Link Texarkana Woman To Baby 'Black Market'   The Shreveport Times Saturday, July 16, 1955

CHICAGO, July 15 (IP) - The operator of a Texarkana, Tex, old peoples' home who bragged of "political support" did an estimated $360,000 nationwide business in placing babies for "quickie" adoption, an investigator told a Senate subcommittee today.    The subcommittee, probing an alleged international "black market" baby racket also was told that some parents offered to "sell" their children for $1,250 and that a small group of doctors and lawyers in Chicago "made the selling of bodies a business."    Ernest A. Mitler, special counsel for the Kefauver subcommittee on juvenile delinquency, testified that a Texarkana woman had placed 889 babies for adoption "in 48 states," using her old peoples' home as a headquarters, and charging $600 to $800 apiece.    Mitler said he contacted the woman, Mrs. Ruby Heightower, last year by posing as a man seeking a child for adoption.    She bragged of "political support" in Bowie County, Tex., he said, and warned that "anyone who opposed her would have trouble."    "She said a local official on the law enforcement level knew the truth and facts on her operation," Mitler said.    He said Mrs. Heightower told him one method she used was to have the unwed expectant mother register in the hospital in the name of the prospective parents. Then, the birth certificate would be made out in the same name.    Mitler also showed a film which he said showed a Chicago attorney, Nathan Gomberg, handling an adoption case here last May 25.    He said a New England couple came here and obtained the baby in a matter of hours after paying Gomberg $1,250.    Investigation showed, he said, that Gomberg had handled numerous adoptions on the same basis for fees of $1,500 to $2,500 with only "very nominal" expenses in many cases.    Mitler, assistant district attorney in New York for more than 10 years, also told of "black market" baby operations in New York. He said one Brooklyn lawyer, Marcus Siegal, grossed about $160,000 handling 92 adoption cases in an 18 month period. He said Siegal operated "all through the eastern seaboard."    He called these cases a "graphic illustration of a function that should be restricted and remain in the hands of those skilled in the adoption process."    Otto Kerner, a Cook County (Chicago) judge and a former U.S. district attorney, told the subcommittee Mitler's testimony "does not shock me."    In Chicago, he said, "there was a small group of doctors and lawyers who made the selling of bodies a business."    One doctor, he said, placed 12 children in 10 months acting as a "child placement agency without a license" as required in Illinois. The doctor later was identified by the subcommittee as Dr. William Nestos. It said investigators had been unable to find Nestos although he had been subpoenaed to testify.    Kerner also testified he was approached by a lawyer who told him of a family with two children who were in "dire economic need." They had offered, he said, to "sell" their children for $1,250 each.    At Texarkana, Mrs. Hightower said she recalled Mitler, who said he used the name Irving Miller when dealing with Mrs. Hightower.    Mrs. Hightower denied, however, that she quoted a price to Mitler.    "I told him that it would cost between $300 and $600 for the birth of a baby," she said, "but I did not quote him a price" for delivering a black market baby.    Mrs. Hightower said Mitler "made me an offer, which I refused."

The spelling of Hightower as "Heightower" appears in the original article.

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