Gladstone Girl4's video: HEDDA NUSSBAUM JOEL STEINBERG LISA STEINBERG - LARRY KING LIVE 2005 191

CLICK ON "SHOW MORE" for more description: Hedda Nussbaum (born 1942) is an American woman who professed to be the adoptive mother of Lisa Steinberg, who died of physical abuse in 1987. The death of Lisa sparked a lengthy and controversial trial and media frenzy. The legal case was one of the first to be televised "gavel to gavel." Supporters characterized Nussbaum as a victim of horrific domestic abuse at the hands of her live-in partner, Joel Steinberg. Before meeting Joel Steinberg in 1975, Nussbaum had been an editor and author of children's books at Random House publishers, and before that at Appleton Century Crofts. Steinberg was a defense attorney who sometimes handled adoption cases. Beginning in 1976, Nussbaum and Steinberg lived together in a brownstone apartment in New York City's Greenwich Village. Her 1977 book, Plants Do Amazing Things, was dedicated, in part, "to Joel, my everyday inspiration." Due to Nussbaum's occasionally obvious bruises and other injuries, friends and colleagues suspected that Nussbaum was the victim of domestic violence. Neighbors later stated to police they believed that Nussbaum and Steinberg were active participants in a "some kind of a sexual sadomasochistic game." Friends occasionally offered to help if Nussbaum was being abused, but she declined their offers of intervention or aid and refused to implicate Steinberg. In 1981, under dubious legal circumstances, Nussbaum and Steinberg took custody of an infant girl they named Lisa. The girl's birth mother had paid Steinberg a $500.00 legal fee to place the child with a Roman Catholic family; both Steinberg and Nussbaum were Jewish. Under similar circumstances, Nussbaum and Steinberg later took in a toddler they named Mitchell. Nussbaum and Steinberg never legally adopted either child. According to initial police reports, on November 1, 1987 around 7:00 p.m., Steinberg rendered Lisa unconscious with a severe blow to the head. Nussbaum remained alone with the dying child for roughly ten hours, failing to notify police or medical personnel. Steinberg departed and returned several times, sometimes freebasing cocaine. According to initial police reports, Nussbaum didn't notify authorities because she believed Steinberg had supernatural healing powers. At roughly 6.00 a.m. the next morning, Lisa stopped breathing. Shortly thereafter, Steinberg telephoned 911 at Nussbaum's urging. Steinberg was convicted on charges of first-degree manslaughter. After serving 16 years at the Southport Correctional Facility in Pine City, New York, where he was held in protective custody, Steinberg was released on parole in 2004 and got a job in construction. In the years following Lisa's death, Nussbaum worked to rebuild her life and had numerous reconstructive plastic surgeries. She also co-facilitated a support group for battered women for about eight years and later worked as a paralegal for an organization that assists battered women. In 1995, Nussbaum began giving lectures about abuse at colleges and shelters. When Steinberg was released from prison, however, she receded from public attention until the publication of her book a year and a half later. The above information courtesy of Wikipedia. See that site for more about this case. HARD TO BELIEVE that Joel Steinberg was released from jail in 2004!