more than 4500 genetically transmit-
table diseases to be concerned about. Adult adoptees of that era
find little or no medical information in their agency or court files.
The Child Welfare League's concern in their 1932 pamphlet
was for any known family mental defects, from the new theory of
"eugenics" or "bad seed" which could render the child
"unadoptable." From the 1930s through the 1960s, the mother's
unwed status, alone was the "bad seed" and sufficient reason to
retroactively close records to all parties, even to those for whom
the same records had been previously open. The 1940s journalists
Leontyne Young and Pearl Buck, both adopters, helped to propa-
gandize the "bad seed" stigma of illegitimacy. States began
retroactive sealing of adoption court records in the 1940s and
CWLA social worker pamphlets advised not disclosing negative
pre-adoption history—medical or otherwise—to the prospective
adopters.
Fruendlich and Peterson claim that some things "have
changed." What they neglect to mention is how the changes were
brought about. In 1988, AmFOR and Nancy L. Fisher, MD, MPH,
Society of Human Genetics, Seattle, Washington, began polling
the states and determined that adoptees' background informa-
tion, including medical, was not routinely collected. No state had
mandatory collection laws, policies or practices. Mandatory col-
lection of such information as well as mandatory disclosure of
adoptees backgrounds, was not made law in until the 1990s in
most states, as result of adoptee- parent efforts, such as AmFOR's
lobby. Internet-assisted adoptee-parent searches and the result-
ing televised reunions brought issues to the general public in the
1980s and 1990s.
In 1990, Carangelo/Schafrick v. ONeill/State of CT, (summarized
in Part I, Chapter 3) concerned this author's claim of "wrongful
adoption" and the agency's and court's refusal to transmit medi-
cal information post-adoption from mother to adoptee or adopt-
ALTERNATIVES TO ADOPTION 97
ers. The case also alleged several civil rights violations by the
Defendants, particularly the Children's Center, (a private foster
care and adoption agency) and Judge Glenn Knierim, (then CT
probate court judge), who repeatedly refused, in 1986 and 1987,
to transmit about my inheritable life-threatening cardiac disorder
and inheritable allergies to the drugs commonly used to treat it to
my son or his adopters. The "life threatening" aspect was sup-
ported by a physician's letter. Judge Knierim and the attorney for
The Children' Center wrote that they refused because no statute
compelled them to do so. Neither was it agency "policy." Neither
would Connecticut legislators pass bills urged by Yale Law School's
Law Clinic Professor Steven Wizner—bills that were presented for
such provision as result of the lawsuit and publicity.
The tort of "wrongful adoption" has been successfully liti-
gated when suits are initiated by adopters who have collected
large damage awards. Rarely has a parent reached to first base
with a suit based on an adoption agency's fraudulent misrepre-
sentation or refusal to disclose medical information, and the
Supreme Court has repeatedly refused certiorari to hear such
issues by adoptees and parents. Access to medical information
that could save the adoptee's life has been of no concern to
agencies and courts. Instead, the concern has been for agency
liability.
Passive "registries" do not result in transmission of informa-
tion unless both parties know to register for exchange of informa-
tion available up to that time. Typically, when disclosure of pre-
adoption medical information is made, it is excerpted and sum-
marized, not photocopied, due to agency paranoia that some bit
of "identifying" information may be accidentally leaked in the
process. The recipients of medical summaries which have been
"sanitized" at social worker discretion and interpretation, have
no guarantee that these nonmedical personnel understood the
full implications of medical terms and opinions.
At best, selective disclosure "at agency or attorney discretion,"
rather than concern for "full disclosure in child's best interests,"
is still the norm throughout the United States. Social work theory
and policies have fluctuated according to market demand for
"adoptable children."
The Introduction to Freundlich and Peterson's Wrongful
Adoption alleges that "in response to litigation initiated by
adoptive families, courts have recognized a duty to disclose known
98 CHOSEN CHILDREN
material information about a child's health and social background to
prospective adoptive families."
If courts and agencies have "recognized a duty," their actions,
overall, have shown little evidence of it, despite an increase in
litigious adopters, commensurate with an increase in fraudulent
domestic, foreign, and Internet-assisted adoptions. Freundlich
and Peterson ask "Should agencies automatically communicate
any information provided to them after the adoption has been
finalized?" Shouldn't the question be "Why aren't agencies auto-
matically communicating medical updates and conforming to
standardized policies?" Perhaps the answer is that there is no
profit in burdening an already overburdened system with such
"standards," when children can be adopted from around the
globe with only a cursory physical exam.
The Clinton Administration's "Adoption 2002" quota pro-
gram was designed to "double the rate of adoptions in five years,"
even though social workers are already overburdened by high
case loads.
Fruendlich and Peterson's "recommendations for practice"
includes a provision for disclaimers stating that "the agency can
disclose only known health and other background information"
and that the child may have "undiagnosed" conditions and "the
agency cannot, therefore, guarantee present or future health or
development of any child." Wouldn't the adopter do better
buying a used car?
The only real solution to prevent "wrongful adoption" misrep-
resentations is not more band-aid legislative amendments or
Acts that seek to partially restore some rights in some cases. The
only real solution is to restore full human rights by discontinuing
the practice of commodifying children—by abolishing adoption.
"The cage is a double degrader. Any bar, whether concrete or
intangible, that stands between a living thing and its liberty
is a communicable perversity, dangerous to the
sanity of everyone concerned."
—Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction
8
Alternatives to Prisons
Since the Reagan years, prisons have been increasingly
viewed as an ideal solution to a multitude of problems in a "one
cage fits all" approach. The "solution" to prison overcrowding, so
far, has been "smaller prisoners" (juveniles sentenced as adults).
Alternatives to prisons include funding for education, job-training,
decriminalizing and treating substance abusers and the
mentally ill, a nationwide ban on assault weapons, restrictive
handgun permits, adequate public defender system, public-pri-
vate partnerships for an open prison systems with rehabilitation
and oversight, and a prison index.
In early America convicted criminals were released from prison
with the same deficiencies that led them to crime, to then face
capital punishment unless "rehabilitated" through Bible study
and penitence.
Today, one million (of over two million in prison nationwide)
Are nonviolent, and offender tracking has become a growth industry
(Pro Tech monitoring of Tampa, Florida owns 97% of the world
market with 75 programs operating in 26 states). Rehab pro-
grams, on the other hand, such as drug treatment, psychiatric
counseling, education, and job training are scarce, and prisons are
overcrowded. According to a United Nation's study, illicit drugs
account for more than 10% of all world trade—bigger than
automobiles and textiles. Prison and the death penalty have little
or no deterrent effect for most criminals (according to Tittle, 1969
and 1980; Chiricos-Waido, 1970; Logan, 1972; Sjoquist, 1973;
99
100 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Bailey et al, 1974; Pogue, 1975; Forst, 1976; Blumstein et al, 1978;
Bores-Griffith, 1998; Justice Policy Institute Study, California
Criminal Justice Statistics Center, and Department of Corrections
1999).
In Prisons In Crisis (Indiana University Press, 1993), author
William L. Seike suggested that a non-institutional "community
corrections model" would include:
1. Greater use of intensive probation;
2. Employment training;
3. Alternative education;
4. Youth shelters;
5. Drug-alcohol counseling and treatment;
6. Youth service bureaus;
7. Expanded social services.
Abuse of Female Prisoners
In "Widespread Abuse of Female Inmates Cited," in the Los Angeles
Times (3-5-99, A-3), Sheila Hotchkin and Mark Arax reported:
The study, released Thursday by the human rights group Amnesty
International, cited unacceptable conditions (including sexual as-
sault by male guards) in prisons and jails for many female inmates,
whose numbers have tripled in the last 15 years to about 138,000.
California has 11,500 female inmates . . . and the two largest
women's prisons in the world.
In "Jailers Wrongly Drugged Them, Say Women Prisoners," San
Francisco Chronicle (2-15-93), Suzanne Espinosa reported:
More than forty women imprisoned in California are pushing to
overturn their convictions, claiming county jailers unnecessarily
medicated them with powerful anti-psychotic drugs that impaired
their judgment and interfered with their ability to defend them-
selves in court... Drugging for behavior control in jails is prohib-
ited by state law but the law is hard to enforce or even investigate
because jail medical procedures vary from county to county.
Abuse of Male Prisoners
In "Little Sympathy or Remedy For Inmates Who Are Raped,"
Tamar Levin presented the following report in the New York
Times (4-15-2001):
ALTERNATIVES TO PRISONS 101
While rape [of male prisoners] is accepted as a fact of prison life, the
subject has received little attention and legal remedies are rare. Few
prison rapists are ever prosecuted, and most prisons provide little
counseling or medical attention for rape victims, or help in pre-
venting such attacks. A 1996 law, barring the Federal Legal Ser-
vices Corporation from financing legal aid organizations that
represent prisoners, reduced the number of lawyers available to
litigate on behalf of inmates. That same year the Prison Litigation
Reform Act made it far more difficult for inmates to challenge the
conditions of their confinement. .. with two million Americans
incarcerated nationwide, only Texas, Ohio, Florida, Illinois, and
the Federal Bureau of Prisons [each] reported more than 50 sexual
assaults per year in response to a Human Rights Watch request for
information. But one study of inmates, in seven men's prisons, in
four states (in Prison Journal, December 2000) found that 21% of the
prisoners reported at least one episode of forced sexual contact
since being incarcerated and at least 7% reported that they had
been raped.
United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, dis-
senting against the majority, together with Justice Antonin Scalia,
rendered a disturbing opinion that drew a fallacious distinction
between official sentences and conditions within a prison. In
1983, Keith Hudson, a prisoner at Louisiana State Penitentiary,
was beaten by guards while in shackles as a form of "punish-
ment" for verbally quarreling with another inmate. Thomas
argued that although abuse by prison guards is "deplorable and
perhaps criminal," it did not fall within the eighth Amendment's
meaning of "punishment." The Justice Department, Human Rights
Watch, and the ACLU disagreed with Thomas. So did Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor in her stinging rebuke: "To deny the
difference between punching a prisoner in the face and serving
him appetizing food is to ignore the concepts of dignity, civilized
standards, humanity, and decency.'"
Florence Prison in Florence, Colorado, was supposed to be a
$200-million high-tech "model prison" to replace the infamous
lock down prison at Marion, Illinois which followed the German
Stanheim example of coercive "behavior modification units."
After a decade of stinging lawsuits and public protests, the new
552-cell men's "control unit" at Florence was near completion in
1994. However, instead of reforming the punitive Marion model
of total isolation and sensory deprivation, Florence Prison inten-
102 CHOSEN CHILDREN
sified it. Florence represents the cutting edge of social control in
response to political reaction to urban decay and a growing under
class—as we are seeing today—while the Federal Prison Indus-
tries (UNICOR) racks up millions in annual sales from cheap,
obedient, and stable labor, producing everything from office
furniture to guided missile components. (According to the 13th
Amendment, slavery is prohibited "except as punishment for
crime.")
Sentencing Laws
"Excessive imprisonment," including mandatory life sentences
for repeat property offenses, was ruled "cruel and unusual pun-
ishment" in Rummel v. Estelle, 445 US 552, 100 S.Ct. 1133, 63
L.Ed.2d 382 (1980). Yet today, there are still poor, illiterate, inad-
equately defended people serving life sentences in southern states
for first offenses that bring much lesser sentences in other states.
In "Sheriff Gets 60 Days to End Overlong Jail Stays," Los
Angeles Times, (3-13-98, B-5), Peter Y. Hong reported:
A federal Judge has given the Sheriff's Department 60 days to end
the practice of keeping inmates locked up-sometimes days after
their release dates, ruling that violates their constitutional rights.
Adoptee Noah Stone (whose story is detailed in Part III of this
book) was kept in Arizona State Prison several weeks beyond his
release date while Interstate Compact officials "processed" his
release from Arizona to California.
Adoptee Harold Williams (who is also discussed in Part III) has
been detained in an Iowa state prison more than a year beyond
his parole date, in order to comply with a mandatory rehabilita-
tion program for sex offenders under a retroactive state law. He
is subjected to repeated polygraph tests, chemical castration, and
psychological counseling in the meantime. Neither Noah Stone
nor Harold Williams have ever been counseled by an adoption-
oriented therapist.
Sentencing laws in the United States need to be reviewed by a
"uniform fair laws commission." Louisiana, for example, is said
to have the harshest sentencing laws in the country with the
longest sentences of "life without parole" given to 77% of the five
thousand prisoners at Angola State Penitentiary who are Black. A
sentence of "one hundred years" for rape is not uncommon.
Prisoners are made to pick vegetables on Angola's 18,000 acre
ALTERNATIVES TO PRISONS 103
farm for four-cents an hour. The name "Angola" derives from
Africa's Angolan slaves who first worked the same fields.
In "The Farm," (A & E Cable Network, 9-20-98), uniform
sentencing law in the United States means removing discretion-
ary sentencing from judges who previously could determine if
the punishment fit the crime and the criminal. The uniform "three
strikes" sentencing and other "revenge laws" are enacted by
politicians to simply satisfy an angry public.
Intended to punish violent repeat offenders uniformly, "three
strikes" is warehousing young addicts who steal for drugs, for
twenty-five years to life, if it is a third offense. The root problem,
their addiction and what caused it, is not addressed. California,
however, has recently passed legislation permitting courts to
order drug treatment rather than prison for people convicted of
possession or use of illegal street drugs. Because the law is not
retroactive, the majority of California's prisoners convicted for
drug use remain incarcerated.
Canada's uniform "two year rule" requires prisoners with
sentences longer than two years to be placed under federal
government jurisdiction; if shorter than two years, they are
confined to provincial government jurisdiction. America's mini-
mum, medium and maximum security levels are meaningless
under pressures of crowding. The "two year rule" distinguishes
between those incarcerated primarily for punishment or as deter-
rent and long-term, violent offenders that need to be incapaci-
tated for the sake of public safety. A uniform "under two and a half
year term rule" and appropriate probation programs would be a
start toward juvenile criminal justice reform in the United States
Boot Camps for First Time Offenders
NBCs Today show (11-11-96) featured Ray Little, a living argu-
ment against the shortsighted approach of scrapping rehabilita-
tion in our nation's lockups. Little is an ex-convict who came to
know both sides of prison walls, first as an inmate and now as a
warden. A street hustler since age 12, Little began robbing gro-
cery stores to support a heroin habit at age 17 and was convicted
of armed robbery at age 20 and served three years at Attica during
the Attica riots in 1971 when 43 inmates and staff were killed.
Law enforcement officials now say Ray Little is the best prison
warden they ever had. The William S. Key Correctional Center in
Bryant, Oklahoma has two groups of inmates: older inmates
104 CHOSEN CHILDREN
doing long sentences and first-time offenders sentenced to one of
the toughest boot camps in the country. Little has been success-
fully educating them in a minimum security corrections facility.
The Today show telephoned forty-nine other states—twenty of
them said it could never happen in their state and the rest said
"highly unlikely."
Abolish the Death Penalty
DNA testing, not available at the time that many prisoners were
wrongfully convicted of crimes they didn't commit, has vindi-
cating many of the 100 exonerated from Death Row today.
Famed attorneys Barry Sheck and Peter Neufieled, who founded
the Innocence Project, are leading the efforts to make DNA
testing mandatory in capital cases at state expense. On 11-12-98,
former boxer, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter came from Toronto,
Canada where he is a writer, teacher and head of the "Associa-
tion in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted" to tell Americans that
it's time to abolish the death penalty; he spoke before seven
hundred people attending the "National Conference on Wrong-
ful Convictions and the Death Penalty" at Northwestern
University's law school, stating "Wrongs can be righted. Our
presence here today is living proof of that." More than twenty
men and women in the audience were former inmates who had
been spared from Death Row.
In "Innocent Man Jailed 16 Years Gets Apology" Los Angeles
Times (6-21-96, A-22):
Geoff Boucher and Tracy Weber reported that Kevin Lee Green, 38,
was released from prison with an apology from Orange County
Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald for his wrongful convic-
tion with regard to the bludgeon attack on his wife that led to the
stillbirth of their child in 1980. Charges have been filed against a
suspect believed to be the so-called "Bludgeon Killer" who stalked
Orange County women in the late 1970s. It is likely there are many
innocent people on Death Row today.
Many nations curtailed the use of the death penalty long ago, as
well as use of corporal punishments. But the United States has
escalated its use of the death penalty, and corporal punishment is
still a subject of debate. To date, courts, prosecutors, and jailers
have made no systematic or uniform effort to determine the truth
of this allegation. Already banned in most nations as human
ALTERNATIVES TO PRISONS 105
rights violations are the use of torture and public degradation, yet
politically motivated closed systems in the United States perpetu-
ate corruption and brutality. In "Column Left," Los Angeles Times,
(12-14-92), it was reported that 105 of 2500 prisoners on Death
Row at the time were mentally retarded. The percentage at any
given time may be higher. These unfortunate people are lost in
the legal system and provide fodder for easy prosecutions.
Prevention, Juvenile Justice Reform,
and De-lnstitutionalization.
The first course of action should be to try to keep as many children
as possible from growing up under conditions known to foster
criminals. As statistics and the inmates who contributed their
stories have shown, much of the prison population is there
because of "adopted child syndrome" type behaviors from hav-
ing been abandoned and abused in childhood by parents, care-
takers and the "born loser" system. They also cite the lack of
adequate parenting, education, skills training, and jobs as the
major factors that impeded their survival by means other than
crime. Funding priorities need to be redirected from prisons
toward family services that help parents to parent and provide
day care for working parents, quality education, job-training,
employment, and mental health—for better parents as well as
better children—instead of toward more prison warehouses.
About 70% of offenders are illiterate (United States Justice
Department, cited in Los Angeles Times, 3-17-98, B-l). Absentee
students mean reduced funding for schools, so a district staff at
Roosevelt High School in the Los Angeles barrio district joined
the Truant Officer in hitting the streets to prod the worst offend-
ers back in line with threats of jail time and fines for cutting class.
Counseling has worked on kids who ignore threats, with in-
creased attendance the result. (Los Angeles Times, 9-23-98, B-2).
In letters to the Los Angeles Times, referring to a Times feature
"A Nation's Children Lockup," series on "Kids in Custody,"
( 8-22-96), Naomi Bradley complained,
There aren't enough "teen posts" (youth centers) in Los Angeles
County. Today there are only about five. I suppose the funding
taken from the teen posts was reallocated to build more prisons we
need more community hubs—playgrounds for youngsters and
space where teens can gather.
106 CHOSEN CHILDREN
In another letter, Barbara S. Deutsch said, "We spend more
annually to house prisoners than we do to educate our youth."
Ann Caroline Schuller wrote the Times:
We are taking a hard line at the wrong end of the problem by
imprisoning children whose first crime was being bom to unfit
parents, a dangerous hostile environment and a government ill-
equipped to provide cradle-to-grave support.
In the Los Angeles Times, (10-19-98, B-l, "County Policy On
Troubled Children Faces Court Test," by James Rainey), "Activ-
ists contend that hundreds in group homes or locked up would
benefit from living with parents or foster families."
According to Roberta Ostroff, in "Growing Up Behind Locked
Doors: A Look at America's Hidden System of Teen Control,"
Rolling Stone magazine, (11-20-86):
... These kids used to be locked up inside juvenile halls or "juvies."
Until the mid 1970s, that was a popular method of control for
Non-criminal teens who ran away, cut school, or careened out of
control. They were called "status offenders" and they accounted
for 40% of the estimated one million teens placed in the nation's
juvenile halls each year through 1974. That year/ Congress passed
the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. It ordered
states to de-institutionalize status offenders. The kids were handed
back to the parents, or so it seemed. Nine years later, in 1983, teen
behavior researchers at the University of Minnesota became con-
cerned that de-institutionalization had created a discriminatory
system of in-patient programs at private acute care psychiatric
hospitals" (for those who could afford them).
Nationwide, the majority of the disobedient teens coming into
private psychiatric programs were being diagnosed as having
"mood disorders" such as depression. Growing numbers of
parents have been dumping their kids into these units because,
unlike state hospitals, the units required no pre-commitment
hearing and health insurance plans offer limited reimbursement
for outpatient psychiatric care but covers up to 80% of inpatient
hospital bills. About 70% have divorced parents—their curse is
not madness so much as misery. Using an average from just 15
psychiatric hospitals that documented adoptive status, an esti-
mated 40,800 adoptees were in care. The parents may be imma-
ture, selfish, and incapable of dealing with their kids, so they bring
them there. Regardless of the diagnosis, they're all in great pain.
ALTERNATIVES TO PRISONS 107
For many, juvenile halls and psychiatric facilities were a spring-
board to lifelong institutionalization, which today means prison.
William Stewart, a former Los Angeles gang member, lived
with former Law Professor William Haney's family in their
Camarillo home, enjoying all the attention of a natural-born son.
In return, he stayed clean and avoided the violent crime that had
put him behind bars. For five years, with the approval of court
officials and parents, Haney has plucked about twenty young
offenders from behind the high concrete walls at Camp David
Gonzales, a Los Angeles County juvenile probation center in the
Santa Monica Mountains. It's Haney's answer to what he calls the
worst crime of all: society's willingness to let these youths leave
county custody and return to the troubled neighborhoods and
gang influences that helped lead them astray.
Five nights a week, with the help of law students who earn
academic credit, Haney is back at Gonzales. He's working with
ten inmates in what he calls Success Academy. For six months, he
teaches each set of students basic wisdom such as how to weave
a proper Windsor tie knot, write a resume or go on a job interview.
Haney also counsels young women at the California Youth
Correctional Facility in Camarillo/ men at the state prison in
Norco, and volunteers on Saturdays counseling at an inner-city
church and school. Haney still works eighty hours a week jug-
gling his law classes and reaching into his own pocket for most of
the $20,000 annual price tag for his programs. Penal experts are
staggered by his energy and commitment. The young criminals
are also impressed—he gives them an identity. He provided
typewriters and uniforms, khaki pants and collared shirt, and
offered each a priceless bit of privacy by bunking two boys in a cell.
According to journalist Ron Harris in "One State Gives Juve-
niles a Hand Instead of a Cell," Los Angeles Times (8-25-93, A-18):
In 1993, in Massachusetts only 15% of those sent to the state's
Department of Youth Services were held in secure, locked facilities.
By comparison, nearly all the juveniles under supervision of the
California Youth Authority were held under lock and key. Only 55
of every 100,000 youngsters in Massachusetts were in custody
contrasted with more than 450 of every 100,000 in California. The
results were that in Massachusetts 23% of those committed to the
state's youth services programs became incarcerated as repeat
offenders—contrasted with 63% for the California Youth Author-
ity. Despite salaries required for intensive supervision of delinquents
108 CHOSEN CHILDREN
in the Massachusetts "open system," the cost of running the
system was nearly half the national average. Each child received
"an extra layer of attention" under the KEY Outreach and Tracking
Program successful in Massachusetts, Missouri, Hawaii, Arizona,
Alabama and a similar associated Marine Institute Program suc-
cessful in Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South
Carolina, Texas, and Virginia—successful because it does not put
juveniles behind bars.
Adequate Representation
When children or adults are charged with crimes, it is imperative
that a public defender system that is not overburdened by impos-
sible case loads can be accessible to those who cannot afford the
high cost of an adequate legal defense.
In a special television report called "Day One" (6-16-93), John
Hockenberry commented on innocent people coerced into plead-
ing guilty:
For some localities, the contention is there is no amount of re-
sources that will provide lawyers necessary to help criminal defen-
dants, but it's the courts who will have to rule. The courts will have
to say at a certain point, if the people don't have access to lawyers
that they need to get a fair trial, states and localities are going to
have to pay for it.....
A rare exception in dispensing justice these days was featured in
"N.Y. Judge Finds Caring Can Help in Crime Fight," Los Angeles
Times (11-5-98, A-5):
[Judge Charles] Posner does not run a typical criminal court. It is
more like a mini treatment center. Most of those who appear before
him are accused of serious problems: substance abuse, poverty, or
mental illness. He tries to enroll nonviolent offenders in alcohol,
drug, vocational, and mental health programs. That way, he says,
they are less likely to end up in jail again... If the defendant pleads
guilty to the charge, Posner will place him in treatment. If he fails
to complete the program, Posner can jail him because he has agreed
to plead guilty... The hoped-for result, Posner says, is a taxpaying
citizen rather than a criminal who keeps returning to jail.
Drug Laws and Treatment
Patricia Brugman suggested in her letter to the editor of the Los
Angeles Times, "Let's make the drug market a government run
business and really start helping kids all over America."
ALTERNATIVES TO PRISONS
109
In The Center For Substance Abuse Treatment,
Communique newsletter (Spring 1993), the United States
General Accounting Office reported:
Nationwide, over 500,000 of 680,000 inmates in state prisons may
have substance abuse problems, but state prisons can provide drug
treatment to just over 100,000 ... Fewer than 20% are receiving any
type of drug treatment in prison.
The situation was not much better in 1996, despite
that more is known about the effectiveness of drug
treatment. In "Study Finds Treatment Aids Addicts"
(New York Times Magazine, 9-12-98, A-14),
Christopher S. Wren reported:
Treating drug addicts worked in the long term, a government
survey has reported…addicts who undergo treatment are less likely
to consume drugs or commit crimes to support their use, even after
five years. Adolescents were the conspicuous exception...the
number who smoked crack cocaine and abused alcohol actually
rose ... while adults tend to quit using drugs as they get older. It
also reported that women responded better to treatment than men ..
. The national survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration Services, surveyed 1,799 people five years
after their discharge from drug abuse treatment programs in 1989
and 1990. Their responses were verified by urinalysis for traces of
drugs ... powder cocaine users decreased 45% ... crack cocaine
users decreased only 17% ... heroin users went down 14%,
marijuana users down 28%, and alcohol abusers 14%. Addicts who
were treated with methadone, a synthetic heroin blocker, showed
the most significant drop of 27%. As for criminal behavior, 56%
fewer addicts stole cars ... 38% fewer burglaries ...30% fewer
prostitutes. Though federal spending for drug treatment increased
by 33% ... drug treatment was available for barely 52% of
Americans who immediately needed it.
Using Los Angeles' luxurious hotels to detox celebrity
addicts from prescription pain killers to heroin was
pioneered by Dr. Robert P. Fremont in the mid-1980s.
According to "Hotel Detox," (Los Angeles Times, 9-27-98,
A-l), Dr. David Kipper uses the synthetic opiates including
buprenorphine, clonidine, and depacote to detox the
wealthy at the Four Seasons and Peninsula hotels in West
Los Angeles. It costs $10-19,000 per week for detox alone,
not including the cost of the hotel, which can run up to
$800 per day. Then Kipper sends the alcoholic or addict to
the Betty Ford Center or Sierra Tucson. Ranked in order of
the cost:
110 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Malibu Promises - thirty days $24,000 including detox
and rehabilitation;
Sierra Tucson (AZ) - thirty days $20,000 including detox
and rehabilitation;
Steps (Oxnard) - thirty days $10,000 including detox and
rehabilitation;
Impact (Pasadena, CA) - thirty days, $4,000 including
detox and rehabilitation.
Despite being able to afford high-priced "quick fix" detox, Robert
Downey Jr. and several other Hollywood celebrities have had to
repeat programs; and some have committed suicide because it's
actually the long-term drug treatment programs that has shown
good success rates. State authorities say that conducting a detox
program in an unlicensed facility such as a hotel violates the state
health and safety code; strict protocols must be followed in a
controlled environment by qualified people who know how to
properly treat potentially life-threatening withdrawal symptoms.
California state law also prohibits the use of an opiate to detox
narcotic addicts.
Under Three Strikes laws, a third-time drug offender can be
convicted of "dealing," through entrapment, or "felony bur-
glary" in many states—though the theft was to buy drugs—and
receive "twenty-five-years to life" based on a past violent (and in
some states nonviolent) offense, or essentially because he has an
addiction. We need to decriminalize drug addiction, along with
mental illnesses, and take the profit out of the illicit drug trade by
legalizing drugs. Other countries have done so successfully. The
United States government has been a conspirator in the prolifera-
tion of street drugs and an impediment to legalizing even medi-
cally necessary drugs, as cited in ACLU's Spotlight national
newsletter. Spring, 1998:
Evidence of marijuana's medical efficacy grows daily. Tens of
thousands of patients report they have found that smoking mari-
juana relieves symptoms ranging from "AIDS wasting syndrome"
to muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis... At least twenty-
four professional medical associations, including the American
Medical Association, the American Public Health Association and
the New England Journal of Medicine/publicly support prescrip-
tion access to marijuana. Yet (the federal) Drug Enforcement
Administration persists in classifying marijuana as a Schedule I
ALTERNATIVES TO PRISONS 111
drug (unsafe, highly subject to abuse, and possessing no medicinal
value) and this classification leaves both physicians and patients
vulnerable to serious penalties... including imprisonment... The
ACLU's First Amendment challenge to Clinton Administration's
threat, to punish California doctors who recommend marijuana to
patients, is ongoing.
For the past three years, Douglas McKay High School, in Salem
Oregon, has resorted to paying students cash to turn in class-
mates who carry guns or drugs or who vandalize or start fights;
the "rewards for ratting" program has halved the number of
fights, tripled scores in standardized tests and vaulted the school
from last to first in its city rankings. Troublemakers are sent to
"alternative schools" (National Enquirer, 9-15-98, p.7). President
Clinton's plan to curb school violence was a series of initiatives
including a $65-million plan to help communities hire 2,000 new
police officers to stand guard at high-risk schools, which is 10%
of mostly urban public schools. Turning schools into a militarized
police environment and paying kids to "snitch" will not cure the
root problem of violent children. President bush has imple-
mented heightened security everywhere, in response to terror-
ism, yet crime and terrorism persist.
Separating Child Support from Visitation
More equitable court-ordered child support is needed which
encourages the noncustodial parent's participation in the child's
life, both for the child's best interests and to motivate the pro-
vider. The Media sensationalizes the wealthy "dead beat dad,"
but most dead beat dads and moms are shut out of their children's
lives due to inability to provide, not from an unwillingness to
provide. Punitive driver's license suspension and arrest does not
enhance ability to provide, further alienates the parent from the
child, and simply doesn't work.
In a Los Angeles Times article, (10-16-98, B-l) "Child Support
Panel Frustrated," staff writers Greg Krikorian and Nicholas
Riccardi reported that the Los Angeles County district attorney's
child support collection program was so rife with problems that:
An advisory panel proposed that the $100-million-a-year agency be
put into receivership. Although that extraordinary proposal was
not adopted by the county's Family Support Advisory Board, it
reflected the mounting frustration among some members over
112 CHOSEN CHILDREN
management of the child support program administered by Dis-
trict Attorney Gil Garcetti's office..."
Job Training and Placement Programs
The National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB), for-
merly the National Association of Private Industry Councils
(NAPIC), headquartered in Washington, DC, is alive and well
despite cyclical funding cuts to successful public-private sector
lob-training and placement programs. The former local Private
Industry Councils (PICs) designed training programs for jobs of
value and in demand in the community, such as the twenty-two
innovative and successful PIC programs this writer helped ad-
minister in Santa Barbara County, California, from 1980 until
Reaganomics funding cuts halted them in 1981. The programs are
run like businesses so they can be economically viable, providing
skilled workers to employers and providing employers who will
train workers on the job with "share of cost" incentives.
Corporate investments in business training and education,
such as Toyota's $3-million training program in Torrance,Califor-
nia several years ago, and a waste recycling business in Compton
with job training at Compton Community College, both had good
results. More programs were promised, but instead, Compton
became one of the most dangerous cities in the nation due to gang
warfare and crimes committed by those never reached by the
promised programs.
Community Support
YMCAs can help communities start literacy or sports programs to
keep youngsters occupied after school. Volunteers in the "Smart
Moves" program of the Port Salerno branch of Marin County,
Florida's Boys and Girls Clubs show young people how to teach
their peers to resist drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and sexual pressures.
In Marin County, twenty-five peer leaders who are ten to eighteen-
years-old hold classes in schools as well as at the area's five
Boys and Girls Clubs. In urban ghetto high crime areas, churches
members, nonprofit organizations and law enforcement can pitch
in to create safe pastimes in safe surroundings. Rescuing and
rehabilitating twelve-to-eighteen-year-old prostitutes and gang-
bangers who have "seen it all and done it all" doesn't necessarily
ALTERNATIVES TO PRISONS 113
require professionals so much as people who truly understand
what has happened to these children—people who care.
Pacific Palisades started a Safe House Program; designated
fire, pohce stations, homes, and businesses provide refuge and
help to lost and abused kids. Counties with healthy budgets but
not necessarily all cities within the county, may have Medicaid-
paid residential drug treatment programs, and 12-step "after-
care programs such as AA. But the treatment programs are
usually very short-term programs limited by funding and types
of programs vary greatly. There is a great deal of controversy over
which is effective and safe. Some are doctor-administered, certi-
fied by American Society of Addiction Medicine.
There are outpatient Methadone Programs. Programs need to
be accessible to the drug addicted as part of a free national health
insurance plan. Treatment alone may not cure an addict if the root
cause of his addiction is not addressed, in Part III of this book the
prisoners themselves tell us about some of the root causes and
what needs to be done for prevention and rehabilitation.
Restitution
Non-prison sanctions for some can be more effective for example,
by allowing an offender to work and repay the victim for
stolen property. It is senseless to warehouse indigent addicts in
prisons for nonviolent crimes such as stealing for drugs, while
affluent substance abusers can dry out in swank settings such as
the Betty Ford Center at Rancho Mirage, California (28 days,
$12,100 for recovery not including detox.
Gun Laws
Banning assault weapons from access by consumers and more
Stringent requirements for handgun permits, despite the opposition
of the National Rifle Association's (NRA) monied lobby, can seri-
ously reduce the violent crimes committed by children and adults.
Open Prison System
An open prison system for non-violent offenders, and, an individual-
ized system for those needing varying degrees of maximum security,
is needed in the United States, with rehabilitative educational and job
training components useful in the real world, and with accountability.
The few open "model prisons" in the United States, as well as those
in Scandanavian countries, have proven successful.
114 CHOSEN CHILDREN
As with Foster Care and Adoption, there is no uniformity of state
law, policy, and practice in America's closed prison system. The
executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government become
more responsive to the problems of imprisonment, since the Pelican
Bay/Corcoran brutality scandals, when the public begins to under-
stand the realities of prisons concealed beneath a veil of secrecy, but
the closed system continues to perpetuate abuses.
Boards of Corrections in many states have proven to be totally
ineffective in providing oversight. They police their own, shut-
ting out researchers, media, public officials, the public, and
avoiding scrutiny and accountability. The trade-off is that closed
prisons must deal with violence, corruption, racism, boredom,
and other problems exacerbated by overcrowding. The power of
the prison guard union and its legions of lawyers permitted
guards at Pelican Bay and Corcoran to shoot prisoners for sport
and still be promoted. They blamed under-staffing for inability to
control 4,000 to 5,000 inmates so they don't kill each other during
prisoner uprisings, but they do not address the root cause of prisoner
uprisings.
Although the cure for crime is not prison beds and juvenile
lockups but doing something about juveniles at the school level
before they get there, prison reforms are currently needed for
those in overcrowded prisons and for those who will be coming
into the system.
Sweden instituted the first "National Justice Ombudsman"
program that scrutinizes its justice system to recommend changes
and to guarantee that prisoner complaints and concerns are given
a fair hearing.
The open minimum security prison with rehabilitation is a
reform favored by prison abolition movements, and has attracted
a great deal of attention throughout the world. "Open prison" can
also mean detention instead of imprisonment (a sentence of six
months with a jury trial at the end to determine if a longer
sentence is necessary), short or long term probation, or shock
probation (boot camps), with rehabilitation as the chief objective.
The open prison that has been used in the United States in the
federal system and several states' departments of corrections has
been reserved for the white-collar offender or well known public
figure who is accorded the "luxury" of federal open prison
corrections. State prisoners who are young and close to release
date may serve their remaining time in open camps, minimum
ALTERNATIVES TO PRISONS 115
security facilities, or halfway houses. It should be used to a
greater degree with the non-violent offender who poses little risk
to public safety, instead of releasing someone from prison in
worse condition than when he came in as result of the excessive
punishment and brutality inherent in closed prisons.
Another form of open prison is electronic monitoring for
public safety, now available nationwide and requiring an "Inten-
sive Supervision Program" (ISP) implemented by police, agen-
cies, court systems, and correctional programs for such things as
DUIs, minor drug matters, property crimes, juvenile curfews,
home detentions, and house arrest.
Australia and America once served as penal colonies for the
British, who commonly sent the worst criminals to live under
harsh conditions in isolated territories. The former Soviet Union
used repressive labor camps in Siberia. The Tres Marias penal
colony off the West Coast of Mexico is a more humane method of
dealing with long term prisoners (those serving twenty years or
more). The colony offers a full range of vocational and recre-
ational activities. Families may have periodic extended visits.
Basic living skills are maintained and self-respect developed.
The English Probation Day Center offers certain types of
offenders training in social and personal skills for up to sixty days
as an alternative to custody. There is a strong relationship be-
tween court and probation committee for effective programs.
Germany allows judges more discretionary power—a move away
from "custody mentality." Fortunately, Germany also discontin-
ued its practice of using Death Row prisoners as living auto crash-
test dummies" in exchange for life sentences. (Real TV 11-3-98).
The Washington State Correctional Center for Women has had
a "Prison Pet Partner" program since 1990, which uses inmates as
trainers for guide dogs for the blind. This encourages the hard-
ened inmate who becomes a caring individual. In "Prison Moms
Get Chance To Read Kids Stories," The Desert Sun (1-2-98, A-9), on
mothers in a Lincoln, Illinois prison can send their children their
taped story book readings and messages of love.
Data Collection
The United States imprisons more people than any other country
in the world. Yet there is a lack of reliable data on prison condi-
tions and prisoners, just as there is lack of data for other closed
systems in the United States. Sentences have always been longer
116 CHOSEN CHILDREN
and harsher than for the same crimes in other countries. "Tough
on crime" legislation and lengthier sentences are "safe" political
positions because there is rarely opposition—as long as costs are
not discussed. In the Danish prison system, there is an openness
and an absence of defensiveness, which is not characteristic of
most prison systems.
Apparently, no one has ever done comparative national chart-
ing of prison population and crime rates. The 1998 Beres-Grifiith
study evidenced that California's "Three Strikes" law did not
reduced crime for several reasons, including the fact that more
older felons who have had time to accumulate "Three Strikes" are
in prison while younger felons have replaced them, undeterred
by "Three Strikes" law. According to William L. Seike, in Prisons
In Crisis, comparatively, there is less crime in Scandanavian coun-
tries with open prison and shorter sentences. Denmark has elimi-
nated prison sentences for property crimes and minor offenses.
A "crime index," known as the NICK computer database, has
been maintained by the FBI for many years. Also, a national
database for community notification has been created in response
to Megan's Law recently deemed an inaccurate and unconstitu-
tional reporting system. Now, prisoners are required to provide
their DNA sample to a National DNA Databank to help catch
repeat felons faster, which means prisons will fill up even faster.
Famed Attorney Barry Scheck told media he is concerned that one
day some person or agency will gain access to the DNA Database
for other purposes such as genetic discrimination—such as for
insurance "actuarials"—and type certain people as "bad seeds"
or "born losers." Scheck, on the other hand, is championing the
cause of Death Row inmates' right to government paid DNA test
evidence which may vindicate the wrongly convicted. The sys-
tem is already in place; its the use that is debated.
The technology is available and has been implemented to
produce a "crime index" to improve police capability to solve
crimes. There is no reason for the continued lack of a computerized
"prison index" to rate prison conditions in the public interest.
There is no legitimate excuse for lack of automated and suffi-
cient data collection on foster and adopted children—including
how many there are, in and out of prison—and on treatment of
prisoners according to their individual circumstances and needs
(with attention to adoptive status and foster placement history).
ALTERNATIVES TO PRISONS 117
Uniform Fair Policies, Practices, and Rehabilitation
"Unwritten policies" need to be replaced with uniformly fair poli-
cies m prisons. "Unwritten policy" was cited in "Inmate's Suicide
Indicates Pnson's Ongoing Problems," Los Angeles Times (12-19-98):
[Corrections Director Cal] Terhune acknowledged that prison
guards failed to activate their alarms when they watched inmate
Michael van Staaten hanging himself in his cell for eighteen min-
utes (instead of saving him) because of an "unwritten rule" at
Corcoran that prohibits sounding of alarms on the late-night first
watch. The rule/dropped after the suicide, was put into effect years
ago after an officer twisted his ankle responding to such an alarm.
Very few prisons allow women who give birth, even during
short penods of incarceration, nor to keep their babies; the babies are
adopted out by court order. Courts also have prevented inmate
abortions which would otherwise have been legal. Los Angeles
Times, (10-16-98, A-16):
(Ohio) Convicted Forger Plans To Have Baby: A woman convicted
of forgery who believes she was imprisoned to prevent her from
having. an abortion said she has decided to carry the pregnancy to
term. Yunko Kawaguchi, twenty-one, is close to the deadline
under Ohio law for having an abortion. Her attorney, Linda
Rocker, said she plans to sue Cuyahoga County Judge Patricia
Cleary. Rocker said Cleary violated Kawaguchi's right to have an
abortion by sentencing her to six months in prison when most
forgers would receive probation. Cleary also refused to release
Kawaguchi, pending appeal.”
At the Bedford Hills Women's Correctional Facility in New York
mothers and their young children participate in the federally
funded “Even Start Family Literacy" demonstration project-
one of only five in the nation where infants and pre-schoolers are
allowed to live with their mothers or visit overnight.
Some abolitionists prefer total obliteration of all forms of
imprisonment and penal sanctions. Others want to eliminate all
types of punishments and legal sanctions. Still others support
more moderate transition from a closed to an open prison system.
In Denmark, humane treatment begins with family relations
that are not based on subservience of children; the emphasis is on
developing an internal sense of responsibility for one's behavior
In Sweden, it is a crime to spank a child and there is some restraint
on exploitation of violence in films and other media
118 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Prison Survival Ecology means matching inmates with prison
environments based on the assumption that individual inmates
differ as to their individual needs and concerns. In the United
States, the emphasis is on punishment. Corporal punishment in
some schools, incarceration of juveniles or of "juveniles as adults,"
and harsh conditions as an added punishment in closed prisons
is intentional.
In Danish open prisons, the emphasis is on rehabilitation.
Prisoners are allowed privacy which is critical to congenial be-
havior between staff and inmates. There are no double or triple
ceilings. The cell is a room that can be decorated and arranged as
the single inmate occupant wishes; a small slot can be opened by
staff if necessary. Outside windows are barred. There are no
institutional gray walls anywhere in the facility and a sense of
responsibility among inmates and staff is fostered. Prisoners are
paid cash for their work, given food allowances, purchase their
own supplies. Each prison has a range of educational, vocational
and social programs. Staff support includes special medical,
psychological, educational, and social work services. Other open
prisons are based on the power of keepers over the kept, through:
1. Normalcy of environment—the inside approximates the
outside;
2. Synthesis—keeping prisoners in contact with the outside world;
3. Inmate participation in prison management;
4. Temporary nature—incarceration of less than one year for
nonviolent crimes with freedom of movement—no walls,
fences, towers, no coerced medications, treatments, cell
searches, body searches, forced sexual activity, and the
facilities are kept small and easier to manage by a responsive
staff. Inmates may leave and outsiders may enter.
The United States, instead of limiting the use of imprisonment in the
face of recidivism statistics disproving the deterrent theory, has
accelerated the practice to the point of severe prison overcrowding.
Prison policies and practices do differ—not only from state to
state, but also from prison to prison within the same state prison
system, often contrary to the American Corrections Association
(ACA) "Declaration of Principles."
Part III.
The Chosen Children
(Case Histories)
"As you get older, things that happened to you
30 years ago seem more real today."
Richard Dreyfus, in the movie The Crew
9
Introduction
America's Dirty Little Secret:
Adoptees' Outcomes
Adoption is fraught with "family secrets" . . . .and
alarming surprises. Little is known of adoptees' outcomes. No
one is surprised that 50% of our nation's homeless are runaways
from foster care, or that former foster kids make up a large
percentage of our nation's prison population. This would seem a
good argument in support of adoption. However, amid the hype
about "rescuing" children via adoption, less attention has been
given to adoptees' outcomes.
Most Americans would be surprised to learn that adoptees
comprise the majority of patients in private psychiatric hospitals
and in private therapy, and that adoptees are also overrepre-
sented in juvenile corrections and adult prison populations. How
could this be? Adoptees are "chosen children"—or so the
story goes.
After being institutionalized most of their lives, some habitual
criminals have decided to turn their lives around, because the
author helped them reconnect with the families they never knew
for the answers to "Who am I?" "Where did I come from?," and
"Why was I given up for adoption?" Most serial killers are
adoptees who never got answers to those questions. Adoptees
may have contradictory self images—one bad or evil based on
121
122 CHOSEN CHILDREN
fantasy about unknown parents, and one grandiose as result of
adopters repeatedly reinforcing the "chosen child" story.
It is generally known that children who have experienced early
childhood separation from one or both parents due to parental
divorce, death, or due to foster care placements, will have a
difficult time for several reasons. One reason is that they lose
connectedness with "someone like them" in personality and
appearance; they lose role models; they lose security. They also
experience a sense of rejection and abandonment, of being un-
wanted and unloved, no matter how loving and supportive their
substitute caretakers or adopters. Children even believe they are
somehow to blame for their situation.
The incarcerated adoptees who contributed their stories here
help us discover what "tips the balance" to cause some adoptees
to turn to crime and what makes their crimes unique to their class.
They show us how lives touched by adoption are more likely to
be ruined by loss of a known history and loss of contact with
biological relatives and realities. The fact of the adoption, how it
is handled in the adoptive family, and how it impacts the adop-
tee, is rarely addressed at adoptees' trials. It is addressed here by
incarcerated adoptees, in their own words, as well as from
excerpted news clips and other sources.
We know that an individual's resiliency is partly genetic,
and partly coincidental with accumulated traumatic events,
physical or emotional. Resiliency is fostered by a supportive
parental relationship from the beginning.
According to the Experts
"Attachment Disorder" studies by Dr. Barry Brazelton reveal
that, 72 hours after birth, a baby can hear, can possibly vaguely
see, and has formed "attachment" behaviors learned in the womb
from its mother's natural body rhythms. Adoptive and foster
parents, as well as their children, are at a disadvantage; no
amount of "therapy" can force these children to "attach" to
substitute parents. "Dissociative Disorder" and its underlying
"Adopted Child Syndrome" studied by Dr. David Kirschner reveal
the complexities of adoptees' dual identities and secret pasts.
Although Brazelton referred to ACS as "malarkey" in the
press, psychiatrist David Cooke said "Adopted Child Syndrome
is "simply a new name for a phenomenon that has been observed
since the 1950s." Indeed, in 1953, a young social worker named
ADOPTEES ' OUTCOMES 123
Jean Paton, herself an adoptee, published her studies on adoptive
families—the first studies linking adoptee behaviors with their
adoptions. Some ACS symptoms include pathological lying,
stealing, learning problems, and setting fires and running away,
and are further characterized by absence of normal guilt or
anxiety about one's deeds. (Laurence Arnold, in "Heikkila," the
Courier News, NJ, front page story 10-12-93).
Dr. David Kirschner coined the term "Adopted Child Syn-
drome" in his 1978 studies describing a set of eight behaviors as
underlying Dissociative Disorder in the adoptees he studied
("Son of Sam and the Adopted Child Syndrome," Adelphi Society
for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Newsletter, 1978). Twelve
years later, Kirscher maintained:
In twenty-five years of practice I have seen hundreds of adoptees,
most adopted in infancy. In case after case, I observed what I have
come to call the Adopted Child Syndrome, which may include
pathological lying, stealing, truancy, manipulation; shallowness of
attachment; provocation of parents and other authorities, threat-
ened or actual running away; promiscuity; learning problems;
firesetting; and increasingly serious antisocial behavior, often,
leading to court custody. It may include an extremely negative or
grandiose self-image, low frustration tolerance, and an absence of
normal guilt or anxiety. ("The Adopted Child Syndrome: What
Therapists Should Know," Psychotherapy in Private Practice, vol.8
(3) Hayworth Press, 1990).
Kirschner concludes his paper with "Finally, I believe that most
adoptees have the same emotional vulnerabilities that are seen in
dramatic form in the Adopted Child Syndrome, and that all
adoptees are at risk," yet he is careful to qualify that by claiming
that only a "subset" of "a spectrum" of adoptees have Adopted
Child Syndrome behaviors, without defining the spectrum in
which the subset occurs. As a result of interviews with over 12,000
adoptees, this writer believes it means "the entire spectrum of
adoptees," with extremes of acquiescence at one end of the spec-
trum, and of rebellion at the other end of the spectrum, in response
to adoptions' impositions.
Dr. David Lykken believes that "only a few" children with
antisocial tendencies were born with such a predisposition and
blames most cases on poor parenting—which can include adop-
tive parenting. As Betty Jean Lifton has written in Journey of the
Adopted Self: A Quest for Wholeness (Basic Books, 1994):
124 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Adoption disease... can lie dormant most of one's life. If it erupts
in childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood and is dismissed it
can subside into numbness. But it can stir malignancy in some
adoptees all their lives.
Dr. Patrick J. Callahan offers the most intriguing and probably the
most accurate assessment of the psychological dynamics of
adoptees—particularly adoptees who commit violent crimes. Dr.
Callahan supports the concept of Paleopsychology—a term coined
by Dr. Kent Bailey (author of Human Paleopsychology)
Paleopsychology is a theory in psychology that believes that in
order to assess human behavior and motivation, one needs to
understand human history from its evolutionary beginnings to
modern man.
Dr. Callahan is trained in both death investigation and psycho-
logical profiling and, for 23 years, has been in private practice of
Forensic Educational and Neuropsychology and child. Adult
and Family Psychotherapy in California. He has been a consult-
ant in high profile homicide investigations including the Jon
Benet Ramsey case and was referred to this author by Attorney
Leslie Abramson with regard to his researching her client, Jeremy
Strohmeyer, and other adoptees who have killed.
Dr. Callahan and Dr. Kent Bailey concur that adoption, whether
legal or illegal, is a dysfunction of kinship. Upon previewing the
Chosen Children case studies, Dr. Callahan states that what is
seen in many adopted children is the beginning of a cycle of
violence against both the adopters and strangers. It is Dr. Callahan's
and Dr. Bailey's view that the adoptee perceives many people in
his world as "strangers." This may even include his adopters.
This "stranger" effect is not so much a "syndrome" (as in Dr.
Kirschner's Adopted Child Syndrome, per se) as a
"paleo-psychological" state that comes directly from an uncon-
scious feeling of a lack of belonging, or, as Colin Wilson (and
Michael Reagan, adopted by President Ronald Reagan) expressed
it, feeling as "an outsider."
Further, Callahan and Bailey believe there may be a reaction
experienced by the adoptee, either as a child and/or adult, that,
as the most primitive wound to the psyche, is experienced at the
very essence of his/her humanity. By and of itself, the adoptee's
specific loss of the most elementary biological kinship, in the
process known as adoption, may cause paleo-psychological
ADOPTEES ' OUTCOMES 125
regression experienced as uncontrollable rage deep from within
his/her own ancient history, which, when focused, may find as
its end predatory violence deep within the self. Dr. Callahan sees
this borne out in several of the Chosen Children case studies
which follow.
What Adopters Can Do
Nancy Verrier, MA, MFT (author of Primal Wound: Understanding
The Adopted Child, offers the following advice to adopters, such as
• Try to understand the difficulty in growing up without seeing
oneself reflected anywhere;
• Tell child about adoption before she knows what it means;
• As she gets older, answer questions honestly. Don't speak for
anyone else (i e, [birth] mother);
• Never say: (1) “Your [birth] mother loved you so much she
wanted you to have a good home." Even if true, this makes
absolutely no sense to a child. One doesn't give away what one
loves, (2) "We chose you. " Remember: the child was first
unchosen" by the [birth] mother. Besides, it's probably not true;
(3) You should feel grateful.” Adoptive parents should be
grateful. Child would never choose this.
• Behavior is often metaphor for beliefs: feels stolen, may steal;
living a lie, may lie; people disappear, may hoard food;
• Recognize the core issues: abandonment, loss, rejection, trust
intimacy, guilt, and shame control and identity.
• Learn to understand child's anger as a cover for pain:
Empathize with the pain;
• Never threaten abandonment, no matter how provocative the
child becomes;
• Allow the child to be himself; Withdraw expectations which do
not fit his personality or abilities;
• Do not try to take the place of the [birth] mother She is real to
him/her. You are a different person and very important in his/
her life;
• Adoptees are often diagnosed with ADD. This is a result of the
trauma and has nothing to do with intelligence. Parents and
teachers will need patience;
• Child needs strong boundaries and limits, even though may
fight against them; needs to feel safe, contained, cared for.
126 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Helping professionals agree that early life attachments called
bonding, as well as separations from parents (dysfunction), create
a road map of how the child will perceive situations outside of
his family.
For many adoptees, having to live with a dual identity, one of
which is unknown, is too great a psychological burden. The child
may "dissociate," in the same manner that a physically abused
child disassociates as a form of self protection from pain.
Sealed records are a form of child abuse. (Sharon Kaplan,
BSW, MS, adopter, and Director, Parenting Resources, Tustin,
CA.)
Adoptee Behaviors Speak Louder than Words
The realities of adoption are described in "Appendices to
Statistics on the Effects of Adoption," (a paper for credit at
Georgetown University) by an adoptee, Ginni D. Snodgrass, who
found her father in prison and developed a relationship with him.
The complete Appendices can be found on Ginni's web-site at:
http//:www.ansrs.com/statistics.htm . Ginni writes:
Many adoptees do not realize that their difficulties, at least in part,
stem from simply having been adopted. All adoptees have effects
of their adoption experience. The degree of the effects and
symptomatic behaviors vary a great deal. There are vulnerabilities
shared by all adoptees. In those most vulnerable, a distinct pattern
of behaviors can be seen. Some have labeled this the Adopted Child
Syndrome (Kirschner).
Here are the facts:
Sixty to 85% of teens at Coldwater Canyon's Center for Personal
Development (former acute-care psychiatric hospital/school in
California) are adopted—30 to 40 times the norm. (Dr. Lee
Bloom, former Unit Director, Coldwater Canyon Hospital);
Twenty-five to 35% of the young people in residential treatment
centers are adoptees. This is 17 times the norm. (Lifton, BIRCO,
Pannor, Lawrence).
Adopted "children" are disproportionately represented with
learning disabilities and organic brain syndrome. (Schecter,
Genetic Behaviors).
Adoptees are more likely to have difficulties with drug and alcohol
abuse, as well as eating disorders, attention deficit disorder,
infertility, untimely pregnancies and suicide (Young, Bohman,
Mitchell, Ostroff, Ansfield, Lifton, Schecter). Adoptees are more
T
ADOPTEES ' OUTCOMES 127
likely to choose alternate life-styles. (Ansfield/ Lifton) Alarmingly
high numbers of adoptees are sent to disciplinary schools or are
locked out of their [adoptive] homes. (Anderson, Carlson).
Adoption is a psychological burden to the adoptee the difficul-
ties to the separation of the newborn from the mother). Not only
adoptees fail to escape emotional scarring from adoption,
according to psychotherapists Baran, Pannor, and Sorosky, who
identify parent and adopter grief from their respective losses.
(The Adoption Triangle: The Effects of Sealed Records on Adoptees,
Birthparents and Adoptive Parents, Annette Baran, Reuben Pannor
and Arthur D. Sorosky ). Kaiser-Permanente Health Care con-
ducted a study in 1979 of mothers who surrendered babies; 40%
reported depression as the most common emotional disorder;
60% reported medical, sexual and physical problems. Adoption
is often marketed as a treatment or cure for infertility, leaving
adopters with unfulfilled expectations and unresolved grief from
loss. But this author is concerned with adoptees in whose "best
interests" their parents were persuaded to relinquish them, and
in whose "best interests" they were given to strangers who
assumed permanent custody trough adoption.
Addiction and violence are often the long term side effects of
legally prescribed substances and of adoption. Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) has classified Ritalin (methylpheniate),
which is routinely prescribed to manage foster and adopted children,
in the same category as morphine, opium and cocaine. Littleton,
Colorado was the most notorious for doling out Ritalin to kids,
particularly in wealthy suburbs, as well as in public supported
foster care. The long-term effects are still being debated in the
wake of the Columbine High School shootings at Littleton.
Adoptees in the following chapters who became addicted
to street drugs and those who killed, had been prescribed Ritalin,
Mellaril and other mood altering drugs which led to their
addictions and which helped trigger violence against themselves
and others.
The majority of foster kids described as "freed for adoption" in
adoption catalogs and newsletters such as Adoptalk (newsletter of
North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) do
not hide the fact that the majority are on medication and usually
diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)—
A diagnosis which has come under scrutiny. These children are
undoubtedly severely stressed by separation from their families,
128 CHOSEN CHILDREN
which no drug can ameliorate. An enlightening CBS-60 Minutes
investigative report, "Indigo Children," found that the
restlessness of ADHD children is also a result of boredom. These
children most often have high IQs, their genius potential and
energies stifled with drugs.
In "Study Supports Food Allergy—ADHD Link" (Reuters
Health, 11-28-01), Dr. Joseph A. Bellanti, who directs the Interna-
tional Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Immunology at
Georgetown University Medical Center presented his findings
that children with ADHD are seven times for likely to have food
allergies than children in the general population.
Studies of large numbers of adoptees present a compelling
argument that adoptive status also presents a high risk for
suicide. In Psychiatric Illness, author Mary Bohman researched
adults adopted as infants. In her July 1979 study, 2,323 adoptees
revealed an over-representation of alcohol/drug abuse and per-
sonality disorders in both male and female adoptees.
Adoptees "dual existence" conflicts can surface when least
expected, disrupting whatever successes the adoptee may have
achieved:
Assistant U.S. Attorney, Daniel Perlemutter, fell overnight from
prosecutor to prosecuted, from accuser to accused cocaine addict
and criminal. His older brother, who, like Dan, had been adopted
in infancy, had been hospitalized for using heroin. Perlemutter felt
he was, "a fraud"—that his life "wasn't real" but was driven by his
"need to know his origins."
In The Journey is the Reward, author Jeffrey S. Young wrote that
Steve Jobs, who founded Apple Computer, said he felt an unre-
solved pain over being adopted. Jobs had gone to India to seek
enlightenment and to The Primal Therapy Center in Eugene,
Oregon, for a radical form of psychotherapy. He then experi-
mented with various mind-altering substances, including LSD.
Still obsessed with finding his origins, he finally hired a private
investigator to locate his mother. To varying degrees, most
adoptees endure perilous journeys en-route to their pasts .
In the 1990s, Dr. David Kirschner is quoted in the press as citing
HMOs' tendency for limiting treatment of very young adoptees
misdiagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder
(ADHD). Dexedrine, Cylert and the most widely prescribed
Ritalin, are given to youngsters who are "acting out" in response
to their inability to "attach" to their adopter. They miss their
ADOPTEES ' OUTCOMES 129
families or the feeling of connectedness. Why would HMOs
approve central nervous system stimulants (CNS) over psycho-
therapy—drugs that are believed to have played a role in adoptee
Jeremy Strohmeyer's rape-murder of seven-year old Sherrice
Iverson in a Nevada casino rest room? According to Kirschner,
the for-profit managed care corporations are opting for the less
expensive drug therapy. The drug industry is certainly not com-
plaining and has also rebutted claims that drugs prescribed to
children for disorders such as hyperactivity or depression, are
likely to cause fatal heart attacks as in seven unexplained deaths
recorded in the late 1990s in children taking such drugs.
In 1998, Dr. Bennett Leventhal, a child psychiatrist at the
University of Chicago, estimated that 6 to 10 of all children
have ADHD but only 2 of them were being treated for it. He
further claimed that fears about overuse of drugs like Ritalin
manufactured by Novartis Pharmaceuticals "are unfounded"
(11-10-98, Arabia Living at Arabia.com).
But now it is obvious that the number of prescriptions for
stimulants such as Ritalin and Dexedrine to treat ADHD, particu-
larly in young children, has jumped dramatically during the past
five years.
Over-and under-identification is a problem. There's no way to
make an adequate assessment in a seven-minute visit, so what we
have is a situation where teachers complain and physicians write
a prescription... This takes the kind of time and effort that most
physicians don't have and most insurers won't pay for." (Daniel
Kessler, MD, Director, Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics,
St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, Arizona, in
American Medical News, 11-20-00).
Novartis, the American Psychiatric Association, and a patient
advocacy group called CHADD-(Children and Adults with
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), were sued by several
hundred parents, charging that these groups conspired to
over-promote diagnosis of ADHD to boost drug sales.
We've heard from "the experts." Now let's permit adoptees to
speak for themselves ...
"Adoptees always have these questions.
When you're all grown up,
can't you know who you are?"
—Coco Brush, adoption searcher
SMITH, Kevin Douglas
#D-20544
ARMED ROBIN HOOD, SALINAS VALLEY STATE PRISON,
SOLEDAD, CALIFORNIA
Kevin, a 38-year old adoptee, is a burley biker who refers
to himself as a "gentle ol' honey bear" and has lived a fantasy life
of "devil may care" excesses that are Adopted Child Syndrome
behaviors. They include his past sexual exploits; robbing a
drug dealer (living out his "Robin Hood" fantasy)—where
there are drug dealers there are large amounts of cash; a shoot-
out with a SWAT Team during a robbery which could have
taken his life. Kevin's aggressive survival instincts while in
prison have saved his life. Kevin explains, "I always thought life
was about two things: possessions and sex; everything else was
just a path to that."
Kevin's story evolved from his correspondence which docu-
ments his reunification and reconciliation with the mother, father
and siblings he never knew. Finding them while he was in prison
has not only answered Kevin's lifelong questions but also evoked
feelings of healing, caring and hope.
The Search
August 20,1996, the first letter from Kevin Douglas Smith, then
at California Correctional Institution, Tehachapi, to Americans
For Open Records (AmFOR):
I was referred to you by a lady named Colleen Buckner, an adopter
and paid searcher who heads Triad Ties, a search business in
Colusa, California. I am incarcerated, as you can see from my
address, and am in prison for allegedly robbing and injuring a drug
dealer. The reason I'm telling you this is so I will not be prejudiced
in your eyes as some kind of creep which I most certainly am not.
I am not able to afford search fees that others have quoted.
131
132 CHOSEN CHILDREN
I was born on July 17, 1963 in the County of Los Angeles and
I believe my mother was in some kind of home for unmarried
pregnant women. I can't even be sure of my birth name.
I am registered with International Soundex (ISRR), and am
searching as actively as possible considering my current situation.
When I sent my information to Social Services in Sacramento, I was
notified that they did have my adoption papers but I was told in no
uncertain terms that I had no right to any form of information from
or about my adoption file.
I do not know why I feel the need to locate my adopters, other
than something is missing and has been ever since I was told I was an
"adoptee." Of course, I never said anything to my adopters, and
never asked the questions they said were okay to ask, because I could
sense it really wasn't okay to ask the questions. Does that make sense?
I was told I was "special" and "chosen" which are terms the kids on
the playground don't use, if you know what I mean.
Any assistance you can be to me in my search will be greatly
appreciated and any information that will help me better under-
stand the things that have shaped me into the person I am will be
appreciated. I hope life is smiling on you and yours and that luck
is your friend.
August 28,1996:
Wow! I couldn't believe the massive amount of information you
sent to me and the warm and personal feeling I felt from your letter.
For all I know, my mother meant "Good-bye" and not "See ya
later" that long ago day in 1963. I'm encouraged by your strong
feelings toward your son. He is indeed a lucky fellow.
You asked me if I have ever seen my adoption decree and the
answer is No. I can't even be sure of my mother's name as it was
told to me by my adopter ... I was never told by Social Services
that I have a right to certain non-identifying information.
You also asked me if I wanted contact with my parents if found
while I'm still in prison, and that would have to be Yes—I have a 31-
year sentence... six for robbery, five for the gun use enhancement,
20 for four five-year prior enhancements for robbing dope dealers
when I was a kid. Am I a drug addict? Nope! Never been really into
chemicals other than "grass" but I have been pulling capers for
money since I was a teenager. Is this related to adoption? I blame
no one, but have read stories and I did fight a lot as a kid over
name calling about my adoptive status. I did distance myself a
lot from normal ways of thinking.
KEVIN SMITH 133
October 22,1996:
Received my background information ... I do have an older
brother by two years. That is a bit of a twist. I hadn't really thought
about her already having a child when she signed off with me.
October 27,1996:
Sent my Application and Order for Approval of the Court to Obtain
Information Regarding an Adoption' which I typed using your PO
Box. Thank you for donating the $5 court filing fee from AmFOR.
December 5,1996:
I cannot believe how many Adopted Child Syndrome points you
struck on as I read your letter over again. I did indeed fantasize a
lot and am over-sexed. And yes, to being leery of abandonment.
I've usually been the one to do the cutting of relationships, if I allow
them at all
February 7,1997:
Received all the paperwork tonight from the courts that you sent
and I don't really know what to say. So much info in one fell swoop
that I am still soaking it all in and chewing it over. So now I know
my parents' names. What a trip! My being in prison may not be
exactly what she envisioned when she signed those papers. No
fault of hers where I am, but you never know how she will see it. She
may even think I'm some kind of pond scum come haunting. I look
forward to hearing if you have located anything new on them.
May 8, 1997:
I have written several practice letters to my mother and thrown
them all away as they don't contain the things I want to say. I have
also written one to my father and I believe it says what I will need
to say and it leaves the ball in his court. Perhaps I feel his should be
a strictly informative letter to him of my existence, whereas I seem
to have more or wish to say more to her. I brought up the subject of
my search for parents with my adopters in a round-about way on
our last visit by telling them I knew their names and I saw their
"frightened horses" look so I let it rest.
The First Reunion
June 26,1997, a letter arrived on card with an original sketch of an
angel, from Kevin's mother:
My Dearest Kevin, My love for you is eternal. It has been from the
beginning and it will always be. Upon receiving word of your
134 CHOSEN CHILDREN
supposed condition, my heart, soul and body is weakened. God is
the physician and answers my prayers always. Praise him, there
will be good in this somehow.
The love of your family is surely great and for this I remain
thankful to the Lord Jesus. Do keep your hopes up. I've submitted
for blood results and will send them as soon as available to me. A
smile came upon me when I saw your signature. Are you artistic?
It would seem so. In my heart and soul I sensed you to be seeking
me out for your reasons. May God be with you. For now, as far as
known, there is not this condition on my side. Much love and
concern. Love, Mom."
September 9,1997, from Kevin:
Dear Lori, I received my mother's letter, forwarded from you last
evening, and it blew me away completely. I have made a card to
send her as well as a lock of my hair wrapped in buckskin for a key
chain. I did not know exactly what to say so I just told her I am in
prison and my parole date, and that I was not in for anything
heinous. I thanked her for the greatest gift of all, "life."
Lori, I want to thank you so very much for all your patience but
even more for your friendship and also for the nice things you said
about me in your letter to her. I look forward to hearing from you
again... Did you see how similar her and my writing is?!"
July 21,1997:
Received a quadrillion page letter from my mom! She is so very
much like me that it is scary! She is a paraplegic from a car wreck.
I think my letter to Social Security Administration for forwarding
is the one that reached her (your idea). I told her to write you as
I think you two should talk. This is so neat, Lori! Just wanted to
get a card your way before the task of answering these million
questions.
August 30,1997:
My mother and I are getting on pretty good and talk pretty regular
on the phone. I think that my first thoughts about her paraplegic
confinement paranoia are correct as it has really increased. I just
ignore what sounds crazy and answer what does not. You are
probably right about medical people causing a lot of distrust on her
part, as it sounds as if she's been through a lot. I have heard from
my older brother, but my little sister and little brother have yet to
respond to my letters. What will be will be. Whether they accept or
KEVIN SMITH 135
not is kind of beyond me to make happen, and I really shouldn't
have to do anything. Acceptance of situations is a personal thing."
November 13,1997:
Wonderful to hear from you and I just don't know what I would do
without you always helping me out from photos to addresses and
just being a loyal friend. You're something else, lady.
I can't understand my mother's thinking, but I have noticed
that she seems very concerned with abandonment. Isn't it sup-
posed to be me who has the abandonment issues? I don't think she
realizes just how much I enjoy her company. I feel like I fit with her
pretty good even though she can't quite grasp the kind of person I am.
I have basically spent most of my life confined and, when I
wasn't, I was being a maniac which got me confined; and while I'm
not that way now, it has taught me so very much about everything
in life and the people in it that I feel I am older than her. Does that
make sense? How does one go about explaining that to a person?
(My adoptive) Mom and Pop and I had one single conversa-
tion about it all and it has not been spoken of since. I feel a need to
have a separation. Am I wrong? Each case is different but I refuse
to believe it is an either/or situation. I rather like to see it as a total
gain and what matters is the positive, right? I just set aside the
negative, just like I have my whole life, or at least since I got smart
as I aged.
I think a lot of the data you have on adoptees 'expecting people
to leave' is right on point, as I do expect it of people and am rarely
disappointed. But my loyalties never change without a very strong
reasons; why do other people's? I guess I will get for now and leave
you with my best. As you know I have a great big place in this
granite heart for you. Love & Respect, Kevin."
June 17,1998:
You don't know how great it is to hear from you again and you
sure brought a smile to this ol' Honey Bear's face. My mother still
writes occasionally but no longer overwhelms me since your
letter to her suggesting it was a good idea to keep enough space.
I have never heard from my sister but did speak to her on the
phone once when I called Mother's. What will be will be. We all
know where we are, right?
I wrote to all of the current "possibles" regarding my search
for my father, from the list you sent me, but the only replies I got
back was from a guy in Washington who told me he wished it was
true that I was his son, since his son died ten years ago. That was
136 CHOSEN CHILDREN
pretty sad 'cause I could tell his life was empty, or his heart anyway.
Heard from another who would have been about ten years old at
my birth, so that cleared him unless Mother really liked them
young in her day (smile).
Been locked down since January 16 for ongoing incidents.
Prison never changes for the better."
Crime and Punishment
As far as my case goes, the Fifth District Court of Appeals denied
it like this: "Petition for Writ of habeas corpus is hereby denied
without prejudice to petitioner for him to file it in the Superior
Court." That is a very rare form of denial and the interpretation is
basically as an instruction to file in the trial court and for them to
deal with their mess—or else they will when it comes back to the
appellate level—about as good a denial as could be since they
usually just say "DENIED!" Am preparing to file in Kern Superior
Court soon.
Please warn the public about the monsters they can expect
from these places and it won't be just anger coming but a psychotic
rage! You can't just place someone facing a wall in a cell for 24 hours
a day and expect that person to remain intact... Whether from
adoption abuse or imprisonment, they can't go on creating
monsters."
July 24,1998:
I have submitted a recording of the alleged victim of the
robbery I'm convicted of wherein he admits that he committed
perjury and that he was threatened by the Ridgecrest Police De-
partment and made to commit perjury.
I was convicted of robbing banks, supermarkets, jewelry
stores; assault with weapons; sale of weapons; kidnapping; armed
burglary. My arrest sheet includes much of the aforementioned
plus so many other charges I can't even recall but they were
dismissed. I was in a shoot-out with Tulare County SWAT back in
the 1980s and had numerous exchanges in the course of robberies
when confronted by law officers from stake-out teams.
I have no problem with people knowing I wear the patch of
Mongols Motorcycle Club as I have always worn it with pride but
people assume motorcycle clubs are synonymous with "street
gangs" or gangs period. There is no such thing as "motorcycle
gangs"—that's a Fed and media term.
There is a definite feeling of family among bike clubbers. Most
of them own businesses or work regular jobs as anyone else does.
KEVIN SMITH 137
We just have a loyalty to a family of like-minded people. We choose
our own rules over those of societies which we consider bogus and
controlling of the masses for benefit of the few. Most people
couldn't live by our bylaws because they are based in loyalty and
honesty (with each other) and the penalties are too severe. The
worst offense I can name in my world would be called "unbrotherly-
like conduct."
As for my behavior in prison, violence and criminality contin-
ued throughout my early prison years. But my entire character
grew and changed over the years. I can still be aggressive and act
in a decisively predatory manner if required by my situation.
However, I choose to try to do what I know to be good ... I'm not
saying legal, I'm saying good. The more laws a country has, the
more corrupt it is. That's what I think of laws. The seed of knowing
what is right and wrong is in all of us and I need no law or rule to
tell me what I know in myself.
Do you think I should pursue locating my father? I don't know
what I think of the guy but I still have questions in my mind that
lead me in that direction. No, my lack of real contact with my
maternal siblings, so far, has not diminished my curiosity. In fact,
I think the lack of anything really meaningful has spurred me on to
look in his direction. My thoughts are that the guy was a jerk but I
know plenty of gals probably called me a jerk also when I was a
young buck rutting about.
1 always thought life was about two things: possessions and
sex ... and everything else was just a path to that. Why is sex so
important to us adoptees? Of course, it's important to all or most
Homo Sapiens but adoptees have a steep slope they slide down
where the taboo is the norm. Adoptees are depraved from the get-
go and it's always fantasy becoming reality whereas 'regular'
people just fantasize. Adoptees take the next step and live it,
whether it's sadism or having a go with a relative. "Regs" think and
say "What?’”But adoptees just think “Oh, I guess I'm a bit different.”
Can you see all the questions I have on this and I know myself better
than anyone? I know most people want life to be reasonably
pleasurable but does adoption create hedonism? That seems the
best descriptive term for what my life has been.
July 30,1998:
I received a card from my mother last night and she sounds pretty
low. She thinks she is somehow responsible for my incarceration.
I told her guilt is bullshit from the past that we allow to infect the
future. All choices are one's own and we stand on our own feet and
138 CHOSEN CHILDREN
fall on our own faces. I don't know what further to tell her to
convince her that none of the past means shit to me. I don't think
she believes me when I do tell her. If she really knew me she would
know I don't live or think that way. Adoption confuses a kid and
fucks with his head bad. But it's not a blame game for the two
people that got the mental screws put to them.
I love my adopters and they love me and everyone tried to get
the best all around. Some things in life just aren't always fair, like
being a young gal with one kid and another on his way and barely
making it, and all that comes after. It just can't be a blame game is
all I think, Lori. At least, not between me and her. I believe this
prison is at 170% capacity right now and projected at 200% soon, so
you know what that means.
August 1,1998:
Received the Los Angeles Times articles on Corcoran and I know it
very well as I rode one of those buses from Calipatria to Corcoran
SHU and the "welcome" was indeed less than friendly. I know of
no buses that went there without the "Corcoran Greeting" taking
place on arrival.
I found it amusing that the greater violence I saw came from people
who walk free among you rather than from those living in here. It really
matters not what articles and scrutiny is applied to this problem
prison as it is system-wide, or should I say systemic. It is policy, not
the rarity they would have you believe. It is one's path to walk
through and many people and things in life are cruel and merciless
and at some point one must accept what takes place.
Reconciliations and a Second Reunion
August 8,1998:
My mother wrote me questioning, in a round-about way, if I was
really her son—as if I might be another of her conspirators. I sent
her all the papers I have that you got for me from the Sacramento
Court and told her I hope they help her. She has seemed sometimes
to be playing—at least she goes back and forth about it. I'm real sure
she has nothing of financial value so I can't see a legitimate reason
for a her to think I am after something unless she's having a
paranoid delusion. It would be comical if it wasn't a serious
symptom of her declining health. I just enjoy hearing from her
KEVIN SMITH 139
when she's "up" and accept the rest of the picture. I feel luckier than
most that I got to know my mother at all. There is good when she
is feeling good."
August 31,1998:
I actually received a card from my little sister and got to talk to her
and my older brother by phone for the first time since connecting
with mom over a year ago. Had a few laughs with them both, so
that was cool.
October 3,1995:
I talked with my father last night... but just for about five minutes
before I had to lock up in my cell. Our conversation was somewhat
strained but when I told him we could end it with this call if he
wanted to, he said "No, my life has changed and I wouldn't mind
getting to know each other." I said I would write him and he could
write me back. And that was it. Thanks again, Lori. I'll let you know
how it goes. Love and respect.
November 5,1998:
So Gray Davis is now Governor and our Attorney General is
toast—I've been fighting him for years. Lockyer is going to be better
for us as Attorney General. One of my retired bike club brothers,
"Jesse, The Body," just got elected Governor of Minnesota!
Yes, I told my mother that I am now in touch with my father.
She took it well and was even curious. She doesn't want him to
know about her condition. He accepts my collect calls—3 so far—
but I haven't yet got a letter from him with photos though he said
he would. We had a few laughs over the phone and I found out he
went gray at 27, so now I know where mine came from. No major
health concerns. I have two younger brothers. The youngest knows
about me and asked "Are there any more of us out there I should
know about?" He and my father and I laughed about that."
Author s Observations and Opinion
Kevin grew up realizing that the trade-off for being a "chosen
child" meant "don't ask, don't tell"— at least not in his adopters'
presence. Like many adoptees, Kevin searched in secret for
answers regarding vital questions of his identity and his place in
the world, m self defense, rather than denial, Kevin translated
what he knew he must not openly express into "adopted child
syndrome" behaviors—conflict with authority, lying, stealing,
sexual acting out, fire-setting, etc.—behaviors identical to those
140 CHOSEN CHILDREN
identified by Jean Paton, Dr. David Kirschner, and others who
routinely observed and analyzed adoptees. No matter who one's
progenitors are, no matter what they are like, no matter what we
may think of them, our need to connect with them, above all
others, is apparently embedded in our genetic codes. The adop-
tion model fails in its attempt to trivialize, even eradicate, kinship
because it is inborn. Kevin inherited no personality flaws nor
addictions from his parents that would explain his criminality.
Could Kevin have led a different, more productive life had he not
been "rescued" by adoption? In my opinion, he not only could have,
but given his grasp of things, I have no doubt he would have.
Although Kevin completed his search and has been in contact
with his mother, his imprisonment and her disabilities still de-
prive him of an essential element which created their bond—her
physical presence. Despite that their bond has transcended nearly
four decades of separation, and they apparently have reconciled,
can communication at a distance without face-to-face contact—or
even rejecting contact—provide healing? Michael Getty's case
history, which follows, may provide an answer.
"Adopted people are not allowed ancestory
because it might upset somebody."
—Sandra K. Musser, mother and activist
GETTY, Michael
#EF-240976
THIEF, ESCAPEE, RIVERS STATE PRISON, HARDWICK, GEORGIA
Michael's story highlights the basic human need for
"family." Many inmates have been abandoned by their families,
particularly those serving long sentences. Although Michael
Getty has a possibility of parole, he is serving "life plus 17 years."
Incarcerated adoptees, like Michael, have a sense of "double
rejection" and an even greater persistence to "connect."
Michael was convicted of armed robbery and an assault com-
mitted while escaping from prison. Stealing and running away
are part of Michael's Adopted Child Syndrome behavior pattern.
His prison address has made many afraid to respond to his quest
for information about his family. Although he has managed to
chart his extensive family tree even identified to the pall bearers
at his grandfather's funeral, no one in his family would respond
to his letters. His grandparents and aunt will not provide an-
swers nor put him in touch with his mother and siblings. His
adopter reportedly had a phone conversation with the aunt who
adopted Michael's sister, who, allegedly, had also been in trouble
with the law. The aunt didn't want involvement. Michael was
then left to wonder whether his mother and sister were aware of
the contact and whether they, too, are reluctant to know him. A
letter he sent to his grandmother was returned unopened.
Response from a woman willing to be a pen-pal was better. In
August, 1998, after five years of correspondence and visits, and
being in love, they were married at his prison, despite that they
did not yet know whether he would be paroled, and despite that
conjugal visits are not permitted. Motivation for prison marriages
ranges from needing someone to substitute for family members
who may have abandoned the inmate, to needing a place to go
upon release in order to enhance chances of parole. Companion-
141
142 CHOSEN CHILDREN
ship, genuine affection, love and a sense of stability and future
have resulted.
A feature on prison marriages (Los Angeles Times, October 18,
1996, front page and A-24), cited prison marriages of notorious
individuals on Death Row, such as Richard Ramirez (the "Night
Stalker"), and the fact that the women came to them after they
were imprisoned, despite the unlikelihood of their release.
California's Department of Corrections (CDC) keeps no system-
wide statistics on prison marriages. No study has tracked mar-
riages begun in prison to see how they fare over time. Among
psychologists, it's widely accepted that people who had close
relationships beforehand are more likely to endure than those
who met while one was behind bars. The only known survey,
conducted informally over a decade ago, when California's in-
mate population was only 59,000, yielded 937 such weddings,
although about 1,800 prison marriages were estimated to be the
average rate. TV talk show host. Jerry Springer, once advised "It's
maybe okay to date someone who's been in jail, but it's not okay
to date someone because he's been in jail." ("I Can't Stop Dating
Convicts," Jerry Springer Show, 10-21-96).
In 1991, Death Row inmates in California filed a suit to father
children, claiming a violation of rights. Some inmate spouses,
even their parents, wanted children and grandchildren, or ge-
netic immortality, and no California law prevented artificial
insemination by an inmate. A District Attorney stated she feared
perpetuation of a "bad seed." On 9-13-01, the U.S. Court of
Appeals decided to support "an inmate's fundamental right" to
Procreate. But on 11-19-02 the Justices rejected 3-strikes lifer
inmate at Mule Creek State Prison in California, William Gerber’s,
appeal, concluding that inmates lacked the same basic rights as
others. Gerber’s lawyer, Theresa Zuber, argued that the prison’s
refusal to allow Gerber to “send his semen out of the prison” to
his wife, Evelyn, violated his rights to due process of law, uqual
protection of the laws and his right against cruel and unusual punish-
ment. Many state inmates are permitted conjugal visits with their
spouses but this privilege is denied to those serving life terms.
A Los Angeles Times Magazine report (6-14-92, p.16) stated
“70% of imprisoned minors have spent at least part of their lives
without fathers." With that fact in mind, the "bad seed" theory
has merit—not due to genetics but due to perpetuation of father-
less children. Most of these death row lawsuits were denied as
"frivolous" or dropped. "Lizzie's Law," in Massachusetts and
New York, was the first to prohibit violent felons who killed their
wives from suing for visitation with their children; 17 states later
enacted similar laws.
Although virtually any inmate may wed, eligibility for family
visits is restricted to those who are in work or training programs
MICHAEL GETTY 143
and who have avoided disciplinary problems. Death Row inmates,
and prisoners in close custody, are ineligible, which in effect
is additional punishment while family visits are considered
a management tool, an incentive for prisoners to function properly
in prison.
The Search
October 21,1997, letter from Michael L. Getty to Americans For
Open Records (AmFOR), when he was at Smith State Prison,
Glennville, GA:
I am an adoptee, birth name Max Leroy Robinson, born July 4,1966
and adopted when I was 7 years old on December 17,1973. I'm
working toward petitioning the Sutter County Court in California
for access to my records. I've spent some time putting together a file
of information and names relating to my natural family, and, while
I have been somewhat successful at this, none of the people I have
located wish to have contact with me. I'd also like to locate my father.
I've been doing this adoption search project long enough to
know that the "real" help comes from people like you who, for the
most part, invest your own time, and often resources, to help
adoptees and parents put their lives together in a way that the rest
of the world can never understand. I went about this as if it were a
genealogy project, Lori, because none of the family members I've
contacted will respond. I figure that, if I keep tracking, sooner or
later I'll find someone willing to talk to me. Most of my information
comes from public libraries and county recorders' offices, very
little of which I've had to pay for.
January 5,1998:
With just a couple of letters, Lori, you've provided me with more
information at one time than I've ever had in the four years of my
project. I can't tell you how much I appreciate what you're doing
for me. "Thank you" doesn't really cover it.
I can't begin to describe the changes that I've made in my life
over the last four years of my search, through the small discoveries
I've made. I've given substance to ghosts that have haunted me for
as long as I can remember. It doesn't matter that the people I've
tried to contact chose not to write back or made it clear that they
didn't want any contact. The act of reaching out, as unsuccessful as
144 CHOSEN CHILDREN
it was, has allowed me to overcome 31 years of guilt and low self-
esteem, and made me realize that whatever problem led to my
being adopted, I wasn't to blame.
July 8,1998:
Things for me are going good, Lori. I'm about to get married, to
the woman who's been my rock for the last five years. I've never
been married and don't have any children, known or unknown.
Opening my heart to her as I have is probably the most coura-
geous thing I've ever done in my entire life and sometimes it
scares hell out of me. When I feel like that, I can call her and just
the sound of her voice gives me strength. She understands me in
ways no one else could.
After we're married, we're going to try and get me transferred
further North so that she doesn't have to drive so far to come see
me. Also, we're going to campaign to get me released on parole.
July 28,1998:
I know who my mother is and who my father was. I know I have
a brother and sister but don't know anything about them. I know
a lot about my mother's relatives. Is it too much to ask for answers
to what I don't know and perhaps some family photos? Hell, I'd
like to meet my grandmother at least once before she dies and
it's hard for me to believe that she wouldn't want to at least
know about me.
I no longer have a relationship with my adoptive family, Lori,
and I'm not exactly sure when it died. I've lost two families in my
life—the one that gave me away and the one that drove me away.
That's why my search is so important to me. It's my heritage as
much as it's theirs and I don't think anyone can justifiably keep it
from me.
I don't intend to, nor have a right to, force my way into the lives
of people who don't want me there, but I'm entitled to know my
heritage and have an opportunity to find some closure.
A Prison Marriage
August 15,1998:
I'm getting married August 21—this Friday, Lori. Yes, I still have
time to serve afterward. I started my eleventh year last month and
don't come up for parole until July 2003.
We met five years ago. A friend of hers was writing to a friend
of mine and kept asking her if she would like to write someone. She
MICHAEL GETTY 145
kept saying "No!" but finally said "Yes!" just so her friend would
quit asking. We hit it off. I was then at the Georgia State Prison at
Reidsville and kinda wild but all that's changed since I met her. In
the article you sent on "Prison Marriages," one of the guys said a
relationship with a woman 'changes the way you think.’ That's
true, Lori, but I think that applies only to those relationships that
are built on love, desire and need.
She has helped to change not only the way I look at things in
my everyday activities, but also the way I look at the future. Until
5 years ago, my view extended only to my getting out—no goals,
no plans, no ideas. Now, I constantly look at the future for its
potential. I'm just different in some fundamental way and there's
no way to explain it.
On Friday, I'll also be meeting one of my fiance's daughters
and one son. I think I'm more nervous about that than anything else
(smile). Along-time friend, an Assemblies of God pastor, is coming
down to perform our wedding. None of my family will be there...
not because they have a problem with me getting married, but
because I've been pretty much an outcast. It used to bother me but
I decided that was a waste of time, so I chose to get on with my life.
I let them know, and that they are welcome, but no one responded."
Crime and Punishment
September 23,1998:
I began at age 16 by stealing a car to run away, then burglaries,
escape, more thefts. I was arrested in July, 1988 for armed robbery
and burglary in Georgia. In September 1988,1 was transferred from
the Houston County Jail to the Beckley County Jail, and after seven
days there I escaped by assaulting an officer with a knife. I was re-
arrested only three days later and sent back to Houston County Jail.
My life sentence was for armed robbery. The concurrent 10 year
sentence was for the burglary. The escape earned me another
consecutive five year sentence and the assault on the police officer
added 17 years, concurrent to the five-year sentence but consecu-
tive to the life sentence. Total: Life plus 17 years. I am eligible for
parole but was denied parole on August 19,1995. My next sched-
uled date is July 2003.
October 7,1998:
I've been transferred and moved to Rivers State Prison in central
Georgia, a little closer to my wife. We were married August 21.
146 CHOSEN CHILDREN
October 18,1998:
Things are not going well at the moment. I'm about to enter what
may turn out to be a protracted battle with administration here at
Rivers State Prison. As you may recall, I requested transfer here so
that I could be closer to home and so my wife and I could visit more
often. Now I'm told this prison has a policy that prohibits visitation
with anyone who is on probation or parole... despite that the same
Georgia Department of Corrections authorized our marriage at
Smith State Prison which authorized visitation with full knowl-
edge of my wife's parole status. And I'm still waiting for your
previous mail to be forwarded to me from Smith Prison.
October 21,1998, AmFOR provided Michael Getty with a letter,
copied to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Georgia
at Atlanta and ACLU's Prisoner Project, Washington, DC, detail-
ing Getty's situation and calling for uniform, fair prison policies.
The letter suggested that Rivers State Prison can reconsider and
grant visitation or grant transfer "if transfer will permit Getty to
reinstate the authorization for spousal visits."
October 30,1998: NBC's Dateline aired the story of a woman
who complained that a prisoner she knew had obtained her
current address by making a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request. The prisoner wrote her inquiring about their child. The
state of Virginia has passed a law prohibiting prisoners from
accessing any public information via the FOIA. The state of New
York had been debating legislation that limits prisoners' use of
that state's FOIA to only information about themselves for medi-
cal or legal reasons. Jenny Gainsborough, spokesperson for the
ACLU Prisoner's Project, opposes laws removing FOIA rights
from prisoners, m the prisoner hierarchy, having access to infor-
mation is power, particularly for a "jail house lawyer" like
Michael Getty.
November 1,1998:
My mail has caught up. Thank you for the letter copied to ACLU
about my visiting problem which I think will cease to be a problem
shortly. It always helps to let these people know that we in here are
not alone in the world. I wrote a letter to my mother and had my
wife mail it c/o Social Security. I'll also try the directory listings you
sent as possibly her or her relatives' address. Maybe something will
come of it.
In a letter dated November 6,1998, Debbie Seagraves, Executive
Director, ACLU Foundation of Georgia, commented on Michael
Getty's problems: "There are many cases of real injustice which
MICHAEL GETTY 147
we unfortunately cannot accept." After much "red tape," Mr. and
Mrs. Michael Getty shared a Christmas visit at Rivers State
Prison. At this writing, Michael reports that he has still had no
response from any relative, but that he and his wife are happily
celebrating their third wedding anniversary as they count down
the day until his parole hearing in 2003.
Author’s Observations and Opinion
Statistically, only 1-2% of mothers who were found by their adult
adopted children refused contact with them according to both
private and state-run reunion, registries, many having more than
100,000 annual registrants on their rolls. The preponderance of
mothers who have been searching for their adult children would
seem to refute the allegation that mothers require anonymity.
Many 1950s and 1960s relinquishing mothers were blindfolded
during labor and delivery to "prevent maternal bonding," yet
decades later they re-united with their children, and are living
proof of that failed experiment. But what about Michael's mother?
Is it possible that the child bonded with the mother but the mother
did not bond with the child?
There is evidence that, for the mother, bonding does not
always occur at the moment of birth. The small percentage of
relinquishing mothers who accept the adoption industry's
permission to "legally abandon" their children and never look
back may have had a biological "short circuit"—perhaps
postpartum depression or separation trauma's assault on
their hormonal response at the time they relinquished, which
would explain the few who have dispassionately responded,
"I do not feel I am his mother.
Michael persists in "reaching out," despite that each unan-
swered letter brings increasing risk of further "rejection." Such
persistence is not uncommon among adoptees. Michael was not
a party to his relinquishment nor to his adoption; he knows he
cannot force a relationship but having experienced the same
phenomenon as the non-adopted—the bonding of a child to his
mother—he is relentless.
Mary Louise Foess, an elementary school teacher, says she
"never felt human or connected in any way" ... that it was "like
a cord had been severed and propelled me into outer space."
Mary's mother was one of the 1-2% who refused to risk re-union
and would not provide any information such as family medical
148 CHOSEN CHILDREN
history, or the father's name, to her relinquished daughter. Like
Michael, Mary viewed that "rejection" as just another roadblock
rather than as a dead end. Mary, whose ancestors were mostly
annihilated in the Armenian Genocide, persisted in her search
and located every one of her relatives, both living and dead,
"to preserve my heritage for my children and grandchildren."
Michael and Mary are living proof of the old Italian saying
"blood seeks blood," and also that the birth bond can survive
both adoption separation and lack of reciprocal bonding by
their mothers.
Michael finally realized he "wasn't to blame" for his relin-
quishment, a feeling echoed by many adoptees who believe
they were "rejected" at birth. His genealogical search is more
than a vicarious glimpse into what could have been or
defiance against what cannot be." Michael and Mary are
responding to a primal instinct that seeks a natural order which
brings them peace and healing.
What about adult adoptees who have been physically, sexu-
ally and emotionally abused, in addition to being abused by an
adoption system determined to permanently sever the birth
bond? How do they achieve healing? Harold Williams' case
history, which follows, provides some surprising answers.
"Father Lavin never knew his natural parents.
He was raised in foster homes."
—from the movie, Boys of St. Vincent,
true story of a child molesting priest.
Williams, Harold Duane - # 080806
Child Molester, Civil Commitment Unit Oaksdale, Iowa
Harold Williams' story was compiled from his letters
while incarcerated at Anamosa State Prison and at Iowa's new
Civil Commitment Unit. He offered, early on, to "be honest," and
he disclosed the nature of his offenses, his feelings about his
offenses, and probable causes—after 3-1/2 years of correspon-
dence in which he was not pressed for details until a mutual trust
had been built as result of assisting his search for his brother.
Sex offenders, including child molesters, are perhaps the most
misunderstood of all criminals. Harold Duane Williams is in-
cluded in this collection of incarcerated adoptee stories for several
reasons:
1. He is an adoptee and possesses all eight Adopted Child
Syndrome behaviors.
1. He is typical of child molesters who, themselves, have
been victims of child molesters.
3. His sex offenses began when he was a very young,
essentially parentless child, who was taught no other
example of behavior.
4. Although he is not a rapist—his convictions were "for
touching young girls" ages 8 to 14—he has been behind
bars for more than 14 years, has undergone psychiatric
and rehabilitative treatment and passed numerous
polygraph tests successfully.
5. Despite that his prison determined he is a low risk to the
community as result of his rehabilitation, and perhaps
because the public has been led to believe that child
molesters cannot rehabilitate, he is subject to civil
commitment under new retroactive Iowa laws.
149
150 CHOSEN CHILDREN
6. He is subject to Megan's Law on community notification
intended for offenders who are likely to repeat their
offenses, which could adversely affect his chances of
leading a normal life when released.
7. He was voluntarily chemically castrated by high, long-term
doses of testosterone, despite that libido
is not the impetus for sexual offenses.
Of all crimes, crimes against children are most repulsive to
society because children are small, innocent, and defenseless
against an adult predator. Adults who prey on children often
abuse their positions of authority in order to gain the trust of
unsuspecting children and society.
In March, 2002, the Catholic Church finally acknowledged and
apologized for the sexual abuse of young boys by some of the
unknown numbers of priests whom the church previously pro-
tected. Just as rape is about control of the victim, rather than about
sex, pedophilia has to do with issues within the psyche of the
pedophile, rather than sexual urges per se. A pedophile may
blame the victim, claiming the child was seductive, and even
though some very young girls are innocently seductive; the point
that seems to escape the pedophile is that it's always the respon-
sibility of the adult to protect the child. There is great debate on
whether they should be treated as mentally ill—able to rehabili-
tate—or simply incarcerated, as they have been. Those released
on parole are subjected to community harassment or worse.
There are about 20,000 "sex offenders" in Los Angeles County
alone (CBS Report, 9-14-98). Of those, 15,000 could be looked up
on the internet by the general public, under Megan's Law, to
determine whether a sex offender resides in a community. Al-
though California has had some form of "reporting" law since
1944, the primary change brought about by the Megan's Law,
which a federal court upheld in 2000, and which Hawaii struck
down as unconstitutional in 2001, is that now some (but not all)
of the people can be disclosed to the public under certain circum-
stances. Criteria and procedures for identifying sexual offenders
differ significantly from state to state. In 2001, studies revealed
that offender registration and notification systems nationwide
were found to be inaccurate.
"Tough on crime" rhetoric has created vigilantism without full
understanding, or in total disregard, of the wide range of ages
and behaviors and treatment programs that differentiate a violent
predator who is likely to repeat his acts from someone who poses
HAROLD WILLIAMS 151
little risk of repeating his offense and who is not a danger to the
community. There has been a great deal of misinformation and
paranoia with regard to sex offenders, particularly child molest-
ers who are despised even by their fellow inmates who may
harass, assault, or kill them.
In his book, No Mercy, former FBI agent John Walsh asks why
there should be any resistance to treating the child molester as a
dangerous criminal. None of the “America's Most Wanted” criminals
in No Mercy had been actually profiled as to what may have been
the root cause of their behaviors. Instead there's a detailing of the
crimes, how they were committed, modus operandi, and focus was
on the victims. Walsh's own young son Adam was abducted, molested,
and killed; the perpetrator was never found. Understandably,
Walsh says he has dedicated his life to finding missing children.
But he is obsessed with "catching the bad guys" whom he calls
"losers," and asks the public's help through his TV show America's
Most Wanted. Although viewers are asked only to report any
sightings of the "Wanted" and are warned not to approach the
armed and dangerous, media has become an accomplice to
Walsh's personal vengeance. Programs like America's Most Wanted,
Cops, and the like, cast the accused or convicted as less than
human, deserving of "no mercy," and even deserving ridicule
and maltreatment by their captors. Would-be vigilantes, even
children, get the wrong message. These programs are not inter-
ested in why a person has ant-isocial behaviors nor what can be
done to curb or cure them. They are interested in "getting even."
It is in this atmosphere that victims like Harold Williams attempt
to survive.
The Law
Iowa, where Williams is incarcerated, replaced the judges'
discretion with mandatory sentencing that was previously
reserved for repeat offenders. Teenagers having consensual
sex are subject to statutory rape laws because teenagers are
"incompetent" under the law to consent. Add "mandatory
sentencing" to "statutory rape" and a teenage boy can be
imprisoned and his life ruined. Experimentation between
young girls and young men normally occurs at their peak
reproductive ages has always been normal.
In the past, some courts offered child molesters and rape
suspects a "choice" of surgical castration or life imprisonment
152 CHOSEN CHILDREN
without possibility of parole ("Judge Cancels Approval of Rape
Suspect's Castration," Los Angeles Times, 3-17-92, A-13). Contro-
versy and public outrage often resulted, particularly if racial
discrimination was at issue. In the aforementioned Times article
about a Houston case, the suspect was Black. Sociologists and
criminologists cite that the barbaric act of surgical castration, as
well as plea-bargained, court ordered chemical castration, is not
only unconstitutional as a type of double jeopardy, but falls short
of addressing sex crimes as a form of addiction. Addictions
require voluntary treatment, which Harold Williams has aggres-
sively pursued since early 1992. But sex addictions originate in
the mind, not the penis. So surgical or chemical castration is
neither a cure nor a deterrent, just an appeasement for the
religious right.
An example of sex offender hysteria is the case in Iowa of
Daniel Emerson Coberly, 18:
Coberly, who is mildly retarded, has had his life ruined over a
relatively minor incident. The court officials said Coberly repeat-
edly touched an 18-year-old woman at school after school officials
had told him not to in May 1997. Coberly touched the woman's
breasts and buttocks for 30 seconds, according to court documents.
"One of the calls said if we didn't get that "predator" out of here,
they'd bum him out!" Coberly had hoped to forget the past and
start over at Southeast Warren High School. He wanted to go to
football games and the prom with his girlfriend. He can't even get
a job because he is on a sex offenders list. What Danny did was
wrong and he should be punished but not to this extent." (Maggie
O'Brien, Staff Writer, "Sex Offender Drops Out of High School,"
Des Moines Register-Tribune, Iowa, 8-11-98).
In another example, teenagers Stephanie and Kevin were a mod-
ern day Romeo and Juliet. Kevin got Stephanie pregnant as result
of consensual sex when both were under legal age. Despite the
fact that Kevin has supported the child and the teenagers had
planned to marry, he is permitted only limited, supervised visits
with his child and was required to be registered as a sex offender
for the rest of his life ( NBC's Leeza Show, 8-11-98).
Judith Levine’s Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting
Children From Sex, asserts that “Teens often seek out sex with
older people…For some teens, a romance with an older person can
Feel more like salvation than victimization.”
But the young are also victimized both by the adult predators as
Well as the system. Typically, an underage girl who is impregnated as
result of incest or by a pedophile is forced to abort the pregnancy
if state law permits; otherwise, the baby, is taken for adoption. On
November 18,1998, Thomas Jensen, 27, faced a life sentence for
HAROLD WILLIAMS 153
impregnating his three stepdaughters—one aged 11, and twins
age 12. All three babies were put up for adoption and the girls
now live in a group home. All three "born loser" systems were
fed—foster care, adoption, and prison.
Megan's Law, intended to track dangerous child molesters
who were not willing to be helped by treatment, chases them out
of their communities. This is reminiscent of the Catholic Church's
practice of merely moving a child-molesting priest from parish to
parish where he repeats his offenses. At the same time, California
has lost track of “at least 33,000 or 44% of its 76,350 registered
sex offenders” according to an AP investigative report and
as reported in “Survey: Megan’s Law Failing Across the U.S.:
in The Desert Sun, 1-7-03, A-16.
Information on sex offenders has been posted on the World
Wide Web by the Sheriff's Department in Alaska, Florida, Geor-
gia, Kansas, New Mexico, North Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin,
leaving men of all ages and circumstances no place to hide from
harassment or worse. (Carol Ann Riha, "Internet Has Eye On Sex
Offenders," Albuquerque Journal /AP, 11-15-98).
Sex offenders are not only men. A Washington State Prison sex
predator, Laura Faye McCollum, 39, served 5-1/2 years in prison
for repeatedly raping a two year old girl and admitted sexually
assaulting other children including a four-day old baby. Eventu-
ally, the United States District Court determined that incarcerat-
ing her together with forty-five male inmates who allegedly
exposed themselves to her and touched her was "unethical,
clinically inappropriate, and cruel" and granted her transfer to a
women's prison. ("Jail's Sole Female Sex Predator Transferred,"
The Desert Sun, 6-13-97).
Years before the McCollum case, there was a startling CNN
Report (9-27-91): "One out of every six to seven boys is sexually
molested, usually by an older woman."
That statistic refutes the public's misconception that it is pre-
dominately homosexual men who molest young boys. That sta-
tistic was announced while Harold Williams, who as a young
child had been repeatedly molested by both men and women,
was then serving a 25 year sentence for molesting a young girl.
In 1998, a twenty-eight year old woman Arlene Dian Roybal of San
Pedro, California, was charged with three counts of unlawful
sexual intercourse, three counts of oral copulation with a 15-year-
old boy since he was 12, and faced 16 years in prison. ("Woman
Charged in 3-Year Affair with Boy," Los Angeles Times, 10-6-98, B-4).
In that same year. People magazine featured a more bizarre case
captioned "Family Man—As Mary Kay Letourneau Gives Birth
Again, Her Lover, Now 15, Tells Their Story." (11-2-98)
154 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Letourneau, 36, a former teacher, was returned to the Washington
Corrections Center for Women, where she is serving a 7-1/2 year
sentence for the rape of the newborn's father, 15-year- old Vili
Fualaau, her one time elementary school pupil. The baby, Alexis
Georgia, Letourneau's second by Fualaau, went home with the ,
boy's mother, who is also raising the first, 17-month-old Audrey.
Fulalaau was promoting a book, Un Seui Crime, L’Amour (Only One
Crime, Love). "They say I'm a victim, but I'm not. I'm more a victim
without her." With the birth of the second child, prosecutors are
considering filing additional rape charges against Letourneau,
because Fualaau was 14 at the time of his last encounter with her.
Letourneau fought in vain for the right to breast-feed her baby.
Letourneau believes the two will someday marry.
Had Fualaau touched a female younger than himself, the state
would have sought to charge him as an adult instead of portray-
ing him as a helpless victim.
Reunions Without Reconciliations
March 15,1996, letter from Harold Duane Williams to (AmFOR):
I obtained your address from a book titled Search: Second Edition by
Jayne Askin and Molly Davis. It mentions a class action lawsuit
which I wish to obtain further information about and possibly join
as a plaintiff. It says you also offer search assistance to adoptees. I
would appreciate both.
For over 20 years, I searched for my family and located all
except a younger brother. My other family members are either
dead or out of my life by their own choice, so I am alone with this.
I have exhausted every legal means including a federal lawsuit
which I lost. I've studied civil law, as it relates to inmates, for 9
years, and have won 4 out of 5 cases I prepared myself. A case I won
was Williams v. Brimyer (11 6 F.3d) because the prison illegally
withheld my religious mail.
My brother, Ron, was born June 30,1957 and adopted from the
Annie Wittmeyer Orphanage at Davenport, Iowa, in November
1963. I, too, was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa—at home—on
January 27,1956.1 have tried every way possible to legally access
his file and it is impossible.
On January 29,1997, he wrote:
Right now, I'm on a downswing. Tomorrow is my brother
Ron's 40th birthday. So I'm sort of lost in my memory of him. My
HAROLD WILLIAMS 155
adopters are elderly, cannot help me financially (I never ask), and
they do not support my efforts to locate Ron.
April 22,1997:
Ron and I were together at foster homes. At Annie Wittenmeyer,
(my half brother) Mike wasn't with us; he was at Annie Wittenmeyer
in 1968 to 1969, long after Ron and I left. We were adopted but Mike
was returned somewhere in Council Bluffs and later reunited with
our mother. He now lives in Omaha and is very bitter, angry,
sarcastic and has isolated himself from all of the family. After 16
months of his throwing my past in my face, he wrote assuring me
he would be there for me. One week later, he informed me: "I will
no longer attempt any contact with you, nor will I accept any
contact from you." Three months later, I sent him a Christmas card
with a letter; they came back "Refused—Return To Sender." In
June, 1993, he called the prison counselor and left a message that
our sister, Deborah, had died from cancer. That was the last I heard
from him.
May 7,1997:
I'm beginning the final phase of treatment known as Relapse
Prevention... You are so right about everything you have written
about relationships changing and even though I realized this, I was
still not prepared for my half-brother Mike's sudden termination of
our relationship. I know it has to be extremely difficult on the
"found" biological family and even more so if the lost family
member is in prison as I am.
August 16,1998:
The Iowa Parole Board reviewed my case last December, once
again refused to release me, but agreed to review me again either
August 22 or September 22. In January, at my request, I went to the
Psychiatric Ward at Oakdale Prison for 67 days and went through
a Pre-Release Mental Evaluation. I completed that and once again
started work at the metal shop, 6:30 am to 8:30 pm weekdays, plus
8:00am to 4 pm Saturdays and some Sundays. It was exhausting.
Now, my counselor has notified me that Iowa has passed a law to
commit sex offenders after they complete their sentences. My
counselor said he will try to have me confined as well, once my
term is up in ten months. So there goes my hope of being released!
I just started my twelfth year and thought I'd get out this summer.
I understand that now, even if I do get out, I will have to register
with the police every three months for the rest of my life. Plus,
community notification will occur (Megan's Law), whenever I
move to another city. The states and Congress keep passing laws
156 CHOSEN CHILDREN
designed to make transition from prison to society virtually impos-
sible for us past offenders.
I doubt you will write back after I tell you my specific crime
history, but you did ask and I told you long ago I'd be honest. This
is my fourth time in prison. All charges, except this one, were for
touching little girls. I have had only 18 months of freedom since
May, 1977. I received a 25-year sentence for this crime which was
for penetrating a two year old girl with my finger. I absolutely
deserve the sentence and have chosen to do everything possible to
change my life. I have been in therapy voluntarily and underwent
two years of intense treatment at Mt. Pleasant.
I've even arranged to have chemical castration, should I be
granted release. When I was free, I never kept a job more than five
months, m prison, I have been working in the metal shop nearly 7
years, 40 to 80 hours a week. I voluntarily attended self help
groups, earned my high school diploma and spent nine months
completing a vocational building maintenance course.
I believe it is critical that lawmakers and social service agency
workers take a serious look at reality. Nearly 80% of convicts are
from parents who, as children, were also involved in the juvenile
justice or social services systems. If a system consistently fails, it
needs to be scrapped or revised. In far too many cases, the state
does incredible damage to the kids and families it professes to save.
The Molestations and Rapes
August 15,1998, from Harold Williams:
I do not believe men will ever fully understand how the various
fetishes or mental illnesses form. The following is what I feel
happened to me—not excuses, but nevertheless a prelude to
my acts.
When my sister Deb, my younger brother, Ron, and I were
ritually abused, several things happened at once. And I apologize
for being graphic but there is no way to sugarcoat this.
It began about 1959 when Deb was four, I was three, and Ron
was 18 months. Every sexual act you can imagine took place,
perpetuated by adults, including urination and defecation. I de-
spised terribly being involved with male adults because of the
pain, the smell, and their body hair. They had Deb and me touch,
lick, and hold each other and urinate on each other. As sick as it
HAROLD WILLIAMS 157
sounds, I did not mind doing it with her as she felt pleasant and safe,
but not with them. I have tolerated homosexuals, even though I am
not one, and my experience with adult males was of constant pain
and betrayal, whereas Deb was pleasure, warmth, and security.
The adult bond having been shattered, a new bond was formed with
my sister from that early age.
In 1959, when I was three, my family moved to an apartment
in Long Beach. My parents were unmarried "common law" hus-
band and wife, and my father wanted to separate from her. One
day, my father simply ordered my mother and her sister to go out
for groceries and, while they were gone, he put us kids in the car
and sped off to Iowa where I never saw my Mom again. My father
told authorities my mother had abandoned us, so we were made
wards of the state and placed at Children's Square U.S.A. in Council
Bluffs. He was permitted visitation every weekend for nearly a year.
Without Mom around, every weekend my father was able to
take us three younger kids home where he and his three adult
male friends all abused us. We told our caretakers at Children's
Square about the abuse but we were not believed because we were such
young children.
Later, my brother Mike and sister Deb were placed with our
grandparents—Mom's parents. My brother Ron and I were sent to
an orphanage, split up from Deb and Mike. I did not see Deb again
until September 11,1992.
Even at the orphanage, I was physically abused by a nurse
who tortured and beat me. It was then that I began to hate women.
But Ron and I were still together. Within 6 months, I was sexually
abused by a 17-year-old female baby-sitter. At that time I was
beginning kindergarten and being picked on and rejected by kids
my own age. So there I was age 6, already without my mother since
age three, severely sexually abused and with deep fear and hatred
of adult men and women, and equating the sex between Deb and
me with love, security, and acceptance. Then I lost Deb and my
father, which caused combined sorrow, fear, and joy. Strangers
further shattered my world by ripping me away from Ron—we
went to our separate adoptive homes—where there was more sex
abuse and rejection.
Despite that those in charge knew my father had abused and
adopted the girls from his first marriage, he was permitted to take
us home every weekend. None of the adults who abused us have
ever been charged. Years later, I talked with Mom about what
happened. Her response was, "Oh well, it happened a long time
ago, so get over it." Ironically, one of my institutional treatment
158 CHOSEN CHILDREN
counselors said the same thing to me in a group session. As I told
you, they are poorly trained. I'm now 43 and all this has been very
difficult for me to tell. I am weeping as a write.
Through all that happened to me, I fondly remembered the
human touch of Deb. Then one day, when I was still in adolescence,
a girl was at my adoptive home and she sat on my lap, hugging and
kissing me. I felt loved and accepted and began to seek out other
young girls like her and Deb. It never occurred to me that I was
harming them mentally or in any way. Around age 14, 1 bugged out
violently and was kept drugged in a hospital psych ward for 30
days. I told a nurse there what I like to do and she told me flatly to
shut up and never talk about it again or I'd go to jail. She said only
that it was "misplaced affection" and that it was wrong. But I didn't
want to stop.
September 5,1998:
I was extremely pleased that you did write back after my
"honest" letter. It speaks volumes about the good within you and
I now feel comfortable writing about these personal matters.
You spoke about Iowa's new law, so I must give you a few
answers. Iowa had this law about 4 years ago but then repealed it
in 1996, quoting the severe financial cost to the state as a reason, as
well as the fact they were uncertain about the legality of the law.
They were afraid to initiate the law because of legal challenges due
to the fact that they absolutely knew the law was a clear violation
of ex post facto, due process, and double jeopardy laws. However,
after the United States. Supreme Court ruled in Henricks v. Kansas,
117 Supreme Court (6-77), Iowa immediately reinstated their own
version of the law. The United States. Supreme Court was abso-
lutely vicious in their wording of the ruling in that case. They ruled
that these laws do not violate double jeopardy, ex post facto, or due
process law. They further ruled that way on recent cases regarding
the community notification laws enacted by 48 states as a result of
the federal version of Megan's Law. After Artway v. New Jersey, 81
F.3d, was ruled on, there were no remaining issues to challenge. To
my knowledge, only two states have had the courage to tell
Washington to keep its federal funding, and have refused to enact
community notification laws—Kentucky and Nebraska. Under the
federal version, states would lose a portion if not all of their federal
funds for failure to enact these laws.
I've done intensive research and discovered that, out of 11
cases tried so far, not one was by anyone who has voluntarily
completed a treatment program. I not only successfully completed
a treatment program voluntarily, I've also arranged for chemical
HAROLD WILLIAMS 159
castration upon work release and have completed a pre-release
psychiatric evaluation at this state's forensic psychiatric hospital at
Oakdale, Iowa. The only way I will have sufficient legal grounds to
challenge any civil commitment under any of these laws is if I have
successfully completed treatment, testing, and evaluation. The law
is designed to keep those who have failed, refused, or been kicked
out of their treatment program and who are deemed still danger-
ous by a court of law. But then, this is Iowa, and Iowa is known for
doing rather bizarre things in their courts. F. Lee Bailey stated he
refuses to accept any cases in this state because these courts simply
fail to follow their own guidelines, rules, and procedures, and even
some state and federal laws.
I read in a USA-Today news report of repeated incidents of
vigilante action against ex-offenders in several states—homes
burned, men being assaulted with baseball bats, kidnapped, and
sodomized with branches, skinned partially, shot, burned, dragged
through the streets, subjected to verbal threats—all in addition to
being unable to find housing or employment. I will face this shit
upon release and, under Iowa's new law, I must register every 3
months for the rest of my life.
When I was originally sentenced, in February 1988,1 had a 25-
year sentence and nothing more. Now all of these other laws have
been added on, so my sentence has, in effect, been enhanced and re-
enhanced. And if I fail to comply there will be more criminal
penalties added. Yet the United States. Supreme Court says it is not
an extension of my punishment, that it is all civil and not criminal,
so it cannot be punishment. Bull!
I, too, believe that people in prison largely represent a failed or
misguided effort by the system which is far too eager to break up
families and write off both parents as "unfit." I know that a very
high percentage of these institutionalized men come from a long
history of involvement with the Iowa Department of Human
Services (DHS), beginning way back in their childhoods. They
were processed through foster homes or juvenile care facilities
without the ability to bond or to be nurtured in the manner they
needed.
The State got into my life when I was age 3 and hasn't got out
of it to this day. Unlike a lot of society, I believe that I can and do
have the power to change. It gives me some degree of hope to have
you write because it seems you do care. We may never meet, but I
want you to know how much I appreciate your labors for adoptees,
for myself, and for others like me who are down.
160 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Reunion, Remorse, and Reconciliation
In 1992 when we were adults, I had an exchange of letters and
conversations with Deb. She opened my eyes for the first time and
I actually felt her pain and was angry over our abuse. Only then
could I feel my own rage and torment. I truly realized just how
much harm I caused my victims. For six months, I contemplated
suicide, fighting the urge every day and night. The psychologist
said I was only seeking attention, so I gave up seeing him and
fought it alone. All I could think of was Deb's torturous, soul-deep
suffering and it nearly drove me insane knowing I may have
caused other girls the same fate.
By then. Mom and dad were both dead from cancer. I still keep
in touch with my adopters, but my adoptive mother has become
absolutely cruel, bitter, and hateful in her old age. I chose to live,
and to seek help, and never in this lifetime ever harm anyone in any
manner. My sick obsession had grown since I was a very young
child. Now I understand. More importantly, I feel the depth of
harm I've cause so many others. I can honestly say I have true
empathy for others and that it is critical to living without more
victims. Without empathy, there is no hope.
You asked what I thought would be alternatives to incarcera-
tion in my case. Lori, I was so incredibly sick, so deeply twisted, I
absolutely had to be removed from society. Perhaps an insensitive
sex offender program would have been more appropriate, but until
1992,1 was not serious about getting help. It would have been a
waste of money before that. In 1991,1 was still extremely danger-
ous, but now I am ready for the transition.
Another Trial, Another Punishment
September 16,1998
Enclosed is the Iowa Parole Board's automatic denial regarding
my August 26,1998 eligibility for work release or parole, citing past
"criminal history" and "not sufficient evidence" to show I am able
and willing to fulfill the obligations of a law abiding citizen at this
time. My file and institutional progress report will be reviewed for
a final decision.
If I had the funds, I'd probably try to arrange for deportation
to another country such as Denmark or Sweden. Otherwise, I could
easily turn up dead under Megan's Law.
Recently, there was a news article about local police who
didn't want their names on their patrol cars for fear of revenge
HAROLD WILLIAMS 161
against themselves or their family members. Ironically, police
officers do not have the same concern for the safety of sex offenders
whose names, photos, crimes, vehicle descriptions, home, and
work addresses that police provide to media and public—includ-
ing offenders not at risk to repeat.
As for my search for my brother, with no leads from the ad, my
uncle and I decided to try a judge in Council Bluffs and also a
private investigator.
December, 1998
Just before Christmas in 1998, Harold Williams was informed that
he is to be civilly committed, instead of being permitted Work
Release. His case was returned to Iowa's Assistant Attorney Gen-
eral, Scott Brown, for further review. Brown has the power to file
a "Violent Predator Petition" under Iowa's "Chapter 229," to
commit Williams. His therapists believe he no longer meets "men-
tal abnormality" criteria. Or Brown can halt the process and permit
the Iowa Parole Board to expedite Williams' Work Release.
At Williams' request, (AmFOR) provided Brown with a letter
explaining the significance of Adopted Child Syndrome (ACS)
behaviors, events which would seem to indicate Williams' reha-
bilitation and support of Williams' Work Release.
In his July 1, 1999 letter, Williams wrote,
"Well, as you can see, I'm not a free man."
"First Resident To Graduate Next Year," Iowa City Press Citizen,
12-2-00).
Oakdale. Nearing the first full year of its education and treatment
schedule, a unit specially designed to house the state's most
dangerous sex offenders is expected to release its first patient as
early as next year... A recent evaluation of the civil commitment
unit by the Iowa Attorney General's Office found a need for
legislative action to develop and fund a gradual release program
requiring additional, less-restrictive activities and different facili-
ties. The same progress report, issued in June, gave the unit high
marks, citing "considerable success" and stating that "patients in
the treatment program are making progress." But there is no
national standard or board to provide a top-to-bottom evaluation
of sexual predator programs and gauge success."
Trips to the Outside
July 2, 2001. Harold Williams' civil commitment permits him
supervised trips outside the prison. He keeps a "Daily Log" and
162 CHOSEN CHILDREN
is required to submit to periodic polygraph tests (which he
passed) to back up his statements about his thoughts...
My thoughts, on my first trip out, were of not wanting to do
anything wrong and to not get Dr. G or Bob mad at me. Prior to
leaving I felt very anxious and nervous to the point of my entire
body quivering with nervous tension contemplating my first time
out in a community in 14 years. I first went outside to the yard to
pray and medicate a bit and that helped calm me down so I was
almost normal again. I thought of the women and children that I
knew I would see and felt anxiety, worrying that the old feelings of
arousal would arise. I mentally reaffirmed my decision to be
brutally honest and report any thoughts of an improper nature.
When we arrived at the Coralville Park it was near Noon.
When we began walking I could see and hear many children and
braced myself against any unwanted thoughts and urges. I was
pleasantly shocked to discover there were none. I did look at the
children briefly as we went past and I allowed myself to look at the
child's entire body, rather than just above the waist, simply to see
if any response would begin and none did. I did this going in and
out of the park without being obvious about it. I spoke openly
about this to Doc and Bob so they would advise me if this was what
I should do and it was. I did find one lady extremely arousing but
tried not to sexualize her. I think I did, though, because as we
passed a Victoria's Secret lingerie shop, I told Bob she would have
looked good in that stuff. We toured the mall. People were every-
where and there were kids of every description. I noticed one girl
about 9 wearing purple Spandex that was form fitting and clearly
outlined her buttocks. I noticed this but did not have any form of
deviant thoughts. My only thought regarding her was that it is a
shame her parents allow her to wear that in a crowded mall. Doc
and Bob trusted me enough to move away and I did not violate that
trust... At a day care play area there were about 60 kids who I
observed climbing, crawling over things and running around.
Despite seeing one of my most powerful triggers—the sight of a
youngster bending over, I thought nothing of it and felt no re-
sponse of any kind.
Shopping at the Target store, I felt overwhelmed and confused by all
the choices of merchandise, because I did not know where things were
and anxiety because I knew Doc wanted to be back by three. On the way
back, I enjoyed a smoke as we walked to the footbridge. I felt so relaxed;
it was almost like I had never been gone 14 years. Only a fellow smoker
can understand the relief I am describing.
HAROLD WILLIAMS 163
July 16,2001:
My second trip out was more comfortable and enjoyable. During
the entire time I felt very calm and alert to all things around me. I
enjoyed very much the sights, sounds and smells coming at me and
did not feel overcome like the first time out. As we drove, I saw kids
walking toward a swimming pool in swim wear and my only
thought was how nice a cool dip somewhere would be on a hot day
like this. I felt awkward at first because my depth perception was
screwy but this problem slowly faded over time. As for any form
of arousal, there was one girl at Wal-Mart sitting in a cart with her
legs up; I caught myself looking at her thigh and panties, then
stopped and refocused on my groceries. I had no thoughts of
wanting to see more or of wanting to touch her in any way. That
was the only hint of any old behaviors. On the way back, I saw a
couple of fine, enticing looking women on the path but, upon
returning, I did not follow through with any inappropriate thoughts
or fantasy and I did not masturbate to any of those images.
August 2,2001:
Everything here is going very well and I am rapidly adjusting to
being able to go out. I learned that I cannot be re-licensed in the
medical field as an EMT, so I plan to work at the University as a state
employee in an entry level position such as custodial or animal
care. I did get a letter of interest from a publisher right here in Iowa
City about my book project. And media is "graduation" from the
model program.
August 23,2001:
Sixth trip out... to Wal-Mart where I got my glasses adjusted. I was
very pleased and surprised to be able to sit up front on the ride over
and thought it was very kind of Elwin and Doc... On the way out
of the store, I noticed a little Black girl about age 6 with a crazy
hairdo; the only thought I had was that it was a wild hairdo and she
was quite happy. From there we went to K-Mart to shop but I felt
too frustrated trying to find things. While in the store, I saw a lot of
kids but none brought out any thoughts. Then we went to the park.
I noticed a girl about age 5 in swim-wear. All I thought about was
that she had a dark tan. We went over to the pond and fed the ducks
and I felt comfortable. A woman came by with a little girl about 2
years old who I thought was beautiful and my mind went back to
the times I would have violated her. I felt sick about that but
enjoyed watching her with the ducks... When we returned, I was
spared the degradation of full strip search.
164 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Footnotes
Gerald Ajax Ackerman and Deanna L. Hutson
The first footnote to Harold Williams' story is the June 20, 2000
sentencing of Gerald "Ajax" Ackerman, 42, an adoptee who was
the Mayor of Port Huron, Michigan, on 16 felony counts stem-
ming from sexual activities with girls 9 to 14. Ackerman is
currently Prisoner #312610 at Standish Maximum Correctional
Facility, Standish, Michigan.
Ackerman, a former biker, is said to have brought more of the
"common folk" into city government and helped reduce gang
problems. He was also director of "Clear Choices," a center that
counseled troubled youths to keep them off drugs. It was at the
center that Ackerman ran into trouble by having sex with the
young girls there, police said. His attorney, Gerry Mason, said it
was a tragedy for Ackerman, a man who it appeared had taken a
lost life and turned it around. Gene Schabeth and Janet Naylor (in
The Detroit News, 4-8-99) profiled Ackerman who rose from drug
addiction to public office:
Born to an alcoholic mother, Ackerman was taken from her by the
State and adopted at 18 months. He grew up troubled in Oak Park,
Michigan, described by his own adoptive sister, DeAnn Fierman,
as "the evilest child" she had ever seen.
Ackerman began using drugs and alcohol at age 14 in high school
and was sent away to military school in Illinois by his adopters.
To an already troubled adoptee, being sent away from home
equates to another "rejection," compounding the perceived "re-
jection" by his parents despite that he was not voluntarily relin-
quished. He managed to graduate Allendale High but failed at
college and Navy enlistment. His frequent run-ins with the law
began at age 15 and continued until he was 30. It took a near-fatal
car crash, the breakup of his first marriage and five trips to rehab
to get himself cleaned up. "Ajax" is the name he picked up during
his biker days, from the movie The Warriors. His behavior so
disturbed his adopters that they gave up on him and moved to
Florida—which he must have regarded as one more rejection.
By the time Ackerman arrived in Port Huron in 1987, he was
clean of drugs and alcohol and apparently was determined to
remake his life but he was homeless. He was able to borrow
money to attend St. Clair College and graduated with an Associ-
ates in Arts (AA) degree. At the time of his 1999 arrest and
HAROLD WILLIAMS 165
resignation from office, he was only six credits shy of a Bachelor's
degree from eastern Michigan University. In 1994, Ackerman
was named "Michigan Public Citizen of the Year" by the National
Association of Social Workers, becoming their "adoptee success
story" poster boy. Just as the 2000 presidential election will
always be a subject of controversy, so was the verdict by
Ackerman's jury:
Former Mayor Gerald "Ajax" Ackerman will spend at least 18
years in prison for sexual misconduct involving children (Associ-
ated Press and Maryann George, for the Detroit Free Press).
In 2002, this author wrote to Ackerman inquiring whether he
had ever reconnected with his parents or had any desire to,
and whether he would like to comment for publication. He did
not reply.
The second footnote to Harold Williams' story is from the
perspective of an adoptee who had been molested, in a letter this
author received from Deanna L. Hutson, aged 30, born in Arkan-
sas #693871, HT Trusty Camp, Gatesville, Texas: 9-22-00:
I was Deanne Lorraine Harper at birth, the oldest of three girls. My
father was shot and killed by the man who my mother married
when I was 3-1 /2. He adopted me and my sister and later another
daughter who was his and my mother's biological child. I remem-
ber us moving to California when I was six. Things seemed pretty
good until my Mom caught my adoptive father cheating on her.
She beat him up and threw him out. From then on, a lot of men were
coming and going. Unknown to my mother, her boyfriends started
molesting me.
One night I was raped and told my mother what happened.
She beat me bad and when I went to school the next day with
bruises and choke marks on my neck the teacher called Social
Services and I was placed in foster care. The foster parents were
very mean to me, so I believed it was all my fault that I got raped and
later the court sent me back home where I was continually mo-
lested by men my mother knew. I was back and forth between foster
homes and my mother, 'til I became pregnant. When I was sent to
prison for selling drugs, a lady from Social Services told me I had
to sign over my son for adoption while in prison or she would have
me charged with being unfit and make sure I lost him permanently.
I didn't want him to end up going from one foster home to another
so I signed not realizing I would not be permitted to see him again
or know where he is. He was born 1-10-86 in Visalia, California.
166 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Even though my son was with a baby-sitter when I was doing
drugs, I know I was doing wrong but want him to know the reasons
and that I never stopped loving him.
Author’s Observations and Opinion
For over 20 years, Harold Williams searched for his mother. He
found her and all but one of his siblings while incarcerated. For
Harold, the birth bond overcame separation by adoption even
though the "found" family members could not share his recon-
ciliation with the reality of sexual abuse done to Harold and done
by Harold.
Harold's mother responded to his post-reunion disclosures
about his father's, adopter's and others' sexual abuse and how it
affected him with "Get over it." Harold's brother, Mike, shared
neither the adoption experience nor the abuse experience, and
terminated their relationship. Harold's sister. Deb, with whom he
once felt "loved and accepted" and with whom he formed a bond
to replace the one shattered by adults at an early age, was also
adopted and had also been sexually abused by their father and by
Harold. Their sibling bond could not overcome her pain.
Seeing her pain made Harold aware for the first time of the
pain that his behaviors have caused others; he now feels
empathy for his victims.
Harold has yet to find his brother Ron who was adopted
separately and who was not subjected to the sexual abuse as far
as we know. We do not know Ron's outcome nor whether their
sibling bond will bring about the hoped for reunion, reconcilia-
tion and healing which motivates Harold to search for him.
Harold's case history, like that of Gerald "Ajax" Ackerman,
demonstrates how abuse begets abuse. Both Harold and "Ajax"
were taken from their mothers; both experienced what they
perceived as second "rejections," and both displayed Adopted
Child Syndrome behaviors. Harold's case history also demon-
strates that, for an adoptee, healing can result from completing
the search, even when the bond which compelled the search is
broken in the process. Deanna Hutson's letter reflects how a
victim of a sexual child abuse can become a self-abuser, most
often through substance abuse.
Is there hope for adoptees who are serving "life sentences"
from addiction and adoption? Noah Stone and Tom McGee
tell us in the following chapter.
"Twenty percent of adolescents in drug rehabilitation and in
residential substance abuse treatment programs are adopted."
-National Adoption Center (NAC)
Philadelphia, PA
10
The 8 Ball Cafe
Stories of Adoption
and Addiction
Substance abuse is said to be common among adoptees:
The use of alcohol, LSD, methadrine, marijuana, and other drugs if
often another means of showing displacement or anger—at soci-
ety, parents, but most of all, self-anger.
—The Adopted Child, Joseph G. Amsfield, M.D.
The 8 Ball Cafe was a bar in Huntington Park, California,
now disappeared from the landscape. At the 8 Ball Cafe a deal
was struck whereby Noah Stone (whose story follows) was sold
for adoption for $350. The 8 Ball Cafe is also symbolic of the
moment and place where every adoption plan forever changed
the course of an adopted person's life.
Unlike the game of 8-Ball, the players in the following stories-
Noah Stone, Tom McGee, Jeremy Strohmeyer, and John Jarvis—
are not players by choice; as in the game, they end up "behind the
8 ball" of unreasonable adoption secrecy laws and addictions.
Can any of them win?
In the game of 8 Ball, there is a "triangle" in which the balls are
racked before the game is played; in adoption, an adversarial
triangle is created—parents, adopters adoptees—that sets the
stage for their lives. In 8 Ball, the winner of a coin toss has the
option to "break" with the first shot. Adoption is also pretty much
167
168 CHOSEN CHILDREN
a "crap shoot" in that child is signed away to strangers, to an un-
known fate that no baby broker can predict nor guarantee. In 8 Ball,
it is the opponent's right to ask for a "call shot" or "gentleman's
call" if the next shot is not obvious and there is a "legal break." In
adoption, there is no legal break from unethical, illegal practices
once they have been sanctioned under color of adoption secrecy
laws. The involved parties have the "right" to ask questions but
the answers are scripted according conditions imposed by politics,
state law, agency policy, social work theory, and myth.
Researchers Link Child Abuse to Addiction
In two five-year studies by researchers at McLean Hospital in
Belmont, Massachusetts, Carl Anderson, Ph.D. and colleagues
found that repeated sexual abuse effects blood flow and function
of a key brain region related to substance abuse, the cerebellar
vermis, which coordinates emotional behavior and dopamine, a
neurotransmitter involved in addiction. The two studies analyzed
32 subjects, ages 18 to 22, and 537 college students who
frequently abused drugs. Physical and emotional abuse are simi-
larly linked to addiction.
Addiction and violence are also often the side-effects of legally
prescribed substances. DEA has classified Ritalin in the same
category as Morphine, Opium, and Cocaine. Littleton, Colorado
was the most notorious for doling out Ritalin to kids, particularly
in wealthy suburbs as well as in public supported foster care. The
long term effects are still being debated in the wake of the
Columbine High School shootings in Littleton. Adoptees in the
following chapters who became addicted to street drugs and
those who killed were prescribed Ritalin, Mellaril, and other
mood altering drugs which led to their addictions and helped
trigger violence against themselves and others.
In their Letter to the Editor, published in Newsweek, at the time
of the Columbine shootings, Yale University staff from the De-
partment of Psychiatry and Child Study Center, Joan Kauffman,
Ph.D., Andres Martin, M.D., Dennis Charney, M.D., contend that
"there are preliminary data to suggest that the biological changes
associated with early adversity can be prevented through expo-
sure to consistent nurturing," but this doesn't seem to be the case
with Greg Mox and other adoptees whose adopters apparently
provided the recommended ingredients. According to another
article, "Getting a Hold on Rage, Some Adoptive Parents Find
THE EIGHT BALL CAFE 169
Love Alone Isn't the Answer—Now They're Upset That The State
Won't Help Pay For a Promising New Treatment" (Jack Kresnak,
Detroit Free Press, 6-25-95), there is no formula for making a
stranger's child live up to their adopter's expectations. To a child,
the burden of such expectations translates as abuse.
The aforementioned Newsweek letter ends with "Not all trau-
matized children become violent, and there are no simple an-
swers to explain why some youths kill." On that, all can agree, in
his book Reclaiming Our Children: A Healing Solution for a Nation
In Crisis (Perseus, 2000) Peter R. Breggin, MD, a private practi-
tioner in Bethesda, Maryland, presents strong evidence that psychi-
atric drugs commonly cause psychoses and aggression in chil-
dren, and that they probably contributed to individual cases of
school violence. In his best selling Talking Back to Prozac and
Talking Back to Ritalin he makes specific recommendations for
improving family and school life based on sound psychological
and ethical principles. But what if the "family" is a shadow
family—a prohibition to the child under the unsound psychology
and unethical practice perpetuated by closed adoption? What if
the child does not accept his adopters as "family?" Can any drug
treatment change that, or just compound the problem? The
following narcotics are grouped according to how they increase
and decrease sensory attention and motor activity:
Uppers [High Activity; High Action]—stimulants,
hypermaniacs, amphetamine (speed, meth, crank,
crystal, whites, bennies, black beauties), amyl nitrate,
caffeine, cocaine, methyldiamphetamine,
methylpheidate, pemoline, Benezedene (TM),
Dexedrine (TM) (dexies), Clyert (TM), Prozac (TM),
Ritalin (TM), methadrine (TM), Preludin (TM).
Confusers [High Activity; Low Attention]—
Convulsants Synesthetics, Hallucinogens,
Psychodelics, mescaline, psilocybin, lycergic
diethylamide, PCP, DMT, LSD.
Calmers [Low Activity; High Attention]—Tranquilizers,
Narcopleptics, butylprophenanone, dibenzoxazepone,
lithium, nicotene, tetrahydracanabinal, phenothiazine,
Cibalth (TM), Haldol (TM), Loxitane (TM), Moban
(TM), Thorazine (TM) (barbs, goofballs, dolls, Seconal
or reds, Phenobarbital or blues, yellows,
170 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Amylbarbital-Secobarbital or "rainbows.")
Downers [Low Activity; Low Attention] Depressants,
Anesthetics, alcohol, barbiturates, carbonate opiates,
Pentathol (TM), Nembutol (TM), Methadone (TM),
Amytal, Barbitol (TM), Demerol (TM), Xanax (TM),
BuSpar (TM), Phenobarbital (TM), Seconal (reds).
Children who "graduate" from prescribed drugs to street drugs
find that Uppers, such as cocaine, can give a "high-high," such as
being both more active and more attentive as long as the intoxi-
cation lasts. Downers such as heroin, in contrast, gives a "low-
low," such as being both less active and less attentive as long as
one is under the influence. Calmers, like marijuana, give a "low-
high," which is to say the activity level is low while attention is
high. Confusers, such as LSD, give a "high-low," whereby one
is very active but has great difficulty paying attention to
surroundings.
Adoptee Russell Mannex was born 9-25-65 as Shannon P. Smith
in Los Angeles. As prisoner #P-70488, California State Prison
Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, Corcoran, California, Russell
wrote AmFOR on 4-20-01:
I was adopted at the age of 2 months and know absolutely nothing
about them except for their nationality—My dad is East Indian and
my mom is 1/4 Italian and 1/4 Irish. When I was on the outside, I
always worked hard and tried to spend a lot of time with my wife
and son but made a mistake and now have a 12-year sentence. For
whatever it's worth, I am in no way angry at my parents for giving
me up for adoption. I love them even though I have never known
them. Thank you or working with adoptees, including those of us
who are incarcerated.
I've tried to make sense with regard to why I did not feel loved
by my adopters. I ran away from home at age five because of
physical and emotional abuse as result of their alcoholism and not
considering me one of their own. I felt unloved, unworthy, guilt,
shame, anger, resentment, fear of abandonment, rejection, denial
and distrust-all at the same time. By age eight, I began serious
lying and set a field afire which was only a hundred yards from our
house. In an attempt to "belong," and also to cloud my feelings, I
began to use and sell marijuana, and at age 14, I attempted suicide
by swallowing 40 Valium pills with turpentine. But before I could
completely load my shotgun to finish the job, I passed out and
THE EIGHT BALL CAFE 171
awoke in a Detention Center a week or so later, where I self-
inflicted stab wounds and refused to eat.
I was ordered by the court to see a psychologist for six months.
But within a couple months, the psychologist—the first person I
had begun to trust—molested me. Shortly afterward, a teacher and
a friend of the family both molested me. I continued lying, stealing,
smoking and selling pot, truancy, withdrawal from people, pro-
miscuity and self destructive behaviors in general. I managed to
enter the military at age 17 and from then on nurtured a work
addiction as a way to gain acceptance and a sense of self-worth.
Despite an honorable discharge, my criminal thinking continued.
My first wife and I ended up in a federal prison for counterfeiting
U.S. currency. Five years after my release, I began this sentence in
1994 which is for 7 to 15 years for attempted rape. Since late 1997,
I have been a cancer survivor in search of my past—still trying to
fill an empty hole. God help me.
The several behaviors of Daniel's self-description are those iden-
tified by Dr. David Kirschner as Adoption Child Syndrome
behaviors and which are symptoms of adoption abuse.
Before his story was completed, Noah asked "Why would
anyone want to read about me?" Neither Noah nor the others in
this chapter appear to have any redeeming features. They are
neither heroes nor villains. But they take us where most of us have
never been with a voice never before heard—a voice that ex-
presses the same basic need in all of us as they solve the mysteries
of their secret pasts. A voice that tells us that, but for the toss of a
coin at the 8 Ball Cafe, we could be in their shoes. The similarities
of their stories show us not only what is wrong with America's
foster care, adoption and prison systems, but also the keys for
resurrection of the victims.
"Trapped inside my brain,
the child who will always want to come out and play;
his world, where children hide,
and fears for all run high."
-Noah Stone
STONE, Noah—#J 81895
California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility,
Corcoran, California
This is the true story of Noah Stone. Part of the tangled
web of the puzzle that is Noah Stone was contributed by his
adopter, Gladys Gill, as told in vivid detail in the years just before
her death at age 85. Obsessed by her need to "set the record
straight, " her memories were jogged by the incredible 30-year
accumulation of records she had amassed about him. And parts
of Noah's story are in his own words.
In childhood, Noah was declared a genius. Today, at age 43,
his mental abilities are still remarkably intact, despite 36 years of
drug addiction since age 7. In that time he has sampled each of the
following:
Kerosene and glue vapors —which can cause liver damage,
bone damage, sudden death;
Sedatives, including Quaalude (methaqualone),
Amylbarbital with Secobarbital ("rainbows," or
"double trouble"), Secobarbital/Seconal ("reds,")
Phenobarbital ("yellows")—which can cause
convulsions and death;
Hallucinogens, including DMT, MDH, mominglory
seeds, LSD or "acid"—which can cause temporary or
permanent psychoses, "bad trips," irrational
behavior, possibly chromosome abnormalities,
flashbacks;
Cannabis, including marijuana or "grass," "weed" and
hashish, THC — which can possibly cause mental
173
174 Chosen Children
habituation, amotivation, neurosis, accidents, delayed
maturing, flashbacks, and temporary psychoses;
Stimulants, including Noah's drug of choice,
methamphetamine, ("meth," "speed," "crystal,"
"crank")—which can cause mental habituation,
temporary or permanent psychoses, hypertension,
hyper-metabolic state, brain hemorrhage, arthritis,
aggressiveness, paranoia; Noah's method of choice
was "mainlining" or "shooting up speed"
intravenously which frequently brings complications
including hepatitis, cellulitis, bacterial sepsis,
bacterial endocarditis, thrombophlebitis, pulmonary
embolism, pulmonary infraction, lung abcesses,
arteritis, gangrene and sudden death.
In Noah's words,
Prescription anti-depressants, given to me since age seven, got me
started on my lifelong addiction. Later, the feelings from "good
drugs" (street drugs) always seemed a lot better than the "bad
drugs" (prescribed drugs). I was always trying to attain the feeling
that I could cope with the world—or, as I called it, "The Living."
Suicide is Painless
There are no statistics on adoptees who commit suicide but the
number is believed to be disproportionately high. Although Noah
shows no outward signs of physical or mental impairment from
lifelong drug use, his suicidal depressions were sometimes
numbed and sometimes exacerbated by drug use and overdose.
Karen Ann Quinlan made national headlines when she fell into a
coma from over-dosing on drugs and liquor. Shortly before her
coma that was to last 10 years, she wrote in her journal "I wish to
curl myself into a fetal rose and rest in the eternal womb awhile."
(Karen Ann Quinlan Tells Her Story, Doubleday, 1977).
Society became preoccupied with legalisms surrounding whether
Quinlan's life support machine could be disconnected and whether
she had the right to die with dignity. The question as to whether
adoptees like Quinlan have the right to life with dignity — to
know her own origins — was not addressed. Their drugs were
also blamed in the suicide deaths of adopted children of Holly-
wood stars, Carol O'Connor and James Bronson's children; me-
dia failed to consider their adoptions as the root cause.
NOAH STONE 175
Twenty-four year old Melody DiLorenzo was in critical condi-
tion from multiple stab wounds believed inflicted by an assailant
as result of a drug deal gone bad. (Stephanie McKinnon, Staff
Writer, "Desert Hot Springs Woman Stabbed," The Desert Sun,
8-7-93, A-3). But Melody's adopter told AmFOR, that Melody's stab
wound was self-inflicted—one of many suicide attempts of the
past three years which included slashing her own throat and
wrists. From her hospital bed in ICU, Melody told this author that
she wanted to find her "birth" mother. By pulling some strings,
mother and daughter reunited within 24 hours; they then began
a long healing process.
The 8 Ball Cafe
It was a bright and warm January afternoon in 1962 a typical
Southern California day. Herbert Gill, a commercial refrigeration
mechanic, was on 24-hour call when he got a service call at the 8
Ball Cafe. Herb sometimes visited the 8 Ball Cafe when he wasn't
working. It was close to his Huntington Park home—a friendly
place, where the bartender and regulars knew him by name.
The conversation at the bar that day was about two children
who had apparently been abandoned near the freeway between
Huntington Park and Compton where he and Gladys lived.
Distracted from repairing the freezer. Herb dropped his tools and
took a break. Over at the bar Herb remarked that if he had a
chance he and his wife would adopt a child.
Herb Gill, 49, was born in England. His wiry-thin build, facial
"worry lines," and thinning brown hair peppered with gray,
made him look older than his years. He made a decent living at
being a refrigeration mechanic and was successful at hiding the
fact that he never learned to read. Herb had a grown daughter by
his first marriage. He met his present wife, Gladys, in 1955 at the
knitting shop she owned on Gage, just off Long Beach Boulevard.
Herb adored Gladys. But his marriage proposal was hastened by
the fact that her bookkeeping and management skills could help
his business prosper while also protecting him from humiliation
over his inability to read and write.
Gladys Marguerite Stone was raised a Mormon in Utah. Al-
ways praised for her striking looks, the raven-haired beauty did
not have to work hard at attracting male admirers. When barely
legal age, she caught the eye of a wealthy California man who
promised her a glamorous life. Instead, he abused her. But
176 CHOSEN CHILDREN
returning to Utah in embarrassment was out of the question.
Taking only her clothes and her two dogs, she didn't have to think
twice about leaving.
Gladys headed for Alaska where a lot of men had been striking
it rich on gold up there. Like the ladies with whom she shared a
stately Victorian residence on the river, Gladys instinctively
knew how to use her feminine attributes to separate the men from
their cash. Prostituting earned her enough money to return to
California, buy a comfortable home, and start her own knitting
business. Still a "looker" though a chain smoker when she mar-
ried Herb, Gladys was content at first to put off childbearing
while they built the business. But by age 46 she had not been able
to get pregnant and she was unwilling to share Herb's attention
with his now grown daughter. Gladys wanted to "even the score"
by having a child of their own—even if they had to adopt one. A
social worker advised Gladys that she and Herb would be consid-
ered "too old" even to adopt, unless they found an older child,
since it was harder to find homes for them. Couples wanted
newborns to raise as their own.
A Latino woman at the bar took Herb aside and said she might
know someone who could help him. The woman got in touch
with Kenneth Owens and they agreed to meet that evening at the
8 Ball Cafe. Owens, born and raised in California, was a lean 24-
year-old man, just out of the Army Paratroopers. He had three
kids and a pretty, blonde l7-year-old wife, Jackie Sue. Owens had
bought rounds of drinks for himself and the woman until all his
money was gone and his mood turned from one of celebration to
lamenting the responsibilities ahead of him.
The Latino woman put Owens in touch with the Gills, who
invited him to come over with the boy he was considering
adopting out as long as there was an interested couple. Owens
waited till his young wife was out of town before he presented
himself with the boy. The Gills found the shy 3-1/2 year old
Kenneth Jr. to be so irresistibly cute, they wanted to formalize an
adoption right away through their lawyer. The deal assured,
Owens wasted no further conversation beyond agreeing to call
back next day, and left young Kenneth with the Gills in the
meantime.
The next day Owens called Gladys but he stalled her, demand-
ing $350 to keep Jackie Sue out of town long enough to formalize
the adoption, which he knew she would not readily agree to.
NOAH STONE 177
Gladys and Herb refused to pay Owens, who then threatened he
was coming to get his son back and that he really didn't want to
give him up for adoption. The Gills called the police, hoping to
put pressure on Owens. Instead, Police Sergeant Edna Johnson
took little Kenneth to McClaren Hall, and from there he spent one
week in a foster home. In the meantime, Gladys talked Owens
into signing adoption papers, contending the father would be
arrested for trying to sell him to the Gills and the boy would
remain in foster care anyhow if he didn't let the Gills adopt him.
Sergeant Edna Johnson arranged to meet Jackie Sue at the 8 Ball
Cafe. Johnson was supposed to give Jackie Sue $50 provided by
Gladys for rent money, now that it was important to keep Jackie
Sue in town and convince her to sign adoption papers. Instead,
Johnson began providing Jackie Sue with a pack of cigarettes per
day which proved to be enough of a lure to keep her in town until
the plan was fulfilled.
Jackie Sue was born in Oklahoma, of part Native American
descent, during the Great Depression of 1930. Her pretty 2-year-
old blonde daughter, Susan, was a Treadwell, not an Owens. This
week, Jackie Sue could be found at the 8 Ball Cafe, with the little
girl in tow, to receive from Sergeant Johnson the promised pack
of cigarettes every day until the papers were ready to sign that
Johnson said would allow a "temporary placement" and avoid
charges of neglect. When she did sign, it was with a big "X." Jackie
Sue had never been taught to read and write.
Sergeant Johnson even saw to it that Jackie Sue and Eugene
Owens each showed up at the offices of attorneys Hansen and
Bunnett, in nearby Southgate. Attorney John W. Bunnett made
sure the Owenses and Gills had appointment times at least a day
apart, lest they run into each other. It was then February, but it
would not be until July that the filed petition would commence in
the Superior Court at Southgate, less than a block away from the
attorney's office. The Gills were advised that an adoption is not
final for a period of approximately one year from the date of
petition, m the meantime, the Bureau of Adoptions needed to do
a home study and file their supplemental report. Gladys wasn't
worried. She felt she had duly impressed the social worker who
spent no more than five minutes inspecting the Gills' two-story
Huntington Park home, verifying Herb's good income and the
Gills' fitness as parents.
178 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Later, Gladys received a call from their new son's grand-
mother Owens, telling her, "I'm glad you have him, because he
had a bad home life." Thus, with that additional sanction, the
process was begun to allow young Kenneth Gene Owens to
become Herbert Kent Gill.
The Adoption
Gladys believed she caught a glimpse of the boy's mother briefly
once at the back of the court room on the day the adoption was
finalized. She described her as short and chubby, but nice look-
ing. Neither of the boy's parents were ever jailed for anything that
she knew of, but she assumed Jackie's other child at the time was
also eventually adopted. Gladys' curiosity about Jackie was
forgotten the moment the old judge's gavel banged at the end of
his order to seal the boy's original birth certificate. A new,
amended birth certificate was to be issued substituting Gladys
and Herbert Gill's names for Jackie and Kenneth Owens as the
child's parents. Thus, Kenneth Owens was "reborn" as "Herbert
Kent Gill," a legal fiction.
According to Gladys:
We were told he was one of four children before his mother was
twenty. The first child went to her parents in Oklahoma. He was the
second, born in Bakersfield, August 1, 1958. And the other two
were adopted from the hospital. The father said he could not afford
to pay someone to take care of the boy. I don't believe he was really
married to the mother but the boy was his child. He said the mother
would take him around to bars and leave him in the car until
closing time.
Gladys recalled,
We were strangers to Kent (that's what she called him), but he
never cried, never asked when he was going home, nor where his
mother was. He called every woman "mother," but he referred to
his father as "the bad man." We never asked about the odd looking
bruises on his skinny little legs and arms, and no family back-
ground was ever offered us. He weighed 28 pounds and looked as
if he might break easily. Kent did not talk of where he had lived or
of any people he knew. He was not toilet trained and would not say
when he had to go to the bathroom. I put diapers on him at night
and he did not wet. But if I left them off, he did.
Three days after Kent was placed with the Gills, Gladys had to go
to the hospital and so left him in care of her sister and brother-in-
NOAH STONE 179
law. They upset the boy by calling him "stupid," a word he
thought was even worse than it was for a little boy to hear. He
became very quiet and withdrawn after that.
Rarely did the Gills have people over to the house and never
did they leave Kent alone when they went out. Never. He either
went to Miss Esther down the street or with his adopters. He
spent those times around a lot of adults.
Kent began running away from the Gills for as long as they can
remember. He was never in their home for a full year. Whenever
they drove through various neighborhoods with him in the car,
he always recognized the Gills' house but also pointed out other
homes he claimed to have lived in at one time or other.
The Gills' mailman remembered hearing constant arguments
of the parents throughout the boy's childhood. Gladys denied that
Herb ever beat her, as her first husband did. According to Gladys,
"Kent misunderstood. Herb and I were just kidding around and the
next thing we knew, he was pointing a rifle at Herb!"
Despite that the adoption was legally finalized in court on July
31, 1963, Gladys remained nervous. She feared she'd made a
mistake. Would Herb really ever accept Kent as his son? He rarely
became involved with the boy, except in later years when he
would attend his son's special swimming meets now and then.
Herb belonged to the Shriners, Al Malaikah Temple in Los
Angeles, Scottish Rite Temple, the Elks, Moose Lodge, and the
Foresters. Gladys didn't want Herb's attention diverted back to
his natural daughter, and Herb was afraid that his already grown
daughter was upset that he was adopting a young child. There
was jealousy, but it was Herb who broke off all contact with his
own daughter who later claimed that Gladys had manipulated
the breakup and would not allow her father to call her. "That
woman is evil. She not only threw Kent in the same cage with the
family dogs, she whipped us both with her riding crop!"
The Assessments
"At age five, Kent attended kindergarten at a private school, but
at the end of the year, the teacher said he was too immature to go
into first grade and should repeat kindergarten or go into first
grade at a public school." Because Gladys was having trouble
enrolling Kent into first grade, when he was seven she brought
him for testing to Marion Davis Neuro-Psychiatric Institute (NPI)
Clinic at UCLA and was made to reside there eleven months.
180 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Gladys bragged, "After one month of testing, the clinical psy-
chologist stated that this boy had a very high IQ— genius level
And for eleven months, the seven year old boy was given a strong
"anti-depressant" to "calm his hyperactivity." "He came home
on weekends and my husband and I had one—hour sessions once
a week with the social worker and psychiatrist. All of the staff
liked him and I believe he quit stealing for a time."
Noah remembers his experience at UCLA's NPI clinic.
I was acting up as kids do at that age, and I guess a bit too much for
their liking. I had evidently done something so bad that I was
strapped to a bed and given a shot—of what, I have no idea—and
I went to sleep. When I woke up, I was still strapped down and had
even wet the bed. No one had bothered to change the sheets or
unstrap me for the longest time. Funny how you remember such
things. I know why my adopters put me there. They had no idea
what a "hyper" kid was about. But the doctors knew! And to this
day, I hate doctors.
Gladys referred to what she called her son's "lifelong kleptoma-
nia." She wouldn't let him play at friends' homes "because he
always brought home some trinkets he claimed were given to him
but which he lifted." Gladys went along on his first paper route
"to make sure he didn't have an opportunity to 'case' homes in the
process." She didn't see his problems as adoption-related "be-
cause he has never lived with us for very long at a time."
Noah remembers,
UCLA's NPI Clinic had a pool and I used to go out and watch the
other kids swim. Then one day I asked if I could try. I was only
seven and didn't know how to swim nor had I even been in a pool.
But as soon as I got in, it was like a world I had 'come home to.' I
remember that I really didn't need any instruction — I just started
swimming."
And Gladys adds,
But the principal, Mrs. Swinefest, kept sending him home,
after he had been in school for only 15 minutes to an hour. She
would then tell me I should "have him put away because he should
be locked up the rest of his life." About that time, he started stealing
again. I talked to Dr. Brackelmann who we had started seeing once
a week. He told me not to pay any attention to Mrs. Swinefest.
I put Kent into public school but he was always coming home
with some little thing that did not belong to him. He had begun
sneaking out of his second story window and down a trellis "to go
NOAH STONE 181
see downtown." I was never sure why—whether he looking for his
family or just running away from us.
Sometimes he managed to climb up to the roof to "just sit and gaze
up at the stars, to feel free," he said, because Gladys kept such a
close eye on him. To keep him from slipping out the window and
hurting himself, the Gills installed bars on his bedroom window,
locked his door at night and checked on him frequently by means
of a peephole in the door.
Believing he was "simply hyperactive," when he was in second
and third grades, Gladys took Kent to swimming lessons twice a
day—once in the daytime and once in the evening, "to tire him
out enough to sleep," she said.
He was the first kid to win their gold medal in gymnastics since the
program began fourteen years before. He accomplished this while
in and out of Juvenile Hall. The gymnastics coach said he was a
natural athlete, but after a short time he would start acting up. The
gymnastics coach wanted to work with him and asked permission
to "hypnotize him." I asked the doctor about it. He said "Go ahead,
but I don't think he can do it." The coach tried but was unsuccess-
ful. We quit the Athletic Club because he started regular school-
fourth grade. But a week later they started a "handicapped class"
and we put him in it.
Determined to tutor him herself, Gladys devised a "game" she
played with him on a drive to the bank one day. She'd make him
remove an article of clothing for every incorrect answer to a math
problem. By the time they reached the bank, the little boy was
completely naked and humiliated but no more a math whiz.
From 1966 to 1970 Kent was placed in schools for the
"emotionally handicapped," and the learning disabled as well as
classes fo the physically handicapped. He was dyslexic, and
continued to steal items of no significant value, from pencils to an
old pillowcase.
In 1971, when Kent was 13, he attended Gage Junior High for
two or three months and then was back at Juvenile Hall. Gladys
continued:
Police Sergeant Edna Johnson, the same person who arranged our
son's adoption and who, by then, knew us well because of Kent's
many attempts to run away from home, advised us to put Kent in
a "reform school." When she did bring him to Las Padrinos
Juvenile Hall, the Director said to me, "Are you sure about doing
this?" because all Kent had done was try to run away from us. I
182 CHOSEN CHILDREN
talked to Dr. Brackleman and he recommended Camarillo State
Hospital, saying "They will work with his behavior and schooling."
Gladys was, at least for a time, in favor of committing her son. She
did not know that, for decades, mental hospitals in the United
States were not only warehouses for the insane but also for
epileptics, alcoholics, the indigent elderly, unruly women, and
orphans. Gladys went on, "Edna Johnson then advised me to
make him a ward of the court. I regret that we did so. That's when
they sent him to the mental hospital at Camarillo. That was a
mistake."
An Addiction and an Identity.
Drugs had already become a large part of Noah's life from age
seven, when psychiatrists began giving him anti-depressants. At
Camarillo, he was put on drugs the day he arrived, October 5,
1971. He was given Mellaril, (thioridazine) a powerful anti-
psychotic, four times a day. Gladys worried,
His schooling got worse, also his behavior, and, in about three
months, he ran away three times with someone else that was in his
ward. He forgot everything he had learned and became very
hateful when he came home on weekends. They would always
send the pills home with him and if I forced him to take them, he
would sleep all the time and be very mean when he woke up.
Noah remembers,
My first time at Camarillo, Mom drove me up there. It took about
three hours to go through the intake crap and be admitted to Unit 3.
Standing there, watching her drive away, I was again feeling aban-
doned but at me same time happy to be rid of her. New place, new
people, that was cool. I always found it easy to meet and get along.
I remember a couple of the kids. There was Big Fat Tommy
been there for years. When I think of Tommy, I feel so sad for him.
I don't think he really belonged there. His people just threw him
out like so much trash. He was big—six feet tall and fat. His T-shirts
never fit him, so his belly would always hang out—a funny sight.
At night, he would lay on his side and rock himself to sleep. That's
when I started doing the same thing when it's hard to sleep. I really
hope he's okay these days.
Walter—Oh, Walter! This kid spent more time in straps than
free of them. Walter would go off about something and then all
these nurses would hold him down, give him a shot and strap him
down to his bed. He had his own room whereas the rest of us had
NOAH STONE 183
dorms. I don't know why I remember Walter so much since we
never saw that much of him because he was kept asleep on meds.
When he was awake and not going off, he was okay. Walter had a
very loud, high pitched laugh and didn't have many friends,
except me and Tommy. I have a gut feeling that Walter either was
eventually killed or killed himself. Poor Walter.
There were dances at the girls' unit. The music was Blood,
Sweat and Tears, but I would only dance the slow dances. I
remember kissing a lot with my girlfriend, Karen, between classes
and after school. The first sex I had was at the Camarillo kids' units.
I think I lasted all of twenty seconds. It may have been fast but it was
damn good.
I ran away four times, my first time at Camarillo—each time
with another kid, and we walked a long way. The second time at
Camarillo I used state cars to escape. That's another story.
Noah explains,
I was also hateful toward Gladys because she was always on me
about what she wanted me to do and be; she was very bossy and
controlling. If I didn't do something right, or her way, she would
yell and make me do it over and over and over again.
Gladys continued,
He tore all the wallpaper off the wall in his room, slashed the
upholstery in the car, wandered through the house at night, while
we slept, carrying lit candles to the attic. We didn't know then that
he was suffering severe side effects from the drug.
Gladys recalls,
"Edna Johnson, the same juvenile officer who had taken Kent
to McClaren Juvenile Hall whenhe was three and a half, said to us,
'That is no place for Kent.' She said she could see the change it had
made in him and that we should get him out but place him where
he would still get treatment.
Just before Christmas, 1972, Kent was again at Las Padrinos
Juvenile Hall. The police report stated:
Said minor is beyond the control of his parents with whom he
resides, in that on or about December 23, 1972, minor left home
without parental permission by breaking and climbing out of his
bedroom window and his whereabouts remained unknown until
December 24, 1972.
Reflecting on those times, Kent would later realize:
184 CHOSEN CHIDLREN
Christmas always felt somehow empty for me, no matter what
anyone did to try to make it a happy occasion. I would wonder
what my real mother was doing. Did she think of me at Christmas?
It was the same on my birthday—there were no momentos in the
family album of the day I was born, or of the people I was born to.
Hell, I couldn't even prove I existed before age three there were no
photos, no records of my true identity.
In 1974, his new probation officer, Lillian Ferguson, then placed
him in a foster home in El Monte. He was removed from there
within six days and placed in East Lake Central Juvenile Hall. A
month later, the probation officer took him to Roscilli's Boy's
Ranch, where he and another boy ran away after five days. He
was then sent to Ken Ruffcorn's home on part of Roscilli's Ranch,
where he didn't get along and was then sent to the Willard Home.
By May, 1974, Kent was on the road again and on May 9th, the
probation officer brought him back home to the Gills to await
hearing on June 19,1974. Then back to Central Juvenile Hall on
July 6 to August 13th. Then to Camp Paige. He didn't like it there,
either, and was on the run from August 14th to 17th. Gladys took
him back to Camp Paige and they took him back to Central
Juvenile Hall. By now, Kent was a ping-pong ball, between his
adopters, the system, and his own need to get away, but with no
place he could stand to stay that would keep him.
By the end of 1974, he was again committed to Camarillo State
Hospital. He ran away from Camarillo, but was caught on Febru-
ary 8, 1975, and was sent to McClaren Hall where he was first
brought sixteen years before to secure his adoption. He was sent
home to the Gills again and went back to the Lynwood Swim team
and started school. But on February 26 was arrested by Southgate
Police for burglary and sent to USC Medical Center. He believes
"I conned them into thinking I was nuts." April 1,1975, he was
back at Camarillo State Mental Hospital for a third time. Rve days
later, he ran away to his home, but left home "to see an old
girlfriend," leaving Gladys and Herb to wonder when he had
time to find a girlfriend. He was back and forth, and living on the
streets, until arrested again April 29, 1975, and sent back to
Camarillo for the fourth time. He ran away from Camarillo again
and was picked up by Huntington Park Police.
Dear Mom and Dad, I'm not crazy. But if you want to see me in a
place that can do me some good, then do it. Put me in one so I can
get some help from someone. I hope I can show you that I can be
NOAH STONE 185
someone in this world, make some money, and help you and Dad
to get settled in a good place that I can get.
Based partly on fact and partly on Noah's fantasy of the brother
he might have, on August 27, 1975, psychiatrist
Marshall S. Cherkas, MD.wrote to Paticia A.McFarlane, Deputy
Public Defender, about Kent:
According to Herbert, he has a natural brother named Don Chafe
who is now at Norwalk Youth Authority and is reportedly sixteen
or seventeen year of age. He knows nothing of his natural parents'
whereabouts. He indicates there is some considerable resentment
about being adopted. He feels that being with his adoptive mother
is like World War III, that he is somehow unable to live up to her
expectations. Intellectually, he appears to be in the "average"
range. This is a seventeen year old boy who appears somewhat
younger than his age, and although cooperative, he definitely
seems poorly in contact with reality.
Diagnosis: Schizophrenic reaction of adolescence, borderline psy-
chotic. Some of his impulsive reactions may be related to LSD
flashbacks, probably more likely tied in with the chaotic and
confused states he suffers when he is mildly depressed and obvi-
ously needs concerned direction and limit setting. He will defi-
nitely need long term psychotherapy in one form or other.
At the age when teenagers are thought to experience an "identity
crisis Kent took on a new identity--one he chose himself, as
adoptees often do. He and Gladys never agreed on how that came
about. Says Kent,
As for how I chose my name, I didn't get “Noah Stone” from Mom's
Stone family Bible as Gladys tells it. First, I got the name "Noah”
back in 1975 or '76 while running on the streets of Hollywood
Some people just started calling me that and it stuck. Then, in l984
When I was in Tracy Prison, I thought about changing my last name
To Stone. I didn’t know that was Gladys' parents' name until I came
home and saw it in the big dictionary that was once her father's, not
in her Bible.
But Gladys continued to call him Kent, the name she chose for
me. Kent was a ward of the court until 1976 when he was eighteen.
Up to then, he had also lived at Lakeside Lodge at Lake Elsinore
where he was punished with ping-pong paddles and poked in his
ribs by a Black Belt karate counselor. He ran away with another boy
whose stepfather was a homosexual. The boy took Kent to another
186 CHOSEN CHILDREN
homosexual in Long Beach, an ex-convict, 50 years old, who gave
them a little money. They were picked up the next day on the pier
by police, put in jail and then returned to Lakeside Lodge.
But Mr. Gill and I were not allowed to visit Kent for three
months. They let the other boy's stepfather go there every weekend
and take the boys home—the boys who did not have parents to
come see them. Kent ran away again.
Gladys wondered whether her boy had been molested in Long
Beach and whether it was the first time. If anything had hap-
pened to Kent, he wasn't talking. "There was to be another
hearing but the probation officer did not have Kent present and
told the judge to release Kent to me," explained Gladys, empha-
sizing "Mr. Gill had his own business, which was commercial
refrigeration. He serviced markets, restaurants, bars, flower
shops and also air-conditioning. We are responsible parents."
Yet the Gills were constantly relinquishing their responsibility to
governmental authority.
February 25,1977, Noah wrote to his parents while in custody
of NRCC "WINTU " psychiatric program:
The people on staff were okay but they all loved to give the kids that
little drug they used on them. I had to run because I couldn't find
myself there. And I couldn't find myself at home either. When I was
little, I didn't run to find myself, just to find someone to play with...
If you wanted to see and be with me bad enough, you would."
In 1978, Dr. David Kirschner's paper, "Adopted Child Syn-
drome," was published, but it would be another 10 years before
the general public would read that 14-year-old Patrick DeGelIke
burned down his adoptive parents' home, killing them in his
effort to fake his own death so he would be "free to find his
mother." {"How the Adoption system Ignites a Fire," by Betty
Jean Lifton, New York Times, 3-1-86).A set of eight behaviors,
observed in adoptees to varying degrees, was referred to as
"Adopted Child Syndrome" (ACS). The syndrome behaviors
include (1) conflict with authority, truancy, (2) preoccupation
with excessive fantasy, (3) pathological lying, manipulative, (4)
stealing, (5) running away, (6) learning difficulties, under achieve-
ment, (7) lack of impulse control, including sexual acting out, (8)
setting fires. Personalities are characterized by lack of impulse
control, low frustration tolerance, manipulation, deceptive charm,
and shallowness of attachment. There is also an absence of
NOAH STONE 187
normal guilt or anxiety about one's deeds. Noah exhibited all of
these behaviors since his adoption.
May 1,1978, Kent wrote Gladys:
Dear Mom, I am really sorry for putting you through hell all your
life. Now you can live in peace for the rest of your life because you
don't have to worry about be anymore because I'm going to get out
of your life forever. All my love, Kent. PS: Please remember me as
I was when I was three, or before I went bad."
June 9, 1978, a Confidential Report, ICR 5805, by O.L. Gericke,
MD, Highland, California, to the Office of Public Defender
regarding Herbert Kent Gill, summarizes Noah's drug history,
omits Adopted Child Syndorme, recommends brain wave analy-
sis at Riverside County General Hospital and concludes:
It can only be deduced that in this important period of his life, for
the first 3-1/2 years, he was not able to form any emotional ties with
parental figures and this has undoubtedly influenced his subse-
quent behavioral problems.
Silly Crimes, Serious Time
July 20,1978, Superior Court, Riverside, People v. Herbert Kent
Gill, Indio, CA—CR 58085 regarding the May 25, 1978 offense—
unlawful taking of an automobile, a felony—states that in an
interview conducted at the Indio jail, the Noah admitted to the
drinking of alcohol and taking controlled substances prior to his
taking of the Toyota pickup truck.... that he began hallucinating
while he was wandering around Palm Desert. The Defendant
states he didn't feel he would be caught because he planned on
returning the vehicle once he returned from Los Angeles.'"
September 19,1981 to October 3,1981, Noah was back on anti-
depressants at Mesa Vista Hospital, San Diego, on referral from
L.K. Pratum, Rancho Mirage. Mesa View's psychiatric report on
Noah reads:
The background history is pathogenomonoic as to the psychopa-
thology in as much as this was a rejected child or rejected infant. He
was irritated when telling about his family, particularly his mother.
His voice would get louder and there were implications of the
intense hatred-love relationship. Anti-depressant, Asendin, gave a
beneficial effect. Initially, he was exposed to the milieu therapy of
the hospital, plus daily psychotherapy. He expressed anger. Final
188 CHOSEN CHILDREN
diagnosis: Dysthymic reaction, drug abuse, antisocial personality
behavior."
Doctors at Mesa Vista were the first to suggest that Noah's
adoption and unknown pre-adoption history had significant
bearing on his adult behaviors, a surprising event since it would
be another five years, 1986, before anyone in the medical commu-
nity would publicly acknowledge Adopted Child Syndrome
(ACS) behaviors identical to Noah's. Despite over two decades of
police and doctors' reports mentioning the maltreatment of Noah
by his adopters, no charges of child abuse or neglect were ever
filed against the Gills.
September 23-25,1981, report by Charles Gable, MD, Mesa Vista:
He was adopted at a price of $350 by his now elderly parents when
he was 3-1/2. He says he remembers being in Juvenile Hall at age
3 and believes his troubles began then. He has been in and out of
jails many times. He is now under indictment for burglary and auto
theft in two different places. Once when he was released, he stole
the same car for which he had been jailed initially. He complained
that he has grown up with locks and bars. He said his adoptive
mother locked him in a closet, locked him in his room at night, and
beat him on the legs with a riding crop when he tried to run away.
He reported that she made audio tapes of him crying and punished
and ridiculed him in public. He is more angry with her than with
his father and has threatened her life. He explained that his adopter
and uncle had called him 'stupid' and he felt this has had a lifelong
effect on him. He has since done "what stupid people do" as a kind
of masochistic punishment of self. He reads horror novels and
science fiction and thought he must read at college level by now.
Living with a hyperactive child is wearing and his adoptive mother
was 49 when he was three. She may have lacked the stamina and
patience required to deal with a child offered for sale by his natural
parents. The failure to bond presents continuing complications to
his early and present development....His auditory attention span is
equivalent to that of nine year old children."
Although Mesa Vista provided the most accurate appraisal of the
root of his problems, Noah admitted,
Mesa Vista didn't really do all that many tests on me and at the time
I went there I was wanted by the cops in Santa Barbara and I knew
that Mesa Vista would not tell the cops I was there. By law, they
can't. So I was free a little longer.
NOAH STONE 189
Since attaining legal age of 21 in 1978, in accordance with Califor-
nia law, Noah was beyond reach of Juvenile Authority, foster
homes, and his adopters.
From then on, he racked up a criminal rap sheet and did
"serious time," some of which he utilized to obtain his G.E.D.
high school equivalency at Deuel Vocational Institution in Cali-
fornia State Prison at Tracy, California. It is noteworthy that,
aside from the undated notation as to suspicion of "possible
contraband substance," and the one documented positive test for
cocaine on May 28-29,1986, none of the arrests nor convictions on
Noah's record were for drug use. He was always charged with
misdemeanor or felony thefts for crimes other than drug use or
possession, and his sentences never included mandatory drug
treatment of any kind.
Rap sheet for GILL, Kent Herbert, aka Herbert Burnett,
Herbert Kent Gill, Noah Gill, Noah Kent Gill, Herb Gill:
2-27-76, PD Southgate. Released to Public Guardian's office.
1-20- 77, CYS, Norwalk. Failure to obey an order. (Field
placement).
6-23-77, S.O. Riverside, escape
3-15-78, paroled.
5-2- 78, S. 0. Riverside, taking a vehicle.
8-3-78, CA Dept of Corrections, Chino. Theft of vehicle. Term
2 years.
9-25-78, discharged
9-12-79, paroled to Riverside County.
3-12-81, discharged. (Undated) possible contraband substance.
10-26-81, S.O. San Jose. Vehicle without CONS.
11-12-81, CA Dept of Corr, received for diagnosis from Santa
Clara County, (Term 90 day placement)
1-14-82, discharge.
3-4-82, CA Dept of Corr, theft of vehicle from Santa Clara,
(Term 3 years).
4-29-82, CA Dept of Corr, additional commitment from Santa
Barbara County, (Term 2 years).
9-8-83, paroled to Santa Clara County.
12-15-83, CA Dept of Corr/ Chino, Parole violation RTC./
(Term begins with prior 3-4-82).
190 CHOSEN CHILDREN
3-7-84, Paroled to San Diego
4-19-84, CA Dept. Of Corrections, Chino, parole violation
RTC (Term begins prior 3-4-82)
4-1-85, Paroled to San Diego County
4-25-85, CA Dept. Of Corrections, Chino, parole violation,
Chino, (Term begins prior 3-4-82)
6-17-85, Paroled to San Diego County
1-26-86, Arrested by members of Lima, Ohio Sheriff's Office
for harboring a fugitive—known drug dealer. Subject and
his wife arrested for Obstructing Justice; pled guilty; (3
months County Jail, suspended $100 fine)
5-13-86, Revise prior notation
5-28-86, Test results returned positive for cocaine; asked past
history of use of cocaine; admitted to charge; showed no
injection sites; told agent of record he injected himself with
speed (amphetamines) at least 3 times
5-28-86 State of Ohio v. Noah Stone: Obstructing Justice (felony);
Obstructing Justice (misdemeanor); confinement in Alien
County Jail 3 months; fine $100; pled guilty
5-29-86, Arrested by Riverside County Sheriffs Office for
burglary; he didn't remember doing the burglary; he
remembered shooting up speed and then remembers being
arrested, but admitted stealing the items upon arrest;
discovered hiding in some trees. When we attempted to
arrest him, he threatened to slit his throat. Had two hunting
knives with a blade longer than 2 inches.
6-12-86, Changing residence without notifying parole agent;
subject turned himself in to Indio Parole Office; he was not
arrested at the time but was arrested one day later on other
charges; he stated he was just tired of being on parole
Indio Parole Officer, Joseph Leggett's notes:
We are dealing with an individual whose only consideration is his
immediate gratification of his needs and he does not consider the
consequences of his actions. Mr. Gill has been in the system since he
was a young boy. Besides prison, he has been in a number of mental
institutions for emotional problems. Unfortunately, it seems, Mr. Gill
has no intention of changing his lifestyle.
July 9,1986, Noah was in trouble again. Municipal Court, Palm
Springs, People v. Herbert Gill, MCR9896, Honorable Phillip LaRoca,
NOAH STONE 191
presiding judge that "the victim identified Noah as the man
coming out of his house and again later when he spotted him
across from my house in the trees... He was just sitting there "
Officer Craig Bender testified:
I had asked him to come out of the bushes so I could talk to him and
he had a couple of long knives, like a survival knife and a kitchen
knife; he pointed those at me. I pointed my gun at him and then he
put the knives up to his throat and then that's kind of the position
we were in when we were having the conversation. He said he
didn't want to come out because he was afraid he would be hurt.
He said several times that all he wanted to do was go back East to
see his "birth" family in Ohio. I asked him why he was so afraid. He
said he was on parole and had just burglarized the house across the
way on Merle Street. He appeared to be hiding. He was sitting
down with his legs drawn up to his chest and he was holding his
shirt up/hiding his head. And then he put the knives up to his
neck again... Later, on arrest, in his wallet was discovered his birth
certificate.
Noah always confessed to crimes and plea bargained via public
defenders who did not adequately represent him. He repeatedly
volunteered that he was "sold" for adoption, yet no one sug-
gested opening his adoption file. A change in California state law
that would eventually affect Noah replaced discretion of the
courts with statutory sentences for repeat offenders. Intended as
a deterrent for violent offenders, nonviolent repeat offenders also
got caught in the "Three Strikes" net...
March 1993 to March 1994, AB-971, California's "Three Strikes
Law”… the principal co-authors were CA State Senators Wyman
and Presley, particularly of the following part:
If a Defendant has two or more prior convictions, the term for the
Current felony conviction shall be an indeterminate term of impris-
onment in the state prison for life, with a minimum term of the
indeterminate term as the greatest of (a) three times the term
otherwise provided, as punishment for each current felony convic-
tion subsequent to the two or more felony convictions, (b) impris-
onment in the state prison for 25 years, or (c) the term determined
by the court for the underlying conviction, including any appli-
cable enhancement or punishment provisions."
192 CHOSEN CHILDREN
The Search
On April 1,1993, at age 34, Noah wrote to AmFOR from Arizona
State Prison Complex, SMU Unit, Florence Arizona, for assis-
tance in finding his family:
Dear AmFOR, I got your address from the Salvation Army and
there was only one sheet of information in the packet they sent me.
I would like to hear more about your service. Yes, I am in prison
here in Arizona but I am from Palm Desert, where my adoptive
parents reside... Look, I know how some people think of people
in prison, so I just want you to know I'm not a violent person. No
guns and I didn't hurt anyone. Just an act of stupidity on my part.
I had to say this.
I am an adopted person and I have been able to find out some
information about my birth. I do know my birth name and a few
other tidbits. I wrote to ALMA and others, but since I can't pay their
fees, I get no help! If I could use a phone, it would help a lot, but
all I have is writing. I get only so much done with this. I'm asking
for help from you or someone and if a fee is involved " I might be
able to work something out. I get five cents an hour. Yes, five
cents—for raking rocks. This is Arizona.. Not much here but
rocks... I really hope you or someone you know might be able to
help me in my search. Thank you for your time. Sincerely H.K. Gill
It was the kind of search that other searchers try to avoid, both
because prisoners cannot pay for search services and because
searchers are leery of the prisoners' motives. Also, no one relished
having to inform a parent that their child ended up behind bars.
When I first met the Gills, they lived only a few blocks from me.
They were two white-haired, elderly people who spent their days
in front of the 25-inch console TV blaring loudly in their living
room to compensate for their hearing loss. Herb had suffered a
stroke which left him partially paralyzed. He used an electric cart
to get around. She slowly hobbled about with aid of her cane. The
drapes were always drawn throughout their Palm Desert home,
except at the front window where Gladys watched for the mail-
man. Gladys said she wanted her son "to have relatives to go to,
in case we are deceased by the time of his release from prison."
Perhaps more to hide assets, in anticipation of Herb's medical
bills, than to help their son avoid complexities of probate, Gladys
put everything in the name that her husband and son shared—
"Herbert Gill," despite the risk that their son could easily assume
ownership before his parents' demise. In her attorney-drawn
NOAH STONE 193
Will, Gladys left everything to her nephew, but Noah easily
withdrew the Gill's life savings of $45,000 before anyone else
could lay claim to it. He felt Gladys owed it to him and that the
money could assure his freedom, not only upon parole, but from
dependency on Gladys. After all, it was “his money, in his name,”
he reasoned.
Gladys readily offered to provide me with whatever informa-
tion she had to help Noah find his family. But before doing so,
Gladys would call upon her expertise in the art of negotiation by
asking me to trade favors, in exchange for bits of pieces of
information from old records, which Gladys doled out a few at a
time each time I visited—I did their grocery shopping, drove her
and Herb to their medical appointments, fetched their prescrip-
tions and Gladys' cigarettes, and was “on call” to run over to their
home to pick Herb up off the floor whenever he fell.
Gladys had papers strewn throughout the house in neat piles—
on the fireplace, in shoe boxes on the coffee table amid her
cigarette packs and prescriptions, and on the floor around the
living room. She repeatedly showed me Noah's early photos and
the collection of award ribbons he had won in swim meets years
ago. Frequently, she'd bring out his rap sheets, police reports or
an early psychological study. Each disclosure was accompanied
by her vivid, detailed memories of Noah's childhood, as if it was
yesterday, despite that Gladys' immediate memory was failing
causing her to repeat many of the same stories over and over.
Gladys was a "night person." I wasn't. Nevertheless, she would
often phone me close to midnight with something else she'd
remembered. One time, she produced his amended birth certifi-
cate. Finally, she "remembered" where she'd put his adoption
papers. They bore Noah's birth name—as well as the names of the
parents he had been begging to know for 30 years!
In preparation for Noah's parole hearing and possible media
coverage, I pressed Gladys for any "good memories" she had
about her son. Gladys replied "I don't remember any." Asked if
she was affectionate toward him, and did she hold him when he
was little, she was more definite: "When we first got him, he
always wanted me to pick him up wherever we went… and I
thought this was odd."
End of a Search
Only six days before his scheduled parole hearing, I hit pay dirt in
the search for Noah's mother. Although Noah's mother had
194 CHOSEN CHILDREN
never had a driver's license, the California Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) had issued her an ID Card. And it provided a
cross-reference to her current married name, Fernandez.
September 29,1993 (Wednesday), telegram to Jacqueline Sue
Treadwell Fernandez, Duarte, California:
URGENT. PLEASE CALL ME COLLECT TODAY. YOUR SON
KENNETH GENE OWENS (GILL) WOULD LOVE TO MEET
YOU AND HIS SISTER THIS WEEK. (Signed) Lori Carangelo,
AmFOR.
Noah's sister Susan, who was adopted separately, had already
found their mother and was living with Jackie.
September 30,1993, Thursday: Upon reading the telegram to
Jackie, Susan immediately called me. After an emotional ex-
change, Susan could be heard through the telephone receiver at
the other end calling out to her mother, "It's Kenny... They found
Kenny!.. .And he's in prison!"... as she handed the phone to Jackie.
Joyful, and at the same time tearful, in anticipation of the prom-
ised reunion with their son and brother at an Arizona prison, the
two women had more hurdles to overcome. Jackie recently had
her purse stolen and with it her DMV ID Card. It would be needed
to permit her access to the prison and her son. There was just one
business day left in which to try to get Jackie and Susan cleared for
a weekend visit before Noah's parole hearing on Monday.
Jackie confirmed that Noah had two other siblings who had
been "adopted outright from the hospital when they were born"—
Baby Boy Owens, in Bakersfield, and Diane Owens, in San
Francisco. But Jackie didn't want anyone to find them, so would not
provide a waiver of confidentiality to Social Services for disclo-
sure, and would not explain why. The search for Noah's
siblings would have to wait.
Neither Jackie nor Susan had a car, so a car rental has to be
arranged. There was no way of directly contacting Noah who
was expecting to meet only me on Visitor's Day, Sunday. The
family reunion, if it was going to take place, would be a total
surprise to him.
Reunion
If my words registered, he did not immediately look away
from my eyes as I was telling Noah "The reason I was late is that
I had to first travel to Duarte to pick up your mother..." I paused
NOAH STONE 195
as I gestured toward Jackie… "and your sister," then gestured
toward Susan.
I held my breath as Noah took a moment to digest this, his back
to the two women he had been looking for most of his life. He
waited to receive a nod of confirmation from me before turning
to Jackie and Susan. His mouth fallen open in silent utterance, he
suddenly buried his face in his hands, unaccustomed to showing
his emotion. Then, suddenly, as if on cue, mother, sister and son
were tearfully overcome in an embrace resembling a three-way
football huddle.
May 2001: The day after his emotion-charged reunion in
1993 with his mother and one sister at the Arizona prison, with a
CBS-TV (Phoenix Affiliate) camera documenting the hearing,
the Arizona Parole Board listened to his family's pleas for his
release. The proceedings were supported by this author's infor-
mation with regard to Adopted Child Syndrome and how it
impacted Noah's life. The Board granted Noah his parole but the
CBS tape never made it to the Phoenix affiliate station for the
Evening broadcast—one of those mysteries one encounters in
Adoption and prison matters.
Revolving Door
At this writing, Noah is counting down the five years remain-
ing on his 15 year sentence for a theft he committed in order to buy
drugs after only a few months as a free man. In 1993, he had
already lined up suppliers in Arizona and California before his
brief release, and, while out, had gone through Gladys and Herb's
life savings of $45,000 for drugs, had twice attempted suicide and
left 3 drug treatment programs. During his subsequent incarcera-
tion at California's "model" Substance Abuse Treatment Facility
(CASTF) at notorious Corcoran State Prison, Noah used heroin
for the first time. Drug dealers inside Corcoran extorted tens of
thousands of dollars from Noah—money from the proceeds
of his adopters' home which he was able to sell after Gladys
died in January 1998. Noah says,
“… the guards referred to CSATF- Corcoran as ‘sixty million
dollars of waste.’ You have to be a year away from going
home to be in their drug program and there are seven yards but
only one drug program.”
The State is building four more CSATFs. When Noah's life was
threatened over drug bills he could no longer pay, he swapped
information for administrative segregation for protection. It was
196 CHOSEN CHILDREN
a year before he was next moved to a "safe" yard elsewhere in California.
How does one explain such dependence on drugs? Patti Davis,
daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, and herself an addict,
summed it up in "Dope: A Love Story" ("Viewpoint: America's
Shadow Drug War," TIME, May 7, 2001, p 49):
I never got arrested like Robert Downey Jr.—more because of
dumb luck or chance than anything else. But if I had been arrested,
my eyes would have looked the same as his—a hard, puzzling,
faraway stare into the camera. It isn't smugness. It's actually
honesty. It's a look that says. There, now you know who I really am.
I'm not lying and pretending I know how to live in this world. I
don't. Not alone, not without my lover. Remember how Robert
Downey Jr. described his relationship with drugs at his hearings?
He said it was like he has a gun in his mouth, and he loves the taste
of the gun-metal. You will never understand drug addiction unless
you understand that it's a love story.
Drug addiction is only a by-product of Noah Stone's root prob-
lem—the failed experiment called adoption. The Biblical Noah's
genealogy is recorded in the Book of Genesis as result of saving
his son's and his sons' wives so the human species could survive
according to God's plan—the first experiment in eugenics
(genetic breeding). Unlike the genealogy of Noah in the Bible,
Noah Stone's family tree is a pile of broken branches—a testament
To he failure of euthenics (controlling species through environ-
mental factors)
Noah's Maternal Family Tree:
Ancestors from Waleetka, Oklahoma, include Grandpa John
Treadwell's mother who was full-blooded Native American of the
Blackfoot tribe. Noah's mother, Jackie Sue (Treadwell Owens)
adopted out all four of her children including Kenneth Eugene (aka
Noah Stone); devastated by the loss of her children to adoptions
when she was only 17, Jackie has since battled a lifelong addiction
to alcohol and was reportedly currently maintaining sobriety since
hearing that her other two children may soon be found. Jackie Sue's
brother, Harmon Dale Treadwell, married Margaret Attaway and
adopted Margaret's child, Russell, by prior marriage. Jackie Sue's
sister, Lillian, adopted Robert Friar. Emerald Eugene Friar adopted
out one child and then adopted Mike Friar. Charlene Davis adopted
out one son. Helen Foshee remarried and had one son who was
later adopted by Billie Foshee. Uncle John Henry (aka "The Bandit”)
NOAH STONE 197
spent a lot of time in prison Janet Marie Friar, Marion
Edward Friar, and his wife Jan, all committed suicide
Although he has no definite plan, Noah hasn't lost hope of a
future in the outside world. His search for answers have unlocked
family secrets. Noah's sister. Melody, has been found and his
brother Robert, a long-distance delivery driver with many forwarding
addresses, is being tracked down. Melody, a soft-spoken religious
woman, says she had "a wonderful life with wonderful adoptive parents"
and plans to be supportive to her new-found brother, Noah. In the
meantime, Noah can do nothing but wait in his 3-foot-by-5-foot cell to
learn whether his siblings may one day be as driven to know the missing
pieces of their adoption puzzles.
Author s Observations and Opinion
Four decades of analytical and anecdotal documentation has
been amassed on Noah Stone, now 45, by helping professionals,
hospitals, police, agencies, courts and prisons. For years prior to
his incarceration, the documentation often mentioned his adoptive
status, his unsuitable adopters, his longing to connect with
his family, and his drug addiction. Yet he was provided no
adoption-oriented support, no family contact, no addiction-
oriented therapy, no daily living skills, no marketable job skills
training, nor education while institutionalized. Throughout his
formative years, Noah was abused physically, probably sexually,
certainly emotionally, and with prescription drugs from those charged
with his care, education and counseling; more recently he was
introduced to heroin at California's "model" Substance Abuse
Treatment Facility (CSATF) at Corcoran State Prison. Today,
Noah sits in his prison cell, more intensely monitored than
at other prisons in which he resided, occasionally taking up a
hobby craft, but mostly bored and just waiting for the days,
weeks, months and years to pass before his next parole date in 2008
or the end of his sentence in 2010. Prison has been his home for most
of his life. He has no prospects for any other life and so the system
eventually reclaims him.
The birth bond overcame three decades of separation by
adoption, but the bond between Noah and his mother, who was
battling addictions of her own, led Noah back to drugs and self-
destructive behaviors. At a faith-based "12-step" Narcotics Anonymous
meeting for friends and relatives of addicts, I was told I was an
"enabler" and that Noah would have to "hit bottom" before he
198 CHOSEN CHILDREN
could turn his life around. But for Noah, who I'd rushed to
hospital emergency rooms whenever he overdosed, and who the
sheriff apprehended for observation and detox when Noah held
knives at his throat threatening suicide while high on "speed,"
hitting bottom would most certainly be fatal.
The birth bond enabled Noah to re-unite with his mother and
sister, and has recently led him to his other his other sister and
brother, who he always sensed existed despite others' denials.
But birth bonds, re-unions, reconciliation and adoption healing
alone cannot change a life. For Noah and other lifelong addicts,
resurrection will require decriminalization of drugs and drug
addicts with appropriate long term treatment rather than incar-
ceration—as actor Robert Downey Jr. is said to be receiving for his
drug addiction under California's new sentencing law.
"It’s very important to transcend the places that hold us."
-Rubin "Hurricane" Carter
in the movie, Hurricane
McGee, Thomas Kent - #K-29272
California Medical Facility/State Prison, Vacaville
On April 19,1999, Americans For Open Records (AmFOR)
Received a letter from Thomas Kent McGee. It was mailed from the
Department of Mental Health (DMH) Section of California Depart-
ment of Corrections (CDC), California State Prison at Vacaville,
California:
Dear Lori, our letter is truly a blessing—one I have prayed for since
I was told I am adopted. It warms my heart just to find someone so
committed to taking the mystery out of the lives of those in the
adoption triad. I found Americans For Open Records (AmFOR)
listed in a book on our prison library bookshelves—It's called
Search, by Jayne Askin. Jayne herself is an adoptee.
Basically, I want to know about my past—where I came from.
As an adoptee, I sometimes feel like I was just dropped here from
outer space. What are my roots? What were the circumstances
leading to my adoption? Who are my parents? Do I have brothers
and sisters? I do wish to establish contact. My main fear, however,
is my mother's reaction to my incarceration. Will she be disap-
pointed that her son is a drug addict and in prison? Will she blame
herself for my shortcomings? I am prepared to deal with knowing
her situation, no matter what it may be. Not knowing at all is worse
than knowing, even if knowing may hurt. I sincerely hope that she
feels the same way.
I have been saying "she," referring only to my mother, but I
have the same interest in my father and possible siblings.
In the past, people have discouraged me from searching. I've
been told of the difficulties and enormous cost. When I contacted
Fresno County Social Services, they further discouraged me by
citing privacy laws. Also, having been incarcerated in one way or
another more than half my life, resources are very limited. I did
199
200 CHOSEN CHILDREN
register with International Soundex Reunion Registry (ISRR) and
also filed my notarized Consent for Contact with Fresno County
Social Services.
I was born June 24, 1975 in Fresno. I was informed that
sometime before I was 6 months old, my mother considered giving
me up… and when I was six months old, Fresno County Social
Services made the decision for her and placed me in foster care
where I remained until approximately May 1980. I'm not sure what
date my adoption was finalized, but I know I was placed with the
McGees about a month before my fifth birthday. I've seen my
amended birth certificate but no longer have a copy.
It took over 10 years, following my adopters' requests for more
information about me, for Fresno Social Services to release just non-
identifying background information when I was in my teens. It
revealed that my background is Mexican, Japanese and Caucasian.
It also mentioned that my mother had been diagnosed with and
treated for paranoid schizophrenia. She was described as an "ad-
dict and alcoholic" as was my father. She also served time at
California Youth Authority for reasons not indicated. So I wrote to
the Director of the Department of the Youth Authority in Sacra-
mento for information on my mother and her last known address.
This is the reply I received:
September 30,1993:
Dear Thomas: You state that you are an adoptee and are requesting
that our Department assist you in finding your biological mother.
You describe that your biological mother was committed to the
Youth Authority at the age of 14 from Merced County. By law, our
Department cannot release any information on persons who were
committed to us as a juvenile. There are other avenues that you can
pursue in your search. You might want to contact private groups
who specialize in this such as the Adoptees Liberty Movement
Association (ALMA), which can be found in most larger cities'
yellow pages. You can also pursue public records such as the
county hall of records for birth information. Federal Social Security
System, hospital records, etc....
Sincerely, Francisco J. Alcorn for William B. Kolender, Director;
cc: Greg Zermo, Supt./Preston School; Scott Pierce, SPA/Oakland
Parole.
Alcorn seemed to be trying to help, but he apparently didn't
know, at the time, ALMA wanted $65 per year to list Tom on its
passive registry until someday when his mother might learn of
their registry and be able to pay $65 also. As for Alcorn's suggestion
THOMAS MCGEE 201
about pursuing public records for birth information, he must
have forgotten that adoptees don't know their parents' names
nor the name they were given at birth—those names are sealed in
the court file
Tom continued:
I was told that my father attempted suicide shortly after my
birth and that my mother had neglected my nutritional needs
during the six months I was with her... and that she gave up my
older half-brother for adoption but kept my other brother. I was
also told that my family lived in Merced and Fresno and that I was
in many foster homes.
I can't possibly adequately express my gratitude for your
detailed personal response. You've given me some hope that I may
finally be able to feel that I belong... and hope has eluded me for
quite some time. I understand there are no guarantees, but hope is
good. Hope is really good.
My adopters have one biological daughter about eleven years
older than me. She manages a store that her husband owns, is a real
estate agent, and attends college part-time to study architecture.
She has never had any problems with drugs, alcohol or the law. She
is supportive and a sociable person.
My adoptive dad is Irish. He's a train operator and owns and
operates a small business. He served in the military and never had
any problems with drugs or alcohol or the law. He is supportive but
cannot understand my many problems. He is understandably
frustrated and is close to giving up on me. Several times, he was
offered the opportunity to nullify my adoption but chose not to.
My adoptive mom was born and raised in Japan and adheres
to traditional Japanese values. She is a data entry clerk for Contra
Costa County and also assists my father in their store. She has been
supportive at a distance. I think she has given up on me.
My adopters said they adopted me because they wanted a
second child and also wanted to give a "disadvantaged child" an
opportunity. They specifically requested an older child of mixed
race.
Thanks for your reply. I now have hope of eventually finding
my family. Anything you can do to assist me will be greatly
appreciated. Sincerely, Tom McGee.
Crime & Punishment
By age five, Tom was already having many problems:
I was suspended from kindergarten for fighting. My behaviors
indicated mental problems. For some unknown reason, whenever
202 CHOSEN CHILDREN
I heard a siren (police, fire or ambulance), I would make a violent
effort to get out of wherever I was. I grew out of it but there was
never an explanation.
At age 10 or so, I committed arson. I started a grass fire on a hill
next to my elementary school, and convinced the fire department
that it was an accident, so I was never charged. By this time, my IQ
tests indicated I was far above average, yet my grades were mostly
D's and F's.
When I was about age 12, a friend and I got caught stealing beef
jerky strips from a store in the mall. The judge ordered probation
and a treatment program. By this time, I was already drinking one
beer a day. One day, I took my beer to school. I thought it was cool.
A kid told on me and was locked up for the first time in Juvenile
Hall. I started a couple of programs but kept running away and
began experimenting with drugs.
During my twelfth year, I committed two residential burglar-
ies, stealing things of little or no monetary value. In fact, I burglar-
ized one home numerous times and was finally caught inside the
home but no charges were filed. I also burglarized another home,
a fire department, and a small fruit stand... never caught and no
charges filed.
At age thirteen, a neighbor introduced me to marijuana, and in
my freshman year I experimented with LSD, codeine, and speed.
The only thing I looked forward to was getting high. Nothing else
mattered. I was finally arrested on a school campus for possessing
alcohol and a switchblade knife, and found myself in Juvenile Hall,
which I tried to escape. I rang my buzzer around midnight to use
the restroom because only 2 staff members were working then. On
the way back to my cell, unguarded, I grabbed the fire extinguisher.
When someone came back to lock me in, I bolted out of my cell with
the fire extinguisher, sprayed him in the face, and tried to hit him
with the canister. He tackled me and busted my chin. I had to go to
the hospital and got three stitches. It was the first time I had ever
done anything that could be considered violent. I felt it was in self-
defense. I just wanted to be free.
While awaiting placement at Bear Creek Ranch prior to my
first lockup at Juvenile Hall, I had been drinking alcohol and
experimented with marijuana.
Over the next seven years, I was in several different residential
treatment facilities—The Bear Creek Ranch, Full Circle, Family Life
Center, Our Family, Oakendell and Rite of Passage. Our Family
was a drug treatment program. I was also in three different juvenile
halls—in Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties. During those seven
THOMAS MCGEE 203
years, I spent less than one year on the street—sometimes as little
as thirty days at a time.
At age nineteen, while in California Youth authority (CYA),
I joined Norte XIV, a gang of Hispanics from Northern Califor-
nia that has a presence in California prisons. I decided I didn't
really belong, so I stopped 'banging' and became a Christian, as
religion is the only 'honorable' way out of a prison gang. But
upon being transferred to another facility, I started 'banging'
again and quit again.
Upon parole from CYA, I met some other Nortenos who were
in their teens and we ran together while I was staying with Pam, a
woman five years my senior who was married with four kids. She
left her husband and I moved in with her and quit my job. She got
pregnant with my first child—her fifth child. I kept using drugs—
mostly methamphetamine, and worked odd jobs erratically for
about a year until we broke up. When she left me, I attempted
suicide and ended up in a hospital under 72-hour observation.
Upon release from the hospital, I went home to my adopters
and got a job at a fast food restaurant. Within thirty days, my
adoptive dad kicked me out for using drugs.
For the next six months, I lived under bridges. I committed a
gang-related assault and found myself in prison. I was banging in
San Quentin and Old Folsom for about a year. The judge gave me
a six-year prison sentence and offered to suspend it if I would enter
a two-year drug program. I took the program, but 45 days later, I
stole a van, left the program and was arrested same day for auto
theft and driving under the influence (DUI)—total prison term,
eight years.
I tried Christianity but didn't fit in there either. Because I had
a cellie who was a Muslim, even though most prison Muslims are
Black, they accepted me and I studied the religion hard. I'm now a
Muslim. One of our traditions is to grow facial hair. I've been
growing a beard for about a year now and CDC recently made a
new policy that we can't have beards. That's what earned me my
"C" status or program failure. They make no exceptions for religion.
Most of the Muslims complied and shaved. Still wanting to be
accepted, I kept my beard. As result, I may have to serve about a
year and a half more in prison unless I shave. But, you know, I still
don't feel like I fit in. I guess there is no substitute for knowing who
you are and where you came form.
My drug history includes alcohol, marijuana, LSD, mush-
rooms, opium, methamphetamine and heroin. On the streets,
when I worked, I spent my paycheck on drugs. Occasionally, I sold
204 CHOSEN CHILDREN
drugs, or transported drugs to earn a cut, to support my habit. I
even engaged in homosexual activity to obtain drugs.
I am currently drug-free.
1993 Youth Authority Report on
Mcgee, Thomas Kent, YA #67351
Offense History
PRIOR CONVICTIONS (Sustained Petitions)
Date Offense Disposition
12-04-87 Attempted Petty Theft Wardship, probation.
04-11-88 Minor Drinking in Public See below
04-11-88 Minor Possession of a
Switchblade Knife Bear Creek Boys' Ranch
04-29-89 Escape from Juvenile See below
Hall (walk away)
05-14-89 Battery on Custodial Out-of-home placement
at Oaken Dell Group Home
Officer (F)
04-09-90 Fighting in Public See below
04-09-90 Battery See below
05-16-90 Petty Theft Commitment
to CYA (later vacated)
Most Recent Offense
On 06-11-93, the Juvenile Court of Napa County committed the
ward to California Youth Authority as a result of a sustained
petition alleging Change of Court Order (Battery upon a Custodial
Officer). Additionally, previously sustained petitions were
aggregated in order to determine the maximum available
confinement time of four years and two months.
The report detailed Tom's social history," and under "Self Per-
ceptions," it was noted
THOMAS MCGEE 205
The ward further states, "A lot of my problems are based on my
natural mother's decision to put me up for adoption. I also have a
lot of problems centered on drugs. Drugs used to be a big problem
for me. They aren't anymore. Overall, I'm a pretty likable guy. I've
got my bad points like everyone but my positive qualities out-
weigh the negative ones."
And under "Clinical Impressions":
At no time during any interview together did this young man
present evidence of psychosis or other major thought disorders.
Additionally, there was no indication of suicidal ideation or
intent either in the past or present. It is clear that Thomas McGee
is an exceptionally intelligent young man. His academic skills and
ability to communicate far surpass most every CYA ward which
this caseworker has interviewed. Unfortunately, for various rea-
sons, Thomas has not capitalized on his intelligence and other
positive qualities.
Thomas appears to be the product of an intact and stable
environment from his adoptive parents. However, he seems alien-
ated from his family and has turned to his peers for a sense of
belonging. Clinical impressions of this young man suggest that he
is manipulative, impulsive and without insight. There also appears
to be a hostility and anger toward his adoptive parents and those
in authority. He presented as mature and cooperative, but he is
superficial in his relationships with adults.
The report concluded with: Recommendation To The Youthful
Offender Parole Board
At this time, it is recommended that parole be denied and the ward
be placed in an appropriate CYA facility where his treatment and
management needs can best be addressed.
Following this report and denial of parole, Tom wrote to William
Kolender, Director of the Youth Authority, on September 9,1993,
requesting information to help him locate his mother through the
Youth Authority where she was reportedly committed in 1968.
He was denied. Tom was clearly telling the officials what he
needed, but no one was listening.
Faking Crazy
As for my psychiatric history, the many diagnoses I received have
been inaccurate because I hide some symptoms and fake others. I
saw a psychologist regularly from age 15 to 18. In prison, I sought
206 CHOSEN CHILDREN
psychiatric care primarily to obtain medications (legal drugs).
After awhile, I finally admitted to myself that I really do have
problems. However, the more appropriate diagnosis is probably
'schizo-affective depressive type' rather than full blown schizo-
phrenic. As you know, treatment in prison is usually insufficient, ,
which is another reason I exaggerate symptoms. If the psychiatrist
thinks you're 'crazy' enough, he can upgrade your status to 'EOP'
(Enhanced Out-Patient Program) which offers a minimum of 10
hours of therapy/counseling per week, as opposed to the usual one
hour per 90 days. I recently attained EOP status and will transfer to
a medical facility within the California Department of Corrections
(CDC) within a month or so. My mail will be forwarded until I have
a chance to notify you of my address change.
I've never communicated with a mother who had lost a child
to adoption before. Your enthusiasm and dedication to this cause
is commendable. And I really appreciate your assistance.
May 7,1999:
I'm in a better place now—I'm housed in the Department of Mental
Health Section of CDC. I've also obtained a copy of my amended
birth certificate. My adopters thank you again for helping me with
letters and such.
When I got here, they tried to put me in Ad Seg (Administra-
tive Segregation) but then asked me if I was feeling better! And I
was thinking, "Sure, put me in the hole—That ought to help my
mood!" So I said that I felt worse and could commit suicide at any
time if housed in Ad Seg. So the doctor sent me to DMH (Depart-
ment of Mental Health) housing. I'll be here at least another week—
and more likely a month or two. I like this unit because each man
has his own cell and gets three hot meals a day. We also have small
‘groups’ every day. Previously, I was in a double cell—200 inmates
per unit, 1200 in the yard, only two hot meals a day and no 'groups.'
Although I only get an hour a day in the yard, that's okay because
I feel safe here. For me, that is very important and I'm feeling better.
I am told that the circumstances leading to my adoption were
that my parents were young, unemployed, and had medical,
psychiatric and legal problems. Even so, my family situation may
have improved with help. Even if it didn't, they and I have a right
to know each other and whether we're alive and well.
As for my adopters, my adoptive father used to use his belt to
discipline me and once he pointed his hunting rifle at me at our
camp in Modoc. We'd had an argument and I said I was leaving. I
got about a quarter mile away when I heard him about 100 yards
THOMAS MCGEE 207
behind me. When I turned around, I saw him kneeling on the
ground pointing his 30/30 at me, ordering me to come back. As
soon as I started back, he got up and walked back to camp ahead of
me. We never talked about it. Maybe we should have. And maybe
I should talk to Mom, too.
I fantasize about things related to power and control. In one
fantasy, I have a private prison of my own where I take people off
the street and lock them up.
I have always had a small burn mark, about three inches long,
on my right leg the width of perhaps a curling iron or something
like that. I can't explain it and have no memories of how or when
it happened. I also have cigarette burns all over my left arm and a
few other places but I know those are self-inflicted ... It's how I
used to deal with stress. The freshest burns are from this year.
I daydream about sex, probably excessively. This is difficult to
talk about because I have, as recently as this year, engaged in
homosexual acts to obtain drugs. I don't like it, but I did it and I'm
disgusted with myself for it. Other than that, I guess everything is
normal. I lost my virginity at age 19 when I paroled from CYA—4
sexual partners in 18 months, one for a year, one for 30 days, one for
two weeks and a one-nighter.
My waking hours are spent in a dreamlike state. When I apply
myself, I excel; when I get bored, I get stubborn and underachieve.
In elementary school, my IQ scores were high yet my grades were
low. In prison, my academic scores were off the chart, yet I always
end up in trouble and can't hold a job.
I ran away from home and seven other places. My first conflict
with authority was when I was suspended from kindergarten.
I usually only lie to avoid getting into trouble, not for amuse-
ment or premeditated deception.
I mentioned the arson. Most of the time I stole for the thrill of
it. It was like a game and I felt like I was winning, the prize being
that I kept what I stole even though it was of little or no value.
Perhaps it had something to do with power.
Benefits of Being Crazy
May 25,1999:
At first, I tried being 100 honest with the psychiatric staff. But
they decided I wasn't '"crazy" enough to take the time to help me.
So I studied DSM-TV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders) and hit on "schizo-affective" because inmates who
seem to be "crazy" get better treatment. They have better access to
208 CHOSEN CHILDREN
counseling and more services upon parole. They are immediately
eligible for disability insurance. I now get the highest level of
treatment available. I'm not 'crazy' but sometimes you have to be
crazy to get their attention. Make sense? I didn't want to put this
on paper because a nurse will read this and they'll know I'm
manipulating them and the system ... But I want to be straight-
forward with you.
I have a lot of anxiety when around others. I always feel off,
like I don't belong. I feel that others are laughing at me and making
fun of me. I'm insecure. But, compared to other men in prison, I
believe I have strong morals. I try not to use profanity unless to
make a point. I treat others with respect. When I was homeless, I no
longer stole—not even to provide myself with food—as I felt
sincere remorse for my childhood stealing and will never do any
more burglaries. I also wouldn't hit women or children. I've been
respectful of the guards and don't hate them—I hate the system.
The guards are just doing their jobs, trying to feed their families.
Overall, I'm a good guy.
But I have some identity problems. In many ways, I'm still the
12 year old kid who got locked up so young. I've never been able
to decide who I am. I know that if I find my biological family, then
I'll know I really exist and have a true origin... that I came from 'Mr.
and Mrs. so-and-so. Knowing where I came from and who I am can
help me decide where I'm going and who I want to be.
My current medications include Prozac and Olanzapine.
I'm not very sociable ... Never had many friends. The way I
met my ex-girlfriend, the mother of my child, was a fluke.
Fatherhood & Addiction
I was 19, on parole from CYA and selling Kirby vacuum cleaners
door-to-door when I knocked on her door. She was 24, married
with four kids. We got together, kicked her husband out and I
moved in against my adopters' advice. We quit our jobs as she was
also Manager of the apartment complex and I became Assistant
Manager. Many of our tenants were 'tweakers' (meth users) and I
got hooked. I couldn't get enough of it. I still drank and smoked pot,
even dropped acid and took mushrooms occasionally, but my drug
of choice was the "crank"— methamphetamine. Eventually, she
left me, taking our three month old daughter with her. I made a
failed suicide attempt.
After my suicide attempt, I returned to my adopters' home
and got a job at Taco Bell but lost the job in two weeks for smoking
THOMAS MCGEE 209
weed at work. Dad kicked me out and I was homeless until I locked
up again. I haven't seen my ex-girlfriend or my daughter since.
At age 20 when I came to prison I discovered I could get drugs
just as easy in prison as on the street... It was just more expensive.
I smoked weed occasionally, and used crank when it came my way.
I drank some pruno a couple times but it was at Folsom that I first
snorted heroin.
Heroin appealed to me because I felt a temporary crank-like
rush before my body would settle into a comfortable heroin-
induced stupor. While I was high, nothing else mattered. Every-
thing was okay. I could forget, temporarily, that I was a dope fiend
in prison. Before this, I never used a needle but was told that to
really experience heroin, it had to be mainlined. I would justify
smoking pot by saying, "Hey, at least I ain't hooked on heroin."
I still smoke weed at least once a week and use heroin once a
month or so. I also use psychotropic medications to get high. When
I really want to feel flooded, I take a seizure pill (barbiturate). Do
I want to quit using drugs? At this moment, honestly, no, I don't.
I want to use drugs, but I don't want to deal with the consequences.
I want to feel in control of my drugs, but that can never happen
because an addict can never control his drug use.
Anger
Specific triggers to my anger include when I'm told what to do by
someone I feel has no right to do so, when others try to take my
rights away, or when I'm questioned about my daily affairs. It
could be as simple as being asked what I'm reading. What business
is it of theirs? I get angry when I'm criticized or stereotyped and
when I don't meet my own expectations for myself—when I try and
fail. I get angry when someone is inconsiderate of me and my
emotions or discount my ideas and opinions. I get angry when
people challenge my intellect and when I have to do someone else's
job. I even get angry about getting angry.
Anger, for me, stems from fear... fear that I might lose control
over a situation. When I perceive I have no control, I feel afraid and
then become angry. It is often regarded as a masculine trait to be in
control, so loss of control also challenges my self image of mascu-
linity. I deal with anger in several ways. Often, I just avoid the
situation. If the situation can't be avoided, I suppress my feelings
about it by imagining the worst possible outcome and then resign
myself to accept it as inevitable, so the variable is no longer an
210 CHOSEN CHILDREN
unknown. This 'knowledge' overcomes my fear and anger becomes
unnecessary.
Another way I deal with anger is by aggressive action. If I can
convince myself that I am regaining control and asserting my
masculinity through aggression, the outcome is irrelevant to me.
Even if I don't regain control in the process, at least I made an effort
and acted "as a man should."
I'm afraid that prison is going to change me even more than it
has. Many guys in here are hardened and would just as soon kill
you as shake your hand. I don't want to be like that. I want a life.
I want to belong in society. I want to be normal.
At the same time, I'm afraid to leave prison. My adopters have
already let me know that they can't help me when I get out. I think
my anxiety could turn into panic as my parole date approaches.
Homelessness, Drugs, & Prison Therapy
When my dad kicked me out for smoking and selling pot and losing
my job at Taco Bell, I spent the first night at a friend's house. The
next day, I returned home while my adoptive parents were at work
to steal some supplies—blankets, sleeping bags, pots and a knife,
etc. My first night out in Vacaville, I met a group of 15 other
homeless people who called themselves "The Crew." They taught
me about collecting aluminum cans and glass to turn into recy-
clable for cash. They also bought me alcohol since I was just under
21. I slept under a bridge separate from theirs. Bridges were
necessary shelter as the winter rainy season was starting. But I
preferred the seclusion to sleeping at a group campsite.
I went into one shelter for about a week and they kicked me out
for drinking, so I went back to my bridge and found "The Crew"
waiting for me. One of them accused me of "stealing" one of their
recycling routes and they all beat me senseless and took all my
money—about $10. One of "The Crew" pulled a knife and threat-
ened to kill me but another guy pulled him off me. I left with my tail
between my legs and bleeding all over myself. I spit up blood for
over two weeks after that. In fear of my life, I moved to Fairfield and
found a new bridge which was an overpass, over Highway 80. No
one was there, so I made camp. A few days later, I met a guy who
lived on the other side of the bridge. He invited me over and said
I could use his stove if I bought gas. I bought a can and moved
over. He cooked every day. It was nice. While there, I occasionally
would go to my adopters store and ask for food, money and
cigarettes. Dad said I could come home whenever I decided to quit
THOMAS MCGEE 211
using drugs, which was impossible for me at the time. I went back
to the bridge.
My parole agent had left a message with my adopters that he
wanted to see me. He took me to lunch and gave me a choice. He
could violate my parole and send me back to CYA for a year, or I
could turn myself in to a 90-day drug program. I chose the latter,
but asked to have one last weekend on the street. He agreed. But I
got arrested the day before I was supposed to turn myself in and
I've been down ever since.
Being homeless was no fun, but I appreciate the experience.
June 11,1999
My social worker and psychiatrist are aware that I am an
adoptee. But they seem oblivious to the problems that are unique
to adoptees and to my particular situation. I rarely have any serious
one-on-one sessions in which I can discuss it at all."
Doing time is easier for me than for guys who have families,
wives or girlfriends out there waiting for them. I also miss my
freedom but not that much, considering that the last place I lived
was under a bridge and I have no wife or girlfriend and have never
been close with my adoptive family. So "doing time" is easier for
me. Not easy, just easier."
June 17,1999:
I've never written this much to anyone. It's good for me
because I'm releasing feelings and emotions that have been stored
for too long. Writing to you has been therapy for me. It gives me an
opportunity to release my past and validate my own existence. I am
somebody. I don't have to be a dope fiend all my life.
Perhaps if Fresno County Social Services had told me some of
my real parents good qualities as well, I might not feel so predis-
posed to be an addict. I know I don't want my daughter to be living
an addict's life, under a bridge.
June 27,1999:
I'm close to making a final decision to quit drugs. I haven't had
any pot since April, no heroin since March, no wine since Decem-
ber. I'm tired of the way drugs ruin my life. I could do so much
better but I need to figure out what to do and how to do it. Mostly,
I want to have a normal family.
It should be noted that the prescribed psychotropic drug group
called phenothiazines, specifically Mellaril (thioridazine) and
Thorazine (chlorpromazine), which were being administered to
Tom McGee, are not without serious side effects. They are often
212 CHOSEN CHILDREN
excluded for use in the elderly because of unfavorable side
effects. Side effects experienced (by adults at any age), include:
sedation; urinary retention; dry mouth; constipation; blurred vi-
sion; cardiac arrhythmia; low blood pressure; dizziness. These
drugs may also cause motor disorders similar to Parkinsons but
this effect is reversible upon discontinuation of the drug. Overdose
of Mellaril will produce these same side effects as well as convul-
sions and coma.
The most common reactions to Prozac, which Tom was also being
given, are:
insomnia; vivid and violent dreams; "no emotions;" inability to
feel guilt or cry; nausea; rash; breathing or lung problems; heart
fluttering; jitteriness; unusual energy surges (adrenaline rushes)
producing super human strength; memory impairment; hair loss;
blurred vision or pressure behind the eyes; dependence on the
drug; cravings for alcohol, sweets, caffeinated drinks; headaches;
swelling and/or pain in joints; muscle twitching or contractions;
tongue numbness and slurred speech; sweating; dizziness, confu-
sion; chills or cold sweats; muscle weakness; extreme fatigue;
diabetes or hypoglycemia; lowered immune system; seizures or
convulsions; mood swings, altered personality; manic-like symp-
toms (i.e. restlessness, racing thoughts, acting silly or giddy, sexual
promiscuity, irresponsibility, gambling, criminal behavior, steal-
ing, hostility, etc.); deceitfumess; blank staring; hyperactivity; ag-
gressive or violent behavior; impulsive behavior without concern
for consequences; numbness in various body parts; isolating one's
self; aversion to being touched; paranoia; feeling "possessed;" self-
destructive behavior and suicidal ideation or suicide attempts;
muscle tremors or lack of coordination; mania; psychosis.
The Search
On July 29,1999. Americans For Open Records (AmFOR) learned,
from an informant—an adopter who has California birth in-
dexes—Tom's McGee's full name, his mother's maiden name,
but not her first name, and his father's first and last name and
middle initial. The informant usually charges $200 per name but
provided me with prisoner names for free because she will not
deal with prisoners directly.
Tom McGee's two notarized Consent forms for contact with
his parents and cover letter were mailed to the attention of
Barbara Edmonston, Fresno County Social Services-Supervisor,
THOMAS MCGEE 213
Adoptions Division, by certified return receipt mail. Before mail-
ing the Consents, his parents' surnames, "Oka" and "Rails,"
which AmFOR had just discovered, were added to the form as
reference
It was explained to Edmonston that any information that could
be provided to Tom McGee, as California law allowed, could
assist his treatment and rehabilitation, and that, since a search for
his parents was in progress, it would be helpful to all parties to
have some background information, but Edmonston said they
had been "taking about six months to reply" to requests for post-
adoption information "because they are not a priority."
At the same time, AmFOR sent a letter to Tom, notifying him
ofhis birth name, "Thomas Rails, Jr.," his mother's maiden name,
"Oka," and his father's name, "Thomas W. Rails, Sr," while
AmFOR continued to search for his family. Microfilm of newspa-
per birth notices in the Fresno Bee for 1975 did not include Tom,
nor any of the newly discovered names. Valley Medical Center/
Community Health Systems still denied having "any record' of
Tom's birth, yet his amended birth certificate states he was bom
at Valley Medical Center.
August 10,1999:
Thank you for the good news! And for the birthday card and
stamps along with it. Thomas Rails, Jr., huh? After 24 years, I finally
know the name I was given at birth. I guess it's just a matter of time
now, before we locate my family. Thank you for all that you are
doing for me. Surely you are storing up a great record with our
Creator. May He reward you for helping so many as you do. Please
also extend my gratitude to our friend in Colusa—the adopter with
the birth indexes.
This search is for me, so I can feel I belong in this world. I hope
my mother isn't really schizophrenic. Maybe she got a false diag-
nosis like I did.
August 23,1999:
Back in March, I sent a request for my records to Dr. Richard
Geisler, Ph.D.. He just responded that he'll only release them to the
courts, attorneys or insurance companies. I was seeing him on a
regular basis for a good length of time. I would think that he should
in order to assist my treatment.
Ad Seg (Administrative Segregation) isn't bad. Mexican in-
mates are still locked down so I can't come out. I can now come out
214 CHOSEN CHILDREN
only for showers 3 times a week, I wish Icould shower more often,
especially in this heat.
In early October, AmFOR sent Tom’s notarized request to obtain
a copy of his foster care records, as the foster care division of
Social Services instructed. However, they never responded.
October 31, 1999:
I received a letter from my adopters. They have decided to
give me “one more chance.” She enclosed a money order and said they
will send a food package soon. I’m glad they are on my side. I will need
their support when I get out. Perhaps they will be able to get me a job where
he works. At least I may have more options now.
One Search Ends, Another Begins
December 30, 1999: Tom’s search was coming to an end.
wrote:
My family has found me! My mother’s name is Perrett and my father’s
name is Thomas Wayne Ralls, Sr., just as you told me. I have one full
brother, Ralphael Ralls, age 23, three half-brothers, Jose 28, Robert 19, Russel 9
and two half-sisters, Nikki 20 and Victoria 16.
Nikki and Jose hired a searcher and have been searching for me at the same
time that we have been searching for them! They located my adopters. My dad
the prison and left a message for me to call him. They are still looking for
Ralphael. Robert is in jail.
My mother, Cynthia, is dying of cancer. She has only about a month to
live. Their address and phone number is enclosed.
I am so excited to finally have contact with my blood family. I still
consider my adopters my family also, as they have taken care of me and loved me
all these years. WE may not be very affectionate and don’t talk much about our
feelings, but they did finally give me my family’s name and address because she
is dying. It’s too bad I am in prison and can’t help take care of my mother.
I still believe the County made some grave mistakes in dealing with my
Case, but it doesn’t seem as important anymore. I am more concerned with
Finding out who everyone is and what their lives are like. I have so many
questions.
Thank you for all your assistance and for your current efforts to find my
father. I know how hard it is when doors are closed. My earliest release date is
Now January 29, 2002. Only a year to go.
THOMAS MCGEE 215
This writer immediately phoned Tom's family, only to learn from
his his mother's sister, Christine, that Tom's mother had just
died. Tom would never get to see her.
Christine was very understanding of Tom's situation, and of
adoptees' plight in general. She informed me that in the few days
between learning about Tom and her sister's death, Tom's siblings
hed begged the Warden to allow Tom just one visit, even under
guard, so he could satisfy her last wish to see her son before she
died, and so that he could be with the mother he never knew, but
prison officials took no action toward that possibility. Now it was
too late.
I learned that Tom's mother and sibs had previously at-
tempted to contact Tom through Social Services, in Merced, but
were denied and simply told that "records are sealed." Neither were
under they directed to Fresno County Social Services, nor informed
that, California law for the past several years, they could have filed
their notarized Consent for Contact and Waiver of Confidential-
ity with the branch that held Tom's adoption file. Once again,
Merced County Social services did not do their job. Had these
public service officials done their jobs under California law, Tom
would have had some time to know his mother before her death.
I immediately telephoned Tom's counselor at the prison who
agreed to inform him that his mother had passed away and that
I would locate his father.
End of the Search
Because Tom's father had an unlisted phone number, AmFOR
used the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) mes-
saging service to contact him. For $5, DMV forwarded AmFOR's
message to the man whose name and year of birth matched the
only Thomas Wayne Rails on their computer records as holding
a California driver license. Fortunately, the address was current
and AmFOR immediately heard from Tom Rails Sr. by phone.
Even more fortunate was that the compassionate sounding
man who was eager to meet his son. He said he lived in Suisun,
about 30 miles from the prison—where Tom was raised by the
McGees—and he would try to get in to see him right next day.
In his first call, Tom's father and I exchanged basic informa-
tion. I provided Rails with some background on Tom, informed
him that Tom's mother had died before he could see her and his
prison address. He didn't offer his phone number or address and
I didn’t press him for it since he had my number. He wanted to
216 CHOSEN CHILDREN
be certain that Tom was his son. In case getting a close look at
each other was not convincing enough, DNA testing was readily
available, and Tom Jr. already had a DNA test in connection with
his daughter.
On a Saturday, the prison denied Tom Rails Sr. a visit despite
that he explained the circumstances. Instead he was handed a
visitor's application form and informed that it would take at least
3 weeks to "process" the application. If a dying mother, the week
before, was not a sufficiently "compelling circumstance," a fa-
ther-son reunion wasn't going to cut any ice either. The elder Tom
was willing to wait and he kept trying in the meantime.
Ralls kept in touch with me, volunteering more background
on himself and Tom's mother. He said that Tom's mother did
have problems but that they probably stemmed from the fact
that she was sexually abused as a child. Even so, he is sure that she
loved all her children, including Tom, and didn't want to lose him.
Although Tom Jr's parents lived together for a long time, they
were never married to each other. And when they separated, his
father had doubted whether Tom was actually his son. This
explained the father's reluctance to disclose his home address
and phone until he could be certain.
In the meantime, Tom Sr. got an e-mail address to keep in touch
with me, and a mail-drop address so Tom Jr. and he could
exchange correspondence. I scanned the "mug shots" that Tom Jr.
had sent me, and e-mailed them to Tom Sr. along with a one-line note:
"Any resemblance?" A day or two later, this reply:
My wife informed me that I received some pictures from yesterday,
and in reviewing them it seems we probably know who Tommy's
father is. When you get the picture I'm sending you, let me know
what you think and I will reveal who is in the picture.
A few days later, I received a photo in the mail from Tom Sr.
of himself—one taken when he was Tom Jr. 's age. A small,
handwritten note accompanying the photo read:
Hi, Lori. Well, after going through some pictures that I didn't
even know I had, I think I know who he looks like. And I'm not the
only one. What do you think?
I replied by e-mail, "I think you've found your son!"
Subsequently Tom Jr.'s reaction to the side-by-side head shots
of him and Tom Sr was, "It looks like you have found my father!"
THOMAS MCGEE 217
I couldn't help but wonder how long this game of "cat and
mouse" between father and son would go on.
February 4, 2000: Tom Jr. wrote:
Received two letters from you today—one postmarked January 11
and the other postmarked January 24. Our Mail room is sure
messed up. Sometimes we receive our mail timely and sometimes
we don't. Yes, I got your message from my counselor that my
mother had died. I feel bad but wonder if I should feel worse. She
was my mother but I never got to meet her. I keep her photo on my
cell wall, and my father's next to it.
My Aunt Christine has been very kind to me. She is showering
me with love and affection. I don't know how to respond. I've never
been shown much love and affection. My adoptive family isn't like
that and I didn't know I had missed all of that and that it could have
made a difference in my life.
I'm also looking forward to meeting my Aunt Tina and the rest
of my family. They all seem very nice. So far, I've spoken with my
Aunt Tina, my sisters, Nikki and Victoria, my full brother, Ralph
(Ralphael), my Aunt's granddaughter and my cousin Marie. Ev-
eryone is very friendly and they have all expressed their desire to
come visit me here. I'm looking forward to meeting them all.
I get the feeling that Christine wants me to live with her once
I parole. She asked me why I was paroling to my adopter's home -
whether I had to or just wanted to. This leaves much to consider
and to discuss with my adopters. Christine expressed a desire to
become a like a surrogate mother to me and I've started calling her
Mom. She was very close to my mother. She said she wants to give
me all the love I missed out on. I've talked with her granddaughter,
Marie, "Little Mamas" who is 13 and very sweet. They all accept me
as a member of their family with no reservations. I can't explain
how good that makes me feel. My aunt made a family tree for me.
I have all their addresses and will attempt to write all the rest of
them. You can see that my story is already having a happy ending.
I'm also eager to learn about my father's side. Please e-mail
this letter to him.
Tom McGee's story was well on its way to a happy ending when
I received a call from a Mr. Yeng, a caseworker at Fresno Social
Services who said he was returning my call from several weeks
prior. In broken English, Mr. Yeng inquired "What did you
want?"
218 CHOSEN CHILDREN
May 29, 2000: E-mail from Tom Ralls, Sr:
Hi, Lori, 'Thought you might like to know I got to visit with
Tom yesterday, and had a real nice visit. Thanks again for all you
have done.
Tom McGee had been free of illicit drugs more than one full year,
and attempted to endure the roller coaster ride of withdrawal.
Noah Stone and Tom McGee learned about the similarities of
their lives upon reading the first edit of this book. It had such a
profound effect on Tom that he not only became even more
determined to turn his own life around, he also began a corre-
spondence with Noah to encourage him to do the same
On April 23,2001, Tom McGee was paroled. Good luck, Tom!
Author s Observations and Opinion
The birth bond between Tom and his mother, father and siblings
overcame their 24-year separation by adoption. Until their re-
unions, Tom's "need to know" and to connect with his own
family was juxtaposed with his fear of displeasing his adopters
and an unyielding closed adoption system. So he withdrew to a
"safe" place within, faking insanity in order to remain there and
numbing his pain with powerful legal and illegal drugs; thus he
could maintain a dreamlike state in order to tolerate "limbo."
Tom's behaviors—excessive daydreaming, under-achievement,
running away, lying, stealing, arson—which are often termed
"Adopted Child Syndrome" behaviors, are his response to both
physical and emotional abuse by his adopters and by the adop-
tion system.
Tom observed, "My social worker and psychiatrist are aware
that I'm an adoptee. But they seem oblivious to the problems that
are unique to adoptees." Tom feels the system repeatedly let him
and his mother down.
Tom was paroled April 23, 2001.
He was not starting a “new life.” He was starting his life. At this time
he back in custody at a California State prison mental health facility.
"The human soul is difficult to interfere with; you hesitate how far
you should go."
—Loring Brace, initiator of the Orphan Trains in America
Strohmeyer, Jeremy #059389
The Untold Story of Addiction, Adoption, and Murder
Ely State Prison, Ely Nevada
Jeremy Strohmeyer—adopted at birth in 1980—was an
18-year-old honor student when he raped and murdered seven-
year-old Sherrice Iverson—a stranger to Strohmeyer—in a Las
Vegas casino restroom on May 25,1997. According to Patrick J.
Callahan, a forensic psychiatrist who researched the case, while
Strohmyer molesting her, he strangled her to stifle her screams; then,
because she was still breathing, he twisted her head in an attempt to
break her neck. He later told police "I just wanted to experience
death." Media stories suppressed the extent of the horrific injury he
inflicted on the child—an act of unimaginable rage.
Dr. David Kirschner, who, since 1978, wrote about Adopted
Child Syndrome (ACS) behaviors as underlying Dissociative
Disorder in adoptees he studied, did a forensic evaluation on
Strohmeyer. Drugs are believed to have played a role as to
Strohmeyer's state of mind when he committed the rape-murder.
He had been prescribed amphetamines when he was already
using an illicit drug, "speed" (methamphetamine). Gradually,
media revealed Strohmeyer's pattern of behaviors but
downplayed his adoptive status.
Jeremy sometimes played a game he called "whore dragging"
in which he fantasized that prostitutes were lured to his car,
grabbed by their arms as the driver sped off, and dragged along
the street until Jeremy let go.
But the media focused on the fact that more than 800 files of
child pornography were found in Jeremy's computer after the
murder. At the urging of his attorney and his adopters, Jeremy
pled guilty, a plea bargain that allowed him to avoid the death
penalty.
220 CHOSEN CHILDREN
In his own words, in answer to the question of what led to the
murder, Jeremy said:
In trying to answer these questions, I have had much help from my
lawyers, my [adopters], and psychiatric experts. For some of us
who were adopted, not knowing from whom or from where we
came can wreck our lives. It can make us walking time bombs, full
of rage we don't consciously experience...! was filled with anger
and rage that I couldn't understand....My recently found half-
brother, who knows our [birth] mother and grew up seeing her,
has avoided the pitfalls of drug and alcohol use. But our other
brother [also adopted] has been having some of the same problems
I was having.
Adopted kids like me, I now know, seek out rejection and
believe on some level that no one will keep them. Had any of the
three mental health professionals I sought help and advice from
even raised the issue of adoption, they might have treated me for
the complications it caused in my life. What needs to be understood
is that being adopted is not the same as being born into a family.
Many adopted kids do feel the confusion and doubts about who
they are—like I did. What's bad is not knowing who you are, what
your genetic history is, or why you were given up for adoption in
the first place. It shouldn't be as difficult as it is to find out about
your roots. Had my [adopters] not been led to believe the false
popular myth that adoption is a non-issue, they might have sus-
pected the existence of a secret shameful self inside of me. They
might have seen how serious my struggle with it was. Closed
adoptions are dangerous. Isolation and lack of real relationships
and communication with your family is the real destroyer.
Strohmeyer's famed defense attorney, Leslie Abramson, faced a
political uphill battle. Pre-trial focus was not about then-19-year old
Strohmeyer's adoptive status, nor his sanity nor "diminished capac-
ity" from drugs, but about controversies from three other issues:
1) whether to try him as an adult and seek the death penalty;
2) racial issues in jury selection (Strohmeyer is White; his
victim was a Black child);
3) whether his friend, David Cash Jr., who witnessed
Strohmeyer abducting the child should be charged with
conspiracy or for not intervening or reporting the crime
[Nevada does not have a "Good Samaritan Law"
requiring citizen intervention; after the Strohmeyer case,
California's Senate Bill 80 (12-7-98) required reporting of
JEREMY STROHMEYER 221
"witnessing" as well as "knowledge of" crimes against
minors. UC-Berkeley students called for Cash's expulsion;
he was neither expelled nor prosecuted.]
On July 19, 1998, over a year after the murder, the Los Angeles
Times did a 3-page, in-depth feature on Strohmeyer. However
only one sentence briefly referenced the fact of Strohmeyer's
adoptive status-a fact which Strohmeyer had kept hidden from
even his close friends.
A few thousand words later, in four sentences in the Times
article, is found mention that, as early as age four, "sometimes
Jeremy would talk about wanting to find his mother," that his
mother had a drug problem and was diagnosed as schizophrenic
or dipsomaniac (alcohol dependent), that his father was, at the
time, incarcerated, and had been in California prisons for most of
the previous 10 years for drug-related problems
Readers of that article might infer that Jeremy was simply a
bad seed There was no evidence that Jeremy suffered from
newborn drug withdrawal known as "fetal alcohol syndrome "
nor did his adopters observe and any “signs” as he was growing up
neither were they looking for Adopted Child Syndrome"
behaviors. Strohmeyer allegedly confided, in Internet messages
30 hours before the rape-murder, that he had fantasized about sex
with five and six-year-old children all the time -an extreme
example of an ACS behavior.
What the Times feature didn't address was how the fact of the
adoption was handled in the adoptive family, beyond the "chosen
child story his adopters told him when he was four, and how
Jeremy felt about being adopted. Strohmeyer basically did what
he perceived his adopters expected of him.
Strohmeyer grimly accepted it [the plea bargain] for his parents as
much as anything else, Leslie Abramson [Strohmeyer's defense
lawyer] said" (Lichtblau and Zamichow, Los Angeles Times, Sep-
tember 9,1998, front page and on A-3).
That Strohmeyer did not make his decision independently of his
adopters, who had spent more than $500,000 defending him is
noteworthy in light of the fact that adoptees, even as adults
typically strive to please their adopters for fear of "second aban-
donment."
Indeed, incarcerated adoptees report their adopters "cut them
loose after the adoptee is convicted of a crime. Judge Myron
222 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Leavitt actually sentenced Strohmeyer to "three life prison terms
without possibility of parole—one each for first degree murder,
first degree kidnapping, and sexual assault on a minor with
substantial bodily harm." To a 19-year old, life imprisonment is
worse than a death sentence. Abramson, to her credit, told media
"He's not a bad seed," but no one will ever know whether a jury
could have been swayed by the "Adopted Child Syndrome"
defense, had the death penalty not been inevitable at a time when
politicians and Strohmeyer's jury pool appeared to be more
influenced by "tough on crime" rhetoric and racial issues.
Although Strohmeyer accepted blame for his crime, other
factors must be considered. Abramson insisted that drugs (pre-
scribed amphetamines when he was already on "speed"). Internet
pornography, and insecurity over his adoption triggered the
slide of a once responsible young man who was "mentally gone
at the time he committed the crime."
The Strohmeyers say that, had they known more of Jeremy's
pre-adoption background, perhaps disaster could have been
averted. But they would still only be looking for a "bad seed" and
may have remained in denial that the adoption itself so bothered
young Strohmeyer. What they, and the media, fail to acknowl-
edge is the birth bond between mother and child.
Strohmeyer was finally able to briefly speak for himself on
ABC's "20/20," October 30,1998, but he did not yet seem to fully
comprehend his own feelings nor his "Adopted Child Syn-
drome" behaviors. According to ABC's transcript of that show,
John and Winnie Strohmeyer adopted Jeremy when he was 18
months old. They already had a biological daughter. Heather, but
they wanted to adopt a "hard-to-place" child, one who might
otherwise be "unwanted, " a term which may have lingered in
Jeremy's subconscious. Walters mentioned his parents' back-
grounds— discovered only after Jeremy's arrest—but also com-
mented, "As Jeremy grew, there were no signs." Despite Jeremy's
usual smiles, the Strohmeyers say that they now know Jeremy
was always concerned about being adopted, yet they knew for
years that he fantasized about "finding and helping" his mother.
Preoccupation with fantasy, particularly about parents, is an
ACS behavior.
As a teenager, the pain and isolation he felt over being adopted
got worse." Strohmeyer volunteered that he and a classmate had
JEREMY STROHMEYER 223
Stolen girls' purses for sport (stealing is an ACS behavior) and had
conflict with authority (another ACS behavior). He said:
Sometimes I felt that I was going crazy. Nobody understood me
and I felt outside. I'd see things in a certain way but nobody could
see it the same way I did. As far as adoptions go, the adoption
agencies should let the information be known. If not names, medical
histories, drug use, the whole history of what you are, who you are.
What is known about drug users is that they are attempting to
dull their pain through substance abuse. Strohmeyer was not
mistreated, so had no need to "run away from home," yet he did
feel the need to "escape" (an ACS behavior). So there we have six
of Jeremy’s Adopted Child Syndrome" behaviors, revealed one
at a time through media sound bytes. One can only speculate as
to the total picture.
On October 24,1999, Jeremy Strohmeyer's adopters, Winnie
and John Strohmeyer, filed suit against Los Angeles County
alleging that social workers deliberately withheld crucial infor-
mation about his mother's mental illness that would have stopped
them from adopting him.
Authors Observations and Opinion
I did not have the opportunity of interviewing Jeremy
Strohmeyer personally; he has not replied to my correspondence.
However, Leslie Abramson, his attorney, referred forensic
psychologist Patrick J. Callahan to me for my research on adoptees
who kill, and we discussed and profiled Strohmeyer in the
context of adoptees' birth bonds, post-adoption behaviors and
rage. It is unknown whether Jeremy has had contact with any
pre-adoption family member since his incarceration. It would be
interesting to followup on the validity of the allegations about his
parents pasts, and more importantly, how they and Jeremy
might connect today, considering Jeremy's instinctual lifelong
compulsion to re-unite, reconcile, and heal--a compulsion not
permitted to be consummated under adoption statutes and which
instead, ignited a fuse that exploded in violence against an
innocent young stranger.
It is this author's opinion that if Jeremy and his parents had
received appropriate treatment, instead of separation by adop-
tion, Shernce Iverson would still be alive.
"Your children are a blessing.
Either that, or they want to kill you."
—Lanie Kazan, in The Crew
11
Why Adoptees Kill Their Adopters
par-ri-cide (par' e sid') n. [Fr.<L parricidia, earlier paricida]
1. [Latin parricida; killer of a close relative, from parri-
(perh.akin) Greek pEos, kinsman by marriage + -cida, -
cide]: one that murders his or her father, mother, or a
close relative .
2. [Latin parricidium, murder of a close relative, from parri-
+ cidium, -cide]: the act of parricide.
—Mirriam Webster Dictionary
The first known case of parricide in the United States, in
1886, was that of Lizzie Borden, who, although acquitted, re-
mains accused of axe-murdering her father and stepmother with-
out remorse. Adoptees seem to be overrepresented as "problem
children" as well as parent killers. Carol Anderson, MSW, JD,
adoptee, and former Director of a residential facility for troubled
teenagers, reports that "about one third of the teens admitted were
adoptees, almost all of whom were adopted as infants" (CUB Commu-
nicator, Newsletter of Concerned United Birthparents, March 1990).
First a novel and a hit Broadway play, the 1956 horror-sus-
pense movie classic, The Bad Seed, portrays a mother, played by
Nancy Kelly, slowly coming to the realization that her 8 year old
daughter, Rhoda, played by Patty McCormack, is responsible for
a string of brutal murders. Interestingly, it's Rhoda's mother who
225
226 CHOSEN CHILDREN
becomes a "late discovery adoptee" when she discovers her own
mother (Rhoda's grandmother) was an infamous serial murder-
ess. Apparently the "bad seed" skipped a generation. The Bad Seed
was a manifestation of deep cultural prejudice and dread—that
bad apples don't fall very far from the tree, and a cautionary tale
that blood will out (even into the next generation). The Chosen
Child and the Bad Seed myths share a common feature. They
explain adoption in terms that tend to deny adoptees' personal
autonomy. Both archetypes have been integrated to varying
degrees into everyday vocabularies of adoptive child rearing.
Both have become part of the cultural vocabulary for defining the
experience of being adopted. The concept of someone being
"born bad" has been perpetuated by the adoption industry in an
effort to deflect blame away from the adoption and onto "bad
genes" to explain some adoptees' "bad behavior." The literature
abounds with studies of adoptees, the most impressive of which
may be the Bouchard studies of twins separated at birth by
adoption and raised apart. Nature apparently wins out over
nurture. The genetic pull is greater than learned behaviors. But
such studies don't explain adoptees who kill. No one is a "born
killer," and although personality traits can be inherited, criminal-
ity is not genetic. Seemingly random acts of violence, without
remorse, can't all be pinned on genes.
No genetic links to criminality—other than being born male—have
been proven. Canadian theorist David Lykken believes while some
crime is due to genetic predispositions to aggression and impul-
siveness, most antisocial behaviors are caused by incompetent
parenting and breakdown of the nuclear family. Detractors say
linking genes and violence blames the victim and ignores the
impact of poverty, racism, and unemployment. Brain research has
shown violent males tend to have low levels of serotonin. But
adoption studies show that children whose biological parents had
trouble with the law have a far greater likelihood of similar prob-
lems if their adopters had those problems, too. Biology may contribute
to antisocial behavior, but environment tips the balance. Paul
Henderson, Director of The Haven (New Trier Township, Illinois),
which finds homes for locked out teens, states that 50% to 75% of
his caseload are adoptees and there is a need for adoption sensitive
professionals. (George Howe Colt, "Where You Born That Way?"
(LIFE magazine special issue, 4-98, p.39).
WHY ADOPTEES KILL THEIR ADOPTERS 227
I was raised Catholic and it was a Catholic priest who told my
adopter that I had "bad blood" because my mom was a prostitute.
I got that shoved down my throat for years because of this man.
Even when I became an adult, he damned me to hell in front of other
people for getting a divorce ... and then he died, naked, in his
housekeeper's bed. I see what Catholic Charities did to me and to
many other adoptees and their two families; it sickens me to think
how many other lives they have destroyed." (Gen Goad, adoptee
October 4, 2000)
There has been a deliberate effort to debunk the notion that
adoption itself has so burdened some adoptees that they are at
risk of becoming killers by virtue of their adoptive status. When
an adoptee murders his adopter, contributory factors such as
drug use or rebellion against parental authority are often mis-
taken for the root cause of what may be the adoptee's single act of
violence. Eric Harris had been prescribed Luvox, a Prozac-like
drug , prior to the Littleton (Colorado) school shootings. Such
drugs sometimes prescribed to adoptees commonly produce
manic psychoses, aggression, and other behavioral abnormalities
in children and may be the proximate cause triggering violence.
But when an adoptee commits parricide, the trigger or proximate
cause can be extremely subtle while the root cause, which is often
overlooked, goes back to the moment the child was transformed
into an adoptee. Some adoption supporters have advanced the
theory that there must be mental illness in their biological parents
which somehow predisposes their children to become criminals.
Perhaps some of the confusion in the "Nature versus Nurture"
debate is compounded when children appear to "take after" their
natural parents who are criminals. Robert Davis, 17, knew he had
his stepfather's name but was shocked to learn his birth name was
Robert Alton Harris Jr., for his biological father, who had just
been executed for murder. The teenager's friends taunted him
with "Like father like son." The power of suggestion took hold.
Thereafter, the boy who never got into trouble began to "act like a
criminal." He was "tried as an adult" for robbery under his "aka,"
Robert Alton Harris in Reno (Los Angeles Times, 9-16-98, A-22).
It is believed that adoptees are overrepresented in the numbers
of children who kill their adopters. They, as well as adoptees who
become "substitute" or "serial" killers, may have been physically,
sexually and/or emotionally abused as children. But according to
David Kirschner, Ph.D., a forensic psychologist who studied
228 CHOSEN CHILDREN
"hundreds of adoptees" in over 25 years of his private practice, all
of his subjects reportedly exhibit antisocial Adopted Child
Syndrome (ACS) behaviors to varying degrees, including (1)
conflict with authority, such as truancy; (2) preoccupation with
fantasizing; (3) pathological lying; (4) stealing; (5) running away;
(6) underachievement; (7) lack of impulse control, from sexual
acting out or promiscuity to sex offenses; (8) firesetting or
arousal from fire. Their personalities are characterized by
impulsivity, low frustration tolerance, manipulativeness, de-
ceptive charm, shallowness of attachment. There is also an
absence of normal guilt or anxiety about one's deeds. How-
ever, Dr. Kirschner also refers to ACS as an "extreme form of
adoption- related psychopathology."
On December 6, 2000, on the Internet newsgroup, alt.adoption,
Kirschner had posted "Rather, I have repeatedly emphasized the
syndrome describes a sub-set of adoptees at the end of a spec-
trum—and NOT ALL ADOPTEES." But he does not define the
spectrum.
Adopters are more likely to be frustrated by a child who
cannot attach to his substitute caretakers simply because they are
not like him, physically or in personality. While adopters may be
no more or less skilled in parenting than biological parents,
adopters may be overly concerned about acceptance and as a
result, may be too permissive or too strict, in either case imposing
unreasonable expectations on a child who may eventually rebel.
Under the screen name "Saxon Warlord," Kay Russell (Ori-
gins-USA) posted a reply to Kirshner's statement about the
"spectrum" of Adopted Child Syndrome as follows:
Dr. Kirschner, is the spectrum a graduation of these symptoms?
Would ACS be the end of the spectrum you're talking about, like
the MPD end of the dissociative spectrum?
What I mean is, I would not expect ACS to be at the end of a
spectrum of all stable unaffected people, then suddenly a sub-set of
extremely affected adoptees.
So the next subset on your spectrum would be pretty dis-
turbed but not as disturbed as those with ACS — and next to that
sub-set and other sub-sets affected, but to a lesser degree, and on
and on down that spectrum. Clear on down to the other end of the
spectrum where we'd find adoptees who fair pretty well despite
being adopted.
230 CHOSEN CHILDREN
WHY ADOPTEES KILL THEIR ADOPTERS 229
Because adoption is secret, non-adopted kids have at
In other words, I would expect that adoptees with ACS are
some time wondered if "maybe I'm adopted." So Warner nally
affected by their adoptions the way some physically or emotio
abused children are producers decided Maybe I'm
Brothers’ writers and affected by their abuse—that there would
would be a adoptees who do well new being adopte
Adoptednaturally be somecute title for their despite Fall-2001 d,
about a teenager with a zany family who
sitcom just as some abused children grow up to be pretty stable, functional
people despite being abused. And in both spectrums, they
sometimes wondered that very thing. Little did most indi-
viduals the in between those extremes, set off a fire
anticipate thatfallingword" adopted" would therefore being affected
to some degree
storm of protest by or another by adoption.
apparently organized and heckling
I can't wait to read more of your material to find out how it
is that you think adoption can be fixed so that it message
adoption supporters on Warner Brothers' viewerisn't damaging to
board on Internet. Chris Everette, TV Gossip & News
the children.
Dr. Kirschner did not reported
section writer for Variety respond. on the fiasco, ("WB's
Slammed" 6-5-01):
SitcomOn December 7, 2000, "Saxon Warlord" posted another ques-
The sitcom "Maybe I'm Adopted" hasn't hit the airways yet and it's
tion addressed to Dr. Kirschner:
already controversial. The comedy, scheduled to debut on Warner
in the said a couple of times for its material that ACS is
BrothersYou'veFall, has been slammedin your title and premise by marked
by an elaborate web-site, according to the origins. What I'm
visitors to the network's preoccupation with his/herNew York Daily
thinking Adopted is about a 15-year old girl who is
News. Maybe I'm is that seems perfectly normal to me. It is theirs and it is
hidden from them. I'd say that the fact that it's a drinking
surrounded by offbeat relatives, including a father withhidden would be the
problem.reason for it being a preoccupation for them. I don't see their desire to
visitors to hidden site complained that the people who ar
Irate know theirthe WB origins any stranger thanshow stigma- e really into
genealogy. What do think is strange is expecting them
tizes adopted children. WBI spokesperson Paul McGuire thinks to be happy
without knowing their show prematurely. When we
that viewers are condemning theorigins.
There on Fridays at 8:30 PM [ET] this Fall, people an see
debut Adopted was no comment from Kirschner, but will adoptee, Linda
it for what it is—a sweet comedy about a teenage girl and her big,
Crenweldge, added:
lovable, eccentric family.
My thoughts did not When I was growing to was consum
But Warner Brothers exactly... wait for the show up, Iair in the ed
with knowing my origins because I didn't know them. When I was
Fall. In July, 2001, all promotion of Maybe I'm Adopted was
28, I found my family, my genetic heritage.... Since that time I have
not Maybe It's Me,
replaced by ever been "consumed." over the protests about
Dr. by many posters to AmFOR message board,
censorship Boruch Elman emailed the WB his interesting “take” on
including the Libertarian community/adoptees, parents,
Adopted Child Syndrome:
The adopters. which causes posted a suggestion to WB
even some psychology This author the adoption syndrome was originally
that George Carlin can now change his famous comedyin her
Described by Princess Bonaparte, a deciple of Sigmund Freud,
"Seven Dirty Words You Can't up in foster care and Prin
routine Analysis of Edgar Allen Poe. Poe grew Say On Television" cess Bonaparte
described how
to "Eight Words." his stories portrayed his unsuccessful efforts to repress his
physiological nature in order to fit into the adoption. Bonaparte’s book suggests
that this adoptive repression is so deep (sub-cognitive) that an adoptee would be
unlikely to be consciously aware of it. The deeper the repression the less likely
the insight but the more likely the propensity for violence when the repressed
self erupts into consciousness. Based on the Jewish belief that when a person
dies he goes to “sleep with his ancestors,” I want to know whether the clergy in
my community believe an adoptee goes to sleep with the adopters or with his
natural ancestors.
With regard to adoptees who search for parents in secret or
who are afraid to attempt a connection with their families for fear
of upsetting their adopters, on December 9, 2000, alt.adoption
poster, Saxon Warlord asked Kirschner.
You present this idea of the child protecting the caregivers at the
expense of their own good—as if that is just a reason, instead of an
emotionally damaging role reversal. Whenever I read this discussed
in adoption, it always amazes me how differently this role reversal
is treated in adoptees. ... Where do they get this notion that they
must protect their caregivers? Why aren't they convinced that they
are the protected, not the protectors?" I can't tell you how much I disagree
with your conclusion that seems to blame the adoptee for "failure to
accept and resolve the dissonant legacies of two sets of parents."
WHY ADOPTEES KILL THEIR ADOPTERS 231
The blame should be placed on adoption practices for giving such a difficult
task to a child. No child should be asked to "accept and resolve" this
unnatural and abnormal combination of conflicting information into a healthy
image of who they are. Adoption is not more important than human beings.
It's just an invention.... If children have trouble processing the idea of two sets
of parents, which apparently they do, then perhaps it's not a good idea to present
that idea to the child.
Despite an organized effort to pressure the Associated Press
(AP) and other media to use only "adoption language" approved
by pro-adoption interests, most networks treat adoptees no dif-
ferently than the rest of us. Comedians, especially, continue to
prove the "A" word, unacceptable on Warner Cable, is not
sacrosanct and that many a "politically incorrect" truth is spoken
in jest. Thus, the comeback "Because I'm adopted" gets laughs
because audiences know or assume that adoptees are different
than their adopters and don't necessarily "fit in." The "A" word
is not only acceptable, but also got laughs, when spoken by Jay
Leno (ABC Tonight Show), Drew Cary, Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles,
Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, et al (Whose Line Is It Anyway),
and other comedians.
Adopted children are hospitalized for psychiatric disorders ten
times more frequently than other children. This is largely attrib-
uted to feelings of rejection and an incomplete sense of identity. It
leaves the adoptee not only more vulnerable to other basic factors
(such as child abuse) but also more violently reactive. Extreme
examples include David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") and Kenneth
Bianchi ("The Hillside Strangler"). Nevertheless, adoption records
continue to be sealed in most areas of North America.
—Trailer at end of movie, Natural Enemy, starring
Donald Sutherland, produced in Montreal, Canada,
aired 1/29/97 on HBO in the United States by October Films, NY
While the movie Natural Enemy was a fictional dramatization
about a male adoptee who seeks revenge upon his mother, the
portrayal of an adoptee who has deep seated anger, and feelings
of being unwanted and unloved, is, to varying degrees, the
reality for most American adoptees. For many, the answers to
"Who am I?" and "Who are my parents?" and "Why was I given
up for adoption?" are as important as breathing. Others just as
adamantly deny having normal curiosity about their pre-adop-
tion existence, afraid of being perceived as less than a "well
adjusted adoptees" and to avoid a second rejection—by their
adopters.
Most fiction movies portray serial killers as either achieving
sexual gratification from killing, or gaining satisfaction from
"substituting" the available victim for the their unknown mother.
If this is the case, it doesn't explain why those who know their
232 CHOSEN CHILDREN
mothers' identities don't kill their mothers because of imagined
or real belief that they were rejected by their mothers. Choice of
victim "types" probably has more to do with abuse in childhood,
their perception as to who is a barrier to contact with their own
family, or need for empowerment or control. As far as anyone
knows, adoptees who kill their adopters sufficiently bungle any
attempt at cover-up and so end up removed from society. We
assume no one has got away with killing their adopters and then
gone on to serial killing because adoptees incarcerated as juve-
niles for killing their adopters and later released (see Campbell,
Tomassoni, etc. in this chapter), reportedly have been leading
normal lives. According to David Kirschner, Ph.D., forensic
psychotherapist who has studied adoptees who killed their adopt-
ers, and who served as expert witness at some of their trials:
In cases of sudden, seemingly unmotivated violence in which the
accused is an adoptee, there are compelling reasons to explore a
mental status defense, especially focusing on a dissociative disor-
der. Adoption may provide a clue both to the mental state of the
accused during the crime and to the underlying psychopathology
that led to the violence ... Most of these individuals committed
murder in a single eruption of sudden violence." ("Catathymic
Violence, Dissociation and Adoption Pathology: Implications for
the Mental Health Defense," International Journal of Offender Therapy
and Comparative Criminology, Sage Publications Inc., 1996)
Furthermore, the compulsion of these adoptees to kill was
specifically directed at their adopters and appears to have been
satisfied upon committing the murder. At least, they express no
desire nor inclination to kill anyone else. As a fictional serial
murder suspect explained (on Law and Order). "I'm not a serial
killer. I killed my mother. I only had one mother."
But in the case of serial killers, most of whom are adoptees and
the rest who have had similar childhood separation from one or
both of their parents, the compulsion to kill is not satiated by the
killing.
When adoptees kill, rarely is the fact of their adoption ever
considered at trial. Most convictions result from plea bargains
that endeavor to punish rather than to analyze, profile and
discover ways to treat or even prevent similar circumstances
which triggered in murder. Perhaps it's because doing so would
pit the professionals against those who espouse adoption is a
"quick fix" for a variety of social ills, despite that officials resists
WHY ADOPTEES KILL THEIR ADOPTERS 233
collecting and publishing data on adoptees' outcomes. Adoption
professionals are not unaware of negative outcomes, they either
dismiss it as an aberration or blame the adoptee or his genes.
The feeling that the fact of one's adoption is "off limits" and
that the adoptee does not quite "fit in" with his adopters is not
limited to violent offenders. In his biography, On the Outside
Looking In, Michael Reagan, adopted by former President Ronald
Reagan and his first wife Jane Wyman, wrote:
I realized that my mother loved me. I don't mean that Mom and
Dad didn't love me, but the day I read the social worker's report
was the first day I felt loved. Without being aware of it, their's was
not the love I wanted or needed. I was searching for my mother's
love.
Michael Reagan was able to discover who his mother was
through his government contacts, but she had died before he
could meet her. He learned that although she knew who adopted
him, she believed he had a better life than she could have given
him and, in exchange for that, she should not try to contact him.
Instead, she had kept a scrapbook on him through news clips
about the Reagans, from the day he was born until the day she
died.
It is believed that males, inherently more aggressive, yet ex-
pected to be stoically less demonstrative of emotion than females,
carry a heavier burden of trying to cope in silence with the secrecy
surrounding their abandonments and adoptions. Males are more
likely than females to verbally deny their natural curiosity about
their pre-adoption pasts. However, more male adoptees are
requesting search assistance today than in the past, perhaps as
result of televised reunions and the support found on Internet.
There are as many opinions on how to handle cases involving
children who commit crimes as there are juvenile and adult
adoptees who kill. Following are first-person narratives by some
of these adoptees who killed.
GREGORY MOX 235
"Cherish your children for what they are, not for what you'd like
them to be."
-Christine Marie Hackett, adoptee
Mox, Gregory Richard- #231008
Chippewa Correctional Facility, Kincheloe, Michigan
WHY HE HAD TO KILL HIS ADOPTERS
In the early hours of Monday, March 27, 1992, in the
quiet, middle class suburb of Roseville, Michigan, Gregory Richard
Mox carried out the only violent act in his 21 years—a
compulsion of six sleepless months to murder the man who
adopted him and raised him since he was a baby. Roseville Police
said Greg Mox bludgeoned the heads and slashed the throats of
both Richard Mox, 57, and his wife, Carol, 54, then doused their
bodies with gasoline and set them afire along with their home in
an attempt to cover up the killings.
Roseville Detective Lieutenant Joseph Steenland commented
to the Macomb Daily, "It's a rough one to figure out. What can
make you kill your parents?"
Neighbors told reporters at the Detroit Free Press that, just prior
to the Roseville couple's deaths, Richard Mox was practicing
French for his upcoming performance in "Samson and Delilah"
with the Michigan Opera Theatre choir. Carol Mox had just won
the chance to sing a solo with the Fraser Chorale and also been
awarded a trip to Las Vegas for being an outstanding employee.
Neighbors described Gregory Mox as a "quiet computer whiz."
But to police and prosecutors in Macomb County, Gregory Mox
was the main suspect in the gruesome deaths of his adopters.
Assistant Prosecutor Steven Kaplan theorized that Greg and his
adopters were at odds over the life-style he had been living.
Louise Iacobel, Carol Mox's sister, said Greg's adopters rou-
tinely supported him even when he got in trouble—that Greg was
a substance abuser, stole from his adopters and once broke into
235
236 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Iacobel's Grosse Pointe Woods home—and that she thought he
was "an angry young man." When he was convicted, the court
called him "brutal." And when he was sentenced for the crime,
his adopters' relatives said he deserved to spend the rest of his
life in prison.
But no one seemed to have the answer to why Greg Mox
murdered his adopters.
Trials and news stories about adoptees who kill all seem to
have a familiar ring. The adoptees displayed "no remorse" for the
killings, no feelings for their victims, yet the transcripts and news
clips don't explain their motives. They speculate, but they don't
answer the question most often asked, "Why?" Rarely does the
fact of their adoptions become a defense issue at trial. Attempts to
answer "Why?" in terms of emotional abuse from their adoption
is usually too subtle for juries to grasp.
I wanted to know whether Greg Mox's adoption was in any
way related to his crime. The only person who could really tell me
that was Greg Mox himself. So I wasn't sure what to expect when
I first wrote to Greg at E. C. Brooks Correctional Facility at
Muskegon Heights, Michigan, where he was serving a life sen-
tence on two counts of first degree murder and one count of .
arson. But I was sure of one thing—I wanted Greg Mox to tell his
story in his own words.
Correspondence with a Killer
I'd only seen a fuzzy black-and-white news photo taken during
his trial of the handsome young man's face in profile, and also the
Polaroid photo he sent me from prison seven years later. At 30-
years of age and a wirey-thin six-foot-five, Greg's boyish appear-
ance contradicts one's expectation of what a "brutal killer" should
look like. Perhaps in an attempt to make his boyish oval face
appear more mature, he had grown a light brown mustache that
contradicts his thick chestnut brown hair with auburn highlights
and a short beard beneath his chin that begins as red-blond and
is darker brown at the ends. He tells me his grayish-blue eyes
change to piercing blue through his prison issue glasses and he
tends to rivet his gaze. In the Polaroid photo, he is wearing a t-
shirt bearing a wolf-image and bronze Thorshammer (a "pagan
religious" medallion) on a neck chain. The photo, taken behind
prison walls gives the impression of a frightened or shy adoles-
cent, not an adult killer.
On April 8,1999, I introduced myself to Greg in a letter and
explained
GREGORY MOX 237
A woman in Ann Arbor, Barbara Anderson-Kari, recalled reading
about your case. She's a mother turned activist and suggested I
might be interested in contacting you to exchange some informa-
tion that might be useful to us both. I've found six news clippings
from the Macomb Daily, 1992-1995, which gave me your defense
lawyer's name, Edward Servitto. Only one of the six articles
referred to your parents as adoptive parents confirming you are
adopted. The woman who answered when I phoned Servitto said
they had represented you but would not confirm that you are
adopted nor discuss anything with me due to confidentiality. She
suggested I contact you directly. The Michigan Department of
Corrections, Lansing, gave me your location."
The preliminaries out of the way, I got to the point.
According to the news clips, you were sentenced to life without
parole on two counts of murdering your adopters and once count
for arson.
Then I asked him point blank,
“Did you do it?"
Greg did not hesitate but his words seemed measured,
as though careful to sound self-assured and mature. If handwrit-
ing in any way mirrors the soul, Greg's printed rather than script
writing is distinctive from the thousands of adoptees' letters I've
received over the years. His letters are drawn with deliberate
geometric precision on invisible lines, probably by placing lined
paper beneath. The letter "y" always forms precisely the same 45-
degree angle wherever it appears on the page, while all upper
case letters, as well as lower case b, d, f, h, k, 1 and t have a
deliberate backward curve. He similarly prints rather than writes
his signature, with a geometric logo after it. There is no break
between his first and last name in his signature, as if to punctuate
the uniqueness of his life with a unique hand. He began:
Dear Lori, If I'd chosen a positive manner of expressing my
extreme displeasure with the institution of adoption, I could pres-
ently be assisting you rather than accruing displeasure with the
institution in which I dwell."
And then, dramatically placed on a line by itself, he added,
"Yes, I did it."
Greg elaborated,
238 CHOSEN CHILDREN
My feelings on the matter are very mixed. I was not sane at the time,
having been suffering from insomnia for almost half the year at that
point. I remember doing it. I was not on drugs at that time. There was
no mention made of "Adopted Child Syndrome." That I am
adopted was briefly mentioned once. I did not plea bargain but was
found guilty by a jury. New information may, of course, reopen my
case, but, after all, I did do it.
Having had seven years to mull it over, Greg readily volunteered,
the reasons for my actions are complicated. I killed in retaliation
for being brought up by people with whom I could not bond and
who never made any effort to know me. My adopters wanted to
have a child grow in my skin. My natural personality was unwel-
come. When my intellect was sufficiently developed for me to
realize this, the unspoken rejection became very mutual. Upon my
further understanding that their "remodeling" of me was partially
successful, and that the imposed traits were among my very worst,
I became intensely hateful. I believed I had plenty of reasons to
justify my actions.
I was tempted to ask Greg what reasons he felt would "justify"
murder, but decided to begin with his beginning and instead
suggested, "Tell me about your adopters and what you know of
your family."
Greg reached back into time to a place he had wanted to forget.
The last connection I had with my previous life—a sister by
adoption—has drifted off lately for reasons unexplained. I has-
tened the process for most of my friends by being abrasive when
they learned I had been convicted, rather than just watch as they
faded out of contact.
Adoption Secrets
I was told almost nothing about my origins. My adopter, when I
asked him, assumed a smug, scornful, and at the same time greatly
amused air, when he replied "I'll tell you this much. They were both
college students." He so clearly enjoyed dangling the carrot beyond
my reach that I never mentioned it to him again, thereby depriving
him of entertainment at my expense.
They adopted Christine when they were in their late twenties,
Diane three years later and finally me.
Another Michigan adoptee, Susan Pollock Beckman, said of her
own search and reunion that her adopters had always told her
"You're special. We chose you." But to her, being “special” meant
GREGORY MOX 239
That questions about her origins were "off limits." Had not the
compassionate social worker allowed Susan to view the record
bearing her mother's name (while, technically, not "telling" her
the name), Susan might still be searching instead of enjoying
extended family relationships with her mother, father and six
siblings the past several years. Many adoptees have reported
learning their parents' names in a similar game of "don't ask,
don't tell, just try to sneak a peek." But Greg can not go visit
Joanne Ales, the Catholic nun who holds his adoption file to see
if she might "accidently on purpose" leave his open file open on
her desk in his view, and it is doubtful that this nun ever would.
Because agencies have traditionally shared minimal family
background information, and because adopters frequently are
unable or unwilling to provide adoptees with true or extensive
background information, they instead told "standard" stories,
such as "Your parents were young college students who couldn't
raise you so they gave you up for adoption." Some adoptees
report stories that are not only gross embellishments of the truth,
but also cruel lies, such as "Your parents died in a car accident."
End of discussion.
From the 1940s through the early 1960s, social work theory was
predicated on the belief that secrecy as to the fact of the child's
adoptive status was necessary to "protect" the child from the
stigma of "illegitimacy." In the 1960s, to the 1970s when Greg was
adopted, social workers began encouraging adopters to tell the
child of his adoptive status as soon as he is old enough to grasp
the meaning of "adopted." But little or no true information about
the child's pre-adoption past was shared, leaving adopters with-
out answers to their children's resulting questions.
A Catholic Charities handbook titled Adoption Search: An Ethi-
cal Guide for Parctitioners prepared by Patricia Martinez Domer,
MA, LPC, LMFT (1977), used for educating social workers, con-
tains the following:
There will be situations where it comes to light that untruths were
told at the time of the adoption. Correcting these misrepresenta-
tions is necessary. There will be ramifications that call upon the
professionalism and highest standards put forth by the agency.
Unfortunately, there were those who were given correct informa-
tion. ... When the practice orientation changed and post adoption
services were extended, discovery about the untruths traumatized
and angered the deceived parents. There is no way to justify the
240 CHOSEN CHILDREN
deception. Perhaps one can look at the secretive nature of the
closed adoption practice and frame it from that standpoint. Cur-
rent professionals must seek ethical services while not assuming
blame for the actions of their predecessors.
Greg continued,
My adoptive sister, Diane, first told me that I am half French-
Canadian and half German. Later, she said I am actually Italian-
Austrian and it was she who is French-German. I am far more
Prankish in appearance than she. She has dark hair and eyes. I
doubt she remembered correctly. Truly, I don't know, but I am
curious.
I asked how she had come up with that information, but Greg
didn't know. He only knew that the Moxes adopted him and his
two adoptive sisters from the same Catholic Services of Macomb,
Michigan. I asked "Have you ever attempted to locate your
family?"
I never made a concerted effort to find my family, partly because
my adopters insisted it was nearly impossible, but mostly due to
my pride. I wished to have substantial success before meeting them.
But, after killing their surrogates, I felt it would humiliate me
further, alarm them and burden them with guilt.
By now, I'm less finicky and I certainly wish for your help. My
trial was based on denial, not truth. While I did kill two people, I
did so while seriously debilitated. Before and after the act, I
maintained a stubborn pride and a deep loathing for asking for
help in any way.
I was raised a Roman Catholic. This religion probably saved
my life as I may have been aborted had someone not had a strong
pro-life attitude. I will admit to some gratitude for this despite my
general sentiments concerning Christianity as a whole and Ca-
tholicism in particular.
My mother did my adopters no favors by not aborting me. This
was part of the reason I murdered my adopters... just to make that
undeniably true. I have not seen sense in that in years. I explain it
to allow some insight on how far out there I was. It was a way of
retaliating for my abandonment... by negating my mother's "good
deed."
Another motive was that my adopters raised me a Catholic,
including the rites of Baptism and all that follows. My first and
primary objection to the religious indoctrination is this: Christian-
ity claims to have all of the answers that a human needs or should
GREGORY MOX 241
want, but it doesn't. In fact, it contradicts itself, something that the
last two thousand years of high, clever theologians spinning their
apologies and polishings cannot hide from the mature mind. Ah,
but to the child? A child will believe some silly things, such as that
they are "chosen," or that they are one nationality one day, and a
different one the next. My favorite lie is that I was "reborn" to my
adopters on the day and at the same hour that I was born to
someone else—My certified birth certificate and my Catholic bap-
tism record say this is so, therefore it must be so. All things are
possible in Catholicism.
My belief in Jesus outlived my belief in Santa Claus by several
years. I understand that the common response to growing up and
gaining the logic to think through one's religion is either "Don't
worry about it and just hope it's true," or not to take it very
seriously and just hedge your bets. Other approaches include
embracing the irrational, becoming complacent upon examination
of the dogma and theology, or converting to a religion one finds
more acceptable, or rejecting all religions. I tried all of that and none
of that worked.
I am a Pagan, not out of any desire to be peculiar nor solely to
alienate myself from common doctrines, but to correct an ancient
sellout and to reconnect with my ancestors... for as their children
abandoned them, so have I been abandoned.
I read a lot. .. mostly fantasy fiction with sorties into history—
mostly European and ancient civilizations, philosophy—all hail
Nietzche—and more general fiction like Leigh Deighton, Ed McBain
and almost anything well written. I miss my computer time almost
as much as I miss the company of the fairer sex. I'm an avid
spectator of hockey, soccer and football in that order. I play role-
playing games, the best known being Advanced Dungeons and
I Dragons and I'm working up to a play-by-mail for something to do.
i There has been much speculation, following unexplained cases
of children murdering children or others, as to the impact of violent
television programs and video game on young minds. At the top
of the list is Dungeons and Dragons. Perhaps preoccupation with
any form of violence is not so much a cause as a symptom.
Obviously, I'd like more college and a few vocational courses, like
electronics, but it's of no real concern. As for having had any long-
range plans, I don't even remember. Some notion of an Internet
game company was in my head but that died in my general tumble.
I could have written but I had nothing to write about."
I like the way you write. Intense and cogent attack from page one.
Truthfully, nothing I've read in years affected me so much.
242 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Drugs and Deception
Concerning my past hospitalizations and drug history, I was
treated for drug addiction, from October 1988 to June 1989 or
thereabouts, at the Oxford House in Oxford, Michigan, and then at
Shephard Hill in Newark, Ohio. I've had no other hospitalization
of importance—just a broken collarbone around 1978 and a regular
series of outpatient physicals.
I was addicted to cocaine for three months in 1988, which is really
strange because I never liked it. It was free at first. . . and why
would I turn down an expensive drug? When my sister, Diane,
crashed from the means by which she had been funding her drug
habit, I tagged along. This was an attempt to leave the orbit of my
adopters ... but a wretched effort.
I like marijuana and am not adverse to a strong hallucinogen every
year or so. I dislike other drugs. My drug history as mentioned was
my very brief stint as a coke-head, a miserable experience that I
have no interest in duplicating in any way. That little chapter ended
with a felony conviction for Breaking and Entering an Occupied
Dwelling, my sole previous conviction for which I did a minor
sentence after finishing rehab. I was not a violent man nor do I have
a 'rap sheet' on hand."
Greg's admission regarding his brief cocaine addiction opened
the door for me to lead him further back in his childhood. I asked
him if he had another drug history—prescription drugs—such as
Ritalin or Mellaril, often given to young adoptees for what was
misdiagnosed in past decades as "hyperactiveness" or "Atten-
tion Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)."
Your inquiry about prescription drugs made me recall a whole
sorry set of chapters in my life. I was on LOTS of Mellaril despite
that I was never hyperactive by any stretch of the imagination. I
was rebellious, yes, but not "hyper."
It began in the sixth grade. I made a conscious decision to
heckle the teacher and to befriend the "bad kids." This was the real
beginning of my enduring opposition to authority. The teacher
reported my opposing attitude to her boss, the parents were informed,
and I was put in child counseling….As if I wasn’t “different”
enough already, eh?
GREGORY MOX 243
The initial belief of the counselors was that I was stupid. Why
else would I be “bad?” It didn’t help that I never really tried at
schoolwork. I aimed for the average ‘blend in’ I think. Anyway,
tests showed that I was bright, not dim. So, for reasons unknown,
but probably for “control,” they settled me down with 25 mg. Of
Mellaril. This didn’t impress me until I saw that a really wild kid
was getting only 3 mg.
Counseling went on for, oh, four years, eventually involving the
whole non-family. Apparently my adopter was a regular eavesdropper
on my one-on-one sessions as he confronted me with something I told
no one else nowhere else. No one misses him—believe me.
Counseling was futile. Dennis Kroll of Macomb Social Services
(and North American Council on Adoptable Children) became fascinated
by a brick wall I said I felt in my brain and couldn’t break through. It
was something I made up to give us something to talk about. When that
finally grew stale, I just dropped it. Mr. Kroll was disappointed, no doubt,
having hoped to guide me through an earth-shaking breakthrough. Too
bad. All he accomplished was mellowing me out with a drug that I recall
feels like marijuana, only lighter and subtler. Marijuana is my favorite drug.
I did learn how to deceive psychologists and how to lie. My adoption
always set me apart but I grew uncomfortably familiar with that. I did
have a huge problem expressing emotion—especially love and anger—
but I’ve gotten past that while locked up.
My adopters repressed emotion. Any demonstration of emotion was
ridiculed by my adopter and shut down. We either said the “proper
thing” or kept quiet until we reached a constant yelling stage, ending
with Diane finally moving out, and the final stage of icy silence which
ended in what was in part a mercy killing but mostly vengeance for the
blight on my life.
244 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Adopted Child Syndrome
According to his article published in 1978 titled "Son of Sam
and the Adopted Child Syndrome," psychotherapist and forensic
psychologist. Dr. David Kirschner, upon studying adoptees,
identified a pattern of eight antisocial behaviors common to "a
sub-set of the spectrum" of adoptees. Harold Schecter, David M.
Brodzinsky David H. Kirk, Betty Jean Lifton, Annette Baran,
Reuben Pannor, Arthur Sorosky, and other experts who treated
adoptees in the course of their practice support Kirschner's
findings. The Adopted Child Syndrome (ACS) behaviors are
generally described by researchers, as listed below, interposed
with Greg Mox's observations. This author defines the "spec-
trum" of adoptee behaviors as including adoptees at one end of
the spectrum who cope well despite being adopted and adoptees
who cannot cope with being adopted and so develop the ACS
pattern to varying degrees. The other end of the spectrum finds
Greg Mox in a sudden act of violence without remorse. Greg's self
descriptions excerpted from his letters have been matched up to
all eight ACS behaviors:
1) conflict with authority (example: truancy) —
"I truly despise authority. I grew up a meek, obedient sort, only
to realize how false and hypocritical the authority figures
were. I am authority's enemy."
2) preoccupation with excessive fantasy —
"I'm a proficient daydreamer and enjoy role-playing games
which rely on the imagination. I don't drift off into waking
mindscapes, but I do greatly enjoy fantasizing and my
sleeping dreams."
3) pathological lying —
"I lied religiously whenever I found myself in a downward
spiral, including during my period of disintegration from
insomnia. Diane was a master liar, a true genius at it, and I
emulated her. I did learn how to deceive psychologists and
how to lie"
4) stealing —
"I enjoyed a career as a juvenile shoplifter, feeling the toys and
enjoying the rush of filching them. When that was inadequate
to satisfy me, for a brief time during my cocaine use, I broke
into homes."
GREGORY MOX 245
5) running away —
"As mentioned, I made one real attempt to run away from
home when I was 18. Big deal. Sometimes I just had to GO,
without knowing why, and so I went. I'm in "general
population" and have been all along, save for a few incidents
such as a drug-smuggling effort, a fight, and my escape
attempt from the county jail."
6) learning difficulties, underachiever, overachiever —
"I was an apathetic student unless I liked the instructor. I've
always been ambivalent about education due to its traditional
ties to authority
7) lack of impulse control, including sexual acting out (ranging
from promiscuity to sex offenses)—
"My sexuality is strangely normal insofar as such is possible.
I'm pickier and more performance minded than most guys,
mostly out of a sense of style."
8) setting fires, or enjoys arousal from fire—
I find fire hypnotic... soothing yet exciting... .although I have no
fixation for torching anyone or anything. I set their bodies afire in
an attempt to hide the evidence—not for kicks.
Some of the adoptees in the previous chapters who are nonvio-
lent admit to firesetting. Adoptees: Patrick DeGelleke (20), Joshua
Jenkins (16), Amy Louise Kazman (14), and Angel Peterson (whose
excerpted stories follows Greg's in the next section) all set fire to
their adopters' bodies after killing them. Adopted siblings Charles
and Gladys Bocook (16 and 14) set fire to their adopters' mobile
home in an attempt to kill them. Did they really believe that
incinerating their adopters' corpses would, in fact, make them
completely disappear? They were acts of intentional overkill
resulting from uncontrollable rage? Adopted serial killers David
Berkowitz, who set 1,411 fires, and Joseph Kallinger, were prolific
pyromaniacs.
Seattle Times staff reporters Jack Broom and Eric Nalder may
have missed the significance of the adoption connection in their
article about firesetting adoptee, Martin "Pyro" Pang:
In his teenage years, Martin "Pryo" Pang threatened to burn the
homes and businesses of people who wronged him. Born Sun Hing
Wah in Hong Kong in 1955, he was the youngest of five children in
an impoverished family. Unable to care for him, his parents put
.
246 CHOSEN CHILDREN
him up for adoption. At six months, he was adopted by Harry and
Mary Pang of Seattle, who also adopted a two-year-old daughter
from another couple. Martin was always the favored child and his
adopters had trouble saying no to whatever he requested. Neigh-
bors and school officials reported his acts of vandalism. He dropped
out of college and was dependent on his parents, who gave him a
large expense account in their Chinese foods-processing business.
Between 1978 and 1989 he was married four times, none lasting
more than 19 months, and each ending in a violent incident. He had
hired someone to try to kill his fourth wife. He tried businesses and
a brief acting career, but charged more than $55,000 to his parents'
company's expense account before filing for personal bankruptcy.
His adopters paid his legal expenses. In 1993, Pang was arrested for
slapping a woman he was engaged to and ordered to take classes
in anger management. He told several acquaintances that he was
planning to bum down his parents' company, expecting that his
adopters would give him some of the insurance proceeds. An
informant told the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Fire-
arms that Pang was planning to have the building burned. The
building was placed under surveillance for a time but after the
watch was discontinued, the building burned to the ground
("Favored Son, Playboy-Angry Man," Seattle Times, 2-19-98).
Firesetting Children: Risk Assessment and Treatment (c. 1994) by
George A. Sakheim, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Osbom, Ph.D. (both
clinical psychologists in private practice, published by CWLA
(Child Welfare League of America), draws upon five studies of
firesetters, including Rorschach evaluations over a 12 year pe-
riod, from 1982 to 1994 ... a total of 155 subjects. Fireplay
motivated by curiosity is quite common in young children,
especially boys. The younger the child, the more likely that the
firesettingwas accidental. Sakheim and Osbom followed Wooden
and Berkey's [1984: 23-24] four broad categories to classify
firesetters:
1) curious or playing with matches (accidental) firesetters
(usually from insufficient parental supervision);
2) troubled or "crying for help" (intentional) firesetters
(escaping from an undesirable situation; emotional needs
or claims not recognized or responded to by their families);
3) delinquent firesetters (attention-seeking by the child
who seeks approval);
GREGORY MOX 247
(4) pathological or seriously disturbed firesetters (chronically angry,
rebelling against authority, little or no guilt or remorse).
These children or adolescents are often defiant and the act of
firesetting expresses their wish to gain power and triumph over
frustrating, depriving or punishing adults. The firesetting im-
pulse is a response to the impotent rage they feel at a lack of
control over their lives. They entertain revenge fantasies or are
retaliatory in their behavior. Unless intervention is prompt and
definite, these juveniles are likely to continue to set fires.
The following characteristics were present most often among
"emotionally disturbed firesetters" compared with non-firesetters:
1) the presence of pleasurable or sexual excitement when
lighting or watching a fire;
2) intense anger at the mother for rejecting, emotionally
depriving, or abandoning the child;
3) anger at the father for being unavailable, abusive or
abandoning the family, or for having died;
4) the tendency to respond to a narcissistic injury with rage and
fantasies of revenge;
5) gaining power over adults by setting fires;
6) sexual conflicts or sexual dysfunction;
7) poor judgment in social situations;
8) difficulty in verbalizing anger;
9) psychiatric diagnosis of conduct disorder (About 30-40
were diagnosed with oppositional disorder or with conduct
disorder with strong revenge fantasies. Open residential
treatment centers are very reluctant to accept such high-risk
youngsters into placement, so a specialized or highly
structured correctional school would appear to offer the
most appropriate placement for them.)
When I disclosed to Greg that he had described Adopted Child
Syndrome behaviors, he responded,.
I have always, since age 14, been able to drop a mental root into a
sea of hate as deep as the night sky. About 3 years after committing
murder, I no longer reveled in hate but it remained. Ever since
reading how much like your examples of the Adopted Child
248 Chosen Children
Syndrome Profile I am, there's no hate there. Instead, I understand
the what and why of the thoughts in my head. I'm not articulating
this properly, but I feel you've given me information that would have
prevented the murders. L never realized that my behavior was typical
of anything, much less a fairly common reaction to the deceptive
situation my adoption has been. You could probably use the
argument that silence about adoption is reckless endangerment. It is,
after all.
And in another letter, Greg revealed
I've asked many inmates about their fostering or adoptive
backgrounds and the portion of inmates fostered or adopted is the
larger by a fair measure. The man whose paperwork I enclosed is
one such and probably more typical of prisoners than I am. He and
1 spoke of our mutual animosity for Catholic Social Services and I
told him of you. Perhaps you can make some sense of the informa-
tion he received. Another adoptee here has asked for a list of
addresses for prison reformists and for prisoner pen pal services
This fellow is in constant trouble with authority.
The Murders
Greg didn't like talking about the murders, stating it depressed
him to review that time. But I needed him to tell me about it
abandonment issues are central in the backgrounds of adoptees
who kill, including those adopted at birth. I posed the inevitable
question: Do you want to tell me what led up to the murders?
To say his response was a total surprise would be an under-
statement, since, in effect, he admitted premeditation.
At the time of the murders I had turned 21, legally an adult.
I was still living with the victims-to-be while I attended college.
I do not seek to excuse my crime. My deeds were wrong and insane.
fact that I was adrift in a moral vacuum was my fault insofar as I
rejected the morality imposed upon me. I murdered the closest at
hand—the ones most directly involved. I am contrite but seek no
forgiveness nor want any. I owe the State very little and I serve no
useful purpose in prison.
My adopters were quite Catholic-you know, an unwed
Mother is a sinner, a bastard is a child of sin. My adopter was Polish.
He had brown hair, green or blue eyes-I can't recall which-and
a weak chin. He was a sour and friendless man. His wife was a little
GREGORY MOX 249
Italian woman, immensely kind and slow-witted. I regret harming
her...
Actually, the compulsion to kill my adopter (him, not her)
entered my mind the Autumn before the deed. I resisted the impulse
for six months. As I argued with myself, I lost sleep. Eventually, I
would lay awake all night, staring balefully at the ceiling and also
telling myself every reason not to do it, then trying to go about my
day. This caused me to slowly fall apart. I grew duller with less and
less ability to concentrate or care.
Naturally, my life became tattered as I snuffed out my reasons
not to do it, one by one, as my reasoning left. I made a practice of
lying to cover up my decline, which of course eventually collapsed
and made things far worse.
I use the word compulsion deliberately. I could not rid myself
of the idea because, at the root of my soul, I felt a real need to kill
him for the prolonged attack he made on my very self. Killing his
wife -was a complete accident. My intention was only to knock her
unconscious at that moment, but instead, she died. It was reckless,
indeed, but not intentional.
Ultimately, I did it because I knew I would eventually do it and
I would have to do it while I retained any wit at all. Evidently I
procrastinated too long. Telling anyone what was going on never
had a chance of happening…. Your timing is superb. It has only
been in the past year that I've got past the entire mess sufficiently
to open up about it... and, since, I feel a growing need to explain myself.
An audience would therefore be handy."
Greg then began to recount the events that immediately preceded
the murders.
Beginning at midnight, the night before, I laid in bed wide awake
staring at the ceiling. My neck was hurting a great deal and my
muscles were in knots. Sleep had been elusive not only that night
but throughout the previous six months.
After R. J. and Carol T. Mox went to bed, the sound of
Richard's snores was just one more reason to hate him that night.
I listened to that mocking noise and the other night sounds in the
house and I osculated from hate to fear and back to hate again. I
attempted to form some plan of action but my thoughts were
unruly and there was a powerful blankness. Trying to think was
like painting with a dry brush.
Hours went by and Richard's alarm went off. He got up and
went to work. His wife followed about an hour later. Still I re-
mained awake. When she left, I got up. I took my time with
250 CHOSEN CHILDREN
everything for it was all difficult to me and meaningless. Shower-
ing took a quarter of an hour; brushing my teeth went on for at least
five minutes; breakfast was a gloomy waste of an hour.
Semi-fortunately, I had no classes. I had been missing classes
anyway and could not concentrate when I did attend. Overall, it
seemed I was in a meaningless rut and I didn't understand how I
got there. Ultimately, I had to blame my adoption; that my circum-
stances began with that was clear. The return of that blaming was
a rare constant in my scattered thoughts.
Around Noon, a pair of friends showed up.
The three of us did some work on making
characters for our role-playing game, "Shadowrun," with which I
was sufficiently familiar to do well enough, yet after we had
mucked though the books for an hour it was quite clear we were all
bored with it. They wanted me to run an adventure and I didn't feel
up to it.
So we went out looking for work.
We drove around to a dozen places, filling out job applica-
tions. At that time, unemployment was high and we were part of
it. Frankly, I wouldn't have hired any of us and I suspect that was
the common reaction. But it was a good excuse to drive around
with friends, which reminded me of better times.
Around 4:00 PM, my friend and I split the price of a bag of weed,
buying it from an acquaintance from public school who has a job in
a garage. We met at Fraser Park.
I was giving up but suicide revolted me. But homicide, now,
well why not, when all is crap anyway? At least I would strike back
at society.
Perhaps I edged into commitment to the deal when, after
sharing a joint, I asked my friend to keep the bag of weed for me, saying
"After all, you never know what could happen."
Then followed our meandering drive which I began to feel was
a final tour of the life that I had chanced into via the adoption
roulette wheel. We visited another old friend, a
determined alcoholic at 22 whose cousins were over at the time. He
still lived with his parents as did my other friends and me—all of
us for reasons that sounded a lot like excuses—mine, that it was so
near to the college I was now only pretending to attend.
We hung around in his basement which had a pool table, dart
board, television and other toys for prolonged childhood. He
seemed to be avoiding his family and we helped him.
Around 11 PM, we left. my friends dropped me off and
as I faced the house I felt a thin shell of fraternity blow away like the
GREGORY MOX 251
nothingness it was. I went inside, finding my self-appointed Paren-
tal Units asleep in the living room.
Carol awoke and, just as the night before, asked sleepily "Why
didn't you call?" I could hardly say "Because keeping you and him
off my mind is my last hope," so I said "I forgot." Her voice trailed
after me "Dinner's in the kitchen" as she went back to sleep.
Dinner was tacos in pita bread, quickly microwaved and
eaten. I scooped some ice cram into a bowl and took it into the living
room to watch Cheers. Carol managed to stay awake for most of
that show, during which Richard awoke, saw me and asked his
wife, "Did you ask him about dinner?" "Yes," she replied. As
usual, when "Amen" came on, I left. I believe I put the bowl in the
sink... or maybe took it along. I read for awhile—probably one of
Robert Jordan's novels, the high point of my withered day, and
listened to first Carol and then Richard migrate to bed. I could tell
when they were asleep. I was right back to a rerun of the previous
night—staring at the ceiling.
About 2:00 AM, I got up and went to my closet. There, I took
up my aluminum baseball bat and gripped it. The hollow bat
weighed only a few pounds but could probably would serve the
purpose. While there's always the danger of aluminum splintering
the bat is used in little league games but deemed too dangerous
for major league games due to the speed and impact of the ball. I
was "trying on" the idea of doing it and was scared how easily it fit.
I could be doing "something" and would forever be out of the
rut. The one I blamed—Richard—would be gone. For it was
Richard who was sterile. In his arrogance he took in the children of
others, not to love but to "have," as he felt a man must "have
children." The sacrifice of his wife's potential children to his need
never bothered him nor her, the fool. Was she big of heart, small of
brain? Both.
But to actually kill him? And what of her?
At this point of hesitation, the neighborhood's power went
out. Our answering machine made its "ooo-ooo" sound of reset
and R.J. Mox woke up. Hastily, I set down the bat and met him at
the end of the hallway. "What are you doing up?" he wanted to
know. "I heard something." "Me too." he seemed pleased that we
had both been awakened. A thief had been accosting the garage
and had stolen some tools. I still don't know who it was but hoped
to later blame him for the murders. Police are not that energetic.
Once they have a suspect, they're done.
252 CHOSEN CHILDREN
So we went around checking doors and peered outside. We
figured out the power outage and went back to bed. It seemed to me
a sign.
For half a year I had fought the idea but just as I was about to
back down, a power outage. An odd sign but omens are hard to
come by these days.
Another half hour passed. Without the slightest hesitation, I
took up the bat and rushed into their bedroom. I hit him once in the
forehead, a soft, wet, smacking sound. Carol bolted upright, draw-
ing in a startled breath. I was overcome with the horror of her
seeing me harm her husband and hit her about a third as hard to
knock her out. She stopped breathing. I discovered she had died
instantly.
Her husband still breathed. I hit him a dozen more times. Still
he breathed. Why, when the "good one" died so easily, did the one
I hated live on? Finally, I decided to let him suffer. I hit Carol's
corpse a few more times to make the damage look even but couldn't
bear to continue it.
None of it was loud. I turned on the light and discovered blood
streaks across the ceiling and droplets of blood were splattered
everywhere. I looked at Carol—what remained of her—and had all
the remorse a man could ask for.
Then I showered, taking the bat along and taking the kitchen
phone off the hook because R.J. continued breathing and might
have had a 911 call left in him.
In the shower, I recovered somewhat. My overwhelming
emotion was numb with disgust. After washing myself twice and
the bat thrice, I got fresh clothing and went downstairs. There, I put
the bloody clothing in the washer and returned to check on the
victims while the washer went through its cycles.
Richard was dying. I left him to it. I made an attempt to clean
up and realized it was not going to happen. Blood was on the
ceiling, on the walls, on the furniture, seeping through the mattress
and the carpet. I decided the only solution was fire.
Accelerants were probably totally unnecessary but I used
them anyway. Despite going to great trouble not to use the gas cans
in the garage, the police later claimed I did. There were cans of
gasoline in the basement. I used a little of that. I wasn't thinking
right and was in the giddiness of unreality. It was more comfort-
able that way.
I placed the bat with the other sports equipment in the base-
ment where it went unnoticed by the police. For some reason, they
chose to believe I tore a shelf off the wall of their bedroom and hit
GREGORY MOX 253
them with that. That shelf had actually been knocked off the wall
with one of my swings at Richard.
Some gas on the bedroom floor and out came some matches.
I lit the comer of the mattress. I was dumbly astonished at how
quickly it all went up. On the way out, I took down the cross at the
end of the hallway, went out and threw it into the garbage can at the
curb.
Then I returned to my bedroom, door open, and stared at the
ceiling for the last time. I patiently waited for some smoke to be
visible before leaving.
I then waited in the van parked in front of the house for the fire
to progress. But a passing driver saw the smoke, slowed at the
cross-street for a good look and sped off. I had to beat him to make
the first call to 911 and begin my act as innocent bystander.
At about 7:00 AM, I was at the Boozas’ house, diagonally
across the street from my house. I had run over there, appropriately
distraught, to call for help since their light was on. I knew the
Parishes next door better but the house was dark and they were
frequently out of town. I sat in their house trying to think while the
Boozas tried to comfort me. Thereafter, the Boozas’ house became
the "command center" of the police and fire departments as I
listened in on their conversations.
What the police latched onto was my "gray rolling mist" story.
Unknown to me, my room had no smoke damage. Since I hadn't
left until I actually did see smoke, I knew they were wrong to claim
I could not have seen smoke. But they later 'proved' me a liar with
their expert.
By 4:00 PM the same day, everyone in the family was gathered
at the house directly across the street from my adopters house. This
meeting spot was the home of Joan and John Parish, a couple who
had grown up with my nominal parents. The police were finishing
up their dissection of the crime scene and Diane and I, along with
the Parish's daughter, Terry, who had returned from the airport
with Christina. We were watching the coverage and comiserat-
ing glumly when Christina reported that the police were coming
over.
From the beginning, both detectives, Sarrach and Urianiak,
stared at me—especially Urianiak, while Sarrach was doing the
talking. They were so clearly trying to unnerve me that I felt
contemptuous of them, which was a mistake—In my unbalanced
state, I felt overconfident. They asked me to come down to the
station. Christina immediately came to my rescue saying that since
I wasn't under arrest, I need not go anywhere with them. Sarrach
254 CHOSEN CHILDREN
responded "We can put him under arrest. In fact, he is." And out
came the handcuffs. I was taken out to their patrol car and I've been
locked up ever since.
Oh—my one phone call. It was to Diane.
The Trial
During the pretrial buildup, I signed waivers for everything in my
parents' estate to diminish my motive. Still, the will came up in the
trial but not my waiving it. After my conviction, the insurance
company still notified me that I was getting nothing. I didn't care
then and I don't care now.
Diane was quite caught up in the drama of it all and clearly set
about assuming responsibility as matriarch of the family. Chris
was quiet and observant and quite forceful at times when ob-
structed by authorities.
Other than a pretty woman I recall fondly, I do not recall much
about the jury. Their names are recorded in the "voire dire" form
from my trial in my transcripts. My lawyer looked like Dr. Johnny
Fever in the old WRKP in Cincinnati TV show. I believe he blew
my trial purposely and I hate him for it. The prosecutor, Steven
Caplan, is a dinky little man who recently ran for Chief Prosecutor
of a county neighboring Macomb and lost. One day I will have to
have a little chat with him but I understand that he was just doing
his job. The Honorable George Steeh is a mild fellow who gave me
something like a fair trial.
Prosecutors theorized that Greg and his parents were at odds
over the life-style he had been living. The night preceding the
slayings, the elder Mox and his adopted son argued over his son's
being out all day without telephoning his whereabouts.
The Prosecution made much of the garbage cans at the curb.
Apparently, it being trash day, the sanitation engineers removed
our garbage as scheduled, despite the police cars, fire engine, news
truck and all the circus. The Prosecution implied that all manner of
evidence they needed had gone into those cans when only that
cross, the symbol of everything I grew to hate, was so disposed.
The expert witness swore there was no smoke in my room,
which was a lie. The reason there wasn't anything like the smoke
damage to the rest of the house was due to the unintended
consequence of my having opened the front door when I threw out
the cross. That drew in the air in such a way that it slammed the
door of my room shut, preventing dirty smoke from getting in.
GREGORY MOX 255
My defense was essentially "I saw and heard nothing" which
my lawyer told me only had "a chance" if I so testified. Then he
made a deal with the prosecutor, without first consulting me and
after it was too late for me to do anything about it, ensuring that I
would not testify. So, because I was lying to him and kept insisting
that I killed them for "no reason," he threw my defense.
On May 31,1995, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the two
first-degree murder convictions against Gregory Mox.
The Search
I had promised Greg that I would pursue whatever I needed to do
to locate his family... and to maintain confidentiality according
to the wishes of all who may become involved in course of
searching. But there was a nagging feeling that I may have made
empty promises. I had nothing to go on but his adoptive name
and alleged birth date. We had nothing on his parents—not ages
or backgrounds. We did not know if he had siblings. As adoptees
often do, Greg wondered whether he might have bumped into a
sibling without knowing and also whether his criminality was
"genetic."
There's an 18-year old named Privacky who quite resembles me—
tall, thin, pale, glasses, killed his parents—right here in Muskegon
County. He's just been sentenced after pleading "no contest" to
four counts of first degree murder and is in either Muskegon
County Jail or Riverside Quarantine of the Michigan Department
of Corrections... I don't know if he's adopted but I suspect some
connection to me. He really looks a lot like I did ten years ago and
I hope you will inquire after him.
Like Noah Stone, who had always sensed he "had a brother
somewhere" and does have a brother he could not have known
about, Greg may intuitively be seeking his unknown sibling. But,
like many adoptees who believe that they are a "bad seed," Greg
was looking for the face of a "parent killer."
Coincidently, Greg does bear an eerie resemblance to Seth
Privacky who, on November 29, 1998, murdered five people
during Thanksgiving dinner—his father, his "father's wife," (as
she is described in news clips), his grandfather, his brother, and
his brother's girlfriend, who had unfortunately stopped by after
Seth had murdered his family. Seth shot each of his victims in the
256 CHOSEN CHILDREN
head, execution style. Crying, as he often did following argu-
ments with his father, Seth phoned his friend 18-year-old Steven
Wallace, saying he had "made a big mistake," and got Wallace to
come over without explanation. Fearing for his life, Wallace was
enlisted to help move the bodies. Privacky pleaded "no contest"
and was sentenced to life in prison in May 1999. Charges against
Wallace were dismissed. If Greg Mox and Seth Privacky have any
connection, it may be the fact that they didn't get along with the
men who raised them, and both apparently lost their natural
mother. Seth had been taking a prescribed anti-depressant medi-
cation at the time of the killing spree, and at an earlier time in his
life he had been on Mellaril, had been smoking marijuana, and
suffered a long-term sleep deficit at the time of the murders. In
both cases, the unintended victims (Seth's brother's girlfriend
and Greg's adopter) happened to get in the way of their sudden,
uncontrollable rage.
On August 23, 2000, at Greg's suggestion, I wrote Attorney
Mark S. Kistner, Jr., and requested a copy of Greg's trial tran-
scripts and various records, using Greg's signed authorization. I
also asked, "do you recall whether there was any attempt to
discover and contact Greg's mother prior to the trial?"
There was no reply.
On May 5,1999, an acknowledgment from Maureen Spitzley,
Secretary of the Adoption Services Division of Michigan's Family
Independence Agency (FIA), which is their name for Social
Services, was sent to Greg c/o my PO Box concerning his request
for information regarding location of his adoption records. A
May 14, 1999 follow up letter from FIA could not confirm that
Greg was adopted, let alone from what Michigan agency. Neither
did the letter invite Greg to file appropriate forms to list him on
their state reunion registry, but it was suggested he might contact
the Family Division of Macomb County Circuit Court at Mount
Clemmens.
The Macomb County Circuit Court responded by identifying
the adoption agency—Catholic Services of Macomb. Logic sug-
gested we had the correct court which also holds Greg's adoption
file, but neither court nor Catholic Services would admit to it.
A July 13,1999 form letter from Joanne Ales, Catholic Services of
Macomb, outlined what the agency could and could not provide
under present Michigan statutes.
Dear Greg, I would like to welcome you to our agency and to tell
you about the services we provide. This letter will briefly explain
GREGORY MOX 257
what is involved in the search process.
In 1980, Public Act 116 changed Michigan adoption law,
allowing greater access to adoption records. House Bill 5604 re-
cently passed in 1989, added to this law. Senate Bill 199, which
became effective January 1995, provides more options. The follow-
ing summarizes these laws.
Non-identifying information available upon request to adop-
ters, to biological parents, and to adoptees when they reach 18
years of age.
Identifying information, name of the child before placementin
adoption, names of parents at the time of termination of parental
rights, the most recent address of parents and names of siblings
born prior to release, are available to both adult adoptees and
parents, if both consents by birth parents to release information can
be filed. A consent to release information by the adult adoptee is
kept at the placement agency and at the Probate Court that did the
placement.
Identifying information as defined above, is available to both
adult adoptees and grandparents, or to adult adoptees and sib-
lings, if both consent to its release.
Grandparent and sibling releases are available. Current
Registry Forms can be obtained through the Court and/or agency.
Type the word "adoption" in the search field for any Internet
search engine and the result will be listings for over 100,000
adoption-related websites. Allowing for a very few "pet adop-
tion" sites, the majority are owned by searching and reunited
adult adoptees and parents sharing their stories and their dissat-
isfaction with the American system of adoption.
While there are many posts for adoptees born 8/16/70,1 did
not find a "match" for Greg's information on the Worldwide
Web. In a few instances, I e-mailed mothers who had posted
information even if the birth date was slightly off by one or more
days "just in case" Greg's the birth date had been altered as many
adoptees discover is the case. Months later, I received one e-mail
reply:
Lori, I apologize for not getting back to you long ago. I have been
off-line for a couple of months. I haven't found my son yet. It is
possible—though not probable that you have a match. My son
went through a private adoption arranged by my obstetrician who
was my uncle.
258 CHOSEN CHILDREN
I would like to contact this young man. I have many questions
about what it's like being a 30-year old man who doesn't know his
parents. I suspect I could share insights he'd like to know also. I
don't have any sources for more information, but will try to help if
I can. Please forward my information to him and thanks so much
for all the good work you are doing. My emotions run the gamut on
my search. As much as I want to find him, I have a deep seated
belief that I don't have the right to barge into his life. Of course, on
my "aggressive" days I spend hours combing the web, newspa-
pers, phone directories etc. I guess we all have to be a bit crazy after
all we've been through. Again, I look forward to hearing from him.
—Jan
Greg wrote me "Although it seems improbable, I'd certainly like
Jan to be by my mother. Greg enclosed a letter to Jan for me to
forward on to her:
Thank you for your kind interest! I hope you find your son. I agree
I'm probably not he, but one look at his photograph or a reproduc-
tion of it will resolve that. Whether or not, I will be happy to answer
any questions you care to pose.
I'd like to know what adoption is like from the other end. What
brought you to give up your son? When did you begin to search for
him? I don't wish to trample your emotions, having found my own
quite volatile on the subject.
So [you ask] what's it like being a 30-year old man who doesn't
know his parents? It is ... peculiar. Having never known another
state, I am adjusted to it. The problem is subtle, really. People have
families, except I don't. The family I was adopted into was really a
group of strangers, like a short-line at the checkout counter, forced
to live in one house for years. Even families that don't get along
have a bond, a flow of mutual understanding that I saw in other
families but never felt myself. It was like being half human.
Why have I waited so long? Pride, mostly. It's a complicated
thing to explain. There is a certain resentment at being abandoned,
certainly. I dealt with that by rejecting the search notion- turning
my back on the family that had done that to me. I also had plans of
becoming a great success, so as to be able to look down on my
family-politely, of course. Perhaps this strikes you as immature. It
certainly strikes me that way.
What you may like to know is that I have known many
adoptees and not a one wouldn't welcome the chance to meet their
mother. Perhaps others feel more emotional support from their
adopters than I did, but there is a place no other can fill. I pray your
GREGORY MOX 259
search is successful and wish you well in all things. I hope to get
word from you again and shall close for now. Sincerely, Gregory
Mox."
Greg was enthused by the prospect of broadening contacts
throughout the World Wide Web to assist his search. He had been
learning the versatility of his own computer just before the
murders. But hope faded into the reality that not only was Jan not
his mother but also most mothers are not informed of law changes
since they relinquished their children and do not know about
registries and possibilities for contact with their adult children
within or outside the system. Neither did we have a clue as to
whether Greg's mother wanted to be found.
One Michigan searcher informed me that one reason no one
could sell Greg a search is that no one had 1970 birth indexes that
could possibly reveal Greg's birth name and/or his parents'
names. Consequently, no one had the information to sell, as is
commonly done in other states and even by county governments
(for instance, Ohio's local government agencies will sell birth
indexes for the year needed , and Texas birth indexes were
available for a time).
On June 4, the Department of Community Health, Consumer
Services, at Lansing, returned my letter signed by Greg, request-
ing the name and location of the court where his adoption
occurred and the hospital where he was born. The response to
both requests, on a pink post-it note said simply "need a court
order to process."
January 14, 2000, from Joanne Ales, Catholic Services of
Macomb:
Dear Mr. Mox, We are receipt of your request for non-identifying
information. From previous information we have received, it is our
understanding that you are incarcerated in the State of Michigan
and not California. Due to these circumstances, we are returning
the check in the amount of $60 issued by Lori Carangelo.
We will be happy to provide the requested information di-
rectly to you upon the request from you directly. We will need your
signed request, a check in the amount of $60 and a new signed
Consent Form. Sincerely, Joanne G. Ales, ACSW, Director of Child
Welfare.
I immediately phoned Sister Ales whose comments about prison-
ers revealed her bias. She insisted that "prisoners can get money"
and refused to waive either her $60 fee for "non-identifying
260 CHOSEN CHILDREN
information" or her non-refundable $250 fee to act as confidential
intermediary, a conflict of interest and probably a waste of money
since this nun clearly did not intend to disclose anything to Greg.
In February, Greg forwarded a request for assistance to Om-
budsman Assistance to Clayton D. Burch, the prisoner ombuds-
man at the Office of Legislative Corrections in Lansing. Greg
asked Burch to act as a confidential intermediary or to help Greg
obtain a neutral intermediary for the purpose of obtaining his
non-identifying pre-adoption background information includ-
ing medical information for a waiver of the CI's usual fee of $250
or more. The request was denied on the grounds that Greg had
not exhausted all other legal avenues.
On May 19, 2000,1 mailed Greg's notarized letter-petition, by
certified return-receipt mail (because he said he could not return-
receipt it from prison) to the Honorable Pamela Gilbert O'Sullivan,
Judge of the State Probate Court, Juvenile Division, County of
Macomb, at Mount Clemens, Michigan:
RE: RENEWED REQUEST FOR INDEMNITY OF COURT OF
JURISDICTION IN THE MATTER OF MY ADOPTION,
AND:
1) APPEAL for Court Order compelling Release of my non-
identifying" medical or other background information
from agency and court files to treat adoptee and to verify
legality of adoption (because of DENIALS by agency) per
this Court's discretion to do so;
2) REQUEST for Court Appointed Confidential Intermediary
(enclosed) to be paid by the Court's Pro Bono Funds, & for
Waiver of Court fees, or, in the alternative;
3) REQUEST for Order to Release Original Pre-Adoption Birth
Certificate, Petition to Adopt and/or Final Decree of
Adoption, unblocked.
I provided my Affidavit verifying the allegations in Greg's letter-
petition about which I had direct knowledge. All we could do
then was wait. Greg contemplated requiting a Governor's par-
don:
Perhaps I should promise Engler that, if he pardons me, I'll only kill
Democrats. I suspect he has a list... (yes, that's a joke).
GREGORY MOX 261
June 30, 2000:
Administration was told that I was going to have someone
come here and kill guards so that I could escape.
I now understand their intense reaction, although I'm not
sanguine about the way they trampled on my rights in the hearing
process. Fortunately, I had that off-site visit—a premium opportu-
nity for escape—and one I knew of well beforehand. It demon-
strated that, had I the inclination, and outside help, I could have
been gone, without more murder or any conspirators.
I also have two psychologists telling me I was psychotic but am
no longer, nor have I been for years. One advised me not to have
any dealings with you. Too bad.
A Visit from the Prison Psychiatrist
He came to my cell door here in administrative segregation and
opened the food slot at the three-foot-from-ground level to talk
through it. This is fairly typical practice, although, the previous
psychiatrist brought me into a room for private discussion. Talking
through a food slot can be overheard by about 30 other inmates
which can lead to my current predicament. If any rat-type inmate
has some relevant information on someone, they can easily work
up useful, believable lies based on overheard information. Previ-
ously, I didn't give a damn, but this fiasco since June5 has made me
not so cavalier.
So he squatted down to face me through the slot and said, "Mr
Mox, I'm here to discuss your psychiatric health request."
I hopped down from my bunk and said Great! First of all, I'm
not suicidal, no barn-barn room for me, please." This is in reference
to the suicide watch cell and the issued attire which resembles the
outfit of Barn-Barn on the Flintstones.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that," he replied. He then gave rne the
standard pep talk for inmates which he had to do. This is heart-
warming Dale Carnegie but focused on encouraging the troubled
inmate finding some way of making a positive contribution to
society despite the difficulties of being a prisoner.
After that, he got around to asking what made me seek
counseling. I explained that I was in prison for murdering rny
adopters and serving life and then had to endure his "lifer" version
of the pep talk. I had already heard both, two days earlier, so I
interrupted with "I'rn alright with being in prison. I wrote about
the mental health breakdown that put me in here. I gave him a
rundown of the insomnia and irrationality of that time and the
262 CHOSEN CHILDREN
depression I get when thinking back to it. He seized on the
depression.
"If it breaks you up to dwell on the past, that part of the past,
then don't do it. You're absolutely not psychotic anymore."
I thought that was a quick diagnosis, if a welcome one, and he ,
didn't suggest I was paranoid. In my health service request, I
complained of paranoia and being psychotic at the time of my
crime. I went on to explain the necessity of going through that time
in the interest of getting my story published and explaining how I
screwed up and why. This, he did not like and asked "Are you
writing your book yourself?" I said "No, I don't want to. It's all I
can do to provide material to this activist in California." I could
write it up well enough myself except I find it too depressing to go
back there in my mind. I doubt how objective I could be, too, since
the whole incident is so humiliating that I would have to try to
brighten things up.
"So why is this person out of state writing your story? If
dredging up all this is painful to you, you should just leave it alone.
We don't offer one-on-one therapy here. It can't be good to put
yourself through it all again. It sounds to me like the person wants
to exploit you to further humiliation. I advise you to have nothing
to do with him."
"Her."
"Her. Have nothing to do with her and forget the whole
thing."
"It's a bit late for that and I don't agree. My story could do
others some good and I'm beyond the whole public humiliation
thing; that was years ago. What I wanted to talk to you about was
making sure I'm not going to go off and kill anyone ever again. I
mean, I don't think I am, but it kind of snuck up on me the first time,
you know?"
"I don't think you need to worry about that. I can tell you're
not psychotic. It seems to me you were suffering from diminished
capacity at the time."
Well, duh. After that, he made his exit speech and left. I've
decided to wait until I'm at a better facility to seek meaningful help.
By October, Greg was moved out of segregation but was still in a
high level of security despite that he was cleared of all allegations.
He indicated he expected to be moved to a minimum security
facility some time in 2001. Because I have never seen any of the
prison's documentation about the allegations, investigation, and
findings, I could only wonder whether Greg actually had unsuc-
GREGORY MOX 263
cessfully attempted an escape but was successful at "running a
game on prison officials as they claimed.
The Search for Siblings
I wanted to know more about Greg's adoptive sisters and what
They could tell me about Greg and all three adoptions. I wondered
if they had since located, or been located by, their families or
whether they received the same treatment by the man at Catholic
Services since Greg murdered their adopters. I didn't mind
Spring my wheels if it turned out that Greg's sisters were trying
to bury the past" and didn't want the contact, but it troubled me
that Greg hadn't previously detailed how and when Christina
had been in contact with him through attorney Kistner. I needed
to know, before approaching his sisters, or Kistner, whether they
had simply parted ways or whether they feared Greg knowing
their whereabouts, other than his having murdered their adop-
ters who Greg states were not liked by his siblings either.
Diane is nobody to me. I never loved her. She received some
information about her family but evidently did nothing about it
She is three years my senior and Christina is three years older than
her. She was just a kid herself with her own problems. Diane used
me as a toy. I don't believe it should be called abuse, though the
games ranged from cute to terrifying. When I was five and she was
eight, she once cornered me in the back of the garage with a
pitchfork. I fully believed she was serious in her chanted promises
to impale me, nailing me to the wall so I couldn't get help. I grabbed
a shovel with both hands and tried my best to chop her head in two
She still has a scar on her forehead. She gave me some space for
awhile after that. I was impressed by how seriously I was punished
for it. If Diane had not been able to neatly slither around my
explanation for having been driven to that act, I might have better
accepted being grounded, but I was punished while Diane was
fussed over. I hated my adopters then, and Diane as well, and I
tried to run away. I had a vague fantasy of finding another family
to move in with, but I didn't get any farther than the second corner,
disappointed and bewildered.
Diane was a masterful liar as far back as I can remember. One
of my first memories, before I could walk or talk, was hearing
| “Chris good, Diane bad." One of her standard responses to such
| parental chastisement or anger was to misdirect it and I was often
264 CHOSEN CHILDREN
a handy decoy. It occurs to me that I maybe linguistically advanced
from having to rebut Diane's false allegations since early childhood.
Of course, I had misbehavior of my own and Diane could
easily frame me for anything similar for which she was in danger
of being caught. That gave her much credibility and oh how I
resented not being believed!
The pattern continued, I dealt with it, which is to say I
suppressed hatred, cared less what my gullible adopters thought
about anything, and avoided Diane as much as possible. Having
her as my baby-sitter made that difficult.
When Diane was about twelve, things started getting sick. She
wanted me to have sex with her—I was only nine and a properly
brainwashed Catholic, having actually read the Bible through
several times. I was certain Diane was trying to get us both to Hell.
I'll admit I was tempted and if I'd had any trust in her would
probably have ended up marrying her. Instead, my suspicion and
evasion increased and the result was a shyness around women—
something that took years in prison to overcome. Deprivation of
any real contact with women has erased the issue.
When she was about fourteen, Diane started using cocaine.
That's when things began vanishing and once again I was blamed.
How cold my parents be that dense? I was the scapegoat that
allowed them to ignore Diane's collapse.
Then she ran away with a boyfriend, with a vast theft to
finance it. A few months later, she was back, knocked up and alone.
In her excess of tears and contrition, she even cleared me of the
events leading to her departure. But the cycle repeated itself many
times. When Richard's prize coin collection was missing, he had us
both taken to the police station and interrogated. I knew nothing of
it, though I could guess, yet I'm certain my parents never decided
which of us was to blame. I hated them for that, too.
Eventually, I joined Diane in one of her cocaine cycles. The law
wasn't as forgiving of a scared, gangly teenage boy as it was of that
tearful, pretty girl. But it was the first time I felt unconditional love
from my parents. They forgave me—and I was actually guilty! For
once, things made sense. It felt so much better to have everything
out in the open.
After that, I stagnated. I could have gone to Florida to live with
Chris but we would have both been way in debt, involved in a half
dozen half-baked schemes. So I remained at home in the rut
provided by my adopters until I reached the point that I would
rather die than live. I didn't know how to get away from it. Finally
I figured I'd rather kill than die. They asked for me—I never asked
GREGORY MOX 265
For them. They stifled my soul and people expect me to forgive that
because they didn't otherwise abuse me? It seems they never
notice you exist unless you're in trouble or on display.
I do love Chris, but she's lost touch for some reason the past
two years All three of us were adopted from Catholic Social
Services of Macomb County. You're welcome to contact Diane
who I last heard was divorced, but I'm not really interested. We
were not close. I'm not sure what, if anything, she felt for Carol, but
like Chri and me, she disliked Richard. She was married at the
time of the murders and was forced to reveal an affair to account for
her presence that night, which still amuses me a bit. She visited me
regularly and gave me money to my account, out of caution until
I was convicted. After my conviction, snip-snip "
I had been trying to locate Greg's adoptive sisters, Christina and
Diane, via nationwide public directory listings on-line and letters
copied to all by the same name. There were no replies.
. Acting on a lead from Diane’s ex-husband, I phoned a number
and asked Dian’s son if he knew how I could reach his mother
who I identified by one of her previous married names. The
young man corrected me, stating that was her previous name and
supplying the other name as her current name. He wanted to
what it was about but I just assured him I wasn't a bill
collector and that it wasn't bad news. When he gave me her home
number, I hesitated. It occurred to me that if Diane had success-
fully buried her past, she probably didn't want to be found. But
on the chance that she could provide even one missing piece to
Greg s puzzle, I made the call. The woman who answered was
quite pleasant, but when I asked if she was Greg Mox's adoptive
sister, she insisted I had the wrong Diane. I tried assuring her that
1 had not told her son my specific reason for my call and that our
conversation would be kept confidential I further explained that
I hoped to help Greg locate his family and asked whether she had
ever located her family. She denied that she was adopted and
informed me there was another Diane by the same last name in
the same state. I apologized for the wrong number and after a
minute of polite chat, we hung up. It suddenly dawned on me that
there could not be two Dianes with a husband and son by the
same last names, as well as her having the same prior married
name according to the ex-husband and son. Had I found Diane or
one of her split selves? Had Adopted Child Syndrome behaviors
of lying and fantasizing enabled her to endure all the loss in her
266 CHOSEN CHILDREN
past—the loss both of her families and of her trust? I decided not
to disturb Diane and Chris in their present lives so successfully
hidden.
Dead End to a Search for Family
On August 14,2000, Christina Lipski, Adoption Caseworker for
The Macomb County Circuit Court, Juvenile Division, wrote
Greg:
Dear Mr. Mox,
Please be advised that your letter dated May 23,2000, pertain-
ing to your adoption has been reviewed.
All four requests have been denied by this Court.
The court's attorney and Chief Referee, Michael Cory, stated to
me in a phone conversation that Greg Mox's "dramatic crime"
was "whispered about in the halls" and may be the reason for the
Judge's denial. I suspected that any "whispering" resulted from
Judge O'Sullivan phoning Sister Joanne Ales. But no one—not
Judge Pamela Jordan, not Attorney Cory and not Adoptions
Caseworker Christina Lipski—would say, absolutely, why Greg
Mox was denied his nationality, family background, and the
opportunity of having the court seek his mother's permission for
contact or for information about himself. Neither is a Judge
required to state the reason. Cory ventured that the statute may
not "require" enforcement—that it's at the discretion of the
agency and court.
When I asked Christina Lipski why the Judge would not sign
the denial letter herself instead of the court's "Adoptions Case-
worker." She said that's the way Judge O'Sullivan does it when it's
an adoptee request. At that point, I still had no written confirma-
tion that Macomb Circuit court even had Greg's adoption file or
that anyone had viewed it since sealing it. Whatever was in it, both
the court and Sister Joanne Ales were not about to let Greg know
one word of it. So I was surprised when Lipski referred me back to
Ales but I would soon find out that Ales had more power over
Greg's "right to know" and right of "due process" than the court.
On September 21, 2000, Michigan confidential intermediary,
Chris Soley, agreed to "do a search" for Greg's mother "if Joanne
Ales" approved. My understanding was that confidential inter-
mediaries work with the court's adoption file but the court
already refused access to that file.
GREGORY MOX 267
Authors Observations and Opinion
At an age when most young people are discovering their own
identity apart from their parents, Greg Mox's identity was "x-the
unknown." Most 21-year olds believe they are smarter than their
parents, but Greg's intelligence probably did exceed that of his
adopters. Greg has no role models, no clue from his genetic past
from which to conceptualize his place in the world, so, to Greg,
everyone was a "stranger" Greg felt he "had to kill" his adopter
who he perceived as stealing his personhood and standing in the
way of reunion with his mother.
Although this author believes it is unlikely that the rage Greg
unleashed upon his adopters would be repeated if he was to be
eventually released from prison, Greg still has not had the oppor-
tunity for reunion, reconciliation, and healing. The nun who
holds his adoption file is keeping not only Greg's true identity
and his mother's identity a secret, but also the bits and pieces of
background that have helped define him. She discriminately
withholds even non-identifying background against intent or
wording of Michigan adoption disclosure statute, while other
Bryan Harr, a Wayne County, Michigan adoptees who killed,
was permitted their background his information while
incarcerated. Greg seems to be taking it in stride whereas
such abuse of authority greatly upsets adoption reform activists.
Greg's prison psychiatrist, who is not adoption-oriented, at-
tempted to dissuade Greg from telling his story, apparently not
comprehending the effect of Greg's lifelong submissiveness to
the “don't ask, don't tell" rule imposed on all adoptees led to his
crime. It took parricide for Greg to remove the gag. Shouldn't
Greg's adopters who religiously monitored his comings and
Goings, who argued the day preceding the murders about Greg not
phoning in his whereabouts, and who sought treatment for him in
the past, also noticed his descent into depression? Couldn't
the tragic murders have been prevented through open commu-
nication about Greg's basic need to know who he is—and an
honest reply? As adoptee-activist and former social worker Jean
Paton said, "Do you have to be truant, steal cars, get into juvenile
detention homes, drop out of school—[and we might add "or kill
your adopters"]—in order for people to realize that you need to
have someone tell you about your origins?” Apparently the an-
swer is still yes.
"I know I made a hole in a lot of people's hearts and souls,
but probably I had the biggest."
—Keith Chul Weaver, Korean adoptee who murdered his American
adopters; The Childhood Psychopath: Bad Seed or Bad Parents,
by Katherine Ramsland, at http://CrimeLibrary.com
Adoptees Who Killed Their Adopters
Atkins, Joseph and Charles
Joseph Atkins, adopted as a toddler, killed the man who adopted
him; he also killed a 13-year-old neighbor —both in North Charles-
ton, South Carolina, on October 27,1985. Fifteen years before that,
Joseph killed his brother Charles, also adopted by the Atkins,' after
first being stabbed by the victim. This adopted killer was abused—by
his adopter, not his parents. Joseph's racial heritage was not known;
he may have been Native American, African American, or Puerto
Rican. He was adopted by a white family. Like many adoptees who
kill their parents, Joseph has no idea why he killed the man who adopted
him. This adoptee was executed on January 22, 1999, by lethal
injection, in Columbia, South Carolina. Joseph offered no final
statement, and no one from the family he was adopted into at-
tended his execution.
—APB Online, and the Post and Courier
Baer, Kenneth
A graduate of Thomas University, Philadelphia, Baer killed his
girlfriend, Marina, 45, whom he termed- “.. .my lover, my mother."
He said he hit his female adopter several times when he was
between the ages of 12 and 15. In his mind, he was killing his adopter.
—Marsha Riben
Shedding Light On The Dark Side of Adoption, p. 60
Bocook, Charles, 16; Bocook, Gladys, 14
Hillsboro Ohio: Charles Bocook is also known as Justin Workman
and Justin Smith. His sister, Gladys Bocook, is also known as Sarah
269
270 CHOSEN CHILDREN
The adopters were injured in the July 18 fire but managed to
escape through a window of their mobile home in Sardinia, about
40 miles southeast of Cincinnati. [They were tried as adults.]
—"Siblings To Be Sentenced for Attempted Murder of Adoptive
Parents," Associated Press (11-14-00)
Boggess, Clifford Holt
Adoptee who was executed on his birthday in Texas for two
homicides including his adopter's father who raised him. Born to
Mary Elizabeth Mann, her tenth child, one of several not by her
husband. Mary abused drugs and alcohol and was severely abu-
sive to her children according to Clifford's sister, Debbie. Clifford
was placed in an orphanage during his first year, returned to his
mother, but later adopted by Steve and Shirley Boggess of Ala-
bama. When he was four, his adopters divorced and sent him to live
with his adopters in Texas. He didn't see Shirley again until he was
in his teens. In the meantime, his adopter's father, while substitute
parenting him, subjected him to beatings until he murdered him.
One of his adoptive brothers was jailed for child molestation.
Artistic, musical and an honors student, Clifford wanted "constant
attention." —"The Execution," Frontline (PBS)
Campbell, Patrick, 20
A Connecticut man is contending that anguish over his adoption as
a small child in Michigan by a Farmington Hills couple contributed
to his insanity when he killed the his adopters with a hatchet and
sledgehammer, Kenneth, 56, and Anna May Campbell/ 59, in the
couple's Darien, Connecticut home. Campbell's attorney has asked
Wayne County (MI) authorities to open his confidential adoption
file to see if it yields information.
—"Adoption Called Key to Killing," Detroit Free Press (4-22-88)
Patrick was poorly represented by a public defender and got 40
years on a plea bargain; his background issues were never pre-
sented before sentencing.
—Attorney Donald Humphrey (an adoptee),
"Violence in Adoption" at a conference of
The American Adoption Congress, NY (9-23-92)
Adopted at 18 months, Patrick was always a misfit in his adoptive
family. At six feet six inches, he was physically unlike his adopters
and sister. Patrick, who stated that he had never felt attached to
ADOPTEES WHO KILL THEIR ADOPTERS 271
them, nor they to him, described them as harsh and rejecting,
frequently comparing him unfavorably to their biological daugh-
ter. At 10 years of age, Patrick was caught exposing himself to a
young girl and he was placed in residential treatment where he
remained for most of his high school years. Upon graduation,
Patrick's male adopter gave him an ultimatum—Get a job, join the
military, or move out. He then basically lived on the streets until,
at age 18, he suffered a double rejection. His girlfriend took up with
his best friend. The young man, who had never before been violent,
bludgeoned his adopters to death and set their bodies on fire.
—David Kirschner, Ph.D.
"Catathymic Violence, Dissociation, and Adoption Pathology:
Implications for the Mental Status Defense"- reprint from
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative
Criminology (Sage Publications, Inc., 1996)
Clark, James B., 39
Following a troubled childhood, dark was convicted of the 1994
murders of his adopters in New Castle, Delaware, four weeks after
having served 22 years of a 30 year sentence for kidnapping a 16-
year old girl. He had asked not to be paroled, saying he could not
cope with release, but paroled anyway. Within four weeks of being
returned to his adopters, he shot them both dead. We do not know
what was so traumatizing about being paroled to his adopters. At his
trial in 1994, he asked for the death sentence but he was sentenced to
a psychiatric unit where he was reportedly treated with anti-depres-
sion medication. He was often on "suicide watch." James was
executed by lethal injection, on April 19,1996, in Delaware, Clark's
attorney states that the story here is not the fact that James Clark
was executed but why he chose to be executed instead of fighting
for his life. —Amnesty International website
http://www.amnesty.org/uk/ua/uanew97w.pdf
Corne, James, 29
(Auburn Washington) [Corne] took a butcher knife, slipped be-
hind his 54-year-old female adopter Peggy [Corne] and as horrified
family members watched, stabbed her to death... Corne told police
that it was because she was "pressing his buttons" and making him
angry. King County Superior Court Judge Joan DuBuque sen-
tenced Corne to 22 years and 4 months in prison, the high-end
272 CHOSEN CHILDREN
standard range for second-degree murder. Although Come has
severe depression and schizophrenia, which was acknowledged
when he was evaluated at Western Hospital after his arrest, his
illness was exacerbated by his drug use ... and although Peggy
Corne was afraid of him, she protected him because he was ,
mentally ill, a family member said.
—Nancy Bartley, "Man Gets 22 Years for Killing Mother,"
Seattle Times (3-24-01)
Coulson, Robert Otis, 24
Executed 6-26-02 by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, for the
murder of both his adopters and three other family members. His
father, Robert Bennet, told of the “guilt” he has felt over the years
for allowing his children to be put up for adoption, blaming Texas
for pushing him to do so.
-The Death House, http://www.thedeathhouse.com
by Robert Anthony Phillips
DeGelleke, Patrick, 14
Patrick set fire to his adopter's house... His mother died instantly.
His father jumped out a window and survived for 10 days before
he died... He had lived with his mother in Ohio for about
three years... absent father ... We got his records opened and learned
that, in order to put food on the table, his mother turned to prostitution
and was gone from the house for long periods of time. Neighbors called
the police who took the kids to foster care. At age 6, Patrick was
adopted; there are indications that Patrick's adopters treated the
adoption with some sense of denial. (Patrick said) he never in-
tended for anyone to be hurt but wanted people to think he died in
the fire. He had planned to hop a train back to Ohio and find his
mother and live happily ever after. He had an absence of feelings
about his adopters, ended up serving eight to nine years, and is
now out and living with one of his adoptive sisters.
—Attorney Donald Humphrey (an adoptee)
"Violence In Adoption" at a conference of
The American Adoption Congress, NY (9-23-92)
Diaz, Monica, 16
The Pico River [CA] "girl and her high school boyfriend [Michael
Naranjo] face murder and attempted murder charges in the fatal
stabbings of the girl's male adopter and three of her [adoptive]
siblings and the wounding of her female adopter [Sylvia Flores],
allegedly committed because her parents disapproved of their
relationship ... Both teenagers were described by friends as good
students who took honor classes and had enrolled in ROTC classes
. . . they had been dating for at least a year and had become
ADOPTEES WHO KILL THEIR ADOPTERS 273
inseparable. . . . High school students who knew both teenagers
said the two complained that Richard and Sylvia Flores were too
strict.
—Beth Shuster and Joe Matthews, Los Angeles Times (7-28-00)
Dreyer, Henry Lee, 17
He was adopted at age 7 by recently divorced Carol Dreyer.
On January 29,1998, at 5 am, he killed his adopter and her
boyfriend, Gary Engleman, as they slept in their Carlsbad,
California condo.
There were many arguments between Henry Lee and his adopter
and he ran away from her home several times. He was on probation
from a residential burglary at the time of the 1998 killings. After his
sentencing of life without parole. Henry apologized to the families
of his adopter and her boyfriend; he then criticized media for
describing Carol Dreyer as "his mother," stating that Dreyer and
Engelman were not his parents.
— San Diego Tribune (1-30-98)
Duff-Smith, Markum
He was executed on 6-29-93 for his part in the strangulation death
of his wealthy adoptive mother, Gertrude Duff-Smith Zabolio, at her
River Oaks, Texas home. –Texas Death Row website
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/statistics/deathrow/executed/duffsmith.jpg
Forman, Joseph Jay, 16
.. .murdered Janice Griffone in New Jersey. He's described as a
problem... a hyperactive youth who as a boy was eager to please
but who constantly felt rejected... since discovering at age 11 that
he is adopted.
—"Forman Labeled A Problem Child," Trenton Times, NJ (5-26-82)
Garner, Joseph
... [who was] held in an Indianapolis hospital after telling police he
killed his male adopter and ate part of is brain, struggled with
alcoholism and was briefly committed to a psychiatric hospital
when he lived in Michigan, his ex-wife said. Charlotte Garner said
Joseph Garner also stalked and beat her after the couple divorced
in 1988. —Detroit Free Press (12-28-95)
Gebauer, John Frank, 15
…didn’t just kill his [adoptive] mother…he also sexually assaulted
her after shooting her in the head. Authorities found 47 year old
Alison Gebauer in a kneeling position in the barn…pitched forward,
Head on the ground…The boy was described as kind, sincere, well-
mannered and organized…creative and never violent toward adults
or other students…by all accounts well-adjusted, the child of parents
who were supportive, responsive, loving -Post-Gazette.com (2-15-02)
274 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Hagen, Marjorie Condon
Acquitted more than a decade ago in connection with the murder
of her female adopter, a Duluth heiress.
-Star-Tribune, St. Paul, MN (11-1-92)
Hamilton, Thomas, 43
Thomas Hamilton was informally adopted by his grandparents
who raised him and made him believe they were his parents. The
woman he was told was his sister was, in reality, his mother. At age
43 and single, Thomas killed 16 first-graders and their teacher and
12 other children were wounded. He started shooting in the
playground and ended up in the gymnasium; there he moved
around the room shooting the terrified children, chasing some as
they ran. Then he killed himself.
-Adopted Serial Killers, An Internet website,
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9950/adoption_serialkillers.html
Heikkila, Matthew, 19
. . .shot to death his adopters, Richard and Dawn Heikkila, in
Basking Ridge, New Jersey, January 29,1991; on the shotgun shells
he had written "Mom" and "Dad." There didn't seem to be anyone
with whom she was acquainted who had not listened to Dawn
complain about the boy she adopted; she may have fostered
Matthew's antisocial behavior out of an emotional need to gain
sympathy for herself from her associates or as an excuse for not
feeling any attachment to him. At times, Richard Heikkila felt
compelled to "cure" Matthew of his problems that he considered to
be "biological defects" and "not suited well" to the Heikkila family;
As result of being raised with the lies that Dawn and Richard were
his parents, that he was "special" and had been "chosen" (yet his
experience with that family told him otherwise), Matthew had a
habit of lying.
Psychotherapist David Kirschner's analysis of Heikkila's
"Adopted Child Syndrome" saved the youth from the death pen-
alty. He was instead sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the
murders of his adopters. In New Jersey, that means a minimum of
60 years before he is eligible for parole.
-Los Angeles Times, (4-27-93);
-FOX-TV, "A Current Affair,'(6-30-91);
The Desert Sun, Palm Springs (6-26-93), A-7
—Laurence Arnold, in "Woman Says She Aborted Heikkila Child,"
Courier-News (NJ) (1-12-93)
ADOPTEES WHO KILL THEIR ADOPTERS 275
Hittle, Daniel, 23
Convicted in Minnesota of killing his adopters. He served eleven
years in prison before winning parole in 1984. In 1989, after a feud
with his drug dealer and his wife, he fled police and began shooting
at his pursuers before surrendering. He was executed by lethal
injection December 6,2000 at Huntsville, Texas, for the murder of
police officer. —David Carson, December Press, (12-13-00)
Hoskins, Robert, 15
. . .murdered his adopters and brother in May 1983, at Mineral
Springs, Wisconsin, with multiple stab wounds... The youth found
out a year ago that he was adopted and was told his natural parents
“didn’t want him." His mother was labeled a whore and other degrading
statements were made about her which bothered him and he began
to resent his adopters... His male adopter, a boxer, often hit the youth in
the face, stomach and ribs.
—The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin (August 12, 1983)
Jenkins, Joshua, 16
On February 2 and 3,1996—using a hammer, knife and axe, the
16-year old killed his adopters, their parents, and another child in the
household. Then he cleaned the murder weapons, took a shower,
changed his clothes, set the place on fire, and left.
Joshua always wanted to know about his parents, but was never
told. His adopters said they had a letter from his mother but
refused to show it to him. Because of their desire to replace his
parents—and because society authorizes it via adoption—adopt-
ers typically hide information about their parents from adopted
children. In the summer of 1995, he was arrested after fighting with
one of them and placed in a school for disturbed kids; he said he
thought his adopters had abandoned him. Four psychiatrists
agreed the boy suffered from chronic depression. Grasping for a
“bad seed" explanation for Joshua'o crime, Attorney David B.
Chamberlain alleged, "the boy's illness and disabilities point di-
Rectly to the prenatal period in the womb of a mother who did not
Plan to keep him.
-Adopted Serial Killers, an Internet website,
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9950/adoption_serialkillers.html
276 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Johnson, Lamont S., 21
An Aiken County [South Carolina] man charged with bludgeoning
his male adopter to death with an axe had a history of trespassing
and resisting arrest. His adopter, Bracey C. Johnson, 53, had made
a complaint against his son after he refused to return from a
neighbor's property on Shaws Forks Road, the records show.
Lament Johnson was arrested Saturday and charged with murder
after his female adopter discovered her husband's body outside
their home on Alex Johnson Road. Authorities say that when
Bracey Johnson stepped onto his driveway to get his Saturday
paper, he was attacked from behind . . . Lamont Johnson has a
history of psychological problems.
—Katie Throne, The Augusta Chronicle (6-1-01)
Kasten, Daniel
. . . killed his adopters, Edith and Joseph Kasten, with a rifle in
Ronkonkoma, New York. —Carolyn Cowell, Newsday
Koslow, Kristi, 17
Convicted of murder in the death of her stepmother, oil heiress
Caren Koslow and attempted murder of her male adopter. Jack
Koslow. Prosecutors said she wanted her male adopter's and
stepmothers' fortune. Jack Koslow, who survived the 1992 attack,
said his daughter "deserved to die.'"
—"Teen Gets Life Term," Pittsburgh Post (7-1-94)
Lashley, Frederick, 17
Executed July 28, 1993 in Missouri, for stabbing to death his foster mother,
Janie Tracy, while he was under the influence of drugs.
-Juveniles on Death Row, an Internet website
http://www.bannister.dk/juveniles/lashley_frederick.html
Little, Jr., Charlie
. . .birth name Alexander Julian Morgan; killed his adopters,
Arlene and Charles Little, Sr., with a shotgun and covered it up as
a burglary..." —Iowa v. Alexander Julian Morgan (1986)
Losicco, Richard, 28; Losicco, Terrence, 20
Richard Losicco murdered his adopter's father, Pasquale Losicco,
and critically wounded his adopter's mother, Anna Losicco, who
were raising him at the time in New York. Richard's adoptive
brother was then serving a life sentence for the 1980-murder of
Helen Prou (relationship not stated).
—Marsha Riben
1959 newsclip in Shedding Light on the Dark Side of Adoption
ADOPTEES WHO KILL THEIR ADOPTERS 277
Miller, George, 18
(Howard Beach, New York) ". . .a Queens, New York, honor
student who beat his female adopter to death with a baseball bat in
an argument over grades... his grades did not qualify him for a
desired appointment to Annapolis..."
—Marsha Riben
—New York Post (1-12-85. p. 5)
Niiranean, Patrick, 37
Bludgeoned his adopters with a three-pound sledgehammer in a
rage, then spent all the cash in his adopter's wallet on a nine-day
drug binge. Patrick was born at Portland [Oregon] General Hospi-
tal on June 2, 1959 and immediately taken home by Henry and
Mercedes Niiranean, a middle aged couple who already had one
male adoptee; Mrs. Niiranean physically and emotionally abused
him, beat him, and berated him; her husband also once hit the boy
with a baseball bat; by the time he was a teen, he was living in foster
homes, shelters, and the street... became addicted to cocaine and
tried to commit suicide six times. In 1980, he attempted to find his
mother, but the private investigator he hired abandoned him. m
1998 when Oregon opened birth records to adult adoptees,
Niiranean filed a request for his original birth certificate. He insists
she has nothing to fear: "I just want to tell her I love her."
—Seamus Mcgraw, APBNews.com (6-2-00)
Peterson, Angel
Angel Peterson waited until 4 am one spring morning when her
adopters were asleep, to deal a final blow: a firebomb hurled
through a window in an act of vengeance, a Wayne County
assistant prosecutor argued Monday. Flames raced through the
house on Detroit's east side, trapping the family that had adopted
and taken Peterson eight years before.
—"Fatal Bombing Was Vengeance for Beatings Prosecutor Says"
Detroit Free Press (11-8-94)
Prink, Timothy, 20
... charged with murder in the shotgun slayings of four members
of his adoptive family... after an argument in which his (adoptive)
sister had been calling him names and kind of putting him down,"
said Police Director Walter Winfrey. The sister, 24 year old Holly
Prink, was not among the victims. "There was intention on his part
to shoot her, but the shotgun misfired," Winfrey said. After the
278 CHOSEN CHILDREN
shootings, police said. Prink fled from the house and hid in a shed
on a neighbor's property. He was arrested while kneeling in some
bushes in front of the shed, sobbing into his hands.
—The Desert Sun, (10-4-97), A-3
Reynolds, Jacqueline Nikki, 17
"Nikki" was adopted as an infant. At age 17, on May 14,1997 in
Coral Springs, Florida, she stabbed to death 49 year old Billie Jean
Reynolds—the woman who had adopted her—with a 13-inch
butcher knife, while Mrs. Reynolds was working at her computer.
While she was stabbing her adopter, Nikki apologized and asked
Mrs. Reynolds if she was dying yet. When Mrs. Reynolds was able to
answer that she was dying, Nikki stabbed her several more times.
Nikki had plans to kill her male adopter, Robert Reynolds, also.
The stabbing took place not long after Nikki suffered a rejec-
tion from a boyfriend. Rejection is a potent issue for people who
have been separated from their families by adoption. After the
killing, evidence was found in Nikki's diary that she had an eating
disorder, suicidal thoughts, and negative feelings towards Mrs.
Reynolds. Also found was a suicide note expressing Nikki's per-
ceived need to punish herself for being rude to her adopters. The
prosecutor portrayed the adoptee as a lying, manipulative brat.
Katrina Ramos, Nikki's mother, says that she thought she was
doing "the right thing" by giving her up for adoption.. ..Full of
mixed emotions, Ramos sat in the back of the courtroom learning
about her daughter's life at her murder trial. She still loves her
daughter who she thinks looks just like her.
—The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald
Rogers, Dayton Leroy, 19
".. .adopted along with another boy and two girls by Ortis Noble
and Jasparelle Rogers, devout Seventh-day Adventists who told
their children they had "an evil entity inside their bodies." Dayton
beat his male adopter to death in his Queens, New York apartment
with the help of a disabled friend," stabbed to death a girl who
rejected his advances, committed several rapes and at least eight
stabbings—murders of young women.
—Marsha Riben
Shedding Light on the Dark Side of Adoption, p.59
—and Dayton LeRoy Rogers website
ADOPTEES WHO KILL THEIR ADOPTERS 279
Stoddard, Dan, 18
Told friends he was tired of his adopters "throwing him around
like a rag doll” and that he was “going to live with his biological
mother in Virginia.” He then stabbed to death his male adopter, Tom
Stoddard, 67. Earlier that evening, Stoddard went to the workplace
of a friend in Post Falls (Idaho) and asked for a place to stay that
night but was told there was no room.
—Kootenai County News (4-2-01)
Swartz, Larry, 17
... stabbed to death his adopters, Robert and Kathryn Swartz at
Cape St. Clair, Maryland...
—Leslie Walker, A Sudden Fury, and
—The Sunday News Journal, Maryland (3-4 &10-84)
Larry Swartz' adoptive brother, David Michael Swartz, 24, an
unemployed carpenter with a history of mental illness, was charged
with armed robbery and murder.
—Washington Times (7-11-90)
Tankleff, Martin (Marty), 18
Beltaire, Long Island Police said Tankleff admitted to the brutal
murder of his adopters... a rich kid who wanted more than his
parents could give him, when Seymour and Arlene Tankleff said
No, he killed them. The family said he never confessed and was
tricked into telling police what they wanted to hear. He's a pleaser;
Marty wants to please people. Attorneys were shocked at Marty's
inability to express emotion. Adopted at 2 days of age, at his trial,
Tankleff denied killmg his parents and claimed he had been tricked
into signing a confession.
—Fox-TV, “A Current Affair,” (9-27-90)
—The Arizona Republic, (4-22-93, 6-4-93)
Thornton, Jamie Grant, 16
A troubled Star Lake youth is being held in County jail. Canton,
after allegedly shooting his male adopter four days after the man
bailed him out of jail. Jamie Grant Thornton was charged with
second degree murder following his arrest at Tupper Lake. He was
charged with shooting Gerald Thornton, 44, with his high-pow-
ered rifle at his Youngs Road home.
—Daily Times, Watertown (August 1, 1994)
280 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Tomassoni, Tammie Marie, 11;
Tomassoni, Kathryn Marie, 15
(SunLakes, Arizona) [S]hot their abusive adopter,
Lydia Tomassoni, in the head, after Child Protective
Services and school authorities ignored their several
pleas for help.
–The Arizona Republic
Weaver, Keith Chul, 14
.. .tried as an adult. Defense attorney Richard Gray, in a
dramatic 45-minute closing argument, admitted to the
jury that Weaver murdered [by stabbing] his adopters
[Anna May Weaver, 50, Raymond Clair Weaver, 50]
[and adoptive sister, Kimberly, 15] [and raped a
teenaged relative] in Landsville, Pennsylvania. Keith
was one of 2 Korean orphans [the White American
couple adopted]. In pretrial, the Weaver's biological
son, Steven Weaver, described Keith as "self-centered,
callous, and a juvenile delinquent." Keith killed his
family because of a deeply rooted psychological wound
suffered when he was a little boy abandoned in Korea..
.[and that] Weaver's feelings of rejection became a
festering mental illness called post traumatic stress
disorder [that] finally exploded in a violent, irrational
rage against his adopters/' said Anthony M. Pisa, a
forensic psychologist. . ..Keith told the court he did not
know what happened to him. For decades, it has also
been the practice of Holt International and other
American-owned orphanages in Korea to falsify the
child's identity even if known on original records, and
even change the date of birth to make the child appear
younger and more "adoptable."]
—"Psychologist: Weaver's Mind Snapped,”
Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA) (3-12-92)
—"Lawyer Wants Teen Accused of 3 Murders Tried as
Juvenile” and "Weaver Tried as Adult"
Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA)(9-7-91, 6-23-93)
Seoul, Korea: Embarrassed by its image as an
international "baby trader" the South Korean
government is halting decades old policy of permitting
foreigners to adopt abandoned and unwanted Korean
children. —"South Korea Closing Foreign Trade in
Abandoned Babies."-Washington Times (3-13-90)
ADOPTEES WHO KILL THEIR ADOPTERS 281
Welche, Lee Roy, 15
. . . who shot and killed his female adopter Brenda Welche,
will spend 25 to 62 years in prison after being sentenced
as an adult. On June 15, 1992, in an argument over household
chores.. .he shot her in the chest and then reloaded the shotgun
and shot her once in the side and once at close range in the
head... Welche showed no remorse for killing his mother... Other
psychiatrists attributed the outbursts to a history of abuse.. .Judge
[John T.] Hammond said there was no excuse for the killing even
if his mother was abusive.
—"Teen Son Sentenced as Adult in Slaying,"
South Bend Tribune (5-21-92) p. B-2.
Wright, Mitchell, 18
. ..an altar boy, adopted son of Donald and Delphine Wright, set up
his 16 year old (adoptive) sister, Donette, to be raped and beaten by
a friend and then left to die under a log. Donette was half Mexican
and the Wrights say Mitchell became hostile toward Blacks and
Hispanics after learning his natural mother had given birth to a Black
baby and kept that child after putting Mitchell up for adoption.
-Marsha Riben, Shedding Light on the Dark Side of Adoption
quoting from The News Journal, NJ (4-85)
282 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Exceptions: Adoptees Who Killed Non-Relatives
This author's research into adoption-rooted violence has pro-
duced mostly adoptees who killed a member of their adopters or
who committed serial killings of strangers (those will be detailed
in the next chapter). But there is a smaller group of adopted killers
who neither killed an adoptive relative nor went on a serial killing
spree. While I categorize them here as "exceptions," a look into
their backgrounds will reveal a common theme—deep feelings of
rejection and a need to be loved at any cost as a result of their
adoptions. In the first instance, Andrew Bryan Harr tells his story
in his own words, as we can see how his violent reaction to his
girlfriend's rejection was the "last straw" of adoption-caused
abandonment issues.
Harrr, Andrew Bryan, 27
Byran Andrew Harr was born "Patrick Charles" on 5-17-74 in
Detroit, Michigan. He is incarcerated for First Degree Murder at
Michigan State Prison at Carson City, prisoner number 241912.
Bryan wrote:
My adopters and I have not spoken in quite some time and they
were never interested in helping me track down my parents. Many
lies were told to me regarding my adoption. Arguments with my
adopters would ensue whenever I inquired about my adoption.
Facts came out only during arguments that exposed earlier contra-
dictions and I ended up feeling empty inside as a result.
I was adopted into a radically Christian family who chose to
hide the fact that they adopted me until what they termed "an age
of understanding." I was the only adoptee in the family and never
felt as though I belonged, even prior to discovering the fact of my
adoptive status. My adopters treated me differently than their
biological daughter who was seven years my senior... not just in
the way that siblings in other families may feel that the other sib is
the "favorite." I felt they treated me as one would treat a wild horse
that needed to be "broken" and then molded to their liking. Any
creative expression or originality on my part was regarded as
shortcomings. Some of my adoptive relatives tried to show interest
and affection while others treated me as "special" which translated
into "handicapped." I was permitted to associate only with other
Christians who had Christian parents, which limited my contacts
ADOPTEES WHO KILLED NON-RELATIVES 283
make friends at school beyond my parents' control and only got
attention when I got into a fight.
I began creating a secret life, stealing money from my adopters
and baseball cards or collector coins from adoptive relatives that
would be of value only to bribe kids at school into befriending me.
I got caught stealing an electronic gadget from K-Mart, yet contin-
ued to steal. Half the gifts my family received from me at Christmas
were stolen, partly to avoid spending my money on them and
partly to impress them with what I normally could not afford, yet
they never questioned where the items came from. I continued
stealing into my teenage years.
It was then I discovered I was extremely fascinated by fire and
set our neighbor's hedges and the shrubs beneath my bedroom
window aflame in an aborted attempt to bum down my adopters'
house. Fire had an odd calming and medicinal or hypnotic effect
on me, because it could destroy what I could not. Subsequently,
whenever I had upsetting thoughts about my adopters, I felt
compelled to light a fire and would then immediately feel relieved.
One time, I set a neighbor's car afire and several times, I set grass
fires as a form of self-control—self control from doing more violent
things when angry. As I was growing up, knowing my anger
would do much harm, I began burning my right forearm with my
Zippo lighter. I found that the pain made my anger subside and put
me "in control" again.
I believe I lied to protect what was mine—to keep from sharing
my true thoughts and feelings in fear that whatever I might share
would then be "less mine."
I was a below-average student who tended to daydream a lot.
Several times I ran away from home, from school, and from church,
returning only to pick up some essentials to enable me to stay away
longer. Still, I was an average student in middle school, realizing
that getting through school would be the only way I could escape
my "family." I performed miserably at soccer and basketball,
finally excelling at wrestling in my senior year, probably because
I could take out my frustrations on my opponent.
In my teens, I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder
(ADD), placed on Ritalin and other drugs, and forced to attend
therapy sessions with psychologists and consultations with my
parents' pastor. Due to my firesetting, I was forced to attend
lectures by police and fire officials.
I believed I was dealing with my feelings of rejection by
avoiding placing myself in situations or with people who might
reject me. Confrontations were quickly settled with my fists. I was
284 CHOSEN CHILDREN
expelled from school in eighth grade, yet managed to graduate "on
condition" that I never returned to the school grounds due to other
students being afraid of me. I enjoyed nature and the outdoors, so
later in my life, I wanted to become a wildlife biologist and applied
to Michigan Technological University, but despite remedial courses,
could never make up all the prerequisite courses that I never got in
the private school my adopters sent me to years before.
I managed to lose my virginity at age 15 with a girl who was
then 16, but my controlling adopters sabotaged my first two
attempts to have steady girlfriends. I finally moved out of my
parents' house after graduation and began to make friends, includ-
ing a steady girlfriend. However, having spent my first 17 years "in
the shadows" without friends or real family, after carefully scruti-
nizing and "testing" anyone I would consider befriending—
mostly girls— I would make them my "family" and I "protected"
them at all costs, including getting into fights with guys armed with
guns or knives. I was never injured and considered the risk accept-
able when defending what or who I loved.
Despite being rejected from Navy enlistment when I was still
living with my adopters, because I was then on Ritalin, I was later
accepted into the Navy. While I was stationed in Italy, I had an
affair with a woman who was 21 years my senior. But my career in
the Navy was short-lived—only ten months. All my past habits—
smoking from age 11, drinking since 13, and getting high at 15—
became incorporated into my daily life. I never felt so free as in
Italy, backpacking into the nearby hills and mountains, befriend-
ing many of the native Italians, and getting engaged to an Ameri-
can woman there who was also in the Navy. I enjoyed being alone
in the wilderness—if I needed to scream or to sing, I could (and
would). But my work began to slide and the Navy began to notice.
An investigation into my past revealed the Attention Deficit Disor-
der diagnosis and that I had been taking Ritalin for years. They sent
me to an air base in Sicily for psychiatric evaluation and made the
determination that I should still be taking Ritalin and therefore
should be discharged. It was not from any "deficit" that I chose to
slack off in my work and had no desire to rise in rank, but from
being content with new found freedom. I also set myself up for a fall
by getting into two fights aboard ship which branded me as a
troublemaker. They offered me an honorable discharge which I
accepted; had I appealed, I would have received a dishonorable
discharge for the on-board fight. In either case, it meant returning
home and leaving my fiance behind in Italy when we were three
months away from her discharge and our planned wedding—June
ADOPTEES WHO KILLED NON-RELATIVES 285
11,1994 . As quickly as my life seemed to come together, it was
falling apart.
Back home again, my adopters picked me up at the bus stop.
The first thing my male adopter said to me was "I knew you'd never
make it work." I had no money, no car, no job, only a glimmer of
faith and a wife-to-be still in Italy. I was motivated to find a job,
build a bank account, get an apartment, and put a down payment
on a car before my fiance arrived. The first day back, a Saturday, my
former employer rehired me as a waiter and I was to start work on
Monday. The restaurant was within walking distance from my
adopters' house and they would allow me to stay in their basement.
But as we sat down to Sunday dinner, they asked me about my
fiance and my female adopter began saying things about her that
upset me. We got into an argument, but later in the evening, after
they returned from church and everyone was calmed down, I
apologized. Still, my female adopter ordered me out of the house
"by morning." An acquaintance offered to let me stay at her sister's
place, but they lived 15 miles from where I was to be working and
there was no transportation, so I had to forfeit the job. For the next
three weeks, I lived in a recliner chair at the sister's apartment,
hunting for jobs on foot each day. When I got hungry, I walked two
miles to a pizza place where a former girl friend worked and
bummed free food; sometimes she would deliver a pizza to me. She
had always talked with me and had talked me out of suicide once
before.
I landed a job interview but they rejected me. I drank heavily
that day to get up the courage to end my life using a gun I'd stolen,
but first I decided to thank the girl who had been feeding me but
when I reached the restaurant, one of the managers began telling
me to leave her alone—that she never liked me, in fact hated me and
no one cared about my problems. I was dumbfounded. She was
confirming all my feelings of worthlessness. I threw my hand back
to slap her but instead pulled out the pistol and, in front of several
horrified customers in the restaurant who had known me for years,
I shot her five times.
It all happened so quickly that I don't even remember grab-
bing the gun from my waistband. I walked out of the restaurant in
a daze and the police picked me up before I'd walked much of a
distance. I was convicted of first degree murder and so far have
served six years of my life sentence.
My adopters visited at first but the visits never brought me any
joy or consolation, so I finally asked them not to come anymore. The
last thing my male adopter said to me was that they had rewritten
286 CHOSEN CHILDREN
their wills—1 didn't know they had wills—he said they added a
stipulation that if they die a violent death or under suspicious
circumstances, I will not inherit. So they had thought I had actually
been planning to kill them, and all the while having polite conver-
sations with me and faking the I love yous. Later, I wrote them that
their money had never interested me and never would, and said
"goodbye." That letter was the sweetest release in my entire life.
Before that letter, my sleep was always disturbed from anger and
they would be in my nightmares. Since writing the letter, I have
been quite at ease and rarely think of them.
Throughout my life, since the moment I learned I was adopted,
I have wanted to meet my parents, or at least locate and know
something about them. I was already incarcerated when I began
my search, but still had no idea how to go about it. Michigan's
Family Independence Agency (Social Services) claimed my adop-
tion was not on record and referred me to private adoption agen-
cies and to the Wayne County Probate Court which allowed me to
waive their $60 fee for my non-identifying background informa-
tion. In 1996, when I received those few pages about my pre-
adoption existence, I felt like I finally had a piece of myself, but
without more specific information, I'm still left to "fill in the
blanks." The court would not waive their $250 fee for a confidential
intermediary to locate and contact my parents and ask her if she is
amenable to contact with me, so that has been the extent of my
search to date. I have chosen not to hire an intermediary because
I'm not too comfortable with a stranger showing up on my mother's
doorstep with the nifty sales pitch, "Hey, your biological son is in
prison and wants to get to know you." I have no intention of lying
to them if they are located, but I believe it is my right and respon-
sibility to do so. I alone am responsible for my actions and I don't
want them to feel any unnecessary regret. If possible, I'd like to
become familiar with my family and the overall picture before
reintroducing myself into their lives.
I have focused on my nationality—Irish, French, and Ger-
man—and on discovering my natural talents and interests in
keeping with my heritage.
Escaping my adopters and reuniting with my family and a
desire to have a child of my own had consumed me. Even now, it's
not the time that bothers me so much as the fear that I will never be
a father, so I can succeed where my adopters failed and gain an
identity in the process, but most of all, to give and receive pure and
true love."
ADOPTEES WHO KILLED NON-RELATIVES 287
Lang, William Scott, 17
Suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend's father. William had a diffi-
cult upbringing, moving from biological parents to foster care to
adopters to (in the past two years) living with different members of
their church—a total of 17 homes in 17 years.
—Natasha Gregoire (Tampa Tribune, 5-25-01)
Marshall, David Dwight, 36
David Dwight Marshall, a Black adoptee, was born 4-26-62 in
Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is serving a life sentence in Alabama
state Prison at Springville for an organized gang shooting over
drugs. He provided his story:
I was adopted by Reverend Horace Marshall and his wife, Eleanor
Marshall. I recall other children in the household and that the
Marshalls were also foster parents who won the "Foster Parents of
the Year" award in Michigan. They raised my adoptive sister and
me on the West side of Detroit in a home with all the material
appearances of a "middle class Negro's American Dream," but our
home was devoid of love. It was all superficial.
My adopter was a preacher and his wife could swear like a
sailor. The "rod" was not spared and the children were not spoiled.
1 wasn't biologically or psychologically bonded with my adopters.
My adopter would constantly remind us that we were adopted.
I was rebellious my entire life, seeking from school gangs and
the streets the attention I could not get at home. At age nine, I
started selling heroin as a member of the Young Boys Inc. (YBI).
This was the most ruthless drug organization ever to hit Detroit.
My role models were killers who were only a few years older than
me. By age 12, I had run away from home many times and at this
time I joined a rival faction. Young Boys Killers, and they were
doubly more violent than the first. Their violence earned me a
week-long stay in Children's Hospital at age 14 from being beaten
damn near to death over my being away from my "work" chasing
females and spending too much money—a lesson well learned.
At age 16, I realized this shit was going to get me killed (after
someone tried to kill me), so I packed and caught a Greyhound Bus
to Houston, Texas. I didn't know anyone in Houston, so I stayed at
a mission my first night. Next day, a labor pool called. At Labor
Hall, a guy would pick who would work at various places. I
worked at Ben Taub Hospital as an Emergency Room orderly, at
the steel yards in blistering Texas heat, and even cleaning molasses
288 CHOSEN CHILDREN
tanks. Hell, I did it all. I usually made about $30 a day and saved
about $25 a day by living on bologna and orange sodas to save
money. After awhile, with a few dollars saved, I reentered my past
occupation of buying T-shirts and blue jeans at wholesale and
selling them at retail on Downing Street in Detroit's 3rd Ward. In
my lifetime, I have sold narcotics, traveled with companies selling
periodicals and publications and cleaning products door-to-door,
telemarketed, did the Job Corps thing, trained dogs... Hell, I did
do it all.
But throughout my life, I wanted to know one thing—who my
family was. I have never known a blood relative in my life—
someone who resembles me... that is, until September 29,1990, the
day my daughter, Marian, was born. She looks like my twin. She
totally looks like me. Seeing her that day started to alter the course
of my life. I was in Alabama with my Squad, "The Detroit Boys,"
poisoning our communities with that shit, but when witnessing the
birth of my daughter, man, it was a scary sight because she was
born with fluid on her lungs and not breathing. While she was on
the machine, I was at her side, holding her miniature hand. I swear
she squeezed my finger. Close by, there was a White man at his
newborn baby's side. That baby was deformed, head lopsided, I
mean really messed up. And, being a parent, I was crushed. I later
found out the reason for his child's condition was the mother's use
of dope. Now that shit touched me. I had seen people die all my life
and it didn't mean shit... but that child... that was a major wake
up call... but one I didn't heed for long. I kept running with my
Squad, selling that shit, and six months later, for the first time in my
life, I got locked up.
A guy who worked for me had been shot and killed and
because I was the Organization Leader which meant I was the Shot
Caller, I got convicted for his murder—a life sentence in an Ala-
bama prison. I've been in the pen since '92 and this shit looks bleak.
I'm still on the biological trip, needing to know who my family is,
for my daughter who is now age nine and for me to reconnect with
my family. So my daughter won't someday be repeating my
experience. Her mom told her about me last year, so we talk every
now and then by phone, but I have yet to have a visit.
Severson, Karen
Adoptee serving 15 years to life for killing a high school friend
by drowning her in a creek outside Los Angeles.
-Kingsbury, Missy’s Murder (book & movie)
Stein, Steven Edward
Stein had three foster homes in his first year before being adopted.
He is presently incarcerated on Florida’s Death Row for a murder
committed during a robbery. His case is under appeal and this
author offered assistance in locating the family he never knew.
-Adopted Prisoner Penpals web page
http://abolishadoption.com/AdoptedPrisoners.html
ADOPTEES WHO KILLED NON-RELATIVES 289
Tombs, Jennifer, 16
“…shot childhood friend, Tanya Lavallais, in the head five times
on September 27, 1996, in Denver, Colorado. Adopted as a baby
by unmarried Pastor Madeline Tombs, Jennifer was constantly in
trouble for missing school, car theft, drug and alcohol use, etc. It
is difficult to understand why Pastor Tombs adopted because she
is described as having little room in her life for a child.”
-Crime Stories and Court TV
Troiano, James
Jimmy Troiano was adopted out of an orphanage at age four, a
failure at school.. .and was arrested repeatedly for burglary. He
had scars on his face from daredevil stunts beginning at age 7…
…his nickname was Drac because of his “fangs.” He ran and
dealt [drugs] with Ricky Kelso. Now he’s charged with aiding
[Kelso] in murder [of Gary Lauwer, 17] over a drug dispute.
Troiano signed a confession but pled “not guilty.” [Despite] there
were teenage witnesses to Troiano’s participation in beating
Lauwer while Kelso stabbed the victim, Troiano was acquitted.
-Rolling Stone, 11-22-84, p. 30
White, Meriam, 11
"Philadelphia... Meriam White, born Alexis Walker [who lived
with her would-be adopters since age three] is accused in the death
of Rosemarie White, a 55-year old hairdresser; the girl told police
she grabbed a knife and ran outside after an argument at home
about the family cat getting out. Born to drug addicted parents, the
girl was put in foster care at age three because of abuse and neglect.
At the time of the stabbing, she was living with a woman who
hoped to adopt her and has stood by her in court." [White is being
tried as an adult] Testifying for the first time, she tried to answer the
judge's questions about why she ran away from her adopter 10
times, stole from them, tried to stab her tutor in the face with a
pencil, and threatened to kill or harm other girls at the Philadelphia
Detention Center. The tutor had told her to stop writing curse words
and picked up her papers to leave; most likely fear of abandonment
Taylor, Jonathan B.
"...accused of killing his parents by torching their Mattapoisett
(MA) home as they slept... had delusions that he was adopted and
believed he was hypnotized into thinking otherwise, according to
court records..." —The Boston Herald, (5-19-93, p. 15)
ADOPTEES WHO KILLED NON-RELATIVES 291
Special Cases, Special Victims
From 1987 to the present, there have been reports of a new
phenomenon—of women so obsessed with wanting a child that
they will not only kidnap another woman’s baby but also will
fake being pregnant and then kill a pregnant women to steal an
unborn child from the womb and pass off the child as their own.
Known perpetrators who took unborn babies from pregnant
women include Darci Pierce (Albuquerque, NM 7-7-87);
Felicia Scott (Tuscaloosa, AL 1-31-96); Maragrita Flores
(Fresno, CA 10-98); Kimmi Hardy (Keokuk, IA 1-1-96);
Michelle Bica (Ravenna, OH 10-4-00). Many missing pregnant
women who have not yet been found may have met the same
fate. In each case, the perpetrators had dysfunctional family
relationships. Of particular interest are the adoptees. After all,
they have been raised with the idea of “entitlement” to someone
else’s baby…
Graves, Jennifer, 30
,,,an adoptee and child care worker who shot a 21-year old mother,
Ronnie Katrina Holton, in the head and kidnapped Holton’s 6 month
old son Jeremiah, because Graves was obsessed with having a baby.
Pierce, Darci
…a married adoptee who felt rejected by her uknown mother and
suffered early childhood sexual abuse; she became obsessed with
having her own family and feigned several pregnancies. Then,
compelled to produce a newborn, she kidnapped and killed a pregnant
woman, Cyndy Ray, by cutting her open and removing her unborn
baby, Amelia, who survived and is now being raised by the victim’s
husband, Tom Ray. The crime occurred at Kirkland Air Force Base,
Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 7, 1987.
-Dean Hughes, Lullabye and Goodnight; and
Confessions of Crime, Lifetime Cable TV, 5-23-92
Adoptaphobia
So great is the anguish over being adopted that even non-adopted
children who fantasize and fear they must have been adopted, have
also reacted by murdering their parents. There have been several
cases. This phenomenon may exist because society views adoption
with both curiosity and ambivalence, and bestows superhuman
attributes upon the adoptee, in childrens literature and in mythology
(Moses, Hercules, Oedipus, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Annie,
The Legend of Tarzan, The Emerald Forest, Graystroke, etc.), But
Like the adoptee, the child who falsely believes he is adopted is
Preoccupied with fantasies about origins and feels helpless with a
dual esistance.
292 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Shawcross, Arthur J.
“/. . .of Rochester, New York; his serial killing of at least ten
women, mostly prostitutes... attributed to childhood abuse and
his Vietnam War experiences. He states "I don't know any of my
life history." He says he was illegitimate, that his mother was
already pregnant and forced to marry, and she took it out on him.
Regarding his victims, he said "Some looked like my mother." He
wondered if he was adopted. Shawcross carried more than ten times
the normal amount of kryptopyrole.
—Jack Olsen, Misbegotten Son:
the True Story of Arthur J. Shawcross,
p. 208, 468; and Los Angeles Times/AP, (2-2-91)
"I previously lost three grandchildren—one from death
and two through adoption."
-Elizabeth Suff, on her son, William Suff’s, death sentence.
-in "A Mother's Pain," The Press-Enterprise, (11-15-95, p. A-10)
12
Why Most Serial Killers Are Adoptees
Ninety-eight percent of all homicides are committed by
men; 98% of all serial killers and mass murderers are men (Jack
Levin, Ph.D., Criminologist, Northeastern University). Accord-
ing to FBI statistics, 76% of the world's serial killers are in the
United States; 90% are male. An incredible over-representation of
serial killers are adoptees. [The FBI estimates 500 serial killers
currently live in the U.S.; about 30 or 16% have been identified as
adoptees. Since adoptees represent only 2-3% (5-10 million) of the
general population, the 16% that are serial killers is an over-
representation compared to the general population.] Serial killers
have held a fascination for forensic psychologists like Dr. Patrick J.
Callahan, who profiles killers by their crime scenes.
Adoption as a potential contribution to the serial killer's motiva-
tion is fascinating because it creates two questions. The first one is
that the biological parents may have left their child with "defective
genes"... Finding out that one was adopted may also undermine
the sense of identity in a fragile youth and make the child prone to
fantasizing as identity of his "true" parents, either good or bad.
Was the mother a prostitute? A nun? Was the father a gangster?
A hero? And why did they "reject" their child? -
-"What Makes Serial Killers Tick?" http://CrimeLibrary.com
Separating this group from other adoptees who kill is the fact that
they kill strangers. Callahan observed that, to an adoptee, every-
293
294 CHOSEN CHILDREN
one is a stranger. Dr. David Kirschner told a New York Times
reporter:
I've personally been involved in 12 cases of adoptees who have
killed... including a tiny but significant group who become serial
killers. And while many undergo therapy, unfortunately, there is
barely ever a mention of the impact adoption has on their lives. It's
a subject no one ever wants to talk about, particularly adoptive
families."
There is considerable denial about adoptee violence, as well as
the extent of the spectrum emotionally disturbed adoptees, by
special interests that promote secret adoptions as well as by some
adoptees who are activist for adult access to their records. They
don't want it examined. They defend such denial on the premise
that "fewer people would adopt." That defense is like saying
"Let's not understand what makes a serial killer the way he is lest
we have fewer serial killers."
Well documented is the over-representation of adoptees in
psychiatric therapy, in psychiatric hospitals, and in prisons.
While this compilation is just a sampling of incarcerated adoptees,
Of adopted children who kill their adopters, and of adopted serial
Killers, it tends to refute that there is only a "tiny, but significant
group" with which to be concerned. Especially significant is that
the feelings they express about their adoptions are echoed by
so-called "well adjusted" adoptees about their adoption experiences,
on adoptees’ web sites, in Internet news groups, on online petitions
to open records and to “abolish adoption,” in their autobiographical
books, and in their letters, emails and conversations exchanged with
this author.
One of the few agencies that kept reliable statistics on adoptees
was Coldwater Canyon Hospital in North Hollywood, Califor-
nia, which treated preteen and teenage patients. Fifteen years
ago, former Unit Director, Dr. Lee Bloom revealed:
Sixty-five to 85% of Coldwater's internees are adoptees ("Growing
Up Behind Bars," Rolling Stone, 12-20-86).
And more than 10 years later, in 1997, just before Coldwater
permanently closed its doors, psychologist, Richard Sherman,
said:
At times, adoptees represented as much as 50% of Coldwater's
hospitalized population.
Some experts challenge the significance of such numbers, point-
ing out that adopters are predominately middle class and there-
fore much more likely to seek professional help for their children.
WHY MOST SERIAL KILLERS ARE ADOPTEES 295
But psychologist Dr. David Kirschner counters that most of the
adopted kids he sees are referred by the Probation Department,
whereas Callahan's cases of adoptees are referred by the courts.
At Rutgers University, Dr. David Brodzinky observed, in one
of the largest studies of adopted children in the nation, uncom-
municative behavior and hyperactivity in boys. Among the girls,
he observed depression, hyperactivity, delinquency, and surpris-
ingly, aggression. Except for an occasional reference regarding
his or her family background, no one work has linked every serial
killer by the abnormality of their adoptive status or perceived
abandonment.
In Hollow Men: Why Serial Murderers Must Kill to Feel,
(at http://CrimeLibrary.com ), the brief article's author, Stephen G.
Michaud, links some serial murders such as Ted Bundy (the co-
ed killer) and Angel Maturino Resendez (the "Railway Killer") by
the similarity of adoptee Bundy's expressed desire to "possess"
his victims. Bundy biographers, Michaud and Aynesworth say
Ted's emotional growth was stopped after he learned he was
illegitimate at age 13. "It was like I hit a brick wall," Bundy said.
There have been many studies and books attempting to "pro-
file" serial killers. Due to the rarity of female serial killers, they
usually profile.
Typically they are abandoned as children by their fathers and
raised by domineering mothers... they hate their fathers, they hate
their mothers . . . and they are commonly abused as children—
psychologically, physically, sexually... often by a family... three
major danger signals: enuresis (bed-wetting) in adolescence;
firesetting; sadistic tendencies" (Harold Schecter and David Everett,
A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, under "Characteristics").
Firesetting was also one of eight "Adopted Child Syndrome"
behaviors first identified by psychotherapist David Kirschner
and detailed by Betty Jean Lifton in "How The Adoption System
Ignites A Fire," New York Times (3-1- 86,p. 27). The other seven
behaviors are considered non- violent and include conflict with
authority and truancy, pathological lying, stealing, running away,
preoccupation with fantasizing, learning difficulties, under
achievement, sexual acting out, and promiscuity. The syndrome
is present in serial killers. Kirschner believes:
Only a small percentage of those with ACS are prone to violence;
and in the dozen or so adoptee homicide cases I've examined
296 CHOSEN CHILDREN
around the country, the clinical diagnosis has been Dissociative
Disorder (i.e., split-self, dual identity in the adoptee).
Firesetting Children by George A. Sakheim and Elizabeth
Osborn, published in 1994 by CWLA Press, an imprint of Child
Welfare League of America, is intended for use by psychologists,
clinical social workers, and other mental health professionals.
The book describes the personality, behavioral characteristics,
and family background variables "that have been consistently
and positively associated with firesetting behavior." The chil-
dren in the studies are said to "cry for help and anger" toward
parents, foster parents, and stepparents from parental abandon-
ment and sexual abuse. Adoptive anger from abuse by adopters
is not addressed, perhaps in an attempt to place the blame on
"bad genes."
The only known contributing genetic disorder linked to crimi-
nal behavior is the "47-XYY genetic syndrome chromosome
disorder," which is heavily overrepresented in prison popula-
tions and a contributory cause of violent criminals, particularly
serial killers, unlike the normal male population of 46-XY chro-
mosome pairs. Firesetting is a behavior associated not only with
the 47-XYY Disorder but also linked to pedophilia, and is also one
of the eight Adopted Child Syndrome behaviors.
Then there's the contributing chemical imbalance found in
serial killer Arthur Shawcross, who had Pyroluria, from ten times
the normal amount of urine krypotopyrole, a brain chemical whose
Greek translation means "hidden firey oil." (Misbegotten Son,
Schecter and Everett, 490-491.) Pyroluria's symptoms include
severe mood swings, sensitivity to light and loud noises, inability
to control anger, and prematurely gray hair, depression, dizzi-
ness, and abnormal electro-encephalograms. PET scans of the
prefrontal cortex of brains of murderers show lower glucose
metabolism which can occur in abused children who have been
brain-damaged (CBS-News, 7-22-94).
Parents are again the alleged culprits in the debate over "na-
ture versus nurture," in biologist Richard Dawkin's book, The
Nurture Assumption. Dawkins contends that genes—not parenting
(as Dr. David Lykken insists)—are primarily responsible for how
children turn out. That's why the little-known academic school of
thought called "memetics" has become popular. Memetics is the
science of memes, a word that Richard Dawkins derived in 1976
from the word memory to refer to ideas, habits and beliefs that are
WHY MOST SERIAL KILLERS ARE ADOPTEES 297
passed from person to person by imitation. Just as genes assure
their survival by leaping from body to body, via sperm or eggs,
memes apparently propagate by leaping from brain to brain.
Ideas, styles, and beliefs are passed from person to person, from
generation to generation.
Most cited is the research article "Genetic Environmental
Interaction in the Genesis of Aggressivity and Conduct Disor-
ders" (Cadoret, Yates, Troughton, Woodworth, Stewart; Depart-
ment of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Archives of General
Psychiatry, November 1995, 52 (II): 916-24).
The subjects were 95 male adoptees and 102 female adoptees
separated at birth from biological parents and with antisocial
behaviors documents by prison and hospital records. RESULTS:
(1) a biological background of antisocial personality disorder
predicted an increased adolescent aggressivity, conduct disorder,
and adult antisocial behaviors, and (2) adverse adoptive home
environment—defined as adopters who had marital problems,
were divorced or separated, or had anxiety conditions, depression,
substance abuse and/or dependence or legal problems—indepen-
dently predicted increased adult antisocial behavior.
How, then, do we explain adoptees who kill, when none of the
known serial killers who are adoptees have biological parents
who are serial killers? The behavior does not appear to be genetic
or memetic. We need to look at adoption itself as putting adoptees
at risk for antisocial and violent behaviors.
At least one chemical imbalance is known to be triggered solely
from mother-child separation. Romanian orphans, and animals
separated from their mothers at birth, "developed abnormally
high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can have serious
long-range effects on memory . . . the infant's brain cells may
simply commit suicide ..." ("Neglect Harms Infant Brains,
Researchers Say," Los Angeles Times, 10-28-97, A-19.) Infants are
left in a state of hyper-arousal due to elevated hormone levels if
they are snatched from their mothers from delivery" (Joseph
Chiton Pearce, Evolutions End, 1992). Dr. Patrick J. Callahan
points to paleopsychology's chemical changes in the brain.
Throughout recorded history, mass-murdering, genocidal vil-
lains have been depicted as having been abandoned and/or
abused, usually by one or both parents in childhood. The Biblical
Moses was the first adoptee, a "victim's role model"—a child of
two races, with physical handicaps and character flaws. He was
298 CHOSEN CHILDREN
born a Levite, one of the 12 tribes of Israel. He was nearly put to
death in a purge, sent floating down the Nile in a basket by his
mother, rescued by an Egyptian princess, and raised in the royal
court "as her own." The adult Moses is described as having
speech problems, perhaps stuttering, his face was deformed after
seeing God, and he ordered his legion to butcher the boys,
massacre the mothers, and rape the daughters...
For Moses said unto them, kill every male among the little ones,
and kill every woman who has known a man by lying with him, but
all the women who have not known a man by lying with him, keep
alive for yourselves. ("Book of Numbers," Chapter 31, The Bible)
The “first adoptee” is profiled by an adoption agency director:
For adoption-sensitive readers, the story of Moses' early years is
tortured territory. A crude transplant in a land of plenty. Moses just
didn't fit in ... Tormented by feelings of grand-scale failure and
loneliness, Moses grew into an angry, violent young man... His
first question of God was identity related. 'Who am I... ?' The most
important thing Moses accomplished was that he changed God by
appealing to His compassion and forgiveness. (Jim Gritter, MSW,
Child Welfare Supervisor and "open adoption" practitioner. Catho-
lic Human Service, Traverse City, Michigan, in "Moses Between
the Lines," Jewel Among Jewels newsletter, 8-98).
Even non-adopted, mass murdering children such as 15-year-
old Andy Williams, "The Santee School Shooter," suffered family
dismemberment that sent him into a downward spiral of rejec-
tion, isolation, and anger. Seth Privacky, 18, said in his confession
he was angry because his father threatened to kick him out of their
Michigan home when Seth murdered his whole family in 1998.
Adopted Serial Killers
Albright, Charles (the Eyeball Killer)
"Adoptee and most prolific murderer in Texas history.
Murdered, then cut out he eyes of prostitutes in South
Dallas County."
—Dallas Morning News (5-7-00)
Bartsch, Guergen
"A German adoptee and serial slayer; he was a 'love child.'
His mother died when he was age 5 and he spent 11
months in a foundling home before he was adopted."
—Michael Newton, Serial Slaughter:
What's Behind America's Murder Epidemic?
Berkowitz, David (Son of Sam
and The 44-Caliber Killer)
"An adopted child [adopted by Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz;
born July 1,1953, to Betty Falco; birth name David Falco]
who grew up in the Bronx... Berkowitz was troubled by
the fact that his biological mother gave him up for
adoption (for lack of financial help; there was no abuse).
His female adopter died when he was 14, and he felt girls
didn't like him... He always felt different and unattractive
despite that neighbors described him as a good looking
child. Perhaps his low self-esteem and distorted self-
image resulted from being raised by people who did not
look like him."
"David was also an arsonist who set more than 1,000 fires.
Arsonists, like serial killers, gain a sense of control from
committing their crimes. When David called himself
"Son of Sam," he was referring to Sam Carr, a neighbor,
perhaps from confusion as to what constitutes parental
299
300 CHOSEN CHILDREN
relationships."
"Adoption reunions are not enough to undo the damage
that adoption creates. David found his [birth] mother,
Betty Falco. She and his sister, Roslyn, did everything
they could to make him feel at home. Initially, for David,
it was a happy reunion, but eventually he drifted away
from this family of his that he'd been forbidden to know
as he was growing up and so they were strangers to him."
—Berkowitz and Abrahamson, AP (10-3-83), and
at http://CrimeLibrary.com and
—David M Brodzinsky, with Schecter and Henig
Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search For Self
Bianchi, Kenneth, and Buono, Angelo -
(The Hillside Stranglers)
"Alleged to have killed 25 women in conspiracy (23 in Los
Angeles and two in Washington state), the two men were
not blood cousins but related by adoption..." Bianchi
was adopted as an infant, so there is no pre-adoption
abuse, unless you count the trauma of being separated
from his mother. Buono was a member of Bianchi's
extended family; Buono was not legally adopted but
he had been separated from his mother at the age of five."
—Art Crockett, Serial Murderers, p. 5
Bundy, Ted (Florida Co-ed Killer)
"His was a stepparent adoption ... "Born Theodore Cowl
to a 20 year old in a home for unwed mothers, he was left
alone there for 3 months... When he was 11, he discovered
that his mother's husband, John Bundy, was not his
father—He said he came from a very secretive Christian
family... He said fantasies were taking over his life... He
confessed to murders of 30 women but it could be as high
as 100." Bundy was electrocuted January 24, 1989 at
Florida State Prison."
—"Serial Murderers," Biography, A&E Cable TV series
ADOPTED SERIAL KILLERS 301
Coleman, Alton
"A perennial bed-wetter, a pan-sexual serial murderer
informally adopted and raised by his elderly
grandmother."
—"Serial Murderers,” Biography, A&E Cable TV series
Dugas, Gaetan
"Dugas, an adoptee, was the person identified as "Patient
Zero" who brought the deadly AIDS virus to the United
States, intentionally infecting hundreds of men in San
Francisco's gay community when he knew he was
contagious. Dugas is said to have resented his mother
whom he never knew but about whom he fantasized
throughout his life. His behaviors, as described by Randy
Shiltz, can be categorized as "Adopted Child Syndrome"--
manipulative lying, promiscuity and excessive fantasy.
Dugas died of AIDS before his role in spreading the
deadly disease was known. Today, he would have been
prosecuted as a mass murderer."
—Randy Shiltz, And The Band Played On:
Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic
Kallinger, Joseph (The Philadelphia Shoemaker)
"...a rapist-murderer, born December 11, 1937, "...Joseph
Kallinger's natural parents, Judith Kenner and James
Scurti, put him up for adoption when he was three
months old (1940). His father was married to another
woman and Judith felt she could not beat the
responsibility of raising a child on her own. Unfortunately
for him, he grew up in a household with constant abuse
from his Catholic adopters, Anna and Stephen Kallinger
of Neshaming, Pennsylvania. In April 1953, Kallinger
married against his adopters' wishes . . . opened a
shoemaking/repair shop and soon became a sadistic
parent himself. He often slept in a 2-foot pit in the cellar
of his house . . . He developed a second personality,
'Charlie,' who he blamed for three murders.
—Flora Rheta Schreiber,
The Shoemaker: Anatomy of a Psychotic
302 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Katlin, Steven
"...given up for adoption as an infant..." —Michael Newton
Serial Slaughter: What's Behind America's Murder Epidemic?
King, John William, 24.
"King, a White Supremacist, dragged James Byrd Jr, a Black
man, behind his pickup truck for three miles to his death,
in Jasper, Texas. The March 8,1999 issue of Time magazine
asked 'How does a child grow up to be John William
King? Neither the nature nor the nurture crowd has an
easy explanation.' The answer may be on page 31: King
was adopted as an infant (age three months) into an
apparently loving family, [as] a brother to the Kings' two
daughters.' King grew up among Blacks and went to
school with them... King's female adopter died shortly
before her son's 16th birthday... It was then that he was
arrested for burglary... then violated his probation and
given an eight-year prison term, 1995. He was not
"profiled" for other ACS behaviors, but it was noted he
'lacked remorse' at his trial and could have continued
killing."
Kip, Martin
"Rape slayer, child of a prostitute, given up for adoption at
early age." --“Attachment and Loss,” John Bowlby (England)
Lee, Bruce
"Killer-arsonist, child of a prostitute, given up for adoption
at an early age." –“Attachement and Loss,” John Bowlby, (England)
LeGrand, Karl, 25; LeGrand, Walter
"Karl and Walter LeGrand were brothers adopted by their
stepfather. They are both scheduled to go to the gas
chamber at Arizona State Prison on Florence for the
murder of Kenneth Hartsock. Their German mother, Emma,
married a U.S. Army soldier
ADOPTED SERIAL KILLERS 303
who adopted the boys rather than raising them by his
true relationship as their stepfather. They were born in
Germany and moved to southern Arizona in 1967.
"Karl was a troubled child who first got into trouble with
the law at age 9. He bounced between home, programs
for troubled youths, and juvenile centers. He and Walter
were convicted of armed robbery in 1981 and, on January
7, 1982, they murdered Hartsock by slashing his throat
and inflicting 23 other stab wounds."
-Adopted Serial Killers, an Internet website,
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9950/adoption_serialkillers.html
Lindh, Aaron, 19
"Carried a .22 caliber rifle into the Madison (Wisconsin)
Police detective bureau and opened fire on January 15,
1988 ... found to be sane at the time of the killings and
sentenced to two consecutive life terms, plus 35 years for
wounding Erik Erickson who was paying a parking
ticket. Aaron, who is black, was adopted into a white
family. His life of crime began at age four with shoplifting,
setting fires, stealing, fighting, fantasizing about murder
and trying to kill himself--according to the woman who
adopted him, Mary Ann Lindh; despite her family's love,
their adoptee threatened to burn down their house and
kill them. Defense lawyers maintained he was a tragic
loner— depressed, unable to bond with anyone, and
was confused about his identity as an interracial child
adopted by a white family, and the prosecutor, Burr,
agreed. Dr. Ezra Griffith testified the Aaron's impaired
logic perceives problems as rejections; events before the
shootings were seen as a series of abandonment's."
-Adopted Serial Killers, and Internet website
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9950/adoption_serialkillers.html
quoting from Capital Times (WI) & Wisconsin State Journal
Munro, James Michael, 18 (The Freeway Killers)
James Munro was one of William's Bonin's accomplices in
California’s 44 or more freeway murders in the late
1970s. He was 18 years old at the time. He's currently
304 CHOSEN CHILDREN
serving 15 years to life in Mule Creek State Prison, at Ione,
CA, for his participation in at least one of the killings—
18 year old Stephen Jay Wells. Born James Massow,
June 17, 1961, in Furth Byron, West Germany, his mother,
Anna Maria Massow, relinquished him for adoption. James
says that he never knew his parents; he was adopted by the
Munros when he was about a year old and they took him from
his homeland in 1963; he grew up in Virginia and Michigan.
James says that his relationship with his adopters was "not good"
and that he ran away a lot. James says he never killed
anyone but was a captive of Bonin's, who threatened to
kill him if he left. He was in psychiatric therapy as a child
and is believed to be retarded. —James Michael Munro, his website;
http://www.angelfire.com/oh/yodaspage/bonin.html ;
and from his letters to this author, 2001-2003;
Steven Howard Oken, 25
Adopted at birth and convicted in 1987 of sexually assaulting and shooting
3 women to death in 1987, Oken was sentenced to death by lethal injection in.
Maryland. His execution was stayed was stayed until May 2003. Steve
became drug-addicted by stealing drugs from the pharmacy owned and
operated by his adopters. It is not uncommon for adoptees like Steve to
feel the need to self-medicate in order to numb emotional pain from their
adoptive status.
Payne, Eric, 24
"Eric Payne was born Eric Hollie. In Roanoke, Virginia, on January
7, 1973. When Eric was only four months old, Eric's father killed
Eric's mother and then killed himself. Rather than just taking in
her nephew, Eric's aunt thought she needed to adopt him. But she kept
him as "her son" for only six years. For the next two years, Eric went
through a series of institutions and foster homes. At age eight,
Eric was adopted by Gerald Payne and his wife. But when Eric
was 14, the Paynes decided they didn't want to be his "parents" because
of his lying and failure to respond to $70,000 worth of counseling. In
1991, at age 18 in Chesterfield County, Eric was sentenced to six
years in prison for possession of LSD. Six months after his 1997
release, he went on a rampage of brutal hammer beatings in the Richmond,
Virginia area, killing two women. Another woman and her young son
Survived the attacks. Eric refused to appeal his death sentence,
accepting it as fair punishment for the crimes he committed, and waits
on death row at age 26." -Adopted Serial Killers, an Internet website
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9950/adoption_serialkillers.html
ADOPTED SERIAL KILLERS 305
Ramirez, Richard (The Night Stalker)
"His was a stepparent adoption. Murdered prostitutes in
the Los Angeles area." —AP articles
Reed, Todd, 32
His was a stepparent adoption. Born Todd Alan Thomas in
Portland, Oregon on May 22,1967. This sensitive poet,
who held two jobs to support his two sons, strangled
three prostitutes and left their bodies in a remote corner
of a Portland park. His mother, Ronnie Thomas, divorced
her first husband when Todd was four, and he was
adopted by her second husband. By the age of 14, Todd
had his first encounter with police.
—"Portraits Differ on Suspect in Killings"
Seattle Times/AP (5-8-00)
Reeves, Randolph, 23
"On March 29,1980, Reeves, raised a Quaker, broke into a
wood-frame house that served as the Religious Society of
Friends (Quaker) meeting house in Lincoln, Nebraska.
In a haze of alcohol and psychedelic drugs, he sexually
assaulted Janet Mesner, 30, and stabbed her to death—
seven times —with a kitchen knife. A college friend of
Mesner's in the house that night, Victoria Lamm, 28, was
also stabbed to death. She was 14 months pregnant.
Randy Reeves was born in Winnebago, Nebraska on
February 8,1956. At age 3, he was taken from the Omaha
Indian reservation and adopted by a Central City farm
couple, Don and Barbara Reeves. Family members express
concern now that his upbringing may have led to inner,
cultural confusion that was not apparent at the time....
Alcohol became a big part of his life. Friends said he
expressed some interest in learning more about his Omaha
Indian roots." —Paul Hammel
"Reeves' Violent Crimes Remain Mystery to Families,"
Omaha World-Herald, 1-1-99, front page
306 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Rifkin, Joel, 34
"East Meadow, New York: Born in 1959, Joel Rifkin was the
son of unwed teenage parents. He was given up for
adoption when he was three days old and adopted by
Ben and Jeanne Rifkin when he was three weeks old. Joel
murdered at least 17 women, mostly prostitutes, on
Long Island and dismembered them with a chain saw
before disposal. He pleaded 'Adopted Child Syndrome'
as a mitigating factor. The premise was based on the
work of Long Island psychologist Dr. David Kirschner,
witness for the defense. Rifkin's attorney, Martin
Hoffman, argued that the trauma of Mr. Rifkin's
separation from his mother, who he believed was a
prostitute who could not afford an abortion, led him to
strike back uncontrollably at women he identified with
her. Rifkin was sentenced to a term of 25 years to life."
—Denise Lang, in Dark Son,. and
—John T. McQuistin, "A Novel Insanity Defense for Joel Rifkin,"
New York Times (9-25-94)
Saunders, Peter, 16
"He was adopted and felt again abandoned by his divorcing
adopters. Convicted at age 22 of raping and killing a 60
elderly woman when he was 16, he had previously raped
an 84 year old woman but charges were dropped."
—Chicago Tribune, (12-13-89)
Stano, Gerald Eugene, 41
Born in Daytona Beach, in 1951, Stano "...was taken from
his mother when he was six months old and put up for
adoption. He murdered an estimated 80 young women
from Pennsylvania to Florida before his arrest at age 27
on April 1, 1980. His youngest known victim was 12
years old. The reason he offered for confessing his crimes
was that he "needed psychiatric help and hoped he could
be cured." Stano killed 41 women—prostitutes, runaways
and hitchhiking teenagers— in Florida, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. Said Stano:
"Adopted kids, like me, I now know, seek out rejection, believe on some
level that no one will keep them. Had any of the three health professionals
I sought help and advice from even raised the issue of adoption, they might
have treated me for the complications it caused in my life."
—Denise Lang, Dark Son; Art Crockett, Serial Murderers
ADOPTED SERIAL KILLERS 307
Toppan, Jane, 31 (Angel of Death )
Born in Boston, in 1854 as Nora Kelly, Jane Toppan was
adopted as an infant but she was not relinquished. Her
mother had died and her father was institutionalized..
Her adopters changed her first name to "Jane" and her
last name to theirs—“Toppan.” Except for adoption, she
led a normal life. Yet she had a nervous breakdown and
made an unsuccessful suicide attempt while a young
woman. For over two decades, she worked in New
England as a nurse—and later confessed to poisoning at
least 31 people with a lethal dose of morphine and
atropine. The true body count is believed to be 70 to 100.
Arrested in 1901, she declared in court:
"That is my ambition. To have killed more people—more helpless
people—than any man or woman who has ever lived."
She died in 1938 at age 84.
--Adopted Serial Killers, an Internet website
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9950/adoption_serialkillers.html
Van Strum, Jordan, 15
Carol Strum says her adopted, bi-racial son, Jordan, was
mercilessly taunted with "nigger" by both kids and
adults in their rural Oregon town. She could tell he was
headed for trouble. "When I asked for help, the response
was ‘He hasn't committed a crime.' In 1997, Jordan, then
15, killed a friend's grandfather. He was sentenced to 25
years in prison."
—"When Teens Fall Apart," Newsweek, 3-99, p. 43
Wuornus, Aileen Carol Pittman
The rarest of predators, a female serial killer, Eileen
Pittman Wuornos was executed in Florida by legal
On 10-9-02. Born Aileen Pittman in Rochester,
Michigan, February 29, 1956, her teenage parents had
separated months before she was born. Her mother,
308 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Diane, left Aileen with her grandparents when she was
about four years old. The grandparents, Lauri and Britta
Wuornos, then legally adopted her and proceeded as if
she was their daughter instead of their granddaughter.
Adoption did little to improve Aileen's life. Around
1971, she became a ward of the court. Aileen's adult life-
style continued to be rootless and she had a chip on her
shoulder. She received a traffic citation once that
contained a comment that she thought she was "above
the law," perhaps confused by the law which tried to tell
her that her grandparents somehow were her parents."
-Adopted Serial Killers, an Internet website
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9950/adoption_serialkillers.html
Serial Killers Who Were
Orphaned or Abandoned
What about serial killers who were not adopted? All
have had early childhood separation from their parents due to
orphanhood or abandonment; many were abused in childhood.
There are similarities to adopted serial killers.
Acquin, Lome J.
"Prospect, Connecticut: Lorne was a former foster kid, who
sexually molested 10 year old Sharon Beaudoin and then
bludgeoned to death her entire family—the mother and
7 children—and set fire to their home to cover up the
killings."
—Brian Lane & Wilfred Gregg
Encyclopedia of Mass Murder, Brockhampton Press (1994)
Bell, Mary
"She was deprived of contact with her parent..."
—“Serial Murderers,” Biography, A&E Cable TV series
SERIAL KILLERS WHO WERE ORPHANED, ABANDONED 309
Corll, Dean Alien, 27
(Texas Homosexual Torture Murders)
A neighbor said his parents divorced and Dean was reared
by the ex-wife but he kept in close touch and on good
terms with the father. Still, his behaviors had changed
since their separation.
—Art Crockett, Serial Murderers, p. 245
Dahmer, Jeffrey L.
Investigators say the Milwaukee suspect may have killed
men to keep them from leaving him by himself m his
apartment.. An intense fear of loneliness that goes back
to his parents' divorce led Dahmer to kill homosexual
men he lured to his apartment where he kept their
dismembered remains, a police investigator said,
Saturday. “He didn't want anyone else to leave him,” said
the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
--"Loneliness Cited in Mass Murder Case,"
The Los Angeles Times, (8-4-91), p. A-22
Dahmer was traumatized at an early age. At eight he was
sexually abused by a male in the neighborhood... By his
senior year, Dahmer's Mother, Joyce, and his father,
Lionel Dahmer, were in the throes of a bitter divorce in
which they fought over custody of their younger son,
David, then Joyce returned to Wisconsin with David.
Jeffrey was left alone in the house with no food and a
Broken refrigerator…The desertion really affected Jeffrey.
(Dahmer kept some of his victims' remains in his
refrigerator)
—"The Door of Evil," People magazine, (8-12-91), p. 34
De Celda, Fernando Alonzo ( El Bandito)
"Calling himself Pedro Hechuage from Uruguay, he was
actually born in Buenos Aires, Argentina . . . little was
known of his parents."
—Art Crockett, Serial Murderers
310 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Desalvo, Albert (The Boston Strangler)
Born 1937, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. His parents divorced
when he was 12 to 13. Abandoned by his family, "along
with his two sisters, he was sold into slavery for $9. They
were shipped off to Maine and forced to work as farm
laborers" despite formerly admitting guilt in the rape-
slayings of 13 women, in a plea bargain, DeSalvo pled
guilty only to sexual assaults and robberies, garnering a
term of life.
—Harold Schecter and David Everett,
A-Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, p. 293; and,
Serial Killers A-Z, an Internet website
Fish, Hamilton Albert
Born in 1868 to a respected family in Washington, DC, his
father died when Fish was five, and, as a result. Fish was
sent to an orphanage. He ran away frequently and wet
his bed until age 11, so became known as a "problem
child." He began to suffer from hallucinations and
became obsessed with religious themes such as sin,
sacrifice and atonement through pain, forcing his own
children to paddle his buttocks until he bled. He inserted
needles into his groin, scrotum, and anus, ate fecal matter
and inserted cotton balls doused with alcohol into his
anus and set them aflame. Prosecutors are certain he
molested over 100 children and Fish claimed to have
molested nearly 400 children. In 1928, he killed 12 year
old Grace Budd, dismembered her body and ate several
pieces. Fish was found "sane" and guilty of premeditated
murder, and sentenced to death by execution. Due to his
sadomasochistic tendencies. Fish was delighted about
facing the electric chair. On January 16,1936, at Sing Sing
Prison, it took two jolts to kill him because the 29 needles
he had left in his body over the years short-circuited the
chair.
SERIAL KILLERS WHO WERE ORPHANED, ABANDONED 311
Greenwood, Vaughn (Skid Row Slasher)
A foster kid raised in Pennsylvania, he left seventh grade
for California where he was a migrant worker and began
preying on helpless derelicts, slashing their throats and
inflicting numerous stab wounds.
—Serial Killers A-Z, an Internet website
Gufler, Max
…deprived of contact with a parent…
—"Serial Murderers," Biography, A&E Cable TV series
Gilmore, Gary
Shortly after Gary was born, his father, Frank Gilmore, a
con man, gypsy, alcoholic, brutal autocrat and abusive
husband, decided that Gary was not his son, but the
progeny of a son of his from a previous marriage whom
(his wife) Bessie knew. It seemed a way for him to detach
from his son the way his own father detached from him.
When Frank's sons got older, he began to whip them
with a belt. The boys soon learned that no matter what
they said or did, their father simply wanted to brutalize
them. Their mother would not protect them. Bessie
began to beat her children as she was being beaten. In
1976, just after being paroled, on two consecutive nights,
he killed two men in cold blood. Had he not been caught,
he probably would have continued to kill. His final
words seemed to affirm his terrible legacy: "There will
always be a father." When convicted of the murders and
sentenced to die, Gilmore insisted there be no appeal and
was executed. —Associated Press (AP)
Hale, Bill (The Osage Killer)
Bill Hale "... was adopted by Ernest Burkheart and his wife
..." Hale was suspected of killing eight people, including
his natural father (in 1925) from whom he stood to inherit
his 'headlight,' and his father's attorney to whom Bigheart
may have confided that the Osage Killer was his son."
—Michael Newton. Serial Slaughter—
What's Behind America's Murder Epidemic?
312 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Kemper, Edmund (the Co-Ed Killer)
Born in 1945, in Burbank, California, Kemper began having
problems after his parents' divorce. At age 10, his mother
blamed him for her problems and moved him into a
windowless basement. This is when his fantasies began.
He was sent to his father and ran away at 14. He went on
a killing spree, killing both his grandparents, his mother
who he struck with a claw hammer while she slept,
decapitated her and raped her headless corpse and did
the same to his mother's friend who showed up
unexpectedly. From 1970-71, he roamed the highways of
Santa Cruz, California, killing 6 co-eds from UC-Santa
Cruz. In 1973, he was arraigned on 8 counts of murder
and is serving a life sentence."
—Modus Operand! Serial Killers, an Internet Website
Manson, Charles
Was the product of several foster homes...Charles Manson
was born 'No Name Maddox' on 11-12-34 in Cincinnati,
Ohio — the illegitimate son of a 16-year old girl named
Kathleen Maddox. Though Manson would later state
that his mother was a teenage prostitute, relatives said
she was simply 'loose'... unable to remember her child's
birth date the mother changed it to 11-11, Armistice Day."
—Vincent Bugliosi,
Helter Skelter, The True Story of the Manson Murders, p. 174
Puente, Dorothea
... a poisoner who grew up in an orphanage.
—“Attachment and Loss,” John Bowlby (England)
Prudom, Mary
"Deprived of contact with a parent..."
—"Serial Murderers" Biography, A&E Cable TV series
Purdy, Patrick, 26
(Cleveland Elementary School Shoot-Out)
A 'loner,' raised in Stockton, Ohio, he had a criminal
SERIAL KILLERS WHO WERE ORPHANED, ABANDONED 313
record for drug offenses, robbery, burglary when he
went to live with relatives in Sandy, Oregon. He returned
to Stockton to shoot up Cleveland Elementary School
with an AK-47, randomly shooting children scattered on
the playground and at their desks. He set fire to his car
and then shot himself in the head with a handgun after
killing five children in 1-1 /2 minutes, all Vietnamese and
Cambodian refugees, ages six to nine, and injuring 39
others.
—Brian Lane & Wilfred Gregg
Encyclopedia of Mass Murder, Brokhampton Press (1994)
Ridgway, Gary Leon (Green River Killer)
On 11-30-01, as a result of a DNA test, Ridgeway was
arrested for the murders of 49 women—young prostitutes,
juvenile runaways, and teenagers in Oregon and
Washington since 1982. at this writing his adoptive
status is unconfirmed.
Ridgway's profile fits that of serial killers who are adopted
or whose early childhood experiences included family
separations, abuses and Adopted Child Syndrome —
personable characteristics, behaviors, (according to
interviews with people who knew him); eager to please
(according to neighbors); underachiever/menial jobs
although intelligent (a truck painter); a preoccupation
with fantasizing, distrust of strangers, resentment of
women (originating with his mother, resulting in killing
prostitutes reminding him of his mother); pathological
lying, conflict with authority, running away, compulsion
to steal (often items of no great value), firesetting, and
lack of impulse control, in addition to characteristics
listed above. Ridgway raped some of his victims.
Shawcross, Arthur J.
…of Rochester, New York; his serial killings of at least 10
women, mostly prostitutes . . . attributed to childhood
abuse and his Vietnam War experiences. He states 'I
don't know any of my life history," and that he was
314 CHOSEN CHILDREN
illegitimate,' that his mother was already pregnant and
forced to marry, and she 'took it out' on him. Regarding
his victims, he said 'Some looked like my mother.' He
wondered if he was adopted... His belief was reinforced
by the knowledge that he had a half-sibling in Australia.
'I ain't like the rest of the kids.' He retreated into a fantasy
world, daydreaming, cutting class, hiding in the woods,
conversing with imaginary playmates, running away,
creating a new person ... Thirty-five years and thirteen
substitute murders later, he was still involved in the same
fantasies."
—Jack Olsen, Misbegotten Son:
The True Story of Arthur J. Shawcross, p. 208, 468; and
Los Angeles Times/AP, (2-2-91)
Spencer, Brenda, 16
(Cleveland Elementary School Shoot-Out)
Brenda lived with her divorced father. "This was partly a
reaction to her parents' separation. . . . She has been
involved with drugs and petty theft and was addicted to
violent films. For Christmas, Brenda's father had bought
her the gun that she used to shoot up the school." (See
also Purdy, Patrick)."
—Brian Lane & Wilfred Gregg
"Encyclopedia of Mass Murder," Brockhampton Press (1994)
Tingler, Richard
...deprived of a parent...
—"Serial Murderers," Biography, A&E Cable TV series
"If it's the last thing I do before I die, I want to find out
who the heck I am."
—"Orphan Trains," ABC-TV News Special, Minneapolis (10-3-00)
Epilogue
The American Academy of Psychiatry (AACP), repre-
sents over 6,900 child and adolescent psychiatrists who are phy-
sicians with at least five years of additional training beyond
medical school in general (adult) and child and adolescent psy-
chiatry. In its publication Facts For Families on Internet, AACP
advises:
Some adopted children may develop emotional or behavioral
problems. The problems may or may not result from insecurities or
issues related to being adopted. If parents are concerned, they
should seek professional assistance. Children who are preoccu-
pied with their adoption should be evaluated. The Chosen Chil-
dren evidence is that it is adoption itself that needs evaluation.
On November 27, 2000, the following message, addressed to
psychotherapist David Kirschner, was posted to the news group,
alt.adoption by Steve White, of the University of Chicago Medical
Department, self-described doctor, adopter, and an adoption supporter:
“As someone else noted, you might consider a different name for
your findings, in that the present name — [Adopted Child Syn-
drome] ACS — permits some to misrepresent your work with
relative ease.” – Steve White
David Kirschner, Ph.D., who has devoted a good portion of his
career to analyzing adoptees and who advanced his theory on
"Adopted Child Syndrome" (ACS) for at least 22 years, re-
sponded:
"Thank you, and I have been considering a different terminology."
On December 2, 2000, Julie Steven, of Harvard Law School
posted to another news group:
“If ‘best interests of the child’ were truly the goal, then most birth
parents would lose their children on the grounds that some other
deserving family could give the child a better life. ‘Best interests’"
come into play only when a child is truly endangered in the birth
315
316 CHOSEN CHILDREN
environment—something that is seldom true in private adoptions.
Is this really a hard point to understand?"
It is still unclear what one must do to protect adoptees from
either end of the spectrum of "Adopted Child Syndrome" (or
whatever it may be called in the future). This writer believes that
prevention, through more humane custody law instead of adop-
tion, is better than treating pathology in future generations of
"chosen children."
The epitome of hypocrisy in adoption circles may be exempli-
fied in the new website Adoption Medical News at
http://www.adoptionmedicalnews.com . The site purports to "share
information from experts about the unique connection linking
adoption and health." This is by the same Bill Pierce of the
National Council for Adoption (NCFA), the most vocal opposi-
tion to adoptees' "right to know" their families and updated
medical backgrounds. Current activism in behalf of adoptees and
prisoners include, for example: state-by-state lobbying for adult
adoptee access to their original birth certificates (in order to locate
family members) by Open Records Movement supporters (both
the adopted and non-adopted); an annual "March on Washing-
ton" sponsored by The American Adoption Congress umbrella of
adoption search-support groups and adoption-affected individu-
als; organized peaceful demonstrations at state prisons and state
capitals by Prison Reform Unity Project (PRUP); Origins-USA
and AmFOR's legislative inquiries and reports to the United
Nations "Rights of the Child" project; and seizure of abandoned
buildings which are then converted to homeless shelters by the
organization "Homes Not Jails" (see Resources section for contact
information). "Electronic activism" has enabled on-line petitions
such as those at http://AbolishAdoption.com ; http://PetitionsOnline.com ;
http://ABORN.org ; http://e-thepeople.com/petition . Legislators are now
inundated with e-mails supporting or opposing legislative bills.
Books such as The Ultimate Search Book provide pointers on starting
a support group to encourage anti-adoption activism.
As more authors, publishers and journalists bring such issues
to the general public, this author is confident that increasing
activism will bring about more humane custody and positive
changes in the laws, policies and practices that have created
"billion dollar babies" in America's Foster Care, Adoption and
Prison Systems.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aigner, Hal, Adoption in America Coming of Age, Paradigm
Press, 1986
Austin, Linda Tollet, Babies For Sale: The Tennessee Children's
Home Adoption Scandal, Greenwood Press, 1993
Baran, Annette; and Pannor, Reuben, Lethal Secrets, Warner
Books, 1989; Open Adoption As Standard Practice, CWLA
Press, 1994
Beatty, Cynthia, Parents in Prison, Children in Crisis: An Issue
Brief, CWLA Press, an imprint of Child Welfare League
of America (CWLA), 1997
Benet, Mary K, Politics of Adoption, The Free Press, 1976
Bradshaw, John, Family Secrets: What You Don't Know Can
Hurt You, Bantam, 1995
Bradstreet, Karen, Overcoming Infertility Naturally: The
Relationship Between Nutrition, Emotions and Reproduction,
Woodland, UT, 1994
Briggs, Dorothy, Your Child's Self-Esteem: The Key To His
Life, Doubleday, 1975
Brodzinsky, David M., with Schecter, & Henig, Being Adopted.
The Lifelong Search For Self, Doubleday, 1992
Cahill/Bette, Butterbox Babies, McClellan-Bantam (Canada),
1992
Carlini, Heather, Adoptee Trauma, Birth, Another Trauma,
Morning Side (Canada), 1992
Chesler, Phyllis, Women and Madness, Avon, 1972
Crawford, Christina, Mommy Dearest, Berkeley Publishing,
1984
Crockett, Art, Serial Murders (Internet website)
Deykin, E; Campbell, L; Patti, P., The Post-Adoptive Experience
317
318 CHOSEN CHILDREN
of Surrendering Parents, American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, 64, 271-280,1986
Eldridge, Sherrie, Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their
Adoptive Parents Knew, Dell Books, 1999
Ezell, Lee, The Missing Piece, Bantam Books, 1986
Farrisi, Theresa Rodriguez, When Action Fails,
Housekeepers Publishing, 2000
Fisher, Florence, The Search for Anna Fisher, Fawcett, 1986
Goldstein, J; Freud, A; Solnit, A.J., Beyond the Best Interests of
the Child, Free Press, 1973
Greenspan, Barney and Fleming, Elizabeth, The Effecct of
Adoption on Adolescent Development, (Paper delivered at
American Orthopsychiatric Association, March 1975)
Gritter, James L., Adoption Without Fear, Corona publishing,
1989
Hamner, Kasey, Who’s Child, Triad Publishing, 2000
Harnack, Andrew, Adoption: Opposing Viewpoints,
Greenhaven Press, 1995 & 2001
Hernandez, Arturo, Peace in the Streets: Breaking the Cycle of
Gang Violence, 1998
Kirk, David H., Shared Fate: A Theory and Method of Adoptive
Relationships, Adoptive Kinship: A Modem Institution in
Need of Reform, Ben-Simon, 1985
Kirschner, David, PhD, Son of Sam and the Adopted Child
Syndrome, Adelphi Society for Psychoanalysis and
Psychotherapy Newsletter, June 1978
Kittson, Rutheen (aka Paton, Jean), Orphan Voyage, Orphan
Voyage, 1981
Lang, Denise, The Dark Son, Avon, 1995
Lehman, Robert, Young Unwed Fathers: Changing Roles and
Emerging Policies, Philadelphia Temple University Press,
1993
Lifton, Betty Jean, Journey of the Adopted Self: A Quest for
Wholeness, Basic Books, 1994; Lost and Found. The Adoption
Experience, HarperCollins, 1988; Twice Born; Memoirs of
an Adopted Daughter, Penguin, 1977
BIBLOGRAPHY 319
Mason, Mary M., Out of the Shadows: Birth Fathers Stories,
O.J. Howard Publishing
Emotional Disturbance in Adopted Adolescents, Prager
Publishing, 1988
McKenzie, Richard, Rethinking Orphanages, Sage
Publications, 1988
McTaggert, Lynne, The Baby Brokers: Marketing of White
Babies in America, Dial Press, 1979
Moorman, Margaret, Waiting to Forget: A Mother's Search for
Her Secret Son, Norton, 1996
Musser, S. K., To Prison With Love, Awareness Press, 1995
Neubauer, Peter B./ Alexander, Nature's Thumbprint: The
New Genetics of Personality, Addison-Wesley, 1991
Olson, Jack, Misbegotten Son: The True Story of Arthur
Shawcross
Paton, Jean, The Adopted Break Silence, 1954
Reagan, Michael; with Hyams, Joe, On the Outside Looking
In, Zebra, 1998
Riben, Marsha, Shedding Light on the Dark Side of Adoption,
Harlo Press, 1988
Rillera, MaryJo, Adoption Encounter: Hurt, Transition, Healing,
Pure CA, 1987; Family Book: Keepsake of Family Records
for Children with Multiple Parents, Pure CA, 1991
Roles, Patricia, Saying Goodbye to a Baby, Vol. 2, CWLA Press,
1990
Russell, Marlou, Adoption Wisdom: A Guide to the Issues and
Feelings of Adoption, Broken Branch Productions, 1996
320 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Sakheim, George; Osbom, Elizabeth, Firesetting Children,
CWLA Press, 1994
Schaefer, Carol, The Other Mother, Soho Press, 1991
Schwartz-Nobel, Loretta, Baby Swap: The Shocking Truth
Behind the Florida Case of Two Babies Switched at Birth,
Villard Books, 1993
Schecter, Harold; Everett, David, A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial
Murderers,
Schecter, Marshall, Observations on Adopted Children, A..A.
Archives of General Psychiatry 3; July 1960; 21-32
Siegel, Barry, A Death in White Bear Lake, Bantam, 1990
Soll, Joe, CSW, Adoption Healing: A Path to Recovery,
Liturgical Press, 2000
Sollinger, Barry, Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and
Race Before Roe v. Wade, Routledge, 1992
Sorosky, Arthur D.; with Baran, Annette; Pannor, Reuben,
The Adoption Triangle - Sealed or Open Records—How They
Affect Adoptees, Birth Parents, Adoptive Parents, Corona
Pub., 1989
Swanson, JoAnne, The Adoption Machine, Birco, Publishing,
1989
Thomas, Gordon, Enslaved, Pharos (U.K.)
Toch, Hans, Violent Men, American Psychological
Association, Washington, D.C., 1992
Verrier, Nancy, Primal Wound, Understanding the Adopted
Child, Verrier, 1983
Vogt, Martha and Christina, Searching for Home: Three
Families from the Orphan Train, A True Story, Triumph
Press, 1979
Waldron, Jan L., Giving Away Simone, Times Books/Random
House,1995
Walker, Leslie, A Sudden Fury. A True Story of Adoption and
Murder, St. Martin's Press, 1989
Whitehead, Mary Beth; Schwartz-Nobel, L., A Mother's
Story, St. Martin's Press
Resources
ABOLISH ADOPTION - A Petition ADOPTED PRISONER PENPALS
http://abolishadoption.com Totally free photo ads
info@abolishadoption.com http://abolishadoption.comAdoptedPrisoners.html
ADOPTEES & "BIRTH" PARENTS
for OPEN RECORDS ADOPTION: LEGALIZED LIES/-
NATIONWIDE (ABORN) http://www.geocities.comHeartland/Woods/15027
http://ABORN.org
ABORN@egroups.com
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES
ALANON/ALATEEN UNION (ACLU) National Headquarters
Family Group Headquarters, Inc. 112 Broad Street
PO Box 862 New York, NY 10004
Midtown Station (212) 549-2500
New York, New York 10018 http://www.aclu.org/siteindex.html
http://Al-Anon-Alateen.org
wso@al-anon.org Capital Punishment Project
(202) 675-2321, to order free
A-TEAM (Fathers' rights lawyers) materials (public policy books):
Kenneth Pangborn -ACLU Prisoner Project
3980 Orchard Hill Circle (202) 234-4830, free materials
Palm Harbor, FL 34684 Publications/NOLO Press &
http://www.a-team.org Prisoner's Assistance Directory
pangbom@a-team.org 1-800-775-ACLU; http://www.aclu.org
ADOPTEE MEMORIAL
Medical Victims of Sealed ADOPTION LAWS BY STATE
Records http://www.bastards.org/activism/access.htm
http://members.aol.com/deitrahgs/memorial.html
AMERICANS FOR OPEN RECORDS (AmFOR)
ADOPTEE MEMORIAL OF PO Box 401
ORPHAN VOYAGE Palm Desert, CA 92261
Adoptees & parents who died http://OpenMyRecords.html
before reunion info@abolishadoption.com
http://www.geocities.com/orphanvoyagel953/jean.html
321
322 CHOSEN CHILDREN
AMERICA'S PROMISE (Mentors) BRIDGE OF HOPE
909 N. Washington St., Ste 400 24 North 3rd Ave/PO Box 1223
Alexandria, VA 22314 Coatesville, PA 19320
1-888-559-6884-toll free; (610) 380-1360; (717) 314-7107
http://americaspromise.org audreymetz@aol.com
local@americaspromise.org
CAMPAIGN TO END
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CHILDHOOD HUNGER
(Human rights org) Food Research & Action Center
322 - 8th Avenue 1875 Connecticut Ave., NW, 540
New York, NY 10001 Washington, DC 20009
1-800-AMNESTY, toll-free (202) 986-2200
http://amnestyusa.org (links to http://frac.org/html/ctech/ctech_index.html
other chapters) webmaster@frac.org
aimember@aiusa.org
ASSOCIATION FOR THE CENTER FOR SUBSTANCE
WRONGLY CONVICTED ABUSE TREATMENT
438 University Ave.-19th floor National Drug & Alcohol
Toronto, ON M5H 2K8 Treatment Referral
Canada 1-800-662-HELP - toll free
http://www2.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/ 1-800-ALCOHOL - toll free
aidwyc@on.aibn.com 1-800-COCAINE - toll free •
1-800-448-3000-BOYSTOWN
BAD BOY PENPALS
(formerly JAILMAIL) CENTURION MINISTRIES
http://www.badboypenpals.com Freeing the Innocent Committee
Q/A@badboypenpals.com 32 Nassau Street, 3rd fl.
Princeton, NJ
BIG BROTHERS/BIG SISTERS OF (609) 921-0334
AMERICA http://www.criminaljustice.org
230 North 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 567-7000
http://bbbsa.org CPS WATCH Inc.
national@bbbsa.org (Watching Our Nation's Child
Protection Agencies & Workers)
BOYS TOWN/GIRLS TOWN USA PO Box 974
Boys Town, NE Branson, MO 65615-0974
1-800-448-3000, toll-free 1-888-CPS-WATCH - toll-free
national hotline national hotline
http://boystown.org (417) 339-9192 - office
Hotline@boystown.org http://cpswatch.com
CBarnes@cpswatch.com
RESOURCES 323
DEATH PENALTY DRUG REFORM NETWORK
INFORMATION CENTER 2000 "P" Street, NW, #210
1320 Eighteenth Street, NW Washington, DC 20036
Washington, DC 20036 (293) 293-8340
(202) 293-6970 http://drcnet.org
http://deathpenalty.org drcnet@drcnet.org
pbemstem@essential.org
FAMILIES AGAINST
DELANCEY STREET MANDATORY MINIMUMS
FOUNDATION -FAMM (Sentencing reform)
600 Embarcadero 1612 "K" Street, NW, Ste 1400
San Francisco, CA 94017 Washington, DC 20006
(415) 957-9800 http://famm.org
(Nation's model of welfare famm@famm.org
reform & leading self-help
residential education center for FEED THE CHILDREN
former substance abusers and PO Box 36
ex-convicts; centers are in NM, Oklahoma City, OK
NY, NC, Los Angeles & HQ in 1-800-627-4556, toll-free
San Francisco; Dr. Mimi Sibert http://feedthechildren.org
is President & Co-Founder) ftc@feedthechildren.org
delanceystfndtn.citysearch.com/
(e-mail from web-site only) FOUNDATION FOR
TRANSITIONAL GROUP
DONOR CONCEPTION HOLLYWOOD ACCESS
NETWORK CENTER-Urban Epicuria
(Worldwide registry) (serves 6,000 meals annually for
PO Box 265 the homeless)
Sheffield, England S3 7yX 1055 North Vine Street
United Kingdom Hollywood, CA 90028
http://dcnetwork.org (323) 468-0468
cdnetwork@appleonline.net
FREE SEARCH TIPS & LINKS
DONOR OFFSPRING http://abolishadoption.com/amforlinks.html
(an offline registry service)
PO BOX 37 GENERAL FEDERATION of
Sarcoxie, MO 64862 WOMEN'S CLUBS
1734 "N" Street NW
DONOR OFFSPRING/ Washington, DC 20036-2990
DONOR PARENT REGISTRY 1-800-443-GFWC - toll free
by state/country online registry http://gfwc.org
gfc@gfc.org
DRUG POLICY FOUNDATION
4455 Connecticut Ave, NW/B-500
Washington, DC 20008-2328
http://www.dpf.org
dpf@dpf.org
324 CHOSEN CHILDREN
HAZELDEN FOUNDATION
PO Box 11 http://www.innocenceproject.org
Center City, MN 55012-0011 info@innocenceproject.org
1-800-257-7810 - toll free
http://hazelden.org
info@hazelden.org INTERNATIONAL SOUNDEX
REUNION REGISTRY (ISRR)
HOMEBUILDERS PROGRAM PO Box 2312
181 South 333"' Street #200 Carson NV 89701
Federal Way, WA 98003 http://www.isrr.net
(253) 874-3630, Seattle; (no email)
Tacoma
http://www.strengtheningfamilies.org LEGAL FREEDOM
homebuilders@worldnet.att.net & PRO SE RESOURCE CENTER
http://legalfreedom.com
comments@legalfreedom.org
HOMELESS SHELTERS - U.S. NAR-ANON GROUP HQ
http://www.greatescapesmotors.com/ PO Box 2562
members/lannin/shelters/us.htm (310) 547-58
lanrdnl@yahoo.com http://ordinerecovery.org/co/nfg
(click on state/country links)
webmaster@OnlineRecovery.org
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
350 Fifth Ave. 34th fl. NASVO-VOCAL-
NewYork NY Victims of Child Abuse Laws
(212) 290-4700 http://vocal-nasvo.org
http://www.org/contact.html AlexanderLaw@mediaone.net
hrwnyc@hrw.org
IDENT-A-GENE NATIONAL ADOPTION
(DNA Testing locations) INFORMATION
1-800-DNA-TYPE - toll-free CLEARINGHOUSE (NAIC)
http://ptdabs.com 330 "c" street' Sw
Washington, DC 20447
INFERTILITY CURES - 1-888-251-0075 - toll-free
INSTEAD OF ADOPTION http://calib.com/naic
A Free Public Information Service naic@calib.com
http://abolishadoption.com/infertility.html
info@abolishadoption.com
INNOCENCE PROTECT NATL. ASSN for CHILDREN of
Post-Conviction DNA Testing ALCOHOLICS
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law 11426 Kockville Pike, Suite 301
55 5th Ave. 11th floor Rockville, MD 20852
New York City, NY 10003 1-888-554-COAS - toll free
RESOURCES 325
http://www.health.org NATIONAL RESOURCE
http://nacacoa.net CENTER ON HOMELESSNESS &
MENTAL ILLNESS
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF 345 Delaware Avenue
CHILD ADVOCATES (NACA) Delmare, NY12054
1522 "K" Street, NW 1-800-444-7415 - toll free
Washington, DC 20005-1202 http://www.prainc.com
(202) 289-0777 nrc@pramc.com
http://childadvocacy.org
nana@childadvocacy.org
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NATIONAL WOMEN'S
WORKFORCE BOARD HEALTH NETWORK
(NAWB), NATIONAL ASSOC 514 - 10th Street, NW, Suite 400
of PRIVATE INDUSTRY Washington, DC 20004
COUNCILS (NAPIC) (202) 682-7814 (for health info)
(Govt/private job-training/ http://womenshealthnetwork.org
placement)
1201 New York Ave. NW #350 NEGATIVE ADOPTION
Washington, DC 20005 NEWSCLIPS ARCHIVES
(202) 289-2950 http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/6743/oct2.html
http: / /nawb.org
sewells@nawb.org
NATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE ORIGINS USA - AN INQUIRY
REFERENCE INFORMATION http://originsusa.com
SERVICE (NCJRS) inquiry_usa@yahoo.com
PO Box 6000
Rockville, MD 20849-6000
1-800-851-3420 - toll-free PRISON REFORM UNITY
http: / /ncjrd.org PROJECT (PRUP)
asknqrs@ncjrs.org http://PRUP.net
prup2000@hotmail.com
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION
for WOMEN-NOW PRISONER LOCATOR (DOC
733 - 15th Street, NW, 2nd floor website)
Washington, DC 20002 Find prisoner by name only in
(202) 628-8669 AR/FL/GA/IL/MI/MN/
http://now.org NC/NY/OH/PA/SD/TX/UT
http://now.org/chapters/states.html and L.A. County Jail -
(state chapters) http://www.corrections.com/linksviewlinks.asp?Cat=20
now@now.org
326 CHOSEN CHILDREN
PRISONER SUPPORT
DIRECTORY SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGES
(tons of Internet links & mailing Pompano Beach, FL 33060
addresses) (954) 420-5043
PO Box 339 http://sos.bc.org (worldwide link)
Berkeley, CA 94701 http://sosflorida.com (Florida project)
(510) 893-4648 mbruszer@sosflorida.com
http://prisonactavist.org/psd.htm
parc@prisonactavist.org STATISTICS OF ADOPTION
(Free e-book)
RATIONAL RECOVERY CENTER http://abolishadoption.com/statistics.html
(Drug/alcohol recovery via
voice recognition) ULTIMATE SEARCH BOOK, THE
PO Box 800 Worldwide Adoption, Genealogy
Lotus, CA 95651 & Other Search Secrets
1-800-303-CURE – toll free 2004 Edition
http://ultimatesearchbook.com
SALVATION ARMY (Intl. HQ)
101 Queen Victoria Street UNITED NATIONS
London England EC4P4EP . CONVENTION ON
United Kingdom RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
http://www.salvationarmy.org UN Centre, Palais des Nations
(by country from website only) CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
SALVATION ARMY (Eastern US.) See online form for reporting
120 West 14th Street trafficking of children & other
New York, NY 10011 adoption abuses, including your
(212) 758-0763 own adoption horror story
http://abolishadoption.com/HumanRights.html
SALVATION ARMY (Western US)
2780 Lomita Blvd
Torrance, CA 90505
SECULAR ORGANIZATION
FOR SOBRIETY
320 South Stallard Stillwater
(405) 377-1511; (405) 624-1075
http://stillwater.com
rtboas@aol.com
RESOURCES 32 7
WOMEN'S ASSOC. FOR
WOMEN'S ALTERNATIVES INC. (WAWA)
Women's Alternative Center Program
225 S. Chester Rd. #6
Swathmore, PA 19081
(610) 543-5022
http://www.womensassoc.org
(email: from website only)
WOMEN FOR SOBRIETY
PO Box 618
Quakertown, PA 18951
1-800-333-1606 - toll-free;
(215) 536-8026
http://womenforsobriety.org
NewLife@nni.com
Index
abolishing adoption, 92 American Civil Liberties Union
ABORN.org, 88 (ACLU),
activism, 316 48-51, 86
Ackerman, Gerald "Ajax," 164-165 Americans For Open Records
Acquin, Lome J., 308 (AmFOR),
Administrative Support for the 34-35
Adoption Option, 21 Amnesty International 55-56
Adoptalk, 12,127 "Angel of Death," (see Toppan
adoptaphobia, 290 Jane),
Adopted Child Syndrome (ACS), anti-adoption, 30, 85
31, 60- 61, Atkins, Charles, 269
122-124,171, 315 Atkins, Joseph, 269
adoptees, attachment disorder, 3,122
-in prison, 121-122 Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
-"same as blood relative," 36-37 31
-sexual abuse of, 27,156-158- Attention Deficit Hyperactive
-substance abuse by, 167-168 (ADHD), 127,129
-suicide, 128,174,277 Austin, Eugene, 32
-transplant cases, 39,41,42-46, baby dumping, 90
94 baby supermarket, 23
adoption, "bad seed," 71, 96
-alternatives to, 85-98 Baer, Kenneth, 269
-costs of, 3-5,8 Baran, Annette, 127, 244
-loans, assistance, 4,12 Bartsch, Guergen, 299
-statistics, 23, 88,126-129 Bell, Mary, 308
Adoption Assistance and Child Berkowitz, David ("Son of Sam "
Welfare Act, 12 "44-Caliber Killer"), 231, 245,
Adoption and Safe Families Act 299
(ASFA), 3,11 Berle, Milton, 17
"Adoption 2002," 63, 98 Berle, Bill, 17
Adoption Factbook, 25 Berres-Griffith study ("3 strikes")
Adoption Fact Sheet, 10 57
adopters, 125 Bianchi, Kenneth ("Hillside
Albright, Charles ("Eyeball Strangler"),
Killer"), 299 (see also Bono, Angelo), 300
ALMA Society v. Mellon, 50 birth index, 259
American Academy of Psychiatry,315 Bloodline of the Holy Grail (True
American Bar Association, Lineage of Of Jesus), 28
-opinion on dual representation, Bocook, Charles, 245, 269
20 Bocook, Gladys, 245, 269
317
330 CHOSEN CHILDREN
Boggess, Clifffford Holt, 270 Purdy, Patrick), 314
Bonin, William, 303 Coleman, Alton, 300
Borden, Lizzie, 225 Corcoran State Prison, 55
"Boston Strangler," (see DeSalvo, Corll, Dean Allen, ("Texas
Albert), 309 Homosexual
Bouchard studies, 35 Torture Murders"), 308
Brodzinsky, Dr. David, 244 Corne, James, 271
Buono, Angelo ("Hillside Stran- Corrections Corporation of
gler"; see also America (CCA), 271
Bianchi, Kenneth), crime index, 116
300 Dahmer, Jeffrey L., 309
Buck, Pearl, 29 De Celeda, Fernando Alonzo
Buckner, Colleen, 131 ("El Bandito"), 309
Bundy, Ted, 300 DeGelleke, Patrick, 61, 245, 272
California's Department of Desalvo, Albert ("Boston Stran-
Corrections (CDC), 6, 309 gler”), 209
California Substance Abuse Diaz, Monica, 272
Treatment DiLorenzo, Melody, 175
Facility (CSATF), 173,195 DNA, DNA database, 58
Callahan, Patrick J., 124-125 Doe v. Sundquist, 38, 94
Campbell, Patrick, 61, 270 Donor Offspring, 46-47
Caplan, Lincoln, 27 Downey Jr., Robert, 196,198
Carangelo v. O'Neill/State of CT,18-19, Dreyer, Henry Lee, 273
50 dual representation, 20
Carter, Rubin "Hurricane," 104 Duff-Smith, Markum, 273
castration, chemical, 150,156 drug addition, (see adoptee -substance
abuse)
Catholic Church, 28 Dugas, Gaetan ("Patient Zero"),
-falsified baptismal birth 301
records, 28, 12 El Bandito (DeCeleda, Fernando), 309
Chesler, Phyllis, 26-27 eugenics, 15, 96
Child Citizen Act, 33 euthenics, 15
Child Protective Services (CPS), "Eyeball Killer" (see Albright,
18-19 Charles), 299
Children's Center, The, 7, 40, 51, Fairness for Adopted Children
59,97 Act, 35
Children's Home Society, 29, 63 Families for Kids Insitiative, 4
Child Welfare League of America Family History Center, 23
(CWLA), 12, 30, 33 Fanshel, David, 28
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Fish, Albert, 310
Day Saints, 21,28 "Florida Co-ed Murders,"
Clark, James B., 271 (see also Bundy, Ted), 300
Cleveland Elementary School Forman, Joseph "Jay," 273
Shootout, foster care,
(See also Spencer, Brenda; -alternatives to, 75-84
INDEX 331
-costs of, 3-5 Kasten, Daniel, 276
-initiative to improve, 4 Katlin, Steven, 301
-population, 3 Kazman, Amy Louise, 245
-sexual abuse of foster chil- Kemper, Edmund ("Co-Ed
dren, 10 Killer"), 311
Foster Care Independence Act, 13 King, John William, 302
Freedom of Information Act Kip, Martin, 302
(FOIA), 65 Kirk, David, 244
Garner, Joseph, 273 Kirschner, Dr. David, 122-124,
Gebauer, John Frank, 273 171, 186,
geopolitical mass child stealing, 71 244, 277, 315
Getty, Michael L., 141-148 Koslow, Kristi, 276
Gilmore, Gary, 311 Lang, William Scott, 287
"Green River Killer" (see Lashley, Frederick, 276
Ridgway, Gary) Lee, Bruce, 302
Greenwood, Vaughn ("Skid Row LeGrand, Karl, 302
Slasher") 310 LeGrand, Walter, 302
guardianship, 93 Lifton, Betty Jean, 27,244
Gufler, Max, 311 Lindh, Aaron, 303
Hale, Bill ("Osage Killer"), 311 Little Jr., Charlie, 276
Hale, Daniel E., 311 Lizzie's Law, 142
Hagen, Marjorie Condon, 274 Losicco, Richard, 276
Hamilton, Thomas, 274 Losicco, Terrence, 276
Harr, Bryan Andrew, 282 Lykken, Dr. David, 123
Harris, Eric, 227 Mannex, Russell, 170
Harris, Robert Alton, 227 Manson, Charles, 62, 312
Heikkila, Matthew, 274 Marshall, David Dwight, 287
"Hillside Strangler,' (see also McGee, Thomas (Tom), 199-218
Bono, Angelo, “Measure 58,” 37,43,51,87
and Bianchi/ Kenneth), 300 Megan's Law, 150
Hoataling, Jerry, 24 Meninger Clinic, 30
Hoskins, Robert, 275 Miller, George, 277
Human Rights, 16-22 Model Adoption Act, 48
Hutson, Deanna L., 165-166 Model Programs, 79
illegitamcy, 96 -cost comparisons, 79-84
Indian Child Welfare Act, 31, Morgan, Donna Lee, 28
Jenkins, Joshua, 245,275 Mormon Church (see Church of
Jesus, The Hidden Lineage of, Jesus Christ
(See Bloodline of the Holy Grail) of Latter Day Saints)
Jobs, Steve, 128 Moses,
Johnson, Lament, 276 -the first adoptee, 297
Johnson, Robert Angel, Mothers on Trial, 26
Kallinger, Joseph ("The Mox, Gregory, 235-267
Philadelphia Shoe- Munro, James Michael, 303
maker"), 245, 301 National Academy of Adoption
Kellogg Foundation, 4 Lawyers, 48
332 CHOSEN CHILDREN
National Adoption data Collec- prison index, 116
tion System, 23 prison(s), 53-67
National Adoption Information -alternatives to, 99-118
Clearinghouse, 8-9 -brutality in, 55
National Association of -open, 113
Workforce Boards (NAWB), -population, 53, 55
(formerly National -costs of, 5-6, 65-67
Association of Private Industry privatization
Councils-NAPIC), 112 -of foster care, adoption and penal
National Coalition for Child systems, 3
Protection Reform, 3 -of adoption, 64
National Council For Adoption -of child support collection
(NCFA), system, 92
4-5,16,22, 25,29,37-38 -of foster care, 80-84
National Internet Registry, 23 -of prisons, 64-67
National Right To Life (NRTL), 34 Promoting Safe and Stable
Native Americans Families Act (S.1503), 4, 32
-who are adopted, 50 Prudom. Mary, 312
"Night Stalker”(see Ramirez, Puente, Dorothea, 312
Richard) Purdy, Patrick,
Oken, Steven Howard, 304 (see Cleveland
open records poll, Elementary School Shootout;
-Oregon "Measure 58," 58, 57,43, Spencer, Brenda),
-Playboy magazine poll, 88 Quinlan, Karen Ann, 174
orphans, 7,11 Ramirez, Richard ("Night
Osborne, Everett, 48 Stalker'), 304
Niiranen, Patrick, 277 Reagan, Michael, 233
North American Council on rebirthing, 45
Adoptable Reed, Todd, 305
Children (NACAC), 12-13 Reeves, Scott, 305
paleopsychology, 124 Reynolds, Jaqueline "Nikki," 278
Pang, Martin "Pyro," 245 Reeves, Randolph, 305
Pannor, Ruben, 27,127, 244 Ridgway, Gary ("Green River
parents, psychological, 3 Killer"), 313
parricide, 225 Rifkin, Joel, 305
"Patient Zero" (see Dugas, "Rights of the Child" project, 7
Gaetan),301 Rogers, Dayton Leroy, 278
Paton, Jean, (see Foreword), 29, Sacred Bond, 27
30,34, 89 Safe and Stable Families Amend-
Payne, Eric, 304 ment Act,
Pelican Bay State Prison, 55 (Prologue), 4
Peterson, Angel, 245,277 "Sale of Children Report," 7
Pierce, Darci, 288 Samuels, Attorney Elizabeth J., 37
post adoption services, 4 Santee School Shooter
Prink, Timothy, 277 (See Williams, Andy)
INDEX 333
Saunders, Peter, 306 Uniform Laws Commission, 48
Scheck, Barry, 56,106,116 Universal Declaration of Human
Schlesinger, Dr. Laura, 38 Rights, 17
Shawcross, Arthur, 290, 313 Van Strum, Jordan, 307
schizo-affective, 206 War on Terrorism, xi, 8
sentencing, 102 Weaver, Keith Chul, 280
serial killers, 293-314 Welche, Lee Roy, 280
Severson, Karen, 289 Wexler, Richard, 3
Shawcross, Arthur, 313 White, Meriam, 290
Smith, Kevin Douglas, 131-140 Williams, Andy ("Santee School
"Son of Sam," (see Berkowitz, David) Shooter") 298
Spencer, Brenda (see Cleveland Williams, Harold Duane, 149-166
Elementary School Shootout Wizner, Professor Steven, 50,97
Stano, Gerald Eugene, 306 Wournos, Aileen Carol Pittman,
Stein, Steven Edward, 289 307
Steinberg, Lisa, 40 Wright, Mitchell, 281
Stone, Noah, 173-197 Yesterday's Children v. Kennedy, 50
Strohmeyer, Jeremy, 219-223 Young, Jeffrey S., 128
Swartz, Larry, 279 Young, Leontyne, 29
Tankleff, Martin "Marty,",279
Tann, Georgia, 29
Texas Homosexual Torture
Murders (see Corll, Allen Dean)
Thacker, Leslie, 32
Thornton, Jamie Grant, 279
"three strikes" law, 56-57
"three time loser," origin of (see
Preface)
Thurston, Amy, 4, 62
Title IV-E (see Adoption Assis-
tance)
Tingler, Richard, 314
Tomassoni, Kafhryn Marie, 280, 615
Tomassoni, Tammie Marie, 280, 615
Tombs, Jennifer, 289
Toppan, Jane ("Angel of Death"), 307
Troiano, James, 289
Toussieng, Paul, 30
Uniform Adoption Act, 33
uniform fair laws, 94, 95,117
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